and that's for this "dateline extra." thank you for watching. r watchig >> he came home and found his entire family gone. >> i thought what are you talking about? >> this is surreal. am i really here?

>> reporter: his fellow cops suspected him! >> i did not do this. i did not do this! >> reporter: she was upset. she felt like history was repeating itself. >> he wanted to have women and his wife was getting in the way. were police just plain wrong? >> it's like this twilight zone where lies become truth and the truth becomes lies. >> reporter: maybe the real killer was still out there. >> you have lied to the police about this case. >> yes, sir. >> so devastating. >> we knew that that was probably the key to solving this. >> thirteen years. thirteen years of hell! "mystery on lockhart road." hello and welcome to dateline extra. i'm craig melvin. david came home one evening to find his entire world turned upside down. what happened in the family garage was both a tragedy and a mystery. at the crime scene, police uncovered clues that would lead

them on a long road to justice. there were two potential killers. but only one truth. here is dennis murphy. >> reporter: such an awful crime. the wife. the little boy and girl. >> my kids are dead. >> reporter: shot at point blank range. >> i was just dumbfounded. i was shocked, what i saw. >> reporter: how to comprehend it? >> i said, "what?" "what are you, what are you talking about?" "what are you saying?" >> reporter: the husband had an alibi. >> could he have slipped away for, say, ten minutes? >> he could've done anything. but he didn't. >> reporter: 13 years. three trials, appeals, reversals. and changing stories. >> the big picture here, charles, for a lot of people is

it sounds like a crock. it doesn't pass the sniff test. >> there's a lot of things about this case that doesn't make sense. >> reporter: it has been a long, winding pursuit of justice as one family sees it. >> it just gets more and more wrong. >> i kind of adopted this saying that when you enter into the courtroom, lies become truth and the truth becomes lies. >> reporter: but there is another side. another family. one which sees a terrible miscarriage of justice. >> you wonder if everybody got three trials, how many guilty people would be out walkin' the streets. >> mommy, there's a present for you. >> okay. >> reporter: but there's one indisputable truth: kim, jill, and bradley camm were nothing less than innocents lost that evening. >> when do you miss 'em the most? >> every day. and i'll tell you, whoever said that time heals has never lost a child. >> this goes in both peoples'

pile. >> both people pile? >> i can tell you that time doesn't heal anything. the pain becomes a part of you. >> reporter: time. turn the clock back to the year 2000, september 28th, to be precise, a thursday after work. the place: a church rec center gym in georgetown, southern indiana. a pick-up basketball game was underway with the usual thursday night guys. >> this is just you guys gettin' together. >> just pride. >> pride. little bit o' glory days, huh? >> yeah. >> reporter: david camm, a 36-year-old manager at a waterproofing business was a regular. >> you guys grow up with it. this is religion, right? >> yeah. we play a little basketball in indiana. >> reporter: that night after the game wrapped up, david headed straight home. he and his wife kim had two children, brad, a quiet 7-year-old and little jill, a spitfire, two years younger. usually, david helped kim with the kids in the evening, but on this night he was late and he knew kim wouldn't be happy about that. >> they gotta get their homework done before they went to bed.

and i thought, "she's gonna be upset when i get home 'cause i'm not there to help." >> reporter: as he rolled into his driveway, he clicked the garage door opener. a nightmare awaited him. >> once the -- the garage door raised up just above the hood of my truck, that's when i saw kim. >> she was down on the garage floor? >> yeah, actually at first i thought it was jill lying there. i didn't realize it was kim until i got outta my truck and ran into the garage. and then that's when i -- i saw that it was kim. >> how do you take this in? it's too much to absorb. >> it's indescribable, you know, what was going through my mind at the time. i can't put it into words. >> reporter: kim was still, bent slightly at the waist, a long pool of blood running from her head. the doors to her bronco were open. >> when do you look into the vehicle? >> i don't remember how long it was, but after checking on kim, being assured in my mind that she was gone, i just suddenly

