Nanette Krentel
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To get this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, please visit patreon.com/forensictales. Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. On the quiet afternoon of Friday, July 14th, 2017, in a peaceful Louisiana town, a distressing call sent shockwaves through the local emergency services.

As the clock struck 2:30 p.m., 911 dispatchers were jolted into action by a frantic voice on the other end of the line. A house fire, raging with an eerie black smoke, had consumed the residents of none other than the fire chief himself. In a cruel twist of fate, the flames not only devoured the home, but held a deadly secret within their lethal grip.

Can the ashes reveal the truth behind this devastating inferno? This is Forensic Tales, episode number 183. The mysterious death of Nanette Krentl. ♪

Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola.

Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.

As a one-woman show, your support helps me find new compelling cases, conduct in-depth fact-based research, and produce and edit this weekly show. You can support my work in two simple ways. Become a valued patron at patreon.com slash forensic tales or leave a positive review. Before we get to this week's episode, we've got three new supporters that I want to thank.

Thank you so much to Irene Oh, Justin M., and Margaret J. for becoming the show's newest patrons. Now, let's get to this week's episode. On the afternoon of Friday, July 14, 2017, around 2.30 p.m., 911 dispatchers in Lacombe, Louisiana, were alarmed by a phone call reporting a house fire in a rural area of town.

The concerned caller said their daughter had been riding her bike along a dirt road near their family's property when she saw something sinister. It was black smoke coming from their neighbor's house. Within minutes of receiving the call, firefighters from several different fire districts in Louisiana responded. As soon as they arrived, they realized the full gravity of the situation. This was no kitchen fire, not even close.

The entire house was completely engulfed in flames, and the house belonged to the fire chief, Steve Krentel. Before most of the responding firefighters arrived at the house, Steve and another District 12 fire station co-worker were already there. As the fire captain, he was among the first to hear about the calls over the radio.

He said as soon as he heard the call come in about a fire at his house, he and another coworker immediately hopped into a car and drove there. When they arrived, he found that additional firefighters from the neighboring fire stations were also just arriving. Unfortunately, their efforts proved useless as they had arrived too late. By the time Steve and the rest of the firefighters arrived, there wasn't much hope.

This wasn't a small fire like you'd see if you maybe left the stove on. No. The entire Krentle house was engulfed in flames. Steve's first thought was his wife. In a panic, Steve told his fellow firefighters that when he left the house to go to work earlier that morning, around 7.45 a.m., his wife Nanette was at home. She might still be inside the burning house. But what could they do?

No firefighter could have gotten inside the house at that point. So all they could do was put the fire out and wait and see if Nanette had escaped. And maybe, by some miracle, she wasn't home. Moments later, Steve's worst fears were confirmed when they saw her red Mercedes parked in the burning garage. Sadly, Steve was right. His wife Nanette was in fact inside the house.

He knew she didn't have any plans that day, and she wouldn't have gone anywhere without her car. When firefighters finally put the fire out, the house burned to the ground. Almost nothing was left, and if Nanette was inside like they suspected, there was no way she could have survived. So as soon as the fire was out, they started looking inside the burned house, looking for any sign of her.

But after only a few minutes of searching the charred remains of the house, everyone's worst nightmare came true. While searching the part of the house that once was the master bedroom where Nanette and Steve slept, they found her. Inside the master bedroom was the badly burned body of 49-year-old and former preschool teacher Nanette Krentel. Her body was discovered lying face up on the bedroom floor.

and next to her body were the burned bodies of her dog and two cats. They had also died in the fire. The dog was Harley, her beloved long-haired chihuahua that went everywhere with her. Nanette and her three pets had been burned so badly that they were almost unrecognizable. DNA tests would later confirm that the body actually did belong to Nanette because there was no other way to officially identify her.

But even with DNA testing, Steve knew that it was his wife. She would have been the only other person inside the house that day. The Louisiana State Fire Marshal was called into the investigation around 4 o'clock p.m., and they were assigned to the case. Not only did they have a massive house fire on their hands, but now they had a death investigation.

