When two teenage cousins, Nicholas Brady and Haile Kifer, don’t show up for Thanksgiving dinner in their hometown of Little Falls, Minnesota, their families fear the worst has happened. Kate Snow reports.
Chapter 1: What happened on Thanksgiving Day in Little Falls?
We were always together. We would go camping. We were always in the water, always doing something. Me and Haley were always together.
Nick was the fun-loving one in the group. Kimberly is his mom.
He found joy in everything, and he would make sure to find something to make you smile.
He'd just sit there and hug me and be like, oh, Rachel, Rachel, my big sister, and then make me laugh every single time.
Like all kids, they liked to tease each other, like when Rachel called Nick the nickname he'd had when he was a little boy, Nickel Baby. Is that, like, just the family jokey nickname for him?
Nobody else called him that, just the family? Oh, no. His, like, really good friends would call him it after they heard me call him it. He would get so mad at me for saying it in front of his friends.
Growing up, Nick was into sports and loved the outdoors. So did his cousin Haley, who was as bright and active as he was. She was vivacious.
She was bubbly and funny. She was very athletic in high school. She was in gymnastics and softball and track.
The close-knit cousins spent the Wednesday before Thanksgiving together. Rachel says there isn't all that much for teens to do in Little Falls, so they would drive around town in the red Mitsubishi Nick rebuilt himself.
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Chapter 2: Who were Nick Brady and Haley Kiefer?
Prosecutors Pete Orput and Brent Wartner were in charge of evaluating the case against Byron, and they knew it was controversial from the start.
When Brent and I got involved in it, the emails started, the phone calls, castigating us for taking this. After all, doesn't a homeowner have a right to defend his dwelling? You know, I didn't argue with people. I just said, well, just stay open and let the evidence come out, and then let's see if you hold that same view.
After looking at all the evidence, the prosecutors believed there was a strong case. The moment Nick broke the window and entered into that house, didn't Byron Smith then have the right to defend himself?
Yes. Yes, he did. But that's not what he did. He went way, way beyond defending himself.
That grand jury in Minnesota agreed. In April of 2013, five months after the shootings, Byron Smith was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder. Now there would be a trial in the case everyone in town was talking about, with revelations from both sides.
Coming up. I've tried a lot of murder cases, and this one seemed like a real challenge.
Why?
Because a lot of people thought we'd lose it.
murder, or self-defense.
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