[flowing piano music]
* *
- Orange County, it's a big, sprawling county,
but the jewel of it is Newport Beach.
- Balboa Coves is a little community
within Newport Beach on the peninsula.
- That's where everyone looks into the sun
and counts their money.
- There are boats and beautiful houses.
It's just opulence everywhere.
- Bill McLaughlin was a very successful entrepreneur
in Newport Beach.
He was a millionaire several times over.
- Bill worked hard for his success
and leaned in to everything Orange County had to offer.
- Bill was the king of the pack.
He had all the money. He owned the homes.
He owned the cars. He owned the airplanes.
narrator: Little did he know that living his best life
would lead to his merciless demise.
- A large amount of blood.
There appeared to be no footprints
leading to or from the blood,
and that showed that there was some planning involved.
- You have a guy that's gregarious
and seems to enjoy life, but he can be callous.
He could be overbearing. That might lead to a grudge.
- When you have that many gunshots at point-blank,
there's a lot of emotion behind that.
- He said, "I hate that guy. I want to blow up his plane."
- This person would have to pay $9 million
to Bill McLaughlin.
That decision came days before the murder.
- You have a sexy seductress.
They thought maybe it's a love triangle
with Bill McLaughlin, a multimillionaire and inventor.
- It doesn't seem very logical.
If you have the golden goose, you don't cook it for dinner.
[tense music]
* *
[tense music]
* *
- My name is David Byington.
In 1994, I was with
the Newport Beach Police Department.
December 15, I was looking forward to going home.
About 9:00, I was called by the sergeant
to respond to a shots fired call in Balboa Coves.
- The police dispatch relayed that
they were having difficulty understanding the caller.
His speech was impaired to the point
that he almost sounded drunk.
They were able to pick out some unique words,
including gun, father.
- My name is Geoff Boucher.
In the mid-'90s, I was covering crime
for the "Los Angeles Times" in Orange County.
Balboa Coves is a coastal enclave
of beautiful oceanfront homes.
Murders are rare in Orange County,
especially in gated communities.
This is a place where people buy homes
specifically to stay safe.
narrator: The serenity of this peaceful enclave
is quickly shattered
as Newport Beach police rush to the scene.
[siren wailing]
- Police met with Kevin McLaughlin,
who was our caller, outside the residence.
He did not appear to be drunk, but he was crying outwardly.
He seemed very, very scared to me.
Once I arrived, officers verified that
no other threats were there at this point.
We entered the residence
and located an apparent homicide victim
who had been shot multiple times
laying on the kitchen floor.
* *
He was a gentleman in his 50s,
and he was wearing only a bathrobe.
The victim was ultimately identified by his son, Kevin,
as William McLaughlin.
* *
Despite the large amount of blood that was present
from this poor man being shot several times,
there appeared to be no footprints
leading to or from the blood.
That showed that there was some planning involved
or a purpose--he or she
purposely was avoiding any type of stepping in the blood
or tracking it away.
We were able to locate
six 9-millimeter bullet casings on the floor
spread throughout the kitchen.
* *
It didn't appear that there was some type of ransacking
of the house had taken place,
that obviously there was valuables that were present.
So it did not occur that a robbery
was the motive behind this crime.
When you have that many gunshots at point-blank
that were pumped into Mr. McLaughlin,
there's a lot of emotion behind that.
So that's going to draw investigators to believe
that this is a personal thing.
narrator: Who could have committed such a grisly act
in this exclusive and sheltered community?
Lab techs hunt for clues by collecting trace evidence
while detectives speak to the victim's son, Kevin.
- It was obvious that he was in shock.
This young man had possibly witnessed
the murder of his father.
But we had to take a look at Kevin,
if nothing else to find something to eliminate him.
Kevin was obviously having an issue communicating,
but ultimately he told us that he had been involved
in a traffic accident five years earlier,
which resulted in some pretty severe brain trauma.
