The ripples and eddies would hold some disturbing secrets about family, about friends and about who will betray you and who won t. just a little more than two hours from soggy seattle sits yakima in a valley where orchards and vineyards flourish in the abundant sunshine of southcentral washington. and it was just outside yakima on a saturday in may 2013, that terra rockenfield was meeting her father-in-law. i d sent him some messages early in the morning, asking if i could borrow his truck, cause i wanted to go to a nursery and he s like, well i m gonna be out there anyway showing a house so i can just meet you there. reporter: terra s father-in-law, vern holbrook, was one of the best-known and best-selling realtors in this
Lack of evidence. you will not hear of a single shred of forensic evidence of any kind linking this man or anybody else to that murder. reporter: after three weeks, the jury had the case. but it took less than a full day of deliberation to deliver a verdict. we the jury find the defendant, daniel blizzard, guilty of the crime of first degree murder. yes. y know, what we wanted and what was right happened. it was a huge, huge relief that the jury found the truth. reporter: the judge sentenced daniel blizzard to more than 34 years in prison. a month later the trial of luis gomez-mongez. he testified that it was not he but adriana mendez who had slashed vern holbrook s neck and struck him.
He was selling the company. i think he wanted to spend more time with his family and just focus on the selling part not deal with that day to day managing. reporter: no longer a rumor, said this e-mail to announce the sale. vern was selling aspen to daniel blizzard and his two brothers. vern would stay on as the designated broker for one year. but the deal went south quickly. they made the first 3 payments and then they just stopped. reporter: it was the height of the great recession. real estate was tanking. vern, was understanding. but then the blizzards approached vern with a request. they asked my dad to take out what s called a key man life insurance policy, him being the key person or the key man, in the organization. because aspen real estate really was just your dad. it absolutely was my dad. reporter: it made good financial sense at the time. vern s death would cripple the company. so the life insurance policy would pay $1.58 million dollars
There s probable cause to think that you are an accomplice and that s why you re under arrest. within hours, detectives had adriana s boyfriend in custody as well. through an interpreter, luis gomez-monges too initially told a story about adriana contacting vern to sell a mobile home. that s bull you re you re telling me lies. and adriana started off tellin me the same lies. she said that you hit the guy from behind when he wasn t even looking. no. i don t think that your story is gonna hold up. you are under arrest for the attempted murder of vernon holbrook. reporter: detectives were convinced they had the two people who d attacked vern that saturday in may. but they also knew, or thought they knew, there was a lot more to the story. these suspects certainly weren t trained hired assassins. they were so clumsy they d even used their own phone.
That s why vern hadn t shown up to meet her that morning. i walked up to the head of the bed and i just he was so swollen, and disfigured and i went down to the foot of the bed and his feet were sticking out. that s what looked like him. the rest of him was not was not the vern that i know. what did you think had happened? i wasn t sure at that point. the phone rings? she was hysterically crying. and she told me that my dad had been attacked. and i was in disbelief too. i didn t think that it was real at first. reporter: but it was. vern holbrook s life was dangling by a thread. he turned out to be the proof that you can be both beloved and