>> i did not do this! >> reporter: the evidence, a palm print, a sweatshirt, a t-shirt with drops of blood. would it convict him or clear him? >> i have tried a lot of cases. i have never tried anything like this. >> reporter: it was a mystery so tangled, there would be not one, not two, but three trials. which jury would get it right? >> it's like this twilight zone. lies become truth and the truth becomes lies. >> you have lied to the police about this case? >> yes. >> reporter: was the real killer still out there? >> we knew this was probably the key to solving this. >> reporter: i'm lester holt and this is "dateline" with "mystery on lockhart road". >> narrator: such an awful crime. the wife, the little boy and girl. shot at point blank range. >> i was dumbfounded, i was shocked at what i saw. >> narrator: the husband had an alibi. >> could he have slipped away for say 10 minutes? >> he could have done anything. >> narrator: 13 years, appeals, trials, reversals and changing stories. >> the big picture here is that it sounds like a crock. it doesn't pass the sniff test. >> there's a lot of things about this case that doesn't make sense. >> narrator: it's been a long pursuit of justice. >> i kind of adopt this saying, when you enter into the courtroom, lies become truth and the truth becomes lies. >> narrator: but there is another side, another family. one which sees a terrible miscarriage of justice. >> i wonder if everybody got three trials, how many people, guilty people would be out walking the streets. >> mommy, there's a present for you. >> okay. >> narrator: but there's one indisputable truth, kim, jill and bradley camm were nothing more than innocence lost that night. >> what do you miss the most? >> every day, anyone who says time heals, has never lost a child. i can tell you that time doesn't heal anything, the pain becomes a part of you. >> narrator: time. turn the clock back to the year 2000, a thursday after work. the place, a church rec center in georgetown, indiana. a pickup basketball came was under way. >> just you guys typically getting together? >> narrator: david camm, a 36-year-old manager at a waterproofing business was a regular. >> this is a religion? >> yes, we play a little bit of basketball in indiana. >> narrator: that night after the game wrapped up, david headed home. he and his wife kim had two children, brad a 7-year-old, and jill, a spit fire two years younger. on this night, he was late and he knew kim wouldn't be happy about that. >> they had to do their homework before bed and i knew she was going to be upset because i'm not there to help. >> narrator: he clicked the garage door opener, a nightmare awaited him. >> the garage door lifted up just above my truck, and that's when i saw kim. >> she was down on the garage floor? >> at first i thought it was just jill laying there. i didn't realize it was kim until i got out of my truck a and ran into the garage and that's when i saw that it was kim. >> how do you take this? it's too much to absorb. kim was in a long pool of blood running from her head. the doors to her bronco were open. when do you look into the vehicle? >> i don't remember how long it was, but after checking on kim, being assured in my mind that she was gone, i just suddenly thought about the kids, where are the kids? and my first instinct was to look into the bronco. a and i got up on the passenger's seat and i could see more into the back and that's when i saw brad and jill. >> narrator: jill, still buckled in on the passenger's side was slumped over, there was blood in her hair. next brad seemed to be clamoring over the seat. >> was it apparent in your shock, that this was a gunshot event? >> i did not know how they died. >> so you jumped over the console? >> i thought maybe he might have a chance. >> narrator: david had been an indiana state trooper for over 11 years. that night in the garage, david said, his police training kicked in. it seemed to him that his daughter jill was dead, but if there was even a whisper of a chance for his son brad, david knew he had too get him out of the bronco and give him cpr. >> i went in and got him and came out the same way i came in. >> you put him down on the garage floor and began working on him? >> yes. i just remember looking at his face. and his eyes, there was no moisture, and they were half shut. it was pretty obvious that he was gone. >> and this has all happened in, what, 45 seconds of your life? >> probably, maybe a minute. >> narrator: kneeling on the bloody garage floor, amidst the bodies of his family, david knew he had to get help. >> get everybody out here to my house now. >> narrator: he called the indiana state police where he used to work. >> get everybody out to my house now. >> okay, david, we got people on the way, okay? >> get everybody out here. >> everything's going to be okay. >> everything's not okay, get everybody out here today. >> go to dave camm's house now. do you know what happened, david? >> narrator: david camm's 13-year journey into hell was only minutes old. >> reporter: your family dead, murdered. how do you even begin to absorb that? >> just all these things spinning around inside my head. is this real? am i really here? it was surreal. honestly, i'm a little old fashioned. i love chalk and erasers. but change is coming. all my students have the brand new surface. it has the new windows and comes with office, has a real keyboard, so they can do real work. they can use bing smartsearch to find anything in the world... or last night's assignment. and the battery lasts and lasts, so after school they can skype, play games, and my favorite...do homework. change is looking pretty good after all. ♪ do you really think brushing is enough to keep it clean? 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[ male announcer ] may your lights always be green. [ tires screech ] ♪ [ beeping ] ♪ may you never be stuck behind a stinky truck. [ beeping ] ♪ may things always go your way. but it's good to be prepared... just in case they don't. toyota. let's go places, safely. >> narrator: david camm says he came home one night in the fall of 2000 to an unimaginable horror. his wife, little boy and girl had been murdered. >> get everybody out here to my house now! >> okay. >> narrator: a after trying unsuccessfully to revive his son, david ran across the street to a relative's home. >> i heard the banging on the door. >> narrator: david's uncle nelson was there. >> david was beating on the door, hollering, nelson, nelson, somebody's murdered my family. they're all dead. they're all dead. >> narrato >> narrator: david yelled at him to check on jill to the brocnco. like david he was a former state trooper and he knew the crime scene had to be preserved. >> i reached back and i saw jill and i touched her on the arm. i said jilly, jilly. >> you knew she was gone? >> i said dave, i think they're all gone, buddy, i think they're all gone. >> narrator: david lost it. >> he was down on the ground and laying on his back rolling around on the ground. why did it go? why didn't i stay with them? >> narrator: nelson managed to get david out of the garage. >> so you really are the officer securing the scene? >> i knew it had to be done because i knew we had a horrific crime scene and i wanted to be sure they didn't do anything to hamper it. >> narrator: david camm says he was way beyond understanding anything that night. but the questions would and stop. >> just all these things spinning around inside my head, is this real? am i really here? did i really just find kim and brad and jill as they are? it was just surreal. >> narrator: that night was the end of everything david and kim had built together. they had met in the late 1980s. they were introduced by marcie mccloud. marcy had been best friends with kim ever since the ninth grade. >> she was very funny, very loyal. very sweet. >> narrator: david and kim married in 1989, they threw a big fun party and then got on with their lives. kim in corporate accounting and david as an indiana state trooper. here he is in uniform being interviewed in the 1990s about road safety during the holidays. he was soon member of an elite emergency kind of s.w.a.t. team. >> that is the band of brothers, huh? >> oh, yeah. >> a special weapons tactical group? >> yes, exactly. love those guys, we're