Post Mortem | Who Wanted To Kill Nicki Lenway?

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Speaker 2 I'm Anne-Marie Green. Welcome to 48 Hours Postmortem.
I'm joined today by longtime correspondent Erin Moriarty to discuss her latest episode, Who Wanted Nikki Lenway Dead? Hi, Erin.

Speaker 2 Thank you so much for joining us again.

Speaker 3 Oh, I wanted to be here. This is a particularly great case, and there are always things that we can't include in the hours, so we can talk about it here.

Speaker 2 Well, I always have questions. What about this case stood out to you? What drew you to it?

Speaker 3 Well, first thing, we have a 33-year-old victim and she survives. I mean, we don't have that very often at 48 hours, but in many ways, she was an unusual victim.

Speaker 3 She was actually a member of the Minneapolis Police Department. And because of that, that raised all kinds of possibilities.
This is a woman who was shot point blank.

Speaker 3 And the big question was, was this a robbery that went wrong? Or was this connected to work?

Speaker 3 I mean, there were so many possibilities oh and you know the legal issues were great so that's what made this show special yeah you don't often get an opportunity quite frankly to talk to the victim i mean she survived this which is remarkable um i want to get to you know who investigators initially thought was behind this but first i want to play a quick recap of the episode On April 20th, 2022, Emily Clancy was driving home from dinner with friends when something across the street caught her attention.

Speaker 2 I saw a person run up to another person and then I heard two bangs and that other person collapsed.

Speaker 3 Emily sped through the intersection and pulled up next to the victim.

Speaker 2 I opened the door. I said, are you okay? And she said, no, I've been shot.

Speaker 3 The victim was 33-year-old Nicole Nikki Lenway, a crime scene investigator for the Minneapolis police. She was on her way to pick up her five-year-old son when she was shot.

Speaker 2 She was in a lot of pain. She was having a hard time breathing.

Speaker 1 Where's the victim? Who's shot?

Speaker 3 Emily did her best to help Nikki until first responders arrived.

Speaker 1 So we've got EMS coming right now.

Speaker 2 Emily told police what she thought had happened. It maybe looked like a robbery or something that was so fast.

Speaker 3 Take it to the hospital. Nikki lost consciousness, but she recovered.

Speaker 3 You do work for the police department. Did you think it might have something to do with work?

Speaker 2 You know, I know a lot of people asked me that. I knew that this could happen, but I didn't want to believe it would.

Speaker 2 So those first critical moments after Nikki was shot, Emily Clancy, she's a total stranger. She not only she happens to be driving by at the moment this happens, but then she jumps into action.

Speaker 2 She puts herself in danger. A lot of people would not have stopped.
When I watched this, I thought to myself, would I have stopped or would I have kept on going?

Speaker 4 It's remarkable.

Speaker 3 It is.

Speaker 3 You know, people sometimes ask me, how can you do these shows? And I often tell them for the heroic people that we meet and we often do. And Emily Clancy was one of those heroic people.

Speaker 3 You know, it's so interesting. I rode in the car with her.
She showed me how it all happened.

Speaker 3 She didn't hesitate at all. She just pulled up without any thought of her own safety.
She then told Nikki to get in the car because Nikki was standing there bleeding.

Speaker 3 And at that moment, again, just automatically, she didn't think about maybe the shooter is still out there. She helps Nikki apply pressure on her neck.

Speaker 3 Nikki, of course, was hit in the neck and her vocal cords were damaged. So she couldn't talk to the 911 operator.
So Emily stepped in and did that.

Speaker 2 I was struck by how emotional Emily was. She was almost more emotional than Nikki retelling this.

Speaker 3 Well, you know, and you are so right, Amarie. I talked to Nikki a long time and she had been through hell and she was so calm.

Speaker 3 But when you bring it up with Emily, the idea that Nikki could have died and it was because Emily stepped up, Emily keeps thinking about how close Nikki came to dying. So she gets very emotional.

Speaker 2 Emily was actually given a good citizen award following the shooting. And that's where Emily and Nikki initially first met after, you know, after the first meeting.

Speaker 2 That was kind of their second meeting. But in the hour, you include their next reunion.
It's really, really touching. What was that like?

Speaker 3 Well, you know, if you look in the background, you'll see me. And you can see that I'm really moved.
It was very, very teary.

Speaker 3 Because Nikki also believes she only survived because of Emily's efforts. So they have this very strange bond that connects them.

Speaker 3 And Nikki wanted to see her because she had very big news to tell her and tells us at the same time that she's pregnant.

