american west. a wide flat earth en cornucopia whose bounty daily fills the bellies of millions. whose great farms employ legions of workers and enriched with their profits families that pass the land down, father to son, generation after generation. they live modestly here in california s central valley. multi-millionaires in crop dusters and battered pickup trucks, deeply conservative, self-reliant, tough enough to thrive in a dangerous business that takes guts and brains, too often lives. here among the churning, thrashing machinery the high-voltage power that helps grow the food of life, death can take a man unawares, even on a sleepy summer day. we just looked up and there he was. like the day a little boy burst from the field of
farm, how to pretty much do everything on the farm. reporter: tell me about your dad. what kind of a guy was he? he was a hard worker. someone to look up to. we admired him. reporter: and it did not go unnoticed on the moore farm. over the years, owners roger and gus came to rely a great deal on roberto. they treated roberto more like a favored son than just an employee. how important was family to roberto? probably the most important thing. it all revolved around this. we didn t have much but everywhere he went, we went, too. we were always together. whatever went wrong, he was the one to go to. he was the one to keep everybody together. reporter: latino culture
celebrate a coming of age ritual called a quinceanera when a girl turns 15. so when roberto s daughter turned 15 he went all out. it was his only i was the only girl so he did everything he could to make that day the best. what kinds of things do you do? you have to have your father/daughter dance. you just feel like you re the only person that exists at that moment, that you re just real important. you really do feel like a princess. reporter: probably won t ever forget that. but of course for teenagers there is another rite of passage. butting heads with parents. which that last morning may have, pure chance, saved jesus s life. we always went to work together. and for some reason we had an argument that morning, so i didn t get to tag along with the ride that day. reporter: you might otherwise have been there. i would have probably been the one to get off to go check that pump. reporter: why would anybody want to hurt him?
reporter: so you at least had some time. maybe. maybe. dave tells me that they had received a letter and the letter had mentioned me. reporter: roberto s brother eduardo. he says be careful. watch yourself. reporter: but it wasn t just eduardo in the crosshairs. the letter writer claimed whoever was now driving roberto s now repaired pickup truck, that white f-250 the bomber wrote, is in great danger. and who was that person? roberto ayala s son, jesus. the threat against the ayalas was looking very real. it was real. it didn t just look real. it was real. a lot of sleepless nights. reporter: because this ex-marine not only had a farm to run but as he saw it a murder to solve, and now two families to protect. going through my mind was
and waited for a killer to call. coming up, a son s all too close call with death. we had an argument that morning. so i didn t get to tag along with the ride that day. you might otherwise have been there. i would have probably been the one to get off and check that. and another member of the dynasty comes forward with a fresh piece of evidence. would an answering machine message finally solve the question about a motive for murder? when dateline continues. (laughter) (cat meows) (dark barks) guess who s early? (cat meows) good thing walgreens is right around the corner with last minute holiday supplies.