with him. we got to go to him for advice. and to share those milestones in life with him. what about siena? my dad is still here, you know? hers is not. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching.

>> it's the most frightening thing in the world. >> a young wife. >> she always saw the good and people. >> she had a way to make you smile. >> missing for nine days. >> it is so happening. she is somewhere she shouldn't be. it's hard enough when they didn't know. much worse when they did. >> i came over the tv that the body had been found. as long as i live i won't forget that. >> it did. >> had her troubled past caught up to her? >> it's going to freak out. >> or, was it something darker? >> he said that he would put it in her rebel. >> how did she change?

>> she became more sexual with people. >> we wanted her dad? >> you found him somewhat of a player, but does that make him a killer? >> one night, she was supposed to meet her husband at their friends 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 and seattle. >> seattle a small tattoo at the back, a

nexus with signs of strangulation. detective is sent to a patch of trees and bobby undergrowth near the seattle airport runways, because there's a certain. . >> another seven years ahead, answering the questions of all homicides, who, and why? >> before the crime scene photos of the medical examiners findings, before she became the chilling words, the victim. finding a dearlove person named nikki. nikki peace, life and daughter, sister and friend. >> she seems 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 will be okay. >> gayle was her mother.

>> he was sunshine. she was the kind of person where when she walked into a room, the room let up. >> here is nikki, and her sister tanya, and the suburbs of seattle. there were carefree days at the nearby lake. >> it's nikki or annoying kid sister, or a cool kid? >> she was an annoying kid sister, very. moments systems on dressing us alike. >> and high school, maya says nikki was a friend to everyone. >> every, day eating lunch together. she never sat. she would walk, and visit. she always saw the good and people. she did not see the baton people. >> after graduation nikki brought that winning spirit into the workplace landing a plum position and the head offices of valley total fitness. kimberly thomas was on her team. >> nikki was a great boss. she cared about how your day with us, she cared about how you are feeling, she cared

about a birthday. >> this is where nikki met another employee. david. he was six feet tall, four years younger, and exuded a smooth confidence. his coworkers recall that he seemed to be going places. >> he was a nice man. easy to talk to, would laugh a lot. he was a compassionate person. >> very confident. he spoke well. he had a presence that demanded attention. >> dave was set on selling more gym memberships than anyone else, if he wouldn't have denied what everyone saw him. ambitious, with eyes on bigger management projects. >> dave gets all reading glasses to a blind person. it did not matter what his pitch was, he could have you convinced that whatever it was, you needed to have it. >> so there was dave, hustling on the sales floor, and nikki, the buttoned up belonged from corporate, and the boston's favorite hire was acknowledged.

before long, nikki and dave became an item. >> she gave a bounce in her step when she got an incoming message from dave. >> out of everybody, he chose her. it had to make you feel special. >> pretty soon, nikki and they've moved in together. dave had remarried, and move to arizona with her new husband, robb. she can, telfar the sound of her daughter's voice on the phone, 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 with her. evidence to friends and family by the piece of jewelry she was rarely seenrarely see did she like it? was it sentimental? >> she loved it. she wore it everywhere. >> another piece of jewelry from him would follow.

a wedding ring. after dating for two years, they married. >> the wedding? >> holloway. she looked so beautiful, so happy. they both had les, and beautiful flowers and her hair. it was on the beach, with the waves crashing, the sunset. it was beautiful. absolutely beautiful. >> was your sister a happy young woman that day? >> yes. i think that she found her prince charming. >> nicole seemed to be on top of the world, and stepping confidently into her grown-up life. >> she was excited about getting married. she loved her ring, she loved her bracelet that he caught her. she was excited to a new kondo, in having her own family. >> january 20th 2006 was a saturday. after a hectic work week at their different jobs, nikki and david chill with a dinner party that night, over at their friends place. that afternoon, dave called nikki to hash out the details.

they drive their separately. >> haven't, give me a call, and into dover gonna stop and get food for anything for elon and jason, stuff like that. give me a call. love you, by. but when dave showed up at their friends apartment that evening, nikki was not there. >> one hour, two hours, 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? >> turns out, nikki had a troubled past. had those troubles caught up to her? or, was it something else? coming up -- >> would you think something is wrong? something was wrong from the beginning? >> yes. >> when dateline continues. hen dateline continues with flonase, allergies don't have to be scary. spray flonase sensimist daily for non-drowsy, long lasting relief in a scent-free, gentle mist. (psst psst) flonase. all good. i'm gonna pull over and stretch my legs.

