people? did that go towards explaining the dreadful toll in that house that evening. >> i said, he's off in some way. i don't know. he could be a psychopath or something. it scares me. >> on april 30th, 2014, did they pray to someone they believed could be trusted. >> i had to be lowered to the ground and i started crying and screaming. >> not those, such good people. why? >> springfield, missouri is called the queen of to the today, church going community with good-sized colleges. gary grew up poor on a farm not far way and knew early on his adult life would be all about education, teaching kids in his classroom by day and the history book in his lap at night. he and his wife, jan, raised two kids, a boy and a girl who sadly

died young of a brain cancer. jan kept the house mainly and sold avon products part-time. they lived and gardened in the same house almost 25 years. they even designed it themselves. life in missouri was good for the two. >> they loved each other very much. >> daughter, jessica, remembers how extraordinarily close her parents were, joined at the hip. >> my mother went shopping my dad took her. talked on the phone several times a day. >> they really were for the age, huh? >> yes. >> personalities, gary was the fun outgoing one. >> he was a very jolly man, kind of like a santa claus. >> jan, a little more reserved. >> it took a little bit more to get to know her. once she warmed up to you, she was very alive. >> when gary retired as beloved assistant school superintendent he suddenly had all the time in the world to visit civil war

battlefields and scour flea market s and pour over antique catal catalogs. there was a lucrative sideline for memorabilia. >> he was big into buying gold and silver. >> his brother, larry terrell. >> he constantly bought coins and sold silver drink kets. >> he did pretty well at it? >> he did. he was a good businessman. >> he had it in many safes in the house but many of the artifacts were out on display. >> he had a lot of rare pieces, indian jewelry, quality pieces he loved. >> what was his favorite? >> probably the walrus tuxes he owned. he had three of those. >> they were rare 19th century hand engraved and each worth around 10,0$10,000. >> how would he find these things? >> i'm not really sure. they did go to flea markets and garage sales, any time i would

ask him, where did you get this, he would say, oh, in my travels. >> in 2013, jason murray became one of the family when he and jessica got engaged. he remembers the walrus tuxes as well as the other unusual items in the terrell home. >> there was so much stuff in that house yet it was immaculate. everything had a place. it was like an offbeat museum. >> they lived 300 miles away in oklahoma city but jessica spoke and texted her parents several times a day. that all changed may 1st. >> i called my mom on my way to work like i always do. she doesn't answer. i thought, well, maybe she's in the bathroom, maybe she's outside. and i called back and i still didn't reach her. >> by noon, jessica says she still couldn't reach her so she called the springfield police and asked them to go by the house. >> when the officer did that, what did he report back to you? >> nothing seemed out of place.

they couldn't see anything inside the house. all the doors were secure, absolutely no signs of forced entry or anything appeared to be out of place. not the officer had no cause to force his way into the house and left. but jessica says she was still worried, so she and jason jumped in their car to make the five-hour drive to springfield. they arrived at the house around 7:00 p.m. >> as we were coming around the corner to the house, i hit the garage door button and both of their cars were in the garage. >> that was bad news for you? >> yes. >> what did that imply? >> that there was something terribly wrong. >> jessica called 911 without ever going past the garage into the house. two officers arrived within minutes. >> they entered the home and then another officer arrived and then another and then another and then another. >> and you're waiting outside? >> we're waiting outside. >> no one said a word to jessica

and jason. and then they noticed police blocking off the area with crime scene tape. >> i kind of grabbed to the officer and i said, what is going on? why are they calling for crime scene tape? and he kind of, you know, held me and said, i don't know what's going on. all i know is there are two people in the house that are deceased. >> chilling words outside the terrell's house. but they were nothing compared to what investigators would find inside. when we come back. >> it seems to be an element of personal angry this thing, this close quartered killing of somebody with a weapon in your hand? >> it definitely seemed to be personal, the brutality involved. dove men+care.

