>> samira was full of energy, very attractive girl, she had that model look. she did not do anything low key. >> all of the strange twists that this story took, now you know somebody who's been murdered. it was like nothing i'd ever expect to happen. >> reporter: she had model looks, and was a model mom. >> her entire world were those two kids. >> reporter: her husband, a do-gooder doctor. >> he was going to treat you regardless, money or no money. >> reporter: their life together, cut short when she was found dead, in the pool. >> she's completely gone? >> yes. >> reporter: her sandal, caught under a hose, had she tripped? police didn't think so. >> it seemed very obvious this

was staged. >> reporter: they wondered, could samira have made an enemy? >> i said if you hit me, i'll knock you through that window. those were my exact words. >> reporter: were there women, who might want her out of the way? >> they had a common career. they were exotic dancers. >> reporter: had the good doctor been keeping a secret? >> it did appear that she was conducting an investigation into her husband's activities. >> reporter: a case, that could turn on a single damning clue. >> i literally looked at it for a minute. i was, like, seriously? >> reporter: a glamorous, extravagant life ends in a mysterious, violent death. >> behind the curtain was a very dark story! >> reporter: i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." here's keith morrison with at "at the bottom of the pool." >> reporter: it was a cold morning in february. cold for northern florida, that is. crisp but sunny when the call came in -- >> can i get an officer out here in golden eagle? there's a lady laying in the pool, in her backyard in her

pool. >> reporter: made no sense really. way too cold for a swim. but the lady wasn't swimming. wasn't even floating -- down at the bottom of the pool -- >> she's dead. >> reporter: she was lying face up, her palms too, as if in supplication. her leopard print robe drifting in the water around her -- >> she been in there. i don't know how long she-- she-- she completely gone. >> reporter: the house with the backyard pool was located in an exclusive gated community in tallahassee, florida called golden eagle. first responders went out there. and pretty soon, sheriff's detective tony geraldi got a call. >> patrol deputies had found a body in a pool, a woman in a pool. and we were scrambling our investigative unit. >> reporter: is that about as much as you knew, when you got that first call? it was. >> reporter: he would discover the emt's had been there by

then, tried cpr. just in case. given that the water was so cold. >> i don't think they knew how long she had been in the pool. so the thought process was maybe that they could revive her. >> reporter: yeah. because a person's metabolism slows down sometimes -- they look like they're dead. maybe they're not dead. was there a serious thought that maybe she would survive this? >> it wasn't the case. >> reporter: no. at the hospital, the doctors tried to check her body temperature to determine how long she'd been dead, but she was too cold for the thermometer, no way to calculate how long she'd been in the pool. of course, by then they'd figured out who she was. samira frasch. unusual name. they looked her up online. and? wow. >> she was really va-va-voom. reporter: samira frasch was amazing. look at her. stunning, most certainly --

and glamorous and very french -- >> it's everything or nothing. i'm french you know. [ laughs ] >> reporter: once upon a time, she turned heads in paris. a runway model, a sultry music video singer, a shooting star. ♪ i tried to call you all the time ♪ >> or so the stories went. >> such a shame, what happened to samira. and such a mystery. >> when you think about all of the strange twists that this story took -- >> reporter: joel silver was a friend by the time it all ended. >> the story is very sad, how it all ended up. but it is still a wild story. >> reporter: the story, her story, was not at all wild to begin with. she was born far away in french-speaking madagascar. she was poor, dirt poor, like

the dirt floors in her family's little house. and her story, frankly, would have ended there, anonymously. we'd have nothing to tell. were it not for something in her. some drive, some desire. >> she was full of energy and determination. and she always wanted to be doing something. >> reporter: over here we call it the american dream. there? it was paris. it was her own hard work that won her a spot in a paris college. it was her talent and her remarkable look that got her a place on paris fashion runways. and still, there'd be no story for us. were it not for the night in 2006, in a trendy paris nightclub, when she met him. adam frasch. jackie watson, a french national herself, was samira's friend. >> he showered her with gifts and love and flowers. >> reporter: it was that ultimate intoxicant. love at first sight. she was brilliant and tall and

incredibly beautiful. and he was a prominent and successful florida doctor, a podiatrist and surgeon. and attractive said samira's friend, jackie watson. >> very handsome man. tall, bright blue eyes -- very good looking. they were making the perfect couple. >> reporter: and he was smitten. she showed him a paris he had seen before. but never like he saw it with samira. >> beautiful lady, beautiful spirit, huge smile. >> reporter: adam's friends saw it, too. like the reverend larry johnson. >> and they were obviously in love with each other. >> reporter: the romance with adam was right out of a book. >> she said actually it was like a fairytale. >> reporter: so that's how it began. and back and forth they went. he'd fly to paris, she to tallahassee, florida where he lived. just so they could see each other. adam couldn't stop talking about her, couldn't believe his luck. >> and he said, "i'm in love

with her and i'm going to marry her." >> reporter: mind you, adam frash was a catch, too. bright? oh yes. he'd flown through college in three years, was the youngest graduate in his med school class. a workaholic in school and out -- >> and when he was in college, he had three part-time jobs for awhile. and he'd never buy pop 'cause that cost too much. he'd just drink water. >> reporter: but his medical practice, said his dad, alvin, was amazing. >> it was very successful. i'd go in the office and the waiting room would be full when i got there, and at 5:00, it would still be full. and by the time adam met samira, he was both a respected podiatrist and a wealthy man with two practices in georgia, just over the florida border near tallahassee. >> i was impressed with his professionalism.

he was not in a hurry to do it fast and get out, you know, go on to the next patient. he had a big heart. >> reporter: before they could marry, they had to wait, adam and samira. he was in the midst of divorce. and when it was final, they did not hesitate. they married in vegas. and they made their home in tallahassee. not many french nationals here. >> yes, tallahassee? >> reporter: yeah. i mean, talk about a cultural shift. >> no kidding. [ laugh ] you don't say. >> reporter: annabelle dias became samira's, what, sounding board? soul mate? culture shock is an easy phrase to say, but for french women like annabelle and samira, getting used to tallahassee was not so easy. >> reporter: and all you have to do is open your mouth and-- >> that's pretty much it. >> reporter: you're different. [ laugh ] >> yes. yes. >> reporter: annabelle, who emigrated years earlier, had to give samira a tutorial on the english language. especially when it came to words

that began with the letter "h." >> remember, french people don't say their h's, so imagine the amount of trouble you can get in speaking english when h's are silent. >> reporter: it sounds like you speak from experience. >> i do. i do. >> reporter: so 'hate' would come out as 'ate' hurt as 'urt.' that sort of thing -- >> you know? >> and i used to have this with samira, i was like, "no, don't use "h" words, they are not going to understand you." >> reporter: but here she had friends, like jackie and annabelle, and annabelle's mother who kind of adopted samira. a good life. >> so we were just trying to be a bunch of french girls drinking red wine and eating cheese. [ laugh ] >> reporter: and eventually for adam and samira, there were babies. first came little hyrah. a baby who would have the childhood samira could only dream of. >> i think she was trying to really provide this world for this baby that she thought the baby deserved, that-- she thought hyrah deserved. >> reporter: hyrah and then skynnah. samira picked the names.

>> her entire world were those two kids. you know? i mean, like she just loved her babies. >> i mean, i don't think that there's anything that she wanted to do or be except for their mother. her whole world revolved around them. >> reporter: and then it was that february morning in 2014, about 11 a.m. it was the handyman who called 911. and here, the story seemed to end. the adventures of samira frasch -- dead at 38, though really, in a way, the story had just begun. >> reporter: what happened to samira? when we come back -- >> tucked right underneath the hose, on the edge. had she tripped, chasing the family dog? it wouldn't be the first time. >> i about stumbled on that hose tryin' to catch him. even if you're healthy. pneumococcal pneumonia is a potentially serious

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chilly morning in february 2014 -- >> it's a lady laying in the pool, in her backyard in her pool. >> reporter: he told the operator he knew samira frasch had children, two little girls, but he couldn't find them. >> where are her kids? you said she has kids. >> i don't know, ma'am. i can't get in the house. i can't get nothing. i just found her in the back -- back there in the pool. >> reporter: investigator jason newlin searched for clues at the place samira frasch's all too short life came to its sudden end.

