Loading...
About this Episode
In 2016, Nicole Vander Heyden went out with her boyfriend Doug Detrie and friends but never made it home. A day later, she was found beaten and strangled in a field. Wisconsin police used a host of digital tools to try to solve her murder. One device created an alibi. But other tools were used to incriminate her killer. “48 Hours" Correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.
This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 7/19/2025. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays and stream on demand on Paramount+.
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Hosts & Guests
Transcript
The all-new 2026 Toyota RAV4 is here, and it builds on everything drivers know and love about Toyota.
With a redesigned look and modern tech that makes life behind the wheel easier than ever,
the 26 RAV4 comes standard as a hybrid, providing smooth, efficient performance for both city streets and longer journeys,
while the available all-wheel drive keeps you in command when conditions are unpredictable.
The new RAV4 is designed around the way people actually use their SUV, from daily errands to weekend adventures,
while the GR Sport model, coming soon, both CNET combined 320 horsepower in a plug-in hybrid drivetrain
with a GR-tune suspension for an even more responsive, exciting drive.
No matter which RAV4 you choose, you'll enjoy the reliability Toyota is known for,
coupled with the inspiring performance that's unique to Toyota.
Shop more and find details at toyota.com.
The all-new RAV4 from Toyota, let's go places!
Spring is when plans start becoming real.
Trips get booked, calendars fill up, and if learning a new language has been on your list,
starting now means that by summer, you'll already feel more confident speaking and understanding it.
That's where Rosetta Stone comes in. For over 30 years, they've been a trusted leader in
language learning. Their immersive, intuitive method helps you naturally absorb your new language,
no memorizing random vocabulary lists, and no relying on translations. Instead, you learn by
connecting words, visuals, and meaning in context. The way language is meant to be learned,
with 25 languages to choose from, including Spanish, French, German, and Japanese,
and millions of users worldwide, Rosetta Stone is the go-to tool for real language growth.
Plus, lessons are simple and easy to fit into your day,
whether you have five minutes in the morning or a quick break in the afternoon.
Ready to start learning a new language this spring?
Visit rosettastone.com slash rs10 today to explore Rosetta Stone,
and choose the language that's right for you. Go to rosettastone.com slash rs10 now and begin your
language learning journey.
To most Wisconsinites, Green Bay is a magical place.
It's where the Packers play. It's a fun town and everybody knows everybody.
Drinking is part of the Wisconsin tradition.
Green Bay is a great downtown pulse, and I feel it's relatively safe.
Nobody would ever think that something like this would happen in our community.
Continuing coverage tonight of a death investigation in the village of Bellevue.
When I had gotten the news, I just shook. I just shook.
There is police activity in a field.
I was a good friend of Nicole Vanderhiden's.
She was my neighbor. We watched each other's kids. She just was a ball of fire.
Nicole Vanderhiden was 31 years old. She was living with her boyfriend, Doug Dietri,
and they had just had a baby together. It was Friday, May 20th of 2016.
Doug and Nicole decided to go out that night. This was an opportunity for them to go out
and have a great time. The night didn't end in a great time. It ended in a nightmare.
Nikki walked off into the darkness that night.
She just walked off. She vanished.
That was the last anyone to solve her.
That were what she found. Right down this embankment.
When we arrived on scene on this one, you kind of knew right away. It was probably going to be
different. At the scene, that was the most apparent thing is the trauma to the left side of the face.
When you came here, there was no way to identify her. You had no idea who she was.
Not right away. No.
Doug Dietri, he woke up in the morning. Eventually later that afternoon, he had called
the sheriff's officer 911 to report that his girlfriend did not come home from the night before.
I'm here for a missing person report. We sent some officers over to her residents to take
the missing person report. So this is not normal behavior for her? Not at all.
And this is where Nicole was living? Correct. And you believe that she was killed here?
Correct. Across the street in the roadway. A large quantity of blood that was determined to be
Nicole's. Everything's pointing to Doug Dietri's. Yeah, so then Monday night. Right now, I'm going to be
taking you in custody. We felt we had probable cause to arrest Doug Dietri. I'm a decent guy.
