nick s family because you have reporter: to make a complete all my cash. family, a desire that only intensified once charlie came along. so if you want to give me the she wanted her son to be the cash, i m give it back to you best person he could be. and would stop at nothing to make sure that he got that. and you can do what you want. reporter: and that was it. reporter: around bixby knolls maybe not exactly the words detective birdsall hoped to the schockners were considered a hear, but after weeks of dead ends and intense pressure, perfectly normal, if upscale, getting fred on tape saying family. those things finally made his certainly not the kind of people case. who would be targeted by drug what was the mood in the van you were sitting in? dealers. of course, members of the family it was elation. we got enough. had a slightly more intimate reporter: finally, enough perspective. evidence to arrest him. mark, for example, loved his but they didn t. sister but found fred
come over, and they noticed stuff, and it was weird for them to notice things and to comment on it. but yeah, it was always just that s what families did. reporter: year after year it went on, said charlie, until his mother came to whisper her own secret. she was finally going to leave fred. my mom was tucking me in at night when i was 12 or so, and she was talking about how she was thinking about doing this and that she was so nervous about doing it and didn t know if it was the right choice or what to do about it. reporter: what d you think? my first thought was very excited because it was just great to be able to think of getting away from him. reporter: and then, finally, more than a year later lynn hired family law attorney lisa brandon. what did she tell you she wanted from you? she wanted a fair division of the property. reporter: but, said lisa, fred controlled all the finances.
lynn s husband of 25 years. i love them so much. reporter: and so in a sad, on the surface, it didn t make strange way, out of unimaginable much sense. evil and loss came love. after all, fred had been cooperative with detectives from day one. a real family. and yes, he had moved out of the family house, but he told them an unexpected blessing. the break was amicable. what s he done for you she was my best friend, he said. personally, having him in your life? and yet, not long after the murder, yuck charlie south out detective birdsall and whispered an awful question. it s like getting another life. did my dad have something to do with this? reporter: charlie remembers what they told him. like somebody opened a door and the detective was very quick said, here s a second chance. to assure me that they have no suspicions of that. reporter: got a reason to get up in the morning these days. they don t think that would be something that was happening. damn straight. and if the
moved to california with a brand new husband. it didn t work out. ended pretty quickly. but then one day she went to a ball game, dodgers versus somebody, who knows? and she found him. the right guy. her guy. fred schockner. he was almost 14 years older than she was but didn t seem to matter. didn t hurt either that fred was a very successful man. anyway, this time it clicked. they had an intimate wedding on a boat off the california coast. the captain did the honors, and they lived alone together in that house in bixby knolls until finally, after 11 years, they had a son who grew up to be charlie. as parents, they encouraged him to try new things. it was one of the olympics. and we were watching gymnastics, and i turned around to my parents and go, i m going to do that. and i think like a month later i enrolled in gymnastics. so it was very much a supportive environment.
call it what you want. reporter: she got married, moved to california with a brand-new husband. it didn t work out. ended pretty quickly. but then one day she went to a ball game, dodgers versus somebody, who knows? and she found him. the right guy. her guy. fred schockner. he was almost 14 years older than she was but didn t seem to matter. didn t hurt either that fred was a very successful man. anyway, this time it clicked. they had an intimate wedding on a boat off the california coast. the captain did the honors, and they lived alone together in that house in bixby knolls until finally, after 11 years, they had a son who grew up to be charlie. as parents, they encouraged him to try new things. it was one of the olympics. and we were watching gymnastics, it might be trite to say