The girl nextdoor. She was really, really cute, blonde hair. One meant the guy of her dreams, love at first sight, but at Second Glance trouble, pregnant at 16. You wanted to be married. He didnt want to do that. One night an ambush, someone shot on the bedroom floor. Help me. A teenage mom at the center of a murder mystery. Fingers were pointed everywhere at everybody. Who had a motive to kill . Hello and welcome to dateline. When 21yearold ricky cowles and his teenage girl friend Amy Priestmeyer moved in together, her best friends moved in, too. At first it was like an endless sleepover, but then ricky was murdered. The killer bragged about the crime and police made a quick arrest, case closed. Not exactly. Unraveling who was behind the diabolical plot wouldnt be nearly as easy. Heres Keith Morrison with mean girls. Mean girls. An interesting species, teenage girls. Some are sweet. Some are not. Some are not. We call them mean girls and some in particular, as youre about to see, could be very mean indeed. It was 1997 when their story began here in the high desert north of l. A. , lancaster, california. There was sarah chapin, then 18, a cheerleader and local beauty queen. You were a pretty popular kid in high school. I wasnt really popular, about the i was a cheerleader. Which helps. Yes. Amy priestmeyer 16, sporty, an a. P. Student who looked like a girl nextdoor. Amy and i were just two goofballs and we had a lot of fun. Yeah, we partied, but things didnt get as serious until jennifer came in the picture and jennifer and amy became good friends. Jennifer kellogg, 18, a little dangerous, catalyst for mischief or worse. Jennifer was the wild child. She was on the dance team in high school and she always was the bolder one of any of us and she was always there for you if you needed her and especially if you got in trouble. She helped you get in trouble. She was the one your parents warned you about. Yes. Then there was shealynn cowles, 16, perhaps a little less street smart than the others, but drawn in by it all, too, even if some of the others werent that nice. They were fun girls, but they just always had an agenda on their mind of everyone owing them something kind of. Their parents werent going to tell them what to do and they just wanted to just be free. The girls just wanted to have fun, stay up late, meet guys, drink, do drugs. That was the time of freedom they were looking for and which they found in the summer of 97 along with the rest of what happened. 911. Whats your emergency . Help me. Help me. So what did happen . It began just after new years the previous winter. There was this house party. Amys parents went out of town and so amy said, lets just invite some people over, have a good time. Shealynn came along, of course. They were drinking, just kind of acting a little bit outrageous, you know, smoking, drinking, partying. Sarah was there and amy, jennifer, too. They were party girls. A little on the wild side. Yeah. They wanted to be adults before their time. They wanted to grow up. They didnt want anyone telling them what to do. But one of the people at that party actually was an adult or close to it. Shealynns brother ricky came to the party. Ricky was almost 21. He was done with school and he was working full time at his familys electricity business, high voltage lines, dangerous stuff, which paid very well. In fact, ricky was the proud owner of a new bmw and though he still lived at home, he was, if anything, mature for his years which mattered not a bit to the girls of the house party. To them he was tall and good looking and what else mattered besides that . Amy and one of our other friends were kind of fighting over him. They both had a little thing for him. Right away boom, she wanted him . Well, when youre a teenage girl and see a cute guy, of course, everything falls into place. It certainly did. Was he crazy about her to begin with . Yeah. He met her and it was like instantly. They were together from that very first night. It didnt seem to matter to ricky that amy was still in high school, was just a sophomore. They were in love. He took her away on trips, bought her lots of gifts, but when he introduced her to his parents, debbie and rick sr. , they were not quite so bowled over by amy. She just manipulated him. She was really, really cute, really petite, blonde hair. Wrapped him around her little finger. Yup. You saw that happening . Yes. But then we found out how old she was. That changed it a little bit. What were you worried about . At that point we were worried shed get pregnant or something. She was a minor that, you know, if he didnt want to be with her or something, maybe hed go to jail for rape or whatever. Rape, jail, what a place for a mind to go. Looking back, Debbie Cowles says it was just some gut instinct that told her amy was up to something and whatever it was wouldnt be good for her son, ricky. So debbie tried to put