Nicholas Kassotis and wife Mindi were on the run – but he was the real threat , making Mindi believe they were hiding from a dangerous person who was after them
In December 2022, a man tracking deer in the woods around Portal Hunting Club in Georgia came across what he thought was a dead hog in a ditch. When he went to look more closely, he was horrified to discover it was the legless and headless torso of a woman, and dialled 911.
Police arrived at the scene and cordoned off the area. Within a three-mile radius they found a knife, a storage box with blood inside, clothing – and a leg. The site was declared a crime scene, and an investigation began.
Over the next few days, more body parts were found, including a head that had been buried. It was a gruesome end for the victim. Her body had been left to decompose and be scavenged by animals.
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It appeared that the woman had been killed a few weeks before, but police were struggling to identify her. They created a composite sketch and released it to the public, but it produced no leads. They compared it to missing person reports, but again, nothing. They then sought the help of a lab specialising in advanced DNA genealogy testing, who were able to create a profile from the victim’s remains. Six months later, in May 2023, police were able to identify the victim.
She was 40-year-old Mindi Mebane Kassotis. She had lived 50 miles from the crime scene, in Savannah, Georgia, with her husband of six years, Nicholas Kassotis, also 40. He was an ex-navy judge advocate general – a military lawyer. After leaving the navy, he had told people he was working for a software company.
When police went to inform Kassotis that his wife was dead, he said he already knew – but couldn’t explain why she was in the woodland. Kassotis went on to concoct an elaborate tale that was like a plot of a thriller movie.
Bizarre story
He said he and Mindi had been living in fear after a man called “Jim McIntyre” told them their lives were in danger from people connected to his job. At first, Kassotis had thought McIntyre was an FBI agent, but then he revealed he was a major investor in the company he worked for. Kassotis said they’d moved around counties, under the advice of McIntyre, who also controlled their bank accounts.
Then he told police Mindi was pregnant and had gone to a “non-traditional” medical clinic because of blood pressure problems. But he couldn’t remember its name or location, and McIntyre had warned Kassotis not to see her for “safety” reasons.
After three days, Kassotis said he’d turned up at the clinic and was told Mindi had died from a stroke, but it was too dangerous for him to see the body. Kassotis had informed Mindi’s family, which is why they hadn’t reported her missing. They had been waiting for details of a funeral that never came and had mourned the loss of Mindi and the baby.
Police found no evidence that McIntyre existed. The autopsy proved Mindi was not pregnant and never had been. But they did find evidence that Kassotis owed his first wife $1.5 million and since Mindi’s death, he had changed his name to Nicholas Stark. Even more shocking, he had already married his third wife, Samantha Kolesnik.
They met when Mindi was still alive, in September 2022. Kassotis told Samantha he was a widower as Mindi and their unborn baby had died. A few months later, Mindi’s body had been found. In early 2023 they got engaged and they married in the April.
Kassotis was arrested and charged with murder, aggravated assault, tampering with evidence and removal of body parts from the scene of death. At the trial this year, he testified and stuck with his story about the mysterious Jim McIntyre. He said he and Mindi had been terrified for their lives and had been on the run, moving at least 50 times in a matter of months.
He said he had got a message from his wife to say she had gone to the medical facility about her blood pressure, but he was warned to stay away. He said for three days Mindi messaged him using an encrypted messaging app, but when he’d gone to pick her up, he was told she was dead.
Kassotis said he had been told to go to Alabama where someone handed over what he believed to be his wife’s ashes, but had received no death certificate, and at the time he didn’t feel that was important. He denied killing Mindi and said he couldn’t have butchered her body as he was “afraid of blood”.
The prosecution said that Kassotis had been moving around, but that was to avoid paying his first wife the court ordered settlement of $1.5 million.
Mindi had told friends and family that she was living in fear, and they had travelled all over, from Virginia to South Carolina. But the prosecution said she had only had Kassotis’s version of events, so probably believed she was in danger – but hadn’t realised she was getting more isolated from her loved ones.
They pointed out that Kassotis had bought a deer processing kit – tools that hunters use to dismember and skin deer. He claimed it was a Christmas gift for his nephew. He’d also bought a shovel, knife sets, gloves and wipes.
There was no trace of a man called Jim McIntyre and evidence proved Kassotis was seeing another woman while married to Mindi. The court heard how Mindi had suffered blows to the head, so hard they had fractured her skull. There were impact wounds to her abdomen, and she had defensive wounds on her arms.
No remorse
Kassotis, 43, was found guilty. Mindi’s family called him a sociopath and a psychopath. They said they are haunted by her death and pointed out that he had shown no remorse.
He was immediately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 25 years. The judge said that Kassotis had created a “web of lies” which included the fictional character, Jim McIntyre.
“You carried out a brutal, horrific, gruesome murder of Mindi,” he said. “All her hopes and dreams were dashed in an instant. You were someone who professed to love her and to care for her, then attacked her and then desecrated her body in such a vile way.”
Mindi spent the final months of her life living in fear, without realising that the real danger came from the man she thought was protecting her.