Reporter thats what made what happened so startling. It was dark when they got there. They found the body upstairs in the master bedroom. The victim was clearly shot with a handgun. He kids are missing, julie was missing. Reporter was this a case of murder . This is our neighborhood. These are our friends. Youre just in utter shock reporter there were secrets in that house. Who would unlock them . I didnt want my friends to know, i didnt want my family to know devious. Manipulative. This was our best friend. It didnt haha to end like this. Reporter im lester holt and this is dateline. Heres keith morrison. Reporter grief, like the ocean, rolled into their lives in waves. Ride the waves or sinkit seemed to say. Ride them again and again. Its just a shot through the heart. Reporter once there were four fast friends. Went down and d e waves took on their new meaning. It dit have to end like this. Reporter no. Expt it did. And when it did . Just felt like someone hit you in the stomach really hard and wanted to cry. Reporter what could they do . Ride, its what harp would have wanted, after all. Reporter harp. Jason harper, sports loving,g, outdoors loving california boy. With a childhood best friend named paul severns who, as they we were a ways together. In the early years, he was always taller than me. But then i caught up to him. We were both the two tallest guys in school. Reporter so when they got to high school, there was one sport they were very wellsuited to play, volleyball. Harp was a stud, you know. Im not gonna lie to you. Im not gonna sugar coat it. He was he was you know, mvp on the team. Reporter yes, and went on to here t`ey are together on ucla bruins talk, on Public Access tv. Were not going to lose or whatever and we came back and havennlost since then. We can beat a lot of the teams out there. You know, we could definitely be a final four contender. I always sasa we we we and so we would run the warmups the same spe. And we would end up talking together. And we became roommates throughout college. And, just a great guy, a great friend. Reporter quiet, mind you. Shy, at least around the girls. He wasnt quite the ladies man. You know, im not gonna lie to u. Reporter and then one night back in 2000, four years after he graduated from college, harp met a girl at a party. Ll paul was there, too. The girls name was julie cihak. She kinda zoned in on harp right off the bat and started to talk to him. Reporter so i get the impression she picked him. Yeah, exactly. Reporter it went pretty fast and, why not . Julie was pretty and smart, and from a welltodo family. Still, when harp proposed just three months after he met this first real girlfriend. I felt like it was the first girl that he really loved and theres a lot that goes with that and i just didnt want to him to be, have the wool pled over his eyes. Reporter but, they stood up for him, and the marriage at san diegos historor Hotel Del Coronado was a great happy party. I remember the first dance. They were in this giant ballroom. And d ey did a very nice ballroom dance, you know. And and harp had repter go figure. A big old smile on his face. Reporter they moved to the seide, to carlsbad, california, just north of san diego. And jason harper signed on as a math teacher and volleyball coach at a local high school. Jason was your typical Southern California surfer, beach volleyball, Public School teacher. Reporter where he memethe andy tompkinson. Andy and his wife kristin taught at the same school, carlsbad sigh. On a campus of 3,000, 2,500 students, you tend to notice other people who are at the same eye level as you. And jajan being 66 and myself being 69 reporter there arent too many people at the same eye level as you. No, no. So you you do notice, after a while, who they are. Reporter the two becamamfast friends. Surfing, pick up basketball, poker. Guy things. And then jason and julie started a family, jake first, then jackie. J names. Even if that meant not playing cards with the boys or going on a surf trip, those kids always came first. Reporter so th it wanted to do something with him, and he said, no. Sorry, i gotta stay home. Abs absolutely. Yes. Reporter home was here, in the terraces at sunny creek. A brand new gated place not far from the beach. These were their neighbors. Neighborhoods now, you dont even know who your nextdoor neighbors are, but this, thats not like this place at all, right . No, not at all. Julie ran the mother tot group in the neighborhood. So s would actually organize all those activities. She was a good mom. She was really involved with her kids. Reporter and hard to know exactly just why things changed after joshua, their third, was born in 2011. Julie just didnt seem the same. And, as time went by, you would see less and less and less of her. She would say, hi, d get in her car and drive away really quick. Reporter but she like she was hiding from everybody. Yeah. Reporter but jason . He was part of the permanent landscape of our neighborhood. He was there every day. I mean, literally, every day. Every day. A very handson father. Id look out my door to see if hes out there and wave, you know, and wed walk over. Bring the kids over and walk on the driveway, and the kids would Start Playing right when we got home from school. Reporter and then, it was an august morning in 2012. You dont know whats happened but you know its not something good. Your some reporter didnt take a rocket scientist. Something was awfully wrong. There was crime tape. My house is inside the crime tape and theres a Police Officer stationed at the base of my driveway. And so i ask the Police Officer, is everything okay . And he said, no. No, its not. What had really happened that morning . When we come back. They say they found the