>> it's only a matter of time. >> suddenly, rachel disappeared, and a desperate search began. >> you can see the vastness and all the various places that you could conceal a body. >> reporter: months went by. the case stalled. then investigators learned that the plot might be bigger and darker than they ever could have guessed. >> this is a very tantalizing thread that comes together. >> absolutely. >> reporter: whispers that rachel was the victim of something out of a hitchcock movie. a moment of pure evil. >> he had a look in his face i had described as satan. >> reporter: and, just maybe, a second woman in the crosshairs. >> if the stories were true, then you had married a stranger. >> exactly. >> reporter: i'm lester holt and this is "dateline". here's dennis murphy with "secrets of the snake river". >> reporter: in country so beautiful as the palouse, the wheat and bean fields running up and down the bumps and hollows of eastern washington as far as the eye can see, it's hard to imagine anything bad happening out here. but gaze and listen closely, and sometimes you'll uncover secrets in the shadows. murder and betrayal, as close as the stranger sleeping beside you. here in the city of clarkston, a 40-year-old single mom was raising her two young sons. she also had two older daughters. rachael anderson was her name, just five-foot and a bit, and how susie jeppson enjoyed her company. >> we were just friends from the get-go. she was just spunky and fun, and she just loved to laugh. >> reporter: her grown daughters were out of the house. amber. >> she was my hero. she was my everything. she just had a really fun spirit about her. >> reporter: ashley. >> she raised us, gave us everything we needed, taught us everything we needed to know. >> reporter: rachael had been married and divorced three times when, by the spring of 2009, a new man had entered the picture. >> she told me that she'd met somebody. they'd gone out on a date and that she was very impressed because he wanted to have a blessing over the food that he -- and she thought that was just wonderful. >> reporter: a publicly christian man with a notorious gangster's last name, charles capone. >> i asked her out for dinner and we went to dinner, and we found each other attractive. >> reporter: what made you laugh about her? >> how she looked at life, everything is to be absorbed. everybody should have a good time. nobody should fight. >> reporter: what was going on in her life? >> i thought she was a brilliant woman. i thought, "oh, this woman's focused, got direction, awesome." >> reporter: rachael told her daughters about charles, how devout, kind, and handsome he was, and successful. he owned a busy auto repair shop up the road a ways in moscow, idaho. >> he did service on people's cars for no charge to help, you know, people who didn't have the money in the community. >> reporter: the new couple were soon regulars at sunday worship. and charles found himself with a new business partner. >> she started helping me with the shop. she had that office totally changed around and working more efficiently and saving me money in just a matter of, you know, two months. >> reporter: rachael and charles dove headlong into a whirlwind romance. introduced in may, they eloped in november. the newlyweds made their home at rachael's place, about 30 miles south of charles' auto shop. rachael's, sons, 6-year-old gavin and 10-year-old aiden, lived with them. >> we took the kids fishing. they had never been fishing before. she'd throw on camo and go hunting with the guys. >> reporter: but the thrill was gone not more than a month after the wedding. the couple went their separate ways. a lonely charles moved into his shop for a while until a friend offered him a place to stay. separated but their lives remained curiously intwined. >> we're talking all the time. we're either getting along or not getting along. we could have one phone call that was, you know, just enjoyable, you know, talking about things that need to be taken care of. and then we have one phone call where we're just -- just going at each other. >> reporter: as winter turned to spring in 2010, rachael and charles did have something to talk about. strange, unsettling things were happening to rachael. she told her friends someone was stalking her. >> we were talking late at night, and she got real panicked and she said, "i think there's somebody outside." >> reporter: and then came a rash of disturbing phone calls. no caller i.d., disguised voices. >> it's funny you just don't get it. >> reporter: she gave her friend jennifer norberg the low-down. what kinds of things were going on with her? >> phone calls. distorted voices. >> reporter: creepy movie kind of stuff? >> knowing where she's at in her house, which lights were on. >> not just, i know where you are, but i know in the bedroom right now? >> um-hmm. i know what time you came home last night and what time you left today. and just watching her every move. >> it's only a matter of time before we get your cell phone number. >> reporter: charles, meanwhile, told rachael he was getting the same kind of disturbing calls. and in april, it got worse. rachael's vehicle was vandalized more than once. tires slashed, windows