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tv   Dateline  MSNBC  August 24, 2024 12:00am-2:00am PDT

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recipient of presidential medal of freedom to get his thoughts of the press and donald trump when he was president. what was his advice to me? don't get in the mosh pit with him. the media has a job to do and should phobe focus on it and just do your work. good advice from phil donahue. thank you for hanging out with us. catch the nightcap most fridays and tomorrow and saturday. this has been quite a week. i love spending it with you. for now i am signing off. wishing you a good night from all of my colleagues across the networks of nbc news. i will see you at the end of monday ee you at the end of monday private yards, wealthy homes. and she had the worst possible luck in that he picked her. the neighborhood and everything a burglar wanted to find. private yards, wealthy homes-- >> she had the worst luck in
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that he picked her. >> yes. >> i would like to report a break-in. >> a mother home alone, cops raced to her front door as she walks into an ambush in her backyard. >> with officers all around her home. >> surreal, awful. >> but the killer caught red- handed starts pointing fingers. >> this is a guy who aspired to be a hit man. >> she was a target. >> detectives set out a trap. >> trying to play cat and mouse. >> you hold up a note that says are you wired? >> you hold your breath, the world kind of stop.
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you never think it's going to be you treat >> oh no. no, no. >> no, the young man is right. this doesn't happen to anyone. >> no, never. never thought i would have seen anything like this. >> not here, not in this neighborhood, in this house, but certainly not surely not at the moment when at least three policemen were outside the front door, and over the backyard wall not more than 30 feet away. >> we had to be told a few times just to get it in our heads what happened. >> what happened here in broad daylight under the very noses of the cops? with murder. long beach, california, a town that may have ntbeen cheated a
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little in the city pride department. >> a lot of people assume it is like la, but it's different. it has its own identity. >> different culturally? >> i think so. i think long beach is sort of its own beast. it's a little more working class. >> one of those '50s suburbs in search of a city everyone calls lap but long beach is a bronny city unto itself, half 1 million people, 52 square miles, a busy airport, a big university, an oceanfront, a long beach mama and it's share of wealth and poverty, and of course, crime. lots of work. >> never a shortage of work. >> tracy covered the police feed of the local telegram, they trusted her. so maybe that's why when one
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november morning-- >> in the midst of this press conference they came over to me and said, you need to go to bixby, now. and i was a little taken aback. >> taken aback because bixby was not a name you heard on the crime beat. >> it was very clear to me something major was going on. i got to the scene. >> the scene was in bixby knolls, quiet and affluent. leave it to beaver homes, with well-tended streets. crime is unheard of in bixby knolls, which is the way they like it here. maybe that's why as they grew up here or moved here they would rarely leave, like rachel kearns. >> everybody is friendly and always waving. you don't get that a lot in southern california. >> rachel still lives in the
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house she grew up in. >> we were kids all hours of the day. we didn't have to worry about anyone hurting us coming after us. it was a really safe neighborhood. >> but, then came that november morning when tracy raced over in her car. >> i had no idea what i was going to find, but i knew based on how i was told about it that it was going to be something, you know, very bad. >> and it was. >> i was barely out of my car before i saw the homicide lieutenant, homicide sergeant, two commanders, and obviously a bank of-- my thought was an officer had been shot and killed or an officer had shot someone. >> but no, not that. what really happened was far more stranger than that.
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it was 11:03 am. man: it's taking place at my neighbor's, which is the house just to west of me. >> it was a neighbor who it, like the start of a drug will shock movie rolling out in slow motion, 11:03 a.m. >> it's taking place at my neighbors' which is the house just to the west of us. >> one to the west of you? >> next-door neighbors. cops were there in minutes, and as they spoke with the 911 caller they heard and saw a white dog barking incessantly. >> it wasn't a very large dog, kind of fluffy, kind of yappy. >> a petite framed woman came to the window. bewildered, she finally opened the door. >> so, he's telling her they got a call from a neighbor they saw a prowler and would be okay if they looked in her backyard
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and looked around the house. and she had said that was fine. >> but, hold on the woman said to the police, let me grab the key, the gate is locked. >> she closes the front door, walks through the house and walks out the back door. >> three cups waited outside the front door for two more cops pulled in right here in the alley behind the house. and then to their surprise the prowler jumped over the wall practically into their arms. they searched him, found jewelry in his pocket and a taser and cell phone. and a knife with blood on it. the cups out front waited for the woman to return. 10 seconds, 20 seconds, the decision, to go in. they opened the door, looked through the house and what they saw was not just terrible, but a riddle, a deception, a piece of peer evil.
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coming up, what could have happened in that house? >> i didn't believe it. i thought it was a joke. >> until your father arrived with tears in his eyes? >> that's when i knew something was wrong. >> when "dateline" continues. . arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint pain. arexvy is number one in rsv vaccine shots. rsv? make it arexvy. air wick.
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keith morrison: it was a mild day, plus a fragrance boost button. that particular november 8th, california weather, not quite noon. and as usual, it was quiet in bixby knolls here in long beach-- quiet, and in that quiet, more menacing than anybody understood. as police, responding to a call about a prowler, waited outside the front door, neither they nor the half-awake homeowner sensed the jeopardy as she closed the door in their faces and went in search of a key for the gate to the yard. neither they nor the half-like neither they nor the half-like homeowners sensed as she closed the door in their faces and went in search of a key from the gate to the yard. seconds tick by, the dog
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barked, the woman didn't return, so the cops still went in, too late. >> just extraordinary. expect the victim's name-- lying quite dead just inside her back door they could clearly see the right red gash across her throat read how is it possible? the policemen were just outside her front door and more cops were in alert mode in the alley. the only apparent witness to the murder was lynn's little dog, zoe. horrified officers found her lying by lynn's side, her coach spattered red. at police headquarters cops like chris nelson heard the chatter. >> we were sitting in the office, and we used to have a police radio on listening to
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what's going on on the street. >> this was bad. >> we were down the hall from homicide, and we knew right away this turned into a callout where somebody got killed. >> now crisis mode, detective richard took the call to get there fast. >> your first thought at that time, you remember what it was? >> it was a burglary gone awry. >> did you have a sense of how the hell could we screw up like that? oh yes, there were lots of questions. this would be ugly. why did she go back in the house? why did the cops let her? why didn't they move in fast enough? how could they let the murder weapon right under their noses. >> that was really disturbing, and there were mistakes made.
