>> we will work together for those kids what catherine wanted for them. >> up interest, through no backs beloved red house once stood, the trees glow orange and gold. autumn's have come and gone. her mother still mourns the daughter she lost, but remembers the life she lived. >> what do you miss most about her? >> her smile and her hugs. she was a lot of fun, catherine. she enjoyed life a lot. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline."ach, i just knew something's not right here. hello, i'm craig melvin. and this is dateline. >> in the pit of my stomach, i just knew something is not

right here. i just felt something bad had happened. >> he must have been so, so scared. >> they were so happy at first. >> kevin just fell in love with her. morgan was very, very charming. >> but when the marriage went bad, he went missing. >> he just disappeared. >> was this a husband who didn't want to be found? was this a wife who had something to hide? >> you're there gained in the truck. they're leaving. >> what had happened behind closed doors? >> she laughed and said, you know, there's no fear. >> someone was keeping secrets. and even police couldn't wrap their heads around this one until they found it, a trail of texts. >> we were like, holy smokes, it's right there. >> it sure was. >> every, stunning detail. >> snap all ice tea seemed like the perfect tool to put poison inside of it. >> was this a loving spouse or a lethal one? police were in for a killer

surprise. >> i feel like the gates of hell are opening. >> i don't know what they were thinking. >> hello and welcome to dateline. kevin and morgan mengel had their share of ups and downs. but through it all they seem to make it work. then one of them disappeared. it would take a families relentless pursuit of the truth to jump-start the investigation. then, a stunning confrontation in a parking lot would put police on the trail of a killer and reveal a diabolical recipe for murder. harris hoda kotb with "toxic". >> how much do we reveal to the ones we love? do we keep our betrayals hidden behind closed doors? or do we hide in plain sight, masking our deeds with words? >> text message says, i'm fine, just clearing my head. >> that was kevin mengel for a

time, clearing his head he told his family and friends. facebook status, once to be left alone. >> maybe he just had enough and needed a vacation for himself. >> but there was a trail of electronic messages that seemed to tell another story. a far more sinister one. >> we were floored. it was all there for us to read. you can't make this stuff up. >> which was fact and which was fiction? >> these text messages don't even seem real. they just don't seem real. >> long before kevin mengel had a cell phone or facebook page, he was a high school guy in suburban philadelphia, with a cute little sister to worry

about. >> kevin was the stereotypical older brother. he would follow me around and tell all of his friends they were allowed to talk to me. things like that. >> was he being protective? >> very protective. >> for as long as michelle can remember, it kevin mengel was a family man. a big brother who felt he needed to look after his younger siblings after their parents divorce. >> kevin had a terrible time with it. and just always told us that he would never get a divorce. he would never get a divorce. >> instead, kevin grew up in search of perfect romance. >> kevin always had girlfriends. >> but he was always a monogamous guy? when he was with one girlfriend he was always with that girl. >> yes, kevin was very committed to making sure that he stayed in a relationship and he gave it his all. >> kevin was 20 when he met the one, his forever girl. morgan from a few towns away, where she graduated from an exclusive catholic girls school. >> morgan was very, very charming. i mean, she was very sweet and very attentive to me. always came over to the house just to hang out with me. >> outgoing and charismatic,

morgan made an effort to win over karen's friends to like mike and noelle. >> very nice, very upbeat, very friendly. always smiling. >> and kevin, well, he fell hard for morgan's charm. >> he just loved her. >> he was head over heels for her. >> so, kevin was about to get what he had always wanted, a wife and kids. but just not in that order. >> morgan gave birth to their first child a few months before they got married. still, there is was no shotgun wedding. the young couple celebrated in traditional style. >> kevin was on top of the world. >> it was the perfect picture, wasn't it? >> it was the perfect picture. >> kevin loved being a dad. but he and morgan had two more children. but his relationship with his own father was rocky. had been since his parents divorce. >> we are both stubborn and

both pigheaded. so, he didn't call me, i didn't call him. and we got into a little bit of a battle. and -- >> years went by? >> years went by. >> but by june, 2010, kevin and his dad had patched things up. growing closer than ever. they made plans for the whole family to celebrate father's day together. >> he was so excited. he said to me, that, i can't wait to come down for father's day. i said, i can't wait to have you. i said, i love you. this is so wonderful. >> he just seemed to be at peace. i had not ever seen him like that. >> then it was the morning of the father's day party when it happened. sister michelle called their mom to check in. >> she didn't sound right. i said, are you okay? she said, kevin left. and she just started crying hysterically. she said kevin left, kevin left. i said mom, something is not right here. he left the three kids, he left morgan, i don't know where he went. he won't pick up his phone. he just sent me a text message. >> kevin, the death till death do us part romantic, leave his wife and kids? perhaps morgan put it best when she typed out their father's day regrets to kevin. >> we received a text message

