i'm caught up in a horrific story. i stayed in the shadow for years. the fear was terrible my life will never be the same. >> he dreamed of making itig. >> i remember him telling us i'm going to make millions of dollars and we're all going to be rich. >> in the oil fields of north dakota a glamorous couple said they could make his dreams come true. >> they looked like ken and barbie. perfectly white teeth and tan. >> everybody loves the fairy tale. >> but fairy tales don't end in murder. >> it is like somebody ambushed him. >> the only witness his wife with an unlikely story. >> a masked man shooting her husband and leaving her alive. i'm worried did she kill him herself? did she hire somebody? did she get one of the children

or was the answer in this town oozing with outlaws. >> they were willing to fight and kill each over it. >> an oil field gushing secrets and suspects. >> greed killed my dad. greed is what caused all of this. >> i trusted a sociopath. >> wild, isn't it, what can happen to a quite little prairie town when oil comes along. i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." here's keith morrison with "a dangerous man." pleasant landscapes of american privilege is a fine historic rise of land called the south hill. here, for 100 years, has been the home of spokane, washington's elite in their queen anne and craftsman mansions. peace lives here. quiet. rectitude. and certainly not the kind of story we're about to tell, the

men, dark plots and dames. >> i asked them. i said, "am i just the dumb blonde who missed it or did everyone miss it?" >> reporter: the one so many people missed before that dreadful event here in the wooded enclave of life's winners. >> he thought that god was blessing him and my mom. >> we thought we were walking on water. >> reporter: here they were, empty nesters. all alone in their grand house on the south hill, convinced that their successes, their six grown kids, their good life, were products of an unflinching trust in god. >> you know, he finally got out of the desert and he was going to get into the promised land. >> reporter: yes, the promised land. riches beyond imagining, as the not-so-dumb-blonde knew so well. >> it was a madhouse. it was the wild west. >> reporter: so maybe that's why the thing on the south hill wasn't going to stay here.

same. i'm sorry. >> reporter: it was wintertime when it happened. christmas season, 15th of december, 2013. a sunday evening, after church. >> 911, what are you reporting? >> quick, south garfield. there's been shots. a man just came in our house and shot my husband, i think. >> reporter: this is how our story began in an ugly splash of violence and terror. >>ha >> hurry. south garfield. hurry. >> say that slower. what are the numbers? >> if he hears me he's going to shoot me. >> reporter: but was this the beginning of the story? or the end? that was the evening spokane police detectives brian cestnik and mark burbridge were pulled into the strangest case of their careers. >> it was the most unique homicide i had investigated, and i knew that from the first moments of my involvement. >> really? you just knew?

drove over first to the address in the south hill. sort of place a homicide detective can go a whole career without visiting a single time. >> the house, it's in a very upper class neighborhood. >> yeah, the south hill, that's like, where you want to be in town, right? >> right, i mean, the street that it's on, i'd never been to before. there's just not -- >> why would you as a homicide detective? you're not going to go there, right? >> there's just not -- yeah, there's just not crime up there in general, so it was very odd. detective learned, belonged to a businessman named doug carlile and his wife of many years, elberta. first responders had arrived sometime earlier, put up their crime scene tape. cestnik walked into the house. >> it was just a weird scene all in all. this was december 15th. there's christmas music playing throughout the house as we're investigating. >> that would be bizarre. >> it was very bizarre. they're very religious people so

and then you have this horribly violent and gruesome murder with the body laying on the floor that you're investigating. it was a very, very odd scene. >> reporter: 63-year-old doug carlile was lying on the kitchen floor, clearly the victim of a close-range shooting. >> there was a lot of blood around the body. a lot of shell casings, a lot of bullets laying around. >> how badly was this person damaged? >> he'd been shot seven times. it was obviously a very brutal attack. it wasn't just a one time shot, and then the person ran out. >> clearly, somebody was making sure. >> correct. whoever had done this, we knew they wanted to make sure he didn't survive. >> reporter: and whatever had happened here didn't appear to have been motivated by burglary or robbery. the entire house was locked up tight. windows. doors. >> you know, he still had his wallet, he had his cell phone. walking throughout the house, everything was still in place. it hadn't been ransacked, nothing was missing that we could find.

911 in what sounded like a state of abject terror. arriving first responders had found her hiding in an upstairs closet. they took her downtown to talk to burbridge. >> elberta, my name is mark. i'm going to be the detective on this case. >> i'm not very happy. i wanted to see my husband. they wouldn't let me see him. >> reporter: the detective was ready to sympathize, of course, but his training, his instinct, his eye told him not yet. something looked a little off, here. >> what did you make of her? >> she's unique. and some of her responses threw up red flags. made me concerned about whether she was involved in this or not. >> what kind of responses? >> eh, she didn't care about the police investigation. all she cared about was hugging her husband and praying for him and wanted to pray over his body, and she was very upset that the patrol officers would not let her do that. >> i want my husband. >> there's nothing we can do for your husband right now. >> well i could've held him. i could've told him i loved him.

>> reporter: and then, when the detective asked what happened -- >> this is what happened. elberta told a story, and neither the telling nor the story made any sense at all. >> reporter: a man, murdered in his own home. his wife, with a detailed account of exactly what happened. should be helpful to police, right? >> it made me worry that she was making up the story. >> reporter: when we come back, why elberta's tale raised the eyebrows of investigators. >> rehearsed is a good word. >> it sounded that way to you? >> yes, it did.

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>> reporter: mark burbridge has seen a thing or two during his 28 years on the police force. has heard all the lies and dodges, and witnessed floods of phony tears. so he paid careful, experienced, attention when elberta carlile told him what happened that sunday evening in the house on the south hill. >> what happened tonight? >> we went to church. we went to a church function.

i don't know what happened. hell happened. a nightmare happened. that's what happened. >> reporter: and? elberta's story said detective burbridge just didn't add up. >> all of a sudden i hear, "it's okay, it's okay." and then i hear "back off back off back off." and when i heard the back off i saw, i looked and saw a man standing there in all black. >> her story was concerning, about a masked man wearing all black, coming into the house shooting her husband and leaving and leaving her alive. it made me worry that maybe she'd hired a hit man or maybe she was making up the story and she was involved in what happened. >> reporter: thing was the killer saw elberta. she came right out and said so they stared at each other -- soul to soul. so why would a hit-man leave an eyewitness alive? unless, she was in on it. >> i'm worried whether she had a motive. money, jealousy, a

him herself? did she hire somebody? did she get one of the children to do it? these are all my concerns. >> reporter: besides, said burbridge, he's seen many people caught by sudden violence and grief. and elberta was agitated, certainly, but -- to his practiced eye, her emotional reaction was somehow flat, as if practiced. it bothered him. >> how long had you been home? >> it happened instantly when we got home! it was like somebody ambushed him. >> reporter: the way she told her story about a masked man killing her husband of 42 years? >> it almost seemed like it was rehearsed, or like she thought about this and what could i say? >> "rehearsed" is a good word. >> it sounded that way to you? >> yes, it did. >> reporter: but you don't have to take it from the detective we were able to arrange an interview with elberta, too. >> my whole life was over as i knew it. >> reporter: elberta told us that when she and her husband returned from church that

gate of their property as usual. >> he goes, "i'll get the gate, you get the door." >> did everything look pretty much the same as when you left? >> no, no, it just didn't feel right. so i started to head up the stairs by this time, and yeah, i got all the way to the top of the stairs and i started down the hall when i heard muffled noises. i headed right back down the stairs. and i got down all the way to the bottom of the stairs, and i called out to doug and i said, "doug is somebody here and i looked to my leftand the man was standing right in front of the doorway and -- >> how far away from you? >> ten feet at the most. nine feet and i looked at him. and it was a man, all in black and he had a mask on. and he had a gun pointed to where i knew my husband was standing. >> so you couldn't see doug? you just saw this man?

