i called my mom and she didn t answer. i pretty much knew in my heart that something was wrong. a mother vanished. i cried myself to sleep. it was awful realizing your worst nightmare had come true. a family anguished. she s gone. do you have any idea how hard that was? now, the questions begin in a southern gothic mystery. the case is puzzling. we did not really know what had happened. who would everett manage and you would have a murder in the family. soon there would be secrets. we were dealing with a person that was leading a double life. and one of them, would prove deadly. have you ever said, i know you did this? it hurts too much for me to say it out loud. hello. and welcome to dateline. it s a case that centers on the mother who had gone missing in a small town secret, that led to a very big surprise. here s keith morrison. suppose for a minute you are sitting in your car. smacked up in the middle of tuscaloosa alabama. and you poin
stressed out those cat last weeks of her life. the night of the casino trip teresa told kelsey, don gave her xanax, the anti anxiety medication, just to calm her down. dawn told her. it is certainly did that. out like a light calm, for two whole days. i looked at her, i said teresa, you need to stay away from that woman, she is no friend of yours. how did she respond to that? she said i ve learned my lesson. or maybe she did not. because the morning of the murder, teresa had arranged to run errands with dawn, or at least that s what dawn said. and then it all click together. dawn on the dirt road, a gun in a plastic bag, teresa s car window down as though she knew her killer. sheriff alice and corporate boyd, picked apart dawns early interview with a suspicious i. they pulled her phone records and there it was plain as day. dawns lies caught by selling phone technology. it painted a clearer picture, that don was in the location of
while we was out at the crime scene, scott had had a young lady come pick up the boys. it was only later when the fog of grief had lifted, that one of teresa s relatives wonder to police, who was that woman, hanging around the day trees that died? ellis and boyd tracked her down. and what they discovered, well that changed everything. or seems to. the person they were talking to was scott s mistress. she was under the impression that scott was not married at that time. what did you make of that when you heard? we knew that was not correct. a love triangle, jealous home wrecker kills wave claims husband? no, not even close. scott s girlfriend thought his marriage was over, his divorce finalized. what was her reaction to getting the real story? she must have been upset. more hurt probably than upset, because i think she had
get don talking, wrangle from her something that was sounded like a confession. ellis and boyd outfitted don cell mate with a digital recorder, no bigger than a matchbox. and on a friday afternoon, as an unsuspecting dawn sat in her cell reviewing her case file, her soulmate walked in and waiting for some incriminating tidbit. which she got instead was the whole sickening story. here s what dawn told her cell mate about the morning to release it was killed. around 7 am. dawn called teresa with a lie to set the plan in motion. no more vacation days. i told her my car was dead. she claims her car had broken down. could teresa pick her up. of course she said yes. finish drying her hair got into her car. made the short drive to the dirt road and they re standing
another and eventually an inescapable conclusion. but prosecutor evans, had questions, pointed. ones you could tell it was going to be difficult. where was the smoking? gun where was the murder? weapon where was even one single plug fingerprints tying dawn to the crime? as far as physical evidence, we did not have any. it was truly circumstantial, because we didn t really know anything about what had happened. as far as evans could see, the case was maybe a best. she had no reason to kill teresa. so to bring a case against her, would be pretty tough, i would think. the case with dawn is puzzling. when you are working with a circumstantial case, every piece of evidence is definitely important. how could corporal boyd and sheriff ellis thought for second they were wrong. they believe dawn was the killer. they told the prosecutor not