Page 15 - Inside Nick News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

The jury. >> photogrammetry was the key element and it was used to solve the case. without photogrammetry this case would have gone unsolved. a car runs off the highway into a river. yet the driver is nowhere to be found. for answers, investigators recreated the crash and the evidence revealed a plan almost 20 years in the making. the result of a deadly obsession that ended in tragedy. nick howard was just 18 years old, fresh out of high school and working in his father's car repair business. he was trying to decide what to do with his life. >> we had a deal with nick that he was welcome t...

Out over the desk. as if he was working on the life insurance. >> it was clear the change of beneficiary forms were in nick howard's handwriting and were not forgeries. it appeared that nick and ralph marcus planned to defraud the insurance company. >> they had hatched a plan to fake nick's death, collect the insurance proceeds, and take the money down to south america or some location to live off of it. >> but this was all speculation. investigators had no proof of the scam or that marcus killed nick howard and crashed his car into the river. >> it was a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle and we ha...

>> the howard family called police to report nick missing. the search began at the restaurant where nick had stopped the night before. it was on a treacherous road that ran parallel to the sacramento river. >> you make a mistake and drift off of the roadway, you're liable to go to the bottom of the levee. on one side, it's a river. on the other side, it's a 30-foot drop. >> asleep or intoxicated or not paying attention, there's a good chance you could end up in the water. >> and that's where they found nick's car two days later, submerged in 18 feet of water. >> you could tell that the engine ...

Holding the throttle open, which was remarkable by its uniqueness. never seen it before or have never seen it since. >> the cap was marked with a "v". it was the top to the valvoline motor oil bottle in the trunk. >> the bottle cap was a big indicator right off the bat, the car had been rigged. something wasn't right. >> the bottle cap would be put in there in lieu of a person to hold the gas pedal in position so the vehicle could be operated without a driver. >> to see what effect the bottle cap would have on nick's car, investigators put an identical cap in the carburetor of another car. for...

Company of $850,000. on the night of the murder, prosecutors believe marcus and nick met on the dock to plan the car crash. either nick tried to back out or marcus had planned to kill him all along. at some point, marcus strangled him until he was unconscious, then threw him into the river where he drowned. he kept nick's glasses, bent them in half, and threw them on the floor of nick's car to make it appear nick was in the car when it crashed. marcus opened the windows, used the cap from his motor oil bottle, placed it in the carburetor, threw the bottle in the trunk, and started the car. and...