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He was the best friend to anybody that he ever met. he was very easy-going, very happy-go-lucky. just kind of a cool kind of kid. >> since there was no motor oil on nick's body, and oil was throughout the passenger compartment of his car, this was further proof that he wasn't inside when it crashed. at the autopsy, the pathologist found evidence that nick had been beaten. >> there were internal injuries. specifically, bleeding inside the neck muscles, also called strap muscle hemorrhage. that alone is a pretty good indicator of manual strangulation. there were bruises on the face. there was al...

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, an 18-year-old kid having an $850,000 life insurance policy is a little bit unusual. >> nick's family believed they were the beneficiaries but soon learned that ...

>> you never know what's going to be important at a scene, so you collect everything. sometimes it's the smallest thing that you didn't think would be involved is what breaks your case open. >> prosecutors believe ralph marcus was angry with nick's mother for the years of rejection going all the way back to high school. >> ralph marcus believed that he and patty should have been star-crossed lovers. she had turned him down from the outset. and toward the time when nick howard was killed, he'd actually gotten to threatening her by saying things like, you should know what it's like to lose a chi...

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 years earlier. their first enco...

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 with that, the car p...