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>> a prowler may have sneaked into her house, but she, the victim didn't seem to believe that. >> she had a little eskimo dog that barked at butterflies. but she was wrong. >> lynn's son charlie was a freshman in high school then. he was sitting in math class. somebody told him he was wanted in the principal's office. he thought he was in trouble, and when they told him-- >> i didn't believe it but i thought it was a joke. >> until your father arrived with tears in his eyes? >> that's when i knew something was wrong. >> manfred, or fred as most called him, came to take charlie home. >> how was your father? >> upset. he was definitely, he was crying. he couldn't drive. i didn't really have eyes for him in that moment really. >> you were just a mess.
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>> yeah. >> charlie couldn't believe what he was hearing. >> it didn't really set in really until i actually saw the house. then it all came crashing down. >> his home was a crime scene. >> the house was taped off and there are people going in and out of the house. a lot of neighbors around. like everything you see on tv. >> you never think it's going to be you. >> no good it's surreal. very much so. >> what does that loss feel like? >> yeah-- i cannot put it into words. it's tremendous. it was awful. i immediately call mark, and i am babbling on the phone. i can't even speak. >> charlie's uncle, lynn's brother. >> after the initial shock there is disbelief. then i
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burst into, not right away i was just stunned. >> here she is with her two older brothers, john and mark, but lynn was not like them. >> she was a tentative girl whereas my brother and i were very outgoing. >> their father died young, lynn often fought with her mother. >> codependent, love-hate, call it what you want. >> she got married, moved to california with the brand-new husband that didn't work out, and it pretty quickly. but then she went to a ballgame, dodgers versus somebody, and she found him, the right guy, her guy, fred schockner. it clicked. they had an intimate wedding
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off the coast of california, the captain did the honors, and they lived in that house in bixby knolls until after 11 years they had a son, who grew up to be charlie. as parents they encouraged him to try new things. >> there were the olympics, there was domestics, i turned to my parents and set i'm going to do that, and i think a month later i enrolled in gymnastics. it was a very supportive environment. >> and lynn doted on her only son. >> it might be trite to say this, but she loved him or than life himself. he was the center of her universe. >> after what happened mark flew out to california right away to comfort charlie and fred and to make funeral arrangements for his only sister, lynn. and at the very same time as if in another world altogether
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world devoted to the minutia of violent crime, tech third-- burglary gone bad. he could write a report and make the bad press go away, but no, richard was a troubled man. >> we know something is wrong, my partner and i think something is wrong. >> it was not a grief for the loss, it was like a smell, the kind that sticks in your nose, something off. coming up. one of the strangest things of all was the alleged killer himself, not your typical burglar. and this was not your typical burglary. >> i've never had one come up with a device used simply for
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keith morrison: young charlie was a lucky kid you grow up a gamechanger for my patients. in a place like bixby knolls. li young charlie was a lucky kid to grow up in a place like bixby knolls. >> tree-lined street, beautiful neighborhood. it's a wonderful place to grow up. i would ride my skateboard all around the block. i would take my dog with me. >> he was lucky to have lynn as a mother. >> safe, happy, welcome, loving -- just good. >> but now, lynn schockner was gone, killed in a burglary. charlie, just 14 and grief stricken was so angry at the police. >> you didn't do your job, how could it happen with you being right there? that's just negligence. >> this was a broad daylight
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murder. police officers just outside the front door when it happened. i can imagine the people would become upset in the neighborhood. a burglar had been there. and robbed of the house and killed a woman and the cops couldn't prevent it. >> right. i think the majority of the neighborhood was stunned and shocked by the violence and how does somebody in her own home die within a matter of seconds with officers all over her home? >> there was fear and of course anger. cops often tend to pull together in the face of a thing like that but in private, harsh judgments to the undercover cop chris nelson. >> i'm sorry just don't let in a situation like that, that's police 101. very minimum you go with her. >> what was the feeling with this? >> they [ bleep ] up.
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>> asking the tough questions usually, he now found himself answering them. i would think they would adopt a defensive stance at that point. the public should be, why did that happen? >> you are trying to defend the officers, and you are waiting for someone to bring you the key. they waited within a minute. they are yelling for her, can you come back, ma'am, hello, where are you? >> enough for lynn to surprise the burglar who stabbed her in the neck, grabbed her jewelry and ran into the arms of the police. that attack-- >> jewelry, things are thrown around, so things look in disarray. >> it looks like a standard
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daytime burglary done horribly bad when lynn encountered the robber, but one thing stood out like a bloody knife. >> i've worked in the burglary division, and have never had one that comes with a device used simply for killing. >> time to focus on that so- called burglar with the bloody knife caught in his pocket. 22-year-old nicholas harvey, and this was unusual. >> he didn't have a criminal background, he had never been in trouble with the law before. personable. he came across that way. he wanted to ingratiate himself with us and law enforcement. in his words he wanted to be a cough that cop at some point in his life. >> the personal trainer at his local gym. a big musclebound sort of character. from way up the coast.
