that's all for now. i'm chris hansen, for all of us at nbc news, thanks for joining us. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ hey now all you sinners put your lights on ♪ ♪ put your lights on >> what's the wet spot over there? ♪ put your lights on. >> there's always going to be a case that comes along and hits you right here. >> i think most people have "law and order" in their heads. it's not like that at all. ♪

>> have you got your hooks? for the next hour you're going to hear a murder mystery, one told not by a reporter, but by those who lived it. in 2001 nbc news was grant ed unprecedented access to the las vegas police department homicide squad. using small handheld cameras, our producers followed investigators at the crime scene on witness interviews and during interrogations, even in closed-door meetings in the d.a.'s office. when we went to las vegas, we had no idea what we'd find, and nobody could from have predicted the twist in the case you're about to see. it began early one morning as two detectives arrived at the scene of a homicide. >> okay, jefe, what have we got?

>> well -- >> i call my partner jefe. it means chief. a show of respect. my name is mark mcmadden. i'm a homicide detective in las vegas. >> we'll try the house next door here. >> mike and i were made partners in january 2001. he has the same work ethic that i have. i think the two of us together are a very, very good team. my name is jeff rosskin. mark's my partner. >> it was a very hot day. around 114. >> how are you doing? >> good. how are you? >> good. jeff rosskin. we've got a dead person in a little desert area behind this house. she was fully clothed. had her shirt, short, tennis shoes on. >> did you hear anything last night? >> i didn't hear a thing. >> the first thing i did was canvass the neighborhood. >> i walked. >> did you see or hear anything? >> no, nothing. >> walked around door to door, asking people whether they'd seen or heard anything. unusual during the night. >> did you see anything at all last night? >> the dog didn't wake you up or

anything? >> no. >> while he talked to people and went around trying to locate other witnesses, i did the crime scene investigation. i noticed a lot of footprints and tire tracks in the area around the body. >> how many of you went out toward where the body is? >> it was important to me to eliminate officers and the paramedics who were at the scene as well. >> can i see your shoes? because if i can eliminate those footprint, the ones that remain could belong to our suspect. >> none of the neighbors saw or heard anything unusual during the night. >> not that i can think of. >> patrol officers told me about a man who lived in the house who was on the lot where the woman was found. the man told me his name was ken moore, an elderly man, probably in his 70s. he was seated in a wheelchair. he was wearing pajamas, and he had an oxygen like a breathing machine sitting next to him on the floor. >> i just talked to the gentleman that lives up there. his wife died back on march 28th. his daughter came out from

california to stay with him, and we got a good description of his daughter, and it pretty much matches the description of the gal lying on the ground. >> i know it ain't my fault, but i still feel if i hadn't brought her down here -- her down here, but when the lord wants somebody, he's going to take them. >> talking to people who have just had losses are a normal part of the job, but it's never easy. >> all i can think of is why everything at once. >> he told me his daughter's name was loretta beechler. she was 49 years old. she had two children, a boy and a girl. loretta had had a pretty hard life. she had lived pretty much on the street or in homeless shelters the majority of her adult life. she still had a whole life ahead of her. who knows what she would have done. she deserved that life.

she didn't deserve this. what really matters is that that person's not able to speak for themselves. they can't get up and point out who their killer was. we're the only ones that can speak for the dead. we've got to go out and find out who that person is who killed them. >> when somebody's been killed by another person, you've taken from that person their soul, that something special, and to me there's nothing more serious or solemn than trying to find the truth about somebody that did something like that. >> she was a good daughter, a damn good daughter. >> ken said that after his wife died that he needed someone to help take care of him, so he'd driven out to ridgecrest, california, picked up loretta, and she agreed to come back and help take care of him. >> she couldn't get here fast enough to take care of me.