from morgan saying due to unforeseen for can stances we will not be able to be there today. happy father's day. >> unforeseen circumstances? what exactly did that mean? >> we all knew how excited he was before father's day. it would be the one day kevin would not miss, ever. no matter what happen. >> no matter what happened. we're had kevin mengel gone? >> coming up -- maybe there was a reason for kevin to hit the road. >> i thought morgan was having another affair. >> when dateline continues. dat (♪♪) but this is a not flash. (♪♪) for moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms due to menopause... veozah is the first and only prescription treatment that directly blocks a source of hot flashes and night sweats. with 100% hormone—free veozah... you can have fewer hot flashes and more not flashes. veozah reduces the number and severity of hot flashes day and night.

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hoda kotb: when kevin mengel was a no-show for the family ask your provider for cologuard. barbecue on father's day, his sister, michelle, was disappointed and more than a little confused. >> when kevin mengle was a no- show for the family barbecue on father's day, his sister michel was disappointed and more than a little confused. >> he had called my husband to say how excited he was to spend father's day this sunday with all of us. >> so it was supposed to be a big father's day. >> a big father's day and he could've been more excited. >> kevin's younger brother chris was also looking forward to being with his family. after all, kevin had just recognize with their father after many rocky. years >> i thought, man, this is odd. why would he do this? now it doesn't make any sense? >> the story morgan, the wife told, is that kevin had taken off. told her that the marriage was over. in fact, by father's day, he had already been gone for two

days. >> kevin's fine, he's clearing his head. >> what is you mean karen vince fine? >> he's fine, he had to get away, clears. head >> so she's trying to tell you he needs. space >> he needs. >> space i could see him taking off, blowing off, i'm just going to get away. so that part of me said, okay, he just did that, he's going to come back today, tomorrow. >> we just said to be patient. >> yes we just have to be patient. >> patient because those close to kevin and morgan had seen the couples up sudden downs before. their breakup's, in fact, we're almost an annual event. >> it was like clockwork, every august around their anniversary, we would expect the phone call that morgan picked up ten left. and kevin would call us hysterically and just be completely destroyed. >> he said i love her, i can't help it, i love her. >> and soon, morgan would return, cabins world would right itself, and they would be as good as newlyweds. for a while. >> she could act like nothing

ever happened. and acting all lovey dovey, sitting down on his lap. >> but now, what was weird about this separation, was that kevin had taken off. not the other way around. >> she always took the kids, and she always left, kevin never once walked out on her. >> his family worried that this must of been the fight to fight old fights. and it's not like kevin to call his family for support. the only person he reached out to was his mom. a few days after he called her, he sent her cryptic text message that seemed to alarm her more than put her at ease. so kevin's mom did something that seems a little drastic. she called the west gauche and police to report him missing. >> we thought that she was overreacting to kevin leaving. >> kevin bauer was a detective on the case. >> there was no reason to believe that anything that happened to kevin. she was receiving text messages from kevin's phone. >> their feelings were that if

someone is communicating with him that he's not missing. >> kevin instead agreed. >> i was a little concerned that she might end up with a little egg on her face because he was going to show up and. >> right she would call the cops. >> right. >> and not long after that initial missing person report was filed at the police department, the officer called the family back to say that kevin had been spotted not far from his home. >> one of the officers stopped at a cash -- from were morgan and kevin lived and the only check catching place was familiar with kevin and he saw across the street. so that landed some credibility that kevin was in the area. >> he was close to home sending texts to his wife and mother, just refusing to see or speak to his family. and he did finally respond to his father. >> i just need time away. >> and kevin sister received this message. >> he's says, i'm fine, worried about morgan, she's the one you

should be worried about. >> but morgan, it appeared, was doing just fine. the couple owned a landscaping business. and monday morning, morgan showed up to meet the mundane cruz and said she was now in charge. employee -- said that the garage was spotless. >> there is always oil spots on the floor, this time you could eat off this floor. >> his landscaping jobs, he noticed morgan, the bosses wife, flirting with a 21-year- old employee named steve chappelle. >> she said steve knows what color underwear i have on, he said yeah pink and black stripes. right off the bat. >> steve's their steve is answering her phone. >> why was this kid who mowed

