Page 9 - Inside Nick News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Site. the body had been under water and had resurfaced. >> my whole world changed. i no longer had a son. >> he was the best friend i ever had. 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, a...

While in the water. at first, accident investigators thought nick might have fallen asleep at the wheel. but when a car goes off the road, the driver is usually jolted awake which will leave telltale signs. >> had the driver fallen asleep at the wheel, i would have expected an ever increasing vigorous correction effort on the part of the driver. in other words, the driver would have predictably steered harder and braked more that would have resulted in a well-defined path of travel down the rocks toward the roadway. none of that was visible. >> but where was nick's body? volunteers searched th...

Strangulation. there were bruises on the face. there was also blunt force injury inside the body. >> and there was water in nick's lungs, an indication that he was still breathing when he was thrown in the water. >> the cause of death was essentially lack of oxygen. he may well have gone into the water unconscious. ultimately, though, it was drowning that caused the end. >> the manner of nick's death was ruled a homicide. investigators were now looking for a killer.

>> 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 to swing down and it collided with the steering wheel. >> this was a virtual re-creation of what would happen if nick's head had hit the steering wheel when the car crashed into the river at 15 miles per hour. there was far less damage to the test glasses than the ones found in the car. >> my conclusion was nick's head did not collide with the steering wheel ...

Paperwork for nick howard spread 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 thous...