>> suddenly, rachael disappeared and a desperate search began. >> you can see the vastness in all the various places that you could conceal a body. >> months went by, the case stalled, then investigators learned that the plot might be bigger and darker than they ever could have guessed. >> this is a very tantalizing thread that comes together. >> absolutely. >> whispers that rachael was the victim of something out of a hitchcock movie, a moment of pure evil. >> had a look in his face that i had described as satan. >> and just maybe a second woman in the crosshairs. >> if the stories were true, then you had married a stranger. >> exactly. >> i'm lester holt. and this is "dateline." here's dennis murphy with "secrets of the snake river." >> reporter: in country so beautiful as the palouse, the wheat and bean fields running up and down the bumps and hollows of eastern washington as far as the eye can see, it's hard to imagine anything bad happening out here. but gaze and listen closely, and sometimes you'll uncover secrets in the shadows. murder and betrayal as close as the stranger sleeping beside you. here in the city of clarkston, a 40-year old single mom was raising her two young sons. she also had two older daughters. rachael anderson was her name, just 5-foot and a bit, and how susie jeppson enjoyed her company. >> we were just friends from the get-go. she was just spunky and fun. and she just loved to laugh. >> reporter: her grown daughters were out of the house. amber -- >> she was my hero. she was my everything. she just had a really fun spirit about her. >> reporter: ashley. >> she raised us, gave us everything we needed, taught us everything we needed to know. >> reporter: rachael had been married and divorced three times when by the spring of 2009 a new man had entered the picture. >> she told me that she'd met somebody. they'd gone out on a date, and that she was very impressed because he wanted to have a blessing over the food that he -- and she thought that was just wonderful. >> reporter: a publicly christian man with a notorious gangster's last name, charles capone. >> i asked her out for dinner and we went to dinner and we found each other attractive. >> what made you laugh about her? >> how she looked at life, everything is to be absorbed. everybody should have a good time, nobody should fight. >> reporter: what was going on in her life? >> i thought she was a brilliant woman. i thought, oh, this woman's focused, got direction, awesome. >> reporter: rachael told her daughters about charles. how devout, kind and handsome he was, and successful. he owned a busy auto repair shop up the road a ways in moscow, idaho. >> he did service on people's cars for no charge to help, you know, people who didn't have the money in the community. >> reporter: the new couple were soon regulars at sunday worship, and charles found himself with a new business partner. >> she started helping me with the shop. she had that office totally changed around and working more efficiently and saving me money in just a matter of, you know, two months. >> reporter: rachael and charles dove headlong into a whirlwind romance. introduced in may, they eloped in november. the newlyweds made their home at rachael's place about 30 miles south of charles' auto shop. rachael's sons, 6-year-old gavin and 10-year-old aiden, lived with them. >> we took the kids fishing. they'd never been fishing before. she'd throw on camo and go hunting with the guys. >> reporter: but the thrill was gone not more than a month after the wedding. the couple went their separate ways. a lonely charles moved into his shop for a while until a friend offered him a place to stay. separated but their lives remained curiously entwined. >> we're talking all the time. we're either getting along or we're not getting along. we could have one phone call that was, you know, just enjoyable, talking about things that needed to be taken care of. then have one phone call where we're just going at each other. >> reporter: as winter turned to spring in 2010, rachael and charles did have something to talk about. strange, unsettling things were happening to rachael. she told her friends someone was stalking her. >> we were talking late at night, and she got real panicked. and she said, i think there's somebody outside. >> reporter: and then came a rash of disturbing phone calls, no caller i.d., disguised voices. >> it's funny. you just don't get it. >> reporter: she gave her friend jennifer norberg the lowdown. what kinds of things were going on with her? >> phone calls. distorted voices. >> reporter: creepy movie kind of stuff? >> knowing where she's at in her house, which lights were on. >> reporter: not just i know where you are, i know you're in the bedroom right now? >> mm-hmm, i know what time you came home last night and what time you left today. just watching her every move. >> it's only a matter of time before we get your cell phone number. >> reporter: charles, meanwhile, told rachael he was getting the same kind of disturbing calls. and in april, it got worse. rachael's vehicle was vandalized more than once, tires slashed, windows broken. charles volunteered to fix her car, even though they were living apart. he gave her a loaner suv to drive. rachael was pretty sure who was behind all the scary nonsense, a guy she'd gone out with a few times and had developed, she thought, an unhealthy thing about her. rachael went to the county sheriff's office and told her story to captain dan hally. >> she was extremely frightened. she believed an individual that she had