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as darkness closed in on spring field, missouri, the daughter who asked local police to check on her parents was now being told two bodies were found inside her parents' home. they didn't identify them but jessica said she knew it could only be her mom and dad. >> i started crying and screaming because i knew it was my worst fear. >> her fiance, jason, was by her side, trying to console her. >> she was beyond upset. she kept saying, i'm sorry, mom, i'm sorry, mom. >> i had no details, no idea what happened. >> i'm think this is horrible and hoping it's carbon monoxide. >> not benign but something expla explainable? >> right, right. >> inside, officers quickly grasped the cold stomach turning truth. their deaths were not accide

accidental. >> it was going to be a long investigation. detective neil was one of the first detectives on the scene. that night he entered through the garage and saw gary first. >> we could see there was a deceased male in the hallway of the home. >> his pants were pulled down. what did you make of that? >> we didn't know. the only thing we could think of was he's trying to get away from somebody, that they're grabbing ahold of him. >> or was the killer rifling his pockets for something, a key maybe, a combination? in gary's office downstairs, the detective saw jan. >> she was on the ground, she was lying face-down but it was obvious that there was severe trauma to the back of her head. >> so was this a violent home invasion? jan and gary had more than half a million dollars worth of valuables in the house for the gr grabbing, so a botched robbery was the likely scenario. in the garage police found marks

and scratches on a tornado shelter also used as a safe. >> it appears somebody tried to pry the lock open. there were marks on the door of the tornado shelter? they did not get inside. >> it did not appear they did, no. >> that would suggest somebody is looking for something? >> yes. >> if robbery was the plan, the killer had left the oddball museum strangely in tact. nothing appeared tossed or out of place. the nature of the killings, gary was shot as well as beaten smoke volumes to the prosecutor ass n assigned to the, todd meyers? there seems to be an element of personal anger in this thing, todd, close quarter killing of somebody with a weapon in your hand. >> yes, it definitely seemed to be personal type killing the brutality involved. >> investigators determined jan and gary were likely killed the night before but search as they might for the murder weapons, gun and bludgeoning instrument,

they came up empty-handed but discovered some evidence. >> around jan's body there were small white flakes of a substance obviously either from the murder weapon or on the murder's body. there were similar flakes found by the wound to gary's head. >> so they bagged them and sent them off for testing. the crime scene techs discovered something else that could be a crucial piece of evidence. a discarded latex glove. >> a latex glove on the floor jumped out of you? >> totally out of place. from talking with everybody, is there no way jan or gary would have left that glove there. right in the middle of the floor for everyone to see? >> did it belong to the victims or killer? no one knew. >> you collected it. no one knows what it means. >> collected, sent to the highway patrol lab. >> no one knew why the couple had been murdered but had a

sequence as to the order of dea deaths. it was hard to believe gary is shot upstairs if janice still functioning and mobile and would not have called 911 and not tried to intervene in some way. >> speculation and common sense tells you she has the first victim. >> the first victim. >> she's bludgeoned downstairs and gary arrives at some point later? >> he arrives either while that is ongoing or the killer is waiting for him. it appears she would have been the first to have died. >> a big question early on for detectives was understanding their crime scene, how did the killer gain entry to the house? >> there were no signs of forced entry. >> window s haven't been forced the door is in tact. how did the killer get in? >> one would be to have their own access device, whether key or garage door opener, some way to open the doors up or upon leaving unlock it that way or

let in the house by either gary or jan. >> it didn't appear to be a random home invasion but rather the killer or killers was someone the couple knew. was it a person gary encountered in his antiquing travels or terrible to think about it, was the perpetrator someone much closer to home? was this all in the family? >> i was shocked, really confused and baffled. coming up, who had a motive to kill the terterrells. investigators have at least one idea. >> she is the person who could benefit in terms of getting money? >> she is the only child from parents who are very well-to-do with a lot to be left to her. >> when "dateline" continues. your concert tee might show your age...your skin never will. olay regenerist. olay. ageless.

