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>> with a deadly end. >> nobody's leaving until we figure out what happened. >> a man at home, alone, and afraid. what would you do if you felt in danger? >> they were really attacking his home. >> you have a right to protect your home and to protect yourself. >> he planned, he prepared and was determined to kill. >> the most chilling detail of all. what you'll hear on tape. >> i'mti of it. >> i'm lester holt, and this is "dateline." tonight, kate snow with "12 minutes on elm street." >> 12 minutes, not a long time. but for three people whose pasts collided on thanksgiving day, 12 minutes was all it took for their lives to explode in a flash. >> i refuse to live in fear. >> 12 minutes that would haunt their families. >> i dropped to my knees. i was like, this can't be happening. >> basically, why? >> every second of those terrifying minutes would be fiercely debated. >> your natural instinct is to save yourself, however you need to do it. >> a town divided over what happened inside this house on elm street. >> we've had a lot of things happen in trial. i've never in evidence such as this. >> this might be more w the finger pointing, it was jus2 town of little falls, minnesota. >> everybody knows everybody and everything about everybody. >> 18-year-old rachel brady was spending the holiday with her 17-year-old brother nick and their 18-year-old cousin haile kifer. the cousins were inseparable. had been since they were little. >> we were always together. we would go camping. we were always in the water, always doing something. me and haile were always together. >> nick was the fun loving one in the group. kimberly is his mom. >> he found joy in everything. and he would make sure to find something to make you smile. >> he would just sit there and hug me and be like, rachel, rachel, my big sister and make me laugh every single time. >> like all ki tease each other. it. he would get so mad.r saying it his friends. >> growing up, nick was into sports and loved the outdoors. so did his cousin, haile. who was as bright and active as he was. >> she was vivacious, bubbly and funny. >> she was very athletic in high school. she was in gymnastics and softball and track. >> the close knit cousins spent the wednesday before thanksgiving together. raichel says there wasn't all that much for teens to do in little falls, so they would drive around town in the red mitsubishi. would you cruise down the main drag here? >> pretty much everywhere. >> just spending the day with no cares? >> they all spent the nit >> they said they were going to go to my mom and dad's house. >> the plan was to meet later at grandma's house. but nick and haile never showed up. kimberly and rachel tried calling them. is it strange for nick not to answer his phone? >> absolutely. >> even if i called over and over again, he could have answered. and been like what do you want? >> strange for haile not to answer the phone? >> extremely. she would have never not answered my phone call. >> so where could they be on thanksgiving of all days? adding to their worry was the weather. it had started snowing. >> so i'm thinking, okay, the weather. maybe he got stranded somewhere. i was hoping that he was just staying overnight somewhere. >> in ae >> were you worried about a car accident? >>asxp sure eidayfrignoh,ening news. >> we heard about a car accident that had a red car. and we thought it was him right away. so we went and looked and it ended up being car pieces for a different car. and so when that wasn't him either, we started to get extremely worried. >> we drove up and down the back roads. up and down the highways. >> we looked -- >> anywhere i could think of. >> through town. anywhere. >> rachel posted messages on facebook, has anyone heard from haile or nick? still nothing. by friday afternoon, they were out of their minds with worry. >> we called and called and called. no answers, no nothing. we kept getting the voice mails. i was like nick, this is getting serious. my -- we -- >> i started crying. >> yeah. >> before the day was over, the family would find out, this was no joke. something terrible had happened to nick and haile. but it wasn't a car crash or an accident. it was something no one in little falls could have seen coming. >> i tried to be a good person. >> across town, there was concern too. >> just worry and panic. like something's wrong. >> when we return, someone else had also met with trouble that thanksgiving day, the deadly kind. y mouth can cause cavities and bad breath. over 400 medications can cause a dry mouth. that's why there's biotene. biotene can provide soothing dry mouth relief. and it keeps your mouth refreshed too. remember while your medication is doing you good, a dry mouth isn't. biotene, for people who suffer from dry mouth symptoms. shhh! laughing) what's going on? gasp! you going to shut it down? this is totally going viral. i wanna go viral. going viral? get scrubbing bubbles, clean and disinfect. 