dated for a couple weeks by the name of william slemp, he was the one stalking and harassing her. >> reporter: so when rachael left that day, what was the plan? >> she was going to essentially put together the information that she had, and then we were going to meet again that friday. >> reporter: did you see her again, captain? >> i talked to her on the phone, but i never saw her again. >> reporter: not long after leaving the sheriff's office, rachael applied for a restraining order against william slemp. it was the weekend. the two boys had visitation with their dads. it wasn't until mid-morning the following monday that people began to realize that something had gone very wrong. rachael's daughter amber got a message that her mom hadn't shown up to work as a medical technician. totally unlike her? >> yeah. i knew immediately that it was bad. >> reporter: amber got word to sister ashley and they raced to their mom's home. when there was no answer at the door, they called the police. captain hally dispatched his lead detective, jackie nichols. >> there were several people in the front yard, rachael's daughters, and they were frantic. i searched the house looking for any type of evidence. >> reporter: nothing, huh? >> no. >> the last time i had seen her she said that i think this will end in my death. >> where was rachael anderson? an all-out search is about to set off a string of alarm bells. when we return, the first ominous clues. >> the vehicle was left unlocked with her purse in plain sight with the keys sitting in plain sight. >> what woman leaves her purse behind? >> it was a bad sign. what if there was a paint... ...that had the power to awaken something old... ...or painfully dated... ...or something you simply thought was lost forever... ...because it could form a strong bond, regardless of age... if a paint could give any time-worn surface stunning new life... ...you have to wonder... is it still paint? regal select exterior from benjamin moore®. only available at independently owned paint and hardware stores. rachael anderson's loved ones were filled with dread when she failed to turn up for her job as a medical technician that monday morning in 2010. >> she would have never left her children. she would not have left her sons, not for a minute, not for a day. >> reporter: investigators had a few bare facts to work with. they knew rachael had canceled that friday meeting with asotin county sheriff's captain dan hally about the stalking incidents. detectives could find no atm or cell phone activity since a voice mail rachael left at 8:09 friday night. that meant rachael had been off the grid nearly three days. >> i knew there was something very, very wrong. >> reporter: you'd swung into action? >> i had about a thousand flyers printed at staples. >> reporter: monday afternoon law enforcement pinged rachael's cell phone and got a weak echo just across the snake river from her home. >> we got a lot of people out into that field that night. also used a bloodhound to do a live search. >> we were looking in trash bags and tarps and under bushes. >> we searched all night. by the time i got home my knees were bloody and my hands. >> reporter: the search was futile. early the next day, tuesday, captain hally formed a regional missing person task force. so what's on your white board? what's on your agenda? >> william slemp. >> reporter: the former boyfriend. >> yeah, we went down -- >> other ex-boyfriends, ex-husbands. >> family. >> there had been a neighbor that lived across the street from rachael that had some suspicious behaviors. he'd ask rachael out on a date and she'd turned him down. and then he left town very abruptly. >> i mean that's certainly suspect. is he involved? >> we're checking hospitals, travel information. we checked every bus ticket that was sold that weekend. >> reporter: an early lead may have come when rachael talked to sheriff's captain dan hally the week before. she told him that day she was terrified of the slemp guy messing with her, but the captain had a different stalking suspect in mind after rachael told him she was divorcing charles. so an early stop for investigators was charles' shop. so who's the guy you met? >> easy going, you know, he was very cordial. he's being cooperative. >> i didn't have anything to hide. what was i going to hide? here he comes, driving up. i was like, come on in! >> reporter: charles assured police he had nothing to do with the stalking or damaging of her car. you're not vandalizing the vehicle, you're in the scary walking her house? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: did you slash her tires? >> no, absolutely not, and i -- >> reporter: did you break out the back windshield? >> no, absolutely not. >> reporter: in fact, he told the cops he was helping rachael get to the bottom of the harassment. he said the estranged couple together went out looking for the obsessed ex-boyfriend to sort him out. >> she tells me about him and we go driving over to his house because there's a pay phone right near his house that's one of the pay phones that was making phone calls to her. >> reporter: you thought slemp was the stalker? >> i just thought he was still involved with her because he had this huge crush on rachael. >> he tells me he was being a helpful guy and trying to help her figure out who is stalking her. >> reporter: charles went on to tell investigators he hadn't seen rachael since friday night when she had stopped by the garage to pick up her car. it wasn't ready. >> he describe how she was upset because he's working on her