creative and more fun to play as an artist. >> the key to make great tv is reflect real human behavior and our hopes and dreams and struggles. ♪ this is a tragedy on top of a tragedy now. >> it happens so quickly, here pa parents in the backyard and their mom is in trouble. >> my dad panicked. >> a sudden slip, a fatal fall >> you are losing her mother, you are watching her go, right? >> someone else was watching her, too. a curious neighbor witnessed something astonishing. >> it was scary, the look on his face was undescribable. >> what has she seen?

was this drowning an accident? she had a huge gash on her head. >> a husband and father is under suspicion. >> he's trying and we are crying and he said i think i hurt mom. >> three daughters standby her dad and when prosecutors stand firm. >> he's holding his knife three deck car decades under water. >> was it murder? ♪ hello and welcome to "dateline extra," i am craig melvin. straight out of the alfred hitchcock film. a young woman pierced into a woman's yard and see something for a few seconds and the moment that's unsettling. was it some kind of an accident or a crime or a murder? >> what she saw or what she did

would set in motion of a chain of events that would divide a family and a jury. here is keith morris. >> we know the truth and we know everything that happened. >> how do we know what we know? emotionally unsatisfying not to have that answer. >> so it is. even if we have seen something or if we think we have, and that's the question at the heart of the whole puzzle. is this woman right? >> i know what i saw. i know the conclusion of the story. >> of course, she does, of course, she does. >> why does this other woman think this? > >> she does not know what she saw. t why don't we begin here? >> cala mesa, california. strolling suburbs creeping out in the green mountains of los

angeles. here is where chris and christie hall have come to live out their golden years. they're experiencing life and each other. it has always been chris and christie. they never thought of separate and their unit. >> these are the three daughters, kourtney, briana and ashton is the youngest. all of them, of course, have hard of the story of how their parents met. it was 1978, christie seen a relative at the airport and near by san bernardino. she was there and encountered a security guard, who to her at least looks just like elvis. it was christopher hall. >> apparently, she was flirty at

the gate. >> chris and christie got married and she was 17 and he was 20. as the girls grew up, they said they never doubted that the powerful bond of love their parents were then with each other. >> i am closer to my parents than most children. >> they're the parents that i hope to one day be. >> christie the vibratious glue of the family. >> my dad is kicked back and relaxed and quiet. >> for years, chris hall was a police officer in san bernardino until he was shot in the line of duty. he went off to become police chief and two small towns in idaho. in 2005, he got a retirement and the hall bought this place back in calamesa which they love. and life in the spring of 2007

seems to hit a sweet spot as they remember their mother telling her. >> we just lay in bed with her and just started talking. she said i am so happy that i have you girls and dad. >> it was kind of like those conversations that you don't have everyday. >> still, there was work to be done. it was not a new house, could use some remodelling. particularly the bathroom. kourtney was still living with her parents as the work began. >> they're going to be doing the tile work and absolutely would not have a shower that day. >> they decided to wake up early and put on their bathing suits and rinse off tat spa before the contractor arrives. it was june 7, 2007. chris got up first and turned on the spa and warm it up and called briana. >> here is your wake up call,

babe. >> back at the house, kourtney dove through her first wake up while chris and christie went outside the spa. after 6:30, chris looked in on kourtney again, second call and head back to the spa. 6:37 a.m. >> i got up out of bed and i was putting on my robe and i heard this panic, panic scream for my dad yelling for me and i ran to the back porch and i saw him. just trying to pull out my mom out of the spa. >> she and her father struggled to lift her mother out of the spa. it was the first moment of the worst day of our lives. >> is it possible for people to understand what it was like in the situation? >> to see and both your parents in the worst times that you ever

seen, obviously, my mom unconscious and my dad just panicked and for the first time in my life seeing him just that way not knowing what to do. >> he was a cop. he's used to deal with those kinds of things. >> with people that were not his wife. >> so kourtney took charge. after calling 911, she started cpr with her mother and father. etm firefighter, eric norwood was the first to respond. >> he was like help my wife, help my wife. >> so hysterical it was hard for the emt to help. >> it took a little bit to get out of the way. >> he was just holding her hand and yelling her name. the paramedics worked on christie for more than 20 minutes and no vital signs. none. >> no words to describe and the

