3 f2 ♪. you love -- lying there, dead. >> we brought the girls in. and just told them that daddy was in heaven. >> reporter: tonight it started out as a cozy evening of christmas cocktails but this family gathering, ended in gunfire. >> they started drinking and -- >> reporter: one of them wound up dead. >> and one of them wound up dead. this dedicated dad, gone. >> it came down as a possible suicide. >> reporter: suicide? well, it was his own hand wrapped around the gun. and he had money problems big ones. >> we lived how we lived,

robbin' peter to pay paul. >> reporter: but investigators became suspicious. >> i keyed on that gun that was in his right hand. it looked like it was placed there. the dead man's wife said she'd been asleep. how is it that you didn't hear the shot? >> her stepdad, said he had no idea what happened. >> i don't remember a lot. we drank two bottles of vodka. >> reporter: prosecutors said one of them had to be lying. >> there were two glasses, with ice in both of those glasses. tells us that two people are up drinking. >> reporter: unwrapping the truth about this holiday tragedy. suicide? or something truly sinister? >> it made the hair back of my neck stand on end. >> reporter: i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." here's keith morrison with in the dead of night. ♪ >> reporter: some people blamed the booze. that is, when it was all over. in the hard light of a winter morning here in phoenix,

arizona.. >> he was extremely intoxicated. when the body bag made its way to the morgue and the folks from csi craned their necks around fallen furniture and telltale pools of blood. and the survivors struggled to explain. >> i'm trying to remember it as best i can. >> reporter: that it must have been the booze or the gun. >> a pistol, a semi-automatic handgun. >> reporter: where did that come from? or that email the one that preceded so much vodka. >> and i was like, you know, "why are -- why are you trying to worry about this now? like, there's nothing you can do. >> reporter: something had to be going on that no one understood. >> it was weird and it didn't make sense -- >> he would never do that. >> when you start putting all the pieces together, you only get one explanation and that's murder. >> reporter: well, to understand any of it, this is as good a place as any to begin san clemente, california.

time the morning of the previous day a wednesday, december 29th 2010. a man named rob fisher, ex-police officer turned attorney with a thriving practice in family law got into his car and pointed east to phoenix six hours into the desert, where his grandchildren were eager to see their papa. >> it was a short trip just to kind of exchange presents. >> reporter: this, every christmas, was one of his favorite errands of the year. >> i'm sure every grandfather says this, but you know they throw up their hands and scream, "papa," and come and run and almost knock you over, you know -- >> reporter: there's nothing quite like that, is there? >> it's pretty wonderful. >> reporter: in fact rob fisher felt like a lucky man again. didn't for a long time. not after an injury prematurely ended his police career, and certainly not when his then wife suffered so horribly through her cancer, and then died holding onto his hand. but now? he was surrounded by good friends, his career was finally

back on track he was happily remarried and still cherished the relationship with his former wife's family. >> he was gonna come and see the girls and spoil them, like he always did, take 'em shopping for christmas. >> reporter: this is rob's one-and-only step daughter, belinda. >> they would run, run and jump in his arms, "papa." and it would just brighten his day. you could see that it was just genuine, the love between them. >> reporter: the brief christmas holiday visit from rob would be for belinda another chance to work through the grief the searing grief she still felt, for the mother lost to cancer. so this is well, something that you still had with rob afterwards, is that you had -- >> yeah. >> reporter: your mother. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: and you helped each other work through that loss. >> it was hard for me. because that was still -- >> reporter: sure. >> a connection to my mom.

>> reporter: rob was also looking forward to seeing belinda's husband what would you call him, his step son-in-law? lee radder. hardly a classic son-in-law relationship. >> they were only -- they're only, like, a year and half apart in age. >> reporter: yeah, did they -- did they behave like friends, or like -- >> yeah, like -- >> reporter: father, son. >> buddies. no, not like father and son. more like buddies. >> i don't have any biological children, so that was my family. >> reporter: rob, like belinda, loved lee's outsized personality, his bursting confidence and charisma. >> loud-talkin' new yorker, big salesman, always filled up the room, "i'm macho kinda guy." >> reporter: this is lee's sister lisa. >> he was a self-made entrepreneur, no college degree started several companies. >> reporter: sometimes they did reasonably well sometimes, often in fact, not so much. but give up? nah.

in fact, even as rob drove across the desert to phoenix on that 29th of december, lee radder was waiting for news about his latest venture, a big one. the big one. waiting for what he believed could be the best news of his whole business life. >> it was gonna make us boatloads of money. >> reporter: and that was where things were when pop-pop came to visit. >> yup. >> reporter: rob arrived a little after noon. belinda was at work when he picked up the girls and took them shopping for their belated christmas presents. then the whole family got together for dinner at this restaurant. and afterwards went back to the house where happy little girls were tucked into bed. and lee poured the nightcaps. >> lee was a good host. okay? he liked -- >> reporter: glass was never empty -- >> he liked to make sure that you had, you know -- that there was beverages there if you wanted to partake. >> reporter: and then well into their evening of liquid refreshment, lee received an email.

a moment you'll want to remember, as you hear this story. and after? he drank. quite a lot. belinda, wine, the men, vodka. >> cocktails, more cocktails. >> reporter: and got kinda carried away with the cocktails. >> yeah. >> reporter: a great deal of vodka. >> they started drinking and the girls went to bed and robert and my brother stayed up. >> reporter: one of them wound up dead. >> and one of them wound up dead. >> reporter: what happened in those boozy, bleary hours between midnight and dawn? well, that's the mystery, isn't it?. and a very strange tale it will be. >> 911. what's your emergency? >> he shot himself. i don't get it. he shot himself. >> okay who shot himself? >> reporter: how could a night that started out with family exchanging gifts, end in gunfire?

for belinda, it would be a haunting question. >> i remember walking out, and just not even believing this, just saying, "what? what are you doing?" >> reporter: right away, investigators would be asking belinda their own questions. if apparently, he has shot himself, why did you take belinda down to the station? my hair is shiny, straight... just perfect. so let's get one thing straight. this works! new ultimate straight from l'oreal paris. that's the power of beautiful hair. every day. because you're worth it. be the hero of your house and save big on appliances from sears. come to sears during the memorial day event and save 40 % or more on appliance hot buys. like this kenmore stainless steel refrigerator for $1199.99. plus get 10% off other top brands.

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>> reporter: it was an early winter morning, december 30th, 2010. inside, ice melted in glasses half full of vodka. and finally, silence descended on the house. do you remember going to bed that night? >> i remember saying, "i -- i gotta go to bed, 'cause i gotta get up early." >> reporter: any idea how much you had to drink? >> oh, probably quite a bit of wine. >> reporter: and then -- a single gunshot. it was rob who discovered his son-in-law lee clearly dead, lying on the kitchen floor. >> it is horrific and numbing to see someone you love lying there

dead. >> i remember walking out, and looking -- and just not even believing this, just saying, "what, what are you doing?" >> reporter: it didn't look real, said belinda, certainly not in her still inebriated daze. you thought they were putting on some sort of act for you, or -- >> i thought it was, like, a bad joke. i really did. >> reporter: but it wasn't of course. not a joke at all. instinct kicked in then. rob, the cop turned attorney, called 911 around 5:00 a.m. >> 911, what's your emergency? >> yeah, he shot himself. i don't get it. he shot himself. >> reporter: sergeant chris lafko of the maricopa county sheriff's office, got the call, rushed over there. >> it came down as a shooting call, shooting victim, possible suicide. >> reporter: once inside the house, the sergeant took a good look at the victim, there was an

entry wound at lee's eye. his hand was grasping the gun. and there was rob fischer, still kneeling beside lee, still holding the phone he'd used to call 911. >> mr. fischer stood up and said "i'm a retired police officer. i'm a police officer." >> reporter: and there was belinda. >> she was going, "what's going on? what's going on?" >> reporter: she was in shock then or so she said later. still perhaps unwilling to get her brain around what happened. >> i don't think in your worst nightmare you wake up and see someone you love on the floor with blood around them. >> reporter: and then to be told that he'd shot himself? sure he seemed a little upset by the news he got in that email the night before, but business troubles were nothing new to lee and belinda radder, they'd been on a financial roller coaster for years. lee was always chasing the next big thing, even when they suffered when the car was repossessed or when he couldn't pay the electricity and the power was off for five days. but they got along.

