but, it was obviously a change in who he was and is. >> i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> that's what he was trying to do was protect his family. that's all he ever wanted to do. maybe when the man was dying, that's what he was doing. >> a guy yet family night at home shattered by intruders. >> the gun was like right here. >> a devoted father and husband dead. >> she just kept saying they killed him. >> someone murdered her husband but left her alive. and that left police suspicious. was it possible she was involved in her husband's murder? >> the indicators are in cases like this that it's the spouse,

not a random act. >> but why would she kill a man she obviously loved. >> they never fought. they always were very happy. >> this was a family affair all right, but it was another family that was keeping secrets. >> you ever see anything like that before? >> no. >> one father who fought to save his son, another who used his son to save himself. >> he's a monster. >> hello, and welcome to "dateline." joe morrissey was a respected scientist who loved his work. that's where he met kay who shared his passion and would eventually become his second wife. then late one night, joe, kay, and their young son were attacked inside their florida home. investigators did not know what to make of the strange circumstances surrounding this brutal crime or the stunning

betrayal that followed. here's josh with "broken bonds." >> what would you do for your family? would you lie? would you walk through fire? could you ever accuse them of something terrible to save yourself? this is a story about two very different families. it's about loyalty, terror, deception, and love. and for one of the families, it begins with a late-night phone call. >> i was about to not answer it, and something told me to pick up the phone. >> christina's mother was on the phone. >> you could just hear the sirens and she just kept saying you have to come here, they broke into the house and he's dead. they killed him. >> he was joseph morrissey who had been married to kay for 12 years. their suburban florida home documented by police video was

now a crime scene. >> there was so much chaos going on. the whole street was blocked off. there was tons of police cars and the sirens, and the smoke. and i just remember running down the street and the police officers were trying to stop me. and i just kept going. and she was just standing there in the middle of the street. and she just looked so small and so hurt. i just ran up and gave her a big hug and she was covered in blood, and she just kept saying, "he's dead, he's gone. why would they do that? he's gone." >> when i arrived at the house, it was about 1:30 in the morning. >> the detective learned the key facts. joe had been brutally stabbed to death in his own home while his wife kay and young son escaped. the detective spoke briefly with kay. >> she gives me a brief synopsis of what happened that night.

>> believable? >> at that point, yes. that's the only thing i had to go on at that point. >> kay told the deck tif a man entered their home sometime after 11:00 p.m. and began a reign of terror that started with tying joe and kay's hands with zip ties and ended with the house on fire. the story you suggested a robbery gone bad. detective kendall worked from the outside in. >> what did you see as you got here to the house. >> the screen to the window was leaning up against the front of the house. there was a vertical slice down the middle of the screen, and this window was wide open. >> and that's how kay told you the guy first came into the house. >> that was the entry area where the suspect came in, correct. i walked down this hallway here. on the ground there was a pair of red-handled scissors, one of the long plastic flex cuffs was on the ground, a zip tie.

when i walked into the master bedroom, another zip tie was on the ground. at the foot of the bed, there were bath towels laying on the ground. on the bed itself was a wedding ring which i thought was unusual. >> kay had said that the man who came in asked for jewelry or valuables. >> demanding cash, valuables. >> but he didn't take them. >> he didn't take the ones in this room at least because when i looked at the closet there was also a large significant amount of jewelry. >> so, if this was a robbery, it's a strange robbery because they didn't take the stuff they supposedly wanted. >> then he sees the blood. >> right down here on the floor a large amount of blood and i could see a man's feet outside the sliding glass door. >> he was murdered and stabbed right next to the sofa in this room. >> kay said she dragged his body out of the fire and on to the patio. that's where joe morrissey's body lay in the we hours of april 6, 2010. >> stabbing, always personal.

