had frayed. and now the third trial was pushing everyone to the brink. it was an impossible situation, but somehow todd caldwell and doug techel managed to find a moment of grace. i went over to him and i just said, doug, i want you to know that i think you re a great guy. i think you re a good person. did you really? no matter how this turns out, i just want you to know that. and he said, i think the same thing with you, todd. and i went to shake his hand and he just hugged me and we both just hugged. the two fathers then returned to opposite sides of a murder trial. july 2014, for the third time, the state of iowa versus seth techel. counsel, you ready for the jury? this time in davenport, three hours from the first courthouse in ottumwa. the prosecutors once again argued that seth s story defied logic. he would have to be the victim of one of the largest coincidences ever known. and that is he told his girlfriend that he left his wife. and a little less than 1
friend, the guy with the puppy. the friend, colton, had explained that seth i know thg ph did he tell you, she sent me some topless pictures? yes. did you see them? yes. armed with this information, agent thomas decided to show his cards and see what happened. we ve talked to colton. did colton know about you texting rachel? mm-hmm. did you tell him about it? yeah. this is an ongoing investigation, and it s up to you to be honest.
i ve got this. seth techel had gone downtown voluntarily, but now his interview had dragged on for a couple of hours. his father grew concerned, so he called in a lawyer, who said he would bring the questioning to a halt. and we had called the sheriff s office and said, we have a lawyer waiting to go see seth. but inside the sheriff s interview room seth kept talking away. he was oblivious to the fact that the interrogator confronting him was getting realtime bulletins from the crime scene. i got a text. the text was from a fellow agent at the scene who had spoken to seth s best friend, the guy with the puppy. and this person had told him a story about a girl named rachel. but agent thomas held his
you could hear us sniffling a little. as the jury filed out, defense attorney steve gardner rose, to scold the spectators. stop the over-the-top outbursts, he said, or he d demand a mistrial in fairness to his client. i do not desire this jury to be influenced by the public. now, it was the prosecutors turn to seethe. the defense is making a speech about the caldwell family trying to somehow influence the jury, which we thought was ludicrous. i squeezed andy s arm, and i said i ll take this. to stand up here and suggest that anyone in the courtroom is trying or attempting to intentionally influence the jury is absolute nonsense. the courtroom started to settle down and clear. but seth remained at the defense table, his former father-in-law coiled behind him, ready to pounce. i was just praying, please just let me stand here.
her to be a really great cop, because i didn t want to have to worry about her inefficiencies maybe endangering her life. after years of hearing patrons at the bowling alley joke about when the two of them were going to get married, seth and lisa made the inevitable official. how did you find out they were getting hitched? seth actually came to our house and met with us and asks us our permission to marry lisa. old school. old school. after dating for seven years, seth and lisa got married in october 2011. she was 22, he was 21. i just told him that, no matter what he did, to take care of her and protect her. and he said? he said he would. lisa sister s, another elvis namesake presley, got much more than a brother-in-law with seth. he was my best friend and he was that other person that i could always go to. he called me dad. we told each other we loved each other. we hugged every time we left each other. i felt as close to him as i did my son.