d when you switch a device pick up right where you left off. with our commitment free guarantee, there's never been a better time to start listening to audible. the most inspiring minds, the most compelling stories, the best place to listen. to start your free 30-day trial, text listen5 to 500500 today. ♪ i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> very bubbly personality. a huge smile. a child's worst nightmare. to lose a mom. every day i wanted answers. every days was told it was unknown. people just don't die. >> she was a loving mother. he was a crime fighting prosecutor. you are a pillar of that community? >> i did what i thought was

right. >> then one day the law was at his door. his wife was dead, in bed. >> her eyes were opened, she was pale. >> i remember crying, not believing it. >> sudden, suspicious, but no evidence of a crime. >> any signs of a struggle? >> no, it was case closed. >> years passed, new lives, two new wives. >> he's extremely charming. >> we just had the most amazing time. >> then a new detective dusts off the old case. >> what jumped out at you? >> most definitely that her arms were in an unnaturally raised position. >> my first thought is we missed something here. >> the manner of death would be homicide. >> what really happened in that bedroom? >> i wanted an answer to the questions. >> a young mother's death a mystery. was it murder? >> don't give me excuses.

>> it runs through the heart of america, beating industry, towns and imaginations. the mississippi river gave tom sawyer and huckleberry finn and just across the river in quincy, illinois, lived another larger than life character. curtis lovelace a small town kid who wanted to be a star and for a time, he was. a football champion for the university of illinois. >> he's an all american? >> all american. >> this is what kids dream about? >> right. >> he was living that life. >> absolutely. it was looking like he would go to the nfl. that was kind of a dream of his. >> then he realized grander visions, fighting crime as a prosecutor, serving his country in the national guard and his community in politics. >> i'm someone who wants

meaningful work that's going to make the difference in the lives of people. >> but it was what happened in this little house sequence to one person in particular that made curtis really stand out for automatic world to see. >> now to continuing coverage in the curtis lovelace murder case. >> it was a heated day at the stand. >> right now, the defense is presenting its closing arguments in the case. >> big dreams on a mighty river can carry far or they can drive you under. this is the very strange journey of curtis lovelace, all american to criminal defender. let's roll back the years to high school and to the woman that would become the focus of so much speculation. corey deidrichson. >> corey and i went to high school towing. we really didn't run in the same crowd. we had some mutual friends and we didn't date in high school. >> back then, curtis was more focused on football than dating.

it wasn't until he went off to the university of illinois, roughly 200 miles away and became a star athlete that he truly noticed the girl from back home for the first time. it was during college break. former classmates bumped into each other in quincy and quickly became an item. corey wasted no time spreading the news. >> i'll never forgive the day, i was playing tennis with a friend. that's when she told us, kurt was it. >> she went to high school with the new couple. >> surprised? >> not really. no they seemed a great fit together and she was, she was very, very much smitten. >> it wasn't long before corey was telling her mother, marty, she'd found the one. >> she comes home and we're sitting there, she said, i met the man i'm going to marry. whoa. >> back up and she kept her promise. in 1991, just after college,

corey and curtis married. he studied law. she worked a small job to support them both. after graduation, they decided to buy a home in quincy. >> they wanted to be in the neighborhood. they wanted to be close by and that just made it all the better. so we found them a house and they moved back. >> virtually over the fence? >> two houses up and one over, yeah. >> curtis' ambitions drove the young couple. he became a prosecutor in the adam county state attorney's office and dabbled in school board politics, winning a seat and serving as president. he even found time to teach a law class at quincy university. in between the professional milestones, the lovelaces started a family, first girl, lindsay and three years, how was corey as a mother? >> fantastic, she was a great mom. there wasn't anything she didn't do for those kids. >> corey's days were filled with

diapers, play dates and even then this mom never forget to be a good daughter n. early 2006 her dad was dying of cancer. that was a major event? >> that was a major event. >> his health declined? >> four years he fought it it. the last six months of his night. she came at 5:00 and sat to visit. that was her time with him. >> warn down with the stress of care giving, raising four kids, was it any wonder when corey, herself, fell im. it was the weekend before valentine's day 2006. >> she was feeling poorly. >> poorly, how? what was she ailing from in. >> just flu-like symptoms. throwing up, we thought she had the flu. >> but on monday the night before valentine's day, corey still managed to get the kids' valentines cards ready for school the next day.

