**Jealous Roommate Realizes Police Discovered Her Secret 15 Years Later — Transcript & Summary | SozAI**
Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/jealous-roommate-police-secret-discovery/

A locked-room murder mystery in Minot, ND, where Anita Kudson was found dead, sparking decades of investigation and controversy.

## Key Takeaways

- Locked-room murder cases can remain unsolved or controversial for decades.
- Even with arrests and trials, certainty about what happened can be elusive.
- Thorough investigation and evidence handling are critical but can be flawed.
- Media portrayal can influence public perception and complicate justice.
- Anita Kudson's case exemplifies the difficulties in solving complex murder mysteries.

## What the video covers

- Anita Kudson, a college student in Minot, North Dakota, was found murdered in her locked apartment in June 2007.
- Only four people had keys to her apartment, and one had a known grudge against her.
- Despite arrests and a murder trial, the case remains controversial with no consensus on what truly happened.
- Anita was a busy, hardworking student with two jobs and active in her community and family life.
- She was found stabbed twice in the chest with no signs of robbery, drugs, alcohol, or sexual assault.
- The crime scene showed no signs of struggle, suggesting she was caught off guard.
- The police investigation spanned nearly two decades with national media coverage and thousands of pages of reports.
- There are conflicting opinions on the guilt of the arrested suspect, with some believing the police got the right person and others disagreeing.
- The video also critiques the handling of the case by investigators and true crime media.
- The story highlights challenges in solving locked-room murders and the complexity of uncovering truth in such cases.

Answers

## Questions about this video

Who was Anita Kudson?

Anita Kudson was a college student at Minot State University, known for being hardworking, active in her community, and living off-campus with a friend.

What makes this murder case unusual?

Anita was found murdered inside her locked apartment with no signs of struggle, robbery, or assault, making it a locked-room mystery with only four people having keys.

Has anyone been arrested for Anita Kudson's murder?

Yes, someone was arrested and put on trial, but the case remains controversial with ongoing disagreement about the true perpetrator.

## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:00

Speaker A

How does a murder investigation end up in a place where nobody, not the police, not the prosecution, not the jury, maybe not even the victim's family, can say with any certainty what actually happened? I mean, in this one, we can probably guess at the most likely scenario. But even then, I'm left with so many questions, and you probably will be too by the end of this video. Hey yo, and welcome. My name is Mike, and in this old video, we're heading to Minot, North Dakota, to take a look at a case that spent nearly two decades refusing to go away. It's one of those cases where the more you find, the more you read, the less certain everything becomes. She would make a hell of a serial killer. You're going to love this. She hated kids. At first glance, it looks straightforward. A college student is found murdered inside her apartment. Police identify suspects. Investigators chase leads. Eventually, somebody gets arrested. Case closed. The usual shite. You know the drill. I ain't got to explain it to you. Except that's not what happened. Because even today, after years of investigations, national television coverage, thousands of pages of reports, and an actual murder trial, there are still people who disagree about what happened inside that apartment during the early hours of June 3rd, 2007. Buckle up, bugaroos. The case of Anita Kudson is simply a locked-room mystery. A college girl found murdered inside her own locked apartment. Only four people had a key. One of those four people had a grudge. But this story has way more twists and turns than that. There are people who are convinced that the police got the right person. And then, of course, there are people who are equally convinced they ain't done it. Yeah, this is going to be an obvious and frustrating one, to be completely honest with you, because, you know, I was researching into this case for quite a while, and I kept coming across more and more stuff that just made me absolutely infuriated about how this case was handled. From the investigators to the suspects to the true crime TV show that messed up the entire case, we're going to get into it all. But before we do, please subscribe to see new stories for the dark every single week. Now, let's give it a go. Our story begins in Minot, Andy. ND standing for actually no it doesn't. It really begins in Orange County, California. That's where Anita Kudson was born. Anita was adopted as a young two parents Gordon and Sharon when she was only 5 months old living in Anaheim. One of three kids all adopted. When she was 15 in the year 2002, she was moved to Beu, North Dakota, her dad's hometown, where she went to high school. She was very involved in local programs, sports, soccer, violin, drugs awareness. What didn't she do? I'll tell you one thing she didn't do that was not write a book. She in fact wrote and published a book when she was in eighth grade. She was living in. And what a view. This is Anita Kudson reporting live from North Dakota. There is a ginormous tornado coming towards us from the southeast. It is getting kind of bad. Anita Kudson eventually decided that you know what university that new fangle thing it was for her. And so she started attending May not State University in the year 2006 with the goal ladies and gentlemen becoming an elementary school teacher. She hated kids. May not is home to around 50,000 people. The fourth biggest city in the state of North Dakota. Minot State University, the home of the Beavers, flies north of downtown with about 3,000 students attending. Not a big school, but it has a decent reputation. Built on affordability, community, and smaller class sizes, leading to more direct support. If you looked at Anita's life in the spring of 2007, she appeared to be doing exactly what thousands of young people her age were doing. Anita Trrew herself into college in much the same way she drew and she approached everything else. She attended classes. She worked jobs. She maintained friendships with basically everybody around her. When she wasn't studying, she had not one but two jobs. One as a housekeeper at a local inn, the other working in retail. She was, as you can imagine, a go-getter. She was studying, living in the dorms, working. And you know what? When she wasn't working, when she had like some weekends off, she was back to but an hour away helping out the L1 and the L fella. So, as you can gather about Anita Kudson, she was a busy person, always doing something. And when she wasn't doing something, she was doing something close with her family. You know, she was always on the phone to them or driving back to see them, which as I said, they only lived an hour away back in but so when in early June 2007, when her family couldn't get in touch with her, she was always doing something. They didn't really, you know, they didn't really think too much of it. She was busy with classes, extracurricular work, and hey, come on. The list of things to do in but that's a sound of wind. It's empty. But then her family began to realize the last time they heard from Anita, it was getting further and further away from that. Anita spoke to her mom on Friday, June 1st, when she got home after work. Saturday and Sunday came and went, and soon she stopped responding. The last time anyone heard from her were some text messages in the wee hours of Sunday, June 3rd. It was on Monday, June 4th, that her dad get a bit weird now. He decided to drive down over across to Minot and, you know, just give her an L knock on the door, see if everything was oie dokie. By this stage in her sophomore year, Anita was living off campus with a friend of hers, Nicole. But it was only like a 3-minute drive from university. And when her dad arrived, he saw her car outside locked. However, peering in through her bedroom window, he was able to make out a figure face down on her bed. Anita's dad ran to the property manager, banging on his door to be led into Anita's apartment while 911 was called. Is this a police department? Yes, it is. I had a father come to my apartment here to check on his daughter. We just came in the apartment. Um, I think she's dead. And what makes you think that? Or is she moving? No, she is. Came in into the apartment. Her dad went over to her and he goes, "Oh my god, she's cold and there's blood." That's what her father said. I didn't touch her, but I see there's blood on the blanket. What happened to Anita Kudson? We are still having this question. Anita was very popular, hardworking, and active in the community person. What was done to her was pretty unthinkable. Unthinkable to most people, in fact. But someone had done more than thinkable. They had doneable. Anita was found on her bed in her bedroom. The screen over her window had been removed. It was slashed. Had someone broken in during the night through the window? Anita had been stabbed twice in the chest. She also had some slight knife marks to the neck as if the killer had held the knife there before going in for the kill. The knife was still there on the bed. The room was messy by like normal person's standards, but it didn't seem like there had been a fight or a struggle in there. Like Anita had been caught off guard. Her purse was there. Cash inside the purse. Didn't look like a robbery. No drugs nor alcohol in her system. No signs of sexual assault either. In this old video, we have an unsolved murder. And the thing was the police were going every which way and finding nothing. They were finding nothing when sometimes the killer was hiding in plain sight. I'm not the killer. On the internet, you can be tracked much like the police would track someone. And if you can believe it or not, you can hide in plain sight there, too. Every time you log online, whether it's your phone or laptop, someone can find out where you physically are in the world. You can be tracked by your IP address. And it's surprisingly easy for people to find this out. Maybe that's someth

