she was a person out of a '40s film noir movie. >> with a life full of mystery to match. >> she was a stunner physically. she was able to say jump and the men would say how high. >> married to a wealthy lawyer. >> he always said she has this hold over me. >> but there was someone she seemed even closer to. >> they bought matching underwear together. >> they shared everything. >> they're eating together, sleeping in the same bed together, she's living at her house.

>> did they also share a deadly secret? >> it was a love triangle and one of them had to go. >> but was it her idea? >> good god. it seemed like a good idea at the time, but, oh, god. >> or hers? and who would take the fall for evil? >> how deep a hole did you dig? >> not deep enough obviously. >> poison. hello, and welcome to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. larry mcnabney was a successful trial attorney with a thriving practice, a wife he adored, and lavish lifestyle. then the 53-year-old vanished in a mystery as twisted as they come. at its center, three lives tangled together in a deadly love triangle, and only one of them would survive. here's keith morrison.

>> it was september 11th, 2001, just everyone knows where they were that awful day. like the glamorous trio that was traveling north through california's yosemite national park, even as the rest of the world's attention was focused on new york city, they were intent on their own urgent need, their desires, their fears, their deadly love triangle. so they probably didn't appreciate the passing wonders, the astonishing cliffs, the water falls, the giant sequoias. any more than the one in the back seat through fading eyes saw anything at all. l. here is one of them. his name was larry mcnabney, and he was a tall, handsome man, a well-known and respected attorney from nevada, a personal injury specialist, made buckets of money, loved the big life, loved being in control.

>> there was never a hair out of place. there wasn't dust on his desk. his pen was always in the same spot. >> larry's daughter tavia was crazy about him, in awe of his type-a personality, his joy of life, his courtroom presence. >> i loved to go to the courtroom and watch my dad. it was mesmerizing to me. >> he commanded the place. >> he was completely confident, not an ounce of shyness. he commanded the courtroom. >> i've been a trial lawyer for over 20 years. >> larry's longtime friend, fred atchison. >> he could open 50 files a month in personal injury litigation, which made him a rich man. >> but nobody's perfect, of course. and for all of larry's unquestioned talents, the man carried around with him a raft

of corresponding demons. >> i know he had a difficult childhood, and that a lot of your personality is shaped when you're a child. >> and as an adult, larry struggled with alcohol and women. he married and divorced several times. >> it was like a void he was trying to fill and he never could fill. >> in fact, from time to time, larry had gone on benders and just vanished weeks at a time. and everybody would worry and wonder, but sure enough he'd show up again. >> i had a t-shirt made up once, yellow with black letters saying where is larry mcnabney? >> but then finally larry, well into his 40s, seemed to get his act together for real. he set up a new office in las vegas. everything clicked, possibly for an attractive reason as tavia discovered. >> i went by the office one day and he said i have someone i

want you to meet. he said this is elisa. >> elisa, 17 years younger than larry, and he was in love. >> and he said she's just fun and vivacious. she's young and it's just -- we have a good time. >> tavia didn't stand in the way. she wanted her dad to be happy. >> we welcomed the new person in. it's my dad, so i didn't want anything that would inhibit me from spending time with him. >> and he and really cared for this woman? >> he did. >> larry and elisa thrived both personally and professionally. they got married. elisa became his office manager. they opened up a firm in sacramento, california, another big success. so they hired a young attractive college student named sarah dutra, the outgoing daughter of deeply religious parents who

soon became a friend as well as a sort of personal and office assistant. and together elisa and larry enjoyed the high life. >> she was into the same thing that larry loved, and style. and they went and bought viper cars together. >> they also shared larry's newest passion, quarter horses. >> larry would show horses and show himself, which fit in with larry looking good and feeling good. >> larry could do more of what he liked while young sarah pitched it to help elisa's running of the business end of larry's law practice. just about perfect. though larry's friend, fred, was a bit of a stick-in-the-mud about it. >> the fact that she took control of his business allowed him to engage in drinking and partying. >> which is not really what larry needed. >> no.

