>> so it was a tobacco property then? >> he did farming in tobacco. >> bambi's roots here are as old as the old oak tree. >> in this case, a beautiful

piece of land turned out to be nothing but trouble. >> this is where bambi bennett's family was ripped apart by an act of cruel, unspeakable violence. bambi, her given name, was a fun, feisty, good old girl, country through and through. >> i was at my grandparents a lot growing up. we had a garden. >> you're a country girl? >> mmm-hmm. >> but she'd endured her share of heartache even at a tender age. her parents divorced when she was just 6. mom remarried then a few years later came that terrible day she'll never forget. >> my daddy and my granddaddy passed away on the same day, i was 12 years old. >> all of a sudden you'd lost the two most important men in your life? >> mmm-hmm. >> it was a bewilledering and tragic day.

there was so much sudden loss to endure, she paid no minds to her father's and grandfather's wills, but it turns out she had been left the entire homestead, all 240 acres of it to be held in trust until she turned 18. not long after bambi inherited the farm, her stepfather charlie moved the family on to the property, her property. most everybody called him "big charlie." bamly called him daddy. >> daddy loved hunting and fishing. he always had fish fries and oyster roasts. always people down at the barn. >> you call your stepfather daddy. you easily do that, huh? >> mmm-hmm. i've always called him daddy. >> big charlie was a deacon at church and he started a small business selling and installing glass, converting the old tobacco barn into his shop. bambi's mom diane worked as a secretary in the public schools. they were a respected happy

couple, salt of the earth. >> she was the backbone of that family. >> bambi's cousins jessica and amy loved their aunt diane. >> if your car literally stopped in front of their house or broke down, she would go and make sure you had a meal or you were warm and while she was doing that, big charlie would be fixing the car. >> good mom? >> fabulous mom. outstanding. her biggest thing was she wanted to make sure her kids were protected and their hearts were protected. >> and her daughter bambi would need a lot of protecting. the girl was growing up in a rush. married to her high school sweetheart and divorce after a few months. by the time she was just 24 years old, she had another failed marriage and was struggling as a single mom trying to raise two boys, cody and nathan. >> that had to be tough, keeping your household going, huh? >> yes. >> and things went from bad to worse. bambi started popping pain killers. >> the old story, huh?

>> yes. >> just gobbled them down when you could get them? >> i liked the way it made me feel. >> bambi was a single mom hooked on pills and sitting on a piece of land worth a small fortune. diane decided it was time to intervene before another whirlwind husband du jour got half the property. >> mama said if you put it in my name, it will be protected. >> so she signed the deed to her property over to her mom and then bambi signed over her heart, sending cody and nathan to be raised by their grandparents. she calls it her lowest point. >> i didn't want to do it, but i knew it was the right thing. she wanted to take care of them. she loved those children. >> it was a crushing loss, no question, but bambi agreed at the time the boys were better off. they loved diane and charlie. >> they are just very loving. a lot of outdoor stuff. they spoil us to death. >> nathan, how about you? >> they're the most loving

individuals i've ever met in my life. my grandma's the most sweet woman, and everybody says so. >> with the boys living at their grandparents, bambi tried to get her own life back on track. that's when she met rick, a new hire at charlie's glass company. there was an instant attraction. >> i've always liked the bad boy image, you know, i guess. he had the goatee and the shaved head. i don't know, we just had a good time together. >> was it a serious relationship? >> yes, it was. >> rick was serious, too. he confronted bambi about her deems. >> -- demons. >> i told her, you know, if she wanted to be in a relationship, she had to do something about the pills. >> by the spring of 2005, bambi felt she had turned the corner. she and rick found a home of their own in myrtle beach. after a long struggle, she was ready to be mom to her boys

again. >> i was getting on my feet and i wanted cody and nate there with us. >> grandparents agreed very reluctantly to let the boys move in with bambi and nick, but no sooner had the boys moved that diane was making the case to get them back. >> mama was concerned. >> did she want to hold on to the boys? >> she said she would like for them to, you know, continue to stay with her. >> boyfriend rick thought bambi couldn't catch a break with her family. >> everybody pretty much treated bambi like crap. it stemmed from, you know, issues that diane, charlie and bambi had. >> those issues were simmering into an angry family drama. then just a few weeks after the boys were turned over, it happened. it was april 12th, a tuesday morning, bambi called her mom. no answer. big charlie was late for work. one of his barn employees went up to the house to look for him. moments later, he called 911. >> 911? >> he's laying on the floor. there is blood everywhere.

