Original subtitles

Downloaded from YTS.MX

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

- [Man] May it please The court counsel.

Members of the jury.

Over the next week,

the evidence presented to you will show you many things

and take you into areas of Bismarck

that many of us, you don't even know exist.

I expect the evidence will show you

that a portion of society of Bismarck

is not the rural, safe,

hardworking society that many of us think we live in.

There's a portion of our community that is somewhat

of a subculture.

Drinking alcohol, taking drugs is the order of the day.

The society within our society has many things,

things that we cannot understand or comprehend.

- [Reporter] Bismarck authorities won't say

where Gordon and Barbara Erickstad were murdered.

However, investigators combed their yard

looking for evidence.

Blood stains can even be seen on the driveway.

Police have gathered enough clues on the scene

to link the murder to two suspects.

Brian Erickstad, Erickstad's adopted son

is six feet tall, 155 pounds,

blondish-brown hair and blue eyes.

Robert Lawrence is five foot 11,

175 pounds brown hair and hazel eyes.

Burleigh County state's attorney Patricia Burke

says these two men could be dangerous.

- [Narrator] On the morning of Friday, September 18th, 1998,

a 17 year old girl named Amy Warner

walked into the police station in Bismarck, North Dakota.

The young girl said she was worried that her boyfriend,

18 year old Brian Erickstad,

might have hurt his parents.

The girl handed the police officer a small scrap of paper

and said, here, here's their number.

You should try calling them.

- [Man] Because nobody could get in touch with these folks,

we'd head on down there, so we did.

Me, another sergeant and two patrolmen,

- My name's Bob Haas.

I'm a retired police officer

from Bismarck Police Department.

We were told that the mother worked for Kirkwood SuperValu,

and the father was at North Dakota

National Guard Aviation facility.

We tried contacting both of the employers

and both of them indicated that they hadn't heard

from the people for awhile.

And they too were concerned.

So we decided that we would go over

the boyfriend Brian was known to us.

We'd already had some dealings with him that summer.

He'd been arrested for some drug offenses

and been placed in jail.

And his father had come down and bonded him out

I think maybe three weeks prior to this happening.

When we got over there,

it was basically what we called a welfare check.

Sergeant Holton and I looked in the windows in the garage

and we couldn't see any vehicles in there.

Kenen Kaizer and Mike Arnold went around to the back

to check in the back of the house.

There was a mess over by the exterior door,

the door in between the house and the garage.

There was a carpet that was all balled up

at the base of the garage door there.

It looked to me like there was blood on the freezer.

- [Narrator] Detective Haas called

the state's attorney's office and received permission

to enter the home based on exigent circumstances.

- [Haas] Sergeant Horton and I

opened up the storm door and right on the base down there,

you could see there was blood smears,

and we could see blood on the carpet

on the stairs going up.

And we're yelling police, if you're in here show yourself.

Let us know where you're at.

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, back at the police department,

Detective Steve Lundeen was interviewing

the 17 year old girl, Amy Warner.

Amy Warner explained that her boyfriend, Brian Erickstad,

had moved in with her two days earlier

into her family's house on the corner

of East Sweet Avenue and South Seventh Street,

next to A&B pizza.

She lived there with her mom, her mom's boyfriend,

her brother and her two sisters.

Her sister's boyfriend, 27 year old Robert Lawrence,

also lived there with them.

Amy said that all day yesterday, Thursday,

her boyfriend, Brian, and her sister's boyfriend Robert,

had been driving around town

in a brand new pickup truck.

The truck belonged to Brian's parents.

And she didn't think that they would just let him borrow it.

Oh, and another thing she said.

Last night, my mother's boyfriend , Weasel,

he told me that Brian had asked him

how much jail time he would get for murder.

When's the last time you saw Brian and Robert,

the detective asked her.

Amy said that the last time she had seen them was yesterday

at 5:00 PM in Mandan by the Heart River

at their favorite swimming hole,

a place they called the Rapids.

- [Haas] We go upstairs

and we looked into the living room

and it was just ransacked.

There was stuff thrown all over the place.

In the middle of the hallway there was a big pool of blood.

We go down a little bit further,

and we look into the bedroom to the left

and that's pretty much, it's well kept.

There's no issues there.

We looked to the one on the right.

We can see a big pool of blood on the carpet.

This bedroom has just absolutely,

it's like an explosion went off in there.

The mattresses are thrown up against the wall.

There's paperwork and stuff all strewn all over the place,

individual pieces of jewelry and stuff like that.

Just everything is just thrown all over the place.

When we went into the kitchen and we looked under the sink,

low and behold, what do we find?

I think there was three knives

in the kitchen in the sink.

One of the knives, the blade was broken.

- [Narrator] The detectives exited the home

until a search warrant could be produced.

