then in august of 2013, sneiderman faced new charges and was found guilty of perjury and hindering the apprehension of a killer. in 2014, sneiderman was released from prison and completed her parole three years later. and in 2015, a break for hemy newman, or was it? the georgia supreme court threw out his conviction, saying the trial court erred in admitting evidence protected by attorney client privilege. but in a 2016 retrial, a jury found that hemy newman was guilty once again, and this time his guilt was unqualified. hemy, the jurors decided, was not mentally ill at the time of the crime. he was sentenced to life without parole plus five years. >> that is all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin, thank you for watching. tom foley: the first time i saw her, >> hello, i'm craig melvin, and i thought she was beautiful. we just loved being together.

this is dateline. >> the first time i saw her, i thought she was beautiful. we just loved being together, we were always together. our kitchen back door was opened and the glass was broken. >> i need an ambulance now. my wife, oh my god. >> it was him who found her. >> i said i don't know how to handle that. i wish i could've been there to protect her. >> a wife murdered, and later, a husband under suspicion. >> he was such a nice guy that you would've never guess that he would've done something like that. >> you think he faked that burglary and killed his wife? >> yes. >> he wanted the house, he wanted her money, and if he divorced her, he would lose everything. >> in court, a stunning verdict. >> this could not be happening,

i did not kill my wife. >> but more stunning still was what came after, a mysterious witness with a secret. >> this is a woman who essentially says i saw the murderer. and it wasn't tom folly. >> would her story be the ultimate twist? >> hello and welcome to dateline. it is a mystery people thought they had the answer to, the murder of a well-loved teacher in a close knit town. within hours police were on the scene, there would be an rerest, a trial and a conviction. case closed, not on your life, because in the story, a bombshell came in after the verdict. here's josh mankiewicz. >> 9-1-1. >> i need an ambulance now.

>> feburary 2009, coldwater, michigan. >> what is the problem? >> my wife. >> your wife? >> yes. >> in one day, one moment. >> is she breathing? >> no. she's gone. >> the innocent, simple life tom foley and his family once lived was gone forever. >> oh my god. oh my gosh. >> it was a moment tom foley never would've imagined 23 years earlier. back then, number 30, scored the winning basket, giving coldwater high school the regional title. >> he makes it with five seconds left. >> and earning young tom a place in coldwater's basketball hall of fame. >> i have goose bumps just talking about it. >> it was like victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat and he came through with it. >> to what extent were you

known around here, like as the kid who scored the winning shot? >> it went up for a long time, people would say remember when you hit that shot? and of course i remember. >> in 1991, the hometown hero started to date another hometown stand out name darlene webber. dar, as she was known, had a personality is because first while. >> the first time i saw her, she was playing softball, of course, and she had on these lime green specks, so she looked a little funny. but when she took them off, i thought she was beautiful. >> it was a classic case of opposites attracting. >> i think we both went into the relationship knowing that we really loved spending time with one another. >> tom was the laid back, easy going type.

dar, an elementary school teacher, was more type a. >> she had opinions, she let those be known. one of the reasons that i loved her, i still love her today. >> still when her sisters learned that they intended to marry, they were left scratching their heads. >> my famous saying was there has got to be something wrong with tom to stay with dar. >> because you couldn't do it? >> no. >> you couldn't be around somebody who was that much the center of attention? >> and telling you what to do. >> dar was not a domesticated person. >> the foleys were married in 1994, and right from the start, dar took the lead. >> is it fair to say that she wore the pants in that house? >> i'd say 75%, 80% of the time. >> she was the breadwinner? you stayed home and took care of your son? >> i did. >> keith was their only child and the center of their lives. >> we just love being together.

