EP. 8 NEW MEXICO - The Family Annihilator: Nehemiah Griego
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He's the most terrifying serial killer you've never heard of. Haddon Clark has confessed to several murders, but investigators say he could have over 100 victims. At the center of the mayhem, a cellmate of Haddon's that was able to get key evidence into Haddon's murder spree across America,

What does family mean to you?

Is your family your entire world? Or are they just people that you're forced to hang out with because of blood ties? In the case of Nehemiah Griego, each member of his immediate family was nothing more than a target at a shooting range. This story goes to show that you can't trust anyone, not even your own son. As usual, this episode contains extremely graphic depictions of violence and listener discretion is heavily advised. You're listening to Murder in America.

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It's January 2013 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There's a sense of motivation in the air and people are still holding strong to their New Year's resolutions. They're excited for the upcoming year and they're looking forward to what is to come. You know how it feels when the New Year begins. It's exciting. The gyms are full, health food stores are packed, and people are really working on improving themselves and their lives. But some people that year would never get the chance to live out their New Year's resolutions.

Not because they didn't work towards them, but because their life would be taken before they had the chance to. This would be the case for the Griego family because on January 19th, 2013, the entire Griego family would be annihilated in one of the most brutal murder sprees in New Mexico history.

by one of their own family members. On the surface, the Griego family seemed to be just like any other family. The patriarch, Greg Griego, was very well known and respected in the South Valley community. And Greg's story is admirable. After he graduated high school, Greg went on to serve in the US military. He got married and had five kids, but his life seemed to take a turn in the wrong direction after playing the domestic game for a while.

Greg got heavily into drugs and eventually found himself involved in a local gang. It wasn't long before he ended up getting divorced, then later arrested on drug charges. He spent a decent amount of time in prison, and I'm sure that the time spent in the clink changed him significantly inside and out.

But Greg was not going to let this situation define his life. And while he was in prison, he found comfort in God and managed to completely turn his life around. When Greg was released from prison, he decided to leave his old life behind and become a pastor at Calvary Chapel, a branch of the nationwide megachurch in Albuquerque. It was around this time that Greg had met a local woman named Sarah.

The two quickly fell in love and were married in 1994. Sarah was described as a sweet woman who cared deeply for others. She also worked at Calvary Chapel Church with her husband, where she practiced ministry to women in prison. The two of them had big hearts and devoted their lives to helping others.

And it wasn't long before Sarah and Greg started to have children of their own. Greg and Sarah's first child's name was Vanessa, and at the time that the events of this story took place, she was 21 years old and no longer living with the family. But she did play a second mom type of role in the family when it came to her siblings growing up. The next child Greg and Sarah had was Nehemiah, who was 15 at the time of our story.

Nehemiah was known by everyone in his life as a bright kid who had a passion for music and wrestling. He was heavily involved in his local church and even played several instruments for the church's choir. Greg and Sarah's third child was their son Zephaniah, who was nine at the time of this crime. Their fourth child was their daughter Jael, who was five, and their youngest kid was Angelica, who was only two years old in 2013. Now the Griegos lived in a big house and they seemed to be pretty well off.

Sarah homeschooled all of their children so they spent a lot of time at home and when they weren't home, they were usually at their church. The church that they attended was a mega church in Albuquerque and everyone in the family was very involved there. Greg and Sarah thought it was super important to not only raise a family in church but for the family to be involved in the church as well. So the entire Griego clan was very well known within the church. But religion wasn't the only thing that the family was passionate about.

Both Greg and Sarah worked in a prison to help counsel and rehabilitate offenders in an attempt to help inmates turn their lives around.

just like Greg had. The Griegos placed a lot of value on helping others, and they tried their hardest to instill these values in their children. On January 18th, 2013, the Griego family was having a normal day. It was a Saturday, and they were enjoying their weekend, getting things ready for church the next day, eating dinner, and just kind of winding down as the day ended.

But as the family is turning in for the night, Greg is actually getting ready to go to work. He volunteered at a homeless shelter, and on this particular night he was working the overnight shift and wouldn't be getting home until around 5 am. So that night he kissed his family goodbye and left for his shift, prepared to spend the next few hours helping those who needed it most.