thought about the kids. where are the kids? and my first instinct was to look into the bronco. and i got up on the passenger seat and i could see more into the back. and that's when i saw brad and jill. >> reporter: jill, still buckled in on the back passenger side, was slumped over. there was blood in her hair. next to her, brad, seemed to be clambering over the seat. >> was it apparent even in your shock that this was a gunshot event? >> i did not know. i did not know how they had died. >> so you're in there, between the console --. >> over top of the console, that's correct. that's how i got back in there and grabbed brad. >> brad, what, felt warm to you as you recall? >> yeah, and i thought maybe he might have a chance. >> reporter: david had been an indiana state trooper for almost 11 years. that night in the garage, david says, his police training kicked in. it seemed to him that his daughter, jill, was dead. but if there was even a whisper of a chance for his son, brad, david knew he had to get him out of bronco and give him cpr. >> i picked him up and pulled

him in to me and turned around and went back out the same way that i came in. >> reporter: came out the passenger door and put him down on the garage floor and, what, started working on him? >> exactly. >> were you getting any signs of anything? >> i just remember looking at his face. and, like with jill, his eyes -- there was no moisture. they were half shut. it was -- it was pretty obvious that he was gone. >> and this has all happened in, what, 45 seconds of your life? >> that's -- yeah. probably. maybe a minute.

>> reporter: kneeling on the bloody garage floor, amidst the bodies of his family, david knew he had to get help. >> dave? >> get everybody out here to my house now. >> okay. >> reporter: he called the indiana state police where he used to work. >> get everybody out here to my house. >> go to dave camm's house now. signal 10. okay. david we're gonna, we've got people on the way, okay? >> get everybody out here. >> come here. >> everything's going to be okay all right? we're going to --. >> every, everything's not okay, get everybody out here now! >> they're coming, go to dave camm's house now. do you know what happened, david? >> no. >> the family dead. murdered. how do you even begin to absorb that? >> all these things spinning around inside my head. is this real? am i really here? it was surreal. >> it went down to the ground and rolling around and like why? why? >> reporter: there was more pain, much more still to come.

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>> reporter: david camm says he came home one night in the fall of 2000 to an unimaginable horror --. his wife, little boy, and girl had been murdered. >> get everybody out here to my house now. >> okay. >> reporter: after trying unsuccessfully to revive his son, david ran across the street to a relative's home. >> i heard the banging on the door. >> reporter: david's uncle nelson was there. >> david was beatin' on the door and hollerin', "nelson, nelson, come quick." "somebody's killed my family." "they're all dead." "they're all dead." >> reporter: nelson dropped everything and raced over to david's garage. >> i was just dumbfounded. i was shocked, what i saw.

>> reporter: david yelled at him to check on jill, his daughter, in the bronco and nelson says he made his way carefully to the vehicle. like david, he was a former state trooper and knew that crime scenes had to be preserved. >> i, i looked in the back seat and that's when i saw little jill back there. i reached back and i touched her arm or shoulders, something and i said, "jilly jilly jilly." >> you knew she was gone? >> i knew she was gone. and i said, "dave, i -- i think they're all gone, buddy." "i think they're all gone." >> reporter: david lost it. >> he actually went down to the ground, was layin' on his back and rollin' around and sayin', "why?" "why'd i have to go?" "why'd i have to go?" "why not have stayed with 'em?" >> reporter: uncle nelson managed to get david away from the garage.

>> dave was trying his best to get back in. i wouldn't let him go back in. >> so you really are the officer, securing the scene? >> i was trying to, i knew it had to be done, 'cause i knew we had a crime scene and i wanted to make sure that i didn't do anything to hamper it. >> reporter: david camm says he was way beyond understanding anything that night, but the questions wouldn't stop. >> all these things spinning around inside my head. is this real? am i really here? did i really just find kim, brad, and jill, as they are? you know it was just uh, it was surreal. >> reporter: that night was the end of everything david and kim had built together. they'd met in the late 1980's. they were introduced by marcy mcleod. marcy had been best friends with kim ever since ninth grade. >> she was very quiet, for the people that didn't know her, and

reserved. but very funny. very loyal. very sweet. >> reporter: david and kim married in 1989. they threw a big fun party then got on with their lives. kim in corporate accounting and david as an indiana state trooper, which was a career kim had encouraged him to pursue. >> find that drunk driver that's out there -- >> reporter: here he is in uniform being interviewed in the 1990's about road safety during the holidays. >> reporter: the big hat seemed tailor-made for david camm. he was soon member of an elite emergency -- a kind of 'swat' team. >> that is a band of brothers, huh? >> oh, yeah. >> kinda special weapon. weapons tactical group. >> right, exactly, yeah. loved those guys. i mean, we're talkin' about guys that you would literally die for. >> reporter: but over time, after the kids were born, david wanted to spend more time with his family. so in may 2000, he went to work as a manager in his uncle sam lockhart's business and left the band of brothers. >> boy, it must've been hard to leave, dave? >> you know, it was but --. >> i mean, you had this good thing you're goin' to and you wanted to --. >> right. >> -- have more of a life. but yet you're -- i can see how much you liked --. it was really wasn't --. >> -- being in law enforcement.