but during the years you were together, the big thing wasn't happening. >> no. >> reporter: had to be pretty frustrating, i would think. >> it was frustrating. it was frustrating. >> reporter: and on occasion, lee turned for financial help to his step father in law, rob fischer. in fact, after their home went into foreclosure, rob rescued their house, he bought it and lee and belinda continued to make the monthly mortgage payments. >> in -- in the years i knew him, he went from owning a very successful company to being bankrupt and needing our help. >> reporter: that's why belinda went back to school and got her nursing degree. her paycheck maintained some stability while lee kept trying. >> reporter: did you ever have -- have any regrets about being with lee? >> no. unh-uh. >> reporter: even though sometimes it was tough, right? >> oh, yeah. a lot of times we did the roller coaster. did i want him to get a stable job? hell, yes. would i have loved that? would it have made my life so much easier? absolutely.

>> reporter: everyone who knew lee was used to the roller coaster but never saw it get lee down. what did you admire about him? >> i think his ability to always see the glass half-full. he was not a negative person. this is lee's friend and sometimes business associate eric lampel. >> i've seen lee rich, rich, rich with a new jaguar, and i've seen him in bankruptcy and losing his house. >> reporter: and besides that latest thing looked so promising. >> well, we started this company called senacon, he came out with technology that uses computers to track gaming trends. >> reporter: this time lee was on the verge of scoring big, closing a big deal. that would make them both rich. >> lee was certain it was going to happen in the new year. >> reporter: so that evening, said rob, lee was in a very good mood indeed. >> he was enthusiastic. >> reporter: and then it was late, they were already well

into their cups. lee got that email and left the room to make a phone call. >> so this wasn't just a little quickie he was called away for, it was a longer -- >> no, it was -- >> reporter: -- period of time? >> -- a longer period of time and i remember him coming back and showing me something on his phone, like the e-mail or something and being upset about it. and i was like, you know, "why are -- why are you trying to worry about this now? like, there's nothing you can do. it's 11:00 o'clock at night, or whatever it was, and like, save it for tomorrow." >> reporter: and that was it, she said. she didn't give it a lot of thought, because she and rob were in deep conversation about her late mother. so that's where your mind was. >> mm-hmm. >> reporter: though rob did notice lee seemed seem a little thrown. >> he did make comments that night that, again, i -- i took as sarcasm. in retrospect i wished i would've paid more attention. >> reporter: about his situation. >> yeah. >> reporter: but really, what

could have been in that email that was so bad he'd decide to kill himself? >> there was probably a lot more pressure on him than he would let on. >> reporter: but that conclusion, reasonable or not came later, with sobriety. when the cops arrived that early bloody morning, the rob they encountered was clearly plastered, barely coherent. but how's this for a red flag? he acted, said the sergeant, like he didn't even know who was dead. >> he asked me is that lee in there meaning his son in law and it's just in the back of my mind, "well, why wouldn't you know who this person is?" >> reporter: so, what was really going on here? a detective named michael brooks arrived, took one look at two intoxicated adults and suggested a ride to the sheriff's department for a few questions. something about this did not look right. and somebody wasn't acting right, either, according to investigators. >> i mean to me if my spouse is lying on the ground suffering a fatal wound, i'd make every

effort to at least look at the my spouse. she didn't do that. >> reporter: belinda, under the microscope when "dateline" continues. any understands the life behind it. ♪ those who have served our nation have earned the very best service in return. ♪ usaa. we know what it means to serve. get an auto insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life.

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>> reporter: it was still early morning , when police descended on the house where lee radder was shot dead on the kitchen floor. and a detective told belinda he wanted to meet her -- privately. didn't give her a choice, actually.

>> we're taking you to downtown phoenix, and we need you to drop off your daughters somewhere. >> leaving them on their own, when-- after a thing like this happened. how-- >> uh-huh >> --tough was that? >> really tough. really tough. did what i was told to do. >> reporter: detective michael brooks. >> if apparently, he shot himself, why did you take belinda down to the station? >> in suicides in--in any- any death investigation, that could be a grandma that dies in her bed, you're gonna talk to the people that are there to find out what happened. >> reporter: there was a reason the arriving officer thought something was off about the way belinda was reacting. >> it may have been a play, or it may have been an act on her part. i mean to me if my spouse is lying on the ground suffering- injury, a fatal wound, i'd make every effort to find out, look at-- at least look at the--my

spouse. she didn't do that. >> reporter: so there was belinda being interviewed by the detective. >> i'm trying to figure out what happened. >> you and me both. i don't know. >> reporter: so, asked detective michael brooks, why would lee have killed himself? >> we've had financial trouble. we always seem to make it through. you know, it's like i just -- i -- i just don't get it. i don't get it. we don't own a gun. >> reporter: which was another question -- not only why, but how -- when he didn't have a gun? so, to the beginning. asked detective brooks. don't leave anything out. >> we went to dinner at about 7:00. >> you came back to the house and correct me if i'm wrong, but you talked a little bit and the girls went to sleep? >> mm-hm. >> what time -- about what time did the girls go to sleep? >> 10:30. >> reporter: and that was about

the time lee got that email about the big business deal he was banking on, said belinda -- and then the phone call with his business partner. >> and he went in the other room and talked to him. and rob and i just sat at the table and, you know, just kept talking. and, um, he came back i got up to go to the bathroom and came back and there he was. >> about what time did this happen? >> the girls went to bed around 10:30. um -- so it was after that. i don't-- i don't know. >> reporter: wait, sometime after 10:30? detective brooks was baffled. after all that 911 call reporting lee's death came in at 5 am. was belinda saying she couldnt account for what happened from 10:30pm until 5 the next

morning? didn't make sense. >> ok. were you, um, intoxicated? >> probably. oh, yeah, i'm sure. >> we got our first call on this at 5:00 in the morning. >> ok. i don't -- >> that's pretty significant from 10:30, right -- from the kids going to bed 10:00, 10:30. >> right. >> to 5:00 o'clock in the morning. >> reporter: but was she just confused, the detective wondered or was she hiding something? >> is there something more to this? >> no. do i need to have a lawyer or something? >> belinda came out of her fog. she could sense where this was going. >> i'm just trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. >> right. >> ok, um -- >> i didn't kill my husband. i didn't want him dead. i'd never do anything like that.

