of "dateline" extra. thank you for watching. it was a whirlwind love affair. i felt like this was the one that i had been waiting for. maybe it was too good to be true. did he love me or was this a game? >> a beautiful businesswoman falls for a dashing doctor. but hr daughters have doubts. >> idoubts. >> i had lots of suspicions. >> she thinks his fingernails are dirty and this does not look to her like the hands of an actual doctor. >> his nickname was dirty john.

>> this woman knew him all too well. >> i started snooping and i found everything. >> this reporter made some unnerving discoveries too. >> he scared a lot of people. he swindled a lot of people. the story of his dirty deeds f riveted the nation in a hit podcast. >> but dirty was about to turn dark. >> he has duct tape and all the tools to kidnap her. >> would they learn the truth in time. >> she said i saw john outside in the car. >> a story ending in savagery that would stun even police. >> there's no way he gets away with this unless he kills her. >> the women and dirty john. hello and welcome to dateline extra. i'm craig melvin. after being unlucky in love, deborah thought she finally found the one when she met a handsome and seemingly

successful doctor. but deborah's doctor suspected behind john's rugged good looks were something sinister. so the sisters dug into his past. what they found threatened to tear the family apart and put their lives in danger. here's keith morrison. >> in the beginning was desire. natural human desire for connection, for love. so she aimed her arrow at that online ocean of intimate strangers and found him.

late afternoon a sun beating down on an apartment complex. >> this woman is just screaming. >> the whole complex must have heard it. terrifying howling, desperate. >> there was a man down there. they could see him. he had a knife. he was stabbing the screaming woman and nobody was helping her. >> it's really bad. >> i understand. we have officers on the way. >> too late. too late. >> the bloody ending, but the story, the whole terrible tale is much deeper than that one thing, dreadful though it was. a story christopher at the los angeles time spent months unraveling strand by strand. >> it's a story about trust and betrayal and a story about

family. >> about a woman, two protective daughters. and what those daughters did when the man came into their mother's life before the death in the parking lot. >> the story became a podcast produced with the podcast network. the number one podcast in the country for a time, voted as one of the best of 2017. downloaded 28 million times in the first year of its release. the story and the man at the heart of it was called dirty john. >> he was a very creative super manipulative, charismatic, handsome, charming, intelligent. he was a nightmare to everybody. >> but not to her. to deborah newell of orange county, california, the man that presented himself on the dating

website, anesthesiaologist looked very promising. >> he was the total package. a doctor. very intelligent. family man. loved his kids. >> not that attracting men had ever been difficult for deborah or any of the women in the family according to her daughter, tara. >> men kind of flock to them. >> really? >> what is it about the women in your family? >> well, they have really great hearts and they're pretty decent looking. >> good women, happy, successful, attractive. >> deborah owned a thriving interior design firm and a moving company. and a flowers business. had dozens of employees. certainly no money worries but she was in her 50s, marriages behind her, and she was looking. each potential mate carefully

vetted by her watchful daughters. >> we were very judgmental of all the men she dated. >> a little too judgmental? maybe. >> me and my sister could go over the top sometimes. just very protective over my mom. >> now deborah wanted a row mapmap -- romance for her on her times. >> i had always done everything for my children so i felt like it was me time. >> and this guy on the website was me time to a tee. >> he's just back from a year in iraq where he has volunteered for doctors without borders. >> he was charming. kind of old fashioned. he didn't just meet her somewhere or wait in his car. >> he insisted oncoming upstairs to get me. so that's what a gentleman does. >> yes. >> he took her to a fancy place for dinner and paid the not inconsiderable bill. on the second day he arrived in

medical scrubs. he had come straight from an operation and he was handsome, tall, very fit, and very into her. >> he swept me off my feet. said everything right. took me everywhere that i wanted to go. >> did you have that walking on air feeling that you get. >> i fell in love. >> but true to form deborah's daughters reacted just as they often did. especially tara's sister. >> she didn't like him immediately and i thought oh, she will even actually like him. he's a lot of fun. he'll win her over. >> deborah rented a house, part of her new start in a part of newport called balboa island and she ran her business with a new likeness and at night was loved by this accomplished doctor, this sensitive man. >> what did he do for you? >> everything from runner rands

