and i had never taken time to actually think about it. i reporter: well, detective gibson did, a couple of years before, when he took your statement, right? but it again, i didn t know why he was askin me. i didn t know what was going on. and i gave the story i always gave. so when i had to sit there and think about it, i had to be honest with myself. and it wasn t the answer i wanted. i wish i could say i really do wish i could say, yes, i remember her, or, no, i know i didn t see her. reporter: but you cannot say that? but i cannot say that. reporter: and this is not you getting back at your dad who you re very sideways with, at this point? no, because it hurts my reporter: he needs that story and you re not gonna give it to him? no, because it hurts my brothers, too for me not to honestly say, yes, i saw her. but i m gonna say what i can remember, which is nothing. it s a black hole. it s a traumatizing event. and when kids go through traumatizing events,
school not hours earlier, as the detective suspected. if he d been disappointed in lyndsay s answer, he didn t show it. but he did make a request that caught her off guard. if you do talk to your dad, only thing that i would ask is that you not discuss the fact that i came and talked to you yet. what did you think was happening? i didn t know, especially when he said, don t tell your father i was here. what s that mean? and i went back to where i was living and just sat there and thought, what is going on? and then it slowly hit me. reporter: she realized the detective for whatever reason suspected her father had something to do with her mother s sudden death. even so, she kept her promise and did not tell her father about the visit. in the meantime, detective gibson was waiting to hear from dr. jane turner, the assistant medical examiner for the city of st. louis. he had hired her to review that old autopsy report. the thing that struck me first just looking at t
coming up a daughter s difficult decision. i don t know what s in lyndsay s head and in her heart. one day she was happy then everything changed. and a mother recounts what she says was curtis bizarre behavior the day her daughter died. i open the door and he hands me larson. and says? oh, and by the way, cory s dead. when dateline continues. with uncontrolled moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, you feel like you re itching all the time. and you never know how your skin will look. because deep within your skin an overly sensitive immune system could be the cause. so help heal your skin from within, with dupixent. dupixent is not a steroid, and it continuously treats your eczema even when you can t see it. at 16 weeks, nearly four times more patients taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin compared to those not taking it,
reporter: so therefore she couldn t have been dead upstairs and right. reporter: dying and rigor mortis setting in. right. reporter: because we saw her alive. uh-huh yes. reporter: the boys sister lyndsay, had also told police two separate times her mom was alive that morning, had seen her off to school on valentine s day. she was standing in the front hall like marching us out the door like she always did. reporter: on the day of her father s arrest, lyndsay was away at college when she had an emotional talk with her brothers. talked to em on the phone the day he got arrested. and they passed the phone around and they were sobbing cause they were scared. hold on. hold on. and they asked me to come home, and that was the last thing i ever said to them like, ever talked to them. reporter: that s when another tragedy unfolded within the lovelace family. around the time of curtis arrest his relationship with his daughter once again deteriorated. the family do
if you leave it there through the night, and while rigor mortis is setting in, and then if a person is thinking, oh, my god. what did i do? and, oh, there s that pillow in her i m going to get rid of that pillow, then the arms are already up. reporter: and you think that s what happened? yes. reporter: but then came, perhaps, the most anticipated testimony for the prosecution. lyndsay, curtis own daughter, took the stand. two times, over a span of eight years, she told police her mother was alive that morning. she said she had felt better. reporter: but on the stand, with her dad s life on the line, she changed her story. telling jurors she was no longer sure her mom was alive that day. don t remember any of it. reporter: but it doesn t stick in your memory? nope. reporter: and yet, detective baird s notes, you do tell him the story about seeing your mother. and then with the videotaped interview with detective gibson, you seem quite clear about that mornin