broken. charles volunteered to fix her car, even though they were living apart. he gave her a loaner suv to drive. rachael was pretty sure who was behind all the scary nonsense, a guy she'd gone out with a few times and had developed, she thought, an unhealthy thing about her. rachael went to the county sheriff's office and told her story to captain dan hally. >> she was extremely frightened. she believed an individual that she had dated for a couple weeks by the name of william slemp -- he was the one stalking and harassing her. >> reporter: so when rachael left that day, what was the plan? >> she was going to essentially put together the information that she had, and then we were going to meet again that friday. >> reporter: did you see her again, captain? >> i talked to her on the phone, but i never saw her again. >> reporter: not long after leaving the sheriff's office, rachael applied for a restraining order against william slemp. it was the weekend. the two boys had visitation with their dads. it wasn't until mid-morning the following monday that people began to realize that something had gone very wrong. rachael's daughter amber got a message that her mom hadn't shown up for work as a medical technician. >> totally unlike her? >> yeah. i knew immediately that it was bad. amber got word to sister ashley, and they raced to their mom's home. when there was no answer at the door, they called the police. captain hally dispatched his lead detective jackie nichols. >> there was several people in the front yard, rachael's daughters, and they were frantic. >> i searched the house looking for any types of evidence. >> reporter: nothing, huh? >> no. >> the last time i seen her, she said that, "i think this will end in my death." >> where was racael anderson? an all-out search of about to set off a string of alarm bells. when we return, the first ominous clues. >> it vehicle was left unlocked with her purse in plain sight with the keys sitting in plain sight. >> what woman leaves her purse behind? >> it was a bad sign. >> reporter: rachael anderson's loved ones were filled with dread when she failed to turn up for her job as a medical technician that monday morning in 2010. >> she would have never left her children. she would not have left her sons, not for a minute, not for a day. >> reporter: investigators had a few bare facts to work with. they knew rachael had canceled that friday meeting with asotin county sheriff's captain dan haley about the stalking incidents. detectives could find no atm or cell phone activity since a voicemail rachael left at 8:09 friday night. that meant rachael had been off the grid nearly three days. >> i knew there was something very, very wrong. >> reporter: you'd swung into action? >> i had about 1,000 fliers printed at staples. >> reporter: monday afternoon law enforcement pinged rachael's cell phone and got a weak echo just across the snake river from her home. >> we got a lot of people out into that field that night. also, used a bloodhound to do a live search. >> we were looking in trash bags, and tarps, and under bushes. >> we searched all night. by the time i got home, my knees were bloody and my hands. >> reporter: the search was futile. early the next day, tuesday, captain hally formed a regional missing-person task force. so what's on your white board? what's on your agenda? >> this william slemp. >> reporter: the former boyfriend. >> yeah. we went down and -- >> other ex-boyfriends, ex-husband. >> family. >> there had been a neighbor that lived across the street from rachael that had some suspicious behaviors. he'd asked rachael out on a date and she'd turned him down. and then he left town very abruptly. >> reporter: i mean that's certainly suspect. is he involved? >> well -- and we're checking hospitals, travel information. we checked every bus ticket that was sold that weekend. >> reporter: an early lead may have come when rachael talked to sheriff's captain dan hally the week before. she told him that day she was terrified of the slemp guy messing with her. but the captain had a different stalking suspect in mind after rachael told him she was divorcing charles. so an early stop for investigators was the charles' shop. so who's the guy you met? >> easygoing. very cordial. he was being cooperative. >> i didn't have anything to hide. what was i going to hide? here they come, driving up. i'm like, "come on in." >> reporter: charles assured police he had nothing to do with the stalking or damaging of her car. but you're not vandalizing the vehicle? you're not scary walking her house? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: did you slash her tires? >> no, absolutely not, and i -- >> reporter: did you break out the back windshield? >> no, absolutely not. >> reporter: in fact, charles told the cops he was helping rachael get to the bottom of the harassment. he said the estranged couple together went looking for the obsessed ex-boyfriend to sort him out. >> she tells me about him. and then we go driving over to his house because there's a pay phone right near his house that's one of the pay phones that was making phone calls to her. >> reporter: you thought slemp was the stalker? >> i just thought he was still involved with her because he had this huge crush on rachael. >> he tells me he was, you know, being the helpful guy, and then he's trying to help her figure out who's stalking her. >> reporter: charles went on to tell the investigators he hadn't seen rachael since that previous friday night when she'd stopped by the garage to pick up her car. it wasn't ready. >> he described how she was upset, because, you know, he's workin' on her car. >> reporter: charles said rachael then left to buy a computer. she couldn't find what she wanted but returned with a six-pack. they drank a few of the beers, he said, and she left. what's the picture that's coming together for you? >> i'm trying to keep all options open in my mind. because i was concerned that she might've been impaired that evening and could've driven off the road. >> reporter: a benign kind of explanation for why she's gone missing? >> right. >> reporter: but a few hours later that theory was doused when they located rachael's loaner suv at a convenience store that doubled as a bus station not far from her house. >> the vehicle was left unlocked with her purse in plain sight with the keys sitting in plain sight. >> reporter: what woman leaves her purse behind? >> it was a bad sign. >> reporter: and the detectives had to consider another scenario. had pretty 5'4" rachael, 120 pounds soaking wet, offered an easy target for an abduction by a stranger unknown? while detectives were doing their official thing, rachael's loved ones were widening their increasingly desperate search all across the palouse. >> we were up handing fliers from here to colfax, east, west, north, south. we were out every available minute. >> reporter: it was as though the palouse had just swallowed her up. coming up -- finally a break. police learn there was somebody else with charles capone the night rachael disappeared. something doesn't add up. >> reporter: rachael anderson, a mother of four, had vanished and it was the job of captain dan hally and the missing persons task force to find out what had happened to her. rachael has not hopped a bus? >> no. >> reporter: she's not in anybody's emergency room? >> no. that's correct. >> reporter: you suspect foul play? >> absolutely. >> right. >> reporter: the investigators started working their way through a list of suspects, starting with the men who wanted to be in rachael's life. there was the neighbor who'd tried to take her out and been turned down. he had an alibi. that left the old boyfriend named slemp, the one rachael said she was afraid of. but he could account for his whereabouts when rachael went missing. the former boyfriend was not playing out. >> correct, yeah. >> reporter: you had to follow all those trails? >> absolutely, yeah. absolutely. as these threads started, we would follow them as we could. but charles capone was the one that never was a dead end. >> reporter: captain dan hally had been suspicious of charles ever since rachael stopped by to make a stalking complaint about the ex-boyfriend. but that same day rachael had also told the captain she was in the midst of divorcing charles capone. the grounds? she said he'd tried to choke her. well, that was a huge red flag. captain hally advised her to get a restraining order right away against her estranged husband. rachael didn't want to hear that. >> she was agitated because i'm telling her, "it's your soon-to-be ex, charles, doing this, not slemp." >> two gays days later, the captain's phone. she said she was going up to tell him they were done. >> what did you tell her? >> i sid it was dangerous. don't go up there. >> as the cops suspicions grew after charles decided to stop cooperating. >> they suggest maybe you should go down and have a more formal. >> i talked to my attorney. he said, have them contact me if they have any more questions. you don't have to go down there. >> the car mechanic had a secret he knew the police would come over. the publicly pious, pray over his pancakes christian had a past rachel and his family knew nothing about. a back story that included prison time for bank robbery and assault. the one-time felon had apparently changed. >> i'm going doing everything a normal person does i always feel like i-paid my debt and let me go on and move something good and constructive. >> your paying your taxes and mooing the lawn sf. >> it is nice to go and walk around with your head up. >> the cops weren't so sure. they were chasing down his friends, his good balance, david stone, a married high school baseball coach and an employee at the moscow, idaho maintenance department. to the investigators' astonishment, david volunteered that he'd been hanging out with charles and rachael at the garage the friday night she went missing. >> it's absolutely huge. >> reporter: now you got another guy, someone with information. >> somebody with information. it immediately raises the question, why didn't charles capone ever mention david stone to me during the entire time i interviewed him? >> reporter: three-days after rachael was reported missing, the task force detectives sat david stone down and grilled him. >> he provided a timeline for that evening, and it was different than charles capone's timeline. >> reporter: the husband's friend told the cops rachael