Who Is She? | The Woman in the Woods

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1:55ready so you don't miss an episode. Here's episode two. Just a warning, this episode includes graphic descriptions of a crime scene. Please listen with care. So what do you call this area? This is the intersection of Jones Road and the hunt club known as the New Road. Philip McKellar drove me in his white pickup truck to a rural wooded area about 50 miles south of Savannah, Georgia. Come out here pretty regularly? Every Friday and Saturday we hunt. We was hunting that block of woods that particular day. He and his hunting buddies bring their dogs regularly here to track deer. We start hunting at 6.30 in the morning and hunt till dark.

2:40And that's why he was here on December 2, 2022. too. Phillip and I returned to that spot and parked on a dirt road to retrace his steps. We got radios in our trucks and somebody had called and said that they killed a deer and we come right here and started catching dogs and that's when we found it. But it wasn't a deer. Well, kind of thought it was a mannequin to start with. It didn't look real. It didn't have no color. It was pale white. And then once we got to looking at a little better, we kind of figured that it was real. Phillip and his friends called 911. Told them we had found what we thought was a body.

3:18A dismembered body, human arms and a torso. As the hunters waited for deputies, they discovered more evidence. 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 what What kind of knife? Do you remember the kind of knife? It was like a sheetrock knife. You might have loads to cut sheetrock with. The blade, he says, was about six inches long. It was wrapped up in a towel like a sheath. Law enforcement arrived on scene to investigate, but the horror of what he witnessed wasn't over. The next day, McCaller was hunting two miles away.

4:03And then what did you find the next day? The leg. McCallar found a human right leg. Investigators then expanded their search area in the middle of a 25 ,000-acre tract of land filled with planted pines, swamp bottoms, and creeks. They brought in their canine team. And less than a mile south of where the right leg was found, they found the other leg. Investigators thought the remains belonged to a woman. but they had no face, fingerprints, height or weight to make any kind of identification. At that point, I mean, it's trying to figure out who that person is. Days later, on December 7th, investigator Jack Frost with the Liberty County Sheriff's Office went back out to the woods.

4:55He spotted an area near an oak tree. The dirt looked like it had been disturbed. And that is where I discovered the head. It's something you can't prepare yourself for. Now that they knew what the mysterious woman's face looked like, investigators released two sketches to the public asking for leads. I was like, whoa, wait a minute. Like, that looks like Mindy. That looks like Mindy. And I just froze. The person who recognized the sketch while looking at news stories online was the ex-wife of Mindy's husband, Nick Casodas. You know, it was just too close for comfort. I'm Erin Moriarty. From 48 Hours, this is The Woman in the Woods, Episode 2, Who Is She?

5:54Well, let's go back in time. When did you meet Nick Casodas? It was 2008. Heather Thomas and I talked in 2025 near her home outside Washington, D.C. She told me how she first met Nickasotas. We met on eHarmony. And back in those days, you know, it was still kind of new, the whole online dating, which I know I'm dating myself, but that's just kind of how it was. And I was a student and I was also, I was working for a credit union and then he was a JAG Corps. JAG is the Judge Advocate General's Corps. It's the military's legal service. Nick was in the Navy's branch. He's an attorney. So at the time we met, he was doing a lot of like the wills for service members going on deployment.

6:59When you first start out, you're not given like a whole bunch of really big cases or anything like that. She said that she found Nick charming. He definitely had an air about him of confidence, of, you know, reassurance, but never in an egotistical way. I mean, on paper, he looks kind of like the perfect guy. Yep. My family thought so, too. Heather said they moved in together fast. It was kind of a whirlwind. Was it romantic? I would say at the very beginning, yes. You know, I was kind of taken aback. You know, he had a lot of friends. I keep a very close inner circle. I don't have a ton of friends, but the friends I do have, I've had for decades.

7:53And 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 was. And so I was just really like, oh, well, opposites really do attract. By September 2009, nearly a year after meeting, Heather married Nick Kosotis. He was in his uniform. I was in, I had two different dresses. On that day, did you think you'd be married to him forever? I thought so. Yep. I really did. She said Nick was close to his family and his father would often visit from New Hampshire. I mean, they were incredibly close. We went and visited them in New Hampshire.

8:48We stayed there for holidays. And his family is amazing. They were absolutely amazing to him. Did Nick want children? Yes. A lot? I would say so, yes. Did you feel pressured? Yes. I also felt an immense amount of guilt because I had PCOS and polycystic ovarian syndrome. PCOS is a hormonal disorder that can cause infertility. But Heather also said she wanted to wait to have a baby. A few years into the marriage, they settled into a house in Alexandria, Virginia together. Heather felt a shift. I felt like he was my best friend, but at the same time, like, didn't have the romance. And it was just sort of like we were roommates living together.