I think people were shocked. People are wondering, could he have done it?
Did Doug do it? His alibi was his Fitbit that he had been wearing all night
and that supposedly proved that he was asleep at the time of her murder. The technology is really
what drew me to this case. We had this evidence wanted to check out, have tested at the lab.
The DNA evidence starts to come back. And it belonged to an unidentified male.
Subject outside on the porch. That was our goal to figure out who was this mystery person.
It's definitely a who done it. There's lots and twists and turns to it. And it's hard to know
who's telling the truth. Green Bay is supposed to be a really safe place.
You know, mothers don't go missing and police don't find their bodies in farm fields.
February 2018, friends and family of Nicole Vanderhiden gather in a packed brown county court room
seeking justice for her brutal, senseless murder two years earlier.
What happens in this case could definitely come down to the technology.
Cape Brickaleigh covers crime for the daily beast.
Who would do this? Who would do this to Nikki?
I was just, it's not real. You know, they can't be.
Tiffany Hoffman was a close friend in Nicole's, who everyone called Nikki.
They have been friends for years and shared a love of the outdoors.
What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of her?
Light, spirit, a verb and a zest and a zeal.
She was close with her family and loved her children.
Nikki was a mom to three, Michaela and Tyler from a previous marriage,
and six-month-old Dylan, whose father was her boyfriend, Doug Dietri.
The two had met in January 2015 and soon moved in together.
She was really, really happy when she talked to me. She said they both were excited.
Yeah, that they both were excited to have a baby.
On the night of Friday, May 20, 2016, Nikki and Doug make last-minute plans to get a babysitter
and join friends at a bar called the watering hole to see a steel panther concert.
I think Nikki was really looking to let loose and have a good time.
As the concert is ending, Nikki decides to go with Doug's friends to another bar
called the sardine can and leave him. Doug agreed that he would finish his conversation he was
having and find her at the next bar.
As seen on this sardine can security camera, Nikki appears to be having a great time talking
and dancing with friends. But as the night wears on and Doug still hadn't shown up here at the sardine
can, she gets upset and begins sending him angry texts.
They were scorching and they were all but accusing him of infidelity.
Sometime after 11.30 pm, Nikki tries calling Doug, but he doesn't answer.
So another friend calls Doug and he answers and this enrages Nikki.
And so she gets up and leaves the bar.
One of Doug's friends runs after Nicole begging her to come back to the bar but she refuses.
Instead, Nicole walks down this street, turns left and vanishes into the night.
When Doug finds out that Nikki is left, he and his friend Greg drive around looking for.
When they can't find her, they go into the sardine can where Doug, seen here in long pants,
has more to drink before the two of them head out.
For our cutting number one, what is the address?
Uh, we just found a human body laying in some weeds.
Okay, sir.
Early the next afternoon, farmer Richard Van Dehae makes a gruesome discovery.
Over this hill right over here.
Yep.
At first, I thought it was a deer because of the rust color in her hair.
Then I realized it was a young lady.
She was naked, other than socks that were on her feet and a pink wristband.
More than that, we had no form of identification.
Brown County Sheriff's Sergeant Rick Lobb now is among the first to respond to the scene.
There was a lot of blood.
There's obvious injury trauma on the side of her face.
Obviously, the first step of the investigation is to identify who the person is.
Sergeant Brian Slinger is the lead detective on the case.
That in itself was difficult due to the severity of the injuries.
From County Public Safety, this is Trees.
Deputies get their first lead at 4.30 that afternoon when Doug Dietrich calls 911
to report Nikki is missing.
Dinner date of birth.
March 29, 1985.
Her description matched what we had found in the field as far as age,
proximate size hair color.
Slinger sends officers with a hidden camera to Dietrich's home,
which is just a little over three miles away from where the body has been found.
So you left this or being candid over on for another 30 to 40 minutes?
Yeah, we didn't get back there.
I don't even know what kind of lessons it was laid to 30.
Doug tells deputies that after Greg dropped him off,
he fell asleep around 3 a.m.
and except for getting up to check on the baby.
He was asleep until after six.
