abcnews.com/wwyd. and you can always join in the conversation on facebook and twitter. i'm john quinones. "20/20" starts right now. we're roping this whole area off. >> i saw her two weeks ago, and she was fine. >> a mother found dead, covered by leaves, no clues, no evidence. just a little square of video, smoking a late night cigarette on the porch. the last time she was seen alive. >> i said, are you serious? call the police. >> tonight, "20/20" takes you inside that family's nightmare. their home mysteriously hot wired with 21 surveillance cameras, rolling nonstop, recording everything. >> can i help you? >> her husband is a so-called security expert, trying out the latest equipment on his very own family. >> trying to watch the entire world around him. >> was his wife just being mad?

>> no, no, no, no, no. i know for a fact i let it go. >> or going mad. >> she has a long history of mental imbalances. >> she was a train wreck waiting to happen. >> a marriage unraveling, a father under suspicion. >> this is really freaking me out. >> the media obsessed. >> a murder trial in georgia. >> i'm not suspicious. this woman was murdered. >> and two crucial days of tapes missing. >> so here's a man waiting for a crime to happen every day. one finally happens, and he has got no pictures of it. >> but what happens after an autopsy on a computer? >> it was gold. >> tonight, the sergeant haunted by the case. >> i made a promise to myself that day that i would never give up. >> the suspect's daughters defending their father, taking his crusade public on youtube. >> it's finally time for us to tell the truth. >> and how it finally gets solved with a voice from the grave. >> i don't want any part of this freaking family anymore. >> what the camera didn't see. >> good evening.

i'm amy robach. >> and i'm david muir, and this is "20/20." reporting tonight, jim avila. >> reporter: what would we see if your home was being watched inside and out 24 hours a day by 21 surveillance cameras, watching as you sat in front of the couch on the tv, unblinking as you sneak outside for a smoke on the porch. show me where you saw cameras. >> if you see the front door, to the right of the, basically up in the corner, there was a camera up there up on the top eve, on the back coronner of th house. >> reporter: welcome to sidney's cove, a quiet cul-de-sac in lawrenceville, georgia, 40-miles north of atlanta. a small town where the bells of the first baptist church can be heard in the backyard and dinner time is marked by the rumble of freight trains. it's home to matt and nique leili, their daughters amanda and rebecca, and nique's older daughter alex, from a previous marriage. why all the cameras?

matt's in the business. he sells security systems, a tech-savvy, law and order guy who's become a one-man neighborhood watch. we sat down with nique's family. her father doug chatham, her daughter, alex, and sister amy. >> i knew that there were cameras all over the place because, i mean, you know he made a point to -- sort of brag about it, really. it was a -- sort of a source of pride for him. >> reporter: the house seems so tranquil on the outside. matt and nique, both 44 years old, married on valentine's day, together, 13 years. many of them good. she was southern, an accountant, the breadwinner. matt, a transplanted new yorker, called her babycakes. >> nique told me, you know, that she was in love with him. >> reporter: their daughters, rebecca and amanda, now teenagers, posted this youtube video of the couple's trip to hawaii to frolic in the sun. >> and my mom surprised my dad while they were down there and renewed their vows. she's happy. they were in love.

>> reporter: that does seem like something people who are in love and still care for each other do. >> right. >> reporter: but just like hawaii's famous volcanos, this love affair is about to blow like kilauea in the dark of night. and thanks to matt's over-the top-obsession with security everywhere, we hear it all. >> get out of my [ bleep ] way before i start breaking [ bleep ] in this office. >> look at the way we're approaching this. the first time -- >> i'm fixing to start breaking [ bleep ]. >> i know you are. >> so get out of the way. >> reporter: that steel magnolia, plus-size voice belongs to the petite nique leili. 5'3", and 98 pounds soaking wet. matt is a giant oaf of a man. 6'5", and 250 pounds, big enough to lift his tiny wife, nique with one hand, but on some of these recordings, he sounds like a punching bag. >> i can't keep doing this. these fights that we're having. >> you are un-[ bleep ]-believable. how you can dare sit here and talk to me -- >> lower your voice.

