[John Christophersen] He had literally just walked in the door and was shot,
right where he stood.
[gunshot]
She had received her gunshot wound to the back of her head.
[Steve Helgeson] Dennis and Merna were a family-orientated classic
grandparents and parents.
[John] Because of their death, there's going to be a large payout.
Their beneficiaries are their children.
She may act in a vengeful manner to try and take what she feels
is rightfully hers.
[John] He had pulled a gun on a female.
He stated that the only way she was going to leave was in a body bag.
[Michael Arntfield] The neighbor tells the sheriff
that he thinks they were murdered by a professional hitman sent for him.
[Steve] Not mentioning the $50,000 cheque did beg us to ask,
"What else is he lying about?"
[John] It's our opening.
We have gotten that golden nugget.
[gunshot]
[narrator] Every day in North America,
dozens of people are murdered.
The key to solving the toughest of these homicides
lies in the final 24 hours of the victim's life.
To crack the case, detectives must reconstruct that critical timeline,
the minutes and hours containing evidence
that can help unlock the mystery
and catch the killer.
[narrator] La Crosse, Wisconsin,
a jewel of the Midwest located along the Mississippi River.
[Steve] La Crosse County is located
on the western side of Wisconsin.
It's got the water, we've got a lot of bluffs,
which makes the area, uh, very beautiful.
One of the little-known models of the county is where
rivers flow,
bluffs rise,
and the beer is always cold.
Barre Mills is a small community
on the outskirts of La Crosse.
It is a very affluent neighborhood. Everybody knew each other.
[Steve] Crime is very low, it's very safe.
Homicides are so rare for us.
The sheriff's office
investigated only one homicide that year.
[narrator] On a quiet Monday morning in May,
911 receives an alarming call.
[John] The first arriving deputy observes a white male outside of the residence.
He identifies himself as Eric Koula,
and Eric is visibly distraught and he points
to the residence for the officer,
describing that his mother and father are inside
apparently deceased.
[Steve] The deputies, when they did enter,
realize that Dennis and Merna have been the victims of violence,
and that was likely the cause of their death.
[John] The deputy observes Dennis Koula lying on the kitchen floor
surrounded by a pool of blood.
The deputy finds Merna Koula
slumped over a computer
with blood dripping from her head
onto her body and onto the floor.
The medical examiner determined that it was a homicide.
[narrator] The victims are Dennis and Merna Koula,
a loving couple who have been happily married for 42 years.
[Steve] They were in their late 60s, they were still very active.
They were, uh, family orientated and classic grandparents and parents.
They have two adult children,
and they were very important in Dennis and Merna's life,
just like an idyllic family.
[John] Dennis Koula went to school to become a pharmacist,
was very successful, he was able to open up several pharmacies.
Eventually, he decided to open up his own car dealership which was also successful.
Merna Koula, she was a teacher at heart
and enjoyed her teaching career.
They were hard working individuals.
They were typical Midwestern that whatever they had,
they earned.
[narrator] Heading up the investigation into
the double murder of Dennis and Merna Koula
is Sheriff Steve Helgeson of the La Crosse County Sheriff's Department.
Assisting him is Special Agent John Christophersen.
A double homicide in our county, that's very rare.
When we have a case that seems complicated,
that's when we involve the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
Special Agent Christopherson,
he's an excellent investigator.
[melancholy music playing]
[John] As I entered the residence,
I observed Dennis Koula lying face down
and his jacket still on.
Large pool of blood around the upper half of his body.
Grasped in his hands
were his water bottle and his car keys,
indicating that he had literally just walked in the door from work
and was shot,
right where he stood as he entered the doorway.
To the right is the computer room,
and I observe Merna Koula
slumped over the computer,
her left hand on the computer board,
and you can tell
that she was comfortable
where she was at at the time that she was shot,
as if she had sat down to start working on the computer.
[narrator] As detectives take a closer look at the bodies,
they notice an important detail.
[John] They had started to deteriorate or decompose.
As a result, there was the imminent smell of,
for a lack of better terms,
death in the air.
So we knew that this was not a fresh homicide,
but something that had occurred
hours or possibly days before the bodies were discovered.
