you would just be drained emotionally.

>> the first time i saw her i thought she was beautiful. we just loved being together.

>> he wanted the house, he wanted her money, if he got a divorce, he'd lose everything. >> i did not kill my wife! >> a woman essentially says "i saw the murderer and it wasn't tom foley!"

>> 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 foley and his family once lived was 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 scored the winning basket giving coldwater high school the regional title and earning young tom a place in coldwater's basketball hall of fame. >> have goose bumps right now just 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. you know, maybe someone might come up, "hey, tom, you remember when you hit that shot?" i said, "of course i remember." >> reporter: in 1991 the hometown hero started dating another local stand out named darlene weber. dar, as she was known, had a personality as big as her smile. >> the first time i saw her, she -- she was playing softball, of course, and she had on these lime green rec specs so she

looked -- she looked a little funny. but 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 love spending time with one another. >> reporter: tom was the laid back, easy going type. dar, an elementary school teacher, was more type a. and she didn't hide what she was thinking. >> she had opinions and she let those be known. that's one of the reasons i loved her. i still love her today. >> reporter: still, when dar's sisters, ladonna, lynn, and marla, 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: 'cause you couldn't do it? >> no. >> reporter: you couldn't be around someone who was, what, that much the center of attention? >> and telling you what to do. >> reporter: and that controlling?

>> dar was not a domesticated person either. >> reporter: the foley's were married in 1994. and right from the start, dar took the lead. >> reporter: fair to say that she wore the pants in that house? >> i'd say probably 75, 80 percent of the time she did. >> reporter: she was the breadwinner? >> yes. >> reporter: you stayed home and took care of your son? >> i did. >> reporter: heath was tom and dar's only child and the center of their lives. >> and we just loved being together. we were always together. >> reporter: and so 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. >> reporter: what was the last thing you said to her? >> i said, "i love you, and i'll see you later." >> reporter: on that day, the foleys were preparing to celebrate heath's tenth birthday at a friend's house just down the road.

dar still needed to shower. so tom, heath, and one of his friends left without her. the plan was for dar to follow in her own car and meet them at the party later that afternoon. but dar never arrived. >> reporter: that gave you some sort of sixth sense that somethin' was wrong? >> yes. she was always on time or early to events. >> reporter: so tom left the party and headed back home in search of his wife. >> our kitchen backdoor was opened, and i noticed that the glass was broken, and there was glass all over our kitchen floor. so i looked through the rest of the house for her, and ended up findin' her in our bathroom. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: first responders rushed to the foley farm.

when michigan state police detective james karbon 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. and because of her position as a school teacher just for the number of people that knew her, that put it in a much more serious type investigation. >> reporter: detective karbon 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 also been disturbed and financial documents inside were gone. and then there was the medicine cabinet. >> it looked like somebody had gone in and basically scooped a shelf off of the medicine cabinet and its contents.

>> reporter: like maybe they were looking for prescription drugs? >> potentially. >> reporter: but to detective karbon, 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're going to break into something, you have to 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. >> reporter: what was in the

how can you make your hair even stronger? use pantene shampoo together with 3 minute miracle daily conditioner. their pro-v formula is like a multi-vitamin. making your hair 2x stronger see the difference when you add 3 minute miracle daily conditioner.

you have enough food thefor your guestslize but not enough fridge. at lowe's, we have more appliances to choose from. so, you can get the right one, at the right price, right now. get your choice of samsung french door refrigerators for $999 at the lowe's "pre black friday deals" event. for this product is overwhelmingly positive. this toothpaste sensodyne repair & protect can actually repair and protect sensitive teeth. and as long as they brush twice a day, everyday, then they can expect to continually have that reparative layer of protection against sensitivity. sensodyne repair & protect has clinical evidence showing how effective it works. i absolutely think that dentists are going to want to recommend sensodyne repair & protect.

