Those dark whether they got there. They found the body upstairs in the master bedroom. The victim was clearly shot with a handgun. The kids are missing. Julie was missing. Was this a case of murder . This is our neighborhood. These are our friends were zblust utter shock. There were secrets in that house. Who would unlock them . I didnt want my family to know. I didnt want all the neighbors to know. Devious and manipulative. This is our best friend. It didnt have to end like this. Im lester holt and this is dateline. Grief, like the ocean, rolled into their lives in waves. Ride the waves or sink, it seemed to say. Ride them again and again. Just, you know, just a shot to the heart. Once there were four fast friends. Four tall men before it all went down and the waefdz to meaning. It didnt have to end like this. No, except it did. And when did it . It felt like someone hit new the stomach really hard and you wanted to cry. What could they do . Ride. Its what art would have wanted after all. Harp, jason harper, sports loving, outdoors lovrn with a childhood best friend named paul who as they grew became tall paul. We were always together. You know, in the early years he was taller than me. But then i caught up to him. But we were both two tallest guys in school. So zbl so when they got to high school, there is one sport they were very well suited to play, volleyball. Harp was a stud. You know . Im not going to lie to you. Im not going to sugarcoat it. He was mvp on the team. Yes, and went on to play at ucla where he met jeremy brand. Here they are together on ucla bruins talk on Public Access tv. Everybody came back and goes, were not going to lose or whatever. And came back and they havent lost since then. We can be a lot of team out. There you know with, he can definitely be a final four con tender. I always say we ran the same speed and so we would run to warm up thes the sap speed and talking together and we became roommates throughout college and just a great guy. A great friend. Quiet mind you, shy. At least around the girls. He wasnt quite the ladies man. You know . Im not going to lie you to. Then one night in 2000, four years after he graduated from college, harp met a girl at a party. Tall paul was there, too. The girls name was julie syhack. She zoned in on him right off the bat and started talking to him. I get the impression she picked him . Y went pretty fast after that. And why not . Julie was pretty and smart. And from a well to do family. Still, when harp proposed just three months after he met this first real girlfriend i fel girl that he really loved and theres a lot that goes with. That and i just didnt want him be have the wool pulled over his eyes. But they stood up for him. And the marriage at san diegos Historic Hotel was a great happy party. I remember the first dance. They were in this giant ballroom and they did a very nice ballroom dance. You know . And harp had a big old smile on his face. They moved to the sea side, to carlsbad, california, just h. And jason harper signed on as a math teacher and volleyball coach at a local high school. Jason was the typical Southern California surfer, Beach Volleyball public schoolteacher. He met the third of those tall friends. Andy tom kin son. He and has wife kristen taught at the same school. Charles bad high. On a campus of 3,000 students, you notice people at the same level. Im 66 and im 69. So you do notice after a while who they are. The two became fast friends, surfing, pickup basketball, poker. Guy things. And then jason and xwully started a family. Jake first then jackie. J names. Even if that meant not playing cards with the boys or going on a surf trip, those kids all came first. So were there times when you wanted to do something with him and he said sorry, i got to stay home . Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. Paul was here in theter aces at sunny creek, a brand new gated place not far from the beach. These were their neighbors. So many enableds now you dont know would your next door neighbors are. Thats not like this place at all. Not at all. Julie ran the mother tot group in the neighborhood. She would actually organize all the activities. She was a good mom. She was really involved with her kids. And hard to know exactly why things changed. After joshua, their third was born in 2011, julie just didnt seem the same. And as time went by, you would see less and less and less of her. She would say hi and get in her car and drive away. But like she was hiding from everybody. Yeah. But jason . He was the permanent landscape neighborhood. He was there every day. Literally every day. Very hands on father. I look out my door to see if hes out there and wave. And we walk over. Bring the kid over and walk in the driveway and the kid Start Playing when we got home from school. August north 2012. You dont know what happened but its not g your stomach sinks. Didnt take a rocket scientists. Something was awfully wrong. There was crime tape. My house sin siinside the crime tape. There say Police Officer stationed at the base miff driveway. I ask him is everything okay . And he said no. No. Its not. What had really happened that morning, when we come back. They say that they found the body upstairs in the master bedroom. The kid are missing. Julie was missing. Were all in shock. What are you talking about . Worried about their kids . Absolutely. Their safety, number one. Their safety. Ar o i had frequent heartburn, but my doctor recommended. Prilosec otc 7 years ago, 5 years ago, last week. Just 1 pill each morning, 24 hours and zero heartburn. Its been the number 1 doctor recommended brand for 10. Straight years, and its still recommended today. 