>> there is blood everywhere? >> yes, ma'am. >> oh, my good. >> inside, things were chaotic, an appalling sight. big charlie and diane were dead and the old farm house they loved so well was now a crime scene. >> charlie and diane parker lying dead in their own home. when we come back, the investigation begins. at a grizzly crime scene, some small stray drops of blood might just provide a huge clue. >> it appeared that someone involved in the crime was a bleeder. >> so that's great evidence? >> it is if you can match it up. -and we welcome back gary, who's already won three cars, two motorcycles, a boat, and an r.v. i would not want to pay that insurance bill. [ ding ] -oh, i have progressive, so i just bundled everything with my home insurance. saved me a ton of money. -love you, gary! -you don't have to buzz in. it's not a question, gary. on march 1, 1810 -- [ ding ] -frédéric chopin. -collapsing in 226 -- [ ding ] -the colossus of rhodes.

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>> hello, just a minute. >> the horror discovered inside that farmhouse confused both the caller and the 911 operator, but what happened to charlie and diane was all too clear. she was found lying next to her bed. big charlie sprawled on the bathroom floor. each had been shot multiple times, both by then dead for hours. the county sheriff phillip thompson's cell phone erupted with calls about the shooting and he called to the scene, not to investigate, charlie and diane were his best friends.

>> they weren't just mine, they were everybody's friends. what we remember is how good they were, how kind they were and what good people they were. >> down at her house in myrtle beach, about 30 minutes from the crime scene, bambi was getting ready to go antiquing with her mom. she called her cell. one of charlie's glass company workers answered. >> i said, can i speak to my mama, please? >> he said, bambi, your mama and daddy's dead. >> just like that? >> yes. and i said, what? he said, bambi, somebody's broken in here and killed them, shot them. i just dropped the phone. and started crying. >> when bambi arrived at the house, yellow caution tape blocked her way. police were va err. >> my mom was like freaking out. >> rick tried to comfort bambi. young cody turned to him, too. >> and then i remember rick, he was near me and i was crying on

his shoulder. everybody was just kind of -- it was a mad house over there. >> in those moments, it seemed the whole county had gone mad. the murders of diane and charlie came hard on the heels of two other vicious killings nearby. the suspect, a man all over the news named stephen stenko was still at large. >> they were looking for stephen when they were discovered. >> vivian was charlie and diana's neighbor. she runs a flower shop nearby. tell me about the fear, vivian, could you feel it in the air? >> you could feel it in the air. i was at the flower shop. >> probably not too thrilled with the idea of getting in your car and driving away. >> i didn't want to go back home. it was pretty bad that day. >> when i first arrive, what i'm looking at is an opportunity to get oriented to the crime scene. >> the man responsible for making sense of the crime scene was prosecutor fran humphreys,

then deputy chief solicitor for ory county. had the house been tossed, rifled? >> it had. one of the first things you do, this appeared to be a home invasion burglary. >> first take? >> no question. >> it was a gruesome crime scene. the bathroom awash in charlie's blood. there was blood spatter in the bedroom where diane lay, but several feet from diane, there were notably a few droplets. >> it appeared someone involved in the crime, not the victims, was a bleeder. >> it was apparent that big cheryly never left the area of the bathroom and it was apparent that diane died where she lay. >> so it looks like your shooter, your intruder, is bleeding. >> is bleeding. >> so that's great evidence. >> it is if you can match it up. while crime scene techs process the house, investigators started taking statements. big charlie and diane had a large family and knew a lot of people. >> we talked with everybody. the list of people that we

talked to is exhaustive. >> a parade of friends, employees, and family was brought down to headquarters for interviews, including bambi and her boyfriend, rick. >> they did gunshot residue tests on all of us. >> including you? >> mm-hmm. >> they had me remove my shirt, lift my pant legs up. they took my shoes, took pictures of my shoes, tops, bottoms. >> both bambi and rick told police they had spent the night at home, never left. with the interviews complete, police drove rick and bambi back to the farmhouse. everyone was gone. bambi says she realized she had left her purse with her phone and car keys in the detective's cruiser. she decided she would take her mother's vehicle to get home. >> we didn't have any way to get in touch with anybody. we didn't have anything. and i told rick, i said, see if you can find mama's purse, her cell phone. and so he went in the house. >> police had released the crime scene, but it still looked like one.

