Original subtitles

[officer] Do you know anybody in Nebraska?

Stop at any bars, meet people and score any dope?

No.

-Tell us who you were with. -[woman cries]

[officer] Anybody else?

I don't know anybody in Nebraska.

-Where were you prior-- -I didn't even know I was in Nebraska.

If you didn't kill somebody, who were you with that did?

-I don't know. -'Cause it's that simple.

I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know what happened.

[man] The gruesomeness of the event made people think it had to be personal.

Obviously an inside job.

[reporter] No one could have expected someone would murder

Wayne and Sharmon Stock in their secluded farmhouse.

My sergeant asked me to go inside and check the house.

And I went upstairs, and that's when I saw Wayne.

His head was pretty much destroyed.

[man 2] There was blood all over that scene.

It looked like an assassination, to be honest with you.

[man 1] A lot of cases that you work,

it's pretty clear-cut.

Nothing about this case was clear-cut.

This whole thing divided Murdock in half.

[man 2] The evidence didn't fit the facts.

All of a sudden, two suspects

now go to four suspects.

[man 3] The cops were gonna be heroes.

They just needed to make it all fit.

It was just kind of a big shitshow.

[man] I've always had a strong sense of justice.

[camera clicks]

I mean, I was raised that way.

So I went after it as hard if not harder than a lot of my cases.

Murdock, it's a small town in the middle of nowhere.

And those small communities don't have police officers in them all the time.

People could go and, you know, do some wild stuff if they wanted to.

And they might get away with it.

[static]

[wind howling]

I've seen death in a lot of different forms.

I'd never seen anything as brutal as this.

I still have nightmares sometimes.

Wayne and Sharmon,

they didn't have a chance to protect themselves.

The Stock family, they're a good bunch of people,

and they're a pretty sizable farm operation out there.

They had a hay business that was pretty popular,

and so they had money, and the family as a whole had money.

It had come to our attention from talking to the family

that Wayne and Sharmon Stock's nephew had a bone to pick with his aunt and uncle

because he didn't feel like he was ever gonna get his fair share

of the family money.

All his aunts and uncles and cousins that we had talked to were saying

he'd actually had arguments in person with Wayne and Sharmon

about inheritances, about money, about his share of what his family has.

So then we had a potential suspect.

Matt was kind of like the black sheep of that side of the family.

Me and Matt have always been close.

Out of the cousins, it was always typically me and Matt

were always hanging out together.

He'd tried being everybody's buddy

and, you know, he was a good guy and everything. He'd just...

Sometimes, he acts without thinking.

Matt may have had a temper, but it was...

nothing like that. I mean,

I don't see that in him.

[birds cawing]

[Earl] We asked him to come along for an interview and he agreed to it.

He seemed pretty plain and straightforward.

I mean,

he's not that technical upstairs.

He's a simple guy.

[officer] This is considered a non-custodial interview.

You're free to leave at any time.

[Matt] Well, I'm here to cooperate with you gentlemen.

[officer] Okay, and that's just for the record,

so you don't think that you're trapped here. And if at any time, you go,

"I'm not happy and I don't want to be here," you can leave.

[Matt] Okay.

It was a thought someday

that I wanted to be a police officer, so...

I wanted to help them figure this out, you know?

Didn't have a clue that I was even considered a suspect.

What kind of person do you think goes into someone's house

and shoots somebody and takes their life?

[Matt] A sicko.

A sick person. That's what I think.

But...

I don't know.

I mean, it's...

[officer] We're like you. We want to know the who, what, when, why and how and who.

First, he was like, well, there was never any problem

between him and his aunt and uncle,

and he's just beside himself about all this,

and he's not sure who would do a thing like this.

But we knew he was lying.

[Matt] I didn't have anything to do with this.

-You did. -I did not.

-You did. -I did not, Bill.

-You did. -No, I didn't.

I'm sorry, you did.

-Come on, Matt. -Come on, Matt.

[Bill] You're thinking too hard. You've got your mind spinning,

going, "I'm trying to get out of this. What do I say?"

We've had so many people sitting in that chair, okay,

that think that they're smarter than us, and you're not.

-No. -Okay?