Speaker 2 So you guys didn't know before?

Speaker 3 No, no, no, no.

Speaker 3 And so that's always, again, Emory, you know that you work on these shows that, you know, you always get surprises when you're in the field and spend as much time as we do with the people that we interview.

Speaker 3 It really was very exciting.

Speaker 2 Nikki, she actually works in a crime lab. How does she find herself being the victim of an attempted murder?

Speaker 3 Well, that was the whole question at the outset. And it really was,

Speaker 3 she was an unusual victim. So, of course, there were so many possibilities.
Was this shooting connected to something, some investigation she worked on? She's a forensic scientist.

Speaker 3 You know, she works primarily with fingerprints, but was there something connected to her job? And then of course, as it is with any case, you have to look at someone close to her.

Speaker 3 Was this a personal attack? And the early evidence in this case did seem to indicate that it was very personal.

Speaker 2 So one thing that comes up over and over again for me when I watch these episodes is, you know, you need like the old school investigative.

Speaker 2 uh know-how but technology plays a huge role too i don't think you can have one without the other.

Speaker 2 But in this case, surveillance video really made a big difference.

Speaker 2 Incredibly, this is a shooting that was caught on, there was bank surveillance video that picked up on the shooting.

Speaker 2 There were school cameras that show the shooter actually getting out of this black truck and then driving away.

Speaker 2 We also got to see body camera footage of Nikki right after she was shot, which I was stunned by because I couldn't even tell she was shot or that she was injured.

Speaker 2 The surveillance video, even though you couldn't tell who it was, did it help investigators sort of narrow things down?

Speaker 3 Oh, it did. And don't you sometimes, Anne-Marie, when you work on these stories, you think, why would anybody commit a crime in this day and age, knowing that everything is getting caught on video?

Speaker 3 Now, I think the shooter thought.

Speaker 3 that

Speaker 3 this person would be able to outsmart investigators because the shooter is all in black and hair is covered and there's a mask.

Speaker 3 But in fact, the surveillance video was crucial because you see that person run up. That person is targeting Nikki.

Speaker 3 That person shoots Nikki once. And when Nikki starts getting up, shoots again.
Clearly, this was a personal attack. And so that's what investigators know.
Then they see the shooter run to a truck.

Speaker 3 You can tell what kind of truck. It's a Dodge Ram truck.
It does happen to be a very popular vehicle, but that certainly narrows down.

Speaker 3 The shooter takes off.

Speaker 3 But the limitations of video is also apparent in this case because you couldn't tell the gender.

Speaker 3 You could not, you could not tell how tall this person is, but it certainly did give investigators a lot of evidence to start off with.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 2 And then it's not just the surveillance video, but our own devices are tracking us in ways that, you know, I think it becomes kind of the fabric of how we move.

Speaker 2 So we forget that we are being tracked all the time. You think if you turn your phone off, that's good enough.
In this case, it didn't turn out to be good enough for Tim.

Speaker 3 So most vehicles that are made after 2022 have Wi-Fi capabilities. What that really means is: go ahead, leave your phone at home thinking you won't be tracked.

Speaker 3 But as soon as you get in the car, you are driving a cell phone. That is essentially what you are doing.
And in fact, Tim Amaker's Dodge Ram truck was a 2022 and it had Wi-Fi capabilities.

Speaker 3 And because of that, he left this digital trail even when he wasn't driving the truck.

Speaker 3 They could identify that black Dodge Ram truck as his, track the route of that truck that led to someone who knew him very well. And that is how they made their arrests.

Speaker 2 So in our last post-mortem, you and I talked about Tim Bleithnik, who was convicted of murdering his wife, Becky.

Speaker 2 You know, I mean, that's what the allegation was, too, for him, that he had turned off his phone. And so he believed that he couldn't be tracked.
Just a couple of similarities between the two cases.

Speaker 2 But, you know, there was, they were separated.

Speaker 2 Nikki had started dating somebody new, much like Becky had started to date somebody new. And there was this really like contentious

Speaker 2 custody battle going on over their son.

Speaker 3 No question. And, you know, you had asked me at the beginning, what was it that drew me to this case? And the biggest thing was the issue of domestic violence.

Speaker 3 And this case was the scariest domestic violence case I have ever covered.

Speaker 2 Let's listen to a clip.

Speaker 3 How would you describe the last six years?

Speaker 2 It has been chaos.

Speaker 3 Nicole claims Tim tried to destroy her.

Speaker 2 Like, I'm going to take everything from you.

Speaker 3 Did you believe him?

