All language subtitles for A.U.S01E25.1080p.WEB.h264-CASUALTY_track3_[eng]

(dark ambient music)

- [Narrator] Newport
Beach, California.

Sun,

sand,

and affluence.

- [Matt] The thing
about Newport Beach

is that every once in a while

you'll get somebody
who comes into town

who wants to take
somebody's money

and that's where we come in.

(radio chatters)

- [Narrator] A millionaire
inventor murdered in cold blood.

(sirens wail)

- [Matt] This is a man that was

very well-known
in the community,

he raised his family,

he was a good man, he
donated a lot to charity.

He was very well-known.

- [Narrator] And each suspect
has an airtight alibi.

- [Glen] Lies upon
lies upon lies

and not enough evidence to
make a murder charge stick.

- [Narrator] It takes
old-fashioned detective work

to resurrect the
15 year old case

and track down a killer.

(dramatic music)

- The unsolved ones,

we have to send up.

- And approach these cases
in a way outside the box.

- Let the world know,

those out there that
did commit a murder,

you know, there are people
that are coming after you.

- There's just a
lot of good people

trying to do the right thing.

- Because it's something that

you have to be passionate about.

- Solve this.

Bring some peace to
the family, at least.

Just doing my job.

(dark ambient music)

- [Narrator]
December 15th, 1994.

24 year old Kevin McLaughlin

hears the sound of
gunshots in his home.

(gun fires)

(sinister music)

Young Kevin McLaughlin
makes a gruesome discovery

in the kitchen of the Newport
Beach, California home

he shares with his father.

- [Glen] Kevin has an injury

that greatly affects his speech.

So when he calls,

the operator has a terrible
time understanding him.

(sirens wail)

- [Narrator] As the
operator tries to understand

what's going on,

police units rush to the scene.

(dark music)

- [Narrator] When police arrive,

they discover 55 year
old Bill McLaughlin,

shot six times in the chest

and his grieving son.

- [Glen] Kevin was
hit by a drunk driver

while on his skateboard

and has severe difficulties
with his speech.

But police learn that
he's upstairs in his room

listening to music,

then comes down and
discovers his father's body.

- [Christine] Not only is
it a very harrowing ordeal

to find your father's
body on the floor,

shot a number of times,

it's also very rare
for it to be happening

in their gated community.

- [Narrator] In the
heart of Orange County,

Newport Beach, California

boasts one of the highest
average home prices

in all of America

and the McLaughlin home is in
an exclusive gated community

called Balboa Coves.

- [Matt] The first thing that
you notice in Balboa Coves

is these are beautiful
homes on the water

in Newport Beach.

They're large homes
with their own docks,

so this is kind of
the elite of the elite

as far as wealth goes.

- [Narrator] Newport Beach is
home to superstar athletes,

Hollywood celebrities,

and millionaire entrepreneurs.

- Newport Beach is essentially
Beverly Hills by the sea.

It's not unusual to see a kid

with a surfboard under his arm

on a bike waiting at a red light

next to a $200,000 Bentley.

It's sort of the
quintessential thing

that a lot of
people will think of

when they think of
California, you know,

surfing, money,

people in bikinis,
that sort of thing.

- [Narrator] Newport
Beach is also home

to the famous annual
Christmas boat parade

which takes place
a stone's throw

from the McLaughlin house.

(dark music)

About 45 minutes after
Kevin's frantic 911 call,

Bill's young fiancee, Nanette,

arrives home from
Christmas shopping

to find police cars at the door.

- [Matt] Nanette rolled
up about ten o'clock.

She had an alibi for herself,

she was at a Crate and
Barrel buying a vase

that she said was for
somebody's Christmas gift.

- [Narrator] Nanette
has a receipt

that proves she's
been out shopping.

And prior to that,

she was watching her
children play soccer.

As police collect
evidence at the scene,

they begin to examine
suspects and motives.