to me to back rub every night. just would listen to my day. we would take walks every night. he held my hand. i mean, he was everything that you would want. >> pinch yourself, you've got it finally. >> yeah. >> then just before thanksgiving, as tara helped her mother move into the balboa house. >> he started moving his stuff in too. >> tara didn't like it. not a bit. she confronted her mother. >> i told her it was fishy. she told me i needed to mind my own business and he came up behind her. >> what did he say? >> he was saying that you're just trying to get your mom all to yourself and i started screaming back at him, no, john, that's what you are trying to do. >> the next day was thanksgiving and deborah, quite fed up, told her suspicious daughters not to bother showing up for dinner. >> neither one of you. >> neither one of us. >> what was hah hard.

>> hard for deborah too. but she needed her own life. she and john asked a counselor for advice. >> and the counselor suggested that i have rules for the girls. >> boundaries. >> the therapist said look, you have the right to be happy. this is your relationship and john's position was the therapist is absolutely right. >> so deborah weighed the options. listen to her family or embrace the best thing to come along in years. she chose love. or what certainly felt like it. what's the old expression? until death do us part? >> the bond between mother and daughters already fraying might just break thanks to a startling decision by deborah. coming up. >> they knew my family would be not very happy with me. >> what did it feel like? >> very mixed emotions. >> the daughters fight back by

doing some digging into john. >> she bought trackers for cars and put within on my mom's tesla and found out where john was going. >> when the women and dirty john continues. n the women and dirtyn continues. there's a company that's talked to even more real people

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little did they know deborah was about to take an even bigger step and it was something she planned to keep secret. here again is keith morrison. >> las vegas, nevada, perhaps

you'll leave the city a little poorer and if you want to bet your heart in las vegas you could put that on the line too if you're in a betting mood and deborah was. >> i felt very adored and very loved and i thought he's the love of my life. i'm ready. >> they had been dating two months when she went to vegas on business in december of 2014. john went along and. >> we went to a courthouse and just got married before a judge. >> just like that? >> just like that. >> married. nobody but them. and their secret, they decided said deborah, they wouldn't tell anyone. >> i knew my family would be not very happy with me. >> what did it feel like? >> very mixed emotions. a little empty knowing they're not on board with this. >> that's on one side.

the other side is rush of happiness and good feeling. >> yes. >> so deborah's daughters, protective as usual, had no idea that their mother was a newly wed. the therapist deborah had seen recommended she keep her relationship separate from her family and of course chris matm was coming and there were important family traditions like where tara would have her own special time with the nieces and nephews of her extended family. so they made a deal, john would stay in a different room while tara had the kids to herself. >> she was going to be able to enjoy the kids and she had to stay away. >> didn't workout so well. >> what actually happened? >> he walked in with all the presents and the kids kocongrege right around them. >> he went up to them and gave them gifts. >> like santa claus or

something. >> that made me so upset. >> tara was very emotional. i thought suck it up. it's christmas. have fun. >> instead she thought that man had come and usurped something. >> he had not only stolen their christmas thought the daughters but they were also worried he was stealing their too trusting mother. taking advantage of her. she just let him drive her car. but why would he need to? wasn't he a prosperous doctor? couldn't he afford a car? well, there was a reason. that while john was in iraq working with doctors without borders, he was robbed. >> his house, his clothes, his cars. he was working with the insurance company getting the claim. so i let him borrow my car. >> john would get all his money back soon enough said deborah. >> at that time i had lots of

suspicions. >> and that's when she and her sister decided to do some snooping. >> she bought these trackers for cars and she went and put one on my mom's tesla, so she found out where john was going. >> where was he going? >> to multiple doctors offices. >> not so unusual perhaps for an anesthesiaologist but the sisters noticed something. >> he was there for not long of a time. >> not long enough to get any medical procedures. what were they about? >> seemed more like a man trying to get access to something, like maybe drugs. it was just a hunch but they went to deborah with that and said maybe he's an addict and deborah refused to entertain their wild suspicions. >> this is more like stop interfering in my life. >> some what, yes. but i had fallen in love. >> her daughters were not about to be put off.

