Transcripts For KNTV Dateline NBC 20130819

And changed everything. This this bizarre story, the strangest thing of all was the truth. He planned for any scenario except for the one that happened to him. Im lester holt and this is dateline. Heres keith morrison. There are people on this glorious sun kissed planet of ours who get up early every morning happy to be alive and worry. Some people worry a very great deal indeed and do try to be prepared for whatever. One of those prepared people was a brilliant retired University Professor named Kay Mortenson whose sister was a woman need fern. What would happen if im not prepared or im hungry or my kids are hungry, can i come to your house . He said ill probably just shoot you. He wouldnt have but he was definitely willing to protect what he had. Yes. He certainly was. And sure enough, one night 911. What the address of your emergency. Were getting ahead of ourselves. What happened that night was a long time coming. It was long before that when kay became a survivalist with attitude. You knew exactly what he thought about everything and even though he knew what he was saying would be outrageous and not accepted, he would say it any way. He had a black belt in karate. He owned scores of firearms and kept guns in just about every room of the house and in all of his cars. A fully stocked concrete bunker outside his home in utah. He had food. He had everything there. Water. Way to go to the bathroom. Magazines. Books to read. Kay was very clear about it with his wife, darla. He would say this is where you and are going to end up because thereses going to be nuclear war. He was a true patriot. He worried about things and wanted to be prepared for the civil war that was going to erupt and so he was a little over the top. Darla wasnt thrilled about it but she accepted him and his radical views. After all, they were still kind of in their honeymoon phase. It was all kind of surreal. We both felt like we were back being teenagers again. We both hadnt really had love for quite a few years. They found each other late in life after both had raised families. Kay had three Adult Children by then. One of whom his eldest, roger, stayed close. He was my best friend. We did everything together. Mind you roger was not at all like kay. For one thing, he suffered a brain injury in an accident years ago so unlike kay he couldnt work much. Lived on disability. He liked to hang out with his dad. We lived less than a mile apart because we did enjoy spending so much time together. If i ever needed help, he would be there in a minute to help me. Although, said rogers wife, pam, it wasnt always easy. Thats just the way kay was wired. Rogers dad was a very strong willed person. It was his way or the highway. So roger learned early to shy away from confrontation with his father. If he said something that roger maybe disagreed or wanted to do a different way, roger would leave. He would come back and everything would be good again. Not at all how it was with his new love, darla. When she was around, they said, kays tough hide melted. We knew then that he really loved her and was willing to compromise and do some things so he could make her happy also. Did it seem to soften him up a little bit . It did. A lot. So kay and darla got married. Married couple. And they were as happy as either one of them had ever been. He would say what else do we need to do . We are retired. We have plenty of money. Well just have fun. Kay was a rich man. Made most of his money buying gold at 250 an ounce said darla. He had the foresight. He was the dollar bill that wont be worth anything. He put his money into a trust so that loroger and other childn would inherit everything once he was gone. Heaven knows he wasnt spending it. Worth millions but he was very frugal. Very frugal. I just used to say to him, you know i said, when is it youre going to spend your money . What are you waiting for . So kay promised darla he would travel with her. See the world. But he made sure his bunker was stocked and he kept his guns close to hand. Just in case. And then it was november 16th, 2009. Darla was away watching her granddaughters. Kay was alone at his house. 911, whats the address of your emergency . It was evening when the call came in. I have help on the way. I need to get information. Are you sure that hes dead . Darla was on her way home. Her cell phone chirped. It was a neighbor. He said something terrible has happened. He says i think its at your house. Darlas mind flashed to kay and his guns. I thought, oh my gosh. He probably shot an invader or something. She phoned a family friend. She said something is going on. Im alone. Can you come bodown and meet wi me. Police blocked off the road to led to kay and darlas house and now darla and chris thought exactly the same thing. Kay probably shot someone. Turned out kay never got the chance. Are you sure your dead is cold to the touch . His son makes an agonizing discovery and stumbles right into a murder scene. They said youre at the wrong place, wrong time. [ male announcer ] nobody knows where or when the next powerful storm is going to hit. But it will. Thats why theres a new duracell battery. Introducing duracell quantum. With its high density core, its a quantum leap in battery power. The next storm is out there. But so are the heroes. So were giving