Transcript of Nick's Double Life

Everyone has their own nightmare-in-law story, though I couldn't imagine how bad mine would be.

That's the opening of a story posted to Reddit in 2019 by Nicholas Morfox. The title of the story: My mother-in-law was poisoning me. Then I found out why.

As it turns out, the worst thing wasn't my mother-in-law poisoning me. The worst thing was why she did it.

The plot is narrated by a woman who marries a man named Craig after a 2-month whirlwind romance. This is our editor, Maura, reading.

His whole family came over, and everyone seemed thrilled to meet me, except for his mom, Betsy. She was cold and distant and could sit there without saying a single word to me. It was creepy, but I kept trying to spark up a conversation.

Every time they visit Craig's mother, the narrator gets sick.

At this point, I started to get suspicious. No one else was sick, and we all ate the same food. It seemed like Betsy must have been up to something, but it wasn't until our next visit, when a night in a romantic cottage another hour up the road was canceled due to me getting sick, that I was sure. Betsy was poisoning me.

But in the story, the narrator's husband Craig doesn't believe her. One day, she switches her plate of food with him, and Craig becomes ill. When the narrator confesses what she's done, Craig attacks her.

I've never seen such anger before. The rage in his eyes is something I'll remember for the rest of my life.

She runs away and escapes, but 2 days later gets a call from the police.

Craig was dead. Betsy had shot him after he broke into her house and charged at her with a knife.

That's when the narrator learns that Craig had been married before and that his wife died in a hiking accident. What she also learns is that Betsy suspected that her son had killed his first wife for insurance money. So anytime Craig suggested that he and his new wife go hiking, Betsy poisoned her so she would be too sick to go. Betsy had actually saved her life.

I still visit her from time to time when I need to get out of the city. I love her cooking.

That's how the story ends. 3 years after that story appeared on Reddit, in May of 2022, the author, Nicholas Moorfox, sold the rights to his story to Sony Pictures for $400,000. That October, he messaged a fellow writer named Samantha. The 2 hit it off. By April 2023, they had moved in together in Pennsylvania and had gotten married. So Samantha was shocked when a month later, the FBI and U.S. Marshals Arrested her new husband.

When that happens, of course, the new wife is taken aback. She doesn't know any of his history or any background, doesn't know anything else. She knows him by a different name, Nicholas Stark.

Investigator Jack Frost had learned that Nick Morphox and Nicholas Stark were the same person. His real name, Nick Casotas. Nick was now in custody, charged with murdering Mindy in late 2022. And remember that woman named Betsy in that short story? Well, Betsy also happens to be the name of Mindy's mother, Nick's former mother-in-law.

And it was just kind of like, oh, there's been a lot of stuff going on here.

A new wife, a new name, and a new career. The former Navy lawyer was now a writer, But who was he really? I'm Erin Moriarty. From 48 Hours, this is The Woman in the Woods, Episode 3, Nick's Double Life. Do you remember him ever lying or embellishing stories or anything along that line? Did you Trust him?

Oh yeah, I did.

That's Heather Thomas, Nick Casotas's first wife. Nick told a lot of people, told friends that his life was in danger and that's why he was on the run with Mindy. Do you believe that was the reason why he was hiding out?

I mean, probably not, but I just—

I mean, is it just a coincidence that he says his life is at risk at the time he owes you $1.5 million?

I mean, the timing certainly didn't work in his favor, is what I can say on that.

She told me that 3 years after their 2015 divorce, Nick still owed her more than $1.5 million for their house and his truck.

You know, I, I trusted him with my literal life, and I believed him. I absolutely believed him when he said he would take care of everything and that he, you know, was good. And now, I didn't know he was bashing me behind my back to his friends and alleging all sorts of improprieties. Probably for a good majority of the time that I thought we were very amicable, which hurt. And then it just escalated to a point where it got very contentious, and he would just make up excuses.

The judge is telling him he has to pay. Does he say he has money? How much money does he say?

He says $32 million.

$32 million he says he has in the bank? Did he have documents to show that?

Not to my knowledge.

Did you believe he had $32 million?

I believe that if an officer of the court is going to go under oath, that they know the severity of that. And so I was maybe wrongly thinking that, well, he's He's put his right hand up and he's, he's telling this to the judge. It's no longer he's telling me.

Nick told the judge that he couldn't access that money because his wife, that would be Mindy, also had a claim to it. And the judge told him to figure out how to pay Heather. You never got any money from him, even though he promised the judge he had this money.

Right.

Why not? What happened?

He took off. I gave him so many chances to come to the table. Even after he left, I mean, I was willing to still try to work it out. And I have ridiculous amount of emails that says the same. I mean, I certainly wasn't just going to turn over and be like, oh, don't worry about it. Because I was getting very frustrated at that point. But he chose a different path. He left the state. I didn't have the available funds to chase him around the country. But I did—

he's—

it's not like it's that hard to find people nowadays. So I would do the best I can with the information I did have. And I would basically just keep tabs on him.

How would you do that?