00:12

Speaker A

probably guess at the most likely scenario. But even then, I'm left with so many questions, and you probably will be too by the end of this video. Hey yo, and welcome. My name is Mike, and in this old video, we're heading to Minot,

00:23

Speaker A

North Dakota to take a look at a case that spent nearly two decades refusing to go away. It's one of those cases where the more you find, the more you read, the less certain like everything becomes. She would make a hell of a

00:35

Speaker A

serial kill. You're going to love this. She hated kids. At first glance, it looks straightforward. A college student is found murdered inside her apartment.

00:41

Speaker A

Police identify suspects. Investigators chase leads. Eventually, somebody gets arrested. Case closed. The usual shite.

00:48

Speaker A

You know the drill. I ain't got to explain it to you. Except that's not what happened. Because even today, after years of investigations, national television coverage, thousands of pages of reports, and an actual murder trial, there are still people who disagree

01:01

Speaker A

about what happened inside that apartment during the early hours of June 3rd, 2007. Buckle up, bugaroos. The case of Anita Kudson is simply a locked room mystery. A college girl found murdered inside her own locked apartment. Only four people had a key. One of those four

01:18

Speaker A

people had a grudge. But this story has way more twists and turns than that.

01:22

Speaker A

There are people who are convinced that the police got the right person. And then of course there are people who are equally convinced they ain't done it.

01:31

Speaker A

Yeah, this is going to be an obvious and uh frustrating one uh to be completely honest with you because you know I was researching into this case for quite a while and I kept coming across more and more stuff that just made me absolutely

01:44

Speaker A

infuriated about how this case was handled. From the investigators to the suspects to the true crime TV show that messed up the entire case, we're going to get into it all. But before we do, please subscribe to see new stories for

01:59

Speaker A

the dark every single week. Now, let's give it a go. Our story begins in Minet Andy. ND standing for actually no it doesn't. It really begins in Orange County, California. That's where Anita Kudson was born. Anita was adopted as a young

02:26

Speaker A

two parents Gordon and Sharon when she was only 5 months old living in Anaheim.

02:31

Speaker A

One of three kids all adopted. When she was 15 in the year 2002, she was moved to Beu, North Dakota, her dad's hometown, where she went to high school.

02:41

Speaker A

She was very involved in local programs, sports, soccer, violin, drugs awareness. What didn't she do? I'll tell you one thing she didn't do that was not write a book. She in fact wrote and published a book when she was in eighth grade. She

02:54

Speaker A

was living in. And what a view. This is Anita Kudson reporting live from North Dakota. There is a ginormous tornado coming towards us from the southeast. It is getting kind of bad.

03:06

Speaker A

Anita Kudson eventually decided that you know what university that new fangle thing it was for her. And so she started attending May not State University in the year 2006 with the goal ladies and gentlemen becoming an elementary school

03:22

Speaker A

teacher. She hated kids. May not is home to around 50,000 people. The fourth biggest city in the state of North Dakota. Minot State University, the home of the Beavers, flies north of downtown with about 3,000 students attending. Not

03:35

Speaker A

a big school, but it has a decent reputation. Built on affordability, community, and smaller class sizes, leading to more direct support. If you looked at Anita's life in the spring of 2007, she appeared to be doing exactly what thousands of young people her age

03:51

Speaker A

were doing. Anita Trrew herself into college in much the same way she drew and she approached everything else. She attended classes. She worked jobs. She maintained friendships with basically everybody around her. When she wasn't studying, she had not one but two jobs.

