Isnt it ironic that you black out at the same time hes getting stabbed . I need a lawyer. You guys are just trying to torture me. The evidence pointed out that shes the one that did it. I know how it looks. If youre not familiar with what epilepsy looks like, but knowing my parents and their limitations, its just crazy. I just kept waiting for that moment, theres the lover, the affair, the 2 million Life Insurance policy. But nothing was there. Do you think your mother is a murderer . Test, test, test. Okay, were hot. The tale im about to tell you is that of a beautiful love story that ended in tragedy. Reporter bob ruff has made a career out of americas obsession with violent crime. During the struggle, the chair gets knocked on to its back. The bloody knife in the water of the tub, that indicates to me that the killer believes this will wash off my dna and prints. Reporter his popular podcast, truth and justice, is a deep dive into the gruesome details of tragic and bloody murder scenes. This former small town fire chief now attracts an audience of a quarter million listeners. This really seems like a case of actual innocence. We do a crowdsourced reinvestigation of cases. A quarter of a Million People working together and investigate them as one streaming unit. And we can accomplish some amazing things. Reporter and he gets results. I think without bob and the listeners, to this day we would be sitting in prison. Looking at celebrating another round of holidays without his family. Reporter it didnt take long for bob ruff to be deluged with requests for help. We get on an average month, probably a couple of dozen cases pitched to us through our case submission email. And if we announce that were looking for a new case, that number can climb into the hundreds. Reporter out of those hundreds of emails, one story grabbed his attention. It was about a family shattered by one of the most bizarre crimes hed ever heard of. We screened it, started gathering information, getting documents, reaching out to the d. A. Within two months, we were rolling with episode one. Reporter its a case of murder that, five years later, is still highly controversial, when bob ruff starts to peel back the layers. Jaime estuardo melgar was born on august 10th, 1960, in guatemala. When he was just 3 years old, he immigrated to the united states. Jaime was known to be very intelligent and quick with a joke. And his charms werent lost on young sandy mcculloch. Reporter these High School Sweethearts were soon married. Jim finds work as an i. T. Specialist. Sandy, as a nurse. And together, they join the jehovahs witnesses, an austere christian sect that demands strict rules of behavior. Their daughter lizz is now in her late 20s. What was it like growing up as the only child in the melgar family . You know, i always had a lot of love and attention. I think i mightve taken that for granted as a teenager when, you know, you go through your rebellious years. Reporter lizzs cousin marissa remembers looking up to them as role models when she went to visit. Sandy and jim were just very loving towards each other, respectful. You could just tell they always had each others back. They were always helping each other out. I liked watching them together. Reporter as daughter lizz grew up, she became especially close to her mom, sandy. What was her personality like, in general . Shes just very caring and loving and nurturing. She was also a lot of fun. She knew how to joke around, tell a good joke. You know, i just felt like she was the embodiment of a mother, just the kind of person that you would picture when you think of that word. She was just such a loving person. Reporter but sandy is also a very ill person, suffering through hip replacements, hypothyroidism, lupus, and epilepsy. As a kid, you knew your mom was sick. Mmhmm. Reporter did you know she had lupus and epilepsy . She had epilepsy before i was born. And the lupus didnt come until i was about 3. I remember that because she had to seek treatment for about six weeks. She had gone paralyzed on one side of her body. She was in a wheelchair. She was having a really hard time. Reporter more and more, sandy is leaning on the support of her husband. But jims niece marisa says he never complained. In sickness and in health was a vow they lived by. I dont think that sandy and my uncle jim ever really got distant. If anything, i think their, you know, relationship just grew stronger and stronger. Reporter its a foggy night in houston in 2012. And Sandra Melgar is feeling pretty good on this night, so she and her husband jim decide to go out for a celebratory dinner. Its their 32nd anniversary. What shes told me was that they were gonna go out to dinner. They were going to their favorite mexican place that they go almost every weekend. And they stopped by a local cvs just to grab some drink mixers on their way back home. They got home. They started getting drinks ready. They got into the jacuzzi in their bathroom. They spent a few hours in there. Just this and that, chitchat. Suddenly, the melgars four dogs started barking in the backyard. So jim got