That night, Doug's parents watched baby Dylan while Doug is further questioned at the station.
It's here they tell him that Nikki has been murdered.
As Dietrich is being questioned, detectives get a warrant to search his and Nikki's home.
They find blood on the floor of the garage and in Nikki's car.
On the headboard, on the side and in the backseat area,
they also discover a pair of air Jordans in the garage
that appear to match the chuprint found on Nikki's back
and seem to have blood smudges on the bottom.
For us, it's adding up, okay, this is our guy.
Just before dawn, an off-duty patrolman reports items scattered along a highway ramp
less than two miles from where Nikki's body has been found.
There's a purse as well as her cell phone and items that she was wearing that night.
And there are more damning clues found in a neighbor's yard
who lives across the street from Doug and Nikki.
And what was found here?
A large quantity of blood that was determined to be Nicole's,
as well as some clumps of blonde here.
And then there was also a cord which I would describe as like a phone,
a charging cord.
This was a huge discovery.
Now they had a murder scene and it was 118 feet
from Dietri's front door.
More than 70 pieces of evidence are sent to the state crime lab.
Seconds.
Now, detectives had a theory about how Nikki had died.
There was some sort of argument between her and Doug maybe when she got home,
somehow it ended up out in the street.
Right now I'm going to be taking you in custody.
Sheriff deputies are recording when they arrest Doug Dietri
who quickly becomes emotional.
There's one answer I believe is endless.
Dietri isn't charged with murder,
but deputies hold him on a $1 million bond while they wait for DNA results.
Is there DNA in the bottom of the shoe?
Is that blood in the bottom of the shoe?
18 days later, investigators are stunned.
Crime lab tests show the blood in the car isn't Nikki's.
The blood in the garage isn't human
and tests on the shoe stains are inconclusive
but appear not to be blooded at all.
We had nothing on Doug, so he was released.
What's more on the night Nicole disappeared,
Doug just happened to be wearing a Fitbit,
a personal tracking device.
It goes on your wrist just like this like a watch
and it tracks your activities.
The steps you take, your heart rate,
even your sleeping patterns.
When the Fitbit data stored in Doug's phone is examined,
it corroborates his story.
He had a few footsteps throughout the night,
getting up to go to the bathroom,
check on the baby, whatever.
His story that he told us was absolutely 100% true.
So who killed Nicole Vanderhiden?
Will more high-tech forensics blow this case wide open?
Oh, could this vintage store be any cuter?
Right, and the best part?
They accept discover.
Accept discover?
In a little place like this?
I don't think so, Jennifer.
Oh yeah, huh.
Discover's accepted where I'd like to shop.
Come on, baby, get with the times.
Right, so we shouldn't get the parachute pants?
These are making a comeback.
I think.
Discover's accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide.
Based on the February 2025 Nilsson report.
Do you have $10,000 or more in credit card debt?
Maybe you're even barely getting by by making minimum payments.
With credit card debt hitting record highs,
national debt relief offers real debt relief solutions
for people struggling to keep up.
These options may reduce a large portion of credit card debt
for those who qualify.
You don't need to declare bankruptcy
and you may be able to pay back less than you owe,
regardless of your credit.
National debt relief has already reduced the credit card debt
for more than 550,000 consumers.
So don't wait.
If you owe $10,20 or even hundreds of thousands of dollars
in credit card debt,
you can now take advantage of this financial debt relief
as the cost of living increases.
To find out how much you could save,
visit nationaldebtrelief.com.
That's nationaldebtrelief.com.
National debt relief fund.
National debt relief fund.
National debt relief fund.
National debt relief fund.
National debt relief fund.
National debt relief fund.
National debt relief fund.
Nicole's mother and her brother Brandon
struggled to understand how anyone
could murder their beloved Nikki.
There's a horrendous thing,
and it's just so hard to let that out of your heart.
What do you miss the most?
I'm waiting for her to come walking through my door again,
you know?
I miss her the most.
I miss her.
Because I have a picture of me and her,
I don't want to be a younger.
Look at that every night.
That was for all the time.