>> about how i have spent -- >> lower your voice. >> my time -- >> reporter: the reasons for their fights might sound familiar. money and sex. the leilis are $300,000 in debt. their love life troubled. they are seeing a counselor. >> i am fighting for this marriage. >> [ bleep ]. >> the problem that i said -- the problem that i see is what you want is not me, and not us. >> reporter: matt's surveillance business has become his obsession. watching. always watching the porch cam. the yard cam. the driveway cam. all diligently documenting the daily non-events of suburban life. >> this guy has a system in his house that the -- the military would be jealous of, you know? we're talkin' about a huge server, bigger than somethin' that we would even have at the police station. >> reporter: alex moved out at 16 because she couldn't get along with her step-dad matt and his cameras, leaving her younger half-sisters behind. >> it was very uncomfortable all

of the time, you know? he had a camera in the living room that faced the couch. so if you wanted to sit down and watch tv, you were being monitored. >> reporter: but matt insists there was a reason for all the surveillance. he'd grown worried his wife had become mentally unstable. >> i'm going to protect my child and make sure you're not yelling or a raving lunatic first. >> give me a [ bleep ] break. they do not need protection from me! >> reporter: worse, she had a habit of storming off. >> get the [ bleep ] out of my way. >> can we compromise here? >> no! there is no compromise. no! >> what i propose is that you calm down for a moment. if in a clear head, you wanna leave, i'm not gonna stop you. >> good. >> reporter: now matt's afraid nique might run off in a rage and get hurt. to deal with that he turns to another of his tech skills. hidden audio recorders in her purse, in her car and using her cell phone to track her.

here's matt's explanation. >> i'm recording my wife. i've got a tracker on her, you know. i've got to find my wife every time she runs away. i mean, i'm not some over possessive freak. >> reporter: the girls still living in the house, amanda and rebecca. witness to the constant marital battles. in that youtube video which will play a big role in the story later, they say their mom was the problem. she was acting crazy. >> but she was saying how she was tired of the voices telling her that people were talking bad about her. and she was tired of the voices telling her this and the voices telling her that. >> reporter: that was june 28, 2011. nique calls 911. documentation of what mattays he fears. she's running away from home and he's trying to stop her. >> gwinnett county 911. >> yeah, my husband refuses to let me leave the house. >> my wife is yelling and screaming and just woke up the children. you really want the cops here? i think my wife just was throwing a temper tantrum. i don't think we need the

police. >> let me have her tell me that, sir. >> all right, you need to pick up the phone or they're gonna come. >> you don't need to come. i'll stay in my house all day. >> i already have them dispatched that way, sir. >> all right. thank you, ma'am. >> you're welcome. >> reporter: the cops come by to make sure things are under control, but nique doesn't even look at the officers. that's her bag packed and ready by her side. later that day, she takes it and leaves. and within hours, matt has their then 12-year old-daughter amanda call and beg her not to stay away. it's heartbreaking. >> hey, mommy. >> hey baby, how are you? >> good. mommy, we need to go on vacation. all of us as a family. we need to save this family. >> reporter: the family doesn't go on vacation. nique comes home. they stay at sydney's cove. behind closed doors. with all those cameras rolling. things seem to be getting back to normal.

the family saved. for two weeks until a july night. that small figure on the screen is nique. it's date night with matt. dinner and a movie. later that night, the leili surveillance cameras show nique out on the deck for a smoke before bed. we can't tell in this tape, but the cigarette is not the only thing smoldering that summer night. nique leili is about to disappear. when we come back, after 13 years of marriage and thousands of arguments, nique leili is finally gone for good. and her husband says it's because she is crazy. where's nique? and what do all those cameras say about her disappearance? stay with us. okay, i picked out my dream car. now's the really fun part: choosing the color, the wheels, the interior. everything exactly how i want it. here's the thing, just because i configured this car online doesn't mean it really exists at a dealership. but with truecar, i get real pricing on actual cars in my area, i see what others paid for them