car. >> reporter: charles said rachael then left to buy a computer. she couldn't find what she wanted, but returned with a six pack. they drank a few of the beers, he said, and she left. what's the picture coming together for you? >> i'm trying to keep all options open, because i was concerned that she might have been impaired that evening and driven off the road. >> reporter: a benign explanation to why she's gone missing. >> right. >> reporter: but that theory later was doused when they found her suv at a convenience store that doubled as a bus station not far from her house. >> the vehicle was left unlocked with her purse in plain sight with the keys in plain sight. >> reporter: what woman leaves her purse behind? >> it was a bad sign. >> reporter: and the detectives had to consider another scenario. had pretty 5'4" rachael 120 pounds soaking wet offered an easy target for an abduction by a stranger unknown? while detectives were doing their official thing, rachael's loved ones were widening their increasingly desperate search all across the palouse. >> we were out handing flyers from here to colfax, east, west, north, south. we were out every available minute. >> reporter: it was as though the palouse had just swallowed her up. >> coming up -- finally a break. police learn there was somebody else with charles capone the night rachael disappeared, but something doesn't add up. >> he provided a timeline for that evening, and it was different than charles capone's timeline. >> when "dateline" continues. vo: whenever a craving hits, vo: jack's got your back. jack: somebody craving my smoky jack burger? vo: the smoky jack burger combo for $4.99. vo: hickory-smoked bacon, smoked cheddar cheese, vo: all on an artisan poppyseed bun. vo: plus fries and a refreshing drink. vo: all for just $4.99. man: thanks, jack! jack: you're welcome. vo: the new smoky jack burger combo for just $4.99. vo: only at jack in the box. >> reporter: rachael anderson, a mother of four, had vanished, and it was the job of captain dan hally and the missing persons task force to find out what had happened to her. rachael has not hopped a bus. >> no. >> reporter: she's not in anybody's emergency room? >> no. >> that's correct. >> reporter: you suspect foul play. >> right. >> absolutely. >> reporter: the investigators started working their way through a list of suspects, starting with the men who wanted to be in rachael's life. there was the neighbor who tried to take her out and been turned down. he had an alibi. that left the old boyfriend named slemp, the one rachael said she was afraid of, but he could account for his whereabouts when rachael went missing. the former boyfriend was not playing out? >> correct, yeah. >> reporter: you had to follow all those leads? >> absolutely. as these threads started, we would follow them as we could, but charles capone was the one that never was a dead end. >> reporter: captain dan hally had been suspicious of charles ever since rachael stopped by to make a stalking complaint about the ex-boyfriend, but that same day rachael had also told the captain she was in the midst of divorcing charles capone. the grounds? she said he tried to choke her. well, that was a huge red flag. captain hally advised her to get a restraining order right away against her estranged husband. rachael didn't want to hear that. >> she was agitated because i'm telling her that your soon-to-be ex, it's charles doing this, not slemp. >> reporter: two days later the friday she vanished, the captain's phone rang. >> she called me and she told me that she was going to see charles that night, she was going out to tell him that they were done. >> reporter: what did you tell her? >> i told her don't go. i said he's dangerous. do not go up there. >> reporter: charles' account of that night was looking sketchy. and the cops' suspicions grew after charles decided to stop cooperating. they suggest maybe you should go downtown. have a more formal conversation. >> on the 21st, that's correct. you don't do that. >> i talked to my attorney. he said have them contact me if they have any more questions. you don't have to go down there. >> reporter: the car mechanic had a secret he knew the police would uncover. it turned out that the publicly pious, pray-over-his-pancakes christian had a past that rachael and her family knew nothing about, a back story that included prison time for bank robbery and assault, but the one-time felon had apparently changed. >> i'm going and doing everything that a normal person does because i always feel like, okay, i paid my debt, let me go and move on and do something good and constructive. >> reporter: you're paying your taxes, mowing the lawn. >> it's nice to be able to just walk around with your head up. >> reporter: the cops weren't so sure and were now chasing down his friends, including his good pal, david stone, a married high school baseball coach and employee at the moscow, idaho, maintenance department. to the investigators' astonishment, david volunteered that he'd been hanging out with charles and rachael at the garage the friday night she went missing. >> that's absolutely -- >> reporter: you got another guy -- somebody with information. >> someone with information immediately raises the question, why didn't charles capone ever mention david stone to me during the entire time i interviewed him? >> reporter: three days after rachael was reported missing, the task force detectives sat david stone down and grilled him. >> he provided a timeline for that evening, and it was different than charles