>> was there an accident or -- >> no! no. nothing. i mean, nothing. >> wouldn't you agree that there's a big difference between 10:30 at night and 5:00 in the morning? >> well, absolutely. >> i mean, you would know if -- >> but i also know that i didn't kill my husband, if that's where this is going-- if this -- that's what this is about then. >> before sending her home. detective brooks kept belinda in this little room at the sheriff's office for hours. but, was the detective satisfied with her answers? no, he was not -- that business of the time shift bothered detective brooks immensely. even if she was as drunk as a skunk, she ought to know the difference between 10:30 pm and 5 am. and what's more--when they looked at belinda's blackberry, they found on it two photos of her dead husband lying on the kitchen floor.

they were time-stamped around they were time-stamped around 5 am and later when they asked belinda, she denied taking them. >> you didn't feel like she was necessarily being straight with you? >> i didn't want to jump to any conclusions at that point. >> well, if the detective was suspicious, so was lee's family back in buffalo. or at least, they were when belinda finally called to break the news to them two whole days after lee died. lee's mom, liz radder, described her memory of that phone call. it was new years day. >> liz? >> yes? >> this is belinda. >> yes? >> lee shot himself. >> reporter: then in the course of talk-- talking to them found out that it happened thursday morning. >> and this was a saturday afternoon? >> this was saturday night. [ sniffing ] i said, "what took you so long? why didn't you-- you know, i could have gone there immediately." "oh, well, the police confiscated our phones so i didn't know your phone number." >> the call was brief, said liz radder. >> and that's the last thing-- probably the last word i heard from her. >> reporter: but that shocking word -- suicide.

it was a word lee's family did not buy, not for a minute. >> this doesn't make sense. my brother would never do this. i don't believe that he killed himself. there's just no way. >> reporter: no, thought the family. something else must have happened in the house that night. but what? >> reporter: coming up -- police thought this might just be a major clue -- >> i keyed on that gun that was in his right hand. and it just didn't look right. it looked like it was placed there. humira works for many adults. it targets and helps to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers

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>> reporter: the mystery surrounding the untimely death of lee radder should not, by rights, have been so terribly difficult to solve. if it wasn't suicide, that is. and within minutes of his arrival the first officer at the scene strongly doubted that it was. >> i was pretty certain in my mind that this was going to be a homicide investigation. >> reporter: so, if he was right, it would be the first homicide he'd ever seen in that little phoenix suburb, but why murder and not suicide? sgt. lafko wasn't a homicide detective, but by his reckoning,

lee's body looked as if it had been tampered with after death -- staged in other words. >> i keyed on that gun that was in his right hand. and it just didn't look right. it looked like it was placed there. >> reporter: in fact, looked to him like somebody moved a bunch of things around. >> it just kinda made the hair back of my neck stand on end. as soon as the detectives got there, you know, they're finding other things, too that, you know, this -- this isn't right. this doesn't seem right. >> reporter: which perhaps explains what felt to belinda like an inquisition down at the sheriff's office. >> they wouldn't let me go to the bathroom, they wouldn't let me have water. i was freezing, i asked for a blanket, nothing. i think it was a total of, like, four or five hours. >> reporter: was belinda involved? too soon to say perhaps, they turned the same focused attention then on papa or, if you will, rob fisher. >> i loved him as the father of my grandchildren, the husband of my step daughter. and a friend to me.

>> reporter: rob was still in his pajamas, and stewing in an alcohol level that was still twice the legal limit, when the detective ushered him into the interview room. >> can you tell me what happened? >> lee and belinda and i were we were having some cocktails. we were talking like we always do. everybody went to bed and i heard a popping sound. came out and saw somebody laying on the ground. >> what condition was he in when you talked to him? >> well, he was intoxicated. he wasn't fall down stupid drunk, in that i carried on a conversation with him. he was answering questions. >> reporter: rob told the detective he was asleep in the guest room when it happened. >> you were in the front bedroom in the bed? >> yeah. >> reporter: then he said he heard the shot, saw the body. >> you heard a pop? you come out of the room? >> yeah.

>> and then what did you see? >> lee on the floor. >> you know, still to this day difficult to think of lee, lying there, dead. >> reporter: but remember lee did not have a gun, nor did belinda. so where did it come from? sgt. lafko may have answered that question himself when he looked in rob's gym bag in the guest room. >> i find the blue nylon duffle bag. it was already opened. i look inside the bag and i see a gun holster. >> reporter: an empty holster. so would rob confirm the gun was his? >> do you own any firearms? >> mm-hmm. >> did you travel? >> in my bag. >> okay. what type of firearm was it? >> sig .380, it was unloaded because of the kids i had taken all the bullets out and put it in the compartment of my bag. >> reporter: admission number one -- the gun that killed lee belonged to rob. rob said he always took it with

him on the road. after all, he was ex-cop, was fully licensed. >> okay. and your bag was in your room? >> yeah. >> reporter: but how did rob's unloaded gun get from a holster in the guest room into lee's hand and with bullets in it? good question. rob couldn't seem to answer it. >> mike, i was really drinking and i don't remember a lot. we drank two bottles of vodka. who knows? >> reporter: after a round of questions, they paused, and -- standard procedure -- took rob's clothes for testing. and the detective bored in for answers. >> it looks like lee didn't commit suicide. and that is why i'm turning to you to help fill in some of the voids. >> wish i could. >> somebody moved him. >> i don't know. >> what do you feel happened? >> i don't believe i shot him. i would never shoot him. i loved him.

we have never fought. we hadn't fought. >> i'm trying to remember it as best i can. you know, i will say i don't remember everything. and that's maddening in and of itself. >> reporter: maddening indeed, so many "i don't knows" from both rob and belinda that morning. >> by the end of the interviews with both belinda and with rob, what were you thinking about their stories taken collectively? >> were there questions that i had? absolutely. i didn't know what i was dealing with. >> reporter: but for all the immediate suspicion, the police investigation didn't seem to go anywhere. rob went home to his law practice in california. >> how much do you beat yourself up that you allowed yourself to take that gun into their home? >> it was my normal practice. do i wish on that one particular trip i wouldn't have?

of course. >> reporter: and belinda went to california too, with her girls, to be with her biological father, jerry. and it was there she tried to explain that they lost their father. >> we were on my dad and my >> we were on my dad and my step mom's couch. and we brought the girls in. and i had been crying, obviously, pretty severely. and we were just, like, a little pow wow circle. and just told them that daddy was in heaven -- sorry. >> reporter: up in buffalo, meanwhile, lee's mother and siblings were suffering their own brand of agony. of the mushroom in the dark variety. they kept asking what's going on and nobody told them anything. >> it was an open investigation. and it remained an open investigation for a very long time. >> reporter: but of course investigators couldn't reveal what they knew or didn't know.

standard procedure, but excruciating for lee's family. >> when i talked to the detective cause he kept saying, "they're tests. they're doing tests. we don't have an answer. he said they were still" -- processing the evidence. processing the evidence. and then he -- i didn't hear from him for two months, which was very strange. >> reporter: even the coroner maintained an official silence. for months there was no ruling on the question of suicide or homicide. and then, half a year after lee's death, belinda organized a memorial service. >> i had a celebration of life on what would have been his 50th birthday, in california, at the restaurant that we had our first date. >> reporter: lee's buffalo relatives got the invitation, and flew out to attend. the tension was palpable. lee's sister ann confronted belinda. >> i went up and said, "you know, i just i need answers. you were there. you must be able to, you know, just tell me what happened." "you'll never know what

happened." >> not i don't know what happened myself but, "you'll never know." >> you'll never know what happened." >> reporter: we asked belinda -- what did she remember of that conversation? >> not what i said. i would never say that. what i said was this is not the time or the place to have that kind of discussion. >> reporter: and rob was there, but -- >> never said a word to us. if my gun killed your son i would certainly apologize to you. if you can't come up and face a person and talk to them, that's guilt. >> it was emotional. it was difficult because this is the first time we have seen -- the first time i've ever seen robert fisher. and he was very secluded off into a corner of the room. so, i never really got to speak to him >> reporter: so, as we say, tension. >> i don't know if i could ever say anything that would change how they feel. i mean, we all lost someone we loved that day.

>> reporter: lee's family was more frustrated than ever, seemed like a coverup to them. >> do you have any firm ideas about what happened to your son? >> somebody killed him. >> beyond that? >> there were only two adults in the house besides him. >> reporter: and if nobody else would tell her what happened, lee's sister decided, she was going to find the answer herself. coming up -- lee's family gets hold of the entire 911 call. it triggers new suspicions about rob's behavior. >> it doesn't make sense to me. >> reporter: and belinda's. >> why isn't belinda doing cpr on my brother? she's a nurse. >> reporter: when dateline continues. d, if you like raspberries. ♪to love this life is to live it. ♪ you take those raspberries and you smash it.