>> after i talked with ken, came back down to the crime scene and told mark what i had learned. >> they'd had dinner together, they were watching "driving miss daisy." he's woken up by police at 6:00 a.m. this morning asking if he'd heard anything during the night and he says no, let me ask my daughter and he goes in and she's gone. there are a lot of questions going on in my head about what could have happened. was this random act? did she leave the house to have a cigarette? was she leaving to go somewhere? was she going to meet somebody? we don't know any of that. then a patrol officer had brought us some information about a series of crimes that had been occurring in the area around that time. >> some events last night that occurred in this general area of town, a couple robberies where some hispanic males used a baseball bat to rob some people. she does look like blunt force trauma is going to be what caused her death.

that might be related. we don't know. >> i went to talk to crime scene analysts to talk about that theory. and it looks like it was an impact by a baseball bat. it would with a straight bruise. it was important to know whether it was there. >> there was no sign of a struggle around the body. the dirt was undisturbed except for footprints. >> but if you look at the socks, the socks are clean. >> there wasn't any dirt on her knees or her shoes. >> she sure didn't roll in the dirt too much. >> what that tells me is she was killed somewhere else and brought here. i'm thinking, wait a minute, i'm not seeing the trauma that i should be seeing if this was a baseball bat attack. it wasn't there. i'm seeing something else. >> nothing up here. no real bumps, bruises, anything on the top? >> no weapons or anything in the area? >> no. she's got the swelling, she's got the bleeding from the nose,

but that's not that serious an injury. i think strangulation might be the deal. >> then we received another lead that sounded promising. a patrol officer brought us information about a guy -- >> a guy with a weed wacker that went around people's yards and cut peoples grass in the area. >> the old man gave the same information to jeff. >> he actually lives down around the street. i don't know his name. he knows his name, the old guy, he came on the property all of the time. and he walks around the neighborhood with a weed wacher. >> he's only about 30 years old, and he's always bugging people around here about cutting lawns. >> it's important to follow him. >> you just never know which one is really going to be the one that will lead you to the killer. coming up on "msnbc reports --" the real deal inside las vegas homicides. >> most people have nypd blue or "law and order," something like that. it's not like that at all. [ degeneres ] what's more beautiful than a covergirl?

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the murder of loretta

beechler was one of the more challenging investigations that i have had since i've been assigned to homicide. >> we had a lead, a report of this guy who was known to wander through the area with a weed whacker. >> he walks around the neighborhood with a weed whacker. >> so we needed to check it out. how are you doing? >> good, fine. >> good. >> when we first got to the house, his mom came out and met me. >> could i talk to him? >> he's not here. >> yeah? where is he at now? >> work. >> work? >> she said her son wasn't home and she didn't know when he was going to get home. >> i'd like to speak with him at some point, if you don't mind. when would be the best time for me to try back? just call here in the afternoon and see if he's in? >> i don't know when he's going to be in. >> she seemed a little suspicious. she definitely wasn't very cooperative. i was kind of heightened my suspicions about her son.

after the autopsy, i went over to ken's house to let him learn what we learned. when i walked in the house -- >> how you doing? -- his granddaughter, her husband, and a couple of their friends were in the house. unofficially the doctor hasn't signed off on his report, obviously, yet. it usually takes a week or two. but it looks like the cause of death was strangulation. and there was no evidence of sexual assault. her clothing and everything was intact so that wasn't a factor. when i walked out of the house, one of the granddaughter's friends followed me out. he just couldn't understand why loretta would be out after dark. >> don't know. >> she don't go out at night. i'll tell you right now she don't go out late [ bleep ] at night. never did. >> that's why i was asking if she went out walking after dark. >> never. she never did. never.

