Bad until the alleged burglar starting talking. They wanted the job done, wanted the burglary staged. He was a hired killer. And this was a hit. Now police had to catch the mastermind behind the murder. They were a very unlikely trio. So with the help of an undercover cop and hidden cameras, they set a trap. One thing thats really great about police work is that you dont have to tell people the truth. Would he walk into it . The first thing he did is he held up a little note that says, are you wired . Or walk away a free man . I thought he was going to walk. Im lester holt, and this is dateline. Heres Keith Morrison with in broad daylight. Reporter you never think its going to be you. Oh, no, no, no, no. Reporter no. The young man is right. In fact, this is the kind of thing that just doesnt happen to anyone. No. Never. Never would have thought i would have ever seen anything like this. Reporter no. And not here. Not in this neighborhood. In this house. But certainly not, surely not, at the very moment when at least three policemen were just outside the front door and just over the backyard wall not more than 30 feet away. We had to be told a few times just to get it in our heads what happened. Reporter what happened here in broad daylight under the very noses of the cops was murder. Long beach, california. A town that may have been cheated a little in the city pride department. A lot of people assume its like l. A. , but its not. Its different. It has its own identity. Reporter do you think its different culturally . Or just i think so. I think long beach is sort of its own beast. Reporter sure. Its a little more working class. Reporter yes, and its one of those 50 suburbs in search of a city that everybody calls l. A. But long beach is a brawny city unto itself. Half a million people, 52 square miles. A busy airport, a big university, an ocean front, a long beach. And its share of wealth and poverty. And, of course, crime. Lots of scope for a person who no shortage of work for, yeah, if you cover crime. Reporter tracy manzer covered the police beat at the local paper the Long Beach Press telegram. She was fair to the cops. They trusted her. So maybe thats why, one november morning a contact who was in the Police Department came over to me in the midst of this sort of press conference and said, you need to go to bixby now. And i was a little taken aback. Reporter taken aback, because bixby was not a name you heard on the crime beat. So it was very clear to me something major was going on. Packed up my stuff, ran out the door, and got to the scene. Reporter the scene was in bixby knolls, quiet, affluent, leave it to beaver homes on carefully tended treelined streets. Violent crime is unheard of in bixby knolls, which is just the way they like it here. Maybe thats why, if they grew up here or moved here, they rarely leave. Like rachel kerns. Everybodys very friendly. Always waving. You dont get that a lot in southern california. Reporter rachel still lives in the house she grew up in. We were able to play as kids at all hours of the day. We didnt have to worry about anyone ever hurting us or coming after us. It was a really safe neighborhood. Reporter but then came that november morning when tracy manzer roared over there in her car. I had no idea what i was going to what i was going to find. But i knew based on how i was told about it, that it was going to be something, you know, very bad. Reporter oh, and it was. I was barely out of my car before i saw the homicide lieutenant, the homicide sergeant, two commanders and, obviously, a bank of black and whites. So my first thought was there was an officerinvolved shooting. Either an officer had been shot and killed, or an officer had shot someone. Reporter but no, not that. No. What really happened was far stranger than that. Long beach Police Department. Yes, id like to report i believe we have an attempted breakin going on at the moment. Reporter it was a neighbor who saw it, like the start of some dreadful shock movie, rolling out in slow motion. It was 11 03 a. M. Its taking place at my neighbors, which is the house just to the west of me. Okay. One just west to you. Yes. Its the schockner residence. Reporter the schockners. The callers nextdoor neighbors. Several cops responded, were there in minutes. And as they talked to the 911 caller, they heard and saw a Little White Dog barking incessantly from a window at the schockners house. It was a Little American eskimo or something thats called. Yeah, not a very large dog. Yap, yap, yappie dog. Reporter a petiteframed woman came to the window to see what her dog was barking at. An officer gestured to her, come outside. Clearly bewildered, she finally opened the door. So he is telling her that they got a call from a neighbor that they saw a prowler. And would it be okay if they looked in her backyard and looked around the house. She had said that was fine. Reporter but hold on, the woman said to the police, let me grab the key. The gate is locked. So she closes the front door, walks through the house and walks out the back door. Reporter three cops waited outside the front door. Two more cops pulled in right here in the alley behind the house. And then, to their great surprise, the prowler jumped over the backyard wall practically into their arms. They searched him. They found jewelry in his pocket and a taser and a cell phone and a knife with blood on it. The cops out front waited for the woman to return. She didnt. Ten seconds. 