i will do this to -- to free our dad of these accusations. >> reporter: on a beautiful blue sky day, the remains of elizabeth ratliff were exhumed from their resting place in texas. >> ratliff's bodies -- >> reporter: julia sims, of nbc's raleigh-durham affiliate, wral-tv, has been covering the story since the beginning. >> and the bells started tolling right as they started pulling that casket out of the -- the ground. >> hmm. >> a lot of people were very antsy about that, about what they were gonna find. >> reporter: her body was driven to north carolina where it would be studied by the same medical examiner who'd ruled kathleen peterson's death a homicide. >> there was a risk here wasn't there? if you opened that coffin and found that the authorities in germany had been correct in ruling it a death by natural causes. >> we just decided that it needed to be done. >> roll the dice, basically. >> exactly. >> reporter: the detective peered through a morgue window as the top was pried off elizabeth ratliff's coffin. >> it was so airtight it was