Remember, the evidence appears to clear Doug Dietri,
so in June of 2016,
his focus turns to raising his son Dylan.
While Nicole's two older children live with their father.
The case torment Sargent's
Brian Slinger and Richard Lop now.
They are back at square one with no idea who did this.
Two of you have this horrific
murder on your hands.
What are you feeling at that moment?
We needed to figure out how Nicole got home.
We pulled video cameras from every single bridge
in the city of Green Bay,
because in order for her to walk home,
she would have had a cross of bridge.
They re-interview witnesses,
re-examine phone logs.
It was getting to the point where, you know,
we had looked at each other and said,
oh, I really hope this isn't a cold case.
Their first big break comes over the course of the summer.
DNA results trickle in and they are tantalizing.
The investigators learn that many of the samples
taken from Nicole's clothing and from the neighbor's yard
have DNA from an unidentified man.
On dozens of samples,
the same partial profile,
but never enough for a positive ID.
We had this one consistent mystery guy, I guess you'd call it.
And our job was to try and find out who that was.
It was just a very confusing time.
Nobody knew who would have done this to Nikki.
And then finally, that August, almost three months
after Nicole disappeared.
The investigators get a call from the crime lab.
One of the socks Nicole had been wearing
has enough DNA to run through the national database
and they get a name.
The excitement was amazing.
The DNA belongs to a man named George Stephen Birch.
I was a hit over the state of Virginia.
Virginia?
Yeah, Virginia.
So it was like, okay, who is George Birch
and why is he in Green Bay, Wisconsin, of all places?
Yes, we have a name now,
but now when he just started digging on who this person is.
Birch moved from Virginia to Green Bay on March 1, 2016,
looking for a fresh start.
A longtime friend gave him a place to stay and helped him find a job.
He also loaned him a car, a red Chevy Blazer.
That red Blazer would provide crucial evidence.
It had been involved in a hit and run accident
and destroyed in a fire a few weeks after Nicole's murder.
So when detectives run Birch's name
through the local police database,
up pops the accident report,
which leads them to an address for George Birch.
Swearly God, dry by the first time
who's standing out in front of the house
smoking a cigarette, George Birch.
My hair stood up on the back of my neck.
I had goose bumps.
It was like, oh my God, there's our guy.
They videotape his movements
and keep their suspicions to themselves.
And they learn that when Birch was questioned
about the hit and run,
he handed over his cell phone
and on it, a high-tech treasure trove.
He gave them consent to search his phone.
They extracted the entire thing.
So I requested a copy of that.
It's an Android phone that had a Gmail account associated with it.
We were recently made aware of the Google Dashboard data
that could potentially give us GPS data.
You may not know this,
but chances are,
if you have an Android device with a Google account,
your exact location gathered via cell phone towers,
local Wi-Fi hotspots,
and GPS locators is constantly tracked
and stored within Google servers.
The information can be viewed
with a tool called Google Dashboard.
The investigators obtain a warrant
to view Birch's Google Dashboard
what they get back is astonishing.
Birch started the night that Nicole disappeared
at Richard Craniums,
a bar a half mile from the Sardine can.
The data tracks Birch at 2.30am,
leaving Richard Craniums
and driving to Nicole's house,
the crime scene where he stayed for nearly an hour.
It was very obvious that here's our guy.
He is next track to the field
where Nicole's body was found.
Then, near the off ramp,
where her bloody clothes were discarded,
and then at 4.22am, back at his home.
I mean, when you saw that he was right there,
what was your reaction?
I mean, it's a huge piece of evidence, obviously.
Finally, enough for an arrest,
captured on police dashboard cameras.
We sent one guy out to the house a little bit earlier
to get eyes on and he'd call me,
and he's like, oh my god, he's on the move.
We got it going out.
We all had a rally up getting our cars and drive.
On a drizzly September day,
four months after Nicole's murder,
George Birch is arrested and charged
with first-degree intentional homicide.
The reason you're here is,
I'm reference to a homicide investigation
into Nicole Van der Heiden.
So, if I read you,
I'm going to write it,
if you don't want to talk to me.
So, for a lawyer, okay.