came by the shop about 5:00 p.m. and waited for charles to finish her car. david stone says he then left to get some food at an a&w. when he got back to the garage around 8:00, rachael was gone. stone said he drove charles to a local bar, swung by his home for a while, then went out later to pick up charles at the bar. many of the investigators knew david stone and his wife alisa. she worked in moscow city hall as a grants writer. who was your dave, personality, character? >> yeah. someone that was very caring, was a really good stepdad. you know, was on the volunteer fire department. >> reporter: charles capone, were they friends? >> yes, yes. >> reporter: did you know rachael? >> i knew her only from church. >> reporter: alisa knew her husband was at the garage that friday night and said nothing seemed amiss. what did he say was going on? >> he said he dropped charles off at mingles and that there had been some interaction with rachael that wasn't happy. and charles said he wanted to have a drink. and so he dropped him off and was going to go back, and pick him up and he'd be home. >> reporter: intriguing perhaps, but the two friends mismatched stories did nothing to advance the cops case. rachel still missing, there was no evidence an actual crime had even occurred. all they had were their suspicions about david stone and charles capone. so now you got two different versions of friday night. >> two different versions. they were supposedly together, but they're telling two different stories. >> reporter: tangled somewhere in the differing accounts, the cops thought, there must be a buried clue about what had happened to rachael. meantime, her heartbroken daughters did what they could to fill the awful hours. organizing searches, building a webpage, and pressuring the police. >> we searched ditches. we searched, gosh, abandoned buildings. we searched. >> abandoned mines. >> we put -- yeah, we put fliers in towns, hoping that someone would see her passing through. >> their mom meant so much to them. and they did not want this to just become another cold case. >> reporter: the investigation was heading that way until the detectives revisited an early lead. a nefarious scheme, if true. hard to believe that something as evil as that could happen in the palouse. >> this is a very tantalizing thread that comes together this is the stuff of the movies. >> absolutely. coming up, the case is about to go in an unthinkable direction. with the clock ticking, police realize another woman may also be a target. >> we wanted her to know that she was potentially in danger herself. >> reporter: the high and low search across the eerily beautiful palouse country for any trace of rachael anderson was turning up nothing. months after her disappearance detectives were convinced they had identified their prime persons of interest, rachael's estranged husband charles and his church-going buddy, david stone. but the investigation had stalled and was at an apparent dead end. no secret what the biggest obstacle was for lead investigators captain dan hally and detective jackie nichols. it's an axiom in law enforcement, "no body, no crime." >> it's a challenge. >> at this point, we don't even know for sure that we have a death. we believe that in our gut. >> reporter: as the cops dug deeper into the background of the husband's friend david stone, the case suddenly became way more complex. a mind blowing theory, maybe this wasn't just about one wife, rachael, maybe it was about two. the investigation had led them to the city maintenance yard where stone worked. a fellow employee there had related a conversation he'd had with david stone a while back. >> it surfaces that there had been some conversations between david stone and this individual about a plan to kill stone's wife for $10,000. >> reporter: then stone, the story went, came back sometime later and told the maintenance yard guy to forget they'd talked. he'd arranged a plan "b" for murder. >> and that later that deal was canceled because stone had reached an agreement with charles capone that they would kill each other's wives. >> reporter: i'll kill your wife if you'll kill mine? this is the stuff of the movies. >> right. >> it is, absolutely. >> let's say that -- that you'd like to get rid of your wife. >> reporter: to be specific, a 1950 alfred hitchcock thriller titled "strangers on a train. in the movie two strangers each agree to commit a murder for the other. >> they swap murders. >> reporter: did capone and stone each agree to do in the other's wife? could that be? do you believe it? >> i think there was something to it because the -- >> yeah, i definitely think there was. >> reporter: mrs. stone is alive and well and among us. did you talk to her? >> yes, we did. >> reporter: boy, what a table conversation, huh? >> we wanted -- >> the cops are telling me that you're trying to kill me? >> we wanted her to know that she was potentially in danger herself. >> reporter: you get some devastating news but you continued to share a house with him, huh? >> i did. i remember many times when i would question david and say something's not right. >> reporter: david stone was able to convince alisa that the cops had dreamed up the murder plot story