>> i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline. >> he said nicole has gone missing. we are frantic, calling all of our friends, calling.

you think that that sort of thing happens to that other people. it's the most frightening thing in the world. >> a young wife. >> she always saw the good in people. >> she had a way to make you smile. >> missing for nine days. >> it's so wrong, and nicole is somewhere where she shouldn't be. >> it was hard enough when they didn't know, much worse when they did. >> it came over the tv a body had been found. i will never forget that as long as i live. >> this could go down any number of paths. >> and it did. >> had her troubled past finally caught up with her? >> i saw the pill bottle and i freaked out. >> or was it something much darker? >> he told me he would put it in her red bull. >> how did she change? >> she became more sexual with people. >> who wanted her dead? >> he thought he was somewhat of a player. >> did it make him a killer? ♪ ♪ ♪ >> welcome to dateline.

nikki pietz was a well liked fitness executive married to the man of her dream, then one night, she was supposed to meet her husband at their friend's place for dinner, but she never showed up and never came back home. who was responsible for her disappearance? here is dennis murphy with secrets in seattle. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> seattle was raw after a week of relentless winter rain. a woman lost had been found in the tangle of the blackberries, a naked body, a small tattoo on the back, a necklace, and signs of strangulation. the detective sent a patch of trees and undergrowth under the seattle airports runways guessed it was her. they would soon be proved correct. nine days to find her, the

answer is where another seven years still ahead to answer all questions of homicides, who, and why? but we have to go back, before the crime scene photos and the medical examiners findings, before she became those chilly words, the victim, to find the dearly loved person named nikki. nikki pietz, wife and daughter, sister and friend. >> she seemed to be able to uplift people in ways that none of us knew how to do. >> she had a way to make you smile. she had a way to let you know that everything was going to be okay. >> gayle was her mother. >> nikki was sunshine. she was the kind of person that when she walked in a room, the room lit up. >> gayle raised nicki and her sister tanya in the suburbs of seattle. there were carefree days at the nearby lake. >> is nicki your annoying kid

sister, or she pretty cool kid? >> she was a very annoying kid sister. mom insisted on dressing us alike. >> in high school, mia allwood says nicki was a friend to everyone. >> every day we ate lunch together. she never sat. she would walk around and visit with people. she always saw the good in people. she didn't see the bad in people. >> after graduation, nikki brought that winning spirit into the workplace, eventually landing a plum position in the head offices of bally total fitness. >> nikki was a great boss. she cared about how your day was. she cared about how you are feeling. she cared about your birthday. bally's is where nicki met another employee, david pietz. he was six feet tall, four years younger, and he exuded a smooth confidence. his coworkers recall he seemed

to be going places. >> he was definitely a very nice man, easy to talk to, would laugh a lot. he was actually a very compassionate person. >> he's very confident, he spoke well, he had a presence that demanded attention. >> dave was set on selling more gym memberships than anyone else, and he wouldn't have denied what everyone saw in him. >> dave could sell reading glasses to a blind person. doesn't matter what his pitch, as was he how do you convince whatever it was you had to have it. >> so there was, dave hustling on the sales floor and there was nikki, a buttoned up blond from corporate and the boss's favorite hire. before long nikki and dave became an item. >> she had definitely got a bounce in her step when she got an incoming message from dave. >> out of everybody, he chose her. that has to make you feel kind of special. >> pretty soon, nikki and dave moved in together.

gayle had remarried and moved to arizona with her new husband, ron. she could tell by the sound of her daughter's voice on the phone that nikki had found the one. >> he was her dream man. >> really? >> he was the man she wanted. she was so in love with him. >> and he apparently with her. evidence to her friends and family by the piece of jewelry she was rarely seen without. >> david got her a little tennis bracelet. >> diamonds on it? >> little tiny diamonds in white gold, i think. >> did she like it? was it a sentimental piece for her? >> she loved it. and she wore it everywhere. >> another piece of jewelry from him would follow, a wedding ring. after dating for two years, nikki and dave married. >> tell me about the wedding. >> it was in hawaii. she looked so beautiful and happy. they both had leis and beautiful flowers in her hair

