but i want them to know my door is always open. but i don't know if that day will ever come. >> one murder, so many victims. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. ♪ i'm craig melvin. >> i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." it's gut wrenching. >> there's a body laying on the side of the road. >> this young woman was shot three times. this was a murder. >> a young, single mom, out with friends on game day. >> it was packed. >> but as night fell, fear grew. >> they're asking us, do you know anybody that would want to harm your sister? >> was it someone that was a stranger? was it someone that we knew? >> i just had this weird feeling

that there was something that she was hiding. >> tucked away in her kitchen, a clue to it all. >> on top of the refrigerator was a manila folder. >> did it give you chills? >> it was horrible. why didn't she just tell us. >> did a secret lead to murder? >> it has to be unimaginable. ♪ >> welcome to "dateline." when the body of brooke morris was discovered by the side of the road, her family started looking for answers. they were surprised to discover that she may have been involved in an allegedly violent relationship. could that revelation be the he key to solving her murder? here with "nightfall" is and drea canning. >> i would ask that you all close your eyes for a few minutes this morning i would like for you to envision

rome county in the middle of october. the leaves are changing. there's a little bit of a nip in the air. now, envision brooke morris standing there. and -- brooke feels like she's been punched in the throat. she's been shot. brooke feels like a bomb goes off in her body. this is the second shot and it tears through her chest. she's terrified and she's in extreme pain. thank you. you can open your eyes. >> the final minutes of a young woman's life detailed in a tennessee courtroom, a tragedy that devastated her family and friends. >> this cannot be happening. >> it was really the worst day of my entire life. >> who would do this to our friend brooke? it was awful, it was horrible. >> secrets exposed, but would

justice be served? >> it was never ending, never ending, and i was so frustrated. ♪ >> most people who knew brooke morris remember her radiance and zest for life. >> she was always, always, always dancing everywhere she went. >> kaitlyn met brooke when they were teenagers growing up, brooke the yen to the kaitlyn's yang. >> we kind of balanced each other out. she was a girly girl and i was more of the tom boy. so i would go to her house and change into a thousand outfits and try on make up and do our hair. then she would come to my house and we would ride four wheelers and play on the farm. >> sound like you two were almost sisters. >> oh, yeah. we even fought like sisters. >> that's when you know you're good friends. >> yes, yes, for sure. >> this is brooke's real sister

britney and their mom tina. >> what did she like to do, clothes? >> clothes. >> very, very girly. >> yes. >> loved doing hair and stuff like that. >> she was just a girly-girl. >> a little southern bell? >> uh-huh. >> uh-huh, yes. >> the little southern bell grew into a beautiful woman, sometimes blonde, sometimes brew net. brooke always drew people into her lively or bit. >> really spontaneous, fun, hilarious, the life of the party. could literally make friend with anyone. >> dina renee was one of them. >> she would come over to my house and say we're going out tonight, we're having fun. >> that meant one thing on fall saturdays in knoxville, volunteer's football at the university of tennessee. >> the strip is completely packed. there are ball fans everywhere. it is so much fun, lots of cooking out, lots and lots of fun. >> lots and lots of orange? >> lots of orange. >> was this something that

brooke looked forward to on saturdays? >> oh, yeah. all of us at that age, you know, that is what you did on saturday. you wanted to get your orange and white ofits and figure out where you're going to be. >> october 15, 2011, started out as one of those fun days. the vols were taking on louisiana state and brooke was tailgating with friends. but by nightfall something was terribly wrong. >> 911. what is your emergency? >> we're down here on blair road. >> 40 miles away from knoxville a country was driving down a country road. they were keeping an eye out for crossing deer when their headlights illuminated something else. >> and there's a body laying off the side of the road. >> i need somebody to check for a pulse. >> she -- she's a bloody mess, ma'am. >> i understand. >> chief deputy tim phillips of the rome county sheriff's office had just finished watching the football game when dispatch