-I'm dumb as a brick. -No, you're not dumb as a brick, okay?

-You made a mistake. -You fucked up.

You did. You fucked up, and now you've got to pay for it.

[Matt] It was something I'd never been through.

I had no idea how to act,

I didn't know how to think, and, you know,

didn't have a clue.

Do you consider yourself a man?

Then stand up.

No.

Stand up and be a man, okay?

-Own up. -Own up for what you've done.

Do you understand? You shake your head at me and you look at me.

I just want to make sure you understand.

-I'm trying to. -Okay, then speak up and tell us.

[Earl] If you don't admit to me exactly what you've done,

I'm gonna walk out that door,

and I'm gonna do my level best to hang your ass

from the highest tree.

You're done. I'll go after the death penalty.

I'll push, I'll push, and I'll push

until I get everything I need to make sure you go down hard for this.

There is no second chance

'cause I'll look at you and go piss on you.

[Matt] It was nerve-racking.

I figured if I just tell them what they wanted to hear,

then I'd get to go home.

Let's take this in baby steps, all right?

Let's try to make this as simple as possible.

Where did you get the shotgun from?

The only one I have is locked up in my dad's gun safe,

and I don't even know where the keys are for it.

Man, I'm trying to help you piece this together

'cause we already know the truth, man.

Baby steps.

Start to finish.

The truth is...

you got a gun.

-Right or wrong? -Right.

And you took that gun

back to your Uncle Wayne and Aunt Sharmon's house, right?

Right or wrong? Come on, man.

[Matt] Right.

[Earl] And you walked upstairs in their house after hours.

-Right or wrong? -[Matt] Right.

[Earl] And you walked in with that shotgun...

and you saw they were laying in bed. Right or wrong?

[Matt] Right, I guess. Right.

[Earl] Right.

And you fired a shot...

-at your Uncle Wayne. -Right.

What happened next? I want you to tell me.

When he first started making those admissions,

I just locked onto him.

I didn't want to look at Bill. I didn't want to look up at the camera.

I just wanted to say, "Okay, I got you.

Now stay with me and talk to me and tell me how this all happened."

-Don't remember. -You don't remember?

But you got pretty close to Aunt Sharmon, didn't you?

Right, I guess. I don't know, um...

-All that rage running through you. -Right.

And you fired a shot to shut her up.

Is that right?

-I need you to say it out loud, buddy. -Yes, sir.

At the point that he started saying things that he knew to be the truth,

he felt relaxed, and he felt like letting them go.

It's all right, buddy. You started to say it. Come on, let it go.

[Matt] Then I pulled that trigger and...

shot her.

And then she screamed more.

And then I just...

You just what, buddy?

[Matt] Put the gun to her face and blew it away.

-[Earl] Okay. -And then as I headed out,

I just stuck it to him and blew him away.

And the more he told the truth,

the more he was able to open up and sit back.

And when I ask him, "How do you feel now?"

"I feel like the world has been lifted off of my shoulders."

Now tell me how you feel.

Like shit.

You're breathing a little easier than you were before.

[Matt] Yeah.

Doesn't make anything...

-[Earl] No, it doesn't make it better. -No.

-[Earl] It ain't gonna bring 'em back. -No.

I fucked up.

You know, I was spitballing at stuff,

but...

you know, he was able to tell us a lot of things that...

yeah, that kind of added up to everything that we had.

[Earl] This is a really important question.

You weren't alone that night.

-Is that right or wrong? -[Matt] Right.

[Earl] There was somebody else with you, wasn't there?

[Matt] Yeah.

[man] Matt's interrogation,

it just wasn't right from the beginning.

He was like training a puppy...

to not pee on a carpet.

The first scenario for the shooting

was he did the whole thing by himself

and they go, "Well, no, that can't be true,"

and they were leading him to the story

that they thought fit the physical evidence.

At the crime scene,

there was a void...

apparent on one of the walls in the blood spatter,

which would indicate that at the time the gun was fired,

there would have been somebody else standing within two or three feet,

and that would have indicated that there were two people involved.

[Earl] You weren't alone that night. [clears throat]

Who else was with you?

Nick Sampson.