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>> reporter: it was a dark tme for lee radder's family in >> we're not in arizona. so, all of our angst is almost compounded because we're so far away from it all. >> reporter: a beloved son and brother gone -- no answers to satisfy their deep suspicions. >> i want to know what happened like what happened-- what happened next, what happened next, what happened next. we never got that. i never got that. >> reporter: to make it worse, said lee's mom, her granddaughters were out of her life, too. >> the little one used to call me grandma from new york. so she would call me and she'd say, "hi grandma from new york." well, i haven't heard from her.

i have no idea why there isn't any communication. i have called and my phone calls aren't returned. >> they've had birthdays since then, and i've sent birthday-- birthday card with a birthday check, and the check never got cashed. >> reporter: it was lisa who decided, if nobody else will give us answers, i'll find them myself. >> it's just my detectiveness inside of me. >> how'd you go about doing that? >> called the sheriff's office and said i'd like to request the 911 tape. then, they -- >> that was that. >> then, they said, okay, you have to fill out a form and send a check and okay. and -- >> -- got-- got my-- cd in the mail. >> reporter: then the family gathered to listen.... and what they heard on that 911 recording -- seemed very odd indeed. >> 911, what's your emergency? >> he shot himself. i don't get it. he shot himself. >> okay, who shot himself? >> i don't know who he is. he's like -- like -- wife's cousin. >> reporter: what was that? rob told the 911 operator and later the police. he wasn't sure who the dead man was. might have been his wife's cousin? really? >> and who is this person that is shot, it is a family friend? >> he is my daughter-in-law's

cousin i think. we're sittin' around, i don't , i mean, i think he's my step-daughter's cousin. i think, i'm not sure. >> it doesn't make sense to me. i mean if you've known a guy for 12 years, you certainly knew who it was that was layin' there. >> do you know how old he is? >> he looks-- no i don't know his age but i'm looking at him. >> reporter: the family thought they were hearing a cover up in progress some kind of act. the call was disconnected. rob called 911 again. >> who -- who is this person to you? >> what? >> who is this person to you? >> he- who is he? >> who's who? >> reporter: and what was also strange -- belinda's voice in the background. to them it seemed far too calm. >> is it a friend or relative or-- >> he is my daughter-in-law's friend? >> how old is he? >> how old is he? >> fifty.

>> fifty? >> i don't have a frantic wife in the background screaming, "oh my god. my husband's dead." >> why isn't belinda doing cpr on my brother? she's a nurse. >> it was heart wrenching, heart wrenching. >> kind of eye opening, too, i should think, a little bit-- >> i-- i think it really, kind of, solidified our belief that my brother did not commit suicide. >> reporter: so they went back and forth. was belinda covering up for rob? was rob covering for belinda? back at home, rob did the prudent thing, he hired an attorney. >> just to let maricopa county know that i was willing to cooperate. >> reporter: in fact, said rob, his attorney called the police in arizona to check on the investigation. but as far as rob could tell -- nobody was interested in talking to him again. >> we made those types of-- of inquiries multiple times with

them. >> and heard nothing? >> no. no. >> reporter: oh, but the same was not true for belinda. >> they came to my house five, six, seven times. i let them in my house, we sat down and we talked, the-- i wasn't resisting anything. i didn't have what they wanted. i didn't have any answers. i didn't have any extra knowledge of anything. >> reporter: lee had life insurance, belinda was the beneficiary -- it was blocked for months while the police investigated. and when the d.a. summoned belinda's children to a deposition. she for a while at least resisted. >> and it wasn't until the harassing got to a point that they-- that the district attorney threatened to call child protective services on me if i didn't have my children forensically deposed that i ended up hiring an attorney. and that was the only reason. >> reporter: but it wasn't harassment at all, said the sheriff's deputies -- asking questions was just their job.

eventually, they heard belinda's sobered up answers... ..of going to bed by midnight, and being woken up by rob right before his 911 call around five in the morning. >> i remember getting up, him shaking me, waking me up-- >> that's rob. >> rob, yeah, and saying, "where's lee? where's lee?" and i'm thinking, "what do you mean? >> how is it that you didn't hear the shot? >> i, myself, am a very sound sleeper. praise god my daughters are very sound sleepers because they didn't hear it either. >> reporter: so if her demeanor seemed off on the 911 call, or later to the arriving officer-- she says, remember, at first thought the bloody scene in the kitchen was a prank. and those pictures of lee that showed up so suspiciously on her blackberry? >> i think that-- in all likelihood i took the picture. and because i was thinking that it wasn't real, that it was

fax. fake. >> reporter: and not knowing the difference between 10:30 pm and 5 a.m. in her first police interview-- well, that she blamed on the wine. and later belinda told police a timeline that made sense. >> why was your story different later than it was early? >> i-- i don't think that i was remembering everything that had transpired, i don't think that i was really thinking of the-- you know, the chronological order of things. >> and after many sessions with belinda, investigators were finally satisfied that she was telling the truth. their suspicion of her, whether she knew it or not, dissipated, and then almost 6 months after lees death, in may 2011, the medical examiner finally issued an autopsy report. in buffalo, beliefs confirmed. >> it was not ruled a suicide,

it was ruled a homicide. >> reporter: but in phoenix? >> it was completely surprising. >> reporter: and at rob's place in california -- >> there is a level of disbelief. it's how do you-- how did that happen kind of thing. >> reporter: good question. here's another one. why still wasn't anybody arrested? in spite of the medical examiner's ruling, that it was homicide. a whole year went by. rob thought this might be a case they simply weren't going to pursue. >> you're looking forward in your life. you're not looking over your shoulder. >> reporter: maybe he should have been or would have been, had he known the questions belinda was being asked back in phoenix, arizona. >> they kept saying, "well, do you think there was a fight between them that night? >> i'm like no-- no way." they wouldn't f-- they never fought. >> reporter: no the case wasn't dead at all. but the murder suspect under the microscope wasn't belinda. it was rob fischer. >> reporter: coming up --

>> why rob? >> reporter: though he claimed he was nowhere near lee when the gun went off, evidence seemed to tell a different story. >> there were two glasses, with ice in both of those glasses, tells us that two people are up drinking. hey rich what's that in your hand? my at&t cell phone bill. verizon bill? yeah... that's cool no... how much are you spending per month? $110 bucks $120 bucks $330 dollars? yeah... what if sprint could cut your rate plan in half and give you unlimited talk and text in the u.s. and match your data? goodbye verizon. i am done with at&t.

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>> reporter: rob fischer was a busy man in the spring of

2012 tending to his thriving law practice and his horses here in southern california. almost a year and a half after lee radder's sudden demise. rob had begun to put the whole sad business behind him though. >> in the back of your mind, there's always a part of you that there -- knows there's no resolution to this yet. >> reporter: but of course, rob did not know what investigators had been saying about him since those very first hours after the shooting. >> a red flag went up immediately in my mind. >> reporter: didn't know what the prosecutor was hearing that just like lee's family, detectives believed rob may have been faking the extent of his drunken confusion. >> reporter: i don't know who he is. he's like -- like -- wife's cousin. >> i would think you would be able to identify him. i mean the wound wasn't that disfiguring that he shouldn't been able to tell that was his son in law. >> reporter: investigators also believed that it wasn't the haze

of inebriation but a deliberate lie when rob said here during his only interview the one conducted that morning that he was nowhere near lee when the gun rob's gun went off in the kitchen. >> you were in the front bedroom in the bed? >> yeah. >> reporter: problem was, cops snapping pictures at the house didn't think the guest bed looked slept in at all. and when prosecutor jay rademacher was shown photos of the kitchen table, it looked to him like rob fisher was caught in his lie. >> there were two glasses, one on the table, one on the kitchen counter, with ice in both of those glasses tells us that two people are up drinking. >> reporter: so rob couldn't have been in bed and asleep if that ice hadn't melted by the time the cops arrived had to be that lee and robert were still up drinking just before dawn. so the csi man took extra careful measurements of the body and the blood that fell on the floor and splashed around the

kitchen and at the route the bullet took when it left rob fischer's gun. >> we know the entry wounds and the exit wounds on lee. we know where -- >> reporter: and you've got the hole in the wall behind him. >> correct. and we have the hole in the wall behind him. and so those holes don't lie. >> reporter: no, and the story they told the angle of the bullet, meant, investigators believed that lee could not have fired the gun himself. and once rademacher looked at the expert's report, he said, the fuzzy story of what happened that boozy night finally came into sharp focus. >> what we do know is what the blood tells us and what the trajectory tells us, and where things were found inside the home. and when you start putting all the pieces together, you only get one explanation and that's murder. >> reporter: and then it was a fine may morning, and rob walked out of his house to go to work.

