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Dateline NBC S32E02 The Note H 264
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00:09Tonight on Dateline Thursday, what's that like as a mom not knowing where your daughter is?
00:15It's hell. You don't see the nightmares I see every night. Where do I go from here? How do I
00:21exist in a world without my daughter? I know it was found that she was leaving.
00:26Are you thinking that Megan ran away? Yes, that was the number one option. It wasn't like Megan to just
00:31up and disappear. She was hiding things. She was more secretive. This love triangle. This is where
00:38things kind of blow up. Yeah. Very intense high school drama. The text messages that I read,
00:44it really was some sort of control game. It certainly seemed something horrible had happened.
00:51We just need someone to tell us the truth. The FBI approached me and they asked me if I would
00:56be
00:56comfortable wearing a wire. Like what happened that night? Why is there blood in your car? The color
01:02just drained out of my face. This is scary. Very scary. It's like looking in the eyes of evil.
01:09A phone in the bedroom, a note left behind. Can a mother's intuition help solve this mystery?
01:16I'm Lester Holt. And this is Dateline.
01:27Here's Andrea Canning with The Note.
01:39I was a young mom. And I was 19 when she was born. And while I wouldn't recommend that for
01:45everybody, I did enjoy the fact that we had a closeness. And I think part of it was because of
01:50that. There's nothing quite like the relationship between mother and daughter. Beautiful, but also
01:57complicated. I'm a firm believer you should be a parent, not your child's friend. But just having
02:02that closeness was very important. A closeness that would be threatened by secrets and by a teenage
02:11love bordering on obsession. As they say, love is blind. It's hard to make someone see something else
02:18when they're really into somebody. Exactly.
02:26The tiny city of Fairfield, Illinois is where single mother, Kathy Jo Hutchcraft, chose to raise
02:31her daughter, Megan. It was just amazing that we got along. She liked the things I liked. I liked the
02:37things she liked. Megan was tight with her mom. And she also had lots of close friends. Holden
02:43August was one of them. She was bubbly and warm. I mean, very energetic. She had a lot
02:49of energy. Anytime you were with Megan, it was constant laughter. Like she was just always
02:54cracking jokes. Joking or singing, says girlfriend, Gemma Loss. She loved to sing and play her ukulele.
03:07She was amazing. And she had a musical talent that she did not get from her mother. Megan's love
03:12of music led her to high school glee club. And that led her to another love. A love that
03:18had a name, Brody Murbarger. He was hot. Like he was an attractive guy. He was funny. He was
03:24smarter than a majority of the people in the room at all times. And he had like cut blonde hair.
03:31It
03:31was one of those things you could understand why someone would fall for Brody. At 17 years old,
03:36Brody was two years older than Megan. Kyle Ellis was his best friend. He was extremely musically
03:42talented. He did math team. He sounds like an all-American kid. Yeah. Yeah, he kind of was.
03:48Just one problem. Megan's mom thought that her 15-year-old daughter was too young to date.
03:53And I had this rule like we're not going to have a boyfriend. You can be friends. We're not going
03:58to
03:58have this boyfriend thing going on until you're 16. That was my preference. You don't need a boyfriend.
04:02We don't need to put a label on it. We all know I have teenage daughters. It's not easy telling
04:07teenage daughters what to do or what not to do. Exactly. And then it was July 3rd, 2014,
04:15a Friday night. Kathy Jo was helping a friend settle into a new place. Megan came along to help.
04:22She was acting silly. She was stood on her hands for her legs up on the wall and was twerking
04:29against
04:29the wall, whatever you want to call that. Just, I mean, just goofy, Megan stuff. Yes. Around nine,
04:36Megan said she had a stomach ache, so Kathy Jo took her home to rest and went back to the
04:40friend's
04:40house. She returned home a couple of hours later. As soon as I walked in the door, the first thing
04:45I
04:45did was turn on my computer at the time because I was playing Candy Crush. Decided I was hungry,
04:50so I came into the kitchen and I was just going to heat up some ramen noodles. And this is
04:54about what
04:54time? This would have been probably about 11 35. So it's getting late. Yeah, some, yeah, definitely.
