they were a mother and daughter who had both made mistakes, but there was no mistaking her love . >> she was not perfect , but she was perfect for me. >> and when her daughter became a mom, life itself seemed perfect, but not for long. >> called the sergeant and said, please tell me this isn't true and he said, i can't . >> but who wanted her daughter dead ? she had lovers not enemies. >> friends with benefits . >> the question for police, which fred was the father, and which the killer? >> it doesn't seem as if she always made the best choices in a man . >> no. no. single mom tori vienneau was surrounded by love. hello, and welcome to "dateline. single mom, tori was surrounded by love. in addition to her baby, dean, she had a boyfriend, a best friend, and a mother who adored her hear the grown-ups work as a team, caring for the baby. when tragedy stuck struck, tori realized, the only way was to fight for justice. here is josh mankiewicz with "complicated." in some families, the birth of a child can change everything . >> i would not have cared if we had a boy or a girl. it was going to be nice to have a little boy . >> dana was over the moon when her first grandchild was born. dean roberts came into the world september 26, 2005, weighing seven pounds, stretching out to 20 1/2 inches . >> he was beautiful. i was madly in love with him . >> her husband , roy, felt the same way. >> you were charmed. >> i was absolutely charmed. >> the baby's mother, dana's daughter, was just 21 and not ready for the challenges of parenthood. as baby dean grew from a newborn, to a happy infant with a sweet smile, tori grew as well . >> he was something we did not know was missing until he came and was one, big fat ball of love. and he opened up my daughter. it is like you could just see her heart go huge. it was a beautiful sight to see, watching her become a mom. i think every mom should be able to see that with their child. >> all of that joy turned to horror on the evening of july 26, 2006. >> my sister's roommate, i don't know what happened to her. >> take a deep breath so that i can understand. >> we tell a lot of sad stories here on "dateline." and while this one is it easy to tell, it might make you think about the relationship you have with your kids or your parents. what happened here in san diego turned a happy mother and grandmother into a fighter, who now wants the world to know what happened to her family, because to me she says, there are lessons here about life, about trust, and about the choices we make, and what she has learned might be a gift to someone else's family. >> before we go ahead, i want to ask you something, are you sure you want to do this? >> yes. >> because this is not going to be pleasant. >> but i think it is important. i think it is important to do. tori could have been any girl. >> of course, she was not any girl and she was dayna's . >> tori was the perfect daughter for me. she was not perfect, but she was perfect for me. from the minute she was born, we were two peas in a pod. she was perfectly flawed, i believe. >> most mothers probably would argue that there daughter does not have any flaws, perfect . >> no, she had flaws. >> dayna says, tori would get so focused on a goal, she sometimes would ignore signs of problems along the way. >> stubborn . >> yeah. >> and it does not seem she always made the best choices in men . >> no, there's a flaw there. >> tori's best friend members how tori always seemed to fall for the wrong guy . >> what kind of guys did she go for? >> to me, they weren't stable guys, guys that weren't nice to her, probably not nice in general . >> maybe that should not be a surprise , given that our relationships as adults often reflect the ones we witness as children. tori was barely 2 when her father left and cut all ties with her and dayna. and although stepdad roy, the old those issues later on and loved her, tori spent years dealing with her mother's issues . >> i will say this from jump , i am a recovering alcoholic, and up until she was 16, her life was fairly normal. and then, i crashed. i think i've always been an alcoholic, but it came to a head at this point . >> although you were drinking, you were functioning? >> i was functioning, but then i could no longer function. and then i could not stop. i woke up and i had a drink and i would take my daughter to school . >> drunk? >> yeah. yeah. >> as many children of alcoholics do, tori helped her mother cover up the drinking, hiding bottles, denying there was a problem. and for a while, that works, but at 16, tori felt she could not take it anymore. >> tori said, i love you, but i hate you when you drink and i will not watch you destroy your life and i found a place for you to interview at a recovery home, and you get one shot. if you fail at this, i'm not coming back. i need my mom back . >> that had to feel good , knowing that whatever mistakes you made, you raised a daughter who had that kind of backbone? >> i was very proud of her. >> so, dayna went to rehab for nearly a year. roy moved on to deal with the family's collapse in his own way. and tori , still in high school, worked with prince as a waitress. when dayna emerged nine months later sober, it was tori's turn to be proud. >> i wanted her to see, you could stand back up when you fall, and you could get your life back together. we put our marriage