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birthday, reported missing by her husband. >> just want to know she's safe. >> david told reporters how he waited her with friends at a saturday night dinner party. she was a no-show. >> i got there, they hadn't heard from her, couldn't contact. or >> david appealed to the public to keep an eye out. >> we want to know that they'll offer very. much >> nikki's mother, by his side. >> she is not somebody who would not come home. she is somebody where she's ten minutes late, she calls. >> you came up right away. did you think something was wrong, right from the beginning? >> yes, nikki wouldn't have left without calling, and telling me. >> if nikki could have called somebody, she would have called dale. >> nichols, mother and stepmother, had reason to be worried. they, along with nikki's family and friends remembered at another time, years before, when they almost lost her. nikki was in her to units would she suffered with abdominal

problems related to the onset of puberty. medical issues left her in agonizing pain, and heavily medicated. >> very painful cramps. and, was prescribed lots of medicine for them. >> by the time she was 21, she had three surgeries. pain pills, being thrown at her, right and left. >> at some point, it seemed that those pills took away not only the pain, but the person. zombified. >> how was she different? >> spacey, couldn't keep up with the conversation. i felt like i lost her. she wasn't all there. >> before nikki could get 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 is when she started working at the gym office. her coworkers thought she was in terrific emotional shape. >> the nikki i know was not in her embark this. the nikki i knew was on top of

her game. >> yet, friends like michele knew dickey took her sobriety one day at a time. that she was terrified of making one little slip, and losing it all. >> she would tell, you she had a headache, and will try to take an anvil. and will try to inject or with heroin. >> the weekly alcoholics anonymous released an hours drive south with the rock, and foundation, of a daily, conscious effort. on saturday morning, january 28th, she was supposed to attend a special meeting. a celebration to honor her for eight years of sobriety. >> every year, it is 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. >> hi nick, it's mom, i don't know where you are, darling. >> nikki never showed up for that important meeting. never received her award. now, friends, and family,

desperately trying to reach her by phone. >> nikki, this is rod calling, we don't know what's going on. >> their pleas, relegated to the silence a voice mail. the anxiety level, off the charts. >> no matter what's happened, nikki, even for the relapse, we want you to know that we love you. >> nikki had fallen back into addiction. >> i started hoping that, because then she wouldn't have been alive. >> the alternative that nikki may be dead 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 had been wearing across necklace and a diamond bracelet. king county detective kathy decorous dispatched to an area near seattle seatac airport, south of the city. >> the call came in from our sergeant, requesting i respond to this location regarding a woman's body. she had been found by a passerby in the bushes.

>> this is off grid, right here. >> yes, it is. >> a woman's body, discovered in a nothing patch of scrub at the end of runway, all but abandoned trailer park. >> what did you notice about the body? >> first thing i notice, of course, was she was nude. the second thing i noticed was that her arms were across her chest. >> not just a body abandoned. >> correct, she was not discarded like garbage, but gently placed into, and under, the vines. >> the detective had a special set of skills that she called, on right now. she had been trained in tracking. reading trails, disturbed vegetation, like the scouts of the old west. the pattern of broken branches, and tamped down leaves, and soil, told her the body had lane here for about a week. >> is there anything that suggested to you why this woman would have been abandoned here? >> no, that was part of the complexity of the investigation. we had all of these avenues we needed to investigate. the transient population that

