I saw the pill bottle and i freaked out. Or was it something much darker . He told me that he would put it in her red bull. How did she change . She became more sexual with people. Who wanted her dead . He thought he was somewhat of a player. Did it make him a kler . Im lester holt, and this is dateline. Here is Dennis Murphy with secrets in seattle. Seattle was raw after a week of relentless winter rain. A woman lost had been found in the tangle of the blackberries. A naked body. A small tattoo on the back. A necklace and signs of strangulation. The detectives sent to a patch of trees and boggy undergrowth near the seattle airports runways guessed it was her. They would soon be proved correct. Nine days to find her, the answer to where. Another seven years still ahead to answer the questions of all homicides, who, and why. But we have to go back, before the crime scene photos and the medical examiners findings, before she became those chilly words, the victim. To find the dearly loved person named nici. Nici pietz, wife and daughter, sister and friend. She seemed to be able to uplift people in ways that none of us knew how to do. She had a way to make you smile. She had a way to let you know that everything was going to be okay. Gayle was her mother. Nici was sunshine. She was the kind of person that when she walked in a room, the room lit up. Gayle raised nici and her sister, tanya, in the suburbs of seattle. There were carefree days at the nearby lake. Is nici your annoying kid sister or was she a pretty cool kid . She was a very annoying kid sister. Mom insisted on dressing us alike. In high school, mia says nici was a friend to everyone. Every day, eating lunch together. She never sat. She would walk around and visit with people. She always saw the good in people. She didnt see the bad in people. After graduation, nici brought that winning spirit into the workplace. Eventually landing a plum position in the head offices of bally total fitness. Kimberly thomas was on her team. Nici was a great boss. She cared about how your day was, she cared about how you were feeling. She cared about your birthday. Ballys is where nici met david pietz. He exuded smooth confidence. He seemed to be going places. He was definitely a very nice man. Easy to talk to, would laugh a lot. He was actually a very compassionate person. He was very confident. He spoke well. He had a presence that demanded attention. Dave was set on selling more gym memberships than anyone else. And he wouldnt have denied what everyone saw in him. He was ambitious, with his eyes on bigger management prizes. Dave could sell reading glasses to a blind person. It didnt matter what his pitch was. He had you convinced that whatever it was, you had to have it. So there was dave, hustling on the sales floor, and there was nici, the buttonedup blonde from corporate. And the boss favorite hire was acknowledged. Before long, nici and dave became an item. She definitely would get a little bounce in her step when she got an incoming message from dave. Out of everybody, he chose her. That has to make you feel kind of special. Pretty soon, nici and dave moved in together. Gayle had remarried and moved to arizona with her new husband, ron. And she could tell by the sound of her daughters voice on the phone that nici had found the one. He was her dream man. Really . He was the man she wanted. She was so in love with him. And he apparently with her. Evidence to her friends and family, by the piece of jewelry she was rarely seen without. David got her a little tennis bracelet. Diamonds on it . Yeah, little tiny diamonds and white gold, i think. Did she like it . Was it a sentimental piece for her . She loved it. She wore it everywhere. Another piece of jewelry from him would follow. A wedding ring. After dating for two years, nici and dave married. So tell me about the wedding. Hawaii was the place. It was in hawaii. She looked so beautiful and happy. They both had leis and beautiful flowers in her hair. And it was on the beach, with the waves crashing. And sunset. It was beautiful. It was absolutely beautiful. And was your sister happy on that day . Yes. I think she found her prince charming. Nicole pietz seemed to be on top of the world, and stepping confidently into her grownup life. She was pretty excited about getting married. She loved her ring. She loved her bracelet that he got her. She was excited about getting a new condo. And having her own little family. January 28th, 2006 was a saturday. After a hectic work week at their different jobs, nici and dave would chill with a dinner party that night over at their friends place. That afternoon, dave called nici to hash out the details. They would drive there separately. Hey, babe, give me a call. I need to know what were doing, if i need to stop and get food or anything for allen and jason and stuff like that. So give me a call. Bye. But when dave pietz showed up at their friends apartment that evening, nici wasnt there. One hour, two hours, and still no nici. Daves wife of almost four years was gone, into the night. Into the rain. What on earth had happened to nici pietz . Nicis life hadnt always been so good. She had a troubled past. Had those troubles finally caught up with her . Or was it Something Else . Did you think something was wrong, something more was wrong right from the beginning . Yes. Nicole pietz, a woman just shy of her 33rd birthday, reported missing by her husband. We just want to know shes safe. David pietz told reporters how he waited for her with friends at a saturday night dinner party. She was a noshow. When i got there, she was not there, and hadnt heard from her and hadnt been able to contact her. David appealed for people to keep an eye out for her. We want her to know we love her very much. She is not somebody that doesnt come home. If she is ten minutes late, she calls you. Did you think something was wrong right from the beginning . Yes. Because nici wouldnt have gone away without calling and telling me. If nici could have called somebody, she would have called gayle. Nicoles mother and stepfather had reason to be worried. They, along with nicis other family and friends, remembered another time years before when they had almost lost her. Nici had been in her teens when she began suffering from abdominal problems, related to the onset of puberty. Her medical issues left her in agonizing pain and also heavily medicated. She had very painful