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  • of all these witnesses who came forward to talk to police, one stood out as doing the most damage to Nick.

  • And that was his friend Kristen Steinhoff.

  • The night that Leo went missing, Nick claims that he went to see his friend Kristen around midnight.

  • She told me, You know, if you can't find her, come over later and I'll help you find Christine.

  • Stain off was critical in this case.

  • I think about this right after legal is missing.

  • That's who he's with.

  • That is critical to where we want to go.

  • In this case, back in 2000 Kristen gave police information about Nick that seemed greatly contrary to everything he had told police about his relationship with Leah that he was loving and concerned.

  • Here she's Do you smoke?

  • He tried.

  • Christine was very viable.

  • This investigation very valuable to us.

  • Do we ever get a complete or she opened up to us?

  • I don't think we did, but we got enough.

  • That brought discredit.

  • What Nick was I'm not gonna sugarcoat it.

  • When I got there, you know, one thing led to another her and I started kissing.

  • It's not a proud moment.

  • Definitely not a proud moment, but we stopped Kristen.

  • I never had sex.

  • I didn't do drugs that night that she claimed that I did.

  • I didn't do any method.

  • I did smoke marijuana.

  • I mean, there's no sensational thing like they portrayed.

  • I was a 19 year old kid.

  • It's very damaging because if he loves Leah so much, what is he doing messing around when he is missing?

  • It definitely hurt things.

  • Thistles.

  • What Nick did this is the time frame that does it even more.

  • Suspicion turned Nick's way, really is.

  • When police speculated to ABC that Liam might have been pregnant at the time that she went missing, that could have been a motive to pin on Nick.

  • She was 15.

  • He was 18.

  • If she was pregnant, then he could get in trouble for statutory rape.

  • That was one of the investigators that made that comment.

  • You remember we looked at every angle that humanly possible on this case was or more.

  • What could the motive be?

  • That was his thought.

  • But it was never the road here, miss statements that they said on that original 2020 episode.

  • I have a lot of frustrations with it, you know Leo wasn't pregnant, It wouldn't have mattered if she was to say that on TV.

  • It's frustrating.

  • We're not Hollywood, really.

  • What struck me even during the investigation was that there was no real physical hard evidence against Nick that he was involved at all.

  • Nick was the number one person we wanted to talk to.

  • We asked and asked, but he refused every time.

  • So finally, I just walked up to him when he was parked on the street way.

  • But how it's been, that's all I want to ask you about has been difficult thinking.

  • I don't know.

  • I mean, I know you've been in the screw Iraq.

  • That's the saying.

  • Hindsight's 2020.

  • I don't think talking to 2020 back then would have helped.

  • They came there with law enforcement.

  • Initially, with the 10th anniversary of Leah Freeman disappearance and death just days away, authorities here on Coquille say they're now closer than ever to bring justice to this case that decided to take it to the grand jury.

  • The called over 100 and 10 witnesses and after presenting all this evidence, and he came back and said way, think Nick did it we think he had to be charged.

  • It was August 23rd 2010.

  • It was a normal day at work.

  • I remember I was doing a banquet and I had forgotten a recipe at my house.

  • So I ran home real quick.

  • Had to go get the recipe.

  • We have a rest human place.

  • You have teams five and Team three and teammate on the West Side, which is past the driveway team went out.

  • I noticed I was being followed as usual.

  • Way already had surveillance on Nick.

  • I checked the mail team needs to know to get the indictment.

  • I pulled up to my mailbox.

  • Cars everywhere came from everywhere.

  • Camera crews came from everywhere.

  • I don't remember much.

  • I just remember just up front in my face.

  • They took him down, made the arrest.

  • What do you think this is?

  • Well, obviously, they said it's for the murder of Leah.

  • Good, my life man way because they have nothing else to go on.

  • And I'm the boyfriend.

  • When I got arrested, I feel like a nightmare that I was trying to wake up from, but I never woke up from it when I talked to Leah's mom, told her way, had arrested Nick for this crime.

  • Almost a decade later, she cried.

  • She was emotionally upset.

  • I think there was relief.

  • There's closure.

  • District attorney Paul Fraser and Coquille, chief of police, broke the news to Leah Freeman's mother that police had arrested Nicholas MacGuffin for the girl's murder.

  • When I saw Nick on TV when he was arrested, it made me sick because it just wasn't neck like everything was drained from him, just a family man in a car.

  • And nobody would believe what we were saying.

  • I mean, I was scared.

  • I was nervous.

  • I was worried.

  • I was facing life in prison, life in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

  • So finally, after 10 years, Nick McGuffin has been charged, and there's about to be a trial at the end of which comes a verdict that will shock everyone in the courtroom.

  • But what we don't see coming is the sort of guardian angel who takes up his cause.

  • And by the time she's finished, everything you thought you knew about this case is thrown into question.

  • Hi, everyone.

  • George Stephanopoulos here.

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  • Thanks for watching.

of all these witnesses who came forward to talk to police, one stood out as doing the most damage to Nick.

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