there's the allegation of poisoning. >> cleaned out the bank account. >> are you trying to accuse me of doing something to him? >> a brother determined to find a killer. >> how dare anybody do that to my little brother. >> it wasn't supposed to happen like this. >> a toxic mystery, and emotional trial. >> the jury being out long, is it a bad thing or good thing? [ siren ] it was a mystery from day one. from that time right around the end of the hockey season. didn't make sense what was happening to matt podalak. matt, the hockey amateur, matt the outdoorsman, fisherman, hunter, athlete. didn't make sense from the very first day matt podalak woke up in the morning with that pain in his back and after what happened in the hospital a couple of months later, nothing made sense after that. [ flat line ] though god know there's were accusations. plenty of those. and a brother, mark, for whom the story, the mysteryic became a kind of obsession. >> it's had quite an affect on me over the past seven years. >> the story that happened to matt podalak is one of those that -- well, you be the judge. ♪ >> let's begin in the spring of 2006. matt was 31 years old. maybe more than ever he was loving the intense male roughness of amateur hockey. he was number 10, and he was good at it. even managed to keep all of his teeth. >> he started to pick it up when he was in high school. that was really one of his loves. >> reporter: mark podalak was just a little older, a little more academically accomplished than his brother, maybe, but mark loved him. loved him for what he was. >> he was a good kid. didn't get into any trouble. to be honest with you, my father was a cop. he sort of put the fear of god in us growing up. >> reporter: matt told his mom he would be a policeman after a stint in the navy. brooklyn, ohio, by the way, one of the towns around the edge of cleveland. >> matthew always wanted to be a police officer, ever since he was little. >> reporter: his dad was a 39 year veteran of the brooklyn pd. >> a point in time itting whoed like we may even work together. >> reporter: but life is full of disappointments. matt didn't get the call. and so instead he went to be work for his uncle, he's phoenix industrial powder coated engine parts for ford and other companies. >> what did he think of his job over at the factory? >> the thing that excited himd about it, he was going to take over. my uncle was kind of grooming him to become the boss. >> reporter: what matt wanted perhaps most of all was a family, and so when he met holly, holly mcfeeture -- >> when matthew fell in love he fell 110%, and he really loved holly. >> there are some people who plan out their lives very carefully. those people may take an issue with matt and holly, whose daughter samantha was born give or take nine months after they met. the marriage part would come later, they decided. >> he loved being a dad. he loved that little girl. >> and loved holly. holly loved him. holly told his sister chrissy the story how they eventually got engaged. it was turing a romantic weekend in niagara falls just before samantha was born. holly was preparing a bubble bath. >> and she couldn't hear, because the faucetal running and here's matt down on his knee, like -- hello? and then she realized, oh, my gosh. you're proposing. >> that is a kind of romantic little story. >> i thought so. the bubbles, and -- i thought that was pretty romantic. >> after samantha came along, matt and holly now engaged, went to vegas to witness a friend's wedding. lynn karilco. >> did you almost make it a foursome wed? >> absolutely. holly and matt said we should do a double wedding, but holly knew her family would not be happy with has. so i think that's what made them not get married. >> didn't get married, but something happened in vegas. nine months after that, josh was born. >> from what holly had told me, josh was planned in vegas. >> ready or not, matt was now the father of samantha and a baby boy he nicknamed little man, and holly's daughter from a previous relationship. big changes in a very short time. and by the end of the hockey season, a lot of things started going wrong. josh was still very new then and colicky, matt was stressed, and with that young family to support he'd gone as lost money gambling on the internet. he complained of feeling depressed. so depressed his doctor prescribe ed an antidepressant. that's about when it started, spasms of back pain. ignored it figure it would go away on its own but it just got worse. after weeks of this, holly insisted he go see a doctor. >> he had been complaining of pain and she finally said, you need to go. obviously, something's not right. so -- she basically, you know had to drag him there. >> kidney stones was the diagnosis. the doctor gave matt pills to help sdodissolve them. four days later he took a turn for the worse. way worse. holly called her father, matt's father and 911. >> i got a call from holly saying something's wrong with matt. so i talked to matt and he says, dad i don't feel good. i fell off the couch. i'm really dizzy. i said, get in the ambulance. >> and following the ambulance to holly at the hospital where things went bad, fast. >> it was nerve-racking. all we kept hearing about, okay. they're trying to dial in on his kidney issue. well, then that medication was makes his heart go. they'd try to address the heart and kept seesawing back and forth. >> and nobody seemed to know what it was, causing it? >> no. >> matt faded in and out of consciousness. doctors told holly and family members, go home. get some rest. and then a few hours later called everybody back to the hospital. right away, they said. one look at the icu, and big brother mark felt his world come apart. >> when i saw him in the hospital, it was something i won't forget. it seemed like he was in a coma. i knew if he made it through it wouldn't be the same. >> and everyone felt a particular kind of helplessness, knowing something was killing him, but not knowing, how could they what it was. a family, simple question. which would take seven years to answer. >> how can you go into the hospital for a kidney stone, kidney stones and die hours later? create your own tour of italy is back starting at $12.99, only at olive garden. choose 3 of 9 of our favorite italian dishes to get everything you want, all on one plate. plus unlimited salad and breadsticks. because the best tour of italy is the one you create. olive garden. ashley went to lowe's to ctheir curated bath collections helped her bring the perfect look together. oh. one sec. my shell phone's ringing. hey girl hey. now get your choice vanities for only $119, at lowe's. for our best friends & family get tevent!'s... thursday through sunday take an extra 20% off any way you pay! plus, yes2you rewards members earn triple points. plus, everyone gets kohl's cash too. nothing but the best savings. now that's the good stuff. kohl's. go sensationally bold! new color sensational loaded bolds from maybelline new york. loaded with hyper-color pigments... for one-stroke intensity... and honey nectar. sumptuous feel. maybelline's new loaded bolds. make it happen. ♪ maybelline new york. that's why i bought six of you... for when you stretch out. i want you to stay this bright blue forever... that's why you will stay in this drawer... forever. i can't live without you. and that's why i will never, ever wash you. protect your clothes from the damage of the wash with downy fabric conditioner. it not only softens and freshens... it helps protect clothes... from stretching, fading and fuzz... so your favorite clothes stay your favorite clothes. downy fabric conditioner wash in the wow. the end came, a monday morning, july 31, 2006. there in the icu, the mysterious ailment that attacked matt podalak overwhelmed his defenses completely. >> i got a call saying you better get here, because he's gone into full arrest and we've revived him already. once. so -- when i got there, it was just -- downhill. >> the fiancee, holly mcfeeture, begged the doctors, keep trying. >> don't stop. don't stop. matt, don't leave me. >> it was no use. >> and once the doctor or nurse stepped away, holly just -- lunged on matt, and just wouldn't let go. they actually had to pull her off of his body. >> he was just 31 years old, and now his children were fatherless, and holly a single mother of three. at the funeral, said her sister, she did not take it well. >> holly was sitting in her car for about 20 minutes, bawling her eyes out before she even went in. i don't know how i would be able to do that, myself. going and seeing him, lying there, in the casket. >> holly son's josh was just 6 months old and cried a lot. so holly had to repeatedly have to leave the reception line to care for her colicky baby. >> she was in the basement with josh because she was nursing. she had to still take care of her kands show them that she had to be strong. >> holly the friend rebecca vega did what she could to help, especially with the little boy. so young. >> this poor baby would have never known his father. how could this happen? all of a sudden a very healthy 31-year-old young man just winds up dead? it's kind of strange. >> kind of strange? it certainly was. matt's brother