05:02And I was just standing at the stove and watching the pot, waiting for it to boil. And I just
05:09got this,
05:10this heavy feeling of fear all of a sudden. So I went up to check on Megan. I looked in
05:19a room and I
05:20couldn't see her. So immediately I turned the light on. She was supposed to be asleep. That was what she
05:25told me. She was going to bed and she wasn't in her bed. And I looked all over the upstairs
05:30and I
05:31immediately started to come down the stairs to check the rest of the house. Megan didn't answer her
05:37phone or texts. Kathy Jo called her mother in a panic and they decided to report Megan missing right
05:43away.
05:44I arrived at the sheriff's department and I just said I needed to talk to an officer. My daughter was
05:48missing
05:48and I was in tears, upset. I explained to him, you know, my daughter is missing and I need to
05:55find my
05:56daughter. The officer told her not to worry. Teenagers often disappear and then turn up.
06:01Kathy Jo and her mother headed home and started making calls. Her mom had called me, I think it was
06:08like one o'clock in the morning. And she told me that Megan was missing and wanted to know if
06:12she was
06:12with me and she wasn't. Kathy Jo decided to search her daughter's room, looking for clues,
06:19anything. When I pulled back her blankets, I saw the cell phone. Her phone. Her phone. This phone had
06:26no phone case. It was just upside down and it looks different because I'm used to seeing, I'm used to
06:31seeing purple or pink or something flashy. And I picked it up, pushed the button and it said,
06:36hola, hello, as if it was a brand new phone. Yeah, that's like factory settings. Megan's iPhone had
06:43been wiped clean. Your heart must have just sank in that moment. Yeah, I told my mom, I don't know
06:49what to do. And she said, well, I'll tell you what we're gonna do. We're gonna go pray. They went
06:53into the
06:54TV room down the hall, got on their knees. Then it was Kathy Jo's mother who saw it first. And
07:01my mom knelt
07:02down on the seat and she handed me an envelope that said, mom. And when I opened up the envelope,
07:08there was a note. A mysterious note and a dramatic story that would come to define the search for
07:15missing Megan. It's very intense high school drama. This is a high school love triangle.
07:37In the early morning hours of July 4th, Kathy Jo was beyond worried looking for her daughter,
07:43Megan Nichols. Then there it was, the note. What did the note say? It said, mom, I love you,
07:50but I'm never going to be happy here. Oh my gosh. Don't come looking for me because why spend a
07:56lifetime
07:56looking for someone who doesn't want to be found. That's like a, just such a punch in the stomach,
08:02a blow. This is scary. Very scary. Kathy Jo rushed back to talk to the police. Keith Kalklaser was the
08:12chief of the small department back in 2014 and still is today. What is protocol when you're dealing
08:18with a teenager and there's a note in a room saying she's left? We still enter your eyes missing in
08:24the
08:24state database in case any other officer runs across her and we begin our search. Police began
08:30talking to Megan's friends and family. They heard about her bubbly personality, her love of music,
08:39church, and of course the big thing in her young life, Brody Murbarger. Did she talk to you about it?
08:46Yes. What kinds of things would she tell you? Well, anything. I mean, it was Brody 24-7. Anything
08:53that he had done or said, it was pretty much reported to me. Mom's rule about no boyfriends until 16
09:01was
09:02testing the close mother-daughter relationship. Holden remembers the night when Brody turned from a
09:08friend to Megan's boyfriend. It was at the school's homecoming dance and Brody was there with his
09:14girlfriend at the time, Kendra. Megan's date was a boy from church camp. The teenage drama was in
09:20overdrive. The FCHS homecoming dance is notorious for being incredibly raunchy. Like dirty dancing. Yeah,
09:28exactly. So it wasn't just like, oh, Brody and Megan are dancing together, you know, and Kendra's here.
09:34It is that Brody and Megan are dancing, like, you know, grinding on one another on the dance floor kind
09:40of
09:40thing. And, you know, and that's one of those things you're like, oh, this isn't good. Megan and Brody
09:45ditched their dates and stayed on the dance floor together. Brody's girlfriend, Kendra, was crying in
09:50the bleachers and Megan's friend from church just left alone. It's very intense high school drama.
09:58This is a high school love triangle. Yeah, exactly. It was a high school love triangle.
10:02And someone's going to get hurt. Exactly.
