congratulations, guys. thank you. my pleasure. thank you so much. thanks, guys. cuban: [ laughs ] i would pay 75k just to not listen to that anymore. yeah, exactly. it was enough already. good luck. robert: we envisioned ourselves coming in here today, leaving with a deal with mark cuban and barbara, and at the end of the day, that's exactly what we did. good job. love you. love you.

pushed over. her hair was perfected on her face. >> almost too perfect. >> three words jumped out, staged crime scene. >> tonight on 20/20, this beautiful young daughter found hanging in a hotel shower. did she take her own life? or did someone put her there? >> a lot of people will ask how could a mother look at the photographs from an autopsy? >> i became my daughter's investigator. i didn't have a choice. >> clues only a mother could find at the scene where it happened, her clothes, her face, even the way she was wearing her bracelet. when they paint the portrait of an obsessed mother, what do you say? >> it's a good thing i was. >> tonight she wants answers from her daughter's fiance. >> i said i'm not done with this. >> is she going after an

innocent man? the fiance taking a polygraph in front of millions, what it revealed. and tonight, the 20/20 exclusive. what we asked, that led to this. >> can we cut? >> a man's life ruined? or justice, all because of a mother's suspicion. >> here is david muir and elizabeth vargas. >> call it a mother's intuition, she was convinced when her stunning daughter was found hanging in that hotel shower, this was no suicide. what happens when nobody will listen? >> in this case, the mother begins digging herself, conducting her surveillance, studying the autopsy and the horrible photos of her own daughter. and tonight, you're about to see what no one else has seen, because as we come on the air, she is still digging, you'll soon understand why florida's top investigators are suddenly investigating all over again. >> reporter: on a friday night the last thing this florida mother ever thought she'd be

doing would be patrolling this small picturesque beach town an hour south of tampa. but for nearly five years this is exactly how kelly osborn has been spending every ounce of her free time. searching for answers, determined to uncover what really happened at this charming beachfront hotel up these stairs, around the corner, and behind this hotel door where her beautiful, 22 year old daughter was last seen alive. >> she was my only daughter, so she was everything to me. from the day she was born, and still to today. >> reporter: and life without her? >> um, life without her has been very, very different. the last five years, i am not the same person as i used to be. >> reporter: these images are from the last time kelly would spend with her daughter, celebrating christmas in 2008. >> he wouldn't let me look, so i snooped. >> reporter: you can see the smile on her daughter's face, as sheena opens her gifts. just days after this video was

taken that daughter, gone forever. that video all this mother has left. how often have you gone back to look at that? >> i just went through it as recent as last night. it's -- it's her voice, it's her -- the things that i don't have any more. >> reporter: now, that mother, a former real estate agent, has been thrust into a role she never imagined. a one woman crusader investigating her own daughter's mysterious death. what was sheena like? >> sheena had a very vibrant personality. she was an amazing daughter. i could talk to her about anything. >> reporter: her love life, her hopes and dreams for the future. her babies. her two yorkshire terriers, chloe and encore. you know how people keep baby books? she had baby books for her dogs. >> reporter: and they were not forgotten on christmas.

and those prized dogs - would be the last ones with sheena in that hotel room. they would be left behind. and so would sheena's friends. do you miss sheena? do you still think about her? >> oh absolutely. >> reporter: what do you miss? >> everything. >> reporter: she was a good friend? >> she was a very good friend, yes. >> sheena owned the room the minute she walked into it. people were drawn to her. i was drawn to her. she was absolutely vivacious. >> reporter: vivacious and among her group of friends, sheena was the head-turner. >> there were always guys chasing her around of course, which makes sense. >> reporter: and the last guy to chase her would catch her. ultimately convincing her to marry him. joe genoese. they quickly fell in love. she was his everything. >> sheena seemed to be happy. really, you know, just kinda lovin' life. >> i believed that joe loved sheena.

