this is "nightline." tonight, a pregnant woman gunned down. her boyfriend a former high-profile nfl player, who goes undercover to help solve the mystery. shocking clues pointing to another woman in his life. now the jailhouse interviewer a. e chilling story of murder and scandal, put ago hometown hero on the witness stand. a story i've reported on for more than a decade, and now the any chapter to this twisted tale. >> we start with breaking news. rliend ofaw shooting nearby.>>

>>or one of the greatest football teams of all time, this story really starts in 1985 when mike ditka and the chicago bears ruled the town of ♪ >> chicago is a huge football town. o of question. >> shawn gayle. >> shawn gayle was among the most popular players on the

team. >> a little guarded, but of course he was super attractive. you know, everybody would just fall all over him. >> we're not going to, you know, break our arms patting ourselves on the back by what lenry 1985 dominated the season, winning the super bowl. >> 46-10 the final! >> we're number one! >> the thing you need to know about shaun gayle is after football he was still a success. >> he always seemed to know what he was doing. shaun was seen as a lady's man, very smooth. >> despite appearances, gayle was actually in a long-term relationship with a woman named ronnie ryder whom he met ronnie years ago. >> really, ronnie made you feel at ease. she could be your friend in an ?

>> oh, definitely. i'm a bear fan. >> here's your sister, dating a professional football flayer, what did you think? >> i just wanted her to be happy. >> they were together a long time. >> 18 years. >> in your opinion, why do you think they weren't married? >> i think ronnie wanted to be married. but i think shaun wasn't ready. >> she learned she was pregnant. >> this was a happy surprise for us. because we didn't think she would ever have children. every time you talked to her, that's all she talked about, she talked about the baby kicking. >> ronnie lived in deerfield, illinois, a quiet suburb of chicago when the unimaginable happened. >> ronnie was in her kitchen on th out to work. grabbed her ped her door many and t door, and in the shadows gets hit with seven bullets. forced back into her apartment

from the blast. two shots were directly to the fetus. it's just, she's executed. [ phone ringing ] >> ronnie, it's krista downstairs. are you okay? i heard a woman screaming. would you call please? thank you. >> a female down, they suspect maybe a gunshot. >> when police arrive at ronnie's apartment, they find a gr gruesome scene, there she is on the floor riddled with bullets. >> shaun got a phone call that a pregnant woman had been murdered. >> i'm calling about that shooting in deerfield. this is shaun gayle, they're naming me as a suspect?

was it ronnieyder? is she okay? >> ye it was no, she's not. >> she's dead? >> don't go to her house, okay? shaun? come to the police department. do you know where it is? >> yes. >> okay. where are you right now? >> i'm on deerfield >> just something you never think is going to happen to your family. i still think i'm going to wake up and it's going to be just a dream. >> there was no sign of a robbery. there was no sign of forced entry. so that led police to think maybe the killer is somebody roni knew. >> we had to look at shaun.

>> deerfield police asked shaun to come into the station where he was questioned for ten hours. he maintained his innocence, telling police he had nothing to do with the murder. >> we were having issues with his timeline from what he did the night before, what time did he go to bed? what time did he leave? >> the problem is, it's not airtight exactly where he was, when she was killed. and so, as a result, the police are really going to have to nail that down, if in fact they want to eliminate him as a possible suspect. >> during the questioning of shaun, police learn that roni wasn't the only woman in his life. he was playing the field, so to speak. >> here he, you know, kindly enough gives us a list of almost 18 or 16 different women that he either went on a date with, you know, got a phone number from or had something row maptically involved. he's giving us, here you go, talk to everyone. three-year period. dwraptsed, that's still a lot.

>> shaun cleared him, but authorities wanted to see if any of the other women in shaun's life could have been gel oujeal roni. police got multiple tips urging them to look at maurny. >> marnie was a single mother very devoted to her children. >> my mom had three jobs at one time. >> she was a real estate agent, an aspiring fitness model. >> my mother has always tried her best for us. >> maurny says she met shaun at a bears convention. she was working security. >> i remember him mentioning that he was looking for some investment property, because it had come out that i was a real estate broker. >> the two started doing real estate deals and their relationship turned sexual. two months after the murder, police brought marnie in for questioning. >> did you know the extent of

his relationship with the victim? >> i didn't. know the extent of the relationship. i know he had told me he had gotten somebody pregnant. >> she seemed relaxed and comfortable.t want to help. >> you don't mind coming back in to talk to us? >> no, that's fine. >> okay. >> the night before the murder, what we found out is that maurny was at shaun gayle's house. >> police execute a search warrant and discover marnie had been accessing his e-mail. investigators believe marnie had been tracking shaun and roni. marnie has denied these claims. she was now a prime suspect, but there was no physical evidence connecting her to the murder. ponforma marnie. shaun did his best to help police gather evidence. >> the whole point i'm trying to bring up, anyone who takes

someone's life, there has to be some lasting effect. >> i would imagine so. you have to be aitpust fmn ordee someone's life. >> in the end, marnie admitted to nothing. >> when we come back, police close in on roni's killer. >> they start pulling her trash, looking for incriminating information. >> they hit some pay dirt there.

