Megan Nichols was just 15 years old when she disappeared on July 3, 2014 from Fairfield, Illinois.
On the evening of July 3, 2014, Megan Nichols was with her mother Kathy Jo Hutchcraft at a friend’s house. At around 9pm, Megan told her mum she had a stomach ache, so she took her home. Her mum then went back to her friend’s house for a couple of hours.
When Kathy Jo returned home at around 11.30pm, she realised Megan was missing. She went straight to the Sheriffs department to report it.
Megan’s mother then went home and called her daughters friends to see if any of them had heard from Megan but no one had.
When searching Megan’s room, her mum found her phone. It had been reset to factory settings.
Kathy Jo’s mother found a note in the TV room of the home. Megan had left it behind. It said:
“Mom, I love you but I’m never going to be happy here. Don’t come looking for me because why spend a lifetime looking for someone who doesn’t want to be found.”
The next morning, Megan’s mother went straight to Brodey Murbarger’s home. Brodey Murbarger had been Megan’s boyfriend for a short time. Megan and Murbarger had met at a homecoming dance where Murbarger ditched his girlfriend to spend time with Megan.
After a few months, Murbarger was back with his girlfriend but he stayed in Megan’s life. Megan’s mum didn’t approve of the situation and when she told Megan to end things with Murbarger, he showed up at the house. Hutchcraft recalled him saying:
“Look, you are way too controlling, you’re concerning me and I think you need to be on medication.”
He left the house but only after making it clear he didn’t plan on leaving Megan alone.
When Hutchcraft arrived at Murbarger’s home on July 4, 2014,he was in the driveway washing his car. He told her that Megan had wanted to move to Oklahoma to live with her biological dad. Police were able to rule this out though. They did bring Brodey Murbarger in for questioning. He claimed her and Megan had never had a sexual relationship but text messages between the two caught him in a lie. The two had also spoken about running away together.
For years, police believed that Megan had run away, until a man searching for firewood in a field just outside of town discovered a human skull. The remains belonged to Megan Nichols. Investigators concluded it was a homicide due to her body having been buried.
After Megan Nichols body was found, Illinois State Police interviewed Murbarger again, but he insisted he had been at his girlfriend’s house the night Megan disappeared. Investigators also analysed his vehicle and found a suspicious dark spot in the boot, but initial tests showed it wasn’t blood.
The FBI was brought in to help on the case. They did further tests on Murbarger’s car and found that the spot in the boot was in fact Megan’s blood. They found even more blood in the boot when testing with luminal.
At this point, Murbarger was studying geology at the University of Southern Indiana. His roommate and friend, Kyle Ellis, agreed to wear a wire for the FBI. During conversations the two had, Murbarger theorised that someone with “anger issues found out about something” and “strangled her”. Though Murbarger did not admit to killing Megan, the police had not made public the fact that Megan had been strangled or suffocated.
Brodey Murbarger was arrested in October 2020 for the first-degree murder of Megan Nichols.
He went on trial in 2022.
Prosecutors believe he killed Megan on July 3, 2014 after he backed out of running away together.
Assistant Attorney General at the time, Michael Falagario said:
“She had gone to the ATM, she was packed, she was ready to go, so when Brodey ends up backing out, you can see how she would overreact, be upset and be emotional… It had come to a point where he completely lost control and reacted aggressively.”
After just two hours, the jury convicted Brodey Murbarger of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
Sources:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/indiana-man-charged-connection-2014-201746412.html
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-murder-of-megan-nichols/id1264424015?i=1000531352064
https://www.euronews.com/2018/01/31/remains-found-identified-megan-nichols-teen-missing-2014-n842946
