The Woman Who Died Twice

0:00Music

0:16Down here is where the hunters had discovered the torso of a female in the ditch. Jack, had you ever run into anything like this? No, ma 'am.

0:31What day were you out here, and what do you remember from that? This was December the 2nd of 2022, I believe. We was hunting that block of woods that particular day. We all kind of thought it was a mannequin to start with. It didn't look real. And this area right here and all around this is where all the trash, the bags of clothes, the tote, the knife, that's where all that was found, right here. And your big priority was to find the rest of this woman and find out who she is? That's correct. It was getting about dusk. I started walking. Got to a point where I'm looking up and the sun's going down, it's shining in my eyes and there's an oak tree and I kind of look behind it and I see a little disturbed area, a mound.

1:17All the remains were found fairly close to the edge of the road. And at that point, as far as what we knew, there was, the female had dark brown hair. You put out a sketch? GBI had had a forensic artist put out a sketch.

1:35According to deputies, hunters found the body in the area of Barrington Ferry Road. This sketch from the GBI serving as one of the only glimpses of who the woman could be. I was like, whoa, wait a minute. Like, that looks like Mindy. That looks like Mindy. And I just froze. I said, I have reason to believe that this person is Mindy Kasotis, looks very much like her. I was like, I want to be wrong. I have never wanted to be wrong like this in my whole entire life.

2:16A drive through the area shows how dense the wooded area where the woman was found can be. That was on the local news, but I had zero reason to connect it to Mindy. So you get this call from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent, and he says, you're not going to believe what I'm about to tell you? Yeah, he absolutely said that. I think the first thing through my mind was disbelief. I had been told back in December that she had died in the hospital. That's what all of the immediate friends and family of Mindy's had been told. Nobody was looking for a murder victim. They thought she had died of natural causes.

3:00What did they think had happened to her? She died at the hospital on December 1st. She's not in the woods. She was cremated. What do you do? What do you do when you're in a situation and you feel like something is wrong, but also... the entire story is so crazy, who's going to believe you?

3:27Erin Moriarty reports, the woman who died twice.

3:36Investigator Jack Frost, now at the Liberty County, Georgia DA's office, was one of the first detectives called to the scene on December 2, 2022. The hunters had seen a knife and a tote and some wipes back there. Detectives recovered a razor-sharp Milwaukee-brand knife, a plastic storage tub with what looked like traces of blood, and wipes. Do you think whoever brought her out here had to know this area? That would be a safe assumption because it's so desolate. It would take five days until Investigator Frost found the rest of her body. Authorities said it appeared the woman had defensive wounds.

4:24There's no one that winds up dismembered in the woods that's not a victim of homicide. My name is Lori Baio. I'm an assistant district attorney with the Atlantic Judicial Circuit. Investigators from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation released two sketches. There were hundreds and hundreds of calls and leads that came in through the forensic sketches that were published from civilians calling in. One call came from a woman 500 miles away in Virginia, Heather Thomas. I was like, whoa, wait a minute. Like, that looks like Mindy. Mindy Kasotis. Heather Thomas, turned out, is one of the people that recognized the photograph and said this could be Mindy.

5:11Heather recognized Mindy because Mindy was married to Heather's ex-husband, Nick Kassotis, a naval officer, a lawyer in JAG, the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps. Nick had traveled the globe, was deployed to Iraq. He served in Italy and the Pentagon. He dealt with sensitive cases involving Afghanistan. He definitely had an air about him of confidence, of, you know, reassurance, but never in an egotistical way because you could sort of pick that out from a mile away. Heather and Nick got married in 2009. Back then, she was a brunette. Was he wearing a uniform? Yes. He was in his uniform. I was in, I had two different dresses.

6:05It was a very big deal. It was a, it was a happy day. He had a lot of friends and he just knew everyone and he had a very outgoing personality and just was a talker and loved to read and just was, it was very different than kind of how I, I was. Things started out well, but eventually, after six years, their marriage faded. I felt like we had grown apart. I felt like he was my best friend, but at the same time, like, didn't have the romance. And in 2015, they divorced. Nick Esotis bounced back quickly. That same year, he started dating Mindy. She was working as a legal secretary in Washington, D.C.

