At approximately 6:30 am Heidi Firkus called 911 on 25 April 2010 saying there was a break-in at the her home and stopped talking after a gunshot went off. Heidi was shot in the back and died at the scene. Her husband, Nick Firkus had a gunshot wound to his thigh and groin. Firkus stated that he confronted an intruder, they struggled and his gun went off.

[20/20 did a show on Heidi Firkus and I will be writing up on that documentary!]

Let’s move ahead 11 years. On 1 September 2021 Firkus was indicted by a grand jury:

COUNT I
MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE – PREMEDITATED
On or about April 25, 2010, in Ramsey County, Minnesota, the defendant, NICHOLAS JAMES FIRKUS, caused the death of Heidi Marie Firkus, with premeditation and intent to effect the death of Heidi Marie Firkus and/or another.
COUNT II
MURDER IN THE SECOND DEGREE – INTENTIONAL
On or about April 25, 2010, in Ramsey County, Minnesota, the defendant, NICHOLAS JAMES FIRKUS, caused the death of Heidi Marie Firkus, with intent to effect the death of Heidi Marie Firkus and/or another.

Ramsey County Attorney’s Office press release 20 May 2021

STATEMENT OF PROBABLE CAUSE – – 5/17/2021
On Sunday April 25, 2010 at 6:31:54 AM, 911 dispatch received two hang-up calls from cellphone number 651-494-4876, a cell phone registered to Heidi Firkus (DOB: 12/14/1984). At 6:32:12 AM, Heidi Firkus called 911 and spoke with the 911 operator. In this call, Heidi said that someone was trying to break into her house. This house was located at 17XX Minnehaha Avenue West, St. Paul, Ramsey County, State of Minnesota. Thirty-eight seconds into the call, as Heidi was giving dispatch her address, a noise similar to a gunshot was heard, Heidi stopped speaking, and the call went dead. Before the gunshot, there is no significant background noise on the call, nor does Heidi say anything that would suggest that an intruder had actually entered the home. 911 dispatch twice tried to call Heidi’s phone back, but the calls went to voicemail.

At 6:33:47 AM, NICHOLAS FIRKUS (DOB: 2/25/1983) called 911 on Heidi’s phone. He was highly emotional. He said that someone had broken into their home and that he and Heidi had been shot while trying to run out the back to the garage. Near the end of the almost-seven-minute call, police can be heard entering the house.

Police arrive
When police entered, they noted that the front door was open approximately one inch, and there was a smell of gunpowder in the air. Heidi Firkus was lying on her back in the kitchen with her feet towards the front door (later measured to be about 14.6 feet from the front door). There was blood on Heidi’s hair and face, and she was unresponsive. NICHOLAS FIRKUS was next to her talking on the phone to the 911 operator. He was highly emotional, and he had an apparent gunshot wound to his upper left leg. There was a shotgun on the floor near the front door, and there was damage to the bottom part of the interior of the door from shotgun pellets. NICHOLAS FIRKUS was removed from the house and taken to an ambulance for medical care. Heidi was pronounced dead at the scene.

Initial statement
Before being transported to the hospital, NICHOLAS FIRKUS told police at the scene that one or possibly two people broke into his house. He said that he got his shotgun and that he and his wife were trying to run out the back door to the detached garage to escape. He said that as they were running to the garage, he turned around and the suspect was able to take the shotgun from him and shoot him and his wife. When asked whether the suspect was black or white, NICHOLAS FIRKUS said that he didn’t know. He said that the suspect was wearing a hood.

The scene
The front door was equipped with both a deadbolt lock and a lower lock. There were tool marks in the door jamb by the lower lack but none by the deadbolt There was a pair of jeans between the shotgun and the kitchen. There was a table just inside the door. This table contained several items, including a beer bottle, a water bottle, and a receipt. None of the items appeared disturbed.

NICHOLAS FIRKUS’ gunshot wound

Medics transported NICHOLAS FIRKUS to the hospital, where he was treated for the gunshot wound. The
wound was a through-and-through gunshot wound to his upper left thigh, and there was no evidence of any significant bleeding or injury other than local soft tissue injury. Medical records noted that he was hysterical throughout the exam and crying loudly. He was treated and released after about three hours.

