theres great sadness surrounding the story of travis forbes, unending sadness for kenias family. for the unknown other families who as many now suspect may have been victimized by his past behavior. and then from that darkest place came the indomitable lydia who forgave, who won, who told us "live your days inspired anew." er. his daughter was his life. craig melvin: it was a puzzle for police. why would a father drop off his daughter and disappear? i knew something wasn't right. craig melvin: then they found it, the diary he recorded in secret.

and the clues came pouring out. blood in the bushes. this was the hotspot. this was your crime scene. craig melvin: a stunner of a surveillance tape. jeff wilbert: a tarp, a rope. everything you might need for a murder. exactly. craig melvin: and what just may be-- the most sinister mother daughter conversation you've ever overheard. these are not the same people that the public thinks that they are. you realize how cold this family is. it's pretty twisted. very twisted. [music playing] hello, and welcome to "dateline." stephen moore was a champion speed skater who was fast on the track but slow to find direction in life.

that is, until he fell for kindergarten teacher kathleen dorsett. soon came a marriage, a career, and a baby. when stephen disappeared, detectives wondered if there was trouble in his seemingly normal life. but even they could not have imagined the sinister scheme at the heart of this case. here's andrea canning with "shattered bonds." [music playing] andrea canning: as a hot august night turned into day, a car burst into flames. the sound of popping tires woke up the neighbors on a quiet street near the jersey shore. no one knew how it happened or why. but when those questions were finally answered, a bigger mystery unraveled. [ominous music] only four miles from there but a world

away was a cozy cul-de-sac where the dorsett family lived. everyone knew the dorsetts. there was thomas, busy with his refrigeration business but not too busy to lend a hand, wife lesley, a school board member, and daughter kathleen, a kindergarten teacher. [children chattering] kathleen loved her work, loved her parents, and seemed happy nestled into the neighborhood where she grew up. but she longed for a family of her own. and then she met stephen moore. [music playing] could she have found someone more different? stephen grew up in southern california, chilling at the beach, taking things easy, according to his friend cam graham. never really held a job, but he always was working. he always would find something to do. andrea canning: stephen's mom evelyn says her son wasn't lazy, just laid back. evelyn moore: he got by, but he wasn't truly motivated.

[disco music] andrea canning: but if stephen was serious about anything, it was skating. [disco music] we'd go skating on the beach. andrea canning: his friend missy queen skated too but not like steven. he took the bronze at the national speed skating competition. he would encourage me to skate fast, and he'd be way ahead of me. [laughter] andrea canning: when he wasn't skating, he was happy to go wherever, whenever, like when his mother evelyn, a travel agent, invited him to see the world. he was 30 something, free, and he loved his mom. so why not? evelyn moore: he was adventurous. here i am on an elephant ride. andrea canning: what countries did you take him to? evelyn moore: oh, boy. well, we did most of asia. they can hear you. steven moore: every smile is beautiful. evelyn moore: most of europe, south america. we had a lot of interesting experiences and had a lot of fun. [music playing]

andrea canning: eventually evelyn decided to retire to the jersey shore, and she wanted steven to come too. she needed his help, so her loyal son grabbed his skates and the rest of his stuff and jumped in his car. it was packed with every-- every single thing that he owned was in that car. it was funny. [music playing] andrea canning: he knocked around for a few years. and then one day in 2006 he met kathleen dorsett. cam graham: i knew she was a schoolteacher and that she lived in jersey and that he was in love with her. and it seemed like he found the one. [music playing] andrea canning: and if opposites attract, this match couldn't miss. kathleen dorsett seemed as grounded as it gets. she had her own house right across the street from her folks, and she was great with children, as friends noticed when steven brought her out to california. they came down and stayed i think a week with us. she seemed really nice. they took my kids out and took them shopping and bought some games for them and stuff like that.