- [Matt] The thing
about Newport Beach

is that every once in a while

you'll get somebody
who comes into town

who wants to take
somebody's money

and that's where we come in.

- [Narrator] Investigators
look at money

as an obvious motive.

Could Bill's young fiancee

have something to do
with Bill's murder?

- [Glen] Not only does
Nanette have an alibi,

she doesn't have a clear motive.

Why kill the golden goose?

She's already
engaged to the guy,

drives a Mercedes,

and has a nearly
bottomless expense account.

Police turn their attention
to Susan, the ex-wife.

- [Narrator] After
24 years of marriage

and raising three
children together,

Susan files for divorce
and moves to Hawaii.

Originally from Phoenix,

Nanette Johnston meets Bill

through a classified ad in 1991.

At the time,

Bill is in his early 50s

while Nanette is only 26.

The ad says, "You
take care of me,

and I take care of you."

- [Christine] Nanette
has two children

from a previous relationship

and it's clear that
she's looking for someone

to financially support her.

She wants a provider
for her children

and for her lifestyle.

Bill needs help with Kevin.

- [Matt] He's a nice man,

but he'd been
married for 30 years,

so he kind of staggers
into the single life again

and meets this woman.

Around about the time they
start seeing each other

is when Kevin had his accident

where he was struck
by the drunk driver

and suffered pretty
severe brain damage.

- [Glen] A few weeks
after their first date,

Nanette and her kids
move into Bill's house.

- [Matt] So Nanette caught him

at a particularly
vulnerable time.

She sort of helicoptered in

to take care of
Kevin's medical needs

and drive him around.

- [Narrator] The
McLaughlin household

is a balance of
relationships and needs.

But it's not as
balanced as it seems.

(phone rings)

Police also wonder if someone

from Bill's professional life

might have wanted him dead.

- [Matt] Bill McLaughlin
was an inventor.

He's in the
pharmaceutical industry.

He invented a centrifuge

that separates
plasma from blood,

so he actually contributed
to modern medical science

in a huge way.

- [Narrator] With
the medical patents

came wealth for
Bill and his family.

But Bill McLaughlin began
his life with modest means.

(soft music)

Bill grows up on the
south side of Chicago.

He's the first one in his
family to graduate from college,

getting his degree
in biochemistry.

- [Christine] It has
to be very gratifying

to be a self-made man,

but to have that
kind of motivation

means that maybe sometimes

you're okay with
stepping on a few toes.

- [Narrator] While
in his early 30s,

Bill patents a needle
used in dialysis

that allows for blood to
flow in both directions

through a single needle.

- [Glen] Friends say Bill
earned his first million

by selling this invention
to a medical supply company

and reinvested into
his own company

that develops medical devices.

- [Narrator] Bill
McLaughlin's personal fortune

goes from nearly nothing

to an estimated net
worth of $55 million

over the course of two decades.

- [Glen] It appears
that Bill McLaughlin

owns two houses on the
Newport Beach waterfront area,

he owns an airplane and
a place in Las Vegas

that he uses to establish
residency for tax purposes.

- [Narrator] In addition to
the breakup of his marriage,

Bill McLaughlin was also
coming out of a messy breakup

with a business partner.

- [Matt] Bill had just
hit sort of the end stages

of a pretty
contentious litigation

with a former business partner.

The litigation was over millions
and millions of dollars.

It got pretty ugly.

(soft piano music)

- [Glen] Bill McLaughlin
has a business partner,

Hal Fischel.

They had just completed a
heated courtroom battle,

which Bill had won to the
tune of nine million dollars.

Hal Fischel becomes
a potential suspect

in Bill's murder.

- [Narrator] Could the bad blood

between Bill and
his business partner

be the reason for Bill's murder?

Or could the murderer have been
inside the house all along?

What should be a clear
cut homicide case

instead just leads
detectives to more questions.

- [Glen] Police on the
scene test Kevin's hands

for evidence of gunshot residue

and it comes back clean.

