at least for now. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. >> and this is "dateline." >> what did you hear >> screaming >> you heard screaming >> i've known those kids their whole life i don't believe for a minute that they made any of that up. >> like screaming noises or something else >> like, like a train. >> they believe their father killed their mother. >> they found her in the a young mom stabbed to death. >> i could see her fighting, fighting for her life. >> i was so distraught. she was gone. >> she was your wife, the mother of yourfe children. >> it's awful. i wouldn't wish that on anybody.

>> her ex had been to visit the day she died. a trip with the kids. and just like that, he was suspect number one. >> they had no evidence. >> i was absolutely flabbergasted. >>ut how can anyone think this? >> police said they were a key to the mystery, his own young children. >> she said she peeked through the mail slot. >> she looked through the mail slot, yes. >> that is replaying it in their minds. >> we'rela going to prove that he's innocent. >> two children on the stand. what did they see? >> that was the hardest thing, because i love them so much. i didn't do this.e ♪ ♪ >> hello and welcome to "dateline." there should be nothingco more innocent than seeing the world through the eyes of a child. but in this story, that may not have been the case. detectives believed a 6-year-old girl and her 7-year-old brother

witnessed the unthinkable, the brutal murder of their mother. the case would be built around what those kids observed, but it wouldn't be so simple. this b crime was as brazen as i was miystifying. here's dennis murphy with "what they saw." >> dennis, i think you're good to go. >> thanks for sitting down with us. >> you'rein welcome. thanks for having y me. >> did you take a butcher knife and plunge it into sierra's neck and kill her while the kids were waiting outside? >> absolutely not. >> that did not happen? >> no.ts >> credibility. the reliability of years' old memories. there's a lot of that ahead because this is the story of a murder. june 8, 2012, columbus, georgia. it was an apartment maintenance man who a found her. she'd been stabbed to death upstairs in the bedroom. in thee kitchen sink, a butche knife. the victim was sierra ingram, a

28-year-old nurse and mother. her good friend kendra smith said she hadn't been answering her phone for days. >> aton first i thought, you kn, why didn't i go down there? well, i knewdo something was wrong. >> police would later estimate that sierra had been dead in her apartment for nearly a week.en >> i think i was -- i think i was so distraught she was gone that i don't really think that at the time i put a lot of thought into like who did it or why. >> apartment managers told the arriving officersld that sierra had smallat children. so one of the detectives' first questions was, where are the kids now? and that led to a bigger question. one all homicide inspectors ask. what is the backde story here? what wasry this victim's life a about? they began piecing together the story of sierra and jared. she was your wife, the mother of your children. what do you think about her end, the brutality of it? >> it's awful.

i wouldn't wish that on anybody. >> sierra, already the mother of alr young boy, met jared ingram when they both enlisted in the army in the early 2000s. he and a friend cozied up to the pretty young recruit and tried to get her attention. >> we talked about how the soldiers on the last bus didn't look like they o were going to make it. she stoodto up and challenged m and said, i'm going to be at the top of the class. i asked her if she wanted to go out that weekend. >> you had a momentous early date. is that tooly nosey a question? you know what i'm referring to. >> i do. our first date we -- >> conceived a child? >> yes. >> were you okay with you? >> yeah, i was okay and i was excited. i had always wanted to be a father. >> sierra and jared, intimate strangers, decided to make a go of it when the army forced them into a quick decision. get married or be stationed apart. >> when we got in the cab to go to get our marriage license, the

cab driver mentioned to us that she wased also a licensed pasto. so she drove us to her church, we got married on the steps. >> you m got married by your ca driver? >> we gotyo married by our cab driver. >>ab one-stop shopping? >> yes. >> the army does as they do, moved them about. they tried to have a happy home, had another child. jared acknowledged they weren't good together. >> once we got married we had an argument thate evening. >> on the 10 scale, how active was it isn't that >> an 8. that set the tone for the relationship. it happened every night. >> why didn't you shake your hands and say see you later? >> the kids mainly. >> they decided coparenting worked best for them. they divorced in 2009 and shared custody. by then they had both left the military. sierra had become a nurse. her friend and coworker at the hospital samela payne, said the main thing keeping sierra in

