Did would launch a terrifying case. Why did this have to happen here . With a deadly end. Nobodys leaving until we figure out what happened. A man at home, alone and afraid. M what would you do if you felt id danger . If they were really attacking y his home. You have a right to protect your home and to protect yourself. He planned, he prepared and was determined to kill. The most chilling detail of all, what youll hear on tape. Im still shaking. Hello and welcome to dateline. Growing up, cousins nick brady and hailey kifer were close. Nick loved to joke and haley loved to laugh. The teenagers were together that cold november day when tragedy a struck. The horrible incident was all there for police to hear on a perfectlyo clear recording. So why was what happened so unclear . A mystery that would divide a community and spark a national debate. Heres kate snow with 12 minutes on elm street. 12 minutes, not a long time. But for three people whose paths collided on thanksgiving day, 12 minutes was all it took for their lives to explode in a flash. I refuse to live in fear. 12 minutes that would haunt their families. I dropped to my knees. I was like, this cant be happening. Basically, why . Every second of those terrifying minutes would be fiercely debated. Your natural instinct is to save yourself, however you need to do it. A town divided over what happened inside this house on elm street. We had a lot of weird things happen in trial. Ive never in my life had evidence such as this. This might be more than what were initially being told. But before all the fear and the finger pointing, it was just another thanksgiving weekend in november 2012, in the small town of little falls, minnesota. Everybody knows everybody and everything about everybody. 18yearold rachel brady was spending the holiday with her 17yearold brother nick and their 18yearold cousin haile kifer. We were always together. We would go camping. We were always in the water, e always doing something. Me and haile were always together. Nick was the funloving one in the group. Kimberly is his mom. He found joy in everything and he would make sure to find something to make you smile. He would just sit there and hug me and be like oh, rachel, rachel, my big sister and then make me laugh every single time. Like all kids, they liked to tease each other. Like when rachel called nick the nickname hed had when he was a little meboy, nickel baby. Just the family jokey nickname for him . Nobody else called him just the family . His like j really good frien would callik him it after they heard me call him it. He would get so mad at me for saying it in front of his friends. Growing up, nick was into ou sports and loved the outdoors. So did his cousin, haile. Who was as bright and active as he was. She was vivacious. She was bubbly and funny. She was very athletic in high school. She was in gymnastics and softball and track. The closeknit cousins spent the wednesday before thanksgiving together. Rachel says there isnt all thatch for teens toay do in lite falls, so they would drive around town in the red mit mitsubishi nick rebuilt himself. Would you cruise down the main drag here . Pretty much everywhere. Cr so just spending the day with no cares . Yeah. They all spent the night together at a friends apartment. On thanksgiving morning nick and haile left around 11 00 a. M. And then they said they were going to go to my mom and dads house. T the plan was to meet later at grandmas house. But nick and haile never showed up. Kimberly and rachel tried calling them. Is it strange for nick to not answer his phone . Absolutely. Even if i would have called over and over again he would have answered and been like what do you want . Strange for haile not to answer the phone . Extremely. Or she would have never not answered my phone call. Adding to their worry was the weather. It had started snowing. So im thinking, okay, the weather. Maybe he got stranded somewhere. And i was hoping that he was just bearing it up and staying overnight. And id try in a safe place . Yeah, in a safe place. Were you worried about a car accident . I was. Very worried. Sure enough, on friday morning there was frightening news. We heard about a car accident that had a red car and we thought r it was him right away. And so we went and looked and it ended up being car pieces for a different car. And so when that wasnt him either we started to get extremely worried. We drove up and down the back roads. Up and down the highways. Anywhere i could think of. Through town. Anywhere. Rachel posted messages on facebook, has anyone heard from haile or nick . Still nothing. By friday afternoon, they were out of their minds with worry. We called and called and called. No answers, no nothing. We kept getting the voice mails. And i was like nick, this is getting serious. We i started crying on one of them and i was like you better not be making fun of me. This better not be a joke. Yeah. Before the day was over, the family would find out this was no joke. Something terrible had happened to nick and haile. But it wasnt a car crash or an accident. It was something no one in little falls could have seen coming. I tried to be a good person. Across town Police Gather at a crime scene and concerned neighbors fear the worst. Coming up just worry and panic. Its like somethings wrong. Someone else had also met with trouble that thanksgiving day. The deadly kind. When dateline continues. Ues. I . Muscle pain. Give up, the couch is calling. I say, its me, the couch, im calling. Pain says you cant. Advil says you can. Since pioneering the suv in 1935, the chevy suburban has carried many things. Nothing more important than family. Introducing the most versatile and advanced chevy suburban and tahoe ever. 