Speaker 2 I did.

Speaker 3 The Black Belt's new weapon of choice was the legal system it was the relentless

Speaker 3 number of motions before the court he reported nicole to child protection services multiple times accusing her and donovan of physical and sexual abuse children services show up at your house yes I had them in and out of my home for three years.

Speaker 3 Tim filed for custody of Cal, and Nicole filed for an order of protection from Tim.

Speaker 3 Not a single one of the allegations against Nicole or Donovan was found to have substance. So I have to tell you, I would, the more I read about it, it gave me chills.
It scared me.

Speaker 2 You know, the whole time you're wondering, how does she end up with a guy like that?

Speaker 2 But Tim seemed to have this power over a lot of people in his life. So next I want to dig into Tim and Colleen's relationship.
Was she manipulated by him to commit cold-blooded murder?

Speaker 2 It's such a leak, but we're going to dig into that. We'll be right back.

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Speaker 2 Welcome back. Let's get right into it, Erin.
Do you believe Colleen Larson acted on her own or do you think Tim manipulated her? Let's listen to a clip from The Hour.

Speaker 3 When the once-young taekwondo student turned 18, her relationship with Tim Amaker quietly changed, according to Charlie.

Speaker 3 Did you get the sense he was in love with Colleen?

Speaker 6 No, not at all. I think she was very much in love with him.

Speaker 3 Charlie says Tim called the relationship easy.

Speaker 6 She would call him master, call him the house, yep, master omicur, and ultimately kind of became,

Speaker 6 you know, like a maid or a servant to him.

Speaker 3 I know the prosecutors believe that she was completely manipulated by Tim. And all of Tim's friends told me the same thing.

Speaker 3 It's hard for me to believe that he could actually

Speaker 3 have so much power over somebody that he could have her shoot someone in his place.

Speaker 3 But in fact, when you look at Colleen Larson's background, she didn't know Nikki very well. So there'd be no reason to want her dead.
She had no criminal history.

Speaker 3 But according to the prosecutors, Tim, you know, she did call him master at home. That's still, I can't get over that.
That's all sponkers.

Speaker 3 Because, you know, Colleen had started as a student student when she was like preteen almost and

Speaker 3 called him master when she was learning Taekwondo and continued to call him master even when she started dating him.

Speaker 3 So that kind of, if you look up to someone and he's telling you that Nikki is abusing their son, maybe, maybe, but certainly.

Speaker 3 Here's this woman with no criminal history and she not just, she doesn't just shoot Nikki once. She shoots her twice.

Speaker 2 so something was going on there and of course you know colleen uh didn't want to talk to 48 hours uh her family did didn't want to talk either so we don't necessarily know what drew her to him but you did get an interview with a woman he had previously dated i want to play some of that sound This woman who once dated Amaker doesn't want to be named or have her face shown, but she says she knows firsthand the hold Amaker can have on the women in his life.

Speaker 2 Yes, it was a high when I was around him.

Speaker 3 And that you wanted to do whatever you could to hang on to that high? Yes.

Speaker 3 She says she was once under Amaker's spell,

Speaker 3 but is certain she would never kill for him. Still, she sees some of herself in Colleen Larson.

Speaker 2 And I feel like that was me. Yep, I definitely feel like I was willing to do whatever I could to make him approve of me and want to be with me.
That was so illuminating listening to her talk.

Speaker 2 And, you know, you also were able to talk to a neighbor. And the way he's describing him, the way, you know, Tim's got women coming in and out.

Speaker 3 Well, everyone, you know, that was

Speaker 3 pretty standard. Men and women both told me that Tim had this amazing charisma and power over people.
Now, I've got to be honest, I didn't get to see it. He didn't testify.

Speaker 3 But my favorite detail, Emery, I'm sorry, was the purple light. Do you remember the purple light? So yeah,

Speaker 2 the purple light was on.

Speaker 3 You could come on over. No, I wasn't busy.
I thought you could come over if the purple light was off.

Speaker 3 But Charlie Detloff

Speaker 3 is the neighbor next door who I just, I think he was living vicariously through Tim because Tim had this.

Speaker 3 you know, this line of women coming and going. And let's be honest, Nikki was drawn to him too.

Speaker 3 So

Speaker 3 the line that really struck me was the young woman who dated him who said it was a high to be around him and she didn't want to get rid of that high. That just stays in my head.
So

Speaker 3 clearly he has some kind of power that comes across to people.

Speaker 2 Tell us what Tim was like at his sentencing.