fear and the anxiety. you are losing your mother. >> yeah, and watching her go, right? >> we tried to stay together and we could not. >> the ambulance rushed her off to the hospital where he declared dead and she had drown in her family's spa. maybe not so private after all. someone was watching. ♪ e, captain! thanks! but i don't need luck, i have skills... i don't have my keys. (on intercom) all hands. we are looking for the captain's keys again. they are on a silver carabiner. oh, this is bad. as long as people misplace their keys, you can count on geico saving folks money. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

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we are turning now to someone was watching, here is keith morris. >> on the morning of 2007, she was on the road, driving home from college. >> she said there was an

accident, you need to come home right away. >> it was courtney that broke the news to ashton and briana. their mother was dead. >> near chris waited at the house to tell the sisters what happened. they could not because father and daughter were escorted in separate squad cars and driven to the police station to talk about the accident. >> what was the ride like? >> quiet. >> i could not comfort my father and he could not comfort me. >> chris so frenzy to the scene have calmed down by then. he was a cop among cops after all. he understood what was necessary to help them sort out what happened. >> i cannot start to imagine what you are going through oh?

>> ju . >> happy to help, he said. whatever gets him back home to comfort his daughter as quickly as possible. >> chris told investigators what happened and how courtney slept and he and christie were in the spa bathing. s >> she got out and went in and went in to the bathroom and got more coffee. >> she came back down. >> as christie return to the spa, they passed each other on the patio. he went into the house and stop by courtney's room to make sure she's awake and went back outside and sawing his wife faced down on the spa. he called courtney and began a frantic effort to revive her. from what? >> a fall? >> must have been.

>> i am thinking she slept in or something. >> chris, apparently had not notice the three inch laceration and here suddenly the point of the police interview is revealed. >> the gash she had on her head. >> she's got a gash? >> she's got a huge gash on her head. >> something like that is not consistent of just falling down? why would the police think that? >> you have been around for a while. >> i know where you are going. >> why in fact this ex police chief being questioned at all of the apparently disasterous accident that killed his life. the answer was right next door. when christie and chris hall took a bath, someone was

watching. >> i got up at 6:00 and got my coffee. >> lyndsey patterson was on leave from her job from the navy visiting her mom who lives just the backyard. lyndsey was inside in the bathroom that faced away from the hall house and out on the street. >> it was a horrible scream. it was something was wrong kind of scream. >> a woman's she thought? she went outside to tell her mom and i said did you hear that scream? and she said, "yeah." but, i think it is kids playing in the pool. >> kids at 6:00 something in the morning? she stepped on the planters she said and looked over the wall. >> at that point, i saw a man with his hand, one hand on top of a woman's head and one hand on her back and she was faced down in the water. >> like something going on?

>> yes, that's what i assumed. >> that's she thought she was looking at a sex act in progress. i don't know why it didn't seemed right but something made me want to look again. >> 90 seconds between her first and second look. this time she said she only saw the man in the spa. >> he's leaning back and relaxed in the hot tub but i don't see her. he had his elbow back and kind of looking around like nothing. >> where did the woman go? lyndsey told her mom something seems strange. >> she told me lyndsey, stop being nosey and stop worrying about it. it did not seem right. it was not enough time for her to gotten out and gone outside the house. she went to the wall again, her third and final look. at that point, he was getting out of the jacuzzi and he was in

a big rush and she's still nowhere to be seen. the look on his face was almost undescribable. it was almost like he had gone into another world. it was scary. it was instinct that told her something was wrong, said lynn neo-na lyndsey. she called 911. so now hours and hours later, detectives confronted chris of lyndsey's story. didn't her story match his? so am i supposed to believe that the witness is lying? >> i am not saying she's lying. i mean -- i don't know, you know? i cannot explain what she said she saw. >> the question we pose as we began. did lyndsey patterson really know what she saw? every tv doctor knows when preparing for surgery, use an over-pronounced washing technique