[narrator] Investigators continue to comb through the crime scene
searching for evidence.
[John] All of the dressers that were noted had all of their drawers open,
but there were several valuables that were still in the dresser drawers
and other areas of the residence that were untouched.
It appeared to be that the scene
was staged for a mock robbery.
There was no sign of any struggle,
there did not appear to be any type of forced entry into the residence.
Inside of a walk-in closet was a .22 caliber bolt action rifle, single shot.
On a shelf above the rifle
was stored some .22 caliber rounds of ammunition.
You could tell that he had been sitting for a while in one particular spot,
because there was an indent in the carpeting.
But the rifle was just sitting to the left of the indentation,
indicating that the rifle had been moved.
This potentially could have been a weapon used
to shoot Dennis and Merna.
So we sent that down to the crime laboratory to have ballistics take a look at it.
Additionally, we took Dennis and Merna Koulas' cell phones and computers to be analyzed.
We believe that the individual that was responsible for this
had to have been known by Dennis and Merna,
or did a very good job of hiding themselves at the time of the homicide.
And if it was somebody that was in hiding,
it had to have been an ambush or an assassination type of incident.
[narrator] To catch Dennis and Merna Koula's killer,
investigators need to piece together their final 24 hours.
[John] We've got two affluent individuals
who have gunshot wounds to their head,
we've got an affluent neighborhood which has very limited crime.
We're wondering who would have a grudge deep enough
to go after Dennis and Merna.
And if it's not a grudge, is there someone
who would benefit as a result of their deaths?
We have a lot of unanswered questions,
especially with a couple that seems to be loved by everybody.
[narrator] Investigators turn their focus to establishing the victims' timelines
in the hours leading up to their death.
[John] Eric Koula is standing outside of the residence.
He's very distraught, he's hysterical.
He's crying. His wife Christine joins him at the scene.
Eric tells us that the both of his parents were supposed to work
on that Monday, May 24th.
Eric received a phone call at 8:15 a.m.
from the school district where Merna was teaching,
stating that she had not shown up for work.
At 8:21 a.m., he telephones his mother
and gets her voicemail and leaves a message.
He calls his father, and there is no answer.
Eric stated that it was very unlike them not to answer their phone.
So Eric was worried.
He got in his vehicle and drove out to his parents' house to check on them
to see what possibly could be wrong.
At 8:45 a.m., Eric arrived.
He entered the residence. There he discovered his father lying facedown.
Then he found his mother
slumped over the computer. He called 911.
He was asked if there were individuals that had access to his parents' residence.
Eric stated that the Koula's often left their doors unlocked during the daytime
in case friends wanted to come and visit.
[narrator] Investigators ask Eric and Christine
about the last time they saw or spoke to Dennis and Merna.
[John] Eric stated the last time that he had seen his parents
was on Thursday, May 20th.
He had stopped to talk to his dad,
and help him put some boards on the deck of their residence.
After that, Eric had reached out over the weekend to ask his parents
over for a cookout
and left a voicemail message for them,
but did not receive a response.
Eric said he knew that they had social plans,
so he believed at that time that they were tied up with friends.
[narrator] As investigators began to search for a suspect, they get an unexpected lead.
[Steve] I received a call from Steve Burgess who is the president of a local bank
who lived across the street from the Koulas.
He told me that possibly the homicides were intended
for him and his family, rather than Dennis and Merna.
[Michael] The neighbor tells the sheriff
that he thinks they were murdered by a hitman sent for him.
The sheriff knows that if
there's even a modicum of truth to this story,
that we're talking about a professional hit in a small town,
case of mistaken identity.
The investigation just got a lot more complicated.
[narrator] Prominent La Crosse residents, Dennis and Merna Koula,
have been brutally murdered.
Their neighbor, local banker Steve Burgess,
has given investigators a surprising new lead.
[Steve] He actually called me and he said that he had received
a threat by phone just two days earlier.
Being the president of the bank, there was a number of...
distasteful things he had to do because of the economy at that time was failing,
and there was a number of loans that
people weren't either able to satisfy...
[Michael] If we rewind the clock to 2008,
this is among the worst
financial crises and housing market meltdowns in history.