>> i was in the driveway, and i saw people running up at me with both sides with guns pointed at me. at first, i didn't recognize them as law enforcement. i wasn't thinking of law enforcement. and so you -- you -- you -- kind of your -- my split second initial reaction is, you know, "i'm bein' attacked." >> reporter: and, in a way, he was not by thugs. by cops. >> they put me down on the ground. and, you know, handcuffed me. >> reporter: and then rob fischer was carted off to jail, and extradited right away to arizona and charged with second degree murder. >> my phone rang. i answered the phone. it was detective brooks. he said, "i just wanted to tell you that we've arrested rob fischer. that we have rob fischer in custody." >> and that was almost like disbelief, like finally, like we waited 490 days from the date of the accident to the day that he was charged.

>> reporter: he -- you know, maintains that they were good friends and that he had nothing to do with it. >> i just believe that the evidence -- they finally accumulated enough evidence to support that he's the one that was responsible for my brother's death. >> reporter: finally! some satisfaction for lee's family in buffalo. but when word of the arrest raced around rob's circle of friends, not a single one of them could believe it. like fellow attorney chris miller who was appalled, she said. >> absolutely the last person in the world. i mean, if you told me these 20 other people did it -- yeah, okay. uh-huh. but not rob. not the rob i know. not our rob. he didn't do it. >> reporter: somebody made a big mistake, said chris.

and as a former sheriff, she ought to know. >> reporter: but aren't the law enforcement officials and officers just trying to get at the truth here? >> possibly. but even wanting to get out of the truth doesn't prevent you from making mistakes. i mean, i saw it when i was a sheriff. >> reporter: from his jail cell, rob found a phoenix-based defense attorney a man named dwane cates. >> i liked robert from the second i met him. i only got to talk to him through a piece of glass. and -- he struck me from the very beginning as somethin' different about robert. somethin' from my normal -- normal clients. >> reporter: and once cates heard about the case against his new client, he made his opinion very plain. >> i don't think robert fischer should ever have been charged with a crime. >> reporter: why not? >> based on the evidence. there is absolutely no evidence that he killed lee radder. >> reporter: cates got rob released on half a million dollars bail but rob was ordered to stay put in arizona. that's where we talked to him as he waited for his trial. something odd, during that time as rob's new attorney and his friends left to his defense

belinda said nothing. a silence rob's friend chris couldn't quite understand. >> i'm not really sure what's going on. >> reporter: curious? >> very curious because i would be shouting from the mountaintops right now on what i believed one way or the other. and i don't think she's shouting or even whispering to anyone -- >> reporter: but there were reasons for that, said belinda. for one thing she had no idea whether or not she might be charged too. were you afraid you were gonna be arrested? >> oh, sure. you're just in knots all day long. just don't know what to expect. and -- you know, you think, "if they're -- if they think rob's capable of this --" rob, like, this super good guy, then they -- for sure think i'm capable of it. do you sort of -- sort of find yourself building a wall around -- >> oh, for. >> reporter: yourself? >> sure. >> reporter: yeah. >> for sure. >> reporter: very cautious about what -- >> oh. >> reporter: you say, about who you talk to, about. >> everything. everything.

>> reporter: as for lee's family in buffalo, according to belinda, they hadn't been close for years, and after the memorial, she said all she got from them was outright hostility. no, said belinda, there was nothing good about this for her. either her husband committed suicide a very bad thing or he was murdered by her own step father. she found that last bad option very hard to believe. but as time went on she began to think maybe the prosecutor knew something she didn't. they wouldn't arrest him if they didn't have some evidence -- >> and where i -- you know, i was brought up that we believe the police officers, we believe that -- my grandfather was a police officer. rob was a police officer. like, they don't just charge people. it -- he had -- he had to have done it. >> reporter: coming up. rob fischer's trial begins with a bang as the prosecution contends that blood evidence at the scene leads to only one

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>> reporter: it was the morning of november 6th, 2013, a wednesday, when prosecutor jay rademacher rose in the phoenix courthouse to present his murder case against rob fischer. >> this case is about a cover-up. >> reporter: lee radder's family

watched from the gallery, hoping, three years after lee's death, for justice. >> will we ever find out what happened? truthfully, i don't know. do i want somebody to pay for his death? yes, most seriously, because he didn't deserve to die. >> reporter: at the defense table, rob fischer was confident there was simply no case against him. >> i've never heard a theory. i've never heard a motive. i've never heard anything. >> reporter: that was about to change. point number one, said the prosecutor: lee radder's death was clearly not a suicide. >> lee loved his family, especially his girls, lee would have never done something like this inside of his home. >> reporter: evidence of that? this is lee's childhood best friend. who told the jury that lee never got depressed about money. >> one of his favorite sayings to me that i've tried to be motivated by is just "adam, you

can always make more money." >> reporter: and, remember that email? the one that came in late at night after which lee called his business partner apparently upset? maybe he wasn't. the very man lee called told the jury that lee did not sound suicidal at all. >> he was happy. he said he had family over. he was going to go have a couple cocktails and he would call me tomorrow. >> reporter: the prosecutor called belinda to the stand, too. later she told us she wanted to testify, but was not happy to be a state witness. still, she told the jury that, though lee did fret a little about the email he received that night that he was otherwise the same old lee. >> just like a regular night. >> nothing was different? >> not that i recall. >> reporter: "so lee had no reason to commit suicide", said the prosecutor. no, the only possible explanation was that he was murdered. >> see, the physical evidence, the blood, the trajectory, all

of that, that doesn't lie. murder explains all of it. >> reporter: his theory: as lee radder and rob fischer sat at the kitchen table drinking vodka into the wee hours of that morning, something must have happened. something that so aroused rob, he went and got his gun, and came back, and shot lee through the right eye, and then panicked, and went about staging the scene. >> the science doesn't lie, people do. >> reporter: so, forensics. the arriving officer told the jury how he got suspicious when he saw the gun still wrapped in lee's dead hand. >> to me, it appeared that it was placed in his hand. >> reporter: a very important first discovery, the prosecutor told us. >> how is gravity not taking its course, from either pulling lee's body forward, or allowing that gun to drop out of his hand? >> but it doesn't really work with robert putting the gun in his hand either, does it? i mean, why would a cop, for example, put the gun in his hand that way, with the thumb

through? this is an ex-cop we're talking about. >> an ex-cop that's drunk. "but", said the prosecutor, "not so drunk that he wouldn't know who his son in law was. when he made that 911 call, that was pure theater. >> the defendant knew that was lee on the ground, but he's trying to cover up a murder. >> reporter: "there was more," said the prosecutor. rob did something any ex-cop should know you don't do: he disobeyed a direct order. >> he said, "hey i am a retired police officer." i said, "okay, just step away." he said i'm gonna wash my hands and i said, "no, don't wash your hands." >> reporter: but rob washed his hands anyway. the prosecutor showed the jury the pictures from the scene that seemed to prove that rob lied about being in the guest room bedroom asleep when the gun went off. the neatly made bed and those two glasses in the kitchen with ice were still fresh in the wee hours of the morning. >> did you find it odd that there was ice in the glasses at

5:15 in the morning? >> yes. >> reporter: "but the key piece of evidence", said the prosecution, "was the story told by the blood at the scene." there was blood on the pants rob was wearing that, when examined, certainly looked like rob had been sitting very close to lee when the gun went off. and there was blood on the floor which, said the state, proved rob was involved. >> mr. fischer moved mr. radder's body and manipulated the -- area to make it look like mr. radder had sustained a shot and -- and fell backwards. >> reporter: the prosecution's blood spatter expert, rudy acosta was his name, demonstrated how, in his opinion, lee's body would have slumped forward in the chair after the gun went off, not backward the way his body was found. meaning, rob must have moved lee's body.