10:05That someone seemed to be Kendra. In the days after the dance, Megan and Brody were inseparable.
10:12It seemed to go from zero to 100 very quickly.
10:16Then, just a few months later, Brody was back with Kendra. But he kept Megan in the picture, too. And
10:23what the
10:23whole school could see, Megan apparently couldn't. Did Brody kind of want his cake and eat it, too?
10:29Yeah, I would say even beyond that is he thought he could. He had convinced two girls in such a
10:36small
10:36classroom that both of them were his girlfriend and his favorite. And they never once thought to
10:43fact check with the other one or, you know, even talk.
10:47I do remember telling her, you know, I don't approve.
10:51How did she respond?
10:53She obviously listened to what I had to say, but it wasn't going to stop her from doing what she
10:57wanted to do.
10:58Not even close. Even though Megan thought they were still a couple, that spring, Brody took Kendra to prom.
11:05Kathy Jo, who by now was aware that Megan and Brody had been more than friends, could see how
11:10confused and heartbroken her daughter was. Brody's mom had recently passed away, and Kathy Jo thought
11:17he was using that to justify jumping back and forth between the two girls.
11:22And she's like, I didn't want to tell you this because I know you'll be mad, but he's taking Kendra
11:29to prom because that's what his mom would have wanted him to do. And that's when I said, are you
11:34freaking kidding me? He's still telling you these lies and you're believing them. And that is when I
11:42said, okay, put my foot down. We are done with Brody.
11:46Kathy Jo told Megan to stop any contact with Brody. No texting, no hanging out, nothing.
11:53A short time after she laid down the law, there was a knock at the door. It was Brody.
11:58He said, look, you are way too controlling. You're concerning me. And I think you need to be on medication.
12:04That's what Brody was telling me. That's overstepping for a teenager.
12:09I said, excuse me. He goes, yeah, you can't be controlling her decisions. I said, she's 15 years
12:16old. As her mother, I can tell her that she can't date you. That's my right and my responsibility as
12:21her mother. And he said, do you know that she tells me every fight you ever have? And I said,
12:27well, it's really none of your business and you need to leave my house. And he goes, I'm not going
12:30anywhere because I don't, I don't want you tearing into her. And I said, you need to get out of
12:35my
12:35house right now. And he finally did, but he did it very slowly. Like he wanted to make sure that
12:43I knew
12:43that he was in control. Once Kathy Jo put her foot down about Brody, friends saw a change in Megan.
12:50You just knew she was not herself when you have this bubbly outgoing girl become, you know, a shell of
12:57herself. She was hiding things more. She was more secretive, I guess. She was angry too, I would
13:04say. Kathy Jo saw it too. Megan dropped out of Glee Club and banned. I just cried because it's like,
13:12she's not my child anymore. She would tell me anything. I trusted her with everything. She
13:16trusted me. We, we had an amazing connection. All that drama had happened as school was ending
13:23for the summer. Now it was July 4th weekend and Megan was missing, considered a runaway.
13:30What's that like as a mom, not knowing where your daughter is? It's hell. I can't describe it as
13:37anything else. It's, it's hell. That night, the police couldn't get ahold of Brody. So they reached
13:42out to his father who was an Illinois state police trooper and had once been partners with chief
13:47call closure. We left a message with the father to have him call us when he saw Brody and said
13:52he
13:52would. And, uh, we were waiting on that phone call. But Kathy Jo wasn't about to sit around waiting.
13:59She would go looking for answers herself. And pretty soon there was a new clue. What did this image of
14:06Megan mean?
14:21When 15-year-old Megan Nichols disappeared overnight, her mother wanted to talk to her
14:26on-again, off-again boyfriend, Brody Murbarger. After a sleepless night, she and Megan's grandmother
14:32drove over to his house and there he was right outside. We pulled into his driveway and he was
14:39washing his car. It was like 7.30 in the morning. And when he looked over and realized who we
14:45were,
14:46he rolled his eyes at us, walked over and shut the water off. And then he walked up to
14:52the driver's side where my mom was. What did he say? My mom said, where's my granddaughter? He goes,
14:57I don't know. And she goes, well, I think you do. And he said, all I know is she didn't
15:01want to live
15:02with Kathy anymore. She went to go live with her dad. Her dad? He hadn't been in Megan's life or
15:07her
15:07mom's since she was a baby. He lived hundreds of miles away in Oklahoma. But just a year earlier,
15:14when Megan was 14, they had reconnected. She told me later he had kind of apologized for not being
15:19there in her life. And she said, listen, I'm doing fine. You know, I'm a Christian. I've been saved.
