dateline. >> i never dreamed somebody could do this. i don't know why anybody would want to kill him. you see it on tv. you see it all the time. you just don't think it could happen to you. >> they were a young couple wanting to make their fortune, building their life until one life ended all too soon. >> he was laying on the floor, and i got scared. >> a young father murdered in broad daylight. didn't look like a robbery. lots of valuables left behind. lots of secrets, too. something was tearing the family apart. or was it someone? >> the most cold-blooded, evil person. >> a family feud and an innocent person caught in the middle. >> i wanted that so bad. so bad. >> hello, and welcome to dateline. he was also a businessman, a real estate appraiser like his parents, and a successful one at that. the money was pouring in, in fact. but family and business -- the two really don't seem to mix. he is kurer morris with the root of all evil. all evil. >> the hunting is good in the arkansas delta. a horde of migrating mallards descends on the rice filled. you have to be quiet to aim true. that's what mark despain dad taught him and that's what he taught his son before the hatred wormed its way in. the anger that pitted father against son. >> it almost got physical. it breaks my heart. >> and husband against wife. >> i just wanted to go to protector mode and protect us all. >> in the event that haunted the town on a deadly summer afternoon. what could be left but the bitter taste of recrimination. >> he is evil. he is not the kind of person he's got the public convinced he is. >> reporter: jonesboro is both a college town and a farm town. it tends to the minds of young students and rice farmers west of the mississippi. it's where mark despain breezed through school with his easy charm. tanner is his mother. >> he was the only freshman that we know of that was chosen by a senior to go to the senior prom. >> reporter: mark became a high school football star. his sister jackie watched him bring home trophies to lay at the feet of his father, jack. and then -- it's an old story, really. >> when i was 18 and he was 19, we just bumped into each other. >> reporter: pretty michelle. she was sitting on top of the car when she spotted mark that night. before long, pregnant. >> the way i was brought up, if you got a girl pregnant, you married her. that was just what you did. >> reporter: there was a shotgun wedding. two families thrown together. mark and his parents, jack and tammy. michelle and her long divorced parents, her mom kathy and her dad, carl. michelle also brought along a baby from an old relationship. >> he never treated her like she was not his. never. >> reporter: together they had two boys. >> it was everything they ever dreamed of, he would do. anything. >> reporter: the little family moved into a trailer mark's parents bought them and mark study hard to become a real estate appraiser like his mom. and went into business with his parents, which, said michelle, was about when things began to go wrong. >> mark didn't like to be pushed around by his dad. he was an independent person. >> reporter: mark demanded a bigger share of the money. they argued, and then michelle chimed in. oh, boy. >> oh, my goodness. when she opened her mouth, dad just flipped off the handle. and of course, mark just stepped in as a husband, like a husband should do. >> reporter: that's how it began, the trouble between father and son. the trouble that was going to get so much worse. mark split away from the family business. michelle helped him with bookkeeping. >> i was just amazed at what they were able to accomplish. >> reporter: they were a good team, says michelle's mother. >> they both just had the ability to work together and make money. >> reporter: mark got into real estate investment. his first, a real estate park nobody would touch. >> what were you thinking, have you lost your mind? he flipped it and made about a $100,000 project. absolutely. >> reporter: and the money seemed to roll in. mark moved his family to an upscale neighborhood of the southern part of town. he spent more and more time with michelle's parents, taking them all on family trips. even hired michelle's dad carl to be his rent collector. >> i remember a lot of times walking in and carl would be sitting at the dining room table with 50s, 100s, 20s. he was counting them like a drug dealer. >> piles of money. >> piles of money. >> reporter: one august afternoon, michelle came home from work early. >> there weren't any lights on. >> reporter: and then she got to the kitchen, and there he was. >> he was laying on the floor, and there was blood coming all out from behind him. and i shook his leg and said his name and i looked around and there was stuff on the floor everywhere. and i got scared. >> reporter: she ran outside, terrified, and called 911. 