andrea canning: steven started taking life a little more seriously. he got a job at the local honda dealership and did really well according to his co-worker and friend lloyd mccracken. oh, absolutely, absolutely. it's more. he was a team player. if you needed something, you can always depend on him. andrea canning: kathleen was eager to start a family of her own. so about a year after they met, she and steven got married. he couldn't believe this was happening. he was so happy. andrea canning: so there he was, steven moore, solid citizen with a steady job, the wife, and the nice in-laws across the street. lloyd mccracken: he's finally settling down, got a family. besides taking care of his mother, he had somebody else he could actually take care of. [music playing] andrea canning: and kids couldn't come fast enough. elizabeth was born about a year and a half after the wedding. do you remember the day she was born? oh, my god, yes. and i can remember standing at the nursery, and he stood there with his arms around me crying,

both of us, looking at her. andrea canning: kathleen seemed born to be a mother. and steven? evelyn moore: all of a sudden, it all came together for him. and his daughter made a man out of him. andrea canning: that should have been the beginning of the happy ending for steven and his wife kathleen. but in 2010, on a monday morning in august, steven just didn't show up for work. the guys at honda called kathleen. she hadn't seen him since early morning. i knew something was wrong because he's there before me. and when he didn't show up, i started calling his phone. but it kept on going to voicemail. andrea canning: his mom evelyn was taking a little vacation in maine. maybe he'd blown off work to join her. lloyd mccracken doubted it. when i finally got hold of her, i just said, do you know where your son is? she says no. and then she started panicking. i called him, and he didn't answer. [music playing] andrea canning: the honda folks waited a couple of hours, then called the police. al vega, then a detective, handled the missing persons

investigation. about noon on august 16, we received a call from the employer of steven expressing that he didn't show up for work. andrea canning: police learned steven had loaned evelyn his own car to make the long drive to maine because it was newer and safer. he was driving his mom's car until she got back. maybe he drove somewhere, and he's in a bad car crash, and no one knows where he's at. andrea canning: where was steven moore? as police followed his trail, they caught a tantalizing glimpse of where he had been. but the question remained, where did he go? detectives pieced together the timeline of steven's sudden disappearance, and they uncover the first clues. coming up, a text from kathleen. where are you? everyone is looking for you. craig melvin: a stop at the store. there was a transaction at a local quickchek. craig melvin: where would they lead? even investigators couldn't have imagined that. i've never had a case with so many twists and turns.

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and 24/7 sensitivity protection. i think it's a great product. it's going to help a lot of patients. i think it's a great pandrea canning: as the day wore on, steven's work friends grew more worried. a no-show at the dealership, he wasn't answering his phone. detectives looking for him needed a crash course in steven's life. they started with the family he had married into. there was kathleen, of course, dedicated teacher,

attentive mother, the kind who made her own baby food and fretted over every detail of her daughter's care. did you check into their standing in the community? i knew what and who they were to the fact that she was a teacher and where they resided. [piano music] andrea canning: detective jeff wilbert learned that steven's father-in-law thomas adored his granddaughter, and he got along with the neighbors too. we had stories of thomas shoveling sidewalks and driveways. and if there was a mechanical failure on an air conditioner or something like that, a simple phone call, and thomas would be there. andrea canning: and steven's mother-in-law lesley? nearly everyone saw her campaign ads when she ran for the school board. today, i wanted to introduce myself and tell you who i am and why i'm qualified to serve you. andrea canning: detectives also learned that the dorsetts often hosted pool parties and barbecues on this little block. steven's friend cam came for a visit. her parents lived on the corner right there.

so it was just like right across the street. [ominous music] andrea canning: but when investigators talk to kathleen and her parents about where steven might be, they weren't much help because, as it turns out, steven didn't live there anymore. for steven and kathleen, wedded bliss didn't last very long. detectives learned the marriage went downhill after the baby was born. kathleen, always driven, was a super mom. and friends say she made steven feel like he couldn't do anything right. he wasn't holding the baby right. he wasn't changing the diapers right. he wasn't putting her down for naps at the right time. just very protective of the child, which is sometimes-- mothers are like that at the beginning. andrea canning: so in love with her baby, friends told police how kathleen hovered over her care. so i was like, hey, it's the hormones and everything going on with her, and blah, blah, blah.