♪ >> reporter: the funeral for dar foley was held on the thirteenth -- friday the thirteenth. those unlucky enough to be sharing their grief over the woman they'd loved and lost poured into union city high school auditorium. no church, it turned out, was big enough to accommodate the more than five hundred people who came to honor and remember dar. [ crying ] >> she was so full of life. and she had a lot more to give. and we can't bring her back. >> your wife's been killed. and you've got a ten 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 that no

one in coldwater 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. he said, "i know, i know. i should've been there for her." and then i said, "if you would've been, the three of you would be dead now, instead of just dar." >> reporter: but just 24 hours into the investigation, detective jim karbon 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: but according to detective karbon, whoever staged the burglary didn't factor in the weather that day. >> it got really warm. we had a huge snowmelt off. >> reporter: the ground around the farmhouse was unusually wet and muddy. >> so you'd expect that there would be muddy footprints inside the residence from somebody who

had come through that door? >> absolutely. >> and was there anything, or any footprints? >> there was nothing. >> reporter: but it was the yellow bag found in the basement, the bag containing shotgun shells, that interested karbon the most. >> um, downstairs in the basement. >> ok. >> we found a dunham's bag. >> ok. >> that had some shotgun shells in it. >> ok. >> you ever seen that before? >> no. >> reporter: now, the foleys didn't own a shotgun, as far as we know? >> that's correct. >> reporter: karbon sent the bag to the lab for analysis. and what technicians found on the bag surprised even this veteran detective. >> tom foley's fingerprint was on the bag? >> yes. >> reporter: suddenly detective karbon felt he needed to learn more about 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's leaving me." "he's going through his change of life." >> 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 who came up to me after the service that were really offended by his demeanor. his joyfulness. >> these are things that i've heard and 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 karbon 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. >> heath, like i told you, i'm detective sargent karbon. >> reporter: on that day heath and his friend skylar wattie were inside 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 you can think of? >> not really. >> reporter: the detective also interviewed skylar wattie, who said right before leaving for the party, tom sent the two boys outside to go start up the truck. >> he said that he'll be out there in a little bit. i don't know what he was doing in there, taking a shower or what. >> reporter: like heath, skylar couldn't recall anything unusual about that day either. and then, suddenly -- >> yeah, when we were outside running across the barns, there was a big crash, like way in the back of the house.

>> what did it sound like? >> like breaking glass and a bunch of things falling. like a vase just -- >> it was a loud sound? >> yeah. >> reporter: detective karbon showed skylar a drawing of the foley farm and asked skylar to place an "x" where he believed the sound originated. >> like, somewhere around in here. here. >> reporter: skylar placed the "x" just outside the first floor bathroom, the same room where dar foley had been shot. >> it appeared to us that skylar wattie may have heard the shotgun blast that killed dar foley. >> reporter: detective karbon was also thinking this -- the one other person in that house, at that time, was tom foley. >> he wanted the house, he wanted her money. and if he divorced her, he lost everything. >> reporter: was that a motive? and was tom foley the killer?

an arrest was coming, and it was only the beginning. >> reporter: when dateline continues. oment you met you wanted to surround them in comfort and protection that's why pampers swaddlers is the #1 choice of hospitals to wrap your baby in blanket-like softness so all they feel is love pampers swaddlers

>> reporter: from the mouths of babes -- or in this case, one articulate ten year old boy, came what seemed like a case-breaking revelation. >> it was like loud, loud! >> reporter: detective karbon believed ten year old skylar wattie 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: but if tom foley was inhat house anpulled t trigger, the question remained, why? the answer, said karbon, is

quite simple. >> murder for money? >> potentially yes. >> reporter: money in the form of an insurance policy. >> i think he wanted out of the marriage and did whatever he needed to do to make sure that happened. and if he got $310,000 in insurance money, and got out of the marriage, all the better? >> yes. >> reporter: the evidence against tom foley was circumstantial but compelling. >> you think he faked that burglary? >> yes. >> 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: but 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?! and i was like, "this cannot be happening! why do you think 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. >> never. >> or killing her for the insurance money? >> absolutely not. >> that would be stupid. she made good money. why kill the golden goose? >> yeah i do. everything seemed to be going really 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 tenth 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. and this time, heath did recall hearing a noise that day. >> when skylar talks about

hearing this unusual sound he says he was freaked out by it, >> our neighbors just like shoot guns, it was like maybe a gunshot maybe or maybe like 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. and it smashed on our back porch steps. >> and it made a loud noise? >> yeah it did. yup. >> reporter: but detective karbon wasn't buying tom's explanation. >> the boys were playing by this barn? >> yes. >> and how far is that to the house? >> approximately 75 yrds. >> mr. foley claims he was dropping a window. that sound would have penetrated that far? >> in my opinion that couldn't of happened. >> reporter: police also 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 to come up with to not make it tom. >> i think tom resented dar in that he couldn't be a man. i think it kind of ate at him and he couldn't take it anymore. >> 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. and 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 rushed to judgment. defense attorney tom schaeffer and defense investigator ken koberstein.