6:58Mindy was the consummate romantic for a while there, right? Angela Wynn and Morgan Paddock were longtime friends of Mindy. Angela says Mindy met Nick on a dating app. When she finally did meet him, that was just her fairytale ending coming to fruition. Even Heather was happy. He told me all about it. He was so excited that they met. And I was excited for him. Nick and Mindy married in 2016. Her friends say the couple soon started looking for a home and planning a family. It's one of the things that she wanted. She wanted to have kids. And Mindy became a podcaster. We both were on her podcast. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Compelling Women podcast.

7:52She just wanted to find the stories of women and elevate them. I'm Mindy, your host, and I'm really excited to share with you another thought-provoking interview with a different compelling woman. Mindy and Nick's life seemed good. After leaving active duty, he was still practicing law. I was so happy that she was so in love and just so enamored and ready to move on to that next phase of her life. But her friends say Mindy's life began taking some strange turns. She once told me, Morgan, if you knew everything that was going on, this is something that would be a best-selling novel or a best-selling movie.

8:42Mindy and Nick started moving around a lot, living in three different states. She rarely saw her friends, they say, and was so worried about security, she started communicating through the encrypted Signal app. We only ever talked on Signal. If we called, it was through the Signal app. And if we texted, it was through the Signal app. And whose idea was to use the Signal app? Oh, Nick. And Mindy said at one point she was being spied upon. I remember her saying, I may have had a tail. Someone following. Yeah, yeah. It ramped up after that. Mindy's life ramped up into a series of stranger and stranger events.

9:28She told me they had been hacked by a hacker group. Their bank accounts had been completely frozen. They didn't have any money at all. And she told friends that Nick said they were being surveilled and that he told her. We have a security issue now and now we're, you know, we're in danger. She thought her life was in danger? Mm-hmm. It was, according to Mindy, all connected to Nick and some classified work that he had been involved in during his time in the Navy. There had to be video surveillance in a van down the street to just keep watch to make sure the comings and goings of their home were safe.

10:10Nick warned Mindy that an undercover team disguised as tree surgeons were planting surveillance cameras around their house. It sounded crazy. It did sound crazy because that does sound like something you see in a movie or read in a novel. But again, you're talking to Mindy, whose husband is a JAG, who has all of this military clearance. By June 2022, Nick and Mindy were living in Savannah. Friends say she was afraid to leave the house. Did she sound scared? She was scared.

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12:23As Mindy's friends worried about the strange events in her life in Savannah, 500 miles away in Virginia, Heather Thomas had been trying to track down her ex-husband, Nick Esotis, for nearly two years. I tracked him going to South Carolina. He had said something about Georgia, and that was always in the back of my mind. He owed her money from their divorce, a million and a half dollars. A court had ordered him to pay and issued a warrant for his arrest. His law career was now in jeopardy. If he was willing to throw away his license to practice ever, and he was just going to throw all caution to the wind, you're now dealing with a scenario where you can't assume anything.

13:11So you have to be prepared. I had to be prepared for anything. Heather had a friend who was training to be a PI. Through him, she would discover that Nick had been on the move. She would later find out that he had gone from state to state, living in Airbnbs, motels. Heather didn't know it, but Nick and Mindy were now hiding out in Savannah, Georgia. That summer, Mindy had told her friend Angela that she was pregnant. She's very excited and very happy. But months later, just after Thanksgiving 2022, Angela got an unexpected call from Nick and couldn't believe what he told her. He called me. He told me that Mindy was gone.

14:01Mindy, Nick said, had died from a sudden medical problem, but his details were sketchy. He told her she'd been cremated. There was no funeral, no memorial. I'm not hearing anything from anybody, and I need to know what the hell is going on. Because in my mind, you know, Mindy's not gone until I see that she is gone. And I told him that several times. Like, I need to see it. I need to see her. I need to see her. She tried to reach Nick again and again. He just dropped off the face of the earth. It was a very hard and confusing time. At around the same time, Nick's ex-wife Heather had also gotten a message telling her that Mindy had died in the hospital.