When the state fire marshal is called to a scene, their first job is to try and figure out how the fire started. They needed to know, was this an accident or did something else happen? So the Louisiana state fire marshal first searched the entire house for evidence suggesting how and where the fire originated. If they were going to figure out what killed Nanette, they first needed to answer all the questions about the fire.

Almost immediately, the scene seemed off. This just wasn't your typical house fire. Almost everything about the scene screamed, this isn't normal for a house fire. For starters, they found not only one handgun besides Nanette's body, but they found two handguns.

Why would there be two guns next to her body if this was just a simple house fire? But even bigger than the guns was the question of where or how the fire started. Because the house burned so quickly, investigators knew there had to be some type of accelerant used. A typical house fire just doesn't burn that fast or intensely.

So fire investigators decided to bring in two highly trained and experienced dogs to sniff around the house and see if they could detect any type of accelerant. When the two dogs arrived, they immediately picked up on two locations in the house with an accelerant. One spot was on a DVR in the living room, and the second spot was on one of Nanette's cats.

Not only did this mean that there were at least two points of origin in the house where the fire started, but it also meant that one of her cats might have been set on fire. Within only a few hours of putting the fire out, the Louisiana State Fire Marshal suspected that it had been intentionally started. They wouldn't go as far as to say it was arson, but there was enough evidence inside the house suggesting that it was deliberately set.

But if that was the case, who started the fire? To try and answer that very question, the police and fire marshal looked at the only person inside the house at the time, the victim herself, Nanette Krentel. She was the only one home at the time, and investigators wondered, could this have been some type of suicide? Did Nanette intentionally start the fire?

According to the investigators, all the evidence inside the house pointed towards a possible suicide. Despite not having any history of mental illness, depression, or suicidal thoughts, they wondered if suicide could have been possible. Although the house had nine security cameras, all of the evidence and videos from the cameras were destroyed in the fire, so no proof existed.

If Nanette did kill herself and set the house on fire, there was no video proof. And if she didn't kill herself, there was no proof of that either, at least not in the way of video evidence. Although investigators considered suicide, they couldn't stop there. They had to keep investigating. So the day after the fire, July 15th, Nanette's body was taken to the medical examiner's office for an autopsy. But her autopsy didn't answer anything.

It only opened up a host of new puzzling questions. During the autopsy, the medical examiner found strange things that just didn't seem to make sense. Number one, the medical examiner found no soot in Nanette's lungs, and this seemed to be red flag number one. In many cases involving fire victims, you'd expect to see smoke in their lungs.

That's because the number one cause of fire-related death is smoke inhalation. Once someone starts to inhale smoke during a fire, it may only take 2 to 10 minutes to either pass out or die. That's simply because the body isn't getting enough oxygen.

Now, in Nanette's case, the medical examiner found no smoke in her lungs, which suggested to him that she might have already been dead by the time the fire started, because if she were alive when it started, he probably would have seen some evidence of either smoke or soot in her lungs. But in this case, there wasn't anything. Her lungs were almost completely clear. So this was essentially the first real big red flag.

But it wasn't only the status of her lungs that seemed strange. The condition of her head was even stranger. When the medical examiner looked at Nanette's head, he immediately noticed she had a single gunshot wound to her head slightly above her right ear.

This explains why she didn't have any smoke in her lungs. She was already dead from a single gunshot wound to the head before she would have died from smoke inhalation. And she had probably died before the fire even started. The medical examiner's findings at the autopsy seemed to change everything. If they had been sold on a suicide theory the day before, these findings had to have made them question everything.

Was this really a suicide? Is it possible she shot herself right after setting the house on fire? Or did something far more sinister happen? Immediately following the autopsy, the police and fire marshal worked to devise a timeline of Nanette's last known movements on July 14th.