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>> reporter: a hard-working, spitfire of a woman nique leili. mother. breadwinner. a woman who, despite her size, takes no guff from her outsized husband, and now she is missing. nowhere to be found in the family's upscale, four-bedroom house outside atlanta. now we can go inside with video obtained by abc news. are there any clues in here that answer the question, where's nique? go ahead, look around. see any signs of a violent struggle? any blood stains on the carpet? broken furniture? sure there's a gun in a holster, but it's not smoking. nothing more incriminating than an un-made bed. and there it is, matt's electronic fortress. and yet for someone so concerned with the comings and goings in and around his house, matt waits

two days after nique vanished before bothering to pick up the phone and call nique's sister, amy. >> and he said, "have you talked to nique?" and i said, "no. why? what's going on?" and then he said, "well, nique's missing." i said, "what are you talkin' about?" and he said, "yeah. she hasn't been home since saturday." i said, "are you serious? call the police." >> reporter: after that call, matt did file a missing person report and told his story to police. he and nique had a fight, he slept on the floor of his office and when he woke up the next morning nique was gone. he says the only thing she took was her toothbrush. her purse, her phone, all the tracking devices left behind. >> i go upstairs to see what's going on. she's not there. >> reporter: he says she has been breaking down mentally for some time, and she just walked away. >> this is the weirdest thing, okay? this is really freaking me out, okay? this is not the first time she has run away, but she has never been gone overnight.

>> reporter: matt overshares with the cop on the phone telling him the fight is about sex. in detail. >> on the way home i said to her, you know, hey, because i wanted to have sex, but the sex we have been having hasn't been anything special, you know, so i said to her, hey how about you put on an outfit? i think that might have set her off. >> reporter: he says maybe she checked into a hospital suffering from a breakdown. >> my wife has a long history of some kind of mental imbalances. okay? >> reporter: now matt says he's had enough. he's done with his crazy wife. >> i told her if she doesn't straighten up, i'm going to divorce her. i saw an attorney about it too, just yesterday. >> reporter: that's right, before police have even launched a search, and, her family says, before matt has spread the word that nique has gone missing, he has hired a lawyer to divorce her. >> what was that about? >> yeah, i couldn't tell you. i mean, my response to that, my reaction to that was, "who does that?" it was just all about him. it was never a frantic, "where is my wife?" >> reporter: and, as if divorce

isn't enough of a threat, matt goes down to the courthouse to fill out paperwork to have nique committed. here he is telling his brother-in-law about it. >> i was at the courthouse swearing out a warrant for nique leili. for involuntary committal. >> reporter: by now, a multi-generational civil war is breaking out. pitting the northerner matt and his young daughters against his southern in-laws, nique's family, including her daughter alex. >> my mother was the farthest thing from crazy you could get. >> reporter: nique's family has a very different take about her disappearance. they resent what matt is saying about nique's mental condition. and they're angry that matt took two days to tell them she is missing. >> he wasn't worried at all about finding his wife. he was concerned about makin' sure that he spread the story that she was insane. >> reporter: so a week after nique vanished, alex helped organize a search. amy alerts the media, hoping to

get the whole community involved. more than 100 volunteers, all in red, spread out through the neighborhood. matt was not among them. skipping what may have been the shortest search in the history of missing persons. ten minutes after friends and family had formed a grid -- >> i just saw a huge big pile. it looked like it was covering up something so i just started kicking away at it and then saw her body and her hair. [ crying ] >> i heard somebody scream from the woods, you know, so i went running up there to see what they had uncovered. and it was my sister. [ crying ] >> family members cry out as a co-worker -- >> we're gonna be roping this whole area off. >> gwinnett county firefighters and police arrive just minutes after people looking for nique leili make a shocking discovery around ten this morning. >> and i blacked out. i just remember hitting the ground. >> reporter: nique's body was found nude less than a mile from

