he said he couldn't handle talking about it. i was angry at him. if you're not going to tell me what happened then you're going to dance around the issue and tell three different stories what are you hiding? >> it started as a teen romance. >> two of my girlfriends are like there's a guy, you need to meet him. >> i was in love. >> it ends in the strangest love

stories you will hear. right before their wedding their mother and his father got married. >> they told us, we ran off, we eloped. who does that? >> two families in a small town left stunned, but it was nothing compared to what happened next. >> looks like he's been shot. he said someone broke in last night. >> a deadly attack in the dark of the night, her mother murdered. >> i realized that last conversation i had with her, that was it. >> his father bruised and bewildered. >> i don't remember anything else other than waking up in the morning. >> was it a robbery? >> television's on. >> was it revenge? >> always going to look at the closest people to the victim. >> was it something much darker? >> you were 11 years old when your mother disappeared. >> a missing woman. the murdered woman and a lie. >> i didn't get through more than a page and a half and i threw it. i could barely stomach to finish it.

>> welcome to "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. the young couple was in love and engaged to be family but their family was rocked by scandal and then murder. erin's father was found dazed and confused but his confusing story had police questioning his version of events. here's keith morrison with "tangled." >> you can't put words to that. it was very surreal. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> it's true. the old saying, when you marry someone you marry their family too. >> we need an ambulance. it looks like he's been shot. he said someone broke in last night. he and his wife both. >> and not a bad thing to turn to mom or dad for advice and counsel. >> it's hard, sometimes you think it didn't happen, but yet

it really did. >> it's with their help and support after all that true love could deepen and grow and last. >> i watched the crime scene shows on tv. i never -- never ever thought that oh, that's going to be my life. >> yes, it is all about family. the high desert opens up near pueblo, colorado, a hundred miles or so south of denver. among the highest of the nation's deserts. a little closer to heaven, perhaps? this is where shannon palmer's mom and dad set out to create a good, safe and holy life for their daughters far from the risks and temptations of the city. >> it was awesome. i got to grow one horses and dogs everywhere and chickens and 40 acres to run around on. >> shannon and her sister kelsey went to school right at home. their mother pam devoutly jehovah's witness was their

teacher. >> i loved it. i don't think i missed out on any aspect of my education. >> there were strict guide lines of course about beliefs, family, marriage, sex. there were no birthday or holiday celebrations and they learned that members who committed adultery or who divorce can be cast out. shunned. shannon and kelly's dad jerry didn't share the faith, though he respected pam's but he wasn't a fan of the home schooling. he wanted them to go to the public school. but pam wouldn't have it. >> she wanted us to be this tall and be her little girls. she very genuinely loved us. we were her world. >> you were her reason to be. >> oh, yeah. >> but finally, when i was the time for high school, pam relented. >> i think she realized that you can't control an environment for a child forever. >> what was it like to make the transition? >> it was a culture shock. it was different. i was there maybe a week and my

new friends are like let's educate you on the ways of the world. i was like, oh, my gosh. >> which of course included boys. >> two of my girlfriends were like there's this guy and you need to meet him and i think you'll get along. i was like great. >> the guy was aaron candelario and before long -- >> i was in love. yes. i was very much in love. >> you know, we had such a connection. >> no kidding. both jehovah's witnesses, both home schooled by their mothers. or at least aaron was home schooled until his parent's marriage broke up. >> we were so drawn to each other that two people were so driven and so optimistic and wanted to do big things in life. >> so after high school, they got engaged and full of excitement planned a wedding. then one night, shannon's mother pam sent the girls off to bible

study and told her husband we need to talk up. >> she said, i don't want to be married to you anymore. i don't want to be here. >> everything was fine, fine, fine, and then -- >> we seemed to be getting along. everything was fine. three said, this is it, i'm done. >> what did that feel like? >> oh, it was a crush. i was crushed. >> what happened? no one knew. except that now these two had one more thing in common -- both products of broken homes. the wedding day approached. just a few days to go when shannon's mother pam and aaron's dead ralph invited the bride and groom to be for a talk. some premarital guidance, perhaps? oh, no. nothing like that. >> they told us we ran out, we eloped and got marry. >> wait, what? your mother and aaron's father? >> yes. >> who does that? >> i don't know.