Shortly after Greg left, the family's eldest son, Nehemiah, got into an argument with his mother. Now, Nehemiah is only 15 at the time, and it's totally normal for teenagers to argue with their parents at that age. But this particular argument really upset him, and I wasn't able to find exactly what the two were arguing about. But Nehemiah was so frustrated that he went to his room for the remainder of the night.

Greg Griego was very pro-gun and had a big gun collection of his own, including a .22 caliber pistol and an AR-15 assault rifle that he kept unlocked in his closet. And while Nehemiah is sitting in his room fuming over the argument that he just had with his mom, he decides he is going to kill her.

So, he gets out of bed, walks over to his mom and dad's room, and opens up their closet, making sure to stay quiet so he doesn't wake his mother up.

Keep in mind, as he's doing this, his mom is fast asleep right next to him. Nehemiah slowly opens up the closet, reaches down for the .22 caliber pistol, cocks it, and aims it right at his mother's head while she sits in bed, asleep. Just before he pulls the trigger, he notices that his 9-year-old brother, Zephaniah, is sleeping right next to his mom in bed. But this doesn't stop him. He takes a deep breath, points the gun at his mother's head,

and pulls the trigger. The boom of the 22 being fired wakes up Nehemiah's brother Zephaniah, who is lying in bed next to his mother. Startled and confused, Zephaniah opens his eyes and sees his brother standing next to the bed. He's terrified and repeatedly asks his brother, "What is going on? What was that noise?" And in a cold voice, Nehemiah tells him that their mother is dead.

"No she isn't, you're lying," says Zephaniah. Nehemiah then grabs a handful of his mom's hair, lifts her head up off the pillow, and shows her dead, blood-soaked face to his nine-year-old brother. Zephaniah immediately starts to scream and cry.

He's overwhelmed with sadness knowing that his mother is dead. And he's overtaken by fear knowing that his brother, who now stood over him holding a pistol, was responsible. While Zephaniah is frantically crying, Nehemiah holds a gun up to his head and shoots him

A few doors down the hallway, Nehemiah's two youngest sisters share a room. After slaughtering his mother and brother in his parents' bedroom, Nehemiah slowly walks down the hallway and cocks his gun for the third time. When he opens the door, 6-year-old Jael and 2-year-old Angelica are crying, screaming in fear after hearing the commotion in the other room. Even at such a young age, they knew something was terribly wrong.

Only God knows what was running through Nehemiah's mind at that very moment. To look not only a young child, but your own sibling in the eyes and mark them for death. That's a very different kind of darkness. Something that isn't of this world. Something that I will never understand. After a moment of pause, Nehemiah then walks over to his sisters and shoots them both. Within only a matter of minutes, Nehemiah had annihilated four members of his family. And next, he had to kill his father.

But it was only a little after midnight at this point and Greg wasn't going to get home from the homeless shelter until 5:00 a.m. So Nehemiah created a plan. He went back into his parents bedroom, grabbed the AR-15 and then went back downstairs and waited in a bathroom by the front door. So when his dad got home, he could take a good shot.

It's just eerie to imagine Greg's actions while all this was happening. There he was, volunteering at a homeless shelter, helping those in need, while at the same time his family was at home being slaughtered by one of their own. And he could do nothing to help.

He must have felt so satisfied at the time, helping bring peace to a part of the population that has a hard time finding it themselves. But looking back at the situation, out of everybody in that shelter, Greg himself was the one who needed help the most. And there was no help to be found for Greg that very night.

When 5 a.m. rolled around, Greg arrived back at his home. The lights were out and the house was quiet, but that's what he expected after coming home from the night shift. It was always like this. But one thing Greg never suspected as he pulled up to his house in South Valley was that his entire family was inside, dead, murdered by his eldest son.

And as Greg unlocks the front door, Nehemiah takes notice and quickly loads his gun, getting ready for his ambush. Greg opens the door, walks a few feet inside, and for a few seconds, it's quiet. The silence inside of the home is penetrating. There's no noise, almost as if the house was trapped in some sort of void. Completely silent.

