what goes on behind the closed doors of a marriage is not always parent. something wasn't right. she was just unconscious. >> he was telling me he couldn't love another woman as much as he loved her. good did she have an aneurysm? a seizure? >> police were baffled. >> i expected thing to be wet. >> things were not adding up. >> i love her.

i would never hurt her. >> i remember crying because i felt so bad for him. >> there's no chance he had anything to do with it. >> three trials and three juries. >> we're scared the truth may not come out. sometimes the shades are drawn early on a marriage even for those so in love like newly weds. everything was still fresh. after his work day as a sports planner, he plauped down to chill with the bengals against green bay. a young hygienist.

they had been married just under four months. they vowed to death unto us part and that moment was only minutes away from arrival. they began on a blind date. sarah had an irngling they would hit it off. >>. >> i said i think their personalities would get along. >> what happened is chemistry. the laid back jock super organized sarah who needed everything just so >> so she gets out her black book and he's peeking over, looking and later he calls us

and says you know there was nothing written in her black book. >> it was a fast-track courtship and before long, he was bringing his new girlfriend home to meet his mom, jill. >> i liked her a lot. what struck me was how beyond maturity she was. sarah didn't have a problem telling anyone anything. so if you made sarah made, you knew you made sarah mad. >>. >> ryan never seemed to lose it. >> so go with the flow and organized. this is where we have to be. >> jill enjoyed her days with ryan and his new girlfriend, sarah. >> our family does a lot of family barbecues and picnics and things like that. they would come down there. >> were you pleased she was

becoming a serious part of the family? >> very pleased. >> reporter: the inseparable couple got a three-bedroom house together. and he surprised her with an engagement ring. >> he was very excited. sarah made him happy. >> and soon the wedding invitations were in the mail. >> she's a planner. she wanted to make sure all the girls wore the same dress and eye shadow. >> ryan was just as happy -- happier than i've ever seen him with her. >> it cost her a big screen tv but she got ryan to take ballroom dance lessons for the wedding. >> she could get him to do more things than any woman he had ever dated.

>> the wedding was a formal affair. ryan's dance went off without a hitch and the bridesmaids matched as sarah wanted. and she was gorgeous. then to costa rica and back home. >> he had everything. >> august 11th, monday night, ryan remembers being down stairs watching monday night football. sarah went upstairs to a bath. she was in trouble. >> my wife, i think she just

fell asleep in the bath tub. i was down stairs. >> i got call from ryan. something's happened to sarah. frrms >> they didn't get a response. >> finally a woman came in and we said is she gone and she said yes. he drop said down to his knees and was balling and sobbing >> sarah, the bride of less than four months, was dead. her husband, ryan told emergency services people he thought she fell asleep in the bathtub and drown. they tried everything they could to save her, didn't understand one crucial observation they made at the home. there's something here that doesn't look right. coming up a drowning in a dry bathroom? >> i expected something to be

wet. there's a towel on the floor and a matte but everything is dry. a matte but everything is dry. find your rhythm. your happy place. find your breaking point. then break it. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best, with emergen-c. with air wick essential mist. nature it transforms natural essential oils into mist.

experience the latest in air care by air wick. it'scan it helphe january sale keep me asleep?mber 360 smart bed. absolutely, it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. save $1,000 on the sleep number 360 special edition smart bed.

plus, free premium delivery when you add a base. ends monday. and with the sxfinity stream app, screen is your big screen. which is free with your service, you can take a spin through on demand shows, or stream live tv. download your dvr'd shows and movies on the fly. even record from right where you are. whether you're travelling around the country or around the house, keep what you watch with you. download the xfinity stream app and watch all the shows you love.

>> reporter: that monday night the cincinnati bengals were looking more than decent against green bay. fans across town, like jeff braley, wondered if this could finally be a miracle season for the back-then hapless local franchise of the nfl. but braley didn't get to see all of the game. he was a cop, a detective. and you don't get to pick your down time. >> i've was at home watching the bengals game. i get a call from the sergeant. "lieutenant, we're out on a drowning. the paramedics are working on her. but something's not right here." >> reporter: as he rolled to the house he knew some of what to expect. when you are a cop more than a decade you become familiar with the signs of the drowning like

the froth about the victim's nose and mouth. >> your mind starts running immediately about possibilities. they initially tell me i have a 24-year-old drowning victim that died in the tub. i'm thinking that we will find evidence of something. drugs. evidence of an overdose or something. as he pulled up the victim was already loaded in the back of the ambulance. the arriving police officer was still inside the house. and he gave the detective a fill on what he had found when he was led to the master bedroom where the 24-year-old woman lay on the carpet off the bath. >> he felt for a pulse. he assisted with cpr on what he described as a completely dry body with her hair being only damp. >> wet head, dry body. >> correct. >> for some one who drowned in a bathtub full of water. >> yes. >> go ahead and get her out of bathtub and get her on the flat surface. >> okay, okay. >> the 911 dispatcher had been quite clear. he instructed the husband to get his wife out of the bathtub and put her on the floor. >> i'm dropping the phone. >> the husband went away and came back to say he moved his

wife from the tub to the bedroom. >> go ahead and get back to cpr. try cpr. we'll be there in a little bit. >> reporter: the detective wondered along with the emts and arriving officers why a woman who drowned in a bathtub would be mostly dry. he needed to see the scene. what story would it tell him. >> i start mentally preparing myself based on what they told me. what do i want to see versus what do i see? >> he headed for the master bathroom. >> i expected something to be wet. expected water on the floors or towels or whatever it might be. it is not there. >> dry-dry. >> there is a small remnant of water, what you might call droplets on the bottom of the tub around the drain. other than that there is nothing. >> you got any bath mats. wet towels on the floor. >> there is a towel on the floor. a mat on the floor. everything is dry. >> reporter: he had a drowning victim that didn't appear to be wet. someone that supposedly fell

asleep in the tub and pitched down in the water. but a bathroom that was dry and undisturbed though presumably the husband had to wrangle her limp body out of the tub as he moved her to the bedroom. >> whether it's lotions, soap, whatever is on the side they weren't knocked off. that bothered me if you are pulling somebody quickly out of the tub. that's still together. >> the detective making mental notes. >> something was screaming to me something is bad wrong, something bad really, really, really bad has happened here. more so than just a tragic accident where she drowned. >> the forensic techs arrived and were taking photos. cutting out sections of the bedroom carpet where the mixture of blood and fluid common in drownings had stained it. what they wondered was there another explanation for the stains. >> they wanted to get the things to our lab right away to start, start checking out some things. >> reporter: though it was early hours in an incident. so much would depend on the findings of an autopsy, the detective knew this was not a case that was going to be closed out that night. >> when i left the house at 2:00