back together, put our family back together. >> over the next few years, tori and dayna become closer than ever and one day, tori came home with news of her own. >> i said, spit it out and told me, we will deal with whatever it is. she said, i'm pregnant. >> it should have been a happy beginning of a new chapter in the lives of both mother and daughter, but sometimes, as we told you earlier, the birth of a child can change everything. coming up, a phone call . >> he said , haven't the police contacted you? i said, why would the police be calling me? when "dateline" continues. n over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingrix today. what can you do with sensitive skin? ( ♪♪ ) cetaphil moisturizing lotion hydrates for a full 48 hours. because a lot can happen in 48 hours. cetaphil. we do skin. you do you. when you host, your bathroom can feel like a revolving door... keep things fresh with febreze small spaces. it's an outlet-free air freshener that fights odors for 45 days. so even after every flush... you know your bathroom smells amazing. ♪ lalalalala ♪ i'm a bird stuck in larry bird's attic. and i'm goin' cuckoo. what the heck. what you got larry? may the best bird win. brick. you may be a legend on the court but you're an amateur up here. heads up lar. so get allstate... save money and be protected from mayhem... ...like me. now you're the bird stuck in the attic. josh mankiewicz: when she became pregnant, tori was living with her boyfriend, neil springstube. when she became pregnant, tori was living with her boyfriend, neil springstube . also under the same roof, tori's best friend, daniel moen. when tori brought baby dean home, these three, 20 something roommates, shared parenting. >> they took shifts. one worked one shift, someone works another. daniel was always carrying him in the baby pouch, where normally the mom is carrying the baby in the baby pouch, daniel would be doing that. >> you were pretty taken with that baby from the beginning? >> he was my little buddy, my friend. most times, he was my best friend. i watched him everyday while everyone was at work. >> dayna was amazed and amused by the three-way childcare. >> the three of them were comical and dean was just filled with love. >> but by the summer of 2006, when baby dean was 10 months old, tori and neil had broken up and daniel moved back home with his mom, although he continued to help out daily with dean's care, mom and baby were living in low income housing in a rough part of san diego. even so, grandma dayna still thought life was good. >> the last time you saw them me you were all in the pool together? >> she had gotten into the bikini, she was very proud of that. but she lost the baby weight. >> yeah. daniel was in the pool with dean, and roy was in the pool with dean, and dean learned how to splash. he realized, it was his hand making the water splash. he was roaring with laughter and thought it was just the funniest thing. i said, isn't our life perfect? we've come full circle. doesn't that sound like music from heaven when he laughs? >> that was what day? >> that was sunday, the 23rd of july. >> three days later, on a wednesday night, dayna was struck by a news story about a mother and her baby . >> that night, i saw on the news i think they set a mother that was 27 and a child that was 8 months had been murdered. >> one of the roommates came to the south complex just before 9:00. >> i said a prayer for that family, that is horrible. i went to bed, thought nothing of it. >> the next day, dayna got a called from tori's workplace, dana-- tori had not shown up. she got a call from the daycare, baby dean was not there. she called daniel. daniel in an almost matter-of- factly, told dayna the worst news she had ever heard . >> he said, haven't the police contacted you? i said, why would the police be calling me? and he said, the mother and child on the news last night was tori and dean. >> it was too terrible to hear. >> i was engulfed in heat and i know when i went back to the phone to me the line was dead. >> dayna called police to find out more. they confirmed that both her daughter and grandson were dead. they held back the details because it was a gruesome crime. but soon enough, dayna would hear it on the news . tori had been beaten. both she and 10 month old baby dean had been strangled. dean was still in his crib . >> i called the sergeant and said, please tell me that this is not true. he said, i can't tell you that. and then, the nightmare began. >> by the time dayna had learned what happened to her baby grandson and daughter, police had already gone through the apartment, dusting for prints, searching for dna, looking for anything that might explain this double murder. >> first of all, what could you tell with the crime scene? >> just that it appeared to be a violent assault . >> lieutenant kevin rooney supervises the san diego police homicide unit. >> there was no forced entry. it was not uncommon for tori and her two roommates to leave the door unlocked. >> sexual assault, robbery? what do you think marks >> she was clad in a brawl, but there were tears to her clothing, so at the beginning, we were open to the possibility that this was an attempted rape. >> but why kill a 10 month old child that would not be able to testify? >> exactly. a 10 month old boy who does not speak. >> right away, the cops