called him at home. >> what information were you given as you were driving there? >> essentially had a white female that was deceased laying on the side of the road. >> the body had been found just after 8:00 p.m. at the intersection of two quiet rural roads not far from the chief's home. the woman had not been dead for very long. >> when you arrived here, what did you see? >> the victim's body was over here on the side of the road, close to the intersection at old blair. >> right on the road? >> yeah, right on the white line. >> what did she look like? what could you see? >> she was well-dressed wearing blue jeans, boots, a bright orange shirt. she had her purse with her and everything. >> iding the victim was the easy part. her purse was at the scene. it was 23-year-old brooke morris. the hard part would be unraveling the mystery that led to her death on this country road. >> was it someone that was a stranger to us?

was it someone we knew? all kind of things were coming into our heads trying to figure this out. >> coming up, what happened to brooke? >> they're asking us, do you know anybody that would want to harm your sister? we're like, we don't have a clue. >> the hunt for a killer begins and it starts close to home when "dateline" continues. ou realizea good backyard party requires a good backyard. at lowe's we have everything you need to create the outdoor space you've always wanted. get 20% off your purchase of two different select scotts products at lowe's. each day justin at work... walk. and after work. he does it all with dr. scholl's. only dr. scholl's has massaging gel insoles that provide all-day comfort. to keep him feeling more energized. dr. scholl's. born to move.

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♪ brooke morris had been foun

dead on the side of a rural road. 40 miles away in knoxville, her older sister britney felt a sudden wave come over her in the melg of the night. she woke her husband. >> and i just said, i just feel really sick. like just all of a sudden really sick at my stomach. he's like, what do you think is going on? i don't know, i just feel really nauseous. it wasn't 20 minutes later i get a phone call. >> sheriff's deputies were looking for her mother tina. >> he didn't want to tell us much until he talked to mom first. >> tina was at a friend's house. both chief phillips and britney headed over there. >> mom comes to the door, and then she looks at me and she's like, it's brooke, isn't it it? i'm like, he yeyeah. >> how did you know? >> i knew it had to be because britney was there. so it had to be. >> i delivered more than my share of death notifications and this particular one was -- i'll never forget it.

i just asked her to sit on the couch. resit there for a second and i said, you know, is brooke morris your daughter. she said, she is and she's been murdered. >> she passed out cold. so we had to get her to come back to. i think we were all just shocked. >> when tina came to she could hardly process what had happened. >> it was almost like it was not real, you know. you've got the wrong person. it is not her. >> but it was real. brooke was dead. she had been shot three times, once in her neck, once in her chest and an execution-style shot to the back of her head. >> i could not believe that another human could be so heartless. >> you know, they're asking can us these questions like do you know anybody that would want to harm your sister? we're like, we don't have a clue. >> i could not even think of

someone that would want to hurt brooke in any way. everybody loved brooke. >> but investigators had to start somewhere. although only 23 years old, brooke already had an ex-husband, clayton morris. she met him soon after high school. >> he was kind of country, you know. they just hit it off. they just had fun together and started dating, and then the surprise popped up. >> she comes home with some news, some big news. >> uh-huh. >> she was totally excited, of course. i was not so much excited. >> brooke, then 20 years old, was pregnant. >> i thought brooke was too young for one thing, and, you know, it is just -- it is not what i had hoped for her at that time. >> brooke and clayton were determined to make a go of it as a family, so before they became three they got married. >> then they had this sweet baby

that just stole my heart in an instant. >> did that make it all better? >> it did. >> when you met your grand some. >> it absolutely did, yes. >> how was brooke as a mom? did she just take right to it? >> oh, yeah. >> they move io a house and both had jobs but the young couple soonlize r that family life came with grown-up responsibilities and problems. >> did she confide in you at all about how things were not great at home? >> yeah, of course. she talked to her friends about it. we tried to be as supportive as we can but we were all on a different level than she was. here we were still single and she was married for a baby, so hard for us to kind of relate in that area. but i think she -- she knew that it wasn't going to work, you know. >> after two years the couple split. brooke moved out and clayton stayed in the house with their son, but brooke's family says she and clayton were committed

