she s starting to lose jobs. it s like all hell broke loose in her head. reporter: but murder? remember, the police went to see dawn just a couple of hours after ben was killed, found her fast asleep. what time did you think you went to sleep? oh, god. i watched the movie the depart departed and i don t know, about 4:00. in fact, she happened to be sharing her bedroom with a 21-year-old family friend named james matlian. we watched a movie and went to bed. yeah, that s her story. that s it. reporter: not exactly a convincing alibi. any more than the obvious fiction that james, the new man in her life, was just a friend. even less convincing, when detective ron elgis learned about a trip to a 7-eleven store, middle of the night, about an hour and a half before the murder. why are they hiding little pieces that s seem insignificant to what is going on? then we started to do surveillance on them. now they re starting to get
remember, the police went to see dawn a couple hours after ben was killed, found her fast asleep. what time did you think you went to sleep? oh, gosh, i watched a movie the departed and i don t know, about 4:00. in fact, she happened to be sharing her bedroom with a 21-year-old family friend named james matlean. we watched a movie and went to bed. yeah, that s our story. that s it. reporter: not exactly a convincing alibi. any more than the obvious fiction that james, a new man in her life, was just a friend. even less convincing when detective ron elgis learned about a trip to a 7-eleven store, middle of the night, an hour and a half before the murder. why are they hiding little piece that s seem insignificant to what is going on? then we started to do surveillance on them. now they re starting to get worry because they think we are
her teenage son, devin, watched his mother fall apart. she started to lose jobs. it s like all hell broke loose in her head. reporter: but murder? remember, the police went to see dawn a couple hours after ben was killed, found her fast asleep. what time did you think you went to sleep? oh, gosh, i watched a movie, the departed and descent. i don t know, about 4:00. in fact, she happened to be sharing her bedroom with a 21-year-old family friend named james. yeah we watched a movie and went to bed. yeah, that s our story. that s it. reporter: not exactly a convincing alibi. any more than the obvious fiction that james, a new man in her life, was just a friend. even less convincing when detective ron elgis learned about a trip to a 7-eleven store, middle of the night, about an hour and a half before the murder. why are they hiding little piece that s seem insignificant to what was going on. then we started to do
sheriff. i really need to know. i honestly don t know. alyssa was 6 by this time, was the only bhoewho remembered seeing anything unusual. she saw a shadow in her doorway looking at her and then the shadow left. she went back to sleep and then melissa came in and grabbed her and was talking to 911. the detective discovered the bullet that killed ben was a number 8 birdshot, the same ammunition discovered in craig s room. so the question for craig i apologize, but i have to, did you kill craig? no, i di i
widow the rest of your life? yeah. reporter: detective elgas, of course, was keeping track and trying not to be judgmental. she has to do what she needs to do to heal. it doesn t mean i wasn t paying attention to what was going on. reporter: months passed and he scratched away at the few paltry leads, a certain clarity began to emerge. despite his own early suspicions and those of others, hard evidence against melissa just didn t materialize. in fact, he couldn t help thinking she probably didn t do it. she was so startled, she went into a fight or flight response and just jumped out of bed. and then went to a normal reaction which is what s going on? reporter: that s when she discovered he has been shot. but there was another reason melissa dropped down the detective s list of suspects. and that reason was a certain someone else who it became clear did not like that love story we