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after his wife's drowning death, police asked chris hall to explain what happened that morning. chris did not know that his neighbor also talked to police and she told a different story than the one chris was telling. here again is keith morris. >> chris and christie's hall three daughters all clung together of the worst of all day, june 7th, 2007, waiting for their father to return from the

police station. they wondered why was it taking so long. the phone rang and they had their answer. >> broken up words he's crying and we are crying and that's thought when he said that they think i hurt mom, he was very upset. >> he did not sound surprise? >> he's crying. >> he was very upset. >> at the time, police investigators questioning chris, they heard lyndsey patterson. >> that specifically me holding her down in there and there is nothing that took place in that gentlem jacuzzi. there was no sex or -- i don't think we had any contact in the

jacuzzi. >> investigators were getting a good look at christie's body of wounds of struggles and more than one nasty blow on the head. police had to choose which version, chris hall or lyndsey's patterson of the truth story. >> tom doug is the senior investigator of the da. >> i think they felt that this was not an accidental drowning. it was suspicious. >> before the night was over. chris hall was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife, the girls could stop waiting. he was not coming home. >> it was a tragedy losing our mother that day and this was a tragedy on top of our tragedy now. >> knowing our parents, the fondest thing. >> christie was the love of their father's life after all. the center of everything for

him. how they wanted anyone so happy of his marriage and his life be accused of harming her. >> she was happy, too. as happy as she ever been. they knew what she said between the mother/daughters talk they had. >> she kept on saying how happy she was. >> but, of course, we did not think much of it. >> that kind of burnt into your memories. >> right or wrong, the legal triggers. >> chris hall spent two months in jail until his daughters received the pay out from christie's bail out and used the money to meet his $1 million bail. he went back to his retreat to prepare with the help of his daughters for a murder trial >> that's surprising to have a

client out on bail of a murder trial. >> these are attorneys that defended him. >> you said two things. a special man and special situation. >> this is a man that we like and know and we don't feel he could have done anything like this. >> chris hall and his daughters prepared for the trial which would make clear for anybody, that chris would not and did not harm the love of his life. >> there was never in 30 years of marriage, never one moment of violence. there was no motive for this man to kill his wife. >> harmon and gretch and had to look at patterson's account. >> she saw three snapshots and what is missed by everyone is the wife getting into the

jacuzzi, slipping, falling into the jacuzzi and hitting her head and going unconscious and drowning. >> see the sharp corner sticking out in the spa, hitting your head on this would open a gash and knock christie out. sthoo s sth . >> she did not see what really happened. >> lyndsey pointed out was in the bathroom facing the streets. she was not in the backyard when she heard it. kourtney inside the spa did not hear a thing. >> we all think that she's lying. >> anyway, lyndsey to a certain degree did not know what she was seeing in the glimpses that morning. >> something was wrong. >> and yet you have not seen it. >> no, but i knew something was wrong. i don't know if in my brain if i was putting things together but

from between the screen and the position he was pulling her and just not having enough time for her to have gone inside. >> so you kind of got three different snapshots -- something going on there. >> right. >> and had that work out of what it was. >> i was not thinking at that point that oh, this man is murdering his wife. >> based on that account, chris ha hall, would go on trial for murder and it was a trial for his daughters, too. >> he loved her. they were each other's best friend. it is not fair to him, he loved her more than anyone. >> and yet the prosecutor was trying to prove that this family man and former cop murdered his wife. could it be done? ♪

