It was the night after Easter in 2006. Murdock, Nebraska, is the kind of place where people don't really lock their doors. Wayne and Sharmon Stock, pillars of that quiet community, were asleep in their farmhouse. They had no idea that two teenagers from Wisconsin, fueled by a cocktail of drugs and a bizarre desire for a "thrill," were about to walk through their door.
Jessica Reid and Greg Fester weren't masterminds. They were drifters. Jessica was only 17; Greg was 19. They had left their home in Horicon, Wisconsin, a few days earlier, ostensibly heading for a beach. Instead, they carved a path of chaos across state lines. They stole cars. They burned one. They broke into homes. By the time they reached Nebraska, they were armed with a 12-gauge shotgun and a .410 shotgun.
The Night Everything Went Wrong
The choice of the Stock house was completely random. That's the part that still haunts people. Greg Fester later told investigators they didn't even need the money. They were just looking for excitement. Fester climbed through a laundry room window and let Jessica Reid inside.
They heard snoring from upstairs.
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Instead of grabbing some valuables and running, they went up the stairs. When Wayne Stock woke up and tried to defend his home, a struggle broke out. Fester shot him in the leg. As they fought over the gun, Fester shouted at Reid to "do something." She did. She fired the .410 shotgun at Wayne. Fester then finished the job, killing Wayne with a shot to the back of the head before turning the gun on Sharmon.
They left as quickly as they came. But Reid left something behind: a gold ring.
The Ring and the Wrongful Arrests
For weeks, the investigation was a mess. Local authorities focused on the Stocks' own family. Specifically, they looked at Matthew Livers, the couple’s nephew. Livers, who had a significantly low IQ, was subjected to an 11-hour interrogation. Under intense pressure, he gave a false confession. He even implicated his cousin, Nicholas Sampson.
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It looked like the case was closed, but it was built on sand. There was no physical evidence against the cousins. Worse, a CSI director named David Kofoed later went to prison for planting a speck of blood in a car to "link" them to the crime.
While two innocent men sat in jail, the real evidence was sitting in a Wisconsin evidence locker. Reid and Fester had been arrested for car theft shortly after the murders. When Nebraska investigators finally looked at the gold ring found at the crime scene, they traced it back to a burglary in Wisconsin. The trail led straight to Jessica Reid and Greg Fester.
Jessica Reid and Greg Fester: The Evidence and the Journal
When police searched Reid’s home, they found a journal. The entry from April 22, 2006—just five days after the murders—was chilling. She wrote about how much she enjoyed the killing. She said she wished she could do it all the time. She even joked that if Fester didn't keep up, she’d leave him and go do it herself.
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Honestly, the lack of remorse was what sealed their fate. Fester admitted to a probation officer that the whole spree was just for the "thrill."
Both were eventually charged with second-degree murder. They took plea deals to avoid the death penalty. They are currently serving consecutive life sentences in Nebraska.
What We Can Learn From the Stock Murders
This case is a massive case study in "tunnel vision" within law enforcement. Because the police were so sure they had the right guys (Livers and Sampson), they ignored the glaring lack of physical evidence. It took a random ring and a persistent investigation into the Wisconsin thefts to find the actual killers.
- Forensic Accountability: The downfall of David Kofoed served as a wake-up call for Nebraska’s legal system regarding evidence handling.
- Interrogation Tactics: The Livers confession is now frequently cited in legal discussions about why vulnerable individuals should not be interrogated without specific protections.
- The Randomness of Violence: Sometimes there is no "why" beyond drug use and a lack of empathy, which is a hard pill for a community to swallow.
If you're following true crime history or the ethics of forensic science, the story of Jessica Reid and Greg Fester is a primary example of how the truth can be buried under bad policing, only to be saved by a single piece of jewelry left on a floor.
Next Steps for Deeper Insight:
- Review the 2008 Nebraska Supreme Court rulings (State v. Reid and State v. Fester) to see how the court handled their appeals regarding "excessive" sentencing.
- Research the civil lawsuits filed by Matthew Livers and Nicholas Sampson, which resulted in millions of dollars in settlements due to the wrongful prosecution.
- Examine the documentary coverage of the "Murdock Farmhouse Slayings" to hear the perspective of the Stock family, who had to endure both the loss of their loved ones and the near-wrongful conviction of their own kin.