mark couldn't stop thinking about how strange it was. >> he had kidney stones. how can you go into the hospital for kidney stones and then die eight hours later? >> exactly what the coroner was wondering when he had a look a some of the damage to matt's organs as if he'd been exposed to some toxic chemicals in his environment. worked for four years with his uncle, industrial, involved in painting and powder coating, and any toxic chemical there's? the coroner called holly to ask. said her friend, lynn. >> the coroner told her a lot of the chemical compounds were very similar to what the chemical compound was that they found in him. >> right after that holly called matt's uncle. the man who owned the factory. >> saying that my brother needed to call the coroner sow that he he can explain what matthew was supposed to. >> but soon after the coroner talked to matt's uncle, after he got a proper list of the chemicals they used, he pretty much ruled out any industrial cause. >> all of those chemicals were safe to work with. they were osha approved, and they had masks to wear. >> so if not that, what? perhaps a cause uncommonly too often when one dies so young, overwhelmed by sudden responsibilities and the pain of his kidney stones decided to end it all. it was a coroner's investigator who brought up the subject with matt's mother. >> and she was questioning me, would matthew have committed suicide? >> never, said his mother. never! but it was, his family had to admit, a not unreasonable question, given matt's depression and all, even though mark believed his brother had that under control. >> he went to a doctor to get some help with that and the doctor gave him some antidepressants. >> did that help? >> i thought it did. he -- he seemed to be better. >> but then matt had a new family now, and you know how it is. matt was spending most of his time with holly and the kids, and her parents, they said. so maybe mark didn't know. did he go to his own parents' house very often? >> i don't recall him talking about that much. >> his connection didn't seem to be that close, then? >> it didn't seem to be. >> and mark didn't know, not then, anyway, that matt actually asked a friend to remove his hunting guns from his house, as if he was afraid, perhaps, he might harm himself. >> was he really thinking about killing himself? >> from what i heard, yes. i heard he was having thoughts. he had told holly, i think he actually had told my dad. >> just as she insisted he see the doctor for kidney stones, it was holly, said her sister, who insisted he get help for his depression. >> she had sent him to the doctor, and got him on medication for that as well. >> what happened to matt podalak? who knew? apparently not the coroner, who would h still no issued any official report. and then, finally, three months after matt's death, mark got a call from his mother. come to a family meeting, she told him. she refused to tell him what would be said there. >> because i knee w he would be very, very upsenchts the news was too bizarre, too shocking to share over the phone. the coroner's report makes it clear. matt's death wasn't just strange. it was also highly suspicious. >> it was my mission to find an answer for this. ♪ susie got all germy ♪ a cold, a bug, a flu ♪ when school was back in session ♪ ♪ those germs were shared with you ♪ back to school means back to germs. and every year kids miss 22 million school days due to illness. but lysol spray and wipes kill 99.9% of germs... including common cold and flu viruses... to help protect your home and family. and now that lysol is the only disinfectant with box tops, you earn cash for your school, every time you lysol that. want great whitening without the mess? think outside the box colgate optic white toothbrush plus whitening pen for 5 shades whiter teeth. brush, whiten, go! no mess, no waiting, no rinsing. colgate optic white toothbrush plus whitening pen. with hundreds of ways to yoplait, each cup is another chance to win the hundred thousand dollar prize. no purchase necessary. visit yoplait.com for details. many will enter, one will win. maybe it'll be you. mmmm... yoplait ♪ ♪ as long as you love me, anyit's alright. ♪e. ♪ ♪ bend me shape me, any way you want me. ♪ shape the best sleep of your life. sleep number beds with sleepiq technology adjust any way you want it. the bed that moves you. only at a sleep number store. there were just the two of them. big brother mark and the kid he looked out for, his little brother, matt. and now matt was dead. and nothing made sense to mark podalak. >> there's no way that a guy's going to go into the hospital with kidney stones and you're going to die, because of kidney stones. >> three months after his death, matt podalak's family gathered for a meeting. matt's mother arranged it. beforehand she told mark they'd be discussing a possible wrongful death suit against the hospital where matt died. >> my mom called me over, and she said, we're going to talk with a lawyer tonight. we're going to find out our next steps. what's going to happen. >> but mark's mother wasn't exactly straight with her son. that was not what was going to happen. >> so when i got to her house, the whole family was there, and i was, like, where's the lawyer? and she's like, he's not here. >> no lawyer. something far more disturbing. the autopsy report. matt's mother did not want her surviving son hearing about this over the phone. afraid of how he'd react. >> the whole family was there, as a support thing and they said, we got the coroner's report back, and it was antifreeze poisoning. and i kind of lost it. antifreeze poisoning? that's just -- >> the correct phrase for this, said the coroner's report, chronic intoxication by ethylene glycol, being the active and toxic ingredient in antifreeze. >> so i was like what is that? that's antifreeze, but chronic? it happened over a period of time. once that kind of set in, i was shocked. i was speechless. >> and that's when something profound happened to mark podalak. maybe right that moment. a decision snapped into place. >> from that moment on when we found out, it was my mission to find, to find and answer for this. >> a mission complicated by the fact there was one very big question the coroner couldn't answer. was matt's death a result of some terrible mistake? or suicide? or was it murder? nobody knew. and so the coroner labeled the manner of death undetermined. across town, matt's fiancee holly was getting the news, too. holly's sister, chrissy. >> what did she say? >> what can you say? what do you mean there's antifreeze in his system? we were all thinking it was kidney failure. we were not expecting that. >> was it really possible that matt somehow ingested small amounts of antifreeze for a period of weeks? if not longer? that was the implication of the phrase connick ethylene glycol poisoning. mark had already made up his mind that his brother did not commit suicide and certainly not gradual suicide. what did he have to go on? so far, only a growing suspicion, and rage which he made perfectly clear to the police. >> i finally got ahold of the detective on the case, and he did some initial stuff but it wasn't the follow-through i had hoped. maybe just because i was grieving and so upset. >> but when something like that happens you want the whole world to stand up and pay attention and do something. >> when something like that happens i want every member of the cleveland police department to be on, on it. >> and seemed like nobody was -- >> it didn't seem that way, no. it just -- just time started to go on, and i -- i became extremely frustrated. >> matt's father, a former cop himself, could see the problem. the case file was stuck. >> it kind of became a catch 22 situation. >> the coroner said he couldn't label it a homicide, without more evidence from the police. well, at the very same time -- >> cleveland homicide was saying that they can't investigate it as a homicide until the coroner rule it is a coroner. >> and so it remained. month after month, year into years, and still the manner of death was listed as undetermined. just like mark, matt's father made something of a pest of himself. >> i would call the detective assigned to the case. say what have you got? and his standard answer to me was, i don't have anything. what have you got? i was, well, this is your job. not my job. you know? >> not unlike the way matt's fiancee holly was thinking. >> she was upset. you know? that there was no -- >> nobody's doing anything. >> yes. >> yeah. >> none of our family was interviewed. >> like they were letting it go. >> exactly. >> but holly had three children to raise, alone. police versus coroner politics was not exactly upper most in her mind. to make ends meet, she took on two and sometimes three jobs at the same time. and threw herself into coaching her children's little league baseball team. meanwhile, mark kept hounding investigators, but getting nowhere. >> it made me feel like there was nothing being done. made me feel like my brother's case was on a desk of somebody who could care less, and was counting down the days to his retirement. >> but though mark was getting nowhere, holly was hearing things not from the police. remember the plant where matt supersized other workers? what was really going on around the powder coating machine? holly and her sister had their own theory about how matt died. >> there were some people at his job that may have not liked him. he was supposed to get a promotion, and i think there were some people that -- >> didn't think he deserved it. >> didn't think he deserved it. >> were they right? let's feed him to the sharks! squuuuack, let's feed him to the sharks! yay! and take all of his gold! and take all of his gold! ya! and hide it from the crew! ya...? squuuuack, they're all morons anyway! i never said that. they all smell bad too. no! you all smell wonderful! i smell bad! if you're a parrot, you repeat things. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. squuuuack, it's what you do. what dthis isn't 'advanced figure drawing'? down the hall. you mind if i borrow some of your cologne? confulish. confused and foolish. hunger keeps inventing new problems, so we invented snickers crisper. covergirl introduces new supersizer fibers mascara 400% volume plus so much length you can't believe your eyes crazy new super sizer fibers mascara from easy, breezy beautiful covergirl hereto have america's fastest lte network. ♪ here's how it feels to get fifty percent off most national carrier rates too. ♪ so, imagine how it feels to switch to sprint and buy an iphone 6s and get another one free when you add a second line. plus, try us out for thirty days. if you're not satisfied we'll refund your money. holly mcfeeture was up against it, big time. three kids, two still in diapers. she'd lost the father of her children. the police couldn't seem to figure out what happened to him. didn't seem even to be trying. a little bit of cash left over in matt's checking account was soon gone. eventually matt's work base life insurance paid out $10,000, but that was way off, yet, and it wouldn't be very much. so in the meantime, she did what she had to do. she took on several jobs at a time. even baby-sat for neighbs when she had a spare hour or two. >> the children needed food. they still need add roof over their heads, and that's exactly what she was doing. she was paying their bills, and making sure that the kids were taken care of. >> the thing is, holly mcfeeture loved kids. not just her own -- while matt's passion was playing hockey, holly's was coaching little league baseball. she threw herself into it after matt's death. baseball is how rebecca vega met holly. >> our kids were in little league together at that time. >> that was the spring of 2006, before matt died. their oldest girls were school classmates and sports teammates and holly -- >> she was -- a friendly in a way it was intoxicating, i guess. it was like an intoxicating friendliness. >> you just wanted to be around her? >> you did. you did. you wanted to be around her. >> being around holly was how rebecca met matt, actually. and then one day, matt tagged along with holly to one of the kids' t-ball games. he was already sick by that time. so nobody knew yet how sick. he was sitting under this tree all alone, said rebecca, watching the game. >> you could tell he didn't feel well. you could tell that he was in pain. he shifted in the chair quite often. >> and four days later, matt was dead. after the funeral, rebecca tried to comfort holly and help with the kids. >> i said, if you needed help with the children, if the children needed something, yeah. it was just to kind of help her. >> when the coroner's report came out and shocked everybody, holly told rebecca, of course, right away. >> what do you think when you heard he's died of antifreeze poisoning? >> i kind of put the mystery of how does a healthy 31-year-old actually pass suddenly? he was poisoned. >> but who would want to poison matt podalak? just a regular guy. no enemies. no known enemies, anyway. holly told rebecca the police didn't seem to be doing anything to find out. but that she had leads of her own. >> and she suspected somebody at work? she had suspected somebody at work. >> and eventually, she told rebecca, the police did, too. >> they thought that somebody poisoned him at work. the word poison just kept coming up. >> sister chrissy heard the rumors, too. >> why would they do such a thing? >> there were some people at his job that may have not liked him. it was his uncle's company, and people, i think, were a little jealous. he was supposed to get a promotion. and i think there were some people that -- >> didn't think he deserved it. >> didn't think he deserved it. >> increasingly, holly and members of her family became all but convinced that somebody at work found a way to put antifreeze into -- ah, matt's drink, or something. and if that phrase in the coroner's report was true, chronic ethylene glycolic intoxication that somebody would have done it several times, but one person who wasn't buying that theory was matt's brother, mark. >> he doesn't have any enemies. >> matt worked his way up from the production line to supervisor at the plant, said mark, and was well liked by the people at phoenix industrial. >> he wasn't this guy that was going around picking fights with people. he was loved by his co-workers. >> by then, solving the case of his brother's murder had become mark's obsession. he collected stories from matt's factory co-workers, from the street, from friends, he fumed when the official investigation seemed to go nowhere, and then after three frustrating years one small change that made a huge difference. a new supervisor in the cleveland homicide division took over matt's case. his name -- detective sergeant mike quinn. >> so at the time you took it over -- >> i took it over, pushed it three years and reviewed the file. >> with fresh eyes, quinn went over the case. reinterviewed people who knew both matt and holly and suddenly -- >> i felt a completely different sense of what was happening. >> now, said mark, when he called with questions or suggestions, he felt like somebody was listening. especially when he told them what he was hearing on the street. >> i was trying, hey, maybe this is something that could help you. maybe you should look into this. >> you heard about things? >> absolutely. it was a really close-knit town. so people talked. there's chatter out there. >> strange, how that chatter seemed to focus on one particular person. a possible motive for murder. >> she wrote checks writing his name on the checks. cleaned out the bank account. >> what did that say to you? >> obviously, a huge red flag. don't wait. get a free samsung galaxy for everyone. so get t-mobile now. because our most epic deal ever is only for limited time. feel a spark of emotion light up every inch of you. feel warm inside. feel our big beautiful candle. feel glade. sc johnson. tthe whitenessmy wasn't there as much, my teeth didn't look as healthy as others. my dentist said that pronamel would help protect my teeth. pronamel is giving me the confidence to know that i'm doing the right thing so it's nice to know that it was as simple as that. three years after matt podalak died of antifreeze poisoning, two families had sharply differing theories about the cause. matt's fiancee holly, her whole family, in fact, suspected somebody at work had it out for him. but mark and his family were looking closer to home. how close? let's put it this way -- the two sides of the family weren't talking anymore. and already existing mistrust ramped up that night in the hospital years before, when matt was in the icu. that's when matt's brother mark began to wonder if holly was in some way responsible for matt's mystery illness. >> my mom and i had a specific conversation. i remember it. and you don't think she could have did this to him, do you? and we kind of were like, i don't know. maybe, but at the time, we didn't know why he passed. >> and then there was the funeral. holly's family said she was very upset, cried in the car before going in. but when sergeant quinn read the old case file, he found a curious statement from holly's friend rebecca vega, what sort of grief was this? >> she was back and forth talking to different individuals. almost like a flirtatious, intoxicating friendliness that she had, as if her fiancee wasn't even laying there in front of everyone. >> talking to just everybody, or who was she concentrating on men or women or -- >> mostly men. >> flirtatiously? >> flirtatious, uh-huh. >> that's how she always was. at first friendly, magnetic, even, but didn't stay that way for long. later, matt told them, holly became controlling, demanding. >> did he ever complain about his relationship? >> of course he did. yeah. he did. >> what did he say? >> she's nagging me, type thing. she's yelling at me. she's calling me all the time. she's doing all of this stuff. there was some incidents that happened. sometimes where they had to have the police show up. >> matt's protective big brother called it down-right nasty, the way she treated him. said so, too. >> it's not worth the heartache to keep going through this. he was afraid he wouldn't see his kids if they were apart. >> and now he was dead. and his family was raw with suspicion. when they went to collect some of matt's personal effects, like his computer, they