last year at church camp i went for one of our activities. we fired shotguns, and it most resembled that sound. then it was time for heath to take the stand. the last time tom had seen his boy was at a hearing, also in court, almost a year earlier. while you re in the barn, do you hear something? yes. i thought it was maybe skyler kind of ran into a wall, either that or a gunshot. you think the boys actually were, if not eyewitnesses then earwitnesses to murder. earwitnesses to what happened. tom schafer knew if he had any hope of getting tom foley acquitted, he d need to prove the sound those boys heard was anything other than a gunshot. just two weeks before trial began, while inspecting crime scene photos, schafer found what may be the key to his client s freedom.
four days after tom foley s arrest, schaeffer and cuberstein took a trip to the farm to try and do just that. couple of perry mason moments. don t come very often. this is the frame that we found. right where tom said he dropped the frame, they found this tiny shard of glass. immediately they tried to match the shard with the frame tom said he dropped. if you take the shard and set it in one of the few remaining, intact areas of the frame, you can see it fits perfectly. it was compelling evidence that tom may have been telling the truth, but schaeffer would need more than a shard of evidence. he next called this woman, janette moore, the woman who came forward immediately following tom s guilty verdict and the reason he was ultimately granted a new trial. i do. moore said she was driving past the foley house right around the time dar had been murdered. as i approached, this white
the murder of a well loved teacher. within hours police were on the scene. there would be an arrest. a trial. and a conviction. case closed? not on your life. because in this story, a bomb shell came in after the verdict. here s josh mankiewicz with mystery at heath bar farm. 911. i need an ambulance now. reporter: february 2009, coldwater, michigan. what s the problem? my wife! your wife? yes! reporter: in one day, one moment is she breathing? no! she s gone! she s gone. reporter: the innocent simple life tom foley and his family once lived was gone forever. oh, my god! no! oh, my god! 27 seconds. gives it off to foley. reporter: it was a moment tom foley never would have imagined 23 years earlier. back then, number 30
tom foley is guilty, and i m asking you to bring back that verdict. the outcome of tom s second trial was far from certain. what worried you the most? just that he was such a nice guy that you would never have guessed he would have done something like that. he didn t seem like a murderer. right. and then at the fabled eleventh hour, it was time. the jury filed in. were they looking at you, the jurors? no, they weren t. i took a couple deep breaths and i just your honor, we the jury find the defendant not guilty. the waiting had paid off. as to count two? not guilty. the reaction of tom at the time of the verdict, absolutely incredible. thank you, thank you, thank you! he collapsed to the floor and wept for 20 minutes. unbelievable. he got away with murder, but he almost didn t.
he tried to. and it was stopped. who tried and who stopped? he tried, and we both stopped. you don t have a sexual relationship with somebody within two weeks after your wife s been murdered in that house. but the jury never heard marianne crandall s testimony because there was no indication of a romantic relationship prior to dar s murder, the judge ruled, just as he did in first trial, that her testimony was prejudicial and, therefore, inadmissible. it was a huge blow to the prosecution s case. it supports the position that they weren t this deeply in love couple that he kept trying to present. i mean, that would have proven that. but norris still had her two key witnesses, tom s own son heath and heath s friend skyler watty, both two years older and now more certain than ever about what they saw and heard the day dar was killed.