Transcripts For MSNBCW Dateline 20190623

He was such a nice guy that you would have never guessed that he wouldve done Something Like that. You think he faked that burglary and killed his wife . Yes. He wanted the house. He wanted her money. And if he divorced her, he lost everything. 911. I need an ambulance now. Reporter february 2009, coldwater, michigan. Whats the problem . My wife your wife . Yes reporter in one day, one moment is she breathing . No shes gone shes gone. Reporter the innocent simple life tom foley and his family once lived was gone forever. Oh, my god no oh, my god 27 seconds. Gives it off to foley. Reporter it was a moment tom foley never would have imagined 23 years earlier. Back then, number 30 going to be 15 seconds left exactly. Reporter scored the winning basket giving Coldwater High School the regional title. Its good he hit it with five seconds to play. Reporter and earning young tom a place in coldwaters Basketball Hall of fame. I get goose bumps talking about it. Like victory was snatched from the jaus of defeat, and he came through with it. To what extent were you sort of known around here for being the kid who hit the gamewinning shot . That went on for a long time. Maybe someone might come up, hey, tom, remember when you hit that shot . I say, of course i remember. In 1991, the Hometown Hero started dating another local standout named darlene weber. Dar, as she was known, had a personality as big as her smile. The first time i saw her, she was playing softball, of course, and she had on these lime green rec specs, so she looked a little funny. But when she took them off, i thought she was beautiful. It was a classic case of opposites attracting. I think we both went into the relationship knowing that we really loved spending time with one another. Tom was the laidback, easygoing type. Dar an Elementary School teacher was more type a, and she didnt hide what she was thinking. She had opinions, and shed let those be known. Its one of the reasons i loved her. I still love her today. Still, when dars sisters, la donna, lynn and marla learned that dar and tom intended to marry, they were left scratching their heads. My famous saying was, theres got to be something wrong with tom for him to stay with dar. Because you couldnt do it. No. No. You couldnt be around somebody who was, what, that much the center of attention . No. Telling you what to do. That controlling. Dar was not a domesticated person either. The foleys were married in 1994, and right from the start, dar took the lead. Fair to say she wore the pants in that house . Id say probably 75 , 80 of the time she did. She was the breadwinner . Yes. You stayed home and took care of your son . I did. Heath was tom and dars only child and the center of their lives. And we just loved being together. We were always together. And so the three foleys lived on the outskirts of coldwater in an Old Farmhouse they called the heath bar farm. A picture perfect family until that winter day back in 2009. What was the last thing you said to her . I said, i love you, and ill see you later. On that day, the foleys were preparing to celebrate heaths tenth birthday at a friends house just down the road. Dar still needed to shower, so tom, heath and a friend of heaths left without her. The plan was for dar to follow in her own car and meet them all at the party later that afternoon. But dar never arrived. That gave you some sort of sixth sense that something was wrong. Yes. She was always on time or early to events. So tom left the party and headed back home in search of his wife. Our kitchen back door was open, and i noticed that the glass was broken and there was glass all over our kitchen floor. So i looked through the rest of the house for her and ended up finding her in our bathroom. Shed been shot in the head with a shotgun at point blank range. Tom immediately called for help. Whats the problem . My wife is in the shower. Shes just laying there in the blood. First responders rushed to the foley farm. When Michigan State Police Detective james carbon arrived on the scene, he knew he was in for a long night. We dont have a lot of homicides that happen in and around branch county. Because of her position as a school teacher, just for the number of people that knew her, that put it in a much more serious type investigation. Detective carbon and his team of state troopers scoured the crime scene, taking pictures and seizing evidence of what appeared to be a home burglary gone wrong. The first clue . The broken glass coming from the kitchen door window. It appeared that a beer bottle was used to break that particular window. According to tom, jewelry and credit cards were missing. The family desk had also been disturbed and financial documents inside were gone. And then there was the medicine cabinet. Looked like somebody had gone