Dateline: Unforgettable—What happened the night Nicole VanderHeyden was killed?

Dateline: Unforgettable, the much-watched and highly absorbing true-crime series, will investigate the terrifying murder story of Nicole VanderHeyden, a 31-year-old teacher and mother of three from Green Bay, Wisconsinin in its upcoming episode.

Episode 11 of Season 2 will be released on the popular true-crime destination, Oxygen, on Tuesday, August 16, 2022, at 8 PM ET. The official synopsis for the upcoming episode, titled Justice for Nikki reads:

"Andrea Canning looks back on the case of a fitness tracker who helps detectives solve the mystery of a young woman's death in Wisconsin; Andrea confronts the killer in a tense interview."

Trigger warning: This article contains information about graphic violence.

Nicole VanderHeyden, a 31-year-old Wisconsin teacher, was reportedly beaten and strangled to death on May 20, 2016, by a sinister man named George S. Burch, who was forty years old at the time. Since Oxygen announced the new episode of Dateline: Unforgettable Season 2, viewers have been eager to learn what happened to VanderHeyden on the day she breathed her last.

So, without further ado, let's dive in to find out important details pertaining to the case before the arrival of Episode 11 on Dateline: Unforgettable.

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Dateline: Unforgettable: What transpired the night Nicole VanderHeyde was murdered?

What happened between VanderHeyden and her boyfriend

Douglass Detrie on the day of her unfortunate demise?

Reportedly, Nicole VanderHeyden, whose heart-wrenching murder story will be chronicled in Dateline: Unforgettable Season 2 Episode 11, was involved in a romantic relationship with her 35-year-old boyfriend, Douglass Detrie.

The couple lived together at their home in Ledgeview, Wisconsin, and they also had a baby together, who was just 6 months old at the time of her demise. The couple initially had a good relationship and appeared to their loved ones to be a perfect couple. However, things between the two became increasingly tense over time.

They used to get into heated debates and fights all the time. The couple reportedly began to question their relationship. On May 20, 2016, Douglass and Nicole hired a babysitter to look after their child as they planned to go to a bar to see a glam-rock band with their close friends.

Unfortunately, the couple got into a huge argument at the bar as well that night. As stated by Brown County Sheriff Sgt. Tracy Holschbach:

"As the night progressed, they had been consuming alcohol and Doug had ran into some friends from high school that he had not seen in a while,...He confirmed that Nikki was mad because she saw Doug talking to another female at [a bar called] The Watering Hole. And this basically set her off."

After their heated argument at the bar, Nicole went to Sardine Can, another bar without her boyfriend. That night, she allegedly did not return home.

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Who killed Nicole VanderHeyden?

That same night, Nicole was given a lift home by another man named George S. Burch. The man was 40 years old at the time of the incident. Burch forced himself on her, and when she fought back and refused to go along, he brutally beat her and then strangled her until she passed away.

The man then went on to drop her body off in a field 3 miles away from the victim's house in Wisconsin. Later on, her unrecognizable body was discovered by a farmer.

The issues in their relationship made her boyfriend, Douglass Detrie, a suspect in the murder, but later on, it was revealed that it was none other than George S. Burch, who ended her precious life. He is currently at the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility serving his life sentence, which he received on March 1, 2018.

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Watch Dateline: Unforgettable Season 2 Episode 11, premiering on August 16, 2022, at 8 PM ET, exclusively on Oxygen.