Nicole's former brother-in-law,
Sean Van der Heiden,
says the news came as a big surprise.
I had no clue who he was or where this guy came from.
But I was just happy to hear that they had someone.
Nicole's family and friends have a new anguish,
waiting for a trial.
In March 2017,
on what would have been Nicole's 32nd birthday,
they came together, unlike Michigan,
to release lanterns in her honor.
It was so cold, so cold,
but her memory, you know, warmed us.
We all went out on that back,
on that pier and lit our lanterns,
and sent them off until, you know, her memory.
Why lit lanterns?
Why was that used to honor her?
The light, her light.
She was a light for so many in this world.
Nearly one year later,
on February 19, 2018,
George Birch goes on trial for Nicole's murder.
The prosecution has a strong case.
Mr. Birch must be held accountable.
But according to the defense,
prosecutors have the wrong man.
You will know that Douglas Dietri,
Nicole's boyfriend murdered Nicole.
For Nicole Vander Heidens family,
every day of George Birch's murder trial is agony.
Vicki, how did you get yourself to go every day to that courtroom?
I don't know. God.
We must have just taken our hands and let us there,
because I mean, we wanted, we wanted answers.
Friendsay, it's agonizing for Doug Dietri too,
especially once he learns that George Birch's defense team
is planning to blame Nicole's murder on him.
He was nervous, and I would be too.
You know, you were accused of a murder,
and it's so many things going through your head.
And now, Doug Dietri's testimony is critical to the prosecution.
Kind of interesting that the man who you first thought
might have killed his girlfriend
is going to be one of the most important witnesses at this trial, right?
Right. He will be very important.
Just as important would be the technology evidence.
Data collected from both Doug Dietri's Fitbit
and George Birch's phone.
Prosecutors say that Dietri's Fitbit shows he couldn't be the killer.
The autopsy results, the DNA identification,
the Google Dashboard data.
The records from Fitbit.
That is the evidence that will drive you.
You will follow that evidence, and you will find the truth.
Doug's Fitbit is seen here in this video captured by officers
on their very first interview.
The day he reported Nicole missing.
Prosecutors say downloaded data,
show Doug barely moved in the hours they believe Nicole was killed
and left in the field.
Is that based on the data that you obtained directly from Fitbit?
Yes it is.
Everything that I could view directly on the device
and lined up with what had previously been stated.
Did you ever during this trial or have you thought much about it that
how lucky it was that Doug happened to be wearing a Fitbit
that night in the next morning?
Yeah, that was huge in this case.
I think right there that pretty much said he wasn't there when this all happened.
On day three of the trial,
Dietri takes the stand.
Prosecutors aim to present him as a normal guy,
not the best boyfriend maybe, but an unlikely killer.
Can you tell us about your family?
My mother, my father, my amazing little son Dylan.
Dietri tells the jurors he and Nikki dreamed of getting married one day.
And early on in the night she disappeared, they were having fun.
Nikki didn't usually drink, he says, but that night they were both parting hard.
What was the pace she was drinking that night?
Pretty quickly.
I think she had like two down and I was still on my first one.
Once they got separated and Nikki went ahead to the sardine cam with friends,
Doug continued drinking and smoked some marijuana.
Before long, Nikki sent him her first angry text,
wondering where he was.
Nikki's text got angrier.
And she accused him of being with other women.
At any point in response to those messages, did you get upset with Nikki?
No, I didn't.
The text kept coming.
Doug said he offered to pick her up, but her phone died.
Were you concerned that Nikki was missing at that point in time?
I was not concerned that she was missing.
I was kind of concerned like why she upset.
Did you have absolutely any involvement in Nikki's disappearance or death?
No, I did not.
Under cross examination, George Birch's attorney Lee Schoker pushed Doug on whether things at
home were really as good as he said they were.
Birch's lawyer shows jurors a text Doug sent to his mom 10 days before Nikki died saying,
I'm very seriously thinking about telling Nikki and the kids they have to move.
So in May of 2016 though, there were times where you were seriously considering breaking up with
Nikki and the kids.
I never really seriously thought about it like it made plans or anything like that.