lawns and it was barely old enough to buy beer suddenly acting like the new man in charge? kevin's sister michelle remembered him as a quiet, unassuming young guy who had done some work on her yard just weeks earlier. >> this kid steve could not have been more polite to us. >> so what would kevin think now of his employee spending the workday at the pool with his wife and kids as michelle observed when she took a drive- by? >> i drove by her development and she was sitting by the pool with steve. >> you see steve sitting with her and think what? >> i thought morgan was having

another affair. >> it was no secret among the people who knew the couple that morgan has strayed before. >> could kevin suspect that morgan was at it again? and was that the final straw? no way to know, he's still was not taking calls. and then five days after he disappeared, kevin finally had something to say to everyone who knew him, in the most public way possible. he posted an update on facebook. status, wants to be left alone. >> he wants to be left alone. some of his friends backed off then. his friends were also looking for kevin, and after the facebook thing came up there like, this is another morgan and kevin fight. >> maybe he just didn't have a breakdown, or maybe he had enough, needed a vacation for himself. >> but to kevin's immediate family this facebook update was far from reassuring. to them, it was an ominous red flag. >> every other update kevin had put up their had come from his cell phone. because it shows a little cell phone. this one came from a computer. >> what's seems so odd, the family knew that he did everything on his cell. what is more, the wording in the text messages he had been sending, just didn't sound like kevin. for example, michelle wondered, when did he start calling her sister? >> in the pit of my stomach, i just knew something bad had happened to kevin. >> and if the cops would not

investigate, the family decided it was time to do some detective work themselves. >> we and the white new boyfriend are leaving. >> coming up. why would it take to alert the police? >> things were just not adding up -- to another questions for. you >> when dateline continues. or. you >> when dateline continues.

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hoda kotb: it was a thursday afternoon, summer 2010, and a violent summer rainstorm had barreled through the town's wringing the outskirts of philadelphia, >> it was a thursday afternoon,

summer 2010. and a violent summer rainstorm had barreled through the towns on the outskirts of philadelphia, bringing down trees and power lines. almost a week had gone by since kevin mengel left his wife and kids. >> people gathered at my mom's house. everybody sat there waiting. >> kevin's parents and siblings had not spoken with him, heard his voice that is. the only communication he was making was on facebook and through text messages. >> i think i may have said in there, call me are one of the family members. and he said, i am speaking to a family member. i am speaking to my wife, and that should be enough for everybody. >> but it was not enough. because now a bizarre and horrifying thought had begun to take root and grow. the mengel family suspected that all those messages were not coming from kevin at all. >> i left another message for him saying, can you just tell me the name of the street that

we grew up on? just tell me that, and i will leave you alone? >> the police and michelin didn't even consider kevin a missing person. but now, the family begged them to take another look. >> we went back to the police again and pleaded. we try to think of anything. the kids are home alone. she's not there. anything that we could do to get them to go over there. >> detective maurer agreed to stop by the apartment and talk to morgan. >> she seemed genuine, like she wanted to help me. >> morgan invited the detective in and told him the same story. kevin had walked out on her and the kids. and she had proof. text messages in her own phone from kevin, breaking it off. >> she had received a message from kevin that he was leaving and she showed me these text message exchanges. something to the effect of, are you kidding me? he said no, i'm done, i can't do this anymore. >> the detective also spoke with steve shappell, kevin's young employee, who had been hanging around the apartment complex with morgan and the kids. >> he just seemed like a kid. a young kid.

he was 21 years old. >> and morgan scoffed at the idea that they were anything more than friends. >> she laughed and said no, i'm a married mother of three. i'm 34 and he's 21. that's absurd. there's no affair. >> absurd is precisely what friends mike and noelle who would have said had they heard that. they knew firsthand that morgan had a long history of cheating. sometimes even with kevin's closest friends. >> she would tell me how they would have sex in her and kevin's bed. when he would go out. how they would have sex in the cars, the business cars. >> i said to myself, you know, she is not right. there is something wrong with her. >> and kevin's family? by now, they were ashore morgan and the young landscaper were up to something. michelle confronted morgan directly. >> i said, i'm not okay with this. he just disappeared. i don't believe you. i don't. >> adding to their worry, they