as a way to put pressure on him to turn him against his friend. and putting pressure on that friend, charles capone, is what happened next. he'd been found in a possession of a gun, a big no-no for a former felon. capone was placed in the county jail while awaiting federal charges on a firearm violation. in a cell, the visiting detectives had his full attention. >> and i get this interesting visit from dan hally and jackie nichols. >> i essentially opened it up with, "today, charles, you're going to tell me you killed rachael and where her body is." and his response was, "well, you only got one of those right. but i didn't kill her." >> reporter: if charles didn't kill her, who did? the investigators landed hard on david stone, the only other person known to have been with rachael that night. >> and we confront him with, "stone, we know you got blood on your hands." his response was he just sat back, and he said, "i need a drink of water." never denied it. but that's when -- then he wanted his attorney after that. >> reporter: with no reason to hold him, david stone was free to go home to wife alisa, the woman cops feared he wanted dead. but not charles. he was about to be put on ice. five months after rachael disappeared, he pleaded guilty to the federal firearms charge and was sentenced to almost three-years. so capone wasn't going anywhere. but still the task force investigation focused on him and stone, appeared to be at a dead end. the missing woman's daughters were in limbo, too. >> it just went on for years, years of one nightmare. >> reporter: as happens, rachael became old news and the case receded from the headlines. fresh cases demanded the attention of detective jackie nichols. no problem, she took to looking for rachael on her days off. >> as you look around here, you can see the vastness of the countryside here and all the various places that you could conceal a body. and going up into the mountains, coulees and gorges. >> mountains, ravines. we even did some searches based on psychic visions and dreams. >> reporter: oh, really? rachael's family, at as much of a dead end as the cops, also turned desperately to the supernatural. >> we did some pretty extreme things to find her. i even got hypnotized, once, to try to communicate with my mom, not alive, to have her to tell me where she was. i did everything i could possibly do. >> reporter: the hunt for the slightest trace of rachael continued for years. meanwhile, david stone was on the street, and by 2013 his fellow suspect, buddy charles capone, was about to be released from jail. >> we said, now is the time. we have to charge these guys. we have to charge them both. we know that they did this crime. >> this case wasn't going to get any better. >> reporter: the idaho latah county prosecutor agreed and on may day 2013 -- three years after rachel vanished -- david stone and charles capone were charged with her murder. they pleaded not guilty. >> this case is all about smoke and mirrors and convincing people from day one that i murdered my wife. >> everyone, please rise. >> reporter: in the preliminary hearing, prosecutors laid out their theory of the crime, producing that maintenance yard worker who told the story about charles and david's alleged "you kill my wife, i'll kill yours" plan. stone's wife alisa hung on every word. frightening connections were being made in her head, and with that came the sudden awful awareness that the sheriff's officers may have had been right after all. her husband did want her dead. she immediately filed for divorce. >> the pieces all came together for me. >> reporter: and there's this account of him going to a coworker and saying, "i'll give you 10,000 bucks if you'll kill my wife." what do you think of that story, that he was soliciting someone to kill you? >> yeah, i'll never know. >> reporter: this is beyond marital deceit. >> oh, yeah. >> reporter: if the stories were true, then you had married a stranger. >> exactly. >> reporter: who is dave stone? >> it's a mystery to me at this point. >> some of the things that came up in that preliminary hearing, i looked like a monster, and i'm not. coming up, david stone tells a chilling tale of what he says happened the night racael disappeared. >> i said, what the [ bleep ] are you doing? he looked at me, had a look on his face that i had described as >> reporter: almost four-years after that weekend rachael anderson never came home, her family believed they might finally get some answers. police had arrested her estranged husband charles capone and his pal david stone in connection with her death. but in september, 2014, it was only charles capone in the latah county courthouse facing a murder charge. >> we are convinced that you will find the only possible verdict, finding the defendant, charles capone guilty of first degree murder. >> reporter: as the trail opened, the state's case had zigzagged another unpredicted turn. the maintenance yard worker had backpedaled on his murder for hire story and wouldn't testify to it. so now the jurors wouldn't hear of a juicy "you kill my wife, i'll kill yours" plot, but rather a straightforward and nonetheless terrifying story of a lousy marriage turned fatal. county prosecuting attorney bill