>> she told me she had killed her parents. >> i want my parents out of my life. >> was he her pawn? >> i had a choice whether he killed my importanparents or no. >> reporter: did he kill for love or just confess to it? >> one of them is lying. >> reporter: now a few anymore and new evidence tonight, claiming he is innocent. >> reporter: you say that jens confessed to a crime he didn't commit out of love, loyalty, lust for elizabeth haysom. >> you have a guy who has been with one woman in his life, and she is the devil. >> reporter: if he didn't do it, who did? >> we know two guys did it. somebody watching this show right now knows them. they walk among us. >> good evening. i'm david muir. >> and i'm elizabeth vargas, and this is "20/20." >> reporter: los angeles, california, the laemmle royal theater. it's opening night. the movie? right up hollywood's alley. two obsessed lovers, a grizzly murder, sex and betrayal. >> my parents died because jens and i were obsessed with each other. >> reporter: but it turns out, in the genre of "you can't make this up," hollywood didn't. the movie, "killing for love" is actually a documentary in theaters now. a deep dive into the real-life case of jens soering, behind bars for nearly 32 years for a brutal crime he says he did not commit. >> it's a natural human emotion to want somebody to blame. >> reporter: and jens' multi-decade crusade for freedom has now attracted a dream team of a-list supporters. that's screen legend martin sheen leading the q&a at that l.a. showing. >> he could not possibly have been at the scene. >> reporter: there's also music mogul jason flom the man responsible for launching katy perry's career. ♪ >> reporter: and a founding board member of the innocence project. >> he is somebody who could have and should have known better, and he was blinded by love. >> reporter: even german chancellor angela merkle has advocated for jens' release. but his two strongest advocates, ironically, aren't high-profile celebrities or hot-shot defense attorneys. they're police officers. >> as far as him physically killing these people, no, i don't think he did. >> reporter: one is an investigator who originally worked on the case. >> show me. >> reporter: the other, a current sheriff now reinvestigating it. >> if you break it down and look at what the evidence truly is, i don't feel like it would support a conviction if he was tried today. >> reporter: jens' story begins in 1984 at the university of virginia. he is 18 years old, the son of a german diplomat, a freshman and a jefferson scholar with a full scholarship to uva. >> we were in the same echols scholars program. the echols scholars program pulls the top 6% of each entering class. >> reporter: amy lemley wrote an extensive investigative magazine article about the case. what was jens like? >> he had the physique more of a boy than a man. kind of baby fat. he had big, thick glasses that covered about half of his face. they said that most people really couldn't stand to be in a conversation with him, because he just loved to argue. >> reporter: he was intellectually arrogant? >> i would say so. >> reporter: he was also, by his own admission, sexually inexperienced. >> sexually not only inexperienced, but a virgin, right? >> reporter: uh-huh. >> and he meets a girl, elizabeth haysom, who is one of the hottest girls on campus . she was apparently very bright, as well. came from a very good family. and he falls head over heels in love with her. >> reporter: elizabeth is two years older than jens. her father, derek haysom, was a canadian steel mogul and her mother, nancy, the god-daughter of lady astor, a wealthy aristocrat, and the first woman to take a seat in the british parliament. but this power family seem to have no power over their wild child daughter. elizabeth ran away from boarding school in england and spent five months in europe using drugs. nevertheless, she presented well to her classmates at uva. >> she had this great shock of blonde hair hanging down, and she was the opposite of who you think might end up with jens soering. >> reporter: people must have been taken aback by her selection of him. >> yes. very few people understood what was going on between those two. >> reporter: one thing apparently going on between the virginal freshman and his unlikely alluring companion? a series of x-rated, hand-written letters they exchanged over several months. >> when you see and you read those love letters, you can sort of feel that there was a lot of sexual tension. >> reporter: these are just some of the ones we can actually read on television. >> dear liz, i love you. je t'aime. >> i love you selfishly, and i love you with pain. >> how do you feel about a couple of drings back at my place? >> i want to be with you, around you, through you. >> reporter: but only months into their relationship in march 1985, tragedy strikes. >> derek w.r. haysom and his wife, nancy, were stabbed to death in their