How Not to Get Rid of a Body S01E01 Cemented in Fear
After a young Ohio man vanishes without a trace, detectives embark on an investigation involving a love triangle, drugs, and murder.
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00:00I
00:11Got the feeling and my heart that I know Nick was gone
00:14We have to hand it to the criminal the conscious effort and was made to conceal this crime from everyone
00:21Little did we know how gruesome how terrifying how sinister and dark this case was going to become
00:27I can't even believe that somebody could do this to a human being
00:33I don't know if they thought they were outsmarting us. You start questioning. Is he really here?
00:39He was a control freak master manipulator
00:44This case never gets solved if it's not for incredible outside-the-box thinking
00:51Nick was missing for a year
00:54That's a lot of time to get rid of a body
01:17On February 9th of 2017
01:21The Mastin Police Department was contacted by the Barberton Police Department that is located just northwest of us
01:27and they advised that a Nick Stein a 25 year old male was possibly missing and they wanted us to do a welfare check in
01:35our area a
01:37woman named Paula Klein
01:39Called the Barberton Police Department almost in an emergency state
01:43Believing that Nicholas Stein was missing and possibly harmed
01:48It's very hard to convince a police officer or even a detective that a 25 year old boy is gone
01:58Not that he's ran away
02:00Not that he's missing because he wants to be I'm like, no you don't understand
02:05I can show you text messages every day. I can show you phone calls every day
02:11Nicholas just like myself
02:13When my son Gunnar got sick with brain cancer
02:17Most children they just walk away because they fear the sick child, but Nick was his biggest fan
02:25Nick kept him laughing playing video games hung out with him like he was just a normal kid
02:30He never gave up on Gunnar who is still alive today, and he's 31 years old
02:35He's a very good kid. He's a very good kid. He's a very good kid
02:38He was just a normal kid. He never gave up on Gunnar who is still alive today, and he's 31 years old
02:45Never had a heart of gold would do anything for anybody
02:51We learned Nick came from a challenged background in regards to his family that being said probably resilient looking to do more
03:01I kept in touch constantly with him and text messages on social media the telephone
03:07He um would always call me for advice and he struggled with just trying to even find a job in the area
03:18So as an investigator
03:20You'll first turn to social media bank accounts records
03:24Phones all activity had stopped in regards to Nick Stein in his
03:29personal life
03:31Nick just disappeared
03:37But
03:40We learned he came to Maslin as he met a man named Brian Gentry
03:46Nick believed that he could better his future by working with Brian
03:50Nick told me he wasn't making any money and he said
03:54Brian's giving me some work. I said, oh, I know this guy, you know, I don't trust him
04:00But he believed everything Brian told him
04:03so
04:04We decide we want to interview Brian Gentry
04:10Brian Gentry was renting a house on 8th street
04:14He was a decorated war veteran who fought four tours in Afghanistan before he was ultimately discharged from the military
04:22after suffering a severe injury
04:27Him and his girlfriend
04:29Kristen Lane they decided they wanted to start a tree trimming business with Nick to cut trees in the summer and
04:36to plow snow in the winter
04:39And with it being seasonal work, they decided it would be best to save gas money to save time
04:46That Nick just move in with them
04:49The couple had three small children living in the house with them and then also another roommate Carl Spencer
04:56An old friend of Brian Gentry's from middle school
05:00Brian took charge of the house. He was the ringmaster
05:05They were very cooperative
05:07Invited us in answered our questions
05:09When we first arrived at the location everything looked normal
05:17When interviewed the occupants of the house stated that Nick Stein had left on Wednesday, February 1st
05:25And had not been seen since
05:28They had been the last people that were known to have seen Nick Stein before he was reported missing on February 9th
05:38The residents there were worried about Nick and his whereabouts but Brian said that one of the reasons why
