questions. what does that tell you? that tells you they have fallen woefully short of proving matt's guilt. >> after eight days of testimony, both sides of the family prepared for a long and anxious wait for a verdict. turns out they didn't have to pace long. after just three hours of deliberation, the jury announced it had reached a verdict. >> i'm going to ask you at this time if you would stand and read the verdict out loud. >> as to count one, we the jury find the defendant guilty of murder. this is "dateline." i lost concept of time. i reached in. pulled her out. i started screaming help. >> please. wake up, wake up. >> it was the worst seconds of my life. how was it possible? >> i would give anything if she were alive today. >> such a sweet, young wife and mom. such a shattering death.

>> i cried all night long. >> he was downstairs with the kids. she was upstairs in the bath. then it happened. we didn't know if it was a tragic accident or something else. >> questions swirled about a wife's secret? >> she did have an addiction to prescription pills. >> was it an accident or maybe murder? >> she said i'm scared of him. >> the whispering started almost immediately. you're a murderer. >> when you're innocent, you don't think it can happen. >> just wait until the spell binding moment in court. >> it is nothing i would have ever imagined in my life.

welcome to "dateline." a beautiful woman from a well to do family thought she found her prince charming, but their story turned out to be anything but a fairy tale. love, children, and nice house turned into a fight against addiction, rumors and murder. >> sometimes, the fresh air of a small town can hide a lot of dirty laundry. >> my worst fear was true. >> she felt like she was abusing it. >> what happened in this small town that would tear apart a marriage, and at the same time, separate two families that were once united by love. boone, iowa on flatland just

north of des moines is a company town. headquaters for one of the largest grocery chains in the midwest. fareway. it's a family owned company and rick is a third generation ceo. he and his wife cindy raised a family of five here. their youngest daughter emily, the sweet but quite one. >> the older sisters said she never got spanked. >> she didn't. she would just remain silent and look at me with those big brown eyes and it was over. >> even though emily was from a prominent wealthy family, her friend says emily never flaunted it. >> i never felt less of a person in the presence of emily or any one of her family. >> emily was the girl everyone wanted to be friends with and every boy wanted to date.

>> anybody. >> all the boys were gaga over here. >> she was gorgeous. you've seen pictures of her. even in high school she was gorgeous, but it wasn't her thing to date. >> by the time she was 21, emily moved 200 miles south to kansas city, missouri working in a hair salon. one night in 2001, she went to a bar and a local boy spotted her from across the room. >> it's one of those ah-ha moments you might say. i was like, i have to talk to that girl. >> after a few days, alex knew she was the one. >> what did you like about her? >> what didn't i? she was beautiful. she was very nice. she dressed in impeccably. with a didn't i? >> alex's mother joanne knew something was happening when he asked if he could bring emily to

sunday dinner. >> he said i have met someone and i'd love to be able to bring her over so you can get to know her better. >> and you think, here i go. >> i did. >> back in boone emily's family heard about the boy from kansas city. >> she called me up and said i met this fella. he's italian and you're going to love his family. they're louder than us. and she fell in love with the whole family immediately. >> emily's sister amy could see they were in love. >> her eyes sparkled. alex's eyes sparkled. just huge smiles on both of their faces. the girl that never dated was swept off her feet. emily and alex married may 10th, 2003. >> how many people? >> at least 400. >> that's big. >> yeah. for an italian wedding it's maybe mid sized. >> the couple had a son nick and

later he took up emily's parents on an invitation to move to boone. >> her father offered alex an opportunity as a family member to move way up the ranks and at my husband's encouragement, he when. >> alex took an entry level job at a fareway job near boone. they gave the couple this house. just a 5 minute drive from their own. soon there were two more additions to the family. ricky and cocoa. >> all emily ever wanted was to have a family and be a wife and a mother. >> it all seemed perfect until the night of january 29th, 2012. it was close to the kid's bedti bedtime. emily had gone up early to take her nightly bath and alex was doing things his wife normally did. >> i was helping with laundry. i helped the kids with their bath. >> alex said he heard emily

start her bath as he and the kids watched peter pan. >> there was a lot of sword fighting and things like that and music and it was really loud. and when it got quite i could hear the water still running. >> alex says the water was running for about 20 to 30 minutes. so he went upstairs to see what was taking so long and came upon a horrible scene. emily was submerged in the tub unconscious. >> i tried as hard as i could to get her out of that tub as fast as i could. she slipped out of my arms. i started screaming for help. i ran to the phone to call 911. and all i could say was help. >> 911, what's the location of your emergency. >> help, help, help. >> what's going on?

what's going on. >> it was the worst seconds of my life. >> but there was much more to come. two lives and so many secrets would soon be put under a microscope. >> what had happened upstairs in that bathroom? >> okay. >> how long has she been in here? >> i don't know. she was taking a bath. >> what did you think this was? >> we din know if it was a tragic accident or something else. >> it's the addiction, you know? it's the addiction. >> addiction? the mystery was just beginning when dateline continues. s just g when dateline continues. i knew about the tremors.