detectives told the family they would have to clean it up. so when rick says he went in to fetch diane's car keys, he found himself tiptoeing through a bloody mess. what were you seeing? >> all the blood. just one of the most horrible things i'd ever seen. >> rick approached the bathroom where charlie had been killed. he says he noticed bambi through the window pacing in the backyard. >> she was calling out, mama, mama, crying and screaming. i stepped into the bathroom, trying to step around the mess as best i could and i shut the blind. >> you closed them because you didn't want bambi to see the blood and gore? >> that's right. i remember saying to bambi, i think i stepped in some blood in the bathroom and i was wiping my shoe off on sand. she was telling me to wash my shoe, so i didn't get blood in her mom's truck. >> that must have been eerie to be in that house that night. huh? >> yeah. extremely. >> it was an eerie moment. one that would haunt bambi and

rick for years to come. coming up, bambi makes a stunning admission. >> wen date line continues. w fo. (♪) i'm a four-year-old ring bearer with a bad habit of swallowing stuff. still won't eat my broccoli, though. and if you don't have the right overage, you could be paying for that pricey love band yourself. so get an allstate agent, and be better protected from mayhem. like me. can a ring bearer get a snack around here? sfx: [cell phone dialing] no. no, no, no, no, no. cancel. cancel. please. aaagh! being in the know is a good thing. that's why discover will alert you if your social security number is found on any one of thousands of risky sites.

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the cold blood killing of big charlie and diane parker had a great many people in and around conway, south carolina, bolting their doors and locking their windows. >> had you had any trouble in that neighborhood in the countryside with break-ins? >> not that i know of. it's always been a wonderful place. it just doesn't make any sense. >> was this more of the murderous rampage of the note list stephen stenko who was all over the news? no, said prosecutor fran humphreys who knew stenko had been cited in georgia at the time of the murders, 200 miles away. >> so this awful thing at the

farmhouse, you weren't associating that? >> i was not. >> in the public mind, they made the connection. >> oh, they did, but truly at that time law enforcement knew that he was physically in augusta. >> rather, humphreys focused on the evidence coming from the parker crime scene. he quickly came to believe this was more than just a bungled home invasion. >> it was apparent that nothing had been taken, at least nothing that you would suspect to be taken in a burglary. >> humphreys thought back to some curious statements bambi had made in her interview with police when she said she had given willingly. >> all right. you are sure you're okay to sit down and do this. >> i'm not okay but i want to help you. >> soon after the interview started, bambi, he said, began describing a feud within their family. the issue was the land that bambi owned and that her parents had been living on. >> there's been a long-running family feud. >> right.

over the land? >> long term. >> according to humphreys, bambi and diane argued over who should control that property. >> diane wanted to make sure that that property was there for the kids. i think she had become convinced that, you know, bambi was not going to be in a position to manage that property, to manage the assets. >> i love this girl, my daughter, but she's beyond hope, is that the feeling? >> she just can't be trusted with it. >> bambi didn't agree. >> she wanted the property back. >> i have a lot of anger about that. >> the humphreys learned the land wasn't the only hot button between bambi and her mother and step dad. they also argued over the raising of bambi's boys, nathan and cody. >> the issues were abated where your parents didn't want you to go back to y -- the kids to go back to you guys? >> i know it was hard for mama to give them back. at first we were angry, you

know, at each other. getting ugly at each other. >> diane just wasn't comfortable with bambi having custody of those children. >> in fact, just four months before the murders, a mother/daughter shouting match over the care for the boys got so out of hand that diane called 911. the responding officer arrived with his dash cam rolling, just moments after bambi had stormed away. >> i'm sorry to bother you. >> you're not bothering me at all. >> diane explained the argument to the officer. >> she usually just does what she wants to do and picks them up when she wants to. she doesn't buy anything for them. >> diane went on to say she felt threatened by her daughter. >> she scares me. she got in my face and jerked the phone out of my hand. >> then came this chilling pronouncement. >> if anything happens to me, you'll know that the responsible person. >> how telling is that? >> she was in fear, in grave fear. >> humphreys by now suspected bambi was somehow involved in