talking about guys you would literally die for. >> narrator: but over time as the kids were born, david wanted to spend more time with his family. he left the band of brothers. >> it must have been hard to leave, dave. you have this good thing you're going to, and you wanted to have more of a life, but i can see how much you liked being in law enforcement. >> i just felt like definitely i was in a point in my life where i needed to make that change and i wanted to make that change and i presumed that i would remain close with these guys, that they would always be my friends and that they would always have my back if i ever needed them. >> by 2000, the camms seemed to be living an idyllic live. >> kim was a great mom. those kids, they were like my grandkids. little jill, yeah -- >> tell me about her? >> she was a character. she really was. just a funny little girl. if she didn't have your attenti attention, she would get it. she was very, i think she would have been very athletic. she was gifted in that way. >> and brad was the swimmer? >> he loved it, he was great at it. being a father, i thought, this kid's good. >> narrator: there were gatherings with david's sprawling extended family, the lockharts, the descend deants o nine brothers and sister. the lockharts were so prevalent that the road they lived on was named after them. the awful news raced through two families that night. david's sister julie was getting ready to go to bed when the phone hang. >> i was like, what are you talking about? what are you saying? >> mom had all the pictures of brad and jill, i guess, that she could gather up and was holding them and just sitting on the floor and just rocking and saying, my babies, my babies, they've killed my babies, somebody's killed my babies. >> narrator: david sent his uncle to tell kim's parents. >> a knock on the door in the middle of the night, what can this be? >> oh, it can't be good. i go out and i open the door and i see him standing out there and i think my mind just went blank. >> and janice yelled for me to get out there and so i got out there. sam says i've got some bad news, kim, brad and jill have been shot. with that i just slumped down to a sitting position and i sat there and cried. couldn't believe it. >> narrator: on lockhart road, the sound of silence, followed by flashing lights. a homicide investigation was beginning. and david's friends and former colleagues in the indiana state police would be on the front line. >> reporter: coming up, something strange at the crime scene. kim's shoes placed neatly on top of the bronco. what could that mean? 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[ male announcer ] add a u-verse wireless receiver today. ♪ [ man ] yo buzz! drop that beat! remix! ♪ hey! must be the honey! ♪ ♪ ♪ you got that medley crunch ♪ go! go! buzz! ♪ go! go! go! buzz! ♪ hey! must be the honey! ♪ ♪ clusters, flakes ♪ that medley crunch, crunch! ♪ clusters, flakes ♪ that medley crunch, crunch! go! ♪ ♪ ♪ hey! must be the honey! ♪ ♪ hey! you got that medley crunch ♪ ♪ hey! must be the honey! ♪ al. the answer to that question would be the responsibility of the investigators, the indiana state police and the floyd county prosecutor in southern indiana, stan faith. he got the call at 10:00, 10:30 that night. >> did someone on the other end of the phone tell you it was bad? >> yeah. >> narrator: faith knew immediately the case would be big. he got to the crime scene asap. the first thing the prosecutor noticed was the ribbon of blood running out of the garage downing the drive. she could see kim lying by the passenger door, her pants removed. it had the signature of a sex crime, the children killed because they were witnesses. an article of clothing that would become hugely important in time. >> the boy was laying there and his hands were out and of course i didn't see the little girl. they told me that she was still in the truck. >> narrator: the state police, indiana's top investigative force had all right begun its work. the crime scene techs examined the bronco, took their measurements and their pictures. >> was it too soon for you to take all that stuff in? >> the thing that struck me the most was how clean the garage was. you just don't expect that. >> narrator: some of the troopers in the garage had been fellow officers of the husband, david camm. >> there were a couple they didn't really recognize, but for the most part, throughout the course of the evening, tlltd he would be people that i knew. >> narrator: the chief investigator would be david's childhood friend. they would have the talk right there. >> he said i know, get it done. >> because of your experience, they always look at the spouse. >> sure, everybody's a suspect. in the beginning, you don't know. >> narrator: but in his case, david thought, it was a by the book formality. he was confident his friends would do all they could to find the killer. >> these were your brothers in uniform, these guys? >> right. >> you had ridden with them. >> they had been to my house, we had eaten together, we knew each other's families. >> narrator: in this audiotape of his first interview that night. you can hear the troopers handling him with kid gloves out of respect. >> we're going to try to find out what happened so that we can bring that person to justice as best we know how. >> get it right. >> right, exactly. >> whatever you want to ask me. >> narrator: as far as david knew, his wife had followed her usual busy routine, working and then shuffling the kids around after school. was the shooter waiting for her in the garage? or did her killer follow her in? the investigators asked david if anyone had been stalking kim, bothering her? >> if there was, she hadn't said a word. >> how about phone calls? any hang up phone calls? suspicious phone calls? >> no. >> narrator: and they wanted to know if the husband could help them understand and oddity about the crime scene. why would kim's shoes have ended up neatly placed atop the roof of the bronco. >> i have no idea why her shoes were up there. >> did she ever kick her u shoes off while she's driving? >> never seen her take her shoes off. never. >> you saw those shoes, though? >> damn straight i did. >> narrator: as the investigators wrapped up, they made sure that david got fresh clothing because they were sending they shoes and t-shirt out for testing. the next day the camm's neighbors were absolutely stunned by a crime of this magnitude in their quiet community. >> it makes no sense. there's never been any trouble out here to speak of, you know. >> narrator: as the hunt for the killer continued, investigators asked neighbors if they had seen or heard anything suspicious? >> right now, this is very, very much an open investigation. >> narrator: three days after the murderers, david camm faced the cameras. >> i want my family back, i want my babies back and my wife. >> narrator: and he begged the killer to come forward. >> turn yourself in, you can't live with the guilt. what you did was such air rational ridiculous, ludicrous, satanic thing. you cannot -- you cannot live with that guilt. >> narrator: an arrest in the case was only hours away. >> reporter: coming up -- >> i'm a mess. i'm on medication, i'm having to buy caskets, i'm having to buy burial plots. >> reporter: a husband and father in mourning, about to face the second biggest surprise of his life. >> you're wrong, wrong, wrong. to quote from whitman, "you are here." 