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guatemala is following the u.s. to jerusalem. the mayor of bethel ham says the recent violent may contributed a smaller crowd celebrating christmas eve, celebrating the birthplace of jesus. now, back to "dateline extra." chris hall was charged in the drowning death of his wife christie. hall's daughters stood by him proclaiming his innocence. would anything change their minds about their dad? here again is keith morris. >> a hard charging man, a man of good standing at the san

francisco's da's office, senior da of riverside. that takes skills and persuasive power. >> the murder case against the former police chief and family man, chris hall. >> mr. hall on the surface of what looks like a loving family man and a good father. he's somebody that had the support of his family. >> so he did. >> no, when he heard about chris hall's grief and the whaling that went on after this so-called accident. what caused his mind is an act. it is a wonderful performance by the defendant acting like a good husband. when you look at his action, how little he did to help his wife? who tried harder to save christie? not chris, said the prosecutor. she called 911 and she helped

him out of the spa. >> what did he find? >> this man had an uncandid amendment to fabrica ability to fabricate stories. >> he was charged and convicted of misused of public money. he spent ten months in jail. what struck the prosecutor is hall tried to cover it up. >> to plan a fraud and lie about it and not lie about it but effectively. >> that tells about who we are dealing with. >> the suddenly, the prosecutor's prospect looking better. >> at the trial, strutsky made

patterson to testify. and the meru, and the type of bruising on christie's face and body was a hallmark of homicide. >> fatality injury were not consistent. >> there was a clump of hair in the bottom of the spa with a broken plastic hair clip. >> only have come from a violent struggle. to lose that amount of hair, it is not explained by any kind of fall. >> there were some minor hiccups in the case. lyndsey patterson was a little inconsistent about how long she looked over the backyard floor of the first time she saw. was it a few second or as long as a minute? either way said the prosecutor,

s lyndsey was sure she saw physical contact. >> he was given the opportunity explaining any physical contact that could explain what lyndsey patterson saw. were they washing each other or a sex act or was there anything that she could have miss interpreted and at the end of the day, you are not just stuck with the fact that lyndsey patterson made a mistake. you have to believe that lyndsey patter southern hallucinated everything that she saw? >> what made lyndsey story more convincing said the prosecutor was she told before finding out what happened to christie. she dialled 911 a full minute and a half before any one in the hall did. here is what the jury heard her say in the call. >> she was still on the phone with 911 when chris came outside and found his wife's body

calling out for courtney. >> investigators, tom doug. >> i heard it best describe during the child as a cosmic coincidence that someone could see it. it turned out to be true that a woman is drowning. that's not a coincidence, that's what she saw. >> the prosecution's theory? somehow sitting in the spa that morning, chris was over come by some private theory, who knows what? > >> the hidden violence and killing his spouse when he thought nobody was looking. >> chris hall ambushed his wife and grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head twice into the concrete edge. he's holding his wife for almost three decades for under the water showing no mercy or no

remorse and absolute desire to end her life at that point. >> he then gets out of the spa and walks into the house where his plan is to wake up his 22 years old daughter who he can use as a alibi witness. >> one little thing, why? as convinced that hall's guilt, strutsky conceded of why is the problem. he just didn't. there it was. >> it is unsatisfying not to have the answer and not knowing the entire narrative of what happened. >> you want to know why this guy was married to the woman for 30 years apparently happy and drowned her in the pool. >> i am not sure we got the answer to that specific question. >> it is kind of an important question, is it? >> it is a question that we ask

in all spouse homicides. >> proof enough? reasonable doubt? almost three years after christie hall's death, a riverside jury will have to decide. ♪ ibed lyrica. nerve damage from diabetes causes diabetic nerve pain. lyrica is fda approved to treat this pain from moderate to even severe diabetic nerve pain. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worse depression, unusual changes in mood or behavior, swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling or blurry vision. common side effects: dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain, swelling of hands, legs, and feet.

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with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ the jury in chris hall's trial heard of traumatic testimony from lyndsey patterson. >> she said chris hall's hand was on his wife's head and back while she was laying face down in the water. it was the defense's turn to show that chris hall loved his

wife and would never harm her and her death was a tragic accident. >> here again is keith morris. >> here at the courthouse in riverside, california. their review of the prosecutor's portrait of their father. it was a lie they said. >> it is hurtful to us to hear that someone basically say they know our parents better than we do and our father is a socio path and we are blind to it and he knows that there was hidden violence in our parents' marriage and we did not see it. you are basically telling us that we did not know our whole lives. >> there is no proof of that. >> there is no motive and reason to turn on his wife. it had to be a freak accident. so said the defense, lyndsey patterson did not know what she saw. in fact, did she really witness chris hall drowning his wife why