say morgan had not let them see the three kids since kevin disappeared. and they worried she might leave town. they asked the detective if he would do surveillance on the apartment, but he said no. >> i said, based on the fact that we had a witness that saw -- the fact that i now know that morgan and kevin have a troubled relationship. i thought that maybe kevin was really just fed up and had enough of morgan and left. >> so the mengel took their investigation into their own hands. brother chris decided to stake out the apartment overnight. he brought a video camera with him. >> what's that? >> early friday morning he filmed steve shappell coming and going as if he now live. they're taking kevin's place. and what was strange, it looks as though steve was packing up morgan's truck. >> they're getting in the trunk there. >> to chris, it sure looked like morgan and steve were getting ready for. something >> yes, it's a bunch of crap

with them. morgan has a bunch of stuff too. >> he frantically called the police looking for detective maurer. >> i'm afraid his wife and the new boyfriend are making a new a move right. now you're leaving. they're living. >> only, they didn't go far. chris follow them as they drove over to landscaping business. it turns out the detective was already there. he decided to go poke around, half expecting to run into kevin back at work. >> she gets out of the passenger side and walks by me. i walk over to shappell and he's still sitting in the passenger seat. and he's got a dead stare straight ahead. >> and there is something inside the truck that the detective thought was peculiar. >> the backseat was full of false. i could see a laundry basket, bags, backpacks. he says oh, morgan is going to do laundry across the street. >> i said well morgan has got a washer and dryer in her apartment. i saw yesterday. things are just aren't adding up. i said, would you mind coming back to the police station? i have a couple more questions

for you. >> and in that moment, as a detective turned his back on steve, something unexpected happened. something chris mengel, still filming, caught on video. >> yo, yo, yo. >> steve jumped in the driver seat. pulled out of the lot. and sped away. >> that steve. >> morgan walked over and sits down on a step, puts her hands on her heads and says, oh my, maybe he did sue do something to kevin. >> morgan breaks her silence. what had she been hiding? coming up -- >> steve had said to me that he loved me and would do whatever it took to have me. >> when dateline continues. dat it's lying dormant, waiting... and could reactivate. shingles strikes as a painful, blistering rash that can last for weeks. and it could wake at any time. think you're not at risk for shingles? it's time to wake up. because shingles could wake up in you.

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presents lucky said the withdrawal was necessary to spare soldiers lives. former new york congressman, george santos, filed a civil lawsuit against jimmy kimmel on saturday. he accused the late night tv host of using fake names to request cameo videos from the former lawmaker and missing them on his shelf. now, back to dateline. on his . now, back to dateline. kevin mengel's family had not seen him for days. and fearing the worst, they reported him missing to police. >> welcome back to dateline. i'm craig melvin. kevin mengel family hadn't seen him for days. at first, investigators believe that he simply left his wife. but then, there was a very strange incident and suspicions where raged. this case was about to heat up. once again, here's hoda kotb with "toxic". >> it sounds so hokey, but three months before i had a terrible nightmare that

something terrible happened to kevin, and that kevin was hurt, and i woke up crying. >> michelle was now a note waking nightmare. her brother kevin had been missing for a week, and the young man who happen to be having an affair with her sister in law had just fled from police. >> why did he just steal her pick up truck and flee when i asked him to come to the police station? >> the situation suddenly looked much worse than detective david mae or had thought. he brought her back to the station and saw his good friend david said lack. -- we had no idea that was gonna turn out the way that it did. >> the first priority was to find steve chappelle who is now on the run. they tried tracking his cell which was in the truck, but it was turned off. but morgan's phone was in there and it was turned on. she gave detectives permission

to track. it >> so we focused our efforts on morgan's telephone. >> meanwhile, morgan was downstairs in the interviewer who. as detectives try to find out where he was. >> do you think steve hurt kevin? >> i don't know but by his reaction today. >> he takes your truck without your permission and -- in my terms -- flees the scene? >> although morgan had previously denied the affair with steve, she was now telling the detectives they were having a relationship. a result, she said, of an unfulfilling marriage. >> it was just a bad marriage. >> okay tell us. >> really bad marriage. the yelling, the screaming, the i can't ever do anything right. >> so tell us about your

affair. how did streaky treat you? >> talk to me like i was a human being with feelings. paid attention to me. >> and she repeated yet again how kevin had walked out on her one week earlier. >> he was leaving, he wanted a fresh start. >> and did you respond to him? >> i said are you kidding me? he told me he was not kidding and to tell the children i love them. >> now i have to ask, i saw a bunch of clothes in the back of the truck. who did they belong to? >> steve. he said he was taking his stuff, his clothes that he had accumulated at my house. >> he's been staying there? there >> are a few nights. yes. >>? did you ever think that maybe kevin would come home and steve would be there it would be an issue? >> no, i hadn't thought about that. >> and i said, if i get in a fight with my wife, i would say no one's moving into my house. >> as a husband, as just a sensible person, that, to me.