There was a lot of desperate people, a lot of angry people who had lost everything,
and to be involved in financial services at that time,
that would have been very dangerous in some cases.
A lot of them had targets on their back.
[Steve] The caller had told Steve Burgess that his days were numbered.
So Steve Burgess was very concerned for himself as well as his family.
We were also very concerned though with these threatening phone calls,
especially because when you Google his address,
sometimes the Google Maps actually points to the Koula residents,
rather than his residents.
The thought came, "Did somebody that was not familiar with the area
come out and to do harm to the Burgesses and--
And got the wrong house.
[narrator] Investigators start to work the theory
that a hitman could be behind the Koula murders,
in a case of mistaken identity.
[John] So we needed to establish who he was getting those
threatening phone calls from
and a timeline as to when those phone calls were received.
[narrator] Before investigators get the chance to identify the person
making threatening calls to Steve Burgess,
their forensic computer expert makes a significant discovery.
[John] When we looked at Merna's body position,
her left hand was on the computer.
As a result of computer analysis,
we could determine the time that she was on the computer
[keyboard clacking]
She had started using the computer at 5:14 p.m.,
and her last keystroke was at 5:41 p.m.
[gunshot]
It is very rare in a death investigation
that we can find the exact time of death
unless we have an eyewitness that actually observed it.
This helped us do a timeline with an exact time and date.
We were able to confirm Dennis and Merna Koula had died on the Friday evening
and were not found until Monday morning.
It appeared that Merna was the one who had been murdered first.
[gunshot]
As far as the time of death for Dennis,
we know that on Friday, May 21st, he worked from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
It generally takes him approximately one hour to drive home.
So, if he arrived home at 6:00 p.m.,
it would have been 6:00 p.m. or very shortly thereafter
that he had been shot as he made entry into his own home.
This timeline, um, Friday evening
helped to eliminate the potential of the individual threatening Steve Burgess,
because his last threatening phone call was received over the weekend
after the Koula's had been killed.
[narrator] With the Hitman theory ruled out,
investigators turn to the medical examiner, in search of new leads.
[John] The autopsy confirmed that Dennis and Merna were both
killed as a result of a gunshot wound.
A bullet that was retrieved from Dennis Koula's head
was consistent with a .22 caliber rifle
which was found in the closet of the Koula residence.
The .22 caliber rifle
was also dusted for fingerprints and swabbed for DNA,
but no discernible evidence was able to be retrieved from that firearm.
So we could definitively not say that it was that weapon.
It was very frustrating from an investigative standpoint.
It's one more small piece of that puzzle,
but we needed to really find more evidence.
[narrator] Looking for a motive,
investigators dig into the Koula's background.
[John] Dennis and Merna Koula had substantial investments,
and they had large life insurance policies,
because of their death, there is going to be a large payout.
Their beneficiaries are their children.
Eric and Cindy.
[narrator] With this new information,
investigators take a closer look at the Koulas' children.
They first question their son, Eric.
Eric stated that he was very close to his parents, especially to his dad.
He and his dad would golf together, they would do projects together.
He also felt very close to his mom.
He would go over on a regular basis to help his mom.
So Eric had a very strong relationship with his family.
[narrator] Investigators ask Eric about his whereabouts
during the timeframe of the murders.
[Steve] So, on Friday May 21st, he got up in the morning and then
at 8:30 a.m., he began day trading.
Eric stated that he was very successful.
He was pocketing between $7,000 and $10,000 a month.
At 4:00 in the afternoon,
Eric left the house to go help his friend Mike grout a shower.
Eric said that he left Mike's about 5:15 p.m.,
and on his way home, he stopped at the Bridgeview Plaza garden center
in order to purchase a hanging plant to give his wife as an anniversary present.
He arrived at about 5:30 p.m., but didn't see anything he liked,
so he went to a different store.
He was able to find a plant that he liked and headed home
to get ready for their anniversary dinner that night.
Around 7:30, he and his wife left to go to the restaurant.
As we look at the timeline that Eric had provided us, it's very tight.
His friend Mike confirms that Eric had been at Mike's residence.
