>> guilty of manslaughter. >> reporter: it's an ending that neither side had hoped for, a family saga with so much love and so much loss. an imperfect conclusion. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." it was a small new year's eve party. we took off, and then shortly thereafter we saw the police car. my gut was telling my feet to run back to that house. this can't be happening. >> reporter: when the party ended, the mystery began. >> it was just crazy. i didn't understand what was happening and why. >> reporter: his wife, the hostess had seemed fine all night.

th then. >> please help me! >> reporter: her death was ruled a suicide, but not everyone agreed. >> i always was afraid he was going to hurt her, always. always. >> reporter: did a fight that night lead to something much worse? >> i knew that ashley wouldn't take her own life. >> reporter: a troubled woman, or a troubled marriage. >> that wound on the back of her head isn't where she could do it herself, tom. it is not. it is not. >> reporter: suicide or murder? >> i didn't do this. >> i just knew that my whole world is never going to be the same again ever. >> hello and welcome to "dateline." it was december 31st, and by all appearances, ashley fallis was in the mood to celebrate, a vibrant mother of three, she

gathered her friends and family to ring in the new year, but as her guests began to count down to midnight, who could have known they were also marking the last hour of ashley's young life. here's keith morrison with "after the party." >> reporter: what is so optimistic as a party on new year's eve? what night is hopeful, as full of anticipation as the clean slate midnight brings? >> it was a small new year's eve party. >> just family and friends. >> reporter: disappointment is inevitable, of course. clean slates no matter how ardently desired are messy too soon. >> we noticed there was a lot of alcohol out. >> reporter: still we celebrate possibilities and drown past sorrows and watch the clock that ticks toward our new beginnings and our ends.

on december 31st, 2011, an hour north of denver in west evans, colorado, ashley and tom fallis surrounded by friends and family danced to the music that brought them together, their wedding song. >> they decided to get up and dance in the middle of their living room and -- >> everybody watching. >> with everybody watching. >> i think i said, oh, this is sweet. >> reporter: it was their party, ashley's and tom's. she's invited her co-workers like andrea. >> it was casual, but she like verbally told everyone at work, you should come. >> reporter: they worked together at a rehabilitation hospital where ashley was a respiratory therapist. >> she was crazy, nice, just full of energy. she was a happy person. she laughed a lot and joked. >> reporter: their friendship was new, andrea didn't know a lot about ashley but had listened to her chatter about jobs and marriage ass and her

three kids, the youngest who was born with a dangerous condition called hydrocephalus which causes dangerous fluid buildup in the brain. >> reporter: she embraced the challenge said ashley's mom jenna, became a public advocate. >> she went to washington, d.c. in the fall of 2011 to speak before congress for funding for hydro acce hyd hydrocephalus so she had a full plate. >> reporter: so did tom for that matter. >> i liked tom. he was a pretty good guy, very intelligence. >> reporter: jeff rodriguez was tom's boss at the weld county jail. they were corrections officers. >> he was a good employee. he had a son that was sick so he did miss more work than most fellow officers liked. >> stressful caring for a sick child, so maybe their new year's eve party was a way to hope for better times and take a break,

too. ashley's adoptive dad joel was at the party. >> there was dancing going on and people were having a good time. >> reporter: and ashley seemed to be having a fine time said andrea. >> she and tom seemed to be getting along fine. >> they seemed to be getting along fine. >> reporter: that's when ashley and andrea went off into the kitchen, had a little party of their own. >> what were you drinking? >> jungle juice and jell-o shots. >> oh, my. yeah. >> i was having a good time. i intended to have a good time. >> reporter: there was one unusual thing, though, said andrea, ashley had just gone through something kind of awful. >> she found out that she had a miscarriage that day and i said oh, i'm sorry. are you okay? oh, yeah, it's fine. >> did that strike you as odd? >> no, i don't think it was odd. >> was she unhappy of the miscarriage? >> my impression of it is she already had her beautiful family. it seemed like her life was already complete, so i don't