told sergeant quinn, holly told them, she no longer had it. that the hard drive was being fixed. which sounded fishy to the detective. >> was there any effort to destroy evidence? >> that's what most people do when they get rid of a computer that may have been connected to the crime. they're going to get rid of it. >> not evidence, really, but suggestive, like when according to them holly said right after matt died, he wanted to be kpre cremated. an idea matt's family quickly shot down. still, why would she have said that? then they said when they asked her for his clothes and other affects, she told them, she'd already gotten rid of them. it was as if she wanted to erase matt from her life. >> and then the business about the money. a big deal. >> she went to the atm machine used the card the day after his death. two days later, wrote names on the checks writing his name on the check. cleaned out the bank account, left one penny in. >> what did that say to you? >> obviously, a big red flag. >> matt's mother, in charge of his estate reported holly to the police. she was arrested and charged with theft and two counts of forgery and agreed to make restitution and put on probation a year, in return prosecutors dropped the charges. >> what happened to her? the sentence. >> give an first-time offender's program and didn't do any jailtime. >> and then the life insurance. it wasn't much. including matt's 401(k) that amounted to justs 15 $15,000, b here's what made matt's brother mark suspicious. >> my brother was talking about, a couple days before, removing her from a life insurance policy, removing her as beneficiary of the policies and the 401(k), and that's how serious it was getting. >> and so when holly actually got $10,000 of that insurance it seemed to mark to confirm what he had been thinking since the beginning. she must have killed him. >> in my mind, there was nobody else, there was no other way that it could have happened. none. >> so the first reaction is a shock. what's the second reaction? >> anger. and then -- sadness. how dare anybody do that to my little brother? how dare they. >> but, really? $10,000 in life insurance, a motive for murdering the father of your children? >> what did you think when you heard that? this was aly serious allegation. >> i thought it was ridiculous that somebody would actually think that. >> oh, yes, holly and her family heard all the whispers. they knew all about the podalak's suspicion, which were, they said, absolutely baseless. that business about stealing money from the bank account, for example. >> did she understand that she was breaking the law when she did this? >> no. absolutely not. she was thinking that she had to take care of her children, and his. what else was she supposed to do? >> and as for getting rid of his stuff, erasing him from her life. >> that's not true, at all. as a matter of fact, she still has some, a lot of matt's shirts, that she actually wears. >> but quietly, four years after matt's death, sergeant quinn collected the stories he heard, but there was one story he hadn't heard. nobody had. holly's story. holly is invited downtown for a little chat with detectives. >> did you give any type of poison -- >> no. this is your moment, this is your time. i believe in you. congratulations bro on a job well done. i'm so proud of you. you are amazing. ♪ ♪ what headache?in? what arthritis pain? advil makes pain a distant memory nothing works faster stronger or longer what pain? advil. today you can do everything in just one click, even keep your toilet clean and fresh. introducing lysol click gel. click it in to enjoy clean freshness with every flush. lysol. start healthing. ♪ yeah, click (vo) nutritional needs...og's all in one. purina one. healthy energy, all in one. strong muscles, all in one. highly digestible, and a taste he loves, all in one. purina one smartblend is expertly blended... with 100% nutrition, 0% fillers, always real meat #1. lifelong smart nutrition. it's all in one. purina one. and who doesn'tb then seize the day already. crabfest is back at red lobster with so many kinds of crab and the most crab dishes of the year. so dive into whatever floats your crab-loving boat. like crab lover's dream. crack open tender snow and king crab legs, and twirl creamy crab alfredo. or try the new alaska bairdi crab dinner. sweet and straight from the icy waters of alaska, you've gotta get it... to really get it. but it won't last forever, so hurry in. ♪ four years after matt podalak's death by antifreeze poisoning the machinery of justice was coughing and sputtering to life and pointing at her. matt's fiancee and the mother of his children, holly mcfeeture. >> holly mcfeeture was a suspect from day one. >> prosecutors were appointed. ryan mcdonagh and alison foy. so they were soon frustrated. >> but we were missing pieces. missing critical pieces. case. >> evidence collected was mattingly inconclusive. for example, detectives recovered two bottles of antifreeze from the garage where holly and matt lived. turned out somebody else had been living in the house more than a year by the time he found it. whose antifreeze was it? nobody knew. >> still, was there a way we could go ahead and link it up? >> nope. tests confirmed that garage antifreeze didn't match the antifreeze that killed matt. but remember holly's friend rebecca vague sgra detective quinn found her name in the old file, called up up and discovered after matt died she spent practically every day with holly and where detective quinns eyes really opened wide. rebecca told him one day she was at holly's house and noticed have odd looking jugs of chemicals in holly's kitchen. >> she had said that it was antifreeze and that it was to winterize matt's boat. >> did you ask why they were there? i mean, fixing the boats, but -- >> i thought, well, it's in the kitchen and the boat's outside. why would antifreeze be in the kitchen? >> and then there was the time she, rebecca, was complaining about her husband, and holly said -- >> i can get rid of him. >> i can get rid of him? >> i thought -- i can get rid of him, and i kind of thought, oh, kind of joked about it and i laughed, but she actually backed up that statement with, well, you could work and we could just move into your house. >> weird, as you look back on that. once she heard about the coroner's report and the podalak family suspicions, she cut off all contact with holly, ended the friendship without saying why, i had thought to myself, i had exposed my family to a murderer. >> she seemed to me like she believed that holly poisoned matthew. >> was she a little freaked out by this? >> she stated she was afraid of holly. >> so quinn kept and eagle eye on holly mcfeeture and one day he heard about holly and a karaoke bar. >> holly and her sister were singing a song by the dixie chicks, it's called "earl's got to die". ♪ earl had to die >> it's a song about a, an abused woman in a relationship with a man who, to get back at the man ends up poisoning his food. and they were up there singing a song and laughing about it.matt. i thought it was really cold-blooded when i heard about it. >> that was 2010, four years after matt's death. the same year sergeant quinn received a big gift. maybe the fact prosecutors were appointed. maybe sergeant quinn's investigation, maybe it was the karaoke. whatever it was, that's when the coroner changed his ruling on matt's manner of death from undetermined to homicide. and with that little bureaucratic stroke of the pen, everything changed. >> take a seat. >> for the very first time holly was invited to the police station to give a formal statement. >> holly, we're investigating the death of matthew podalak. the coroner's office has ruled it a homicide. >> chewing gum, looking casual, holly came in without a lawyer and was read her miranda rights. >> are you willing to talk with officers without consulting a lawyer or having a lawyer present with you? >> yeah. i'm fine. i don't have anything to hide. i didn't do thinking, so -- >> so what would she say about her relationship with matt? >> did you and matt ever have any fights? physically? >> yeah, there were a couple. >> did you call the police? >> i know on one time i called the cops. >> holly said it happened when she had a male friend over at their house. >> it was because he said something was going on, when that wasn't the case. i had a friend over, we were talking, and -- he came on like he didn't like it. he got jealous. >> she told them if they really wanted to solve mystery they should look for answers at matt's factory. >> does matthew ever have any kind of enemies. >> at work. some -- what he would come home and tell me. there was a lot of people there that he didn't get along with. he was considered one of the supervisors, and he would tell me different stories upon like how him and so and so would get in a fight, you know? >> and remember the $10,000 in life insurance bandied about as a possible motive for murder? holly said she didn't know there was life insurance until after matt was dead. >> as far as i knew, the only thing he had at work was his 401(k) plan. i didn't signed out that he had life insurance until after the, at the funeral home when his