unfortunately she s not alive. everything in me, you know, just went into shock, of course. i kept saying, you know, i want to see her. i was like, are you sure? maybe it s mistaken identity. i m like, she s not dead, this d can t be. reporter: denita monique smith was just 25 years old and engaged to be married. 2 now her fiancé, jermeir stroud, who had also arrived on scene, was given the awful news. how d jermeir look? like a blank expression. he was calm. and he was like you know, it s going to be okay. he was like, calm down. i was like, my heart is breaking right now. i m like, and it s breaking for you, too. because i m like, this is your future wife. i m like, who saw this coming? reporter: but edythe didn t know the worst of it. her close friend denita hadn t
there was no murder weapon. and she hardly looked like a killer. i thought she might be able to sell the story. i figured she d be dressed real conservative, probably come in looking like she just landed off the mayflower, and that somebody would be sympathetic. reporter: from the beginning the prosecution portrayed shannon as a woman scorned, who couldn t have jermeir stroud to herself, so she made sure denita smith wouldn t either. shannon, suggested prosecutor saacks, was either carrying a torch for jermeir or trying to burn down his whole world by killing his fiancee and pinning it on him. for whatever reason, she couldn t handle the situation between jermeir and denita. and to resort to this, just to me, speaks of desperation. reporter: the prosecution s star witness? jermeir stroud, whose courtroom testimony was broadcast on local tv.
suspected she would have been out of that relationship, she had too much dignity for that. reporter: this was an affair jermeir was hiding. correct. reporter: remember, jermeir lived in greensboro near shannon, but 50 miles away from denita, the woman jermeir was officially involved with at the time. it was a tale of two cities and two women. jermeir and denita were dating, though not yet engaged. and he was also seeing shannon, and that seemed more serious than just a fling. reporter: did jermeir disclose to you that he had gotten shannon pregnant? he did. reporter: and that she had an abortion? correct. reporter: shannon s mother ann says her daughter had the abortion because the pregnancy wasn t viable. but she claims that when jermeir found out he was very upset. he had contacted the doctor to find out if what she said was true about the pregnancy being
woman s tears, we sometimes yield to the urge to tell her what she most wants to hear, whether it s true or not. is that what jermeir stroud did? and did he unknowingly bring shannon crawley and denita smith together that dreadful day in 2007 when denita was murdered? now three years later two families filed into the durham county courthouse. one family hoping for a conviction, the other an acquittal. reporter john mccann covered the trial for the durham herald-sun. the tone was definitely, you know, somber. shannon s family here. you got denita s people on the other side. tense is a good word for it. reporter: especially tense for denita s mother, sharon, who for the first time made eye
the woman who owned an suv similar in model and color to the one seen leaving the crime scene with a distraught woman behind the wheel. so if the maintenance guy doesn t see the burgundy suv, then you never ask jermeir about the burgundy suv. exactly. i ve wouldn t have went to greensboro looking for a suspect when durham has plenty of people here. reporter: so the day after the murder, detective pate headed westbound on interstate 40, anxious to speak with shannon crawley, the other woman in jermeir stroud s life. by now, shannon s parents, her father keith and her mother anne, were shocked to hear their daughter was about to be interviewed by police. she was a responsible single mom who lived quietly, raising her children. being a young mother, you know, she worked six months straight, 12-hour shifts, to buy