her daughter lindsay then 12 remembers cuddling up with her mom, watching the winter olympics and snowboarder shaun white. >> i remember watching him with her, like, mom, he's so cute. as a 12-year-old, like that was awesome. >> it wasn't that she was bed ridden or anything tant? >> no, she was -- >> she was just feeling crummy? >> she was feeling sick. even for my mom, that was not common. even if she was sick, she did what she thought was expected of her and took care of us and made us dinner and laundry because that was her role. >> but when tuesday valentine's day dawned, curtis says he urged her to take it easy. >> we decided i would cancel my morning class at quincy university in order to get the kids to school. >> so dad is going to be on deck? it's going to be dad's time to get everybody up and running here in. >> yeah. right so i cancelled my class helped the kids get ready for school. she did come down stairs to help

with that. >> he says corey was so ill, he had to help her back to bed before driving the three kids to school, backpacks stuffed with valentine's cards. within minutes, he was back. only the home cluttered with clothes and toys was now filled with something else. silence. quiet enough to break a family's heart. >> coming up, what had happened in that house? >> as i got closer, i immediately knew that something was really, really wrong. >> so wrong, it would tear apart a family and puzzle police for years to come. >> every detective needs to keep in mind that there could be a bigger pick. >> when "dateline" continues. miralax for my constipation. stimulant laxatives forcefully stimulate the nerves in your colon. miralax is different. it works with the water in your body to unblock your system naturally. and it doesn't cause harsh side effects.

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bed, it had been up to curtis to get the three oldest kids off to school. now he was back. >> when i arrived home. everything was quiet. i assumed that corey was sleeping, resting. she hadn't slept most of the night. i was just going to leave her alone in order to sleep. >> before looking in on her, he said he went over his e-mails in the kitchen. then he headed upstairs. >> i needed to take a shower and as i walked up the steps, i looked to the left the door to our bedroom was as i left it, opened. i could see her lying in bed and i could see something from the distance didn't seem right. so i -- >> what made you say that looking in? >> i'm really not sure. as i got closer, i could see that she was pale, she was motionless and i immediately knew that something was really, really wrong. >> did you think she's dead?

>> i shook her. i called out her name and tant i knew that she was dead. >> in that moment, he said, his thoughts turned to his four-year-old boy larsson who was still in the house. >> and i needed to get larsson out of the house. >> and what did you do? >> i grabbed larsson, i believe he was in bed and i took him immediately over to, to his grandparents' house. >> corey's mom marty answered the door. she remembers her son-in-law standing there with a young boy and saying something nonsense cal about her daughter being dead. >> it was just kind of mid-morning. >> and there he is, your son-in-law. >> there he is, he hand me larsson and he says something about people are coming or something. i often regretted not just putting larsson down and running

over there. >> stunned, she called her son, corey's brother peter at his dental practice. >> i get a phone call from my mom kind of out of the blue, i didn't think anything. >> corey is dead, that can't be in. >> she's 30-years-old, no way, i just saw her three weeks ago. >> reporter: then the detective was assigned to head the death investigation. when he arrived at the scene, he went straight upstairs. he was in the bedroom when the coroner examined corey's body. >> he tested her body temperature by placing his hand against her abdomen. i followed suit. >> what is it warm or cold this. >> the abdomen was warm. >> what did that tell the coroner? >> he knew the time of death was narrowed then for the body to still be warm. >> reporter: it seems clear that corey's death had been recent, within the past hour or some not at all certain why or how the woman died. the detective couldn't rule out any possibility, including foul play.

>> around the room, itself, any overturned glasses or any signs of a struggle? >> no. >> so as i hear you, you are telling me, you are seeing a woman who has apparently died in her bed and not that long before authorities arrive? >> that's right. >> if i can stress, there wasn't a single mark on her other than what appeared to be a skin blemish under her nose, not a mark. >> and 80 there was something about the position of corey's body that did strike him as odd. he thought death and gravity would have caused her arms to drop. instead, they were both fixed in midair, hovering above her chest. >> i was looking for an explanation to that. i addressed it to curtis lovelace. i asked him if there was a possibility that blankets had been under her arms when he discovered her? >> what did he say? >> no. >> you are saying the scene he saw it is when he saw it and found his wife, by his account? >> yes. >> then the detective was not

getting hung up on one detail this early in the case. >> every detective needs to keep in mind, there could be a bigger picture. >> oh, yes, there was a portrait of a woman, a par trait of a marriage, filtered with details painted in a most unflattering life. >> coming up, a peek behind back doors. you were drinking too much. >> i drank too much. >> corey was drinking too much in. >> and corey was drinking too much. >> i remember crying and not believing it. >> when "dateline" continues.