It was then that Nehemiah burst through the bathroom door and unloaded the AR-15 on his father, shooting him multiple times in the head and abdomen. And as Greg lies on the floor, gurgling in his own blood, Nehemiah walks over to his father, holding the rifle in his hands. And he takes one final look at his dad before fatally shooting him in the head.

Nehemiah is now all alone in his house with his five dead family members and he's not really sure what to do next. And instead of turning himself in, Nehemiah decides to do something utterly terrifying. He goes back up to his parents closet and grabs more of his father's guns and ammunition and he loads them into his family's van. He goes to grab the keys but before he does he goes back up to his mother's room, pulls his phone out of his pocket and takes a picture of his mom's bloody face.

On his way out of the house, he grabs the keys to the van and gets inside of the car. And before he pulls out of the driveway, he texts the picture of his dead mother to his 12-year-old girlfriend and tells her that his entire family died in a car accident. Nehemiah then pulls out of the driveway and later investigators would find out that his plan was to drive to a nearby Walmart.

and start shooting as many people as he possibly could. He wanted to go out with a bank and take as many people down with him. He, in that moment, wanted to end his life in a violent shootout with the police. And as he's driving to Walmart to execute this plan, something in Nehemiah changes. And I don't know if it was guilt, shame, or even the fear of death, but on the way to the Walmart, Nehemiah changes his mind and decided to go to church instead.

Now remember, it's Sunday morning and the church is filled with people. And Nehemiah's girlfriend also attended that very church. When she received a picture of Nehemiah's dead mom, she told her grandmother and word started spreading quickly around the building that the Griego family was dead. One of the head pastors at the church hears this and is extremely concerned.

He had known the Griego family well, they had been friends for years. And eerily enough, he had seen Nehemiah that morning as he showed up to attend service. But the pastor had noticed that the rest of the Griego family was absent.

So, the pastor cuts through the crowded church searching frantically and eventually locates Nehemiah and asks him to come into his office. As soon as they are alone, church officials ask, "Nehemiah, is it true that your family is dead?" And he tells them, "Yes, I came home and everybody in my house had been shot." Now, this story seemed suspicious to the church leaders because what they had initially heard was that the family had died in a car accident.

The church leaders also said that Nehemiah's tone and facial expressions were very cold and stoic. This is not usually the reaction of a child who, just that morning, had found their entire family dead. So the pastor at Calvary Chapel asks if their security guard, Vince Harrison, could go by the Griego residence to see what was actually going on. Vince agrees and he and Nehemiah make their way to the Griego residence.

But before they get there, Vince gets a really uneasy feeling and he decides that just in case there's foul play involved, he doesn't want to mess anything up in the investigation. So he calls the Albuquerque police and tells them to meet them at the Griego residence.

As the police pull up, they ask Nehemiah if they can use his house keys to get inside. Nehemiah nervously hands them over and the police make their way into the home. As soon as they pass through the front door, officers see the body of Greg laying by the staircase with visible gunshot wounds to the face. And as they make their way upstairs, they find the bodies of Sarah, Zephaniah, Jael, and Angelica.

They had just stumbled upon a quintuple homicide with more than half of the victims being under the age of 10.

Authorities bring Nehemiah back to the station for questioning and right off the bat they notice that he is acting strange. But first and foremost, they read him his Miranda Rights. If you're not familiar, the reading of the Miranda Rights is basically when the cops tell you all the rights you have as an American while being questioned. And an important part of questioning a minor is making sure that they understand they have a right to an attorney and they also have a right to have an adult present during the questioning.

But Nehemiah insists that he doesn't need either, so they proceed with the interrogation and ask him to tell them what happened. Nehemiah goes on to tell investigators that on January 17th, he went to a friend's house for the weekend and he returned home at 5:30 a.m. on January 19th. He said that when he walked up to the front door, it was locked and he had to use his key to get inside.