her house. if she was running away, she didn't get far. >> her body covered in leaves in a wooded area. >> reporter: the finger-pointing began. this is amy, moments after her sister nique's body is found. >> he waited two days to even report her missing. he told me that they'd had a huge fight and that, you know, she wasn't well and that she had been having breakdowns and stuff. but i saw her two weeks ago and she was fine. >> reporter: the missing persons case is closed, but is this murder? >> investigators are talking with leili's husband and searching the couple's home. but police say right now, he is not a suspect. >> reporter: certainly matt's personal centcom will prove he had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance. what better alibi witness than 21 cameras. >> so here's a man waitin' for a crime to happen every day, sittin' in his office, lookin' around. one finally happens, and he's got no pictures of it? >> correct. >> reporter: when we come back,

what the camera didn't see. stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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>> reporter: take a good look at

this image of nique leili on her porch, hours before she supposedly walked out on her husband, matt. it's the last picture of her alive because believe it or not, in this house tricked out like a small casino with 21 cameras, none of them managed to capture a single image of her final exit. so did you as an investigator think, "well, this might be easy?" there's cameras all over the place. he's got a recorder here. you might get some evidence off of this. >> correct. >> reporter: and did you ask him, "can i see the night?" >> he stated that when he came back to his office. the system was turned off. >> reporter: cue the chorus, how convenient, and suspicious. the most puzzling tape gap since watergate. only this isn't just 18 minutes. it's two days' worth of critical video, nowhere to be found. >> you would think we'd have it on video. i mean, this guy was serious about his video surveillance. >> reporter: matt leili tells police that after his wife had that cigarette on the porch. the last time she was ever seen

on the night of july 8, 2011, his elaborate monitoring system, designed to watch every move, simply went dark. matt's theory. she stopped by his office where he was sleeping on the floor and pulled the plug on her way out the door, on her crazed walk into the night. >> he said she turned off the system. >> reporter: without him knowin' it? >> correct. >> reporter: even though he's in the room? >> correct. >> reporter: getting no help from matt's cameras, investigators turn to nique's body under the branches. the body's tellin' you somethin' else? >> yeah, the body's definitely telling us that she didn't walk there. we're workin' this as a homicide. >> reporter: then there is the condition of her bare feet. >> that's somethin' that's very telling of, you know, of a body being placed is the clean feet because if you're runnin' around the neighborhood, you're gonna get cuts. i mean, these were pristine. the nail polish is clean and not nicked up. >> reporter: after an autopsy, the toxicology report reveals a tantalizing new piece of evidence about nique's last hours.

in her system, they find high levels of ghb, the date rape drug. >> in hundreds of cases, accidentals, overdoses, homicides, suicides, i've never seen g.h.b. in a toxicology report. so that caught my attention immediately. >> reporter: remember matt told the police, the big blow up that night was over sex. he wanted it. she didn't. but now there is evidence somehow he had his way, something he failed to mention in his phone conversation with the cops. >> i said, "listen, this has gone on far enough. all right. i'll go downstairs, once again, and sleep on the couch. you go to sleep. we'll talk about this in the morning." most notable for what it does s not reveal. the georgia summer is a killer's accomplice. >> we don't have an indication at that time, because of decomp and seven days out in july heat of exactly the cause of death. >> reporter: there are no bullet holes, no knife wounds. no blunt force trauma. you thought she had been strangled, but there's no fingerprints either, right?

and there's no marks around her neck. >> right, because of decomp, we don't have the telltale signs of strangulation. >> reporter: matt leili is definitely a suspect in his wife's murder. in fact, the only suspect. but there is not enough evidence to charge him. nique's family is beside themselves. her daughter, alex, almost feels guilty. >> like, there was something i wasn't doing to help fight for justice. there was something i was missing. sometimes you just wanted to scream at the rooftop. you know, "he did it. do something." >> reporter: matt cuts off nique's family. isolating his daughters. they skip a memorial for nique. they don't even go to her funeral. he stops talking to police too. >> police say matt leili is not cooperating, refusing to meet with them. >> reporter: the case is growing cold, and worse yet, the day before, what would have been matt and nique's 14th anniversary, sidney's cove, is being sorry kvacated. >> today, we found two moving

