of course they kept trying to find some of that to, at tom s place. what did they want from here? they took everything imaginable. shoes, was the biggest thing. at least ten pairs of shoes. and they took other items like a sleeping bag, binoculars. the inside lining of a winter coat. but, not one thing from those searches could link tom to the crime. months passed. a year! and more! back in kansas, brian sisters watched their mother suffer. it got very difficult to talk to her on a daily basis because she was so down. and she wanted answers. she also frequently called agent thompson. and this was curious. so did thompson s prime suspect, tom. he was always wanting to know where we were in the investigation. turns out, tom also had
? i remember walking out of, they re thinking, it turned out exactly the way i thought it would. why did you waste our time? did he? ken thompson did nothing, so of course, but of course i was disappointed. my heart fell, but i truthfully was more at peace that people got to hear it all, because a jury said he was not guilty i don t think that changes things. for most people, the easier believed he did, or he didn t. what do you believe? that he got away with murder. apparently not what the jury believed. we asked judge greg pinsky who spoke to the jurors after the trial. this was an incredibly tough case to prove. it was a tough case to prove in 1998. it became an incredibly tough case to prove in 2015. what did the jury think
something that was worth trying again? yes we had some work to do. i wanted them to go back out and to make sure that everybody is still around. we had to see what kind of shape that the evidence within. evidence was resubmitted to the crime lab. witnesses were re-interviewed. more years past. was there ever a case to be made to just let it go? how do you look at these things? i will let it go if we don t have evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. i will not roll the dice with somebody s life. this is a homicide, we owe it to the family to go forward. and in my borough, that s what we do. and then, in february of 2014, nearly 18 years after the murder, agent ops and traveled to south dakota, with an arrest warrant for tom who heard his name called out one day at work and was assured into the back of a police car. that s when i wondered what the hell is going on here? maybe a minute went by and then ken thompson popped his head
back to dateline it was dusk that monday in montana, after the weekend murder of doctor brian ryan. when investigators drove out to a farm, 11 miles east of geraldine. here, agent can thompson of the local under sheriff contented to confront 23-year-old tom. the young man who was lost in love. and didn t take it well. when you arrived, what was his durham meaner? i think his demeanor was to be helpful. he was welcoming, very polite. when my mom told me about brian, the first thing that i thought was oh they re gonna suspect me. the ex-boyfriend. that is not the case at all. tom admitted loving an, and being upset when he heard another man, dr. ryan, leave a phone message for his live in girlfriend. so what i did is, i called and said right away.
you are not really suggesting that a detective would persuade a prosecutor to go ahead with the case, a favorite case of his, just because he happened to be retiring? yeah. i really am. to which both investigator thompson, and the prosecutor, replied. no, it was justice that they had in mind. not retirement. and when attorney peterson asked the judge to throw out the murder charge? the answer was, oh no. it wasn t going to go away not this time. coming up! it was murder! it was murder that was planned. it was a murder that was premeditated after almost 20 years, the case heads to court. if you ever cheated on me, i will kill him and i will kill you. i think tom had made up his