mother who had gone missing and the small town secret that led to a very big surprise. here's keith morrison. suppose for a minute you were sitting in your car smack-dab in the middle of tuscaloosa, alabama and you pointed southwest down highway 69 and kept a sharp eye out after half an hour or so. you roll into a sweet little place called moundville. one stoplight, one main street, one general store. been around for a long time has moundville. but it's a sad truth, as the sheriff says, even here where everybody used to know everybody -- >> it's not that way anymore. so many different people are moving in from around the world. >> trying to escape the crowds. >> well, escape the crowd or running from something. >> yes. and where have you gone, andy griffith? >> mayberry has up and left us. sheriff ken ellis fights real crime nowadays. >> the crime here is the same crime you see in any large city, just a smaller version. >> still, moundville is moundville and neighbors tend to know more of each other's business than they might in tuscaloosa, for example, which can be a bit of a nuisance if you need to keep a secret, especially, for example, if your secret is about murder. to begin with, this thoughtful young woman was just a girl of 17 back in '07 when things started coming apart in the way things do when parents don't talk about it. kelsey mayfield saw that troubled look in her mom's eyes, her mom teresa. >> i could tell she was very stressed. >> was it clear she was stressed about? >> money would be the main thing. we wanted to be sure she had enough money to take care of her family. >> a lot of that going around. like so many americans, kelsey's dad had to work two jobs just to keep his head above water >> hard working man. it took two jobs to take care of our family. >> but money trouble aside, teresa seemed to have a happy life as anybody could see including teresa's mother, reba. >> all teresa ever wanted was to have a husband that cared for her, somebody she cared for and to have a family. >> a sweet and kind of corny and even after her two little brothers arrived, she could see the signs of her parents affection for each other. >> he would give her a kiss on the cheek and say good night, i love you. >> the softball mom, the trunk of her car, a muddle of bats and balls. she shuttling kids back and forth. >> i had a softball game and we all had a game at the same time. she would stay 30 minutes at their games and each of our games. she was an amazing mother. there's nothing she would not do for myself or my two brothers. >> then there was that sweltering morning, june 2007, teresa drove off to run errands and didn't come back. kelsey was baby-sitting the boys, 8 and 11. hours ticked by. she called her mom. where are you? >> she didn't answer. then i called her back around lunch and she didn't answer. i called her pretty much all day long. >> her dad was at work, her mom was, who knew where? wasn't like her to do this. is she the sort of person who would take her cell phone with her? >> it was attached to her hip. >> you could easily get ahold of her in. >> yes. >> and you couldn't? >> no. >> she was in a panic. she called her dad who had gone from his day job to his night shift. >> i'm sure you told your dad you were worried. >> we kept in touch during the day. >> did he seem to be worried? >> he did. we could never get in touch with her. >> at midnight, it was clear, something was terribly wrong. scott left work to file a missing person's report with the moundvil pic >> what was it like for you that night? >> it was awful. i was very scared when she didn't come home. and i pretty much knew in my heart that something was wrong. >> the next morning, said kelsey, she woke up in a house that no longer felt like home. she called her grandmother reba at her home in prattville, a town two hours away. >> she said is mama down there at your house? >> i said no, hon., she's not here. and she said, mama didn't come home last night. >> what was going on in here? >> i'm just turning upside down. you know, i'm just tied in a knot. >> reba called teresa's younger sister ashley at her office at the local circuit court. >> mama called me up. she said teresa is missing. i said let me make some phone calls. >> right away ashley called the sheriff of her town and he called the sheriff of ellis. his response to me was it's bad. it's bad. >> it certainly was. they had found teresa's truck on a dirt road less than a mile from home. she was slumped behind the wheel and she was dead. and this much was perfectly clear. it wasn't an accident. coming up -- the investigation begins. >> we had to ask ourselves, who would get her to this location and why was she murdered? >> when "dateline" continues. with frontline plus for dogs and frontline plus for cats. its two killer ingredients work fast and keep working all month long preventing new flea infestations on your pet. frontline plus. the number 1 name in flea and tick protection. voting for your favorite has never been easier. just say "vote for world of dance" into your xfinity v-mo. um jennifer, it's called a voice remote, not a v-mo. yeah, i just think v-mo has a nicer ring to it. so, just say "vote for world of dance" into your xfinity v-mo to choose your xfinity fan favorite to join the world of dance experience on my "it's my party" summer tour. cast your vote by saying "vote for world of dance" into your xfinity x1 voice remote. or as j-lo likes to call it, your v-mo. it was a lover's lane. a quiet dusty, dead-end road miles from main street moundvle. a spot so uncommonly traverse a car with engine running taillights blazing could go unnoticed. it was here they found teresa mayfield's truck, body inside, gunshot wound to the head. teresa's younger sister broke the terrible news to their mother. >> when i went to the house, mama was sitting in the recliner. i knelt down on my knees and i grabbed her and i said, mama, she's gone. she's gone. do you have any idea how hard that was? >> teresa's daughter kelsey has spent a sleepless night waiting in vain for her mother to come home. >> how did you find out? >> my dad came and told my brothers and i. it was awful realizing that your worst nightmare had come true. for a brief second, i thought she committed suicide just because i knew how stressed out she was. but then i also knew how much she loved her family. >> everybody who knew teresa knew that. even sheriff ellis who drove out to the crime scene, if that's what it was. he was met there. >> this case was personal to you, sheriff. >> yes. my daughter and miss teresa and scott's daughter played softball together. >> you would see teresa at the ballpark. >> it felt like part of my family was gone too. >> they had a look around the truck. no sign of a struggle. dusting revealed no viable fingerprints. there were no footprints. not even a loose hair. puzzling. was there any thought once you saw the scene that this was a suicide? >> there was things missing that prevented the suicide theory. >> like what? >> if you're going to commit suicide with a gun, it's usually at the scene. >> it was clear teresa had been murdered. shot with a gun which was now missing. and what was more, her cell phone, the one always attached to her hip, was nowhere to be found. >> did it look like it could have been a robbery? >> the wallet wasn't taken. the purse was on the console. but the contents of the purse had been dumped out in her lap. >> a clumsy attempt at staging, you might say? >> yes. >> but there was one important clue left behind. >> we noticed that the only window down was the driver's window. so we figured that she had to have known the person because she had let down her window. we had to ask ourselves, who could get her to this location and why was she murdered? >> someone in moundville had to know something. >> from there the investigation went where? >> investigating her inner circle, trying to find a motive. >> usually, so i'm told, in cases like this, the husband has got to be a person of interest. >> yes. >> so as the family gathered to mourn the loss of their beloved teresa, scott couldn't be with them. he was down at the sheriff's office answering questions. >> came willingly, no issue. >> yes. >> did he ask for an attorney? >> no, he did not. >> corporal boyd chatted with scott for three long hours. during the whole time, he was cooperative and helpful. >> you know, the standard questions that we would ask is, is anyone having an affair? are you having an affair? no. >> was she having an affair? no. >> good marriage, happy marriage, christian marriage? >> right. i asked them did they argue? no. >> scott answered all their questions about what teresa was supposed to be doing that morning. he phoned teresa from his morning job on the farm, and then two hours later she called him. but the call faded out. he couldn't hear a thing. >> scott said that it sounded like she was on the road. >> he thought nothing of it then, he said. but now was it a