a million duracell quantum to First Responders everywhere. Power. In the hands of the most powerful. Duracell. Trusted everywhere. Every day you stain it. So every day, use crest 3d White Toothpaste to remove up to 90 of surface stains in just 5 days. No wonder the number one whitening brand is crest 3d white. For Digestive Health . Yes and did you know that trubiotics is a daily probiotic that helps in two ways . It supports digestive and immune health by working in your gut where 70 of your immune system lives. Try trubiotics today. Causing dark marks to become visible. Dove has the effective solution. Dove® cleartone™ antiperspirant with calendula and sunflower seed extracts. It moisturizes to help accelerate natural skin renewal processes helping skin to repair itself while still keeping you dry. The result . Underarms with visibly reduced dark marks and an even tone. Try dove cleartone for beautiful underarms. But the instant frizz . Not so much. So im taking pantenes 72hour dare. [ female announcer ] beat humidity for a smooth 72 hours. Get pantene smooth with Moroccan Argan Oil in a prov system. Help lock out humidity. Keep frizz from forming. Go 72hour smooth. [ eva ] ditch the frizz. I dare you. [ female announcer ] get smooth from pantene, the worlds no. 1 haircare brand. Hair so healthy it shines. The worlds no. 1 haircare brand. Could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Yep, Everybody Knows that. Well, did you know some owls arent that wise . Dont forget im having brunch with meghan tomorrow. Who . Meghan, my coworker. Who . Seriously . Youve met her like three times. Who . sighs geico. Fifteen minutes could save you. Well, you know. Everyone knew that Kay Mortenson was always prepared surrounded himself with a variety arsenal of firearms. Just a tough old bird that could defend himself against just about anything. He would always say if anyone tries to break in here, ill kill them. Life, no matter how well we prepare, is full of rude surprises as it was for Kay Mortenson. It was november 16th, 2009, just before thanksgiving. Hi. We have police on the way to help you there. Are you sure your dad is cold to the touch . Kay did not shoot some intruder as he long promised he was prepared to do. No. Somebody killed him without firing a shot. The man on the phone reporting the crime, roger mortenson, kays eldest son. Sliced his throat . Yes. It wasnt long before kays wife, darla, had made it to the mouth of the canyon and was led to the command post that had been set up just down the hill from their home. Thats where they gave her the news. Your life just comes tumbling down. You have it all planned out. You think you know what it will be and then everything is gone. Kay caught off guard, not kay, thought darla. Impossible. But that seemed to be just what happened. At least thats what roger and pam told the police and later us. In a very strange story it was. It began, they said, when pam received a pie at work as a gift. We knew how much he loved that pecan pie and we decided as soon as she got home from work to take him that pie. So they said they went to his house intending to drop off the pie and then leave. But when they got there, they said, there was an unfamiliar car in the driveway. Pam said she knocked on the door and a young man answered. I said is key here. He said he is. Hes upstairs. I said were just here to drop off a pie. They said go ahead in. I got to about the landing when i was asked to come back down. I heard the door shut. When i turned around, thats when i saw the gun. What was it like to see that . It was a shock. As soon as we turned around and saw the gun, another guy started walking down the stairs also. He had in his hand a wad of zip ties. They turned to us and said youre here at the wrong place, wrong time. Hold out your hands. The intruders zip tied their wrists and forced them down on the living room floor and zip tied their ankles. After we were tied up, they said im sorry but you have seen our faces. Were going to have to kill you now. Pam quaking in terror looked up at a picture of jesus hanging on the living room wall. I kept think, heavenly father, if you really love me and care for me, please make us get through this. It calmed me to keep looking at that picture of christ and to be able to help roger stay calm. That really had an impact on you . It did. Why . It just brought me comfort. It brought me peace to know that even if they killed you . To know that my heavenly father loves me and that he would do the right thing for me. Both men left the room, they said, and then roger began praying aloud. He was in mid sentence when the men walked back in and something quite amazing happened. My wife nudged me and said be quiet. Theyre back. One said, no, thats okay. Keep praying. Go ahead. They both folded their arms in front of them and bowed their heads and listened to me as i continued this entire prayer. How weird is that . When i got done with the prayer, we both sat down and their demeanor changed at that point. One of them looked at us and says, well, we decided were not going to kill you. We decided that were going to tell you a story that you need to relay to the police. What was that story the intruders told them to stay . The three black men with ski masks invaded the house. Three, not two as they actually were. Black, not