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two deaths, the wife beaten about the head downstairs, the husband shot twice upstairs and

springfield police had determined this was no random break-in gone wrong. jan guard inry terrell's modest home was filled with valuable it items, yet at first glance nothing had been taken. an early sup position was that their killer was likely close to them and no one was closer than their daughter, jessica. >> she was the one who could benefit from this crime in terms of gaining money. >> she's the only child with parents who are well-to-do with a lot that's left to her. >> so she's going to be questioned hard? >> yes. >> that night, detectives asked jessica and fiance, jason, down to the station to answer a few questions. the cops didn't let on they were talking to them not just as grieving relatives but also as potential suspects. >> i'm obviously going to say we're sorry to talk to you. don't let that bother you. >> the interviewer withheld details about the crime scene, a

standard investigative tactic to see if they know more than they should. he even threw out a theory that wasn't true, murder suicide. >> one of the things to look at as to whether or not one of them may have injured the other. >> jessica seemed to go with it. >> do you think that's a possibility? >> my dad, since his mom died, has been super depressed and has made comments and my mom called the doctor's office. and i told her if he did -- if he said something stupid before -- again, she needed to call the police, like get the [ bleep ] away from him and call the police. >> as they continued talking police had another reason to be suspicious of the daughter. she had driven five hours to check on the parents and then didn't go inside the house. >> you wonder why she wouldn't do that? >> people sometimes commit a crime or know a crime's been committed and don't want to see the body in there and call somebody else? the detectives pressed the couple about their movements

that day, what they did or did not do at the scene. had they tampered inside the tornado shelter in the garage? >> you didn't try to get inside. no. i pushed my hand on the locked handled and that was it. >> did you think this was a situation we have to call lawyer and be careful what we say? >> i did a little bit. >> neither jason or jessica asked for a lawyer and offered the detective more detail what was in that tornado shelter that had been tampered with. >> gold and silver and gold b bars. >> we actually don't know what all's in there. >> i don't. he has books there signed by preside presidents. he has indian pieces. >> for the investigators, the entire interview is a test. >> how are you going to hold up? will you have answers we can verify. >> you intend to sweat them? >> yeah. that was the detectives intent to the degree to make sure we get the truth. >> had they passed the investigators tests?

detectives let them go but hold onto jessica's car to test it for potential evidence? >> why did they have a reason the look in your car? >> i don't really know. i assume because my car was there. now, jessica had to call family and friends to tell them news about her parents. her uncle was at his brother's law office when he got the call. >> she said mom and dad are gone. i said, are they out of town? >> they're deceased. >> i collapsed on the floor. knew were a mess. >> i was a mess. the unknown was terrifying because i didn't know what had happened. >> but larry wasn't shocked or outraged to learn his niece was being looked at as a potential suspect. he was after call a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor. >> i knew she had to be elimina eliminated, i understood that. due to the fact she was the only child she just had to be eliminated so the case could move on. >> and the case did keep moving,

but after a full week of investiga investigating, t daughter and her fiance were not eliminated. rather, detectives called them back to the station, this time interviewed separately. jason first. cops by now had figured out the murders took place the night before the bodies were discovered. so where exactly were he and jessica then? >> we went to the pizza hut on -- i don't know, probably 5:30 or something like that and came back home. stayed home. >> home. five hours away in oklahoma city. >> do you remember how you paid for the pizza hut? >> on my card. sure it's on my card. >> credit card. >> then right to the point. do you have any reason to harm gary or jane? >> not at all. >> didn't do anything to hurt them or go in the house, anything like that? everything you tell me the truth? >> absolutely. >> next, jessica was in the chair, answering questions about her relationship with her parents. >> are they paying any of your

bills? >> they pay my at&t bill for my cell phone. pay my car insurance. i think that's it. >> i'm just going to ask. did you have any ill feelings towards your folks? anything that you would have been mad at them for, any reason to want to harm them or anything like that? >> no. my parents were my life. >> to better your financial situation or anything like that? >> no. if i needed something, all i had to do was call and ask. >> so you're a suspect. >> right. >> in your parents' double homicide? >> yes. yes. >> how do you deal with that? you haven't even buried them yet. >> i wasn't really dealing with it. it was more going through and saying i -- you know, i didn't do it. >> police asked both jessica and jason for dna samples then set out to verify their alibis. >> my boss and i took a trip to oklahoma city and we went to employers and spoke with fellow

