The Life of the Party (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
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Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. On a winter morning in 2014, a woman walked through her friend's massive two-story house in the beautiful ski town of Aspen, Colorado. She was there to see her friend who had been away on a long vacation. But so far anyways, her friend did not appear to be home, which was strange.

After walking around her first floor and calling out for her friend and not getting a response, this woman made her way upstairs to the second floor where her friend's bedroom was, thinking maybe she was asleep.

This woman was about to leave the bedroom when she noticed her friend's big walk-in closet was closed. Since it was normally open, this suggested that maybe her friend was inside the closet. So the woman walked over and opened up the door, and at first, the only thing she noticed was that her friend was not in there either. However, before she turned to leave, she noticed something on the ground inside the closet. And when she looked more closely, she began to scream.

But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please offer to host the follow button when they visit from out of town. But as soon as they arrive, immediately call the police and say there's an intruder in your home. Okay, let's get into today's story.

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On the evening of November 16th, 2013, 57-year-old Nancy Pfister stood in front of a crowded room of party guests inside of her house in Aspen, Colorado. Nancy held up a bottle of expensive champagne and called out to get everyone's attention. Her guests turned and watched their host like she was a queen holding court. Nancy had blonde hair and blue eyes and looked like she could have been a model.

She told the crowd that she was going to skip winter in the mountains of Colorado and head to the warm beaches of Australia, and she could not think of a better way to spend her last night in town than hanging out with all the people she loved. Nancy thanked everyone for coming, popped open the champagne, and told her guests to have fun.

Music began to play and the guests cheered, and then they all kind of began circulating through Nancy's massive house that sat on over 35 acres of land. And they could look out through these huge floor-to-ceiling windows to get an incredible view of Nancy's property that was covered in aspen trees and surrounded by the snow-capped Rocky Mountains.

A lot of Nancy's friends were some of the wealthiest people in Aspen, which was known as one of the wealthiest cities in America, so this was saying something. But the view from Nancy's house was so spectacular, it still made all of her friends a bit jealous.

Nancy poured herself a glass of champagne, took a sip, and looked out at everyone with a huge grin on her face. Hosting parties was one of her favorite things to do. In fact, over the decades, Nancy's parties had become sort of legendary. Nancy had inherited millions of dollars and part of the successful ski resort her parents had owned. So Nancy had always had money, and she had always played hostess to the rich and famous who vacationed in Aspen.

She'd also been briefly engaged to the actor Michael Douglas, she was still good friends with the very famous actor Jack Nicholson, and she'd even hung out with the Dalai Lama. She was also known to have regularly gotten drunk with Hunter S. Thompson, the very famous author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, who had unfortunately taken his own life, actually not far from Aspen, back in 2005.

Nancy walked through the large open front room of her house and began to mingle with some of her guests. But she had her eye on a particular couple that was sitting on the couch. Nancy waved to them and their faces lit up.

Dr. Trey Styler and his wife were in their 60s, but Trey had been dealing with some pretty serious health issues, so he actually looked 10 years older than he was. He often had trouble standing and walking for long periods of time was a big challenge, but he still had a sharp mind and an amazing sense of humor, which is actually why Nancy liked him so much. She thought he was really funny. Nancy walked over to Trey and his wife, who also happened to be named Nancy, and she sat down next to them on the couch. And then she asked them how they were enjoying the party.

They said they were having a great time, but admittedly, they were already plotting how to clean up the house afterwards. And Nancy smiled and laughed.

When Nancy had made her plans to travel to Australia, the Stylers had been looking for a new home in the area. And when Nancy found out about it, she suggested they put that off and just rent her place while she was gone. And she actually said they could just move in right away if they wanted to. That way the house would feel more like a home when they were actually on their own. The Stylers had jumped at the chance. They loved Nancy's house like everybody did. And they always had a great time with Nancy. So the three of them had basically been roommates for the last several weeks. And

And as much as Nancy was looking forward to traveling in Australia, she was going to miss spending time with the Stylers. And Trey and his wife felt the same way. Trey had been a very successful anesthesiologist before his health forced him to retire. But like Nancy, he had inherited a lot of money, so the two of them shared similar backgrounds and seemed to really connect with each other.

