the first time i saw her i thought she was beautiful. we just loved being together. we were always together. our kitchen back door was opened and the glass was broken. >> it was he who found her.

>> i just didn't know how to handle that. i wish i could have been there to protect her. >> a wife murdered. and later, a husband under suspicion. >> he was such a nice guy that you would have never have guessed that he would have done something like that. >> you think he faked that burglary and killed his wife? >> yes. >> he wanted the house. he wanted her money. and if he divorced her, he lost everything. >> in court, a stunning verdict. >> this cannot be happening. i did not kill my wife. >> but more stunning still was what came after. a mysterious witness with a secret. >> this is a woman who essentially says i saw the murderer and it wasn't tom foley. >> would her story be the ultimate twist? >> reach in and tear out your heart. unbelievable. >> mystery at heath bar farm. helloed on welcome to "dateline

extra." it's a mystery people thought they had the answer to. the murder of a well loved teacher in a close-knit town. within hours police were on the scene. there would be an arrest, a trial and a conviction. case closed? not on your life. because in this story, a bombshell came in after the verdict. >> reporter: february 2009, coldwater, michigan. >> what's the problem? >> my wife. >> your wife? >> yes. >> reporter: in one day, one moment -- >> is she breathing? >> no. she's gone. she's gone. >> reporter: the innocent simple life tom foely a foley once liv gone forever. >> oh, my god. oh, my gosh. >> reporter: it was a moment tom

foley never would have imagined 23 years earlier. back then, number 30 -- >> going to be 15 seconds left exactly. >> reporter: scored the winning basket, giving coldwater high school the regional title. >> he hits it with five seconds. >> reporter: earning young tom a place in coldwater's basketball hall of fame. >> i have goose bumps talking about it. >> it was like victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat. and he came through with it. >> reporter: to what extent were you sort of known around here for being the kid that hit the game winning shot? >> that went on for a long time. maybe someone might come up, tom, remember when you hit that shot? of course i remember. >> reporter: in 1991, the hometown hero started dating another local standout named darlene weber. dar as she was known had a personality as big as her smile. >> the first time i saw her, she was playing softball, of course.

she had on these lime green rec specs. when she took them off, i thought she was beautiful. >> reporter: it was a classic case of opposites attracting. >> i think we both went into the relationship knowing that we really loved spending time with one another. >> reporter: tom was the laid back easy going time. dar, an elementary schoolteacher was more type a. she didn't hide what she was thinking. >> she had opinions. she would let those be known. it's one of the reasons i loved her. i still love her today. >> reporter: when her sisters learned that dar and tom intended to marry, they were left scratching their heads. >> my famous saying was there's got to be something wrong with tom for him to stay with dar. >> reporter: you couldn't do it? >> no. >> reporter: you couldn't be around somebody who was that much the center of attention?

>> telling what you to do. >> reporter: that controlling. >> dar was not a domesticated person either. >> reporter: the foleys were married in 1994. right from the start, dar took the lead. fair to say she wore the pants in that house? >> i would say probably 75%, 80% of the time she did. >> reporter: she was the breadwinner, you stayed home and took care of your son. >> i did. >> reporter: heeath was their only child and the center of their lives. >> we were always together. >> reporter: the three foleys lived on the outskirts of coldwater in an old farmhouse they called the heath bar farm. a picture perfect family until that winter day back in 2009. what was the last thing you said to her? >> i said, i love you. and i will see you later. >> reporter: on that day the foleys were preparing to

celebrate heath's 10th birthday at a friend's house. dar needed to shower. tom, heath and a friend of heath's left without her. the plan was her to follow in her own car and meet them at the party later that afternoon. but dar never arrived. that gave you some sort of sixth sense something was wrong. >> yes. she was always on time or early to events. >> reporter: tom left the party and headed back home in search of his wife. >> our kitchen back door was open and i noticed that the glass was broken and there was glass all over our kitchen floor. i looked through the rest of the house for her. and i ended up finding her in our bathroom. >> reporter: it was a gruesome scene. dar lying in the shower stall. she had been shot in the head with a shotgun at point-blank range. tom immediately called for help. >> what's the problem? >> my wife is in the shower. she's just laying there in the