>> in their mind it's always the boyfriend or the husband. >> or the person who finds the body. >> which in this case? > was the husband and tom. >> they wanted me bad. what's easier for them in this case. to go after someone they can actually see? or go after someone that they cannot physically see. >> what's wrong with the idea that money was the motive? >> absolutely not. i mean, we had a mortgage. to move on after all this was gonna take a lot more than that. >> reporter: after two weeks of testimony, the jury had its verdict. >> i felt the evidence was going to prove that there's absolutely no way that i had anything to do with this. >> reporter: twelve jurors didn't share that feeling. >> i was just, "what?" i was just shocked. >> what was wrong with the jury? what do 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. life without the possibility of parole. >> my sister is 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 gonna let me go to prison for the rest of my life." something had to turn around. >> reporter: then, less than twenty four 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." >> there's the killer, right there! she saw him! >> reporter: a bombshell from out of the blue: was there new hope, for a newly convicted husband? want in on the secret to ageless skin?

take the olay 28 day challenge see visible results day 1. by day 28? years off your skin age. but don't take it from us, take it from one of the millions of real women already in the know it's not often you can say, you know i saw results right away visible results or your money back olay. ageless there is not a friend that i have that will not own this product

...from godaddy! in fact, 68% of people who have built their... ...website using gocentral, did it in under an hour, and you can too. build a better website - in under an hour. with gocentral from godaddy.

>> reporter: twenty-four 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 ready to spend the rest of your life in prison? >> no, absolutely not. >> reporter: to tom foley's attorney, tom schaeffer, and his private eye, ken koberstein, the guilty verdict landed like a crushing blow. >> this was a grass-root whodunit. and we thought we had shown that it wasn't this person who had done it. >> i was devastated. when this ended i coulda walked into a wall. >> reporter: but 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 and it almost hit me." "it looked like somebody was either high or running away from

me or 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 him. the 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. >> i mean it was just like one after another. and i'm saying, '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. and 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 says, 'hey tom, i saw you on the news.' i said, 'really, what for?' 'well they gave you a new trial.' i said, 'what?!'. >> reporter: but 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 tenth birthday celebration. >> you think tom's cold blooded enough to do something like that to his kid? >> yes. >> i think there's evil in him. >> reporter: prosecutor terri norris 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 again in session. >> reporter: as before, the state opened its case with crime scene analysts.

>> what is it that you found in the basement? >> i found a yellow dunham's bag located inside the dunham's bag were three shotgun shells. >> reporter: norris also showed the jury the foley's home phone records from around the time dar was killed. >> uh, there were no calls that either came in or left. >> your wife doesn't show up somewhere, why not call home and say, you know, "have you left yet?" "where are you?" "we're waiting for you." >> that's what i'd do. >> reporter: according to detective karbon, 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. >> reporter: carey zuck taught at the same elementary school as dar, who was known at the school as "dee dee." that's how carey met tom. >> he told me he was thinking about leaving dee dee. >> reporter: according to carey, tom also revealed he had feelings for her and later he tried to kiss her. >> and 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. >> reporter: out of the presence of the jury, marion crandall told the court that, like carey zuck, she met tom through dar and a couple of weeks after dar's murder, marion stopped by the farm and offered 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? >> he tried and we both stopped. >> you don't have a sexual relationship with somebody within two weeks after your wife's been murdered in that house. >> reporter: but the jury never heard marion crandall's testimony. because there was no indication of a romantic relationship prior to dar's murder, the judge ruled just as he did 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. that would have proven that. >> reporter: but norris still had her two key witnesses. tom's own son heath and heath's friend sklyar wattie. 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 for one of our activities, we fired shotguns. it most resembled 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, also in court,almost a year earlier. >> while you're in the barn, do you hear something? >> yes, i thought it was maybe -- skylar kinda ran into a wall. either that or a gun shot. >> you think the boys actually were, if not eye witnesses, then ear witnesses. >> ear witnesses to what happened. >> -- to a murder? >> yes. >> reporter: tom schaeffer knew that if he had any hope of getting tom foley acquitted, he'd need to prove the sound those boys heard was anything other than a gunshot. just two weeks before trial began, while inspecting crime scene photos, schaeffer found what might have been the key to his client's freedom. >> and i says, "ken, is that

copd makes it hard to breathe. so to breathe better, i go with anoro. ♪go your own way copd tries to say, "go this way."