>> they are. they're up close. there's no way to do it from a distance. >> o everything about that says this wasn't a robbery. this was someone who wanted to kill joe morrissey in particular. >> in addition to that, he still had his wedding band on, still had his watch on, valuables that if it was a robbery, it would have been taken out of the house. >> what's more, his wife kay was still alive, not stabbed, not even once. >> they do a brutal vicious murder to joe morrissey, why leave her alive? why leave a witness alive? >> why indeed? in murders like this, the spouse is often the first suspect, sometimes the only suspect. all of that became clear that night to kay's daughter christina. >> i remember when they took her to the police station, she asked me to stay and watch the house. and i remember sitting there and they would come up and ask me questions and the different detectives and the police officers. they asked me did they ever

fight or were they arguing or was there tension between them? absolutely not, said christina. they never fought. they always were very happy. >> nobody -- nobody goes through life and never fights. everybody fights. >> i mean i remember they would fight over him leaving socks on the floor or wet towel or something like that, but if they had any argument, they were few and far between. they were a very good match. >> joe and kay started dating when christina was a young girl. both were divorced single parents at the time, but it was science that brought them together. they met at a cancer research institute. kay was a biomedical grad student back then while joe was a respected molecular biologist with a phd from stanford university. he conducted research into whether there was a connection between cell phones and cancer among other things. and his work had taken him across the globe. >> he was a lot like my mom. he's very hardworking and he was a very, very humble -- the most

humble person i know. he never bragged about anything. he was just always trying to be a good guy and teach us to do the right thing. >> joe and kay dated for a year, and then joe popped the question on a roman holiday. >> i thought it was so cool he proposed on the top of the vatican. she was so excited and it was fun to plan a wedding. they made sure that the kids were all included. >> that meant not only christina, but also a son of joe's from his previous marriage. >> it wasn't just a wedding between the two of them. it was all of us becoming a big family. >> let me take a picture. >> it wasn't long before kay and joe wanted a child of their own and decided to adopt patrick, a baby boy from south korea. >> he was a very hands-on father. he was always doing something with patrick, all the time. it was either baseball lessons or hockey practice or going fishing. they were together all the time. >> but now joe was gone. patrick and kay had survived.

and detective kendall had some questions for kay. >> how do you know he came through the window? >> coming up, kay describes in horrifying detail a night of terror. >> he said don't do anything stupid. i have the gun and your kid and husband. >> but does her story match the evidence when "dateline" on two. evidence when "dateline" on twos or, here. kick your antacid habit with prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn.

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joe morrissey had been savagely stabbed to death in his own home. now his wife, kay, was being questioned by detective kendall at the police station in plantation, florida. >> kay, it's easier to start with what happened from the beginning last night. >> i was in my craft room which is the room in the front of the house, and the tv was on. and i heard a noise like something fall down. i thought it was my husband going to bed. >> she told police her husband had been watching tv in the family room. their 5-year-old son asleep in the master bedroom. then suddenly, kay looked up. >> i saw him and the gun was right here and he was right there. and i couldn't believe it. i was like -- i could not believe that this was happening to me. >> there was a young man in the room pointing a gun right at

her. kay said the man asked her where her husband was. she told him she thought he was sleeping in either the family room or their bedroom. >> and he kept saying if you lie to me, i'm going to shoot you. i'm going to kill you. >> what's your radar saying at the beginning? is she telling the truth? >> i want to believe her, but the indicators are in cases like this that it's the spouse or a domestic issue or some other personal issue, not a random act. >> then kay told police the man took her into the family room where her husband was. >> and he yelled wake up real loud to joe. joe, of course, jumped up. i said, joe, just calm down. it's okay. wake up. don't move. just do what he tells you to do, and we're going to be okay. and -- and then he said i don't

want you guys looking at me. don't look at me or i'll shoot. so, i said okay, we won't look at you. >> kay told police she heard the intruder talking to someone she never saw via walkie talky, someone elsewhere on the property. she said the assailant, a young man with a gun then tied their wrists with zip ties. >> i thought he was going to shoot us. he was saying where's the wallet, where's the wallet. he was like you have no money. you only have $2. i was like i don't use cash. i don't have any cash. at that point hepd to go to the atm to get money out. >> according to kay, the gunman cut their hands free and the three of them got into one of the morrissey's cars leaving their 5-year-old son asleep in the house along with whoever had been on the walkie talky. on the way to the bank, joe

drove. once there, kay managed to get them in park in view of the atm camera as you can see on this tape. then the assailant told kay what to do next. >> get out of the car, go get the money, get the money. if you do anything stupid, i have your gun, your kids, and your husband. >> the man wanted $5,000. >> i was trying and it kept saying no, they weren't going to allow any more money out of the card. >> that's what the machine said? >> yes. >> how much did he end up getting? >> $500. >> after that, kay said they drove back to the house frantic to see their son. was he still asleep? was he okay? as they entered the house, the gunman barked out orders. >> he said don't do anything stupid and joe and i were looking at each other saying why is he coming back? at that point i thought he was going to kill us. i really did.