20,000 views! what? oh, it looks so clean in here. that cough doesn't sound so good. well i think you sound great. move over. easy booger man. take mucinex dm. it'll take care of your cough. fine! i'll text you in 4 hours when your cough returns. one pill lasts 12 hours, so... looks like i'm good all night! ah! david, please, listen. still not coughing. not fair you guys! waffles are my favorite! ah! some cough medicines only last 4 hours. but just one mucinex lasts 12 hours. ditch the misery. let's end this. ield absorbs 10x its weight. th...oh, baked-on alfredo?e. always. ...gotta rinse that. nope. no way. nada. really? dish issues? throw it all in. cascade platinum powers through... your toughest stuck-on food. nice. cascade. not with ziploc easy open tabs. us not with ziploc easy open tabs. the friday after thanksgi tha, son nick and her niece haile never showed up for thanksgiving dinner. they had been missing for more than 24 hours. did you have a mother's intuition? >> i knew something was wrong. it was just so unlike nicholas. >> by friday afternoon, the family was frantic. so you decided to call the police? >> we went in -- >> we went into the sheriff's department and filled out missing persons reports for both of them. >> as authorities processed those reports, three other sheriff's deputies were over on elm street investigating something so troubling they later called in a crime scene van. that got the attention of john and cathy lang, who saw the van go straight towards the house of their good friend, byron smith. a 64-year-old retired man livi >> i was decorating the i saw a big, huge truck go down his road, called the crime scene unit. and i shouted for john, i think you were in the kitchen. and i said, call byron's cell. something has happened. >> what did you worry, what did you think had happened? >> i thought he was dead. >> cathy and john feared the worst for their friend, who had seemed out of sorts in recent months. everything was fine when byron first moved back to his hometown of little falls about five years earlier, after a career that took him all over the world with the u.s. state department. >> he was talking about living in moscow and cairo and dakar. it's amazing. >> a worldly guy. >> very much so. a great conversationalist, and fun to talk with. >> but recently, byron wasn't himself. his house had been broken into a everything from money to fy mentored boy scouts a theirk inra b>> and then that n showed up outside byron's home and cathy was sure her friend was in trouble. >> just worry and panic. like something's wrong. >> she was right. something was wrong. burglars had struck ag this time byron was home, and he had n. he had managed to defend himself, and survived the break-in. >> if you break into somebody's home, you better not have an expectation you're going to walk out alive, because the law permits them to shoot you. >> michel wetzel is the sheriff. byron told his deputies he had been in your life or the life of another is in immediate jeopardy. >> as investigators continued to secure the scene at byron's house, the sheriff's office was calling another family. kimberly brady had been frantically trying to find her son nick and niece haile. now investigators knew what had happened to them. they drove out to speak with kimberly, and they brought a chaplain. >> as soon as i saw them turn the corner, something -- i knew he was gone. i didn't know how or why. then all of a sudden i remember the door opened and the chaplain came out. all i said is, no. i don't remember if i said anything else. he's like, your son is dead. >> nick and haile were both dead. kimberly fell to her knees, and then the chaplain told her, it was no accident. >> he's like, your son was shot. and i was like -- that just wasn't -- >> doesn't fit?mber feeling, i said what do you mean shot to death, when i could get something out. and they said, well, he was shot three times. i was like, shot, what do you mean shot three times? and that was the -- i couldn't function. i couldn't really hear after that. >> were you there, rachel, during that? >> i walked in, and my dad said that somebody -- somebody shot and i sat in the snow. i just buried my head into my hands and i started to cry. and then he tapped me on the shoulder and told me, haile's gone, too. >> that's your brother and your best friend. do you remember what was racing through your head, rachel? >> basically, why? i guess we all just couldn't believe it was both at one time so suddenly.ai were shot.ron smith killed. >> it was all very unbelievable. >> so what happened in that basement on elm street? the answer to that would lead to a heated debate. how far is too far when it comes to defending your home? when do you cross the line between victim and criminal? >> coming up, what had nick and haile been up to? a grainy image captures a clue. is that nick? >> you see him on different cameras, different angles walking around the house. >> is that haile? deputies are about to learn something puzzling. >> why in the world are we only hearing about th y25eny y17vy the story of what happened on elm street spread quickly around little falls, minnesota. into byron smith's house, and cathy lang, had no trouble believing it.