>> yeah, it really wasn't that difficult, though, because i just felt like it was definitely -- i was in a point in my life when i needed to make that change and i wanted to make that change, and i presumed that i would remain close with these guys, that they would always be my friends and that they would always have my back if i ever needed 'em. >> reporter: by september 2000, the camms' seemed to be living a picture perfect life. things were going well at home and at work. kim was a totally engaged mother. david's uncle, sam lockhart saw the camm family all the time. >> great mom. a great mom. she would run those kids everywhere. and the kids, they were like, my grandkids. >> jill, jill. >> little jill, yeah. she --. >> tell me about her. >> she was a character. she really was. just a funny little girl. if she didn't have your attention, she'd get it. >> she was very -- i think she would have been very athletic. she was gifted in that way. >> and brad was the swimmer, right? >> he loved it. he was great at it. being a father, i thought, "this kid's good."

>> reporter: there were gatherings with david's sprawling extended family, the lockharts -- the descendants of nine brothers and sisters on david's mother's side. >> the lockharts were so entrenched in this patch of southern indiana that they had a road named after them. lockhart road. where david's family lived. >> could not have been a better place for us to be when all of this terrible stuff happened. >> reporter: the awful news raced through two families that night. david's sister julie was getting ready to go to bed when the phone rang. >> i said, "what?" "what are you, what are you talking about?" "what are you saying?" >> reporter: julie went straight to her parents' house. >> mom had all of the pictures of brad and jill i guess that she could gather up and was holdin' them. and just sitting on the floor and just rocking and sayin', "my babies." "my babies." "they've killed my babies." "somebody's killed my babies." >> reporter: david sent his uncles to tell kim's parents, janice and frank renn. >> janice, late at night, the doorbell rings, what can this be, huh? >> well, it can't be good. so i go out and i open the door and i see 'em standing out there and i think my mind just went blank. >> and janice yelled for me to get out there.

so i got out there and sam said, "got some bad news." "kim, brad, and jill have been shot." with that, i just kinda slid down to sitting position. i sat there and cried and couldn't believe it. >> reporter: on lockhart road, the sound of sirensfollowed by flashing lights. a homicide investigation was beginning. and david's friends and former colleagues in the indiana state police would be on the front line. something strange at the crime scene. kim's shoes placed neatly on top of the bronco. what could that mean? that's what police want to asked david camm. coming up. >> never. never. >> you saw the shoes up? when "mystery on lockhart road" continues. y on lockhart road" continues. ♪

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>> reporter: a mother, son, and daughter gunned down in the garage of the family home, in a quiet indiana county. the two kids never made it out of the backseat of the bronco. who murdered them? the answer to that question would be the responsibility of the investigators, the indiana state police, and the floyd county prosecutor in southern indiana. >> he got the call at 10 or

10:30 that night. >> did someone from the other end of the phone tell you it's bad? prepare yourself? >> it was horrible, yeah. >> reporter: faith knew immediately that the case would be big. he got to the crime scene asap. the first thing the prosecutor noticed was the ribbon of blood running out of the garage right down the drive. >> i almost stepped in it myself. >> reporter: he could see the wife and mother, kim camm, lying by the open passenger door, her pants removed. it had the signature of a sex-crime, the children killed because they were witnesses. seven-year old brad was on his back, a gray sweatshirt lying by him, an article of clothing that would become hugely important in

time. >> the boy was laying there and his hands were out. and of course i didn't see the little girl, they told me that she was still in the truck. >> reporter: the state police, indiana's top investigative force, had already begun its work. the crime scene techs examined the bronco, took their measurements, and their pictures. stan faith studied the scene. >> was there anything odd or was it --. >> no, no. >> too soon for you to take all that stuff in. >> no, no, no. the thing that struck me the most was how clean the garage was. >> you just don't expect that. >> reporter: some of the troopers in the garage had been fellow officers of the husband, david camm. >> there were a couple that i didn't really recognize. but for the most part throughout the course of the evening, they would be people that i knew.