They wanted to see if she did anything that day, suggesting she might have been suicidal. Or anything else that could shed some light on what might have happened. According to Nanette's husband, Steve, the morning of July 14th was a typical morning for both of them. After Nanette woke up, she went downstairs to the kitchen to make Steve breakfast and lunch to take to work that day, something that she did every day.

After she was done, Steve told the police he left the house and headed to work at the fire station around 7.45 a.m. He told investigators that his wife seemed fine, she was happy, and that there weren't any red flags before he headed out the door that morning. Investigators then started looking for any surveillance cameras in the surrounding area to see if they could spot Nanette's red Mercedes.

They soon discovered that a little after Steve left for work that morning, Nanette's car was spotted going through a McDonald's fast food restaurant drive-thru. The police couldn't determine who exactly the driver was, but it was definitely her red Mercedes. They could also see a small dog sitting inside the car, which they believed was her beloved chihuahua Harley that she was known to take everywhere with her.

They also got her cell phone data and credit card information, suggesting that she was in fact in the area at the time and had used her credit card at that McDonald's location sometime around that morning and made a purchase for $7. More cell phone data suggested Nanette was back home by 9.11 a.m. A security camera installed in one of her neighbor's houses spotted the car driving up to the house just after 9 a.m.,

Based on the cell phone data, investigators also know that she placed two phone calls from her cell phone. One call was made at 10.03 to a local Kmart pharmacy. Now, it's unclear whether it was actually Nanette who placed the call. All the police really know for sure was that it was her cell phone used to call the pharmacy. No one at the Kmart recalled ever speaking with a woman named Nanette Krentel.

And even if it was her, she might not have spoken to someone. It is possible that she simply used an automated system to maybe refill a prescription. Now, a second phone call was also made from her cell phone, but this time it was at 1.30 p.m. Now, this second phone call is really strange because the call was placed to an unknown number.

When the police spoke with the person with that phone number, they said they never talked to Nanette. And even stranger, they said they didn't even know who she was. So this second phone call at 1.30 p.m., just before the fire, is a little bit of a mystery. Who was Nanette trying to call, and was it actually her using her cell phone?

Less than an hour after that second phone call, the police received the 911 call about the fire. The day after the fire and the same day as Nanette's autopsy, her family flew in from Iowa. They were completely devastated by the news, and they grew even more upset once they learned the police considered this a suicide. But according to Nanette's sister, the police never once reached out to speak to them.

They didn't ask if she had ever talked about committing suicide or to find out more about her history or background. According to the sister, the cops never spoke to them in the early days of the investigation, which they found strange, especially since they had a lot to say. The family had their own theories about what might have happened to Nanette. Do you know what I don't miss at all? That vicious week before my period each month.

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That's happy mammoth.com and use code tails for 15% off today. The first person Nanette's family wanted the cops to speak to was her husband, Steve. Not only was it eerie for Nanette to die in a house fire when her husband is the fire chief, but then there was also their rocky relationship.

Although they had been married for over 20 years, Nanette's dad thought that Steve was always very controlling, especially when it came to when she was allowed to spend time with her family. They also said that Steve had an affair with another woman about two years before the fire. Although Steve would later claim that Nanette knew about the affair and she was okay with it, her family wasn't as convinced.

But her cousin also noticed something. According to her cousin, Nanette always had strange bruises and marks on her. When she asked Nanette about the bruises, she could never really explain where they came from. She would just simply brush it off and say she didn't know. Although there had never been any reported incidents of domestic violence in the house, her family never understood where the bruises came from.

Immediately after the fire, the police sat down and spoke with Steve, who told them everything they did before he left to work that morning. But they also wanted to talk to him about his relationship with Nanette. They tried to find out if there was any truth to the family's speculations. Almost instantly, Steve admitted he did have that affair with another woman.

but he claimed Nanette knew about it and had forgiven him, as her family said. He also said the affair happened about two years earlier, and he wasn't seeing the other woman anymore. Nanette forgave him for everything, and he said they had moved on. He also had a solid alibi for the time of the fire.