Interview at the hospital

While at the hospital, NICHOLAS FIRKUS was interviewed by police. He said that he got up to get a glass of water from the bathroom and that he heard someone fiddling at the front door. He said that he woke up Heidi and told her to call the police and that he grabbed his shotgun out of the closet. He said that they called the police from the closet. He said that they then decided to run to the garage. He said that when they got to the bottom of the stairs, the door opened, he got grabbed, and then Heidi was shot. He said that he recalled yelling at Heidi to give dispatch their address. He described the intruder as a guy in a hooded sweatshirt, pulled low, maybe wearing sunglasses, maybe black, and wearing gloves. He said that he never saw a tool in this person’s hand. He said that he tried to push this person away, that he started to stumble, and that is when the gun went off and Heidi fell down.

Interview at the police station

NICHOLAS FIRKUS was interviewed again after he was released from the hospital. He reviewed events of the previous day. He said that the night before the shooting he and Heidi watched a movie and that they each had a glass of wine. He said that he went to bed around midnight and that he woke up ten or fifteen minutes after 6:00 AM and he heard the screen door open and fiddling with the doorknob. When asked whether he had set the deadbolt, he said that he and Heidi are “usually pretty religious about locking the deadbolt but that he thought that he forgot to lock the deadbolt that night. He said that he grabbed his shotgun out of the upstairs closet. He said that he brought the shotgun up from the basement about a month earlier because the moisture in the basement was causing the gun to rust. He said the shotgun was unloaded and that he loaded the shotgun when he heard the noises with the door downstairs. He said that he woke Heidi up and told her to try to leave the house and head for the garage where their cars are parked. He said that this was a safety plan that he and Heidi had decided upon previously if they ever had trouble. He said that he is right handed and that he grabbed his jeans in his right hand and was carrying the shotgun in his left hand and that he was walking behind Heidi to try to move her along. He said that Heidi stopped next to the front door to grab her wallet, which was on the table next to the front door. He said that it was at this moment that the door opened and there was a black guy around 6’1″ or 6’2” with a dark hooded sweatshirt with the hood drawn tight around his face. He said that he dropped his jeans, the guy grabbed the barrel of the shotgun, they wrestled, and that his finger slipped onto the trigger and it went off.

He said that the gunshot hit Heidi and that she went straight down. He said that he and the suspect struggled over the shotgun and that the gun went off a second time, hitting him (NICHOLAS FIRKUS) in the leg. He said that he fell down and that the guy took off through the front door. He said that he went over to Heidi and rolled her over and that she was limp. NICHOLAS FIRKUS told police that they were being foreclosed on and that they were going to tell their parents and friends that day and were also planning to move later that day.

NICHOLAS FIRKUS also said that he and Heidi were behind on their bills, that their house had been foreclosed on, and that they had to be out of the house the next day. He said that they hadn’t told any of their friends or family about the foreclosure or their need to be out of their house. He said that they had planned to pack up their house on Sunday and Monday morning, put some of their belongings in the garage to get later, and find someone to stay with. He also said that there had been fraud on their bank account. He said that Heidi went shopping at the Mall of America the day before but that she was on a tight budget and that he gave her $30 to $40 in cash to spend.

The Autopsy

An autopsy revealed that Heidi Firkus received one shotgun wound to the back and that there was no exit wound. The shotgun pellets perforated her posterior/lateral vertebral column, left ribs, left lung, and anterior ribs. The wound tract went from back to front and from right to left. The medical examiner determined that the cause of death was a shotgun wound to the back and that the manner of death was homicide.

The foreclosure

NICHOLAS FIRKUS and Heidi Firkus purchased their home in August 2007 for $215,000, using two mortgages. The monthly payment on the primary mortgage was about $1,300, and the monthly payment on the second mortgage was about $250. The last time they made any payment on either mortgage was September 22, 2008. On April 30, 2009, NICHOLAS FIRKUS was personally served with foreclosure documents, and on June 4, 2009, the house was sold at a Sheriffs auction. On January 29, 2010, a representative from the law firm handling the foreclosure contacted NICHOLAS FIRKUS by telephone and offered him $4,000 in cash if they vacated the house by February 18, 2010, or $2,500 in cash if they vacate by March 20, 2010. NICHOLAS FIRKUS never accepted either offer.

