this innocent little girl, being thrown away in the woods. everyone gets to walk away from this? >> she's the young mother at the center of a sensational case and soon she'll walk free. >> there is outrage and she is not being released into a welcoming world. >> the verdict. >> we thry find the defendant not guilty. >> how did it happen? they heard the case. >> we can't go on emotion. >> i kept waiting for that smoking gun. show us how she died. >> tonight, new light on the jury's decision. and hear what the jury never did. >> i said to casey, i love you, but i don't like you. >> the untold stories from the investigators' files.

>> they examined every part of casey's life, and every part of the anthony family. >> a mother clouded in controversy. a child lost in mystery. >> we will all be haunted by those images. >> will we ever learn the truth? >> casey now has everything she ever wanted. >> casey anthony, inside the verdict. also tonight -- >> there were three ligatures wrapped around her neck. >> a college student is murdered. and no one can figure out why. >> there's no motive. >> but soon, that wouldn't be the only thing missing from this strange case. >> it took at least a day or so for that to actually sink in. >> mystery on the catawba river. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening, and welcome to "dateline." i'm ann curry. this week, the conclusion to a case that has fascinated this country three years. the casey anthony story not only streamed live in living rooms but on the internet, sparking a

facebook page and even an iphone app. out of the courtroom, the debate is still furious over what really happened to 2-year-old caylee. has justice been served? here's dennis murphy. >> we don't know. >> verdict, not guilty. >> sometimes a trial, a criminal case, grabs a nation's attention and won't let go. this has been one of them. >> the most well-documented liar ever seen in a courtroom, accuses everybody of lying. >> fantasy forensics, phantom stickers, phantom stains, and no real hard evidence. >> a shocker of a verdict that rocked the nation's richter scale. was it justice for the victim, the 2-year-old girl named caylee? the accused, her mother, 25-year-old casey anthony. >> i can't. and i wish i could do more.

>> the devastated, the defendant's parents, cindy and george anthony. >> i need to have something inside of me get through this. >> their daughter, charged with first-degree murder, had pleaded not guilty to suffocating caylee with duct tape in june of 2008. >> this is the ultimate american tragedy, the ultimate american nightmare. that's what this is. >> the child's skeletal remains were found near the home where she'd been raised and by all accounts loved, wrapped in plastic garbage bags, dumped in a wooded side of the road filled with trash and litter. >> please keep your voices down. let's try and keep it to a minimum. >> after six weeks of testimony, a case that ran to 25,000 pages, the jury of seven women and five men, after a little over ten hours of deliberations, announced it had reached a verdict in this death penalty case. >> and we have breaking news, the associated press is now reporting -- >> the crowd outside was electrified by the news, learning the verdict would be

read in open court in 45 minutes. >> pick a side, pick a spot, pick somewhere else, but don't block the sidewalks. >> the trial principal, the prosecution and defense return to the courtroom. casey was brought back in. she chewed her nails as she waited to hear nothing less than whether d live or die. the prosecutors looked confident, pushed back from their table. like everyone else, just waiting for 2:15 p.m. to come around on the clock. ha verdicts.

>> state of florida versus casey marie anthony. as to the charge of first degree murder, verdict as to count one, we the jury find the defendant not guilty, so say we all. as to the charge of aggravated child abuse, verdict is to count two, we the jury find the defendant not guilty. as to the charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child, verdict is to count three, we the jury find the defendant so say we all, dated at orlando, orange county florida, this 5th day of july, 2011, signed foreperson. ould be found guilty of lesser charges involving lying to the police. but the headline, astonishing for millions watching in realtime, was that casey anthony was found not guilty of murdering her child. >> the jury appears have found you not guilty. >> casey's parents quietly left the courtroom. later in a statement, the anthonys called the defense baseless but the verdict fair,

and a divided family says while it may never know what happened, it has closure for this chapter. >> no justice served today. >> outside, little support for the verdict. >> if you're young and cute in america, you can get away with murder. >> outrage prevailed over a decision which may go down as the most controversial since o.j. simpson was acquitted in the 1990s. >> we watched this from day one. she's guilty. >> she's just proven that you can kill your child and get away with it. >> who cares about this baby? are you kidding me? none of this is right. >> casey did not murder caylee. it's that simple. >> in the course of the trial, the lead defense attorney, jose baez went from a no-name lawyer with little trial experience to one of the most recognizable faces in an american courtroom. >> the best feeling that i have today is that i know i can go home and my daughter will ask me, what did you do today? and i can say i saved a life. >> the prosecution was flattened.

they had lost the case of a lifetime. >> we're disappointed with the verdict today. and surprised. because we put in absolutely every piece of evidence that existed. >> that evening, candles were lit at the scene where caylee's body was discovered. strangers mostly honoring the little girl gone. two days later, protesters reassembled as casey anthony returned to court for sentencing. she was given four years for lying to investigators, but with time served and good behaveiorbehavior, she'll be out sunday july 17th. three years after the whole sad story began. the murder investigation had been carried out in orlando, florida. and it had an anywhere, usa, setting. a well-kept suburban house, a family within who could have been anyone's neighbors. george and cindy with a grown son, and a single mom daughter, still living at home raising her little girl. the child at the center of everything, caylee.

aphrodite jones is a writer of true crime books. >> i don't know anybody who's watched this and has sat in the courtroom and seen those graphic photographs who's ever going to get them out of their mind again. we will all be haunted by those images. >> the people versus her mother was what the prosecution was all about. getting justice for a child a few weeks away from her third birthday. and what a trial it has been. allegations of incest and abuse, outrageous lies, a mother weeping on the stand, a father recounting his failed suicide attempt. there was testimony about chloroform and duct tape and a car with the smell of death. all the way through, it's been just a mesmerizing summer thriller. from those early witnesses remembering casey the party girl at the hot body contest, to the final ones describing their forensic work on an all-too-tiny skeleton. tonight, a look at why it ended the way it did. we were there for seven.

>> he heard the whole case, from start to finish. >> where's the weapon? or the chloroform? like, where was the body first held? who was involved? >> new light only the jury's decisi. when casey anthony, inside the verdict, continues. 1995. enny ]'93. kenny, 1995 was the year the song came out. it was '93. that was your 5th year of high school. it was 1995. ha! 10 bucks says it's '93. yeah, well that's 10 bucks you're gonna have to put in my pocket. whatever. "whoomp! there it is" was '93. it was clearly nineteen ninety... kenny, the restaurant's on fire. i'll call you back. wait, wait... [ male announcer ] only at&t's network lets your iphone talk and surf at the same time. [ bell dings ] right now, all over the country discover customers are getting five percent cashback bonus at the pump... and at many of the places their summer plans take them. it pays to switch, pays to discover. [ male announcer ] you gotta love sunday. it's like everyone came together and said "if it's good

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we the jury -- >> the verdict in the first degree murder trial of casey anthony, not guilty on the most serious charges, knocked people back on their heels. and as the news sunk in the millions who had been following the trial wondered how did the jurors come to their decision? what did they see and hear that so many didn't? two alternate jurors revuled why they, too, cited with the defense and what made sense to them and what didn't when they listening to closing arguments.

