face of the earth. >> reporter: a baffling disappearance. where was he? >> my dad is not just a missing person, he has three sons, he has a wife. >> i was very afraid that something terrible was wrong. and i got scared. >> reporter: the clues, a missing mercedes. a handprint in blood. and a "musical chairs" of secret affairs. >> we have multiple love affairs? >> yes. there's more women, there's more lovers involved in this whole thing. >> reporter: was this beauty hiding something deadly? >> i wanted to get away. i was scared. >> reporter: how would this hollywood story end? >> i was in fear for my family's life! i'm too young to lose my dad! >> like who are these people? >> reporter: "dark valley." hello and welcome to "dateline" extra. i'm craig melvin. success seemed to find davin smith. a star athlete in college and then an actor turned hollywood movie executive who always made time for his adoring kids. so when gavin vanished his loved ones were at a loss. at first investigators were, too. unsure if he up and 4re679 or if gavin was a victim of foul play. soon his wife revealed that the missing father held dark secrets, and all was not as sunny as it might have appeared. here's keith morrison. >> reporter: there is a kind of peace here. here in her own chosen exile. the vast pacific for company. how else to live with what's impossible to understand or forget. what began that sunny afternoon far away in southern california's san fernando valley, early may 2012. >> something was really wrong, but a lot more wrong than i could imagine. >> reporter: it was the boy who knew it first, knew something was wrong. his dad was supposed to take him to school that morning. but after school -- >> i was to go to the school and pick him up after basketball practice. when i showed up, he said, "daddy didn't pick me up this morning." and i said, "what?" he said, "daddy didn't show up this morning." >> reporter: it can happen. busy families. people forget. the boy got to school some other way. >> he said he called a friend from around the corner. >> reporter: or sometimes things fall apart. >> the situation sounded too crazy. love affairs, love triangles, drug dealers, it just sounded too outlandish. >> reporter: once those stable, loving pieces have flown apart, how do they come together again? >> somebody is going to walk away from this who maybe you wish wasn't going to walk away. >> exactly. >> how do people sleep at night? how do they live with themselves? >> reporter: but that afternoon lisa smith knew instantly, something must be wrong. her husband gavin was a dedicated father. >> nothing that would keep him from picking up his kid ever. >> reporter: because gavin was so good at these things, said his sister tara addeo, he was so impressive, so tall. >> you both got the tall gene, right? >> we did. >> whole family. >> whole family. >> reporter: gavin was the tallest, 6'6." >> he walked in a room, you noticed him. you wanted to gravitate to him. he was a magnet. >> reporter: he played basketball for legendary coach john wooden, ucla, 1975. he was a forward. it was wooden's final championship team. >> just to be on that team was pretty fantastic, it was a once in a lifetime. >> reporter: and then he drifted a bit. worked as a golf caddie and this being los angeles, and he a good-looking, towering athlete. people noticed him, movie people. >> they gave him a couple of roles. and he got the bug. >> reporter: the acting bug. first as a body double back on the basketball court in the movie "inside moves" and then as a bartender in "cobb." >> congrats, al! four pieces in national magazines this month. >> reporter: when he met lisa, he was acting, but also waiting tables. >> he twinkled. he was just charming. i was thrilled that he asked me for my number. >> reporter: they married. had three sons together. and with a growing family to support, gavin gave up acting and took a job on the business side at twentieth century fox, eventually as a film distribution executive. >> fox is a wonderful company to work for, and he loved it. it was film. >> reporter: first place lisa called when gavin failed to pick up their son. was he at work that day? >> they told me he just hadn't shown up to work. gavin, in 18 years had never ever not shown up to work. >> reporter: so then lisa, very worried now, went to the lost hills sheriff station to report gavin missing and waited and waited. days later, gavin's family went on nbc4 in los angeles to plead for help. >> i'm not going to stop until i find him, so please help me find him. >> if you guys just want to each pick up one of these streets. >> now i'm in panic mode. we've got to do something. >> what did that feel like being in that spot? >> oh, it was surreal. >> reporter: the smith family put together a $20,000 reward for any information leading to gavin's whereabouts. nothing turned up. >> and i would think with every hour that went by, it would be more and more dire and darker for you, right? >> it's very dark. it's very, very dark. >> reporter: it wasn't just the family having dark thoughts. >> they don't normally call a couple of seasoned homicide detectives to look into a missing person's case. >> they do when there are some suspicious circumstances. >> reporter: and in this case, they called in sheriff detectives ty labbe and his partner john o'brien. >> his phone was missing. there was no use of it. we checked his bank accounts from the time that he was missing. we checked his medical insurance to see if he had checked himself into a hospital. that never showed any activity. he was completely dropped off the face of the earth. >> reporter: but then, out of nowhere, a sighting. hundreds of miles north of los angeles, a businessman visiting california's central coast said he saw gavin smith and a beautiful woman at a cash-only taco restaurant in morro bay. >> i happened to click on the link, saw the photo, and i said, oh, boy! >> reporter: the waitress corroborated the story. >> he was sitting here, she was sitting right here. >> reporter: gavin's sister tara raced up the coast to the restaurant. >> and i said, here's my brother's picture. did you see him? >> and? >> no. that was truly heartbreaking to me. >> reporter: it was all a big mistake. but it wasn't the last of the sightings. people seemed to see gavin smith everywhere. >> because he kind of stands out in the photo, you know, big, white smile, tan face, tall guy, pretty much every tall, tan, blonde-haired man was getting spotted as being gavin smith. >> reporter: weeks, months passed. no sign of gavin. and with no answers, lisa was forced to reveal something publicly, something painful and maybe crucial. coming up -- what happened to gavin smith? >> it didn't make sense to me. it's so -- i just kept -- no. it can't be. it can't be. >> said i think this is suicide and then we go i think this is a murder. our gut instincts were going different ways. >> i wondered if she had something to do with this. it crossed our minds all the time. somehow, it kept playing back, why won't you search? why? >> when "dark valley" continues. . frustrated that clean clothes you want to wear always seem to need an iron? next time try bounce wrinkle guard dryer sheets. just toss it in the dryer to bounce out wrinkles. we dried these shorts with bounce wrinkle guard, and a pair without. the bounce wrinkle guard shorts have fewer wrinkles and static, and more softness. it's the world's first mega sheet that does the job of three dryer sheets. it also comes in unscented. if you don't love bounce wrinkle guard, we'll give you your money back. welcome back to "dateline" extra. gavin smith's family was distraught after the 57-year-old larger than life dad vanished. how could the hard to miss 6'6" disappear? detectives were about to discover secrets. gavin had a troubled part. continuing our story, here's keith morrison. >> reporter: gavin smith, as just about anybody could see, was his family's golden boy. his sister tara grew up in his aura, idolized him. he, of all people, should not just up and vanish. >> it didn't make sense to me. and so i just kept, no, it can't be. it can't be. i just kept hoping. i did everything i could. >> reporter: but even as she ran down leads herself, it seemed to tara that lisa, her sister-in-law, gavin's wife, wasn't searching. >> so he disappeared, and you couldn't give up on the possibility he was out there somewhere and lisa could. and i wondered whether there were ever sort of dark nights to your soul where you thought i wondered if she had something to do with this. >> it crossed our minds all the time. it just did. i mean, did i think that she could ever be the one responsible, the physical? no. but somehow it kept playing back, why won't you search. why? the only way somebody doesn't look for you is if you already know definitively -- >> yeah. >> -- they're no longer living. >> and you must have a reason for knowing that. >> that's what i would assume. >> reporter: and it turned out lisa did know something, just not what tara suspected. there were secrets, which lisa and gavin kept hidden. >> i was the love of gavin's life. he adored me. our family was exactly what he wanted to have. he just got lost. >> reporter: lost. it all started in the early '80s, even before she met gavin, when he was a stuntman on the tv series "remington steele." he played a shooting victim falling from a second story window. the stunt went wrong, and he broke his back. >> he would get pain pills for his back. so usually percocet, something like that for pain. when that didn't work anymore, he was prescribed oxycontin, and he was addicted to it. >> reporter: he went to a drug rehab center called the matrix institute here in the san fernando valley. >> he clearly stopped using. he was feeling healthier than he had felt in years. >> reporter: but when detectives john o'brien and ty labbe learned about gavin's addiction, they had to consider a raft of new possibilities. >> he disappeared. maybe he overdosed. we didn't exactly have any of those answers. >> driving all over the valley, we would have moments in the car of where we looked at each other and said, "i think this is a suicide." and then an hour later, we'd interview somebody or something would happen, and we'd go, "i think this is a murder." and our feelings and our gut instincts were going different ways very early on very fast. >> yeah. it's got to be pretty unusual though? >> it was very confusing. >> reporter: confusing for lisa too, because here was another secret, the smiths were underwater on their mortgage. on the verge of losing their home. >> we were in a horrible position financially. >> reporter: lisa discovered that before he disappeared, gavin had been taking money from his retirement account and recklessly blowing through his six-figure salary. and there were other signs of strain in the family. in april 2012, a month before gavin disappeared, his son evan wrote this message on twitter. "thoughts and prayers out to my amazing mom and brothers, please. my dad decided to leave the family last night. real family sticks together." sister tara spoke with gavin at the time. >> he was struggling with losing what he had come to know and love for so many years, and that was his family unit. >> uh-huh. >> and he didn't want to hurt those boys. and that's what he kept saying, i don't want to be without them. >> reporter: but as much as he loved his boys, detectives learned, gavin had been unfaithful to his wife, had been seeing a woman named melanie, and now that gavin had disappeared without a trace -- >> we went to talk to her and to see if she had any information. >> did she? >> no. the relationship had ended, and she had not talked to him, and she had no idea where he was at. >> reporter: but though melanie was the reason gavin moved out of his house a month before he vanished, she was not his first affair. there had also been a woman named chandy. that relationship was years in the past, but phone records showed gavin called her on may 1st, the day before he disappeared. cops tracked her down, too. >> what did she tell you? >> she acknowledged the prior affair, and she said that she had not been in contact with him for some time, but then they started communicating via e-mail. >> and that would explain the fact that he called her on the phone? >> yes. >> reporter: but chandy said she didn't see him may 1st, hadn't heard from him since. last sighting? a colleague saw him driving his black mercedes. >> we felt that the vehicle was still out there somewhere. >> reporter: so find the car, and maybe find out what happened to gavin. and nine months after gavin vanished, they finally got the break they were looking for. >> i said, "i'm here to talk to you about your daughter." and he started crying. and he said, she saw everything. >> reporter: coming up. >> we waited until she showed up and kind of surprised her. very nervous. startled. >> a new witness and a game changer of a clue. >> i kissed my partner on the cheek. it was pretty exciting. big piece of evidence. huge moment. >> you think you can't be shocked. but you can be. >> when "dark valley" continues. . ♪ ♪ ♪ everything your trip needs for everyone you love. expedia. for everyone you love. us lives here. where we can be surprised by others. and ourselves. for a better us, donate to your local y today. welcome back. as california investigators tried to make sense of gavin smith's mysterious disappearance they learned that gavin had troubles he kept hidden. the man who seemed to have it all struggled with adridiction d serious financial problems. detectives were far from answers, but that would change when someone gave them a name that led to a crucial discovery. here's keith morrison with more. >> reporter: like it or not it's a fact, an element of human nature. some people have affairs. some of them just flings and others a lot. as they poked through his life. one name kept popping up. chandy. her full name, chandrika creech. she'd already told the detectives that she and gavin had an affair years earlier. and that he called her right before he vanished. but now, nine months after gavin disappeared, the detectives got a tip. her father knew more. >> chandy's dad started telling a tale about something his daughter may have seen, and he was distraught and wanted to talk about it. and he said, "well, you know reina?" i go, "yeah, i know the name." >> reporter: reina lim. she lived with chandy. she took care of chandy's grandmother. chandy's dad said reina knew something, something important. >> and he goes, "i think she knows where the car is." >> reporter: the elusive mercedes. detective labbe and his partner john o'brien drove out to see reina. >> we just waited till she showed up, and we kind of surprised her. >> that's what you guys do, right? >> you know sometimes it works better that way, yeah. she was very nervous and startled and wasn't quite sure what to do. but ultimately she provided us with the paperwork for the storage locker. >> reporter: reina's storage locker. it was a kbig one. 10 feet by 20. >> we rolled the door up and the only