Hey, it's Dennis Murphy here, and I'm your host for this edition of Talking Dateland. I'm delighted to say that my mind when you make a discovery like that?And when you subscribe to Dateline Premium, it gets even better.Excuse me, I sound a little skeptical.Every episode is ad-free.Oh, wow. So this could be your ace in the hole.And not just ad-free, you also get early access to new intriguing mysteries and exclusive bonus content.So what were you afraid of?Dateline Premium. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or datelinepremium. Com.You ready for what's coming? Andrew, let's fast forward through a little bit of time here. You come up in the courthouse, and there in the chair is George Birch. He's the first person we see in your narration of the trial.George Birch. Who's George Birch? He's new to town. He's new to town. And The people that convinced him to move there and people he was living with, they really liked him. They thought he was polite. They thought he was nice, and he had a girlfriend. So he didn't, at first, seem like a likely suspect to those people. But it's hard to refute DNA. I mean, how does your DNA get on a stranger's sock who's dead?And he's got a totally different bizarre story, doesn't he? Yeah.George Birch decided to take the stand in the trial. So George Birch and his attorney went after Doug Dietry and said he was the real killer, that George and Nikki were having consensual sexual relations outside the house. And Doug came along and pistol-whipped George and ended up killing Nikki. It was a hale jury, if you will, for George Birch, that didn't, of course, work with the jury. But he certainly had that scapegoat, that red herring, that he could try to focus the attention on with Doug. And a lot of defense attorneys will do this. They put attention on someone else.No surprises. The jury is not out very long, four hours, I think. They come back, and what's the verdict?Guilty, which, to me, it was a no-brainer. It wasn't one of those ones where you're on pins and needles. Is he going to be found guilty or not. I just thought it was pretty obvious.Andrea, after the guilty verdict, you had an exclusive jailhouse interview with George Birch. I can't wait to hear about this. How did it go?This was a good one. I'll say this. You and I have done a lot of prison interviews. The one with George Birch was probably the most combative I've ever had, which you don't necessarily see in the show. I mean, I feel like I hit on all the right points with him, but he was a real piece of work.Andrea, I loved your line to him where you said, I'm going to put on my mom hat. Let's talk about the logic of this. And I said, Dude, you're in trouble. You ask the tough questions, you don't back down, and you let this guy absolutely have it.Many people say that your story is just really bad fiction, that you created this story that would fit the narrative of the evidence. You already knew about Doug Dietre, that he had been arrested, and that you just fabricated this whole thing to work in your favor. Everyone's entitled to their opinions. If you want to be on the up and up, I don't have a violent past. I mean, you have had brushes with the law. Have I ever been convicted of anything violent in my life? You're no stranger to law enforcement. He was no different from most of the killers that I've interviewed. I'd say, 98% of them deny that they had anything to do with murder. And he denied, denied, denied. Just his arrogance got to me. But I walked away from that interview like, no doubt No doubt in my mind did he kill Nicki. He just had that temperament. You can see he's one of those people in the beginning who tries to be nice and charming and everything, and then they can quickly turn. He was one of those guys. I I fully believe that she rebuffed his advances, and she said no, and he snapped.I could see it with my own eyes how that man could snap.You could see how smoldering he was. He was ready to leap.He was getting mad, really, really mad. And he was trying to turn thingsGeorge. We can't in our show. We really tried to hit on, stay focused on the evidence and his story. But, I mean, you could see it. And that's That's why I walked out on that interview.And so many of the Facebook responders were telling us how sad they were to hear this story. Enjoyed your reporting, but it just made them feel very bad.It was because, again, she's a new mom. And then you think about her three children and that they will grow up without their great mom and that her life had to end that way. Just imagine her final moments and her baby is just Just on the other side of the wall, right, in that house. And her boyfriend is in that house, but they're sleeping. He's sleeping. He doesn't know what's happening. But she's so close. Her front door is right there, and no one knows what she's going through and that she's being killed.Andrea, was this a tough one for you to do, to dive into the material here?Yeah, absolutely, because I had a baby at that time, and I have six children. And to think of that time when you have a newborn and you're breastfeeding and you just want to go out and be normal again for a night as a mom and get away from all of that just for a minute to feel normal and you're back out with your friends and society. That's exciting to get out again and to have it end that way for her. In in such a... Gosh, the happenstance of something so horrific.And with that, Andrea, I think we'll button up this edition of Talking Dateland. Good job, as always. Thank you for taking us through it.Thank you. And Jay Young did a great job producing this episode. Truly. Very thorough, thorough producer who worked tirelessly on this story. And I truly believe that Jay and all of Nikki's friends and family did such a good job honoring her as a person and really highlighting what a great mom she was, what a great teacher she was, daughter, sister. This was a special woman.And that all came through. That all came through, absolutely. And that's Talking Dateland for this week. Remember, if you have any questions for us or stories about Dateland, you can reach out to us on social media at datelandnbc. Also, be sure to check out the newest season of our podcast, Dateline Missing in America, featuring missing person cases brought to our attention by our followers on social media. Listen now wherever you get your podcast.So many twists and turns. There are more surprises on the way. Dateline is on fire. I'm Andrea Canning. Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly, a new podcast covering breaking crime news around the country with the best reporters on the case. So in Santa Fe. Nbc news analysts and Dateland producers on the ground. It's fine prosecution. I'll dive into stories that are catching Dateland's attention this week. This is baffling investment. And get to the bottom of what you need to know. The question is, did you really think that you were going to get away with it? Dateline True Crime Weekly. Listen now and catch new episodes every Thursday.

