reporter: jealous, resentful and on the morning of december 1st luring chanin out of her house with a phony story about a broken-down car. remember clay texted chanin, asked her to take the kids to school, then shut off his phone to avoid detection, or so said the prosecutor. laying a trap. taking the children out of the house, entering the house, waiting for ms. starbuck to return. reporter: they played that snippet of a 911 call that the prosecution said confirmed the time of the attack. 911, what are you reporting? reporter: then an expert told the jury about the dna they found on chanin s neck. is this match that you described an exact match to clay starbuck and the male bloodline of his family? yes. reporter: the dna had to be clay s.
all, clay and his defenders waited to tell an entirely different story about a risky life and unsolved murder. coming up unsolved, the defense would argue, because investigators blew it right from the start at the crime scene. they swabbed the face of the cellphone. they got dna. it s not his. the phone doesn t have mr. starbuck s dna. whose dna did it have? grease? it flows into your dishwasher, gumming up its performance. add finish dishwasher cleaner with your detergent to help dissolve this grease so you re ready for your next meal. finish dishwasher cleaner clean dishwasher. clean dishes.
voice message. he even stopped by her house again, frustrated, peered through her windows, didn t see anything, he said. and then he told detectives he spent the rest of the day and into the evening exchanging messages with shannon. i texted her and i got a text message in reply from her that said did you come over? and she says something to the effect of how about tonight or later tonight? he really wanted to see her? right. but never did? or at least said he never did? right. there was, however, a problem with his story. for much of december 1st, he couldn t say if anyone had seen him. in other words no one to back up portions of his alibi.
men that she talked to the day before. reporter: that was the story the defense and the children were poised to tell in court. and then a ruling from the judge. the evidence was inadmissible. the children s story, the activities revealed in the laptop, the evidence pointing to other men chanin knew intimately, it was all too speculative, too prejudicial. and it was out. the jury wouldn t hear it. suddenly at the defense table, the air went out. i think the court was thinking we don t want to make this a forum to run somebody who was murdered down. unfortunately, this isn t something that s just being made up. we didn t create this, these allegations. reporter: clay starbuck s lawyers needed a plan b. so they went after the murder investigation itself. pointing out in court all the things investigators failed to
over the years, they said, she would up and leave, taking them with her, to live with other men. more than once. for months at a time. but they said their dad would always take her back. even through all this, he would always say he loved her. just through this last divorce he would say that like no matter what, he could forgive her and take her back. reporter: the older starbuck boys said it was patently obvious to them that the case against their dad was a frameup from start to finish. there s no physical evidence. there were a couple times where i actually laughed out loud reading what they had said in there and how ridiculous the story is that they put together of what he did and how he did it. reporter: none of it, they said, beginning with the dna evidence detectives found so incriminating, that male starbuck dna, in all likelihood, they said, came from one of them, austin or blake.