a.m., i knew i had a suspicious death. still there were questions -- how long had sarah been out of the tub? and had she been out of the tub long enough for her body to air dry? >> it wasn't possible. you know if you are pulling somebody directly out of a tub of water the body has to be wet. no other way around it. unless a substantial amount of time has passed or we're not being told an accurate story of what transpired. >> question -- was it possible for ryan to lift sarah out of the tub without knocking over those bottles that the detective noted were undisturbed? was it possible for water not to be splashed around as she was moved to the bedroom? and that overriding question -- what had happened to the young wife in the master bedroom? >> we knew she had drowned from the scene itself. it was the manner in which she drowned that had raised all the questions. >> but detective braley would have the most questions for the seemingly happily married husband. was it possible there was stress in the marriage that no one knew about? >> i had to rely on the fact in

the back of my mind that nobody knows what goes on behind closed doors. coming up, was there something medical behind this mystery. what'd we decide on the flyers again? uh, "fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance." i think we're gonna swap over to "over seventy-five years of savings and service." what, we're just gonna swap over? yep. pump the breaks on this, swap it over to that. pump the breaks, and, uh, swap over? that's right. instead of all this that i've already-? yeah. what are we gonna do with these? keep it at your desk, and save it for next time. geico. over 75 years of savings and service. introducing new vicks vapopatch

easy to wear, with soothing vicks vapors for her, for you, for the whole family. new vicks vapopatch. breathe easy.

>> reporter: sarah widmer had died of drowning in her home. and her body would be examined by the coroner. there was nothing for ryan, her

husband of four months, to do but leave the hospital and head home. his mother, jill, took him back to the house in the wee hours. ryan asked me, mom i can't go back in there. can you go in and grab clothes for me. so i want upstairs. when i got to the bedroom. there were a couple pieces of carpet cut out of their carpeting which i thought was odd. >> it hadn't occurred to mother or son that the authorities were looking at sarah's death as anything but a tragic explainable incident of some sort. >> there were a million questions in our mind, did she have an aneurysm, did something medically happen to her? did she have a seizure? >> reporter: day light and word was spreading that sarah was gone. dana and chris, the couple who had fixed the newlywed up could not believe what they were hearing. >> we had just gotten back from a trip and told her i would call her as soon as we got back and we would get together to dinner. i didn't get a chance. >> shocking news.

>> reporter: dana, a nurse, tried to make sense of what had happened to her dear friend. she thought back to her conversations with sarah. >> she was complaining of headaches, saying what do you think of her medical background? i said, maybe you should get your blood pressure checked, i said, you should get a checkup. >> there was that funny trait sarah used to have that people would kid her about, that she would fall asleep at the drop of a hat. maybe it was part of an underlying condition that explained her death. her mother-in-law noticed it when she first got to know sarah. jill was taking home videos in 2007. >> i panned over, there's sarah having a good time. sarah was sound asleep in the family room. there were 15 or 20 people in the room, laughing, talking, kids running around, and sarah went to sleep. >> sarah snoozing in the car.

friends kidded her about it. >> she would always fall asleep at the beginning of movies, we would be nudging her, sarah, wake up. >> with an it so noticeable, you guys joked about it? >> even at the dinner table, we would be saying, sarah, don't fall asleep. >> i would say, sarah, you have narcolepsy. she said, no. >> had she fallen asleep and drowned in the tub? was that possible? ryan thought so. he said as much to the 911 dispatchers. >> my wife fell asleep in the bathtub, i think she's dead. >> but all the observations about sarah was just anecdotal information, not the stuff of real medical investigation. the medical examiner would have the first real results about sarah's death. what was he finding? >> no evidence of stroke, no evidence of a heart attack. >> but the medical examiner had discovered something else. bruising to sarah's head and neck.

what had caused those injuries? the investigators checked off what they had so far. a young woman supposedly drowned in the bathtub with a damp head of hair and a dry body. it didn't figure. >> if you're pulling somebody out of a tub of water, it has to be wet. there's no way around it. >> a woman with unexplained bruises. and a husband whose story they didn't believe. >> ryan's story doesn't fit at all. we determined at that point we had a homicide. >> sarah murdered. and the authorities believed her husband ryan did it. how shocking is that to you? >> oh, i can't even tell you. >> they charge ryan with murder. >> i mean, you've got to be kidding me. like why would they think -- why? and i can't even tell you what that was like. so on top of losing this beautiful member of our family, he didn't even get a chance to grieve because now we're scared to death and he's scared to death that he's going to be charged with murder. >> and that is exactly what

would happen. just two days after his new bride's death, a warrant was issued for ryan widmer's arrest. >> by ryan's admission, he was the only one in the house. ryan murdered sarah or he's covering for somebody that did. >> it didn't seem possible at first glance. a clean cut young couple, whim out a criminal record of any kind, them with no history of arguments, no problems in their marriage. what was the motivate for murder on a monday night? any boyfriend/girlfriend issues here? >> no evidence of that. >> money trouble? >> not that we can find. >> any anger issues with the guy? >> no. >> you're not getting a negative picture of this couple.

>> no, we're not. >> as unlikely as it may seem, police say there's no other explanation for sarah's death. ryan is charged with his wife's murder. his family and friends were devastated. >> ryan and i were both so broken hearted. i could not have ever conceived, nor could ryan, that they would have had any idea that he would have been the person to hurt her and that it wasn't just a tragic accident. >> it broke my heart, knowing that he was feeling that grief and fear for his own life too. >> is there any moment when you think maybe i don't know the guy? >> never. >> maybe an instant of something awful happened? >> he never said anything where he was remotely angry. >> even sarah's family was behind ryan. so much so, the two families decided to delay sarah's funeral until ryan was out on bond. >> sarah's family were very livid about the fact that he wasn't guilty and they weren't going to go forward with the service until ryan could be there. >> the families are both on the same page here. >> yes. >> that you're four-square behind ryan. >> mm-hmm.