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I dont think thats how theyre made. Klondike hooks up with tasty flavors. The best ice cream bars ever conceived. Breathe easier with your vicks vaporub. Soothing cough relief that starts working instantly. At 7 30 in the morning on the 8th of august, 2012, Michelle Collin gayszed on the police car and the crime scene tape and asked the cop in her driveway, what is happening . You need to go inside and turn on your television. The policeman told that you . Yes, what are you talking about . That was apparent soon enough when they wheeled out the body bag. One of our colleagues and friends called us and said i think something really bad has happened. They say that they found a body upstairs in the master bedroom and it looks like its jasons house. Bit by awful bit, andy and the rest of them heard the details. The body had been hidden under a blanket and other debris. One bullet still lodged in the chest. Death was at least quick. The victim was the beloved member of that tall quartet, the neighborhood dad, jason harper. That was terrible enough. But it the kid are missing. Julie was missing. And as details unfolded, we were in officers continue their investigation at the harper residence. They still have were in shock. Jason is dead, were flipping out. And theyre saying where is she . Where is this woman and flashing her plates and. On the news. So what happened . Home invasion . Icdnapping . D you worry about their kids . Oh, thats the worst part. Yes, absolutely. Theyre safety, number one. Their safety. Are they okay . E peas piece of information h the neighbors lack cld came in a strange phone call at 11 00 p. M. The night before. Sergeant jeff smith was the lead detective. The watch commander working that night got a phone call from an attorney. Asking him to go or the Police Departm welfar check at a residence. A welfare check . Seemed like an odd request. Who was this lawyer who called . It was attorney paul finx. He just happened to be the d exda. He called it internal extension that unlike a 911 call was not recorded. The cops went to the house and they found jasons body. But not julie and the kids. They were gone. So police talked to paul again who said not to worry, julie and the kids were fine. Julie was not a victim. She was his newest client. He arranged the safe return of the children to a local Childrens Hospital and then 15 hours after the cops discovered jasons body, he orchestrated julis surrender at her fathers house. Did she talk to you . No. But her attorney spoke with local reporters. Shes very upset. Shes upset about her children. Shes upset about her health. Shes upset abou seeing basically at this point her life is in shambles. Its a catastrophe all the way around. So it was. But what happened in the bedroom . Neither julie nor her attorney would say. So the police launched an investigation to figure out what was julie guilty of if anything . To begin, they had specialists interview the two older children ages 8 and 6. They said their day started out like a typical summer morning. And then some time between 8 00 and 9 00 a. M. When you were watching cartoons yesterday morning and you heard the loud clunk a thud, thats all they could tell you. They know at that point that their father was dead . I dont believe so. It must have been very confusing. Yes. Fright ened . Yeah, young children. And the only thing you know are there say guy with a bullet hole and the kids heard a thump . Yes. Not a lot to go on. Not a lot. So what did you do next . We talked to neighbors who possibly seen things. One neighbor said that they saw miss harper leaving right around 9 05 in the morning. And exiting that their gated community. Now you know when they left the house. Roughly. Now the detectives did what they could to retrace julie and the kids movements. During their interviews, the kids said their mom took them to a coffee shop first. From that point they went to a local play works or jumping type house place. And from the kids account, thats where they stayed for a short period and played. We were tibl corroborate that with cell phone anall his. If the thud the kids heard was jason being shot, then the coffee run and the play date happened afterward. Well, he lay wounded or already dead on the bedroom floor. On august 9 nl, two days after the shooting, a medical examiner conducted an autopsy and recovered the bullet that killed jason. It came from a. 38 caliber hand gun. We did find a gun in the home where mr. Harper was found. But it wasnt the gun that killed jason. So no murder weapon and the only suspect wasnt talking. We believed that there was an argument between the two and a gun was produced and she shot him. And we were we didnt know why. Not an easy question. Narrator cs an answer, but you think anyone intended to coming up i dont understand why any of it happened. You know what i sneen. New clues. She was preparing for a change in her life. Private journals and secrets in the attic. My wildest dreams i would. By the time julie harpers attorney arafrped for her to turn herself in, her husband jason had been dead for a day and a half. For reasons nobody could understand. They appeared to be a solid couple. Why would she shoot him . Thats what carlsbad detectives were deshld to figure out. Julie wasnt talking. So they interviewed friends and family and peeled back the layers and Sergeant Jeff smith learned that a whole year earlier julie sent a friend envelopes for safekeeping. What was in the engel oeps . Journals, writings, bank statements, personal history. In that personal history, signs of a marriage that wasnt as perfect as it seemed. Julie wrote that jason yelled at me and maybe divorce is the answer. It appeared