he didn't need that because his appetites would run amok. >> so when, after nearly seven years of marriage, larry nearly dropped out of sight, close friends weren't extremely alarmed at first, after all larry had gone on drunken benders before. but this time has days stretched into weeks, it seemed different, extremely odd. ginger miller started working at the law firm as a secretary in september 2001 just about the time larry went missing. elisa kept the business going in his absence, but couldn't seem to settle on what the staff should tell people about larry. >> i was told to tell his kids and different people in his family different things. so i was told that he was golfing or skiing, someplace they probably couldn't get a hold of him at. >> it's obvious bs. >> yeah. if it was a client, i would have to say that he was working on the deposition, he was with another client, he had to fly out. >> larry's kids didn't know what to think. >> and i said to my brother,

this doesn't sound right. why do the stories keep changing? >> october arrived, still no larry. thanksgiving. then december he was always with his family on his birthday, but still no sign of larry mcnabney. >> i didn't get a good feeling. and what i worried about was had something gone wrong and dad was scared and he took off? >> had larry offended the wrong person? tavia had a friend in law enforcement who told her -- >> you have to look at it two ways. if he's in hiding, he's not going to be happy you found him because obviously he's hiding for a reason. or something's happened to him. >> meanwhile back at the office, ginger was hearing things, worrisome things, until she just couldn't keep it in anymore. >> i went to the sheriff's department. i wasn't sure what to do, so i asked for a piece of paper and i slid it under the window.

>> detectives got her note all right and figured they should have a chat with elisa mcnabney. but by the time they went looking for her, just like larry, she was gone. >> who exactly was elisa mcnabney? and what did she know about her husband's disappearance? the investigation heats up when police uncovered dark secrets in elisa's past. coming up -- >> she was a person out of a '40s film noir movie. she was a stunner physically, but more importantly, she had a control over men that just amazed me. >> when "poison" continues.

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welcome back. where was larry mcnabney?

he was known to be a heavy drinker and had gone on bernie sanders before, but according to coworkers, this time seemed different. fearing the worst, a secretary at his firm contacted the sheriff's office. detectives were now eager to talk to his much younger wife, elisa, but oddly, she had disappeared, too. and when investigators started digging into her past, they quickly uncovered that elisa mcnabney didn't really exist. here, again, is keith morrison. >> by the dawn of 2002 while the rest of us were getting used to a post-9/11 new normal, it seemed pretty clear something very abnormal must have happened to that personal injury attorney, larry mcnabney. nobody had seen him in five months. he had never been on a bender for this long. now his wife, elisa, was missing too. by this time ginger had dropped off her note at the sheriff's office and detectives were poking around in the abandoned

remains of larry's law practice, talking to employees like sarah dutra, the attractive 21-year-old art student from sacramento state who worked at the mcnabney law firm as an office secretary. she brought her little dog, ralph, with her to the sheriff's office. sarah told the detectives that she and elisa had become close friends and so she, sarah, certainly noticed how erratic elisa became after larry went missing. >> things were starting to not seem right. like, you know, elisa wouldn't come to work all the time there, you know? >> sarah confirmed what ginger miller said, that elisa kept changing her explanations for larry's whereabouts. sarah said she saw elisa signing larry's name on checks and day-to-day business transactions. >> i figured she's keeping this business going for him. you know, so he can go play or do whatever he was doing. >> in early january 2002, said sarah, elisa planned trip to arizona to attend a horse show.

in the absence of larry, invited sarah to go along. >> i was going to fly down the next day and then she told me, you know, your ticket's paid for and all that. >> but when sarah got to the airport, the ticket was not paid for. >> you called her cell phone number and what did you get? >> nothing. it was this number is no longer in use. >> and that was that, said sarah. she hadn't heard from elisa since. >> i called ginger and i said, ginger, you know, i'm going to look for a new job. i don't know about you, but elisa is gone. >> thomas was the san joaquin prosecutor. he had handle a number of cases so when he heard about the case of larry and elisa mcnabney, he gravitated toward it. >> he was an attorney with a case load who just disappeared. this isn't someone who's a homeless person who just

vanishes and you think they took a greyhound and went to nevada. >> he began by taking a good, hard look at elisa. >> she was a person out of a '40s film noir movie in that she was a stunner physically, everyone said that, but more importantly she had a control over men that just amazed me. she was able to say jump and the men would say how high? >> it certainly seemed true for larry, so said his old friend, fred atchison. >> she was controlling him to the extent that she was keeping him away from his family and his former friends. >> did that include the relationship he had with you? >> no question about it. >> you found yourself shut out? >> yeah. >> so did larry's daughter, tavia. >> elisa completely cut me out of the picture, and i was devastated. >> but why? why was elisa keeping larry away from his family and friends? what did she have to hide?