>> and you're not going to even grieve together formally until he's there with you. >> right. >> the dead woman's brother, mike stewart, asked the judge to lower ryan's bond amount so he could attend the funeral. >> in our heart of hearts, we don't believe ryan would do this. >> but eight days before the judge lowered ryan's bond from $1 million to $400,000. by then it was too late. the funeral had already been held so out of town relatives could return home. >> it was a nice ceremony. her brother got up and said a few nice words. and i know that ryan wrote a letter that was read during the service. the minister that did their wedding did her funeral as well. >> chris and dana grieved for sarah. but also tried to comfort a shattered ryan. >> i remember him telling me, dana, i love her so much. >> ryan was so distraught, he felt he couldn't go back to the home he had bought with sarah. so while he waited for his trial date, he moved in with his mother. >> it was great to have him

staying with me, but -- >> there's only one topic in the household, huh? >> there's two. trying to grieve for sarah, at the same time this young man who lost the love of his love, he's trying to grieve for his wife and he's got a murder charge hanging over his head that he might go to prison the rest of his life. >> ryan wondered why couldn't everybody just see that he loved his wife and the death wasn't murder? the case goes to court and outcomes the evidence. >> it would be virtually impossible for somebody to fall asleep and not wake up.

it's tough to quit smoking cold turkey. so chantix can help you quit slow turkey.

along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting so when the day arrives, you'll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or life-threatening allergic and skin reactions. decrease alcohol use. use caution driving or operating machinery. tell your doctor if you've had mental health problems. the most common side effect is nausea. talk to your doctor about chantix.

they announced they'll begin screening.

the sitsy is at the center of a mysterious pr mysterious respiratory virus. and winter weather alerts. snow, ice and high blizzard conditions in minnesota, north dakota and northern iowa. now back to "dateline." ♪ sarah was wonderful, the most loving person. >> sarah widmer had been a daughter, a wife, a loyal friend in her brief life. but in death, to those who would never know her, she would become simply the victim. the case could be summarized as briefly as a true crime paperback: the bathtub murder. radio host bill cunningham could feel the court of public opinion respond to the story. the bathtub murder case had the

phone ringing. >> the idea that such a young man could be watching a bengals game and turn within seconds from a bengals fan to a murder is shocking. i had a large number of callers who said to me, he didn't it, he doesn't fit the profile, there was no history. i said, wait a minute, wait until the trial takes place. i'm led to believe there is going to be clear and convincing evidence. >> seven months after sarah's death, the only jury that mattered was sworn in to hear the case against 28-year-old ryan widmer, a charge of aggravated murder. his friends stuck by him. >> his life hangs in the balance of 12 jurors. >> that's a scary thought. >> sarah's family sat across from ryan's as they had the previous you're during the fairy tale wedding.

for sarah's mom, the situation seemed to get stranger by the minute. her son on trial for murder. >> i see my scared baby is what i see. i mean, he was scared to death. >> but the prosecution's message for the jury was blunt. there had been a violent confrontation in the widmer house that night. >> ryan widmer purposely killed sarah stewart widmer and murdered her by drowning. >> the prosecutors began with the first moments of the case. ryan's call to 911. >> my wife, she fell asleep in the bathtub, i think. i was downstairs. i came up here and she was laying face down in the bathtub. >> the emergency dispatcher testified that the voice was giving more details than normal. >> the caller was rather calm. usually i can't get anything out of them. >> she's in the bathtub?

>> the water is draining right now. i was out there watching tv. she falls asleep in the tub all the time. >> to the prosecutors, the husband was trying to place himself as far away as possible from the bathroom where sarah had died. >> he really gives very little information about her condition. it's more important for him to say i wasn't there and i don't have anything to do with this. >> and could sarah even be dead face down in the bathtub? could a body contort that way? >> that seems an odd position for somebody who has, quote, fallen asleep, to be face down with your face near the faucet. >> in terms of the possibilities of how -- the enclosed space of the bathtub is shorter than she is long. >> we're not talking about an mcmansion whirlpool tub. >> right. >> so much of the case was built upon the observation of first responding officers and emergency responders.

they noted not only was ryan not wet. this man who had lifted his wife's body out of the tub just minutes before they arrived. sarah was also mostly dry. >> i noticed her body was dry. her hair was damp. >> others on the scene corroborated this observation. damp head, dry body. >> things were not adding up. it would seem to me her body would have been wet, the floor would have been wet, the carpet would have been wet. >> you're talking about from the time he says i'm taking her out of this bathtub to the time that other people are there, her hair is described as simply damp, not even wet. the carpet's not wet. there's not water dripping off of her hair onto the rest of her body. the floor is not wet. >> the officer noticed something else. the victim's fingers and toes. we all know what happens to them when they've been soaking in a bathtub. >> it was my understanding she had been in the water 20 to 30 minutes. i would have thought that her fingers would have been pruned up, her toes would have been pruned up. >> did you see any indication of that? >> no.

>> from simple observations, the murder case had grown. the jury was being told that ryan widmer's story didn't jive with what he had told officers. that raised a question for the jury. is it possible that this young woman who drowned had never been in the tub in the first place? >> the bottom line is there would have been water everywhere. if there wasn't, it was cleaned up. if there was a cleanup, then there was something to hide. that was her murder. >> an expert witness for the prosecution spoke to the issue of whether a person can actually fall asleep in a bathtub and drown in a bathtub. her testimony was no, that can't happen. >> it would be virtually impossible for somebody without the influence of drugs or alcohol or something external to fall asleep and not wake up. so first, the sensation of water on your face would wake you up. two would be the gag reflex,

water entering your airway, just choking. three, if for some reason, that didn't, the drop in oxygen would cause you to wake up. >> but maybe sarah hadn't fallen asleep. perhaps she had suffered a catastrophic but perfectly natural event. something to her heart, her brain. the coroner didn't find any. >> any evidence of heart problems? >> no. >> any evidence of brain injury or seizure? >> no. >> one of the amazing things about sarah widmer is that she had regular medical care, for a person her age, she went twice in two years for a regular physical. this is not a person who didn't have the opportunity to interact with her medical professionals. >> and to the coroner, the bruising he saw on sarah's neck and scalp while performing the autopsy looked ominous. the wounds significant, and not in the right spot to have been caused by the emts' lifesaving efforts. >> things that were most

disconcerning were three bruises able to be seen on the right side of the scalp, another faint bruise on her forehead. she's got a significant degree of neck hemorrhage. she's undergone significant cpr. however there is no hemorrhage anywhere in the area of the chest. so it's difficult to try to rationalize that the hemorrhage in her neck can be the result of cpr. >> as the coroner saw it, the significant bruising on sarah's neck was caused by ryan's forceful drowning of her. >> do you have an opinion as to the manner of sarah's death? >> yes. the manner of death was homicide. >> and that took prosecutors into the realm of speculation. what had happened in the bedroom that night if sarah hadn't drowned by herself in the bathtub? this forensic pathologist had one scenario explaining a damp head but dry body. >> her head was pushed over the edge of either the bathtub or the sink or the toilet, either forwards or backwards, either into water or under running

water. that's how she died. >> experts also noticed these invisible prints, not able to be seen by the naked eye. the prints were most likely made by a small person. if ryan had forced her over the side of the tub, had she tried to brace herself as she was pushed into the water? >> to my experience, those look like prints going in a downward motion. >> how do you fight back? keep your head out of the water? put your hands against the tub, or put your hands on the bottom of the tub? do you grasp at somebody and lose your only hold on life? >> a stark image, a husband pushing his wife's head underwater and holding her there until she drowned. >> she had been subjected to forcibly holding her throat over

some object. >> the jury had to wonder what the motivation could be for such an awful crime. sarah's mother was now testifying for the prosecution. she said when she was out shopping with sarah, her daughter seemed to feel she needed to check everything with ryan who could see her purchases on his computer. >> she would buy something, ryan would call her as soon as she bought it, sometimes, telling her did you really need it, why did you buy it or something. he thought she was spending too much money. >> he was very concerned about her shopping habits. >> correct. there were still stresses, things going on in their family. >> even the prosecutors had to acknowledge that this didn't necessarily add up to a clear motive for murder. but they believed there were things happening in the little house that no one but sarah or ryan knew about. >> anybody who has been married or in a relationship knows that what goes on behind the closed doors of a marriage is not always apparent to the outside. >> but was the prosecution's case too thin? too much observation lite with not enough persuasive hard evidence?