Nancy was still talking to the stylers when she heard someone calling her name. She glanced up and saw her friend, Kathy Carpenter, was standing there looking totally panicked. Kathy told Nancy that she really needed to talk to her right now. Nancy told Trey and his wife she'd catch up with them later, and then she stood up and walked with Kathy to a secluded corner of the room. Other guests watched as Nancy and Kathy huddled together and began to talk. It was something they were all used to seeing, but most of them didn't understand why Nancy even bothered with Kathy.

Nancy and the majority of her friends were part of a group that others called Aspen Royalty. Basically, they were people who seemed to have enough money to do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. And a lot of them were self-proclaimed snobs who wanted nothing to do with people outside of their own social class. But Nancy was different. She made friends everywhere she went and didn't care if people had money or not.

Kathy was a bank teller in town, and every time Nancy had gone to the bank, she thought Kathy seemed like a very nice person. So one day, Nancy had asked Kathy if she'd like to go to lunch, and Kathy said she'd love to. And the two women hit it off and had become close friends ever since.

Now, even though Nancy didn't seem to care about their very different social classes, Kathy couldn't ignore it. And so quickly after becoming friends, Kathy began doing things like picking up Nancy's prescriptions at the pharmacy for her and going to the grocery store to make sure Nancy had her food and she even helped keep track of how much money Nancy spent, even if Nancy didn't seem to care. And so whether Kathy or Nancy realized this, basically Kathy had become Nancy's personal assistant,

Even though obviously Kathy was not getting paid to do this and still had to have her job at the bank to make ends meet. And so back at the party in the corner of the room, Nancy asked Kathy what was so urgent that it couldn't wait until after the party. And Kathy said she was just worried that not everything in Nancy's life had been settled before her Australia trip. And also Kathy wanted to know if Nancy wanted Kathy to look after her house while she was gone.

This was something that Kathy kind of automatically did for Nancy anytime Nancy was out of town. Again, sort of acting like her assistant, even though she wasn't.

Nancy was sort of annoyed by this. She didn't feel like talking about this right in the middle of the party and so she tried to just kind of softly end the conversation with Kathy but Kathy was persistent and really wanted to know what Nancy needed while she was going to be gone. And so finally Nancy told Kathy that yes it would be great if you you know stopped by the house once in a while and made sure her dog was okay and also if Trey and his wife who were going to be staying at Nancy's house needed anything well it would be great if Kathy could help them with that too.

And so Kathy nodded, you know, understanding her assignments. And then Nancy took a swig of her champagne, flashed a smile, and then rejoined the party and left Kathy standing all alone in the corner. Three months later, on the morning of February 22nd, 2014, Kathy opened up Nancy's front door with her own key. She walked into the front room and she found Dr. Trey Styler and his wife waiting for her. Trey sat in a wheelchair with a couple of suitcases at his side and Nancy's dog was laying at his feet.

Over the past few months, Trey's health problems had only gotten worse, and he was really struggling to walk a lot of the time. Kathy looked frazzled, like she often did, and she asked the stylers if they had everything and if they were ready to go. A few days earlier, Nancy had emailed Kathy to say she was coming home from Australia. When Nancy had left, she actually had not set a return date, at least not officially, but now this email served as letting people know she was coming back home.

And so Kathy wanted to make sure everything in the house was perfect for Nancy when she got home, and that meant making sure Nancy had the house to herself. So Kathy had informed the Stylers that they needed to get out of the house and take all their belongings with them so she could straighten up before Nancy got there. In the front room, Trey leaned down, grabbed one of the suitcases, and put it on his lap. Trey's wife grabbed the other suitcase and told Kathy they were ready to go. But she said they were leaving a few things behind that they would want to come back to get.

Kathy suddenly was panicked and said they really needed to make sure everything was out of the house. But in a calm, steady voice, Trey told her that everything was fine. He reminded Kathy that they had been paying rent on the house. They were not just guests here. They didn't want to cause any problems, but they were sure Nancy would be okay with having some of their things still in the house just for a few more days. Then Trey pushed himself through the room towards the front door and his wife and Kathy followed.