>> he called me up once on the phone and said fred, i don't know who she is. you know, i thought he meant we don't really ever know who our spouses are deep down. and he said, no, i don't even know if this is who she is, if her name is what she says it is or anything. >> by then, said fred, larry had discovered ample reason to stop trusting elisa. >> he couldn't keep his wallet in his pants. >> he told you that? >> yeah. she would steal money out of his wallet. he had to hide his wallet in his own house. >> turned out she was also stealing from the law firm. >> she had ripped him off. >> for how much? any idea? >> over $100,000. >> larry told fred all about his troubles with elisa, and yet he kept her around, not like he hadn't divorced women before, but not this one. tavia didn't get it. >> i mean, he always said she has this hold over me, and i never understood what that meant. >> and larry's comments to fred

about not knowing his wife, well, his suspicions turned out to be true. a little research told detectives that the real woman behind the name elisa mcnabney had a considerable criminal rap sheet, including stolen property, credit card fraud, grand theft. >> she really had a way of ingratiating herself with men and using her female charms, and she was very, very good at it. she was a true and true con artist. >> so was elisa just conning larry? surely, thought fred, she wouldn't have done away with him, would she? >> it wouldn't make any sense, even for a dedicated pole cat to do anything like that because he was the goose that laid the golden egg. it wouldn't make sense whatsoever. >> it was a farm worker who noticed a flock of vultures or

buzzards drifting above one of these grapefields. saw something sticking out of the ground. and soon a missing persons case turned into something much, much worse and considerably more bizarre. >> "poison" returns after the break. a catch. like somehow you wind up getting less. but now that i book at hilton.com, and i get all these great perks. i got to select my room from the floor plan... very nice... i know, i'm good at picking stuff. free wi-fi... laptop by the pool is a bold choice... and the price match guarantee. how do you know all of this? are you like some magical hilton fairy? it's just here on the hilton app. just available to the public, so... book at hilton.com and get the hilton price match guarantee. if you find a lower rate, we match it and give you 25% off that stay. if you find a lower rate, we match it and give you fifteen percent or moreo on car insurance?ou did the little piggy cry wee wee wee all the way home? weeeeeee, weeeeeee weeeeeee weeeee weeeeeeee.

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prg welcome back to "dateline extra". detectives looking into the disappearance of larry and elisa mcnabney had made a startling find. a friend of larry's claimed elisa had ripped her husband off for more than 100 grand, and it appeared he wasn't her first mark. the young woman was a felon with a long criminal history of theft and fraud. but was she capable of even darker crimes? here, again, is keith morrison. >> it was february 2002, a remote vineyard up in the northern end of california's central valley, a farm worker checking the outer reaches of a giant field of grape couldn't

help but see the big birds wheeling round and round. was something out there? >> vultures were circling. he spotted the vultures so he went out to see what they were circling. >> investigators xavier ramos and lieutenant robert bookwalter worked at the san joaquin sheriff's department at the time. >> he thought he was going to find just some dead animal out there. >> but it wasn't a dead animal. the leg that was sticking out of the ground was decidedly human, and soon larry's daughter, tavia, heard the news. >> i got a call from the sheriff's department. i felt myself get really hot and nauseous. and she said that the body they found, the dental records, it was him. and i remember i never swear and

i yelled out this cuss word and slammed down the phone and i just started shaking. it was a moment in time that i've never felt such anguish. >> that's still raw even now. >> it is because i thought -- i don't know. i thought -- i guess i was hoping he was in hiding. >> very fortunate that the body was discovered. now we can move on and investigate it as a homicide. >> tavia's hopes, crushed. police had ample proof five months after he vanished that larry had been murdered and left to rot out here in the middle of nowhere. >> there weren't any stab wounds or any bullet holes. >> there were no obvious signs of larry's cause of death, so they looked further and found something very unusual. >> the medical examiner was able to find out the cause of death

was poisoning with a horse tranquilizer. >> horse tranquilizer? >> yes. >> now, that was strange. but get this. >> he had been dead for an extended period of time. however, the body had not decomposed consistent with the time frame we were looking at. >> meaning? >> meaning it was preserved, kept cold. >> one of the first things i thought is where would the person that killed larry, where would they have access to a walk-in refrigerator large enough to hold a human body? >> detectives wanted answers, and so did larry's daughter, tavia, who sometimes believed she could hear her father in her sleep. >> when i would go to sleep at night i would wake up and i would hear him calling for me to help him. i didn't know what to do and i didn't understand what was going on. >> sometimes people get a sense of knowing either what or who was responsible. did you? >> i knew elisa had done