juror number 2. >> i kept an open mind throughout the trial and i kept waiting, you know with that smoking gun. >> dean was alternate juror number 4. >> we were there for seven weeks. witnessed every day what each opportunity from the state and defense had. >> prosecutor jeff ashton delivered his closing statement first and summed up the case of the people versus casey anthony. >> the conflict between the life she wanted and the life thrust upon her was simply irreconcilable and something had to give. she chose to sacrifice her child. >> he took the jurors back to the first days of trial when they were introduced to casey anthony as a party girl. her daughter, caylee, absent as she hit the town. >> i'm young i can relate that any person my age likes to go

out, hang out with friends but she didn't really show she was a party girl like that. >> the prosecution's theory was that casey was an immature young women who didn't want her cramping her party nights, who caused casey to be anchored under her parent's roof. >> that didn't really fly because she had her parents' support system that would watch caylee when she went out. >> the prosecution reminded the jury that she had a new boyfriend by the week in june when caylee disappeared. a guy who worked on the club scene. caylee didn't fit in, so casey eliminated her. >> as hard as it is to accept when casey anthony was at blockbuster on june 16th

walking arm in arm with her boyfriend, tony, caylee was in the trunk of her car in the early stages of decomposition. >> it went on for a month. casey even entering a hot body contest contest. fending off her mother's anxiety about where her granddaughter was, lying that casey was in the care of a nanny. >> the 30 days was wrong, but we can't do on emotion. >> from july 15th all hell breaks loose. >> the prosecutor detailed how the month of freedom came to a halt. >> july 15th car is discovered. cindy is on a mission. cindy is going to find and save her granddaughter and she will not be denied. >> casey's car, 'ban don edaban dond

in a tow yard would become the scientific evidence for murder. a car with the trunk that tested high for the presence of chloroform and witnesses said had the unmistakable scent of death about it. a cadaver dog recognized a aroma and a sciencetist who said he was able to detech the odor of human decomposition. >> we're not just relying on his nose. we are relying on science too. we have exploded the myth of the garbage. >> but, would that convince the jury? >> just the smell. there was no blood. no decomp stain inside the trunk. >> the state also warned jurors about following the line of argument that caylee drowned and that george had a hand in it. >> a trip down the rabbit hole

where men who love their granddaughters and take an innocent accident and make it look like a murder for no reason. >> the state put up pictures to remind the jurors that the only person's lifestyle was casey and then they played her jailhouse calls to show she was hardly grieving her daughter's death. the prosecuteor had tied up all the pieces of testimony, fitting them into a narrative. casey, he said murdered her daughter. knocked her out with chloroform and smothered her with duct tape. at one argument, she drove to her parents' house to bury caylee in the backyard. she borrowed a shovel from a neighbor, but abandoned the

effort. >> that was too much work. >> caylee's body was recovered in swampy woods not far from her grandparent's home. the child's skull was found with duct tape around the nose and mouth area. >> we can only hope that the chloroform was used before the tape was applied. so that caylee went peacefully. without fear. but go, she did. and she died a cause she could not reach. she died because she had three pieces of duct tape over her nose and mouth and because her mother decided the life she wanted was more important. >> i just don't see if they're going to say the chloroform was to knock caylee out and to suffocate her, i don't understand the duct tape.

>> but for all its 25,000 pages of case documents, testimony from about 100 witnesses, nothing could explain to the jury how this child died. >> they did not show the manner of death, when was important. >> each question, where's the weapon, the chloroform. where was the body first held. who was involved. >> now, it was the defense's last turn to poke holes in the theorys. coming up where was the proof of murder? >> no real hard evidence no dna, no nothing. >> and did a father take the fault? >> george, he was just always >> george, he was just always confrontational, always evasive. >> when "dateline" continues. before making my dinner. whic is fine, i mean i, i know how to make dinner.

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this murder was premeditated. and the defendant is guilty. >> the prosecution had delivered an impassioned closing argument that summed up the massive case that the state of florida had been building against casey anthony since 2008. >> you could see how hard both sides worked for the three years. >> and now alternate juror along with the other jurors would hear the defense's closing arguments. casey anthony's lawyer, jose

baez, had four hours to convince him his stone-faced client, the defendant, was not a child killer. >> two weeks of testimony that served only one purpose. and that was to paint casey anthony as a slut, as a party girl, as a girl who lies, and has absolutely nothing to do with how caylee died. >> alternate juror dean ekstat said he liked the lawyer's style. >> he was unique. he was definitely not an average lawyer that i would interpret has a real lawyer. but he was good. >> he also took in baez's client, casey anthony. >> definitely just see what her body language is. she seemed sincere. but again, i -- you don't know if she's acting. >> jose baez had conceded from his opening statement at trial that the defendant was a fluent liar. now at the end of trial, he even introduced a chart with all of

casey anthony's imageinary friends. but he said fake bosses and career had nothing to do with how caylee died. but the defense would argue the prosecution was selling a fantasy, too, by calling a scientific case evidence. >> it's a fantasy of forensics. >> it was back to the trunk of the car and the skull in the woods. >> no real hard evidence. no dna. no fingerprint. nothing. >> the aroma of death certified in a lab? nonsense, said the lawyer. >> there are no chemical aspects of decomposition yet. it's at its infancy stage. >> the test for chloroform that were off the charts, also not so said baez. >> the main compound was gasoline. >> i wanted any kind of chemicals inside the house for the chloroform, i wanted more

research, more documentation. >> duct tape used as a murder weapon, the defense replied no one could say for certain whether the strips of tape were placed on the child's face before or after her death. >> they can say all they want about where the duct tape was. the issue here is how did she die. >> there's so many stories that could have happened with that duct tape. i really don't want to say what happened and what didn't happen. because honestly i don't know. >> all along, the best argument the defense had going for it was the fact that no witness, no medical examiner, no forensic technician could say how caylee died. >> reasonable doubt lives here. it's throughout the case. >> the defense wanted the jury to believe that caylee had drowned in a backyard swimming pool accident. >> this was an accident that snowballed out of control. >> cindy, the grandmother, had been called to the stand to describe a series of pictures of caylee on the pool ladder and

the back padkck patio proving she could get outside by herself. >> there's the proof that she could easily get outside. >> the picture of her just able to open that door and freely go out. >> and look what caylee's doing. >> the ladder itself being up or down, there is that possibility that she could have drowned. >> the defense made a startling allegation at the start of trial that casey had been sexually molested by her father from a young age. and that the dysfunction in the anthony family is what caused casey to act strangely after her daughter's accidental death. casey's father had denied the accusation under oath. >> have you ever sexually molested your daughter, casey anthony? >> no, sir. >> the jury didn't hear those allegations because the judge ruled the allegation was unproven. but the alternate juror said he certainly didn't forget about it. >> you can't just erase what they said. so it's always in the back of your mind of, it could it, did

it or what not. >> and the judge's ruling didn't mean that casey's father, george, was off limited to being presented in final remarks as a murky character in the story. >> given every single opportunity, he lied. >> the defense had ceded a version of events that had george, a one-time sheriff's deputy, taking charge after the child's supposed accidental drowning. george, suggested, concealed his grand daughter's death. again, george denied. >> george cares about george. >> but here in closing arguments, george anthony was front and center, a bad guy in the defense's telling of it. >> the only direct link to caylee, to her remains, is this duct tape. the only one that ultimately connected to is george. >> george, he -- he was just always confrontational, seemed like, never wanted to answer questions correctly, always evasive. >> the entire anthony family,

mother, father, son, and daughter, was depicted by the defense as a dysfunctional bunch. >> you all sat here and saw some bizarre things that have been going on long before caylee was ever born. there's something wrong here. something not right. >> a criminal defense lawyer's job is to create doubt. to jab at that concept of a reasonable doubt about the prosecution's case. here the doubts baez raised concerned not just the science, the forensics. >> casey was a good mother. caylee loved casey. >> he also scoffed at the idea that this young mom who seemed devoted to her little girl would turn around and murder her so she could party. >> why would casey kill her daughter when there was no prior -- no prior evidence of any type of abuse and a loving mom? so -- and we just -- i couldn't take that leap of faith. >> the defense's casey anthony was someone else.

a disturbed young woman who, against all common sense, failed to report the death of her child in an accident. would the jury buy it? >> there's no doubt in my mind she has an idea of what happened or even participated in what was going on. >> you're here to fulfill an oath. you've labored tremendously over this journey. and we're going to ask you to render a verdict of not guilty. >> the judge was about to charge the jury and send them out. coming up, the prosecutor tells his story. >> do you believe casey anthony murdered her daughter, caylee? >> i do. i do. >> what might have changed this verdict? when "dateline" continues.