he had a mask on. only thing i could see was his eyes and he looked at me. he never moved the gun. and he blinked three times. and i thought why is he blinking at me? but then -- >> i would think "why is that guy in my house holding a gun?" >> what i thought was oh my god, what do i do? he's gonna kill me before i get up the stairs and i pulled myself up the rail, up the stairs because my legs wouldn't work. and i was just starting down the hall when i heard multiple shots. >> did you realize right away >> oh absolutely. i knew my husband had to have been shot and so i thought, "i gotta hide." >> reporter: elberta ran toward a closet on the home's 2nd floor, she said, shut the door and called 9-1-1. >> please hurry, please hurry. oh my god he's gonna hear me. >> okay, stay on the line for me, okay? >> oh my god. somebody just shot my husband, i think. oh god hurry. find me. i'm

>> okay, i want you to stay on the line. >> do you remember what it felt like in there? what you felt like? >> oh sheer desperation, just sheer desperation. just this overwhelming need to go to my husband. i wanted to go to him. i wanted to comfort him. i wanted to tell him i loved him. i wanted to tell him it was gonna be okay. i wanted to pray for him. >> oh please hurry please just -- please. he's fired shots. six shots. he had a gun, and he was dressed in black. >> reporter: when the police arrived, they found elberta in the closet. >> i said, "i want to go to my husband." they said, "well they're working on him. and i said no i wanna go see him." please let me go to my husband and they said, "no you can't go down there." >> did you ever get to see him that night? >> no. no. >> reporter: now elberta found herself face to face with detective burbridge. trying to get him to believe a story about a masked killer who

left her alive to tell the tale. >> i mean that sounds a little made up almost, doesn't it? >> yes it does. it sounds hollywood. >> have you ever heard of a case where somebody laid eyes on a witness to him killing someone and didn't take any action? >> i've never had that happen. >> so you would've expected something? >> at least an attempt. >> reporter: but there was something in elberta's story that night that did make sense. before the murder, as she and doug drovech place." >> there was a van, kind of sitting like up against the curb. a white van. >> like it didn't belong there or something? >> yeah. >> reporter: a white van. as police canvassed the neighborhood after the murder, a witness across the street said she saw it too. >> she had come home around 5 o'clock that evening and noticed a white van parked in front of her house. and it was

nervous to the point she thought maybe someone was breaking in. >> i mean why would she be suspicious of a van? >> right. it was a van she'd never seen before and in that neighborhood, everyone knows everyone. >> reporter: question was what did the white van have to do with the murder of doug carlile? or the cops wondered with his wife elberta? >> reporter: coming up. a neighborhood security camera what tales would it tell? >> all you could really see is that it was a subject appeared to be a muscular build. wearing all black. upgrade season's here. s. i got my new iphone 7 from sprint. sprint? i'm hearing good things about the network. all the networks are great now. we're talking within a 1% difference in reliability of each other. and, sprint saves you 50% on most current national carrier rates. if you got 1% more haircut than me today, would you really pay twice as much? no i wouldn't. copy that! (vo) switch to sprint and get iphone 7. plus save 50% off most current national carrier rates. don't let 1% difference cost you twice as much.

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refinery. christine at 10 -- a former mexican cop wanted fo >> reporter: up here on spokane's tony south hill, beat cops and detectives fanned out around a neighborhood utterly

they're just sitting there, and i'm really freaked out. >> reporter: of course in many if not most neighborhoods in america, a parked white van might not attract a bit of

paranoid, but it's really bizarre that a van like that would be in this neighborhood. >> reporter: but this is the south hill after all, nondescript white vans don't just show up and hang around here. so the neighbor noticed, and then, doug carlile winds up murdered. >> we don't know if it was related or not, but it was obviously something that we considered immediately. >> reporter: and again, this being the south hill, another neighbor had the wherewithal to provide a special kind of help. >> a homeowner in the neighborhood had aeo and we picked up what we thought was the van about two hours before the murder. >> reporter: here it is, that video. and sure enough, a white van coming and going on the streets of the south hill that night. but did it have anything to do with the murder? and what about that man in black elberta said she saw? if he actually existed, hired killer or whatever, he must have waited somewhere around the

he could have killed doug carlile and then possibly escaped in that white van. no one saw anyone going out the front door, but what about back here, behind the house? they called in a tracking dog, stood back and watched. >> basically, the track went through some arborvida, over a little fence, through the nehb is a gate that was left open. and just before the gate, there was a puddle of water, and there was a good footprint in that puddle of water. and it was apparent that it was fairly recent. >> could be your guy. >> could be our guy. just beyond that, just outside the gate, there was what appeared to be a welding glove, lying in the leaves. >> a welding glove? >> a welding glove. so right away we thought, is this something that may have been dropped? but it was odd enough and in a place that we knew the suspect had run after the incident, that we ended up collecting it as evidence. >> not really knowing whether that had anything to do with

you know, in something like this where it's a complete whodunit, you know, you take everything and hope something ends up helping your case. >> reporter: they kept looking. so did the dog. just beyond where the welding glove was found was a small wooded area, and across the street, an elementary school. which meant maybe the school's security system could get them a picture of the guy. >> another detective was able to get that video almost immediately. >> reporter: and sure enough, when they looked at the video, >> we actually saw a suspect, and saw a path that he ran. >> could you tell who it was or very much about him? >> it was very grainy video. all you could really see is that it was a subject appeared to be a muscular build wearing all black. >> reporter: all black. he was hard to make out, but there he was in the video. the elusive man in black running toward a main road. when detective burbridge arrived and got a look at this -- >> i had done a lot of homicides, and at that point i

unrelated to our victim at all, or the person involved in this. and i went and found my lieutenant. i knew that this was going to be a very complicated investigation, and we needed a lot more manpower to get very fast on the case further down the road. >> reporter: and so in a matter of hours, detectives were called in from all over the department. time off was cancelled. so many questions to answer. what else did the neighbors see? what did that welding glove have and who was the man in black? and, a more basic question, was elberta carlile involved in a plot to kill her husband? coming up -- even elberta admits their marriage had seen its share of trouble. >> i did something drastic. i left him without his knowledge. >> take the kids with you?