Eviction proceedings were filed on February 12, 2010, and an eviction hearing was held on March 8, 2010.
NICHOLAS FIRKUS attended this hearing alone, Heidi was not present. Police located the foreclosure documents inside NICHOLAS FIRKUS’s vehicle. NICHOLAS FIRKUS signed an agreement to vacate the house by March 22, 2010. When the Firkuses had not vacated by that date, the law firm sent NICHOLAS FIRKUS a letter setting a lockout date of April 9, 2010. On April 6, 2010, NICHOLAS FIRKUS contacted the law firm and said that his grandmother was in hospice, that her death was imminent, and that he needed a couple extra weeks to vacate the house. The law firm agreed and rescheduled the lockout for noon on Monday, April 26, 2010. There is no evidence that either of NICHOLAS FIRKUS’ grandmothers were in hospice or died in 2010; both of them lived through the entire calendar year of 2010.

Other financial troubles

In addition to the foreclosed home, the Firkuses’ US Bank Account was overdrawn by $434.93 and was closed by the bank on January 8, 2010, and the Firkuses owed US Bank $1,736.31 at the time of Heidis death. In addition, the Firkuses owed $17,381.66 on an REl credit card. A review of credit card charges from 2008-2009 show that NICHOLAS FIRKUS made 2.4 times more charges to the credit cards than Heidi.

Investigators spoke with Heidi and NICHOLAS FIRKUS’ insurance agent, who is also a longtime friend of Heidi’s parents. The agent said that Heidi’s car insurance policy was always promptly paid up to the date that she married NICHOLAS FIRKUS. The agent said that after her marriage, he communicated with NICHOLAS FIRKUS regarding all insurance matters, including renters, vehicle, and homeowners’ insurance. The agent said that the insurance company cancelled the Firkuses’ homeowner’s insurance policy when the foreclosure occurred and that he sent NICHOLAS FIRKUS a cancellation notice. The agent said that he also spoke with NICHOLAS FIRKUS on the phone about the cancellation and that NICHOLAS FIRKUS told him that the foreclosure occurred because a teller at the bank was stealing his paychecks.

The agent said that he didn’t believe this story and that he explained to NICHOLAS FIRKUS that foreclosure involves a long process. The agent said that he didn’t press NICHOLAS FIRKUS about this because he assumed that NICHOLAS FIRKUS was embarrassed. The agent said that he also received a cancellation notice for the insurance on Heidi and NICHOLAS FIRKUS’ vehicles but that he merelv sent a letter and never followed up with a conversation and assumed that they had switched insurance agents.

Trip to Hawaii

On February 12, 2010, the same day that eviction proceedings were filed against them, Heidi and NICHOLAS FIRKUS left for a five-day trip to Hawaii. They spent $3,535.39 on the trip (one ticket, worth $752.70, was paid for by NICHOLAS FIRKUS’ father.)

Visit to the Calhoun Beach Club

On March 10, 2010, Heidi and NICHOLAS FIRKUS visited the Calhoun Beach Club and toured two apartments with monthly rent of $1,454 and $2,200. The agent from the club recalled talking to Heidi about her desire to sell her house and move into the city. By this time, the Firkuses’ house had already been foreclosed on and sold at auction, so they had no house to sell.

Stories of fraud on their bank account

In emails from March and April 2010, Heidi repeatedly asked NICHOLAS FIRKUS to handle and respond to creditor phone calls that she was receiving. NICHOLAS FIRKUS would respond by assuring Heidi that he was taking care of it and telling her that he was in contact with US Bank regarding an audit involving some fraud with their account. NICHOLAS FIRKUS assured Heidi that their credit scores were good.
There was no evidence that US Bank conducted any such audit or that there was any fraud related to the Firkuses’ account.

