that begins with the way carl pressley came to join the harkey clan in the first place. connie said that she adopted him from a homeless woman, a homeless couple. they were living in a car. reporter: from a homeless couple. yeah. and that they couldn t take care of him and so they were willing to give him up for adoption. that s what i know. reporter: teresa says there was always something little bit off about carl. something that tended to make other people uncomfortable. it was very odd and very sad at the same time as he seemed to be a very lonely, needy child. very clingy child. and nobody really seemed to want him to cling to him. reporter: but teresa says there was nothing bonnie wouldn t do for carl. she d buy carl a truck and he d wreck the truck. and then she d buy him another one. and he d get a job. he d lose a job she d house him. he was stealing pecans from the harvest and selling them. i mean she was constantly bailing him out of one situation
that s the end of the story whether it should be or shouldn t. reporter: it took the jury only one hour to reach a guilty verdict. bruce harkey received a life sentence, as did carl pressley. lillian king was sentenced to 45 years for her role in the murders. i m not a violent person. i m not. and i loved ms. harkey like she was my own grandmother. reporter: and yet? i know. i keep kicking myself, you know? hoping i can do something different. but it s not going to change. it eats at me. i can t sleep most the time. reporter: the estate bruce harkey had so fervently hoped to inherit is but a memory now. in the years since our story first aired, lawyers have
bonnie harkey s, right, out on 190 west? yes, sir. do you have an eta? five minutes. in a rural area where locals listen closely to police scanners, some worried deputies might be chasing some dangerous desperado. is there somebody loose that i should be oh, no, no, no. okay, i just was wondering, because they re all sitting up there near ms. harkey s place. reporter: the harkey place was a local landmark, and john wilkerson, a san saba sheriff s deputy in 2012, was among the first investigators to arrive. when i walked in, of course, karen johnson s body was lying face down in the doorway which raised some suspicion. reporter: sign of a struggle? you know, there really wasn t any clear signs of struggle. there was some questionable issues that were at play. reporter: like what? the fact that she was, you know, dead right by the front door. that just didn t make a whole
bonnie was poor miserable wretch of a human being. ok? she didn t have two brain cells to rub together anymore. i didn t go out there and say somebody needs to kill her. i said she needs to go. she just needs to go. reporter: according to bruce, carl pressley had his own motives for killing bonnie harkey. that s because, a year earlier, carl had sold his future interest in the harkey estate to the harkey brothers for fraction of what it was worth. but here s the thing. the brothers only gave him a fraction of the money they owed him. bruce says he told carl the brothers would pay him the rest, about $55,000, once they inherited the orchards. this is how bruce says carl responded. well how long after my grandmother s death do i get that money? carl, it has to go through
here. she d be right here. reporter: right. and even after she had to have 24 hour care, a caretaker would bring her. reporter: the trouble began a few hours after church out at the harkey home a few miles west of town. 911, what s your emergency? reporter: it was about 5:30, when the san saba sheriff s department dispatcher received this call from a young boy. i found my mom on the floor, um, she i think she s dead. i m at the harkey residence. turns out, the 11-year old s mother was karen johnson, bonnie harkey s caretaker. and you don t know the address out there? no, ma am. i m just really, really worried. what phone are you using? um, i m using bonnie s house phone. i can t find bonnie anywhere. reporter: within minutes, the san saba sheriff s department had deputies on the way. all right, i m going to