Megan Nichols vanished at the age of 15 from her home in Fairfield, Illinois. She was initially believed to be a runaway but was eventually reclassified as an endangered missing person. Megan's remains were found in late 2017. Three years later, Brodey Murbarger was arrested and charged with her murder. Below is an extensive timeline of the events surrounding the case - from the events leading up to Megan's disappearance, to the conviction of Murbarger.
Megan's early years/initial introduction to Brodey Murbarger.
July 18th, 1998: Megan Nichols is born in Evansville, Indiana. At some point after her birth, the family relocates to Fairfield, Illinois.
Grade school years: Megan attends an elementary school in Fairfield. At some point during her grade school years, she meets Brodey Murbarger - another boy from Fairfield. Murbarger was a few grades ahead of Megan. It's unknown if the two spent time together during these years, but it's been established that they knew of each other.
Megan and Murbarger become reacquainted.
2012-2013: Megan is in 8th grade. During that year, she becomes reacquainted with Murbarger.
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| Brodey Murbarger. (Source: Dateline) |
Fall 2013: Megan begins high school and joins the school's glee club. Brodey Murbarger is also a member of the club. At the time, Murbarger is dating a girl named Kendra - who was also in the glee club.
The relationship develops.
Fall 2013 cont. - the homecoming dance: Brodey attends the homecoming dance with Kendra, while Megan attends with a boy she met at summer church camp. At some point during the dance, Brodey and Megan begin dancing together. Witnesses noted that the two seemed to ditch their respective homecoming dates for each other. Kendra is later seen crying in the bleachers, while Megan's date is seen leaving the dance without Megan.
Immediately after homecoming: Megan's relationship with Brodey continues to develop. Friends of Megan state that her relationship with Brodey seemingly went from "zero to 100" overnight.
The love triangle continues.
November/December 2013: Murbarger resumes his relationship with Kendra but continues to be in contact with Megan as well. Classmates of the three teens state that Murbarger often brags about seeing both girls.
December 27th, 2013: Brodey Murbarger's mother passes away following a vehicular accident.
January 2014: Murbarger continues his relationship with both Kendra and Megan. Investigators would later recover over 7,000 text messages exchanged between Megan and Murbarger between December 2013 and February 2014. Many of those messages contain romantic and sexual content. There are also several messages about containing discussions about the two of them running away together.
February 2014: The relationship between Megan and Murbarger seemingly becomes more volatile. Text messages from February 2014 show that Murbarger calls Megan "annoying".
February - April 2014: Megan's relationship with Murbarger continues. It's believed that Murbarger's relationship with Kendra continued during this time as well.
Prom and the aftermath.
April 2014 - Prom: Megan believes that she and Brodey Murbarger are exclusively dating but finds out that Murbarger is taking Kendra to prom. Megan is inevitably hurt by this. Murbarger justifies this choice to Megan by stating that his late mother would've wanted him to take Kendra to prom.
April 2014 cont. - After prom: Megan's mother, Kathy Jo Hutchcraft, learns about Murbarger taking Kendra instead of Megan to prom. Kathy Jo had already been concerned about her daughter's relationship with Murbarger due to Megan being 15 and Murbarger being 18. The prom incident causes Kathy Jo to "reach her limit" with Murbarger, and she subsequently tells Megan she is no longer allowed to date him. She also bans Murbarger from coming to their home.
April 2014 cont.: Despite Kathy Jo's ban, Megan and Murbarger continue to see each other. Murbarger describes Megan's mother as controlling and threatens to call DCFS on her.
Discussions of running away + a concealed relationship.
April 2014 cont.: Brodey Murbarger tells his best friend Kyle Ellis that he is tired of his family and wants to run away. He offers to sell several items to Ellis to help finance his plan to run away. Ellis believes Murbarger is being dramatic, but Murbarger continues to intermittently discuss running away - sometimes by himself, and sometimes with Megan.
May 2014: Murbarger and Megan continue to see each other. They make efforts to conceal their relationship with Megan's mother.
May 26th, 2014, approx. 9:30 PM: Kathy Jo discovers that Megan isn't her bedroom, but her phone is left behind. The phone contains messages from whom Kathy Jo believes is a female friend. She calls the number, and Brodey Murbarger picks up the phone. Kathy Jo subsequently calls police, but during her phone call, Megan re-enters the home through the backyard.
Late May 2014-early July 2014: Murbarger and Megan continue their discussions about running away together.
The day/night of Megan's disappearance.
July 3rd, 2014, 2:00 PM: Megan rides her bicycle to a local bank ATM and withdraws $200.
