20/20 Tonight

Who Is Nikki Entzel & Where Is She Now? 2025 Update & Background

by · December 25, 2025

Nikki Sue Entzel lived in Bismarck, North Dakota, with her husband, Chad Entzel, and her two sons from previous relationships. Friends described her as someone who enjoyed running a small baking business and taking part in family routines. Outward appearances suggested a blended household trying to build a stable life outside the city.

Behind that image, investigators found strain within the marriage. Communication problems and financial pressures created tension at home. These issues formed part of the backdrop as authorities pieced together events surrounding Chad’s death in January 2020.

A Secret Relationship and Growing Suspicion

During the investigation, detectives learned that Nikki had begun a relationship with Earl Howard, a married man from Canada. Surveillance footage put the pair together at hotels, stores, and around town. Investigators said the two spoke about plans that extended beyond North Dakota and included dreams of a new future.

As police questioned Nikki, her accounts shifted. She told officers different versions of where she had been on the night Chad died. At one point she said she was at the house. In another interview she claimed she was out walking from a hotel in the middle of the night. These contradictions drew more attention and pushed investigators to dig deeper into her actions and motives.

The Investigation Focuses on Conspiracy

Evidence gathered at the Entzel home changed the direction of the case. Chad had been shot and the fire inside the house had been set in two separate locations. A K-9 detected accelerant. Investigators determined that the fire had been staged to hide a homicide.

Prosecutors later argued that Nikki and Howard planned to profit from insurance and start a life together. Digital records and video footage supported the theory of coordination. Separate interviews produced conflicting narratives about who fired the gun, but investigators believed the planning had involved both defendants.

Trial, Verdict, and Sentence

Earl Howard entered a guilty plea to conspiracy charges connected to murder and arson. He received a 25-year prison sentence. A murder charge against him was dropped when testing on the gun did not resolve who had pulled the trigger.

Nikki went to trial. A jury convicted her of conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit arson, and conspiracy to tamper with physical evidence. In February 2023, a judge sentenced her to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The court ordered that she must serve more than 36 years before becoming eligible for release.

Where Nikki Entzel Is Now

Nikki is serving her sentence in the North Dakota state prison system. Her case did not end at sentencing. Her legal team filed paperwork to begin an appeal. In 2023, the North Dakota Supreme Court reviewed her arguments and upheld the conviction, stating that the jury had adequate evidence to infer guilt.

From prison, Nikki took part in an interview for ABC’s 20/20 episode “The Last Strike.” She denied involvement in Chad’s murder and continued to insist she did not know what happened inside the home that night. Despite those statements, her conviction stands, and she remains incarcerated under a life sentence with parole eligibility far in the future.

Nikki Entzel’s story now sits at the center of a case that reshaped lives in Bismarck. The investigation, trial, and appeals process left a record of a marriage broken by deception, a plot that turned deadly, and a legal outcome that placed responsibility on her role in the conspiracy.

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Ryan Gill

Ryan is a passionate follower of true crime television programs, reporting on and providing in-depth investigations on mysteries in the criminal world.

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