20 seconds. Did a minute go by . They decided, time to go in. They opened the door, looked through the house. And what they saw was not just terrible, but a riddle, a deception, a piece of pure evil. 3 f2 un pedazo de verdadera maldad. Surrounded by Police Officers . I didnt believe it. 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As police, responding to a call about a prowler, waited outside the front door, neither they nor the halfawake homeowner sensed the jeopardy as she closed the door in their faces and went in search of a key for the gate to the yard. Seconds ticked by. The dog barked. The woman didnt return. So the cops, still not getting it, went in. Too late. She was attacked and she was killed right then and there while the officer was on her front porch. Reporter just extraordinary. Yes. Reporter the victims name was Lynn Schockner. She was 50 years old. When they found her lying quite dead just outside her own back door, they could clearly see the bright red gash across her throat. How was it possible . The policemen were just outside her front door and more cops were in alert mode out in the alley, but the only apparent witness to the silent murder of Lynn Schockner was lynns little dog, zoe. Horrified officers found her lying by lynns side, her white coat spattered red. Back at police headquarters, long beach cops, like undercover man kris nelson, heard the chatter. We were sitting in the office. And we used to have a police radio on in the office listening to whats going on in the street. Reporter this was bad. We were right down the hall from homicide. And you know, knew right away that this turned into a callout, you know, where somebody got killed. Reporter now, crisis mode. Detective Richard Birdsall took the call. Get down there, fast. Your first thought at that time. Do you remember what it was . Its just its a burglary gone awry. Reporter did you have at the same sense, how the hell could we screw up like that . Like anybody else, youre trying to discern why she did what she did and what did the officers say. What was the conversation . Reporter oh, yes, there were lots of questions. This would be ugly. Why did she go back in the house . Why did the cops let her . Why didnt they move in faster . How could they let the murder happen right under their noses . That was really disturbing, and, you know, you hate to second judge another cop, but there were mistakes made. Reporter after all, a neighbor reported a prowler in the back alley. A prowler who may have sneaked into her house. But she, the victim, didnt seem to believe that. She had a little little eskimo dog that barked at butterflies. And theres nobody in the backyard. This dog would have alerted me to anybody. But reporter she was wrong. She was wrong. Reporter lynns son charlie was a freshman in high school then. He was sitting in math class. Somebody told him he was wanted in the principals office. On the way there he thought he was in trouble. And then when they told him i didnt believe it. I thought it was a joke. Reporter until your father arrived with tears in his eyes. That was when i knew something was wrong. Reporter his father manfred, or fred as most people call him, came to take charlie home. How was your father . Upset. I mean, he was definitely he was crying. He couldnt drive. You know, i didnt really have eyes for him in that moment, with the reporter youre just a mess. Yeah. Reporter and charlie still could not believe what he was hearing. It really didnt set in really until i actually saw the house and then it really just all came crashing down. Reporter his home was a crime scene. The house was taped off, and theres people going in and out of the house. A lot of neighbors around. Like everything you see on tv. Reporter you never think its going to be you. Oh, no, no, no, no. Its surreal. Very much so. Reporter what does that loss feel like . Yeah. I cant put it into words. It was tremendous. It was awful. I immediately call mark, and im babbling on the phone. Like i cant even speak. Reporter mark jicha is charlies uncle, lynns brother. After the initial shock, theres disbelief. I didnt burst into tears right away. I didnt start screaming. I was just stunned. Reporter lynn grew up in ohio. She was the baby of the family, the only girl. Here she is with her two older brothers, jon