Hi, I'm Josh Mannequets from Dateline, with a special preview of our new podcast,

Mortal Sin.

It was the morning after Christmas, 1997.

Bremerton, Washington, just across Puget Sound from Seattle. Holiday lights twinkled in the foggy air.

A building contractor named Jeffrey Richardson was up early.

He was headed to his assistance home to pick up some paperwork.

He pulled up to the man's house on Jensen Avenue at about 7 a.m.

As he got out of his truck, Richardson heard a loud crackling noise from somewhere behind him.

Then what sounded like glass breaking. That's when he saw

it. Flames and smoke leaking out of a window at the house across the street. He

banged on the door and yelled fire. There was no response.

Engine three. Engine 3 from the Bremerton Fire Department rolled up in five minutes. Fire firefighters contained the blaze and made their way to the main bedroom.

It had been completely scorched. The ceiling joists were black with soot and ash,

and they were starting to collapse into the room.

On the charred bed, investigators saw a body in a sleeping position.

At about 10.15 a.m. a 27 year old man named Nick Hackney arrived.

He identified himself as a pastor from a church on nearby Bainbridge Island and said

he'd been on a hunting trip earlier that morning. Nick looked at the smoking wreck of a home and told a cop, that's my house.

And then he heard the grim news.

There was a body in the bedroom.

Nick Hackney put his head in his hands.

And then he said he knew who it probably was.

...