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because now...there's this. the jury was coming back after a little under 11 hours deliberating. a relatively fast verdict.

the prosecutors looked confident as they waited. jeff ashton told us they were. >> we felt we presented a good case, made good arguments, we were feeling pretty good. >> until the verdict was readout count by count. >> not guilty. >> when i heard the not guilty on the child abuse, i knew that that was it. that they were going to find her not responsible in any way for what happened to caylee. and my reaction, honestly was just -- i just kept mouthing, wow. >> do you believe casey anthony murdered her daughter? >> i do. i do. i cannot wrap my head around a circumstance in which someone would take a child that died accidentally and, one, not report it, or, two, put duct tape on them, or, three, throw them in a swamp. >> so in a circumstantial case with no eyewitnesses, no confession to the crime, where had the prosecution failed? one of the biggest problems, they couldn't tell the jury exactly how the little girl died.

>> if we had found caylee's body earlier, the problem in the case was that by the time caylee had been reported missing, her body was already a skeleton. >> and maybe even more. did they not see casey as a killer at all? >> pictures of her cuddling her child. >> right. and to wrap your head around that person simply deciding, i don't want this person around anymore, that's a tough concept for jurors to accept. there may have been something more in the family dynamic, but you could only present what people will testify to. >> he wouldn't argue it in trial, but after living the case for three years, ashton has his own theories about what was going on in the anthony household. george and cindy, he thought, were surrogate parents for caylee, more than grandparents. and casey, he came to believe, resented the attention they lavished on her. >> i always thought that there was an element of jealousy, somewhat, of casey toward caylee

because basically, you know, she was in the affections of her parents, replaced. >> as though she were more of a kid sister. >> almost like. >> than her own child. >> there's that odd dynamic, you know, mom now likes her better than me. and, you know, when you add that with the basic immaturity that casey seems to show in a lot of things, you just wonder. >> no one will let me -- come on! >> it just always appeared to me from watching the jail videos and so on, that casey's had a tumultuous relationship with her mother. but again, that's sort of what you see in mother/daughter relationships. >> as for the defense's unproven allegation that george sexually molested his daughter, caseyen an assertion the judge oefrderred the defense lawyer not to revisit in closing argument, the prosecutor thought it all totally unfair to the father. >> that was a very sad part of the case. that there were all those accusations against him. >> the defense never did put casey on the stand to tell her

story about a backyard pool drowning. >> there's the proof. >> but the defense cleverly] showed photos of the little girl near the sliding glass door that led to the pool. and on the ladder going up to it. >> did that have the thought, okay, maybe this was an accident. >> sure, it did. it did. >> in the end the jury appears to have dismissed it all. casey, the party girl for 31 days while her baby was said to be missing. the car trunk said to smell of a decomposing body. the jury didn't buy the forensics, nothing in the wrapup story concluding that if casey was going to be free caylee had to go. alternate juror dean ekstat. >> i believe she's a liar, there's no mistake about that. to actually commit murder to her child, i don't believe she did. the state tried the best they could, but obviously there was no evidence to convict her. >> i understand that not everyone sees it as i do. so i accept the fact that the jury didn't see it that way.

>> and yet you say the system works. works. >> the system works. we gave all the relevant evidence to a jury of 12 honest people. and i believe that they did what they thought was right under the law. >> she's a baby killer. >> and those people outside saying outrageous, pumping their fists, do you say the same thing to them? >> i do. i safe the same thing to them. you've got to believe in the rule of law. coming up, the investigators' case file. >> they examined every part of casey's life. >> what the jury didn't hear. >> got into a very heated argument, which turned physical and cindy started choking casey. >> when "casey anthony, inside the verdict," continues. lysol knows when thstallerg t it s rst. inside your home allergens can be found on everyday hard surfaces. lysol disinfecting wipes remove more than 95% of allergens. and lysol disinfectant spray kills the source

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the jurors' stunning verdict came after they'd listened to hours of courtroom argument and the testimony of more than 100 witnesses. >> having found you not guilty. >> but there was so much they didn't get to hear. >> i said, casey, i love you, but i don't like you. >> like detectives' international interview. >> i can't understand what it's

like to go through what they're going through. >> that's why i bawl my head off, half for casey, half for cindy. >> it was one of many tapes that never made it into court. records studied by "orlando sentinel" reporter. >> the investigator case files were at least 25,000 pages thick. they examined every part of casey's life, and every part of the anthony family. >> these sworn statements were not subject to cross-examination. some of the material may have been based on imperfect member riffs memories. some of it sheer speculation. >> what do you think happened? >> my honest opinion? >> honest opinion. what do you think? >> i think something accidentally happened to caylee. >> but everyone had a story for detectives. clues to that question that's hovered over the case since its early days. what made casey anthony tick in the weeks leading up to her daughter's death? >> how would you describe her relationship with caylee at that time? >> a question investigators asked in one way or another of nearly everyone they

interviewed. and much as the jury heard from witnesses on the stand, most people who saw mother and child together thought casey and caylee had a strong bond. >> caylee was always very attached to her. she would never even let casey leave her sight. >> but casey's grandmother told investigators that there was a force more powerful in casey's life than the love of her daughter. her bitter relationship with her mother. >> i just wondered if she hated her mom more than she loved caylee. >> beth karas has been covering the trial for "in session" on the trutv network. >> the jury didn't hear the full extent of the issues at home between casey and her mother. >> casey's childhood friends told police the mother/daughter tension was years old. >> her mother did -- i don't know how you say it, but push her really, really hard. like, to do the right things. >> right. >> to be the perfect, the all-american girl. yeah.