It was obvious that he had some type of a brain injury
that was causing his speech impediment.
As a result of Kevin's accident,
for the last five years,
he had been going through rehab,
and, in fact, he had moved back in with his dad full-time.
* *
- Even with the communication difficulties,
Kevin is able to communicate to police
a brief outline of the evening.
- He indicated that he and his father had dinner together,
and that after dinner,
Kevin retired upstairs to listen to music on his bed.
He indicated that he heard some loud bangs
and proceeded downstairs.
Upon reaching the kitchen area,
he found his father bleeding profusely
from numerous bullet wounds.
He tried to cover his father
and immediately grabbed a phone and dialed 911.
* *
narrator: As officers take Kevin aside
for further questioning, detectives canvas neighbors
to see if anyone saw or heard anything unusual.
- Police start talking to neighbors,
but nobody saw anyone, didn't hear anything.
So the first thing that Newport Beach Police Department
needs to determine is who is this victim?
If you want to figure out who killed this person,
you need to know who they are.
- I'm Caitlin Rother,
"New York Times" best-selling author
of "I'll Take Care of You"
about the Bill McLaughlin murder case.
Detectives were told that
Bill McLaughlin was a poor guy
when he was growing up on the South Side of Chicago,
but he had ambitions
and he wanted to be a millionaire
by the time he was 30.
* *
- My name's Ken Baumgardner.
I was a friend of Bill McLaughlin.
We met in college. He was a good guy.
He had a sense of humor.
But he was very serious about getting his pre-med done.
He liked to go out and party once in a while,
but not all the time.
He was really a hard-working guy.
His priorities were, you know, professional and family.
narrator: After spending several years in the military,
getting a degree in biology,
and completing the MBA program at Pepperdine,
Bill's hard work paid off in 1982.
- Bill McLaughlin invented an innovative device
that separated blood from plasma.
That's where his money came from.
And by 1994, he had a $55 million income.
And of course, by today's buying power,
that be substantially more than that.
- Bill McLaughlin had been divorced
for several years in 1994.
He'd been married to
a woman who had been a flight attendant.
Her name was Sue. They had three children.
- Jenny, down in San Diego, and Kim,
who's a teacher in Tokyo, and Kevin.
- Bill was extremely proud of his children.
They were the hallmarks of his married life
and he really admired them and appreciated them.
He took good care of them. He would do anything for them.
- He would take his own children flying.
I mean, it was quite a luxurious life
he had at Newport Beach.
The family was actually very close.
He also taught them, you know, "We have a lot of money,
but we also need to share it with other people,"
so they were taught to be philanthropists as well.
narrator: Detectives also learn more
about Bill's relationship with his son, Kevin,
by all accounts the last person to see Bill alive.
- With Kevin being the only person present,
we really wanted to find out
what his relationship was with his father.
narrator: As a result of Kevin's accident
three years prior,
he'd begun to lean on alcohol to ease the pain.
- Kevin told police that his father
was concerned about Kevin's drug and alcohol use.
Bill asked his son to go to Alcoholics Anonymous.
Recently, Bill had him sign an agreement
that he would quit drinking or be thrown out of the house.
It's been a real source of contention.
- It just so happened that
Kevin was supposed to be at that meeting that evening
but had decided not to go.
* *
The fact that Kevin had
arbitrarily skipped an AA meeting
when he'd been routinely attending them
did raise a red flag.
* *
So Kevin was asked by investigators at the scene
if he was aware of any other handguns
or weapons at the house.
Kevin acknowledged his father,
in fact, had a gun safe in his closet.
Once investigators forced open the gun box,
they discovered a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun.
Just so happens that appeared to be the type of weapon
that was used in the murder, so we obviously wanted
to take that weapon to verify if it had been fired
and if the casings on the ground
could have possibly come from that weapon.
- Things had been contentious between Kevin and his father
in recent months, and maybe
his judgment's been impaired by his injuries,
maybe things got out of control.