distress call? no way to know. but there was one thing that call certainly cleared up for investigators. scott could not have killed teresa. he was something like 30 miles away up near tuscaloosa, had a breakfast receipt to prove it. >> he stopped at hardees and had a receipt showing he was there. >> so he rejoined his family. caught up in the terrible business of grieving. >> i kept wondering, why was it happening to our family. >> it was awful. who would ever imagine you'd have a murder in your family? >> investigators tried with the help of friends to fill in the gaps of teresa's last hours. they talked to their friend dawn lavender. she had plans to go shopping with teresa the morning of the murder. >> i'm sure dawn was upset and shocked by what happened. >> she did cry during the interview. she was at her house waiting on teresa to come pick her up because she was going to ride with her. she finally got the chance to talk to teresa around 7:00. >> after that call, nothing. dawn told the investigators she phoned teresa over and over and each time the phone went to a recording. just to be sure of all this, they pulled teresa's cell phone records and plotted out a timeline of her whereabouts. but the picture the records painted wasn't quite what they expected. that morning call to scott, the one he couldn't hear, teresa did not call from moundville. >> cell tower shows it's pinging from up in tuscaloosa. >> wait a minute. how could it be pinging from tuscaloosa? that's miles and miles away. >> right. there's no way she could have made the call and been back to the location where she was murdered at. >> courtesy of the cell towers, you were able to show that teresa could not have made that call. it had to be somebody else using her phone and what do you know? her phone is missing from the crime scene. >> correct. >> so the person who very likely killed teresa mayfield must have used teresa's cell phone to call her husband scott. what could that mean? did the killer know scott? coming up -- >> we were dealing with a person that was leading a double life. >> secrets and lies. >> this was betrayal. >> very good word. >> when "dateline" continues. [karate sounds] ♪ oh baby you ♪ you got what i need ♪ you got everything i need ♪ your love will never go away ♪ 'cause you ♪ oh you got what i need amazon's got everything you need and package tracking for all. welcome, everyone. you won't find relief here. congestion and pressure? go to the pharmacy counter for powerful claritin-d. while the leading allergy spray only relieves 6 symptoms, claritin-d relieves 8, including sinus congestion and pressure. claritin-d relieves more. - cis choosing to nurtureild and emotionally support children in urgent need. it's not just about opening up your home; it is also about opening up your heart. consider fostering. welcome back to "dateline." even though teresa mayfield's husband scott had been very cooperative with investigators, they wondered if there was something he wasn't telling them. here again with "secrets in a small town" is keith morrison. it's a funny thing about secrets. they can only stay hidden for so long. especially in a little place like moundville. and it didn't take very long for sheriff ellis and boyd to stumble across more. >> scott had a young lady to come pick up the boys. >> it was only later when the fog of grief lifted that one of teresa's relatives wondered to police who was that woman hanging around the day teresa died? ellis and boyd tracked her down and what they discovered, well, that changed everything. or seemed to. the person they were talking to was scott's mistress. >> she was under the impression that scott was not married at that time. >> what did you make of that? >> we knew that wasn't correct. >> a love triangle, jealous home wrecker kills wife, claims husband? no, not even close. scott's girlfriend thought his marriage was over. his divorce finalized. >> what was her reaction to getting the real story? she must have been upset. >> more hurt than upset because i think she had fallen in love. >> he had been lying like a sidewalk. >> that's right. >> you had no idea that woman was associated with him that way either, did you? >> no. i had met her once or twice. but i just thought they were friends. i didn't think it was anything else. >> this was betrayal in all capital letters. >> that's a very good word. >> you were betrayed. >> lied to. yeah. taken advantage of if in a way. >> kelsey may have been surprised but her mom and sister knew better. this wasn't scott's first dance with infidelity. oh, no, there had been others. in fact, scott and teresa divorced during one affair, that was just after kelsey was born. three years later, teresa took him back. remarried him. >> she wanted to have her family back together. that was her whole thing, family. >> what was it like for you when scott came into your house? what's happening here as he walked in the door? >> i tried to be sociable mutual with scott. he hurt my sister and i would not forget it. >> for a while, things were as things as hoped. soon scott was back to his old ways with that girl cops were talking to in tuscaloosa. you know how gossip can be. scott when from sympathetic -- maybe worse. he must have been aware of the fact that people were suspicious of him. >> it bothered me hearing the bad things people had to say about him. i knew my dad was never capable of doing something like that. i was going to have his back regardless. >> but to investigators, scott's affair and the fact he lied about it to police certainly was suspicious. ellis and boyd asked the girlfriend to help them out by recording her conversations with scott. maybe he'd let something slip. >> hey. >> hey. >> are you okay? >> yes. i'm okay. they just left. look, all i want to know, did you do it? >> of course not. they told me on the get-go, i would be number one prime suspect. >> i know. >> because i'm the husband. >> do you still love me? >> yes, i do. >> if you do have anything do with her dying, was it because you love me? >> i didn't have nothing to do with it, no, no, no. i had nothing. my hands are clean as they can be. >> so infidelity? yes. murder? didn't sound like it. >> we could prove that he was an adulterer. but we was trying to prove the murder. >> guess there's no crime against being a lying sack of you know what. >> it's not against the law to have a mistress. >> so now the corporal and the sheriff reverted to standard procedure and followed up every tip and tracked down every tenuous lead and knocked down rumors. somebody called scott from teresa's cell phone that morning, whether he heard it or not. the investigation dragged on. >> weeks and months went by and there was nothing. >> we had no idea how that anger will get the best of you, not knowing who done this and you want the person that done this to be punished for it. >> kelsey took on the most difficult job of her life. at 17 she stepped into her mother's shoes defended her father, tried to maintain something of a normal life for her little brothers. >> me trying to fill my mother's shoes. those are some big shoes to fill. i felt like it was my responsibility to help my dad take care of my family. >> so you were able to continue to have a relationship of trust with your father. >> right. >> he was there for you guys? >> yeah. he tried to be strong for us so we wouldn't have a breakdown. >> by the first anniversary of teresa's death, there was still no arrest and the story was old news. so teresa's mother plastered this poster on doors and windows and telephone poles hoping it would dislodge some clue. and then the weirdest thing happened. >> we found out that just about as quick as we were putting posters up, they were being taken down. >> taken down by someone who didn't want teresa's killer found, she presumed. and a dark thought crystallized in reba's mind. was it scott? >> he never acted like a grieving husband. if he had, i wouldn't have had these thoughts. >> so your thoughts actually increased over the course of the time that you were with him? >> yes. >> but you know what they say about assumptions. it wasn't scott. >> me and my brothers took them down. at first, i was okay with it. but once they put the posters up and everywhere i went, i saw my mother's face, it drove me crazy, it broke my heart seeing her face splattered all over the pictures. >> so expectations faded again. a couple more months went by and then a girl who knew kelsey heard a strange little story. overheard it actually. a guy saying he saw someone a gun on a dirt road around the time teresa was killed. >> did she associate it with this crime? >> she knew miss teresa was killed down that way so she reported it. >> was this the break they were looking for? >> the tip led to real flesh and blood. in fact, to a quite literal snake in the grass. a curious incident from teresa's past. could it shed light on the crime? coming up -- >> i looked at her, and i said you need to stay away