>> one of her doctors is particularly suspicious. she doesn't know why he wears surgical scrubs everywhere. it seems to be a costume he's wearing. she thinks his fingernails are dirty and it does not look to her like the hands of an actual doctor. >> so they started digging. an investigation that would lead halfway across the country, the depths of evil to an appointment with death. >> coming up, troubling revelations about john. >> he was not a doctor. >> discoveries that are about to go from disturbing to terrifying. >> i said he's very, very dangerous. you need to caution your mother. you need to have her call me. i will tell her everything. >> when the women and dirty john continues. men and dirty john continues.

welcome back. her daughters believed he was not who me said he was so they

turned themselves into amateur detectives and discovered he was spending times visiting doctors offices. the daughters wondered if he might be a drug addict looking to score. but they were not done snooping and what they were about to find would confirm their worst fears. >> tara and cash, her miniature australian shepherd was inseparable. >> he has unconditional love and he wants to be there no matter what. >> tara went to cosmetology school but chose to work with four legged clients instead as a dog groomer. >> what do you like about dogs? >> that they're innocent. they don't have any evil in them unless they were taught to have evil in them. >> sure. >> and tara was something of a student of evil. she was a fan of the tv show the

walking dead. zombies. she had a feeling that evil was lurking in the life of john and so did her sister. they knew he was hiding something and they were determined to find out what it was. >> they hired a private investigator to look into his past. deborah, meanwhile, was in love. the newlyweds settled into a simple life on newport's balboa island. deborah convinced she had found the perfect man even when sometimes things didn't quite make sense. like the time she pick under the mail and saw a strange return address on a letter to her husband. >> you opened a letter to him. >> yes, i did. i was so curious. he was like that's fraud. i can't believe you did that. >> but what had got her attention was that letter was from an inmate at the orange county jail. >> did you read the letter? >> i did. >> what was in it. >> it was talking about how

lucky he was that he had found love and his life had turned around and i thought life had turned around. so i questioned him and he said that he writes and sends care packages to people in prison. >> sounded plausible enough to deborah, but not to the sisters, especially not once their private investigator began reporting his findings. >> he was not a doctor. >> john had worked as a nurse but not recently. and he had certainly not been in iraq with doctors without borders. instead, just before he met deborah. >> one of his recent addresses was the orange county jail. >> he was not a sender of care packages. he had been an inmate. and then in march 2015, four

months after john moved in with deborah, the sisters snooped around the balboa house and jackpot, they found a stash of paperwork john had left there. legal documents. police reports. >> he stalked other women and other women had restraining orders on him. >> john's papers outlined a long criminal history. multiple arrests and incarcerations, drug convictions, alarming stuff. >> and deborah was hesitant to believe this stuff. she believed john. >> even after her daughters told her what they found. deborah went straight to john and he said they had the wrong guy. >> he said there's going to be allegations that others did and i thought well, okay, you have a point. >> john said he was a victim of mistaken identity in some cases and in others he was framed.

