and toward the time when nick howard was killed, he'd actually gotten to threatening her by saying thingslike, you should know what it's like to lose a child. >> ralph marcus' plan, according to prosecutors, was to befriend patty's son nick, the only family member who would talk to him. he convinced the teenager to crash his car into the river, to fake his own death in order to defraud the life insurance company of $850,000. on the night of the murder, prosecutors believe marcus and nick met on the dock to plan the car crash. either nick tried to back out or marcus had planned to kill him all along. at some point, marcus strangled him until he was unconscious, then threw him into the river where he drowned. he kept nick's glasses, bent them in half, and threw them on the floor of nick's car to make it appear nick was in the car when it crashed. marcus opened the windows, used the cap from his motor oil bottle, placed it in the carburetor, threw the bottle in the trunk, and started the car. and with that, the car plunged into the sacramento river. had it not been for accident reconstructio