conditions on the roads and in the skies. republican senator john kennedy is repeating debunked claims that ukraine nrtd feared in the 2016 election. kennedy is also claiming without evidence that a former ukrainian president actively worked for hillary clinton. now back to dateline. welcome back to dateline. i m craig melvin. an anniversary celebration that began with candles and strawberries ended in murder. she told investigators she had no memory. sandra s daughter lizz offered several potential suspects, her ex-husband, a former tenant, maybe a coworker. but investigators had a theory of their own. here again is dennis murphy with
i remember her being like, oh, your uncle. oh. reporter: the melgars life revolved around not just family, but church, too. they d joined the jehovah s witnesses early in their relationship, but by her early 20s, daughter lizz had left the church. newly independent, she rushed into a marriage. a bad one. true that he was involved in heavy drugs? yes. that was the end of it? that was it. i didn t want to live that kind of life. reporter: but her parents marriage just kept going through sickness and health. in fact, in recent years, jaime was looking younger than ever on a vegetarian diet and exercise regimen. he realized he was getting older and he just wanted to make sure he was in the best physical shape. your mom. your poor mom. meanwhile had a constellation of health problems, didn t she? yes. lupus? chemotherapy involved in that? at times, yeah. she also had epilepsy. did she have the seizures? did you ever see her yes. yeah, she did. reporte
20s, daughter lizz had left the church. newly independent, she rushed into a marriage. a bad one. true that he was involved in heavy drugs? yes. that was the end of it? that was it. i didn t want to live that kind of life. reporter: but her parents marriage just kept going through sickness and health. in fact, in recent years, jaime was looking younger than ever on a vegetarian diet and exercise regimen. he realized he was getting older and he just wanted to make sure he was in the best physical shape. your mom. your poor mom. meanwhile had a constellation of health problems, didn t she? yes. lupus? chemotherapy involved in that? at times, yeah. she also had epilepsy. did she have the seizures? did you ever see her yes. yeah, she did. reporter: then december 2012 rolled around. their 32nd wedding anniversary. sandra was ill on the actual day. so they went out together ten days later, on december 22nd. she was finally feeling well enough to go and have
a friend s house. she looked like she had aged ten years overnight. she couldn t stop shaking. and so i i didn t wanna ask her too many questions. reporter: lizz, remarried now, was an ocean away, living in europe, when she finally got her mother on the phone. what did you hear in her voice? she was just broken and lost. she was just devastated. reporter: and at that point you ve got very fragmented information, huh? yeah, all i knew is my dad was killed in a home invasion. and thankfully, my mom was still alive. reporter: that s just not any kind of news you should ever hear. it s shocking. it really doesn t sink in for a while. you just kind of go into crisis mode. reporter: lizz booked the next flight back to texas. i just knew i had to get there. reporter: had to get back. back to a new reality with a murdered father and a traumatized mother. grieving would have to take a
reporter: two days after the bloody discovery in her childhood home, lizz melgar landed in houston. a daddy s girl shaken even more by the face that was missing. i think at that time, it really hit me that, i wasn t gonna see him anymore. he wasn t going to be there to pick me up from the airport. reporter: a still very rocky sandra came, with family, to pick up her daughter. we both just broke down at the sight of each other. she d been through a terrible ordeal? you don t really know the whole story yet. but did you see injuries on her? she just had bruising on her arms and on her face. did she have a bump on her head? she did. she told me her head was hurting. and i could feel it back there. reporter: lizz insisted her mom get some rest. so the next day, when detectives came by the house where lizz and sandra were staying, the daughter was the one to field their questions. and you flew in, uh, yesterday? yes. that s right. okay. reporter: and lizz, thou