05:46Nick may have wanted to leave Maslin was because he possibly owed some people money
05:55Carl Spencer had stated that he remembered Nick Stein had left the house
06:00And was going downtown to a local restaurant and was getting a ride back to Barberton
06:07We did spend hours looking for
06:10video footage from local residents business
06:14and ultimately
06:16There was no video located
06:18So
06:20This information provided by Carl Spencer ultimately leads you to question was he trying to be deceptive and mislead investigators
06:32So Carl was asked to come to the station for further interview
06:39During our interviews we're looking for potential signs that he already attempting to deceive us and that deception
06:48Can run very deep
07:01As a detective you're digging deeper into that individual you're always looking to get to the truth as fast as you can
07:18Turn
07:22Okay
07:26Through Carl's interview investigators found out that the 8th street address was not your typical residence
07:34There was a lot going on behind the scenes
07:40Apparently there was an argument and Nick got upset and left that evening
07:47I
07:50Don't know what the argument was about
07:53Not fully i'm assuming it was whatever their relationship was like they had some three whatever you call that some racial yeah
08:03Carl Spencer said that brian would allow nick to have sex with kristin
08:10But only if they would ask brian first
08:14Before they did so
08:17Brian was well aware of the sex triangle
08:21But nick was such a kind-hearted lovable person
08:24He wanted to find a girlfriend to love him and get married and have a family
08:28He probably treated her better than she'd ever been treated
08:32Once we found out about this love triangle, we didn't know what dark alleys this was going to take us into
08:39We looked back on those first interviews a lot of details weren't given
08:44And that's why it was imperative that we returned to the residence
08:53And upon further conversation with kristin lane
08:56She did state that she was in a relationship with
09:00Nick stein and also brian and she said that nick wanted to have sex with brian
09:06And also brian and she said that nick wanted to have an exclusive relationship with her and there was an argument
09:13Kristen stated that she was not interested in being in an exclusive relationship and that nick got upset and left that evening
09:22Once we hear this we started wondering there was way more going on here than just a missing person
09:28when the two
09:30Guys are sexually active with a single female
09:34Then somebody lets their feelings get involved bad things tend to happen
09:42So during questioning the occupants invited us into the home to have a further look
09:55When we went into the basement we had to climb down a ladder the stairs were missing
10:04I
10:05Asked brian about the stairs and he said that due to his injuries in the army
10:10The va recommended that he replaced the stairs so he took them out and they were going to be replaced shortly
10:22While we're interviewing them there was a mattress down in the basement that had a stain
10:33So I asked kristen about this stain and she said oh no I spilled cola on the mattress
10:42But if something bad did happen to nick I thought to myself is this evidence
10:50We decided that we were gonna swab this spot and send it off to be tested
10:57So
11:01After we left that house on 8th street detective basman and I we looked at each other and thought
11:08Where's nick?
11:10I'm gonna find nick one way or another
11:14Little did we know how horrific this case was going to get
11:18So
11:26The mason police department was advised that nick stein a 25 year old male was possibly missing from his residence on 8th street
11:35After we interviewed the occupants of the house. We began to think this was a cat and mouse game
11:42Are these individuals trying to steer you in the wrong direction?
11:46And seeing that stain on the mattress certainly sparked interest
11:53That it potentially could yield dna of a victim
11:59If it was blood whose blood is it
12:02So
12:11About a week later we get the information back
12:14That it was not human blood that it was in fact
12:18Soda that kristen gets spilled on the mattress just like she told us
12:26Uh, certainly a letdown emotionally and sometimes you feel like you have to start over at square one
12:33and
12:35Without a body we're like man, where do we go from here?
