this is "nightline." >> tonight, a family's regret. he once claimed it was cough medicine that made him stab his wife to death. >> i took more medicine than i should have. >> tonight her family speaking out exclusively to our paula faris. >> he tortured her. he absolutely tortured her. >> the signs they say they had about domestic violence. plus, world whale war. high drama on the high seas. whaling in iceland despite an international ban and the controversial anti-whaling activists making waves. >> they're not iceland's whales, they're the world's whales. >> the global outrage over the appetite for the endangered species. and -- >> oh, hello.

>> beak performance, big bird's big announcement. the character's original puppeteer taking flight after 50 years of sunny days. ♪ can you tell me how to get how to get to sesame street ♪ >> first the "nightline 5." >> take prilosec otc, take control of heartburn. so you don't have to stash antacids here, here, or here. kick your antacid habit. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. it's the jcpenney mystery sale. you've got to go. your chance to peel and reveal a mystery coupon for an extra 30%, 40%, 50% off. jcpenney, style and value for all. >> number one in just 60 seconds.

good evening. thank you for joining us. the headlines were haunting stabbed his wife 123 times. tonight the victim's parents reflect on his bizarre behavior. what they missed leading up to their daughter's murder and the one conversation they wish they had with her. here's abc's paula faris. >> reporter: they looked like the picture of marital bliss. newlyweds married for barely 10 months. matthew phelps, 28, once attended bible college. his wife, lauren, 29, was a youth leader at church. >> she loved kids, she loved helping others. >> reporter: but that image of what seemed from the outside like the perfect all-american couple shattered after this dramatic middle of the night call to 911. >> i have blood all over me and there's a bloody knife on the bed. and i think i did it. >> reporter: september of 2017, lauren was brutally murdered by her husband matthew. >> he tortured her. he absolutely tortured her.

>> reporter: but in a twist that garnered national attention, matthew blamed the murder on cough medicine. >> what medicine did you take? >> i took corcidin. >> he blamed it on cough medicine, did you ever buy that? >> never. >> you think it was premeditated. >> it absolutely was. >> he planned the whole thing from the get-go, in my opinion. >> reporter: earlier this month matthew pled guilty. his appearance startlingly different. >> did you, in fact, murder your wife by stabbing her multiple times? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: now for the first time, lauren's family speaking out about their daughter, their sister, and the importance of having an open dialogue about ft talk about domestic violence to my daughters. before they were married. because i -- i didn't think that

that was something that they would have to ever worry about. >> what was the last thing you said to her? >> "i love you." we had a bond like nobody has ever probably seen sisters have. >> reporter: lauren's sister beth says not long into the marriage there were signs of trouble. >> she was getting stressed with money. he had just quit a job before they got married, and he still hadn't found a job. she was telling me he was acting different. he always wanted to make lauren happy, then he didn't care to make her happy anymore. >> was she planning on leaving him? >> i believe she was. >> he was being very depressed-acting and talking of suicide. and we were afraid for him. we never thought that lauren was in any danger at all. >> reporter: investigators latek confir court documents show matthew was obsessed with the movie "american psycho." and that his private instagram

account shows him dressed as the main character, a serial killer. also according to court documents, a friend told police that phelps expressed interest in what it would be like to kill someone. lauren's family says they had no idea about his dark social media trail. they shared these photos with us from her last days. she looks happy, but her father says he saw otherwise. >> the last time i see my daughter, it didn't look like lauren at all. she look ted a mess. but -- i regret it now that i didn't ask questions. >> how do you reconcile that regret, not asking her why, what was going on? >> i can't. i can't. i mean -- i think about it every day, what i did wrong. what i missed. >> reporter: two days later, lauren was brutally murdered. her mother recalls the police knocking on her door in the middle of the night. >> and the looks on their faces.

