handcuffs. what did you think was going on? i don t know. i remember hearing murder, i remember hearing him use the word wife. i was not aware that there was an investigation. you were totally blientsided. totally blindsided. reporter: no one had really questions cory s death before. even the police concluded she had died of natural causes. back at the pie shop, an increasingly anxious christine got a phone call. it was someone from a local tv station. he said, i m holding a piece of paper in my hand. it s an indictment for the first degree murder of cory love lace. and i immediately said what? cory wasn t murdered. give me a word, that day in your life. horrifying. i was placed in an interrogation room immediately. reporter: curtis lovelace had a crucial choice to make. either talk to the detective and try to clear this up right then and there, or would the attorney
team in place, christine got working on her next goal, making bail to get her husband out of jail. friends eventually put up the cash. almost two years after his arrest, curtis was released to his wife and sons. they greeted me at the hancock county jail. and i came home to a dog that i had never met. and for the first time, got to be back in my house and back in my home. reporter: but it wouldn t be home sweet home for long. while curtis and mrs. lovelace number three waited for the next trial in the alleged murder of mrs. lovelace number one, the judge ruled that mrs. lovelace number two could testify against her former husband. and what a story she had to tell. coming up erika, out of disguise, and on the stand.
point, after everything we had been through. so i was hoping that it would all pan out okay. reporter: and it did go okay. christine kept all the lovelaces running like a swiss train schedule. kids off to school, while curtis worked at his own law practice in downtown quincy. christine, meanwhile, put on her baker s apron. i opened an actual pie shop. i was making a hundred pies a week and i was selling out of pies before 9:00 in the morning. by all accounts, it was so this wasn t just a little hobby to keep you busy. no. this was a going concern, huh? yes. absolutely. what s your go-to pie? i love blueberry. i m with you. but i make a mean gooseberry. you name it, i can probably do it. reporter: after years of turmoil, it seemed, the lovelaces were reborn. lyndsay was back in the family fold. christine had even adopted curtis sons as her own. everything was working. but darker souls wait for the train wreck just when things are looking all hunky-dory. turned o
small law library. christine came in. and they explained to her for the first time what was about to happen, that the judge would declare a mistrial. curt was sitting across. he said, i m not gonna be able to come home tonight, and and i lost all my air. it was terrible. reporter: the jury was hopelessly deadlocked. the vote, six guilty, six not. curtis would face another trial. since he couldn t make bail, he d remain in jail, unless a deal? a plea deal? they had offered a second-degree murder plea. but i knew it was a decision not only that i had to make, but we had to make as a family.
could blame her if she would have done that? but that s not who she is. reporter: it looked as though curtis would have to use a public defender. but christine wouldn t accept that option. she worked her connections and eventually ended up here in chicago. she came to our office and told us her story and i remember finding it compelling and certainly worth exploring further. reporter: jon loevy is not a criminal lawyer. he s a civil rights attorney by practice who also does pro bono work with the exoneration project. its aim: overturn wrongful convictions. but curtis hadn t been convicted, at least not yet. still, loevy and co-counsel tara thompson decided to take the case. their services would be free. the main concern that i had in this case from the outset was really the lack of evidence. this didn t feel like a murder case from the beginning. reporter: with a new defense team in place, christine got working on her next goal: making bail to get her husband out of