white, as they actually were and then said roger, they took his drivers license and said they would know if he or pam told the truth and if that happened, they would hunt him down and they would kill him. And then the two men left. Roger and pam waited a while. Got out of the zip ties and roger ran upstairs while pam dialed 911. She was on the phone with the operator when roger found his father in the upstairs bathroom. I saw my father kneeling over the bathtub. His feet were tied and his head was down in the bathtub. Inconceivable. Tough, resilient, armed to the teeth kay murdered with his own kitchen knife. What a story. Sergeant eric knutson was assigned to the case. The first officer talking to pam and roger called him. He said something wasnt right here. It seems that some things were staged or just not what he would think would be normal for a crime as heinous or as vicious as this. Something about that bizarre story didnt sit right. He just couldnt put his finger on it. Not yet any way. Coming up, problem was that bizarre story got weirder by the minute. They had purple gloves on. They had blue fuzzy gloves. Really . The death of Kay Mortenson was horrific, humiliating, helpless to defend himself inside his own sacred fortress. The killer had bent him over his own bathtub, slashed his throat several times, stabbed his neck, with all those guns and not a single one fired. It seemed so personal. Sergeant eric knutson got a briefing from the first officer at the scene who turned on his audio recorder when he met kays son, roger, and rogers wife, pam. Roger had found the body and was already suggesting possible killers. He told me he had an appointment for lunch at noon with a guy name mike kipp discussing 25,000 worth of guns. Mike kipp . Mike was kays former student. Roger and pam identified him real quick. Hes involved. He owes my dad money. Hes the one who did this. Roger told detectives that kay was holding a collection of mikes weapons, about 30 of them, mostly pistols and rifles and some shotguns. Kay put the guns in his bunker. Roger thought there might be a grudge involved. When detectives went to look for the guns, they were gone. So we pull in michael kipp that night too. We interview him and get his alibi. Its quick. Nothing suspicion about it. Mike had not a thing to do with kays murder. He simply needed money and kay agreed to buy his guns. By now tips were coming in. This female said, its the baker boys. She said the baker boys did this. The baker boys were brothers who fairly or not had developed a reputation as the towns trouble makers. Detectives found them. They had solid alibis and then the next day another tip. A woman who implicated her own husband. He came home last night the time frame before the homicide and grabbed stuff including a knife and hes been looking for guns. So i know hes involved. The womans husband was eventually eliminated as a suspect. Detectives hope maybe the stolen guns would lead them to kays killer. We recovered a lot of firearms that were stolen but none linked. That highlighted another aspect of the mystery. Kay, remember collected firearms. Had close to 100 valuable guns locked up at his house but the thieves just stole the cheaper ones at the bunker. Bizarre to take those guns and not the valuable collection that kay had. Agreed. In fact, the inside of kays house was pristine, untouched, no sign anyone had stolen anything. If this was a home invasion, it was an odd one. But by then truth be told, detectives were already honing in on the two people who admitted they were there the whole time. Kays son, roger, and his wife, pam. Are you sure that hes dead . Starting with that 911 call they made. Something odd about it. Didnt sound how i would think a phone call should be made to 911 after discovering your father had just been killed with the throat cut and zip tied in the bathroom. Roger and pam, said detectives, appeared to be unemotional, uncaring. Even callus. Even though they claimed the gunman stood over them and kept them hostage for almost two hours. At first, pam couldnt seem to describe the men. The guy that had the gun, what did he look like . White guy, black guy . Hispanic . Maam, i dont know. She seemed uncertain even about the number of gunmen. How many were there . How many guys were there . There could have been three. Listen to what happened next. Roger took the phone and changed the story. Were they white, black, hispanic . They were white. Three white males. Two white males. Roger explained the reason for the apparent confusion that if they ever revealed what their captors looked like, they would be hunted down and killed. Did you buy that . I didnt. They didnt appear fearful. They were saying it but they werent really acting fearful. Why would vicious killers not have killed them too . The night of the murder knutson interviewed them. My name is eric knutson by the way. Did they seem nervous . Not nervous or agitated. Just not emotional. He was a dangerous old fart. As they told their stories, detectives started noticing subtle differences. They had blue fuzzy gloves that looked like womens Winter Driving gloves or something. Fuzzy kind. They had purple gloves on. Purple medical gloves. Lots of details on which they didnt agree. So Sergeant Knutson decided to employ a well known police technique. I think this story is crap