to raising the child together. >> well, she lived, you know, just a few doors up from clayton and they had shared custody of the baby. >> was it an amicable divorce or did they fight? >> they had some disagreements, you know. she definitely had some disagreements. >> ex-husbands, husbands, spouses are always looked at. >> they are. >> did you feel he was an important person to talk to as well? >> we did. >> did you call him right away? >> we actually went and seen him. >> it was the middle of the night, just hours after brooke's body was discovered when investigators arrived at clayton's house, chief phillips woke him up. >> so what did you say to him then. >> we didn't tell him that brooke was deceased. our main objective is to try to find out what he had been doing that evening. >> you want to hear his story before you talk about what happened to brooke? >> that's right. >> clayton told investigators he had their son that weekend. he said he was at work all day saturday and then spent the

evening at home. >> could he have left the child and gone out? >> he could have. >> coming up, scouring the scene of the crime. bullets and brooke's phone. what will they reveal? >> it was very he helpful to us >> when "datine" continues. ju making some ice in my freezer here. so cck bac for that follow-up vid. this is my cashew guy bruno. holler at 'em, brun. kicking it live and direct here at the fountain. should i go habanero or maui onion? should i buy a chinchilla? comment below. did i mention i save people $620 for switching? chinchilla update -- got that chinchilla after all. say what up, rocco. ♪ say what up, rocco. for 100 years, heritage and innovation have made gillette the #1 shave in america. now get gillette quality at lower prices - every day. brought to you by more than a thousand workers in boston. we're proud of giving you our best. gillette - the best a man can get.

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♪ brooke morris was laid to

rest at just 23 years old, and while her friends said their goodbyes her mother tina admits to being in denial about brooke's death. >> i kept thinking, you know, she's going to call. she's going to call, i know she's going to call and she's going to say, mom, you know, it was a big mixup, you know. i just couldn't grasp that she was gone forever. >> tina had a veryd har time. i remember being at her funeral and tina was holding this picture of brooke, just crying, just hysterically. i mean two people had to carry her to the grave site. >> along with grief there was something else. >> how scary was it to you that whoever did this was out there? >> oh, very scary. i mean, because they had taken something from you, i mean what are their motives for us? >> rome county investigators tasked with bringing brooke's

killer to justice had spoken to her ex-husband clayton morris the night of the murder. >> were you getting a vibe from him? >> he seemed like, what in the world is going on. >> those who knew brooke best didn't think her ex-husband was a killer. >> i never he entertained that shot. >> clayton was a good person so i didn't think he would be capable of doing something like that to brooke. >> more importantly, clayton's alibi checked out. investigators cleared him. if not the ex-husband, then who? who had brooke come in contact with that weekend? >> investigators retraced brooke's steps, starting not with the game on saturday but with the night before, friday. friends told investigators they had ticts to a concert. >> she was super excited about going to that, so sheas just like, okay, i've got to go find something to wear, i'm going to go to dinner. >> after dinner brooke left her

car in a shopping center parking lot near the restaurant and drove with friends to the restaurant. she spent the night at dina's house. >> i called it hotel dina. everyone just stayed. left it unlocked for everyone, you know. >> the next day, saturday, was the tennessee/lsu football game and everyone was looking forward to tailgating, but the fun day turned sour. brooke borrowed something out of dina's closet and dina found out about it. >> she had been calling all of these people to pick her up to take her to her car because she wanted to change her outfit for the night. >> brooke's friend albert dawson had been tailgating with her earlier in the day. >> we would be like break off and i was with other friend of ours at that time. so i'm not really sure where she was. >> neither dina nor elbert ever

