>> i don't know. i'm sure -- over time everything's been getting better, but i'm still not ready to be trusting everyone so easily. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. she told archie she was dating this man. if he didn't like it, he could leave. >> he had been stabbed multiple times. nobody saw anything. >> i went, dad. and i touched him. i will never forget that feeling. >> it was just before dawn when he found his father dead in the driveway. >> there was no doubt in my mind what happened. i immediately knew.

>> there was someone else who may have known, too. >> i turned around and looked at my mom. i go, you know who did this. that son of a -- >> there was one thing no one could know. the strange twist still to come. >> it was a bit of a surprise. kind of a shock when you found out she was seeing him again. >> yes. >> a lover's triangle always leads to trouble. >> how could you do such a horrible thing? >> did this lead to murder? >> what was it like watching him walk out of jail? >> he beat the system. >> deadly triangle. hello and welcome to "dateline extra." how long does it take a killer to stop worrying about whether

he will ever be caught? a couple of weeks, a couple of months, 25 years? if he still is a free man then, he is probably pretty sure he did, indeed, get away with murder. after all, detectives retire, witnesses forget. a trail goes cold never to warm up again. until one day it does.

here is keith morrison. >> reporter: what a time it was. the year he turned up in that crazy little car. what a sweet, impossible,

unexpected last chance. that love, that red passionate sin. just for mary ann. it was 1985. and it was magic. and now here she was, 2011, in a

courtroom of all places. forced to confess her forbidden love, account for her sins. this grandmother, widow, penitent. what story would she tell? >> the main thing going through my mind is to tell the truth. and let the chips fall where they may. >> reporter: the truth. such a difficult word. especially when it bubbles up from a past which mary ann mcfarland must have believed was buried forever. >> where was your husband? >> he was still in the house. >> reporter: men. trouble was, there were two, which was the one central fact. the inconvenient truth that caused all the trouble. and might have been forgotten had it not been for this inquisitive d.a. and this long, lean cop, jim wallace, looking on so intently. >> this is a case, a true love story. between three people. one woman who was loved intensely over the top by two men in two very different ways.

>> he was the first, the husband. a surfer. the real deal. his name was archie mcfarland. everybody loved him. laid back, kind, reliable. ten years older than mary ann but crazy about her. she brought a daughter with her when they married in the early '60s. together, they had a son, gary. they settled down near the ocean, an l.a. suburb. >> we had a great typical nuclear family. dad went off to work. my mom stayed at home. and did the all the home stuff, the stuff that you see in leave it to beaver. >> reporter: you will see when gary talks about his dad how close they were. and it wasn't just because archie introduced him to surfing.

>> he had been stabbed multiple times. two were upper torso as if the assailant was confronting him. >> reporter: couldn't have been a robbery. not a thing was taken. archie's car still there. >> nobody saw anything. >> reporter: to the detective, it was clear enough.

archie mcfarland had been targeted and executed. and whoever killed him had escaped without leaving behind a murder weapon or fingerprints or a hair from what must have been a violent struggle. anyway, this was pre-dna. >> they just didn't have any physical piece of anything left on the driveway. that was the big focus. >> reporter: but there was a clue. oh, yes. and it was, frankly, very, very strange. >> one of the stab wounds was in the groin area. >> reporter: what did that tell you? >> it's personal. >> reporter: kind of like somebody sending a message? >> yes. >> reporter: maybe a sexual message? >> yes. >> reporter: about that on that crisp december morning as gary and his mother stood shivering and sobbing, the realization hit. >> i turned around and looked at my mom. i go, you know who did this. i just -- i immediately knew. i just -- it was like, there's no doubt in my mind what happened. >> coming up, there was someone else who also seemed to know who the killer was. e killer was he's been acting more and more like his dad. come on, guys! jump in!

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california, christmas coming. but not for archie mcfarland whose earthly remains were in the driveway. even before police arrived, in fact as gary mcfarland cradled his father's body as i had

mother rushed to his side, they knew, both of them, without a shadow of a doubt, who did it. >> she immediately started saying, oh, my god, i'm sorry, i can't believe he did it. i'm so sorry. i'm so sorry. >> reporter: mary ann met with the cops and told them. >> yanos did it.