They're certain that he did
not use a firearm that night.

Meanwhile, witnesses
place Fischel

150 miles north in Santa Barbara

where he spent the entire night.

- [Narrator] Three suspects
each have airtight alibis.

- [Matt] This is a man
that was very well-known

in the community,

he raised his family,

he was a good man, he
donated a lot to charity.

He was very well-known.

- [Narrator] But one
piece of evidence

that police find on the scene

narrows down the suspect list.

- [Glen] Whoever
shot Bill McLaughlin

left a brand new key stuck in
the lock of the front door.

For detectives,

that key unlocks more
than just the front door.

(soft acoustic music)

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] An affluent
California beach community

and a brutal slaying.

- [Narrator] Each of
their top suspects

have solid alibis.

Fiancee Nanette was
Christmas shopping

and has receipts.

Ex-wife Susan is in Hawaii.

Former business
partner, Hal Fischel,

is in Santa Barbara.

Police discover whoever
did gain entry to the home

didn't break in.

They had a brand new
key to the front door.

- [Matt] Sometimes
in beach communities,

the locks will corrode

and it's pretty common for a
freshly cut key to get stuck.

- [Glen] A new key means
a copy was likely made.

Police think someone with a key

wanted to give somebody
else access to the house.

- [Narrator] Police find a
second key on a floor mat

by the pedestrian
gate to the property,

confirming that whoever
shot Bill McLaughlin

had easy access to him.

(soft music)

Weeks later, in early 1995,

police are alerted
to irregularities

with Bill McLaughlin's
bank accounts.

- [Glen] Within 24
hours of Bill's death,

Nanette writes herself three
checks from his accounts.

One for a quarter
million dollars.

- [Matt] There's a check dated
the day before the murder,

December 14th, for
$250,000, in 1994 money.

So that's, I mean, I
don't know, what is that?

Six or seven hundred
thousand dollars today?

- [Narrator] It
doesn't take long

before detectives start to
focus in on the finer details.

In addition to this money,

Nanette stands to gain
over a million dollars

in insurance and inheritance
from Bill's death.

- [Christine] Money is
a very relative thing.

Bill McLaughlin is
worth tens of millions,

so this may not seem like
a large amount to Nanette,

who just lost her fiance.

It's wrong,

but it doesn't mean
she's capable of murder.

- [Narrator] Police
dig a little deeper

into Nanette's
financial dealings

and discover a pattern
of embezzlement.

- [Matt] So about
11 months' worth of

started out as small thefts

and then they got
increasingly bigger and bigger

as we got closer and
closer to Christmas.

- [Narrator] While police
interview witnesses

and retrace Nanette's actions

in the days leading
up to the murder,

they conduct a stakeout
of the beach house

where Nanette is staying
with her children.

- [Glen] Police report
they observe her

through the beach house window

as she decorates a Christmas
tree with her kids.

Making sure your children
enjoy Christmas isn't a crime.

- [Narrator] Police have enough

to charge Nanette
with embezzlement,

but their detective work unlocks

a whole new dimension
of the case.

- [Glen] Nanette isn't
only using this money

for herself and her children.

She's just returned
from a trip to Jamaica

with her boyfriend.

- [Narrator] It
seems Nanette had

more than one
relationship on the go.

- [Matt] Nanette was very
active in her dating life.

I think that's a
polite way to put it.

And so, she'd been with
Bill McLaughlin for,

I think, four years
at that point,

but she realized that he wasn't
actually gonna marry her.

She had a ring, but
they never set a date.

- [Narrator] Nanette
sees Eric Naposki,

an athletic younger man
who works in security,

for several months in 1994.

- [Matt] We break
down the timing

of her theft from McLaughlin

and you compare it
almost with an overlay

to her relationship
with Naposki,

it's like you can
see, like, you know,

$10,000, she can
get away with that,

25,000, that's gonna
be a little tougher.

Then she goes to
Jamaica with Naposki.

You know, $100,000.