>> i studied the crime scene a lot. looking just for -- does anything stand out? >> reporter: and right away what stood out was evidence of one of those bizarre rube golberg tripping accidents people tend to fall prey to. this is police video. the pool deck was kind of a mess. and, look at this, one of samira's sandals was caught under a garden hose that ran across the deck and into the pool. >> tucked right underneath the hose, on the edge and then the other one was just down in the bottom of the pool. >> reporter: and detective tony geraldi discovered that samira's little indoor dog bella, had escaped to the pool deck. so -- >> they have this small dog that is -- apparently runs around if it gets out. >> oh, i figured she fell. that stupid dog they had -- got out, run around the pool. >> reporter: when he heard about samira's death, her

father-in-law, alvin frasch said the same thing very nearly happened to him during a visit. >> i couldn't catch him out there around the pool. i about stumbled on that hose tryin' to catch him. >> reporter: so seemed obvious -- samira must have been chasing her little dog, tripped on the hose, maybe hit her head, and wound up in the pool. and tragically, the one thing samira couldn't do was swim. but one look at the web told the detectives this was otherwise a very versatile woman. >> you could definitely google search her youtube. ♪ >> reporter: and there she was, about a half dozen music videos under the name "samira ds." ♪ many made in her native madagascar. they did not go viral. but once she became a mother, samira's ambition shifted. now she wanted her daughter, eventually daughters, to be the center of attention. >> i said, "but you're so young, so beautiful." she said "let's be serious here. let's focus on the kids." >> reporter: the kids and a big idea. and that's when she first met joel silver. he's a producer. in 2012, she called him out of the blue and set up a meeting. >> other mothers say, "my baby is beautiful and should be on tv, on commercials, on this."

but samira acted on this. because, said silver, samira instinctively, seemed to understand the power of social media. >> by that time, we were startin' to see those kinda things on youtube and facebook, famous people. you know, famous dogs on facebook that have thousands and millions of followers. >> reporter: why not a famous baby? >> why not a famous baby, was her idea. we just said, "let's go and -- so we can see how it works." >> reporter: you were in. >> i was in. >> reporter: the idea was to create and market a children's clothing line based on the outfits she designed for hyrah. she would sell them from a website called hyrah.com. the youtube videos would push potential customers to the site. if the kardashians could do it, why not her? >> she said, i want to make videos of my baby. and i want to travel and make sure everybody can see how beautiful my baby is. >> reporter: it seemed to be a perfect formula, that is, using the online clothing business based on little hyrah. so she could be close to her baby and adam, and see the country, and have fun. enviable. >> when i saw her and her husband and that little girl, i looked at them and i said, "this is what i want one day." >> reporter: they took their road show all over the country.

vegas, disney world, hollywood, the kentucky derby, washington, d.c., new york's times square. and everybody admired the baby. even another tv celebrity, the late big ange from "mob wives." >> hi, hyrah, you are so gorgeous. >> i don't know if she just thought, this is how you do it in america. >> reporter: there's some evidence to suggest, it is -- or something like that? >> yes. so, right. when you come to the u.s., this is what she thought, i guess, was the best way to showcase hyrah. >> reporter: in the background, adam, always a bit off camera, quietly hovered, proud but worried a little. protective. of course he financed the productions, paid for her music videos, too.

>> reporter: out on the road, were you ever approached by people who thought this was off? >> we never really got any kind of backlash from anybody about saying, "this is terrible, what are you doing? what are you doing?" and it might be because hyrah was just always the perfect tv star. she was always in a great mood, always waving, smiling. anytime you see any of these videos, this baby was always happy. >> reporter: and samira? over the top or not she was, somehow genuine, said silver. and he rolled the camera as she, no fuss, no furs, no makeup, doted on her baby girl. this, thought joel silver, was true love. and then there was the party. hyrah's first birthday party. and samira's biggest promotion on social media. she pulled out all the stops. tallahassee had never seen anything like this. >> with how much samira loved this baby, she was determined to

make it the party of all parties. this was like an l.a., you know, hollywood birthday of a celebrity baby. >> reporter: samira played host and narrator. >> okay, today is hyrah's one years birthday, watch. >> reporter: men dressed as egyptian guards, a sword wielding belly dancer and samira dripping in gold and wearing a gown fit for the queen of the nile. adam frasch, her husband, went for something a little more elvis. and there at the center of it all, their daughter hyrah, dressed in white feathers and fur. >> reporter: as they sang happy birthday, samira and adam were beaming. not a hint in the world that in a little more than a year she'd be gone, her babies, just two, and ten months, without a mother. detectives had watched the videos in something like amazement. and then they heard from the coroner. and remember that rube goldberg

tripping thing? maybe not an accident after all. >> reporter: coming up -- what the medical examiner had to say. >> the m.e.'s physical finding was foul play. >> and questions about the ha y handyman who refused to pull her from the water. >> he's, like, "i wasn't gonna touch her." >> reporter: when "dateline" continues. the 3d white collection from crest. healthy, beautiful smiles for life. your toilet is germ-ridden with mineral buildup. clorox toilet bowl cleaner with bleach is no match against limescale. but lysol power toilet bowl cleaner has 10x more cleaning power against limescale. so switch to lysol. what it takes to protect.

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>> reporter: there was one little thing here in the pool where samira frasch met her end. it was something about the sandal there in the water, the one trapped under a garden hose. it bothered detective jason newlin. >> these sandals that had a strap around the heel. a lot of the females in the office would say, "that doesn't just fall off your foot like that." >> reporter: that sandal

looked, well, almost looked like somebody had created a little stage setting. like it was too perfect. too obvious to be true. and then, detective tony geraldi got a call from the medical examiner. oh, my. >> reporter: what did the m.e. discover? >> the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head coupled with drowning. >> in such a way that it could've happened accidentally, or did it seem to the m.e. as if it was homicide? >> with the m.e.'s -- physical findings that there was foul play. we were looking for somebody that caused this death. >> reporter: here's what the medical examiner said: one side of samira's skull was fractured. which certainly meant she could have hit her head on the way into the pool, but the other side of her head was damaged, too. a simple slip and fall couldn't account for that. but remember, the m.e. saw evidence of both blunt force trauma and drowning. which meant she was still alive when she hit the water. so was it murder? it looked like, yes. the detectives went to work. >> we collected as much physical evidence as we could.

and we interviewed everybody that saw samira last or that was close to her. >> like the man who found her in the pool, the handyman, gerald gardner. >> he was somebody we needed to talk to and rule out as a suspect. >> reporter: police thought there was something odd about mr. gardner. or at least, what he said when he called 911. the operator asked him to get into the pool and pull samira out. >> is there any way you can jump in and get her? >> i probably can, but i prefer the officer to be here before i try to touch her because i don't know how long she been in there. >> nobody wants to jump in and try and get her out? >> well ma'am, she been in there, i don't know how long she -- she -- she completely gone. and i want y'all to come take pictures of it before i take her out. >> reporter: gerald gardner knew samira, had worked for her for years. so why did he refuse the operator's request?