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>> in other words, about 70 miles from the crime scene. but why would he commit a robbery so far from home? >> that is one of the flags that immediately came up. >> when detectives asked him to give an answer that frankly still didn't make sense. >> his initial story was i heard this was a good area. >> really? there was not a good area closer to home? then nick gave them another answer. >> he wanted to get out of his area. he worked at a local gym up there where he was a gym rat and did work with officers and -- it did not seem possible. >> they found jewelry in his pocket, turned out, it was fake. even though linda had lots of real diamonds right there to be
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taken along with other valuable items. >> if you're going to do a daytime burglary and kill someone and not make an effort to get the good stuff, he didn't. >> he was either the world's poorest burglary or burglary was not the point of his visit. detectives pushed hard, but >> he did not want to change his story. we went at it for hours. you walked out of there going this did not appear would seem to to be. >> no way to prove it until 70 miles up the coast a man picked up the phone. to call the police. coming up, a family feud. >> i wrote that letter. i signed the letter. i handed it to my sister and dared her to give it to him. >> what's that all about? when "dateline" continues. ne" . . new pantene miracle rescue deep conditioner,
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dude? dog food in the fridge? it's not dog food. it's freshpet. real meat. real veggies. real weird. he was bad luck anyway. we've always loved taking care of our home. but last year, grandpa here broke his arm. we realized some home maintenance jobs aren't worth the risk. that's when we called leaffilter to protect our gutters. leaffilter's patented filter technology keeps debris out of your gutters for good. they gave us a free inspection and we had the system installed that week. my only regret is not calling them sooner. now we can focus on what we really enjoy. join millions of satisfied homeowners. call 833 leaffilter today or visit leaffilter.com
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news update. independent robert f. kennedy jr. suspending his campaign and endorsing former president donald trump a move that admittedly made his wife quote uncomfortable. his siblings have criticized the move. the judge said taylor's death was triggered by the actions of her boyfriend firing at police and not a falsified search warrant. for now back to "dateline." detective richard didn't believe for a moment he was investigating a burglary gone bad. four all his suspicions, detective richard birdsall-- to
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say can you drive me down to long beach? >> he agreed. they met at a park and ride parking lot, and he drove nick's car. the driver said nick told him why he needed to go to long beach. >> local drug dealers out there, so he's coming down for that one reason. >> honestly he had no idea the agenda included murder, said the driver. >> you never knew he was coming down to take someone's life. >> of course the guy was probably lying, so they put him under arrest. anyway, his claim he thought he was driving a drug enforcer did not make sense. the notion that suburban housewife lynn schockner was tangled up with drug dealers that have been targeted for execution was frankly preposterous. lynn had been living a quiet life for 25 years, married to a man with a
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lot going for him. >> it was a wealthy man. >> not to mention all the family money he inherited. >> they were able to afford things that none of us growing up could possibly afford. we were blue collar working class people, and we didn't know many millionaires growing up [ laughter ] >> he bought her jewelry and that sort of thing? >> right out the gate they bought a very nice home in an exclusive suburb of long beach, so that was a big step up. >> mark remembers flying out to see lynn after she got married. >> she was dying to show off her home and show off her new life. >> lynn seemed happy said mark. >> she set out i think with
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special determination having had her first marriage not last. to make this one work and function. >> to make a complete family, a desire that only intensified once charlie came along. >> she wanted her son to be the best person he could be and would stop at nothing to make sure that he got that. >> around bixby knolls the schockner family work considered normal if upscale, certainly not the type to be targeted by drug dealers. mark for example loved his sister but found fred a little obnoxious. >> he was not shy about dropping hints about the extent . >> he lived across the country in georgia, but when he came to visit in long beach and they
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went out for dinner fred always managed to monopolize the conversation and somehow stick mark with the bill. >>, totally opinionated, absolutely self-involved. >> when he invited lynn and charlie to visit him in georgia- - >> i told my sister stay as long as she wanted calmly for old man at home. >> and on one of those visits mark told lynn exactly how he felt. >> i said how can you let someone run your life and forget about yourself? >> afterward he sat down and wrote many of the same things in a harshly worded letter to fred. >> i wrote that letter, i signed the letter, handed it to my sister, and i dared her to give it to him. >> did you think she actually would? >> i didn't know, but she did. >> that took guts. >> it did.
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it did. >> and frankly, mark was pleased when a few years later after a quarter century of marriage lynn told him they were splitting, and fred moved out of the house in bixby knolls. she changed somehow after your father left? >> she seemed more free, happier. more able to get excited. just interested in everything. and very lighthearted. >> but her happiness was short- lived. and when mark first heard she was murdered his mind went to a very dark place. could fred have had something to do with it? as much as he disliked fred he just couldn't see it. >> there were no connections in their personal life to this person who committed the crime. >> it seemed pretty clear fred had nothing to do with lynn's murder. besides, lynn changed the locks on the house after fred moved
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out. could it be someone she hired to install protection ended up coming back and killing her? she did have nice things they would have seen in a nice neighborhood. >> they had everything, private yards, wealthy homes-- >> and she had the worst possible luck and that he picked her. >> yes. >> another family came together in grief. and when he saw fred- - >> we hugged, traded condolences-- within five or 10 minutes-- he mentioned the letter. he said do you still believe that? i said no, that's water over the bridge. we need to get on with our family. we need to stick together.
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>> fred moved back into the family home. the rest of the family leaned on each other. around the neighborhood, people absorbed the news police had the driver, a possible accomplice in custody. neighbors wondered, were more people involved? >> there was concern there might be others who would come back to houses, homes, that they would be violent. >> that fear soon turned to anger when another bit of news swept through bixby knolls. the police let the driver go. coming up, detectives were convinced nick harvey didn't have a motive to commit murder, but maybe someone else did. >> my partner discovered there was a person i talked to a couple times before the murder. >> when "dateline" continues. e. arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients.
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those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint pain. arexvy is number one in rsv vaccine shots. rsv? make it arexvy.
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gum problems could be the start of a domino effect parodontax active gum repair breath freshener clinically proven to help reverse the 4 signs of early gum disease a toothpaste from parodontax, the gum experts. a toothpaste from parodontax, [melancholy music] keith morrison: ever since lynn schockner was murdered in her own home as police stood outside, was murdered in her own home as police stood outside criticism of the long beach police department had been intense, emotions raw. >> the officers were extremely
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upset. my understanding was one of the officers who was on the call had a nervous breakdown or you know, an episode like that afterward, because it was just too much for him. >> tech live richard birdsall knew that even as the investigation continued lynn's family was angry with the police. >> they were, they were upset like anybody would be. and the press. everybody was upset with us that we didn't do our jobs to protect someone's life. >> lynn's husband, fred, even threatened to sue long beach pd for not protecting his wife did detective-- arrested an alleged accomplice of the suspected killer and just as quickly released him, but that's exactly what birdsall did, released the man who admitted he had driven the killer to
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the crime scene, but the detective had a plan. >> we put an active feed on his phone. we have the dryer, driver, the killer. >> detective birdsall didn't believe nick harvey was a drug enforcer, so he helped by releasing the driver and tapping his phone he could uncover what was really going on. there was just one problem. after he was let go the driver didn't reach out to anyone. >> the only person he spoke to was nick harvey. >> the driver was not part of a larger win. he had nothing to do with lynn's murder. >> he was telling the truth? >> it turned out yes. >> did end did so they kept on digging into nick's background. and remember this was a guy with a clean record. he came off like a perfectly ordinary what young man.
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>> incredulous? >> it didn't fit him or his persona. he wouldn't think he would be capable of doing this. >> how did the family characterizing? >> he worked out a lot. he was on steroids. this didn't really wasn't a focus in life, he was a trainer, and that's it read not in trouble with the law. >> somehow he found plenty of trouble. police started to figure out how when they subpoenaed his phone records. >> my partner discovered there was a person, multiple times he talked to him right for the murder. >> how to find out if he was on
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it read step one to go back to nick harvey, lean on it a little bit. >> once he is arraigned, you are screwed, and his attorney is going to tell him to shut up >> they confronted nick again two days after lynn's murder. he reiterates almost exactly what he said before. keith morrison: which was that he killed lynn schockner because the burglary he tried to carry out >> we went at him one last time, he ready rates reiterates exactly what he had said before. >> the cops still didn't buy it. >> you need to take nick and responsibility. take care of nick now please. be truthful with us.