>> later that afternoon we brought ken's granddaughter down to the office for an interview. >> when she lived with me, she didn't leave the house hardly. >> right. >> she knew her mom loretta probably better than anyone else in the world. we asked what she thought happened to her mother. >> i have no clue, unless it was a random act. but i don't know anybody here. all i know is my grandpa. >> yeah. >> i would assume he'd be too old to do that. i don't know. >> after the interview with ken's granddaughter, one of her friends said that he was very suspicious of ken and in particular was suspicious of some bruises that were on his arm. now, i'd seen the bruises the day before. at the time they didn't really look like anything. many old people have bruises and they bruise pretty easily. however, now, this friend is saying that those bruises looked like a bite mark. and that was very significant. this is something that i needed to immediately get on to, and it was already past normal quitting time.

it didn't matter. i needed to go and document those bruises. ♪ ♪ when i was knocking on ken's door and knocking on his window, i was wondering whether or not he was going to cooperate. and i was trying to figure out exactly how i could best approach him to get him cooperate. if he says, no, i'm not going to let you do that, to me, he just slid up on the suspicion scale a little bit higher. hey, ken! all right. ken let me in the house that night. he was lying in bed at the time, so i sat down next to him. there's something i've got to bring up to you, okay? i was going over the reports, okay, looking through stuff, and i saw in there that one of the police officers was here earlier, had looked at some bruising on your arm. >> yeah. i -- if i just bump my arm -- >> right.

>> -- they said it's that medicine that screwed my liver up. >> okay. well, here's the deal. >> yeah. >> in looking at that, sitting there in the back of the office, i'm looking at it, and i'm reading through it, and i realize that if i don't document these bruises on your arms -- >> yeah. >> -- when i catch the person that murdered your daughter, his defense attorney is going to say, well he did it and you didn't even take pictures of his arms. you didn't do anything to try to prove otherwise. you follow me? >> okay. >> would you have any problem at all with me having some people come in here and take special photographs of your arms? >> no, not at all. >> okay, good. he's ready. he's agreed to do it. i went outside. met with the crime scene analyst. i'll just walk in and say, hey, this is mike perkins, he's the guy in charge of doing the photographs. you know, he knows how to do this. he'll take care of you and i'll turn it over to you and do what you need to do. >> what we'll do first is mark will take a couple photos of you like this and show your face.

>> technology that our crime scene analysts deploy in the field is pretty amazing sometimes, bringing out things that aren't even visible with the naked eye. you doing all right, ken? >> yeah. >> quite a little light they got there, isn't it? >> they were using an alternative light source. various wavelengths of light. each one brings out a little different color in the bruising, and we were hoping by doing that that we capture the best possible photograph of the bruise that we could then present to special dentists to see if they could actually match them up with loretta's teeth. we swabbed ken's arm with a little q-tip-looking thing, and the purpose of that was to try to see if there was any dna present. that was a long shot by any stretch of the imagination, hoping that there might still be some dna there. nothing else i could do with

that lead. we done everything we could. now i had to leave it up to the doctor. sure. but there was another lead that we were working on about a guy that goes around the neighborhood and cuts people's lawns and stuff, a weed whacker guy. >> you only get one chance, one try, when you're investigating a homicide. you can't screw it up and start back over again. so you have to pay attention to every detail. you have to try every technique that can be tried. and you never can give up. >> how you doing? >> fine. >> just want to see if your son was around. >> nope. he's not. >> okay. when would be a good time to come by and see him? >> i don't have no idea when he'll be home. >> do you want to call us when he gets back? >> yeah. >> went over to his house twice. both times his mom was evasive.

she couldn't tell us when he was going to be home, and obviously he'd been home since the first time we were there. >> for whatever reason, she didn't want to talk to us, and think she's -- she's ducking us. >> she's ducking us. >> you can tell by talking to her. she's ducking us. he is too. which means we're going to have to turn up the heat a little bit. >> what they don't realize is we're not going away. >> definitely heightened our suspicions about why is this guy not calling us up? why is she not calling us when her son gets there? maybe this guy had something to do with loretta's death. still ahead -- the investigation takes an unexpected turn when the detectives confront the elusive yardman. >> have you ever hurt anybody? >> no.