from that woman. she is no friend of yours. >> when "dateline" continues. -♪ just like any other family ♪ the house, kids, they're living the dream ♪ ♪ and here comes the wacky new maid ♪ -maid? uh, i'm not the... -♪ is she an alien, is she a spy? ♪ ♪ she's always here, someone tell us why ♪ -♪ why, oh, why -♪ she's not the maid we wanted ♪ -because i'm not the maid! -♪ but she's the maid we got -again, i'm not the maid. i protect your home and auto. -hey, campbells. who's your new maid? monitor their blood glucose every day. which means they have to stop. and stick their fingers. repeatedly. today, life-changing technology from abbott makes it possible to track glucose levels. without drawing a drop of blood, again and again. the most personal technology, is technology with the power to change your life. life. to the fullest. welcome back to "dateline." i am craig melvin. years after teresa mayfield's murder, a casual conversation overheard in a bar gave authorities their first break. a break which would lead them to the chilling tale of teresa's murder. once again, keith morrison. >> under a setting sun on a sweltering summer night, two years after her death, teresa mayfield's friends and family gathered to remember. >> i talk to her almost every day and i miss those talks. >> they took turns talking about the loving daughter, the softball mom, the sweet woman gunned down on that lonely country road. a murder that was still a mystery. >> my family will not stop searching or doing whatever it takes to find out who took teresa's life. >> when scott got up to speak, you can bet people were paying special close attention. >> yes, she was a loving wife, loving mother and a loving friend to the community, yes, she would do anything for anybody at any time. >> having discovered he was not exactly husband of the year, some pplring spion and yet here devoted to the care of his children and full of praise for his dead wife. >> she did a wonderful job raising these kids. she was the one who got them to practice on time, got them to ball games on time. >> when sheriff ellis walked up to the podium, he looked at teresa's mother reba and vowed he'd get justice yet. >> miss reba, i won't quit until we find out what happened to miss teresa. >> in fact, even as he spoke, the sheriff, along with the corporal, were facing down their first honest to god lead in, what, over a year? didn't seem like much at first, just an overheard story from a guy in a bar something about they ran into someone with a gun. not terribly uncommon around here. except it happened around the same time and not far from where the murder occurred. so ellis and boyd tracked the kid down and he repeated the story to them. >> they were on a dirt road and they came up on a snake, a rattlesnake and they was trying to kill it, find something to kill it with. >> trouble was, they were plum out of rattlesnake killing tools and that's when an suv just happened to pull up on the dirt road behind them. the driver was a woman in her 40s or thereabouts who said the young man offered them a sure fire way to smash that rattlesnake. >> lady in the car had a sghun. >> right. >> it was a handgun inside a ziploc plastic bag. >> i think she handed him the plastic bag for him to take it out. >> that was a little weird. why would it be in the bag? >> right. >> a peculiar story for sure. certain details were a little fuzzy. kid couldn't remember the exact day, for example. but he did recall with clarity who the driver was because he knew her. knew her name. and here was the most curious thing of all. it was a name you've heard before. dawn lavender. got even smaller. dawn lavender, you'll recall was teresa's friend who she said she waited in vain for teresa to pick her up. great buddies according to dawn. but maybe not so much said kelsey. >> they would speak but they weren't best friends or anything. >> they did go out together a couple of times. >> i think my mother did it because she was bored and wanted to get out of house. >> but when they did get together, it was certainly memorable and not in a good way. they went out to a local casino one night, she said and her mother came home stumbling. >> i thought she was drunk. i knew that that couldn't be right because she didn't drink. she didn't know where she was at. you couldn't understand a word she was saying. she came in and my dad and i put her in the bed. >> how long did she sleep? >> she slept for two days. two straight days. >> what did you think about that? >> it was very strange. she didn't really remember what happened. she just knew that she had taken some pills, i believe. >> how did she get them? >> i believe dawn gave them to her. >> remember how teresa was stressed out the last week weeks of her life? the casino trip, dawn gave her xanax, the anti-anxiety medication to calm her down, it certainly did that. out like a light, calm, for two whole days. >> i looked at her, i said teresa, you need to stay away from that woman, she is no friend of yours. >> how did teresa respond to that? >> she said i've learned my lesson. >> or maybe she didn't. because the morning of the murder teresa arranged to run errands with dawn, or at least that's what dawn said. and then it all clicked together. dawn on the dirt road, a gun in a plastic bag, teresa's car window down as though she knew her killer. sheriff ellis and corporal boyd picked apart the early interview with a suspicious eye. they pulled her phone records and there it was plain as day. dawn's lies caught by cell phone nology >> it painted a clearer picture that dawn was in the location of teresa the morning that she was murdered. >> why in heaven's name would a woman who claimed to be teresa's friend want to kill her? good question, which perhaps they'd get answered once they accused dawn lavender of murder, which they did. she, however, had but one thing to say to police. >> she just kept saying that it was wrong, that we made a mistake. >> coming up. >> as far as physical evidence. we really didn't have any. >> but they did have a plan. an undercover sting could get the evidence they need. >> when "dateline" continues. super emma just about sleeps in her cape. but when we realized she was battling sensitive skin, we switched to tide pods free & gentle. it's gentle on her skin, and dermatologist recommended. tide free and gentle. safe for skin with psoriasis, and eczema. welcome back. after years of investigation, police had a suspect in the murder of teresa mayfield. it was her friend, dawn lavender. but what was dawn's motive for murder? once again, here's keith morrison. on june 11, 2010, almost three years to the day teresa mayfield was killed, sheriff ellis and corporal boyd drove to the wire factory where dawn lavender worked. she was halfway through her day shift and they told her she was under arrest for the murder of her friend, teresa mayfield. >> she first wanted to know why we was arresting her and then we went to the jail she said this was wrong, we made a mistake. >> the corporal and the sheriff were only too happy to explain how one clue led to another and eventually an inescapable conclusion. but prosecutor evans had questions, pointed ones. >> you could tell it was going to be difficult. >> where was the smoking gun? where was the murder weapon? where was one single fingerprint tying dawn to the crime? >> as far as physical evidence, we really didn't have any. it was truly circumstantial because we didn't really know anything about what had happened. >> as far as evidence could see, the case was a maybe at best. she had no reason to kill teresa. >> so to bring a case against her would be pretty tough, i would think. >> the case with dawn is puzzling. when you're working with a circumstantial case, every piece of evidence is definitely important. >> how could corporal boyd and sheriff ellis thought they were wrong. they believed dawn was the killer. they told the prosecutor not only that dawn murdered teresa but they were convinced she tried and failed to kill her with a xanax overdose at the casino. >> the sheriff's department thought that was an attempt on her life, but we had nothing to really support that. >> if tim evans was to get a conviction, he needed more evidence, some concrete proof that dawn had pulled that trigger. you can bet dawn wasn't about to tell them anything. but that doesn't mean she wasn't talking. >> we had another young lady that was getting out of jail and dawn had been talking about the murder. >> but that could have been just gossip, mind you. from a jailhouse snitch who couldn't back it up. but dawn did have a cell mate. >> she was kind of in a jam herself. she wanted us to try to help her. we can put a word into the d.a. or into the jail. >> that was enough to get cooperation from her. >> right. >> the objective was simple. get dawn talking, wrangle from her something that at least sounded like a confession. ellis and boyd outfitted dawn's cell mate with a digital recorder no bigger