trucks in the driveway. >> reporter: matt leili is moving away from nique's accusing family. >> there is no recourse. so, we feel very helpless. >> reporter: and the questioning georgia cops. >> as far as restricting his movements, we don't have any right or reason to do that right now. >> reporter: starting a new life 1,000 miles away in a hilltop house in rural londonderry, vermont, and he is taking amanda and rebecca with him. well, he's gone away, alex, but the real downside is your sisters have gone away too. >> it breaks my heart. to -- to be completely honest, it breaks me down. i practically helped raise those girls. >> reporter: time is moving, but the case is not. alex, nique's oldest daughter, is planning her wedding with no mother of the bride. the other two daughters are now teenagers. sidney's cove is fore closed and sold off. a family divided. a case frozen in time, but not forgotten. at police headquarters, located poetically on high hope road, sits sergeant john richter, unwilling to give up on hope.

he spends an entire year listening to what it's like being watched and controlled 24/7. >> i'm supposed to live my life running around where a recorder is? what e-mails are being read -- >> who brought that on themselves? >> no, matt. people don't live that way. >> reporter: 1,200 hours that he said revealed to him, the only crazy thing about nique was she was married to a monster. >> god damn it, god [ bleep ] damn it. lower your voice! i am not gonna sit here and listen to this [ bleep ]. >> reporter: matt shows he is just as capable of losing his temper, and according to nique, using his voice, as well as his hands to abuse her. >> if i wanted to do harm to you i could have done it. you think i'm going to harm you? >> i don't know, matt. you tried to tonight. >> i did not. [ bleep ] with 6'5". 250 [ bleep ] plus pounds, with your hands around my throat. you had me pinned to the [ bleep ] wall. >> all my homicide victims over

the years, i have never met anybody, but after listening to these recordings, it gave me the, you know, ability to -- to know her. >> reporter: you liked her. >> i think she was a wonderful person. a wonderful mother, and by all accounts, she was a wonderful wife. just couldn't do enough for one individual. >> reporter: and you became determined to get this solved. >> i wasn't gonna give up. >> reporter: that devotion leads to a big break. something as good as a bloody fingerprint, hidden deep inside matt leili's computer. >> this was enough to tip the scales. >> reporter: criminal, alt, arrest. matt leili, about to find himself in handcuffs, and his teenage daughters, staying loyal to their father. how far will they go to prove daddy didn't do it? jail house phone calls ahead. >> love you, baby girl. good luck today. >> i love you too. >> reporter: stay with us.

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seems like over the years, i must have passed this place hundreds of times and i always thought of her. i'd always stop and look. >> reporter: as years passed, some may have figured hell would freeze over before police would solve the strange case of nique leili found dead near her home in the atlanta suburb of lawrenceville. >> it's a day much unlike today. it's -- you know, not snowing. it's july, and it's hot. >> reporter: it is definitely freezing on this day, more than four years later, as cold case cop john richter leads us to the little woods where her nude body was hastily buried under dead leaves and branches. where was it exactly? >> it's right in this area in here -- amongst these -- these

trees. >> reporter: detective richter was part of the homicide team called out here the day her body was discovered. here in these woods, richter says he made a vow. >> that day when i was -- i was lookin' at this person who was placed here. it's like she didn't matter to anybody. so i made a promise to myself that day, i would never give up on this case, or nique. >> i think we were all hoping for some sort of resolution by this time. >> reporter: for all matt leili's surveillance cameras -- his radio shack syndrome -- the fate of nique remains a blind spot. not so much as a flickering image or tell-tale echo. the story had always been, all that video evidence disappeared because matt leili's hard drives somehow got corrupted. >> now, corruption, it's -- it's a broad term, you know? could have been an accident, sure. could have been the power went out, yeah. a lightning strike or something, you know? >> reporter: but then john richter, the cold case detective, has a white-hot idea.

