Rhonda Casto // 404
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What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. Today we have a very suspicious case that takes place in the Oregon wilderness. This case is so frustrating. There were so many times where Heath and I

We're just like, our blood is boiling. Punching the air in this case. Punching. Absolutely. I really want to know what you guys think about this case. So please, after you listen to it, head on over to our discussion group on Facebook and let us know because it is insane. Yeah, or you can go to our Instagram at Going West Podcast and comment there because we love reading those as well. And this story, like we're saying, it's just like...

Oh my god. Well, without further ado, this is episode 404 of Going West, so let's get into it. 🎵

Thank you.

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In March of 2009, a 23-year-old woman went hiking with her boyfriend on a beautiful trail in Oregon that included a narrow path along a cliffside.

When she fell to her death and an investigation began, her boyfriend's story continued to falter and change as sinister happenings from his past emerged. This is the story of Ronda Castro. ♪♪

Rhonda Kristen Casto was born on July 2nd, 1985 in Galveston, Texas to parents Julia Simmons and Timothy Allen Casto. Although we couldn't find very much information about her father, but it appears that at some point in Rhonda's life, she, along with her mother and two sisters, Melanie and Tessa, moved to the Portland, Oregon area.

Friends of Rhonda's described her as funny and said, quote, In 2005, Rhonda was a 20-year-old aspiring model who had caught the attention of big companies like Nike, whose headquarters is located in Beaverton, Oregon, just outside of Portland.

Rhonda was full of life and had big dreams and goals for herself, according to her mother, and she was excited to see who she could become in the modeling world. In 2005, Rhonda was living out of the house and her mom, Julia, was looking for a new place to live with her daughter, Tessa, who again is Rhonda's younger sister, who was nine years old at this time.

She had been scanning ads on Portland's Craigslist for weeks when she noticed one that seemed like it could potentially be a good fit. The ad was looking for a roommate to take over one of the rooms in a three-bedroom condo, and the man who owned the condo was a 30-year-old day trader from Bend, Oregon, which is a beautiful rural city about three hours outside of Portland, named Stephen Wagner Nichols.

And just keep in mind that Julia is 41 during this time.

So when Julia met Stephen Nichols, she was impressed with him from the get-go. He was successful, kind of charming, and came off as a very put-together and intelligent person. So she made the decision to move in with him into his three-bedroom condo in Portland with nine-year-old Tessa. And it seems like they rented two of the rooms because he did have two of them available, so it seemed like a perfect situation.

So Julia and Stephen became close, sharing not only their living quarters, but also details about their lives. And this included the fact that Julia had another daughter, 20-year-old Rhonda, whom she believed would be a good match for 30-year-old Stephen, as he had recently divorced.

At first, Stephen wasn't interested in being set up, but when he heard about how beautiful and amazing Rhonda was, he gave it a chance. But he didn't decide this until he met her when she came over one day that same year in 2005. When she walked into his condo, Stephen explained that his jaw dropped to the floor and that he thought to himself, quote,

So, it didn't really take long for Steven to ask Rhonda out, and the two began dating, which of course was encouraged by Rhonda's mother. Yeah, she was, you know, getting to know him really well and felt like he was a good guy. Yeah, and potentially a good fit for Rhonda. So, Julia said that her daughter Rhonda was impressed by him, just like she was, as Steven was successful.

Julia said, quote, "I think she was attracted not so much to his looks, but to his... what he had. His condo, his money, his, you know, status." So not long after Rhonda and Steven developed a romantic relationship, Rhonda decided to move into his condo where her mother also lived. So now we have Rhonda and Steve in one room, Julia Simmons in another, and Rhonda's sister Tessa in the third room.

Stephen's father remembers that those days were really happy times, stating, quote, Then, in 2008, Stephen and Rhonda shared the exciting news that Rhonda was pregnant, and that year, she gave birth to the couple's only child, a baby girl.

