MURDERED: Nick Cordova

Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And today's story begins on a Wednesday evening in May 2020. It's just before 5.30 p.m. and Alicia Cordova is doing dishes in her kitchen when her five-year-old daughter, Capri, comes running in from the hallway saying something's wrong with dad. She hands her mom her iPod Touch saying that her and her brother were on FaceTime with their dad, 40-year-old Nick Cordova, but then all of a sudden they heard this bang and then their dad stopped responding. And what Alicia saw and heard on that call has haunted her every day for the six years she has been fighting to get her husband justice. And despite a mounting pile of circumstantial evidence that she's collected pointing to who might be responsible for this murder, no arrests or charges have ever been made in this case. Now it feels like the only way. This case will ever be solved is if we turn up the pressure on Gilbert Police Department. So let's go, Crime Junkies. This is the story of Nick Cordova. Nick, what's your address? He's at Gilbert Air. Gilbert Air and, um, Gilbert Air. I don't even look at the address right now. I'm freaking out. Is he at work? Yes, he's at work. His address is 511 West Guadalupe Road, number 13. Okay, 511 West Guadalupe Road? Yes. Nick! Wait, 113? 511 West Guadalupe Road, number 13. Okay. Nick! Is he still there? I can hear things moving around, but I don't hear or see anyone. Dr. Capri, get out of the room, please, babe. Nick! And you're calling from Scottsdale? I'm calling from Scottsdale. We are FaceTiming him. My kids are FaceTiming him, and then I just heard screaming. I thought it was a joke, and someone, somebody came in. Okay, this is your husband's work, and it's Gilbert Air? Yes, my husband's work, Gilbert Air. It's just him and his manager that work there, but someone came in, and I think they're just, like, beating him. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure I saw a gun. I still have him on FaceTime, but I can't see anything. Babe, Nick! Okay, are you hearing anything? I just hear moaning. I don't know if it's him or the manager. Okay, I've got, I've got help on the way, okay? Please hurry. Hurry, hurry, hurry. I just want to confirm. All right, is it suite 113 or suite 13? No, it's number 13. Okay, it's suite 13. All right, thank you. Nick! He's not answering you? Can someone answer me? Is anybody there? Nick! The cops are coming, babe! How many people did you see in there? I didn't see anyone. I just saw, like, the phone, like, rustling around, and then I'm pretty sure I saw a black glove or gun above. I didn't hear any shots or anything, though. I just, I could hear him saying, like, yelling, screaming. Someone was hitting him. Okay. My kids had their freaking phone, and they saw it. Okay, all right. Who's there? Who is that? I'm on the phone. I have police on the phone. Who is that? Who's there? Pick up the phone. David who? Dave! Dave, pick up the phone. Got it. What is going on? Where's my husband? I have the police on the phone. You don't know who she is? Yes, where's Nick? Do you know who this gentleman is? he's he's not there someone came in is he okay what's going on tell me what's happening who is the guy you're talking to his co-workers there his partner oh my gosh is he okay dave is that his co-worker dave tell me what's going on is he okay can you answer my question is that his co-worker ma'am who is dave no can you please answer my questions dave's his partner dave's his partner he just came into the building i don't know okay i need you to tell me what is happening i've got officers on the way i don't know he's just saying oh my god he grabbed the phone and just said oh my god dave is he okay is he breathing dave answer me dave is he okay is he okay dave what is going on at this point alicia can't take all of this unraveling through a screen so keeping the face time going she tells her kids to get their shoes on and rushes them into the car to drive to nick's office herself during the 20-minute ride over as she is hauling down the freeway alicia is calling her mom and then nick's mom who calls nick's sister and nick's nephew everyone she can think of who needs to know that something is wrong when she finally gets to the offices of gilbert air the hvac company that nick owned with his partner dave sweetman she parks her car behind some bushes kind of like away from the building because at this point she is thinking that nick might be hurt and she doesn't want her kids to see that if he comes out beat up or bleeding or something so she gives them her phone to play on tells them to go to the police station and tells them to stay in the car that their dad is strong he is going to be fine and then she beelines it for the building and that's when she sees the crime scene tape and what looks to her like a million police officers everywhere and her first thought is to look around for ambulances like if nick was attacked they should be taking him to the hospital but there isn't any ambulance in sight and that's when alicia starts running she runs right through the yellow tape yelling where is my husband what happened and officers are trying to hold her back but no one is answering her questions she said she felt like she was standing there for 20 minutes just repeating what the happened and after what feels like a lifetime finally an officer pulls her aside and delivers one line that will change the trajectory of her life forever i'm sorry to tell you your husband's dead and that's when alicia's just loses it she just falls to her knees crying uncontrollably and all while trying to make sure that her kids can't see her do it now officers write in their reports that alicia is inconsolable and in disbelief of the situation but even in her state she has the wherewithal to ask one question where is dave is dave still alive no yeah he is but the way that they encounter dave and honestly the whole scene is so much more than just the way that they encounter dave and honestly the whole scene is so much more than just the way that they encounter dave and honestly the whole scene is so really bizarre so according to the police file when a gilbert