and it was on the beach with the waves crashing, and the sunset. it was beautiful. it was absolutely beautiful. >> was your sister happy that day? >> yes. i think she found her prince charming. >> nicole pietz seemed to be on top of the world and stepping confidently into her grown-up life. >> she was pretty excited about getting married. she loved her ring, she loved her bracelet that he got her. she was excited about getting a new condo, and having her own little family. >> january 28th, 2006 was a saturday. after a hectic work week at their different jobs, nikki and dave would chill with a dinner party that night over their friends place. that afternoon, dave called nikki to hash out the details. they drived there separately. >> hey babe, give me a call. and let me know what we're doing, if i need to stop and get food or anything for ellen and jason, and stuff like that.

so, give me a call. i love you, bye. >> when dave pietz showed up at the friends apartment that evening, nikki wasn't there. one hour, two hours, and still no nikki. dave's wife of almost four years was gone into the night, into the rain. what on earth had happened to nikki pietz? >> turns out, nikki had a troubled past. had those troubles finally caught up with her? or was it something else? coming up -- >> did you think something was wrong, something more was wrong from the beginning? >> yes. >> when dateline continues. copd isn't pretty. i'm out of breath, and often out of the picture. but this is my story. ( ♪♪ ) and with once-daily trelegy, it can still be beautiful. because with 3 medicines in 1 inhaler, trelegy keeps my airways open for a full 24 hours and prevents future flare-ups. trelegy also improves lung function, so i can breathe more freely all day and night. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems.

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shy of her 33rd birthday, reported missing by her husband. >> we just want to know she's safe. >> david pietz told reporters how he waited with her with friends at a saturday night dinner party. she was a no-show. >> i got there, she was not there. they haven't heard from her. they haven't been able to contact her. >> david appealed to the public to keep an eye out for her. >> we wanted her to know we love her very much. >> nici's mom was by his side. >> she's not somebody who wouldn't come home. she somebody that, if she's ten minutes late, she calls you. >> did you think something was wrong? did you think something was more was wrong right from the beginning? >> yes, because nici wouldn't have gone away without calling and telling me. >> if nici could've called somebody, she would've called gael. >> nicole's mother and stepfather had reason to be worried. they, along with nici's other family and friends, remembered

another time years before when they had almost lost her. nici had been in her teens when she began suffering from abdominal problems related to the onset of puberty. her medical issues left her in agonizing pain and also heavily medicated. >> she had very painful cramps and was prescribed lots of medicine for them. >> by the time she was 21, she'd had three surgeries. pain pills being thrown at her right and left. >> at some point, it seemed all of those pills took away not only the pain, but the person. zombified. how was she different? >> just spacy. couldn't keep up with a conversation. it felt like i had lost. or she wasn't really there. >> before nici could crawl out of her whole, she would need to check into a local rehab center to treat her addiction. >> when she finally got clean, i felt like i had my sister back. >> that's when she started

working at the bally gym office. her coworkers thought she was a terrific emotional state. >> the nici that i know was in her dark days. the nici that i knew was on top of her game. and yet friends like michelle baltz knew nici took host a righty a day at a time. and that she was terrified of making even one little slip and losing it all. >> she would tell you she had a headache and, try to make it through and take an advil. you would think that you were trying to inject her with heroin. >> nici's weekly alcoholics anonymous we meetings where the rock and foundation of that daily conscious effort. and on saturday morning, january 28th, she was supposed to attend a very special meeting, a celebration to honor her for eight years of sobriety. >> every year it's your birthday, and it was her eighth birthday. >> as being a clean and sober woman? >> yes. she was so proud of it. we were so proud of her. everyone was proud of her. >> hi, nick, it's mom. i don't know where you are, darling. >> but nici never showed up to

that important meeting, never received her award. and now, friends and family desperately tried reaching her by phone. >> hi, nici, this is rod calling. we don't know what is going on. >> their pleas relegated to the silence of voicemail. the anxiety level went off the chart. >> no matter what happened, nici, even if it was a relapse, we want you to know that we love you. >> had nici in fact fallen back into addiction? >> i started hoping that, because then she would have been alive. >> the alternative that nici maybe did somewhere was too much to bear. a bulletin went out, be on the lookout for a five foot three woman with a tattoo on her back. friends knew she'd likely be wearing a cross necklace and a diamond tennis bracelet. nine days later, king county detective kathleen decker was dispatched an area near seattle 's seatac airport south of the city. >> the call came in from my