and i know that she loved him. >> reporter: but sheena's mother was hardly sold. >> i was told he was 35 when i first met him. and so the minute i laid eyes on him, i said, "you are not 35." >> reporter: that was the first thing you said to him? >> that was the first thing i said to him. >> reporter: that's a protective mom, right from the get-go. >> yeah, yeah. it kinda floored me. >> reporter: joe was more than twice her daughter's age. he was 42 when they met. she was just 20. and that's not all that concerned her mother. joe already had three children and was going through a nasty divorce not exactly this mother's idea of the perfect catch. and her daughter knew it. >> sheen a looked at him and said, "my mother will have a full work-up on you by morning." and, you know, i looked at it a little bit. i did some public records search. and, you know, i found some tickets and, and -- >> reporter: so she wasn't kidding. >> no. no, she, she really wasn't kidding. she is my, she is my only daughter and my only child, and it was my job to take care of her and to look out for her.

>> reporter: but joe thought he was looking out for her too. paying her rent, showering her with gifts. but while there was love their may-december romance was also stormy from the start >> she wasn't the type of person to back down, and he wasn't the type of person to back down. so they butt heads more often than not. >> reporter: you thought it would end? >> yes. i was certain it was going to end. >> reporter: then what this mother did not see coming. the ring that appeared on her finger. >> reporter: when did you find out they were engaged? >> it was something that showed up out there. their engagement wasn't a huge exciting celebration for anyone. not her. not him. to me it seemed more like a band-aid on years of problems. >> reporter: if there were problems, that band-aid was covering them well. because on that christmas

morning, the last time sheena's mother would see her alive, there were smiles and laughter. and another gift to go along with the ring. a diamond bracelet. even her mother holding the camera was impressed. >> that is so gorgeous. >> reporter: a bracelet revealing joe's love for sheena and later perhaps revealing something else. that wasn't the only gift. because days later another surprise. joe giving sheena a quick new year's get away. they were headed to bradenton beach where they would stay in that hotel room where sheena would last be seen alive. new year's eve 8:00 p.m. >> they had dinner at a restaurant across the street from their hotel, that was a restaurant they planned on getting married. >> reporter: sheena's friends remember she was in high spirits that night getting messages from her while she was sitting at the dinner table with joe. >> i received a text message from her saying, happy new year. she let me know her cousin was in labor. she was beyond excited. she was going to be an auntie.

>> reporter: at the stroke of midnight, the couple back in their room. >> they watched fireworks off the balcony. around midnight they had the new year's eve kiss. >> reporter: soon the sound of fireworks replaced by something else. the shouting coming from their room. the couple had gotten into an argument. >> it got heated. the people next door ended up calling 911. >> reporter: 1:47 a.m., not even two hours into the new year, and this. >> 911. >> there is two people over there just screaming and yelling, a woman and a man at each other. >> reporter: the police arrive as joe the future husband is leaving. they pass him as they head up the stairs into that room to find sheena and her dogs. >> sheena wouldn't go into detail about what the argument was about. >> reporter: soon the police would leave but this case was far from over. the most shocking twist was about to come next. >> i answer the phone. and i go sheena, sheena. and there's no answer. now i'm screaming into the phone. and then all of a sudden i hear

a man's voice in the background. >> reporter: what happened inside the hotel room that would devastate this mother? and the last time anyone would hear sheena's voice again, a call to 911. >> he just made me don't let the holidays sneak up on you. shop early with kmart free layaway. and get 5% off toys when you put them on layaway this weekend. kmart.