georgia, was being near her ex. >> n she didn't want the kids t be without their father. she tried her best to coe parent. she didn't have anybodyhe here. >> shedi sacrificed her short tm happiness for the kids? >>es right. for her children. that's the type of mother she was. >> her friend kendra lived in tennessee, but they were as close as they could be. when did you talk, start of the day, middle of the day? >> all day. we were single moms dealing with, you know, our x's. she wasou my support system and she thought of me as hers. >> by june 2012, sierra decided it was time for a fresh start. she made a plan to move home to indiana to be near her family. their kids, ages 6 and 7, would stay with jared for the summer and join her later. was she dating again? >> yes,ti she was, absolutely. she was young, so of course she didn't want to be alone, you know? >> in fact, even before the move toen indiana, she'd already met guy online who lived up there. he was going to help her move. >> he was going to come down to

georgia. he had made plans, bought a plane ticket. >> and that brings us back to sierra's apartment and the bloody's bedroom. as sierra's moving day approached, kendra noticed her friends's daily phone called had stopped completely. >> on the third i messaged her, got e nothing. okay, she's busy. called her. then on the 4th, getting worried some more. >> you wondered, is she ditching me here? >> itc thought, okay, she dropp her phone in the toilet. but then you think about, okay, well, there's other phones in the world, or send me an email. hey, i'm not ignoring you. >> samella was worried, too. she helped plan a good-bye party fora sierra at the hospital, b sierra never showed up. >> i remember sitting around the table, all the coworkers looking at each other. >> you fully expected she was going to walk in theec door? >> iin wanted her to, but i kne something wasto wrong. >> she was at work on june 8

when sierra's brother called her with theen news. >> i answered the phone. and he told me, we just found sierra dead. i don't remember nothing else after that. >> jared says he got a call that afternoon as well. therern was crime scene tape upt his ex-wife's apartment. the coroner was there, too. he says he feared the worst, and went to go talk to the children just 6 and 7 years old. >> we said a prayer. i told a them no matter what happens, i love you very much. i didn't tell them any details, but i told them, you know, something might be going on with mommy. we don't know yet. asked if they had any questions. >> did they? >>id yes. my son asked me if he could have some candy. >> did he know his mom was dead? >> he didn't know. i didn't know. at this point we only had assumptions and worries and fears. >> assumptions, worries, fears, and that was just day one. >> the investigation begins and

sierra's ex-husband is the first person in the hot seat. coming up. >> i could see an officer approaching me with his gun drawn. he raised it uph hi and said, d move. >> police have some questions for jared. >> you were the last one that i know of to see her. is there something that you want to talk about? >>to and for the manzi era had t online. >> this is sort of dealing with police department in georgia. >> what's going on, officer? oh, my god. >> when "dateline" continues. pr. try theraflu multi-symptom. theraflu dissolves in seconds, so it's ready to work before your first sip, and absorbs quickly to target and attack 8 cold and flu symptoms fast. try theraflu. you have fast-acting power over pain, so the whole world looks different. the unbeatable strength and speed of advil liqui-gels. what pain?

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sierra ingram was dead. stabbed three times in the neck and left to die at the foot of her bed. her ex-husband jared was tending to their two children when a police officer reached him on the phone. >> he asked me if the kids were okay. i said, yes, they're fine. he said they're sending an officer to talk to me and a counselor to talk to the kids. >> moments later jared saw a woman he assumed was the counselor in the front yard. >> as i approached, i could see out of my peripheral vision an officer approaching me with his gun drawn. he raised it up and said, don't move. he pressed me against the wall, put my hands behind the back and cuffed me. >> before he could get his bearings, jared says his kids were whisked off 0 in an suv. he approved a search of his home and was taken to the police department for an interview. the conversation started

