i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> you talk about housewives of orange county, she could have been on the show. she wrapped men around her finger. >> she had it all. waterfront home, millionaire boyfriend, quite the life until -- >> the shots were in sets of two. he saw his attacker. >> her lover gunned down. who wanted him dead? >> there was no financial gain

for her in this. >> what about her secret friend, the former nfl linebacker. >> you lied to them for one thing. >> i did. >> the mystery was unsolved. then came a prosecutor who took on big waves and cold cases. could he find the key to this one? >> this isn't just a motive. it's a motive on steroids. >> hello and welcome to "dateline," a gated community, a glamorous setting where wealthy residents could feel safe but it was not safe for one multimillion murdered in the kitchen of his waterfront house. police had suspects but the circumstantial. the case grew cold. could it be that the key to the mystery or rather two keys were right there at the front door. here's keith morrison with

"deadly trust." >> there's a place, call it a pot of gold at the end of ambition of the american dream. a place the few and the lucky build their mansions by the sea. new port beach, orange county, california, where the most unexpected event would be murder. >> things like this rarely happen in new port beach let alone in an area that's as secure in this area. >> let alone involving people like this, attractive charismatic, living large like annette jonston mckneel. >> she had an expensive home, you talk about housewives of orange county, she should have been on the show. >> she turned down an offer to

be on that show. though she did end up on a tv show called american thunder about motorcycles showing up her own excess including a bike she bought for 50 ground. >> what's your favorite part of the bike? >> i love the way it looks. >> and then there was the ex- football player, want to be actor who starred in a reality show called the new port 40 but here's where the show ends and the real begins. because of what happened in that house behind the gates a long time ago, it was december 15th, 1994, 9:00 p.m. >> the shots were patterned in sets of two. two shots. two shots. a pause, and then two shots. >> detective arrived to find an

entrepreneur dead on his own kitchen floor. his name was bill mclaughlin, 55 years old. nice guy, deeply religious and a true believer in the american dream, a man who had made his come true. >> kind of a self-made guy. right? >> absolutely. yes. >> bill said his daughter was the first in his family to go to college, the first to found a company, the first to end up with millions. not someone you'd think would wind up murdered but here he was. >> you could tell there was not a physical struggle. there weren't things knocked off counters or things like that. >> you could tell bill mclaughlin saw it coming, saw his killer. >> one of his movements was to put his hand up and try to block a shot and he got shot through the underside of a finger, so he saw his attacker. >> now he needed to figure out who was that last person bill mclaughlin saw? >> you're trying to take

everything in and you're trying to remember as much as you can, write down what you feel is important, what's going to come up in the investigation. >> what was important, what wasn't? it was hard to know in this first few hours. as you can see in this video that police shot the night of the murder the house was as neat as a pin except for some papers on the table. and there were six bullet casings on the kitchen floor and one more thing, a post it note from his girlfriend stuck to the side of a lamp. she'd be home late. her son had a soccer game. annette jonston as she was noun back then before reality shows and a couple more marriages had been bill's girlfriend for more than three years and they seemed happy despite the almost 30 year age difference said his daughter kim. >> they seemed to be good

companions. >> she was your age wasn't she. >> she was my age, uh-huh. >> annette helped to look after her son kech and she helped with some business ventures. >> he found that interesting about her that he could have, you know, possibly a romantic relationship, but also sort of a mentoring relationship and possibly a business partner. >> he had hopes for this. >> i think he did. >> they lived together in bill's house on new port day as did her little ones part of the time. >> she brought some children. >> correct. >> did he like that? >> yes, he thought it was important. he thought that it showed she was compassionate. >> annette with was her children at her son's soccer game and annette headed to the mall to go christmas shopping. she arrive home to a crime scene and to the detective. >> anybody involved has the

possibility of being the murderer. >> so he questioned annette and bill's own grown kids couldn't eliminate anybody yet. >> we looked at the girlfriend and we looked at the daughters because anyone that stands to gain money in this situation is a potential suspect. >> bill's ex-wife was way off in hawaii. they'd been divorced for years. still, the detectives talked to her and there was kevin, bill's disabled son, the only other person in the house at the time of the murder. >> new port beach emergency. >> it was shortly after 9:00 p.m. when kevin heard the gun fire. he was upstairs still debilitated by those car accident injuries and he labored to make his way down to the kitchen where he found his father. too disabled to explain that he needed help.