just relax, and just go with it a little bit, and see what happens. [ominous music] andrea canning: but stephen complained it didn't get better. she wasn't showing him any love anymore and no-- the intimacy-- everything was gone. [suspenseful music] andrea canning: and there was another problem for stephen. the cozy life across the street from the in-laws had gotten a little too cozy. police learned that the doting grandparents couldn't stay away. they would just pop in unannounced, not even knock, just walk in the house at any time. he just felt that was kind of weird. [ominous music] andrea canning: investigators learned that stephen felt so smothered that, when elizabeth was 10 months old, he walked out on his wife and in-laws and moved back in with his mom. the divorce became final just a few months before stephen disappeared. cam had to wonder, maybe stephen just needed to get away. it did cross my mind when you're going through this thing, sometimes

you just want to disappear for a little bit and not talk to anybody and get your thoughts together and find out exactly what's going on. andrea canning: but that's not the vibe investigators were getting. his mother said stephen didn't sound like he wanted to get away. in fact, he sounded pretty happy the night before he disappeared. he was enjoying an overnight visit with 20-month-old elizabeth. evelyn moore: he called me. he said, we're in our jammies and we're watching cartoons. and i said, sleep tight. i'll talk to you tomorrow. [ominous music] andrea canning: the next morning, he left the baby with kathleen. stephen showed up to her house around 7:45 am with their daughter. he drops them off. andrea canning: kathleen told investigators she hadn't heard from him since, even when she sent him a text. what was the text message she sent to him? she showed me her phone, and it said, where are you? everyone is looking for you. andrea canning: so investigators ran through all the possibilities. did he have a girlfriend? no, not that we were aware of. was he into anything bad?

was he into drugs, anything that would get him into trouble? no, not that we're aware of. financial issues? no. andrea canning: but when police looked at his checking account, it showed something, two debit charges posted on monday afternoon. i found out that there was a transaction at a local quickchek on that date for like $9. and then there was another transaction later on that day at a chipotle in eatontown, which is in the same town that he works in. this is after he dropped off his daughter at kathleen's. correct, correct. andrea canning: so whatever happened to stephen could well have happened later on monday. another day went by, no stephen. then, in the early morning hours of wednesday, august 18, a 9-1-1 call came into dispatch. [ominous music] andrea canning: a car fire had erupted in a lonely section of long branch, new jersey, not far from the dorsett's tidy, peaceful, little street.

the question, where was stephen moore was about to be answered. craig melvin: coming up-- i'm like, pfft, gosh, here we go. i had that intuition, it's going to be bad. and it was. craig melvin: a whole new mystery begins as police uncover a secret diary. it's one of those few homicide cases that, when you really want to get into that victim's head and know exactly what's going on, steven left it for us. craig melvin: a recording by steven himself-- when "dateline" continues.

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so clearly you. andrea canning: the call went out just after 4:00 in the morning. a car had erupted in flames in long branch, new jersey. by the time detective al vega arrived on the scene, he'd already gotten word. the car was evelyn moore's, the same one her son steven was driving when he disappeared. detective vega had a bad feeling. i'm like, pfft, gosh, here we go. i knew-- i had that intuition, it was going to be bad. and then it was. during fire suppression efforts, they found unidentifiable human remains in a trunk. [piano music] andrea canning: it was the body of a man burned beyond recognition. but investigators could make out a tattoo that was identical to stephen's.

the missing persons case had just taken a tragic turn. stephen moore, devoted father and loving son, was dead. [traffic noise] andrea canning: detective jeff wilbert with the monmouth county prosecutor's office took charge. the vehicle was parked here, and this is when we picked up the homicide investigation. and then it took on a whole new direction. it did. did you have any theories as to what might have happened? no, at that point in time, we did not. andrea canning: one thing was clear, whoever torched the car had started with the trunk where the victim was. jeff wilbert: the rear bumper just completely melted off the rear of the vehicle. could you tell how the fire was started? once you opened the trunk and once the body was removed, there definitely was an obvious odor of gasoline. [gong] andrea canning: now that he had gone from missing person to murder victim, investigators had to look at everything in steven's life. we spent some time looking into steven's background.

