Couple Charged With Faking Man’s Death

FBI agents arrested a couple Wednesday and charged them with faking the man’s drowning in a failed effort to collect a $1-million insurance policy.

The charges stem from the short-lived disappearance of Derek Nicholson, whose common-law wife, Nikole Nagle, reported him missing on a Long Branch beach July 26, four days after the policy was issued.

A Coast Guard water search failed to find Nicholson, 30.

Nagle, 25, had the couple’s third child on July 30, and two days later she contacted State Farm Insurance Co. to try to collect on her husband’s life insurance.

She was told, however, that it would take years before payment could be made without the body, according to the Coast Guard complaint against the couple.

On Aug. 4, Nicholson turned up in New York City, telling police that he was suffering from amnesia and did not know how he got there, the complaint said.

Questions about Nicholson’s disappearance arose shortly after he appeared outside a Manhattan office building. Authorities noted that Nicholson was wearing only cut-off jeans when he disappeared, but was fully dressed in blue jeans, a black sweater and black shoes when he was found.

Coast Guard Special Agent Ronald F. Volk said his examination of cellphone records shows that the couple were in touch with each other after she had given birth.

The records also appear to show that on Aug. 2, a day after Nagle spoke to State Farm, Nicholson called law enforcement officers in Sea Bright to report sighting a body and giving a description that matched his own.

Nicholson and Nagle were arrested without incident at their home in Tinton Falls, FBI Special Agent Steve Kodak said.

Following a brief court appearance, Nagle was ordered released on $100,000 bond set by U.S. Magistrate Patty Shwartz.

Nicholson, however, was held without bail pending a hearing scheduled for Friday, after Assistant U.S. Atty. Karl H. Buch said Nicholson posed a risk of flight. Nicholson is not working, has few ties to the community and is a suspect, but not charged, in an April 16 armed robbery in Bordentown, Buch said.

Both were represented at the hearing by Assistant Federal Public Defender John H. Yauch, who said that the court would appoint a separate lawyer for Nagle. Yauch said he could not comment further.

Nicholson and Nagle were charged with conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and wire fraud, each of which carries up to five years in prison.