employees with jessica's boss and went to the pizza hut to see if we could see surveillance video. >> would it all check out or would an unexpected lead send the investigation in a new direction. >> this was a huge bingo moment? >> it was. coming up, gary's best friend offers detectives some clues including texts he says he saw on gary's phone. >> he was a guy in a class asking for money. >> does someone need cash badly enough to kill? t the need for f. your concert tee might show your age... your skin never will. olay regenerist, olay. ageless. and try the micro-sculpting cream you love now with lightweight spf 30.

on an early spring saturday on may 2014, the very day

jessica terrell had planned to go wedding dress shopping with her mother she was instead bu burying both her parents. >> i basically just cried and was constantly ill. >> what she was going through at that point was unfathomable. she is just broken at this point. >> the funeral service was held at a high school in the mountain grove school district where gary worked for 30 years sfcht nancy latrell was a school board secretary. >> so hard to believe that something so bad could happen in springfield and double unbelief that it's somebody you know. my heart has just gone out for poor jessica. >> the outpouring of love and support was a huge comfort to jessica at a time when she needed it most. word had gotten out that the cops were looking at her. >> yeah. lots of rumors that i did it. >> it's tough to go out everyday

and say, i didn't kill my parents. >> right. it got very tiring to hear someone say you need to look at the daughter, she did it, she has the most to gain. >> they did take hard look. >> yes, they did. >> they think the daughter did it and in cahoots with the fiance. >> you might not have believed it or your circle? >> my circle-my circle was not believing that. >> police and prosecutors came to the same conclusion. jessica and jason were innocent. >> everything jessica and jason were telling the police the police were able to corroborate. >> they went through everything, the phone records and everything was checked out top to bottom. >> it was. >> when the latex glove was checked out neither one was a match. it was an unknown male. >> yes. we knew we didn't do it. now, you need to find out who did it. >> the couple thought they could help the investigation with their own amateur sleuthing.

when jessica went back to her parents' house for the first time, he noticed something was missing. >> there was a display of ivory pieces and walrus tuxes and engraved art, they had been moved. >> walrus tux, jason, like so? >> about this big and the other one not where it was supposed to be and the other not there at all. >> jason told police the ivory tuxes could be the murder weapon, the white parts. and her dad's desk, too. >> and coins. >> he kept them in coffee cans and he would be sorting them or organizing them. >> and a container that looked like loose parking lot change was missing. its actual value around 20,0$20 according to her dad's records. the killer would have known the real value only if he moved in

the same antique circles as gary, at least that's what the brother suggested. >> perhaps gary went to buy gold or silver and someone set him up and had someone follow him home and get the drop on him or jan and robbed them or killed them. >> sounds very plausible. >> that was a big worry i had. >> as they dug into gary's dealings no potential suspect emerged. few people had any idea how wealthy they were. >> they did not show that type of wealth to people. it was always kept very quiet, the people he would interact with as far as selling the gold, reputable type people. >> because there was no forced entry to the home, larry offered up the limited list of people who had access to the house, handful of local contractors. >> i assume you were asking the garden guy and cabinet maker whoever might have been in the house to give dna? >> right. >> at the same time, officers were reaching out to others in the couple's inner circle.

