on the night of the murder, prosecutors believe marcus and nick met on the dock to plan the car crash. either nick tried to back out or marcus had planned to kill him all along. at some point, marcus strangled him until he was unconscious, then threw him into the river where he drowned. he kept nick s glasses, bent them in half, and threw them on the floor of nick s car to make it appear nick was in the car when it crashed. marcus opened the windows, used the cap from his motor oil bottle, placed it in the carburetor, threw the bottle in the trunk, and started the car. and with that, the car plunged into the sacramento river.
we examined the carburetor. i found an oil bottle cap holding the throttle open, which was remarkable by its uniqueness. never seen it before or have never seen it since. the cap was marked with a v . it was the top to the valvoline motor oil bottle in the trunk. the bottle cap was a big indicator right off the bat, the car had been rigged. something wasn t right. the bottle cap would be put in there in lieu of a person to hold the gas pedal in position so the vehicle could be operated without a driver. to see what effect the bottle cap would have on nick s car, investigators put an identical cap in the carburetor of another car. for safety purposes, a test driver sat behind the wheel to stop the car after the test. when the engine started, the car moved on its own. accident experts estimated the car was traveling at 25 miles per hour when it left the road. the embankment slowed the car. and by the time it hit the water, it was moving at only 15 miles per hour.
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restaurant where nick had stopped the night before. it was on a treacherous road that ran parallel to the sacramento river. you make a mistake and drift off of the roadway, you re liable to go to the bottom of the levee. on one side, it s a river. on the other side, it s a 30-foot drop. asleep or intoxicated or not paying attention, there s a good chance you could end up in the water. and that s where they found nick s car two days later, submerged in 18 feet of water. you could tell that the engine was running because when we examined the radiator, it had contact marks from the fan belt grinding away portions of plastic. we concluded from this that the engine had to be running. but there was no sign of nick anywhere. we expected to find a body inside. we were pretty surprised when we did not. nick s broken glasses were on the floor of his car. and the side windows were open.
steering wheel in the car. this proved the glasses had been planted. and if nick hadn t been in the car during the crash, then there was still the possibility he was alive. we were a little emotional. well, very emotional but, you know, kind of on pins and needles. of course you pray for the best. but i think there s that part of you that knows it could go the other way. three weeks later, a search crew found nick s body in the sacramento river about a quarter mile downstream from the crash site. the body had been under water and had resurfaced. my whole world changed. i no longer had a son. he was the best friend i ever had.