04:06

Speaker A

One as a housekeeper at a local inn, the other working in retail. She was, as you can imagine, a gogetter. She was studying, living in the dorms, working.

04:16

Speaker A

And you know what? When she wasn't working, when she had like some weekends off, she was back to but an hour away helping out the L1 and the L fella. So, as you can gather about Anita Kudson, she was a busy person, always doing

04:27

Speaker A

something. And when she wasn't doing something, she was doing something close with her family. You know, she was always on the phone to them or driving back to see them, which as I said, they only lived an hour away back in but so

04:38

Speaker A

when in early June 2007, when her family couldn't get in touch with her, she was always doing something. They didn't really, you know, they didn't really think too much of it. She was busy with classes, extracurricular work, and hey,

04:50

Speaker A

come on. the list of things to do in but that's a sound of wind. It's empty. But then her family began to realize the last time they heard from Anita, it was getting further and further away from that.

05:04

Speaker A

Anita spoke to her mom on Friday, June 1st, when she got home after work.

05:08

Speaker A

Saturday and Sunday came and went, and soon she stopped responding. The last time anyone heard from her were some text messages in the wee hours of Sunday, June 3rd. It was on Monday, June 4th, that her dad get a bit weird now.

05:22

Speaker A

He decided to drive down over across to Minot and you know, just give her an L knock on the door, see if everything was uh oie dokie. By this stage in her sophomore year, Anita was living off campus with a friend of hers, Nicole.

05:35

Speaker A

But it was only like a 3-minute drive from university. And when her dad arrived, he saw her car outside locked.

05:42

Speaker A

However, peering in through her bedroom window, he was able to make out a figure face down on her bed. Anita's dad ran to the property manager, banging on his door to be led into Anita's apartment while 911 was called.

05:58

Speaker A

Is this a police department? Yes, it is. I had a father come to my apartment here to check on his daughter. We just came in the apartment. Um, I think she's dead.

06:07

Speaker A

And what makes you think that? Or is she moving? No, she is. came in into the apartment.

06:13

Speaker A

Her dad went over to her and he goes, "Oh my god, she's cold and there's blood." That's what her father said. I didn't touch her, but I see there's blood on the blanket.

06:23

Speaker A

What happened to Anita Kudson? We are still having this question. Anita was very popular, hardworking, and active in the community person. What was done to her was pretty unthinkable. Unthinkable to most people, in fact. But someone had done more than thinkable. They had they

06:39

Speaker A

had doneable. Anita was found on her bed in her bedroom. The screen over her window had been removed. It was slashed.

06:46

Speaker A

Had someone broken in during the night through the window. Anita had been stabbed twice in the chest. She also had some slight knife marks to the neck as if the killer had held the knife there before going in for the kill.

07:00

Speaker A

The knife was still there on the bed. The room was messy by like normal person's standards, but it didn't seem like there had been a fight or a struggle in there. like Anita had been caught off guard. Her purse was there.

07:12

Speaker A

Cash inside the purse. Didn't look like a robbery. No drugs nor alcohol in her system. No signs of sexual assault either.

07:24

Speaker A

In this old video, we have an unsolved murder. And the thing was the police were going every which way and finding nothing. They were finding nothing when sometimes the killer was hiding in plain sight. I'm not the killer. On the

07:37

Speaker A

internet, you can be tracked much like the police would track someone. And if you can believe it or not, you can hide in plain sight there, too. Every time you log online, whether it's your phone or laptop, someone can find out where

07:47

Speaker A

you physically are in the world. You can be tracked by your IP address. And it's surprisingly easy for people to find this out. Maybe that's something you'd rather some oh, I don't know, some rando don't be finding. I mean, I don't know

07:58

Speaker A

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08:08

Speaker A

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Speaker A

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10:27

Speaker A

solid. Let's get back to it. Yeah, guys, we're back to board time. So, either the killer got in through the front door or via the screen window and they got in and out that way. Now, the front door,

10:39

Speaker A

only four people had a key. Anita, Nicole, the maintenance guy or the landlord. Police spoke to the maintenance guy first. He was the one who actually removed the screen when people showed up to Anita's place that morning. He had seen that it had been

10:55

Speaker A

cut and so he thought it was, you know, damaged. He pulled the screen off. But he would say when he was removing the screen and Anita's body was like just on the other side of the window. He would

11:04

Speaker A

say he didn't look in the window. He didn't see anything and it was very dark inside Anita's bedroom. She didn't actually get any light in it. her window, as you can see in the videos, her bedroom window was on the side that

11:15

Speaker A

was in the shade. He had no idea there was a dead body just like a couple of feet away. But he would say that examining the screen and where the cut had been made, it looked to him more

11:27

Speaker A

like somebody had cut their way out, like the cut had been made from the inside going out rather than somebody had been cutting to get in. So that meant that whoever cut the screen had already been inside the apartment. So it

11:38

Speaker A

must have been someone with a key. Her roommate, the person who lived in that apartment was called in. Nicole Thomas had been out of town that weekend on her parents' farm, was only coming home when police called her to the crime scene.

11:54

Speaker A

She got any guys or anything that she's interested in or that are interested in her?

11:59

Speaker A

Oh, no. She was a gorgeous girl, so a lot of guys were interested. What else can you tell me? She have lots of friends.

12:07

Speaker A

Yeah, a lot. Popular girl? Yes. Nice girl, I assume. Is there anything else you want to add to the statement this time, Nicole?

12:14

Speaker A

No. The knife marks to the neck like someone had held it there seemed to indicate they were angry with Anita, threatening her, scaring her, which pointed towards it being someone she knew. Maybe someone who wanted to know her better.