thompson and deputy prosecuting attorney mia vowels knew they had their work cut out for them. >> our approach was convince the jury through the evidence not only that rachael was dead, but there's only one person in this world who could have been responsible for it, and that's charles capone. >> reporter: what was the biggest hill to climb in this? >> because we didn't have a body, it was mostly a circumstantial case. >> reporter: mia vowels took the lead and called a parade of witness to convince the jury that rachael was indeed dead. >> a good mother. had a good attitude toward family. >> reporter: her ex-husband, dennis plunkett, had missed a call from her at 8:09 that friday night. >> and that was the last contact i ever had with her. >> reporter: rachael's two sons testified they'd never seen their mother again after that friday. >> have you seen your mom since? >> no. >> reporter: to show jurors just how nasty charles and rachael's divorce was, they played back some of those eerie stalking phone calls. >> it's funny. you just don't get it. >> i'm very concerned for her safety and well-being. >> reporter: captain dan hally testified that the defendant had been behind those head-game calls all along. capone even admitted as much to him. >> he told me that he had been involved in the stalking and harassment. >> yeah, i know she was afraid. >> reporter: ashley and amber, the daughters, recounted the terror of their mom's ordeal. >> she had the feeling like her life was going to end, a dreadful feeling. >> reporter: the prosecutors zeroed in on charles' character. jennifer norberg recalled what her friend's neck looked like after charles allegedly attacked rachael four months before she disappeared. >> i observed that she had some red, dark colored marks on her neck. >> reporter: then, prosecutors produced a business neighbor, an actual eyewitness, who saw charles arguing with a woman outside his auto shop that fatal night. >> she jumped out of the car, flailing her arms right up into his face. >> raise your hand and be sworn please. >> reporter: so far, the testimony was all appetizers before the prosecutors' main course. their head-snapping all or nothing star witness, none other than charles' good buddy david stone, no longer a co-defendant for murder. now the man pointing the accusing finger. >> s-t-o-n-e. >> reporter: stone's journey to the witness stand began a year earlier during that preliminary hearing when capone whispered something to him. >> charles leaned over to me and said, "you shouldn't even be here." and i thought, "how right you are, you son of a bitch." >> reporter: a shaken stone listened to the state's mounting case against him and decided he wasn't going to take the fall for charles. >> the prosecution did a real good job of in making me out to be a monster, and i'm not. >> reporter: they told you something like, "we know there is blood on your hands here." >> that was one of the things they said. >> reporter: in cop talk, they flipped you. they flipped you against him. they were going to give you consideration in exchange for your story. >> the cops had nothing to do with me telling the story. >> reporter: stone says there was no deal with the cops, rather his pastor convinced him to come clean. >> throughout numerous visits, we prayed in closing prayer that the truth would set me free. >> reporter: maybe so, but the prosecution counted on his testimony to put away his former friend for a long, long time. >> do you know the defendant, charles capone? >> i do. he's sitting next to mr. monson. >> reporter: once on the stand, stone set off on his tale about the events of friday, april 16th, 2010. >> i was inside the shop, and i'd heard a noise. >> what kind of noise? >> kind of like a thud or a bang or just something kind of loud. >> reporter: when he looked outside, a struggle. >> when i came around closer toward the back side of rachel's car, rachael was on her back, and charles he was on top of her strangling her. >> was rachel moving? >> very little. >> what did you say? >> i said what the [ bleep ] are you doing? and he turned around and he looked back at me, had a look in his face i had described as satan. and he told me to shut the [ bleep ] up, you get a hold of myself. you're in this with me now. i know where your family's at. >> why didn't you intervene at this point? >> fear. >> what were you afraid of? >> i'm watching somebody kill his wife. i don't know what he's going to do to me. >> reporter: the two men moved rachel's body into the shop. david stone testified they ditched the loaner vehicle rachael was driving at the convenience store/bus depot near her home and then returned to stone's garage. after that, stone said he went to his job site and rounded up some old truck tire snow-chains, like these from his jobsite, and they wrapped up rachael's body. >> once we placed rachel's body in the chain, we rolled her across the chains. >> reporter: then he said the two put rachel's trussed-up, weighted-down body into his suv. with david stone at the wheel, they drove south and onto the red wolf bridge over the snake river. >> he just said "stop!" i put the durango in park, got out, opened the hatch. we pulled rachael out, went to the side of the