>> when we talked to him later, he's like i wasn't going to touch her, i didn't want my dna on her. i knew i'm going to be the first suspect. i found her." and he's, like, "i do not wanna be involved in this." >> reporter: he was right. police would look at him and his story closely. as well as someone else who was there with him. that day, his 14-year-old son, gerald junior. >> reporter: at police headquarters, the boy was questioned while his mother sat with detectives. >> we opened the back gate and we went to the pool area. and we noticed her two sandals was in the pool. and we seen her lying on the bottom of the pool. just laying there. >> who saw her first? >> my daddy. >> reporter: during a break in the interview, the boy started to cry, his mother telling him to calm down, police had to do their job. >> what you crying for little gerald? >> i be scared. >> well, ain't nothing, you can't -- you can't do nothing about that. you were one of the ones that was there. >> reporter: as for his father,

gerald gardner, some people were saying he did more than just work for samira. >> we interviewed a couple people about a relationship with them. some people suspected it. gerald swears up and down. he goes, "absolutely not. never." >> were they friends? >> they were friends. he'd do anything she needed. >> reporter: were father and son telling them everything? maybe they'd find out from the security tapes. the frasch's place was in a gated community. so there was arrival and departure video. and that's how the detectives confirmed that the handyman and his son arrived at 10:51 a.m., ten minutes before phoning 911. >> reporter: so could the gardeners have done something terrible in so short a time and then sounded the way gardner sr. did on the 911 call? >> he made some statements

though on the 911 call that i believe sound very credible and genuine, and he was very adamant that he was worried about the welfare of the children as well. >> reporter: gerald gardner and son, they decided, did not kill samira. so who did? the one person they wanted to ask of course was adam frasch. except they couldn't find him. adam and the two little girls were apparently away, somewhere. but there was a friend who might know where. a friend who, the detectives discovered, did not like the former french model now lying cold and dead in the morgue. not one tiny bit. >> reporter: and this friend didn't care who knew it, including the police. to our fellow americans in puerto rico, we may be separated by an ocean but we are united. ♪

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tallahassee, a man named kendall lindsey, got a phone call. got a phone call. >> a friend of mine called me, and told me that his exact words were, samira was on the other side. >> samira's on the other side of what? >> that's what i said, like, what you mean. i said, she's dead? he said, yeah, man, said, they found her at the bottom of the pool, and i said, no, you got to be kidding. >> reporter: kendall confirmed it through a friend on the

police force, and then he steeled himself for the call he knew he had to make. kendall always called adam doc. >> i immediately called doc, he picked up, and i told him what i heard, and i told him, yeah, she was found dead in the pool, and he took it quiet, and i imagine he was crying cause his daughter said, daddy, why are you crying? >> in the background you heard this? >> i heard it. he -- he must have had his daughter in his arms or something. >> reporter: adam told kendall he was at their beach house in panama city, nearly three hours away. he told him he took the kids for the weekend so samira could rest. >> and i told him, i said, just bring the kids here. just bring them here, you need to come and find out what's going on, and he said he was on the way. >> reporter: soon after he shared the news with adam about his wife, kendall got another phone call, his police contact. he needed some help. >> my police friend asked me, do i know where he was, and i said, yeah, and he said, well, where was he? i said, he was in panama city, his beach house in panama city, but he's on the way here. >> reporter: with adam headed back to tallahassee, the officer asked kendall for another favor. >> he said, well, i got a detective buddy want to ask you some questions. are you at home?

i said, yeah. i'm at home. he can come on out. within 30 minutes, i had a detective at my door asking me >> reporter: kendall told the detectives his relationship with adam bordered on brotherhood. kendall is a car dealer, and adam had a thing for collecting cars. >> maserati, ferraris, some very nice mustangs, top-of-the-line mercedes, two-door coupes, convertibles, you name it. >> in fact, adam owned 80 cars at least, maybe 100. so at first it was a business relationship, but soon they were fast friends. they went to games together, shot pool, traveled to miami, orlando, and vegas, they especially liked vegas. >> go to casinos and stuff like that, just traveled a lot. >> reporter: at the casinos, adam played in texas hold 'em poker tournaments, and kendall kept an eye on him because adam liked carrying big wads of cash, and flaunted his expensive watches and jewelry. >> did you find yourself kind of becoming his protector, his -- >> well -- >> you watched out for him? >> like we'd go to a casino,

he'll have jewelry on, and flashing like a superstar. >> you got all type of guys that are looking at this stuff, and i talked to him all the time, but it didn't matter to him. he was just naive to it. >> reporter: then the detectives asked, how did kendall feel about samira? >> he said, you like her? i said, no, i didn't like her at all. >> you didn't like her. >> i didn't like -- >> and you didn't make any secret of it. >> right, and i told him that. >> reporter: samira didn't like her husband spending so much time with kendall, traveling with him, going to casinos. kendall told adam, "don't let your wife dictate your friendships." >> we continued our friendship, yeah, under the radar from her. she realized that i was the one that's encouraging him to stand up for yourself. >> but he wouldn't say to her, look, he's my friend, i'm going to see him whether you like it or not? >> no way. no way. >> reporter: kendall said he tried to tell the detective all that, but then it dawned on him, he, kendall, was a suspect. >> when he started asking me

where was i last night? that's when i started thinking, well, do i need a lawyer here? >> reporter: police asked him for his phone, and if he'd go to the sheriff's office to take a dna test. questions continued there for hours. >> so, obviously you know why you're here. >> yeah. >> reporter: hardly a surprise. >> don't think that i'm not aware that i'm probably a suspect as well and i understand that. that nature of that -- how i feel about samira, and everybody knew it. >> reporter: kendall told the detective about the time he stepped between adam and samira during an argument, mostly to protect adam. samira wasn't happy. >> i said if you hit me, i'll knock you through that window. those were my exact words to her. i said, i will knock you through that window. >> reporter: and then there was kendall's last conversation with samira the night before she was found murdered. kendall said it started over a misunderstanding and then escalated when samira decided that he'd stolen some clothes

that had been left in one of adam's cars. heated words. expletives exchanged. >> she lit into me, you know [ bleep ]. you know where my clothes are [ bleep ]. bring my clothes back, and all that kind of [ bleep ]. so i said, yeah. i burned them, and then i hung up, just like that. >> reporter: and then kendall said something -- said something he maybe shouldn't have said. >> and i joked about this once. i said, if it were me, they wouldn't have to be looking for the killer because my hands would be still wrapped around her neck like that right there, and that's the truth. >> reporter: did he just say that about his best friends wife found dead in a pool? now that got the detective's attention. time, they decided, to take a hard look at this guy's alibi. did he have one? >> coming up, inside the jaw dropping world of adam and samira frasch. >> a lot of marble, gold, a lot

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detective tony geraldi, a lot o friend kendall lindsay had just made an astonishing statement to detectives investigating the death of the doctor's wife, samira. kendell wasn't fond of samira. in fact the two had argued vehemently the night before she died. >> i joked about this once, i said, "if it were me, they wouldn't have to be looking for the killer because my hands would be still wrapped around her neck like that right there." and that's the truth. >> reporter: what a thing to say! even if it was a joke. so next question what, asked the detectives, was kendell up to the night before and the morning samira was found? >> i went hunting around about 5:30.

