When 32-year-old nurse Alex Pennig was found dead inside the bathroom of her St. Paul apartment, the man who called 911, Matthew Ecker, insisted she had taken her own life behind a locked door. Alex had struggled with depression and addiction in the past, and at first, there were details that seemed to support his story. But the scene inside the bathroom told a much more complicated story.

Investigators found a strangely clean gun resting on Alex’s chest, almost no blood on Matthew despite his claims that he had tried to save her, and a bathroom door that didn’t seem to fit his version of events. Matthew’s explanation of what happened also began to change. Then, underneath Alex’s head, investigators discovered a tiny piece of metal from the bathroom door’s locking mechanism, which was the evidence they believed showed the door had been forced open before Alex was shot.

We cover Alex’s life and the struggles she worked so hard to overcome, her complicated relationship with Matthew, the final hours before her death, the inconsistencies investigators found inside her apartment, and the small piece of evidence that helped reveal what really happened behind that bathroom door.

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Sources:

1. Alexandra PENNIG Obituary (2023) - Lindstrom, MN - Pioneer Press

2. State of Minnesota, Respondent, vs. Matthew Phillip Ecker, Appellant

3. The Strange Shooting of Alex Pennig | Full Episode + Post Mortem

4. Matthew Ecker Murder Sentence Longer Than Expected | Fergus Now

5. Fergus Falls Man Charged with 2nd Degree Murder in St Paul

6. Staged Suicide | Matthew Ecker Interrogation

7. A Minnesota woman is fatally shot in her bathroom. Who pulled the trigger? - CBS News

8. How a small piece of a bathroom door lock helped solve the murder of a Minnesota nurse - CBS News

9. Where is Matthew Ecker’s Family Now?

10. https://coms.doc.state.mn.us/publicviewer/OffenderDetails/Index/268547/Search

11. Tracking the hours before a young Minnesota woman became a murder victim - CBS News

12. ER practitioner gets 30 years for murdering girlfriend, staging suicide in her downtown St. Paul apartment

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