Eric also and was able to produce a receipt
that indicated he had purchased the plant at 6:15 p.m.
We believe that there's no way
that Eric could have any involvement in his parents' death,
because he would not have had time to commit the homicides.
[narrator] With Eric eliminated as a suspect,
investigators asked if there's anyone he could think of
who may want to harm his parents.
[Steve] He felt we needed to look at his sister and brother-in-law.
He felt that they should be considered to be suspects.
He talked about money that was owed by his sister to his parents.
Cindy's the 38-year-old female who is the youngest of the children of Dennis and Merna.
[John] Eric said that she married an individual, Patrick,
that Dennis and Merna did not approve of.
Her income was very limited.
Patrick was kind of a job-hopper, and he had recently lost his position.
He and Cindy were struggling to make ends meet.
[narrator] In addition to Cindy and Patrick Cowell's financial struggles,
Eric reveals a disturbing detail about their relationship history.
[John] According to Eric,
Patrick had a violent history that included pulling a gun on Cindy at one time,
because Cindy threatened to leave him.
And Patrick stated that the only way she was going to leave
was in a body bag.
They stayed together, but with the financial strain
and violent history, this was a potential lead in the deaths of Dennis and Merna Koula.
[gunshot]
[narrator] After learning about Cindy Cowell's financial struggles
coupled with the fact that she will inherit almost $800,000 from her parents' deaths,
investigators bring her down to the station for questioning.
Cindy, held a job at a collection agency for minimal wages.
Patrick was unemployed and they struggled financially.
[narrator] Detectives asked Cindy about the last time she communicate
with her parents.
[John] Cindy last had contact with her father Dennis on Friday morning, May 21st,
shortly before nine o'clock.
She discussed with her father her financial problems,
and Dennis was frustrated by that.
[Steve] They were apparently low on funds,
Patrick's unemployment cheque had not yet arrived.
Dennis had made some negative comments about his son-in-law,
indicating that her husband was not doing a good job taking care of her
and her daughter.
Cindy indicated to us that she felt that Eric
was her parents' favorite child.
Eric was receiving a lot more money than she was.
[John] Eric received several hundred thousand dollars to help him
with his day trading career.
Cindy, on the other hand, although she was given money to assist
with her financial problems...
she is receiving less than $10,000 in assistance.
[Steve] She was somewhat bitter over the fact that
she wasn't being taken care of as well
financially, at least, as Eric was.
[Keira Stockdale] That's a hard place to be especially if there's a golden boy
or a brother who is getting a lot from your parents.
You may feel that you're not unaccepted into the family.
That may cultivate feelings of envy,
and she may act in a revengeful or vengeful manner
to try and take what she feels is maybe rightfully hers.
Investigators ask Cindy about her whereabouts on May 21st,
the day of her parents' murders.
[John] Cindy went to work in the morning.
Ultimately left work at 4:45 in the afternoon, then went to a grocery store.
She arrived home somewhere between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m.
where she stayed the rest of the evening with her daughter and husband.
We checked with her employer,
and in fact did find out that she did leave work at 4:45 p.m.
We went to the grocery store. We were able to determine she did go
to that grocery store at that time.
And then from there, she went home.
Had she in fact left the grocery store
and gone to the Koulas' residence,
she would have arrived later
that the timestamp on the computer for Merna to have been killed.
So we know that in the time frame she provided,
Cindy was not a suspect in these homicides.
[narrator] With financial gains still a potential motive,
investigators turn their attention to Cindy's husband,
Patrick Cowell.
[John] Cindy stated that there was no way, despite the fact that there was
stress between Patrick and her parents, that in no way he would ever
do something... such as murdering them.
But we still needed to follow up with her husband Patrick.
He's unemployed... He's at home all day long,
and certainly has opportunity throughout the day
to come up with a possibility of being
the individual responsible for these deaths.
[narrator] When investigators dig into Patrick's background, they uncover more red flags.
He had a history of infidelity,
alcoholism... At one point, we learned that he had pulled a gun on a female.
We talked to family and friends about what Dennis and Merna thought
and expressed regarding family members.