Yeah, that was kind of hurtful,

knowing that, you know, he was supposed to be my cousin, my best friend,

one we always hung out with,

kind of just threw me under the bus.

-Hey. -Hm?

Sit here for just a second, okay?

I'm gonna get you that potty break and stuff and a smoke break.

-All right? -All right.

Sit here for a second.

[Bill] Stand up and stretch your legs.

-Can I? -Yes.

[indistinct chatter]

[grumbles]

[whispers] My God.

[Nick] That night, I was at work

at Bulldog's Bar and Grill.

It's the only bar in town.

It's been the only bar in town for as long as I can ever remember.

I was in the kitchen cooking that night,

and it was getting to closing time,

and one of the patrons says there was a couple of cops

sitting outside on either side of the block.

So I'm like, "Okay, whatever."

So I just went back and did my normal thing.

And then next thing I know,

there was about six of them came in, guns blazing...

and arrested me in front of probably eight to ten people

right there on the bar floor.

Put me in handcuffs and...

walked me out.

They told me that I was being charged

with the murders of Wayne and Sharmon Stock.

They didn't really tell me too much about what Matt had said.

They just said that he had mentioned my name

and said that I was involved.

If you really dig down deep inside yourself,

if you're involved in this, you'll let me know now

and we can work it out.

[Nick] I did nothing.

I had nothing, 100%, to do with this at all.

[officer] Okay.

[Nick] I didn't know anything about it until Monday night,

until I got the phone call from my sister.

[officer] So if I bring a polygraph up here, you're ready to do it?

-I am. -Right here and right now?

-Mm-hm. -We'll do that.

I went in for a polygraph.

They said I failed.

I'm like, "No, you're full of shit.

Take me back to my cell."

[laughs]

And then after that,

I figured out I had an attorney.

[Jerry] My job was to get Nick out,

and I needed to get Nick out as soon as possible.

All I had to do was to keep Matt

from testifying against my client.

They had nothing on him

because there was nothing to find.

My thing about confessions, I don't care about them.

I don't even pay attention to them.

You've got to have something to back it up,

otherwise it's a pretty weak case, really.

Forensic work, it's kind of black and white in a lot of ways.

There's not much gray area.

This DNA belongs to this individual or it doesn't.

It's all about linkage. Linkage, linkage, linkage.

Cass County Sheriff's Department, that was their case,

and they wanted us to come down and work the scene,

so we went down there.

[interviewer] Why were they requesting you?

Well...

I could toot my own horn, I guess.

[reporter] David Kofoed says CSI work

often becomes the missing link in a case.

If you don't find that evidence, you have nothing.

[Jerry] David Kofoed was probably considered

the most prominent CSI investigator in Nebraska.

A superstar at the time,

showing what all of the whizzbang things could be done with forensic science.

[reporter 2] Renowned for having solved some of Nebraska's biggest crimes,

named Mr. Nebraska twice.

[David] Well, I won Mr. Nebraska when I was 19.

Then when I was 36,

I was working at the crime lab

and somebody said, "You ought to do it again," and I won when I was 36.

You can't tell anymore, can you? [laughs]

The Cass County Sheriff's Office,

they were under some pressure, I guess.

You know, they had to do something to confirm their confession.

You got these two guys

that are in county jail and we have nothing to link 'em up.

[Jerry] This is a middle-of-the-night shooting.

And there was a letter carrier and his girlfriend

who were delivering newspapers.

And he reported driving by there

and seeing this car.

And he described it as a tan sedan.

They drive around, then all of a sudden, they're taking another route

and this car goes by them

at a very, very high rate of speed.

They get frightened and they remember it.

The cops say,

"Aha! This is the murderers."

But the only thing they really have is this tan sedan.

Matt doesn't have a tan sedan.

I believe he had a Gremlin,

a red and white Gremlin, something like ugliest car I've ever seen,

and Nick doesn't have a-- that kind of car either.

But Nick has a brother

uh, and his brother has a tan car.

[man] Unfortunately, there are a lot of...

just bad coincidences.

I was just another piece that fit.

Neither one of them had been in my car in...

who knows how long.

When they took the car,

I kept holding a little bit of faith

through this whole thing. Like, "Give them what they want.