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20/20 continues with suspicion. once again david muir. >> reporter: for most families new year's day is a celebration but it would soon turn into the worst day of this mother's life. 12:24 that afternoon kelly osborn gets a call from joe genoese. her daughter's fiance. >> he talked to kelly and told her he was having a hard time getting in touch with sheena, she became concerned for her daughter and went to her apartment. >> reporter: then suddenly that mother's cellphone ringing. the name that comes up offers hope. >> i answer the phone, and i go "sheena, sheena." and there is no answer. and now i am screaming into the phone, i am upset and calling for her. and then all of a sudden, i hear a man's voice in the background. >> reporter: that voice, one of the police officers in her daughter's hotel room.

it turns out kelly says they inadvertently called her from her daughter's cellphone. >> that's when you knew something was wrong. >> that's when i found out something was wrong. >> -- was when police accidentally called you from her phone. >> they said, "we need you to give us your, your address." >> reporter: the fiance, joe, is summoned to sheena's mother's house too. and when police arrive they tell them sheena is dead found alone in that hotel room. >> getting a notification like that is the most horrifying event you could have in your life. >> all we knew, um, was that she was deceased; we didn't know how. >> reporter: a mother begging for answers. >> i am asking them, "well, where did you find her?" and they say that she was found in the shower we were thinking was, you know, did she slip and fall? did she hit her head? >> reporter: but the answer would be far more heartbreaking >> the police never told us. so when the medical examiner does call us and say, "we have just completed the autopsy, and

it's consistent with a hanging," we are just dumbfounded. >> reporter: sheena was found with her clothes on, hanging in the shower - one of her precious dog's leashes around her neck. and with no signs of a struggle in the room, and no obvious injuries to sheena's body, the detective in the case, lenard diaz and that police department, quickly ruling it a suicide. family and friends immediately argued it didn't add up. >> the moment i got the call, i knew that something was not right about the situation >> reporter: and kelly says her daughter was hardly someone planning her own demise. the smiles in that video just days before. and so many other telling signs in days before her death. >> she renewed a subscription to a magazine. >> yes, she did. she renewed her aaa for the year. >> left her rent check. >> yes. yeah. rent check is all filled out, ready to be paid, for the, you know, month of january. >> reporter: and she says what also didn't make sense were those joyful text messages

sheena sent from that new year's eve dinner with joe. >> that night, sheena's texting all her friends, she's all excited saying, i'm gonna be an auntie, i'm gonna be an auntie. >> reporter: kelly says she immediately wanted answers from one person. >> three days after sheena died, i had asked joe to come out to the garage, that i wanted to talk to him. >> reporter: and she delivered this message. >> this isn't over. sheena didn't commit suicide. i said, you can make this as easy or as hard on me, and yourself, as you would like. >> reporter: kelly was done selling houses - now a mother trying to solve a crime. with no idea where to start. >> i have every police report. >> reporter: she studied hundreds of other suicides looking for patterns. >> and the one common theme that kept coming up. >> mmhmm >> were drugs and alcohol? >> yes. >> and yet the amount of alcohol in your daughter's body. >> was under the legal limit, she could've legally driven, um, might have been one drink, two?

>> and any drugs? >> no, none. >> reporter: and that was just the first discovery. she began pouring over her daughter's cellphone records. and discovered a call to 911 that night not the one from the neighbors who heard that screaming but it turns out there was also a call from sheena herself. >> 9-1-1 what's your emergency. >> hi my name is sheena -- >> reporter: her mother says police never revealed that. >> i call detective diaz and he said, only the people in the room next door made a 911 phone call. i had to go and learn how to try to retrieve a 911 phone call. and when i did, i delivered it to detective diaz. >> reporter: sure enough, it was her daughter calling after that argument with joe at 2:10 that morning. >> he just made me bleed and left claw marks all over me and stuff. >> they had had many fights before. she chose to call the police on this particular night for a reason. this one had to be a big one.

>> reporter: and sheena's mother discovered something else. the text messages her daughter sent joe after that 911 call. sheena at 1:53 in the morning, you're evil and scary. at 2:12, stop being an alpha male and stop putting your hands on a woman. and there were images, too. >> reporter: how did you discover the pictures? >> they released the camera to us. that's when we found she was taking pictures of herself of what he did to her. >> reporter: the photos on her camera, showing a cut on her neck and a scratch on her finger. >> so the police had, they'd never looked at the pictures. >> they knew what was in her camera. and they dismissed it. >> reporter: and as kelly quietly poured over every piece of evidence - there was someone else who got a tip. a reporter a former cop himself, lee williams. >> i had a call from a source in law enforcement, who said i needed to look at this case. i went to the website, and i talked to kelly, and i was hooked. >> you were? >> yeah. >> there were enough red flags