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they wandered in and saw their mother on the bathroom floor. >> guys, go away, kids, please, please. >> on the tape, you don think there's much hope of reviving her. >> of me personally reviving her, i didn't. >> you don know cpr? >> no, but with the operators

help alex tried. >> tilt her dead back. >> okay. >> did you do that? >> yeah. >> the sergeant got the call and arrived at the house with two other officers. his body camera was rolling. >> oh, come on, please. >> as we entered the master bathroom, emily was laying on the floor face up and she had a bluish tint to her. >> how long has she been in here. >> i don't know. she was taking a bath. >> could you tell? >> i checked her pulse and breathing. i didn't feel any so i instantly started cpr. >> she's freezing cold. >> blood? >> no blood anywhere. she did have a big bruise on her forehead? >> what was around? anything? >> the bathtub was full of water and there were oil droplets on

top of the water, like bath oil. there was music playing from an ipad on the sink area. >> ent's loaded emily into an ambulance and raced to the hospital. when her mother cindy got the call, she went straight there. >> she told me she was in the emergency room and he said she's gone. >> emily was dead at the age of 32. and no one knew why. >> when you went home that night, what did you think this was? >> i didn't really know. it was suspicious death for sure. we didn't know if it was a suicide or tragic accident or something else. >> around midnight, police asked alex to give a statement at headquaters. >> so i pulled her and she just flopped, you know? she just flopped on the floor. >> you went in and in those initial interviews you're not

represented by an attorney. >> you talked to the police and handed over your phone, almost as if you had nothing to hide. >> i didn't. >> he also told police something very few people knew. his wife had a dependence on prescription drugs. alex said he was sure emily's addiction killed her. >> it's really not my wife that did it. it's the addiction. >> what did you think had happened? >> i didn't know if, you know, she took a hand full of pills. i was having a hard time trying to reconcile if she killed herself or if she just overdosed. >> you thought overdose either deliberate or unintentional. >> yeah. i thought it was a reasonable assumption. >> reasonable because alex said he had been dealing with his wife's addiction for more than a year when he discovered she had stolen pain pills from his father. and then a few months later alex's own doctor asked a strange question during a check up. >> he said and how is your

shoulder. i said it's fine. why do you ask? >> he said i wanted to make sure that the vicodin i prescribed you were working. i said excuse me and i started crying. >> you hadn't asked for any vicodin. >> vicodin is an opioid. emily had asked for the prescription saying it was for alex, but he says she end under taking the pills herself. alex said he confronted emily. >> i said you're going to have to choose between your family and this medicine. i said i'm not going to stay married to you if you continue down this road. >> and she said. >> she said okay. >> she said it and she may have meant it but in the months before she died, emily would seem okay one day and not the next. >> i could see in her eyes they -- like a glaze. and then she would be fine for a

period. >> finally, in december 2011, two months before her death, emily reached out to her mom for help. >> did she say she had become addicted to this painkiller? >> i don't know if she used the word addiction, but she had felt like she was abusing it. and alex was upset about it. >> emily's daughters recommended in patient rehab. instead she decided to detox at her mother's house and to hide it from alex and her kids by saying she had mono. >> the reason is they were scared of what it would do to their image. >> is the reason you put out this cover story about emily having mono, is that because sending her to rehab would have been some kind of embarrassment to your family and you didn't want your name tarnished? >> absolutely not. we have always done the best thing for our children.