We're not linked to this in any way.

We have to assume they're proficient at their job

and will discover that sooner than later

and the whole misunderstanding, you know, will be settled."

[Jerry] Will's car had been searched and nothing was found.

You know, suited up,

luminoled the whole thing. Nothing.

[David] They didn't match it.

So I'm thinking to myself,

"God, maybe we did miss something. Who knows?"

[Jerry] They called Kofoed and said, "Go back and look at the car."

[interviewer] What did you find when you reprocessed it?

Um...

Let's see. What did I find?

[Nick] Kofoed found a spot of blood underneath the steering wheel.

And it's a pure sample of Wayne Stock's DNA.

[David] And then there was a eureka moment.

Are you kidding me? Now they had their linkage

to confirm their confession.

I was facing two counts first-degree murder,

two counts felony use of a firearm

and the death penalty.

That's when things got weird.

[switch clicks]

[Jerry] One of the things that was unusual

was this was such a clean crime scene.

Sharmon was a very meticulous housekeeper.

Everything was... spotless.

But then we were getting indications of this ring that was found

and...

things just weren't right.

[woman] I was working at A&A Jewelers,

which was a jewelry manufacturer.

The warehouse manager at the time came to my office

and said that the police department from Nebraska was on the phone,

and I said, "Nebraska? I don't have anything to do with Nebraska."

So I took the call

and it was a female police officer

saying that they wanted to know who had created this ring.

It was found at a homicide...

in Nebraska.

Interior of the ring was our trademark.

It stands for A&A Jewelers,

and that's how they found us.

The police officer had indicated

it said "Cori & Ryan" on it.

She just said

that she needed the information on who had placed the order.

The hunt began.

The hunt was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

At the time, we had

probably about twenty-five, twenty-six hundred Walmart locations.

We had Zales. We had Gordon's.

We had thousands and thousands of files of orders that had been placed.

It was kind of like, "Okay, I'm gonna start with A and go through,

and this is impossible.

This is totally impossible."

It took me, like, three days...

to go through those boxes.

I found the two names...

together.

I think I yelled, "Bingo,"

in the warehouse at the time.

And then I called the police officer back.

And the puzzle was,

"Well, where in Nebraska was it purchased?"

And I said, "It wasn't in Nebraska.

It was in Wisconsin.

The ring had been shipped to an address in Wisconsin."

There's this ring that's connected to this couple up in Wisconsin,

Cori and Ryan.

Ryan had had his car stolen...

and the ring was still inside.

The pickup was stolen by this young couple.

She was 17.

He was 19.

And they stole the truck,

and they headed south with it...

on this wild ride.

And the truck ended up down in Louisiana.

[Jerry] If you draw a map

from Beaver Dam, Wisconsin to where it was found in Louisiana,

it kind of runs right by Nebraska.

They were able to make their way back up to Wisconsin,

where they eventually got arrested for stealing this truck.

It doesn't make sense.

I had Matt Livers and Nick Sampson in jail,

based upon Matt Livers' confession.

How do these two kids from Wisconsin tie it together?

I gotta figure this part out.

How you doing?

[Earl] So we went there and interviewed them.

So then you guys ended up with this truck.

[man] Yeah.

[Earl] And where'd you go from there?

[Jerry] Turns out Wayne's DNA is all over the pickup truck when they recover it.

[man] Chicago area, and then we went...

around.

Then we somehow made it into that state.

What state's that?

[man] Nebraska.

[Jerry] They were able to get DNA

off of Jessica Reid and Greg Fester,

and the DNA then matched the DNA that had been found

in the Stocks' front yard and the flashlight and a marijuana pipe.

So do you want to talk to me for real, or do you want to keep playing this?

[Bill] Tell them what happened.

[Earl] Greg wasn't being very forthcoming with things

and wasn't saying much of anything.

But Jessica...

Jessica was a big piece.

[man laughing]

[clears throat]

-[Bill] How are you? -I'm good. How are you?

Good, thanks.

[clears throat]

Do I have to scoot over?

You're good. Might get a little crowded in a second.

[Jerry] At the point at which they're questioning her,

they're searching her house.