capone's timeline. >> reporter: the husband's friend told the cops rachael came by the shop about 5:00 p.m. and waited for charles to finish her car. david stone says he then left to get some food at an a&w, and when he got back to the garage around 8:00, rachael was gone. stone said he drove charles to local bar, swung by his home for a while, then went out later to pick up charles at the bar. many of the investigators knew david stone and his wife alisa. she worked in moscow city hall as a grants writer. >> who was your dave, personality, character? >> someone that was very caring, was a really good step-dad, was on the volunteer fire department. >> reporter: charles capone, were they friends? >> yes. >> reporter: did you know rachael? >> i knew her only from church. >> reporter: alisa knew her husband was at the garage that friday night and said nothing seemed amiss. what did he say was going on? >> he dropped charles off at mingles and there had been some interaction with rachael that wasn't happy and charles said he wanted to have a drink, and so, he dropped him off and he was going to go back and pick him up and he'd be home. >> reporter: intriguing, perhaps, but the two friends' mismatched stories did nothing to advance the cops' case. with rachael still missing, there was no evidence an actual crime had even occurred. all they had were their suspicions about david stone and charles capone. so now you got two different versions. >> two different versions. they were supposedly together but they're telling two different stories. >> reporter: tangled somewhere in the differing accounts, the cops thought, there must be a buried clue about what had happened to rachael. meantime, her heartbroken daughters did what they could to fill the awful hours -- organizing searches, building a web page and pressuring the police. >> we searched ditches, we searched, gosh, abandoned buildings, we searched -- yeah, we put flyers in towns hoping that someone would see her passing through. >> their mom meant so much to them, and they did not want this to just become another cold case. >> reporter: the investigation was heading that way until the detectives revisited an early lead. a nefarious scheme, if true. hard to believe that something as evil as that could happen in the palouse. this is a very tantalizing thread that comes together. this is the stuff of the movies. >> absolutely. >> coming up -- the case is about to go in an unthinkable direction. with the clock ticking, police realize another woman may also be a target. >> we wanted her to know that she was potentially in danger herself. well well well, what have we here? a whole new place that's lookin' to get scared! (laughter) now halloween time is in dineyland and disney california adventure parks! flooding, downed cranes... and roofs ripped right off buildings. our vianey arana is on the ground... with an up close look at the damage tonight. ==rob/ck== (rob adlibs) ==jess/ vo == plus: a controversial encounter... caught on tape. why some say... a local police officer... went too far. ===11pm close=== tonight at 11 on nbc bay area news the high-and-low search across the eerily beautiful populous country for any trace of rachael anderson was turning up nothing. months after her disappearance, detectives were convinced they had identified their prime persons of interest -- rachael's estranged husband charles and his church-going buddy david stone. but the investigation had stalled and was at an apparent dead end. no secret what the biggest obstacle was for lead investigators captain dan hally and detective jackie nichols. >> it's an axiom in law enforcement -- no body, no crime. >> it's a challenge. >> at this point, we don't even know for sure that we have a death. we believe that in our gut. >> reporter: as the cops dug deeper into the background of the husband's friend, david stone, the case suddenly became way more complex -- a mind-blowing theory. maybe this wasn't just about one wife, rachael. maybe it was about two. the investigation had led them to the city maintenance yard where stone worked. a fellow employee there had related a conversation he'd had with david stone a while back. >> it surfaces that there had been some conversations between david stone and this individual about a plan to kill stone's wife for $10,000. >> reporter: then stone, the story went, came back sometime later and told the maintenance yard guy to forget they'd talked. he'd arranged a plan "b" for murder. >> and later, that deal was canceled because stone had reached an agreement with charles capone that they would kill each other's wives. >> reporter: i'll kill your wife if you'll kill mine. this is the stuff of the movies. >> right. >> it is. absolutely. >> let's say that that you'd like to get rid of your wife. >> reporter: to be specific, a 1950 alfred hitchcock thriller titled "strangers on a train." in the movie, two strangers each agree to commit a murder for the other. >> they swap murders. >> reporter: did capone and stone each agree to do in the other's wife? could that be? do you believe it? >> i think there was something to it. >> i definitely -- >> because the -- >> mrs. stone is alive and well and among us. >> she is. >> did you talk to her? >> yes we did. >> reporter: boy, what a table conversation, huh? cops are telling me that you wanted to kill me. >> we wanted her to know that she was potentially in danger herself. >> reporter: you get some devastating news, but you continued to share a house with him, huh? >> i did. i remember many times when i would question