- [narrator] a body is discovered in an inferno.
- Rick swan was murdered and then set on fire.
I've never seen anything like that in my career.
- I really didn't know what all was going on
Other than my brother was dead.
(intense music)
- Rick was engaged in this feud
With his two stepsons, brandon and kevin.
- They just hated each other.
It was very clear they hated each other.
- He changed the headstone.
So it no longer says cathey swan on it,
It now has her maiden name on it.
- It was meant to hurt him, and it did.
- [narrator] while digital forensics uncover
A spiteful history...
- I ended up getting some images
He actually thought he'd deleted.
- Now we have photographic evidence.
- [narrator] and a trap set by the victim
Reveals the killer.
- He killed this man on a surveillance camera.
- All he'd done is help this kid.
He treated him like a son.
(upbeat music)
- [narrator] claremore, oklahoma sits 30 miles northeast
Of tulsa.
It's a city of 20,000 residents,
Which upholds small-town values.
But in the fall of 2018,
An emergency call upends this peaceful community.
- A 9-1-1 call came in early that morning
That there was smoke seen on the property.
It was very well-known local businessman, rick swan.
(siren wails)
Firefighters immediately responded
And found a large barn engulfed in flames.
(tense music)
- And the firemen that had arrived could see
That there was an rv inside that metal building.
- And that rv was the source of the fire.
(tense music)
- The fire department ripped down the overhead door,
And they hooked onto the rv,
Yanked it out of there to try to get this fire put out.
- Firefighters were able to get the rv out,
Extinguish the flames.
They then realised there was a body.
They immediately contacted law enforcement.
(siren wails)
Police were very quickly able to determine
It was most likely rick swan.
They knew this was his property.
He lived there. They couldn't find him.
We didn't know if we were looking at a suicide,
An accidental death, or a homicide.
- The initial observation of the body that was inside,
The body was pretty charred.
The smells, the odours, it was overwhelming,
And that's when I observed that the individual's face-down,
And his arms and legs were out to his side,
Which was not consistent with someone dying of a fire.
You would expect the arms and legs to curl up from the pain.
(unsettling music)
- I could see that there were gunshot wounds,
One to his abdomen, one to the back of his head.
- He was shot in the back of the head,
He was shot in the chest, he was shot in the lower back.
So he's been shot three times.
- I suspected he was murdered and then set on fire.
I've never seen anything like that in my career.
- And we realised at that moment,
This had gone from an accidental death or a suicide,
This was intentional, and it was going to be a murder.
(haunting music)
- Shooting someone in the back of the head
Is awfully brutal,
And then you hate that man so bad
That you light him on fire.
That's pretty tough stuff.
- [narrator] the victim is transported
To the medical examiner's office
While investigators begin assessing the charred remains
Of the barn and rv.
- This is a difficult crime scene
Because of the existence of fire.
All of the evidence has to be sifted,
And that takes a really long time.
- All the contents of the rv were burned, melted, in pieces.
- [narrator] investigators discover three nine-millimeter
Shell casings in the debris,
Solidifying their theory of foul play.
(haunting music)
- This started out as a true whodunit.
We're doing everything we could to determine
Who was the murderer, who did this to rick swan.
(foreboding music)
(lively acoustic music) (timeline clicking)
- The swan family,
They were that fabric that a community's made of.
Salt of the earth family, respected family that worked hard.
The swan boys, rick and chris, grew up on a dairy.
- My brother rick, he was always a very hard worker,
And we were a close-knit family.
And growing up, it wasn't all fun,
But there was more fun than trouble. (chuckles)
- Rick was work hard, play hard.
He liked to fish, and so do I,
And we became pretty good friends.
- Rick worked on a pipeline when he wasn't at the dairy,
And it took him all over the united states.
But he really couldn't settle down
To have a family like he was hoping to have.
- [narrator] later in life, at age 45,
Rick starts dating childhood friend cathey pavey-foster.