uncle told us. >> the beneficiary. >> ended up being me, but i found out in the funeral. >> but how about that night in the air ioke bar. >> "earl's got to die," you know that song? >> yeah. >> and laughing about it, about an abusive relationship where the female poisons the male and he died? >> it's a song. yes. it's a karaoke song. wow. it's a song. >> over and over the detectives challenged holly with the accusing question. >> did you give matthew any type of poison? >> no. no. >> did you give matthew any type of antifreeze? >> no. >> isn't it a fact you poison the matthew? >> no, it's not a fact, because i didn't dough that. i didn't do that. >> have you ever told anyone that you put something in matthew's drinks? >> no. i never put anything in his drinking. i would never say i did. >> holly protested. none of this made sense, she said. >> he's the father of my children. a person i was going to spend the rest of my life with. i'm not going to hurt him in any way possible. the dreams, our goals, everything, my whole life has completely been changed upside-down. i no nothing. and his family -- despises me and does nothing but speak evil. >> and with that, detectives thanked her for coming in and sent her on her way, with a warning that most likely she'd be indicted. >> until further arraignment there will be a hearing for your arrest. >> that was september 2010. but holly wasn't indicted that year or the next year. something strange happened in 2011. holly answered a phone and found herself talking to a guy she dated briefly after matt died. >> do you remember what you told me about the drinks? >> do you hear the trap snapping shut? police and prosecutors think hav hit pay dirt with the new witness, but is he enough to take this case to court? >> the details of the case are very salacious, very -- there's sex, there's the allegation of poisoning. it's very interesting, but that doesn't make it necessarily a dead, bang winner for trial. carol's painting with confidence because she went to lowe's. she knows if she doesn't love it, they'll make it right. and being a parrot, i know color-okay. do you mind, sparky? now get paint + primer starting at $19.98, at lowe's. a leading consumer testing the top laundry detergents. the winner - persil 2 in 1, didn't only beat tide... it beat every single detergent tested. boom. switch to persil proclean 2 in 1. #1 rated. sfx: crowd cheering sfx: crowd booing ♪ sfx: crowd chanting ♪ sfx: crowd cheering ♪ sc johnson, a family company ♪olympics 2016, let me get you on my level. ♪ so you never miss a moment, ♪ ♪miss a minute, miss a medal. ♪ ♪ why settle when you can have it all? ♪ ♪soccer to wrestling. track and field to basketball. ♪ fencing to cycling. diving to balance beam. ♪ ♪all you have to sa♪ ♪ is, "show me," and boom it's on the screen♪ ♪ from the bottom of the mat, ♪ ♪ to the couch where you at? ♪ ♪ show me the latest medal count♪ ♪xfinity's where it's at. ♪ welcome to it all. comcast nbcuniversal is proud to bring you coverage of the rio olympic games. in the summer of 2011, five years gone, matt podalak's death was still an uninvolved mystery. all of that time mark podalak had neglected his own life in his quest to prove holly was the killer. >> i know that my relationships with my friends suffered, ultimately it led to me getting divorced. it was destructive on a lot of levels, because you focus so much on a certain goal, a certain mission. >> you're so damned angry. >> and i'm angry. >> even angrier now, if that was possible. because there had been a change. the case was reclassified as a homicide. but holly was living her life free. no charges filed. >> i became extremely frustrated. i'm not going to lie. >> so frustrated, he sent a message to "dateline" on facebook asking us to look into his brother's death. holly and her family, meanwhile, were waiting to see if the hammer would fall. >> i can't tell you how many times she's cried, knowing that people are saying, you know, that she's a murderer, and that this loving mom and softball coach can kill a man that she loved. >> day by day, sergeant mike quinn was closing in on holly. just one more wig thing, one solid piece of evidence, all he needed, and maybe he and the prosecutors died, maybe a jailbird could provide it? holly briefly date add man named jamison kennedy a year or so after matt died, and according to kennedy, during a wine and sex-driven evening, holly made some kind of confession. this, thought the prosecutors, was gold. >> what did he claim he heard? >> he claimed to have heard holly mcfeeture confess by saying she put something in his drinks. >> prosecutor brian mcdonough. >> and that she wanted to stop, but that his kidneys had failed, and that was compelling evidence. >> but always something. mr. kennedy was not exactly the local church pastor. his rap sheet was longer than a sunday sermon. in fact, when he came up with that little offering about holly it was in county jail, under arrest for beating up some cops. so, a snitch. >> as a prosecutor, we don't like informants, but what was so compelling about his testimony was that he was the only person to have that knowledge. >> how would he have that knowledge -- where would he, how would her that? >> he heard that from her lips to his ears. >> but how could they possibly prove it? one possible way, sneaky, but it might work. [ phone ringing ] they set up a phone call. kennedy in prison, called holly. and they turned on a tape recorder. >> hello? >> holly. >> yes. >> do you know who this is. >> yeah. hi, jamison. >> sometimes these need work. sometimes they don't. >> what's going on with you. >> just how it is with invest gaxs of this sort. suffice to say the call wasn't everything they hoped it would be, so here they were in a kind of crossroads. should they go forward or finally drop it? the evidence, the story of a jailhouse snitch with multiple felony convictions never an easy sell. an ex-friend whose talk of antifreeze in the house and offers to get rid of her husband might have been real, or imagined. a financial motive that at most might have amounted to a paltry 15 grand, and a bit of dixie chicks karaoke, the performance of which may have been monsstressly true or perfectly innocent. still who else could have done it? >> the details are very salacious. >> the prosecutor. >> there's sex. there's the allegation of poisoning. it's very interesting, and it's certainly enough to keep anyone's attention, but that doesn't make it necessarily a strong case or a dead, bang winner for trial. >> and so the prosecutors consulted mark and his family. they were all committed now. all emotionally attached, but the family should decide. >> they said, this is where we are. laid it all out, and he said, we can take our shot, and see where this goes, and -- >> you might lose. >> we might lose. >> and we all agreed that we wanted to go with it. we've suffered long enough. >> case number 564265. holly mcfeeture. >> so in 2012, six years afternoon matt podalak's death, holly fk feechor was indicted for aggravated murder and con t tamenating a substance. and this was serious. maximum sentence, life without parole. her attorney, bret jordan, applied for bail, she was scared. she missed her kids. i would say probably in some state of shock at that point. >> the judge took a look at the circle case against her, and granted, the bail request, half a million bond with an ankle bracelet, but though the case was not the strongest, there was publicity, antifreeze poisoning? holly was suddenly famous, and not in a good way. the old brooklyn little league told the once belurchbeloved co wasn't welcome anymore and holly mcfeeture prepared to defend her life in court. iced tea spiked with antifreeze. >> the prosecution's theory how holly poison the matt. >> you can't smell it, and you can't see it in the tea. he would have no way to know that it's coming. it's so secretively done. ♪ you've wished upon it all year, and now it's finally here. the mercedes-benz summer event is back, with incredible offers on the mercedes-benz you've always longed for. but hurry, these shooting stars fly by fast. lease the gle350 for $579 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. general mills is removing artificial flavors and colors from our cereals. so you can love cereal. again! don't go it alone.s? (echo) sfx: ding it's better to ask the experts. it's the sears appliance spectacular event. save 40% on kenmore kitchen appliance hot buys and save 50% on all kenmore wall ovens. sears. house experts for homeowners. so we're renewing to you it'our commitment.us. for modern moms who want the very best. discerning dads who like to keep things real. for lovers of meat who know how they like their beef. our loyal fans who like to keep things fresh. and our newest followers who always have the planet in mind. and it starts with a passion for our food and a simple belief. the simpler the better. seven years, seven years of pestering the investigators. seven years of brooding in the cemetery. seven years after the sudden agonizen death of his kid brother matt, mark podalak watched with grinned satisfaction as holly mcfeeture walked into the courtroom. >> i finally felt we were going to make