police officer arrived the first thing he saw as he walked up to the front door was someone like peeking through the blinds of the office window and as the officer got closer with his weapon at the ready he heard a man saying through the window like i'm dave i'm dave so the officer ordered dave to open the door and come out but instead dave barely opens the door hands the officer a blank paper and says i'm dave bloody gun by the barrel and said quote i'm his partner that's my gun i'm sorry oh my god now the officer put the gun on the ground outside and then tried to open the front door to walk in but it wouldn't budge is dave blocking them from coming in no dave's not blocking them nick actually was he his body was lying on the floor on his side with a pool of blood around him completely unresponsive he had blood all over his face and it looked like there was a bullet hole in his left cheek now i don't know what protocol is when you need to get inside a crime scene and something at the scene itself is preventing that personally i don't know i might have tried to find another entrance this officer though decided to just push through the door until nick's body moved enough for him to squeeze through and once he's in he saw a clear sign there of a struggle so just to give you a picture when you enter the front door of the office you walk through this little lobby space and it has like a reception desk from there you can get to the bathroom kitchen this big warehouse or if you go through the first doorway on the left you can get to the office space where nick and dave's desks were now nick's desk when you walk through that entryway it was the first one beyond the doorway and dave's was about 12 feet away near the far wall now according to the police report nick's desk had been pushed out of place which they can tell from like the indents that were in the carpet and there are just these things that strewn all over the floor like nick's monitor there's money business cards this black electrical box a bag of what they report looks like contraband they find a human tooth a potato with a hole gouged out of one side. And I've seen people online actually take to assuming that maybe that potato was like used as a silencer, but that is not stated anywhere in the police report. But there are multiple bullet holes around the room. So there is one above the light switch. There's another in the lobby desk. And then the window frame behind Nick's desk has one as well. Now I mentioned money. There is some money by Dave's desk too, though his desk itself appears, quote, not to have been disrupted by the struggle. But the bottom right drawer is open and inside of it is an empty handgun case and an empty magazine. So I hate to repeat her question, but I'm going to ask exactly what Alicia asked. Where is Dave? Well, while one officer was getting his bearings, Dave was, quote, acting hysterical and pacing back and forth. So, I mean, right then and there, another officer actually detained him and put him in cuffs. And it's in that moment that Dave spoke up again. And he said, quote, I'm his partner. Two guys came in here. They left. They ran. End quote. So Dave's in cuffs. Is he being arrested? No, the officer specifically informed Dave that he was not under arrest. He was just being detained for questioning. And right there at the scene, Dave is Mirandized. He gives kind of this hasty interview. And he says, basically, he was at his desk when two Hispanic men wearing green shirts and face masks came into the building, trying to sell Nick Freon, which, do you know what Freon is? Yeah, it's used in like older air conditioning units, right? I, yes. I did not know what Freon was. I had to look it up, but you're totally right. So it's something that could be common, like, or at least could be common to sell in an HVAC world. But what I found out was Gilbert Ayer definitely didn't buy Freon like that. But Dave said that for some reason, it looked like Nick knew these guys. Knew these guys in masks? Well, when I say masks, I thought the same thing, but these were COVID masks, not like ski masks. So this is happening like May 2020, right? Exactly. So I think you can kind of see a face where you could recognize someone. Anyway, Dave says that the men said something to Nick and then there was some kind of commotion and then they turned to Dave and started pointing their guns at him. So Dave says he gave them his wallet and gave them the money in his pocket, quote, everything he had. And then the men hit him in the back of the head with what Dave thought was one of their guns. And then they fled the scene. Wait, so when was Nick shot then? Well, Dave says he doesn't know, says that he never even heard a gunshot. Did they knock him unconscious? He doesn't know. He's just like, he's just basically saying he doesn't remember much after he got hit in the head. Now, aside from Dave, there was no one else in the office at the time of the shooting. The office manager who worked there, Lynn, she gets to the scene once she gets word about everything that's going on. And she tells police that when she left work that day at around five o'clock, only Nick and Dave were inside. And she knows what Alicia and Dave all know, that there are several surveillance cameras inside the building, which Dave says should have recorded everything. So while Gilbert PD sends an analyst to the scene to review that footage, an officer escorts Dave to a patrol car so they can do a more formal interview with him down at the station. But right about then comes the first sign that something might be off. Because remember how Dave said that he gave the intruders his wallet and his money in his pockets and- Yeah, he said that he gave them everything he had, right? Exactly. Well, imagine this officer's surprise when he's patting Dave down and finds more than $1,000 cash in his front left pocket. When Dave is confronted with the fact that his story is already crumbling, he clarifies to the officer, no, they didn't take all my money. I only gave the suspects the money in my front, right pocket. But that's not what everything I have means. No, definitely not. And how much cash is this guy keeping in, like, all