but i can't tell you how much it felt like i got hit by a bus. >> do you know what that meant? it meant that by the time you got married you were marrying your step brother. >> i didn't say much. i was like, well, we're leaving. >> suddenly, jerry realized how blind he'd been. >> you didn't understand, but then afterwards it all -- all the pieces fell into place. >> you were never suspicious? >> i trusted her. don't we do that? in a relationship. >> no trust now. shannon and aaron were furious. told the elopers, interlopers more like, stay away from the wedding. but they couldn't pretend that it hadn't happened. when they hit the little bumps most young marriages encounter, it colored everything. did your father and her mother's relationship have anything to do with what happened to you and

shannon? >> we were determined not to let their relationship have an effect, but, you know, it's always something that's in the back of your head. >> after a year and a half, shannon and aaron divorced. pam and ralph's marriage on the other hand thrived. they moved into a big house on a corner lot in walsenburg, an old coal mining town 50 miles south of pueblo. they opened up the antiques mall in the center of town and then bought a vacation home in oregon. >> that was the happiest i ever remembered seeing her. >> for nearly three year, shannon still hurt. rarely spoke to her mom. but then one day pam asked her to lunch. >> she was so focused on wanting me to know that we had a future together. her and i. >> wow. so finally, she was coming around on her own accord. >> it felt like it, yeah. you know, when i told her i can't handle you being my mother and being -- you know, doing what you did, but i want to be

your friend and i want to try this. >> so this is a break through lunch it seemed -- >> a break through lunch, yeah. >> for a beginning at least and then just a few days later -- >> i was at work. and i see aaron's name come up on my phone. he's like you know what, something's happened in walsenburg. my dad is being rushed to the hospital. they can't find your mom. he said, but i think someone's dead. coming up -- who was dead? and was a killer on the loose in a small town? >> he said -- >> the family in shock. an ex-husband under suspicious. >> you're always going to look to the closest people to the victim. when "dateline extra" continues.

welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall.

ralph and pam's marriage caused a major rift between mother and daughter. just when it seemed like they were recovering their fractured relationship, there was news of a disturbance at the house. what happened to pam? returning to "tangled" here again is keith morrison. >> 7:00 a.m. january 16, 2014. a cold morning in walsenburg, colorado. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> ralph and pam candelario's neighbor had been on the way to work. she had never encountered this before. >> i looked over and he was saying, help me, help me. >> ralph was on the ground. in front of his house, hurt. >> i got to him and asked him if he needed help. and he seemed to be kind of out of it. >> finally, ralph managed to get the words out.

he and his wife had been attacked and robbed. afraid that the attackers might still be in the house, the neighbor called 911. >> he looks like he had been shot. he said someone broke in. >> how are they doing? >> not good. he was crying. i want to get my neighbor to help me here. ralph -- we're getting help for you, ralph, okay? >> the police arrived. went into the house with guns drawn. and there at the entrance to the kitchen, still in her nightgown lay pam candelario. her head covered in blood. >> i knew she was dead when the ambulance showed up because they didn't go into the house. they just stayed and were working on ralph. >> ralph wasn't shot, but he was hurt. and he was airlifted to the nearest trauma hospital. walsenburg as the local reporter

knew was not equipped to handle this. >> you have five or six or seven people, you don't have murder cops on staff. >> no. >> you don't have forensic professionals on staff. >> so by the time shannon arrived at the hospital looking for her mother, an agent of the colorado bureau of investigation was there to meet her. along with aaron. how did she take it? >> about as well as you'd expect anybody to get hit by a sledge hammer or whatever. at first you're shocked. a little bit of denial. >> suddenly, i realized that last conversation i had with her, that was it. >> no fresh start now. her mother was dead. and then shannon saw ralph. >> and he host it. he just turned into a sobbing, shaking maniac. >> ralph's face was banged up, he had bruises in several

