melissa hadn t seen the person who had shot ben? she d been lying right next to him. why was she unharmed? that s kind of a testy little red flag started popping up. okay, this doesn t seem right. reporter: had craig, melissa s teenage brother, truly slept through the whole thing as he claimed? i opened my eyes and right in my face was a bunch of barrels from a machine gun. reporter: it was police guns he was looking at, police who already discovered shotgun shells on craig s bedroom dresser. here comes another red flag. is this a possibility? he is faking? reporter: melissa, craig, and little alyssa were taken to the sheriff s department at 4:00 a.m., an hour after the shooting. melissa s best friend jamie got a phone call. it was alyssa. and she was just hysterically crying. i m at the police station. come down here. come down here. my daddy s been shot. reporter: by the time jamie
their injuries do not appear to be life-threatening. life-threa. welcome back to dateline. i m craig melvin. melissa oxley could now breathe a little easier, while still on their radar, detectives no longer considered her the primary suspect in her husband s ben s shooting death. they shifted their focus to another woman in ben s life, someone they believe held a grudge. investigators were about to bring her in for questioning and the story she would tell would send the case in a stunning new direction. here again is keith morrison with while they were sleeping. if you knew ben, there s no way that you d want him dead. i couldn t think of anybody that would want him dead, you know, besides dawn. reporter: dawn, dawn oxley, ben s ex-wife. alyssa s mother. even as more than a local few
valley. after dinner, ben, melissa, her teenage brother craig and little alyssa settled in the den to watch a movie. melissa remembers falling asleep on the couch, waking up with a start. thinking i was late for work. it was like 2:30 in the morning. i was like oh, i m not late. so i went and got into bed. reporter: crawled in with ben, she said. moonlight on the covers. warm inside. about an hour later is when i was woke up by the smell and then a loud noise. my ears were ringing. at first, i thought i was dreaming. reporter: a smell? yeah. it was a smell. reporter: gunpowder smell? yes. reporter: as she told it, she looked over to ben, saw by the light of the moon he appeared to slept through whatever it was. she nudged him. he didn t stir. i was like okay, i ll go check it out. i walked around our bed and got about halfway down the hallway and realized our front door was open. reporter: but you didn t see
well, i was fast asleep. i woke up and i heard this creek. i saw someone walking in. and i just i went back in. do you know who they were? i don t know who it was. she saw a shadow in her doorway looking at her. and then the shadow left. she went back to sleep and then melissa came in and grabbed her and was talking to 911. the detective discovered the bullet that killed ben was a number eight bird shot. same ammunition they discovered in craig s room. and so the question for craig apologize for doing it. but i have to. did you kill ben? no, i did not. and sure enough when they tested him for gunshot residue or bloodd castoff, he was clean. could not have fired that gun. and so back to melissa.
b bunions. reporter: they were put up for adoption. never knowing each existed. it is the first time we met. reporter: online dna test brought them together in the past few months. a match. reporter: jennifer from nearby st. john. jodi from florida and tammy from arizona and fran have a lot in common. look closely and you notice a big difference. ages. jennifer is 53. jodi is 55. tammy is 69. fwr fran is 70. birth parents never married and had an on again and off again relationship that lasted for years. they may have had as many as eight children. each given up for adoption. i get a call from jodi. i m your sister. reporter: another sister died in texas 30 years ago and brother craig now 63 and living in hawaii.