amicably. jared said the last time he'd seen sierra was six days before. he and the kids had stopped by to pickup some toys before her move to indiana. >> kids went in, give her a hug. they were upstairs and started playing with some of their toys and watching tv and stuff. >> how long were you there for? >> seemed like a couple hours. >> he said they hadn't talked since. >> that wasn't unusual. we didn't call each other when i had the kids usually. she was one of those to call every day. >> detectives wanted to know about the state of jared and sierra's relationship, how they had been getting along. they hadn't had any issues, but he admitted things were strained. >> what was the problem? >> no problem. just -- once we broke up, i felt like, you know, there was no reason to have an argument with her any more after that. >> they also asked jared how he felt about sierra's decision to move to indiana. >> i didn't feel any kind of way

about it really. >> did she ask you? >> no. >> she just said, i'm leaving? >> yeah. that was her. >> after about an hour, the interview took a turn when detectives hit jared with a revelation. as far as they could tell, no one had heard from sierra since jared's visit with the kids. meaning jared was quite possibly the last person known to have seen sierra alive. >> i feel like you're more than intimating i'm responsible for sierra's death. >> the only thing i know is you're the last one i know of to see her. and so far no one was there. is there something you're not talking about? are you sure about that? >> i'm sure. >> the detective told jared that as they were speaking, officers were spooling through the video cameras at sierra's apartment complex. >> what are you feeling right now? >> i'm feeling like i can't wait until you get finished with the

rest of that videotape. and i'm feeling scared [ bleep ] until you do. that's what i'm feeling right now. >> why would you be scared? >> because if i was the last one that saw her alive, then you'll put it on me. >> well, i'm not going to put something on anybody. i'm going to take the evidence for what it's worth. >> and to look at some of the evidence made it seem unlikely that jared could have done it. the murder was brutal, bloody, and jared's two small children had been there with him the whole time. though jared did mention that as they readied to leave the apartment, the kids went outside first. >> they went outside to the car while i was talking to her. i came outside and she came outside, and that was it. it wasn't a long period of time. >> did detectives think jared had something to do with his wife's murder or were they pressing him because he was the ex-husband?

they ended the interview on friendly terms. >> i appreciate you coming n. >> i appreciate you guys doing what you're doing. >> it had been a very long night. jared says he was just desperate to hug his kids who had lost their mother. you can see why you became a figure of interest here. >> when i sit back and put myself in the shoes of the police officers, absolutely. they show up at sierra's house, they find her body. they go, they pick me up. >> back at the crime scene, investigators looked for clues to fill in the story. could it have been a botched robbery? it was hard to tell if anything had been taken. the apartment was in such disarray with moving boxes. and there were no signs of a forced entry. but there was an attempt to clean up the scene with bleach. and they did find a man's watch tucked into the sheets of sierra's bed. who could that belong to? what about this guy she met online, the man flying in to help her move? >> this is the police department with columbus, georgia. >> yes, sir. >> his name was ryan morgan. detectives got him on the line.

>> were you supposed to come down -- come here to help her move? >> yes, i was. about a week before i quit texting. >> ryan thought he'd been ghosted. said that he canceled his plane ticket. >> i texted her back. hey, thanks for the thoughtfulness and a waste of my money. >> detectives didn't tell him right way why they were calling. >> what's going on, officer? i'm freaking out. what happened? >> she was killed. the reason you didn't hear anything from her was she was murdered. >> you've got to be [ bleep ] me. >> no. >> holy [ bleep ]. >> was that genuine surprise? >> oh, my god. >> of course, they'd have to check out ryan's story and pick through every detail of the last day of sierra's life. that meant talking to her children. what did they see? what did they hear? >> coming up.

that final family visit. what was happening inside their mother's apartment? >> what did you hear? >> screaming. >> you heard screaming? screaming noises or something else? >> like, like a train. >> when "dateline" continues.