15:26I'm going to forgive you. So was it possible that the teenager, so angry at her mother over
15:31Brody, had decided living with her dad was a better option? Did you buy that? Did you think
15:36maybe? She'd only just met him. Yeah. It was a lead the police needed to check out.
15:42Officer spoke with him on the phone. And had he seen her? No. Did he know anything? He heard from
15:47her?
15:47No. A dead end. But police quickly had a new lead. Kathy Jo reported that $200 was missing from the
15:56family's two bank accounts. Police pulled the video from the bank's cameras. We see her enter the bank
16:03and talk to a teller. Then we see her go to the drive-up ATM and withdraw money. And then
16:09we check
16:09the second bank, which is a couple blocks from the first one. And we see her ride her bicycle alone
16:14to and from that bank. You have a note saying she's leaving. You have her phone is left behind
16:20and wiped clean. And you have her visiting two different banks. Are you thinking that Megan ran
16:26away? Yes, that was the number one option. Police believed they were looking for a girl who did not
16:32want to be found. And like Megan's mom, they had a hunch that her teenage crush, Brody, may know
16:38something that could help. Brody was an academically and musically gifted teen. He'd never been in trouble
16:44with the law. He just graduated from high school and was getting ready to start college in the fall.
16:49Once his dad, the state trooper, told him police wanted to talk, Brody went down to the station.
16:54What did Brody say his relationship was with Megan? Just friends. Not sexual, not anything like
17:02that, just... Just a friendship level. Brody said he wasn't surprised that Megan was gone.
17:09He admitted that he knew that Megan had... That she wanted to run away.
17:12That she wanted to run away. And he just said that she had been talking about it.
17:16Brody told police that the night Megan went missing, he was at his girlfriend Kendra's house.
17:20He said that her mom was blowing up his phone. By calling his phone, he decided to look for,
17:25for Megan. Correct.
17:27He said he drove around for hours looking, then stopped back at Kendra's house before going home at
17:32around five in the morning. Is he cooperative? And what does he say to the officer?
17:38I just basically didn't know where she was. Brody left, but investigators continued digging.
17:44Since Megan's phone was wiped clean, they searched her computer and found text messages from her last
17:49iPhone backup. Turned out, Megan and Brody texted a lot. Something like 150 times a day. When they poured
17:58over their 7,000 messages, it was clear Brody had not been totally honest with police about their
18:03relationship. Text messages revealed something different where they had been active sexually.
18:09The texts also showed that not only did Brody know about Megan's plan to run away,
18:14he had also talked about going with her. Possibility of them running away together,
18:20like they were making a plan. Police asked Brody to come back for another chat.
18:24How do you handle Brody now and the situation now that you realize that he wasn't being totally
18:30upfront with you? I just keep calling him out on inconsistencies,
18:33try and get more information. And then he provides a little more, a little more, a little more.
18:37Brody now admitted to the chief that yes, he had talked to Megan about running away together,
18:42but he had no intention of going through with it. In fact, just the opposite.
18:48Instead of running away, he said he'd always come up with an excuse not to, you know,
18:53I can't do it yet. I don't have my credit card yet. He would try to prolong her staying here.
18:58He was trying to get her to stay in Fairfield? Yeah.
19:00Brody's story seemed to confirm that Megan was in fact a runaway, out there somewhere,
19:05trying not to be found. At this time, I was treating him as a witness.
19:10Megan didn't turn up the next day or the next. What's Brody saying now about Megan's disappearance?
19:16Does he talk about it? Is he concerned? When he talks about it, it's mostly in the context of,
19:22like, how he's being treated in Fairfield. Megan's friends weren't shy about the fact
19:27that they thought Brody knew more than he was saying. He felt like he was being harassed,
19:31or at least that's what he told me. Authorities have labeled her a runaway.
19:35Kathy Jo talked to reporters. Megan's case was featured in Dateline's online series,
19:40Missing in America. And she tried to reach Megan directly on social media.