>> is poor judgment. >> poor judgment and a bad marriage was all kevin's wife would admit to. but the family knew that morgan had a history of deception, a strange one that went back many years. >> there is something that is innocent looking at her face that you just believed her, whatever she said you believed her. >> one of her biggest lies, they say, was back when morgan got pregnant before the couple was married, and refused to tell the truth about it. >> we were looking at her saying, your pregnant. and she said i am not pregnant. >> she would wear to girdles at a time and have the sweaters and i would say to her, morgan, did you tell kevin? >> she would say no i'm on birth control, and it's causing my stomach to swell. >> and when the baby was born, kevin was in shock. >> we got a phone call the next day for my brother kevin hysterically crying, telling me that i'm in aunt. >> was he crying tears of joy? >> i don't think so at that time. i think he was so scared. and it caused the first real fight between my brother and i because i was so very disgusted

by morgan. >> so when kevin went missing, the family had been convinced from day one that morgan was hiding something. and now, the detective was too. after hours in the interrogation room, she gave the first hint that she knew more than she was saying about her young boyfriend steve. >> steve had said to me that he loved me and would do whatever it took to have me. and then last night he said he had an uneasy feeling. he apologized to me, and said it was his fault. i asked him, what was his fault? and the only response i got was, the entire situation. >> you think steve hurt? >> at this point yeah i do. >> morgan asked for a cigarette break. detective power went outside with her. the detective wanted to keep the conversation going, hoping

she would reveal something. and did she ever. >> it's still extremely hot, there is no conditioning in the building because of that thunderstorm. and she says, steve told me that he hit kevin in the back of the head with a short shovel. we run back in and i took the recording back on at the point. >> morgan you just told me something would you mind repeating that? >> steve hit kevin in the back of the head with a shovel. >> here was morgan laying the blame on steve. telling police he had attacked and killed kevin at the landscaping garage on the day that he supposedly left her in the kids. the detective was stunned. that earlier citing of kevin alive in town, had been a mistake? how long had she been lying to the police? >> i'm floored and i think, why didn't you tell me? this when your boyfriend tell you that he hit your husband in the back of the head with a shovel, you call the police.

>> are you trying to protect steve? >> not at this point. >> morgan said that steve had only just reveal to her what he had done. but the detective suspected that he wasn't getting the full story. hoping to trip her up, he asked her to write a timeline of effects on the night kevin disappeared. >> we are going to write it down? >> yes. >> most of which he wrote stuck to the story, but this, was a strange detail. >> she writes snapple on one of her statements. i asked, what is that bill mean? we >> coming up, a new revelation that single word morgan had written involved a deadly surprise. when dateline continues. rprise when dateline continues. reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. i'm lowering my risk. adults lost up to 14 pounds.

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hoda kotb: the first break in the case of missing husband, ask your eczema specialist kevin mengel, had come out of the blue. morgan, the wife, under questioning by police revealed that her lover, steve, had killed her husband >> the first break in case of missing husband kevin mengel come out of the blue. morgan, the wife, under questioning by police, revealed that her lover, steve, had killed her husband and the landscaping garage. she was saying steve had done the d to work earlier and only admitted to her later. she hid the secret out of fear. >> i don't know if he was going to whack me upside the back of the head with a shovel, if i did, and you guys showed up, and he flipped out. >> the man you're having a relationship with tells you that he hit your husband, the father of your children, in the back of the head with a shovel, and you don't tell me that information. >> i personally feel like you had some role in this. >> i had no role in this.

