after years in public service will his final days at the fbi rewrite his legacy. >> i do think obviously this is a big spot on his reputation. i think the headline really is this is a man who was not motivated by political bias, even if he made some judgments other people wouldn't have made the same way. i get my strength from my mother. she was my very best friend. i called my mom and she didn't answer. i pretty much knew in my heart something was wrong. >> a mother vanished. >> i cried myself to sleep. it was awful realizing that your worst nightmare had come true. >> a family anguished. >> she's gone. do you have any idea how hard

that was. now, the questions begin in a southern gothic mystery. >> the case was puzzling. >> we didn't really know what had happened. >> who would ever imagine you would have a murder in your family. >> soon, there would be secrets. >> we were dealing with a person leading a double life. >> one of them would prove deadly. >> have you ever said, i know who did this? >> it hurts too much to say it out loud. >> keith morrison with secrets in a small town. >> hello, welcome to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. a case centers on a mother that had gone missing and small town secret that led to a stunning revelation. here's keith morris. >> suppose you were sitting in your car smack-dab in the middle

of tus sca tuscaloosa, alabama into a sweet place could moundville, one stoplight, one general street and store. been around a long time. it's a sad truth as the sheriff says, even here, where everybody used to know everybody -- >> it's not that way anymore. so many people moving in from around the world. >> trying to escape the crowds? >> trying to escape the crowds or running from something. >> reporter: where have you gone, mayberry? it went up and left us. he investigates real crimes. >> the same crimes you see here is the same as any larger city just a smaller version. >> reporter: moundville is moundville and they might know

more than in tuscaloosa, for example, which can be a bit of a nuisance if you need to keep a secret, especially, for example, if your secret is about murder. to begin with, this thoughtful young woman was just a girl of 17 back in '07, when things started coming apart in the way things do when parents don't talk about it. kelsey mayfield saw that troubled look in her mom's eyes, her mom, teresa. >> i could tell she was very stressed. >> ever clear to you what it was she was stressed about? >> money would be the main thing. she wanted to be sure she had enough money to take care ofer family. >> reporter: a lot of that going around, of course, moundville not excepted. like so many americans, kelsey's dad, scott, had to work two jobs, neither of which paid very well just to keep his head above water? a very hard working man.

it took two jobs to take care of our family. >> money aside, teresa seemed to have a happy life as anybody could see including her mother, reba. >> all teresa wanted was a husband to care for her and somebody she cared for and to have a family. >> it was sweet and kind of corny. even after kelsey's two little brothers arrived, she could see the signs o her parents' affection for each other. >> every night before he got ready to go to work, he would give her a kiss on the cheek and say, good night, i love her. >> to the town, teresa was the softball mom, the trunk of her car, bats and balls shuttling kids back and forth. >> there was a time i had a softball game and tanner and kobe had a baseball game at the same time. she stayed 30 minutes at each of our games. >> watching on the clock to make sure it was all equal? >> she was an amazing mother. there was nothing she would not

do for myself or for my two brothers. >> then, there was that sweltering morning, june, 2007, theresa ran off to run errands and didn't come back. kelsey was baby-sitting the boys, 8 and 11. hours ticked by. she called her mom, where are you? >> she didn't answer. then i called her back around lunch, she didn't answer. i called her pretty much all day long. >> dad wk. he mom was who knew where? just wasn't like her to do this. >> is the she sort of person who would take her cell phone everywhere? >> yes. it was attached to her hip. >> you could easily get hold of her? and you couldn't? >> no. >> by night fall, still no word, kelsey was in a panic. she called her dad who by now had gone from his day job to night shift at a local factory. i'm sure you told your dad you were worried? >> yes. we kept in touch to see if one of us had talked to her.

>> did he seem to be worried? >> he did. we could never get in touch with her. >> at midnight it was clear something wag terribly wrong. scott filed a missing persons report with theundville police. >> what was it like for you that night? >> it was awful. i was very scared when she didn't come home. i pretty much knew in my heart something was wrong. >> the next morning, said kelsey, she woke up in a house that no longer felt like home. she called her grandmother in a town in prattville, two hours away. >> she said, is mama down there at your house? no, i haven't -- she's not here. and she said, mama didn't come home last night. >> what was going on in here? >> i'm turned upside down in a knot. >> she called her sister at the

local circuit court. >> mama called me, said teresa is missing. i said, let me make some phone calls. >> right away ashley called the sheriff of her town and he called sheriff ellis. to see if they knew anything. his response to me was, it's bad. it's bad. >> it certainly was. they had found teresa's truck on a dirt road less than a mile from home. she was slumped behind the wheel and she was dead. this much was perfectly clear. it wasn't an accident. coming up, the investigation begins. >> we had to ask ourselves who could get her to this location and why was she murdered. when "secrets in a small town" continues. i've always been about what's next.