thing in it was a black mercedes benz with no license plates on it. >> wow. >> huge moment. >> reporter: a black mercedes sedan. had to be gavin smith's. >> i kissed my partner on the cheek. that's a true story. it was a big piece of evidence. and we were able to get closer and able to see that our entire crime scene, in our opinion, was inside that car. >> reporter: crime scene? yes. suddenly all other theories seemed to fall away. >> the passenger's seat was completely covered in blood. and at one point it was very eerie when you looked at the blood and you could see a handmark of gavin smith as he died in that seat. >> reporter: soon the news reached gavin's family. tara was devastated. >> there's no going back from that. >> there is no going back. >> you accepted it? >> you know, you're forced. you know, trauma happens to people all the time. you don't think it's going to happen to you, but it does. >> you know when you already expect the worst, you think that you can't be shocked, but you can be is all i can say about that. >> reporter: but if gavin was dead, and certainly it looked that way, where was his body? how did his car wind up in the storage locker? and above all, who would have wanted him dead? reina lim certainly seemed an unlikely suspect. she told them she had rented the storage unit for someone else. meanwhile, detectives looked further into chandy's affair with gavin and discovered the two had met in rehab and in december 2010, less than two years before gavin disappeared. lisa found out about it. >> i was heartbroken. >> reporter: so she took an extreme step to save her family. she and two of her sons, then 14 and 20, went to the creech's house to speak to them, family to family. >> and i was really upset when we were driving there. so i stayed in the car, and i let my sons go in the house. >> reporter: but they didn't meet chandy in there. they met her husband. his name was john, john creech. not pleasant. >> when they came out, they were both crying. >> reporter: they told their mom creech threatened to kill gavin if he didn't stay away from chandy. so 17 months later, he vanishes after calling chandy? lisa had a very bad feeling. >> everything changed right then for me. >> reporter: detectives were suspicious too. remember, chandy told them she didn't see gavin that night. but there was evidence to the contrary. cell phone records showed that gavin's phone and chandy's were in the same place that night. a little triangulation narrowed down just where. >> we came upon this street here. and we thought this was a good spot. >> this was a likely spot. >> yeah. >> reporter: a likely spot for a tryst, that is. met for sex or confident or -- something. quite a lot to learn from those phone records, but there was more. a third phone. john creech's phone. in the same spot, on the same night. and this was eerie, creech's phone seemed to be moving in sync with gavin's. >> john creech's phone and gavin smith's phone paralleled each other. >> together together. >> together. sometimes hitting off the exact same towers or parallel towers. >> wow. what was that like? >> that was an eye-opening moment. >> reporter: but when they interviewed john creech. >> he denied ever meeting gavin smith. he said he knew who he was, that he was having an affair with his wife in the past. >> reporter: so, despite their suspicions, there was not much police could do because -- >> one thing we didn't have was gavin smith. >> reporter: that is, they had no body. no way to prove who killed gavin or that there was a murder at all. that is, until a dog named buddy went for a walk. a real-life dog detective who make as deadly discovery on a deserted trail. coming up -- >> and he just looking at the bush. so we go up there, and we're looking, and it's like, wow. what is -- that looks pretty strange. >> and a young woman suddenly finds herself in the middle of this mystery. >> i discovered he had scraped on his hands and on his arms. >> when "dark valley" continues. what's going on? 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i didn't know what to think. >> reporter: when police arrived, they found a shallow grave nearby. >> that's where they found him. >> reporter: him. the coroner soon confirmed it. after 2 1/2 years, here was the body of gavin smith. >> the clothing was still intact. and he had been wrapped in his own blanket that he had in the trunk of his car. >> reporter: the coroner also found the cause of death, and it was grim. blunt craniofacial trauma, that is multiple blows to his face. he was beaten to death. >> it was repeated hitting in order to do that much damage. very violent. >> reporter: there were also fractures to the right forearm. possibly defensive wounds. gavin had tried to fight, but clearly he was no match for his killer. whoever did this was strong, very strong. >> powerhouse gym was very gossipy. so if you told the wrong person something, your secret would be all over the gym. >> reporter: lauren, just 18 years old back then, asked us not to use her last name. not after she found herself in the middle of a homicide investigation when police came across her while doing surveillance on john creech. lauren used to work in the pro shop of the powerhouse gym in chatsworth, california. and that's where she first met creech. >> he was beautiful. he was tall, and he was muscular. and a lot of women especially wanted to date him, a lot of men wanted to be him. >> reporter: lauren fell for him. he told her he was separated from his wife chandy, but that didn't stop chandy from calling lauren. >> she texted and called me and was very belligerent and rude. >> reporter: angry, perhaps, that her husband, then 39, was dating a high school girl. in fact, sheer coincidence, lauren went to high school with gavin smith's sons. so she knew when he disappeared in may 2012. but made no connection between that and something she noticed about her boyfriend john creech. >> i discovered he had scrapes on his hands and on his arms. >> she didn't think he had anything to do with the disappearance. >> reporter: but when detective o'brien heard about creech's scrapes, he immediately thought of gavin smith's wounds. he needed to talk to john creech again, and he found him in jail serving eight years on a cocaine charge. his second conviction for dealing drugs. not exactly an upstanding citizen. but could they prove he murdered gavin smith? >> we went to him, didn't ask him any questions, just put a picture down in front of him of the shallow grave with the wrapped up body. >> how did he react to that? >> very wide eyed, and the first phone call he made was to his attorney. >> that's hardly a surprise? >> no. >> reporter: but other phone calls were surprising. like the record of calls the detectives found in creech's cell phone from the night gavin vanished. john creech was on the phone a lot. >> he was calling multiple people very intensely. >> so like three or four or five calls to the same person over and over. >> exactly. >> reporter: some of those calls were to creech's buddies from the powerhouse gym. >> we did a multi-location search warrant, and we hit everybody that we believed might have helped on that evening. we hit all those houses all at once. >> reporter: one by one, those buddies turned. they told detectives how a frantic creech showed up late that night. how he persuaded one friend to get rid of gavin's cell phone. got another friend to hide gavin's car and body in his garage. and yet another told detectives she saw chandy and john creech burning their own clothes in the fireplace after gavin was killed. >> this was a strange case. >> reporter: prosecutor bobby grace. >> you don't normally find a body two years later after somebody is killed. you don't normally have key witnesses who don't come forward until years later. >> reporter: in january 2015, nearly three years after gavin smith disappeared, creech was charged with first degree murder. he pleaded not guilty. and chandy, well -- >> we didn't know if she set it up or if she had something to do with it. >> reporter: coming up, an undercover sting and chandy's the target. >> i was like stop it! i was like screaming my head off. and then he comes out of the car and he says -- >> then a stunning moment in the courtroom. >> i wanted to get away. i was scared. i was afraid of what i would see. >> when "dark valley" continues. . so we're making it easier than ever to become part of our family. that's why our chevy employee discount is now available to everyone. the chevy price you pay is what we pay. not a cent more. family is important to us. and we want you to be part of ours. so happy holidays. and welcome to the family. all: the chevy family! get the chevy employee discount for everyone today. you have a brother in the second battalion? they're walking into a trap. your orders are to deliver a message calling off tomorrow morning's attack. if you fail, we will lose sixteen hundred men. if we're not clever about this... no one will get to your brother. i will. welcome back. nearly three years after gavin smith's disappearance john creech was charged with his murder. police ble believe john carried out the killing as revenge with the affair with his wife khanchan c. one person could give the truth to them directly. so they figured out a way to get it. once again, here's keith morrison. >> reporter: detectives john o'brien had a problem. an important witness who wouldn't talk, chandrika creech had clammed up. but there's more than one way to get a story. they found an associate of john creech's, someone who knew chandy. they convinced him to wear a wire and meet with her. it worked. >> do you want the whole story? >> yeah. >> reporter: once chandy felt safe, she spilled it. all of it. how she and gavin met in secret at that secluded cul-de-sac, got close in gavin's car. >> and then all of a sudden the door opened, and johnny just goes -- and i just like pushed myself out this way. got out the driver's side. >> reporter: creech burst in like a machine, said chandy. started slugging, wouldn't quit. >> and i was like, stop it, you're going to kill him -- i was like screaming my head off. and then he comes out of the car and he's like, "you're next." and then i drove off. >> reporter: she was terrified, she said. afraid he'd kill her too or tell the cops she set the whole thing up. so did she? again and again the detectives listened to the undercover tape. >> i believe 100% that she did not know that was going to happen, and she did not set it up. >> reporter: but, they wondered, did she help cover it up? it's a serious business, covering for a crime that awful. but chandy had a card to play. she agreed to testify. >> members and alternate members of the jury. >> reporter: and in june 2017, john creech went on trial. on the face of it, it looked like a solid case. the phone evidence, the coverup, the truly appalling crime scene in gavin's car. but did it add up to first degree murder? gavin smith had been dead five years. >> he was killed in his mercedes-benz in an act of almost stunning brutality. by the defendant john creech who's sitting here in the courtroom. this became gavin smith's tomb. >> reporter: but what happened wasn't merely an outburst of rage, said prosecutor bobby grace. no, he said. creech had been plotting for two years ever since he found out about chandy and gavin. after that day back in december 2010, when at their mother's request, gavin's sons met with john creech at his house. >> we just wanted to make sure that my dad was not in harm's way. >> were you sobbing and crying? >> yes. >> and what were you saying to the defendant? >> i was just begging him not to harm my family. >> reporter: but they testified creech told them that they did the right thing. >> he ended up saying that we saved his life by coming that day. >> you saw the statement -- >> reporter: but there were rules. that's what chandrika, now divorced from john creech, said when she finally took the witness stand. >> as long as their father stayed away from me and had no communication whatsoever, their father would be fine. >> did he say what would happen if he did? >> that he would kill gavin smith. >> reporter: the affair ended. but, chandy said, the threat remained. >> he did not want me to see gavin ever. >> reporter: still, attraction is a powerful thing. isn't it? early in 2012, john and chandy were separated, but still living together. and gavin and lisa were separated, too. and that old magnetic force, gavin met chandy on that secluded road. >> did the two of you become romantic? >> yes. >> did that include kissing? >> yes. >> and while you were kissing gavin, did something happen that caught your attention? >> yeah. >> what happened? >> just something like popped up, like appeared. >> was that something the defendant, john creech? >> yes, yes. >> reporter: gavin didn't have a chance, she said. >> he repeatedly punched him in the face. >> reporter: so then she ran back to her car, terrified. >> i wanted to get away. i was scared. >> reporter: but before she drove away, she looked back. >> john had gavin pinned down. >> reporter: later, she said, creech wanted her to drive him back to the crime scene, help him take gavin to the hospital. a block and a half away, she refused to go closer and dropped creech off. >> why didn't you take him all the way back to the scene? >> because i was afraid of what i would see. >> reporter: gavin was dead by then. and the prosecutor told the jury creech wasn't going to any hospital. he was setting out to recruit help for his cover-up. >> so the first person he calls is jorge valles. >> reporter: jorge valles was the first of a series of friends who told an incredible tale. >> did you ask any of these people at central a question? what were you ultimately thinking? >> they all ultimately said that they were trying to help johnny. >> because he's such a nice man. >> because he was a nice guy. >> reporter: nice? when creech showed up at jorge's house that night, he was driving gavin's black mercedes, and jorge saw something in the passenger seat. >> it looked like a body. it was just stiff, like a stick, you know, a long stick. >> and you said it was wrapped up? >> wrapped up in a blanket. >> reporter: eventually jorge got rid of gavin's cell phone, but that very night, said the prosecutor, creech called a friend from the powerhouse gym, stan mcquay. >> he asked if he can come over and if he can park his car in my garage. >> was the body still in it at that point? >> yes. >> reporter: mcquay allows creech to keep the body and the car at his house for five to six days. >> really? >> yes. >> reporter: and that's when creech turned to reina lim, the nurse who lived with them and took care of chandy's grandmother. creech got reina to rent a van. >> and then he uses the van to drive up to the angeles national forest, and he finds a secluded area to bury gavin smith's body. >> reporter: where buddy the dog later found it. but the mercedes-benz was still in stan's garage. >> and did that upset you? >> very much so. >> reporter: so weeks later, two men arrived with