- [Christine] Nanette's
emotional needs

may not have been met

by the caregiving arrangements
she had with Bill.

This may have been a
consensual situation

if she was able to
go on trips with Eric

right under Bill's nose.

- [Narrator] After many
months of being engaged,

Nanette doesn't believe Bill
will actually marry her.

- [Matt] The problem
for Nanette is that

she realized, number one,

Bill had a vasectomy and
he wasn't gonna marry her.

So that makes her a girlfriend,

which, even in the
state of California,

you gotta go a long way

before you get real
palimony rights.

(soft music)

- [Narrator] As the
investigation continues,

a man who identifies
himself only as Robert

claims that Nanette
and Eric met him

a month before the murder

and offered to invest
$100,000 or more

in his software company.

- [Matt] So before the murder,

she's looking to invest
$100,000 in a software company,

looking at buying
a $900,000 home.

This is a woman without
a college degree.

She has nothing
without McLaughlin.

So we call that a clue.

- [Narrator] Eric
Naposki plays briefly

as a linebacker for the
New England Patriots

and Indianapolis
Colts of the NFL,

as well as a stint in Europe.

In 1994, he worked as a
bouncer at a nightclub

just one football field away
from the McLaughlin house.

- [Glen] Police bring Eric
Naposki in for questioning,

believing strongly
that he and Nanette

could have conspired to
murder McLaughlin over money.

- [Matt] So what does she know

that nobody else knew

in November, early
December of 1994?

I mean, Bill McLaughlin was
killed on December 15th,

so she knows she's
coming into money,

there's exactly
one source of that,

and that's the death
of Bill McLaughlin.

- [Narrator] But when police
interview Eric Naposki,

he's blindsided by the
news that his girlfriend,

Nanette Johnston,

was already engaged
to the man she says

was her business mentor.

- [Glen] Eric's story is that

Nanette repeatedly lied to him

about her relationship
with Bill McLaughlin.

Eric also provided an
alibi for the night

of December 15th, 1994.

He claims to have
been with Nanette

at her kid's soccer game

before going to work
at the nightclub.

- [Narrator] Detectives
focus their investigation

on their prime suspects,

Eric Naposki and
Nanette Johnston.

- [Matt] She was
cheating on Bill

and she was stealing from Bill

and he's gonna learn one
of those things pretty soon

and kick her to the curb.

- [Narrator] Police wonder

if Bill McLaughlin had
made a fatal discovery

before meeting with the
intruder who shot him.

- There simply isn't
enough evidence

to charge anyone in
McLaughlin's murder.

Police keep on working,

knowing that as time progresses,

the odds of getting a conviction
grow slimmer and slimmer.

- [Narrator] Despite there being

plenty of reason for suspicion,

there's just not
enough for an arrest

in the murder of
Bill McLaughlin.

At least not yet.

(dramatic music)

(soft acoustic music)

Millionaire inventor
and father of three,

Bill McLaughlin,

is shot six times
in his own kitchen

by an unknown intruder.

- [Matt] The thing
about Newport Beach

is that every once in a while

you'll get somebody
who comes into town

who wants to take
somebody's money

and that's where we come in.

- [Narrator] No fingerprints

or trace evidence is
found at the scene.

Police recover two
brand new keys,

one stuck on the front door lock

and another on the
floor mat by the gate.

- [Glen] Perhaps an intruder

had two similar looking keys.

They used the gate
key and drop it

so there's no
confusion in the rush

to open the front door
of McLaughlin's home.

The new key gets stuck
inside the deadbolt,

so they leave it behind as
they hurry to get out of there.

- [Narrator] Bill's
fiancee, Nanette,

is caught writing
herself 350,000 in checks

from Bill's estate.

- [Glen] She's
spending this money

to go on lavish trips
with her boyfriend.

They're looking at
investments and purchases

with money they do not have.

- [Narrator] Police have enough

to charge Nanette
with embezzlement,

but not murder.