12:29

Speaker A

I mean, a girl like Anita, there's got to be a lot of guys, right? She's pretty, she's popular, she's active, she's gregarious. Maybe somebody was sniffing after someone who broke into her home in the middle of the night when

12:41

Speaker A

she was home alone. Or maybe she let them in and then something happened. She was alone that weekend. No witnesses. An old high school flame happened to live just down the road. His name was Tyler. He was hanging outside the crime scene trying

12:57

Speaker A

to have a goo. He in fact would say he had a crush on uh Anita, a crush she did not reciprocate. They'd gone to high school together. They had gone to prom together. And then maybe Anita, you know, cut that shot that down coast

13:10

Speaker A

to coast. And maybe he wasn't a fan of her shooting that down. This guy was not a fan of that move. And maybe he attacked her in the middle of the night.

13:19

Speaker A

Did you have anybody mad at her that you can think of? No one. Male or female?

13:22

Speaker A

No. No. Had a crush on her? Did she know that? [clears throat] Yes, she did. Your boys are not want to go out. Were you ever follow that she didn't like you or didn't want to go out? Would you? No.

13:36

Speaker A

Seriously? Yeah. That didn't that didn't hurt your feelings or or how about the last time anybody had heard from her? The last time anybody heard from her was in the early morning hours of Sunday, June 3rd at around 5

13:51

Speaker A

a.m. So, pretty damn late. She was texting She was texting a boy. She was texting a fella named Michael. Good name. While she texting him to, "Hey, come on over." and she got more than she was bargaining for.

14:03

Speaker A

Michael, you came down here. Obviously, you heard the news about what occurred. Is that correct?

14:08

Speaker A

Yeah. And you want to talk about Anita Canson who you said was a friend of yours. Is that correct?

14:14

Speaker A

We always texted back and collect cuz I worked during the day and like I worked from the morning until the evening. She worked from the evening until late at night usually and we were always trying to talk to each other but we were never

14:28

Speaker A

on compatible schedules. trouble. When she would get off, I would text her and usually we talk for a couple hours and either she said good night or I'd say good night.

14:37

Speaker A

Well, I guess the the million-dollar question is here. Who would want to hurt her?

14:42

Speaker A

Anybody would want her? She really pass. I asked her what she's doing. She said, "I'm out." There she goes.

14:52

Speaker A

Yeah. Her roommate showed up midway through our conversation as well. Our roommate didn't show up. Did you do anything to hurt her, man?

15:03

Speaker A

Out of all the people initially taken, you know, most seriously as a suspect, Michael was in fact that guy. He was the last person she was talking to, he knew she was home alone, maybe something something. A witness would come forward

15:17

Speaker A

saying they saw a man in the area that night running. And the witness said it looked like he could have had stains on his t-shirt. Could have been anything.

15:25

Speaker A

Could have been blood. Now, this running guy was later tracked down, and they were found to be just exactly that, a jogger who goes for jog at like 5:00 a.m. He wasn't off his tits on some wacky Anita was texting Michael at

15:39

Speaker A

around 5:00 a.m. June, and then she suddenly like stopped responding in the middle of texts. In fact, police could tell from her phone, she didn't read the final text she got, so she was likely killed at around that time, but just

15:51

Speaker A

probably not by that jogger. But in the rumor mill, you have one name kept kind of it's a mill. So it goes around in a circle. And the name that kept coming up, sure, why not was her roommate

16:01

Speaker A

Nicole. Nicole, who was not there at the time, who Anita said wasn't there at the time.

16:10

Speaker A

See, Anita and Nicole had lived together in their first year at at Minot State together on the dorms. But after a while, they were like, "Ah, here this is shite. Let's uh let's get our own place together, you know, so we can live off

16:22

Speaker A

campus." But Anita and Nicole's friendship had been um well, friendship, drama, all that sort of shite. Even at Anita's funeral, Nicole's mom was giving Anita's mom, a a grieving mother. She was giving her because her daughter was being treated as a suspect. Like

16:42

Speaker A

having a go with her at her daughter's funeral. Like, what the is wrong with you? Nicole's mom would refer to the murder victim as a Aing little see you next Tuesday. Lovely stuff, but being a many such cases. Finding evidence, zero.

16:59

Speaker A

Now, time would go by. Tips came and went. 40 construction workers who worked nearby were interviewed. Questions, questions came and went. People moved.

17:07

Speaker A

Folk died. Michael died. The maintenance guy died. Alibis went al bye-bye. It was a weird time. It's kind of frustrating that there's just this coward out there that just won't come forward and tell us that one piece of information we need to

17:19

Speaker A

solve this. I really feel somebody knows who did this. A man would be arrested for a burglary a couple of days after the murder. And the burglary was like just down the road.

17:31

Speaker A

This guy who was arrested for the burglary, he had a history of breaking and entering, trying to assault women in their own homes, but he would be found to not have been in Mina at the time. She was murdered.

17:44

Speaker A

[music] Forensics found at the scene were all contaminated and led nowhere. It seemed likely the case would remain unsolved.

17:54

Speaker A

By the mid2010s, Anita's case had become like sort of the the exact sort of case TV shows, uh, podcasts are looking into. It's a sort of mystery cold case that investigators like love to revisit and revisit and revisit and

18:09

Speaker A

talk about different suspects and the whole yada yada yada. Make of that what you will. We'll be talking more about that as well. Her family were left devastated. 6 years after Anita's death, her brother died by his own hand. He

18:24

Speaker A

never got over his sister's murder. Family and friends though never gave up hunting the killer. In 2015, eight years after the murder, they petitioned eventually successfully for the TV show Cold Justice to come in and take on the

18:38

Speaker A

case. Previously on Cold Justice. Now, they wouldn't actually get into it until 2022, but once they did, boy, did they. But in that time, there had been noticeable questions raised about Anita and Nicole. Nicole's whereabouts the weekend of the murder, it always like

18:52

Speaker A

slightly changed. She was at her folks farm. Oh, she was watching a movie with her sister. Oh, wait. No, she's actually watching a movie with her cousin. In fact, she wasn't at the farm the whole time. She did go drinking with a couple

19:03

Speaker A

of friends in May not over that weekend. Every story she told was just slightly a skew and they fought a lot. They were planning on going their separate ways.