>> once back in the house, the gunman took them back to the master bedroom, and kay said, tied their hands and feet with zip ties and put towels over their heads. >> why would they put towels over their head if this person's already seen them? >> then the gunman told joe to come with him. >> so, joe goes i can't walk. he goes well i want to see you hopping. hop, hop, hop. and then all i heard was that joe said oh, please, please don't do it. and i saw the fire -- >> please don't do it? >> he said please don't -- >> joe did? >> yes. i thought he was talking about the fire, but i guess he was talking about him shooting him or stabbing him. >> it was a horrifying story. >> if she's faking this for some reason, it's pretty elaborate. >> and she's doing a good job at it. she's quite an actress if she's not telling the truth. >> kay's daughter christina was there when the q&ae station was over.

>> we went back to my house, and she didn't really say much. she was just quiet. i think she was just letting it all sink in. >> now, police were trying to determine whether the evidence matched kay's story. >> coming up, kay tells her story to us. and this part is really strange. >> he started singing and taunting us, they're coming for me, i'm going to kill you. >> when "dateline" continues. l . >> when "dateline" continues steven could only imaginem 24hr to trenjoying a spicy taco.burn, now, his world explodes with flavor. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day all-night protection. can you imagine 24-hours without heartburn? but since they bought their new house...

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>> i could not believe that this was happening to me. >> police investigating the home invasion murder of joe morrissey had to consider whether his wife, kay, had somehow been involved. >> we conducted a comprehensive background investigation on kay. we went through all her phone records, who she's friends with, find out she maybe had a boyfriend or was dating somebody. >> police found no evidence that kay had strayed in her marriage. what's more, they were finding plenty at the crime scene to support her story, the broken window screen, zip ties, and towels. kay's story seemed to be holding up. christina had believed from the beginning that her mother was innocent, purely a victim. but what she didn't know was how brutal the murder was. >> she didn't want us to know. i remember sitting in the funeral home, and she was very

firm. you know, she just kept saying it's -- it's going to be a closed casket. nobody's going to see him. i want everyone to remember him as the lively person he was. i knew then that it couldn't have been good. >> and when i sat down with kay, she told a story filled with love and koicourage on that awf night. >> you're surrounded by evil. my insides were shaking. i was thinking about patrick. >> that was the theme of the story kay told me, how her 5-year-old son patrick was foremost on their minds. that's why kay became especially panicked when she and joe were forced to go to the bank by the man with a gun. >> we can't leave patrick here. no, he stays. he told us that there were people there and they had guns. >> and there you are getting in the car with your husband, and some guy with a gun and leaving your 5-year-old at home with --

>> we don't even know. >> -- with we don't even know who that was. >> it's -- it's just crazy. i mean, i just -- i'm crying hysterical. >> in the car, kay feared for her and joe's lives as well. as they returned from the bank to her home, they heard a siren. kay thought they would be saved. the gunman thought this would be the end of him and of them. >> when he heard the siren, he became very stranged. he started singing and taunting us. they're coming for me, i'm going to kill you. i was just so horrified. >> but help did not arrive. once at home, when the gunman forced kay and joe back into the master bedroom, at least they found patrick, thankfully still asleep. and in that moment, kay says, a father's love came shining through. that's when joe morrissey tied up and helpless made a move to

save his young son's life. >> patrick is now awake and he's sitting on the bed. joe says do it for daddy, just do it for daddy, just lay down and pretend you're asleep. >> do it for daddy. >> do it for daddy. >> kay says the man forced joe to go to the other side of the house. in his final moments with his attackers, kay says family was first in joe's mind. >> he starts pleading, you know i have kids, please. >> their home was on fire, the attackers had fled, and she had to get patrick and herself out of the house. but her ankles were still tied and she could barely move. desperate to find something sharp to free her feet, kay hobbled to a nearby bathroom. >> i took everything out of the drawers. i created a huge mess. i called patrick. i said to patrick, you have to be a big boy. you have to help mommy.

