but it's hard. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. thanks for watching. they surrounded me like a pack of wolves. they said, go get those crime scene photos of her mama and daddy. i was trying to cover my face. and i was putting my hands over my face. they said, you did this. you. i said, i did not.

>> a sprawling southern family with a pair of church-going grandparents at its heart. >> they're definitely the most loving individuals i ever met in my life. >> there is no way it was supposed to end like this. >> she said sugar and charlie have been murdered. >> the former church deacon and his wife, who on earth would want them dead. >> it doesn't make sense. they were loved by everyone. >> everyone maybe. but their own daughter who admitted to a bitter simmering dispute. >> there was a long family feud. >> she wanted to get her property back. >> evidence pointed to her boyfriend as an accomplice. >> you've got blood on your shoe. >> he was there. >> or was he? >> no hair, no finger print, no dna? >> nothing. >> a once loving family now gripped by suspicion. >> i had a lot of people in my ear saying she did it.

>> would the terrible truth rip them apart? >> this could not be happening. >> welcome to "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. it was a feud of epic proportions. a daughter battling her demons and her mother and stepfather for control of a $1 million property that had been in the family for generations. after both parents were murdered, police began to wonder just how far bambi bennett would go to get what was hers. they followed a bloody trail of evidence leading deep into the family's dispute, exposing ugly secrets and suspicions. but unmasking the murderer would prove far more complicated. here's dennis murphy with the deed. >> the old barn is a shambles now. fields back in the day so lush and productive, gone to seed.

the farmhouse empty. time was the farm land was some of south carolina's finest. bambi bennett's granddad owned a big spread and created a legacy for the generations to come. >> that barn used to be a to -- a tobacco barn. and my granddaddy built that. >> it was tobacco property? >> yeah, he did farming and could tobacco. >> the tree still stands tall in the front yard. they say land is worth dying for because it's the only thing that lasts. and truer words might never have been spoken. in this case, a beautiful piece of land turned out to be nothing but trouble. this is where bambi bennett's family was ripped apart by an act of cruel, unspeakable violence.

bambi, her given name, was a fun, feisty, good old girl. country through and through. >> i was at my grandparents' a lot growing up. and we gardened. we had a big yard. a huge yard. >> you're a country girl? >> mm-hmm. >> but she endured her share of heartache even at a tender age. her parents divorced when she was just 6. mom remarried, then a few years later came the terrible day she'll never forget. >> my daddy and my granddaddy passed away on the same day. i was 12 years old. >> so all of a sudden you had lost the two important men in your life. >> mm-hmm. >> it was a bewildering and tragic day. it was so much sudden loss to absorb, that young bambi not yet a teenager, paid no mind to her grandfather and father's wills. but it turned out she had been left the entire homestead. all 240 acres of it, to be held

in trust until she turned 18. not long after bambi inherited the farm, her stepfather, charlie, moved her family onto the property. her property. most everybody called him big charlie. bambi called him daddy. >> daddy loved hunting and fishing. and we always had fish fries and oyster roasts. there was always people down at the barn. >> you call your stepfather daddy. >> mm-hmm. >> you easily to that, huh? >> uh-huh. i've always called him daddy. >> big charlie was a deacon at the church. and he started a small business selling and installing glass, converting the old tobacco barn into a shop. bambi's mom diane worked as a secretary in the public schools. they were a respected happy couple, salt of the earth. >> she was the back bone of that family. >> bambi's cousins loved their aunt diane. >> if your car broke down, she

would go and make sure you had a meal, or you were warm. and while she was doing that, he would be fixing the car. >> good mom? >> fabulous mom. outstanding. her biggest thing was she wanted to make sure her kids were protected and their hearts were protected. >> and her daughter bambi would need a lot of protecting. the girl was growing up in a rush. married to her high school sweetheart and divorced after a few months. by the time she was just 24 years old, she had another failed marriage and was struggling as a single mom, trying to raise two boys, cody and nathan. >> that had to be tough, keeping your household going. >> yes. >> and things went from bad to worse. bambi started popping painkillers. >> the old story, huh? >> yes. >> just gobbled down when you could get them? >> i liked the way it made me feel. >> bambi was a single mom hooked on pills and sitting on a piece of land worth a small fortune.

