Nicole Matusko
Appearances
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
She had indicated that she couldn't get the garage door to open. But then when the first responders arrived on scene, her car was actually parked inside the garage. So at some point, she was able to open that garage door and then pull her car inside.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
When her friend came to pick up her children, she was not hysterical. She was calm, and she put her children in the car, and she didn't mention that Amar was murdered brutally inside that home. And then she called 911.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
So they had learned through her phone that she utilized a social media app called TextNow.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
They started reading through the TextNow information, and that's really when they started to learn about the affair with Jacob Fisher.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
So Jacob Fisher was someone that she had met months prior that she had started a relationship with. They learned through those communications that she had called off the relationship months prior and then had reignited the relationship and got back together with him. And that she was in constant communication with him throughout the days leading up to February 4th.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
So there was indication through the text messages of her talking to Jacob Fisher about how much she didn't like Amar Alyassari. And there was text messages back and forth about how she believed that he should die. She had been telling Jacob Fisher that it was an abusive relationship with Amar. And we didn't take that lightly because that does happen here as well.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
We were able to locate a conversation where they were talking about the children. And Jacob Fisher actually said, why the do I care more about these children than he does? Meaning a bar that mother needs to die. So, I mean, that led us to believe that they're talking about killing the person that three weeks later is found murdered in his home.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
They knew Bedour was not the one that swung the axe or the weapon at Amar because we knew where she was when he was murdered. So they started investigating Jacob Fisher, and they learned that he lived here in the Lansing area.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
Given the nature of how she wasn't forthcoming with his information in the initial interview, they were concerned that if they were to bring her in, that she would either destroy evidence, tip him off, or potentially run.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
When they conducted the search warrant at his residence, they located a Kroger receipt that had indicated that just a few days before the murder, the person had purchased a camp axe, bleach, and some other minor items that were not associated with the crime.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
A chop wound is a unique injury in a homicide case. And now you have someone associated with the wife of the victim purchasing this just days before Amar was murdered.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
something that was in the back of law enforcement's mind is maybe she's not involved, but they really tried to investigate to determine what her involvement, if any, would be without bringing her in because they didn't want him, Jacob Fisher, tipped off. Or if she was involved, again, we have her turning off the alarm shortly before Amara got there. They didn't want evidence to become destroyed.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
And Kroger had great surveillance. They were actually able to get pretty clear surveillance footage of Jacob Fisher purchasing the camp axe and then a bottle of bleach.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
So the initial 911 call was from Badura Eliasari, and she, during that 911 call, had told dispatchers that she walked into her home, she didn't know what had happened, that her husband was down.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
They also were able to get surveillance footage from the outside of the store, which showed the parking lot area. And they were able to show that Jacob Fisher arrived in the passenger side of a red truck, a truck consistent with the truck that Badur Ayasari was known to drive. This was confirmation.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
The turning off of the alarm and now we have her or someone driving a truck consistent with what she was able to drive with Jacob Fisher buying the murder weapon was a really big indication that she was involved in the crime.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
We knew that this would be a difficult case to prove. We knew that it would be very evidence-based and technical.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
So Jacob Fisher was actually arrested first. He did not provide a statement.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
Our theory was that Ammar had indicated to Padur that he had left work and that he was driving home. We then had her at a stoplight turning off the alarm remotely. It was our theory that she had communication with Jacob. He knew that alarm was going to be off. She had turned it off and she had let Jacob Fisher inside the home just moments before Ammar Alyassari would have arrived.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
Omar likely didn't get far from the door. He had removed his shoes, but then he was murdered right where he would have entered the home. Right behind where he was murdered, there was a room which was like a laundry room. We believed that it was likely that Jacob Fisher was hiding in that room and he ambushed Omar and then struck him with the camp axe that he had purchased just days before.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
There was a back door that was unlocked to the back of the house. So we believe that that's likely where he left the home after he murdered Amar.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
Our biggest concern was really making the evidence into a timeline that made sense, that couldn't have a lot of holes poked into it.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
So some of the first questions they had for the 911 caller was, how did this happen? What did you see? Did you hear anything?