>> reporter: the trooper who would become the lead investigator, was david's childhood friend. they had the talk right there. >> "dave, you know, we gotta clear you first." and i kept saying, "just do it right," i said that repeatedly. >> reporter: as a former cop, david camm knew the score about spouses. >> you knew because of your experience they always look at the spouse. >> sure. you know, everybody's a suspect. in the beginning, you don't know. >> reporter: but in his case, david thought, it was a by the book formality. he was confident his friends would do all they could to find the killer. >> these were your brothers in uniform, these guys. >> right. >> you'd ridden with them. >> i been to their --. >> you had done a lotta >> homes. they'd --. >> tough stuff with them. >> -- they'd been to my house. we'd eaten together. we knew each other's families. >> reporter: i'm at the indiana state police post and also present is david camm. >> reporter: in this audio tape of his first interview, that night you can hear the troopers handling him with kid gloves out of respect. >> we're gonna try and find out what happened here. so we can bring that person to justice as best we know how. >> just do it and do it right. >> right exactly. >> so just ask me whatever you want to ask me. >> reporter: the questioner walked david through his day and his wife's. as far as david knew, she'd followed her usual busy routine working, then shepherding the kids' around after-school, returning home about 7:30 pm. was the shooter waiting for her in the garage? or did her killer follow her in? the investigators asked david if

anyone had been stalking kim, bothering her. >> if there was, she hadn't said a word. >> how 'bout phone calls? get hang-up phone calls, suspicious phone calls? >> not really. >> reporter: and they wanted to know if the husband could help them understand an oddity about the crime scene. why would kim's shoes have ended up neatly placed atop the roof of the bronco? >> i had no idea why those shoes were sitting there. >> does she ever kick her shoes off when she's driving? >> never seen her take her shoes off, never. >> you saw those shoes though. >> damn straight i did. >> reporter: as the investigators wrapped-up, they made sure david got some fresh clothing because they were sending his blood-speckled sneakers and t-shirt out for testing. >> we'll do everything we can. work as hard as we can to resolve this. >> reporter: the next day the camms' neighbors were absolutely

stunned by a crime of this magnitude in their quiet community. >> it makes no sense you know? there's never been any trouble out here to speak of you know? >> reporter: as the hunt for the killer continued, investigators asked neighbors if they'd seen or heard anything suspicious. >> right now, this is very, very much an open investigation. >> reporter: three days after the murders, david camm faced the cameras. >> i want my family back. i want my babies back. i want my wife back. >> reporter: and he begged the killer to come forward. >> turn yourself in. you can't live with the guilt. what you did was such a irrational, ridiculous, ludicrous, satanic thing. you cannot, you cannot live with that guilt. i'm a mess. i'm on medication. i'm having to buy caskets, i'm having to buy burial plots.

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hi everyone. republican senator lisa murkowski said she was disturbed to hear mitch mcconnell vowed to total coordination between white house and the senate on upcoming impeachment trial. murkowski criticized the process that was conducted in the house. and president trump and the first lady sent messages to the troops overseas in their christmas message released earlier today. the first family thanking the troops for their service. now back to "dateline." service now back to "dateline.

welcome back to "dateline extra." they had been his coworkers. some his friends. police interviewed him with care in the first time around but they were about to bring him in again and this time the move would be decidedly different. here again is dennis whitman. >> reporter: in the days after the murders, two families, the lockharts, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, and kim's family were united in grief. >> we lost three wonderful people that we loved dearly. we don't have them with us today. >> kim, bradley, jill, just like that. gone. >> all gone. >> reporter: david was all but shutting down. >> i'm a mess. i'm on medication. you know, i'm having to buy

caskets, i'm having to buy burial plots. you know i've got all this stuff goin' on. >> reporter: three days after the murders, the indiana state police called david in for a second interview. he sat down with two cops he knew well. he'd been sharing coffee and cases with them for years. >> because of the high profile of this case and because obviously as you know, well, the notoriety, we're doing this all by the numbers. this time the tone of the interview had changed. because now, the investigators did have a working theory of the murders -- and the evidence they were gathering pointed to none other than david camm as the killer. their one time fellow trooper,

their law enforcement brother was now, quite possibly their man, a monster who'd murdered his family. they had a timeline: the murders took place they believed between 9:15 and 9:30 that night, after david returned home. >> people heard something. they thought it was unusual. when we talked to them. they said it sounded like gunfire. >> reporter: the police canvass had turned up a neighbor who heard noises. maybe shots fired. >> they noted the time. the time was when you were already home. >> which was? >> around 9:20, shortly thereafter. >> reporter: david saw where this was going and pushed back.