- He and cathey went to school together,
And they had known each other for years and years.
Rick always thought a lot of her.
After they started dating, things just blossomed.
It was a good deal.
- Rick just really, really adored her,
And I would say she was even a little bit spoiled.
You know, he was really in love with her.
- Now, she had had some issues in the past,
And she had even tried to take her own life at one point,
But it seemed like they were both on the right track
And they had a new beginning.
- [narrator] cathey suffered from bouts
Of depression for years.
She saw counselling and various medications,
But nothing held.
- He knew she was having problems,
But he was supportive and tried to help.
He just did everything he could to make cathey happy.
- [narrator] in 2005, after dating for two years,
Rick proposes to cathey with a two-carat ring.
- They had the wedding at my parents' house
Out in the country, and his number-one priority
Was making sure cathey was happy.
He wanted cathey to be happy.
- She had two sons that were grown,
Already outta high school, brandon and kevin.
She was kind of estranged from kevin,
Hadn't really talked to him a lot,
Hadn't kept in touch with him.
And that bothered rick because he knew it bothered cathey.
- Cathey had kicked kevin out of the house,
But rick knew that cathey still loved him,
And so he brought him back to claremore
And bought him a trailer to live in
And a car for transportation,
And helped him get enrolled in school.
Kevin was his stepson, and he wanted to treat him right.
- Finally, kevin gets a good job at a bank,
And things were pretty good between the three of them.
- [narrator] despite the good times she enjoys
With rick and her sons,
Cathey's mental health issues persist.
In October, 2016, 11 years into her marriage with rick,
Cathey succumbs to her illness and commits suicide.
- Rick was devastated. He didn't know what to do.
He was thinking very seriously about suicide himself
For a long time.
It was hard to get him to get out and do anything.
- Then in February, about four months after cathey's death,
Rick found the suicide note folded up in a drawer.
Cathey spoke about personal things,
And it was really a reflection of someone who was hurting
And what they were feeling at the time.
- [narrator] the discovery of cathey's suicide note
Provides some closure for rick,
And he begins to look toward the future.
(timeline clicking) (gentle music)
- After several years, I'd say,
Things started looking up for him.
- Tommy was able to get him back out on the boat.
Rick realised his life was still worth living.
It was nice to see rick smile,
And he was looking forward
To the next few years of his life.
(haunting music)
- [narrator] two years after losing his wife to suicide,
Rick is discovered murdered.
(sombre music)
- He started to pull out of it
And was was doing extremely well,
And so coming to find out that rick was gone,
That was extremely hard.
- Tommy called me and asked if I'd talked to rick,
And I told him, "no, I tried to call him,
But I never got an answer."
And he said, "well, his shop was on fire."
(foreboding music)
And I jumped in the truck.
By the time I was able to get there,
Rick's body had been taken away.
I really didn't know what all was going on at that time
Other than my brother was dead.
(sombre piano music)
- I honestly was a little bit rattled at that point.
When something like that happens,
All your emotions hit you at one time.
You don't really know who to trust,
So I thought I would call rick's attorney.
- I got a call from rick's best friend, tommy,
Who said, "listen, I'm at his property.
He's dead, the place is on fire."
And I said, "oh my gosh.
I'm pretty sure that his stepson
Is gonna be the guilty party."
His stepson did it.
- They just hated each other.
It was very clear they hated each other.
There was no confusing that.
- He makes a point of saying,
"you're gonna get $2 when I die, and you're gonna get $1."
- [narrator] when tommy barrett learns his best friend,
Rick swan, has been discovered dead,
He immediately alerts rick's attorney.
- I drove over to the crime scene.
It was still smouldering.
I was convinced it was his stepson.
- [narrator] steve peters tells investigators
That rick's relationship with both of his stepsons,
Brandon and kevin, had deteriorated beyond repair.
He says it all began after rick's wife, cathey,
Committed suicide two years earlier.