a wedge between the two young lovers. Ricky was living in his parents guest house. His mom made a firm rule. Amy could not stay over. She would be out there and try to hide in the closet and stuff like that. Thats when it finally got where you cant live here. We cant have this. What were you trying to do . I thought he would say okay, you know, you are 16 and i dont want to move out because im living here with my parents for nothing in this house of my own. Its a story as old as young love. Rickys parents thought free rent would trump nights with amy. They were wrong. Ricky didnt drop amy. He left home instead, rented an apartment in the sketchy part of town and amy, who had just finished her sophomore year at high school, moved in with him, but will it be happily ever after . No. No, it would not be because now act two, the hard part, was about to begin. The light in the bedroom. Coming up, the bffs move in with amy and ricky and thats when things turn deadly. She turns on a light in the bedroom, stands there for a second and then she looks down and falls against the door screaming. When dateline continues. Sometimes your work shirt needs to be for more than just work. Like when it needs to be a big, soft shoulder to cry on. Which is why downy does more to make clothes softer, fresher, and better. Downy. Breathe life into your laundry. The virus that causes shingles is sleeping. In 99 of people over 50. And it could strike at any time. Think youre not at risk . Wake up. Because shingles could wake up in you. If youre over 50, talk to your doctor or pharmacist about shingles prevention. Were done. What about these . Looks right. Nooo. Nooo. Quick, the quicker picker upper bounty absorbs spills like a sponge. And is 2x more absorbent so you can use less. Bounty, the quicker picker upper. And is 2x more absorbent so you can use less. Keith morrison it was a love story that spring of 97, blooming here in the california desert. It was spring of 97 blooming here in the california desert, but in lancaster, like everywhere else, the unstoppable desire of young adults can bring out polar opposites in parenting styles. While ricky cowles parents struggled to prevent what looked to them like a big mistake, amys parents, georgia and larry priestmeyer, had a different perspective. I didnt think about it very much because i was 17 when i met larry. How old were you, larry . 24. So there was six years difference. And that worked out. 34 years. So the age difference did not worry them. They liked ricky. He was good to their daughter and amys parents knew they didnt have much say in what amy did anyway. She always pushed. Maybe pushed the envelope. Yes. Always. Of course, rickys mom didnt know that when she called amys mom looking for an ally in her effort to put the brakes on the love affair. I called her mother when i knew ricky was getting an apartment. I said, shes 16. She needs to stay to them with you. What response did you get . She just says, we dont have any plans with her moving in there, and thats how we left it and a couple days later she moved in and it wasnt a week later or so she moved her friends in. Did the parents have any control at all over what she was doing . Oh, no. No. But did you guess this . There was Something Else going on, big news about which rickys parents knew nothing. Amy was pregnant. It was her parents, georgia and larry, who got the news first. I was disappointed, to be honest with you. My kids knew about contraceptives even though they were raised to be abstinent until they were married. You try to raise your kids to do the right thing. Sometimes they dont. Now amy was going to have to grow up fast, pregnant at 16, moving in with her boyfriend. Was she ready for all this . Maybe not. She was always very outgoing and liked having her independence. And girls just want to have fun at that stage. Exactly. Amy invited her two best friends, Wild Jennifer and sarah, the local pageant queen, to move in, too. Neither one of them wanted to be stuck at home under parental watch and pregnant or no, there was fun to be had. They went to parties. Jennifer stirring up trouble as usual brought her druggy friends over to visit, though amy insisted that because she was pregnant she wasnt using. Did she seem at all resentful about the idea that she couldnt do the fun things anymore . Well, a party girl becoming pregnant, its kind of hard because everything stops. Yeah. Especially when youre 16, youre still in high school. Youre not grown up yet. But ricky by then was 21. He had different ideas about moving in together. He wanted amy home when he got back from his long day at work on those high voltage electrical lines. He wanted amy home alone. At some point they began to have some fairly Serious Problems and ricky, for example, complained that these girls had moved in and he didnt want them there. Ricky decided to, you know, that he was done, that he needed