The Dateline episode "Secrets at the Sunshine Motel" investigates the attempted murder of Yakima County, Washington realtor Vern Holbrook, who was lured into a home, brutally beaten and left for dead.
A pawn of daniel s? i think they used each other. no question she was involved? not in our minds. reporter: four people were now charged with the attempted murder of vern holbrook. and then the case changed again. in january of 2014, eight months after he was attacked, vern holbrook died from his injuries. it was a sense of relief for him that he didn t have to suffer anymore. but it was really hard, really hard for the entire family to see him not with us anymore. it turned the attempted murder into a first degree murder. a premeditated murder. and it sorta raised the stakes all around? right. reporter: but once again, what seemed to be and what would be wouldn t quite line up. there was one more twist in that long river of lies.
Part of washington state. the meet time at the nursery was set, 11:15 a.m. i sent him a message when i got there and he said clients running late. just got here. see you in a bit and about 30 minutes later i sent him a message and said that i was done. and i didn t hear anything. how much times goes by? two hours. did you think of going to look for him? yeah i did. then i thought well no i don t wanna interrupt him if he s with a client. do i regret that every second? yeah, i do. reporter: so terra turned toward home and her husband. vern s stepson, andrew. when she got home she said, y know it s really weird. your dad never showed up and i just told her you know, he probably just got tied up in a deal. reporter: in fact, vern s kids were used to this behavior. he worked more than 60 hours every week because he enjoyed it and because he wanted to help people find a home. reporter: vern was not only the founder and owner of the family business, aspen real estate, h
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He was just known to be one of the big movers and shakers in the real estate industry in the yakima valley. reporter: the detective had been called to the house where vern was found that saturday night. he d heard from the responding officer, the one who wore this body camera and captured these scenes from the moment he arrived just before 8 p.m. that a colleague had gone looking for vern when vern s wife had become worried that he didn t return from the showing. the colleague had found him here, lying in a pool of blood at this rural home near the small town of cowichie. the last people talked to vern around 11:15 and so we could surmise that he had likely been attacked sometime around noon. so he d been lying there, for what? maybe 7 or 8 hours? yes. not a whole lot of evidence to go on at the beginning? no. reporter: vern s truck, still parked outside offered little.