(soft music)

- [Glen] Nanette pleads
guilty to grand theft in 1996.

She receives a six month
suspended sentence.

But police want to be able to
charge their prime suspects

for Bill's murder.

- [Narrator] Bill's
fiancee, Nanette,

and her then
boyfriend Eric Naposki

are the prime suspects,

but each has an alibi.

Could ballistic evidence unlock
the case for investigators?

And could it finally
lead to a suspect?

Shell casings taken
from the scene

indicate Bill McLaughlin
is shot six times

with a nine millimeter gun.

- [Matt] The gun that
expended the casings,

they were able to
forensically narrow it down

to one of 17 different firearms.

- [Narrator] Ballistics
eliminate one question,

but the next is whose gun is it?

Investigators bring Eric
Naposki in for questioning.

- [Matt] They ask him at the
beginning of the interview,

you know, "You do security work,

are you armed?"

And he said, "No, I
don't have a sidearm."

And then that morphs into

"I had a Jennings 380,

but I gave it to my dad after
he got mugged in New York,"

and then, they're like,
"Okay, so that's it?"

And he's like, "Mm, I
also had a Beretta 92F,"

you know, so it's not
believable on its face,

the way he explains that.

- [Glen] There's one theme

that runs through
the investigation.

Does being immoral
mean you're a murderer?

Police know that Nanette
and Eric are no angels,

but does that make them killers?

- [Matt] He goes, "Look,

I gave the Beretta
to a friend of mine,

Joe David Jimenez,

who worked a security job for me

and I wanted him to be armed,

but he lost the gun."

So we get to Jimenez
before Naposki can.

- [Narrator] Police contact

the former employee of Naposki's

to get the story straight.

- [Matt] He said, "Yeah, I did
work a security job for Eric

and yes, he gave me a gun,

but here's the part
Eric doesn't know.

He didn't pay me for the job,

so the gun he gave me wasn't
a beautiful Beretta 92F,

it was a piece of
crap Jennings 380,

and that's the gun
I had and I sold it

and I can get it
back for you guys."

- [Glen] Police know that
Eric is lying to them

and Eric knows they don't
have enough to charge him,

so he just keeps on lying.

- [Narrator] Eric also learns
that Nanette is lying to him.

- [Glen] Eric tells police

Nanette and Bill were in
a business partnership

and that Bill was her
mentor, but wanted more.

However, Nanette
was loyal to Eric.

This also was a lie.

- [Matt] She told Naposki
things that weren't true.

She said she'd been sexually
assaulted and, like,

she spun a yarn to
get this guy angry.

- [Narrator] Nanette and
Eric end the relationship

about six months
after the murder.

Meanwhile,

police try to poke
holes in their alibis.

Nanette says she was
Christmas shopping

after watching her
kid's soccer game.

- [Matt] She leaves
the soccer game

and then she has all
the time in the world

to get to Newport Beach

and then double back and
go to South Coast Plaza

to buy that vase.

- [Narrator] Eric says
he was at the soccer game

with Nanette

before she drove him to
his apartment in Tustin.

As she went shopping,

he says he received
a page from work

and stopped at a
restaurant to call in.

- [Glen] While Eric says
he used a calling card

to phone in,

he can't produce
any record of it.

It seems like proof
that he wasn't

200 yards away from
the murder scene.

But without evidence,
police don't buy it.

- [Matt] An alibi is
you're sitting in Vegas

next to an Elvis impersonator
drinking a pina colada

at the time of a murder,

like, that's an alibi,

like, and it's on casino video,

like, you're someplace
else and can prove it.

- [Narrator] As investigators
look back at the alibis,

scrutiny starts to reveal

that they may not be as airtight

as were originally presented.

But that's not all.

Eric's former employee
recovers the pistol he sold

and gives it to police.