home. >> reporter: elizabeth's parents are found brutally murdered inside their rural retirement home in boonsboro, virginia. >> it sort of sits on the border, right there, of lynchburg and bedford county. just a very nice, quiet, wealthy community. >> the bodies were only discovered this afternoon at their home on holcomb rock road. >> it was a very shocking crime. >> i'd never seen anything, anything like that before. >> reporter: then-rookie investigator, ricky gardner is one of the first to arrive on the scene. this is your first real homicide, right? >> yes. yes, ma'am. early we were able to determine that this was not -- a burglary. >> reporter: nothing appears to be missing. there is even nancy haysoms' purse with money still in it. >> the haysoms must have let whomever did this to them into the house because there was no sign of forced entry. but i'd never seen any human being that had been injured by another human being in that -- in that fashion. >> reporter: overkill? >> overkill. it was up close and personal. to me it was like a slaughterhouse. >> reporter: chuck reid was a bedford county investigator in 1985 and worked the case with gardner for a year before leaving the sheriff's office. he took me inside the crime scene. you opened the door when you first came here. >> the first thing i saw was derek haysom's body was lying here with his head up against -- basically up against the corner of this fireplace. >> reporter: this corner here? >> yeah. >> reporter: derek haysom had been stabbed 36 times. nancy, six. her body was found in the kitchen. both were stabbed in the heart. both nearly decapitated. >> as you step over and come in, this area right here is where all the blood was -- >> reporter: where? >> -- just around in this area, what was smeared around in this area here. >> reporter: the first thing in your mind was -- >> what kinda gang came in here and did this? >> there was concern because of the smearing blood, initially, that there was some sort of cult involved. >> rumors of witchcraft, voodoo, fueled curiosity and the demand for answers. >> reporter: whodunnit theories are rampant. word that derek haysom upset workers in the steel business fuels rumors of mafia-style hit. but a clue in a rental car agreement is about to change the direction of the case. you saw that and you thought -- >> that's when we got to thinking, "well, wait a minute." >> reporter: stay with us. s. my healthy routine helps me feel my best. so i add activia yogurt to my day. with its billions of live and active probiotics, activia may help support my digestive health, so i can take on my day. activia. now in probiotic dailies. they'd dominated for decades. best team in the world. a machine. robots. hadn't lost a game in 20 years. they would score at will. you gotta remember, we were amateur players, college players. about to pull off the greatest upset in american sports history. but we were more than american... i never realized we were from all over. italian, middle eastern, jewish, turkey, iran. that's what makes america what it is. norway...asian blood... i didn't know i was part russian... ...and we all came together as one. that's what made us champions. ♪ give joy - with valentine's gifts for them and get joy - with kohl's cash! give a diamond ring a floral sleepwear set or a new keurig and you'll get kohl's cash! plus - take an extra 20% off when you spend $100 or more! give joy, get joy - only at kohl's. >> reporter: washington, dc, it's the 1980s. reagan and the redskins are in their heyday. >> touchdown. >> reporter: and speaking of time warps, it's the midnight showing of "the rocky horror picture show" it's become a staple here in georgetown, the center of the night life. lets do the time warp again. and it's at one of those showings, 200 miles away from the haysom's home in bedford county, virginia near lynchburg where elizabeth haysom says she was when her parents were murdered. an alibi with her boyfriend in tow. >> she told us that her and her german boyfriend had -- rented a car on that friday and drove to washington to sightsee. >> and what do they do while they're in washington, d.c.? >> according to her, they just -- played around, went out to eat, went to movies. >> reporter: the films were stranger than paradise and ironically witness. >> they had -- stayed at the washington marriott. and we was able to verify later that they, in fact, had. found the receipt -- the hotel receipt -- where they had checked in on the 29th and gotten room service twice. >> reporter: one of those room service deliveries, food for two, was right around the time police believe elizabeth's parents were murdered. >> what did she say about her relationship with her parents? >> she said that she loved her parents very deeply. and that she was very fond of them. >> reporter: but elizabeth's uncle louis benedict, nancy haysom's younger brother, says the relationship between mother and daughter wasn't as rosy