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?you know that there are? ? >> reporter: as police combed the south hill looking for evidence and suspects in the murder of doug carlile, his wife >> reporter: but police 101, the victim's nearest and dearest often becomes prime suspect number one. and elberta, with her wild story, was certainly no exception. and then, detective burbridge

especially that video of the running man in black. >> immediately it became apparent to me that whoever did this had reconnoitered the scene and spent time planning this because of the very elaborate escape route. made me concerned that elberta was probably telling the truth about who was involved and what happened. >> reporter: when burbridge saw all that planning along with the videotape showing a man in black, he thought it far less likely elberta carlile was but in her brain, while the detectives kept going on about this question or that, two thoughts blocked out all else. her desire to see her husband, and an overwhelming need to tell her children what happened. >> i went to call them, and i couldn't even see the numbers. i couldn't, i was just frantic. and i said to the police, help me. and then i thought, wait you can't help me. you don't even know who i'm looking for.

lake, the phone rang at the home of shane carlile. >> i received a call from my mother. we were hanging ornaments on the christmas tree. she said that, just in a kind of screaming panic, "shane, your dad. your dad. he was shot six times." >> you called everybody? >> yeah. the thought hadn't even sank in yet. it was just a straight up, "okay, let's get to work. let's figure out what we have to do." i started contacting everybody, and i'd have to listen to everybody's cries and screams >> reporter: the carlile's eldest, melainee, was at her own daughter's ballet recital across the state near seattle. >> he goes, "dad's been shot." and i said, "what do you mean dad's been shot?" "dad has been killed." >> reporter: and so melainee greeted her daughters after the recital with the news about grampa. >> oh, they loved their grandpa. he was the greatest to them, to all three of them. they had a really good

>> reporter: it was a relationship that almost wasn't for any of them. doug and "bertie," as he liked to call her, were teenaged sweethearts, married young. and, as often happens, even as their family grew, their marriage shriveled. >> what happened? >> life happens. >> reporter: bertie found god. doug did not. >> the closer i got to the lord, it's like the further we got apart. >> reporter: uil clear to bertie, she won't go into details, that she and doug were doomed. unless? >> i did something drastic. i left him without his knowledge. >> did you take the kids with you? >> oh, of course. >> so you went off on your own with four kids? >> uh-huh. no job. no nothing. yeah. to a city i didn't know. >> reporter: to seattle, 350 miles from the little town in oregon where they lived back then.

while doug, well, here's the story according to bertie. he kept guns, said bertie, lots of them. and, lost and alone, he decided to use one on himself. as he crawled toward those guns, he said that he heard this horrid voice that said "he's mine!" and then he heard another voice that said, "no he's not. he belongs to me." and it was a thunderous, authoritative, shook-the-whole-room voice. and the next thing he knew he felt arms picking him up and putting him on the bed. >> he told you this? >> yes. he told me this months later. >> reporter: quite a story. the one that got doug saved and back with his family. after that, he started an excavation business. and as his kids grew up, six of them, many followed him. it became the family business.

he can talk you into something. >> a charmer? >> yeah, totally. a total charmer. >> what was his business philosophy? was he a numbers crunching guy, or was he a handshake guy? >> he was a handshake guy. he expected his word and a handshake was good. and he knew it was. he expected that of others. and that isn't always true. >> reporter: and there were setbacks. two bankruptcies. trouble with the irs. a string of failed businesses and fallings out with business partners who accused doug of being less than honest and of not paying his bills. >> how would doug react to those? >> he never gave up. and we always took care of what we owed. and we would move forward. >> reporter: and as he entered midlife, doug carlile seemed content doing deals while his sons shane and seth ran the business. >> he'd give the shirt off his back to anybody. >> he just had a huge heart.

huge heart. >> and taught you what you know? >> absolutely. every aspect of the business. every aspect of life. >> reporter: when the kids were grown, doug and bertie ended up in spokane to be near their favorite church, whose pastor preached the prosperity gospel. that is, the idea that god rewards true belief with financial success. and they certainly looked successful when they bought that sprawling house on the south hill. >> they wanted to get an older house like that because it's also always wanted all the family to come for all the holidays and spend it with them. >> so there's a bedroom for everybody. >> we all had our own room. it worked out pretty good. >> did it look to you, as if your dad and your mom were finally at the place where they were on the top of the hill? >> they were doing the best i ever saw them do. they were happy. they had got it. they'd figured it out. >> reporter: but now doug carlille was dead, and

still parked in the drive, elberta's new mercedes. doug's new pick-up. and inside, in doug's office, documents detailing the family's fortune. >> there was a lot of financial paperwork, and the one that struck me immediately there was loan paperwork that appeared mr. carlile had filled out for different businesses, and they had his net value at between six and 12 million depending on which piece of paper you looked . >> reporter: and then, there were the documents the detectives couldn't read. that is, the ones written in arabic. who was doug carlile? successful, god-fearing businessman? or what? coming up -- revelations, about the company he kept. >> they may have a reason to be pretty mad at him? >> our suspect list kept growing. >> reporter: even seasoned detectives are surprised.

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reporter: it was obvious now, no getting around it. spokane detectives burbridge and murdered while christmas music filled his big old house. >> it was almost a surreal -- surreal scene, you know? the house is decorated for christmas. christmas music playing. >> reporter: perhaps some answers would come from what

office. documents. half in english. half in arabic. and those they could read were very interesting indeed. >> there was pre-filled out paperwork promising y'know, 100 percent return on investment in 90 days if you'd invest in their company. >> reporter: so it appeared that your victim had been promising people huge returns on investment? >> correct. he had a whole binder with paperwork and it included names of people who had bought into this and invested. >> reporter: wait a minute. who offers a one hundred percent return so fast? was this for real? the names, reports and records all seemed to be related to one thing. >> we ended up finding a lot of paperwork related to the oil business in north dakota. >> reporter: the oil business? why that? doug carlile, remember, was an excavator, not an oil man. but of course a whole army of ambitious hard working men had

for a piece of the wealth dangled so enticingly by north dakota's oil fracking boom. thus were prairie towns on sudden steroids. and man camps bursting with pentup testosterone. by the time doug met his awful fate in december 2013, the wild black-gold rush around the bakken oil fields had peaked. but investors looking for a big payday wouldn't have known that yet. and with great wads of eager cash they chased a stake in what they hoped might be billions still in the ground. apparently doug carlile was one of them. according to his family, he got turned onto oil by a friend who knew a guy. >> he told us about north dakota. 'hey, it's boomin' there! you should go check things out and see what's happening. >> reporter: first, doug partnered in a trucking company that served north dakota's many oil rigs, an outfit called "blackstone," started by the guy his friend introduced him to. and then, opportunity knocked.

according to doug. >> the whole thing kinda fell into his lap. and i think he thought that this was his calling from god is move forward in that lease. >> reporter: an oil lease, that is. a lease that would give doug and any partners he could bring in the exclusive right to drill for oil on 640 acres of land on the mha indian reservation. the catch was that sort of opportunity doesn't come cheap. >> reporter: so you had to raise some money? >> oh yeah dollars. >> reporter: and to raise that, doug carlile tapped his friends around washington state. his business partners, even his kids! >> i put a hundred thousand dollars into it. and it wasn't for a return or anything it was to help him with his dream, to fulfill that. >> reporter: but the next step to fulfilling doug's dream was even more daunting. finding investors to pay for drilling as many as eight wells on the property. that price was much steeper.