than a matchbox. on a friday afternoon as an unsuspecting dawn reviewed her case file, her cell mate walked in and waited for some incriminating tidbit. what she got instead was the whole sickening story. >> here's what dawn said about the morning teresa was killed. around 7:00 a.m. dawn called teresa with a lie to set the plan in motion. >> [ bleep ]. >> no more vacation days. i told her my car was dead. >> she claimed her car had broken down. could teresa pick her up. of course she said yes. finished drying her hair, got into her car. made a short drive to the dirt road and there standing alongside the road was dawn. >> how big was the gun? >> i shot her. i touched her neck and -- >> no? >> anyway i crawled the side of the truck. >> with calculated, cold precision, dawn lavender lured teresa mayfield to that dirt road. she then shot her in the back of the head and steered her car into the brush hoping it would stay hidden for a while. >> you will have to lie on the stand. >> like poor little innocent dawnie. >> cold blooded killer. >> if you think about it, that's exactly right. >> yeah. >> terrible look at it that way, though. >> it was all there. a prosecutor's dream confession. she even referred to herself as a cold-blooded killer. but there was one question anyone with a beating heart wanted to ask. why? there just had to be an answer. of that they were sure. would they ever get it out of her? >> why in the hell did you do it? coming up -- >> at some point she was call up a hit man. >> a hit man for whom? another painful revelation was in store for teresa's family. >> it hurts too much for me to say it out loud. >> when "dateline" continues. and last longer with fewer pills. so why am i still thinking about this? 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she was not acting alone, she had-conspirator. >> i don't know if she was trying to be a show off, because she was calling herself a hit man. >> dawn was a hired gun for -- you guessed it. scott mayfield. >> she was a loving wife, loving mother. >> the man who heaped praise on his dead wife, his grieving children by his side was according to dawn the architect who designed her death, her revelation finally made sense of a trail of disturbing stories the investigators had been running down for months. >> we had one guy that worked around there in moundville, said a fellow offered him $500 to kill his wife. and a little while later we got a call from another guy's son saying his daddy wanted to talk to me. scott had approached him about killing his wife. >> his response to scott was get a divorce. that's what divorces are for. >> and then a third man told him a story. >> he had told us that scott mayfield had hired him, had given him $15,000 to kill his wife. he did not have any intentions on killing her. he just wanted the man's money. >> but the old saying, two is a coincidence, three is a pattern, which is why even before dawn told her grisly tale on tape, in fact, on the same day dawn was arrested, a warrant was also issued for scott. kelsey was outside mowing the lawn when she saw a cop car whiz by, then another and another. she called her dad on his cell phone. >> i asked him where he was at. and he said the cops have me pulled over. >> your dad, for heaven's sake was being arrested. had to be a shock. >> i was very confused. so i asked the arresting officer, why are you arresting my dad? and he said it was solicitation and conspiracy. >> to commit murder. >> to commit murder, yes. >> noeshd, he said your father was responsible for the death of your mother. >> mm-hm. >> still, as he sat behind bars awaiting his day in court he assured his children that it was all a mistake. he was innocent. >> what did you expect would happen? >> i thought he would be found not guilty and be able to come home. >> but at that point, the case against scott was almost entirely circumstantial. that was until dawn got to talking to that cellmate, the one with the little recording device. and sure enough, as the whole story spilled out, there was scott's name on tape, proof at last. >> he ain't getting the damn gun back. >> once the job was done, the car half hidden by the brush, dawn said, she drove to tuscaloosa and dialed a familiar number from teresa's cell phone to let her boss know his wife was dead. >> did you call scott and let him mow that -- know that it was done? >> the only thing left was to collect the $20,000 scott had promised her and go. except -- >> scott never gave you no money? >> but of course dawn didn't keep her mouth shut about what she and scott had done. >> from what i could tell, he was just a coward. he wanted a divorce, but he didn't want to live with the responsibilities that accompany a divorce. >> in other words, he didn't want to pay her alimony. >> or child support. evil was the only thing you can describe that man. >> and on may 19, 2011, almost four years after teresa mayfield was gunned down on that lonely dirt road, her mother, sister and daughter sat in a courtroom and listened as dawn and scott, having pleaded guilty to both murder and attempted murder were each sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. >> he looked straight at me, like he was looking at a tree or something. there was no emotion. and that's right was there anything from dawn. it was like they were empty inside. >> but for kelsey, it was simply overwhelming. at the moment of sentencing, for the very first time, she saw her dad not as the loving father who took her shopping for her senior prom dress but as the man who orchestrated the death of her mother. >> have you ever brought up the issue with him? said i know that you did this? >> one day i will. i don't have it in me right now to confront him and tell him what i know. it hurts too much. for me to say it out loud, for my to tell my dad i know what he did and that i, i hate what he did. but he's still my father. and i'll always love him. >> her mother loved him too. loved him through infidelity and trouble, loved him always. even as she loved her children, her family. as she tried her best to make life good while he plotted to kill her. >> a couple years earlier, you had a great, full, lovely family life, and now -- >> there's really not a word that you can use to describe what our family has been through in the last four years. it's been, it's been a very difficult four years. >> and you've got such a nice, sunny disposition. how do you do that? >> i get my strength from my mother. that's all for now. thanks for joining us. final scenes as it turns out. the woman is pamela fayed, and the man is her husband, jim. at the time this video was recorded, one of them had just minutes to live. rewind the video to just a few minutes earlier. the fayeds have just had a meeting with their lawyers. they're in the midst of a bitter divorce. it's 6:30 p.m. the meeting is over. pamela hurries to catch the elevator and gets off at the third floor. she walks to her car and reaches for the keys inside her purse. >> that's when she was attacked. >> los angeles prosecutor alan jackson would spend many hours scrutinizing that video. >> tell me about the attack. >> brutal. vicious. heart-stopping. pamela was completely defenseless. she was attacked, i believe, from behind first, with a knife. somebody much larger than her, somebody much stronger than her, who had an absolute mission, and that was to cut her throat, to kill her. >> on the video you can see people in the complex starting to walk toward the sound of pam fayed screaming. one man ran to the scene and saw a tall man in a black hooded sweatshirt jump into the back seat of a red suv that was parked behind pam's car and be driven away. that witness then tried to help pam fayed. >> and then, as he walked around to where the attack took place,t that's when he first saw pamela. he said that when she looked at him, he went into a little shock because the only thing that was not covered in blood was the whites of her eyes.at she stood, and she walked toward him, even after having suffered these horrible, mortal wounds, and she reached out her arms and simply said, "help me." >> it was too late for anyone to help pam. paramedics pronounced her dead >>d anout he. century city is only 176 acres. its gleaming office towers and high-dollar townhomes lying entirely within the city of los angeles. and what makes this place run is money, because century city is home to agents, film producers and attorneys. usually around here when someone talks about bloody murder, they're talking about a deal that went south. this time it was the real thing the lead detective for the lapd investigating pam fayed's murder was salaam abdul-rahman. >> mrs. fayed wasn't robbed. >> no, she wasn't. >> mrs. fayed wasn't sexually assaulted. >> no, she was not. >> so the purpose of that crime was to kill her. >>'tsa >> it was to kill her. that was the only purpose of the crime was to get rid of her and make sure she was dead. >> abdul rahman says the murder