to begin with, it was 1998. shakespeare in love won the oscar. monica lewinsky was freshly r. famous. it was a sweltering august night, hottest of the year, when cheryl deedham got a strange call from her dad, jack jessee. i was getting ready for bed and my phone rings and it s my dad on the phone. what time was this? 9:20. reporter: he was worried about his wife sandra. she was missing. hi he thought she may have got in an accident or something. reporter: she d run to this nearby mall on a quick errand, said cheryl s dad, but was gone so long.sa would cheryl please find her, asked her dad. went through there, the lucky s, the burger king where she was supposed to be, walmart, back 15 minutes later. reporter: when she went back into her dad s house she found one of the worst sights i ve ever seen in my life. he was laying facedown on the floor in a pool of blood.
was on the road almost 15 minutes es she was very, very specific about where she had gone, at what times, and why she had gonh there. reporter: as for cheryl, she told detectives she d do anything to find out what happened to her dad in those 15 minutes she was away from the house. her actions were very, very consistent with somebody who understands, the police are looking at me right now, i know i didn t do anything, i m going to do everything i can and give full disclosure. the day after the jack jessee murder, a guy walked into a bar, sat down on the barstool, and told the bartender a story about how the murder happened, about who did it, about what the motive was. the whole story. but of course that was just a story in a bar. detective wyatt didn t hear anything about it. and as he continued to dig for clues, he hit an unexpected
what times, and why she had gone there. reporter: as for cheryl, she told detectives she d do anything to find out what happened to her dad in those 15 minutes she was away from the house. her actions were very, very consistent with somebody who understands, the police are looking at me right now, i know i didn t do anything, i m going to do everything i can and give full disclosure. the day after the jack jessee murder, a guy walked into a bar, sat down on the barstool, and told the bartender a story about how the murder happened, about who did it, about what the motive was. the whole story. but, of course, that was just a story in a bar. detective wyatt didn t hear anything about it. and as he continued to dig for clues, he hit an unexpected wall. sandra announced she had now helped as much as she could. she was done. i was referred to her attorney and she refused to meet with us again. reporter: same thing happened with sandra s kids, jack s
she was the one who found him. reporter: back at the station, wyatt interviewed all of jack s relatives, including cheryl, and jack s wife sandra, who hadn t been missing at all, just out on a shopping trip. mrs. jessee came to the station with us voluntarily, told us she would cooperate, wanted to help us solve the murder of her husband. reporter: she told him about life with jack, married 14 years, blended family, four kids between them. jack was a patriarch in the jessee clan, she said, a teddy bear of a man, well liked, well to do. jack was a very, very loving person who doted on his children, doted on his stepchildren, doted on his grandchildren. reporter: but jack was ill. housebound after colon cancer surgery. sandra told the detectives she d been running a bit of a mercy mission for jack and dawdled too long at the mall. five minutes one direction, five minutes in traffic, maybe i was on the road almost 15 minutes. she was very, very specific about where she had g
shakespeare in love won the oscar. monica lewinsky was freshly famous. it was a sweltering august night, hottest of the year, when cheryl deedham got a strange call from her dad, jack jessee. i was getting ready for bed and my phone rings and it s my dad on the phone. what time was this? 9:20. reporter: he was worried about his wife sandra. she was missing. what did he think had happened? he thought she may have got in an accident or something. reporter: she d run to this nearby mall on a quick errand, said cheryl s dad, but was gone so long. would cheryl please find her, asked her dad. went through there, the lucky s, the burger king where she was supposed to be, walmart, back 15 minutes later. reporter: when she went back into her dad s house, she found one of the worst sights i ve ever seen in my life. he was laying facedown on the floor in a pool of blood. it was horrible. what did you think happened? i thought he had fallen