oh boy. she told me that mr. democker had informed them during one of their in-person visits at the jail to bring some pencil and paper. there was a glass between them. mr. democker had brought a document with him that he placed on the glass, so that they could view it. reporter: according to renee, steve himself wrote that document. then asked his daughter charlotte, just 17 at the time, to copy it down. mr. democker then asked them to send that document which became known as the anonymous e-mail to mr. sears and to the prosecutor s office. reporter: mr. sears was john sears. one of steve s defense attorneys. steve s reasoning, according to steve s sister sharon, he d heard that story from an inmate in that air-vent conversation and desperately wanted to get
reporter: mornings dawned cooler in the arizona mountains, the summer flags in the town square were stored away for another year. and the murder trial of steve democker ticked into its fifth, fitful month. the prosecution had amounted to circumstantial bits and pieces to that point. and investigator mike sechez knew that steve was likely to mount a strong defense. mr. democker is a very intelligent individual. mm-hm. but he s also a very narcissistic personality. you put those together and you can make it difficult to solve a crime. narcissistic? that s what it seemed like to the detective. also seemed to him like steve s girlfriend, renee girard, was protecting him. knew more than she was telling. then renee broke it off with steve. and sechez interviewed her one more time. and remember the anonymous e-mail that claimed carol s murder was linked to an illegal drug ring?
i sent an anonymous e-mail. reporter: anonymous. so that it could not be traced back to her or her father. her older sister katie wasn t aware the e-mail had come from charlotte. but she was at the center of the story about life insurance. steve had signed a disclaimer saying he would not benefit from the proceeds of carol s life insurance. but katie was forced to testify that wasn t true. my father was asking me for various things related to that money. reporter: once carol s life insurance paid out, katie transferred her share to her grandparents. but you knew that your grandparents were going to use that money for attorneys fees? that was my understanding, some or all of it. reporter: the prosecution called close to 50 witnesses to portray steve democker as a man who plotted to kill his wife. plotted his escape. and used his own children to fund his defense. and even hoodwink his lawyers
that tone of voice, like it was more dismay. reporter: this was very difficult for ruth, as you can imagine. she was everything a mother would want in a daughter. she was a good mother. reporter: charlotte, the younger democker daughter, was living with steve that summer. was in steve s house the night of the murder when he was unreachable for 5 hours and said his cellphone was dead. your father, did he normally have spare batteries with him? sometimes in his car. did he carry them in the car and also in his briefcase? it s possible. i don t know. normally, he was reachable by way of his cellphone, right? yes. reporter: and when he finally got home that night, she saw those scratches. suspicious, according to the prosecution. did you ask him about those scratches? i did. what did he tell you? he explained they were from branches from riding his bike. reporter: and then the prosecutor asked charlotte s, by
his ex-wife s place, miles away, babysitting his son. didn t they find out the alibi was, in fact, pretty solid? no. actually, it was not. what the suns said was that, yeah, they had gotten a video, and the sun was watching it. he didn t know where dad went. he wasn t sitting beside him in the room? no, dad was not watching with him. so, he doesn t know where data was. the son got bored watching this movie, and i believe he went and got on his computer. so, there s a period of time that we don t really know. he might have been in the house, but nobody saw him. so, maybe the solid alibi wasn t. remember how he told everyone he had cancer? sharon, a doctor, discovered something about that. i ve seen the medical records. and? he had a superficial type of skin cancer or one point, and it had been removed. so, no, he didn t. steve s family even recorded