we were always together. >> and so the three foleys lived on the outskirts of coldwater in an old farmhouse they called the heath bar farm, a picture perfect family until that winter day back in 2009. what was the last thing you said to her? >> i said i love you. and i will see you later. >> on that day the foleys were preparing to celebrate keith's tenth birthday out of friends house just down the road. dar needed to shower so tom, heath and a friend of heath's left without her. the plan was for david to follow in her own car and meet them all at the party later that afternoon. but dar never arrived. that gave you some kind of sixth sense the something's wrong? >> yes. she was always on time or early to events. >> so tom left the party and headed back home in search of his wife. >> our kitchen back door was opened and i noticed that the

glass was broken and the glass was all over the kitchen floor, so i look through the rest of the house for her. i ended up finding her in the bathroom. >> it was a gruesome scene, dar lying in the shower stall. she had been shot in the head with a shot gun at point blank range. tom immediately called for help. >> what's the problem? >> my wife was in the shower. she's just laying there in her blood. >> first responders rushed to the folly farm. when michigan state police detective arrived at the scene, he knew he was in for a long night. >> we don't have a lot of homicides that happen around here and because of her position as a schoolteacher, just from the number of people who knew her, it put her in a much more serious type investigation. >> detective carbon and his team of trooper scoured the crime scene, taking pictures and seizing evidence of what appeared to be a home burglary

gone wrong. the first clue: the broken glass coming from the kitchen door window. >> it appears that a beer bottle was used to break that particular window. according to tom, jewelry and credit cards were missing, the family desk had also been disturbed and financial documents inside were gone. and then there was the medicine cabinet. >> it looked like someone had gone in and scooped of a shelf off of the medicine cabinet and its contents. >> maybe they were looking for prescription drugs? >> potentially. >> but to detective carbon, the items missing weren't nearly as missing as what was left behind. expensive electronics were untouched, as was dar's purse, found sitting on a hallway chair. >> it didn't make a lot of sense. >> neither did the use of a shotgun. >> it's large, potentially bulky. if you're going into break into something, you have to carry

whatever you steal out with the shotgun that you brought also. >> it wasn't until the next day that police found their first significant piece of evidence, evidence that led the investigation in a whole new direction, down in the foley's dusty basement was a suspiciously dust free yellow plastic bag. >> coming up. >> i think they did a lot of things together. however i don't consider them the picture perfect couple. >> when dateline continues. i think that this product is a gamechanger for my patients- it really works.

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josh mankiewicz: the funeral for dar because a lot can happen in 48 hours. on the 13th, friday the 13th, those unlucky enough to be sharing their grief over the woman they'd loved and lost poured into union city high school auditorium. no church, it turned out, to be big enough to accommodate the more than 500 people who came to honor and love dar. >> she was so full of life and had a lot more to give. we can't bring her back. >> your wife has been killed and you have a ten-year-old son. >> yeah. >> what did you tell him? >> i told him that someone had hurt mommy. he goes is she in heaven? and i said yes.

>> it seemed like no one in coldwater could comprehend what had happened, including steve and joni pierce, close friends of both tom and dar who heard from the murder from tom himself. >> i said the three of you were always together and he was crying and said i know, i know, i should've been her for her. and then i said, if you would've been the three of you, maybe you would've all been dead instead of just dar. >> just 24 hours into the investigation, detective jim carbon had almost abandoned the theory that this was a random act of violence. >> it appeared to me that this was a staged breaking and entering to try to hide a homicide that took place. >> but according to detective carbon, whoever staged the burglary didn't factor in the weather that day. >> it got really warm and there was a huge slow melt off.

>> the ground around the farmhouse was unusually wet and muddy. >> so you would expect there to be muddy footprints from inside the residence from somewhat come through that door? >> absolutely. >> and was there anything? >> there was nothing. >> but it was the yellow bag found in the basement, the bad containing shotgun shells, that interested carbon in the most. >> downstairs in the basement, okay, we found a dunham's bag that had some shotgun shells in it. >> okay. >> have you ever seen that before? >> no. >> the foleys didn't own a shotgun, as far as we know? >> that is correct. >> carbon sent the bag to the lab for analysis. and what technicians found on the bag surprised even this veteran detective. tom's fingerprints were on the bag? >> yes. >> suddenly, detective carbon felt like he needed to take a closer look at tom folly and his seemingly picture perfect marriage. >> i think they did a lot of things together, however, i don't consider them the picture perfect couple.