- [Matt] He's able
to get the gun back,

it wasn't a Beretta 92F,

and then when we got that gun,

even though it's a
different caliber,

it was Federal Hydra-Shok ammo,

which is a very specific
type of ammunition

and it was loaded in the 380

and that was used to
murder Bill McLaughlin.

- [Glen] It's the
same ammunition,

but it's not the
correct firearm.

No murder weapon,
no fingerprints,

lies upon lies upon lies.

There isn't enough to lay a
murder charge that will stick.

- [Narrator] Without
any new evidence,

the case goes cold.

Bill McLaughlin's family

believes his fiancee
and her boyfriend

are getting away with murder.

- [Matt] When it comes
to family members,

especially on cases that kind
of go cold like this one,

it is devastating
for the family.

- [Narrator] The
question still remains

is whether those who did this

will be held responsible,

at the very least for
the sake of Bill's kids.

- [Matt] They suspected they
knew who murdered their dad

and they just couldn't
do anything about it.

- [Narrator] While investigators
have strong suspicions,

the truth of what
actually may have happened

and who actually
killed Bill McLaughlin

might never be known.

(soft acoustic music)

(dramatic music)

An affluent California
community is rocked by murder.

A Newport Beach millionaire
is shot to death

in his own home.

His fiancee, Nanette Johnston,

and her boyfriend, Eric
Naposki, are suspected,

but there isn't enough
evidence to take them to court.

(gun cocks)

Despite investigators
having strong suspicions,

the case goes cold.

But a new county
prosecutor, Matt Murphy,

reopens the case
files 15 years later.

- [Matt] We started
dusting off old boxes

and this was one that I thought

that we really had a
good chance of solving

and 15 years had gone by.

(soft music)

- [Narrator] Matt
Murphy and investigators

reopen the case

in the hopes of finally
getting a conviction.

The files are reexamined

for anything that could help,

any detail that might
have been overlooked

or have more relevance
looking back.

- [Matt] What it takes for
a good cold case detective,

they don't stop
thinking about it,

they think about it when
they're driving their car,

they think about it as
they're going to sleep,

they think about it in
the middle of the night

when they wake up,

and that constant grinding
through the facts,

it's like a mill.

That's where the
little ideas come from

that can make a huge difference.

And that's what happened here.

- [Narrator] Detectives
think critically

about the surveillance reports

from the days leading up to
Bill McLaughlin's funeral

when Nanette had moved her
children to the beach house

not far from Balboa Coves.

- [Matt] Nanette was
under surveillance

and we had two undercover
narcotics officers

sitting in the sand
watching the beach house

where she was staying.

And the police report just said,

"We observed the suspect
decorating a Christmas tree."

The undercover narcotics
officers here in California,

they look terrible,

they look like murderers,

and they're right on the sand
outside looking in the window

and she never noticed them

and that's because she
knew who the killer was.

And we can see her two
children inside the house.

So on its face, that
means nothing, right?

But when you inject
the third dimension

of the actual critical
thinking to that,

and you think, okay,
if she was innocent,

what would she be thinking?

- [Narrator] Detectives also
notice a credit card statement

that shows a payment to the
locksmith to change the locks.

- [Matt] We saw she didn't
change the locks for 32 days.

So if she's innocent with
a killer on the loose,

that made no sense.

But if she knows who did it,

she's not gonna worry about it.

She knows the killer
had a key to one house,

why wouldn't the killer have
a key to the second house?

- [Narrator] The cold case unit,

including Detective
Larry Montgomery,

reviews hundreds
of telephone tips

that police receive in 1994.

- [Matt] On one of the tapes
that nobody had listened to,

it's, like, buried on,
you know, minute 142,

there was a very brief
phone call from somebody

who said, "My fiance has
information on the case,

but I'm not sure he
wants to talk to you,"

and she said, "Hey, Bob,
they want to talk to you."

So he's got Sport Club
Irvine back in 1994 to go on

and the name Bob.