the defense would argue passionately that it was and that ryan had nothing to do with his wife's sudden death. coming up, ryan's side of the story. sarah's friends take the stand. in walmart. d now enjoy a bonus gift card up to $100... ...when you file taxes with jackson hewitt -and get part of your refund on a walmart gift card. get your bonus at jackson hewitt at walmart. your cold's gonna make you a zombie tomorrow. wrong. new mucinex nightshift fights my cold symptoms so i can sleep great and wake up human. don't eat me i taste terrible. fight your worst symptoms so you can sleep great and wake up human. new mucinex nightshift cold and flu. medicare alone only covers 80% of your costs, leaving you to pay the rest. with so many changes, do you know if your plan is still the right fit? having the wrong plan may cost you thousands of

dollars out-of-pocket. and that's why i love healthmarkets, your insurance marketplace. with their new fitscore, they compare thousands of plans from national insurance companies to find the right medicare plan that fits you. call or visit healthmarkets to find your fitscore today. in minutes, you can find out if your current plan is the right fit, or if there's another one that can get you extra coverage, or help save you money. best of all, their service is completely free. does your plan have $0 copays, $0 deductibles, and $0 premiums? if not, maybe it's not the right fit. does it include dental and vision coverage? well, if not, maybe it's not the right fit. how about hearing aids, glasses, and gym memberships at no additional cost? maybe there's a better fit for you. call healthmarkets now, or visit healthmarkets.com for your free fitscore. we can instantly compare thousands of medicare plans with all of these benefits and more, including plans that may let you keep your doctor and save money. don't waste another minute not knowing if you have

the right medicare fit. for this free service, go to healthmarkets.com, or call right now. having helped enroll people in millions of policies with an a plus customer satisfaction rating, you can trust healthmarkets. don't assume that your plan is still the right fit. the healthmarkets fitscore makes it easy to find the right medicare plan for you. healthmarkets doesn't just work for one insurance company. they work to help you, and they do it all for free. your insurance marketplace. healthmarkets. call now to take advantage of this free service. now is the time to update your coverage or enroll for the first time. call healthmarkets now. hey. ♪hey. you must be steven's phone.

now you can take control of your home wifi and get a notification the instant someone new joins your network... only with xfinity xfi. download the xfi app today.

what was the toughest thing you had to surmount? >> that we had a lovely 24-year-old woman who was dead and no one could explain why. >> the defense wasn't going to be able to tell the jury what caused sarah widmer to drown that night. but they were going to show that ryan widmer had no reason to hurt his wife. and as far as damp hair/dry body, they would explain that. the bottom line for the defense -- >> i know one thing. ryan widmer had nothing to do with his wife's death. >> ryan widmer's defense attorney argued his client was plagued from the get-go by the unhappy choice of words on that 911 call. >> she falls asleep in the tub all the time. >> had ryan told the 911 dispatcher only that his wife was unconscious, it wouldn't have been suspicious. >> the only thing ryan knows is, she fell asleep in the tub. they jump on that and say he's a liar. >> the coroner, his attorneys says, was all too quick to rule the death a homicide. >> he had no idea she was suffering from a headache that day. >> remember, an expert witness for the prosecution said it would have been impossible for

sarah to fall asleep and die in the tub. but those who knew her sleep habits say it may have been a sign of an undiagnosed, underlying medical condition. sarah's boss, a dentist, testified sarah's quirky sleep habits were well-known around the office. >> she would go to her car and take a nap. that's odd because people don't usually do that. >> the dentist recollected that sarah had not been feeling well on that last day of her life. >> she had a sore throat. >> she was still feeling crummy later in the evening when she spoke to a friend. >> she had a headache and the

back of her neck was hurting. she sounded tired. she didn't sound like she felt very good. >> sarah turning off the day and retreating to her bathtub? that sounded just like the sarah they knew. >> she would always leave our house and say she had to get home and take a bath. >> sarah dozing off in the tub was a trait that her friend from childhood days was very familiar with. >> she had fallen asleep in the bathtub before. we had talked about that, because i had fallen asleep in the bathtub too. >> the sleeping habits, the headaches. the defense claimed they could have been the symptoms of an underlying and potentially fatal condition that went undetected, something an otherwise healthy young woman wouldn't take that seriously. even with all their scientific art, argued the defense, sometimes pathologists simply cannot say why a person died. a doctor who specializes in emergency medicine testified that unexplained deaths occur far more often than many of us would guess. >> nationwide, there are

approximately 300,000 episodes of sudden death per year. of those episodes, 1 to 2% occur in young people. one-third of those young people that die have normal autopsies. >> in other words, people sometimes just die, and their autopsies may never reveal the cause. but the issue that might decide the case was the observation by the arriving officers and emts of damp hair and dry body. what looks suspicious was easily explainable, says the defense. hair simply stays wet longer. >> if you get out of a pool or bathtub, the skin dries before the hair? >> yes. >> the defense told the court you have to look at the clops, the elapsed time of the incident. the defense claims sarah's body dried off in the time between when ryan spoke to the dispatcher and when the police arrived. what about the fingers and toes

that should have been pruned up but weren't? no one knows what time sarah got into the tub. >> we don't know if she was primping in front of the mirror. we don't know any of that stuff. >> and by the way, says the defense, you can't have it both ways. if ryan had killed sarah in the small bathroom, there should have been water splashed everywhere. >> if there was a violent struggle, there would be water, on the floor, on the walls, on the counter, everywhere. if they want to claim that it was a staged scene where he cleaned up the water, where is the wet towel? >> and investigators looked for wet towels. in the dryer, even in the garage. nothing. and say for argument's sake there had been a struggle. you would think ryan would have gotten scratched up as sarah fought for her life. but ryan didn't have a mark on him. how would sarah have reacted? >> sarah was a very spunky person and she was small in stature, probably 5'1". i think she weighed around 140 pounds.

but she wasn't frail by any stretch of the imagination. she was a strong girl. >> she would have gone for her attacker? >> i heartily believe, yes. she had beautiful french manicured nails. none of them were damaged at all. she didn't have skin from ryan underneath her. >> and the very notion of ryan attacking sarah is preposterous, say their friends. >> ryan is a lot like my husband in the aspect of, when there's an argument, chris says, okay, what can we do to fix it and let's move on. that's kind of how ryan was. >> as far as accounting for the bruising noted to her neck and scalp, to the defense, they were certainly caused by the emts working on sarah. >> 45 minutes of resuscitation efforts. not five, not ten. 45 minutes. >> it looked perfectly consistent to this emergency room doctor, an expert for the defense.