welcome back. in a tense interview, police question jared ingram about the vicious murder of his ex-wife

sierra. jared insisted he was innocent, but knew that being the last person to see her alive did not look good for him. as news of sierra's death spread, one friend would come forward with alarming secrets about what sierra said was really happening inside that relationship. once again, here's dennis murphy with "what they saw." >> kendra smith felt she'd found a kindred spirit when she met sierra ingram. losing her was awful. >> every day i'd get this my car and cry all the way to work because i talked to her every day at work, you know, every day on my way home. i'd be in tears all the way home. >> samella payne felt hollowed out when she heard. her good friend, fellow nurse, gone just like that. so you were going to be friends for life no matter where each of you traveled to? >> absolutely. we were family. >> the day after she got the news, samella drove to sierra's

home. she just had to see the place with her own eyes. you went to the scene? >> i went to the scene because i still did not want to believe she was gone. >> everything was yellow taped off, right? >> i was in denial that my friend was gone. >> she spoke to an officer who was there guarding the crime scene. what did you talk to him about? >> any and everything i could remember what she was going through. >> what samella said caught the officer's ear. it didn't match jared's story. this post-divorce relationship was more than a little strained. sierra confide ed in her it was tumultuous. >> she would tell me how he would break her computers, break tvs. >> i'm mad you, bang, here's one for your compute er? >> oh, yeah, yeah. >> the way the stories went, jared would lash out if he couldn't get his way. did he ever get physical with her, sam, as far as you knew? >> she told me that, yes.

>> but you didn't see any bruises or scratching or anything like that? >> no, she did. she would hide it. she's the type that want to be strong. she didn't want you to be upset or worried about her. >> as for jared, he told us any stories about abuse in his relationship with sierra just weren't true. were there any hands-on altercations, her on you, you on her? >> absolutely not. she threw some things, small things. like a remote control. >> anyone who knew sierra well knew she wouldn't put up with abuse. >> she was a very fierce woman. she had her way. she's not going to let you tell her any different. and she's very determined. i couldn't see her being in an abusive relationship. >> of course, he says, he and sierra had plenty of scorching disagreements during their marriage. but once they split, the drama ended and he says they shared responsibility for the kids amicably. >> coparenting, and very successfully. i think the biggest issue we ever had was that when she cut my son's hair. i didn't really like that. he had a big puffy afro and it

was cute on him and i liked it. >> given what investigators had heard, they were now very focused on jared. did he have any opportunity to murder his ex? with the kids in toe? jared said he put the kids in the car and went back inside to get the last of their things. two kids sitting in the back seat of a car, ages 6 1k37. what did they see, what did they hear in the next few moments of their lives? more importantly, what would they say about it? the police talked to the children the day they discovered sierra's body. >> what grade are you in? >> kindergarten. >> the kids confirmed that for at least some period of time, mom and dad had been inside the apartment without them. >> why would daddy leave you and your brother in the car? >> huh-uh. >> you don't know? >> he didn't leave us in the car. >> here they are talking to a forensic interviewer a few days later. >> why did you think dad made

you stay in the car? >> he was doing something. >> jared's 6-year-old daughter said she got restless and did what 6-year-olds do. she said she got out of the car and went to the door. lifted the small slot and peered inside. she told investigators she saw her dad. >> what was he doing? >> i forgot. >> i mean, was he standing, was he sitting, was he -- >> he was standing. >> was he just standing there doing nothing? did he have something in his hands? did he -- >> no. he was just in there doing nothing. >> she says he told her to go back to the car. but she says she peeked in again. investigators were interested in what she saw and what she said she heard. >> mommy was still laughing. she sounded like she was -- daddy wasn't -- daddy wasn't in the living room. he was still upstairs.

mom was still laughing, though. >> her brother says he got out of the car, too, and he also heard the laughter. or was it something else? >> what did you hear? >> laughing, almost screaming. >> you heard screaming? yeah? tell me, did you hear, were they just saying, like, screaming noises or something else? >> like, like laughing screaming. >> yeah? >> screaming. what in the world was going on inside sierra's home while the children waited outside? >> coming up. >> if you ask him, did i think he did it, it was an absolute no. >> a new relationship for jared, and new questions about those interviews with the children. >> those statements that come out later are, in my opinion, conditioning. >> what do you mean? >> i mean, the police are suggesting something for the children to say. >> when "dateline" continues. man: sneezes