We learned that Dennis was not pleased at all
with Patrick and in fact referred to him as a lazy bum,
and that Merna was completely explicit with her dislike for Patrick,
including the fact that if Cindy remained married to Patrick,
she may not get her inheritance at the time
of Dennis and Merna Koulas' death.
With Patrick in their crosshairs,
investigators bring him down to the station for questioning.
[John] He was very forthcoming about his relationship
with Cindy and he said although
there are some struggles in the dynamics,
he is comfortable with the life that he is having with Cindy.
[narrator] Detectives then questioned Patrick about
his relationship with his in-laws.
[John] Patrick told us he does get along with his in-laws okay,
but in talking to other individuals close to the Koulas,
it's a complete contrast.
They paint a picture that Patrick is not well-liked,
so we have to consider who is telling the truth.
What type of relationship really did occur between them?
[narrator] Investigators uncover another red flag
when they asked Patrick about his work history.
[John] He told us he was a 4-year veteran of the United Stated Marine Corps.
Thus, indicating to us that he had experience with weapons.
[Steve] We're trying to figure out motive,
but we also have to figure out who is capable of doing this.
The fact that Patrick was in the Marine Corps was of interest.
Someone that was unexperienced with firearms probably wouldn't
be able to aim a .22 caliber rifle as well as
the person that shot the Koulas.
[narrator] Detectives then asked Patrick about
his timeline on the day of the Koulas' murders.
[John] He explains to us that he gets up between 6:00 and 6:30 in the morning,
he assists his daughter in getting ready for school
and out the door.
And then from that time until 6:00 p.m.,
he watches TV and plays on his Xbox video games.
So we have an individual who claims he's been
at home all day playing video games.
He has experience in shooting firearms.
And he's got motive.
He and Cindy are financially strapped.
Is Patrick an individual who is actually capable of committing this crime?
[gunshot]
We need to...
dig a little further.
[narrator] Patrick consents to a search of his home.
His Xbox was sent down to our crime laboratory
where forensic analysts were able to determine
that the Xbox had been used
from the early morning hours on Friday, May 21st,
until approximately 6:00 p.m.
After the analysis was complete,
we feel he did not have the time to commit these homicides.
[narrator] With no new leads, the investigation into the murders of
Dennis and Merna Koula grinds to a halt.
The community was very concerned about the homicide
and that nobody had been arrested
and the community was speculating nobody would be.
[John] Frustration is setting in
in that we have potential suspects.
And the door is shutting as we go along.
So now we have to sit down,
put together a better timeline,
look at what we have in place,
we need a lead in the deaths of Dennis and Merna Koula.
We need to find that golden nugget.
[narrator] In the double homicide of grandparents, Dennis and Merna Koula,
investigators believe the killer must be someone within their inner circle.
[gunshot]
But then a disturbing new clue emerges
and shifts the entire direction of the investigation.
We received a call from Eric's wife Christine,
they had information and we had a deputy respond to the residence.
[John] Eric explained that he went out to the mailbox where he retrieved
a plain white envelope, and inside the envelope was a letter that
specifically stated, "Fixed you."
[Steve] Eric had no explanation for why someone would say "fixed you."
He had no one that he had any problems with.
He was visibly upset and he had no idea where it came from,
who it came from, or why it came,
but he imagined that whoever had killed his parents
could possibly now be looking at him or his family as a target.
[Steve] We needed to put as much effort as we possibly could into
getting to the bottom of that and trying to figure out
where that letter came from, because if the person that killed Dennis and Merna
are now leaving Eric a letter, that changes things completely as far as, uh, motive,
and what they are willing to do next.
[narrator] As investigators review the body cam footage
from the responding deputy officer, they make a surprising discovery.
[John] Eric's reaction seemed not genuine.
It looked like an individual that was faking a heart attack.
It looked absolutely staged.
[Steve] It just was concerning the way he was acting.
It didn't make sense to us.
[narrator] Investigators decide to take a closer look at Eric Koula,
starting with his day trading business. To their surprise,
it appears Eric is not doing as well financially as he has led them to believe.
[John] During our initial conversations with Eric,
he was boastful about the fact he was making
$7,000 to $10,000 a month online trading.
We now look into his finances.