saw brook again. with more than 100,000 football fans flooding the city for the game, finding brooke's killer was like looking for a needle in an orange haystack. >> i thought maybe someone had kidnapped her. you know, we were all just trying t fige out who would have done this and why, what was their move it was a very horrible time. >> did you think that maybe it could be connected to the game? >> you never know. you can never rule it out. it is tennessee football, and, you know, she so happened to be wearing a bright orange top. and if anybody knows anything about tennessee football, bright orange is the color for the tennessee vols. >> but brooke's body had been discovered about 40 miles from the football stadium, and investigators were still stymied as to how she ended up there. >> did it lend itself to that she maybe was dumped here or did you think she was actually shot here? >> based off everything that was

here at the scene, it appeared that she was shot here. >> the crime scene itself yielded little physical evidence. nothing iffer prin no fingerprints, no tire prints, nothing. >> three shell casings as well as unfired bullets all from a .32-caliber gun. that brass was sent to be tested in a lab. while investigators turned their attention to one item at the scene that could possibly provide leads, brooke's cellphone. it was right there and unlocked and in her purse. >> you c find o a lot about a person within seconds, you know, of going over t person's cellphone. so it was very helpful to us. >> in fact, brooke's phone provided investigators with a major lead to pursue, two leads actually. two men. investigators wanted to talk to them, but they would have to find them first. >> it is always a concern

whenever you have somebody that you would like to talk to and you can't get to them to talk to them. >> who were these two men? could they help investigators unravel this mystery? coming up -- >> we do consider people like him a person of interest. >> and what was their relationship to brooke? >> there's still something going on that shouldn't be going on? >> uh-huh. >> when "dateline" continues. s. ♪ get ready for the wild life a complete multivitamin with key nutrients, plus b vitamins for heart health. your one a day is showing. prestige creams not living up to the hype? olay regenerist shatters the competition. big hype. big price. big deal. olay regenerist hydrates skin better than creams costing over $100, $200, and even $400. for skin that looks younger than it should. fact check this ad in good housekeeping.

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ld sore pain gone. i'm dara brown with the top stories. the president's legal team is pursuing stormy for $20 million. daniel's attorney says the adult film star has been threatened but would not confirm or deny who the threats came from. current president vladimir putin is expected to win reelection and stay in office through 2024. now back to "dateline." ♪

welcome back. i'm craig melvin. with very little evidence found at the scene of brooke morris' murder, data from her cellphone showed she had been in contact with two men the day she was killed. could one of them be responsible for brooke's murder or was this another dead end? here again is andrea canning. >> the brutality of brooke morris' murder fuelled the search for her killer. >> we really hate that they came into our community and committed such a crime. >> rome county investigators cleared brooke's ex-husband clayton, but they had two other men to look at. two men whose names and numbers were in brooke's phone. >> who was brooke communicating with that day that seemed to be of potential importance. >> daniel hawkins. >> this is a man she used to date? >> this is a person we believe she had a relationship with,

yes. >> i think they were talking. nothing too extreme. maybe a couple of dates. >> elbert knew daniel through mutual friends. >> we would just hang out with daniel. i would text him and be like, hey, man, are you coming out, and he would meet up with us. >> but elbert hadn't spoken with daniel and didn't know they made plans to meet up. investigators say they called the number listed for daniel on brooke's phone. he didn't answer. >> you couldn't find him? >> couldn't find him. >> investigators learned daniel lived in colorado and had only been in knoxville for the weekend. >> were you worried you couldn't get hold of him? >> yeah, makes you wonder if they're intentionally trying to avoid you. >> daniel flew back to colorado by the time he got on the phone with the investigator. >> basically interviewed him and got his whereabouts. >> where was he. >> from what i understand he was at the ball game. >> daniel hawkins said he was at

