Dateline: Part of the Plan - 5 harrowing details about Nathan Paet's tragic fate, explored

Dateline Season 32, Episode 14, titled, Part of the Plan, followed the tragic murder of Nathan Paet, a US Air Force staff sergeant. The official synopsis of the episode reads:

"A U.S. Air Force Airman is shot; clues lead Las Vegas detectives to a secret love affair."

Nathan seemed to be a complete family man, as Laura Andersen, the detective from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department associated with the case, told Dateline. She mentioned:

“The only thing we could find was that he was a dedicated family man, loved his family and there were nothing but pictures of his wife and kids on his phone. He was just a good guy. He was just a good man.”

However, despite being such a dedicated family guy, someone wanted him dead, and in a shocking turn of events it turned out that it was his wife, Michelle Paet, and her lover, Michael Rodriguez, who had planned Nathan’s gruesome murder.

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5 harrowing details of the Nathan Paet murder case as shown in Dateline

Nathan Paet was shot to death

On December 1, 2010, Nathan was ready to go to work like any other day but as soon as he opened his garage door, 5 shots were fired at him. While being shot, he managed to stumble inside his home, where his wife and children were but unfortunately, he soon collapsed.

His wife Michelle Paet gave a call to 911 and was reported to be saying:

“He’s not talking. His eyes are open ... Oh God. Please.”

Till that point, it was not clear who had fired the shots or who was behind this sudden and violent attack.

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Michelle Paet was having an affair with Michael Rodriguez

While initially, Nathan’s wife pretended to know nothing about the murder or how it happened, eventually, it came to light that she was having an affair with Michael Rodriguez and together they planned to kill Nathan.

Talking about how she heard Nathan being shot, Michelle told the police:

"I hear the garage door open so I lay down, you know, next to my daughter, on the couch. And then I hear two bangs. And I didn’t go outside. Because my kids got startled so I just stayed there.”

However, this statement was proven to be a lie afterward when Michelle’s involvement with Nathan’s murder became clear.

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Nathan was murdered for money

Once it was clear who was behind the murder, the motive became an important question. It was then revealed that Michelle and Michael had plotted to kill Nathan for monetary reasons as they wanted the $650,000 life insurance money from Nathan’s military life insurance policy.

While Michelle insisted that she had tried to stop Michael from carrying out the murder plan, texts between her and Michael suggested otherwise, and according to Tod Williams, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Detective:

“To find out that his own wife had caused that was just almost more than you could bear as a human being.”

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Michelle Paet and Michael Rodriguez were given life sentences

Five years after Nathan’s murder, justice was served as Rodriguez was charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy and was given a lifetime prison sentence without the possibility to get out on parole.

Michelle on the other hand pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and conspiracy and avoided the death sentence. She was also given a lifetime in prison without the chance of getting parole. During her hearing, Michelle said:

“I made a huge mistake, and a really bad choice. And I’m truly sorry.”

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Nathan and Michelle’s children lost both their parents

The four children that Nathan and Michelle had together suffered tragically as they lost both their parents. Their father was dead and their mother was given a lifetime prison sentence, which left them in a vulnerable position.

However, fortunately, the four children—Daynon, Nyarah, Dracyn, and Davyn were taken into custody by Nathan’s family and are now being raised in Nathan’s hometown Guam.

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