July 3rd, 2014, evening: Megan and her mother are out running errands. At some point, Megan tells her mother she isn't feeling well and wants to go home. Kathy Jo subsequently drops her daughter off at home around 9:00 PM.
July 3rd, 2014, 11:00-11:30 PM: Kathy Jo returns home and discovers that Megan isn't in her room. Once again, Megan's phone is left behind, but this time it's wiped of all data. Kathy Jo later finds a handwritten note by Megan that states, "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.”
After this discovery, Kathy Jo calls police to report her daughter as missing.
The initial search for Megan.
July 4th, 2014, around 7:30 AM: Kathy Jo and her mother/Megan's grandmother go to Brodey Murbarger's home. When they arrive at his residence, they see him outside washing his car.
Kathy Jo asks Murbarger where Megan is. He denies any knowledge of her whereabouts. He further suggests that Megan possibly ran away to Oklahoma to live with her biological father because she was tired of living in Fairfield. Kathy Jo does not believe this explanation, but still passes on this information to police.
July 2014 cont. - the police investigation: Police question Murbarger, and he continues to deny knowledge of Megan's whereabouts. He also denies any romantic/sexual relationship with Megan. Murbarger does, however, admit to giving Megan and iPod before her disappearance.
Police also question why Murbarger was washing his car mere hours after Megan vanished. He tells police that he had spent part of the night driving around looking Megan. He then says that he could not sleep so he decided to wash his car.
July 2014 cont. - Megan's phone records: Investigators obtain a warrant for Megan's phone records. The records reveal the many sexual/romantic messages between Megan and Murbarger; which contradicts his narrative that the two were not romantically involved. The phone records also reveal that Murbarger and Megan had discussed running away. Additionally, it is noted that many of Megan's outgoing phone calls on the day of her disappearance were made to Murbarger.
July 2014 cont. - Murbarger's car is searched: Investigators search Brodey Murbarger's car and find a suspicious stain. At the time, the stain does not test positive as blood.
July 2014 cont. - the runaway theory remains prominent: Despite inconsistencies in Murbarger's narrative, investigators initially do not have strong evidence that Megan was harmed by Murbarger. What they did have was a handwritten note from Megan indicating that she had left on her own accord, text messages describing her plan to leave, a wiped cell phone, and video surveillance footage of her withdrawing money before she vanished. Due to all of this, police initially began investigating Megan's disappearance as a runaway case.
Late 2014 - 2015: the investigation loses momentum; Murbarger attends college.
July 2014-August 2014: residents in Fairfield spread the word about Megan's disappearance. Volunteer searches are conducted, flyers are made and distributed, and efforts are made to keep news about Megan's case in the public eye. Unfortunately, no sign of Megan is found.
Fall 2014: Brodey Murbarger begins attending college at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville. His best friend, Kyle Ellis, attends the same university.
Late 2014-early 2015: Megan's case is still being investigated as a runaway case. Megan's mother expresses frustration at this classification, as she has never believed her daughter ran away.
Spring/summer 2015: The case is passed over to the Illinois State Police. At this time, there is still not enough evidence for an arrest. However, Brodey Murbarger remains on investigator's radar.
2016: The searches continue; Murbarger wrecks his car.
February 2016: investigators receive a tip about Megan that leads them to a wooded area south of Fairfield, Illinois. A two-day search is conducted, but nothing is found.
Later in 2016: Murbarger and his best friend, Kyle Ellis, move into a residence together in Evansville. Both are still attending the University of Southern Indiana.
2016 cont.: Murbarger crashes his car into a tree while driving to his parent's house. He says that he fell asleep at the wheel and veered off the road. This is the same vehicle that he drove at the time of Megan's disappearance; the same vehicle he was seen cleaning just hours after she vanished. After the crash, the car is taken to a salvage yard.
Late 2016 - early 2017: The salvage yard sells the vehicle to a couple in Missouri.
Late 2017 - early 2018: remains are found and identified.
December 26th, 2017: A man in a rural area of Wayne County, Illinois, is scouring a wooded area for firewood. He discovers a shallow grave containing what appears to be human remains. Police are called to the scene and are able to determine that the remains are, in fact, human. At this point, speculation begins about whether or not the remains belong to Megan.
January 26th, 2018: A month after the remains were found, investigators confirm that they have positively identified the remains as that of Megan Nichols.
2018 cont.: Investigators label Megan's death as a homicide. It's later revealed that she died from strangulation/suffocation.
Spring 2018: The FBI tracks down Murbarger's car; a major piece of evidence is found.
