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the woman in full panic. what s the person look like that was in your back yard? you heard shots being fired? yes. my husband is outside. the woman on the phone was jane laut, the wife of the hometown hero. oh my god. dave was still outside, she said, where she heard shots fired. where did you last see your husband? he told me to get back in. so i came back in. and i heard the shots. how old is your son? don t wake him up just yet, okay? i can t see dave. stay with me. i have officers on the way. stay in the house. the officers had to lock down and call in a homicide team to investigate further. it was a brutal scene.
doing. so evidence was carefully sifted for months. and then in february 2010, jane laut was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, and the story, said investigators, was chillingly clear. this was an execution. she had lured him out, shot him from behind, and then egressed on him, shot him a second and third time, stepped back and shot him a fourth time, came up super close, and shot him two more times, one to the back of the head. there seemed to be plenty of evidence. jane s odd behavior, her lie about a prowler, and on top of it all, the gun in the grandfather clock. so jane hired a lawyer, and pleaded not guilty. and the story that came out then turned the whole case on its head. mr. laut was a monster. he was despicable.
anyway, police scoured the place, didn t see any murder weapon lying around. and they were about ready to take dave s body off to the morgue when some instinct told the lead detective to look here. he cracked open the doors of the grandfather clock in the dining room, looked down inside, and there it was. this is more than likely the murder weapon. a ruger six-shot revolver. surely no prowler would have dropped a weapon right here in the dining room clock. the prowler theory did not make any sense whatsoever. with a hidden gun inside the house. and so it wasn t long before investigators shifted their focus from unknown prowler to the woman who had reported one, jane laut. remember those clothes they found in the laundry room? when they tested them they found gunshot residue.
his home, and then police found the gun that killed him inside. calling the story his wife told detectives into question. but secrets emerged, and what she told them next would send the investigation hurtling in a whole new direction. a stunning allegation pointed to another explanation for dave s death. here again is keith morrison with the hometown hero and the homecoming queen. sweet jane laut now accused murderer, and now that dave was dead, stories emerged. it seemed like she was controlled, in my opinion. an across-the-street neighbor. i mean, he s there, standing there, while she s, you know, pulling weeds, cleaning out gutters, washing his truck. and he s not lifting a finger to help her? come on, you know. while jane seemed, what, nervous? almost like a scared little rabbit. i was always a little leery