Or was the answer in this town oozing with outlaws. They were willing to fight and kill each over it. An oil field gushing secrets and suspects. Greed killed my dad. Greed is what caused all of this. I trusted a sociopath. Wild, isnt it, what can happen to a quite Little Prairie town when oil comes along. Im lester holt and this is dateline. Heres Keith Morrison with a dangerous man. Pleasant landscapes of american privilege is a fine historic rise of land called the south hill. Here, for 100 years, has been the home of spokane, washingtons elite in their queen anne and craftsman mansions. Peace lives here. Quiet. Rectitude. And certainly not the kind of story were about to tell, the men, dark plots and dames. I asked them. I said, am i just the dumb blonde who missed it or did everyone miss it . Reporter the one so many people missed before that dreadful event here in the wooded enclave of lifes winners. He thought that god was blessing him and my mom. We thought we were walking on water. Reporter here they were, empty nesters. All alone in their grand house on the south hill, convinced that their successes, their six grown kids, their good life, were products of an unflinching trust in god. You know, he finally got out of the desert and he was going to get into the promised land. Reporter yes, the promised land. Riches beyond imagining, as the notsodumbblonde knew so well. It was a madhouse. It was the wild west. Reporter so maybe thats why the thing on the south hill wasnt going to stay here. Same. Im sorry. Reporter it was wintertime when it happened. Christmas season, 15th of december, 2013. A sunday evening, after church. 911, what are you reporting . Quick, south garfield. Theres been shots. A man just came in our house and shot my husband, i think. Reporter this is how our story began in an ugly splash of violence and terror. Ha hurry. South garfield. Hurry. Say that slower. What are the numbers . If he hears me hes going to shoot me. Reporter but was this the beginning of the story . Or the end . That was the evening Spokane Police detectives Brian Cestnik and Mark Burbridge were pulled into the strangest case of their careers. It was the most unique homicide i had investigated, and i knew that from the first moments of my involvement. Really . You just knew . Drove over first to the address in the south hill. Sort of place a homicide detective can go a whole career without visiting a single time. The house, its in a very upper class neighborhood. Yeah, the south hill, thats like, where you want to be in town, right . Right, i mean, the street that its on, id never been to before. Theres just not why would you as a homicide detective . Youre not going to go there, right . Theres just not yeah, theres just not crime up there in general, so it was very odd. Detective learned, belonged to a businessman named doug carlile and his wife of many years, elberta. First responders had arrived sometime earlier, put up their crime scene tape. Cestnik walked into the house. It was just a weird scene all in all. This was december 15th. Theres Christmas Music playing throughout the house as were investigating. That would be bizarre. It was very bizarre. Theyre very religious people so and then you have this horribly violent and gruesome murder with the body laying on the floor that youre investigating. It was a very, very odd scene. Reporter 63yearold doug carlile was lying on the kitchen floor, clearly the victim of a closerange shooting. There was a lot of blood around the body. A lot of shell casings, a lot of bullets laying around. How badly was this person damaged . Hed been shot seven times. It was obviously a very brutal attack. It wasnt just a one time shot, and then the person ran out. Clearly, somebody was making sure. Correct. Whoever had done this, we knew they wanted to make sure he didnt survive. Reporter and whatever had happened here didnt appear to have been motivated by burglary or robbery. The entire house was locked up tight. Windows. Doors. You know, he still had his wallet, he had his cell phone. Walking throughout the house, everything was still in place. It hadnt been ransacked, nothing was missing that we could find. 911 in what sounded like a state of abject terror. Arriving First Responders had found her hiding in an upstairs closet. They took her downtown to talk to burbridge. Elberta, my name is mark. Im going to be the detective on this case. Im not very happy. I wanted to see my husband. They wouldnt let me see him. Reporter the detective was ready to sympathize, of course, but his training, his instinct, his eye told him not yet. Something looked a little off, here. What did you make of her . Shes unique. And some of her responses threw up red flags. Made me concerned about whether she was involved in this or not. What kind of responses . Eh, she didnt care about the police investigation. All she cared about was hugging her husband and praying for him and wanted to pray over his body, and she was very upset that the patrol officers would not let her do that. I want my husband. Theres nothing we can do for your husband right now. Well i couldve held him. I couldve told him i loved him. Reporter and then, when the detective asked what happened this is what happened. Elberta told a story, and neither the telling nor the story made any sense at all. Reporter a man, murdered in his own home. His wife, with a detailed account of exactly what happened. Should be helpful to police, right . It made me worry that she was making up the story. Reporter when we come back, why elbertas tale raised the eyebrows of investigators. Rehearsed is a good word. It sounded that way to you . Yes, it did. My challenge is to be in sync, with my body, myself, my life. It all starts with a healthy routine. 