that they were not happy with each other. And that their marriage was going towards an end or divorce. Whatever was going on, jason tended to keep t himself said his teacher friends and his friends. He would never say any bad things. He kept it very personal and clear, they said, the marriage was winding down. Arrange ments were being made. Jasons parents actually bought a house down here and it had enough room for jason and all the kids and they were preparing for him to be able to leave. Xwully seemed to be getting ready to get out too said Sergeant Smith and in fact, she filed for divorce five days before the incident. And that same week made some unusual financial transactions. Days prior to miss harper had taken out about 10,000 in cash out of a dorm anlt account that was in her daughters name and she had written two 4,500 checks to herself and it was against a credit card in mr. Harpers name. Julie pulled out nearly 20,000. Cash. We found that to be very suspicious. T Deputy District Attorney was assigned to the case day one. Did it suggest she was hoarding money in anticipation of something . She was preparing for a change in her life. But did the change involve divorce . Or murder . Julies father john lived here 30 miles or so from jason and julies house. And this apparently was where julie and the kids spent the night after the shooting. So detective smith got a search warrant for dads place and found nothing useful. There were other guns but none of them fired the bull tlaet killed jason. Perhaps a little frustrated, eight days later, he got a second search warrant and this time there was something new. Tucked away in the garage attic in a spot they searched first time around, a blue backpack. Must have been hidden between searches. They opened up this blue backpack and they discovered julie harpers wallet, credit cards and id, her passport, a different gun, and Jason Harpers last will and testament. Also jasons cell phone, batteries removed and call and text history cleared. The backpack gun was also clean. Not the one used to shoot jason. This had to be a get away bag, the prosecutor decided. She must have packed it up after she killed jason. Thats the only reason to take a persons last will and testament. Its because she realized he was dead. Julies actions before and after the shooting raised all sorts of questions. Foremost the prosecutor is did she plan this . Was ut premeditated . And if so, for how long . We believed we could prove firstdegree murder not on the theory that she had planned this murder the days or weeks before the shooting had taken place. Instead, we were relying on the theory that even during this argument she took enough steps in order to get the gun that this would have been planned and premeditated even if it was only for a minute or two before the shooting. And thats enough . In california that, coughs s she pleaded not guilty but otherwise kept her mouth shut and sat in jail. But strange details kept coming out. Like what julies dad said at her preliminary hearing about the blue backpack. There had actually been 39,000 inside that backpack. Julies father admitted he found the cash in the backpack and gave it to julies lawyer to help pay for bail and legal fees. What did you think when you heard that . In my wildest dreams, i would have never expected that. By the way, julies dad testified at the p im initially pleaded the fifth. And even though bail was 2 million, julies family eventually coughed it up. And after more than a year in jail, she moved back into the house on badger lane, three doors down from michelle noon. She knocked on my door to let me know she was back. And that were going to have a good talk some day whether this is all over. What did you say to her . I was just completely shocked. I couldnt believe it. All those comfortable notions about her neighbors. And maybe michelle didnt know them at all. I dont understand why any of it happened. You know what i mean . He was our friend and hes gone. And i dont know who she is. And whether julie finally did start talking, well coming up i said stop. Stop. What are you doing . Stop . On the stand, her life on the line and figure it out. Zbh secret recordings from behind no, please, please, oh shrieks in terror heavy breathing and snorting no, no. The running of the bulldogs . Surprising. Whats not surprising . How much money aleia saved by switching to geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. Six of you for when thyou stretch out. T i want you to stay this bright blue forever, thats why youll stay in this drawer forever. I cant live without you, and thats why ill never ever wash you. Protect your clothes from stretching, fading and fuzz with downy fabric conditioner. Fading and fuzz with downy fabric conditioner. It smooths and strengthens fibers to protect clothes from the damage of the wash. So your favorite clothes stay your favorite clothes. Downy fabric conditioner. 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My mouth feels so clean. Ill only use an oralb the 1 brand used by dentists worldwide. Oralb. Brush like a pro. September 2014. Two years after Jason Harpers death, his wife julie, the mother of their three children went on trial for firstdegree murder. She didnt look like a murderer. Number if there is such a th. Even though deputy da had never been able to talk to julie, had never heard her story, he was confident. His theme was something he called the deterioration of julie harper. Her life had become a disaster both in terms of her marriage, her children, her health, her financial state. And we believe she was seriously abusing her prescription medication. Look at this, he told the jury. Pill bottles. Disease, he said this