blood. >> first responders rushed to the foley farm. when michigan state police detective james carbon arrived on the scene, he knew he was in for a long night. >> we don't have a lot of homicides that happen in and around branch county. because of her position as a schoolteacher, just for the number of people that knew her, that put it in a much more serious type investigation. >> reporter: the detective and his team of state troopers scoured the crime scene taking pictures and seizing evidence of what appeared to be a home burglary gone wrong. the first clue, the broken glass coming from the kitchen door window. >> it appeared that a beer bottle was used to break that particular window. >> reporter: according to tom, jewelry and credit cards were missing. the family desk had been disturbed and financial documents inside were gone. and then there was the medicine cabinet. >> looked like somebody had gone in and basically scooped up a

shelf off of the medicine cabinet and its contents. >> reporter: maybe they were looking for prescription drugs? >> potentially. >> reporter: to the detective, the items missing weren't nearly as telling as what was left behind. expensive electronics were untouched as was dar's purse found sitting on a hallway chair. >> it just didn't make a lot of sense. >> reporter: neither did the use of a shotgun. >> it's large. potentially bulky. if you are going to break something, you carry whatever you steal out with this shotgun that you brought also. >> reporter: it wasn't until the next day that police found their first significant piece of evidence. evidence that led the investigation in a whole new direction. down in the foley's dusty basement was a suspiciously dust free yellow plastic bag. what was in the bag? >> three shotgun shells. where are we?

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returning to the mystery of heath bar far, dar foley, a popular small town teacher, had been murdered in what looked like a home invasion. but it wasn't long before investigators concluded that there were pieces of the puzzle that didn't add up. their suspicions centered not on a stranger but on dar's husband, former local hero tom foley. the funeral for dar foley was held on the 13th, friday the 13th. those unlucky enough to be sharing their grief over the woman they loved and lost poured into union city high school auditorium. no church it turned out was big enough to accommodate the more than 500 people who came to honor and remember dar. >> she was so full of life. and she had a lot more to give.

we can't bring her back. >> reporter: your wife has been killed and you have a 10-year-old son. what did you tell him? >> i told him that someone had hurt mommy. and he goes, is she in heaven? and i said, yes. >> reporter: it seemed no one could comprehend what had happened, including steve and joanie pierce, close friends of both tom and dar who learned of the murder from tom himself. >> i said the three of you were always together and he was crying and he said, i know, i know. i should have been there for her. and then i said, if you would have been the three of you would be dead now instead of just dar. >> reporter: just 24 hours into the investigation, the detective had almost abandoned the theory that this was a random act of violence. >> it appeared to me that this was a staged breaking and

entering to try to hide a homicide that took place. >> reporter: according to the detective, whoever staged the burglary didn't factor in the weather that day. >> it got really warm. we had a huge snowmelt. >> reporter: the ground around the farmhouse was unusually wet and muddy. you would expect there would be muddy footprints from inside the residence from somebody who had come through the door? >> absolutely. >> reporter: was there anything? >> there was nothing. >> reporter: it was the yellow bag found in the basement, the bag containing shotgun shells that interested him the most. >> downstairs in the basement we found a bag that had some shotgun shells in it. >> okay. >> have you ever seen that before? >> no. >> reporter: foleys didn't own a shotgun as far as we know? >> that's correct. >> reporter: carbon sent the bag to the lab for analysis. what technicians found on the bag surprised even this veteran

detective. tom's fingerprint was on the bag? >> yes. >> reporter: suddenly detective carbon felt he needed to take a closer look at tom foley. and his seemingly picture perfect marriage. >> i think they did a lot of things together. however, i don't consider them the picture perfect couple. >> reporter: neither did dar's sister lynn in whom dar once confided. >> she said, tom doesn't love me anymore. he is leaving me. he is going through his change of life, you know. >> reporter: his midlife crisis? >> yes. >> reporter: dar's sisters were becoming increasingly suspicious, especially they said after watching tom's behavior at dar's funeral. >> it was almost like he was relieved. >> there were a number of people that came up to me after the service that were really offended by his demeanor, his joyfulness. >> these are things that i have heard.