started bringing in tori's friends here too you did not kill her, did you? >> no. >> tori's best friend, daniel the one who had taken such good care of baby dean was also brought downtown. >> your typical investigation? >> yeah, little tiny room, lights on me, talking. they asked me where i was. >> took your fingerprints? >> yes. >> confiscated your cell phone? >> yes. >> you felt like a suspect? >> i did not feel like they suspect the first night. that changed. that changed. that can't retain moisture. new pantene miracle rescue deep conditioner, with first-of-its-kind melting pro-v pearls... locks in moisture to repair 6 months of damage in one wash, without weigh down. guaranteed or your money back! for resilient, healthy-looking hair... if you know, you know it's pantene. everybody wants super straight, super white teeth. they want that hollywood white smile. new sensodyne clinical white provides 2 shades whiter teeth and 24/7 sensitivity protection. i think it's a great product. it's going to help a lot of patients. i think it's a greatjosh mankiewicz: tori and dean were gone. g to tori and dean were gone san diego detectives were piecing together tori's life. her mother, dayna, was planning a double final farewell. >> how do you get through a funeral for your only child and her brand-new baby? >> in a daze. in a daze. >> did you think about drinking again? >> never . >> because it seems like that would be a time when you would think about it. >> i would never dishonor her that way. i've made mistakes when she was growing up with my drinking. i was not going to make them in her death. >> but dayna was aching. she bought 43 books on grieving, hoping that would help her through living through the brutal murder of her daughter and grandson. she also looked for answers from the san diego police, but did not find them there, either. they told her, they were working the case, but nothing more, typical police procedure. frustrating? >> extremely. i was angry from probably week two. i felt that they were sweeping tori and dean under the carpet. >> so, this grieving mother and grandmother decided, she had to do something. maybe what she did was a form of therapy, or maybe it was just that she needed to scream something at someone, at the top of her lungs . >> we are not going away, we are just getting bigger and louder . >> she organized candlelight vigils. she worked with groups like crime stoppers and put out playing cards with tori and dean's photos. photos that said, please call if you know anything. in frustration, dayna held a press conference right in front of the headquarters of the san diego police . >> nobody deserves to die this way, certainly not an infant who could not get away, he could not speak. he was a baby! >> all along, she kept calling lieutenant kevin rooney, asking for details, and he was not giving up anything. >> when investigating a murder, there are many details, is that we will not reveal dayna was very angry. i understand it. >> she felt like you guys were getting nowhere. >> oh, she was very upfront about that. >> police were making progress, but progress in a real homicide really happens as it does in a tv crime drama. subpoenas have to be issued for things like cell phone records and computer hard drives. all of that would take weeks, if not months, to come in. what police did learn quickly about tori was that, she did not seem to have any enemies. she did, however, lead a very complicated life. tori was juggling not just work and motherhood, also three men. her boyfriend, neil springstube, her pal, daniel moen, and an old boyfriend, dennis potts. the cops quickly established that neil was in florida at the time of the murders. that left two. >> give me a brief sort of capsule on each one of them. >> dennis potts new tori since high school . they attended the same high school. they had what was described as a not exclusive relationship. for whatever reason, they were constantly drunk --drawn back to each other and did have a sexual relationship that existed over the years since high school. >> daniel moen never qualified as a boyfriend . maybe he was too nice, or just too shy. >> daniel knew her a long time. they had a child together. he described them as best friends, but he wanted more. i believe he loved her, but wanted a romantic relationship with her . >> and you knew that sometimes that may daniel, if not angry, at least unhappy . >> it certainly seemed of the three men in her life, he seemed to be the one on the outside looking in. >> however, in the weeks before tori was killed, things were beginning to change between tori and daniel. she seemed open to the possibility of making their relationship more than just friends, but she was not sold on it. >> she was not quite as into that whole idea as you. >> i don't think so. >> that bother you? >> no, not really. >> i don't believe you. >> i was upset she still talked to dennis and other people, but i knew how she was before, so i accepted her at how she was. >> daniel had spent years being forgiven of tori's weaknesses. dayna told detectives something did not seem right about daniel, specifically how he knew so much so soon about the murders. >> you had to, during that time, sort of flashback to how much more daniel was into tori then tori was into daniel? 