Man: 18-year-old anita knutson
Had recently finished her freshman year
At minot state university.
After multiple unanswered calls,
Anita's father visited her apartment
And made a grisly discovery.
Anita had been stabbed to death.
Woman: When we have cases for which there's no clear motive
And that crime is committed against someone
Who seemed adored by all who knew her,
Nothing can be ruled out.
But someone out there holds the key.
[vocalizing]
♪ the broken and fallen ♪
♪ dangled souls been sent to burn ♪
♪ nowadays they've been callin' ♪
♪ telling me soon gonna be my turn ♪
Steve, I think this might be our 100th case
That we've worked on.
I think it shows how many cold cases there are,
How many more there are to go.
I know. That's true.
When you look up minot
And you look up unsolved murders,
Anita knutson's case comes to the top of the list.
Everybody knows about it in the whole state.
Sad case. Can't imagine being a father.
You go looking for your daughter.
She hasn't been heard from in a day and a half.
And then you go over
And your worst nightmare is just right in front of you.
Reaching in the window and feeling her, that's horrible.
Steve and I are here in north dakota
To investigate the shocking murder
Of 18-year-old college student anita knutson.
She was a very intelligent, popular, kind young lady
That was adored by all of her friends and her family.
She was going to college here.
Everybody always talks about how friendly she was.
She liked to dance. She liked to read. I like that part.
She's such a righteous, innocent victim.
Anita's magnetic personality and her beauty
Garnered attention from men
And some jealousy from a lot of ladies.
So we're gonna need to investigate
A lot of potential motives and suspects,
Including wanna-be suitors, her current roommate,
And the maintenance man at the apartment complex.
They have had this case analyzed
By different people over the years.
You know, from the crime labs to the fbi to everybody else,
And everybody's come up
With just basically a big zero right now.
Siegler: A lot of podcasters and journalists and reporters
Have looked into it, too.
The good thing is for the very first time,
The police department is letting you and me see all their files,
Which no podcaster or reporter has ever had access to,
'cause they're trusting us
To try and do something to help 'em.
This is one of the hardest ones we've ever looked at.
- It is. - Get your a game on, girl.
- Ooh, good morning. - Good morning.
- I'm kelly. - Welcome to minot.
- Steve spingola. - Chief klug.
- Morning. Carmen. - Nice to meet you.
- Miki. - Hey, miki. Nice to meet you.
Steve spingola. How are you?
This case, you know, it's the one that we've never solved.
It's a teenage girl that lost her life,
And there's just really no clue as to why.
It's a hard case. Y'all did everything perfectly.
You just need some damn luck.
Well, miracle or whatever you wanna call it.
You know what else I liked, though?
You got two girl detectives. Let's go.
Come on back.
I always had this feeling that we had failed the family,
That we had let them down because there hasn't been
An arrest in this case after 15 years.
But we never forgot about it, tried our best,
And hopefully we can find a solution.
So, anita was 18 years old.
She was a college student here in minot.
She had just finished her freshman year.
She was also working two jobs.
She worked at one of the local hotels as a housekeeper,
And then she worked at a clothing store in the mall.
She was adopted when she was a baby.
Originally, she was from california.
The knutson family had moved up here to north dakota
When anita was, I think, around 13.
By all accounts, she was outgoing, bubbly,
And just friendly to everybody.
She was super tiny and pretty, cute, fun, active.
People loved talking to her and hanging out with her.
And all of her friends mentioned that she was popular,
Just fun to be around.
She was one of my best friends, and I feel sorry for anybody
Who didn't get to meet her.
They're missing out on an amazing person.
Always happy. Always talkative.
Always had something good to say.
She cared about everybody.
There's nobody more beautiful on the outside and the inside
Than anita.
Roommate and her were friends from high school,
And they went to college together.
They were living in the dorm together
And decided to get an apartment.
Do you remember what she was studying?
Elementary education.
Look at this picture. Who all do we have in this one?
Her mom and dad and her two siblings--
Anna and daniel.
Daniel committed suicide in 2013.
I think he had a lot going on.
I'm sure this played a part in it.
Yeah.
What a painful chain reaction of tragedy
This family has had to go through since June of 2007.