>> he said i was set up. >> i said but you lied to me. >> he said because i knew you would never date me if you knew the truth and i said you're rightment i wouldn't have. >> the thing was, john was so sad. seemed so sincerely contrite. >> he started crying and crying and crying. and he said please forgive me. i love you so much. i can never live without you. >> and it was true that he made her feel like she was the only woman in the world. when they were alone together, she felt truly loved. >> i'm thinking okay 90% of me doesn't believe him but there's that 10% that maybe he's right and i'm going to throw away the person that i fell in love with without trying to work it through. >> and so she accepted his explanations and she forgave him. >> there was always a reason. >> yes. >> march 2015, soon after they found that stash of papers, tara

and her sister discovered their mother was married to the guy. that was it. they were fed up. refused after that to speak to her. >> this was a very big, bad problem in your life. >> yeah. >> just how big and how bad, they didn't know yet. but buried in that stash of john's papers was the name of someone that did. a detective way off in ohio. one of the sisters picked up the phone and called him. >> what did you think when you got her call. i said he's very, very dangerous. you need to talk to your mother. you need to have her call me. i will tell her everything. >> that is strange and disturbing tale that begins her. >> coming up. >> thousands of miles away, this woman also had questions about john. >> i started snooping and i

found everything. it was under my nose all the time. >> and when she spoke up, that's when things got really scary. >> you see it in your eye you remember it was me, okay. >> remember what, john. >> keep that in mind it was me. tonia you enjoy your time left on this earth, okay? because that's what it's going to come down to. >> when the women and dirty john continues. e women and dirty john continues. for a cold sore,

i don't use some waxy cover up. i use herpecín l, it penetrates deep to treat. it soothes moisturizes and creates a spf 30 barrier to protect against flare ups caused by the sun. herpecín l. it does more for a cold sore. tens of thousands were displaced after being told to evacuate their home following two explosions at a chemical plant. it's unclear when residents will be able to return to their homes. >> heavy snow from the rockies to the upper midwest. it will continue into the weekend while rain and severe storms are expected along the gulf coast. back to dateline extra.

>> welcome back to dateline extra. i'm craig melvin. deborah's daughters were proving their mother's new husband was a fraud. they found that not only was he lying ability being a doctor, but he was an ex-con with several restraining orders against him. it did not seem to matter to deborah who continued to stand by hermann, but a woman from john's past was about to surface with a story too terrifying to ignore. was someone's life in danger? here again is keith morrison. >> who was this man that had stolen deborah's heart? tonya had no idea either when he stole her heart decades ago. >> he was playful. he was interested, engaging, smiley. >> it was the late 1980s. tonya was a young nurse in

dayton, ohio. john was in law school there until he met her and said he had an epifany. >> he said i'm not happy being an attorney. and i think my jaw fell to the ground. i thought he was a second year law student. >> he wasn't. he had been kicked out. though he didn't tell her that. >> all the days of my life. >> so in her blissful ignorance she married him in his family's church in 1990. >> and she helped put him through nursing school. >> they had two daughters. before things stopped adding up. >> i found out he was having an affair. >> tonya wondered what else did she not know about her soon to be ex-husband. like, why did he refuse to invite his family to their wedding. why not let her even meet them? she decided to call his mother. >> i said this is tonya i'm

married to your son john and she said the phone is quite for a minute and she said oh, i knew you'd call me one day. my heart was racing and my knees were shaking just to make the phone call and she unloaded on me all the details of trouble in the past. >> according to his own mother, john had been cheating and stealing and lying for years. he even lied about his age. lopped off five years and he had been convicted of cocaine trafficking. she said is he still using drugs? and i said what? >> so tonya became a sluth who was this man. >> everything was under my nose the whole time. >> evidence of a criminal double life. >> something else. >> a cedar box full of fentanyl

and versed. >> she started watching that cedar box. >> things did come and go. >> it's a stash. >> it's a stash, yeah. >> was he using his position as a nurse to steal drugs. >> like getting a ticket to be in the candy store all day long. >> right. it's like putting an alcoholic as a bar tender. >> she told the authorities she had to. it was the law. >> he had to be stopped. he was going to hurt patients. >> and on the dime -- >> he turned on me. he flipped like a switch. >> now, the man she once thought she knew turned scary. threatening. she began recording their phone conversations. >> listen to me. >> i'm listening. >> i have a big smile on my face and you know why? because it's going to get done. >> what's going to get done? you're not making any sense. >> you will understand when the time comes and that's all i got to say. when it happens tonia and you