's >> and it scared me in the way he knew they were dead in the way he told me they were dead. that kind of scared me, is what i told police. >> and in turn, police made sure daniel knew he was in their sites. >> the cop started coming at you really hard. frightening? >> after they told me i was the main suspect, yeah, a little frightening. >> they said, you are the main suspect mark's >> i believe i was the only suspect at that time. >> with the pressure on, daniel told cops, you did not do it. he shared with them unusual text messages he received from tori, a little before 7:00 p.m. that night. daniel said, it was soon after he got back to work after a break and also around the time police believe tori and dean were killed. >> that is why i left my phone with them that night. i got a lot of text before, some scary guy. >> there is some scary guy, standing by my car, looking into my place. daniel told police, that was odd, because tori did not think of her shared apartment as her place. he also told detectives about another text he thought was strange. >> dean was sleeping like a dead dog. >> was that the way she talked to mark's >> not at all . >> in an age demographic reduced to text messages, emotions as complex and different as love and hate, desire and friendship, tori's texted words to daniel are sort suddenly full of mystery. >> she texted you at one point, i love you, i want to be with you, and she says, my plans with dennis l through, why don't you come over to mark's >> yeah, that is funny because i never knew they would meet here it's >> tori told daniel she was going to see her mom, dayna that evening, but in reality, she was going out to dinner with dennis potts, her old flame from high school, the third man in her life. coming up, eight lover caught in a lie. >> that had to make you very suspicious. >> absolutely . >> when "dateline" continues. . discover caplyta. unlike some medicines that only treat bipolar i, caplyta is proven to deliver significant symptom relief from both bipolar i & ii depression. and in clinical trials, movement disorders and weight gain were not common. caplyta can cause serious side effects. call your doctor about sudden mood changes, behaviors, or suicidal thoughts right away. anti-depressants may increase these risks in young adults. elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. caplyta is not approved for dementia-related psychosis. report fever, confusion, or stiff muscles, which may be life threatening, or uncontrolled muscle movements which may be permanent. common side effects include sleepiness, dizziness, nausea, and dry mouth. these aren't all the side effects. in the darkness of bipolar i & ii depression, caplyta can help you let in the lyte. ask your doctor about caplyta. find savings and support at caplyta.com. wanna know a secret? more than just my armpits stink. facts. that's why i use secret whole body deodorant for clinically proven odor protection everywhere. so i smell great all day, all hike, and all night. secret whole body deodorant. introducing kardiamobile. with kardiamobile, the fda-cleared smart device, you can take a medical-grade ekg in just 30 seconds from anywhere. every morning i check, make sure i'm in good shape. and it makes me feel pretty good about my heart condition. kardiamobile is proven to detect atrial fibrillation. and it's fda-cleared to detect normal heart rhythm, bradycardia and tachycardia. i mean, you might as well be in a doctor's office. get kardiamobile today for just $79 at kardia.com or amazon. 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" i am craig melvin. tori vienneau and her infant son, dean, were killed in their own home. detective suspect that the motive might lie in tori's tangled dating life. tori's mother, dayna, thought so too . in fact, she had her sights on one man in particular and was about to launch a plan to expose it. back to josh mankiewicz with " complicated." the police investigation of a double murder of a mother and her child had focused on two in, tori's best friend, daniel moen, and her old boyfriend, dennis potts. tori met dennis in high school in bonita, california, a well- off enclave in southeast san diego, known for its golf course and horse trails. they had gone out a few months their senior year, even though they did not run in the same circles. dennis's father was a corporate executive, his mother a realtor. tori's father was not around, and her mom was in rehab. >> it was a richie rich school, in my opinion and i was among the middle class, i guess. it was definitely middle to wealthy high school.'s >> in that rarefied world, dennis potts stood at the top. in high school, that means, money, new cars, prestige . tori did not have any of those. >> tori saw the idea of somebody who was popular in school, or the idea of somebody who had it well off, and maybe that is what attracted her to dennis. >> while their dating relationship did not last, their sexual relationship did, on-again, off-again. it survived both high school and several other relationships. >> how the tori described her relationship with moen one? >> pretty much friends with benefits. >> they would sort of hookup, this was high school and afterward? >> high school, yeah, and then as long as i knew her for. >> he was always in the background? >> yes. >> he was apparently in the background when tori was leaving with neil. in fact, was a paternity test