in and basically scooped a shelf off the medicine cabinet and its contents. Like maybe they were looking for prescription drugs . Potentially. But to detective carbon, the items missing werent nearly as telling as what was left behind. Expensive electronics were left untouched as was dars purse sitting on a hallway chair. It just didnt make a lot of sense. Neither did the use of a shotgun. Its large, potentially bulky. If youre going in to break into something, you have to carry whatever you steal out with this shotgun that you brought also. It wasnt until the next day that police found their first significant piece of evidence, evidence that led the investigation in a whole new direction. Down in the foleys dusty basement was a suspiciously dustfree yellow plastic bag. In terms of treating sensitivity, 3 days is really fast. The dentist is going to be able to provide that to their patients. Sensodyne rapid relief in my opinion is a game changer. Its going to let the dentist offer their patient sensitivity relief in 3 days. It has a formulation that lays down a barrier of protection against sensitivity. Within 3 days, say over the course of a weekend youre going to start feeling significant results. To say that it works in 3 days really is a big deal. Of a lifetime. Its progressive on ice. Everything you love about Car Insurance the discounts. The rate comparisons. And flo in a boat. Insurance adventure awaits at progressive on ice. Tickets not available now or ever. At progressive on ice. With advil liquigels, what stiff joints . What bad back . Advil is. Relief thats fast. Strength that lasts. Youll ask. What pain . With advil liquigels. No matter how much you clean, does your house still smell stuffy . Thats because your home is filled with soft surfaces that trap odors and release them back into the room. So, try febreze fabric refresher. Febreze finds odors trapped in fabrics and cleans them away as it dries. Use febreze every time you tidy up to keep your whole house smelling fresh air clean. Fabric refresher even works for clothes you want to wear another day. Make febreze part of your clean routine for whole home freshness. Bills back needed a afvacation from his vacation. An amusement park. So he stepped on the dr. Scholls kiosk. It recommends our best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain. So you can move more. Dr. Scholls. Born to move. The funeral for dar foley was held on the 13th, friday the 13th. Those unlucky enough to be sharing their grief over the woman theyd loved and lost poured into Union City High school auditorium. No church, it turned out, was big enough to accommodate the more than 400 people who came to honor and remember dar. She was so full of life, and she he had a lot more to give. We cant bring her back. Your wifes been killed and youve got a 10yearold son. Yeah. What did you tell him . I told him that someone had hurt mommy. And he goes, is she in heaven . And i said yes. It seemed that no one in coldwater could comprehend what had happened, including steve and joanie pierce, Close Friends of both tom and dar who learned of the murder from tom himself. I said, the three of you were always together, and he was crying, and he said, i know, i know. I should have been there for her. And then i said, if you would have been, the three of you would be dead now instead of just dar. But just 24 hours into the investigation, detective jim carbon had almost abandoned the theory that this was a random act of violence. It appeared to me that this was a staged break and intering to hide a homicide that took place. But according to detective carbon, whoever staged the burglary didnt factor in the weather that day. It got really warm. We had a huge snow meltoff. The ground around the farmhouse was unusually wet and muddy. So you would expect that there would be muddy footprints from inside the residence where somebody would come through that door . Absolutely. Was there any footprints, anything . There was nothing. But it was the yellow bag found in the basement, the bag containing shotgun shells, that interested carbon the most. Downstairs in the basement we found a dunhams bag that had in shotgun shells in it. Okay. Did you ever see that before . No. The foleys didnt own a shotgun as far as we know . Thats correct. Carbon sent the bag to the lab for analysis. What technicians found on the bag surprised even this veteran detective. Toms fingerprint was on the bag. Yes. Suddenly detective carbon felt he needed to take a closer look at tom foley and his seemingly pictureperfect marriage. I think they did a lot of things together, however, i dont consider them the pictureperfect couple. Neither did dars sister lynn, in whom dar once confided. She said, tom doesnt love me anymore. Hes leaving me. Hes going through his change of life, you know. His midlife