it's ridiculous. i mean, taking care of heath was on my mind. wondering who killed my wife was on my mind. they don't know the things that i've been through. >> reporter: maybe so. but detective carbon was keeping a very watchful eye on tom foley. he decided to interview the other foley who was at the farm the day dar was killed. tom and dar's son heath. >> i'm detective sergeant carbon. >> reporter: heath and his friend were in the house playing video games. waiting to be driven to heath's birthday celebration. >> did you see anything different or out of the ordinary or anybody walking around, anybody come up to the door? anything that you could think of? >> not really. >> reporter: the detective interviewed skylar who said right before leaving for the party, tom sent the two boys outside to start up the truck. >> he said he will be out there

in a little bit. i don't know what he was doing. taking a shower or what. >> reporter: like heath, he couldn't recall anything unusual about that day either. and then suddenly -- >> when we were outside running across the barns, there was a big crash way in the back of the house. >> what did it sound like? >> it sounded like breaking glass and things falling. maybe a vase just -- >> it was a loud sound? >> yeah. >> reporter: detective carbon showed skylar a drawing and asked him to place an x where he believed the sound originated. >> like, somewhere around in here. >> reporter: he placed the x just outside the first floor bathroom. the same room where dar foley had been shot. >> it appeared to us that skylar may have heard the shotgun blast that killed dar foley.

>> reporter: detective carbon was thinking this, the one other person in that house at that time was tom foley. >> coming up -- >> he wanted the house. he wanted her money. if he divorced her, he lost everything. >> was that a motive? and was tom foley the killer? when mystery at heath bar farm continues. , and we may not know much about medicine, but we know a lot about drama. we also know that you can avoid drama by getting an annual check-up. so go, know, and take control of your health. it could save your life. cigna. together, all the way. it could save your life. depend real fit briefs feature breathable, cotton-like fabric. in situations like this, there's no time for distractions. it's not enough to think i'm ready. i need to know i'm ready. no matter what lies ahead. get a free sample at depend.com.

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wife. investigators hadn't found the weapon. so they went hunting for motive. >> reporter: from the mouths of babes or in this case one articulate 10-year-old boy came what seemed like a case breaking revelation. >> there was a loud, loud -- >> reporter: detective carbon believed 10-year-old skylar was an ear witness to the shotgun blast that killed dar foley. if true, it meant dar was murdered earlier than originally thought. more significantly, it meant tom foley was still in the house when the murder occurred. >> that lead was huge. it was very, very important. >> reporter: if tom foley was in that house and pulled the trigger, the question remained why. the answer said carbon is quite simple. murder for money? >> potentially, yes. >> reporter: money in the form of an insurance policy. >> i think that he wanted out of

the marriage. and did whatever he needed to do to make sure that that happened. >> reporter: if he got $310,000 in insurance money and got out of the marriage, so much the better? >> yes. >> reporter: the evidence against tom foley was circumstantial but compelling. you think he faked that burglary? >> yes. >> reporter: and killed his wife? >> yes. >> reporter: they never found the murder weapon. what do you think happened to the gun? >> i wish i knew. >> reporter: even without it, in march of 2009, one month after dar foley was gunned down in her shower, state police arrested tom foley and charged him with his wife's murder. >> and i just -- what? how? why? and i was like, this cannot be happening. why do you think that i did this? i did not kill my wife. >> reporter: to tom and dar's close friends the pierces, news of tom's arrest was almost as

stunning as the news of dar's death. could you conceive of tom either hating his wife so much that he wanted to kill her -- >> absolutely not. >> reporter: or killing her for the insurance money? >> absolutely not. >> that would be stupid. she made good money. >> he has never been one to want things. it's not like money has been -- was real valuable to him. >> reporter: you think they had a good marriage? >> i do. everything seemed to be going real good for them. >> reporter: it seemed sadistic, shooting your wife at point-blank range, killing the mother of your son on the very day he was celebrating his 10th birthday. >> he never would have done that to his son. >> reporter: police continued gathering evidence. ten days after tom's arrest, police brought heath foley in for a second interview. this time, heath did recall hearing a noise that day. >> skylar talks about hearing this unusual sound. do you remember anything?