Once that happened,

the coroner took a walk through the home.

He walked in and he looked and he came out and he said

that he would have severe concern

for the wellbeing of the people that were involved in this.

The amount of blood that was there in the scene,

he just didn't think anybody could survive that.

- [Reporter] Trisha Burke says Erickstad and Lawrence

murdered Gordon and Barbara here at their home.

But when investigators arrived yesterday,

the bodies were not here.

- [Man] In all my years on the streets of Bismarck,

I never lost a lot of sleep,

other than a handful of times,

I lost some sleep during this investigation.

- I'm Lloyd Halvorson,

currently the vice president

for academic and student affairs

at Lake Region State College

in Devil's Lake, North Dakota.

I worked for Bismarck Police Department from 1992 until 2002

Friday morning I get called into work.

My investigative commander and other higher ups

at the police department,

they started to tell me what they knew.

They told me who they suspected was involved,

Robert Lawrence and Brian Erickstad.

I knew immediately where to look.

I knew that that address was going to be

crucial to the investigation.

I dealt with the family a lot.

And every time that there was a crime in the neighborhood,

anywhere right around there,

that's kind of became the focus.

These kids were basically provided with a location

to drink and do drugs,

commit crime without any consequences.

People were allowed to hide from authorities there.

There was a exit door near Ryan's bedroom.

You could just sneak out at will.

I think there was a lot of people

coming and going in and out that door.

And I had been there on Thursday afternoon,

arresting two runaways.

And when I was in one of the bedrooms

where one of the runaways was hiding,

I had seen a bloody shirt,

and I relayed that right away to the commanders.

And I said we got to get back to that house.

- [Narrator] Detective Halvorson was assigned

to return to the house on East Sweet Avenue

to find out what anyone there might know about this event.

The first person he interviewed

was Amy's brother, Ryan Warner.

- [Halvorson] Ryan was largely defiant

the first time I interviewed him.

I talked to him, he wasn't willing to tell on his friends.

He was very adamant he was not going to say anything.

I sat him out in the lobby area

of our investigative unit in a chair,

said, okay, I'm going to visit with your mom

for a bit, just hang tight.

And ultimately he just got up and left.

Detective Halvorson returned to the house

on East Sweet Avenue and got permission

from Amy Warner's mother, Pam,

to search the house for a bloody shirt.

While there Amy's brother, Ryan, walked into the residence.

- Ryan asked if we had found

what we were looking for yet.

And I had told him that we hadn't.

He led me down to his room.

And behind a chair pulled out a Dan's Suoermarket bag

that had some bloody clothes in it.

And I knew this was a really big piece.

So I bring Ryan and Pam back down to the police department.

We decided we need to talk at a greater length

about what Ryan knew and who told him what.

It sounded like for the most part

Ryan had received a lot of information from Robert Lawrence.

Robert had disclosed most of what happened.

- [Narrator] What happened according to Ryan

was that Robert Lawrence and Brian Erickstad

had woken him up at 5:00 AM two nights earlier.

Outside in the parking lot of A&B Pizza

was a brand new pickup.

Robert told Ryan smells like death, doesn't it?

We killed Brian's parents.

You're coming with us to dump the stiffs.

They're in the back of the truck.

Ryan Warner told him that he couldn't go with them

because he had to go to school in the morning.

And so he went back inside and went to sleep.

Ryan Warner told Detective Halvorson

that nobody left with Robert and Brian.

Nobody had helped them,

but at least 12 people had knowledge of the homicides.

- When they left the bodies in the back of the truck

did anybody else go with them?

- Not that I know of.

- Who else had knowledge about what happened?

- There's like 12 people that--

- There's a lot of people that know.

- How many is a lot?

- Twelve.

- And they are?

Will you tell me their names?

- [Ryan] Me, Robert, Brian,

Aimee, Michelle, Candy,

Weasel, Rick, D.J.,

Bill, Kristi.

- [Halvorson] As the interview went on,

I got the impression though

that Ryan may have actually been at the residence.

and perhaps others.

And that's what I really wanted to get to the bottom of.

He did not want to go there.

And as the interview progressed, he got more nervous.

He got more agitated, just really moving his hands.

And I could tell I was onto something.

I could tell that he knew more than he was letting on.

It wasn't just about what he was told.

It's what he knew to be true.

- [Ryan] Then they left about one o'clock.

They went down there.

They did it, they came back to the house.

They wanted me to go with them to dump them.

- And that was when?

- About 5:30.

And then after that,

Misty,

I don't think she's down in this.

- Nope, we got to put Misty on there.

- Misty came over to the house.

She was spending the night and she found out about it.

She found out about it

and she wanted to drive by down there.

- 'Cause that was at what time?

- It was after 5:30,

'cause Robert and Brian were nowhere in sight.

- Okay, so then what?