And they find a cigarette carton

and it has a 12-gauge shotgun shell,

similar to the ones found in the Stocks' house.

And she has a little note that she's written.

"We killed some people. I loved it.

If Greg doesn't want to, I'll do it again."

She now has admitted that she's a cold-blooded killer.

[Bill] It's very important that you be totally honest with us

and truthful about anything we ask you.

Okay? Can you do that for us?

Can we skip through to those subjects, though?

Because I have stuff to do at 12:30.

My grandma's coming into town,

and I want to do this, but I want to do it a little bit faster,

and I know this is gonna take forever.

[Bill] Okay, can we have you for about an hour?

[Jessica sighs]

I guess.

-I guess. -Okay.

Now it's game, set, match,

regarding Jessica Reid and Greg Fester.

So you're driving down the road, looking for farmhouses to break into for cash.

Pretty much, yeah, 'cause we were running out of gas and stuff.

You found $500 in cash

-in this house. -Yeah, but I don't...

I just remember taking the money, and then we just left.

-Okay. -That's all I remember from this.

Did you go anywhere else in the house?

No, because why if you're gonna have $500?

Be a smart criminal and take off right away.

[Bill] Right.

The reason I ask you is that the two people upstairs in their bed

were shot to death.

And you're saying that me and Greg did it?

What I'm telling you is you're telling us you're in this house, okay?

-Did you not tell-- -[Jessica sighs] Oh, my God!

I've never killed anybody, okay?

I really didn't. This is so seriously--

[Bill] Yes, it is. That's why we're here.

I took money. That's all I did.

I swear to God, all I did was take money.

I don't want to go to jail for murder because I didn't do it!

-[Bill] Slow down. -If Greg killed anybody, I don't know.

If he did, I'm sorry.

All I did was take $500. I don't know--

Why were these people murdered?

Oh, my God!

[Earl] Hey, you need to listen to us for just a second.

-[Bill] Slow down. -[Earl] All right?

We need you to talk to us

because we need to fit the pieces of this puzzle together,

and you're telling us that you found this envelope of money just sitting there?

There wasn't anybody else around?

It was just us, I swear to God. Okay.

If you didn't kill somebody, who were you with that did?

-I don't know! -[Earl] Because it's that simple.

[Jessica sighs] I don't know!

[Earl] It was hard for me to sit there and go, "Okay, it doesn't make sense."

How does two kids from Wisconsin...

find this farmhouse...

in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska?

Well, the stars had to just kind of align

that they found this house by magic. [chuckles]

I don't believe in magic.

I don't believe in coincidences either.

[Bill] Do you know anybody in Nebraska?

Stop at any bars, meet people and score any dope?

No.

Tell us who you were with.

I was with Greg and...

-That's all I was with. -[Earl] And who else?

I was with Greg!

[Bill] Anybody else?

I don't know anybody in Nebraska!

-[Bill] Where were you-- -I didn't even know I was in Nebraska.

They start trying to make a connection between...

Reid and Fester and...

Matt and Nick.

I have no idea who that is.

I am not even kidding you.

I've never seen that guy in my life.

Nope, never seen him either.

I've never seen any of these people that you're showing me right now.

I'm not kidding any of you.

Fingers are not crossed.

I have no idea who they are.

They're really grasping at straws now.

[Bill] I want you to focus on him for a second.

Now, I want you to search deep, deep down inside

and tell me if you recognize that guy.

[Jessica sighs]

I'd recognize him because he's got a weird head.

I don't know.

You need to do better for yourself than this, Jessica.

You really do.

I don't think you completely appreciate the gravity of the situation here.

-I'm really-- -[Bill] This is like no trouble

you've ever been in your life,

for what's left of it.

This is how people get the electric chair, the gas chamber.

-[man] It doesn't get any worse than this. -[Bill] No worse.

You need to take care of yourself,

or you will have no life. You will have none.

It will be over.

You have to tell us what happened.

And that's what'll save you, and that's the only thing that'll save you.

Well, I do remember meeting this guy.

From what?

I just remember meeting him. I don't...

-I don't know how-- -[Bill] You need to come up with details.

[Jessica exhales deeply]

-I know-- -Jessica, how old are you?

