>> that's 61. that's a snazzy belt. >> thank you. >> yeah, congrats on your wrestling championship. >> how funny does that look? tina fey and amy poehler reuniting on the big screen playing sisters on the new comedy out december 1 1th. i'm s s in. >> i can't wait. i want to be part of that wolf pack. >> i want to be part of that wolf pack. >> guess who was in our very own michael yo. >> don't be jealous. i am the man, that's all i will say. it started 20 years ago in chicago. they will host "snl" together. suggest a lot of signature tamy, that's what i like it call them, schedule. bring back mom jeans. mom jeans part 2. >> there needs to be a mom jeans 2. >> mom jeans >> i will say, when i look at mom jeans now and the jokey padding that we were wearing in mom jeans, i'm like, that's my goal weight now. i want to get back to my joke mom jeans body.

big nice butt look is real in right now. >> it is. >> even mya sings the mom jeans song. >> and my husband wrote the song. >> that's right. >> and they bought their house with the mom jeans money. >> went platinum. >> yes. single platinum. >> hey girls. >> hey. >> now, in the movie, y'all do this big dance. choreographed. who is the better dancer in real life, though? >> i got to tell you something. if you're a real dancer, you would never answer that question. because every dancer brings something different to a dance. you can't understand because you're an professional dancer. >> i'm not. i'm not. >> thank you for saying that. >> but you are. >> life is like a dance. >> you know? >> yes. >> and i'm two beats behind. all the time. >> okay. i want to bring in a paddle. play a gameme with you guys. >> bring in a paddle sounds weird.

since you've known each other for over 20 years, who is the first to apologize? >> we don't fight. >> people want us to fight. >> that's the question we get. >> really? >> we have the paddle so listen now. >> we have the paddles now, okay? >> sorry. >> this whole two days of friends, everybody is like, what do you fight about? >> i'm like, the same thing that seth rogen and james franco fight about. nothing. >> everyone wants to know, what do you fight about? >> nothing. >> the question is, who is s e first to apologize? >> nobody. not how we roll. >> we don't fight because we know we won't apologize. >> who do you think was the first to kiss a boy? >> really? >> yeah. >> why are you so positive about that? >> i just know the facts. >> all right. who is the first person to get a hickey then? >> oh. >> get a hickey. >> ohyeah. >> no. >> no. >> excuse me. >> get a hickey? what about you? when did you get your hickey?

>> is it? >> get a hickey. >> okay. >> let's talk about this. >> we have the paddles. >> it is kind of sexy what you're doing there. >> i'm glad you like it. >> like it in l le five second. >> love the movie these ladies are so funny and guys, let me give you a little hint here. it is a great date night movie, too. there you go. >> all right. we're going. >> thank you, buddy. >> coming up, christie brinkley crasas sophia's honeymoon in and will there be another video iconic moment? >> to feel this special... you need to eat this special. i love it kellogg's special k... ...made with whole grains and fiber ...to help a body thrive. i love it folic acid and vitamin d... .to make a body feel this good. start t ur day with 150 nourishing calories.

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national t >> ts feels great. well, are you gonna go for it? >> don't do it, clark. >> christie brinkley was every man's fantasy in 1983's "vacation" and she is still just as sexy as 61. >> everyone is so in love with this up town girl. her latest bikini post blowing up the internet right now is one of the reasons why. >> i snapped a picture and apparently it got a little bit of attention.

your best. >> christie's best on full bikini display. viral swimsuit snapped while on thanksgiving holiday in turks and caicos with her kids, jack and sailor. >> being a mom is the number one reason that i want to eat right and be healthy and exercise. because i want to be able to do things with my kids. >> and one of those things involved hanging out with newly wood sophia and joe on their honeymoon. >> we had thanksgiving dinner with them. absolutely beautiful. and she is just as charming as she is on "modern family." >> oh, i should send a picture of her in a bikini. >> sophia is so funny and so gorgeous. i was so excited to meet them. >> we were with a covered up christie on the observatory on the empire state building in new

this super model working it in a wiwier white mini and sexy boots having her own marilyn monroe moment. >> we had like a little minih hurricane up there. i think it was working for us. >> looking good and feeling good. reportedly been in a romance with j jn cougar mel an camp since september. so could that mean this uptown girl could reprize her role this time as john's ultimate video vixen? >> would i do a music video again? of course i would. >> until then, brinkley is helping smile traingive a smile get a smile campaign. >> 1, 2, 3. >> lighting the empire state building in smile colors, blue and red. the charity helps raise funds and awareness for children with