the pockets of his pants? I think that would have been a great follow-up question to ask, but I don't see that being asked in the records that I have. All I know is that Dave is then driven down to the station just after 7 p.m., and that's when he gets interviewed. And his story now is this. It was a robbery gone wrong. Dave says that he was getting ready to leave work when the crime took place. So he says he sees Nick on the phone as he's walking towards the exit, waves, gives him a fist bump, as bros are known to do. Naturally. But then when Dave got to the front door, he realized that he had, like, forgotten a bill on his desk or something. So he turned around, and then just as he started looking for this thing on his desk, he heard the front door chime. And then he looked up and saw the two men. One of them, he says, approached Nick with what looked like a box of Freon, and then the yelling, and fighting started. David looked up from his desk, saw one of the men coming toward him with a gun pointed at him, and then Dave says that the man told him to get on the ground and give him his money, which Dave did. Kind of. Kind of. And then the man hits Dave on the head, which he says might have knocked him unconscious because then he really doesn't remember anything after that. And listen, officers do find that Dave has a cut on his right hand and a lump on the right side of his head. So then Dave had to have been unconscious, just when Nick was shot. Well, except his story keeps going. Now he says that he heard Nick in a struggle, and then he also heard a loud bang, but that he didn't see anything because all of his focus was on the guy that was robbing him. And he says he really came to again when he heard Alicia yelling for Nick through the FaceTime call. He could see and hear Alicia, but he wasn't sure if she could see or hear him. So holding the phone, Dave walked out to the lobby where he found Nick shot and bleeding. He says he put the phone down to check Nick for signs of life, but got nothing. And that's when he says he went back to his desk to get his handgun and check for suspects in the rest of the building. And when he got back to the lobby, that's when first responders arrived and he handed them his now bloodied gun through the crack of the door. Now, Dave says he didn't notice anything distinguishable about the suspects who robbed him, other than the fact that one's gun was quote, big and black, and it made him follow the suspect's orders. And what's Dave's gun look like? It's a nine millimeter Sig Sauer that he says he got a month ago as a result of this child custody issue he was having with a woman who, I guess he had previously had an affair with this woman. They had a child. We tried reaching out to her. She declined to speak with us because the custody battle that he quote unquote got this gun for was actually still ongoing. Like now, like six years later. Yes. Still in the custody. Custody battle six years later. Now, Dave says that he always kept his gun in that desk drawer and he has never fired it. Not even today. But that day in the office, he had chambered around while he was checking the place for suspects. Okay. So you mentioned it before. I have to bring it up. Just give it to me. What's on the surveillance videos? Because like they should be able to tell us if his story is like lines up with that, right? One would think. Because there are surveillance cameras basically all over this building. The lobby's got one. The warehouse. Even the outside. The one place that doesn't have a camera is the office space where according to Dave, the struggle took place. Why? I don't know. We asked Alicia, Nick's wife, and she said she had no idea. But even she thought it was kind of odd. That's the one place that didn't have a camera. But listen, the cameras that do exist might be able to confirm some things. Officers at the crime scene start reviewing the tapes like within hours of being called to the scene. And they mostly do corroborate Dave's story. Two suspects entered the building. One was holding a box of Freon. But they're actually on this footage able to see that the box was empty. It had some kind of panel cut out of it and they were using it to conceal the gun when they first came in. And they see that there is some kind of commotion and yelling that can be heard off camera, presumably in the office. And then Nick is seen running out of the office into the lobby toward the front door. And that's where he ends up getting shot. Can you see the shooter? You can. Because he shoots Nick in the lobby right in view of the cameras. Officers also note that right after the shooting, they can hear Dave saying, help me, off camera. Now the outdoor camera then shows these two suspects like leaving, driving away from the scene right at 5.31 p.m. And they are in a red and silver, Ford F-150. It has no front license plate, of course. And I asked like what year it was. It looks like it was like pre-2003. So a little bit older for the time. And there is faded paint on the roof of it. I just don't know the exact year, but this is like an older, older model. So based on these videos, Dave was telling the truth. Yeah, at this point, investigators write in the file that after seeing the surveillance footage, they no longer suspect Dave in the homicide. However, quote, his involvement remained unclear. End quote. Meaning what? They did not elaborate. I mean, I'm assuming they don't believe that he shot the gun, but maybe they are not eliminating the possibility that he was involved in some other way. Which like makes sense, right? Like why else would you lie about the money in your pocket? Like there's just like, that's weird, right? Yes, I have left something out. So there is another red flag, to. When Alicia was first told that her husband was dead, she didn't just ask, where's Dave? Her full sentence to police was, where's Dave? He probably had something to do with this. When she was able to be interviewed that day on the scene, she elaborated on why that was her first thought. And when our reporter, Nicole Kagan, spoke to Alicia this year, she gave us the full backstory. So everything I'm about to say comes directly from