was carefully planned.t rp o >> mrs. fayed comes out at about 6:30 at night. >> that's correct. >> and she's walking to her car, what, alone? >> by herself. >> at some point, what, the killer comes up behind her? >> well, the killer pulled up in the burgundy suv behind mrs. fayed's vehicle. >> so blocking her. >> blocking her so she can't move her car from the parking spot. the killer gets out of the back passenger seat and approaches mrs. fayed from behind. >> how long did the attack take start to finish? >> from start to finish i would say anywhere from one to three minutes. >> police found no eyewitnesses to the actual stabbing, but there were people close by. >> there's an individual that was in a building across the street from where mrs. fayed wal killed. that individual observed her grab the railing and then observed an arm come around mrs. fayed and bring her back into kv the parking structure. and at that time he didn't see mrs. fayed any longer. >> that was the killer. >> that was the killer. >> police combed the crime scen looking for answers, and they also started looking at the victim, pam fayed, and her husband, jim.s, so it was impossible for him to be in two places at one time. >> that security video shows jim fayed trying to make a cell phone call at exactly the moment you see people reacting to pam's screams. not only that, but a tall man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt clearly was not a description of jim fayed. a woman murdered, a bitter divorce. but certainly the husband wasn't the killer. so who was? a very rich mystery was under way. coming up, the hunt is on for a movelay hidden in the rus? >> she wanted to make sure her friends were happy and taken care of, no matter what it took. >> when "the goldfinger mystery" continues. sesh fercarehen [♪ ♪ check your free credit scores at creditkarma. here's tprss nexgard chew comes power, confidence, reassurance you're doing what's right to protect your dog from fleas and ticks for a full month. this one little nexgard chew is the #1 vet recommended protection. and it's the only chew fda approved to prevent infections that cause lyme disease. plus, it's safe for puppies. there's a lot of power in this one little nexgard chew. nexgard. what one little chew can do. nexgard. did you know comcast business goes beyond fast with a gig-speed network. complete internet reliability. advanced voice solutions. wifi to keep everyone connected. video monitoring. that's huge. did you guys know we did all this stuff? no. i'm not even done yet. wow. business tv. cloud apps and support. comcast business goes beyond at&t. start with internet and voice for just $59.90 a month. it's everything a small business owner needs. comcast business. beyond fast. after the brutal attack on pamela fayed, investigators began to look very closely at her life and marriage, hoping to find any clues which would lead to her murderer and a motive. here again is josh mankiewicz. pam fayed was dead. stabbed to death in a century city parking garage. lapd detective salaam abdul-rahman has seen enough cases to know that, in his line of work, murder and marriage go together like a horse and carriage. the ongoing fayed divorce, therefore, got his attention. >> acrimonious, nasty, bitter. mr. fayed was really upset with his wife, mrs. fayed. >> and so that marriage would bear much more scrutiny. investigators set about talking to friends and family to solve the mystery of pam's death. they needed to start with the story of her life. >> pamela had a spirit that was infectious. >> carol neve was pam's best friend. >> she was always happy. she had a personality that just sucked you in and kept you there. >> carol met pam 22 years ago. >> we were neighbors, and we did become best friends to the tune of every day we talked. every single day. >> that was long before jim came into the picture, of course. >> good morning, baby desiree. first christmas. >> pam was a single mom. she and carol babysat for each other's kids, walked their babies together, went shopping, shared recipes, and hung out during the holidays. >> pamela was very much of family to me. >> pam was the most caring, loving, giving person you would ever meet. life was about other people. >> tina holland is another friend. she and pam met when their youngest children started attending the same school. they planned family vacations together and trips to disneyland. one year pamela bought her daughter jeanette and tina's sons costumes just for the sake of creating happy memories. her daughter was a princess. tina's sons, a pirate and peter pan. >> she wanted to make sure her friends were happy and taken care of, no matter what it took. and i realized that when i first met her. that, you know, she was one of the people that i was going to have as a lifetime friend. >> pam made and sold jewelry, and she worked hard at it. but she wanted more than that. >> she wanted happiness and not to be alone. her dreams were to have a family life and find a mate to share her life with who would love her children. >> which is why it seemed so perfect when, in 1989, an electrician named jim fayed came into her life. he was single, no children. >> they seemed to get along very well. pammy always smiled when she would look at him. they sat close and snuggled and after dinner sat on the couch next to each other. it seemed to be a very good fit. >> but more important to pam was that jim treated pam's young daughter desiree as if she were his own. >> he came into our lives when i was about 6 years old. they started dating. and slowly, you know, she started introducing this man to me, and i actually -- i grew attached to him. i looked at him as that father figure that i needed in my life. >> i kind of get the feeling that he sort of seemed to step up to the job of stepfather, which a lot of guys don't do. >> he did. he actually did want to take on that responsibility. i think he was proud to do it. we actually got really close to each other. he was very caring and loving towards me. >> what did you like most about him? >> he was funny. i just liked being around him. >> funny but not nearly as social and outgoing as pam. >> jim was a gentle soul, a very quiet kind of soul. very private back then. she saw jim as someone who would provide for the family, had a good, honest job, doing electrical work. >> when they learned pam was pregnant, they decided to make it official. jim and pam were married in vegas in 1999. now they were the parents of two girls, young desiree and even younger jeannette. with more mouths to feed, the couple began to experience some rough patches financially. jim often worked as an electrical contractor for the government, a job that would take him on the road for weeks at a time. then there were times when the work would run out, and he would have to scramble to find more. >> it was a struggle. they argued. pam felt abandoned a lot. >> at one point pam went on public assistance. it was something she had promised herself would never happen, but now pam had to go down that path. it's possible she blamed jim for that reversal of fortune. >> it was a point to where they would argue, and she wasn't sure she wanted to still be there. she would call me and ask me for help and ask me to send money. i had sent her money twice or three times to start divorce proceedings. and then they would always make back up and move on. and that was fine. i just wanted my friend to be happy. >> wracking her brain, trying to think of ways to provide for her husband and daughters, pam came up with the idea of mixing her love of working with precious metals with jim's interest in coin collecting. together the couple started buying and selling gold and silver coins. soon that grew into an internet-based company they could manage from their home, and it started bringing in money. they called their business goldfinger coin and bullion. the year was 2001, and there was a new gold rush in america. the fayeds had found their way to an online sutter's creek. a get-rich-quick scheme that worked. but as investigators would discover, what tripped them up were many of the same human frailties that so bedeviled those '49ers who panned for gold instead of clicking on it. lawlessness, pride, and simple greed. and so here's another question. if money is the root of all evil, then what is gold? coming up, someone else had a close eye on this lucrative business, and the color of money was about to turn very dark indeed. >> i called her to warn her. >> when "the goldfinger mystery" continues. in terms of treating sensitivity, 3 days is really fast. sensodyne rapid relief is a game changer. it's going to let the dentist offer their patient sensitivity relief in 3 days. say over the course of a weekend you're going to start feeling significant results. about the colonial penn program. here to tell you if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three p's. -the three p's? -what are the three p's? the three p's