Did he shoot his father and simply put the gun back
and lock the box and conveniently lose the key?
* *
- Our crime scene investigators
conducted a GSR, a gunshot residue,
on his hands to verify whether or not
he had recently been in contact
with any type of weapon that was fired.
- Detectives have to wait for the lab results to come back.
But in the meantime, detectives wonder
if maybe Kevin is more than just a grieving son.
Maybe Kevin is the man that was holding the gun.
[waves crashing loudly]
- In essence, he said he hated him,
and he said he wanted to kill him.
- He was upset that he had just lost
a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Mr. McLaughlin.
- This person had forged checks
and was using his credit cards.
- Obviously, something was up.
- Was this a rift that was so hurtful
that she might have had a grudge that could turn deadly?
[tense music]
[waves crashing]
* *
narrator: Millionaire Bill McLaughlin
has been murdered just hours ago
in his Balboa Coves mansion,
leaving investigators to wonder if Kevin McLaughlin
is a loving son or a cold-blooded killer.
- The lab results from the gunshot residue tests
will determine whether or not
Kevin was the one holding the gun.
narrator: Until the results come back,
detectives vow to keep an eye on Kevin
while they continue to process the crime scene.
As they do, a woman suddenly pulls up to the house.
- The female that was driving the car
advised that she, in fact,
not only lived in Balboa Coves,
but lived with Bill McLaughlin in the house.
- She identifies herself as Nanette Johnston.
She's the fiancée of Bill McLaughlin.
Shock turns to horror for Nanette
when she is told that Bill is dead.
- She seemed genuinely frightened and concerned.
Nanette explained to the investigators
that not only did she live at the residence
along with Bill McLaughlin and his son, Kevin,
but that her young children
also lived at the residence with them.
Investigators asked at that point where her children were.
She indicated that they were
with her ex-husband that evening.
narrator: Nanette says that she and Bill
have been together for a little over two years,
and he just recently proposed.
- Nanette was questioned about where she had been
when the murder had taken place and had indicated that
she had been at the city of Walnut,
which is about a 30-minute drive away.
- Nanette told detectives
she had been at her son's soccer game
and then she went to the mall.
And she had shopping bags and receipts to prove it.
- She was surrounded by people that would be able to verify
the fact that she was, in fact,
at her son's soccer game at a certain time,
including her ex-husband.
Nanette appeared genuinely concerned
for her welfare, as well as her children's welfare,
so she requested that we escort her
to the other residence which was owned by Bill McLaughlin,
which was a mile or two away.
* *
narrator: Nanette seeks safety at the beach house,
but to rule out that
she had anything to do with Bill's murder,
they need to confirm her alibi.
- Nanette had identified her ex-husband as Kevin, "K-Ross."
So K-Ross confirmed the fact that Nanette was,
in fact, at the soccer game watching the children,
so that jibed with what Nanette had claimed.
narrator: Later that day with Nanette's alibi confirmed,
police checked the whereabouts
of Bill McLaughlin's two adult daughters
and confirm that both of them were out of town
at the time of the murder.
- When Bill McLaughlin's daughters
find out about their father's death,
Jenny down in San Diego essentially jumps in her car
and heads north as quick as she can.
Kim, the other daughter, is in Tokyo,
and she hops on a flight immediately.
narrator: When they arrive back in Orange County
the next day, Bill's devastated daughters
open up to investigators about their father.
- Bill's daughters tell the police
Bill was a good, loving father,
and he was affectionate towards his three kids.
I interviewed Kim McLaughlin,
and she's a lovely, gentle person.
She just really felt it was very difficult for her,
I think, to deal with this
because she's a very sensitive person.
- It was horrible
because, you know, they loved their father.
The daughters, the son, his whole family was shocked.
* *
- As police talk to Bill McLaughlin's daughters,
they learn family relations are very harmonious
as far as the siblings and their father,
but the divorce from Sue after 24 years of marriage
was really traumatic.
