diane newton, the feeling was mutual. was he over all the time? yes. yeah, he practically lived at our house. reporter: when denise went off to college in minnesota, nathan, a year younger, soon followed. to no one s surprise, the couple got engaged a year later. diane knew it was coming. i wasn t surprised when he was the first one that she dated and they ended up getting married. reporter: that was in july 1995. i was always very happy being a wife and a mother, so i was happy for her that she had found someone to love and to share her life with. right before we did our vows, denise had prepared a song talking about everything that she wanted was in me. and that our marriage was gonna be the kind that she had always hoped for and had dreamed for as a little child. and um, it was a wonderful day. reporter: after the young couple settled in their home town of peoria, illinois, denise went to work at an insurance company while nathan started a career in sales.
after many years of working overseas as missionaries, the leuthold family had returned to peoria, illinois. denise, nathan and their three kids seth, 12, julia, 10, and jenelle, four, were living with denise s parents. nathan says it felt good to be home. we had tremendous friends and family here in the states. and that s always what we missed the most. reporter: being back in the states also gave nathan an opportunity to travel to churches, where he reported on his and denise s missionary work and raised more funds so they could soon return to lithuania. in the u.s. they could also celebrate holidays american-style as they did on valentine s day, 2013. as is our tradition on holidays, whether it s easter or christmas or birthdays or valentine s, for the children we
wrong. i thought i told my husband to slow down. i wanted to get a good look at him. and i was worried that he saw us pulling out of our driveway and if we knew we were gone, that he d rob us. reporter: she didn t recognize the man that day, but later when she looked at a police photo lineup, she quickly pointed to this man. and it turned out to be nathan leuthold. did you think it was possible when you re looking at this photo lineup maybe you d seen nathan in the neighborhood and subconsciously you were choosing that photo because you d already seen him before? no. reporter: why were you so sure? because of the look on his face. i knew i didn t make a mistake. and i was very careful when i looked at the photos so i would not make a mistake. when she testified, you could hear a pin drop in that courtroom. i mean, everybody was glued to her testimony. i don t think there s a person in that courtroom that disbelieved what she was saying. reporter: prosecutors said it
i immediately go through the front door and flip the outside lights on. the car leaves. reporter: then a few days before the murder, he said it happened again. similar situation, but this time into the neighbor s driveway. reporter: that time, nathan called police, and spoke with an officer. he said they probably were people that were out his phrase was, casing the neighborhood. reporter: people in peoria, illinois, were spooked. could a brazen burglar willing to kill be on the loose? it caused a lot of stress in the neighborhoods. i mean the local school down the street they locked it down that day. this is a very quiet neighborhood, this stuff doesn t happen in this neighborhood. if you come down here during the day, the kids are out riding their bikes in the side streets. people were in the park walking around. it s not like a high crime area where there s gunshots all the time, things like that. so you know, it was enough to scare everybody. reporter: it was a b
he s taking this woman in her early 20s, an exchange student, to the spa? yeah, to get massages and to get her waxed up. my stuff would be in the front yard if my wife found out that i was waxing up a 20-year-old. it just didn t make no sense. and i just kept on her, explain that. and then i even asked her, what exactly is he waxing up? and she just would glare, i ain t answering that. reporter: they also asked her about the bill, which nathan paid. she framed it up as, hey, it s his money and it s denise s money, too. so if he s spending the money, she should be all right with it. did you outright ask her, were you having a sexual relationship yeah. with nathan? yeah. and what was his response? she denied it. reporter: then, aina mentioned something that sparked their curiosity. she had studied music her whole life. and had gone to college in florida to play the piano. but, she told detectives, she d left the school because of problems with her hands.