murders never make sense, but this crime, says the eriff, seemed just plai crazy. >> it's going to be a humdinger. >> the viims? a coupl parents to 17 children, inuding 13 who were adopted. >> she ke up evy day for the children. >> the alleged kiers? seven men dressed like ninjas ving lke commandos, forgetting only one thing. >> the thing was caught on tape. how often is aurd caught on tape? >> but evenf police say tey know who committed these murders, no one seems tonow why. >> i ask every day, "why?" >> or do they >> i would tell the public and the media to snd by. you will not be disappointed. >> now a new person of interest is speaking out with exclusive information. >> bud normally carried $20,000 in cash in hisrief case. >> might he hold th key to the case? >> i wish my family wasot going through wha they're going through right now. >>o safe pla. a "datine" exclusive. >> i'm ann curry. thanks for joining us. it was the kind headline some pele need to hea twice to be sure they hard it rig. aother and father, paren of 17 children, including 13 who were adopted, murded in their own hoe. nine of the children,ll with special needs, were in th house at etime. within days police arresd a group suspects and establishe a possible motive but there could be more to this case th mes the eye. here's keith morrison. >> reporter: relief, finally. along the gulf coast and the florida panhand the prise of sunset brought a respite from the withering humidity, the oppresive sun. it was july 9th, just past 7:00 p.m. a breeze kicd in. you could breae agai and then the cime that stole that breath away. eseimages were captured by the sophiscated security system mountedoutside and inside a ninbeoom house a home invasion inprogress, a double murder about to occu the victims a husband and wife. but not any suburban couple. this was no typical family. >>e have a child here. she's almost 2 1/2 and just stard walng. it's great because she walked. >> melani and b billings were the locally celebrated parents of 17 ildren, 13 of them adopted, many with a variety of disabilities and special needs. nine of the children, ages 4 through 11, were home when the masked intrude wearing ninja-like garb arrivedn the fading daylight in a van and burst into the billings residence. >> autrities say at least three people entered the family's sprawling home from the front and back doors. >> the question which grew by the hour fed and watered on the internet, why these people? why the billings? was it a robbery, or wasit someing els too, something hinted atdarkly? it m seem strange even to s it but what happened as darkness fell on jul 9th was really only amall part of the story. before that, for exale, what went on behindhose woods and down that private road was a beautiful ing. all those children whose futures in this cruel world had seemed verdark, even peless, now had full-time devoted parents and a happy tribe of siblings and a big, fine house inhich to live with its toys and pool and pond and backyard barbecue and secity system to keep them safe. from hopeless to happy ev after is how this was suosed to go. and would ve, had it en a fairy tale. but it was not a fai tale. we a now know. but to understand the gravity of the story, it will he to meet this remarkable young woman. >> those children were her life. she did not want them separated no matter what it took. she did not want them to be without their home. >> her name is ashle rkham. shs talkingbout her mother and father, melanie and bud billings. >> you kw, i think that we're able to honor her wishes and my father's wishes andit's wha we'll do. >> ashley is 26. she and her husband ar determined to keep the billings children together. and she' also deteined to keep her mother mory alive, gain strength and inspiratn from her life, and tell melanie billings' story in pth for the first time. > you're the one who knew her best. >> i did. she was a young mother. >> when s hyou. >> when she had me. she had my sster only two years later, so she had both of us at very young age. >> melanie billings was just 17 when she had ashley and just 19 when her sond daughter nicky was born. >> my sister got sickwhen she was 2 months old. sh got spinal meningitis, so th brought a whole new wod of issues for my mom. >> nicky suffered disabilities, including auti, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, then melanie's first marriage ended. >> i can remember ncky being very sick as a child and in a out of the hospital. it was always just us three. you know, my mom never, never faltered in anyay in taking care of me or nicky. she wked two jobs and provided us with the things she could. >> but as a single mom, melanie ruggled to take care ofashley and nicky whoas unable to spea melanie's sister, julie. she was amazing with nicky. she moved heaven and earth for her. she was her voice. >> arnd 1990 when she was 25, melanie met a man who was a big success in the used car business around pensacola. bud billin was 23 years melanis senior, but it didn't seem to matter. >> when i met him, he was ve giving and loving and he was amazing to my siste his world wy sister. >> i fact, there was a special bond between the t. >> there's a story that my d fell in love with my sister nicky beforee fell in love with my mom. so i think their similar intest in nicky andeing there for her really drew their bond closer. >> melanie and bud married in 1993nd wen the families blended,ealing with issues involving disabilities and adoption became part of the fabric of their lives. bud bilngs had already adopted two little children with no disabilities. his first adopted child, though, from a previous marriage died two years after bud and melanie married. >> that was the first adoption and then justin was adopted, 