>> mick, mick. >> this is just the facts. i'm just telling you what we -- you know. >> it's wrong. it is wrong. >> are these people making up this time? >> i'm telling you people are confused. the time element is off. >> reporter: the investigators account had david camm square in the crosshairs: he came home from basketball and killed his family. >> it's not right. it's not right. it's not right. it's not right, guys. you're not right. you're wrong. you're wrong, wrong, wrong. >> the ah -- >> you're wrong darrell. you're wrong. >> well -- >> this is not right. you're gettin off the track. something's not right here. now fix it. >> they told david about physical evidence they'd collected: specks of blood, barely visible to the naked eye, on the bottom of the t-shirt he wore that night. a crime scene expert's science

had already told them: the husband and father did it. >> there's blood on your shirt and then i had the dna analyzed. this is the presumptive test, that it is high velocity blood spatter. it's scientific documentation. the only way that comes on is from blowback or blowout from a gunshot wound. >> reporter: blood spatter: the case against david camm. >> that is supposed to be on my t-shirt that i played ball in? >> it's on, yeah. >> it's wrong, darrell. >> dave. >> it's wrong, guys. >> what do we do when they tell us that? and now we gotta figure out why. >> you better, you better find another expert. >> reporter: but the cops had full confidence in their man. >> i rely on this man and he's, he's very um, well, he's renowned as far as his expertise. this is not something he just started to do yesterday. >> reporter: the noose was tightening even as david protested. >> the t-shirt that i had on is what i had on. that's what i wore over and that's what i wore home. and any blood it's got on it now, came from either an impression of something i leaned, leaned on in the car or it came off from brad himself. >> reporter: and there was more. signs of a clean-up. that had to be david. >> did you clean this, try to clean this up? try to clean some of the blood up or something like that? >> no, no, no. this is ridiculous. >> what about some bleach, dave? >> no, no, no, no, no. no, no, no. no, no, no. i didn't clean up [ bleep ].

somebody may have, but it wasn't me. that person is your suspect. >> reporter: and there was something disturbing the medical examiner found when she looked at jill, the young daughter. signs of blunt trauma in the genital area. to the cops that meant one thing, david camm had molested his daughter. >> if she was molested, it happened that day. that night. that's when it happened. and it wasn't by me. you guys are wrong here. you're wrong, mickey. i did not do this. i did not do this. >> who did do it? >> i don't know, that's why i called you guys. that's what your job, that's what you're supposed to be doing. you're looking so hard at me. >> we're looking at everybody dave, but honestly --. >> but mickey you're so off base. you're so wrong. you're so wrong, mickey. >> edit an arrest warrant, uh, issued out of floyd superior court. >> reporter: hours after his second interview, the indiana

state police arrested david camm and charged him with the murders of his wife and two children. it had been three days since the shootings. >> reporter: accused of murder and the evidence, a phone call. >> this phone call blows up his alibi. >> yes. >> a t-shirt and a parade of women. >> there's people he pulls over, flirts with them and eventually seduces them. he wanted to have women and his wife was getting in the way. >> yes. >> she was an obstacle with the kind of lifestyle he wanted to pursue. >> that's correct. pursue. >> that's correct. ♪ after a night like this, crest has you covered. crest, the official toothpaste of santa. my gums are irritated. i don't have to worry about that, do i? harmful bacteria lurk just below the gum line.