19:11

Speaker A

They did not get on as roommates. Anita would would lock her door never like that's how much she didn't trust Nicole.

19:18

Speaker A

For example, they would fight over two main things would come up. Two of the stupidest things you can imagine. One was Anita's alarm. Anita was still studying at MSU. Nicole had actually dropped out of college and was working,

19:28

Speaker A

but she worked late. So, Anita's alarm would go off in the morning and that would wake up Nicole and that infuriated Nicole cuz she needed her Z's. Another thing that pissed them off was Nicole had a fish tank that Anita hated. Anita

19:42

Speaker A

kept unplugging the fish tank and eventually all of Nicole's fish died. If that's true, shitty moo. They fought over Nicole bringing boys home, which she apparently did on on the rag.

19:51

Speaker A

However, Nicole would say they never fought. Just some minor roommate things. Don't be freaking out. Text though said otherwise. Nicole to Anita. Hey, so next time you leave and don't plan on coming back in the morning and lock your door

20:03

Speaker A

cuz God knows I'm dying to get in there. Shut the alarm off. Blah blah blah. Moan moan moan. And just for the heads up, my dad and I are going to talk to the landlord ASAP and see what we can do.

20:13

Speaker A

Cuz honestly, I have no idea what I did to you to make you all of a sudden be all weird on me. But I'm going to tell you right now because I sure as hell ain't going to put up with it till

20:22

Speaker A

December. This sucks. And I may sound like a but what goes around comes around. I've tried the being nice strategy, and that obviously didn't get the point across. Have you tried the not texting like a strategy? Now, the front door to the apartment, it only

20:37

Speaker A

locked or unlocked if you had a key. It wasn't one of those doors that when you close it, it automatically locks. And I think unfortunately we can say Anita did not lock the door. So that meant it must

20:49

Speaker A

have been one of the four people, well the other three people who did have a key, Nicole, the maintenance guy or the landlord. And regarding the screen window that had the slash in it, where the maintenance guy would say it looked

21:01

Speaker A

like somebody had slashed it and maybe exited out of the screen window, well, police would reenact that, reenact going in and out via the screen window. And even through their reenactments, they would find it was impossible to go in or

21:17

Speaker A

out via the screen window without tearing it more. There was no tears on the screen window when the police found it. Even with the smallest person, the window was so small, it just simply wasn't possible to enter or exit through

21:30

Speaker A

the cut screen window. So that meant that the cut to the screen window, it was just done for show. Nobody had actually used it as an entry or exit point. again pointing to it must have been somebody with a key.

21:41

Speaker A

As the 10th anniversary approaches, Anita Kudson's family and police reflect. Nearly 15 years go by and still no arrests in the case. Previously on Cold Justice, Steve and I arrived in North Dakota to help the May not police

21:57

Speaker A

department investigate the 2007 murder of 18-year-old college student Anita Kudson. According to a rumor from one of our witnesses, Anita's roommate, Nicole Thomas, sometime after Anita Kudson's murder, actually got drunk at a party and confessed to killing her. [music]

22:13

Speaker A

So, new investigations plus new TV show led to some new things. New interviews were done. Fresh tips came in and a man came forward. He said that about a year or so, you know, after Anita's death, somebody drunkenly confessed to him that

22:28

Speaker A

they had murdered Anita. Can I shock you that someone was Nicole? She got drunk and she told you that she killed Anita. Do you remember that?

22:37

Speaker A

Correct. Yes. I mean, she was belligerently drunk and that's what was said and there was multiple people that heard it. And then I tried to get her to say it when she was sober, but she wouldn't.

22:49

Speaker A

By this stage, Nicole was married, still in Minut, had a kid, and was still on Facebook complaining that she was being treated like a suspect. It's just hard being the person everybody looks at. I'm that girl. I'm not a criminal. I'm a

23:02

Speaker A

victim, too. This has changed my life forever and I still hurt. Well, she was definitely still feeling sorry for herself and she was interviewed once again, you know, now it's it's over a decade since the murder. Has her story

23:14

Speaker A

changed in all those years? Maybe. Kind of. Sort of. My job schedule and her school and work schedule, it just clashed. I was coming when she was going. She was going when I was coming. We just [music] didn't talk

23:25

Speaker A

much. How did that make the living arrangements? Was there any problems between the two of you?

23:30

Speaker A

The only problem we really had, and I know there's so many stories. There's so many stories, but we had a disagreement about an alarm clock. Our alarm clock was going on at [music] 5:00 a.m. for like an hour and I'm trying to sleep

23:40

Speaker A

because I'm so I texted her and I was like, "Dude, I'm going to smash your door down." I was like, "Dude, next time you need to make sure you shut your alarm clock off cuz like that's respectful." Tell me about the the

23:49

Speaker A

incident [music] with your fish tank because we had heard that Anita had unplugged your fish tank at one point and that killed your fish cuz she didn't like the noise. It made too much noise.

23:58

Speaker A

No, I know all my fish died because my friend poured beer in the fish [music] tank. I don't remember anything else. So that didn't happen. No, I No.

