arrive home. >> well, see you again at 11:00 >> that's it for us. thanks for watching. cnn special report. >> reporter: a beautiful backdrop for a brutal crime. >> i think somebody shot shirley. >> i said shirley is dead. >> reporter: a woman executed in her own home. >> the reaction was this doesn't happen on cape cod. >> reporter: her husband a notorious arsonist. >> a psychopath, a very dangerous person. >> reporter: her stepsons in a fight against her. >> they wanted what she had. they wanted it all. >> reporter: in town her enemies unknown. >> there was lots of talk about other potential suspects.

people who owed shirley money. >> reporter: more than a decade after the killing. >> it didn't have to happen this way. >> reporter: the search for answers continues. >> i am never going to give up hope? >> reporter: who did it? why? >> did he ever tell you he wanted-up to kill shirley? >> absolutely. he said he wanted it to look like a mob hit. >> reporter: "murder on cape cod, who shot shirley reine?" >> meet the family. >> loretta! shirley! >> they say time heals. i don't believe in that. sometimes it gets worse. we were look two peas in a pod. we had a blast. i miss those times. i just miss her. yeah. i just wish it never happened. it didn't have to happen this way. it really didn't.

>> good night. ♪ >> yeah, send somebody down to 657 east falmouth highway. i think somebody shot shirley. >> oh, my god. >> oh, man. let me tell you. can you you hurry up? >> may 10, 2005, 51-year-old shirley reine is discovered by a co-worker, collapsed on the floor of her garage. >> i called rescue. she wouldn't answer the door. i want to see if her car was in the garage. she was laying beside the car. i thought she passed out last night. you know what i am saying? >> is she in the car? >> no. outside of the car. there is a pool of blood here. >> reporter: shirley has been laying on the cold cement floor covered in blood for more than eight hours.

>> somebody shot shirley. >> oh, jeez, shirley. >> yeah, shirley reine. >> the call came in fairly early there had been a body found in east falmouth. >> reporter: george brennan is a local reporter for the "cape cod times." >> the editor called. we want to put a couple more people on this. this could be big. >> rescue just arrived. they are saying it is an obvious doa. >> reporter: how did you find out? >> i got a call. it ended up being one of the workers, michael. >> reporter: loretta is shirley's younger sister. he goes, are you sitting down? i said, yeah. he goes, your sister is gone. she's gone. you mean she's dead?

this was house right here. >> reporter: you came here the day that she was found. >> that morning, yes. >> reporter: what do you remember about that day? >> very little. i was very numb. i remember pulling in. and i did walk up to the garage. i saw a glimpse of her. i saw the yellow shirt she was wearing the day before and her red jacket. her body was up against her door. >> reporter: that must have been hard to see? >> it was. and then i started -- i started freaking out. i started banging on doors. and banged on johnny's door. >> reporter: johnny reine, shirley's brother-in-law and next door neighbor. >> as i ran over there. i just opened the door. i said -- you guys didn't hear anything last night? oh, no. we didn't hear a thing. i said right next door. you didn't hear anything? why, what happened?

i said shirley is f-ing dead. >> reporter: nearly inconceivable for loretta who saw her sister just hours earlier. >> good night. >> reporter: shirley reine's final day was typical. she went and spent some time after work with her sister. even though the two of them worked all day together. they would often spend their evenings together as well. >> reporter: evening of may 9 was no exception. after work, shirley drove down the street to loretta's house. >> every night at 6:00, she would be there for dinner. and she couldn't be late. >> reporter: only that night. shirley was late. she arrived noticeably unsettled. disturbed that her stepson todd had been visiting his ex-girlfriend's house. just two doors down. >> she just felt very uneasy. that she was still there. >> i didn't think anything of it. had dinner. >> after dinner the two sisters watched some tv.