19:45Megan, this video has been put together to let you know that it's okay to come home.
19:50As time wore on, Kathy Jo tried to stay hopeful, but it wasn't easy. She thought about how upset
19:56Megan had been in the weeks before she disappeared, and her mind went to a dark place.
20:00She was very depressed that she didn't have Brody in her life.
20:05So it crossed your mind that maybe she took her own life? It did cross my mind.
20:10Where was Megan? A discovery close to home was about to answer that question.
20:16What exactly did you see?
20:33Weeks turned to months, and Kathy Jo still had no news about her daughter.
20:37She sought solace in her faith. We had prayer circles in my house every night for a very long time.
20:45People in Fairfield tried to help however they could.
20:49We had tremendous community support. You saw Megan's face everywhere.
20:53The town came together, this outflowing of support to try to get Megan home.
20:59But Megan was still missing after a year. Then another. Her friends got ready to graduate from high
21:07school still with no answers. You knew Megan better than almost anyone. Was she
21:13bold enough to just disappear like that with very little money, no phone?
21:18For her to have left without anyone was the most worrying part. I think she was bold enough.
21:24Did you think that something bad had happened to her? Not at first, but eventually, yes.
21:31I didn't really have confidence that she could have successfully run away and started a new life
21:36at the age of 15, right? Like that idea is just so absurd to me.
21:41Megan's 18th birthday came and went, and with it dimmed Kathy Jo's hope of ever seeing her daughter again.
21:47I stayed hopeful for a very long time. But once she was officially an adult,
21:53and she still had contacted nobody, I knew she wasn't coming out.
22:01By then, local and state investigators had asked for help from the FBI.
22:05They asked us, is there any way possible that we could start to take a more active role?
22:11Special Agent Ray Hart started to work the case. And then, a year later, something big happened.
22:18It was a frigid but sunny winter day when Carl Vaughn went out to look for firewood on this farm
22:23near
22:24Fairfield. What did you see? Well, I seen something shining there in the sun. It was bright. I was
22:30coming from that way. And I just stopped and walked over there. And then, I realized it was a skull
22:36poking out of the blanket. Did you think it was a human skull? Oh yeah, I knew it was. It
22:40wasn't no
22:40trouble to see that. What goes through your mind when you make a discovery like that? Well,
22:45I just knew they were looking for Megan, you know. So Megan popped into your head the moment you saw
22:51the bones. Yeah, the bones, yeah. Kathy Jo, who wanted answers for so long, now shuddered at the
22:58sight of Agent Ray Hart and his partner at her door. And they said, hi, Kathy. And of course,
23:03I dropped my water. I'm fumbling all over myself. And I just looked at him. I said,
23:06you're here to ruin my day, aren't you? And he said, the remains that were found, it was Megan.
23:18How did you learn the news that Megan's remains had been found?
23:23Yeah. My mom had called me and told me. I mean, it was a hard day.
23:30Megan's manner of death was yet to be determined. But since her body had been found buried,
23:35it was ruled a homicide. Agent Hart was going through the files with fresh eyes,
23:40looking for leads. My initial thought at that point was,
23:43it was going to be really difficult to move any investigation forward as an FBI investigator
23:47without looking into Brody Marburger. While the local police had treated Brody like a witness,
23:53the Illinois State Police also worked the case. And FBI Agent Hart saw that those investigators had
23:59leaned much harder on Brody than the hometown officers. More than a year after Megan disappeared,
24:05state agents searched his car. They found a brownish stain that looked suspicious,
24:10but tests came back negative for blood. Were you going to run away with her?
24:15And the state investigators brought Brody in for questioning, twice.
24:19So, the first thing we had to do is go back and listen to those interviews,
24:23see if there's little nuggets that we can utilize.
24:26Would you say you and Megan were ever sexually active with each other?
24:32Do you want me to be honest? Then yes.
24:34Okay. Well, is this when your honesty started?
24:38No, I'm just kidding. But yes, I'm not going to lie.
24:41Okay. In one of those interviews, Brody added a new detail. He admitted that 24 hours before Megan
24:48went missing, he'd snuck into her bedroom while her mom was sleeping.
25:17Brody again explained how the next night when Megan disappeared, he went out looking for her.
