Investigators find a key piece of evidence that sends the case in a surprising direction. This episode originally published on February 24, 2025.
Chapter 1: What shocking crime was solved in Murdoch, Nebraska?
It was pretty impressive, all things considered, the investigation, that is, into the murders of Wayne and Sharman Stock. The people of Murdoch, Nebraska, had been deeply shaken, and quite understandably so, if the Stocks weren't safe in the sanctity of their own bedroom, then who in Murdoch was safe?
And so, when the Cass County Sheriff's Office announced, just two weeks after the murders, that one of the most shocking crimes in this part of Nebraska in decades had been solved... Well, you can hardly blame them for calling in the press and taking a victory lap.
I think there's some relief at the same time some hurt.
And of course, just about everyone was shocked that the culprits would turn out to be who they were. But there it was, Wayne and Charmin Sock's own nephew, 28-year-old Matt Livers, that actually told the whole ugly story, confessed to shotgunning his own aunt and uncle.
Chapter 2: Who confessed to the murders of Wayne and Charmin Stock?
I was already fired up, and yes, I have a grudge to settle.
And if his 21-year-old cousin Nick Sampson had managed to resist the confessional urge, well, that wouldn't be unexpected, would it? But Matt had fingered him, and that was that. And now that itch in the back uncertainty, the fear that vicious killers were on the loose, had been put to rest.
Meanwhile, said Cass County Sheriff Bill Brueggemann, they could get on with the legal stuff, button up the case.
People ask, is this a closure on the case? It's not. I think it's another chapter, a turn in the page. There's still a lot of work to be done.
But the message was clear. Everybody could relax. And nobody was thinking of Voltaire just then. Ridiculous thought. Why in heaven's name would they? It was so far off and long ago when that famous French philosopher scribbled in his notebook... While doubt is not an agreeable condition, certainty is an absurd one. Or as somebody in Murdoch might have said, don't count your chickens.
I'm Keith Morrison and this is Dateline's newest podcast, Murder in the Moonlight. Episode 3, The Ring. The arrests of Matt Libers and Nick Sampson brought a measure of relief to the Stalk children. Even though Matt was a member of the family, there had been issues.
And Nick, Matt's cousin, they didn't know him as well, but now at least they could try to move on, as they knew their parents would have wanted them to. Daughter Tammy.
I can hear Mom and Dad say, Tammy, you can let this eat you alive. Or you can go on and be the best that you can be and do what needs to be done, and that is family. So we can dwell on it, but we choose not to because that's not what mom and dad would want.
And as Andy, the youngest sibling, put it... It's not going to bring them back, so why agonize over it?
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Chapter 3: What evidence was found at the crime scene?
They came across this thing in Charmin Stock's kitchen. And not during the first few CSI-type go-arounds right after the murders. In fact, not the next day either. After who knows how many dozens of investigators and first responders had tromped through the place. It was after all that when a sharp-eyed young cop noticed, just lying there on the kitchen floor, a gold ring.
Well, that could have been anybody's, of course. One of the cops, probably, or... Well, who knew? But there it was. And now, crime scene investigator chief David Kofod would have to find an explanation for it.
I thought, well, somebody took it off to wash their hands and it fell down, so now they forgot about it.
But at the time, it could have belonged to the victim. Right. It could have belonged to anybody. It could have. Exactly. Except... Remember, one thing people knew about the stock farmhouse, nothing was ever out of place. The meticulous housekeeper, Charmin, made sure of it. Anyway, they bagged that gold ring and they tagged it as evidence.
It was a size 10, a man's ring, 10 carat gold, and it was engraved with a very personal message.
The inscription said Corey and spelled C-O-R-I and Ryan. Love, always Corey and Ryan.
Who was Corey? Who was Ryan? Detectives asked the Stark children, of course, and, well, none of them knew anybody by those names. They didn't recognize the ring either. It was a sort of glitch within a mystery that will keep bugging a man or a woman forever. By which I mean one of the women on Kofod's detective squad, who noticed, on the inside of the ring, three tiny letters. A. A. J.
This is actually really good detective work. She had gotten a jeweler's manufacturing book from Borsheim's here in Omaha. There was only two manufacturers that had AAJ stamps. One of them had been out of business since, I think, the 90s. And the other one, she got a hold of them.