911. michelle ran across the street to a neighbors house, desperate to hide. >> it was a voice that scared me. you know, you pick up the phone and you hear one of your kids on the phone and then you hear crying. >> reporter: kathy raced over there and found michelle sobbing on the curb. >> she's like, i got to get to him. i grabbed my daughter by the shoulders and i said, he is gone. he is gone. >> reporter: so he was, dad on his own kitchen floor. >> a young wife is now a widow, and the horror of what she witnessed is unforgettable. >> reporter: coming up. >> doesn't live in your mind a lot? >> reporter: her family's good life, suddenly gone. or maybe it hadn't been so good. >> he was kind of embarrassed to have to kind of get money for me. >> reporter: when dateline continues. continues. with arexvy. arexvy is a vaccine used to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. rsv can be serious for those over 60, including those with asthma, diabetes, copd, and certain other conditions. but i'm protected. arexvy is proven to be over 82% effective in preventing lower respiratory disease from rsv and over 94% effective in those with these health conditions. arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint pain. i chose arexvy. rsv? make it arexvy. icy hot. ice works fast. ♪♪ heat makes it last. feel the power of contrast therapy. ♪♪ so you can rise from pain. icy hot. >> reporter: there burned into michelle despain's brain, the remains of that awful afternoon. her husband. his blood. >> he was laying on the floor. >> is an eight site that lives in your mind a lot? >> a lot. >> reporter: outside, police, family, and curious neighbors gathered outside mark's house. among them in an awful state was mark's sister, jackie. >> everything was wrapped in tape, you can't do this, you can't do that. i just wanted to hold his hand or something. >> reporter: detective vic brooks was on the other side of that police tape. >> when i first walked in, i noticed there were some papers that appear to be knocked on the ground and there was broken glass and stuff like that on the floor. >> reporter: investigator snapped photos of the chaos, drawers pulled out and close thrown into a back rub, a jewelry case toppled over. >> was someone was looking for something. >> possibly. >> reporter: they asked around the neighborhood, did anyone see any strangers yesterday? yes, someone did. >> an african-american was seen in the neighborhood wearing a certain colored shirt. >> reporter: someone said they saw an aged beat up mercedes circling the neighborhood. these casing the house? maybe. and yet as detective brooks looked around the house, he could see this didn't have the hallmarks of the robbery. tv sets, computers were untouched. sitting next to mark's keys and cell phones is a container of ice cream. >> it appeared he had just walked in and set these items down and caught somebody offguard. >> reporter: all of that shrieked of a planned ambush dressed up like a robbery. the way investigators pieced it together, somebody was waiting for mark to get home and then crept up from behind, shot him twice. >> one appear to have entered in from his left side, and then another shot toward his face. >> that was kind of a kill shot or something. somebody is making sure. >> it appeared so, yes. >> reporter: why would someone want to kill mark despain? >> i didn't think mark had any enemies, and i don't know why anyone would want to kill him. >> reporter: detective brooks found a potential reason. mark had serious money trouble. >> he was kind of embarrassed to have to come and get money for me. >> reporter: it was a couple of months before the murder, said michelle's mother kathy. mark asked her for cash to help pay for michelle's birthday present. >> usually they just go out and buy whatever they want. >> reporter: not anymore. that summer, 2011, jonesboro real estate was far from recovered. many rental properties were underwater, the bank was closing in, tenants were being forced out of their homes. >> and then an ugly little surprise crawled out of mark's own troubled family. >> reporter: mark and his parents were lobbying lawsuits at each other over some shared property. the prosecutor heard that mark's dad, jack, was a pothead. >> he was very angry at jack for mishandling the property that they co-owned together. >> reporter: yes, but it went deeper than that. went to a very dark place, as you will see. because of it, mark hadn't spoken to his parents in years. so when jack showed up at the crime scene, the suspicion was audible. michelle's dad, carl, started yelling out him. >> reporter: cursing very loudly, calling them all kinds of names. >> what was he saying? >> there's that --, jack despain. >> mark told multiple people, if anything ever happens to me, look at my dad. >> reporter: detective brooks invited jack down to the police station. just maybe this mystery would have a quick if very disturbing solution. >> a young girl makes a troubling accusation that divides a family. >> oh, my god. how could this have possibly happened? >> was at the motive for murder? was it even true? when dateline continues. ine co. why choose a sleep number smart bed? can it keep me warm when i'm cold? wait. no i'm always hot. sleep number does that. now, save up to $1,000 on select sleep number smart beds. plus, special financing. shop now at sleepnumber.com when i was your age, we never had anything like this. what? wifi? wifi that works all over the house, even the basement. the basement. so i can finally throw that party... and invite shannon barnes. dream do come true. xfinity gives you reliable wifi with wall-to-wall coverage on all your devices, even when everyone is online. maybe we'll even get married one day. i wonder what i will be doing? probably still living here with mom and dad. fast reliable speeds right where you need