mind when you make a discovery like that?

And when you subscribe to Dateline Premium, it gets even better.

Excuse me, I sound a little skeptical.

Every episode is ad-free.

Oh, wow. So this could be your ace in the hole.

And not just ad-free, you also get early access to new intriguing mysteries and exclusive bonus content.

So what were you afraid of?

Dateline Premium. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or datelinepremium. Com.

You ready for what's coming? Andrew, let's fast forward through a little bit of time here. You come up in the courthouse, and there in the chair is George Birch. He's the first person we see in your narration of the trial.

George Birch. Who's George Birch? He's new to town. He's new to town. And The people that convinced him to move there and people he was living with, they really liked him. They thought he was polite. They thought he was nice, and he had a girlfriend. So he didn't, at first, seem like a likely suspect to those people. But it's hard to refute DNA. I mean, how does your DNA get on a stranger's sock who's dead?

And he's got a totally different bizarre story, doesn't he? Yeah.

George Birch decided to take the stand in the trial. So George Birch and his attorney went after Doug Dietry and said he was the real killer, that George and Nikki were having consensual sexual relations outside the house. And Doug came along and pistol-whipped George and ended up killing Nikki. It was a hale jury, if you will, for George Birch, that didn't, of course, work with the jury. But he certainly had that scapegoat, that red herring, that he could try to focus the attention on with Doug. And a lot of defense attorneys will do this. They put attention on someone else.

No surprises. The jury is not out very long, four hours, I think. They come back, and what's the verdict?

Guilty, which, to me, it was a no-brainer. It wasn't one of those ones where you're on pins and needles. Is he going to be found guilty or not. I just thought it was pretty obvious.

Andrea, after the guilty verdict, you had an exclusive jailhouse interview with George Birch. I can't wait to hear about this. How did it go?

This was a good one. I'll say this. You and I have done a lot of prison interviews. The one with George Birch was probably the most combative I've ever had, which you don't necessarily see in the show. I mean, I feel like I hit on all the right points with him, but he was a real piece of work.

Andrea, I loved your line to him where you said, I'm going to put on my mom hat. Let's talk about the logic of this. And I said, Dude, you're in trouble. You ask the tough questions, you don't back down, and you let this guy absolutely have it.

Many people say that your story is just really bad fiction, that you created this story that would fit the narrative of the evidence. You already knew about Doug Dietre, that he had been arrested, and that you just fabricated this whole thing to work in your favor. Everyone's entitled to their opinions. If you want to be on the up and up, I don't have a violent past. I mean, you have had brushes with the law. Have I ever been convicted of anything violent in my life? You're no stranger to law enforcement. He was no different from most of the killers that I've interviewed. I'd say, 98% of them deny that they had anything to do with murder. And he denied, denied, denied. Just his arrogance got to me. But I walked away from that interview like, no doubt No doubt in my mind did he kill Nicki. He just had that temperament. You can see he's one of those people in the beginning who tries to be nice and charming and everything, and then they can quickly turn. He was one of those guys. I I fully believe that she rebuffed his advances, and she said no, and he snapped.

I could see it with my own eyes how that man could snap.

You could see how smoldering he was. He was ready to leap.