bridge and threw her over the side. >> reporter: prosecutors interrupted stone's narrative to play for jurors a recording made at the bridge. >> he was pulling the package out and i assisted him. and we proceeded to the side of the wall here and threw the package over the side. >> and what was in the package? >> the body of rachael anderson. >> reporter: into the fast moving river never to be seen again. what would the jury make of this man giving them such critical evidence, the play by play of the crime itself? you know they're going to hate this guy? >> that's the reality of the case. >> reporter: did it matter whether the jury sat in moral judgment on your star witness, mia? >> no. they won't like that he didn't intervene and that he helped dispose of her body, but that doesn't change the fact that he witnessed what he did. >> reporter: as the state rested, it looked, ironically, as though its star witness would prove to be the best thing the defense had going for it. david stone, would the jury believe a word he said? coming up, and what about the other man at the center of the case? though he won't take the stand, charles capone takes the tough questions from us. >> this whole thread of this thing, i'll kill your wife if ♪ great change comes from doing the right thing. like the radical idea that health isn't an industry. it's a cause. so we do things differently. we combine care and coverage. and believe prevention is the most powerful of cures. so forgive us for not going with the flow. we just think the flow should go with us. which makes us rebels with one cause. your health. happen? >> you may find yourself in a quandary about as to what actually happened. >> reporter: charles capone's defense team had to convince the jury that their client hadn't strangled his estranged wife, rachael, and tossed her body into the snake river with the help of his friend david stone. charles had maintained his innocence. >> this just can't be what's going on in life right now. i can't be, at this point right now, sitting here with a guy from "dateline". >> reporter: and the guy from "dateline" is here because of what is believed to have happened by the authorities on that friday night. his attorneys' strategy was threefold. discredit the buddy's damning eyewitness testimony. sow reasonable doubt about the state's evidence. and offer alternate suspects. right off the bat they suggested to the jury that there was another person who just might have had a hand in rachael's disappearance. maybe that infatuated one-time boyfriend william slemp. slemp died before the case came to trial, so the defense attorney asked daughter amber what she knew about him. >> did you also, in your conversation with your mother, consider another person as being the suspect? >> yes. >> and was that william slemp? >> yes. >> reporter: and was the boyfriend perceived as a menace? the defense produced a request for a restraining order against slemp that rachael had filled out. during cross-examination the defense got detective jackie nichols to concede another connection between rachael and slemp. >> i recall seeing letters from william slemp. >> reporter: after seeding the thought with jurors that maybe someone other than capone did it, the defense team turned its sights on the cops, all the things they hadn't found in their investigation. for starters, there was no physical evidence recovered at charles' garage. >> you didn't see any signs of a struggle outside? >> that's correct. >> reporter: and when cops recovered rachel's vehicle, there were fingerprints, but not capone's. >> they didn't match anybody that was in the system. >> reporter: but attacking the evidence wouldn't be enough. >> everyone, please be seated. >> reporter: just as for the prosecution, the defense case lived or died on the credibility of david stone. during a grueling, day-long cross-examination, charles' lawyer attacked david stone's veracity and his motives. david claimed he helped dispose of rachael's body and then kept quiet all those years because he was in fear of his life from charles. and yet they continued to pal around. >> why did you keep that contact every day? >> well, i kind of like to know where someone's at if i'm concerned about my safety. >> reporter: capone's lawyer suggested that david stone was only out to save his own neck. and were you hoping for some leniency? >> and still am. >> reporter: hour after hour, the lawyer hammered away at david, who had easily admitted to lying his way through any number of police interviews. >> did you feel that your word might not be real good? >> i mean, based on the fact that i had been lying for three and a half years, wouldn't you? >> reporter: in the defense close, it came back again to a central question, could the jury believe david stone? >> at the end of the day, what stone is telling you, it cannot be true. there is no physical evidence of any foul play anywhere at or near that shop. >> reporter: charles capone declined to testify in his own defense. >> and you feel comfortable in that decision? >> yes, sir, i do. >> reporter: prosecutor bill thompson had the final word for the state. >> rachael's gone forever. he insured that her body, her physical essence, is also gone