12:39if in fact brian
12:41or kristen
12:43Or carl did do something to nick stein. These people went to great extents to
12:50conceal any kind of evidence
12:55At that time paula klein
12:57Is calling and I felt motivated by wanting to give her answers
13:02I
13:04Calling detective sloots. He's probably thinking i'm crazy
13:08But I was nick's voice. I was the only voice nick had
13:12Nick's father passed away in 2008
13:16And then after that his mother struggled to get on her feet and make it because she hadn't worked for a few years
13:22It was just him and his brother. So
13:26I was like nick's second mom
13:29my main goal was to find nick and
13:32I was adamant about it
13:35I just wouldn't let detective sloots stop
13:43So in the spring I get a phone call from nick's brother he believes nick made it back home to barberton
13:53And he believes that nick's mother's boyfriend andy was somehow involved with the disappearance
14:02Nick wanted to take close care and watch over his mother. He wanted to get a job and he wanted to take care of her
14:10Her boyfriend wouldn't allow it. He just he was he was so jealous of nick
14:15When the search was going on for nick you would think that her boyfriend would be out looking
14:22Well, he never left the house and he wouldn't allow nick's mom to leave the house
14:27He was a very sneaky and conniving person, that's what made me more curious that he might be behind it
14:46I asked nick's brother to meet me at a local ice cream shop in maslin
14:52In maslin
14:55He and he hands me three pieces of paper he just found
15:01That he claims that his mom's boyfriend wrote out
15:05And it had some very disturbing
15:08comments
15:09There was one passage that was very disturbing and it was quoted
15:14My name will be spoken of and feared for generations
15:18I will bury this bloody crime deep within the earth
15:22I will bury this bloody crime deep within the earth
15:28Nick's brother
15:29stated that he believed based on those deranged writings that it was possible that
15:35Nick was buried in a wooded area near nick's mother's home
15:45We then decided to speak to the boyfriend andy
15:49And he just said he had a lot going on in his life. He was a dark person and just put things to paper
15:56but those
15:57Writings were unrelated to the incident that we were investigating
16:03Even so we wanted to focus more on mom's boyfriend
16:07And
16:17Next we contacted barberton police department
16:23And they sent out officers
16:25to
16:27Check the area and to look for any disturbances in the dirt or possibly any shallow graves
16:35Any kind of sign that there was a body buried in these woods
16:44It's months since anybody's heard from nick
16:50About this time we started looking into
16:53Nick's disappearance of not being a missing person, but more of a possible homicide
16:59We tried to determine where is he buried?
17:05Whoever was responsible they're trying to get away with murder
17:16So at this point we're coming up on four months in the investigation and we had a true victim nick stein
17:25friends and family wanted answers if
17:27friends and family wanted answers if nick's
17:30Mother's boyfriend andy had committed a crime. It's our job to figure out
17:35What his involvement was we felt like maybe there could be something in those woods in barberton that could help us resolve this case
17:49But you have a lot of ground to cover
17:52You have foliage
17:55You have a lack of witnesses in that area so it's very difficult to certainly find what you were looking for
18:03barberton police department sent out officers
18:06to
18:07Check the area
18:08And they were unable to find anything
18:12So that's another dead end
18:15So
18:20It was emotional when detective sluts would call and tell me that you know, we we looked in the woods
18:26We didn't find him. It would send me downwards, but that's what made me push stronger
18:31And never to give up on him. I even asked my mother who was 72 years old
18:37If she would go around and look in the wooded areas around barberton
18:41My mother would look and find stuff and send me up pictures and ask me if that was nick's clothing nick's shirts nick's shoes
18:49And um, it never was
18:53As a police officer you hit those lows that you go am I looking in the right direction
19:01If this is a homicide
19:04The people responsible for this
19:06Went to great lengths to cover this up
19:08To cover this up
19:12So in the law, there's a concept called corpus delecti
19:16And it means body of the crime
19:18Ultimately what that means is you have to have more than just words itself or just the claim itself
19:25You have to have tangible evidence that is found, uh, whether it be circumstantial
19:30Concrete or testimonial and we just didn't have that
19:33So
19:38So now we're in the middle of summer
19:42We're not finding any information on nick
19:47As a detective you try to separate your personal life
19:52from your work
19:54and this one
19:56Lingered with me it would I would stay up at night thinking about
20:00Who I need to talk to
20:02What can we do different? I didn't want it to end up in the cold case files
20:16Then we were made aware that nick's roommate brian gentry was arrested for receiving stolen property and sent to prison
