when investigators heard that. and something clicked in their memories from when they firs search through steve s house there were golf clubs in hi garage so let s go back and sees them, right? yes seize them and examine them. to determine if these golf clubs were used as the murde weapon so it sounds like, like a ah-ha moment right? it s one of those moments that you go, oh my goodness! we may have overlooked something. so they return to steve condo. sees the golf clubs from the garage and tested them, but could n find any evidence that any o them was the murder weapon but there was something else in the first search of the condo, a detective remembere seeing a golf club cover, or a golf sock on a shelf and when they looked at th photos, there was. but when they searched the garage a second time, it was gone and the shelf itself had, apparently been rearranged
it was a brain tumor. and everybody waited for 5 weeks until a brand new judge was appointed, so they could pick up with testimony right where they left off. and that s when the jurors finally got to hear what became of the missing golf cover. go ahead and open your evidence bag please. reporter: detective theresa kennedy showed it to the jurors and the judge explained a stipulation made by the attorneys. on july 5, 2008 reporter: turned out, days after carol s murder, steve gave the golf sock to his attorney, john sears. who kept it in his locked office until steve s arrest. that s when sears turned it over to law enforcement. reporter: so was the curious case of the migrating club sock an attempt to cover up a murder, or a bit of confusion. an investigative dead end? prosecutors weren t done, mind you. they next tried to tie steve to the crime scene. they didn t find any of steve s dna or fingerprints at carol s house, but they did see those tire tracks. a criminalist com
then, former boyfriend jacob about the weird business of the golf club cover. the golf sock that appeared in a photo in steve s garage, night of the murder, but was gone when detectives returned with another search warrant. the implication, of course, was that the cover fit the club, never found, that killed carol. jacob said that after the detectives left he talked to steve. what was that conversation? the golf head sock cover was found after they had left. he said, he had found it? yes. did he say what he was going to do with it? he didn t know whether or not to turn it into the police or give it to his lawyer. reporter: implying, said the prosecution, that steve knew the golf sock could incriminate him, and didn t know what to do with it. but just as the case seemed to be building momentum, two weeks into the trial, judge thomas lindberg left the bench at lunch break and suddenly collapsed.
though such a club was never found, the golf sock was evidence it existed, said the prosecution, and the shape of carol s wounds confirmed it. then, to bolster an alibi, as his ex-girlfriend renee girard testified for the prosecution, steve allowed his cellphone battery to die. something he never normally did. in general, there was usually a battery in his phone and an extra battery either charged or being charged. did you ever know him to be to not have a phone at the ready if he needed to use it? i didn t. reporter: renee also revealed that a month after the murder, steve told her something that in hindsight seemed very significant. in the evening we would take a walk on the golf course and he picked up a bag on the way out the door one evening and as we were walking told me about the bag and what he was going to do with it. reporter: a getaway bag. which she said he buried on a golf course. and sure enough, with renee s
appear suicide. reporter: those e-mails and texts messages, carol and steve arguing in the days before her death, were read to the jury. a crime scene analyst claimed the blood spatter indicated the killer was left handed. with the position that i think is the most comfortable position, i would think that they re swinging from the left. reporter: and steve was left handed. remember the golf sock in the garage? it was made, said the prosecution, for a now missing left handed club. so here, at last, was the state s theory about how steve killed his ex-wife. days before the murder, said the state, he dropped off that club at carol s house, supposedly for her to sell in an upcoming garage sale, but left the golf sock in his garage. and then, the night of the murder, he sneaked into her house, and used that club to kill her.