(haunting music) (timeline clicking)
- After cathey takes her own life, brandon blames ricky.
This anger, this frustration,
All of that was placed on ricky,
Even though her death was ruled a suicide.
He just kind of gets away from rick,
But just kind of moves on.
But kevin cannot do that.
- Rick had made efforts to bring kevin into his family,
To be generous with him,
To make him feel that he was appreciated.
- Rick didn't have any children,
And he treated kevin as his own son.
- October of 2017, rick added kevin foster
To one of his checking accounts
So he could have some help with handling financial things.
- At the time, kevin foster worked at a tulsa bank,
But things had gotten really bad for him financially.
- Kevin foster was having financial issues,
And so kevin wanted money.
- Ricky swan, he owns a lot of land.
That family has owned land for a long time in rogers county.
They are well-to-do, but they are also very generous.
So he reached out to kevin, he helped him financially.
- Rick told me that he was giving kevin small loans,
But it was substantial once you added it all up.
- [narrator] rick calculates that he has
Loaned kevin $7,500.
- After that, rick took over finances
And discovered that money was also being taken
That he wasn't aware of.
- [narrator] rick initially is forgiving of his stepson.
- Rick talked about it and scolded him,
And it was somewhat overlooked.
- [narrator] but rick's generosity doesn't appease kevin.
- Not long after, kevin's like,
"look, I want some of the personal property of my mom,"
Including the big two-carat diamond
That ricky had given cathey.
- Kevin was claiming it was sentimental,
Telling rick that that's all he had
To remember his mother by,
And it would be important for him.
- I think he thought he was kind of being still fatherly
When he said, "no, you don't get the two-carat ring
That I gave her to be married.
That's something special to me."
- By December of 2017,
Kevin asked rick swan if he could have half
Of cathey's estate.
Rick said, "no, this is my estate as well.
You can't have those funds."
And that's where they started to go south.
- Kevin somehow got it in his head
That he should have half of everything that rick had.
He was wanting rick's money
And half the land that rick already owned
Even before the marriage.
It was crazy.
- [lori] ricky's like, "look, I've already given you
$7500 loan, you didn't pay that back.
You're not getting any more money from me."
- Rick started realising how much of a draw
That kevin had been,
And the more entitled he felt, the more he wanted to take.
- Rick starts getting worried
Because they had put kevin's name on an account
As a signature, and he starts thinking,
"he's coming at me for money.
I need to go check that account."
And then he finds out kevin has actually now
Recently withdrawn $17,000.
$17,000 is missing out of this account.
Ricky had no idea and never gave permission for any of it.
- Rick was shocked. He treated him like a son.
- Rick's going through all of the stages of grief,
While at the same time, beginning to realise
That kevin foster is taking advantage of him.
- And so ricky says to the bank,
"look, I need to move all the money out of this account.
I don't want him to have access to any more money
Or be able to take any more money."
And that just sent things into the stratosphere.
- [narrator] in March, 2018, eight months prior to the murder,
Kevin files a lawsuit against rick.
He claims he is owed money from rick's bank account
As part of his late mother's estate.
- There was nothing signed by rick
Or cathey giving that right of survivorship.
I think rick was dumbfounded.
All he'd done is help this kid.
- The gloves came off.
Two months after kevin files a lawsuit against ricky,
Ricky files a counter lawsuit against kevin,
And he argues that kevin "doesn't have any right
To any of my money.
It's in my accounts,
And they're not entitled to any of that."
(suspenseful music)
- Kevin was incensed, you could tell.
Now he's desperate.
(haunting music)
- Shortly after, rick began noticing things
Like objects in his house that were moved.
- [narrator] rick starts documenting his findings.
- And then rick started looking through the jewellery boxes
And noticed the rings that rick had bought cathey,
That kevin wanted, was gone, and that just blew rick's mind.
- Now it really ratchets it up.
He truly believes that kevin is breaking in,
Coming into his home, and taking things.