someone was dead. >> kevin was a suspect that we needed to find out the validity of his statements whether he had gunshot residue on his hands, whether he was even able to shoot a gun given his physical disabilities. >> but a suspect? they checked his hands for gunpowder residue, negative. >> you have to look at everybody unfortunately. sometimes it hurts feelings but you have to get down to the facts on it too. >> but facts can be tricky things and in this case, far more elusive than anyone might have imagined. >> some clues were elusive but some were right out in the front like the two that dramatically narrowed down the circle of suspects. coming up -- >> those are huge. it eliminates everybody down to only those people that have access to those two keys. >> when "dateline" continues. >>n

and relief from symptoms caused by over 200 indoor and outdoor allergens. like those from buddy. because stuffed animals are clearly no substitute for real ones. feel the clarity. and live claritin clear. before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn, marie could only imagine enjoying freshly squeezed orange juice. now no fruit is forbidden. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn?

but allstate actually helps you drive safely... with drivewise. it lets you know when you go too fast... ...and brake too hard. with feedback to help you drive safer. giving you the power to actually lower your cost. unfortunately, it can't do anything about that. now that you know the truth... are you in good hands?

but we all know we're paying too much for it. enter xfinity mobile. america's best lte, with the most wifi hotspots combined for the first time. when you're near an xfinity hotspot you're connected to wifi, saving on data. when you're not, you pay for data one gig at a time. use a little, pay a little. use a lot, just switch to unlimited. it's a new kind of network. call, visit or go to xfinitymobile.com. you never know what life is going to throw at you.

[ whimpering ] and from this point on. nothing is going to be the same. [ "all these things that i've done" by the killers ] no, no, no. this way buddy. no! liam's heads for comforts is in the 80th percetile. oh that's cool. it's a lot of head. it's like you're the dad and i'm the mom and we're in a relationship and this is our baby. [ laughing ] well... it's exactly like that! exactly! in the days that followed bill mclaughlin's murder his children wandered overwhelmed through the essential events that follow a sudden death. >> this funeral would have been, i don't know. >> the funeral was horrible because we were in shock and we

lad to hold up. i don't remember much, but i do remember annette sitting in the front with each child on either end and they were both bawling at the top of their lungs. and then i remember my brother speaking too at the funeral and telling everybody what an amazing man he was and what a great dad he was for him. >> bill's girlfriend annette moved out of the house where bill was killed to another house he owned right on the beach. kim and her sister moved back into the family home with their brother. they clung to each other for dear life. >> we cried on each other es ooshoulders and did a lot of counseling and therapy and grieving. >> what made it worse was they didn't know who did it or why any more than did the police. >> when a thing like this happens i mean it's really an execution style killing. this was obviously someone who intended to kill your dad. you must immediately have, you

know, wondered who. >> right. well, you wonder if it's a completely random act, some stranger and it was a mistake or a accident or you -- you develop a list of people that might have -- have a reason to have shot him. >> to police, it didn't look random. nothing was taken, the killer struck with precision accuracy and got clean away, but there was something that intrigued the detective that night. it was a clue they found in bill mclaughlin's closet. >> we do a search of the house with the permission of kevin and annette. we're told there were weapons in a closet upstairs and when you come across a lot of weapons like that it's surprising. >> bill had become an avid gun collector. he kept dozens of them but not just antiques. there were pistols and revolvers and semiautomatics and assault rivals, dangerous stuff in the

wrong hands. >> we didn't know if somebody was upset with the sale of a gun or something. >> annette was worried about that too. >> annette told us that bill was dealing with a lot of shady people, gun dealers. >> but there was something else too or rather someone else. >> the only person that we knew was frustrated with him was his business partner who he was in a lawsuit with. >> all of them, bill's kids and annette told the detective about that business partner. >> because he and mr. mclaughlin were in a heated multiyear lawsuit over the invention of the device. >> the device? bill had made his millions from a revolutionary medical invention, a machine that separates plasma from blood. it's still in use today worldwide. just the sort of thing bill wanted, to do something useful, helpful and make lots of money too. >> he enjoyed learning new things, discovering new things

and especially if it benefitted people. you know, if he could make money off on an idea. >> hall fisher had worked on the idea. it was after he left the company that the money came rolling in. he thought his contribution deserved more than what he thought so he sued his former friend and partner, bill mclaughlin. and here's the thing, it was just two weeks before the murder that the courts decided for bill any day he was to get the 9 million he and his partner had been fighting over for years. so was it a revenge killing? sounded at least plausible. except for something the killer left behind, something the partner didn't have access to. it wasn't dna, not fingerprints, something more mundane than that. >> the door on the right was open and there was a key stuck in the lock right here.