i say, "i'll go my own way" with anoro. ♪go your own way once-daily anoro contains two medicines called bronchodilators, that work together to significantly improve lung function all day and all night. anoro is not for asthma . it contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. the risk is unknown in copd. anoro won't replace rescue inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, glaucoma, prostate, bladder, or urinary problems. these may worsen with anoro. call your doctor if you have worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain while taking anoro. ask your doctor about anoro. ♪go your own way get your first prescription free at anoro.com. in the water, in the water you ready for this? she doesn't like it... you gotta get in there okay, okay careful not to get it in her eyes i know what a bath is... smile honey this thing is like...

first kid here we go second kid you coming in mommy? ahh not a chance! by their second kid, every parent is an expert and more likely to choose luvs than first time parents. luvs with nightlockplus absorbs wetness faster than huggies snug and dry. for outstanding overnight protection at a fraction of the cost. live, learn and get luvs

>> reporter: midway thru tom foley's trial the talk around coldwater focused on the damaging testimony of skylar wattie and tom's own son heath. >> what do you think was the strongest part of your case? >> the boys. the testimony of the boys. they heard the gunshot. >> reporter: but the defense was about to argue that over time, both boys' testimony had

changed, and in significant ways. >> heath is now stating that it sounds like a gunshot. it's something that he didn't say in the first interview, the same thing 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. >> coached or not, tom foley's defense team knew from day one they needed to prove the sound those boys heard was tom dropping a window pane on the back steps, and not the fatal gun blast. four days after tom foley's arrest schaeffer and koberstein took a trip to the farm to try and do just that.

>> a couple of perry mason moments, don't come very often. >> reporter: right 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 set it in one of the few remaining in tact puttied areas of the frame, you can see it fits perfectly. >> reporter: it was compelling evidence that tom may have been telling the truth. but schaeffer would need more than just a shard of evidence to prove tom was telling the truth. he next called this woman, jeanette moor, the woman who came forward immediately following tom's guilty verdict. and the reason he was ultimately granted a new trial. moor said she was driving by the foley house right around the time dar had been murdered. >> as i approached, this white car come racing out forward and if i hadn't braked i would have hit him. >> reporter: jeanette moor said 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 clutchin' the wheel like this.

>> i thought "he's crazy! he's gonna kill somebody!" >> why didn't you call the police? >> i didn't because i was afraid. >> reporter: but when jeanette moor 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 been so darned 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. >> whoever killed dar foley was either in one of those cars, or all of three of them participated in this murder in some fashion.

>> reporter: but 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 your honor. >> i just didn't want to convince the 12 jurors. i just didn't want 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 still nagging questions, like how did a yellow plastic bag with shotgun shells in it get into tom's basement. >> did you have dunham's bags in your home? >> yes. >> how do you explain the bag in the basement with the shotgun shells in it? >> they weren't ours. that bag is probably ours. i mean, my fingerprint's on the bag. but for three clean shotgun shells to be in my basement just doesn't make sense. >> you have no idea where those came from? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: tom said he's never owned or used a shotgun. >> never. wouldn't know how to operate it. wouldn't know the first thing about it.

