Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
A 911 -call leads to a tangled web of stories to solve a man´s untimely death
In early 2020 ,police are called to what seems like a typical housefire but what they discover , is that like in many of cases we cover , thins aren´t alway´s exactly what they seem to be.
911-Call
Operator: central dakota communication , how can i help you?
co-worker: i´m calling to see if you guys´s could do a welfare check on one of our employees?
operator: sure , and the name
co -worker: chad entzel.
It´s january 2nd 2020 in Bismarck North Dakota.
42 year old chad Entzel hasn´t been heard from in couple of days.
some co-workers had actually went out there that day ,saw chad´s pickup in the driverway ,knocked on the door and nobody answered.
When police arrive at the home there´ss nothing out of the ordinary
especially since officers couldn´t really see inside the house from outside.however hours later another 911 call comes in , this time itf´s from a frantic Nikki sue entzel. chad´s wife.
Nikki went out there on january 2nd ,that´s when she called 911 saying that there had been a fire in the home .
When help arrive ,unfortunately it´s already to late .
chad entzel is found dead in the master bedroom of the home .
The bedroom that chad had been found in had significant fire damage.
When they came upon chad´s body , he was naked and there was a shotgun not far from him.
Fast foward to a few days laterWhen an investigator visits the home with Nikki…..
While at the Entzel residence with Nikki, seargent silbernay step away to take a phone call .
He was told that chad had been shot twice with the shotgun.
Tracy Walder/former FBI special agent: There is so many things that point to this not being suicide he had been shot once in the shoulder and then the second time in the head , most shotgun wounds are not survivable on the first shot let alone the second shot also chad had no evidence of inhaling smoke into his lungs.
And authorities find something else that´s suspecious
They found two points of origin of the fire , one was upstairs one was downstairs
and there was a propane heather that had been sitting on the floor in the bedroom, it had been tipped over .
there was a lot of evidence of a fire in the furnace and some debris around the furnace .
One of the things that investigators found was part of the cardboard of a pack of marlboro cigarettes .but neither nikki and chad smoked.
But hwo would want to kill chad entzel? Athourities need to ro make sense of his death.
An that´s when they sit down with nikki in the hope she can provide some insight into her husband.
she said he was an alcoholic,he drank all the time and that he was both physically and werbally abusive.
Julie rendelman / criminal defens attorne: keep in mind, Nikki never reported any abuse to the policey
At one point in the interview , sergeant silbernagel change his course and lays his cards on the table.
sgt. siblernagel : chad´s death was not an accident.
Nikki:what? what do you mean?
sgt. siblernagel :nikki, chad was killed.
Nikki: what?
sgt. siblernagel : chad was murdered.it´s not a suicide
Nikki : why would anybody do this ? ( crying.)
sgt. siblernagel : i don´t know , nikki, but that´s what i want to find out.so …why would that happen to chad?
Nikki : i don´t know.
Is Nikki holding something back ?
This case is about to get a whole lot more complicated.
special agent joe arenz: It was kind of something that caught me off guard that she was even going to trhow something like that out there”
Just after New year´s in 2020.authorities in Bismark north dakota are investigating a possible suicide and suspected accidental fire at the home of 42 year old chad entzel.
when he was found dead in a back bedroom in the home he shared with his wife 39 year old nikki sue entzel.
However it soon becomes clear,chad didn´t kill himself.
Investigators hope nikki can shed some light on what happened and they´re curious about another man in Nikki´s life.
special agent joe arenz:when we were watching the videos and reviewing the videos , Nikki did show up at the house in a white pickup with an unknown male . at the time we didn´t know that was .
It was only a little bit later on that it was actually determined that was earl howard.
She said that she ran a catering business out of her home and that Earl just happened to order some sort of food from her buisness one day and after that they became friends.
And nikki reveals something else….
That at the time of chad´s death, she wasn´t even living in the home with him.
Prior to chad and so being kiilled ,nikki had made several reports indicating that there were something wrong with the firnace ,
because the furnace wasn´t working, it was winter time, she had told chad that she was just going to stay at the hotel.
Yet it wasn´t just where she was staying that´s important but hwo she was with.
Nikki denies law enforcement that thay had any type of intimate relationship but the surveillance footage,shows them being at least one point intimate kissing each other.
Nikki is not providing a clear picture of what happened and that´s when investigators make a change.
Agt. Arenz: I just at that point had decided that it´s probably time having me going in there and see if i can make some head way out of this”
Chad was in a bowling leauge .december 30th 2019 chad had left in the early evening to go to the bowling alley.
During that time Nikki came to ther residence, she initially denied that she had been out here at that time until Agt. Arenz confronted her .
Agt. Arenz: i know you´ve been talking to him and told him some things .some of that i can tell you right now is not true. tell me what happened when you guys were out there .it is on video.
Tracy wilder/former FBI special agent: there´s several entries into the home but what´s interesting is that the security cameras are actually such a privacy mode , wich is really only something that nikki sue could have done.
There was information that , she didn´t know that we knew such as the camera system actually recording when she thought she had disabled the recording function on it.
Nikki and Earl visit the home several times that night.but why?
Agt. Arenz: she said that the first time when she was there with Earl while chad was at the bowling alley it was to get some things because she wasn´t going to be staying there.
chad got home,before midnight
about 1, am on december 31st , Nikki and Earl went back to the residence. chad was there at that point. nikki and Earl was there for an hour and 40 minutes.
Nikki didn´t look for her patches for an hour and 40 minutes while chad sat there drinking.
She said she couldn´t find her medications so she said she went back to the hotel.
