they would receive their inheritance at the age of 30. did you determine how old ernest was? i did. ernest scherer iii the third would turn 30 in july. and his parents were killed in march. bernie s father had a couple million invested in real estate, though at the time of his death the value of the state was certainly shrinking right along with housing prices. still, was it even remotely possible ernie would kill his parents to cash in on an inheritance? the detectives had a look at bernie s financial decision. and you know how some professional poker players claim claim they win a lot? maybe not. at least not in ernie s case. we learned that he had 60 some odd thousand dollars in credit card debt. and he also, in talking with different casinos, he had lost a significant amount of money in the tune of 80,000 or $90,000 in his play in the last year.
the defense would argue that in a way, the prosecution put this man s lifestyle on trial. i mean he was raised as a mormon. somebody should? yes, all other things being equal, his lifestyle counted against him. all other things being equal his life still counted as not equal. of course, all things that equal, and they were a couple of jurors that held up for a while. in the end, it came down to this. too many coincidences, way too many. just taken by themselves they could be explained? they could be. but you put them all together and it doesn t work. and so earnest scherer iii was found guilty. two counts of first degree murder, two consecutive life sentences with no parole. his sister catherine, daughter of the victims, spoke publicly for the first time outside of the courtroom. it s hard. to have to talk about my parents, and the loss, they are
offended in my life. by then the bloom had faded. wasn t going to be a marriage or children. for probably the last six months of our relationship, i think we both knew that it wasn t going anywhere. and in february of 2008 they broke it off. so maybe that s why weeks later she didn t hear right away about what happened. we need emergency. we need everybody now. what kind of problem? i don t know. didn t hear about the grisly double murder or that one of the victims was named ernest scherer. coming up, was one of the victims the man she had loved? it didn t seem like something like that could have really happened to someone i know. when dateline continues. leand tick prot. frontline plus. trusted by vets for nearly 20 years.
for seven years, living all over the world. and i can t imagine what it would be like to have a job where your responsibility is to teach people how to relax and have fun and do it in a wonderful setting. it was the best job. in which she learned to embrace moments of fun. new experiences. but learn something too about how to read people. or so she thought. and now here she was april 2006, noisy casino, observing a craps game. the gentleman standing right to my side turned around and said do you want me to explain the game to you? so he did and we started chatting. like any woman in her mid 30s likes to do i made sure he didn t have a wedding ring as he started to flirt with me a little it. and he asked if i want to go to dinner that night. and i said i m going to dinner anyway, so why not? her dinner date, a man named ernest scherer iii. there was not that awkward
happened to someone i know. not her ernie, thankfully, but ernie s parents. ernest scherer jr. and his wife, charlene abendroth, murdered. found dead in their own house, which was coincidentally in an upscale country club right across the san francisco bay from adrian s hotel. and now, of course, the house was a crime scene where even the seasoned lead detective scott dudek was horrified by what he saw. it was probably the most gruesome brutal homicide scene i ve ever seen. it was march 14th, 2008, when the call came in. a country club employee had seen what looked like a body through the scherers window. detective kirsten tucker was one of the first at the scene. as i approached the front door of the home, i could smell the odor of decay and blood from quite a distance away. and inside was like a war zone. blood everywhere. and the battered bodies of two people who had clearly fought