>> i was not surprised at the injuries at all based on the prolonged cpr and the number of intubation attempts. >> add it all up, results of lifesaving efforts, skin that may well have dried before the authorities show up, and you are left, the defense argued, with an unexplained death, something that experts tell you happened. and jurors, the reason you didn't hear about love affairs or out of control finances is because none of those things existed. >> motive. they don't have motive. >> it didn't add up that this man of 27 years who has never even shown anger in his entire life would all of a sudden kill his wife. it made no sense. >> i hope that you agree that ryan widmer is not guilty of any wrongdoing. >> what the prosecution would tell the jury in its closing argument was that while they may never know if ryan killed his wife of four months, that he

nonetheless did, and that the clock was ticking as he staged his scene before calling 911, and that explains the dry body/damp hair mystery. >> sarah widmer was either out of the bathtub for a long period of time or her body was never fully in that bathtub. >> they claim ryan spent so much time cleaning up the scene before he called for emts, that sarah's dead body was showing signs of rigor mortis when they arrived. >> she was already dead, 42 had difficult intubating her because her chin kept wanting to fall. rigor mortis setting in. >> now it was up to the jury to decide. >> we're scared that the truth may not come out. >> the verdict and the controversy. the

controversy. ips, your lips have a unique print and unique needs your lips are like no others, and need a lip routine that's just right for you chapstick has you covered chapstick. put your lips first. where does your almondmilk almond breeze starts here with our almond trees in our blue diamond orchard in california. my parents' job is to look after them. and it's my job to test the product. the best almonds make the best almondmilk. blue diamond almond breeze. there he is. oh, wow. you're doing, uh, you're doing really great with the twirling. dad, if you want to talk, i have a break at 3:00. okay, okay. i'm going. i'm gone. like -- like i wasn't here. [ horn honks ] keep -- keep doing it, buddy. switch to progressive and you can save hundreds. you know, like the sign says.

switch to progressive and you can save hundreds. ♪ ♪ there are a lot of ways to be fit. ♪ ♪ with more than twenty delightful, protein-packed flavors, light & fit greek yogurt can help you add some light to however you stay fit. ♪ ♪

about the only fact of the case that was indisputable was that sarah widmer had drowned. but was it a natural death in her bathtub? what about the suggestion of a neurological event, something with her heart? the medical examiner could not find anything. >> her medical history was devoid of anything that would suggest these things. >> or had sarah died at the hands of her husband ryan? >> they had failed to prove their case. they failed. >> the jury was out all day. the couple's friends waited. >> we're scared that the truth may not come out.

we know without a doubt that ryan did not do this. and we pray to god that everyone else sees that too. >> billy cunningham, i immigrate america. >> ryan widmer might have wished that the listeners on bill cunningham's radio show had been on his jury. >> the calls split 90/10 in favor of ryan widmer, because during the trial there was no smoking gun. >> ryan's mother agreed. she was cautiously optimistic. >> i never let myself get cocky. i just felt that in having sat there and listened, there were a lot of holes and not a lot of evidence. he felt like there was a lot of reasonable doubt. >> the jurors were hard at work. they asked for the tub where sarah had been found dead to be brought to them in the jury room. by the second day, ryan's defense attorney was getting anxious. >> when they're out more than 20 hours, it's clear that somebody is saying that this isn't as straightforward as it seems. >> correct. >> but the prosecutors weren't worried by the long jury deliberation. >> we knew it was going to be a lot of evidence to weigh. >> they had two counts to died.

count one, aggravated murder. and count two, nonpremeditated murder. did it happen suddenly, without prior thought? final, after 23 hours, the jurors reached a verdict. the lawyers were summoned. >> it's a very traumatic moment. your heart is racing, you're anxious to hear what the jury says. it's a profound moment. >> as jill hurried back to the courtroom, outside, a storm hit with biblical fury. she saw that as an ominous sign. >> the skies just opened up. there were tornado warnings. and it all just culminated when the verdict was about ready to be read. >> ryan widmer took his place at the defense table. >> the defendant will please rise. the verdict on count 1, aggravated murder, we the jury find the defendant ryan k. widmer is not guilty. >> a moment of relief for ryan. the jury did not believe he killed his wife with premeditation.

but he still faced the second count of murder. >> we the jury in this case find the defendant is guilty. the jury had decided that ryan widmer did indeed murder his wife sarah. >> is there anything you wish to say? >> the accused, now the convicted, would kiss his wedding ring and address the court for the first time. he hadn't taken the stand, as was his right. >> i love my wife. i did not hurt her. i was never given a chance. the day after she passes away they charged me with murder. if i had an answer, i would give the answer to what happened to her. but i can't. i was not in the bathroom with her. >> he was very upset. he doubled over when addressing the court. i was surprised that he was at outspoken as he was. but he indicated to the judge

and everybody that he loves sarah and he would never have hurt her. >> i love my wife and i did not hurt her. >> coming up. something amiss in the jury room. >> said three or four female jurors held experiments where they showered and air dried. they showered and air dried. that's a reason to switch to jackson hewitt. our tax returns come with a free lifetime accuracy guarantee. life may change. your lifetime accuracy guarantee won't. tax prep guaranteed at jackson hewitt. your lifetime accuracy guarantee won't. how do we make a scented oil plug-in that doesn't smell fake? start with the essence of nature air wick scented oils are infused...

...with essential oils that are 100% natural. to fill every corner with the fragrance of nature. air wick. your happy place. find your breaking point. then break it. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best, with emergen-c.

ryan widmer had been convicted of murdering his wife and given 17 years to life in prison. he was cuffed and moved to a holding cell. it was beyond difficult.