think she was devastated that she had found out that she had a miscarriage. >> reporter: no tears andrea said, just a quick, casual mention, and then the conversation moved on. >> went on to talk about other things. >> went on to talk about other things, probably went and got another. >> jell-o shot. >> jell-o shot. >> reporter: midnight arrived: there were as there always are kisses and smiles and toasts. by 12:30 the party was over. >> i gave her a hug, told her bye, we talked about future plans. >> how did she seem? >> happy. >> reporter: but oh, how quickly the new year's clean slate darkened. as an uncle prepared to leave, ashley asked him for a bit of his marijuana to smoke later she said. tom, the sheriff's department employee was furious and reminded ashley's family that her employer required regular drug tests. was it the which will that amped up the family screaming match? whatever, ashley's parents had

their own recollections. >> he walks by me, and he says that he hated us all and wished we would all bleeping die, and he went into the bedroom and slammed the door. >> ashley came out of the bathroom and was just kind of like what's going on, and we're like well, we're going to leave. >> and then she's like hey, i'm having a super bowl party this a couple of weeks. don't forget about this. >> reporter: but ashley's parents were rattled. they drove away and then pulled off to the side of the road to talk. ashley's mom sent a text to tom. >> i'm like hey, there's kids in the house. calm down. >> which arrived as their young granddaughter was involved in quite another discussion with 911. >> can you go open the door and let the officers in? >> it's open, it's open. >> the new year was less than an hour old and off to a very bad start.

coming up. >> it was shocking. >> a frantic race to save a life. what happened in that house? >> i just knew that my whole world is never going to be the same again ever. >> when "dateline" continues. to protect your dog from fleas and ticks for a full month. it's the #1 vet recommended protection. and it's safe for puppies. nexgard. what one little chew can do. you're going to do your thing. and no period is gonna slow you down! with tampax, you get protection that moves with you for total comfort. choose pearl for your chill, pocket for your moves, and active for your hustle. do your thing with tampax. who's already won three cars, two motorcycles, a boat, and an r.v. i would not want to pay that insurance bill. [ ding ] -oh, i have progressive, so i just bundled everything with my home insurance. saved me a ton of money. -love you, gary! -you don't have to buzz in. it's not a question, gary. on march 1, 1810 -- [ ding ]

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>> reporter: 2012 is not even an hour old. new year's celebrants had only just poured themselves into

their cars to head home, and in a little house in west evans, colorado, it was already the worst year ever. >> 911, what's the address of your emergency? >> my wife just shot herself in the head! please help me! please help me. >> reporter: the man on the phone was tom fallis, begging for help and willing his wife to live. >> no! >> sir! stay there! >> reporter: tom told the dispatcher she shot herself, then he put the phone down. he was holding his hand over her head, so he had his 9-year-old daughter pick up the phone. >> are you there? >> yes. >> can you go open the door and let the officers in. >> okay, okay, we're going to help. i need you to go open the door. >> reporter: brian spencer was a weld county sheriff's deputy back then. he arrived within minutes to discover that the local police, the evans police had beaten him

there. >> i believe there was three there ahead of me, and then there was more sirens, lights, u you could hear them coming. >> that's a pretty fast response. >> very fast. >> and this bit of news was going around fast too. >> this was a sheriff's employee, a jail employee. >> it's not that that should matter, the effort then was save ashley fallis's life. this was recorded by a police body camera, shows the paramedics arriving. >> chaotic? the scene, very. frantic, the officers located ashley fallis somewhere in the home. >> reporter: the local police took charge. they asked brian spencer to watch the front of the property. that's when from the post on the front porch he saw tom. that's him in the white t-shirt. >> he was pacing around the front yard, front sidewalk area, frantic screaming. >> screaming what? >> i heard him say she was dead, a lot of mumbled stuff. he put his hands up over her

face screaming, crying. >> by this time ashley's parents had pulled off the road home to talk and worry about the fight that ended the party. when they heard the sirens, saw the lights flash by headed that way. >> something automatically felt bad, and i whipped a u-turn. >> he didn't have the sccar stopped and i was out running to the house. >> were you able to see ashley? >> no, i could hear what was going on. i had all three kids and they were just crying, and crying and screaming. i'm crying. >> it was crazy like a nightmare. i could see blood swatter on the wall, past the bedroom wall. >> what was that like? >> chaos, it was shocking. >> did you understand it was your daughter? >> yes. i do recall just being hysterically upset and crying and thinking that this can't be happening to my daughter. this can't be happening to us. but yet it was. >> reporter: inside the master