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>> i'm telling you people are confused. >> narrator: the investigators account had david camm square in the crosshairs. he came home from basketball and killed his family. >> it's not right. it's not right. it's not right. it's not right, guys. it's not right. you're wrong. you're wrong, wrong, wrong. you're wrong, darrell. you're wrong. >> well -- >> this is not right. you're getting off the track. something's not right here. now think. >> narrator: they told david about physical evidence they collected, specs of blood, barely visible to the naked eye on the bottom of the t-shirt he wore that night. the crime scene already told them the husband and father did it. >> blood on your shirt and i had it dna analyzed. this is scientific documentation, the only way that comes on is from blow back, or blowout from a gunshot wound. >> blood spatter t case against david camm. >> that is supposed to be on my t-shirt that i played ball in? >> yes. >> wrong, darrell. wrong, guys. >> what do we do when they tell us that? now we got to figure out why. >> you better find another expert. >> narrator: but the cops had full confidence in their man. >> i rely on this man and he's very -- he's renowned as far as his expertise. this is not something he just started to do yesterday. >> narrator: the noose was tightening even as david protested. >> the t-shirt that i had on was what i had on. that's what i wore over and that's what i wore home. and any blood that got on it now came from either an impression of something i leaned on in the car or it came o. >> skin >> narrator: signs of a cleanup that had to be david. >> there's signs that there was a cleanup. >> that's ridiculous. >> what about the bleach, david. >> no, no, no, no, no, no, no. no. no. i didn't clean up [ bleep ] somebody may have. but it wasn't me. that person is your suspect. >> narrator: and there was something disturbing, the medical examiner found when she looked at jill t young daughter. signs of blunt trauma in the genital area. to them that meant one thing, that david camm had molested his daughter. >> it happened that day, that night, that's when it happened, and it wasn't by me. you guys are wrong. i did not do this. i did not do this. >> who did do it? >> i don't know. that's why i called you guys. that's what your job, that's what you're supposed to be doing. you're looking so hard at me. >> we're looking at everybody, david. >> but you're still off base. you're so wrong. you're so wrong, mickey. >> an arrest warrant issued out of floyd superior court. >> narrator: hours after his second interview, the indiana state police arrested david camm and charged him with the murders of his wife and two children. it had been three days since the shooting. >> reporter: coming up, accused of murder, and the evidence a phone call. >> this phone call blows up his alibi? >> yes. >> reporter: a t-shirt and a parade of women. >> there's people he pulls over, flirts with them. and eventually seduces them. >> reporter: when "dateline" continues. ♪ ♪ the sweetness and the sorrow ♪ ♪ we did what we had to do ♪ ♪ won't forget, can't regret ♪ what i did [ horn blares ] ♪ for lo-o-o-o-o-ve [ sirens wail ] [ male announcer ] kraft macaroni & cheese. you know you love it. treat play more. 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>> i didn't have any other options. i know he was innocent, i know he's lost his family. and i know he lost hiss freedom. what am i going to do? he hasn't lost me. >> the focus -- maybe something awful here and david snapped and killed his family. >> i never thought that david killed his family. never thought it, never did. >> narrator: kim's parents, janice and frank were absorbing the awful facts the police told them, that their son-in-law was the killer. >> they have made an arrest and it's david. >> i was just out of it. and when it finally did sink in, i was back and forth. >> we're talking about the early days here. >> i wasn't 100% sure, i was just going by what the police was telling me. >> narrator: before long they became convinced that their son-in-law had murdered his family. 15 months after the murders, david camm went on trial, he pleaded not guilty. by now the prosecutor's timeline changed. originally he said that david killed his family between 9:15 and 9:30 after david returned from the basketball game. the defense had shown the time of death was somewhere between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m. >> everything said this happened much earlier. >> now the prosecutor argued that david went to the gym at 6:00, then he secretly ducked out of the basketball game, went home killed his family and then returned to play ball. there was a call to a customer from his land line phone, time stamped 7:19 p.m. >> you've got a husband that says i was playing basketball at 7:00, you've got a phone record that says he likely is making a call to a customer land line in his home, so he's not playing basketball. >> almost certainly would be the one that was doing it. >> and this phone call blows up his alibi? >> yes. >> narrator: the prosecutor moved on to the crime scene and focused on what happened to kim in the garage that night. >> we thought that the pants had been pulled down. >> you have accused the husband of the murder, why are you telling the jury that he was pulling h in ing her panels dow. >> trying to get the jury to think that somebody was in there to molest her. >> that there had been a break in. >> narrator: investigators had never located the murder weapon. the only physical evidence the cops had that the gun was in david's hand that night was this. barely visible drops of blood on the lower left of camm's t-shirt. >> blow back, this is what happens when you shoot somebody at close range? >> yes. >> you get that blood on your shirt. >> he got high impact spatter on hiss t-shirt, he has to be within four feet of the child at the time that the child was killed. >> narrator: the prosecution believed david camm shot from inside the car, targeting jill in the back seat. that's how her blood sprayed on his shirt. but why? why would david camm kill his family? the reason for those killings, the prosecutor, declared was that david camm was a philandering husband. >> it probably was one of the first times that i really ever heard kim cry. >> remember kim's old friend, marcy mccloud? the prosecutor had her testify about an affair david had when kim was pregnant in late 1994. marcie testified that kim called her in tears to say that she and david were separating. marcie soon after visited kim. >> she was upset. you know, and saddened by it, especially just having a baby. >> narrator: and there was more. just three weeks before the murders, marcy had another troubling phone call from kim. >> her demeanor was different, her attitude and she didn't want to hang up the phone, but yet she didn't want to talk. >> narrator: the old friends made plans for kim a and the children to visit marcy. then kim said something she never explained. >> she felt like history was repeating itself. we didn't go into what that meant because she said, we'll talk about it when i get there. >> kim never made it. at trial t clear i, the clear i was that david was catting around again. >> there's people he pulls over, flirts with them and eventually seduces them. >> in court the prosecutor called a parade of women presenting them as david camm's conquests, more than a dozen of them recounting the fondling, the sex in the patrol car. >> he wanted to have women and his wife was getting in the way? >> yes. >> she was an on stack bstacle kind of women he wanted to pursue? >> yes. >> narrator: the prosecutor had a capper, something really dreadful. the medical examiner's testimony that the injuries on the murdered daughter, 5-year-old jill were consistent with sexual abuse. >> not a little girl falling on the monkey bars. >> no, not the monkey bars, it wasn't a bicycle or anything like that. >> narrator: so the killer with blow back blood spatter on his t-shirt. the defense lawyers had their work cut out for them. >> you had an uphill fight as a defense attorney. >> yes. and that was not unusual, but this was so much more high profile. >> reporter: coming up, the timeline of the crime. >> that was their smoking gun. >> reporter: the defense is about to stop the clock. that's insane. yep, and you can customize it. i can download anything i want. 