As it goes, on the outside, everything seemed perfect between the couple, and Rhonda was elated to be a new mother. She was careful and loving and protective, and Stephen was using his money to continue to impress Rhonda, buying her gifts and essentially whatever she wanted. It was also known at the time that Rhonda wanted to get married, especially after their daughter was born. And the couple had even looked at engagement rings together. But after a few years of dating around this same time,

trouble was brewing because Steven had allegedly become abusive mentally and physically. And to describe Steven a little bit more, because we've watched a bunch of interviews of him, he just kind of comes off as very smug and egotistical, almost like he's the most intelligent person in the room,

And obviously this is going to become way more apparent as the episode goes on. Smug is the perfect word to describe him. He acts like he can't do wrong, like he's perfect, and it is so annoying. He also just kind of acts like he's smarter than everybody else. Like he knows how to kind of manipulate people and like he's this...

super smart intelligent human being. Yeah, you guys will see what we mean. Well, by 2009, Steven and Rhonda's relationship wasn't really going very well, with Rhonda even describing it as loveless. Family members of Rhonda's explained that their relationship was toxic.

and that Rhonda had even considered whether or not she should take their baby and leave Steven altogether. But Steven, on the other hand, described their relationship as loving, and that they were closer than ever. Full denial. Yeah, completely. He basically said that they never fought, which was just not true. Well, it was at this time that Steven explains that Rhonda was struggling with her weight. His words...

stating that after she had their daughter, she gained a lot of weight and wanted to lose some pounds so that she could return to modeling.

Again, in his words to CBS, quote, she was the heaviest she had ever been and she felt disgusting. And he laughs when he says this too, but by the time that he's explaining this, she is dead and he's just laughing about her being disgusting. Yeah, or about her supposedly calling herself disgusting. Yeah, it's just, it's a really weird, weird thing to talk about, but it does lead into what comes next.

Because apparently she wanted to lose weight, Stevens said that he and Rhonda made this pact and this fitness goal to hike 20 or 25 of the top trails in Oregon and cross them off the list one by one.

But Rhonda's friend Jessica refuted this claim, stating that Stephen had only planned one specific hike for them in March of 2009, and it happened to be one of the most dangerous hikes in the area. It's called Eagle Creek. And remember, it's interesting that this is the one hike that he planned with what's to come.

But before we move on, I want to give you guys a brief description of the trail taken from the Forest Service website. And we will post photos of this area that will include pictures of the trail itself. It's really important to kind of get a grasp of what this area looked like. So it says, quote, this spectacular cliffside hike passes through a forested basalt cliff overlooking Eagle Creek.

It affords spectacular views of the creek's slot canyon, where a cool, ethereal fog offers a reprieve on a hot summer day.

Small waterfalls trickle along the sides of the cliff, and the trail passes many large waterfalls, including the iconic Punchbowl Falls, which is accessed from a side trail about two miles up the trail. About three miles up, hikers will encounter the aptly named High Bridge, which traverses a narrow gorge 150 feet above the creek.

Many hikers choose to backpack as far as Tunnel Falls, about seven miles up the trail where they can pass behind falling waters. Around mile five, you enter Wilderness where a free permit is required, available at the Wilderness Boundary.

This is one of the most popular trails in the Columbia River Gorge and can be a crowded experience on summer weekends. Sheer cliffs have no handrails on the parts of this trail, so this hike is not recommended for children or those afraid of heights, despite its gentle overall grade. Please also be mindful of your pets and be sure to wear proper footwear. So this trailhead is located about 41 miles northeast of Portland,

and about 30 miles from the city of Hood River, and it is truly a stunning scenery. Now, when Daphne said that the trail is dangerous, we don't mean difficulty-wise, because it's actually listed as moderate, but parts of the trail are very narrow, sitting high above the ground below,

with very minimal safety guards in place to prevent a fall. Hence, why it's not really recommended for children. Yeah, we'll post a photo, but in these narrow parts, there's like, I don't know the proper terminology, but essentially a makeshift handrail made from rope that's connected to the mountain. So you do have something to hold on to, which I probably would if I was on that trail, because it does look super narrow. And I also want to mention really quick that Heath and I did do just a quick search to see

If a lot of people have died on this trail, we found two instances of people dying, not at this narrow part where there's 150 foot drop, but on other parts where the drop is much more mild. One of them died at 20 feet, the other at 70 feet. So I'm sure over time there has been others, but it's not like a dangerous place. Yeah, and I think the problem here is that, like you said, the handrail is connected to the side of the mountain.

So on the side where you could potentially fall 150 feet to your death, there's nothing really stopping you there. And I'd say probably the trail as far as like how narrow it is goes, it's probably about like three feet, I want to say, two to three feet, maybe two and a half feet wide. Yeah.