places. he was confused, like a man coming out of a concussion. >> just exhausted. my head still just hurts. >> then as soon as he was able and still in his hospital clothes, ralph talked to agents at the cbi. >> sorry to hear about your loss. >> yeah, it's been a horrible day. >> best he could remember said ralph he got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. then decided to go downstairs to make sure the wood burning stove was still lit. on his way to the bottom of the steps he said, somebody hit him from behind. and then again from the side. >> i put my arm up and boom, i mean, it just hit me like a ton of bricks. it hit me hard, you know? so i went backwards. the ringing -- i couldn't see no more. >> ralph was knocked unconscious. >> i mean, i don't remember anything else other than waking up in the morning. >> then said ralph, still

disoriented, he tried to sit up. >> i looked down the hallway, i could see pam. her legs -- she was -- she was there. >> revealed by the first raise of a warm morning sun. >> her head -- there was blood all over. there was blood on the floor and i touched her cheek and she was cold. cold, cold. and i ran out of the house. >> and that said ralph is when he saw his neighbor fahry and yelled for help. but who did it? robbers? or someone else? normally said walsenburg police captain vince suarez -- >> you're always going to look at the closest people to the victim. >> except in this case, ralph was also a victim and clearly wanted to help find the killer or killers. cbi agent jodi wright. >> he was very cooperative,

absolutely. >> so investigators turned their attention to the spurned ex-husband, jerry palmer. >> actually the next day was when the investigators called me. >> it was no secret jerry and pam did not get along after the divorce. a divorce which by the way she asked him to file. since as a jehovah's witness she wasn't allowed to. and so then you filed for divorce. >> i filed for divorce. >> accommodating to the end. >> to the end. >> and now the police were calling. >> and i told them i'd be more than happy to talk to them. >> if they come up -- >> i said, you have about six hours you can be here to talk to me. >> nebraska. jerry had moved far away which cleared him for sure. of course, they'd need to look at shannon and aaron too. given their falling out with pam and ralph. but -- >> they were cleared almost

immediately because -- >> there was nowhere around. >> they were not involved. >> dead end. the crime scene people did find some things, mind you, including a bloody fire place poker that turned out to be the murder weapon. >> the marking on her head was the exact replica of the shape of the fire pocker. the end of the poker. >> they cat locked everything they found. the broken glass in back of the door. and they took the knobs off the door hoping that the intruders left dna or fingerprints on them. then something remarkable turned up. came right through the front door of the local newspaper. what did you think when you first read that document? >> i felt i had my own version of the pentagon papers in a way. >> coming up -- a letter that

has everyone in town talking. >> i remember reading it and putting it down, thinking, no, it didn't say that. >> when "dateline extra" continues.

welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. pam candelario was found murdered in her home. her husband ralph was badly beaten. ralph told police his version of the events and then a letter arrived at a local newspaper. was the news fit to print or an exercise in creative writing? that's what investigators wanted to know. continuing with "tangled" here's keith morrison. >> it's a grand name perhaps for a weekly paper in an out of the way little town. the "huerfano world journal." but then walsenburg was once the hub of huerfano county and coal mines offered endless promise and now antique stores like pam and ralph's filled the gaps by

the departing commerce. >> i think in all small towns you see selling the heritage because there's nothing left to sell. >> no surprise said eric mullins that the invasion and killing at the candelario's place was a big deal for the weekly paper and for the whole town. >> we didn't know who was out there. >> people like the candelario's neighbors, dina and lamarre. >> i was afraid. i didn't even want to go my paint class that i do in the evening because i was afraid to be out. >> a lot of people got guns. >> a lot of neighbors told me, i went out and got a gun, you know? i want to protect myself. >> everyone knew the candelarios had a nice house filled with vintage treasures. >> there's jewelry. this is the dresser. >> some of which were missing as ralph told the police during the tour. >> the television is gone. >> okay. >> the candelarios had been about to leave on vacation. so maybe the intruders thought they were gone and were

surprised to find them at home. but who? a citizens tip supplied a possible lead. >> she brought up individual names that he believes were involved in this homicide. >> ramone barross, both had rap sheets. one informant said ramone was trying to sell jewelry the day after the murder. so you have a responsibility to check into that. >> yeah. >> pam's daughter shannon found herself blaming ralph for not preventing what happened. >> i was angry at him. in my mind, i was like why didn't you protect my mother? that's your role as her husband. >> and right about then, the biggest scoop of eric mullen's career landed right in the lap of the "huerfano world journal." >> i have been in news since i was 15 years old. i have seen a lot of things walk

