was lying about having active cancer and asking people for financial help so that he could take care of his cancer, which he actually didn t have. he didn t have. reporter: they said knapp desperately wanted to buy a franchise business, a smoothie store, with carol s divorce money. at one point, even introducing carol as his business partner. so was he obsessed with carol? his behavior with this former girlfriend when she tried to break up with him certainly seemed obsessive to her, she said he wouldn t leave her alone. kept sending her e-mails. i m wondering what was this man capable of. was he going to come up and stalk? was he going to do something mean? was he going to hurt me or hurt my family? i felt threatened is what it felt like. and i was scared. reporter: more defense questions? how did jim knapp s fingerprints wind up on those financial documents that were printed the day of the murder and found
and beneficiary of two life insurance policies, the total value of those life insurance policies was $750,000. steve and carol s daughters were in court sitting behind and supporting their father. defense investigator rich robertson to have your father accused of killing their mother, and for them to not believe it, you can t imagine what that must have done to how they viewed things. it s just got to be a horrible experience. in his opening statement the defense attorney was quick to address that life insurance money. you will hear from katie and charlotte that their father told them from the beginning this is your money from your mother, this isn t mine. he signed over any interest to the girls. any money that he was paid. that is what happened. and they called the first witness. did she have a habit of
reporter: mr. 603, it turned out, was another dead soul, the man lying on the autopsy table before carol got there. it was his dna. maybe on one of the coroner s instruments that ended up under carol s fingernails. mystery solved. one more doubt removed, said the prosecution. but for steve s defense team, it was further proof of a shoddy investigation. contamination. we found out not only potential contamination, there was actual contamination in this case. how can you trust anything after that? exactly. reporter: defense attorney craig williams said the case against steve had an even bigger flaw. you cannot put steve democker in that house where there was a horrific murder, a bloody murder, you can t put him in the house. no dna at all. no dna, no blood. you don t find any dna of carol s on him anywhere. you don t find any dna, fingerprints, blood, anything
by how steve s family supported him. it s a large family. very educated, very tight-knit group. how uniformly did they support steve through this process? i d say very uniformly. they re all behind him? yes. reporter: but one thing after another. as steve s second trial approached there was another, huge, surprise. the source of the dna found under carol s fingernails was finally identified. that would be mr 603. coming up we had exhausted so many man hours and looked at any and all alternatives. we finally were able to discover and verify who mr. 603 is. the mysterious pl 603, not who anyone expected.
and so it created an untenable situation for the first defense team. reporter: so untenable for these highly respected defense attorneys that they no option, they said withdrew from the case. and so, seven months in the judge was forced to declare a mistrial. we thought we were sprinting to the finish line. we thought that steve was gonna be home in time for thanksgiving, and suddenly the finish line just kinda moved off into the horizon. reporter: gut wrenching said carol s friend katherine. it was so emotional of not even a roller coaster. just the intensity of of the emotion. reporter: they d have to start all over again. the money the girls received from their mother s insurance was gone now. gone to pay for the first team of attorneys. so, since steve was pretty much destitute, court appointed attorneys stepped in. and right away craig williams and greg parzych were impressed