in addition to that there was a key on a mat laying right next to the door here. >> two keys, two clues. one was a brand new copy of the front door key. the other was a key to the community pedestrian gate, not a copy. >> those are huge because it -- it eliminates everybody in the world from being a suspect down to only those people that have access to those two keys. >> the circle of suspects was getting smaller. >> coming up, police focus on one particular suspect who did have access to those keys and to something else. >> he bought a 9 mm in the summer, a berhe. >> you lied to them. >> i did. >> you lied to them. >> i did confidence, reassurance you're doing what's right to protect your dog

from fleas and ticks for a full month. this one little nexgard chew is the #1 vet recommended protection. and it's the only chew fda approved to prevent infections that cause lyme disease. plus, it's safe for puppies. there's a lot of power in this one little nexgard chew. nexgard. what one little chew can do. check your free credit scores at creditkarma. nexgard. here's to progress. what sore muscles? what with advpounding head? .. advil is... relief that's fast. strength that lasts. you'll ask... what pain? with advil.

with verizon up, we won luke bryan tickets. there's an area just for verizon up members. it made me feel like a celebrity. (vo) the network more people rely on, gives you more. like big savings on our best phones when you switch. that's verizon. this is a commercial and i know you're thinking. i don't want to hear about insurance. 'cause let's be honest... nobody likes dealing with insurance. right? see, esurance knows it's expensive. i feel like i'm giving my money away. so they're making it affordable. thank you, dennis quaid. you're welcome, guy in kitchen. i named my character walter. that's great. i'd tell you more but i only have thirty seconds so here's a dramatic shot of their tagline

so you'll remember it. when insurance is affordable, it's surprisingly painless.

. two keys that demanded attention. one of them was stuck in the door the night bill was murdered, the other dropped on a mat outside. the person who killed bill had obtained those keys somehow which means whoever it was was within his inner circle or had access to it. they began to look for relationships, maybe secret ones. >> annette is a pretty good

friend of mine. >> and that's how they found eric who they learned was living at a studio apartment in one of those melrose place sort of complexes, just not quite as nice. he had played football but his promising career as a linebacker had fizzled. too many injuries, too many hours on the bench. by the early 90s he was trying to figure out what to do next. >> i was in seattle with the seahawks when i retired, when i left and i drove down the coast and it was a great place to land. >> kind of nirvana for a guy like you. >> it was. >> big good looking ex- football player like him. it was easy to get work and women in southern california like annette. he met her while working at this gym. >> what did you think when you first saw her? >> i thought she was a snob, a little stuck up. she had the sunglasses on, the

expensive watch and she was a little snobby. >> at least she was at first, but -- >> so what made you friends. >> proximity. she was a fun girl. we worked out together. i'd say we probably worked out together more than we did anything else together. >> he was impressed by her intelligence, by what she told him about herself, that she had a business degree for example. >> she graduated early from high school and college. >> by february 1994, ten months before bill mclaughlin was killed annette's affair with eric was in full bloom which given thatt eric was not exactl flush was fine because. >> she had no loss for money. she footed the bill for everything we did together. >> so what did eric know about bill? and bill's relationship with annette? the cops asked. >> i never met bill. >> you know who he is?

>> i just knew -- i knew of him. i knew of him and his, you know, his partnership with annette as far as business goes and stuff like that. >> eric told us annette said she invented things, medical equipment, blood separators. sound familiar? and bill, she told eric, guided her through the process. >> that was her mentor. that was her business partner and she could work out all morning. grab lunch, go pick up the kids and take them to practice and be the team mom. >> pretty nice job. eric and annette spent time at what she said was her house right on the beach. >> what did you think? >> it was beautiful. beautiful house. right on the beach. right in new port. it was upstairs, downstairs, fully furnished. she had a picture of herself a blown up --

>> kind of a glamour shot. >> it never occurred to him that they did more than business together. >> if you looked at annette and took into account her age and you looked and bill and took into account his age why would you think -- >> orange county, california? hello. >> i guess i'm a rookie to orange county. >> but when it comes to murder and relationships sometimes two's company, three's a motive. if eric found out that bill was money more than just annette's mentor, was it a motive for murder? so in their interview investigators got right to the point. what was he doing that night? >> i was with annette at the soccer game. she dropped me off and took off and i got dressed and went to work later on probably around 9:30. >> curious thing about eric's job, he was a bouncer at a nightclub about a football field and a half away from the mclaughlin house. not that far for a linebacker.