These cases leave so many victims.
So, June 4th, anita's mother was not able to get a hold of her.
She wasn't answering her phone. She was worried.
So her dad went up to the apartment.
Tried knocking on the door. There was no answer.
And so he went around to what was her bedroom window
And could see what he believed to be her lying on the bed,
And she was motionless.
A tragic situation for a father.
Anita's murder and the investigation
Are pretty complex.
Hello, guys. Nice to meet you.
Steve spingola.
Fortunately, the first responders
And the initial investigators are still around
And eager to share their insights on the case
And its many suspects.
The call came in at the very end of my shift.
I wasn't very far away. I responded fairly quickly
As the first officer on scene.
I went in and found anita on her bed.
Initially, the first thing I saw is there was blood
On anita's back and some on the bed.
I was new to the investigations division.
I remember noticing her position,
Lying face down near the foot of the bed.
She had a pink robe on. Was nude underneath the robe.
She had one leg sort of underneath her,
And then her right leg was off onto the floor,
And she was slumped forward onto the bed.
We rolled the body, and we photographed it.
I noticed that there was what appeared to be a stab wound.
She had a stab wound in her upper breast area,
And then she had an incised stab wound
That we later learned had lacerated the top of her heart,
Which was the fatal wound.
They did do a sexual assault kit.
There was no indication of sexual assault of any kind.
The apartment was well kept.
Didn't appear to be anything in disarray.
I recall seeing her purse at the side of the bed.
I could see cash in the purse,
Making me think that this doesn't appear to be a robbery.
Anita's roommate stated that she had stayed at the family farm
That entire weekend, and none of the neighbors
Heard a scream or struggle.
With no evidence of a sexual assault
And no signs of a robbery,
You have to wonder, what was her killer's motive?
Who would murder such a sweet, innocent young girl?
We begin to take some items for evidence.
In the quilt that was in the corner of the bed was the knife.
It was a silver lock blade.
When the knife was found, we celebrated.
We thought this is gonna lead to our killer.
Okay.
The investigators ran dna tests on the knife
And on other evidence in the case,
But nothing to date has identified anita's killer.
We've sent it all off for retesting,
Using the most modern advancements in dna technology,
Though the biggest clue in this case
May be the killer's point of entry.
When I got there, the window was open.
There was no screen on the window.
I remember that there were some people standing around outside
Watching what was going on.
We started talking to people.
One guy identified himself as the maintenance guy.
He said earlier in the day
He'd seen a damage screen on the window of her bedroom,
So he tore off the screen.
He said the frame was bent
And then the mesh of the screen was cut.
He took it back to the shop so he could fix it later.
Y'all keep going, but I wanna put those up there.
Marty annell.
The apartment's maintenance man, marty annell,
Turned over anita's window screen to the investigators,
Which, just like he said, had a large l-shape cut in it,
Possibly big enough for her killer to have climbed through
To gain entry into her apartment.
But is it possible he was trying to cover up his own crime?
He was the maintenance person there,
So I don't know that it's necessarily suspicious,
But she was right inside that room.
You wonder why he didn't see her.
I don't know how he could have not seen her.
Okay. What else about marty?
Marty committed suicide. He shot himself.
Siegler: A year after anita's murder,
Marty fatally shot himself in the same workshop
Where he had taken her screen to be fixed.
What's unclear is if his suicide
Had anything to do with guilt over her murder.
So he's the first suspect we need to examine.
And then you also noticed in the bedding her cellphone.
Yes. In the early, early morning hours of Sunday,
She was involved in a text conversation with mike vann.
It was like 4:00, 5:00 in the morning
When the last text was.
Mike vann talked about that he was interested
In perhaps having a dating relationship with anita.
He had been, like, partying that night
And early, early in the morning.
Everybody left to go to mcdonald's except for him.
This sentence from your supplement says,
"vann said that he was aware that anita was by herself
In the apartment in these early morning hours."
- Yes. That would be accurate. - Okay.
The last time we know that anita was alive
Was when she texted michael vann, aka money mike,
Around 4:43 a.M. On Sunday, June 3rd.
