he married the woman of his dreams, beautiful and sweet. she was just angelic. and was folded into her tight-knit family headed by an elderly religious matriarch. you were either part of their family or you weren t. together they had a little girl, sydney. when their marriage fell apart, her family closed ranks. in their view, sydney was their property. one day he went to pick up his little girl for a visit and was never seen alive again. he died right there. dad?ut who would kill a devoted the unbelievable choice, his golden girl wife or the gracious family matriarch? they seemed so loving, but was there another side. it s a monster that comes out of a closet. it s very ugly. how dark is that side? murderous. but which one was the killer? hello and welcome to dateline. he was a man suddenly confronted with something monstrous, evil at the door. this story is a mystery about a father of two young daughters. one night he left to pick up one of them an
their family or you weren t. together they had a little girl, sydney. when their marriage fell apart, her family closed ranks. in their view, sydney was their property. one day he went to pick up his little girl for a visit and was never seen alive again. he died right there. but who would kill a devoted dad? the unbelievable choice, his golden girl wife or the gracious family matriarch? they seemed so loving, but was there another side. it s a monster that comes out of a closet. it s very ugly. how dark is that side? murderous. but which one was the killer? hello and welcome to dateline. he was a man suddenly confronted with something monstrous, evil at the door. this story is a mystery about a father of two young daughters. one night he left to pick up one of them and never came back. the question for investigators wasn t what happened. it was who did it. in the home of a god-fearing family in one of the smallest of american towns, the worst of crimes.
no fingerprints on it. were gun residue tests performed on the people inside that house at the time of the shooting? they were not. no blood spatter was found on any of the family s clothing. investigators had no physical evidence proving any one person had murdered stephen watkins, even though he was clearly shot to death inside the skinner home. all they had was statements from first responders claiming shirley skinner, an elderly woman who was very upset and agitated at the time said she shot stephen. did she really mean to say that? did they really hear her right? who was the shooter? to solve that mystery they would look into the inner workings of the tight-knit skinner family, and they say what they found there helped them finally get to the bottom of who pulled the trigger and why. coming up, investigators have questions about the golden girl who held sway over the entire clan. it s a monster that comes out of a closet. it s very, very ugly, very
he would talk about his kids at work. they all knew alex and sydney had a pretend bake session. he had animal crackers he was putting in the toy oven and playing with his kids. how many fathers do that? everyone thought stephen was such a great guy, such a great dad. who would kill him? ultimately mike vujovich, then with the state attorney s appellate prosecutors office and sergeant kelly walter, now a colonel with the illinois state police took over the investigation. they focused on a key question, who pulled the trigger. the forensic evidence was no help. was the weapon tested for dna? it was. was anything found? nothing. no fingerprints on it at all? no fingerprints on it. were gun residue tests performed on the people inside that house at the time of the shooting? they were not. no blood spatter was found on any of the family s clothing. investigators had no physical evidence proving any one person had murdered stephen watkins, even though he was clearly shot
putting in the toy oven and playing with his kids. how many fathers do that? everyone thought stephen was such a great guy, such a great dad. who would kill him? ultimately mike vujovich, then with the state attorney s appellate prosecutors office and sergeant kelly walter, now a colonel with the illinois state police took over the investigation. they focused on a key question, who pulled the trigger. the forensic evidence was no help. was the weapon tested for dna? it was. was anything found? nothing. no fingerprints on it at all? no fingerprints on it. were gun residue tests performed on the people inside that house at the time of the shooting? they were not. no blood spatter was found on any of the family s clothing. investigators had no physical evidence proving any one person had murdered stephen watkins, even though he was clearly shot to death inside the skinner home. all they had was statements from first responders claiming