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welcome back to "dateline extra." returning to our story, here again is keith morrison. >> it was a lovers' lane, a quiet dusty dead-end road miles from main street moundville. the spot so uncommonly traversed, a car with taillights blazing late into the night could go unnoticed. it was here they found theresa mayfield's truck, body inside, gunshot woun the head. teresa's younger sister broke the terrible news to the mother. >> when i went to the house, mama was sitting in the recliner, i knelt down, got on my knees and grabbed her and said, mama, she's gone.

she's gone. do you have any idea how hard that was? >> teresa's daughter, kelsey, had spent a sleepless night waiting in vain for her mother to come home. >> how did you find out? >> my dad came and told my brothers and i. it was awful realizing your worst mignightmare had come tru. for a brief second i thought she had committed suicide because i knew how stressed out she was but i knew how much she loved her family. >> everybody who knew teresa knew that, even sheriff kenneth els, who drove out to the crime scene if that's what it was. corm mark boyd, alabama bureau of investigation met him there. this case was kind of personal for you, sheriff. >> yes. my daughter and miss teresa and scott's daughter, they play softball together. >> you see teresa at the

ballpark? >> every game. it felt like part of my family was gone, too. >> they had a look around the truck. no sign of a struggle. dusting revealed no viable fingerprints. there were no footprints, not even a loose hair. puzzling. >> was there any thought, once you saw the scene, this was a suicide? >> there was things missing that prevented the suicide theory. >> like what? >> if you're going to commit suicide with a gun, it's usually at the scene. >> it was clear teresa had been murdered, shot with a gun which was now missing. and what was more, her cell phone, the one that was always attached to her hip, was nowhere to be found. >> did it look like it could have been robbery? >> t wallet wasn't taken. the purse was on the console, but the contents of the purse had been dumped outn her lap. >> a clumsy attempt at staging,

you might say? >> yes. >> but there was one important clue the killer left behind. >> we noticed that the only window down was the driver'wind. we figured she had to have known the person, because she had let down her window. we had to ask ourselves, who could get her to this location, and why was she murdered. >> someone in mounille had to know something. >> from there, the investigation went where? >> investigating her inner circle, trying to find a motive. >> usually, so i'm told, in cases like this, the husband has got to be a person of interest. >> yes. >> as the family gathered to mourn the loss of their beloved teresa, scott couldn't be with them. he was down at the sheriff's office answering questions. >> came willingly? >> yes. >> did he ask for an attorney or anything? >> no, he did not. >> corm boyd chatted with scott

for three long hours. during the whole time, he was cooperative and helpful. >> the standard questions we would ask, is anyone having an affair? are you having an affair? no. was she having an affair? no. >> good marriage, happy marriage, chn marriage? yes. i ask them did they argue, he said, no. >> scott answered all their questions about what teresa was supposed to be doing that morning. he said he phoned her from a wake-up call and two hours later she called him. but the call faded out, he couldn't hear a thing. >> scott said it sounded like she was on the road. >> he thought nothing of it then, but now, was it a distress call? no way to know. >> there was one thing that call cleared up for investigators, scott could not have killed teresa. he was something like 30 miles away, up near tuscaloosa. had a breakfast receipt to prove it. >> he had stopped at hardees and

had a receipt showing she was there. >> so scott rejoined his family, caught up in the terrible business of grieving. >> i kept wondering why was it happening to o family. >> it was awful. who would ever imagine you'd have a murder in your family. >> investigators tried, with the help of friends, to fill in the gaps of teresa's last hours. they talked to scott and teresa's friend, dawn lavender, who had plans to go shopping with her the night of the murder. >> i'm sure dawn was shocked at what happened. >> she did cry during the interview and at her house waiting on teresa to pick her up and going to ride with her. she finally got a chance to talk with teresa around 7:00. >> after that call, nothing. >> dawn told investigators she called teresa over and over and each time the phone went to a recording. just to be sure of all this they pulled teresa's cell phone