may have frequented the trailer park. the mental health facility that was close by, within walking distance. >> but detective decorated have a strong hunch about who this victim was. the cross necklace, the tattoo. it all checked out as that local woman, nicole, who had been missing for a week. the diamond tennis bracelet she always wore was not on her wrist. but, police were confident in their tentative i.d. did pay a visit to nicole's husband, and david. and the information that david would soon share with detectives about when his light -- wife was last seen, and what she left behind, it would be critical to the case. >> coming up -- it was something that was missing that turned out to be even more important, and puzzling. >> no indication that anyone else was behind the wheel of nichols car. >> when dateline continues. n dateline continues helps lower a1c, and it's covered by medicare. before using the dexcom g7,

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one of the worst ones was the day that she was found. >> oh -- i will never forget that, as long as i live. >> i was found strangled -- >> it became over the tv that a body had been found. we just knew, it had to be her. >> it had to be nikki? >> yes. >> nicole peace, strangled to death. her nude body, left beneath some blackberry bushes near the airport. the killer, unknown.

her jeddah, missing. her family's deep sorrow, narrowed and to resolve, to get justice. >> find 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 victims. paying a visit to her husband, david, at the condo that he and nikki shared. >> how long have you've been married? >> almost four years. >> david agreed to be audiotape, and told detectives, nikki struggled with chemical dependency in the past. he revealed something disturbing. recently, nikki had, again, started taking prescription pills. >> is nikki still struggling with addiction? >> i thought she wasn't but, she heard her back, right before thanksgiving. she slipped a desk. >> because of a severe, painful back injury, david explained, nikki had, reluctantly, allowed her doctor put her on a carefully monitored

prescription for percocet. a potentially addictive narcotic. >> at first, she had in keeping the pills, and then giving them to her. >> investigators wondered, had nikki's old demons pulled her down again? they delved into nikki's last known movements. >> one is the last time you saw nikki? >> friday night, when i got home from work. she was asleep in bed. >> david told pete's, nikki was sleeping when he arrived home, late, friday night. why the morning, she was already gone. off to her special aa celebration, he had 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 parties at night, he returned to the condo to look for her. he described how her purse, car keys, and car, were gone. that, he said, something else caught his eye. it would turn out to be a big clue for detectives. nikki's vial of percocet was sitting on the counter. the bottle was empty.

the 56 pill prescription, phil just two days before, gone. >> because i saw the pop bill bottle, i freaked, and i was so scared she collapsed or -- that's a lot of pills. i thought maybe she owe dieter something. >> as they wrap up the interview with the husband, a narrative was coming together about the victim. a former addict, possibly, redacted. >> how does this change the complexion of the investigation, early on? the woman whose body was found was a recovering addict, maybe fell off the wagon. >> well, it makes it more complex, for us. we have to consider the possibility that she met up the wrong person, at the wrong time, and it led to her demise. that this, was somehow, related to the people she knew through her a affiliation, when she was very much into, and regularly attended those meetings. >> doors are opening a possibility, rather than closing? >> yes. >> some old-fashioned gumshoe and vesta gate of work would need to come next.

tracking phone records, credit card statements. anything to pinpoint where nikki was headed after leaving the condo, saturday morning. one more blip on nikki's timeline surfaced. a single phone call, made around noon, on saturday, from her cell phone to the gym's front desk while david was working. >> it was possible that she was driving, and hit one of the towers there. we were concerned, but we were also considering whoever killed her may have had her phone, and it was still using it. >> as for the diamond tennis bracelet, missing from nichols wrist when they found her body, the cops checked pawnshop records, in case someone tried to hawk it. nothing. >> a police officer, spotting nichols car overnight. >> the last major piece of the puzzle, turning up two weeks after nikki disappeared. her car, a great jeddah, found abandoned in a parking lot and seattle's university district. forensic technicians, hungry for clues, called through the car. they noticed that the driver