They made it outside, and right away, Trey began to shiver. The sun was shining, but there was snow on the ground, and it was only about 25 degrees Fahrenheit, so right below freezing. Trey had also lost quite a bit of weight recently, which contributed to him feeling cold. His wife helped him into Kathy's car, and then put his wheelchair and their suitcases in the trunk. Then Kathy hopped in the driver's seat and drove the couple a few miles away to the hotel where they were going to stay until their new house was ready. And then after dropping the couple off, Kathy headed back to Nancy's.

That evening, Kathy drove to the airport with Nancy's dog in the back seat. She knew Nancy would be thrilled to see him as soon as she landed. A little later, after flying for almost 24 hours and experiencing a massive 16-hour time change, Nancy finally stepped off the plane in Colorado.

She somehow felt exhausted but also completely wired, and she really had no idea what day it was. Kathy met Nancy at the baggage claim and helped her get everything over to the car. Nancy climbed into the back seat and her dog jumped on her and licked her face. Nancy was glad to be back. When they got back to Nancy's house that evening, even though Nancy was dealing with major jet lag and felt totally exhausted, no matter what she tried, she couldn't fall asleep.

So Kathy just stayed with her that night to make sure she really was okay and that if she needed anything, she would go get it.

And then for the next 36 hours, Nancy just really couldn't quite fall asleep. And so she was just totally exhausted and miserable. But then finally, on the morning of February 24th, so a day and a half after Nancy got home, she just totally crashed. Kathy stayed in the bedroom with Nancy for a bit. But when it was clear Nancy really had fallen asleep and was not going to wake up anytime soon, Kathy went down to the kitchen and she made sure Nancy's dog had plenty of food and water. And then she found a piece of paper and a marker and she made a do not disturb sign.

Kathy knew that secretly Nancy hated being woken up before she was ready, and so she did not want anybody to disturb Nancy. And so Kathy walked outside and she taped the sign to the front door. Then she got into her own car and drove back to her own apartment.

On the morning of February 26th, so two days after Kathy left Nancy's house when Nancy had finally fallen asleep, Trey and his wife came back to Nancy's house to get the rest of their stuff. They saw the Do Not Disturb sign that was on the door, and they assumed Nancy had to be sleeping, but they still wanted to get their things, and they also really wanted to talk with Nancy to make sure everything was okay with the house. So Trey's wife used her key and they opened the door, and the second they went inside, they were hit with this horrible smell.

Trey covered his mouth and nose and wanted to go back outside, but his wife said she heard something and she rushed to the kitchen. There, she saw Nancy's dog pacing back and forth and squealing. His food and water bowls were empty and he had used the kitchen floor like a bathroom.

Trey's wife looked at the scene completely confused. Nancy could be flighty sometimes and leave town almost on a whim, but she loved her dog and always made sure he was well taken care of anytime she was gone. But Trey's wife told herself, you know, maybe Nancy hadn't heard the dog squealing because she was in a really deep sleep, still worn out from her trip. So she went upstairs, walked down the hall to Nancy's bedroom, opened the door and went inside. And when she did, she felt even more confused about the whole situation.

Because Nancy wasn't in there. And it looked like her bed had been totally stripped, like Nancy had gone to do a load of laundry and never came back or something. Trey's wife immediately headed right back downstairs and found her husband still waiting by the door, and she told him what she saw. So Trey's wife called Kathy at the bank where she was working and filled her in.

When Kathy heard what was going on, she said this all sounded really strange because Nancy had been sleeping when she left the house and Kathy had made sure the dog had plenty of food and water. So did this mean Nancy hadn't checked on the dog in over two days? Trey's wife said she would clean it all up, take the dog out, and make sure he was okay and fed before she left. But she was worried about Nancy. Kathy said she felt the same way. So she hung up and called Nancy, but it went straight to voicemail. So she sent Nancy several text messages and also an email.

But by 5:30 p.m., when Kathy got off work, she still hadn't heard anything from Nancy. So she drove straight to Nancy's house. A few minutes later, Kathy arrived at Nancy's. She first checked on the dog and then went upstairs to Nancy's bedroom. And when she went inside, she saw the bed was stripped, just like Trey's wife had said.