the stadium watching the game as he texted on and off with brooke. theame ended just before 7:00 a.m., brooke's body was found just after 8:00 p.m. if daniel was telling the truth, investigators had to figure out if he had enough time to get through the crush of vols fans, meet up with brooke and made the 40-mile drive to roane county to commit the murder in an hour. >> as they looked at his timeline, they saw he was tekting brook long after the game ended. the last text was just after midnight and said, where are you darling. by then brooke had been dead for four hours. >> until we clear him and rule him out, we consider people like daniel hawkins a person of interest. >> but daniel hawkins wasn't the only person texting with brooke. >> who else was brooke texting with. >> shawn smoot. >> what did you learn about shawn smoot? >> we found out he ran an all

state office in west knoxville. >> married, children? >> married. was no longer married at that particular time. >> amy dunlinger was a rm toer employee of shawn's. >> what were your impressions of shawn? >> seemed like a nice enough person, outgoing. typical sales. easy to get along with. >> shawn smoot, the name rang a bell with brook's family and friends. not long after brooke's divorce shawn had hired brooke as an assistant in the insurance office. >> i remember the day that she had the interview. we had lunch right before and she was so excited, you know. >> it was a real job. and i said, there's going to be so much potential for you to move up in this company, you know. i was really proud of her. >> did you feel like this was kind of the fresh start brooke needed? >> yeah, we did. we thought -- we all thought it was going to be a good thing for her. >> did she seem happy? >> oh, yeah, she loved it i think there was a couple of other ladies in the office that

she worked with. everybody got along, and she enjoyed it. >> she had formed a really i guess tight relationship with her boss. >> but brooke's family had no idea how close brooke's relationship with her boss, shawn smoot, actually was. some of her friends did. >> well, she had told me in the beginning that she had started working for this guy, shawn smoot, and a little bit down the road i had like saw them out eating or something like that. as things progress in their relationship i was like, what's going on here? i was like this guy, he seems a bit older? does he have a family or anything like that? and she was like, yeah, she's like, he's married. >> an affair with a married man. >> i don't really think that she was like committed to that relationship. i think it was just her just coming through a divorce and she had this attention from this

man. >> but there's still something going on that shouldn't be going on? >> uh-huh. >> brooke left the job after just a few months, but it was clear to investigators at least that brooke and shawn were still in touch. her phone showed calls between them on the day of the football game, and they had been texting back and forth. >> did you call him? >> our attempts to call him were unsuccessful. >> another one who'sot around. >> that's right. >> detectives decid not to wait for shawn to pick up his phone. they went to his house in the early morning hours after brooke's murder. >> you go over there. is he home? >> he is. >> shawn told investigators he had seen brooke the day before. she called him from downtown knoxville asking for help. remember, brooke's tailgating plans had gone awry and she wanted to go home and change her clothes. will she needed a ride to her car which had been left at a restaurant the night on before. shawn said he agreed to give her a lift but said they went to a bar to watch the game first.

>> he had picked her up and he they went to i think wild wings and buffalo wild wings. it is two different restaurants within a kwar misquare mile of other. >> shawn said he dropped brooke off at her car. >> he said she didn't know what she went. >> had brooke met her killer in the parking lot? perhaps she left to meet up with the other guy she had been texting, daniel hawkins. but as far as investigators knew, shawn smoot was last person to have seen brooke alive. as investigators checked out his story, something wasn't adding up. >> is this one of first now where this guy is not being straight with us? >> it wasn't one of the first. it was one of the many. >> coming up, a secret brooke r shared wh her family. >> did it jus give you chills when youound that manila envelope? >> yeah, it was horrible. >> when "dateline" continues. in terms of treating sensitivity,