>> she wasn't murdered. one of my best friends. >> so there isn't a whisper of doubt that says my best friend may have been killed by this -- close as you were to her, you still defend him? >> i do. ♪ our grace will lead us all my impression was that the community was stunned by the verdict. ♪ amazing grace >> the verdict was so unpopular in the court of public opinion that candlelight vigils were staged to protest the jury vote. >> there has never been a case where hundreds of americans come out of their homes carrying candlelights to listen to prayers about a condemned, convicted killer. it's never happened before. >> talk radio host bill cunningham, a lawyer by training, regards himself as a hang 'em high conservative. but even he felt this was a case of justice denied. >> judging this case against a

hundred other murder trials, this is one of the flimsiest and one of the weakest i've ever seen. >> my name is mike, i'm the creator of the website. >> someone out there following the trial was mike, a young newlyw he so believed in his innocence that he launched a free ryan widmer website. >> the goal is for him to get a new trial. if he doesn't get a new trial, i believe it's going to outrage a lot of people. >> angry citizens, taxpayers, voters. even though the trial was over, the prosecution hadn't entirely called it quits. in their post-verdict victory lap, they spoke of things the judge had not allowed the jury to hear. the weekend before his wife died, they say ryan had visited the website of an organization that bills itself as the world's largest site for swingers. >> we found evidence that he'd

been on the site but no evidence he'd followed through. if they were such a happy couple, why was somebody on the computer surfing for a hookup? that makes no sense to me. that would combat the idea of a happy couple. >> the judge had on the part of the allowed the web surfing or other pornography they found on his computer to be introduced as evidence since there was no way to know if sarah knew about it. still, was it a sign, as the detective thought, that their marriage was not has anticipate as friends and family believed? >> my understanding that some of these sites supposedly that he visited ended up being pop-ups on a computer. i'm not the most computer literate person, but i don't think the full story was told there either. and i don't understand, if they got the verdict they want, why they have to continue to attack my son and my family. >> and ryan's mother said if the couple had fought over anything, the family would have known. sarah, always outspoken, wasn't the type to suffer in silence. >> sarah told everybody, she's a

chatty person, she had just been with her family for an entire weekend without ryan being there. if there were any problems, believe me, they all would have known it and i probably would have known it because sarah probably would have called and yelled at me about something that my son was doing that wasn't nice to her. >> but none of that mattered now. the jury had spoken and the defense lawyer still couldn't get over the guilty verdict. >> it was awful. was on my shoulders, my duty to my client to get a proper verdict, and i failed. >> ryan had become more than a client to him. >> i absolutely believed him. i had him to my home, i had him around my wife and kids. there was no question in my mind he was innocent. innocent. >> he did what lawyers often do after losing a case. he wrote a motion to have the judge let ryan go free or order a new trial. a long shot. ryan was in prison and would likely stay there. >> it's been a roller coaster ride.

i can't let my hopes get up. >> he may be in prison 15 years. >> he may be. the appeals process can take forever. >> in fact, as ryan -- widmer got processed, it was far from over. >> as we speak it isn't the end of things. >> that's correct. >> the fax was a letter from a juror. >> he was having problems living with himself. he said it was a moral dilemma to let it go without bringing it to somebody's attention. >> the juror claimed there had been forbidden monkey business during deliberations, over nothing less than the biggest issue in the trial. damp head, dry body. >> he said that two or three of the female jurors had done home experiments where they had showered and air dried. >> they were testing out this

theory of how quickly the body dries coming out of the tub or shower? >> yes. >> at home? >> at home. >> if the faxing juror was correct, the panel had directly violated the judge's instructions to consider only what they had heard in court. the allegation was jury misconduct, a serious matter. attorney mark godsey runs the ohio innocence project. he saw the juror letter as a way to persuade the judge to grant ryan a new trial. >> it's unusual for a juror to come forward and say the jurors had violated the rules and performed experiments and brought that into the deliberations. >> the judge began reviewing affidavits from the jurors about just what went on during the deliberations. in one of those sworn statements, a juror said of those taboo home experiments, the times to air dry influenced my decision. >> jurors are not supposed to go home and do experiments. >> in the end, the judge agreed. four months after ryan widmer's conviction, he ruled that the husband would get another trial. the not guilty verdict on the aggravated murder count,

however, would remain. so the prosecution could only retry him on the second count of unpremeditated murder. his mother scraped together enough cash to post the $400,000 bond for him. ryan was released from prison. by then he had already spent five months behind bars. >> the quest for justice can deplete both bank accounts and emotions. >> yes. >> how far are you prepared to go? >> i'm prepared to go to the day i die, if i have to live on the street in a cardboard box at the end of this, i'll do what it takes to get my son out of this. >> ryan and his family ended up not only at the brink of financial bankruptcy but also at the edge of emotional collapse. >> he says he can't sleep. he says he sees her when he closes his eyes. >> he misses her. he still wears his wedding ring. >> everything was spiraling downward for ryan. he lost his job after the guilty verdict and was left to do odd jobs for supporters.

the house he and sarah bought together went into foreclosure. now another jury would be asked to peer inside the mystery of a marriage and decide what happened behind those closed doors. the prosecutors would have to convince another jury that ryan widmer had killed his wife. it's got to be hugely frustrated, you got a guilty verdict, you've got to do it over again. >> on the other hand, we knew how a jury would react to our evidence. >> on the other side of the coin, the defense has seen your case. they can counter punch. >> and we can't change it very much. >> ryan widmer trial, take two. a new jury makes a dramatic return to the scene of the drowning. >> imagine them interacting here. >> a new jury makes a dramatic return to the scene of the drowning. and later, ryan widmer tells his own story. did you kill your wife, sarah? >> no, i did not. i couldn't hurt sarah emotionally let alone physically. >> you're saying you're wrongly convicted? >> i'm 100% wrongfully

convicted. i'm going to fight until it's made right. t's made right i'm your 70lb st. bernard puppy, and my lack of impulse control, is about to become your problem. ahh no, come on. i saw you eating poop earlier. hey! my focus is on the road, and that's saving me cash with drivewise. who's the dummy now? whoof! whoof! so get allstate where good drivers save 40% for avoiding mayhem, like me. sorry! he's a baby!

they use stamps.com all the services of the post office only cheaper get a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again.

a little more than a year after a jury found ryan widmer guilty of murder, only to have the verdict thrown out, it would start over again. this time a new defense team would take over ryan's case. jay clark and lindsay gutierrez worried that even though they were starting the trial with a clean slate of jurors, the verdict from the first trial would still hang over the accused. >> he's still innocent until proven guilty. everyone thinks and knows he was proven guilty. >> across the courtroom, the prosecution team was the same. it would hammer home the argument that a healthy 24-year-old woman just does not die alone in a bathtub. >> did you see any evidence that

sarah suffered a seizure that caused her death by drowning? >> no. >> sarah's body dry to the touch, the officers and emts testified. and the bathroom where her husband lifted her soaking body out of the tub was also not wet. >> towels, a rug, magazines, all appeared to be dry. >> the juror would again hear the 911 call that to the prosecution's ears, sounded odd. >> she was face down in the bathtub. >> the message was, my wife's dead and i wasn't around when it happened. >> but unlike the first trial, the defense lawyers asked to take the jurors to the home where ryan and sarah had lived to inspect for themselves the very bathroom where she died. the lawyers had made a pretrial visit. >> the first thing we said was, man, this is small. >> they wanted the jurors to see for themselves that this was a cramped space in a modest builder's home. >> imagine ryan at 6'2" and sarah, 5'1", 5'2", and imagine them interacting in here. >> it was such a small bathroom,