diane decided it was time to intervene before, say, another whirlwind husband du jour got half the property. >> mama said if you put it in my name, it will be protected. >> and so, she signed the deed to her property over to her mom, and then bambi signed over her heart. sending cody and nathan to be raised by their grandparents. she calls it her lowest point. >> i didn't want to do it, but i knew it was the right thing. she wanted to take care of them. she loved those children. >> it was a crushing loss, no question. but bambi agreed at the time the boys were better off. they loved diane and charlie. >> they're just very loving. a lot of outdoor stuff. they spoiled us to death. >> nathan, how about you? >> they were the most loving individuals i've ever met in my life. my grandma is the most sweet woman. and everybody says so. >> with the boys living at their grandparents, bambi tried to get her own life back on track.

that's when she metric gagnun, a new hire at charlie's class company. there was an instant attraction. >> i've always liked the bad boy image, you know, i guess? he had the goatee and the shaved head. i don't know. we just had a good time together. >> was it a serious relationship? >> yes, it was. >> rick was serious, too. he confronted bambi about her demons. >> i told her if she wanted to be in a relationship, then she had to, you know, do something about the pills. >> by the spring of 2005, bambi felt she had turned the corner. she and rick found a home of their own in myrtle beach. after a long struggle, she was ready to be a mom to her boys again. >> i was getting on my feet, and i wanted them there with us. >> grandparents charlie and diane agreed, very reluctantly, to let the boys move in with bambi and rick. but no sooner had the boys moved than diane was making the case to get them back.

>> mama was concerned. >> did she want to hold on to the boys? >> she said that she would like for them to, you know, continue to stay with her. >> boyfriend rick thought bambi couldn't catch a break with her family. >> everybody pretty much treated bambi like crap. it stemmed from, you know, issues that diane, charlie, and bambi had. >> those issues were simmering into an angry family drama. then, just a few weeks after the boys were turned over, it happened. it was april 12th, a tuesday morning. bambi called her mom. no answer. big charlie was late for work. one of his barn employees went up to the house to look for him. moments later, he called 911. >> 911. >> she's laying on the floor. there's blood everywhere. >> there's blood everywhere? >> yes, ma'am. >> oh, my god. >> inside, things were chaotic. an appalling sight. big charlie and diane were dead, and the old farmhouse they loved

so well was now a crime scene. coming up, charlie and diane parker lying dead in their own home. the investigation begins. at a grisly crime scene, some small stray drops of blood might just provide a huge clue. >> it appeared that someone involved in the crime was a bleeder. >> so that's great evidence. >> it is, if you can match it up. >> when "dateline extra" continues. and evyone knows me for discounts, like safe driver and paperless billing. but nobody knows the box behind the discounts. oh, it's like my father always told me -- "put that down. that's expensive." of course i save people an average of nearly $600, but who's gonna save me? [ voice breaking ] and that's when i realized... i'm allergic to wasabi. well, i feel better. it's been five minutes. talk about progress. [ chuckles ] okay. try duo fusion!ing antacids?ess. [ chuckles ] new, two in one heartburn relief. the antacid goes to work in seconds...

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welcome back, bambi bennett collected an inheritance worth a fortune. but when her mom thought her taste for painkillers put the family farm and her boys at risk, she stepped in and took control. then mom and step dad were brutally murdered. was this a random act of violence, or did the victims know their killer? here again is dennis murphy with "the deed."

the horror discovered inside the farmhouse confused the caller and the 911 operator. but what happened to charlie and diane was all too clear. she was found lying next to her bed. big charlie sprawled on the bathroom floor. each had been shot multiple times, both by then dead for hours. the county sheriff phillip thompson's cell phone erupted with calls about the shooting, and he rushed to the scene. not to investigate. charlie and diane were his best friends. >> they weren't just mine. they were everybody's friends. what we remember was how good they were. how kind they were. and what good people they were. >> down at her house in myrtle beach, about 30 minutes from the crime scene, bambi was getting ready to go antiquing with her mom. she called her cell. one of charlie's glass company workers answered.