right from the start? >> right away. >> reporter: lee williams has reported extensively on the case for the sarasota herald tribune-- writing that lead detective in the case - had never been sent out on a homicide investigation alone before asking how would he know if he were looking at one now? >> any suspicious death should be initially viewed as a potential homicide. he walked in, he saw her hanging, and i think he just, in his mind it became a suicide. >> reporter: sheena's mother started calling that detective convinced the investigation had been botched. >> i had called him, and said, have you questioned the boyfriend yet? his exact words to me were, "no, why? should i?" >> the detective waited twenty two days before interviewing joe genoese, during which any wounds or scratches that he had on his body could have healed. >> do they write up a report? >> no, they did not. >> how do you not document that? >> again, i don't know why. i certainly would've documented that conversation, probably videotaped it too. >> reporter: and the big question just where did joe go after that hotel room that night?

he told police he went home and there was a tenant in his townhouse who saw him. but sheena's mother said police at first never went to check on that alibi. we reached out the bradenton beach police department and to that detective, they've declined to comment. but that reporter the former cop, did track down the witness who offered that alibi. >> and when you asked him, "did you see joe on new year's day"? >> he saw joe. he doesn't remember what time it took place. he had been drinking all day. kinda hard to establish an alibi time. >> reporter: but bradenton beach police have long said they didn't rely solely on that alibi. they say they have cellphone records - pings from joe's phone cell phone calls and text messages - revealing joe's locations in fact, they say those pings trace his route home. >> i've never seen the pings, they've been sealed by a judge, i'd love to see them. >> reporter: when we come back the revealing evidence the photos of her dead daughter. >> a lot of people will ask, how could a mother look at the photographs from an autopsy?

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>> reporter: long after most of us put our work week behind us, kelly osborn is still up at night. still pouring through every piece of evidence but by far the most difficult pieces to study --- are the images of her dead daughter. >> a lot of people will ask, how could a mother look at the photographs from an autopsy? >> i don't recommend it to any, any parent. >> but why did you? >> i had to. i became my daughter's investigator. i didn't have a choice. >> reporter: and immediately there were clues. the kind she says only a mother would notice. >> the first, i was very shocked at um, looking at her eyes. sheena and i, we wore the same mascara, and i knew that we, if you cry with this mascara on,

that mascara just clumps up, your eyelashes are all clumped up and, and hers were perfect. >> reporter: if sheena took her own life, there were no tears, which experts say is very rare. her make up untouched. >> reporter: something else only a mom would notice -- that diamond bracelet they fawned over at christmas. >> reporter: kelly says it was on the wrong wrist. >> it is on her right wrist, and i knew that sheena didn't wear her bracelets on her right wrist. as a matter of fact, that video on christmas, when she got that bracelet, she takes that bracelet out of the box, and shows it, with her right hand and automatically places it on her left wrist. >> reporter: the crime scene photos also show both the bathroom and the shower doors left open. sheena's mother convinced she would never have done that with her babies - her two little dogs right there in the room. >> she would have made sure that her dogs didn't see her that way.

one or both of those doors would have been closed. >> reporter: and while that's what a mother noticed from those photos veteran crime reporter lee williams saw something else. >> there's a photo of sheena in the shower, her feet are caked with sand and debris, yet there's no debris on the white floor, on the shower or on the white floor of the bathroom immediately outside the shower. >> so her feet were caked in sand and yet there was no sand anywhere in that bathroom? >> none whatsoever. other than on her feet. >> reporter: for williams, sand on her feet and not on the floor around her, makes it nearly impossible to believe sheena killed herself in that shower. >> so either sheena was carried in there, post mortem, and hung. or she somehow levitated into that room. >> reporter: kelly had the reporter on her side, but what she truly needed were some big names, forensic heavyweights. and she got three of them to look at all the evidence. one of them taking 20/20 went back to that very hotel room with her.