bedroom, ashley was alive but the wounds to her head were catastrophic. the police body camera shows officers kneeling on the floor trying to stabilize her condition. >> paramedics went in and they made a decision to do what we call a load and go, which means they're not going to spend any time doing life support stuff. >> reporter: ashley's mom jenna huddled with her grandchildren in a neighbors bedroom, listening to it all through a closed door. >> is there any way to describe what it's like for a mother to be in that situation? >> no. your brain does funny things. i just knew that my whole world is never going to be the same again ever. >> reporter: outside, brian spencer watched tom pacing back and forth crying, talking to himself. >> i notice he's wearing a white t-shirt, and he's covered. i believe it was on his left side in a large amount of blood.

>> reporter: it was odd, brian thought that the evan's police officers didn't take tom's clothes or bag his hands for gunshot residue. >> he still had evidence on him, and he needed to be preserved. he needed to be controlled. >> he needed to be processed? >> >> and clothing removed, everything. >> reporter: that's not what happened, not at all, and soon after ashley was rushed off to the er, tom got in the back of a squad car and was driven away, but surprisingly not to the hospital. >> coming up, tom tells his story. >> i heard her gun cock and i looked up and i was like what are you doing? >> but police don't seem to believe it. >> the wound on the back of her head isn't where she could do it herself, tom. >> oh, [ bleep ]. >> when "dateline" continues.

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in the first cold dark hours of 2012, ashley fallis's parents followed an ambulance to the hospital and caught up to her in the icu. >> we walked in to her bleeding out of everywhere. >> reporter: there wasn't really any hope. they could see that. she was going to die. >> i just sat down and held her hand. >> reporter: but tom wasn't

there to hold her hand. tom fallis was at the evans police station answering questions. >> i don't know what's going on. i have no idea, and that's why i'm asking to speak with you. >> reporter: it was 2:00 a.m. and tom was still wearing blood stained clothes, the ones that a sheriff's deputy thought should have already been bagged as evidence. >> how is your relationship with your wife? >> really good. >> reporter: but said tom, ashley was devastated when she miscarried the very day of her new year's eve party. >> it was hard for ashley. it was hard for me, but i didn't think that it was getting to this point. >> reporter: still, at the party itself said tom, she seemed all right. they got on fine until the argument about the marijuana. tom admitted he was furious that ashley's family said he was trying to protect her and they

weren't. >> i told ashley, i was like you don't need to get high. i was like if whatever happened today with the miscarriage, i was like it happened. i was like you know what? [ bleep ] your mom, [ bleep ] everybody. >> reporter: so there was no love lost between tom and ashley's parents. that was clear, and tom admitted that he and ashley kept arguing as they got ready for bed, and then he turned around and went to the closet, he said, and it was all over. >> when i was in the closet, i heard her gun cock and i looked up. i was like what are you doing? and before i even had a chance to finish my sentence or close the door. there was smoke. i heard it, and it was just smoke. i just ran over to her, and i

just grabbed her head. >> reporter: tom told detectives that sadly he had been worried about just this sort of thing for more than a year because ashley had threatened suicide before. >> what was she saying that she wanted to do to herself. >> she wants to end it. she's like you and the kids would be better off without me. >> and so she had just said those words but she never acted on anything? >> no. >> and so how long -- >> never once, never once has she ever grabbed her gun, has she ever loaded it, has she ever made this type of gesture whatsoever. >> reporter: by this time, while the doctors tried to save ashley, tom had been answering questions for hours. >> i have to ask these questions that i have to understand -- >> i know, but the problem is is that i've been here since fricken what, 2:00, and now it's already 5:00 and i don't know what's going on with my wife. >> reporter: but then the detective noticed something else

about tom. >> the scratch mark that's on your chest, what is that? you have like a long, red -- >> oh, probably because i've been doing this all night. >> this one just goes straight across here. >> i don't know, it's just me. it's not -- >> okay, so it isn't? i just had to ask. >> reporter: the detective left the room and spoke with ashley's parents who'd arrived with the purpose of telling officers just one thing, their daughter did not shoot herself. >> we had just seen her seven minutes before this. she was completely fine, you know, she wouldn't do anything like this. >> reporter: she was in good spirits when they left, she said. she was already planning her next party, but tom, he'd always had an awful temper, they said. >> i always was afraid he was going to hurt her, always. always. >> reporter: why? what about him? >> his temper. you can't go from 0 to 100 and think clearly. >> i think that he was just in a