>> we all know the power after smile. it's amazing. >> that's the thing about christie, she has a big heart. that's why she wil always be a timeless beauty. >> timeless and classic. and speaking of, and having a big heart, dolly parton. she is bringing her fascinating life story to prime time. you are still living in all of the dolly magic. >> glitter and rainbows and magic and unicorns and butterfly possess. that's what happens when you're in the presence of a legend. her movie, "coat of many colors" premiers. >> it is going to be your 50th wedding anniversary. >> in may. >> are you going on an rv trip like you do? >> we're get marg rid again. we're getting in our rv and take a honeymoon.

the knit or something like that. so yeah, 50 years is a long time in this business. stay began. don't spend any time together. just stay away. then you're glad to see each other. >> there is no one that says it like it is more than the legendary dolly parton. wearing her ensemble, dolly had herlittle sister, stella, by her side. with "coat of many colors", starring jennifered in nettles, and rick schroeder. >> you are dressed in your dress of many colors. but this is based on something that was hararin your life. >> we werereoor people b b everybody back there was poor. but there is a particular story about a little ragged coat momma made. and it is really more after philosophy than anything. an anti-bullying song but also a movie about faith and family and how love can bring you together. >> i want to know about her as the little one.

>he was hyper active.e. >> i was just active. do you have to say hyper? >> she said, if we had ritalin back then, momma would have had me on it. but i was just an excitable child. i just was full of life and full of passion. >> i haha to a a you this big music news. you're going to "the voice." the biggest music television show to -entor not one, not one teen, but all of the contestants. >> well first of all, i love the show. i love what it stands for. i love that they don't have to see you to know you're talented. so we thought, good on "the voice." that's at ast 12 million, 15 million people that watch that all the time. >> she is so refreshing. anyone that comes in contact with dolly, knows that she has this way of making everyone feel important and special. >> you were special, kelsey. thank you very much. >> bring back some of that dolly magic to share with us, the way. c i brought in some protein to get us moving.

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i'm lonely at times. >> kate gosselin's 8 ready for mom ready to find a date. >> can we rewind and stay over. >> is she standidi in her own way. >> i think my obstacles might be mental. >> eva longoria. >> i feel like the reigns have been taken off.

>> that's monday on the insider. >> travel consideration provided by -- before we get out of here, there were many pop culture moments that stood out there year. amy schumer's girl you don't need make-up. >> viola davis's emmy moment and hillary clinton running for president. >> now the toy company goldy locks is paying tribute. fast forward in 2015. here it is in case you missed it. baby i'm worth it

uh-huh uh-huh i'm worth it i'm worth it >> that is so -- >> amazing, right? >> oh, my god, i want it pinch these little girls. it is little sophia grace from the ellen degeneres shoho >> how cute is she.

>> i'm getting ready to leave the house, and the phone rings, you could see the area where heidi was. i was lost for words. just doesn't make sense. >> a vibrant young woman stalked by a killer. >> i cringe every tomb i think about it. >> found dead by her boyfriend. >> my brother was a mess. was devastated. >> the most ominous clue -- >> on the wall to the left where heidi's body was, was a n nber one, she's number one, get ready. >> right. >> here comes trouble? >> exactly. >> it wasn't a break-in. the one doughswindows, door nothing was broken. did the killer have a key? >> the question was, how did the

