22-year-old nick sampson. the sheriff s department called in the press and announced one of the most shocking crimes in this part of nebraska in decades was solved. people ask us, is this the closure on the case? it s not. another chapter, turning the page. still a lot of work to be done. though he was right, the sheriff had no clue just how much work there was yet to be done. for the stock s children, the arrest brought a small measure of relief. at least, they decided, they could try to move on, as they knew their parents would have wanted them to. i can hear mom and dad say, tammy, you can let this eat you alive or you can go on and be the best you can be and do what needs to be done, and that is family. so we can dwell on it but we choose not to because that s not what mom and dad would want. now, the system could grind
of our story. the autumn moon in nebraska, that troubled year of 2006, watched over a crop of confusion. nick sampson struggled with the bitterness the long jail-bound nightmare had planted in his soul, while the children of wayne and sharmon stock tried to make sense of the release of the man they had the been told killed their parents. it s a difficult situation. none of us are attorneys. none of us are in law enforcement. and you re just sitting there trying to take it all in, trying to figure out, okay, how does this work? why does this happen? reporter: hadn t their cousin matt livers confessed? at least he was still in custody. as were those two teens from wisconsin. so it wasn t as if the whole case was falling apart. at least not yet. but if anyone did not feel confused in the october chill, it was defense attorneys bear and soucie, who were as sure as
and anyway, fester, remember, said the main shooter, the guy that led them to the farm was a local named thomas, with whom fester had been communicating by phone before the murder. but detectives could find no evidence whatsoever against this thomas or anyone else. and meanwhile, jessica reid kept trying to persuade investigators that nobody else was there besides her and fester, of course. i am not lying! if i was lying, i would not still be going on about this. reporter: she d been saying that for months. i know what happened and no one will believe me. reporter: and though she was right about that, the detectives did not believe her. they still suspected livers and sampson of some involvement. why? remember way back at the beginning of our story, that speck of evidence that csi chief kofoed had found this a car connected to nick sampson and
arrested reid and fester. up in wisconsin. and we got no details on it at all. reporter: but when they did, the lawyers just knew their clients were innocent. everything clicked. you knew exactly what the case was at that point. reporter: or did they? if the attorneys for matt livers and nick sampson thought their clients were suddenly in the clear, they had some more thinking to do. because now the question was were matt and nick in it together with jessica and greg? coming up talk to them. present him with do you know these people. reporter: and? not a clue. reporter: maybe he was lying to you. when in the dead of night continues. let s be honest.
were still reeling from their grief as they buried their parents less than a week after perhaps the most hor realistic murder the little town had ever seen. then, to grief, add shock, andy stock answered his phone and one of the detectives was on the other end of the line with news. they spoke. then, andy called his sister. it was about 12:30 at night. he says, tam, i need you to be awake. are you awake? i said, yeah. what s going on? he said, they arrested matt and nick. and i said matt and nick who? he said, our cousin matt and nick sampson. it was true, matt livers had confessed to the murders of his aunt and uncle. but the gun to her face and blew it away. and he named an accomplice. 22-year-old nick sampson, a cousin of matt s on another branch of the family tree. my husband had given me the