her parents' murders but she was skeptical she could commit a double homicide on her own so the prosecutor turned his attention to bambi's boyfriend, rick gagnon. >> he was extremely faithful to bambi. >> and according to humphreys, willing to do anything for her. >> the daughter and the boyfriend seem to be in some sort of conspiracy, the theory goes? >> well, in agreement to accomplish a goal. >> the alibi they gave detectives that they were at home in the hours leading up to the murder are difficult to prove. using each other as the witness. >> i was there. rick was there. my boys were in the other room. >> the prosecutor began to wonder, could those mysterious blood droplets at the crime scene be linked to rick and bambi? >> dna results had not come back. >> you didn't know who it was but you knew someone else was in the house. >> could have been richard gagnon. >> while humphreys waited for those results, he obtained a

search warrant and took a look at some of their other belongings, including his shoes. >> there was blood on his shoe. >> what did the lab analysis say that? >> it was big charlie's blood. >> they didn't buy rick's stories having stepped in blood while looking for bambi's mother car keys. >> now you have two persons of interest, fair to say? >> oh, no question. >> ten days after the murders, humphreys asked both rick and bambi to take polygraph tests. both agreed and both showed deception. >> rick gagnon in particular showed deception. >> police sat both rick and bambi down in separate rooms for another round of questioning. this time the gloves were off. >> do you want to be charged with something? >> you're not charging me with anything. >> answer my question. >> i didn't do anything. >> they hoped for a confession or at the very least she would give up rick. she didn't do either. >> you don't want to be charged. >> no, i'm not going to be

charged because i didn't do anything. >> we're done. lock her up. you're not going to tell us anything, lock her up. take her to jail and charge her with two counts of murder. >> the detectives weren't done yet trying to break bambi. on her way to the booking, bambi said the hammer came down hard one more time. >> they surrounded me like a pack of wolves. they said, go get those crime scene photos of her mama and daddy, and i said, no, no, no, and i was trying to cover my face. he was pulling my hands off of my face. then he said, you did this. you. >> detectives said the same thing to rick beggagnon. they arrested me and that's pretty much it. if bambi did it, then i had to be a part of it. >> so there it was, a daughter and her boyfriend, partners in love and suspected of murder.

the alleged motive was basic, get the deed to the land and resolve the custody issue of the boys in one bloody rampage. ory county could sleep easier at night with case closed, but was it case solved? coming up -- a new family feud breaks out between bambi and her sons. >> i had a lot of people in my ear saying that she did it. i resented her. i hated her. (vo) we came here for the friends. and we got to know the friends of our friends. and we found others just like us. and just like that we felt a little less alone. but then something happened. we had to deal with spam, fake news, and data misuse. that's going to change. from now on, facebook will do more to keep you safe and protect your privacy. because when this place does what it was built for, then we all get a little closer. (man)(woman) beautiful just like you. (woman) oh, why thank you.

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. president trump is just hours away from his highly anticipated summit with russian president vladimir putin in finland. they will hold a one-on-one meeting. chicago police released body cam footage of a fatal shooting that left a 37-year-old man dead and stirred angry protests saturday. the video shows the man running away from officers and reaching towards his waist, where he had a gun. now back to "dateline." bambi bennett sat is an houry county jail cell stunned. she had just been charged with two counts of murder. >> i thought, i'm just having a bad dream. this cannot be happening. not only were my parents just murdered, now i'm being accused

of being the ones that killed them. i said, y'all have lost your mind. i said, this doesn't make any sense. i didn't do anything wrong. >> but to prosecutor fran humphreys it made perfect sense. >> the motive is unavoidable in this case. bambi needed her stepfather and mother dead so she could get her property back. >> property valued at north of $1 million. >> the classic line of question people in your line of work pose, well, who benefits? >> bambi. >> as for bambi's boyfriend rick, humphrey -- they insisted they were never do anything to harm diane or charlie, and bambi downplayed the family drama over the land, despite calling it a feud during her interrogation. >> she wants the land. that is the most ludicrous thing ever. it was given to me by my daddy to begin with. even though it was in mama's