- So we just drove down there.

- You and Misty?

You said Brian and Robert were with you.

- I was lying.

- You didn't want to get Misty in trouble?

- She didn't do nothing wrong.

- You didn't want to get her involved?

Who is Misty?

- Misty Jones.

- He ultimately did confess, I guess,

to being at the residence

and that he was driven there by Misty.

Misty was somewhat unknown to me at this point.

I had heard her name before,

but I had zero expectation

that she was involved to the degree she was involved.

- [Reporter] Authorities believe Erickstad and Lawrence

dumped the bodies 52 miles south of Bismarck

off of Highway 6.

Authorities found the couple's bodies in this field

around eight o'clock last night,

adding another crime scene to the list.

- [Halvorson] If you want to get to the truth,

you have to be really patient.

I thought Steve Lundin did great with Misty,

getting her to a place where she finally told the truth.

He knew she was stalling.

He knew she had the information,

but he didn't push her.

He played on her heart strings a little bit.

He talked about her loyalties a little bit.

And ultimately he got her to give it up,

but it took a long time.

And that was patience.

He back her into a corner she'll come out swinging.

- I need to know what you might have overheard

or what you saw.

[woman talking]

- Is that what you're getting at?

- Well, the information I have is that number one,

you were told everything that happened in that house.

And number two, you even looked in the house

and saw what, the aftermath of what happened.

And it's not too late.

You don't want to have to worry

that I'm going to get you in trouble.

- Can I leave now?

Please?

- Misty, come here, honey.

Misty, come here, honey.

- Misty?

- [Mom] Come here, it's okay.

- [Narrator] It turned out that Misty Jones

not only drove Robert and Brian to the Erickstad home,

she had been in the house,

witnessed part of the murders,

and she had also helped them dump the bodies.

- [Halvorson] She ultimately described

where they dumped the bodies,

about 50 miles south of Mandan,

in a tree row near Selfridge.

That was the break we needed.

We might not find those bodies for a long time.

There's a lot of things about this job

that a person doesn't want to relive,

that they don't want to take with them,

that they would just as soon forget

or be able to put behind them.

This was one of them.

What happened to Barbara and Gordon Erickstad

was brutal beyond imagination.

And then to be so callously discarded.

And the reasons,

no reason here.

There was no justification for doing something like this.

I wasn't even sure I wanted to open it back up.

And I think when you sent me the police reports

and you sent me interviews, videos and things like that,

I think it took me over two weeks to open the first document

and to view the first video.

- [Haas] My lieutenant contacts me.

And he says he was sending somebody over

to 45 Laredo, 'cause this is where it happened at.

And he wants me to jump in a car with this guy

and we're to head down to Selfridge

because the information that we got

from one of the people that was involved

in this whole thing and knew explicitly

what had happened,

had told him that Barbara and Gordon had been killed

and their bodies had been dumped

on a tree row down by Selfridge, North Dakota.

- [Halvorson] I remember my lieutenant telling me,

get ready to go down to Selfridge,

get ahold of Detective Becker,

get those people back here,

tell the chopper to refuel, get ahold of the coroner,

get a hold of the sheriff of Sioux County

and tell them we're coming.

I wrote up a quick little script

for our office manager D Tremble.

And I said will you call the sheriff of Sioux County

and tell them that about a dozen units

from the Bismarck police department,

an equipment truck, generators,

and a helicopter are on their way south of Mandan

to try to find a couple of bodies that were dumped there.

Tell them we're investigating a double homicide

that happened the last couple of days.

And so she started in on this with the sheriff

and he thought it was a joke.

He thought it was a prank call.

- Troy Shaner, I believe it was Troy,

came and picked me up and we headed on down there

and it's starting to get dark now

because it's getting late in the year and stuff.

And we got down there about the time

that the sun was going down

and we weren't sure if we were going to be able

to locate them.

Well, BIA had the road blocked off

and they had lights going and all this other stuff.

We had to show them our identification

and tell them who we were.

And then we had to sign in on a crime scene log.

They pointed us to over to the tree row

and they're in the tree row

was Mr. Erickstad laying on his back,

and Mrs. Erickstad was laid down

with her head on his stomach

and her legs were bent underneath her.

- -[Halvorson] This is a crime scene

that I've relived many, many times.

It's something that a lot of officers,

a lot of detectives won't ever witness.

I was assigned as the photographer.

And it was photographs that I can still see to this day,

things I would wish nobody to have to see.

- [Haas] I don't want to sound crass and unemotional,

but we get, I guess, from what we do,

we kind of get conditioned to some of that stuff.

And it's terrible.

And it sets you back for just a second.

But in the same regard,

looking at them and looking what has been done to them,

you want to get them some justice.

You want to get the family some justice too.

So you have to put your emotions aside.