that you and roger have come up with. Okay. Sorry, you dont believe me. Im trying to. It sounds too rehearsed. I want them to say i had nothing to do with this. Detective, youre crazy. I had nothing to do with this. Thats what i wanted to hear. It never came out. Listen to what did come out. Is your husband capable of killing somebody . I wouldnt hope. I mean, i wouldnt think he is. I wouldnt think hes capable of killing his own father. Detectives found collection notices and unsent mortgage coupons suggesting at least that they were behind in their house payments. I know were in a lot of debt but we i personally would not have my father in law killed for his money. And yet as roger told the detective i get a big share of my dads millions. Within days of the murder, pam and roger agree to go back to the house with detectives for a videotaped retelling of their intruder story. At the front door my wife was holding the pie right here. Did that provide you any useful information . It provided useful information from our standpoint in terms of more circumstantial evidence that theyre not being 100 truthful. Once again, detectives heard foggy memories. She knocked on the door or rang the doorbell. I believe she knocked on the door. They heard dialogue that sounded like a bad crime movie. He pointed at us and said youre here at the wrong time. Put out your hands. But then there was that same strange lack of emotion when roger described what should have been the worst moment of his life. I came back downstairs and my wife was talking at the time to 911 dispatch. And i said hes dead. Roger and pam took a polygraph test and what do you know . Roger was found to be deceptive and pam was jumpy. The operator couldnt complete the test. But still roger and pam swore up and down they had nothing to do with it. They were victims themselves. Truth be told, the Police Needed real evidence and out of the blue something arrived. And that new evidence, Something Else that was strange. Someone saw the killing in a dream. I have a photo lineup drawn up and she puts her finger right on rogers face. If youre seeing spots before your eyes. Its time. For aveeno® positively radiant face moisturizer. [ female announcer ] only aveeno® has an active naturals total soy formula that instantly brightens skin. And helps reduce the look of brown spots in just 4 weeks. For healthy radiant skin. Try it for a month. Then go ahead and try to spot a spot. Aveeno® positively radiant. Naturally beautiful results. With hotwires low prices, we can afford to take more trips this year. Hit the beach in florida. And a reunion in seattle. When hotels have unsold rooms, they use hotwire to fill them. So we got our fourstar hotels for half price men hotwire, hotwire. Com. Youre not made of money, so dont overpay for boat insurance. Geico, see how much you could save. [ female announcer ] outlast stay fabulous from covergirl can. Outlast is a primer, concealer and foundation all in one for all day flawless skin. Outlast stay fabulous. [ sofia ] from easy, breezy, beautiful covergirl. Within days of Kay Mortensons murder, members of his family began hearing deeply troubling reports from the utah county sheriffs office. The investigation was leading sure as can be, detectives told them, to kays own son, roger, and rogers wife, pam. Darla said she couldnt believe it at first. I was just adamant they couldnt have done it. I was their biggest defender. But then detectives asked her to listen to roger and pams recorded statements and she, too, started to wonder. They told lies and then it got it just put more suspicion on them. Gradually her conviction grew. Same for kays sister, fern. I could buy the fact that they were thinking of rogers involvement. There were just too many things about roger and pams story that didnt make any sense to fern. There was Something Else too. A possible witness. Remember that woman who suspected her husband was involved . Police found them here in Salt Lake City at a drug binge with some friends. They were high on meth. And one of the people there, a woman named cammy bills told detectives she had a story to tell about a dream she had. She describes in what she calls a dream seeing someone get killed. She describes being outside of a room. She describes a female off to her left crying in histerics. The woman was on methamphetamine reporting not what she saw but what she dreamed she saw. Still, you never know until you ask. I have a photo lineup drawn up. She stares at it and puts her head down and puts her finger right on rogers face. The next day detectives took cammy to kays house and showed her the crime scene and again she named roger. I cant really see roger. Just arms. Hes holding kay. You dont hear a story like that and say, wow, thats a piece of crap and go from there . No. Not when she gives that amount of detail. Suspicion of roger and pam was hardening by the minute. Detectives kept the rest of the mortenson family informed of developments. What did this do to you . It threw me for a loop. When pam and roger attended kays funeral, the tension was thick. It was difficult to be there because everyone wanted to know what happened that night. They couldnt say anything, said pam. Detectives told them not to. Told me what really happened. I said, im sorry, i cannot talk about this. Shortly after roger and pam