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we are not going to stop, nick. >> that's when the story started to change. >> i was hired to hit the house. i don't know why. i didn't ask. >> nick said he was hired to committed burglary, one depending on what could be stolen might prove profitable. >> what was in the house, plus $2500. >> he was hired to kill, and they knew it, because those phone records told a very different story that was not his, and finally nick harvey cracked. >> he said you guys are good. you got me. >> like that. >> then he cops out. >> yes, he said. frank jaramillo, el cubano, gave him $2500 up front and
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$2500 more when the job was done. why would a guy commit a murder for a measly five grand? but who was this el cubano he was hired to kill a woman in long beach? police didn't seem to think so. >> the detective was quick to assure me they had no suspicions of that. >> when "dateline" continues. ds of breath, i thought that's what getting older felt like. thank goodness... ...i called my cardiologist. i have attr-cm, a rare but serious disease... ...and getting diagnosed early... ...made a difference. if you have any of these warning signs, don't wait, ask your cardiologist about attr-cm today. (♪♪) let's clear the air, about air. unlike febreze, lysol air sanitizer
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keith morrison: the plan had been as simple as it was ugly. nick harvey, in exchange for just $5,000, was to kill a long beach housewife named lynn schockner-- stage it like a burglary, the plan had been as simple as it was ugly. nick harvey in exchange for just $5000 was to kill a long beach housewife named lynn schockner, stage it like a burglary, and get away clean. instead nick was in jail facing murder charges, and detectives were praying the part a conspiracy.
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nick had already told them he was hired by a man named frank jaramillo who went by el cubano . >> you wanted the job done-- >> nick met el cubano at a restaurant where he was paid half up front. >> what did he do with the money? >> i-- moved, so i had to buy a bunch of new bedroom stuff. >> he spent the $2500 on new furniture from a store, called the couch potato. but when the time came to earn the rest of his money to kill lynn, he said for a moment he got cold feet. >> truth be told when i got there, i didn't want to do it. that's when he went into something like fight or flight mode, he said, and he killed her. i was sitting actually back int the door-- [ bleep ] up part is
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when-- >> he went into fight or flight mode and killed and quickly ran into the house, grabbed some jewels to make it look like a burglary, but when he tried to escape he discovered to his horror the cops appeared to be waiting for him, so then listen to this great harvey had a question for the detectives. >> can i ask a question, how are you guys there so fast? >> there's people in the neighborhood that saw you get out of the car. >> and i saw the van. i guess that's when i said this has got to be a setup. >> that is he thought he was being doublecrossed by his friend, frank a.k.a. el cubano. that's why he decided to stick to the botched burglary story, he said that maybe he would
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just get second-degree murder, and once he got out of prison he was going to find frank. and-- the detectives played along of course, let nick dream up whatever conspiracy theory made him happy, but the requisitioned el cubano's phone records. they found something quite surprising. >> he had also talked with the husband, fred el cubano schockner. >> on the surface it did not make much sense. after all fred had been cooperative with the detectives from day one. and yes, he had moved out of the family house but told them the break was amicable. she was my best friend, he said. young charlie sought out detective birdsall and whispered an awful question. did my dad have something to do this? >> the detective was very quick
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to assure me that they had no suspicions of that, they don't think that would be something that was happening, and if they had thought that that they already would have looked into him. not to worry about that. >> is that what detectives really believed? well no. >> we have to say everybody was involved. >> but they didn't suspect it. >> afraid that fred would find out, stop talking to them, so charlie stayed at home with his father. his uncle mark was allowed, even encouraged to believe fred was not involved. even as the detectives were getting the real story from the hit man, nick harvey. >> did you know who talked to el cubano ?
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>> yeah. >> who did? >> her husband. >> so doesn't mean you can go out and arrest jaramillo and fred schockner? >> the wish. i have a statement from one person. >> that person, nick harvey, was an admitted killer and demonstrated layer. with the police department under so much scrutiny they didn't arrest anybody without solid proof. think of the scandal if the prosecution failed. they found fred's business card in harvey's wallet, but that was not enough either. lynn's family would be encouraged to believe it was a simple case of a burglary gone bad, a murder the cops should have prevented. >> i couldn't defend my department as much as i wanted to, and i can't tell the press. we can defend ourselves because of the persons of interests, we
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don't want to alert them. >> inside the pressure was on. >> the press was just beating us up daily. >> detectives needed to prove the murder for hire plot, and they needed to do it fast. >> that was the whole game was trying to play cat and mouse. we want them to talk. we want them to communicate. >> even though they kept talking to fred-- >> you kept going to the husband-- >> playing dumb, hoping he would play dumb and call el cubano. >> trying to give a reason so he would not become more suspicious than what he was. the one more question, sir, it felt like "columbo." oh, one more question, sir. >> death has a way of bringing
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people together. lynn was a private woman, very few friends beyond her son, charlie, and yet-- >> we held a big service for her. it was amazing how many people came out for her. it was nice. i just remembered at that point i couldn't cry. it was just still depressed and shocked, and i felt bad for a long time. >> did the tears come? >> yeah, it took a while back, but it did. >> meanwhile detective richard birdsall was chipping away at the case but far too slowly for the likes of his bosses and the department was under fire for not preventing a murder. the detectives found some connection among the conspirators, but not nearly enough to go to court.
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>> you have a murder for hire, you have to arrest everybody. i would love to, but do i have probable cause? i don't really. i've got to prove more. >> you couldn't even say either one of those people was a suspect? >> correct. there was so much pressure on me to do it and make an arrest. coming up, jaramillo and frank start talking. >> it has been a rotten, rotten time. >> when dateline continues. that's actually me. what if i told you that experian has subscription cancellation, where you can just cancel them with a click of a button? boom. it's that easy to cancel. that's actually really cool. it's great. with subscription cancellation, people save on average $270 a year.
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[music playng] keith morrison (voiceover): police suspected that fred schockner was the mastermind behind the murder-for-hire plot of estranged wife, lynn. police suspected that fred was the mastermind behind the murder for hire part of his estranged wife, lynn.