>> but detective maller did not believe her. he looked over the timeline puzzling over that one word, snapple. why did she write that down? the detective took a break, one upstairs to talk to his partner sedlak. >> and it was sort of like a mental slip, and i asked him if he-minded if i had a shot. i wanted a chance to talk to her myself. >> and so the detective started to play good cop, bad cop, with morgan. >> i want to hear everything, and you better start at the beginning, because the games over. >> and now morgan was about to offer a new piece to the puzzle, a truly shocking one. it had started as a joke, she said, the two lovers imagining kevin out of the picture. >> joking around taking kevin out.

>> what would happen they wondered if, they put something in his favor? drink >> he put nicotine, straight nicotine, and the snapple he'd bought. >> following the recipe he found online, steve cooked up some chewing tobacco in to a toxic substance called liquid nicotine. he then slipped the poison into kevin snapple. >> and then who handed the sample to your husband? >> it was on the truck, i did. did you say anything to your husband, that drinks for? you >> know the rest of us don't drink snapple. >> okay and then what? >> i left and got my kids off

to school. >> but morgan insisted she never expected any real harm to come to kevin. never expected steve would take it as far as he did. and besides, it was not the poison that killed kevin, but the blows to the head which steve had done alone inside the landscaping garage. >> i wasn't being serious. apparently it turned into a serious conversation. on his. and and yes, i did hand kevin snapple bottle with nicotine in it. after that, i was not involved in it. you guys killed someone and you expect me to believe that you didn't talk about it? >> no i didn't want to talk about it. i looked at my kids and felt terrible. >> so terrible that you made up text messages to his family members about him calling you win. it was steve, she said who bag sent messages to his family pretending kevin cawas alive. and steve, and steve alone, who had buried kevin in some woods a few towns over. towns over. for evidence, he says, she didn't look like someone facing >> the interrogation had turned deadly serious, but the detectives morgan's demeanor o was odd. when detective asked if he could take pictures for evidence, he said she didn't

look like she was facing a potential charge of murder. >> and while i'm taking these pictures, she's actually smiling for the camera, which is weird. >> and in the middle of his bad cop interrogation, detective sedlak was said it was almost as if she was flirting with him. >> my questioning was not nice by any means and i just cannot believe she was smiling and looking up at me. the detective thought they had enough. they issued a warrant for steve chappelle who was still on the run. and more again. >> we hand cuffed her inside of the interview room and told her she was under arrest for the murder of kevin mengel ross jr.. what >> they sent a police officer to speak to kevin's father. >> they said, we believe you son has been murdered.

it was, not easy to listen to. >> kevin's three children were spending the day with his sister michelle when she learned that kevin was not coming back. >> kevin's kids came up and they started hugging me and saying, what's wrong? i think they knew. >> michel had known all along, she says, in her gut, that kevin was dead. but how it happened, michelle could not believe what police were telling them. she remembered steve chappelle as that scrawny, unassuming guy who worked for kevin mowing lawns. in fact, he had done some work on michel's lawn some weeks earlier. michelle felt badly when he told her that he just had his wisdom teeth out. >> i was so worried about him for the two days that he was there and, to think of what he did to my brother. >> and her sister-in-law, it

felt impossible to take that in. >> when i saw her mugshot, i didn't even recognize her. she just had a different look about her. she has been in my life for 15 years and i don't even know if she was. >> the next morning, detectives recovered kevin spotty buried in a shallow grave behind that high school, right where morgan said it would be. and the following day, steve chappelle was picked up nearly 2000 miles away in colorado. >> i still cannot imagine him doing it. i can imagine morgan doing it, i don't know but they were thinking. >> figuring out what they were thinking was now the job of the county prosecutor. and it would prove to be more complicated than expected. than. we >> morgan had pain pointed the finger at steve, but now he was back and about to tell a very different version of events. >> on the day of the murder she's texting him about the poison is not working fast enough. the can you just pick up a shovel?

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hoda kotb: morgan mengel and her young lover, steve shappell, were both sitting in jail for the murder of morgan's husband, kevin. >> morgan had -- rapid city

shelf for the murder of mark's husband. market had confessed to playing a small part of the crime, helping steve chappelle come up with a plan to spike her husband's snapple ice tea with poison. only, it was a joke, she said, that was taken too far. >> what were your first impressions of her? >> very good. the allegation compared to the person i was speaking to did not seem to fit. >> morgan's attorney jack mcmahon said the murder case against meghan was weak. she was not at the crime scene where kevin was killed and had no convincing motive for wanting her husband killed. >> she was way worse off with her husband's death rather than if he was alive. >> you think that if she had some musings about, i wish my husband wasn't around, i wish someone would take care of it. >> i think that morgan was someone who would walk around