showed that tori's then boyfriend, neil springstube, was not baby dean's father, tori told her mother, it must be dennis. >> they did a male in paternity test from the same place her and neil did, and the results came back he was not the father. >> did that make sense to you? >> no. >> the results of another test where the same, dennis was not the father. >> she calls me back and she is hysterical. she says, dennis wants neil to take another test, because she believes he falsified it. i said, tori, dean wanted nothing more than to be the father. >> dayna urged tori to go to court and have a judge ordered a paternity test, but tori was reluctant. >> she did not want to hurt anyone else. she said, i already hurt neil, and i chose to have dean, and i don't have the right to ruin anyone else's life. i have already ruined neil's. >> and your answer was, okay, there is somebody else responsible here. >> roy stepped up and said, honey, this is not about you. this is about dean. >> so, tori agreed, she would ask dennis potts for a third test. >> i was friends with her and after seeing it on the news, i had no idea the child was hurt too. that was just a big soccer. >> police were also talking to dennis. two days after the murders, dennis potts came downtown to have a conversation in that same small room in which daniel moen had spent so much time . >> where did dennis potts say he was that night? >> he said he spent the time frame that would include the time of the murder between 5:00 in the afternoon and 8:00 in the evening, at a friends house, a fellow by the name of max corn. >> and you checked out max corn? >> we did. he backed the story appearance >> end of story? >> no, far from it. >> cops know, there are not many reasons why people kill. often, it boils down to three things, love, pride, money. >> to police, unrequited love looked like a possible motive for dennis potts, but maybe pride or money figured into a possible motive for dennis potts. >> tori calls me and she's like, i think you're the father, but it should not happen like this . >> how old was dean at that point? >> geez, four or 5 months. >> what did dennis potts tell you about his paternity and the whole issue of child support? >> he claimed he had always had sex with her one time during the period she would have conceived the child and used a condom. during that encounter, denied being the dad, that, he was in support of tori's efforts to find out who the father was . >> we did two tests, one where i saw myself swab the baby and another where she swabbed the baby. i held the envelopes in front of her and sealed them up in front of her and mailed them out. came back to me you're not the dad. >> did you buy that? >> just to be on the safe side, we asked for a dna sample we could use for comparison. >> a swab. okay. i was expecting a nurse. >> if i compare this to dean, was it going to tell me? >> it should tell you the same thing our paternity test date, if not, i am going to be surprised. really, sincerely surprised, yes. >> dayna had long been suspicious of dennis potts, because she believed he had somehow manipulated the paternity test. in her frustration, hearing nothing from lieutenant rooney and his investigators, she went to tv station kfmb and gave them a tip, one that would become big news as soon as it ran on tv. check out a guy named dennis potts. >> so, you put dennis's name out there? >> yes, i did. >> with that information, a producer from kfmb went to the home of dennis's parents. >> where was he the night of the murder? >> he was right here. >> and the police come and see you and you are thinking, what, he's going to give you a big thank you? what did you get instead? >> very angry. >> and you were not happy. >> no, not at all. i said, i can't have these details out there and if it means i don't tell you another thing until this thing is resolved one way or another, that is what i will do, because my obligation is to your daughter and her son. >> did she understand that? >> i think she did. >> reporter: they had not solved the case, but the crime lab did solve one issue, dana had been right, and a test would come out differently. moen's dna proved, he was the father of baby dean, and his dna did not match the dna sample that had been sent to the mail order paternity testing company. the crime lab said, that dna sample came from someone else. >> it was his friend, max horn, who vouched for him at his house during the timeframe we believe tori was murdered. >> did that make you very suspicious? >> absolutely. soon, another promising lead me text messages to tori on the day she was murdered. coming up. >> it just seems so out of left field to care whether she was alone at her apartment. >> when "dateline" continues. e ♪♪ an all-in-one cleaning tool, with a 360-degree swivel head that goes places a regular mop just can't. ♪♪ mop smarter with the swiffer powermop. what can you do with sensitive skin? ♪♪ cetaphil gentle skin cleanser does more than clean. it actually protects skin by keeping it hydrated. so you're always ready for the unexpected. cetaphil. we do skin. you do you. josh mankiewicz: holidays and birthdays came and went. dayna herroz spent time with her daughter and grandson holidays and birthdays came and went. danya herroz spent time with her daughter and grandson at the cemetery. >> hi, my angel babies. >> she