of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 65 and take medications. what's my price? you can get coverage for $9.95 a month. i just turned 80. what's my price? $9.95 a month for you too. call now about the #1 most popular whole life insurance plan, available through the colonial penn program. no medical exam, no health questions. your acceptance is guaranteed. so call now for free information. pamela and jim fayed's financial woes eased with their here again is josh mankiewicz. >> jim and pam fayed had staked their claim in the online gold trading business. they began by buying old gold coins and selling them at a profit. then they expanded, setting up what was essentially a small bank, storing gold for customers and allowing them to borrow against it. the market grew, and so did the bottom line. pam's best friend, carol neve. >> they went to gold shows, trade shows in las vegas, san diego, l.a., do all the meet and greet kind of thing. pam was very good at that. she was very charming. jim was more the laid-back, stay away, sit in the booth. >> the timing was good. in 2001 gold was hovering around $250 an ounce. then it started to take off like a rocket. by 2008, gold was listed at $800 an ounce. soon the fayeds were getting rich just off the fees they charged for selling the gold online. >> it doesn't take much to be able to turn a profit. every transaction, whether it's $100 or $2,000 or $100,000, if you are making anywhere from 3% to 5% per transaction, you've got money coming in. >> very quickly the fayeds started making a lot of money. they moved their home business into this building in camarillo outside l.a. and hired employees to staff it. they bought a 2,800-square-foot home. a 200-acre-plus second home in nearby moorpark, which they called happy camp ranch, complete with horses for pam and jeannette. they were nouveau riche perhaps but they were determined not to flaunt it too much. even their oldest daughter desiree, who started working for the company as a teenager, did not realize how much her parents were raking in. >> so when you hear figures of tens of millions of dollars coming in, that's news to you? >> it is, yeah. >> did they live that way? >> we had an average house, a two-story home. we weren't living in a mansion. we had extra money to do things we wanted but it wasn't enough to show they were millionaires, to be honest. >> you never felt like you were rich or living lavishly. >> i knew that we were well off, but not to the millionaire status. >> one thing the fayeds' income did mean was that pam could be a full-time mom. something she always dreamed of. >> she wanted to be able to stay home and raise her kids, work if she wanted to, when she wanted to, which is part of owning your own company. >> and jim liked it that way too. he may have liked that a little too much. though pam was the vice president of goldfinger coin and bullion, jim fayed was the president. he seemed to like the sound of that, and he apparently loved controlling just about every aspect of the business. >> he originally was a really humble guy, and i feel like, as the business grew, so did it his ego and basically changed the person he was into thinking almost as if he was someone who was invincible. >> and then one day jim discerking a lot of pills to dull the pain from that. and perhaps a different side of jim fayed began to emerge. >> there became a point where jim was addicted to pain medications. and it wasn't the same jim that pam knew. by this point jim wanted total control of her and the company and her job was to stay home and be a wife. >> as controlling as jim was, he couldn't control the arthritis in his joints. it forced him to give up going to the office. >> was he in the hospital or bedridden or -- >> he was bedridden, yes. >> for how long? >> for a couple of years. >> really? so he barely got out of bed for a couple of years? >> yes. i felt that as he became bedridden he wasn't as social with us anymore. he kind of stayed in his bedroom. he basically -- i feel like he kind of left us as a family. we didn't really see much of him at that point. it kind of angered me seeing the kind of person he was turning into. >> the year was 2006. desiree says that as jim became harder to get along with, it served to push away pam's attempts to be more involved with the company while her husband was ill. >> i could hear them bickering about the business on a daily basis. >> specifically? >> nothing in specific, but just little things here and there that needed to be changed. >> their disagreements grew daily and festered. to the point where the couple separated. jim started spending more and more time at the ranch home in moorpark. and while the fayed marriage was crumbling, federal prosecutors were taking a look at the booming online gold trading business. they were looking for evidence of fraud, of tax evasion, and of the transferring of money without the proper government license. pam's friend carol did not want to see pam caught in a federal net. >> i called her to warn her. i told her she needed to get the money transmitter licenses. and you have to start that process. once you start that process, the feds can't touch you. >> carol says pam agreed. >> all she ever wanted was for a legitimate company. that's all. you know, she just wanted to be on the up and up, and she was going to tell jim, even though they were separated. >> pam urged jim to apply for the licenses. he appears to have been adamantly opposed to a move that would have essentially opened goldfinger's books to scrutiny by the federal government. pam decided she was not going to allow jim to roll the dice on their business. the business that had let pam live the life she's always wanted. >> pamela was a girl scout. she wanted to do it right. pamela knew that they were making plenty of money. they as a family, the fayed family, were flush. they didn't need to worry about nickels and dimes here and there. she was also aware, i believe, that at some point the federal government was going to start looking very closely at them. they couldn't continue building this business on this international scale without someone taking a look. and so pamela's idea was, let's do it right. let's cross our ts, let's dot our is. let's get the money licensing. >> her husband said absolutely not. >> he said absolutely not. um oh to apply for the licenses. and for jim fayed, that may have been the last straw. >> he called her names that i cannot and will not repeat on your camera. horrible, horrible accusations about pamela fayed, the mother of his own child. and he was doing this in order to set the stage for what i believe was his ultimate goal, was to take all thand to >> in california it's pretty hard to crush somebody and take all the money in a divorce proceeding. >> i would say so. she helped build the company. she was an officer in the company. she held half of the company's proceeds. i mean, she was half owner. it's as simple as that. >> and soon there would be another problem. what pam fayed had worried about would come true. federal investigators would come after goldfinger, indicting both jim and pam fayed because their company didn't have those money transmitter licenses. >> when the indictment came down, pamela fayed was in contact with her lawyer very quickly. she immediately indicated that she wanted to cooperate with the authorities. that was the position that she was taking. i want to cooperate. i want to do whatever i can to help out the investigation. i didn't do anything wrong, according to pam. what can i do to help? >> did james fayed know that his wife was going to cooperate? >> that's the $64,000 question. coming up, a suspect in the case and soon an arrest. >> he wasn't someone that i would ever think could be involved in something like this. >> but police had only just begun to solve the puzzle. when "the goldfinger mystery" continues. -guys, i want you to meet someone. this is jamie. you're going to be seeing a lot more of him now. -i'm not calling him "dad." -oh, n-no. -look, [sighs] i get it. some new guy comes in helping your mom bundle and save with progressive, but hey, we're all in this together. right, champ? -i'm getting more nuggets. -how about some carrots? you don't want to ruin your dinner. -you're not my dad! -that's fair. overstepped. when it comes to type 2 diabetes, are you thinking about your heart? well, i'm managing my a1c, so i should be all set. actually, you're still at risk for a fatal heart attack or stroke. that's where jardiance comes in. it reduces the risk of dying from a cardiovascular event for adults who have type 2 diabetes and known heart diseas. that's why the american diabetes association recommends the active ingredient in jardiance. and it lowers a1c? with diet and exercise. jardiance can cause serious side effects including dehydration, genital yeast or urinary tract infections, and sudden kidney problems. ketoacidosis is a serious side effect that may be fatal. a