them. that's wall-to-wall wifi on the xfinity 10g network. >> reporter: it's an unpleasant thing to think about -- parents murdering their own children. but it happens. it's an old story, frankly. some kind of glitch in the human recipe, and it happened here in jonesboro. suspicion fell quickly on mark's dad, jack despain. >> somebody has murdered mark, and he was like, oh, my god. he said have they found jack despain? >> he thought right away it was jack? >> reporter: anyone close to jack and his family knew that a pozen for more potent than money had come between father and son. >> i never saw it coming and i don't think mark ever saw it coming. >> reporter: it began with her 13-year-old daughter told him an ugly story. that her grandpa jack asked her to take nude photos of herself on the phone. >> mark told his dad, there's a problem and we want to help you. we are not here to point fingers at you or judge you. >> reporter: jack swore he did nothing wrong. mark called in the police. tanner, jack's life of more than 40 years, left him and moved in with mark and michelle. >> how do you prepare for a thing like that? >> you don't, you don't prepare. your mind just is in overdrive. trying to think, oh, my god. how could this have possibly happened? >> after they had hurt her story change and become more elaborate, the investigation was dropped. antenna, riddled with guilt that jack ever abused his granddaughter went back to them and beg forgiveness. >> the man that i've been with for over 30 years and went to high school with and then doubting him and knowing i shouldn't have. >> reporter: mark and michelle, believing the girl, never spoke to his mom or dad again. disowned mark's sister when she took jack's side. >> i believe them 100%. >> reporter: so that was the ugly backdrop to the murder investigation. detective brooks would have to figure out if this years old unproven allegation had so eaten away at mark's dad that it pushed him over the edge. time to meet potential suspect number one. detective brooks sat down with jack in an interrogation room. watch the men fall apart. apar was this true grief the detective was witnessing? regret or guilt over something jack had done or hadn't done? too late. what did he mean? jack didn't shy away from discussing the abuse allegation. here's how it happened. happene jack said he found out the girl, confronted her, said he was going to tell her parents, but she got to him before he did. she invented the story to get out of trouble. jack told us the same story. eager, he said, to finally set the record straight. >> you never asked her to take pictures of herself? >> no, no. >> reporter: with the accusation, jack said, nearly destroyed him. >> i was at home, typically i don't drink. that was just to kill the pain. >> is everybody thought you were abusing your own granddaughter. >> yes. yes. >> reporter: did jack's payment secam to drive him to seek revenge on his own son? no, he says. he wanted to reckoned file with mark. not kill him. anyway, when mark was murdered, said jack, he was miles away at his own house. that alibi would have to be checked out, of course. even before detective brooks had a chance to do that, other members of the family came down to the police station and said don't be fooled by jack's tears. he was an angry and possibly violent man. >> he said you all accused me of this. >> reporter: this is michelle's dad, carl, the man who had been cursing jack out on the street right there at the murder scene. detective brooks could plainly see, this was a family with a troubling history. so he made a decision to attend mark despain's visitation, look around, see what his gut would tell him. >> you wrote in your case file, this had to be one of the strangest visitations i ever attended. >> it was just a cold feeling that this did not look right. >> reporter: was he planning a next move? >> coming up. a family feud at the funeral. and somebody else calls the police with a tip that could crack the case. >> that was a nice little gift. >> it was. >> when dateline continues. ne it starts with dupixent. dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems. it's an add-on treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma. and can help improve lung function for better breathing in as little as two weeks. dupixent helps prevent asthma attacks... and can even reduce or eliminate oral steroids. can you picture it? dupixent can cause allergic reactions that can be severe. get help right away if you have rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor about new or worsening joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. who knows what you can do when you du more with less asthma. ask your doctor about dupixent. the most prescribed biologic for asthma. hi, i'm chris and i lost 57 pounds on golo. golo isn't complicated. ask your doctor about dupixent. i don't have to follow a restrictive diet, and i don't have to spend a lot of time making meals. using golo was truly transformative. it was easy, and inexpensive. >> reporter: michelle and mark, just children really when they got married. now mark was dead, gunned down in the family kitchen, michelle had to plan his funeral. she was barely functioning, she said. >> i could barely tell you who was there. it was just a blur. it all just feels like a blur. >> reporter: but there