sergeant requesting that i respond to this location regarding a woman's body. she had been found by a passerby in the blackberry bushes. >> this is kind of off the grid right here. >> yes, it is. >> a woman's body, discovered in a nothing patch of scrub at the end of the runway, near an all but abandoned trail. what did you notice about the body? >> first thing i notice, of course, was that she was in fact nude. the second thing i noticed was that her arms were gently crossed on her chest. >> not just a body abandoned? >> correct, she had not been discarded like garbage. but she had been gently placed into and under the vines. >> the detective had a special set of skills that she called on now. she had been trained in tracking, reading trails, disturbed vegetation, just like the scouts in the old west. the pattern of broken branches and tamped tamped down leaves and soil, told her that the body had laid down here about a week. is there anything that suggested to you why this woman would have been abandoned here? >> no. and that was part of the

complexity of this investigation. we had all sorts of avenues that we needed to investigate. we had the transient population that may have been frequenting the trailer park. we had a mental health facility that was very close by, within walking distance. >> but detective decker did have a strong hunch about who this victim was. the cross necklace, the tattoo, it all checked out as that local woman nicole pietz who had been missing for a week. the diamond tennis bracelet she always wore was not on her wrist. but police were confident enough in their tentative i.d. to pay a visit to nicole's husband, david. and the information david pietz would soon share with detectives about when his wife was last seen and what she left behind would be critical to the case. >> coming up. but it was something that was missing that turned out to be even more important and puzzling. >> there's no indication that anyone else had been behind the wheel of nicole's car. >> when dateline continues. lowering bad cholesterol can be hard, even with a statin. diets and exercise add to the struggle.

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i think he's having a midlife crisis nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. i'm not. you got us t-mobile home internet lite. after a week of streaming they knocked us down... ...to dial up speeds. like from the 90s. great times. all i can do say is that my life is pre-- i like watching the puddles gather rain. -hey, your mom and i procreated to that song. oh, ew! i think you've said enough. why don't we just switch to xfinity like everyone else? then you would know what year it was. >> with a great many bad days, i know what year it is.

one of the worst ones had to be the day that she was found. >> i'll never forget that as long as i live. >> found strangled in some bushes -- >> it came over the tv that a body had been found. and we just knew that i had to be her. >> had to be your nici? nicole pietz, strangled to death, her nude body left for a week beneath some blackberry

bushes by the airport. the killer unknown, her grey jetta missing. her families deep sorrow, now hardened into resolve to get justice for her. >> find out who did it and punish him. punish him. >> captain jesse anderson of the king county sheriff's office was the lead detective assigned to the murder case at the time. he set out to learn more about the victim, paying a visit to her husband, david pietz, at the condo he and nici shared. >> how long have you been married? >> almost four years. >> david agreed to be audiotaped and told detectives that nici had struggled with chemical dependency in the past. he then revealed something disturbing. recently, nici had again started taking prescription pills. >> is nici still struggling? >> i thought she wasn't. but she hurt her back right before thanksgiving and she slipped a disc. >> because of a severe painful back injury, david explained,

nici had reluctantly agreed to let her doctor put her on a carefully monitored prescription for percocet, a potentially addictive narcotic drug. >> at first she had me keeping the pills and then giving them to her. >> investigators wondered, had nici's old demons pulled her down again? they delved into nici's last known movements >> when was the last time you saw nici? >> friday night. when i got home from work. she was sleeping. >> david pietz told detectives that nici was sleeping when he arrived home late friday night. and by the morning, she was already gone, off to her special aa celebration, he assumed. >> i just remember thinking that's where she must be when i woke up. >> but when she didn't show up to the dinner party that night, he returned to their condo to look for her. he described how her purse, car keys, and grey jetta were gone. but he said something else caught his eye. and it would turn out to be a