and then shirley drove home. right on schedule. >> she left between 8:30, 8:45 like she always did. >> she pulled into her garage. as she was getting out of the car. she was ambushed. she was shot twice. and left there for dead. >> reporter: one 9 millimeter shot to her chest. the second to her head. >> the way she was killed tells you that they knew what her routine was. they knew when she was going to arrive home. they knew how she was going to arrive home. >> and they knew not to leave any evidence behind. no sign of forced entry. no murder weapon. and not a single witness. >> this wasn't an accident. this was intentional. it was planned very well in advance. >> whether one knew who the reines were or shirley reine,

the reaction was, "this doesn't happen on cape cod." >> william enright was shirley's attorney, he met with her to discuss a pending lawsuit against her. >> i was horrified. we were scheduled to go to trial. nine, ten days after shirley was murdered. we were ready to go. >> reporter: ready to fight a lawsuit her step sons, todd and melvin reine ,jr. filed her against her over the family estate. >> such a bitter lawsuit over the family property. that, that, you know that raised suspicions almost immediately. >> they tried to take everything from her. ten days before she, she, they go to court. she is murdered. >> reporter: what about those who say that shirley wasn't as innocent as some say? >> they're lying. they're lying. they're lying. they're lying.

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>> yes. it's like -- you don't want to mess with these people. >> because back in the 1970s if you did you would have to answer to one man. melvin reine. >> this family had sort of a grip on the town. particularly melvin reine, the patriarch of the family. he just had a hold on this community. like you wouldn't believe. he was a convicted arsonist. he had a saying he would say "i smell smoke." and that indicated to you that something was going to burn. >> reporter: even the cops were under melvin's thumb. >> one of the fires that he was convicted of was setting a car on fire. that car was in the driveway of the police chief at the time. didn't matter who you were, businessman, police, didn't matter. he would come for you.

>> i wouldn't suggest to you that all of the policemen were scared of him. i would suggest 75% of the department was cautious of him. >> reporter: at least 16 different times, melvin was brought to court on various criminal charges. assault. attempted murder. and in 1968, arson. the first and only charge that ever landed him in state prison. >> when he came back to town after serving a sentence of just about 18 months in state prison, he came back even more emboldened. >> reporter: more emboldened and even more cunning, which earned melvin a new nickname in town. >> he was sneaky. and came to be known as the falmouth fox. >> the fox got away with a lot. maybe even murder. >> melvin's first wife was wanda maderos. in 1971 she disappeared.

he told police that he took her to the bus station and that she was going to visit a family member. >> they thought he did something to her. >> killed her. make her disappear? >> make her disappear. >> a year after wanda disappeared. a teen, jeffrey flanagan was discovered in the cranberry bog across from melvin any house. with a shotgun blast to his head. >> he hung out with the same crowd that hung around with melvin reine. he be came very friendly with this teenage girl at the time. and her name was shirley souza. >> 19-year-old shirley souza was the babysitter for the reine boys and their father, melvin's live-in girlfriend.

>> did anyone think he knocked off his first wife to be with shirley? >> absolutely. people suspected that. melvin was suspected in the 1978 disappearance, a young teen slated to testify against melvin in an arson case. >> he had relatives that live on the vineyard. put him over there. couple days. keep them safe. out of trouble. we watched him get on the ferry. watched the ferry leave the dock. he didn't get off. he was never seen again. then there is john busby, a falmouth police officer who dared to arrest two reine family members in 1979. >> august 31st, 1979, i was going to pull a midnight shift. a vehicle pulled up alongside me and opened up with a shotgun. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: three shots were fired. one shattering his jaw. tearing through his mouth. impairing his speech forever.

>> fell over in to the passenger's seat saw that there was a lot of me. >> he is telling his officers that melvin reine did this. and they don't go to melvin's house. they don't interview melvin reine that night. they don't go to him and say do you have an alibi. there is, technology you can test to see if someone shot a gun. they've don't test him. >> reporter: like the other unsolved cases related to melvin he was never charged. busby's case went cold. fear drove the busby family out of falmouth for good. >> they had succeeded in getting john busby. out of their little girl. -world with later, there appeared to be a break through.

when melvin's son todd then 17 got a traffic ticket. his father was furious. so furious he threatened a local cop. you guys are going to find out how bad i am, he told the officer, i made the call and busby got his. you are the only one that knows that for sure now. years later after the statute of limitations had passed on busby's case. melvin any brother. john reine told police he was in the car the night melvin shot busby. and he says, shirley was too. >> i think she knew everything melvin ever did. including his first wife, the two young men who were killed and everything involved. >> reporter: but shirley's best friend, kathy, calls the allegations "pure lies." what about those who say that shirley wasn't as innocent as some say? >> they're lying. >> reporter: that she was. they say that she was maybe an accomplice in some of melvin's actions. >> they're lying. they're lying. they're lying.