crisis. Yes. Dars sisters were becoming increasingly suspicious, especially, they said, after watching toms behavior at dars funeral. It was almost like he was relieved. There were a number of people that came up to me after the service that were really offended by his demeanor, his joyfulness. These are things that ive heard. And its ridiculous. I mean, taking care of heath was on my mind. Wondering who killed my wife was on my mind. They dont know the things that ive been through. Maybe so, but detective carbon was with keeping a very watchful eye on tom foley. He decided to interview the other foley who was at the farm the day dar was killed, tom and dars son, heath. Heath, like i told you, im detective sergeant carbon. On that day, heath and his friend skyler watty were inside the house playing video games, waiting to be driven to heaths birthday celebration. Did you see anything different or out of the ordinary or anybody walking around, anybody come up to the door, anything that you could think of . Not really. Okay. The detective also interviewed skyler watty who said right before leaving for the party tom sent the two boys outside to go start up the truck. He said that hell be out there in a little bit. Okay. I dont know what he was doing in there, taking a shower or what. Like heath, skyler couldnt recall anything unusual about that day either. And then suddenly yeah. When we were outside during across the barn there was like a big crash, like way in the back of the house. Like what did it sound like . It sounded like breaking glass and a bunch of things falling. Like a vase just it was a loud sound. Yeah. Detective carbon showed skyler a drawing of the foley farm and ask skyler to place an x where he believes the sound originated. Like somewhere around here . Skyler placed the x just outside the first floor bathroom, the same room where dar foley had been shot. It appeared to us that skyler watty may have heard the shotgun blast that killed dar foley. Detective carbon was also thinking this. The one other person in that house at that time was tom foley. Coming up he wanted the house. He wanted her money. And if he divorced her, he lost everything. Was that a motive . And was tom foley the killer . At comcast, we didnt build the nations largest gigspeed network just to make businesses run faster. We built it to help them go beyond. Because beyond risk. Welcome to the neighborhood, guys. There is reward. Beyond work and life. Who else could he be . There is the moment. Beyond technology. There is human ingenuity. Every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected, to do the extraordinary. Take your business beyond. From the mouths of babes. Or in this case one articulate 10yearold boy, came what seemed like a casebreaking revelation. It was like a loud, loud sound. Detective carbon believed 10yearold skyler watty was an earwitness to the shotgun blast that killed dar foley. If true, it meant dar was murdered earlier than originally thought. More significantly, it wasnt tom foley was still in the house when the murder occurred. That lead was huge. It was very, very important. But if tom foley was in that house and pulled the trigger, the question remained why. The answer, said carbon, is quite simple. Murder for money. Potentially, yes. Money, in the form of an insurance policy. I think that he wanted out of the marriage and did whatever he needed to do to make sure that that happened. And if he got 310,000 in insurance money and got out of the marriage, so much the better . Yes. The evidence against tom foley was circumstantial but compelling. You think he faked that burglary . Yes. And killed his wife . Yes. They never found the murder weapon. What do you think happened to the gun . I wish i knew. But even without it, in march of 2009, one month after dar foley was gunned down in her shower, state Police Arrested tom foley and charged him with his wifes murder. And i just what . Why . I was, like, this could not be happening. Why do you think i did this . I did not kill my wife. To tom and dars Close Friends, the pierces, news of toms arrest was almost as stunning as the news of dars death. Could you conceive of tom either hating his wife so much that he wanted to kill her absolutely not. Or killing her for the insurance money . Absolutely not. That would be stupid. She made the money. Why kill the golden goose . Do you think they had a good marriage . I do. Everything seemed to be going really good for them. It seemed sadistic, shooting your wife at pointblank range, killing the mother of your son on the very day he was celebrating his tenth birthday. He never would have done that to his son. Police continued gathering evidence. Ten days after toms arrest, Police Brought heath foley in for a second interview. And this time heath did recall hearing a noise that day. Skyler talks