i can't get that out of my head. and i thought, did matt kill her? and they asked me, why would you ask that? i said, i don't know i, i just know. i just know. then they told us that he had killed her. and that he had stabbed her. and he had stabbed her so many times that they would have to count the stab wounds in the autopsy. >> reporter: matthew had stabbed lauren 123 times. >> the police called him a r. and we're talking about homicide detectives who see homicides every day. >> reporter: in the immediate aftermath of the murder, matthew attempted to blame his mental

state on cough medicine. >> i took more medicine than i should have. >> what medicine did you take? >> i took coricidin cough and cold, because i know it can make you feel good. so a lot of times i can't sleep at night. >> reporter: but that argument never held up. and matthew was sentenced to life in prison without parole. >> i am sorry that i took away lauren's life. a life that was deeply connected to so many people. >> will you ever be able to forgive him? >> no. never. i'll take it to my grave. i'll still hate him. there's no way. no man could do that to any human being. >> is there guilt that you didn't and couldn't do enough to save her? >> i feel guilty that i told her that these are all first-year marriage problems. it angers me that i feel guilt,

because it's 100% not my fault. >> no. >> but she's my little sister and i'm supposed to protect her. >> reporter: according to the national coalition against domestic violence, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have been victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetime. >> i even struggle with calling lauren's case domestic violence. it feels almost like serial killerish with all his fan taken places. but it is domestic violence and i think that's the thing i want people to know. no two stories are the same. lauren had a gut instinct that something was wrong and the only thing i wish would be different is she would have trusted her gut to say, there's something wrong, something has to change. >> this was her freshman year in high school. this was her eighth grade year. this was her favorite dress. she loved this dress and wore it until it could not fit. >> what would you tell lauren right now? >> i would tell her that i hope that we've made you proud.

and that she will always be present o home. >> what would you tell your daughter? >> i'm sorry i let you down. i think that all the time. i failed as a father. i should have seen it. but i'm not going to let the rest of them down, not no more. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm paula faris in north carolina. next, world whale war. the icy battle raging in iceland's seas. [woman 3] ...and clearer skin. [man 3] proof that i can fight psoriatic arthritis... [woman 4] ...with humira. [woman 5] humira targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to both joint and skin symptoms. it's proven to help relieve pain, stop further irreversible humira is the number one prescribed biologic for psoriatic arthritis. [avo] humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma,

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teoastd --o rule the sea. it's a breathtaking performance for tourists from around the world. but beneath the surface, some species of whales are being hunted. iceland is one of just two countries in the world that still allows whaling for profit, in defiance of an international ban. >> if you are a hunter, this is just insane. you just shoot the animal. >> reporter: making this the front line of the war over whaling. >> it's heartbreaking this watch this, these beautiful creatures. >> reporter: we're headed out of reykjavik. we're going to meet anti-whaling activists with a group called sea shepherd. essentially they keep a vigil monitoring every whale that comes into the whaling station.

>> hey, this is it. >> this is the whaling station. >> reporter: rob reid is heading the effort in iceland. >> this is the largest whaling station there is on land. >> reporter: their goal, to shut down this whaling station for good. >> what you can see down here is the last remains of the two whales brought in at 5:00 this morning by the whaling ship. >> reporter: this hunting season, sea shepherd was staked out here around the clock. >> you can see the ship coming right into the corner of the rocks. >> reporter: waiting, and watching. >> four, five miles off at the moment. that's quite hard to tell how fast it's going. >> reporter: when a catch comes veamsea sheph rdy t usg social media as a weapon. >> just unloaded two more endangered fin whales -- >> really appreciate you guys joining us to watch this.

>> reporter: #theirharpoons. >> this is the 22nd fin whale that's been killed. >> reporter: images igniting global outrage. >> it's applying pressure, making sure there's maximum pressure from the international community. also from people within iceland. because this isn't well reported in iceland. >> reporter: sea shepherd has a controversial past. some have called their tactics eco-terrorism. the group notoriously clashing with japanese whaling ships near antarctica in the animal planet reality series "whale wars." in iceland sea shepherd sank two whaling ships. >> overseas recess dens of reykjavik are reeling somewhat from an attack on their whaling industry -- >> reporter: more than three decades later, those rotting ships a reminder of how go. today their tactics are less extreme, but their target is the same. the whaling company kavalar and managing director christian