>> her mom would call almost every single time we were out. to yell at her for one thing or another or to see where she was at. >> was it fear that prevented casey from telling her mom when she was half a credit shy from graduating high school? is that why she's thought to have hidden her teen pregnancy for so long? >> i saw casey very afraid of her mom. she doesn't want her mom to find out about the bad stuff that she does. >> and while the two seem to call a truce to prepare for the baby, transforming the family computer room into a nursery for caylee, even her father told investigators it fell apart the second the child was born. >> they turned around and they handed caylee to my wife. >> right. >> my daughter says, oh, my gosh, you even get to hold her before i do. i'm not sure if my wife told you about that or not, but that's been sort of a sore thing. >> as time went on, witnesses told police, casey became increasingly jealous of her

mother's relationship with the baby. friends who attended caylee's second birthday party say the two women competed for the little girl's attention. >> we were all sitting down opening presents and casey was getting so upset, said, this is my daughter. and my mom's trying to take her, trying to take my job out of it. >> and according to casey's uncle, her concerns were justified. >> i know cindy a couple of times had threatened casey that if casey didn't behave and straighten up she would throw her out on the street and file for custody. >> this was the dynamic inside the anthony home that investigators had uncovered. but how casey behaved outside the house also interested the detectives. casey's friend, amy, testified early. >> would you consider yourself one of her best friends in that time period? >> very, very close friends, yes. >> but what the jurors never got to read were all the text messages the friends sent each other.

just after midnight on may 3rd, 2008, casey writes, "i started drinking, just a little captain. might as well." the girls make giddy plans for a trip to puerto rico. casey tells her friend she wants to do some pre-trip shopping. just don't let me pack my entire wardrobe, she texts. the friends seem incredibly close. amy later writes, "i'm so happy we met. i don't know what i would do without you." but on july 8th, after dropping off amy at the airport and messaging her, be careful, love, casey steals her best friend's checkbook from the unlocked glove compartment of her car. >> now, i understand some money is missing. >> yeah. >> tell me about that. >> well, there's $700 that i can prove that she took. >> after interviewing amy, investigators tracked down surveillance video of casey using her checkbook at target and bank of america. she later pleaded guilty to 13 counts of check fraud. at the same time as casey was hanging out with amy, police

found out she was also exchanging messages of a different nature with another friend. >> how many different instant message conversations do you think you had with her? >> a dozen, maybe? >> he calls himself ny italiano 3. he types, get over here, woman. casey responds, baby, if only. i'm going crazy over here. a few seconds later, she adds, at least the kid is passed out. >> casey was constantly making excuses as to why she couldn't hang out with men, why she couldn't carry on as a normal young woman and that was hindering her from living her life. >> there was one exchange between casey and nyitaliano 3 that shocked investigators. come over, and i'll cook. casey responds, ha. want me to bring the little snot head? investigators wanted to know if casey had ever admitted to feeling trapped.

>> did she ever make comments to you about how stressful it was or how she was coping with having a child? >> just that going out, having a good time. >> but as frustrated as she sounds, they also showcasy being attentive to her daughter. a few hours after calling caylee a little snot head, she tells him to cool it and types, i'm sorry. kale caylee has to come first. >> i think casey anthon yip wanted it both ways. she wanted to be the good mother when it was convenient, and the issue really becomes this. if i have to judge who casey anthony was with her child, i would say this was a girl playing mommy. >> investigators had pieced together evidence that casey was a frustrated mother. they had also been told she was at odds with her own mother. was this the perfect storm to explain why she'd lied to investigators and her family

about what had happened to caylee? perhaps the most poignant piece of evidence the jury never saw, cindy's myspace page, written three weeks after caylee had gone missing. >> cindy created her own page as a way to kind of reach out to her daughter to let her know, listen, i miss you guys, i miss my granddaughter, i want you to come home. >> she wrote, jealousy has taken her away. jealousy from the one person that should be thankful for all of the love and support given to her. casey's grandmother told investigators that this three-week period had been torture for cindy. every day casey had promised to bring caylee home but never showed. >> who else could she hurt her mom anymore than telling her every day that she'll bring her home every night? >> did she say she was doing it on purpose? >> no, but for me, it was on purpose. >> but what was the trigger? why would casey be trying to punish her mother now? the answer may lie in the case file.

numerous people, including casey's ex-fiance told investigators they heard about a fight at the anthony home the night before caylee died. >> concerning casey not being home a lot and not bringing caylee by. it got into a very heated argument, which turned physical and cindy started choking casey. >> the police had not been called, so there was no paper trail documenting the incident. the anthonys, through their attorney, deny such a fight ever took place. >> we couldn't prove that it happened. >> do you think it did happen? >> i don't know. i don't know. i do think that there was more tension in that relationship than -- than cindy was willing to admit. >> it did not get mentioned at trial. after the verdict was read on tuesday afternoon, casey hugged her defense attorneys, not her parents. >> they have no more sense of family for themselves. >> gone.

>> their family is gone. their family unit has been forever destroyed. coming up, a new life ahead. >> she's going to have her freedom, she's probably going to have money. casey now has everything she ever wanted. >> her ex-fiance on what lies ahead for casey anthony. and later, in our second hour, mystery on the catawba river. >> he said, i'm afraid i have some bad news. >> it was the worst possible news. his sister. a 20-year-old student was dead. strangled and dumped by the side of a river. >> it was a true, what you call a who done it. >> and the question was not just who. it was also why. >> there's no motive. >> that would make this a tough case to solve. and prosecutors knew the tough case to prove in court. >> we weren't going to be able to tell exactly what happened at that scene that day. >> but motive wasn't all that was missing from this case. soon there'd be a twist.

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they came at night to the spot where she was found. leaving behind candles and teddy bears for little caylee anthony. just a prayer and the nighttime hum of the crickets. >> this innocent little girl being thrown away in the woods. who's responsible for it? >> casey's former fiance, someone who'd been like a dad to caylee. >> we the jury find the defendant not guilty. >> saw relief flit across casey's face as the verdict was read. >> i think there might have also been an element in her feeling of, in your face. i'm done.

i get to get out of here, and there's nothing anything any of you can do about it. >> at her sentencing thursday morning, a relaxed casey anthony arrived in court looking like a shampoo model. flash being the smile seen heretofor only in the club scene snapshots entered into evidence. >> you may be seated. >> the judge would be sentencing casey on the four misdemeanor charges she was convicted of. essentially lying to police officers and leading them on a wild goose chase. her sullen expression returned, though, as she realized she would not be getting out of jail in a few hours. >> i will sentence you to one year in the orange county jail. >> judge belvin perry gave her the max, a year in county jail on each of the four counts. but with time served and other formulations for good behavior and the like, casey anthony will be released from jail in nine days. for the courthouse regulars, so passionately opposed to casey anthony and what they say as an unbelievable verdict, it was the last day of the circus.

time to get on with their lives. the tv crews are breaking down camp casey. but what happens to casey and her parents now? cindy and george anthony slipped out of court after the verdict was read. their attorney says they hope to rebuild their lives. >> at the end of the day, they're just good people that were ripped out of their lives and hopefully they'll be able to get some sort of semblance of normalcy back. >> but it won't be easy. minutes after the verdict, a death threat against them was faxed to their attorney's office. their private life has been picked over in the courtroom. >> did you have a romantic relationship with her? >> no, sir. no. >> and there was still a gaping hole where little caylee should be. >> caylee was a beautiful little girl. a child that seemed to be so full of life. and to have that just yanked out of your life is devastating. >> the defense calls cindy anthony. >> what's more, cindy anthony may be facing legal problems of her own. she is suspected of lying on the

stand, an accusation she has adamantly denied through her attorney. but prosecutors believe she tried to fall on the sword for her daughter on suspicious searches for chloroform on the home computer. >> clearly there's at least a basis for it, whether they pursue it or not, you know, i don't know. >> the anthonys haven't spoken to their daughter since 2008. they don't know where she'll call home when she's released from jail. jesse thinks a happy family reunion is unthinkable. >> the dynamic between casey and cindy is adversarial. it was bitter, it was angry, and then none of that is ever going to change between the two of them. >> but jesse doesn't think this esstranidgement will bother casey one bit. >> casey now has everything she ever wanted. she's going to have her freedom, she's probably going to have money. >> agents say she could earn as much as $1 million by selling her story. hours after the verdict, casey

was reportedly offered a part in a porn flick. but if casey does make any money, prosecutors have filed a motion asking her to pay for the cost of the investigation. a bill already estimated at upwards of $91,000. >> there will be money left over for her. she's probably going to be just fine. but that money will run out. she does need to do something meaningful with her life. >> so here we are at the end of the casey anthony murder trial. for millions of americans, it's been a spellbinding entertainment following minute by minute on live coverage. if this had been a tv show, by now we would have wrapped up all the mysteries, including the central one, just how did little caylee die. but it's not tv, it's the real world. and even now, this is a story with missing pages. gaps. >> we will never know when on june 16th caylee died. exactly how she died. >> and we'll never know the why. >> and we'll never know exactly

why. you know what? maybe some day. maybe some day she'll talk. >> but will anyone believe her? our next story is also a tragedy that took the victim's loved ones on a surprising and difficult journey. her family described her as a young woman who was trusting to a fault. so much so police began to investigate whether that trusting nature may have cost this 20-year-old college student her life. here's keith morrison. just outside charlotte, north carolina, the catawba river winds its sweet placid way between thick green borders that hide the city's sprawling suburbs. it's a river to play on. so it was passing jet skiers who saw it first who called 911. >> 911?

