And he added: where is the evidence cory fought for her life? there were no signs of struggle and only the cut and abrasion on her lip. you will fight until you no longer can. the thought that somehow you could suffocate someone with a pillow and there would be only one dental mark is ludicrous. reporter: detective baird testified that when he first arrived on the scene cory s stomach area was still warm. how is that possible, the defense asked, if she had died up to 12 hours earlier? if the body is warm to the touch, my common sense tells me, not science, that this is someone recently deceased. absolutely. is there an error in that assumption? no. reporter: as far as the prosecution s contention that curtis killed cory after a heated argument, the couple s oldest son testified he didn t hear anything like that the night before. and he should know, because his room was right next to his parents. it was even connected by an extra door that was usually left slightly opened.
Me larson. reporter: and says? oh, and by the way, cory s dead. and leaves. reporter: marty, i ve gotta say, i think that s very strange. take your grandson and, by the way, your daughter s dead. he was emotionless, let s put it that way. people who saw him that day claimed that he was without emotion. curtis also knew cpr. and yet, he never tried to revive his wife. reporter: on the day, why didn t you do cpr? i don t know. i don t know why i didn t do cpr. i don t know why i i didn t call 911. in looking back i saw my wife, cory dead. and i didn t know how to react. reporter: prosecutor parkinson next went after the first police investigation. pushing hard against detective baird who handled the case. he questioned if baird gave curtis who was then an assistant state s attorney preferential
You can see her arms frozen and death above her body. that final police had caught detective baird s attention the years before. a corrosive-y but he didn t assign any significance. now, adam gives him dead. rig mortise? yes. in my opinion. the mechanics of rigor more disco like this. upon death, the muscles start to stephen. but to the detective, it looks as though cory s arms and hands were in an advanced stage of rigor. meaning, she likely died many hours before this photo was taken. remember, curtis said that he touched his wife in the bed only an hour before finding her dead. it did not make sense to the officer. detective told his bosses about the old lace file. my assumption is that we missed something here. he had been in charge in 2006 when everyone assumed everywhere cory died unnatural death. but he said he never saw this photos that the detective was holding before him. that s when i saw the
Did you snap and then put a pillow over her nose and mouth and suffocate her? no. no, i there there were no bad arguments the night before. um, it s it s exactly what what i ve told detective baird in 2006. and what i told detective gibson in 2014, and what i m telling you now. that that is what happened. she was sick and i came home and i found her that morning. and she was dead in bed. reporter: it was clear the detective s strategy hadn t yielded what he wanted, a confession. i have a problem with you not remembering all of these things. reporter: the lawyer s goal of talking his way out of trouble hadn t exactly worked either. even after he agreed, curtis says, to take a lie detector test. in a short time, he was swapping out his buttoned downed shirt and leather loafers for a very different courthouse look. jail house black and white stripes.
The night, and while rigor mortis is setting in, and then if a person is thinking, oh, my god. what did i do? and, oh, there s that pillow in her i m going to get rid of that pillow, then the arms are already up. reporter: and you think that s what happened? yes. reporter: but then came, perhaps, the most anticipated testimony for the prosecution. lyndsay, curtis own daughter, took the stand. two times, over a span of eight years, she told police her mother was alive that morning. she said she had felt better. reporter: but on the stand, with her dad s life on the line, she changed her story. telling jurors she was no longer sure her mom was alive that day. don t remember any of it. reporter: but it doesn t stick in your memory? nope. reporter: and yet, detective baird s notes, you do tell him the story about seeing your mother. and then with the videotaped interview with detective gibson, you seem quite clear about that morning, and yes, you saw her and went o