thank you for watching. i m craig melvin. and i m natalie morales. and this is dateline! he said he couldn t handle talking about it. i was angry at him. if you re not going to tell me what happened, then you re going to dance around the issue and tell three different stories, what are you hiding? it started as a teen romance. two of my girlfriends are like, there s this guy, and you need to meet him. i was in love, yes. it ended in one of the strangest love stories you ll ever hear. i felt like i got hit by a bus. right before their wedding, her mother and his father got married. they told us, we ran off, we eloped. who does that? two families and a small town left stunned. but it was nothing compared to what happened next. he looks like he s been shot. he said someone broke in last night. a deadly attack in the dark of night. her mother murdered. i realized that last conversation i had with her, that was it. his father bruised and bewildered.
bus. right before their wedding, her mother and his father got married. they told us, we ran off, we eloped. who does that? two families and a small town left stunned. but it was nothing compared to what happened next. he looks like he s been shot. he said someone broke in last night. a deadly attack in the dark of night. her mother murdered. i realized that last conversation i had with her, that was it. his father bruised and bewildered. i don t remember anything else, other than waking up in the morning. was it a robbery? the television s on. was it darker? you re always going to look at the closest people to the victim. or was it something much darker? you were 11 years old when your mother disappeared. a missing woman, a murdered woman, and a lie. i didn t get through more than a page and a half, and i threw it. i could barely stomach to finish it. but the family was rocked by scandal and then murder. aaron s father was found at the cri
Sure. of course, they would need to look at shannon and aaron, too, given their falling out with pam and ralph. but they were cleared almost immediately, because they were nowhere around? yeah, they were not involved. dead-end. the crime scene people did find some things, mind you, including a bloody fireplace poker that turned out to be the murder weapon. the marking on her head was the exact replica of the shape of the fire poker, the end of the poker. they cataloged everything they found. broken glass in the backdoor. they even took the knobs off drawers and sent them to the lab hoping the intruders left dna or fingerprints on them. then, quite unexpected, something remarkable turned up. and right through the front door of the local newspaper so what did you think when you first read that document? i felt i had my own little version of the pentagon papers in a way. coming up, a letter that had everyone in town talking. i remember reading it and
Defendant, ralph leroy candelario, guilty of count number one of first degree murder. reporter: guilty. but the end of ralph s story? oh, no. on the day set aside for his sentencing ralph decided the plot needed one more twist. the jail issued him a safety razor to clean up for court. ralph used it to slash his wrists and throat. his own son was not sympathetic. well, you know, the sucker would rather go out than actually face his destiny that way. reporter: suicide attempt, delaying tactic, whatever it was it didn t work. a day later the judge ordered ralph back to court. people versus ralph lee candelario sentencing. reporter: and ralph,
Plot needed one more twist. the jail issued him a safety razor to clean up for court. ralph used it to slash his wrists and throat. his own son was not sympathetic. well, you know, the sucker would rather go out than actually face his destiny that way. reporter: suicide attempt, delaying tactic, whatever it was it didn t work. a day later the judge ordered ralph back to court. people versus ralph lee candelario sentencing. reporter: and ralph, bandaged up, got another day in the spotlight. your honor, i have maintained that i have been innocent through this whole process. reporter: and then a keen observer might almost have heard the jaws drop around the courtroom. pam will be resurrected. we will be able to see her again. we will be able to watch her laugh and sing and do all the things that made her such a special person. and in that regard, i put my hope in that