>> reporter: but if they're not. then shirley had plenty of enemies. >> i think there were a lot of potential candidates. it could have been a matter somebody waited ten days before the contentious civil trial to murder her. and make it look as though the boys had committed it. in fact they may have had nothing to do with it. >> ahead -- >> when he approached me. he had the plan drawn out. he said, 10,000 is in the drawer. the sex tapes are over there under the tv and the safe is there.

yes, we are twins. when i went on to ancestry, i just put in the name of my parents and my grandparents. i was getting all these leaves and i was going back generation after generation. you start to see documents and you see signatures of people that you've never met. i mean, you don't know these people, but you feel like you do. you get connected to them. i wish that i could get into a time machine and go back 100 years, 200 years and just meet these people. being on ancestry just made me feel like i belonged somewhere. discover your story. start searching for free now at ancestry.com.

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♪ >> reporter: two weeks after cape cod native shirley reine was gunned down pulling into her garage, police allowed her two sisters inside the house where she was killed. for the first time. >> just being in the house was kind of freaky. >> it is the home where shirley reine spent the past three decades of her life. where she lived, where she worked. and now where she died. above the garage, the once hectic offices where shirley ran

the family business seemingly frozen in time. what was it like working there? >> we had fun. we really did. it was a lot of fun. shirley was the clerk at the company. i took care of the accounts payable. and accounts receivables. >> shirley's husband melvin reine started the trash removal company five star enterprises in the 1970s. >> it was really very much a family business. shirley reine worked in the business. >> reporter: his sons took part in it? >> his sons took part in it. >> reporter: but over the years as the company expanded -- the lucrative business that once united the reine family quickly became the root of its unraveling. >> i am told that, the sons did not work their territories,

there were customer complaints. there were lost customers and melvin became frustrated at them because they were not working territories. eventually melvin sold off the territories and he stopped speaking with his sons. so his sons, todd and melvin jr. left the company and severed ties with their dad for good. >> they went and worked for another company. when they left you could see a difference in him. you almost felt sorry for him. >> reporter: for the first time the notorious falmouth fox appeared diminished. he had lost ties with his two sons. and was also losing his mind to dimentia. >> i think he knew something was up with him. he was losing it. he was, doing weird things.

>> after a string of bizarre incidents, a judge ordered melvin to be evaluated. which landed him in this local mental hospital indefinitely. >> when melvin was institutionalized everything broke. >> how did shirley deal with his illness? >> scary for her. she had three mortgages to pay. she had a business she head to run. >> reporter: she was handling everything? to run. >> reporter: she was handling everythina to run. >> reporter: she was handling everythind to run. >> reporter: she was handling everything? >> everything. >> reporter: everything that her stepsons believed was rightfully theirs. >> reporter: they wanted what she had. they wanted it all. >> the rift was over the money. a family business. the family property. they wanted a piece of that. and -- they could see that, that, everything was going shirley's way. >> reporter: and they were right. weeks before he was institutionalized, melvin cut his sons out of his will. signed over his business and all

of his properties to his wife shirley. does anything about the timing surprise you or make you suspicious at all? >> certainly todd reine and brother, raymond tried to make the case that the transfer of property to shirley reine happened much too close to when he was institutionalized. their whole argument he couldn't have been of right mind to sign the property over. >> reporter: to make the argument in court and win, they needed shirley and melvin's financial documents to prove it. todd reine believed he knew just the guy who could help. his name is john rams. >> you know i owed todd a favor. just happened this guy wanted a burglary. i told hem i am not a burglary type person. that's not what i do. >> reporter: but rams does have

an extensive criminal record from assault to manslaughter. did he ever tell you why he wanted you to burglarize shirley's home? >> he wanted the documents. the sex tapes. >> reporter: he wanted shirley and melvin's newly signed will and trust documents and several tapes rumored to exist which allegedly show his stepmom performing sexual acts with other men. >> when he approached me. he had the plan drawn out. he said the $10,000 is in the drawer. the sex tapes over there under the tv. the safe is there. in the safe is the documents with the will and testament. >> reporter: did you feel look you had a choice? >> you always have a choice, ma'am. >> reporter: in december of 2002, john rams and two accomplices carry out todd's plan. and break into shirley's home. did the burglary go according to plan? >> yeah, yeah.

he got his thing. boom, boom. done. everything done. >> reporter: what exactly did you take from shirley reine's home? >> we took the safe. i saw the sex tapes. i made a judgment call not to grab them. i don't know it was just icky. there was no cash in the $10,000 wasn't there. he got the documents. once todd reine had the documents he was looking for in that safe, short time later, a lawsuit was filed. against shirley reine. up next -- >> they put a hit out on her. she was afraid. >> who killed shirley reine? >> he wanted me to shoot shirley. go in her house and shoot her for him. so you're a small business expert from at&t? yeah, give me a problem and i've got the solution.