Just a lie to your mom.
What the jury would never hear is that several of Dietri's past girlfriends
accused them of being jealous, abusive and controlling.
One girlfriend claimed that he put a tracking device on her phone so he'd always know where she was.
In her barrage of angry texts to Doug that night, Nicole also accused him of being abusive.
Did you heard Nikki that night?
Do you mean physically or what?
I know.
I mean, did you physically beat her in the past?
No, I never physically beat Nikki.
Had you cheated on her in the past?
No, I have not.
You know, Doug is not an angel.
Isn't that going to be a problem in this jury?
Doug Dietri's not on trial.
George Birch is on trial.
Defense attorneys asked the babysitter who took care of Dylan that night
to recount an odd conversation she had with Dietri the day after Nicole died.
I just asked what happened, you know, like what happened?
And he just replied, I don't know.
She hit her head and then she just wanted to walk home.
So specifically when you had asked him what happened, he said, I don't know.
She hit her head, correct?
It came out of his mouth that comment.
Would the questions raised about Doug make jurors wonder
if the right man was on trial?
And would they buy George Birch's stunning version of what happened that night?
It was fairly dark.
I saw someone standing behind me.
Who was it?
It was Doug Dietri.
For years, Gunn South has been a podcast about crime in the American South.
But for our new season, we're widening the lens.
Through deeply reported narrative-driven stories,
we're digging into the myths, scandals, and power structures that still shape the South.
And in a lot of ways, the country itself.
Follow and listen to Gunn South Season 5, an Odyssey podcast,
available now on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.
It's day eight of the George Birch murder trial.
Judge, at this time, the defense calls George Steven Birch to the stand.
And with it comes the testimony everyone has been waiting to hear.
George Birch's version of what happened the night, Nicole Vanderhyden, was murdered.
Let's start from the beginning.
Okay.
Prompted by his attorney, Birch tells jurors he's a hard-working family man,
with an easy-going nickname.
Most people call me Big Country.
Public Defender Scott Stebans takes Birch back to the night of the murder.
Birch claims he ran into Nicole at the local bar called Richard Cranians.
How were you acting towards her?
I was flirting.
And how was she acting towards you?
Somewhat the same, pretty much.
I'm flirting back and forth with each other.
According to Birch, they continue flirting until closing time, around 230.
And just as a Google dashboard evidence showed, he drove Nicole the eight miles to her house
and pulled up to the curb across the street.
Birch then detailed what he says was consensual sex.
Nicole was in the back seat and Birch too big to fit in the back seat with her,
stood just outside the rear passenger door.
I was standing outside the blazer.
Nikki's family and friends had to sit there silently and listen.
Anyone who knew Nicole knew that there was nothing that she would ever do that was not her.
But it's what Birch says happened to him while he says he was having sex.
That was perhaps the most difficult to accept.
He says he was knocked out.
The next thing that I remember apart from us having intercourse was literally waking up on the ground
outside the truck.
Did you hear anything?
The first thing I heard was
don't even think about it.
Birch said he turned and saw someone stand behind him, holding a gun.
At that point did you know who that individual was?
Never seen him for my life.
Do you know who that individual is now?
Now I do.
Who was it?
It was that D-Tree.
Birch says he saw Nicole laying on the pavement.
I didn't know if she was alive.
There was a lot of blood.
The six foot seven two hundred and fifty pound Birch said D-Tree told him to put Nicole's
body in the blazer and then drive to the field.
D-Tree he said ordered him at gunpoint to carry Nicole's body down an embankment.
That's when I turned and everything I had, I lunged at him and pushed him as hard as I possibly could.
Birch said he ran back to the blazer and headed for home.
Throwing Nicole's clothes out the window on the way.
The next day he met up with friends and went fishing.
You didn't call 911.
No, sir.
But he didn't tell anyone else either.
You don't tell them people.
People get killed all the time when I'm from for that.
As Birch told his story, two women were in the courtroom listening to every word.
They have traveled more than a thousand miles to be here every day.
We just wanted him to see our face every day.
I know that we haven't forgotten what he did.
And we've never forgotten Joey.