>> reporter: who was yanos? detectives pressed mary ann for more. >> she told us that her boyfriend was responsible for this. >> reporter: that's right, boyfriend.

she had been having an affair? >> yes. off and on. >> reporter: he was yanos koolshar, originally from hungary. once police got the gist of mary ann's tearful confession -- >> she said, here is his address. she had a picture of him. >> reporter: they high tailed it

over to his apartment in long beach, where they found his car. this was an hour after the murder. sitting all innocent not far from his door. the officers, having had some experience with this sort of thing, performed a little test to see just how innocent that car was. >> the engine hood was hot to the touch. so it appeared that it had just been driven back. since archie's murder as the tape rolled. >> how could you do such a horrible thing and think you are a man?

if you get out of here alive, i'll kill you. do you know what you have done? you have destroyed me. >> i didn't do what you accuse me. i did not do it. >> if i had a gun, i would blow your brains out. >> reporter: mary ann became so enraged, she spat on him. >> you did this in the name of love.

>> i didn't kill him. i did not kill him. and i don't know anybody who did. >> i hate you with all the passion i can dig up. >> reporter: mary ann's tirade seemed authentic. of course, the cops weren't sure at least at this point if she knew more than she was saying. did you ever think, mary ann has to have been involved in this somehow? >> i don't think she could have been directly involved. but she could have thrown out some ideas to him and he might have taken them on his own. >> reporter: but yanos' guilt seemed clear enough.

so he took his case to the d.a. and got a big surprise. without a confession, a witness or a murder weapon, the d.a.'s office refused to gamble on such a circumstantial case. so no charges were filed against yanos. what was it like watching him walk out of jail? >> it hurts. because you know he's the guy that did it. and he beat the system. >> i was dumfounded. to me. amazon prime video is now on xfinity x1.

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>> reporter: it was a mean christmas for gary the year his father was murdered. the spring of '86 brought no solace. the summer surf lost its appeal. >> the whole thing didn't make sense to me.

>> reporter: because no matter how thoroughly gary wished otherwise, yanos was as free as a bird.

>> kind of made me question the whole system. >> reporter: the cops were sure yanos killed archie. gary was doubly sure. >> he still is hoofing around, breathing air and has all the freedoms that you and i have. didn't seem right. >> reporter: perhaps not. but the cops were simply stuck.

>> the murder weapon, the confession, or an eyewitness, we didn't have any of that. >> reporter: so the case went cold. not much more the detective could do. but the loss of his father still haunted him. >> he never got to see me be successful in my career. never got to see me get married. never got to be the grandfather. >> reporter: 17 years went by. 17 awkward christmass. the detective retired. remember that fresh set of eyes

he was hoping for? it was 2002 and an aggressive deputy d.a. read about archie mcfarland. >> as soon as i looked at it, i said, this guy is good for this murder. >> reporter: just what police thought at the beginning, of course. difference was, where some d.a.'s avoid circumstantial cases, lewin loves them. especially the riddles of cases gone cold. he called a regular partner, a veteran detective jim wallace. >> in almost every case there's

something you can do. if nothing else, an opportunity to look at the evidence anew. >> reporter: wallace and lewin began by digging into the love triangle. by re-interviewing mary ann, asking about her relationship with both archie and yanos. and about the events that preceded the murder. >> typically, when these murders occur, behaviors start to fall apart. you see the behavior of the murderer become more and more aggressive and the murder occurs. >> reporter: so to the beginning, which was, of course, the love story or the betrayal, call it what you will. mary ann was frankly a little bored with archie. he loved her unreservedly. she knew that. but passion, excitement, not so much. she was a vibrant woman still and attractive. but 47 and in need of something. and then there he was, yanos. she met him at a local club. he was just 32, 25 years younger than archie. >> he was everything archie wasn't.

he satisfied everything that archie couldn't satisfy for her. she told archie she was dating this man. if he didn't like it, he could leave. >> reporter: he accepted it, hoping his marriage would somehow survive. gary was just 18 then. didn't know for sure about the affair. but suspected his mom was seeing someone, especially the day he caught her sneaking off to take a private telephone call. >> i grabbed the phone from her and said, do you have any idea what you are doing to my family? i hung the phone up. that's basically when she left. >> reporter: that very day, mary ann moved into yanos' one bedroom apartment, leaving home and kids and, of course, archie. >> he still loved my mom. after she left. he wouldn't let me say anything

negative. she's still your mother. it's still my wife. >> reporter: perhaps he understood the human heart after all. it took a year or so, but mary ann's ardor began to cool. >> the interest she had in being chased, that period rubbed off. after a period of time, it was -- she was certainly still passionately being chased by yanos. >> reporter: archie had a pension, savings, life insurance. mary ann was almost 50. did she worry also that yanos was too young for her, that maybe his feelings would change? >> eventually, mary ann decides, you know what? this is stressful. i kind of miss my life. i don't have the security that i had. mary ann decides, i want to move back home. >> reporter: archie welcomed her back. forgiving as always. no resentment, no anger? >> he didn't show any. >> reporter: how is that possible? >> that was my dad. >> reporter: across town in long beach, yanos wasn't so forgiving. he was fuming. >> yanos truly loved her. loved boring on obsession. unfortunately, it takes two people to quit the relationship. and yanos was just not going to accept it. >> reporter: and here in his little apartment, he prepared a secret plan to get her back. >> coming up, an old pair of