24:05

Speaker A

So, let's get down to that weekend as much as you can remember. You went to your parents farm that Friday night? I think I went Saturday morning actually because my cousin was looking for [music] like basic training or Iraq or

24:16

Speaker A

something. They were having a party for him in Son. I think I picked up my cousin. She rode with me. I think we came back from the party like 5 or 6.

24:24

Speaker A

She owned um a bar in Russo. Her and her husband did and that's we came back and stayed there and I helped her serve like food [music] and we I stayed at that at Russo for probably 11 or 12. And then

24:39

Speaker A

what did you do then? Went back to my parents house and went to bed on the couch.

24:43

Speaker A

So you got back to the farm about 11:30 midnight. So we're out there. Okay. Do you remember what time you got up on Sunday?

24:49

Speaker A

Usually. So when I sleep on the couch, my dad's up at 5:00 a.m. making breakfast, being noisy, watching TV.

24:54

Speaker A

And you spend the whole day at the farm or did you go anywhere else?

24:56

Speaker A

I stayed there again. I stayed that night again. Um and then I went straight to work. So I didn't even stop at home.

25:01

Speaker A

I just went straight to work. Now, I want to talk for a moment about the TV show Cold Justice. And it did two episodes on this Anita Kudson case, a part one and a part two, because that TV

25:15

Speaker A

show's impact on this case really shouldn't be u understated, for good or for ill. Now, the episode really only focused on the only evidence that there is. And I say like evidence in quotation marks because it's entirely circumstantial. It's all the witness

25:30

Speaker A

statements. And they did go through the other suspects who I listed, the um the ex-boyfriend who had questioned her, the maintenance guy, and they they eliminated them through this TV show working with the actual detectives running the case. They focused on what

25:44

Speaker A

people said, Nicole had said over the years about, you know, the claims that she murdered her roommate and had said this allegedly, capital A, allegedly, to multiple people that she comes in and says that her roommate was killed. She came after the

25:59

Speaker A

homicide and was telling me and guess what? She said, "So long as I keep my mouth shut, I'll be fine." They followed up with Nicole's co-workers, family, friends, and a lot of people in the episode when they're going through it have like no

26:11

Speaker A

recollection of Nicole or Anita or Nicole saying anything related to a murder. Your name was brought up for being at a party and there was mention of Nicole Thomas [music] being there.

26:24

Speaker A

Yeah, that name's not familiar either. Do you remember the Anita Kenudson homicide? Yes. Did you know her?

26:29

Speaker A

I didn't. Nicole Thomas. Do you remember her? I don't. That was a couple years older than all of them.

26:36

Speaker A

Okay. I mean, at this point, it's over a decade. That's like a decade and a half after the fact. At one point, Nicole is being interviewed by police and the host of the show and another detective try and question Nicole's family to speak

26:48

Speaker A

with them before they believe they can get their story straight. My daughter was on the farm the whole time with me.

26:53

Speaker A

No, she wasn't. I'm no goddamn liar. I'm not saying that you're a liar or anything, but we know that she was in Sydon that day, too.

26:58

Speaker A

Yes. [music] Okay. And then down with me? No, that's not the statement we have either. But we know that she also went to the bar. So, she wasn't with you the entire time.

27:07

Speaker A

I swear I'm not calling you a liar. You ain't. The entire more or less two-parter is focused on trying to it's like it's like really really dumb because the entire thing is focused on them trying to catch out Nicole and her

27:22

Speaker A

family via the words that they choose to use and statements that they made years and years before. It's like the least evidentiary evidence you can kind of think of.

27:34

Speaker A

I don't know why they are you guys. I didn't say any of this stuff. There's so many stories These people are lying.

27:40

Speaker A

Okay, I want to like get a lawyer. We're not attacking you. I don't want to talk anymore.

27:45

Speaker A

That's fine. Then we're done. I haven't done anything. And the episode more or less ends with um the show and the show host and his producers just being very self-satisfied with the work that they did and just like patting themselves on the back

27:58

Speaker A

thinking, "Wow, solved another one." Has this like big triumphant music and all of that, you know, cold cold justice strikes again.

28:06

Speaker A

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The truth never changes, but Nicole's story has. And the key to this case is that key.

28:15

Speaker A

So yeah, folks, here you go. You got the mission accomplished. We got her. The sppy music and all that shite.

28:20

Speaker A

And we've uncovered enough circumstantial evidence in this case to present it to the prosecutor that Nicole killed Anita.

28:34

Speaker A

Thank you very, very, very much. [singing] Like the more I rewatched this episode of Cold Justice, the more infuriated I got. And likely in my opinion, I think this episode of TV, it's actually two-parter. I think it destroyed the

28:48

Speaker A

case of who killed any deudin. So, as I was like filming this this video you're you're watching now, I kept coming back, right, and filming a little bit more and a little bit more because I kept just finding these little nuggets of like

29:01

Speaker A

fascinating information. So, I decided, hey, why not take a look into Cold Justice? Because I feel like that freaking TV show did more damage than good. So, you know, I'm sure probably a few of you watching are fans of the TV

29:14

Speaker A

show Cold Justice. If you don't know, it's hosted by Kelly Ziegler, who was a Texas state prosecutor. And wow, she has a shocking number of controversies behind her. Now, the tagline that's associated with Miz Zagler is that she's

29:31

Speaker A

uh the prosecutor, Texas prosecutor, you know, gunslinger. She never lost the case. Like 200 prosecutions, she never she's never got him. You know, she's hot. She's got it. And that fact is pretty true, actually. Uh she has never

29:45

Speaker A

lost a case. But what's interesting is she's notorious for going after uh innocent people. It seems that um circumstantial evidence and jail house confessions are her two goto uh pieces of evidence for getting those prosecutions. She also has secured the

