it almost made me sick. i was on the floor and then i kind of ngot myself together. said, we have go over there, i have to go over there. >> in the muscular military world, she was a commander who cared. >> i was like, what are you doing? she says, i'm writing birthday cards to all my soldiers. >> her husband, a charming sergeant and devoted dad. >> he was just as loving and doting as lynn was. >> no one could believe it when this decorated overseas was found dead in her own home. >> an army commander being murdered. >> the first suspect, as usual,

the husband. this one had a rock solid alibi. >> it would have been very difficult for him to have committed this murder. >> did this soldier have enemies off the battlefielbattlefield? her brother-in-law had a grudge. >> rodney was going around calling her names, vulgar names. >> her husband had a girlfriend. >> roger was sitting with a young lady and they were cuddled up. >> we found outside she was pregnant. >> who killed the commander in a place where loyalty is prized above all, one clue. >> that palm print, a key part of the case. >> would reveal a breathtaking betr betrayal. >> i don't have the words. what a monster. >> i'm lester holt. this is "dateline." >> here's andrea canning with deadly devotion. >> in the hot and dangerous

middle east she held her own in the company of men, a captain and a commander, whose devotion never wavered. >> she inspired people. that's maybe why she made such great commander. she inspired her troops. she inspired those that worked for her to want to do well. >> she was captain lynn armstrong reister. army veteran debbie moore was one of her best friends. >> lynn was very intelligent. she knew how to bring out the bestf people. i loved her. she was someone to be inspired by. she inspired people. >> she had big role in the military. >> very big. >> she was in charge of the air defense artillery in saudi arabia. >> when we were in saudia they had the patriot missiles, she would be the one to make the decision what was coming in if it needed to be taken out of the sky. >> captain reister earned loyalty from men and women. that loyalty cut both ways according to her assistant, megan ayers.

>> did she take good care of her soldiers? >> absolutely. she did welfare checks where she would visit with families. she would meet with the different wives and things like that. >> was she the perfect candidate for the army? >> she, in my opinion. she didn't let stress get to her too much. i think she was probably one of the best commanders i ever worked under. >> lynn grew up with a brother and two younger sisters in the military town of pens co-ha, florida. while she was away at school, she sent her sister some advice on tape for her 16th birthday. >> don't argue, avoid arguments and be happy. don't let any spoil that for you and you'll be happy and find that in your heart. anyway, i hope that helps. >> she graduated with an officer's commission from norwich university,in vermont, one of the oldest military college is in the country and then began the globe trotting life of a soldier. >> i met lynn over in germany. >> debbie and lynn were both

stationed over there. they met at a birthday party through mutual friends. >> i snapped a picture of the four of them sitting at the table. >> young women serving their country saving life overseas being surrounded by guys in uniform, sometimes love entered the picture. it certainly did for lynn. >> how did lynn and roger meet? >> they met over in germany at the k club. >> is that an army club. >> that is an army club. we would go there on saturday nights because they had country music. >> they hit it off at once and the romance blossomed. >> lynn was a wonderful person. she had a smile that lit up the room. >> as a military wife when i heard roger was enlisted and lynn was an officer, that's a no no in this military. >> back then it wasn't as critical as it became a couple years later. he was a charmer and she fell in love. >> and they got married. >> debbie liked the fact that he

was an elvis fan. i was amazed, really? you're into elvis presley, too? i was kind of surprised by that, yeah. he was a lot of fun. >> roger admired lynn's devotion to her country and her strength. >> you have to be mentally strong, with the military, especially women in the military, you have to be mentally strong and goto to toe with some of the men. >> lynn and roger had chosen a soldier's life. that meant a marriage full of separati separations. roger even missed the birth of his son, tristan. >> it was unbelievable. as soon as i came back, i stepped off the bus and she held him and said, this is your son. that was a -- it was really a great moment, it really was. i held her and him at the same time. >> was he a good dad? >> he was. he would bring him up to visit and they would play and he seemed very happy being a dad. >> when tristan was 4, the family was stationed at fort