then i came home, still in my hunting gear. had to take a shower. both of my sons was there. >> okay. all right. so next morning, you're -- you're at the house. >> right. >> you don't go anywhere. >> nowhere. >> reporter: after breakfast, said kendall, his wife drove him to work. that was 11:20. samira was found at 11. so kendall had an alibi. detectives regrouped. and went back to the frasch house. let it talk to them. and talk it did. >> wow. it was, ah, different. different from most people's taste. >> detective girardi. >> a lot of -- a lot of

marble, a lot of gold, a lot of exotic animals that were stuffed. >> reporter: oh, wow. >> which was kind of new to us for executing a search warrant. >> reporter: but it wasn't just the over the top house. everything the detectives learned about the frasches practically screamed money. watches, jewelry, clothes, guns, motorcycles, a fleet of cars. >> approximately four -- four houses. a multitude of cars, anywhere from 80 to 100 -- high end vehicles, mercedes, bmws, hummers, corvettes, even a ferrari. >> reporter: boats? >> he did have a boat that we discovered. >> reporter: the investigators asked kendall lindsay and he told them, as he did us, that adam frasch would often buy a car when the two men were on the road and then he'd leave it behind. >> reporter: so he could go almost anywhere and there would be a car there that he owned. >> that's right. >> reporter: and they'd sit there. >> they'd sit there. he's all about collecting. i'd categorize doc as like a hoarder in a way -- >> reporter: a hoarder? >> yeah. i know it's a strong word, but

in a way, from what i witnessed, doc could never get enough of buying things. not just cars, a lot of -- a lot of nice things. >> reporter: so maybe buying things met some sort of psychological need? >> we'll get in my office and look for a car for couple o' -- of hours on the internet. it could be 11:00, 1:00 in the morning, and he sees it. if it's in miami, florida or nevada, we're on the plane or we're on the car and we're driving down that night to be there -- >> reporter: to buy it. >> to buy. and then soon as he buy that car, that rush is over. it's like, okay, "find me another car." >> reporter: the doctor liked to pay for these things. in fact, most things, in cash. like the time he took samira and jackie out to dinner. >> it's just i noticed he had money because when he paid the bill, he had that big stack of $100. i was like, "hmm" you know? >> reporter: and investigators quickly realized that samira seemed to share adam's penchant for buying things expensive

things. >> she ordered $1,500 pacifiers for the children. the chandeliers, the statues. i don't know that there's anything they wouldn't buy. >> reporter: so, they figured, maybe money was the glue in the frasch marriage, and sometimes, during rough patches, a peace offering. >> in text messages he would send a picture of $100 bills laid out on a bed in the shape of "i love you." >> reporter: and that was the effective way, i gather? >> it worked. >> reporter: dr. frasch, it seemed, was only too happy to spend lavishly so that a poor girl from madagascar could have her american dream. apparently, he could afford it.

>> was doing very well. >> reporter: how well was he doing? >> maybe one of the highest paid podiatrists in the state, or arguably the country. >> reporter: it was true. at the time, dr. frasch was one of the leading practitioners of a cutting edge skin graft procedure for diabetics called dermagraft. people poured into his clinics in southern georgia. many of them on medicare. so, in 2012, for example, a couple of years before samira died, the doctor received more than a million dollars in medicare payments. >> adam, when he worked, he worked. he'd start at 9:00 o'clock and work 'til whenever he got done. a lot of times it was 7:00 before he got done. >> reporter: mind you, said adam's father, his son may have come by those stacks of bills another way, too. at the gaming table. >> he got started in texas hold 'em poker. and when he got involved with something like that, he'd want to go till he was the best. >> reporter: didn't hoard his money, though. the investigators also discovered the doctor was

generous, shared his good fortune with friends and family. and patients, too. the reverend larry johnson was the doctor's patient first and then his friend. >> if you came through the door, he was goin' to treat you regardless, money or no money. >> if you needed $1,000, if you can show why you needed it, you got it with him, a stranger. >> reporter: could you just say, "give me $1,000" and he'd give it to you? >> no, no, it wasn't -- he wasn't an idiot, it was just that his heart was like, big. >> reporter: so. the detectives had questions for the doctor. many questions. but first they had to find him. >> announcer: coming up, the doctor, surfaces but his behavior only raises more questions. >> there was a lot of factor that made you look at adam, go what happened here? blood sugar better than the leading branded pill. (avo) and for people with type 2 diabetes treating cardiovascular disease, victoza® is now approved to lower the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. and while it isn't for weight loss, victoza® may help you lose some weight.

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>> reporter: hours after samira's body was discovered, investigators tracked down adam frasch at his beach house in panama city beach. kendall had already told adam the devastating news about samira, and then the cops arrived. >> it looked like he was packing up the vehicle, he already had the kids in the car. >> reporter: heading for home, he told the officers. instead, he was taken to the local sheriff's office. detectives drove from tallahassee to meet him there, and recorded their conversation on audiotape.

the doctor was a mess. >> [ bleep ] >> reporter: but the cops were all business. what, they asked, had adam frasch been doing the day before? errands, mostly, he told them, with samira and the babies. they were all together. then a pleasant lunch, and an even better evening. >> actually we made love in the living room, on the chair in the living room. >> when you say made love, you had sex? >> uh-huh. and -- and it -- it was -- you know, i don't like to get in that personal, kind of, it was one of the better times we had in a while.

>> reporter: and then adam told them samira asked him for a favor. >> she just said that she was really tired, exhausted, and she said, tomorrow i want a break, just take the babies and you guys go somewhere. i want to sleep in. >> reporter: so, come morning, said adam, he took the girls to the beach house. >> what time was it that you left? >> it was approximately 8 or so. >> and where was sam? >> she was in bed. >> reporter: the surveillance camera backed up adam's story. there's his car leaving golden eagle, but what struck the cops, conducting the interview, was how the doctor's emotions seemed, how to put it, disconnected from his tear ducts. investigator jason newlin wasn't in the room that night, but his colleagues were.

>> i remember the lieutenant at the sheriff's office telling adam you've sat here telling me how sorry you are, how bad you feel about your wife, and you've yet to shed a single tear. >> is that a true tell about whether somebody's really grief stricken or not? >> no -- there was a lot of other factors that made you look at adam and go, what happened here? >> other factors? well, there was, as investigators discovered, a whole different story about the frasches. very different. very tumultuous. in fact, they were in the midst of a divorce. which would be divorce number three for adam. so, yes, they were skeptical about adam's story. they told him so. >> we know the history. >> right. i understand. >> we know how things have, uh, taken place between the two of you. >> reporter: the history. it was complicated all right. for one thing, the doctor had a roving eye. >> infidelities. like what? >> he had -- we could say multiple affairs, multiple girlfriends. >> while he was with samira? >> yes. >> reporter: and said jackie watson, samira could not bear her husband's cheating.

>> i think it was the one millionth time he cheated on her. you know, it's just so much a human being can take. >> reporter: so the marriage churned along in turmoil. sometimes an angry wife would take it out on her husband as investigators discovered when they found this snippet of video on samira's phone. she's just locked him out of the car. >> sam, i'm sorry, sam. >> what did you find out about that marriage and about those two people at the heart of it? >> it was a marriage that lacked trust. it was verbal abuse. there was physical abuse. >> reporter: and then, six months before samira died, a particularly nasty fight. a call to the police, and samira was arrested for domestic battery. >> samira was a volatile person, would attack adam. we know there was a domestic history between the two. >> yeah. she was charged a time or two. >> she was charged and arrested for domestic violence. >> reporter: and that is how samira met annabelle dias, her attorney. >> when we got her out of jail, then we got served with an injunction. >> reporter: adam's attorney told the judge he'd had enough, and the judge granted the injunction. annabelle dias, on the way to becoming samira's friend now, thought that was awful. >> she cannot go back home, she cannot see her kids -- >> this is what the injunction

said? >> mm-hmm. >> didn't stay that way, mind you. after samira filed for divorce she managed to regain custody of the two little girls, and she and adam started living apart. >> was that breakup particularly painful for him? >> oh, man, he did everything he can to keep coming back. >> reporter: best friend kendell watched as the doctor tried to put the marriage back together again. >> he still bought her -- these cars for her. he still tried to buy her $1,000 dresses to buy her back. she would take every bit of it and still -- >> hold him at bay. >> yeah. >> reporter: so was there a motive in all that? a tumultuous marriage ending in violence? a husband scorned, still deeply in love with his volatile wife. maybe he finally snapped. struck back. that's what the investigators wondered as they sat in the interview room late that night. >> the best person in the world has a limit, ok?

and when they reach that limit they do things that they wouldn't ordinarily do or couldn't think of doing, and i think you've reached that limit. >> no, it's not true. >> reporter: the doctor insisted he wasn't there, didn't know what happened, but he thought it was most likely an accident. >> i'm worried that she may have tripped on the water hose that was out there or trying to chase bella around the pool and fell in. >> maybe, and maybe not. >> reporter: coming up, a bombshell from a neighbor who tells police what he saw just minutes before samira was found dead. >> he observed a black female standing outside of frasch's residence. >> reporter: was it samira, or possibly the killer? when "dateline" continues. it is also out of space. at lowe's, we have all the new samsung appliances

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>> siguiendo con nuestra of "i love you." >> reporter: but after she was found dead, investigators learned the marriage had problems. >> he had multiple girlfriends. >> i think it was the one millionth time he cheated on her. >> reporter: police found something else about dr. frasch suspicion, too. >> i remember the lieutenant, telling adam, you've sat here telling me how bad you feel about your wife, and you've yet to shed a single tear. >> reporter: but now, a neighbor is about to come forward with new information about the morning samira died. >> he said that he saw a black female standing outside of the frasch's residence. >> reporter: was it samira, or possibly the real killer? once again, keith morrison.