name, if i wanted the land back, all i had to do was tell mama that. >> also, she said, absurd was the allegation that she would kill her parents over disagreements to raise their boys. >> who does not have disagreements ever with their mother and father? mama and i didn't agree on the upbringing of cody and nate, but that doesn't mean i'm going to kill my mama because we disagree. that's ridiculous. >> now even some of bambi's family believed she was responsible for her parents' murder. including her sons, nathan and code kbl. >> you don't know who to turn to. >> when did you come to the idea that maybe she was the one who did this? >> it was a mixture of things. i had a lot of people in my ear saying that she did it. i came to the conclusion that she basically put it in rick's head for rick to do it. >> i only thought she had something to do with it from

what i had been told. >> i resented her. i hated her. i didn't want to see her face ever again. >> it seemed bambi's supporters were few and far between. one who did believe in her innocence was her attorney, jim irvin. >> everybody rushed to judgement in this case. >> the way jim irvin saw it, the prosecution's case against bambi was a week circumstance one that hinged on a bunch of theories as to motive. >> what always bothered me about this case, when you look at the gunpowder residue, there was none on bambi. >> he said that one bit of hard evidence detectives thought they had against bambi, what they thought was blood on her boot, turned out to be nothing. >> the detectives said, we got her, the dna on this boot is going to belong to one of the two people. they couldn't even say it was dna. >> as for the polygraph test, detectives said bambi failed to pass, according to irvin, those results were suspicious.

>> the last question they asked her, have you told me everything you know about this case? if i asked a detective the same question, he couldn't pass it either. it's too broad a question. >> bambi sat in jail for six months. >> they were hope she would flip and tell them the story. >> that's exactly what they they're hoping. >> final yet judge said enough is enough. prosecutor humphreys had to let bambi go. >> it became apparent that the evidence was not sufficient to bring her case to trial. >> didn't have the goods? >> just wasn't there. wasn't there. >> yet she's the foundation of your theory. >> there's no question about it. >> for the time being, bambi was able to put horry county jail in her rear view mirror and with it rick. by now, bambi cut ties with her old boyfriend. >> it sounds like she had your back and then didn't. what happened? >> jail changes people, you know? >> rick was hoping it was just be a matter of time before he, too, had been released.

the forensics they had against you, no hair, no fingerprint, no dna? >> nothing. >> but he did have charlie's blood on his shoe. to humphreys, that evidence was part of a bloody trail from the crime scene that was about to leave both the prosecutor and rick gagnon into a courtroom showdown. coming up -- one of rick gagnon's fellow inmates coming forward with a damning story. >> he's been given a fairly detailed account of what occurred that evening and what the crime scene looked like. >> stuff that hadn't been in the newspapers and on the tv? >> not at all, no. >> when "dateline" continues.

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rick gagnon was in a world of pain, locked up in the county jail facing two murder charges. he shared his woes with another guy in a jumpsuit, two inmates power walking together around the yard. >> we would walk around the pod, do lapse. -- laps. >> the jail yard buddy was named robert mullins, a petty crook who seemed strangely interested in rick's troubles. >> did he want to talk to you about the case? was he grilling with you with what you knew? >> all the time. >> it seemed everyone in this part of south carolina wanted to know more about the case. it took two years, but in 2008 the state was ready to try rick dwag nonfor the murders of rick and diane -- >> this is purely motive evidence which establishes a motive for richard gagnon to end

the lives of these two people. >> as humphreys recalls, the case against rick was always motivation strong, evidence weak. not much more than a drop of charlie parker's blood on a shoe when you came right down to it. even so, humphreys told the court the blood put rick at the murder scene. >> he had a story for it, didn't he? >> he did. it didn't hold water but he had a story about it. >> humphreys recited rick's version of how blood got on his shoe. how he went into the parker house to get a set of car keys some time after crime scene techs finished up. >> he looked into the window leading to where big charlie had died and noticed the blood. >> rick said he worried bambi pacing outside might look in the window and freak out all over again. >> he went in and stepped through the bathroom and closed the blind. >> whoops, i stepped in the blood. that's his story.