fit of rage and he shot her. >> reporter: armed with that new information, the detective went back to talk to tom and zeroed in on those scratches. officers had given him something clean to wear so they could collect his bloody clothing. >> and you have scratches on your body. >> okay. see this? this is a shaved chest. do you know how bad this hurt a and itches? so when i'm sitting there. i do this all fricken day. this is actually her blood. it comes off. see? oh, my gosh, it's coming off. it's her fricken blood. >> that's actually a scratch, okay? that's a scratch. >> reporter: still, the detective pressed him. he had motive and opportunity she said. >> so when you went upstairs you were arguing with her, and you know you were arguing with her. >> reporter: she was also reluctant to believe the shooting happened so quickly, no threats or warning or hesitation. >> she went from saying i'm going to do what i want to just

pulling -- >> yeah, yeah. she did. i'm not lying to you. >> reporter: and when the detective gave a description about the gunshot wound, a description that turned out to be inaccurate, that really set tom off. >> that wound on the back of her head isn't where she could do it herself, tom. it is not. >> oh, [ bleep ]. >> it is not. >> [ bleep ] [ bleep ] [ bleep ]. >> then quite suddenly in the middle of it all, completely out of nowhere the detective made an abrupt declaration. >> and i have to let you know your wife did not make it. your wife did not make it. >> she was breathing when i was holding her. she was breathing. they told me she was breathing when she left the house. >> reporter: ashley died while tom was in police custody. >> i didn't shoot my wife. i didn't shoot the mother of my

kids. i didn't shoot the person who i wanted to have another one with! >> reporter: what would the police believe, tom's story that the shooting was a suicide or ashley's parents' story that he'd shot their daughter in a fit of rage? >> coming up, ashley's family is outraged by the investigation's final report. >> it was incomplete. it was inconsistent, no follow-up. it was unbelievable. >> when "dateline" continues.

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i'm melissa ray burger, breaking news from southern california where it has happened again, a major earthquake has rocked the region. the 7 7.1 quake centered near t city of ridgecrest. at this point no reports of fatalities or major injuries. there have been a few fires and structural damage reported in the region along with power

outages. seismologists warn more could be expected. more news at the top of the hour. welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. though covered in blood and suspicious scratches, tom fallis insisted he did not harm his wife, that she was the one who pulled the trigger. ashley's parents weren't buying it, but would the police? here again is keith morrison with "after the party." >> reporter: ashley fallis, 28 years old, wife and mother of three was dead. the gunshot wound in her head unsurvivable. it was suicide said her husband tom. >> i didn't shoot my wife. i didn't -- i didn't do this. >> it was murder said her parents. >> i had three grandkids that i dearly, dearly loved that i knew in my heart that tom had just killed their mother.

>> reporter: the news of ashley's death spread quickly the morning after the party. >> i didn't understand what was happening and why because everything was fine that night. >> as much condition fusing as anything. >> very confusing. she was happy, she didn't see suicidal. >> andrea, new friend, co-worker, drinking buddy at the party couldn't shake a feeling. >> i don't feel like she would have taken her life. tom was the only other person that was there. >> >> so if it wasn't her it had to be him. >> right. >> reporter: before for all their middle of the night questions, the police did not arrest tom. >> what were they telling you along the way? >> that they were investigating it. >> reporter: at ashley's funeral, tom was one of the speakers. >> ashley didn't have much patience. >> and what he said wasn't the sort of thing people expected to hear. >> she goes i don't care when you do it, where you do it. i want it now.