took the polygraph test and were told of the dismal results, they hired a lawyer. Few in the mortenson family could understand why they would do a thing like that if they were innocent, that is. I tried to say, what would i do if i was in their situation. I would do everything i could to help get these people that had caused such horror in their lives and murdered kay. On the advice of their attorneys, roger and pam stopped talking and the lopsided rift in the mortenson family widened from mistrust to anger to outright accusations. The woman darla called the night of the murder was one of the few people that continueded to support roger and pam. They were left to hang out and dry. How did you feel about that . So angry. I was just so, so angry. I couldnt believe that you could love somebody and do that to them. Even if i thought roger had done it, i would not have abandoned him. And they did . Absolutely they did. Not only did they abandon him, they crucified him. Months dragged by. Roger and pam were Headline News in utah but in the absence of definitive physical evidence linking them to kays murder, they remained free. Day by day, they went about their business as if their lives were still quite normal. Then on july 28th, 2010, utah county prosecutor tim taylor took a dramatic step to break the logjam. He presented the case against roger and pam to a grand jury. Why call the grand jury . Why not just charge them . We thought the grand jury was a great tool to force them to come in and talk. It was a secret proceeding. No defendants. No defense attorney. Only prosecutors, police, some members of the mortenson family and even some of pams coworkers all in front of 16 jurors whose job was to decide whether or not they should charge roger and pam with kays murder. And in just over an hour, the jury decided to indict. What did that say to you . Well, there was enough to proceed. It sort of reinforced what you were already thinking . It did. And that same day, eight months after Kay Mortenson was found dead in his home, roger and pam were deposited in the county jail. The family friend to believed they were innocent, went to rogers sister. I said, julie, we need some money to hire an attorney for roger. We think pams family can come up with money for pam but weve got to get him a separate attorney. Can you help me . Theres millions of dollars in the trust. She told me her words were not one red penny will be spent on his defense. Julie told us she did not use those specific words but she said the family was advised by their attorney not to use kays money to pay for rogers defense, which meant that roger, who stood to inherit a big chunk of his dads millions, would have to rely on a public defender. Were he and pam diabolic killers as their family had come to believe. We and everyone else just had to know. Coming up, roger and pam face questions from dateline. As interrogations continued, your stories didnt stay the same according to police. When dateline continues. Could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Mmmhmmm. Everybody knows that. Well, did you know that old macdonald was a really bad speller . Your word is. Cow. Cow. Cow. C. O. W. E. I. E. I. O. [buzzer] dangnabbit. Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you. Well, you know. Feel like youre growing older. Waiting to look younger . Dont wait. [ female announcer ] get younger looking skin fast. With new Olay Regenerist microsculpting cream. The next generation with 2 new antiaging ingredients. It penetrates rapidly. Visible wrinkle results start day 1. And youll see younger looking skin before you even finish one jar. New Olay Regenerist. The wait is over. Much of utah koincounty alo with roger and pams family joined a lineup parade against roger and Pam Mortenson as they sat in jail charged with murdering rogers father, kay, and they waited for their day in court. The evidence against them, their strange demeanor, their financial troubles, rogers failed polygraph but the bizarre and ever changing story they told about the murder. We asked the only people who knew starting at the beginning with the strange 911 call. Who held you hostage . I dont know. Viewers hear that 911 call and something is wrong. People scream on 911 calls. Theyre crazed. I think i was in a lot of shock too and i dont know the real reason why i can stay as calm as i can but thats just my personality and thats the type of person i am. And although she didnt sound like it, she was terrified, she said. Their captors had just threatened to kill them if they told the truth. And so when the 911 operator asked me how many were there, i was totally confused what to say. Do i tell the truth, which is what i wanted to do. Roger said he knew exactly what he had to do when he discovered his father in the bathtub. I hollered down to her while she was still on the phone. Tell them the exact truth. We are going to get these guys. But pam said she still couldnt spit it out. I was kind of staggering through what was going on while there was two, maybe there was three because i didnt know. I was terrified for my life still. And i didnt know what i should have said. One about their Police Interrogations . When their stories didnt match. I thought gloves were one color. She thought gloves were another color. Other than that our stories were basically the same. They