into the newsroom but not like this. >> in through the front door marched ralph candelario with an open letter to the whole town. >> it was him explaining what he could remember after he had been treated up in pueblo for his injury and interviewed by the cbi. >> this is my story, this is -- >> this is my story. this is what happened to me. >> to whom it may concern, it began. and we're including his typos exactly as they appeared in his letter. his memory was coming back. he wanted to explain and maybe shannon was right. he felt guilty. i am angry at myself for not finding a way to do more or just getting myself killed too. now he wrote he had an image of who his attackers were. i got a glimpse of that person, the tall, dark man with yellow glasses, short, curly hair. wide nose. large lips. and marks on the sides of his face. the tall guy was talking on the phone in spanish he said.

one of the two felons that tipped your -- hard to know. one of them knocked him out and when he came to there was pam. but not dead as he first told the police. it says here she was still alive. she started to convulse and i held her hand for a couple of minutes. she went quiet. i yelled at her again. i started crying. then the two men returned. i just broke down, i was crying. and i was cold and i was freaked out. pam was there with me, just a few feet away. things took a turn for the worst he wrote. then he pointed his gun at me and fired. it just clicked. i can't fully say what happened to me at that point. in fact, he was so scared he said he soiled his pajamas. he wrote that his ordeal began after he and pam went to bed on tuesday night. not wednesday as he originally thought.

it lasted nearly two days. he woke up on thursday morning. i thought my nightmare was over. but i looked down hall and i could see pam's legs in the kitchen. that's when he ran out of the house and found his neighbor who called 911. of course, the world journal printed all that, though the police weren't too happy about it. and eric mullins -- >> i remember taking it home and reading it and putting it down and say, no, it didn't say that and picking it back up. >> but remarkable as ralph's letter was, it still wasn't the whole story. a few weeks after the murder he mustered up the courage and toll the police -- >> while he was held captive he had asked to go to the restroom and he was sexually assaulted in the bathroom. >> well, why didn't he say anything about that before? >> his explanation was he was embarrassed.

>> it might be difficult to talk about, but the smallest details could be important. so keep that in mind. >> ralph agreed to show the investigators exactly what happened and where. >> he grabbed me with the other hand on my hip right here. and he proceeded to -- >> so that was the whole awful story. but if ralph thought that sharing his new more detailed recollections would clear the air, he was wrong. what did you think when you saw that? >> i was pretty blown away by what was written. coming up -- back at home with detectives, ralph gets his own surprise. >> he was very upset that they were missing. >> i don't understand why they're -- >> a better question -- why would he care? when "dateline extra" continues. 

i'm todd tie row. donald trump continues to make an appeals to the african-american voters in virginia. he wants the gop to become a quote inclusive party. and in an interview with nbc, ryan lochte apologized to the people of brazil as well as fellow olympians for the role in the incident at the gas station, but he insisted he wasn't lying when he initially described a robbery, saying he ov overexaggerated and he was a victim of extortion. now back to "dateline nbc." welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. when ralph candelario's account of the home invasion was published it became the talk of the town. everyone wondered -- could this story be true? ralph said yes. and police wondered if the truth was in there somewhere. returning to "tangled" here's keith morrison.

>> ralph candelario appeared to believe that his 3300 word letter about the murder of his wife would be the accepted true account of that terrible event. but here's what pam's daughter shannon thought. >> it felt overly dramatic and just very glamorous that he was the victim of this. and that wasn't -- that made me sick. >> and angry, obviously. >> yeah. >> her sister kelsey's interpretation? >> i thought it was very strange. i thought that he had some work to do on his story. because it sounded really phony. >> entitled to their opinion, of course. but then so were the cops. recovered memory? no, said the cbi's jodi wright. more like a cover-up. >> nothing in his statement

matched anything that i knew to be at the crime scene. it just didn't make sense. none of it. >> it wasn't really ralph changed his story in the m manifesto, more that he's adding to it. >> so he's watching what you're doing and tailoring his story to -- >> yes. >> ralph kept offering not less, but more details. about for example the drawer pulls in his house, the ones investigators removed to test for fingerprints. >> in the event that one of the invasion persons touched them. >> now, here's ralph with the police at his house, just after pam was murdered. noticing the missing knobs. >> what happened to all the knobs? >> he was upset that they're missing. >> he would know that you're looking for fingerprints of the home invaders.