gary's closest friend was mark porter, a married father of two, prominent guy around town and former school superintendent. >> for us, it's just a wise thing to do. >> he was handsome. he looked good, he dressed good. when he first came to the district he drove a jaguar. >> nancy worked with both gary and mark. >> they seemed to get along really well, worked well together. i thought they were friends at school and out of school. >> so mark went down to the police station to talk with investigat investigators. >> all right, mr. porter, it's mark, correct? >> yes. >> do you mind if i call you mark? >> fine. . >> i want to touch base with you how long you've known them? >> i've known gary 15, 20 years. he was my isn't superintendeass

superintendent. i was the superintendent. >> mark knew a lot about them and suggested they could have been targeted. >> he has people all over that meets them and he goes to hotels and runs ads in the paper. according to mark, gary set up one of those meetings around the time of his death and involved a lot of money. >> he was going to sell 50,0$50 worth of gold for cash, a buyer to give him 50,0$50,000 in cashl i know. >> he mentioned text messages e heed a seen on gary's phone from the other guy. gare r. >> gary asked me to read the text messages from a guy in his class that was asking for money. i have no idea -- >> you don't remember? was there a name attached? >> gary was shot as well as beaten. could it have been from one of his own guns? >> gary has guns everywhere, in every drawer of the house, i

think. he likes his guns. then mark gave detectives a detail that took them completely by surprised. he was supposed to meet me 8:00 wednesday and didn't show. >> wednesday, the night of the murders, the first police were hearing of gary having plans that night. what else did the best friend know? >> coming up. mark gives a detailed account, one that troubles investigators. >> there were several things about that story that raised some questions. >> and then, larry's brother reveals who he thinks had a motive for murder. >> i know he had some sort of bad financial issue. >> when "dateline" continues. almost there. i can't reach it. if you have alligator arms, you avoid picking up the check. what? it's what you do. i got this. thanks, dennis! if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. growwwlph. it's what you do.

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springfield plus were talking to gary's best friend, mark porter, who suggested

plenty of theories about why gary was killed. he said gary's money was cat nip for all kinds of folks. >> people who knew him knew he had money and were always asking. then mark revealed something detectives didn't know. he and gary had plans to meet at mcdonald's on the night of the murders. >> how long do you think you waited on him? >> probably a good -- i got there probably 7:45. probably 45 minutes. >> okay. >> so the friend said he drove across town to stop by gary's house. >> i went back to the house, knocked on the door, nothing, didn't answer. i thought maybe they were gone or left. he'll go and say, man, i forgot. i'm in kansas city, so i had no clue. >> mark told detectives gary had stood him up before, no big deal. so he went back to his office at ibm to do some work. >> there were several things about that story that raised some questions. >> like? >> like why would he wait 45

minutes for someone and not pick up your phone and give them a call and say, hey. >> what's up? >> what's up? did you forget? >> what seemed really strange was that mark porter had just admitted to going to the house the night of the murders with a story that just didn't ring true. why drive across town if he wasn't all that concerned about his friend missing dinner? >> so the drives a few miles across town to go knock on the door when his office is across the street, it doesn't appear gary is showing up. >> he puts himself at the house with a benign explanation? >> yes. >> inside the interview room the detective decided it was time for a break. >> give me a couple seconds, i'll go back there and see if there's anything else. can i get you anything? coke? water? >> trying to make sense of it all, include human being this bit of information, gary's brother had told police not long ago mark asked gary for a loan, put the request in writing and not just a little bit till

payday but an eye popping 250,0 $250,000. >> that's the kind of money if you can get it out of your house as a second mortgage maybe you're lucky. what did your father make of it? did he consider it for heart beat? >> not at all. when he was talking to us about it he was laughing and said, i don't know where he thinks i would have this kind of money. >> strange, since not only would mark, gary's former boss have had a nice pension as a former school superintendent she was currently earning a six figure salary as ibm. brother larry suggested mark might have a gambling problem. >> i know he had some sort of financial issue. >> when the detective came back to the room, the tone of the interview had changed completely. >> have you ever asked gary for money yourself? >> no -- only for -- only in trade or buying. >> suddenly, mark porter was in the hot speeat. >> i'm getting information from