>> wt was scary, iy personal to him, because they were really attacking his home. >> but the family of those intruders, they were in shock. >> i didn't believe it. i thought it was completely not right or untrue. >> teenage cousins nick brady and haile kifer had gone missing the day before, thanksgiving. now, as she learned the circumstances of her son's death, nick's mother had so many questions. how do you reconcile in your head, your beautiful boy, who loves the outdoors, and what they're telling you, that he broke into somebody's house? >> i just couldn't imagine it. it just was so not him. >> >> yeah, i had abe but rachel had. >> i knew that my brother had worked for him in the summer, but i didn't know him at all. >> nick had once done yard work at byron smith's house. now the sheriff had evidence of what he was doing there again. byron had set up surveillance cameras at his home, frightened after a string of break-ins. those cameras prove there was no mistake about a break-in. just after 12:30, the hooded figure is nick. he looks through several windows. as if checking to see if someone's home. he clutches his hood closely. concealing his face. jeremy is an investigative sergeant with the morrison county sheriff's department. >> you could see that there had been what appeared to be a little bit of casing done on nicholas brady's part. >> he even heads towards one of the cameras and tries to dismantle it. then he walks out of camera range, shatters a window and enters the house. minutes later the camera shows another hooded figure. this one carrying a purse and a cell phone. it's haile. >> on the video, it shows that the female had come walking up to the yard up towards the house. >> all on tape, clear as daylight. but why? what were nick and haile up to that day? >> they both went to my school at one time. >> dylan lang is the son of byron's friends, john and cathy. >> in little falls, you have the regular high school crowds like the jocks and the goth kids. then you have a group that is misguided. >> dylan didn't know haile well but says at school, nick was no angel. what did you know about those two teenagers? >> i knew that nick was aggressive. he would be the kid who would push you up against the locker and -- >> kind of a bully? >> right. he was a bully. >> as it turned out, a thief. after the shootings, authorities deteedhoe. just a month he willier, he and a -- earlier, he and a friend broke through this door and stole thousands of dollars in cash and priceless family heirlooms. and more disturbingly, two guns. they took things that were really important to him personally. >> yes. and when they took the guns, he thought he was going to get shot by his own guns. he was extremely afraid. >> to the sergeant, it all looked like a classic case of trouble making kids crossing a line into dangerous criminal behavior. >> you have two teenagers that seemed to be running kind of rampant. you can obviously see that they had a change in their lives. >> in fact, when investigators located nick's car, parked on a secluded road near byron smith's home, they found items stolen from another house. >> maybe it was the motivation of money and having material items. maybe it was the motivation of having friends and wanting ron smitseemed to have every he was not sleeping. it was obviously bothering him physically and emotionally. >> at first, even nick's mom, while she didn't want to believe much of what she was learning about her son, tried to imagine herself in byron's shoes. >> i don't believe that breaking and entering is right and i wouldn't have expected it out of my son. >> it looked like a tragedy all around. two intruders and a fearful homeowner with no choice but to shoot them. >> we know you have a right to protect your home and yourself. >> but a quick survey told sheriff wetzel that the teenagers were unarmed. as with any shooting, it would >> it would be ordinary with two >> beginning with one question -- a pretty big one. >> why in the world are we only hearing about the shooting of two people in a house a day later? >> it turns out the sergeant and other deputies had rushed to byron smith's house friday afternoon, only to learn that the break-in and shootings happened thursday, on thanksgiving day. >> i asked him, why