something. >> larry's much-younger wife, elisa, she vanished a few months after he did, and now that leary was dead, she was the prime suspect in his murder. sheriffs deputies and the fbi finally tracked her down in march 2002, in florida. >> she cut her hair short and changed her name. >> elisa was now going by the name of shane ivaroni and was working as a paralegal at a florida law firm. >> elisa was a very smart person. she had, i believe, 140 iq. >> she could talk anybody into anything? >> right. >> but now that she was finally exposed for the con artist she was and was in custody, elisa decided to tell her story, starting at long last with her legal name. >> my whole name is laren. l-a-r-e-n. l-a-r-e-n. my middle name is renee,

r-e-n-e-e. >> okay. >> my maiden name was sims, s-i-m-s. >> and elisa, where's that coming from? change or you just wanted a different name? >> no, i left florida. you know, i mean, i was a fugitive from florida. >> elisa or lauren, was from massachusetts and was a mother of two. she was wanted in florida for violating probation on a burglary and theft charge and had been on the run for nine years, she said. she eventually settled in las vegas where she met larry and by this time had changed her name to elisa. she told the police she was at the horse show in arizona when she found out police wanted to talk to her about larry. and so she took off in her jaguar, drove from state to state. >> where were you headed at this point. >> i didn't -- just away. >> so with the preliminaries out of the way, now came the big question.

what happened to larry mcnabney? elisa, without hesitation and without even being asked, spilled the beans. >> and did i kill my husband? yes, i killed my husband. >> there it was, no apology, no evasion. she simply confessed to killing her husband, larry mcnabney. but, and this was a "but" with a capital "b," that wasn't the whole story, not even close. coming up, the rest of the story. did elisa have help? >> and i freaked out. >> she was going to throw him in the hole alive? >> yeah, and i was freaking out. >> she? who was she? when "poison" continues. -morning. -morning. -what do we got? -keep an eye on that branch. might get windy. have a good shift. fire pit. last use -- 0600.

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the hour's top stories.

a growing number of democrats are asking virginia governor, ralph northam to step down coming after a racist picture from his former medical school yearbook. both virginia and republican senators have asked him to resign. and a plane crash in two southern california homes leaves two people killed and two others taken to the hospital after catching fire. now, back to "dateline." teline." welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. elisa mcnabby answered the question before police even asked. yes, she killed her husband, larry. it could have seemed like a straightforward case if not for what she told investigators next. she wasn't the mastermind behind the murder. who was? she said it was someone police had already met.

here again is keith morrison. a h morrison a >> there is a purity to confession, a real cleansing of the soul. now after months on the lam, elisa mcnabney, aka laren sims, was offloading the secrets of a lifetime. didn't hold back yes, she killed larry. her husband of nearly seven years, she said. but it wasn't her idea. >> i said, i don't know what i'm going to do. and she said, we have to kill him. and i said, i can't kill him. >> she said? who was this other woman who pushed elisa to commit murder? turned out detectives had already talked with her. remember sarah dutra, the young secretary, elisa's friend, who came back with her little dog who had been so helpful after elisa disappeared?

now, elisa was saying that killing larry was sarah's idea. ellis saw told the story this way. larry was a heavy drinker and drug user. he was abusive, she claimed and feared for her life. one day she said she confided in her young friend, sarah. and sarah said, there was just one thing to do, kill larry mcnabney. now in this three-hour long interview elisa went into detail after gruesome detail of how she and sarah did it. elisa and larry were at a horse show in los angeles, she said, and sarah flew down to meet them, or rather, to meet elisa since larry didn't like sarah, said elisa. >> what did you guys decide to do with him. >> we said if we -- if we kill him, nobody's going to miss him. >> were you going to do it, like that day or do it some other time in the future? when were you planning on doing it? >> right then.

>> right then and there? >> yeah. >> that was september 9th, 2001. according to elisa, larry had already passed out after imbibing a little horse tranquilizer on his own for fun. so sarah decided, according to elisa, to just give him more. and no one would ever find out. >> oh, god. it seemed like a good idea at the time. but, oh, my god, it's so horrible to think of taking somebody's life. >> while larry slept, said elisa, she and sarah squirted drops of horse tranquilizer into his mouth, but larry didn't die. instead, the next day on september 10th, larry got up, showed his horse, and then went right back to bed. >> next morning he's like lying there. and i thought he was dead. and so i wake sarah up and i say, i think he's dead. and she pushes him and she said, no, he's not dead.