And he is not only broke, he is deadass broke. He's got no money.
Where he initially started investing as a day trader, he initially did very well.
He had well over $700,000 in assets.
And through poor choices and being very egotistical,
for a lack of better terms,
he now had less than $1,000 of money that he was playing with.
He owed tens of thousands of dollars to the IRS.
He owed money on his cars. He owed money on credit cards, on his house.
He also had taken money from a retirement account
and started online trading with that. Then he lost it all.
He was in sorrowful shape.
[narrator] Investigators also uncover evidence of a potentially fraudulent
bank transaction in Eric's account.
[John] We learned that on Saturday, May 22nd,
Eric deposited a cheque in the amount of $50,000.
The cheque was signed by his father and dated May 21st,
the date that Dennis was murdered.
Dennis was at work all day on the 21st.
And then when he got home... was shot.
Eric never mentioned getting a cheque from his father.
[Steve] Was a big deal, and it did beg us to ask,
"What else is he lying about?"
[narrator] To see if Eric visited his father at work
to receive the cheque on the day of his murder,
investigators interview his colleagues at the pharmacy.
[John] One of the individuals that we interviewed
was the pharmacy tech that Dennis worked with.
She told us that a few days prior to his homicide,
Dennis point-blank stated
that he was through financing his children,
he was tired of paying their bills,
and he was going to cut them off financially.
Hearing this from an individual who worked with Dennis on a daily basis
along with the financial history that we're finding in Eric
is explosive.
We are feeling we are now finally on the right track.
We are looking at a son who has been financially dependent
on his parents for years.
He is in debt beyond belief,
he has this portrayal in front of his friends
that he is this exemplary... financial genius.
And he leads the life of glory.
He belongs to the country clubs,
he's driving nice cars, his kids are getting what they want.
And now he's told by his dad
that he's going to be cut off.
How is he going to save face?
How is he going to explain to all these people
the lies that he has been leading for several months if not years?
Now keeping in mind that he is line to inherit hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Is that enough for a motive?
I believe so. So Eric has now moved to the top of the list
as our number one suspect in the murder of his parents.
[narrator] In the chilling double homicide of Dennis and Merna Koula,
investigators are zeroing in on their suspected killer,
their own son, Eric Koula.
[John] So we have motive right now for Eric to commit these homicides.
However, we've got one glitch, and that's his timeline.
His timeline is very tight on Friday evening when his mom and dad are killed,
and how do we break that?
If it's able to be broken, number one,
and if it's not able to be broken, is he really our suspect?
We need to dissect that timeline to see if we missed anything.
So Eric said that on May 21st, he left Mike's about 5:15 p.m.
We now go to second garden center where he purchased
the plant for his wife. We acknowledge that that receipt
did come from that location,
which shows the timestamp of 6:15 p.m.,
but we've got this timeframe from
when he leaves Mike's house to when he buys that plant.
During that timeframe, did he go to that first garden center?
We are able to pull out surveillance video from that first garden center,
and we start looking at that tape from 5:15 p.m.
to almost 7:00 p.m.
We sat for hours and Eric or his vehicle never show up on that video.
It's our timeline opening, we have gotten that golden nugget.
[Steve] Our investigators then checked to see is it possible that
he left Mike's and could have made it to the Koula residence
and committed the crime and then got back to purchase
the plant at the other store at 6:15?
And our investigators found that absolutely was possible.
[narrator] Having broken his alibi,
investigators start building their case against Eric Koula.
[John] We've got a $50,000 cheque
that he deposited into his account
Saturday, May 22nd,
after the Koulas had been killed.
We take that cheque and bring it down to our analysts
at the crime laboratory. Through analysis
and handwriting exemplars,
we learn that Eric is the one that signed that cheque for $50,000,
and not Dennis Koula.
[narrator] With Eric now the prime suspect in his parents' murders,
investigators bring him in for another interview.
[John] I need to get as much information from him as I can,
even if it's not a confession.
A provable lie is as good as a confession.
Or I just need something to link him to those homicides.
When Eric is confronted with the fact that we cannot
find him on the surveillance video at all from 5:15 p.m. to almost seven o' clock,
he does not change his story. He is adamant that he went to that location,
and he just must be missed and he's sticking with that story.