14:49I was contacted saying, hey, Mindy's dead. What was your reaction? Horror. I was just like, oh my God. I felt terrible because no matter what our beef was, Nick and mine, to hear that a woman around my age is now dead, I was sad. And just weeks after that sad news was still sinking in, Heather received more surprising news in a text from an acquaintance. This person says Nick is dead. Nick Kassotas had died in a car crash. And I said, hmm. So you didn't believe that then? I immediately didn't believe it. I'm like, well, something's fishy here. But Heather wasn't the only one who heard that Nick had died.

15:45Mindy's parents received an email from the security department at the tech company where Nick told them he was working. It read, I'm very sorry to inform you that Nicholas passed away late Wednesday evening. As Heather tried to get more details, googling news sites online, she came across that police sketch, the one that looks so much like Mindy, and called authorities in Georgia. That helped police make a positive identification. And once they got a DNA and genetic genealogy confirmation, they finally had proof that the woman found in the swamp was indeed Mindy Kasotis. Once they figure out who she is, all of these things that they've been learning about the evidence found at the scene all ties in.

16:43Investigators could find no evidence of Kasotis dying in a car crash. What they did find was a new driver's license in a new name, Nicholas Killian James Stark. They tracked him to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he was now living with a third wife, a tech worker and fiction writer, Samantha Kolejnik. He had told her he was a widower.

17:17In May 2023, detectives brought Kisotas back to Georgia for questioning. He told them a detailed story, similar to what Mindy's family and friends had heard, about being pursued and harassed by unknown individuals, connected to government work he had done. There was a couple different stories. It was that there was some fallout from some stuff that Nick had done at the Pentagon. He was a potential target for a terrorist group. It was real top secret stuff and that it was really super sensitive and almost like a secret agent type of life where they just hid in plain sight but had to kind of be careful.

17:55The once buttoned-down, straight-laced attorney and former naval JAG officer now looked scruffy. Kosotus claimed that he reported the conspiracy to the FBI. And that's when, he says, a federal agent came to their home offering to protect them. His name? Jim McIntyre. I came home one day and Mindy said that the FBI agent had come to the house. That he was serious about what was going on and wanted to meet with us both and talk about it. And that was Jim? That was Jim. Did they show you any credentials or anything? I don't recall. According to Nick, for four years, Jim McIntyre took control of everything in the couple's lives, telling them when to move and where.

18:51Jim told you to jump off a cliff. You were gonna go jump off a cliff? Yes, sir. For years, we did exactly what Jim told us to do. He wanted full access to our lives. He said he was keeping us safe. Nick, you're living a web of lies. You're talking parallel realities. That's what you're doing here. No, sir.

19:16Nick Sotis had spun such an elaborate story for detectives, they had a hard time believing anything he said. They began to suspect that he made up everything, that he was the author of the email sent to Mindy's parents announcing his death, complete with a company he didn't work for. It's kind of like, yeah, we can see through all the laws now. This is such a nightmare. Why is this happening? Detectives began asking him about Mindy's last days. Right around Thanksgiving of 2022, while Kasotis was out of town, he said, Mindy texted him, saying she had taken a fall. And had checked herself into a clinic.

20:03He was vague on details. Tell me about the day that you got called to the daughter's office. I got a phone call. I forget from who. I don't know if it was somebody I knew or not asking if I could. I don't think it was somebody I knew. Asking if I could come and pick her up that afternoon. When Nick arrived, he told investigators, the doctor gave him bad news. I sat down and he said that he was very sorry to tell me that Mandy had passed away suddenly. So he said Mindy had passed away. Suddenly. Then what happened? He, he, I was, I was extremely upset. I was, yeah, like I, I thought I was, I was coming there just to, just to pick her up and bring her back.

20:53Um, he said, he said he wasn't sure what had happened. You go to this doctor's office, they tell you, wife died, you don't ask to see her. You immediately... I did ask to see her. You don't get to see her. Kasotis couldn't tell investigators where the facility was or the names of anyone he spoke to. You don't force me to go any further to see her. You just take them at the word. You don't know their names, you don't know their addresses, Don't know how to return there. Whatever, you just leave. But if Mindy had died at a Savannah clinic, how did her remains end up in a swamp? Nick told detectives he had no idea, but insisted he didn't do it.