we learned that stephen was a competitive speed skater. andrea canning: but his life as a skater turned up nothing. how was he doing at work? we learned that he was doing really well at work. andrea canning: so investigators took a closer look at steven's brief marriage to kathleen and learned how bad it really got. friends like missy queen thought kathleen had gone mad with motherhood, like the time steven tried to feed elizabeth a smidgen of sauerkraut. she just screamed at him. there's that-- you don't feed a baby sauerkraut. that's not baby food. andrea canning: steven's divorce attorney, veronica davis, said she'd never seen anything like it. she had a list. so she gave him a schedule, a written schedule, an outline. and she wanted him to fill in the blanks. what did she eat today? when did she nap? when did she go to the bathroom? how long did she sleep? and she would call. even if he had her for three hours,

she would call four times. what is she doing? it was very disconcerting. it was dysfunctional. andrea canning: the dysfunction was seeping into steven's life at work. lloyd mccracken told police how kathleen would bring the baby over, it seemed, just to humiliate him in front of his co-workers. i think it was more out of spite. she would bring the baby in, and he would try to pick up the baby or hold the baby. and she would just take the baby out of his arms, and then it became into a yelling match. and then she would storm out. because i just feel like that's all she wanted out of me was just the baby. he was basically a sperm donor, basically. yeah, that's how he felt. [music playing] andrea canning: investigators learned that, even though the divorce was final, the custody battle was never ending. steven fought for more time with his daughter. but to his mom, it looked like an uphill battle. he couldn't afford the endless litigation. her parents had more money than i did to help him. and so he didn't stand a chance.

andrea canning: but his divorce attorney saw him toughen up, deciding when enough was enough. she was issuing all these edicts, and that's when he came to me, panicked. and we did go into court immediately. andrea canning: so steven was pushing back. and investigators looking at this case took note. steven's friends and family believe kathleen thought she had married a passive, go-along guy but ended up with a man who wouldn't roll over. he had overnight visits and stuff like that, and know that she did not like that at all because she could not control what was happening. [ominous music] andrea canning: detective wilbert heard plenty about the custody battle from friends and family but then discovered evidence that was both powerful and unique. steven had kept an audio diary. he was documenting all the issues that were going on between he and kathleen.

andrea canning: stephen made this recording about three weeks before his murder. it's one of those few homicide cases that, when you really want to get into that victim's head and know exactly what's going on, steven left it for us. [ominous music] andrea canning: investigators also heard stevens standing up for his rights. he recorded one exchange with kathleen as he was picking up the baby for a short visit. kathleen was planning to take elizabeth for a weekend trip out of state against his wishes.

[baby cooing] andrea canning: investigators could hear kathleen digging at steven in front of their daughter. and what it was was ugly and bitter. but a lot of custody fights are like that, and they don't end in murder. the mystery of who killed steven moore was still a puzzle, but the pieces were about to come together. craig melvin: coming up-- she offered us food, a drink. craig melvin: police pay another visit to kathleen. i remember eating grapes with her in her kitchen,

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i'm jessica layton. boeing's highly anticipated starliner flight carrying astronauts was abruptly halted minutes before lift off this weekend. the mission was bound for the international space station but it was pause due to computer issues. we are tracking a historic presidential election in mexico where they are expected to elect the first woman president. two female candidates are leading in the polls including the front runner and mayor of mexico city. back to dateline. dateline.

i'm craig melvin. police investigating the murder of stephen moore had uncovered a cache of clues, recordings stephen made detailing his combative relationship with ex-wife kathleen. but investigators had no physical evidence pointing to stephen's killer, at least not yet. a gruesome discovery was about to give detectives their first big break. back to andrea canning with "shattered bonds." [whoosh] andrea canning: kathleen dorsett and stephen moore seemed to be at war over custody of their baby. so detectives were surprised to learn that the couple had actually agreed on something a couple of months before stephen's disappearance. they were planning a move together. were they moving soon? they were. she said construction was ahead of schedule and that they planned on moving in the next couple of weeks. andrea canning: the plan came together after kathleen announced she was taking the baby and moving with her parents to florida.

instead of fighting it, stephen worked with his attorney to iron out an agreement. the dorsetts could take elizabeth to florida if they took stephen too. they would get him an apartment, and he would only have to pay $600 a month towards the rent and that it would be in close proximity to where they lived and that they would actually give him financial support until he got a job. with this agreement, did stephen think that things were turning around? - yeah. andrea canning: was he ok with it? yeah, he was hopeful. he was willing to move to florida. andrea canning: stephen's friend cam thought it was a bad idea. i really told him no, no, don't do it. i just wouldn't trust them. andrea canning: and in fact, investigators learned the florida plan wasn't solving the problems between kathleen and stephen. his friends said kathleen was criticizing him more than ever. so stephen stopped answering his phone so he could save kathleen's voicemails, just keeping a record in case he needed it someday.