>> it was an unusual and frankly not very emotional eulogy for reasons only tom might understand. but her parents were furious. >> when he had that opportunity to speak and share about the woman he so-called loved and called his eternal wife, all he did was degrade her. >> what was it like to hear that? >> it was shocking. it was unbelievable. >> reporter: as the days turned into weeks, tom remained free, ashley's parents became convinced that something about the investigation was not right. >> joel and i sat down and said, look, if for some crazy reason she walked in the house and shot herself and they can shot that, we will accept it and support tom. we didn't feel like that was, you know, the case. >> reporter: they weren't alone. remember on the night it happened, former deputy brian

spencer saw tom roaming around freely with blood and other potential evidence all over him. >> police 101, very basic thing. any scene that you respond to you want to treat it as the highest level of what it could possibly be. >> sure, so he would be a suspect? >> and he needed to be preserved. he needed to be controlled. >> reporter: but none of that was done at the scene. pretty soon ashley's parents began to suspect it was a cover-up to protect tom. perhaps the so-called blue wall of silence looking out for a fellow law enforcement officer. >> it's a hell of an accusation to make, though? >> it is. it is strong, but that is how we feel. >> reporter: mind you, the evans police department strongly disagree. both the coroner and the crime scene investigators issued reports concluding ashley's death was indeed suicide, and remember, tom told the police she'd expressed suicidal thoughts before, and she had two close relatives who had taken

their own lives, and investigators found prescription psycho tropic drugs in ashley's purse and night stand which tom told him she quit cold turkey without medical supervision when she learned she was pregnant. and so two months after ashley's death her parents got the news they feared. police ruled her death a suicide. case closed. >> it made me angry. it made me angry because i knew -- i knew that he shot her. i knew that ashley wouldn't take her own life. >> once the case closed and we got the police report, we realized they didn't do anything. >> so tell me more about the police report and what you didn't like about it? >> it was incomplete. it was inconsistent. it could have been written by a high school student. no follow-up. it was unbelievable. >> reporter: the evans police department declined to speak

with "dateline" on camera but said this about the allegations against them. the investigation we conducted was thorough and complete. a conclusion of suicide was determined after an exhaustive review and analysis of all evidence, physical, forensic and testimonial by all of the five agencies involved. as for ashley's parents, there was nothing more either of them could do apparently. and two years went by during which tom moved to indiana with the kids and enrolled at a local university. >> and i said to him, tom, murderers always move away. >> reporter: it was important to ashley's parents to remain close to those three kids so they fought for grandparents' rights and tried, they said, to be civil with tom, but they also told anybody who'd listen that they believed their daughter had been murdered, like a local reporter. >> and he said do you mind if i start looking into this, and i said -- joe and i said no, go ahead, start looking into it. and it didn't take him much.

>> the reporter asked around, talked to neighbors and asked the evans police department to comment on what he'd heard. and before you knew it, the chief announced ashley's case would be reopened. >> i extend my sincere sympathy to the family of ashley fallis for their loss and for the revisited grief that can accompany the reopening of a difficult case such as this one. >> i just started crying because it's the catalyst for opening everything up. i finally have someone who's taking it seriously. >> denver's fox 31 aired the startling discovery that prompted the new investigation, in particular a neighbor who was only 15 at the time, said he heard tom admit to shooting ashley. >> it's pretty hard to forget hearing somebody confess to murder and then getting away with it. >> to prevent any suggestion of taint or cover-up, the case was turned over to the nearby fort collins police department. for the next seven months

officers talked to witnesses both old and new and hired experts to re-examine forensic evidence and when their work was done, weld county d.a. michael rourke decided to assemble a grand jury. >> what i want to do is i want to put all of that information, as much as we can gather, and almost use it as a test run. >> and they said? >> and they indicted him. >> and i got the phone call that they indicted him, and i just started crying. >> reporter: tom fallis was arrested in indiana, charged with second degree murder, and brought back to colorado to stand trial. ashley's parents were finally optimistic. >> i believe that they will find him guilty of murdering our daughter. i believe that's going to happen. >> have you decided to believe it, or do you really believe it? >> i really believe it. >> coming up, a powerful one-two punch from the prosecution. >> i heard him saying oh, my god, what have i done? >> she said i could hear her