and it was emily's desire to keep it from alex. >> emily went cold turkey. cindy says the first couple of days her daughter hardly left her bed suffering from severe head aches but after only four days emily went home. >> did you think she was clean? off drugs? that that problem was behind her? >> i knew that she was still tired. >> but no longer addicted. >> no. >> you were convinced that had been dealt with. >> yes. >> alex didn't find out about the detox until much later but he says in the weeks before she died, emily still had a stash of pain pills. >> how many times did you say to your wife, if you don't get off the drugs, i'm going to have to leave you? >> at least three. >> but she wouldn't do it. >> she'd fall back into her old habits. >> she would never agree to rehab? >> no, she would tell me all of her doctors are on the same page

and everything was fine. >> so alex was telling everyone that his wife was a victim of her own demons, but soon, new evidence would emerge that would send this case in a more sinister direction. >> results came back clean. >> so it wasn't an overdose. >> it wasn't an overdose. >> what could have killed emily? >> she was scared. there was something wrong. >> when dateline continues. g wr. >> when dateline continues

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as two families mourned and said good-bye, alex had to come to grips with the fact that he was now a single day with three kids under the age of 7. >> it's sickening to know that if emily would have gotten the help she needed, she could still be here for my kids and probably for me. >> while emily's family tried to cope with their loss, the state investigator was operating on the assumption that her death was linked to her addiction. >> she did have a drug problem.

she had an addiction to opioid medication. >> an overdose would mean no crime. a regrettable accidental death or a suicide. then six weeks later, something that changed the entire focus of the investigation. emily's toxicology came back. >> results came back clean. she wasn't under the influence of opioids at the time of her death. >> so it wasn't a overdose. >> no trace of the pain pills. there was nothing in her system that would have killed her. there was no alcohol in her blood. so now investigators had to take a new look at the case, starting with the photos of the bruises on emily's body. police saw a bump on her head but during her initial exam, the medical examiner found more. >> areas of trauma to the front of her head, both left and right side of her head and top of her

head. >> possible the injuries could have occurred while alex was dragging his wife out of the tub? >> i don't think so. >> and there were bruises on emily's neck. >> she had bruising to the muscles in her neck area that were of concern that maybe she was possibly held under the water by her neck. >> he said he tried cpr on her. those couldn't have been caused by someone that didn't know what they were doing with cpr. >> how could emily have gotten the bruises. >> i know she hit her head when i was getting her out of the batht bathtub. when i picked her up, i heard it. i heard it hit when i was pulling her out. her head hit. >> the side of the tub? the floor? >> i don't know. i was heaving her out. it was so hard to get her out. >> would you have bruised her

neck doing that? >> i don't know. >> the ayegent wanted to know wt might have been going on behind closed doors. he listened to a 911 call. >> he's taking everything of mine and trying to take pills too. >> one week before her death emily called 911 to complain about alex. >> he's like trying to take property that is not his. >> emily came home inebriated the night before. and i had had it. i had had it. i grabbed whatever pills i could grab and i was going to flush them down the toilet. >> she got angry. >> she got angry and she called 911. >> no one was arrested or charged in the incident but it seemed to be the breaking point. the next day, emily filed for divorce and then alex did the same. both asked for full custody of the children and both were still living in the same house. a few night's later, emily

called her father, rick. >> the words were saying one thing and the voice was telling me something different. >> what was the voice telling you? >> she was scared. there was something wrong. >> they hung up around 6:00 p.m.. two hours later, emily will be dead. >> i will never forget that phone call because that was the last time i heard her voice. >> for the investigator, a new picture was emerging. a marriage in shambles. a husband pushed to the edge. maybe this wasn't an accident or suicide. maybe it was murder. >> it seems hard to believe that alex would kill his wife and his kids are just a couple of rooms away. >> but that's if you're thinking that this was well thought out. often times couples get in arguments and they escalate and somebody dies. >> you had seen your wife endanger her life. you weren't angry about your wife's inability to kick her

habit? >> no, i was disappointed in her. i was disappointed that had happened. but angry? no. i was never angry with emily. but emily's family and friends were angry with alex. they were now splitting along family lines. coming up. >> i just kept saying over and over again he murdered her. >> you're a murderer. >> that's what they were saying. >> did you say that alex and his family are in the mafia and that women that try to divorce them wind up dead? >> when dateline continues. p ded >> when dateline continues and it can feel like no matter what you do, you're always itching. but even though you see and feel eczema on your skin, an overly sensitive immune system deep within your skin could be the cause. so help heal your skin from within. with dupixent.