>> but he was so heavily drugged he couldn't walk. >> so we went down the street and rented a wheelchair. and i got him dressed and put him in the wheelchair and rolled him out to our truck. and put him in the backseat of the truck. and we drove. >> this by the time, was september 11th, 2001. everyone else in the world preoccupied elsewhere. while elisa and sarah drove north through california with larry slowly dying in the backseat of the truck. >> we stopped in yosemite, somewhere in yosemite. and sarah got out and started digging a hole, and he was alive, okay? and i freaked out. >> she was going to throw him in the hole alive? >> yeah, and i was freaking out. i said we can't put him in the hole while he's alive. we can't do that. >> so, she said, they drove on. they thought larry would die in

the car, but he didn't. so when they finally made it back to larry and elisa's home near sacramento, larry was slipping in and out of consciousness, still alive. >> and then when 6:00 in the morning rolls around, the sun starts coming up, and sarah sleeps late, you know? and so i immediately go up there. and he was dead. >> that was the morning of september 12. >> and sarah says, well, we can't leave him lying here. so, you know, we take this sheet that he was lying on. and we wrapped it around him. >> and then we took duct tape and we wrapped it around him. and he was in a crouched position. and then in my garage he had this wine refrigerator, you know, like a regular refrigerator? but one he kept wine in. we took the wine out of it and

took the racks out of it and put him in it. >> they stuffed larry's body in the refrigerator while they decided what to do with it. >> we talked about burying him in the backyard, we talked about burying him at my trainer's. we talked about taking him to the desert and burning the body. >> but they couldn't quite decide, and so they kept larry's body in the refrigerator for three months. and then they decided to take it to las vegas, find someplace there to bury it. >> how much does he weigh? >> he weighed a lot. i'm having a hard time seeing you two picking up this big guy. >> me, too. we laid the trailer tire down in front of the refrigerator. opened the refrigerator door, laid the trailer tire down. slide him out, put him on the trailer tire, and then back the jag up really close to the trailer tire. and then it was only like that much difference. so then we just pushed. >> off the tire into the trunk? >> exactly.

and he was like, shaped like this, you know? so then we put him in the trunk. and he was like this. and we closed the trunk and we went to las vegas. >> en route to las vegas with their two dogs in the backseat, larry in the trunk along with two shovels, once there sarah hung out at the hotel with the dogs and elisa went out looking for a burial place for larry. but when she started digging, she said, the ground was too hard. >> and so i went back to the hotel and told her, i can't do it. and then all this time he's in the trunk, you know? and the valet is parking us and it's not good, you know. >> so elisa said they drove back to california. and the next morning at 4:00 she drove out to a vineyard, dug a hole, and buried him. >> how deep a hole did you dig? >> not deep enough, obviously. >> that was elisa's story.

and just a few hours after she finished telling it, california detectives hauled in sarah dutra, the alleged driver of the whole plot, and her story? well, it was a little different. >> coming up, is sarah dutra a cold-blooded killer or an innocent who was just trying to survive? >> god. i didn't want to end up like him. >> when "poison" continues. was always a catch. like somehow you wind up getting less. but now that i book at hilton.com, and i get all these great perks. i got to select my room from the floor plan... very nice... i know, i'm good at picking stuff. free wi-fi... laptop by the pool is a bold choice... and the price match guarantee. how do you know all of this? are you like some magical hilton fairy? it's just here on the hilton app. just available to the public, so... book at hilton.com and get the hilton price match guarantee. if you find a lower rate, we match it and give you 25% off that stay.