big clue for detectives. nici's vial of percocet was sitting out on the counter. the bottle is empty. the 56 pill prescription, filled just two days before, gone. >> because i saw the pill bottle and i freaked out. i was so scared she'd relapsed. that's a lot of pills. and i thought maybe she od'd or something. >> as detectives wrapped up the interview with the husband, a narrative was starting to come together about the victim of a former addict, possibly re-addicted. how does that change the complexion of the investigation early on? the woman's body that has been found was a recovering addict and maybe fell off the wagon. >> well it makes it far more complex for us because now we have to consider the possibility that she met up with the wrong person at the wrong time and that somehow led to her demise. that this was somehow related to the people that she knew through her aa affiliation, which he was very much into and regularly attended those meetings. >> so doors are opening of possibilities, rather than

closing? >> yes. yes. >> some old fashion gumshoe investigative work would have to come next, tracking down phone records, credit card statements, anything to pinpoint where nici may have headed after leaving the condo saturday morning. only one more blip on nici's timeline surfaced, a single phone call made around noon on saturday from her cellphone to the gym's front desk while david pietz was working. >> it's possible that she was driving and had hit one of the towers there. so we were considering that. we are also considering whoever killed her may have had her phone and was still using it. >> as for that diamond tennis bracelet missing from nicole's wrist when they found her body, the cops began checking pawnshop records in case someone had tried to hawk it. nothing. >> a police officer spotted nicole pietz's car overnight. >> the last major piece of the puzzle turned up two weeks after nici had disappeared. her car, a grey jetta, had been found abandoned in a parking lot in seattle's university district. forensic technicians, hungry

for clues, crawled through the car. they noticed the driver seat had been pushed back. but it is what they didn't find inside it that intrigued investigators most. >> what was found in the car was david's dna along with nicole's dna. there's no indication that anyone else else had been behind the wheel of nicole's car. >> detectives were now wondering, wondering about the husband. >> coming up -- he was definitely a player. >> dave chased women inside the club, outside the club, on the side of the club, on top of the club. >> more than once he would approach me and asked me about what i thought of three ways in a relationship. >> but did that make him a killer? when dateline continues. ntinues. with a majority of my patience with sensitivity,

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the hours top stories. u.s. forces on sunday shot down an anti ship cruise missile fired from a houthi controlled area of yemen. the missile was aimed at the

uss like boone in the southern red sea. no injuries were reported. caucus goers in iowa we'll prey sub-zero temperatures today to participate in the first nominating contest the republican primary. former president trump leads the field by nearly 30 points according to the final nbc news poll. now back to dateline. to dateline >> welcome back to dateline. i'm craig melvin. nici pietz had conquered her addiction to precription pain medication, and her husband david revealed to detectives she had recently started using them again. could those pills as something to do with her murder and would investigators also take a deeper look into david's behavior? here again is dennis murphy. >> at the latest jim where david pietz worked, coworkers like troy understood full well >> at the latest jim where david pietz worked, coworkers like troy understood full well why david looked so rough. still, it was a hard thing to witness. >> he looked very bad.

>> he looked very bad. it looked like he hadn't slept he had lost weight yet dark circles under his eyes and he seemed a little bit more sad. >> while david pietz slowly got back to work after taking time off to mourn his lost wife, detectives intent on solving her murder began interviewing people from the gym world who knew the couple. starting at the facility where nici and they've had first met. >> bally's was the type of plays most of the rumors were not really rumors. they were true. >> staff members agreed that dave, the alpha dog of the sales department, and nici that buttoned down corporate nice girl or a hopeless mismatch. >> the more nick you liked him,