He texted back six minutes later,
Although his message went unread.
It's unclear if she was killed during that brief window
Or shortly thereafter.
But we know she didn't show up for work at 9 a.M. That morning.
There's also mention
That mike allegedly told another individual
That he killed anita, making him our second suspect in this case.
- Where is michael vann today? - Deceased.
It was like an asthma attack complication thing, right?
- Yeah. - Okay.
So completely unrelated to our case--how he passed away.
- Right. - Okay.
I'm looking at your page 4.
"and nichole gets brought back to the apartment."
Is that the beginning that we realize
There's more to this roommate situation than we thought?
That would be when red flags started to go up for me.
We walked her through
With the idea or hopes that she might see something
That would give us a clue on what direction to go in this.
She walked pretty much straight to her bedroom door.
Then she gasped as if something was terribly wrong
And then made the comment that her ipod was missing.
I found that to be very strange.
In nichole's room we did find
That she had been to some kind of anger management class.
I found a binder-- an anger management course
That she had gone through.
There was a volatile relationship
Between the roommate and anita.
All right. Now let's put up nichole thomas.
Anita's text messages also reveal
That she had gotten into several angry exchanges
With her roommate nichole.
And while nichole told the police
That they had been friends since high school
And they were getting along fine,
The texts show nichole insisting that anita move out.
Nichole's story of that weekend was inconsistent also.
Her story just didn't make a lot of sense.
There's always been a belief that nichole knows more
Than what she's willing to share with us.
Siegler: First nichole said
That she never left her parents' farm
And that she had spent Saturday night watching a movie
With her sister and her mom.
Then when the police learned otherwise,
Nichole admitted that she had actually gone to a bar
And went and watched a movie
With her aunt and her cousin at their house.
And she told one witness
That she actually dropped by her apartment that night
To get some clothes.
The question is, is nichole's memory really that bad,
Or is she hiding something?
Nichole's raised on a farm.
She's got knives. She hunts deer.
Well, she's proud of the fact that she can do what? Hunting.
How does tyler schmaltz first get on y'all's radar?
Tyler's involvement in the case gave me some red flags.
Well, he's actually on scene.
When he saw the commotion
Of police and ambulance being there, he shows up.
Concerned. Wants to know what's going on with her.
So, this is tyler.
Of anybody who is not a family member,
He is the one person
Who has always kind of inserted himself into the investigation,
Trying to stay a part of it.
He created a facebook page in honor of anita.
He had this crush on her.
Siegler: Our fourth suspect is tyler schmaltz.
He and anita had been friends since high school.
But a lot of people thought
That he was also romantically infatuated with her.
He was one of the first people on scene
The day her body was discovered.
Does that mean he was generally concerned,
Or does that mean he was trying to steer the investigation?
Where did tyler live back in '07?
- He's about a block away. - Ooh.
He did report that he had actually seen anita
Leading up to that weekend.
They went on a walk on Thursday, may 31st.
Siegler: We've got a maintenance man who killed himself.
The last person anita texted who knew she was alone.
A roommate she was having a conflict with.
And a not-so-secretive admirer
Who might have taken his infatuation a little too far.
I'm not surprised this case went cold.
You got a hard case, so we're hoping for some luck.
Man: It's been years since anita was killed in her apartment
By an unknown assailant.
While police feel frustration and confusion
About the inability to solve the case,
For the knutson family,
It is often more about the pain and loss
Of their beloved daughter and sister.
Woman: After his sister's murder,
Daniel knutson took his own life.
That fact has made everyone even more intent
On helping the knutson family find the answers.
Woman: ♪ what will it be like ♪
♪ when I approach the end? ♪
♪ will I lay there with those alone ♪
♪ or will my plight have done me in? ♪
Siegler: We're gonna meet gordon and sharon at karen's house.
And anna's gonna be there, too, I heard, right?
Talbott: I believe so, yeah. That's her younger sister.
They're understanding as far as--
You know, we're still trying. The case has never been closed.
It's always been open and active, and they know that.
Siegler: It would be nice to tell them some good news
Next week, right?
Talbott: I'm hoping.
- Hi, miss karen. How are you? - Hello.