>> i said, can i speak to my mama, please? he said bambi, your mama and daddy's dead. >> just like that? >> yes. and i said, what? he said, bambi, somebody's broke in here and killed them. shot them. and i just dropped the phone. and started crying. >> when bambi arrived at the house, yellow caution tape blocked her way. police were everywhere. >> my mom was, like, freaking out. >> rick tried to comfort bambi. young cody turned to him, too. >> and then i remember rick, he was near me, and i was crying on his shoulder. and everybody was just kind of -- it was a mad house out there. >> in those moments, it seemed the whole county had gone mad. the murders of diane and charlie came hard on the heels of two other vicious killings nearby. the suspect, a man all over the news named steven stenko, was

still at large. >> they were looking for steven when charlie and diane were discovered. >> vivian was charlie and diane's neighbor. she runs a flower shop nearby. >> tell me about the fear. is this the kind of thing you could feel in the air? >> you could feel it in the air. >> probably not too thrilled at the idea of getting in your car and driving away. >> i didn't even want to go home. it was pretty bad that day. >> when i first arrive, what i'm looking at is an opportunity to get oriented to the crime scene. >> the man responsible for making sense of the crime scene was prosecutor fran humphries, then deputy chief solicitor for horry county. >> had the house been tossed, rifled? >> it had. one of the first things you do -- this appeared to be a home invasion burglary. >> first take. >> no question. >> it was a gruesome crime scene. the bathroom awash in charlie's blood. there was blood spatter in the bedroom where diane lay. but several feet from diane, there were notably a few small

droplets. >> it appeared that someone involved in the crime, not the victims, was a bleeder. >> why couldn't that be from one of your two victims? >> it was apparent that big charlie never left the area of the bathroom. and it was apparent that diane died where she lay. >> so it looks like your shooter, your intruder, is bleeding? >> is bleeding. >> so that's great evidence. >> it is if you can match it up. >> while crime scene techs process the house, investigators started taking statements. big charlie and diane had a large family and knew a lot of people. >> the list of people that we talked to is exhaustive. >> a parade of friends, employees, and family was brought down to headquarters for interviews, including bambi and her boyfriend rick. >> they did gunshot residue tests on aum ll of us. >> including you? >> uh-huh. >> they had me remove my shirt, took my shoes, took picture of

my shoes, tops, bottoms. >> both bambi and rick told police they had spent the night at home. never left. with the interviews complete, police drove rick and bambi back to the farmhouse. everyone was gone. bambi says she realized she had left her purse with her phone and car keys in the detective's cruiser. she decided she would take her mother's vehicle to get home. >> we didn't have any way to get in touch with nobody. we didn't have anything. i told rick, i said, see if you can find mama's purse, her cell phone. so he went in the house. >> police had released the crime scene, but it still looked like one. detectives told the family they would have to clean it up. so when rick says he went into fetch diane's car keys, he found himself tiptoeing through a bloody mess. what were you seeing? >> all the blood, just one of the most horrible things i had ever seen. >> rick approached the bathroom where charlie had been killed. he says he noticed bambi through

the window pacing in the backyard. >> she was calling out, you know, mama, mama, she was crying, screaming. and i stepped into the bathroom, tried to step around the mess as best i could, and i shut the blinds. >> and you closed them because you didn't want bambi to see the blood and gore? >> that's right. i remember saying to bambi, i think i stepped in some blood in the bathroom, and i was wiping my shoe off on the sand. and she was telling me to wash my shoe so i didn't get blood in her mom's truck. >> that must have been eerie being in that house that night, huh? >> yeah. extremely. >> it was an eerie moment. one that would haunt bambi and rick for years to come. coming up, bambi makes a stunning admission. >> when "dateline extra" continues. fit fine when you first put them on. but, during the day, they can move! in the morning...

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welcome back. a south carolina farm community was reeling after the murders of a beloved couple. the suspect in two additional

murders, crimes that occurred less than 30 miles down the road, was on the run and a manhunt was under way. were these slayings related, or was this double homicide about money, family, and the struggle to control both? or maybe this was about something else entirely. continuing with "the deed," here's dennis murphy. >> the cold-blooded killing of big charlie and diane parker had a great many people in and around conaway, south carolina, bolting their doors and locking their windows. had you had any trouble in that neighborhood, with break-ins? >> not that i know of. it's always been a wonderful place. it just doesn't make any sense. >> was this more of the murderous rampage of the notorious steven stenko, who was all over the news?