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welcome back. david camm made a public plea

asking the person responsible for taking the lives of his wife and two children to come forward. soon, he would be making a different plea after police arrested him for the crimes. as the trial approached, the prosecution felt their case was strong focussing on the timeline, dna evidence, and a marriage in trouble. but david remained unwavering sure there had to be some kind of mistake. here again is dennis. >> i want my babies back. >> reporter: david camm, once an indiana state trooper, was now locked up in the floyd county jail, charged with the murder of his wife and children. >> tell me about your emotions. >> every time i heard a key jingle outside my door, i would think to myself, "oh, this is it." "they've figured it out",and they're gonna come let me out and say, "dave, we messed up." >> reporter: but that never happened. david's uncle and boss, sam lockhart, a successful local

businessman quickly became his nephew's most passionate advocate. sam had the grit to make his voice heard. >> why did you take on the responsibility, sam, to take it as far as you could? >> i didn't have any other options. i know he's innocent, i know he lost his family. and i know he's lost his freedom. and what am i gonna do? he didn't lose me. >> the focus was so concentrated on david. did you ever think, well, maybe i don't have the picture here? maybe something awful happened, and david snapped, and did indeed kill his family? >> well, i never did think dave killed his family. never. >> you never --. >> never thought it. never did. >> reporter: kim's parents, janice and frank renn, mourning the loss of their daughter and grandchildren, were absorbing the awful facts the police told them: that their son-in-law was the killer. >> janice, they've made an arrest and it's david. >> i was just out of it. then, when it finally did sink in, i was back and forth. >> frank, how about you? what were you -- we're talking

about early days here --. >> yeah, i wasn't 100% sure. i was just goin' by what the police was telling me. >> reporter: before long, the renns became convinced that their son-in-law murdered his family. in january 2002, fifteen months after the murders, david camm went on trial. he pleaded "not guilty." by now, the prosecutor's timeline had changed. originally, he said david killed his family between 9:15 and 9:30 after he returned home from the basketball game. >> and then you backtracked from that? >> we backtracked from that. that's because the defense had shown that the time of death was somewhere between 7:30 and 8pm. >> everything said that this happened much earlier. >> reporter: now, the prosecutor argued, david went to the gym about 7 o'clock, then secretly ducked out of the basketball game, made the 5-minute drive home, killed his family, and returned to play ball. and the prosecutor had proof

that david was home at the time of the murders. there was a call to a customer from his landline phone, time-stamped 7:19 pm. >> so you've got a husband who says, "i was playing basketball at 7. you've got a phone record that says he likely is making a call to a customer landline in his home, so he's not playin' basketball." >> almost certainly, would be the one that was doing it. >> and that this phone call blows up his alibi. >> yes. >> reporter: the prosecutor moved on to the crime scene and focused on what happened to kim in the garage that night. >> we thought the pants had been pulled down. >> --you have accused the husband of the murder. why are you telling the jury that he probably pulled her pants down. >> as part of a staged event. >> reporter: kim had not been raped. but the prosecutor argued her body appeared to have been moved, staged. and a cop would know how to do it. trying to get the jury to think that somebody was in there to molest her. >> that there'd been a break in guy, huh? >> yeah. >> reporter: investigators had never located the murder weapon. the only physical evidence the state had that the gun was in

david camm's hand that night was this barely visible, microscopic droplets of his daughter's blood on the lower left hem of camm's t-shirt. how those drops of blood got there was the crux of the case. >> blowback. this is what happens when you shoot somebody at close range? >> yes. >> you get that blood on your shirt? >> correct. if he got high velocity impact spatter on his t-shirt, then he has to be within four-feet of the child at the time that the child was killed. >> reporter: the prosecution believed david camm shot from inside the car, targeting jill in the back seat. that's how her blood sprayed on his shirt. but why? why would david camm kill his family? the reason for those killings, the prosecutor declared was that david camm was a philandering husband. >> it probably was one of the first times that i really ever heard kim cry. >> reporter: remember kim's old friend marcy mcleod?

the prosecutor had her testify about an affair david had when kim was pregnant in late 1994. marcy told the court that kim called her in tears to say she and david were separating. soon after, marcy visited kim. >> she was upset. you know, and saddened by it, especially just having a baby. >> reporter: and there was more. just three weeks before the murders, marcy had another troubling phone call from kim. >> her demeanor was different, her attitude, and she didn't wanna hang up the phone, but yet she didn't wanna talk. >> reporter: the old friends made plans for kim and the children to visit marcy. then, kim said something she never explained. >> she felt like history was repeating itself. we didn't go into what that meant, because she said, "we'll talk about it when i get there." >> reporter: kim never made it. at trial, the clear implication was that david camm was catting around again. the prosecutor portrayed him as a scoundrel who used his badge to get sex. >> there's people he pulls over, flirts with them, and eventually seduces them. >> reporter: in court, the