as elizabeth described it. >> because of my sister's bullheadedness, i would say that they locked horns. >> reporter: and elizabeth's parents didn't appear to be happy with their daughter's new boyfriend, jens soering. >> they did not like the young man and did everything thought they could to try and separate them. >> reporter: as police continue their investigation into the haysoms' double murder, they find the agreement for the rental car elizabeth says she and jens used that weekend. >> this is the rental car agreement? >> yes. >> show me where the mileage is. >> right here is your mileage of 669 miles. >> you saw that, and you thought? >> that's when we got to thinking, "well, wait a minute." >> reporter: even though this is long before the days of waze -- >> you're all set. drive safely. >> reporter: investigators know from uva's charlottesville campus to washington, d.c., the round trip is only 240 miles. >> 240 miles. >> and you had 669 miles? >> exactly. so once we put pen to paper, we sat down and we looked. and if you went from charlottesville to d.c., d.c. back to lynchburg, lynchburg back to washington, and then back to charlottesville, that's pretty close to bein' 669 miles. >> reporter: t's quite a coincidence so police question elizabeth again. >> we asked her about that miles. and she said that they had gotten lost. >> that's pretty lost? >> yeah, pretty lost. >> that ring true to you? >> well, i mean, we're talking college kids. didn't put a lot of stock in that. >> reporter: plus elizabeth is cooperating with police and agrees to give her fingerprints and blood. but it's a path of bloody of footprints in the hay some -- haysoms' front yard that's gotten the investigators' attention. the prints were revealed by luminol, a chemical that tests for the presence of blood. >> you have a set of prints that walk up to the driveway and end here at the driveway as if someone got in a car. >> just stop? >> they just stop. >> clearly they got into something? >> reporter: but when investigator reid examines jens and elizabeth's rental car, he comes up empty. when you sprayed the luminol inside the inside of elizabeth and jens's rental car -- >> i got no reaction. >> reporter: remember it's 1985, and dna testing is not yet in use in criminal courts. so without a hit on the car, investigators are looking for a match to the type o blood found at the crime scene. it wasn't the victims' so they assumed it must be the killer's. >> there was -- several droplets -- minute droplets of o blood found on the screen door -- and there was two small spots found in the master bedroom. >> reporter: investigators are flummoxed again, because elizabeth has type b blood. her fingerprints did show up on a vodka bottle at her parents' home, but that's not surprising, she visited often. but then someone from elizabeth's own family, points a finger of suspicion at her. >> it was from dr. howard haysom, who is elizabeth's half brother. he thought his sister had something to do with his parents' death. >> reporter: that's a pretty unbelievable -- pretty shocking thick thing to say. >> exactly. >> but it just happened to come at the time when you had nothing in this case except for this strange rental car. >> right. >> agreement. >> and of course, he didn't like jens. he didn't think much of jens, either. >> reporter: remember, elizabeth said she and jens spent the weekend of the murders together in washington, d.c. so investigators interview him next. >> he stepped in, it was like, i think to myself, "i can't see this little kid doin' somethin' like that." that kinda damage i don't know if he's ever been in a fight in his life. >> reporter: audio tapes from that first police interview with jens reveal a confident college freshman fending off suspicion, telling investigators he's the son of a german diplomat. >> what i thought i could do in coming down here this week and speaking with you people is give you an impression of who i am and what i know. >> what was your impression? >> he was -- very -- sure of himself. >> i'm willing to talk to you again if you want me to so that you will feel confident and secure in the knowledge that you don't have to bug me anymore. >> you and detective reid sort of played good cop, bad cop with him. >> we did. >> you were the bad cop? >> i was. when we asked him to give us his blood and his fingerprints, he wassed a ma-- adamant. he said, i can't do that. >> why not? >> his explanation was that if it got back to our state department, that a german diplomat's son was a -- >> person of interest? >> person of interest in a homicide or suspect in a homicide case that he would -- his whole family would be deported. >> i said, "look, jens," i said, i'm 99% sure you're innocent of this thing, but i said, i just need that 1% to convince me that you are totally innocent. and that's when he decided, he said, "okay, i'll call you all next week." >> reporter: as investigators wait to meet with