>> yes. >> what if they didn't find fingerprints other than pam's and his? well, ralph provided a new detail that accounted for that possibility. >> all of a sudden, now his attackers he remembered they wore gloves with l.e.d. lights on them. which would explain why no one else's prints would be on the knobs or the drawers. >> did you ever hear of gloves with l.e.d. lights on them? >> well, we researched them. they do exist. >> in the letter ralph changed the time of pam's death, backed it up by more than 24 hours. why? could that perhaps have been a response to this investigator's challenge? >> she had died at 3:00 in the morning. had to be earlier than that. and we're going to go after it today. we'll know that. but that's going to come back to you. >> okay. >> but that's when ralph reported the invaders were in

his house just a few hours. now, in his letter he remembered the ordeal lasting nearly two days. and do you remember we mentioned it a while back that broken glass in the back door? the thing was the glass fell out the door, not in as it expected to do if someone was breaking into the house. the police of course brought that up with ralph. and what did he write in his letter? i went out the back and the rear door glass was broken. some pieces fell out when i opened the door. ralph even had answers to questions he wasn't asked like why was the fireplace poker exactly where it belonged by the fireplace? >> normally if you used a weapon you're going to find it somewhere around where your victim is. it looked like the poker had been put back in its original place. >> here's what ralph wrote -- i picked up the poker to stir up

the fire, i saw blood on the end of it and put it down. so investigators studied ralph's manifesto for clues and thanks to the "huerfano world journal" so did everyone else in town. neighbors mike and dina -- >> sounded like a novel to me. >> a bizarre one at that. >> shannon who had been angry at ralph read the letter and began to have thoughts that were much more disturbing. >> i didn't get through more than a page and a half and i threw it, i said this is bull [ bleep ]. i said this is the worst -- you know, i could barely stomach to finish it. >> and aaron, shannon's ex-husband, ralph's son. aaron went to a very dark place indeed. oh, you have no idea. you were 11 years old when your mother disappeared. >> yes. >> coming up -- secrets in the basement. >> i had been going through some of my dad's stuff and i found a

box of stuff of things she had supposedly taken with her.

welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. police weren't buying the story ralph candelario shared with the local newspaper about how his wife was murdered. now ralph's son aaron had a story too. this one from the past. here again is keith morrison with "tangled." >> the year was 2004. and aaron candelario was 11 years old. his parents had recently separated, were sharing custody. and one day after a weekend at his dad's house, aaron went home to find -- >> there was just a note on the coffee table that was in kind of

sketchy handwriting but, you know, nevertheless it said i love you, my boys, i'm taking off. >> his mother dena was simply gone. aaron was devastated. what did your father suggest may have happened to her? >> that she possibly had moved to missouri. a guy that she had been talking to online for quite some time, maybe she ran away to be with him. >> a missing person's case was opened, but nothing came of it. aaron and his brother moved in with ralph full-time. but aaron couldn't move on. she had to have left some trail somewhere. barely a teenager, he taught himself every web search engine, looked for years. but found no sign of his mom online. now a terrible suspicious took hold in him. his mother must be dead. his father must have done it. >> after that it became more of, okay, well, where would he put her body? >> he was maybe 13 or 14 when he

thought about those old coal mines around walsenburg. did you actually go and look? >> yeah, i went through a lot of the mines myself. >> alone? >> yeah. >> you're looking for the remains of your own mother. >> i can't explain it. it's a fire that drives you to do something. >> then one day -- >> i had been going through some of my dad's stuff in the basement. i found a box of stuff that supposedly she had taken with her. it was a denim jacket her mother had given her, passport, driver's license and cell phone were down there. >> wait a minute, what was that like? >> that was kind of the final straw. >> and naturally, if she was gone, she would have taken those things with her. >> exactly. no, that was my final piece of the puzzle. >> he left it there. left the box in the basement. and emerged a changed person. shannon told us aaron wouldn't talk much about his mother when they were married. but -- >> i'd find him up at night over