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hello, i'm dara brown. here's what's happening. protests in baghdad turn violent when security forces killed one demonstrator and wounded 99 others. this is the late of the in the string of anti-government protests in the iraqi capital drawing tens of thousands of people. and thousands of fans gathered in d.c. for the washington nationals world series parade and rally. the team was greeted by a sea of road supported when they celebrated in world series title 59 years in the making. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." i'm natalie morales. in a taped interview, sierra ingram's young son said he heard his mother both laughing and screaming inside her home on the day she was murdered. police were looking into sierra's ex-husband jared. now a team of supporters is about to rally to jared's

defense, taking their own look at what the kids told detectives. continuing with "what they saw," here's dennis murphy. >> in the weeks following sierra's murder, investigators compiled their evidence. there were the police interviews with the children. and they had sierra's cell records showing her phone went silent around the time jared was at her apartment. there wasn't a single phone call or text after 6:39 p.m. on june 2nd. and the only whis of of a lead, that guy from indiana who was going to help sierra move. >> she was murdered. >> you've got to be [ bleep ]. >> well, his alibi checked out, and that left one person, jared. so on july 1st, a month after sierra's murder -- >> i was leaving to go to work and people started getting out of their cars and put their hands up like this, don't move, you're under arrest. >> jared was charged with murder and spent the next 15 months in jail before posting bond and being released.

by then he'd lost custody of his son and daughter. they had moved to indiana to be with sierra's mom. are the kids taking your phone calls? because i'm sure you're trying to reach them. >> at this point part of my bond agreement is that i cannot speak with anyone in sierra's family, including my children. so -- >> so that's a whole area of your life that's gone. >> no contact. yes. >> jared says he started attending church and began reaching out to old friends like katie duke, a girl he knew from high school band days. >> i always had a thing for him, even in high school. it was just not good timing. it never was. >> this wasn't exactly great timing either. after all, jared was accused of murdering his ex-wife. >> what did you think? >> if you ask him, do i think he did it, it was an absolute no. why would they even think this? and how could it have possibly come to this? >> and you're saying that because of the guy you knew, the character of the man. >> the character. just how could it possibly --

anyone think this? >> their relationship grew from a friendship into something more. how did you decide you were going to get married? >> we started talking about it and it was a lot of back and forth, because with something like this hanging over your head, do you wait until everything is over and then get married? that sounds sensible, right? >> katie disagreed. >> i basically told him, i'm ready, i'll marry you. >> they began their married life together in a kind of limbo waiting for jared to go on trial. he still hnlt beadn't been indi. what was taking so long? jared and katie kept their anguish quiet. a lot of people in the church didn't even know his story. >> no. >> then january 2017, 4 1/2 years after the murder, the indictment came down and a trial date was set. no more secrets now. what did you think when you heard? >> in my mind initially just it's impossible. >> debbie duke is katie's mom.

they are church friends. did you ever think, my goodness, this man's a killer? >> no. >> debbie? >> huh-uh. not for a second. the very notion somebody could think jared capable of this was beyond my belief. there's just simply no way i could apply my brain to that. >> the support wasn't just moral. the church friends offered to help anyway they could. >> we had two or three people come up and says, what can we do? like, well, pray. but one of them said, well, come on, there's something we could do. what about all that paperwork? couldn't you use help with that? i'm like, that would be wonderful. >> that paperwork was the case against jared. mounds of documents, police reports, audio and video recordings. and to mount a defense, they would need to understand it. >> my lawyer was very good, but he has a small practice, just him and his wife. and so as far as leg work, there's not a hundred paralegals going around to do legal research for him.