seat was pushed back, but it is what they did not find that intrigued investigators most. >> what was found in the car was david's dna, along with nicole's dna. there is no indication that anyone else have been behind the wheel of nichols car. >> detectives were wondering, wondering about the husband. >> coming up -- he was definitely a player. >> dave chased women out inside the club, outside the club, on the side of the club, on top of the club. >> more than once you approach me and ask what he thought about three ways in a relationship. >> but, does that make him a killer? when dateline continues. dateline continues. non-drowsy claritin-d knocks out your worst allergy symptoms including nasal congestion, without knocking you out. feel the clarity and make today the most wonderful time of the year. claritin-d. i don't feel my age. why should my skin? with olay niacinamide24 i'm in my best skin yet. olay niacinamide24 goes 10 layers deep

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our top story president biden and house speaker kevin mccarthy and the negotiators have reached an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, mccarthy saying the text of the agreement will be available sunday and the vote is tentatively scheduled for wednesday.

the u.s. coast guard ended their search for louisiana teenager who went overboard during a sunset cruise in the bahamas wednesday night, the agency did not clarify if the body of 18 year old cameron robbins of recent high school graduate was found. now, back to dateline. ateline. >> welcome back to dateline i'm craig melvin. nikki had conquered her addiction to prescription pain medication that her husband david revealed to detectives that she had recently started using them again, could those pills have 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 peaks were coworkers like troy understood full well why david looks so rough, still it was a hard thing to witness. >> he looked very badly he

looked like he hadn't slept, he lost weight had dark circle under his eyes and he seemed a little bit more sad. >> while david peetz lowly got back to work after taking time off to mourn his loss wife detectives intent on solving a murder began interviewing people from the gym world who knew the couple starting at the facility where nikki and dave had first met. >> it was a type of place where most rumors weren't rumors. they were true. >> staff members agreed that they've the alpha dog of the sales department and nikki the buttoned down corporate nice girl were a hopeless much matt. >> the more nikki liked in the morning she shouldn't. >> what they saw in nikki was a cynical way to climb the corporate ladder. nikki was everyone's favorite and their boss in particular loved her like family as c.j. brady sought. >> nikki and our supervisor very close, almost like a father daughter relationship and that is why i think he dated nikki from the start.

i don't think 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 cool members. >> he chased women inside the club, outside the club, on side of the club, on top of the clock. >> he -- roving i intriguing but hardly damning. >> to describe him you kind of thought he was somewhat of a player. >> did it make him a killer? >> didn't make him a killer. >> but david pete's behavior towards women at the gym did get him fired detectives learned. several female school workers had filed sexual harassment complaint against him with the management including jackie morales. >> david was very verbal when it came to his comments, it looks better on jacqui today her legs, her but her brass? i finally got the courage enough to go to the boss. >> after getting booted from valleys david moved on to a job

at 24-hour fitness where troy weidman remembers david talking about how he and his wife nikki wanted to invite others into their sex life. >> more than once you would approach me and asked me what i thought about three ways in a relationship with him and nikki were exploring the idea of swingers clubs. >> nikki'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, the circumstantial smoke was getting thicker for investigators. >> it was very apparent to me that he was leading an alternate lifestyle. >> what i'm not hearing, captain, is motivations? >> 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 solid, the hard evidence that the investigation needed just didn't fall into place. an investigation hitting a brick wall, devastating news for nikki's family by now

convinced of david's guilt. when you were out in the emotional wilderness, gayle, 07, 08, 09, what was your lowest moment? >> there are so many low ones. i didn't want to live. just cried my head off every day, i just didn't want to live. >> years went by, david peace 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 that was very different from the heartless philanderer described by nikki's friends and family. the dave kim knew was a forlorn widower who spoke fondly about his lost wife. >> when he would speak of her i could see a sadness in him we'd have conversations about, you know, he was struggling because he missed her. >> meanwhile at the county sheriff's office the three ring binders that made the pizza