a trailer. >> and did you watch them take the mercedes out of your garage? >> yes, i did. >> reporter: that, said prosecutor grace, is when they moved the mercedes into reina's storage locker. where, months later, detective labbe noticed one crucial little detail that survived the attempted cover-up. >> i was looking at the license plate, and i see that it's not there. there should be a california license plate. it's not -- >> you'd kinda think. >> it's gone. and i also see that there's one screw missing and one screw screwed back in halfway, and that screw came back positive dna to john creech. >> reporter: bingo. the unassailable link to pull together all that evidence -- phone records, chandy's testimony, the friends, the dna, and it all condemned john creech. but a surprise was coming for everyone. >> raise your right hand. coming up -- >> i was scared for my life. >> a dramatic tale from the stand. >> he punched me, pulled me in by my sweater, put his hand on my throat, he's choking me by my by my sweater, put his hand on my throat, he's choking me by my throat! who attacked who? and who would the jury believe? >> my skin was just crawling! >> when dark valley continues. d. the excellence is reaching dreams and chasing them at the same time. welcome back. a california jury heard the prosecuti prosecution's case against john creech, accused of killing gavin smith. they climb john fatally beat gavin as revenge for an affair for john's wife and presented a mound of evidence, but the defense was lying in wait, waiting to unleash a surprise. testimony from the defendant himself. here's keith morrison. >> how to defend a man like john creech. well, said defense attorney irene nunez, it was all very simple. creech never intended to kill gavin smith. this was was a case of self-defense. >> he had to defend himself against this intruder, an intruder into his marriage. >> reporter: and, she said, only one person could tell that story. >> who is the first witness that you want to call on behalf of the defense? >> my client john creech. >> reporter: his attorney began by asking him about that meeting with gavin's sons. >> at any point did you tell them that you were going to kill their father? >> no, that's absurd. >> reporter: and two years later, when it all happened, he and chandy were separated, he said. though they still lived in the same house, and he still worried about her, thought she might be drinking and driving. so he installed an app on his phone, he said, that allowed him to track her phone and followed her only because he was worried, he said. and then he saw her car parked near gavin's and thought it best to talk to them, but he didn't sneak up on them, he said. >> so i knock on the hood of the car. >> was chandy sitting on the lap of this guy? >> she was sitting on his lap. they just kept talking, so i walked over to the passenger side door, and i knocked on the window. >> what did they do? >> chandy opened the door. >> and what did she say to you? >> what the [ bleep ] are you doing here? >> reporter: he started to argue with chandy, he said, and then gavin joined in. >> i walked around the door, and i'm leaning down to tell him to mind his own business. as i'm leaning down to tell him that is when he leaned up and punched me. he punched me. pulled me in by my sweater. put his hand up on my throat. he's choking me in my throat. >> reporter: it was gavin who threw that first punch, he said. so, of course, he fought back. >> do you recall how many times you hit him? >> four, five. >> and when you were doing that, what were you thinking? >> i'm just thinking how in the [ bleep ] that i get in this situation. you know, i was scared for my life. >> reporter: and then gavin then got out of the mercedes, said creech. and there was something in his hand. >> it was like a ten to twelve-inch stainless steel thing that at the time i thought was a knife. we fell in the ground, and we went at it for about ten or fifteen seconds exchanging punches. >> at some point did you get that weapon? >> i kept punching him until he let go of it. >> okay. and what'd you do with the weapon? >> i threw it over the back wall of my property. >> reporter: such a weapon was never recovered, by the way. but creech insisted there was one, a multi-purpose tool of some kind, and it was gavin who provoked the fight. >> i was defending my life. i didn't go there looking for a fight. i was just defending mine. >> i think he lied about everything that he said. >> reporter: on cross-examination, the prosecutor went straight for that so-called multipurpose tool. >> so tell us why in the world would you get rid of this weapon that gavin smith had used to attack you with? why would you get rid of it? >> well, i didn't get rid of it. i threw it behind my house where i knew it would be all right. >> why would you do that, sir? why wouldn't you just leave it where it was? >> well, i can play armchair quarterback all day about things, but at the time it seemed like the right decision. >> reporter: creech admitted he made some wrong decisions too. like asking friends to help him dispose of gavin's phone and car and body. >> i take full accountability for everything after fact. if i could change it, i would. >> sir, actually you never took full accountability because you never came forward to the police, did you? >> not on advice of counsel, no, and i still take accountability for that. >> reporter: lisa smith was in the courtroom to hear creech's testimony. >> my skin was just crawling. it was really hard. it was really hard. he's a cruel man. >> reporter: jury deliberations stretched across two days. then, the verdict. >> we the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant john creech not guilty of the crime of first degree murder of gavin smith. >> reporter: not guilty of first degree murder! but the jury wasn't done. >> guilty of the crime of voluntary manslaughter. >> reporter: the verdict, guilty of voluntary manslaughter. in other words, they believed john creech killed gavin smith in a moment of blind passion. >> i was devastated by the verdict. i am still devastated by the verdict because he did absolutely plan on murdering my husband and thought about it for years and did it. >> reporter: what about creech's friends jorge and stan, who helped creech cover up the killing? >> they both had significant criminal liability. >> so why weren't they charged? >> because we needed them to be able to tell the story about how this man was killed and what happened to him. >> reporter: so they both got immunity. same thing with chandrika, who helped burn bloody clothing and never called the police. >> it seems to me that everybody got deals and everybody got off. and that gavin was a victim long after he was murdered, and so were we. >> reporter: john creech is sentenced to the mx ma'am for manslaughter, 11 years in prison. >> the d.a. in detroit, michigan, indicted mr. creech on federal drug trafficking charges. if convicted, his exposure is anywhere from 5 to 40 years in prison. >> in june 2019, creech was found guilty. he was given ten years, ten months, a sentence he will serve concurrently with his time for manslaughter in the california state prison, and lisa smith has done her best to restart life. she and the boys are in hawaii now, far from the wreckage of the california life that never was quite as perfect as it looked. >> painful to remain there. so starting fresh. this is our sanctuary. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. >> ashlea was a wild and funny texan who everyone seemed to love. >> caring, loving, compassionate. >> why did she have this strange premonition? >> she always felt like she was going to die young. >> the call came on black friday. >> she said ashlea's apartment is on fire. >> when the coroner pulled up, my heart broke. >> this was no accident. >> they had conducted surveillance add her apartment. >> they go back to the place where she worked? >> yes, sir, they were going after tens of thousands of dollars. sdwr was money the only oative or was there something else? >> there were a lot of rumors going around that ended up being true. >> couldn't believe someone could do that to her. >> pure evil. >> black friday. >> hello, and welcome to dateline extra. i'm craig melvin. life was going well for ashlea harris. add her job, she was thriving, and her personal life was filled with friends, fun, and romance. when ashlea's body was found in the charred wreckage of an apartment fire, the loss was devastating. investigators believe the blaze was not an accident. it would take a determined detective to find the key that would unlock this mystery of what happened to ashlea. here's keith morrison. >> a hot august night in texas, 2014. the lone figure knew where to go, know where the store kept the cash, grabbed $18,000. and was gone. but it was only money. and no one got hurt. not that time. anyway. >> the story begins here in ft. worth, texas, which turned out to be the perfect growing up place for a rough and tumble free spirit named ashle harris. >> i was around 10 when she was born, so perfect age to pretend she was my baby. >> melissa is ashlea's eldest sister. >> she marched to the beat of a different drum. she would wear just things that did not match. her hair was just -- didn't seem combs. >> she was never the little princess type. >> no, no. >> there were three girls in the family. ashlea was the baby. their mom, monica, remembers how she loved sports and music and art. and bingo. >> it was our mom and daughter bonding time. she just would get all giddy and excited. >> by the time she got to high school, ashlea had lots of friends. even a boyfriend. and she was devoted to her two dads. her father tommy and her stepfather chuck. both retired police officers. >> didn't she talk at one point about getting into your line of work? >> she was interested in policing. i think that she took a unique interest in it. >> after high school, she ended up working for a short time at blockbuster video. that's where she met a customer named laura love. >> and i walked around the store for a little bit. and kept looking at her because she's so beautiful. >> laura wanted to meet the girl behind the counter. they became friends. and then something more. >> we hung out for a few months, for like eight months before it ever really got there. >> by that, she means she and ashlea fell in love. >> it was a lot of growing up. she had to work through her feelings. being gay isn't necessarily an easy thing, and it definitely wasn't easy 14, 15 years ago. >> oh, no, it wasn't. >> was there a coming out period during which she -- >> i believe it was 2004. she come over to the house. and she goes, mama, i got something to tell you. and chuck, i just want you to know, i was gay. and i said, well, ashlea, i already knew it. but you need to give me some space. i need some time. >> so monica took some time. prayed about it. came to this conclusion -- >> i can't imagine god giving me this child and living with her and raising her, that he would want me to stop loving her. >> wouldn't make any sense at all. yet, for a long while, monica wasn't comfortable with ashlea's new relationship. laura said she and ashlea were good together. >> she was always very giving and very what else can i do for you to make you happy. >> the romance losted more than three years, and then it was over. and they remained friends. and laura remembers how happy ashlea was when she started working at american eagle outfitters at the mall in ft. worth. >> ashlea loved it. >> she was an assistant manager and good at it said her boss chris cravy. >> just her personal, caring, loving, compassionate. she just loved life. >> yeah. >> and she loved taking videos of her life, lots of them at work. >> i'm extremely tired. and this right here is not even helping. look at my eyes. horrible. >> she had this laugh. it was so infectious. >> they weren't all like that, however. employee lindsey greene said another assistant manager, carter, was very different from ashlea. >> taught me how to love myself to a point. carter just taught me work-related things. >> not a jokester. >> right. >> but ashlea, polar opposite, and popular. >> i'm so hood. >> so work was going well. her love life, not so much. and then one night, ashea went out with friends and april moffitt was there. >> i was their waitress, and she was having a bad night. and i was trying to pull her out of her shell. she wasn't having it. so i just, fine. >> april gave up on her grumpy customer. until months later they connected on social media. they met for a dog walk. ashlea brought her dog. april brought cooper. and everyone clicked. what was it like when you first started going out with her? >> she has a magnetic, like, force to her. like it's hard to not instantly love her. >> so by the summer of 2014, life was good for ashlea. her social life, her job, though she did hit a bump of sorts in august when someone stole $18,000 from the store safe. >> it was ashlea who realized theth theft had occurred and reported it to you. >> correct. >> she even helped id the suspect. with her interest in police work, she thought she might have a calling here. >> she wanted to go on to loss prevention and work for our home office at american eagle. >> she was 31. she had all kinds of plans. but on the morning after thanksgiving, black friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, chris' phone rang at home. >> it was our other assistant manager. and chris, ashlea's apartment is on fire and we can't get her on the phone. i threw clothes on as fast as i could get, started driving to ft. worth and following the smoke trail and sirens. >> coming up, no one would have guessed where that trail would eventually lead. >> we were asking if we could talk to ashlea or where she was at. they said she's unavailable now. >> and ash lea's friends weren't the only ones with questions. >> police swur shuffling us into the office. lenge. we are solving problems that improve lives. male anchor: ...an update on the cat who captured our hearts. female anchor: how often should you clean your fridge? stay tuned to find out. male anchor: beats the odds at the box office to become a rare non-franchise hit. you can give help and hope to those in need. some things are too important to do yourself. ♪ get customized security with 24/7 monitoring from xfinity home. awarded the best professionally installed system by cnet. simple. easy. awesome. call, click or visit a store today. >> reporter: it was the morning after thanksgiving, black friday. laura love had only one thing on her mind. >> black friday was my favorite day of the year. i'm -- i loved to shop and save money. >> reporter: but laura's black friday was about to turn very dark, indeed. >> i got a call from a friend of ours, and she said, "ashlea's apartment's on fire." >> reporter: ashlea's friends arrived at her apartment parking lot to something like chaos. >> there was multiple police cars. crime scene was there. >> reporter: ft. worth detective jerry cedillo and his partner ernie pate sped over