>> i'm a boater on the catawba river. there's a car that's run off an embankment and there's a body laying there. >> when the call came in, it was unclear exactly what was going on. >> a young homicide detective named william terry of the mt. holly police department took the call from dispatchers. there was something he should see. >> we just knew it was on the river. we headed that way. >> detective terry had to fight his way through the thick underbrush until he came across the tire tracks and followed them down a steep embankment. >> saw the back of a blue vehicle, and then immediately to the driver's side was the body. >> the body of a young woman, and it was immediately obvious this was a bad one. >> there were three ligatures wrapped around her neck. >> what did you do? >> well, we initially had to identify her. >> they ran the plates of course, and the name that came

up sounded, what, ukrainian, maybe? ira yarmolenko, just 20 years old, a college student, living on her own for the first time. wasn't much later, 150 miles away in chapel hill, pavo yarmolenko had just sat down to dinner. there was a knock at the door. >> there was a police officer. he had sort of a somber look. and then he said, i'm afraid i have some bad news. and he told us that they found my sister. and that she was -- he said deceased. so we couldn't believe it. >> not their ira. could be some cruel joke or just made an error. >> somebody made an error. that's how we felt. >> because ira was due home any day. she was moving back to chapel hill. and the house would again be filled with her elegant piano

playing. >> now we are broken. >> and she'd be spreading around those poems she loved to write. l >> because of oife ldanthburden of life and death all in the same plate. >> and i said, no, this isn't a mistake, they identified her. we collapsed, and i was shaking. i was on the floor. >> the cold, hard fact was this. ira's parents had come to america from ukraine for the sake of their children. for their children's futures. and now their ira was dead. no future at all. >> i've never seen my parents cry like that before. it was the most haunting day.

>> it was may 5th, 2008. back in charlotte that same evening, ira's roommate, another daughter of ukraine, named mosha, arrived at their little apartment to find two strange men in her living room. they looked grim. they carried a picture of ira. >> and it was her student i.d. picture, and i just like started screaming. sorry. both our families immigrated here to this country for a better life and sacrificed so much. >> and when ira was taken away like that, it's not only the girl they loved but it's every decision they made in life. >> yeah. >> before very long, the entire campus seemed to be mourning ira, this quietly amazing young woman. this unique person. >> there was just so much about her that i've never met in anybody. just the different combinations

of, like, altruism and humor and attentiveness. >> she had a way of making even the smallest gesture special. that's what her ex-boyfriend jeremy remembers. little touches that lingered, even after her death. >> she had left a little, like, paper clip sculpt tour of two people holding hands on top of my calculator. and i just completely fall apart, and it's like, you lose all the feeling in your legs, and i'm on the ground, and i'm weeping for someone. ♪ >> pavel and his parents attended crowded memorial services. heard over and over that theirs was no ordinary girl. >> your voice was so beautiful and so sweet. >> we never realized to what extent she helped people.

we started finding out really the extent of it after she died. >> when you were in a room with her, it was impossible to not feel like you were the most important thing in the world. >> sweet, blameless, practically saintly girl, murdered? this was big news. >> this is where her body was found. >> the press descended. >> murder of unc charlotte student ira yarmolenko. >> the pointed glare of the media spotlight. a young detective under pressure. solve it. >> did you ever have anybody saying to you, is this young guy up to this? >> sometimes. you know, it would come through my head but i've had the same training that every other police officer's had. >> and he'd have to rely on all of it to crack this one. >> there was no im suspects. it was a true, what you call a

who done it. coming up, the last hours of ira's life caught on surveillance video. >> not worried about anything. not upset, not unhappy. >> no. >> and later, the last image of her driving off toward the river. is a clue hidden here somewhere? when "mystery on the catawba river" continues. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] now use your lowe's consumer credit card to get 5% off every day or choose special financing on purchases of $299 or more. experience. lowe's. let's build something together. here at quicken loans, we like to go the extra mile for our clients. with the wassman family, it was 2,500 extra miles. we're the wassman family from skagway, alaska. livin' so far out and not havin' a bank within 90 miles... i was runnin' into dead

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20-year-old ira yarmolenko was dead. her body found along the banks of the catawba river outside charlotte, north carolina. her family and friends tried to cope with the staggering loss. >> for a really long time after that, we would hear one of my parents cry, and that was very difficult.

>> at the mt. holly police department, detective william terry understood, he'd have to prove himself on this. his first major homicide case. young guy, not much older than she is, frankly. >> that's right. yeah. >> and there's this young woman lying down there, and now you have to be a cop. >> that's right. >> would this have been this thick at the time -- the brush? >> nowhere near this thick at that time. >> but it was, he remembered, drippingly hot when he arrived at the crime scene and found, well, it was gastly. those three cords, only one tied from behind her, a bungee cord from the car possibly, the others knotted this the front, one which appeared to be a string pulled from her sweatshirt. >> it left imprints in her neck. then she had a blue ribbon from a small bag that she had in her car.

that was tied around and knotted. >> and another bit of evidence, said detective terry, once he got a good look. the hem of her skirt was imprinted on the skin underneath it. >> which was consistent with two people, one being on top of her pressing down. >> with full weight. >> with full weight. that's right. >> as the other one is tieing off her neck. >> that's right. >> so it had to be two people. >> that's right. >> awful. clearly. but odd, too. anybody would have thought ira must have been killed in a sexual attack or robbery, but there was no evidence either of those things had happened. but something else, the car had clearly come hurtling down the embankment, but it crashed into a stump just short of the water. and yet, ira's body was wet, like she'd been in the river. but how? why? and had she then crawled or been pulled out? whatever the answer, ira ultimately died here. asphyxiated.

clutching the grass beside her car. >> it was a very hateful, hateful crime. >> the csi people collected what they could, swabs for dna testing, fingerprints, photographs. patrolmen canvassed the area looking for potential witnesses. detective terry came across one himself. a fisherman. >> i spoke with an officer there, i said, did you speak with that gentleman down there? he said, yes, i did, i have his name. >> they could interview him later. there were others detective terry had to speak with first, as he approached the case with a method he calls the funnel. that is, starting wide, then focusing in. or to put it another way -- >> we like to talk to our knowns and then we work back in. >> by knowns, you mean the things easily discernible about a person's life so you can start eliminating possibilities. >> that's right. >> like boyfriends. >> boyfriends, family, friends. >> it was a deliberate process on their part.