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the quincy, illinois detective was trying to understand why a 38-year-old woman had died suddenly. as he looked for clues inside corey lovelace's home filled with the clutter of young family life, jeff baird noticed one item in particular, a white cup by her bedside. >> i checked an unknown liquid that smelled faintly from alcohol. >> the detective asked her husband curtis what it was. did she tell you she liked to have a vodka and tonic? >> yes. >> that was likely in the styrofoam? >> yes. >> the 24 ounce glass in. >> yes. >> he told us there was alcohol in the home. >> there was alcoholism in our family. so there was the ugly side of that. >> you were drinking too much in. >> looking back, yes, i drank too much. >> corey was drinking too much in. >> corey was drinking too much.

it was impacting her ability to take care of things at home. >> he also told the detective that corey had been taking falls, sometimes out of bed, once more the detective later found out corey had been battling bulemia. the picture quickly emerging, corey had not been a healthy woman. i know you guys are looking at the subject is telling you, how does he phrase it? what were you seeing on that score? >> it's very important. i saw a man answering my questions. >> not being evasive. >> cooperative, solemn, upset. >> curtis also retraced the family's steps that morning. >> he last saw his wife around 8:15. he took the kids to school. he returned, and found her deceased. >> with that the detective finished the interview and left. curtis knew his awful day was about to get worse. not the least, he had four

children ranging from 4 to 12 to look after. how do you them the children? >> that was -- i think to this day that is the most difficult thing i have ever had to do. i believe i called the schools and let them know that i would be on my way. >> reporter: lindsay the only girl, was the eldest of the lovelace kids. >> i remember being at school. i remember getting a call from the office that i was getting picked up and in my mind i thought, oh, maybe my mom went to the hospital. she didn't feel good the day prior, maybe she had to go to the hospital. it's fine. >> once inside the office, her father broke the news. >> told me my father had died. i remember then on my world crashing down. >> did you say what had happened? what's going on? >> i'm sure i asked what had happened. i just remember crying and not believing it and so we went.

we left and we went to my grandma's house. i'm like, i want to go back to school. >> and you did on the day you lost your mom? >> because that was normal for me. it was a normalcy thing for me. >> in hindsight, maybe the best thing she could have done. her favorite teacher for her. >> she had wolf pups. she had a friend. i remember holding the wolf pups. i'm sure they had lost her missouri they're orphan. >> what a jumble of things. >> that was the most comforting thing i could have done is hold those wolves. >> by then, her untimely death was rippling across town. students across the law class were the first outside the family and authorities to suspect something had happened. >> his class was all outside his classroom waiting for him to come. >> reporter: one of curtis' students, erica, was surprised to learn his class had been cancelled. later, she learned why. >> everyone was in shock. she was a very young

38-year-old. she seemed healthy from what everybody understood. though, it was a huge shock then. >> so that's very sad, your professor's wife has died. you didn't know her? >> i didn't know her and i really didn't know him at that time either. >> soon, everyone in town was wondering what had caused corey's death the pathologist who performed the autopsy a day later noted some trauma. small abrasion on corey's upper lip and another mark inside. it appeared to be a cut. curtis mentioned that corey had fallen in the days before her death. >> those falls as they described it could account for the injury to the lip, right? presumably? >> i wish i knew. yes, a fall could account for an injury. >> the pathologist noted corey had what's called fatty liver, usually caused by heavy drinking. she doesn't know what killed this woman? >> that was frustrating.