there, too. >> there was a crowd that was startin' to gather. and next thing you know, we have about 40 to 50 friends and family and co-workers. and then we had residents that were just, you know, lookin' from balconies, so we had quite a crowd out here. >> reporter: by now, firefighters had squelched the flames, and the detectives walked up the steps to ashlea's door. >> when you went into that apartment, what was that like? >> it was um -- it was very disturbing. >> reporter: a woman's lifeless body was lying face down on the bedroom floor. >> we waited until she was turned over and we got a good look at her face. and she was also identified by some of the tattoos. >> reporter: and then they knew. the victim had her name tatooed on her rib cage, ashlea harris. outside ashlea's friends were totally in the dark. >> we were asking, um, if we could talk to ashlea or where she was at, they just said that she's unavailable right now. >> reporter: ashlea's boss, chris cravey had just arrived and was trying to get some answers. >> for a couple hours, we just assumed that she was being taken care of. >> reporter: and while they waited for information, investigators were realizing this was no accident. >> it was obvious that she had been beaten due to the amount of blood that we found. and then we observed that her arms were bound behind her back, and her ankles were also bound. >> reporter: it looked, said the detectives, like ashlea had been fighting back against a truly vicious attack. >> she had been beaten and possibly tortured. we later discovered that her neck had been slit. >> reporter: not only that, the fire looked suspicious, so veteran arson investigator, wallace hood, was called to the scene. >> i noticed that there was fire damage on the bed, and i also noticed that there was some fire damage to the victim. and i also saw what looked like a bottle of alcohol. >> fire damage actually on the victim. so, like, somebody set fire to her? >> there was some -- it looked like there was some burn marks on her. >> what did you ultimately determine about the fire and how it got started? >> there were several points of origin, and that's an indicator of an intentionally set fire. >> sure. so somebody took that rubbing alcohol, poured it here, poured it over there, poured it here? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: chris cravey, standing in the crowd outside watched his worst fears roll up in front of ashlea's apartment. >> i think it hit me like a sack a bricks once i saw them start taping it off for a crime scene. and when the coroner pulled up, my heart broke. i lost it. >> reporter: and then the detectives, looking very stern, came outside to ask some pointed questions. did someone know something, see something? >> at that point they start -- the police start shuffling us into the office. >> and they tell us that even if we try to leave we could be arrested. >> i mean, that told you something very bad happened in there? >> yeah. >> reporter: one person not in the crowd that morning was ashlea's girlfriend, april moffit. about 1:00 p.m. april got a text from one of ashlea's neighbors. >> "hey, have you checked on your girl? there was a fire in her apartment." and immediately i thought nala, ashlea's dog. >> reporter: april assumed ashlea wasn't at home. >> and i was like, holy crap. >> reporter: and then she got a message from another friend saying simply, call me. >> and i called her and i said, "where is ash -- like where is ashlea? where is nala? >> and she was like, "nala's fine." and i was like, well, where is ashlea," and she was like, "ashlea's gone." and it didn't register. >> yeah. like gone, what do you mean gone? >> yeah. and then i said, "well, is ashlea okay?" and she said, "no, april. she's dead." and i was sitting on my bed and i -- i threw my phone on the ground like that's not real. >> reporter: when reality settled in, april and all of ashlea's family and friends. even the police had to wonder who would do such a thing to such a good, sweet, person? ashlea harris had no enemies, did she? >> was someone stalking ashlea harris? >> coming up. >> what did you see? >> i saw a vehicle parked there i had never seen before. >> someone else had seen it before. >> i said i know whose car you're asking about. >> when black friday continues. fact is, every insurance company hopes you drive safely. but allstate helps you. with drivewise. feedback that helps you drive safer. and that can lower your cost now that you know the truth... are you in good hands? and i approve this message. climate is the number one priority. i would declare a state of emergency on day one. congress has never passed an important climate bill, ever. this is a problem which continues to get worse. i've spent a decade fighting and beating oil companies, stopping pipelines, stopping fossil fuel plants, ensuring clean energy across the country. how are we going to pull this country together? we take on the biggest challenge in history, we save the world and we do it together. welcome back. investigators immediately suspected the fire that raged through ashlea's apartment was arson. but who would want her dead? enter one eagle-eyed ex-cop who tipped police to something he saw the morning of the fire. little did they know just how helpful his information would turn out to be, and as the crowd just beyond the police tape continued to swell, word was now spreading to ashlea's family. once again, here's keith morrison. >> reporter: ashlea's mother and stepfather were out of town when the news began arriving in awful, jagged bits. first they heard about the fire, and monica prayed ashlea wasn't hurt. then ashlea's father, tommy harris, called. >> i saw chuck gettin' off the phone. and i saw him wipin' his tears. and i knew that my prayer wasn't answered. >> reporter: chuck couldn't reach ashlea's sister, so he left a message. >> and not two minutes later, my husband called me. and he said, "where are you? i need to come to you." and i said, "what is wrong with my mom? what happened to my mom?" and he said, "it's not your mom. it's ashlea." and it just comes like a blow. >> reporter: back in ft. worth, police were still rounding up people gathered outside ashlea's apartment. not among them was april. april, in fact, hadn't seen ashlea for a few days. their romance had hit a bit of a bump. >> that night we -- we talked briefly about me coming over after i got off work. but then i went home. >> reporter: but someone else was there. her name was alexis torres. >> alexis torres was the last person to see ashlea alive, and was the actual last person to leave her apartment. >> reporter: that is certainly somebody you'd wanna talk to. >> obviously. yes, sir. >> reporter: alexis said she and ashlea had gone to an early thanksgiving dinner with friends in ashlea's complex. so you had thanksgiving dinner, and that was -- >> i think it was from 12? >> reporter: sure. and then hung around for the afternoon? >> yes. >> reporter: but ashlea had to work that night. >> ashlea's shift was supposed to be from 7:00 p.m. until 3:00 a.m. and alexis agreed to come over during the time she was working to basically take care of ashlea's dog. >> reporter: then alexis told the police and later us that she went back one more time after ashlea got home from work. how long did you stay? >> i stayed for an hour. >> reporter: that would make it 4:00 a.m. if alexis was telling the truth, the police had the beginning of a timeline. but before they could check her story or anyone else's for that matter, a neighbor gave them even more to work with. an ex-cop named steve lee had noticed something about 6:30 that morning. so you're out here on -- on the deck having a cigarette. what did you see? >> saw a vehicle parked there that i'd never seen before. >> reporter: what was that vehicle? >> it was a black, older infiniti sedan. >> reporter: to the observant ex-cop that seemed worth noting. did it stay there for a long time? >> it was there when i left for work at about 7:40. >> reporter: detectives also talked to a neighbor who lived directly below ashlea. he had heard noises, heavy breathing coming from ashlea's apartment just before 8:00 a.m. >> a few minutes later the fire alarm started goin' off. water started comin' down into his apartment. >> reporter: and that's when the neighbor saw a black infiniti g-35 driving away. armed with this new information, cedillo went back to alexis torres. >> i asked her if she knew anyone or if ashlea knew anyone that drove a infiniti g-35. i never gave her a color. i simply asked her about a g-35. alexis said, "no." >> after he was done asking the questions, i walked outside and sat down on the brick. and i believe it was chris that was there. >> reporter: that would be chris cravey, ashlea's boss at american eagle. alexis told him that police were asking about an infiniti sedan. and chris made a beeline for detective cedillo. >> i approached him. and i said, "i know whose car y'all are asking about." >> and he says, "i just wanna make you aware that i have a former employee that did drive a infiniti g35. >> reporter: her name, he said, was carter. carter cervantez, that businesslike assistant manager who worked with ashlea -- >> so then i ask him, "you know, what color is the g35 that she drove?" and he mentions that it's a black one. >> reporter: what was that like, to hear that? >> well, it beats hearing the color red or white. >> reporter: and, by the way, chris told detective cedillo, carter left american eagle because she was fired. cedillo filed that away and sorted through the crime scene and talked to witnesses. and a day that began at 8:30 that morning didn't end until 1:00 am. did you get any sleep? >> no, sir, i didn't. >> reporter: the story about carter cervantez and her black infiniti was just bugging him. >> well, i'm thinkin' about the case and i'm thinking, "where do i go from here?" >> reporter: might have tossed and turned all night thinking about that. but something inside him said, "nope." >> i'm not gonna be able to get any sleep. i might as well go back out there and see what i can find. >> reporter: wouldn't be his first wild goose chase. he had carter's address. so, wee hours of saturday morning, he drove over there and what do you know? >> i saw a black infiniti backed in, right in front of their apartment. >> reporter: but he didn't knock on her door. >> i was going to go ahead and basically sit here and watch the vehicle to see if it moved. >> reporter: for more than four hours, he sat in his car, cold but patient. then about 8:00 a.m. saturday morning, he saw the lights of the infiniti flash as if someone was unlocking it remotely. >> i see the male enter the driver's seat of the vehicle. i then see a female enter the passenger side of the black infiniti. >> reporter: they drove off. the detective followed. and after a few minutes the infiniti pulled into, of all places, the hulen mall. there they are. they're going back to the place where ashlea worked, where the american eagle was. >> yes, sir. >> reporter: but what would they be doing there? >> well, that was the -- that was the million dollar question. >> reporter: coming up -- >> i ask him, "what are you doing here at the mall?" he said that he had dropped his girlfriend off to pick up some papers. >> routine errand or something else? >> you didn't see her at all in there? >> no, sir. >> did anybody see her? >> no, sir. >> when black friday continues. m building the most powerful 5g experience for america. it's 5g ultra wideband-- --for massive capacity-- --and ultra-fast speeds. almost 2 gigs here in minneapolis. that's 25 times faster than today's network in new york city. so people from midtown manhattan-- --to downtown denver-- --can experience what our 5g can deliver. (woman) and if verizon 5g can deliver performance like this in these places... it's pretty crazy. ...just imagine what it can do for you. ♪ you sureyes.ut this? [ suspensful music playing ] no! we need to keep moving. the whole things coming down. come on! i can't see. i can't see! you need to trust me. jump! some things are too important to do yourself. ♪ get customized security with 24/7 monitoring from xfinity home. awarded the best professionally installed system by cnet. simple. easy. awesome. call, click or visit a store today. i'm ayman mohyeldin with the hour's top stories. president trump took time from his holiday to talk about impeachment. he accused nancy pelosi of hating the entire republican party. >> britain's queen is expected to acknowledge a bumpy year. noticeably absence, prince harry, meghan markle, and prince andrew. now back to dateline. >> welcome back to dateline extra. i'm craig melvin. after a sleepless night, detective jerry cedillo was hot on the trail of a promising lead. it had been less than 24 hours and he had a hunch. rather than continue to toss and turn in bed, he decided to follow his gut. now the detective was following a black infintig-35 and it would take him somewhere very interesting. here again is keith morrison. >> reporter: on the saturday morning after black friday, 2014, homicide detective jerry cedillo followed a black infiniti into the parking lot of the hulen mall. he watched as the passenger, a woman dressed in darkish clothes, headed inside. she fit the description he'd been given of 25-year-old carter cervantez, a former co-worker of ashlea harris. the male driver stayed in the car. cedillo called his partner, ernie pate -- asked him to check up on the guy. >> when i approached the car, then the person identified themself as david mallory. >> reporter: david mallory was carter's live-in boyfriend. he too was a former employee of american eagle. >> i ask him, "what are you doing here at the mall?" he said that he had dropped his girlfriend off to pick up some papers at aeropostale where she was a manager. >> reporter: so perhaps it was just that. david giving carter a ride to pick up some paperwork at her new job at aeropostale. cedillo decided to go inside. the mall was open but the stores were still closed. >> and i happened to go up to aeropostale and there is a manager that's actually in there working. and i was able to confirm that carter cervantez did not work for him and he doesn't even know who she is. >> well, so much for that story. >> yes, sir. >> reporter: cedillo turned his attention to finding carter cervantez. no luck. you didn't see her at all in there? >> no, sir. >> reporter: did anybody see her? >> no, sir. >> reporter: so, cedillo had a disgruntled employee coming back to the mall where she'd been fired. her boyfriend was telling lies about a job she didn't have, and a car that looked like hers had been spotted at the scene of a murder. detective pate still had david mallory out in the parking lot and was looking for a reason to hold him. >> he said that he had a driver's license. but he didn't have his driver's license with him. >> reporter: reason enough. he arrested mallory and brought him in for questioning. but carter? seemed to have vanished. wasn't anywhere in the mall. but then police went to her apartment complex, and