30:01

Speaker A

death penalty in 19 cases. Oh my god, I love her so much. So, this is wild. In 2002, she got Ronald Prible sentenced to death. And then in 2020, that was overturned. This is because she hid uh what was called exculpatory evidence

30:16

Speaker A

from the defense. And right, you're going to love this. She provided undisclosed favors to prison informants in exchange for them fabricating confessions and violated Pribble's right to representation by using prison informants as agents of the prosecution to illegally question him while he was

30:34

Speaker A

in custody. She was literally paying other jailers to uh you know secretly question him while he was in jail. Like this is wild. Now the death death sentence on parallel was reinstated. The US Circuit of Appeals decided that there

30:48

Speaker A

wasn't enough evidence to overturn his death sentence and his conviction. And just to be clear, like Ronald Pribble, not a great guy, not exactly somebody I'd probably want to go for a beer with, but how she got priable, that seems to

31:01

Speaker A

be her kind of modus operandi. I mean, speaking of modus operandi, I mean, she's got 19 people sentenced to death, so she would make a hell of a serial killer. The case of David Temple, that was another one she worked on. Now,

31:13

Speaker A

he is currently serving life for killing his wife, but it was proven that she hid evidence that would have been useful um for the defense in that case also. So, she's mad for hiding evidence and painting a circle around where the arrow

31:27

Speaker A

was landed. She's lo she loves it. Here's a letter from 2020. Right. This is hilarious. Dear Mrs. Ug, Harris County District Attorney, you ought to be pulling your hair out over Kelly Ziegler's cases. Ziggler committed several Brady violations. Brady

31:40

Speaker A

violations. That's like for corrupt cops, corrupt prosecutors. Ziegler intentionally and knowingly withheld information from the defense, was deceptive about her efforts to do so, and was far from credible in her deferral court testimony. She hid evidence in the state court trial and

31:56

Speaker A

committed perjury. So, she sounds like abs. I mean, it's hey, it's no wonder she's never lost the case because she seemingly does some shady to make sure she gets that prosecution. And here's another thing about the entire TV

32:08

Speaker A

show, um, Paul Justice. They have been sued. The producers and Kelly Ziegler herself have been sued from what I could find at least five times for defamation.

32:20

Speaker A

Mainly due to the TV show saying, you know, we got him. We got him. And then either the person they say they got the person they're claiming is guilty, the case falls apart at trial, or the prosecutor saying there's not enough

32:32

Speaker A

evidence. And so these are people she's saying on cold justice that are guilty. We got them. And then uh they're not actually guilty. So, so everything there it is when true, you will see in this case. I mean, I'm sure in some episodes

32:44

Speaker A

of Cold Justice, they do get just as cold justice. I don't know. But something about this TV show, them literally getting involved directly in the case just rubs my tummy the wrong way. But with the story of the

32:56

Speaker A

confession and all the rumors over the years, Nicole, now Nicole Rice, she was arrested and she was charged with Anita's murder. A circumstantial case, but a case. Now, we've seen plenty of cases where circumstantial evidence got the job done. But in those cases, the

33:12

Speaker A

circumstantial evidence, it comes from different sources. You know, someone heard, they were seen, they had something on them, a little lie here and there, which all adds up and adds up.

33:23

Speaker A

But in this case, all the circumstantial evidence comes from one place. She said, he said, I heard. Finally, with the help of Cold Justice, we were able to move forward and regain focus. Due to the resources logistics planning and

33:39

Speaker A

experts they were able to provide, we were able to obtain an arrest warrant for Nicole Rice.

33:44

Speaker A

Clug revealing the department worked with the investigative team of Cole Justice, a series on the Oxygen True Crime Network.

33:50

Speaker A

34year-old Nicole Rice pleaded not guilty to a double A felony murder charge. Her plea came after a more than hour-long preliminary hearing. In March 2025, Nicole Rice went on trial.

34:02

Speaker A

As you have heard, this has been a cold case. Miss Rice was not charged with this crime until 2022, 15 years after it happened.

34:14

Speaker A

It's a bit of the tortoise in the hair. Slow and steady. Law enforcement took the time to make sure we're the right person. When this came to trial, the prosecution was saying that the bad blood between Anita and

34:31

Speaker A

Nicole eventually led to Nicole murdering Anita, that the tension bubbled over into violence. Nicole had motive. She had access, one of the few who did, unless Anita let the killer in.

34:43

Speaker A

However, the sort of literal key to this case is the fact that the door was locked when Anita was found, and the door only locks when you have a key.

34:51

Speaker A

There was no defensive wounds on Anita. Therefore, she likely knew the killer. It was a surprise attack. Nicole allegedly confessed to multiple people, you know, saying things that allegedly only the killer would know. That Anita was wearing a robe when she was killed.

35:06

Speaker A

That the killer washed the knife in the sink after the murder. Nicole would say she saw Anita's body when if she didn't kill her, there's no reason for her to have seen Anita's body. She was only she was out of town when Anita was killed.

35:20

Speaker A

Nicole also allegedly admitted to her aunt after they went out drinking in May not she went home to the apartment where Anita was for a couple of hours just to grab some clothes which likely around the time Anita would have been killed.

35:33

Speaker A

Tree people would testify that she'd confessed to them. Her alibi was all over the place.

35:36

Speaker A

We were sitting on the couch. Nicole and I were sitting on the couch and a couple buddies were playing video games and someone from the kitchen was talking about it and that's when it was stated the comment.

35:49

Speaker A

When what was stated? Um the comment was that from Nicole Rice it was that she had did it that she had killed Anita.

36:01

Speaker A

Nicole said that? Yes. Okay. What did she tell you? that she had done it to her roommate.

36:10

Speaker A

What did she specifically state to you? I'm not 100% word for word, but that she had gotten into an argument with her and had stabbed her.