so the cops asked a few more questions. >> did you do any armed work? >> no, but that didn't mean he didn't own any guns, just took him a while to tell the detective that. >> so you don't own any fire arms at all? no, i -- i bought one -- i haven't seen it in so long. i bought would be in dallas that i gave my dad. >> we first asked him if he owns any weapons. he says he doesn't own any and then he says oh, well, that's right, i did buy one in texas. a little 380 but i sent it to my dad in new york and then we talk a little bit longer and he's oh, i bought another .308. >> did you have to register in dallas? >> signed registration. >> the light must have gone off in his head that we were going

to find out by checking registration because a few seconds after that he says he bought a 9 mm earlier in the summer. a beretta 9 mm. >> that was interesting. that's what killed bill but no one knew that except the cops and the killer. >> where is your 9 mm. >> i have no idea? >> that's my statement. >> if he thought he was helping himself he wasn't. >> why didn't you ask for a lawyer? >> i didn't think i needed one. innocent people don't need lawyers, do we? >> but you said some things that didn't help you out, that's for sure. >> absolutely. >> you lied to them for one thing. >> i did. >> of course, lying doesn't make you a killer. but jealousy, maybe. did he know he was in a love triangle? did he want bill out of the way? and if so, did annette quite

literally hold the key. >> ooat the center of this case, the younger girlfriend with a shady past, she was trying to hide. >> coming up. >> in the big bold print it was basically looking for wealthy men, i'll take care of you if you take care of me. >> when "dateline" continues. e. >> when "dateline" continues humira patients, you inspire us. the way you triumph over adversity. and live your lives.

that's why we redesigned humira. we wanted to make the experience better for you. now there's less pain immediately following injection. we've reduced the size of the needle and removed the citrate buffers. and it has the same effectiveness you know and trust. humira citrate-free is here. a little change can make a big difference. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. ask your doctor about humira citrate-free. here's to you.

audible members know listening has the power to change us make us better parents, better leaders, better people. and there's no better place to listen than audible. with audible you get a credit good for any audiobook and exclusive fitness and wellness programs. and now, you'll also get two audible originals: titles exclusively produced for audible. automatically roll your credits over to the next month if you don't use them, and if you don't like a book just swap it for free. enjoy 100% ad free listening in the car, on your phone or any connected device. and 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. ♪ here's what's happening. at least 12 people are did and four injured after a long time employee entered a building and shot indiscriminately. >> the clinic's lie lens will remain in effect until a ruling is reached. a hearing is set for tuesday. now back to "dateline."

welcome back to "dateline." i'm natalie mo rals. >> investigators were talking to his girlfriend annette who was cheating on bill with another man and when they interviewed him he was deceptive about whether he owned a gun. bill's daughters were trying to get their father's affairs in order but they were about to find that things weren't adding up. who else had access to bill's accounts? here's keith morrison with more of "deadly trust ". >> he drove from a house he kept if las vegas to the airport. he climbed to the little airplane he owned and flew above all his trouble. this is where he was free and happy. pure joy up here. he landed in orange county, called annette to tell her he

was back and drove home to new port to the place he was about to die. but for all their efforts, investigators could find not one bit of evidence in those final movements of his, nothing that would link him to the man that was fast becoming their prime suspect. back at the house bill's daughters took it upon themselves to sort through all their dad's financials. maybe there would be a clue there. >> you had to figure all that out yourself. >> uh-huh. >> it must have been very complicated. >> it was complicated and we did not trust many people at that point. >> so they poured through it all. the big stuff and the little stuff. two houses to deal with in nevada. soon money would be coming in but when he died he was low on funds. and things were missing. bills and bank statements, check registers, that kind of thing. the sisters turned to annette

for help because she was the person that handled bill's day-to-day money matters. in fact, she was a trustee of the trust that held most of bill's money. but everybody grieves in his or her own way and annette was very hard to reach. >> she just disappeared. >> yes, we'd contact her over something missing and sometimes she would return our calls and sometimes she wouldn't. >> she wasn't far away. in his will bill left annette quite a consolation prize. a million dollars in life insurance, 150,000 in cash and the use of the beach house for a year. but it was hardly enough frankly to fund the lifestyle to which she'd become accustomed. >> didn't he pay for everything for her. gave her a couple of cars and even plastic surgery. >> well, he -- he treated her very well. he provided a very posh lifestyle for she and her