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
Abudur Alyasari was instrumental and she was working along with her boyfriend to brutally murder her husband. So we needed to make sure that the evidence that we had would be able to sustain that burden of proof to prove beyond a reasonable doubt and to convince the jury that this did happen.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
We kept in close contact and we talked through what the relationship was like with her so that we could know going into this, was it a healthy marriage? Was there abuse? That type of information. She basically had told us that that didn't take place, that Amar was a loving husband, was a loving father.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
They had arguments like any married couple, but there was no evidence that it was an abusive relationship.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
His sister wasn't surprised that she had been arrested. She had a sneaking suspicion that somehow Badur was involved.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
That was our theory of the case is that she was fueling him, that she knew Jacob Fisher, being from the military, would have the ability to commit the crime, but she had to ignite that fire and give him a reason to do it. She manipulated him and told him what she wanted him to hear.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
I think what stuck out to me was even after Jacob Fisher and Bedora were charged with murdering Amar, they kept in contact while they were in custody in our jail. And that never made sense to me with her trying to say that she wasn't involved in this.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
Circumstantially, we had to prove that Jacob Fisher was the individual inside that home that day.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
So for his trial, a lot of the defense was based on the identification of Jacob Fisher as the person inside the house wielding the axe and murdering Amar Alyassari. We had neighbors that saw a figure walking down the road but didn't see a face, for example.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
I was shocked that Jacob Fisher was willing to take the stand in his own defense. I was more shocked that he had more or less admitted that it was him inside the home, but had just indicated to the jury that he was there to confront Amar because he was in love with Badur and... he and Badur were going to be together. So he needed to basically allow a peaceful divorce.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
And then Ammar had assaulted him. And Jacob Fisher, because of his training in the military, had just responded. And he happened to have a camp axe in his hand. So that's how Ammar got the 24 chop wounds.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
In that moment, we were also in a bit of a disbelief that it was happening the way that it was happening. But he stuck to his ground, and he actually testified that Badur was not involved or didn't know that the murder was going to happen.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
During the cross, we were just trying to poke holes in as many parts of his statement as possible.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
Ultimately, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder as well as murder. So from that conviction, it's pretty apparent that the jury didn't believe that testimony.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
So Holt is a residential area. It was a very quiet neighborhood. It was a dead-end street. If you were to drive by the homes, you could see kids playing outside. It's just your average neighborhood community. We do have pockets of high crime, but I wouldn't call Holt one of those pockets of crimes.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
This is a very circumstantial case that we had to prove based on a lot of search warrants and putting a lot of pieces together. So the concern would be we believed that she was responsible, but we wouldn't be able to meet that burden of proof.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
Badour and Ammar had dash cameras in their cars as well. So we actually had video of Badour's day that day and what she was doing. So we were able to piece together and actually show the jury that when she remotely disabled that alarm, she was still driving with her children in the car.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
So I think that made it easier to understand that it wasn't just she was turning off an alarm, but that something else was happening.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
for example, the surveillance footage from Kroger. You can't see who is driving. We had testimony that she spent a lot of time with Jacob Fisher that day and they carried in bags from Kroger, but we couldn't prove who was the driver. So it was circumstantial evidence that we were asking the jury to rely on in their own common sense as to what transpired.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
So their defense for Badur was really they didn't meet their burden of proof.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
She was found guilty of both first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
What stuck out to me was just how much work the law enforcement agency had to put in to be able to hold both parties accountable. It would have been very easy for them once they identified Jacob Fisher as the person who was inside the home that day to stop the investigation there and not really ask the question of how he was given access to Amar to be able to do this crime.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
A lot of it came down to really understanding great digital forensic work and going through all of the records and then piecing it together into a timeline.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