[narrator] Then Eric makes a surprising revelation.
[John] For the very first time without me saying anything,
he lets me know that he received a $50,000 cheque from his father.
I talked to him about the fact that
the signature on the cheque was not his father's.
And he let me know that he was in fact the one that signed his father's name,
that he had done that numerous times in the past,
that his dad just gave him a blank cheque,
and that it was not out of the ordinary for him to be able to do that.
I did not believe him.
I watched his body language. I listened to the tone of his voice,
and all of the indicators were there
of an individual who was being very deceptive.
[narrator] Investigators confront Eric about
his involvement in his parents' murders.
[John] He was adamant that he was not involved in injuring his parents,
or hurting his parents.
He couldn't make eye contact with me, but what was real...
enlightening to me
is that Eric never said,
"I didn't kill my parents."
[narrator] As Christophersen continues interrogating Eric Koula,
a team of investigators search his house.
[John] During the course of the search warrant at his residence,
two envelopes are located,
each of them containing the same blemish as
the envelope that contained the "fixed you" letter.
We now know, without question,
Eric is the one that put that letter in his own mailbox.
I think Eric wrote this note because that's typically what he does
to get himself out of trouble. He forges, he is a fraudster,
he resorts to what he knows to try to divert suspicion from himself.
[narrator] Meanwhile at the station,
Eric Koula is unravelling in the interview room.
[John] The individual that I met originally
at his parents' home when they were discovered deceased
is a changed individual.
I'm looking at an individual who is deceptive, scared,
an individual who is on the run on the inside.
Eric Koula is the individual who killed his parents.
And there is no doubt in my mind he's the one.
[narrator] Investigators are now able to reconstruct Merna and Dennis Koulas'
final 24 hours.
[Steve] On May 20th, Eric went to see his parents,
and we surmise that
his parents told him no more money,
and that they were no longer going to
support him in anyway financially.
[John] In his desperation,
Eric concludes that the only way to get out of this financial debt
is to kill his parents
and obtain the inheritance
totaling $800,000.
On Friday, May 21st, Eric leaves his friend Mike's house at 5:15 p.m.
He drives to his parents' house,
arriving there at approximately 5:30 p.m.
where he was greeted by his mother Merna,
who was working on the computer in the computer room.
It is believed at this time that Eric goes to an upstairs bedroom
and retrieves his father's .22 caliber bolt action rifle.
[Steve] At 5:41 p.m., Eric shot his mother from behind with the .22 rifle.
[gunshot]
[John] Merna slumps over the computer,
her left hand on the keyboard.
After shooting his mother, Eric waits in the residence for his father.
At approximately 6:00 p.m., as Dennis Koula enters the kitchen,
Eric shoots Dennis in the right side of the head,
dropping Dennis to the floor.
[gunshot]
[body thuds]
[Steve] Eric then left the house and purchased a plant
with a receipt so that he would have an alibi as to where he was.
[narrator] Detectives charged Eric Koula with the murder of his parents.
[Keira] These are hard cases for us to understand.
Who wants to kill their own parents?
It's almost like a psychological iceberg.
Where you see the financial needs at the top, but underneath all of that,
there's feelings of entitlement or some fragile narcissism here
that's at the root of this crime.
[narrator] In August 2012, Eric stands trial and is found guilty
on two counts of first degree intentional homicide.
He's sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole.
The ultimate piece of evidence that helped us put the case together
is the timeline of events
and the break in time that Eric had to commit this crime.
[Steve] There was a lot of shock in the community.
People that knew the family did not suspect that
that kind of violence could take place.
[Michael] There's a certain Shakespearean tragic under current to this case,
whereby, again, no good deed goes unpunished.
We have two parents who doted on their child for 41 years,
and, ultimately, it was never enough.
And when they finally tried to set him on his own way in the world,
he reacted in the most brutal way you could imagine.
[John] There's no question in my mind that jury rendered the correct verdict.
They felt sad for Eric's family, for Cindy's family,
and for the grandchildren.
And so it was bitter sweet. But I was happy
that we were able to get a conclusion in this horrific crime.