20 years ago. >> did you ever know this was something that would ppen, that they would just keep adopting kids? >> my mom, after she was 24, she couldn't have children. she h a surgery that prevented her from ever being able to have children so once they were married they couldn't have children of their own, s it was alwa something that they had wanted. >> why a spial needs child? because of nicky? >> i think nky gave them th inspiration. they knew that they could care for nicky and i think ey knew it was kind of their calling. >> and thusheir big house became the refuge and salvation of children whose lives hadnce en marked f pain and deprivation. of course, the could not know enveloped here in the security of a loving fily that red van was coming that authorities say would take it all away. coming up, every day lfe in a homewhere horror was about to replace happine. >> weon'txpect macles from our children so we're happy, ecstatic. >> and later, a new man surfaces in the case. >> bud told all of his associates that he had more cash than he could ever spend in a lifetime. >> and he speaks out in a "dateline" exclusive when "no safe place" continues. seem smooth and strong to irreversible damage. no different. irreversible loss of enamel. enamel shield enamel loss by forming against acid attack. toothpastes dentists check most. save your enamel. be gone for good. enamel shield. with the rinse. 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>> it was within a year. he was the first baby with downes syndrome. >> reporter: his name was bailey and over the next few years a new special needs child seemed to arrive with each turn of the calendar. babies with fetal alcohol syndrome, babies from drug-addicted mothers, children with autism. melanie's sister, julie. >> did you get to meet them all one by one as they came along? >> i did, yes. and she would always call us and i'm getting a new baby. i'm getting a new little one. i'm like, another? >> reporter: before each placement, the billings had to undergo rigorous home placement studies. ashley markham's spokeswoman, attorney crystal spencer. >> they look at your criminal history, your background, your financial stability, your ability to care for the child, they look at your suitability psychologically, socially, medically. >> reporter: in 2004, pensacola was devastated by hurricane ivan. it was just a few days later 3-year-old bailey sneaked into a bathtub and because of a damaged water heater he was scalded. they rushed him to a hospital, where bailey died, complications from a tube inserted in his artery. melanie billings was devastated and the family dynamic changed. >> i planned on going into special-ed teaching. >> reporter: imagine that. >> yeah. and i kind of put career plans on hold and started helping my dad more with the business. he wasn't able to be there as much. he was there for the family. >> reporter: by the end of 2005 the family was locally famous. it was christmas day when the pensacola news journal ran its big spread on the billings. melanie told the paper she and bud savor every moment, "you never know when you won't have this time." their household of special needs children was everything to them, they said. >> they didn't see it as there was something wrong with those children. they saw it as those were their perfect children and it was just everyday life to them. >> reporter: later the billings were featured on wear tv's local news. >> we don't expect miracles from our children, and, you know, so we're happy, ecstatic. >> reporter: friends found it hard to believe how calm and organized life was at the billings' or how hard melanie and bud had to work to make it that way. >> bud and melanie were so strong. they worked from 4:00, 5:00 in the morning until 10:00, 11:00 at night, getting up with the kids, and going to doctors' appointments and just every day routine. >> reporter: robbi jones not only knew the family well. she and her partner, james samuels, were essentially adopted by the billings, too. robbi and john were strangers in town and down on their luck when they met bud billings, bought a car from him. later robbi and james lost their home to foreclosure. >> he said, you know what? i'm going to bring you out to where i live. he said, y'all are going to live with me. >> reporter: bud fixed up a trailer on his property. robbi and james moved in. bud was like that, said his friends. would give a stranger the shirt off his back. but when it came to business? >> now that he had two sides he could be -- >> reporter: he could be a tough businessman. >> he could be a very tough businessman. that was his business and livelihood and he wasn't going to let people get the best of him. business was business. >> reporter: and those businesses did very well, indeed. when bud ran them, they included a used car lot at the time called first use auto sales and a finance company. but success of a family business didn't mean much to melanie because a year later she suffered a devastating loss. her second daughter nicky died of a stroke. >> every day the first thing she did in the morning was take care of nicky. the last thing she did at night was take care of nicky. so when that stopped, she explained to me that she felt like she had lost herself. >> reporter: she kept going, though. she had to. there were all those others who needed her. so she suffered silently, unaware that the uninvited visitors were even then assembling, preparing, on the way. and when they arrived, there would be terror. >> as they were bringing the children out, one would grab a child and run back to the driveway and hand the child off. well, it's only dust. in that dust are allergens from pet dander and dust mites. eww! pledge with allergen trappers... traps up to 84% of allergens in dust. 84%? 