was one thing she was clear about. mark's parents and sister were not welcome at his funeral. it was the same at the cemetery. >> she is literally trying to get him in the ground before we can even walk up. >> we didn't get to fill in the grave. >> we immediately jump out of the cars and start rushing to the grave site and she calls the police on us. she calls the police at my brother's funeral. >> reporter: and yet, for all the chatter about jack, that he might have killed his own son, detective brooks instincts said, no. jack's alibi checked out. he was fixing his roof the afternoon of the murder, and those tears in the interrogation room. >> i did not feel anything as being fake from mr. despain. he appeared to be a broken man at that time. >> reporter: so what to make of the fractured family and all the bad blood now tangled up with so much grief? detective brooks got back to his interview with michelle's dad, carl, the man who pointed a finger at jack on day one. carl had said he had been at mark's house not too long before the murder to drop off some rent money. interesting timing. coincidence? or, as detective brooks wondered, did carl had something to do with the murder? no, probably not. surveillance cameras caught carl right where he said he was at the time mark was gunned down, meeting mark's wife at the bank where she worked. mark's parents spent time at the cemetery, finally able to do what they couldn't when the sun was still alive. >> we talked to mark. >> rainy days were the worst. i didn't like rainy days. >> what do you mean, rainy days? >> i don't like him getting wet. i knew he was in heaven, and i just didn't like the rain in him. >> reporter: and then pure luck, really. remember how parents reported seeing an african-american stranger in the neighborhood? now someone called the cops with a tip. someone who matched the description was actually boasting about shooting mark despain. it didn't take them long to find the guy. street name -- lalo. real name, terrence parker. and he was novus. he denied everything. detective brooks wasn't buying it. has by then, the police also tracked down the driver of that beat down blue mercedes found near the house, and he told the cops he took him to meet a man at a church parking lot. and that man wanted a job done. was that job murder? and now detective brooks have been working night and day for a week. his patients had run out. was it that angry speech, or another long night in his cell? the next day, he came clean for a promise of $7000-$10,000, still unpaid, he took the job to shoot and kill mark despain. he didn't know mark from adam, he says. it was the man from the parking lot who took them to mark's house, told him where to lie in wait for mark, gave him a gun, and then he said something rather surprising. the shooter who executed a stranger for the mere promise of a few grand said he was appalled. not at himself -- at the man who hired him. if the hitman was telling the truth, detective brooks hunch had been right. someone who claimed to love mark also plotted his death. but who? >> coming up, michelle confesses to an affair. and there was another surprise. when dateline continues. e cont. n great hands. marci, hit the vid'. 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not me. my own real tears are my relief. ask your eye doctor about tyrvaya. >> reporter: it is shocking what some people will do for the mere promise of a few thousand dollars. like lie in wait for mark despain and put a bullet in his head. but revealing his paymaster -- that, the hitman did for free. and the name. >> somebody called in and said, did you hear carl was just arrested? and i thought, oh, my god. he did this. >> reporter: carl. kathy's ex-husband and michelle's father. michelle said she was stunned. >> i thought that he cared for mark. you know, the father of my kids. >> reporter: michelle's mom kathy wasn't surprised. she divorced him years earlier, she said, to avoid his temper. >> he would never hit me because he didn't want to leave a mark. he would hold a gun to my head. threaten you. >> reporter: what would make him mad enough to have mark killed? confronted, carl's face turned to stone. but as investigators discovered, carl had been talking to other people. told them mark had been physically abusing michelle and he was tired of it. >> did you investigate any of this actually occurred? >> there was not any abuse i found to have happened. >> reporter: if the abuse story was an obvious lie, why did carl do it? mark's parents were certain he did not come up with the idea on his own. the real mastermind, they believed, was someone else very close to mark. his wife, michelle. >> i do not see carl taking my son's life without michelle being involved. >> reporter: michelle was far from a loving, doting wife, he said. the woman they knew was peer self interest and would do anything to get what she wanted. exhibit a -- >> what was that they just turned mark against you? >> michelle's manipulation. >> reporter: it was michelle who pushed mark to break away from the family business, they said. michelle who tore the family apart by stoking her own daughters allegations of abuse to drive a permanent wedge between mark and his dad and get mark and his money all to herself. they could easily see her goading her father into planning a murder. >> michelle is a