rare, but life-threatening, bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this bacterial infection, ketoacidosis, or an allergic reaction. do not take jardiance if you are on dialysis or have severe kidney problems. taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. so, what do you think? now i feel i can do more to go beyond lowering a1c. ask your doctor about jardiance today. i'm dara brown with the hour's top stories. welcome back to "dateline: extra." i'm craig melvin. pamela fayed seemed ready to expose her husband's questionable business practices. could that have led to her murder? here again is josh mankiewicz. lapd detective salaam abdul-rahman was investigating the murder of a woman in a parking garage. then he learned that not only was pam fayed lock her husband, but that the gold trading company that had generated all the money they were fighting over was now under federal investigation, and that pam was going to turn on her husband and cooperate with prosecutors. >> she was probably going to be a witness against him. he was pretty pissed off about that. >> what potentially were the penalties for mr. and mrs. fayed in that federal case? >> well, potentially they could have had their assets seized, and that was huge. if they had their assets seized, mr. fayed wouldn't have been able to conduct business. >> after a long investigation, federal agents took jim into custody just days after pam was killed. he was charged with operating a money transfer business without a license, and he pleaded not guilty. at the same time, detective abdul rahman continued his investigation into pam's murder, starting not just with the videotape of jim fayed at the time of the murder, but also with some security video of the parking garage exit. >> what we did was that we narrowed it down to the time around when mrs. fayed was killed and the vehicles that were leaving the parking structure. >> in the minutes after the attack, this red suzuki pulls up to the garage exit, the wrong exit. a man holding what seems to be a black hooded sweatshirt gets out of the back seat to check the exit gate before jumping back in. >> we ran the vehicle license check, and we found that one of the vehicles that were leaving the garage was associated with mr. fayed and goldfinger. >> mr. fayed's business. >> yes. >> detectives traced that red suzuki suv to an avis rental car center in camarillo. the car was leased by goldfinger, jim fayed's company. one of jim's nephews had recently relocated to california and had driven the car for about a month until just a few days before the murder. after that, the car was in the care of the fayeds' ranch hand, a man named josé moya. >> investigators say it was moya who was behind the wheel, but on the tape there seemed to be three people in the vehicle. who were they? a month later josé moya was arrested and charged with pam's murder. he pleaded not guilty. it turns out josé moya knew pam. not only did he work on their ranch, he even had his own living quarters on the property. moya knew about the fayeds' gold. he knew where they stored it. he was trusted to transport the gold back and forth from the business to the home in moorpark. >> how well did you know josé moya? >> i knew him pretty well. he was actually -- he was a really nice guy to me. he was a character. every time he'd come into the office, we'd always joke around with each other. he was -- he wasn't someone that i would ever think could be involved in something like this. >> and you liked him. >> i did. >> your mom liked him. >> she was very fond of joey. >> had moya charmed his way into the fayeds' life as a way to gain their trust? was this all part of a bigger plot to kill each of the owners and steal their gold? >> pam's best friend carol recalls how pam talked during the divorce. >> i was on the phone with pamela, and she was really upset. she felt like someone was following her in a truck she did not recognize. i said, are you sure? she says, it's been following me for quite some time. i said, who is it? she goes, i don't know. it's a guy. she kept looking and watching, and they turned off into a parking lot. at that point she could see that it was josé. and she says, why is jose following me? and i said, i don't know, pam. what the hell is going on? you need to call the cops and tell the cops. >> tina holland's last visit with pam was a week and a half before she was killed. >> and i just walked in, and she was out in the back yard, and she was smoking like a train. and she honestly looked like she had lost 15 pounds since two weeks prior. she was in her pajamas. it was 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon. her hair was all crumpled up. she looked horrible. and she said, tina, jim is going to do it. and i said, what are you talking about, pam? and she said, jim is going to have me murdered. >> coming up, could her suspicions be true? detectives take one more look at the tape, the exact moment of the murder. is the answer right in front of them? when "the goldfinger mystery" continues. e, aleve is proven better on pain than tylenol extra strength. and last longer with fewer pills. so why am i still thinking about this? i'll take aleve. aleve. proven better on pain. audible members know listening has the power to change us make us better parents, better leaders, better people. and there's no better place to listen than audible. with audible you get a credit good for any audiobook and exclusive fitness and wellness programs. and now, you'll also get two audible originals: titles exclusively produced for audible. automatically roll your credits over to the next month if you don't use them, and if you don't like a book just swap it for free. enjoy 100% ad free listening in the car, on your phone or any connected device. and when you switch a device pick up right where you left off. with our commitment free guarantee, there's never been a better time to start listening to audible. the most inspiring minds, the most compelling stories, the best place to listen. to start your free 30-day trial, text listen27 to 500500 today. ♪ jim fayed was in a federal lockup facing white collar charges, operating an internet gold business without a money transmitter license. but lapd detective salaam abdul-rahman was investigating whether jim had killed his wife to keep her from cooperating in that federal case. the detective focused on that security video and realized that those grainy pictures were so telling not because of what jim fayed is doing, but because of what jim isn't doing. it's the moment of pam's murder in the parking garage next door, and everyone in the frame starts to react, to move toward the sound of pam fayed's screams. everyone, that is, except jim fayed. he doesn't seem interested. >> is it your belief that at the time surveillance cameras capture mr. fayed sort of walking around the courtyard area, that he knew his wife was being killed at that exact moment? >> yes. the reason i base my belief on that is mr. fayed, when he walks out of the building everyone is interested in what's going on in the parking structure except mr. fayed, because he knows what had just transpired. >> but that apparent disinterest in pam's screams wasn't enough to charge jim with murder. in fact, there was little evidence he had anythi with it. then detective abdul-rahman's phone rang. >> the assistant u.s. attorney tells us that mr. fayed's cellmate wants to talk to whoever is handling the investigation of mrs. fayed's death. >> and what does the cellmate tell you? >> well, the cellmate tells us that mr. fayed had confessed to him that he had hired someone to kill his wife. >> detectives believe that someone was josé moya, the ranch hand. the cellmate also had other informat'sellmate had told us that mr. fayed had tried to set his wife up to be killed four different times. and what was interesting about that was that on one of these occasions, he said that mr. fayed had set up a time when she was at a party in malibu on the fourth of july. >> was pamela fayed at a party in malibu on july 4th? >> yes, she was. and that led to his credibility. so at that time we decided to try to get this conversation on tape. >> so they wired the cellmate for sound, and they heard jim fayed talking about how he had tried to kill his wife but how it just hadn't worked out that time. prosecutor alan jackson. >> james fayed describes in detail how he told the killers about a party that pamela was going to be attending in malibu. according to him, they were simply supposed to carjack her and kill her, and everybody would think that it was just a random act of violence. nobody would know anything the better. >> now with a confession on tape, both jim fayed and jose moya were charged with pam's murder. but there was more work to be done in order to track down the others involved. >> it seems like you pretty quickly fixed on mr. fayed as the only suspect here. and the only question was, since it wasn't his