about hearing this unusual sound. Do you remember anything like that . Our neighbors, like, shoot guns. Like maybe a gunshot or maybe like glass broke. I dont know. It was one of those two things maybe. According to tom, the sound he heard was nothing more than glass breaking. Theyre old barn windows that i was trying to clean up and i went to grab them and one of them slipped out of my grip and it smashed on our back porch steps. And made a lot of noise. Yeah, it did. Yep. But detective carbon wasnt buying toms explanation. The boys were playing over by this barn . Yes. And how far is that to the house . Its approximately 75 yards. Mr. Foley claimed he with was dropping a window. Would that sound have penetrated that far . In my opinion, that couldnt have happened. Police also say they carefully searched that area around the back porch. There was no glass that we could see when we looked at the scene on that particular night as well as the next day. For dars sisters, the writing was by now on the wall. They were certain of their brotherinlaws guilt. We went over every case we could come up with to not make it tom. I think tom resented dar and that he couldnt be a man. I think it kind of ate at him, and he couldnt take it anymore. People get divorced for that reason. He didnt divorce her because hes a selfish coward. He wanted heath. He wanted the house. He wanted her money. And if he divorced her, he lost everything. In november 2009, tom foleys trial began. The prosecution argued that only tom had a motive to kill dar. But the defense claimed police had rushed to judgment. Defense attorney tom schafer and defense investigator ken kobersteen. In their mind, its always the boyfriend or the husband. Or the person who finds the body. Which in this case was the husband and tom. They wanted me bad because whats easier for them, to go after someone that they can actually physically see or go after someone they cannot physically see . Whats wrong with the idea that the money was a motive . Absolutely not. I mean, we had a mortgage. To move on after all of this, it was going to take a hell of a lot more than that. After two weeks of testimony, the jury had its verdict. I felt that the evidence was going to prove that theres absolutely no way i had anything to do with this. 12 jurors didnt share that feeling. We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of firstdegree murder. I was just what . I was just shocked. What was wrong with the jury . What do they know what i dont know . How could they convict a man on what they had . I knew what a conviction was meant for me, and for life without the possibility of parole. My sister was still dead. Still didnt bring her back. But you had a little bit of faith in the justice system. In the hours following the verdict, it seemed everyone in coldwater was relying on faith. I said to myself, god isnt going to let me go to prison for the rest of my life. Something had to turn around. Then, less than 24 hours after the verdict, tom foleys defense team got a phone call from a woman. This is a woman who essentially says, i saw the murderer, and it wasnt tom foley. Coming up theres the killer right there. She saw him. A bombshell from out of the blue. Was there hope for a newly convicted husband . With this one little nexgard chew comes power, confidence, reassurance youre doing whats right to protect your dog from fleas and ticks for a full month. This one little nexgard chew is the 1 vet recommended protection. And its the only chew fda approved to prevent infections that cause lyme disease. Plus, its safe for puppies. Theres a lot of power in this one little nexgard chew. Nexgard. What one little chew can do. Necalyoure gonna love this. Rs. New coppertone sport clear. Not thick, not hot, not messy, just clear, cool, protected. Coppertone sport clear. Proven to protect. Foley, baseline jumper, 18. He hits it with five seconds. 24 years after the onetime Hometown Hero named tom foley made coldwater history, the nowconvicted murderer of the same name sat behind bars awaiting his sentence. You ready to spend the rest of your life if prison . No, absolutely not. To tom foleys attorney Tom Schaeffer and his private eye ken kobersteen, the guilty verdict landed like a crushing blow. This is a grassroot who done it, and we thought we had shown that it wasnt this person who had done it. I was devastated. When this ended i could have walked into a wall. But just one day after tom foleys conviction, a woman stepped forward. She had new information that suddenly gave new life to toms defense. She came forward and said, i saw this white car storming out of the driveway, almost hit me. It looked like somebody was either high or running away from something. The woman was certain the driver was coming out of the heath bar farm right around the time dar was murdered. And