bliss in el paso, texas. i was lynn that got called away. >> lynn found out she had to deploy to saudi arabia? >> uh-huh. >> you were going with her? >> yes, ma'am. >> was she okay with that? she had to leave tristan behind. this was her first deployment without him, right? >> to the best of my knowledge, yes. i remember her telling us it was hard, she was having a hard time with it, she was sad and she just telling him she'd come home. it won't be that long. >> it was how long was the deployment? >> it was about six months. >> and then she did get home but her old life was about to change. about four months after she got back, roger convince lynn to let his 24-year-old brother, rodney, come live with them. rodney had gotten into some trouble while his brother was serving his country. maybe roger and lynn could set him straight. >> he was on probation in florida and for him to be able to leave the state, she had to write this letter, you know, y

saying how she would take on that responsibility. roger asked her to do that so she did. >> right about the same time, lynn found out she was pregnant again. the tug of motherhood was getting stronger, so this globe trotting army captain made a decision, she put in for a transfer to teach rotc in minnesota. good for her career, good for her family, and no travel. >> was she doing it all to be with tristan more, was that part of it? >> yeah. that would be part of it. she wanted to -- it's more re x relaxing. >> she was going to be a teacher, something she was really looking forward to. >> just days before moving time, lynn was saying good-bye to fort bliss. >> lin was having a going away party? >> any time a commander resigns a command the unit puts together and buy her going away gift, usually a plaque or something to commemorate the accomplishments of the unit. >> megan didn't go but her

husband did. >> my husband came home and i asked how -- how it went, did she like the gift? he said, you know, she never showed. that was very odd. >> something else was odd. roger had been calling lynn at home throughout the day. no answer. late that afternoon, he came home from work with tristan and it was all too clear why lynn hasn't answered the phone. >> 911. >> yeah. um, i just got home. my wife is dead. >> lynn armstrong reister, mother, soldier, beloved commander, was in her bedroom, lying dead in a pool of blood. >> when we return -- >> my first instinct was grab tristan and run out of the house. >> it almost made me sick. i was on the floor. >> where will investigators start? >> it could be a neighbor, it could be a lover, it could be anybody. >> you had a killer on the

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roger rester and his little boy, tristan, had just come home at dinnertime to something no child should ever have to see. >> i'm the one that found her. when ever i walked into the -- i had tristan with me.

we walked in, it was tough. it was tough seeing that. >> lynn, six months pregnant, had been stabbed to death, her throat slashed. >> my first instinct was to grab tristan and run out of the house. i know i was screaming and yelling and probably looked like madman out there. i didn't know what to think. >> she's pregnant. she's just -- i can't even talk about -- >> he immediately called 911 and brought tristan out. tristan, in his statement, say, my daddy took me out fast, you know, those kind of things. >> gonzalo was the lead detective. >> did you think about this poor poor woman's last moments in this house? >> i did. looking at the scene and trying to imagine her maybe fighting for her life or pleading for her life, or -- or how scared she might have been. >> any signs of robbery? were things taken?

>> no. we actually did a scan and we could see valuables. there was no signs that this was a burglary or robbery. once we did the walk-through and looked at -- with the referenhe roger because he was ec explaining what he had seen when he went in. >> with police and neighbors converging on the scene, the news got out quickly. lynn's friend, debbie moore couldn't believe it. >> my husband and i were wat watching tv and he was flipping through the channels over the remote control. the channel flipped by and it was her house, i yelled, wait, wait, wait. what is it? isn't that lynn's house? he flipped it back. it came about that time a woman had been found murdered in her home. >> did you know right away? >> i knew it was lynn, yeah, because i knew the house and then they said it was military.