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(announcer) start losing weight today. alli. introducing new brawny. a towel built with one layer to be even softer and another for added strength. brawny can do it all. what do you say to a spin around the color wheel? - to paint with primer already mixed in? - ♪ yeah yeah yeah... - test samples instead of can commitments? - ♪ whoo! - what do you say we dip into our wallets less... - ♪ are you feeling it? - ...and grab ahold of the latest tools out there... - ♪ oh! ...so we can quit all that messing around with extra steps - and get busy turning our doing dials up a notch? - ♪ whoo! ♪ oh! more saving. more doing. - that's the power of the home depot. - ♪ yeah yeah yeah. >> reporter: around the pensacola area in recent years people heard about melanie and bud billings and their big family. katherine and her family lived in the same house for nearly 60 years. she reads the paper every day and remembers seeing the piece in the "pensacola news journal." >> it was very interesting because they were telling about the children that they adopt and take care of and i thought that was wonderful. >> reporter: so did others. yet the billings didn't really want any special attention, didn't want outsiders intruding on their children's little world. in fact, in what seemed a strange twist bud billings tried to copyright the very names of his special needs kids. ashley markham's spokeswoman, attorney crystal spencer. >> bud felt, rightly or wrongly, that by copyrighting their names it would provide a level of privacy for the family, and bud and melanie wanted to protect these children. they wanted to be their voice. >> reporter: whatever privacy this family had, though, was about to be shattered. strangely, just the day before the murders someone entered the billings property without permission. in the afternoon an eyewitness has told "dateline" there was an uninvited visitor at the billings home, a man peering in the window. bud billing saw this from cross the property and went dashing over to accost the man who asked billings if he wanted to have his house pressure washed. billings said, no. the man left. melanie and bud billings woke up the morning of thursday, july 9th, at their big house in the woods. later, ashley was driving along a nearby highway and for the fourth time that day called her mother. you look back on that conversation now and will never forget it, huh? >> never forget it. >> reporter: how did you ring off? what did you say to each other? >> we always told each other we loved each other when we got off the phone. there wasn't a time that she didn't tell me she loved me. >> reporter: now it was evening, thursday, july 9th, still light. james samuels was riding home from work heading down this road to the billings place and his own little trailer at the back of the property. that's when the police cars went rushing by, hell bent for someplace. james pulled out his cell phone, called robbi at home in the trailer. >> i thought it must have been a bad accident because i seen four police cars. >> reporter: james rushed to the house. when he arrived, there was chaos. police were carrying the billings children out of their home. robbi wanted to make sure the kids were okay. >> as they were bringing the children out i ran up and would grab a child and run back to the driveway and hand the child off. >> reporter: and then run back and get another one? >> mm-hmm. >> reporter: mercifully, the children were unharmed, at least physically. bud and melanie, however, were dead. and bud's video system recorded most of what happened, though the sheriff's department has only released these images so far. wearing ninja costumes, three men entered the front door. one stayed with the vehicle. two more came out of the woods, entering another door. still another stayed behind in an suv, not seen on camera. five intruders in total stormed into the billings home. melanie and bud were in the living room, dragged into their bedroom. one of the men, according to authorities, shot them multiple times. nine millimeter shell casings littered the floor. then the attackers stole a safe from the bedroom. it was all pulled off with military precision. the attackers were in the house less than five minutes, on the property less than ten. the children, who had just been put to bed, were awakened by the sounds of the gunshots. one child ran to a neighbor's, who called 911, and the security cameras caught the police arriving soon after that call was made. within an hour, as the escambia county sheriff's department tried to make sense of the senseless, the media descended. >> the investigation remains wide open with some new information -- >> reporter: reporter mike rush of wmpi tv first thought this was a typical home invasion. >> reporter: we get out there and then this starts to change. this is a well known, wealthy couple known for adopting children, number one. then you find out the thing was caught on tape. how often is a murder caught on tape? and how many people have such an extensive home security system in their house to begin with to where it could be caught on tape? >> reporter: it was night now, black, frightening night. and the questions had just begun. the answer, said the sheriff, would be a shocker. >> i would tell the public and the media to stand by. you will not be disappointed. t. - others buy the car of their dreams. - ( beeps ) during the lexus golden opportunity sales event, you can do both. introducing our best offers of the year on the vehicles intellichoice calls "the best overall value of all luxury brands." it's an opportunity today. it's a lexus forever. 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