Kathy walked about 15 feet across Nancy's bedroom to a large walk-in closet. Now, this closet was bigger than a lot of people's bedrooms, and Nancy had actually converted it into a meditation room. She had hung Tibetan prayer flags on the wall and filled it with candles and personal keepsakes. Kathy knew that Nancy did not like anyone going in that closet, but she knew she had to go in because she had to find Nancy.

And so Kathy first knocked on the door of this meditation room, but it was silent inside. So she eventually reached down and grabbed the doorknob, but when she turned it, she felt that it was locked, and Nancy's key to the closet was nowhere to be found. So Kathy ultimately walked back downstairs, went outside, got in her car, and sped back to her apartment, and there she grabbed her duplicate key to Nancy's walk-in closet that Kathy kept on its own keychain, and then with the key in hand, she drove back to Nancy's house.

At about 5:45 p.m., Kathy walked into Nancy's bedroom again. And this time, she saw something she'd overlooked. There was a small splash of blood on the headboard of the bed. And when she saw this, Kathy began to shake. Then Kathy slowly turned towards the meditation room, the walk-in closet, and she began walking in that direction. And when she got there with shaking hands, she used her key and opened the door.

And when she looked inside, at first, it looked like the way it always did. You know, with all the different keepsakes and the flags and the candles. But right as Kathy was about to leave, she noticed something on the ground. And when she looked more closely, she began to scream. Kathy immediately grabbed her phone and dialed 911. And when the operator answered, Kathy could barely speak. She was basically hyperventilating. But finally, she did manage to shout that her friend, Nancy Pfister, was dead inside of her closet. And she was sure Nancy had been murdered. ♪

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Kathy's 911 call took the Pitkin County Sheriff's Department by complete surprise. Crime was rare in Aspen, Colorado, and there hadn't been a murder in town in over a decade. And on top of that, almost everybody in the area knew who Nancy Pfister was. She was basically a celebrity in Aspen. If Nancy really had been murdered, the county police knew this would be their highest profile case in a very long time.

So they immediately reached out to the state police and the district attorney's office for help. And not long after that, an investigator with the DA's office named Lisa Miller parked her car in the long driveway in front of Nancy's house and stepped outside.

Investigator Miller was tall with light brown hair and she was wearing a gray wool overcoat and dark sunglasses. Miller had a reputation for being a staunch advocate for victims and for being very straightforward when dealing with suspects. From where she was standing, Miller looked around and saw all the huge aspen trees spreading out across Nancy's huge property and she was also able to look inside of Nancy's house through her large front windows and it was beautiful inside.

And so Miller thought, you know, this is like one of the most beautiful places she'd ever seen if it wasn't for the fact that county police officers were stretching crime scene tape all across the yard. Miller saw a couple of deputies talking with Kathy a few feet from Nancy's front door, and she also saw Sheriff Joey DeSalvo standing nearby with Nancy's dog.

Miller waved to DeSalvo and walked over to him. She asked him if he had seen the body yet, but DeSalvo just shook his head and Miller could tell he was on the verge of tears. DeSalvo said Nancy was a good friend of his. Before he was sheriff, he'd had a bit of a wild side and actually he and Nancy used to party together. And he also said that he was the one who'd been called in to deal with Hunter S. Thompson's body after the writer had killed himself and seeing someone he knew covered in blood like that had haunted DeSalvo for years, so he couldn't bring himself to go look at Nancy's body.

Miller said she understood and just told him that he would need to tell her everything he knew. DeSalvo nodded and said that Kathy, the friend of Nancy's who had found the body and called 911, had told him that when she went into the bedroom closet, she had found her friend's body on the floor. Nancy's body was wrapped up in some sheets and a carpet, and her hair was matted with blood. That's about all he knew as far as the body was concerned. But there was one more thing that Kathy had told him. Kathy said that she had noticed some of Nancy's pill bottles were missing from her bathroom.

Miller thanked DeSalvo, slipped on a pair of gloves, and then walked inside the house with one of the sheriff's deputies. Miller and the deputy headed upstairs and walked directly into Nancy's bedroom.