When the fire started, he was at work and dozens of coworkers said he was there. Now, remember, Steve was a fire chief. So all the other firefighters said that he was there all morning. So essentially, he couldn't have been at the house when the fire started. Everything Steve said during this interview seemed to check out. He said his wife was acting normal that morning.

He left and was miles away at work when the fire started. And despite having marital issues, he and Nanette were doing much better. So initially, this conversation seemed like a dead end. But Steve wasn't the only person Nanette's family wanted the cops to speak to. They also wanted them to sit down and talk with Steve's brother, Brian.

One of the concerns Nanette's family said she complained about was that she didn't think her husband, Steve, was protecting her well enough. Specifically, he wasn't protecting her from his brother, Brian. According to her family, Brian had threatened both Nanette and Steve over the years, including one specific threat about killing her and burning down the house.

This particular threat stemmed from an incident where Brian was arrested for a DUI and blamed going to jail on Steve and Nanette. He said being arrested was their fault and wanted to kill Nanette and burn down the house. But where exactly does a threat like this come from?

Well, according to police reports and Nanette's family, Brian Krentle had a lengthy criminal record, including several DUI arrests, drug convictions, and more. Over the years, Steve and Nanette did their very best to try and help him out. Brian would get arrested, and Nanette and Steve kept bailing him out. This went on for years. But everything in their relationship changed after one particular incident in 2015.

In 2015, Brian was arrested on drug charges and blamed the entire episode on his sister-in-law, Nanette. He had suspected that she was actually the one who picked up the phone and called the police and told them about the drugs.

So after that arrest in 2015, Brian's relationship with Steve and Nanette only worsened. And that's because he truly believed that Nanette was the one who called the police and she was the reason why he was arrested. After that point in 2015, Brian started making threats about wanting to harm them, specifically Nanette.

According to her family, he talked about burning down their house, which is why they wanted the cops to investigate him as a possible suspect. After Brian had threatened to kill Nanette and burn down the house, Steve and Nanette decided to install security cameras around the house. According to Steve, Brian was the whole reason they installed the cameras in the first place. Nanette was so worried about Brian following through on his threat that

But unfortunately, all nine of the security cameras were destroyed during the house fire, so investigators couldn't review them. Plus, all the video was stored in the DVR that was also burned in the house fire. Both Steve and Annette owned a lot of guns. Steve told the cops that at one point, they owned up to 30 handguns.

He specifically said Nanette would always have at least three guns either on or near her at all times. She always kept one in her purse, she kept one in the car, and she always kept a third in her bedroom near the bed. So if anything happened to her, she always had a gun nearby. So far, the police have two possible suspects. Number one, Steve the husband, and number two, the brother-in-law, Brian.

But that wasn't it. There were still more suspects. Suspect number three, Justin, Steve's adult son. At the time, Justin Krennel was 22 years old. He was Steve's adult son from a previous relationship, so he wasn't Nanette's biological child. He was considered a possible suspect because it was reported that the two of them didn't get along.

Justin and his stepmom, Nanette, had a lot of issues over the years. At one point, Nanette had even told some people in her family that she was scared of him because he had such a bad temper. Although Justin never threatened her like Brian did, she still said she was afraid of him. But the investigation into Justin was short and ended with him being cleared. Justin had an airtight alibi at the time of the fire.

It was reported that he was miles away living in Virginia with his wife. So essentially, he couldn't be in two places and he couldn't have done it. So despite his troubled relationship with his stepmom, he was officially ruled out. A few weeks before she died, Nanette told her dad about a possible stalker. She said she had seen some guy lurking around her house, making her uncomfortable.

She said the guy was simply passing back and forth in front of her front gate. Nanette had no idea what he was doing. And after seeing him, she returned inside the house and got her camera so that she could take some pictures of him. But she couldn't get a good shot. When Nanette walked down to the front gate where the man was standing, the guy had left a cigarette butt and a knife on the ground in front of her house.

