My mom found her and said she might have slipped in the shower. She was in the Fetal Position in this bathtub. You could see marks on jessicas neck. Police said were going to rule this as a homicide. Reporter detectives using new technology to view this crime scene in extreme detail. There is no forced entry, no tool marks. There was blood on the couch. Who could have done this . They said usually it is someone close. An investigation focusing on friends and family. They brought up the association with the motorcycle gang. We came off as kind of a tough guy. We fool around a little bit. And he threatened to take out my whole entire family to get custody of our kids. Wow. Reporter a chilling story of danger and duplicity. We would try to figure out who did this. He knew the whole time. This is the ultimate betrayal. Hello and welcome to dateline. Jessica nelson was a Hard Working Single mom who kept her loved ones close. And then one morning, she was found dead in the house she shared with her son. But the discovery left her family shattered. But their ordeal had just begun. Detectives would soon discover someone close to jessica was living a lie. Here is Keith Morrison with evil intent. Reporter it was 9 00 in the morning on the 25th of june, 2015, omaha, nebraska. Missy nelsons Morning Ritual was interrupted by a phone call. It was the bank where her daughter, jessica worked. She was an hour late. I was like what . What do you mean shes not there . They are like shes not here and weve been calling her, and shes not answering. Reporter the thing was jessica was never late. Missy tried calling her. No answer. Panic now, she ran to her car and was jessica at home, sick . So i was calling her on the way over there, and i was thinking i dont know where she is at. And then i started to think really bad things. Maybe she was in a ditch somewhere passed out. Maybe she was in a really bad car accident. But you knew it was something bad . I felt something was wrong. So i get over there and her car is in the driveway, so im relieved like okay, shes here. Shes not in an accident. But why isnt she answering the phone . Reporter the door was locked. So missy used her key to let herself in. I walk in and her house is really dark. I couldnt find her. Everything is dark, so i dont know where im going, and the bathroom is the first door on the left and the door was closed, but i hear water running, okay, maybe she just used the bathroom. I opened up the door and turned on the light, and she was in the bathtub. The water was running. The water was up to her nose. She was laying like this. She had something in her hand, it was a phone cord. I didnt understand where that came from. I started screaming. I had my cell phone, so i called 911. 911, do you need police, fire, or rescue . [ inaudible ] my daughters dead in the bathtub. I dont understand a word youre saying. Whats going on . I just found my daughter dead in the bathtub, and it looks like she slipped. I dont know how long shes been in there. I drained the Water Thinking i could help her, but she was already gone. You could tell . I could tell she was blue, her face was a weird pattern on her face. It looked checkered, but her body was still like a normal color. I cant imagine that. It was horrible. Its like a nightmare. I still see it, like one of the worst feelings in the world. Because shes gone. By the time jessicas father, harry got there. There was a policeman in the driveway. Reporter and not far away he found missy, a wreck, a mess. I hugged her. Whats going on . What do we know . We dont know anything. Reporter had she slipped in the shower . He thought that at first, but i saw the mark on her neck and the cord in her hand, and i didnt think it sounded right. She shouldnt have had her Phone Charger there, her phone wasnt there. I didnt know what to think. I was devastated. I wasnt even thinking at that point. Reporter First Responders trying to keep an open mind werent sure what to think either. It wasnt an obvious homicide. They didnt know if it was a medical emergency because we find people like that, that have suffered a stroke or heart attack or something in a similar kind of situation, so they really didnt know what they had. Reporter Homicide Detectives Derek Moys and ryan davis. I do a cursory walk through the residence. They show me where jessica is at. Shes in the bathtub. Oddly enough her clothes were in the bathtub with her. But not on her . Nope. They were laying near her feet. The couch in The Living Room had blood all over it. So my reaction is maybe there was some sort of a medical emergency that occurred on the couch. She had gone to the bathroom to maybe clean herself off and had collapsed and succumbed to whatever medical emergency she was having. There wasnt any obvious signs of trauma on her body. She had a small bruise on the side of her neck. It didnt look like anything. She could have gotten it any way . It didnt look like she was assaulted. Reporter but there was something off that did not quite look right. They decided to treat it like a homicide. Because you only get one chance at this. If you go in and you go guns blazing and you try to rush through things, youre going to miss things. Reporter the csi people arrived, using a Laser Scanner to quickly take billions of measurements and create this virtual representation of jessicas house, 3d. So more accurate than any photo. And then they removed jessicas body, and yes, detectives could see homicide was the right call. When we were able to actually look at her eyes, it was fairly evident that there had been some sort of a strangulation, asphyxiation at the very least that took place. One of the things we noted right away is that she had longer fingernails, and one of those fingernails was quite evidently bent back. We knew that there was a chance then that if she had fought back against her attacker, theres potentially dna there. Reporter the next day the autopsy confirmed that jessica had indeed been strangled to death. There is a slight ligature mark around her neck, but it was disrupted. It almost appeared there was possibly a hand, her hand maybe. Trying to pull, so the marks were intermitten. Reporter and one more thing the autopsy revealed. She had been sexually assaulted. The first thing that goes through your head is why, how, who . I mean everybody is a suspect and nobody is a suspect. Who could have done this and why. Reporter did she have any enemies . None that we knew of. Coming up. The man in jessicas life and their volatile relationship. She would call us like every other week. Can you come and get me . Me and john had a fight. And then did a Facebook Post put her in danger . She just put out there that she was home alone and did it without even realizing. 