Page 5 - Ralph Marcus News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

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...

Could turn it into 4 million. you'd never have to work again. >> and ralph marcus was no stranger to insurance fraud. >> it was said that ralph marcus decided pretty early on in his life that only fools worked for a living and rather than get a job, he supported himself gambling and insurance scams. supposedly, he had burned down his own house to receive the insurance proceeds. and then another time had arranged for the theft of a car and a boat to make money off that as well. >> with no forensic evidence linking marcus to the crash, investigators had one last idea. they noticed a lot number o...

>> 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...

I didn't even know this guy. >> over the years, he continued to make romantic advances to her and to, in fact, ask her to be his wife. >> but patty said no. married someone else. had two children and tried to distance herself from marcus. but marcus continued to pursue her. >> ralph came to me and wanted to buy my ovum for $50,000. he wanted to hire a surrogate to carry the child. just before the end of the meeting, he put his hand on me and he said, "i would rather you carry the child, but i know that's not possible." >> that was the last straw. >> i saw how much it hurt my husband. and i jus...

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 had 999 pieces. >> all they needed was that one final ...