records and began plotting a timeline of her whereabouts. the pictures the records painted wasn't quite what they expected. that morning call to scott, the one he couldn't hear, teresa did not call from moundville. >> the cell tower shows it's pinging up in cuss kalousa. >> wait a minute, how could it be pinging from tuscaloosa? that's miles and miles away. t tuscaloosa. >> the cell phones she could not besing that phone, it had to be somebody using her phone and what do you know, the phone is missing from the crime scene. so the very person who killed teresa must have used her cell phone to call her husband, scott. what could that mean? did the killer know scott and did scott n something he sharing? coming up. >> we were dealing with a person

leading a double life. >> secrets and lies. >> this was betrayal -- >> that's a very good word. when secrets in a small town continues. prepare r your demise, mr. billingsley! do your worst, doctor. wifirst, a little presentation. hijacking earth's geothermal energy supply. phase 1. choosing the right drill bit. as long as evil villains reveal their plans, you can count on geico saving folks money. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

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investigators wondered if there was something that teresa's husband, scott, wasn't telling them. here again is keith morrison.

>> it's a funny thing about secrets, they can only stay dden for so long, especially in a little place like moundville. it didn't take very long for sheriff ellis and corporal boyd tumble on a secret scott had been keeping. >> while we were at the crime scene, scott had a young lady to come pick up the boys. >> it was only later when the fog of grief lifted one of teresa's relatives wondered to police who was that woman hanging around the day teresa died. ellis and boyd tracked her down. what they discovered, well, that changed everything, or seemed to. the person they were talking to was scott's mistress. >> she was under the impression scott was not married at that time. >> what did you make have that when you heard it? >> we knew that wasn't correct. >> a love triangle, jealous

lover kills the husband's wife? not at all. she thought the divorce was finalized. >> what was her reaction to getting the real story. she must have been upset? >> more hurt than upset. i think she was probably in l with him. >> he had been lying like a sidewalk. >> that's right. >> you had no idea that woman was associated with him that way either? > had met her once or twice. i just thought they were friends. i didn't think it was anything else. >> this was betrayal in all capital letters? >> that's a very good word. >> you were betrayed? >> lied to. yeah, taken advantage of, in a way. >> kelsey may have been surprised but teresa's mom and sister, they knew better because this wasn't scott's fist dance with infidelity, no, there had

been others. in fact, scott and teresa divorced during one of his affairs, just after kelsey was born. three years later, teresa took him back, re-married him. >> she wanted to have her family back together. that was her whole thing, family. >> what was it like for you when scott came into your house? what would happen in here as he walked in the door? >> i tried to be sociable, neutral with scott. i always had that thought in the back of my mind, he hurt my sister and i would not forget it. >> for a while, things were as teresa always hoped. wishes don't always come true. soon, scott was back to his old ways with that girl cops were talking to in tuscaloosa. you know how gossip can be. scott went from sympathetic figure, grieved widower to cad and even worse. >> he had to be aware there were people suspicious of him.

>> it bothered me hearing the bad things people had to say about him. i knew my dad was never capable of doing something like that. i was going to have his back regardless. >> but to investigators, scott's affair and the fact he lied about it to police certainly was suspicious. ellis and boyd asked the girlfriend to help them out by recording her conversations scott. maybe he'd let something slip. >>lo. >> hey. >> are you okay? >> yes, i'm okay. they just left. look, all i want to know, did you do it? >> of course not. they told me on the get-go i was the number one prime suspect because i'm the husband. >> i know. do you still love me? >> yes, i do. >> if you do, how are you fine with her dying, was it because

you loved me? >> i had nothing to do with it. nothing. my hands are as clean as they can be. >> so, infidelity, yes. murder, didn't sound it. >> we could prove he was an adulter but we were trying to prove the murder. >> i guess no crime of being a lying sack of you know what. >> it's not against the law to have a mistress. >> now, the corporal and sheriff reverted to standard procedure, they followed up every tip, tracked down every tenuous lead, knocked down rumors. somebody called scott on teresa's cell phone that morning, whether he heard it or not. the investigation dragged on. >> weeks and months went by. and there was nothing. >> uh-huh. >> we had no idea how that anger will get the best of you, not knowing who done this. and you want the person that

done this to be punished for it. >> kelsey took on the most difficult job of her life. at 17, she stepped into her mother's shoes, defended her father and tried to maintain somewhat of a normal life for her little brothers. >> me trying to fill my mother's shoes, those are big shoes to fill. i felt like it was my responsibility to help my dad take care of my family. >> so, you were able to continue to have a relationship of trust with your father? >> right. >> he was there for you guys? >> he tried to be strong for us, so we wouldn't have a breakdown. >> by the first anniversary of teresa's death there was still no arrest and the story was old news. so teresa's mother plastered this poster on doors and windows and telephone policy all around moundville hoping it would help dislodge some clue. then, the weirdest thing