no, said prosecutor tim humphries, who knew he had been sighted 200 miles away. >> so this awful thing at the farmhouse, you weren't associating that with stenko. even in the public mind, they made that connection. >> truly at that time, law enforcement knew that he was physically in augusta. >> rather, humphries focused on the evidence coming from the parker crime scene. he quickly came to believe this was more than just a bungled home invasion. >> it was apparent that nothing had been taken, or at least nothing that you would suspect to be taken in a burglary. >> humphries thought back to some curious statements bambi had made in her interview with police, which she said she had given willingly. >> you sure you're okay to do this? >> soon after the interview started, bambi, he said, began describing in detail a feud within her family. at issue was the land bambi owned and that her parents were

living on. >> according to humphries, bambi and diane argued over who should control that property. >> diane wanted to make sure that that property was there for the kids. i think she had become convinced that bambi was not going to be in a position to manage that property. >> i love this girl, my daughter, but she's beyond hope, is that the feeling? >> well, she just can't be trusted with it. >> bambi didn't agree. >> she wanted the property back. >> i had a lot of anger about that. >> but humphries learned the land wasn't the only hot button between bambi and her mother and step dad. bambi admitted they also argued over the raising of bambi's boys, nathan and cody. >> was there any issues where your parents didn't want the kids to go back to you guys or anything like that? >> well, yeah.

i understand that it was hard for her, to, you know, give them back. at first we were angry at each other. and fed up with each other. >> diane just wasn't comfortable with bambi having custody of those children. >> in fact, just four months before the murders, a mother/daughter shouting match over the care for the boys got so out of hand that diane called 911. the responding officer arrived with his dash cam rolling. >> i'm sorry to bother you. >> you're not bothering me at all. >> diane explained the argument to the officer. >> she usually just does what she wants to do. she doesn't provide anything for them. >> diane went on to say she felt threatened by her daughter. >> she scares me. she got in my face and jerked the phone out of my hand. >> and then came this chilling pronouncement. >> if anything happens to me, you'll know she's the responsible person. >> how telling is that?

she was in grave fear. >> humphries suspected bambi was involved, but he was skeptical she could commit a double homicide on her own, so the prosecutor turned his attention to bambi's boyfriend, rick. >> he's aligned with bambi. he's extremely faithful to bambi. >> and according to humphries, willing to do anything for her. you have the daughter and boyfriend who seem to be in some sort of conspiracy? >> well, in agreement to accomplish a goal. >> the alibi, that they were at home, was differently to prove. each gave the other as a witness. >> she said, we were at home. rick was there, i was there, my boys were in the other room. >> the prosecutor began to wonder. could those mysterious blood droplets be linked to rick and

bambi? >> while humphries waited for those results, he obtained a search warrant and took another look at some of rick and bambi's belongings, including their shoes. >> there was blood on his shoes. >> the prosecutor didn't buy rick's story about having stepped in blood while looking for bambi's mother's car keys. detectives also found what they thought was blood on one of bambi's boots. >> so now you have two persons of interest, fair to say? >> no question. >> prosecutors asked both to take polygraph tests. both agreed and both showed deception. >> rick in particular showed deception. >> police then sat both rick and bambi down in separate rooms for another round of questioning. this time the gloves were off. >> you want to be charged with something? answer my question. >> i didn't do anything. >> they hoped for a confession or at the very least that she'd

give up rick. she didn't do either. >> you don't want to be charged. >> i'm not going to be charged because i didn't do anything. >> lock her up. put some handcuffs on her. take her to jail. >> but the detectives weren't done yet trying to break bambi. bambi says the hammer came down hard one more time. >> they surrounded me like a pack of wolves. they said go get those crime scene photos of her mama and daddy. and i said no, no, no. and i was trying to cover my face. and he was pulling my hands off of my face. and he said you did this. you. >> detectives said the same thing to rick. >> they arrested me and that was pretty much it. if bambi did it, then i had to be a part of it.

>> so there it was. a daughter and her boyfriend partners in love and suspected of murder. the alleged motive was basic. get the deed to the land and resolve the custody issue of the boys in one bloody rampage. horry county could sleep easier at night with case closed. but was it case solved? coming up, a new family feud breaks out between bambi and her sons. >> i had a lot of people saying she did it. i resented her. i hated her. >> when "dateline extra" continues. ♪