If you can't do it, basically, you tell them I can't do it.

Then you step aside because you don't want to mess

something of this stature up.

You're looking for things that's going to tie it in

from this scene to the scene that we were just at.

You got to push on,

because if you don't, you're worthless, you can't do it.

You can't do it anymore.

And you might as well just get out of it.

We've got to get some sleep because the next day

we're going to be out at six o'clock in the morning again,

trying to run down leads,

we're talking to witnesses.

We're going through the crime scene again,

tabulating things, we're putting stuff into evidence

and it's an ongoing process.

And now that we have located Mr. and Mrs. Erickstad,

we know that there's going to be an autopsy.

- [Reporter] Bismarck police lieutenant, Myron Hinley,

says the numerous crime scenes,

Ericstads' home, the field and this car

that was found near West Fargo

will all help investigators fill in the blanks.

Most of the evidence has been gathered.

However, the two murderers are still on the loose,

but they have received a number of tips

on where the two murderers could be headed.

- [Halvorson] I can't say with any degree of certainty

exactly what happened.

I do know that at some point,

Robert Lawrence, Brian Erickstad and Misty Jones--

- [Haas] They go over to Rick Storhogg's place.

Try to get him to come with them.

He doesn't answer the knocks on the windows

and stuff like that.

- [Havorston] I'm still a little bit uncertain

about Misty's boyfriend Rick and his role.

But he's one I never really felt we got

the full truth out of.

I need you to remember what you heard.

And I need you to remember

who you heard it from and what they said

because this is crucial.

Like you said, this,

this isn't like any everyday conversation, you know,

I just can't buy that you can't remember

what you've heard yet.

- What I've heard from who?

- This is not going to happen to you in your lifetime again.

That somebody you know is involved in killing their parents.

- I don't remember who told me stuff.

I know somebody told me that Ryan was there.

I don't remember who it was.

It could've been DJ, could've been Buddy,

could've been Kristi, could've been Candy,

It could've been Aimee, could've been Michelle.

God knows who it was, 'cause I talked to everybody.

People have been calling me up on the phone,

people that I haven't talked to for like six months

called me up and told me that they heard stuff.

- That's always been my contention.

And I guess I can't really prove it.

But Rick Storhogg knew what was gonna happen.

And he was supposed to be that third person

that was going down to Laredo on the night that it happened.

I think better judgment got ahold of him.

And he decided I'm not going.

I think Misty ended up filling in for Rick.

He knew what was going on.

And as I think this whole thing

could have been prevented if he just opened his mouth.

But he didn't and I don't know what allegiance

he feels that he owes to these guys.

But you know,

two people ended up losing their lives

over him keeping his mouth shut.

- [Halvorson] Robert Lawrence,

Brian Erickstad and Misty Jones

arrived at the Erickstad residence on Loredo.

- [Haas] They go into the garage.

And from what I understand,

Brian and Robert sit down and discuss

how this is all gonna go down.

- [Halvorson] Brian and Robert went in,

stabbed both of them to death.

At some point, Misty went into the house.

She says, well, Barbara was still alive.

She apologized to Barbara for what was happening to her.

At which time she was chewed out by Brian

- [Haas] After the murders,

they go downstairs and they remove the blankets

from a couple of bunk beds

to wrap the bodies up.

- [Halvorson] They loaded the bodies in the pickup.

Misty went back to the Warner residence, picked up Ryan,

brought him down to the house.

Ryan says he looked in the door.

He could see all the blood.

Brian and Robert were already gone.

He went back to the residence, 701 East Sweet.

- [Haas] And they take the pickup.

They go over to 701 East Sweet.

- [Halvorson] Robert and Brian pulled up to the residence.

They wanted Ryan to go with to dump the bodies.

Ryan declined.

They left with Misty.

- [Haas] Robert and Misty and Brian

go down to Selfridge to dispose of the bodies.

- [Halvorson] Headed down to Selfridge, near Selfridge,

where they dumped the bodies in a tree row.

That's what I know.

- [Narrator] Five days after the murders,

Robert Lawrence and Brian Erickstad were arrested in Texas.

They were brought back to North Dakota

and were tried and convicted a year later.

- [Haas] Nobody has really conclusively said.

And it still to this day baffles me.

There's been other stuff that I've worked.

You know, you shake your head at,

but at least they'll give you a reason on why.

There's never been a reason.

And I would welcome somebody telling me.

- [Narrator] Despite the vicious reality of the crime,

Robert and Brian's friends continued to support them.

One journalist who attended the trial

berated the young followers for their attitudes,

and quote "smirks on their faces."

- Now that I kind of look back at it,

how could you classify it

as maybe kind of Charles Mansonisque.

Two people died, they died a horrendous death.

They should have never had been subjected to that.

And yet we've got these kids, I guess,

for lack of better term,

are idolizing the people that did it to them.

