What happened to Nick Morelos? Details explored ahead of Dateline NBC

The story of Nick Morelos will be featured in the episode titled Stone Cold on NBC’s Dateline, on August 23, 2024. The show explores the deaths of the victims and conducts interviews to uncover the mystery to the viewers.

In July 2016, Nicolas "Nick" Morelos, a 45-year-old former Marine, was found dead in his Tuscon, Arizona home. His fiance discovered him with multiple gunshot wounds, eight in total, with a fatal shot to his forehead. The brutal crime took place in the master bedroom where investigators also found several bullet casings.

Suspicion quickly fell on James Lapan, a colleague at Marana Aerospace Solutions, who had a rocky relationship with Morelos. Lapan's involvement was suspected due to a series of personal conflicts and a suspicious injury he sustained around the time of the murder.

The case broke open when Lapan’s wife contradicted her initial alibi for him and she admitted that he was out the night of the murder.

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How was Nick Morelos killed?

Gun lying on the floor (Image via Unsplash/Jens Lelie)

After the death of Nick Morelos, investigators immediately began piecing together Nick’s last days and his interactions. As a director of maintenance at Marana Aerospace Solutions, Nick was known to be straightforward and sometimes tough. These were traits that didn't sit well with some of his colleagues, which provided the initial pool of suspects, especially those who might hold a grudge strong enough to escalate to murder.

James Lapan, a safety inspector at the same company, emerged as a primary suspect. The two had a history of workplace disagreements that brought weight to the suspicions.

What intensified the focus on Lapan was his noticeable injury—a bandaged arm—just after Nick Morelos' murder. Initial interviews with Lapan didn’t yield much as he maintained his innocence and provided an alibi, and he claimed that he was at home with his wife Sareena on the night of the crime.

However, the case took a different turn when investigators learned of Lapan’s affair with one of Nick’s former girlfriends, making it a personal motive for the existing professional tensions. The piece of the puzzle came to light through interviews with co-workers and a deeper dive into Nick Morelos' complex personal life, which included multiple relationships with colleagues.

As detectives looked deeper, they decided to execute a search warrant on Lapan’s home. The search proved fruitful because they found .45 caliber bullets and shell casings that matched those at the crime scene as well as blood-stained pants and carpet fibers corresponding to those from Nick’s bedroom. So, the physical evidence began to piece together a story that Lapan had indeed been at the scene.

Further complicating the case was Sareena Lapan's changing testimony. Initially corroborating her husband’s alibi she later revealed to investigators that she had lied out of fear. She confessed that Lapan had left home the night of the murder and returned with blood on his arms, which was a detail she had initially hidden.

With Sareena’s revised statement, the evidence against Lapan solidified. His presence at the crime scene was further supported by DNA tests that matched the blood found in Nick Morelos' bedroom to him. And the overwhelming array of evidence led to Lapan’s arrest and subsequent trial.

In court, the prosecution painted a picture of a premeditated attack and argued that Lapan had planned the murder and was driven by both personal and professional animosity towards Nick Morelos. The defense argued that the DNA evidence was circumstantial and didn’t conclusively prove Lapan’s guilt. However, the jury was convinced by the prosecution's story.

James Lapan was found guilty of first-degree murder and burglary and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus an additional ten and a half years for the burglary charge. He was arrested in 2016.

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Catch the episode titled Stone Cold on NBC’s Dateline on August 23, 2024.