children. >> which made bill's daughters move annette down the list of suspects. >> i said in front of her, of course annette would have not done it because there was no ffts shl gain for her in this. >> if bill had survived she and her two children might have lived very well indeed p and then bill's daughters noticed something up odd about his books. >> i noticed a $250,000 check that was written. >> that's a lot of money. >> a heck of a lot of money. >> the check dated december 14th, one day before bill was murdered was made out to annette jonston trust. >> you saw the signature? >> yes. >> did it look like your father's signature? >> no. and i showed it to the police. >> the detective didn't like the looks of it either. >> hi, this is jenny. >> hi. >> the detective told the daughters to give annette a call and record it. >> well, first of all, a lot of checks, there are a lot of times

that i signed for him on many things. >> uh-huh. >> with his permission. >> he gave you permission to sign his name? >> excuse me? >> he gave you permission to sign his name? >> oh, yeah, on many things. >> annette was sure he had signed that particular check and they found more money missing from bill's accounts. nearly half a million dollars and also discovered that annette wasn't exactly the person she had portrayed herself to be. detective learned she'd grown up in phoenix. you can barely recognize her from her high school yearbook pictures and despite what she told eric, she never studied business. she never got a college degree. she never invented anything but her own back story. married at 18, two kids by 22, divorced by 23 and determined to leave arizona behind for the coast of california in

particular, new port beach. >> so this was a place she wanted to move into and said -- >> wasn't even finished being built. >> it turns out before bill, before eric, there was tom. he met annette at a nightclub and six weeks later he found himself moving them both into a brand new townhouse in the heart of new port beach. she had actually found the place before she even met him. >> what was attractive to you about her? >> smart, intelligent, definitely very determined. forging ahead on her own two feet and wanting to make things happen. >> oh, and she did. she just happened to like short cuts which tom discovered when he found something annette had been hiding, an ad. >> in the big bold print it was basically, looking for wealthy men, i'll take care of you if you take care of me. >> did you confront her after

you found this stuff? >> absolutely. >> annette denied it was her. but soon enough she had moved out and up and in with bill mclaughlin. it was clear to detectives that annette jonston was greedy and would stop at nothing for money. it was clear to him that she'd been cheating on bill. it was also clear to him he'd been cheating on bill with eric. he even knew that her key to the community pedestrian gate was missing and remember, there was one found. could have been it on the mat at the murder scene. but did all that make her a killer? she and her lover, eric? >> do you remember what you thought at the time? >> i thought the police would be able to have a closed case. >> wishful thinking as it turned out. >> probably nooaive. >> in fact it looked like someone or two someones might get awe with murder. >> coming up. >> reporter: if that's what they thought, they reckoned without

this man -- >> you're always nervous when you try an old case. >> and without this story from a new witness. >> she said i don't want to know if you had anything to do with this and he said maybe i did, maybe i didn't. >> when "dateline" continues. i t >> when "dateline" continues mmm! don't deny your cravings. eat 'em! all the flavors you crave, in a superfood. blue diamond almonds. crave victoriously.

hey, who are you?

oh, hey jeff, i'm a car thief... what?! i'm here to steal your car because, well, that's my job. what? what?? what?! (laughing) what?? what?! what?! [crash] what?! haha, it happens. and if you've got cut-rate car insurance, paying for this could feel like getting robbed twice. so get allstate... and be better protected from mayhem... like me. ♪

detective thought he had a case. there were the keys, the lies, the other lover, the stolen money. circumstantial, yes, but he thought both eric and annette

jonston committed murder together. >> i thought we had it solved as far as who the responsibility parties were. it was just a matter of the d.a.'s office didn't feel comfortable with filing the case. >> two times new port beach police brought the case to the d.a.'s office and two times the d.a.'s office said the detective had not made his case. annette was arrested in the spring of 1995, but not for murder. they got her for fraud and forchry. she pleaded guilty, spent a year in jail and though eric waited for her, by the time she got out she was ready to move on. she married a real estate mogul, much richer than bill ever was. they had a baby girl and once again annette was driving a fancy car and living where rich people live and spending lots and lots of money on clothes and lunches and hair dos and then, well, then she met someone else, another bill. so she divorced the real estate