- [narrator] when rick reports the alleged theft to police,
Detectives question kevin.
- When I spoke to kevin foster, he was reasonable.
He was angry.
They just hated each other.
It was very clear they hated each other.
There was no confusing that.
And he did, in fact, feel entitled to the estate,
But was very quick to say,
"but I didn't do any of these things."
- [narrator] just three weeks before his murder,
Rick visits cathey's grave,
And is horrified by what he finds.
- Sometime overnight, somebody moved the original headstone
That had "rick and cathey swan" to the side,
And the new one was placed.
- Rick believes kevin has actually now changed the headstone
So it no longer says cathey swan on it.
It now has her maiden name on it.
It's like she has been wiped out of ricky's life.
This is a final resting place.
It's supposed to be a place of peace,
And now it has become this focal point of this feud.
(unsettling music)
- It was extremely upsetting to rick.
There was no financial gain to that.
It was even costing money.
But it was meant to hurt him, and it did.
(suspenseful music)
- So we got a temporary restraining order,
Which means the judge said,
"you're restrained from doing anything else
To the grave site until we have a hearing."
And so that hearing was set for 3:00 on November 15,
The day of the murder.
- [narrator] hours after the discovery of rick swan's body,
The killer is on the loose.
Detectives want to find out
If rick's neighbours witnessed anything unusual.
- Neighbours suggested rick swan likely had game cameras
Around his shop or around his property to provide security.
That would've been great evidence.
And we searched in trees and fence lines,
And we didn't recover it.
A uniformed policeman also found a neighbour
Who was very credible and very adamant,
That at 10:40 in the morning,
He says, "I saw a red mini cooper parked
Outside rick swan's closed gate."
- [narrator] 30 minutes after the sighting,
Flames are reported at rick swan's property.
- The neighbours know each other,
They're familiar with one another,
And seeing a vehicle like a red mini cooper
Was very distinctive.
So investigators sent people out to determine,
"hey, is this red mini cooper captured anywhere?
Is it seen on cameras?"
- Rick swan's property,
It's really right on the corner
Of a pretty big highway for us state highway 20.
There's plenty of surveillance cameras,
You know, local businesses there that are willing
To share video with officers when they go in.
(intense music)
- We knew the two local gas stations that have a very good,
Very robust security system,
And so we check out their surveillance video.
- We located a red mini cooper on surveillance camera.
- It was passing by a gas station, and ultimately,
It was seen speeding away from the swan residence.
- They can see this red mini cooper,
But the video is not good enough for them to get a tag,
So they can't research who owns it.
- We needed to determine who was in this mini cooper,
Who had visited rick swan on the morning of this incident.
- Our detectives kind of started talking
To our patrol officers, saying,
"hey, here's what we're kind of looking for."
Luckily for us, a red mini cooper kind of stands out.
It's not something that we see tonnes of.
- [narrator] before investigators can comb the database
For a red mini cooper,
A tip comes in from a worker at the cemetery,
Where the victim's wife, cathey, is buried.
- There was a worker there,
Who sees a guy in a red mini cooper,
And he takes out of there super fast.
So that, of course, catches the worker's eye.
- So I followed up with woodlawn cemetery,
And that's when we saw that cathey swan's original headstone
With both rick and cathey's name had been kicked over.
- We knew that was a very contentious point
Between kevin foster and rick swan.
(suspenseful music)
- So as they start to look into kevin's background
To see what he owns, they find out, guess what?
He owns a red mini cooper.
- That's the makings of some pretty heavy suspicions
That we need to start focusing on.
Is kevin foster capable of violent crime?
He's probably never been in a fistfight in his life,
But we also looked up his criminal history
And learned that he worked at a tulsa bank.
He was charged with having embezzled from that bank.
- [narrator] in March, 2018,
Days after being accused of embezzlement,
Kevin foster files the lawsuit against rick,
Demanding ownership of his mother's estate.
