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Deputy d.a. john lewin and deputy d.a. john lewin and the torrance police department cold case team believed mike lubahn killed his wife, carol, back in 1981. but they had one big problem. they couldn t prove carol was dead. the biggest assumption is going to be how do you know she s just not out of the ....
Doubt, ladies and gentlemen, is that despite the fact that mike lubahn is a decent man, he murdered his wife. reporter: of course lewin knew that to prove a murder had occurred, he had to show the victim was no longer alive. for that he turned to detective wallace who explained to the jury the facebook and social media presence he created for carol had turned up a whole lot of nothing. have you been contacted by anybody, either by phone, e-mail, in writing, who says, you know what, i ve seen carol lubahn after the day she disappeared? no. though as lewin and his team also let the juror hear, family members like carol s sister, gail, believed what mike told them, that carol had run off. has it been hard for you to accept the possibility that she may be dead? well, yes. is it maybe even more difficult by the fact that you cared deeply for the defendant? yes. reporter: and younger sister, ....
Tell us what happened. reporter: the judge granted a moment so mike could speak with his attorney privately. did he actually have something to confess? he returned a few minutes later. and we re asking to continue the sentencing. reporter: time to think? the judge pushed back sentencing by a month. my hope was that he would tell us what happened, that he would tell us what he did with carol and that he would be honest about both. reporter: for almost four weeks, they waited. until january 7th, 2013. all eyes were on mike lubahn as he entered the courtroom. and then shifted as one to prosecutor lewin who told the court that that very morning mike finally revealed to him the secret he had been keeping almost 32 years, and so now lewin did the talking and mike, for once, said not a word. all of the information about ....
Terri, even though she had suspected mike for years do you still think of mike lubahn sr. as a part of your family? yes. reporter: but most anguished of all, mike and carol s son, mike jr. is there anything about the way you remember your mom that would make you think or made you feel that she would leave you and never come back and never say good-bye? no. reporter: he loved his dad. but also secretly doubted him. something he had never revealed until now. i was sweating so profusely during that whole trial, he never knew i had these feelings so on the stand publicly i had to basically say, yeah, i m thinking maybe there s some weird things about your story, and it was the first time that my father really would have known i felt that way so i was really, really stressed out about that. ....
i actually would shove some of my work away. i got in a little trouble for that sometimes. reporter: for years the detective chipped away until finally in 2010, eight years after he found that musty old blue file, he decided to pay a surprise visit to mike lubahn. his colleagues thought he was a bit nuts. there was those that thought, yeah, what do you think he s going to admit it to you? i thought, well, i played enough sports in my time, i know you re not going to get anywhere unless you try. hi. detective delcine. i want to talk about carol. reporter: what story would mike tell this time? coming up, this version was ....