sociopath. she absolutely cares nothing about anyone or anything but michelle. >> reporter: quite an allegation, if true. as it happened, detective brooks was pretty sure he saw an effort by the grieving widow to manipulate him. in an interview right after the murder. all that emotion in her voice, it seemed like an act to him. >> there was no tears. >> reporter: but her voice of desperation captured on the 911 call -- surely that was real. maybe not. one of michelle's neighbors said they saw her standing calmly in the middle of the lawn. >> they see a woman out there talking on her phone. it didn't appear to be in a grievous situation, for sure. >> she wasn't walking around the neighborhood looking for help. >> no. >> i think what bothered me the most is how clean she was. like, her hair was still perfect, her nails were still perfect. >> what would you have expected? >> is brutal as it sounds, some blood underneath your fingernails or something. >> reporter: detective books took a careful look at michelle's story, how she invited mark, who was working from home, to have lunch with her downtown. after lunch, they want across the street to buy ice cream for dessert. mark had literally minutes to live. in the hours leading up to mark's death, there were calls and a flurry of text messages between michelle and her dad. >> there was enormous amount of text is missing. there were chunks of text missing from carl's phone and michelle's phone. >> anything suspicious about the fact that they were missing from both phones? >> immediately suspicious. >> reporter: on the date, he asked her back to the police station and asked her point blank. but, she admitted, she was hiding something. hiding something. seeing a guy? an affair? it all tumbled out. how michelle was dipping into fine family finances for her lover's apartment and his groceries. maybe mark was onto her, was about to find out what michelle was doing behind his back. mark's parents believed that the michelle they knew would rather see her husband dead than risk being on the losing end of a messy divorce. >> it was all going to fall apart. >> yeah. >> from trailer trash to a rich woman, she wasn't going to go back to being trailer trash again. >> reporter: but if mark died -- >> we found there were two insurance policies. each for the amount of $500,000. >> that's a healthy chunk of change. >> yes, sir. >> reporter: a whole lot of suspicion, but none of it actual proof. months went by and michelle went on with her life. jack and tanna pushed investigators to get going. they even asked the public for help on a billboard. the idea that michelle might get away from murder was eating jack alive. >> you got a whole lot of anger for that woman. >> if i could take her life and bring my son back, i would do it. i do it in a heartbeat. >> sometimes it's overwhelming, that anger. >> it is. coming up. one more twist. >> i never dreamed he would do it to me. >> and justice for marc -- maybe. >> i wanted answers for the children. >> when dateline continues. ne to daily digestive support, to more wellness solutions every day. get more with nature's bounty. what is cirkul? 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[coughing] copd hasn't been pretty. it's tough to breathe and tough to keep wondering if this is as good as it gets. but trelegy has shown me that there's still beauty and breath to be had. because with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy keeps my airways open and prevents future flare-ups. and with one dose a day, trelegy improves lung function so i can breathe more freely all day and night. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. ♪ what a wonderful world ♪ ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy for copd because breathing should be beautiful. welcome back to dateline. a family breath with sexual abuse allegations, big insurance payout, even an affair. this had all the makings of a hollywood script, but it was all too real for those that loved and lost marc despain. his parents wanted the truth, and so did investigators. here is the conclusion of the root of all evil. >> reporter: jack and tanna despain heard that their sons widow was living with a new man on her arm and life insurance money in her pocket and they fumed. >> she's buying stuff and buying clothes and going to restaurants. it's very hard for us to take. >> reporter: detective brooks was determined to see the case through. just like marc's parents, he believed michelle orchestrated the murder down to the very minute. the shooter himself said as much. carl was texting with someone, they said, they made their final plans in the church parking lot. but virtually all those tax had been deleted. detective brooks labored for months, night, weekends. >> you got emotionally wrapped up in this one, didn't you? >> i wanted to do it for the children. i wanted answers for the children. >> finally, a breakthrough. a police analyst managed to recover several deleted text messages, including this one, timestamp a: 20 a.m., five hours before the murder. michelle writes to her father, it has to be today, can't live like this. awful this morning. >> she asks if he could give him away for lunch. >> she says she can. and he replies, okay, i will let you know the time. >> in the review of those text messages, marc wasn't really interested in going to