happened. >> we found out about as quick as we were putting posters up they were being taken down. >> taken down by someone who didn't want teresa's kille found, she presumed, and a dark thought crystallized in her mind. was itcott? >> he never acted like a grieving husband. if he had, i wouldn't have had these thoughts. >> your thoughts actually increased over the course of the time you were with it. >> yes. >> you know what they say about assumptions, it wasn't scott. >> me and my brothers took them down. at first i was okay with it. once they put the posters up and everywhere i went i saw my mother's face it drove me crazy and broke my heart seeing her face all over these posters. >> expectations died again. and then someone who knew kelsey heard a strange little story. overheard it.

a guy said he saw someone with a gun on a dirt road around the time teresa was killed? >> did she associate it with this crime? >> she knew miss teresa was killed that way. she just reported it. >> was this the break they were looking for? we can tell you this. the tip led to real flesh and blood, in fact, to a quite literal snake in the grass. coming up, a curious incident from teresa's past. could it shed light on the crime? >> i said, you need to stay away from that woman. when "secrets in a small town" continue. even a "cactus calamity". (man 1) i read that the saguaro can live to be two hundred years old. (woman) how old do you think that one is? (man 1) my guess would be, about...

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hi. richard lui with the top stories, details between

president trump and roger stone and a russian national saying he was offered dirt during 2016. he previously told congress he had no contacts during 2016 and said nothing came of that meeting. in golf, brooks koepka claiming his second u.s. title gave him the win athinnecock hills. now, back to "dateline extra." welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. years after theresa mayfield's murder, a casual conversation overheard in a bar gave authorities their first break, a break which would lead them to the chilling tale of teresa's murder. once again, keith morrison. >> under a setting sun on a

sweltering night two years after her death, theresa mayfield's friends and family gathered to remember. >> i talked to her almos everyday and i missed those talks. >> they took turns talking about the loving daughter, softball mom and sweet woman gunned down on that lonely country road, a murder still a mystery. >> my family will not stop searching or doing whatever it takes to find out who took teresa's life. >> when scott got up to speak, you can bet people were paying special close attention. >> yes, she was a loving wife, loving mother and a loving friend to the community. yes, she would do anything for anybody at any time. >> having discovered he was not exactly husband of the year, some people still nursed a lingering suspicion, yet here he was devoted to the care of his children and full of praise for his dead wife. >> she did a wonderful job

raising these kids. she was the one who got them into practice on time, got them to the ballgames on time. >> when sheriff ellis walked up to the podium, he looked at teresa's mother, reba, and vowed he'd get justice yet. >> miss reba, i won't quit until we find out what happened to miss teresa. >> in fact, even as he spoke, the sheriff, along with the corporal were chasing down their first honest to god lead in what, over a year. doesn't seem like much really, not much, an overheard story of a guy from a bar how he and a friend ran into someone with a gun, not so terribly uncommon around here, mind you, except it happenround the same time and not far away from where the murder occurred. ellis and boyd tracked the boy down and he repeated the story for them. >> they were on a dirt road and they came up on a snake, a rattlesnake. they was trying to kill it, find something to kill it with.

>> the trouble was they were plum out of rattlesnake killing tools. that's when an suv just happened to pull up on the dirt road behind them. the driver was a woman in her 40s or erho said the young man, offered them a sure-fire way to dispatch that rattlesnake. the lady in the car had a gun? >> right. >> it was a hyun inside a zip-locked plastic bag. >> i think she handed him the plastic bag for him to take it out. >> that was a little weird. why would it be in the bag? >> right. >> a curious story, some details fuzzy, but he did recall with excellent clarity who the driver was because he knew her, knew her name. here is the most curious thing of all. it was a ne you heard before, dawn lavender. small down moundville suddenly

got even smaller. dawn lavender, you recall, was teresa's friend, the one who said she waited on vain for teresa to pick her up the morning of the murder. great buddies but not so much according to kelsey. >> if they saw each other they would speak but weren't best friends. >> they did go out a couple times. >> i think she did it because she was bored and wanted to get out of the house. >> when they did get together, on one occasion, said kelsey, it was certainly memorable and not in a good way. they went to a casino and her mother came home stumbling. >> i thought she was drunk and i knew that couldn't be because she didn't drink, she didn't know where she was at, you couldn't understand a word she was saying. she came in and my dad and i put her in the bed. >> how long did she sleep? >> she slept for two straight days. >> what did you think about