Oh, this is not good weather for you guys, is it?
For nearly 15 years, anita knutson's family
Has suffered with the grief of her murder,
With the suicide of her brother daniel,
And with the frustration of nothing moving forward
With law enforcement.
We're here today to remind them that the minot police department
Has never given up on this case
And to let them know that we're gonna do everything that we can
To try and get them answers and get them justice.
So, sharon, talk to us about anita.
What was she like as a little girl?
As a little girl, very neat and tidy and precise.
Very good artist, writer.
Anna: She's super smart.
I would say that she was very much kind of a little activist.
Really rooting for the underdog
And just, like, kind of taking people under her wing.
And she was very outgoing, really well liked.
And she was going to msu.
Did she have a plan, what she was studying for?
- Yeah. To be a teacher. - Kindergarten teacher.
I just really miss her. It's--it's hard.
Just--like, I go to the mall and she's not there anymore.
And go down in her space of her room
And the bed's not there anymore.
You used to run across stuff in the house
And...[sighs] put it away
Because you know she's not gonna be there to get it.
Her dad and her had planned on going fishing for the summer,
And then this happened.
He got rid of all that stuff.
We just--
She's really missed. [sniffles]
I called her Sunday on her phone,
And she never answered, so I thought she's at work.
So Monday I called her and no answer.
I called him, and I said, "go by anita's
And see if she's okay."
- Gordon: And I went. - And he went.
And he found her car.
Knocked on the door. Nobody answered.
So I went over by that window and looked in,
And I seen that she was there.
- Siegler: And it was open? - Yes. The window was open.
If you stood at that window, how deep into the room?
Well, I touched her.
- You touched her. - Yeah.
Siegler: Gordon confirmed that he was able
To touch anita's body through the window.
That's a pretty horrific thought.
But it also makes
The maintenance man marty annell's claim
That he never saw her body that much stranger.
When did y'all first become aware that nichole and anita
Weren't getting along so great as roommates?
Oh, just a couple of months after they were in there.
Anita would be upset
Because nichole would come home and she'd bring guys with her.
And then she would leave and the guys would still be there.
And I said to her one time-- I said,
"why does that room stink?"
"mom, she never cleans. She never changes her bed."
My last conversation with anita was...
I said, "are you going to find a new apartment?"
And she said, "no. I'm going to stick it out."
- Oh, she did? - And that was
Like two weeks before she died.
Siegler: If anita was able to keep nichole as a roommate,
That makes you wonder how bad the relationship really was
Between the two of 'em.
So we're gonna have to track down all of their old friends
To get to the bottom of that.
What do y'all know about tyler schmaltz?
Anna: Well, he's on facebook all the time.
I felt like it was really odd.
He was the first one she dated. And the prom.
Anna: They went to prom together.
He loved--he loved her.
I mean, I do think it's genuine, though.
I really do think that he cares really deeply about my sister.
Anita's family doesn't seem to be very suspicious of tyler.
Maybe that's a good sign that he's not involved.
Or maybe he's been successful
Directing the investigation away from himself.
Here's what we're hoping-- that in the last 15 years
Someone has always known some little piece
That they haven't wanted to tell.
That is absolutely the case.
Like, I feel like somebody is just, like, holding tight
To some piece of information.
It's why I put the tribute in the paper every single year,
Just hoping that somebody will come forward.
Just want her to never be forgotten...
Sharon: Right. Well, she's not forgotten.
...And that someone will pay attention.
It hit everybody hard,
But I truly feel that daniel suffered the most,
Because we lost him, too, because of this.
It was not easy for him.
It isn't easy for any of us, but especially for him.
So it's hard to think that we lost two
Because of one action.
Spingola: We have four suspects
In the 2007 murder of 18-year-old anita knutson.
And the one with the clearest possible motive
Is actually her roommate, nichole thomas,
Who she had been feuding with prior to the murder.
Woman: Anita's mom, sharon, reported
That the roommate had sent anita threatening texts
And that anita was scared of her.
[line ringing]
This is detective talbott with the minot police department
Regarding anita knutson's case.
Spingola: Anita and nichole had actually known each other
Since high school.