>> our neighbors shoot guns. it was like maybe a gun shot maybe or maybe glass broke. i don't know. it was one of those two things maybe. >> reporter: according to tom, the sound heath heard was nothing more than glass breaking. >> they were old barn windows that i was trying to clean up. i went to grab them and one of them slipped out of my grip. it smashed on our back porch steps. >> reporter: made a lot of noise? >> yep. >> reporter: detective carbon wasn't buying tom's explanation. the boys were playing by this barn? >> yes. >> reporter: and how far is that to the house? >> approximately 75 yards. >> reporter: mr. foley claims he was dropping a window. would that sound have penetrated that far? >> in my opinion, that couldn't have happened. >> reporter: police say they carefully searched that area around the back porch. >> there was no glass that we could see when we looked at the

scene on that particular night as well as the next day. >> reporter: for dar's sisters, the writing was by now on the wall. they were certain of their brother-in-law's guilt. >> we went over every case we could come up with to not make it tom. >> i think tom resented dar and that he couldn't be a man. i think it kind of ate at him. he couldn't take it anymore. >> reporter: people get divorced for that reason. >> he didn't divorce her because he's a selfish coward. he wanted heath. he wanted the house. he wanted her money. if he divorced her, he lost everything. >> reporter: in november 2009, tom foley's trial began. the prosecution argued that only tom had a motive to kill dar. but the defense claimed police had rushed to judgement. the defense attorney tom shaffer and defense investigator ken koberstein. >> in their mind it's the

boyfriend or husband. >> or the person who finds the body. >> reporter: in this case ? >> the husband and tom. >> they wanted me bad. what's easier for them? to go after somebody they physically see or someone they can't? >> reporter: what's wrong with the idea money was the motive? >> absolutely not. we had a mortgage. to move on after all this, it was going to take more than that. >> reporter: after two weeks of testimony, the jury had its verdict. >> felt the evidence was going to prove that there's absolutely no way i had anything to do with this. >> reporter: 12 jurors didn't share that feeling. >> we the jury find the defendant guilty of first degree murder. >> i was -- what? i was just shocked. >> what was wrong with the jury? what did they know that i don't know? how could they convict a man on what they had? >> i knew what a conviction was

meant for me and for life without the possibility of parole. >> my sister was still dead, still didn't bring her back. but you had a little bit of faith in the justice system. >> reporter: in the hours following the verdict, it seemed everyone in coldwater was relying on faith. >> i said to myself, god isn't going to let me go to prison for the rest of my life. something had to turn around. >> reporter: then less than 24 hours after the verdict, tom foley's defense team got a phone call from a woman. >> this is a woman who essentially says i saw the murderer and it wasn't tom foley. >> coming up -- >> there's the killer right there. she saw him. >> a bombshell from out of the blue. was there hope for newly convicted husband when mystery at heath bar farm continues?

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a truck bomb in somalia killed 276 people. about 300 were injured. the u.s. has condemned the attack as terrorism. nbc sports learned colin kaepernick filed a collusion grievance against the nfl. he claims owners colluded to not sign him. the nfl has no comment. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline extra." after the jury delivered a guilty verdict, tom foley faced life behind bars. then 24 hours later a witness emerged who could possibly set him free. the husband some shunned as a murderer might be innocent after all.

>> reporter: 24 years after the one time hometown hero named tom foley made coldwater history, the now convicted murderer of the same name sat behind bars awaiting his sentence. you were ready to spend the rest of your life in prison? >> no. absolutely not. >> reporter: to tom foley's attorney tom shaffer and his private eye, the guilty verdict landed like a crushing blow. >> this was a grass root who done it. we thought we had shown it wasn't this person who had done it. >> i was devastated. when this ended, i could have walked into a wall. >> reporter: just one day after tom foley's conviction, a woman stepped forward. she had new information that suddenly gave new life to tom's defense. >> she came forward and said, i saw this white car storming out of the driveway, almost hit me. it looked like somebody was either high or running away from something.

>> reporter: the woman was certain the driver was coming out of the heath bar farm right around the time dar was murdered. and she was equally certain the driver looked nothing like tom foley. >> there's the killer. right there. she saw. person leaving our property. >> reporter: and then like a dam breaking, two other witnesses came forward, each having seen a mysterious car of their own, either parked on the foley property or speeding away from it. all the sightings were within two hours of dar's murder. >> one after another. what is going on? where were these people before? >> reporter: the judge who was about to sentence tom foley to life wanted to hear what these new witnesses had to say. after a year of appeals, that went all the way to the state supreme court, tom foley was granted something most people convicted of murder never receive. a second chance.