them gone. Which pleased the friends, jennifer especially, not one bit. Amy wasnt happy either and so a couple months into this romance that started so hot and fast it seemed to be burning out. Theyd been fighting a lot. She had thought about ending the relationship, but she was afraid that rickys parents might take the child once it was born. There was a point where one night she just broke down and cried and said, i dont know what to do. I dont know if i should leave him. I dont know what to do. It was about then when ricky finally told his mom about his and amys predicament. He goes, i have to talk to you and dad. When he said, me and dad, im like what about . I want you to sit down and talk to you. He was really serious about some really bad thing and he tells me, well amys pregnant. And i said no, no. He goes yeah. Exactly what she worried about and ricky was talking about breaking up with amy. He says, i want to take care of the baby. I said, you will. Thats your responsibility. He said, i need a way to tell amy we cant be what she wants us to be. I need a way to tell her. She wanted to be married. He didnt want to do that. Now he had this big problem, just the problem you were worried about all along. And then turmoil. Ricky and amy argued. He told her she needed to leave, go back home to her parents. And then after she spent a weekend apart thinking it over, something changed. He said, you know, im so excited for our life now and ive just thought about everything and everythings just going to be fine. Were going to make it work. Ricky was happy. Ricky really was looking forward to being a daddy. Because a lot of guys 20 or 21 years old who just met a girl and got her pregnant right away would not be reacting that way. No. But ricky was a little different from everybody. He seemed more grown up. By then amy had had a change of heart, too. She said, im going to make this work. Its worth making work. I want my daughter to grow up with her daddy here. Which brings us to august 12th , 1997. Ricky left for work early. Amy left a note promising to be back by 9 00 to spend time alone with him. Then that afternoon she called him as he worked out in the hot desert just to confirm their plans and later when his dad and he went to the county fair to set up lights, the calls from amy kept coming. When are you coming home, she asked him. Of course, she had been out all day with friends. Around 10 00 p. M. Sarah in tow she headed home to see if ricky had arrived. She goes pounding up the stairs, gets up to the top of the stairs. Im looking at her. She turns on the light in the bedroom, stands there a second and she looks down and falls against the door screaming. Someone was lying on the floor still alive, a twisted, bloody mess. It was ricky. Comingup. Help me. How was amy . Panicked. The new father to be helpless on the floor, what had happened when dateline continues. To severe eczema, its okay to show off. With dupixent, show off your clearer skin and less itch. Because you have plenty of reasons to show off your skin. With dupixent, the number one prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists, you can stay ahead of your eczema. It helps block a key source of inflammation inside the body that can cause eczema to help heal your skin from within. Many adults saw 90 clearer skin. Some even achieved long lasting clearer skin and fast itch relief after first dose. Serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. 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Whats your emergency . Help me. After a night of running around sarah and amy finally went to amys place and found ricky cowles, just 21, lying near death on his and amys bedroom floor. What did it look like there on the floor . He was kind of twisted up on the floor and all i saw was blood and so i said, lets get out of here. What does it do to you to see Something Like that . Scares the crap out of me. 911. Whats your emergency . Help me. She was such a mess. She was hysterical. Hes like bleeding everywhere. Maam, i cant hear what youre saying. I grabbed the phone from her and im like hello and shes like this is 911. So i start freaking out. Whats going on . Can you tell me whats happening . We just got back into the apartment and weve been calling all night long and we havent been able to get ahold of her boyfriend and we walked upstairs and hes lying on the ground. Hes all bleeding. Hes bleeding . Hes not moving or anything. We just turned on the light and came downstairs and called you. Hold on. Im transferring paramedics, okay . By now jennifer and another friend were there, too. Jennifer starts screaming to me ricky, i want to see ricky. I want to see ricky. No. Get downstairs now. Amy, you dont need to see this, honey. I cant even stand to look at it. Get downstairs. Hows he doing now . Hes twitching, convulsing all over. It looks like something went through his head. Paramedics