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>> reporter: four years after ashley fallis's death, her husband tom was on trial for murder. dan grossman of nbc's denver affiliate kusa was in the courtroom for opening statements. >> the room was packed. you have ashley's parents who are there, a lot of family members, aunts, uncles, even just people from the public were interested in this case. >> reporter: the prosecution's allegation was perfectly clear,

tom fallis argued with his wife and in a fit of rage shot and killed her. >> at the conclusion of this case after you've received all of the evidence, you will be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that it is him who pulled the trigger. >> reporter: prosecution witnesses said ashley was in high spirits at her new year's eve party, not at all suicidal. >> she was happy the whole night, laughing, smiling. >> she was dancing with her children, interacting with all the guests. >> reporter: tom, though, ashley's uncle john testified about tom's sudden blow-up when he discovered ashley asked him for a joint. >> and i was sort of taken back by it because everything was fun that night and all of a sudden boom, and i was like whoa. >> reporter: a neighbor said ashley told her how tom got physical with her. >> she told me how he had pushed her around before. he had never hit her, but he was physical and pushing her. >> reporter: d.a. rourke wanted

the jury to hear that tom had a hot temper, that he was volatile. >> anger would have been the most obvious motive. >> simply lost his temper, gun nearby, bang. >> reporter: to prove it, the witness, earwitness you could say. nick glover, the neighbor whose story was reported on television and helped reopen the case. >> i heard him saying oh, my god, what have i done. oh, my god, what have i done. >> reporter: nick was 15 at the time, he said he remembered crouching down inside his house under an open window listening to tom speak to people in his driveway. >> you can hear one of them, i don't know who it was, say what? what do you mean? and he proceeded to say i shot my wife. >> reporter: nick said he knew it was tom. you could see him out the window. >> how certain are you that the voice you're hearing is tom fallis's voice? >> i'm 100%. >> reporter: there was more. nick's mom kathy glover testified that on the night of

the shooting she got a straight phone call from a teenage neighbor around 1:00 a.m. >> she said please tell me you called the police. and i said no, i didn't. why? and she said because your neighbor just shot his wife. and i said what? and she said i could hear her screaming, get off me. get off me. >> reporter: powerful evidence, and then that neighbor testified, but uh-oh. >> do you recall telling kathy glover in a phone conversation that same early morning, "i hear her screaming get off me, get off me"? >> i do not. >> she was 16 and drinking that night, she said, so that might explain her faulty memory. >> do you recall telling the officer that you heard a female yelling "get off of me, get off of me?" >> did you expect that from her?

>> it didn't surprise me. >> it hurt you though. >> it hurt. >> i thought when you have a police officer who interviews her within an hour, hour and a half of this shooting and she is clear as day saying these are the things i heard from my back window, whether she had been drinking that night or not, to me that's the most believable version of events. >> reporter: so a hiccup perhaps, but then there was the crime scene. remember, the coroner and the csi officer said at the time that the scene screamed suicide, but this prosecution witness. >> name is jonathan w. priest. >> priest is a forensic consultant who used a miniature model of the bedroom to show ashley's position. >> so she has to be here and bent down so she'll fit into this trajectory. >> he was convinced that if ashley shot herself there would be more blood on the floor and surrounding surfaces, not just this one carpet stain. >> we have indications of bleeding, but the type of injury that we're talking about is going to bleed a lot.

and that's not the kind of stain i would expect to see if that's what was occurring. something is keeping that blood from reaching that area. >> reporter: and he believed that something was tom fallis. remember, his clothing was drenched with blood and so priest concluded tom and ashley must have been in close contact when the gun went off. using the prosecutor, he suggested there was a struggle when the shot was fired. >> i can keep bloodstaining from getting onto the wall or onto the cabinet, and i can lower her continuing to bleed onto my shirt to where i get her in this position. >> reporter: the prosecution rested its case, and what possible defense could there be? well, for a start, this. >> i have so much pain on the inside. i can no longer take it. >> reporter: a letter, and what a letter it was. >> coming up, a troubled

marriage or a troubled young woman? >> what kind of mental health issues did you observe ashley fallis to be going through? >> mood swings, impulsive behavior. >> and the verdict when "dateline" continues. ct when "dateline" continues and an identical shirt using bounce. the bounce shirt has fewer wrinkles, less static, and more softness and freshness. bounce out wrinkles, bounce out static.

