How a small piece a WC door lock helped clear up the homicide of a Minnesota nurse

Within the early morning hours of Dec. 16, 2022, St. Paul, Minnesota, murder detectives Abby DeSanto and Jennifer O’Donnell have been referred to as to a downtown residence constructing to analyze a reported suicide. A 32-year-old girl named Alexandra Pennig had been discovered useless in her toilet with a single gunshot wound to the top.

For the detectives, what actually occurred to Pennig is one thing that also haunts them to at the present time. And it is the query on the heart of “The Unusual Taking pictures of Alex Pennig,” reported by “48 Hours” contributor Natalie Morales. An encore of the episode is streaming on Paramount+.

When detectives DeSanto and O’Donnell arrived on the residence, they discovered Pennig had not been alone on the time of her demise. A person named Matthew Ecker was additionally there. Ecker and Pennig have been each nurses and had met two years earlier once they labored on the identical clinic. Ecker informed first responders the gun was his, and that Pennig had grabbed it, locked herself within the toilet, after which fired the shot. “I believed all the pieces was high quality,” he stated. “After which she simply grabbed the gun.” Ecker informed first responders that after he heard the shot he instantly broke open the toilet door: “I attempted to do what I might. After which I washed my palms … That is why I haven’t got something on my palms.” Ecker stated he then referred to as 911. Nevertheless it was too late. He stated he did not know why Pennig would do that.

In Pennig’s residence, there was alcohol and 6 bottles of prescription medicine, together with antidepressants, all prescribed to Pennig. For the detectives, it instructed Alex may need been depressed, they usually puzzled if Ecker’s story that she took her personal life was true.

However in addition they observed one thing that appeared to contradict Ecker’s story. He had stated he washed his palms within the toilet sink earlier than calling 911, however DeSanto recalled the primary responders informed her the sink was dry. “The sink was dry. If he had stated, you realize, he referred to as the police straight away, that sink in all probability would’ve been nonetheless moist,” DeSanto defined, “but it surely was very dry in there.”

When O’Donnell regarded into Pennig’s background, she realized from Alex’s dad and mom that Alex had struggled prior to now with melancholy and dependancy. “I had requested, um, if she had been suicidal prior to now, um, and pop stated, she had, um, tried, uh, to overdose earlier than,” stated O’Donnell. In response to Alex’s father, Jim Pennig, a number of years prior, Alex had taken a handful of capsules “after which had informed her mother that she was making an attempt suicide.” After that, Alex’s dad and mom informed the detectives they despatched her to rehab, and she or he finally acquired clear. Regardless of her previous struggles, Alex’s dad and mom informed O’Donnell they’d simply seen her at Thanksgiving. And her mother, Mary Jo Pennig, had simply talked to her that night. “She was doing nicely,” she stated. For them, the concept that their daughter had died by suicide didn’t make sense. “Realizing your child, it did not match,” Mary Jo Pennig stated.

Since Ecker was the final particular person to see Alex Pennig alive, the detectives zeroed in on him. “He is the one one that may inform us what occurred. He was the one one which was there,” stated O’Donnell. They questioned Ecker about what had occurred that evening. He stated he and Alex Pennig had gone out to a number of native bars, and once they arrived again at her place, all the pieces was high quality: “We have been laughing on the way in which house,” stated Ecker. DeSanto requested him if, as soon as they acquired into the residence, they’d gotten right into a battle. Ecker stated they didn’t.

DET. ABBY DESANTO: You guys weren’t arguing or something?

MATTHEW ECKER: No.

DET. ABBY DESANTO: There is no battle with you two?

MATTHEW ECKER: Not between us. 

For hours, Ecker continued to say Pennig had locked herself within the toilet, fired the shot after which he broke open the door to try to assist her: “That gun went off behind a closed door … I didn’t shoot her.“

However the detectives had their doubts. Then they acquired a name from the forensic unit that was nonetheless processing the scene. And in line with O’Donnell, what they discovered modified all the pieces. “As soon as Alex was moved, they discovered beneath the place Alex had been laying was a spherical metallic piece,“ she stated. It was the form of a hoop, and in regards to the measurement of 1 / 4. O’Donnell stated it was a part of the lock from the toilet door, and the truth that it had been found below Pennig was key. “For us, it meant that the door was pressured open earlier than she was shot.”

The detectives felt the invention of the metallic ring proved Ecker had lied and had not damaged the door open after he heard the shot. The detectives suspected Pennig and Ecker had argued and that she had locked the toilet door to get away from him. Then Ecker broke open the door, the metallic half broke off and fell to the bottom, after which he shot Pennig and she or he landed on high of it.

Ecker was charged with second-degree homicide. In February 2024 he was convicted and later sentenced to 30 years.