>> i believe -- i think he just dragged him onto the ground. >> reporter: "what's more", said the expert, "as rob moved around the body, he left his footprints in lee's blood." >> footprints tell me that he obviously stepped in the blood. when the origin of blood happened, the left foot was in the blood, obviously saw that. we show there's an interruption of blood, at least, more than one. >> reporter: but, as we heard the state's case, we couldn't help but wonder, was some of it guesswork? did it really amount to proof that rob shot lee, or walked around in the blood in order to move lee's body? we challenged the prosecutor on that. >> so, but -- those footprints don't show culpability though? >> they show movement. >> they show movement, yeah, but that's all they show, right? i mean, he may have been surprised by -- he may have been sitting there. he shoots himself, he gets up, walks and doesn't necessarily mean that he's manipulating the scene just because his footprints are there. >> you keep coming up with these possibilities. >> well, so do you. >> i don't come up with

possibilities. i have the physical evidence that supports the state's theory of this case. >> reporter: "so", said the prosecutor, "the forensics said: murder even though -- there's no evidence of a disagreement between the two of them. there's nothing like that. >> no. >> reporter: "but that wasn't the issue," said the prosecutor. "hard evidence was." >> murder is supported by the blood evidence, by what the me testified by the blood experts. murder is supported by common sense and gravity in this case. >> reporter: oh, but of course it wasnt quite that simple. there was another possibility altogether as the jury was about to hear. coming up. >> the defense presents evidence that rob simply could not have pulled the trigger. >> his fingerprints weren't on the gun. his dna wasn't on the gun. >> and argues that the blood

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>> reporter: rob fischer's attorney, dwane cates, has stood up for a long parade of clients over the years many of them guilty as sin. but this case? this was different, said mr. cates. >> innocent people are the hardest to represent. i don't sleep at night representing innocent people. because losing's not an option. >> reporter: rob's supporters, including fellow attorney and good friend chris miller, travelled to phoenix for the trial. >> what's your expectation of the eventual result here? >> i believe that rob will eventually be found not guilty. >> ladies and gentleman, this case is all about whose finger was on the gun the night that lee radder died. rob didn't have any motive to shoot lee, and lee certainly had some reasons to commit suicide. >> reporter: wait, he did have reason to commit suicide? yes, said rob's attorney. this time, lee's life was

spinning out of control. >> there's no money coming in and lee doesn't know what he is going to do. >> lee's friends had no idea how bad it was, said cates. tens of thousands in loans and, unpaid credit cards. $15,000 owed to the irs, another $25,000 still owed to a former employer. >> no doubt that we, you know, had some financial troubles ahead of us. >> reporter: belinda was a state witness remember, but, she told the jury that lee, with his $100,000 life insurance policy, told her, joking or not that he was worth more to her dead than alive. >> he would say that numerous times over his life. >> reporter: then, that night, december 29th. he got that email, remember and excused himself from the table to take a call from his business partner. you'll remember that business partner told the prosecutor lee seemed to be in good spirits at the end of the call. but, he also had to admit that

when the conversation started, lee was not happy. >> how was he acting? >> he was kind of upset. >> the jury never got to read the email -- no one seems to have a copy. but lee showed it to belinda that night she said. >> something about he had introduced these two companies together and he was being squeezed out of it. >> well, he was a frantic. he felt betrayed that two companies were trying to cut him out of the deal. >> also, said the defense, lee had been exaggerating, for everybody, the size and value of the deal. this man is from the company "igt" with which lee was hoping to make his multi million dollar deal-of-a-lifetime. and he testified he told lee there wasn't going to be a deal. >> did you tell him no? >> yes. i need somebody who has distribution centers worldwide. so he was told him no, that that was not going to happen. >> he communicated that clearly to lee, and lee was tellin'

everybody that there was this big deal pending. and-- and that was-- >> living a lie. >> and-- and it was all about to come crashing down on him. lee radder was worth more dead than alive. he knew it. for some reason he couldn't bring himself to tell his partners and his friends that this big deal wasn't coming. >> reporter: so, the defense theory of what happened? after all those drinks with lee, rob passed out. right there -- at the kitchen table. >> blackout starts-- starts as a unblock blackout meaning he has no memory. it's like nothing writes to the hard drive. >> reporter: but lee kept right on drinking and drunk and discouraged, he went and found the gun he knew rob always travelled with, and turned it on himself, and pulled the trigger. and then, at the sound of the gun, rob was startled into a confused conciousness and merely assumed when he spoke with police, he must have been in bed. >> imagine you're still drunk and someone is lying on the

floor in a puddle of blood with a gun in their hand. you look down, you are in your pajamas, you're barefoot, and you're standing in the hall facing away from your bedroom. wouldn't your first thought be geez, i must have been in bed? >> reporter: later, when he sobered up, said rob, he realized he must have been at the table with lee. >> what is it about you that should make us think that you aren't the sort of person who-- you know, might have been showing lee the gun, and you're, you know, both five sheets to the wind. and-- and it went off accidentally and killed him. >> whether we're drinking or not, i don't believe that i would ever be so irresponsible as to introduce a gun to that environment. that's-- goes against my core being. >> reporter: the defense called this doctor, an expert in alcohol abuse, to explain some of rob's strange behavior. around the time of the 911 call, rob's blood was three times over

the legal limit. >> in my opinion to a reasonable degree of medical certainty he was in a blackout. >> reporter: which certainly explained not recognizing lee, said the expert. as for the big deal the state made about rob washing his hands when the officer told him not to. >> have you ever told a drunk friend to do something? it's kinda like herding cats. >> i know, but he's a lawyer and an ex-cop. >> right. he's an extremely drunk lawyer and excop. >> reporter: but -- what about the forensic evidence? the very heart of the state's case? the state's expert remember told the jury that the law of gravity dictated that the gun should have dropped out of lee's hand as soon as he fired a bullet into his head. but the defense medical expert produced statistics showing that guns actually remain in the hands of suicide victims 25 percent of the time. >> have you ever seen the gun stay in the hand of somebody that committed suicide? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: in fact, said attorney cates, it would have been almost impossible for rob, from where he had to be sitting in the kitchen, to shoot lee and

produce the actual route the bullet followed. >> rob would've had to have gone something like this in order to have done it. >> reporter: then attorney cates attacked directly the state's blood spatter expert. >> you didn't know how mr. fischer, in your theory, picked up mr. radder, but you demonstrated it here today? >> correct. yes, that was just one of many possibilities. >> and that was not in your report? >> the way in which he picked him up? >> yeah. >> yes, that's not in my report. >> he would say one thing and then on cross-examination i would ask him and he'd say, "well, i really don't know how it happened." >> you have -- you really have no idea what happened to the chair -- other than it was moved? >> how that chair gets from point 'a' to point 'b' no, i don't know. >> you don't know how mr. fischer picked up mr.

mr. radder, correct? >> yes, it's assumption. there's too many variables. >> after my cross-examine and redirect of that witness, i thought we won the trial. >> reporter: still,the confident cates wasnt done making his case-- he called his own blood spatter expert too who looked at the very same evidence that was the backbone of the state's case and said there was no doubt in his mind the state had it wrong -- this is a self inflicted gunshot wound. >> reporter: finally, said defense attorney cates, the case came down to one crucial question. whose finger was on the trigger of the gun? cates put the question to the state's crime analyst. >> you at least said you couldn't exclude mr radder correct? >> that's correct >> that's because there were portions of this print that matched portions of mr radder's print? >> there was, yes. >> reporter: and the person whose prints did not match -- was rob fischer. >> his fingerprints weren't on

the gun. his dna wasn't on the gun and lee's was. they didn't find any fingerprints that matched rob fischer anywhere on the gun. >> well, what did that say to you? >> lee was the last one that handled the gun. dwayne cates, lee radder shot himself. true? up to the jury to decide that. their turn now. >> reporter: coming up -- jurors find themselves torn -- >> we were a hung jury for the first two days. >> reporter: and then -- >> have you reached a verdict? >> yes ma'am. >> reporter: the news that would rock this traumatized family all over again. >> my attorney called me, and said "are you sittin' down?" when dateline continues.