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As authorities processed those reports, three other sheriffs deputies were over on elm street investigating something so troubling they later called in a crime scene van. That got the attention of john and cathy lang, who saw the van go straight towards the house of their good friend, byron smith, a 64yearold retired man living on his own. I was decorating the christmas tree. I saw a big, huge truck go down his road, called the bemidji crime scene unit. And i shouted for john, i think you were in the kitchen. And i said, call byrons cell. Something has happened. What did you worry, cathy, what did you think had happened . I thought he was dead. Cathy and john feared the worst for their friend, who had seemed out of sorts in recent months. Everything was fine when byron first moved back to his hometown of little falls about five years earlier, after a career that took him all over the world with the u. S. State department. He was talking about living in moscow and cairo and dakar. Its amazing. A worldly guy. Very much so. A great conversationalist, and fun to talk with. But recently, byron wasnt himself. His house had been broken into a few times, the thieves taking everything from money to family heirlooms. The langs say their friend whod mentored boy scouts and let their sons rock band jam in his garage had become afraid. He was acting real quiet, real scared. And then that crime scene van showed up outside byrons home and cathy was sure her friend was in trouble. Just worry and panic. Like somethings wrong. She was right. Something was wrong. Burglars had struck again. This time byron was home, and he had a gun. He had managed to defend himself, and survived the breakin. If you break into somebodys home, you better not have an expectation youre going to walk out alive, because the law permits them to shoot you. Michel wetzel was the Morrison County sheriff. Byron told his deputies he had been in his basement when two intruders broke into his house and crept downstairs. Byron shot both dead. Minnesota law is clear on this thing, you have the right to use deadly force against another person if you believe your life or the life of another is in immediate jeopardy. As investigators continued to secure the scene at byrons house, the Sheriffs Office was calling another family. Kimberly brady had been frantically trying to find her son nick and niece haile. Now investigators knew what had happened to them. They drove out to speak with kimberly, and they brought a chaplain. As soon as i saw them turn the corner, something i knew he was gone. I didnt know how or why. Then all of a sudden i remember the door opened and the chaplain came out. All i said was no. I dont remember if i said anything else. Hes like, your son is dead. Nick and haile were both dead. Kimberly fell to her knees, and then the chaplain told her it was no accident. Hes like, your son was shot. And i was like and then, i mean, shot . That just wasnt doesnt fit . I just remember feeling, i said what do you mean shot to death, when i could get something out. And they said, well, he was shot three times. I was like, shot, what do you mean shot three times . And that was the i couldnt function. I couldnt really hear after that. Were you there, rachel, during that . I walked in, and then my dad said that somebody somebody shot nickel baby. And i remember i went right outside and i sat in the snow. I just buried my head into my hands and i started to cry. And then he tapped me on the shoulder and told me, hailes gone, too. Thats your brother and your best friend. Do you remember what was racing through your head, rachel . Basically why . I guess we all just couldnt believe it was both at one time so suddenly. Even harder to absorb, how and where nick and haile were shot. They were the intruders byron smith killed. It was all very unbelievable. So what happened in that basement on elm street . The answer to that would lead to a heated debate. How far is too far when it comes to defending your home. When do you cross the line between victim and criminal . Coming up, a grainy image captures a clue. Is that nick . You see him on different cameras, different angles, Walking Around the house. Is that haile . When dateline continues. The story of what happened on elm street spread quickly around little falls, minnesota. That two teenagers had broken into byron smiths house, leaving the terrified homeowner no choice but to shoot them in selfdefense. His friends and neighbors, john and cathy lang, had no trouble believing it. What was scary, it was very personal to him, because they were really attacking his home. But the family of those intruders, they were in shock. I didnt believe it. I thought it was completely not right or untrue. Teenage cousins nick brady and haile kifer had gone missing the day before, thanksgiving. Now as she learned the circumstances of her sons death, nicks mother had so many questions. How do you reconcile in your head your beautiful boy, who loves the outdoors, and what theyre telling you, that he broke into somebodys house . I just couldnt imagine it. It just was so not him. You just