with dynamite saying this to various people, and steve chappelle was someone who let that dynamite. but he is a cold blooded killer. >> a cold blooded killer? he hardly looked like one when police pick them up and denver and got him into the interrogation room. he was meek, his voice was quiet and shaking with fear. district attorney pat committee. >> he said that he was in love with this woman, he thought this was the way to get her forever. >> steve said morgan was not kidding when she came up with the plan to kill kevin. >> and steve said that after the murder, far from being scared, morgan was grateful. which is why the garage looked so clean when employees arrive

for work monday morning after's kevin so called we -- steps over her husband, gets a tarp, and tells steve to clean up the scene. >> so now stephen morgan are pointing fingers at each other as to who killed heaven. the da believed steve -- testify against morgan and charge morgan with premeditated murder, a mandatory life sentence. >> she used him as a pawn to held her actions. he held the shovel and morgan held the strings. >> so you think morgan was in charge of this operation. >> i hundred passes than believe that. she had a way with men, she just, it she has a way with men. and i think the same way she had my brother under her spell, she had this kid as well. >> and the da says it was morgan herself who had been sending those fake test messages to kevin's family after the murder.

not steve. cell phone tracking records proved it. >> she's texting kevin's family and assuring him that he's okay, he wants to be left alone. she is the most evil woman i've dealt with. >> morgan mengle went on trial in late trend in january 2012 a year and a half after kevin had been murdered. but it addition to steve shappell waiting in the wings to testify, the da had something else, something extremely rare in a murder trial. a play by play of the crime, courtesy of text messages between morgan and steve as it happened. >> we were like, holy smokes, there it is, it is right there. >> detectives had discovered the trove of messages during their interrogation when they pulled morgan's phone records looking for steve. >> we knew the exact time of death, we knew how it happened, so we were floored. >> the texts are chilling, four hours before the murder, morgan

text steve, we ready? she types. steve responds, yep, at the shop. now than a half hour before the murder, morgan asks steve about the poisoned snapple. is he drinking? it, yeah he kind of, we're just waiting for him to bend over, i have a shovel in my head, ha ha. morgan responds, nice babe. steve does not reply. morgan says, you backing out? >> there is a gap where nothing happens. then she gives him final taunt, you backing out? when she says that he says, it's done, get here now. >> those text messages don't even seen real. they don't seem real. >> as incriminating as those messages sounding, morgan's defense was ready to press her case in court saying that she was no murderous mastermind. >> i still don't think to this day that she had a fully formed

belief that steve was going to do this. >> but the defense never got a chance. a few days into the trial, a police officer said something on the stand. here's say that the with -- the judge sent everyone home. >> a missed trial at the low triangle murder case. >> for kevin's family, the delay was torture. more waiting for answers to questions they never wanted to ask. >> i wanted to know if he knew it was happening. i wanted to know if he begged. >> why did you want to know? >> kevin was so sweet, and kind. and i know we he must have been so, so scared. >> the story of those final moments could only be told by steve shappell. but even from jail as they awaited their fates, morgan was trying to keep him quiet. she wrote him a letter saying, she had given birth to his twins. >> so her game plan was, if he thinks we have kids together,

he's not gonna rat me out. ? and the she was -- i need you to do this for me so i can raise our children. >> except, of course, it was another lie, another manipulation. the prosecution and defense were back at the chester county courthouse for morgan mengel's retrial to testify, but then, another surprise. the day the testimony was meant to begin, morgan stopped the trial from happening and changed her plea. she admitted to first degree, premeditated murder. even her own attorney was stunned. >> i believe morgan saw the handwriting on the wall. she realizes that whatever actions she took, resulted in his death, and resulted in shappel killing him. >> steve was sentenced to 40, to 80 years. and morgan, life without

parole. for the mengel family who are raising kevin's children, there was finally some justice and knowing morgan would remain behind bars, forever. >> i want her to be in jail for the rest of her life. i want her to know that i will be there for when her daughter walks down the aisle. i'll be there when her daughter has a baby. i'll be there when her sons have meet their wives and graduate from high school. i will get to see all of that, and she's not, she's in hell. and she's going to live this way for the rest of her life. >> that's all for this issue of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. for watch. good morning. welcome to this sunday edition of morning joe: weekend. it was another fast-moving week of news. here are some of the