i remember -- it almost made me sick, i was on the floor. and then i got myself together, i said, we have to go over there, i have to go over there. >> roger was already talking to detectives and clearly shaken. police were sympathetic but they knew he had to be carefully scrutinized. >> what's your first impression of roger reister? >> he was grasping and his son wouldn't let go of him. i thought maybe i saw some fear. he was scared about what had occurred, it seemed to me at the time. >> are you looking for anything in roger reister's eyes or his mannerisms or what he's saying? are you immediatelicizing him up? >> absolutely. >> to see if maybe he did this? >> absolutely. >> it actually took a while for me to calm down at the very beginning because my mind's all over the place. once i wrapped my mind around, okay, let me give them this, get this knocked out of the way,

then they can get on with the investigation. >> detectives wanted to know where he was all day. >> roger had a good alibi. >> he had a solid alibi, yes, his son was with him all the time. he had left his house very early and stopped at a convenience store where he saw friends and talked to them. when he got to work, obviously his co-workers, supervisors saw him. >> also backing up roger's alibi was his brother, rodney. he told detectives he helped roger jump-start his truck early that morning and watched him and tristan leave. detective steve munios. >> he said they were able to crank up the truck, get it going. as he pulled away he says he did see roger also pull out from the driveway. >> later, rodney visited roger at the base. he told police his older brother looked worry whied when he call lynn and got no answer. >> hey, you there? >> 10:25 a.m.

>> hey, lynn, this is roger. give me a call as soon as you get in. i need you to come pick up tristan. >> then he leaves work. we knew it would have been very difficult for him to have committed this murder. >> so who did it? as the investigation got under way, the detective thought the possibilities were endless. >> it could be anybody. it could be a neighbor, it could be a lover. she was a captain. she was a supervisor. we thought about her troops and her subordinates and maybe somebody that she might have disciplined or sex offenders in the area. >> you had a wide net you needed to throw out. >> it was a wide investigation at the time, yes. >> you had a killer on the use. >> yes. and the neighbors were very scared. who's out there? who did this? >> in those first few hours the leads would pour in and the

police had to move fast. lynn reister had inspired loyalty in her life, now, in death, the detectives could not let her down. coming up. >> and army commander being murdered. >> on the base, a giant military family is hit hard by murder. but in lynn's own family, had there been signs of trouble? >> rodney was going around

the news of lynn reister's murder spread through el paso and it was devastating to those who served with her at the army base. >> did this crime send shock waves through fort bliss? >> it certainly did. it was heartbreaking. it was harrowing when it first happened, we had no idea and it was scary. >> the fort bliss community p k packed the memorial service to say good-bye to the captain and the baby she was carrying who never got a chance. >> tell us about the funeral. >> the wake was extremely difficult. she was buried in her army dress uniform. they -- in order to do the open

casket, they had to cover the throat. so they used her air defense artillery ascot to -- it connects on the back and so that they would be able to do the open casket. ♪ ♪ >> lynn's mother asked me to go and buy a baby blanket. it was a little boy. i went and bought a little baby blanket. for the memorial when they laid lynn out in her uniform the point was there, not just one person had died in this attempt, two had died. >> 4-year-old tristan was there with his family and his mother's friends, barely comprehending the tragic rupture in his life. >> do you remember how you felt towards him? >> i do. i just, i felt sorrow. i wanted so bad to fix it for him. i understood that this little 4 1/2-year-old boy will never know how great his mom was, how

much she loved him. >> did your heart just go out to this little boy? >> yes. and still does. >> but the detectives had to put emotion aside and drill down to the facts. roger wasn't home at the time of the murder and neighbors weren't reporting any suspicious activity. so detectives wanted to know if any held a grudge against lynn. they quickly learned at least one person may have, roger's brother, rodney. >> things started to go south with rodney pretty quickly after he moved in? >> yes. there were times he would lay around all day long. >> rodney idolized his big brother but he was something of a disappointment to roger and lynn. >> well, he just wasn't -- he wasn't working, he was basically living off of us, stuff like that. >> she would go to get milk out of the refrigerator for tristan and the milk would be gone because rodney had drank it all an didn't bother to replace it. yeah. it was becoming not a very good