>> and he did. kay told him where to find a pair of scissors and patrick brought them to her. cutting the zip tie was difficult, but kay was finally able to do it. the 5-year-old boy had saved his mother. then she had another job for her son. >> so, i said patrick, please, just go across the street. knock on the door. mommy's going to stay here. remember your karate moves. just kick the door. >> kay saw the neighbor's door open and patrick run in. she knew he was safe. one family member taken care of. now kay was on a mission to save joe. she would not leave him behind no matter what the risk. >> and then you run back into a burning house. >> yes, i went back in there. and when i saw joe, it was so hard to pick him up. i remember seeing so many wounds, so much damage to his body. i couldn't even think anymore. >> kay managed to drag joe out

of the burning house and on to the patio. she held out hope that while joe was clearly badly injured he was still alive. paramedics arrived but there was nothing they could do for joe morrissey. kay's beloved husband was gone at the age of only 46. >> and that was the last time i saw him. >> you saved yourself. you saved your son. >> but i didn't save joe. i just couldn't. it was the most horrible thing that ever happened to me to learn that he was dead. >> it was a heartbreaking story and one that police came to believe. they cleared kay. >> we found no evidence that would support us to believe that she was involved in any way in this murder. >> now it was up to investigators to find out who had done such horrifying things

to this family. a family detective kendall believed had been targeted but so far that wasn't making any sense. >> if it was just something personal in nature, why not just come in and kill him and leave. >> the search for answers was on, and it would lead to a very different kind of family. >> police close in on a suspect who seems to know a lot about the crime. >> coming up -- >> honestly i think you may be involved in it. >> okay. >> i never thought that it was somebody who they knew. >> when "dateline" continues. ws 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.

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impeachment inquiry, fiona hill expected to held congress about rudy giuliani's efforts to pursue a shadow policy on ukraine. back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. investigators had cleared kay morrissey in her husband's grizzly murder. they're starting to believe the family had been targeted but it was still a mystery why joe was the only one killed. >> joe morrissey had been savagely stabbed to death in a home invasion that ended with his family's house set ablaze. now police were trying to figure out who could have committed such a brutal crime. kay's daughter from her first marriage, christina, first thought it might have something to do with the renovations her mom and joe were having done at the home. >> i honestly thought it was

maybe the contractors because they had a lot of people coming in and out of their house doing work. i never thought it was somebody who they knew. >> like some random thing in which people came in to rob the house. >> yeah, that was my first thing. >> and everything went wrong. >> yeah, that was my first guess. >> who didn't like joe? >> the only person i knew didn't like him was his ex-wife and her family. it was a nasty divorce. >> police looked through joe's previous marriage but determined it had nothing to do with the crime. investigators had one narrow thread to pull on, something kay mentioned to them. >> the only thing she was able to tell me was a brief description of what the suspect looked like. >> kay had not recognized that man at the time. only later did she realize she might have seen him once several months earlier. joe had been a scientist, a husband, and a father. but he was also a land lord, and kay thought the man might be related to the tenants at a

townhouse they ouned. >> i found a family member who could match the description of what kay gave me in her initial statement. checking more sbts persinto thi i found he had a warrant for his arrest. >> what was his name? >> randy tundadoer jr. >> he was 21 and into drugs with an arrest warrant for violating his probation on a burglary wrap. >> did you go talk to him? >> we couldn't find him. >> but detectives could find his father, randy senior at the townhouse. randy, sr. said he hasn't talked to his son in a while. when police went looking for randy, jr. at the family business an alert officer saw something suspicious. >> they see a zip tie.

