it's like another nightmare on top of the first nightmare. >> this was a case where i think the family would have been more than happy to believe that carol is still out there somewhere, she's not dead, and their beloved son-in-law is not a killer. >> reporter: but of all mike sr.'s family members, perhaps no one was as torn as his name sake first born son, mike jr., who loved his father unreservedly. followed him into the family painting business, worked side by side with him for decades, and who had confessed to detectives that, like his aunt terri, he too had doubts about his father. doubts that had taken root shortly after mike sr.'s second wife left him. >> he talked about my stepmother constantly, for years, nonstop. >> and why was that so significant to you? >> because he never talked about my mother.