david and say something's not right. >> reporter: david stone was able to convince alisa that the cops had dreamed up the murder plot story as a way to put pressure on him to turn him against his friend. and putting pressure on that friend, charles capone, is what happened next. he'd been found in possession of a gun, a big no-no for a former felon. capone was placed in the county jail while awaiting federal charges on a firearm violation. in a cell, the visiting detectives had his full attention. >> and i get this interesting visit from dan hally and jackie nichols. >> i essentially opened it up with today, charles, you're going to tell me you killed rachael and where her body is. and his response was, well, you only got one of those right, but i didn't kill her. >> reporter: if charles didn't kill her, who did? the investigators landed hard on david stone, the only other person known to have been with rachael that night. >> and we confront him with, stone, we know you've got blood on your hands. his response was he just sat back and he said, i need a drink of water. never denied it. but that's when -- then he wanted his attorney after that. >> reporter: with no reason to hold him, david stone was free to go home to wife alisa, the woman cops fear he wanted dead. but not charles. he was about to be put on ice. five months after rachael disappeared, he pleaded guilty to the federal firearms charge and was sentenced to almost three years. so capone wasn't going anywhere, but still the task force investigation focused on him and stone appeared to be at a dead end. the missing woman's daughters were in limbo, too. >> it just went on for years. years of one nightmare. >> reporter: as happens, rachael became old news and the case receded from the headlines. fresh cases demanded the attention of detective jackie nichols. no problem. she took to looking for rachael on her days off. >> as you look around here you can see the vastness of the countryside here and all the various places that you could conceal a body. >> reporter: and going up in the mountains, coulees and gorges. >> mountains, ravines. we even did some searches based on psychic visions and dreams. >> reporter: oh really? rachael's family at as much of a dead end as the cops also turned desperately to the supernatural. >> we did some pretty extreme things to find her. i even got hypnotized once to try to communicate with my mom not alive to have her tell me where she was. i did everything i could possibly do. >> reporter: the hunt for the slightest trace of rachael continued for years. meanwhile, david stone was on the street, and by 2013, his fellow suspect, buddy charles capone, was about to be released from jail. >> we said, now is the time. we have to charge these guys. we have to charge them both. we know, we know that they did this crime. >> this case wasn't going to get any better. >> reporter: the idaho latah county prosecutor agreed, and on may day 2013, three years after rachael vanished, david stone and charles capone were charged with her murder. they pleaded not guilty. >> this case is all about smoke and mirrors and convincing people from day one that i murdered my wife. >> will everyone please rise? >> reporter: in the preliminary hearing prosecutors laid out their theory of the crime, producing that maintenance yard worker who told the story about charles and david's alleged you kill my wife, i'll kill yours plan. stone's wife alisa hung on every word. frightening connections were being made in her head, and with that came the sudden awful awareness that the sheriff's officers may have been right after all. her husband did want her dead. she immediately filed for divorce. >> the pieces all came together for me. >> reporter: and there's this account of him going to a co-worker and saying, i'll give you 10,000 bucks if you'll kill my wife. you. what do you think of that story, that he was soliciting somebody to kill you? >> yeah, i'll never know. >> reporter: this is beyond marital deceit. >> oh yeah. >> reporter: if the stories were true, then you had married a stranger. >> exactly. >> reporter: who is dave stone? >> it's a mystery to me at this point. >> some of the things that came up in that preliminary hearing, i look like a monster, and i'm not. >> coming up -- david stone tells a chilling tale of what he says happened the night rachael disappeared. >> i said what the [ bleep ] are you doing? and he looked at me, had a look in his face that i had described as satan. what if there was a paint... ...where each drop was formulated to be smarter... ...even smarter than that... ...so if a color didn't go on evenly, it would balance itself out to reveal its truest, richest state. if a paint could realize the fullest potential of any color... ...you have to wonder... is it still paint? aura interior from benjamin moo®e . only available at independently owned paint and hardware stores. so when you see bias or discrimination, point it out and encourage them to do the right thing. if you teach your child to speak up, they'll learn to bring hate down. >> reporter: almost four years after that weekend rachael anderson never came home, her family believed they might finally get some answers. police had arrested her estranged husband charles capone and his pal david stone in connection with her death. but in september 2014, it was only charles capone in the latah county courthouse facing a murder charge. >> we are convinced that you will find the only possible verdict finding the defendant charles capone guilty of first degree murder. >> reporter: as the trial opened, the state's case had zig-zagged another unpredicted turn. the maintenance yard worker had backpedaled on his murder-for-hire story and wouldn't testify to it. so now the jurors wouldn't hear of the juicy you kill my wife, i'll kill yours plot, but rather, a straightforward and nonetheless terrifying story of a lousy marriage turned fatal. county prosecuting attorney bill thompson and deputy prosecuting attorney mia vowels knew they had their work cut out for them. >> our approach was convince the jury through the evidence not only that rachael was dead, but there's only one person in this world who could have been responsible for it, and that's charles capone. >> reporter: what was the biggest hill to climb in this? >> because we didn't have a body, it was mostly a circumstantial case. >> reporter: mia vowels took the lead and called a parade of witnesses to convince the jury that rachael was indeed dead. >> a good mother. had a good attitude toward family. >> reporter: her ex-husband dennis plunkett had missed a call from her at 8:09 that friday night. >> and that was the last contact i ever had with her. >> reporter: rachael's two sons testified they'd never seen their mother again after that friday. >> have you seen your mom since? >> no. >> reporter: to show jurors just how nasty charles and rachael's divorce was, they played back some of those eerie stalking phone calls. >> it's funny. you just don't get it. >> very concerned for her safety and well-being. >> reporter: captain dan hally testified that the defendant had been behind those head-game calls all along. capone even admitted as much to him. >> he told me that he had been involved in the stalking and harassment. >> yeah, i know she was afraid. >> reporter: ashley and amber, the daughters, recounted the terror of their mom's ordeal. >> she had the feeling like her life was going to end, a dreadful feeling. >> reporter: the prosecutors zeroed in on charles' character. jennifer norberg recalled what her friend's neck looked like after charles allegedly attacked rachael four months before she disappeared. >> i observed that she had some red, dark-colored marks on her neck. >> reporter: then prosecutors produced a business neighbor, an actual eyewitness, who saw charles arguing with a woman outside his auto shop that fatal night. >> she jumped out of the car, flailing her arms right up into his face. >> raise your right hand to be sworn, please. >> reporter: so far the testimony was all appetizers before the prosecutors' main course, their head-snapping, all-or-nothing star witness, none other than charles' good buddy, david stone, no longer a co-defendant for murder -- >> david stone. >> reporter: now the man pointing the accusing finger. >> s-t-o-n-e. >> reporter: stone's journey to the witness stand began a year earlier during that preliminary hearing when capone whispered something to him. >> charles leaned over to me and said, you shouldn't even be here. and i thought, how right you are, you son of a bitch. >> reporter: a shaken stone listened to the state's mounting case against him and decided he wasn't going to take the fall for charles. >> the prosecution did a real good job in making me out to be a monster, and i'm not. >> reporter: they told you something like, we know there's blood on your hands here, right? >> that was one of the things they said. >> reporter: in cop talk, they flipped you. they flipped you against him. they were going to give you consideration in exchange for your story. >> the cops had nothing to do with me telling the story. >> reporter: stone says there was no deal with the cops, rather, his pastor convinced him to come clean. >> throughout numerous visits we prayed in closing prayer that the truth would set me free. >> reporter: maybe so, but the prosecution counted on his testimony to put away his former friend away for a long, long time. >> do you know the defendant, charles capone? >> i do. he's sitting next to mr. monson. >> reporter: once on the stand, stone set off on his tale about the events of friday, april 16, 2010. >> i was inside the shop, and i'd heard a noise. >> what kind of noise? >> kind of thud or a bang or just something kind of loud. >> reporter: when he looked outside, a struggle. >> when i came around closer toward the back side of rachael's car. rachael was on her back and charles, he was on top of her, strangling her. >> was rachael moving? >> very little. >> what did you say? >> i said what the [ bleep ] are you doing? and he turned around and he looked at me, had a look in his face that i had described as satan, and he told me to shut the [ bleep ] up, get a hold of myself, you're in this with me now, i know where your family's at. >> why didn't you intervene at this point? >> fear? >> what were you afraid of? >> i'm watching somebody kill his wife. i don't know what he's going to do to me. >> reporter: the two men moved rachael's body into the shop. david stone testified they ditched the loaner vehicle rachael was driving at the convenience store bus depot near her home and then returned to stone's garage. after that, stone said he went to his job site and rounded up some old truck tire snow chains like these. they wrapped up rachael's body. >> once we placed rachael across the chain, then we rolled her into the chain. >> reporter: then, he said, the two put rachael's trussed-up, weighted-down body into his suv. with david stone at the wheel, they drove south and onto the red wolf bridge over the snake river. >> he just said stop! i put the durango in