there she was. >> where was she in the apartment complex? >> well, she initially was in the -- in the laundry room. >> reporter: calm as you please, she agreed to answer questions without a lawyer down at the station. >> do you go by carter or carol? >> carter. >> reporter: somehow she'd switched her dark clothes for bright pink scrubs. >> so how did you end up in ft. worth? >> i had a job opportunity with american eagle outfitters. >> reporter: ah, yes, carter's american eagle connection, detective cedillo had already heard a thing or two about that. carter had worked in the ft, worth store for about four months and was businesslike. but, unlike ashlea, she wasn't a very friendly assistant manager. she did, however, make an impression on some younger clerks like liza schoenthal. >> carter was very smart. very deep. she was good at reading people and knowing how to converse with them. you could tell that she was well educated. just had a lot more to her than most sales/retail managers do. >> reporter: but detective cedillo knew something else about carter and david mallory. something very important. >> reporter: remember that burglary at american eagle three months earlier? carter and david mallory were the primary suspects. and ashlea harris was the one who discovered the money missing. >> and when ashlea came in to open the store, she found the safe open. >> reporter: ashlea knew that it was carter who closed the night before. and when she showed her boss the security video view of the burglary. >> she pointed at the monitor and she said, "that's david mallory." and i said, "who's david mallory?" and they said, "it's carter's boyfriend." >> reporter: the math was easy, ashlea figured carter set up the burglary and david carried it out. carter got fired. david sort of disappeared. and both heard that it was ashlea who identified them. they hadn't been charged. not yet but -- >> the case was basically actively being investigated when this happened. >> reporter: and now three months later, here was carter talking to the police who were growing suspicious that she and her boyfriend were connected to ashlea's murder. >> why am i here? >> reporter: cedillo started off easy. >> so were you raised in amarillo or just -- >> no. i'm originally from lubbock. >> is your family still here? >> yes. >> mom and dad, brothers and sisters? >> i don't have any brothers but i do have two sisters. and they all still live in lubbock. >> have you seen mom and dad in a while? >> no. i talk to them every day on text message and snapchat, but i haven't been home. >> reporter: more friendly questions. >> where did you go to school? >> west texas a&m university. >> reporter: cedillo asked about thanksgiving. small talk. >> what'd you make? >> i made turkey, and there was stuffing and mashed potatoes. and green bean casserole and this cabbage bacon salad that my mom really likes to make, but i don't think david liked it very much. >> reporter: except this wasn't really small talk. detective cedillo was paying close attention. >> alright. so let's start with this morning. >> okay. >> all right. >> this morning. >> okay, what time did you get up? >> about 7:30. 7:45. >> okay and then what happened then? >> and then we talked and i went back to sleep. when i woke up he wasn't there. >> okay. >> reporter: he'd heard enough. >> i know that's a lie. >> no, it's -- no, it's not. >> do you know why i know it's a lie? >> why do you know it's a lie? >> because i saw you come out of your apartment and get in the passenger seat of that car and i saw him drive out of there. that's why i know it's a lie. >> reporter: cedillo was tough. but carter cervantez wasn't giving an inch. >> announcer: coming up, if carter's lies weren't reason enough for suspicion, this was. >> she starts wiping down the bottle. she was afraid that we were gonna obtain her dna. >> reporter: and what was this all about? and who was it for? >> there was an actual human grave that's been dug. >> fresh grave. >> fresh grave. >> when black friday continues. welcome back. detective jerry cedillo was growing suspicious carter was involved in killing her former coworker. while questioning her, the detective had caught carter in a bold-faced lie. why was carter so defiant, insisting police had it all wrong? a security video was about to clear things up, and reveal a potential motive. here again is keith morrison. >> reporter: it was late saturday morning, the day after black friday. 25-year-old carter cervantez was talking to detectives and lying though her teeth. >> i know what i did this morning. i know where i was. i know where i went. >> reporter: detective cedillo certainly knew where she went -- the hulen mall. but she kept insisting she'd been at home all morning. >> you're about to make the biggest mistake of your life. do you understand me? >> reporter: and she still wouldn't confess to it? >> she wouldn't budge. >> i got up, i went and put the laundry in, and i went and checked my e-mail. that's all. you found me in my apartment complex. >> reporter: then when the detectives stepped out of the room, she did something interesting -- maybe incriminating. >> she took a drink, puts the bottle down. she picks it up again and before she can take the second drink, she stops mid-air, spills water on herself. puts the bottle down and just stares at it for about 10 to 15 seconds. she then reaches over and grabs a tissue from the table and starts wipin' down the bottle and then wipes down the mouthpiece. >> reporter: what did that say to you? >> well, that she was afraid that we were gonna obtain her dna from the bottle. >> reporter: after that police let her go. david mallory, too. but detectives had a theory cooking -- that carter and david killed ashlea, out of revenge for being fired for the burglary. but they also wanted ashlea's keys to the american eagle. because they were planning to rob the store again. those keys were the only thing missing from the murder scene. and when store manager chris cravey looked at his surveillance video from earlier that morning, he told police what they wanted to hear. >> reporter: describe what you saw on the videotape. >> somebody dressed in dark clothes with their face wrapped walk right up to the store and try to get in with keys. >> reporter: that, he said, was carter trying to pull off another, bigger burglary. police just knew -- one day after killing ashlea and taking her keys, carter was trying to break into american eagle where this time, tens of thousands of dollars -- the black friday profits -- were in the safe. but the key didn't fit, because after ashlea was murdered, chris cravey changed the locks. >> i wasn't gonna take any chance on whether it be a deposit or them harming somebody else in the store. we needed to lock them out. >> reporter: the detectives pulled the surveillance video, and look at this -- carter, slipping away from the mall, having already changed from her sweat clothes into pink scrubs. had to be trying to fool potential trackers, they thought. this was after she would have spotted police talking to david in the parking lot. then she walked all the way home. over the next few days, police got a warrant for carter and david's cell phones. that camera app, so useful. >> well, we learned that they had conducted surveillance at ashlea's apartment weeks before that. they had a picture of her apartment. her actual door to her apartment, and they had pictures of her vehicle, the white dodge ram pickup. >> reporter: in early december, 2014, carter cervantez and david mallory were arrested and charged with the murder of ashlea harris. cold comfort for ashlea's sister. >> it's just such a loss and it's so pointless. i just don't understand how people could do that. >> reporter: they were tried separately, but the cases against them were virtually identical. assistant d.a. kevin rousseau led the prosecution. >> on state's exhibit 1 -- >> reporter: ashlea deenor assisted. from the witness stand detective cedillo helped lay out the case. >> were you able to conduct a search of her apartment and her vehicle, things like that? >> yes, sir. >> and did you find a receipt that proved to be helpful? >> that's correct. >> reporter: a sales receipt showed some odd purchases on carter's credit card. >> she had purchased two shovels. she had purchased a tarp. she had purchased gloves. >> reporter: why was that significant? because of a discovery way out in the texas scrub. a discovery worthy of a horror movie. and the key to finding it was right there on carter and david's cell phones. >> they would text each other longitude and latitude coordinates, and it led us to a remote area near abilene. >> reporter: what was there? >> as soon as we got to where the spot says, "you're there," we look up and there's an actual human grave that's been dug. >> reporter: fresh grave? >> fresh grave. >> reporter: prosecutors believe the original plan was to kidnap ashlea, kill her, and put her body in that grave. she was killed in her apartment, the prosecutors thought, because she fought so hard. >> what is that? >> this is a glock 19 semiautomatic pistol. >> reporter: in fact, investigators believe ashlea harris was pistol whipped. so when this glock 19 was found in the black infiniti, prosecutor deener had it tested. the results were both sad and conclusive. >> it came back positive with ashlea's dna on the gun, so that was very significant. >> there was blood adjacent to her bed. and blood splattered on the bed. this was not an easy death. >> reporter: hearing all this was so hard on ashlea's mother monica and loved ones like april. >> i thought i could handle it. huh-uh, nope. so i went out and i went back into the room where monica was. and she was consoling me. and she shouldn't be consoling me. >> reporter: the brutality of the murder was never far from the prosecutors' minds. >> i think i just thought how painful and how awful the last few minutes of her life would've been on this earth -- >> reporter: how terrifying. >> and absolutely terrifying. absolutely terrifying. >> reporter: even that, they said -- even that appeared to be part of the plan. this wasn't just about robbery, or even revenge, said prosecutor rousseau. >> it was discussions that carter cervantez had had with people where she expressed certain -- i guess you would call them fantasies involving killing people. >> reporter: liza schoenthal remembers one such discussion at work. >> it was just us. and we were folding clothes, and she mentioned that she had thought about killing someone before and whether or not she could watch them die. >> reporter: as if the murder wasn't shocking enough, prosecutors were pretty sure ashlea's murder was a thrill kill planned by a sadistic young woman who thought she was smarter than everyone else. but tiny, meek, carter cervantez admitted none of that. she still had a plan, concocted all by herself, to explain why she, too, was a victim. coming up, a vicious killer? >> reporter: you wanted to see the death penalty? >> death penalty was what i wanted. >> announcer: or a young woman forced into a life of crime? >> were you in pain? >> yes. i was screaming. >> when black friday continues. t-mobile 5g goes miles... beyond the big cities to the small towns... to the people. now, millions of americans can have access to 5g on t-mobile. and this is just the beginning. t-mobile, the first and only nationwide 5g network. male anchor: ...an update on the cat who captured our hearts. female anchor: how often should you clean your fridge? stay tuned to find out. male anchor: beats the odds at the box office to become a rare non-franchise hit. you can give help and hope to those in need. a president who abuses power. and obstructs justice. the impeachment of donald j. trump. he was supposed to protect our constitution. not trample on it by asking foreign countries to undermine our democracy for his personal political gain. trump broke his oath to america. members of the house and senate must now do their constitutional duty. if you agree, sign our petition at need to impeach.com need to impeach is responsible for the content of this advertising. looking around here i see tablets, laptops, printers, smartphones. they're all connected to the internet. they're all connected. can your network handle all those devices? sometimes. comcast business runs on the nation's largest gig-speed network. so you can get the bandwidth you need to power all of your devices at peak performance. if all of my devices could have that kind of speed, i would be dancing! get started with secure 35-megabit internet and one voice line for just $64.90 per month. call today. comcast business. beyond fast. welcome back. prosecutors had presented their evidence against carter cervantes for the murder of ashlea harris. there was the surveillance carter and her boyfriend conducted on ashlea's apartment, a purchase of a tarp and shovels before the killing and ashlea's dna found in carter's infiniti. carter would take the stand to tell her side of the story and she was about to point the finger in an unexpected direction. now with the conclusion of our story, here is keith morrison. >> reporter: when people talk about the trial of carter cervantes this is what they remember. >> state your name for the record, please. >> my name is carter carol cervantes. >> reporter: carter cervantes took the stand. gone was that criminal mastermind. here sat a helpless victim. >> she gets up on the stand and it was insane. >> reporter: carter said it was all her boyfriend, david mallory, controlling every aspect of her life. >> i was very afraid of david. >> how frayed of him were you? >> i thought he was going to kill she. >> reporter: this is where carter's defense truly began. she told the jury she was a woman enslaved by her sadistic lover. >> he was telling me what to drink, what to eat. and he made me have sex with him and in the movie theater. >> reporter: and he had that gun, the glock, she said, used it like a threat, and it scared her. >> i did not feel comfortable with that weapon. >> reporter: she told the jury she was asleep at home when ashlea was being murdered. she didn't know where david had gone but he wound up with a set of american eagle keys. >> he gave me some gloves, told me to put them on and he handed me a pair, a set of american eagle keys and he said go in and open the gate and bring me that. >> reporter: then she said he pulled out the glock. >> and he just pointed it at me. >> pointed it at you? >> yes, across his body. i shook my head that i wasn't going to do it. and he said you don't understand. there is somebody sitting outside your parents' house right now. if you don't go in i am going to kill them and i'm going to kill are you i so that's why she tried to rob the store. a couple hours before she showed up on the security video. david made it very clear how far he would go to make sure, absolutely sure, that she would do what he demanded. >> somebody pushed me down right when i got into the apartment. >> reporter: during the night, before the break-in attempt, she said, david brought strange men