she was equally certain the driver looked nothing like tom foley. Theres the killer, right there. She saw a person leaving our property. And then, like a dam breaking, two other witnesses came forward, each having seen a mysterious car of their own either parked on the foley property or speeding away from it. All the sightings were within two hours of dars murder. Its just like one after another, and i was saying, what is going on . Where were these people, you know, before . The judge who was about to sentence tom foley to life wanted to hear what these new witnesses had to say. And after a year of appeals that went all the way to the state supreme court, tom foley was granted something most people convicted of murder never receive a second chance. I was walking through the chow hall in prison, and somebody said, hey, tom, i saw you on the news. I said, really . What for . They gave you a new trial. I said, what . News of a new trial didnt change the minds of dars family. They remained convinced not only did tom kill dar, he did so on the day of his sons tenth birthday celebration. You think toms coldblooded enough to do Something Like that to his kid . Yes. Yes. I think theres evil in him. Prosecutor terri norris agreed. Who killed dar foley . Tom foley. There is nobody else. A year and a half after tom foleys conviction, both sides filed back into the courthouse to once again determine toms fate. Circuit court is again in session. As before, the state opened its case with the crime scene analysts. What is it that you found in the basement . On the yellow dunhams bag located inside the bag was three shotgun shells. These are phone records norris also showed the jury the foleys home phone records from around the time dar was killed. There were no phone calls that either came in or left. Your wife doesnt show up somewhere, why not call and say, have you left yet . Were waiting for you. Thats what i would do. According to detective carbon, tom didnt bother calling dar at home because he knew dar was already dead. Then members of dars family stepped forward to testify that tom and dars marriage was troubled and that tom wanted out. He told me that his wife is very controlling and that that was wearing on him and he did not necessarily want to stay in the marriage anymore. And there was more evidence of an unhappy marriage. According to this woman, back in 2006, tom had a wandering eye. Please state your full name for the record and spell your last name. Caroline zuk. Carrie zuk taught at the same school as dar and was known at school as dee dee. Thats how carrie met tom. He told me that he was thinking about leaving dee dee. According to carrie, tom also revealed he had feel also for her and later he tried to kiss her. What was your reaction to that . I didnt want anything to do with it. The prosecution wasnt done. This woman took the stand. Please state your full name for the record and spell your last name. Marianne victorian crandall. Out of the presence of the jury, Marianne Crandall told the court that, like carrie zuk, she met tom through dar, and a couple of weeks after dars murder, marianne stopped by the farm to offer tom support. I dont mean to embarrass you, but you had sex with tom in his living room . He tried to. And it was stopped. Who tried and who stopped . He tried, and we both stopped. You dont have a sexual relationship with somebody within two weeks after your wifes been murdered in that house. But the jury never heard Marianne Crandalls testimony because there was no indication of a romantic relationship prior to dars murder, the judge ruled, just as he did in first trial, that her testimony was prejudicial and, therefore, inadmissible. It was a huge blow to the prosecutions case. It supports the position that they werent this deeply in love couple that he kept trying to present. I mean, that would have proven that. But norris still had her two key witnesses, toms own son heath and heaths friend skyler watty, both two years older and now more certain than ever about what they saw and heard the day dar was killed. Last year at church camp i went for one of our activities. We fired shotguns, and it most resembled that sound. Then it was time for heath to take the stand. The last time tom had seen his boy was at a hearing, also in court, almost a year earlier. While youre in the barn, do you hear something . Yes. I thought it was maybe skyler kind of ran into a wall, either that or a gunshot. You think the boys actually were, if not eyewitnesses then earwitnesses to murder. Earwitnesses to what happened. Tom schafer knew if he had any hope of getting tom foley acquitted, hed need to prove the sound those boys heard was anything other than a gunshot. Just two weeks before trial began, while inspecting crime scene photos, schafer found what may be the key to his clients