and Law Enforcement showed up. What happened then was hard to watch, intense, as sarahs video camera recorded a man struggling to survive. Could he tell them what happened . When they came in the house, next thing you know theyre shoving all of us into the kitchen and they carry him downstairs on his bed sheet and worked on him in The Living Room. Did you shoot yourself . No. Who did it . My neck hurts. Who did it . My neck. His neck hurts. Who shot you in the head . Did you do it . As police tried desperately to get information from him, ricky became too weak to respond. How was amy at this stage . Just panicked. Beside herself. Yes. And sarah called rickys parents. Come quick. Something had happened. By the time we got there there was so many people. I was screaming ricky, ricky. I knew hed been shot, but we had no idea where or anything. Or how bad it was. Or anything until they brought him downstairs. I knew. I knew. I thought oh, no, no, no. Its like your whole life is disintegrating right under your hand. It did. Then the paramedics brought ricky to a waiting helicopter. Rick sr. Rode to the hospital with his son. He was comprehending what we were talking about a little bit, but he was hurting pretty hard. I tried to tell him well be okay. Well get to the doctors, try to fix this. And they did try. As the doctors worked on ricky, his family gathered. Amy was there, too, of course, but whoever attacked him had done so much damage to his head, to his brain by august 14th, two days in intensive care, it was clear there was no fixing ricky. He was comatose now. Only the machines kept him alive. His family went to his bedside to say their goodbyes. Amy was beside herself, hardly made sense. And she said why did you have to go ahead and die . You were supposed to buy me a car for my birthday. Youre supposed to buy me a car. Im thinking did i just hear that . In my mind i couldnt even fathom. Odd, of course, but the cowles were far too distraught to try to comprehend what was going on in the mind of amy, 16 and pregnant. It was soon after that ricky died. His heart, kidneys, and liver were donated to people in need. Amy moved back in with her parents to get ready to have rickys baby and debbie and rick sr. Vowed to find out who did this and thats when a long journey began, long and as youll see, very strange. Coming up, on the trail of a killer. He actually told people, he said, you saw those helicopters that were over there . He goes, that was me. He said, i did that. When dateline continues. this is a hot flash. but this is a not flash. for moderate to severe Vasomotor Symptoms due to menopause. Veozah is the first and only Prescription Treatment that directly blocks a source of hot flashes and night sweats. With 100 hormone free veozah. You can have fewer hot flashes and more not flashes. Veozah reduces the number and severity of hot flashes day and night. For some women, it can start working in as early as one week. Dont use veozah if you have cirrhosis, severe kidney problems, kidney failure, or take cyp1a2 inhibitors. Increased liver blood test values may occur. Your doctor will check them before and during treatment. Most common side effects include stomach pain, diarrhea, difficulty sleeping, and back pain. ask your doctor about hormone free veozah. And enjoy more not flashes. 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The cops went through the apartment, but there was little ence to go on. Ricky cowles was dead, but why . The cops went through the apartment, but there was little evidence to go on. They found a shell casing, 25 auto, i believe. A shell casing no, print trail no, useful dna, nothing missing and nothing in particular about ricky cowles that would lead you to think hed be a murder victim. Hes not the sort of person who would normally be a victim of that kind of crime unless maybe he owed money, a drug deal or he hadnt paid a gambling debt. That wasnt anything that was out there. Tom harris and larry brandinberg, then detectives with the Los Angeles County sheriffs homicide, worked on the case. You always look at your victims lifestyle because that usually tells you where to go and ricky worked all the time with his father. He drank some beer when hed get done working and probably smoked some weed every once in a while, but beyond that pretty standard middle class guy. He was a hard working kid. So he wasnt the type of kid that would have some big drug debt. But if the cops didnt have much to go on, that group of girls seemed to have some rather shocking ideas, though, of course, reporting this to the cops would be about the last thing any of them would do. From the beginning it was finger pointing here and here and here. Jennifers involved. Shalynns involved. She was mad at her brother or amys involved or somebody else is involved or it was this, a home invasion. Fingers were pointed everywhere at everybody. By . Everybody else. Months