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[ male announcer ] old el paso frozen entrées. a digital scanning system five times more precise. helping you see perfectly. accufit only at lenscrafters. >> narrator: the trial of david camm was under way in floyd county, indiana. it was the winter of 2002. >> nervous? >> narrator: david camm, accused of murdering his wife and two young children always insisted the case against him was built on quick sand. >> it's about them crafting and molding a belief that was totally founded on things that weren't factual and it was just a complete fiction. >> narrator: david's defense attorney mike mcdaniel has known david as a trooper. >> what impressions did you have of david before he became the client? >> i figured he was another red neck state cop. we had done a couple of cases, him on one side, me on the other. >> narrator: but mcdaniel became convinced of david's innocence and came on board to defend him. >> this is one of the most terrible cases that a defense lawyer never wants. you don't want an innocent client. you call them a ravager because they make you crazy. >> before the trial, daniel knew he had to confront all these women. >> the jury's getting a picture of this hard working wife, nose to the grindstone, taking care of the babies and running the household. >> yep. >> while he's out with pole dancers? >> he has women coming in with varying degreeses of sexual contact or innuendinnuendo. >> he put david on the stand to stay he knew he messed up. >> i regret all that stuff. it's so unfortunate the disrespect that i showed my wife. but good god, we don't jump to that to saying that automatically makes a person a murder, it's just ridiculous. >> narrator: then the defense had to confront the ugly allegation that 5-year-old jill camm had been molested. but in fact the medical examiner's report had not exact said that. it simply stated that the perus bruises were the result of blunt trauma. >> there may be some evidence here of child molestation. this is a very, very tough thing to combat. >> it's literally impossible. >> the defense turned to the physical evidence. the states's strongest evidence, the forensic case for david's guilt was the blood spatter. the defense expert testified the blood got on david's t-shirt very simply, when david reached into the back seat to move his son, his shirt brushed against his daughter's hair. >> there was some blood on some of her hair around the wound. so defense testimony was that was transfer. from that contact with the ends of the strands of her hair. >> narrator: and then the timeline. the defense lawyer challenged the prosecution's theory that david snuck out in the middle of his basketball game, killed his family and then returned to play ball. the defense attorney focused on the phone call made from the camm house at 7:19 p.m. when david said he was at the church gym. the state had tethered its timeline to that phone call. >> that was their smoking gun, which they had a bunch of those and every time they would have a smoking gun, we would just unload it. >> narrator: the defense unloaded by calling an expert from verizon, saying the timeline was incorrect, because of indiana's jumbled time zones. >> their 7:19 phone call was actually a 6:19 phone call. >> narrator: a call that david made to a client before he left to play basketball. plus there was a solid alibi. the basketball players, the corroborate that he had been to the gym throughout that evening. >> did he leave the court that night? >> no, he couldn't have left without one of you guys -- >> i would see him at one point in time running down the court. and then maybe just would have saw him at another point in time. so throughout that time, there's ten sets of eyes looking in ten different directions, as a group, i think someone would have noticed that he was missing. >> narrator: sam lockhart the uncle was playing basketball that night too? >> is it possible that david would have snuck out? >> is it possible that he could have snuck out, killed his family and snuck back in? absolutely not. >> narrator: if david wasn't the killer, who was? the prosecution had its answer, it was the one that owned that sweatshirt, the one lying on the garage floor. the defense attorney mike mcdaniel had recognized the sweatshirt as prison issue. >> in the collar of the sweatshirt is the word backbone, and i'm thinking, that's a nickname. >> narrator: tests on that sweatshirt revealed dna from various persons, including an unknown male. but there was no match when it was run through the database. there was proof that someone else was in the garage that night. >> we knew that there was probably the key to solving this. we didn't know that person by name, by god we knew him by dn a a profile. >> narrator: finally it was up to the jurors. as reporters lingered in the hallway, the jury deliberated for three days. >> guilty. >> narrator: david camm was found guilty of killing his wife and children. >> the jury comes back and guilty as charged. >> that's what we wanted and now we feel like kim, brad and jill can be at rest now. >> but his sister, an emotional outburst. >> before i even knew it, i was standing up and i was screaming, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong. and a few people had to take me out of the courtroom. >> and you're being walked off in chains? you're not leaving that courthouse? >> no. and knowing what lies ahead of me. going to prison, a former police officer. there a's absolutely nothing i can do about it. >> narrator: david camm was sent to the state penitentiary to serve a terms of 195 years. but his uncle sam was hanging in. >> you didn't think you were finished at that point? >> unless they would have killed me, that's how they could have stopped me. no, it wasn't over. >> narrator: it wasn't over not by a long shot. but not even uncle sam could predict the stunning turn that would lay ahead. >> reporter: coming up, a break in the case, someone new enters the picture. >> as brain any as ted bundy and as brauny and mike tyson. never have 80 calories tasted so satisfying. light & fit greek. taste satisfaction without sacrifice. ♪ dannon for centuries." ♪ this levian collection is amazing. maybe it's time to start your own. 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>> not directly. but people would say things or you would hear people talking and so on. >> did you think i'm done? >> i was bewildered at first, but i thought there was still a possibility, or a glimmer of hope, there's this thing called an appeal. >> there's an appeal, another trial. >> overturning a first-degree murder conviction, long odds? >> yes. until you read that transcript. >>. >> narrator: a new team of attorneys took the case to the state court of appeals. >> it wasn't long odds in my mind. it was way over the top. >> narrator: what was over the top they argued, was allowing all those women to testify to the sex t groping, the come ones. >> it was weeks after weeks, woman after woman. how is that relevant to what happened on september 28th? >> jurors, this is a bad guy we have got here. >> absolutely. >> he's a louse of a husband and we're going to tell you more than that. >> and it was intentional, too. >> narrator: and two years after the guilty verdict t appeals court agreed. the women should never should have testified. >> in review of some previous evidence and in view of some new evidence that's come to light. i have decide to pursue david camm for the murders of kimberly camm, bradley camm and jill cam. >> r. >> narrator: with another trial looming, the defense team was intent on bringing sharply into focus a piece of evidence it believed would set david free. the sweatshirt with that unknown dna. sam lockhart says he approached the new investigators to run it through again. i wanted to show them the unknown dna in case this guy had been arrested now and we got new dna on this database, will you return it? no, they can't. >> we started saying, please run the dna through the database. and he said we won't do it. >> lo and behold, we find charles bonae. >> i had never heard the name before, it was a complete shock to me. >> narrator: charles bonae, his business nickname was backbone, the same name inked into the sweatshirt's collar. >> as brainy as ted bundy and as brawny as mike tyson. >> it began in the 1980s when he was a student at indiana university. newspapers called him the shoe bandit and followed his bizarre crimes. there had been four separate incidents. he would wrestle the woman to the ground and take off her shoes. >> one crime he wore kind of those zul masks. like creepy stuff you can't make up. >> narrator: the police were on to it. after one arrest, he admitted in effect that he had a thing for ladies legs and feet. he pleaded guilty to those crimes and in time his attacks became more violent. he began threatening women at gu gunpoint. one incident involved three coeds. >> he had been watching them, one night just walked into their apartment, held them at gunpoint to their head, took