Looking online. Um, there was a person that I knew that, you know, he was a private investigator, and I wasn't able to hire him, but he's like, I can give you the general whereabouts, right? Because really it's for my safety. Because at that point, I was so shocked that he had left without doing anything that he had nothing else to lose.

Heather told me that she thought Nick was becoming so desperate to avoid getting locked up for nonpayment, she didn't know what he'd do next.

I don't know, maybe he'd come after, like, my family or something. So I just wanted to make sure that he wasn't in Virginia.

Did you ever see a dark side of Nick Casotas?

No, I didn't.

But you must have thought he was capable of it.

Well, yeah, because if he was willing to throw away his— potentially his license to practice ever, and he was just going to throw all caution to the wind, you're now dealing with a scenario where you can't assume anything. So you have to be prepared. I had to be prepared.

To this day, Heather thinks of the what-ifs. What if Nick had shown up in court before disappearing? And was thrown in jail by the judge.

And I really wish I would have been maybe a little bit more clearheaded and straightforward and said, no, you know what, we're just going— you got to pay it, whatever. You're going to go to jail if you don't. But we continued for another week. And that's when I regret the most, is because the next time He could have been put in jail, and he would have never been released until he paid the judgment.

And why— why do you say you regret?

Because he'd be in jail there and not— and maybe Mindy would be alive.

Everybody trusted him. And the biggest betrayal is, you know, he took that to his advantage and they just bought it. They hit it. I mean, they took it for him at his word.

Investigator Jack Frost learned a lot about Nick Casotas. When Nick became the prime suspect in Mindy's death. But he had to separate truth from fiction. There was no shortage of fantastic stories that Nick had told family and friends. All that moving around that Mindy and her family did and believed was due to a security breach at Nick's work.

Supposed to be designing top-secret AI software for Microsoft.

So he was not designing software for Microsoft?

We couldn't find anything to connect him to Microsoft. Nothing at all. There was a JAG Job Corps thing that he went to one time, and there was a Microsoft representative there. But as far as that, that was years prior and nothing, nothing that would connect him to it.

There was also a company called APIS Limited that Nick talked about. He claimed he had been promoted to vice president and chief legal officer in 2021.

So that was the header on the emails that notified Frank and Betsy that, um, he had passed away. And that was who he believed he was working through at one point, was APIS.

Nick's third wife, Samantha Koliyesnik, had also seen correspondence from the same company.

And it was a letter detailing his career there. And he'd been working, doing all this stuff for years there as a great employee. And if you have any questions, you can contact Mark at HR. And it was a dead email. It was like a ProtonMail that didn't go anywhere.

The listed 1-800 number investigators tried wasn't valid either.

There was a PO box, I believe, in Wyoming. That was connected to that letterhead that he sent.

Who do you believe sent that email to Mindy's parents to say Nick was dead?

I believe Nick sent it.

He did this all. He made up so many stories.

He did.

After all, Nick's clear talent for fiction did get him that film deal on his Reddit short story in 2022. But if those other jobs weren't real, how was Nick covering his bills and paying for his life with Mindy after he left the Navy and before he sold his story? When Nick was arrested in 2023, investigators got their answer.

A friend had seen his arrest and had reached out to us before we went to interview him.

That friend of Nick's came to the Liberty County Sheriff's Office in Georgia To meet with investigators. So this was Cameron Nelson?

This was Cameron Nelson.

Cameron Nelson was an old friend of Nick's. They had met in the Navy in 2008 when Nick was in his 20s.

She explained that without hesitation she trusted what Nick said and that he had been such a good guy and such a good friend in— during their time together in the Navy and had done You know, um, uh, taking care of some things for her when she had some health issues.

In 2009, Cameron had been diagnosed with cancer. She was scheduled to be deployed on a hospital ship. Nick volunteered to take her deployment so she could focus on treatment. He was gone for 5 months, so when years later he asked Cameron for money, she felt she owed him.

She felt some type of responsibility to take care of things.

I mean, so while Nicholas is telling his wife and her family that he's working at doing cybersecurity and that type of thing, he's not.

Correct.

How is he getting his money?

So for a long time, for the couple of years, Cameron Nelson was supplying them with the funding they needed.

He told her that his bank accounts had been hacked and that he needed money for basic necessities. Cameron said that Nick spent more than $198,000 on her credit card. Cameron said she last saw Nick in 2019 and cut off the credit card in January 2021. But then, on December 1st, 2022, the day before hunters found Mindy's remains, And he's like, oh yeah, you know, Mindy passed away.

I'm so sorry. And so, you know, she had no idea of the depths of the other stories that he had told everybody else about the AI software and about being a target of a potential terrorist hit and everything else.

Cameron's credit card records explained how Nick had been keeping his family afloat. But Mindy's murder happened a year after Cameron cut off Nick's access to her card. Frost said investigators found a different bank account where Nick kept money from his $400,000 deal with Sony. That's the account they believed he used to buy the supplies he needed, including multiple knives. Frost planned to use those bank records and Nick's location data to help show how Nick planned his wife Mindy's murder.

It absolutely looked like he was preplanning this for some time.

