case from the day sarah was murdered until he was convicted and sentenced. up next, a wealthy businessman is killed by an intruder. >> there's blood everywhere. >> can you tell where he was shot? >> no. >> investigators find a wide-ranging conspiracy. >> the murder had been planned out. >> other people not only knew about it, but had then asked to participate. >> friends turn on friends. >> i didn't do anything. >> it didn't seem to be sinking in with him how deep he was involved. >> but to get the killer, one piece of evidence had to be identified. >> all these high school kids had been involved, and perhaps one of them did it. >> just after midnight in st.

cloud, minnesota, 17-year-old jason maclennan returned home from a night out with a friend. he took a shower downstairs. but before he went to bed, he went up to the kitchen to get something to eat. in the foyer, near the front door, he saw his father lying on the floor bleeding. >> i need help. my dad's just been shot. i just came home and he's on the ground. i don't know -- i need an ambulance. >> is he inside the home? >> yeah, he's on the ground. >> do you know who did this to him? >> no, i just came home. >> when paramedics arrived, they found jason's father, 53-year-old ken maclennan dead at the base of the stairs. he had been shot to death. it looked like ken maclennan came down the stairs and encountered an intruder. >> when you come down dressed in only a bathrobe, you don't expect that someone's going to be waiting for you with a loaded rifle. >> there was wounds to the temple, to the forehead, to the

throat, the chest area, to the right hand and one in the back as well. >> the attack was so fast and so unexpected, maclennan had little time to react. >> he grabbed the end of the gun. he actually reached up and the gun actually had contact with his hand. the shot goes through the hand, there were at least six shots, perhaps seven, that were fired. every single one hit ken maclennan. >> the killer took the time to pick up the shell casings, all except one. >> there was one spent .22 shell casing left on the hardwood floor near the body. >> the motive appeared to be robbery. >> we discovered that ken's wallet along with some cash and identification cards and also some foreign currency and ken's watch were missing from the residence. >> ken maclennan was a widower. as a vice president in charge of international sales of a crafts company, he often traveled and

had just returned from an overseas is trip. >> he made a good living. his value was over $1 million in terms of life insurance and actual assets. the maclennan family was of some wealth and so we explored that as a motive for his murder, who might gain from his death. >> as the sun rose the next morning, police found some important evidence outside in the fresh snow, some shoe impressions from the backyard leading straight to the front door. police were convinced that these prints belonged to the killer. pay my bill. phone: your account is already paid in full. oh, well in that case, back to vacation mode. ♪boots and pants and boots and pants♪ ♪and boots and pants and boots and pants♪ ♪and boots and pants... voice-enabled bill pay. just a tap away on the geico app. ♪ huh, 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. yup, everybody knows that. well, did you know that some owls aren't that wise. don't forget about i'm having brunch with meagan tomorrow.

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at ken maclennan's autopsy, the medical examiner recovered seven .22 caliber slugs from his body. those slugs were telling. there were four different kinds of ammunition, raising the possibility that there was more than one shooter, or the killer wanted to make it look like there was more than one shooter. >> typically, burglars don't want to confront the homeowner or any other persons inside. it would be very uncharacteristic, in my opinion,

for someone to shoot someone that many times. >> since the victim's 17-year-old son, jason, found his father's body, investigators had no choice but to consider him a suspect. >> we seized the clothing that jason was wearing when we first made contact with him. that clothing had no apparent blood on it. we also conducted a gunshot residue test on jason early that morning, and those results came back negative, that he did not have gunshot residue on his hands. >> another potential suspect was ken's fiancee, a swiss businesswoman, alessandra loutens. >> she had been living with jason and ken during the time that they were in florida and the fact that she existed and the fact that she lived in their household was a subject of stress between the father and son. >> but their wedding plans were on hold.

>> we did obtain e-mails from his fiancee, which indicated there was some trouble in their relationship at the time that ken was killed. >> yet, she was still listed as beneficiary of one of ken's life insurance policies. >> and that policy was valued at $100,000. >> but alessandra was in switzerland at the time of the murder and was written off as a suspect. police turned their attention to the shoe impressions found outside of the crime scene in the snow. the victim's son, jason, said two sets of prints belonged to him and a friend. since he wasn't allowed to smoke in the house, jason and his friend went outside. their shoes were sent to sue gross for comparison with photos from the scene. >> i will ink the bottom of the shoe and press the clear acetate transparency against it. and then i will compare this transparency to the photograph that was submitted. >> these transparencies

confirmed the two sets of impressions on the left side of the house belonged to the teenagers. the third set of prints on the opposite side of the house were different. >> that set of footprints that led around the home to the front door, and there was no set leaving the front door. >> that third set of footprints around the other side of the house became the focus of the investigation. >> the impressions were run through a computer program called sole mate, which can identify the make and model of any shoe or boot impression. >> they were able to indicate that with certainty, it was a new york lugs brand shoe that had made that impression. >> further checking revealed there were a number of stores in st. cloud, minnesota, that carried the lugs boots, a brand popular in the world of hip-hop. >> then police got a tip from an unlikely source. >> i received a call from a