passed. The paranoia was palpable. Amy and best friend jennifer werent talking. Sarah and jennifer werent talking. Rickys family was just staying away from them all, convinced somehow they all knew something, but there was a price to pay for rickys family staying away from amy. When she was in the hospital having the baby, a friend of ours called us from the hospital and said her names up on the board. Your babys going to come sometime today and i cried all day because i thought heres this baby ive never even going to see because my sons gone. About a month later the Cowles Impatient with the progress of the case decided to post a reward. Shalynn, rickys sister, went to amys house to give them some flyers. Amys dad answered the door. I asked her father when he answered the door if they wanted any flyers and he said, oh, why dont you come on in and see your little niece. There she was. I called my mom instantly and told her, im holding your little grandbaby. Shes just precious. I just knew i wanted a relationship with her and through her pregnancy we were able to kind of let things go between our families. So i knew it would get to where it was easier to deal with each other if we were going to. It was. Then Grandma Debbie got to meet the baby. A couple days later i went to their house to see her and i held her and cried my eyes out because is here she is, this gift, but i dont have him anymore. And a break in the case came soon, too. A 19yearold who lived down the street from amy and rickys place, Billy Hoffman, was arrested for rickys murder. Turns out, he bragged to loads of friends about what hed done. He was proud of it. He actually told people there was a girl that he would carpool with, for instance, to go to work at kmart. He said, you saw those helicopters that were over there . She goes yeah. He goes, that was me. I did that. He denied it to the authorities, but hed already told several people . Several people. He had one person that actually helped him get the gun. He had another person that helped him get rid of the gun. He would tell people that he did this i mean which obviously was his demise because i mean he got arrested shortly thereafter. Billy hoffman was a drug user and small time dealer and it turned out there was some sort of connection between billy and Wild Jennifer. The cops came and said showed me a picture of guy the and said, do you know this guy . I said id met him once before at jennifers birthday this year. She said this is who did it. Sarah even snapped this photo of billy and jennifer there smoking pot together, which the cops were happy to have. Shalynn recognized him, too. It was the weekend before he died. Ricky was away deciding what to do about amy. Shalynn went to the apartment to hang out with the girls and sitting on The Living Room floor was a quiet guy named billy. Jennifer was high on acid. She told shalynn she should try some, too. It was billy who had the drugs. Do you remember how billy came to be in that condo . Jennifer brought him over. A friend of jennifers . She introduced the killer into the scene. Yes. Was jennifer somehow involved . Remember, after she and sarah moved in with ricky and amy ricky wanted her out and she was mad at ricky for that. She was known for stirring up trouble, but murder . The idea seemed preposterous. Anyway, it was Billy Hoffman who went on trial, not jennifer and he just clammed up, denying everything. No matter. He was convicted and got life without the possibility of parole. So story over . Not by a long shot. G shot. Coming up, a conversation with the killer, he has a little secret he wants to share when dateline continues. Monthly topical that protects against fleas, ticks, tapeworms, and more. Use with caution in cats with a history of seizures or neurologic disorders. Nexgard combo,. Youre the one that i want. The monthly oneanddone you want. Hi, im chris and i lost 57 pounds on golo. Ygolo isnt complicated. Nt i dont have to follow a restrictive diet, and i dont have to spend a lot of time making meals. Using golo was truly transformative. It was easy, and inexpensive. Welcome back to dateline. Im andrea canning. Billy hoffman was serving time in prison, convicted welcome back to dateline. Im andrea canning. Billy hoffman was serving time in prison convicted of killing ricky cowles, but it wasnt case closed. Hoffman was about to spill a chilling secret that would set off a new investigation. Here again is Keith Morrison with mean girls. Lancaster, california, ticked into the new millennium nearly three years after ricky cowles was dispatched from all knowledge of time and two families that might otherwise have gone completely off the rails stayed intact because of an amazing gift, the Baby Daughter he helped create and left behind. The man who killed her father before she was born was in prison. The teenager who gave birth to her grew into womanhood and even rickys