Speaker 3 He was talking about how

Speaker 3 he really couldn't be judged in a court of law that only God could judge him and no remorse, never talked about, never accepting any responsibility, never accepting any responsibility for poor Colleen getting in the middle of this.

Speaker 3 It's as Nikki had said to me afterwards, it was a bit of blaming other people for the situation he was in.

Speaker 3 What's interesting, Anne-Marie, is he told everybody that after he was arrested, there was new evidence that was going to come up and it was going to save him. But, you know, it hasn't happened yet.

Speaker 4 Wow.

Speaker 2 Colleen did confess to shooting Nikki, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the first-degree attempted murder of Nikki.

Speaker 2 Tim was charged with attempted first-degree premeditated murder and aiding an accomplice after the fact.

Speaker 2 This was a tough prosecution.

Speaker 3 You know, we know Colleen was the shooter, okay? Colleen confesses and says she was the shooter. But the prosecutors have charged Tim with the exact same charge.
And we know he wasn't there.

Speaker 3 We know he was inside the family-wise center.

Speaker 3 So basically, what prosecutors had to convince the jurors is that Tim had so much power over Colleen that he was kind of using her as a weapon, that she was his weapon for shooting.

Speaker 3 Now,

Speaker 3 the way the law is written, if you do enough

Speaker 3 to help this happening, then you're just as responsible.

Speaker 3 But as we point out in the hour, there was no direct evidence that showed him, doesn't show him buying the gun, doesn't show him putting the gun in her hand.

Speaker 3 Yes, there were spent shell casings inside his home, but the shooter lived inside his home.

Speaker 3 So the idea of getting the jury to believe that he was involved and that he used Colleen to do his dirty work, that was tough.

Speaker 4 That was really tough.

Speaker 2 The thing about this saga is it's likely not over for Nikki. Tim was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Colleen was sentenced to 16 and a half years.

Speaker 2 I don't even know if that means that they're going to serve the full term, but for sure they're going to be out.

Speaker 2 It doesn't seem like they got a lot of time. Is this typical?

Speaker 3 Yeah, it is, unfortunately, because it's attempted murder. It would have been very different.

Speaker 3 Yeah, they got the mechs, you know? So

Speaker 3 what's scary is, you know, I've done so many stories on stalkers and that's what this is, you know, domestic violence.

Speaker 3 Will he, you know, see the light of day while he's in prison and feel remorse or will he just kind of stew in prison? Because he'll get out. He could get out in 12 years.
You know, it's possible.

Speaker 3 And so

Speaker 3 Nikki's aware of that.

Speaker 3 Her boyfriend, now her husband, Donovan Ford is aware of it. But no, the legal system can only go so far to protect people.
That's the problem. And we see it all the time.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 2 You know, sort of the lucky thing for both Nikki and her son is that they both have Donovan. And it's sort of remarkable.

Speaker 2 They meet at another crime scene, a burglary, and he seems just perfect for her.

Speaker 3 Oh, my God. So, you know, I asked him, you know, no offense, Donovan, but like, you just start dating this woman and all of a sudden her ex starts making your life hell.

Speaker 3 So I finally said to him, like, why did you stay with her? And he just looked at me. He didn't even hesitate.
And he goes, because I love her. I was so touched, so touched.

Speaker 3 So out of this awful, awful situation, this nightmare relationship, Nikki did find true love and a wonderful man.

Speaker 2 How is Nikki's son doing?

Speaker 3 They say he's doing great. They say he is, that he's Nikki did tell him that his father tried to kill her.

Speaker 3 They had to, along with counseling.

Speaker 3 But she says he's doing well right now. And they are having another child.
So, you know, hopefully he'll be focused more on school and family and

Speaker 3 get lots of counseling to deal with what is really a very, very tragic situation.

Speaker 2 It really is. But

Speaker 2 the fact that she survived and is flourishing, it's one of the, it's a 148 hours. That was inspiring to see her rebuild her life in this way.

Speaker 3 There's just one other detail I want to share. When you look at Nikki, she looks fine, you know, barely a scar.
But what you don't realize is that she was a singer and she was shot in her neck.

Speaker 3 She had terrible vocal cord damage and she could no longer sing. So, you know, she still carries scars with her.

Speaker 2 It's a really good reminder. Erin,

Speaker 2 another great postmortem. Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 It's always great being here. And I'll be back with another show, I promise.
I know you will.

Speaker 2 So for everyone, be sure to join us next Tuesday then for another postmortem. And if you're liking the show, please rate and review 48 Hours on Apple Podcasts.

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