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we had a dead woman. and we were following up on a lead concerning a guy who had been known to wander through the neighborhood carrying a weed whacker. we tried to contact him. >> he's not here. >> his mother had finally called us and told us he was home and that we could talk to him. >> hey, my friend. how are you? how are you doing? >> that dog was on the job. there's no way i was going to go past that fence. he is a good watchdog. okay. not going to do no harm here. hi. >> have a seat. >> how are you doing? >> okay. >> all right. did you hear about a lady that was killed last week?

>> yeah. >> did you hear about that? >> yeah. my mom told me. >> did you hear about it anywhere else? >> no. i haven't. >> his mom had mentioned that he was mentally challenged and would probably be living with them the rest of his life. what do you do for work? >> i clean out yards for people and cut grass for them and -- >> regardless of the fact he's mentally challenged, we still had to talk to him, find out where he'd been, especially where he was the night of the murder. i'd like to know where you were specifically back on the 24th of may. >> i was in this area. >> it's like thursday. >> yeah. >> okay. >> but i was in this subdivision then. >> okay. you ever been arrested, robert? >> nope. >> you ever hurt anybody? >> nope. >> okay. i asked him if he'd ever had any problems with ken moore. >> see on that guy, he was trying to get a lower price than 20. >> he says that he remembered trying to strike up a deal to cut ken's lawn, that ken tried to get a lower price, they had a little bit of an argument, and that he had left.

i had to check his shoes as well. remember those footprints? i had to make sure his were or weren't those footprints. >> okay. they weren't the same. after he was interviewed, we left the house. jeff and i met back up. mark, i'll meet you back at texaco. >> i didn't get a bad feel from him. he seems like a harmless, pretty mentally challenged guy that, you know, walks around all day long, trying to make a few bucks. >> we both agreed. he wasn't our guy. but there was another lead. coming up next, vital leads from the victim's sister. >> but i think he should be questioned. what did he do? [ male announcer ] the inspiring story of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. but if you take away the faces on the trees...

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hey, there, everyone. msnbc now. i'm alex witt. in his strongest statement yet president obama says syrian leader bashar al assad has lost legitimacy and has no right to stay in power. it comes after an overnight artillery assault that killed at least 200 people. russia and china have vetoed a u.n. security council resolution concerning the unrest in syria. the resolution would have backed an arab league peace plan which called for president assad to step down. the gop presidential candidates are looking for love

from the constituents in nevada. mitt romney is leading in today's polls with the caucuses, with newt gingrich and ron paul in it could. >> colorado digging out of the most powerful storm the u.s. has seen this entire winter. more than a foot of snow was dumped with up to six-foot snow drifts. tough on the trail, but great for skiers been more news later, i'm alex witt and now we'll take you back to vegas homicide here on msnbc. >> we've been watching the las vegas detectives on the pursuit of the killer. or producers were by their sides every step of the way. on several occasions we taped inside people's homes during sensitive turns in the investigations. in every one of those situations we got permission from the people involved beforehand. now detective mark takes us back into the investigation of one

unlikely suspect, the victim's father, ken moore. >> shortly after we had pictures of those marks on ken's arm, we learned that he'd given his car to his grand daughter to take to california. the way the body was placed, there wasn't any sign of somebody being dragged through the desert. it's possible that he had used the car to transport the body down to the bottom of the hill where it was found. when he gives the car away, he could have been trying to get rid of evidence. so we had to check it out. heading to ridgecrest, california, taking a crime scene analyst with us today to inspect the interior of the car and the trunk area. when we got there, they allowed us to look through the car. we took photographs. we used a resin to take an imprint of the tire. and we also used cotton swabs to try to test any kind of a stain

that could have been blood. we spent the whole day looking through that car. well, we couldn't find any kind of fluids or blood anywhere in the interior of the car or the trunk. we checked any stain that looked even remotely possible. we didn't get much. didn't get any positive results on that. later we learned that the tire tracks weren't the same. >> hi, it's mark mcnett. >> then we got contacted by ken's other daughter who gave us some important information. we received a new letter from kamala, loretta's sister. she had been staying with ken since the time of the murder. and she had written a couple of letters because of some things she learned, so we called her in for an interview. she also mentioned that on the 29th of june your father returned to the house around