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it's been months since former chicago bears star shaun gayle's girlfriend was murdered. but he was willing to live under a cloud of suspicion in order ask fce tui a yang after they found evidence in her trash can of suspicious purchases. >> police introduce the information they have that she had ordered this book about how to make a silencer.

>> now, why would you purchase a book on how to make a silencer? >> it was a joke. >> as the interrogation progresses, police ask her about ng guns. >> police where are know marni owned a .9 millimeter beretta. >> she leaves out the .9 millimeter and it was like, are you sure there's no more guns? >> there was another one, it was black, a semi-automati tay a ye ago some things disappeared out of my house. >> we had the evidence of the silencer. we had the evidence of her having had a .9 millimeter. still wasn't enough, and she knew it wasn't enough. because after they questioned her for a few days, she still was able to walk outoo door.

>> after we let marni yang go we spent good year and two revisiting everythg. now we'reking hardy >>rias a frien murder maurni called her at work where the phone lines were recorded. >> kristy passion, how can i help you? >> you want to go to dinner? >> okay. that's fine. >> is everything all right? >> yeah, i'm fine. >> do you want to go to dinner. that statement bothered me for a year, because it just didn't make sense. >> investigators were tracking a car witnesses saw leaving the scene of the murder. turns out it was a that's rented in marni's name, but using christie's address. >> investigators approach christy passion and tell her

that she's going to be a co-conspirator in murder if she doesn't work wit them. >> my feeling is that christi just got tired of lying. >> she was going to go ahead and kill roni. i was like, don't do this, what are you going to do, go kill all the women? and she said but she's the one he spends all of the time with, so she's got to go. >> marni said if i do this in the morning i will call you at work after i have done it and i will ask you out to dinner. >> police say they realize that question was actually code for "i did it." "i killed roni." >> investigators hear a stunning confession. >> i helped you do something you knew i didn't want any part of when you hid the gun. did you hide it real

>> i put it in a bucket of cement in a dumpster. i had a hoodie on, okay? i had dark makeup on my face. >> marni is describing her elaborate disguise which seems to match witnesses' description of the suspect on the day of the murder. >> she started screaming. i took the first shot. it was at that point i realized we are at the point of no return, and i just started emptying. >> marni yang has been charged with the murder of roni reiter.e >> when we arrested her, we brought her into the sti provide wire with her and clis >> i wish to talk to my attorney. >> she basically lawyers up and is done with us.

i think she realizes she lost. >> nearly three and a half years after the murder, marni yang is going to trial.eay just sit down and think this all happened because someone had a crush, it makes no accesense to me. >> it took a jury just four hours to convict marni yang of murdering roni and her unborn child. she was sentenced to two life terms. >> i can't begin to tell you how difficult this has been for me and of course roni's family. at least i feel that roni andy'. >> nearly a decade later, i went to interview her at logan correctional center in illinois. >> hello, maurni? this will be an interesting conversation. why speak now? >> i feel like prior to this i don't think it would have re a t time is now. >> marni maintains her innocence

and has hired a high-profile lawyer. >> marni took a polygraph, and the plig grafr said she's being honest in her answers. >> her costly defense team paid for by her father alleges that her children when they were 16 when questioned were coerced into making false statements that the prosecution used to put their mother in prison. >> i didn't know anything. and they wouldn't accept that. and the mental frustration. it really broke me. and they got to the point where i started banging my head on the table. >> one of the task force investigators came into the room. he slammed his hands onto the desk and told me, it's either going to be you or your mother that's going to go down for this. and that's when i really started getting scared. >> andrew says the harsh tactics left their mark. >> i was hospitalized, put on a

psychiatric unit for a good month and a half. >> in its motion to dismiss the petition, the state said the children's statements were not coerced than police told marni several times during her interrogation that andrew was not a suspect. still marni now claims her murder confession to christi passion was a lie to protect her son. you're saying you lied then, but how do i know you're not lying now? >> i have nothing to lose at this point. >> but you have everything to ajor crimes task force told us it can't comment on the petition because of its court case. it was a skillfully rebranding of the facts, she says and the overwhelming evidence against marni. i have to ask you, did you kill roni? >> i did not, and i am not capable of doing anything like that. i am a mother myself. >> we'll be right back. symptoms following you?

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it's been nearly 13 years since rhoni reuter was brutally

gunned down. 13 years of pain for her family. >> rhoni was kind of the hub of the family.ought u all tetr. took a piece of our lis,ook a piece off our hearts. ♪ ba, da, ba, ba, da, ba, da, ba, da, ba, da, ba, ♪ ♪ "jimmy kimmel live" this is ridiculous! >> from his house! >> jimmy: hi there

i had to make a catsup run. we are now a month and a half into quarantine. and i've noticed, maybe you've noticed, there are a few phrases i've been hearing a lot. maybe too much. the first one is "how you holding up?" i don't know -- like this? the better question would be "are you gradually falling apart?" another one is "stay healthy." it's nice, it's a nice thought, but what happens if i don't? then do you say "i told you to stay healthy!" and this is the worst one, "the new normal." stop saying that. this is not the new normal. the president wants us to gargle lysol and we have to wear a scuba mask at trader joe's. it might be new, but there is nothing normal about it. here is something i never thought anyone would ever have to worry about. it's hard to believe, but this thing with trump and the swallow your sanitizers comment is still causing trouble. so much so, that trump's own fda is asking big corporations to