He went on to say that when he opened the front door, he saw his father's carcass on the floor downstairs. He then went upstairs and found both of his sisters dead in one room and his mom and brother dead in another. After finding the bodies, he took his parents' keys out of his mom's purse and drove to Calvary Chapel.

And this story could have been believable. A 15-year-old stumbles across his entire family, dead, and in a panic drives to church to find some kind of help or comfort. But what didn't make sense to investigators is why Nehemiah would have told his girlfriend that his entire family died in a car accident if he had initially found them shot to death at home. And also, why were there rifles in the back of the van that he drove to church?

When they questioned him about this, his story started to change. He said that he put the guns in the back of the van because he was scared that whoever shot his family would try to come after him next. Investigators tell him, "We're going to find out if you shot that gun. Your fingerprints will be on the weapon and there will be evidence of gunshot residue on your body."

So if you shot a gun that night, you need to tell us." Knowing that he was slowly getting backed into a corner, Nehemiah tells investigators that after finding his family's bodies, he took the gun and fired a few shots into the backyard because he was angry that his family had been killed. He also admitted to handling several other guns in the house that night, as well as picking up spent shell casings lying around the house.

So investigators give it to him straight and tell Nehemiah that his story doesn't make any sense. First, your family is dead in a car accident, but now they're shot to death in your house and you touched all the guns in the home that night and picked up all the shell casings but you didn't shoot anybody? And knowing that he couldn't hold up his lie any longer, Nehemiah comes clean.

He had recently been having homicidal and suicidal thoughts, and after having an argument with his mother, he decided to kill his entire family. He also admitted to police that his plan was to kill a bunch of people at Walmart, and how he changed his mind on his way to commit the second shooting. And on January 20th, 2013, Nehemia Griego is arrested and charged with five counts of murder and three counts of child abuse, resulting in death.

His sentencing hearing wouldn't be until January of 2016, three years after the murders.

And this hearing would be very important because it would determine whether or not he would be tried as a juvenile or as an adult. And we've talked about this in previous episodes, but legislation is a little different when it comes to minors. Usually when someone is tried as a juvenile, they will serve time until they're 21 years old, and then they will be let free in society with a completely clean record.

If he was tried as an adult, he would be facing up to 120 years in prison. But different states are allowed to have their own laws, and in 1996, New Mexico passed a law called the Serious Youthful Offender Act that states that anyone over the age of 15 who commits first-degree murder can be tried as an adult. At the hearing, both sides fought tirelessly. The prosecution wanted Nehemiah tried as an adult.

They claimed that he didn't have any mental illnesses and was in a sane state when he committed the murders, so he should face the harshest punishment. The defense, however, concocted an elaborate story of a victim that suffered a life of abuse. Abuse that was so bad, it left Nehemiah with a head injury when he was a little boy.

To prove this point, an MRI was conducted on Nehemiah's brain, and a neurologist was able to conclude that there were signs of trauma that could have affected his reasoning. But the neurologist went on to say that his brain trauma that was observed could easily happen to anyone from any kind of minor head injury, so it didn't really prove anything. They talked about how his parents were mentally and physically abusive, overly strict, and how Nehemiah's home life wasn't as good as everyone thought it was.

The defense team even got a psychologist to assess Nehemiah, and this psychologist claimed that through tests and questions, they had been able to determine that Nehemiah had had a rough past and even had a working diagnosis of schizophrenia. These claims never ended up being proven.

But here is what that psychologist had to say during the hearing. As the hearing wraps up to decide the fate of the teen who killed his family in their South Valley home, we learn more about what was going on inside that house before the shooting spree, including an instance when Nehemiah Griego says his younger brother actually threatened him with a gun. News 13's Lizzie Mitri was in court today.

I would call that bizarre. A psychologist described Nehemiah Griego's life at home, giving a glimpse of what led to Griego shooting and killing his parents and three younger siblings three years ago. It reaches the level of, you know, certainly dysfunctional, certainly disturbed, and possibly even bizarre. He says Griego described a time his younger brother threatened him with a gun. Apparently loaded gun.

pointed it at Nehemiah and said, you know, I could kill you, something like that. This is not a normal household. Then there's Griego's response when he was asked why he killed his brother and two sisters. Something like, well, it had to be a thorough job or something like that. That's a really weird answer. And it shows no insight whatsoever into...

