danielle never asked michael to steal anything. the jury didn t agree. she was found guilty as charged and sentenced to four years in prison. this was a very satisfying verdict. to see the woman be punished for her actions. reporter: is the murder of sam dreher an open case or a closed case? no. it s a closed case. reporter: but not for cindy, who continues to mourn the loss of her brother. she keeps his uniform close by for comfort, and with it a lifetime of memories. he was loving. he was caring. he was the peacemaker. he was always doing for others. he was just sweet. reporter: cindy once felt the same way about her sister-in-law danielle. now there s bad blood between the two. cindy fought danielle in court over benefits from sam s life insurance. they ultimately reached a confidential settlement. cindy also keeps a watchful eye on danielle. according to cindy, danielle was dating another man before she went to prison.
and i told the attorney about it. and the attorney said, whoa, you re good because, he said, that s good evidence. she wanted to be able to just have leverage and be able to embarrass him. reporter: danielle told the detectives another reason was plain old curiosity. i had to see for myself that it was a girl. it broke my heart. how did you i don t know why because i was cheating on my husband. and that s the big question, right? you were doing it for four years and why why did it break your heart? i think i still loved my husband, still had feelings for him. reporter: what s more, danielle said she and michael had stopped their spying weeks before the shooting. detectives also asked about those text messages which they found so troubling. danielle said they were all in fun. they first questioned danielle about the texts michael sent her. i want to blow his head off and then put two in her just for good measure. do you remember him saying that? i don t. but he
cheating on his wife, danielle. now they were learning danielle had also been cheating on sam. everybody here is involved with somebody else. it was interesting to say the least. and challenging for detectives who now had to contend with a second affair. michael minor, the plumber, 13 years younger than danielle, told them the two had met on ashley madison, a website for husbands and wives looking to cheat. the website s slogan? life is short, have an affair. this was someone looking to have an affair. they both were. yeah. but michael insisted this was no casual fling. after all, the affair had lasted four years. what s more, he told detectives he had fallen in love with
probably, the most overarching motive was just jealousy. despite the fact that she was conducting an affair of her own, i think that she was just completely enraged that sam started stepping out on her as well. reporter: but in order to prove that in court, fraivillig felt she would need something she didn t yet have a statement from michael saying danielle acted as his accomplice. so she waited, thinking time would compel him to come forward and admit danielle was involved. he never did. michael maintained danielle played no role in sam s murder. was this possibly a twisted act of chivalry? i think that certainly one of his motivations, if not his sole motivation, was trying to protect the woman that he loved. reporter: did you say to him, why are you protecting her? yes. and he said i m not. he said, i m not protecting her. we were hoping he would contact us through his lawyers and said, hey, i want to tell
you the truth. i want to tell you what part she had in it. that never happened. reporter: 2 1/2 years after shooting sam michael minor agreed to plead guilty to second degree murder. and it will live with me forever and it will haunt me forever. reporter: in exchange for his plea, michael received a sentence of 30 years. i would not give him anything less than that. i mean, he pulled the trigger. and he didn t pull it once. he pulled it four times. i was glad that he was going to jail. michael minor didn t just kill our brother. he has mortally wounded our entire family. reporter: michael minor never wavered in his statement that he acted alone. in the end, prosecutor fraivillig felt she didn t have enough evidence to charge danielle as michael s accomplice. i cannot just charge someone based upon my speculations, the family s beliefs, and even the ugliness of these text messages is not enough unless i can show