that? >> i thought it was very strange. she didn't remember what happened. she knew she had taken some pills, i believe. >> how did she get them? >> i believe dawn give them to her. >> remember how teresa was stressed out the last weeks of her life? the night of the casino trip, dawn gave her xanex, anti-anxiety to help calm her down. it did that. out like a like light for two whole days. >> i looked at her, teresa, you need to stay away from that woman, she's no friend of yours. >> how did teresa respond to that? >> she said, i learned my lesson. >> or maybe she didt. the morning of the murder teresa made plans to go shopping with dawn or what dawn said together. then it clicked together, dawn

with the plastic bag and ter reseas car window down. >> the sheriffs picked apart her and then they pulled her phone records, caught by cell phone technology. >> it painted a clearer picture dawn was in the location of teresa the morning she was murdered. >> why in heaven's name would a woman who claimed to be teresa's friend want to kill her? >> good question perhaps they would get answered once they accused dawnavender of murder, which they did. she had one thing to say to police. >> she kept saying it was wrong, we made a mistake. coming up -- >> as far as physical evidence, we really didn't have any. >> but they did have a plan, an undercover sting to get the evidence they'd need.

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my favorite role so far? being a non-smoker. no question about it. talk to your doctor about chantix. after years of investigation, police had a suspect in the murder of theresa mayfield. lavender.r friend, dawn but what was dawn's motive for murder and had she acted alone? once again, here's keith morrison. >> on june 11, 2010, almost three years to the day theresa mayfield was killed, sheriff ellis and corporal boyd drove to

the wire factory where dawn lavender worked. she was halfway through her day shift. they told her she was under arrest for the murder of her friend, theresa mayfield. >> she first wanted to know why we was arresting her. when she got to the jail, she said this was wrong, we made a mistake. >> the corporal and the sheriff were only too happy to explain to assistant d.a., tim evans, how one clue led to another and eventually an inescapable conclusion. but prosecutor evans had questions, pointed ones. >> you could tell it would be difficult. >> where was the smoking gun? where was the murder weapon? where was one single fingerprint tying dawn to the crime. >> as far as physical evidence we really didn't have any. it was truly circumstantial because we didn't know anything about what had happened. >> as far as evans could see, the case was maybe at best. >> she had no reason to

kill teresa. to bring a case against her would be pretty tough, i would guess. >> the case with dawn was puzzling working with a circumstantial case, every piece of evidence is important. not that sheriff and boyd thought for a second they were wrong. they told the prosecutor not only did she kilter risse but tried and failed to kill her with a xanax overdose at the casino. >> the sheriff department felt that was an attempt on her life but we had novidence to support that. >> if he was to get a conviction he needed more evidence, concrete proof dawn pulled that trigger. you can bet dawn wasn't about to tell him anything. that doesn't mean she was talking. >> we had another young lady getting out of jail and she came to us and said dawn had been

talking about the murder. >> that could have been just gossip, mind you, from a jailhouse snitch who couldn't back it up. dawn did have a cellmate. >> she was in a jam herself and she wanted us to help her, put a word in to the today or jury. >> that was enough to get cooperation? >> right. >> get her to say something that sounded like a confession. they outfitted the cell with a recorder no bigger than a matchbox. as the unsuspecting dawn was reviewing her case file, her cellmate walked in and waited for some incriminating tidbit. what she got instead was the whole sickening story. >> here's what dawn told her

cellmate the morning teresa was killed. at 7:00 a.m., dawn called teresa with a lie to set thelan in motion. >> . >> she claimed her car had broken down nearby, could teresa pick her up? she said, yes. finished drying her hair, made the short drive and there standing alongside the road was dawn. >> she then shot her in the back of the head and steered her car

into the brush hoping it would stay hidden for a while. >> it was all there, a prosecutor's dream confession. she even referred to herself as a cold-blooded killer. there was one question anyone with a beating heart wanted to ask. why? there just had to be an answer. of that they weree. would they ever get it out of her. >> why in the hell did you do it? coming up -- >> at some point she was calling herself a hitman. >> a hitman, but for whom? another painful revelation was in store for teresa's family.