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december, 2002. john rams peeled out of the parking lot behind cheryl reine's house. >> got in the car, boom. gone. off we went. >> reporter: he and two

accomplices had just stolen a safe from shirley's bedroom closet. a safe with important documents inside. >> here legal papers, her wills, her trust, power of attorney, everything. >> everything? >> everything. >> reporter: everything necessary for todd and his brother to file a lawsuit against their step mother, seeking full control of the reine family fortune. >> breaking into shirley's home brought to light critical documents that were required by the plaintiffs in order to proceed with the lawsuit. >> when she first got this lawsuit, she tried to work a deal out. they wanted nothing to do with it. they wanted it all. >> reporter: no deal. >> no deal. >> reporter: with no deal or compromise in sight, those close

to her say it quickly became clear to shirley that this fight was about far more than just money. she was in a fight for her life. >> she expressed to me many times that she was afraid of them. shirley said, i will not forget the word, the boys will see to it that this case never goes to court. >> reporter: soon, shirley's fears got even worse. >> she got a call from her lawyer. and that -- word had trickled done through the state police that, that there had been a hit put on her. who actually put out that hit? friends say shirley was never told. she was afraid. when she came out of the movies. she never knew when she turned her car on if it was going to blow up. i don't know how she lived like that. i said, oh, cut it out.

they're just pulling your leg. they're just trying to scare you. little did i know. >> reporter: little did loretta know that according to john rams, a plan was booing hatched. did he tell you that he wanted to kill shirley reine? >> he wanted me to shoot shirley. go in her house and shoo shoot her for him. >> reporter: john insists that he never agreed to do it. but that todd was determined to make it happen with or without him. >> he said he wanted it to look like a mob hit. i am just listening to this guy. >> reporter: did you warn authorities after talking to todd? >> yeah, absolutely i did. >> reporter: two years before shirley was killed, john says he had a secret meeting with state and federal law enforcement to warn them that shirley's life was in grave danger. when it came up, todd reine wants to kill shirley reine.

the first thing out of their mouth was, do you know he is a federal witness? i just looked at them. basically didn't say much more after that, man. >> reporter: while cnn has been unable to confirm or deny todd's ties to federal law enforcement. he was at one time an informant for the local police department. >> he was protected by the police. he had the police. if you are not worried about the police, who are you worried about? >> an allegation that police have adamantly denied. but then why does the written report from john's 2003 meeting make no mention of shirley or todd reine, anywhere? >> rams insists that he told authorities todd reine wanted her dead. why wasn't the report? it's hard to say. it does make you wonder.

you know? what's going on here. >> reporter: we asked the dea who said the threat against shirley isn't in the report because john never discussed it. but john's attorney who was also present at that meeting confirmed to us he most certainly did. >> it could have been avoided. really could have. that life could have been saved. >> reporter: by may 9, 20005. it was too late.5. it was too late. >> i tried. gave them two years in advance they still didn't do anything. >> reporter: after shirley's death, police launched a murder investigation. but instead, wound up solving the burglary case. >> during the murder investigation they came across information that led them to todd reine as the the ringleader of the theft of the safe. >> while his brother, melvin jr.

was never implicated, todd, john rams, and an accomplice were all convicted of the theft and sent to prison in september of 2007. which allowed investigators a unique opportunity to build shirley's murder case while their two with main suspects were locked up. >> they definitely were trying to get john ram's to flip. they want to john rams several times trying to get him to talk. >> reporter: and talk he did. between 2005 and 2011, john rams willingly spoke to police at least seven times. >> he said, i didn't do it, but todd reine wanted her dead. >> reporter: despite his repeated denials, in december of 2011, john received this stunning news that he, not todd, was being charged for the murder

of shirley reine. >> did everything. i told you what happened. two years before any of this went down. i did everything i could and now this. >> with the area that -- todd hired you. to do this just like he hired you to steal the safe. >> if john knew what happened to shirley reine, this was the last chance to say so. >> i was never, ever, even in the room with this woman ever. how could, how does this happen? >> coming up -- >> there was no fiber, fingerprint, dna, trace, ballistics, foot impressions, evidence against john ram. none whatsoever.