>> reporter: tom schaeffer then asked why tom failed to call his home when dar didn't show up at the birthday celebration? >> something just wasn't right. so that's why i went home. >> if we had cell phones, i would have called her on the cell phone. i had to find her. i had to go and 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 together all the time -- >> reporter: tom admitted to the jury he did once flirt with carey zuck. but he says that happened three years pior 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. and it also led to -- intimacy

problems between her and i. >> reporter: tom says he eventually told dar about his feeling for carey. he also says he went to counseling to work on their communication problems. >> after those sessions, did things get better? >> absolutely. >> reporter: but then why was it so easy for tom to become intimate with marion crandall so soon after dar's death? >> this is like three weeks after dar died. >> yes. >> and you're in the house where dar died? >> yeah. >> 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 could 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 could unravel tom's alibi. >> please state your full name for the record. >> amber rapelje. >> reporter: out of the presence of the jury, dar's niece told the court, that one week before dar was murdered, she went to the farm to babysit heath. >> she told us not to go out in the back porch without shoes because tom had dropped a frame and there might be still some glass out there. >> reporter: but the judge ruled that amber's testimony w hearsay and therefore inadmissible. the jury never heard her challenge tom's claim that what the boys heard the day dar was murdered was him dropping a window frame. >> reporter: now, with the evidence that was admitted, and for the second time in two years, a jury was about to

decide tom foley's fate. >> he collapsed on the floor and wept for 20 minutes. how can you make your hair even stronger?

use pantene shampoo together with 3 minute miracle daily conditioner. their pro-v formula is like a multi-vitamin. making your hair 2x stronger see the difference when you add 3 minute miracle daily conditioner. not for me, for you. aveeno® positively radiant 60 second in-shower facial.

works with steam to reveal glowing skin in just one minute. aveeno® naturally beautiful results® hi, i'm the internet! you know what's dtj! get a job!ting... hi, guys. i'm back. time to slay! heals, heals, heals! yes! youuuu! no, i have a long time girlfriend. mom! i need my macaroni!!! you know what's easy? building your website with godaddy. pick a domain name. choose a design. you can build a website in under an hour. yeah! whoo! yes! get your domain today and get a free trial of gocentral. build a better website in under an hour. want in on the secret take the olay 28 day challenge. millions of real women see results starting day 1. "there is not a friend i have, that will not own this product"" visible results or your money back olay. ageless.

>> reporter: 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. yep. >> you thought that once before? >> yes, i did. >> apparently, the theory of the prosecution is if a marriage ever has a bump in the road than that is a motive for murder. is it reasonable? i suggest not. >> reporter: tom foley, he says, 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 that they had some connection with the death of dar foley. tom schaeffer. ladies and gentleman of the

jury, i submit to you there's more than reasonable doubt. >> i respectfully ask you to find tom foley "not guilty." >> reporter: then came prosecutor terri norris's turn and she started by attacking the credibiity of those witnesses who say they saw the cars. >> if you were to believe that all of these vehicles were there, there was a party at the foley home that day with a -- with a bunch of white cars and a black suv that makes no sense whatsoever, none. >> reporter: terri norris wanted this jury thinking only one thing. >> who had the motive? it's tom foley. whose fingerprints were on the bag of shells in the basement? tom foley. >> tom foley is "guilty" and i'm asking you to bring back that verdict. >> reporter: the outcome of tom's second trial was far from certain. >> what worried you the most? >> just that he was such a nice guy. that you would have never guessed that he would've done something like this.

>> he didn't seem like a murderer. >> right. >> reporter: and then, at the fabled eleventh hour. it was time. the jury filed in. >> were they looking at you? the jurors? >> no, they weren't. i took a couple of deep breaths. i just -- the waiting had -- it had paid off. >> the reaction of tom at the time of the verdict. absolutely incredible. he collapsed on the floor and wept for twenty minutes. unbelievable. >> he got away with murder. but he almost didn't. >> we had him convicted and to have to go back and talk with that family and give them some consoling, how do you do that? >> you're just angry and you're angry at the jurors, the judge and there's nothing you can do about it.

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

>> reporter: according to prosecutor terri norris, there would be no point to that search. >> you're not investigating anymore? >> there's no one to investigate. there's been no new evidence of anybody else ever having committed this crime. >> reporter: this boyhood hero wrote a whole set of new headlines as an adult and coldwater may never be the same. as for those who remain convinced of tom foley's guilt, they cling to the memory of the one they lost and loved so much. they gathered to release balloons in dar's honor. >> she'd love to be the center of attention. so, this is her center of attention. >> they rise as closer to where she is at and hopefully she sees that we're thinking about her.

>> my heart dropped. i want to know why. why. >> it's a baffling case of murder, millions, and a mystifying piece of tape. at the center, husband and wife self-made millionaires. >> he was very caring and