>> reporter: detectives had talked to adam frasch for nearly two hours, had listened when he said he wouldn't harm a hair on her head. not samira, the love of his life. but they weren't buying his accident story, didn't buy any of it. in fact, one detective said it sounded to him like it was a fatal attraction. >> you loved her to death, huh? >> that term is not appropriate for you to be saying that. >> reporter: police had heard enough. >> this interview's concluded at 1:37 a.m. >> reporter: they arrested adam frash, but not for his wife's murder. didn't have enough evidence for that. so they found another way. because adam and samira were in the middle of a divorce, and by court order he had no right to take the kids that morning, they had a reason to hold him in jail. >> he was arrested because he -- he had violated an agreement -- having custody of the children. >> and you can keep him in custody for a while that way? >> sure. he stayed in custody. we continued to work our --

death investigation. >> reporter: adam, in his jail clothes, was pale and needed a shave when we caught up with him. but he had a clear message -- he would never harm his wife. he loved samira from the night he met her in paris, almost ten years before. >> what did you see in her, and she in you? >> her beauty, for one. >> couldn't miss that. >> yeah. even though she didn't speak very good english, and i spoke no french, we just had a kind of a great, romantic time together. >> reporter: once they married and started a family, adam told us there wasn't a better mother on this earth. that hyrah.com clothing line? adam figured samira was probably driven by the deprivations of her own childhood. >> her intentions were that they have the opportunities that she didn't have. >> reporter: and the day adam got the call from best friend kendall with the awful news about samira is still fresh in his mind.

>> what was it like to hear? >> oh, it was just terrible. i mean, it just destroyed my world. i was just shocked and crying and broke down, my little girl's saying "daddy, why you crying" and stuff. >> reporter: but wait. if adam really was that loving husband, then what about all the other women? the stories of infidelity? didn't happen, he told us. not while he was living with samira. not until they separated and he thought his marriage was over. >> probably on to divorce number three, you know, and get out of this and just start on with my own life. so i started dating. >> and then realized -- >> but there weren't relationships all the way through your marriage with samira?

>> no. i never ever had -- >> because this is the allegation that's out there. >> no, that's not true. >> reporter: in fact, said adam, he and samira were trying to reconcile. during that last month, he'd been staying over at the house with her and the children. and they agreed to try again. she was going to call off the divorce, he said. >> she said she was sorry and that she wanted me back. >> how'd that feel? >> felt wonderful. i got her back, and she admitted it was very difficult in raising the two girls by herself. >> reporter: and their final night ended, he said, with them making love, nothing else. murder? wasn't possible, said adam. and before long, he made bail on the child custody case. and months passed. if prosecutors were ever to charge adam with samira's murder, they'd have to get around a problem. a big one. >> a neighbor of adam's came forward with some information. >> what'd he tell you? >> on the day that adam left, the morning of, he believed he observed a black female standing outside of the frasch's residence. >> reporter: he said she was tall and thin. >> who did he think it was? >> never really led on to say this is samira frasch.

he just said that he saw a black female standing outside of the frasch's residence. >> but he thought it probably was her? >> i think he did. >> yeah. what time? >> he said that he and his daughter were taking a walk in the neighborhood. and this was a time period about 20 minutes before gerald gardner had discovered her. >> wait a minute. that would be, like, 10:30, or 10:20, or something like that? >> correct. >> reporter: and he was very sure about the time. very sure. no earlier than 10:25 a.m. so was it samira? the detectives were baffled. having checked the security gate cameras, they knew adam had, as he told them, left the house with the two kids around 8:00 that morning. and if the woman the neighbor saw was samira, that meant she was still alive when adam left and for a couple hours after. >> and if that person was telling the truth or it was accurate, your guy couldn't have done the crime? >> that's correct. >> reporter: and then there was another possibility, that the

woman in the driveway wasn't samira at all, it was someone else entirely. and if that was true, the woman the neighbor saw, might have been the killer. >> so what did you do about it? >> for me, it was try to figure out who it is he saw. was he -- one, was he in the right driveway? two, could it have been somebody else? it was a tough -- tough situation. >> reporter: tough, yes. the cops had their work cut out for them now. how to track down the woman in the driveway. >> reporter: coming up, could she be someone the doctor knew? turns out he had no shortage of companionship: >> so tell me about these girlfriends. what kind of people were they? >> three of them were strippers. >> reporter: the investigation is about to get a lot more interesting. the most shocking result was that i'm 26% native american.

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>> reporter: detectives are paid to be skeptical. and in this case their suspicions lay like a wet blanket on adam frasch's explanations.

one in particular. adam saying he only dated other women after samira filed for divorce. well, nothing could be further from the truth, said the detectives. >> mr. frasch had multiple female acquaintances. several of which looked very similar in stature. >> yeah. so would these women be seen as suspects? >> i mean, they're persons of interest. i wouldn't necessarily put them in the suspect category, but if we were -- and throughout this investigation, everybody's a potential. >> reporter: and they could not ignore the possibility that one of those other women wanted to take samira's place in adam's life. that one of them could be the woman the neighbor saw in the driveway. >> so tell me about these girlfriends. what kind of people were they? >> three of them were strippers. >> so you actually found yourself kind of traveling around the state, going to strip clubs and tracking people down?

>> i did. i did. not -- not the best time. >> reporter: and for each one, a question. >> you been to tallahassee? when was the last time you were at tallahassee? >> reporter: shaquita was one of the women. she fit the description of the woman the neighbor saw in the driveway that morning. >> i've never met samira. but she did leave a voicemail on my phone. she was like, "call again it's going to be game over, okay? it's going to be game over. now that triggered me to, like, stay away. >> reporter: then there was erica. also a possible match for the mystery woman. >> let me ask you a question. you know anything about samira's death? >> no, sir. i swear on my life. i don't know anything about it. >> reporter: there was also a third woman. not one of the strippers. a woman whose story was a lot more complicated. her name -- martha moore. >> somewhere between the

engagement and the marriage, adam had a relationship with an individual named martha moore, and they had a child as well. >> awkward. >> slightly. >> reporter: when adam found out she was pregnant, he did the decent thing. >> put her up in a place, got her a car, always gave her money. >> reporter: samira found out about martha when she moved to florida, just before she married adam but she wasn't ahead with the wedding anyway. except, these things do have a way of worming themselves into a marriage. the issue didn't die. >> she made him take a dna -- to find out if it was his child or not. and then when he did and it was, then she really got upset. >> reporter: investigators naturally wanted to talk to martha. especially after they found out samira confronted her on the

phone a number of times after she found out about the baby. so what happened then? >> you guys had a few run-ins down the road, didn't ya? >> mm-hmm. i left them alone. i really didn't have any run-ins with her. only thing i do is meet adam once a month, pick my money up, and we go. >> and so she did. police let her go after the interview. like the other women, she had an alibi. which detectives would have to check out of course. but in the meantime, they had another way to get at the truth. one a bit more fool-proof. >> we had an unknown dna on a robe that came off the victim in the pool. >> reporter: samira's leopard print robe. if one of those women had thrown samira into the pool, she may have left a little of herself behind. newlin got dna samples from the women. >> we tried to eliminate all of them. >> reporter: no matches. not to the women. and not to the handyman. or his son. and not to adam's friend kendall.