her and from police documents. She said that a few years before all of this, back in 2017, Nick's passion was personal training, but he had been doing HVAC work for a while and decided around that time that he wanted to be his own boss, run his own company. So it felt like perfect timing when that year, this guy named Frank, who Nick used to go riding in the dunes with, told him that he owned half of this successful company called Gilbert Air, but he was burnt out and he was looking to sell his share for super cheap. Super successful, but super cheap? Feels like a red flag to me. Well, there was a red flag that Frank was pretty upfront about. He told Nick that he had a co-owner who was basically like the money guy while he ran the business. But this co-owner, Dave Sweetman, was a, quote, shady POS. And so that's why Frank wanted to get out. Shady how? He didn't really specify, but if you look up Dave's records, you'll see charges. Charges for assault, disorderly conduct, a bunch of driving infractions, fraud and trespassing, among other things. Now, Alicia and Nick didn't know these specifics, but regardless, Nick was the kind of guy who loved rising to a challenge. It's something that was like instilled in him from childhood, being raised by a single mom who had him when she was just 16. Nick's grandma and grandpa actually helped raise him. And when his mom later had two other children with men who were not the most present, Nick sort of took on the role of the co-owner. Nick took on the father figure role to raise them. So Nick chose to see this as a golden opportunity. He got another one of his friends to buy in, too, so they would each own 25% of the company, while Dave Sweetman would keep the remaining 50. But less than a week before the deal was going to be signed, Nick's friend dropped out, said that he just got this weird feeling. A weird feeling about Dave? No, not what he said. Just a weird feeling. He was worried about the business not succeeding, and he didn't think that he could make a big leap like that. It's a big deal. But Nick wasn't going to let this be a deal breaker. Remember, the guy liked a challenge. So he just decided to do it on his own. Alicia, though, she was more wary of Dave. But Nick managed to convince her that everything was going to be okay. Great, even. He was over the moon to have something that was his. And seeing how excited he was, how could Alicia not support him? So the deal was done, and Nick took an ownership stake in 2018. And at first, everything did seem good. Alicia said that Nick very much kept his, like, business and personal lives separate. For 2018 and 2019, she barely even met Dave. Only ever was around him, like, three times. But things seemed to be going smoothly. But then, about six months before Nick would be killed, things started unraveling. Out of nowhere, Nick came to know Dave. And he was like, oh, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. He came home one night and told Alicia, I know it sounds crazy, but I'm telling you, I feel like someone's been watching me. Which, at the time, Alicia said that she just kind of brushed off because, like, it just sounded so absurd. And she just tried to comfort Nick, reassure him that, like, everything was fine. But then Alicia tells police that three months after that, in March of 2020, Nick told her that Dave took $30,000 out of their company account, which he had never done before. And when Nick asked him about it, Dave said that he had this debt that he had to pay, but he would replace it before payroll was due. And that's when Nick told Alicia, like, I think I need to get out of this business with this guy. I don't know what I got myself into. And he told her that he thought Dave was doing something possibly illegal with the other companies that he owned. And, like, he's like, I don't know what's happening, but, like, I don't want any part of whatever it is. Now, Alicia said Nick's stress level went through the roof. But it only got worse come April, when Dave not only doesn't pay back the money that he already took, but he takes out another $15,000 from the company. And then in May, Nick told Alicia again, like, I just can't shake this feeling that somebody is watching me. And what he said next, it kind of came out as a joke, but there is nothing funny about it now. She told police that he was worried Dave would, quote, end quote. What insurance money? Alicia had the same question when Nick said that. Like, what do you mean, insurance money? Yeah. And that is when Nick first told her that at some point, Dave told him that to protect the business, like, for each of them, Dave and Nick should take out life insurance policies against each other. And is that something that Dave had when the previous owner, that Frank guy, was there? No, but not for a lack of trying. According to the police file, Dave repeatedly tried to get this Frank guy to do the same thing, but Frank refused, telling Dave that he wanted to be worth more alive than dead. Good advice. Especially when you have a shifty business partner. Now, hearing about this policy at the time, I mean, it really shook Alicia, because she said Nick was not a worrier. He never said, He never seemed to get stressed about anything. But after he told her that, he was just, like, tossing and turning in bed the whole night. So by the time Memorial Day weekend came around, Nick was in dire need of a reset. So the Cordova family decided that they were going to take a camping trip together. According to Alicia, when they got back on Monday night, she and the kids begged Nick to just take the next day off so they could just, like, keep this family time going. I imagine that it probably felt like this great reprieve, right? And he did. Which made Wednesday Nick's first day back in the office after that long weekend. And that is the day that he would be killed. So what did the office manager have to say about Dave? I mean, she's there on the scene by the time they're hearing this from Alicia, right? They talked to her on the scene when she arrives, too. And Lynn is her name. And she told police that her and Dave didn't get along. But she did say something strange. She said