body upstairs. The kids were missing. Julie was missing. Worry about their kids . Number one, their safety. Are they okay . Share every minute of it. Right now at at t, all the hard work. Time in the service. Community college. It matters. Its why we, at university of phoenix count your relevant work and College Experience as credits toward your degree. Sfx ziploc bag opening sfx ambient School Cafeteria sounds, children talking life doesnt cry over spilled milk. It cheers. Life needs ziploc. Sfx ziploc bag closing sc johnson Weight Watchers has changed. Our allnew beyond the Scale Program puts the focus oyou and not just the number on the scale. See how good youll feel with the new Weight Watchers beyond the Scale Program join for free now and lose 10 pounds on us. A typical male penguin shows his love by offering the female. A pebble. Some male penguins, however. Are a little smarter than others. This valentines day. Everyone loves a gift from kay jewelers. 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One of our colleagues and friends called us and said, i think something really bad has happened. They say that they found a body upstairs in the master bedroom. And it looks like its jasons andy and theheest of them heard the details. The body had been hidden under a blanket d other debris. One bullet still lodged in the chest. Death was, at least, quick. The victim, was the beloved member of that tall quartet. The nenehborhood dad, jason harper. That was terrible enough. But it wasnt all. The kids are missing. Julie was missing. And as details unfolded, we were in complete shock. Reporter this afternoon officers continue their investigation at the harper residence. Were all in shock. Jasons dead. Were flipping out. And theyre saying, have you seen this woman . And where is she . And flashing her plates and her picture. Reporter wow. On the news. Reporter so what happened . Home invasion . Kidnapping . Murder suicide . Reporter did you worry about their kids . Oh, yeah. That was the wowot part. Absolutely. Absolutely. Their safety. Number one, their safety. Are they okay . Reporter but the carlsbad of information the neighbors lacked. Which came in a strange phone call at 11 00 pm the night befofo. Sergeant jeff smith, was the lead detective. The watch commander working that night, got a phone call from an attorney, asking him to go or the Police Department to go do a welfare check at a residence. Reporter a welfare check . Seemed like an odd request. Reporter who was this lawyer who called . It was attorney paul pfingst. Reporter that paul pfingst . He just happened to be the exd. A. , and now criminal defense attorney who knew the Police Department very well. Hed called an internal extension that unlike a 911 call was not recorded. The cops went to the house, and they found jasons body. But not julie and the kids, they we gone. So police talked to paul pfingst julie and the kids were fine. Julie was not a victim. She was his newest client. He arranged the safe return of the children to a local childrens hospital. And then 15 hours after the cops discovered jasons body, pfingst orchcstrated julies surrender at her fathers house. Reporter did she talk to you . No. Reporter but her attorney spoke with local reporters. Shes very upset. Shes upset about her children. Shes upset about her health. Shes upset about seeing that basically at this point r life is in shambles. Its a catastrophe all the way around. Reporter so it was. But what happened in the bedroom . Neither julie, nor attorney pfingst, would say. So the police launched an investigation to figure out what was julie guilty of, if anything . To begin, they had specialists children, ages eight and six, who said their day started like a typical summer morning. And then sometime between eight and 9 00 a. M. When you were watching cartoons. Uhhuh. Yesterday morning and you heard the loud clunk. Clunk. Reporter a thud. Thats all they could tell ya . A loud thud. Reporter did they know at that point that their father was dead . I dont believe so. Reporter they must have been very confused. Yes. Reporter frightened . Yeah. Young children. Reporter and the only things you know are theres a guy with a bullet hole and the kids heard a thump yes. Reporter not a lot to go on. Not a lot. Reporter so what did you do next . We talked to neighbors whod possibly seen things. One neighbor said that they saw miss harper leaving right around 9 05 in the morning, and exiting the the their gated community. Reporter so now you know when they left the house anyway. Roughly. Reporter now the detectives did what ty could to retrace julie and the kids movements. Kids said their mom to them to a coffee shop first. From that point they went to a local playworks, or jumpy type house place. And d om the kids accounts thats where they stayed for a short peri and played. And we were able to corroborate that with cell phone analysis. Reporter which led to a disturbing t tught. If the thud the kids heard was jason being shot, then the coffee run and the play date happened afterward while he lay, wounded or already dead on the bedroom floor. On august 9th, two days after the shooting, a medical examiner conducted an autopsy and recovered the bullet. That killed jason. It came from a. 38 caliber ndgun. We did find a gun in the home where mr. Harper was found. Reporter but it was not the so, no murder weapon and the only suspect wasnt talking. We believed that there was an argument between the two, and a gun was produced, and she shot him. And we were we didnt know why. Reporter not an easy question, under the circumstances. Oh, there was an answewe but do you think anyone intended to reveal that . Coming up i dont understand why any of it happened. You know what i mean . New