that s correct. the message read, did you make it home okay? keith was quick to point out his relationship with deanna was completely platonic. she s more like a guy friend. no big deal? nothing sexual. no big deal. that s right. after that, keith was released to go and grieve with his family. detective carter, meanwhile, set out to verify keith s story. he had a receipt where he d stayed. so that puts him three hours away from this house fire. correct. and the death of his wife. right. it showed his check-in time and check-out time. a quick check of keith s gun showed he was telling the truth about it, as well. the gun looked as though it had never been fired. so maybe he s not the guy? he may not be. so then, who was? coming up, the detective sits down with deanna. was she really like a guy friend to keith? you could say, what, maybe she s driving events here? maybe she wants to get rid of the wife? that s correct. when dateline: extra continues.
that s correct. we were open for that being an idea or a possibility. in fact, the detective had let her tell her story without ever explaining the reason for his visit. now he laid out his cards. was he not divorced? no. he says, first of all, keith is not divorced. according to him he has been married to his high school sweetheart for 36 years. i just broke down because i couldn t believe it. of course, there was more. we are conducting an investigation and this investigation involves what we believe to be a homicide of his wife. i was in shock. i felt like, oh, my gosh, i can t believe what he just said. i had no idea. you believe she had be played by this guy? i believe she had. detective carter thought if
deanna she couldn t put her finger on it, but there was something about keith that was holding her back. maybe it was the fact that he still seemed unusually bound to a woman he called his ex-wife. from the very beginning, he says, keith told her that he was divorced. very first conversation. i m a divorced guy? right. by the time she was sitting across from detective carter in that interview room, deanna says she and keith had never been intimate. they were dating. keith was talking long-term. house hunting. he said i don t want to scare you, but i want to i m looking for properties here in morrisville to buy for us to be together. for the detective, deanna s story put a whole new spin on the investigation. keith griffith now seemed like a man with a very big secret or was she the one with the secret? you could spin it another way and say maybe she wants to get rid of the wife?
it does. that wouldn t look good to a jury. the development brought aaron to a tipping point. were you no longer wavering at this point? had you come down on the side of, oh my god, my father killed my mother? yeah. yeah. now aaron, too, wrote his dad a letter. if he was guilty it s time. it s time to man up and do what you should have done two years ago. keith s defense attorneys went to the prosecutor to hammer out a plea deal. they agreed on 30 years in prison for the murder and for soliciting the hit. moments later, keith was standing in a paducah courtroom speaking the words his family and friends never in a million years thought they d hear him say. yes, he murdered julie. there s no excuse. for what i did. and i can t take it back. and she was my best friend. and i don t know what happened to me. but i did it. there s nothing i can do about it. temple bradley who works near the courthouse was there. my heart is breaking. that the person that i have that w
julie. they come in, and they dogs started to bark. caused julie to wake up, and they got scared, and they shot her. it made perfect sense. but for detective carter, the burglary theory of the crime wasn t panning out. even as they sorted through the rubble, detectives at the scene found untouched valuables. two saves, a cache of guns, and julie s purse sitting in plain sight. you think an intruder would have grabbed it? you would think so. carter set out to follow the most promising lead he had. who was this woman deanna, the text messager who wondered if keith had made it home okay? he it described her as a guy friend. there was just something about that text message that seemed to stick out, and it seemed to create that question of what s missing here? carter had called ahead to the authorities in the indiana town where deanna lived. they had arranged to bring the woman down to an interview room.