Spring 2018: The FBI becomes more involved with the investigation into Megan's murder. Agent Ray Hart decides to revisit the vehicle that Brodey Murbarger drove at the time of Megan's disappearance. Hart learns that the car had been wrecked in 2016, then brought to a salvage yard, from where it was eventually sold to a couple living in Missouri.
Spring 2018 cont.: Hart tracks down the couple who purchased Murbarger's car from the salvage yard. The couple agrees to allow the FBI to examine the vehicle.
As noted previously, Fairfield investigators examined this vehicle in 2014 and tested a stain that appeared to be blood - but their field test came up negative. This time around, the FBI was able to use technological advances that were not available to the local investigators. This testing revealed that, not only was the stain blood after all, but that it was the blood of Megan Nichols. This major piece of evidence becomes the break investigators need to begin building their case against Brodey Murbarger.
Spring/Summer 2018: The FBI visits Kyle Ellis.
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| Kyle Ellis (Source: Dateline) |
Late Spring 2018: The FBI approaches Murbarger's best friend/roommate, Kyle Ellis, to discuss their findings. It's worth noting that Ellis knew both Murbarger and Megan back in 2013/2014 when they were in a relationship. He knew about the extent of their relationship, and that they had discussed running away together. However, up until this point, Ellis has never believed that Murbarger was capable of killing someone.
This visit from the FBI was a shock to Ellis. During their conversation, investigators told Ellis that they had found Megan's blood in Murbarger's car. This inevitably caused Ellis to rethink everything he thought he knew about his best friend of several years. Over the next few days, Ellis has trouble sleeping - as he is overwhelmed with thoughts that Murbarger is dangerous and may harm others, including a new girlfriend he had been seeing. Ellis decides he wants to do the right thing, and he tells the FBI he will help with their investigation.
Summer 2018: Kyle Ellis assists investigators.
Early summer 2018: Ellis agrees to wear a wire while having a conversation with Murbarger. However, before doing this, Ellis decides to take the logistical step of moving out. While Murbarger leaves town for a few weeks, Ellis moves out of their apartment. He then arranges to meet up with Murbarger after he returns to discuss why he left so abruptly.
July 2nd, 2018: Ellis and Murbarger meet up while Ellis is wearing a wire; the FBI listens in on their conversation. Ellis confronts Murbarger about the fact that Megan's blood was found in his car. Murbarger admits that he saw Megan on the day she vanished when he gave her the iPod. He denies killing Megan and states he does not know why Megan's blood was in his car.
At some point during their conversation, Murbarger says to Ellis, "I probably couldn’t even have lifted my own body weight, much less strangled — if someone with anger issues found out about something and strangled her." Ellis would later state that the last part of that sentence - about someone with anger issues finding out about something and strangling her - was a "pin drop moment". While not a direct admission of guilt, Ellis now felt it was very possible that Murbarger had found out about something about Megan that angered him, causing his temper to flare up - and he subsequently killed her.
July 2018 - September 2020: investigators build their case.
Post July 2018: The conversation between Ellis and Murbarger was useful for investigators to continue to build their case, however; it was not quite enough evidence to make an arrest at that time. Over the next year, investigators gathered more evidence. Ellis continued to cooperate with the investigation as well.
Fall 2020: An indictment and arrest.
September 25th, 2020: The case is presented to an Illinois grand jury. The grand jury ultimately hands back an indictment for Brodey Murbarger.
October 7th, 2020: Brodey Murbarger is arrested in Evansville, Indiana. He is charged with multiple counts of murder and home invasion and one count of concealing a homicidal death. He pleads not guilty to the charges.
Fall 2022: Brodey Murbarger's trial.
Fall 2022: Brodey Murbarger's trial begins. The prosecution introduces their above-mentioned theory: Megan left her house on July 3rd, 2014, because she thought she and Murbarger were going to run away together. At some point, Murbarger snapped and suffocated and strangled Megan to death. He then hid her body in a rural area.
The prosecution presents the evidence of Murbarger and Megan's discussions about running away together. They also present the evidence of Megan's blood being found in his car. Murbarger later takes the stand in his own defense; he states that the blood was there due to a consensual sexual encounter the two had in his vehicle.
October 2022: The jury finds Brodey Murbarger guilty of the murder of Megan Nichols. Murbarger's lawyers immediately request a new trial.
January 2023: Sentencing.
January 2023: The judge denies Murbarger's request for a new trial. Murbarger is later sentenced to 50 years in prison. Murbarger still denies killing Megan, but accepts responsibility for the events leading up to her disappearance.
Today.
Murbarger is serving his sentence at Menard Correctional Center, a maximum-security state prison in Chester, Illinois. Megan continues to be remembered by her loved ones. Wayne County considers Megan's case to be one of the most high-profile cases in the county's history.
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