so what was the story? the story was a pretty pretty detailed and amazing story. reporter: schrauben described the whole affair on tape, laid detail. anatomy of a murder. the conspiracy was launched with a phone call from tom. he told me he d offer $50,000 to kill his dad. reporter: he met with sandra in a parking lot. she gave him a $5,000 deposit. she wanted jack dead and she wanted it done at the house and to look like a robbery. she told me she would leave for x amount of time and that s when it would need to be done. reporter: schrauben said he hired his good friend, a local drifter, to be the getaway driver. and on the afternoon of august 13th, 1998, while sandra was out having her nails done, schrauben claimed he and his friend drove to the jessee house to murder jack. i was already having a cold feeling on the way there. by the time i was walking down the street, i was really having cold feet.
to begin with, it was 1998. shakespeare in love won the oscar. monica lewinsky was freshly r. famous. it was a sweltering august night, hottest of the year, when cheryl deedham got a strange call from her dad, jack jessee. i was getting ready for bed and my phone rings and it s my dad on the phone. what time was this? 9:20. reporter: he was worried about his wife sandra. she was missing. hi he thought she may have got in an accident or something. reporter: she d run to this nearby mall on a quick errand, said cheryl s dad, but was gone so long.sa would cheryl please find her, asked her dad. went through there, the lucky s, the burger king where she was supposed to be, walmart, back 15 minutes later. reporter: when she went back into her dad s house she found one of the worst sights i ve ever seen in my life. he was laying facedown on the floor in a pool of blood.
same thing again next day. and the day after that. the problem? there was a holdout. it got very heated. yes. in the deliberation room. these members of the jury told us 11 voted for conviction. but there was one lone juror who felt some level of compassion for sandra. she related to the sandra jessee concern that jack jessee s illness would eat up their nest egg. i kind of felt like she was enjoying the control she had. there was nothing, nothing we could do or say. people were getting so heated and there was so much anger that she started to shut down even more. and that scene played out for three and a half days until the judge said enough and declared a mistrial. i was in tears. i was in tears. i was too. and thinking of the family and what they ve gone through. that was heartache. just heartache. mm-hmm. i thought i was going to pass out. yeah. it was horrible.
okay, so what was the plan? what was the nature of your trap, of your mousetrap? we believed that if we did something to get these people uptight, if we were able to rattle the tree, if we were able to put some fear into them that maybe the police were on to them. that they would talk about the murder of jack jessee. so what was the little piece of cheese you put into that trap? we nailed a simple copy of the newspaper article when jack jessee was murdered anonymously to sandra jessee, tom aehlert, and brett schrauben. the significance of that was they didn t know we knew about brett schrauben. they re going to know something s up. reporter: sure enough, as soon as tom heard brett got an anonymous letter, he called his mother, sandra. whoever was sending out all that crap sent one to brett too. give me a break. really. you re kidding. no. why would i kid about something
dove. yes i can t tell you, move on. there was no hope of new evidence or fingerprints or dna, just the infuriating puzzle, which had become more difficult with each passing year. after i reviewed the case, i had no feeling for the family, no feeling for jack jessee. reporter: so to get his hand in the game, dove met with the people closest to jack. like his brother david. and when i met with david, he inspired me. his determination not to let the love for his brother go was a big motivating factor. reporter: but david also had some provocative information. something jack told him after arguing with sandra about moving to arizona. if anything ever happens to me, he says, it s her. reporter: not the only time jack said such a thing, it turned out. he actually told me, i wouldn t be surprised if the bitch killed me. he said that. reporter: so dove picked