park. got out. opened the hatch. we pulled rachael out. went to the side of the bridge and threw her over the side. >> reporter: prosecutors interrupted stone's narrative to play for jurors a recording made at the bridge. >> he was pulling the package out, and i assisted him, and we proceeded to the side of the wall here and threw the package over the side. >> and what was in the package? >> the body of rachael anderson. >> reporter: into the fast-moving river, never to be seen again. what would the jury make of this man giving them such critical evidence, the play-by-play of the crime itself? you know they're going to hate this guy. >> that's the reality of the case. >> reporter: did it matter whether the jury sat in moral judgment of your star witness, mia? >> no. they won't like that he didn't intervene and that he helped dispose of her body, but that doesn't change the fact that he witnessed what he did. >> reporter: as the state rested, it looked, ironically, as though its star witness would prove to be the best thing the defense had going for it. david stone. would the jury believe a word he said? >> coming up -- and what about the other man at the center of this case? though he won't take the stand, charles capone takes the tough questions from us. >> this whole thread of this thing, i'll kill your wife if you'll kill mine, did that happen? food. water. internet. we need it to live. but what we don't need are surprises, like extra monthly fees. i see you, fee, played by legendary actress anjelica huston. you got me, mark. we just want fast internet for one, simple rate. for all the streaming and the shopping and the newsing, but most of all... for the this. internet for one everyday simple price and no extra monthly fees. grown right here in california, with absolutely no antibiotics ever. a better way to grow, a better way to eat. and it starts with foster farms simply raised chicken. california grown with no antibiotics ever. hurricane irma... carving a destructive path with fierce winds and flooding. the cities.. now still bracing for the worst. ===vo=== plus: a popular d-j.. gunned down outside a san francisco nightclub. why some are calling it a hate crime. ===close=== next on nbc bay area news. you may find yourselves in a quandary as to what actually happened. >> reporter: charles capone's defense team had to convince the jury that their client hadn't strangled his estranged wife, rachael, and tossed her body into the snake river with the help of his friend, david stone. charles had maintained his innocence. >> this is -- this just can't be what's going on in life right now. i can't be at this point right now sitting here with -- with a guy from "dateline" -- >> reporter: and the guy from "dateline" is here because of what is believed to have happened by the authorities on that friday night. his attorneys' strategy was threefold -- discredit the buddy's damning eyewitness testimony, sow reasonable doubt about the state's evidence, and offer alternate suspects. right off the bat, they suggested to the jury that there was another person who just might have had a hand in rachael's disappearance. maybe that infatuated one-time boyfriend, william slemp. slemp died before the case came to trial, so the defense attorney asked daughter amber what she knew about him. >> did you also, in your conversations with your mother, consider another person as being the suspect? >> yes. >> and was that william slemp? >> yes. >> reporter: and was the boyfriend perceived as a menace? the defense produced a request for a restraining order against slemp that rachael had filled out. during cross examination, the defense got detective jackie nichols to concede another connection between rachael and slemp. >> but i recall seeing letters from william slemp. >> reporter: after seeding the thought with jurors that maybe someone other than capone did it, the defense team turned its sights on the cops, all the things they hadn't found in their investigation. for starters, there was no physical evidence recovered at charles' garage. >> you didn't see any signs of a struggle outside? >> that's correct. >> reporter: and when cops recovered rachael's vehicle, there were fingerprints, but not capone's. >> they didn't match anybody that was in the system. >> reporter: but attacking the evidence wouldn't be enough. just as for the prosecution, the defense case lived or died on the credibility of david stone. during a grueling, day-long cross examination, charles' lawyer attacked david stone's veracity and his motives. david claimed he helped dispose of rachael's body, and then kept quiet all those years because he was in fear of his life from charles, and yet they continued to pal around. >> why did you keep that contact every day? >> well, i kind of like to know where someone's at if i'm concerned about my safety. >> reporter: capone's lawyer suggested that david stone was only out to save his own neck. >> and were you hoping for some leniency? >> and still am. >> reporter: hour after hour the lawyer hammered away at david, who'd easily admitted to lying his way through any number of police interviews. >> did you feel that your word might not be real good? >> i mean, based on the fact that i had been lying for 3 1/2 years? wouldn't you? >> reporter: in the defense close, it came back again to a central question. could the jury believe david stone? >> at the end of the day, what stone is telling you, it can't be true. there is no physical evidence of any foul play anywhere at or near that shop. >> reporter: charles capone