the more i know she shouldn't. >> dave saw and nici according to some coworkers was a cynical way to climb the corporate ladder. nici was everyone's favorite, and their boss and particular loved her like family as c. j. brady saw it. >> nici and our supervisor were very close, almost like a father daughter relationship. and that is why i think he dated nici from the start. i don't like there ever was an attraction there. >> but if he was chilly about his wife, he was super heated about some of the female gym members and his coworkers. >> dave chased women inside the clubhouse, at the club, on side of the club, on top of the club. >> detectives found details about david pietz's roaming eye intriguing, but hardly damning. >> to describe it in kind of current terminology, thought he was somewhat of a player. >> did it make him a killer? >> didn't make him a killer, no. >> but david pietz we's here towards women at the gym did get him fired detectives learned. several female coworkers had filed sexual harassment complaints against him with bally's management, including jackie morales. >> david was very verbal when it came to his comments. what looks better on jackie today, her legs, her but, her breast? i got courage to go to the boss. after getting booted from bally's, david moved on to a job at 24 hour fitness, where troye wagon remembers david

talking about how he and his wife nici wanted to invite others into their sex life. >> more than once you approach me and asked me what i thought about three ways, and a relationship. him and nici were exploring the idea of swingers clubs. >> nici's good friends knew it differently. >> she was very appalled at that idea. >> she was like, absolutely not! >> a wobbly marriage, a hound dog husband straining at the leash. circumstantial was getting thicker for investigators. >> it was very apparent to me he was leaving an alternate lifestyle. >> -- captured his motivation? >> that was a concern for all of us to. >> maybe the husband did it, but then again, maybe he didn't. as weeks became months, the hard evidence that the investigation needed just didn't fall into place. and investigation having a brick wall, devastating news for nici's family by now convinced of david's guilt. >> when you are out in the

emotional wilderness, 07-08-09, what was your lowest moment? >> there are so many little ones. i didn't want to live. just cried my head off every day, and... i just didn't want to live. >> years went by, david pietz quietly left the fitness industry for a position at chase bank. he started attending church. fellow church member, kim adams, said she got to know a dave who was very different from the heartless philanderer described by nici's friends and family. the dave kim knew was a forlorned widow who spoke fondly about his lost wife. >> when he would speak of her, i could see a sadness and him. who would have conversations about, you know, struggling because he missed her. >> meanwhile, at the county sheriff's office, the three ringed binders that made up the pietz moved from dusk to dusk

until in 2010, they were picked up by two cold case cops. jake papovich and mike mellis. each with determination to apply some heat. >> i called gale up and said, i've got this case now, and it's my intent to be the last detective to have this case. >> papovich and mellis laid out the entire investigation and honed in on day one that saturday morning nici pietz presumably left the contact she shared with dave and headed out to her special aa meeting. to the cold case detectives fresh eyes, a few key pieces of evidence from that morning jumped out. common sense stuff, really, like nici's wedding ring. a photo taken in 2006, showed it in nici's bathroom the jewelery she kept in an overnight. >> wedding rings left on the

counter, she was proud of rings according to her family, and here she is going to this big meeting the next morning but she's going to go into and not occurring? >> another red flag from the autopsy report, nici's body had been recovered with her retainer still in her mouth. >> why did the team seem odd that you found it with the retainer? >> again, that's something people wearing that go to bed. she was in the habit of only wearing it at night. >> the wedding ring left on the bathroom counter, a clunky retainer still in her mouth, added up, concluded a tech device, and you had a wife who never left a condo for her meeting that saturday morning. one who had never made it through the night alive, and the only person who could be with nicole pietz and the cause of the night, her husband, david pietz. >> when you look at each piece of evidence and figure how does it relate to everything else, put the puzzle together, and you've got your picture at the end. >> six years after nicole pietz was reported missing, her husband david was arrested and charged with second degree murder in connection with our death. >> coming up, a lifestyle on trial. >> who did it involve? me, nici, and dave. >> he was trying to loosen her

up to get her to do a threesome. >> when dateline continues. even a little blurry vision can distort things. and something serious may be behind those itchy eyes. up to 50% of people with graves' could develop a different condition called thyroid eye disease, which should be treated by a different doctor. see an expert. find a t-e-d eye specialist at isitted.com emergen-c crystals pop and fizz when you throw them back. and who doesn't love a good throwback? ( ♪♪ ) ( ♪♪ ) emergen-c crystals. [music playing] subject 1: cancer is a long journey. it's overwhelming, but you just have to put your mind to it and fight.