We're hoping that by interviewing
Some of their old friends, they can help us fill in
What the fallout was between the two girls.
Tell me a little about anita from your perspective.
Do you know anything about her living situation at all?
Okay. Walk me through why you think that?
Would you say that nikki could have been jealous of anita?
Okay.
Spingola: Nichole's friends think
She seemed capable of committing murder
And was acting strangely after the death of anita.
And while everybody reacts differently to trauma,
This is the second time we're actually hearing
That nichole seemed more concerned
About her missing ipod than she did her murdered roommate.
They were warming up, something they...
[line ringing]
It seems like a lot of people
Knew about anita's roommate problems with nichole.
But if nichole was also jealous of anita,
That makes you wonder
If it might have added emotional fuel to this fire.
Jealousy can be a powerful motive.
- Woman: Hello. - Hi. It's detective talbott
With the minot police department. How are you?
- Good. How are you? - Not too bad.
See, I have a couple of questions
Regarding a case that I'm looking into.
We've tracked down another schoolmate
Of anita and nichole who might know more.
Do you know nikki at all?
Is there anybody else that comes to mind
That could've done this to anita?
What do you think about him being involved
With the facebook page and the billboards and stuff like that?
Siegler: We've considered that jealousy
Might have played a part in anita's murder.
But maybe it wasn't just nichole who was jealous.
Right.
Man: Another person police were eager to question
Was tyler schmaltz.
Woman: Tyler actually saw law enforcement
At anita's apartment,
And he went over there to see what was going on.
Was this somebody who committed a crime,
Trying to keep a close eye on the investigation?
Was he jealous that she didn't return the feelings?
So, we're on our way to see mr. Alex schmaltz
Who was actually the principal of the school there, right?
Yes. He is tyler schmaltz's brother.
And then I think alex may have been living
With tyler at the time.
According to some folks,
Tyler schmaltz was actually very infatuated with anita.
And after the murder, seemed to insert himself
Into the police investigation, which is a big red flag.
The question is, was it just a harmless crush,
Or was it something more?
- I'm alex schmaltz. - Carmen.
- Nice to meet you. - Steve.
Nice to meet you, steve.
At the time, tyler lived
Within walking distance of anita's apartment
With his brother alex.
We're wondering what alex might be willing to tell us
About the relationship between tyler and anita
And tyler's whereabouts the morning of the murder.
Were you older are younger than them?
I am two years younger than tyler
And a year younger than anita was.
- Okay. - Yeah.
So, did you know her in school?
I knew of her in school. We ran in different circles.
I knew anita's brother daniel more so than I knew anita
Just because he played football with me.
So, did daniel ever talk to you about what he thought happened?
He never really did. He kept to himself pretty well.
There was only one time that we were talking in a group.
There was a group of us.
And he got really upset about things,
But he never really would say who he thought.
He was just upset about the entire situation.
How about nichole? Did you know her?
I did know nichole. I knew anita more
Just because she hung out with tyler.
And what was their relationship--anita and tyler?
My brother was kind of the quiet one, shy one, the tech nerd,
And anita was one of those girls
That was just kind of nice to everybody,
And she would always hang out with them, talk to 'em.
I moved up to-- I graduated in 2007,
And then I moved up into the apartments with tyler
Probably about two weeks before the incident occurred.
Asham: And now it's just, like, a couple of buildings up.
Like two or three buildings over.
It was the same complex. Yeah. Yeah.
So, did you know anything about what happened that weekend?
The only thing that I remember that far back
Was I left that morning for work.
I came back, and there was police officers,
And my brother was talking to police officers.
What about on, like, Saturday, Sunday?
Were you around then?
We were around.
Thinking back, I'm sure I was in and out.
Anything else, I really don't have.
I really don't remember anything from that weekend.
Tyler ever go and hang out at their apartment?
I don't think so. I don't recall of any times.
Like I said, it was only two weeks that I was there.
Tyler was very introverted. You know, he was a big gamer.
So he had his gaming systems and stuff there in the apartment.
He didn't really like to go out much.
Alex has nothing incriminating to say about his brother,
Which is not surprising.
But he also wasn't supporting him with an alibi.