>> it hurts too much for me to say it out loud. when "secrets in a small town" continues.

now with the conclusions to

"secrets in a small town," here's keith morrisson. i have to look just like or little innocent dawny. >> dawn lavender sounded for all the world like she was boasting as she confessed to her cellmate that she murdered teresa mayfield in cold blood. in fact, in recorded conversations with her cellmate, dawn not only admitted to shooting teresa, but said that she had tried once before. that strange night at the casino when teresa came home stumbling, that was her first attempt at murder. >> she wouldn't die. woke up the next damned night. >> but why? why would she want to kill her friend? because, listen to this, the answer to the whole puzzle comes

down to one little word. dawn uses it when telling her cellmate what she did. we? dawn was not acting alone. she had a co-conspirator. >> i don't know if she was trying to be a show off, because she was calling herself a hit man. >> dawn was a hired gun for -- you guessed it. scott mayfield. >> she was a loving wife, loving mother. >> the man who heaped praise on his dead wife, his grieving children by his side was, according to dawn, the architect who designed her death, her revelation finally made sense of a trail of disturbing stories the investigators had been running down for months. >> we had one guy that worked around there in moundville, said a fellow offered him $500 to kill his wife. and a little while later we got

a call from another guy's son saying that his daddy wanted to talk to me scott had approached him about killing his wife. >> his response to scott was get a divorce. that's what divorces are for. >> and then a third man told them a story. >> he had told us that scott mayfield had hired him, had given him $15,000 to kill his wife. he did not have any intentions on killing her. he just wanted the man's money. >> what's the old saying, two is a coincidence, three is a pattern? which is why even before dawn told her grisly tale on tape, in fact, on the same day dawn was arrested, a warrant was also issued for scott. kelsey was outside mowing the lawn when she saw a cop car whiz by, then another and another. she called her dad on his cell phone. >> i asked him where he was at. and he said the cops have me pulled over. >> your dad, for heaven's sake, was being arrested. had to be a shock. >> i was very confused.

so i asked the arresting i asked him, w aou arresting my dad? and he said it was solicitation and conspiracy. >> to commit murder. >> to commit murder, yes. >> in other words, he said your father was responsible for the death of your mother? >> mm-hm. >> still, as he sat behind bars awaiting his day in court he assured his children that it was all a mistake. was inn >> what did you expect would happen? >> i thought he would be found not guilty and he'd be able to come home. >> but at that point, the case against scott was almost entirely circumstantial. that was until dawn got to talking to that cellmate, the one with the little recording device. and sure enough, as the whole story spilled out, there was scott's name on tape, proof at last.

>> once the job was done, the car half hidden by the brush, dawn said, she d tuscaloosa and dialed a familiar number from teresa's cell phone to let her boss know his wife was dead. >> did you call scott and let him know that it was done? >> the only thing left was to collect the $20,000 scott had promised her and go. except -- >> scott never gave you no money? >> but, of course, dawn didn't keep her mouth shut about what she and scott had done. >> from what i could tell, he was just a coward. he wanted a divorce, but he didn't want to live with the responsibilities that accompany a divorce.

>> in other words, he didn't want to pay her alimony. >> or child support. evil was the only thing you can eo descr that man. evil. >> and on may 19, 2011, almost foyfield was gunned down on that lonely dirt road, her mother, sister and daughter sat in a courtroom and listened as dawn and scott, having pleaded guilty to both murder and attempted murder, were each sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. >> he looked straight at me, like he was looking at a tree or something. there was no emotion. and neither was there anything from dawn. it was like they were empty inside. >> but for kelsey, it was simply overwhelming. at the moment of sentencing, for the very first time, she saw her dad not as the loving father who took her shopping for her senior prom dress but as the man who orchestrated the death of her mother.

>> have you ever brought up the issue with him? said i know that you did this? >> one day i will. i don't have it in me right now to confront him and tell him what i know. it hurts too much. for me to say it out loud, for me to tel dad, i know what he did and that i -- i hate what he did. but he's still my father. and i'll always love him. >> her mother loved him too. loved him through infidelity and trouble, loved him always. even as she loved her children, her family. as she tried her best to make life good while he plotted to kill her. >> a couple years earlier, you had a great, full, lovely family life. >> there's really not a word that you can use to describe what our family has been through in the last four years.

it's been -- it's been a very difficult four years. >> and you've got such a nice, sunny disposition. how do you do that? >> i get my strength from my mother. that's all for now. i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. there's always a sense of underlying fear, and i think that it's important to not ever forget that. >> in a world dictated by fear, some resort to violence.