[ cheers and applause ] >> this young couple had everyone, a home, money, and then everything changed. their 3-year-old son developed respiratory problems. and his father started showing signs of alzheimer's disease. forensic scientists wanted to learn whether this was bad luck, bad genes or something else.

dripping springs, texas, a town where you can enjoy the beauty of the texas hill country. yet commute to downtown austin in just over half an hour. melin melinda ballard fell in love with dripping springs and bought these acres. in 1994 she met ron allison. after dating for less than a year, the couple married. >> well, he was everything i had ever wanted in a man. very intelligent, a real go-getter. a workaholic, so we seemed to match up in that regard. just a super guy. >> we both had had the same interests. we both wanted to have a family. i think that was the key. career-wise, but similar

interests. >> melinda had been head of her own public relations business, a firm she sold in 1989 but she still continued her career. >> i sat as a board member of a bank and still represent a number of clients that are -- i guess holdovers from my company in new york. >> ron worked in investment banks and was head of corporate finance at his firm. in 1996, melinda gave birth to their son, reese, ron loved being a father and a weekend baseball coach. then, in february 1999, 3-year-old reese developed what seemed like a flu. >> he started having some respiratory problems. and he would have a real hard time catching his breath. and -- we thought golly, maybe

he is exercising too much or something. >> the symptoms lingered. a month later, reese seemed to be getting worse, not better. >> initially we thought maybe it's because reese is in pre-school and nursery school. and you know how kids constantly contaminate one another with a little bug or virus. >> doctors could find nothing wrong. tests were not conclusive. when he was taken for allergy tests, those, too, were negative. soon, reese's problems moved from respiratory to neurological. reese, who had learned his abc's from a to z suddenly couldn't get past d. >> he was deteriorating quickly and we were taking him to doctor after doctor after doctor. and they told us that something was wrong. but they didn't know what it was. >> when doctors came up empty, a

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melinda ballard was living a dream life. she and her husband had a beautiful home, a healthy, adorable son and successful careers, until their 3-year-old son developed a serious illness. >> i didn't know if he had some kind of rare disease that nobody had ever heard of. i didn't know what to think, but i knew it was getting worse. >> reese was still asthmatic, very asthmatic. in fact, the pulmonologist said he had scarred lung tissue. >> but still, the cause couldn't be found. it appeared to ron's co-workers that the stress associated with his son's illness was starting to get to him. >> ron was sitting at his desk looking at his computer screen, which wasn't unusual. but when i walked closer to his desk, i realized that he was staring at a blank screen. >> and ron exhibited other

symptoms. >> he came out of the grocery store and could not remember where he had parked his car or what car he even drove. it took him about five hours to come back from the grocery store when it should have taken him 20 minutes. and when he gets home, everything's melted. and he said, i don't know, i had a blackout or something. >> i didn't know what was going on. and the wheels were coming off. and it was -- it was -- i was scared. >> ron went to a neurologist for testing. the results showed a dramatic decrease in his cognitive abilities. >> my doctor had told me that i was about halfway through the progression of alzheimer's, and that's based on my neurological test results. but that's all he could tell me, is that you are functioning on this level. and it seems to be getting

worse. but they didn't know exactly why or what to do about it. >> on april 1, 1999, melinda boarded a southwest airlines flight heading to little rock, arkansas. it was a flight that forever changed the course of her life. a man named bill holder was assigned to the seat next to melinda. >> on the way to dallas, i heard her talking to some people, and she was complaining about all these illnesses and problems that she and her family were having. [ coughing ] >> and without warning, melinda fell ill. >> and i kept coughing up blood. and bill holder said to me, "lady, what in the world is wrong with you?" i said, "i really don't know." >> i just asked her, i said, "do you have a water leak at your house?" and she said, "yes, i do.

i have several water leaks." >> she told holder that a month earlier, there was a leak in her home, causing the downstairs floors to buckle. a plumber repaired the leak which was in the water line leading to the refrigerator's icemaker. holder began to suspect that it was a mold causing the family's illness. holder owns the assured indoor air quality business that removes toxic mold from buildings. but melinda dismissed this possibility. she kept her home spotless and no one in her family tested positive for allergies. but during their conversation on the plane, holder said something prophetic. >> he's telling me, these aren't allergens, lady. this is a poison. >> now suspecting that there was some kind of mold behind the wall or above the ceiling somewhere, ron and melinda

decided not to take any chances and moved out of the main house into an apartment over the garage. but even with the move, ron's neurological problems continued to get worse. >> at the office, i would be on a phone call and 10 or 20 minutes into the phone call, just not have any idea what we'd discussed. >> if there was some kind of mold behind a wall or ceiling, how would investigators find it?

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medical experts began to suspect that something in their home environment was making ron, melinda and reese sick. the property included 72 acres. the house itself was enormous, 12,000 square feet, modeled after the movie version of tara, scarlet o'hara's plantation home in "gone with the wind." >> it was a georgian-style home, antebellum. it was just gorgeous. >> scientific experts began to focus on the possibility that it was mold.

>> for mold to grow, it requires water to be where it shouldn't be. it requires cellulose, which is a component of most building materials, for example sheetrock, ceiling tile, pressed particle board. and then a mold also needs the appropriate temperature and it needs oxygen. >> melinda asked bill holder to inspect their home to see if he could find anything suspicious. he started behind the refrigerator, the location of the original water leak, and under the first floor floorboards. >> take clear cellophane tape, push it on the suspect area and then attach it to a glass slide. at the same time, take a sterile cotton swab and lift some of the material off of that surface, put it in a sterile container and send it to the laboratory. >> dr. david strauss is a professor of microbiology and immunology at texas tech university.