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for 8 grams of fiber, try new mirafiber gummies. ♪ ♪ ♪ it had been seven and a half excruciating years of waiting, then in 2013, nici's family and friends filed into a courtroom to watch david pietz stand trial for his wife's murder. he pleaded not guilty. >> when nikole married the defendant, she thought she had married the man of her dreams. but on january 28th, 2006, that

dream would turn into a nightmare. >> two prosecutors would handle the case, kristen richardson and her fellow prosecuting attorney, carl carlstrom. they promised the jury pieces of a puzzle, pieces they hoped would ultimately reveal a resentful, hateful husband who is frustrations had boiled over. >> i think it was actually i hate this phrase but it really was a crime of passion. >> at the core of the prosecutor's case, david was a sexist philanderer who viewed his goody two shoes wife as a weight around his neck. he put his hands around hers, after an argument in their condo to free himself of the burden. david, they said, then turned to nici's problem with pills as cover. >> why kill her? >> you know, it wasn't a planned murder. if it was what he planned to do, he could divorce or. this was not a plan. this was something that erupted one night, a fit of rage.

>> because they thought there was no premeditation, david pietz was charged with a second, not first degree, murder. but proving he snapped and strangled nick in their condo wouldn't be easy. this was a highly circumstantial case, with little direct evidence pointing david's way. >> in terms of the bedroom or the house, there is no physical evidence left behind. >> which is a handicap for you guys when you've got to tell the story to a jury that really wants to hear csi, right? >> they want dna on everything. >> prosecutors started by calling the string of the other women in david's life. women who shared with the jury stories of lustful cheating spouse with little regard for his wife. stories of a three-way kiss at the bar. >> and who did it involve? >> me, katie, and dave. >> you are kissing katie, katie was kissing you -- >> all three at the same time. >> stories of a one night stand. >> and what happened at your place? >> we had sex. >> and is that the only time it

happened? >> yes. >> and of a romance that started well david and nici were engaged. >> i asked him why he was getting married, and he said at that point it was too late to back out of it. >> the romance lasted on and off for two years. >> what did he tell you about how he felt about you? >> he told me he cared about me. >> dave pietz's lifestyle became the trial here. >> it did, it showed he was dissatisfied with her. >> dissatisfied with nici, and prosecutors say determined to change her. david went so far as to spike nici's drink with a club drug ecstasy, hoping she'd finally agreed to that three some. this, according to david's bar buddy, rene stewart. >> he told me he'd put it in her red bull, like when he went to get a drink, and it was just trying to loosen her up together to do a threesome. >> did you notice a change and her after she drink that redbull? >> yes. >> how did she change?

>> she became more sexual with people. >> here's a guy who knows full well his wife has addiction problems, and he puts ecstasy in her redbull, is that the way this goes? >> she fought so hard for sobriety, and without knowing it, her own husband was undermining that. >> then it was nici's sister's tonia's turn to stare david and the eyes and tell the jury how indifferent he appeared immediately following nici's disappearance. >> did the defendant ever help you look for her? >> no. >> did you ever see him make any phone calls related to her disappearance? >> no. >> did you ever see him join and surges with people from aa or the workplace? >> not at all. >> but prosecutors feared evidence of suspicious behavior from a reprehensible husband wouldn't be enough to convince a jury david committed murder. so, they rolled out their

theory that nici never left her condo alive. >> honestly, the best evidence we had was the evidence that showed she never left that condo. >> evidence offered of david's little mistakes. remember like nici's church wedding ring left on the bathroom counter, and then there is nici's retainer. >> he forgot she wears a retainer slash night guard, and he forgot to check her mouth before he dumped her. >> something else nici's teller would likely overlook, the food found in her stomach by the medical exam. best on the analysis, prosecutors speculated nici was killed sometime between midnight and 2 am that friday night. soon after david said he came home and found nici in bed. but it was what the forensic scientists didn't find a nici system that prosecutors believed was even more damning, evidence they said prove once and for all that nici had not relapsed. >> did the me find evidence of prescription painkillers? >> no she had less than one therapeutic dose of percocet in her system. it was clear that she had not been using percocet for a few days prior to her death. >> and then there is nici's bracelet, that gift from david, a source of her joy. david had told police it had vanished along with his wife. >> assume that, who knows, the killer took it.

