though such a club was never found, the golf sock was evidence it existed, said the prosecution, and the shape of carol s wounds confirmed it. then, to bolster an alibi, as his ex-girlfriend renee girard 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 a cell phone, and a pen light. also, after steve was arrested, they conducted more searches. in his storage unit, they found books about how to cover your tracks and live as a fugitive. at an apartment he rented in scottsdale, arizona, they found something interesting in the parking garage. i believe it was a bmw motorcycle that the detectives showed me that was in the parking garage. they believe that he had recently purchased it. reporter: and inside these locked cases, they later learned, steve had maps, clothing, hair dye, makeup, and fifteen thousand dollars in cash. charlotte, who still believed her father was innocent, reluctantly testified for the prosecution. put on the spot, she had to agree she knew he was thinking of running. and under a grant of immunity she admitted that she
it was obvious to me that she was very protective of 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. that was one doozy of a mistake. the e-mail trail. the money trail. a winding trail of surprises was about to change this case.
a criminalist compared them with the tires on steve s bike. the tread on this tire is 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.
reporter: mornings dawned cooler in the arizona mountains, the summer flags in the town square were stored away for another year. and the murder trial of steve democker ticked into its fifth, fitful month. the prosecution had amounted to circumstantial bits and pieces to that point. and investigator mike sechez knew that steve was likely to mount a strong defense. mr. democker is a very intelligent individual. 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.