9:50And I'm like, well, that doesn't seem like that's what a marriage should be. Now, could we have tried counseling and things like that? I'm sure maybe, you know, in hindsight's 20-20, maybe. but I think that this had gotten to the point where it was just so far gone. And I'm like, I had already kind of made up my mind that this wasn't going to work for me. How did he deal with that? You know, he had his suspicions because I had work friends that I was hanging out with. And I'm like, well, that doesn't mean that I'm dating them. So it was just, he says it was fine. We both cried together. And we said, you know what, this probably isn't, you know, working out how we wanted it to.

10:44And so after six years of marriage, Nick and Heather divorced in 2015. She said they ended things amicably and even stayed in touch. She started seeing someone else. And so did Nick. That's when he met Mindy Mebane. Heather says he even talked to her about his new relationship. He was so excited that they met. And I was excited for him. I'm like, oh, yay, that's exciting. Very cool. And then he made a specific trip to come to my house and tell me that he was getting married. So he actually came over to tell you he was marrying Mindy? We're getting married. It's in October. You know, it's going to be great.

11:33While Heather heard about Mindy and had seen photos, she only ever saw her in person once. It was at a post office, and she had no idea who I was. Heather decided not to approach, but one thing did catch her eye. Mindy looked a lot like Heather. You know, the dark hair, and I had dark hair when we were together, you know, just looked like his type. And I'm like, okay. And, you know, I wasn't going to come up to somebody and start a conversation. And by then, things between Nick and Heather had become complicated and contentious.

12:24We had our divorce final, first of all. It was final. He had a certain laundry list of things that he had to do. It was a very simple agreement. It was not complex at all. You both owned a house together? Yes. And so he was either supposed to refinance it or he was supposed to sell it. And then we split the profits. Whatever he wanted to do, however, I was like, I don't care. I really didn't. So he had to do that. Heather said he had agreed to either refinance or sell their house and pay off a Chevy Silverado truck. He drafted his own agreement. Like, this was not something that I was, like, forcing, you know, him to do.

13:09This was just something he's like, yep, I'm going to do this, this, this, this, that, and the other. But this, that, and the other seemed to fall through. Nick didn't make the payments as promised. He didn't do anything. Did he not pay the mortgage on the house? No. So that house, the mortgage is building up? Yep. It's hitting my credit. I'm freaking out. I'm like, what is going on? He's like, I'm going to take care of it. He doesn't do anything. I'm like, you know what? I'm not going to mess around. I'm going to hire an attorney. Heather worried about bankruptcy, bad credit, and how that would affect her government job.

13:51So she sued Nick. He was ordered to pay Heather$1.5 million to settle damages from failing to pay the mortgage. What was his explanation? Was he working at that point? He had left the Navy. Yep, he was working. And what was he doing? No idea. Nick just stopped communicating. He then missed a court date and a judge issued a warrant for his arrest in 2020. And then in January 2023, with Nick's Whereabouts Unknown, Heather got a message on Facebook from a friend of Mindy's relatives. And I was contacted saying, hey, Mindy's dead. What was your reaction? Horror. Did that person on Facebook tell you how she died?

14:45Heart failure was what I heard. And did you know that she was allegedly pregnant? Yeah, I had heard that. That she was pregnant? Mm-hmm. Heather believed the news and planned to send a gift to a memorial service or funeral. I don't know what are you supposed to do when your ex's wife dies. Like, that's a very complicated scenario. And then my tune changed a lot when a few weeks after that, this person says, Nick is dead. And I said, hmm. So you didn't believe that then? I immediately didn't believe it. Why? Well, in my world and in my head, I was thinking, okay, he's faking their deaths so they can get out of the country and not have to worry about the judgment.

15:42Could Mindy and Nick actually be alive and on the run? I was hearing all these things. I'm like, something's not right. Something's not right. This doesn't make sense to me. So that's when I really got on it. And I was looking around. I'm like, well, where were they last? It was Georgia. Okay. From her home in Virginia, Heather turned into an online sleuth, trying to track Nick, reading news and following whatever lead she could find. when she saw a story in early 2023 that stood out. Well, then, you know, I come across some information about a body that was found. Tell me about that. What did you come across?

16:26What did you? The GBI had put out some information. Again, I'm looking for other things. And this is a very big story in Georgia at the time. And so it is coming up in searches and stuff. investigators had released two sketches of the mystery woman in the woods, and one of them looked very familiar to Heather. I did report anonymously because at the time I thought, oh, they're not going to want to hear about some ex-wife. Of course you're going to implicate. So you actually called the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. And what exactly did you say anonymously? Yes, I said, I have reason to believe that this person is Mindy Kisotas, looks very much like her.