With a little bit of pre-planning and post-planning of, I'm going to delete this, I'm not going to be home, they try to get around the investigation, but nothing beats that. a hard investigation, and I think it's readily apparent that we leave footprints of what we do, you know, our cell phones and digital media and forensic evidence, that you can't ever erase it.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
His sister spoke at both sentencings about how this had impacted her and how Amar was her best friend and how she now has to navigate a life without her brother and her best friend. I got to know his sister pretty well. I felt her grief. But also through that relationship, you really get to know Amar. Because Amar is someone, as prosecutors, we would never meet because he was murdered.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
She was frantic. She ran up to the deputies, telling them that someone could still be in her house and that her husband was down. Her friend had come over to pick up her children.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
We got to know a lot about him. We got to see videos of him with his children and how he was before that day. And I think that's important because I think that that allows you to be able to best advocate for the people that are harmed.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
When first responders came to that scene, I don't believe they knew what to really expect. And they definitely didn't expect what they saw inside the home. It was a pretty violent murder. So there was blood everywhere in the hallway where Ammar was located. And there was a single light on over where his body was bound.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
All of the first responders, what they were unanimous about was when they walked into the house, they were hit with a wall of the scent of bleach, which was not common in what we expect to see in these types of cases.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
Their initial goal was to clear the house to make sure no one else was present inside the house.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
They weren't sure what type of instrument was used to kill Ammar. But what first responders had noticed is many of the wounds were actually in Ammar's head and neck area. So that was where the majority of the injury was.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
When they actually got into the scene and started looking at it, there was evidence that the bleach had been poured on top of Ammar because he had dark clothing. And when bleach is poured, it creates the bleach pattern that many individuals are familiar with when they're doing their own laundry.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
There was also evidence that the bleach had been poured on the walls and someone had tried to potentially wash down some of the blood spatter that was on the wall. They had found bleach at the scene, but they weren't able to determine if that was the bleach used to pour on top of Amar or on the walls of the location where he was killed.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
So there was no sign of forced entry. The door didn't have damage to it. There was no signs that anyone had to break into the house. The house was also not ransacked. So everything appeared to be in the place where it was expected to be.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
The manner of death was homicide and the cause of death was from chop wounds. So that would be different from, for example, a stabbing wound or something where a knife would have been stabbed into someone. And we know that it wasn't a gunshot wound because it didn't have the characteristics consistent with that.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
So he had indicated that a chop wound would be consistent with an axe and the characteristics would be consistent with the front portion of that axe.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
The children were with her when she arrived home. They were in the car. She couldn't get into the garage door. The garage door wasn't opening. So she went in through the front door and she actually left her two children in the car.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
They asked normal questions. Did Amar have any enemies? Is there anybody you could have expected to do this? They're just trying to gather as much information as they possibly can to figure out who might be a suspect.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
So this would have alerted anyone coming into the house that, you know, hey, this house is protected by an alarm. But also the alarm hadn't gone off. So for this to be a home invasion, there was no sign that someone broke in and the alarm company had notified law enforcement or done anything that indicated that the alarm was triggered.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
And that's what they started with, is how was the marriage? How were things going? You know, was anybody involved in any extramarital affairs? She denied any of that.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
Eventually, she did admit she had had an affair with someone, but she wouldn't provide any information. She wouldn't provide the name of that person or anything as it relates to who the person would be.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
They reached out to the alarm company. They did search warrants to get records as to why it wasn't triggered or why it wasn't alerted if this was in fact someone that broke into the hole. They learned that the alarm had been turned off on the day of the homicide.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
They were able to determine by further investigation that Badour was actually the individual who turned off that alarm system. I think that's when it started to raise a red flag that this may be an inside job.
Anatomy of Murder
Alarm Bells (Ammar Al-Yasari)
I know that they really began to get suspicious when they got the records that showed that it was turned off remotely when she was not home. And it would have been consistent with the time or right around the time when Amar would have been coming home.