>> jared and katie transformed their kitchen into a war room. and their church friends became legal assistance of sorts. they vowed to be objective. >> i was a true believer in jared's character, okay. >> but if the evidence had preswayed you otherwise -- >> if the evidence had persuaded me otherwise, i would have gone with the evidence. >> the ad hoc church team divvied up the work. jim a software whiz took a crack at the cell phone records. >> it took some study to figure this out. it came down to numbers. simple math. >> according to the cell records, ciara was alive and on her phone at 6:39 p.m. three minutes later, 6:42 p.m., jared's cell records indicate he is still at ciara's apartment. and 26 minutes after that, jared's phone pings off the tower that the friend's estimate is a good 15 to 20-minute driveway from ciara's apartment. >> there is not enough time for him to have committed the crime. >> the telephone traffic per swads -- >> yes. the math doesn't work. it just simply doesn't work.

>> at least by their calculations. then jared's supporters looked at the bloody crime scene photos which raised more questions in their minds. >> how do you walk out of an apartment without completely showering, changing your clothes and doing all that? that would add even more time. >> tick-tock, he had to get to the other tower. >> he didn't change clothes. no clothes were found in evidence on him. >> then friends turned to the interviews with the kids and they transcribed every word including the interview where jared's son said he heard screaming. >> what did you hear? >> laughing, almost screaming. >> you heard screaming? >> they noticed that interview took place five days after ciara's body was found. but in the police file, the friends found an earlier interview. the son's story about what he heard on that occasion was completely different. here's that interview. >> did you hear anything when daddy was inside?

>> i didn't hear nothing. >> jared's supporters wondered where his son could have gotten the idea of screaming. the first time it comes up on the tapes is in a question from police just hours after they found ciara's body. >> was mama screaming or daddy screaming and hollering, nobody was screaming? >> huh-uh. >> there is absolutely nothing incriminating about their initial testimonies. >> those statements that come out later are, in my opinion, conditioning. >> what do you mean? >> i mean that the police are suggesting something for the children to say. and if you suggest something to a child of that age who is impressionable, it's possible that they may say, yeah, i guess it could have been that. >> and there was something else laura picked up on. >> i could hear it. one of the investigators whispering under their breath, trying to tell the children to say something on their recorded interviews. >> do you remember that? >> say yes. i mean, do you remember that? >> was the officer putting words

in his mouth? it's hard to say. but the children would speak about that day again. this time in court where they'd be the chief witnesses against their father. >> coming up. >> what did the little girl see? >> she sees her father standing. he is changing his shirt and he has a white bottle beside him. >> two young witnesses with powerful stories to tell. >> were those children coached to give details of their story? >> never. >> when "dateline" continues. ♪ ♪ no matter how you stay fit keep it light with light & fit's rainbow of delightful, protein-packed flavors. ♪ ♪

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in the spring of 2018, nearly six years after ciara ingram was brutally murdered, jared ingram entered a muskogee county courtroom to stand trial as her accuser. he wasn't alone. you were behind your husband in the church pews in the courtroom. >> yes. >> was it important to show solidarity that you had a lot of people? >> we felt so. we invited anybody to come and just let the jury see how much jared is loved and how much support and love that he has sitting behind him. >> muskogee district attorney attorney julia slater and her team hoped the jury would be swayed not by jared's supporters but the cold hard facts of the case. is it your belief jared murdered his ex-wife ciara? >> yes. >> while his kids were in the

car? >> yes. >> and the motivation of this crime was what? >> he did not want the children to move with ciara to indiana and would do anything to prevent that. >> the prosecution called friends like samela payne who told her numerous times jared was threatening, violent. >> was that unnerving for you? >> new york city because i wanted justice for ciara. it's too long. it had been too long. i just had to do what -- you know, my part. >> he's sitting there. >> yeah, to the left of me. >> you couldn't look at him? >> no, i was too disgusted. i hate him. i hate to say that, but i do. and i just didn't look. >> the prosecution said jared had another motive, to the tune of nearly $13,000 in back child support payments. the prosecution also argued that the forensic evidence pointed squarely at jared ingram. police found jared's fingerprint on ciara's cell phone, a cell phone last used about the same time jared's cell phone placed him at her apartment.

