Page 14 - Inside Nick News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

From the forensic evidence, investigators now knew that nick 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, a 18-year-old kid having an $850,000 life insurance policy is a little bit unusual. >> nick's family...

Water, it was moving at only 15 miles per hour. nick's glasses were found in the car. and investigators wanted to know if nick had been wearing them when the crash occurred. so they created a styrofoam facsimile of nick's head. >> i weighted the styrofoam head so that it was approximately the same weight as nick's head would have been in that same situation. >> they put an identical pair of glasses on the model to simulate the force of impact. it was attached to a pendulum. >> based on a potential energy formula, mass times gravity times height, i lifted the head that given height, allowed it ...

>> i believe that marcus befriended nick to, first of all, stay close and to find out things about me. but i think even early on, he had a plan to hurt nick. >> they went to lake tahoe. they went to reno. ralph fancied himself the great baccarat player. he got fancy hotel rooms. he had women come by. >> when questioned, ralph marcus said he knew nothing about nick howard's murder and claimed he had an alibi for the night of the crash. >> and he had his dying mother state that he was at home with her during that evening. >> but in marcus' home, investigators found evidence that marcus was someh...

Crumpled and it had been folded at one time. it had ralph marcus' name on it. and i was a little shocked. >> 37-year-old ralph marcus was an unemployed laborer who had a strained relationship with the howard family. he also had a police record. >> well, we did a little checking on mr. ralph marcus. in addition to his gambling and his flashy lifestyle, he never really had the ability to hold a job for very long. >> he was kind of creepy. he just never went away. he wasn't around like 24/7, but he would always show up. >> nick's mother patty first met marcus when they were both in high school 20...

Had it not been for accident reconstruction, forensic testing and a bottle of motor oil, he might have gotten away with it. >> he was motivated to kill nicholas howard to prevent any other witnesses, prevent having to share the insurance proceeds, and because he had a long vendetta against the mother as a scorned lover. >> i don't know if nick planned a scam with ralph. it makes absolutely no sense to me, because you can't get insurance money if you're alive. and because i know how nick loved me and loved our family. >> nick had told people, i'm going to be a millionaire before i'm 30. nick ha...