somebody who said you had a large gambling debt and asking gary for maybe assistance with? >> no. that's not true. yeah. that's not true. >> he denied asking for the loan, said the only time he discussed large sums of money with gary was about a real estate deal. >> because he's look for investment whatever. >> then detectives asked him the question they asked everyone else, would he offer up a dna samp sample? >> all i have is a cheek swab if you would offer while we're here. >> i'll wait. >> any particular reason? >> i don't know the legality and not do anything my attorney says i shouldn't have done that. >> why would you not give us a dna sample? your best friend, we're doing everything we can to find out who brutally murdered your best friend and you're telling us you're not sure you will give us a dna sample. >> the refusal wasn't evidence of mark's guilt so police let him go. the investigation suddenly sh t

shifted away from the workers at the terrell home and toward mark. some detectives hit the paymevet to check out his alibi and others continues avenues for leads and one cop thought to academic a local database of pawn shops to see if any of the items missing had been sold. that search led them here to rnk coins. >> tell us how your business ended up being very important in a murder investigation. >> in springfield. >> yes, sir. >> it was just two days after gary and jan were killed when gary keddington was behind -- edding don was behind his desk and a guy with coins walked in. >> was he okay? >> he looked like an average guy to me, nothing stood out about him at all. >> he had piles of dimes, qua quarters, 50 cent pieces. when you added up the face value what was it worth? >> he had 12$1210 in face money >> but the melt-down value of

the metal itself was -- >> i paid him 18,3$18,351. >> 18,3$18,351, a lot of money. and not far off the value of the coins jessica reported missing from her parents' home. >> when he walked in and stacked his coins and you did the transaction, your security cameras caught it all, huh? >> sure did. >> so who was it? coming up. how an mcdonald's coffee cup was about to blow the case wide open. >> does your dashboard light up when you hear that? >> can't even describe the emotion of it? finally, a family learns the truth. >> i remember falling to the floor. and now we're going to show you how degree dry spray is different.

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detectives finally had a major break in the investigation, silver coins worth around this same amount as the ones taken from the terrell home had turned up in a local coin shop. surveillance cameras caught the transaction on video.

the man certainly looked familiar, but if there was any doubt, he left a copy of his it. >> mark porter. >> yes. >> mark edward porter. that's a real license, this is the real guy. >> that's him. >> but selling a load of coins didn't prove mark porter was guilty of murder. remember, mark also had an interest in the coin business. >> the best explanation for that was simply these were coins mark porter had, a coincidence that happened to be sold the day after the terrells were killed. >> still for police, the friend, ibm executive, retired school superintendent and by all appearances pillar of the community was now a prime suspect in the murders of jan and gary terrell. >> i never liked the guy, didn't trust him, thought he was something of a fake. >> gary's brother always had a bad feeling about mark. if he was the killer, the motive was money. >> i thought he was befriending

and grooming my brother so he could gain access to his money. i think over pared of time he saw jan as an obstacle. >> when jessica heard detectives were looking at mark she wasn't surprised. >> he didn't show up at the funeral or visitation either one. >> conspicuous in his absence? >> i think it was pretty obvious at that point there was something going on. >> his former secretary said she hated working for mark porter. ended up quitting her job to get away from him. >> i said, he's off in some way. i don't know. he could be a psychopath or something. it scares me. >> did you use that word? >> it did. >> what bothered police was his lack of cooperation. >> he wouldn't give dna and take a poll grypolygraph. >> add to that the suspicious coin transaction and stopping by the house the night of the murders and the talk with mark's wife the night of the killings only made them more certain.

>> she talked about making a couple phone calls to mark and she couldn't get ahold of him and didn't know where he was or what he was doing. >> but police still needed physical evidence, a dna simple to match to that latex glove found at the scene. so they hatched a plan to get one. >> you start tailing mark porter? >> yes. >> cars outside the house? >> yes. we had undercover officers trying for weeks and weeks to obtain a dna simple from him. >> nabbing a simple proved more difficult than expected. in all those weeks, officers continued to come up empty. >> they watched him eat his lunch, watched him get a to go cup and they were all excited because they thought they could get the straw he had been dri drinking his drink with only to see him pick the straw up and put it into his to go cup and leave with the straw. >> so he knew you guys had eyes on him? >> it's difficult to know what he knew at that time. >> then, three months after the