And Larry digs in and finds
all the Roberts and Bobs

at the gym

and he starts going
down the list,

and sure enough,

he tracks down a guy
named Robert Cottrill

who was starting a business

and he wound up being
a critical witness

because now he's
willing to cooperate.

- [Glen] Robert's
company is the one

Nanette offers to invest
more than 100,000 into

without having
any money in 1994.

- [Narrator] Police
also convince

Eric Naposki's former
neighbor, Suzanne Cogar,

to come forward with stories
she was told by Eric.

- [Matt] Suzanne Cogar was
so terrified of Eric Naposki

that she wouldn't come forward.

I went and sat down with her

and explained how it worked,

how we had charged
him with murder,

how it was a special
circumstance homicide,

so he wouldn't be
eligible for bail,

and she came
forward and provided

some incredibly valuable,
critical evidentiary stuff.

- [Narrator] Suzanne
Cogar gives detectives

several pieces of information

that are damning
against Eric Naposki.

Naposki tells Suzanne
that his girlfriend's boss

is making sexual
advances against her.

- [Glen] Eric knows that
Bill McLaughlin owns a plane

he uses to fly back and forth
to his home in Las Vegas.

Naposki tells Suzanne Cogar

that he is going to
have the plane blown up

and he knows how to
make that happen.

(soft piano music)

- [Narrator]
Suzanne tells police

about a time not long after
Bill McLaughlin's murder

when Naposki knocks
on her apartment door.

(knocks on door)

Naposki tells Suzanne

that McLaughlin has
been shot to death

using a gun that is the
same one as Naposki owns

and a key stuck in the
door of McLaughlin's house

was copied at a hardware
store in their neighborhood.

- [Glen] Suzanne says to Eric,

"I don't even want to
know if you did it."

Then Eric says, "Maybe I did,

maybe I didn't,

and maybe I had someone do it."

- [Narrator] Suzanne
Cogar tells police

that Eric shares information

that only the police and
the killer would know.

At the same time,

police become much
more definitive

about the type of murder weapon

used to shoot Bill McLaughlin
six times in the chest.

- [Matt] So you always
hear about DNA evidence

catching up to things,

well, this was one
where the forensics

of expended shell
casings caught up

and back in 1994,

the gun that
expended the casings,

they were able to
forensically narrow it down

to one of 17 different firearms.

Well, by the time we
got a hold of the case,

forensic science had
caught up to that

so it was only one gun.

It was a Beretta model 92F

and it's the exact gun
that Eric Naposki bought

and then said he lost.

- [Narrator] After 15 years,

police have enough
evidence to charge

both Eric Naposki
and Nanette Johnston

in the first degree
murder of Bill McLaughlin.

(dramatic music)

(soft acoustic music)

(dramatic music)

15 years after the 1994 murder

of millionaire inventor
Bill McLaughlin,

law enforcement
have enough evidence

to try two people for
Bill's premeditated murder.

Nanette Johnston
is Bill's fiancee

and was both stealing from
Bill and cheating on him.

Prosecutors believe Nanette

and her boyfriend, Eric Naposki,

a pro linebacker
and security guard,

plotted to murder Bill
for financial gain.

- [Glen] After years
of detective work,

prosecutors believe they
have dismantled their alibis

and removed all
reasonable doubt.

- [Narrator] Compounding
their problems,

Naposki is caught on a
string of his own lies.

- [Glen] They try the
murder charges separately

to avoid one person
taking all the blame

in the eyes of a jury.

- [Narrator] Eric Naposki
is the first to stand trial.

- [Matt] Eric Naposki had
one of the best legal teams

I'd ever seen.

The problem is Eric
Naposki wouldn't listen

to his legal team.

He's smarter, better, stronger.

The best piece of
evidence that we had

in this entire case

was the mouth of Eric Naposki.

- [Narrator] Presenting
all of the evidence

and Naposki's own
conflicting statements

and the forensic evidence

that proves the murder
weapon belonged to him,

a jury finds him guilty.