The evidence shows that Heidi didn’t know about the foreclosure or lockout

Investigators have reviewed the text messages and emails sent to and from Heidi and NICHOLAS FIRKUS’ cell phones and email accounts. There is not a single message that references foreclosure or eviction proceedings or gives any indication that they would need to move out of their house imminently. On the contrary, on March 11, 2010, Heidi sent an email to a friend saying, “Wish we weren’t tied down to our house so we could move somewhere fun.” The law firm handling the foreclosure and eviction has no documentation signed by Heidi, and their representatives never had any contact with Heidi, all their contacts were with NICHOLAS FIRKUS. Investigators have spoken with Heidi’s family, friends, and co-workers, and not one person said that Heidi ever said anything about foreclosure, eviction, or needing a place to stay or store their belongings.

Photographs and a video taken inside the Firkus home after Heidi’s death show that, despite having to be out of the house the next day, absolutely no packing had been done. Also, Heidi was scheduled to work on Monday, April 26; she did not request the day off. On Thursday, April 22, 2010, Heidi exchanged text messages with a friend making plans to get a pedicure in the afternoon on Sunday, April 25. In this exchange, Heidi was given the option of doing the pedicure on Sunday or the following Wednesday, and Heidi chose Sunday. Heidi also suggested that they all go to church together that Sunday morning.

In April 2010, Heidi emailed NICHOLAS FIRKUS multiple times regarding scheduling a meeting with J.S., who was the realtor who helped them buy their house and also a friend from church. NICHOLAS FIRKUS responded by saying that he had been in contact with J.S. On April 23, 2010, Heidi sent NICHOLAS FIRKUS an email asking whether he had heard from J.S. NICHOLAS FIRKUS responded, “[J.S.] said that he’s ready to meet when we are, I told him Monday should be good.” Police interviewed J.S., who said that he had not spoken to NICHOLAS FIRKUS in over a year and that there was no meeting scheduled for “Monday”.

Investigators confirmed that Heidi went shopping at the Mall of America with a friend on Saturday, April 24, 2010. Receipts show that she spent $218.46. The friend told investigators that Heidi did not appear upset or nervous about finances and was looking for a dress for a friend’s wedding in the fall.

Forensics

Investigators tested swabs from the gun for DNA but found no unidentified DNA profiles. DNA swabs from the entry door contained insufficient genetic information. Given where Heidi was shot, the trajectory of that shot, if extended back to just inside the front door, would require the shotgun to be near the table inside the door. If the incident happened as NICHOLAS FIRKUS described, the intruder would have been between the shotgun and the table. This would have put the intruder very near and probably in contact with the table.
Despite this, nothing on the table was knocked over or apparently disturbed. Furthermore, no struggle is heard in Heidi’s 911 call, nor does Heidi say anything that suggests that an intruder had successfully gained entry into the house. Yet, one can hear police arrive in the background of NICHOLAS FIRKUS’ 911 call.

Email from April 23, 2010

On Friday, April 23, 2010, Heidi forwarded NICHOLAS FIRKUS an email from a friend regarding plans for Heidi and NICHOLAS FIRKUS to get together with a group of friends that night at Osaka’s restaurant.
NICHOLAS FIRKUS responded, “Oh, I’m ok with that as long as I can have you to myself tomorrow night.”

Views: 11

From the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune:

Before family was slain, Lino Lakes woman called police

Jim Adams | Star Tribune
Wednesday, October 25, 2000

Donna Mimbach called Lino Lakes police for help the night before she and her family were killed, but she was unwilling to evict her brother so police could arrest him if he didn’t leave, police said Tuesday.

Her brother, Larry S. Dame, was charged Tuesday with five counts of second-degree murder in the gruesome beating deaths last week of Mimbach, her husband and their three children in their Lino Lakes home. Dame, 28, also was charged with taking the Mimbach station wagon without permission.

The officer who returned Mimbach’s call last Wednesday night also offered to take Dame into custody if he threatened the family or made suicidal statements, but Mimbach said he hadn’t, said Lino Lakes Police Chief Dave Pecchia.

“We did everything legally possible to assist Donna Mimbach on the night of Oct. 18,” Pecchia said.

Dame’s bail was set at $3million by Anoka County District Judge Stephen Askew. He approved a request by Dame’s attorney, David Powers, to hire a psychiatrist to evaluate whether Dame is mentally competent to stand trial. Dame stood silently in court, his eyes downcast.