prosecutor called a parade of women, presenting them as david camm's conquests. more than a dozen that recounter the fondling, the flirting, and the sex. the stripper in the patrol car. >> he wanted to have women and his wife was gettin' in the way? >> yes, or -- >> that she was an obstacle for the kind of lifestyle that he wanted to pursue, huh? >> that's correct. >> reporter: and if the dalliances with the women weren't enough to suggest motivation to the jury, the prosecutor had a capper. something really dreadful: the medical examiner's testimony that injuries observed on the murdered daughter, five-year old jill, were consistent with sexual abuse. >> so, not a little girl falling on the monkey bars? >> no, it wasn't monkey bars. wasn't a bicycle. anything like that. >> reporter: so there was the prosecution's accused: womanizer. child-molestor. the killer with blowback bloodspatter on his t-shirt. the defense lawyers had their work cut out for them. >> you had an uphill fight as the defense attorney? >> oh yes, sir. yes. and that's not unusual but this one was just so much more high

profile. >> coming up. >> i believe it was totally founded on things that weren't factual and it was complete fiction. >> the timeline of the crime. >> that was their smoking gun. they had a bunch of those. every time they had a smoking gun -- >> the defense is about to stop the clock. when "mystery on lockhart road" continues. e clock. when "mystery on lockhart road" continues. it's the next one. you always drive this slow? how did you make someone i love? that must be why you're always so late. i do not speed. and that's saving me cash with drivewise. my son, he did say that you were the safe option. and that's the nicest thing you ever said to me. so get allstate. stop bossing. where good drivers save 40% for avoiding mayhem, like me. this is my son's favorite color, you should try it. [mayhem] you always drive like an old lady? [tina] you're an old lady.

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welcome back. the prosecution had made their case that former state trooper david camm murdered mahis famil claiming he was a serial cheater. the motive, his family was getting in the way of his playboy lifestyle, they would argue. now it was the defense's turn, and they would pick apart the defense's timeline, offering an

alibi and an alternate suspect. so who was this new mystery person? here again is dennis murphy. >> reporter: the trial of david camm was underway in floyd county indiana. it was the winter of 2002. nervous to see that those men and women that will decide your fate? >> david camm, accused of murdering his wife and two young children, always insisted the case against him was built on quicksand. >> it's about them crafting and molding a belief that was totally founded on things that weren't factual. and it was just a complete fiction. >> reporter: david's defense attorney was mike mcdaniel, now deceased. he told us he had known david as a trooper. >> what impressions did you have of david before he became a client? >> uh, i figured he was another redneck state cop. we'd done a couple of cases together. him on one side, me on the other. >> reporter: but mcdaniel became convinced of david's innocence

and came on board to defend him. >> this is one of those terrible cases that a defense lawyer never wants. you don't want an innocent client. you call them a "ravager," because they make you crazy. >> reporter: at trial, mcdaniel knew he had to confront all those women, but how? the defense could only flinch and take the body blows to camm's character. the jury's getting a picture of this hard-working wife, nose to the grindstone, taking care of the babies, running the household? >> yep. >> reporter: while he's out with pole dancers? >> yep. on duty. you got 13 women coming in there and with varying degrees of sexual contact or innuendo. another trooper's wife, for god's sakes. >> reporter: not a good set of facts? >> not a good set of facts. >> the defense pulled out potentially its strongest weapon and put david on the stand to say that he knew that he'd messed up. >> you know, i regret all that stuff. it's so unfortunate the disrespect that i showed my wife. but good god, we don't jump from that to saying that automatically makes a person a murderer. it's just ridiculous.

>> reporter: then the defense had to confront the ugly allegation that 5-year-old jill camm had been molested. but, in fact, the medical examiner's report had not actually said that. it simply stated the girl's bruises were the result of blunt trauma. the defense argued the bruises happened during the attack. still it was tough going. we've got a guy who seems to have a lot of girlfriends. there may be some evidence here of child molestation. this is a very, very tough thing to combat, dave. >> it is. it's virtually impossible. >> having done its best to hammer the state's case for motive, the defense turned to the physical evidence. the state's strongest evidence, the forensic case for david's guilt, wupz was the blood spatter. a defense expert testified the blood got on david's t-shirt very simply, when david reached in to the back seat to move his son, his shirt brushed against his daughter's hair. >> there were tiny droplets of blood on some of her hair around the wound so defense testimony was that was transfer from