They noticed the bed was stripped and they saw blood on the headboard. Then they stepped into the closet that had been turned into a meditation room and looked down at the floor. But for a second, they both just stood there confused because it just looked like there was a blanket and a pile of sheets laying there. And so Miller crouched down and it wasn't until she was right over the blanket and sheets that she could tell they were actually wrapped around something.

Miller kept staring at the pile for a second, and then she asked the deputy if Kathy had mentioned moving the blanket or touching it in some way. But the deputy said, according to Kathy, she had not touched anything in the closet. This made no sense to Miller, because at this moment, it was really impossible to tell if what was wrapped up inside of these sheets and this carpet was actually Nancy Pfister's body. And Miller definitely couldn't see any blonde hair matted with blood nearby like Kathy claimed to have seen inside of this closet.

Miller nodded to the deputy, and so he crouched down, and together, they began to unwrap the blanket and the sheets. And as they did, they heard a strange sound, like the sheets were rubbing against something plastic. And then finally, once they had unspooled the bedding, they tossed it aside, and what they were left with was blood-stained trash bags wrapped around a dead body. Miller began to remove the trash bag covering the victim's head, and this is when she saw blonde hair matted with blood, just like Kathy had said.

Miller finally pulled the trash bag all the way away, revealing the victim's face. And immediately, the deputy lowered his head and told Miller that that was definitely Nancy Pfister. Miller wanted to wait for the state forensics team to arrive before handling the body anymore. So she and the deputy stepped out of the closet and began to search the rest of the house.

But, during the search, Miller didn't find any signs of forced entry or of a robbery. I mean, expensive paintings still hung on the wall and Nancy's electronics and computer were plainly visible but looked untouched. And so Miller headed back outside into the cold winter air and she saw Kathy, so she walked over to her and introduced herself and she told Kathy they would need to talk at length at some point. But for now, Miller said she only had one question: had Kathy touched the blanket or the sheets on the floor inside of that closet?

Kathy shook her head and said no. She said she really had not touched anything in the closet, and as soon as she saw her friend's body on the floor, she called 911. And so Miller thanked her and went back inside of Nancy's house.

Not long after Miller's initial sweep of the house, state forensics officers arrived on the scene. They followed Miller to Nancy's bedroom and began searching for prints, and they also took a sample from the blood spatter on the headboard. Then they flipped over the mattress and found several large bloodstains on it. After that, the officers went into the closet and began to do a thorough search of the body. All the while, Miller kept looking back and forth between the closet and the bed.

The bloodstains on the headboard and the mattress made it seem like Nancy had been attacked in bed and then dragged, you know, 15 feet or so across the room to the closet. The killer had also flipped the mattress over to try to hide the bloodstains and then clearly wrapped the body up in bedding and trash bags. And this was not an easy task. Just moving Nancy's body around would have been heavy and cumbersome and there were so many steps the killer had to complete before leaving the house.

And so as a result, Miller knew the killer would have needed a lot of time after killing Nancy and also a lot of strength to pull this off. Or the killer would have needed a partner.

And so Miller thanked the forensics officers and headed back downstairs. And she was still taking in everything she'd seen and heard. But at this point, she was sure about one thing. Kathy had lied to the police because Nancy's body was not visible inside of the closet. And so if Kathy said she had seen her friend's blonde hair matted with blood, that meant either she did move the blankets and the carpet and that's how she saw it and then covered it back up. Or Kathy just knew Nancy's hair was matted with blood because she was sure about one thing.

because Kathy had killed her or had assisted in killing her. Investigator Miller knew that the murder of a wealthy socialite would send shockwaves through Aspen, and it would quickly lead to gossip and panic among locals and vacationers, so she didn't waste any time. Not long after Miller searched Nancy's house, she told Kathy to come down to the sheriff's station to meet with her and county and state police investigators.

That day, Kathy stepped into the small interview room at the station. Kathy was average height with long brown hair and she wore jeans and a red sweatshirt. And she looked very upset from the moment she sat down directly across from Miller. Miller spoke calmly and quietly. She thanked Kathy for coming in and then asked her to walk them through all the details of what happened when she went inside of Nancy's house all the way through to calling 911.

