She wouldnt have done it because there wasnt any financial gain for her in this. Reporter what about her secret friend, the former nfl linebacker . You lied to them. I did. Reporter the mystery was unsolved. Then came a prosecutor who took on big waves and cold cases. Could he find the key to this one. This isnt just a motive. Its a motive on steroids. Deadly trust. Hello and welcome to dateline extra. Im craig melvin. Detectives believed if they followed the money, they would find the motive. There were potential suspects but the evidence was circumstance u circumstantial. Could the keys be at the front door of a home . Here is keith morrison. Reporter theres a place, call it a pot of gold at the end of ambition, of the american dream. A place the few and lucky build their mansions by the sea. Newport beach, Orange County, california, where the most unexpected event would be murder. Things like this rarely happen in Newport Beach, let alone in an area as secure as this area. Reporter let alone involving people like this, attractive, charismatic, living large. Like Nanette Johnston packard mcneal. She had a beautiful home, drove an expensive car. And she was sort of living that dream california lifestyle. You talk about housewives of Orange County, she could have been on the show. Reporter yes, in fact, she told friends she turned down an offer to be on that show. About over the top excess in Orange County. She ended up on a show called American Thunder about motorcycles, showing off her own excess, including a bike she bought for 50 grand. Whats your favorite part of the bike . I love the way it looks. Reporter and then there was eric naposki. E exfootball player, wannabe actor, who starred in newport 40. But heres where the show ends and the reality begins. Because of what happened in that house behind the gates a long time ago. It was december 15, 1994, 9 00 p. M. The shots were patterned in sets of two. Two shots. Two shots. A pause. And then two shots. Reporter detective tom voth is now retired. He arrived to find a millionaire entrepreneur dead on his own kitchen floor. His name was Bill Mclaughlin, 55 years old, deeply religions and a true believer in the american dream, who made his come true. Kind of a selfmade guy, right . Absolutely, yes. Reporter bill, said his daughter jenny, was the first in his family to go to college, first to found a company, first to end up with millions. Not someone youd think would wind up murdered. But here he was. You could tell there was not a physical struggle. There werent things that were knocked off counters or things like that. Reporter you could tell, said voth, Bill Mclaughlin saw it coming, saw his killer. One of his movements was to put his hand up and try to block a shot. He got shot through the underside of a finger. So he saw his attacker. Reporter now voth needed to figure out, who was that last person Bill Mclaughlin saw . Youre trying to take everything in, and youre trying to remember as much as you can, write down what you feel is important, whats going to come up in the investigation. Reporter what was important . What wasnt . It was hard to know in those first few hours. As you can see, in this video the police shot the night of the murder, the house was as neat as a pin, except for a cup on a table, papers regarding a lawsuit, and six bullet casings on the kitchen floor. And one more thing, a postit note from his girlfriend nannette, stuck to the side of a lamp. Shed be home late. Her son had a soccer game. Nanette johnston as she was known back then, before reality shows and a couple of more marriages, had been his girlfriend for years. They seemed happy, despite the almost 30year age difference, said his daughter kim. They seemed to be good companions. She was like your age, wasnt she . She was my age, yes. Reporter nanette helped bill take care of his disabled son who had been hit by a drunk driver and helped with business ventures. He found that interesting about her, that he could have possibly a romantic relationship but also sort of a mentoring relationship and possibly a Business Partner. He had hopes for this. I think he did. Reporter they lived together in bills house on the newport bay, as did her two little ones part of the time. And she brought some children. Correct. Did he like that . Yes. He thought that was important. He thought that it showed she was compassionate. Reporter on the night bill was killed, nanette was with her children at her sons soccer game. The kids went to their dads house afterwards and nanette headed to the mall to go christmas shopping. She arrived home to a crime scene and to detective voth. Anybody involved has a possibility of being the murderer. Reporter so voth questioned nanette and bills own grown kids, couldnt eliminate anybody yet. We looked at the girlfriend and also looked at the daughters because anyone who stands to gain money in this situation is a potential suspect. Reporter bills exwife was way off in hawaii. Theyd been divorced for years. Still the detectives talked to her. Then there was kevin, bills disabled son, and the only other person in the house at the time of the murder. Newport beach emergency. Reporter it was shortly after 9 00 p. M. When kevin heard the gunfire. He was upstairs, still debilitated by those car accident injuries. He labored to make his way to the kitchen where he found his father. [ inaudible ] i cant understand what youre saying. Reporter too disabled to explain he needed help. Somebodys dying . Reporter someone was dead. Kevin was a suspect that we needed to find out the validity of his statements, whether he had gunshot residue on his hands, whether he was even able to shoot a gun, given his physical disabilities. Reporter but a suspect . They checked