this happen. >> please rise. >> the case against holly was possibly a reach. no guarantees here. and mark knew it. >> i was extremely nervous. oh, my gosh. being in that courtroom. >> and you don't know how it's going to turn out. >> no idea how it's going to turn out. >> truth was, the prosecution didn't have much to work with. without any hard evidence to pin on holly their case boiled down to a process of elimination. someone did this to matt. who else could it have been? other than his fiancee. in this case, telling a story would be crucial. because there wasn't a lot else to do. right? >> absolutely. >> prosecutor brian mcdonough began his story with the scene inside the hospital room the night matt died. >> his body was shutting down. his organs were systematically shut down. >> and then matt's father described the horror of watching his son's final agony. so much pain he couldn't talk sdoe except to ask for his question. >> he would say, where's little man, and where's samantha. >> a picture was passed around the courtroom. matt, dead, lying on the autopsy table. mark began to cry. across the courtroom, so did holly. and then coroner dan galita told the jury what he found during his autopsy. discovery that became the core of the charge of holly. >> the cause of death -- >> poisoned with antifreeze. very, very slowly. he explained he'd found crystals in matt's heart and brain, having inched their deadly way through his body, kidneys, to heart, to brain. >> how much time would it take for the crystals to deposit themselves in the -- blood vessels of the heart? >> it takes weeks, at least. >> the fact that crystals are forming in his heart and actually had traveled to his brain indicated long-term exposure and not a one-dose deal. >> and matt's colleagues had seen his body disintegrate before their eyes, if nos weeks months before his death. >> he began sweating profusely and complained of back pain. >> he was sitting beside me and practically hunched over to where his chest was on his knee. >> who could have made that happen and how? investigators, remember had found antifreeze in holly and matt's garage, admittedly the year after holly moved out, and prosecutors knew they couldn't link these bottles to the crime, but even so, detective quinn took them out of the evidence bags for the jury to see. left them on the witness stand. a prop. a little courtroom theater. >> a bottle of andy freeze and coolants. >> take a look at those bottles, the prosecution seemed to be saying, and common sense would tell you it wasn't suicide. nobody would down antifreeze on purpose, said the prosecutor, let alone bit by bit, as indicated in the coroner's report. >> there was no suicide note. he didn't go ahead and give away his possessions. suicide did not make sense. >> no, there was one person the prosecutor argued and only one who had the means and the motive to poison matt. his fiancee, holly mcfeeture. a parade of witnesses testified about matt and holly's rocky relationship. the bitter words, fierce arguments. they couldn't help but overhear. >> when we would be fishing, that phone would be ringing every five minutes. she'd be screaming so loud he'd be holding the phone out to, way away from his ear. >> i told him that he needed to protect himself, and i told him that he should remove his shotgun and, from his house. >> and far from being shattered by matt's death, as her family claimed, prosecution witnesses described how holly seemed almost giddy after matt died. >> what did you observe the defendant at the wake? >> almost -- a party atmosphere like nothing had happened. >> and then the prosecution called holly's old friend, rebecca vega. if anybody had a ringside seat to holly's life after matt, it was rebecca. how was it to actually be in that courtroom? see her there and -- answer those questions? >> i didn't even look at her. >> rebecca told the jury holly didn't wait long after mattal death to remove any trace of him from the house. >> it seemed that everything that, being of matt had been taken out of the home. >> but it was what holly hadn't cleaned up that made the biggest impression on rebecca. those bottles of chemicals on the kitchen floor. >> what was holly's response when you asked her about those items, one of the items was brought up as antifreeze for matt's boat to winterize his boat. >> to do what? >> positive winterize his boat. >> but who winterizes their boat in the summer? remember, matt died in july, said prosecutors. so rebecca's story was evidence that holly had access to antifreeze around the time of matt's death. >> she was able to put antifreeze in the kitchen of holly mcfeeture after the death of matthew podalak. >> now they needed to convince the jury that holly actually fed the antifreeze to matt. that would take a little doing. first, several of matt's co-workers testified that holly sometimes dropped off matt's lunch at the factory. >> holly would bring it in every once in a while for him. >> how many occasions do you recall that happening? >> half a dozen. >> and holly always made sure to include matt's favorite drink, he said. half a gallon or more of raspberry iced tea. antifreeze is sweet, but otherwise tasteless. did holly spike the tea? >> you can't smell it, and you can't see it in the tea. he would have no way to know that it's coming. >> but why in heaven's name would she do such a thing? what was her motive? well, as the prosecution saw it, at least, all of those arguments matt and holly were having representing the death throes of their relationship. a relationship she wanted to leave and he did not. stubbornly. because he didn't want to lose custody of those kids. >> so it's your claim he was sticking like glue to get rid of them she had to poison him? >> that is what she saw as the way out. >> a way out. sweetened by the pross xugt the that can't holly was the beneficiary of matt's life insurance policy and 401(k). he was worths 15ds,000 to her if he died. >> clearly not a motive, really. i mean, chump change, basically, right. >> well, $15,000 for some person might be worth $150,000 for another. >> interesting theory. trick was to persuade the jury that a hard-working, committed young mother, a woman always val tiering to help others, who coached t-ball teams could at the same time be a devious, cold-blooded murderer. yep, absolutely possible, said the prosecution's star witness, still to come. a man who knew all about violence and secrets and kissing and telling. holly melts down in court. what happened? 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where was that emotion when your lover was dying in the hospital? yet a guy that you haven't seen in years steps into the courtroom, you have an emotional breakdown? that's courtroom drama, in my opinion. >> was she afraid of the man? or was she afraid of what he had to say? the whole business was highly unusual. holly visibly shaken was allowed to leave the courtroom without kennedy testifies. >> how do you know what holly mcfeeture? >> i originally met her at bar she worked at, the dirty dog. >> jamison kennedy was the ex-con she dated, the snitch who traded a sfroer the jail cell. the man had eight felony convictions umtder hit belt, even now is serving ten years for beating up cops, and yet here he was, central witness against holly. >> an alcoholic, drag addict and wants something from you guys so will say whatever you want him to say? >> the thing about jamison he didn't want anything to exchange. he knew he was going to be in prison for quite a while and nothing he could say in court would ever change that. >> and kennedy's story, if the jury chose to believe him, was a potential game-changer. it was september 26, 2008, two years after matt died. kennedy was on probation, he told the jury, when holly stopped by the law office where a kindly defense attorney had given him a job and a place to sleep. they shared a bottle of wine, ate some take-out. >> we both were kind of a little bit, you know, tipsy. after drinking, we ended up having sex. and after the sex is when things got really emotional. she just started crying. >> what did she say? >> she made some remarks that she just wanted it to all go away. she wanted to move out of clevelan cleveland. if she was regretful for what had taken place. >> regret? about what? kennedy told the jury that he pushed holly to tell him more. >> but she just told me at that time that she was sorry for what she had done. >> what had she done? >> on her words was that she had put something in his drink. >> what had she put inside of his drink? >> she didn't tell me. >> did she say what happened after putting something inside the drink? >> that he had gotten sick. and passed away. >> it was quite simply stunning, but, a big but, was it true? could the jury really take the word of this eight-time convicted felon? yes, said the prosecution, because of this -- >> did you tell anyone about what holly mcfeeture told you about putting something in his drink? >> yes. >> who did you tell? >> my attorney. >> well -- not exactly that, said the attorney in question, who testified that kennedy asked him in a cryptic sort of way what he should do if he knew about a murder. didn't name holly or any particular