he asks detective chris ford, a forensics expert, to autopsy matt leili's hard drive, hoping newly available technology will exhume any evidence buried inside the computer. >> oftentimes in my cold cases, i send off clothing, you know. so you might get a dna hit on some clothing that you didn't prior. well, in this case in particular, it was computers. it was the forensic stuff that i decided, you know, let's get a new, fresh look at the computers and the forensics. >> reporter: two weeks later detective ford casually drops the report off at richter's desk. >> and i look at it and i see the word, deleted. and i said, "no, these video files are deleted." he's, like, oh, absolutely. it was all deleted. >> reporter: now the evidence is clear. this was no accident. somebody intentionally deleted security camera video from the precise hours when nique had left -- or been taken -- from the house. the difference between the word "deleted" and "corrupted" for you is what? >> "deleted," to me, means it was deleted by a person. somebody went in there and deleted -- wanted this video gone. >> reporter: right. so now, you gotta figure out who

had the opportunity to do that. >> right. >> reporter: and what did your investigation show? >> coincidentally enough, the defendant in this case is, by his account, a computer expert. a surveillance expert. >> reporter: it's all circumstantial but it's enough. the cops are now rebooting their case and the timing couldn't be worse for matt leili. that's because just about this time, he's back in town. in federal court in atlanta to testify in a civil lawsuit over nique's life insurance money. matt's lawyer in that case, jeff diamond. >> my perceptions is that he was a caring father. he was a big teddy bear really. >> reporter: but big teddy bear has a big problem. were you there in the court? >> i was outside. >> reporter: matt leili leaves the courtroom and gets in the elevator. he thinks he's going to down to the lobby, but he's just going down. detective richter arrests him right there at the courthouse. did you get to put the cuffs on him? >> i did. and it felt good.

>> we're finding out what led gwinnett county police to charge a husband in the murder of his wife 3 1/2 years ago. >> reporter: our affiliate, wsb, went straight to nique's sister amy and showed her this video of her nemesis in custody. >> it's a thing i've kind of pictured in my mind for a while, but kind of had doubts as to whether i would actually ever see it. >> reporter: matt leili can forget about spending that insurance money. now he is fighting to keep from spending the rest of his life in a georgia prison. >> you have been charged with murder. >> matthew leili appeared tired and dazed as a judge read him the charges. >> reporter: dazed maybe, but not confused. from behind bars awaiting trial, these recordings obtained by "20/20," reveal leili has an audacious plan to spring himself. >> make sure you tell people we have set up a youtube channel. to tell you the truth about what happened in our home. >> okay. >> reporter: his secret weapon? his own daughters, amanda and

rebecca. they get father knows best instructions from jailhouse phone calls to launch a youtube crusade to defend him against nique's family. >> all these years we were told to be silent. to protect mom's image. we can't be silent anymore. >> okay. >> my daddy's now in jail because of these false allegations. it's time we tell the truth. that's even better. >> reporter: just listen. they execute his instructions almost word for word. >> and it's finally time for us to tell the truth and for us to call them out on their lies. and now's our chance. >> say something insulting. from this, pathological lying family that doesn't want their dirty laundry aired, but the truth will come out. >> yes, sir. >> the family is making sure that we can't say anything, we can't argue to keep their dirty laundry from being aired. >> reporter: then matt uses his daughters to support his claim that their mother nique was crazy. >> my mom started pacing back and forth, and she started kind

of mumbling to herself. >> don't forget to tell everybody about the youtube site because we want it on tv, okay? >> okay. >> love you, baby girl. good luck today. >> i love you too. >> reporter: leili got his wish. the girls' video makes news. >> as focus turns on dad, nique's own daughters take to youtube to defend him. >> the video was created by the man's own two daughters. >> this is the teenage daughter. they made a youtube video in support of the father. >> it hurt a lot. they said some -- some hateful things about our family. they painted our mom like someone she really wasn't. >> reporter: as the mystery of nique's murder grips the streets of lawrenceville, just past scotland yard antiques, a street named luckie leads to the courthouse. where the two sides of this family feud will meet again. >> happening now. lawyers are questioning the final potential jurors in the trial of a man who prosecutors say murdered his wife. >> reporter: still ahead, the murder trial of matt leili. the star witness -- the victim