17:18Investigators said tips came in from 17 different states. Heather's anonymous message was one of hundreds as investigators narrowed down who the mystery woman could be. Just as far as 20, at that point, 22 years of law enforcement, I'd seen some bad scenes with, you know, some of the worst of human conditions. And just it still will shock the conscience to see that even as a seasoned law enforcement. Jack Frost was working as an investigator with the Liberty County Sheriff's Office in December 2022, when he arrived on that scene in the woods where the remains of the woman were found. And you just have to kind of compartmentalize it so you don't really focus on that part.

18:10You kind of become, I guess what the good word would be, is mechanized where you're just trying to process the bits and pieces of information you have as you get there and see things. When you first got there, was it evident to you that this probably was a homicide? Yes, ma 'am, it was. The indications on the body, the markings and the cut marks would indicate that it was not something that was natural, it was not something that was caused by animal scavenging or anything. That she had been dismembered. Correct. Did it occur to you that whoever killed this woman did not want her to be found? It did.

18:54And had gone to some trouble to put her there? It appeared they had. But early on, there was little to work with to identify the woman. So no fingerprints, no physical identification, Nobody around the area that would fit the description that we had as a missing person write-off that we could recall. No tattoos, identifying marks. No markings. Waiting on some results from the crime lab, Frost couldn't sit still. As he was reviewing some of the items recovered from the crime scene, he remembered a contact he had made from working an old commercial burglary case. There was that sterile-like container, a storage tote, and a knife.

19:39And Frost knew the brands of these items were carried by Home Depot. So I was hoping that there would be a purchase at a Home Depot that contained all three of those items at the same time. I'm kind of hoping for Hail Mary, but just something. Again, I'm sitting on my hands with idle time. You just happened to know those were sold at Home Depot. Correct. I mean, I've seen it on TV before. But, you know, maybe they find it all that together or maybe the knife and the trash bags and cleaning wipes or something. Again, it's something I can put out there. Might generate something, might not. It was a lucky hunch.

20:18Days later, he received a spreadsheet of purchases from Home Depots in Georgia and South Carolina dating back a couple months, courtesy of a loss prevention officer from that old case. The only thing possible that could have been purchased at Home Depot was a knife. So I get a list of 38 different names, and out of those, there's three purchases of just the knife. And out of those, there's only one in the Savannah area. The other two, one's in, I believe, Brunswick and the other one's in Charleston. That purchase was made on November 29th, just four days before the remains were found. But the one purchased in Savannah, I looked into that, and it was purchased by Nicholas Casadas.

21:05He decided to dig into Nick's background. So, I mean, this is lieutenant commander in the Navy. This is probably not a guy doing, you know, these heinous crimes, but it's worth noting.

21:23Shaq here. What's it like to buy a car from Carvana 100 % online and get it delivered to your door? Let me tell you. Your car is here, Mr. Shaq. Thank you, Mr. Carvana guy. Can't wait to take it for a spin. Only the best for you, Mr. Shaq. Hey, have you always been so big, tall, and handsome? Not always. I was 6 '10 once. Seven days to love it or return it, Mr. Shaq. Not that I would. You never do. No, I never do. So buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply. See our seven-day return policy at Carvana.com. Frost and a team of investigators were waiting on the FBI for an analysis of the remains, but those DNA results would take time.

22:06So he kept searching, following his hunch, and trying to learn more about Nick Esotis. I found that he was married. I found that he was married to Mindy Meben. and looking at her pictures and stuff. I couldn't ever get a good picture just from my Google searches and stuff. So he tracked down Mindy's mother, father, and her brother. He eventually talked to her brother, who also worked in law enforcement, on the phone. I felt odd calling him and saying, like, look, I'm in law enforcement. You're in law enforcement. You know, I'm calling you because could this be your sister? And, you know, the big thing was the initial picture they had out at that point was the sketch with the short hair.

22:55And he's like, no, my sister's fine. Absolutely not. She has never had short hair. There's no way. No way. But in December, did he tell you that his sister had died? No, he did not. He did not. He did not say that at the time. The only thing he really indicated was there seemed to be a little bit of tension between the two. But again, he doesn't know, and I don't know, and I'm just kind of shooting in the dark here. Even if there was tension in the family, it's not clear why Mindy's brother would have lied about his sister. And at that point, Frost wouldn't have known it was a lie since there was no obituary or death certificate.