a defense expert argued, that if there had been a violent struggle, both husband and wife would have shown more obvious bruises and scratches. >> i would have expected to see more injury if a violent struggle 4 occurred. >> but the prosecutors argued that widmer, in an explosion of anger, could have overtaken his wife so quickly that she would have had no time to fight back. and in their closing arguments, they told the jurors that ryan widmer not only killed his wife but also delayed calling 911 to buy time to cover up his crime. >> things looked so nice because ryan widmer had the opportunity to reset the scene. he had time to put things back into place. >> but ryan's defense lawyers were hopeful this jury would see the case the way they did. an innocent man on trial for a murder he did not commit. >> absolutely believe him. no doubt in my mind. >> the case was given to juror

number two. and it seemed as though everyone in cincinnati was on the edge of their seat, waiting for its decision. but three days into deliberations, nothing. the jurors asked to see the judge. >> there's an impasse. >> he sent them back to deliberate some more. >> it is desirable that the case be decided. >> it was turning out to be the longest deliberation in warren county history. as the jurors left for a long holiday weekend, the specter of a mistrial hung in the air. >> dana and chris again waited with ryan. >> we have to make sure he knows we're here. that's what we do as friends, support him and be hopeful and have the faith that this is going to turn out the way that it's meant to turn out. >> the jury returned to work on tuesday morning. but at 5:00 p.m. on the fourth day of deliberations, they asked to see the judge again. >> the note reads we cannot agree and further deliberations will not serve any purpose.

>> a hung jury. no verdict. by best count, they were deadlocked seven guilty, one decided, four not guilty. at a press conference, ryan's parents vowed to stand by their son. they had already spent more than a half million dollars on his defense, tapping out bank accounts and retirement plans. >> we know he's innocent and we'll do whatever it takes. >> we'll move forward. >> ryan's dad gary was firmly behind his son. but in another odd twist, it had taken ryan's arrest to reunite the pair. he had been out of his son's life for 13 years, the consequence of a bitter divorce. he hadn't even known there was a sarah until he learned his son had been charged with her murder. father was reintroduced to son while ryan was in jail. >> this is the first meeting you've had with your boy in a long, long time. >> through a glass wall. >> he's on the other side of the glass and you're talking through

one of those phone devices. >> mm-hmm. >> that's kind of a hard thing to take right there. >> it was. it was hard but so sweet to see him. >> a poignant reunion, father and son. and a father who completely believes in his son's innocence and would will anything to help. >> if there's any avenue to take, you have to take it. it's my son. you have to take it. >> your son didn't do it. sarah widmer died for reasons unknown. >> yes. >> give yourself a round of applause. >> beyond ryan's family and close friends standing behind him, it was a case that had galvanized a personal army. there were ryan widmer t-shirts and wrist bands. >> he was getting a lot of support -- >> including an anonymous donor said to contribute $60,000. a stranger. >> yes. >> even the prosecutors were a bit worried. so much taxpayer money would be spent on a third trial. so many ryan widmer supporters beating very loud drums. a plea deal was floated. >> we felt it was a subject worth bringing up. >> but the kists said there was no way ryan was taking a deal.

>> they offered a plea, which they hadn't done in two trials. >> and he turned it down? >> of course he turned it down, he says i'm innocent, why would i admit to something i would never have done that i did not do? >> ryan widmer was gambling that the next jury would acquit him. but his roll of the dice was taking its toll not just on him but on his family as well. ryan's mom made headlines when she was stopped for drunk driving. she had pleaded not guilty to the driving under the influence charge. but police say they found two open bottles of vodka in her car. >> she broke down, hospitalized. a terrible toll on her. i lived with it. many times all the three of us are together, and you could just feel her going deeper and deeper into this. >> but it seemed for every person that came out to support ryan widmer, there were those who believed just as strongly on the other side that he had deliberately drowned his wife. one of those people would soon change everything.

ten days after the juror deadlocked, a phone rang in the prosecutors' office. it was a woman with a hand grenade of a story. someone came forward and say this guy confessed to me. >> we want to find out more what she has to say and what she knows about this. >> the prosecutors came away convinced they had the long missing pieces of the puzzle. both a confession and a motive. jay clark, the defense attorney, would have to worry overtime about this bombshell of a witness. did you guys know? >> no -- >> literally no. >> because the new witness feared for her life, saying that ryan widmer had threatened her, her identity would not be disclosed to the defense team until the beginning of the trial. and trial three would begin with virtually everyone holding their breath. who was this person and what did she know? coming up -- >> she strolls in wearing a suit with decently done hair, normal make-up. >> the mystery witness takes the

stand, and what a story she has to tell. >> sarah had found out he had cheated when she went away with her mom. she said they were arguing about his proviy. >> but why there story now? >> i saw the sadness and the pain and the hurt in her mom's face. and i'm a mom, and i couldn't do that to them anymore. they needed to know the truth. thanks to move free ultra i keep up with this little one. see the world with this guy. and hit the town with these girls. in a clinical study, 4 out of 5 users felt better joint comfort. take the ultra challenge. try move free today. but he wanted snow for thelace holidays.. so we built a snow globe. i'll get that later. dylan! but the one thing we could both agree on was getting geico to help with homeowners insurance. what? switching and saving was really easy!

i love you! what? sweetie! hands off the glass. ugh!! call geico and see how easy saving on homeowners and condo insurance can be. i love her! big thing i recently learned as a parent? baby's skin is absorbent. her skin could actually soak up wetness her diaper doesn't. that's gross. that's why i use pampers. pampers absorbs quickly to trap and lock wetness away. keeping your baby's skin drier and healthier. for a diaper that stays drier, count on pampers. the health of your baby's skin starts with the pampers they're in.

here's what's happening. an launch triggered by severe weather claimed the lives of one skier and seriously injured another. it is the 10th avalanche-related death nationwide this season. nearly 100 million are under winter weather alerts across the northeast and mideast. snow, ice, blizzard conditions are expected in minnesota, north dakota, and northern iowa. that's what's happening. now back to "dateline."