see it in your you you remember it was me. >> remember what. >> it was me. tonia, you enjoy your time left on this earth, okay? because that's what it's going to come down to. >> he was arrested for making threats against tonia in june 2001 and convicted of men nacin and put on probation. >> he wasn't the man she thought he was. >> that's exactly right. >> dennis was a police detective back then and investigated the source of the drugs tonya found in the cedar box and started in john's house and found a gun. illegal because john was on probation. so he was arrested again and sent to jail. >> when he went to montgomery county jail i called the supervisor and i said you have an individual there, and he is going to try to con you out of drugs. he said he already has. he claimed he fell out of the top bunk and got pain

medication. >> you're dealing with an addict. a very smart, articulate add detect. >> even actuhe did jail time fog drugs and tonia felt guilty. wondering if she had missed warning signs. wondering what else john might have hidden from her. never thought about the clue way back in the beginning on her wedding video. >> there was men that had some drinks and had their arms around each other and they're talking about how they met -- one of the groomsmen said john's nickname is filthy john. >> over the years it became dirty john and the nickname stuck. >> you found out later on there was a story in that. >> yes, he was conning little old women out of money for jobs he didn't do and also that he had a way with the ladies.

>> he discovered darker secrets as well. john supplied the opioids that killed his own addicted brother. he was alone with his sick father and the old man died rather suddenly. john wasn't charged in those cases but there were others and as the years went on, developed a certain criminal specialty. >> he would go on dating websites and he would find women that usually had good financial backing. he always told people he was a doctor. >> he seemed like an ideal catch for a lot of these women. >> he was a true con man. he would take their money and when they would find out john would threaten and terrorize them. >> how bad was he? >> john was the most dangerous, treacherous, manipulative, deceitful criminal that i have investigated in years of law enforcement. >> once tara learned about john's past, she was consumed with worry.

>> i was very distraught at the time. >> because this dangerous man was now married to a very successful business woman who happened to be tara's mother. >> couldn't get enough of me. >> that's a good feeling. >> it is. >> trickery in love. >> yes. >> trickery. but something far worse than that was coming soon. >> coming up, one of deborah's daughters is about to meet an ominous discovery. >> she was in a panic. she said i saw john. >> i said where? >> outside in the car. >> are this terrified families worst fears about to come true? >> i was afraid he would kill my mom. i was also afraid he would kill me or my sister or someone. d he me or my sister or someone sleep number event on the sleep number 360 smart bed. you can adjust your comfort on both sides your sleep number setting. can it help us fall asleep faster? yes, by gently warming your feet.

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welcome back. they didn't know each other and they shared a connection. they fell in love with john meehan. her daughters were afraid their mother might not get away until it was too late. here again is keith morrison. >> deborah had fallen in love with a con man. her daughter spoke with a detective that had been investigating john meehan for years. >> i said this guy is bad news. you need to get your mother away from him. >> deborah had bought a house in las vegas where john could live away from the family. she spent her time between there

and orange county but daughters, one thing they found alarming was another police report about dirty john, this one from two years earlier and much closer to home. the police had arrested john meehan for stalking and they discovered he rented an office space where they found zip ties, cianide and two loaded guns. >> he might be a killer and she has to get out of this. >> john had an explanation of course. >> he said he has multiple sclerosis and he kept the capsules around if case he needed to kill himself if it got too painful for him. >> this time, john's story didn't ring true. not even to deborah. >> he still continued to treat me incredibly well but he tried to isolate me from everyone. >> especially your family.