>> a decade later, in a state 1500 miles awaying detectives fifilly found their answer. >> got dna hit. >> and more questions. >> we knew there was more to this story than some guy comes from colorado to commit a murder and go back home again. >> did someone closer to home want her dead? >> you're 99% sure that he had something to do with it, but there's no smoking gun. >> so many secrets still be revealed. >> and one more killer on the run. >> he knew what was in the house. he knew what he was doing. done get any where's than that there i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." here's dennis murphy with "indiscretion." >> she was ay bubbly woman in her early 20s, just looking for a clean break. heidi, a baltimore pool league

endured tough times but now shots were starting to drop. a steady job as a receptionist, a boyfriend she could take to meet the parents, talk even of a summer wedding in las vegas. and then, it was game over for heidi. just like that. someone h h madeheir way into her row house on a thursday night in april back in the year 2000, and killed her most brutal fashion. >> 911. >> my girlfriend's been murdered. >> what happened? was she shot? >> just -- she's cut. her throat's cut. >> any parent opens the dodo, 6:00 a.m., two cops standing there, you know that's not good. >> it was a murder case that wasn't going to be solved in a few hours or a woo-woo weeks or even a dozen years. the heidi murder i iestigation would g g stone cold until one

really, everything became cle and how strange and terrifying it all turned out to be. when donna and walter met at a church soesh talk of a family even preceded the engagementt ring. >> he used to scare theirls away by saying he wanted 12 children, i said, i always thought i wanted to have 12 children. he said, oh my god. >> they didn't have 12. but this devout roman catholic couple did raise their five in a baltimore, maryland suburb. heidi, the only girl in a sea of brothers. >> when i hear that, i think, poor heidi. >> yep. >> growing up with boys. >> we had friends that said, she must have been treated like a princess. i said, are you kidding me? she had to have been cuff as they were. >> kept them in their place. >> she wasn't treated like she

>> heidi grew up to be happy, athletic, healthy girlfriended by friend mz a noisy, loving family with strict rules. everyone at table for dinner, mass on sunday, no back talk. heidi's brothers, frank and harold, true your moms and known to wash out a naughty mouth with a bar of soap. >> i got it. >> true? >> they were very strict. definitely had a bar of soap from time to time. >> as she grew into her late teens, heidi starts to bristle under her parents' strict house rules. by 19, she, the next to youngest, became the first to leave the family nest. but the grass wasn't greener. right away, reality offered up a deadbeat roommate, and a succession of low-paying jobs that evaporated like the morning dew. yet she could count on girlfriends to buoy her up, one night with her bffs shooting

holding a cue stick, steven cook. >> shooting against one another and he noticed h hdi in the bar. >> steven cook's sister. >> the first night he went home and three days later they moved in. >> really fast. >> steven was five years older than heidi. his sister says he could be quiet and shy, but always wanted to be around heidi.i. >> they did everything together. i don't think that they really did much without each other. >> in 1998, steven and heidi moved to the rental townhouse in maryland. steven's dad, steve sr., says, after living together for nearly two years, the couple was talking aboutt taking the next step. >> it was your understanding, steve, they were going to get hitched? >> yes, in vegas. every time i talked to them that was their planned. it never changed. he loved her. >> timing seemed good. heidi just gotten a promotion at insurance company where she

she was finin 4 a 9:00 to 5:00er after years of tempt teching. >> she w getting started when things happened. >> strange things that ratted heidi. in april that year, someone was trying to break into their townhouse. there was chipping around a lock on their basement door. >> looked like the doors had been monkeyed with. >> yes. >> not on after that discovery of mischief on the locks a stranger knocked on the front door, saying he was forming a neighborhood block watch. he scared heidi so much, she told her friends, described the person as african-american with a tattoo. steven demanded new locks and keys from townhouse management. they were installed april 19, 2000. the next evening is when it happened. >> you sending somebody? >> yes, i am. >> just send somebody. >> stay with me, okay. >> an officer dispatched to theirrome saw heidi on the living room floor. her boyfriend leaned up against the wall, cradling her and

it appeared she had been strangled, her throat so severely slashed her blood dripped through to the basement. and there was something elel, something mansenesque, solled on the wall in red lipstick above heidi's body was the number one. >> when we come back was a killer keeping track of victims. >> she's number one, get ready, here comes trouble? >> exactly. >> and a possible suspect. >> i'm thinkingg maybe this is our guy. heidi's killed with a knife. holy night sleep in heavenly peace