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they still did not have enough evidence to make an arrest. so, detectives kept dropping in on fred, all very nonthreatening. and finally, they asked him if he happened to know anyone in the port hueneme area. that is where hitman, nick harvey lived. fred said, yes, he did. the man he knew, he said was frank, just a guy frank met when he managed a gym in long beach. in fact, said, fred, he had bought a used bmw from frank for $25,000 and frank was going to deliver the car when he returned from an overseas business trip in new delhi. of course, from phone records, the cops knew perfectly well that frank, a.k.a. el cubano was at home, about 50 miles north of long beach in woodland hills, but frank kept talking. an ever more chatty volunteer,
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he'd let frank more than $100,000, which makes sense, given what detectives had already learned about frank. >> he had a fetish for watches, living a lifestyle of the rich and famous. he really did not have a full- time job. >> is frank thought he was taking advantage of fred, detectives believed it was just the opposite. >> i think fred wanted to own frank in some way. >> fred already have the $100,000, now he is on the hook big time marks >> to fred. >> and fred says, to get off the hook, you've got to make something happen and the slate is wiped clean. >> abolition of all debt. >> in the detective's view, frank was the mastermind, who in turn hired nick for a bargain basement price. fred still did not know the cops even suspected him, did not have any idea, for example, that they were tapping his
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phone. when fred actually began calling the cops to play mr. cooperative, they recorded every word. >> hello, officer, this is fred training 12. >> hello, mr. schockner, how are you doing? >> there has nothing to anything bad like this in my life, hopefully there never will be. you asked me a couple of questions and let me give you some information. the check that i wrote to frank was cashed on october 29th.>> that was for the bmw. >> that was for the bmw. >> look at this, the check has a note that indicates the bmw will be delivered between 11-7 and 8. lynn was murdered on the 8 of november. >> i called today about the status on the voicemail.
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>> you called him today, you did not happen to ask if he was back in the country, did you? >> no, i was leaving a voicemail. >> does it sound like fred is having fun, toying with the cops? >> any other questions you have for us at this time? >> happy fishing. why is it going so long? that is a good question, because the fish is not answering, right? >> like i told you from the beginning, it is a simple case. >> hold on, the other line is ringing. >> in the middle of the conversation, frank gets a call from fred palomino, frank puts them on hold, continues to speak with the detectives, even offers a theory about the killer, nick harvey. >> you know, the kid from port hueneme may have been someone associated with the lock change, may have been someone associated with someone she met and try to help. >> exactly.
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>> fred hung up with the detective and picked up his cell phone, that call was also recorded. >> hello, did you hear a lot of that? >> hello, kind of. i don't need to talk about it. >> okay. how are you doing, bud? >> it has been a rotten, rotten time. all of this, so much sympathy, so much activity surrounding it, it is unbelievable. >> just as the cops had been hoping, fred and frank talked, but not a word from either one to establish they were involved in a murder. >> we had like 60+ phone conversations between them. and we are typing tapping them all. >> but they just did not submit slip up. it was time, the detectives
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decided for chris nelson. >> i was armed with information. nick harvey has told the homicide guys what is up, they have told me. now, if you are frank and fred, frank and frack, your biggest concern is nick is caught. >> of course. you want to make sure he will not say anything. >> first, detective nelson decided, he would go for broke my phoning fred schockner himself and claiming to be the hired killer, nick harvey. >> how did you go about doing this? >> i went to county jail and used one of their inmate phones, because i wanted the pre-recording said, you are receiving a call from the california penal institution, blah blah blah. he hung up on me the first time. there is a pause when they ask, if you're willing to accept, he said, no, click. i waited about five minutes and i called again. >> this time, fred took the call. >> i said, i'm the guy that did that work at your house and i said, i'm going to need my other half. i'm going to need my money for an attorney. he says, well, we already have
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it. i said, no. and i said, you need to talk to your guy. >> your guy, he could only mean frank perlo , but he did not say the words, did not say anything incriminating. she tried something much different, much riskier, time to get uncle john involved. coming up. >> hey, frank? >> yes. >> frank, my name is john. >> detectives set a trap. >> i'm the one that can keep nick quiet. you're going to give me money. >> is more of an acquaintance. i don't have money to help him out. >> when "dateline" continues. i . hold... our low mileage is paying off. you think we should... hold... depreciation is really heating up you think... hoooold!!! hooold! hooold. hold! we just dipped 2.5%! hooooooold!!! now!!!!
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keith morrison (voiceover): after days of repeated calls shivering, fever, and upset stomach. and interviews with fred schockner, me t after days of repeated calls and interviews with fred schockner, detectives had elicited some tantalizing details, but not enough evidence to arrest him for lynn's murder. so, they decided to focus on suspected middleman, frank jaramillo, el cubano. undercover cop, chris nelson, had a plan to set a trap to make frank believe he was about to be fingered by the hitmen, nick harvey. so, he phoned frank and portrayed himself as-- >> relative of an ex with a past of my own, not particularly liking cops. you know? i'm the one that can keep nick
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quiet. and what are you going to give me in exchange for that? you are going to give me money. >> of for aid frank with recognize the trap ending up on him, detective nelson elected to make up a very unthreatening persona. >> well, i will be uncle john, that his mother sent down from the bay area to see what is really going on and what's harvey gotten himself into. >> uncle john places a call to el cubano. >> frank? frank, hey, my name is john. >> now, to set the trap, he would say, nick needs money for a lawyer. >> he seems to think you are fred will help him out. he didn't want a >> public defender. >> okay. >> frank tells uncle john, he knows nick, but-- >> he's more of an acquaintance, i don't really have money to help him out.
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>> at first, frank doesn't seem to take the bait. >> if i could help them out anyway, i would, but i'm sorry, my apologies, i can't. >> and then carefully, uncle john reeled him in. >> he seemed to think that if somebody didn't reach out to him, he told me but not so much you, but he told me to have you told fred, that if he did not get some help pretty soon, he was going to go to the cops, so. >> okay, give me a call tomorrow and i will see what i can do to help you, partner. >> but after all that, frank did not make the all-important incriminating call to fred schockner, asking for money. so, the very next day, uncle john called again. >> did you get a hold of fred? >> no, between me and you, i don't mind taking care of him. >> frank asked for time and agreed to make uncle john in person, and over some money. >> thousand oaks mall? >> it's off of lynn road . off
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the 101. >> lynn road, the irony was apparently lost on frank jaramillo. it was late morning, mid- november, detective nelson was worried, would he show up? >> he said in the parking lot by himself, you kind of go over, i'm sure your heart races a little bit. it is crunch time and you feel like everyone is depending on you to get this done. you want it to well. >> the idea is you are reeling him in like a fisherman, but there are times you don't know what is going to happen. >> could have a freight on the line. i've had that happen a few times. >> but not this time. there was frank in a brand-new lexus suv. oh yes, referring to a less expensive car he said he would be driving. >> that's sweet.