the potential payoff was immense. and, doug firmly believed, god's will, a reward for his faith. >> we thought we were walking on water. y'know with this whole deal we thought, 'this is a miracle!' >> i remember him telling us, you know, i'm going to make millions of dollars. and this is going to be it. this is going to be for our family. and we're all going to be rich. >> we sat on the couch one day and he said, 'what would you do if you had all the money you could ever want?' i said so if we had this money then we would use it to serve the lord, to serve ministries, to serve people, our family. >> reporter: but now all those good intentions, all those dreams were gone. now detectives slogged through the paperwork on doug carlile's desk. those documents in arabic? turned out to be a scam a con man was trying to run on doug! but, doug, they could see, had

investors. promises he couldn't keep. and he must have known it. 100 percent return, practically overnight? impossible. >> meaning these were partners who had come in, and now he may owe them a tremendous amount of money. or they may have a reason to be pretty mad at him? >> our suspect list kept growing. >> reporter: how many partners did that guy have anyway? >> about ten that we could find. there may be more. >> reporter: detective burbridge began calling doug's partners. and discovered though most of them lived in or around washington any one of them who could be considered a person of interest was hundreds. or thousands of miles away from spokane the night doug was murdered. >> it concerned me greatly, i just don't believe in coincidences like that. >> reporter: what, it's a coincidence that they just happen to be not there? >> correct. >> reporter: in other words, they may have planned not to be there when something was going to happen? >> yes, yes, sir. >> reporter: where do ya go? i mean, you know, do ya know which one to target or which -- >> i was running this investigation eventually in about eight directions, trying to eliminate a lot of business partners seeing if mr. carlile

money? 'cause he had a lot of failed business dealings in his other businesses. and so, i had -- i had a lotta concerns. >> reporter: angry ex-business partners? angry current business partners? and what, if anything, did she have to do with it? >> yeah. i mean, obviously i didn't know at the time what he was doing. >> reporter: coming up. detectives learn about a charismatic couple knee-deep doug's oil venture. >> they looked like ken and barbie. >> and then investigators have finally have someone to question. >> we're going to start talking about some things honestly here. >> okay, that's fine. >> people are telling me you're

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? power! lord ? ? >> reporter: elberta carlile was inconsolable. >> reporter: elberta's eldest daughter melainee left her own family for awhile to stay with her mom, try to keep her sane. >> she would wake up screaming every single night, and there was nothing i could do besides

it was horrible. >> reporter: the very thing the carliles hoped would create wealth, security, happiness, had brought instead nothing but grief. but remember, this, the evidence suggested, was a hit job. somebody must have ordered doug's execution. so now the detectives tried to figure out who. >> did you guys have any disputes with anybody? >> yes. >> reporter: inevitable, probably, when high stakes investors go after a prize like an oil lease. and doug had been promising potential investors returns that, so far, just hadn't materialized. any number of partners might have felt they'd been taken for a ride. but who? elberta, who was no longer a suspect, offered a possibility. >> who did you have a dispute with? >> his name is james henrikson. >> reporter: james henrikson. he was the man who'd gotten doug interested in the oil play in the first place.

and ken of the oil patch. this guy worked for them. his name is rick arey. >> for lack of a better term, they stuck out like a couple of turds in a punchbowl. >> reporter: well, one way to put it. james met sarah at a drive through coffee stand. she was a barista. >> what was he like? >> very cool, calm, collected, you know, older man. good looking. he was fun and we'd always go out. he was nice. it was easy, you know, i never thought i'd ever marry him or go do business with him. >> reporter: but that's what she did. they moved to the oil patch in 2011, got married in minot, north dakota. and by 2013, he was the charismatic face of a major trucking operation called blackstone, and she was the blonde on his arm and a senior company official.

interested in the oil lease. it was a big operation, 100 trucks hauling water to and from oil fracking sites. very profitable. james let it be known that he was backed by a billion dollar trust fund. >> you know, i was like, this guy's a winner. >> a lot of money around? they were doing well? >> absolutely. >> was the company making money? >> it sure seemed like it. >> reporter: and james was tough. buff. all man. >> it'd be 20 degrees outside, everyone else has got a little shiver, he's like, standing there shivering. but he's making sure his arms are pumped up. >> he's a buff guy. >> yes. he wants you to see his guns. he's showing them off, and then there's, you know, their perfectly white teeth and their tans. they looked like ken and barbie. they didn't fit in at all. >> reporter: not a nickname sarah took to, mind you. >> no, i feel like i have somewhat of a brain. i don't want to just be called a barbie. >> well, you're living in a town of men? >> uh-huh.

>> -- jacked up on testosterone. >> oh, yeah. i mean, it was rough. i hated it. it was miserable. every day was a plan on how to get out. but -- >> with him? because -- >> well, yeah, i mean, we wanted to leave the oilfield, but he just saw so much opportunity and money. he's just like, "one day, we'll get there." >> reporter: doug carlile liked james and sarah's entrepreneurial style a lot. so when the chance to buy an oil lease came up, they went in on it together. james kicked in $600,000. remember. yet doug was saying he'd be taking over. there were disputes then over control and money, and accusations flew. in fact, said doug's son seth -- >> he basically said, "i'm concerned with what james is going to try to do." >> that was serious. >> and he said that "you know, if anything happens to me, you

partners, james henrikson was far, far away when doug was killed. 700 miles away in watford city, north dakota. detectives pinged his phone. confirmed it. and then something happened that seemed straight out of some noir detective novel. detective burbridge put out a plea for information from anybody who had done business with doug carlile. and what do you know, in walked a guy who could just as easily have been a murder suspect himself. >> thanks for coming down voluntarily today. >> reporter: his name was career criminal, gang member and sometime police informant. he'd served time in prison on manslaughter, drug and weapons charges. >> i had researched his criminal history and knew that he had a very significant criminal history, so i was concerned that he -- was he my hit man? or what was his involvement in this? >> reporter: delayo knew doug carlile. he also knew james henrikson. why was he here? to tell the cops, just in case they were wondering, that he

no. >> did you drive somebody up there to shoot doug? >> no. no. i had nothing to do with it. nothing. >> reporter: but burbridge had seen a thing or two. he pushed. >> we're going to start talking about some things honestly, here. >> okay, that's fine. >> and i'm going to have a heart-to-heart with you. >> okay, that's fine. that's fine. >> people are telling me you're the shooter. >> that is a hell no. you know what? that night i was in watford city, north dakota. >> you went after him pretty hard, right? actually accused him of murder? >> i did. >> how did he respond to that? >> he denied it when and didn't >> i did not think he was the guy. >> so why'd you do that? >> sometimes you do things, try to pressure people or put them under pressure to see their reaction or -- and he did not flinch. >> reporter: the detectives asked delayo to take a polygraph, and he did. >> did he pass the test? >> yes, he did. >> reporter: so, curious, certainly, but a real lead or a dead end. hard to know.

investigators kept working other leads, and christmas happened. sort of. >> it was really a rough christmas. i look back on pictures, we had smiles on our faces. but you weren't really smiling, and my mom, it was so hard to watch her because she wanted to give the grandkids gifts, but she was just like, almost like a zombie. you can't just not have christmas, you know, but nobody felt like it. >> reporter: but grief wasn't all the family was feeling. a debilitati too. whoever killed their patriarch might not be done. >> we armed ourselves. i spent about $10,000 on a security camera system around the house. we went out and bought an attack dog, a german shepherd. >> reporter: meanwhile, the detectives hit the road. and that's when they discovered something truly shocking. doug carlile wasn't the only victim of the weird goings on around the oil patch.

fingertips. >> i clicked on it and a flyer came up that basically said, "beware of these two people." >> reporter: and then, a potential suspect give cops the brush-off. >> he leaned out the door and slapped me on the shoulder, and then he shut the door. >> reporter: when dateline continues. come on, dad. ( ? ) ? they tell me i'm wrong ? o stand alongside my, my love ? ? whoa, talkin' 'bout my love ? ? talkin' 'bout my, my love ? you ready, dad? ? whoa-ooh ? ? ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh ? ? whoa-ooh ? i tried hard to quit smoking. but when we brought our daughter home, that was it. now i have nicoderm cq. the nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release technology helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. it's the best thing that ever happened to me.