>> especially my family. >> now she reconciled with her daughters and read everything they had uncovered about john mer meehan's past. >> i assume by this time you didn't feel in love with him anymore. >> no. >> what did you feel? >> confusion. i thought how could this map fake it to this degree? did he love me or was this all a game? i realized i with was his newest victim. >> in april 2016, 16 months after marrying john meehan she fled from the home they shared in vegas and back in orange county. she filed for anullment and soon discovered that john could turn on a dime. he started by trying to ruin her reputation. sent weird inappropriate e-mails to her colleagues or climates. >> did he send photographs of you to anybody? >> he sent nude photos. >> that's a nightmare for any woman. >> oh.

yeah. there was so many things that he did but one of them, he burnt my car. he took it, stole it and then set it on fire. >> did he threaten you physically? >> yes but not in a direct way. he would say boo, i know where you are. it's not going to be for long. >> the same way he threatened tonia. >> you enjoy your time left on this earth okay because that's what it's going to come down to. >> i went into hiding. i baought a dark wig, changed m clothes. got a rental car. i stayed in different hotels. i went everywhere that he wouldn't suspect. >> how long did that go on? >> six months. >> wow. >> yeah. >> now stories john had told her before she left played over and over in deborah's worried mind. disturbing stories. he told similar ones to tonia years before. stories about the mrs. afia.

>> if they want to get back at you they don't kill you, they kill someone you love because then you love in pain for the rest of your long-fiber. i learned that from him. >> the man deborah once loved and now feared. >> that had to be a very, very strange feeling. >> very much, yes. scared for my life. >> and not just her own life. >> i was afraid he would kill my mom. i was also afraid he would kill me or my sister or someone. >> after all, they had ruined all his plans. in the summer of 2016, deborah began staying in secret with her other daughter hoping she was safe there. and then it was the night of august 19. >> she came home and she was in a panic. she said i saw john. i saw john. and i said where? she said outside in the car. >> watching. he was supposed to be in las

vegas. why was he back in orange county? she didn't have to wait long to find out. >> someone has been stabbed. >> someone has been stabbed? >> the eevil that had been gathering for almost two years explodes in broad daylight. >> coming up. >> we found a backpack with numerous other knives inside. we found zip ties. we found duct tape. we found his passport. >> it took some organization. it took thinking. he has plapnned this out. this was a revenge killing. >> and the shattering end that would stun even the cops. >> and then she saw this guy rising his hand up and down. >> when the women and dirty john continues. >> when the women andn continues.

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welcome back. deborah understood the truth realizing her dream man was a con man. she filed for an anullment and went into hiding. john managed to track her down and this tragic love story was about to end. there was one more twist in store. for the conclusion of our story, here's keith morrison. >> august 20th, 2016. 5:00 p.m.. a 14-year-old was returning home from her junior lifeguard training when she heard a woman screaming. out of the parking lot of her newport beach apartment building. >> i've never heard anybody scream like that before. >> a lot of people would dive under the covers and say i hope that stops. >> once i found out what was going on i knew what i had to do. >> she raced in the parking lot. her mother called 911. >> she saw this guy just raising his hand up and down and up and down. >> we have officers on the way with lights and sirens. so she said she saw blood.

>> i don't know. someone yelled and she's bleeding, she's bleeding. >> sky llar reached the parking lot and saw a man and a woman she didn't know. >> as i was running i could see everything that was going on. i saw him actually stab her. >> that woman being stabbed was tara who with her dog cash just stepped out of her car to find someone waiting. dirty john. >> he said do you remember me? and he looked me right in the eyes. >> there was no pause. no time to think. tara sitting here talking about it was still struggling with what happened. still visibly keeping an emotional distance as if it happened to somebody else. >> he was trying to push me into the car. he actually had the trunk wide open. >> the trunk. so he wanted you in the trunk of his car. >> yes. >> john was 6'2", a foot taller than tara. as he pushed her, he began hitting her with a bag. something hard in it.