6:00 p.m. and he was pretty drunk and that he was crying. tell me about -- tell me about what happened then. >> well, he broke down and was crying. he's like, you know, he gets emotional sometimes when he's drunk, and he was really drunk. and he just said, well, when you get up there where you live and you spread your sister's ashes, you just tell her -- okay. let me remember. you just tell her -- i want to get this correct. i'm sorry for what i'd done and ask her to forgive me. and so i responded, well, what did you do? and then he just yelled at me. she'll know what i'm talking about! so i dropped the subject. but i think he should be questioned on that. what did he do? >> right. this was pretty significant to us because this is his own daughter bringing us this information. he's drunk. he's very emotional. he's telling her what sounds to me like an admission. kamala told us something else.

she put her father to the test. she drug a mirror out that she thought was very heavy and put it in the living room where he liked to park his wheelchair. it was her way of determining whether or not her father was capable of killing her sister. >> how heavy was the mirror? >> it was about 100 pounds. about the weight of my sister. i moved it to the living room. he didn't want it in there. he said, i'll move it to the garage. by this time i'm getting, you know, suspicious of whether it was him that did this. well, we'll just see if he can move it, and he did. he moved it out to the garage. >> how did he do that? >> picked it up and moved it out. >> was he in his wheelchair? >> nope. so he stood up? >> he uses the wheelchair as a recreational vehicle. he's perfectly capable of walking 200 yards or more. >> as we talked to people and as we dealt with ken personally, we saw that he didn't necessarily need that wheelchair. he was able to walk.

he was able to walk some distances. he's a lot stronger than he looks. over the next few weeks we learned many things about ken. he was a heavy drinker, and he had a violent personality. >> second was his great granddaughter he thought the world of. >> his one goal became setting things up so she would be taken care of. >> and third was a business deal. >> for his parcel of property that would result in a substantial income to be placed in a trust fund for her. >> it might have been the reason or motive for why he killed loretta. specifically if loretta had brought up she didn't think it was fair that only kamala's granddaughter would get any money that ken had when he died, that would probably be something that would have infuriated him. is it possible you could check back a few days before the 24th to -- >> i also heard back from the lab. the dna test had come back of the bruise on ken moore's arm. >> a female dna on a bite mark that we hope is going to match with her teeth is pretty

conclusive. it wasn't enough to show that it was loretta beechler's dna, but there was enough to show it was a female dna in the area of a mark we thought would be a bite mark. that's the kind of stuff we're looking for. it's good stuff. >> a few weeks after we got the results back on the dna, we got some even more important information back. we finally got the results about whether or not the bruises on ken's arm matched loretta's teeth. when we come back, with the clues piling up against the victim's father, will the bruise marks prove his guilt? or lead investigators in a whole new direction? >> if there's a turning point in every investigation, this was probably a very dramatic turning point. ♪ all right

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we finally found out whether or not the bruises on ken's arm matched loretta's teeth. if there's a turning point in every investigation, this was probably a very dramatic turning point. playing a little game on my partner. i walked into the office, and i just sat down like no big deal, even though he knew that i'd gone over to the dentist's office to see what the results were. oh. on the bite? it's loretta's. >> of course, i never do that to

him. >> what was i thinking? first thing is, oh, man, jeff. you drive me nuts. secondly, perfect. that's the crucial key. that's what we need. >> it meant that we were on the right track. that ken, in fact, was the only one that could have killed loretta. it also meant that we knew ken was lying. ken came into the office for the interrogation, and he agreed to talk to us without a lawyer present. >> let's go out and greet him. are you ready? >> yeah. do you have anything? >> no. where do you want to start? do you want me just to start with the rundown of the investigation, what we've done, and then start narrowing the facts down and say, ken, what that brings up is our investigation shows that you are the one that killed your daughter and here's why, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. >> start off with ken, let me

