On Dec. 2, 2022, investigators were called to a south Georgia swamp after hunters found a female torso in a ditch. Among the first on scene was Investigator Jack Frost, now with the Liberty County district attorney’s office. Detectives recovered a Milwaukee-brand knife, a plastic storage tote with what appeared to be blood, and wipes. Five days later Frost located the remainder of the body. Authorities said the victim had defensive wounds; Assistant District Attorney Laurie Baio told jurors, “There’s no one that winds up dismembered in the woods that’s not a — a victim of homicide.”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation released forensic sketches to help identify the woman. The sketches generated hundreds of tips. One came from Heather Thomas, who was living 500 miles away in Virginia. Heather recognized the sketch and thought it looked like Mindi Kassotis, whom she knew because Mindi had married Heather’s ex-husband, former Naval JAG officer Nick Kassotis.
Nick had served in multiple global postings, including Iraq, Italy and the Pentagon, and had worked on sensitive cases. He and Heather divorced in 2015; that same year he began dating Mindi, a Washington, D.C., legal secretary. They married in 2016. Friends described Mindi as romantic and eager to start a family; she produced a podcast called “Compelling Women.”
Over time those close to Mindi said her life became increasingly strange. The couple moved frequently, living in three states. Mindi increasingly communicated with friends via the encrypted app Signal, reportedly at Nick’s suggestion. She told friends their accounts had been hacked, banks frozen, and that they were under surveillance—claims she linked to Nick’s classified work. Friends said she grew terrified, rarely left the house, and believed an undercover team posing as tree surgeons had installed surveillance cameras around their home.
Heather had been trying to locate Nick for nearly two years after their divorce, in part because he owed her $1.5 million under a court judgment. Using contacts she traced his movements and suspected he was in the Southeast. In late 2022, while Heather was still searching, Nick and Mindi were hiding in the Savannah area. That summer Mindi had told friends she was pregnant.
After Thanksgiving 2022, friends said Nick called to say Mindi was gone, claiming she had died from a sudden medical problem and had been cremated without a funeral. Heather and Mindi’s parents received conflicting communications, including an email that falsely claimed Nick had died in a car crash. Suspicious, Heather contacted Georgia authorities after seeing the forensic sketch; DNA and genetic genealogy later confirmed the swamp victim was Mindi Kassotis.
Investigators could find no evidence Nick had died. Instead they discovered he was living under a new name, Nicholas Kilian James Stark, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with a third wife, Samantha Kolesnik, who believed she had married a widower. In May 2023 officers brought Nick to Georgia for questioning. He told a story of being pursued and controlled by an unknown figure calling himself Jim McIntyre, who allegedly posed as an FBI agent and directed many aspects of the couple’s lives. Nick said they obeyed McIntyre for years out of fear.
Detectives grew skeptical and assembled a circumstantial case tying Nick to the crime. Surveillance from a remote pumping station captured a green Ford Explorer matching Nick’s vehicle near the property where the remains were recovered. Investigators traced the Milwaukee-brand knife to a Home Depot purchase made about 50 minutes from the hunting club, paid for with a debit card linked to Nick; surveillance images captured a man identified as Nick with the knife after purchase. Records also connected Nick to a Bass Pro Shop purchase of a seven-piece field-dressing kit and a bone saw. Subpoenaed phone records and vehicle GPS placed Nick’s phone and car at the location where the body was found.
During interrogation Nick offered conflicting accounts of Mindi’s final days. He claimed she had fallen and checked into a clinic around Thanksgiving; when he arrived to retrieve her a doctor told him she had died suddenly, he said, though he could not provide names, locations or records. He denied killing Mindi and suggested the supposed Jim McIntyre might be responsible.
Prosecutors argued Nick had fabricated elaborate stories to cover his tracks and pointed to the physical evidence linking him to the crime scene: his vehicle, his phone, and purchases of knives and tools consistent with dismemberment and field dressing. Baio told jurors the knife found near Mindi’s body matched the brand Nick bought and that surveillance showed him with it on the day investigators believed Mindi may have been killed. Investigators who searched for McIntyre found a local man with that name who ran a dental-implant business; he was not an FBI agent and had no discernible connection to the case. The prosecution argued there was no credible evidence an agent named Jim McIntyre controlled the couple.
The defense painted Nick as a frightened man manipulated by a mysterious figure. Defense attorney Doug Weinstein described him as “a man who lived in fear,” arguing he had been duped and deluded rather than a killer. Nick testified he had willingly given McIntyre access to their lives and accounts because he believed McIntyre was legitimate. The defense produced no photographs, records, or independent evidence corroborating McIntyre’s existence; Weinstein acknowledged there was no proof beyond Nick’s testimony.
Witness testimony presented a mixed portrait. Some former colleagues and friends, including a retired naval commander, described Nick as a decorated officer who stepped up in difficult situations. Other witnesses recounted financial deception: one former colleague testified she lent Nick money and provided a credit card after he claimed his accounts were hacked, only to see roughly $198,000 charged and never repaid. Heather Thomas testified Nick had not complied with the divorce judgment requiring payment to her. Nick’s third wife, Samantha, said she felt “horrified, shocked … traumatized, violated, deceived” after learning about his misrepresentations and Mindi’s fate.
Prosecutors said motive likely sprang from betrayal and control. Baio acknowledged motive was hard to prove but suggested Nick wanted a family and had discovered Mindi was not pregnant—Mindi’s death certificate later showed she was not pregnant. She urged jurors to focus on the physical evidence and Mindi’s life, rather than the defendant’s narratives. The defense emphasized the circumstantial nature of the case and said the state had to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
After deliberating just over an hour, the jury convicted Nick on all counts, including malice and felony murder. The judge sentenced him to life without parole. At sentencing, friends and family spoke of betrayal and loss. Morgan Paddock addressed Nick directly: “She loved you and trusted you to tell her the truth, to protect her, to live out your marriage vows. And yet you were the one that she needed protection from.”
The conviction was built largely on circumstantial evidence: surveillance video, retail records, GPS and phone data, and Nick’s shifting statements. The alleged puppet master, Jim McIntyre, never materialized as a corroborating witness. Mindi’s friends and family remember her for her podcast and the life she led before she became the center of a case that exposed layers of deception, control and ultimately led to her husband’s guilty verdict.
Produced by Chuck Stevenson and Jamie Stolz. Development producers Elena DiFiore, Ryan Smith and Tamara Weitzman. Associate producer Chelsea Narvaez. Editors Marcus Balsam and Greg Kaplan. Senior broadcast producer Anthony Batson. Executive story editor Nancy Kramer. Executive producer Judy Tygard.