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>> reporter: a remail police officer was the first on the awful scene. >> she's seeing steven cook holding heidi up against the wall, the wrapping -- he's got her wrapped in his arms. >> reporter: steven cook, heidi'i' live-in boyfriend of nearly two years, told the arriving officer that he came home that night only to fd an apparently lifeless heidi in their living room. nonetheless, he says he tried cpr. 8:58 p.m., he called 911. >> are you sending somebody? >> yes, they're on the way, sir. i want you to stay with me. >> no, no, i can stay with you. i've got to go with her. >> reporter: baltimore county homicide detectives al and gary arrived later that night. it appeared to them, heidi had

her throat had been deeply cut with something sharp-edged, probably a nigh. when you go to that scene, does it speak to you, explain itself what happened here? >> it was kind of an odd scene. in the living room of the house, there was no real furniture, to speak of. up on the wall to left of where heidi's body was, was a number one, written on the wall. so found that obviously to be odd. >> reporter: she's number one trouble? >> exactly. >> reporter: those first few hours left investigators wondering, was this the first signature of a budding serial killer, was there going to be a number two, or was it something else? >> the house was tossed, you know, ransacked. you've got a potential motive of burglary and you've got the other motive on the wall of serial murder. >> reporter: 20 miles away,

the door at their maryland hole, it was the police. >> they says you have a daughter, heidi. yes. you know, and i said, you know, what's the matter? you know, she's been in an accident? what's going on? he said, heidi's dead. >> it -- youou know, quite a shock. i started pinching myself, got to wake up from this dream, this has got to be a dream. >> i think our whole world changed. >> reporter: a short time late, steven's sister kim got a knock, too. >> i remember running to thehe bathroom and getetng sick and i was kind of -- i couldn't -- i couldn't do anything. >> reporter: heidi's boyfriend, steven, meanwhile, had been down at a police station the whole time being interviewed. officers snapped this picture, his clothes bloodied, he said, trying to perform cpr, and then cradling heidi's bleeding bodydy how much did you know about him or the victim at that point? >> not a lot. we knew they were in a relationship, the relationship was good. >> reporter: husbands and

but homicide investigators say, steven was cooperative. he told them how, after his shift ended at a local lowe's, he pickeded up h hdi from her job and the car they shared, 1994, red honda civic. it was 5:45 p.m. when he dropped her off at their home. it was, he said, the last time he saw her alive. the detectives put together a time line for the boyfriend, who run a bunch of errands after dropping heidi off. a stop at the atm, followed but a hairt, oil change at a jiffy lube, and then a swing by home depot, for a plumbing piece needed to repair his sister's sink that night. he had time stamp receipted for ver actually everything, and turned them over to the police. he's got a very solid ali.bi for his whereabouts. >> he does.

had been done. you know, she's strangled and r throat is slit. you know, that could happen in a matter of seconds. >> reporter: after about six hours of police questioning, steven went home. wreck. >> i could certainly tell my brother was just a mess. he was devastated. i could see in his face that he was, just l lking at him, he had been crying. >> reporter: in the days that followed, al meyer and other investigators felt a serial killer unlikely. the robbery gone batheory, too, no signs of a forced entry. but d nftna was fouou under heidi's fingernails, presumably from her killer. it was dashed when the sample turned out to be virtually useless. >> mixture of dan from the victim and from the suspect and technology, you couldn't separate it. >> reporter: but detective meyer

interested in finding. that suspicious neighborhood block watch person, the dark-skinned man with a tattoo who had scared heidi at her front door. one person of interest was a local butcher. terry gilliam worked with steven's sister the a safeway miles from heidi's house. >> i'm think, okay, he's african-american. i'm thinking maybe, this is our guy, butcher, heidi's killed with a knife. >> reporter: investigators theorized a connect through steven's sister. they're looking for somebody that comes to the door. did you ever go to heidi's door and knock on the dodo, saying yoyore from the block watat asciation. >> actually. i department know where heidi lived at, no, never knocked on her door. >> reporter: the cops wouldn't accept the ump abouter's denials and be done. other reasons to dig deeper, including irregularity on a time card. a time changed on one specific day. it's the day of the murder, one of the times handwritten in.