>> jeremy current, ira's ex-boyfriend. >> they just asked me some questions. and, of course, like where i was. >> he was quickly cleared. >> i was in class all day long. >> it was the same story all over campus. >> we were able to quickly eliminate all of those people. everyone had proof of where they were that day. >> but what about ira herself? could the last day of her life offer clues as to how she ended up on that muddy riverbank? her records show she'd been to the bank, deposited money just after 10:00 a.m. >> we were able to get surveillance videos of her there. showed her alone. >> just 15 minutes after stopping at the bank, here was ira again. this surveillance video at a goodwill store just off campus. she gave away clothes, chatted briefly with an employee. >> seemed not to be worried about anything. not upset, not unhappy. >> no. nothing. >> just alone, in her car,

running errands. 30 minutes later, 20 miles away, there she was again, in should surveillance video from a ymca parking lot across the river from the campus. that's her in her car driving toward the river. had to be her, second detective terry. >> we could tell there was a very small person driving the car, appeared to be a white female driving the car. >> it was just after 11:00 a.m. it was the last image ever captured of ira yarmolenko alive. so apparently, ira arrived at the catawba river alone, encountered her killers there. but why in the world was ira even on that secluded bluff overlooking the catawba? her brother took an educated guess. >> she needed to go to the catawba river to take some pictures and she wanted to do this in a place where she might see kayakers. >> ira, it turned out, worked on the school newspaper. maybe she'd gone to the river to take pictures.

if you wanted a perfect shot of kayaks on the river, that's where to get it. from here, across there. >> that's right. >> so if ira had gone to the river to take pictures, perhaps her camera could offer clues to her killer's identities. they found it. an old-fashioned 35 millimeter film camera. it was locked in the trunk of her car. had she used it? >> the dial, the counter showed two exposures. >> but when crime lab technicians opened the camera, the mystery only deepened. >> there was no film in it. >> no film in the camera, yet the dial showed two pictures had been taken. was it as innocent as ira forgetting to load it with film? or was it something more sinister than that? had someone removed the film from the camera because they didn't want anyone to see what ira had been shooting that day? and if so, might someone else have seen the same thing she saw? detective terry thought back to that fisherman he encountered near the crime scene. maybe he'd seen something that

could help in the investigation. >> the fishing area is just through the woods on the other side of these trees. >> the man said his name was mark carver. said he'd been there with his cousin neal cassada. they came fishing there all the time. >> never saw her, never saw her car. >> and didn't hear anything? >> and didn't hear anything. >> the jet skiers who found the body didn't, either, so by the look of it, dead ends. >> this is high profile stuff. >> that's right. >> was there a lot of pressure? >> oh, yeah. lots of pressure. >> where was that coming from? >> a lot of media attention. you know, we were getting a lot of outside pressure. >> but the young detective said he felt up to it. especially once he discovered how much those two fishermen were willing to do to help reel in ira's killers. coming up, police catch a break. >> it was a very good feeling to know that we were one step closer. >> but were they close enough to catch the killers?

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♪ in the weeks following his sister, ira's death, pavel yarmolenko did everything he could to move the investigation along. >> once you truly realize. >> he even made a public plea for the killer to come forward. >> you'll have no choice but to surrender. >> when something like that happens, somebody ultimately will talk. and so that's what we were hoping would happen. >> but the warm spring turned

into a sticky north carolina summer, and then a pleasant fall arrived, bringing with it a new school year on campus. and yet, no arrests in the case. ira's death, still a mystery. >> there was a lot of frustration, i know, pavel was really frustrated and just didn't feel like anything was happening. >> although no arrests have been made, the investigation remained very much an active one. leads were pursued, people interviewed, and everybody it seemed wanted to help. including those two men who had been fishing nearby, mark carver and his cousin neal cassada. >> it felt eerie to him that he was that close to him happening and not knowing. >> neal's daughter amy remembers him talking to detectives many times. she recounted what he told them. >> he was trying to think of anything in his mind that he could tell them that could maybe help them with a time frame or something like that. >> at first, neal didn't seem to have much to offer. he had just been fishing, as he

so frequently did at that very spot. though, he did remember hearing an unusual sound that day, a scraping sound. >> he didn't really think too much about it because they were making a housing development. >> just up the river bank from his fishing spot, in fact. so he and mark were used to hearing that construction noise. didn't bother them, they just kept on fishing. mark stayed a little longer than neal, who left about 1:00 p.m. both oblivious to the terrible crime that happened just about 100 feet away. >> he said, if i would have known what was going on, i would have tried to help her. >> he tried to help detectives, said amy, even to the point of giving them a sample of his dna. >> they told him they were just excluding everybody in the area. >> it was all part of that funneling process the detective talked about. friends and family had been eliminated aspects. the same had to be done now for those few who had been near the crime scene. >> and he was like, that's fine, you know. >> nothing to hide, after all. >> he actually thought it was kind of cool that he never

thought he would get caught up in like a murder investigation, you know? >> but neal cassada might not have thought it was very cool, had he seen things through the eyes of detective terry. because the detective realized something after both cousins were interviewed. their stories just didn't jibe. >> their timelines were completely wrong. mark said that neal rode with him down there. neal said he drove down there. mark said he stayed the whole time, neal said he left shortly thereafter. so everything they were saying were contradictory to each other. >> that put them right at the business end of his investigative funnel. >> they went from the witness pool to the suspect pool. >> so they were called back in for more interviews. and what detective terry heard now made him even more suspicious of the cousins. >> everything suddenly was so much alike, it was uncanny. >> they now agreed with each other completely. >> that's right. >> but conflicting statements that now suddenly matched so perfectly was not enough

evidence to arrest someone for murder, so the detective continued to build his case while he waited for what he hoped would be crucial evidence, the dna results from the crime scene. which didn't come back until october, almost six months after ira's murder. but when it did -- >> their dna matched, two separate places on the vehicle. >> the two men touched the car. they had to be there. so when both of them said time and again they never saw ira, never saw the car, let alone touched it, they had to be lying. here it was. proof. their dna had been found on areas of the car where two men would might position themselves if they wanted to push it down the embankment. >> it was a very good feeling, you know, to know that we were one step closure to finding this little girl's killer. >> on december 12th, 2008, seven months after ira's death, neal cassada, 53, and mark carver,

40, were arrested and charged with her murder. they both pleaded not guilty. >> i couldn't believe that this had happened. he was just fishing. that was it. >> carver told anyone who would listen, they didn't do it. >> we didn't do it. there ain't no way i done it. i've never seen her before in my life. >> pavel, the rest of ira's family, there was now a face to the men asace that haunted their dreams. >> we were relieved and in sort of a way happy that finally there's this break. >> but it wouldn't take long before some serious questions were raised about the strength of that evidence against the two men. and about what actually happened that hot spring day. >> they had no leads. the police were pressured to make an arrest. and there was the scapegoats. they were the scapegoats.

coming up, the problem with the prosecution's case. >> they went back and tested the dna off the ligatures. our clients were excluded. >> but if they didn't murder ira, who did? when "mystery on the catawba river" continues. [ man ] i got this new citi thankyou card and started earning loads of points. you got a weather balloon with points? yes i did. [ man ] points i could use for just about anything. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ there it is.

