two days later, she was dead. and ron and his wife, and dale, and were all under suspicion. they said i was a person of interest. i didn t think i had any worries. but agent sadar wasn t so sure. as his investigation continued, he became convinced that ron holthouse and his wife, cindy, had been telling him the truth. i feel awful. i really feel awful. but he kept encountering suspicious things like dale. why had dale waited until morning to report his wife missing? why, as dale s friends and family scour the town looking for her, why did he not take part at all? it was this mounting series of things we started to become concerned about. it was dale, said sadar, who had motive and opportunity. for one thing, the place they found her body, dale could have certainly carried her that far. we were struck by how close it is to the house and how
nor, in fact, was there any sign that stephanie had ever lived there. there wasn t a single photograph of her. every trace of her had been scrubbed from the house. it also seemed suspicious, said the detective, that dale changed his story a bit. first time he called the police, he said they had an argument before she left to go out walking. later he said there was no argument. was there an argument of any kind? no, we never had an argument. there was no argument. it was just the facts were on the table. what were you talking about that she needed to clear her head? we were just talking about us. within a few weeks of stephanie s murder, the state ramped up the pressure on dale. social services sent the bruner children to live with stephanie s brother in california. i m in a fight with mike tyson with no gloves. and they re taking my kids away, too. dale wasn t completely alone, mind you. some family stayed around, reported back to her sister, ramona, dale was truly gr