possibly do any harm to carroll. and and so, three months after carole was killed, they arrested steve on the charge of first degree murder! steve sister, sharon i m trying to imagine what it was like for the family. this amazing, accomplished, interesting, intelligent family. when, the child was . a woman who you all loved! it was a total shock. they do not understand. if they knew him, they would see how wrong and impossible this was. even worse, prosecutors filed for the death penalty. any chance for bail for steve, given the charge, was remote. still, the whole family gathered in court for the hearing. which, coincidence, had been scheduled for christmas eve, 2008. and then, it was delayed. it was this crushing blow,
he did not flee, did he? he was not able to, no. okay. there s another term of art. it s a very simple question. did mr. democker flee or not? that s a yes or no question. no, he did not flee. reporter: and steve s sister sharon had a simple explanation for those coincidences the night of the murder. the circumstantial evidence. like his dead cellphone battery. i think most of us with cellphones can appreciate that later in the day it s not uncommon for the battery to go. but their ears perked up when he drew the route and part of it came within a mile of the house on bridle path. well, he lived out there. for many years. so that was a favored trail. they also made a great deal of the tracks that they found in the property. the shoe prints that must ve been his, the tire tracks that must ve been his. nobody knows whose those are.
and i think that is really a testimony to the kind of parents they were. but the girls where their first priority. she became the dean of prescott college-y. she taught psychology there. but, life is a river. never the same for long. steve decided to change careers. left the academic life, became a financial adviser, very successful to. and there were other changes, more difficult once. nobody knows all of what goes on inside a marriage, but i had to talk to both of them about it. and their lives were moved in different directions. as much as they still cared for each other, there was infidelities. steve had an affair. they decided to separate. carol loved steve fiercely. she fought hard for her marriage until the end. but in 2008, after more than 25 years of marriage, time living apart.
to the charges steve was facing. but fraud is certainly not what it was, said defense investigator rich robertson. these girls voluntarily, on their own, believing in their father s innocence, dedicated money that they inherited to defend him. how can that be wrong? the girls decided to use that money for their dad s defense. there was no fraud, or the insurance company would have been the first one to say, hey, we got a problem here. so, was that just piling on, on the part of the prosecution? yeah. reporter: the much bigger issue for the defense, said investigator robertson, was that phony e-mail. an e-mail the attorneys presented in court as real. because, they said, they, too, were duped by steve. suddenly, the attorneys are in an awkward legal ethical kind of posture and in relationship to their client.
july 2nd, 2008, about 11 pm. stephen and his daughter charlotte, and her boyfriend jay, we re eating a very late dinner. he had taken a few more bites of his dinner. by that point, charlotte and i were pretty close to being finished. that s when steve told them about a strange phone call that she received from her brother. that said apparently her home phone cut out while she was talking to her mother ruth. how did charlotte react to that? she was worried. charlotte said she texted her mother earlier that weekend, and everything had been fine. but now, she called her. voice mail. hey mom, it sure. i heard from grandmother that something happened and she is kind of worried about you. so i m just calling to see if everything is okay. and i m kind of getting worried