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imagining a moment he or she didn't see. >> please, rise for the jury. >> reporter: and deciding what must have happened. did tom kill his wife, ashley, in a fit of violent temper. or what? >> tom did not kill his wife and mother of their three children. ashley committed suicide. >> reporter: remember how the prosecution talked of ashley's happy frame of mind? that ashley was a kind of lie, said the defense. >> ashley was a beautiful woman. but she had a terrible pain inside. she was mentally ill. >> reporter: the defense put one of ashley's close friends on the stand. >> what did you know of ashley having a mental illness? >> i knew she was on medications. we spoke pretty in depth about

that. >> reporter: even with medications, the friend testified, ashley had trouble controlling emotions. >> what kind of mental health issues did you observe ashley fallis going through? >> depression. mood swings. impulsive behaviors. >> reporter: in fact, the defense argued, ashley was so distressed, she wrote this to tom. >> i have to much pain, i can't take it. i find yourself not liking my children. i have to pretend to be happy. i have to pretend to be someone i'm not. please make sure you continue to raise the kids to go to the school we have chosen. i do love them. i can't live this life every long every.

please make sure you let them know every day i love them and this is not their fault. suicide expert dr. michael allen studied the letter and ashley's records. >> do you have an opinion in this case, whether or not ashley fallis was a risk to commit suicide in 2012. >> yes. there were many warning sides. >> reporter: detectives found that there was a history of suicide. her grandmother and ankle took their own lives. that put ashley at a higher risk of doing the same thing. >> two close family members who deci died by suicide, would suggest a genetic prospenpensitropensity. >> reporter: the defense said it

was the miscarriage. that she spent the night masking her night with alcohol. she meant to dull it further with children after the party. that's why tom was upset. >> she was vulnerable. he was concerned about her. he didn't want her to add marijuana to this toxic system that was developing inside ashley fallis. the defense conceded ashley and tom quarrelled that night but insisted it never got physical. the scratches on tom's test, the one that prosecutors believed was proof of a struggle. dna tests did not match any of that. >> you did not find any of ashley's dna material from tom's chest, correct? >> reporter: tom told the police why he had the scratches. he had done a little man scaping to spice up his marriage.

>> that's tom fallis when he has hair on his chest. and on december 17th, 2011, he texted ashley, there you have it. you get your way. here it is. thought you might like it. >> reporter: the scratches, said the defense, because it was itchy. and that's all. as for the one so-called witnesses, to totally unreliable. just months after the shooting, young nick glover, went camping, of all things, the man who confessed to shooting ashley fallis. did you tell anybody you were uncomfortable being there with tom fallis? >> i do not recall. >> reporter: for example, wasn't

one but two crime scene analysts. this one believes it was murder. >> most people that shoot somebody in an act of rage, they don't stop with one shot. >> reporter: dan gillom was the crime scene expert. he demonstrated how difficult it would have been for someone as tall as tom to have shot ashley at an angle that matched the bullet's trajectory. >> is that an unnatural position to be holding the gun in that manner. >> mr. fallis six feet tall. >> i'm six feet also. >> reporter: after examining all of the ballistic and blood sploter expert, gillom didn't think it was murder. >> i believe the story that

mr. fallis gave was consist penalty with the testimony given. what happened in that moment after midnight? >> you will inform the bailiff who will inform me. >> reporter: they settled in for a wait. >> this is a three-week trial. you thought you were coming back the next day to hear the verdict. >> reporter: but no. less than four hours later, a verdict. >> we, the jinjury, find thomas fallis, not guilty of murder. >> reporter: not guilty. not murder, after four long years of living under a cloud of suspicion, tom fallis was acq t acquitted of all charges. >> reporter: he stayed straight-fence. his defense attorney was very emotional. but ashley's parents, they left

the courtroom quickly. >> reporter: ashley's parents declined to talk to "dateline" after the verdict. but they filed a civil lawsuit against several law enforcement officers of the evans police department, who may believe falsified and admitted key evidence to make ashley's death look like a suicide. despite the verdict, they didn'ted to pursue the case. but in 2017, a u.s. district court issued a final judgment. what about ashley's family? will they accept it and go on? >> i don't think they will accept it. to say they were distaugraught would be an understatement. they believe that tom killed their daughter. >> reporter: an idea, once so deeply engrained, true or not,

will not go away. and tom fallis, make a life as best they can. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. good morning, everyone. i'm kendis gibson at msnbc headquarters in new york. it's 6:00 in the east and 3:00 out west. california reeling from a 7.1 earthquake. this morning, what to expect from the aftershocks. and the big one hit and it knocked my little one to the ground. >> i was trying to get to mom and i couldn't. i was, just, holding on to the ground, trying not to open up. census battle. the new move by the trump administration to add a citizenship question. and the