freedom. And i says, ken, is that what i think it is . It was one of these, holy crap it was to us just a perry mason moment. My gums are irritated. I dont have to worry about that, do i . Actually, you do. Harmful bacteria lurk just below the gum line, and if youre not taking care of your gums, youre not taking care of your mouth. So now i use this. Crest gum detoxify. Crest gum detoxify, voted product of the year. It works below the gum line and is clinically proven to neutralize harmful plaque bacteria and help reverse early gum damage. Gum detoxify, from crest. Gums are good. So is my check up crest. Healthy, beautiful smiles for life. That i won the best of i casweepstakes it. And i get to be in this geico commercial . Lets do the eyebrows first, just tease it a little. Slather it all over, dont hold back. Well, the squirrels followed me all the way out to california and theres a very strange badger staring at me. No, i cant believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my Car Insurance with geico. Uhhuh, wheres the camel . Mr. Big shots got his own trailer. Wheeeeeee believe it geico could save you 15 or more on Car Insurance. Lets see, aleve is than tylenol extra strength. And last longer with fewer pills. So why am i still thinking about this . Ill take aleve. Aleve. Proven better on pain. Walgreens save your skin today now at walgreens Skin Care Products are buy two, get the third free steven could only imaginem 24hr to trenjoying a spicy taco. Burn, now, his world explodes with flavor. Nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for allday allnight protection. Can you imagine 24hours without heartburn . 3 days is really fast. Sensitivity, the dentist is going to be able to provide that to their patients. Sensodyne rapid relief in my opinion is a game changer. Its going to let the dentist offer their patient sensitivity relief in 3 days. It has a formulation that lays down a barrier of protection against sensitivity. Within 3 days, say over the course of a weekend youre going to start feeling significant results. To say that it works in 3 days really is a big deal. Midway through tom foleys trial the talk around coldwater focused on the damaging testimony from skyler watty and toms own son heath. What did you think was the strongest part of your case . The boys. The testimony of the boys. They heard the gunshot. But the defense was about to argue that over time both boys testimony had changed and in significant ways. Heath is now stating that it sounds like a gunshot . Its something that he didnt say in the first interview. The same thing with skyler. Heaths courtroom testimony left tom furious, not at his son but at his accusers, the people who had cared for heath while tom was incarcerated. Thats somebody coaching him or encouraging him . I believe so. Coached or not, tom foleys defense team knew from day one that they needed to prove the sound those boys heard was tom dropping a window frame on the back porch and not the fatal gun blast. Four days after tom foleys arrest, schaeffer and cuberstein took a trip to the farm to try and do just that. Couple of perry mason moments. Dont come very often. This is the frame that we found. Right where tom said he dropped the frame, they found this tiny shard of glass. Immediately they tried to match the shard with the frame tom said he dropped. If you take the shard and set it in one of the few remaining, intact areas of the frame, you can see it fits perfectly. It was compelling evidence that tom may have been telling the truth, but schaeffer would need more than a shard of evidence. He next called this woman, Janette Moore, the woman who came forward immediately following toms guilty verdict and the reason he was ultimately granted a new trial. I do. Moore said she was driving past the foley house right around the time dar had been murdered. As i approached, this white car come racing out forward, and if i hadnt braked, i would have hit him. Janette moore said she got a good look at the driver. It was a young 18 to 20yearold kid, had real black hair and his face was real white. He was clenching the wheel just like this. And i thought, hes crazy, hes going to kill somebody. Why didnt you call the police . I didnt because i was afraid. But when Janette Moore learned about tom foleys guilty verdict, she said she could no longer keep her silence. God forgive me, and i truly mean that in my heart, that i didnt come forward sooner. If i hadnt been so darn scared. What followed was a succession of other witnesses, each claiming they too saw mysterious cars either on or leaving the heath bar farm right around the time of the murder. Whoever killed dar foley was either in one of those cars or all three of them participated in this murder in some fashion. But tom foley knew if he had any hope of acquittal, the jury would need to hear