WHICH IS WHY THIS PSYCHOLOGIST THINKS GRIEGO NEEDS AT LEAST FIVE YEARS OF TREATMENT. AS GRIEGO'S DEFENSE ARGUES A JUDGE SHOULD SENTENCE THE 18-YEAR-OLD AS A JUVENILE. THAT WOULD MEAN TREATMENT AND JUVENILE JAIL WHERE HE COULD GET OUT WHEN HE'S 21. PROSECUTORS SAY THAT IS NOT ENOUGH. THAT GRIEGO SHOULD BE SENTENCED AS AN ADULT, WHICH COULD MEAN LIFE IN PRISON.

Ultimately, it's up to the judge who could decide as soon as tomorrow. Lizzie Mitri, KRQE News 13. After the judge heard both sides, he ended up ruling in Nehemiah's favor and sentenced him as a juvenile, meaning he would be released in just a few short years at 21 years old.

Nehemiah's older sister, Vanessa, was obviously devastated about most of her family being murdered. But at first, she was supportive of the judge's decision to release her brother at the age of 21. After his sentencing, she would often come visit him during visiting hours, and she truly thought that he could be treated and rehabilitated. But her support for Nehemiah wouldn't last long.

And as time passed, he gave her reason to think that he wasn't ready to be released into society. And she concluded that he should be tried as an adult.

HERE'S WHY. Good afternoon. Nehemiah Griego was just 15 when he murdered his family, including his three younger brothers and sisters. He could be back out on the streets in two months when he turns 21. But today, the Attorney General made his case for why he should stay behind bars. News 13's Rebecca Adkins is live at the Court of Appeals with this story. Rebecca.

KIM, IT WAS A FULL COURTROOM TODAY AS BOTH SIDES ARGUED OVER THE KILLER'S FUTURE AND EVEN HIS OWN FAMILY MEMBERS SAY HE'S NOT READY TO BE BACK OUT IN SOCIETY.

It's really surreal just to be here. It's a lot of feelings, a lot of emotions. You know, the five-year anniversary was a few days ago, and so it's a lot. It's not easy for Vanessa Lightbourne to be back in New Mexico. Her younger brother, Nehemiah Griego, shot and killed their parents and three little siblings in 2013 at the family's South Valley home because he thought his mom was too strict. You know, he murdered five people in it.

GRIEGO FACED UP TO 120 YEARS FOR THE MURDERS. BUT A JUDGE DECIDED TO SENTENCE HIM AS A JUVENILE. WHICH MEANS HE'S SUPPOSED TO GET OUT OF JUVENILE JAIL ON MARCH 20TH, WHEN HE TURNS 21. BUT HIS BIG SISTER SAYS HE'S NOT READY. "Just some of the things he told me when I would visit him in jail and um, you know, I was like, I'm not ready for this. I'm not ready for this."

THE REASON I STOPPED TALKING TO HIM IS SOME OF THE THINGS HE SAID THAT WERE NOT RIGHT. ATTORNEY GENERAL HECTOR BALDEREZ IS NOW APPEALING THE DECISION TO LET NEHEMIAH OUT IN MARCH. THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE SHOULD HAVE NEVER PLED THIS CASE DOWN FROM A FIRST DEGREE DOWN TO A SECOND DEGREE. AT THE COURT OF APPEALS TODAY, THE STATE AND DEFENSE ARGUED THEIR CASES.