hand on the knife, whose hand was it, and how do you connect that person to him? >> correct. and the first thing we noticed was that there was three individuals in the vehicle that company. so we knew we had three additional suspects besides mr. fayed. now, the only question is how do we tie those three to mr. fayed? and that was done through cell phone searches and also cell site coordination. >> it would take more than a year to to charge two more suspects with murder. in june 2010 steven simmons and gabriel marquez were arrested. prosecutors say jim didn't know them, that moya hired them. investigators say steven was the alleged stabber and gabriel was the lookout. both pleaded not guilty. but amazingly, jim fayed wasn't done with the idea of murder. cellmate had connections, and he wanted to hire a new hit man from jail. >> he wants the ranch hand taken care of. he actually drew out a map that was never found depicting where he can find the ranch hand to actually carry out this murder. and what he wanted to do was have the ranch hand tortured so he can actually tell his cellmate -- or tell the hit man where the other two individuals were. for pam fayed's killing was $25,000. >> he was bankrolling it. >> no question. he commissioned this crime. and that's where the investigation began to lead us. that's where the evidence began to lead us. we knew clearly that he had an alibi for the actual stabbing. he's not the stabber. he's not the actual killer. >> you also knew he had probably a bigger motive than anybody else. >> there were always, in my mind, dual motives for james fayed to contract the murder of his wife. one was the divorce. but one was to silence who he thought was going to be a witness against him. pamela fayed. >> did he just give this hit man that he hired the money and say, go kill my wife? >> james fayed is a control freak. if he's anything, he wants to be in control at all times, which is why he didn't want his wife, pamela, doing anything having to do with transfer licenses. the same m.o. is what drove this contract killing. >> and investigators believe that jim fayed exhibited that need for control as he planned his wife's murder. he focused, they believe, on a particular fear of pam's. >> it was discovered that she had a phobia about knives. and she had believed that she -- if she was killed, that she was going to be killed by someone with a knife. >> who expresses a belief that if they' kleke somebody who almost is foretelling their own death. >> it's also my belief that mr. fayed knew that -- knew of his wife's phobia with knives, and that was one of the reasons that a knife was used. >> you think it's no accident that pamela fayed was killed with a knife. you think her husband deliberately not just had her killed, but had her killed in the way that she was most frightened of? >> that's my belief. >> jim fayed was to go on trial for murder and conspiracy to commit murder. if convicted, he was facing the death penalty. the jury would learn about all the evidence investigators collected. they would hear from witnesses and, of course, from jim fayed himself in his own words, in what his attorney would claim was simply a performance for an audience of one. ♪ ♪ protect your pets from fleas and ticks with frontline plus for dogs and frontline plus for cats. its two killer ingredients work fast and keep working all month long preventing new flea infestations on your pet. frontline plus. the number 1 name in flea and tick protection. have a skincare routine. but what about a lip care routine? pay your lips some attention. the chapstick total hydration collection. naturally enhance your lips. chapstick. put your lips first. and now with the conclusion of "the goldfinger mystery," here again is josh mankiewicz. >> on may 4th, 2011, jim fayed found himself in a los angeles courtroom, accused of being the mastermind behind the plot to kill his wife. his federal charges involving financial crimes were dropped when the state of california decided to try him for capital murder. prosecutors alan jackson and eric harman laid out their case. >> it's not your typical love story or boy meets girl, but instead it's a love story where boy meets gold. it's that greed, that love of gold, that caused this man, james michael fayed, to have his wife murdered for financial gain. >> prosecutors offered this snapshot of the fayeds' riches during the short time they ran their business. >> so mr. fayed found a niche, which is transferring money for only a 2% fee, which was highly, highly competitive and lucrative. so those of you who are good at math, you'll know that that's approximately $20 million in fees that went to goldfinger between 2001 and 2008, making a lot of money. >> but the good times didn't last. the company was under indictment. pam was cooperating with federal investigators. and the couple were getting divorced. >> they were going to be divorced. so the marriage was over no matter what. and the relationship was over. >> jim fayed's attorney, mark werksman, says none of that was a motive for murder. >> but they did have a business that was a viable, lucrative business, and it was worth maintaining. and if she hadn't been murdered, presumably they would have come to some settlement over the assets and some division of the property involved in the business. >> jim fayed did not testify. and he didn't make werksman's defense any easier. the prosecution's smoking gun was that tape made by police and a cooperative cellmate. >> i told you, she knew her boundaries. she -- she -- she ran her mouth too much. she -- she ran out of control. she started running her mouth. >> about your business. >> if she'd kept her mouth shut, yeah. >> on the tape, jim describes how he hired someone to kill pam and set up several scenarios to make that happen. but he says it was one missed opportunity after another. >> there was four different other occasions where i had it so it was perfectly clean. >> such as? no cameras? >> yeah. such as walking out of a july 4th party down in malibu at a friend's house with 100 other people. >> they [ bleep ] could've just [ bleep ] done it then. >> yeah. i even had the times, the dates, everything, the location. all he had to do was sit there, wait for her to get in the car, and jack it. and everybody at the party would have said, oh, yeah, she went home. >> jim's attorney says that conversation is all just play acting. >> jim would contend that he was conned into playing along with this cellmate in order to avoid appearing weak or vulnerable and that he was simply trying to make a favorable impression on this tough guy in this tough environment where he had to appear tough in order to survive. >> but on the tape, jim told his cellmate how he wished he could have done the deed himself. >> i was waiting and waiting and waiting to figure something out. i wanted -- i just wanted to do it myself, but i knew i'd never [ bleep ] be able to get away with it. never. you know what i mean? >> and prosecutors played the tape of what they said was jim trying to hire that second hit man to murder the first one and anyone else that might have been in on the plot for what would have been, they said, another $25,000. >> it should get done by next week or so. he'll go on out there and get that fool and put him -- take him down and [ bleep ] ask him some questions. and i'm sure he'll be more than obliged to tell him anything he wants to know. >> make sure all loose ends are han -- >> there you go. >> -- are clean. or make sure all loose ends are sewed up. >> it took the jury less than three days to find jim fayed guilty. he also received the death penalty. left behind are two daughters struggling, essentially orphaned by the greed of a man they once loved and trusted. >> i almost feel as if he doesn't feel bad or maybe he's embarrassed. i'm not sure. i can't -- i can't say that. i honestly feel like he lost himself as a human being. he's a shell. he has no moral compass. he's completely off. he's not a person anymore. he's not a human being. >> anything you want to say to him if he's watching this? >> i just want to ask why. why? what was he thinking? did he not think this would affect me and jeanette? i mean, i want to know why he thought it was okay for him to do this. i feel like money and power is what got to him. >> and he cared more about money and power than he did about -- >> his own family. >> that's all for this edition "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. thanks for watching. >> this is "dateline. ♪. this is a tragedy on top of a tragedy now. >> it happened so quickly. their parents in the backyard spa. their mom in trouble. >> my dad just panicked. >> a sudden slip. a fatal fall. >> you're losing your mother. you're watching her go right in front of you. >> someone else was watching her too. >> it was scary. the look on his face was almost undescribable. >> what had she seen? was this drowning really an accident? >> she's got a huge gash on her