them out, kidnapped them to the car. luckily somebody saw him with the gun leading the women out, called bloomington police department. >> narrator: he pleaded guilty again and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for armed robbery, but was released after serving only 7 years. at the time of the camm murders, he was out on parole. >> he fit the profile? >> yes, he has a foot fetish, and when they saw at first that it was not a sex crime, we kept saying, well, not everybody targets the same place in sex crimes. >> narrator: kim camm had bruising on her toes, her shoes were on top of the bronco, her pants had been removed and bonae's sweatshirt with his dna was found at the crime scene. >> it took one hour and one e-mail to find charles bonae. that could have been done in 2002. >> you would think on a case in which children and a mom are murdered, ambushed into a garage, the state would bend over backwards to do it right. >> narrator: stan faith was the prosecutor in trial one. >> the defense said, well, we asked you the prosecutors to send that out, to be tested against a national register of dna? >> i asked the lead investigator to do that and he said we didn't get anything. >> when in fact he hadn't sent it out at all. >> i think he sent it out. he hadn't sent the proper dna. >> narrator: faith says he later learned that the detectives sent out the wrong dna sample from the sweatshirt. mike mcdaniel, the defense attorney isn't buying it. >> when he says that the prosecution is lying to him. >> lying means that you knowingly tell a falsehood. i didn't tell him a lie. i told him what i thought was true. >> narrator: but whatever the truth is, now more than four years later, there was a name to that dna. >> do you a allow yourself to think, here we are on our way to case closed finally? >> absolutely. >> we have got a name, we have got genetic forensic evidence, this is the shooter? >> that's right, absolutely. >> reporter: coming up, the new suspect in the hot seat. >> if anything else links you to it, you're done. stick a fork in you. >> i wasn't there. >> this intense interrogation, where will it lead? door bell ] [ footsteps ] [ gasp ] holy... i'm justin. 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[ male announcer ] all the bills are separate. great. the framily plan from sprint. with a new price, a new plan, and our all new network, there's never been a better time to switch. >> narrator: by 2005, david camm had been behind bars for more than four years. >> generally from september through february were my darkest times of the year, you know, the times of the murders and then you have the holidays and then the kids birthdays in february. >> did you feel yourself becoming institutionalizes? >> i had to a degree. and for me it was a matter of sitting back and observing and seeing how things operate so i could fit in enough to be okay. you know, i had to lock the real me down inside. >> how were his spirits? was he holding on or was he sinking? >> david would sink only briefly. he would have lows, there were times i talked to him and he would seem really low. but he couldn't stay there. staying in that despondency, that hopelessness is excrucia excruciati excruciating. >> narrator: but now there seemed to be a break in the case. that unknown dna on the sweatshirt was identified as charles bonae. just days later, the cops brought him and started drilling him on how it ended up on the crime scene floor. >> somehow that sweatshirt got there, your sweatshirt. you explain to me how it got there. >> i have no idea. >> narrator: bonae admitted the sweatshirt had once been his, but said he dropped it in the salvation army drop box about a month before the murders. >> it shows up a at a crime scene, not a laundry, not washed. if it went through the salvation army drop box, that would have been a clean sweatshirt, chances are your dna probably would not have been on there. but it is. >> i see where you're coming from. >> narrator: as for david camm? >> do you know david camm. >> no. >> have you ever met david camm? >> no. >> do you remember the murder of david camm's family? >> on television, yes. >> do you know where david camm lives? >> only on television. i don't even know what his address is. >> narrator: the interrogation went on for some 12 hours, with bonae sticking to his story. but detectives released him with a warning. >> make no mistake about it, if anything else links you to it, you're done, stick a fork in you. and see, that would normally worry me. i wasn't there. >> narrator: then two weeks after letting bonae walk, there was something else, something big. >> early yesterday morning, i was notified of some additional scientific evidence that linked mr. bonae to the homicide. >> the prosecutor revealed that a palm print found on the exterior passenger side of the bronco door frame was left there by none other than charles bonae. investigators had been aware of the palm print for more than four years, only now did they know whose it was. bonae was pulled back into the interrogation room and the questioning became more confrontational. >> you've got some explaining to go here, charles. your palm print is on that bronco. you're there. now this is the time, this is the place, this is your last stage that you're going to have to tell us what the hell happened there. this is it. >> this can't be happening. >> charles. >> narrator: after hours of denial, bonae changed hid story, yes, he did know david camm, they met playing pick up basketball. in another round of questioning, the story changed and changed again. finally bonae put himself at the crime scene. >> the reason why i was -- >> police said david camm asked him to get an untraceable gun. he said he was the guy caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. >> as events started to unfold in the investigation, it became apparent that this case was intertwined between two people. >> now the prosecutor had a new theory, david camm did not act alone, he had a con conspirato. charles's signature was all over the scene. >> he attacks women, defenseless, innocent women, he takes their shoes, their socks, he holds guns to their heads and threatens to shoot them in the head. all of those things from his previous crimes is exactly what happened to kim. why can't they see this stuff? they just turned a blind eye to the facts. >> narrator: but the prosecutor had a different set of fangts. >> we know that the defense has maintained that this is now the killer, that i should dismiss the charges against david camm. the evidence is not there. >> narrator: in january 2006, charles bonae and david camm took trial separately in two different courthouse. while i wasn't accused of being the shooter, bonae was tried on three counts of murder, he was sentenced to 325 years, and the prosecution team rejected any -- those tiny specs of blood that were on david's shirt, but not on bonae's sweatshirt. >> his shirt does not have high velocity blood spatter on it. >> so a state trooper is now going to be a co-conspirator. >> there's no text messages, there's no phone calls, there's no smoke signals. there's nothing between david camm and charles bonae. >> the case against camm was pretty much the same, absent the female witnesses, the appeals court had thrown out. this time the state focused on the allegation that david molested his 5-year-old daughter as a motive for the murders. >> well the motive was kimberly was leaving david camm and she was leaving him because of the child molesting. and he could not let her leave, he could not let that secret out. that was the secret in the camm household. >> narrator: the defense countered, brought in experts to show there was no solid evidence the little girl had even ben molested. >> the state's theory of why david murdered his family was purely made up. it was speculation. >> narrator: david camm had never been charged with sexual molestation. but that didn't stop the prosecutor from closing his case with the big dramatic flourish. >> he took his finger and stuck it in dave's face and said you molested your child. >> narrator: the jury took four days to reach its verdict. >> guilty on all three counts, i can tell you that david camm has now been convicted in the murder of his wife and the murder of his two kids brad and jill. >> guilty again. >> guilty again. with the same inflammatory evidence. this is just such a heinous act zagts. >> narrator: but the saga was far from over. david'ssed to retreat. >> reporter: coming up. they certainly weren't done, but prosecutors weren't done either. >> the placement of the sweatshirt led you to believe that david camm put it there. >> and charles bonae, he was just getting started. >> he wants me to deliver a second handgun. >> when "dateline" continues. well...your boss loves the beach. really? 