absolutely not. wasn t possible? no. for tandy, it always was nick, and only nick, in the frame for the crime. police would continue investigating, but by day two pressure seemed to be mounting for a quick resolution. even the next morning, the chief of police there in potsdam indicated to another investigator that they had a pretty hot suspect, and that they were lining up whatever evidence they could to try to make an arrest. that conversation was recorded by the potsdam p.d., a routine procedure for calls in an out of the department. we got a 12-year-old that s lost his life. we got to lock somebody up. and we have a strong suspect at this point. um, and uh, we re just trying to get all of the ammunition against him at this point we can. so 24 hours after the murder, lt. mark murray, working his first homicide as lead investigator, went to observe nick on the sideline at clarkson s soccer game against suny-potsdam. remember, police believed the killer may have sust
definitely. i put it in my search warrant affidavit. i observed the significant limp when he went off at halftime, i observed what i observed to be a limp. were you aware that the cops were running a camera on you as you coached the team? i had no idea. nick said he was focused on beating cross-town rival suny-potsdam, a big game. you re going to be seeing these guys around town. this is a game that we must win. he said he had nothing to do with garrett s death so he had no reason to think he was a suspect that night, or the next morning, when police asked him to come down to the potsdam pd and help their investigation. for what purpose? to see if i could identify a list of garrett s friends. are any of the kids in his grade monsters compared to him? or no? but then the conversation veered away from the list and kids. i mean you re here to help me with something i m clueless about. so i m clueless about it as well. nick seemed surprised by the cops line of quest
john jones, the sheriff s deputy. but no one notified nick hillary. turns out, he and tandy had split up the month before and he was no longer in her loop. so lieutenant mark murray of the potsdam pd called nick. mr. hillary speaking. it s mark murray of the potsdam police department. we had an incident occur this evening and we d like to speak with you in regards to it. reporter: minutes later, lt. murray and two other investigators were at nick s door, a courtesy notification, they said. it s, we re gonna reach out to all the people who are connected to this kid. what do they know? do they know anything about where he was or who he might have been with? reporter: attorney tom mortati represents the potsdam police. so mr. hillary, we have some bad news for you. yes. you know, mr. hillary expresses shock, i can t believe this, oh my goodness, puts his hands on his head. reporter: nick hillary says he remembers the moment well. i m still broken up over the situat
jones as a suspect. and even though tandy had had a bad break-up with jones, she told police garrett and jones were very close. what about john jones? absolutely not. wasn t possible? no. reporter: for tandy, it always was nick, and only nick, in the frame for the crime. police would continue investigating, but by day two pressure seemed to be mounting for a quick resolution. even the next morning, the chief of police there in potsdam indicated to another investigator that they had a pretty hot suspect, and that they were lining up whatever evidence they could to try to make an arrest. reporter: that conversation was recorded by the potsdam p.d., a routine procedure for calls in an out of the department. we got a 12-year-old that s lost his life. we got to lock somebody up. and we have a strong suspect at this point. um, and uh, we re just trying to get all of the ammunition against him at this point we can. reporter: so 24 hours after the murder, lt. mark murray,
nick s scary transformation. i was angry. so i told him that. that made me want my key back. i didn t want him to have a key anymore. when you give a girlfriend a key back, that s really the end of it. that s right. reporter: over and out. it was september. garrett had one month to live. the unwelcome drop-in, as well as tandy s other stories about nick made police suspicious. but what to make of her account? she tells a story about looking up from her bed in the middle of the night, midnight or later, and there s nick. that s what she says. that is not a substantiated account. that is her her saying that this happened. reporter: investigators started knocking on doors all over potsdam to get the lowdown on nick. tandy s side didn t pull any punches. attorney for the potsdam p.d., tom mortati family, friends, relatives. they all immediately thought, well, there s only one person that we can think of that might do something to garrett, and that was nick hillary.