into their apartment. she heard an angry voice above her. >> he said, i'll make her follow directions. >> reporter: and then her story got even more harrowing. >> and took off my sweatpants, pulled them down to my ankles and then they raped me. >> reporter: raped twice, she said, sobbing, by two different men. >> were you in pain? >> yes. i was screaming. >> reporter: prosecutors, kevin roussou and ashlea diener, seemed to taken aback as the rest of the courtroom. >> i know what i think. this is not true. >> reporter: and they needed to regroup fast. >> this is the biggest lie she has ever told. we know that. you never know what the jury is thinking. >> reporter: carter had an explanation for just about everything, even that moment during her interrogation when she wiped the bottle. she wasn't wiping off her dna. no. she said the smell from the bottle reminded her of being raped. >> and i was telling myself, it's just water. it's just water. it's not them. but i could still smell it. >> she said she suddenly was over come with the smell of semen in the air and it had something to do with drinking out of this bottle of water. i thought that took some work. that is one heck of a lie. >> it was at that point that i put my pen down and said, i am not writing this. i am not going to write this down. >> reporter: his voice dripping with sarcasm, prosecutor roussou took her story apart. he showed the jury a picture. >> is that the gun that you are talking about that you were uncomfortable with being in your apartment? >> yes. >> that's the one laying beside you while you are having morning coffee? >> yes. >> reporter: then he drove down into the heart of carter's story. just who were those mysterious rapists? >> they all spoke in a way that i would describe as ghetto. >> so in your mind these are black people, black men? >> no, sir, i did not say that. >> reporter: but, said the prosecutor, that's exactly what she was suggesting. >> if she was playing that card, i was going to make her spell it out. >> is ebonic a term that is commonly associated with african-americans in this country? >> i don't know where it's commonly associated. i associate it with a certain type of speech that i associate with the word ghetto. >> reporter: if she was hoping to play to some random juror's random bias, she guessed wrong. the jurors didn't believe it. they found her guilty in less than two hours. as for david mallory his attorneys argued he had nothing to do with the murder. he was involved with carter, yes, but not with any killing. the jury didn't buy that either. rendering a guilty verdict in no time at all. the verdicts were some consolation for those who loved ashlea harris. >> i so miss her. she saw the best in everybody, even when you couldn't see it, she could see it. she had such a billing heart. and this world is worse off. >> reporter: both david mallory and carter cervantes received mandatory sentences of life in prison with no possibility of parole. it wasn't enough for ashlea's mom and stepdad. you wanted to see the death penalty? >> death penalty is what i wanted. it's what monica wanted. but it wasn't to be. >> reporter: and now they claim the memories of their ashlea. tell me about the last time you saw your daughter. physically in person. >> it was november. >> reporter: about a week before she died, ashlea had invited monica to play bingo. monica was busy, almost said no, but something told her to stop what she was doing and go. and, oh, is she glad she did. >> and i walk into the bingo hall and, oh my god, there sat that litle girl of mine. and i smile at her and i walk over and kiss the side of her neck and i tell her how much i love her. >> reporter: you remember every syllable, every moment of that day, don't you? >> yes. >> reporter: these days monica is making new memories at the bingo parlor. remember how skittish she was around ashlea's girlfriend at first? no longer. now they are family. >> when monica and i go get our nails done, they always say, oh, your daughter is so pretty. she never corrects them. as far as she is concerned, she gained several daughters. >> reporter: and when they are all together, ashlea is there, too. that's all for "dateline" extra. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. i got a phone call. something's wrong with brandy, she is not moving and the car is running. emergency vehicles, officers, and that's as far as i could go. there is my baby and i can't do nothing about it. >> announcer: she was a hard working young wife and mom. >> sweetest girl you could ever ask to meet. >> announcer: minutes from home when she saw the headlights. >> somebody was tailing her. >> my sister is in her driveway. >> reporter: you bury your litle girl and then it's a murder investigation? >> yep. >> reporter: there were two people brandy feared. one in town. >> she thought she was being followed. >> announcer: one thousands of miles away. >> josh was still in alaska. >> announcer: and then there was the new man in her life. >> anybody close to brandy we needed to take a hard serious look at. >> announcer: no fingerprints, no dna, and no arrests for years. >> you are grieving. how do you put that awful time together? >> day by day. >> announcer: then hints emerge of someone's dark past. >> you have robberies going on, a homicide. >> announcer: and one brave woman willing to talk. >> she told me the same thing happened. >> announcer: the question wasn't just who murdered a young mother. it was why. >> there was no money. there just wasn't a reason to do it. >> she didn't hurt nobody. why did they have to kill her? >> announcer: "out there in the dark." hello and welcome to "dateline" extra. i'm craig melvin. 25-year-old brandy daniels had just left work and was driving on an isolated road when she got the eerie feeling that someone was following her or could she have been imagining things? sadly, brandy's hunch proved to be right. she was found slumped over in her car, shot dead before she made it home. but why would anyone want to kill the young mother? investigators spent years trying to answer that question, searching for a motive and the killer. here is dennis murphy. >> reporter: it was a chillier than usual monday night in may 2014 as brandy daniels drove home from her shift at kohl's. zanesville in eastern ohio is the not too big, not too small city where you can be off the downtown grid and into wooded rolling hills in just a few minutes. and out there in the dark, that's where this 25-year-old single mom was heading, back home to her daughter waiting to be tucked in at brandy's mom's house out in the country where she had been living lately. brandy had been through a rough few months. years, really. one of the reasons things were finally turning around was that soothing voice on the cellphone this night. her fiance talking her home. >> i am just talking to her as she is driving home, trying to drive a stick shift, talking on the phone. >> reporter: the fiance is craig barry, her older boyfriend. >> i am a hairstylist. have been for years. >> reporter: one day brandy walked into craig's salon. >> we hit it off. >> reporter: women are funny about who they will turn their head over to? >> we turned out to be good friends. most beautiful eyes. >> reporter: like the song, brandy turned out to be a fine girl for craig and that right away mutual attraction grew into something more serious. >> that's my heart immediately. it was connection like i have never felt. it kept getting bigger and bigger every time we talked. we were lacking at houses. >> reporter: you were fixing to marry? >> oh, yeah. >> reporter: mollie edwards, brandy's mom, thrilled at the arrival of craig in her life. just when you needed something nice to happen. craig, what did you think of him? >> he was really nice. he put her first. he put her first. >> reporter: growing up, brandy wasn't much for barbie dolls, but give her a sketch pad and pencil and she was lost for hours. she loved to draw. she had an eye for realistic wildlife portraits. >> she took every art class there was. if it had anything to do with art, she took. >> reporter: she enrolled at her local college, zane state. she left school to marry josh daniels, a part-time student. she had news for mom. >> she said she was pregnant. >> reporter: you must have been torn up? >> i was. that was my baby. >> reporter: brandy, husband josh, and the baby daughter were living nearby. >> you couldn't ask for a better mother. if it was something that she needed or litle girl needed, the baby got it first. >> reporter: and how did grandmother like her new baby? >> the baby got everything, yes. >> reporter: the marriage, after seven years of trying, floundered. she filed for divorce. she seemed to be in a rough patch of her life? >> yes. >> reporter: but on this may night driving home from work with fiance craig in her ear he heard brandy starting to sound edgy. >> she says somebody was tailing her. these people need to get off my butt. if i'm just like -- i texted her, you know. what's up? so about ten minutes passed by and i called her sister and said is brandy home yet? she goes, no. i said, well, her call dropped on me and she should have been coming in the door by now. she said you want me to check? i said, would you? >> reporter: brandy's kid ster tess headed up the half-mile-long drive to look for her. >> her sister calls me back and is losing it. she was at the top of the driveway. and she says i see her car, her headlights are on, but it's not moving. head's slumped down. then she is hysterical. and i said i'll be there. i said you need to call the cops. >> 911. >> reporter: the muskingum 911 center fielded the car. >> my sister is in my driveway and her head is bloody and she is not moving. i just need someone to come quick please. i'm just scared. i need someone to come now. >> stay on the line while i get the squad on the way. >> reporter: fiance craig was on his way, too. there was his girlfriend's litle nissan sent ara in the drive. >> i pull behind the car. there is a sheriff there already. i see her in the driver's seat and i said, what's wrong? he goes, i think she's been shot. >> reporter: nothing can prepare you for that? >> no. she was dead. that's what he told me. >> reporter: he told you that at the scene? >> yeah. stay away. you don't want to contaminate the crime scene. >> reporter: no bridge ahead into the abyss? >> yeah. blew me out of the water. >> reporter: brandy's mom was leaving the bottle factory where she worked. >> 11:05 i got a phone call and i went running out to the truck. tess said something was wrong with brandy. >> reporter: you see emergency vehicles, officers? >> right off into the driveway and that's as far as i could go. >> reporter: the car with the driver's side window down, the vehicle stalled in first gear, and brandy inside looking rag doll. shot three times execution style. the detectives were arriving. >> who would want brandy dead? it's always the husband, right? maybe not this time. coming up -- >> josh was in fact still in alaska that night. >> reporter: that's a good alibi? >> yes. >> but there was someone who lived right in town. >> did you wonder what was going on with the boyfriend? >> when "out there in the dark" continues. inues. female anchor: it's 6:39, time for 'news update' male anchor: ...an update on the cat who captured our hearts. female anchor: how often should you clean your fridge? stay tuned to find out. male anchor: beats the odds at the box office to become a rare non-franchise hit. you can give help and hope to those in need. welcome back to "dateline extra." whoever shot brandy daniels aimed to kill. she was discovered in her car shot ex discussion style. it would not take long for police to turn their attention to two people very close to brandy. her estranged husband and her fiance. one of them showed up at the crime scene and turns out the other was thousands of miles away. they would talk to each of them soon, but the investigation was just minutes old and detectives first wanted to know what the scene could tell them. here again is dennis murphy. >> reporter: it was may 5th, stwort. of the car was at the head of the driveway, lights on and two county detectives arriving to try to figure out what had had happened to the young woman dead in the driver's seat. detective mike ryan and captain steve welker in the first minutes of what would be a years long investigation. >> mike and i arrived at about the same time. >> reporter: did the scene explain itself to you? >> we could see the basics of what had happened. >> reporter: their victim, brandy daniels, had been shot three times at close range. crime scene techs would recover three shell casings and a clip for a semiautomatic pistol. brandy's pictures and phone were beside her. >> we eliminated robbery almost immediately because there was an amount of money there that somebody would have tuck. >> reporter: as the csis took photos, gathered blood, dna, brandy's mom, sister, and fiance watched on in blank horror. what do you remember about the rest of that night? >> sitting in the vehicle behind her car just watching it. >> reporter: and there is your girl gone? >> there is my baby and i can't do nothing about it. it was 2:00. went to the house. 