- He embezzled from that bank and lost his job.
He got arrested for embezzlement.
That suggests that maybe he was getting kinda desperate.
At that point, facts begin to come together
That are still certainly short
Of probable cause to go arrest kevin foster.
It's time for us to go knock on kevin foster's door
And see what he has to say.
- [narrator] hours into the investigation,
Witnesses suggest kevin foster may be responsible
For rick swan's murder.
Detectives realise it's time to meet with kevin.
- Two plainclothes osp agents approach foster,
Knock on his door.
It was a rational discussion
Where kevin foster denies being in claremore that day.
- He said he had a court appearance,
That he had been at work.
- The agents presented him with some surveillance images,
And he said, "well, that's me.
That's me in claremore, but I wasn't in claremore today."
- At that point, they asked whether or not he had a firearm.
- Then he turned belligerent. He got physically combative.
Kevin's, he's not a tough-guy type,
But he got in this little tussle
With a couple of police officers, which got him arrested,
And he went to jail for obstructing a police officer.
(tense music)
- [narrator] with kevin adamant he played no part
In his stepfather's death,
And no hard evidence clearly proving kevin as the killer,
Investigators need to figure out their next move.
- Agents were able to search kevin foster's home
To see if there's evidence.
His wife, elissa, was there, so she was interviewed.
And his wife reports that he found another job,
He went to work that day.
- Elissa told us, the day of the murder,
He was going to work.
He wasn't there.
And kevin was this very upstanding person,
That was very professional, very intelligent,
Had a very successful life.
- The wife, she's like, "look, he's innocent.
He didn't do it. I support him."
She does, at one point, say that kevin does own two guns.
Kevin's wife hands over his two guns to investigators
To be examined to prove his innocence.
One of them is a nine-millimeter,
And nine-millimeter shell casings had been found
At the scene where ricky was murdered.
So now you're wondering, could it be the murder weapon?
- [narrator] investigators send the weapon for analysis.
The next morning, rick swan's attorney contacts detectives,
And details an unusual message he received
Soon after rick was killed.
- Rick and kevin were scheduled to appear in district court
At 3:00 on the day of the murder.
So after the hearing was over, rick didn't appear in court,
And I had got a call from kevin foster.
- [narrator] investigators follow up
With the tulsa county court clerk.
She confirms that kevin did appear for the hearing.
- Kevin still shows up at that court hearing,
And they're like, "we're not having a court hearing today
Because there's been an emergency,"
Because they know that rick is dead.
- [narrator] detectives can't be sure
If kevin expected to see rick at the hearing
Or if turning up at court was an attempt
To cover his tracks.
With kevin in jail for obstruction,
Investigators need to consider other potential suspects
That may remain at large.
- So you gotta think,
Is maybe somebody else in that red mini cooper?
Is it really him, or is it someone who's trying
To make it look like it was him?
- [narrator] there's one other person who stands to gain
From rick swan's demise: His other stepson, brandon.
- So the feud didn't stop between rick and kevin.
Brandon foster was also estranged from rick,
Had very hard feelings toward rick.
Investigators needed to determine,
Is there something more there?
- [narrator] as investigators pore through a paper trail
Of rick's business dealings,
They discovered that one month before his murder,
Rick swan made an adjustment to his will.
(timeline clicking) (tense music)
- At that time, rick realises with this bank situation,
With this headstone situation, things are so outta control
That there's no going back.
It's causing him grief on top of his grief,
And he decides he's gonna make it clear
That when he passes away, these stepsons of his,
They're not getting anything from him.
And he doesn't just say they're not getting anything,
But he makes a point of saying,
"brandon, you're gonna get $2 when I die,
And, kevin, you're gonna get $1."
- Can you ignore the existence
Of brandon foster in this investigation?
No, you can't.
That night, brandon foster was interviewed by investigators,
And he was cooperative.
- What they're able to fairly quickly uncover was that,
No, brandon foster and rick weren't friends.
