testified for the prosecution, steve allowed his cell phone battery to die. something he never normally did. in general, there was usually a battery in his phone and an extra battery either charged or being charged. did you ever know him to be to not have a phone at the ready if he needed to use it? he didn t. reporter: renee also revealed that a month after the murder, steve told her something that in hindsight seemed very significant. in the evening we would take a walk on the golf course and he picked up a bag on the way out the door one evening and as we were walking told me about the bag and what he was going to do with it. reporter: a getaway bag. which she said he buried on a golf course. and sure enough, with renee s help, detectives found the bag on the golf course. inside were cash, clothing, and
mm-hm. but he s also a very narcissistic personality. you put those together and you can make it difficult to solve a crime. narcissistic? that s what it seemed like to the detective. also seemed to him like steve s girlfriend, renee girard, was protecting him. knew more than she was telling. then renee broke it off with steve. and sechez interviewed her one more time. and remember the anonymous e-mail that claimed carol s murder was linked to an illegal drug ring? oh boy. she told me that mr. democker had informed them during one of their in-person visits at the jail to bring some pencil and paper. there was a glass between them. mr. democker had brought a document with him that he placed on the glass, so that they could view it. reporter: according to renee, steve himself wrote that document. then asked his daughter charlotte, just 17 at
take care of his cancer, which he actually didn t have. he didn t have. reporter: they said knapp desperately wanted to buy a franchise business, a smoothie store, with carol s divorce money. at one point, even introducing carol as his business partner. so was he obsessed with carol? his behavior with this former girlfriend when she tried to break up with him certainly seemed obsessive to her, she said he wouldn t leave her alone. kept sending her e-mails. i m wondering what was this man capable of. was he going to come up and stalk? was he going to do something mean? was he going to hurt me or hurt my family? i felt threatened is what it felt like. and i was scared. reporter: more defense questions? how did jim knapp s fingerprints wind up on those financial documents that were printed the day of the murder and found slipped inside a magazine sitting on carol s kitchen counter? and how did knapp s dna get mixed with carol s blood in a
mr. democker. reporter: steve began dating renee when he was separated from carol. they were together during that tumultuous time, steve s divorce, carol s murder, his arrest. renee had always stood by steve and his family but sechez had a feeling. we were pretty convinced that she knew more than she was telling us. reporter: sechez knew something else too. during the trial renee broke up with steve. so on the eve of her testimony sechez interviewed renee again about that anonymous e-mail. what he discovered? explosive is not too big a word. steve was terrified. the e-mail trail. the money trail. a winding trail of surprises was about to change this case.
similar to the tread we observed of this tire track. and did you find any discernible differences between them? no i did not. reporter: and those shoe prints. they brought in an expert from the fbi. did you find any shoes that seemed to be comparable to the impressions that you observed in these photos from the crime scene? yes. i found one shoe that could have made those impressions. reporter: a la sportiva pike s peak. records showed that steve bought a pair of those shoes two years before the murder. but when detectives searched his house, they didn t find any such shoes. so, intriguing, but hardly proof. prosecutors knew they had a big problem. that anonymous e-mail linking the murder, not to steve, but to jim knapp and illegal drugs. so, even as the trial went on, investigator mike sechez was interviewing and re-interviewing witnesses. including steve s girlfriend, renee girard. it was obvious to me that she was very protective of