36:21

Speaker A

Do you remember what she told you the argument was about? An alarm clock. Did she give you any other details of about her roommate?

36:31

Speaker A

Um that she was wearing a white robe. And she specifically stated that she stabbed her roommate. Uh, yes.

36:39

Speaker A

Brenda, do you know the defendant, Nicole Rice? Yes, I do. How do you know her?

36:44

Speaker A

She is my niece. And how are you related to her specifically? My brother Kevin is her father.

36:52

Speaker A

Okay. Now, Brenda, let's just get this out of the way. You're here pursuant to subpoena. Is that right?

36:58

Speaker A

That is correct. Okay. You don't really want to be here, do you? Not at all.

37:02

Speaker A

Okay. This is very difficult for you, isn't it? Yes. Did Nicole talk to you about Anita's murder during that time?

37:10

Speaker A

Okay. It was so horrible. She said um to just see Anita lying there, but she looked so peaceful covered up.

37:24

Speaker A

Did she say with a robe and said that um there was a a bowl of water in the bathroom sink that whoever did this washed themsself up and washed the knife up.

37:46

Speaker A

But the defense came into the courtroom prepared for exactly that argument. And honestly, the defense's um strategy was fairly straightforward. They just attacked everything because nothing was certain. They attacked certainty itself.

38:00

Speaker A

Are you sure about that? This was 18 years ago. Are you sure that that's what happened? That that's what she said. How can you be sure about something that happened over 10 years ago? The defense said that it was all circumstantial. And

38:12

Speaker A

the fact that the TV show Cold Justice was involved in this case just made it all complete horseshit, a media circus, uh a TV show trying to, you know, get a win for the producers.

38:27

Speaker A

And Anita died in 2007. We're sitting here in 2025. But what changed between now and then? And I'm going to show you what changed. I'm going to tell you what changed. The witnesses are going to show you what changed. It was pressure from a

38:40

Speaker A

TV show, a nationally syndicated program that came in, worked with the May not police department, didn't dig up anything of substance, but put an incredible amount of pressure on the state's attorney's office, the police department to bring charges in

39:00

Speaker A

this case. Nicole got charged after a national media circus descended on May not there was no forensic evidence. The investigation was shoddy at bests and you can poke holes in all of the witnesses stories. And again, this was

39:15

Speaker A

all done for ratings for a TV show. There was no DNA. There was no fingerprints. There was no murder weapon tied to her. No blood evidence, no forensic evidence placed her in Anita's bedroom at the time of the murder.

39:26

Speaker A

Prosecutors were asking the jury to piece together this entire puzzle from circumstances, from recollections, and almost entirely from witness testimony that came from two decades ago. And two decades is a long time. And at the end of the trial, Nicole Rice was found

39:43

Speaker A

not guilty. 421 verdict form. We the jury duly impanled sworn find the defendant Nicole Aaron Rice not guilty OF [screaming] the information dated at Grand Forks, North Dakota this 26th day of March, 2025.

40:05

Speaker A

Is this the jury's verdict? Can you calm down a little bit, please? Is this the jury's verdict?

40:12

Speaker A

Okay. The juror nodded. The go jury leader nodded. Miss Sorgan, do you wish the jury pulled?

40:18

Speaker A

No, your honor. Mr. Sam, do you wish the jury pled? No, sir. All right, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, thank you very much for your service. We appreciate the time that you've allotted for this case. You are

40:31

Speaker A

now excused. My admonition no longer applies to you. So you can talk about this case if you choose to do so and you can also not talk about the case if you choose to do so. Please rise.

40:44

Speaker A

Miss Rice, you've been found not guilty. You are discharged. Thank you. This hearing is closed.

40:54

Speaker A

She was free to go. We do not know who murdered Anita Kudson. Legally, the case is over. The mystery is not over. But the thing is, even if they did find, you know, more information that conclusively proved that Nicole Rice murdered Anita Kudson,

41:11

Speaker A

she cannot be charged again. She cannot be charged again with the same crime. What a load of on both sides. Did Nicole do it? I don't know. The prosecution honestly was pretty bad with what they were bringing forward. I

41:25

Speaker A

likely I mean it's I likely would have voted voted not guilty honestly because you know guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and the entire case was based on what people think they heard at parties where they themselves were likely drunk. You

41:41

Speaker A

know what their recollections from things that happened 20 years ago. To finish off, do I think Nicole did it?

41:47

Speaker A

Probably. I probably do. Enough to say that though without a reasonable doubt. Probably not. Now, I hear your barking, big dog. Do you? Do I remember drunken conversations from years ago? Sure.

41:58

Speaker A

Absolutely we do. And if somebody told me they murdered someone, would I remember? Hell yeah. Would my drunken recollections be enough to convict someone solely on that? I don't know.

42:10

Speaker A

And while the people, you know, recollecting this may be sure as of what they heard, how do you how do I how would the jury know that for a fact? I don't think so. If the conclusion of somebody you were so sure it must have

42:25

Speaker A

been the only person who likely could have done it is that they're not guilty and that's what the jury read and you cannot charge that person again. I mean what's the win here? What's the justice here? Or maybe this is just one of those

42:37

Speaker A

cases that's meant to be unsolved forever. Either way, um Anita Kuten, you know, she deserved justice and her family deserve justice. They deserve better than uncertainty. Thank you so much for watching folks. Uh, it means a lot to me that you're here. Hope you

42:52

Speaker A

enjoyed this old video and I'll see you as always in the next old video. But until then, please take care of each other. Please take care of yourselves cuz I love you. Mike out.

Topics: Anita Kudson Minot North Dakota locked-room murder unsolved murder true crime murder investigation college student murder cold case crime documentary That Chapter


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