4:00 detectives came down to the house, said that they removed her in the car. >> reporter: who would benefit from a single mom's death? of course, the questioning turned quickly to the soon to be divorced husband, the father of the litle girl. brandy's mom told them about josh daniels, said he was a personal trainer at the gym and an obsessive weight lifter. are when you ran him through the computer, did he have priors? >> he did not. he was not on law enforcement's radar. >> reporter: not on law enforcement's radar, but nonetheless somebody they wanted to talk to right now. but there was a problem. a big one. there was every reason to believe he wasn't in the driveway that night but 4,300 miles away in alaska. josh had moved up there to be near his mom and he found work in the oil fields. >> josh was, in fact, still in alaska that night. >> reporter: that's a pretty good alibi? >> yes. >> reporter: because there is domestic trauma doesn't mean you necessarily have suspect, does it? >> not necessarily. but it's a good idea to eliminate the husband as a suspect in the get-go. >> reporter: detective ryan called josh daniels on alaska's north slope. can you discern demeanor or attitude through the phone line? >> not really. i wasn't detecting shock or grief or anything like that. >> reporter: nothing to hang your hat on? >> one of the questions i asked is who have you been talking to here in zanesville? he gave me a list of half a dozen people. >> reporter: he said he returned to zanesville as soon as he could. fwu there was a person much closer that the cops had to figure out. craig barry, the fiance. he is the last person known to have talked to her? >> yes. >> reporter: did you wonder what was going on with the boyfriend? he has 20 years on your victim, right? >> yes. >> reporter: he is a person of interest until he's not, i'm guessing, huh? >> at that point anybody close to brandy we need to take a real hard serious look at. >> reporter: within hours of brandy's death, craig got the third-degree. asking you hard questions? >> where have you been? what are you doing? >> reporter: did you think, wow, they think i'm a suspect. >> oh, yeah. that's common, right. >> reporter: and a cop is in your grill? >> they asked for my cell phone. i handed it over. >> reporter: how long did that last? >> i got home at 5:30 that morning. >> reporter: the legwork began in earnest, starting with where she was last seen alive. you are talking to your victim's co-workers. what is the picture coming together there? >> they describe brandy as a very good young lady, a douevot mother in a marriage she wanted to get out of. >> reporter: patrol officers traced the route from kohl's to the murder scene, hoping to find a security cam that recorded brandy's car headed home. the boyfriend's story is there is a guy on her bumper. that image doesn't show up anywhere? >> no. >> reporter: when the lab results came back, disappointment. no useful fingerprints or dna. and the long slog of getting search warrants to recover date from the cellphone and the towers the signals bounce off of had only just begun. josh returned to zanesville from alaska. they met him downtown at his lawyer's office. he was fully cooperative. the detectives asked for his cellphone. >> he and his attorney voluntarily turned it over. >> reporter: now you can check out his demeanor. what are you seeing? >> he was very cool and collected, looked confident. >> reporter: with the data from his phone on the way to the lab josh returned to alaska with his 8-year-old daughter. mollie and her family had buried their brandy, but no one was coming to terms with the magnitude of this crime. did the officers tell you anything about how the case would go? >> they figured that it would be summed up in a couple of days. >> reporter: if only. coming up, a new suspect. but he has an alibi. >> i went to my girlfriend's house and stayed there. >> reporter: was he telling the truth? the texts tell the tale. >> you are sure he was not in the house? >> he was not in the house then. >> there is a window of opportunity in there in which he could easily have done this crime? >> yes. >> when "out there in the dark" continues. in the dark" continues. 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(vo) snap and sort your expenses to save over $4,600 at tax time. quickbooks. backing you. welcome back. zanesville, ohio, police found in physical evidence at the crime scene where brandy daniels had been shot and killed. they had just interviewed her estranged husband two turned over his cellphone willingly and detectives were about to get a tip that would lead them to another cell phone. they found themselves following a digital trail and it was telling them a story. dennis murphy with more. >> reporter: brandy, the young mom found shot to death in the front seat of her car in the family driveway. detectives put her fiance craig through the ringer, but his story, including the part about his last text to brandy, checked out. >> within two or three days we were sure that he was cleared. >> reporter: but craig wasn't a total dead end. the fiance did have a tip for the detectives. he told them they should check out a fellow gym rat of josh daniels, a guy who gave brandy the creeps, someone with an unusual first name. sirius. sirius underwood. when they ran the name investigators found the son of a local preacher who had some juvenile offenses. he graduated from zane state, had a good job with a local manufacturer and seemed to charm every woman he met. four days into their investigation detective brady lillard found sirius at a girlfriend's place. >> i asked to look at his cellphone, take it back to the office, and download it. he agreed to let me do that. >> reporter: how did he present himself? >> kraum. he claimed he didn't know brandy was killed. just calm, cool, and selected. >> reporter: sirius came to the sheriff's office. while the squad's phone expert examined his cell, sirius explained how he knew brandy daniels's husband josh. >> i worked out with him. >> reporter: he said he hardly new brandy. >> i didn't like meet her, meet her. i seen her one time. >> reporter: as for his pal josh in alaska, sirius said they hadn't been in contact in a while. >> when is the last time he sent you a text, called you? >> two or three weeks ago. >> this week? >> no. >> reporter: he said he had been with his girlfriend around the time cops believe brandy died. >> i went to my girlfriend's house and stayed the night there. >> reporter: officers returned sirius's iphone and thanked him for coming in. wendy lemon, the girlfriend and sirius's alibi, was next up on the detectives' list of people to talk to. wendy, a mother of five, said she met sirius at the same place brandy and josh got together. zane state college. >> i just knew from the moment i met sirius that was just a new friend. happy. always smiling. >> reporter: the mid-life single mom back to college and deans list student sirius were ambassadors for their school. >> they were just looking for a face for zane state college that would be friendly and that would be outgoing so we could go to different events in the community as well as giving tours on campus. >> reporter: sirius had found time to work as a campus security guard and that's where he met josh who did the same thing. sirius was an overachiever, even featured inbo brochures about t college. they became a couple. >> one year for my birthday he totally set up an entire day skydiving. >> happy birthday! >> it was so amazing. so awesome. we took motorcycle rides and went on picnics. >> reporter: now wendy found herself caught in the undertoe of a homicide investigation. cops had her downtown the same day as sirius. >> i want to let you know you are not under arrest, okay? >> reporter: detective ryan asked about the night of the murder. he used wendy's text with sirius to refresh her memory. >> oh, yeah. okay, yeah. >> reporter: did wendy's texts that night fit in the timeline they were building of brandy's murder? and did they speak to sirius' whereabouts. >> 11:00 you were sure he was not in the house? 11:00 -- >> he was not in the house then. >> reporter: sirius arrived, wendy said, after this 11:00 text. sirius had given the cops wendy as his alibi and she inadvertently only made detectives talk a look at him. >> he could easily have done this crime. >> reporter: there was another thing. the squad's phone expert filled them in about some internet searches he found on sirius' device. >> he opened every news article that had to do with the homicide. >> reporter: interesting because earlier in the day he claimed he didn't know brandy was murdered. question. was sirius the gunman in brandy's driveway? he seemed to be no more than a casual friend of josh's from the friend. when the i.t. guys cracked josh's phone history, it told a different story. what did he delete? >> text messages. >> reporter: to who? >> sirius underwood. sirius underwood was by far the one he was in contact the most. >> reporter: what's your thinking? >> when we first talked to josh he never mentioned sirius underwood. why would they be lying to us about that? >> reporter: why indeed. the story told by the phones the concealed relationship fed a growing theory of the crime that they were looking at a long distance killing between alaska and ohio f that was their case, technology would be as valuable as dna or bloody fingerprints. the first big question, did the killer arks suming he was a man have a fphone on him during the shooting. >> we had tons of -- and i'm not exa exaggerating, thousands upon phone calls that hit these towers. >> reporter: in that electronic haystack a sharp-eyed cop noticed a call around the time they believe brandy was killed. it was that made from a number with a 310 area code. normally, that's southern california. the county law men traced that 310 number back to an anonymous disposal phone. a burner purchased in zanesville a week before brandy died. >> i get the call records for the 310 area phone and start combing through those. he only called two people. a second burner phone and josh daniels. those were the only two. >> reporter: was this their breakthrough? that burner phone at the right time, right place had called josh's phone in alaska. then the phone texted another extraction of josh's phone and they retrieved something josh thought he deleted. >> a voicemail that was left on josh daniels's cellphone from this california area code. >> what's up, man? it's me. hit me up on this phone right here whenever you need to talk about something. >> reporter: detective hittle's ears perked up. >> i listened to it and now i know that that phone, 310, is sirius underwood's. that is his voice. >> reporter: the detectives wanted another technically deeper dive into sirius's iphone. he came downtown again as requested. while the cops were preoccupied chasing down a search warrant for his device, he out-foxed him. he found a computer and remotely wiped his phone clean. >> i could see that it had been reset, factory restored from the icloud. >> reporter: whatever story he was going to tell, you weren't going to hear it? >> nothing left on the phone. >> reporter: it was like a evidence locker going up in smoke. their whole tech crime trail poof. detectives were sure sirius underwood and josh daniels were behind brandy's murder, but could they prove it? >> we knew at that time we had a serious problem with our evidence. we were not dead in the water, but definitely struggling. coming up, a stalled case. >> are you starting to lose faith in your police, the investigation? >> it was stressful. >> and then a threat convinces a woman to talk. >> >> what did he say happened to brandy? . he killed her. he killed her. >> when "out there in the dark" continues. here in the dark" continues. >> when "out there in the dark" continues. >> when "out there in the dark" continues. most people think of verizon as a reliable phone company. but to businesses, we're a reliable partner. we keep companies ready for what's next. 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(woman) when it comes to digital transformation... verizon keeps business ready. the top stories. pope francis delivered his christmas day message to the world at st. peter's square. he urged catholics to let the light of the holiday root out darkness and conflict around the globe. president trump attended christmas eve mass in florida not before hurling insults at house speaker nancy pelosi accusing her of hating the entire republican party and predicting she will lose her leadership position. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. detectives were zeroing in on two men in their brandy daniels murder investigation. brandy's estranged husband josh and his buddy sirius underwood. but there was not enough evidence to make an arrest just yet, and then a long distance phone call came in and the information they were about to get would be a game changer. once again here is dennis murphy. >> the next thing we have got to do then? >> reporter: investigators were pretty sure they had the right guys for brandy daniels' murder and they learned how awful her marriage to josh was. cops found a 911 call brandy had made six months before her murder. >> i'm in an abusive relationship and i'm afraid to go home and tell my husband that i want to leave but he won't let me, and it gets physical. >> reporter: brandy didn't request a deputy that night, but she did file a restraining order against josh when she left him. cops knew josh's buddy from the gym sirius was likely involved in the murder. they couldn't tie the two together despite some suspicious phone traffic between the pair. and additional difficulty in the investigation was the fact that josh was still living in alaska, about as far away as you can get from ohio and still be in the same country. josh daniels was here starting a new chapter, living in wasilla about an hour outside of anchorage with his mother and stepfather. keeping tabs on him from thousands of miles way were the zanesville police and they were seeing some patterns. when he wasn't working a job in the north slope oil fields he was partying, pumping iron, and chasing women. back in zanesville, meanwhile, the cops kept the pressure up on the person of interest they had in their zip code. sirius underwood. the detectives were all over his girlfriend wendy. >> every time that i had a litle spat or whatever, i was frustrated or disgusted with sirius, he would always show up again just wondered if maybe you remembered something. >> reporter: trying to find you at a vulnerable moment and you are going to spill? >> i already told you every single thing. it's never going to change. if you don't lie, you don't have to cover a lie. >> reporter: brandy's mother was losing faith in the cops making an represe an recht. >> every time we'd hear something, we would talk to them, still need to get more evidence. >> reporter: but something was about to happen and it was enormous. call it a good luck bolt from the land of the midnight sun. alaska was calling. it was three months to the day after brandy's murder when the ohio investigators got a phone call from wasilla. it was a woman on the line saying that she had been seeing josh daniels and she had a story to tell the police. something he had told her. well, when detectives heard that, they were on the plane to alaska within hours. the young woman explained she and josh had been engaged at the time of brandy's death, but he had commitment issues. >> he lied all the time. he was dating multiple people. >> reporter: she had the detectives' undivided attention as she related what an intoxicated josh told her on the fourth of july. >> he told me saying that happened to brandy happen to me. >> reporter: what did he say happened to brandy? >> he killed her. >> reporter: he said that, i said i killed her? >>. >> do you remember what his exact words were. >> he said he killed her and was afraid. >> did he say who killed brandy? >> he said some black guy at the gym. >> reporter: it looked as though the detectives were ready to put a bow on their investigation. take the blizzard of messages between the two men, mix in the fweeography of the cellphone towers that put a suspect burner phone tied to sirius near the crime scene, and now add in the story of the woman from alaska who had apparently heard a confession and you should be rather to swear out arrest warrants. not quite. when the detectives got back to ohio their first stop was at the office of state's attorney mike haddox. they come to you and say are we there yet? >> yes. >> reporter: you tell them no? >> i want to make sure that before we took the case to a grand jury that we had a motive. obviously, in the case of josh daniels, the husband, we had a motive. marriage was breaking up. he had been violent with her in the past. >> reporter: but he was thousands of miles away in alaska at the