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in december 2008, mark carver and neal cassada sat in 3 jail, charged with murdering ira yarmolenko. assistant district attorneys were assigned to prosecutor. >> working for the state, all

you can do is present what you have. and what the evidence is. >> essentially, inconsistent statements and, more important, the men's dna on ira's car. >> we had a pretty clear sense of who was responsible. >> as the prosecutors talked to family and friends about ira, the sweet, openminded free spirit, the girl who was kind to everyone, they began to develop a theory of an encounter on the bluff above the catawba river. >> ira is the type of lady, from everybody we talked to, that if she encountered two scary looking guys in the woods she'd probably go talk to them. >> or maybe take their picture. >> i could easily see her getting out of the car and walking over to the strange looking men and taking a picture of them. or she thought they didn't see her taking a picture of them or doing whatever they were doing. >> doing something they weren't supposed to, we don't know. >> and we can see these two guys over reaccount aing to that. >> maybe they threw her in the car and shoved it down the hill toward the river, except it hit the stump instead.

and then she woke up and fell out of the car and they shoved her into the river to drawn, then haumled her back out again, left her to die and went back to their fishing. so went the theory of the theory bolstered by comments neal cassada made to his wife during recorded phone calls he placed from jail. >> there were hours and hours of phone calls, a few of them really made u think, wow. >> like what? >> at some point he was talking to his wife, and he all of a sudden said, kay? are you mad at me for what i've done? >> but neal's daughter, amy, had a different take on the meaning of that phone call. >> their suggestion is that he was saying, i'm sorry i killed that girl. >> he was just sorry that he wasn't there for us, that we were having to go through this. >> and what they were going through, says amy, was hell. >> did you ever have a single moment when you thought, maybe

he did do this. >> no. >> not one? >> not one. he didn't have to tell me he didn't do it because i already -- i knew him, and i knew he wasn't capable of something like that. >> the neal cassada who had married his high school sweetheart almost 40 years ago and raised amy and her three siblings was certainly no monster, said amy. >> he was really sweet. he was kind. he was kind. he loved to fish. that was one thing that he always did, like all the time. go fishing, you go fishing, you stay out of trouble. he would always say that. >> but of course it didn't keep either one of them out of trouble. not neal. and not mark carver. >> mark was nice. he always took care of his girls. he was just very soft spoken and a nice guy. >> neither one of them. >> neither one of them, it made sense. we were just -- we were shocked. we couldn't believe that it happened. >> the story got out from the families that these were really decent, nice men. good people.

you know? good men go fishing. >> families are supposed to love their families and wives and daughters are supposed to say good things about their sons and their husbands. >> but it wasn't just mothers and daughters who believed in their innocence. around charlotte where the case got lots of attention, the certain public perception began to grow. maybe the police had the wrong men. >> these are individuals who had no criminal record. >> their defense attorneys certainly thought so. >> lots of reasonable doubt there. >> yes. >> david phillips and brent ratsford saw plenty of holes in the prosecution's case. those inconsistent statements, for example, about when and how they got to the river and how long they stayed, when put into context, weren't that inconsistent after all. >> the times may differ as to what time you got there, as to what time you did this, that's because he doesn't wear a watch. >> the times changed. what he did, did not. the order of events never changed.

>> and they certainly didn't act like they'd just killed a young woman. mr. carver, in particular. he was still at the scene when the police arrived. >> mr. carver was still there fishing. and why in the world would mr. carver stay there if he'd just killed someone? >> but the dna, oh, that sticky dna, leaves its marks everywhere. and the dna clearly said the two men had touched ira's car. you must have had that conversation, each of you, with both those clients. you've got to tell us what happened here, you've got to tell us how you managed to touch that car. right? >> that's correct. >> and? >> their story was, we did not touch that car. consistent consistently. >> but if the dna caught them in a lie about touching the car, it also said rexford that they did not commit the murder. because -- >> they went back and tested the dna off the ligatures that were placed around her neck. there was dna present.

>> and it's neither of your guys. >> neither one of our clients. our clients were excluded. it could not have been our client. >> if cassada or carver tied those cords around her neck, surely they would have left behind on them some trace of their dna. but they didn't. well, someone did. just not them. suddenly there was significant doubt as to their guilt. enough so that the judge granted bail, a rarity in a first-degree murder case. they'd await their fate at home on house arrest. >> how does it feel to be out? >> feels good. >> though the pending trial was ever present on neal cassada's mind, of course. >> he said, what if i go to prison? i can't be away from you guys. you know? so he was worried a lot. >> in an unexpected move, prosecutors decided to try each man separately. neal cassada would go first. but just before his trial was to begin, the case took a turn. that no one could ever have seen coming.

>> does this mean that the other guy is let go? what does it mean altogether? coming up, a missing defendant and a damaging admission. >> said she come up to about here on me and then the agent said, well, how would you know that if you hadn't seen her? >> when "dateline" continues. d get th oh! wow! how can you be sure the leak is locked? do the leak lock lift check. success! with new leak lock. huggies snug and dry diapers. are now even more absorbent. just lift, look and celebrate dryness. now, we can watch a newspaper, listen to a magazine curl up with a movie and see a phone call. now, we can take a classroom anywhere

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in the fall of 2010, more 3 an twothears after ira yarmolenko had been found strangled on the banks of catawba river in charlotte, north carolina, the two men who stood accused of murdering her, mark carver and neal cassada, were preparing to answer the charges. separately. neal cassada was nervous, to be sure. but his daughter, amy, says the overall feeling was one of eagerness for the trial to come so her father could clear his name once and for all. >> we were just so ready to get it behind us. >> and they hoped that one day they could even joke about it in that sick humorous kind of way. >> i was like, in a couple

years, dad, i'm going to be saying, remember the time you were charged with murder? and so that was kind of like a funny moment for us. >> but there was no levity in the yarmolenko house, as they steeled themselves for the courtroom ordeal to come. >> did you have any family debates about whether or not to go? >> the intention was that we all go for as long as it takes, because we needed to know. we needed to be there. >> cassada's trial was scheduled for october. amy went to see her father the day before it was to begin. >> i hugged my dad, told him how much i loved him. i read in the paper that morning about how the trial was starting the next day. he said i really hope they do find out who killed her. and i guess it must have been an hour or so later. he told my mom to get his inhaler, he couldn't breathe. we thought he was having a panic attack. we were like, it's okay, dad, just breathe. he breathed a couple more times and then he just fell over. that was it. he didn't breathe anymore after that.

>> seven months a suspect in the murder of ira yarmolenko. almost two years more waiting for his day in court and now neal cassada was dead. what was that like for you? >> it was hard. i didn't want to believe that he was gone. >> but he was gone. and it turned the prosecution's case on its head. >> it was unbelievable. it took at least a day or so for that to actually sink in. >> i was very disappointed. extremely disappointed, because we wanted to have his day in court and we wanted to clear his name and he never got that opportunity. >> on the day that neal cassada was supposed to go on trial for murdering ira yarmolenko, his family, led by amy and his wife, kay, did arrive en masse at the courthouse. >> and now i've got to go home and plan his funeral. and my world's gone. >> they were there for a hearing at which charges were formally dropped against neal cassada.

you can't try a dead man, after all. >> why wasn't it dismissed. nobody cares about the detail, it was dismissed. >> but you cared about the details. >> we cared about the details, because we thought he was guilty. >> and you cared about getting justice whether he was alive or dead. >> right. so we felt we may lose the chance to have that answer. >> but there was another man accused of murdering ira and he was still very much alive. mark carver, neal's cousin, would not only answer the question as to his own guilt, but cassada's as well. >> did you see this as being a trial of both men? >> i did. clear them both or condemn them both. >> in the spring of 2011, almost three years after ira's death, mark carver went on trial for her murder. along with the ghost of neal cassada. >> this was a trial of conduct for both these men. >> i'm also going to show you state's exhibit --

>> the case was built mainly around the inconsistent statements and, of course, the dna evidence. >> the dna evidence was feet from where the murdered girl was, they lied about being near it. they were in an area where they should have been able to hear any commotion, any trauma to her, any damage. they said they didn't hear anything. >> much had been made about the fact that neither defendants' dna had been found on the ligatures around ira's neck, but the prosecution had a perfectly reasonable explanation for it. >> it was obvious that ira's body is soaking wet. we believe that at some point in time she was put in the river. we think the skin cells frankly washed away. >> the prosecution had one more card to play. their ace in the hole. it involved something peculiar that carver himself had said. it was in an interview just after his arrest. he was asked, how tall is ira?