>> reporter: jan johnson is one of those c-s-i experts who examined the evidence. she's spent more than 40 years studying crime scenes, and she immediately saw red flags. >> a pillow lying on the floor. i would be interested in what is on that pillow. >> reporter: a veteran investigator would rule everything out, asking could that pillow have been used to smother her. you're thinking someone could have used one of these pillows to kill her. >> absolutely. >> reporter: most telling the bathroom. where she says crucial evidence was missed. this is where sheena was found hanging from a dog leash. >> that's correct. it's attached to the shower head. clipped at the top. extending downward. the noose around her neck. her buttocks eight inches off the ground. she's extended toward the back side of the shower with her legs extended outward. >> reporter: she's not suspended in midair. >> no. >> reporter: her legs are on the bottom of the shower. >> flat. >> reporter: wouldn't that give somebody ample opportunity to pull themselves back up?

>> absolutely. >> reporter: she points to her clothes, if she were convulsing she would expect the clothes to ride up the body. she points to the cuffs of her pants down around her feet and january says it looks like she was dragged into the shower. >> the pants are her-- extended outward. and you would have expected if she had, you know, walked her way down the shower wall and hung herself that the pants would've gone up her legs. i mean, her clothing is perfect. >> she appeared serene, like she had just fallen asleep. a hanging is a violent act. towards the end, um, your body fights that, it fights the ligature. it struggles to get air, and there was no evidence of any of that. >> her hair was perfectly in place. >> yeah. >> and in fact you described it as tucked right behind her ear the way she typically would. >>it was like a mannequin that had just been pushed over on its side. i've never seen a hanging like that. >> reporter: and one more red flag for jan and that entire team of experts was what they saw in sheena's eyes.

>> when you looked at those images and saw she had popped blood vessels you thought -- >> she had been strangled. you usually see petechial hemorrhages in a strangulation, you don't often see them in a hanging. >> reporter: the hemorrhaging in sheena's eyes they believe is more consistent with a violent struggle, a strangling and then the bombshell conclusion. all three experts weighing in, and in every one of their reports -- >> three words stood out, "staged crime scene." and that's huge, that means that what was done to sheena was staged to make it appear as a suicide. >> what i think happened in that room that night is -- i think that she may have been suffocated on the bed and i think that she was dragged into the shower and placed into that leash that was already set up on that shower head. >> reporter: when we come back this mom's mountain of evidence and the stunning change from the medical examiner blowing the case wide open.

>> tonight her persistence is paying off and joe genoese takes polygraph test in front of millions. before sitting down one on one with 20/20 - >> and once and for all, did you kill sheena? >> reporter: stay with us.

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more of suspicion on 20/20. once again, david muir. >> reporter: as this florida mother walks the beach there is little peace, consumed by the mystery surrounding what happened to her daughter in a hotel just across the street. and while she says police in this small town wouldn't listen to her. she now had three leading voices on her side. the forensics experts who share her sneaking suspicion her daughter was murdered. >> i remember when the call came, with absolute certainty they said that this was not a suicide, that in fact it was a staged crime scene. >> reporter: all three of them? >> yes, and then i said are you willing to submit affidavits to me? and they said absolutely. >> reporter: armed with those affidavits kelly got a meeting

with the medical examiner who had classified sheena's death a suicide. and right there while sitting across from her, the break she was waiting for, he changed that one key line on sheena's death certificate. >> they changed the manner of death to undetermined pending further investigation. yes. we thought that automatically opens this case. no. no, you know what detective diaz tells me? "that's just their opinion." >> reporter: in fact that detective who answered the call remained convinced that sheena did kill herself and he went on local station wtsp to say so. >> she wants to say she's not in denial, i say she is. i say she just can't accept her daughter committing suicide. >> reporter: when they paint the portrait of an obsessed mother, what do you say? >> it's a good thing i was, it's call it obsessive? or you call it just doing their job for them. >> reporter: and this mother turned private investigator finally had people listening.