month, everything else machines. >> have him not being able to account for himself, the day of the murder. >> reporter: and there was something else, heidi herself had said the suspicious block watch person had a tattoo on his left arm. you have a tattoo on your arm? >> yes, i do. >> reporter: left arm in. >> yes. >> terry, let me ask you, did you kill heidi? >> definitely not. >> reporter: officials weren't done yet with the butcher. and heidi's boy trend, steven cook, remained a suspect, too, spite his receipt-heavy alibi. >> a lot of time starts to go by, doesn't it in. >> too much. >> reporter: at first, months go by. then years. more than a decade, no arrests. but there would be one advantage to the passage of time. breakthroughs in dna technology, and it finally gave police a suspect suspecec who it w w shocked everyone. coming up -- it's always the husband or the boyfriend, right?

this investigation was going. >> the headline here is steven

>> >> reporter: as the years rolled by, the heidi bernadzikowski murder case got colder and colder. detective al meyer was frustrated. he was promoted out of homicide but he never forgot the case. >> even when he was in another unit, he would come back up to the homicide unit and go through the file. >> never got squirreled away, huh? >> no, no. never. >> yeah, he never -- he never let it go. >> reporter: heidi's grieving family was trying to get on with their lives, remembering her on her birthday by eating her favorite shrimp alaledo, but family events were hardly the same. >> you couldn't fully enjoy these special occasions because you're always painfully aware that -- >> reporter: you had an empty chair. >> you got an empty chair, that she should be there and she's not there. >> reporter: heidi's boyfriend stephen cooke was trying to move on with his life as well.

landed a steady job with veterans affairs. >> reporter: he's got a normal life for the first time in a long while, huh? >> he does. things are looking pretty good for him. >> reporter: then, in 2011, 11 years after heidi's murder, meyer rejoined the homicide unit and, once again, cracked the file. this time, he and veteran baltimore county detective gary childs got an idea. >> dna technology had progressed, and we knew now that there's a possibility that heidi's fingernails may contain some physical evidence. >> reporter: so what's the thought, let's run it again, see what happens? >> yeah. the thought was to rubmit. >> reporter: to their surprise, tht criminal database spit out a match. >> we got a dna hit. i couldn't believe it. >> reporter: but the hit wasn't for anyone in heidi's known circle, even in her geography. it was a name completely off the radar from a state over 1,500 miles away.

colorado. >> reporter: colorado? >> and i'm, like, wow, that's not good. i'm hoping it's going to be somebody from baltimore, somebody that would be local. >> reporter: did that name mean anything in heidids circle, alexander bennett from colorado? >> never heard of him before. >> absolutely not. >> no. >> reporter: baffled detectives started the dig. they called the colorado authorities and learned bennett was an unlikely suspected killer. in his early years, he showed promise as an opera singer. performing recitals and winning a scholarship to the prestigious manhattan school of music. after moving back to colorado though, he'd gotten into some small-time trouble. but then he did something just plain crazy. >> he's a pretty talented guy, but he had some issues with the people he hung with and one of these issues was with a friend

