Verdict in the roommate murder trial. Mom accused of murder by fire and van. And, actor Dennis Quaid.
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What are the latest updates in the North Dakota murder case?
Other stories we're watching this week. New details in the prosecution's case against Brian Koberger. The wife of a murdered California firefighter is arrested in Mexico. And it's not the first time she's been charged with murder. And the latest on Karen Reid's upcoming trial. Jury selection will start on Tuesday.
More than 200 jurors have been summoned.
Plus, we've got our first celebrity here on Dateline True Crime Weekly. Dateline fan and actor Dennis Quaid, he's got a new role as a serial killer.
He killed eight women in five years. And he would leave notes and sign them with happy face.
Who is Anita Knutson and what happened to her?
But before all that, we're heading to the North Dakota prairie for the latest chapter in a murder that stumped investigators for decades, until a surprising arrest three years ago. On June 4th, 2007, Gordon Knutson was worried that he hadn't heard from his 18-year-old daughter, Anita. She was a first-year college student and hadn't shown up for work or answered his calls, so he drove over to her apartment. What he found there would shake not just the Knutson family, but the community of Minot, North Dakota. Anita had been murdered, stabbed to death in her bed. Following the killing, police had no shortage of leads. They interviewed more than 40 people and said there were several possible suspects. But the case went cold until almost 15 years later. Anita's roommate, Nicole Rice, was charged with her murder. She pleaded not guilty and her trial finally began last week.
Dateline producer Haley Barber is in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and joins us now to bring us up to speed on the case and take us inside the courtroom as the verdict was read. Haley, thank you for joining us.
Of course. Thank you so much for having me, Andrea.
So, Haley, to start, can you tell us a little bit about Anita Knutson? What have you learned about her?
So by all accounts, she is just this bubbly ball of energy. She's only 4'10". She's really tiny, but she just makes friends with everyone. And she's just a really sweet person to be around. She liked kids. She was studying elementary education. Yeah, she wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, and her friends joked that that was the perfect job for her because only the kindergartners would be shorter than her.
How did new evidence lead to Nicole Rice's trial?
So sad that her life just was so abruptly ended in that way. Horrible. After Anita's father found her body, police came to the apartment. Was there anything out of place, any clues that might have given them an idea of who could have done this?
Yeah. Her purse was there. Her wallet was there. This didn't appear to be a robbery when police went in, but the window to her bedroom, the screen had been cut, and that definitely seemed a little bit mysterious.
So something really big the police found, they found what they believe was the murder weapon in the apartment? That's right.
Yeah. And it appeared to be a pocket, basically a pocket knife that you would kind of bend in half. And she had been stabbed twice. So whoever did this, you know, left this weapon behind. Were there any fingerprints on it? Any DNA? No fingerprints were recovered from the scene and limited DNA was recovered from the knife itself.
So as we know, Anita had a roommate, Nicole, the woman now on trial for her murder. When did police first talk to her?
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What are the latest updates in the North Dakota murder case?
0:45–1:26
2
Who is Anita Knutson and what happened to her?
1:26–3:06
3
How did new evidence lead to Nicole Rice's trial?
3:06–9:38
4
What was the verdict in Nicole Rice's trial?
9:38–12:22
5
Why is Linda Stermer facing a retrial for murder?
12:22–16:57
6
What are the key arguments in Linda Stermer's defense?
16:57–28:52
Speakers
7 identifiedMore from Dateline NBC
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