And I assume I'm not touching this. These are very sharp.

Very sharp.

And what are those for?

Uh, each one has got a different blade for a different purpose.

Jack Frost was showing me the types of knives that he believed Nick Casota's bought in the days leading up to the discovery of Mindy's remains in December of 2022.

So this is the— this is a 7-piece pursuit field dressing kit for animals.

When you saw that Nick Casotas had bought a set like this, what went through your mind?

I thought that definitely this would be something that would be used in dismemberment. Of a body.

Using Nick's bank records, investigators were able to document a series of suspicious purchases in the Savannah area starting in August of 2022. So you have a purchase on August 16th that he goes to Home Depot and gets what you say could be home items. The wipes.

There is one purchase where he buys wipes and gloves that are purchased with other items.

Nick was spotted on camera at another Home Depot on November 4th.

He purchases a shovel, which we know a shovel was used at the site where the head was discovered and where one of the legs was discovered. And, um, he also purchased a hammer during one of those trips to Home Depot.

Frost also discovered purchases at a Bass Pro Shop On the 28th of that month, he purchased a field dress, uh, process—

basically a deer processing kit from Bass Pro Shops. You know, he has no history, uh, there's no record of him having like a hunting license or a fishing license.

The next day, on the 29th, receipts show Nick purchased yet another knife at another Home Depot, and again he's seen on camera.

He had bought a Milwaukee, what's called a smooth blade insulation knife like this. Basically, it's designed for cutting big pieces of insulation for AC technicians. Also one that's advertised for being used as a, like a utility knife or survival knife. So pretty sturdy blade, very sharp.

The knife that you found, a knife that looked very much like this at the scene.

Correct.

Could you connect it directly to Nick Casotas? Was any of his DNA, fingerprints, anything found on the knife at the scene that connected Nick Casotas directly to that knife?

No, because the wipes that were out there, the type of wipes they were was a Clorox bleach type wipe. So it had some type of solution on it that would destroy DNA. And it also had been out there for about 4 days. And the weathering with the rain and stuff would have probably washed anything else away.

So they couldn't conclusively connect the knives that Nick purchased to the weapons found on the scene. But they did find some evidence that Nick's vehicle, a green Ford Explorer, was near both the purchase locations and the crime scene.

Because when we, you know, found out his vehicle— found out his vehicle had cellular service that was part of the navigation and infotainment center package of it, they were able to use that and plot his locations where he— that vehicle traveled. And then we got that video surveillance.

A security camera by the woods near where Mindy was found captured footage of the SUV.

Driving back and forth on that dirt road, uh, in the middle of the day.

On what date was his vehicle seen on that?

November 29th.

And why is that so significant in this case?

Um, that's the same morning he bought the knife at Home Depot, and the same day that he traveled Down that way, per his phone records.

Location tracking data on the SUV would also show the car at the Bass Pro Shop the day before. What's more, 10 days after Mindy's remains were discovered, Nicholas Kasotis petitioned to change his name to Nicholas Stark. Under this new name, he would go on to marry Samantha Koliestnik In Pennsylvania. Even though this was his 3rd marriage, on the license, Nick listed it as his 2nd. He claimed that his first marriage ended in death on 12/1/2020, 2 years before Mindy's remains were found in the woods. But before any arrest, investigators needed official confirmation that those remains were 100% Mindy's. And that's why they got that swab from her mother, Betsy.

So, um, once we had a sample from Betsy as far as the DNA and we could do a confirmation, um, we obtained warrants for his arrest. And, uh, we coordinated getting those warrants to the US Marshals and to the FBI. Violent Crimes Task Force up there that had been helping them out to be able to execute those warrants and get him apprehended.

They arrested Nick on May 12th, 2023. The next day, Agent Tracy Sands and Frost headed to meet him.

We fly up, uh, to Pennsylvania on the 13th.

The investigators planned to try to interview Nick and hear how he would make sense of all the We're talking about his history of being Lieutenant Commander in the JAG, and his education and stuff.

I'm like, there's no way he's gonna talk to us. We're gonna— we took a nice plane trip to come here and turn around and go back home. He's gonna— there's no way he's gonna talk to us.

And were you right?

No.

Nick didn't just talk. He gave a whole news story and gave them a new person to follow. And who is this person?

He gives us the name of Jim McIntyre.

And so investigators had to figure out, could any of the stories Nick was telling actually be true? From 48 Hours, this is The Woman in the Woods, produced by Sony Music Entertainment. If you liked this episode, please rate and review. I'm your host, Erin Moriarty. Judy Tygart is the executive producer of 48 Hours. Special thanks to 48 Hours producer Chuck Stevenson and associate producer Chelsea Narvaez. Maura Walls is the senior story editor. And Jamie Benson is the senior director of podcast operations. for CBS News. Mixing and sound design by Alan Pang. The Woman in the Woods was written and produced by Alex Shuman. Our associate producer is Zoe Kuhlkin. Shara Morris is the executive producer for Sony Music Entertainment. Tamika Balance Kulasny is the production manager.

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