Nicholas Firkus: Minnesota man gets life in prison for killing his first wife and manipulating police with false information
ST CLOUD, MINNESOTA: Nicholas ‘Nick’ Firkus, a Minnesota man is facing conviction charges for murdering his first wife and manipulating authorities with false information. Heidi Firkus, 25, was killed with a shotgun in April 2010 and he pinned it on a non-existent Black man during the police investigation. Firkus was convicted in February and was sentenced to life without parole on Thursday, April 13. The accused could still have been at loose if it wasn’t for her second wife Rachel who caught his ‘big lie.’ Nicholas met her after a few months after Heidi’s killing and the two tied the knot on August 2012. The couple shares three children together as well.
Rachel’s suspicions about her husband’s involvement in Heidi’s death grew after she discovered a notice that they may lose their home to foreclosure, the result of unpaid property taxes. “I didn’t know that this was happening and I’m living with this person. I have children with this person and the last time he had problems with finances, a lot of things went wrong,” as per an ABC News report. The outlet claimed Rachel confronted and recorded the conversation with Nichola, where it went, “The fact that your lying was so easy for you to do in front of me over and over and over makes me think…,” said Rachel. “That I could murder my wife?” he responded. She replied, “Yes.”
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'Firkus created a false story'
Nick Firkus and his wife split in 2018 and three years later, he was officially accused for the first time of the murder (second-degree) in May 2021. The authorities referred to the case as a ‘decade-old mystery.’ The record shows that Firkus back then tried to blame a ‘black guy’ for shooting him and Heidi during a home invasion. “He said that he got his shotgun and that he and his wife were trying to run out the back door to the detached garage to escape. He said that as they were running to the garage, he turned around and the suspect was able to take the shotgun from him and shoot him and his wife. When asked whether the suspect was black or white, NICHOLAS FIRKUS said that he didn’t know. He said that the suspect was wearing a hood,” the complaint said.
'The victim was heard breathing heavily and screaming'
The frantic 911 call made by Heidi on April 25, 2010, was presented as a piece of evidence during the trial in which she told a dispatcher, a dispatcher “Someone’s trying to break into my home.” The victim was heard breathing heavily and screaming before she was killed. In September 2021, Nick Firkus was slapped with a grand jury indictment holding him accountable for both first- and second-degree murder, as per Law&Crime.