>> i spent about a half an hour in the house and i was talking with bill, mr. holder. and i said to him, turned to him and said, "bill, i don't feel very good." i said, "i got to get out of here." and just literally walked out the front door and pretty much collapsed. i lost any ability to stand without aid. >> the samples were processed at texas tech health sciences center. technicians there sterilized the slides, then examined them under a high-powered microscope. the cotton swab samples were transferred to petri dishes, then put in an incubator for five to seven days. if there were spores present, they would grow mold which could be examined under the microscope. most household molds are harmless. but dr. strauss found one type of mold in the home that was not

harmless. it was a toxic, deadly mold known as stachybotrys. experts believed stachybotrys spores exist on many building materials. as long as those materials stay dry, the spores don't present a problem. but when the spores get wet, from a leaky roof, for example, or in a dark moist environment, and are near a paper product like drywall and insulation, the spores multiply quickly. and they produce a potentially deadly poison called mycotoxins. >> mycotoxins are on the surface of these spores. so when you inhale these fungal spores, you're also taking the mycotoxins into your lungs, as well. >> later, bill holder went back to conduct an airborne test. canisters placed throughout the house capture any airborne spores which might be present. a short time later, melinda was

notified of the results. >> they informed us that it was literally everywhere and including in the apartment where we were living. and for us to -- it would be a good idea to leave. >> to avoid the possibility of cross-contamination, the family was told to leave the grounds immediately and to take nothing with them. >> buildings never get better by themselves. in fact, if you leave a building alone that has mold infestation, it gets worse. >> melinda and ron hoped the family's health problems would clear up once they left the house. but they didn't. >> ron is a bright, bright guy. but he's become almost -- it's -- it's very sad. he carries a little notebook in his pocket. got his phone number, his car license number, and things of this nature.

he's not a buffoon by any stretch. you know, but i know he's seriously affected by this. >> ron just really loves his son. and on several occasions, i would hear him talking about his son. and he would say "my son --" and stop because he didn't remember his son's name. >> ron's memory problems forced him to resign from his firm. reese continued to suffer from asthma and learning disabilities. only melinda came through without permanent health problems. doctors had no idea why. toxic mold reproduces by shedding microscopic spores. it can't be cleaned from surfaces, because to do so would release thousands of spores into the air. instead, each piece of contaminated building material has to be dismantled, sealed in airtight plastic and carted away.

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melinda and ron moved out of their dream home following the scientific diagnosis that it was infested with a potentially deadly mold growing behind the walls and ceilings.

the couple says that the first time they noticed any water damage was the leak behind the refrigerator, which the plumber had fixed. the leak had caused extensive damage to the flooring throughout the area. the couple says they wanted to repair the damaged area right away, but their insurance company said no. >> we had asked the insurance company in writing to allow us to begin repairs immediately and at least rip out some of the wet flooring. and the insurance said that if i had made repairs during their investigation, that i would lose coverage. >> scientific experts say that most household molds are harmless. but with stachybotrys, the mold must be removed immediately, since it's capable of spreading. the cost to eliminate all of the stachybotrys in ron and melinda's home was originally estimated to be $1 million.

the insurance company offered less than $200,000. while the two sides tried to reach a settlement, construction experts found 13 additional plumbing leaks and one roof leak in the home, causing even more stachybotrys contamination. >> they kept wanting to investigate claims, which is their right and their duty to do. but the problem is they would never allow us to begin making repais. >> the investigations and disputes over cost dragged on for two years. by then, experts concluded that the house and everything in it was so contaminated, it was beyond repair.

experts recommended that the home be demolished. melinda and ron filed suit against their insurance company for the financial loss of their property. the suit argued that the insurance company knew or should have known about the potentially dangerous effects of delaying repairs to water damage inside of homes and buildings. dr. michael gray sees more than 150 patients a year who suffer from exposure to toxic molds. >> i concluded that ron allison was definitely affected by the mycotoxins that he was exposed to in the house he was living in. >> in addition to medical experts, ron's attorney presented epidemiological studies showing the relationship between thichothecene, the toxin found in stachbotrys mold, and mental functioning.

>> i was confident that we had found the kind of scientific information that would allow us to try this case to a jury, yes. >> ron and melinda were asking the insurance company for the cost of their home and property, $6 million. the jury took two and a half days to come back with their verdict. but it was not for the $6 million melinda and ron asked for. the jury awarded the couple $32 million. >> it was a great relief to me that the jury system worked. >> i was obviously relieved. i had hoped that they would not get away with what they had done. >> the home, once a showplace, is now sitting abandoned. it's been looted numerous times. ron is learning to live with an impaired memory.

he enters his daily schedule into his handheld computer each morning and relies on its alarm to help him stay on track. to make certain that people know their rights relative to water damage in their home, melinda created her own website, policyholdersofamerica.org. >> it's not just been a home that has been lost here. it has been the health of a little boy and a very energetic workaholic man who has lost his identity. and i don't want to see this happen to any other family. i can promise you that. all of those medical doctors and quality scientists that have been involved in our case are my heroes. they are our heroes.

he allowed his victim to write a last will and testament to her family. then taunted them with chilling phone calls. >> did you receive the letter today? >> yes. >> okay, so you know now that this is not a fake phone call. >> a traced line couldn't find the kidnapper, but scientists would find a clue in the victim's last words. 17-year-old shari smith had her