contact with the ends of the strands of hair. >> and then the timeline. the defense lawyer challenged the prosecution's theory that david snuck out in the middle of his basketball game, killed his family and then returned to play ball. the defense attorney focused on the phone call made from the camm house at 7:19 pm, when david said he was at the church gym. the state had tethered its timeline to that phone call. >> that was their smoking gun which they had a bunch of those and every time they have a smoking gun, we'd just unload it. >> the defense "unloaded" by calling a witness from verizon who testified that its timestamp was incorrect, because of indiana's jumbled time zones. >> so their 7:19 phone call actually was my 6:19 phone call. >> a call david made to a client before he left to play ball. and even more important, david had a solid alibi.

eleven eyewitnesss, the basketball players, to corroborate his story that he had been at the gym throughout the early evening. did he leave the court that night? >> no. >> he couldn't have left without one of you guys? >> without one, because i would see him at one point in time running down the court. and then maybe jeff would of saw him at another point in time. so throughout that time there's ten sets of eyes looking in different directions. as a group, i think someone would've noticed that he was missing. >> sam lockhart, the uncle, was playing ball that night, too. sam, the basketball games, is it possible dave could have slipped away? >> is it possible that he snuck out, was gone 10 or 15 minutes, killed his family and snuck back in without any one of us noticing it? absolutely not. that's impossible. >> but if david wasn't the killer, then who was? the defense had its answer. it was the person who owned that gray sweatshirt. the one that was lying by brad's body on the garage floor the night of the murders. defense attorney, mike mcdaniel,

had recognized the sweatshirt as prison issue. >> in the collar of the sweatshirt is the word, "backbone." and i'm thinking, "okay. that's a nickname." >> tests on that sweatshirt revealed dna from various people, including an unknown male. but the prosecutor said there was no match when that male dna was run through the national database. still it seemed to be a breakthrough for team david. proof that someone else was in the garage that night. >> we knew that that was probably the key to solving this. now, we didn't know that person by name. by god, we knew them by dna profile. >> finally, it was up to the jurors. as reporters lingered in the hallway, the jury deliberated for three days. >> guilty. guilty. >> david camm was found guilty of killing his wife and children. frank, the jury comes back and guilty as charged. >> yeah, that's what we wanted. and now we felt like, you know, kim, brad and jill, they can be at rest now.

>> but from david's sister, an emotional outburst. >> they're wrong. they don't know. they're wrong. >> before i even knew it i was standing up and i was screaming, "you're wrong. you're wrong. you're wrong. you're wrong." and a few people had to take me out of the courtroom. >> and you're being walked off in chains. you're not leaving that courthouse. >> right. and knowing what lies ahead of me, you know, going to prison. a former police officer. but there's absolutely nothing i can do about it. >> david camm was sent to the state penitentiary to serve a term of one-hundred and ninety-five years. but his uncle sam was hanging in. you didn't think you were finished at that point? >> unless they had killed me, that's how they could have stopped me, they could have killed me. no, it wasn't over. >> maybe not, but david camm was facing 195 years behind bars. >> you were sent to the slammer, you're learning how to become incarcerated. >> i had to. i didn't have a choice. i had to figure out how to

survive and i made my mind up early on, that's what i was going to do. >> did you get confronted inside the joint. this is the guy that was a former cop, trooper? >> not directly, but people would say things or you would hear people talking and so on. >> did you think, "i'm done"? >> you know what, i was just bewildered at first, but i didn't know there was still a possibility or some glimmer of hope that there's this thing called an appeal. >> a successful appeal, another trial. most cling futilely to that straw. >> overturning a first-degree murder conviction, long odds. >> yes, until you read that transcript. >> a new legal team with a different strategy was about to take the case to the state court of appeals. >> david camm's new lawyers have a hunch which leads them to a new name, a potential suspect with a criminal history. could the discovery break the case wide open. coming up -- >> he has a foot fetish and so when they thought at first that

it was not a sex crime, we had kept saying, well, not everybody targets the same place in sex crimes. >> who is this guy? >> as brainy as ted bundy and as brawny as mike tyson. he's a sociopath. >> when "mystery on lockhart road" continues. >> when "mystert road" continues. most people think of verizon as a reliable phone company. but to businesses, we're a reliable partner. we keep companies ready for what's next. (man) we weave security into their business. (second man) virtualize their operations. (woman) and build ai customer experiences.