>> and he said, she come up to about here on me. and the agent said, stand up and show me. he stood up and said, she come up to about here on me. the agenda said, how would you know that if you hadn't seen her? and he said, well, i, i, i, i saw that on tv. >> but carver couldn't possibly tell ira's height from any picture he may have seen that on tv. >> i think i've seen every photograph of ira yarmolenko that's been published and i've certainly seen all the crime scene photos and everything else and i could not give you an estimate of how tall she would be up on me. >> so carver had to have seen ira in person, he said, simple as that. but there was one thing the prosecution could not offer to the jury. a motive. >> we weren't going to be able to tell exactly what happened at that scene that day. the jury's always want that. i think we shared a lot of concern about that. >> people want to know why. >> people want to know. >> we want to know why. >> a single point on which

prosecution and defense agreed completely. they all wanted to know why. except now the defense made a remarkable claim. that the prosecution had been looking for the answer in all the wrong places. maybe they didn't hear very much because there wasn't a struggle. >> absolutely. >> is it possible ira wasn't murdered? >> that's why they can't find the killer is because there's not one. >> a new twist from the defense, [ male announcer ] we're kfc. so when we wanted to make our grilled chicken even better here's what we told our cooks. make it with new bigger white meat breast pieces. make it marinated for juiciness. slow grilled and seasoned with its own secret blend of herbs and spices. make it so good it deserves

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during the spring of 2011, mark carver sat quietly in the courtroom listening to the state's claims that he and his cousin neal cassada strangled the life out of sweet, kindly ira yarmolenko. and there in the front row every day sat pavel and his family. so what was it like being there at that trial? >> nerve wracking. to sit that close to a person responsible for killing my sister. >> nerve wracking to see the face of ira's alleged killer. something else entirely to see pictures of what he stood accused doing to her. those are images you cannot unsee. >> we tried not to look. that was what we desperately

tried to do. >> you managed not to see any of them? >> i sometimes saw things. >> do you still see those things? >> i remember very vividly, yes. >> sitting through the trial wasn't any easier on the other side of the aisle, either. >> it was hard to sit there and listen to them say that my dad was, like this cold blooded killer and him not being there to be able to defend himself. >> that was up to attorneys david phillips and brent rexford who felt they were defending the deceased neal cassada along with the very present mark carver. and their question was about the same as everybody's. why? just different answer. >> there's no motive. absolutely no motive whatsoever why they would kill her. there's no sexual assault on ms. yarmolenko, there's no robbery, there's no larceny of her vehicle, nothing. absolutely nothing. it is a mystery to this day.

>> the defense also argued it wasn't physically possible for mark carver and neal cassada to murder a young healthy woman. >> mr. carver was on disability due to carpal tunnel. couldn't pick up a five-pound weight and hold it. he had so little grip strength in his hands. now, how can you hold down a young lady and wrap three ligatures around her neck when you don't have the grip strength to pick up a five-pound weight and hold it constantly? >> and mr. cassada had two prior heart attacks. we took him down to the crime scene where this took place and he could hardly make it up the hill without losing his breath. >> he wouldn't have been able to do it, physically incapable? >> physically incamable. impossible. >> the defense reminded jurors about that unidentified dna, that unknown person who touched at least one of the ligatures around ira's neck, proof, they say, carver wasn't the killer. they derided a prosecution theory that the river washed away carver's dna.

>> if it washes off some, it should have washed off all. you cannot have selective washing. it boggled the mind. >> but what about carver showing detectives how tall ira was? hadn't he in that one unguarded moment convicted himself? not so much, said his attorney. what really happened? carver said his attorney was coached by his police interrogators into standing up and pointing out how tall he assumed ira was based on the photos he had seen. besides, he was actually wrong. >> when he stood up and pointed to about right here, which would have made her less than five feet tall. >> she wasn't that tall. he's 5'4". she's 5'3". she would have come up to about here. >> now, said the defense, something altogether different may have been going on that morning. the one thing nobody else seemed prepared to consider. >> it's consistent with suicide. >> suicide? police all along had pursued

this case as a murder. but david flipsphillips believes it's entirely possible ira herself was able to tie the cord on her neck and latch the bungee cord behind her. there's no defensive wounds, there's nothing connected to the body, there's no other evidence that points to any other really killer. and that's why they can't find the killer is because there's not one. >> not to mention ira had been giving away her belongings. her friends say it was common for ira to do that sort of thing. but, said the defense, it could also be a sign of someone preparing to end her life. you actually believe she may have succeeded in killing herself? >> i do. >> but would the jury? they got the case after less than a week of testimony. >> the results were sort of in the jury's hands, not ours. >> i was confident the jury would do the right thing. find them not guilty. >> the jury deliberated for five hours, over two days, before

coming to a verdict. >> i felt very tense. we simply didn't know what was going to happen. >> and? nearly three years after the murder of ira yarmolenko, here it was. >> the state of north carolina versus mark carver, guilty of first degree murder. this is your verdict, so say you all. >> mark carver, guilty of first-degree murder. >> it was only a legal verdict for mr. carver but the evidence overlaps so much, i think it said both men were guilty. >> clearly the jury discounted the suicide theory just as the police considered it physically impossible. >> no one could do that to themselves. >> mr. carver, would you stand, please? >> carver was sentenced on the spot to life in prison. >> a sense of just tremendous relief. >> and a victory for a young detective in his first big case. >> it was a very touching moment, you know, being able to turn around and look at her mom

and look at her dad and say, you know, we got them. >> there were others of course whose emotion was more like grief. >> other people started crying and stuff buff at the time i just didn't know what to feel. >> oh, but the defense attorneys did. >> mr. carver is an innocent man and they convicted an innocent man. >> so in your view, one innocent man is dead, the other innocent man is in prison? >> absolutely. >> mark carver is appealing his conviction. and the yarmolenkos are relearning how to live without ira. >> we're a musical family and it took us a really long time to restart playing music. there's a lot of that sort of recovery that will be probably going through for the rest of our lives. >> there's a permanent memorial for ira now on the bank of the catawba river where she died. and if questions persist about what happened here, so do the

stories about the girl with a short life but a long influence still spreading to hear them tell it, still spreading even now. >> sometimes i think it might annoy people when i tell them about her, maybe they don't believe someone like that existed, so i guess the best way to make sure that people know that someone like that existed is just to keep telling them. you know? just to tell them that someone like that was real. and it's possible to be that good. because it happened. >> and that's all for this edition of "dateline friday." we're back sunday at 7:00/6:00 central. i'm ann curry and for all of us what led up to a deadly fall? player josh hamilton reveals final words exchanged with one of his fans. plus inside exclusive the royal party. tonight, we'll go inside the