You'd think if alex was covering for tyler, he would.
So if tyler is keeping a dark secret about anita's murder,
It appears his brother has no idea about it at all.
I wish I could be more help,
But it's--it's-it's a tough one for sure.
Spingola: It's time we talk to tyler schmaltz.
We know he was one of the first people on the scene.
Came across strange to investigators
And has maintained a facebook page
Dedicated to anita throughout the years.
What we don't know is whether his alleged crush on anita
Possibly led to her murder.
You went to high school in velva, right?
- Yes. - And that's how you met anita?
Yeah. We went to prom junior year.
Okay. So, how did you guys get to be friends?
We just met at school. We had classes together.
- Yeah. - We just started talking.
She sat in front of me in math class.
Okay. Did you date at all?
We did not date. No. I wanted to, but we never did.
Okay. Did you ask her out and she shoot you down?
I never asked her out. Never got that courage.
We were close friends, though.
Tyler was quick to respond and a very fast talker.
He comes across as a bit socially awkward,
But it doesn't seem like he's holding back on any information.
Can you tell me what you remember
About that particular weekend then when she died?
All the parents were looking for her,
And they called my dad, trying to find out
When the last time I saw her.
And I said, "I haven't talked to her in a week."
Her dad called my dad again.
Said, "we found her and she's dead."
Then my mom came and told me what happened.
Then we all raced back to the apartment.
I met her out there.
There were friends in my apartment crying and stuff.
Do you remember where you were Saturday night,
Sunday morning that weekend?
At my apartment sleeping probably or playing video games.
One of the two.
We play video games to about 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning
And then we go to bed.
Would your brother had been home, too?
Yeah. He'd have been sleeping, though. He was working,
So he goes to bed early.
Were you in love with anita?
Yes.
Yeah, I'll admit that. Yeah.
I know you know that-- I'm sure you've heard people
Throw your name out there, right?
Why? I mean, what do you think about that
When they throw you out there?
I just act weird. I'm shy and quiet, and...
It's not that I'm boring. I just don't like interviews.
So I'm always nervous.
How does that make you feel, though?
How does that make you, like...
I'm used to it. It's been constant.
Read a message on facebook saying I did it
Or I should kill myself or...
- That sucks. - Yeah.
That's terrible.
It's whatever. I'm used to it.
So, you would never do anything like that, though?
- Not me, no. - No.
Spingola: Sounds like tyler's more of a victim
Than a suspect in this case.
To be completely thorough, we have to wait for the lab
To analyze all of our dna evidence
Before we can rule him out as a suspect.
But I don't think he's our killer.
Let's me ask--since you lived in the same apartment complex--
- Yeah. - That maintenance guy.
Didn't know anything about him?
Not until after the murder. And when he killed himself,
That's when I found out about him.
So you never heard rumors around
That he was, like, a creeper or anything like that?
Okay.
If there's anything you can help think of
That would help lead us in the right direction...
I said everything I could think of.
- I don't know. It's just weird. - It is.
Doesn't make any sense, 'cause no one hated her.
All her friends loved her. She didn't have any enemies.
Just outgoing, fun, sociable.
Just always had a smile on her face.
Doesn't make any sense that anyone would do that to her.
It just doesn't make any sense.
Man: The next person who has garnered a lot of suspicion
Would be the maintenance man
Who originally discovered the cut screen.
The timing of his death and the reasons behind it
Helped fuel the fire of suspicion
That he may have been involved.
Woman: There are many times when those who commit crimes
Go on to later commit suicide.
But we don't know if that's the reason.
Spingola: Unlike our other three suspects,
We don't know if our maintenance man,
Marty annell, even knew anita knutson before her murder.
But he's right in the middle of this investigation.
He strangely didn't notice her dead body in her bedroom
When he collected the window screen
And mysteriously committed suicide a year later,
Leading some to believe that he did it
Over the guilt of killing anita.
He's marty annell's best friend.
I didn't see any reports
Which he was actually interviewed or not.
If there's anyone who could tell us
About why marty committed suicide,
It's his best friend who spoke with him
Just hours before he killed himself.
Marty and I, we were best friends for...
Woman: Go lay down.