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>> reporter: the phone calls did not stop. mary ann mcfarland moved back home to archie, but her spurned lover wouldn't move on. >> my dad is like, why does he

keep calling? she's like, i don't know. the whole ora of this guy was that he wasn't accepting it. >> reporter: in fact, as the d.a. and the detective reviewed the evidence, they encountered a man who seemed obsessed, who first pleaded with mary ann, then began using language that sounded more threatening. >> i want you to come back to me kind of statements. and then, you better come back. she was afraid he would skin her alive. >> reporter: skin her alive? >> if she didn't come back to him. >> reporter: he wouldn't stop

calling or even making threats over the phone to archie. >> archie hung up on him. he called back. you don't hang up on me. unless you call me back, i'm going to get you. >> reporter: next day, he showed up at the house carrying a small pouch. mary ann was in the shower. archie let him in. the two started talking. then mary ann entered the room. >> yanos says, darling, come sit over be me. she says, it's over. >> reporter: perhaps upset, he went to the bathroom. mary ann was curious about that pouch he brought with him. took a look. >> inside, a loaded semiautomatic firearm. ready to go. an extra magazine. >> reporter: he told mary ann that his plan, if she refused to come away with him, was to go outside and kill himself with that gun. >> if you are planning on

killing yourself in the front yard, you don't need to bring the gun into the house. you don't need to have an extra magazine with you. i believe that something much more sinister was going to happen that day. >> reporter: in fact, nothing happened. yanos went home. but he came back here to mary ann's house a few days later. it was on the friday before the murder. he met with mary ann alone. and had an epiphany. it was something he referred to in one of the conversations the police recorded between yanos and mary ann. >> i left friday. it never clicked until i came

home. >> reporter: clicked? what did he mean by that? >> he realized, you know what? she's not going back to archie because she loves him. she loves me. if i could find a way to get rid of archie, i don't need to kill myself. if i get rid of him, i get the girl, she gets security. and he is out of the way. >> six days later, he is dead. >> reporter: they now believe they had a motive. but that didn't mean yanos did

commit the murder either. they still needed something, anything, to connect him to the bloody crime scene. >> i knew there would always be a question about how does yanos get away without getting any blood on him. if there's no piece at all, i think there's lingering doubt. >> reporter: the doubt that might trip up a jury. so wallace took a long, hard look at the original police report.

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case can come from the most unassuming clues. for the detective, it was something buried in a routine crime lab report. yanos' pants, which he washed the morning of the murder and hung up to dry in his shower again tested negative for blood. but this time the lab report

noted something else found on those pants which caught the eye of detective wallace. dirt. >> if you are washing these pants, what is the goal? aren't you trying to wash the dirt out? >> reporter: you think. >> in this case the dirt was present, except there was luminol glowing. >> reporter: the chemical police used to detect blood and body fluid. this didn't make sense. with no blood on the pants, the luminol was highlighting something else on two very specific areas of the pants. >> one on each side, right at the area of the neon the front of the pants. >> reporter: if you were kneeling -- >> some something you wanted to

get out by spot cleaning with detergent. and you actually did get it out, this would glow as we saw it. because cleaning detergents also make it glow. so you think you have blood, you have cleaning detergent. >> so the pants that janos

washes the morning of the murder were still there. there was that other wound, remember that rather pe cue lar one near archie's groin? >> where would that person have to be relative to the victim to make that kind of an energy, i think it would put you on your knees to do that. you look at that and the spot cleaning on the pants you have a description of how it is he got blood on his pants and what he had to do to get it off. >> finally, some physical evidence. but was it another? da john lewin didn't think so. he needed more evidence? >> i wanted to get janos on tape.