>> neither did dar's sister lynn, in whom dar once confided. >> she said that tom doesn't love me anymore, he's going through his change of life -- >> his midlife crisis? >> yes. >> dar's sisters were becoming increasingly suspicious, especially they said after watching tom's behavior at dar 's funeral. >> it's almost like he was relieved. >> there were a number of people that came up to me after the service that were really offended by his demeanor, his joyfulness. >> these were things that i have heard, and it is ridiculous. i mean taking care of heath was on my mind, wondering who killed my wife was on my mind. they don't know the things that i have been through. >> maybe so, but detective carbon was keeping a very watchful eye on tom foley. he decided to interview the other fully he was at the farm

the day dar was killed. their son, heath. on that day, heath and his friend skyler were inside the house playing video games, waiting to be driven to heath's birthday celebration. >> did you see anything different or out of the ordinary or anybody walking around? anybody come up to the door? anything that you could think of? >> not really. >> the detective also interviewed skyler, who said right before leaving for the party, tom sent the two boys outside to go start up the truck. >> he said that he will be out there in a little bit. i don't know what he was doing. taking a shower or what's. >> like heath, skyler couldn't recall anything unusual about that day either, and then, suddenly, -- >> when we were outside running across the barns, there was a big crash way in the back of

the house. >> what did it sound like? >> it sounded like breaking glass or a bunch of things falling. like a vase -- >> it was a loud sound? >> yes. >> detective carbon showed skyler a drawing of the foley farm and asked skyler to place an x where he believed the sound originated. >> like, somewhere around here. >> skyler placed the x just outside the first floor bathroom, the same room where dar foley had been shot. >> it appeared to us that skyler may have heard the shotgun blast that killed dar foley. >> detective carbon was also thinking this, the one other person in that house at that time was tom foley. >> coming up. >> he wanted the house, he wanted her money, and if he

divorced her, he lost everything. >> was that a motive and was tom foley the killer? when dateline continues. s. in the comfort of your own home. a kohler walk-in bath has one of the lowest step-ins of any walk-in bath for easy entry and exit. it features textured surfaces, convenient handrails for more stability, and a wide door for easier mobility. kohler® walk-in baths include two hydrotherapies— whirlpool jets and our patented bubblemassage™ to help soothe sore muscles in your feet, legs, and back. a kohler-certified installer will install everything quickly and conveniently in as little as a day. they made us feel completely comfortable in our home. and, yes, it's affordable. i wish we would have looked into it sooner. think i might look into one myself. stay in the home and life you've built for years to come. call... to receive 50% off installation your kohler walk-in bath. and take advantage of our no payments until 2025 financing.

welcome back to dateline. here again is josh mankiewicz. welcome back to dateline. josh mankiewicz: from the mouths of babes or, in this case, one articulate 10-year-old boy, came here's josh mankiewicz. >> from the mouths of babes, or in this case, one articulate ten-year-old boy came what

would seem to be a case breaking revelation. >> it was a loud loud sound. >> detective carbon believed that ten-year-old skylar was an eyewitness to the shotgun blast that killed dar. if it is true it means that she was killed earlier than -- it meant that tom foley was still in the house when the murder occurred. >> it was huge, it was very very important. >> but if tom foley was in that house and pull the trigger, the question remained, why? the answer, said detective carbon was quite simple. murder for money? >> potentially, yes. >> money, in the form of an insurance policy. >> i think that he wanted out of the marriage and did whatever he needed to do to make sure that that happened. >> and if he got $310,000 in insurance money and got out of the marriage, so much the better? >> yes. >> the evidence against tom

foley was circumstantial but compelling. you thank you for that burglary? >> yes. >> and killed his wife? >> yes. >> they never found the murder weapon. what do you think happened to the gun? >> i wish i knew. >> but even without it, in march of 2009, one month after dar foley was gunned down in her shower, state police arrested tom foley and charged him with his wife's murder. >> i was like, this cannot be happening, why do you think i did this? i did not kill my wife. >> to tom and dar's close friends the piereces, news of his arrest was almost a shocking as her death? could you conceive of tom wanting to killing his wife or the insurance money? >> absolutely not. he has never been 1 to 1 things, it's not like money was real valuable to him. >> you think they had a good marriage? >> yes, everything seemed to be

going really good for them. >> it seemed sadistic, shooting your wife at point blank range, killing the mother of your son on the very day he was celebrating his tenth birthday. >> he never would've done that to his son. >> police continued gathering evidence. ten days after tom's arrest, police brought heath foley in for a second interview. and this time, heath did recall hearing a noise that day. >> when skylar talks about hearing this unusual sound, do you remember any of that? >> thought it was neighbors just like, shoing guns. thought it was like, maybe a gunshot or some like glass broke. it was one of those two things maybe. >> according to tom, the sound heath heard was nothing more than glass breaking.