jens, the phone rings, but it's not who they expect. >> dr. howard haysom called us. and i never will forget that phone call. he was upset. and he said, you know, you let him get away. >> reporter: next. orter: next. i wanted to turn everything i love about you into one thing you'll love forever. the jared valentine's day diamond event. save up to $1,000 off any diamond when you buy her setting at jared. and let our expert jewelers help you find or create the one ring that could only come from you and only be for her. only at jared. jardiance is the only type 2 diabetes pill proven to both significantly reduce the chance of dying from a cardiovascular event in adults who have type 2 diabetes and heart disease... ...and lower your a1c. wow. jardiance can cause serious side effects including dehydration. this may cause you to feel dizzy, faint, or lightheaded, or weak upon standing. ketoacidosis is a serious side effect that may be fatal. symptoms include nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, tiredness, and trouble breathing. stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of ketoacidosis or an allergic reaction. symptoms of an allergic reaction include rash, swelling, and difficulty breathing or swallowing. do not take jardiance if you are on dialysis or have severe kidney problems. other side effects are sudden kidney problems, genital yeast infections, increased bad cholesterol, and urinary tract infections, which may be serious. taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if you have any medical conditions. what do you think? i think it's time to think about jardiance. ask your doctor about jardiance. and get to the heart of what matters. she's had a tiny cough. see you at 5! seriously? protection. lysol kills over 100 illness-causing germs and viruses, even those that may cause coughs. lysol. what it takes to protect. take a deeeep breath in... and... exhale... aflac! and a gentle wave-like motion... liberate your spine... aflac! and reach, toes blossoming... not that great at yoga ya but when i slipped a disc, he paid my claim in just one day. so he had your back? yup in just one day, we process, approve and pay. one day pay. only from aflac do you like freshly steamed lobster? do you like the word and? then you'll love outback's steak and lobster. back by popular demand, only $15.99. so hurry in now. outback steakhouse. aussie rules. on the only bed that adjusts on both sides to your ideal comfort, your sleep number setting. and snoring? does your bed do that? right now during the ultimate sleep number event, save 50% on the ultimate limited edition bed with adjustable comfort on both sides. ends soon. visit sleepnumber.com for a store near you. >> reporter: it's been six months since the heinous double-murder of derek and nancy haysom rocked the rural community of bedford county, virginia. there have been no arrests, but the haysoms' youngest daughter elizabeth haysom and her german boyfriend jens soering are under suspicion. with limited evidence, police are left to wait for jens to voluntarily give his fingerprints and blood. >> reporter: jens says he'll go think about it. calls a few days later and says he will, in fact, submit? >> he said, "i've been busy with a paper, i'll do it next wednesday. i can't do it this week." >> reporter: but before the set appointment with jens, a shocking setback. >> dr. howard haysom called us. and i will never forget that phone call. he was upset. and he said, "you've-- you know, you've let 'em get away." and so they vanished. >> reporter: into thin air? >> into thin air. >> i said, "well, apparently they're both guilty of somethin'. otherwise, why would they leave?" >> reporter: unbeknownst to virginia investigators, the couple is 4,000 miles away in europe on their way in a jet-setting globetrotting journey across the world, keeping a journal of their exploits, along with maps and receipts for their international ports of call. >> this is when they were traveling. >> reporter: here's something from stuttgart. something from luxembourg. >> shilling. >> reporter: oh, this is bangkok. this is a map of bangkok. they had quite the journey on the run, didn't they? >> they sure did. >> let's picture these two young lovers going on this romantic, tense, crazy adventure to england. life on the lam in london. >> yeah, under assumed names, passing bag checks, but then it all came crashing down on them. >> reporter: jens and elizabeth's six-month life on the lam ended in this london marks & spencer department store. >> on the 30th of april, 1986, a young couple was seen by the store detective in marks and spencer, just across the road there, acting suspiciously. >> reporter: terry wright and kenneth beever were detectives with the london police department. >> they were separated inside the store and they both were seen to go to the counter and get refunds off previous purchases. >> reporter: a store detective alerts an off-duty officer