her papers, emotionally. >> going through her papers? >> like her stuff. her -- whatever little bit and pieces he had left of his mother. he couldn't even handle. it just wrecked him. >> when aaron heard pam was dead -- >> my first response was how did he do it? >> and then he told the cops about his mother. now you may have a serial killer on your hands. serial killer of spouses. >> yeah. >> something like that. >> that was the thought. >> two wives, one missing, the other dead. and the one thing they had in common was ralph candelario. but suspicious alone wasn't enough. it wasn't proof. so the investigation continued. >> yes. >> yes. >> in an effort to shake him or maybe to get a confession, they sought help from the one person whose presence back at the hospital made ralph break down and cry. shannon. >> cbi had me call him to get

him to tell me what happened. >> she must have been nervous. >> she was terrified. probably one of the hardest things she had to do. >> ralph, this is shannon. >> but shannon did it. >> i have been waking up having panic attacks. i just -- i can't deal with this. i want to know what happened. can you tell me anything? >> yeah. the only thing, you know, that i know is that a lot of stuff was stolen from the house. >> okay. >> ralph stuck to his story. a deadly home invasion. >> and i found her. >> yeah. >> and, you know, -- >> yeah. >> i tried to deal with that. >> shannon pressed ralph for details. >> the one guy that hit me that i saw from the front was taller than me. >> okay. >> he had a dark complexion. you know, he had marks on his face. >> and then something that didn't sound quite right. >> and i don't know. and that's -- i saw him for a

split second. >> a split second? remember in his letter ralph said his captors held him and abused him for nearly two days. >> in my mind, i -- if you're not going to tell me what happened, then you're going to dance around the issue and tell three different stories, what are you hiding? >> investigators wondering the same thing, tried to find answers in the evidence. on a laptop they found hits for match.com. just days before the murder. somebody had been visiting the site at least. >> that would have been our suspicious. >> it's either pam or ralph. >> right. >> then they found ralph's real life mistress -- yes, he had one. she said they carried on for most of the time he was married to pam. so now shannon thought back to the last time she saw her mother. >> because i asked her if she was happy. >> so what did she say? >> she realized that she had given up her family because she

had destroyed this relationship with me and kelsey. and she's gone into this new marriage telling me that she wasn't as happy as she should have been. >> lots of circumstantial evidence. almost enough. but not quite. and then -- the antique rugs. >> i was searching the kitchen area and found in the washing machine two small sized rugs. the rugs were still very wet. and they were balled up to one side. >> but when ralph said the rugs during a walk-through with the police he didn't seem to recognize them. >> i mean, i never had seen these rugs. >> the minute we heard he had

never seen them, we knew the rugs had importance. but we didn't know. >> i sent the rugs to the lab and they heard back. >> what did you did? >> pam's blood was found on the rugs. >> they had caught ralph in an obvious lie. he was hoping to wash away the evidence. finally they had enough. almost nine months after pam's death, officers went to the antique store with an arrest warrant. >> that's when we learned that he decided to go on vacation. >> ralph candelario was gone. coming up -- a manhunt for a suspected killer by cell phone. >> i initiated some phone calls with ralph so that we could try to track him down. >> but would he answer? when "dateline extra" continues.

welcome back. here's keith morrison with the conclusion of "tangled." >> it took nine months of painstaking police work before investigators finally had enough evidence to arrest ralph candelario for the murder of his wife pam. but they'd have to find him

first. ralph was on vacation. maybe on the run. >> i initiated some phone calls with ralph. so that we could try to track him down. >> they tracked his cell phone and caught up with him. in northern california. >> walk back to the sound of my voice, back to me. >> you all right? >> yeah. >> charged him with first degree murder. pam's daughters were relieved when they got the news. >> all i could think to myself was finally. >> what was that like? >> it was like, oh, my god, this is reality all over again. it's starting. >> meaning of course reliving the crime at the trial. i'm antsy. i'm eager. >> you want to go and testify. >> yeah. i want this to be over. and i know that i need to cope with whatever answer comes.