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♪ investigators working brooke morris' murder case were taking a hard look at two men she had been talking to the day she was killed. daniel hawkins said they tried to meet up but never did. >> were daniel's friends able to back up his alibi. >> his alibi was verified. >> he was really at the game? >> yes. >> because of the time the game

ended, detectives concluded daniel hawkins couldn't have been in roane county at the time of the murder. could they verify shawn smoot's story? he told investigators he and brooke grabbed a drink after he picked him up. here they are at the restaurant he said they went to. they are taking their drinks out to the patio. brooke is watching several steps ahead of shawn, something chief phillips thought was telling. >> normally if people are happy and all of that stuff you would think they would walk out together. and if there was something going on, maybe she was like, you know, i just want to get away from him or whatever, i'll be glad when he drops me off at my car. >> this is the parking lot where shawn smoot said he dropped brooke off at her car. none of the security cameras had the car in view, but it was still sitting here the next day after brooke died, which made

investigators wonder was shawn smoot telling them the truth. if he wasn't, where did they really go. they decided to trace his steps. they pulled his cellphone records and found something unusual. in the two-and-a-half hours after shawn and brooke had last been seen together, there was no activity on his cellphone. and here is what also stood out. around 11:00 p.m. his phone started pinging off towers along this major interstate heading out of knoxville. then it looked like shawn turned around. his phone started pinging in the other direction, all the way back to his house. >> did he talk about why he was maybe about to leave town but didn't or why he turned around? >> well, initially talking to him, he had told us that he was at home all night. >> so that's an inconsistency for you? >> it is. >> investigators were becoming increasingly suspicious of shawn smoot and they weren't the only ones. brooke's closest friends never really suspected her ex-husband clayton or daniel hawkins, but they knew her relationship with

shawn had been stormy. >> she would just, you know, tell me little things here and there. >> her friends say shawn had a temper and kaitlyn witnessed it firsthand one night after a dinner. shawn was drunk, kaitlyn says, so she didn't want brooke to drive home with him. he did not like that. he began to get very angry, and we drove just down the street, pulled into the parking lot and i pulled up right beside her car and she opened the door and shawn was like right there. grabbed her by the arm. i told her, brooke, just get back in the car, and so she did. she got back in the car and we drove off. >> friends say similar incidents followed. brooke felt sha was stalking her, showing up unannounced and uninvited when she was out with friends, even after she stopped working for him. >> she definitely knew that something was wrong, you know, after he was obsessive with her, calling her multiple times and texting her and then stalking

her. you know, she knew that, you know, this man has got some issues. i've got to try to get away from him. >> brooke reached her breaking point, and in january 2011 did something she thought would get shawn out of her life forever. >> she was like, i'm done with this situation, he won't leave me alone, i'm going to the wife. she needs to know about the situation. >> i think she was probably tired of living in the secret, you know. she wanted to be free from the situation. >> the wife knows, he'll leave me alone. >> uh-huh, yeah. you know, if i'm honest with the wife, then maybe, you know, they can try to work out their problems and he'll leave me alone. >> but it backfired. shawn's marriage imploded. >> she was just like, i've gone to the wife. she's getting a divorce. she's made him move out. >> he lost everything after that. >> yeah. >> and friends say shawn continued to harass brooke. in fact, they say things only

intensified. >> beyond emotional abuse, was it physical? >> uh-huh, yes. >> she had just told me that shawn was -- was getting violent. >> he broke into her apartment one night. he came in through the bathroom window, threw her head up against the tile floor. >> brooke's family didn't know about any of this, the relationship, the alleged violence. it wasn't until after her death that her family finally learned brooke's secret. >> did that just give you chills when you found that manila envelope? >> yeah, it was -- it was horrible. >> it was britney who discovered it as she went about the grim task of cleaning out brooke's apartment. >> and we were kind of getting stuff in order to pack i a way and send, and so i went in her kitchen and on top of the refrigerator was a manila folder. >> britney opened the folder. it was an order of protection brooke had taken out about a year before her murder against her former boss, shawn smoot.