out of the tub to bring the pups inside. Sandy continued to soak. The jets roaring, as the water massaged her for about 5 to 15 minutes. I think he took a few minutes, so she decided to get out of the jacuzzi. She went to her closet, sat on her chair that she has in her closet, and started putting lotion on. Reporter thats the last thing that sandy says she remembers that night. The next afternoon is a planned family gettogether. Jims brother herman and his family show up at about 4 30. A little behind schedule, as usual. Here we are, running late. And he would always make fun of us for that, heres the melgar family, always running late. We knocked on the front door, and no one came to open it. All we heard was the dogs barking. I was telling my dad this doesnt feel right. Reporter what marissa and her family are about to see will haunt them forever. 17 stab wounds, 14 cutting wounds, and 20 blunt force wounds. These wounds would take time to kill. Reporter stay with us. Oral defense, daily oral health chews. Because for a healthy life your dog needs a healthy mouth. More than just fresh breath. Frontline oral defense prevents plaque buildup and bad breath before they start. It works two ways. It scrubs down to the gum line, then the heart shaped center coats for a whole mouth clean. And a mouth that stays clean can help a dog stay healthy. Because no matter how old your dog gets shell always be your puppy. New frontline oral defense. Friends family sale . Take an extra 20 off save on kids apparel. Yoand a toaster oven. 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More refill. More recharge. More relax. Target run and done. Reporter jim and sandy melgar, toasting 32 apparently happy years together. Dinner out, followed by romance in the jacuzzi. But saturday night becomes sunday afternoon, and their tidy brick home in suburban houston is about to reveal a grim secret and a puzzling mystery. When no one answers the doorbell, jims brother herman enters the house through an overhead garage door someone had left wide open. He continues through an unlocked interior door and into the house, unlocking the front door for the others. At first there is only the yapping of the four dogs, but then, from deep in the dim house, comes a feeble reply. At that moment, i heard someone say, help, help it was sandras voice. I began to think the worst. My heart dropped. I knew something was wrong. My dad, he immediately just sprang into action. Reporter herman follows the cry for help through the house, to the master bedroom, into the master bath. Sandys cries for help were coming from inside the bathroom walkin closet. Reporter podcaster bob ruff. The scene looked like something you would see in the movies. A chair was propped up against the door, holding it shut from the outside. He grabs the chair, moves it out from under the doorknob, and slides it to the side so he can open the door. And when he opened it he saw sandy lying there, tied up. She was lying on the floor, with her hands tied behind her, like this. Well tied. And her legs, too. Her arms are behind her back, but her arms were like this, and the bindings were wrapped multiple times around her forearms. Herman tries to untie sandys bindings from her arms, and he cant seem to find where the knots at. Sandy tells him that theres a pair of scissors on the counter near the closet. He grabs the scissors, starts cutting her out of the bindings. Reporter sandy seems groggy, but shes alive and apparently unharmed. But her husband jim has suffered a far more devastating fate. Jim was found nude and beaten and stabbed to death in the master bedroom closet which is about 30 feet away from where she was at. Reporter his legs are tied with a telephone cord. A rope is loosely tied around his chest. Hes got a lot of defensive wounds on both hands, which means hes trying to either disarm the attacker or block the assault. Reporter Celestina Rossi is a crime scene investigator who helped authorities investigate the case. In her opinion, jim and his assailant were locked in handtohand mortal combat right here in his bedroom closet. Its my opinion that the assault, and his death, occurred in the closet. Reporter aside from the 31 cuts and stabs, jim was badly beaten in the face and head, causing serious damage to his skull, brain, and facial bones. Reporter it just sounds like a horrifically violent and bloody crime scene. This was an ugly murder. This is a murder on a man that was fighting with everything he had, fighting for his life. Hes grabbing ahold of the killers wrists, hes hitting them. Jim is blocking them, and grabbing them, and hes stopping them from ever getting a full penetration into him. And again, all of these injuries, none of them are immediately incapacitating, so this just dragged on and on. Reporter when sandy is freed from the closet and sees jims body, the family says she becomes hysterical. Sandy was very upset. She was crying uncontrollably. But my mom was holding her back. Reporter there is one question hanging over the crime scene. What the hell happened . Im sorry, i dont know if this is supposed to say