Agt. Arenz: then at 6.30 in the morning she now realized her medication would be in the bathroom so then her and Earl went back out there and she said she snuck in to the house while chad was sleeping and just went into the bathroom and got the medication. Prior to me walking in there she was lying about everything that she saying.
Could it be someone else?
In early 2020 a north dakota women says she came home to find her house on fire with her husband dead inside .
What police come to learn is that chad entzel had actually been shot to death and the fire was likely an attempt to cover up the murder.
Police narrow in on his wife Nikki sue entzel and the relationship she had with another man .Earl howard
Officials believe the pair conspired to kill chad together.
however, Nikki claims she dosen´t know what happened even reverting back to investigators original theory of suicide .
Then Nikki shares something completely unexpected.
Nikki: there wass somebody else in the house.
Agt. Arenz: she acctually tried to draw a picture of this person and it was essentially a stick figure with hair.a couple minutes of that ,she acknowledged that she had made that all up
Julie rendelman / criminal defens attorney : she finally admits that it was earl howard that was involved in terms of the death of her husband while she waited in the vehicle.
Nikki:i said, ” what happened?”
Agt Arenz: and what did earl say?
Nikki: hegoes , “he´s not alive.”
Julie rendelman / criminal defens attorney : the only evidence you have of Earl howard actually being the one who pulled the trigger is nikki saying that earl howard is the one that pulled the trigger.
Nikki: he goes ,” we argued in the back backroom .we were arguing with the gun. and he said it went off . he said he didn´t know the gun was loaded.
sgt. siblernagel : who came back to set the fire?
Nikki: Earl did.
Agt. Arenz: she tried to manipulate the security system we know that nikki was at that residence numerous times around the time that chad was killed .Nikki really couldn´t keep a straight story at all,when you took everyting together it was pretty clear that nikki was very involved in this crime.
Nicky sue Entzel is officially taken into custody .
Both she and Earl face charges of conspiracy to commit murder arson an d tampering with evidence.
A couple days later , she reaches out to investigators to talk.
Nikki:i told earl, i said ” just want this to be done with .i don´t want to deal with this anymore . he said that , ” creeps that beats women …don´t deserve to live.”
Lt .Olson : we dont have time to sit here..and listen to your lies anymore. this is your last shot.
Nikki: all i wanted was to get out.i just wanted to leave.
2020 bismarck North dakota an investigation into the stage suicide of death of chad entzel , led local authorities to unexpected suspects.
His wife nikki sue entzel and her new lover earl howard
officials theorize that nikki and earl conspired to kill the 42 year old and set his house on fire.
Nikki is arrested while officials begin the search for Earl
After she ´s taken into custody she opens up a little bit more about what she says happened.
Nikki: i was sitting in the car and i heard the gunshot. he said he needed… the house to burn down so then there would be no evidence.
Agt. Arenz: we had the cigarette pack down by the furnace, that was the same brand that Earl smokes and nobody else in the home smoked.
Sgt. Silbernagel: who came up with this whole scenario?
Nikki:Earl did.
Tracy walder /former FBI special agent: they didn´t have enough evidence to actually get that murder charge but they had plenty of evidence on arson evidence tampering and then conspiracy to commit murder.
Earl is captured at the canadian border,however unlike Nikki Earl howard, makes a life- changing choice.
Agt. Arenz: Earl did eventually plead guilty to his charges so he avoided a trial
Julie rendelman / criminal defens attorney : got 25 years ,he´s up for parole maybe arouind 20 to 21 years.
Then in september 2022 it was time for nikki sue entzel to go on trial for conspiring to kill her husband and cover up his murder.
Prosecutors pointed to what they believed was her motive . Money.
Nikki: my name is nikki entzel… and i am calling…to get a quote for renters insurance.
She took out a renter´s polic and then she also had a life insurance that she was beneficiary of that was for about six hundred thousand dollars.
agent: so the twenty 20,000.dollar uh, in coverage for personal property… also includes 4, 000 dollar for loss of use.in case you ´re displaced from your home due to a covered claim such as a fire.
Julie rendelman / criminal defens attorney :it´s never a good look for a suspect to take out any type of insurance policy ,only days befor the person that you will eventually be accused of killing is then killed.
Tracy walder /former FBI special agent: she immediately made calls upon his death to try to draw from those life insurance policies .
Nikki:our home caught on fire and my husband was in there.
agent: you lost your husband dear?
nikki:( crying ) yeah , in the house last night…they found him., the firemen did.
Entzel´s attorney highlighted a glaring deficit in the prosecution´s case.
Julie rendelman / criminal defens attorney : the defense harped on one thing. that the jury had not heard from Earl howard. their position was well earl howard would know everything that happened. earl howard pled guilty,why is he not in this courtroom?
The case is handed over to the jury and after two hours of deliberation they came to a decision as to nikki sue entzel future.
As to the charge ofconspiracy to commit murder we find the defendent nikki sue melissa entzel guilty.”
Agt. Arenz: the case was so strong against nikki, that i would have actually been suprised had it not come out that way.
sentence
Nikki sue entzel was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parol .but have all the question to this story been answered ?
Julie rendelman / criminal defens attorney :unfortunately i don´t think we ever gonna know hwo the actual person is that pulled the trigger. and the reason we wont´know that is because there´s only three people that know.
Tracy walder /former FBI special agent: i personally don´t believe that nikki was the sole person hwo did this .i believe she was the mastermind but i acctually thing that it was probably Earl. um who pulled the trigger. that doesn´t absolve nikkie sue of any guilt.she´s the one who put this kind of crime in motion
We may never really know what happened in that house on that cold december night and there´s apparently one person who would like to know what happened as well . Nikki sue Entzel, thats right.in a media interview that aired .she knowledged that her stories haven´t always aligned, but she still denies her involvement in the crime.