Transcripts For MSNBCW Dateline 20191012 : comparemela.com

With her boss. The Prosecutor Says, after he shot his wife he washed his hands and washed his forearms. They called us back at noon and started the trial. I thought they made one of the worst mistakes i had ever heard of. It was obvious there was something that just wasnt right. The only thing ive ever wanted was for everyone to hear the truth. I told him that i would fight with everything i had in me. Thats the promise i made, too. Hello. Welcome to dateline. For many the Holiday Season is a special time, but for the Jennings Family one Christmas Eve turned into a waking nightmare. There was an argument followed by a gunshot, then a frantic call to police. Lisa jennings was dead. The question for detectives was, did she take her own life or was this murder . Here is Keith Morrison with a crack in everything. It was his secret that started it, a secret gift. It was Christmas Eve in the year 2006. A little farm not far from a little town called buffalo. Buffalo, missouri. And on that farm in the fine, new house brad and Lisa Jennings had built for their family, the stockings were hung, the children were snug in their beds, and lisa was sitting up very late, drinking wine and crying. Meaning . Well, who knew. But for one thing, with lisa in the way brad couldnt sneak that secret of his into her stocking, which is what started it, the flaring argument, the slamming doors, the sudden silence. Before amanda woke up to the sound of her dad on 911. And hes very hysterical, you know. Hes hes crying, cant really say anything other than get here quick, get here quick. I heard that two or three times. Such a complicated tale with its secrets and lies and shifting loyalties, and here, of all places, this throwback to an idealized past. We hunted mushrooms, we picked up walnuts. They were inseparable children, brad and his older sister marcia. He was my playmate. We depended on each other. Marcia became a nurse, brad ran the farm, the center of their family since 1853. That christmas 2006 brad and lisa had been married 18 mostly happy years. We had a fairly good life. There were three kids. Amanda, 16 that Christmas Eve. Dallas, who was 11 then. Lacy, lisas datughter from a first marriage, was 19 and had just moved into her own place in town and, as amanda said, life was fairly good. We would do lots of things. Go on vacation a lot. Go out and eat. My dad made pretty good money so we were good on that end. Seemed like a very good and stable environment. Brad loved cars, especially classic muscle cars, and extra especially the 1970 chevelle super sport he so carefully restored. By the time he was 12 he was redoing motors and helping put motors in and out of different vehicles. So brad opened a used car dealership. He was a great people person. I guess thats what you have to be when you deal with cars and stuff. And their mom, lisa . Very pretty. She could be really happy and like a sort of like the life of the party kind of person. Yeah, really fun. While brad ran the farm and his car business, lisa work at a local internet company. She was really good at it. And she became, like, their top employee. At home lisa was the mom who actually liked video games, with dallas mostly. Video games and movies. We had a big Projector Screen that we would put on the wall and like watch movies really big. Did it seem like a happy household overall . Yeah. But, of course, there is, as Leonard Cohen used to sing, a crack in everything, and in the jennings house those were the sudden blowups when the mood went dark and the kids scattered. They would fight maybe once every couple of weeks or something. Mostly later in the evening, at night after they had been drinking, there would be yelling and maybe slamming doors, things like that, but just arguing about anything, nothing. I never really thought too much about it. Anyway, now it was that calamitous Christmas Eve 2006. Christmas eve we would go to my grandmas there in town. And then back home, games and stocking stuffing and, of course i wake up real early and open all of the presents. Lisa had no idea that brad had bought her a 3,500 diamond ring, got the kids to help him pick it out. Back from grandmas he waited for his chance to hide it in her stocking, but lisa kept fiddling on the computer and the kids were playing a board game. I think it was monopoly. We just played downstairs for a while and then eventually went up to our rooms. It was well after midnight when they heard the raised voices downstairs. I heard, you know, the yelling and everything, a normal fight like they would always have. And then a door slammed, which meant that brad had gone out to his workshop to cool down, but lacy, home for the holiday, was furious. Another fight and this one on Christmas Eve no less and as usual over some stupid little thing . She was done. And so my sister decided to go downstairs and get into it with her. I think one of the last things i remember my mom even saying was something like, i would never disrespect my parents that way. Lacy was just fed up, was she . Yes, she just couldnt believe they would fight on christmas. Then more door slamming and lacy was out of there. She went back to her house in buffalo. So by the time she left your dad was outside in the workshop, although you didnt really know where he was, right . Well, he was outside. He does that a lot. He will go outside and go out to the shop. So amanda sighed and closed her eyes and drifted off. And