25:21A story investigators found perplexing.
25:25Tell me how you leave your current girlfriend, love your life, to go look for Megan. I mean,
25:31tell me how you do that.
25:33I feel like I'm responsible for her. I don't know.
25:38For who? Megan.
25:39Why are you responsible for Megan?
25:41I don't know. I got help to go through a lot of shows.
25:44What's more, Brody said that while he was out searching, he didn't have a cell phone.
25:48He left it at his girlfriend's house. And if that sounded suspicious,
25:52well, Brody had an answer for that too. When pressed, he admitted he wasn't really looking
25:58for Megan. He now claimed that driving around for hours was actually all part of a plan.
26:10This was a new and bizarre story. Brody said he was intentionally trying to get police to look at
26:17him, playing decoy, giving Megan a chance to slip away. He now said she was going to
26:22be picked up by someone in a car. Brody never asked for a lawyer,
26:33and in his next police interview, investigators pressed hard and Brody pushed back.
26:39Tell us where she's at, Brody. I don't know.
26:42There's no way that that is true. You're just going to sit here and accuse me of it. I'm just
26:46going to sit here and not say anything. I didn't do anything, okay? Where's she at? I don't know.
26:50What direction did she go? I already told you where I thought she went.
26:54And where was that? Down south.
26:57To Agent Hart, it was a lot of smoke, and what he needed was fire. Then something else in the
27:03file
27:04caught his attention, a tiny detail that would turn out to be huge. You were about to make a major
27:10discovery in this case. Yes. And he was also going to get some help from an unlikely ally.
27:17And they asked me if I would be comfortable wearing a wire.
27:35In the years following Megan's disappearance, Brody Murbarger moved out of state and was studying
27:41geology at the University of Southern Indiana. He shared an apartment with his best friend, Kyle.
27:46Were you happy to have your best friend as a roommate? Yeah, he was a good roommate.
27:52Kyle remained fiercely loyal to his friend, despite the rumors that persisted back home.
27:57I mean, I would really passionately defend him and say there was no way it was him.
28:01Why were you so sure? Because he's my best friend. Yeah, Brody was like a brother to me.
28:06Neither Kyle nor Brody had any inkling that Megan's murder investigation was picking up steam.
28:12And as Special Agent Ray Hart read through a mountain of documents, one detail stood out to him.
28:18One of the investigators for Illinois State Police actually wrote a very good report detailing that
28:24Mr. Murbarger got really fidgety and was very nervous when he saw the state police starting to
28:31look into the trunk of his car. Remember, Kathy Jo saw Brody washing his car when she went looking for
28:37him that first morning. And later, investigators found a stain in the trunk that looked suspicious,
28:42but tested negative for blood. I thought maybe there was a potential that we could do a more thorough
28:49forensic search of that vehicle. Brody had totaled his Dodge in an accident a year earlier,
28:55but the agent caught a lucky break. The wrecked car was fixed up and had a new owner.
29:01I was cautiously optimistic that we would find something. And they did.
29:07Turns out the original test was a false negative. It was human blood in the trunk. And once agents
29:14removed the lining, Luminol revealed even more of it. What happened when you compared the DNA samples
29:21of the blood in Megan? The lab report indicated that was indeed Megan Nichols' DNA.
29:26This is your connection now, your solid connection to Brody?
29:31Yes, ma'am.
29:33It was big. But instead of arresting Brody, they wanted to confront him with the new evidence, see if he
29:39would crack.
29:40How surprised was he that he's in college now and the FBI shows up on campus?
29:46He was extremely uncomfortable. Very nervous.
29:49After a phone call with his dad, Brody declined to talk and told the agents to contact a lawyer for
29:55the family.
29:56Then, Agent Hart had an idea of someone else to talk to. The best friend and roommate, Kyle.
30:03On a picnic table outside of Brody and Kyle's apartment complex, the FBI laid it all out.
30:08They told me that they had DNA. This kind of like very hard, at least from my perspective,
30:14hard to kind of argue with evidence. And the only thing I was thinking like the whole time they were
30:18talking was, oh, s***. And they had a big ask. They wanted Kyle to help them bring Brody down.
30:25They asked me to cooperate further with what they were doing. And I said, no, that's still my best friend.