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no end in sight to the partial government shutdown that's now in it's 9th day. president trump is waiting for democrats to negotiate a deal on border security and new congress will convene january 3rd. the president is blaming

democrats for the deaths of two migrant children that passed away this month. the president said weak immigration policies caused the deaths and only a waull would prevent future tragedies. back to "dateline". >> welcome back. i'm craig melvin. alex said he found his wife emily submerged in her bathtub, and that she must have overdosed. but the medical examiner's findings showed otherwise. here again is more. >> rumors were flying around the town of boone, iowa. family and friends thought alex had killed his wife. >> i just kept saying over and over again, he murdered her. >> the whispering started almost immediately. >> yeah. within a day. >> you're a murder. >> that's what they were saying. >> and not just a murderer.

emily's sister amy told investigators alex was also a mobster. >> did you say that alex and his family are in the mafia in organized crime and that women that try to divorce their way out of the family wind up dead. >> that was information that emily had told me. >> amy doesn't realize that my mom's six siblings and my dad's one sibling, there's been 11 divorces. >> those people all still alive? >> they're not all still alive, but none of them were killed. >> but they weren't murdered. >> so they're not some hooked up organized crime family? >> no, and i resent her saying that. >> alex insists the allegations were ludicrous and that's also what investigators determined. >> did you pick up in your investigation any indication that the family was involved in organized crime. >> no. >> you didn't find any evidence that that was true.

>> no. >> or that that played any role in emily's death at all. >> no. >> to get away from all the finger pointing, alex took his kids to kansas city and moved back in with his family. >> we all suffered. our family as a whole suffered with the accusation that my son was a murder. >> four months later, the investigation took another turn when the medical examiner released the final autopsy report. she ruled the cause and manner of death undetermined. meaning she couldn't say how emily died. prosecutors had been assigned to the case. >> the fact that you can't say for sure and the medical examiner couldn't say for sure, that makes this a bigger mountain to climb, doesn't it? >> this is a difficult case based upon the evidence. it doesn't mean that it didn't need to be prosecuted just because we have an undetermined call doesn't mean we don't push forward. >> so they asked a different medical examiner to look at the

case. a south dakota pathology dr. brad randall. >> dr. randall gave an opinion of the injuries and ruled it a homicide. >> homicide. and there was only one suspect. in april of 2013, 15 months after emily died, alex was arrested and charged with his wife's murder. >> they said you're under arrest, and i was in complete shock. when you're innocent, you don't think it can happen. you think they're going to come to their senses, they're going to see it. but no. >> he spent three weeks in jail before being released on bond. >> alex's sister says her brother was charged with murder because of small town politics. >> what was it that you think kept the state sort of moving forward with the idea of prosecuting. >> i think it was them.

i think the power that they have in that community and i believe that they were putting political pressure on the state to prosecute this. >> the suggestion that there was some sort of political pressure that was put on my office to push this case forward or to charge it is absolute nonsense. it didn't happen. >> as alex waited for trial, things got worse. his 5-year-old daughter coco was diagnosed with cancer and underwent a bone marrow transplant. >> his daughter's illness took a huge toll on our family. but i will say this about my son, i saw him as very strong, you know? he was handling things that i don't think most people could. >> it had taken four years after his wife's death, but finally, alex went on trial for her murder. >> please rise. >> because of pretrial publicity and the high profile name, the case was moved out of boone, 200

miles away to decorah, iowa where they were now separated by much more than the courtroom aisle. the prosecutor told the jury that after a deteriorating relationship and with divorce papers filed, alex lost it that night and killed his wife. >> alex had everything to gain by emily's death. he had everything to lose by emily being alive. he'd lose his kids. he'd lose his job. he'd lose his house. he'd lose money in the fight for divorce. the state started it's case using alex's own words. >> help. help! >> 911, what's your emergency? >> prosecutors said this wasn't grief, it was remorse. >> in that official 911 call, alex sounds pretty genuinely traumatized to me. he doesn't sound like somebody

that's faking it. >> part of the argument to the jury is it has to be a horrific thing to commit a murder. >> so what we're hearing is horror at having just committed a murder. >> that would be a way to characterize it, yes. >> prosecutors claimed that in that 911 call, alex had already concocted a story that emily committed suicide or died from a drug overdose. >> my wife's killed herself. my wife's killed herself. >> even at that police interview a few hours later, prosecutors said alex was pushing his theory that emily somehow overdosed. >> maybe it was an accident. >> then the prosecution called the state medical examiner to tell jurors about that key piece of evidence. the toxicology report. >> did you also have testing done on the body fluids and blood that were taken from emily at her autopsy. >> yes.

