you? i could think of no one. but police could. and if the target was a surprise, so was the suspect. whoa. it s you. but he claimed he was framed and a man named indian joe could prove it. even he admitted his story sounded crazy. if i was a guy out there watching dateline, i wouldn t believe this. this is like watching a tv show. you re telling us to go search for the one-armed man. yes. well, we found indian joe. that s all true? oh, yeah, that s all true. what else would we find? there s a maniac out there. hello and welcome to dateline. family and faith were everything to connie hoagland. a devoted mother of 3 and wife of a church leader. so when a car bomb shattered life as she knew it, investigators were baffled. the motive remained a mystery until a stunning twist led detectives in a direction that was hard to believe, even for connie herself. here is josh mankiewicz with deadly intent. you re looking at the life of the hoagland fa
This theres no way. They have the wrong. Her mother was nearly killed by a bomb. I remember coming out to the truck, put in the key and then kaboom. The police told me this bomb was meant for you. They say to you who does not like you enough to try to kill you . I could think of no one. But police could. And if the target was a surprise, so was the suspect. Whoa. Its you. But he claimed he was framed and A Man Named Indian Joe could prove it. Even he admitted his story sounded crazy. If i was a guy out there watching dateline, i wouldnt believe this. This is like watching a tv show. Youre telling us to go search for the onearmed man. Yes. Well, we found indian joe. Thats all true . Oh, yeah, thats all true. What else would we find . Theres a maniac out there. Hello and welcome to dateline. Family and faith were everything to Connie Hoagland. A devoted mother of 3 and wife of a Church Leader. So when a car bomb shattered life as she knew it, investigators were baffled. The motive remain
gamuts and we had a lot of people just going out chasing every lead there was trying to get this stuff done. and while he was still at the crime scene, detective luke had what seemed to be an odd visit from an old colleague, eric stellmacher. the former commander of the san diego fire department bomb squad. that s luke to the left of your screen and stellmacher on the far right. he was the first one to contact me as soon as i got on the scene. i says, what are you doing here? he tells me he had retired to colorado, came back to visit some friends here in town and he heard about the bomb and he came over to try to assist us. and there was one more thing. he turns out to be an acquaintance of the hoagland family, so he knew the victim and the husband. first thing that popped into my mind is we have a bombing here, we have a bomb guy on the scene that s retired and now he s also has some nexus to do with the family. that was definitely a curveball. john wood was bomb squad com
hoagland family had no idea he was even being investigated. so when jaclyn got a 2:00 a. m. call from her sister jill with news about their dad, she was blindsided. my sister said he s been arrested. he s in jail and i couldn t believe it. and i think the first thing out of my mouth was there s no way he did this. there s no way. they have the wrong guy. the evidence against larry was circumstantial. no fingerprints, no dna, nothing to physically connect him to either bomb. and that made investigators take another look at eric stellmacher, who was asked to come down to his old fire station for an interview. this was not going to be a friendly chat with his old work buddies. when they asked me if i d be willing to take a polygraph. i was like, wait a minute. you guys know me, you should know better than that. and i realized the best way to make sure that i m clear in their
were still committed and just hanging on to the commitment at that time. did he act like he didn t care about you any more? yes. that has to be heartbreaking. yeah, it was. you ever think about leaving larry? it never crossed my mind. in the church, divorce is really frowned upon. if you can work it out, work it out. how was larry at the hospital? pretty stand-offish, which was normal for us at that time. the truth is there are a lot of bored husbands out there in suburbia, but few ever go on to try to assassinate their wives. and connie certainly didn t believe that was the case here. neither did detectives. when you first meet larry, was he a suspect? no, he was not. he was the victim s husband. we didn t really focus on larry that much. and so, eric stellmacher, the former bomb squad commander, remained on everyone s radar screen. he was constantly by larry s side at the hospital,