>> sheena's mom believes her daughter was murdered. she said police got it wrong when they declared her daughter's death a suicide. >> there's a tremendous amount of pressure that's been applied to, not only those two police officers, but the mayor in bradenton beach as well. >> reporter: do you think they underestimated this mother? >> i do, i do, i think they saw her as they described her, just as a grieving mother. >> reporter: and it wasn't just the medical examiner. she had her sights set on the state's top investigators next. turning to the florida department of law enforcement a panel with the power to take another look at the case. and they did. asking to hear from that first detective who labeled sheena's death a suicide. >> reporter: so they take a look at all the evidence. >> their evidence is presented to them by detective diaz. he goes over his findings from his investigation. and what does this panel decide? >> the case needs to be re-opened. >> state investigators will now

shall looking into this case. >> reporter: when you heard that they were going to take another look? >> i was, cautiously optimistic, about what was taking place. >> reporter: but did you feel, did you feel this, was this a hard fought victory? >> oh my, yes. >> reporter: finally they were going to investigate your daughter's death. >> finally, and why, why did we have to fight, for four years, four years. nobody would listen. but now they were local station fox 13 follows her as she wheels years of her own evidence straight through those doors. >> justice has not been served in the murder of my daughter. >> reporter: you were conducting surveillance. >> yes. >> reporter: on joe. >> yes i was. >> reporter: you were following him? >> one could call it that, but i rather refer to it as surveillance. >> reporter: that surveillance, that digging led to one more alarming discovery. just six months after sheena's death joe was arrested for battery involving his ex wife. the charges later dropped, but

kelly was determined. investigators hear it all. >> a new year's eve get away gone wrong. and just as the state was taking another look millions across america were about to see the case too. >> these two people think you had something to do with their daughter's death. >> there were sheena's parents on the dr. phil show. they were stunned that right there with them was joe. >> all these things are lies. they are not true. >> reporter: so confidence in his innocence he agrees to a polygraph test. some would say, who would agree to go on a national tv show and take a polygraph test unless you're certain you're innocent? >> exactly. especially since the polygraphist that conducted the examination is one of the best in the country. he is the former chief polygraphist for the fbi's la field office. >> maybe he thought that after four and a half years, he's been so convincing to all the authorities, that he'd be convincing there too? >> reporter: he would have to

convince them on two major points. so let's hit those again, the two questions were? >> did he kill sheena, or was involved somehow in her death? >> reporter: and with millions watching, the results. >> and the polygraph result on both questions is that that answer was deceptive. that you were not telling the truth. but he fails it? >> he failed it terribly. not slightly, he fails miserably. it was a, i literally became nauseous. >> in my mind joe is a suspect in the murder. >> reporter: and while a polygraph is not admissible in a court, it did not bode well for joe genoese with that new investigation underway. when we come back joe genoese one on one with us. his only interview since failing that polygraph. how do you explain those test results?

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>> reporter: tonight, as some of florida's top investigators take another look at the mysterious death of sheena morris, found dead in that hotel shower. the man she was getting ready to marry, who failed that polygraph, has decided to sit down with "20/20." >> good to meet you. nearly five years after he lost his fiancee, joe says he's a victim too. so why sit down with me? >> because i have to tell you my side of the story. i'm being victimized cause i cared about someone. i was there for her, when her family a lot of times wasn't. >> reporter: put under the microscope he says by a mother determined to prove her daughter did not commit suicide. >> the story we've been following for years. joe says the portrait painted of his relationship with sheena is not a true one.