time? >> correct. he didn't pull the trigger. when we came up with sirius underwood, the most obvious is there has been some sort of a payment. we spent about a year looking through bank accounts, couldn't find any. >> reporter: almost two years went by, and nothing. how do you put all of that awful time together, molly? >> day by day. >> reporter: are you starting to lose faith in your police, the investigation? >> it was stressful. mike ryan, he would call and i said, have you heard anything? we still have to get some more evidence. more evidence. >> reporter: but it's funny how things sometimes work out because the investigators were about to get another bolt out of the blue lead like the one from alaska. it began with, of all things, a message to the facebook page of the zanesville pd. the tipster had volunteered that her husband was part of a stick-up gang. >> we came in, spoke with her and obtained valuable information for this investigation. >> reporter: phil michael, a detective for the zanesville pd, had been working two years on a string of armed robberies when he got the facebook tipster in for an interview, guess who she identified as two members of the robbery crew? sirius underwood and josh daniels. if the tipster could be believed, they had been bandits together two years before brandy would be found shot to death. the woman confirmed something detective michael had suspected but had been unable to prove. the robbery of a local department store had been an inside job. josh daniels had been working there and handed over $7,000 to a masked gunman. if we had been here on january 1st, 2012, what might we have seen? >> you can see an individual come from the southwest side of the parking lot. he stuck the gun in josh's face. >> reporter: shows a pistol? >> yes. he was knocked down. >> reporter: the tipster claimed that josh wasn't the victim of the robbery, but actually won of the participants. and that his pal sirius had been the mastermind not only of the department store job, but the prime mover in a crime wave, responsible for multiple armed robberies, most captured on surveillance video. the two bodybuilders' secret sideline was a serious revelation. >> drug dealers or robbing tumbleweed restaurants or they are hitting gabriel brothers. but during the day he is the sweetest guy, loves the women, they love him, he'll train with you, poster boy. just an all-around great american. >> reporter: the cops believe that linking sirius and his partner in crime josh daniels to the violent robberies would help nail the two for brandy daniels's murder. >> we are going to try to confront yosh. >> reporter: back to alaska. when josh landed at anchorage international, airport police whisked him into their office. detective michaels showed josh photographs of the department store robbery suspects. >> have you ever seen him before? around the store, anything like that? >> no. >> reporter: detective michael then handed josh another photo. >> have you ever seen sirius underwood? >> yeah, i used to work with him. >> would you have talked to sirius that day, would he have called you or texted you anything like that? >> hmm-um. >> reporter: really? the cop accused josh of lying of being up to his eyeballs in the robberies. >> if you came up with some dumb ass scheme to take money? >> reporter: josh stuck to his story and lawyered up. the detectives flying them ohio knew they had more work to do, but in any conspiracy there is a weakli weak link. they just had to pick their man and break him. coming up, who would crack first? >> we get the phone call saying, hey, let's make a deal. >> let's talk. the issue that we had was, you know, who do you make the deal with? the guy that had his wife killed or the guy that shot her point-blank range in the face? >> when "out there in the dark" continues. welcome back. investigators were confident sirius underwood was the triggerman who fatally shot brandy daniels at close range and despite living thousands of miles way in alaska, brandy's husband josh was involved in the plot to kill. but it was the discovery of another series of crimes that police believe gave them a motive and brought them closer to arresting both men. here's dennis murphy with more. >> reporter: a dogged investigation with a generous dollop of luck had revealed that josh and sirds weius were more algorithm buds spotting each other reps. they were armed robbers together. detectives surmised brandy must have known about sirius and her husband's part in the holdups. for the state's attorney the homicide case had achieved critical mass. what was the final green light? >> we found these two guys were criminal conspirators, violent criminals in several robberies. there was our motive. and once i felt that we had the motive for sirius underwood to be involved in this murder, we were go. >> reporter: which is josh's wife might be a risk for him? >> that's correct. >> reporter: she might snitch him out. >> she might snitch him out. >> reporter: haddox convened a gran jury. ron welch and ron lytle would present the case. there would be a lot of convoluted storytelling and evidence for the jury to follow. robberies, the homicide, the cellphone data, how you link these people up. you will have multiple snitches who are going to be testifying, who all have their own issues. >> reporter: the grand jury sat for three months and heard more than 100 witnesses. in march 2016 it returned indictments against josh daniels and sirius underwood. at the request of authorities in ohio, the alaska state troopers located josh at his mother's home in wasilla. once ohio gave the green light to the troopers to move on their suspect, they did. the cuffs went on without incident. a bulked up josh was put in the back seat of a cruiser and driven downtown. detective michael confronted him. >> you have been charged with several counts, including robberies that occurred at gabriel brothers, tumbleweed, the one that you are going to do at campbell's, and the murder of your soon to be ex-wife brandy. >> reporter: josh was shown a graphic crime scene photo of poor brandy. >> this is what you are responsible for. this is what happened to your ex. i'm willing to talk to you to get your side of the story if you are willing to talk to me. >> i think you are a good investigator, but i'm gonna have an attorney. >> reporter: okay. that's fine. >> reporter: in zanesville, police surrounded sirius underwood's car and arrested him. his interrogation didn't last long. >> we've had a grand jury and you have been indicted. >> for what? >> aggravated murder, aggravated robberies, attempted robberies, weapon under disability, tampering with evidence. josh daniels is also arrested. josh is out there talking. i think it's the proper thing to tell you that you have the opportunity to tell me, too. would you like to talk to me about this? >> no. i want a lawyer. >> you want a lawyer? >> yeah. >> reporter: josh waived extradition and was brought back to ohio. brandy's mother got word at the end of her shift. >> i get a phone call. you need to get down here now. >> reporter: there you are in a courtroom. what's going on? >> josh is there doing his plea. then they go over details that we weren't aware of. >> reporter: so it's got to bring the pain back again, huh? >> yeah. >> reporter: how did he look to you in the courtroom? >> not a care in the world. >> reporter: wendy was in the courtroom was al. this is big news. he is charged. do you believe he killed bradley cooper? >> no. i don't. so much going for him and he had worked so hard and i would just say why? what did he have to gain from doing something like that? >> reporter: over the next few months, welch and lillattle prepared their cases. they laid out their case on index cards. motive was looking more complicated than ever. in opening arguments they would have to explain to jurors who these defendants are. sirius, the overachieving charmer, and bad husband josh who will been abusing anabolic steroids for years. >> he was roided out. he was out of his mind using steroids, serious as a sociopath. for josh it was a status of being enraged and jealous. >> i think he still loved her and she was just done with him. >> reporter: josh sat behind bars for seven months. deprived of elephant doses of steroids, his chemically enhanced muscles deflated like spent balloons. they found the weak link. >> we get the phone call from josh's defense attorney saying, hey. >> reporter: let's make a deal? >> let's talk. the issue we had was who do you make the deal with? the guy that had his wife killed or the guy that shot her point-blank range in the face. >> reporter: the state's attorney agreed to a plea deal but josh daniels would have to tell all. making a deal with the devil. who will get burned? coming up, one down, one to go. >> reporter: what was the weakness in the case? you have josh come in as the witness. >> josh. the jury wouldn't >> reporter: as part of pleading guilty to murdering his wife brandy, josh daniels had to admit what he'd done -- provide what lawyers call a proffer. he was brought to a conference room at the prosecutors office. >> when was the first time that this idea came about? >> i've known sirius underwood for a while we were havin' a conversation one day at -- at his apartment. and i was tellin' him about, how hard this was on me -- me and brandy splittin' up. how pissed off i was that -- that she was seein' that guy, craig. and -- he made the comment, "well, [ bleep ] that [ bleep ]. let's just off her." and, you know -- at the time, bein' emotional and mad, you know, i -- i made the decision that maybe that wouldn't be a bad idea. >> reporter: josh helped him stalk his wife. >> sirius asked me where she lived. and i told him. and -- he asked me about her work schedule. and i told him. >> reporter: and, it wasn't just brandy josh wanted dead. >> i told him w -- see if he could go over to her boyfriend's house, craig's. see if he can find where he lives. and break into his house and kill both of 'em. >> did he? >> huh? >> did he find out where he lived? >> yeah. >> did he try to break into the house? >> no. not that i know of. >> reporter: they schemed together on the eve of the murder. >> he asked me a day before, "are you sure that you want this done?" and i'd been drinkin'. and, you know, i had alcohol problems and steroid problems and i was just mad. i said, "yeah." >> how did it go down? >> i told him when she was getting off work. i would text sirius and -- and just say the word "close." he just said that, "i've -- i've got this. i see her car." i don't know actually what took place on the night, i know she was shot. so i don't know if he parked his vehicle somewhere and came runnin' outta the bushes. i never talked to sirius after the murder actually happened. >> he certainly confirmed with you that it happened. >> he said, "done." >> reporter: they asked just could josh live with himself after killing the mother of his child? >> i thought that, you know, it would just go away. and that this day would never come. that me gettin' arrested would never happen. after brandy's death, became an alcoholic. drinkin' every day. taking hero -- using heroin, downers. just anything to numb that pain. >> reporter: the killer husband sounded almost contrite. >> if i could go back and i could change it, i -- i would. brandy didn't deserve what happened to her. she was a good girl. and ultimately, years down the road, havin' brandy gone, seein' how that affects my -- that's gonna affect my daughter's life. she's not gonna have her mom. and knowin' that i played a part in that, i can't -- i can't live with that. >> reporter: with josh about to throw himself at the mercy of the court, prosecutors still had the accused triggerman to deal with. but sirius was hanging tough, not saying a word. so with only one of the two accused going to trial, the state's star witness would be josh daniels. as prosecutors prepared him to testify, they were still trying to wrap their arms around sirius' motive for the murder. >> reporter: what's he telling you? >> when i pushed josh on why, why would he do this? and he says, "that's what dudes do for dudes." that's what sirius told him. he's like, "you'd do that for me?" and he just said, "that's what dudes do for dudes." >> reporter: kill your wife? >> right. >> reporter: crunch time for the prosecutors. sirius' trial was looming. and, they were far from confident. >> reporter: what was the weakness in the case? you're still gonna have josh come in as your witness. >> josh -- the jury wouldn't like him. you're asking the jury to rely upon somebody that's admitted to having their wife executed. that's a tough pill to swallow. >> reporter: so within that there might be wiggle room for sirius? >> right. >> reporter: just days before sirius' trial was scheduled to begin. >> i was writing my opening. i got a text message from the defense attorney saying, "you guys do an alford plea?" >> reporter: sirius' lawyer was proposing a plea deal. an alford plea -- the screwball pitch of american jurisprudence. >> alford plea, to civilians, to layman, has a very sketchy kind of feel to it. do you wanna take a crack at trying to explain what an alford plea is? >> sure. it basically is when somebody says, "i'm willing to say that you have lots of information, and -- i'm gonna plead guilty, but i'm not gonna say i actually did anything wrong." >> reporter: and i say, "huh?" >> right. >> reporter: and then i turn to ron and say, "how does this go again?" >> so, he's gonna take responsibility without saying he did it. >> reporter: the state's attorney signed off, and the trial judge accepted sirius underwood's alford plea. sirius was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 38 years. a sentence he's appealing. josh daniels got life with the possibility of parole after 28 years. not enough time for some of brandy's loved ones. >> reporter: so where do we stand now? they've-- they've both been dealt with? >> yeah, i guess. >> reporter: your opinion, do you think they both got off easy? >> yes, they did. they're still breathin', she's not. >> reporter: josh and sirius are serving their sentences in separate maximum security prisons. brandy's parents are raising her daughter. the family is left with a snapshot album itself getting older but the young woman pictured in the pages inside staying the same, never to have her own album of her daughter graduating, getting married. time ran out for brandy on a dark hilltop before she could kiss her daughter goodnight. >> reporter: that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. it was a whirlwind love affair. >> i felt like this was the one that i'd been waiting for. maybe it was too good to be true. did he love me, or was this all a game? >> reporter: a beautiful businesswoman falls for a dashing doctor, but her daughters have doubts -- >> i had lots of suspicions. >> she thinks his fingernails are dirty. this does not look to her like the hands of an actual doctor. who was this guy? >> his nickname was "dirty

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