>> and it was page after page of just crazy stuff that he did to her, and i'm just like, this is horrifying. like i didn't even know that any of this was happening. >> the document details a litany of alleged violent outbursts by shawn, including the time brooke says he broke into her apartment and attacked her. >> why didn't she just tell us, you know, that this is what i'm going through, i need help? >> why do you think she didn't want to share with you what was going on in her life? >> she knew we would have a fit. i mean i would have hunted him myself for hurting her in any way, and i think she knew that. >> brooke's friends, who knew about the order of protection, were surprised to fend out sind and shawn were talking on the day of the football game. >> nobody even knew that she had

contact with him. >> but to investigators there was something different about this particular order of protection, brooke asked her and shawn to have social contact. sure enough, they continued to talk and spend time together. so they had to wonder if things were really that bad between her and shawn. the investigation dragged on for weeks, then months. it was almost too much for tina to bear. >> i got really frustrated. yeah, i did. you know, i'm sure they had to hear my wrath a few times because, you know, i'm a mother and i wanted to know who did it and i wanted him put behind bars. >> but a major break in the case was coming. would a jury be able to put it all together. >> i said were you or indirectly involved? >> coming up -- a murder charge can at last. >> all goes silent. brooke morris is dead. >> i wanted them to envision

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brooke morris' family and friends had come to a heart wrenching conclusion. she had been in a violent relationship with shawn smoot, a relationship that ended with her murder. >> did it just seem so easy to you, that, okay, they can go arrest him now, like we know who

did it? >> oh, absolutely. >> but thatidn' happen. >> huh-uh. and i kept thinking, well, surelyny day now, any day now. >> investigators had their suspicions as well and they were trying to build a case against smoot. he was the last to see her alive. they had an allegedly violent relationship. he had lied to investigators. but so far they had found no physical evidence tying him to the crime. >> you were able to search shawn smoot's apartment? >> we were. >> did you find anything? >> we found an empty box that once contained a firearm with some ammunition. >> no gun? >> no gun. >> the box was for a .32 caliber pistol, the same caliber as the murder weapon. and the ammo -- >> that was the same style of ammunition that was found at the murder scene. >> but without the actual gun itself, the circumstantial case wasn't strong enough to charge smoot with murder.

then the crime lab released its ballistics report showing that marks on shell casings from the crime scene matched marks on a bullet found in smoot's home. his missing handgun appeared to be the murder weapon. >> that's a huge connection. >> it is pretty much the connection. >> in june of 2012, eight months after brooke was killed, shawn smoot was indicted on charges of first degree murder. >> did you immediately identify with her just being this young woman who was clearly so vulnerable? >> oh, absolutely. >> prosecutors bob edwards and tiffany star smith saw this case as a relationship turned deadly. >> we're still talking about domestic violence, we're still talking about orders of protection and all of the things that go wrong in those situations. >> you had no witnesses, you had no dna from your suspect, you had no murder weapon. that's a lot of things you didn't have. >> if we didn't feel like we could prosecute it and be

successful we would have never indicted it. we would have never proceeded with it. >> circumstantial cases allow you to be creative. you can take a set of facts and weave a story together for your theory of prosecution. >> shawn smoot insisted he was innocent. he cycled through five different defense attorneys and the trial was delayed again and again. >> it was surreal, really, you know, because it had been reset 22 times. 22 times. >> that's torture. >> it is. it is torture. >> the trial finally started in july 2016, nearly five years after brooke died. robert jolly,smoot's fifth attorney, believed the state' case was weak for one simple reason. >> i don't think that they did very thorough investigations of anyone other than mr. smoot and even his investigation wasn't very thorough.

>> jolly told the jury just how little that investigation had uncovered. >> there are no fingerprints. there is no gunshot residue test, there is no dna test, there is absolutely no evidence that links mr. smoot to the county on that evening. >> the defense sought to prove that the evidence the state did have wasn't actually incriminating. like the missing gun that shawn owned, yes, it was the same caliber as the murder weapon, but -- >> there are however many million of people in this country who own guns and this was a very common weapon. >> the defense also argued that the ballistics report linking shell casings from the crime scene to a bullet at smoot's home had no actual science behind it. >> there is no scientific evidence of that or any standards that show that, is there? >> there is not currently a standard that shows that every