she finds disease of the liver which can be associated with sudden death. >> reporter: unusual for a young woman to die of unknown causes, it does happen, with no more to go on the detective closed the case. corey's mother marty still in shock could barely bring herself to read the autopsy report. >> corey was drinking. we don't deny that. she was bulimic and i did try to talk to curtis about that at one time. toll her it was okay. i'm going to be fine. >> now, as she warned corey, marty knew her suffering would only deepen. her husband john was dying. >> we had a visitation for corey and john sat next to me. it was like he was saying good-bye to friend, too. he didn't come home from the hospital after that. >> so both those loss one right on top of the other? >> within the span of a month,

marty lost a husband and a daughter. even though corey's remains were cremated. that was a choice the entire family made together but the decision to cremate would be one that would haunt this river town for years to come. coming up -- >> she was different than anyone i had ever dated before, maybe in some ways that difference intrigued me. >> curtis moves on. much too fast for some. >> she arrived as the girlfriend. did i think it was too quickly? yes. >> when "dateline" continues. enamel is the white, outer layer of your tooth surface. the more that we can strengthen and re-harden that tooth surface, the whiter their patients' teeth are going to be. dentists are going to really want to recommend pronamel strong and bright. it's going to give their patients whiter teeth. recommend pronamel strong and bright. zooka had digestive problems and wouldn't eat.,

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for so many years, he had been the guy in town people looked up to and admired. curtis lovelace, football star, school board president. suddenly a widower who needed help. >> it was overwhelming. people did come forward, friend and family, helping get the kids to school in the morning. so i could also go to work and then picking them up from school. >> it's a lot in. >> it's a lot. but we came towing as a family and did what we needed to do. >> the long-time friend, curtis was stoic in the weeks after corey's death. but one time she noticed it slipped a little. it was at a high school reunion that summer.

>> they were doing a montage, corey's pick comes up and goes, hey, that's my wife. and it was just times like that, that made, you know, made me really think that you know a grieving husband. >> that's why a few months later, she and other friends were surprised to hear that curtis had met someone knew. that was fast. >> she was different than, than anyone i had ever dated before. maybe in some ways that difference intrigued me. >> she was erica. as in the former student who showed up to professor lovelace's fateful class that valentine's morning. >> he's extremely charming. anything that i needed or wanted he could take care of and he did. >> at the time this interview took place, she asked us to alter her appearance some to protect her privacy. she began recounting she is a

33-year-old single woman, had bumped into her 37-year-old -- >> i told him there's places he can go in town there is more people his age. i thought he was a lot older than he was. he just seemed. >> he stood out at that club in. >> he did, quite a bit. >> reporter: not long after, they pit their friendship and then love. they started dating about six months after corey's death. erica and her daughter from a previous relationship eventually moved in with curtis and his four children. >> it was nice my child kind of tucked in there with the rest of them. all of us fell into place. >> that's not the way curtis' daughter lindsay thought. what did you think of her in. >> we did not get along from the get-go. she arrived at the girl friend.

that's how it was. did i think it was too quickly,? yes. but adults make their own decision. >> in fact, lindsay was so unhappy with her dad's girlfriend, she picked up and moved in with her grandmother, corey's mom, two doors down, after two years of living together, curtis and erica married. she admired he how he taught and did local sports and served in the national guard. he had an outstanding resume. >> he did. >> this was the all american boy. >> i loved he was on the school board. that was where my profession was leaning. i loved that he worked with children. he was great. he seemed to be great with the children. >> they even bought a new place in town together and moved from the house where corey had died. there was domestic tranquility at first. but eventually, erica says she saw a change in her husband. >> he'd detach once in a while, just from the whom family.

i was kind of left all to myself. he would hide in the basement and blame it on work. >> she says their mutual silence separated them. then resentment exploded in loud confrontations. it just wasn't working. >> i believe looking back, that was a rebound relationship. and a relationship that i should not done not only for me but more importantly for my children. >> in 2013, after five years of marriage, curtis filed for divorce. now you might think that he would have been gun shy about jumping into love again. but not curtis. >> it was just surreal and lovely. >> this is christine. sheff had known curtis since high school. he even took her to their homecoming dance, marriages and careers separated them for a time. >> it was odd. i wasn't prepared for a relationship and wasn't looking for anything like that. >> where were new your life? were you single?