20:25Although brian gentry was incarcerated
20:28Carl spencer and kristin lane are still living in that house together and she was pregnant carl spencer was the father
20:40Now there was more than just a love triangle carl spencer was involved with these individuals as well
20:47Manners of the heart certainly can be a motive for murder
20:49It's one of the oldest ones if not for greed and money then love lust revenge or hate
20:57But at this stage in the case, we knew that there was no proof that a crime had been committed without a body
21:10At the end of january we get a call of some
21:14Abuse or neglect of the children at the house
21:19We did an investigation
21:20And got a warrant for kristin's arrest for child neglect
21:24So she gets arrested and is in a stark county jail
21:31And then a confidential informant contacted me
21:37This confidential informant was someone that I had worked with for several months and he was reliable
21:44Once brian went to prison kristin has other people over to the house to continue to party
21:51kristin had our confidential informant
21:54at her house
21:56so this confidential informant stated that
21:58He heard that nick stein was buried somewhere in maslin
22:03However, he was unsure of the location
22:13There are certainly moments as an investigator where you feel that
22:18What you've been working on has changed
22:20The mood has changed
22:22It is sinister and you want to
22:25Reveal what that is
22:27We knew that we had to go back to that common ground and that common ground was
22:328th street
22:34on the southwest side of maslin
22:38We go to the house carl's moved out
22:43The homeowner is at this house
22:45And we explained to him that there's an investigation going on and nobody's heard from nick stein for a year
22:54While speaking with the landlord his son emerged with a black box
23:02As we opened that black box we found the ashes of a human body
23:10So I look at this box and I think
23:13Well, where's the name at on this box
23:18Could this be nick
23:30Based on the information provided and nick's last whereabouts being the 8th street residence
23:36When given the ashes and remains of a human body
23:40At the time the obvious question was who was this where did these come from?
23:51We later found out through paula klein that those ashes in fact belong to nick stein's father
24:01Nick's father tragically took his own life when nick was 17 years of age
24:07and
24:08from then on
24:10Nick struggled with trying to find the man that he wanted to grow up to be
24:15His father guidance was no longer there
24:19I knew at that point that nick was no longer with us here on earth
24:24I knew that nick would never leave his father's ashes behind
24:29But I kept saying keep up the fight never give up
24:38Throughout this entire investigation kristen has
24:42danced around questions
24:43Pertaining to nick and we know that kristen is in jail at this time. It could be a big break in the case
24:51So I told detective that has been we need to go over and talk to kristen at the county jail
24:57I felt like
24:59It was the right time because she wanted her three kids back
25:04And now is your time to help yourself and help us
25:20The challenge being a detective is obviously working with individuals who are trying to deceive you they want to take you down that wrong path
25:28I think you got what we need
25:31All right
25:55This was a long drawn out interview
25:58She was sending us in circles, but she continued to mention carl spencer
26:02But she continued to mention carl spencer
26:27She shined light onto carl
26:29she still would not give specific information.
26:43So after interviewing Kristen, there was certainly
26:46a pause or a moment for detectives
26:49to wonder if it's possible that Nick Stein was, in fact,
26:54buried on that property this entire time.
26:59We thought, boy, if he's buried in the backyard,
27:01this is pretty bold.
27:06There was never any signs of disturbed earth
27:08or anything that would give us a motive
27:10to believe that there could be potentially
27:12a body buried in that yard.
27:15We started thinking, what tools would they need to bury Nick?
27:21Are they going to use just a shovel?
27:23That would take a lot of work and a lot of strength
27:26to dig a hole deep enough to bury a body in the backyard.
27:31I thought to myself, well, maybe they rented an excavator.
27:38We contacted a local business in Massillon,
27:42and they did dig through their files,
27:45and they were able to locate a receipt.
27:48And there was a rental agreement on February 2nd of 2017
27:56of a Kubota backhoe.
28:00And the name on that rental agreement
28:02was very familiar to us.
28:03And I about had a heart attack.
28:15The receipt provided to us by the manager
28:19did, in fact, say Brian Gentry.
28:23And he then provided us a driver's license.
28:27And on that driver's license, the picture was Carl Spencer.
28:32Our prime suspects in Nick's disappearance
28:35clearly become Carl Spencer and Brian Gentry.
28:44We reached out to BCI, the Bureau
28:47of Criminal Investigation, and they
28:50were asked to provide cadaver dogs at that time.