cramps and was prescribed lots of medicine for them. And by the time she was 21, she had had three surgeries. Pain pills being thrown at her, right and left. At some point, it seemed all those pills took away not only the pain, but the person. Zombified. How was she different . Just spacey, couldnt keep up with the conversation. I felt like i lost her. She wasnt really there. Before nici could crawl out of her hole, she would need to check into a local rehab center to treat her addiction. When she finally got clean, i felt like i had my sister back. Thats when she started working at the bally gym office. Her coworkers thought she was in terrific emotional shape. The nici that i know wasnt in her dark days. The nici that i knew was on top of her game. And yet friends like michelle baltz knew nici took her sobriety a day at a time and was terrified of making one slip and losing it all. She would tell you she had a headache and trying to get the girl to take an advil. You would think you were trying to inject her with heroin. Nicis weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings were the rock and foundation of that daily conscious effort. And on saturday morning, january 28th, she was supposed to attend a very special meeting. A celebration to honor her for eight years of sobriety. Every year, its your birthday. And it was her eighth birthday. As being a clean and sober woman. Yes. She was so proud of it. We were so proud of her. Everyone was proud of her. Honey, its mom. I dont know where you are, darling. But nici never showed up to that important meeting. Never received her award. And now, friends and family desperately tried reaching her by phone. Hi, nici. This is rod calling. We dont know whats going on. Their pleas relegated to the silence of voicemail. The anxiety level went off the chart. No matter what happened, nici, even if it was a relapse, we want you to know that we love you. Had nici, in fact, fallen back into addiction . I started hoping that. Because then she would have been alive. The alternative that nici may be dead somewhere was too much to bear. A bulletin went out. Be on the lookout for a 53 woman with a tattoo on her back. Friends knew she would likely be wearing a cross necklace and a diamond tennis bracelet. Nine days later, king county detective, Kathleen Decker, was dispatched to an area near seatac airport, south of the city. The call came in from my sergeant, requesting i respond to this location regarding a womans body. She had been found by a passerby in the blackberry bushes. This is kind of off the grid right here. Yes, it is. A womans body discovered in a nothing patch of scrub at the end of the runway near an all but abandoned trailer park. What did you notice about the body . First thing i noticed was she was nude. The second thing i noticed, her arms were gently across her chest. Not just a body abandoned. Correct. She had not been discarded like garbage, but had been placed into and under the vines. The detective had a special set of skills she called on now. She had been trained in tracking, reading trails, disturbed vegetation, just like the scouts in the old west. The pattern of broken branches and tampeddown leaves and soil told her that the body had lain out here about a week. Is there anything that suggested to you why this woman would have been abandoned here . No. And that was part of the complexity of this investigation. We had all sorts of avenues that we needed to investigate. We had the transient population that may have been frequenting the trailer park. We had a Mental Health facility that was very close by, within walking distance. But detective decker did have a strong hunch about who this victim was. The cross necklace, the tattoo. All checked out as that local woman, nicole pietz, who had been missing for a week. The diamond tennis bracelet she always wore was not on her wrist, but police were confident enough in their tentative i. D. To pay a visit to nicoles husband, david. And the information david pietz would soon share with detectives about when his wife was last seen and what she left behind would be critical to the case. But it was something that was missing that turned out to be even more important, and puzzling. Theres no indication that anyone else had been behind the wheel of nicoles car. When dateline continues. With a great many bad days, one of the worst ones had to be the day she was found. Oh. Ill never forget that as long as i live. Found strangled. It came over the tv that a body had been found and we just knew that it had to be her. Had to be your nici. Yeah. Nicole pietz, strangled to death. Her nude body left for a week beneath some blackberry bushes by the airport. The killer unknown. Her gray jetta still missing. Her familys deep sorrow, now hardened into resolve to get justice for her. Find out who did it, and punish him. Punish him. To begin, the lead detective now assigned to king countys newest murder case, jesse anderson, set out to learn more about the victim. He paid a visit to her husband, david pietz, at the condo he and nici shared. How long have you been married . Almost four years. David agreed to be audio taped and told detectives that nici had struggled with chemical dependency in the past. He then revealed something disturbing. Recently, nici had again started taking prescription pills. Is nici still struggling . She wasnt. But she hurt her back right before thanksgiving. She split the disk. Because of a severe painful back injury, david explained, nici had reluctantly agreed to let her doctor put her on a carefully monitored prescription for percocet, a potentially addictive narcotic drug. At first, she had me keeping the pills and giving them to her. Investigators wondered, had nicis old demons pulled her down again . They delved into nicis last known movements. When is the last time you saw nici . Friday night when i got home from work. She was asleep in bed. David pietz told detectives that nici was sleeping when he arrived home late friday night. And by the morning, she was already gone. Off to her special aa celebration, he assumed. I just remember thinking that must be where she must be when i woke up. When she didnt show up at the dinner party that night, he returned to their condo to look for her. He described how her purse, car keys and gray jetta were gone. But he said Something Else caught his eye and it would turn out to be a big clue for