didn't she claim to see christie's body in the spa when she looked again? the highlight was the all daughters testimony, emotional and quite powerful. so it put prosecutor strutsky position at odds. >> we would have seen it. >> i think that's what they truly believed. you better watch out and take justice for kris christie hall. >> after six days of testimony and two days of test fieing. it was a deadlock. >> what was it like to get a

hung jury? >> that was devastating to us. >> you expected a not guilty verdict, not a doubt. >> deputy da, burke strutsky was determined to retry the case. first, he set his investigators to explore the life and marriage of chris hall and what do you know? in idaho where hall has been a disgraceful police chief, the investigators created a startling accusation. >> chris was a great con man. >> jerry winkle is a county commissioner of idaho now. once upon a time he was chris hall's friend. he said hall made a disturbing revelation that he shocked shocked -- shot himself in the leg in order to get medical

retirement benefits >> chris had been drinking and he told me he had shot himself. >> but, there was more. tom doug had discovered a secret, not in chris' path but christie's. >> there is been infidelity in the marriage of six years prior, while chris hall was in custody in idaho. >> christie's affair was brief, years earlier but she had been in phone contact with the man just days before she died. >> chris found out, impossible to know. >> but, when investigators does talk to christie's co-worker at the clinic where she was an x-ray technician, several of them noticed a change in her vibrant personality. >> she told us she was con templating a divorce. >> if true, it may persuaded jury. >> also, prosecutor strutsky

needed to explain what patterson saw or did not see? >> we were not able to explain to the jury why she did not see christie at that point. i think that allowed the defense making the argument that christie hall was inside. >> the prosecution hired a water expert to do a recreation at the hall's spa. >> andrea ferris had been insisting and drowning investigations for the last 20 years. >> she got in the spa from the spot where lyndsey was watching. from the center of the pool and words where lyndsey was standing. anywhere i was laying, you could not see from lyndsey's point. you could not see me at all from lyndsey's viewpoint. now the prosecutor was ready. may 2011, one hereafter the first jury deadlock.

a brand new panel. jurors testified of the injuries of christie's head and heard lyndsey's 911 call. >> christie's co-worker testified for the prosecution and jerry winkle traveled from idaho to tell jury of what he thought of chris hall. >> i was ashamed to admit that he was once a police officer. >> that's when well known attorneys were at the scene. they came out swinging. that story of christie's affair, pre for example -- >> there is a shadow hanging overall of this stuff. she was having a little affair, a boyfriend? >> if the husband knew about it

but the wife never mentions and tells the husband and no one tells the husband. >> quite right says the judge. and because there is no evidence chris knew about his wife's affair and the story of shooting himself for retirement benefit? >> that was absolutely a lie and that's wrong. there was never, never any evidence or indications or not even a moment's breath that he shot himself. anyway, the story was prejudicial so the judge threw that out, too. >> as for what lyndsey saw chris hall held his wife's head down the water. pictures of two people were touching in the spa or if they were. >> this is what she driescribin.

>> in close up, what do you notice? >> they're not touching. >> the hall daughters were there every minute. their father's enduring champion and this time, more family members came to court. two of christie's own siblings t testified for chris. >> we have not a doubt in our mind that this is not a moment of violence and not a murder. the victims' own sister and brother, that's an amaze thing to see. >> perhaps, it was. listen to this. the defense said one more very significant witness. a witness who oozed credibility. the sitting medical examiner from neighboring san bernardino county who stuck his neck way out. >> he found it to be an accidental death and not a homicide. >> this was not some ordinary

high gun. this was a public official who said straight out that christie's head injury could be explained by the accident. >> accidental drowning. what i've always been astounded by with this case is that the hall family lived so close to the san bernardino border, if cristi had slipped and fell four or five blocks over, the pathologist in that county would never have filed criminal charges. an accident of geography. >> so now a second jury would have to sort through these two sets of allegations, these two opposing realities, and decide whether chris hall would return and embrace home and his loving daughters or a pair of handcuffs and a life in prison.he inside,l chronic, widespread pain.