that, like, recently he had been acting strange. Like, he started coming into the office more frequently and being more, like, friendly to her. Though he would mostly just ask about money. Lynn said that he seemed, quote-unquote, obsessed with money. And she would hear him yelling at Nick about it. And here's the really interesting thing that she added when she was talking to police. So the day before the shooting, that would have been Tuesday, May 26th. This is the Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend. Now, Nick was supposed to be in the office that day. But as we know, he makes this last-minute decision to stay home with his family. But apparently, that whole day, Dave kept asking Lynn over and over, like, where's Nick? When's Nick gonna get in? When's he getting back? And she said that Dave just kept, like, pacing back and forth and leaving the office for, like, short periods of time. And she tells police that when Dave came into work the day of the shooting, he was quieter than usual. And he wasn't joking around like he usually did. And at one point, in the day, he and Nick closed the door to their office and it sounded like they were having an argument. But Lynn was listening to the radio, so she couldn't hear exactly what it was that they were saying. Now, I have to mention, officers weren't just asking Lynn about Dave. They also asked her about Alicia and Nick's relationship. And Lynn says that she wished her and her husband had a relationship like theirs. She said that Nick was giving and kind and she didn't know a single person who didn't like him. And this is the kind of relationship This is a common theme, by the way. Another employee says that everybody loved Nick and he never saw him get angry or even, like, raise his voice once at work. And by the way, if it wasn't already clear what kind of guy Nick was, Alicia said that she and at least 50 other people stayed at the crime scene that whole first night, refusing to leave until Nick was brought out. They waited in the parking lot until the sun came up. And that whole time, Alicia was still asking officers where Dave was and telling them that she believed he was responsible for Nick's death. But once they reviewed that surveillance footage, they told her he wasn't the one who killed Nick, that he was released, and that there was nothing they could do. I mean, what do you mean there's nothing you can do? No one's proven to me that he wasn't involved. Just because there are two other guys can't mean he's cleared. I mean, they're only hours in at this point. Plus, Alicia literally told them Nick was worried about Dave hiding in the car. Hiring a hitman. These are the exact reasons that Alicia is frustrated. She doesn't understand why nothing more can be done and why no one seems to be giving her, like, an adequate explanation. So over the course of, like, 12 hours or so, she pleads with them, throwing out everything she knows about the insurance stuff and suggesting a hit for hire until around 6 a.m., when Nick is finally wheeled out of the office in a body bag. Officers give Alicia his keys in his wallet, which by the way, By the way, his wallet still has money in it, but they tell her that they have to take his wedding ring to test for DNA. Why just his wedding ring? I was just going to say, we asked Alicia. She doesn't know why. I'm assuming that they collected maybe things that they thought would be the most likely to have like assailant DNA on it. And maybe it was clear like the wallet wasn't touched or something. I don't really know. Which would make the robbery theory even harder to buy. A hundred percent. So Nick is taken away. And regardless of what the police were telling Alicia about Dave and the surveillance video, I mean, at that point, she's terrified. So she immediately goes to the Scottsdale police station to file a restraining order against Dave. But since Dave hadn't actually been charged with any wrongdoing at that point, she's told that she doesn't really have any grounds for that. However, hearing the circumstances of her husband's death and hearing why she's scared, detectives do not know. And they do tell her that actually keeping a line open with Dave might be helpful. Maybe Dave will communicate with her, say something to her that changes things or conflicts with his original story. And listen, this guy's instincts, whoever told her this, like they weren't far off because three days later, Dave does reach out to her. Not to talk about the case, but to ask if he can help with funeral arrangements. But Alicia is in no place to try and like use this and play detective right now. And she can't even stomach the guy, especially not offering to help with the funeral of her husband, who she is like suspicious he may have had killed. So Alicia declines. And in fact, she tells Dave, it honestly be best if you don't attend the funeral at all. At this point, Alicia and her children are staying with her cousin and then after that with Nick's cousins. Then after that, Nick's cousins and friends like take turns sleeping on her couch with a gun at the ready because Alicia is still terrified of someone coming after her. She doesn't know when she'll ever feel safe again, but she definitely doesn't right in the aftermath when whoever was behind Nick's murder is just out there. So what are Gilbert police doing to find those men on the video footage? Well, starting on the morning that Nick's body was removed from the building, they did begin like canvassing the neighborhood. But it seems like the only real lead that they get is like figuring out that it was that red and silver truck. So basically. They spend over a week searching not only for the truck itself, which was, again, like I said, this older two toned red and silver extended cab Ford F-150. But they are also going to all of the surrounding businesses looking for witnesses or additional surveillance cameras that may have captured the people or the truck. And they actually did end up hitting pager at the a.m. p.m. about two minutes down the road from the office. Not only does the convenience store have surveillance footage. Of the truck in question, they also have surveillance footage of one of the