30:31A week later, a change of heart gave Agent Hart an opening.
30:36I receive an email from Kyle. It says, I've been thinking about what you told me.
30:42I don't think there's any doubt that he did this. Will you come talk to me again?
30:47Are you starting to think my best friend could be a killer?
30:51Yeah, yeah. I mean, they asked me if I would be comfortable wearing a wire and going in and
30:56talking with him about Megan and the whole situation.
30:59Yeah, that's a big deal.
31:00Yeah, yeah.
31:01You're asking a lot.
31:02Absolutely.
31:05Kyle packed up his things and moved out. A month later,
31:09he went back to the apartment complex to talk to Brody. How are you feeling as you walk through
31:13the door knowing that you are wearing a wire?
31:16Uh, definitely pretty nervous. Um, yeah, it was, it was not a, it was not an easy situation by any
31:22means.
31:23What's new with you?
31:25Well, I moved.
31:27Kyle got right to it, asking about the night Megan disappeared.
31:31Brody, have I ever just, like, asked you, like, what happened that night? Like, with,
31:37did you see Megan? Can you, how did?
31:39Uh, yeah, I, okay, so I saw her. Whenever I dropped my iPod off, that was it.
31:47That was it. Okay.
31:49I had a pretty solid way of handling the whole situation with her, but she left before I could
31:58tell her mom.
32:00You were going to tell her mom?
32:02I was going to tell her mom as soon as she turned 16.
32:04She was planning on running away.
32:05Okay.
32:06And there was that chance.
32:09Federal agents coached Kyle on what to say,
32:11and now he confronted Brody with what he'd learned from the FBI.
32:15Your, your old car, um, and, uh, in the trunk of your car, they've taken a lot of different
32:23samples and, uh, it's, there's a blood in the back of your car and it's, uh, it's Megan's blood.
32:30Why is her blood in your car?
32:32That's a good question. I would like to know that too.
32:35Um, you don't know how her blood got there?
32:39Nope.
32:39Why'd you leave your phone at Kendra's?
32:41I honestly don't know.
32:44Brody then seemed to anticipate his friend's next question.
32:49I didn't do it.
32:53He did not kill me.
32:54I did not kill me.
32:56Brody didn't give up any new information, but agents weren't giving up.
33:00They asked Kyle to meet with his friend again.
33:03This time, Brody seemed more than a little wary.
33:06He says to me, are you wearing a wire? Like right into my ear.
33:10Oh my gosh.
33:11Yeah. So I, I do think he was maybe suspicious.
33:14Yeah. Well, yeah, he's saying that. What did you say to him?
33:17No.
33:18Do you think he bought it?
33:19No. I think at that point he, he knew what was going on.
33:24Still, when the agents listened, they thought they heard something revealing.
33:28One of his statements, I truly believe is his version of a confession.
33:33That makes me think that somebody with like anger issues found out about something and strangled her.
33:39He starts to theorize and Brody says, well, maybe someone with anger issues
33:45hears something they don't like and gets mad and strangles her.
33:48Which could fit.
33:49Which fits.
33:51Because forensic experts believed strangulation or suffocation was how Megan died,
33:56a detail only the killer would know. Investigators took all the evidence they had gathered,
34:01the blood, the changing stories, the secret recordings, and presented it to a grand jury.
34:07In October of 2020, six years after Megan disappeared, police arrested Brody Murbarger as he walked into work.
34:15Was that in, in a lot of bad, bad moments? Was that a, a good one?
34:20It's hard to describe. It's just like the scab just keeps getting ripped open.
34:25I remember saying, what? What are you talking about? You know, it's surreal.
34:30It was out of the blue because there had been this idea that the case was dead. The case was
34:34dead.
34:34The case was dead. You know, that was what the public thought of it was.
34:39But the arrest was only the first step. Prosecutors knew there were still unanswered questions
34:45and a defendant who had an explanation for everything.
34:49I couldn't believe what he was saying.
35:05More than six years had passed since teenager Megan Nichols vanished on July 4th weekend.
35:10And in October 2022, her high school boyfriend, Brody Murbarger, went on trial for her murder.
35:17You chose not to sit through the trial. I don't want to. You don't see the nightmares I see every
35:22night. The last thing I need is the details of everything he did to my little girl.
