Page 5 - Inside Nick News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

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 believed they were the bene...

He was starting to get a little bit lackadaisical about that. >> nick was a night person and often stayed out late with friends. on a february night in 1997, nick stopped by a local restaurant to pick up his driver's license he had left there earlier. but the restaurant was closed so he left a note for the owner. >> it was in his handwriting. we knew that he had gone down there. >> later, he called his parents' answering machine and left a message. >> i'm on my way home. i had a little bit of car trouble and so i'll be home in about a half hour or so. i'm wiped out. >> but nick never made it h...

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 was running because when we examined the radiator, it had contact marks from the fa...

Steering wheel in the car. >> this proved the glasses had been planted. and if nick hadn't been in the car during the crash, then there was still the possibility he was alive. >> we were a little emotional. well, very emotional but, you know, kind of on pins and needles. >> of course you pray for the best. but i think there's that part of you that knows it could go the other way. >> three weeks later, a search crew found nick's body in the sacramento river about a quarter mile downstream from the crash site. the body had been under water and had resurfaced. >> my whole world changed. i no long...

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...