- Bill's divorce from Susan was a litigious one,
primarily over property, possessions, and finances.
- Sue had accused her estranged husband
of being a bully and trying to lowball her.
- You're going to look at spouses, angry spouses,
so I met with Susan after the homicide.
- Police want to determine,
was this a rift that was so hurtful
that she might have had a grudge that could turn deadly?
- Susan McLaughlin was actually 3,000 miles away
in Hawaii at the time of the murder.
But I learned she ultimately received $300,000 annually
for the rest of her life and a residence in Hawaii,
so she had no clear motive to want him dead.
narrator: Out of Bill's immediate family,
that just leaves Kevin as a possible suspect.
But then two days after the murder,
the gun residue test comes back.
- And the GSR test on his hands
ultimately was determined that
Kevin had no gunshot residue on his body.
- The interest in Kevin as a suspect
is more or less a dead end.
As police talk to a widening circle,
they talk to people that have done business with Bill
and that know him.
* *
- Family said that he was loving and doting on them,
but in business, Bill would take no prisoners.
- He could be callous. He could be overbearing.
He could be domineering.
Those are the tendencies that might lead to a grudge,
and a grudge that might lead to murder.
narrator: It's a theory that becomes all too real
when detectives speak to Bill's brother, Patrick.
- Bill's brother tells him about
a former partner of Bill's named Hal.
The golden goose for these two was a revolutionary
plasma machine that they devised.
The device made tens of millions of dollars.
- At some point, Mr. McLaughlin had been able
to put himself as the single patent owner on that machine.
- Hal sued, seeking what he called
a fair share of the royalties.
- This was a long, protracted legal battle
with a series of lawsuits.
- Ultimately, there was a judgment against Hal.
He would have to pay $9 million to his former partner.
That decision came days before the murder.
- Hal had the means, and he was upset
that he had just lost a multi-million dollar lawsuit
against Mr. McLaughlin.
- For detectives, that sounds like
9 million reasons for a motive.
[tense music]
[waves crashing]
narrator: When it comes to motives for murder,
greed is as good as any in a place like Orange County,
which is why Newport Beach investigators are zeroing in
on Bill McLaughlin's disgruntled
former business partner as their prime suspect.
- Police find out Bill and his brother, Patrick,
spoke the night before the murder.
Bill told his brother
that he felt like his life was in danger.
His takeaway from that conversation
was that Hal, the former partner,
wanted his brother dead.
narrator: Detectives locate Hal
two hours away in Santa Barbara
and begin grilling him about his relationship with Bill.
- I was able to speak to Hal,
and he was up-front, saying, "There's no love lost
when I heard that Bill had died."
- But he did say that he was at the barber
and then he spent the evening with his wife.
- It was determined that he had a valid alibi,
they had witnesses that were able to confirm the fact
that Hal was not physically located in Newport Beach
on the night of the murder,
but was, in fact, in Santa Barbara.
narrator: Back at the station,
detectives sort through evidence
recovered during the search of Bill's mansion,
and they're struck by one item in particular.
- The search of Mr. McLaughlin's residence
revealed numerous documents, one of which was a singles ad.
* *
And it showed a very suggestive picture of a woman.
And underneath this photograph, in bold letters,
says, "Wealthy men only.
You take care of me, I'll take care of you."
- The woman in the photograph
is none other than Bill's fiancée, Nanette.
- So that's how they met.
narrator: It appears to police
that Nanette and Bill's 2 1/2 year relationship
began as a financial arrangement.
- Bill's daughters told detectives
that they definitely saw Nanette as a gold digger.
- I think both of his daughters
disapproved of Nanette and the relationship.
I never got close to her.
I didn't have the vibes that we could be friends.
She's like a Newport Beach brat, you know?
- Just like a lot of women in a place like Orange County,
she wanted new breasts, a new nose,
a new chin, and new cheekbones.
