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How could this possibly be the worst possible outcome? how? reporter: afterwards, reverend lori souder, cara s pastor, friend, and firm defender, lamented. brianna has clearly lost her other mother now, in a sense? yes. god, where art thou? reporter: ann s family was also stunned. but pleased. murder one i m still reeling on that one. it s what we wanted for the last two trials. it was a surprise but really, just an affirmation of everything we had done. the possibility that it could have been anyone else and adhere to the timeline reporter: so what was the jury s thinking? they say they kept running into inconsistencies, beginning with cara s account of discovering ann s body. why didn t she rush to help her? she was a paramedic. so to see your loved one at the bottom of the stairs and she could ve easily have gone down there and started cpr and saved her. she didn t know that she was dead at that time. ....
Items on the basement floor with blood under them. the trooper took out a pencil and gingerly lifted a laundry basket. there was blood beneath it. what d that tell you? it tells me that, you know, things in this crime scene were moved before we got here. reporter: police videoed the scene. that night, a shattered cara rintala called family members, breaking the dreadful news. and then she went to the granby police department for an interview. it was almost midnight when detective lieutenant robin whitney hit record, turning the clock back to 8:30 that same morning when ann got home from her overnight shift. we were talking. she made me coffee. reporter: playtime with a noisy brianna followed. then lunch. and after, a request from ann, a paramedic, remember, who was trying to nap before another overnight shift. she s like, can you just go to the mall or whatever. ....
At hampshire superior court in northampton, mass. prosecutors steve gagne and jen suhl returned with a streamlined argument. we were caught sort of in this trap of being responsive to the defense and we decided let s play offense. reporter: in trial number two, they d put the possibles, mark oleksak and carla daniele, on the stand, only to knock them down as viable suspects. perhaps, they reasoned, they had confused jurors. so this time, they were gone. and now they focused on cara, and the helpless victim who fell down those stairs. the wife who was strangled, they said, for as long as four minutes, until she died. her last precious breaths that she took on this earth were taken with the defendant s hands around her neck. squeezing, squeezing, squeezing, and squeezing more, until every last breath of her was gone. reporter: prosecutors laid out a timeline for murder that ....
Up. reporter: and days later, the medical examiner would confirm those suspicions. the cause of death was strangulation. ann was a homicide victim. pasquale martin is her uncle. reporter: an accidental death would ve been easier, wouldn t it? of course, it would. but to have somebody rob somebody from you, steal, take, murder, just rip them from the world, you know, hard to fathom, hard to swallow. reporter: now investigators were looking into a murder. they began a deep dive into ann s life. prosecutors steve gagne and jen suhl of the district attorney s office joined the team. they learned that ann cochrane rintala s life could often be grand opera and her relationships could be complicated. take the thing she had going with a fellow paramedic named mark oleksak. mark oleksak was a very close friend of anamarie. they started as co-workers then became very, very close friends. reporter: the two were on intimate texting terms. that last morning, ann texted mark asking him t ....
He wasn t straight with the facts. not at the beginning. first, he said he was at home that day. later, he changed his account, said he d actually been shopping, then shared a meal with his family. reporter: that must make your nose twitch when a guy doesn t give you the straight out story. i agree. it s going to raise the suspicions a little bit. reporter: even though mark oleksak s story changed, investigators accepted it. he had receipts for his purchases. and the final texts between the two seemed to affirm they were close until the end, mark promising ann a big long kiss cause i love you. even the morning of the murder they were very lovey-dovey on text messages that particular morning. reporter: and you don t think but he also reporter: the financial the outstanding debt gets you there? no. there was nothing to suggest that mark was upset about that outstanding debt. she was paying him back for that debt. reporter: but investigators were looking at anoth ....