that, but thats what i was thinking. I was thinking what, what could have happened here . I dont who could have done this to them . Reporter detectives and crime scene investigators swarm all over the melgar home, taking photos and video, trying to answer that question, who could have done this . Floating in that jacuzzi tub where sandy says she and jim spent some of the last moments of his life, a ghostly article of clothing a white blouse. Also glinting in the bath water, very much out of place, a kitchen knife, which authorities believe was used to inflict many of jims wounds. How to explain this horrifying mayhem . Was it burglars, a Home Invasion . Sure looks like it. Drawers pulled out, jewelry boxes rifled, the contents of jims wallet and sandys purse dumped on the bed. And in the closet where jims body was found, two items of special interest, a locked safe, and hidden on a shelf behind hanging clothes, jims loaded gun. There was a loaded gun in the closet where he was found. It was located where he was found, directly above his head. You can see bloody transfer marks, like from a bloody hand where he had grabbed the closet rod, the shelf in the shirt sleeve that was right there in front of the gun. He just never, sadly, never quite got to it. Reporter podcaster bob ruff says those items could indicate robbers were trying to get jim to open the safe, or that he was fighting to reach his gun to fend them off. Jim melgar, as is the expression in texas, went out with his boots on. He did not go down without a fight. Reporter the gun, the safe, the ransacked rooms, sandy bound hand and foot, barricaded in a closet. The crime scene seems to be telling a story. But detectives want to hear what the sole witness who somehow survived the brutal attack has to say. Sandy had survived. She could at least give him a description of the offenders who had tied her up. Do you know what has happened today . My husband was murdered. How . I dont know. And thats where things really began to break bad for sandy melgar. Reporter stay with us. Ancestrydna can reveal where in the world youre from. And with new features and richer stories, it can lead you on an unexpected journey. That brings you closer to home. 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See why theres one serum sold every minute Revitalift Derm intensive hyaluronic acid serum. From loreal paris. Were worth it. Reporter 1,000 miles away from sandy and jim melgars houston area home, here in the small town of bridgman, michigan, where Violent Crimes are ironically few and far between, most mornings you can find true crime podcaster bob ruff pumping iron in his basement gym. But later ruff can be found giving his grey matter a workout in his studio as he and his producer, mike bussing, puzzle over the subject of their latest podcast episodes, the melgar case. We began this season with a story, because thats all we had. Reporter remember, it was on an afternoon just before christmas, 2012, that 52yearold jim melgar was found brutally stabbed to death in the bedroom closet of his suburban houston home. Luckily, detective carrizal must have thought they had at least had an eyewitness. Sandy had survived. She could at least give him a description of the offenders who had tied her up. And thats where things really began to break bad for sandy melgar. Reporter just hours after her husbands body was discovered, sandy melgar finds herself face to face with two detectives. Lets start from the morning when you woke up today. Where were you at . Today . Yes. In the closet. Reporter during her twohour police interview, sandy seems dazed and distraught. In an unsteady voice, she relays what she says happened that fateful night. The anniversary celebration dinner at a mexican restaurant, and then the stop at a cvs drugstore to buy some drinks. After arriving at home, she said she and jim undressed and got into the jacuzzi. Having a romantic, candlelit interlude. How long were yall sitting there talking . Id say about two hours. What were yall talking about . The years weve had, about my daughter, about his job. Nothing in particular. Any disagreement . No, no. Reporter sometime after midnight, sandy tells detectives that her husband heard their dogs barking and got out of the jacuzzi to let them inside. It was taking a while, so i got out and got changed in my closet. I went in there and i started to change and thats all i remember until i woke up. Reporter as incredible as it may seem, even though her husband was murdered just 30 feet away from her, sandy says she saw and herd nothing. And she blames her minds blank slate on her epilepsy, saying she must have had a seizure. I usually cant move. I hurt all over and my head hurts. How often do you have seizures like that . Ive been getting them more lately. Im not able to drive anymore. How frequent . At least once a month, maybe. Reporter sandys daughter lizz says it wasnt unusual for her mother to experience epileptic seizures. Did you ever see your mother have a seizure . Yeah, i did, several reporter what does it look like . Its violent, and its scary, especially i