but it didn't hold up. >> no, because they were already closed. >> that was the gotcha. this crime scene photo said the prosecutor was taken hours before rick supposedly stepped inside that house. notice the bathroom blinds are drawn. humphreys argued that rick could not have closed the blinds because they were already shut. the prosecutor said the defendant was lying, though he believed rick had told the truth about the murders to at least one other person. the state's star witness, robert mullins. >> the witness i call the jailhouse snitch and you call the jailhouse informant. >> he's a snitch. no question about that. at the end of the day, what we learned from robert mullins is he's been given a fairly detailed account by gagnon of what occurred that evening and what the crime scene looked like. >> in fact, he said mullins was the first to tell police this piece of bombshell news. gagnon mentioned an accomplice in the killings. >> the only way he can have that

information is from someone who was at the crime scene, who participated in the crime. and then the prosecutor tried to spin an inconvenient fact in his favor. the mystery blood drops at the murder scene had been tested. the dna was not a match to rick but an unidentified male. that, said the prosecutor, actually supported what mullins said, that rick had an accomplice. humphreys believed the evidence was enough to put the defendant away. he only wished he could make the same case against rick's old girlfriend. what about bambi? she wasn't being tried in this courtroom. >> no. i think it's a travesty. >> her fingerprints are on this? >> all over it, figuratively. >> and that's just how he laid it out in his closing. he told the jury, this was a story about a spoiled woman, bambi bennett, who had manipulated her boyfriend, rick gagnon, into doing her murderous dirty work. get back the deed, get her

mother off her back. >> he heard from bambi how her parents were not fair to her. they have her land. my parents are horrible people and i'm, you know, they've taken advantage of me. >> to make things right, argued the prosecutor, the dutiful boyfriend and his right-hand man entered the house and hunted down bambi's parents in their night clothes. the jury had just heard a drama of southern gothic proportions, dripping with family greed and hatred. now it was time for an entirely different story. >> none of the puzzle pieces fit. >> rick's defense team, including attorney barbara pretty told the court that the state's case was heavy on fiction, light on facts. >> they had a puzzle, they had neat little pieces but the pieces weren't exactly right. >> the state was so desperate to prove its case, she said, it clung to the word of a jailhouse snitch and career criminal. >> a fellow that is there to cut himself a deal and get himself some assistance, i guess, in his own case, is not like lly to be

credible. >> not only was the snitch not to be believed, the defense told the jurors, but the state was also trying to confuse them about the mystery blood found at the crime scene. the bottom line, said pratt, the dna from that blood cleared their client of the murders. >> the dna didn't match. we knew the dna was not going to match rick. >> they knew that, she said, because rick had an alibi for the night of the murders. he'd been asleep in myrtle beach with bambi. the way pratt saw it, the most challenging part of the case was the blood on rick's shoe. to explain how it got there, rick took the stand. he pointed out on the morning the bodies were discovered, police examined him thoroughly and found nothing. >> if there was blood on my shoes that morning, i would have been arrested right then and there. there was no blood on my shoes. >> that came later when he stepped in the blood-soaked bathroom. he insisted the window blinds were open and worried simply that bambi might see the horror

inside. >> i went in and shut the blind. i didn't think she needed to see that. >> he testified that the blood got on his shoe at that moment, not before. >> did you go into the house and kill big charlie and diane at the instigation of bambi? >> absolutely not. >> are you two in a conspiracy to kill those people? >> no, sir. >> so who did kill the couple? we don't know, said the defense, but it wasn't rick gagnon. with that, the jurors filed out to deliberate. rick waited with his attorneys and the woman many felt to be at the heart of it all held her breath. coming up -- the jury renders its verdict. >> i didn't know what to think. i didn't know what to think anymore. >> but this isn't the end of the case because finally investigators learned who left those mystery blood drops at the crime scene. >> he said they identified the killer. -i've seen lots of homes helping new customers bundle and save big, but now it's time to find my dream abode.