didn't you call law enforcement? he tells me, i didn't want to bother you guys on thanksgiving day. >> that struck the sheriff as extremely odd. >> nobody worries about wrecking our thanksgiving. they don't worry about wrecking our day. >> so the intruders had been dead for 24 hours when byron called a neighbor for help and asked him to call the sheriff's office. when you found out byron smith waited 24 hours -- >> my mind was then, why? if you were so scared, why weren't you on the phone? i mean, those kids have >> and then for him to say he didn't want to bother anybody on thanksgiving. >> it became clearer and clearer and clearer there were some things that were strange about this case. >> investigators were about to learn a lot more about that shooting in the house on elm street and what happened next would tear this town apart. coming up -- >> i was no longer willing to live in fear. >> byron smith's story, was it all adding up? 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introducing...schmindex! look! windex makes glass too spotless and too dangerous... but shmindex makes it dirty shmindex. order yours today crsugar is everywherets sugar shield and crest complete has a sugar shield to protect teeth from sugar found in everyday foods. nick brady and haile kifer had broken into byron smith's house. the theof house. >> whoever it was that was br this home security cama, said he moved his truck a few blocks away that morning to clean his garage. the teens must have thought he wasn't there. >> i needed to clean out the garage and i wanted it out of the way for a while. >> byron told him how he was in. then i saw his hips, i shot. >> it was nick. byron shot him tee i spent 20 years overseas. a couple years in bangkok, several years in cairo. 20 years overseas, not one problem. and i retire to my peaceful hometown. the sergeant was surprised how m ter of fact he was for most of the interview. >> you would think after such a horrific event, shooting and killing two people that broke into your house that you would be very emotional, maybe crying nick. haile entered the house and byron fired again. >> it ja t to shoot somebody and they laugh at you, you go again. >> was haile really laughing? to the sergeant, it seemed like a bizarre detail. then byron told them this. >> i thought she was dead and it turned out she wasn't. so i did a good, clean finishing shot. >> he shot haile six times in all. and with that, the investigators came to believe this was something other than a simple case of self-defense. >> okay. wasn't looking at her hands. reening you. i'm just asking -- >> i don't know if she was threatening me. >> tre was certainly a continuation of the use of deadly force after it appeared to us the threat had stopped. and that made us believe that this needs to be looked at by the prosecuting attorney. >> byron smith was arrested that day, but later released on bond. a grand jury was convened to look at the case. in little falls, his friends were shocked that authorities could believe byron was anything but an innocent victim. >> it was ridiculous. that he would be this cold blooded killer? really? he's a quiet, soft spoken person. i just didn't fathom it. >> while byron was free on bond, the langs say he couldn't bear so they took him in.miesota. house, didn't byron smith then have the right to defend himself?now there would be a tr the case everyone in town was talking about with revelations from both sides. coming up -- into court, when "dateline" continues.ese t riffs. you like smash mouth? 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>> yes. it's not something he wanted to do. but he didn't ask them to lari t way on thanksgiving. they chose to do that. and he reacted. >> so the defense came to court confident a jury would see it that way. in minnesota, as i understand it, you have the right to protect your life. you have the right to protect your home, your property, as long as it's reasonable. >> if somebody breaks into your home and commits a felony he was afraid there was a third or fourth or fifth person.ra of backyard, the front yard, the stairway, the door. he's just in utter fear and he goes in a closet and hides in his own house until the fear subsides. >> as for smith's calm demeanor and the matter of fact way which he described the killings -- >> i just pulled out the .22 and shot her. >> the defense said he was just a man trying to help the authorities any way he could. >> on the exterior, he appears to be calm, but he's talking about how frightened he is internally. he's trying to explain to the >> from a human standpoint, it it's not evidence of murder. >> he thought his strongest evidence to justify the shootings was the fact that nick brady had broken into byron smith's house before, had even stolen guns. so byron had every reason to fear