howard was not in his car when it crashed into the sacramento river. and nick had been strangled and dumped in the river at another time. in a search for suspects, investigators first questioned who would benefit from nick's death and learned that nick had several large life insurance policies. >> we found a life insurance policy that had an accidental death benefit rider on there, making the life insurance policy worth $850,000. now, an 18-year-old kid having an $850,000 life insurance policy is a little bit unusual. >> nick's family believed they were the beneficiaries but soon learned that wasn't the case. >> when i went in the room and pulled the policy out, and there was this loose piece of -- it was an application for change of beneficiary. it was an ncr copy. you could see where it had been crumpled, and it had been folded