his hands for gun powder residue. Negative. You have to look at everybody, unfortunately. Sometimes hurts feelings, but you have to get down to the facts, too. Reporter but facts can be tricky things. And in this case far more elusive than anyone might have imagined. Some clues were elusive but some were right out in the front, like the two that dramatically narrowed down the circle of suspects. Coming up. Those are huge. You eliminate everyone down to except those who have access to those two keys. When deadly trust continues. Hen deadly trust continues. [ laughing ] [ electrical buzzing ] [ electrical buzzing ] [ dramatic music ] ahhhh ahhhhh elliott. You came back a lots changed since you were here. Its called the internet. Holiday movies. [ remote bleeps ] im dreaming of a White Christmas family. Home. [ music swells ] woohoo yeah welcome back. Investigators believed this was not a random killing. Detectives were about to dig deep into bills business dealings and a former colleague who may have had nearly 10 million reasons to want bill dead. For the family, the uncertainty of it all weighed heavily. Here again is keith morrison. Reporter in the days that followed Bill Mclaughlins murder, his children wandered, overwhelmed, through the essential events that follow a sudden death. That funeral must have been i dont know. The funeral was horrible because we were in shock, and we had to hold up. I dont remember much, but i do remember nanette sitting in the front with each child on either end, and they were both bawling at the top of their lungs. And then i remember my brother speaking, too, at the funeral and telling everybody what an amazing man he was and what a great dad he was for him. Reporter bills girlfriend nanette moved out of the house where bill was killed in to another house he owned on the beach. Kim and her husband move back into the family home with her brother. They clung to each other for dear life. We cried on each others shoulders and did a lot of counseling and therapy and grieving. Reporter what made it worse was they didnt know who did it. Or why. Any more than did the Newport Beach police. When a thing like this happens, i mean, its really an executionstyle killing. This was obviously someone who intended to kill your dad. You Must Immediately wonder who. Right. Well, you wonder if its a completely random act, some stranger and it was a mistake or an accident, or you develop a list of people that might have a reason to have shot him. Reporter to police, it didnt look random. Nothing was taken. The killer struck with precision accuracy and got clean away. But there was something that intrigued detective voth that night. It was a clue they found in Bill Mclaughlins closet. We do a search of the house with the permission of kevin. Were told there are weapons in the closet upstairs. When you come across that many weapons, it becomes surprising. Reporter bill was an avid gun collector. He kept dozens in his Newport Beach house. Not just antiques, revolvers, semiautomatic weapons, including seven modified m16 assault rifles. Dangerous stuff in the wrong hands. We didnt know if somebody maybe was upset with the sale of a gun or something. Reporter nanette was worried about that, too. Nanette told us that bill was dealing with a lot of shady people, gun dealers. Reporter and that was one theory. But there was something else, too, or, rather, someone else. The only person that we knew was frustrated with him was his Business Partner who he was in the lawsuit with. Reporter all of them, bills kids and nanette, told detective voth about that Business Partner, hal fischel. Because he and mr. Mclaughlin were in a heated multiyear lawsuit over the invention of the device. Reporter the device . Bill had made his millions from a revolutionary medical invention, a machine that separates plasma from blood, still in use worldwide today. Just the sort of thing bill wanted, to do something useful, helpful, and make lots of money, too. He enjoyed learning new things, discovering new things, especially if it helped people, benefitted people, if he could make money off of an idea. Reporter hal fischel had worked with bill on an early phase of the machine. It was after fischel left the company that the money came rolling in. Fischel thought his contribution to the invention deserved more that he got so he sued Bill Mclaughlin, his former friend and partner. Heres the thing. It was just two weeks before the murder that the courts decided for bill. Any day he was to get the 9 million he and fischel had been fighting over for years. So was it a revenge killing . Sounded at least plausible. Except there was something the killer left behind, something fischel didnt have access to. No, it wasnt dna, not fingerprints. Something more mundane than that. When we got here, the door on the right was open and there was a key stuck in the lock right here. In addition to that, there was a key on a mat laying right next to the door here. Reporter two keys. Two clues. One was a brand new copy of the front door key. The other was a key to the Community Pedestrian gate, not a copy. Those are huge because it eliminates everybody in the world from being a suspect down to only those people that have access to those two keys. Reporter the circle of suspects was getting smaller. Coming up police focus on one particular suspect who did have access to those keys and to something else. He had bought a 9 millimeter in the summer, a beretta 92f. You lied to them. I did. And later, bills daughters uncover a clue. They look like your fathers signature . No. When deadly trust continues. Frustrated that clean clothes you want to wear always seem to need an iron . 