- [Matt] We go through a whole
trial, he blames Nanette,

he gets convicted,

and then he's like, "Hey,

will you come and
interview me again?"

He's like, "Okay, forget
everything I said before.

Here's what really happened.

Nanette wanted to
murder McLaughlin,

I was at the meeting,

there was a hitman there

and they needed to use my gun."

- [Glen] Law
enforcement isn't buying

another story from Naposki.

His story has been
changing constantly.

- [Narrator] After 15 years,

Nanette Johnston stands trial
for first degree murder.

Prosecutors tell the jury

Nanette convinced Eric
to commit the murder.

- [Matt] Each one played
a critical role in this.

Nanette was the
mastermind the whole time.

She had nothing unless
Bill McLaughlin died.

So killing the golden goose,

they'd been together four years,

he wasn't gonna marry her,

he wasn't gonna
have a kid with her,

and if he didn't die, she
was gonna get nothing.

- [Narrator] The prosecution
dismantles Nanette's alibi

on the night of Bill's murder.

- [Matt] She leaves
the soccer game

and then she has all
the time in the world

to get to Newport Beach

and then double back and
go to South Coast Plaza

to buy that vase.

When you look at the timing
on the receipt of the vase,

what she planned was,

"Hey, I'm someplace
else, here's my receipt."

What she didn't
figure out is that

these are good police officers

who are gonna actually
do the drives.

- [Narrator]
Investigators prove,

just by retracing the timeline,

that there was ample opportunity
to commit the murder.

- [Matt] We did that
drive every way we could,

in every variation,

and it worked every single time.

This gave them plenty of time

to have left that soccer
game and commit the murder,

the two of them.

As a prosecutor,

there's almost this magic line

and it's difficult to define,

but on cases where you
know you've got enough

to convince the jury

and that was, I think,
the threshold for me

was her decorating
the Christmas tree

and explaining what
that meant to the jury

and having one nod, and
then another, and another,

and it's like, yeah, I got 'em.

Jurors are experts
at human behavior.

They really are.

Like, forget about
the forensics.

There's no way Nanette Johnston

didn't know who the killer was.

If she was innocent with
a killer on the loose,

she would not have
exposed her children

to danger like that.

(dark ambient music)

- [Narrator] Prosecutors
tell the story

of how Eric Naposki is
manipulated by Nanette

to murder Bill McLaughlin.

(gun cocks)

They established plausible
alibis for themselves,

then used copies of
Nanette's keys to gain entry.

(gun fires)

Eric's gun is used to
shoot Bill six times.

But the keys are left behind.

- [Christine] Eric
is already convicted

of being the triggerman

and says he was lied to

about the nature of Nanette's
relationship with Bill.

Whether Eric is believable,

it's clear he was controlled
by a master manipulator

who is driven by
something other than love.

- [Narrator] Finally,

after 15 years of investigation,

juries come back with two
separate guilty verdicts

in the murder of
Bill McLaughlin.

(dramatic music)

- [Matt] It boils down
to a new set of eyes

and some dedicated detectives

and some good
gumption police work.

That's the difference between

people getting away with murder

and people held accountable
for what they did.

- [Narrator] The
Bill McLaughlin case

was closed so many years later

thanks to a few key details

that finally came together,

details that broke the case
that almost wasn't solved.

- [Matt] So when you start
looking at that stuff

and you start piling it on

and you look at all the
money she did steal,

that she's a
horrible human being

who plotted this murder
and killed this man.

- [Narrator] Bill
McLaughlin was the victim

of a heartless opportunist.

He paid with his life,

and his children would
forever lose a father.

- Conspiracy to murder
your loved one for money

where the people
get away with it

is as bad as it gets,

so that's why these cases,

it was such an honor to work
with detectives this good

for family members this nice

against people this bad

and bringing justice
to the family.

- [Narrator] The
Bill McLaughlin case

would be a reminder to anybody

when a case has gone cold

that there is hope that justice
will eventually be found.

(dramatic music)