i drive down there. i immediately identify it as the same make, size of the ones used in the murder. that's a solid piece of evidence. >> that's your first break. >> yeah. >> randy, sr. allowed police to search the business without a warrant. >> immediately we see there's a bag of the same type of wire ties that were used to tie up joseph morrissey. they also sell knives at the business. there's a empty box that holds a 15-inch bowie knife. when he's asked where's the knife that belongs in this box, he tells it should be there. he didn't know where it is. >> you think at this point he's covering up for his son? >> i think that he's aware that things are not going good for his son, but it doesn't seem like he wants to cover for his son. >> so, this is a good citizen letting the police do their investigation. >> correct. >> and if the chips fall on his

son, then they do. >> correct. >> okay, randy. >> investigators eventually located randy, jr., and brought him in for questioning. >> randy jr. seemed composed, very interested to know what information i had about the case, very willing to talk to me. >> if i didn't have a warrant, i would freely talk to you guys. >> okay. >> no problem. >> okay. >> i don't have no connection with this murder. i don't know who did it. i want to clear my name because i did not commit this murder. >> and as for that knife that was missing from his dad's shop, randy, jr. had an explanation for that. >> he had stolen that knife weeks earlier and had sold it to a friend of his that he knows on the street. >> i used to buy dope off him. i'm positive he still has it. >> i asked him to further describe the knife, and he draws a picture. it's an exact replica of the knife we believe to have been used in the murder. >> over the course of two days

of interrogation, randy jr. denied involvement in the murder. >> it could have been a random hit. you don't know what it is. >> it's not random. >> it could have been a random place, random time. >> listen, listen. it's not random. >> he seemed to know details of the crime that only someone involved would know. >> so, is randy, jr. trying to cover his own tracks or somebody else's? >> i think he's trying to do both. >> as investigators focus on things found at the tent shop includi including what looked like burnt scraps from the crime. randy jr. went out of his way to keep his father out of it. >> he's a hard worker, a stand up guy. he tries to direct me the right way and i go the wrong way. he would never do anything like this. >> honestly i think you may be involved in it. >> okay. >> that's why i have to clear

the air. >> i understand. >> you know what i mean? >> we have to clear the air. >> he suspected randy jr. and one of his buddies committed the murder. >> you're looking to make some money, you're desperate. you confront the people at the house because you think maybe they have money. things get a little out of control. >> all right. >> and someone ends up being stabbed. >> okay. you say -- >> then the detective pulled out the heavy artillery. he tried to crack randy jr. by saying his own father thinks he did it. >> everybody [ bleep ] has been a lie. your dad is crying. >> why is my dad crying? >> because of what you did. come on, dude. i feel bad for your dad. >> if police thought they had this case solved, if they thought randy, jr. and a drug buddy exit hadded the crime, they were in for a shock thanks

to an unusual informant, randy jr.'s brother. >> fix this. >> that's what you said to your father. >> yeah. >> fix this or i will. >> yeah. >> fix this or i will.

as police investigated the home invasion murder of joe morrissey, his widow, kay, was dealing with not only her own

grief and trauma, but also with her son patrick's. >> when patrick would ask you what happened to his father, what would you tell him? >> i tried to answer him thinking age appropriate because he was five years old. and i would say, you know, daddy had a little boo boo on his heart and he died. >> kay was still trying to protect her son just as joe had done on that terrible night. >> even when the man was dying, that's what he was doing. he was fighting for his life and trying to protect my mom and patrick. >> in the days after the murder, police were zeroing in on randy tundadore jr. when they received a phone call from his younger brother. >> they told us his brother was not involved and provides his brother with an alibi. he was with us. >> you're about 99 or 100%

convinced that randy junior was at the morrissey house that night. >> definitely, yes. >> so, shawn is lying to you. >> we show shawn is lying about that part of it, yes. >> police knew shawn had an alibi. he was not his brother randy's accomplice. it turned out that shawn came in not only to give his brother an alibi for the murder, but to tell a story that shocked the officers. he wasted no time. >> basically i'm going to tell you straight up, my dad did it. >> his father, randy, sr. >> it was a bombshell. we were surprised we were hearing the father was actually at the residence. >> then he plo seeded to tell a chilling story about how he felt wronged by the land lord and tried to kill him. he tried to shoot joe but the gun wouldn't go off so he repeatedly stabbed joe. he was even able to recite joe's