investigators heard the hostile relationship reaching the boiling point. stephen left it for us. he left it for the investigative team. even leading up 10 days prior to his death, he had his voice recording diary going. and it was very helpful. andrea canning: as police consider the awful problems between kathleen and stephen, another key piece of information came to light. those debit charges that hit stephen's account after he dropped the baby off? well, another check with the bank revealed that stephen made those charges a few days before. here he is at a chipotle a few days before he disappeared. that charge he made just didn't show up until monday. jeff wilbert: once we realized it brought us back to the fact that stephen was last seen alive in front of kathleen dorsett's house that monday morning. [music playing] andrea canning: so with all that information, investigators made a beeline back to kathleen dorsett

and that cozy cul-de-sac. detective wilbert began with an update from the medical examiner. i said, the medical examiner ruled it as a homicide, traumatic, blunt force trauma was the cause. and i said, do you have any questions? and she said, how am i supposed to respond to this? andrea canning: so calm. it still wasn't clear where this line of questioning would lead until another investigator pulled detective wilbert aside. he'd been talking to the neighbors, and they had a story to tell. on the morning of august 16, they were both woke from their sleep after hearing screams. and in fact, one of the neighbors actually looked out her window, her bedroom window, and she saw kathleen towards the back of the house. and the neighbor, she inquired, are you ok? what's going on? and kathleen said, close the window.

andrea canning: screams on the morning stephen disappeared. later, kathleen told the neighbors that it was the dog having a seizure. detective wilbert thought he might be standing at a crime scene. he asked kathleen if they could search her property. without hesitation, she said, no, that's fine. andrea canning: the detective was struck by her nonchalant response but still wasted no time in telling his investigator-- jeff wilbert: make sure the the entire crime scene unit gets here as quick as possible. and while we were waiting for the crime scene unit to show up, she offered us food, a drink, the bathroom. i remember eating grapes with her in her kitchen, like everything was normal. andrea canning: kathleen also talked about her gardening efforts. they put in some new mulch to spruce up the yard for the upcoming open house, she said. it was odd, and it was an area of interest. it seemed like she was just trying to make small talk. but when the crime scene investigators showed up, it was one of the first places they checked.

one of the forensic detectives put on protective gloves. he had put his hand into the mulch and, in fact, came up with with blood on the protective glove. andrea canning: not a few smatterings, lots of blood. and it tested human. police believe kathleen is involved in her ex-husband's murder, but a clue caught on camera will turn the spotlight on a new suspect. coming up, the ex-wife makes a trip to the station. - do you wish to-- - no. craig melvin: and then-- this is such a moment for you. it's a breaking moment. craig melvin: a stunner on surveillance tape. it looks like a tarp, a rope, a 4x4. everything you might need for a murder. yes, exactly. craig melvin: when "dateline" continues. [music playing] type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. ♪ ♪ i got the power of 3.

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andrea canning: some home improvement nature's bounty. had changed the landscape of the stephen moore murder investigation in ways no one saw coming. crime scene investigators found human blood around some new mulch at the home of kathleen dorsett. have a seat here. andrea canning: detective wilbert brought kathleen down to the station, and the chatty woman who had just been serving him grapes now refused to talk. mark lemieux was the prosecutor assigned to the case. he had the blood along with the reports of screaming the morning stephen disappeared and the bad history between kathleen and stephen. but he wanted to nail down the details of the case, so he let her leave the station. mark lemieux: we do not charge her yet.

and the reason for that is that we wanted to sit back and figure out was there more to this story. andrea canning: two days later, they made a decision. with police cameras rolling, the investigation team went back to kathleen's home. jeff wilbert: i remember walking up to the door, knocking on the door. thomas had answered it and invited me in. i told kathleen that she was under arrest for the murder of stephen moore. she was handcuffed, and she was quickly escorted from the residence. andrea canning: the neighbors watched flabbergasted as kathleen dorsett, teacher, devoted mother, and daughter of a nice respectable couple was arrested for the murder of stephen moore. her father, still standing in her house, was clearly devastated. who knows what triggered his next move? but very early the next morning, thomas dorsett drove to his attorney's office. [suspenseful music] jeff wilbert: he parked there, and it looked like he was taking a nap.