So yeah, not a whole lot of space in case you accidentally mess up. Which is, I mean, I think any hike can be dangerous, but particularly for this one, this is the type of hike when you're on particularly this narrow part, you want to be super careful and watch where you step because that fall is very obvious. There is a whole cliff right there along that entire path. Very obvious. Yeah, but of course, as we mentioned, a lot of people hike this. It's a very, very popular spot.

And there are very, very few instances on this entire trail where people, you know, get hurt or die. But still, it kind of makes it an interesting and strange first stop on Stephen's alleged list of trails. But regardless, Rhonda seemed excited about the adventure that Stephen had planned because in the years that they had dated, he hadn't really taken the time to plan anything for her. Julia said, quote,

She said that he had been kind of bugging her to go hiking for like two or three weeks, like a month. But in one of the most eerie and foreshadowing ways, Rhonda told her mother, quote,

Julia couldn't tell if her daughter was joking or if she was actually afraid for her life in that moment. And I think that really shows their relationship. Like, clearly they're at heads with each other with the throw me off a cliff bit. But also, they have a daughter, so it feels like part of her was also maybe ready to commit to him and just hope that things would get better if they worked on it. But...

To even say that, to even joke about that, obviously things aren't going great. Yeah, and I think she's also kind of annoyed because, yes, they do have a daughter together and he hasn't proposed to her yet. So she's like, okay, either shit or get off the pot kind of thing. So because she wanted to give in to Steven's seemingly romantic gesture of this adventure together, on Monday, March 16th, 2009...

Rhonda and Steven decided to go through with their plan despite the fact that the weather was chilly and it had basically been raining on and off like all day. Now, the next account of events all came from Steven. So let's take this with a large grain of salt. So Steven says that after the couple had hiked up the trailhead a few miles...

They decided to turn around and head back down the mountain because the weather had taken a turn for the worse. And it began to pour and there was like thunder rolling in and lightning. So definitely don't want to be on the mountain during that time. Not good hiking conditions, even for Oregonians. Exactly. So he then went on to say that Rhonda was in a hurry, but was also being kind of playful and running down the very narrow trail...

with a towel over her shoulders, shouting that she was, quote, super girl. I think the super girl detail is very specific, but when you guys see how narrow this is, I'm sorry to harp on it, I can't see anyone running down it, especially in the rain. So this is incredibly hard for me to believe, but carry on. Yeah, I agree with you. So Stephen did later say that he believed that she was high on something because of the way that she was, quote, flying around.

And he also explained in an interview that he didn't tell her to slow down or wait for him. Well, suddenly, while she's running down the path about 50 feet in front of him, at 3 p.m., Rhonda slipped on the wet trail and plummeted over 100 feet over the cliffside.

Stephen claimed that he was shocked and spent a great deal of time, basically like the next hour, getting to the bottom of the ravine where Rhonda's body was to try and help her and see what happened. It's interesting that he notes he was 50 feet behind her. He's claiming that he is not close enough to touch her and that she is running and then naturally slipped off of this very narrow and sudden ledge.

It's also interesting to me that he says he didn't tell her to slow down or wait because there is no way you're letting your loved one run down this narrow path. Yeah, and another thing, you know, this is March. So with it being so wet outside, things do get really, really slick because Oregon has a ton of moss on the ground.

Yeah, and since both of them had been living in Oregon his whole life, her most of her life...

Both of them would know this, right? So Rhonda's mom, Julia, who had already moved out of the couple's condo prior to this incident, was at home babysitting Rhonda and Stephen's daughter when it started to get late.

She tried calling Rhonda at 6 p.m. and received no answer, but by 8 p.m., she knew that something was very wrong. And for reference, the sun set that day in Portland and Hood River at about 7.18 p.m., so them being out in the dark didn't make sense if they were hiking, and they had been for hours. But back to the scene. Stevens says that when he finally reached Rhonda at the bottom of the cliff,

He tried to revive her by using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but when that didn't work, he laid on top of her body for 45 minutes to protect her from the rain and cold. Then he called 911 at 6.09 p.m. to report that his girlfriend and the mother of his child had accidentally fallen to her death.

When police and search and rescue arrived to the scene, they found Stephen in the parking lot at the trailhead inside his Mazda without a shirt, shoes, or socks on, shivering and complaining that he was cold and needed to be taken to the hospital. He pointed the rescue team in the direction of Rhonda's body and was promptly taken to a medical center nearby.