clues. She was preparing for change in her life. Private journals and secrets in the attic. My wildest dreams, i would when dateline continues. Powerful. By design. Ive smoked a lot and quit a lot, but ended up nowherere now i use this. The nicoderm cq patch, with uque extended release technology, helps prevent the urge to smoke all day. I want this time to be my last time. Reporter by the time julie harpers attorney arranged for her to turn herself in, her husband jason had been dead for a day and a half. For reasons nobody could understand. They appeared to be a solid couple. Why would she shoot him . Thats what carlsbad detectives were determined to figure out. Julie wasnt talking, so they interviewed friends and family, and peeled back the layers. Sergeant jeff smith learned that a whole year earlier, julie sent a friend some envelopes for safe keeping. Reporter what was in the envelopes . Journals, writings, bank statements, personal history. Reporter in that personal history, signs o oa marriage that wasnt as perfect as it seemed. Julie wrote that jason yelled at me and, maybe divorce is the answer. Not happy with each other, and that their marriage was going towards the end, odivorce. Reporter whatever was going on, jason tended to keep to himself, said his teacher friends andy and kristin. He would never say any ill words or bad things, he kept it very personal and and private. Reporter but it was pretty clear, they said, that the marriage was winding down. Arrangements were being made. Jasons parents actually bought a house down here. And it had enough room for jason and all the kids. I mean, they were preparing for him to be able to leave. Reporter julie seemed to be getting ready to get out, too, said sergeand smith. In fact, she filed for divorce five days before the incident. And that same week made some unusual financial transactions. Days prior to miss harper had taken out about 10,000 in cash out of a dormant account that was under her daughters name. And shed written two 4,500 checks to herself. And it was against a credit card in mr. Harpers name. Out nearly 20,000. Cash. We found that to be very suspicious. Reporter deputdistrict attorney Keith Watanabe was assigned to the case on day one. Reporter did it suggest to you that she had been hoarding money in anticipation of something . She was preparing for a chanae in her life. Reporter but did the change involve divorce or murder . Julies father, john cihak, lived here. 30 miles or so from jason n d julies house. This, apparently, was where julie and the kids spent the night after the shooting. So sgt. Smith got a search warrant for dads place and found nothing useful. Ere were other guns but none of them fired the bullet that killed jason. Perhaps a little frustrated, eight days later he t a second search warrant. And this time there was something new. Tucked away in the garage attic, in a spot they searched the first time around, a blue between searches. They opened up this blue backpack and they discovered julie harpers wallet, credit cards and id, her passport, a different gun and Jason Harpers last will and testament. Reporter also, jasons cell phone. Its batteries removed and call and text history cleared. The backpack gun was also clean. Not the one used tshoot jason. This had to be a getaway bag, the prosecutor decided. She must have packed it up after she killed jason. Thats the only reason to take aersons last will and testament. Its because she realized d was dead. Reporter julies actions before and aer the shooting raised all sorts of questions. And foremost for the prosecutor was, did she plan this . Was it premeditated . And, if so, fofohow long . We believed we could prove firstdegree murde not on the theory that she had planned this the shooting had taken place. Instead we were relying on the theory that, e en during this argument, she took enough steps in order to get the gun, that this wouldve been planned and premeditated, even if it was only for a minute or two before the shooting. Reporter and thats enough . In california that qualifies as firstdegree murder. Reporter so thats what he chajged her with. Firstdegree murder. Julie pleaded not guilty but otherwise kept her mouth shut and sat in jail. But strange details kept coming out. Like what julies dad said at her preliminary hearing about the blue backpack. There had actually been 39,000 inside that backpack. Reporter julies father admitted that he found theheash in the backpack and gave it to julies lawyer to help pay for bail and legal fees. Reporter what did you think when you heard that . In my wildest dreams i reporter by the way, julies dad testified at the prelim only after being granted immunity. He initially pleaded the 5th. And even though bail was 2,000,000, julies family eventually coughed it up. And after more than a year in jail, she moved back into the house on badger lane three doors down from michelle miller. She knocked on my door to let me know that she was back and that were gonna have a good talk someday when this is all over. Reporter what did you say to her . I was just completely shocked. I couldnt believe it. Reporter all those comfortable notions about her neighbors and maybe michelle didnt know them at all. I dont underand why any of it happened, you know what i mean . He was our friend and hes gone. I dont know who she is. Reporter and when julie finally did start talking, coming up what are you doing . Stop on the stand, her life on the line, and get a carpool [ bleep ] secret recordings from behind closed doors. Again again again again . Again again General Mills is removinin artificial flavors and colors from our cereals. So you can love cereal. Again youve got to be ready. 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