last words. >> i got kids. i think i'm dying. >> according to shawn, randy, jr. wore shawn's brand-new white sneakers during the sneakers. >> he said trust me, they weren't white when i was done with them. >> shawn said his dad was a violent man. >> my father used to beat us bad, i mean really beat us. >> with a violent past. >> my father's just known to be one of the craziest guys you ever met. they used to call him rampage. used to call him scar face because he had a big scar on his face. >> and he says his father had been trying to scam joe morrissey out of money by breaking light switches and faking a slip and fall injury so he could sue joe. >> so, the fall down the stairs was a bunch of [ bleep ].

>> despite all that, shawn says his brother who he describes as having the mind of a child looked up to their father and would do everything for him. >> he's going to do anything and everything he has to do to make sure my father is okay. >> why would he get him involved in the crime in the first place? and even go a step further, let his own son take the wrap for it? >> my son's already caught, so i won't go to jail. just throw everything on him. >> shawn says he was more than disgusted. he loved his brother and had been protecting him since they were young. now randy, jr. needed protection more than ever which shawn felt required him to turn in his own father for a crime of which he was not even suspected. >> he went there to kill him. >> shawn says the murderous scheme was set in motion when his dad received a letter from joe morrissey. it informed him that he owed just over $1,600 and his lease

would now be month to month. that letter arrived the day of joe's murder. >> how did your dad react to that letter? >> like i'm not going to let him do it. >> because it was like an insult to him. >> he took it like that. it really wasn't. it was a man wanting his money. >> but your dad saw it as provocation. >> yeah. >> and i'm going to teach him a lesson. >> yeah. >> then he says his dad roped in randy, jr. >> my brother didn't faux had whose house he was going to or that somebody was supposed to die. >> only to turn his back on him afterward and let randy jr. fall under suspicion for the murder. >> he says they caught him, not me. i said fix this, or i will. >> that's what you said to four father. >> i told him straight up. >> fix this or i will. >> yeah. >> that's when shawn turned his back on his father and went to police trying to save his brother by informing on his dad.

if that didn't stun the officers, then what shawn did next did. >> before we could even ask him to wear a wire, he offers to wear a wire. he wants his father to be held responsible for this. >> you ever see anything like that before? >> no. >> this son was going to become a police informant, wear a wire, and try to get his own father to admit to a murder. the sound quality on the wire is poor, but for police, randy senior's guilt game through loud and clear. >> what's the part of that conversation that says to you "guilty, we got him." >> i think when he tells shawn that we have no case, our case is weak, he tells shawn she can't identify me, she can't even identify randy, putting himself there. >> what's more, this security video from the business next door to randy sr.'s tent shop

shows a man behind it tending a big fire a couple hours after the murder exactly where police found burnt evidence from the crime. >> you can't make out the person's identity. it's definitely a large person. randy sr. is well over probably 300 pounds. we suspect it's him. >> by friday night, four days after the murder, both randy sr. and jr. had been charged with a slew of crimes including murder, attempted murder, and arson. that randy, sr. would let his son take the fall was all the evidence kay's daughter needed. >> he's a monster. you don't care about your own kids, you're not going to care about somebody else's life. >> case closed? not by a long shot. >> coming up, two very different families meet in court for justice. >> he wanted to kill mrs. morrissey and her son. he said they've got to go too. i told them no. >> i believe god has a plan for

us, and that's why we survived. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues new emergen-c protein fuel