35:29Prosecutors Michael Foligario and Myra Yell Clark spent months poring over those details.
35:35We knew his activity and his suspicious behavior around the time
35:40that Megan disappeared was extremely strong circumstantial evidence.
35:45The case they presented to the jury included the story of Megan and Brody's high school romance
35:50told by what else? Their text messages.
35:54It's almost like Brody was playing a game with Megan. He would distance himself. And as soon as Megan
36:01stopped texting him, he would just text her and just try to get her reinterested in him. It really was
36:08some sort of control game with him. Those text messages exposed another dynamic at play.
36:14Brody driving a wedge between Megan and her mother, Kathy Jo. Some of the text messages that I read
36:21where he was talking about Kathy to Megan were just some of the worst things I've ever read.
36:28Megan's mom was keeping him from gaining control over Megan. And so I think his hatred of Kathy also
36:35like was incorporated into his motive. Prosecutors then turned to what Brody said he was doing the
36:41night Megan disappeared. He has no explanation for where he was that night. Then of course his
36:48changing stories. I was going to drive around while she did whatever she was going to do.
36:54And then they presented their own theory of what took place on the night Megan disappeared.
36:59They believe there was a fight over the plans to run away. She had gone to the ATM.
37:05She was packed. She was ready to go. So when Brody ends up backing out, you can see how she
37:12would
37:13overreact, be upset and be emotional. But why kill her though?
37:17I think it goes back to his control. It had come to a point where he completely
37:22had lost control and reacted aggressively. And they played for the jury that tape,
37:29Brody talking to his best friend, theorizing that Megan was strangled by someone in a fit of rage.
37:41Prosecutors argued that somebody was Brody. His former friend Kyle was called to testify about the
37:47secret recordings. I kind of felt like I was there to confront him. I felt betrayed by the situation,
37:53that he had lied to me and lied to everyone for so long. Then what prosecutors said was solid proof,
38:00Megan's blood in Brody's car. This was really a cornerstone of your case. It was definitely our
38:06biggest piece of evidence that we were able to present. When it came time to present a defense,
38:12Brody himself took the stand to explain the state's key blood evidence. He testified to an incident
38:19where he had sex with Megan in his car. Brody testified that Megan had her period during that
38:25sexual encounter. And he said a t-shirt with her blood on it ended up in the trunk of his
38:29car.
38:31Prosecutors were skeptical to say the least. I couldn't believe what he was saying. During cross
38:36examination, the prosecution pressed Brody to explain why, if true, he had kept that sexual
38:43encounter a secret for more than six years. He said he was embarrassed about what had happened.
38:50After a two-week trial, the jurors weighed all the evidence and were back with their verdict in two
38:55hours. And the verdict was? Guilty. What was that like for you when you heard that guilty verdict
39:03being read? It was definitely a relief. But in a lot of ways, I didn't feel as good as I
39:11thought
39:11I would feel. It really didn't make anything better, I guess. Kathy Jo, who had avoided the trial, spoke
39:18directly to Brody at his sentencing. The last thing I said to him, and I made him look at me.
39:24I called him. I called his name. And I'm like, Brody. And he finally looked up at me. I said,
39:29I do not wish you well. And I hope I never have to see your face again.
39:35Brody Murbarger was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the first-degree murder of Megan Nichols.
39:40His defense attorney has filed an appeal. But the sentencing only closed one chapter for Kathy Jo.
39:50Where do I go from here? How do I exist in a world without my daughter? I need to figure
39:54out,
39:55you know, what God's plan is for me. Because I know he has one. I may be running from it,
39:59but I know he has one. When the trial was finally over, the family had a celebration of life,
40:06honoring Megan. It was difficult for me. But at the same time, that was the only thing in all this
40:13time
40:13that was focused about Megan, about her life, and was positive.
40:19You know, I would want people to remember Megan for her personality. The warmth that you felt when
40:27you were with her. The smile that she would give. This aura of joy that you could feel around her.
40:33That must have brought you comfort, knowing how much Megan was loved.
40:37Yes, it did. And she touched a lot of people. And not only in her life,
40:43but her story has touched a lot of people since then.
40:51That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again Friday at 9, 8 central. And of course,
40:57I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good
41:04night.
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