23:40You know, that was something that was kind of put that to sleep at the time was like, OK, I called family. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation released a second sketch of the mystery woman in January 2023. investigators received hundreds of calls from tipsters, including that call from Nick Kosotis' ex-wife, Heather. But there still wasn't a definitive confirmation of her identity. So what was the big breakthrough? The big breakthrough, honestly, was the DNA. An FBI analyst used genetic genealogy to identify the remains. And the FBI analyst builds the tree out from, you know, more recently to a person that you can go locate.

24:29And they were able to, with using genetic genealogy, they were able to identify a relative of the missing of this dead woman. Correct. An unidentified woman. And who did her relative turn out to be? That was Betsy Meven. And did you realize, oh my gosh, that's the same family where you were called? I did. Betsy Mebin was Mindy Kosotas' mother. We went down to the law offices where Betsy worked, and they let us use a conference room and had her and Frank in there to talk to them. In May 2023, the FBI and Georgia Bureau of Investigation reached out to Mindy's mom, Betsy, for a DNA sample. And then Jack Frost accompanied GBI agent Tracy Sands to Savannah to meet with Betsy and her husband, Frank, in person.

25:29What do you say to them? You know, Tracy's doing the introductions and stuff. And what is he telling her? You know, of course, our condolences. Even then, with both of us there in uniform, with our badges, our credentials, their skepticism is that we are actually who we say we are. They don't believe you're real. There's a look of doubt. There's a look of doubt. And it's hard because, you know, we're dealing with a very sensitive issue of like, we don't know what you know yet, but we're telling you that your daughter's deceased. and, you know, we're looking for what happened to her because she'd met a very tragic end.

26:08According to Frost, when the Mebbins first heard from law enforcement, they were confused. They weren't sure if this was part of a larger plot tied to Nick's work. What did they say they had been told about what had happened and why Nick and Mindy were on the run? So there was, they weren't so much on the run as they were just in hiding. And there was a couple of different stories and scenarios that they were provided. And one was that there was some fallout from some stuff that Nick had done at the Pentagon and that it was possible that he was named or something as some type of potential target for a terrorist group.

26:51And then there was something to do with his AI software he was developing for Microsoft that it was real top secret stuff and that it was really super sensitive and they had to be really careful about who knew about it and everything else. So it was almost like a, you know, secret agent type of life where they just hid in plain sight but had to kind of be careful. The Mebans said that they had even been living with their daughter and her husband, Nick, until December 1, 2022. They felt that, I guess, he was providing everything. that it was kind of odd, but that Mindy seemed to go along with everything that he was saying and that they were living this lifestyle to keep him safe.

27:35This information is at odds with what we heard in the last episode from Mindy's friend Angela, who believed that Mindy wasn't speaking with her family. But when Frost and Sands told Mindy's parents that investigators believe their daughter Mindy was the woman in the woods, they were dumbfounded. I mean, how could that be? Like Mindy's friends, along with Nick's ex-wife, Heather, Betsy and Frank thought Mindy had died in a hospital. They had been visiting their son over Thanksgiving, and it's when they returned to Savannah, Betsy recalled, that they heard the news. She was under the impression that she had died during complications related to high blood pressure and childbirth, preeclampsia.

28:24And when there was no funeral or memorial service for their daughter, the Mebbins continued to trust Nick, assuming there must have been a security issue. And what was her reaction when she found out, in fact, she had been, her daughter had been found dismembered? I think a little shock. I mean, that would be hard for anyone to believe. Absolutely. What did Betsy and Frank tell you had happened to Nick Casodas? They said that after he left sometime that in February of 2023, they'd reached out to him via, I believe, a messaging app signal or possibly by email. I can't recall exactly which method they used.

29:08And he made some indication he would contact them later. And then when they did get contacted, I think within a couple of weeks later, It was by email telling them that Nick had passed away in a car accident. And did they believe that Nick was dead? They did. But Nick Esotis wasn't dead. Investigators had to tell Mindy's parents that Nick Esotis was very much alive. And as they soon learned, not only was he alive, but he had changed his name, moved to Pennsylvania, and was now married to another woman, his third wife. About a week after meeting with the Mebbins, the GBI medical examiner, using Betsy's DNA sample, was able to officially confirm that Mindy Kasotis was the woman in the woods.

30:02Now we gotta catch this guy.

30:15From 48 Hours, this is The Woman in the Woods, produced by Sony Music Entertainment. If you like this episode, please rate and review. I'm your host, Erin Moriarty. Judy Teigart is the executive producer of 48 Hours. Special thanks to 48 Hours producer Chuck Stevenson and associate producer Chelsea Narvaez. Mara Walls is the senior story editor. And Jamie Benson is the senior director of podcast operations for CBS News. Mixing and sound design by Alan Pang. The Woman in the Woods was written and produced by Alex Schumann. Our associate producer is Zoe Culkin. Shara Morris is the executive producer for Sony Music Entertainment.