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businessman doug carlile had been gunned down in his own home, the victim of a suspected hit in spokane, washington. his family is frightened, thinking someone out there might be after the rest of them. detectives are searching for a white van seen that night, but they are about to discover another murder, in another state, that could hold the key to the carlile case. here again is keith morrison.

have been a professional hit. burrbridge would need all the help he could get and now nearly 20 investigators chased the scattered clues. di you've need them all. >> i kept them busy. one detective's job was to get the white van. >> the van was unique enough that it was an after factory extended van they make for professions and once we identified the make and model we had the vans registered in spokane county and there were 75 of them. >> that possibly fit the description. >> yes, sir. >> every one of the vans had to be tracked down and the welding glove, the one found outside of the back gate, maybe the killer dropped it as he escaped or maybe it just happened to be

they swabbed it for dna any way. >> at my desk i got a hit on a ripoff report and i clicked on it and a flyer came up and said beware of these two people. >> what do you know, the ken and barbie of north dakota's oil patch james henriksen and his wife. >> they are known frauds, running fraud schemes in north dakota. don't do ain >> as detectives figured out by now, rivalries, disputes and grievances were ripe around that project which they were involved. the ripoff report was put out as a flyer in stores and businesses around the oil patch. it was pay back apparently. one particularly disgruntled partner. but then not everyone was a boy scout. james, for example, had a criminal record going back to

any way, when detective read the flyer his eye landed on a curious detail. one of james' employees, a man named k.c. clark had up and disappeared. >> i printed it off and handed it to mark and said what do you think of this? >> what did you think. >> the first time we heard of that name. >> who was k.c. clark? >> he was funny, well mannered. >> didn't take long to find out. k.c. was an old friend of james henrikson. he moved to the oil patch to work for henrikson at black stone. >> what did you do, the two of you? >> we'd go to the bar, chase the girls, do the normal things guys do during the boom. you know. >> rick and k.c. were superintendents for the trucking company which sara was helping to run. >> how were you involved.

off, payroll turned in on time to the accountant, a middlemanner the paperwork. >> hurp a minor partner, you put it that way. >> it was james' show for sure. people saw me all the time. >> time off was rare and they made secret plans to work for a rival trucking company. >> he was extremely worried about james finding out about this whole transition. >> on february 22nd, 2 dropped briefly in to black stone's headquarters and then was gone. so, did he leave in a huff, or was it something else? because nobody ever saw him again. >> he had been missing two years. >> james henrikson had to know

doug carlile. and so the two got in to a car and drove 700 miles to watford city. the home of james henrikson and his sara. >> we went to the side door. in the garage was a 2-year-old bentley, flat tires, almost laying on its belly. >> bentley, an almost new bentley? >> sara answered the door, very pleasant said detective i haves and went to get james. >> how did james greet you? did he tell you a story? did he sit you down for a cup of tea, what? >> he leaned out the door and slapped me on the shoulder and said too bad you drove all that way. my attorney told me not to talk to you. >> and you got nothing.

sglm rude reception tell you anything. >> he was a big man, bragged he was benching 500 pounds and looked like it. where wolf fangs when he reached out to belittle me. >> nothing to do but suck it up and drive 00 miles home again empty handhood. along the way the detective got a blood clot, nearly killed him. a month after the murder they have suspects, oh, yes. but nothing was coming together. >> coming up, timely a clue and it's a big one. >> the top of the paper is the word "glove." and she will get away on google earth. and who does it point to?

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dakota, suspicious but empty-handed, spokane detectives burbridge and cestnik got back to grunt work. cestnik still recovering from a near-fatal blood clot. >> i got ordered to go home i don't know how many times over the next couple days, but obviously, i wasn't going anywhere. >> reporter: and the case? well, they knew they had something but what, exactly? >> it was just one of those cases where we knew we were on the right track but we also knew

carliles, a lot of grief. elberta was a barely functioning mess. >> i didn't just lose my dad. i lost my mom too. because she wasn't the same person for a really long time. >> reporter: and adding insult doug's secrets were exposed for the whole world to see. that big house on the south hill? heavily mortgaged. the fancy cars? not paid for. the paperwork that claimed he was worth millions? a facade. doug carlile was flat broke. hadn't even bought life insurance. >> reporter: did you ever feel angry at all at doug for not providing more, like an insurance policy or something? >> no, not at all. because he was a very good provider all the days that he was alive. i really didn't believe in insurance policies like that. i believed in trusting the lord for our finances and that's what

just another casualty as the little army of detectives searched the neighborhood for clues. like, for example, the strange find that turned up on the killer's escape path. that weirdly out of place welding glove. they swabbed it for dna. on the off chance, really just a shot in the dark, that something in or on that glove might match a known person. like a felon, say whose dna would be stored in a data bank. and how about that. it did. >> reporter: what was the name >> reporter: have you ever heard that name before? >> i have never heard the name before. >> reporter: who was timothy suckow? >> a violent individual. been to prison for robbery. >> reporter: what did you think when you found this out? >> i thought this could be our guy. >> reporter: was he local? >> he was local. >> he was working at irs environmental, which is an asbestos removal company. >> reporter: they don't drive around in white vans by any chance, at irs, do they? >> i checked that list and lo and behold, i-r-s environmental and behold, irs environmental was one of the companies that owned a van that matched our van in the video!

what were the chances? timothy suckow must have been the musclar 'man in black,' seen on this video running for dear life toward the equally mysterious white van. they looked him up. he lived in the suburbs. a wife, kids. his house was 10 miles from the murder scene. >> we had the swat team sitting on him for about 12 hours waiting for him to move because we didn't wanna take him at his house, with the potential of firearms. >> reporter: but when suckow and an arrest. here, a few hours later, the police photographed suckow's many tattoos. >> mr. suckow is a very hardened, prison type individual. very large man. 275 pounds of solid muscle. >> we'll give you a few minutes, we got some paperwork to do and stuff like that to do. we'll let you know what's going on. >> reporter: when the interview began, detectives made no bones

>> today is a day to help yourself out. i didn't come to you by accident. okay? my killer left something up at the house, and your d-n-a is all over it. no joke. the van for work that you drive is on my video up there. >> you guys are scaring me now. >> you should be scared. you're looking at federal conspiracies to commit murder, fraud, and life in prison. >> [ bleep ] >> [ bleep ] yeah. >> yeah but do i need a lawyer before we do anything? >> probably be smart, huh? some serious accusations you're makin.' >> at this point we're probably beyond accusations. you're under arrest. >> ok. >> you can help yourself out. >> you can take me to jail and we'll iron this out in court because you guys are out of your tree. >> i'm not kidding you about having your dna! >> i'm not kidding you either

take it to court. >> reporter: timothy suckow was done talking. and? >> he just looked me in the eye and laid down his head and went to sleep. >> reporter: seriously? >> seriously. it's like a big emotional release to 'em that it's finally over. >> reporter: after that the detectives rounded up some search warrants for suckow's house and his car. >> in his car, we found a very significant piece of evidence. >> reporter: what was that? >> this piece of notebook paper with a list of items to be done. at the very top of the paper is the word "glove" with a question mark. and then, there's statements about wheel man and wing man, show getaway route on google earth, practice with pistol like that. >> reporter: that's almost like a confession right on a note pad, right? >> it -- >> reporter: who, what killer makes a list of to-do list of things to do? >> it was a to-do list of how to prepare to go do this murder. >> reporter: what did ya think when you saw that? >> it's almost hollywood-like. it was kinda shocking to find that. >> reporter: yeah. >> this is a month after the murder and we arrest who we believe is our shooter and he has a to-do kill list in his car. i mean you can't make this stuff up.