28:54We arrived at the residence to ultimately start
28:58digging in that backyard.
29:11It's the first day of February in Northeast Ohio.
29:14It's cold.
29:16The dogs start hitting in this area.
29:22And we dig for hours, and we're not able to find Nick.
29:28It was very disappointing.
29:30Took a lot of wind out of our sails.
29:35You start questioning, is he really here?
29:40I told Detective Datasmith, we need to go back over
29:43and talk to Kristen again.
29:47It was an audio interview at the Stark County Jail.
29:54Now's your chance to tell us the truth, to save yourself.
29:59We show her this picture of us digging in her backyard.
30:03And I ask her, what's this picture of?
30:09That's the old house.
30:10What are we doing today?
30:13Taking up the yard.
30:15Why?
30:16What do you think?
30:17Why?
30:18Now's your chance to tell us the truth.
30:21We proceeded to show her the receipt from the rental place.
30:26And we just let all this build up,
30:28so that way she could tell us her story.
30:31We thought, OK, you're not telling us the truth.
30:37So I take out this piece of notepaper,
30:40and I draw a diagram of their backyard.
31:02And I slide it over in front of Kristen,
31:07and I slam my pen down.
31:10And I say, where's Nick?
31:14I'm going to take that off you.
31:23And she looks at me.
31:26She picks up the pen, and she hesitates.
31:31And she circles right near this cement pad.
31:35After she draws this circle, I tell her,
31:39I want you to write in that circle what's there.
31:44And she looks at me, and she looks down, and she proceeds.
31:52And it's like, darn near in slow motion,
31:55because of the excitement that I'm feeling inside.
31:58So she writes the N. She writes the I. She makes the C.
32:03And I'm thinking, hurry up and write that K.
32:06And she makes the K.
32:09And it was just silence in this interview room.
32:17And inside, I'm thinking, holy shit.
32:20She just told us where Nick is.
32:29Kristen Lane circled a location in the backyard
32:32where Nick's body was.
32:34She knows that, hey, we're caught now.
32:36It's time to save my own butt.
32:47We had enough probable cause to take
32:49a second dig in the backyard.
32:54As we dug further into the ground,
32:57there was a point where an odor had rised into the air.
33:02And there was a black box that was barely visible that had
33:08been cracked by the excavator.
33:10Their corner investigator jumps down and looks in this hole.
33:14And he goes, there's skeletal remains in there.
33:18We were also able to determine that they encased his body
33:22in cement within that box, which hampered our investigation
33:28the day before with the cadaver dogs being encased in cement.
33:32This odor of a decomposing body isn't as strong.
33:37It was a feeling of great relief that we had found what we were
33:43looking for, although we had not confirmed
33:47that it was Nick Stein yet.
33:50Well, police have not released his name at this point.
33:52But we can tell you the remains were taken to the Stark County
33:55coroner's office.
33:56For the second day in a row, BCI agents and police
33:59were out here.
34:00They were digging up this backyard.
34:01And this morning, a body was found stuffed in a container
34:04right in that area that you're looking at.
34:07The next day, Detective Dastman and I went to the autopsy,
34:12seeing this body folded up, basically,
34:17and encased in this cube of cement.
34:22It was horrifying to see.
34:26As the coroner's chiseling, he says,
34:30I thought to myself, nobody deserves to die like this.
34:35I mean, there's no other way to describe it
34:38except for pure evil.
34:44Through fingerprint analysis and dental records,
34:48we were able to determine that the remains were
34:50in fact, the remains of a dead person.
34:53And we were able to determine that the remains were
34:56Through fingerprint analysis and dental records,
34:59we were able to determine that the remains in that box
35:02were the remains of Nick Stein.
35:09One of Detective Slitz called me the morning
35:12before they were going in for the last dig.
35:14And I knew that I couldn't be there.
35:22Nick's family wouldn't be there.
35:25But that was probably my lowest point,
35:31where I couldn't be there when they finally found him.
35:45Even though we had closure for the family,
35:47we still didn't end our investigation there.
35:51We had information that Carl Spencer might be in the Marlboro
35:54Township area, located east of us, about 30 minutes.