men who was inside of it. On June 12th, just over two weeks after the shooting, Gilbert PD releases the footage from the a.m. p.m. to the public to see if anyone can identify the mystery man who they say was in the passenger seat of this vehicle that they're looking for in connection to this case. Wait, when is the footage from? So the footage that they get. Is from the day of the shooting, actually just literal minutes after the shooting based on the timestamps. And listen, I got to say, this is close to, if not the clearest image of a suspect's face I have ever seen from surveillance footage in a case. Like anyone who knows this guy would be able to recognize him instantaneously, which makes it so wild to me that they're not putting it out to the public until June 12th. But in the footage, here is what we see. So this truck in question pulls up to a pump at the gas station literally two minutes after the shooting. Then there is a guy who police describe as about five foot eight with a heavyset build wearing a dark colored T-shirt, blue jeans and dark colored boots that gets out of the truck and walks through the gas station parking lot up to the door of the a.m. p.m. And then enters the store at five thirty three p.m. He goes to the gas station parking lot. He goes to the counter where we get this direct shot of his face from a camera that must be like over the counter somewhere. Now, he talks briefly with the clerk and then he goes out, fills his tank before the truck pulls out at five thirty six. And all we know is that it drives northbound. I mean, do we know what he said to the clerk? Nothing important. They talked to the clerk and they said that this guy was like a non-conversationalist, just like, you know, ten bucks on pump seven kind of guy. And he, of course, paid cash. And they're like, listen, I probably. At this point, couldn't even pick the guy out of the lineup. So is this a third guy or did the shooters change clothes because they weren't wearing those like bright green shirts in the video from the business? No, you're right. They don't think at least from what I can tell, they don't think this is a third man. They think whoever this is took off the mask and either removed the bright green shirt or like switched outfits or whatever. But this is the guy that they're looking for or one of them. Now, Alicia Lynn and other employees at Gilbert Air all are shown this gas station footage. But no one. No one recognizes this guy. Not even Dave. He tells Alicia that he didn't know him either. If tips come in from the public about who this man is, Alicia is never told about it. And I can't tell you about it because that info about the surveillance footage, that is the last piece of information that comes validated from the police file. Everything else in the file is redacted. Like we're talking over 200 pages of just blacked out everything. I mean, do they give Alicia? Any updates? Well, early on in the investigation, Alicia said that there was one Gilbert like PD detective who she met with every couple of weeks who seemed really invested in the case. He gave her a full case update around the one year mark through this like PowerPoint presentation. And she felt hopeful, like maybe the wait would be worth it. And all of the months of waiting and fear were going to like lead to something because this guy promises her that arrests are going to be made. But then in a story that has become all too familiar, two weeks after that meeting, she basically gets a call notifying her that that guy's off the case. The new detective says that the original guy got moved down to patrol. And when she asks if like that happened willingly, the new detective was basically like, yeah, you know, like sometimes being a detective can just take a toll on people. And it's not uncommon for people to have to take a break. But Alicia has always suspected. That the demotion was because maybe that first guy, that one detective who showed her the PowerPoint, maybe that guy told her too much or worse. Maybe he screwed something up with Nick's case. Now, we did reach out to Gilbert PD for comment, and they said that they are still actively investigating, but cannot disclose further information at this time. So wait, did they look into Dave Moore and like all the insurance stuff? Like, did he get a payout when Nick died? So as far as I can tell. From the file, police did a follow-up interview with Dave Sweetman and even his girlfriend, Susan. And that was in August of 2020. I have no idea what came of that. As for the insurance stuff, that would go on for years. It started, though, just five days after the shooting. That is when Dave texted Alicia this string of messages about signing some documents for the claim. And Alicia, who lost her husband five days. In front of Dave, by the way. Yeah, who is worried that he was killed for insurance money, was like, no. Maybe like not now. How about you let me bury my husband first, and then I'll figure all of this out. But Dave comes back to her, and he's like, okay, but like, just so you know, you should be getting around like $500,000. Now, Alicia, she didn't know anything about these policies. But in her mind, she's thinking like, okay, like the policy pays out to the people. Nick owned half of the business, so it must have been a million-dollar policy, right? Split 50-50. Makes sense. But just to confirm, she decided to go checking through Nick's emails. And that's when she found out that there was another policy. And both policies together would pay out not $1 million, but $8 million. What? So Alicia refuses to sign the documents. Which, according. According to her, does not sit well with Dave. He goes off on her about how she's like making this so difficult. And that it's really Nick's fault for not having mapped everything out for her. And that's when Alicia had had enough. She gets a lawyer of her own and decides to push back. Now, they find an agreement that Nick signed when he bought into the business. Which stated that in the event of a death, everything would be split 50-50. So like six months after the shooting, Alicia's lawyer is like, okay, listen, now that we have this, you can sign the documents and