relationship. >> lynn didn't want him to stay? >> i think lynn was ready to have her house back. it's very difficult when you have another adult living in the home. i think they talked and they ended up -- roger ended up telling rodney, it was time to go, you need to leave. you've been here long enough, we tried to help you, you're not really helping yourself so you need to go. >> lynn and i came to that decision together. it was one of those things that just had to be done and he held that against her. mine and his relationship continued on but i could tell he had a little bit of animosity towards lynn even after that. >> a closer look at rodney sh showed a young man with a dodgy past. he had done time in florida for crimes like petty theft, forgery, grand theft auto, nothing violent but, still, he was no fan of lynn's. >> and then i remember lynn telling me that roger had told her that rodney was going around

calling her names. you know, calling her vulgar na names, she''s the reason he got kicked out and the reason all these things happened. >> did you see that as a motive? >> i never thought that in itself would have been a p plotive, he would have been angry just because of that to kill her. >> why in the world would rodney want lynn dead? >> i don't think rodney wanted lynn dead. >> here was a person that was willing to help us in the investigation. he was very cooperative initially and throughout. >> the search for suspects continued. lynn's neighborhood turned up nothing, the same with fort bliss. lynn had no enemies there. >> you couldn't have madge eimat could have happened. it seemed unreal, an army commander being murdered. >> then one name cropped up. rodney mentioned it to police. >> we asked him who else would have wanted to do this to lynn?

did she have any enemies. rodney tells us there's this one girl, her name is april and this girl has a crush on my brother. so he mentions her. that's important. coming up, crush? this was way more than that. >> i was kind of playing detective for her. >> a bold confrontation with the other woman. >> we knock on the door and she opens it. i said, my understanding is you're pregnant. and acne won't last forever. just like your mom, won't walk in on you forever. stephen! stephen! stephen! stephen! stephen! you see what i'm saying. acne won't last. but for now, let's be clear. clearasil works fast. and discover clearasil 5in1. one simple step to fight five signs of acne. to show your roots. with root touch up from nice'n easy it blends with leading shades, even salon shades.

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it was a lead that would take the lynn reister murder investigation in a new direction. roger reister's brother had mentioned a young woman who had a crush on roger. detectives quickly learned this crush was an open secret around town. >> we went to the industrivilla

and i walked in the door and there was roger. >> it was about nine months before the murder. lynn's assistant, megan, had just gotten back from saudi arabia and lynn was still there with a week and half to go. >> roger was sitting in a booth with several other people. didn't know any of them as well as a young lady. and they were cuddled up and roger had a look of sheer terror on his face when he saw me walk in and realized who i was, because, you know, we knew each other. he stopped and he gave me a hug and i didn't know you were back. well, i am. >> the young woman's name was april. she was 19 years old. >> what exactly was going on between roger and this young lady? they looked like a couple? >> they did. >> megan decided it wasn't her place to tell lynn. but over in saudi arabia, lynn knew something was up. roger never seemed to answer the phone. >> hey, roger, it's lynn again.

i don't know where you're at. i'll try a-- i'm trying to get a ahold of you for 24 hours. >> word traveled halfway around the world roger had been

>> april was in the bar that night. yes. >> how was he acting around april? >> they were in the bar and doing flips and turns and things he never danced with with lynn. >> he's doing this in front of lynn? >> oh, yes. oh yes. she was so angry and what made it worse was he was so d disrespe disrespectful. she'd start talking to him and every time she started walking towards him he'd go away. >> sounds like lynn was trying to be the grownup and roger reverted back to the good old days. yeah. >> detectives noted that night at the country bar ended badly and a messy argument broke out between roger and lynn and roger

moved to the barracks. after that, lynn asked her for help. >> i was playing detective. i was outside the barracks and april ended up coming there and hanging out at the barracks. >> this wasn't just a crush, this was a full on affair. then it got worse, lynn heard a rumor april was pregnant with roger's baby. >> i told her, i said, i know where april lives. i said, lynn, why don't we go over there? why don't we go talk with april. >> that's gutsy. >> yeah. well, we were older. i knew lynn wasn't going to lose it. >> what was it like when you knock on the door. >> we knock on the door and she opens it. a little bit surprised. lynn was very nice. we sat down and started talking to her about her relationship and she tried to say that, you know, yes, she had, that it was over now that lynn was back.