>> a domestic dispute. >> we've interviewed a lot of sheena's friends. many of her friends say that this was a tumultuous relationship. >> i just don't understand where they're gettin' at. you know -- >> reporter: there wasn't any fighting? >> well, in a relationship, there's always -- there's always arguments and stuff. >> reporter: it was never physical? >> no. i mean, there was never anything normal -- you know, in a normal relationship, there -- there was fights, there was, you know, back and forths. but there was no -- never any violence, no. >> reporter: nor was there ever any violence with his ex-wife according to joe when we asked him about those battery charges that were dropped. >> it was a push back and forth. she pushed me, i pushed her back, and then she looked at me and says, "now you're goin' to jail." >> reporter: and he points out, his ex wife dropped it all, and he says his fights with sheena, including that one new year's night, were often caused by her jealousy of the family he already had. and he says she was often depressed. remember that christmas morning video, where kelly sees her daughter smiling and laughing. he sees something else.

remembering the fiancee who couldn't get out of bed that morning, who didn't want to spend christmas, he says, with her family. >> reporter: so she -- she wouldn't get out of bed? >> no. she -- she told me -- she -- she wasn't out of bed for two days, hadn't eaten anything in two days. and she -- >> reporter: was she depressed? >> i guess she was upset with the fact, or depressed with the fact that -- i was spendin' time with my kids over the holidays. >> reporter: and joe says that surprise new year's trip was out of concern for sheena - because she'd been down. >> i said to myself, maybe we'll just go down there for new year's eve, since we had a crappy new year -- christmas. >> reporter: he says she was happy that new years eve night. he remembers too, when she sat there texting her friends from the dinner table. >> we went out to dinner at the place we were gonna get married at. she was -- with -- talkin' with her family, most -- textin' and talkin' with her family most of the night. >> reporter: and he remembers their kiss at midnight. >> and -- and then new years -- 12:00 came. and we went out on the balcony, and fireworks went off, and you know, we celebrated new years. >> reporter: a new year's kiss? >> yeah. exactly, yeah. everything was great. >> reporter: great, he says. until he went back inside that hotel room to call his children.

to wish them a happy new year, too. >> and that was it. it lasted all about 15, 20 seconds that i was on the phone. and as i turned back around, she was right there and at that point, she just looked at me and said, "you just [ bleep ] up the whole night." >> reporter: why did she have such a big problem with you calling your kids? >> i don't know. she just didn't want me involved with my children. it was, like, another family to her. and she started getting really upset, screamin' and yellin'. and then she started punchin' the wall. >> reporter: joe says initially it was sheena's idea to leave the hotel but that she suddenly changed her mind. refusing to go. >> she actually at one point tried to grab the money that i had on the bureau so and she said that i wasn't leavin'. and i told her, "i am leavin'. we're leavin'." because at that point, i -- you know, she -- from her punchin' the wall, and screamin' and yellin' the way she did, i -- i was afraid that, you know, cops were gonna come. >> reporter: but guests were already placing that call to 911. >> there's two people over there, just screaming and yelling, a woman and a man, at each other. >> reporter: and joe told us what police say he's always told

them. and where did you go? >> home. straight home. straight to my townhouse where there were people there, they were havin' a party, and at least five or six people saw me. >> reporter: on the drive home, joe says sheena was on the phone with him suddenly sinking into that depression. what was she saying to you? >> there was one thing that she did say, and i've made mention in a somber note, if i can't have you to myself, i don't wanna be here. >> reporter: had she ever said that before? >> not -- no. >> reporter: as for that 911 call sheena made just after 2am -- >> he just made me bleed and left claw marks all over me and stuff. >> the scrape on her -- on her finger, we know that came from her punchin' the wall. and the scrape on her neck a small scrape was when she went to grab the money off of the bureau, and -- i grabbed her by her -- shirt, and it -- and it got her necklace. and it -- and left a little scratch on her neck. that's -- that's it. >> reporter: he said he was

devastated on that new year's day when they all learned sheena was dead. >> i walk up and i look, what's going on? he looked at me and said i'm sorry for your loss. i just looked at him, i couldn't believe what he said to me. can we cut? >> reporter: when he was ready to continue. >> she was a beautiful girl. >> she was a beautiful girl. i -- this is a tragedy in everybody's lives, you know? >> reporter: for you too? >> absolutely. i was engaged to her. >> reporter: do you think everybody's forgotten that you felt this way too? >> no, i just think that they -- they're on the kelley train, and if you go against what kelley says, then you're not an advocate of sheena. >> reporter: a grieving mother out for answers no matter the cost? refusing to accept the possibility that her daughter could have taken her own life? or a fiance covering his tracks? we've talked to sheena's mother, her family, her friends, and they all categorically say she never would have taken her own life.