all of them were cleared. investigators couldn't figure out who the woman in the driveway was. now they were back to square one. and they figured adam frasch was standing squarely in it. had put himself there when he claimed samira let him take the children to the beach house. >> i know she would never give the kids. this is for sure. >> reporter: and certainly not the way they were dressed. wasn't samira's style. >> the day that adam took the children to go to panama city to give samira a break, they were in pajamas. >> which simply wouldn't happen if she had anything to do with it? >> simply wouldn't happen. not at all. >> i see. >> reporter: open to interpretation, of course. like phone messages left by adam on samira's phone after his friend kendall told him she was dead. what were they to make of this? >> samira. please turn on your phone. and call me as soon as you get

this message. i'm starting to worry about you, baby. please call me back. >> he had called her throughout the day, leaving voicemails. "i'm getting worried about you. why aren't you answering your phone?" >> hmm. wouldn't that suggest more innocence than guilt? >> i believe it's just another attempt at an alibi for adam frasch. >> reporter: and, you know the story adam told of that last happy day with samira? well, security camera tapes from late that night told a very different story. first at an auto repair shop. adam trying to talk to her. samira, driving, backs up the car with the door open and him in it, like she doesn't seem to want any part of it. same kind of thing when they got home. adam tries to talk to her through the car door. she slams it on him. and if a lot of this wasn't hard evidence against adam, it did make for a pretty strong circumstantial case. or so prosecutor georgia cappleman believed. so she convened a grand jury and put the case to them. and, this was unusual, adam testified.

>> it didn't surprise me. he's a talker. he's, you know, smooth. he thinks he can talk his way out of things. >> reporter: not this time, apparently. adam was indicted for first degree murder. and so a jury would decide if, as one detective said, adam frasch loved his wife to death. >> reporter: coming up. damning testimony from an "ear witness". >> during the time that mr. frasch was on speakerphone, did he make any threats to harm mrs. frasch? >> he did. he said, "i will kill you." . >> reporter: when "dateline" continues. ah, it's so fresh. and it's going to last from wash to... ...wear for up to 12 weeks. right, freshness for weeks! unstopables by downy. for a fresh too feisty to quit. grooves in your sandwich? do you always put cheez-it of course! they're chips. chips...plus sandwich: equals the perfect lunch.

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>> reporter: adam frasch was in a world of trouble charged with killing his wife and facing the >> he would've had to have been seeing two patients simultaneously 24/7 to account for the amount of billing that he was doing.

so that was pretty flagrant. >> reporter: busy guy? >> yeah. >> reporter: the feds investigated but did not press charges. and then as frasch's trial date for murder approached, prosecutors offered him a deal, plead guilty to manslaughter and serve a maximum of 15 years in prison. adam said no. he was innocent. and wanted his day in court. >> reporter: adam, how are you feeling today? >> fine. >> reporter: and so almost three years after samira was found at the bottom of the family pool, her husband went on trial for murder. his father, alvin, was there. >> it's a bad situation for the whole family and for him, too. 'cause it destroyed his life. >> reporter: samira's family was thousands of miles away in madagascar and france. but she did have an advocate in court, a tough and experienced prosecutor. >> the cause of death as ruled

by the medical examiner was blunt-force trauma and drowning. >> he basically killed her twice. he hit her and caused such massive injuries that she probably would've died from that, very likely. but then threw her in the pool while she was still alive. >> who would do such a thing to this beautiful, young mother of two small girls? >> reporter: well, had to be adam, said the prosecutor. >> their history was probably the biggest clue that it was a homicide. >> reporter: yes. that history of excess, infidelity and conflict, which she said, led to a fatal confrontation at the swimming pool. the ugly scene was described by the handyman who discovered her body. >> there she was, laying in the pool.

>> and when you say "there she was," who was? >> miss frasch laying in the pool. >> reporter: and how could the jury be sure she didn't trip and fall by accident? here was the medical examiner -- >> do you have an opinion as to whether she could've tripped and bumped her head and fallen into the pool? >> i don't think that's what happened. these are significant impacts that i don't think she would generate herself by just falling. >> can you imagine a scenario where she would have hit both sides of her head and then managed to get into the pool? >> i can't. no. >> reporter: detective tony geraldi testified and told us that when he first met dr. frasch -- >> he had some -- some scratches, some significant marks that not a normal person would have. >> reporter: well, how'd he get them? did he tell you? >> so he told investigators some of the marks were from him and

his wife, samira, having sexual intercourse the night before, so they were love marks. >> reporter: my goodness. >> the specific one under his eye he shared with us that his ten month old child had scratched him. >> reporter: you're about to hear a recorded conversation. the prosecutor made sure the jury would hear the detectives' skepticism about those scratches. by playing recordings of the interrogation. >> the baby was playing around and she always kind of grabs at my eye and face and stuff. >> so you're trying to make me believe that a 10-month-old has nails enough to make that type of scratch on your face? >> yeah. >> reporter: the prosecutor argued that adam killed samira before leaving for the beach at 8 a.m. on the stand, the m.e. testified that the time of death was unknowable. >> there's no way of saying the exact time of death. or i should say, once she's placed in the pool. there's just no way to say. >> reporter: to prosecutor cappleman, not knowing when samira died simply meant dr. frasch could not be ruled out. he must have killed her before leaving the house at 8. and the way he drove off with the girls that morning? very suspicious.

>> really unusual that he would depart with those kids at 8:00 a.m. after getting in at midnight the night before. and to load up and pack up and take the kids for the first time ever off on a trip somewhere. >> reporter: and his wife happens to be discovered dead a few hours later. and after, said the prosecutor, the doctor sped away with the kids toward a woman named martha moore the "other woman" with whom he'd had a baby. martha was called to testify about a phone call she got from frasch that morning. >> reporter: what did he say on that call? >> he said, he was on his way to my house. >> reporter: why did you put martha moore on the stand? >> to establish that the defendant called her first. and he was headed in the direction of her home, i believe, to drop the kids off there. that was probably his intention. and then to flee. >> reporter: that was really only speculation, of course and martha wasn't home that morning anyway. but on the stand, she acknowledged it seemed unusual the girls would be alone with

adam. >> you know, they were going through the battle of divorce, and in the court orders, he shouldn't have had the kids. >> reporter: to prosecutor cappleman, it was a bad set of facts for adam, a scorned husband with ample time to commit murder before hastily fleeing the scene with kids who were not supposed to be in his care. >> mr. frasch, did they read you your miranda rights? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: cappleman played more than an hour of frasch speaking to investigators, homing in on his demeanor in the hours after samira's death. >> you done sat up here and broke down in your own way of crying, i don't know how many times and not one tear has dropped out of your eye yet. >> but i've already teared out for six hours here, sir. >> reporter: frasch spoke with several law enforcement officers in those early hours. lieutenant chad king was one of

them. >> reporter: bay county lieutenant chad king, he kind of put his hand over his face -- >> were you able to observe any actual if there were any actual tears? >> none that we saw, no. >> reporter: and then the prosecutor called a man who could comment directly on adam frasch's state of minority, a man name steven wilson, who said he helped samira set up a website celebrating her daughter. he recounted something he said he heard with his own ears less than two weeks before samira was killed. >> did you have an opportunity to overhear an argument between mr. and mrs. frasch? >> yes, on the phone. >> and during the time that mr. frasch was on speakerphone, did he make any threats to harm mrs. frasch? >> he did. >> and what did he say? >> he said, "i will kill you." >> reporter: "i will kill you." the words of a man who looked guilty at every turn, said the prosecutor. of course the evidence was

circumstantial, disputed. but there was one more player waiting in the wings. and what a story he would tell. >> announcer: coming up... that tale would lead investigators back to the frasch house and a dramatic -- >> reporter: bingo. >> yeah, "bingo." i literally looked at it for a minute. i was, like, "seriously? jardiance is proven to both significantly reduce the chance of dying from a cardiovascular event in adults who have type 2 diabetes and heart disease and lower your a1c. jardiance can cause serious side effects including dehydration. this may cause you to feel dizzy, faint, or lightheaded, or weak upon standing. ketoacidosis is a serious side effect that may be fatal. symptoms include nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, tiredness, and trouble breathing. stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of ketoacidosis or an allergic reaction. symptoms of an allergic reaction include rash, swelling, and difficulty breathing or swallowing.