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welcome back. randy sr. and his son randy jr. were both charged with murdering joe morrissey. but the second son shawn claimed the father was the mastermind behind the crime. now father and son were about to

face trial, a tragic tale of two contrasting families was nearing its bitter end. here's josh mang wits with the conclusion of broken bonds. >> on a quiet april night in florida, intruders had invaded the home of kay and joe morrissey and committed unthinkable crimes. >> the worst case scenario you could imagine. you're living your life the way you think you're supposed to and evil just walks in and rips your life apart. >> tom coleman and steven prosecuted the case. >> there are no circumstances you could look at and say maybe if this had gone differently, it would have had a different result. there's nothing the morrisseys could have done that would have prevented this other than never meet them. >> these two families did intersect with disastrous results, all prosecutors say because a tenant got angry at a

land lord. >> who is this little scientist to think he's going to mess with me. and no one was going to mess with his family. >> in the end randy didn't seem to care about his family. in fact, prosecutors say he tried to pin the blame on his son. >> phone calls to detective kendall about test his shirt for dna, that's your killer. just piling on him. just trying to get himself out of trouble. >> randy jr. won't give him up. >> nope, doesn't give him up. >> randy jr. stuck by his dad even though his father pretty much threw him under the bus as soon as he came under suspicion. >> and never stopped. backed that bus over every time he could. >> so, the son's loyal to the father but the father's not loyal to the son. >> pretty much the opposite of how joe morrissey treated his son which was to protect him. >> exactly. we except waiting for senior at

some point in time to come forward and say let me cut a deal. >> let me take the weight of my kids. >> never happened. >> prosecutors thought it might be a tough case against randy senior, but then something surprising happened. after swearing to police that his dad was not in any way involved, randy, jr. took a deal and agreed to testify against his father as did shawn. randy, sr.'s trial was held two years after joe's murder. he faced the death penalty. kay desperately wanted to make sure he received it. and her testimony in court was powerful. >> and i was like so scared. he never answered me. i kept calling him but he didn't answer me. >> on the stand, randy, jr. told the jury how his dad intended to inflict even more harm on the morrissey family. >> he wanted to kill mrs.

morrissey and her son. he said they got to go too. i told him no. i just told him i can't do that. can't. >> can't do what? >> can't kill a kid, you know? and his mom. >> randy sr.'s primary defense was that he was not involved, but the father went far beyond that. >> we went to trial and he buried both of his sons or tried to. it wasn't just jr. when we got to trial. it was shawn was the other person in involved. shawn was trying to steal my business. he can't accept responsibility for anything. >> the fact he would sit here and say it was me and my brother who did this and planned this, i feel like that's wrong. he shouldn't -- shouldn't do anything to hurt your kids. i think that a father's job is to protect his kids, not to hurt his kids.

>> after 5 1/2 hour of deliberation -- >> the defendant is guilty of first degree murder -- >> -- the jury convicted randy, sr. on all charges. >> when they say guilty, i felt my heart. i couldn't breathe. i was very overwhelmed. >> the jury later voted unanimously to give randy, sr. the death penalty, and the judge agreed. randy, jr. who pleaded to second degree murder and cooperated with prosecutors was sentenced to 40 years. kay morrissey is angry about that. >> i believe the crime wouldn't have happened one without the other. they both deserve the death penalty. >> kay morrissey says she's not imprisoned by fear. instead, she says, the nightmare makes her fear less. she even sent a letter to randy, sr. saying as much. >> you are a coward and i am not afraid of you. >> yes. >> i am never leaving here and

will always be here. so, like you're saying come and get me, tough guy. >> right. mm-hm. i'm not going to be fearful. he attacked us in our house which is your safest place to be. so, i started to become extremely fearless. >> but she's also struggled to put her life back together. kay's daughter says she can see the pain even as her mom holds patrick close. >> it's hard to watch my mom with patrick because you can tell they miss him and they should have him. they shouldn't have to figure it out without him. >> they still have each other. >> i believe god has a plan for us, and that's what we survived. >> and she has many memories of her dear joe. after he died, kay wrote about him and to him in a letter. >> joe, i know we will see each other again. in the meantime, please do watch over our children and do protect them from harm.

joe, i thank you for being such a great, loving husband and loving father. i love you so much and will love you forever. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you if for watching. president trump orders the withdrawal of all remaining u.s. troops from northern syria, left out on a limb the kurds have now made a deal with russia's backed bashar al assad. >> another big week in the trump impeachment push, the u.s. ambassador is expected to testify this week. and joe biden and his son hunter announce new plans as they try to manage the president's ongoing attacks over hunter's foreign business dealin dealings. >> tr