Bloody Lies: A CSI Scandal in the Heartland

13. Conspiracy

98 bloody lies 13 Conspiracy Back in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, the cass county courthouse sent a belated press release on late Friday afternoon, June, 9, 2006. “On June 8, 2006, the Cass County Attorney’s Office charged both Jessica M. Reid and Gregory D. Fester II with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of use of a firearm to commit a felony in connection with the deaths of Wayne and Sharmon Stock. arrest warrants have been issued for both reid and Fester. Both individuals are in custody in the State of Wisconsin on the cass county warrants. cass county will immediately begin the extradition process.”1 This was stunning and unexpected news for the victims’ families and everyone following the case, including the public defenders for livers and Nick Sampson. “Murdock Slaying case leads to Wisconsin,” read the front-page headline of the June 10, 2006, Omaha World-Herald. The arrest affidavits involving Fester and Reid were filed under seal with the court by the Cass County Attorney’s Office, which blocked the public and press from gaining access to information about the surprising turn of events, at least for the time being.· · · Meanwhile, competitive Nebraska reporters and i, who were all chasing the story, contacted court officials in Dodge County, Wisconsin, who graciously provided several pages of fresh court documents that outlined a significant part of investigator Schenck’s criminal complaints against the two newcomers , Fester and Reid. Interestingly, the court documents filed in Wisconsin totally ignored Jessica reid’s persistent statements that only she and Fester 98 ConsPirACy 99 after this stolen, red-painted truck from Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, was positively linked to the april 17, 2006, Nebraska farmhouse slayings as the real getaway vehicle, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, came up with an entirely new theory to explain the murders. investigators then set out to prove that victims Wayne and Sharmon Stock were slain as part of an elaborate multiplestate conspiracy involving two teenagers from Wisconsin and various young adults residing in Nebraska and Texas. (Author’s collection) were involved. instead, the records presented the story indicating that reid and Fester met up with two men in front of the Bulldogs Bar in downtown Murdock on easter night and later joined them at the farmhouse. The court records made it clear that Reid identified Nebraska defendant Nick Sampson as one of the killers. The court records did not identify the other supposed accomplice.2 additionally, the court documents lodged against Fester also bolstered the newly adopted theory of a multistate sophisticated murder conspiracy. in fact, the notion that Fester and reid acted alone was the last thing anybody at the Cass County Sheriff’s Office was even considering. Instead , cass county embarked on proving a new theory that Nick Sampson’s close friend Tom Todd was also one of the Stocks’ killers. according to an affidavit for a search warrant filed on June 8, 2006, in Cass County Court, cass county Sheriff’s investigator Matthew Watson alleged that Tom Todd gave Fester and reid directions to the Bulldogs Bar in Murdock and then joined them in the commission of the murders. according to that search 100 bloody lies warrant, Cass County Sheriff’s officials now contended that Fester and Reid drove Tom Todd and Will Sampson from the Bulldogs Bar to the remote farmhouse. Watson submitted court briefs alleging that Todd, Will Sampson , reid, and Fester forced entry into the Stock home.3 after hearing two gunshots, “Fester advised that he saw William Sampson pull the gun away and then Thomas Todd fired a round from the gun he had. Fester described this gun as a smaller shotgun that loaded at the breach. Fester advised that once Thomas fired, the male victim stopped moving,” Cass County Sheriff’s investigator Matthew Watson stated in the warrant. Only a matter of hours after the press release announced the arrests of the two Wisconsin teenagers, cass county Sheriff’s deputies moved in and raided Tom Todd’s house on Kansas Street in his normally peaceful hometown of Murdock. The search warrant sought “blood, clothing, hair, dirt or other trace evidence identified with the victims Wayne and Sharmon Stock, plus weapons and ammunition.” Todd, age twenty-one, shared a single-story brick house with a friend, Fred Wilson, also age twenty-one. Todd graduated from elmwood-Murdock High School, and most of his...