give you an overview. you can see we have a ton of work we've done. this is our case file. and loretta, here less than two weeks, right? >> between two and three weeks. i don't remember exactly. >> our case at this point is mostly circumstantial. we really need a confession to seal it. >> to be honest with you, after going through our whole investigation, it's -- it's become very clear to us that you're responsible for loretta's death. >> that i'm responsible for her -- >> yes, sir. >> -- death? >> now here's why. let me go through some of the reasons for you. >> okay? >> okay. >> i understand. >> ken had a lot of stress on him. he just lost his wife. he had his own health problems, and the only thing he had going in his life was this business deal, and i thinking all of that together was a great deal of stress. and under all those stresses and with all that going on, i can see where anybody, me, you, or anybody could snap, and something happen, not saying that this was a planned out thing, ken. >> no. i know what you're saying.

>> so tell me -- >> if i had anything to do with it, i had to snap. >> well -- >> because i certainly don't know a thing about it. >> ken didn't give an explanation for the bite mark that made any sense. he stuck to the thing that he just bruises easy. he just said he didn't remember if she had bit him, i don't remember. it is what it is. loretta bit you on your forearm, and her dna is present at the bite site. >> well -- >> and the only way that could happen is if y'all was having a fight. there's no other way. there's no other explanation, ken. you just need to -- you just need to -- >> how would you -- >> -- come out with it. >> would you tell me something that you didn't know? how would you tell me something you didn't know? that's what i'm telling you. if i done that, i don't know. i don't recall any god dang. >> watch this. saying he doesn't remember nothing. can't explain the bite.

man. i was hoping that i would have got something different than that, and after trying every possible way i could think of to get around it, ken stay right on. i don't remember. i don't think there's much else we can do. i don't -- he ain't budging. >> we put a lot of time and effort into trying to get that. when he didn't talk, it was very frustrating. but that's not the first time we have been frustrated. but we don't ever quit. when "msnbc reports" continues, the detectives make an arrest. >> he stayed pretty calm. he didn't fall to pieces. he didn't really get shook up and nervous. it's almost like he was expecting to be arrested. [ female announcer ] if whole grain isn't the first ingredient

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it's been a little over two months since the murder. we believe that loretta's father ken moore is the one that committed the murder. jeff and i both felt we had enough to make an arrest. but just to make sure, we took it to the district attorney's office. hi.

mark mcnett with metro to see chris owens. >> the district attorney's goal is to look over the facts of the case, play devil's advocate, and ask the kind of questions that they're going to be facing when it goes to trial. i have an 80-year-old father. if my 80-year-old father tells me i don't really remember specifics from two weeks ago, i believe it. >> during the interview he has no problem recalling that at 5:00 that afternoon she went to the store to get some groceries. she returned. she made dinner for them. they watched "driving miss daisy" and he went to bed at 10:30 that night. >> what about motive? did he have any motive? did he invite her out? >> yes. >> he arranged for her to come out. >> yes. >> do we have any indications that they were fighting prior to this? >> they've never gotten along. they haven't had contact, consistent contact, in years.

>> anybody see any recent fights? >> no. no. she'd only been staying here less than two weeks and prior to that they hadn't had contact. >> they asked about everything. they asked some tough questions. but they weren't any tougher than the questions we'd asked ourselves. >> do you have a theory by what means she was placed out there? carried by hand, driven? >> i think he put her in the car. drove her over to this area, probably parked next to it. didn't pull right up on the area, as i think -- >> still parked on the pavement. >> probably still parked on the pavement, right on the shoulder of the road, opened it up. carried her over there and set it down. >> they thought it was extremely important that we be able to demonstrate that ken moore, an older man in a wheelchair, had the physical strength to carry this body of his daughter out to