surveillance camera picked up a white van pulling up soon after the murder. suckow had to be their shooter. question was, who put him up to it, and why? suckow wouldn't tell them. refused to say a word. so then they got a search warrant for his phone. >> his contact list said, "james in nd." >> reporter: jackpot. >> jackpot. so that was the -- that was the first time we had ever connected him with henrikson. >> reporter: james and sarah arrive to become the ken and barbie of the oil patch and before long one man is missing another is dead. and the suspected hitman has james on speed-dial. and as for sarah there was a shock in store for her, too. >> reporter: i mean, emotionally difficult to deal with? >> oh, absolutely. i mean, it's ruined my life.

sarah's becomes suspicious about her husband. >> reporter: did you think at the time, "i wonder if james had something to do with this?" >> it seemed fishy to me. >> reporter: then she gets a call from the sheriff. >> he said, "you need to come to my office right this second." >> reporter: when dateline continues. the hype man. no, we said we wouldn't do it. i'm sorry, we were talking about savings. i liked his way. cha-ching! talking about getting that moneeeey! talking about getting that moneeeey! savings worth the hype. now that's progressive. savings worth the hype. trick-or-treat! awwww. i love candy! hershey's all time greats, thank you! everyone's favorite picks for halloween, $9.94. save money. live better. walmart. ?

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>> reporter: sometimes the best detective is named luck. a dropped welding glove leads to

>> reporter: it's an old story, of course. husband cheats on wife with a younger woman. even younger than sarah, who was only in her twenties. >> what was it like to hear that he was cheating on you in the first place? >> well, i mean, that was hurtful. but it was so off the wall, i just didn't believe it. wives before her, until the truth was impossible to avoid. >> what was that like to hear? >> oh, horrific. and especially when i found out with who. i just thought absolutely not. like, no way. >> wouldn't believe it? >> wouldn't believe it. i mean, she was like my little sister. >> reporter: this is the her, the young woman in the unpleasant little triangle. but she wasn't just some other

daughter of tex hall, the chief of the mha nation, on whose tribal land was the oil lease. the one james and doug carlile wanted so badly. peyton was 19. >> you knew her? >> uh-huh. yeah. >> yeah, i had family vacationed with her quite a bit. >> reporter: in fact, here they are in hawaii. james in the water, sarah there on a paddleboard and there on another board, was peyton. >> i think i found a picture of her on facebook where she was and -- so i called her and asked her. and she said it was none of my business. but if it's my husband's then get over it. uh-huh . >> reporter: peyton denied saying that, by the way. but when the baby was born, a very healthy and happy looking little boy.. james and peyton named him. >> bently, of all things. >> reporter: bently.

sarah, then left in the garage with flattened tires. >> you can't make it up? >> it's weird. it's so strange. >> bently? >> yeah. as you can see, he was the one who wanted the car and the name and the show. >> reporter: chief tex hall, as you might imagine, was not pleased about any of that. he banished james from the reservation. but there was something neither tex nor sarah knew, just then. not just that thok were investigating sarah's wayward husband. out on the north dakota prarie another lawman had been poking around for more than a year. homeland security agent darrik trudell had heard from a colleague about the missing kc clarke, and the ripoff report and other possible crimes. >> he told me the story and it, it just sounded, it sounded unbelievable, is what it did. >> reporter: darrik trudell was hooked. so by the time burbridge started showing up, trudell could tell him a thing or two about

>> yeah, i mean, he, he comes across as a -- just -- >> you're at a loss for words. >> i mean, you could say that, you could say that he comes across as a, as a used car salesman. but that's really not fair to used car salesmen. i mean, the guy is just, he's a scumbag. >> reporter: by the time doug carlile was murdered, trudell had, just coincidence really, been on james's trail for more than a year. looking into possible illegal drug imports and the mysterious disappearance of friend and employee kc clarke. began to look like henrikson was behaving like some sort of latter-day, wild west outlaw. >> he's sociopath. above all that, the guy's a coward. you know, he didn't, he didn't get his hands dirty in any of it. >> reporter: trudell already suspected henrikson may have ordered someone to kill k-c clark. then, doug carlile was murdered out in washington, and trudell began working with detective burbridge. if timothy suckow was the hitman

clarke, too? agents pulled records of all the cell phones being used around the time of kc's disappearance in north dakota. and? >> they checked mr. suckow's number at the time against the phone records they had acquired, back when mr. clark disappeared and mr. suckow's number was in those records. >> reporter: meaning, suckow was in the area when k-c clark disappeared. sarah, meanwhile, her marriage harbor suspicions about james, and not just his cheating ways. it went back to the day james told her about doug carlile's death. >> he just walked into the room was like, "doug's dead." straight-faced, nothing. it was the strangest thing, ever. >> did you think at the time, "i wonder if james had something to do with this"? >> you know, it-- it seemed fishy to me. it did. but again, you don't, your

husband could be doing anything like that, you know? >> why didn't you get out of that marriage? >> i was scared of him. you know, everyone wants the fairy tale. everyone wants to be married with a good life with kids. and it kinda came crashing quickly. >> reporter: so finally, sarah started talking about divorce. >> i told him. and he'd be like, "how are you going to feel if you divorce me and you find out all this isn't true and the ki and he's like, "you'll be the horrible person. and i'm going to destroy you." and he was very threatening. >> reporter: was he serious? a month after the murder of doug carlile, january 2014. sarah got a call from her local sheriff. >> he said, "you need to come to my office right this second. >> reporter: coming up. sarah gets some frightening news. >> homeland security was waiting for me. and they were like, "your

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>> reporter: sara creveling didn't know which way to turn. with investigators in two states closing in, her husband james had vanished, their marriage was on life-support, and, she'd just been summoned by her county sheriff. >> so i went into his office. and homeland security was waiting for me. and they were like, "sit down. we need to talk to you." and they said, "we just received, in the last te minutes, that your husband is trying to have you killed today. >> reporter: sarah? on a hit list? but why? sarah had a pretty good idea. >> he wanted all the money. and knew i had it locked up with the divorce getting ready. so get her out of the way and we'll get all the assets'. so they could run to brazil. but, sarah marked for death?

was supposed to die that very day. what was that moment like for you? >> you can't even describe it. it doesn't seem real. it's like a movie. i sat there and spoke with them all day. and i'd asked, "can i call someone?" like, i don't know what to do. and they said, "nope. we have to take you into a safe home. >> reporter: call no one? >> uh-uh. >> reporter: not even your mom? >> nope. no one. because they were afraid that james would harass my family and frs 'cause once he realized i wasn't responding to him, he went into panic mode. he didn't know if i was working with the police, if i was dead, if i was on the run. >> reporter: cops knew her husband was lurking somewhere out there but they couldn't find him. >> he was harassing a lot of my friends and family, trying to see if they'd heard from me, which they hadn't. >> reporter: now the cops were sarah's best hope to stay alive. they tried a ruse to throw james off the scent.

border in canada to make it look like i had, like, jumped the border to see if james would chase me. >> reporter: he did not. but where was he? no one seemed to know. with sarah close enough so they could actually see her, investigators tried to track her husband's phone. >> you're sitting in homeland security's office and you're listening to them ping him across the state and he's on the run, he's on the move i think a car backfired in the parking lot. al guns out and run to the windows. because they didn't know if james was in town. it's this surreal thing. >> reporter: even if they found him, though, they couldn't charge him with murder, or conspiracy. didn't have enough evidence for that. but they did have something quite useful. a few days earlier, search warrant in hand, state and federal agents, including homeland security's, darrik trudell, descended on james and sarah's empty house while they were out of town. what'd you find in the house?