>> i was walking through the chow hall in prison, and somebody said, tom, i saw you on the news. i said, what for? they gave you a new trial. i said what? >> reporter: news of a new trial didn't change the minds of dar's family. they remained convinced, not only did tom kill dar, he did so on the day of his son's 10th birthday celebration. you think tom is cold blooded enough to do something like that to his kid ? >> yes. >> yes. i think there's evil in him. >> reporter: the prosecutor agreed. who killed dar foley? >> tom foley. there is nobody else. >> reporter: a year and a half after tom foley's conviction, both sides filed back into the courthouse to once again determine tom's fate. >> circuit court is in session. >> reporter: as before, the state opened its case with the crime scene analysts. >> what is it you found in the

basement? >> a yellow bacg. inside was three shotgun shells. >> reporter: norris showed the foley's home phone records from around the time dar was killed. >> there were no phone calls that came in or left. >> reporter: your wife doesn't show up somewhere, why not call home and see, have you left? where are you? >> that's what i would do. >> reporter: according to detective carbon, tom didn't bother calling dar at home because he knew dar was already dead. then members of dar's family stepped forward to testify that tom and dar's marriage was troubled and that tom wanted out. >> he told me that his wife is very controlling and that it was wearing on him and he did not necessarily want to stay in the marriage anymore. >> reporter: and there was more evidence of an unhappy marriage. according to this woman, back in 2006, tom had a wandering eye.

>> state your full name for the record and spell your last name. >> caroline zuck. >> reporter: she taught at the same elementary school at dar who was known as dee dee. that's hour she met tom. >> he told me he was thinking about leaving dee dee. >> reporter: according to carrie, tom revealed he had feelings for her and later he tried to kiss her. >> what was your reaction to that? >> i didn't want anything to do with it. >> reporter: the prosecution wasn't done. this woman took the stand. >> state your full name for the record and spell your last name. >> marion -- >> reporter: she told the court that like carrie, she met tom through dar. a couple of weeks after dar's murder, she stopped by the farm to offer tom support. >> i don't mean to embarrass you, but you had sex with tom in his living room? >> he tried to.

and it was stopped. >> who tried and who stopped? >> i tried and we both stopped. >> you don't have a sexual relationship with somebody within two weeks after your wife has been murdered in that house. >> reporter: the jury never heard marion's testimony because there was no indication of a romantic relationship prior to dar's murder, the judge ruled just as did he in the first trial that her testimony was prejudicial and therefore inadmissible. it was a huge blow to the prosecution's case. >> it supports the position that they weren't this deeply in love couple that he kept trying to present. i mean, that would have proven that. >> reporter: she still had two key witnesses, tom's own son heath and heath's friend skylar. both two years older and now more certain than ever about what they saw and heard.

the day dar was killed. >> last year at church camp, went for one of our activities, we fired shotguns. that most resdembled that sound. >> reporter: then it was time for heath to take the stand. the last time tom had seen his boy was at a hearing in court almost a year earlier. >> while you are in the barn, do you hear something? >> yes. i thought it was maybe skylar ran into a wall. either that or a gun shot. >> reporter: you think the boys were not if not eyewitnesses then ear witnesses. >> to what happened. >> reporter: tom shaffer knew if he had any hope of getting tom foley acquitted, he would need to prove the sound those boys heard was anything other than a gun shot. two weeks before trial began, while inspecting crime scene photos, shaffer found what may be the key to his client' freedom. >> i said, ken, is that what i think it is? it was one of these holy crap.

>> it was to us just a perry mason moment.

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we are the coca-cola company, and we're proud to offer so much more. returning to the mystery at heath bar farm, tom foley is about to take the stand in his own defense. >> the defense began presenting its case in hopes of convincing the jury -- >> reporter: midway through tom foley's trial, the talk around coldwater focused on the damaging testimony of skylar and tom's own son heath. what did you think was the strongest part of your case? >> the boys. the testimony of the boys. they heard the gun shot. >> reporter: the defense was about to argue that over time, both boys' testimony had changed and in significant ways.