both cooperated fully, said roger. Kept talking for days even as Police Brought up one accusation after another. There was an inheritance involved and you talked about that with the police. I may have. Im not sure. According to them you talked about it. It provided one of the classic motivations that children have for killing their parents. Cops run into it all the time, right . They say they do. And thats clearly what they were thinking when they talked to you. Yes. Did they make that clear . They didnt make very much clear to us. They just said that we were not being cooperative with them even though from the very beginning we told them everything that happened. They just didnt believe it. They didnt believe that two people would kill one person and leave two more alive. Perhaps but what about roger and pams apparent financial troubles . We were not having any financial problems. If we were having financial problems, my father would be glad to help us. We had that type of a relationship. They were certainly not debt free they said but didnt amount to a whole lot. As for the pile of unsent mortgage coupons, they simply started paying online they said like everybody else. As for that failed polygraph test, roger said he should never have been asked to take it. Remember, hes on disability because years ago he had a serious accident that left him with a brain injury which caused among other things, shortterm memory loss and confusion and the sort of thing that would make a polygraph result quite useless. I said how could i have failed, i did not do this . So was he lying or did police have it all wrong . They didnt know how to proceed. They could not find fingerprints because the people had gloves on. They didnt find a gun because they took it with them. They didnt know what to do and so being confused they went after the easiest subjects they could find. That was us. The days piled up. A month. Two months. Four months in jail waiting for their day in court. A day for which rogers lawyer maybe wasnt quite so eager as they were. We had a case that i believed in. We had a case that i thought we could defend. At the end of the day i was scared. No one was prepared when one cold winter day in the utah county sheriffs office, the phone rang. Coming up, the unexpected call, the truth revealed. A surprising ending you wont believe. Summer turned into winter again. The family marked a grim anniversary of Kay Mortensons murder. As kays son, roger, and his daughterinlaw, pam, cooled their heels in jail awaiting trial, all the while maintaining their innocence. Pam said she was offered a deal if she turned states evidence against roger. You just tell them what you want to hear, then you can go home. But for me, i was not going to lie just so that i could be a free person. Rogers public defender, anthony howell, believed his client was innocent. I was looking for that piece of evidence that would be the thing i cant explain. There just was nothing. Heres the rub. As the trial approached, he was deeply unsettled. I was worried he would be convicted regardless of what i tried to do. Why . Because this is the kind of case where a jury would be worried that if they didnt convict that they would be letting their murderer go free. Howell didnt get the opportunity to defend his client in court. The reason was that phone call to the utah county sheriffs office. A call from a woman named Rachel Bingham and heres what she had to say. I have been blocking it out like it didnt happen. These people are going to go to jail, prison, probably life sentence. What she had been blocking out was a bombshell. Her exhusband, martin bond, told her he and a friend named benjamin rettig, went to kays house to steal his guns. They pulled out their guns and told him to put it on and he said he wasnt willing at first. He eventually did. Bond, she said, told her everything. He said they took him to the bathroom and bent him over the tub. And cut his throat and then he said after that they heard the doorbell ring and it was the two. The two were roger and pam. And we know the rest of the story. Rachel bingham kept the secret for months until finally her conscious within out and she told them how they got the drop on Kay Mortenson. Kay had known martin as a kiddy is why kay armed against intruders welcomed him in and turned his back to his killers. He had planned for any worst Case Scenario to happen except for the one that did happen to him. There are so many ironies. The biggest perhaps, roger and pams crazy story about armed intruders was true all along. Though sergeant knutzen still had trouble believing it. I can pick up the case and read through it. I can read through it and i can see discrepancy after discrepancy. I can see. Can you see where maybe that aint enough . Uhhuh. As for treating the possible evidence, the dream sequence of a girl on meth . This is evidence . Well, its more circumstantial evidence. Its a lead. You would call that circumstantial evidence . Something we follow up with. Saying she had a dream. Its a good dream and its pretty close. In the end the prosecutor admitted he and the detectives got it wrong. Based upon the new physical evidence that we have located, we anticipate dismissing the charges against roger and Pam Mortenson tomorrow. Roger and pam were finally free. Those 4 1 2 months seemed like 