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>> reporter: under a threatening sky this month, a storm blowing in over the gwinnett county courthouse. matt leili is on trial accused of murdering his wife. >> the new murder trial in georgia where a father of two is charged with killing his wife

pretending she disappeared. >> he calls a lawyer. >> reporter: in court two powerful teams head to head. prosecutor lisa jones. >> the evidence will prove, that matthew leili murdered his wife. >> reporter: tom clegg. matt leili's criminal defense attorney. >> he is falsely accused. pure and simple. >> reporter: exhibit a the autopsy. the medical examiner, often a case-maker for prosecutors, helpfully testifies she sure does suspect foul play, but if the jury is hoping for something directly connecting matt leili to his wife's death, this witness is no help. she can't even say for sure, how nique died. >> they don't have a rock solid case at all here. >> i ruled the cause of death as undetermined. >> reporter: jurors say when it comes to hard, direct evidence, at least at the beginning of the state's case, they're just was not hearing it. did any of that bother you? >> i thought from the get-go that you had to have proof. i was like, "i need something more. i need something more."

>> reporter: and the prosecution got an unpleasant surprise when they called this woman to the stand, joanne lucie. matt leili's ex-wife. people in the courtroom say the legal bar suddenly turns into a singles bar. no objection but it sure looks like the witness is flirting. >> okay. you're looking at him, periodically. >> he has beautiful eyes. he'd known that. he knows that i will always look at his eyes. he knows that. >> was that part of what attracted you to him to begin with? >> oh, yeah. his eyes. his height. his physique. >> okay. >> reporter: even though they'd been unhappily and briefly married 20 years before, there was still something. >> be that as it may, you still can't help but look at his eyes. can you? >> no. they're beautiful. >> that was astonishing. okay? she was flirting with him on the witness stand. >> reporter: goo-goo eyes aside, matt's former missus does manage to deliver some damaging testimony. confirming he got rough with her.

>> he would like to push you down to the ground, and pin you down. i'm not a very strong person. so i was easy to pin down. >> juror kim >> i guess she loves his eyes and loves his look, but she doesn't like the things that he did to her. >> reporter: 'cause he did some-- some things that are very similar to what he did to -- to nique. >> very similar. >> there were several nights that i would lay up at night, and listen to her say, "please get off of me. get off of me. you're hurting me." >> reporter: and prosecutor jones has much more ammo in her arsenal. the computer forensics from detective richter's investigation. >> reporter: the cameras were working when this crime happened. >> absolutely. it was intentionally deleted. >> reporter: but there is more. those recordings of a marriage on the brink, detective john richter takes the stand to testify about the year of his life he spent listening to nique. >> they give me a rare view into a victim's life, and how her life was leading up to her death. and i mean, i -- it was -- it

was gold. >> reporter: listen to this gem, not just a garden variety shouting match. richter and, apparently, nique believe matt once made something very much like a death threat. >> the words out of your [ bleeps ] mouth. "i should've let you kill yourself so i didn't have to [ bleep ] do it." don't [ bleeps ] deny it, because those were the exact words that came out of your mouth. >> i said, "you should've, i should've let you killed yourself, why should i bother, be the one to do it?" >> reporter: and so here is the state's theory of the murder of nique leili. >> reporter: what do you surmise did happen? after she and matt come home from the movies, that last security camera gets a glimpse as she sneaks a smoke, very likely the last one of her life. >> he gave her some g.h.b. just to -- to lower her -- her resistance level, and then you know they had sex. >> reporter: fed up with the fights over sex and money, and terrified that his wife and meal ticket will leave with the kids, matt leili then makes certain

his tiny wife, nique will never raise her voice to him again. >> at some point, she was asphyxiated by him sitting on her or strangling her -- >> reporter: so he killed her with his own hands? >> he did. absolutely. he killed her with his own hands, with his own body. >> reporter: the crime scene bears no signs of a struggle. the body no defensive wounds, but a dead wife is still a dead wife. >> and he's gotta get her out of that house because the girls are going to get up soon. so he puts her in the woods like that so now he has to delete the video, the only video that would show how she left that house. >> reporter: okay. so that's the theory. "prove it", says matt leili. his daughters, amanda now 17, rebecca 14 are his best weapons. they arrive at the courthouse from vermont. one after the other, the girls take the stand to defend their father. >> is this gentleman here your dad? >> yes. >> okay, and you love him, right? >> of course. >> very briefly, describe the relationship that your mom and dad had. >> they loved each other. >> did they ever fight? argue? >> they did argue, yes. >> did you ever see your dad hit