>> heeath is stating it sounds like a gun shot. it's something he didn't say in the first interview. the same with skylar. >> reporter: heath's courtroom testimony left tom furious. not at his son but at his accusers, the people who had cared for heath while tom was incarcerated. that's somebody coaching him or encouraging him? >> i believe so. >> reporter: coached or not, tom foley's defense team knew from day one that they needed to prove the sound those boys heard was tom dropping a window frame on the back porch and not the fatal gun blast. four days after tom foley's arrest, they took a trip to the farm to try and do just that. >> a couple of perry mason moments. don't come very often. this is the frame we found. >> reporter: where tom said he dropped the frame, they found this tiny shard of glass. immediately, they tried to match the shard with the frame. tom said he dropped.

>> if you take the shard and said it in one of the few remaining intact putty areas of the frame, you can see it fits perfectly. >> reporter: it was compelling evidence that tom may have been telling the truth. shaffer would need more than a shard of evidence. he next called this woman, the woman who came forward immediately following tom's guilty verdict. and the reason he was ultimately granted a new trial. >> reporter: moore said she was driving past the foley house right around the time dar had been murdered. >> as i approached this white car come racing out forward. if i hadn't have braked, i would have hit him. >> reporter: she got a good look at the driver. >> it was a young 18 to 20-year-old kid. had real black hair and his face was real white. and he was clenching the wheel like this. i thought, he's crazy. he's going to kill somebody.

>> reporter: why didn't you call the police? >> i didn't because i was afraid. >> reporter: when she learned about tom foley's guilty verdict, she said she could no longer keep her silence. >> god forgive me and i truly mean that in my heart. that i didn't come forward sooner. if i hadn't have been so darn scared. >> reporter: what followed was a succession of other witnesses, each claiming they, too, saw mysterious cars either on or leaving the heath bar farm right around the time of the murder. >> i caught the glance of a ford -- black ford suv crossover vehicle. >> could have been a white car, green car. it was just a light colored car. >> who killed dar foley was either in one of those cars or all three of them participated in this murder in some fashion. >> reporter: tom foley knew if he had any hope of acquittal,

the jury would need to hear from one more witness. >> i call tom foley to the stand. >> i didn't want to convince the 12 jurors, i wanted to convince the prosecutor, i wanted to convince the police, i wanted to convince my wife's family. i wanted them to know and look at me and hear me. >> reporter: tom started by answering some nagging questions like how did a yellow plastic bag with shotgun shells in it get into tom's basement. >> did you have bags in your home? >> yes. >> reporter: how do you explain the bag in the basement with the shotgun shells in it? >> they weren't ours. that bag is probably ours. my fingerprint is on the bag. for three clean shotgun shells to be in my basement, it just doesn't make sense. >> reporter: you have no idea where those came from in. >> absolutely not. >> reporter: tom said he never owned or used a shotgun. >> never. wouldn't know how to operate it. wouldn't know the first thing about it. >> reporter: tom shaffer then asked why tom failed to call his

home when dar didn't show up at the birthday celebration. >> something just wasn't right. that's why i went home. if we had cell phones, i would have called her. i had to find her. i had to see where she was at. >> reporter: then it was time for tom to describe his relationship with dar. it didn't take tom long to lose his composure. >> we were very close. we were -- >> go ahead. >> we were together all the time. >> reporter: tom admitted to the jury he did once flirt with carrie. but he says that happened three years prior to the murder. during a brief time when he and dar were arguing more than they were communicating. >> that put quite a bit of distance between us.

it led to intimacy problems between her and i. >> reporter: tom says he eventually told dar about his feelings for carrie. he said he went to counseling to work on their communication problems. >> after those sessions, did things get better? >> absolutely. >> reporter: then why was it so easy for tom to become intimate with marion so soon after dar's death? three weeks after dar died. >> yes. >> reporter: you are in the house where dar died. >> yeah. >> reporter: what am i to think of that? >> think that i don't care about what had just happened to my wife. that's not true. if i go back and change it, i would. but i can't. >> this was an event that involved grief and a reaching out and it happened. do you love your wife? >> i love her very much. >> did you love her on february