Police searched Stephen's car that night and even retrieved the trailhead fee envelopes as evidence in case it turned out that this whole thing was not in fact an accident. Just after 8 p.m. that night, Rhonda's mother received a knock on her door back in Portland and was surprised to see the chaplain of the local fire department standing on her porch. In Julia's words, quote, "'She just looked at me and said, "'Your daughter's gone.'"

Stephen called his dad that night and his father relayed this in an interview, quote, I could hardly understand what he was saying. He was crying so hard. He goes, Rhonda's dead. That's all he could say. He was completely broken up. I just said, what happened? He said, she fell. We were hiking and she, it was all icy and she just slipped off the mountain. ♪♪

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The day after the incident on March 17th, 2009, firefighters and mountain rescue volunteers went back to the site where Rhonda's body was because they had already removed her the night before. And they did this to take photos of the scene, including the trail and the exact spot that Stephen had told them that Rhonda slipped. But Rhonda's family was convinced that no accident had occurred.

and that Steven pushed Rhonda to her death that fateful day at Eagle Creek. And the suspicion was raised even more when investigators found out that the couple had taken out a million dollar life insurance policy through MetLife just a few months before Rhonda's death.

This, of course, was Steven's idea, even though he staunchly claimed that it was Rhonda's, saying that she forced him to get it so that their daughter would be okay in case anything happened and she died.

But Rhonda's mom Julia says that Steven had lost a quarter of a million dollars the year prior to the insurance policy, and that just months after the policy was taken out, Rhonda then died. Seems very convenient here. It does. So Steven also said that on the day of the hike, Rhonda kept saying, quote,

And I highly, highly doubt that she said this. Yeah, again, it just feels super convenient that all this is happening on the day that she accidentally slipped off a cliff. Right. Lead detective on the case, Gary Tiffany, seemed pretty responsive to the request from Rhonda's family to investigate the case further as a homicide. But because the case was riddled with so much circumstantial evidence, the investigation basically stalled.

A memorial for Rhonda was held after her death, and her family said that Stephen seemed unaffected by the tragedy, and that he was acting very strange. But Stephen later said, quote,

Shortly after Rhonda's death, Stephen Nichols tried to cash in on Rhonda's life insurance policy, but was told that he was unable to do so. But eventually he was able to cash it out when he agreed to split it with Julia. So he got half and she got the other half.

He told investigators that Rhonda had drugs in her system that may have altered her balance that day and caused her to fall. But an autopsy report showed that Rhonda only had small traces of marijuana in her system, likely not from that day because marijuana stays in your system for a few days. And the only other thing in her system were prescription drugs for postpartum depression that she was dealing with after the birth of her daughter.

Stephen insinuated later in an interview that Rhonda had been a drug addict since she was 12 years old, which is something that Rhonda's family says is complete bullshit and just untrue. He also said that she had tried to take her own life many times before this falling incident, which they also said was not true.

So you can kind of see the picture that Steven is trying to paint here. Yeah, it kind of seems like he's trying to put all the blame on Rhonda, which is weird because obviously in the beginning, he's like, oh, it was an accident. She slipped and fell. And now he's painting this picture of suicide. Which, I mean, it doesn't... That is not... If she really fell, that is not relevant to an accident. If she fell by mistake, her mental state beforehand...

is not relevant if you're claiming that she fell and did not jump, right? Yeah, completely agree. But with the investigation stalled due to the lack of any physical evidence, Stephen decided to take his daughter across the state to live with his parents back in Bend, Oregon. The case had gone completely cold at that point and detectives really didn't have much to work with. But then, a few years later in 2013...

Stephen explained that he needed a fresh start and a new chapter in his life. So he made the decision to move he and his five-year-old daughter across the world to Wuxi, China, located about 75 miles from Shanghai. He found a job there teaching Chinese businessmen English and said that his daughter was thriving and had even learned Mandarin and that everything in their lives was perfect.

He had even found a woman that he fell in love with, a Chinese local named Landy Yin-Yen, who he proposed to just a year after they started dating. But back in the States, more information was coming out regarding Rhonda's case. Information that was very telling of Stephen Nichols' character.

It was discovered that back in 2003, while Stephen was with his first wife, remember the one he divorced before he met Rhonda, their relationship was violent. Stephen's first wife was a Chinese-American woman, and at some point that year, they took a trip to China together where they stayed in a multi-story hotel.