I'm 17. This is why this is freaking me out!

Well, guess what?

At 17, your life is going to be done

unless you start being straightforward with us.

[crickets chirping]

[Bill] You meet him in the parking lot of this bar, yes?

[Jessica] That's when I met him.

[Bill] Did he threaten you?

[Jessica] All I want to say is,

and I don't want my name to be brought up, but...

this guy is scary.

-[Bill] Yeah, he's scary. We know that. -And if he did it...

I don't know for sure if this guy did it,

but if he did it, put him in jail. Please.

[Earl] Jessica said that we met these guys at this bar in this little town.

And I think, you know, alcohol combined with a bad attitude,

I think it all led into...

"Well, hey," you know,

"we want to shoot these people," and here's two people from out of state

going, "Hey, we've got nothing to lose. We'll do it."

[Jessica] Okay, we met up with these guys.

We snuck into the house.

And I took the money, they shot somebody,

and I left because I didn't know...

I didn't even know they were gonna murder these people!

And I remember we went in here,

and I took the money, and then all of a sudden,

I heard bang, bang, bang.

And I looked over at Greg and I said, "We need to go now."

So we left.

[Bill] You're doing a good job.

Am I gonna be able-- Can I go home today, though?

Don't worry about that right now.

You need to focus on this.

[Jessica] Why is it...

Why did we have to meet those two people right there?

Why did we have to meet them?

I'm serious. Why did we have to meet them?

Now I can't go home again.

Now I'm stuck with detectives again.

[woman] Jessica Reid. Greg Fester.

They don't know where they are, they don't care where they are,

and they certainly weren't led there by Matt and Nick at any point.

I want to punch these guys so bad.

If I end up in jail with them, or if I go to court with them,

I'm gonna punch them both.

I'll get a disorderly conduct. I don't even care.

The investigators essentially managed to taint the interview

in much the same way that they've done in Nebraska.

When you have multiple interrogations conducted that way,

it does become like a snowball,

and it seems to gain momentum

as you pick up additional participants.

[Jessica] I don't even know. I just went along with it,

and at first, I just picked people.

I guess I had picked out Nick Sampson

and I didn't even mean to.

It just started coming out.

But at the end of the day,

it didn't feel right.

You can't just cover it up.

I feel like if you've done something,

you might as well own it.

And that's what I did.

[Earl] The first time you even start to stray from me,

I've got all I need. I don't need to be sitting here right now talking to you.

So, you quit dancing around with me

because I know the truth.

I am not kidding you guys.

We were the only ones there!

-I don't know any of those other people. -You're lying!

I am not lying.

I swear to God, I don't know any of those other people.

You have a nice rest of your life,

-what's left of it. -No, you guys, seriously!

Listen to me. I don't know those other people, okay?

I have no idea who they were.

It was me and Greg by ourselves.

[Bill] You are so full of crap.

[man] And you're done and so am I.

That's what happened, though!

We'll see you in Nebraska.

-Are you kidding me? -No, we're not kidding you.

I tell you guys the story and I'm--

[Bill] You told us a story, but it wasn't all the truth.

[Earl] It was a story.

-[man] The last thing I'll explain-- -Well, who was supposed to be there?

Who was supposed to be there?

-Who else was supposed to be there? -Shut up.

We have people in jail in Nebraska

that have confessed to their involvement too,

so you can't tell me-- No, don't look at me that way.

-You can't tell me-- -Oh, my God!

Just put me in my cell.

I'm just gonna sit there for the rest of my life.

[chuckles] Because this is... Wow.

[Julie] We were progressing toward trial.

So we had a discovery deadline.

I had this makeshift office set up in the basement of my house,

and I was spending about 12 hours a day just watching video.

I remember it was a Sunday night,

and it was about eleven o'clock at night,

and I put in a DVD that's labeled "Livers 2."

And I see him in orange.

[man] If you've got something on your mind, let me know about it.

-It's best just to come right out with it. -[Matt] Yeah.

The hair stood up on the back of my neck.

This is something I haven't seen before.

-Okay. I mean, absolute truth here. -[Matt] Okay.

I was never on the scene.