parents, the cowles, who hadnt liked amy from the start developed a grudging respect for her. Amy was really good. I cant say one thing bad about amy. As a mother. She was perfect as a mother. That might have been the end of the story. Life does have to go on and their hours with their granddaughter were some of the sweetest theyd ever had, but they just couldnt erase their one nagging belief, that Billy Hoffman did not act alone when he killed their son. Even though billy was convicted, that wasnt the whole story. No. At billys trial he didnt confess. He was convicted on circumstantial evidence. He kept saying, i didnt do it. I didnt do it. Yeah in. 2002 he wrote us a letter. Oh, yes, the letter, the key to the whole thing really. Without that letter, well, it was 2002 and Billy Hoffman had been in prison for three years when he wrote to the cowles that he was remorseful. Hed found god he said and with that a sense of obligation to say he was sorry. Im reading it, reading it and then im crying and reading it and crying and reading it. Im by myself. What did it say . That he was sorry, that he had done things that he shouldnt have and that he hoped that, you know, we would for give him someday. And then she went back to the beginning and read this one curious phrase. He wrote, i would like to begin by confessing my part in the murder of richard as the one who took his life, my part. When rickys parents saw this letter and they saw apologizing for his part, that Spoke Volumes to them, i guess. Oh, yeah. They took the letter to the d. A. s office immediately and the d. A. Contacted our office and it went from there. Five years after rickys murder the dormant investigation was revived. Were on tape now. The time is 1400 hours, the date September 12th , 2002. Sheriffs Homicide Detectives went to billys prison to ask him what did you mean by your part . You were convicted of murdering a richard cowles. Yes. Why dont you tell me from the beginning how did the thing happen. And finally Billy Hoffman grappling himself over what hed done stopped denying anything and told the cops his long secret story and for the very first time a certain name came popping out of his mouth. I cant remember exact days or anything like, that but id say a couple weeks before the murder happened i was at my house and Jennifer Kellogg asked me if i would kill somebody and i said yes, i would. Astonishingly it was that easy. Jennifer simply asked him to kill and he said yes, but listen carefully to billys mono tone. As he tells her story, youll hear another name. After all, mean girls dont tend to scheme alone. So who was with jennifer when she arranged the murder . Listen. Amy priestmeyer took me to the apartment and showed me how the layout was. Amy is was cowles girl friend, mother of his kid. She also knew about it . Amy knew about it, but not just knew about it. Right along with jennifer, she, the apparently loving girl friend, said billy had arranged everything. He recalled how they gave him a photo of ricky, told him to hide in the bedroom where he could peek through the crack in the door and see ricky coming up the stairs. The murder of ricky cowles was all set to go and then came the day august 12th, 1997, late in the day. Jennifer and amy drove the 0. 2 of a mile up the road to billys house to pick him up. They dropped me off, let me in and then they left. Billy sat there he said with a hammer, a knife, a gun, a pillow to use as a silencer, but remember, ricky ended up working late that Night Fixing Lights at the county fair. Waiting in the house, billy started to get sleepy. He started having second thoughts. I got tired of waiting because he ended up staying late at work or wherever he was and i didnt know what was going on and i just kind of know what . Im gone. So i left. And thus the murder of ricky cowles was prevented almost. Billy left the apartment, shut the door, walked down the street toward his own house, had given up on the whole idea, but then i got to that corner, sure enough, amy and Jennifer Drive by and theyre like where are you going . What are you doing . Remember, amy had been calling ricky all evening trying to pin him down when hed be home. They told me go back. He called. He said hes going to be off late. So billy told the cops how he obediently returned to sit behind that door armed with his tools of murder. Around 9 00 ricky came home, needed a shower, went upstairs, entered the bedroom. He never saw it coming. Billy hoffman attacked him with the clawhammer straight to the skull. Ricky fought back. He showed up. He came inside and came didnt knock him out. He turned around and yelled and i panicked and i just shot. He went down and i didnt know. I was afraid the gunshot made too much noise, didnt use the pillow or anything and i didnt know what to do. So i hit him with the hammer again. Then i left the house. Then billy gathered his things, walked home and paged