murder. >> as an officer of the court, did you provide him with any advice? >> i told him that if he had any information of that nature that he had to inform whomever about this supposed situation. >> but kennedy didn't tell authorities anything. then -- not until he was sitting in a jail cell under arrest for assaulting those cops did he hope police would go easy on him if he told them something they wanted to hear? sergeant quinn told the jury he believed kennedy the story, wah denty offered details only someone close to the crime would no. >> no mention in the media anywhere. where did it come from? >> the fact that this is the one witness who we could bring forward for the jury to say that i heard holly mcfeeture confess to putting something in matthew podalak's drinks, it's so important that i think in our minds it couldn't not go to the jury. >> thank you so much for your time. >> with that, the prosecution concluded its case of circle evidence, but there was a giant void in the room. a big, empty hole, where the hard evidence usually goes. what would the defense make of that? the defense strikes back. >> you have no idea how that man died. do you? >> i didn't have to see physical proof in order -- >> please, i asked you a question. you have no idea whatsoever how that man died, do you? >> not to my knowledge. ere rheu, and you're talking to your doctor about your medication... this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. this is humira helping me go further. humira works for many adults. it targets and helps to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. doctors have been prescribing humira for over 13 years. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. ready for a new chapter? 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>> you don't have to be crying your eyes out at a funeral to not be grieving. >> no, the defense argued, all of the testimony maligning holly's behavior was really a product of the six-plus years of rumor, innuendo, which add, courtesy of authorities and matt's family hardened into what sounded like truth, even if it wasn't. >> if you listened to all the witnesses, anybody that was holly's friend, they all turned away once they talked to the detective. >> that was certainly the case, saided defense when holly's friend rebecca vega ougcut off contact with holly about a year after matt died. >> who's the accuser? >> holly is. >> you can't look at her anymore. >> no. >> only then after she heard from the police did she begin saying what she said at the trial. >> but you have no idea how that man died. do you? >> i didn't have to see physical proof -- >> please, i asked you a question. you have no idea whatsoever how that man died, do you? >> not to my knowledge, no. >> did the memory of all of those happy days rebecca spent with holly suddenly sprout with dark suspicious once the police whispered in rebecca's ear? like the bit about the antifreeze in the kitchen. >> holly has children, and she's very careful, and i know she would not leave kennel cchemica that just lying around the house. >> no. the assault by holly by her former friend, the defense said, was just a smoke screen for the hard evidence the prosecution did not have. like anything connecting holly to the murder weapon, by which, of course, we mean the antifreeze. remember those two bottles of antifreeze investigators found in holly and matt's house after she moved out? >> a blue bottle of peek antifreeze and coolant, it says. >> the prosecution showed them off like the crown jewels, all the while knowing they had no known connection to anything or anyone. the defense was on that like a terrier on a bone. no fingerprints on the bottles. no indication the antifreeze was even the same kind that killed matt. no indication the bottles were in holly's house when she actually lived there. >> those two bottles of antifreeze are not linked to matthew podalak at all? >> no. >> and those two bottles of antifreeze are not linked to holly at all? >> other than the fact that they came from that address. >> what was the point of that? >> exactly. >> there wasn't any. >> were they implying a connection? or -- >> yeah, grasping. >> another glaring weakness, the defense said, was the prosecution's theory that hollity guised the antifreeze if matt's beloved raspberry iced tea. zero forensic support for that, said the defense. >> do you know how that iced tea got into that thermos? >> no clue. >> none of the cups at the home were ever tested. the thermos brought to work every day was never tested. there was nothing ever connecting that it was even iced tea. >> and the motive, the prosecution suggested, the modest life insurance money, laughable, said the defense. wouldn't even buy a decent car. besides, holly said she had no idea the insurance existed. and matt's uncle, who owned the factory where matt worked couldn't say otherwise. >> do you have any personal knowledge that holly actually knew there was a life insurance on the health insurance? >> i can't say that i do. >> but holly's defenders did have a problem knop getting around it. huge problem. that pillow talk with jamison kennedy, when, according to him, holly actually confessed. if they couldn't knock him down, they were done. was the prosecution's bombshell witness a dud? >> are you trying to accuse me of doing something to him? >> i'm not trying to accuse you of anything. >> well, you're spinning words in my mouth right now, because i never said any such words to you. 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i think so. because not just any beef goes into it. only certain cuts of kosher beef. i guess they're pretty choosy. oh, honey! here, have some of ours. oh! when your hot dog's kosher, that's a hot dog you can trust. hebrew national what in heaven's name was holly mcfeeture's defense attorneys going to do about this? >> her words, she had put something in his drink. >> there was no avoiding the impact of those few words from jamison kennedy. remember, just the mention of his name sent holly into an epic breakdown. weeping, sobbing, fleeing the courtroom. next day, it was the defense attorney's turn to take him on. >> good morning, mr. kennedy. >> how ya doing? >> holly regained composure. came book into court. the strategy was to pick apart kennedy's story, expose him for what the defense said he most certainly was. a liar. like the bit about being tipsy. holly, kennedy said had a glass are wine or two that night while he knocked off an entire bottle himself. >> you still are telling the jury here that holly was tipsy or drunk that night, right? >> yes, sir. >> when, in fact, it was you that was drunk that night. not holly? >> i think we both, you know, feeling a buzz. >> now this is the sort of moment a defense attorney probably leaps for. listen. >> were you aware that holly's allergic to grapes and she can't drink wine? >> no. >> was this a man who could be believed when he said he had a real relationship with holly? >> she had told me he was stalking her. he had got her name tattooed on him. he would not leave her alone. >> how did she feel about this? >> oh, she was afraid. >> and kennedy admitted under defense questioning that he got very angry with holly when he heard a rumor that he was with another guy. >> yes. >> so angry that you grabbed her by the neck, you through her against the wall, you punched her numerous times. that type of angry, right? >> no, sir. >> no, that didn't happen. >> i do believe i pushed her. when she -- only when she approached me to try to hit me i think with the phone, or to smack me or something, i kind of stiff-armed her away. i think she fell down. that was the extent of it. >> really? holly called the cops that night and said kennedy punched her five times. he'd already fled but she said she was going to get a restraining order against him. before she could, he was at her do and when holly tried to call the police, kennedy tried to escape. and only after he was in jail and spending years in prison burning up with anger towards holly he called his attorney to try to make a deal. >> you say, get me the police, i got to help myself get out of this jam. i'm going to tell on holly. right? >> also, he was concerned she would try to put this on me. >> oh. so now we've got a conspiracy theory going here that holly's now going to blame you for the death of matt. is that what you're telling me? >> just attorney's recomme recommendati recommendation. >> this attorney, who had bent over backwards to provide him way job and a place to style while on probation, and what happened? kennedy stole from him, and ---ants jamison threatened your life? >> he threatened me, yes. >> he threatened your family also? >> yes. >> he had mental problems and was not stable. right? >> correct. >> according to the defense, not even the police believed kennedy. for more than two years they did nothing about his allegation, and after those years when the court needed a defense they couldn't find any other evidence, they put his story to the test. by orchestrating that phone call from kennedy in prison to holly. trying to get her to incriminate herself. curiously, the prosecution didn't mention that call in court. so the defense