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december 2011. after a six-year investigation, john rams jr. was arraigned for the 2005 murder of shirley reine. >> mr. rams, did you killed shirley reine? >> no. >> reporter: the latest chapter in a sordid family drama that plays out like a hollywood script.

the reine family once run by notorious arsonist. later divided over the family fortune. and then, destroyed by the murder of one of their own. the da said this man pulled the trigger. >> they always told me that they believed that rams did it. did he do it? i am not 100% convinced. was he asked to do it? i believe he was. >> reporter: by whom? >> buy todd. >> reporter: todd reine, shirley's stepson.y todd. >> reporter: todd reine, shirley's stepson. something john rams said over and over. >> john rams repeatedly told investigators todd reine wanted shirley dead and he was willing to pay someone to do it. that he was willing to pay him to do it. >> reporter: the question is --

did he follow through with it? >> never once did i say, "yeah, i will solidly do this for you." never once did i tell him "yes, i will do this." >> reporter: the district attorney's office wasn't buying john's story and were betting the jury wouldn't either. >> john rams had been hired to do this job and todd reine had hired tim to do it. >> reporter: but the forensics told a very different story. >> there was no fiber, fingerprint, dna, trace, ballistics, foot impression evidence against john rams, none whatsoever. >> reporter: the one fingerprint that was discovered at the scene, didn't point to john either. >> john rams was excluded as a possible source of this latent print. >> reporter: the strongest evidence against him came from witness testimony by jail house informants including one former

cellmate who testified that john confessed i killed her with a gun supplied by todd reine. >> all of the prosecution had was a collection of -- informants and people who weren't very credible. >> i thought it was, full of misrepresentation. and outward, deceit and lies actually. >> mr. rams any comment today? >> reporter: two people who never gave their stories -- shirley's two stepsons. >> todd reine and melvin reine jr. were both on the witness list. and the prosecution wanted to question them on the stand. but they both pleaded the 5th. >> reporter: shirley's husband melvin sr. never took the stand either. still institutionalized with dimentia, he was unable to even attend his wife's trial. but his son todd did. and john ram's attorney, timothy flaherty made sure jurors knew it.

>> there had to be a question in his mind. they believe todd reine is the person who paid john rams to -- to do this. yet he is sitting in the score courtroom. how is that? >> the that was the most compelling argument i made in the trial. john rams, where is todd reine. sitting in the gallery not at counsel table. why isn't he charged? the man with motive, he's the man with the opportunity, means, why not charge him? >> why didn't they ever charge reine? >> a better question for michael o'keefe. >> reporter: cape cod district attorney, michael o'keeffe denied our request for an interview. >> i believe that if law enforcement had enough information to charge either one of the reines, or both of them, law enforcement would do so. and the reason they weren't charged was there wasn't enough evidence.

>> reporter: even if detectives thought that todd reine was the master mind and asked john rams to kill shirley, why do you think he was never charged? >> i don't know. i don't know. that's what kills me. i don't know. >> he never even got questioned. >> reporter: todd was never questioned. not because police didn't try, but because he and his brother melvin refused to talk. >> tell folks how long this journey has been for you to see justice here? >> nine years. >> what would you say to mr. rams if you could? talk to him? >> do the right thing. just do the right thing. >> reporter: in april of 2014, after less than two weeks of testimony, the prosecution rested and the defense made the bold choice not to call a single witness. >> i felt very strong about simply making my final argument to the jury.

and asking them to acquit john rams based upon the record evidence. >> reporter: it was time for the jury to decide. when we come back -- did you kill shirley reine? the verdict. >> no one expected when the case went to the jury that it would come back that quickly. ♪