father of a female student from tech high school. he stated that his daughter was very upset over details that she had learned while she was at school that day about this murder. >> it was the story of a wide-ranging conspiracy. >> she was crying hysterically and stated she was very fearful for what she was about to tell us. ♪ ♪ turn around ♪ every now and then i get a little bit hungry ♪ ♪ and there's nothing good for me around ♪ ♪ turn around ♪ every now and then i get a little bit tired ♪ ♪ of craving something that i can't have ♪ ♪ turn around, barbara ♪ forever i've been praying for a snack in my life ♪ ♪ and now i have a brownie ending all of my strife ♪

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as police investigated the murder of ken maclennan, they heard rumors that his relationship with his 17-year-old son, jason, wasn't a good one. according to friends, ken all but abandoned jason's mother as she lay dying of cancer, and jason deeply resented it. >> regardless of the relationship between ken and his wife, if the woman's dying, it just looks bad if you take off and go to another continent and don't come back for weeks, leaving jason, who might have been 12 years old, to take care of his dying mother. >> it appeared that things changed for him, that he became more troubled, started to have more trouble in school. >> after his wife's death, ken continued to travel extensively for work. >> there were stories about

jason being left alone for weeks with virtually nothing in the refrigerator and having no money. i don't know how exaggerated these stories are. obviously, jason didn't starve. >> after ken maclennan's murder, police received a tip from one of jason's fellow high school students. >> at least one other high school student had been asked to provide a gun, a number of high school students knew about this. >> the informant said that jason asked several people to help him kill his father, but all of them declined. the informant said one friend, matt moeller, agreed to help by providing the gun in return for money. >> matt was an average kid who got dazzled by the money, dazzled by the possibilities. when a rich kid tells you, you can be part of my life, you can have a big fancy house, a fancy car, your life is going to be

different if you'll help me with this, he got caught up in it. >> police found a .22 caliber rifle in matt's bedroom, which they confiscated and sent to ballistics. there, kurt moline test fired moeller's rifle into a 600-gallon water tank. >> and i shoot in one end and the bullets hit the water and they slow down and they drop to the bottom, and then i vacuum those up with a hose. >> he took the test-fired bullet and compared it to slugs recovered from ken maclennan's body. >> the lands and grooves did not match up. a closer examination showed why. a boroscope, a fiberoptic mag fire magnifier, revealed a series of abnormal scratches on the inside of the gun barrel. >> the scratches appeared to be fresh. they had scratched through the blueing, which would have been applied at the factory. >> someone had scratched the

inside of the barrel for the purpose of preventing a ballistic examination. so the next step was to compare the spent shell casings from the scene to the casings from the test firing. looking at unique marks made by the firing pin as it struck the bullet. they were identical. also inside the barrel was a small drop of blood. dna testing provedthe blood was ken maclennan's. >> it made sense based on the soot on the hand that mr. maclennan had actually grabbed the gun before the shot was fired. because of that contact with the hand, some of his blood then did blow back into the barrel of the rifle. >> when confronted with this evidence, matt moeller admitted he was involved but insisted jason maclennan was the killer. >> he tried to talk me into going and killing him because he

knew he'd be the prime suspect, but i couldn't do it. so i told him i wasn't going to have anything to do with it. and then he was ust like, okay, fine. and he took the gun from me and said just go wait in the car. >> matt said he heard the shots. jason came back to the car, returned the gun, and then he went home. >> how about the gun? did you do anything to the gun to try to alter it? >> i stuck an allen wrench in the barrel. >> you stuck an allen wrench in it? >> well, because he told me that, pretty much if i wanted to save my ass, i had to do something to the barrel. >> and matt knew something that hadn't been made public -- four different types of .22 caliber bullets had been used. >> one of the things they actually discussed was using different kinds of ammunition so that if gunshot residue was found as part of the investigation, it would be tough to track it back to his particular gun. >> matt claimed jason gave him $1,000 for use of the gun.

yet, when confronted with matt's confession, jason denied any involvement in his father's murder. >> i didn't do anything. that's an even bigger reason for me to not do something like this. even though the fact that i loved my dad. even if i didn't love my dad, even if i hated his guts, i still see tv. i still see all that stuff. you don't get away with anything. i'm not an idiot. i might not be great at school, i might not pass, but i'm not a moron. >> jason stuck to his story, that after he got out of the shower, he found his father dead in the foyer. he insisted he had no idea who killed him. police had two versions of events surrounding the murder of ken maclennan, and they weren't sure which one was true. >> we knew that both of them had reason to lie to us. so, we had to do the best we could to prove for certain what really happened versus what they

claimed happened. you've tried to forget your hepatitis c. it's slow moving, you tell yourself. i have time. after all there may be no symptoms for years. no wonder you try to push it to the back of your mind and forget it. but here's something you shouldn't forget. hepatitis c is a serious disease. if left untreated, it could lead to liver damage and potentially even liver cancer. if you are one of the millions of people with hepatitis c, you haven't been forgotten. there's never been a better time to rethink your hep c. because people like you may benefit from scientific advances. advances that could help you move on from hep c. now is the time to rethink hep c and talk to your doctor. visit hepchope.com to find out about treatment options. and register for a personalized guide to help you prepare for a conversation with your doctor.