...45 years.
Talked to each other every day.
See each other every day.
When he started changing is when that girl got killed.
Talbott: What do you mean by "changing"?
Uh, he was, you know, worried about his job.
He was worried about his relationship,
And just..."oh, come on."
Before he was never really worried about anything.
I mean, even when he got into trouble,
You know, for dui's or weed,
He was never really worried about anything until...
Talbott: Until then.
Did he ever talk about anita and her roommate at all?
No. No. I mean,
The first time that I ever knew that she lived there was...
When we got involved?
When you guys got involved and she was found dead.
You know, you guys were questioning him
And everybody else about this case.
You know, he came out and said,
"yeah, I changed the screen and everything."
And they came and asked me about it.
He called me on new year's eve.
We talked for six hours.
He said that something was wrong.
In the conversation, he said, "I did something"
Or "something happened."
He never alluded as to what?
And I tried to figure out
What, you know--you know, what was going on.
Talbott: Mm-hmm.
Witness: But he never said.
...Called me in the morning...
And hear he had committed suicide in the garage.
Up at the apartment complex, right?
Up at the apartment complex.
And I thought, "what the hell is going--why? What did you do?"
To me, he would never do that.
Spingola: It's still unclear
If marty had anything to do with anita's murder.
Unfortunately, all his friend has to offer
Is the gut feeling that marty did it.
I really did wonder if he did it.
Something happened.
Something really, really happened.
I wish I knew what happened.
I don't know.
Siegler: While we're making progress,
We still have four possible suspects on our board.
- Welcome to north dakota. - Oh, thank you.
- Dr. Pinneri, you know steve. - Yeah. Hi.
Dr. Kathy pinneri has joined us
To help us examine anita's wounds.
The question is,
Is there anything about her injuries
That would help us understand the relationship
Between anita and her killer?
So, she was found face down on her bed wearing a bathrobe
Around 5 p.M.
She was still in rigor mortis,
But there was a little collection of fly eggs
On her chest,
Which does imply that there was time enough
For insects to come in through the window.
She has these two stab wounds--
One on the center of the chest
And one off to the right and up a little bit.
So, we have one coming in like this
And one coming in like that.
Do you think she was moving when she was stabbed?
The person's on top. Was she moving from this one to this?
I don't think she was struggling.
This is two quick stabs,
And the perpetrator is out of the picture.
There's certainly are no defensive wounds.
And it doesn't look like a crime of passion.
Those tend to have way more stab wounds.
This isn't that.
Siegler: Our suspects, michael vann and tyler schmaltz,
Had crushes on anita.
If they had been rejected,
You would expect it to be more like a crime of passion,
Committed in the heat of the moment.
More like overkill.
Nichole thomas, on the other hand,
Had been feuding with anita for months,
And she was an avid hunter.
Is it possible that anita's murder was more thought out?
It's just two stab wounds very close.
Obviously, you have to be for a stab wound,
So it would imply some sort of familiarity--
If she was awake and knew the person was coming in.
Man: Police have gathered dna samples
From almost everyone they spoke with.
They've never gotten a match.
Woman: At this point,
Law enforcement are not ruling out anyone.
So, we sent the knife, the window screen,
And the window and the fingernail scrapings.
Ooh, maybe you'll get lucky.
We've got a lot of theories
About who might have killed anita knutson.
What we need, though, is more evidence.
Man: Hello.
Hey, derek, it's detective asham calling from minot p.D.
We understand you'd wanna share with us
What you got from the dna testing.
Siegler: Hopefully, our dna results
Can connect one of our four suspects to the crime.
Okay.
As it sits, we have nothing to compare other than anita's.
Siegler: We tried,
But just like the last time the evidence was tested,
The dna results are pretty useless.
If we're gonna figure out who killed anita,
We're gonna have to do it another way.
The good news is, we all have enough confidence now
To eliminate one of the suspects.
Let's talk about tyler schmaltz.
Asham: He came off as genuinely wanting to be helpful.
I do see and he admits it freely himself
That he's kind of a weird kid.
We asked tyler, "were you in love with her?" "oh, yeah."
- Did you date at all? - We did not date, no.