i finally said, my understanding is you're pregnant. >> april denied she was pregnant insisting the affair was over. >> you both left april's not really knowing for sure if she was or wasn't pregnant? >> if it -- yeah, then, of course, later we found out that she was actually pregnant. >> and telling people the father was roger. a lot of women would have cashed in the marriage at this point, but not lynn. she let roger come home. >> did lynn still want to make things work with roger despite this bombshell? why? >> i think probably because of tristan. i think it was important to lynn her family stay together and tristan be raised with a mother and father and she would work it out. >> they were working on things. >> she was, yes. >> marriage counseling? >> they did try marriage counseling, yes. >> they moved back in together? >> yes. >> police heard after roger

reconciled with lynn her car was vandalized. april was never charged but at the time lynn and roger told police they thought she did it. >> this is very complex, this april situation? >> yes. >> the police had to put this woman scorned on the list of possible suspects. >> roger had pushed april aside to the point he was telling everybody, that's not -- denying that was his baby april was car carrying. >> you want to get a woman angry that's a pretty good way to do it. >> absolutely. >> as detectives were sorting through this tangled love triangle they got news of a break in the case. the phonetic lab came back with something. a trace of the killer on lynn reister's arm. coming up -- >> this is the smoking gun? >> it is. >> a telltale palm print. whose could it be? who was behind this killing?

>> does everyone's jaws drop? >> yes. >> when "dateline" continues.

a troubled marriage, a doomed fair, a pregnant mistress, detectives did the math and suddenly, april and roger were each look like possible suspects.

but then results came in on a clue at the crime scene, a bloody palm print on lynn reister's palm. >> did roger give his palm print. >> was he a match? >> did april give his palm print. was she a match? >> she was not a match. then they checked the print of someone lynn reister once tried to help, her brother-in-law, rodney. >> he was a match and those prints belonged to him in blood on lynn's arm. >> this is the smoking gun? >> it is. >> roger was brought back to police headquarters by detective steve munoz. >> he is a person, nothing phased him, whatever you want, i'll talk to you, i'll give you whatever you need. >> when rodney sat down with detective, he was confronted with the print evidence and he denied everything. >> as we talked to him and broke down those denials, he became very emotional.

rodney cried a bunch of times during the interview and he revealed that he had in fact killed lynn. >> case closed? >> not even close. we had to answer the question of why did rodney kill her? why did rodney get involved in something so heinous and so horrible, so violent? >> detectives continued to press. they never thought the spat between rodney and lynn was a good motive for murder. there had to be something else. rodney finally broke down. he admitted there was. >> he did it because roger asked him to do it. >> he said big brother roger was behind it all. >> does everyone's jaws drop? >> yes. >> at this statement? >> absolutely. >> roger was arrested and charged with murder. >> there was such -- this big shock with his friends and their mutual friends because they thought, no, no, because he looked like this perfect

husband, perfect father. >> according to rodney, roger suggested, then begged, then bullied him into killing lynn. he offered money. he'd pay off rodney's bills and then some, but mostly he offered love. >> then roger is feeding all these things into his head about she want to move, she wants to take me away from my friends here, you. i love you, she wants to separate us. >> rodney told police his brother had no shortage of reasons for wanting lynn dead. prosecutor, john gibson. >> roger wanted the life insurance policy, he wanted custody of his young son. he knew that if his affair with april became apparent that he'd face consequences in this military, to include prosecution and military jail. he didn't want to move -- to follow lynn in her career to minnesota. he wanted to stay and he wanted to party back here in el paso. >> and rodney said roger didn't just talk about why he wanted