I don't know if Nick is the actual person involved in this.

I've been...

just making things up to satisfy you guys.

I mean, I'm...

I can't believe they're even coming out of my own mouth,

to be honest.

[Julie] It turns out he actually had recanted the confession the next day.

-[Matt] That's the whole-- -You're jerking me around now.

-[Matt] No, sir. -No, you are.

-[Matt] No, sir. -I'm telling you,

yesterday there was absolutely no doubt you are involved in this.

But now you're gonna pull a "I'm jerking you guys around" deal?

I mean...

I wish I would have said that from the beginning.

[Julie] I was simultaneously ecstatic

for Matt that he had the wherewithal at some point in this nightmare

to have told them he wasn't involved,

and I'm just ruthlessly pissed at, you know,

the fact that this is almost six months later

and I'm seeing this for the first time.

The blood was the hangup.

Had there not been the blood in the car,

they then could have said,

"Man, you're right. There's a false confession."

I was convinced the evidence was planted,

but I wasn't gonna point the finger at who I thought it was

'cause I didn't have enough information.

But there were three prime suspects:

the two lead detectives and Kofoed.

[man] ...guilty of the crime as charged.

Count one: tampering with physical evidence.

[reporter] That's what the judge decided David Kofoed did:

plant evidence that bolstered the case against defendants,

losing sight of his real job,

which was to find the truth.

[interviewer] So, in one sentence,

what happened with the speck of blood in the Contour?

It was well after the fact. I was trying to figure out how it got there

'cause I didn't believe it was... I was... 'Cause I didn't...

[stuttering] I mean, I wasn't... I didn't plant evidence.

I was never gonna pin it on somebody else to do that.

Maybe somebody else did it,

and it could have been all kinds of people. I didn't...

That was in our biohazard room...

and...

The guy's just a dirty cop.

He was like a painter who had to leave his signature on each case.

I don't think he ever intended to frame the innocent.

But I think that where he thought there was somebody who was really guilty,

he had no compunction against...

just a little piece.

Because it was all gonna end up with a plea.

Until Wisconsin.

Wisconsin was the wild card.

[reporter] We begin this midday in Cass County,

where charges have been dismissed against a second suspect

in the murder of a Murdock couple.

Like his cousin Nicholas Sampson before him,

this morning, charges were dismissed against Matthew Livers.

I'm innocent. I had absolutely nothing to do with this.

[reporter] Matt Livers is anxious to start living again.

After more than half a year spent in the Cass County jail,

Livers is once again a free man.

Matt perceived the officers and the interrogation

as a threat to his life, and as a consequence, he made up a story.

This was given to me by a photographer at the World Herald.

I think Sarah and his folks got a hug before I did,

but I was definitely in line for a big hug.

[reporter] In other news, there will be no second chances

for two young adults from Wisconsin.

A Cass County judge

sentenced 20-year-old Gregory Fester

and 18-year-old Jessica Reid to two life sentences each,

both pleading guilty to murdering Wayne and Sharmon Stock

in their farmhouse near Murdock in April of 2006.

[Nick] I've never cowered away from all this.

And even after I got out of jail, you know, I still stuck around Murdock.

Right back to where I grew up at

because it's home.

But Matt couldn't come back.

There was a little bit more...

hatred.

Maybe hatred's the wrong word, but...

a lot more more dislike and discontent to have Matt back there,

simply because of the rumors and what the family thinks.

I kind of...

think about it, you know?

That one false confession could have left me in jail for the rest of my life.

Those guys got paid and they got away with a homicide.

How fair is that?

Wayne and Sharmon Stock, they were the victims.

The fact that those guys are still walking free,

that pisses me off.

Yeah, there are two kids that are spending the rest of their lives in jail.

But there should be other people there with them.

Matt Livers should be in prison,

Nick Sampson should be in prison

and probably his brother Will.

A lot of people have disputed my confession,

saying that I led him down a primrose path

and I fed him answers and that he's some kind of simple-minded fool

that could be led down that way.

He wasn't lying.

He looked right at me,

as sure as you're looking at me right now.

As far as I am concerned, Matt Livers' confession

makes him just as guilty as the DNA on that ring.