where she was ultimately found in the dirt field. >> that's why the attorneys were so curious about the mirror. the mirror that his daughter had tested. the mirror would show his physical strength, that he was capable of committing the crime. >> how much that mirror weigh? >> i don't know. >> we have to grab that. >> she estimates around 100 pounds. >> we have to have it. >> if we're going to use it, it makes a nice prop to have a 100-pound mirror and let people play with it. >> a search warrant on his house for the mirror? >> absolutely. >> jeff, it's me. i'm leaving the courthouse now. we are in pocket with the warrant. >> when we served the search warrant, we found out that that garage had been cleaned out. and the mirror wasn't to be found. we kept looking. eventually, a business associate of ken's heard about us looking for the mirror and he contacted us.

>> catching the reflection right in my eyes. >> his daughter told us that she thought it weighed around 100 pounds. it actually weighed 35 but it was bulky and that was important to us. >> important to us because it shows that kamala's statements about testing ken to see if he's physically capable of this kind of act, how reliant he is on the wheelchair, and the oxygen, it shows that her statements about that are true. >> well, you did this before? >> yeah. there's nothing else to do. >> told them that we found the mirror. done the search warrant. the other things they requested and they gave us the green light to go forward. >> okay. you guys have to put together a packet for us, the usual stuff. and submit it. and let it go. >> okay, let's do it. >> you got your hooks?

>> on august 3rd, 2001, went to ken's house to arrest him. >> oh, you got the tactical black ones. howdy, ken. >> i'll unlock the door. we have something to show you here. >> let's get out of this heat. >> hang on one second. >> hang on, ken. >> we got a warrant for your arrest. you are under arrest, charged with murder. >> okay. >> need you to turn around with your back to him, put your hands behind your back. >> he stayed pretty calm. he didn't fall to pieces. he didn't really get shook up or nervous. it was almost like he was expecting to be arrested. ken, i have to advise you of something here. you have the right to remain silent. >> right. >> anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. >> right. >> you have the right to the presence of an attorney. if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed before questioning. >> got your keys? >> do you understand those rights? >> i cannot afford one. i'll tell you that right now. >> do you understand the rights?

>> yeah. >> do you want to make a statement to us? >> no, i don't. not without a lawyer. >> okay. >> sir, you are going to plead not guilty, is that what you're going to do? and face a trial? >> yeah. i'm not going to plead guilty to something that i don't -- in no way, form or fashion believe i did. >> but you're not sure it seems like. >> i know in my own mind that i did not do it. >> we seek the truth. and if the truth is, that someone killed this person, and that's an act of murder, then we need to find that. the truth. >> what really matters is that that person's not able to speak for themselves. >> right. >> they can't get up and point out who their killer was. we're the only ones that can speak for the dead. we've got to go out and find out who that person is that killed them.

u >> time set for sentencing in the matter of state versus moore. >> it's an old saying, beware of wolves in sheep's clothing. this court isn't seeing the real kenneth moore. loretta beechler saw the real kenneth moore, she encountered him on may the 24th, 2001. and she left her impression in his arm. the state would ask that the court impose the maximum sentence available under the law as it is today and that's ten years in prison. >> bottom line here, judge, is kenneth moore is a perfect candidate for probation. putting kenneth moore in a

prison would serve no productive purpose. any lengthy prison sentence at all would most likely be a life sentence. >> do you have anything to say on your own behalf? >> i went ahead and pleaded guilty to this charge to try to have a little bit of life left without being locked up. all i would like to do is live a halfway decent life with what few months i've got. >> ken moore entered the nevada correctional system in february 2002. but never completed his sentence. in january 2003, less than a year after going to prison, he met his own death dying of a cardiac arrest and natural causes. he was 76 years old. as for the detectives in our story, they're still on the job and they worked on more than a dozen new homicide investigations since closing the case of ken moore. that's our report. i'm john seigenthaler. [ male announcer ] is zero worth nothing?

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