Kathy said when she'd gone to Nancy's the first time, she noticed some of Nancy's pill bottles were missing, and she also noticed the closet door of the meditation room was locked. And then when she went looking for the key to that closet that she knew Nancy always kept in her bedroom, she found it was gone. And so this was all very strange. And so that's what led Kathy to go back to her place, get her own key to the closet, and rush back to Nancy's house.

Then suddenly, Kathy's voice trailed off and she began wailing and heaving and struggling to breathe. The investigators worried she was hyperventilating, like she had during her 911 call. But despite Kathy's hysterics, Miller noticed something about Kathy that was very strange. Even though Kathy was visibly sobbing, Miller couldn't see any tears. Miller did not like to judge how people grieved, but she had seen suspects act like this before.

And they often used these huge displays of emotion to try to cover up their own guilt or to at least avoid answering questions.

Finally, when Kathy calmed down, Miller immediately began asking questions. She asked Kathy again if she had touched the bedding or Nancy's body when she went into the closet. Miller wanted to give Kathy a chance to change the story that she'd told her at the house. But Kathy said she had not touched Nancy. When she was in the closet, she had just looked at the floor, saw her friend's bloody hair, and immediately knew Nancy was dead.

At this point, Miller sat up straight in her chair. Her height could make her intimidating, but her demeanor always remained totally calm. Miller thought there was a good chance Kathy was lying, but there was also a chance Kathy had been so upset that she really didn't remember everything that happened. People in shock can forget things, so maybe Kathy had partially uncovered Nancy's body, covered it back up, and then sort of blocked it out of her mind.

Another deputy in the room pushed the interview forward and asked Kathy if she resented Nancy for her money. Was she angry that she had to run around doing errands for Nancy while never getting paid a dime for it? But Kathy shook her head. She said it wasn't like that. She and Nancy were extremely close and they loved each other. And something about the way Kathy said that struck Miller as strange. She couldn't be sure, but this woman seemed like more than just a broken-hearted friend. So Miller leaned in and asked Kathy if she and Nancy were actually lovers.

Kathy looked very surprised by this question, but she took a deep breath and looked very calm for the first time in the interview, and then she said that she and Nancy had been intimate, but only one time and that it didn't matter. They were just friends who cared about each other. Kathy insisted that she was not some kind of jealous girlfriend and that she had nothing to do with Nancy's murder.

Miller didn't show any sort of reaction on her face. She had no idea if Kathy was actually telling the truth about being intimate with Nancy only once, but she thought that if it was true, certainly once could have been enough to complicate the relationship. And so after a tense silence, Miller asked if Kathy could think of anyone who might have wanted to hurt her friend. Kathy sat there silent. An angry look came across her face and then she nodded. She said she had a pretty good idea of who wanted to kill Nancy. It was Dr. Trey Styler and his wife.

After the interview with Kathy, Investigator Miller thought that Kathy was either directly involved with the murder or just knew more than she was letting on. Kathy had easy access to Nancy's house and a key to the walk-in closet where Nancy had been found. Kathy also had a sexual relationship with Nancy at least one time, and she seemed to know details about the body that only the killer would know. But all the evidence pointing at Kathy was still circumstantial, so for the time, police let her go home.

Soon after Kathy left, county officers located Trey and his wife at the hotel where they were staying, and they asked them to come to the station. When Trey walked into the interview room for his interview, Miller was taken aback by how frail this man looked. He clearly struggled to walk, and he was extremely underweight for his height. This just was not a guy with the physical strength to murder Nancy, then wrap her up, drag her to the closet, and then flip over a mattress. It just was not possible.

But Kathy, in her interview, really seemed to think that Trey and his wife were capable of killing Nancy and had wanted to kill Nancy. So Miller began by asking Trey about his relationship with Nancy and his time living alone inside of her house. Trey would admit that Nancy could be very difficult to deal with as a landlord. She was terrible at keeping records and often thought she was owed money that she had already been paid.