murders an undercover officer followed mark into an automobile oil change shop. >> goes inside, mark's got a coffee cup he had gotten from mcdonald's, he's drinking from the coffee cup, strikes up a casual conversation there. >> the suspect and the undercover cop? >> the suspect and undercover cop. mark has no clue what's going on, mark's car gets done and leaves and leaves behind the coffee cup. >> police had their sample. in less than 24 hours they had their results. >> it's confirmed, a match, the same dna from the coffee cup is the same dna from the latex glove. >> does your dashboard light up? >> can't even describe the emotion and to bring resolution to the terrell family. >> two weeks later armed with search warrants, detectives arrested mark porter at his office. >> how did he take that? you have the wrong guy?

this can't be? fu fussing. absolutely not. he said, okay, turned around up and put his hands behind his back, the only words he said. >> jessica was at work when she got the call. >> two of my very good friends were with me and said he's been arrested. i remember falling to the floor and just being so overwhelmed with relief that he was finally caught. >> even the former secretary who didn't like him was horrified. >> i couldn't believe it. i mean, oh, i thought, no, no. >> investigators went back to mark's wife and told her that her husband's own story put him at the scene of the crime. >> you really need to help us out. >> when did mark say he was there? >> at the time they were killed. >> no. >> yes, ma'am. yes, ma'am. >> okay, still circumstantial. >> and that's exactly what mark porter's defense attorney seemed ready to argue. mark hired one of the best to plead his case.

>> he has a spotless record, five college degrees. has an outstanding past of good reputation. >> at a bond hearing the defense revealed its strategy. they would argue there was nothing suspicious about narc's dna inside his best friend's house. >> he was a regular visitor to the house and he would get with gary and they'd put on their gloves and handle the old gloves and objects and that's why the glove is there. jur jurors, that's benign. do you think that works as an argument in the real world of courtroom drama? >> potentially, yes. >> what about that suspicious coin sale? there was no way to know for sure the coins had come from gary's house. as for the assumption mark porter was a compulsive gambler come puls pulsively in debt? >> you have to worry about does he owe money to a bookie or mob? >> that was one theory but never

found evidence to that. >> the case was not airtight and when asking about a plea deal, the prosecution was willing to listen. >> what are we willing to risk to try to get the death penalty and can we achieve what we need to achieve without going to trial? >> could have walked. >> a chance of hung jury and do it all again and chance of lesser crime. >> both side is a grow. mark porter pled to two counts of second degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. no eligibility for parole until he's 82. >> i'm still very shocked and very sad. i have a lot of relief that mr. porter is finally going to be behind bars for premisumably th rest of his life. >> he has to live everyday with what he did. everyday he has to think about what he did. all of the lives he destroyed. >> you're saying he has to live the rest of his life in remorse

but you haven't seen any sign he has that remorse? >> that this is only bad part but he still has to sit there. >> today, jessica is doing her best to move on. in february of 2015, she and jason finally got married. >> we got married on valentine's day, while it was a great day, it was still very sad. my parents weren't there. >> larry took his brother's place and walked her down the aisle. >> she asked me to give her away, should have been my brother's job. >> a bittersweet moment? >> that's true. an honor to do it but didn't feel right doing it. >> to keep her parents' memory a alive, jessica has set up a scholarship in their names. as for that offbeat museum of a home it's still there with a loving daughter as caretaker. >> i still feel them there. they loved that house. my mom built that house.

i grew up there. i can't let that go. >> that's all for now. i'm lester holt. it is monday, may 16th. coming up on "early today," a defensive donald trump says "the new york times" lame hit piece on how he treats women is a joke. president obama goes all jersey on the donald and republicans before tens of thousands at the rutgers commencement. wait until you hear what job hillary clinton has in mind for her husband, if she becomes president. plus, it was a bruising weekend in baseball. ouch. the world's largest cruise ship sets sail. and a shark bite like we've never seen. "early today" starts right now. good monday morning to you.