i had many, many toxicology tests. >> she told the jury emily had no drugs in her system that would have killed her. >> the drug tests that were done did not show opioids in her system at all. >> you don't think it played a role? >> i don't think it played a role. >> and even though she initially ruled the cause of death undetermined, the state medical examiner had a surprising change of heart on the witness stand. >> which manner of death do you favor over the others? >> in this case, i'm much more strongly leaning toward homicide than any of the other manners of death. >> and that second pathologist said there was no doubt about his conclusion. >> bruises font back, left and right of the head would be consistent with a homicide. bruises along the side of the wind pipe would be consistent with a homicide. >> murder by strangulation. prosecutors now called family and friends to testify that

emily felt threatened by her husband. her sister, amy. >> would you describe her in the months leading up to her death. >> scared. >> why was emily? do you know? >> she wanted to get away from alex. >> the children's nanny also rekounltr recounted a conversation with emily just before her death. >> i asked emily two questions. the first one was if she was scared of alex. >> what was emily's response? >> her response was yes. >> what was the second one? >> i asked her if she was worried that alex would harm her or kill her. >> what was emily's response? >> she nodded her head yes. >> less than a week later, emily was dead. prosecutors said there was only one conclusion. alex murdered his wife. >> the only explanation here after looking at all the evidence, all the circumstances,

who would have done that, alex. x >> coming up. >> did you drink a lot tonight? >> no, i had three cocktails. >> the surprise evidence alex had up his sleeve. >> it doesn't matter. what did you do? >> emily under the influence? when dateline continues. influee when dateline continues.

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>> by this time, the love was gone. in a courtroom, both families had listened for a week. prosecutors painted alex as a mobster who brutally killed his wife in a fit of rage. >> i have to ask you this straight out, did you play any role in killing your wife? >> physically, no. i mean i will always feel a little responsible that i couldn't get through to anybody to get her help. and i'll carry that with me for all of my life. >> defense lawyers insisted there was no murder here or any

crime at all. >> this case should have never been prosecuted. >> that's where you came down from the beginning. >> i took that position because of a lack of evidence. alex was totally innocent. >> there's no more pressure than if you have an innocent person that you're trying to defend on this charge of first-degree murder. >> he says from the beginning prosecutors targeted alex and refused to consider anything else. >> they reviewed all the information, the toxicology reports, everything associated with her death. they concluded, we don't know the cause of death or the manner of death. what happened almost a year and a half later, the state finds some guy from south dakota, a pathologist that said the manner of death was a homicide. they found this person. >> he stated his case to the jury. >> emily passed away as a result of an accidental drowning and

that will relate to her addiction. >> he said the only crime was that emily never received the help she needed. the defense called emily's mother to the stand to show that detox at her house was at best amateur hour. >> you have no certificate or any license. >> no, i don't. >> are you telling this jury that you know all the subtlties of withdrawal. >> he tried to cast out on the fact that emily got clean. >> were you in denial at the time? >> absolutely not. >> to drive home that point, the defense called witnesses that say they saw signs emily was still abusing the pain pills and alcohol in the weeks before she died. one of them was alex's mother. >> she was argumentive, agitated and she didn't seem to comprehend sometimes what we were talking about.

>> signs the defense said that are evident in this video. >> what did you do today? >> it was a face time call. alex said he recorded less than two weeks before emily died -- >> i can't. i don't know. why does the matter? what did you do today? >> what? >> why did you record that face time call? >> to ensure that i'd get custody of the kids in a divorce. >> you wanted proof that emily was impaired in the course of her daily life. >> right. it's hard to argue with what's plain to see on video. >> did you drink a lot tonight? >> no, i had three cocktails. >> the defense theory, just before she died, knowing she was facing a child custody battle and would be tested, emily took herself off the drugs one final time. >> she goes cold turkey, what happens, it's clear, withdrawal happens. two or three days later. what does withdrawal do?

seizures, fainting, dizziness, unsteadiness, weakness, could have fallen in the bathtub. unable to lift yourself up. >> and that also explains why there weren't any drugs in her system. >> correct. >> could she have drowned accidentally in the tub? alex's attorneys were hoping to plant that thought in the minds of jurors. what about the bruises? they called their own pathologist that said he didn't know what caused them? >> do you have any determination of how that particular injury occurred. >> no, sir. it's unknown to them and to me. unlike the tv shows you can't just look at that and tell exactly how it happened. >> no expert could say for certain that there had been a measure. >> i don't know the cause of death. i don't know the manner of death. that's not an intellectual failure. that's intellectual honesty.