>> they were all old barn windows that i was trying to clean out. and i went to grab them and one of them slipped out of my grip and smashed on the back porch steps -- >> they made a lot of noise? >> yeah, it did. >> but detective carbon wasn't buying tom's explanation. the boys were playing over by this barn? >> yes. >> and how far is that to the house? >> it's practically 75 yards. >> mr. foley claims he was dropping a window, but that's enough for that sound that far? >> in my opinion, that could've happened. >> police also say the they carefully searched that area around the back porch. >> there was no glass that we could see when we looked at the scene on that particular night, as well as the next day. >> for dar's sisters the writing was on the wall, they were certain of their brother in law's guilt. >> we went over every case we could come up with to not make it tom. >> i think tom resented dar.

in that he couldn't me man. it ate at him and he couldn't take it anymore. >> people get divorced for that reason all the time. >> he didn't divorce her because he's a selfish coward. he wanted the house, he wanted heath, he wanted her money and if he divorced or he would lose everything. >> in november 2009, tom foley 's trial began. the prosecution argued that only tom had a motive to kill dar, but the defense claimed police had rushed to judgment. defense attorney tom schaffer and defense investigator ken coberstein. >> in their mind is always the boyfriend or the husband. >> or the person who tried to find the body? >> and in this case it was the husband. >> they wanted me bad. because what is easier for them, to go after someone that they can physically see or go after someone that they cannot physically see? >> what is wrong with the idea that the money was a motive? >> absolutely not. we had a mortgage. to move on after all this, it

was gonna take a hell of a lot more than that. >> it felt like the evidence was going to prove that there is absolutely no way i was going to have anything to do with this. >> 12 jurors didn't share that feeling. >> we the jury find the defendant guilty of first degree murder. >> i was just -- what? i was shocked. >> what was wrong with the jury? what they did they know that i didn't know? how could they convict a man on what they had? >> i knew that the conviction was meant for me, it meant for life without the possibility of parole. >> my sister is still dead. it still didn't bring her back. but you had a little bit of faith in the justice system. >> in the hours following the verdict, it seemed like everyone in coldwater was relying on faith. >> i said to myself, god isn't going to let me go to prison for the rest of my life --

just something out i had turn around. >> then less than 24 hours after the verdict, tom foley's defense team got a phone call from a woman. >> this is a woman who essentially says, i saw the murderer and it wasn't tom foley. >> coming up. >> there's the killer. right there. she saw him. >> a bombshell from out of the blue. was there hope for a newly-convicted husband, when dateline continues.

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now, back to dateline. now, back to dateline. ibly set him free. welcome back to dateline, i'm craig melvin. after the jury delivered a guilty verdict, tom foley faced life behind bars. then in a stunning turn just 24 hours later, a witness emerged to possibly set him free. once again, josh mankiewicz. >> only baseline jumper. he hits it with five seconds. >> 24 years after the hometown hero named tom foley made coldwater history, the now convicted murderer of the same name sat behind bars awaiting his sentence. >> are you ready to spend the rest of your life in prison? >> no, absolutely not. >> to tom foley's attorney tom schaeffer and his private eye, ken koberstein, the guilty verdict landed like a crushing blow.

>> this is a grassroot who done it. and we thought we had shown that it was in this person who had done it. >> i was devastated. when this ended, i could've walked into a wall. >> but just one day after tom foley's conviction, a woman stepped forward. she had new information that suddenly gave new life to tom's defense. >> she came forward and said i saw this white car storming out of the driveway, almost hit me. it looked like somebody was either high or running away from something. >> the woman with certain the driver was coming out of the heath bar farm right around the time dar was murdered. and she was equally certain the driver looked nothing like tom foley. >> there is the killer right there. she saw him. person leaving our property. >> and then like a dam breaking, two other witnesses came forward, each having seen a mysterious car of their own, either parked on the foley property or speeding away from it.

all the sightings were within two hours of dar's murder. >> it was just one after another, and i was like, what is going on? where with these people before? >> the judge was about to sentence tom foley to life wanted to hear what these new witnesses have to say. after a year of appeals that way all the way to the state supreme court, tom foley was granted something most people convicted of murder never receive, a second chance. >> i was walking through the chow hall in prison and somebody said, hey, tom i saw you on the news. really, what's for? well there's a new trial. >> news of a new trial didn't change the lives of dar's family. they remain convinced not only that did tom kill dar, he did so on the day of his son's tenth birthday celebration. is tom cold-blooded enough to do something like that to his kids? >> yes, yes.