your mom? >> no. >> did you ever see any obvious injuries or bruises to your mom? >> no, sir. >> reporter: but for juror kim muenster, just the sound of those terrible fights -- >> your hands around my throat. >> my hands were not around your throat! >> reporter: to the sound of nique's voice -- >> get off! >> reporter: gave her sleepness nights. how difficult was it to listen to her audio recordings? >> all i could think about when i would go to sleep is anytime i would close my eyes, that's all i would hear was, "get off me, get off me." her screaming at him. >> reporter: there is just one more lingering question in this trial. what does matt leili have to say for himself? rumors fly around the courthouse that he wants to take the stand. the judge even asks him. >> mr. leili, have you had the chance to speak with your attorney about that decision? >> i'm too emotional to testify. i don't think i can do it. >> okay. >> reporter: instead, in closing arguments, defense attorney tom clegg throws his client's personality under the bus, but claims the state fell far short of proving he's a killer.

>> he can be a argumentative s.o.b. he probably is pretty damn good at pushing people's buttons. but what does that have to do with murder? >> and you need to listen to her. >> reporter: prosecutor lisa jones has the last word. making sure the jury leaves the courtroom with nique's voice echoing in their ears. >> welcome to my world. you killed me a long time ago. >> find him guilty because that's exactly what he is. >> reporter: it's a friday afternoon. the jury has two things on its mind. lunch, and whether matt leili will be eating prison food the rest of his life. >> you have reached a verdict? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: the verdict and a

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>> i'm going to ask you at this time if you would stand and read the verdict out loud. >> as to count one, we jury find the defendant guilty of malice murder. as to count two, we the jury find the defendant guilty of felony murder. >> as soon as i heard guilty, i probably squeezed her hand so hard i'm surprised it didn't break, 'cause he was like, "did he say guilty? did he say guilty? are you sure? oh my gosh." >> you got my hand too. >> mr. leili. is there anything you want to say? >> i didn't do it, and i'll be filing an appeal. >> reporter: matt and nique's younger daughters, arrive in court just in time to hear their father's sentence for murdering their mother. >> i need you to stand up for this sentencing portion. i am going to follow the state's recommendation as to count one, and have you sentenced to life without the possibility of rr:anotivpewaing out ofou.soho coming home soon. >> he's filing an appeal and

you'll see my dad out of jail. >> reporter: the main thing that's left is any kind of rapprochement with your sisters. >> as hard as this has been, and as much, you know, hatred that they've harbored, my door is always open, because i don't blame them. i blame him. it's his fault. i love them dearly, and that i will always have open arms to them. >> reporter: nique's family wanted to meet some of the people they believe helped deliver justice. >> amy. nice to -- >> it's a pleasure to meet you. >> reporter: they asked us to help arrange it, and so nique's sister amy dropped by our interview with juror kim muenster. >> thank you so much. >> reporter: and that detective who took me to niq telling me it's time to turn the page. now after the verdict, what are your thoughts? >> maybe nique can now rest in peace and now that justice was served and her family can know that, and, you know, now it's time for me to move onto another case and, you know, hopefully bring some kind of closure to another family. it's time to move on.

>> and the couple's children are moving on. matt and nique's daughters amanda and rebecca are now back in touch with their step-sister and others in the mother's family. >> matt's appeal has been heard, and he is awaiting a ruling. what do you make of the daughters supporting their father when so many others did not? >> let us know on facebook and twitter. that's our program for tonight. thanks for watching. i'm amy robach. >> i'm david muir. for all of us here on "20/20" and abc news, thanks for watching. good night. ight.

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