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>> jurors in rick gagnon's murder case deliberated for only a few hours. when they filed back into the courtroom, he read their faces and knew, they found him guilty. >> two counts of murder, received two life sentences. >> that's called a pine box sentence. >> pretty much. >> getting out of the system in a pine box when you're dead. >> bambi said she didn't want to be in court for the verdict.

her attorney called her with the news. >> here i am thinking, oh, my gosh, could he have done this? and then i'm going in the back of my head, there's no way he could have did this. >> rick felt as though he had been sandbagged. >> i believed if god saw fit for me to go home, i would go home. >> and that thought was about all he had left, faith in god and a good appellate lawyer. in this case, bob. >> in my 22 or 23 years of being an appellate defense attorney, rick gagnon was one of only about two or possibly three people that i genuinely believed was innocent. >> that certainty would mean exactly nothing to an appeals judge, unless bob and rick could come up with new evidence. then in 2009, a year after his

verdict, rick had an encounter in prison with yet another inmate. >> and techs all excited about something. >> authorities in tennessee, the prisoner told rick, had just arrested someone for a home invasion there. >> he told me, they identified the killer. >> that man's name was bruce hill. when authorities ran his information through the data base, they had a match for the blood found at the crime scene. a jury convicted hill of the murders of big charlie and diane. his motive for the crime was never firmly established. >> who is bruce hill? do you know that name? >> no. >> ever see him at the farm property, on job sites? >> no, never. >> but rick's lawyer needed proof that there was no connection between the two men. so he paid hill a visit. >> bruce hill showed a picture of rick gagnon and his words

were, i've never seen that cracker [ bleep ] before. bruce hill was unambiguous and was very blunt that he did not know rick. >> all hill had to do now was admit that in open court. and gagnon might go free. hill flatly refused. once again, rick was out of luck, but not hope. >> the first piece of good news i'd had in a long time. you know? i was excited to see what god was getting ready to do. >> and there were developments. >> yes, sir. >> namely, the arrival of a new inmate. >> i was in the chapel at the time. it was my job assignment. he was brought into the chapel. >> one day the man opened up and stunned rick. he said he had known a guy in jail named -- wait for it -- robert mullens, the very same who testified against rick. the man then said that mullens had shared a secret. he had lied about rick's involvement in the murders.

>> i mean, i already knew it. but to hear somebody else say it -- >> that mullens had lied. >> yeah. >> proud of what he was able to do. >> yeah. >> now the snitch on snitch story had the appeals judge's attention. >> the judge had to make a determination that the result of the trial would probably have been different. >> because mullens' story was that important in getting the conviction? >> right. >> the judge vacated rick's conviction saying the new county solicitor, the one who had replaced humphries, could refile charges if he wanted. the solicitor said he did not. so in 2013, after eight years inside, rick gagnon walked out of prison. he settled on the carolina coast now, married with children. >> just the smell of the ocean, you know, it's like freedom. it's a terrible thing that i went to prison for something i didn't do. it's changed my life. >> his old girlfriend believes her life was up-ended, too.

bambi says she's cut ties with most of the people she grew up with. the tobacco fields she still owns are pretty much her only connections to the place. >> i didn't want to be there anymore. that was my home. but my home that i had known just falsely accused me. and destroyed me. >> but there is something she'd like from the people of south carolina. do you want an apology? would that go anywhere for you? >> i do want an apology. no, it doesn't change what they did, and it's not going to fix what they took away. >> she would like nothing more than an apology from you. for the heart ache you've caused her. >> she's not getting that. she's entitled to something from me, but apology is not it. >> what should she expect? >> i would have liked for her to have received justice in the case. >> meaning he would have liked her charged, tried and convicted. >> i would liked to have been an agent of that justice.

>> all but forgotten are bambi's sons, cody and nathan. reeling from once hating their mom, to now believing her completely innocent. >> i don't think she had anything to do with it. >> as a testament to that change of heart, they've joined their mom in the place she now calls home, florida. for the first time in a long while, they feel like family. >> it took a while before you really were able to trust her with all your feelings and tell her you loved her and hug her. >> you can be her sons again. >> right. definitely. >> for that, at least bambi is grateful. for the future, she's hopeful even if every once in a while she looks back in anger. >> i lost my mom and dad. my children lost their grandparents. our family still has no answers. they're still saying the case isn't completely solved.

maybe if they took the time in the beginning we wouldn't be in this predicament today. >> maybe there are no more answers, no reason to keep digging up the past. just leave it rooted right where it is, and let the spanish moss grow. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." this is an nsnbc special series. cool. just appealing or something more? can you touch it? buy it? become it? >> who gets to decide what's cool and what's not? >> look for the person who's doing something that no one else has done. >> it's magic. >> every brand wants you to believe they have the edge on cool. >> they'll do anything to prove