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welcome back. elisa mcnabney's confession was as chilling as it was thorough. she described to police in detail how she and sarah dutra poisoned larry with horse tranquilizer, then buried his body in a california vineyard.

but why would sarah a young secretary, barely out of college, want to harm larry? she was about to tell detectives her side of the story. then something no one saw coming, and sarah would suddenly be the only one facing charges. continuing with our story, here's keith morrison. >> i'm here o tonight to encourage you to let the chips fall where the chips fall. do not attack elisa anymore. don't protect yourself either. just tell the truth. >> is she incriminating me somehow? >> sarah dutra appeared confused, no little dog to keep her company now. her close friend elisa mcnabney has confessed to murdering her husband, larry and claimed that sarah, only 21 years at the

time, and share ruwas the driving force behind it. >> what do you think elisa's doing right about now? >> she is lying about what really happened. >> are you a cold-blooded killer? >> no. >> or are you somebody that got caught up in some stuff and made some mistakes? >> they confronted her with elisa's written confession. >> basically, it says, i, along with sarah dutra planned to poison larry with horse tranquilizer. >> i'm not denying. i'm not dethying that conversation couldn't have happened. i never thought she would have carried it out and taken me along with her unknowingly. she's evil and she's trying to do this to pull me down with her because she's jealous of me. i know she has. >> explain that to me then. why is she doing? make me believe it, sarah. >> because he's an evil person. anybody who kills her husband is

evil. >> sarah dutra broke down and told detectives her side of the story. and in this version it was elisa, not sarah, who was the cold-blooded killer. it was elisa, she said, who dosed larry with horse tranquilizer. elisa, who ordered sarah to before him in yosemite even before he was dead. >> she said, get out and grab the shovel and go check the ground. i said, i don't want to do this. get out! i wanted you to know i was so afraid to not do what she wanted me to. >> elisa who was eerily calm when larry expired. >> laying there on the ground and why are you laying on the ground for? why is he not laying in bed? and she said, he's dead, and i thought, what do you mean he's dead? >> that was the morning of september 12th after the long and harrowing drive from the

horse show in los angeles, said sarah. and through her tears she told the detectives how larry's body ended up in the refrigerator. >> she put him in a sheet. oh, my god. i've never seen anything like this, okay? and she said, okay, grab the sheet and then grab him downstairs. i'm like, what are you doing? we have to call the police. this is not right. she said, we are not calling the police. if you call the police, you will be so sorry you did. >> this was the heart of sarah's version. she went along with the whole awful crazy thing for one reason, she said. she was deathly afraid of elisa. >> god, i didn't want to end up like him. >> was it possible an innocent young woman in the thrall of a con artist and killer?

sarah seemed so frightened and so emotional. and yet, thought the detective -- >> i thought a little bit over the top. >> she was a little over the top? >> yeah. >> i know. >> you mean she was acting? putting it on? >> i believe so. >> after more than nine hours of questioning, sarah dutra was arrested and charged with larry's murder. it was a classic crime story, two killers, mutual finger pointing, and prosecutors knew they could use each woman's testimony against the other, an easy checkmate, that is, until elisa took herself off the board. on march 30th, 13 days after her arrest, a jailer found her hanging by the neck in her cell, a suicide. >> a million questions for elisa. and now that door has been slammed shut. >> and now sarah, left holding

the bag, would face murder charges alone. >> the prosecutor had to prove that sarah was equally responsible for larry mcnabney's death. but with elisa gone, whose story would the jury believe? coming up -- >> when you try only one defendant, it's very easy as it was for sarah dutra to point the finger at the one who's not there. >> when "poison" continues. 5 y. and more people than ever struggle with debt. intuit is here to change this story... with giant solutions like turbotax, quickbooks and mint that give everyone the power to prosper. intuit. proud makers of turbotax, quickbooks and mint.

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it offers a lot of great technology inside. oh, this is fancy. yeah, that's the available hd surround vision camera. the top of your car? it helps you see dangers around the vehicle. what is that? what the? wait wait wait... what is that? oh my god. what is happening? these are big alligators. now we're surrounded. so who's getting out first? i don't know but we're keeping this camera on. [laughing]

welcome back. in the wake of a lisa mcnabney suicide prosecutors were forced preparing to make their case against sarah dutra. was she the cold-blooded mastermind that elisa portrayed? it was a question for jury would soon answer. hear with the conclusion of our

story is keith morris. >> it was the winter of the 2003, more than a year after larry mcnabney was poisoned with horse tranquilizer. his admitted killer, his wife. lisa mcnabney chose her own destiny. and her alleged accomplice faced trial alone faced with the possibility of life behind bars. >> you attended the trial every day alone. >> yes, 11 1/2 weeks. >> why? why? >> our da had talked to us about the importance of our family being represented, that my dad not being forgotten. >> she believed her father died at the hands of both elisa and sarah. but though sarah admitted to being there when larry died in the and days and months that followed she adamantly claimed she never went to the police because she was so afraid of elisa and of ending up just like larry. a theory that even the