But Trey had said that working with Kathy and Nancy's attorney had made things a lot easier, so any issues he might have had with renting the house always got worked out. When Trey's wife had her interview, she basically said the same thing as her husband. And even though she was not frail like her husband, investigators did not think this slight woman in her mid-60s could have physically carried out the murder on her own either.

So by the time Trey and his wife left the station, investigators still believed that Kathy was the most likely suspect. And Miller thought there were two key pieces of evidence they needed to find to directly link Kathy to the murder. There were Nancy's missing pills and Nancy's missing key to the closet.

On February 28, 2014, two days after Nancy's body was discovered, a county sanitation worker walked along a street checking the public trash cans. A lot of mountain towns in Colorado have strict rules about what can and can't be deposited in public trash cans in an effort to keep bears away. And so sanitation workers literally check the trash cans to make sure these rules are being followed.

And so this worker opened a trash can out in front of some shops, and right away, something caught his eye. In an open bag, he saw several pill bottles. This type of personal trash was not going to attract bears, but it was still not allowed in public trash cans. So he leaned in to grab the bag, and when he got closer, he saw the name on the bottles. Nancy Pfister.

Like everybody in the area, the worker knew about Nancy's murder, so he immediately contacted the sheriff's department. Investigator Miller got word that the missing pills had been found, and she couldn't believe her luck. It was like a prayer had been answered. Then, the following day, a man was walking down the sidewalk not far from where the pills had been found, and he saw something on the ground, glinting in the sunlight. He bent down and saw it was a key, and there was a tag on the keychain that said, Owner's Closet.

He picked it up and handed it over to a county police officer who was parked nearby. And back at the sheriff's department, it did not take long for officers to realize that this key was the missing key to Nancy's meditation room. And so investigators started to feel like they must have a guardian angel or something. In the span of two days, two random people had located key pieces of evidence that helped break the case wide open. Because the locations where the key and the pill bottles had been found made it pretty clear who had gotten rid of them.

So, over the next couple of weeks, investigators followed up on the evidence, shored up their case, and then made an arrest. Then, about three months later in June, Investigator Miller, along with officers from the county and state police, sat in an interview room and listened to the killer's full confession. Based on that confession, the following is a reconstruction of what investigators were told happened to Nancy Pfister on the night of February 24th, 2014.

That night, the killer stood at the bottom of Nancy's stairs inside of her house, holding several trash bags and an electrical cord in one gloved hand and a hammer in the other. They walked up the stairs slowly, trying not to make any noise. Once they reached the second floor, they headed down the hall and walked into Nancy's bedroom. The killer saw Nancy asleep in her bed. She had her headphones in and she was wearing an eye mask to block out any light.

This put the killer at ease. It didn't look like Nancy was going to wake up and fight back. So, the killer walked over to the bed and put down the trash bags and the cord but kept the hammer in their hand. Then they just stood there staring at Nancy as she slept. After taking a breath, the killer slowly raised that hammer up into the air and then smashed it down into Nancy's head.

The killer felt Nancy's skull crack, but they immediately raised the hammer again and kept swinging it down at her head and face. As they did, blood splashed against the headboard and ran down into the mattress. Eventually, the killer stopped their frenzied attack and lowered the hammer, and then stared down at Nancy's now dead body.

Then they dropped the hammer onto the trash bags, and then took the top blanket off the bed and placed it on the floor. Then the killer quickly pulled the bloody sheets off the bed and threw those on top of Nancy's body, and then they grabbed the corners of the blanket and began to drag the blanket with Nancy on top of it over to the walk-in closet. When they reached the closet, the killer noticed Nancy's key was sticking out of the lock on the closet door. So they dropped the blanket, used the key to open the door, and then dragged Nancy inside the closet.

Then, they ran back into the bedroom, grabbed the trash bags, and went back into the closet. There, the killer crouched down and wrapped Nancy's head in one of the bags. They cinched it tight around her neck using the electrical cord, then they also wrapped up her torso and her legs with the other trash bags. Once they were satisfied, the killer also wrapped Nancy in her own bedsheets as well as her own blanket and then left her right in the middle of the closet.