detectives. Nicis vial of percocet was sitting out on the counter. The bottle was empty. The 56pill prescription filled just two days before, gone. I found the pill bottle and i freaked out. It was a little scary to think she relapsed. Thats a lot of pills. I thought maybe she oded or something. As detectives wrapped up the interview with the husband, a narrative was starting to come together about the victim, of a former addict, possibly readdicted. How does that change the complexity of the investigation early on . The woman whose body has been found was a recovering addict and maybe fell off the wagon . Well, it makes it far more complex for us, because now we have to consider the possibility that she met up with the wrong person at the wrong time, and that somehow led to her demise. That this was somehow related to the people that she knew through her aa affiliation. Which she was very much into, and regularly attended those meetings. So doors are opening a possibility. Yes. Rather than closing. Yes, yes. Some Old Fashioned gumshoe investigative work would have to come next. Tracking down phone records, credit card statements. Anything to pinpoint where nici may have headed after leaving the condo saturday morning. Only one more blip on nicis timeline surfaced. A single phone call made around noon on saturday from her cell phone to the gyms front desk while david pietz was working. Its possible that she was driving, and hit one of the towers there, so we were considering that. We were also considering whoever killed her may have had her phone and was still using it. As for that diamond tennis bracelet missing from nicoles wrist when they found her body, the cops began checking pawn shop records, in case someone had tried to hock it. Nothing. A Police Officer spotted pietzs car overnight. The last major piece of the puzzle turned up two weeks after nici disappeared. Her car, a gray jetta, had been found abandoned in a parking lot in seattles university district. Forensic technicians hungry for clues crawled through the car. They noticed the drivers seat had been pushed back, but its what they didnt find inside it that intrigued investigators most. What was found in the car was davids dna, along with nicoles dna. There is no indication that anyone else had been behind the wheel of nicoles car. Detectives were now wondering. Wondering about the husband. Coming up. He was definitely a player. Dave chased women inside the club, outside the club, on side of the club, on top of the club. But did that make him a killer . At the latest gym where david pietz worked, coworkers like troy wagman understand full well why david looked so rough. Still, it was a hard thing to witness. He looked very bad. He looked like he hadnt slept, lost weight, dark circles under his eyes and he seemed a little bit more sad. While david pietz slowly got back to work after taking time off to mourn his lost wife, detectives intent on solving her murder began interviewing people from the gym world who knew the couple. Starting at the facility where nici and dave had first met. Ballys was the type of place were most of the rumors werent really rumors. They were true. Staff members agreed that dave, the alpha dog of the sales department, and nici, the nice girl, were a hopeless mismatch. The more nici liked him, the more i knew she shouldnt. What dave saw in nici, according to some coworkers, was a cynical way to climb the corporate ladder. Nici was everyones favorite, and their boss in particular loved her like family, as c. J. Brady saw it. Nici and our supervisor were very close. Almost like a father daughter relationship. And that is why i think he dated nici, from the start. I dont think there ever was an attraction there. But if he was chilly about his wife, he was superheated about some of the female gym members and his coworkers. Dave chased women inside the club, outside the club, onside the club, on top of the club. Detectives found the tales about david pietzs roving eye intriguing, but hardly damning. I guess to describe it in current terminology, he thought he was somewhat of a player. Did it make him a killer . Didnt make him a killer, no. But david pietzs behavior towards women at the gym did get him fired, detectives learned. Several female coworkers filed Sexual Harassment complaints against him with ballys management, including jackie morales. David was very verbal when it came to his comments. What looks better on jackie today, her legs, her butt, or breasts. I finally got the courage to go to the boss. After getting booted from ballys, david moved on to a job at 24hour fitness, where troy wagman remembers david talking about how he and his wife nici wanted to invite others into their sex life. More than once, he would approach me and ask me what i thought about threeways in a relationship. And he and nici were exploring the idea of swingers clubs. Nicis good friends knew it differently. She was very appalled at that idea. She was like, absolutely not. A wobbly marriage, a hound dog husband, straining at the leash. The circumstantial smoke was getting thicker for investigators. It was very apparent to me that, you know, he was leading an alternate lifestyle. What im not hearing, captain, is motivation. That was a concern for all of us, too. Maybe the husband did it. But then again, maybe he didnt. As weeks became months, the solid proof, the hard evidence that the investigation needed, just didnt fall into place. An investigation hitting a brick wall. Devastating news for nicis family, by now convinced of davids guilt. When you were out in the emotional wilderness, gayle, 07, 08, 09, what was your lowest moment . Oh, there were so many low ones. I didnt want to live. Just cried my head off every day, and just didnt want to live. Nicis mother marked the passage of time by making public pleas to find the killer. It has been 839 days since my beloved nicole was murdered. Years went by. David pietz quietly left the Fitness Industry for a position at chase bank. He started attending church. Fellow church member, kim adams, says she got to know a dave who was very different from the heartless philanderer described by nicis friends and family. The dave kim knew was a forlorn widower who spoke fondly about his lost wife. When he would speak of her, i could see a sadness in him. We would have conversations about, you know, he was struggling, because he missed her. Meanwhile, at the county