Thanksgiving Day 2012: How Byron Smith Executed Two Teen Burglars
10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories
Joe
4.9 • 638 Ratings
🗓️ 26 November 2025
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Byron David Smith, a 64-year-old retired security engineer, shot and killed teenagers Nicholas Brady and Haile Kifer during a home invasion in Little Falls, Minnesota on Thanksgiving Day 2012. The double homicide investigation revealed audio recordings Smith made of the entire incident, leading to his arrest, trial, and conviction for first-degree premeditated murder. Forensic evidence and witness testimony showed Smith had prepared an ambush in his basement after multiple prior burglaries of his property.
Smith had been burglarized before. His father's POW watch was gone. Four thousand dollars in cash, stolen. By Thanksgiving 2012, he was exhausted, paranoid, wearing a gun around his own house. When two teenagers broke into his basement that day, Smith was ready. He'd moved his truck to make the house look empty. He had two guns. And he turned on his audio recorder. What that recording captured over the next twenty minutes would become the most damning evidence in Minnesota legal history. This case redrew the line between the Castle Doctrine and cold-blooded execution, and Smith documented every second of his own downfall.
#ByronSmith #LittleFallsMurders #TrueCrimePodcast #CastleDoctrine #SelfDefenseGoneWrong #MinnesotaMurder #ThanksgivingMurders
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to 10-minute murder. |
| 0:08.0 | 64 years old, retired security engineer been burglarized so many times that he's sleeping with a gun. |
| 0:14.0 | Then on Thanksgiving 2012, two teenagers break into his basement. |
| 0:19.0 | Byron Smith was ready. He'd moved his truck to make the house |
| 0:23.2 | look empty. He was armed with two guns, and he turned on his audio recorder. What that recording |
| 0:29.8 | captured would seal his fate for life. Brian Smith was 64 years old in 2012, retired from the U.S. State Department where he'd worked as a security engineer, setting up security at American embassies in places like Bangkok, Cairo, and Beijing. |
| 1:09.1 | That professional background becomes crucial because the prosecution would argue that someone with his expertise couldn't claim pure panic. |
| 1:16.6 | Smith had real reasons to be scared. |
| 1:19.6 | In the months before Thanksgiving 2012, his house in Little Falls, Minnesota got hit repeatedly. |
| 1:25.6 | Thieves took $4,000 in cash. His video camera, |
| 1:29.9 | chainsaw, gold coins, but losing his father's POW watch devastated him. Irreplaceable sentimental value. |
| 1:37.8 | Something deeply personal gets violated when a thief takes that from you. Neighbors testified |
| 1:42.8 | Smith looked terrified in those final weeks, |
| 1:45.6 | sleep deprived, even, visibly upset. He started wearing a holstered gun around his own house. |
| 1:51.5 | He began stashing water bottles and gnolla bars in the basement, preparing for an extended |
| 1:56.2 | standoff. These actions became legally significant because they show preparation rather than spontaneous reaction. |
| 2:03.8 | Nicholas Brady and Haley Kiefer were cousins. Brady was 17. Haley was 18. Police had linked |
| 2:11.7 | Brady to at least two prior burglaries of Smith's property. Brady stole that cash, the video camera, the chainsaw. |
| 2:19.2 | Brady had an accomplice named Cody Casper, who'd actually done odd jobs for Smith. |
| 2:24.2 | Yard work, cleaning up around the property, those types of things. |
| 2:27.6 | These teens had insider knowledge about what Smith owned and where he kept them. |
| 2:31.9 | The day before Thanksgiving, Brady and Kiefer got connected to another burglary where they stole prescription medications. |
... |
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