Haley Barber
Appearances
Dateline NBC
Verdict in the roommate murder trial. Mom accused of murder by fire and van. And, actor Dennis Quaid.
Of course. Thank you so much for having me, Andrea.
Dateline NBC
Verdict in the roommate murder trial. Mom accused of murder by fire and van. And, actor Dennis Quaid.
So by all accounts, she is just this bubbly ball of energy. She's only 4'10". She's really tiny, but she just makes friends with everyone. And she's just a really sweet person to be around. She liked kids. She was studying elementary education.
Dateline NBC
Verdict in the roommate murder trial. Mom accused of murder by fire and van. And, actor Dennis Quaid.
Yeah, she wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, and her friends joked that that was the perfect job for her because only the kindergartners would be shorter than her.
Dateline NBC
Verdict in the roommate murder trial. Mom accused of murder by fire and van. And, actor Dennis Quaid.
Yeah. Her purse was there. Her wallet was there. This didn't appear to be a robbery when police went in, but the window to her bedroom, the screen had been cut, and that definitely seemed a little bit mysterious.
Dateline NBC
Verdict in the roommate murder trial. Mom accused of murder by fire and van. And, actor Dennis Quaid.
Yeah. And it appeared to be a pocket, basically a pocket knife that you would kind of bend in half. And she had been stabbed twice. So whoever did this, you know, left this weapon behind. Were there any fingerprints on it? Any DNA? No fingerprints were recovered from the scene and limited DNA was recovered from the knife itself.
Dateline NBC
Verdict in the roommate murder trial. Mom accused of murder by fire and van. And, actor Dennis Quaid.
Right away. They call her to the scene. They want her to look and see if anything is out of place.
Dateline NBC
Verdict in the roommate murder trial. Mom accused of murder by fire and van. And, actor Dennis Quaid.
Right away, she tells police that her iPod is missing.
Dateline NBC
Verdict in the roommate murder trial. Mom accused of murder by fire and van. And, actor Dennis Quaid.
Yeah, these are things that, looking back on having roommates when you're 18, you know, Anita wasn't turning her alarm off. Nicole was maybe going out and partying.
Dateline NBC
Verdict in the roommate murder trial. Mom accused of murder by fire and van. And, actor Dennis Quaid.
Yeah, and it seemed like it was kind of at a heating point in the months and weeks leading up to Anita's murder.
Dateline NBC
Verdict in the roommate murder trial. Mom accused of murder by fire and van. And, actor Dennis Quaid.
Yeah, so she tells police that that night she is out at her family's farm, and her parents back this up and say, yep, she was here. But she gives two more statements to police, and they're a little bit different. So her stories are kind of changing.
Dateline NBC
Verdict in the roommate murder trial. Mom accused of murder by fire and van. And, actor Dennis Quaid.
Yeah, so a Oxygen television show called Cold Justice teamed up with the Minot Police Department and they did this new investigation of the case. And they were able to get a couple of new statements from other witnesses who said that Nicole had admitted to the killing. And based on these other statements and other information, the Minot Police Department made this arrest.
Dateline NBC
Verdict in the roommate murder trial. Mom accused of murder by fire and van. And, actor Dennis Quaid.
That's right. He claims that one night they're at a party and everyone is drinking and somehow Anita's murder comes up at this party.
Dateline NBC
Verdict in the roommate murder trial. Mom accused of murder by fire and van. And, actor Dennis Quaid.
Then another, there was actually another witness that took the stand and said, I gave her a ride one night and she, you know, made a confession to me as well. Nicole, of course, denies committing this murder.
Dateline NBC
Verdict in the roommate murder trial. Mom accused of murder by fire and van. And, actor Dennis Quaid.
There's one particular suspect, a man who had come into town that weekend, and he kind of had a violent past. We knew that he had a federal conviction. He had assaulted a woman. And it's, again, kind of varying stories about where he was that night.
Dateline NBC
Verdict in the roommate murder trial. Mom accused of murder by fire and van. And, actor Dennis Quaid.
Yeah, and there's been a lot of testimony about that. You know, when a case goes on, as we know, Andrea, for so many years, can we really trust, you know, these new witnesses, this new information to put someone away for a murder that she says she didn't commit?
Dateline NBC
Verdict in the roommate murder trial. Mom accused of murder by fire and van. And, actor Dennis Quaid.
This was, I think, stunning to a lot of people in the courtroom. You know, on one side, you have Nicole's family, and obviously this is a relief, but very emotional to them. And for Anita's family, I think this was a crushing and devastating blow. It was emotional for everyone on both sides, I think.