mogul and agreed to receive $17,000 a month in child support. could that have been her idea all along? the new bill did not have millions, and when he married annette he signed a prenew allowing her to keep for herself all the money she got from husband number two. >> or was that number three? anyway, the real estate mogul. eric wept back east, got married, had kids, got divorced, made that reality show that never got going. he was to play a big scary bad guy and one of bill's kids, they tried to live how their father would have wanted them to. sort of the opposite of annette. >> he really wanted us to help make the world a better place so he encouraged us to do things in the community, the three of us kids would go to nursing homes and put on a little talent show

for the elderly. >> he came from a very low income family as we'd call it today and so he always appreciated what he had and he worked for hard for it. >> bill's children worked hard too, gave wheelchair to the poor in latin america. rewarding work, but as time passed they began to think the fairy tale had it all wrong. seemed to them like it was the evil stepmother who got to live happily ever after, certainly not them. five years after the murder in 1999, the sisters lost their brother kevin in a drowning accident. he never did recover from the damage a drunk driver did. so both men of the family were gone and hope for justice faded away. >> we thought those two will be arrested next week for killing my dad and when it didn't happen year after year, we had to actually just release the pain

and the anger we felt from it. >> and conscious of the fact that you had to work on that. >> very conscious of the fact. >> and that might have been the end of our story, but for him. this is matt murphy, surfer and prosecutor with just possibly an excessive confidence in his ability to prosecute the murder of bill mclaughlin all those years ago. what you had was an old, old case, pretty circumstantial stuff. a lot of evidence had been lost. it degrades over time. were you a little nervous about that. >> you're always nervous when you try an old case. >> but not a forgotten one. cold case investigators kept digging. they found a real estate agent who showed annette and eric expensive houses after the pair said they were about to come into some money. they found a businessman who

heard from annette before the murder that she was about to have lots of money to invest. and they found a neighbor of eric's from that melrose place type building, a woman who had been too afraid to come forward at the time of the murder. >> susanne was very important because susanne gave the best comprehensive understanding of the way a net manipulated eric into committing the murder. >> how they would chat by the pool, how one day eric was angry, said his girlfriend's boss, meaning bill mclaughlin had tried to rape her. >> totally untrue. they're engaged to be married. she'd been living at the house for over tloo years, but he didn't know any of that. >> and he was in a rage about it. >> he was in a rage about it. >> after the murder said susanne, eric sought her out said if the police came around

tell them i'm a nice guy. >> she said oh, my god, i don't want to know if he had anything to do with this or not. and he smiled and said maybe i did maybe i didn't. how those words are ever going to come out of your mouth. >> incriminating but hardly one of those tangible facts that gets someone sent away for life. >> this is one where every little piece of evidence had to be considered in light of all the other pieces of evidence. >> in fact, just the type of challenge matt murphy was after. so on may 20th, 2009, more than 14 years after bill was shot dead in his kitchen, annette was plucked from her life and charged with murder. annette proclaimed her innocence and her orange county friends stood by her. >> i'm just going to tell you that she's my friend. she's a good person. she's been generous and kind and a wonderful mother and a

wonderful neighbor. >> across the country in connecticut police picked up eric and accused him of murder too. eric was also defiant. >> it wasn't eric who shot bill mclaughlin. this is a fact. and matt murphy is wrong. i'll tell you right now on my children, he's just straight wrong. >> did eric kill bill mclaughlin? did he conspire with annette or was matt murphy in over his head? up to a jury soon. >> coming up, first they had to face trial where annette's lawyer had an unusual defense. >> in court you called your client a [ bleep ]? >> just because you've treated people poorly in your life does not make you a murderer. >> would a jury agree? when "dateline" continues. y agr? when "dateline" continues. ♪ ♪

i heard there guwere fleas out here.r? and t-t-t-t-t-icks! and mosquitoooooooooooes! listen up, scaredy cats. we all have k9 advantix ii to protect us. it kills and repels fleas, ticks and mosquitoes, too. jump this thing. [ sitar music playing ]

chloe, why is there a lamp shade on your head? shhh. my owner might have given me a little bit of catnip. uh. [ laughing ]

that's great. listen... it is great, gidget. everything is grand. [ meow ] [ purring ] [ growl ] are you finished? [ cooing ] that was weird. oh sister it's going to get way weirder.