4,000 years. Pam got a standing ovation from an unlikely crowd. As i was walking out of that big dorm area, there was 90 women clapping and cheering for me. They knew i was innocent and for me, having the situation that we dealt with with Rogers Family turning against us, friends turning against us, to have that support of those people that people would consider criminals, to have them cheer and yell and scream was a very emotional thing for me. Pam wanted the prosecutor to issue a public apology. That would help make up for what all this has cost them, she said. We offered the prosecutor this form. Am i sorry . Yeah, i am. I have no problem with saying i made a mistake. We didnt try to defraud anyone. We didnt try to lie. We didnt try to fabricate anything. We made a mistake. Pam and roger filed a lawsuit arguing that the prosecutors and detectives lied to the grand jury. Just a few months later, the u. S. Supreme court ruled that grand jury witnesses and prosecutors were immune from civil litigation so the judge dismissed their case. So let me understand this. The police come to your house. Youre arrested. Your names are dragged through the mud. Then somebody gets the right guy and they say, well, see you later. Exactly. As in so many cases, bond and rettig ended up blaming each other. Rettig took a deal and got 25 to life. Bond went to trial was convicted and is doing life without parole. The star prosecution witness, Rachel Bingham. If she hadnt come forward, would two innocent people be in prison today . Its going to chase you for a while . A little. You know, i can put it behind me. The case is closed out. What im happy about for me personally is the family has closure. But do they . It isnt just kays murder they must learn to live with. But also the wreckage strewn for god knows how long through the family story. I had emotions of happiness and relief but still theres some regret that i didnt support roger and pam from the beginning. It changes your perspective on the world. It really does. And by the way, said roger and pam, a little piece of advice. If anything happens and theres anything dealing with law enforcement, you dont say a word and you get an attorney. As for darla who finally found the love of her life, what was there to say . That moment of sunshine snatched away. Yep. You just take what life brings you and its not always what you expected. When youre a young girl, you have all your dreams of what your life is going to be. Somehow it just doesnt quite work out that way. Thats all for now. Im lester holt. Thanks for joining us. Our issues and people this sunday, the breaking news this morning. Days of rage. Deadly clashes in egypt and president obamas response. Our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets. The key question for the u. S. Should we cut off aid to egypt . Ill ask two key senators on the Armed Services committee. Race and justice, a controversial crimefighting tool, stop and frisk, rejected by a federal judge. New York City Police commissioner ray kelly joins me to defend it, while Trayvon Martins mother gives me her views in an exclusive live interview. Ready to run . Hillary clinton returns to the stage. Whats her strategy and whats the gop plan of attack for 2016 . Ill get insights and analysis from our special roundtable. Im david gregory. All that ahead on meet the press this sunday morning, august 18th. Straight to the breaking news. A heavy security presence in cairo, egypt, this morning as military rulers are trying to strengthen their control over a country descending into chaos. So, how much worse will it get in egypt . Hundreds are dead, nearly 40 Christian Churches have been torched and looted, and supporters of the ousted president morsi, the muslim brotherhood, are vowing to fight back. Well have a live report coming up from cairo in just a moment, but back here in washington, the critical question is, are u. S. Taxpayers, in effect, footing the bill for the continuing violence . Joining me now, two members of the senate Armed Services committee, democrat jack reed of rhode island and republican kelly ayotte of new hampshire. Senators, welcome to you both. Senator ayotte, straight to you. Several weeks ago, this question came up should we keep the u. S. Aid flowing to egypt . You said yes then. Have you had a change of heart now . Well, i think, david, in light of recent actions, we tried to give some time to the administration. They obviously tried to get the military government to not crack down in a violent way, to restore democracy, to move to elections, to release political prisoners. They have ignored all of those requests. And now with the recent violent crackdown, i do not see how we can continue aid. I believe it must be suspended because, unfortunately, i think the militarys gotten the impression, and particularly with what the president not asking for aid to be suspended when he spoke this week, that whatever they do, we will continue our aid. So, i do support suspending aid at this time. So, you talk about the change of heart because youve given them a little bit of room and they havent responded. The Egyptian Military closely aligned with the u. S. Government, but theyre not listening, theyre not sort of honoring that alliance. Right. What leverage does it give the u. S. To take the step youre advocating this morning