>> reporter: some firearms? >> yeah. i mean, i, i can't remember the exact number of them. >> reporter: well, it doesn't matter if there was one there, he's a convicted felon, right? >> correct. >> reporter: grounds for immediate arrest. agents fanned out around north dakota and a few days later in a little place called mandan there he was. what was he doing? >> he was over at his girlfriend's friend's apartment. >> reporter: that is, the apartment of a friend of peyton, >> we had guys staked out around it doing surveillance on it and as we, as we drove by i recognized him. and knew that was him. >> reporter: on the street? >> walking down the street. we stopped, we hopped out. told him to turn around, show me his hands. >> reporter: james henrikson was surrounded by cops guns drawn and pointed. so what happened then was very odd. >> he had his hands in his pockets and so kept telling him to show me his hands. wouldn't show me both hands at the same time. and he's got this stupid smirk on his face.

with you. >> yeah, so then eventually, you know, enough is enough. so we just put him, helped him to the ground. put handcuffs on him. >> reporter: helped him to the ground? >> and he's just smiling up and me and asked me, you know, like, you know, "hey, how are you?" he instantly went into, like, trying to charm us. >> reporter: he was trying to pull a con on the cop. >> yeah, i don't know if he thought he was going to build rapport with me and relationship and we were going to be buddies. >> reporter: bizarre though the arrest was, james henrikson was at least in custody. and sarah no choice, they told her had to stay in deep cover hiding in a secret shelter, unable to call friends or even her parents just in case the hit was still a go. >> i had a bunch of friends call the sheriffs and the police and they were asking. they said, "we think that he's had her killed. i mean, will you drive around and look in ditches?" no -- because no one was allowed to know. they wanted him to think that it had gone through to see what he would do. >> reporter: i can't imagine what it would be like for your family?

>> reporter: and james? agreed, very civilized, to talk to investigators. but what he did not do. >> are you guys 100% sure you can protect me? >> reporter: was tell them the real story of what he'd been up to. >> it had to do with the cartel and the ma. you know what that is right? >> mexican mafia and drug cartel. >> he gave us, i mean, it was a story. i mean, he talked about the cartels. the triad. i mean, all these organized crime groups that, you know, that he implied having connections to. >> i don't know. i mean like i said if i go through with it, then i'm not that worried about it. i mean you guys can put all the charges that you want on me, and like, you know if i don't say anything then i don't say anything. then whatever. they kill me in prison. or whatever.

>> reporter: did he think you were buying it? >> oh, i think in his mind he thought, you know, he thought that we were buying it. but, i mean, it was so outlandish, nobody's going to believe that. >> i have to handcuff you before we bring you up to the jail. >> reporter: trouble was investigators in north dakota and spokane still didn't have enough solid evidence to tie james henrikson to the murders of kc clark and doug carlile. for that they'd have to keep digging while henrikson waited in jail. that is if they could keep him there. when he had other ideas. coming up -- preparing for the great escape. >> they knocked out that window, dropped some bed sheets down to the ground -- >> nine stories. >> reporter: oh, my god.

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one of the stranger perps homeland security agent darrik trudell had ever encountered. and had an attitude. >> reporter: but as trudell discovered, henrikson was also an inept criminal. rarely seemed to get his illegal schemes to work. >> it's almost like a tragic comedy when you see the -- this group of people that were involved with this case. >> reporter: like the time they put out a "hit" on another business partner, but the hit man ran off with the money. >> and the guy, you know, rips 'em off for $10,000.

made. >> reporter: gradually, agent trudell and spokane detectives burbridge and cestnik amassed circumstantial evidence to show henrikson, for all his criminal fumbling, did orchestrate two murders -- kc clarke and doug carlile. but it was not quite enough circumstantial evidence to take to trial. until, finally, the break they needed. >> i didn't mean to do any of this stuff and i don't know why i did it. >> reporter: timothy suckow. remember him? he admitted he killed both victims on orders from james henrikson. and the middle man caved, too. robert delao. the man who came snooping around the investigation a couple of days after the carlile murder and passed a polygraph. which might say something about polygraphs. now delao admitted he recruited suckow and transmitted henrikson's orders -- and the

k.c.'s murder? >> it was cash. >> reporter: so in september 2014, nine months after his arrest on weapons charges, james henrikson was flown from north dakota to spokane, washington, and charged with multiple federal counts of conspiracy, solicitation, and murder for hire in the deaths of kc clarke and doug carlile, and attempts on the lives of three more business partners. he was not charged, however, with trying to kill his wife, sarah, because, said the prosecutors, they went with the charges that were easiest to prove. so henrikson was toast. unless -- as he sat in the spokane jail awaiting trial, henrikson did his best to see that the trial would never happen. >> he tried to hire people to attack the marshal van that was transporting him between our jail and the u.s. courtroom. shoot the driver, set fire to

>> reporter: good lord. >> he was still letting on that he had a lot of money. and in jail, obviously, it doesn't take too long to find people that'll bite on that. unfortunately, he found one that also needed help with his current charges, so he turned him in pretty quickly. >> reporter: and thus, the plan was foiled. >> yes. >> reporter: but henrikson wasn't done. >> he was in his cell with another person suspected of murder. our spokane county jail -- there are windows at each of the cells. they knocked out that window, dropped some tied together bed sheets down to the ground -- nine stories. >> reporter: oh, my god. >> some people showing up for work at the jail saw the rope hanging out the window. >> reporter: can ya really see anybody squeezing through a window that size? >> they're purposely designed so that an adult human head won't fit through that window, so there was no way they were getting out that window. >> reporter: they could have charged him for his escape attempts. they didn't. the prosecutors had bigger

james henrikson encountered them. >> i was so mad i couldn't see straight. >> reporter: doug carlile's still grieving family. >> i had to close my eyes several times and actually say a prayer, "god, calm me down." i wanted to put my hands on him for sure. >> reporter: yeah, and then you'd be in trouble. >> it'd be worth it. >> translator: federal prosecutors aine ahmed and scott jones were, however, not exactly confident about their case. >> proving kc clarke's murder was the toughest part that i was we didn't have a body. we had no forensic evidence. >> reporter: so, to get a conviction, they'd need these two sketchy characters who, allegedly on orders from henrikson, had done some truly awful things. if they didn't tell the story, and make the jury believe it, henrikson would get away with murder. but if they did tell it, what sort of credibility would a person like that have? >> my concerns are our most important witness is going to admit that he killed two people.

