>> reporter: dawn. dawn oxley. ben oxley's ex-wife, alyssa's mother. even as more than a few local gossipers pointed suspicious fingers at melissa, ben's best friends told each other -- >> everything in me said that dawn had something to do with that. >> reporter: of course, just a few years back that sort of thinking would have been unimaginable to dawn and ben's best friends scott and cindy graham. not dawn. dawn, the force of nature, the center of any room she was in. >> i don't know if it's manipulating or what, but everybody agreed with dawn. as long as dawn was happy, then we're all happy. >> reporter: but after five years of marriage, neither ben nor dawn was happy. and the marriage went up in flames. >> ben had cheated on dawn. i could see that. this probably wasn't going to be something that she was ever going to get over. >> reporter: dawn changed after that, said cindy, didn't seem to want to act like a parent anymore.