And she got them.
- Nanette had a pretty good expense account.
She had a lot to gain by this relationship.
- Her children are taken care of.
It doesn't seem very logical
that she would kill her partner.
If you have the golden goose, you don't cook it for dinner.
* *
narrator: Bill's daughters agreed to provide police
with information on the family's finances.
Then five days after Bill's murder,
detectives make a bold move.
- On December 20th, it was determined
that a covert surveillance team would be placed on Nanette.
It's just pretty much standard protocol
if we have somebody that's living in the house.
She potentially could have been a target of that homicide
or she might be a potential suspect.
* *
- My name is Matt Murphy.
I was a senior deputy district attorney
in the Orange County DA's office for 17 years.
In 1994, I had just been hired as a deputy DA,
and I was living on the Newport Beach peninsula
when Bill McLaughlin was murdered.
So detectives from
the Newport Beach Police Department
were surveilling Nanette Johnston
outside the beach house the night before the funeral
and observed Nanette Johnston decorating a Christmas tree
with her two children in the living room.
narrator: The woman who had appeared so shocked
and fearful for her safety at the scene of the murder
now seems markedly carefree.
- No apparent concern for any type of intruder
coming and causing her harm.
That really stuck out.
* *
- The next day on December 21, 1994,
the memorial for Bill is held.
Bill's family is there,
and as are Nanette and her children.
[somber music]
- His children were grieving because he was a good father.
That's not something everybody can be.
I'm sorry that he had to go in the way he did.
- It was difficult for the family.
The family just held on to each other.
They supported each other.
- You know, I mean, it was tragic.
narrator: Detectives attend the funeral
and find nothing strange about Nanette's behavior there.
But they continue to surveil the beach house,
keeping an eye out for anything unusual.
- It was a few days before Christmas...
when I saw a Nissan Pathfinder park in the garage
directly in front of that residence.
[tense music]
I saw this driver come out
with several gift-wrapped packages
and lock the Nissan and then walk to the front door.
narrator: There's nothing out of the ordinary
about someone bringing presents
to a grieving widow during the holidays.
It's what detectives notice next that raises alarm bells.
- I saw this man greet both of Nanette's children,
and then grab and hug Nanette Johnston
and give her a very passionate kiss.
I was pretty astonished by what I'd was seeing.
This woman who had just tragically lost her fiancée
had something else going on.
So we obviously had to find out who this guy was.
[tense music]
* *
narrator: One week after the brutal murder
of Newport Beach millionaire Bill McLaughlin,
police spy Bill's grieving fiancée
passionately kissing a mystery man.
- Here's a woman who is allegedly heartbroken
over her fiancée being murdered,
and obviously, something was up.
narrator: As the man drives away from the beach house,
investigators run his plates.
The car is registered to an Eric Naposki.
An outstanding warrant allows them to pull him over.
* *
- Eric was placed under arrest
for the outstanding traffic warrant
and was transported to the Newport Beach Police Department
to be interviewed by detectives.
* *
narrator: As Eric Naposki waits in an interview room,
detectives quickly gather as much information about him
as they can.
- Eric Naposki grew up in New York.
He was a great athlete,
and he managed to get to the NFL onto the Patriots.
But he kept getting injured, so he didn't play that much
and so he went to Orange County.
narrator: Newport Beach investigators
press Eric for information
surrounding the McLaughlin murder.
* *
- Eric seemed a little bit cocky.
- Investigators ask Eric
what his relationship was with Nanette.
- Talking to Eric Naposki, police get a different view
of Nanette and her relationship to Bill.
- He stated that he knew that
she lived with Bill McLaughlin,
but it was strictly a platonic relationship
where they were business partners
and he allowed her to stay with her children at the house.
- Eric's view is that Bill is just an employer to Nanette,
that she's living with him, but he's more of a mentor
and that they're not romantically engaged.