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>> reporter: it was december 2013, when the murder case jury. rob said he felt at peace then. or at least, as much as a person could be given. anyway, he knew, he said, he knew that he didn't deserve to

be hauled off to the slammer. >> i knew i should be going home. and so -- i was hopeful that the jury would've seen it the same way. >> you had to be doing some strategic thinking too if this, if that. so what was in your head? >> i did feel very confident. >> reporter: no surprise, the prosecutor read the tea leaves rather differently. >> i knew when the jury was going back with this case that they had enough information to come to the right conclusion. and they were gonna realize that, murder explains all the evidence. >> reporter: practically everybody thought it would be over soon including rob's attorney. >> i thought they'd be back in a couple hours with a "not guilty" verdict. >> reporter: didn't happen. the hours ticked by as the jurors apparently wrestled with something. one day became two days. two became three. >> yeah, you had to be thinkin', "what -- what are they talking about back there." >> exactly. >> reporter: well, in fact they

were very divided when they started. three jurors spoke to us after and told us. >> we were a hung jury for the first two days. we were a hung jury. >> reporter: why? >> i did not find the state blood's expert that credible of a witness. >> reporter: but. >> i don't think lee would have killed himself. i don't think he had that personality. >> reporter: as the debate went on in the jury room outside, lee's new york family was desperate for a guilty verdict, so the world would know their lee didn't take his own life. didn't do what the defense said he did. lisa radder. >> i want to put my head down on my pillow at night saying that was a terrible, terrible thing that happened, and no, my brother did not commit suicide, that his life was taken by somebody else. and that will give me closure. >> reporter: and then? it was december 19th. it just happened to be rob's 53rd birthday. word came that there was a verdict. rob and company hurried to the

courthouse hoping for a birthday present from the jury. >> please be seated. >> what did you see when they walked in? >> they didn't look at me, which as a lawyer, i know is not a good sign. >> have you reached a verdict? >> yes, ma'am. "we the jury find the defendant as to count one second degree murder: guilty." >> reporter: guilty. rob fischer stared straight ahead, stunned. in the gallery, lee's family and friends quietly sobbed. they had their justice. the prosecutor took his victory in stride. >> were you surprised at all? >> no. >> a lot of people around -- in the courtroom were. >> depends on what side of the aisle you were sitting on. >> yeah, but -- you were not surprised at all?

>> i wasn't surprised for the fact that i thought we did an excellent job in educating the jury on the scientific evidence in this case. and that they could only come to one conclusion and that was murder. >> reporter: and indeed, said these jury members, it was the science that persuaded them in the end. >> i think we were educated a lot on like the trajectory of the bullet, how blood spatter and the gun, everything. i think we were educated enough to make a decision. all of that convinced me of his guilt. >> reporter: the consequences, in a situation such as this, are immediate. rob fischer was handcuffed and led through a door that led to the county jail. >> i wanna say it's a little surreal. >> reporter: and then he was installed in a temporary cell while he awaited a sentence of something like 25 years in prison. >> the thought of spending the next, in essence the rest of my life, in confinement was very difficult to try to process. >> reporter: belinda wasn't in court to hear the verdict, but she certainly did hear about it, and was shocked. >> i was at the gym, and joy, my

attorney, called me and said, "are you sitting down?" because, you know, everybody that knew information they really thought that he was going to be found "not guilty." >> reporter: but she herself, as she told us in a separate interview, didn't know what to think or who to believe. >> i -- i didn't -- i don't know -- hon -- i'm 100% honest, i -- i don't know what i wanted. i really don't. i don't think that there was a verdict either way that would have been what i wanted. >> reporter: certainly wasn't what dwayne cates wanted. how had he so misread that jury? >> i was perplexed. i had no idea how they could have come to that conclusion given what the evidence in the case was. >> reporter: but give up? "no," said rob's attorney, "he could not, would not, do that."

still, any chance that a new chapter would be added to this story was very remote indeed. unless, well we shall see. coming up... dwane cates gets a bold idea. >> that's gotta be such a long shot. >> absolute long shot. she sees more than "mom," she sees determination. we do too. for nearly 40 years, we've designed an education for people just like you. learn more at phoenix.edu. to feel this special... you need to

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>> reporter: it was christmas again.

in lee radder's family, a difficult season ever since what happened during that christmas holiday in 2010. but now rob fischer was a convicted man, and the new york branch felt the kind of consolation that comes with the belief that justice has been done. >> do you think about him a lot? >> about rob fischer? no. i try not to put him in my mind at all because i don't want -- i don't want hate in my system. >> reporter: out west, belinda was a mess of contradictions. and of course she had to tell her daughters. the eldest, then 12, took it hard. couldn't grasp that her papa had killed her father. >> my daughter finally asked me about three days later if the verdict had come back, and i said, "yes." and she just looks at me, and i just started crying. and right then she knew. >> that that was her papa. >> uh-huh. she wants to have a connection

with him, but yet she doesn't wanna talk to him. so i think she struggles with that, and maybe feeling like she's not being loyal to her dad in some way. >> reporter: belinda had been leaning on her father and step mom for support since lee died. her father, jerry dupre, is a psychologist. he loved his son-in-law lee very much, he told us. but he was convinced the jury got it wrong. >> my wife and i are both 30-year clinicians, okay? we knew that lee committed suicide, and we -- from the get-go. >> really? >> yes. >> what made you think so? >> lee was a salesman, and there's a lot of false bravado to that process. a good man, he cared about belinda, he cared about his children, but a lot of false pride. when that collapses, there's nowhere for it to go. >> reporter: which is exactly what defense attorney dwane cates had argued all along. an argument that clearly failed

to persuade the jury, but dwane cates wasn't ready to say uncle. not him. because he was convinced an injustice had been done. >> so what can you do about it? if you believe a jury has reached really the incorrect conclusion, and it's an injustice, what can you do about it? >> well, the first thing i do is file a motion for new trial. >> reporter: so as rob fischer endured clausterphobia and despair in his temporary cell over at the maricopa county jail, cates went to work to try to get the guilty verdict tossed. he had to file his motion ten days after the trial ended. he worked around the clock and straight through the holidays. >> you know this was my christmas vacation. okay? was writing this motion. >> reporter: cates based the motion for a new trial on two central complaints. number one, an allegation of prosecutorial misconduct, accusing the other side of using unfair language during the trial and unfair tactics even before it started.