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[ streat play more. go more. now... save more at the petsmart stock up & save sale. save up to 25% on thousands of items, including all sentry® dog & cat calming solutions. at petsmart®. these are the hands a pediatrician. these are pioneering advances in heart surgery. and these are developing groundbreaking treatments for cancer. they're the hands of the nation's top doctors. kaiser permanente doctors. and though they are all different, they work together on a single mission: saving lives. discover how we are advancing medicine at kp.org join us, and thrive. >> narrator: sam lockhart's mission to clear the name of his nephew david continued unabated after camm and charles bonae were both convicted of the murders of david's family. >> now we've got the killer who killed kim, brad and jill. we finally got that accomplished. now our next chore, we're still after that. we were still after getting david camm another trial. >> you're back to the appeals court again? >> right. >> all rise. >> narrator: the indiana supreme court heard the appeal. >> these crimes are also connected. >> narrator: they argued that the evidence that david molested his daughter was pure speculation and should not have been allowed in the trial. >> there's absolutely no evidence at all that camm was the perpetrator of that, right? >> narrator: in 2009, the upper court agreed. >> convictions reversed. two words. that's all i needed. >> narrator: a second victory for the camm team. the conviction was overturned and the judge ordered a new trial. >> statistically a successful appeal of a first-degree murder charge is a long shot. and yet you got it. >> i got it twice. that doesn't happen. doesn't happen. you know, if you don't believe in something bigger, you need to really evaluate your spirituality because, you know, man, that was a god thing. . >> narrator: in august 2013, more than a dozen years after the murders, david camm faced his third jury. a special prosecutor sam lefco was hired to take the case. >> when i first got it, it was just overwhelming. i have tried a lot of death penalty cases, murder cases, i have never tried anything like this. i never seen anything as complicated. >> narrator: with no philandering husband, no molesting father, what remained was the theory of the crime that david left the basketball game, killed his family, then went back to play some more. once again t prosecutor argued that the scene in the garage was staged to look like a sex crime. >> and her pants had been removed? >> correct. >> narrator: removed after she had been killed. what's more, the positioning of kim's body, he argued, was not what you would expect of a person that had been shot and fall fallen. >> her feet are under the car, roughly 10, 12 inches under the car. her legs were bent at an angle which seemed unusual. >> unusual how? >> they weren't straight, they were at an angle that you wouldn't expect them to be that way. >> narrator: and the infamous sweatshirt, the one that once belonged to charles bonae was also part of the staging t prosecutor argued. >> the placement of the sweatshirt was incriminating. i thought the way it was put there led you to believe that david camm put it there. >> narrator: tucked all too neatly under bradley camm's body, as though put there on purpose to frame charles bonae. remember, no murder weapon was ever found. the heart of the prosecution's case was still that freckling of blood at the bottom of david's shirt. powerful, incriminating evidence, it argued, making david as the shooter. >> the little girl was seat belted on this side, as you're looking in. >> tom bevel, a blood stain pattern analyst was a witness for the prosecution. in a bronco similar to the one owned by the camms, he demonstrated for us the way he believes david was wedged inside the car to get those specs of blood on the bottom of his shirt. >> what's a likely posture for the shooter? >> leaning in somewhat like this north to get the correct trajectory for her. >> i notice your shooting hand is up pretty high. >> it is. >> is that an awkward shot? >> it's not necessarily awkward, but we have to go with the physical evidence, and the physical evidence isn't like this. >> narrator: but why so few spots? bevel said it's because most of the blow back hit the inside roof of the vehicle. like much of the other evidence, the blood spatter testimony was essentially the same as in the other two trials. what would be enormously different this time is the star witness. the jury was going to hear from charles bonae himself. a huge risk for prosecutor lefco. >> you wonder what kind of witness this charles bonae was going to be for you? >> i felt like i didn't have a choice, i suspect they would have. but also i thought the jury ought to hear it. >> narrator: this is the story bonae told in court. he says he met camm playing basketball at a local park. we talked to bonae in prison. >> it was just a pick up game of basketball. i didn't know him or really anyone there. i'm fresh out of prison, the scene is different. >> narrator: after the game, he said camm was bragging, talking smack about how easily he had beaten bonae. >> at that point, i said, i may have lost the game, but at least i have my freedom. he's like freedom, i was like yeah, i just got out of prison. >> camm told him he used to be a state trooper. >> at the end of that day, did you know him by name? >> no, i didn't know him by name until our second channels meeting. >> narrator: that meeting was about a week or so before the murders. they ran into each other at a convenience store and got to talking in the parking lot. >> the gist of our conversation was are you employed? are you staying out of trouble? then it evolved into what types of things did you do to get into prison in the first place? he was creating hiss own form of intel. he was learning quite a few things about charles bonae. >> he told him he had been inside for robbery. >> when i slowly started to let him know about some of the things i did in the past. he asked me, well, are you still able to get untraceable weapons? >> untraceable? >> that's what it led to. a clean gun. something that can't be traced by law enforcement and ballis c ballistics. >> so bonae said he met camm the same day, met him in a parking lot and handed over the weapon. he said he paid bonae $250. but one begin is not enough. >> so he wants me to deliver a secondhand gun. so i follow him back to hiss house. i can see visibly exactly where he lives. >> narrator: they spoke outside the house for just five minutes. bonae asked when he should return for the second gun? >> i'm asking this man, what time? what time should i be back here? >> why don't you come back on thursday at approximately 7:00, et cetera. so i knew what time to be back. >> so meet me here on thursday night in the evening and you'll have some more cash in your your pact? >> absolutely. >> narrator: it was thursday september 28, the evening of the murders. >> i arrived at mr. camm's house at approximately 7:00. >> narrator: he said he hadn' d it over to camm wrapped in his gray sweatshirt. >> my sole purpose is simply to get the $250 for the second weapon. >> narrator: bonae says a few minutes later, the wife and kids arrived and pulled into the garage. >> and what happens? >> i hear a little bit of commotion. it sounds like something's not right. it sounds like they're arguing and then all of a sudden, i hear an immediate pop. and before i heard the pop, i heard her say, no. and it was a commanding no. like stop. then i heard a pop, then i heard the word daddy. >> two more pops. >> did you know what that was? it sounded like handguns. >> so what did you think? >> i was thinking this was a crime scene. as he emerged from the garage and pointed