>> and the defense was all too happy to remind jurors that even the state's on me had come to the same conclusion in her original report. the cause of death, undetermined. >> is there anything in the original autopsy report that you take issue or issue or disagree with? >> no, sir, i actually agree with it wholeheartedly. >> at trial the doctor testified she favors homicide, would you agree with that? >> no, sir, i would respectfully disagree with that. >> the defense conclusion it wasn't alex that killed emily, it was what was in those pill bottles. >> this is what he screamed about and howled about. do justice to emily, find him not guilty. >> jurors would now have to decide if alex was a killer or a wrongly accused husband who had

tried only to save his wife. >> coming up -- >> were you prepared for a guilty verdict? >> yeah. >> two families on edge, four years of questions. the verdict at last. when dateline continues. - when dateline continues. and arm♪ ♪ he eats a bowl of hammers at every meal ♪ ♪ he holds your house in the palm of his hand ♪ ♪ he's your home and auto man ♪ big jim, he's got you covered ♪ ♪ great big jim, there ain't no other ♪ -so, this is covered, right? -yes, ma'am. take care of it for you right now. giddyup! hi! this is jamie. we need some help.

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this is moving day with the best in-home wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. and this is moving day with reliable service appointments in a two-hour window so you're up and running in no time. show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. welcome back. in the case against alex the prosecution argued she'd been

argued, but what about that face time call appearing to show an intoxicated emily? the defense claimed no one could definitively say how she even died, and if there was no cause of death, there could be no crime. now alex's faith was in the hands of a jury. here's josh with the conclusion. >> four year's after emily's husband death her fate was in the hands of a jury. he says doubt crept in during those final minutes. were you prepared for a guilty verdict? >> yeah. i wrote a note to my children. >> what's it say? >> nick, rickey and coco, i love your mother and i will never leave you. you kids are the light of my

life, with all my love now and forever, dad. >> the first day the jury went home without a verdict. as the hours ticked by the next morning, still nothing from the jury. in the afternoon, alex got a phone call. the jury had reached a decision. >> when they called me and said the jury's in, i could barely breathe. >> emily's family and friends rushed to the courthouse. prosecutors were confident. >> we did the best we could in putting on the evidence that we had and hopefully the jury would see it our way and convict him. >> the defense attorneys were confident as well. >> we had the facts, we had the experts. >> but you never know. >> but you never know. >> love you. >> both sides couldn't be anymore wrong or more on edge. alex was facing life in prison. and finally after four long years.

>> is this the verdict of each and every one of the members of the jury? >> here it was. >> in the case we, the jury, find the defendant not guilty. >> not guilty. the words alex and his family had been waiting to hear. even his veteran defense attorneys couldn't hold it together. >> i held off crying until bill started crying. he started it and that's what sent me over the edge. >> and one never cries if you think your client's guilty. you don't. >> on the other side of the courtroom emily's family and friends could barely move. with the verdict the divide between these two families became complete. a celebration across the aisle became too much for emily's mother to take.

>> shut up. >> i went in shock. all i can remember is people jumping up and down like cheerleaders. i didn't know until afterwards that i told them to shut up. >> as they left the courtroom, the reality of what had happened sank in. back inside alex said he felt far from victorious. >> there's not much to be excited about. emily is still gone, and my kids don't have their mother. >> i felt completely unchanged. i was innocent when i walked in the courtroom and i'm innocent when i walk out of the courtroom, so what's there to hi five about? >> you know there are people that are never going to believe you're innocent? >> yeah, i'm very aware. >> you're okay with that? >> i'm not okay with that. i can't let it bother me. i'm not going to let what somebody says keep me from holding my head up high. >> emily's parents are among

those who still believe in alex's guilt, but strangely enough something that sounds like acceptance crept into our conversation. >> this isn't easy for me to say, i hope that the rest of his life he spends doing as much as he possibly can for his children. we don't have bitterness inside. >> or hate. >> or hate. he was found innocent, it's over, we're walking down the road of life. >> their granddaughter coco is dancing down that road. she turned 7 years old and when we visited she was cancer-free. but alex says big moments like these will forever be tinged with sadness. >> graduating from kindergarten my son's first big hit, everyone of those moments for me it's not

the happiest because emily's not there. she's not there for them and for me to share in it. it's hard. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. and this is dateline. >> her name is pepper. >> i lived a secret life. >> she was kidnapped at age 4. >> we got in the car and we never looked back. >> she spent decades trying to find her way home again and she finally made it, or so she thought. >> i said i think i'm rhonda christie or do you know rhonda patricia christie