>> they played hard with the discovery. getting us discovery. getting us notes after i do the interview instead of before the interview. >> they could have been more forthcoming. is that what -- >> yeah, i -- >> you're saying? >> you know, the practice of law doesn't have to be as hard as it was in this case. >> reporter: so there was that. a common complaint though which, frankly, doesn't often go anywhere. but, something else, too. cates argued that the jury's verdict was contrary to weight of the evidence, which is a pretty big deal and also a pretty big stretch. >> the judge can re-weigh the evidence, because the judge was there. the judge got to see all the testimony. got to hear all the witnesses. got to -- got to see everything that happened in the courtroom. >> that's gotta be such a long shot, though, because judges look at jury verdicts all the time and they say, "well, the jury -- you know, they looked at the same evidence, they made their decision and that's the way the law works." >> absolute long shot. >> reporter: cates put it into his motion almost as an afterthought really, hoping against hope that the judge would see what the jury apparently did not -- that the state's blood expert's testimony

didn't add up. dwane cates had been around for quite a while so he knew he was tilting at windmills. appeals of that sort almost never succeed. almost never. >> absolutely. it was a hail mary pass. but i felt confident in it. >> reporter: the prosecutor submitted his own brief, denying any misconduct and standing by the evidence and his case. then -- >> so then what, you sit back and wait? >> absolutely. >> how was rob doing in the mean time? >> rob was in jail, so i don't think rob was doing very well. >> reporter: in his cell, rob fischer, lawyer that he is, figured out the timing of the thing. first the judge would hear the arguments, then spend some time working on her ruling. so that first week, he didn't even think about it. same the second week. it was then rob started to worry. cates would visit him periodically. >> did you get a chance to talk to him much? >> i did. and -- and it was hard. i hated to go see him in jail. >> what had happened to this

man's life? same business as you. successful attorney in a different type of law, but just the same. what had happened to that life of his? >> it was gone. imagine, keith, somebody that -- somebody -- the police walk in the door right now. they put you in handcuffs and they lock you up. and -- and you lose everything. you lose your house, you lose your business, lose your career. it's all gone. boom. in an instant it's all gone. >> reporter: but of course in an instant, lee radder's life was gone, forever. what prison term would atone for that? that was also up to the judge. but from her, as the date for sentencing approached there was not a word. coming up -- >> i'm like, "really? does that happen?"

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>> reporter: as 2014 began, rob fischer was holed up in a cell at the maricopa county jail, waiting and waiting for the judge's ruling on the motion for a new trial. one day at a time through all of january then february. and then, it was the 28th. rob was due in court in a week for his sentencing hearing. and that's when dwane cates came

to call. >> i asked him, you know, "so did we hear anything?" he goes, "well, before we talk about that, let's talk about next friday's hearing." >> i told him that you know, that he's gotta get ready. >> then he looks at me with a big grin and says, "it's not a sentencing hearing, it's a bond hearing." >> because you're gettin out of jail. >> reporter: it was stunning. overwhelming. >> i was ecstatic, i was elated, i was thrilled. >> reporter: and dwane cates felt like he'd just won the lottery. >> it very rarely happens that a judge will step in and on the weigh and reweigh the evidence and say the jury just plain got it wrong. >> reporter: remember, cates made two arguments for a new trial. the first an allegation of prosecutorial misconduct was rejected by the judge. his second argument the total long shot. was that rob's conviction wasn't supported by the evidence.. and what do you know? the long shot the hail mary

succeeded. and caused the judge to throw out the verdict. i'm gonna read a little bit of it here. the detectives' opinion that the defendant staged the scene by manipulating lee's body is not supported by the physical evidence, lacks credibility and is sheer speculation. the dna and fingerprint evidence are completely inconsistent with the verdict. sheer speculation. have you ever heard that from a judge before? >> yes, but -- >> reporter: but -- >> it's nice to hear it when it's, you know, on the other side. i mean and it was sheer speculation. >> reporter: the judge was particularly scathing about the state's blood expert. she said he was guilty of a "fatal flaw" when he tried to decipher those bloody footprints because he wrongly interpreted the prints as facing the opposite direction. and the judge said, all but wagging her finger, that he backtracked and repeatedly provided inconsistent testimony on the stand. >> that was their key witness. i mean that was the key to their case. and -- and he was not credible. >> reporter: and so one chilly night in march 2014, rob fischer

walked out of the county jail and into the arms of his lawyer. the guy who took a chance on the long shot. >> its been a long road, rob's out, he's tired. >> reporter: later, rob fischer told us about those dreary days cooped up in jail. dreary days and worse. you're an ex-cop, which adds to it. >> right. >> reporter: how did that complicate your life? >> well, it they put me in protective custody locked down for 23 hours a day. >> reporter: the judge's ruling that freed rob was a body blow for the prosecutor. and so the state has appealed to a higher court. arizona's cour of appeals, asking it to reinstate the verdict and send rob to prison. lee's new york family is waiting to see what will happen told us the decision is in god's hands and we have to believe that true justice will prevail. and jurors were they unhappy

that their verdict was thrown out? let's say the feelings at least of these three were mixed. >> i was upset at first. >> why do we have a jury in place if she can just overturn our verdict just like that? but also again, she knew more of the story than we did. >> reporter: and one of them, at least. >> i felt a sense of relief because i felt like i had arrived at my conclusion too hastily. >> reporter: belinda radder couldn't get her head around the judge's ruling when she first heard about it. >> i'm like, "really? this -- i mean -- does that happen?" i had never even heard of that. >> reporter: so now belinda is dealing with the second of those two bad options of hers. that her husband did commit suicide. but at least, maybe he wasn't murdered after all. >> i got a text from my dad after he read it. and he just said, "there's no

doubt. rob didn't do this," that lee committed suicide. i guess there's just no denying it now. >> reporter: well, i get it now. it's like you've -- you've been through -- a roller coaster of different kinds of grief, right? >> yeah. >> reporter: and with this kind of grief comes guilt that belinda is trying to work through. >> why didn't i do anything to stop it? what if i had only said this, or if i had only done something to make that different, for him to still be here, for him to know how important and that the money didn't matter. >> reporter: she is also beginning to rebuild her life. the money from the life insurance policy was eventually paid out.

and belinda, a nurse remember, now works with alzheimer's patients. deeply satisfying work she told us. and meanwhile, she hopes, she said, that the relationship with her stepfather, rob will be renewed. do you see your daughters having a relationship with rob in the in the future, or you for that matter? >> i hope so. >> reporter: that's a one step at a time sort of thing. >> yeah. yeah. >> reporter: and rob fischer? he's back in california now, trying, from scratch, to put a new life together and build up a family law practice that imploded and died when he was charged. >> we've lost our home. we are living, you know, at the good graces of close friends. i joke with my wife that it's like we're 17 again and we're startin' over. >> reporter: this time, perhaps, with a slightly less trusting view about the system of justice to which he's devoted his life as a policeman and lawyer.

besides, he is well aware that his personal journey through the justice system may not be over. the arizona court of appeals could still overturn the judge's ruling and send him to prison. and even if the higher court agrees with the judge's ruling, the prosecutor could still come after rob and re-try him. >> the state of arizona's taken two years out of my life and i refuse to let them take any more time. so we are going forward in our life as all this is behind us. >> reporter: as for liz radder, "the grandma from new york", she knows she said that one day she'll get a call from the grand-daughter she hasn't spoken to for so long. >> someday i will. someday i'll when she gets older and understands life, she'll talk to me again. >> reporter: but for now belinda devotes herself to keeping her daughters' memory of their father alive. that big happy fast talking larger than life

man who blew into her life and then left it much too soon. >> we send him birthday cards, we send him father's day cards. they, you know, write 'em up, and we put eight million balloons on 'em so they don't get stuck in the trees, 'cause we had that happen once and they send 'em up to their dad. so yeah, he's still very much alive in our house. >> that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thank you for joining us. next at 11:00, california lost 50 gallons of water because of an attack on this damn. and citizens arrest. and we have your holiday weekend forecast.

nbc bay area news starts now. >> right now at 11:00, was it vandalism or terrorism. there are serious question tonight after an attack on our awater supply. thank you for being with us on this friday. >> we need every drop of water but someone just let millions of gallons of water to