the handgun at me, i was frozen. >> so you're a target? >> absolutely. so he needs to kill charles bonae. >> but the gun jammed. >> the thing is, once i realized that your gun doesn't have projectiles in it. now my job is to get you. >> you're going for him? >> absolutely. >> narrator: now as bonae tells it, the scene moved into the garage. >> as i go into the garage, i'm chasing after mr. camm, i heard him say you did this. and i took that as, this is your crime. >> narrator: as camm went inside the house, bonae says he saw the victims. the wife by the car door. he remembers her being fully clothed. then he says he stumbled. >> i trip over shoes. i clearly touch something that is now a part of what will be a murder scene. so yeah, i did pick them up, i did try to wipe them off. >> kim's shoes, he placed them on top of the bronco, then he looked inside the vehicle and says he saw the two children. mindful of leaving dna and prints, he session he touched none of the bodies. then he says he heard david moving inside the house. >> and it clicked inside my head, he's going for a weapon. i mean this guy is a former indiana state trooper. >> narrator: at that point he bolted from the scene. >> he would have lied and said to his buddies at the indiana state police, i came home and found this black guy. >> narrator: after hearing bonae testify, the defense was ready to pounce. >> that's his story, and it makes absolutely no sense, but it explains away all the evidence that they had against him at the time. but what bonae didn't account for was the dna that was going to be found and he had no story for that. >> reporter: coming up, new dna evidence. >> he absolutely fought with camm, he touched jill. >> what will charles bonae have to say now? 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>> yes, they did, they found a palm print up in this area. but it makes perfect sense if you're leaning in and you want to stabilize yourself, especially if you're making a shot. >> narrator: now the police have scientific evidence. >> bonae's story of course was i ran in, i did this, i never touched anybody clearly not true. >> there is something in the field of dna analysis called touch dna. lab experts use human cells to make an identifying hit on a suspect. touch dna from bonae's skin cells was found on kim camm's sweater, on her underwear and on jill's shirt. >> the dna conclusively proofs that he absolutely fought with kim, that he touched jill. >> and the defense hoped it's cross-examination of bonae would be still more proof. camm had to steel himself to watch bonae on the stand. >> there was no way for me to actually prepare myself for that. and it was a situation where i really had to think about what was at stake and doing what was right in that moment, having to sit there and look at this guy that i knew killed my family and not react. >> narrator: the defense said bonae's story was absurd. for starters why would an ex-cop ask an excon for a gun. >> the guy who got out of prison doesn't smell a rat? he doesn't think i'm being set up? it makes absolutely no sense. >> narrator: the defense took on b onae's story in cross-examination. we had some of the same questions when we spoke to him. >> how many versions did it take to get to the story you just told? four, five times maybe in. >> i finally find out, the more i keep lying, i just dig myself deeper and deer, i'm not going to get out of it. and when i did start telling the truth about things, i didn't feel comfortable revealing too much too soon because i didn't want to be a part of the case to begin with. so once again, i resorted to telling a lot of stories. >> but the big picture here charles for a lot of people is it sounds like a crock, that a felon, just out of the slammer would hook up with a recently retired state police officer and do this gun exchange. it just doesn't seem to make sense. it doesn't pass the sniff test. >> there's a lot of things about this case that doesn't make sense. >> if i were you, i would have alarms going off inside my head, here you are on probation, how do you know that this former cop is really a former cop and he's not setting you up with a sting. >> although that did cross my mind and i had concerns about him. there was something about him, if you have spent any time with mr. camm, he has a way of putting you at ease, he has a way of making you feel like he legit and making you feel okay. i didn't care what the gun was for. >> this guy was on a special weapons team with the indiana state police. this premeditated crime, he's going trust a hanged gun that's come off the street, that he haslemn't checked out, he's unwrapped it from a sweatshirt and immediately used it for his business. >> it was the gun. those are questions that i can't possibly answer. why did he want me there at the crime scene? we know why because he wanted mess to take the blame for all of this. >> narrator: so as bonae tells it, the transaction happens, he hears the gun fire in the garage and then david camm tries to shoot him. >> why didn't you just belt out of there? >> even on a prison level, if i got comes at me with a shank, i'm going goat that shank from him, a him. my intent was to kill david camm that day, you tried to kill me, and now i'm going to kill you. but before i had a chance to kill him, i stumbled across this beautiful woman, dead, lifeless on the ground. >> then bonae says he stumbled over the woman's shoes and took the time to place them on top of the bronco. >> but then you're down on the floor t way you tell it. you tripped? >> yes, i tripped over the shoes. >> and your emotions are going wild, this man's trying to kill you, you're at a crime scene, you trip, oh, shoes, i got to put these on the vehicle. doesn't make any sense. >> i'm wiping the shoes off, and i see one little leg or something hanging out the passenger side. i go to investigate to see if there's anyone else in the back of the vehicle. and when i leaned in to look, i put the shoes on top. i don't even remember doing it. >> doesn't remember doing it, and he says he doesn't know why. i wasn't thinking about why i did that. but i was cognizant and really thinking about the dna or possible fingerprints from having tripped and touched those shoes. >> but you know, that palm print charles is just where you would brace yourself to lean across and shoot that little boy. >> that's according to a defense expert witness. you got to understand, the prosecution's got that same evidence, they don't see it that way. >> if you're so concerned about tidying up, why would you be so clumsy as to leave a hand print on the vehicle. >> i see the children inside, i didn't know i left that palm print. i i had known, i would have taken the time to wipe it ah! i just wanted to get out of there. >> narrator: how does he explain his touch dna on jill and kim's clothes. >> my skin cells are clearly on him, so anything that he touches can be transferred. >> narrator: while the defense couldn't tell the jury about bonae's past, the foot fetish and the armed robberies. we knew the past and asked him about it. >> when you understand your criminal history, the fetishes, what happened in that garage, seems to fit your appetites. this guy's history just played out on a violent scale that he had never been through before. >> first of all, my history does not consist of killing women, shooting people period, i have not had anything like that in my past. yes, i have been in possession of handguns, yes when i was 20 years old, i did some armed robberies for cash. >> were you in that garage that night with a gun in your hand taking control of kim camm? >> no, sir. >> the kids started to cry, shut up. >> in your panic, forget the sweat forget about the trophies -- got totally out of control, and you massacred a family. charles bonae, did you kill that family? >> in fact that's the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard. a guy with a foot fetish kills an entire family just to satisfy his foot fetish? in a place where he's never been before? it never happened. >> what are you hoping the jury hears today? >> i have no comment. >> david camm's third trial came to an end after nine weeks. >> it's over, right now. >> would the jurors believe the tale they heard? the felon duped into a crime scene by an ex-cop? for