>> soon after david's arrest, police learned from one of his coworkers that he had the bracelet all along. >> david said that he had a bracelet that he had taken to a pawn shop, and he thought the guy was trying to rip him off. >> it is trying to hawk, it make a few bucks? >> make money. >> i spoke to his cover-up, his involvement. >> sure, absolutely. and he lied to police in the beginning and saying he didn't know where the bracelet was. >> still, one piece of the puzzle didn't fit the prosecution's theory, that saturday phone call made from nici cellphones to the 24 hour fitness gym, where david worked. >> this is evidence that -- >> she's alive. >> using telephone company records, prosecutors argued the origin of the call could be traced to within a few blocks of the gym, where it was received. >> what you're saying is there's a 90 to 95% probability that the phone was in this red

orange sector when it was being placed? >> that is correct. >> it became clear that call was placed from the 24 hour fitness gym where david pietz was working there. >> hardly conclusive evidence on its own, but tech of found something else on the job security video. it made that call a jaw drop. or just about the same time the call was made from nici's cell phone, david could be seen stepping away from his work area out of the camera's site. that was david, prosecutors say, heading off to use nici's phone to call the gym receptionist. >> he went back and placed that call and came back out front as if nothing was happening. he had to convince the police she had left the house that morning, because if she hadn't left the house he was the killer. >> that video, that cell phone color presented as the final

pieces of the prosecutions now completed puzzle. >> we needed one more thing to put us over the top, just one more thing. and that call, that put it over. >> but the jury had yet to hear from the defense, which wasn't about to let such a circumstantial argument go unanswered. >> coming up, who really had something to hide? was it to the accused killer, or nici? certainly had a lot of pills around. >> jenner 12th, she got 56. on january 19th she got 56. on january 26th she got 56. >> when dateline continues. shingles doesn't care. i go to spin classes with my coworkers. good for you, shingles doesn't care. because no matter how healthy you feel, your risk of shingles sharply increases after age 50. but shingrix protects. proven over 90% effective, shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix.

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welcome back to dateline. in the murder case of nici pietz, prosecutors laid out facts they believed pointed to her husband, david, as the killer. ian initially told investigators he didn't know where the diamond bracelet she always wore was, but they lady later learned he had at the whole time. david was seen on video surveillance footage allegedly using nici's cell phone. according to the prosecution, he was trying to make it look as if she was still alive after he had reported her missing. but now, it was the defenses turn to convince the jury. here with the conclusion of secrets in seattle is dennis murphy. >> rows of nickel pietz's family and friends listen to the prosecution described the accused as oversexed, run around lives of a husband. a guy who struggled his inconvenient wife and left 30 wrought in a scrum eat box. >> we knew how she died, we know how he lied. >> each day, david pietz remain emotion listen in court and

trial watchers noted. few if any family or friends showed up in the rose behind him to have his back. but he did have supporters, like kim adams, a friend from church. >> he does have a very strong network of friends, and people who care about him and love him. >> she says team dave chose to back him quietly from outside the courthouse. hoping to avoid the many cameras both in and outside the courtroom. >> i have a lot of respect for those people that didn't go, he knows he loves them. >> she watched the news in disbelief, not recognizing the man prosecutors described as a coldhearted killer. surely, this wasn't the day if she'd known for almost seven years. her trusted confidant. >> i kept thinking to myself, they're talking about my friend! that's not my friend. that's not the friend that i know. >> what's in court his defense team would not pull on him in the silent friends as character witnesses. the defense was mounting a strip down argument.

jurors, there is nothing here. nici left the condo that morning and dave had no idea where she ended up. >> nicole pietz was missing. and her husband, david pietz, never saw her again. what happened to nicole is a mystery. >> after ten days of trial, with more than 40 witnesses, the state the defense lawyers argued had failed to produce a smoking gun or even a possible motivation for murder. >> in this case, there are many reasonable doubts. >> could anyone say with absolute certainty that she always wore her wedding ring? that she never went out in public with her retainer? the picture the defense portrayed was david pietz open and honest with detectives from the start. a husband hoping the police would look at his wife.