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testigos que los fiscales odian jurisprudence condemned as often as it's used, the jailhouse snitch. the witness prosecutors hate to love, but this one had a story just too good to pass up. his name was folsom, yes, like the prison, and he told his keepers he had something to say about adam frasch. >> did they in fact spend some time in a jail cell together? >> they spent several months in a cell together. they did in top bunk, bottom bunk. >> reporter: prosecution investigator jason newlin talked to folsom in the county lockup. >> we got along with each other. we're both the same age. um, and we just hit it off real good. >> i believe the information he provided me was credible. >> reporter: and here was the story folsom said he got from dr. frasch -- on the day she

died, samira discovered her husband had been texting another woman and she, hurt and angry, lost her temper, started a fight and ended up at the bottom of the pool. >> reporter: now on day three of adam frasch's trial, dale folsom raised his right hand, swore to tell the truth, and told that story to the jury. >> she started a fight that night, kicked him in the back. >> folsom's testimony about the fight between adam and samira was vivid and rich with detail. >> he defended himself pretty much. he thought they were fighting, and he hit her in the head with, with a club. >> what happened? he hit her in the head? >> with a club, golf club. he said he didn't mean to kill

her. it just happened, and he got scared and ran and so put her in the pool and then ran. >> in a largely circumstantial case, here was an account of exactly what happened, allegedly from the killer himself. >> what defendant with any sense is going to tell somebody what happened when he hasn't gone on trial yet? >> they do it all the time. if they had any sense they wouldn't be defendants. >> well, i suppose there's that. >> you got nothing to do all day but stare at those four walls. i mean, you got to talk to somebody, right? >> yeah. >> if it's a piece of evidence, i'm going to put it on, and it's going to be up to the jury to decide whether he's credible or not. >> reporter: it was up to investigator newlin to vet

dale folsom's story, find evidence it was actually true. and he came up with something, came up with something almost too good to be true. newlin testified that when folsom was about to be released from jail, dr. frasch asked him to take care of something. something in his house. >> i'll never forget dale telling me. he said adam told him to get rid of the golf clubs any way, anyhow. throw them in a lake, throw them in a river. do not give them to anyone. just make them go away. make them go away. reporter: folsom said there was no mistaking what frasch meant, that he wanted him to get rid of those golf clubs which would include, of course, the one frasch said he used to hit samira, the murder weapon. >> did he tell you a specific golf club that needed to be gotten? >> yes, ma'am. a big club like a driver, big, fat one. >> reporter: and now in court, a real life perry mason moment. >> this is state's exhibit 121. >> reporter: investigator newlin took a big fat golf club out of

an evidence box so the jury could have a good look. >> this is the golf club. >> the one with the purple club head? >> yes, ma'am. >> reporter: how did newlin get that club? well, folsom never did make it to the house. so newlin got a search warrant, and went for a little look-around. >> i went into the master bedroom, and there's this golf club just sitting in the corner, and part of me laughed inside. >> bingo. >> yeah, bingo. >> it must've looked like a beautiful, big, fat piece of evidence that would help make the case into a slam dunk. >> i literally looked at it for a minute. i was like, seriously? when i actually went up to the golf club and photographed it, and collected it, there was cobwebs on it. it had been there for a little while. i mean, it wasn't overnight. >> reporter: this was one for the books; a jailhouse snitch supported by actual evidence, and cappleman had one more surprise. she called crime lab analyst and dna expert jo ellen brown. >> i received or was able to develop a complete dna profile from the club portion that hits

the ball, and that dna profile matches samira frasch, and the frequency of occurrence was one in 510 quintillion. >> reporter: and there it was. the story of samira frasch's murder, wrapped up for the jury in a tidy package, thanks to dale folsom. but, did the doctor really confess? this was, after all, still a story coming from a jailhouse snitch, and the golf club with samira's dna on it? maybe not quite so obvious after all. defense attorneys were about to take on dale folsom, and his story, and they couldn't wait. coming up -- the prosecution's timeline, on trial -- >> the absence of wrinkling of fingers or toes speaks to the likelihood that she has been immersed for a relatively short period of time. >> reporter: testimony that samira may have died later than the prosecutor contends. >> the greatest probability is she died after 8 a.m. >> reporter: in other words, after dr. frasch had left the house. when "dateline" continues. it's the number one prescribed biologic by dermatologists. more than 250,000 patients have chosen humira to fight their psoriasis. and they're not backing down. for most patients clearer skin is the proof. humira can lower your ability to fight infections including tuberculosis.

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>> reporter: and now it was the defense's turn. from the prosecution theory of how samira died, to the story of

lo que es inusual en un caso is it? because insurance paid out, right, which was very unusual in a case like this. >> i mean he had -- he had money. i mean you can see the pictures of his lifestyle. he had money. he had assets. >> reporter: the taylors started the defense with this moment, captured on video. february 22, 2014, 8 a.m. adam frasch and his daughters leaving their gated community. if samira was killed after this, adam didn't do it. >> there's a huge problem with their timeline. that's reasonable doubt. >> reporter: the timeline presented by the prosecution was, in fact, quite vague. the m.e. who did the autopsy testified it was impossible to say, really, how long samira had been in the pool before she was found. that was a worry for prosecutor georgia cappleman. >> usually we get a window of maybe two to five hours for a time of death.

so it's not a precise science, but we weren't even able to do that in this case. >> reporter: the defense aggressively leaped into the void, arguing the evidence could establish a time of death. >> i personally performed about 3,000 forensic autopsies. >> reporter: they brought in their own forensic pathologist, dr. jonathan arden. dr. arden focused on three things to show when samira died. first, rigor mortis had not set in. next, there was none of the telltale skin discoloration that occurs soon after death when blood settles due to gravity. >> what was the last factor? >> it was the wrinkling of the fingers and toes. >> finally, samira's fingertips and toes were not wrinkled when she was found, not even a little. >> reporter: the absence of any such wrinkling of fingers or toes speaks to the likelihood

that she has been immersed for a relatively short period of time. >> even if you take a shower or a bath or jump in a pool, sometimes within 20 or 30 minutes you got wrinkling of the fingers and the toes. >> even if you're dead? >> period. >> reporter: no rigor mortis. no settling of blood. no wrinkled skin. it all pointed to the same thing. >> in my opinion, she was dead for a relatively short time before she was discovered and removed from the water. >> would you say mrs. frasch died before or after 8 a.m.? >> i would say that the greatest probability is she died after 8 a.m. >> do we know exactly what happened? who knows? um, the state really wasn't even very specific with their theory. >> reporter: for the defense, this was a case of when, not what. >> it was after he left, therefore everything else is irrelevant. >> reporter: but there was more, after listening to the science, the jury heard from an eyewitness. >> decided to go for a little walk around our neighborhood. >> reporter: matt christiansen is the neighbor who said he just