- Two weeks after the arrest,

Robert and Brian's girlfriends, Aimee and Michelle,

agreed to a newspaper interview.

They posed proudly for photographs

and seemed to be enjoying the attention.

They both said that they wished

they had run off with Robert and Brian,

both said they would love them forever.

They were still planning a future with them.

But this newspaper interview compared little

to what happened a few weeks later.

Aimee Warner decided she needed to break

into the Erickstad home on Loredo Drive

where Barbara and Gordon had been brutally murdered.

It was still a crime scene with police tape

and do not enter plastered all over the doors.

And she didn't act alone.

Her mother's boyfriend and others helped her,

What they didn't know was that

the Bismarck Police Department

had set up a portable alarm in the house.

- [Haas] The police responded that night,

and they find I think Aimee coming out of the house

or out of the garage with stuff in her hand.

They've got Weasel there.

They've got Naomi there, Kristi's there.

I think they were just coming out of the garage

and Candy and Steve were sitting in Steve's car

and they're in the driveway.

What's the purpose of going back into the house?

I don't know, but they all ended up getting arrested.

All the juveniles ended up going to YCC.

The males, the two adults,

They ended up getting charged with class B felonies

and going to jail that night.

I think it's a very disrespectful act.

You knew what went on in there.

There's no doubt in your mind.

Why do you need to go back in there?

- [Narrator] I asked both Lloyd Halvorson

and Bob Haas for their thoughts

on Misty Jones's role in this sad event.

Misty Jones had driven Brian and Robert to the house,

Misty who returned to get help at the house on East Sweet.

Misty Jones, who rode with them to dump the bodies.

Misty was never charged with anything

in regards to these homicides.

And she would later testify

for the prosecution at the trial.

A lot of people ask me,

do you think it's right that only Robert and Brian

were charged with criminal activity

regarding these homicides,

and that the others really suffered no consequence.

I think the two people that needed to be held accountable

were held accountable.

And I think these young people will live with this

for the rest of their life.

And in some ways that's consequence enough.

- [Haas] Maybe I'm going to get raked

over the coals over this,

but she had an opportunity.

She could have done just what Rick did.

She could have walked away.

She could have gone knocked on somebody's door

saying call the police.

You know, there's something going on over here.

We need the police.

She did none of that.

- [Narrator] Like Aimee and Michelle Warner,

Misty Jones continued to support Brian and Robert

for months after they were arrested.

She wrote letters to both of them

while they were awaiting trial.

Every letter was littered with I love you.

I'll love you forever.

We'll always be connected.

She told them that someday she would have two sons.

She would name one Robert and one Brian.

She also said Robert and Brian didn't deserve

what happened to them.

- [Halvorson] For two months later,

to say something like that in a letter

to the two people who put her in this awful position

and exposed her to this awful crime,

very surprised, very surprised.

I would say, what's her motivation for doing this?

Why would she come out and say that?

He brutally murdered two innocent people.

- [Narrator] I asked Lloyd Halvorson and Bob Haas,

if they would have any questions for Misty Jones today,

if I could find her somehow.

- I dunno, when you called and you talked to me

about doing a story,

it was just, I have yet to understand.

I have my thoughts on why they were killed,

but nobody has really conclusively said it.

And it still to this day baffles me.

There's never been a reason.

And I would welcome somebody telling me.

- The letters months later to Brian or to Robert

kind of reasserting her loyalty to them,

her love for them.

I'd love to find out what she was thinking at the time

and how long it took her to overcome that

and to think differently.

Or perhaps she doesn't.

Perhaps she still thinks to this day

that the consequences imposed

on Robert and Brian were unjust.

I'd be really interested to know that.

This is James.

We just got done interviewing Misty Jones,

which is someone I didn't think

we were going to have an opportunity to talk to.

Long interview and I'm pretty tired,

but she had some interesting news that I wasn't expecting.

And I wanted to tell you about.

Apparently just in the last week or so,

she reached out to Brian Erickstad

in North Dakota State Penitentiary.

And somehow she has gotten him to agree

she says to speak with me.

Apparently we will be interviewing Brian Erickstad.

- [Narrator] Looking back,

it was never part of my game plan to interview Misty Jones.

For one, I didn't think I'd be able to find her.

I had the feeling she would be one of those people

laying low, still hidden beneath an underbelly

in some town somewhere.

One day though, I received Misty's

contact information unexpectedly.

After some initial correspondence,

Misty agreed to an interview,

and I drove from western North Dakota to Fargo.

While driving along interstate 94,

I did a lot of thinking and I passed a lot of landmarks

related to this tragic crime.

First came the town of New Salem,

with its giant statue of a cow,

watching me from its perch on a hilltop.

I recalled that Misty Jones lived in New Salem in 1998.