wasn't close to being able to move on. >> i'm sorry. i didn't protect you. >> but police had moved on. daniel moen was no longer a suspect. investigators were now focused on moen one. the prime suspect continued to live at home with his parents and an fiance and spent much of his time with the man who was his alibi for the murders, max corn, his best friend. they even got matching tattoos. lieutenant kevin roney and his team kept working the case . when his cell phone records finally came in, detectives were able to see how tori's last day had taken shape. >> what did you learn about what tori's plans were for that evening? >> it was her belief that dennis had made reservations at george's at the cove, a very nice restaurant in la jolla. she had arranged for a sitter that she was going to drop dane dean off to. there were an exchange of text messages and phone calls of some of which we were able to recover. >> all the while, dennis maintained that he and tori never saw each other that night, and never intended to . >> you guys did not have plans, per se? >> nothing set in stone, absolutely not. >> their texts told a different story. a little before noon on the day she died, tori texted dennis, okay, i will see you at 5, are you bringing my surprise? what is it? his response is unknown. the texting continues to 1:47, she wrote, can i be casual, in jeans? at 4:32 she wrote, you still coming? he wrote back, i will be there at 5:15. you home alone? >> she seemed giddy in the words that she was excited about going to dinner and he said that he had a present for her and it was in the car. of course, asked, are you alone ? in retrospect, it just seems so out of left field, and inappropriate to care whether she is alone at her apartment. >> the homicide team also learned more about where dennis was, again from his telephone records. >> dennis said, nobody else had his phone, nobody else used his phone and he was with max corn from 5:00 to 8:00 at night. his phone moved around between 5:00 and 8:00. there were a number of calls that were made that did not use cell sightings in bonita, where max corn was. the last used a cell tower in national city, that was very close to tori's apartment. >> if dennis had his phone and his phone pinged off the tower near tori's apartment, police say, he could not have been at max corn's all night. police upright -- applied rusher to max. josh mankiewicz: denise gunter remembers how in high school, max and dennis were well known for watching each other's backs, and for not taking high school >> denise scudder remembers how in high school, max and dennis were well known for watching each other's backs, and for not taking high school life too seriously. >> max and dennis, i would say, overall, there was not a lot of accountability. it was kind of, do what you like and deal with the consequences later. >> it was at dennis's parents' house that police found the break they need it. >> eventually found a search on the computer and some other things. >> when they dug into dennis's hard drive, they found internet searches he had done, searches that told them what dennis potts was thinking, and when. june 24th, dennis asked the internet for help on this topic, committing murder. june 26, one month to the day before the murders, dennis searches, court ordered paternity test procedure. later, that same day, he asks for information on how to cheat a swab paternity test. two days later, dennis wants to know the best way to kill someone here two days after that , he is asking about getting away with murder. july 7th, dennis looks up information on getting out of child support. july 19th, performing chokehold , and later, how to kill someone. july 25th, at 4:16 in the afternoon, dennis searches cyberspace again. his topics, knocking someone unconscious, and knocking someone in the head. the next day was july 26, 2006. tori and dean were murdered. coming up, an arrest, trial , and the dramatic order from a judge. >> he left the bench, came back, you could tell he had been crying. when "dateline" continues. . . only shingrix is proven over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingrix today. try killing bugs the worry-free way. not the other way. zevo traps use light to 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business. don't miss out on our fastest speed plans yet! switch to comcast business and get started for $49.99 a month. plus, ask how to get up to an $800 prepaid card. call today! january 16th, 2008, 18 months after tori and baby dean were murdered, a very long investigation paid off. dennis potts and his best friend, max corn were arrested. dennis charged with the murders, max charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice . it would be another 18 months until dennis potts went to trial. his attorney, carrie armstrong, says, his client is guilty only of not being ready to be a dad. >> mr. dennis potts now admits having eight those-- faked tests. >> on the stand, dennis told the jury, he thought baby dean looks like him and said, he suspected that if he did not do something, he would have to deal with the obvious. >> i don't want to use the term, buying sometime, i needed to figure out what i was going to do here, as far as raising a child, or making child support payments. >> dennis tried to explain away the online searches income he was interested