A police report and witness statement showed that one night, the couple had gotten into an argument and that Stephen tried to suffocate his wife with his hands over her mouth and that he also tried to throw her off of the eighth floor balcony of their hotel room. But Stephen was never charged. Yeah, I don't know why the Chinese authorities didn't

Stephen for this, but obviously there's nothing that the U.S. local authorities could do at that point. I mean, this is screaming Michael Peterson. Like the fact that he has a past of trying to push his partner at high elevation is really suspicious. Obviously, it's not like a smoking gun, but come on, it's weird. I do agree. Yeah, it's very weird. And I feel like, again, very telling.

But shit gets even crazier. Because police also discovered that while Steven was 34 and while still dating Rhonda,

He was having sex with her 15-year-old sister, Melanie. But this wasn't the only time that Stephen was involved with a minor. Because just six months after Rhonda's death, Stephen was caught touching a 13-year-old girl's butt and texting her explicit messages that included pictures of himself with his shirt off. And for this, he pled guilty to one count of sexual harassment, but never served jail time for it.

Rhonda's family and friends also added that the day after Rhonda's death, Stephen didn't run to the aid of his infant daughter, but instead ran to the comfort of 15-year-old Melanie.

This guy is such a fucking predator. It is so disgusting. I love it too, because we are going to talk in a bit about the 48 hours episode on this case, because a lot of things actually came out and were uncovered during their kind of interviews and investigation. But I love it because...

Peter Van Sant is interviewing Steven and talking about this part. And Peter just goes, that's disgusting. It's one of the funniest parts of that episode. Like to say it to his face. You're like, yes, say it for all of us. That's terrible. It's disgusting. It is.

I just want to say also Rhonda did eventually find out about this soon before her death. And she even texted her sister, Melanie, pretty much just apologizing and saying that she wasn't going to let Steven hurt them anymore. So yeah, that is pretty crazy. Yeah.

So, while Steven was living his dream life in China with his new fiancée, investigators were silently building a case against him that would eventually lead to an indictment. But before Steven even left for China in June of 2012, there was a major bungle in the case that caused a huge setback.

Detective Gary Tiffany at the time was running for Hood River County Sheriff, but he lost his bid, or his election bid, and decided to retire after that. Well, when one of his colleagues went to go use his computer to look up information on a case, he noticed that there was nothing on the computer.

Apparently, Detective Tiffany had deleted pertinent files on Rhonda's case when he retired. But he also stated that he exported them onto a thumb drive and a CD that could no longer be found. I mean, this is beyond devastating and just complete negligence. Yeah, they really, really messed up here. So Detective Tiffany ended up in court due to this, but it was never determined whether or not he had deleted evidence and files purposefully.

So because of this whole thing, an audit of the Hood River Sheriff's Office was conducted by an outside agency, which was the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office. But even that was thrown out when it was discovered that the man running the audit, a man named Scott Beard, was accused of stealing $136,000 from the Deschutes County Finance Department by making fake expense requests, then pocketing the money.

But even though this really hindered the case, new detectives working Rhonda's case pushed forward for an indictment of Stephen Nichols. During the time that Stephen was in China, detectives conducted experiments with a realistic dummy, pushing it off the cliffside to see how far from the cliff it would fall and if it potentially matched the trajectory of Rhonda's fall. And in their opinion, it did.

The evidence wasn't strong in this case, but with what they did have, they finally believed they had enough to indict Stephen. In February of 2015, six years after Rhonda's death, Stephen and his new fiancée planned a trip to the U.S. because they wanted to have a wedding in Oregon and in China to celebrate with both families.

On February 2nd, 2015, while Stephen was in San Francisco during a layover on his way to Portland, he was pulled aside under the guise that his bags needed to be checked.

He was then separated from his daughter and fiance and was eventually extradited back to Oregon to face murder charges in Rhonda's case. Stevens' bail was set at just over $2 million while he awaited his trial for murder, and he hired defense attorney Mike Arnold to represent him in the case.

Once again, Stephen was spinning a story that Rhonda was suicidal, telling people that Rhonda always said she felt like she wasn't going to live past 25 and that she had nightmares about it and that she was a very unhappy person.

But obviously, this contradicts his original statement to investigators that Rhonda's fall was a complete accident. Well, Stephen's bail was eventually lowered to $250,000, 10% of which needed to be paid to get him out of jail while awaiting trial, which Mike Arnold, his defense attorney, paid himself. When Stephen was released on bail, his fiancée finally made it to the United States to reunite with him.