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flonase controls 6. one day, the worlde wonder came together. games. a dog, talked. we're decedent from the mighty wolf. a voice was heard. if you build it, he will come. a girl discovered magic. a revolution began. welcome, to the wonders that happen, everyday. welcome, to it all. comcast. hi, i'm richard lui with your hour's top stories. george p. bush is calling on texas republicans to support donald trump, but has not yet endorsed the gop nominee. this weekend, bush told a crowd of party activists, while it's a bitter pill to swallow, it's a time to put animosity aside and make sure trump beats hillary

clinton in november. this comes as there's some new polling out today showing clinton eight points ahead of trump, doubling what the same poll showed before last month's conventions. for now, back to "dateline extra." welcome back. i'm tamron hall. with a shaky alibi, a clear motive, and evidence mounting, investigators charged bambi bennett and her boyfriend with two counts of murder. bambi's own sons didn't believe in her innocence, but there was one man who did. and he was prepared to fight for her freedom. returning to "the deed", here's dennis murphy. >> bambi bennett sat in an horry county jail cell stunned. she had just been charged with two counts of murder. >> i thought, i'm just having a bad dream. this cannot be happening. not only were my parents just

murdered, now i'm being accused of being the ones that killed them. i said, y'all have lost your mind. i said, this doesn't make any sense. i didn't do anything wrong. >> but to prosecutor fran humphries, it made perfect sense. >> the motive is unavoidable in this case. bambi needed her stepfather and mother dead so she could get her property back. >> property valued at north of a million dollars. >> the classic question that people in your line of work pose is, well, who benefited? >> bambi. >> as for bambi's boyfriend rick, humphries believe bambi persuade ed him to help her car out the murderous deed. but both rick and bambi say the prosecutor had it all wrong. they insisted they would never do anything to harm diane or charlie, and bambi down played the family drama over the land, despite calling it a feud during her interrogation. >> she wants the land. that is the most ludicrous thing ever.

it was given to me by my daddy to begin with, and even though it was in momma's name, if i wanted the land back, all i had to do was tell mama that. >> also absurd she said was the allegation she would kill her parents over disagreements about how to raise her boys. >> who does not have disagreements ever with their mother or their father? me and mama didn't always agree on the upbringing of cody and nay, but that didn't mean i'm going to kill my mama because we don't agree. that is ridiculous! >> but by now, even some of bambi's family believed she was responsible for her parents' murders, including bambi's own sons, nathan and cody. >> you lost your grandparents in the most awful fashion. and then your mom is swept away from your life within minutes. >> it's just crazy. you don't know who to turn to. >> when did you come to the idea that maybe she was the one that did this? >> it was a mixture of things. like, i had a lot of people in my ear saying that she did it. i came to the conclusion that she, basically, like put it in

rick's head for rick to do it. >> i only thought she had something to do with it from what i had been told. >> i resented her. i hated her. i didn't want to see her face ever again. >> it seemed bambi's supporters were few and far between. but one who did believe in her innocence was her attorney, jim irvin. >> everybody rushed to judgment in this case. >> the way jim irvin saw it, the prosecution's case against bambi was a weak circumstantial one that hinged on a bunch of theories as to motive. >> what always bothered me about this case, when you look at the gun powder residue, there was none on bambi. >> he said that one bit of hard evidence detectives thought they had against bambi, what they thought was blood on her boot, turned out to be nothing. >> the detectives said, we got her. the dna on this is going to belong to one of the two people. they couldn't even say it was dna. >> as for the polygraph test, detectives said bambi failed to

pass. according to irvin, those results were suspicious. >> the last question they asked her, have you told me everything you know about this case. if i ask a detective that same question, he couldn't pass it either. it's too broad a question. >> bambi sat in jail for six months. >> they were hoping she'd flip and tell them the story? >> that's exactly what they were hoping. >> finally, the judge said enough is enough. prosecutor humphries had to let bambi go. >> it became apparent the evidence was not sufficient to bring her case to trial. >> didn't have the goods? >> it just wasn't there. it wasn't there. >> and yet she's the foundation of your theory. >> there's no question about it. >> for the time being, bambi was able to put horry county jail in her rear-view mirror. and with it, rick. by now, bambi had cut ties with her old boyfriend. >> sounds like she had your back, rick, and then she didn't. >> yeah. >> what had happened? >> jail changes people. >> rick was hoping it would be

just a matter of time before he too would be released. >> the forensics they had against you, no hair, no fingerprint, there was no dna. >> nothing. >> but he did have charlie's blood on his shoe. to humphries, that evidence was part of a bloody trail from the crime scene that was about to leave both the prosecutor and rick into a courtroom showdown. coming up, one of rick gagnan's fellow inmates. co- -- comes forward with a damning story. >> he's been given a story about what the crime scene looked like. >> stuff that hadn't been in the newspapers? >> not at all. >> when "dateline extra" continues.

