danielle went on to say she had no idea michael planned to talk to sam that day. so michael never said anything about going over there? no, he didn t. but detectives were skeptical. they wondered if danielle knew more about michael s intentions than she was letting on. at this point, i don t know whether to believe her or not. you re not done with danielle dreher? oh, no, we re not done with her. for the moment, szalbirak left her at the hospital to be with sam s family. it was up to danielle to reveal the identity of the shooter and explain the sordid details of how she was connected to him. she said, i need you to sit down. i have something to tell you. and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. first, cindy learned sam and danielle were getting a divorce. then that both danielle and sam were having affairs. most shocking of all? it was danielle s lover who shot sam.
Fear and closed his eyes and just fired his gun. then he, you know, comes toward me and i just you know, i just i closed my eyes and i just pulled the freaking trigger and i m so sorry. with all the things he s telling you he s in a relationship with danielle, do you start to think we need to talk to danielle dreher. yes, so the next step was let s hear danielle s story. so detective szalbirak left michael and headed to the hospital where danielle had been waiting for updates on sam s condition. all she had been told was that sam had been shot. no one told her by whom. when i got over there, she was crying. she was very upset. detectives recorded the interview. we re trying to piece what all happened. okay, let me get calm here. at first detective szalbirak didn t reveal he knew about danielle s lover michael mitt romney or that it was michael who shot sam. instead he started by asking danielle about her marriage to sam.
he had hired a sand sculptor to build a rather large sand sculpture of a treasure chest and then he it placed the engagement ring in the box. so there was some real pirate booty in there? right. he pulled the ring out, got down and proposed toler. sam is a romantic. isn t he. the newlyweds would become equally successful at work. sam rose to the rank of lieutenant at the young age of 33. he loved the fire services. absolutely loved it. loved being a paramedic. danielle was just as ambitious, finding her stride in the administrative office of a local office. she became the regional marketing director for the whole hospital corporation. sam and danielle didn t have children but they had the next best thing, sam s great niece aubrey cake. you re like the daughter we never had. they always told me that. aubrey who attended college
If not more responsible than the man that actually shot him. reporter: cindy told detectives she believed hatred wasn t danielle s only motive, that she was also driven by that age-old incentive. i believe it was the money. to divorce him and split half of it is one thing. but to get all of it? i think it was money. i think it was always money. reporter: just over a million dollars, in fact. there was a substantial amount of money that she was going to gain if sam turned up dead. and that s exactly what happened. reporter: we asked danielle dreher to sit down with us for an interview. both she and her attorney declined. but during danielle s interview with the detectives, she emphatically denied having anything to do with sam s murder. i would never kill my husband. i would never kill another human being. reporter: and the man who pulled the trigger supported danielle s claim of innocence, in no uncertain terms. i ve acted on my own. i did. i did this all on my own. you
i did. reporter: what did you say to him? i made him a promise that the people responsible for his murder would pay for it. reporter: the news of sam s passing hit dianne mcknight hard. in my mind i m still thinking maybe there s still some hope that he can survive this, but when i heard that, i knew that i was never going to see him again. reporter: sam s great-niece, aubrey cake, didn t make to it the hospital in time, but she made sure to be at sam s funeral. the bagpipes, i still remember to this day. reporter: did it make you really proud in that moment? yeah. i m still proud of him. reporter: full fire department honors were bestowed upon the admired young lieutenant. it was like the whole community came out to pay their respects. it was very humbling, very, very humbling. reporter: but along with the tears, there was tension. by now, sam s family and friends had learned danielle s lover had shot sam. no one could believe it, that she even had a boyfrien