>> reporter: well how do you handle that? >> you have to embrace it. our number two witness has a tattoo on his back of him urinating on the headstone of the last guy that he killed. these are our two star witnesses. >> reporter: still. tim suckow, the actual killer, was by far the more important witness. after all, suckow could tell the jury chapter and verse about the many twisted and homicidal plots set in motion by james henrikson. so, two nights before thia and ahmed went to see suckow, prepare him for his testimony. and that's where it all went south. sukow is bipolar. >> he was laying down on the floor of the prison cell in a fetal position. and so this is two days before our star witness is going to testify. and he's basically sucking his thumb on the floor of a jail cell. i mean, we're there at 10:00 at

he could effectively testify before a jury. >> reporter: would james henrickson, the desparado of the oil patch, go free? coming up. the entire courtroom stunned. >> i had decided long before that he was crazy. i didn't know he was that kind of crazy. like, whatever the next ad is selling. get the chase freedom unlimited card.

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>> reporter: it was no easy task, preparing tim suckow to testify at the trial of the man accused of paying him to kill two people. he was off his meds, he was a

>> i deserve to be punished. >> reporter: so when the trial began in federal court, no cameras allowed, the prosecutors held their breath. and? suckow, back on his meds, came through. and in court, he repeated just what he said here in his pre-trial interviews. that he met delayo when they both worked for the company that owned the white van they drove the night he shot doug carlile. but a year before that job, he said delayo told him he could make money for roughing up some in but then the boss, that is, james henrikson, changed the plan. >> he started telling me about kc, how he was threatening to leave the company and take some other truckers with him. and that's when he asked me if i'd kill him. >> reporter: so when kc showed up at james's office before going on vacation, suckow was

>> and i hit him in the back of the head and he stumbled and fell. and he tried to get up and i hit him about three or four more times. he stopped moving. >> reporter: they ditched kc's truck in a nearby town, said suckow, and then they took kc's body to a lonely spot 20 miles out of town. suckow said he did the digging, il >> i remember standing in the hole and he said something like, "how much is this going to cost me?" i said, "$20,000." and he choked. "$20,000? it's first degree murder, man. it's the death penalty." and i turned back around and took a few more shovel loads and i turned back and i looked at

the head while i'm digging this hole." he really should have. >> reporter: anyway, he said, he got the 20 grand, and he burned the bloody clothes. investigators found buttons and other evidence of that burn pile. but, though they took suckow out to the prairie twice to look for the burial site, they never found kc clark's body. >> kc clark was simply killed for the/reason that he just wanted to leave james henrikson's employment. he felt wronged. >> so i'm going to kill him? >> yeah. it was almost like a jealousy, cheating spouse kind of thing. >> reporter: and why, according to the prosecutors, did james henrikson want doug carlile killed? >> he really thought that the oil deal that they were involved with was worth tens of millions of dollars. and he thought that doug carlile

those tens of millions of dollars. >> mr. carlile had already threatened to mr. henrikson that he was going to get him out of the oil drilling business. >> and that was the thing that triggered the whole business? >> yeah. they were each trying to get the other out of the deal. >> reporter: at the trial, prosecutors introduced hundreds of text messages, an almost play-by-play account as the plan rolled out. >> you can watch a text message go from henrikson to delayo. and then the content is passed from delayo to suckow, and then negotiations over payment, who's going to be there, does he have an alarm system? >> reporter: and so when doug carlile returned from church that evening in december, suckow was waiting. he'd brought a heavy welding glove in case he had to punch in a window. he didn't have to. >> i had a pistol pointed at him. i told him to back up and get in

from the hallway. she backed away and mr. carlile moved his hand and i panicked. i fired and it seemed like the fourth shot he didn't move. i ran. i ran fast. >> reporter: and then, somehow, the welding glove got left behind. the glove that revealed suckow's dna and broke the case. >> without the glove, we would probably be unsolved to this >> reporter: and what could have happened then? james henrikson, according to prosecutors, was a very dangerous man. was actively planning more murders. eventually, they said, had suckow not lost his welding glove, henrikson might have become that worst of all criminals. >> a serial killer is someone who causes the death or murder of three people. and he certainly got an a for effort. because he tried.

we know of, that he tried to have murdered. >> reporter: james henrickson's defense attorneys declined our request for an interview, but they blamed the murders on suckow and delayo, not henrikson. and essentially argued, the jury should not believe two such unsavory characters. elberta carlile watched the trial play out, day after day, the same prayer on her lips. >> i prayed for justice for my husband. i prayed that the truth would come forth, and that there would be a way to go on in life. >> deliberations took less than a day. on all 11 counts, murder for hire, solicitation, conspiracy and more, the jury found james henrikson guilty. >> we wanted to jump up and down and clap, you know, as a family because our whole family was there. it was great. >> reporter: in the weeks that followed, robert delayo, the go-between, was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

he faced the judge. >> the only thing that he ever asked for was that we do what we can to ensure that he was sent to a prison with appropriate mental health facilities so he could figure out what's wrong with him. >> reporter: then, in court, he turned around and faced elberta. >> he said, "please forgive me. i'm so sorry for what i've done." >> did he seem genuine? >> he did. he said it in tears. and he said, "i can't forgive myself. buyo i said, "i forgive you and god forgives you." >> reporter: 30 years for tim suckow. when it was james henrikson's turn, a ripple ran through the court. would he, too, ask forgiveness? admit guilt? apologize? reveal the location of kc clark's body? well, no, not, a chance. >> he read a short story that

so much so that everybody in the courtroom was very uncomfortable with what he was saying. and i think he just did that to purposely upset people. >> i had decided long before then that james henrikson was crazy. i didn't know he was that kind of crazy. >> reporter: henrikson will leave prison only in a box, having received two consecutive life sentences. he's chosen not to appeal. here in the vast north dakota and family are still searching, vowing to stay with it until they find him. >> you just want to, like, all right, james, you son-of-a-, we're going to get him ourselves. we don't need you. we're going to go bring him home and we're going to finally get some closure for everybody here. >> reporter: and elberta? >> well, sometimes grief overwhelms me to the point i'm just in a pile of tears, and i've not lived alone, ever. >> it takes some figuring out? >> it takes some figuring out. >> reporter: sarah, thoroughly

james's violent conspiracies, though in the community and among some in law enforcement, suspicion lingers. but she does face charges of money laundering and mail fraud for her involvement with the trucking company she and james ran. charges that could put her in prison for 30 years, if convicted. she's pleaded not guilty. >> so as you look at all of these events and you think, gosh, what sin did i commit to be in this spot? what would you say? >> i trusted a con artist. i trusted a sociopath. since i married the monster, people think i should be one too, but i'm not. >> reporter: wreckage. lots of it. once upon a time in a flat and gracious land where tough men wrestle for oil, murderous ambition bubbled up with the crude and made a play as old as humankind. what was it all about, really?

just came down to greed. it was all about money. strange smoke coming from the suncor refinery, the source of it probably something you have not heard of before. >> a former police officer accused of rape in mexico captured here in the metro area. >> fires burn a second day in douglas county. >> just eager and ready to get back to it.

reopen this weekend after a crime forced it to close for months. >> what happened after a great white shark busts inside a diver's cage with the diver still inside. >> and the broncos try to figure out how to break their losing streak. 9news starts now. a strange cloud of smoke rising over commerce city today caused a lot of concern until emergency managers were able to figure out what was in that cloud coming from refinery. around noon today the refinery started to vent a strange yellow smoke after the power went out at the plant. hazmat crews were called at the scene and told people living within 2 miles of the refinery to shelter in place. i-270 was shut down as a precaution. turns out xcel was working on the refinery when the power outage happened causing the strange release of smoke. it was not toxic and the cloud did not contain sulfur dioxide.