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chris hall's first trial ended in a deadlocked jury. but with new evidence presented by both sides during his retrial the jury was able to reach a verdict. now with the conclusion to our story, here's keith morrison. >> may 2011. for the second time, 12 men and women of riverside county, california filed out of the courtroom. a second jury to make a life

decision about chris hall. did he murder his wife? which of the medical examiners should they believe? whose account of the defendant's character? and perhaps most important, what did lindsay patterson see when she peeked three times into the halls' backyard? do you ever have those sort of little dark moments of the soul where you think i may have misinterpreted, misremembered? >> that is something i've thought about every day, whether i misinterpreted, whether i think i saw something that wasn't there. i didn't see everything. >> yeah. >> but i saw what i saw, and i know the conclusion of my story. i know it. i know it right here. i know it. >> of course, chris hall's daughters say they know the truth too, real thing, in their hearts. >> i think we were the three

most critical jurors in that courtroom. believe me, if we had heard anything or had any inkling that our father could have done this, as much as it would hurt him, as much as we love our father, we would want that justice for our mother. >> the jurors deliberated two days, then broke for the long weekend. it was memorial day. hall's daughters felt good. >> things can only go so wrong for so long before something has to actually go right for us. >> we just did a lot of talking about the future and this, you know, being over, this being finished. honestly, i was concerned about dad and how he was finally going to be able to grieve for the loss of his wife. >> then it was tuesday, 8:45 in the morning.

the jury gathered and minutes later, a signal. they were ready. >> chris hall and his daughters rushed to court. and in the end it was very quick. guilty of first-degree murder. their father would not be coming home, probably ever. >> he's being cuffed and potentially put away for life, and yeah, it hurts, and we are angry about that. >> you can still hear those daughters accusing you of unfairly convicting their father. >> i can. absolutely. it weighs on me. but at the same time i know who i'm dealing with when it comes to chris hall. in fact, he is the one that's stolen their mother from them. >> it had been a peculiar fact of this case that the victim's and defendant's families had stood solidly together against the prosecution. but what no one knew was the truth was more complicated. after the verdict at chris hall's sentencing a letter was introduced. it was from another of cristi hall's brothers, billy carlton,

who until now had said not one public word about the case. we would like to ask his honor for the maximum sentence, wrote billy. "the pain that my family has suffered through this tragedy is unforgivable." >> i didn't want to hurt the girls, but i had to say what was on my mind. >> there was a deep divide in cristi's family, said billy. some of her relatives believed chris was innocent, but he and he says others, including cristi's uncle steve mundy, silently urged on the prosecutor. >> half the family was convinced he was innocent, and half the family was convinced he wasn't. and that's hard to do when you have a big family and you all have to be together every once in a while. >> and when it involves a member as loved as cristi was. >> exactly. >> does that explain why this kind of group of people in the family decided to just let justice take its course? >> we had talked about it quite a bit. >> i think so. >> and you've got to know when to show up sometimes and when to

not show up, just to keep what's left of the family as together as you can have it. >> thank you so much for coming. >> when it was over, hall convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life, some of cristi's relatives met with prosecutor strunsky and thanked him. >> they wanted me to thank you. thank you for putting the man away because he's a murderer. >> and the hall daughters? having lost their beloved mother, fought to save a father they adored. and, having lost that fight, aren't quite sure what they'll do now. >> it's a devastating reality. it really is. especially for a family that -- to say we were close is an understatement, you know. to go from that to being not able to be there with each other is -- it's the greatest heartbreak that anyone could ever experience i think.

>> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. ♪ a beautiful young mom abducted from her beachfront home. her husband, horrified. >> my wife made a phone call to me to say that she was held by gunpoint. >> her mother, terrified. >> it's your worst nightmare, imagining what's happening to your child. >> a note with big demands left by mysterious kidnappers who seem to know all, see all. >> they're watching the house? >> they're watching the house. >> and then the victim herself called. >> can you hear me? >> her mom jumping in to work with police would hand over the