>> yes, i was single. >> after reconnecting on facebook the former classmates decided to get caught up for the first time in three decades. >> there he is at the door. i see kurt lovelace, my senior high school homecoming date standing there. we spent that evening with friends and before we knew it, everyone else had gone. we had the most amazing time. >> i was meeting in many ways the same person who i took to homecoming just more beautiful, more interested and more kind than i had ever remembered. >> it just worked. >> more than six months later on the day after christmas, 2013, curtis was once again standing at the altar. only this time the new mrs. lovelace seemed to have approval from everyone, even 20-year-old daughter lindsay, who had packed up at the arrival of her father's last flame. >> she seemed very jen win. i like that she cared a lot

about the boys. >> did you think maybe this could be the restoration of the family in. >> yeah, i did. >> after you seen of the nightmare of erica, now christine seems okay to you. she is certainly making an effort to reach out to you, right in. >> i thought our family deserved happiness at that point after everything we had been through, i was hoping it all panned out okay. >> it did go okay, christine kept the lovelaces off like a train schedule. christine, meanwhile, put on her baker's apron. >> i opened a natural pie show. i was making 100 pies a week. i was selling out of pies before 9:00 in the morning. >> so this wasn't a hobby to keep you bes in. >> no. >> this was a going concern. >> yes, absolutely. >> what's your go-to pie in. >> i like blueberry, i make a mean gooseberry, you name it, kip do it. >> after years of turmoil, it seemed the lovelaces were in true form.

christine adopted curtis' sons as her own. everything was working. but darker souls wait for the train wreck just when things are looking all hunky dory. it turns out that train was hurdling down the track. >> coming up a new detective leads to new suspicion. >> what jumped out at you? >> most definitely that her arms where in an unnaturally raised position. >> and the start of a new information. >> in the autopsy there were things listed as suspicious findings. >> my first thought is we missed something here. >> when "dateline" continues. when it comes to managing your type 2 diabetes, what matters to you? let's see. most of you say lower a1c. but only a few of you are thinking about your heart. fact is, even though it helps to manage a1c, type 2 diabetes still increases your risk

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the river roared. the barges slid by. and corey lovelace's death slipped further into the past. her mom. >> i'd go sit in the cemetery by myself for a little while. of course, valentine's now is nothing. i don't do valentine's day. >> corey's husband, meanwhile, had married, divorced, remarried again. in all that time, no one questioned the why or how of corey's death. but all that changed one day when a man in a windowless room a few blocks off the mississippi found himself with spare time on his hands. >> i was sitting in my office and all of our files are on computer. >> it was late 2013.

almost eight years after corey's death. adam gibson a newly minted detective with the quincy police department began idly pulling up old files. >> not looking for anything in particular, reading old cases. corey lovelace popped into my head and i read the report. >> did that name mean anything to you? >> i knew corey lovelace, at one time he had been our state's attorneys. >> a statement from curtis the husband, police interviews with the three older children and the pathologist summary with the autopsy findings with photos. >> so you knew what happened in 2006 sort of or -- >> i knew she had passed away on valentine's day of 2006. >> what was the medical examiner's finding about the death of that woman? >> it was undetermined. the original autopsy. >> what did that mean to you? >> undetermined can mean a lot of things. in this particular autopsy there were things listed as suspicious

or traumatic findings. >> for instance, an abrasion on corey's face under her nose, something the arriving officer observed that day the pathologist noticed the cuts, what she called the laceration on corey's upper lip. and an electrifying image the police photos of the dead wife and mother as she lay in her bed. what jumped out at you. >> most definitely the arms raids in a different position. >> not supported like anything, out there like statue? >> yes. >> using police photos of the scene, we depicted this graphic representation, can you see her arms frozen in death above her body. >> that final pose caught detective jeff baird's curiosity, now, adam gibson did.