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Missy and harry nelson had it. Three kids, kids partners, grandchildren. Until. Until the morning they found their beloved oldest child jessica just 28 years old dead in their own bathtub. But who was she . Everybody loved her. She was the big sister. She just always wanted to have fun. She was like another mom to us. She would always be there even if they were fighting, she would be there. A big sister to an extended family. Her cousins, Close Friends who were more like siblings. Her siblings Close Friends were more like relatives. She was always really nice to everybody. Reporter laura wonder had been a friend since grade school. She just wanted to have a good time. She was, i wouldnt say crazy. Goofy . Goofy. She did whatever she wanted to do. Reporter and that held true in her choice of men. Her first serious boyfriend was him. With his tattoos and stuff. He seemed to be something that she would have been into because she had a few tattoos as well. Reporter his name was John Mcdowell. He and jessica were good together and sometimes not. She would call us like what, every other week. Can you come and get me . Me and john had a fight, and im not staying out here. So we would drive out there to missouri valley. A couple weeks later, shes back out there again. Reporter a year in, there was still no wedding, but there was a baby, dominic, dom. I remember everyone was so excited, wanting to meet him. She loved him, and i think it was an instinct she had. She wanted to do the best for him she could. And after everything else. Reporter and then one day, dom was still quite small. It all seemed to come apart. They were doing okay until he left her a voice mail by accident. An unintentional voice mail. And the message that was left was bad, very bad. He told them he slept with another girl and that was it. Whoa. And so i helped her move that day. She must have been so upset . She was. She was devastated. To get an accidental voicemail from the guy, the father of your baby . I slept with another woman. And kind of bragging about it. Yeah. You should have seen the one i was with. And thats why jessica elected to be a single mom. Better she decided to concentrate on her little boy, the center of her life, dominic. She did everything she could for her son. Just to try to do it right. I have things i want him to have, so i need to pay for those things. So she worked . Two to three jobs sometimes. How does a person even do that . She worked at the First National bank. She liked that job . Oh yeah. That was her dream job. And then jessica and dominic lived in a little house on the north side of town. It wasnt very big. But dom had the bigger room, and shes like well, he has more toys and his bed has a slide. He has a slide . Yeah, he needs a slide. Sure he needed a slide. It was just she gave everything up for him. He was her world. Reporter in fact jessicas last words on facebook, the night she died when dom was at his dads were i am such a mess when dom is gone. And she had lost the remote and thought it was the worst 15 minutes of her life. She was lost. Without dominic because he could find the remote. But. She put it out there she was home alone and did it without even realizing. So if anybody was following her, they would know . Yeah. Reporter but of course someone was following her on facebook. Maybe quite a few someones. But finding the one with evil intent, not so easy. Investigators start the search with jessicas ex, and soon hear some troubling stories. Coming up. She would post pictures, and if she is around guys, they were just friends. John, you could tell he was, like a little sad. Her sister, ashleys ex raises eyebrows too. He threatened to take out my whole entire family to get custody of our kids. Wow. When dateline continues. Take all the pics so many selfies. 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If you experience Irregular Heartbeat, heart racing, chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, or lightheadedness, you should talk to your doctor. Afib increases the risk of stroke about 5 times. When it comes to your health, this is no time to wait. Whoa, how did you defeat them . With a little kung fu strength and by connecting my devices to the most powerful force of all. Skadoosh. Hah, huh . Cool right . Amazing. Harness the power of xfinity internet and stay connected to the things you love. Ah, theyll be like this for hours. Hello dad, hello dad, hello da. Uhoh. Good bunnies. Ahh perhaps you know me as, the kung fu panda. Ah, youre adorable. Huh. Oh, whah welcome back to dateline. Who would want to harm Jessica Nelson . That question baffled her grieving family. Welcome back to dateline. He vwho would want to harm Jessica Nelson . That question baffled her grieving family. When the vibrant young mom was found strangled, her loved ones wondered if a Facebook Post alerted jessicas killer. Now investigators were about to drill down on her personal relationships. One of them was complicated. Back to Keith Morrison with evil intent. Word of Jessica Nelsons death spread quickly among her friends in omaha. I got a phone call from a mutual friend of ours. She was so hysterical. I couldnt understand what she was saying. I thought she said that dom had been killed. So i got off the phone with her and i called john, and he said they found jess dead, and it was unreal. You couldnt believe that. Reporter lauras friendship with jessica had drifted a bit after high school, but by 2015, it was a little unusual. Laura and jessica both had babies with john. Laura, they didnt at first, but it was after she broke up with john that her son, christopher was born. And that was not long before jessica got pregnant. I found out when i was six months pregnant with our son that him and jessica had been dating or just started dating. Reporter two women, two children, one man. I wanted to be mad at her and i couldnt because she was just too nice. Reporter any way pretty soon john was no longer in the picture for either of them. And then as single mothers, laura and jessica reconnected, so their sons, half brothers, could bond. Our kids met each other and they got to play together. Reporter and now her friend was dead. And the father of both their sons was sitting in the Police Station, answering questions. Dude, i couldnt even tell you for sure. Its probably been three months. And so when did you actually last see jessica . When she dropped my son off last night. Which meant he was the last known person to see jessica alive except for the killer unless he was the killer. Detectives brought Family Members and friends and questioned them all about john. I think everybody kind of had their own impression of jonathan. And some of those impressions were not flattering. She would post pictures of us just out with friends. If she is around with just another guy, even though they were just friends, john, you could tell he was like a little like who is that . Jealous . Yeah. Did Jessica Trust John . No. I know she was planning on filing for sole custody of dominic. She was just tired of it because half the time when it was johns time, he would refuse. They would have these fights over dominic, over custody, over money. Jessica was routinely upset with him. John seemed to be trying to minimize those issues. You had issues at each others throats or anything like that . The biggest thing we might fight about is you have a pair of shorts that i bought him two weeks ago, and i havent gotten to see them. I need to find them. Okay. After a few hours of questioning, they let john go with a warning. He was suspect number one, and they kept an eye on him as they investigated other men who crossed paths with