The fact that Nehemiah killed his own family reflects just how detached, callous and brutal he was capable of being. The state quoting expert opinions from past hearings. It was a horrible crime. He used more than one gun. Five people ended up dead. But

BUT THE JUDGES HAD SOME QUESTIONS OVER WHETHER OR NOT EXPERTS BELIEVED GRIEGO WOULD BE FULLY REHABILITATED BY HIS 21ST BIRTHDAY. THE A-G SAYS NO. "THERE IS A DRAMATIC NEED FOR ADDITIONAL TREATMENT IN THIS CASE." AND NEHEMIAH'S SISTER WOULD BE REHABILITATED.

agrees. I personally would like him to stay behind bars. I think he is a danger to society and I think he's a danger to our family. He is locked up here at the Youth Diagnostic Development Center in Albuquerque. He killed his parents, two sisters and his brother. Now five years later these documents say he has made threats to his two sisters who are still alive. I personally would like him to stay behind bars. I think he is a danger to society and I think he's a danger to our family. His sentence is about to be up and he might be released.

In new court documents obtained by Target 7, Griego's sister tells investigators he told her he would kill a bunch of people and made a comment in the past about going to Walmart and killing people. His other sister says she stopped talking to him in 2013 because it was too weird.

She said he wanted her to visit him, but only if she was pregnant. She told investigators she was worried about her safety when her brother was released. These new court documents show Nehemiah has made more than three dozen death threats since he's been in juvenile custody. Two employees at the juvenile facility where Grego is being held say he has threatened to fight them. One employee described him as a hothead.

with anger issues. These documents obtained by Target 7 also show Nehemiah's side of the story, but of course investigators had to talk to him about some of these disturbing allegations. Griego denies making the threats. He told an investigator he thinks someone is trying to sabotage his freedom. He was sentenced as a juvenile and that means when he turns 21 his sentence is supposed to be up. His birthday is March 20th, but the AG and the DA are fighting to keep him locked up.

Documents show he told an investigator he has no resentment toward family members and has no hostile intentions. While being locked up, he has earned his high school diploma and six college credits.

Griego says he wants to leave New Mexico and live a normal life. State police say they investigated reports of threats and found no criminal wrongdoing. Most people would be on their best behavior in prison, knowing that they just basically got away with killing their parents and their three siblings. And I do believe that some people are capable of rehabilitation, but I don't think Nehemiah is one of those people. He made numerous death threats to his sisters while they were visiting him, and almost 40 different death threats to other people within the years that he was in juvie.

And to me, that just doesn't sound like he's been rehabilitated. Keep in mind that releasing an offender that hasn't been rehabilitated is incredibly dangerous to society, especially when the offender's record will be wiped completely clean, meaning that anyone who looks into Nehemiah's past will know nothing about him killing his five family members. That is a terrifying thought.

But interestingly enough, there are still members of Nehemiah's family that think he should be released. Nehemiah's aunt is his biggest advocate. She visits him weekly and she thinks that he won't be a danger to society. Nehemiah's aunt is now his guardian. And while she's grieving the death of her brother, she's also trying to fight for her nephew.

Clearly, there was some sort of break or psychotic break that happened that night. Regina Griego is Nehemiah's aunt and the sister of Greg Griego, an Albuquerque pastor before his death. Nehemiah shot and killed his mother, two younger sisters and a younger brother in their sleep at their South Valley home back in January, then ambushed his father Greg when he came home that night.

Regina is now the teen's guardian, visiting him at the county's juvenile jail every week. It's a cycle every week for me to be reminded of really the tragedy and the sadness of everything because

You know, I miss my brother a lot, you know, but I have such compassion for Nehemiah. It's that compassion that's driving her to fight for better mental health care for Nehemiah. She says he only gets one hour of counseling a week. First of all, he's young cognitively and to me he's a child. And then secondly, there's some mental impairment.

So it does not, it has not made sense to me in any shape or form. Since then, she says Nehemiah has a working diagnosis of psychosis and dissociative disorders and has been put on medication. Now he has a full range of emotion. You know, random memories, even not associated with the event, are coming back and he's missing his family.

He obviously cries a lot about what happened. While she fights to get him in a mental care facility, Nehemiah attends school where he's taking pre-GED classes, and he has the most honor days of his unit. He asks for chores. He follows all the rules. He does anything that he's asked to do.