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So he paid careful, experienced, attention when elberta carlile told him what happened that sunday evening in the house on the south hill. What happened tonight . We went to church. We went to a church function. I dont know what happened. Hell happened. A nightmare happened. Thats what happened. Reporter and . Elbertas story said detective burbridge just didnt add up. All of a sudden i hear, its okay, its okay. And then i hear back off back off back off. And when i heard the back off i saw, i looked and saw a man standing there in all black. Her story was concerning, about a masked man wearing all black, coming into the house shooting her husband and leaving and leaving her alive. It made me worry that maybe shed hired a hit man or maybe she was making up the story and she was involved in what happened. Reporter thing was the killer saw elberta. She came right out and said so they stared at each other soul to soul. So why would a hitman leave an eyewitness alive . Unless, she was in on it. Im worried whether she had a motive. Money, jealousy, a him herself . Did she hire somebody . Did she get one of the children to do it . These are all my concerns. Reporter besides, said burbridge, hes seen many people caught by sudden violence and grief. And elberta was agitated, certainly, but to his practiced eye, her emotional reaction was somehow flat, as if practiced. It bothered him. How long had you been home . It happened instantly when we got home it was like somebody ambushed him. Reporter the way she told her story about a masked man killing her husband of 42 years . It almost seemed like it was rehearsed, or like she thought about this and what could i say . Rehearsed is a good word. It sounded that way to you . Yes, it did. Reporter but you dont have to take it from the detective we were able to arrange an interview with elberta, too. My whole life was over as i knew it. Reporter elberta told us that when she and her husband returned from church that gate of their property as usual. He goes, ill get the gate, you get the door. Did everything look pretty much the same as when you left . No, no, it just didnt feel right. So i started to head up the stairs by this time, and yeah, i got all the way to the top of the stairs and i started down the hall when i heard muffled noises. I headed right back down the stairs. And i got down all the way to the bottom of the stairs, and i called out to doug and i said, doug is somebody here and i looked to my leftand the man was standing right in front of the doorway and how far away from you . Ten feet at the most. Nine feet and i looked at him. And it was a man, all in black and he had a mask on. And he had a gun pointed to where i knew my husband was standing. So you couldnt see doug . You just saw this man . He had a mask on. Only thing i could see was his eyes and he looked at me. He never moved the gun. And he blinked three times. And i thought why is he blinking at me . But then i would think why is that guy in my House Holding a gun . What i thought was oh my god, what do i do . Hes gonna kill me before i get up the stairs and i pulled myself up the rail, up the stairs because my legs wouldnt work. And i was just starting down the hall when i heard multiple shots. Did you realize right away oh absolutely. I knew my husband had to have been shot and so i thought, i gotta hide. Reporter elberta ran toward a closet on the homes 2nd floor, she said, shut the door and called 911. Please hurry, please hurry. Oh my god hes gonna hear me. Okay, stay on the line for me, okay . Oh my god. Somebody just shot my husband, i think. Oh god hurry. Find me. Im okay, i want you to stay on the line. Do you remember what it felt like in there . What you felt like . Oh sheer desperation, just sheer desperation. Just this overwhelming need to go to my husband. I wanted to go to him. I wanted to comfort him. I wanted to tell him i loved him. I wanted to tell him it was gonna be okay. I wanted to pray for him. Oh please hurry please just please. Hes fired shots. Six shots. He had a gun, and he was dressed in black. Reporter when the police arrived, they found elberta in the closet. I said, i want to go to my husband. They said, well theyre working on him. And i said no i wanna go see him. Please let me go to my husband and they said, no you cant go down there. Did you ever get to see him that night . No. No. Reporter now elberta found herself face to face with detective burbridge. Trying to get him to believe a story about a masked killer who left her alive to tell the tale. I mean that sounds a little made up almost, doesnt it . Yes it does. It sounds hollywood. Have you ever heard of a case where somebody laid eyes on a witness to him killing someone and didnt take any action . Ive never had that happen. So you wouldve expected something . At least an attempt. Reporter but there was something in elbertas story that night that did make sense. Before the murder, as she and doug drovech place. There was a van, kind of sitting like up against the curb. A white van. Like it didnt belong there or something . Yeah. Reporter a white van. As police canvassed the neighborhood after the murder, a witness across the street said she saw it too. She had come home around 5 oclock that evening and noticed a white van parked in front of her house. And it was nervous to the point she thought maybe someone was breaking in. I mean why would she be suspicious of a van . Right. It was a van shed never seen before and in that neighborhood, everyone knows everyone. Reporter question was what did the white van have to do with the murder of doug carlile . Or the cops wondered with his wife elberta . Reporter coming up. A neighborhood Security Camera what tales would it tell . All you could really see is that it was a subject appeared to be a muscular build. 