then we can file this claim done and done, right? Wrong. As soon as they file, they get a call from the insurance company that's confused. Because they say, quote, we already got your signed documents. What do you mean they already got her signed documents? Alicia has no idea what they're talking about. She's like, this is the first time I've ever signed anything. Somebody, if you have signed documents, somebody forged my signature. signature. And the company's first question is, well, do you know of anybody that would want to do that? I mean, I have some thoughts. Alicia can think of only one person, Dave Not-So-Sweetman, which is what she has taken to calling him by that point. So what does this mean for Alicia? Can she still get her half of the money? What ends up happening is she files a police report claiming that Dave forged her signature, but weeks later she's told that there's not enough evidence to charge him. And even though she has that document stating that she's meant to get half of the insurance payouts, there are loads of other documents with stipulations that her lawyers and Dave's lawyers, like, just cannot seem to get on the same page about. So after three more years of legal back and forth, in 2024, Alicia and Dave finally get everything settled out of court and each receives an undisclosed payout. And, well, all of this is going on. Was Gilbert Eyre still in business and, like, operating? So Gilbert Eyre ran out of money, like, nine months after Nick's death, and they had to end up closing. Even though there was supposedly an $8 million payout to the business when Nick died. Yeah, I don't know what Dave did with the money that he got or, like, if it got tied up at some point. But for some reason, it doesn't seem like it was used to keep that business operational, the one that Nick and now his family owned half of. Mm-hmm. Instead, Alicia says that Dave, you know, after Gilbert Eyre closes down, Dave took the client list, started a new business called Arizona Family Air that the Cordovas have no stake in, and he continues to run that out of his house. Continues, like, to this day? To this very day. We called the company for comment, but as of this recording, we have not heard back. Dave and his girlfriend Susan didn't respond to us either. Though Dave did tell Fox 10 Phoenix, back in 2024, that Nick's case was, quote, the most traumatic ordeal he's experienced, end quote. Over the years, Nick's case starts cycling through different detectives. Alicia continues trying to meet with whoever is on the case every few months, but it's just so hard for her to believe them when she keeps hearing the same thing. We're rechecking things. We're re-looking through evidence. But each time, nothing happens. To this day, she's still never been given a copy of his autopsy, and we couldn't obtain it through public records requests either. Authorities have also never released any kind of results related to firearms or firearm testing. Like, I don't know what kind of gun was used in the shooting still. And I don't know if they ever confirmed Dave's story that the gun he handed over to them had never been fired. I was going to say, if they haven't released what kind of gun was used on Nick, they don't know that it was, like, we don't know that it wasn't. We don't know. Right. According to the police file, I know they got some lab results back. In July of 2020, now, what items were tested and where, can't tell you. That is all redacted, and they have never shared that information with Alicia. The only unredacted part says that the only DNA profiles on the physical evidence collected belongs to either Nick or Dave. But the thing to remember is, without context, that could mean nothing. They both worked in that office. So if items were tested that are, like, regularly used by both of them, like, that doesn't mean anything. But, yeah, and even without someone else's DNA, like, I keep thinking about the guy on the surveillance footage. Like, how have they not identified him? I know. I know. Alicia cannot help but wonder. The only thing she can think of, I should say, is, like, she thinks, like, every time this case is handed to someone else, maybe things are, like, slipping through the cracks. It's a game of telephone. I mean, she told us that there have been specific case details that she's mentioned while, like, speaking with detectives. And they've been like, oh, we didn't know that. Which is, like, not the thing you want to hear from the guy. The guy in charge of solving your husband's case. And listen, people all over the Internet have been quick to call out Gilbert Petey for all sorts of things, alleging corruption and dirty police work. Just look up the Gilbert Goons case, if you want to get an idea. There is no proof of anything like that that we know of. But I can say that the department is extremely protective of their public records. And this is not the first case of theirs that we've even covered. I mean, you know, a couple of months ago, we released an episode on the 2020 shooting of Rachel Hansen. And her family expressed the same frustrations that Alicia has with Gilbert Petey. And what's more, in February of 2026, this article came out in the Arizona Republic by Maritza Dominguez, saying that the Arizona Attorney General's office is reviewing claims that the town of Gilbert may have illegally destroyed or withheld police records, which is an allegation that could have huge implications for, or unresolved cases in the community like Nick's. Now, as of this recording, the Attorney General's review has not confirmed any illegal destruction tied specifically to any of these cases. And Gilbert Petey has denied all allegations of destroying or withholding records. But trust that we will be following this very closely. But this experience that she and others have had with Gilbert Petey is one of the many reasons that Alicia began asking the department if she could see the surveillance footage. from Gilbert Eyre herself. They say no to her a couple of times, but Alicia was not playing around. She put in a formal records request, hired a lawyer, and in an absolutely shocking turn of events, the PD actually agreed to let her see