She had also told her dad that she thought she was being followed by someone a few other times, but couldn't figure out who it was. Unfortunately, since Nanette couldn't get a good picture of him and no one knew who he was, the police could never track down this guy. And he couldn't be questioned either about her death or the fire. At this point in the investigation, the police had at least four possible suspects, including

Nanette's husband Steve, his brother Brian, his adult son Justin, and this mystery guy lurking around the house. But none of these people are very good suspects. Steve had an alibi and he was the fire chief. Justin also had an alibi. He was in Virginia miles away with his wife at the time of the fire. And no one knew exactly who this mystery stalker was.

They also didn't have much evidence linking Steve's brother Brian to the fire or her death. Both Brian and Steve passed a polygraph, so all the police could do was keep investigating. One of the biggest pieces of evidence collected from the burnt house was the two handguns found near Nanette's body. The police knew they both belonged to her and Steve,

but they needed to figure out if either gun was used to shoot Nanette. This would be vital to determine if she shot herself or if someone else did. If either gun matched the bullet found inside her head, it seemed more likely this was a suicide. But without a match, someone else could have shot her. Both guns were submitted to the state crime lab for ballistic testing.

When a bullet is fired from a gun, the gun leaves microscopic marks on the bullet and cartridge case. These marks are like ballistic fingerprints. These marks can also tell investigators whether the gun was used in the shooting. The results of the ballistic test shocked everyone, especially the police. Neither gun was believed to have been used to shoot Nanette.

Since the bullet was still lodged in her head at the time of the autopsy, the bullet was compared to both guns found near her body, and neither gun matched. But before suicide or homicide could officially be ruled either in or out, the investigators discovered more guns. During the initial search of the house, the investigators only found two of Steve and Annette's guns.

The police only spent a few hours searching for evidence before it was returned to the family. So from a crime scene perspective, the scene wasn't well secured. As soon as Steve got the house back, he hired his own private investigator to conduct a second search. He just felt like the original detectives didn't do a very good job searching.

So when Steve's private investigator got to the property and searched what was left of the burnt house, he immediately found something in the ashes. It was another gun, a shotgun that was completely missed by the police during the first search. So it was never collected. Only when the private investigator, hired by Nanette's husband, conducted the search, did they find a third firearm.

As soon as the police heard about the third gun that they missed during the original search, they went back to the house five days later and re-secured the scene. Once secured, they did another sweep of the property to see if maybe they missed anything else. What else could they have missed if a third gun had been missed during the original investigation? Now, when the police searched the property, this is now for the second time,

they found yet another gun, gun number four. According to Nanette's family, this was the gun that she usually carried in her purse. So now this is the second gun the police failed to find during their initial search of the house and the fourth gun found inside the house at the time of the fire. This gun was even missed by the private investigator that Steve hired.

To everyone's defense, the house was completely burned to the ground. There wasn't much left of it. So it is possible that all of these guns were simply missed and it was an honest mistake. The third and fourth guns were sent to the crime lab for ballistic testing. The third gun found by the private investigator was ruled out because it was a shotgun and didn't match the type of bullet that Nanette was shot with.

But the fourth gun, the gun found on the third search, was a different story. After that gun was tested, investigators learned it fired the same caliber bullets that was used to shoot Nanette. Now, to be crystal clear here, the test didn't prove it was the actual gun used in the shooting.

It simply showed that it used the same caliber bullets. So it could have been the same gun, but that's not a guarantee. If the police have ever determined that this was the actual gun used in the shooting, they haven't publicly said that. The only thing that we know is that it had the same caliber bullets. As the weeks passed, Nanette's family grew even more frustrated with the police.

not only because they claimed the police refused to talk with them or keep them updated about the case, but they also were frustrated because they still considered her death as a possible suicide, and they were really upset that the police would even consider that. In Nanette's family's minds, this was a clear case of murder, not a suicide. Frustrated with the lack of progress in the case and the assumption that this might be a suicide,

The family decided to hire their own pathologist to perform a private autopsy. Fortunately for them, they decided to preserve Nanette's remains so that they could perform a second autopsy. They hoped that a private autopsy would find new insights. They hoped new insights would finally clear the air about suicide.