file move from desk that's until in 2010 they were picked up by two cops. each was determined to apply some heat. >> i called gayle and said i've got this case now and it is my intent to be the last detective to have this case. >> they laid out the entire investigation and honed in on day one that saturday where nikki peds presumably left the condo she shared with pete and headed out to her special a meeting. to the cold case detectives fresh off a few key pieces of evidence from that morning jumped out. common sense stuff really, like nikki's wedding ring a photo taken in 2006 showed it in nikki's bathroom near the julie cleaner she kept overnight. >> here are the wedding rings left on the counter and she was proud of the rings according to all the family and here she's going to this big meeting the next morning and she is going to go in and not take her ring? >> another red flag this from

the autopsy report, nikki's body had been recovered with her retainer still in her mouth. why did it seem odd that you found the body with the retainer? >> again that is something people wear when they go to bed, she was in the habit of wearing it at night and no place else. >> the wedding ring left on the bathroom counter, the clunky retainer still in her mouth. added up concluded the detectives, and you had a wife who never left the condo for her meeting that saturday morning. one who had never made it through the night alive. and the only person known to be with nicole peaks in the condo that night? her husband, david peetz. >> when you look at each piece of evidence and figure out how it relates to every thing else and lo and behold we have a picture at the end. >> six years after nicole peace was reported missing her husband david was arrested and charged with second degree murder in connection with her death. >> coming up. a lifestyle on trial. >> it involved me, katie and

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advil dual action. >> it had been seven and a half excruciating years of waiting, then in 2013 nikki's family and friends filed into a courtroom to watch david petes stand

trial for his wife's murder. he pleaded not guilty. >> when nicole married to the defendant she thought she had married the man of her dreams, but on january 8th 2006 that dream would turn into a nightmare. >> two prosecutors would handle the case kristen richardson and her fellow prosecuting attorney carl carlson, they promised a jury pieces of a puzzle pieces they hope would reveal a resentful hateful husband whose frustration had boiled over. >> it was actually, i hate this phrase but it 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 at a weight around his neck. so he put his hands around hers after an argument in their condo to free himself of the burden. david, they said, turn to nikki 's problem with pills as his cover. why kill her? >> you know it wasn't a planned murder was something he planned to do sure he could divorce or, this was not a plan, this was

something that erupted one night in a fit of rage. >> because they thought there was no premeditation, david peetz was charged with second not first-degree murder, but proving he snapped and strangled nikki in their condo wouldn't be easy. this was a highly circumstantial case with little direct evidence pointing dave its 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 have to tell the story to a jury that really wants to hear csi? >> they want dna on everything. >> prosecutor started by calling a string of the other women in david's life. women who shared stories of a cheating spouse with little regard for his wife. stories of the three way kids at the bar. >> and who did that involve? >> me and 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 romans that started well david and mickey 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 all in awe for two years. >> what did he tell you about what he felt about you? >> he told me he cared about me. >> dave peets's lifestyle became the trial here. >> yes because it showed that he was dissatisfied with her. >> dissatisfied with nikki and prosecutors say determined to change or. david went so far as to spike nikki's drink with the club drug called ecstasy hoping she would agree to the three some, this according to david's barb buddy rene stewart. >> he told me that he would put it in her red bull, when they want to get a drink and he was just trying to loosen her up to

get her to do a threesome. >> did you notice a change in her after she drank that red bull? >> 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 put ecstasy in her credible is that the weight goes? >> she fought so hard for sobriety and without knowing it her own husband was undermining that. >> then it was nikki's sister tanya's turn to stare david in the eye and tell the jury how indifferent he appeared immediately following nikki's disappearance. >> the defendant hope you look for her? >> no. >> did you ever see him make phone calls related to her disappearance? >> no. >> did you ever see him join in circles with people for may or her workplace? >> not at all. >> prosecutors feared evidence of suspicious behavior from a reprehensible husband would not be enough to convince a jury david committed murder. so they rolled out their theory that nikki never left her condo