>> reporter: in 2003, bennett and grant lewis had been arrested in a doozy of a scheme. they'd'dalled 911 and said that a friend of bennett's wanted to bomb the courthouse. but they went further, building a real bomb and planting it in his house. the bomb squad was dispatched, and that friend hauled down to the station for an interview. >> they're grilling him pretty hard because that's kind of a serious crime. one of the detectives ululmately le him listen to the 911 call and he recognizes grant lewis' voice. >> so it's not all muffled or disguised or -- >> no. no, it's just -- >> he said, that's -- >> -- that's grant lewis, i know him. >> yes. >> reporter: within days, lewis and bennett confessed to the whole thing. building the bomb, breaking into the house, even uploading bomb-related materials to the buddy's computer to ensure he'd be arrested. also that friend who bennett said beat him up wouldn't notice that they'd made off with his jeep. >> reporter: so it's all a hoax, this elaborate caper to plala an explplive device in order to get him out of the house so they can

>> yes. >> reporter: my word is hairbrained. what's yours? >> yeah. double harebrained. >> reporter: alexander bennett was sent to prison and required to give dna. now, years later, that dna was tying him to heidi's murder back east in maryland. for baltimore prosecutors garrett glennon and matt garrett glennon and matt breaut, the dna was an enticing lead but far from definitive proof. >> it was enough to say it looks like it came from him, you know? but we can't say it's definitively his. so there was more investigation to do. >> reporter: so, the detectives went to work, looking for another connection between lorado native alexander bennett and the maryland murder. all the usual computer searches failed, but when sergeant meyer had the maryland state police mine an offline database -- >> i get this phone call from ththtrooper and he tellslse, i've got alexander bennett, somebody running a wanted check on him march 30th of 2000.

>> in maryland. i'm thinking, holy cow. >> reporter: three weeks before heidi's murder, an officer had spotted alexander bennett walking down a baltimore highway. >> when a wanted check is run by a patrolman or an officer, that check remains in the computer forever. >> reporter: how important was that? >> incredibly important. >> reporter: detectives meyer and childs hopped a flight to denver. it was time to meet this alexander bennett. coming up -- >> a suspect's story, a surprise to even these experienced detectives. >> that's why -- it is strange.(children laughing) he's so cute!! what should we name him? (gasps) can we keep him? -please? mom, can we keep him? ahh! (both) pleaaaase? new pet? get scrubbing bubbles. kill 99.9% of germs, and destroy dirt and grime. you u ly need scrubbing bubbles

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in january 2012, two baltimore county detectives flew to denver, colorado. their mission -- to track down alexander bennett, the man whose dna had been tied to heidi bernadzikowski's murder 11 years after the fact. >> dna is a good piece of evidence, but we want to find out if alexander bennett is really a part of this. >> reporter: a day after their plane was wheels down, detective childs was face-to-face with their target. >> alexander, right? >> uh-huh. >> i'm gary childs. how you doing? >> reporter: at first, the detective kept it vague, trying to confirm that bennett had inde been in baltimore at the time of the murder, the year 2000. bennett said he was. he'd spent about a month on the streets there, after being ditched by some friends on their way to a concert. >> i gotta tell you that's strange. >> that's why -- it is strange. >> real strange. and then not to remember anybody you stayed with or hooked up with. >> reporter: then, the detective played his hand. laid out the reason for his visit. >> this girl's fingernails were taken at the time of her death. and under hehefingernails is

now there's no denying it. >> reporter: but bennett did have an explanation. and it had nothing to do with committing murder in a house. >> he remembers a confrontation that he had in a bus stop with a female in maryland, in baltimore, right around the time of the murder. >> i got kda scared because, um, you know, i was trying to fight back and i think i hurt her. i'm not sure. >> reporter: the detective didn't buy it. and thought he'd use bennett's story to his advantage. he presented bennett with several photographs, a technique police typically use to help identify c cminals. except this time, he was asking a potential killer to identify his victim. could bennett pick out the girl from his supposed fight? heidi's picture was included. >> he knows that he can't give this explanation about having this fight in the bus stopopnd pick some other girl. so our belief is that, if we show him these pictures, that he will pick her. and he does. >> it also, too, kind of looks like her.