then sometime after 1 30 a. M. That loud, frantic sound, her father on 911. She ran downstairs to her parents bedroom. I opened the door and, you know, i see her laying there and my dad is kneeling next to her, and as soon as i had opened the door he gets up and kind of pulls me out of the room and hes hugging me and crying. Their mother was dead. Of that there was no doubt. But how and why and who . Coming up what had happened in that bedroom . I didnt realize the gravity of it. I thought there had been an accident and she was on the way to the hospital. Announcer the truth would be much worse. Did you have any inkling, any suspicion that brad might have had something to do with this . Announcer when dateline continues. Announcer when d continues. Oh, come on. Flo dont worry. Youre covered. dramatic music and youre saving money, because you bundled home and auto. Sarah, get in the house. Were all here for you. All all day, all night. dramatic music great job speaking calmly and clearly everyone. Thats how you put a customer at ease. Hey, did anyone else hear weird voices while they were in the corn . No. No. Me either. Whispering voice jamie. What . Have a skincare routine. But what about a lip care routine . Pay your lips some attention. The chapstick total hydration collection. Exfoliate nourish naturally enhance your lips. Chapstick. Put your lips first. Dallas jennings was only 11 that awful Christmas Morning in 2006, the morning he lost his mother, and it is probably a blessing that something in his brain has blocked the memory. A lot of it is a blur to me. Amanda, 16 at the time, remembers every dreadful detail. Just shock. Obviously very upset, but didnt know what to do, you know. Yeah. It was very hard. And the ambulance arrived and the policemen. They all arrived and we had to leave the house so they could do all their work. So we went outside and waited in my truck because it was cold out. Just huddled together in there . Did you talk much . Just shock and mostly silence. I remember dallas kept saying, shes going to be okay. He didnt really know what had happened because he didnt see her or nothing and no one was really saying what happened, and my dad was just sitting over in the passenger seat, just a mess, and that was the first time i had ever seen him cry. News of this sort spreads very fast, but often in confused or incomplete or fuzzy bits. So when brads sister marsha heard something happened at the farm i didnt realize the gravity of it. I thought there had been an accident and she was on the way to the hospital. It was anything but an accident. Lisa was gone, dead at 39, killed by a bullet at close range to the head. Brad told local sheriffs deputies how he argued with lisa, then went out to his workshop to cool off, and when he came back in maybe 20 minutes later he found her on the bead room floor, his handgun nearby. So deputies tested lisas hands for gunshot residue. They did the same with brad and lacy. That to tell them who fired the gun and lisas right hand tested positive for gunshot residue. Brad and lacy came out negative, meaning, it seemed to the coroner, that lisa for reasons unknown must have killed herself. Did it make sense to you that she would commit suicide . Nothing made sense to me that night. Yeah, i bet. I had heard statements, you know, that she was troubled about reaching 40. She had had cosmetic surgery. Could be a red flag. Brad and lisas brotherinlaw paul bryan was stricken. What did they miss . All of the kids loved aunt lisa. She was just fun. Lisa had seemed so together. She loved family events, loved having kids around. There was never a time that lisa did not want the kids to spend the night or to stay, and she might end up with five or six different children that under her roof . Spent the night. It was fine with her . Yeah, she loved it. Now this accommodating, funloving woman was dead. It was all very shocking. And it is not like youve had a long illness or something to get prepared. This was just sudden and yeah. The idea that she would commit suicide so abruptly and violently like that . That wasnt something that would be expected, no. But, of course, the alternative was really quite unthinkable. Did you have any inkling, any suspicion that brad might have had something to do with this . I had none. Brad called me on Christmas Morning, and you could tell he was still terribly distraught. So that morning i came over, and he told me the whole story and, no, it never crossed my mind. In fact, after all of the Lab Test Results were in, the Dallas County sheriff and coroner and prosecutor all officially ruled lisas death suicide. The local newspaper, the buffalo reflex quoted the prosecutor who said, there is zero evidence to show otherwise. So you had no sense anyway, to reason to think it was anything other than what the coroner and the sheriff said it was . Absolutely not. But there were others in the family, and they were not so sure. Announcer it starts with suspicion. Lisas sister feels compelled to share what she knows. Coming up she went to the Missouri State Highway Patrol to express their belief that this, in fact, was a murder. Announcer and the investigators prime suspect . Brad jennings. He started asking me questions about brad, and he goes, what did jennings say to you about his wife having an affair. Announcer when dateline continues. Affair. Announcer when dateline continues. Make fitness routine with pure protein. High protein. Low sugar. Tastes great high protein. Low