>> your opening. >> yes, sir. >> then here it was. february 25th, 2016. already ralph had managed a victory. had tied prosecutor's hands. >> we tried to tell the entire story about ralph candelario and ralph candelario's life. >> in other words, the very suspicious disappearance of dena, first wife whose body has never been found. but -- >> the judge denied that motion and we went to trial without that piece. >> you have already heard about the prosecution's evidence. ralph's open letter to the "huerfano world journal." which said prosecutor matt durken had been exposed as a lie. >> that letter was a sensational story, but it was inconsistent with all of the physical evidence in the investigation that had -- that had occurred to that point. >> which the prosecution listed

in detail for the jury to hear. but there's always more than one side to a story. defense attorney dario weaver told the jury that once she read through the prosecution material, here's what jumped out at her. >> when you take a good, hard look at their evidence, when you see that they have interpreted the evidence to fit the conclusion that they drew in the first 12 hours of this case, you see that all it is is assumptions and suppositions and cut corners. >> but said the defense, if the jury looked at facts and not assumptions they'd see that ralph's story about what happened to pam had to be try. true. remember the two men fingered as possible killers, they had drug offenses, burglaries. >> she walks in on a burglary. burglaries aren't uncommon in walsenburg especially with all of the drugs around. >> then said the defense one of

the bad guys saw pam. and -- >> he hits pam in the head hard. he's standing there in the kitchen, fire poker in his hand, wondering what to do. >> the robbers must have thought pam and ralph had already left on vacation. >> this family was supposed to be gone. that was the talk around town. >> so for the jury it came down to whose story to believe. prosecutors said the police cleared those suspects right back at the beginning. but nothing could clear ralph. and nothing could soften a truly shocking allegation. ralph murdered pam because divorce would get him disfellowship, cast out from his church. >> pam wasn't leaving. so he had only one option left. >> if he became a widower, he'd be free to marry again. it was said the prosecutors one of the more disturbing motives for murder they'd ever heard.

so his religious beliefs were more important than somebody else's life? >> ralph candelario's life was more important than anyone else's life. >> so the jury got the case and they worked till the end of the day, then through a second and then a third. tick tock. >> whether they convict him or they don't is going to be a different set of emotions. >> then in the middle of the third day -- >> we the jury find the defendant ralph leroy candelario guilty of count number one, first degree murder. >> guilty. but the end of ralph's story? oh, no. on the day set aside for his sentencing, ralph decided the plot needed one more twist. the jail issued him a safety razor to clean up for court. ralph used it to slash his wrists and throat. his own son was not sympathetic. >> well, you know, he'd rather

go out than face his destiny that way. >> suicide attempt, delay tactic. whatever it was it didn't work. the day later the judge ordered ralph back to court. >> people versus ralph lee candelario sentencing. >> and ralph, bandaged up, got another day in the spotlight. >> your honor, i have maintained that i have been innocent through this whole process. >> and then -- a keen observer might almost have heard the jaws drop around the courtroom. >> pam will be resurrected. we will be able to see her again. we will be able to watch her laugh and sing and do all the things that made her such a special person and in that regard i put my hope in that future, but until then i am going to file an appeal for this particular motion. >> for now, his future is life without the possibility of parole. >> i had never had a weight so heavy lifted. it was -- it was wonderful.

>> i got to say by the way, i don't want to embarrass you, but i have found that investigators of homicides are the biggest softies on the planet. >> we're not supposed to let that out, but once in a while -- >> not supposed to care as much as you do, but you really do. >> you do become very attached. >> those girls are special. pam had a part in that. and hopefully they'll be able to live on her legacy. >> and ralph's legacy? because of him, aaron will go on searching, hoping to learn what happened to his mother. >> yeah. i will be looking. probably -- you know, in some way my entire life i'll always be asking questions. >> and shannon -- >> he needs to realize this isn't afterwards. he left behind a family a

disaster. if i'm there to remind him of that that's what i'm there for. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. thanks for joining us. i could not believe it. i couldn't imagine anyone would want to hurt her.