21:47What Nick didn't know at the time was that detectives were already building a case against him. I think it's easy for people to think about doing something, but I think the act of doing it and then trying to cover up all the loose ends after you've started, it's almost impossible. For starters, when detectives ran a background check on Nick, they discovered he owned a green Ford Explorer. A green Ford Explorer that looked just like the vehicle investigators had spotted on a surveillance video from a remote pumping station near the crime scene. And why was that camera so significant in this case?

22:29Because it captured Nicholas Kassotas' Explorer driving past it going in and out of that area. And that wasn't all. On a hunch, days after Frost had processed the crime scene, He checked with Home Depot stores, which sold that Milwaukee brand of knife. Agent Frost had contacted Home Depot because he had worked another case and was familiar with the brand. One of those knives had been purchased from a store just 50 minutes from the hunting club, with a debit card belonging to Nick Casodas. Here's a surveillance photo of Nicholas Casodas right after he paid for that knife. There he is, and you can see the knife right under his arm.

23:14And there were more knives. When Frosted checked out a bass pro shop in Savannah, he discovered that Kasotis had also used his debit card there and bought a knife kit designed for hunters. This is a seven-piece pursuit field dressing kit for animals. This is like the same kit that was purchased by Kasotis. And there is an assortment of knives. Oh, my God. I'm not touching this. These are very sharp. Very sharp. And then there is also a bone saw. Now, with Kasotis apparently tied to the knives and the Ford Explorer, they subpoenaed records from his phone and the Ford's GPS system. The car records showing his vehicle and phone traveling down to exactly where her body is.

24:10He has no reason whatsoever to be there other than that his dismembered wife happens to be found there when he told everyone else she was cremated. Back in the interrogation room, detectives confronted Kasotis with their discoveries. I mean, who else has the luck of going on a 25 ,000-acre property and getting captured on video? It just so happens your phone, even your car, shows clearly where you were at down this long dirt road that just happened to pass a camera and tracks your every movement. We put you and your cellular device and your vehicle out there in these places where your wife's body is found, dismembered.

24:59with the knife that you just bought. Why did you kill Mindy? Sir, I didn't kill Mindy. You killed Mindy. I did not. All the evidence shows that you killed Mindy, and we'll continue to show. It's kind of like a thousand-piece puzzle. You've earned some of the pieces. But we've got enough to see a very clear picture. But Casodis insisted he was innocent and pointed the finger at the man he says have been controlling their lives, Jim McIntyre. Are you alleging that Jim killed your wife? I don't know, but I think it's possible. She should have never been in this situation. You should have never listened to Jim.

25:42In February 2024, a little over a year after Mindy's death, Nick Casodas was indicted for the murder of Mindy Casodas. It's very difficult for me to believe that Nick Casodas could murder anyone.

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26:42Philip McCowler had walked these grounds of the Portal Hunting Club for years. I just lean in the ditch. Before the December day in 2022, when he made that gruesome discovery. Kind of thought it was a mannequin to start with. It didn't look real. Strewn along the swamp, the remains of the once vibrant 40-year-old Mindy Kosotis. More than two and a half years later, her husband, Nick Kosotis, charged with her murder, was in a Hinesville, Georgia courtroom. We'll begin the trial at this time with the opening statements. This trial would prove to be unlike any other from the get-go. My name is Doug Weinstein, and I am representing Mr.

27:28Kosotis. In an unusual move, the prosecution forced Defense Attorney Weinstein to open his case first. I honestly think it was purely a tactic to try to get into my head a little bit and make me off balance. Mr. and Mrs. Kasotis were told that they were targets. Weinstein immediately set the scene for the defense. The alleged killer, he says, was actually another victim. Nick Kasotis is a man who lived in fear. Relentless, all-consuming fear. Running for his life. It's hard for me to ever believe that Nick killed Mindy. Instead, Weinstein told the jury Casodas had been duped and deluded by the mysterious figure Jim McIntyre.