Joey is Joey White.
It's Joey and Audrey.
In 1997, he was murdered in Newport, news Virginia.
The man accused of killing him, neighborhood rival George Birch.
But this jury will never hear about it.
He was out on bond when he killed Joey.
Shayna Stowe was Joey White's fiance and the mother of his child.
I'm 16, Joey's.
22 there.
He was my first love.
He was it.
Carla Rhodes is Joey's sister.
I miss him a lot.
Birch testified at that trial, too.
He looked at us,
laughed at us the whole time,
smirked.
And what happened?
Not guilty.
I was shocking when they said not guilty.
Neither was surprise.
The Birch had been accused of another murder.
I'm not shocked.
At all.
I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if he's killed other people.
Look what he did.
I mean, it's brutal.
When it was finally district attorney,
David LeSays turned to cross examine Birch.
He had one thing in mind.
To show how ridiculous his story was.
And he says he had plenty to work with.
Like Birch's claim that Nicole would have agreed to have sex in the car.
So Nicole would rather have sex with you
in front of her neighbor's home
with your butt hanging out the door of the car
than ask the babysitter to go home?
Sure, I don't know.
I wasn't the one making decisions.
And if Birch was hit hard enough to knock him out,
why didn't anyone see bumps or bruises on his head
when he went fishing the next day?
I'm six foot seven so it's hard for someone to see the top of my head.
And why would Dietri murder Nicole
and let Birch get away?
So rather than just beating you or killing you in the middle of the street,
he decided to enlist you a total stranger
to help him dispose of the body of his girlfriend.
I don't know what his plans were.
At one point LeSays pushed his Birch on a possible motive.
What really happened was you drove Nicole home
fully expecting that you were going to have sex, right?
I was hoping that we would.
And when you get there and it becomes clear
that Nikki isn't going to have sex with you.
When she attempts to go into her house and leave your vehicle,
that's when your mood changes, right?
No sir.
That's when things get aggressive, don't they?
Not at all.
That's when you grab that cord and strangle her, don't you?
No sir, not at all.
That's when Nikki gets slammed on the ground repeatedly
when she's trying to run toward her house.
None of that is true.
And Birch loses his cool when LeSays presses him
on an inconsistency in his story.
So clear this up for me.
You're backing down the embankment
with Nicole's body in a fireman's carry position, right?
No.
What are you doing?
I told you before when I would say it one more time for you sir.
I was carrying her over to this area.
I think there was a big term when you saw him lose his temper.
I think we both said, well there's the real Steve Birch coming out,
not George, not big country.
This is how we know him.
If you're assaulted, you're held at gunpoint.
You carry the mangled body of a woman to her final resting place.
And the next day you're going fishing with your buddy
with a smile on your face and not a care in the world.
I wouldn't say not a care in the world.
That would definitely not be something I would say.
Who will the jury believe?
No further questions.
No further questions.
Morning everyone.
Be seated.
Is the state of any rebuttal witnesses?
The prosecution got one last chance to present witnesses
to rebut the story George Birch told the jury.
During George Birch's testimony, he specifically said,
fiery call, that they were having sex.
Her pants were off already at that point.
So during the rebuttal, we brought those pants to enter into evidence
and make sure they were viewed.
If she had been disrobed in her car,
how do those clothes get not just bloody but dirty and hairy?
Those clothes are filthy and they're demonstrative of being worn during a struggle.
Carefully and respectfully,
Sargent's Brian Slinger and Rick Loeb now unwrapped and displayed the pants
that Nicole wore the night she died, found blood soaked and muddy on the highway.
It goes to George's credibility, which is zero, that this was not a consensual act.
She fought, escaped the vehicle, he bludgeoned her, strangled her,
and with her clothes on and then transported her body to the scene, his story was a lie.
He disrobed her at the scene and forgot her socks.
And then the final arguments.
Go right ahead.
Thank you.
The prosecution reminded jurors of the weight of evidence against George Birch.
Who's DNA is on her sock?
Who's with Nikki at the four key areas of Brown County?
Their explanation is ridiculous as insulting to your intelligence.