Police are wondering,
"Is this guy trying to play us?"
narrator: When they ask him to provide an alibi,
Eric continues to be evasive.
- The interview continues,
and then they ask him, "Do you have a sidearm?"
And he says, "No, I don't."
And then 45 minutes later in the interview,
comes up with, "It's like, oh, well,
"there was this Beretta 92F once that I had,
But I gave that to my friend, Joe."
- So he admitted to the fact that
he actually owned a 9-millimeter handgun,
which just so happened to be the type of weapon
that was used in the murder.
* *
- But when police talk to Joe,
he tells police the gun wasn't a 9-millimeter,
it was a .380.
- Big question at that point
to investigators, obviously,
is why Eric Naposki had been evasive
with investigators about his ownership
of a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun.
narrator: More importantly,
did Eric Naposki use the gun to murder Bill McLaughlin?
And if so, was Nanette involved,
or did Naposki act alone?
As investigators wait for a warrant
to search the Naposki's house,
they circle back to Nanette's ex-husband
to do a deeper dive into Nanette's background.
- They found out that Nanette came from
a dysfunctional family.
Her mother divorced
and apparently was with some abusive man.
Nanette was an athletic young woman, tomboyish.
She worked at a gym,
and that's where she met K-Ross,
and they had two children.
But Nanette wanted more than K-Ross could provide,
so she left him and took the kids.
She was very ambitious.
She set her mind on being wealthy.
* *
narrator: K-Ross tells investigators
that two years after the divorce,
Nanette met Bill McLaughlin and began living her dream
of a lavish Orange County lifestyle.
But then, K-Ross drops a bombshell about her alibi.
- K-Ross tells them Nanette was at the soccer game,
but she was accompanied by a person she introduced as Eric.
And Eric is a tall, strapping, dark-haired, muscular guy.
This really catches the ear of detectives
because she implied to detectives she was alone.
- We wanted to know why she had failed to mention
that she was there at the soccer game with Eric Naposki.
narrator: The receipts Nanette already provided to police
solidify that she told the truth about her whereabouts
after the game, but Eric has no solid alibi
for the evening Bill was murdered,
which makes investigators all the more suspicious.
- So a month after the murder, it's in January, 1995,
that police get a search warrant.
They go to the home of Eric Naposki.
- I knocked on the door.
The door was immediately answered
by no one other than...
Nanette Johnston.
My impression was that she was embarrassed
or scared that she had been found at the apartment.
- The police separate the two of them,
and they question both.
Police talk to Eric,
and now his story has changed slightly.
He blurts out that Bill raped Nanette,
and, "I am protecting her now."
- He automatically became argumentative with detectives.
He was belligerent.
[suspenseful music]
- While Eric is being questioned in one room,
Nanette's in another room and that interview also
provides police with some new revelations.
- Nanette said that she and Eric
were friends with benefits and admitted
that they were physically
and intimately involved with each other.
- But there's no smoking gun at this point.
Police are not to the point where they can make an arrest.
- Both suspects basically got a slap on the wrist
and were released.
[tense music]
* *
narrator: In January of 1995,
Newport Beach Police serve a search warrant
on one of their prime murder suspects.
- The search warrant was obtained in an attempt
to find evidence that might link Eric and Nanette
to the murder of Bill McLaughlin.
We didn't get anything out of the house.
So we couldn't arrest them, but both Nanette and Eric
were potential suspects in this murder.
* *
- Now the case is at a point where
police share with the press what's been going on,
and it ignites a bonfire of coverage.
* *
- You have a sexy seductress
who is having an affair with an NFL lineback wannabe,
and it's a love triangle with Bill McLaughlin,
a multimillionaire and inventor.
* *
narrator: Police are frustrated
that the case has stalled,
but within days of searching Eric Naposki's apartment,
they're given renewed hope
when Bill McLaughlin's family reaches out
with new evidence they've dug up on their own.