And in a really strange display, Stephen took his fiancée to the very same trail that he had taken Rhonda to, again, Eagle Creek, where he filmed her saying that the spot was, quote, "very beautiful, but a little bit dangerous." And this just really seems like in poor taste, but it also makes me feel like the reason why he's filming her

is so that, you know, he can kind of like prove, oh, see, see, it's very dangerous. Even she said that it's dangerous. You could definitely slip and fall off this trail. They did film multiple different hikes that they went on. Like they went on hikes in Eugene, et cetera, but... Yeah, that's true. They did. But I fully agree. It's so weird to...

I don't know why you're filming it anyway. It's not like you're, it's not like he put this out there on YouTube or wanted to make a, you know, a video about hiking in Oregon. Like, why are you filming her saying it's beautiful, but it's dangerous? Like, why are you doing that? But also at the same time, like, this is not like a hike that Stephen hikes all the time, right? Yeah.

So it's a little bit weird to me that you are taking your new fiancé to the place where this unimaginable tragedy happened

And your ex-girlfriend fell to her death. That would be the last place that I would want to go. It would bring up horrible memories for me. But for some reason, he's unaffected by that. Yeah, and they're walking in the exact same place where Rhonda went off the cliff. And this is probably, like you're saying, like the second time he's ever done this. Like, why are you there again? This isn't something you do all the time. Yeah, in fact, there's even like a video of him showing her, his new fiancée,

exact spot where Rhonda went off. - Yeah, it's just creepy. - So Steven maintained his innocence regarding Rhonda's death and was called in for pretrial hearings while out on bail regarding evidence. Now, as we know, original detective Gary Tiffany had destroyed evidence regarding the case that included crime scene photos, autopsy photos, and even those trail envelopes that we mentioned earlier.

So it was extremely tough to build a case here.

A forensic pathologist was brought into court to talk about the nature of the fall, and he explained that Rhonda had landed predominantly on her feet, sustaining most of her injuries to her legs and her pelvis, which in his opinion indicated that Rhonda had not necessarily been pushed. And I just gotta say, I'm not a forensic pathologist, but this idea that Rhonda couldn't have landed on her feet after being pushed is kinda silly to me. I mean, if she was indeed pushed,

You'd have to know every detail to determine anything. You'd have to know where she was pushed on her body, how hard she was pushed, the angle of her fall, did she try to grab anything, etc. And the same can be said on the flip side for slipping.

Would she have landed on her feet if she slipped or landed on another part of her body? I completely agree. Being pushed doesn't automatically mean that she would go down head first. She could have been pushed and then...

lean back to try to fight it, and then she ended up slipping and kind of falling on her butt down the cliff. Yeah, did she grab onto his shirt as she was falling? There's just so many scenarios that could play out in your head, and so I don't think that this is a very good defense. But we also have to remember this guy was hired by the defense, so they're using his testimony and findings for a reason. So, of course, the defense used the pathologist's statement as ammunition.

And Rhonda's mother, Julia, was also called to the stand in which Mike Arnold, who again is Stephen's defense attorney, claimed that Julia was hard up on money in 2009 and sought to paint Stephen as a killer so that she would be the sole beneficiary of her daughter's life insurance.

So this only made matters worse when Mike Arnold brought up some pretty damning information against Julia Simmons. So back in 2010, after Rhonda's death, Julia applied for Social Security survivor benefits on behalf of Rhonda and Stephen's daughter, claiming that the child was living with her from 2010 to 2014, when in fact that was not the case. She had actually been living with Stephen.

But she received benefits that totaled over $40,000 meant for her granddaughter, but she actually kept the money instead. So when this was found out, Julia was sentenced to 30 days and ordered to pay back those stolen benefits. So this really didn't look good for the prosecution's case. And I really don't, I can't understand why she did this. I mean, obviously it seems like she did need money at that time,

But it's not a good look. But then, in May of 2017, Rhonda's family was shattered when they found out that the prosecution had settled on a plea deal. Stephen would plead guilty to the charges against him for a lesser sentence. He was charged with two felonies that included criminally negligent homicide and coercion. But the murder charge that he was facing was ultimately dismissed.

For his charges, the judge sentenced 42-year-old Stephen to 19 months in prison. But the time that he had already served in jail awaiting his trial was credited to him, meaning that Stephen wouldn't see any more jail time. He was also put on three years probation, so... So when he was sentenced, all he really got at that point was the three years probation. Exactly. Big old slap on the wrist.