jennifer. The signal that it was done. After the page jennifer and amy split up. Jennifer took pot to billy. Amy asked sarah to go home with her. Sarah who didnt know anything about the plan, who was used as an alibi stooge, was used as the fool who would find ricky. Why did billy do it . It was just glamorous kind of picture in your mind, you know, to be that person and cruising with your friends and just at that time i think i pursued that. I wanted to be that guy. When people knew that, it was kind of like having a notch on my belt, you know. But in real life, of course, murder is not glamorous, not at all. That night billy went home scared. Soon enough, he was arrested, consigned to life in prison and now it looked like two more arrests were called for. Coming up, amy involved in the murder of ricky . Did you have some dark nights of the soul where you look at each other and say she must have done it . When dateline continues. Boat and rv all bundled with progressive youve got the Peace Of Mind to really wander. Yeah. Yeah, i just hope it stays this way. Once word gets out about these places they tend to are you done . Aaand there it is. Well, at least your vehicles are protected. Lets hit the road. Hey fam im just at this Beautiful Lake that i just discovered. Practicing gratitude, manifesting abundance. New Herbal Essences sulfate free. Packed with pure aloe and camellia flower oil your hair will love. And none of the things it wont. Hair that feels deeply nourished, soft and lightweight. New Herbal Essences. luke so. I hear some of you are concerned about the fact that im taking over the company. Well, rest assured, companys in great hands. Marci, hit the vid. both lukes homesdotcom. Weve done your home work. luke now, that is worth celebrating brad i love it. luke thank you. brad home. Work. Very clever. vo ding dong luke vo homesdotcom. You cant leave without cuddles. But, you also cant leave covered in hair. With bounce pet, you can cuddle and brush that hair off. Bounce, its the sheet. With the gametime app, i paid 60 less than this guy. What . and its not just sports tickets. Its also concerts. Performances too oh, come on download gametime. Last minute tickets, lowest price. Guaranteed. My name is oluseyi and some of my favorite moments. Throughout my life are watching sports with my dad. Now, i work at comcast as part of the team that created our ai highlights technology, which uses ai to detect the major plays in a sports game. Giving millions of fans, like my dad and me, new ways of catching up on their favorite sport. Keith morrison justice, as everybody knows, tends not to roll quite so quickly as the movies justice as tends not to roll quite so quickly as the movies would have you believe. In the case of ricky cowles murdered in 1997, it rolled slow indeed. Billy hoffman had his heart to heart with Homicide Detectives in 2002, but a case needs more than the words of a convicted killer. More investigation was needed. So they waited. Everybody waited. Rickys parents knew they needed to protect their granddaughter if detectives made an arrest. All we ever told him was if it comes to the point were going to arrest amy, please let us know because i dont want that in her little brain the rest of her life that her mother is taken away by the police. Just let us know. Well take care of her and you do what you have to do. Months and months went by. Oh, years. Years went by. And during those years the cowles held their breath and their tongues every week when they went to pick up their granddaughter and the woman they had come to believe had arranged their sons murder. We knew, but you know what . She superseded all that because i wanted her to have a happy life. It was easter 2005. Love was in the air again. Amy priestmeyer was just about to be married. Her daughter was 7 years old, though were only showing baby pictures of her, when rickys parents got the call. An arrest was imminent and that set into motion a case in a completely different type of court. The cowles quickly phoned an attorney. We called and said we need to go tomorrow and get custody of this little girl. The Family Court Judge gave the Cowles Temporary Custody and thus began a fiveyear battle between two sets of loving grandparents. There was so, so much turmoil between our families that we couldnt agree on anything. You say turmoil. There was no talking between either one of us. They blamed us for everything. They blamed you . They blamed us if we hadnt been persistent that amy wouldnt have been arrested, but she was. She was charged with murder, taken to jail to await trial. Amys parents stood by her then, still do. Do you have some dark nights of the soul where you look at each other and say she must have done it . No. Not a moments hesitation . We have never, ever looked at each other and said she has to be guilty of something. But the jury did not agree. Nearly ten years to the day