lunch that day but she begged him to take her to lunch. >> reporter: after lunch, she asked marc to linger for an ice cream treat, all the while, texting her dad, said the prosecutor. tipping him off to marc's whereabouts as carl placed a killer in their home. >> what kind of person have you got to be to let your husband walk away from you knowing what he is going to walk into when he gets home. >> reporter: with new evidence, police arrested michelle. she was charged for capital murder for charging and orchestrating the crime. she denied it, said she could explain everything, and agreed to tell us. >> why people should believe that you have nothing to do with the plot to kill marc . >> because i didn't. he was such a good dad. such a good dad. and anybody that knows me knows that my kids are so important to me. the most important thing. and i would never want them to not have their dad. >> reporter: but she did want out of the marriage, she said. those back and forth text with her dad that they did involve a plot -- just not murder. >> what did he think he was going to do? >> leave. by getting things while we were gone. >> reporter: so she would keep marc at lunch while carl and two hired hands moved her stuff out of the house, but her dad change the plan on her, she said. used those men to kill her husband. she had no idea when she met her dad at the bank that they what he had just done. >> this close to each other, father and daughter, you look in his eyes and talk to him and he gives no hint that he just killed your husband? >> not at all. >> reporter: then michelle, forgive the expression, through were father under the bus. not because he thought marc was abusing her, but for money. for a piece of the insurance payout. >> you are getting the insurance. so even if it was his idea, it makes you look really guilty. >> one thing that he always told me and my sister growing up was that, use people for what you can get out of them. >> that's what he told you? >> i -- i never dreamed he would do it to me. use me. >> reporter: did he? or was michelle the clever user? in our interview, michelle denied being a master manipulator. she denied she stoked the abuse allegations or that she engineered marks split with his parents. that, she blamed jack and tanna. >> i never would've walked away from like it in the first place. i never would have. >> reporter: in the end, they didn't walk away from their kid, either. because he was pushing from day one to solve the murder, who kept pushing month after month after month? >> my opinion on that is their hatred toward me. it wasn't anything to do with marc . it didn't have anything to do with marc. it was all about jack despain's hatred toward me. >> you seriously believe that? >> i do. >> reporter: her mother kathy defended her around town. >> did you ever let your -- >> the daughter i know? the daughter i helped raise? no. >> reporter: meanwhile, michelle's attorneys took a closer look at those recovered text messages. they filed a motion, arguing that investigators didn't obtain them properly. >> they didn't get a new search warrant every time they searched the phone. we are talking about, i think, 15 searches of michelle and carl's phones, and they didn't have 15 search warrants. >> reporter: their arguments about improper search warrants may have had some traction. with the trial looming, the prosecutor was worried. >> we are at the high stakes poker game where it's all or nothing when they judge rules the next day on whether to admit the evidence or not to admit it. >> reporter: the prosecutor agreed to start talking about a plea deal. the defense played it tough and said michelle is only willing to admit she had learned about her father's plot after the murder. >> she is admitting to having knowledge of someone being involved and not disclosing that to the police. >> reporter: she would agree to plead guilty to a charge of hindering apprehension, said the defense. after some prayer, marc's mother said she could live with that. >> i'm not a gambling person. and even if we had went to trial, it would've only taken one sympathetic juror to have set her free. >> reporter: it was more than three years after the death of her husband when michelle despain walked into a courtroom to be sentenced. she left in handcuffs, mouthing, i love you, to her mom. her dad and the shooter got 35 years. michelle was sentenced to 30 years and was eligible for parole after 5. she was released in december 2018. as for marc's parents , they will try to remember their love for their son that came before all this hate. >> some of marc's friends told us that you are his hero, jack. you knew that? >> god, i loved him. >> i'm sorry, jack. >> reporter: jack and tanna set up a charity to help other victims of violent crime. it's called marc's place. >> were going to try to move forward with something positive that we think marc would be very proud of. >> reporter: on a false onset, they gathered family and friends together to remember their son and finally say goodbye. >> i tell people all the time, hug the ones you love. let them know, because you never know. in the next moment, they may be gone. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i am craig melvin. thank you for watching. watchin hello. this is "dateline". all i could see was the dark hallway with the light coming out o