his wife killed, he says roger talked about how and when. >> he describes roger preparing the weapon, preparing extra clothes for rodney to change. >> rodney said the plan was for roger to call him that morning to say his battery was dead. >> was that the signal? >> that was the signal. that's what rodney tells us. when we -- when i went to the house i knew that was the day i was going to have to kill lynn. >> the prosecutor threw the book at both brothers. >> a decision was made to go ahead and pursue capital murder charges against both roger and rodney reister. >> that could mean the death penalty? >> it could mean the death penalty. >> as the day of roger's trial got closer, rodney's misguided loyalty got the better of him and he refused to testify against his older brother. >> i think rodney had a degree of loyalty and love for his brother such that he couldn't

get up on the stand and testify against him. >> so a jury would not hear from the younger brother or see his confession. the prosecution was forced to drop the murder charge against roger. but that was not the end of the case. remember that pack of young people roger was running with? >> many of them were high school kids in that area and many of the people were junior in rank, other soldiers at the base. so roger surrounded himself with people he knew would look up to him. >> but they turned on him after lynn was killed. one by one, six members of roger's circle told police they knew roger wanted his wife dead because he had talked to them about it. two of them even told police roger had tried to hire them for the murder. >> roger reister basically told anybody who would listen that he wanted his wife dead. >> so the prosecutor charged roger with solicitation for murder and put him on trial for that. one of roger's minion, a young soldier named patrick mueller

was a key witness. >> he was granted immunity and gave a statement explaining that he, too, had been solicited by roger to kill lynn reister. >> he asked me if i would kill captain reister, ma'am. >> what did you tell him? >> yes, i would. >> where were you supposed to stab her? >> mentioned something about in the throat so she could not scream. >> mueller said he went to the house one night but chickened out when he spotted a neighbor. another young man testified how roger tried to hire him. he told me he wanted his wife pretty much killed and x amount of dollars and i said, well, you know, i don't know. >> roger's former mistress, april, now cleared of any suspicion, testified that roger talked to her about tampering with lynn's brakes. lynn's friend, debbie, doesn't understand why one of these young people didn't blow the whistle before lynn was killed.

>> i was so angry, because i thought, why didn't one of them mention it to me? why wouldn't that comment not been told to me? because i think if one of them had told me that and i would have went back to lynn with that right away -- >> with all those witnesses, the prosecution thought they had a strong case, but roger reister had plenty to say about those witnesses and about his brother, rodney. >> did you ask your brother, rodney, to kill lynn? coming up -- >> i loved my wife. we were trying to build a future together. >> roger tells his story. will a jury believe it? >> and his son has a story to tell, too.

to take your wife, the mother of your child, and the fact that she was carrying his unborn child, i don't even have words of how sick, what a monster. >> roger reister didn't look like a monster when he went on trial for criminal solicitation. lots of witnesses said he talked about killing his wife to any who would listen. well, now, 12 jurors were li listening. it took them all of three hours to find him guilty. >> when you hear guilty -- my legs went out from underneath me. my lawyers actually had my arms. >> roger was sentenced to life in prison. he spoke to us from behind glass at a texas state prison. >> the prosecutor said in his closing statements, who is he crying for? referring to you. he said, he's crying for

himself. >> no. i was crying for my wife and my unborn child is who i was crying for. it had nothing to do with me. >> why should we believe you? >> because i didn't do it. because i loved my wife. >> he told us he may have been a terrible husband but he never wanted lynn dead. >> was life easier without her in the picture? >> no. absolutely not. that's why we actually got back together. we separated, i was like, okay, i'll move back to the barracks that. that's why we got back together. life wasn't easier without her. life was better with her, always has. >> remember, the prosecution said there was a long list of moti motives. >> all right. let's run through the motives of why the prosecution said you want your wife dead, first, you wanted to the 250,0$250,000 lif insurance policy. >> oh, no. it doesn't make much sense because lynn was making more money than i was, so 250,0$250, all soldiers have that same amount on them. >> you wanted sole custody of