36:02Detectives located Carl and advised him
36:05we had a warrant for murder for his arrest.
36:12And then Carl Spencer told us how the murder of Nick Stein
36:17happened.
36:18OK.
36:19So that day, February 1st, Brian and Nick
36:25get into an argument, am I correct?
36:27What was the argument about?
36:29He had said that vulgar comment to Christian.
36:31That make Brian mad, or what?
36:34Yes, that infuriated him.
36:35But what's he say down there?
36:38He said that he wanted to beat his ass,
36:40because he didn't think that was right for him to say that.
36:45Nick decided to lay down on the couch.
36:48He had taken like three Ambien.
36:50OK.
36:58And we went upstairs and grabbed duct tape out of the mudroom,
37:02and he started tying him up.
37:06He ripped him off the couch, and he punched him
37:07for a good 10, 15 minutes.
37:12He drug him to the house, into the mudroom,
37:16put him at the top of the steps, and told me
37:17to push him down the steps.
37:19So did you push him down the steps?
37:20Yes, I did.
37:21OK.
37:24I was so upset and sick to my stomach,
37:27I went out the back door to puke out the back deck.
37:31I come back in about five minutes later.
37:34Nick was drug further into the basement, and he was dead.
37:40And then from there, we proceeded to use a tote.
37:43He emptied the tote out.
37:44We put him in a tote, carried him up outside.
37:52Brian already had concrete there.
37:54He poured the concrete in the box.
38:02Ultimately, the three individuals
38:04pled guilty as opposed to having trials
38:07for their guilt or innocence.
38:10Kristen Lane pled guilty to abuse of a corpse,
38:14obstructing official business, and tampering with evidence,
38:17and received a four-year sentence.
38:19In his connection with his testimony against Brian,
38:21Carl takes a plea deal and is sentenced to 11 years.
38:25Brian Gentry was sentenced to life in prison with parole
38:29at 15 years for the murder of Nicholas Stein.
38:36Sometimes in our profession, we have to hand it
38:41to the criminal.
38:42Where Nick was buried was not corroborated by the dogs,
38:46and particularly because he was encased in cement
38:50and eight feet below in February.
38:53And Brian Gentry has a background in landscaping
38:56and heavy machinery.
38:57And he hid Nick in an unwitting neighborhood
39:00in an unwitting town.
39:01He made a conscious effort to hide this body in plain sight.
39:07Quite honestly, he may never have been found
39:09if but for some incredible outside-the-box thinking.
39:18Brian Gentry was very smug, felt like he felt like he was a little
39:24more intelligent than detectives were.
39:26You know, it motivated me more.
39:28It's like, OK, I'm going to figure this out,
39:31and you're going to prison for it.
39:39They released Nick's body to me.
39:42At one point, there was a little talk from some friends
39:45that they thought Nick's body needed to be buried.
39:49And I put my foot down to him and told him, absolutely not.
39:52Nick would not be buried in the ground again.
39:56And I was able to have him cremated.
39:59It's when we took the move to buy two tree of life urns,
40:04and we put Nick in one and his father in the other,
40:08and they match.
40:09Then I decided to have a memorial for Nick.
40:12I set his urn box on my lap, and I cried like a baby.
40:17The kid comes up missing, you're scared, you're worried.
40:39No one would have believed that anyone would have gone
40:42to such lengths to hide a body.
40:45There aren't words that can describe that feeling.
40:49He took my wife, my child.
40:52I lost everything.
40:53Everything that it says, it's a big act.
40:56Her killer thought he was going to get away with it.
40:58Dig a hole and put her in it, or just cover her up.
41:01Like some sort of Vegas magic act,
41:03he made the body disappear.
41:05What better way to hide a body than in a cemetery?
41:08And we came to the sewer drain.
41:09There were her remains, 18 years later.
41:12In one barrel was the torso, and the other barrel was the head.
41:16She was located encased in cement in a remote desert area.
41:20He threw her into the mine shaft, too.
41:23The come-to-Jesus moment is when everything is on the table,
41:27and you really have to wonder what happened.