firearm makes unique marks. >> as for the volatile relationship described in the order of protection, the defense pointed out that smoot never admitted to any of the allegations, and he was never charged, much less convicted of in i assault on brooke. >> the order doesn't mea that mr. smoot ever did anything, it doesn't mean that mr. smoot admitted that he did anything. >> and the order of protection didn't prevent them from seeing each other, which they clearly did. >> miss morris told the judge that she wanted to have social contact with mr. smoot. >> jolly argued if brooke was so afraid of smoot, why would she want to keep seeing him? after all, phone records showed she was the one who called him that day. >> she continued to treat shawn as a friend, as someone that she would do activities with. >> did you worry that that could be confusing to the jury? >> absolutely. and i think that's the underlying question anytime that we're talking about domestic

violence. why does anyone go back? >> the prosecutors hoped any doubt the jury may have regarding smoot's guilt would be wiped away when they called their key witness to the stand. >> amy denlinger who was working for smoot when she was shurded said the impression of the nice outgoing man who hired her didn't last. >> why did it change? >> he was cold. he got angry easily. not satisfied really ever. it almost seemed like he enjoyed getting somebody riled up. >> in court she testified about what happened the monday following brooke's murder. >> now, on that day did mr. smoot come into the office? >> he came in that morning. when i saw him the first time he didn't see me and he was crouched down under his desk, unhooking his computer, and i

asked him if he was okay and he said, no. and i asked him if there was anything i could do, and he said turn back time. >> amy h aeady heard about the murder and that smoot's house. she told the jury what the defendant said next. >> at that point i asked him if he was directly or indirectly involved and he said both. >> did you take that as a total admission of guilt? >> absolutely. absolutely. >> it had taken nearly five years after brooke's murder to get her alleged killer before a jury. it took the jury less than four hours to reach its verdict. >> we the jury find the defendant, shawn nelson smoot, guilty of premeditated first degree murder of brooke nicole morris. >> what's the emotions that you're feeling when you hear that word? >> well, of course, we can't show emotion in court. >> what's going on on the inside? >> on the inside i'm screaming.

i'm jumping for joy. >> i was able to give tina greg a hug and see her smile through all of the tears she had over the last five years. >> this was the moment she had been waiting for. >> yes, i think it was the moment we had all been waiting for. >> for the prosecutor the case was about winning more than a conviction, there is a lesson to be learned. >> for a woman watching this who is maybe going through a similar situation, what's the message from this story for her? >> get out. get help. get out. don't go back. it's not going to change. >> speak out and don't be afraid. don't be ashamed. because, you know, it's not your fault that you're being treated this way. you should never be treated that way. >> the jurors also had to decide smoot's sentence. that's when prosecutor tiffany star smith asked them to imagine the horror of probrooke's last moments. >> i would ask that you all

close your eyes -- >> were you hoping that having the jury close their eyes like that would have a powerful impact? >> i wanted them to try to envision this young woman out in the middle of nowhere being shot three times by an angry man that she was afraid of. all goes silent and at 23 ars old ooke morris is dead. >> the jury sentenced smoot to life without the possibility of parole. he is appealing his conviction. that conviction and the sentence have provided comfort for brooke's family, but not closure. >> i can't make any more memories with her. the only memories i have are past memories. i mean, it's hard. >> she's always in my heart. she will always be in my heart. and, you know, we had -- i had 23 wonderful years with brooke.

i wish i had 53 more, but unfortunately i don't, but i know where brooke is, i know i will see her again and that gives me hope. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. good morning. i'm dara brown in new york at msnbc world headquarters. it is 7:00 in the east, 4:00 out west. he's got memos. reports say the newly fired fbi director has some dirt on the president. >> their significance is that they will corroborate comey's own recollections about his meetings with the president. mccabe also memorializedre told his meetings, his own interactions with the esident. mean while, there is a new report andrew mccabe has already sat down with a special counsel for an interview. no