>> i think there's evil in him. >> prosecutor terri norris agreed. >> who killed dar foley? >> tom foley. there is nobody else. >> a year and a half after tom foley's conviction, both sides file back into the courthouse to one again determine tom's fate. >> circuit court is now in session. >> as before, the state opened its case with the crime scene analysts. >> why is it that you found? >> yellow dunham's bag. >> located in the bag was three shells. these are phone records -- >> norris also showed the jury the records from around the time dar was killed. >> there were no phone calls that either came in or left. >> your wife doesn't show up somewhere, why not call home and see, have you left yet? where are you? we're waiting for you. >> that's what i would do. >> according to detective carbon, tom did not bother calling dar at home because he

knew dar was already dead. then members of dar's stepped forward to testify that tom and dar's marriage was troubled, and that tom wanted out. >> he told me that his wife is a very controlling, and that it was wearing on him. and he did not necessarily want to stay in the marriage anymore. >> and there was more evidence of an unhappy marriage. according to this woman, back in 2006, tom had a wondering eye. >> please state your full name for the record and spell your last name. >> carrie zuck. we carrie zuck thought at the same elementary school as. are known by the name as dee dee. >> he told me that he was thinking about leaving dee dee. >> according to carrie, tom also revealed he had feelings for her. and later he tried to kiss her. >> what was your reaction to that? >> i didn't want anything to do with it. >> the prosecution wasn't done. this woman took the stand.

>> please state your full name for the record and spell your last name? >> marianne victoria crandall. >> out of the presence of the jury, marianne crandall told the court that like carrie zuck, she met tom through dar. and a couples of weeks after dar's murder, marianne stopped by the farm to offer tom support. >> i don't mean to embarrass you but you had sex with tom in his living room? >> he tried to. and it was stopped. >> who tried and who stopped? >> he tried and we both stopped. >> you don't have a sexual relationship with somebody within two weeks after your wife's been murdered at the house. >> but the jury never heard marianne crandall's testimony. because there was no indication of a romantic relationship prior to dar's murder, the judge ruled, just as he did in the first trial, that her testimony was prejudicial and therefore inadmissible.

it was a huge blow to the prosecution's case. >> it supports the position that they weren't this deeply in love couple that he kept trying to present. that would've proven that. >> but norris still had her two key witnesses, tom's own son and heath's friend, skylar. both two years older and now more certain than ever about what they saw and heard. the day dar was killed. >> last year at church camp, we went for one of our activities. we fired shotguns. and it most resembled that sound. >> then it was time for heath to take the stand. the last time tom had seen his boy was at a hearing, also in court, almost a year earlier. >> while you're in the barn, do you hear something? >> yes. >> i thought it was maybe skylar kind of ran into a wall. either that or a gunshot. >> you think the boys actually were, if not eyewitnesses, then

ear witnesses? >> ear witnesses saw happened. >> tom schaeffer knew that if he had any hope of getting tom foley acquitted, he'd need to prove the sound the boys heard was anything other than a gunshot. just two weeks before trial began, while inspecting crime scene photos, schaeffer found what may be the key to his client's freedom. >> has a tiny piece of evidence given tom's defense team a glimmer of hope? >> coming up. >> i said, ken, is that what i think it is? it was one of these, holy crap. >> it was to us just a perry mason moment. >> when dateline continues.