And that five days after the murders,

a Morton County Sheriff's deputy drove to Misty's home

to retrieve some evidence,

a small gas can.

Just before the Missouri river,

I passed Mandan where Michelle Warner and Robert Lawrence

dump bloody blankets in JC park

near their favorite swimming hole,

a place they dumped the Rapids.

Some of the East Sweet kids went swimming there

just a few hours before the murders.

And the next day,

a few of them rendezvoused there again

to wave goodbye as their heroes, Brian and Robert,

rode off in stolen vehicles.

Passing Bismarck and the state Capitol building,

I thought more about the house on East Sweet Avenue

than I did the house on Laredo Drive.

The world inside 701 East Sweet Avenue,

that was a world I felt I would never understand.

I had wanted to understand it though.

And from the very start I had hoped to interview

Aimee and Michelle and Ryan Warner,

and Rick Storhogg and others.

Aimee first tipped off police about the crime,

but then later posed proudly alongside her sister,

Michelle for a newspaper article,

declaring her everlasting love and support for Brian.

Aimee, one of six people arrested

for breaking into the crime scene on Laredo Drive

just a few weeks after the murders.

I did reach out to Pam Warner to request interviews.

Pam told me she did speak with her daughters

and they all agreed to respectfully decline

to take part in this story.

Sadly, her son, Ryan Warner passed away in 2009.

Somewhere along the way to Fargo,

I realized why I had resisted seeking out Misty Jones

from the beginning.

In some ways I think for me,

the girl with the little red car wasn't even a real person.

She had become an almost nebulous character to me,

a mysterious young spirit whose movements and behavior

defied understanding in 1998.

Misty Jones had become my ghost.

Finally, I arrived in downtown Fargo

and I parked outside of a place

named the Lighthouse Church.

And then I entered this church

and I sat down with Misty and her pastor.

- [Man] Lighthouse Church is a recovery based church

in downtown Fargo.

We work with people who are often

putting their life back together,

who have gone through some struggles

who are seeking a community of support.

- I'm Misty Gibree.

I used to be Misty Jones,

but I'm not that girl anymore.

I'm 38.

I am married, I have two kids, a boy and a girl.

I have three step sons,

and now I have a grandson.

I had my first drink when I was the baby

and my dad would put beer in my bottle

and enticed me to walk towards it.

The first time I started drinking myself I was 12.

The lady down the street,

I would babysit for her and she paid me in alcohol.

My ninth grade year I don't know how I passed,

but I did.

Partied and I was high all the time.

They knew that I was high.

I mean, what can you do?

I did what I wanted to do.

Mostly smoked weed.

Did acid my first time.

Shrooms.

Shot up, I was doing meth and coke.

My mom moved us to New Salem

for my sophomore and junior year.

I refused to go to New Salem school.

She did homeschooling for me.

I found her answer keys and I cheated.

Since I was done with my schooling,

I basically got to do whatever I wanted.

I had a car then.

That's when I started really drinking

and partying like crazy.

For my 16th birthday,

my mom decided to take us to Arizona

to see my dad for the first time since I was five.

It was like meeting my dad for the first time.

I was so excited to meet him.

And my experience in Arizona was alcohol and drugs.

- [Narrator] After her brief reunion with her father,

Misty returned to North Dakota,

where the summer of 1998 awaited her.

And she stayed on that path of drugs and alcohol

and cruised right into the month of September.

- [Misty] I didn't know where I would sleep.

Sometimes I just knew I'd follow the flow of the party.

And you know, I always had an excuse for my mom.

- I asked Misty if she felt any animosity

towards the adults in her life when she was young.

Like your babysitter providing with this stuff,

looking back on your dad, providing this for you.

How do you look at that?

- I think that things happen for a reason

and although I don't understand them,

I believe that there's a bigger plan.

Do I like it?

Obviously not.

I could've grown up to be something, you know,

important or special maybe even.

- [Narrator] After Brian and Robert were sentenced

to life in prison,

Misty moved to Fargo with her boyfriend, Rick Storhogg.

Things started out well,

but then Rick began manufacturing meth.

- [Misty] I don't remember even how we ended up

starting to do drugs again,

but it came and it came fast.

They were making meth and then he was selling meth.

And then he was doing,

we were doing all kinds of drugs at this time.

Yeah, I hardly remember that time.

That time was really messed up for me.

We would stay at hotels sometimes and I would crouch

underneath the sink in the bathroom and crying like,

you know, God let me die.

But whenever I'd be crying, praying to God, let me just die.

Rick would just hand me a spoon and a needle underneath.

He'd be doing his stuff on top of the sink.

And he would just hand it to me and I would take it.

I was like, that was what I did.

- [Narrator] And then Rick and Misty

got arrested and both of them spent time in federal prison.