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>> mr. rams, what do you have to say? >> i'm thankful for the jury's decision. america's wonderful. >> after two weeks of trial, and less than two hours of deliberation, john rams jr. heard the two words he'd been waiting for -- not guilty. >> what did you think when you heard those two words? >> get to go home. >> reporter: the cloud of suspicion that had followed john rams ever since shirley reine's death in 2005 has finally lifted. >> so you are an innocent man. >> absolutely. >> walking out here, your life start over again? what happens? >> it starts over, it starts over. >> reporter: but starting over is exactly what shirley's loved

ones had feared most. >> it's heart breaking. here we go again. >> she was stressed out. >> yeah. >> that was devastating. i was hoping least if he got something i could feel some closure, some justice. >> if you could say anything to john rams, what would you say? >> if he did it, please say that you did it. you are not going to get in trouble for it now. >> do you think the jury got it right? >> the jury in this case got it right. there was no way, based on the evidence presented to come back with a conviction. >> we respect the verdict of the jury certainly. it was a difficult case. >> reporter: do you believe the prosecution had a strong case even though the jury did not. >> i never thought we had a strong case. >> reporter: a difficult case and some say the wrong defendant. >> he got off. you know why he got off? because the whole trial was about todd reine.

that's all the jury heard was reine, todd, todd, to the through the whole thing. >> reporter: despite our attempts to interview todd and brother melvin, they refused. neither has spoken publicly about their step mother's murder. >> i have tried many times to ask todd to talk about the murder of shirley reine. he just won't do it. the best i have gotten out of him is sort of a wry smile. >> reporter: what that smile meant, if anything, we may never know. >> they got the wrong guy in the beginning. i think they should have arrested todd. todd told people he wanted her dead. >> shirley told a long list of people she feared that todd and his brother just might to do it. >> she was definitely living in fear. >> her attorney, her accountant, her hair dresser and her best friend. shirley warned them all. >> if anything happens to me,

make sure everyone knows the boys did it. >> what i can say since shirley reine's death that todd and melvin reine got what they wanted. melvin lives in the house where the murder happened. todd reine lives on the property. >> would you say there are any other suspects besides shirley's sons. >> there was a lot of talk about suspects, people who kwloeed shirley money and didn't want to pay it back. i don't know what shirley was doing with those sex tapes. she had been using them to extract money from people with whom she had relations. i don't know, but it's a possibility. >> nice setting here. >> reporter: more than a decade later, john rams is the only suspect ever charged in

shirley's murder and he's more adamant than ever that he had nothing to do with it. did you kill shirley reine? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: people will watch this special and say why should i believe this guy? he has a history, convicted of manslaughter. why believe this guy. >> the conviction and the way i articulate my words. >>. >> i don't want him. i want the ones that are responsible. everybody that is responsible. >> reporter: investigators say they haven't given up on finding them. >> i would not be one bit surprised if there was a subsequent prosecution for the homicide of shirley reine. what will happen, i think it takes one set of lips to solve this crime. that set of lips is out there

somewhere in the community. >>. >> reporter: when the name reine is spoken around the town of falmouth these days, what do people think? >> if you say it, it is more about history. people are wondering how are there so many unsolved crimes that revolve around this family and most particularly will there be a resolution to who killed shirley reine? who with was it? >> a question shirley's husband, a man with many secrets of his own never received the answer. he died while still constitutionalized in november 2013. >> so hard not knowing. >> it is. people will tell you all the time you need to move on. how can you move on? what do you miss most about her over the years? >> i miss the most the laughs.

♪ >> when you come back now ten years later, how does that feel? >> it feels surreal. somedays it feels like this happened. but then other days it people r feels like just yesterday. >> you wish you had answers but ten years later. >> i do. i'm never going to give up hope. >> reporter: hope that one day her sister's name will finally be removed from the list of reine family mysteries. >> so you believe your sister was innocent until the end. >> nobody's innocent. you are not innocent. i'm not. but she did not deserve that. nobody does. nobody has the right to end somebody else's life. sorry. just doesn't work that way.

crowded and hungry thousands of migrants seeking passage to germany stuck in limbo. china marks the anniversary by showing off its military might. iran nuclear deal clears a political hurdle in the u.s. we will look at the pros and cons. hello, everybody. welcome our viewers if the united states and around the world. great to have you with us. i'm john vause. the second hour of "cnn newsroom" begins right now. >> hundreds of migrants spend another night outside of the main train stati i