for his life. >> you wanted to show them these are kids up to go good. to i wanted the jury to see the truth, rather than just see a painted picture that the media was playingani thought he was m grave error. so it was ridiculous to us for >> it would be an uphill battle in the court of public opinion, thoughos side, the prosecution had something else. >> h byron smith is a hero. what do you say to them? >> i say he's a murderer. and murderers can't be heroes. >> in a sharply divided minnesota courtroom, the prosecution argued that byron smith was no fearful, innocent victim, but an angry man bent on violent confrontation. he told investigators from the beginning that he was sitting reading a book in the basement, that he was caught unaware. you don't buy any of that? >> no, not at all. >> the prosecutors said they had evidence that it was premeditated murder. they told the jury byron had set a trap for the burglars. remember the story about moving his truck to clean the garage? the prosecutors said that was a lie. that byron had, in fact, moved the truck to make it look like he wasn't home. the people h stealing his property. >> the prosecution said byron l. like a lot of folks do in minnesota.whe you wait and you wait and when a deer comes by, you shoot and kill it. and it just seemed like that's what he did with these kids. >> but could they prove it? turns out the prosecutors had something they had never encountered in nearly half a century of combined trial work. do you remember when you first listened to it? >> i do. and it knocked me out. i've never been able to hear a murder actually occurring. >> byron smith recorded the break-in and shootings. investigators found this digital information. ndeed, we did.on tape.>> >> here is byron smith shortly himself. >> in your left eye. >> in your left eye. why would he say that a half hour before anyone came over? well, when you go through the autopsy photographs, you see that he shot haile kifer in her left eye. >> he was planning where he was going to shoot an intruder? >> not just shooting them but where, where in the face is he going to shoot them? >> then it sounds like byron is planning not just the shooting, but also his defense. he practices contacting a lawyer. >> i realize i don't have an appointment, but i would like to see one of the lawyers here. >> ten minutes later, the practicing is over. the recorder captures something real. down that day? t minutes in court, but first warned nick and haile's nt >> he suggested that you probably shouldn't be there that day. >> he did, more than once. >> why did you want to be there? >> i needed to know. you need to hear the whole story to understand it, i think, in this case. you can't just make a snap judgment. >> this is the sound of nick entering the home. walking down the stairs to the basement. >> and as he's going down the stairs, you can hear him get shot. >> we won't play that part of the recording. after shooting nick three times russians are guilty. case closed. sse side or posture by abusing cyber espionage operations. >> president-elect trump got an intel briefing on friday, but says he's still not sure. >> my sitdown with two republican senators, lindsay graham of south carolina. >> after the briefing he's still not sure that would shake me to my core about his judgment. >> and john mccain of arizona. >> if we were able to succeed doing that then you destroy democracies. >> the secretary of defense ash carter live this morning on what counter expensive when obamaca >> i think it would not be the right path for us to repeal obamacare without laying out a path forward. >> joining me this morning for insight and analysis are david brooks, columnist for the new york times. andrea mitchell of nbc. cnbc's rick santelli and former congresswoman donna edwards. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press". >> from nbc news in washington, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. if there's one thing donald trump as candidate and president-elect has been consistent about is that russia in no way interfered with the u.s. presidential election from arguing in a debate that the hacking of the dnc could just as easily have come from soon of the top intelligence agencies made their conclusions clear, russia interfered with the presidential election. on friday, those same intelligence agencies released a report that included this line, putin and the russian government appeared to help president-elect trump's election chances whe to im. it did not include the sources and methods of how the intel agencies came to these conclusions. that portion is classified but that was part of mr. trump's briefing on friday. the president-elect reacted by neither accepting nor rejecting the finding. there was absolutely no evidence that the hacking affected the election resultsti