so they went out and contacted janos kalcsar. >> he worked in a shop preparing electronics, detectives showed up with a tape recorder to ask him about the murder, about that day. he remembered every detail he said vividly. >> what were you going out there that day. >> i was going out to my brother's. the kids had to get ready to go to school because my brother was working nighttime. >> this was something you arranged with your brother . >> yeah. >> didn't he say back then he was going to do laundry? >> his version was his brother called him and he had to go over and take over baby sitting that morning. >> the baby sitting thing was a brand new alibi. he never mentioned that before. >> we sent detectives to interview the brother after wards. he didn't know the story janos had given. >> a few weeks later cops arrived at his shop, this time to arrest him. >> he's working on a tv, and he's putting things away like

he's coming back. it's not like you have to put them back. you're not coming back. >> word of the arrest spread fast. first to gary, who waited 25 years. >> completely happy. after so much time goes by you think it's a fore gone conclusion, it's over. everyone moves on with life. >> including, of course, mary ann who moved on with janos. didn't go to him for a little while. in fact, spent 20-plus years, the same man she accused of killing her husband. but he was the only man in her life since archie was murdered. >> she loves janos and does not want to believe he's a killer. >> the case against janos kulcsar finally came to court, and, of course, the prosecution's star witness was mary ann mcfarland. what did she know and what would she admit? could her testimony sink her lover or maybe save him? >> coming up, tough questions. >> let me make it very simple. are you in love with him? >> and raw emotions. >> i'm so sorry.

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>> june 2011, archie mcfarland had been dead more than 25 years. janos kulcsar was 60 now, just about the same age archie was when he was murdered and as janos sat here in court, the prosecutor sought to find justice. though his case was very much circumstantial evidence and didn't feature much new evidence.

>> janos kulcsar woke up on december 19, 1985 with a plan. this man decided, came to the conclusion, that archie mcfarland was in his way and needed to die. >> the defense argued the evidence was thin. no blood, no murder weapon. no witnesses. and dna found under archie's finger nails, it had now been determined, did not match janos. >> even if everybody right away things that janos kulcsar is the killer, there has to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

>>, of course, gary mcfarland had no doubt he killed archie. he told the jury about that awful defense morning when he discovered his dad dead on the

driveway and new instantly who did it. >> i turned around, looked at my mom, and said i can't believe [bleep] you know exactly what. she goes, i'm so sorry. i'm so sorry.

i can't believe he's do this. i'm so sorry son. she was just -- she went hysterical. she lost it. >> so difficult to reign in the emotion even all these years. listening to the evidence, that the man spot cleaned the pants, easier for him to listen to the prosecution to pick apart janos's alibis. and janos never took the stand, just listened as his argued those changing stories were simply honest mistakes. >> when you ask somebody to remember something from 25 years ago, they're not going to remember every detail, every thing they did. >> but the da had someone he hoped would remember the whole story, if she chose to. the woman who accused her lover of murdering her husband and then resumed her affair with him. so under oath what would mary ann mcfarland say about janos kulcsar. the da didn't believe she was involved in the murder but now would she help protect her lover or prosecutor. for two days, the two duals over the relationship with janos. >> let me make it very simple. are you in love with him?

>> no. >> you're not? over the past 30 years have you been involved with anybody else? >> no. we're friends and companions. >> ma'am, during that 30 years you were having sex with him, correct? >> it was tough on her. i know she felt like she was on trial. but a lot of the stuff they went over and they pinned her on was to explain the mindset of janos and the whole circumstances that led to this. and it was necessary, but it was tough. >> finally, after three weeks, it was up to the jury to decide. then, after just two hours. >> has the jury reached a verdict? >> yes, we have. >> we the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant, janos kulcsar, guilty of the crime of murder. >> it was just relief. it was like a big weight was lifted off my shoulder. janos got a free 25-year ticket that most people that commit a murder don't get. >> con speck lousily absent on the day that finally brought justice for her late husband and a conviction for her lover was mary ann mcfarland. >> she does not want want to believe he did this, for a lot of reasons. if mary ann were to accept he committed this crime, she admitted that she would hold herself morally responsible.

so some people decide i'm not going to accept reality unless it absolutely punches me in the face. and i guess we didn't punch hard enough. >> reality for janos kulcsar, the man she loved, the man now convicted of murdering her husband, is the almost certain prospect of spending the rest of his days in prison. in january 2012, janos was sentenced to 26 years to life.

just about the same amount of time he spent with mary ann. occasionally you'll still find gary mcfarland at the beach where his dad archie brought him to surf. he thinks about father and mother and forgiveness. the lesson gary is still learning from archie mcfarland. >> i still love my mother. i don't harbor bitterness or resentment. there are tons of questions you'd love to ask and get answers to, but i'm not in a position, nor in my opinion anyone is in a position, to completely understand what's going on in somebody else's heart. >> that's all for this edition i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> this is "dateline." >> all of a sudden, i realized, what's going on? something definitely was wrong. he said, your family was in an accident. and my whole world just dropped out from underneath me. >> the scene told the story. >> what did you find? >> something i don't want to see again. >> a deadly crash on a dark road, two gone, one barely alive.