who stops the young couple. >> they said their names were christopher plat noe, and lucy noe. >> his hair was tinted very slightly reddish, wasn't it? >> yes. >> she had dark hair, fairly short. >> i wanted to know where they were staying in london, and i wanted to know where their passports where. >> reporter: jens then makes a decision, a fatal mistake according to detectives that will alter the course of his and elizabeth's lives forever. >> he decided to tell us that he was staying at a place called at home, which is a small basement rental apartment in gloucester place in the center of london. >> reporter: as fate would have it, the london flat was just off baker street, the fictional home of sherlock holmes. >> this is exactly the same as the place that jens brought us to. down some basement steps, the doorway on the right hand side. jens had a key on him. he opened the door, and took us into what was a very, very small room. >> i noticed on the bed, there were some wigs, false mustaches, false beards, and i simply realized that jens, during the whole time he was talking to us, was wearing a false mustache. >> i can remember terry saying to jens, "okay, take it off." jens pulled off the mustache for us. >> reporter: but among the weary travelers' masks and veneers, detectives are about to uncover a bona fide bombshell. >> there was one suitcase in particular that was very large and it was full of correspondence. >> once he started going through the letters and the diaries, it opened up a can of worms. >> reporter: those steamy letters they have written to each other and a shared travel diary, pages of entries would reveal clues to a macabre secret. that correspondence all now locked up in a bedford county evidence room. >> reporter: these are all the letters and things that were found in their room in london, right? >> these are letters. and i believe this is going to be elizabeth's diary. >> reporter: in it, elizabeth writes passages incriminating herself and jens. >> jens wipes fingerprints from room. passport photos done. parks at national airport satellite parking. wipes car. >> wipes car. i'm thinking, why are they worried about fingerprints? it seemed to me like they were trying to hide something. >> reporter: she goes on to write, "we were told the case is about to be solved. perhaps fingerprints on coffee mug used by jens in bedford interview gave him away." >> now clearly again, they were worried about fingerprints for some reason, and i wanted to know what that interview was. >> i went and got him a cup of coffee the day we interviewed him. i believe a styrofoam cup is all they had. so no fingerprints were gotten off of it. >> reporter: as detectives read on, they learn elizabeth has been harboring a deep hatred for her parents. >> there was also letters that were talking about things like doing voodoo on her parents and i wish they would lie down and die. >> the christmas letters were so biting and so full of hatred that elizabeth wrote jens. >> reporter: about her parents? >> about her parents and how much she despised them. and she talked about, should we get rid of them now or should we wait until he graduate, and then do that? >> reporter: and the young couple's clumsy trail of bread crumbs is about to lead right back to bedford county, virginia, because in yet another of the letters written by jens, he mentions the names of two homicide detectives in the u.s. >> one of them referred to, was actually address to dear officers reid and gardner. i found that particularly interesting because it actually referred to death of her parents. >> reporter: elementary, as sherlock holmes would say. >> i kept telling everybody that i thought, i'd already decided i thought they'd done a murder. >> and i got the phone call. he said, "this is detective constable terry wright callin' from richmond, england." he said-- "do you know elizabeth haysom and jens soering?" >> reporter: okay. now you have to be -- >> and i'm going, yeah. yeah, i do. >> i said "can you tell me, are her parents dead?" he said, "yeah, they're dead." >> he said, "were they murdered?" and i said, "yes." >> i said, "i think you need to come over." >> we have the murderers incarcerated. >> reporter: next, some court testimony that becomes must-see tv. >> i wanted my parents out of my life. >> when she appeared in court, everybody was riveted by what she had to say. >> reporter: stay with us. peter? 