That manufacturer turned out to be a place called A&A Jewelers. It stamped all the products it made in Buffalo, New York, with the letters AAJ for A&A Jewelers. And so it was in Buffalo where Kofod's investigator found a woman working at AAJ by the name of Mary Martino.
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Chapter 4: How did the ring lead to a breakthrough in the investigation?
She said she had made several attempts and no one was willing to assist her.
No surprise there. Wild goose chase like that? Because even if there was still a record of that ring, finding it in the chaos of that office, right in the middle of closing it down forever? Well, good luck. And anyway, she already had a mountain of depressing work ahead of her. But Mary Martino, dependable Mary, said she'd see what she could do.
It was possible, after all, the company might have taken the order, might have made that very ring and inscribed it, Love Always, Corey and Ryan, and shipped it somewhere. That's what the company did for a long time. So Mary went out to the warehouse, where tens of thousands of old order forms were stuffed into hundreds of boxes, just waiting for Mary to throw them all away.
Instead, she opened up the first one, and page by yellowed page started reading.
So I started with just box number one, stores one through 25. Then box number two, stores 25 through 30. And you went through each one? Yes. Until I got to like 100 and I believe it was 108 or 118, I said, this is going to be impossible.
How long did that process take?
It took me probably three days and two nights.
Does that seem a little over the top? I mean, you can look for an hour or so and say, well, I can't find it. Sorry. And that would be that.
I heard homicide. I heard it was important.
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Chapter 5: What connection did the ring have to a Wisconsin town?
Then the detective showed her a picture of a marijuana pipe, which, along with the gold ring, turned up at the stock farmhouse. And Jessica Reed looked... Okay, I did steal.
I stole a whole bunch of money from somebody. I don't know who, I don't know where. I just remember stealing a whole bunch of money. And yes, we did lose that pipe when we stole this money.
And then, well, then Jessica just blurted it out. At that farmhouse, now apparently to her surprise in Nebraska, Greg Fester sneaked in through a window and let her in the back door. In the kitchen, she said, she found $500 in an envelope. And then, she said, they left. Swear to God. Oh, in the ring? Well, now Jessica Reed admitted, yes, she found it in that stolen pickup and she put it on.
But then inside the night dark farmhouse, as they were making their getaway, she felt it slide off her thumb in the kitchen. Didn't stop to look for it. And where was all this going anyway?
The reason I ask you is that the two people upstairs in their bed were shot to death.
And you're saying that me and Greg did it.
What I'm telling you is you're telling us you're in this house, okay? Did you not tell? Oh, my God.
I've never killed anybody, okay? I really didn't. This is so seriously.
I didn't do it.
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Chapter 6: What happened to the stolen pickup truck related to the case?
Well, somebody did it. And remember, two men, Matt Livers and Nick Sampson, had been arrested and were already in jail. Matt said they committed the murders, confessed in excruciating detail, and named Nick Sampson as his accomplice, though Nick denied it. Which led to a puzzle investigators had to ask Jessica about. Tell us who you were with.
I was with Craig. That's all I was with. I was with Craig. Yeah.
But wait a minute. She must have known Matt and Nick. So the investigators showed her pictures of them. And she said, no idea who they are. Never saw them before. And then the visiting investigators from Nebraska informed her that Nebraska's electric chair stood ready for her if she refused to cooperate. And Jessica reconsidered. She pointed to one of the photos.
This guy, I don't know why, but he does look kind of familiar.
That was Nick Sampson, who looked kind of familiar. And from there, as the hours wore on, Jessica's story shapeshifted, as did the players, time and again, until it evolved eventually into a tale that began Easter night at Bulldog's Bar in Murdoch, where Nick Sampson worked, remember? And then they followed Nick out to the farmhouse where they stole the money. And Nick got crazy.
Because all I remember hearing in this house was bang, bang, bang, bang. And so I was like, oh, that's not good. And so I freaked out and left because obviously that guy's up there killing somebody. I don't want to stick around and have to do this. Excuse my language, I'm sorry, but I don't know what happened up there.
And then with that off her chest, Jessica looked again at the photo of Nick, the man she had claimed was the mastermind of the murders.
I know this sounds really dumb, but I wish he wouldn't have been a murderer.
Why?
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