welcome back. without solid evidence, horry county was forced to set bambi bennett free. but despite bambi's refusal to testify against her boyfriend, prosecutors believed they had

enough evidence to bring rick down. including a surprise witness. here's dennis murphy with more of our story, "the deed." >> rick gagnan was in a world of pain, locked up in the county jail facing two murder charges. he shared his woes with another guy in a jump suit, two inmates power walking together around the yard. >> we would walk around the pod, do laps. >> the jail yard buddy was named robert mullens, a petty crook who seemed strangely interested in rick's troubles. did he want to talk to you about the case? was he grilling you? >> yeah, all the time. >> but then, it seemed everyone in this part of south carolina wanted to know more about this case and its two beloved victims. it took three years, but in 2008, the state was ready to try rick gagnan for the murders of charlie and diane parker. a camera was rolling as prosecutor fran humphries began his case. >> this is purely motive

evidence, which establishes a motive for richard gagnan to end the lives of these two people. >> as humphries recalls, the case against rick was always motivation strong, evidence weak. not much more than a drop of charlie parker's blood on a shoe, when you came right down to it. even so, humphries told the court the blood put him at the crime scene. >> but he had a story for it. >> it didn't hold water, but he had a story about it. >> humphries recited rick's version, how he had gone into the parker house to get a set of car keys sometime after crime scene techs had finished up. >> he looked to his right, which is the window leading into the bathroom where big charlie had died and noticed the blood. >> rick said he worried bambi pacing outside might look in the window and freak out all over again. >> he went in and stepped through the bathroom and closed

the blind. >> and oops, i stepped in the blood. that's his story. >> yeah. >> but it didn't hold up. >> no, because they were already closed. >> that was the gotcha. this crime scene photo, said the prosecutor, was taken hours before rick supposedly stepped inside that house. notice, the bathroom blinds are drawn. humphries argued that rick could not have closed the blinds because they were already shut. the prosecutor said the defendant was lying. though he believed rick had told the truth about the murders to at least one other person. the state's star witness, robert mullins. the witness i call a jailhouse snitch, you probably call the jailhouse informant. >> he's a snitch, no question about that. at the end of the day, what we learn from robert mullins is that he's been given a fairly detailed account by gagnan of what occurred that evening and what the crime scene looked like. >> in fact, he said, mullins was the first to tell police this

piece of bombshell news. gagnan had mentioned an accomplice in the killings. >> the only way you can have that information is from someone on the crime scene who participated in the crime. >> and then the prosecutor tried to spin an inconvenient fact in his favor. those mystery blood drops found at the murder scene had been tested. the dna was not a match to rick, but to an unidentified male. that, said the prosecutor, actually supported what mullins said, that rick had an accomplice. humphries believed the evidence was enough to put the defendant away. he only wished he could make the same case against rick's old girlfriend. what about bambi? i mean, she wasn't being tried in this courtroom. >> no. it was a travesty. >> her fingerprints are on this? >> all over it, figuratively. >> and that's just how he laid it out in his closing. he told the jury this was a story about a spoiled woman, bambi bennett, who had manipulated her boyfriend rick into doing her murderous dirty

work. get back the deed. get her mother off her back. >> he had heard from bambi how her parents were not fair to her. that they have her land. you know, my parents are horrible people and they've taken advantage of me. >> to make things right, argued the prosecutor, the dutiful boyfriend and his right-hand man entered the house and hunted down bambi's parents in their night clothes. the jury had just heard a drama of southern gothic proportions, dripping with family greed and hatred. now it was time for an entirely different story. >> none of the puzzle pieces fit. >> rick's defense team, including attorney barbara pratt, told the court that the state's case was heavy on fiction, light on facts. >> they had a puzzle, they had neat little pieces. but the pieces weren't exactly right. >> the state was so desperate to prove its case, she said, it clung to the word of a jailhouse snitch and career criminal. >> a fellow that is there to cut himself a deal and get himself

some assistance, i guess, in his own case is not likely to be credible. >> not only was the snitch not to be believed, the defense told the jurors, but the state was also trying to confuse them about the mystery blood found at the crime scene. the bottom line, said pratt, the dna from that blood cleared their client of the murders. >> the dna didn't match. and we knew the dna was not going to match rick. >> and they knew that, she said, because rick had an alibi for the night of the murders. he had been asleep in myrtle beach with bambi. the way pratt saw it, the most challenging part of the case was the blood on rick's shoe. to explain how it got there, rick took the stand. he pointed out that on the morning the bodies were discovered, police had examined him thoroughly and found nothing. >> if there was blood on my shoes that morning, i would have been arrested right then and there. there was no blood on my shoes that morning. >> that came later when he stepped into the blood-soaked bathroom. despite that police photo, he