ring of more tis? >> yes, in my opinion. >> reporter: the mechanics of rigor more tis go like this upon death a human's muscles start to stiffen. to the detective, it looked like they were in an ad vans state of rigor, meaning she likely died many hours before this photo was taken. remember, curtis said he tucked his sickly wife in bed an hour before finding her dead. it didn't make sense, he went straight to his bosses with the old lovelace file. >> my first thought is we missed something here. >> reporter: the chief had been in charge in 2006 when everyone assumed corey had died natural debt. he says he never sue the photos the detective was holding before him. >> that's when i saw the pictures the first time. >> what did you think? >> i thought this is odd. this is not natural. >> the posture of the arms. >> definitely appeared to me

that rigor mortis set in. i looked at those pictures and can't believe we send an undetermined cause of death and a natural death. >> detective gibson agreed. they had a problem. >> very thin, notes from a medical examiner from eight years before and a few photos, very few in. >> and only two slides were taken by the pathologist and passed on in evidence. so, yeah, very thin time. >> so police went back to the doctor that did that autopsy and asked her to review the case. she did, but she would not alter her original findings. the next step might have been to order a new alms. but that wasn't possible since corey's family had her remains cremated. the only option was to work with what they had. detective gibson had a suggestion. >> he wanted to have the autopsy reviewed by someone else , have it -- basically, a review of the original autopsy done. couldn't do a new autopsy because the body had been cremated.

>> the chief okayed the request to review old autopsy notes. the detective also had something else in mind to beef up his case talk to anyone and everyone who had known corey. his first call was to her mom, marty. he told her he wanted to meet, but not why. >> he said, can we set up a time? make it tomorrow or whatever? >> i said, well, scratch what i'm doing this afternoon. come now. i was so nervous about what it was. >> everything old was about to be new again. new, very unsettling. >> coming up. >> the thing that struck me first was the position of mrs. lovelace's arms. >> a different medical examiner reaches a different conclusion. >> the manner of death would be homicide. >> and a detective has a question for curtis' daughter. >> tuesday morning before you went to school, what do you remember? >> what did you think was happening? >> i didn't know.

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corey lovelace's mom had tried hard to move on after her daughter's sudden death in 2006. but after a phone call and a visit from detective adam gibson in early 2014, she started to wonder. >> a lot of things i shoved away. really shoved away. and one of 'em was really why -- cory had died. >> did you ever suspect that there might be foul play involved in her death? >> no. >> reporter: friends of both curtis and cory also started getting calls from the detective. beth dobrzynski remembers his message asking her to call asap. >> so then when i called detective gibson and he said, "we're reopening the case of cory didriksen lovelace," i was shocked. i was shaking. >> so the detective seemed to be interested in what you could tell him about the marriage? >> correct. >> which, she admitted, wasn't much.

beth and other close friends said cory didn't really talk about her marriage. so the detective did something no one else had done on this case. he started knocking on doors talking to cory's former neighbors. >> all the neighbors talked about -- all the -- the constant arguing and fighting. >> so you were getting a picture of what was goin' on in that marriage that wasn't in focus in 2006. >> right. >> the detective went a step further. he got in his car and drove more than a hundred miles to the university of iowa to talk with someone who would have been an eyewitness to the lovelace marriage. >> i'm adam gibson. >> nice to meet you. >> i'm a detective with quincy. >> ok. ok. >> reporter: lyndsay lovelace, curtis and cory's oldest, was in college, her mom's alma mater, when she was summoned to the campus police department to talk with detective gibson. >> i was very confused why someone from quincy had driven there. >> the questions that followed didn't clear things up -- at least not at first. the detective started talking about her late mom and asking about her parents' marriage.

>> how was your parents' relationship, do you remember? >> they would fight. it was an interesting relationship. there were times we were like the perfect family, we'd do like fun family stuff. and then there were times i do remember being woken up at night by my parents' fighting. >> reporter: for the first time, someone inside the lovelace family was revealing the turmoil before cory's death. but then the detective asked lyndsay to describe that tuesday in 2006 when her mother's body was found. >> tuesday morning, before you went to school, what do you remember? >> the answer seemed to take the air out of his theory of the case. >> she was up and walking around -- she had made breakfast. i don't remember what we had for breakfast. but she had like made us breakfast and she was helping us get ready for school because we all had our little valentines day boxes. >> the young woman -- candid about her parent's troubled marriage was nonetheless supportive of her father's account. cory ha died minutes after seeing her children off to school -- not hours earlier, as the detective suspected.

if he'd been disappointed in lyndsay's answer, he didn't show it. but he did make a request that caught her off guard. >> if you do talk to your dad, only thing that i would ask is that you not discuss the fact that i came and talked to you yet. >> what did you think was happening? >> i didn't know, especially when he said, "don't tell your father i was here." >> what's that mean? >> and i went back to where i was living and just sat there and thought, "what is going on?" and then it slowly hit me. >> reporter: she realized the detective -- for whatever reason suspected her father had something to do with her mother's sudden death. even so, she kept her promise and did not tell her father about the visit. in the meantime, detective gibson was waiting to hear from dr. jane turner, the assistant medical examiner for the city of st. louis. he had hired her to review that old autopsy report. >> the thing that struck me first just looking at the scene photographs was the position of mrs. lovelace's arms.