- Both daughters started going through
all of Bill McLaughlin's financial paperwork...
and one of the things that really stuck out
was a handwritten personal check for $250,000
made out to Nanette that was dated one day
before Bill McLaughlin's murder.
There wasn't a question from the daughters
that the signature on the $250,000 check was forged.
It was obvious it wasn't their father's signature.
* *
- Police now launch a forensic accounting examination.
They want to know exactly what's going on.
- It was determined by fraud detectives
that Nanette stole from Bill McLaughlin.
- She had forged checks and was using his credit card,
signing as Nanette McLaughlin when they weren't married.
- Police don't have enough
from these financial irregularities
to arrest Nanette for murder,
but they have enough to charge her with a crime.
- In April, 1995, Nanette was actually charged
with the fraudulent theft
of money from Bill McLaughlin of a $1/2 million.
She was found guilty and sentenced to one year in jail.
- With Nanette now behind bars,
detectives step up their efforts,
feverishly trying to find a way
to build on the evidence that they have,
but the prosecutor
listens to everything that the police have
and says there's just not enough to charge at this time.
- I was upset because I knew who was responsible,
but our hands were tied.
* *
narrator: Just over two years
after Bill McLaughlin's murder,
Nanette gets a chance to start over.
- On December 23, 1996,
Nanette Johnston was released from prison.
- There's no way that they can move forward with the case.
There's not enough evidence to charge her with murder,
so they just have to watch her walk away.
* *
Not long after Nanette walks out of jail,
Nanette and Eric break up.
Eric moves back to the East Coast.
Neither of them, Eric or Nanette,
seems to be looking over their shoulder,
and they don't seem particularly worried
that the past is gonna come back.
narrator: For the next 12 years,
investigators never take their eyes off Nanette and Eric.
But sadly, without any hard proof
connecting them to the murder,
they're unable to bring justice to Bill's family.
* *
- But then in 2008,
the prosecutor in the district attorney's office
sets his sights on some cold cases,
and one of them is the McLaughlin case.
* *
- The McLaughlin case was on my radar from 1994.
What really helped us on this was a new set of eyes,
and that was Larry Montgomery,
who is an incredible investigator.
* *
Larry and I went down to Newport.
We took out these dusty old boxes with detectives
from the Newport Beach Police Department,
and we began reviewing the case.
- My name is Larry Montgomery.
In 2008, I was a DA investigator
for the Orange County district attorney's office.
In this particular case,
there was one box full of tape recordings, which was huge.
Sometimes we get calls. They're all recorded.
"Hey, I have some information about maybe a suspect,"
and it would be really valuable to find those people.
- Larry, in his obsessive dedication to this thing,
would listen from the beginning
to the end of every single tape.
- I went through every one of the 63 tape recordings.
narrator: One of those tapes was a recording
of a phone call from 1998
between a police officer and an anxious-sounding woman
who said she had information relating to the case.
* *
- She said she lived in a same complex
that Eric Naposki lived in at the time before the murder,
and she was friends with Eric.
And she said he was talking about his girlfriend,
whose business partner is sexually assaulting her.
And this guy's name is Bill.
* *
- Eric tells her, "I hate that guy.
I want to blow up his plane."
And in essence, he said he hated him,
and he said he wanted to kill him.
Fast forward now several months after the murder.
Eric runs into her again,
and he kind of very arrogantly says to her,
"Hey, you hear about Bill McLaughlin?"
And she said, "Oh, God.
Eric, please tell me you didn't do that."
And he kind of, with a smug smile,
says words to the effect of "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't."
And it terrified her.
- At the time, she reached out to the police department,
tried to share this information.
But at the same time, that urge to do the right thing
was competing with her own sense of dread and fear.
- She wouldn't identify herself.
The police, she did not want to participate,
and that ended it.
narrator: Without her cooperation back in 1995,
there was little police could do.