7, 2009? >> very much so. >> did you have anything to do with her death? >> not at all. >> reporter: before closing arguments, the prosecutor had one more card to play in the form of a surprise rebuttal witness who witness, who could unravel tom's alibi. >> please state your full name for the record. >> out of the presence of the jury, dar's niece told the jury she went to the farm to baby sit heath one week prior to the murder. >> she told us not to go out the back door because tom dropped a frame and it might be still there. >> the judge ruled it hearsay and inadd misable. what the jury heard was him dropping a window frame. >> that's what they heard, and

it was not. >> now with the evidence admitted, for a second time in two years, a jury was about to decide tom foley's fate. >> my stomach was turning, i wasn't eating. i was physically sick. event, you can get $3,500 off a hard day's play... $700 off select mud spa packages for two... and up to $1,300 off family packs of venison. ( ♪ ) save on a world of possibilities with deals on select 2017 can-am vehicles. only until october 31st at your local can-am dealer. ( ♪ )

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throughout history, the one meal when we come together, break bread, share our day and connect as a family. [ bloop, clicking ] and connect, as a family. just, uh one second voice guy. [ bloop ] huh? hey? i paused it. bam, family time. so how is everyone? find your awesome with xfinity xfi and change the way you wifi. and now with the conclusion of the mystery at heath bar farm, here is josh man koe wits. >> as he did in the first trial,

attorney tom schaeffer prepared to address the jury for what he and his client tom foley hoped would be the last time. >> when your defense rested, were you comfortable? >> yes. >> you thought you were going to win? >> very much. >> you thought that once before. >> yes, dy. >> apparently the theory of the prosecution is if a marriage ever has a bump in the road that's a motive for murder. sit reasonable, i suggest not. >> tom foley he said had nothing to do with dar's death but those mysterious cars did. >> those cars should not have been there and the prosecution has not given you any explanation why they were there. because there is no other explanation, other than they had some connection with the death of dar foley. ladies and gentlemen of the jury, i submit to you there is more than reasonable doubt.

i respectfully ask you to find tom foley not guilty. >> then came prosecutor terry norris's turn and she started by attacking the credibility of the witnesses who saw these cars. >> if you believe there were all these cars there, there was a party at the foley's that day with a bunch of white cars and a black suv. that makes no sense. >> terry wanted this jury thinking one thing. >> who had the motive? tom foley. whose fingerprints was on the bag of shells in the basement? tom foley. tom foley is guilty and i'm asking you to bring back that verdict. >> the outcome of tom's second trial was far from certain. >> what worried you the most? >> just that he was such a nice guy. you wouldn't guess he would have done something like that. >> he didn't seem like a murderer? >> right. >> then at the fabled 11th hour,

it was time. the jury filed in. >> were they looking at you, the jurors? >> no, they weren't. i took a couple deep breaths and i just -- >> your honor, we the jury find the defendant not guilty. >> the waiting had -- it had paid off. >> as to count 2? >> not guilty. >> the reaction of tom at the time of the verdict, absolutely incredible. he collapsed to the floor and w >> he got away with murder. we had him convicted and to have to go back and talk with that family and try to give them some consoling, how do you do that? >> you're just angry. you're angry at the jurors, the judge. there's nothing you can do about it. >> i was more concerned about heath at that point, because i

knew that he knew his father killed his mother. and i couldn't imagine having to go back and live with a man that killed your mother. >> get it. >> tom regained custody of heath and said he treads very carefully when discussing that tragic day with his boy. >> from him i want to know why do you think i did this? i deserve that answer. all he could say is, i don't know who else it could have been. tom says he will never forget dar. >> i still think she's debide mm beside me. i'm going to continue to raise our son the way we wanted him to be raised. >> do you harbor any grudge because of this? >> i'm saying they made a mistake. all i'm asking is they search and search and search until they

find dee dee's killer. >> according to prosecutor norris, there would be no point to that search. >> you're not investigating anymore? >> there's no one to investigate, and no new evidence of anyone else committing this crime. >> this boy hood hero wrote a new set of headlines as an adult and cold water may never been b t be the same. as for those that remain convinced of tom's guilt, they cling to the memory of the one they lost. they gather to release balloons in dar's honor. >> she loved to be the center of attention. so this is her center of her attention. >> it rides closer to where she's at and hopefully she sees that we're thinking about her.

>> that's all for this edition of date line extra. i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. the young actor is accused of a heinous crime. >> they were saying that i shot both of them and decapitated one of them. >> a male inmate and his girlfriend await trial on charges of rape. >> me and my boyfriend had a threesome with another woman and she turned around the next day and said that we raped her. >> a drinking problem sends another inmate to prison.