crucial detail. remember the neighborhood block watch guy who frightened heidi? the one with the distinctive tattoo? >> do you have any tattoos on your left arm? >> yeah. >> can i see it? >> when i saw the tattoo on his arm and he picked heidi's picture out, i knew it was him. >> reporter: he was the block watch guy? >> he was the block watch guy. >> reporter: but they didn't havevenough evidence to bobo him. so they decided to call in bennett's buddy from that crazy bomb plot, grant lewis, to see what he knew. and lewis was nervous. >> sorry if i'm shaking. i was kind of shaken up. >> reporter: he was evasive about his friend's time in baltimore, but the detective didn't buy his story. then, because lewis had an outstanding warrant, the colorado authorities arrested him. the next day, detective childs kept pressing. >> i think you don't want to tell me certain things because you don't want to hurt a friend of yours. but what i'm trying to explain to you is nothing you say hurts him is because what's done is done.

grant lewis cracked. he divulged a drunken conversation the two had down by a river after bennett got back. >> he said, i hurt someone bad. and i looked over at him and i said, i don't want to know. and he said, i think someone's dead. i think k at's how he said it.t. i think someone's dead. and then he said, i knifed someone. >> reporter: that was it. corroboration. 12 years after heidi's murder, alexander bennett was charged. he was extradited to maryland to stand trial. heidi's brother frank got the news from their dad. >> it was another one of those things that just brings you to tears just because all that comes flooding back in. it's such a great feeling to feel like finally something's happened. >> reporter: stephen cooke's family was relieved as well. there'd been such a clcld of suspicion around him for so long that news that someone else had girlfriend's murder felt like >> i was just gosh, i was ecstatic. i was, wow, this is great. >> reporter: this is relief. >> yes.

>> finally. >> reporter: -- saying for years. it's not stephen cooke. >> i was so excited for my brbrher. i was just so happy. he can finally put this behind him. >> reporter: two years later, in march 2014, both stephen and heidi's families converged on the baltimore county courthouse for the start of alexander bennett's trial. grant lewis was headed there, too. he'd been flown in to teststy. he's going to be your star witness. >> he absolutely. >> reporter: but for detectives, the idea that bennett killed heidi all on his own had never made sense. they held out hope that bennett would come clean, but he maintained his innocence. en came the morning of jury selection. >> gary and i are out getting breakfast. and gary's phone goes off. and he looks down at it. he looks up at me. and he's like, alex wants to talk. and i'm, like, wow. here we go. >> reporter: a heart-to-heart with his mother had convinced bennett to spill everything. prosecutor garret glennon.

if he did this, it was timi to that jesus would forgive him. >> reporter: what they call a >> it appeared that way. >> reporter: you were >> it appeared that way. >> reporter: bennett confessed that he killed heidi. said. he had an accomplice. but the state's star witness. >> he and grant lewis, as in the idea of being contract murderers. >> reporter: grant lewis is the brains of this operation? >> yeah. it was a lag of brains. >> reporter: grant lewis had been sitting in a hotel room preparing to testify. now detectives brought him in and turned the tables on him. >> grant, you're in the middle of this thing. >> i am not in the middle of this thing. >> reporter: at first, lewis denied involvement, but as the detective rerealed details from alexander's confession, he started to open up. >> did you send him to baltimore? >> i didn't send him to baltimore, but i know more about this than i've said.

admitted to being involved in a murder for hire scam, but said bennett was never supposed to kill anyone. only to get the upfront money before turning the person who hired them over to the fbi. did you believe that story? >> not in the least. >> reporter: so now do you read grant lewis his rights? >> yes. and the cuffs went on. >> reporter: but there was still one major detail left -- who hired them to kill heidi? coming up -- >> reporter: what really happened the day heidi died? a first-person account from the killers. >> i was making sure that she was alive. i didn't know. that's when i hahathe knife. >> when "dateline" continues. phil! oh no... (under his breath) hey man! hey peter. (unenthusiastic) oh... ha ha ha! joanne? is that you? it's me... you don't look a day over . am i right? jingle jingle. if you're peter papa you stay young forever.

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