Digital Forensics Dispatch

Murder Suspect Found Guilty in Illinois Murder Trial

October 18, 2022

Robinson Miles and Keaton Eberly, of Channel 14 News in Illinois, recently published two articles about a Fairfield, Illinois man suspected of murder.

Brodey Murbarger was accused in 2014 of the murder of 15-year-old Megan Nichols after she went missing. After years of searches, the remains of her body were found in a rural area in Wayne County, Illinois in 2018.

Murbarger was arrested in 2020 and has recently been on trial defending his story. He took the stand in his own murder trial on Wednesday, October 12, 2022.

Murbarger explained that Nichols’ blood ended up on his shirt during a sexual encounter, after which he laid the shirt on the back of his truck. He and his father, Jayson Murbarger, claimed that Brodey’s truck leaks water and is the reason why the blood ended up leaking into his trunk.

An FBI digital forensics expert who recovered up to five weeks’ worth of text conversations between Nichols and Murbarger in early 2014, displayed them in court to prove Murbarger was guilty. The text messages showed that prior to the disappearance of Nichols, there were moments of fighting between them as well as plans to run away together.

In addition, they found that Murbarger’s location on the night of Nichols’ disappearance was unknown meaning that he had no alibi.

On Thursday, October 13, 2022, one day after Brodey Murbarger took the stand, the jury reached a guilty verdict after a long two week trial.

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