ST PAUL, Minn. — When Rachel met Nick Firkus in 2010, she was getting out of an abusive marriage and he was dealing with the death of his wife, Heidi.
"Life was hard for both of us at the time," she said.
Nick's wife Heidi didn't just die, she was killed — shot once in the back in the home she and Nick shared in St. Paul.
Rachel was aware of the story.
"I knew as much as everybody else did from the news or from my sister," Rachel said.
What Rachel knew is that Heidi Firkus was killed during, what Nick described as a home invasion, while Heidi was on the phone with 911 to report it.
"Somebody's trying to break into my house," Heidi told the 911 dispatcher before she briefly screamed and a gunshot could be heard.
Nick said a black intruder with a hoodie struggled with him over his shotgun and it fired twice — the first shot killing Heidi and the second shot grazing Nick's leg.
Police did not believe Nick's story. St. Paul Police Sgt. Jim Gray asked Nick point blank, "Did you have anything to do with this?" and Nick responded, "No! Absolutely not."
When Rachel met Nick, she knew some of those details.
"I knew that there were people that didn't believe him, but it was always just passed over like it wasn't a big deal. Like it wasn't anything to think about that. That it wasn't true," Rachel said. "I knew basics — what everyone else knew. Nobody really talked about much more than that. Nobody. I mean, the Firkuses weren't going to talk about it. Nick said he couldn't talk about it. So that's all I knew."
When asked if there was any part of her back then that thought Nick might have killed Heidi, Rachel said, "Not in the beginning, no."
Nick had the fervent support of his and Heidi's friends, which included Rachel's sister. They all told Rachel that he's innocent.
After bonding over their troubles, Nick and Rachel began dating, and before long, were married.
"It was just — everything was hard. Things move quickly. You talk about your hard stuff and you build a deep relationship because of it," Rachel said.
Nick and Rachel began their lives together and had three children. At times, she wondered about the day his first wife was killed.
When asked if Nick ever talked about Heidi, Rachel said, "No. I would ask questions and it was always very short. There was no details, which always confused me."
Lou Raguse: "What did he seem like when he talked about it?"
Rachel Firkus: "He was straight forward, but also like, 'I don't remember that part. I don't remember that part,' you know. So there were things that he claimed he didn't remember."
In their relationship, Rachel said Nick began lying about the little things. Happiness was quickly evaporating.
And there was one detail about Nick's story that always bothered her. The bank had foreclosed on Nick and Heidi's St. Paul home, and they were scheduled to be evicted the day after Heidi was killed. Nick claimed Heidi knew, yet their house was not packed in any way.
"Then I just started to look around. I just I started to get bad feelings, like gut feelings, but I didn't want to assume anything. Because if I were to assume that he did something horrible, that's a big assumption to make. I mean, that's saying that somebody could murder somebody. Like, that's not something somebody often thinks of their spouse," Rachel said.
As she looked, inside Nick's sock drawer, Rachel found a notice that they were at risk of losing their home for unpaid property taxes.
Lou: "How quickly did your mind go to Heidi?"
Rachel: "Like the little lies, you know, brought me to Heidi every once in a while. But I was like, 'That's too big. Like, don't go there.' And then this letter kind of tipped me over. I'm just like, 'Boy, now this is bigger than I thought it was.'"
Could Rachel potentially be facing the same fate as Heidi? She confronted Nick while recording on her cell phone about their money situation — and about his first wife.
"Your actions have caused me to just distrust you completely. And the fact that you're lying was so easy for you to do in front of me over and over and over. Makes me think..." Rachel said on the recording.
"That I could murder my wife?" Nick responded.
"That you could lie about something." Rachel answered.
"That I could murder my wife," Nick repeated.
"Yes," Rachel finally admitted on the recording.
Lou: "At that moment, did you think you might be married to a killer?"
Rachel: "I knew it was possible that I was."
Rachel said she continued to try and get answers, but when she didn't, she left him.
Not long after, Rachel did get clarity. St. Paul Police Detective Nikki Sipes knocked on her door and told her about their investigation.
Nick was charged 11 years after Heidi's murder, and after a dramatic trial, it didn't take a jury long to convict him. Nick received a mandatory life sentence as he stuck to his story.
"I do maintain and will maintain to my dying breath my innocence of this crime," Nick said to the judge at his sentencing hearing.
"It felt very fake," Rachel said regarding Nick's statement in court.
Rachel wasn't able to watch the jury trial, in case she was needed as a witness. When she finally saw Nick's 2010 interrogation video for first the first time when the case was over, she was shocked by Nick's lack of emotion.
Long into the interrogation, Detective Gray asked Nick if he had any questions for police. Nick finally asked about Heidi's condition after being shot.
"She didn't make it," the investigator told him.
"I figured that," Nick responded.
"It made me sick to my stomach to hear. 'Yeah, I figured,'" Rachel said about the exchange.
Now, remarried and happy, Rachel's story is complicated. But in the end, for her, it worth it.
"I think I can wish it never happened because it was horrifying and traumatic. But I would go through anything to have those kids," she said.
If you are in need of help or services, please call Tubman's 24-hour crisis & resource line at 612-825-0000.
Help is also available by calling 800-799-7233 or texting START to 88788 to be connected with someone from the National Domestic Violence Hotline. The hotline includes more options for support and identifiers of abuse on its website.
For Minnesota residents, Cornerstone MN also offers resources and safe housing for domestic abuse survivors and crime victims. Call 1-866-223-1111 or chat online with the crisis hotline.
If it is an emergency, call 911.
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