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>> i did. >> reporter: he and the scotland yard detectives question jens and elizabeth about the so called voodoo murder of her parents a little more than a year before. >> the following statement is being taken from jens soering on june the 5th, 1986. >> reporter: a strangely compliant jens waives his right to an attorney and starts talking. >> reporter: and he has no lawyer present. >> that's right. he was questioned for three or four days without an attorney. presumably that person would have told him to shut up. >> reporter: in an extraordinary series of interviews, only some of which were recorded, jens proceeds to take full responsibility for the killings. claiming that, elizabeth stayed behind in washington creating an alibi with double movie tickets, and room service for two while he drove down to the haysom's home and killed them. >> he told me that he came at him like this, and he fought like a bear, that he refused to die. >> reporter: there is one curious moment during his confession. one that will only become significant later when detectives ask jens about false confessions. >> would you consider pleading guilty to anything that you didn't do? >> i can't say that for sure right now, but i can see, i can see it happening, yes. i think it is a possibility. i think it happens in real life. >> reporter: the detectives do not pursue the point. in her interview, elizabeth does jens one better, adding incriminating details, telling the detectives jens bought a knife before he left to go see her parents, and saying he returned covered in blood. >> he said to me, i killed your parents. >> reporter: those stunning confessions were enough to get jens and elizabeth indicted for murder back in virginia even while they were still in london. >> today we presented indictments for murder. >> reporter: nearly a full year passes before elizabeth haysom makes her dramatic return to the u.s., landing in the twilight of a may evening in roanoke. her hair pulled back in a braid. her hands cuffed in front. >> the former university of virginia student was extradited by british authorities. >> it's the stuff that tv and movies are made of. the shock that she was involved, wanting to see what she says. it was a very big deal. >> reporter: elizabeth pleads guilty as an accessory-before-the-fact, admitting she helped plan the murders, but insisting jens is the one who carried out the killings. >> he had a choice. he had a four-hour drive. no matter what i said to him before that, no matter what i had written to him in months before that, he had a choice, whether he killed my parents or not. >> reporter: she is sentenced to 90 years in prison. meanwhile back in britain, jens is fighting extradition, hoping to be tried in germany where he faces a much lighter sentence, >> during this extradition proceeding -- >> reporter: but it is a losing battle. in 1990 he is finally returned to virginia. >> up until then, we'd only heard elizabeth's version, and so now, everybody wants to see what he looks like, and hear his version. >> reporter: people pack the courtroom expecting drama. and jens doesn't disappoint. in a stunning turnabout, he takes the stand to now swear he is innocent. >> basically jens was in the position of saying, believe me now. don't believe that confession i gave a few years ago. >> we know, elizabeth, that the most powerful form of evidence in a courtroom is a confession because an average person, a juror cannot -- >> reporter: can't understand. >> why would you implicate yourself? >> reporter: jens now says elizabeth is the one who drove down to her parents' house and murdered them while he stayed behind in washington. he says elizabeth, who was using heroin and other hard drugs at the time, came back and told him what she had done. >> i've killed my parents, i've killed my parents. it wasn't her, it was the drugs that made her do it. her parents deserved it anyway. you've got to help me, if you don't help me they'll kill me. >> reporter: he says his false confession in london was an attempt to take the blame for elizabeth, to save her from a death sentence. >> i loved elizabeth and i believed that the only way i could save her life from the electric chair was for me to take the blame, and that i personally really faced no more than a few years in german prison. >> his idea, his twisted fantasy was that he would serve his time in germany, which could be as little as a few years, come out as her hero, and they would ride off into the sunset together. >> reporter: jens' decision to testify however opened him up to a ripsaw cross examination by prosecutor jim updike. >> you have the capability of lying to accomplish a certain goal, don't you? >> to protect elizabeth, right. >> to protect elizabeth? >> yes. >> then it would follow if you had the capability of lying to protect elizabeth, you most certainly have the capability of lying to protect yourself. correct? >> that would be logical. >> reporter: the prosecutor trying to turn the jury against jens produces a letter he wrote to elizabeth, if which he refers to local authorities as yokels. >> those yokels don't know what's coming down. >> i wrote that, yes. >> those yokels don't know what's coming down. >> that's right, i wrote that. i still don't understand -- >> you still think we don't know what's coming down, don't you? >> reporter: the trial features a bitter reunion, elizabeth arrives from prison, her long blonde