At his preliminary hearing Friday, prosecutors played an audio recording of Nicholas Myklebust’s frantic attempt to give his wife CPR.

“I just heard a bang and came into the room. Oh my God,” Myklebust said between compressions and breaths. “Oh my God.”

It was just before 7 a.m. on July 29, 2024, and the call came from a modest first-floor apartment at 3247 N. Syracuse St. in Denver.

On Friday, Second Judicial District Judge Martin Egelhoff decided that there was enough physical evidence to bind Myklebust, 45, over for trial on a first-degree murder charge in the alleged beating death of his wife, Seorin Kim. 

Egelhoff described the injuries to Kim’s body as “substantial.” 

“Her entire body was essentially broken,” said Senior Deputy District Attorney Anthony Santos, who said Myklebust cleaned up the scene as his wife lay dying.

Forensic investigators found a bloody glove and paper towels in the bathroom trash can, five clean gloves similar to that one in the dryer, and blood all over the master bedroom.

Egelhoff also found enough probable cause to charge Myklebust with one count of tampering with evidence, noting the gloves that had been washed and dried, multiple traces of blood detected by Luminol and “evidence that a smear of blood had been wiped up,” he said. 

Luminol is a chemical spray often used in crime scenes specifically to detect blood, even if it is invisible to the naked eye. 

Public defender Rebecca Butler-Dines argued that Myklebust could not have had time to murder his wife and clean up the crime scene because the bodies were still warm when paramedics arrived.

“He didn’t do anything other than call 911 and ask what to do,” said Butler-Dines.

The morning that his wife and infant daughter Lesley died, the former Regis College English literature professor told the operator that he found Kim still alive and bleeding on the floor lying on top of his 3-month-old baby girl, who was in a baby carrier. He said that the infant was not breathing.

Denver Police Department homicide investigator Det. Ernest Sandoval testified that Kim had multiple lacerations and bruises, as well as fractures to her face, skull, and ribs as Santos showed him photos.

“Is it fair to say that she had bruising throughout her entire body?” asked Santos.

“It is,” answered Sandoval.

At the crime scene and during interviews at Denver police headquarters, Myklebust denied hurting his wife or daughter.

However, for prosecutors, Myklebust’s story did not add up with the injuries to Kim’s body.

He told investigators that he believed his wife received broken bones and bruises from a fall off of a stepladder, which investigators found in the master bedroom. But the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner determined that Kim’s injuries were not consistent with falling.

Myklebust, wearing a grey sweatshirt, kept his head down during most of the testimony.

Sandoval said that the suspect had scratches on his neck and chest. There was also dried blood on his fingers and the top of his hand, which Myklebust explained came from scratching his psoriasis. He told detectives that he often asked his wife to scratch his rash if he couldn’t do it, Sandoval said.

Kim worked at the FBI. Some of her work colleagues told detectives that they noticed she often wore clothes that covered her arms, legs and neck.

They said that when baby Lesley was first born, Kim stayed inside with the infant when they brought food over for the family.

“They all wanted to see the new baby, but never got a chance,” Sandoval said.

Defense attorneys countered that this could be because the couple didn’t want their infant to be exposed to germs, Butler-Dines said.

Still, neighbors told The Denver Gazette that they rarely saw her and the baby outside — but no one heard a commotion from the couple’s apartment the morning they died.

The neighbor who lived across the hall said that Myklebust jumped rope in the building stairwell every morning at 4:30, but she didn’t hear him the day of the deaths. 

During cross-examination, Myklebust’s attorney Butler-Dines noted that first responders described Myklebust as hysterical and vomiting when they entered the home.

“He sounded distraught?” Butler-Dines asked Sandoval.

“Somewhat,” he answered.

Butler-Dines also noted that there were no fingerprints nor DNA collected on the pane of an unlocked window.

However, Sandoval testified earlier that when investigators arrived, the doors were locked and there was no sign of forced entry. He said the unlocked window’s screen was not damaged.

She also questioned the credibility of Luminol forensics which showed blood all over the house, including on baseboards, cabinets, and the sheets of the master bed, which she said could have been due to postpartum bleeding.

“You don’t know how this invisible presumptive blood got onto the mattress,” Butler-Dines asked. Sandoval admitted that he did not know how or when the blood got there.

Lesley was preceded in death by a baby boy, Bear, who died under questionable circumstances.

In August, the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner revealed that the couple’s first child had died at 9 days old in 2021 after being rushed by ambulance to Children’s Hospital and that the cause of death remains “undetermined.” A Denver prosecutor said that the child had a “cranial fracture” at the time of death in 2021.

Myklebust’s arraignment is scheduled for May 8.