BlinkDash

In 2006, Nicole Pietz had turned a corner when she disappeared. She had become addicted to prescription painkillers after a back injury, but she had been sober for eight years, and was active in the recovery community when she vanished. About seven years later, Pietz’s husband, David Pietz, was convicted of killing her.

When Nicole was reported missing, David told the authorities his wife relapsed, and an empty bottle of Percocet was his evidence. However, according to King5.com, David behaved strangely in the aftermath of his wife’s disappearance, and even at her funeral. He was calm in the 911 call, telling police Nicole was missing. He barely helped look for her, and after Nicole’s body was found, he told Nicole’s mother at the funeral, “I didn’t think you’d take it so hard.”

Where was Nicole Pietz found?

A short time later, Nicole Pietz’s body was recovered in the woods near Burien, Washington, just outside Seattle. Little evidence linked David Pietz to the crime, however. But by 2013, the prosecution built a case against him. The prosecution said David was cheating on his wife and had done so for years. She reportedly found out about one of his affairs the day she died, so he strangled her, the Seattle Times reported that year.

What happened to David Pietz, and when will he be released?

Although the evidence was largely circumstantial, and despite the fact David Pietz’s defense maintained Nicole Pietz had relapsed when she died, the jury in the case found Pietz guilty of murder, and sentenced him to 220 months, or a little more than 18 years in prison. This puts Pietz’s release date sometime in 2031. The judge in the case, Michael Hayden, said, “This wasn’t a standard murder second degree. This was close, personal, and most aggravated.”

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