after the murder of ricky cowles, july 30th, 2007, rickys parents got the news they had been waiting for, guilty. R, guilty. What was it like to hear that . Finally relief. Quiet crying, every emotion you want to scream and you cant. Amys family has cried, too, of course, just not for the same reason. Everybody looks at us now like were the bad people, you know. Were bad because of what your daughter did. I go i did nothing wrong. In fact, the judge gave you folks a lecture. She did that. She did that. At sentencing the judge looked straight at amys parents and said there was a total breakdown of parenting, of moral leadership of any kind of sense of responsibility. What was that like for you to hear that . That was very hard because as a parent, i knew in my heart that we had done the best that we could do. Amy priestmeyer got life without parole, but in 2013 california put a new law in place. It said juvenile offenders sentenced with no chance of parole and who have since served at least 15 years may be eligible for a resentencing and that included amy. So her attorney struck a deal with the d. A. Amy pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of Second Degree murder and received a reduced sentence of 16 years to life with the possibility of parole. Jennifer, Wild Jennifer, the girl who loved to make trouble, she pleaded guilty to manslaughter and solicitation to commit murder, got 17 years. At jennifers sentencing the judge blamed her for spurring amy on, but what made Amy Priestmeyer want to kill ricky . They did fight about her hanging out with friends when he wanted her home with him. They did talk about breaking up, but that hardly seems a reason to kill. Even Billy Hoffman who so casually agreed to murder a man did not seem to have any real reason why. Did amy tell you exactly why she wanted him dead . I never got any specific reason. She mentioned something once about it seemed so petty, though. It said he wet the bed. I dont know why that would warrant murder. Serving life without the possibility of parole, Billy Hoffman had plenty of time to think about his own role in the murder. After more than 18 years in prison, he asked the governor of california to grant him clemency, citing his youth when he committed the crime and his exemplary conduct in prison. Governor jerry brown reduced hoffmans sentence to 20 years to life and two years later he was paroled. The cowles are unhappy that billy is free and still it remains the unanswered question. Why did amy want ricky dead . Was she so immature . Is that possible . That she just the idea of killing somebody was like play time . Thats what i wonder sometimes. How do you go from living with somebody to thinking its okay. Well just have somebody else do it and its fine. Theyre gone. Theyre dead. Maybe it was being too young and immature to really fathom what was going on, the fact that you are really going to take somebodys life and youre really going to ruin other peoples lives. When we sat down with sarah, she said she was deeply scarred by the betrayal of the girls she thought were her friends and struggled to make sense of her life. Shalynn admitted she was often, frankly, a mess. You wonder what would have happened to you if that hadnt interceded . Would you be a different person . Yeah. I wonder, but the most thing i wonder is who my brother would be, you know, seeing people his age, you know, now. Im thinking oh, how would my brother be in his life . And then there was amy and rickys daughter, the only good thing about the story. Shes a wonderful little kid. Shes not little anymore, but shes wonderful. Does she get sad sometimes . Thats not a part that she will let me see very often, but yes, she does get sad. The face she presents to the world is a happy little girl . Yeah. Happy, happy, happy. Thats exactly what she does because she doesnt want to disappoint anybody. Shalynn sees that quality, too. It reminds her of her brother. Because my brother was the kind of person that didnt really talk about things that bothered him or, you know, he just was happy like her. Thats the part that i get, that these a lot like my brother. She has his heart. After years in court the two families agreed to share custody of the little girl, though she spent a bit more time with rickys parents. She also agreed, if unofficially, to leave the past behind for her. We both love her. Theres no doubt about it. We just love her in different ways. We want the best for her. They want the best for her. Thats our goal, is to be the best for her. This is her life. Of course, amys parents, rickys parents, wanted the best once before, as all parents do. Could anyone have seen into those mean girl minds before two families paid the price . Im andrea canning. Thank you for watching. Thats icall for this editio of dateline. Im andrea canning. Thank you for watching. This sunday, striking back. Iran retaliates against israel