Larry hopes that with the passage of time,
she might be willing to go on the record as a witness.
- So I decided I'm going to try to find her
and interview her myself to see
if she's willing to come forward with the truth.
If she's willing to come forward,
there might be enough
to prove the charges against the suspects
for the murder of Bill McLaughlin.
[tense music]
* *
narrator: Cold case detectives have just unearthed
an explosive new lead in a 15-year-old murder,
a recorded phone tip from 1998 where an unidentified woman
claims her neighbor, Eric Naposki,
wanted to kill Orange County millionaire Bill McLaughlin.
* *
- Now ten-years-plus later,
I was able to track her down.
narrator: This time, the woman agrees
to help with the investigation
and tells police her name is Suzanne.
- Suzanne was totally willing to assist us
on this investigation.
She had gone through life, she had a kid,
she knew what it was like for somebody to be murdered,
and she was willing to participate fully.
And she remembered everything.
- On another one of the tapes,
there was a woman who called in and said,
"My fiancé has information about Nanette Johnston,"
and she wanted to invest in a company of his.
We track him down in North County, San Diego,
and he said, "Yeah,
it was in December before the murder."
And Nanette came in and said,
"I'm going to come into a bunch of money
"after the first of the year,
and I want to invest it in your startup."
And they were talking about $200,000.
Well, Nanette has no job.
So where, one wonders, does Nanette Johnston
think she's coming into money after the first of the year?
- It was determined by fraud detectives
through a forensic accounting
that in addition to all the fraudulent financial activity
that she had obviously gained
when Mr. McLaughlin was still alive,
Nanette was named on Bill McLaughlin's will
to receive $1 million upon his death.
* *
- So now if he finds out that she's cheating,
she's out of the will with nothing.
So not only does she have a financial motive to kill him,
he has to die, or else she's going to get nothing.
Unless she's got a crystal ball,
she knows he's going to die
because she's going to kill him.
I knew we had 'em.
* *
- In May of 2009, we flew out to Connecticut
and we arrested Eric Naposki
for the murder of Bill McLaughlin.
- We decided that we would give Eric Naposki
one last chance to do the right thing,
so we basically said, "Look, we know she's the mastermind.
Here's a phone. Call her and get her on the record."
And his response basically was, "Eff you."
So we gave the green light to the team in Orange County
to arrest Nanette Johnston.
* *
narrator: In 2011 and 2012, prosecutor Matt Murphy
tries Eric Naposki and Nanette Johnston separately
on first-degree murder charges.
- Prosecutors play out what they have.
Nanette has manipulated Eric
by telling him of the sexual assault story.
She's given him a motivation,
and he then took the 9-millimeter gun
that he has denied owning
and brought it to the house and killed Bill.
- Suzanne is a critical witness,
but it's the collage of all of these pieces
that come together--
Eric's lies about the gun, his relationship with Nanette.
The evidence in this case was overwhelming
as to her guilt and the guilt of Eric Naposki.
- On July 14, 2011,
Eric Naposki's found guilty of first-degree murder.
And on January 23, 2012,
Nanette Johnston was found guilty of conspiracy to murder.
[somber music]
* *
- When this happened to my dad,
I'm sure he was shocked and horrified.
He was helpless to defend himself.
- The fact that you, Nanette, destroyed so many lives,
including my dad's, along the way, is vile.
Your web of lies has caught up with you finally.
- They were sentenced to life without possibility of parole
in a California state prison.
Neither of those two people
should ever see the light of day again.
- She got what she deserved.
[waves crashing]
- I feel that they both deserve the maximum punishment
for the harm and stress
they placed on Bill's immediate family.
Together, they destroyed a family.
- Their story was so sad.
As weird as it sounds and as corny as it sounds,
you live to bring justice to that family.
* *
- To have both juries come back guilty was a relief
and a bright moment in my career.
- At the end of the day, we got the bad guys.
* *
[seagulls calling]