was he really taking a nap? jeff wilbert: no, when his attorney arrived shortly after 8:00 am, he pulled in. he parked his vehicle next to thomas dorsett's vehicle. and then all of a sudden, panic set in. andrea canning: thomas wasn't sleeping. jeff wilbert: thomas had a tube hooked to a 30-pound refrigerant canister, and the tube was in his mouth. andrea canning: police busted through his truck window and pulled him out. he was rushed to the hospital in a coma. suicide attempt? that's what it was. andrea canning: his daughter's arrest may have pushed him over the edge. but police suspected something other than despair caused thomas to try to kill himself, like maybe guilt. detective wilbert remembers something thomas did when they arrived to arrest his daughter. jeff wilbert: as soon as we entered into the residence, thomas dorsett removed his wallet from his back pocket as if he was going to turn it over like-- as if he was-- jeff wilbert: exactly, like let me get rid of my property right now. he was going to get arrested was what it looked like. jeff wilbert: right. andrea canning: but more than anything, the prosecutor

focused on the cause of steven's death, blunt force trauma and strangulation. what was the significance of the injuries? the significance of that led us to clearly know that this was something more than just kathleen being involved. andrea canning: but police still didn't have any hard evidence to connect thomas to the crime until-- there was a phone call that came in from a restaurant owner in long branch. andrea canning: this restaurant owner had some videotape, he said, that might be of interest to the investigators. we left the scene where thomas tried to commit suicide, and we immediately responded to the restaurant in long branch. andrea canning: there they found this security video recorded monday, august 16, the morning of steven moore's disappearance. it shows two cars arriving, one after another. the first car grabbed their attention. it was evelyn moore's, the car steven was driving before his death. and there, behind the wheel-- jeff wilbert: we saw thomas dorsett driving

evelyn moore's vehicle and kathleen dorsett following thomas in her vehicle. this is such a moment for you. it's a breaking moment. andrea canning: evelyn moore's car? what was thomas doing with it? the investigators were sure, at the moment the video was taken, steven's body had to be in the trunk of that car. an hour later, thomas returned to the dumpster, this time in his white van. it got better. thomas dorsett pulls back into that parking lot area. thomas is seen wearing protective gloves and discarding a number of items into the dumpster, to include a garbage can filled with items. it looks like a tarp, a rope, a 4x4. everything you might need for a murder. yes, exactly. andrea canning: that put thomas, as well as kathleen, in the thick of the crime. so when he woke up from that coma, thomas dorsett was transferred to the monmouth county jail. what do you think happened that morning

in that driveway? mark lemieux: i think that on monday morning a plan was made for kathleen to have steven to go down the driveway to go get some tools from a basement. and as he came down, thomas was standing behind a bush next to the driveway. and as he came down, he was struck right in the face. stephen was bleeding all over that driveway, bleeding into the bushes. and we know that thomas takes a rope that he throws out later, and he uses that rope to extinguish any ounce of life that stephen had left. andrea canning: with kathleen and her father in jail, a court decided that kathleen's mother lesley wasn't a fit guardian. so grandma evelyn, steven's mother, got the baby. in the end, the investigators believed kathleen and thomas killed steven because they wanted him away from the baby

and out of their lives. if they had have ever made it to florida, did they have a backup plan for steven? someone that got close with kathleen after the murder had told her that one of their plans was to feed steven to the alligators down in florida. it's like it just keeps getting taken to a whole new level. exactly. andrea canning: it seemed like a slam dunk case. but as kathleen sat in jail awaiting trial, she didn't sound like a woman facing hard time. on the phone with her mother, she sounded oddly breezy, almost cheerful. just the beginning of a conversation that got stranger and stranger. there's another crime brewing, a whole new chapter in the tale of kathleen dorsett and her family. [ominous music] craig melvin: coming up--

an underhanded plot and an undercover sting. they wanted to make it look like some type of medication overdose. craig melvin: mother and daughter were in for a hit, just not the kind they were expecting, when "dateline" continues. (♪♪) (♪♪) try dietary supplements from voltaren, for healthy joints. if you have wet amd,

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so clearly you. andrea canning: four months after the death of stephen moore, kathleen dorsett and her father were in jail awaiting trial for his murder. given all that, you'd think kathleen would have been wallowing in despair while she was sitting in jail. that's not how she sounded when she called her mother. they talked about the weather. and the cats. and gossiped about a friend's kids. and they also talked about money. kathleen, an inmate, suddenly needed a lot of cash.