He is accused of killing Mimbach, 29, her husband, Todd Mimbach, 32, and their children, 12-year-old John Mimbach, 9-year-old Amber Duval and 22-month-old Daniel Mimbach. Police found their bodies in their beds under their covers about 1 p.m. Thursday.

Anoka County authorities probably will wait for a psychiatric evaluation before deciding whether to call a grand jury to consider first-degree murder charges, which require suspicion of premeditation, said Assistant County Attorney Tony Palumbo.

No motive revealed Lead investigator Tony Helgesen of the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office said Dame
gave police no reason for his acts.  “It was a horrific crime,” Helgesen said. “Any time you have a crime scene
involving children, it is very difficult.”

According to the criminal complaint, Dame beat the Mimbachs with a hammer and stabbed all but his sister with a kitchen knife early Thursday as they were sleeping. Then he drove the Mimbachs’ station wagon to Rockford, Ill. He told detectives that he put the hammer, the knife and his bloody clothing in a bag and put it in a garbage bin near his hotel in Rockford, the complaint says. Rockford police found the bag with the bloody items in the bin.

Dame returned to Minnesota and was arrested about 5 p.m. Saturday after a man spotted him in the parking lot of an Anoka video store and alerted police. Helgesen said Dame gave no reason for why he went to Rockford or returned to Minnesota. Dame told police that the slayings were early Thursday but didn’t say whether he was drinking, Helgesen said.  He said Dame was calm, lucid and didn’t show remorse during a police interview.

The crime scene showed no sign of a struggle, Helgesen added.  Dame had been released from prison in February after serving four years for first-degree assault for slashing a man’s throat in 1995 in Morrison County.

While he was in prison, Dame’s sister and her husband visited him and bought him a television set, said Nicole Daley, who said she had known Dame and Donna Mimbach since she was in second grade with Dame.  Donna Mimbach loved her brother, Daley said. She said that she was the maid of honor at Donna Mimbach’s wedding and that she wrote and called Dame several times a month while he was in prison. Daley said she worried about him when she saw him a month ago, because he was aloof and quiet. “In prison, he was positive and had big expectations about how life was going to be when he got out,” she said. After his release it was hard to find work, but he finally got a factory job. “He saved his money up and bought a car, and it broke down the next day,” she said. “He was frustrated.”

After his release, Dame lived with his parents in Lino Lakes until he moved into a Circle Pines apartment in early August, family members said. They said he had struggled with alcohol since high school and had recently talked about
hearing voices.

His brother, Walter Dame, 23, said Larry Dame said he drank to quiet the voices. The voices told Larry Dame that his family was out to kill him because they were trying to commit him to a mental hospital, his brother said.

Dame had been jailed for a week this month after taking one of the Mimbachs’ cars. He was released last Wednesday. Todd and Donna Mimbach picked him up at the jail late that afternoon. After taking his wife home, Todd Mimbach took Dame to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids.  The Mimbachs believed that a mental-health evaluation required by Dame’s probation officer would lead to Dame being admitted to the hospital.  But he wasn’t, and Todd Mimbach drove Dame back to the Mimbach home in the 500 block of Chippewa Trail. ‘I can’t have him stay here’

At 9:26 p.m. Wednesday, Donna Mimbach called 911 for help: “Um, it’s regarding, OK my brother got discharged from the um jail today and the consequences were that he was supposed to go to the hospital because he hears voices and he stole my car and all this stuff.  “My husband brought him to the hospital and the hospital will not take him, and so my husband is bringing him back here because we can’t get ahold of his parole officer. Well, I can’t have him stay here. He has to go back to jail or something.”

A few minutes later, a Lino Lakes police officer returned Donna Mimbach’s call. Officials didn’t release those transcripts, but Helgesen said the officer offered Donna Mimbach several options under which police could arrest her
brother. When none worked for her, the officer told her to call back if anything changed, Pecchia said.

Donna Mimbach’s brother Walter was at the house until about 10 p.m. and said the family had decided to let Larry Dame spend the night, the complaint said. Todd Mimbach intended to take Larry Dame to work with him the next day,
Helgesen said.