- [Misty] So I got out of prison in 2003.

I wanted to be sober again.

It meant a lot to me to be sober.

And I started going to NA as much as I could

I got a job.

- [Narrator] While attempting to turn her life around

Misty met her future husband

who was attempting to do the same thing.

They joined forces and pulled their lives together,

creating a new family.

Misty started her own cleaning business.

Misty says life was amazing, but then they both relapsed.

And for awhile Misty lost everything,

her business, her kids, her car, everything.

But only for a while,

until she just couldn't take it anymore

and she turned her life around again.

- So today I work for a thing called free through recovery.

I work at a church who would have thought that would happen?

Right now help people on parole and probation

get the resources that they need

to help them succeed in this world.

When I got out of prison,

it wasn't hard for me to get a job because I had ties,

but a lot of people don't have those ties.

And so when they get out,

they don't know where they're going to live,

where they're going to work.

People don't want to hire them because they're felons.

So these are all the things that I help with.

So my mom used to work at the bowling alley.

That was one of her jobs.

And I was constantly at the bowling alley.

And Brian was there one day shooting pool,

but he was really quiet.

He was a great guy.

He was funny, he was caring.

He's kind of bashful in a way with me.

I could talk to him about anything.

He was my best friend.

Robert was the oldest, I suppose he was a teacher in a way.

He taught me that if I was driving down the road

and I was swerving.

So I used to drive drunk a lot

and to pretend like I was messing with a stereo system

if I drove by a cop,

because then I'd have a reason to be swerving,

taught me how to shoplift.

He was just kind of a teacher.

And I don't remember a lot of him.

I just know that he was there and Michelle's boyfriend.

The guys all really looked up to him.

He was mean though.

I heard one time he,

I think I was at the house,

but I wasn't with them when they did it.

But he jumped out of the back of a pickup

and punched a black guy with brass knuckles

for no reason other than just being black.

Ryan and Aimee and Michelle lived there,

Pam and Naomi and Lisa lived upstairs.

Ryan had a door, you just go down and go in.

And his room was pretty big.

We could just go in whenever we wanted.

And you can just, you know,

if I needed a place to stay or anything,

I could just, even if it was like two in the morning,

I could just go in and lay next to Ryan and go to bed.

They were doing drugs upstairs.

That's where we got the meth from.

And as long as we left them alone, they left us alone.

It was like our own apartment down there.

- This is the only way I'm going to put it.

Could we just get this confirmed?

Rick knew what was go--.

I mean, he knew what was gonna,

let me play this here.

- It's always been my contention.

And I guess I can't really prove it.

But Rick Storhogg knew what was going to happen.

Brian and Robert and Misty Jones

came over and knocked on the window.

trying to get his attention to get him

to come with them, 'cause I think Misty

ended up filling in for Rick.

And they left a note on his car and started swimming.

- [Halvorston] I'm still a little bit uncertain

about Misty's boyfriend Rick.

But it seemed like he knew details

that only he could know if he was there.

He's one I never really felt we got the full truth on.

- Right.

- [Narrator] What's your comments on that?

- So Rick told me after where it said

it was supposed to be him,

that he decided not to do it because they were going to do

it messy and leave evidence in the house.

Rick actually had a different plan

and it was to shoot him,

to take him somewhere where there was a hole already done.

That way there was no evidence of bodies or anything.

I think my brain protected me from it

by playing it as a movie.

And still to this day, it's like a movie in my head.

I was a very argumentative little girl.

I would be one that's would say,

nobody's going to tell me what to do, argued a lot.

And so when they told me to wait in the car, I said, no,

I'm going to go in the garage

cause he can smoke in the garage.

So I went in there and sat on the cooler.

I sat on the big freezer and smoked a cigarette.

I read in a transcript that Brian went in and said that they

were awake and all that.

I don't remember any of that.

I do remember hearing a lot of banging

And then I remember hearing his mom scream

and then they came in their garage

and they had blood on their hands.

And some reason I remember thinking

that they killed a cat in front of them.

For some reason, that's what in my head,

that was what they did was they scared them

killed like a cat or something.

And so I went upstairs,

there was his dad laying on the floor.

And I remember thinking this isn't like the movies.

There's not a lot of blood.

His mom was still alive.

Not all the way.

And I don't know if she was like totally alive or not.

She was breathing.

I think in the paperwork it says that she was saying,

I love you.

But I don't remember that.

I remember Robert screaming cut her in the jugular vein,

cut her in the jugular vein.

I remember Brian holding her head and stabbing her

repeatedly and I just stood there and watched.

Then I said, I have to go get help.

And they let me leave.

- You said I have to go get help?

They never sent you to get help?

- No, I said I have to go to help.

You guys need help.

I have to go get help.

You guys need help.

And I left.

