Transcripts For MSNBCW Dateline 20200102 : comparemela.com

She had been having an affair 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 he made one of the worst mistakes id 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 to him. A crack in everything. Hello and welcome to dateline extra. Im craig melvin. It seemed like an idyllic smalltown life. Brad and Lisa Jennings had been married nearly two decades and ran the farm that had been in the family for more than a century and a half. There were movie nights with the kids, family vacations. But there were also latenight arguments. So what happened on that tragic evening in the jennings home . Heres keith morrison. Reporter 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. Reporter 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 pickpied up walnuts. They were inseparable children, brad and his older sister marcia. He was my playmate. We depended on each other. Reporter 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. Reporter there were three kids. Amanda, 16 that Christmas Eve. Dallas, who was 11 then. Lacey, lisas daughter 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. Reporter brad loved cars, especially classic muscle cars and extra specially the 1970 chevelle super sport hed so carefully restored. By the time he was 12, he was redoing motors and helping put motors in and out of different vehicles. Reporter so brad opened a used car dealership. He was a great people person, and i guess thats what you have to be when you deal cars and stuff. Reporter 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 to be around. Reporter while brad ran the farm and his car business, lisa worked at a local internet company. She was really good at it, and she became like their top employee. Reporter 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. Reporter 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 weeks or something. Mostly later in the evening, at night after theyd 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. Reporter anyway, now it was that calamitous Christmas Eve 2006. As always, there had been a happy dinner celebration with brads side of the family. Christmas eve we would go to my grandmas there in town. Reporter and then back home, games and stocking stuffing and, of course wake up real early and open all the presents. Reporter 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. Reporter it was well after midnight when they heard the raised voices downstairs. I heard, you know, the yelling and everything, just like a normal fight like they would always have. Reporter and then a door slammed, which meant that brad had gone out to his workshop to cool down. But lacey, hope 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. Lacey was just fed up, was she . Yeah. She couldnt believe they would fight on christmas. Reporter then more doorslamming and lacey 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. Well, he was outside. He does that a lot. Hell go outside and go out to his shop. Reporter 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. Reporter their mother was dead. Of that there was no doubt. But how and why and who . Coming up, what had happened in that bedroom . That was the first time i had ever seen him cry. I didnt realize the gravity of it. I thought there had been an accident, and she was on the way to the hospital. The truth would be much worse. Did you have any inkling, any suspicion that brad might have had something to do with it . When a crack in everything continues. Sometimes your small screen is your big screen. And with the Xfinity Stream app, which is free with your service, you can take a spin through on demand shows, or stream live tv. Download your dvrd shows and movies on the fly. Even record from right where you are. Whether youre travelling around the country or around the house, keep what you watch with you. Download the Xfinity Stream app and watch all the shows you love. Welcome back. Anger, slammed doors and raised voices. Brad and Lisa Jennings were no strangers to loud fights in their home. And the night before christmas was no different. But unlike past arguments, this one ended with lisa dead on the floor and a frantic call to 911. Investigators rushed to the scene. The first item on their agenda, find out who fired that gun. Here again is keith morrison. Reporter dallas jennings was only 11 that awful Christmas Morning in 2006, the morning he lost his mother, and its probably a blessing that something in his brain has blocked the memory. A lot of it is a blur to me. Reporter 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. What, just huddled together in there . Did you talk much . Just shock and mostly silence. I remember dallas kept saying she was 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 time id ever seen him cry. Reporter news of this sort spreads very fast, but often in confused or incomplete or fuzzy bits. So when brads sister marcia 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. Reporter 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 bedroom floor, his handgun nearby. So deputies tested lisas hands for gunshot residue. They did the same with brad and lacey. That, to tell them who fired the gun. And . Lisas right hand tested positive for gunshot residue. Brad and lacey 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. Reporter brad and lee iss brotherinlaw, paul bryan was stricken. What did they miss . All the kids loved aunt lisa. She was just fun. Reporter 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. Under her roof. That spent the night. It was fine with her. Yeah, she loved it. Reporter but now this accommodating, funloving woman was dead. It was all very shocking. And its 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. Reporter 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. Reporter in fact, after all 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, no reason to think it was anything other than what the coroner and the sheriff said it was . Absolutely not. Reporter but there were others in the family, and they were not so sure. It started 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. He said, im here to investigate the murder of Lisa Jennings. I said, what are you talking about, murder . And an 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 . When a crack in everything continues. These folks dont have time to go to the post office they use stamps. Com all the services of the post office only cheaper get a 4week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again. Welcome back. All signs pointed to suicide as the cause of Lisa Jennings death. Yes, brad admitted he and his wife had been arguing, but after tests revealed gunshot residue on one of her hands and no one elses, the sheriff, the coroner, the prosecutor all agreed, officially ruling that lisa had killed herself. Even so, some in her family believe she was the victim of foul play. Lisas sister was about to take those suspicions to authorities. But could suspicions ignite an investigation . Once again, heres keith morrison. Reporter its 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 he do this . He was a mess. Reporter all 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 lacey 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. Reporter no, they didnt. But lisas younger sister, shawn, was talking. She saw a rocky marriage, and her sister would not be a person who would have 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. Reporter she lucked into a highly experienced detective named dan nash. Longtime investigator who has been involved in several highprofile murder cases in the ozarks. Reporter and when Sergeant Nash took one look at that file, something forensic seemed off. He was inclined to agree with shawn. It 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. Reporter three months after that Christmas Eve, investigator nash grove over to brads farm and 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 bathrobe 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 bathrobe, 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. Reporter then a month later this was april now the sheriff came to call at dale potters gun and pawn. And he says, im here to seize the jennings gun. Reporter then a few weeks after that, a guy in a tshirt and khakis walked in. Told me he was a sergeant with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, and he said, im here to investigate the murder of Lisa Jennings. I said, what are you talking about, murder . It was in the paper, you know. It was ruled a suicide. And he said, no. He killed her. Reporter 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. I said, was she . He said, yes, and we can prove it. I said, that explains a lot. He said, you mean why he killed her . I said, no, why she did this. Maybe everything caught up with her, you know . Reporter 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 hiss f hisself. And he goes, youre full of crap. Her dads alive. And i go, no, youre full of crap. Her stepdad lives at wendiville. Her real dad kills himself in kansas years ago. Reporter another family suicide . An affair . Just where was this investigation going . Coming up, a determined detective. He looked at me and told me straightup, ive never been wrong. Never been wrong . Never been wrong. Was this investigator dan nash . It was. A confused friend. Two or three Highway Patrol sergeants and the sheriff stopped him and arrested him, took him to the county jail. What did you think . I thought they made one of the worst mistakes id ever heard of. When a crack in everything continues. S. Hello. Im cori coffin. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says hell Ask Parliament to grant him immunity from prosecution in the Corruption Cases against him. He was indicted only charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. Nine people are dead and thousands have been evacuated in the indonesian capital of jakarta where monsoon rains triggered the citys worst flooding in years. Heavy rain is expected to continue there for the next three days. Now back to dateline extra. Welcome back to dateline extra. Im craig melvin. Lisa jennings died on christmas. Her death had once been ruled a suicide. But th