On September 13th, Nanette's second autopsy results were released. And according to the pathologist, her death should be officially ruled a homicide. In his ruling, he specifically noted how no smoke was found in her lungs, suggesting that she was already dead by the time the house was set on fire. He also pointed out how she was shot once in the head and the gunshot wound to her head killed her.

And based on his findings from the second autopsy, Nanette's death should be investigated as a homicide and not a suicide. But the police disagreed. In a press conference held shortly after the second autopsy results were made public, the sheriff's office said that they don't necessarily agree with these findings. They still believed this might have been a suicide, despite what either the first or the second autopsy found.

They also said in this press conference that additional evidence needed to be tested in the case before they would agree to investigate this as a homicide. Now, to this day, what that evidence is, the evidence that they see or they said needs to be retested, remains a mystery. And it's unclear whether it's actually been tested or not.

Even after the press conference, Nanette's family wouldn't give up. So they decided to have her autopsy results reviewed by a third pathologist to get yet another professional opinion. In late September, another independent pathologist, Dr. Thomas Bennett, reviewed the autopsy results.

On top of the autopsy, he also performed a skull reconstruction on her remains to understand the gunshot wound better. Based on his independent review, he also thought her death was a homicide. Dr. Bennett believed the gunshot wound to her head would have killed her instantly, and she wouldn't have been able to start the fire herself.

He thought that if she had started the fire, she would have had a significant amount of smoke in her lungs, but she didn't have any. But Dr. Bennett also found one more thing that everyone else seemed to miss. According to Dr. Thomas Bennett, there was a lack of blistering on her body. And this lack of blistering suggested that the fire did not reach her until she was already dead.

He also said there wasn't much blood around Nanette's body, as you'd expect to see involving a gunshot wound to the head. And according to him, this suggested she might have been moved after she was shot. And if that's true, she couldn't have shot herself, and this can't be a suicide.

A little over two months after Nanette's death, the sheriff's department had three different autopsies that all pointed toward homicide. But they wouldn't publicly admit anything. The police also said Nanette's husband, Steve, was officially cleared as a possible suspect because he had an airtight alibi. They said that he had been extremely cooperative from the start and even passed a polygraph test.

But just because he was officially cleared of any wrongdoing in his wife's mysterious death, that didn't mean he was off the hook. In November 2017, Steve became the subject of a civil service probe that alleged he had an inappropriate relationship with a female co-worker at the police department. This was allegedly the same woman he had an affair with that Nanette knew about.

The problem was Steve was the fire chief, and the woman he allegedly had an affair with was one of his subordinates. So in November 2017, a civil service probe into the incident was launched, but it had nothing to do with the fire. Six months later, in May 2018, Steve was officially removed from his position as fire chief, but was still allowed to work for the department in another administrative role.

But a few months later, he retired from the fire department entirely after serving for 20 years. As the months went by, Nanette's family grew even more frustrated with the lack of progress in the case. Even after three autopsies pointed toward homicide, there had been no arrests. But Nanette's story doesn't end there.

The case took an even stranger turn about five months later when Nanette's sister started receiving anonymous emails from someone claiming to know more about her sister's death.

Five months after the fire, Nanette's sister, Kim Watson, received a strange email from someone with the email address justicenanetteatyahoo.com on December 29th, 2017. The message came from someone who said they wanted to remain anonymous, but they claimed they knew some of the investigators working the case.

At first, the emails gave Kim lists of questions that she should ask the investigators working on her sister's case, like questions about what was or wasn't being done. The email also questioned why some people, like Steve, Nanette's husband, and his brother Brian, were given polygraphs so early in the investigation. It read, quote,

Why in the world would someone be given a polygraph prior to all the evidence being obtained? End quote. But Kim didn't simply receive one mysterious email about her sister's death. She didn't receive two or three. Over the next two years, Kim received 10 emails from this mysterious person using the email address justiceNanette at yahoo.com. But who was this mystery person?