once ken maclennan's murder hit the news, some local high school students in st. cloud, minnesota, called police, saying the victim's son, jason, had offered them money to help him kill his father. >> one of the students that we interviewed was present at the

maclennan home several weeks prior to the homicide. matt actually stood in the hallway of the residence while jason and this other student watched and made gun sounds, pow, pow, pow, when it was apparent that ken maclennan would be coming in the house. >> this raised the possibility that there might have been a third person involved in the murder. >> we were very concerned, based on the fact that all of these high school kids had been involved in the planning, asked to help, that perhaps one of them did it. >> the key break happened when a student offered to lead police to some incriminating evidence. >> the day after this murder occurred, this student had confided that he knew where the bloody clothes were that jason had been wearing at the time that this murder had occurred. >> police found the clothes exactly where the student said they'd be, buried on property owned by matt moeller's parents. >> they found a red plaid shirt,

a pair of blue jeans with one glove in the back pocket, a pair of white socks. they also found some information from ken maclennan to include his wallet, some business cards from his employer and some foreign currency. >> the clothes were jason maclennan's. students had seen him wearing them the day of the murder. dna testing proved the blood on the clothes had come from jason's father. >> the fact that we could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that those jeans were jason maclennan's with his dad's blood on the bottom of the pant leg was an extremely important moment in this investigation. >> the bloody glove was even more telling. dna testing on skin cells showed jason had worn the glove. and scientists found gunshot residue on the glove from four different types of .22 caliber bullets. >> very important when that test

came back that not only was there gunshot residue on the glove, but also corroborating what matt moeller had told us about using different kinds of ammunition. >> this seemed to prove jason fired the fatal shots, but prosecutors had one major problem. they still hadn't identified who made the foot impressions in the snow, the ones that led to the front door of the crime scene. if another student was involved, a defense attorney could raise the possibility of reasonable doubt. >> we had to be able to explain to the jury where those footprints came from. >> so, prosecutors pressured matt moeller, reminding him that a first-degree murder conviction meant a life sentence. he agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a reduced sentence. matt then admitted the shoes

were his and turned them over to police after hiding them in his basement. he said he made the shoe prints in an effort to throw off investigators. prosecutors believe the motive for the crime was jason's hatred of his father. jason blamed him for abandoning his mother as she lay dying of cancer. jason also wanted his father's money. >> kansas state was worth about $1.5 million, $1.4 million, and jason wanted to reap the benefits. >> on the night of the murder, ken maclennan returned home from his business trip and immediately went to bed. jason and matt waited outside until he was asleep. and matt used the third pair of boots to walk to the front of the house, leaving a trail they hoped would trick investigators. jason went inside with the .22

caliber rifle. matt rang the front doorbell. when ken maclennan walked downstairs to see who it was, jason ambushed him. [ shots ] ken grabbed the rifle barrel, but it was too late, and jason fired seven shots, killing his father instantly. jason and matt ransacked the house to make it look like a robbery. they selected the spent shell casings, but unknowingly, left one behind. matt disposed of jason's blood-spattered clothes and tried to damage the inside of the rifle barrel to render it useless as evidence. but ken maclennan's blood inside the barrel and the shell casing from the scene were more than

enough evidence for the trial. jason maclennan pleaded not guilty and claimed he killed his father in self-defense. the jury didn't buy it. jason was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. matt moeller pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years. >> sometimes i still can't believe that i'm here in prison. i still can't believe the decision i made to put myself here. >> the boys' plan to murder ken maclennan went off without a hitch, but the cover-up couldn't withstand scientific scrutiny. >> this was not a spur of the moment thing. this had been planned, that it was strategic, that they had done the best they could to throw off the investigation. >> if nothing else, when a jury saw this, they realized this was not an accident.

>> the forensics in this case was very important. we had dna, we had ballistics, we had blood spatter. >> it's all of those forensic answers that led to us believe without question that jason had been the one to pull the trigger and that matt had, in fact, been involved. up next, a state politician mysteriously dies after her impeachment trial. experts don't know why. >> i personally have not known a woman 50 years old drop dead of a heart attack. >> a microscopic clue points towards foul play. >> no one could account for this puncture wound in her left hip. >> were her political enemies to blame, or was it someone closer to home? >> if you're asking me my opinion, he hated her. >> the clean get cleaner and the dirty get dirtier. >> kathy augustine was one of