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now i know what you spent your money on. >> money from fred schockner is what the cop meant . frank did not take that bait. hard to tell from the video, but frank coughs up the money. >> i got a grant right now because they are still monitoring my accounts. >> who is? >> [ bleep ] detectives. >> they are looking at you? >> detective was in the van, listening to the whole thing go down. >> when you finally get something like that, that was the nail in his coffin. >> the instantly he offered that $1000 you thought-- >> he locked himself into it. >> a couple of days later, the detective and his partner paid frank a visit to snap their trap shut. >> basically, who is this guy, john mark i understand you gave him some money. he was like, i don't know what you're talking about. i come into the room a few
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minutes later. yeah. and it was like the oh [ bleep ] look of the century. >> and then he realized, you are a cop. >> he hung his head and he looked sick. i think the whole world came crashing down at that point. >> you could see the look in his eyes, like a deer in headlights and he just started giving it all up. >> coming up. >> he would want to beat you with a belt, and she would try to stop him, then that would produce an argument. >> behind closed doors. >> you thought all families were like that? >> yeah, it was always, that's just what families did. >> when "dateline" continues.
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the most accurate cgm. keith morrison (voiceover): nearly a month after lynn schockner was cut down at her own back door nearly a month after lynn schockner was cut down in her own back door, her killer was behind bars, but her husband, fred, was still a free man. back in the family home with charlie. the press was in the dark. long beach was in the dark. no one seriously believed that the police now firmly believed that fred schockner ordered and paid for his own wife's murder . as charlie's uncle mark said,-- >> never in my wildest dreams, even after she was killed, because the circumstances, nothing pointed at fred. and
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the police did not point at fred. >> that said, detective have their reasons. >> we used them in a lot of respects, and you felt guilty, because they are beating their chests, they are upset and they had no idea the father of charlie is the one that set the holding appearance >> remember, maybe some idea. >> i always had my suspicions. >> in spite of the fact that it was a burglar and the police said, it was a burglar, you still suspect that your father marks >> i did not want to put it past him. as a kid, you don't want to suspect someone of that. it just seemed false. they are doing clues, their little ticks of stuff that just seems wrong. >> it started the day his mother was murdered, when he and his dad surveyed the house,
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ransacked during the burglary. >> he had me go back and clean up all the jewelry that had been overturned and spill out. >> what does that do to your mind? >> made me very numb, very numb. it was a task. i did it, and then i went to bed. >> and your dad went to bed in the house with you? charlie understood his father intimately, of course, and he alone knew the secret, understood his father in a way that had been hidden from the outside world for years. charlie may have looked like any other happy, suburban kid, but at home me he said, he understood normal life to be the constant expectation of moments of terror, frequent, unpredictable rages, abuse. a mother desperately trying to protect him. >> so, he would want to beat you with a belt, she would prevent it, and it would produce an argument between them
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. >> and then, he would beat her. often enough as a child that i knew what was going on, but then, that was normal. so i did not know it was not normal. >> you thought all families were like that? >> until i had friends that would come over and they would notice stuff, and it was weird for them to notice things and comment on it. but yeah. it was always just-- that's what families did. >> year after year it went on, said charlie, until his mother came to whisper her own secret, she was finally going to leave fred. >> my mom was tucking me in at night when i was 12 or so, she was talking about how she was thinking about doing this, she was so nervous about doing it, and did not know if it was the right choice, or what to do about it. >> what you think? >> my first thought was very excited, because it was just great to be able to think of getting away from him.
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>> and then finally, more than a year later, lynn hired family law attorney, lisa brandon. >> what did she tell you she wanted from you? >> she wanted a fair division of the property. >>, said lisa, fred controlled all the finances. >> so she did not know how much money they had as a family? how much money did they have as a family? >> no. well, including the home, probably 6 or $7 million. >> which in a legal separation by california law would be split down the middle. lisa said, fred would never part with any of that money. lynn also told her about fred's physical abuse. with a pending situation, lisa worried about lynn and charlie's safety. >> i wanted her to move out of the home with charlie. she would not do it, she would not leave her home, she would not disrupt charlie. she was he was just starting
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high school, they had lived in the neighborhood forever. she was a sitting target. >> did she understand it was dangerous for her? yet, she went ahead and did it anyway? >> that is how important getting out of that relationship was for her. she was willing to risk her life, she told me that. >> lisa told her, she should at least get a restraining order against fred. >> would not make a bit of difference. >> that is what she told you? >> if he is going to kill me, he's going to kill me. restraining orders will not stop . >> too late now, of course. what about charlie? detectives worried about his safety, called lynn's brother, mark he had gone back across the country to georgia, and urged him to have an extended visit with charlie with he and his wife, susie, even though they did not tell him about the surprise. >> i am still surprised. to this day, fred allow that to happen but he did. >> fred had more pressing
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things to think about. whatever his reason, he put charlie on the plane to georgia just in time for the murder investigation. frank jaramillo, under arrest as the alleged middleman was spilling it all, telling police he took money from lynn's husband, a lot of it, and used a little bit of it to hire the killer, nick harvey. and then, with a little polite arm-twisting, frank agreed to help set a trap for the suspected mastermind, fred schockner. >> wait a minute, did you promise him something in exchange? >> did not promise him anything. >> so why would he do it? >> i think in his mind, because we had gotten him on everything else, he was trying to dig himself out of a hole. >> maybe frank did not understand how big the hole was. as undercover cop fred prepared frank with his big meeting with fred, frank got a call from his wife. >> he says, i'll be home later,
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he even told me, well i did not kill her. i almost wanted to slap him and go, no, you just hired someone else to. >> he must have known. you've got to be blind and deaf not to know that. >> you have to laugh, is this guy for real? >> frank set it up, called fred, got the answering machine. still, lynn's voice. >> hey, old man, it's frank, just wanted to come and see you and talk to you about a couple of things and get a couple of things straightened up. >> fred picked up the phone. >> hello? >> hello, are you there? what is going on? >> nothing much. >> they agreed to meet, 7:30 in the evening, at a local restaurant. less than two hours later, frank , wearing the same hidden
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camera the detectives used to catch him, walked into the restaurant to meet fred schockner. >> i set him up with the camera and the audio. we got a table a couple of tables away, three of us, to make sure he did not run. >> so you had your eyeballs on him? >> we wanted to see every body's reaction and we had of course the audio and the surveillance team outside me listening to everything. >> coming up, one problem, 7:30 came and went, minutes ticked by, no fred. >> he was already really paranoid about being set up. >> would he show? and what if you didn't? when "dateline" continues. date. with dupixent, show off your clearer skin and less itch. because you have plenty of reasons to show off your skin. with dupixent, the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists, you can stay ahead of your eczema. it helps block a key source of inflammation inside the body
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the ballot in battleground states. notable members of the kennedy family denouncing the run, calling it betrayal. an attack at a german city at a festival commemorating the city's anniversary. the event called the festival diversity began friday and was supposed to run through sunday. for now, back to "dateline." "dateline." it all came down to this place, this moment. after nearly a month of painstakingly investigation, detectives had engineered a face-to-face meeting between the middleman frank jaramillo, and suspected mastermind, lynn schockner's husband, fred. this is where detectives would try and get frank to say something to incriminate himself, except frank was late.