mother and daughter met in person after that. then came this cagey call. something was brewing. that someone was this man. i'm sami. i'm the guy kathleen dorsett hired to kill evelyn moore. andrea canning: evelyn moore, the grandmother who had custody of baby elizabeth. kathleen dorsett had set up that i would meet the mother at the target in ocean township. [ominous music] andrea canning: so on the appointed day, elizabeth's

grandmother, leslie dorsett, arrived at the target with an envelope of cash and evelyn moore's address, ready to put the hit on the other grandmother. there she is looking for sami. did she have the $1,000? she provided me a white envelope with $1,000 cash. they also provided me evelyn moore's address on that envelope. they wanted the murder to look like it was natural. andrea canning: natural. did they have any suggestions? poisoning. they told me that evelyn moore was a diabetic, and they wanted to make it look like she either died in her sleep, some type of medication overdose. but certainly, they didn't want a brutal murder where it would bring attention

coming back to them. you also had asked for a photo. was that provided? it was not. she said that kathleen dorsett did not tell her to bring the photo. andrea canning: so mother did as she was told. she got the picture of evelyn, got back in her car and headed out to mail the photo to the hit man. however-- this hit was never really going to happen, was it? - it was not. - why not? because i'm a detective from the monmouth county prosecutor's office. andrea canning: not hit man sami, but detective scott samus. it turns out kathleen's cellmate tipped him off that kathleen wanted to put a hit on evelyn. the cellmate said kathleen was so angry evelyn had custody, she wanted to have evelyn killed. so the cops were on to them from the start. lots of people don't like their mother-in-law, but murder? it was highly disturbing to know and see

what happened here. andrea canning: leslie was arrested with evelyn's picture in an envelope on the passenger seat. and now kathleen, already charged with murder, was also charged with attempted murder. how shocking was it? how did you even find out that this plan was in motion? evelyn moore: to kill me? jeff will tell you. i said, leslie's been arrested for a conspiracy to commit murder. and she said, on who? and i said, on you. leslie and kathleen had plotted to kill you. andrea canning: with the murder for hire plot revealed, the case against the dorsetts came together. so three years after steven was killed-- the dorsetts had a family reunion of sorts in monmouth county superior court. kathleen dorsett, the former school teacher, pleaded guilty to those charges of murder

and attempted murder. thomas dorsett, doting grandfather and good neighbor, pleaded guilty to murder and arson for hire. leslie dorsett, former school board member, pleaded guilty to second degree conspiracy to commit murder. the goal was to kill evelyn. andrea canning: kathleen got 58 years in prison. thomas got 45, and leslie was sentenced to seven years. she was released on parole after serving about half her time. thomas wrote a letter to "dateline" to say that steven's murder was not planned. it was, he wrote, the first fight of my life. and katie was not involved. he also wrote that he and kathleen took the pleas to save my wife's life. the crazy thing about this is that it all centered around a child. and she so desperately wanted to have this child. and that's what she never thought about. she didn't realize at the end of the day she was eliminating her own ability to be a mom. andrea canning: did it feel though

like kathleen was the ringleader of everything that happened in this family? absolutely, definitely. she was running the show. it was her world, and everybody else was just living in it. andrea canning: evelyn tried not to think about the dorsetts. she was grateful to the prosecution team who solved her son's murder and saved her life. and scott had my back, literally. [chuckles] what's your nickname for him? he's my hit man. [laughter] my own private hit man. andrea canning: and detective jeff wilbert had a special place in her heart. jeff, i couldn't love more if he was my son. that's really the way i feel. andrea canning: mostly, she wanted to give her youngest son the credit she felt he deserved. what do you tell your granddaughter about her father? what's the most important thing that she knows as she grows up? that he loved her. that he's in heaven, and he's looking down.

and he'll always be there, loving her. andrea canning: evelyn is gone now too. she died in 2021 at the age of 86. and elizabeth? she continued to live with family who wanted only the best for her, just as her father did before. steven moore: how are you doing, big girl? hi there. oh, daddy loves you. oh, daddy loves you. yes, he does. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. [music playing] ron javers: i just kept going into the jungle. >> i am craig melvin and this is dateline. >> i just kept going into