tristan. >> no. lynn and i would have definitely been joint custody, something we talked about when we briefly separated. >> you didn't want to go to a military prison for committing adultery. >> no. it's been a very long time since anybody was convicted of a felony for adultery in the military. >> he says he still doesn't understand why all his old friends turned on him but he doesn't have a good explanation for why they all would have lied. >> you had a lot of people s saying that you wanted to have your wife killed. >> and you would think i would have come up with a really good reason for it for all those people and i haven't. obviously, you know, maybe some of them had their individual motive. >> six people. >> i know. >> that's a lot of people, all lying and ganging up on you. >> i don't know what their reasons are, you'd be surprised what people will say. >> the year after roger's trial, his brother, rodney, was convicted of murder and

sentenced to life. roger still says rodney acted alone. >> one of the things that's hard to wrap your head around is that rodney had this love for you. he looked up to you. and for rodney to turn on you and say that my brother asked me to kill his wife, and i did it out of love for him, why in the world would he make that up? >> maybe to save his own life. i heard that they were trying to give him the death penalty. the only thing he could have done to even save his own life was to say something like that, maybe get a little bit of far a >> but this was a man who loved you? >> if he had loved me he wouldn't have killed my wife. >> you do seem, though, like you're playing the part of victim a little bit by saying this person made this up, this person made this up, poor me, all these people are lying. >> well, i'm an innocent man sitting in jail, so, yeah, i do kind of feel like a victim, yes. >> he says that he's the victim

in this, that all these people lied and now he's behind bars because of the lies. >> all these people lied? hmm. i don't even know what to say to that. >> debbie says lynn's profound loyalty may have been her un undoing, and that lynn would want other people to learn from that. >> sometimes you don't keep fighting to keep that marriage together. that maybe there is a time that it's better just to say, you know, it's over and walk away. >> even now, this case can bring detective to tears. >> can you explain it? why you have this emotion? can you put it into words? >> it's hard. it's hard. she was pregnant. of course, you have tristan and tristan lost everything. >> what hits you the hardest? >> she was trying to keep her

family together. i don't think she knew what kind of man she was married to. >> do you think about your wife's last moments and your unborn child's last moments, how horrific they were? >> no. i try not to think about that at all. it's not how you really want to do your time in here. >> lynn stated in her will that tristan should go to her mother if anything happened. roger agreed to send tristan to one of lynn's sisters instead. >> i know he's at a good home. that's probably one of the good things i did before i got locked up was make sure he went to that family in particular. >> he doesn't know anything about me. >> tristan is now 19 years old. he's getting himself through college. he has a good group of friends but it'seen a lonely and difficult road. >> he very clearly doesn't know anything i've gone through, you know.

he obviously doesn't understand that most of what i've gone through is because of his decision. >> he keeps saying that you had this great upbringing and that gives him peace essentially but your life was not so easy? >> it wasn't. it was a very difficult place to grow up in, just in general, the very fact that i lost my parents is one thing that's traumati traumatizing, but then to go live with my aunt who is in effect a stranger to me as a kid, is -- it was a lot. >> still, his difficult life has pointed him in an interesting direction. >> you want to be a crime scene investigator? >> yes, i do. >> is this 100% from your own experience? or is there something else? >> believe it or not, i've always been interested in anatomy and how things work, but i've always wanted to have a

bunch of questions answered about my own life, about the situation with my parents, ma mainly. and that curiosity kind of bled over to other situations. >> me and my mom. >> tristan treasures the baby book his mother made for him. >> i get bigger and better. >> he loves listening for that audiotape she made for her sister's 16th birthday. >> it's cool hearing her. >> i remember when i was 16. that was the greatest time of my life. and believe it or not, it'll probably be one of the most exciting times of your life, too. >> i sometimes wonder if she would be happy with how my life is going and my decisions or if she'd be proud of me or what not. >> you've overcome the odds, you're in college, you're making something of your life. >> it's not over yet. i have a long way to go. >> how could she not be proud of that. >> i'm sure she is, it's just -- i wish i knew for sure. >> i miss you so much.

i miss all of you. i hope you guys miss me a little bit. >> that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us.