- Do you remember why it was that your main concern,

them getting help or did you just want to get out of there

or do you know?

- I don't know.

I just knew that I got out of there real fast

and I went and got Ryan.

I didn't know the bodies were still on the truck

when I got in it.

I found that out later,

Brian was just crying and sad.

I held him for awhile in a truck,

cradled him like a baby and rocked him.

Robert was like driving and he's like,

you like my new truck.

Robert I'm honestly kind of scared for if he ever gets out.

And I don't know if it was, I, I can't get the image,

what he did,

the way he acted and the way Brian acted were totally

different afterwards.

- You know, a person struggles

with how could you know about what happened to them

and not come forward and not tell the truth

about what you knew and do so willingly to not understand

the gravity of right and wrong in this way to be conflicted

in terms of loyalty, to the truth, loyalty to your friends.

That's what we, a lot of people don't understand.

Can you just help in any way,

help people understand that mentality.

- So in a drug world,

you don't tell on people,

you're a narc and that's the narcing thing.

And you don't want to be the one that you don't want to be

labeled that person, cause that will ruin you.

Nobody will want to do drugs with you and nobody will want

to talk to you.

You don't know that a murder isn't in, not included in that.

You just know that you're not supposed to tell on people.

I remember in the psych ward,

people yelling at me telling me don't you care,

are you that whatever they said, I don't remember.

And I remember being in prison five years later,

three years sober.

And the first time I realized, oh my God,

there was two people died.

So all my actions that are unexplainable,

I blocked the whole thing out of my head

until I was old enough.

And my brain was thought I was ready.

- [Narrator] Everybody has a story.

Misty and I'm assuming the other kids at the time,

you know, came from their own life issues

of their own upbringing.

And you know, in her life experience,

there was no real shaping of a moral compass

that perhaps a lot of people would have.

And so her compass said it's loyalty to the people

who give you sense of security

a sense of purpose and meaning and unconditional love.

Even though it was far from unconditional,

she was a 16 year old kid,

drugs and alcohol affects your cognitive abilities.

It can overtake your brain even at young ages.

- I started writing Brian again.

I knew that I wasn't going to ask him in letters.

And so I tried to set up visitation

with a half hour before closing.

Cause I was really scared, not of him,

but seeing him after all these years.

And I didn't ask him, I was too afraid.

- Ask him what?

- Why he did it.

What happened? Why was I there?

Why did he do it in front of me?

Why did it have to happen?

You know, Rick told me all kinds of reasons,

but I had never heard them from Brian.

I didn't know if they were right or wrong, you know?

So I finally talk to him on the phone the other day,

- How many days ago?

- Monday and Tuesday.

And I finally asked him, but I can't tell you,

cause that's his story to tell you.

- [Haas] Maybe I'm going to get raked

over the coals over this,

but she had an opportunity.

She could have done just what Rick did.

She could have walked away.

This is not the actions of somebody

that we should give some leniency to.

I don't believe it.

I think she's just as complicit as these other two.

Sure she didn't stab anybody.

She didn't kill anybody.

But there were actions that she could have taken that maybe

it would minimize some of this stuff.

Maybe two people wouldn't have lost their lives.

- [Man] She was a 16 year old kid,

drugs and alcohol affects your cognitive abilities.

- [Halvorson] The two people that needed

to be held accountable were held accountable.

And I think these young people

will live with this for the rest of their life.

And in some ways that's consequence enough.

- I remember back in the eighties,

Hollywood ran a campaign advertising campaign where they

encourage us to get out and escape to the movies.

If you think about it, that's kind of what we do.

When we watch a movie we escape from reality.

Is that what Misty Jones did that night instead of driving

to the police department, she walked down those steps

and went through that door and woke up Ryan Warner.

Did she escape to a movie her brain produced in her head?

I don't know.

There's still a lot I don't understand.

Sure I have more information,

but a part of me still does not understand,

but I do know that Hollywood movies

almost always end neat and tidy.

You're served up with an ending that is tied with a bow,

served on a platter and you're left

with no unanswered questions,

but this story and the movie in Misty's head

were not Hollywood productions.

This was real life.

Two people really died.

And I guess in real life stories

don't always end neat and tidy.

One unanswered question at present is

will Brian Erickstad speak with us?

Will he answer some of those questions

that Bob Haas and others still can't quite

get out of their heads all these years later?

Why did this happen?

At the time of this recording I've spoken

to Brian Erickstad three times on the phone.

We've only discussed how such an interview might take place,

but now suddenly I've not heard from him in over a month.

Perhaps he's changed his mind.

One thing I do know though,

or at least I believe when the 16 year old Misty Jones wrote

those crazy letters to Robert and Brian in jail,

she was right about one thing.

She said, they'd always be connected.

I think that's something she got right.

I think they always will be tethered together because of

this horrific experience.