forever. but we can't let that allow him to escape responsibility. >> reporter: after seven days of testimony, the case went to the jury. let me ask you that cut to the chase question. on friday that night at the garage, did you get her down on the ground? >> no. >> reporter: did you throttle your wife and kill her? >> i can tell you honestly, no. it's a lie. it's been portrayed as stuff that absolutely didn't take place. i've done many things, you know, that i'm not proud of, you know? paid my dues, moved on, you know? tried to be a better person. >> reporter: this whole thread of this thing, "i'll kill your wife if you'll kill mine," did that happen? >> i can't answer that for you right now. >> reporter: you can't answer it? >> i can't. >> reporter: capone says he's made mistakes along the way, but did not kill rachael. >> i don't have that in me. i don't have that -- i want to care about people. i want to love on people. i don't want to take somebody's life. you know, one officer, she says i'm a sociopath and i have no heart, and i don't care, and i haven't suffered from this. yeah, okay. >> reporter: are you a sociopath? >> no, i don't believe so. i've seen my share of psychologists and stuff like that. and i think i'm pretty normal. i mean, i think, like most men, i just make poor decisions. >> charles was on top of rachael, strangling her. >> reporter: why does he tell the story in court that he does? because he sinks you. >> because he's going to get charged with solicitation of murder. how much time was he going to do for trying to hire somebody to kill his wife, you know? wouldn't you have tried to get out of that? >> reporter: it took the jurors nine hours to decide whether they believed david stone's story. there was a verdict. rachael's family and friends were called back to the courthouse. >> when the jury came in and we stood there, it seemed like for an eternity. >> madam clerk, if you would read the verdict for the jury. >> you know, our hearts were pounding. >> is the defendant charles anthony capone guilty or not guilty of murder in the first degree? >> reporter: the clerk read the jury's verdict. >> guilty. >> it was like this weight just was lifted from everyone. >> reporter: rachael's daughters had waited 4 1/2 years for this day. so, you hear the words, huh? >> um-hmm. it's just bittersweet. >> reporter: you're not getting your mom back. >> no. >> reporter: at the end of this. >> huh-uh. all it is protecting other women and children from being harmed by him. >> reporter: charles capone was sentenced to life without pa floel february. because of his prior convictions, he faces life without parole. david stone, who ultimately pleaded guilty solely to failure to notify authorities of a death, was sentenced in october to three to seven years. >> i want to apologize to rachael's family. >> reporter: with good behavior, and credit for time served, he could be out in 18 months. >> it's a day that i think about every day. and i will the rest of my life. if i could change it, i damn sure would. >> reporter: why didn't you go get your phone and call 911? you knew you had just witnessed a murder. >> i froze. and all the way up to that point, i thought he was my friend. >> reporter: did you solicit a hit on your wife? >> never. >> reporter: did you want her dead in those days? >> no. >> reporter: so where did this story come from? >> that's a good question. >> reporter: david stone's former wife alisa still doesn't know for sure if he wanted her dead. i bet there are very few people on earth that could put themselves in your shoes and even understand what you've been through, alisa. >> you know, i've been through a lot, but nothing compared to what rachael's family's been through. i don't think my pain's comparable to what her daughters and sons have been through at all. >> reporter: ever since the day in november 2013, when david stone gave his horrific tale to the cops, there have been intensive searches made of the snake river below the red wolf bridge. captain dan hally enlisted multiple agencies including the coast guard and volunteers with specialized sonar to help. but the depths of the swift-moving snake have yet to surrender rachael's body. is she gone forever? >> i know we're not going to give up. >> hopefully, we might still find her remains. >> reporter: for the justice system, it's case closed, but for those rachael left behind -- >> you know, there's no true justice. it doesn't bring her back. >> reporter: is there a new chapter opening up for you? >> it's just begun. because when i found out my mom was missing, i fought tooth and nail. so did ashley. that's what we did. and so at this point it feels like the fight is over. the grieving process for me has just begun. because there's nothing left to fight for. that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us. ♪ nbc bay area news starts now. i couldn't see them through the haze. >> a rock band skai escapes a fiery limo ride. tonight the driver tells us exclusively how you knew something was round. plus we'll give you a new look at the moments after the ban got out safely. good evening. >> that hummer limo caught fire right on the freeway during rush hour. this was right near valley fair mall in the