we were always together. our kitchen that door was open. glass was broken. i need an ambulance now. my wife. oh my god. it was him who found her. i don t know how to handle that. i wish i could ve been there to protect her. a wife murdered, and later, a husband under suspicion. he was such a nice guy, that you would ve never guess that he would ve done something like that. you think you fake that burglary and killed his wife? yes. he wanted the house, he wanted her money and if he divorced or he would lose everything. in court, a stunning verdict. this could not be happening, i did not kill my wife. but more stunning still, was would came after. a mysterious witness with a secret. this is a woman who essentially says, i saw the murderer. and it wasn t tom fully, when her story be the ultimate twist? hello and welcome to dateline. it is a mystery people thought they had the answer to, the murder of a well-loved teacher and a close knit town with an
scene on that particular night as well as the next day. reporter: for dar s sisters, the writing was by now on the wall. they were certain of their brother-in-law s guilt. we went over every case we could come up with to not make it tom. i think tom resented dar and that he couldn t be a man. i think it kind of ate at him. he couldn t take it anymore. reporter: people get divorced for that reason. he didn t divorce her because he s a selfish coward. he wanted heath. he wanted the house. he wanted her money. if he divorced her, he lost everything. reporter: in november 2009, tom foley s trial began. the prosecution argued that only tom had a motive to kill dar. but the defense claimed police had rushed to judgement. the defense attorney tom shaffer and defense investigator ken koberstein. in their mind it s the
reporter: 24 years after the one time hometown hero named tom foley made coldwater history, the now convicted murderer of the same name sat behind bars awaiting his sentence. you were ready to spend the rest of your life in prison? no. absolutely not. reporter: to tom foley s attorney tom shaffer and his private eye, the guilty verdict landed like a crushing blow. this was a grass root who done it. we thought we had shown it wasn t this person who had done it. i was devastated. when this ended, i could have walked into a wall. reporter: just one day after tom foley s conviction, a woman stepped forward. she had new information that suddenly gave new life to tom s 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 jury would need to hear from one more witness. i call tom foley to the stand. i didn t want to convince the 12 jurors, i wanted to convince the prosecutor, i wanted to convince the police, i wanted to convince my wife s family. i wanted them to know and look at me and hear me. reporter: tom started by answering some nagging questions like how did a yellow plastic bag with shotgun shells in it get into tom s basement. did you have bags in your home? yes. reporter: how do you explain the bag in the basement with the shotgun shells in it? they weren t ours. that bag is probably ours. my fingerprint is on the bag. for three clean shotgun shells to be in my basement, it just doesn t make sense. reporter: you have no idea where those came from in. absolutely not. reporter: tom said he never owned or used a shotgun. never. wouldn t know how to operate it. wouldn t know the first thing about it. reporter: tom shaffer then asked why tom failed to call his