alive. >> honestly the best evidence we had was the evidence she showed she never left a condominium. >> evidence offered of david's little mistakes. remember nikki's cherished wedding ring left on the bathroom counter, and then there was nikki's retainer. >> he forgot she wears a retainer slash night guard and he forgot to check her mouth before he dumped her. >> something else nikki's killer would likely overlook the food found in her stomach by the medical examiner. based on the emmys analysis prosecutor speculated nikki was killed sometime between midnight and two a.m. that friday night. soon after david said he came home and found nikki in bed. but it was what the forensics scientist didn't find a nikki system that prosecutors believed was even more damning. evidence they said proved once and for all that nikki had not relapsed. did the m.e. find evidence of prescription painkillers? >> no, she had less than one therapeutic dose of percocet in her stomach it was clear that

she had not been using percocet probably for a few days prior to her death. >> and then there was nikki's bracelet, that gift from david the source of her joy. david had told police it had vanished along with his wife. >> we assumed 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 bracelets that he had taken to a pawn shop and he thought that the guy was trying to rip him off. >> he was trying to pocket, make bucks? >> make money. >> that spoke to his cover-up his involvement? >> sure, absolutely. certainly that he had lied to police in the beginning and saying he did know what the bracelet was. >> still, one piece of the puzzle didn't fit the prosecution's theory that saturday phone call made from nikki's cell phone to the 24 hour fitness gym or david works. this is evidence that around and she is alive on saturday? >> using telephone company records prosecutors argued the origin of the call could be

traced to within a few blocks from the gym where it was received. >> what you're seeing is there's a 95% chance probability that the phone was in this reddish orange sector when it was being placed. >> that's correct. >> it became very clear that that call was placed from the 24 hour fitness gym when pete was working there. >> hardly conclusive evidence on its own but detectives had found something else on the gym security video. it made that call a job or. at just about the same time the call was made from nikki's cell phone, david can be seen stepping away from his work area out of the cameras site. that was david prosecutor say heading off to use nikki's phone to call the gym receptionists. >> he went back and place that call and came back out front as if nothing happened, he had to convince the police he had left the house that morning because if she hadn't left the house he was the killer. >> that video and that cell phone call were presented as the final pieces of the prosecutions now completed

puzzle. we >> had needed just one more thing to put us over the top just one more thing and that call that put it over. >> 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 the accused killer or nikki who certainly had a lot of pills around? >> on january 12th she got 56, on january six how -- and when jenner 26 got 56. >> when dateline continues. teline continues and smooths dry skin. with 7 moisturizers and 3 vitamins, you can pay more but you can't get more. gold bond. champion your skin. wow. that's good. almond breeze? you like the almond breeze i got you... that's sooo interesting. what's happening, dad? with delicious taste and 50% more calcium. blue diamond almond breeze. don't just milk it. almond milk it.

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the murder case of nikki peach prosecutors laid out facts they believe pointed to her husband david as the killer. he had initially told investigators he didn't know where the diamond bracelet she always wore was but, they later learned he had it the whole time. then, david was seen on video surveillance footage allegedly using nikki'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 defense's turn to convince the jury. here with the conclusion of secrets in seattle, is dennis murphy. >> rolls of nicole peets family and friends listen to the prosecution -- run around lava has been, a guy

who strangled his inconvenient wife and left to rot in a -- >> they know how she died, we know how he lied. >> each day david peace remained emotional us in court and trial watcher what noticed. >> if you have any family or friends showed up to have his back. but he did have supporters like kim adams front 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 court hoping to avoid the cameras both in and outside the courtroom. >> i have a lot of respect for those people who didn't go, he knows who loves him. >> she watched the news in disbelief, not recognizing the man prosecutors described as a cold hearted killer. surely, this wasn't the day if she had known for almost seven years. her trusted confidant. >> she kept thinking they're talking about my friend, that