happened to be walking past the frasch house that very morning. he was a mild mannered, measured witness, but his testimony was explosive. >> what did you observe? >> i saw a woman, african-american, tall, dark hair, thin. >> is there any doubt in your mind you saw a slender, tall, black woman loading something into a vehicle in that driveway? >> no. >> between 10:25 and 10:45 on the 22nd of february 2014? >> there is not. >> he was very specific on his time he and his daughter were walking by the house. >> reporter: when they showed him a photo of samira, christainsen couldn't say for sure that was the woman he'd seen. but if it was samira in her driveway around 10:30 that morning, it would give adam an air-tight alibi. >> he couldn't specifically

identify that person as ms. frasch, but everything else about that description fits. >> this was a big deal. and the prosecutors knew it. >> this was a credible person, right? >> yes,i think he was wrong. i don't think he was lying. >> of course, you -- >> but so -- >> -- think he's wrong. but he -- he thought he was right. >> he did. >> pretty certain of it? >> yes, he was. >> reporter: the neighbor had credibility, not a quality, said the defense, possessed by adam frash's cellmate, dale folsom, the jailhouse snitch. if a snitch is the witness the prosecutor hates to love, he's also a witness the defense loves to hate. >> we love snitches, don't we? tell me what you know about this particular one. >> well, he's a career criminal. started with his first convictions back in about 1990. >> reporter: in court, attorney taylor, the father, went right after folsom. he did not spare the rod.

>> it's my understanding you've got, was it four or 40 prior felony convictions? >> forty, four-zero. >> forty? >> yes, sir. >> do you have any pending charges? >> i have one. >> what is that pending charge? >> possession of methamphetamine. i've done almost every drug there is, sir. i've been a drug addict since i was 9 years old. so i've done them all just about. >> give me a break. this guy was outrageous. >> reporter: what was more, folsom had an arrangement with prosecutors. he was released from jail on probation in exchange for his testimony about frasch. taylor made sure the jury knew all about that. >> you'd do anything to stay out and keep yourself out of jail, isn't that true? >> most people would. >> mean anything to you to raise your right hand and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but truth, so help you god? >> of course it does. i have a degree in theology.

i went to bible college. i'm a christian. >> and that's what you do, you're a truthful guy, right? >> most of the time, i try to be. >> when you're writing bad checks, stealing from people, and doing drugs? that's all i have got, judge. >> reporter: the defense may have destroyed the messenger, but they still had to deal with his message, folsom's story about that golf club with samira's dna on it. completely meaningless, said taylor. that golf club belonged to samira. of course her dna would be on it. >> they say, well, she's got dna on it. anybody that plays golf knows if you don't have head covers, you pull your club out of the bag with your hands, and you grab the head. >> wasn't it blood and hair and things like that on that golf club? >> no. no, no, no. >> just touch dna? >> correct. correct. how coenient was that? >> reporter: so convenient, according to the defense, that it was downright suspicious. >> lo and behold, here comes folsom. he's got his story, and the law enforcement guys go out there, and what do they find? they find this magic golf club. planted evidence. no question in my mind. >> reporter: investigators emphaticly denied any wrongdoing over the golf club. but in the end, all that hoo-haw

about the club was quite possibly a total red herring. because? the state's own medical examiner testified that samira's injuries were not caused by any golf club. >> do you think that that purple golf club could have been responsible for the injuries that mrs. frasch received? >> i don't think so. the pattern that she had was more diffuse. >> and in your opinion, are the injuries more consistent with a fist than a golf club being the instrument used to inflict them? >> yes. >> reporter: so that was that. the state's case had taken some very big hits. so it was no time for grand gestures, like defendant testimony. >> you do not desire to testify; that is correct? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: dr. frasch remained mum, and it was with an air of confidence that the defense rested. >> judge, at this time the

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>> reporter: the trial of adam frasch was a closely contested affair. the verdict very much in the balance. clyde taylor iii would take his seat and let his father speak to the jury. >> he's one of those guys that thinks closing argument is where you win or lose a case. >> we don't convict people because a crime was horrible, we don't convict people because they have a lot of money. we don't convict people on speculation. >> reporter: taylor returned to the medical evidence and his argument that samira died after her husband left home. >> what proof do we have that

she was in the pool before 8 a.m.? no competent evidence of that. none. scientific evidence says no. the defendant has not been proven guilty in this case. >> it did check out. >> reporter: prosecutor georgia cappleman had the last word. >> all of the evidence points not to a mystery killer but to this defendant. this was a personal crime, and who had the motive to kill his woman? only one person. >> reporter: cappleman spoke to the evidence, but passions were not far from the surface. >> and as she lay there on the concrete fighting for her life, the man that she trusted to make

her dreams come true put her body in that pool. please render a verdict of guilty as charged. >> reporter: and then there was nothing left to do but wait. >> it's always troublesome when a jury goes out. it's a sick feeling until you get your answer. >> how worried was she? >> pretty worried. i mean, the neighbor and the time of death bothered her. >> reporter: both sides settled in for a long wait. but just 90 minutes into deliberations, word of a verdict. >> i thought they would be out for a while. and when they came back quick, i thought it was going to be good news. >> i thought just the opposite. well, i thought they'd be out for a while, but when they came back that quick, i figured it was bad news. >> reporter: as they all waited for the words. faces were taut. anxious. >> state of florida versus adam frasch.

we, the jury, find as follows: as to the indictment, the defendant is guilty of first degree murder. >> reporter: guilty. frasch stared blankly then dropped his head under the weight of the verdict. >> how did dr. frasch take it? >> hard. he was believing in the jury system. >> reporter: on the prosecution side, gratitude. >> i was really happy with the verdict. it was a culmination of a lotta -- lot of hard work. b >> reporter: but was that the final word? after the verdict, a surprise. before the judge delivered the

mandatory sentence, life in prison, no parole, cappleman read a letter from samira's mother, written in madagascar. this was not a typical victim impact statement. it included something that sounded a lot like evidence. >> according to samira, she had noticed the presence of someone prowling in their home nights before his death. >> reporter: a prowler? the jury never heard about any prowler. and, said defense attorney taylor, neither did he. >> that was absolutely stunning. and we were -- did she just read -- was there something -- what are they talking about? because the defense never had been advised that there may have been a prowler in the home

within a day or two of the death. it has to be disclosed under the law. and now it's one of the issues that's up on appeal. >> reporter: prosecutor c cappleman countered that she didn't withhold anything. the letter was written in french and sent for translation. she only learned what was in it when she read the letter aloud in court. as for adam frasch, he now resides at the blackwater river correctional facility in milton, florida. >> when you understood that you were going away for life, what is that like? >> i pray to god, you know, you -- say you won't give anything more than i can handle. but this is almost more than i can handle. >> so let me just ask you directly. did you kill your wife? >> no. i never harmed my wife.

i never even -- you know, i loved her more than anything in this world. >> you loved a lot of women in your life. >> not really. she was my first true love. >> love of your life? >> love of my life. >> reporter: frasch is unwavering about that, a convicted murderer who's still saying he is innocent and misunderstood. >> i'm not saying i'm perfect. but you know, i've tried to live a good life and help people and enjoy life. >> reporter: those two little girls who samira pampered and promoted and loved are well. they live with adam frasch's brother in a state far away. an existence untroubled by conflict and no longer over-the-top. >> her children are her legacy and i hope one day to have the opportunity to tell them that they had a great mother. >> reporter: samira's youtube videos are still online, of course. unkillable artifacts of a broken dream, and a life that was passionate, and beguiling, and brief. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline" we'll see you again next friday right now at 11:

inside the inferno. where you at? >> right now at 11:00 we take you inside the inferno. body cams that show you the extreme danger firefighters are facing as winds pick up and further fan the flames. i'm raj mathai, jessica aguirre is off. we have several late night developments let's begin with the heart pounding video. knewly released