prosecutor found, well, believable. >> when i first got this case people in my office were telling you that's exactly what i was saying walking up and down the halls. poor sarah, but as i got deeper into the case i totally turned around on this. i started with that very mind set. >> as he reviewed the evidence in preparation for trial, he became convinced that sarah was in fact the woman in charge. >> sarah did not like larry. she always accused him of being full of himself, talking about himself all the time, self-centered. she didn't like him. so larry didn't want sarah around. sarah did not like larry. >> you know, this sounds to me like two people who both love elisa and want the other out of the way. >> that's exactly it. it was a love triangle and one of them had to go. >> sarah said prosecutor testa was enjoying a very fancy life with elisa and larry was simply in the way.

>> if your theory is right, these are two kind of good-time girls, who have got this great relationship, and they are living off the proceeds of larry. why get rid of him? they have no motive. >> larry was lisa's golden goose but lisa was sarah's golden goose. and sarah was about to be cut out of this whole triangle. larry had just told her two days before he was killed that, you know, he wanted her gone, he wanted her fired. >> so said testa, it was sarah who had the motive to kill larry. sarah's lawyer, of course, saw it differently. >> this seems like a classic instance of, you know, evil sort of wrapping around a sweet, young little baby. >> at the trial the defense attorney portrayed e lisa as a black widow, a sophisticated con artist who wanted her husband

dead. and the other was a terrible pawn. now prosecutor testa introduced jiker miller. remember her? she said in the days and weeks after larry vanished elisa and sarah seemed to feel anything but remorse. >> they're laughing together, they're shopping together, they're eating together, they're sleeping in the same bed together. she's living at her house. >> so they were not really working, were they? >> they were. they would get maybe two hours of work done during the day. >> what did they do the rest of the time? party? >> shop, hang out, sleep late. go flirt with boys. >> all the while spending the firm's money, larry's money, a lot of money. >> elisa got a red jaguar.

sarah got a red bmw. >> such close friends or maybe more than friends. >> they bought matching underwear together. >> come on. >> no. my first week they are look like what i bought. they both pulled -- they were wearing matching underwear. they were best friends. >> they were blowing through money so fast they fell behind rent payments for the law office, got evicted. so they moved the office into elisa and larry's home. which according to ginger now seemed more like elisa and sarah's home. >> in the rooms they had no clothes of larry's the closet was cleaned out and in the bathroom they made the sinks hers and hers instead of his and hers. >> like they knew he wasn't coming back. >> she said they're pretty much moved in. >> all this time larry's body was still in the garage, still in the refrigerator. as for the idea sarah was an innocent child and elisa's puppet, that was nonsense said

ginger. >> everybody knows she wasn't terrified of her. sarah has as much say as elisa had in the whole situation. >> but at her trial, sarah sat quietly at the defense table. a wide-eyed innocent. her videotaped confession didn't get played for the jury. with no dna, no prints, no trace evidence, no living eyewitnesses the case against sarah was entirely circumstantial. >> first-degree murder. >> first-degree -- yeah. >> but would the jury see it the way he did? after four days of deliberations the jury found sarah dutra guilty of voluntary manslaughter and accessory to murder, not first-degree murder. >> had not she been a young attractive tall blonde whose parents were clutching bibles, crying in the first row one

wonders if this verdict would have been the same. >> sarah dutra was sentenced to 11 years, served 8 and in the summer of 2011 at age 31 she was released. >> it's painful to know that such little time was given for such a horrific crime and one that seemed so premeditated to me and so thought out and so callus to the end. >> sarah did not respond to our interview request. and tavia, she told us she'd forgiven sarah as much for her own sake as anything. >> will i ever forget what she's done? never. but i don't want to have my whole life be their cruelty and the things they chose to do to him. i'd rather remember the loving times we had together. and they're not going to take

that away from me. >> that's all for this edition of dateline extra. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. \s \s she was a mom looking for her baby, and her baby hadn't come home. >> reporter: cathy's week had been nothing but trouble. >> she couldn't tell me what happened. >> she was so upset. >> it was about to get much worse. >> my mom would say "if you find the car, you'll find cathy." >> you didn't want it to be dark because you wanted to keep looking. >> she was stabbed multiple times. there was blood within the interior of the car. she was a targeted victim. >> reporter: who killed cathy? >> we had no witness.