>> so, did he have enough time to do this? >> yes, he certainly had enough time. we know that his phone was at the apartment at the time that her phone went silent. there was enough time to have killed her. he knew where the bleach was. he could get to the bleach. do the clean-up that he attempted to do. >> we're not talking about extensive clean-up here, are we? >> new york city we'o, we're no. >> little bleach here, little bleach there. >> a few places in the apartment, clean her up. >> jared steadfastly maintained to anyone who would listen he had not killed ciara. the prosecution said they found someone who told a different story >> he told me how he killed his wife. >> a confession. jacques gilchrist said jared confided in him when they shared a cell in the county jail. he detailed jared's words in this police recording. >> he said he stabbed ciara. >> this witness was able to give details. this particular person who was in jail at the time of the

murder, no way that he would have known any of this information unless he received it from someone who knew it. >> but the star witnesses for the prosecution were jared's own children. you hadn't seen them in years at this point. >> that's correct. >> did they look the same to you? >> no. >> were you making eye contact with them, send them any messages? >> i'm looking at them. they're not making any eye contact with me. i did mouth "i love you." that was about all that i thought i could get away with. >> the children then 12 and 13 years old told the jury with clear-eyed detail what happened that last day they saw their mother alive. and the details were more damning than ever as when jared's daughter testified about peeking through that mail slot. what did the little girl see? >> she sees her father standing. he has -- he is changing his shirt and he has a white bottle beside him on the floor that she doesn't know. she doesn't know what it is, but a white bottle beside him. >> a white bottle, bleach, a

change of clothes. those sound like new elements. were those children coached to give details in their story? >> never. >> it were there more details? >> there were more details. they were never coached. they were forensically interviewed so they wouldn't have ideas put in their heads and never coached what to say on the stand. >> are you persuaded the little girl saw the bottle and changing his shirt? >> yes. >> heard his mother's screams, her dying declaration, as it were? >> yes. sad they had to hear that, but that was what they heard. >> there was another version they heard and the jury was about to weigh the credibility of that story teller. >> coming up. >> why did you take the stand? >> i had been waiting six years to stand up in front of a jury and in front of a judge and say, i didn't do this. >> who would the jury believe? the children or their father? >> what if this jury says,

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welcome back. jared ingram was on trial for the murder of his ex-wife ciara, and the couple's two children were the prosecution's star witnesses. on the stand, their recollections of that traumatic day included surprising new details. but jared had a surprise of his own, a risky move that he believed would prove his

innocence. with a conclusion of "what they saw," here's dennis murphy. >> 12 years sitting in judgment of jared ingram. so, back to where we began. did you take a butcher knife and plunge it into ciara's neck and kill her? >> no. >> while the kids were waiting outside? >> absolutely not. >> pour bleach on her? >> no. >> that did not happen? >> that's beno. >> that's been the story of your life for how long? >> six years. >> six years of crime, six years of suspicion. mike reynolds said it would take investigators mere hours to come to a conclusion. >> you get domestic cases, we get a lot of them. it's automatic that you go and go to the deceased's former spouse or current spouse. and that's my man, we're going to make it fit. >> and the defense argued there wasn't a shred of physical evidence linking jared to the actual murder. no dna, no prints on the possible murder weapon, nothing. in that bloody scene at ciara's

apartment, all the prosecution pointed to was jared's fingerprint on her cell phone. >> he was over at that town house quite a bit. it would not have been uncommon for his fingerprints to be all over this place. >> jared said, sure, he used ciara's phone that day. >> i just remember my daughter handing me the phone saying it was her older brother in indiana and he wanted to talk to me. >> and they weren't worried at all about that jail house snitch. >> he was totally not credible, as most snitches are not. because if you talk with any jurors, they don't believe them. i mean, you don't call somebody and talk about another crime unless you expect to get something out of it. >> they were right here. >> but what about the kids and their ever-important stories? the defense questioned the new details. dad changing his shirt. the white bottle of what could have been bleach. you're saying that the cops in this case are seeding the story, they're coaching the