and mark. But lynn was not like them. She was a tentative girl, whereas my brother and i were very outgoing. Reporter their father died young. Lynn often fought with her mother. Codependent. Love hate. Call it what you want. Reporter she got married, moved to california with a brand new husband. It didnt work out. Ended pretty quickly. But then one day she went to a ball game, dodgers versus somebody, who knows . And she found him. The right guy. Her guy. Fred schockner. He was almost 14 years older than she was but didnt seem to matter. Didnt hurt either that fred was a very successful man. Anyway, this time it clicked. They had an intimate wedding on a boat off the california coast. The captain did the honors, and they lived alone together in that house in bixby knolls until finally, after 11 years, they had a son who grew up to be charl pep as parents, they encouraged him to try new things. It was one of the olympics. And we were watching gymnastics, and i turned around to my parents and go, im going to do that. And i think like a month later i enrolled in gymnastics. So it was very much a supportive environment. Reporter and lynn doted on her only son. It might be trite to say this, but she loved him more than life itself. He was the center of her universe. Reporter so after what happened, mark flew tout california right away to comfort charlie and fred, and to make funeral arrangements for his only sister lynn. And at the very same time, as if in another world altogether, a world devoted to the minutia of violent crime, detective Richard Birdsall poked around the entrails of this burglary gone bad. He could perhaps write up a report, be done with it, make the growing bad press go away. But no, Richard Birdsall was a troubled man. We said, we know somethings wrong. My partner and i just feel somethings wrong. But we dont know yet. Reporter wrong . Well, of course it was. But the wrong the detective had in mind was not the fwreef or the loss or the vitriol thrown at the police. No, it was almost like a smell. The kind that sticks in your nose. Something off. Coming up one of the strangest things of all was the alleged killer himself. Not your typical burglar. In his words, he always wanted to be a cop. And this wasnt your typical burglary. I worked Burglary Division for four years but ive never had one come with a device thats used simply for killing. Chase freedom. The card is for the essentials. The cash back is for the fun. Chase. So you can. Get up to 50 off lenses with frame purchase. Thats something worth smiling about. The lenscrafters lens event. Lenscrafters loves eyes. 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Safe, happy, welcome, loving. Just good. Reporter but now lynn shockner was gone. Killed in a burglary. And charlie, just 14 and grief stricken, was so angry at the police. Well, you didnt do your job. How could how could that happen with you being right there . Thats just negligence. Reporter charlie was far from the only one. This was a broad daylight murder. Police officers just outside the front door when it happened. I can imagine that people would be kind of upset in the neighborhood. A burglar had been there. Robbed a house and killed a woman and the cops couldnt prevent it. Right. I think the majority of the neighborhood was just stunned and shocked by the violence. You know, how does somebody whos in her own home die within a matter of seconds with officers all around her home . Reporter tracys paper, the Long Beach Press telegram, was reporting on the community backlash. There was fear and, of course, anger. Cops often tend to pull together in the face of a thing like that, but in private . Harsh judgments, said the undercover cop, kris nelson. Im sorry. You just dont let her go back into a situation like that. Its police 101. Reporter what . At the very minimum, you go with her. Reporter so what was the feeling in the department when this happened . They [ bleep ] up. Reporter detective Richard Birdsall, use to asking tough questions, suddenly found himself answering them. You would think that the department would kind of adopt a bit of a defensive stance at this point. Because you know the publics going to say, what the hell was going on here . Why did you guys let that happen, right . Yeah, they did, you know, because theyre trying to defend the officers. And they didnt do anything wrong. You were waiting for someone to bring you the key. They waited a short period of time, within a minute. You know, theyre yelling for her, maam, can you come back . Hello . Where are you . Reporter just a minute or so. Enough for lynn to surprise the burglar, who stabbed her in the neck and grabbed some jewelry, and ran into the arms of the police. The detective prowled around the crime scene. We see that in the bedroom drawers were being opened, jewelry. Things are thrown around. So a lot of things in disarray. Reporter looked