insisted the window blinds were open, and he had worried simply that bambi might see the horry inside. >> i went in and shut the blinds. i didn't think she needed to see that. >> he testified the blood got on his shoe at that moment, not before. did you go into the house and kill big charlie and diane at the instigation of bambi? >> absolutely not. >> were you two in a conspiracy to kill those people? >> no, sir. >> so who did kill the couple? but don't know, said the defense. but it wasn't rick gagnan. with that, the jurors filed out to deliberate. rick waited with his attorneys. and the woman many felt to be at the heart of it all held her breath. coming up, the jury renders its verdict. >> i didn't know what to think anymore. >> but this isn't the end of a case, because finally, investigators learn who left those mysterious blood drops at the crime scene. >> he said they identified the killer.

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welcome back, the jury was about to decide jack's fate, but it wasn't the end by a long shot. here is dennis murphy with the final chapter. >> they deliberated for only a few hours. they filed back to the courtroom. he read their faces and he knew. >> on the count of murder, two life sentences -- >> she said she didn't want to be in court for the verdict. her attorney called her.

>> i'm thinking oh my gosh, could he have done this, and i'm going in the back of my head, there was no way he could have done this. >> i believe that god saw fit to have me -- >> and that, said rick, was all he had left. faith in god and a good appellant lawyer. >> in my 22 or 23 years of being a pellant defense attorney, he was only two maybe three people i ever thought that he was actually innocent. >> bob and rick could come up with the evidence. then in 2009, rick had an encounter in prison with yet another inmate. >> he was all excited about

something. >> authorities in tennessee, told rick, just arrested someone from a home invasion there. >> he told me they identified the killer. >> that man's name was bruce hill. when they ran his dna through the database, they had a match to the mystery blood found. in 2011, a jury convicted hill of the murders of big charlie and diane. his motive was never firmly established. >> do you know that name? have you ever seen him on job sites? >> never. >> but rick's lawyer needed proof there was no connection between the two men. >> we showed him a picture of rick and his words were "i have never seen that cracker

[ bleep ] before" bruce hill was unambiguous and very blunt that he didn't know rick gagnon. he flatly refused. rick was out of luck. >> it was the first piece of good news i had had in a long time. i was excited. >> the arrival of a new inmate. >> i was in the chapel at the time. and he was brought into the chapel. >> one day the man opened up and stunned rick. he said he knew a guy in jail named robert mullens, the very same that testified against rick. the man said that mullens shared a secret. he lied about rick's involvement in the murder. >> i already knew it, but to hear someone else say that mullen is a liar.

>> now the snitch on snitch story had the appeal judge's attention. >> the judge had to make a determination that the trial could have come out different -- >> because mullen's story was that important in getting a decision? >> right. >> the new county solicitor, the one that replaced humphreys could refile if he wanted. rick gagnon walked out of friday. >> the smell of the ocean is like freedom. it was a terrible thing that i went to prison for something i didn't do. it changed my life. >> his old girlfriend claims her life was up ended too. bambi says she cut ties with

most of the people she grew up with. >> i didn't want to be there any more. it was my home. but the home that i had known falsely accused me and destroyed me. >> but there is something she would like from the people of her county in south carolina. >> you want an apology? >> i would, and it's not going to fix everything. >> she's not going to get that. she's entitled to something, but it's not an apology. >> i would have liked justice. >> all but forgotten are bambi's

sons. went from hating their mom to believing she is completely innocent. >> as a testment, they join their mom in the place she now calls home. for the first time in a long time, they feel like family. >> we were able to trust her with our feelings. >> you can be her sons again. >> for that, at least, bambi is grateful. >> she is hopeful that every once in awhile she can look back. >> we still have no answers. maybe if the put the time in in the beginning we would not be in this predicament today. >> may there are no reasons to

dig up the past. >> that is all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall, thank you for watching. it's never good news when the phone rings at 5:00 in the morning. i knew something wasn't right. he just began sobbing and saying no, no, something horrible must have happened. >> it was just before midnight when the shooting started. >> shot multiple times. he was on the ground face down. >> a man was dead, but not just any man. >> how do you kill superman?