hair now shorn, and commits the ultimate betrayal, according to jens, blaming him for her crime. >> it suddenly became real. we were going to conspire and commit murder. >> so much of the case depends on whether the jurors believe jens soering's story or elizabeth haysom. >> reporter: this was a time before dna, when blood typing is the best science can do, so the prosecutor makes much of type o blood at the scene. jens soering has type o along with nearly 40% of the population. the prosecutor also shows the jury a bloody sock-print that he said matches jens' foot. >> and you pull that out, and it matches, and it fits like a glove. >> reporter: at the end of his three-week trial, the jury doesn't even need to sleep on it. >> we, the jury find the defendant guilty of first degree murder. >> reporter: jens is convicted and sentenced to life in prison. >> get out of the way. >> reporter: he has spent nearly every day since fighting to free himself, and now he may be closer than ever. >> what's up, sheriff? 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(yelling) truck! truck! trick shots are hard. dude! valentine's day doesn't have to be. just go to kay february 8th through 14th everything is 25-50 percent off. with special financing available using the kay jewelers credit card... ...at kay ...the store to win valentine's day. we packed new banquet mega bowls full of majestic piles of cheddar mac n cheese, smothered in mozzarella. but it wasn't mega. so we topped it with protein packed chunks of buffalo-style chicken. now that's mega. welcome the richmond, ladies and gentlemen. >> reporter: july, 2017, not long after the 27th anniversary of jens soering's conviction. >> well, well, well, what's up sheriff? >> how was the flight? >> pleasure. >> reporter: an unlikely team of volunteer soering supporters meets in richmond to review what they believe is important new information. >> when you look at his confession, it's not consistent at all with the crime scene. >> reporter: chip harding is a sheriff in albemarle county, virginia, moonlighting on the case along with private investigator richard hudson, and then there's jason flom, the multi-millionaire music executive who when he's not discovering multi-platinum artists is giving a voice to the wrongfully convicted through the innocence project. >> it's very interesting, and it's very sad that he's still in jail 30 years later. >> oh, it's beyond sad. it's tragic, when you have a guy who has only been with one woman in his life, and she turned out to be the devil. >> reporter: but the battle lines are drawn, because in bedford county, the original investigator ricky gardner continues to believe soering is guilty. >> and he says, kill them. >> what is the physical evidence connecting jens to this murder scene? >> the physical evidence? well, we've got the sock impression that we found at the scene. >> oh, my god, let's talk about the sock print. how the hell can you convict somebody based on a sock print? >> the prosecution tried to link jens soering to the haysom murders by comparing bloody sock prints found at the house. >> well, what you do is you bring in an expert, a sock print expert, right, which sounds ridiculous, cause it is. >> reporter: police originally said that sock print roughly corresponded to a woman's size seven foot, too small for jens soering's size 8 1/2. they also point to mistakes jens made when he confessed. he told police nancy haysom was wearing blue-jeans. she was not. she was dressed in a housecoat. >> what kind of sense does it make for him to give the wrong details? that doesn't add up. >> reporter: in a petition for a pardon, jens says long after the trial he learned a significant piece of evidence had not been shared with his defense attorneys, an analysis of the crime by an fbi agent. >> the fbi profiler was convinced of two things. that whoever killed mr. and mrs. haysom was intimate with the family, and was a woman. >> that's right. that's what he said. >> he definitely told them that it was a woman that was close to the family, involved in that crime scene. >> reporter: the profiler says he was also struck by nancy haysom's outfit, that house coat. she would never see strangers wearing a nightgown and her bathrobe. >> exactly! >> reporter: another thing, remember elizabeth and jens's rental car had no trace of blood even though there was a trail of bloody footprints leading towards the driveway. >> which begs the question, there must have been another car. >> there has to have been another car, and we have a mechanic in that area stepping forward and saying, i know i didn't mention it 20 years ago, but actually. >> tony buchanan swears to me he serviced a car for elizabeth haysom in this lot just weeks after her parents were killed. >> reporter: more than twenty years after the trial, in 2011, tony buchannan suddenly comes forward with an incredible claim. he says just weeks after the murders, elizabeth haysom