While the defense hope to plant doubt.
Justice for Nicole is not going to be delivered by a wrongful conviction of George Birch.
Doug Dietri had the motive, the opportunity, and the connection to this crime.
The man that met this woman in a bar and admitted, admitted by his own account
to dumping her body into that field.
Looks like this the next day.
Who does that?
Ladies and gentlemen, the bailiffs will escort you to the jury room.
Good luck.
What was the feeling in the courtroom as the case went to the jury?
It was very tense.
And I was surprised that I think 45 minutes later, I mean, not even an hour later,
the jury had a question.
The jury asked to see the bloody wire used to strangle Nicole,
as well as cords found in Doug Dietri's garage,
to see if they were possibly a match.
You know, the fact that they're thinking about that is telling me, okay,
are they actually believing George Birch's story here?
It really made me wonder where this was going to go.
After a nine-day trial and more than 50 witnesses, the jury took just over three hours to reach a verdict.
I just had this horrible feeling.
It was coming back, not guilty.
It just was really hard.
I cannot breathe.
And you could feel everybody was like shaky.
We the jury find the defendant,
George Stephen Birch, guilty of first degree intentional homicide,
is charged in the information.
It is signed by our four persons,
and dated his first day of March 2000.
Everybody was just like, oh my god, thank god.
He was guilty, thank god.
What sticks out in my mind was the gas hearing that from the family,
and knowing the relief that they had at that moment,
that'll stick with me.
In a good way, right?
Absolutely.
I know Joy was there for this.
It's just 20 years later.
It was his 20-year anniversary of his death in October.
It's just trying to get upset.
Could you see Doug Dietri?
Doug Dietri, I think, was relieved.
Doug Dietri was holding his mother.
Doug wasn't even on trial in this case,
but he was finally free of any suspicion.
So what you've found from this case is that this technology
can do more than connect someone to a crime.
It can actually exonerate a person.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I feel bad that he sat in jail for 18-19 days.
I mean, technology is very important,
and our goal is to exonerate people.
It just does is to find them guilty.
If we didn't have these Google data locations on George's phone,
if we didn't have the Fitbit,
would it be Doug Dietri sitting in prison as opposed to George Birch?
Back in court two months after the verdict,
the judge speaks to George Birch before sentencing him,
while Doug Dietri and his mother look on.
This family is destroyed.
It's ruined. It'll never be like this again.
In a state with no death penalty,
the sentence is as harsh as possible.
Life without parole.
This is a crime that I believe merit the death penalty,
and for that you have to die in prison.
It is what the families want it,
and yet this is no time for celebration.
To Vicki, to the Dietri family,
prayers and support of this community are with you.
Good luck and God bless.
This court is in recess.
The only comfort for Nicole's family is that George Birch
can never destroy lives again.
When they convicted George of being guilty,
I just still like it was a feeling of happiness,
but yet still like someone of realization that he's she's actually gone now.
And it's hard.
What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of your daughter?
Her big smile.
Her big gorgeous smile.
She just radiates.
She just does.
She's always happy.
What do you all tell her children?
Nicole is looking over them all the time in that she loves them,
and she'll see them again.
And every night I know Tyler and Michaela always say a prayer and talk to their mom
and say, good night.
We gained an angel.
We lost brother, fresh air.
The memory lives on through the stories we share,
things we never forget, and she's okay.
She's okay.
I love you.
I should have passion for life, for living,
should good morals,
but more can a mom ask for.
In 2021, there was contents of Supreme Court,
upheld George Birch's conviction.
Me and my brother, we grew up off the grid.
A new Paramount Plus original documentary
explores the wild true story of two brothers.
They were dubbed the wild boys.
No driving records, nothing tangible.
What's their story?
Who shook a small town after they emerged mysteriously
from the Canadian wilderness?
Are they criminals?
Maybe they're in a cult.
Who are these guys?
Why are they here?
Not my job.
To tell you the truth.
Wild boys, strangers in town, now streaming on Paramount Plus.
Like Dreamgirls, SpongeBob SquarePans, and Goofs.
Free.
Toot-o-TV stream now pay never.