They didn't socialise,
But there wasn't the bitter hatred
That they were seeing with kevin foster.
- They also learn from brandon that, "look, even I think
He's gotten just a little too far out there
With his hatred of his stepfather."
And at that time, he pulls out a picture and says to them,
"okay, look, I have something
That might help you in this case."
- Brandon provided images from his cell phone
That kevin had texted him months before.
- And it was the outline of a human shooting target
Riddled with bullet holes, and underneath was "rip rick."
We actually set up a meeting with elissa foster,
And then she actually confronted kevin foster
For the first time.
- [narrator] detectives investigating the murder of rick swan
Learn that months earlier, his stepson, brandon foster,
Received a text message from kevin foster.
- Clearly that showed us kevin had harboured this animosity,
This murderous rage for a little while,
Or he wouldn't have sent that text.
- They also learned from brandon, he has an alibi.
It's solid, so that rules him out.
- [narrator] with investigators' focus back on kevin,
They reach out to his current employer
To confirm that kevin was at work on the day of the murder.
- That's where we learned,
When they found out about those embezzlement charges,
He was apparently dismissed,
And he was not working at the time of the murder.
- The day of the murder, kevin foster led his wife
To believe that he was going to work,
Even though he'd been fired.
- Kevin foster is the likely and lone suspect at that point.
I had this theory kevin lost his job,
Then he pressured rick for what he thought he was owed
From his mother's estate.
Kevin foster's after the money,
And he's mad that he can't get it.
- He was simmering, and that simmering,
Nobody knew how much it was gonna boil over,
But it's getting worse and worse.
- [narrator] it's been 24 hours
Since rick swan was found murdered.
Kevin foster is in jail for obstruction,
But investigators need to move quickly
To keep him behind bars on a murder charge.
- I obtained a search warrant
To search kevin foster's red mini cooper car.
- What they find inside is a smashed cell phone.
- The screen of the phone was cracked.
We were hoping the phone wasn't destroyed sufficiently
To prevent evidence from being recovered from it.
We also then found a key to a safety deposit box
From a specific bank.
- [narrator] while investigators send the smashed cell phone
For forensic analysis,
They follow up at the bank
Where the safety deposit box appears to be from.
- We searched the safety deposit box.
They find that wedding ring
Rick swan had months before,
Described as the ring that kevin foster had stolen.
- [narrator] at claremore pd, investigators are in luck.
They successfully access data
From the smashed cell phone.
- Phones contain so much data,
But I kind of just pointed at November 15th,
And there was gps data that we recovered.
We plugged those coordinates in,
And it mapped right in the area of rick swan's property.
So we knew that that phone had been there.
As I kept kind of scrolling through it,
I ended up getting some images
That kevin foster actually thought he had deleted.
One of the first pictures I found
Was a body that was burning.
I was looking at rick swan burning, live.
And the next picture was the outside
Of rick swan's building.
It was about a one-second video,
And I could tell the person holding the phone
Was walking away from that,
But all you could see is the smoke billowing out.
- The photograph confirmed for us that he stood there
And watched that man's body burn.
Kevin foster is capable of murder.
Who would've thought it?
- I was a little bit surprised
That kevin was actually the one that murdered him.
I knew he was an evil person,
But I didn't see him being dumb enough
To blatantly kill someone like that
And think you're not gonna get caught.
Maybe rage just took over him.
- [narrator] on December 5th, 2018,
Kevin foster is charged with murder.
He enters a plea of not guilty,
And the trial is scheduled for November, 2019.
- We believe that the egregious nature of this crime,
Kevin foster deserved all the prison time
That we could give him.
But how would we be able to prove that this was intentional
To get the maximum sentence?
- I was cleaning out rick's shop,
And I saw something laying on the ground there,
And I picked it up.
It was a game camera.
(tense music)
I didn't know if anything was on it or not,
But I felt like I needed to call the police department.