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news reporter: the defense began presenting just like that its case in hopes of convincing the jury that foley is innocent-- josh mankiewicz: midway through tom foley's trial, the talk around coldwater focused on the damaging testimony of skylar its case of in hopes of convincing the jury foley is innocent. >> what middle way through tom foley's trial, the top at coldwaters focus on -- tom's own son heath. >> heath was the strongest part of your case. >> the boys, the testimony of the voice. they heard the gunshot. >> but the defense was about to argue that over time both boys testimony had changed, and in significant ways. >> heath is now stating that it sounds like a gunshot. it's something he didn't say in the first interview. the same thing with skylar. heath's courtroom testimony

left tom furious, not at his son, but at his accusers. the people who had cared for heath while tom was incarcerated. >> that's somebody coaching him or encouraging him? >> i believe so. >> coached or not, tom foley's defense team knew from day one that they needed to prove the sound those boys heard was tom dropping a window frame on the back porch and not the fatal gun blast. four days after tom foley's arrest, schaeffer and koberstein took a trip to the farm to do just that. >> a couple of perry mason moments, don't come very often. >> this is the frame we found. >> right where tom said he dropped the frame, they found this tiny shard of glass. immediately they try to match the shard with the frame. tom said he dropped. >> if you take the shard and

inserted in with a few remaining intact, putty of the frame, you can see it fits perfectly. >> it was compelling evidence that tom may have been telling the truth. but schafer wouldn't lead more than a shred of evidence. he next call this woman, janette moore, the woman who came forward immediately following tom's guilty verdict. and the reason tom was ultimately granted a new trial. moore says she was driving past the foley house right around the time dar had been murdered. >> as i approached, this white car came racing out forward, and if i hadn't had braked, i would've hit him. >> janette moore said she got a good look at the driver. >> it was a young, 18 to 20-year-old kid. he had real black hair and his face was real white, and he was clenching the wheel, just like this. and i thought, he's crazy, he's going to kill somebody. >> why didn't you call the police? >> i didn't because i was afraid. >> but when janette moore learned about tom foley's guilty verdict, she said she could no longer keep her silence.

>> god forgive me, and i truly mean that in my heart, that i didn't come forward sooner. if i hadn't been so darn scared. >> what followed was a succession of other witnesses, each claiming they too saw a mysterious cars, either on or leaving that heath bar farm, right around the time of the murder. >> i call a glance of a ford, black ford, suv, crossover vehicle. >> it could've been a white car, green car, i don't know. it was just a light colored car. >> whoever killed dar foley was either in one of those cars, or all three of them participated in this murder in some fashion. >> but tom foley knew if he had any hope of acquittal, the jury would need to hear from one more witness. >> i call tom foley to the stand, your honor. >> i just didn't want to convince the 12 jurors. i wanted to convince the

prosecutor, i wanted to convince the police, i wanted to convince my wife's family. i wanted them to know and look at me and hear me. >> tom started by answering some still nagging questions, like how did a yellow plastic bag with shotgun shells in it get into tom's basement? >> did you have dunham's bags in your home? >> yes. >> how do you explain the bag in the basement, with the shotgun shells in it? >> they weren't ours. that bag is probably ours. my fingerprints are on the bag. but three clean shotgun shells -- in my basement? it just doesn't make sense. >> you have no idea where those came from? >> absolutely not. >> tom said he has never owned or used a shotgun. >> never. wouldn't know how to operate it. wouldn't know the first thing about it. >> tom schaeffer then asked why tom failed to call his home when dar didn't show up at the birthday celebration.

>> something just wasn't right, that's why i went home. >> if we had cellphones, i would've called her on her cell phone. i had to find her. i had to go to see where she was at. >> then it was time for tom to describe his relationship with dar. it didn't take tom long to lose his composure. >> we were very close. >> and -- go ahead. >> we were together all the time. >> tom admitted to the jury he did once flirt with carrie zuck. but he said that happened three years prior to the murder, during a brief time when he and dar were arguing more than they were communicating. >> at that point, quite a distance bit of distance between us. it also led to intimacy problems between her and i. >> tom says he eventually told dar about his feelings for carrie.