is not my friend that is not the front that i know. >> in court his defense team would not call on kim and the silent friends as character witnesses. the defense was mounting a strip down argument, jurors there is nothing here. nikki left the condo that morning and dave had no idea where she ended up. >> nicole peets was missing, and her husband david peets never saw her again what happened to nicole's 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 plausible motivation for murder. >> in this case, there are many reasonable doubt. >> could anyone say with absolute certainty that she always wore her wedding ring, that she never went out in public with her retainer? the pictures of defense portrait of a david peets open and honest with detectives

right from the start. a husband hoping the police would locate his wife. detective kathleen to the stand. >> when you first saw david as his resident i believe you described him as anxious and upset? >> yes. >> the defense willingly conceded that david was a crummy husband, but skirt chasing did not give him a motive for murder. >> dave pietz is in the first guy to step out on his spouse, all of you certainly know of people who have done that did they kill their wives or husband or anything like that? >> and the defense countered that if anyone had secrets to hide it wasn't dave, it was nikki. >> there is another side to all of this. the >> defense now turn the focus to nicole peets and the last few weeks of her life,. >> raise your left hand. >> they called to the stand that main witness nikki's doctor, she had been the primary physician for five years. >> you knew nikki's history that she had troubles as a young woman?

>> i knew. >> and had been in rehab? >> we had talked about it throughout her care with me. >> so when nikki came into the office complaining of severe back pain at the end of 2005, the doctor said she had nikki's past addiction in mind. the doctor testified that she did would nikki on pain medication but since she tightly monitored nikki's weekly prescription, right down to counting the number of pills. >> on january 12th she got 56, on january 18th she got 56, and on january 26th he got 56. >> nikki was getting hundreds of pills but the defense reminded the jurors that nikki's toxicology report had showed something unusual. despite being prescribed all of those pills, the forensic finances said she apparently hadn't been taken any of them. >> is it your opinion that this just reflects like a onetime use? >> i believe so, it's such a small amount. >> almost no drugs in her

system meant 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? >> inferentially circumstantially you could found that she was out giving those drugs away, giving them away to old friends of hers, coming into contact with drug users and dealers pretty tough people, pretty dangerous. >> the lured story might never be known argue the defense but they said it was clear that nikki and not they'd 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 never loved his wife who lost it on one very bad night or a woman with an addiction she never beat, some final hour doting out narcotic painkillers

to the wrong person. at the courthouse, the jury retire to deliberate. kim adams waited at home for news. >> kind of made a promise to myself to support him no matter what the verdict was because i feel like he would do the same for me. as the hours went by nikki's family prayed, and the prosecutors replayed the case in their heads. >> i felt like there was absolutely nothing we missed in closing or in presentation. >> that is not to say when they're out deliberating you're not wondering every second what is going on and whether you will succeed. >> please be seated with the exception of the presiding juror. >> and then more than seven and a half years since nikki's body had been found, the jury was coming back with a verdict. >> we the jury to find the defendant martin david pietz guilty of the crime of murdering of second-degree as charged signed by the residing jurors. >> is that the verdict of the

jury? >> yes. >> david guilty of second degree murder, strangling his wife of almost four years. >> absolutely elated. i just wanted justice for my daughter. and we got it. >> what do you want to say to david pietz now? >> david, i hope, i hope that you find it in your heart to be sorry because if you don't you will burn and help forever. >> three weeks later, david pietz returned to court for his sentencing. presiding judge michael hayden expressed discussed 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. accordingly the sentence will be -- >> judge hayden sentence him to 18 years in prison, the maximum time allowed in the second degree murder case. before her daughter's 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 am not going to anymore. david, i forgive you, i'm not going to allow myself to let you rule my life anymore. >> but there is a question for which gayle will never get a comprehensible answer. >> why? and how could he ever harm such a nice person? i mean, nikki was such a good person. >> the hardest question always the why. the coldest fact, the young woman gone too soon. >> that is all for this edition of dateline, i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. you for watching >> hello, i'm craig melvin. hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." and this is dateline. >> i call mom, she did not answer. i'm pretty much