- Chris swan calls me, and he was distraught.
So I went and met with chris,
And what he explained to me was the game camera
That we had been looking for back in November,
Chris found it.
- [narrator] investigators load the images from the game cam.
Designed to track wildlife,
The game cam automatically takes a photo
When triggered by movement.
- Most people have game cameras to catch deer,
But rick swan used them to kind of protect himself.
- [narrator] positioned inside the barn,
Rick's rv is just out of frame to the left.
- The images start with rick swan turning on the lights,
And a minute and 12 seconds after rick turns on the lights,
You see kevin foster's shoe enter the picture.
You see a gun in his hand.
He's literally holding a gun in his hand
While he's facing the trailer.
- After that, you never see rick swan out of the rv,
Which confirms for me that rick was still in the rv
When kevin approached it.
Kevin foster disappears out of view
Into the rv for some period of time.
He comes back out with one glove on,
A big bag full of stuff that he's gonna steal.
(suspenseful music)
- Then you see him with gas cans,
Walking with cans of gasoline.
- Then the shop building gets pretty dark and smoky,
And pretty soon bursts into flames.
- It's eerie seeing this person go up there
And end up executing his stepfather.
- Now we had photographic evidence.
Kevin foster killed this man on a surveillance camera.
- Even though we had faith
In the volume of evidence that we had,
Any trial attorney knows that you never know
What a jury is going to do.
We knew that kevin foster was posturing himself
As somebody that was completely innocent,
And elissa, his wife, seemed to be buying it.
And so, we actually set up a meeting with elissa foster
Where we provided her some of the information that we had.
She was shocked, had a very emotional reaction,
And then had a video phone call to kevin foster from jail
Where she actually confronted kevin foster
For the first time.
- [narrator] homicide suspect kevin foster is in jail,
Awaiting trial for the murder of his stepfather, rick swan.
Investigators watch as his wife, elissa,
Confronts him with the evidence.
(elissa sobs)
(tense music)
(elissa sobs)
- He downplayed it.
He initially claimed it could be manufactured.
Up until now, I think he believed,
"I'm gonna get away with this."
- [narrator] in January, 2019,
Investigators received the ballistics report.
It confirms that the bullets that killed rick swan
Were fired from kevin's gun.
On November 6th, 2019, kevin foster stands trial
For the murder of rick swan.
- The question was, how's foster gonna do?
He doesn't look like what you would expect
A murder defendant to look like.
Is he gonna explain his story?
And by that, I mean, is he going to lie well?
- So kevin foster takes the stand
And claims that rick had a gun that he fired at him,
Things that demonstrably were untrue.
(haunting music)
- It's hard to sit there and watch someone lie
And keep your mouth shut.
- [narrator] despite the prosecution's seemingly strong case,
As the jury enters deliberation, rick's family
And friends continue to worry kevin may get away with it.
- You never know what a jury's going to decide
One way or the other, but yeah,
I guess I just put my trust
That the right thing was gonna be done.
- [narrator] on November 15th, 2019,
After an eight-day trial,
The jury returns with their verdict.
- The result was that the jury found him guilty
On every count, and returned the maximum sentence
On every count, and that includes murder.
- [narrator] kevin foster is ultimately sentenced
To 45 years in federal prison.
- They assured me that he'll never see freedom again,
But depends on if whether he lives long enough to get out.
I hope he dies there.
- [narrator] rick's family and friends continue
To grieve their loss.
- I miss him when I need somebody to talk to.
I know his brother does, too.
So I call his brother now.
(bright piano music)
- I found a note
He had written me,
That basically said,
"if you find this note, I'm now gone,"
To not be sad for him,
(chris sniffles)
Not to be sad for him,
That he was where he wanted to be, with cathey now.
(gentle music)
I was just so lucky to have rick in my life.
We didn't always see eye to eye,
But we were always...
(chris groans)
We were always brothers. (sniffles)