sugar. So good high protein. Low sugar. Mmmm, birthday cake pure protein. The best combination for every fitness routine. G it is a sweet little piece of america, buffalo, missouri. Population 3,000 or so, where people tend to know each others business, and where brad could have a best friend he met when they were both in diapers. So, of course, dale potter rushed over to see brad that very Christmas Morning. He just kept saying, why, dale, why did she do this . He was a mess. All of those guns you see in the background there . Dale owns buffalos only gun and pawn shop. So when lisas death was declared to be suicide and the sheriff returned brads gun, the one that killed her, brad called dale. He said, i dont really want the gun back. I cant imagine why he would. He said, do you want it . I said, yeah, i do. I cleaned it up. I just put it in the safe and forgot about it. And the family tried to move on and didnt pay much attention when lacy began saying odd things. You know, when mom was murdered, blah, blah, blah. Murdered . Not that it was anything like an accusation or aggressive or unfriendly. She didnt act any different with dad. She still came around. He still helped her. But sometimes the smaller your town the less you know about what your neighbors are saying behind your back. Nothing in your face, nothing like that. It was way more subtle than that. How do you mean . Probably everyone else was talking about it, but they didnt talk to us about it. No, they didnt. But lisas younger sister shawn was talking. She saw a rocky marriage and her sister would not be a person who committed suicide. This is steve polken, writes a column in the springfield news leader called poking around, which he did, and discovered that lisas sister shawn got busy soon after the deadly Christmas Morning. In early january she went to the office of the Missouri State Highway Patrol to express their belief that this in fact was a murder. She lucked into a highlyexperienced detective named dan nash. Longtime investigator who has been involved in several highprofile murder cases in the ozarks. And when Sergeant Nash took one look at that file, something forensic seemed off. He was inclined to agree with shawn. Didnt look like suicide at all. He was just struck by the fact that if Lisa Jennings had shot herself using her right hand that there would be more blowback from that wound than one drop of blood. Three months after that Christmas Eve, investigator nash drove over to brads farm. Told him he was looking at the case again. And wanted the bath robe that mr. Jennings was wearing that night. The robe he had on when he said he found lisa dead and held her in his arms. Why three months later would a bath robe be of any use at all . Surely it had been cleaned or something after this event. Apparently it had not. Oh. Mr. Jennings had spent little time going back into that bedroom from where from his perspective his wife had taken her life. So brad gave nash the black bath robe and, sure enough, it still had blood on it. So they ran some tests and kept in touch with brad. He was questioned a couple of times. Then a month later this was april now the sheriff came to call at dale potters gun and pawn. And he said, im here to seize the jennings gun. Then a few weeks after that a guy in a tee shirt and khakis walked in. Told me he was a sergeant with the Missouri State Highway Patrol and said, im here to investigate the murder of Lisa Jennings. I said, what are you talking about, murder . It was in the paper, it was ruled a suicide. And he said, no, he killed her. But that wasnt all. Then he goes, what did jennings say to you about his wife having an affair . I said, he never said a word to me about his wife having an affair. Why, was she . He said, yes, and we can prove it. I said, well, that explains a lot. He said, you mean why he killed her . I said, no, why she did this. I said maybe everything caught up with her, you know. Meaning, thought dale, something about the affair pushed her over the edge. Then dale offered the sergeant a Little Family history. I said, you do know, dont you, that her dad killed himself. He goes, youre full of crap. He said her dad is alive, and he lives at windyville. I said, no, youre full of crap. Her stepdad lives at windyville. Her real dad killed himself out in kansas years ago. Another family suicide . An affair . Just where was this investigation going . Coming up a determined detective. He looked at me and told me straight up, ive never been wrong. And a confused friend. What did you think . I thought they made one of the worst mistakes i had ever heard of. When dateline continues. Heard of. When dateline continues i cant believe it. What . That our new house is haunted by casper the friendly ghost . Hey jill hey kurt movies . Ill get snacks no, i cant believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on our Car Insurance with geico. I got snacks ohhh, i got popcorn, i got caramel corn, i got kettle corn. Am i chewing too loud . Believe it geico could save you fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance. Here here here here being here matters but the cold and flu keeps some students from being here up to 60 million days every year. Introducing here for Healthy Schools a new program from lysol, dedicated to curbing the spread of illness in classrooms by teaching Healthy Habits and partnering with a smart thermometer company. Learn about our mission at lysol. 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