The killer stood up and looked down at the floor where Nancy was, and to them, it was barely even noticeable that a body was under all those layers. So they stepped out of the closet, closed and locked the door, and pocketed Nancy's key. Then they went back to Nancy's bed and flipped it over so the blood wouldn't show. Then the killer went into the bathroom and took a few pill bottles from the counter. They figured this might make it look like Nancy had just taken off for a few days.

Finally, the killer headed downstairs, carrying the hammer and the pills in their hands, and as they exited the house, they could hear the sound of Nancy's dog barking in the kitchen. But they didn't care. They just rushed out to their car, hopped inside, and drove a few miles away to the hotel where they were staying. In the days following Nancy's murder, investigators came to believe that Kathy was involved, because it looked like she had lied, and because she knew details that she could not have seen without handling the body.

But then police received those two key pieces of missing evidence, Nancy's pill bottles and her closet key, and they were both found right near the hotel where Trey and his wife were staying. And when investigators followed up with them, they discovered that Trey and his wife's relationship with Nancy had actually totally fallen apart while Nancy was in Australia.

Nancy was not just absent-minded when it came to getting her rent, like Trey had suggested. Instead, she was aggressive and kind of a bully. She wanted the Stylers to pay several months' rent, which was over $13,000, in cash all at once. But Trey insisted that was not what they had agreed to, and his medical bills were draining his savings, so paying that all at once really was not an option.

Over the course of Nancy's trip, both parties got their attorneys involved and started accusing the others of trying to rip them off. So by the time Nancy finally flew back to Colorado, Trey and his wife had made it clear they were very, very angry at her. In fact, they had told Kathy on several occasions that they wished Nancy was dead.

And it would turn out, Kathy had basically said the same thing to the Stylers. She also seemed fed up with Nancy, specifically the demands Nancy kept putting on her. And she said there was a dark and cruel side to Nancy that really only people close to her saw. Her public perception is she was not this snobby, awful person, but, you know, behind closed doors, at least to Kathy and to the Stylers, she was.

When investigators learned all of this, they no longer believed Trey and his wife were innocent. But they also didn't believe that this couple was physically capable of committing this murder without help. So investigators became convinced that the Stylers and Kathy had killed Nancy together. And in March of 2014, police arrested Trey, his wife, and Kathy.

But then in June, when all three suspects were behind bars, Investigator Miller sat and listened to a full confession. But that confession only came from Trey. He claimed he had planned and carried out the murder all by himself. His wife and Kathy had nothing to do with it.

In fact, Trey explained that he'd experienced this insane jolt of adrenaline on the night of the murder, something he had never felt before that made it feel like he had no health problems. And so he said that was how he was able to kill Nancy with a hammer, drag her body to the closet, and wrap her up in blankets, sheets, and trash bags. And so based on Trey's confession, his wife and Kathy were eventually released from jail. Trey was ultimately sentenced to 20 years in prison, but in 2015, he hanged himself in his cell.

After Trey's death, his wife received a $1 million life insurance payout, and she would go on to write a book about Nancy Pfister's murder. To this day, some people involved in this investigation do not believe Trey Styler acted alone, that basically he confessed in order to protect Kathy and his wife.

Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more strange, dark, and mysterious content, be sure to check out all of our studios' podcasts. They are this one, of course, Mr. Ballin Podcast, and we also have Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, we have Bedtime Stories, and also Run Full. To find those other podcasts, all you have to do is search for Ballin Studios wherever you listen to your podcasts.

To watch hundreds more stories just like the ones you heard today, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya.

In a quiet suburb, a community is shattered by the death of a beloved wife and mother. But this tragic loss of life quickly turns into something even darker. Her husband had tried to hire a hitman on the dark web to kill her, and she wasn't the only target. Because buried in the depths of the internet is The Kill List, a cache of chilling documents containing names, photos, addresses, and specific instructions for people's murders.

This podcast is the true story of how I ended up in a race against time to warn those whose lives were in danger. And it turns out convincing a total stranger someone wants them dead is not easy. Follow Kill List on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Kill List and more Exhibit C True Crime shows like Morbid early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+. Check out Exhibit C in the Wondery app for all your true crime listening.