In the pre-dawn hours of August 31, 2010, James Mervin Nibbe, 26, was found shot dead in his bed at the family home near Lake Crystal, Minnesota. His wife, Jennifer Nibbe, placed a 911 call claiming an intruder wearing a nylon stocking had broken in, shot James in the back of the head, and then attacked her; officers found James with a single gunshot wound to the back of his head and Jennifer with cuts to her thighs. Investigators quickly questioned the intruder story: there were no unidentified footprints or tire tracks despite recent rain, no signs of forced entry, and nothing was taken.

The shotgun that killed James, a knife, and rope recovered at the scene belonged to the couple, and Jennifer gave inconsistent accounts of where she had been when the shot occurred. Detectives uncovered mounting financial problems and a hidden opioid addiction in Jennifer’s life; she had taken out a life insurance policy on James two months earlier and kept a personal journal expressing unhappiness in the marriage and contact with an ex. Jennifer was arrested on September 10, 2010; she later confessed that there had been no intruder and that she had shot James while he slept.

Anyone with information about James, Jennifer, or this case is asked to come forward.