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had he finally realized they were laying a trap? 7:30, 7:33, 7:35, nothing. he did not show, this could all fall apart. and then, a signal from the surveillance then. there he was. >> the guy is outside, saw him casing the place to make sure-- he was already paranoid about being set up. came in with his notepad. >> hey, old man. how are you feeling? >> now, all eyes were on frank and fred. >> they both at this point looked like they had been rode hard and put away wet. jaramillo is tired looking . you can imagine the amount of stress that must be going through him. then, the old man who didn't look like he was doing particularly well either. they both looked scared. they both looked like trap rats on a burning ship. >> and if they feared, fred was suspicious. he sat down, said not a word,
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but he had written something on his notepad. >> the note said, are you wired? >> i thought he was going to walk. i thought, this guy is going to come to his senses and realize- - >> steno, turnaround, walk out the restaurant. >> but he didn't. >> he stayed and they talked. frank try to get fred to admit his role. fred detecting deflecting his attempts. >> you and i would not be sitting here if you did not want lynn killed, you know that? >> frank kept going at it and fred finally let something slip. >> i'm scared me fred. i understand, you are scared too. you have to understand, we would not be in this position if it wasn't for her. if it wasn't for lynn, we would not be here. >> that's true.
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if it weren't sloppy on nick's part, we would not be here. >> fred referring to nick harvey of the hired killer, for the first time connecting himself to lynn's murder. frank kept going after him as if he knew they needed more. >> we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. we went. >> and we wouldn't be here if it weren't for the way things were-- >> it's not a question of being [ bleep ] up, what is done is done. he is doing you a favor, not me. if he [ bleep ] up and got caught, that's him, he's doing the time for you. >> it was like watching two old married couples are going back and forth about whose fault it was that dinner was called or something. >> but of course, this argument was deadly serious. >> this is your problem. you have to understand. >> no, it's not my problem,
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it's our problem. isn't it? >> i would have to say it's more your problem. >> fred was still very suspicious of frank, asked a few more times if he was wired. frank, frustrated now, try to go to him. >> you are saying i killed lynn ? who wanted her dead? you answer me that [ bleep ] question, who wanted her dead? who benefited from that, fred? >> nobody. >> frank argued like a man who wasn't acting. maybe wasn't. the tension between the two seemed to reach a breaking point .
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>> that is why i am here. >> no, you're trying to incite me. >> you know what, fred, why don't you just go home. thank you very much and i will tell nick the same. have a good evening, fred. have a good evening. thank you for everything. whatever money i owe you, i will [ bleep ] pay you back. get the [ bleep ] out of my face. you really [ bleep ] me. you really [ bleep ] nick. don't worry about me anymore. i asked a simple [ bleep ] question, you did not answer. >> just as fred was walking away, frank gave it one last shot. >> why don't you [ bleep ] admit what you did wrong. okay, and i did everything, right? >> you need to quiet nick's family, not mine.
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keith morrison (voiceover): and that was it. maybe not exactly the words detective >> and that exactly the words the detectives hoped to hear, but after weeks of dead end and intense pressure, getting fred on tape and saying those things finally made his case. >> what was the mood in the van you were setting? >> we've got enough. >> finally, enough evidence to arrest him, but they didn't. they let him go home, just to see what he'd do. >> let's just see if he reaches out to somebody, because now he is scared. >> at the restaurant, frank waited for the all clear signal from the detectives and the waiter who frequently served the schockner family, stopped by to reminisce about lynn. putting frank in a very uncomfortable spot. >> there's nothing that anybody can say--
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>> he was not able to complete his thought. soon, fred would be having a very different conversation with the police. coming up, what a mess. and fred forgot to clean up. >> he did not throw his trash in time. >> no. >> when "dateline" continues. e oooh! this is our night! shingles doesn't care. but shingrix protects. only shingrix is proven over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone
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and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingrix today.
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keith morrison (voiceover): before he got mixed up and upset stomach. you have to understand, i am a 29-year-old man, fred. >> for you got mixed up with
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red schockner, frank jaramillo, a.k.a. el cubano, had so many possibilities. he just recently married a wonderful woman, a schoolteacher, who had no idea what her husband had done, or what he was facing. but it was too late for that. frank did not go home to his wife that evening. he submitted to a pair of handcuffs and was carted off to jail. fred, no. fred did go home under the watchful eye of the undercover cops, who also conducted a thorough search of the restaurant for those notes fred wrote. they found nothing, nor did fred contact anyone else that evening. and so, the next morning-- >> we just showed up, 9:00 in the morning and caught him in his pajamas and said, he hadn't slept a lot that night. very shocked and very upset
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that we were there. our response was, we were there to arrest you.>> they took them away. and when they searched his house, they found one last piece of evidence in a trashcan. one of those notes fred scribbled in the restaurant. sloppy nick, it said. >> he did not throw out his trash in time. >> across the country in georgia, charlie got the news. >> yeah, that was another kind of happy moment, to be honest. >> that is quite a place to get to in life, when you are happy that your father has been arrested for murder, for the murder of your mother, mind you . >> yeah, it's-- i mean, no one wants to actually say, gosh, yeah, that's a good thing. after everything growing up with him in the house, it seemed like a little bit of justice. >> almost three years after
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lynn's death, the three men charged with her murder finally went on trial and detective, the undercover cop chris nelson, both retired now, where they are. >> it is always nice to see a case all the way through, in my opinion, see people get what they've got coming to them. >> did they give you a special, weird look? >> you know, when they walked into court, the only one that looked good that day, rested and fine, was nick harvey. you could tell yet come to terms with what he had done. he knew he would never see the light of day again. the other two were really struggling with it. they looked really beat. >> they were so different, the three of them. they were a very unlikely trio of criminals. >> wendy thomas russell, a reporter for the "long beach
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telegram" at the time, covered all three trials. nick harvey's was first. >> i would have to say, he was more brawn than brain, and i don't mean that to be insensitive, but this is a guy who took the witness stand in his own defense and he said that he aspired to be a hitman. >> he said that on the witness stand? what did you think? >> i thought, you're not the brightest bulb on the marquee. he said he had toyed around with being a hitman. he had idolized the hope as a child, "incredible hulk" and he said he had taken steroids just to get bigger and stronger, and it was very hard for the jury to have sympathy for him. >> and they didn't. the jury found him guilty and about 35 minutes. first degree murder and burglary. next was frank jaramillo.