from one more witness. I call tom foley to the stand, your honor. I just didnt want to convince the 12 jurors. I wanted to convince the prosecutor. I wanted to convince the police. I wanted to convince my wifes family. I wanted them to know and look at me and hear me. Tom started by answering some stillnagging questions, like, how did a yellow plastic bag with shotgun shells in it get into toms basement . Did you have dunhams bags in your home . Yes. How do you explain the bag in the basement with the shotgun shells in the basement . They werent ours. The bag is probably ours. I mean, my fingerprint is on the bag. But for three clean shotgun shells to be in my basement . It just doesnt make sense. You have no idea where those came from . Absolutely not. Tom said hes never owned or used a shotgun. Never. Wouldnt know how to operate it. Wouldnt know the first thing about it. Tom schafer then asked why tom failed to call his home when dar didnt show up at the birthday celebration. Something just wasnt right so thats why i went home. If we had cell phones i would have called her on the cell phone. I had to find her. I had to go see where she was at. Then it was time for tom to describe his relationship with dar. It didnt take tom long to lose his composure. We were very close. And we were go ahead. We were together all the time. Tom admitted to the jury he did once flirt with carrie zuk, but he said that happened three years prior to the murder during a brief time when he and dar were arguing more than they were communicating. That put quite a bit of distance between us, and it also led to intimacy problems between her and i. Tom says he eventually told dar about his feelings for carrie. He also says he went to counseling to work on their communication problems. After those session, did things get better . Absolutely. Then why was it so easy for tom to become intimate with Marianne Crandall so soon after dars death . It was like three weeks after dar died. Yes. And youre in the house where dar died. Yeah. What am i to think of that . Think that i dont care about what had just happened to my wife. Thats not true. If i could go back and change it, i would. But i cant. This was an event that involved grief and a reaching out, and it happened. Do you love your wife . I love her very much. Did you love her on. February 7, 2009 . Very much so. Did you have anything to do with her death . Not at all. Before closing arguments, the prosecutor had one more card to play in the form of a surprise rebuttal witness who could unravel toms alibi. Please state your name for the record. Amber rappeljay. Out of the presence of the jury, dars niece told the court that one week before dar was murdered she went to the farm to babysit. She told us not to go out on the back door without shoes because tom had dropped a frame and there could be glass still out there. The judge ruled that ambers testimony was hearsay and therefore inadmissible. The jury never heard her challenge toms claim that what the boys heard the day dar was murdered was with him dropping a window frame. Now, with the evidence that was admitted and for the second time in two years, a jury was about to decide tom foleys fate. My stomach was turning. I wasnt eating. I was physically sick. Coming up another verdict brings another he collapsed to the floor and wept for 20 minutes. Beep goes off ] now that you have new dr. Scholls massaging gel advanced insoles with softer, bouncier gel waves, youll move over 10 more than before. Dr. Scholls. Born to move. 3 days is really fast. Sensitivity, sensodyne rapid relief is a game changer. Its going to let the dentist offer their patient sensitivity relief in 3 days. Say over the course of a weekend youre going to start feeling significant results. Whos already won three cars, two motorcycles, a boat, and an r. V. I would not want to pay that insurance bill. [ ding ] oh, i have progressive, so i just bundled everything with my home insurance. Saved me a ton of money. Love you, gary you dont have to buzz in. Its not a question, gary. On march 1, 1810 [ ding ] frederic chopin. Collapsing in 226 [ ding ] the colossus of rhodes. [ sighs ] Louise Dustmann [ ding ] brahms lullaby, or wiegenlied. When will it end . [ ding ] not today, ron. When will it end . [ ding ] what sore muscles . What with advpounding head . Advil is. Relief thats fast. Strength that lasts. Youll ask. What pain . With advil. Thats it. Im calling kohler about their walkin bath. Nah. Not gonna happen. My name is ken. How may i help you . Hi, im calling about kohlers walkin bath. Excellent happy to help. Huh . Hold one moment please. [ finger snaps ] hmm. The kohler walkin bath features an extrawide opening and a low stepin at three inches, which is 25 to 60 lower than some leading competitors. The bath fills and drains quickly, while the heated seat