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Christine at 10 a former mexican cop wanted fo reporter up here on spokanes tony south hill, beat cops and detectives fanned out around a neighborhood utterly theyre just sitting there, and im really freaked out. Reporter of course in many if not most neighborhoods in america, a parked white van might not attract a bit of paranoid, but its really bizarre that a van like that would be in this neighborhood. Reporter but this is the south hill after all, nondescript white vans dont just show up and hang around here. So the neighbor noticed, and then, doug carlile winds up murdered. We dont know if it was related or not, but it was obviously something that we considered immediately. Reporter and again, this being the south hill, another neighbor had the wherewithal to provide a special kind of help. A homeowner in the neighborhood had aeo and we picked up what we thought was the van about two hours before the murder. Reporter here it is, that video. And sure enough, a white van coming and going on the streets of the south hill that night. But did it have anything to do with the murder . And what about that man in black elberta said she saw . If he actually existed, hired killer or whatever, he must have waited somewhere around the he could have killed doug carlile and then possibly escaped in that white van. No one saw anyone going out the front door, but what about back here, behind the house . They called in a tracking dog, stood back and watched. Basically, the track went through some arborvida, over a little fence, through the nehb is a gate that was left open. And just before the gate, there was a puddle of water, and there was a good footprint in that puddle of water. And it was apparent that it was fairly recent. Could be your guy. Could be our guy. Just beyond that, just outside the gate, there was what appeared to be a welding glove, lying in the leaves. A welding glove . A welding glove. So right away we thought, is this something that may have been dropped . But it was odd enough and in a place that we knew the suspect had run after the incident, that we ended up collecting it as evidence. Not really knowing whether that had anything to do with you know, in Something Like this where its a complete whodunit, you know, you take everything and hope something ends up helping your case. Reporter they kept looking. So did the dog. Just beyond where the welding glove was found was a small wooded area, and across the street, an elementary school. Which meant maybe the schools Security System could get them a picture of the guy. Another detective was able to get that video almost immediately. Reporter and sure enough, when they looked at the video, we actually saw a suspect, and saw a path that he ran. Could you tell who it was or very much about him . It was very grainy video. All you could really see is that it was a subject appeared to be a muscular build wearing all black. Reporter all black. He was hard to make out, but there he was in the video. The elusive man in black running toward a main road. When detective burbridge arrived and got a look at this i had done a lot of homicides, and at that point i unrelated to our victim at all, or the person involved in this. And i went and found my lieutenant. I knew that this was going to be a very complicated investigation, and we needed a lot more manpower to get very fast on the case further down the road. Reporter and so in a matter of hours, detectives were called in from all over the department. Time off was cancelled. So many questions to answer. What else did the neighbors see . What did that welding glove have and who was the man in black . And, a more basic question, was elberta carlile involved in a plot to kill her husband . Coming up even elberta admits their marriage had seen its share of trouble. 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[heartbeat] people would ask me in Different Countries that we traveled, what is your nationality and i would always answer hispanic. So when i got my ancestry dna results im from all nations. It puts a hunger in your heart to want to know more. . . Well, if you want to sing out, sing out . . And if you want to be free, be free . . cause theres a million things to be . . You know that there are . . And if you want to be me, be me . . You know that there are . . Reporter as police combed the south hill looking for evidence and suspects in the murder of doug carlile, his wife reporter but police 101, the victims nearest and dearest often becomes prime suspect number one. And elberta, with her wild story, was certain