>> my personal opinion is nobody ever thinks they're gonna take their own life. does anybody presume that somebody's gonna take their own life? >> reporter: did she ever say to you that she was depressed, or -- or having suicidal thoughts? >> she told me she tried to commit suicide when she was 15 years old. took a bottle of pills. >> reporter: in fact that's the same story police say sheena's mother told them the day her body was found. had there ever been suicidal thoughts before? >> she had gotten in some trouble with her dad. and, um, and she kinda like said to her father that she took some pills. they checked everything out. she really didn't take anything. it was a false alarm. >> reporter: joe says he understands kelly's need for answers. but says she's looking in the wrong place. but how does he explain the mountain of evidence? the sand on sheena's feet, but no sand in the shower -- her perfect appearance. her hair, her clothes, and that diamond bracelet on the wrong wrist. i let that the -- professionals deal with that, the investigators and everything

else. >> reporter: he welcomes this new investigation because he insists he still has nothing to hide. >> reporter: and once and for all, did you kill sheena? >> absolutely not. and what -- what -- what would be my motive, for god sake? i'm 50 years old. i have three children. >> reporter: but what about the polygraph? why take the test? >> because i had nothin' to hide >> reporter: how do you explain those test results? >> well, i don't. i was uneasy with a lot of the questions he asked first of all. second of all i was told by a professional the questions that he asked should have never been asked. they were set up questions. but now for joe, there are new questions to answer -- this time from those investigators taking a fresh look at the case, with the real possibility that someone could be charged with murder. >> reporter: when was the last time you talked to the investigators on the team? >> three weeks ago. >> reporter: were you nervous? >> of course i'm nervous. i mean, who wouldn't be nervous? >> reporter: when we come back, joe's message tonight for sheena's mother. what he wants her to hear. and we ask kelly, how she will react, if no one is charged with murder in her daughter's death.

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>> reporter: tonight, that team of investigators taking a second look at the case, and a florida prosecutor will decide what comes next. will there be murder charges? or will they agree with that first detective who showed up at that hotel, and found sheena in the shower, convinced it was a suicide. >> reporter: what are you hoping to hear? >> i'm hoping to hear, my phone rings, and it's the fdle, the florida department of law enforcement, and say uh "miss osborn, we have a suspect in custody." >> reporter: will this ever be over? >> when there's a trial and the jury finds the suspect guilty. that chapter will be over. >> she needs some answers. the community, southwest florida would like to know what happened to sheena. >> reporter: do you think they'll ever know? >> yeah, i do. i would be very surprised if they come back with a, "it was a suicide," because the evidence

is overwhelming that it's not. >> reporter: joe, as you sit here across from me, have you gone there? have you thought about possible charges at the end -- >> i'm not guilty of anything. >> reporter: you don't fear there are charges coming? >> no, absolutely not. as a matter of fact, if anything, i think i should bring civil charges against kelly and her family. >> reporter: do you plan to? >> we'll see how it goes. i'm gonna wait till the investigations -- is over with. there's no reason why this family did what they did to me. >> reporter: if they clear you once and for all, do you think that will be enough for sheena's mother? >> no. i don't think she'll ever stop. and sheena's friends don't want her to. >> reporter: what do you think sheena would say? what do you think she would make of what her mother has done? >> i think she would be impressed. there was never one day one moment when we thought she would give up the fight and she won't. >> reporter: and what do you think sheena would say to you? >> she'd tell me how much she loves me.

she would tell me "i'm glad you knew mom, i'm glad you knew, and i'm glad you saw it through." a mother's unwavering devotion, and that team of investigators along with the