So this was hardly justice for anybody who knew Rhonda and believed that Stephen was behind her death. And today, Stephen Nichols is a free man. Now, Stephen explained that the reason he took the plea deal was because if he had waited another year to go to trial, there was absolutely no chance that he would be able to regain custody of his daughter. He said, quote, "...it's amazing what papers you'll sign in order to not lose your child."

In an interview in 2018, Stephen said that because of his probation, he wasn't allowed to leave Oregon and therefore had to break off his relationship with his fiancee, Landy, who is now back in China. Good for her. Thank God. Get out of there, girl. I hope she found a better man. So in the same interview, he dropped a bombshell on 48 Hours reporter Peter Van Sant when Stephen compared Rhonda's death to a wounded soldier.

Now, this was a pretty groundbreaking part of Peter's interview. So we're just going to play it because this is the only place this information has been presented. And Peter did an excellent job with his interview for 48 hours. So here's the clip. Steve, look at me. What you're saying is she jumped. She was going down at almost a run pace. There's a single footprint you're telling me at the edge of the cliff. And she goes over.

That's a jump. I've laid everything out there. People can reach whatever conclusion they want. I'm trying to think of a way to think of this. For the first time, he talks about what may have happened in Rhonda's last moments of life that day in 2009, comparing her to a wounded soldier. Let's say you're in a war situation and you're with your buddy.

And, I don't know, he takes a landmine or a grenade or something. You're 100% certain this guy's gonna die. Remember, Nichols climbed down 150 feet to where Rhonda's broken body lay. Was she alive when you got to her? Mmm, an hour. And that's the part I'm not going into. Is Stephen Nichols about to admit something? Did you put Rhonda out of misery that day? Let me ask you, if you shoot your war buddy,

because you see how much pain he's in. Is that murder? What do you say? I say no, of course not. So to me, that's a justified—I don't want to say homicide, but technically it is homicide, but it's justified as of that point. You are putting someone out of their misery that essentially has zero chance of survival. And is that what you did? Of course that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying.

It's all hypothetical because I'm telling people, you know, think outside the box. Like there's always other options there. If that doesn't give you the chills, I don't know what would. Yeah, you could just hear how smug he is. And if you guys want to see more of what he said to get an even better understanding of his character, we definitely recommend you guys watch the 48 Hours episode on this case.

It focuses much less on the actual investigation and less on Rhonda and a lot more on, you know, Steven and the interview with Steven. Exactly. It's a lot more interview heavy. Yes. But now that you guys have all the background info from this episode, you will be prepared for the interview if you're interested.

I mean, the whole time we were watching it, Heath and I just kept looking at each other from the other side of the couch, like, base palm, and just, oh, we were so frustrated. I think I rolled my eyes about a hundred times and just, like, wanted to punch the air. Well, mainly I just wanted to punch Stephen's face, but... Yeah, it's... But, you know. Because every answer he gives is so...

conniving and snaky. Like he's such a snake. I mean, he, he laughs a lot during the interview and I think that makes it so much worse because it's like, we're talking about your dead ex-girlfriend. Why are you laughing like this? Yeah, this is a serious matter. None of this is funny. It's just, oh, it's so, you guys, you guys are going to love it. So after Stephen's very minor sentence, not much is known about his life in 2024 or whether or not his daughter is in his custody. Yeah.

We'll also probably never truly know what exactly happened on that rainy day in March of 2009 and the tragic fate that took the life of a woman with so much ahead of her. The only person on earth that does know what happened to Ronda Castro is Stephen Nichols. ♪♪

Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. I really, really want to know what you guys think about this case. Do you feel like he's guilty? Do you feel like he's not guilty? I mean, obviously, we know that he pled guilty for a lesser sentence.

But didn't get any answers from it. Yeah, we really didn't get any answers, but I would love to know what you guys think. So please head on over to our discussion group on Facebook, or you can leave us some comments on our Instagram. Yes, I mean this, I'm surprised that more people aren't talking about this case. I'm surprised that there's not more shows or documentaries on it because even though there isn't physical evidence, it's

It just, there's so many things to this story with the sexual harassment charge and the sex abuse charge and, you know, the fact that he had tried to, allegedly tried to push his first wife off a balcony. Like, there's so much to it and it's just crazy. So thank you guys so much for tuning in and we'll see you guys on Tuesday. On Tuesday. All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. ♪

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