He was getting mad, really, really mad. And he was trying to turn thingsGeorge. We can't in our show. We really tried to hit on, stay focused on the evidence and his story. But, I mean, you could see it. And that's That's why I walked out on that interview.And so many of the Facebook responders were telling us how sad they were to hear this story. Enjoyed your reporting, but it just made them feel very bad.It was because, again, she's a new mom. And then you think about her three children and that they will grow up without their great mom and that her life had to end that way. Just imagine her final moments and her baby is just Just on the other side of the wall, right, in that house. And her boyfriend is in that house, but they're sleeping. He's sleeping. He doesn't know what's happening. But she's so close. Her front door is right there, and no one knows what she's going through and that she's being killed.Andrea, was this a tough one for you to do, to dive into the material here?Yeah, absolutely, because I had a baby at that time, and I have six children. And to think of that time when you have a newborn and you're breastfeeding and you just want to go out and be normal again for a night as a mom and get away from all of that just for a minute to feel normal and you're back out with your friends and society. That's exciting to get out again and to have it end that way for her. In in such a... Gosh, the happenstance of something so horrific.And with that, Andrea, I think we'll button up this edition of Talking Dateland. Good job, as always. Thank you for taking us through it.Thank you. And Jay Young did a great job producing this episode. Truly. Very thorough, thorough producer who worked tirelessly on this story. And I truly believe that Jay and all of Nikki's friends and family did such a good job honoring her as a person and really highlighting what a great mom she was, what a great teacher she was, daughter, sister. This was a special woman.And that all came through. That all came through, absolutely. And that's Talking Dateland for this week. Remember, if you have any questions for us or stories about Dateland, you can reach out to us on social media at datelandnbc. Also, be sure to check out the newest season of our podcast, Dateline Missing in America, featuring missing person cases brought to our attention by our followers on social media. Listen now wherever you get your podcast.So many twists and turns. There are more surprises on the way. Dateline is on fire. I'm Andrea Canning. Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly, a new podcast covering breaking crime news around the country with the best reporters on the case. So in Santa Fe. Nbc news analysts and Dateland producers on the ground. It's fine prosecution. I'll dive into stories that are catching Dateland's attention this week. This is baffling investment. And get to the bottom of what you need to know. The question is, did you really think that you were going to get away with it? Dateline True Crime Weekly. Listen now and catch new episodes every Thursday.

George. We can't in our show. We really tried to hit on, stay focused on the evidence and his story. But, I mean, you could see it. And that's That's why I walked out on that interview.

And so many of the Facebook responders were telling us how sad they were to hear this story. Enjoyed your reporting, but it just made them feel very bad.

It was because, again, she's a new mom. And then you think about her three children and that they will grow up without their great mom and that her life had to end that way. Just imagine her final moments and her baby is just Just on the other side of the wall, right, in that house. And her boyfriend is in that house, but they're sleeping. He's sleeping. He doesn't know what's happening. But she's so close. Her front door is right there, and no one knows what she's going through and that she's being killed.

Andrea, was this a tough one for you to do, to dive into the material here?

Yeah, absolutely, because I had a baby at that time, and I have six children. And to think of that time when you have a newborn and you're breastfeeding and you just want to go out and be normal again for a night as a mom and get away from all of that just for a minute to feel normal and you're back out with your friends and society. That's exciting to get out again and to have it end that way for her. In in such a... Gosh, the happenstance of something so horrific.

And with that, Andrea, I think we'll button up this edition of Talking Dateland. Good job, as always. Thank you for taking us through it.

Thank you. And Jay Young did a great job producing this episode. Truly. Very thorough, thorough producer who worked tirelessly on this story. And I truly believe that Jay and all of Nikki's friends and family did such a good job honoring her as a person and really highlighting what a great mom she was, what a great teacher she was, daughter, sister. This was a special woman.

And that all came through. That all came through, absolutely. And that's Talking Dateland for this week. Remember, if you have any questions for us or stories about Dateland, you can reach out to us on social media at datelandnbc. Also, be sure to check out the newest season of our podcast, Dateline Missing in America, featuring missing person cases brought to our attention by our followers on social media. Listen now wherever you get your podcast.

So many twists and turns. There are more surprises on the way. Dateline is on fire. I'm Andrea Canning. Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly, a new podcast covering breaking crime news around the country with the best reporters on the case. So in Santa Fe. Nbc news analysts and Dateland producers on the ground. It's fine prosecution. I'll dive into stories that are catching Dateland's attention this week. This is baffling investment. And get to the bottom of what you need to know. The question is, did you really think that you were going to get away with it? Dateline True Crime Weekly. Listen now and catch new episodes every Thursday.