kids? >> i absolutely think they were asking leading questions leading them to conclusions they didn't originally have. >> jared's attorney was confident the jurors would understand the facts if they heard from jared directly. >> i knew that he was going to make a good witness. most particularly because he was well spoken. >> you took the stand, always risky. rarely advised. bull you did it. >> there was no question. >> why? why did you take the stand? >> i had been waiting six years to be able to stand up in front of a jury and stand up in front of a judge and say, i didn't do this. >> but it exposes you to aggressive cross-examination by the prosecutor. >> it does. and that was rough. it seemed like he was doing everything in his power to kind of guest a rise out of me. >> provoke you so the jury could -- >> exactly, show the jury the monster. >> jared faced the prosecutor's questions for more than a dozen hours over three days. so this is a poor set of facts that have come together against you. you're the last known adult to have seen her. the kids have said they heard screaming in the house, the father acting very suspiciously,

bleach. everything seems to be consistent with you going in and killing ciara and doing a rough clean-up and then coming out. >> absolutely not. if i had done a quick rough clean-up, there would have been something on me. there would have been something in the car. the police had the car in their custody. they combed it. inch to inch. they found no blood. they found no bleach. that, that's impossible. >> jared denied he'd ever been violent with ciara. the defense pointing out there's never been so much as a single report to the police. and, no, child support wasn't a problem. he said they were working on it. and he hadn't been upset about the ex's move to indiana, either. his new wife katie watched from the gallery. >> jared is calm, cool, very intelligent. he's our evidence. >> the jury went out to deliberate. two days passed without a verdict. then in an odd quirk of the court calendar, everyone took a week off. no decision. >> what if this jury says,

you're guilty? you know, i -- we couldn't stop hugging. i mean, we're pretty much always like that. but there's, i guess, a little more emotion behind it because of, what if. >> jared was charged with a commission of four felonies, including murder. what were you hoping for in the court? >> that he would be found guilty of what he did. >> it took less than two hours once the jury went back at it. you're watching the faces as they file in? >> i am, very intently. and nobody's giving anything away. >> then what, you hear the words? >> they start reading off the counts one at a time. and just not guilty, not guilty. >> jared ingram, not guilty of the murder of ciara ingram. >> i started crying. i've never in my life cried in

happiness, never. in that moment, i cried in happiness. >> for ciara's friends and family, the reaction was much different. >> surprised. and i think that my surprise came mostly from the children's testimony. i don't believe for a minute that anyone coached them into saying any of that. >> they told the jury what they saw and what her heard? >> absolutely believe that. >> and if you believe it, that means that he's guilty. >> right. >> do you think jared murdered ciara? >> i do. >> does she need justice? >> she does. i don't know how they're going to get it. >> but the prosecutor says not guilty is not the same as innocent. >> i do think that he is the murderer, and we would not have tried him if we didn't have confidence in that. >> jared and katie are grateful to the circle of friends who they say helped acquit him. they are now fighting for custody of his children who have

been with ciara's mother for more than six years. >> the frustration of still not being in contact with my children has been hard. >> is it better at this point given all the poison that you say has been put before them, poisoning their minds toward you, is it better just to let them be raidssed by their grandmother and maybe later in life you catch up with them? >> absolutely not. >> but they think you killed their mother. >> i don't know that. i think they were trained to hate and fear me. it would be better for them to heal this relationship as soon as possible. >> the children, what they saw, what they heard, what they remembered. ciara's friends say what's more important now is what they know about the woman lost on that day. if her kids start to forget her, the memory dims. what would you sit down and tell them about their mother? >> mainly how much she loved them. she did. those kids were everything to her.

you know, she -- they were her world. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. >> i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> i believe that an old soul, beautiful soul. i know he's my son, but he was the kindest person i've ever met in son. but he was the kindest person i've ever met in my life. >> a teenage boy who disappeared. >> they saw his truck with caution tape around it. the police told my father that he was gone. >> i said, are you sure? what are talking about? >> grieving alongside his family, his