he also says he went to counseling to work on their communication problems. >> after those sessions, did things get better? >> absolutely. >> but then why was it so easy for tom to become intimate with marianne crandall so soon after dar's death? >> just three weeks after dar died, and you're in the house were dar died -- what am i to think of that? >> think that i don't care about what just happened to my wife. that's not true. if i go back and change it, i would. but i can't. >> this was an event that involved grief and a reaching out and it happened. do you love your wife? >> i love her very much. >> did you love her on february 7th, 2009? >> very much so. >> did you have anything to do with her death? >> not at all. >> before closing arguments, the prosecutor had one more

card to play, in the form of a surprise rebuttal witness who could unravel tom's alibi. >> please state your full name for the record. >> amber -- >> out of the presence of the jury, dar's neice told the court that one week before dar was murdered she went to the farm to babysit heath. >> she told us not to go on the back porch without shoes, because tom had dropped a frame and they might still be some glass out there. >> but the judge ruled that amber's testimony was hearsay and therefore inadmissible. the jury never heard her challenge tom's claim that while the boys heard the day dar was murdered was him dropping the window frame. >> that should've been included and it was not. >> now with the evidence that was admitted, and for the second time in two years, a jury was about to decide tom foley's faith. >> coming up. >> he collapsed to the floor and wept for 20 minutes.

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josh mankiewicz: as he did in the first trial, because a lot can happen in 48 hours. attorney tom schaeffer prepared to address the jury for what he and his client, tom foley, hoped trial, attorney tom schaeffer prepared to address the jury for what he and his client, tom foley, hoped would be the last time. when your defense rested, were

you comfortable? >> yes. >> you thought you were going to win? >> very much. >> you thought that once before. >> yes, i did. >> apparently the theory of the prosecution is that if a marriage ever has a bump in the road, then that is a motive for murder. is it reasonable? i suggest not. >> tom foley, he says, had nothing to do with dar's death. but those mysterious cars did. >> those cars should not have been there. had the prosecution not given you anything explanation why they were there? because there is no other explanation other than they had some connection with the death of dar foley. ladies and gentlemen of the jury, i submit to you, more than beyond a reasonable doubt, i respect you ask you to find tom foley not guilty.

>> then came prosecutor terri norris's turn. and she started by attacking the credibility of those witnesses who say they saw the cars. >> if you were to believe all of these vehicles were there, there was a party at the foley home that day, with a bunch of white cars, and a black suv. that makes no sense whatsoever. none. >> terri norris wanted this jury thinking only one thing. >> who had the motive? it's tom foley. whose fingerprint was on the bag of shells in the basement? tom foley. tom foley is guilty. and i'm asking you to bring the back that verdict. >> the outcome of tom's second trial was far from certain. what worried you the most? >> just that he was such a nice guy, that you would never have guessed that he would've done something like this. >> he didn't seem like murder? >> right. >> and then, at the fabled 11th hour, it was time. the jury filed in. >> were they looking at you, the jurors? >> no, they weren't. >> i talk a couple of deep breaths and i just --

>> your honor, we the jury find the defendant not guilty. >> the waiting had paid off. >> as to count two? >> not guilty. >> the reaction of tom at the time of the verdict, just absolutely incredible. he collapsed to the floor and wept for 20 minutes. unbelievable. >> he got away with murder. he almost didn't. we had it. we had him convicted. and to actually have to go back and talk with that family and try and give them some consoling, how do you do that? >> you're just angry. and you are angry at the jurors, the judge. there's nothing you can do about it. >> i was more concerned about heath at that point. because i knew that he knew his father killed his mother. and i couldn't imagine having

to go back and live with the man that killed your mother. >> yeah, get it! >> tom regained custody of heath and said he treads very carefully when discussing that tragic day with his boy. >> from him, i at least want to know why do you think i did this? i deserve that answer. and all he can say is, i don't know who else it could have been. >> tom says he will never forget dar. >> i still think she's beside me. i'm going to continue to raise our son the way that we wanted him to be raised. >> do you harbor any grudge because of this? >> all i can say is they made a mistake. that's all that i'm asking. is that they search and search and search until they find dee dee's killer. >> according to prosecutor norris at the time, there would be no point to that search. you're not investigating anymore? >> there's no one to investigate. and there's been no new

evidence of anybody else ever having committed this crime. >> this boyhood hero wrote a whole new set of headlines as an adult. and coldwater may never be the same. as for those who remain convinced of tom's guilt, they cling to the memory of the one they lost and loved so much. they gather to release balloons in dar's honor. >> she loved to be the center of attention, so this is her center of her attention. >> it rises closer to where she's at. hopefully she sees that we are thinking about her. we love you, dar. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm this sunday, decision 2024.