was only too happy to push "play" for the jury. this was something they had to hear. >> holly? >> yeah. >> you know who this is. >> ah -- yeah. hi, jamison. >> holly was taken by surprise, hadn't heard from him for years. police, of course, were listening. >> do you remember what you told me about the drinks? >> what drinks? >> the drinks with matthew? >> what did i tell you than? about that? >> didn't work out so well for the police or mr. kennedy. >> are you trying to accuse me of doing something to him? is that what you're trying to do to me. >> i'm not trying to accuse you of anything. >> well, you're spinning words in my mouth route nigh, because i never said any such words to you. about ever putting anything in his drink. i would never have done that. he was the father of my children, we wouere supposed to get married. are you serious? that is a very sick thing for you to say to me right now. >> no, said it's defense, holly didn't confess, not then, not ever and kennedy was a sick puppy who saw an opportunity for revenge. >> you are now trying to tell everybody that holly confessed to you about this case, because it would benefit you. correct? >> i don't -- i know it's morally right, sir. >> you know it's morally right. if you knew it was morally right, sir, would you have gone to police on september 26th. isn't that correct, sir? >> i should have. >> big morals. right? >> i should have, but i was very confused. >> thank you very much. i have no further questions. >> the prosecution said kennedy did not get a deal in exchange for his story. don't you believe it, said the defense. just wait and see. >> in march of this year he'll have five years in and ask a judge of his court to let him out. >> one more question to answer. if it wasn't holly, who was it? for that, the defense offered dr. robert boxx, forensic toxicologist. matt wasn't poison the slowly over time, the korn simply made a mistake. all that pain matt suffered in the weeks before his death was from simple kidney stones, said the doctor, nothing at all to do with antifreeze. >> is this is a symptom of poisoning? >> it shouldn't be, no. >> this wasn't a case of chronic antifreeze poisoning. this was a textbook case of acute poisoning. one large dose, said dr. boxx. >> this is a massive ingestion, these types of ingestion has to drink almost a pint of it. >> and the most likely person to have poid poisoned him with a drink of that size was matt himself. >> as to the manner of death, what would your ruling be? >> probably be a suicide. >> suicide by antifreeze. a method more common than most people realize, said the defense. >> who kills himself with ethylene glycol, to would be terrible. what a terrible death. >> not true. happens all the time. >> and there have been famous cases, a retired football player. writer for "saturday night live," but why matt? >> he had gambling debts. he was depressed. he wasn't happy at work. throw in experience of pain from kidney stones. throw in maybe they weren't having the best relationship at that time. that all adds up to suicide. >> and at that, the defense asked the judge to throw out the charges against holly. >> your honor, there has to be evidence, there has to be proof, there has to be something that the state did to show that holly was the one who did it. and it just doesn't exist. >> for a moment it seemed the judge might grant the motion, but, no, he ruled holly mcfeeture's fate would be decided by the jury. as it turned out, there are slowly. >> ethylene glycol, odd odorless -- >> but did holly use it to kill matt? >> you don't know with the jury being out long is it a bad thing or a good thing? ke springtime... unstopables in-wash scent boosters. the more you pour the more scent you'll savor. toss into your wash before your clothes for luxurious scent for up to 12 weeks. and introducing unstopables fabric conditioner by downy giving your laundry a bold, captivating scent with luxury you can feel. for long-lasting scent, just pair with your in-wash scent booster. unstopables by downy. the ultimate in long lasting scent. i wanted my skin to be...t i said bright, smooth, you know, with a little glow. new bright reveal from l'oreal. with glycolic acid... reveals brighter skin and visibly reduces wrinkles in just 1 week. new bright reveal from l'oreal paris. for our best friends & family get tevent!'s... thursday through sunday take an extra 20% off any way you pay! plus, yes2you rewards members earn triple points. plus, everyone gets kohl's cash too. nothing but the best savings. now that's the good stuff. kohl's. want great whitening without the mess? 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>> and then the judge began to read. >> we, the jury in this case being duly compounded and sworn do find the defendant holly mcfeeture guilty of aggravated murder violation of section 2903 -- >> i heard those words, "guilty," and it was emotional. >> mark turned to hug his mother. her face awash in tears. across the courtroom -- >> nobody could react, because it was total shock. nobody was expecting that. >> the guards came, then. wrapped handcuffs around holly's wrists. she shook her head, no. seemed to be wreathing. her words, less than a whisper. >> okay. >> she looked at me, and -- she was gone. >> what did that do to you? >> it tore me apart. i really couldn't understand how this happens. it wasn't supposed to happen like this. >> the defense team felt gutted. the prosecution's case had been so flimsy, they felt. how did it all go so wrong? >> still wondering what happened. >> this was not an easy one for the prosecutors, either. the sort of case you might reasonably walked away from, if you didn't let yourself caught up, if you start to care a lot. >> what was it like to get your guilty verdict? >> it affirmed the work we do. >> a good one? >> a very good one. >> what made it so good? >> you meet with the family at the beginning, and you're on this journey all the way through. and to be able to deliver something to them that they believed from the beginning made it very satisfying. >> a month later at the sentencing holtly the sister wanted the judge to know what the children thought. that their mother was not a murderer and that they were begging him, send her home to them. >> my mom is the greatest mom in the world, because she is sweet and kind. i really want to see her again. i really miss her. i wish i could have my mom back. >> then, a surprise. matt's father, the retired cop, had become an ordained minister since his son's death and he told the judge he had made a decision. >> i have come to the point where i can forgive holly, and i have forgiven her, and i'm asking you, your honor, to temper justice with mercy. >> but mark, seven years of suspicion, frustration, anger, finally came bursting out, and filled the courtroom. >> i just have one simple question. why? why put someone unimaginable pain when you could have just walked away from the relationship? why continue to slowly poison him when you could have stopped and why take him away from those children he so dearly loved. >> the sentence was swift and firm. >> the nature of the case cannot be overlooked at the court's going to impose a sentence of life with parole eligible in 30 years. >> won't be eligible for parole in 30 years. lost her appeal and is seeking a new trial based on new evidence about that jailhouse snitch. her children are living with holly's family now and matt's parents get to vis et them every few weeks. >> we want them in our lives. we want them to know who their dad was. >> the night before holly was shipped out to state prison to start serving her life sentence, chrissy took the children to visit with her. he couldn't touch. the glass barrier separated them. they spoke over a jailhouse phone tharchlts just breaks my heart. >> it's hard to watch. >> very hard to watch. i had to turn away numerous time. it was matter breaking knowing that they couldn't just touch, she couldn't touch her babies that she loved so much. >> and mark podalak went where the he always goes on the anniversary of matt's death, to talk to his brother at the cemetery. this year with a lot more to say. >> i hope you are proud of your big brother a little bit awe i kind of hopefully helped you rest in peace a little bit more than you have been. >> and this year, there will still be a podalak playing amateur hockey here in cleveland. matt loved the game. mark took it up in his memory. and since matt can't be here to play, said mark, he'll play for him. next at 11:00 an arrest by bart police with cameras rolling. some say brutality. others say necessary force. we'll show you the video. and trump's new controversy, criticizing a muslim man whose hero sun died fighting for the u.s. next right now at 11: anxious moments for homeowners as a grass fire . just off the machine top. just saw the smoke. >> receipt now at 11:00, anxious moments for homeowners as a grass fire burns near east san jose. the news at 11:00 starts now. good evening, thank you for joining us. i'm peggy bunker. >> i'm terry mcsweeney. even though firefighters are gaining control over it, homeowners say it is a fire burning in the sierra

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