and he has a gun with him at all times. reporter: shannon s co-worker was concerned and wanted to help. it gets to the point that he offered to sell her a gun, which he did. he named the exact model, and tells me that he gave her bullets to accompany the gun and offered to teach her how to use it. reporter: what kind of gun? it was a .38-caliber revolver. reporter: the same type of gun detectives thought denita s killer might have used. you know, wait a minute. i just finished a interview with her five minutes ago and she told me, i never owned a gun. and in that same interview, i asked her, do you think that jermeir is capable of murder? and she said, no, not at all just like that, no, not at all. but you re telling a co-worker that you re in fear for your life from jermeir. reporter: conflicting stories that cast suspicion on shannon and on jermeir. so that next day detective pate spoke with jermeir stroud once again. he denied ever harassing shannon at work and s
stunned, and then furious. and now my daughter, who is the perfect victim for someone like jermeir stroud, has now been convicted of a murder that he committed. of course, miss smith s family is still in pain, too, i m sure. and we prayed for them constantly. they ve lost a child, but so have we. reporter: and now, nearly five years after that verdict have a seat. reporter: shannon herself has a lot more to say about jermeir stroud and about what happened the day denita died. her very first interview. i don t know jermeir but the voice on the tapes does not sound to me like him. it s him. that s all i can tell you. it s him. and believe it or not, denita s mother has an apology for shannon. i know that was wrong, and i never should have said it.
like jermeir she also worked in law enforcement. he met shannon back in 2000 when he was in the police academy. shannon was a 911 communicator and she was one of the people that was in the training session. reporter: shannon was 21 then. tall, striking, and single, raising two kids. and this is her family. brother keith jr. and her parents anne and keith crawley. she was determined to give her kids a good life and a nice home. and a good education. very caring and loving mother. and if you ask her, she d say, i m just a mom. and that s how she put it, i m just a mom. reporter: now at the durham police department detectives wanted to know more about shannon s relationship with jermeir stroud, so they interviewed jermeir, who was cooperative, but guarded. he said, yeah, she caught my eye. i mean, she s 5 10 , long pretty hair, thin. and we spoke for a short time. that was in 2000. around 2004 they bumped in again
welcome back. north carolina jury found shannon crawly guilty. rejecting her story that stroud was actually the strigtrigger m. she agreed to sit down with us. answering questions and offering new details. the north carolina correctional institution for women in raleigh. it s where you will find shannon crawley today. after weeks of discussions she finally agreed to talk with us behind bars. it s still not too late to say you don t want to do this. you went through a lot of trouble. reporter: but as our cameras rolled, shannon began to tell the story of her relationship with jermeir stroud. he was charming.
she waited so long to tell it? when i asked her, where was this story when i arrested you? her exact words were, he had threatened my children in the past. i was scared for their safety. he knew how to get to my children. and i asked her, what s changed? he still knows where your children are. he still knows how to get to them. he could still hurt them. reporter: and her answer? she just looked at me. everything i ve told you is the truth. but you lied the first time we talked. yes, i did. the second time we talked. the second time we talked i did not lie to you. after i was arrested, i did not lie to you. i told you i didn t do it. that wasn t a lie. i told you that he did. reporter: he was jermeir stroud. shannon s story made him the guilty party, but her story also badly needed to be checked out. that s just a fantastic kind of story. if i m going to dismiss her case i need to make sure i m filling out the dismissal and i put the