detective kathleen decker took a stand. >> when you first saw david at his residence, i believe you described as anxious and upset? >> yes. >> the defense willingly conceded that david pietz was a crummy husband, but skirt chasing didn't give him a motive for murder. >> dave pietz isn't the first guy to step out on his spouse. all of you certainly know people that have done that. have they killed their wives or husbands or anything like that? >> and the defense countered that if anyone had secrets to hide, it wasn't dave. it was nici. >> there's another side to all this. >> the defense now turned the focus to nicole pietz, and in the last few weeks of her life. >> raise your right hand. >> lawyers called to the stand their main witness, nici's doctor, carole. she had been her premier position for five years. >> you knew nici's history, did she have trouble as a young woman? >> i did. >> and been in rehab at one point? >> and we had talked about it throughout her care with me. >> one and he came into the office complaining of severe back pain at the end of 2005, the doctor said she had nici's

past addiction in mind. the doctor testified that she did put nici on pain medication, but said she tightly monitored nici's weekly prescription right down to count in the number of pills. >> on january 12th, she got 56. on january 10th she got 56, and on january 26th she got 56. >> nici was getting hundreds of pills, but the defense reminded the jurors that yankees toxicology report had shown something unusual. despite being prescribed all those pills, the forensic scientist said she apparently hadn't been taking any of them. >> is it your opinion this just reflects a onetime use? >> i believe so. it's such a small amount. >> almost no drugs in her system, something was very fishy, said the defense. >> nicole was lying to her doctor. she was doing something with

those drugs. other than taking them. >> so, what was she doing with them? >> circumstantially, you could find that she was out, given these drugs away, giving them a way to old friends of hers, coming into contact with drug users and dealers pretty tough people, pretty dangerous. >> the story may never be known argued the defense, but they said it was clear that nici had not with they had something to hide. >> something went terribly, terribly wrong and she died as a result. it wasn't david, but it was somebody else. >> now it would be up to a jury to decide. a husband who would never loved his wife, lost it on one very bad night, or a woman with an addiction she never beat. some final hour, donie narcotic painkillers to the wrong person. at the courthouse, the jury retired to deliberate. kim adams waited at home for news. >> we made a promise to myself

to support him, no matter what the verdict was. because i feel he would do the same for me. >> as the hours went by, nici's family prayed, and the prosecutors replayed the case in their hands. >> i felt there was absolutely nothing we must and in closing or presentation. >> that's not to say when they are deliberating are not wandering every second what's going, on and whether you are going to succeed. >> please be seated with the exception of the presiding jury. >> more than seven and a half years since nici's body had been found, the jury was coming back with a verdict. >> where the jury find the defendant david pietz guilty of the crime of murdering the

second degree as charged signed by the residing jury. >> is this the verdict? >> yes. >> david pietz guilty of second degree murder, strangling nici, his wife of almost four years. >> absolutely elation. i want to justice for my daughter. and we got it. >> what do you want to say to david pietz now? >> david, i hope you find it in your heart to be sorry because if you don't he will burn in hell forever. top >> three weeks later, david pietz returned to court for his sentencing. presiding judge michael hated expressed disgust that david had strangled his wife who trusted him. >> i don't know what was going through her head as she looked into the face of the man she thought she loved as he took her life away. according, lead the sentence will be -- >> the judge sentenced david to 18 years in prison. a maximum time allowed in the second degree murder case. before her daughter is convicted killer was led away, nicole's mother had this to

say. >> i've let david take my life for the last seven and a half years. but i'm not going to anymore. david, i forgive you. i'm not going to hold myself to let you ruin my life anymore. >> but there is a question for which gael will most likely never get a comprehensive answer. >> why? and how could he ever harm such a nice person? i mean, nici was such a good person. >> the hardest question always the why. the coldest fact, the young woman gone too soon. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. hello, i'm craig melvin. and this is dateline. >> it was rough, it was a rough time for the whole community. >> it hit her town like a lightning bolt. the strange disappearance of carrie olson. >> it was scary. everyone loved carrie. >> it was so painful.