it. So in March of 2025, she went into the station with Nick's mom, and together they sit down and watch this video. And Alicia notices a number of things on the footage, police say. that were not included in the report. She told us that right before the shooting, when Dave was getting ready to leave the office, he went to the front door and like peeked through the blinds. And you can see the red and silver truck pulling up on the outdoor camera as he does this. And then he walks back into the office. And Alicia is literally like in the police department. I mean, can you imagine she's like viewing this footage and she's like, guys, pause the tape. That's what she says. And she's like, isn't that enough right there? Why would he be peeking through the blinds unless he was like expecting somebody? Yeah. And his story is that he went back into the office because he forgot something, right? That's what he told police, which like, whatever, maybe. But like, tell me, how many times have you like peeked out of the blinds before you leave the office at night? Only if I was waiting for someone. Yeah. And as Alicia continues watching, she sees the two men arrive in their bright colored shirts, masks, and she sees that they have gloves on. Which explains the lack of suspect DNA at the scene. Yes. And she says that they're wearing these like big construction hats, too. Now, she says one guy is tall and slender. The other is like chubbier. I'm assuming that's the one that's caught on the AM, PM tape. That's my guess. Yeah. And then, of course, everything happening in the office we know is off camera. But guess what? She says there's audio. Alicia says that she can hear Nick on the phone with her kids. And then. All of a sudden, you can hear a commotion and Nick just yelling for help. And what about Dave? She says she doesn't hear Dave saying anything. And then all of a sudden, like Nick comes into view. He's like running through the lobby. And she says that he was really close to the door when the suspect comes up behind him and just execution style shoots him once in the back of the head, causing him to fall to the ground. And that was it. I can't believe she had to watch that. I can't believe they let her watch that. Because like to her, I mean, not only is it like traumatic, but like. It just confirms everything that she's been feeling. That's what I'm saying. This just makes her more suspicious of Dave, who to this day still has not been charged or even named publicly as a person of interest or a suspect in this case. But like how? I mean, from the jump, the PD ruled him out as the shooter from the surveillance footage. And according to Alicia, they never had been able to find a paper trail between him and the two suspects. OK, what's the cash situation, though? Like, where did the forty five thousand dollars go that he took out from the company before all this happened? Like, can we trace where that went or where every penny of the insurance payout went? Like, you're not writing checks to hit men, right? Right. This is like I would be looking for missing money. Also, I don't understand how they can say that like, oh, like we can't find a paper trail between the two suspects. When supposedly you don't know who the two suspects are. Like, right. There's the paper trail could lead you to them. Like, to me, in order to rule out a connection. Definitively, you would have to dig deep into this man, right? Like, do a financial audit almost. There are forensic accountants for a reason. Not like you have to do more than one follow up interview, which is like I see a follow up interview. Again, lots of redacted stuff in the file. And I don't know what are in those pages. There are over 200 of them. Remember, but even 200 pages, it doesn't feel like enough if they were to have investigated Dave or even his like past financial crimes. I forget. I forgot about those. Like, he had a history of like scammy, like fraud and stuff. Like, yes, please dig into those. Yes. Someone's past can tell you a lot about them, which is why we felt it necessary to look into Dave's past to tell this story. Always go a layer deeper. And listen, what our reporter Nicole found sent us head first down a rabbit hole that we could have never seen coming. You see, it turns out nearly seven years before Nick. was shot. Someone else close to Dave died under mysterious circumstances. Now, this wasn't mentioned in the police report or online news coverage of Nick's case at all. In fact, there is no media coverage of this other case at all. And that other case is the death of Laura Sweetman, Dave's wife. What? What we found needs an entire episode of its own. So, Crime Junkies, you're going to have to come back next Monday to hear Laura Sweetman's story. Or if you are in the fan club, you can listen right now. And by the way, if you're not a member of the Crime Junkie fan club, now is the perfect time to join because now through April 14th, you can join for free. So check the link in the show notes and you can get your first month on us. But listen, make no mistake, Alicia isn't going away. She feels like it's up to her to keep Nick's story alive. And she said she does every press interview she can. She posts on TikTok. She continues meeting with the police department. And she'll keep it all going until the people who killed Nick are finally behind bars. So if you have any information about the 2020 death of Nicholas Nick Cordova in Gilbert, Arizona, you can reach out to the Gilbert Police Department at 480-503-6500. Or if you prefer to remain anonymous, you can reach out to Silent Witness at 480-503-6500. Or call 1-800-948-6377. The posted reward for information is now up to $20,000. And as always, you can reach out to us by emailing tips at audiochuck.com. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkie.com. And you can follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast. We'll be back next week with Laura Sweetman's story. Or you can listen right now in the Crime Junkie Fan Club. The link's in the show notes. Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production. I think Chuck would approve. Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production.