>> she says the photos show cory's body in full rigor mortis. like the detective, the m.e. believed the picture and curtis' story were out of sync. >> i estimate that the time of death was somewhere ten to 12 hours -- prior to her photograph being taken that morning. so, somewhere around 9.00 or 10:00 -- or 11pm the night before. >> in other words, the night of february 13th -- not the morning of february 14th as curtis claimed. something else bothered her: turner thought the scene appeared altered as though something under cory's arms was removed. >> why were her hands not resting on a surface and that surface-- whatever that object was that her hands had been resting on -- why wasn't it there anymore? >> reporter: turner noted the abrasion on cory's face and the cut inside her upper lip. to her, that suggested something had been pressed against the woman's mouth.

>> and then seeing the marks around the mouth and inside the mouth all suggest that suffocation occurred. >> reporter: suffocation. an abrasion. an accepted timeline that no longer fit. turner was convinced cory had not died a natural death. she concluded someone had used an object -- likely a pillow to suffocate the woman; left it under her arms and removed it many hours later. >> the manner of death would be homicide. >> reporter: for the detective cory lovelace's death came down to two competing narratives from two compelling women. one relied on science to explain a murder. the other relied on memory to describe an ailing mother just before she passed away. in the end, the detective believed the science. he believed that a crime had, indeed, been committed. but now chief copley had a little problem back at the quincy police officers who had conducted very different investigations of the same case.

>> detective gibson, you believe that this was a homicide. >> i -- i do believe that. >> officer baird, do you believe that this was a death of natural causes? are you divided on that fundamental issue? >> i'm now uncertain. from what i've heard and been told, under the -- under the new investigation. much more uncertain than i was in 2006. >> their boss chief copley still backs both men. he says if there's blame to be had in this case, he'll take it. >> you hate to -- admit that mistakes were made. and -- and i want to say that i -- i take full responsibility. i was chief in 2006. you know -- i -- i had detectives and their supervisors workin' on this case. but -- >> did chief, did he get a pass because he was a pillar of the community? he was a big shot guy. >> i don't know that he got a pass, i think he may have got -- the benefit of the doubt.

bring me fried chicken that day. and lunch came and went. >> reporter: and no curt? >> and no curt. >> reporter: a few blocks away, curt had just stepped out of his law office. he was, in fact, on his way to the pie shop. >> and as i was walking to my car -- there was -- there was a gentleman in -- in a suit -- waiting for me. >> reporter: it was detective gibson. and he was armed with an indictment from the grand jury. he was there to arrest curtis for the murder of cory lovelace. >> reporter: and he said what? >> the only thing he said was, "my wife died in 2006." >> reporter: what'd ya think of that? >> that's -- that's not the reaction that i was expectin' at all. >> reporter: then again, curtis lovelace never saw it coming. >> told me to put my hands behind my back. and put me in handcuffs. >> reporter: what was goin' on? >> i didn't know. i remember hearing, "murder." i remember hearing him use the

word, "wife." i was not aware that there -- that there was an investigation. >> reporter: you were totally blindsided? >> was totally -- totally blindsided. >> reporter: blindsided because no one had really questioned cory's death before. even the police concluded she died of natural causes. back at the pie shop, an increasingly anxious christine got a phone call. it was someone from a local tv station. >> he said, "i'm holding a piece of paper in my hand. it's an indictment for the first degree murder of co -- cory lovelace." and i -- i immediately said, "what? cor -- cory wasn't murdered." >> reporter: give me a word. that day in your life. >> horrifying. >> i was placed in an interrogation room immediately. >> reporter: curtis lovelace, the former prosecutor, had a crucial choice to make. either talk to the detective and try to clear this up right then and there, or listen to his lawyerly training and keep

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