athd that her stealing escalated. as the murder date got closer. she steals $4,200 in the month of october alone. so in the month of october alone she has beaten the previous nine months combined with her thefts. >> and so, the prosecutor argued, she asked eric to kill bill before he caught on. eric's attorney told the jury two things, one, eric couldn't have done it, 1 minutes before the murder he was on the payphone at this denny's, which isn't even in newport beach. true, the phone bill, which might have proved it had been lost, but the point was, said

his lawyers, he couldn't have made it all the way to newport beach in time to commit the murder. and anyway, they said, the next did it. >> the evidence in this case and at this trial shows that annette johnson is the person most likely to have committed this murder. eric daposky was merely the patsy. >> but at nannette's trial her attorney said she was innocent and it was eric who committed the murder. >> over the course of this trial, the evidence is going to show that he murdered mr. mclaughlin out of jealousy and greed on his own part. >> mutual finger-pointing. nannette's attorney had to agree, his client wasn't a saint. >> hate her as much as you want for being a thief, a liar, a cheat. whatever you want to call her. it seems to me in court you called your client a -- [ bleep ]. >> i'm sure i did.

i can't just ignore the worst part of the case. just because you treat people poorly in your life doesn't make you murderer. >> if she shot thaut she was getting $1 million, it's a lot of money. >> it's massive. to her, that's a pittance. he was worth $55 million when he died. so her long-term plan is not to be with a deadbeat loser, wannabe nfl player. >> that's harsh. she was getting lots of money from him. she was probably stealing along the way and she could cheat at the same time why would she kill him? >> if he lives, he finds out she's cheating or he finds out that she's stealing and she winds up best-case scenario for her, on street with nothing. worst-case scenario she goes to jail for embezzlement. this isn't just a motive, it's a motive on steroids. >> in the end, murphy got his verdict.

>> guilty, guilty of the crime of felony. >> then after conviction the oddest thing happened. an epilogue if you like. eric called up pat murphy from jail and said he was finally ready to tell the truth. of course he told us, too. >> the first thing i wanted to do was clear up with matt that i didn't do the crime. but i also wanted to share some other information with him that i hadn't showed anybody in 17 years. >> eric had a new story. >> if anette wanted bill mclaughlin dead. then bill mclaughlin was as good as dead. whether to get me to do it or pay someone else. >> eric's story now, that nannette asked him to kill bill, and he refused. but put her in touch with someone who could do it and they used the beretta, which he said wasn't his, he had given it to nannette as a gift and she supplied it to the hit man.

so what did mat murphy think of eric's new story? >> it doesn't make any sense. here's the problem with eric poposky. his first story, i didn't have anything to do with it. it gets to trial and nannette's not innocent, but i'm innocent. and i had nothing to do with it. and we interview him after and it changes to something radically different again. >> michael hill didn't buy it, either. >> have you ever heard of hiring a hit man goes yeah i'll take the job, but i don't have a gun, could you loan me yours? >> eric sits in jail and contemplate that long-ago love affair with nannette. >> nannette johnston is the worst type of person, she can lie to you, make love to you, kill you, all in the same week. and not even cry at the funeral and she was my girlfriend. and that's what i have to, that's the price i'm paying.

>> as for bill's family, they say they're grateful believing nannette and eric are finally where they belong. >> how do you make sense of all of this stuff? >> there is no sense of it. they are just very sick, demented, selfish people. when we actually started learning how nannette's mind worked, it was really hard to comprehend. and a very dark place, to unravel. >> so she does what her father taught her she lives for others, as well as herself. she flies like he did, and she looks. for the light. >> when it comes down to it, our dad taught us, pass our goodness forward, make this world a better place and give unto others who are less fortunate. so we do that. my sister and i both do that today. that's part of our mission in life. and we go about with my dad, our

dad as an angel on one shoulder and our brother as an angel on the other shoulder. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales, thanks for watching. good morning i'm phillip mena in new york. it's 6:00 in the east, 3:00 out west and here's what's happening. another deadly mass shooting u.n. deface and reaction this morning on events that shattered a friday afternoon in virginia beach. >> we just heard people yelling and screaming to get done. >> taking cover, dramatic stories from those caught at work as the shootings were under way. what they saw and what they heard, next. tariff spin, new reports, new denials on whether president trump defied advisers when calling for new tariffs on mexico. crossing the line -- there are newly reduced transcripts of a voicemail from a tru