loftson, one of iceland's richest men. >> do you carry fear sea shepherd may do that again? >> i don't know, these are vicious people. >> do you have security on your ships? >> sure. but if people want to do things, they do it. >> reporter: he's the last standing company hunting fin whales, the second-largest animal in the world. most of the meat is exported to japan, where it's considered a delicacy. >> i have to tell you, when i hear that described, an explosive detonating inside an animal, it sounds horrible. what is your argument? >> this is the most efficient way there is. it's like when they shoot deer. >> reporter: he believes whales are aable resource. >> we are conservationists. you know the world conservation means, conserve and utilize. >> conserve and utilize, right. you call your business a conservation business and believe it to be sure? >> of course, sure. it is sustainable. so we are happy. >> reporter: the icelandic

government says the whale population is stable and the quota they set, up to 193 fin whales this season, is conservative. but while there are about 40,000 of this species in iceland's waters, globally fin whales are endangered. >> from what we've been told, the fin whale population in iceland is strong enough to sustain this quota. what does sea shepherd say? >> there's less than 100,000 of these whales on the planet. and throughout the world's oceans, just because they're easily found this time of year in iceland, it doesn't justify the hunting of them. they're not iceland's fin whales, they're the world's fin what is. >> reporter: we get word the fin whale has risen. >> hello, hi. is that rob? >> we are now headed to the whaling station. because this whale is about to come in to be processed here and sea shepherd is racing here so they can livestream the whole thing.

>> reporter: as we get closer, the scent of the kill permeates the air. the smell comes in waves with the wind. when it hits you, oh -- it's hard to breathe. fin whales soar massive that the ship can only pull two at a time. slowly. processing station suddenly active. preparing and blasting music. they've started to play a song from the "grease" soundtrack. >> normally here it's very quiet. but tonight there's music playing. i just find it extremely disrespectful. >> it's two whales. >> you see two whales? >> two whales on the ship. >> not what you wanted to see? >> no. >> no. >> reporter: those white spots in the water? tonight's kill. >> two strapped to the side of the boat. they'll be winched across here unceremoniously, pulled up onto the deck, and butchered. it's heartbreaking to watch this, these beautiful creatures.

>> reporter: we are now seeing these two whales being brought up onto the deck. we're really seeing this whale next to these people, and the people down there look tiny. that animal is so huge as it's being winched up there, ready to be processed. sea shepherd streaming live every moment to viewers around the world in realtime. what are people saying? >> very distressing news. oh my god, it's beyond disgusting. >> sad thing to see. that's why we're here, to expose this to the world, make sure everyone knows this is still happening in iceland. >> reporter: they've removed a bit of the tail and made big incisions along the whale's body to peel off the skin and start to process it. we are going to stop showing acro eland, meatro fhales can b

easily found in markets. >> we have the whale blubber from the fin whale. >> reporter: and at restaurants. >> we have a pepper steak, we have a sashimi -- >> reporter: whale meat is mostly marketed to tourists. which is why activists with ice whale have taken to the streets asking visitors to boycott eating whale meat during their stay. >> sign a petition -- >> reporter: this campaign slogan, "meet us, don't eat us." now there is an entire industry that depends on whales being kept alive. whale wat booming business. >> it's amazing. it's the first time i've ever seen whales. >> oh my gosh! that's incredible. >> it's still thrilling. >> it never gets old. >> never gets old. >> something like that, when something that weighs 40 tons can launch itself out of the

water -- as it's doing right now -- it just never gets old. >> wow. >> reporter: as this whaling season came to a close, the decades-old debate continues. >> it's a resource that has young and multiplies. you can carry on whaling forever. >> reporter: a creature both a natural resource and a natural wonder. >> i have a 4-year-old daughter who wants to be growing up in a world where whales still exist. and hopefully whales have the best place at the moment. >> reporter: gloria riviera reporting from iceland. next, after 50 years the original big bird is flying the coop. ♪ from the start, the c-class was ahead of its time. [ indistinct radio chatter ] still, we never stopped making it stronger.

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of the day is 50. ♪ sunny day sweeping the clouds away ♪ >> after nearly five decades the original "sesame street" puppeteer behind big bird is

retiring. there are too many scenes to count with carol spinny as both big bird and oscar, from the very first show. >> i hear so many stories about what sesame street has meant to people. i'm really proud of that. >> at age 84, spinny is ready to pass the torch to his successor. >> it's days like this that make me happy to be a bird! >> a big bird with a big heart. thank you for watching "nightline." and thanks for the company, america. good night.