the first time in 13 years, his fate was in their hands. >> i was scared to death. >> i kind of had that same feeling. but none of us had the nerve to utter it. >> and coming up sunday on "dateline." >> two women. both lock in the struggles to survive. >> they took me out of the car. they had me kneel. i was sure that that was it. they were going to kill me. >> world traveler, reporter. adventurer, then she became a prisoner. >> tonight, they have brought me out to kill me. >> kidnapped, in once of the most dangerous places on earth. >> i was hanging on by a thread. >> her best hope for freedom -- >> mama. >> i love you. >> her mother, who turned investigator, then negotiator. could she saves her only daughter? >> i just felt like i had to. i had to be strong for her. >> reporter: also on sunday. >> i just want do come home. >> a mom trapped in a powerful storm. >> i want to see my babies and my mom. >> out of time and almost out of hope. then, one chance to get out alive. >> i was going to die trying. >> one woman's true grit. >> the sooner the sun comes out, i'm going to have to try to make it. ♪ [ male announcer ] let's go places. but let's be ready. ♪ let's do our homework. ♪ let's look out for each other. let's look both ways before crossing. ♪ let's remember what's important. let's be optimistic. but just in case -- let's be ready. toyota. let's go places, safely. two greek yogurts, one winner. i love this one. yoplait! it's so much better than chobani. i really have to say yoplait. a winner, winner! 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[ female announcer ] band-aid brand waterproof tough-strips. designed with a four-sided seal. they're waterproof, shielding out water, dirt, and germs. ♪ 'cause band-aid helps heal me ♪ [ female announcer ] use with neosporin antibiotic. why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra. ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. this is the age of taking action. viagra. talk to your doctor. i love chalk and erasers. but change is coming. all my students have the brand new surface. it has the new windows and comes with office, has a real keyboard, so they can do real work. they can use bing smartsearch to find anything in the world... or last night's assignment. and the battery lasts and lasts, so after school they can skype, play games, and my favorite...do homework. change is looking pretty good after all. ♪ >> narrator: the jury in david camm's third trial had the case. for two families, there was nothing to do but wait. kim's parents wanted nothing more than to hear the word guilty again. the new evidence had not changed their minds. >> you believe david killed your daughter and kids? why is charles bonae's testimony not enough to explain what happened in that garage. >> too many stories have been told on both sides. and i don't believe neither one of them are telling the truth. >> we have gotten word that a verdict has been reached. >> reporter: the jury took ten hours to reach a verdict. >> it has to be guilty. i wasn't expecting anything but guilty. >> narrator: prosecutor stan lefco's glass was half full or better. >> i thought we had a decent chance. i thought it could go either way, but i thought the trial went pretty well. >> narrator: but kim's mom was worried. >> the jury only out ten hours, i had a really had feeling from the beginning that it was going to be not guilty. >> narrator: david in a holding cell, got ready, shaking violently. >> i literally could not button my shirt or fix my tie or my collar and so on. the deputies had to help me. >> narrator: his family the lockharts were heartened by the relatively fast deliberation. >> everybody kind of had that same feeling of this might be good. but none of us had the nerve to utter it, you know, because you don't want to say that because the hurt, and the pain when they say guilty is so devastating. >> narrator: julie was breathless waiting for just one tiny word. >> i had been trying to practice in my head, what will it sound like to hear the worth not. not? we had always heard guilty. so i kind of just fantasized about hearing that word. >> narrator: and that's exactly what she and everybody else in the courtroom heard that day. the word not, as in not guilty. once, twice, three times. >> you hear the first one. and then you hear the second one, and you're praying to god you hear the third one. and that's when i lost it. you know, knowing finally, finally the truth has prevailed, justice for kim, brad and jill, for me, for my family. and i just fell to pieces. >> not guilty? >> not guilty. >> 13 years. >> 13 years. 13 years of hell. >> everybody around me was crying, dave was bawling. i just sat there. i think i was finally saying we got this thing done. finally. >> narrator: for the other side, the parents, the grandparents, the verdict was a devastating blow. >> when they said not guilty, that kind of like they ripped my heart out right there. i'm like this can't be right. what did these jurors see that the earlier 24 jurors in the past didn't see? you know, he was convicted twice by 24 different people. and these 12 people see something that they didn't see? >> david, can you tell me how you're feel right now? >> narrator: outside the cameras were waiting. >> this is complete vindication, after 13 horrific years. >> this is a miracle, my situation is a miracle, that we are here conducting this interview right here, god literally had to move a mountain to make this happen. >> but that mountain would never have moved without dedicated attorneys and uncle sam lockhart. >> i had people saying the only reason i'm doing this is because david's my nephew, that's a big reason, absolutely. but i know he's innocent. he didn't do it. and the only thing i knew to do then was continue to fight until we reached the solution that was proper. >> narrator: finally the david camm case, one that had dominated the news in southern indiana for years was over. >> your name will be clean again soon, but you know there's still going to be people that are going to point at you and whisper and say that's the guy who got away with killing his fami fami family. >> if they choose to be ignorant, that's their problem, if they choose to be ignorant and it is a choice. >> narrator: for those who knew and loved kim, brad and jill, there remains a yearning to know what might have been for the wife and mother, for the two young children. >> no telling what kim might have been, what she could have been, what the kids would be doing. bradley would be 20 years old, jill would be 17 or 18, graduating high school, we have last all that. >> david says he'll never get over the pain of what happened in that garage that night. >> the pain becomes a part of you and you live with it. and it's an element of who i am. and, you know, how i live my life. >> on the day of the verdict as a security precaution, sheriff's deputies drove david to a prearranged truck stop and turned him over to his waiting uncle sam. >> that was the moment he was really free, wasn't it? >> i think it finally hit him and hit me, like this guy no longer is in shackles, this guy is with me, he is knew ready to go start his life. >> grief behind him, grief still with him and heading into who know what is down the road ahead. >> me and one man, leaving together, heading home. >> reporter: that's all for this edition of "dateline." we'll be back again sunday at 7:00, 6:00 central. and i'll see you again tomorrow . of the week. deals or how to find big savings on the things you need. just make a straight line to safeway. you'll find huge club card deals perfect for the big game. pizza's a football favorite. digiorno pizza is $3.99. get your snack on. wheat thins and other nabisco crackers are just $1.50 a box. and dreyer's ice cream is only $2.88. real big deals this week and every week. only at safeway. ingredients for life. nbc bay area news begins with breaking news. good evening. thanks for being with us. i'm raj mathai. >> i'm jessica aguirre. we understand a person is hurt and a search involved for another individual. george kiriyama joins us live from that scene. >> reporter: jessica, an active scene here in southeast san jose. police right here on the scene. they're telling me that one person has been taken to the hospital. they're actively searching for