couldnt reconcile it . Quayeah. I had a lot of trouble. Kimberly had never heard the name byron smith. But rachel had. I knew that my brother had worked for him in the summer, but i didnt know him at all. Nick had once done yard work at byron smiths house. Now the sheriff had evidence of what he was doing there again. Byron had set up surveillance cameras at his home, frightened after a string of breakins. Those cameras prove there was no mistake about the breakin. Much just after 12 30 the cameras pick up a man approaching the house. The hooded figure is nick. He looks through several windows as if checking to see if someones home. He clutches his hood closely, concealing his face. Jeremy lubertz is an investigative sergeant with the Morrison CountySheriffs Department. You could see that there had been what appeared to be a little bit of casing done on Nicholas Bradys part. He even heads towards one of the cameras and tries to dismantle it. Then he walks out of camera range, shatters a window and enters the house. Minutes later the camera shows another hooded figure, this one carrying a purse and a cell phone. Its haile. On the video it shows that the female had come walking up through the yard up toward the house. All on tape, clear as daylight. But why . What were nick and haile up to that day . They both went to my school at one time. Dylan lang is the son of byrons friends, john and cathy. In little falls you have the regular high school crowds like the jocks and the goth kids. Then you have a group that is misguided. Dylan didnt know haile well but says at school nick was no angel. What did you know about those two teenagers . I knew that nick was aggressive. He would be the kid who would push you up against the locker and kind of a bully . Right. He was a bully. And as it turned out, a thief. After the shootings, authorities determined that nick had been behind one of those previous burglaries at byrons house. Just a month earlier he and a friend broke through this door and stole thousands of dollars in cash and priceless family heirlooms. And more disturbingly, two guns. They took things that were really important to him personally. Yes. And when they took the guns, he thought he was going to get shot by his own guns. He was extremely afraid. To sergeant lubertz it all looked like a classic case of troublemaking kids crossing a line into dangerous criminal behavior. You have two teenagers that seemed to be running kind of rampant. You can obviously see that they had a change in their lives. And in fact, when investigators located nicks car, parked on a secluded road near byron smiths home, they found items stolen from another house. Maybe it was the motivation of money and having material items. Maybe it was the motivation of having friends and wanting to please friends. The evidence appeared to all be there, clearly captured on that video, nick and haile had broken in and byron smith seemed to have every reason to be afraid. The impression that he kind of left on me was that he was living in fear. He was not sleeping. It was obviously bothering him physically and emotionally. At first even nicks mom, while she didnt want to believe much of what she was learning about her son, tried to imagine herself in byrons shoes. I dont believe that breaking and entering is right and i wouldnt have expected it out of my son. It looked like a tragedy all around. Two intruders and a fearful homeowner with no choice but to shoot them. We know you have a right to protect your home and to protect yourself. But a quick survey of the scene told sheriff wetzel that the teenagers were unarmed. As with any shooting, it would require more investigation. It would be ordinary with two people dead in a home that nobody is leaving until we figure out what happened. Beginning with one question, a pretty big one. Why in the world are we only hearing about the shooting of two people in a house a day later . It turns out deputies had rushed to byron smiths house friday afternoon, only to learn that the breakin and shootings happened thursday, on thanksgiving day. I asked him, why didnt you call Law Enforcement . And he tells me, i didnt want to bother you guys on thanksgiving day. That struck the sheriff as extremely odd. Nobody worries about wrecking our thanksgiving. They dont worry about wrecking our day. So the intruders had been dead for 24 hours when byron called a neighbor for help and asked him to call the Sheriffs Office. When you found out that byron smith waited 24 hours my mind was then, why . If he was so scared, wouldnt you be on the phone . I mean, because those kids had families too that were waiting. And then for him to say he didnt want to bother anybody on thanksgiving. Really . It became clearer and clearer and clearer that there were some things that were strange about this case. Investigators were about to learn a lot more about that shooting in the house on elm street, and what happened next would tear this town apart. Coming up i was no longer willing to live in fear. Byron smiths story, was it all adding up . When dateline continues. When we started carvana, they told us that selling cars 100 online wouldnt work. But we went to work. Building an experience that lets you shop over 17,000 cars from home. Creating a coast to Coast Network to deliver your car as soon as tomorrow. Recruiting an army of customer advocates to make your experience incredible. 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