declined to testify in his own defense. >> and you feel comfortable in that decision? >> yes, sir, i do. >> reporter: prosecutor bill thompson had the final word for the state. >> rachael's gone forever. he insured that her body, her physical essence, is also gone forever. but we can't let that allow him to escape responsibility. >> reporter: after seven days of testimony, the case went to the jury. let me ask you that cut to the chase question. on friday that night at the garage, did you get her down on the ground, did you throttle your wife and kill her? >> i can tell you honestly, no. it's a lie. it's been portrayed as stuff that absolutely didn't take place. i've done many things, you know, that i'm not proud of, you know? paid my dues, moved on, you know, tried to be a better person. >> reporter: this whole thread of this thing, i'll kill your wife if you'll kill mine, did that happen? >> i can't answer that for you right now. >> reporter: you can't? >> i can't. >> reporter: capone says he's made mistakes along the way, but did not kill rachael. >> i don't have that in me. i don't have that -- i want to care about people. i want to love on people. i don't want to take somebody's life. you know, one officer, she says i'm a sociopath and i have no heart and i don't care. i haven't suffered from this. yeah, okay. >> are you a sociopath? >> no, i don't believe so. i've seen my share of psychologists and stuff like that and i think i'm pretty normal. i mean i'm just like most men, i just make poor decisions. >> charles was on top of rachael strangling her. >> reporter: does why he tell the story in court that he does? because he sinks you. >> because he's going to get charged with solicitation for murder? how much time was he going to do for trying to hire somebody to kill his wife, you know? wouldn't you have tried to get out of that? >> reporter: it took the jurors nine hours to decide whether they believed david stone's story. there was a verdict. rachael's family and friends were called back to the courthouse. >> when the jury came in and we stood there, it seemed like an eternity. >> madam clerk, if you would read the verdict of the jury. >> you know, our hearts were pounding. >> is the defendant, charles anthony capone, guilty or not guilty of murder in the first degree -- >> reporter: the clerk read the jury's verdict. >> guilty. >> it was like this weight just was lifted from everyone. >> reporter: rachael's daughters had waited 4 1/2 years for this day. so you hear the words, huh? >> misdemeanom-hmm. it's just bittersweet. >> reporter: you're not getting your mom back at the end of this. >> no. all this is protecting other women and children from being harmed by him. >> reporter: charles capone was sentenced to life without parole in february 2015. david stone, who had ultimately pleaded guilty solely to failure to notify authorities of a death was sentenced in october 2014 to three to seven years. >> i want to apologize to rachael's family. >> reporter: when we spoke with stone, he expressed remorse for what he had done. >> it's a day that i think about every day. and i will the rest of my life. if i could change it, i damn sure would. >> reporter: why didn't you go get your phone and call 911? you knew you had just witnessed a murder. >> i froze. and all the way up to that point, i thought he was my friend. >> reporter: did you solicit a hit on your wife? >> never. >> reporter: did you want her dead in those days? >> no. >> reporter: so where does this story come from? >> that's a good question. >> reporter: david stone's former wife alisa still doesn't know for sure if he wanted her dead. i bet there are very few people on earth that could put themselves in your shoes and even understand what you've been through, alisa. >> you know, i've been through a lot but nothing compared to what rachael's family's been through. i don't think my pain is comparable to what her daughters and sons have been through at all. >> reporter: ever since the day in november 2013 when david stone gave his horrific tale to the cops, there have been intensive searches made of the snake river below the red wolf bridge. captain dan hally enlisted multiple agencies, including the coast guard and volunteers with specialized sonar to help, but the depths of the swift-moving snake have yet to surrender rachael's body. is she gone forever? >> i know we're not going to give up. >> hopefully, we might still find her remains. >> reporter: for the justice system, it's case closed. but for those rachael left behind -- >> you know, there's no true justice. doesn't bring her back. >> reporter: is there a new chapter opening up for you? >> it's just begun because when i found out my mom was missing, i fought tooth and nail. so did ashley. that's what we did. and so at this point, it feels like the fight is over. the grieving process for me had just begun because there's nothing left to fight for. >> that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us. still car destruction. right now at 11:00, hurricane irma still causing a path of destruction. more than 3 million homes and businesses without power. and some people in tampa now bracing for the worst. the news at 11:00 starts right now. good evening, thanks for joining us. >> and i'm terry mcsweeney. several cities still bracing for irma's fury. this video from fort pierce, it is all the way across from the state of florida through tampa. >> the damage from the florida keys is clearly visible. house to house searches begins

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