soothes your back, neck and shoulders. Kohler is an expert in bathing, so you can count on a deep soaking experience. Are you seeing this . The kohler walkin bath comes with fully adjustable hydrotherapy jets and our exclusive bubblemassage. Everything is installed in as little as a day by a kohlercertified installer. And its made by kohler americas leading plumbing brand. We need this bath. Yes. Yes you do. A kohler walkin bath provides independence with peace of mind. Call. And ask about saving 1000 on your walkin bath, or visit kohlerwalkinbath. Com for more info. As he did in the first trial, attorney tom schafer prepared to address the jury for what he and his client tom foley hoped would be the last time. When your defense rested, were you comfortable . Yes. You thought you were going to win. Very much, yes. You thought that once before. Yes, i did. Apparently the theory the prosecution is that if a marriage ever has a bump in the road, then that is a motive for murder. Is it reasonable . I suggest not. Tom foley, he says, had nothing to do with dars death, but those mysterious cars did. Those cars should not have been there. And the prosecution has not given you any explanation why they were there because there is no other explanation other than they had some connection with the death of dar foley. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, i submit to you theres more than reasonable doubt. I respectfully ask you to find tom foley not guilty. Then came prosecutor terri norris turn, and she started by attacking the credibility of those witnesses who say they saw the cars. If you were to believe that all of these vehicles were there, there was a party at the foley home that day with a bunch of white cars and a black suv. That makes no sense whatsoever. None. Terri norris wanted this jury thinking only one thing. Who had the motive . Its tom foley. Whose fingerprint was on the bag of shells in the basement . Tom foleys. Tom foley is guilty, and im asking you to bring back that verdict. The outcome of toms second trial was far from certain. What worried you the most . Just that he was such a nice guy that you would never have guessed he would have done Something Like that. He didnt seem like a murderer. Right. And then at the fabled eleventh hour, it was time. The jury filed in. Were they looking at you, the jurors . No, they werent. I took a couple deep breaths and i just your honor, we the jury find the defendant not guilty. The waiting had paid off. As to count two . Not guilty. The reaction of tom at the time of the verdict, absolutely incredible. Thank you, thank you, thank you he collapsed to the floor and wept for 20 minutes. Unbelievable. He got away with murder, but he almost didnt. We had it. We had him convicted. And to actually have to go back and talk with that family and try and give them some consoling, how do you do that . Youre just angry. Youre angry at the jurors, the judge. Theres nothing you can do about it. I was more concerned about heath at that point because i knew that he knew his father killed his mother. And i couldnt imagine having to go back and live with the man who killed your mother. Yeah, get it tom has regained custody of heath, and he treads very carefully when discussing that tragic day with his boy. From him, i at least want to know, why do you think i did this . I deserved that answer. All he could say is, i dont know who else it could have been. Tom says he will never forget dar. I still think shes beside me. Im going to continue to raise our son the way that we wanted him to be raised. You harbor any grudge because of this . All i can say is they made a mistake. Thats all im asking, that they search and search and search until they find dee dees killer. According to prosecutor norris, there would be no point to that search. Youre not investigating anymore. Theres no one to investigate, and theres been no new evidence of anybody else ever having committed this crime. This boyhood hero wrote a whole new set of headlines as an adult, and coldwater may never be the same. As for those who remain convinced of toms guilt, they cling to the memory of the one they lost and loved so much. They gather to release balloons in dars honor. She loved to be the center of attention, so this is her her center of her attention. Two, one they rise closer to where shes at and hopefully she sees that were thinking about her. We love you, dar im craig melvin. Im natalie morales. And this is dateline. He had deeper feelings for me than just friends. He managed to get me to care about him. He had my whole life wrapped up. Shes at the center of a riveting courtroom drama. The wife whose entrepreneur husband was found murdered one cold autumn morning. Our whole family has lost its brightest light, and we dont know why. Hes the one accused of the crime. So why is she