in esoteric topics like mixed martial arts, knocking someone conscious. he said, yet written a paper about euthanasia for a college class once and thought you might want to write one on murder next, so he type and how to kill someone, and getting away with it. the problem was, dennis was not in school at the time and had not signed up for any sort of writing class. on the stand, dennis also denied being a double murderer. >> i never thought about killing tori or dean in any sense. it is not usually a thought that comes in anyone's head, not any sane person. >> what's wrong with the theory that dennis potts did not want to be responsible for this child , because it would embarrass him in front of his family and girlfriend, and it was not his plan, he did not want to spend the money, did everything he could to fake a paternity test, and looked like torri was going to agitate for a test that would pretty much be bulletproof, pushed him too far, and he killed her? >> i never disputed that was a strong theory by the prosecution, what i argued was there was a stronger suspicion someone else actually committed the murders, that was daniel moen. >> they argued that daniel moen had even more motive, that he was in love with tori, but she rejected him, despite he helped out with baby dean, he came over and used his money to buy supplies. of course, all of that was true, even though love, maybe even the rejection. >> at trial, the defense said that you did it. >> i was there a scapegoat. >> hard to hear? >> very hard to hear. >> but daniel had an alibi, unlike the one given by moen one, did not rely on the word of a close friend. here is daniel on a store security camera at work the night of the murders and his cell phone pinged on the tower near where he worked. daniel was never charged. in the end, it was clear he was not guilty of killing both the woman and baby he loved. >> we, the jury, find the defendant, dennis potts guilty of the crime of murder. >> a jury believed all the guilt rested with dennis potts. >> the family has plenty of money, whatever child support tori was asking for certainly was not going to break them, better to commit murder then give them the money? >> he was too smart for his own good. maybe he thought it would work. maybe he did not want to be attached to tori or her son the next 18 years. he had a girl about to become his fiancee. it was a nice little thing to do on the side, but i think it got a lot more complicated . >> there might have been more to dennis's plan. remember those strange texts daniel received the day of the murder? police believe that was dennis, who had already killed tori and dean, using tori's phone to blur daniel to the scene. what would have happened if daniel would have shown up? that is something only dennis knows. >> there was no question that they lied. >> in a separate trial, max corn was found guilty of obstructing justice, sentenced to 20 years. dennis potts was sentenced to life, without the possibility of parole, which is exactly what tori's mother wanted . >> before this, i believe in the death penalty. i would have been gung for this guy to get the death penalty . >> not anymore? >> too easy. >> you want him to live with this? >> absolutely. >> at sentencing, dayna gave the judge a photo of tori and dean lying together in their casket. she wanted to make sure that photo hung in dennis potts's cell for the rest of his life. she requested exactly that from the trial's judge. >> he left the bench, you could tell he had been crying after seeing the photo, was wiping his eyes, said, it is so ordered. >> danya herroz not only came to understand exactly why the investigation took so long, and appreciate everything lieutenant rooney did here she became a victim's advocate. dayna won awards for helping other families of murdered children through their darkest days. in 2023, the year baby dean would have turned 18, dayna told me , she decided it was time to retire and take care of herself. she believed, that's what tori would have wanted. daniel dennis potts now has a child of his own , yet, finds himself still missing that first baby that came into his life. >> i think about dean a lot when i am playing with my own daughter, to think what he could have been. he never got to start talking, getting around walking, doing all of those things. every time i get her do something new to me, i think about what would he have been like at that age. >> dayna still struggles with her own guilt after pushing her daughter to take dennis to court for that paternity test. >> she would have let that go, wouldn't she? >> she would have let that go. >> now, i know there is no way you could have known what was coming next. >> no. >> she would rather believe, there is a more spiritual reason for what happened. >> i believe that god called them home and i think dean came to take his mom home. and our children are on loan to us. i just forgot that. >> dayna says, she tries to remember only the happy times, the joy she experienced so briefly of being a grandmother. how they died, she says, was just a moment. how they lived is what she wants to remember. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i am craig melvin. thanks for watching. ks for wat. welcome to morning joe: weekend. let's get to this week's big story. >>e

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