It almost seemed like it had to be someone really close to the sheriff's department. Maybe they were a cop themselves. Because who else would know what type of questions the family should ask the police? In one of these emails, the person who wrote it said that a consultant was called in to help the sheriff's department with the investigation.

So the family decided to go to the police and ask them if this was true. Did they bring in a consultant? As the email said, they wanted to know. But first, the sheriff's department wanted to know who told them about this. How did they know about this consultant? The police had never announced it publicly. So that's when Nanette's sister told them everything about the emails she had been receiving.

After that, the police went to a judge requesting a search warrant for the person who registered the email address justicenanetteatyahoo.com. Once they had the search warrant, they discovered a former federal agent created the account and sent the emails to Nanette's family. The former federal agent was Jerry Rogers.

Although Jerry Rogers worked as a federal agent, he used to work for the Sheriff's Department overseeing Nanette's case. But how did Jerry Rogers have all this information about the investigation? And why did he get involved and send those emails? After a little bit of digging, it was discovered that his former partner was giving him all the information because his former partner worked for the Sheriff's Department.

But the answer to the question, why, why did he get involved, isn't as clear. To this day, it's a mystery why Rogers got involved, created the fake email address, and started emailing Danette's family.

Once it was discovered that Jerry Rogers, a former federal agent, was behind the emails, he was arrested for criminal defamation. Now, he wasn't being arrested for providing Nanette's family information about the ongoing investigation, but instead, he was arrested for criminal defamation. In other words, his emails also included a lot of criticism of the sheriff's department, saying,

In these emails, or at least in many of them, he basically said that the sheriff's department was useless and would never solve the case. He also talked a lot about several conspiracy theories involving the department. Now, as of today, the criminal charges against Jerry Rogers are currently pending, and it's a mystery why he decided to involve himself in Nanette's case.

Over the years, Nanette's family has remained relentless in their search for answers. And over the years, they've considered that she might have been killed the day before the fire. According to the family, there are at least two reasons why they think she might have been killed earlier. Number one, her social media activity stopped around 10.30 p.m. the previous night.

And according to them, this was extremely unusual because she was always known to be very active on social media. And number two was the McDonald's surveillance video. In 2018, the family was finally allowed to watch the surveillance video of Nanette's car in the drive-thru. But after the family watched it, they had their doubts about whether it really was Nanette driving.

Because the video is so blurry and grainy, it's impossible to say whether or not it's actually her. Yes, it was her red Mercedes, her car, but according to the family, you can't actually tell if she's driving or not. As of today, the death of Nanette Krentl remains unsolved, and the circumstances surrounding her death remain a mystery.

But even after all these years, her family remains hopeful an arrest will someday happen, and they will finally receive the justice they've so desperately searched for. Although few suspects have surfaced over the years, including Nanette's husband Steve, his brother, and his son, none are still considered suspects. All three of them have been officially cleared by the Sheriff's Department.

Anyone with information about the mysterious death of Nanette Krentl is asked to contact the City of New Orleans Crime Stoppers at 877-903-STOP. One more time, that's 877-903-STOP. There's also a $10,000 reward for any information. To share your thoughts on this story, be sure to follow the show on Instagram and Facebook.

To find out what I think about the case, sign up to become a patron at patreon.com slash forensic tales. After each episode, I release a bonus episode where I share my personal thoughts and opinions about the case. You'll want to listen to this one because I'm going to share with you what I think happened to Nanette. Don't forget to subscribe to Forensic Tales so you don't miss an episode. We release a new episode every Monday.

If you love the show, consider leaving us a positive review or tell friends and family about us. You can also help support the show through Patreon. Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please join me next week. We'll have a brand new case and a brand new story to talk about. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings. ♪

Thank you.

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For a complete list of sources used in this episode, please visit ForensicTales.com. Thank you for listening. I'll see you next week. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.