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>> he said , he wouldn't have done it had schockner not threatened his wife and his in- laws. >> he did it out of fear , then? >> yeah. literally he said on the stand, he has sacrificed his life for his family, when we all know he had sacrificed lynn schockner's life for his pocketbook. that was his defense. >> the verdict, guilty of first- degree murder. now, it was fred's turn. >> the man had aged at least 10 years. he looked so frail. >> but this was not over just yet. when fred schockner took the witness stand, he told the jury he could explain everything. do tell. coming up-- >> he was completely maintained
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his innocence. >> would the jury believe him? >> i had a moment of just sitting there and just started crying. i hooked my family. when "dateline" continues. v in people 60 years and older. arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint pain. arexvy is number one in rsv vaccine shots. rsv? make it arexvy. most people call leaffilter when their gutters are clogged and they notice one of the many issues that can bring. sometimes it's the smell of mildew when water has seeped into the interior walls.
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so you don't have to compromise. powering smarter savings. powering possibilities. charlie schockner: you hold your breath. the world kind of stops. keith morrison (voiceover): a hushed courtroom in long beach, california. you hold ocyour breath, the world kind of stops. >> a host courtroom in long
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beach, california. fred schockner, charged with commissioning the murder of his wife, caught on tape, blaming a sloppy hitman , took the stand in his own defense. >> he was very defiant, completely maintained his innocence until the end. i mean, in the face of this overwhelming evidence, he maintained his innocence. >> it was all a tragic misunderstanding, said fred. he did not pay for murder, just for a used bmw. all of those calls to his alleged co-conspirator, el cubano , fred said they were, wait for it, pocket calls, and they proved nothing. the jury had to consider all possibilities, naturally. there was no shortage of nerves among members of lynn's family. charlie, just 17 years old that day, watched the jury filed back in. >> it is law and order and everything writer. you sit there and everyone comes in and you hold your breath. the world kind of stops. you
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don't know what the outcome is, because they have all the power. whatever they say is either the truth, or what is going to be the truth. >> a lot of butterflies in your tummy. >> oh god, yeah. >> he looked at their faces for some sign, waited nervously for justice for his mother. >> what was it like to hear the words? >> emancipating. it was just unbelievable. >> the verdict, guilty of first- degree murder. >> i had a moment of just sitting there. i just started crying. i hug my family. >> is interesting you say, hugged my family. somebody who doesn't know the whole story might say, well, you just lost your family, but they don't know the whole story. >> yeah, no. they were-- having my mother's side of the family, her two
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brothers, and that side of the family with me was amazing. it is what family showed me. they were all there for me. >> the judge allowed charlie to address his father in court. >> i have this whole speech prepared, this is a vindication of everything. i was so angry, shaking, not really able to get my words out. i managed to say, i'm no longer your son. i can't believe you would do this and just, you are going to where you belong. >> that would be a pretty scary moment, a nervous making moment. >> it was terrifying to know that it was actually going to happen, that this was the culmination of everything. a lot of emotion. >> also your way of saying goodbye to him. >> yeah. yeah. >> through all of this, fred
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schockner maintained his innocence. in fact, even before his trial began, fred did carry out a threat he added right after the murder . he lost the lawsuit against the long beach police department for not protecting his wife, lynn. >> he went to the city and filed a claim, which is a precursor to a lawsuit against the city of long beach, blaming the long beach police department for not preventing the murder of his wife, because they had not followed proper procedure. >> wait a minute, it is their fault because they did not prevent me from killing my wife? >> exactly. >> the claim was rejected, but now, on the day of the sentencing, he tried the same argument again. >> that was the judge's response too. he called him a disgusting human being. he did not mince words. >> fred was sentenced to life
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without parole. they all were. >> in a few sentences to me what you think the motive in this murder was? >> money. >> in one word, apparently. >> for whatever reason, 3 or 4 million was not enough. >> even from prison, fred schockner fought to keep it all for himself, fought his own son, fought his own blood, try to prevent charlie from getting his share of the schockner estate . and though charlie was eventually granted some of the money, fred kept millions for himself, though how he'd managed to spend it in prison was unclear. we wrote letters to all three of them, nick harvey, frank jaramillo and fred schockner, asking to hear from them what happened. fred wrote back and said, he
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was convicted on highly skeptical circumstantial evidence , and that there should have been more than enough to quote, prove my innocence. nick, now in his 30s called us. he has matured in prison, he said. was mad at the world back then me but has found god now. but listen to this, though he takes full responsibility for what he did, he has also been nursing a strange and very lonely conspiracy theory. >> i've always believed the police were involved. >> you made that they intentionally sent her back there to be killed? >> yes. >> you don't still believe that, though? >> i'm not a big believer in situations like this. >> lots of time to sit in prison and think about things like that, but also about charlie. >> poor charlie. what i did to charlie just haunts me everyday. >> yeah.
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>> i took so much from him. >> but whether nick knew it or not, charlie was in the very capable hands of his uncle mark, who received a commission from his worried sister lynn, before she was murdered. >> if anything happens to me, take care of my son. >> and he did. how do you feel about that boy? >> love. this one is going to be tough. i always look back at that moment as the greatest gift i ever received from the man who i still hate more than any person i've ever known. my wife and i did not have children of our own, now i've got the best son in the world. >> it's been great. mark and susan are just-- they are great. i love them so much.
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>> and so, in a sad, strange way, out of unimaginable evil and loss came love, real family, an unexpected blessing. >> what's he done for you, personally? having him in your life? >> it is like getting another life. like somebody opened a door to say, here is a second chance. >> a reason to get up in the morning. >> straight. i raised him to live. >> mark and susan are now his mom and dad. he has taken their last name. charlie is more than survived. he is thriving. >> i'm going somewhere and i'm going fast. >> he got his masters and landed his dream job in themepark design and he has
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learned, in spite of everything, the rarest of lessons to accept and move on. >> i know it happened, and i know it is influencing me, but it is not defining me. >> but there is one thing that defines him. his mother's character, and that follows him everywhere. >> my mother was just ethereal. she holds a special place. she is just everything you think of as good, everything you think of as kind. everything that is just great about people, that's what she embodied. and i carry that with me. me. hello, i'm andrea canning, and this is "dateline." it was a whirlwind

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