I wanted to, but we never did.
Okay. Did you ask her out and she shoot you down?
I never asked her out. Never got that courage.
We were close friends, though.
Back in high school, he was not the popular crowd.
And he's so beholden to anita for being nice to him.
Taking him to the prom. It's almost kind of sad.
Kind of his way of repaying the favor to her
For being the one who was nice to him.
Tyler loved anita.
He's always been cooperative.
He gave his dna.
He's been nothing but passionate about remembering her
And raising awareness for her case,
So much so that people got the wrong idea about him.
And those billboards around town,
He's the one who raised money for them,
Soliciting tips with information to go to the police with.
Nobody would willingly try to solve a murder
If they're the one who did it.
Tyler's never been trying to control this investigation.
He has always just been trying to help.
Does anybody have any hesitation
Taking tyler schmaltz off this suspect board?
- No. - Everybody's good.
In my mind, tyler has been a victim all these years, too.
It feels good to clear him.
And that leaves us with three suspects.
So, we're on our way to see nick skelly.
And he knew money mike-- mike vann.
I don't know. I've read this where mike has said
He was gonna kill somebody or he might have killed anita.
I'm not sure exactly what the story is with michael vann here,
Who we can't talk to now because he's dead.
So, I'm gonna ask you one question.
Are you responsible for her death?
Did you kill her?
Since her dna was a bust, it's clear witnesses
Will be the key to solving anita's murder.
[knocking]
We tracked down a friend
That michael vann allegedly confessed to.
- Hi. - Hi. Can I help you?
- Are you nick? - Yeah.
If that's true, that could be the huge break
We need in this case.
I have a couple of questions
Regarding anita knutson's case.
Oh, [bleep].
[laughs] it's been a minute, I know.
But you had mentioned being friends with michael vann.
Okay. Yeah. Hmm.
There was a lot of bull[bleep] rumors going on
About that he had something to do with it.
He had attractions for anita.
He was saying that him and her were gonna hook up
And start dating and this and that.
Did you ever hear him say he killed anita
Or he was thinking about killing somebody?
No.
Do you think he's capable of killing people?
Mm. That's hard to say.
When we went to the viewing at the funeral
And stuff like that, he seemed pretty upset about it.
But anybody could pull that [bleep] off.
Every cold case has rumors involved with it,
And it seems that michael's confession
Is nothing more than that.
And nick can't say one way or another
Whether michael was involved.
Do you have anything else that you think that would help
Or rumors that you heard?
Well, this girl that we went to school with was her roommate.
I think her name was, like, nichole thomas
Or something like that.
There were some people that I was talking with
That went to a party with her, and she got drunk,
And somebody was blaming her for it.
And she, [bleep]-- she was drunk.
She just all of a sudden out of nowhere,
"oh, yeah, I [bleep] did it. [bleep] you.
You guys are gonna blame this [bleep]--
I might as well admit it."
Just like, okay. You know, I'm not gonna jump to conclusions.
- Were you at that party? - No, I wasn't.
No? Do you know who was?
I can't even remember. No. I have no idea.
Talbott: Okay.
Spingola: Now we're hearing that it was nichole thomas
Who confessed at a party.
It could just be another rumor.
But if there was a party full of people,
That's a whole new world of witnesses
Who might provide us with more information
About nichole being anita's killer.
We'll have to do some research and see if we can find the names
Of a couple of people that were there.
- At the party? - And heard her say it as well.
These people that talk about her being the same kind of drunk
And saying the same thing and they're credible,
Golly, that'd be nice.
We still got three suspects and a lot to figure out,
But this could be the break we've been looking for.
Siegler: Next time on "cold justice"...
Oh, my gosh.
There's gonna be one...Here.
Comes across. And then with the fatal right between the breasts.
This was anita's text messages. Mike responds.
"you don't say anything."
I think that sums up their relationship right there.
I still think all killers talk.
It's just a matter of who they talk to.
Your name was brought up for being at a party.
It was a very volatile situation
That I thought was gonna explode.
The biggest reason for his suicide was...
Damn.
I didn't say any of this stuff.
I want the person found, too, 'cause I want my life back.