Relatives came by the house at 9 a.m. and again at noon, and could tell that the TV and lights were on, the complaint said. Nobody went to the door. Police were called about 12:50 p.m. and found the bodies.
Larry Dame’s next court hearing is Dec. 21.
Jim Adams can be contacted at @startribune.com

This info is from the court files.

The dead bodies of Todd and Donna Mimbach, along with their three children ranging in ages from one through twelve, were discovered in their Lino Lakes, Minnesota home on October 19, 2000. The entire family [Donna Mimbach, 29; Todd Mimbach, 32; children, Daniel Mimbach, 22 months; Amber Duval, 9, and John Mimbach, 12] had been bludgeoned to death with a hammer, and with the exception of Donna Mimbach, the victims’ throats had been slit with a knife. Defendant, Donna Mimach’s brother Lawrence Scott Dame, who had reportedly stayed over at the house on the night of the murders, became the prime suspect of the Anoka County Sheriffs Department investigation of the case.

On October 21, 2000, a citizen of Anoka, Minnesota, spotted Lawrence Scott Dame driving Todd Mimbach’s car in Coon Rapids, Minnesota and promptly contacted the police. The police arrived shortly thereafter and arrested Defendant at approximately 4:50 P.M. the same day without incident. Defendant was immediately taken to the Anoka County Sheriff’s Department. The police later discovered ten empty beer cans and a bottle of vodka in the back seat of Todd Mimbach’s vehicle. Investigator Helgesen (hereinafter “Helgesen”), the lead investigator assigned to the case, arrived at the station approximately half an hour later and began interviewing Defendant around 5:37 P.M. Helgesen began the interview by informing Defendant of his Miranda rights. Defendant indicated that he understood his rights, and after several long pauses, he informed Helgesen that “he couldn’t say anything right now.” Helgeson immediately terminated the interview and left the room. While Helgesen was absent from the room, the videotape shows Defendant speaking and mumbling to himself in an apparent struggle to decide whether to tell Helgesen about the murders. Approximately five minutes later, Defendant requested to see Helgeson again, and Helgeson returned to the interview room.

After ordering some food at Defendant’s request, Helgeson re-read Defendant his Miranda rights, at which point Defendant interrupted him and began reciting his rights by memory. Helgesen then re-read the rights
individually, and after each one, Defendant said that he understood. Helgesen then asked if Defendant would talk to him. Without directly answering Helgesen’s question, Defendant chose to continue speaking.

Throughout the interview, Defendant repeatedly indicated that he understood his rights and what was happening. Helsgesen testified that while he could smell alcohol on Defendant’s breath, Defendant did not display any of the traditional indicia of intoxication such as staggering, slurred speech, memory loss, or blood-shot eyes. Following the two Miranda warnings, he told Helgesen on at least two other occasions during the interview that he understood his rights. At one point, after a particularly long period of silence by Defendant, Helgesen again asked Defendant if he would let him ask some questions, and Defendant responded that he would try to answer them. At no time did he ever choose to reinvoke his right to remain silent or to request an attorney.

During the interview, Defendant confessed to killing the entire Mimbach family by bludgeoning them to death with a hammer, and with the exception of his sister Donna, cutting their throats with a knife. He told Helgesen that he then cleaned up the laundry room, put the weapons and clothing in a bag, and took
Todd Mimbach’s vehicle to Rockford, Illinois, where he threw the weapons and clothing into a garbage dumpster near a motel. He described the location of the dumpsters and even drew Helgesen a diagram of its location. He said that he returned to Minnesota on October 21, 2001. The interview concluded at 8:03 P.M.

Shortly after the interrogation, Defendant was transported to Mercy Hospital to have his blood tested for alcohol or drugs.’ The blood test revealed that Defendant had a blood alcohol content (hereinafter “BAC”) of .10 and no presence of drugs.

• Dame had extensive experience with the criminal justice system prior to his arrest for the murders,
including a 1991 conviction for first-degree criminal damage to property and a 1996 conviction for first-degree assault.

Dame was sentenced to life in prison 3 June 2002

Views: 195