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Talk to your doctor, and call 8442142424. Welcome back. Police are whittled down their list of potential suspects, believing the killer knew the millionaire so well, he had his house keys. But a new person entered the picture and detectives found his memory suspiciously hazy on one particular topic. Here again is keith morrison. Reporter two keys that demanded attention. One of them was stuck in the front door the night Bill Mclaughlin was murdered. The other was dropped on a mat outside. The person who killed bill had obtained those keys somehow, which meant whoever it was, was in his inner circle or had access to it. Now police began looking very closely for relationships, like maybe secret ones. What is your involvement or relationship . Nanette is a pretty good friend of mine. Reporter thats how they found eric naposki, who was living in a studio apartment in one of those Southern CaliforniaMelrose Place sort of complexes, just not quite as nice. Naposki had played football, but his promising career as a linebacker had fizzled, too many injuries, hours on the bench. By the early 90s he was trying to figure out what to do next. I was in seattle with the seahawks when i retired, when i left. And i drove down the coast and it was a great place to land. Kind of nirvana for a guy like you. It was. Big, goodlooking exfootball player like him . It was easy to get work. And women, in Southern California. Like nanette. He met her while working at this gym. What did you think when you saw her . I thought she was a snob when i first met her. A little stuck up. She had the sunglasses on, you know, the expensive watch. She was a little snobby. Reporter well, at least she was at first. But so what made you friends . Proximity. She was a fun girl. We worked out together. Id say we probably worked out together more than we did anything else together. Reporter he was impressed by her intelligence, by what she told him about herself. That she had a business degree, for example. She graduated early from high school and she graduated early from college. Reporter by february 1994, ten months before Bill Mclaughlin was killed, nanettes affair with eric was in full bloom, which, given that eric was not exactly flush, turned out to be just fine, because she had no lust for money, as she talked about things and as she drove her new cars and as she footed the bill for everything we did together. Reporter so what did eric know about bill and bills relationship with nanette . The cops asked. I never met bill. You know who he is . I just knew of him. I knew of him and his, you know, partnership with nanette as far as business goes and stuff like that. Reporter eric told us nanette said she invented things, medical equipment, blood separators. Sound familiar . And bill, she told eric, guided her through the process. That was her mentor. That was her Business Partner. And she could make her own schedule. She could work out all morning, grab lunch, do whatever she has to do, pick up the kids and take them to practice, be the team mom. Reporter pretty nice job. Eric and nanette spent time at what she said was her house, right on the beach. What did you think . It was beautiful. Beautiful house. Right on the beach, right in newport. Upstairs downstairs, fully furnished. She had a picture of herself up in the upstairs bedroom, blown up. Kind of a glamour shot. Yeah. Reporter it never occurred to him, he said, that nanette and bill had anything more than a business relationship. It was a business relationship. If you looked at nanette and took into account her age and looked at bill and took into account his age, why would you think Orange County, california . Hello . I guess im a rookie when it comes to Orange County. Reporter when it comes to murder and relationships, sometimes twos company, threes a motive. If eric found out bill was much more than just nanettes mentor, was it a motive for murder . So in their interview, investigators got right to the point. What was he doing that night . I was with nanette at the soccer game. She dropped me off and took off. And i got dressed and went to work later on, probably around 9 30. Reporter curious thing about erics job. He was a bouncer at a nightclub about a football field and a half away from the mclaughlin house. Not that far for a linebacker. So the cops asked a few more questions. Did you do any armed work . No, i dont do any armed work. Reporter no, but that didnt mean he didnt own any guns. Just took him a while to tell the detective that. Okay. You said you dont own any firearms at all . No. I i bought one. I havent seen it in so long. I bought one in dallas that i gave my dad. We first asked him if he owns any weapons. He says he doesnt own any. And then he says, oh, thats right, i did buy one in texas, little. 380, but i sent it to my dad in new york and then we talk a little bit longer, and, oh, i bought another. 380. Did you have to register or anything in dallas . I basically just signed signed registration. The light must have gone off in his head that we were going to find out by checking registration because a few minutes after that he said he bought a 9 millimeter earlier in the year in the summer, a beretta 92f. Reporter now, that was interesting. A 9 millimeter was what killed Bill Mclaughlin, and no one knew that at the time but the cops and the killer. There are lots of 9 millimeter guns around, but why did eric naposki seem so dodgy about his . Where is your 9 millimeter . I have no idea. You have no idea. Thats my statement. Reporter if he thought he was helping himself, he wasnt. Why didnt you ask for a lawyer . I didnt think i need one. Innocent people dont need lawyers, do we . But you said some things that didnt help you out, thats for sure. Absolutely. Y