long running mystery. who killed the veterinarian? i think the perpetrator stood there and watch him die. there were so many different leads and murmurs. i felt like it wasn t for me. jealousy? rage? revenge? it was a question of who done it. could anyone solve it? look at what it s done to our family. it was hard. i wanted justice for my brother. there was a broad swath of prairie. where the cattle outnumbered the people. and the sad summer breeze sang around the modest dwelling in the grass. this is marlene they called it the bunk house. though it was really just a single wide trailer. my husband just went down. richard. to see if he wanted to go to pasture. an honest little place out on the montana prairie. along the edges. do you know where he shot himself? okay. is he still alive? there s blood everywhere. i place a young vet could achieve while he built his business. we ll, if you can have somebody go check and see if he s s
[inaudible] putting in the prairie. the young woman who had fallen was a happily married mother of three. the young man had growing sons of his own. but two decades were a mere whisper of time to the law and the historic county courthouse. where, in september of 2015, six years after the case was reopened. 19 years after the murder, tom sister and the rest of the family assembled on one side of the courtroom. it was hard seeing people that you thought were your friends, sitting on the other side of the courtroom. that would be a number of local people. along with doctor ryan s family. whose attitude, must be said, was unlike that of many victims families. i remember having a huge sinking feeling in my heart
same affidavit that was used in 1998 to charge him. no new evidence? none. i could not believe that they would bring these charges back up again and not have one piece of new evidence to justify them doing that. you are mad? it made me mad. yes. i know i m not being very outraged about that. defense attorneys have to control our emotions. [laughs] who was he angry with? we had a prosecutor with a big ego. fashion himself to be a cold case expert. and, an investigator who was sued about the case since the beginning of it in 1996. and had an obsession with tom. and all he wanted to do was get this case squared away. before he retired.
only person with the opportunity, the only person with the motive to take brian ryan out of this world. and he did it, and he committed this crime masterfully. the defense and its closing took a swipe at the agent who for two decades would not let the case go. we don t convict people, because the lead investigator is retiring and wants this case resolved. just so we can close the book. but agent thompson wasn t even in the courtroom to hear the lawyers, and the case he had carried around so long. i just felt the need i had to get out of, there i don t want to listen to, it had to get away and reflect. the jury went out first thing in the morning the next day, they did not return as quickly as one side at least
something that was worth trying again? yes we had some work to do. i wanted them to go back out and to make sure that everybody is still around. we had to see what kind of shape that the evidence within. evidence was resubmitted to the crime lab. witnesses were re-interviewed. more years past. was there ever a case to be made to just let it go? how do you look at these things? i will let it go if we don t have evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. i will not roll the dice with somebody s life. this is a homicide, we owe it to the family to go forward. and in my borough, that s what we do. and then, in february of 2014, nearly 18 years after the murder, agent ops and traveled to south dakota, with an arrest warrant for tom who heard his name called out one day at work and was assured into the back of a police car. that s when i wondered what the hell is going on here? maybe a minute went by and then ken thompson popped his head