He doesn't swear. He doesn't cause trouble. Becoming more like the child she remembers. No one knows the real reason for the killings except maybe Nehemiah. Deputies say the homeschooled boy told them he was mad at his mom but didn't say why. His aunt thinks he had undetected mental health issues and then just snapped, perhaps brought on by violent video games and easy access to his father's guns.

This is interesting to me because her own brother was murdered by her nephew and she still thinks that he should be let free. And I personally don't think that I would show the same kind of mercy if someone killed my brother.

Nehemiah's aunt isn't the only one he thinks that he should be tried as a juvenile. Nehemiah's uncle agrees and also thinks that he didn't have a fair interrogation, saying, "As far as we know, that whole narrative that he was going on this grandiose shootout was based on a scared 15-year-old in the middle of the night, in the sheriff's department, no parent, no adult, no lawyer, saying, 'I'm going to do this.'" Should he have said it? Of course not. If any of us would have been there, we would have just told him to shut up.

With what we've all learned about brain development, something must have gone wrong with his brain.

But a lot of people don't agree with Nehemiah's aunt and uncle. So much so that a few months before he was supposed to be released, the Attorney General sent Nehemiah's case to the Court of Appeals. He desperately wanted Nehemiah's case looked at again because he did not think that he was ready to be released into society. And over the next few weeks, the Court of Appeals looked over the case and decided to overturn the first judge's decision.

Months later, on April 9th, 2019, Judge Alyssa Hart ruled that Nehemiah had not been rehabilitated and is still considered a danger to society. She then sentenced him to 120 years with the possibility of parole. Where is Nehemiah now? He's 24 years old, still in prison where he will probably be for a while.

But keep in mind that his sentence includes the possibility of parole. So he can potentially get out at any time if the parole board allows it. But for now, he sits in prison.

forced to face the consequences of the terrible decisions that he made on January 19th, 2013. "We all know what my dad and Sarah would have wanted," said Annette Griego, Greg Griego's eldest daughter. Greg Griego had actually already had five children before he met his wife Sarah, who he died with, with whom he had had five more kids, including Nehemiah.

We spent our lives watching them live their lives for others, and we know that more than anything else, they would have wanted Nehemiah to be given a second chance.

And that's what we want as well. If my dad were here, my dad would stand by Nehemiah. What an interesting ending to this story. Not only is a family annihilation of this sort pretty rare, but it's even more uncommon to hear a story filled with such forgiveness. There are members of the Griego family who are still going on the record saying that Greg Griego himself would stand by his own son, advocating for his release from prison, even though he killed him and the rest of his own family.

Sometimes I wonder if the old Griego family home could be haunted, if the spirits of the family could still be possibly hanging around years after their own murders. But that's just a question, a theory. I know for a fact, however, that the old Griego home is haunted by something.

the past. No matter what color you paint the walls, no matter who the next owners are, and no matter how many times you replace the carpets, you simply cannot replace history.

History can never be erased, no matter how much you hate it. Everything that already happened, happened. And only time can heal the wounds caused by certain traumatic events. In the case of the tragic annihilation of the Griego family, it seems like time has only deepened the wounds. Those cuts haven't even begun to scar yet. But at least those members of the family who lost their lives are probably still together somewhere, in a better place, hanging out.

Maybe they're waiting for Nehemiah to join them, to give them answers, or maybe they aren't. I don't know either way. This story goes to show that familial blood is thicker than water. You can't change who you're related to, no matter how much you don't like it. It's something you're born into, and something you can never truly change. And above all, this story proves that family is forever, especially in death.

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Well, thank you everybody for listening to shit. I think this is episode number eight of murder in America. You guys have been supporting us fully behind the scenes and I cannot thank you all so much or enough. I should say for listening to our little podcast.

I'm glad you've been enjoying the stories. I'm sorry we're getting into such dark graphic subject matter, but at the end of the day, don't forget to go follow us on Instagram at Murder in America. Go check out our Patreon. We've got some bonus podcasts on there and video content. And if you spent the night in the old Griego family home asking for answers, do you think they would give forgiveness? It makes you wonder. The dead don't talk, or do they? See you on the next one, everybody.