Within the early morning hours of Dec. 16, 2022, St. Paul, Minnesota, murder detectives Abby DeSanto and Jennifer O’Donnell have been known as to a downtown condominium constructing to analyze a reported suicide. A 32-year-old girl named Alexandra Pennig had been discovered useless in her toilet with a single gunshot wound to the top.
For the detectives, what actually occurred to Pennig is one thing that also haunts them to at the present time. And it is the query on the heart of “The Unusual Capturing of Alex Pennig,” reported by “48 Hours” contributor Natalie Morales. An encore of the episode is streaming on Paramount+.
Terri Randall/Mary Jo Pennig
When detectives DeSanto and O’Donnell arrived on the condominium, they came upon Pennig had not been alone on the time of her demise. A person named Matthew Ecker was additionally there. Ecker and Pennig have been each nurses and had met two years earlier once they labored on the identical clinic. Ecker instructed first responders the gun was his, and that Pennig had grabbed it, locked herself within the toilet, after which fired the shot. “I assumed all the things was advantageous,” he stated. “After which she simply grabbed the gun.” Ecker instructed first responders that after he heard the shot he instantly broke open the lavatory door: “I attempted to do what I may. After which I washed my fingers … That is why I haven’t got something on my fingers.” Ecker stated he then known as 911. However it was too late. He stated he did not know why Pennig would do that.
In Pennig’s condominium, there was alcohol and 6 bottles of prescription remedy, together with antidepressants, all prescribed to Pennig. For the detectives, it recommended Alex may need been depressed, they usually puzzled if Ecker’s story that she took her personal life was true.
However in addition they observed one thing that appeared to contradict Ecker’s story. He had stated he washed his fingers within the toilet sink earlier than calling 911, however DeSanto recalled the primary responders instructed her the sink was dry. “The sink was dry. If he had stated, you recognize, he known as the police immediately, that sink most likely would’ve been nonetheless moist,” DeSanto defined, “but it surely was very dry in there.”
When O’Donnell appeared into Pennig’s background, she discovered from Alex’s mother and father that Alex had struggled up to now with despair and habit. “I had requested, um, if she had been suicidal up to now, um, and pa stated, she had, um, tried, uh, to overdose earlier than,” stated O’Donnell. Based on Alex’s father, Jim Pennig, a number of years prior, Alex had taken a handful of drugs “after which had instructed her mother that she was making an attempt suicide.” After that, Alex’s mother and father instructed the detectives they despatched her to rehab, and he or she ultimately received clear. Regardless of her previous struggles, Alex’s mother and father instructed O’Donnell that they had simply seen her at Thanksgiving. And her mother, Mary Jo Pennig, had simply talked to her that night. “She was doing nicely,” she stated. For them, the concept their daughter had died by suicide didn’t make sense. “Realizing your child, it did not match,” Mary Jo Pennig stated.
Since Ecker was the final individual to see Alex Pennig alive, the detectives zeroed in on him. “He is the one one that may inform us what occurred. He was the one one which was there,” stated O’Donnell. They questioned Ecker about what had occurred that evening. He stated he and Alex Pennig had gone out to a number of native bars, and once they arrived again at her place, all the things was advantageous: “We have been laughing on the way in which house,” stated Ecker. DeSanto requested him if, as soon as they received into the condominium, that they had gotten right into a battle. Ecker stated they didn’t.
DET. ABBY DESANTO: You guys weren’t arguing or something?
MATTHEW ECKER: No.
DET. ABBY DESANTO: There is no battle with you two?
MATTHEW ECKER: Not between us.
For hours, Ecker continued to say Pennig had locked herself within the toilet, fired the shot after which he broke open the door to attempt to assist her: “That gun went off behind a closed door … I didn’t shoot her.“
Ramsey County District Courtroom 
However the detectives had their doubts. Then they received a name from the forensic unit that was nonetheless processing the scene. And in keeping with O’Donnell, what they discovered modified all the things. “As soon as Alex was moved, they discovered beneath the place Alex had been laying was a spherical metallic piece,“ she stated. It was the form of a hoop, and concerning the dimension of 1 / 4. O’Donnell stated it was a part of the lock from the lavatory door, and the truth that it had been found underneath Pennig was key. “For us, it meant that the door was pressured open earlier than she was shot.”
The detectives felt the invention of the metallic ring proved Ecker had lied and had not damaged the door open after he heard the shot. The detectives suspected Pennig and Ecker had argued and that she had locked the lavatory door to get away from him. Then Ecker broke open the door, the metallic half broke off and fell to the bottom, after which he shot Pennig and he or she landed on prime of it.
Ecker was charged with second-degree homicide. In February 2024 he was convicted and later sentenced to 30 years.