>> it just felt like i was getting punched over and over again. >> but it wasn't that. there was a knife in the bag, cutting her. slicing into her. >> and i put my arm up with my purse above my heart and i tried to get away from him and i was screaming. he put his hand over my mouth and i bit as hard as i could. >> cash the dog barked furiously. bit john's aenkle. >> i was thrown on to the ground somehow. i was kicking him trying to block the knife when he is it stabbing me and i kicked the knife out of his hand and it landed on my right hand side. >> and then full of adrenaline she did something astonishing. >> i picked up the knife and i started just wailing on him and stabbing him and i pushed him down and i stabbed him at the top of his head and then the

last time was in the eye ball. >> did you aim for that? >> i did. that's the zombie kill. >> that show, the walking dead. her education for fighting evil. >> what did you understand from watching that show about how you deal with zombies. >> you have to kill them in the head. like you have to kill their brain. >> the police arrived. their dash cam video picked up the junior lifeguard leading tara to the curb where still terrified she called her mother. >> i think i might have killed him. i'm sorry. i'm so sorry. i knew this was going to happen. did i not tell you he was going to try hurt us. >> she said mom, i just killed your husband, i'm so sorry and i'm thinking what? >> deborah raced over there.

>> you could see police cars blocking it off. fire engines. it was crazy. >> they wouldn't let you in. >> they said it was a crime scene. >> john meehan never regained consciousness and four days litteli later, dirty john was dead. >> right after the attack, they found terra at the hospital. her dog still guarding her. >> she told me the whole story. >> the whole story is a pretty complicated mess. >> as doctors treated her wounds the detective began investigating and the whole family waited and worried. >> what were you afraid of. >> well, i didn't know if they would for sure know that it was him attacking her and it was self-defense. >> so you were afraid they might charge her with something. >> yes. >> there's a process the law must follow, careful consideration. august became september, october, november.

deborah didn't know it, but the detective had discovered something in the trunk of john's car. >> we found a backpack with numerous other knives inside. we found zip ties. we found duct tape. we found his passport. >> it took some organization. it took thinking. he's planned this out. this was a revenge killing. >> orange county senior deputy district attorney matt murphy believed the evidence spoke for itself. >> there's an image of this young woman in the hospital with her dog sitting on her bed. talk about a picture saying a thousand words. it screams out that this is app innocent woman who came very close to being murdered by a really bad guy and fought bravely and survived. >> the prosecutor said it was an easy decision. this was self-defense. case closed. >> did a feeling come with that? >> a sense of relief that it's finally over. >> john's ex-wife was working

when she got the news. >> do you remember that moment? >> oh, yeah. it made me tremble. i was in the middle of a case and it popped up on the screen as a notification, john was killed. by the time i took the patient out of the room i was in tears. i wasn't in tears because he died, i was in tears because i had to tell his children and that made me very sad to have to tell them. it was awful. >> her daughters, 16 and 21 at the time said they regretted not being able to show him howell they turned out in spite of him. and now, deborah still struggles with guilt. >> i would have never ever in my entire life put my kids in danger. that was the last thing on my mind is that he would be going after one of my kids. >> do you feel lucky in a way? >> i feel very lucky. i believe terra saved many

lives. saved my life. saved many other victims. >> she was diagnosed with ptsd. she still has some healing to do but she returned with us to that parking lot. >> i don't want to poke and prod too much but what happens inside? >> i get a lot of anxiety. i just have flash backs of me running down the ramp and just like going to the cement. >> she showed us the spot where she looked death in the eye and truck back. this wasn't an easy thing to do. >> i'm just taking it all in right now. >> i think you're a tough cookie. >> that's what a lot of people say. i guess so. >> and dirty john meehan is an ever more distant memory now. his trail of victims af frsafe his terror, thanks to a young woman and a little dog that

fought for her life and won. >> that's all for this edition of dateline extra. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. tra. i'm craig melvin thank you for watching welcome to friday, a food coma, welcome to a post-thanksgiving day edition of "meet the press" daily, i'm chuck todd in washington, glad you're spending time with us and we won't bombard with you angry debate. we have an exciting hour ahead a fun one. focusing on what matters most. makes you think. focusing on you the voters. the upcoming presidential primary, and the impea