and a man brought a car in for repair. buchannan says he saw blood on the floor mats and took a closer look. >> when i looked over between the console and the seat, i seen the knife and it was full of blood. this kind of knife. >> reporter: he says at the time, he assumed the blood and the knife were connected to deer hunting. he says years later, he saw a photo of jens soering, and then he realized that was not the man he had seen with elizabeth and the bloody car. >> and i said, well, damn. that ain't the guy that was in the shop. i said, somebody else is involved in this case because somebody else than this guy -- this guy was not in my shop. >> tony buchanan has no credibility. >> reporter: ricky gardner questions why buchanan waited so long to come forward. >> elizabeth, in 1985, this case -- this case was on front page news every day -- every day. come on. he's not credible. >> reporter: in his pardon petition, jens says the strongest proof of his innocence is revealed by modern dna testing of the old evidence from the haysom house. an expert working for jens says the results are astonishing. there is no trace of jens at the crime scene. >> there was no way that jens soering could contribute to those samples. >> reporter: experts on soering's team say some of the samples contained dna not from jens, but two strangers. >> it looks like there is at least one to two unidentified males at that crime scene. >> reporter: that has jason flom and others more convinced than ever, that elizabeth is the real killer and she had accomplices. >> what actually must have happened is that she went to the house with two males, and that things took a very, very bad turn from there, and now the dna backs that up. >> reporter: but a dna expert "20/20" consultant questions whether the results about two strangers are really that conclusive. professor dan krane says it's possible the dna is actually from one of the victims, derek haysom. >> there's no indication that jens soering was present at the crime scene, but i think we can also say that there's no affirmative indication of anybody other than the victims being present at the crime scene as well. >> reporter: jens' supporters stand by their experts' interpretation. >> we know two guys did it, and unless they've died since then, they're out there. >> reporter: still ahead, we'll talk to jens soering from behind bars, and discuss the woman he says ruined his life. >> and how do you feel about elizabeth haysom today? 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(coughs) ah! i missed you! then i discovered mucinex. one pill lasts 12 hours, and i'm good. why take 4-hour medicine? one mucinex lasts 12 hours. let's end this. ♪ i ♪ loyalty, got royaltyot inside my dna ♪ ♪ i got hustle though, ambition, flow, inside my dna ♪ ♪ i don't contemplate, i meditate ♪ ♪ then off your off your head ♪ ♪ this that put-the-kids-to-bed ♪ ♪ this that i got, i got, i got ♪ give joy - with valentine's gifts for them and get joy - with kohl's cash! give a diamond ring a floral sleepwear set or a new keurig and you'll get kohl's cash! plus - take an extra 20% off when you spend $100 or more! give joy, get joy - only at kohl's. >> reporter: jens soering was 18 years old when the crimes that sent him to prison were committed. he is now 51. his former sweetheart, elizabeth haysom, 20 at the time her parents were murdered, is now 53. in recent years, the virginia prison authorities have put an end to all on camera interviews. so we spoke to jens by phone in august, a week after his birthday. >> i've spent 31 years in here, 32 birthdays, but i think maybe the end is now finally in sight. >> reporter: and just for the record, did you kill derek and nancy haysom? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: and how do you feel about elizabeth haysom today? >> honestly, i really try not to think about her. i'm trying to look towards the future, i'm trying to stay positive, and getting mad at people, that doesn't get me anything. >> reporter: some will never be convinced that jens soering isn't right where he belongs. >> do you have any doubt in your mind that jens soering committed those murders? >> no doubt in my mind at all. he learned the game of manipulation from a very good manipulated individuals into thinking that he is innocent, when, in fact, i know, that he is a guilty man. >> reporter: with his appeals long since exhausted, jens' las charlottesville, urging then virginia governor terry mcauliffe and parole officials to set soering free. >> i will tell you right now i derek and nancy haysom. i do not believe he did that. >> reporter: it didn't happen. mcauliffe took no action. cage for 31 years for a crime he didn't commit. it's enough.>> so our question t here tonight, do you believe his story, that he is innocent? let us elizabeth vargas. thank you for joining us on "20/20." have a great weekend and a great night.

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