mr. widmer, is there anything you wish to say? >> the first trial ended with a mistrial. the second with a hung jury. with this next you're reach a -- would the next jury reach a verdict? these three jurors from the last trial said the prosecutors failed to convince them that ryan widmer had killed his wife. >> there's just nothing to prove to me he had anything to do with her death. >> and the next group of jurors would also not be able to reach a unanimous decision. >> we sat in jury deliberations for 36 hours. the likelihood of 12 jurors coming to the same conclusion was very unlikely. >> we really didn't think that another jury would not be deadlocked. >> they would soon find out. ryan widmer's extraordinary third trial for the murder of his wife was about to start all over again. the prosecutors felt it was their duty to argue their case

for sarah. >> we're committed to seeing that justice is done for the victim of this case. and that's what we've got to think about. >> it promised to be a judicial groundhog day. repeat testimony from the emts and arriving officers at the widmer home. the oddity of a bathtub drowning victim with a damp head and dry body. a 911 call that to some listeners volunteered too much. and injuries to the wife's next and head that spoke to the prosecutors of homicide and not resuscitation. >> the facts which came out in this case gave rise to the idea that there had been an assault that occurred which progressed into an instant of domestic violence. >> and this time, sarah's own mother described the couple's relationship as more tense than she had in the previous trials, telling the court that ryan and sarah's arguments made her very uncomfortable. >> they would just call each other names and get hateful with each other. i told them, you guys have to stop, i can't take it. >> what really was stunning was

something that haunted the defense since they learned about it the previous summer, the prosecution's mystery witness who would testify that ryan confess to the crime. her anymore was jennifer crew from iowa. it was the first time the defense would get a look at this person that ryan had allegedly confessed to. and they worried. >> she strolled in wearing a suit, decently done hair, makeup. >> how did this woman who lived 500 miles away from ryan widmer have such a starring role? it turned out she watched "dateline," of the first trial. that aired in 2009. after watching the show, she sent ryan an e-mail telling him how bad she felt about his plight. >> i felt sorry for ryan. i asked him what i could do to help him. >> before long, the two were in frequent touch. >> struck up e-mail, texts, ultimately a phone relationship. >> correct.

>> as the relationship continued, ryan sent her photos of his dogs and asked her to send him a picture of herself. initially she sent this one of a friend. she says things got a little racy on the phone. >> he told me he was watching porn in his mom's basement. >> there was even talk of jennifer visiting ryan in ohio for a three-way. >> ryan asked me to ask my friend and i said i would. >> but the reason jennifer was on the stand was to testify about one phone conversation in particular. one very different than their usual banter. it was october 26th, 2009. jennifer said she had been asleep when ryan called. it sounded to her as though he had been drinking. >> he was crying. and he was saying, i did it. i did it. i killed sarah. i did it. i thought what he meant was that he didn't do enough to save her life that night. he said, no, jen, listen to me, i did it. >> she said ryan told her it had started with a fight between the two of them.

>> sarah had found out that he had cheated on her when she went away with her mom. he said that they were in the living room and they were arguing about his pornography. >> what happened when she came upstairs? >> she was getting ready for the bath. he said their argument continued, said he couldn't open it doing it, said that the marriage was over. >> ryan, she testified, then told sarah -- >> nobody leaves me, nobody ever leaves me, and i mean nobody. >> that's when jennifer crew says ryan hit his wife. >> she fell backwards and hit her head. he said, jen, i blacked out, i blacked out. >> but why this story now? jennifer crew waited until almost two weeks after the second jury had deadlocked before coming forward, even though ryan had allegedly confessed to her eight months earlier. she said she had promised ryan she would not reveal his secret and said she was unnerved when he gave her a veiled threat. >> i promised him i would never tell anybody.

he said, i hope not, i don't want you to be where sarah is at. >> but she said she thought the jury would have convicted ryan. when they didn't, she contacted authorities after seeing pictures of sarah's mother. >> i saw the sadness and pain and hurt in her mom's face. i'm a mom, i couldn't do that to them anymore. they needed to know the truth. everyone is at risk for enamel loss. when you drink or eat something that's acidic it sucks the minerals out of the tooth's surface. pronamel is formulated to help deliver minerals to the tooth's surface to help reharden and strengthen your enamel.

surprise prosecution witness jennifer crew had taken the stands, and her story was a lot to absorb. ryan confessing, fighting with a wife who was leaving him, blacking out in the bathroom. would the jurors believe any or all of it? the defense had to make certain they didn't.

but they were worried that they might. >> i think she had invented this story and started to live it and really wanted to believe it. >> so they aimed for the jugular. could this woman be trusted? >> she had a jaded past. theft convictions, stealing. that's not something that an honest, credible person does. >> a one-time bartender at a strip club who managed the dancers, jennifer crew admitted to misdemeanor brushes with the law. >> you were convicted of theft? >> yes, sir. >> also of fraudulent practices, correct? >> i believe that's when my record states. >> she was also in a methadone treatment program for her addiction to painkillers. >> you were using oxycontin for five years. you've used false names to get drugs? >> yes, i did. >> the defense indicated because of her addiction to drugs, her memory was not to be trusted. >> when detectives talked to you, you told them that your memory is not very good, didn't you? >> i don't recall saying that. >> do you remember telling them, i don't remember verbatim the

conversation between you and ryan? >> i do not remember the conversation verbatim. >> the defense hammered on what day the phone call came through, even the day it was placed. >> you told investigators the call was in the middle of the night. >> i was asleep and i thought that the call came in later than it did. >> everything critical in terms of time, duration, any memory about the call, was all different once she got to testify, but only after she saw her phone records. >> after jennifer crew stepped down, the prosecution called the woman's fiance to try to undo any damage to her testimony caused by the defense. he confirmed that she related the alleged confessional phone call to him immediately after hanging up that night. >> she came downstairs crying, she's like, he did it. she was scared, actually. she was upset. >> if the jury believed jennifer crew's story, ryan widmer was sunk. the defense called a witness

that refute the iowa woman's story that night about the emotional call from ryan. it was another woman who had become interested in ryan widmer's case after seeing our first "dateline" report. melissa from seattle, like jennifer from ohio, struck up a phone and e-mail relationship with ryan in 2009, she said was she drawn to the case after the death of her sister-in-law. >> how often did you talk? >> three times a week. he talked about sarah a lot, he was having a hard time accepting everything. >> she flew to ohio to visit a friend and go with another supporter to a bowling fundraiser organized for widmer's defense. she even made this video tribute to ryan and sarah that she posted on youtube. >> her husband supported her friendship with ryan. >> was it a little out there? yeah. but i'm so comfortable with her and our relationship that without a shadow of a doubt, i was 100% behind her. >> i did feel strongly about

supporting him. there's just no chance that he had anything to do with it. >> but the importance of the seattle woman's story for the defense was that she too had a lengthy phone call with ryan that finished six minutes before he called jennifer crew in iowa. the call in which he allegedly confessed to killing his wife. melissa walters said ryan was perfectly composed when she spoke to him for two hours that night. >> how do you know he was not drunk, not upset? >> every phone conversation i've had, he has never been intoxicated or distraught. all the times i talked to him, he was never drunk or upset. >> she was convinced that jennifer crew with made up the whole story. >> i was shocked that she would lie. >> but still, had the defense paid a price by putting yet another woman on the stand? >> is there risk for you about these women getting involved with ryan widmer? >> it's easy to get sucked into that.

i think you have to understand what ryan has been going through. he's never been able to grieve properly for sarah. they contacted him. it was companionship. >> it was time to wrap up trial number three. the prosecutor saying it was a sudden violent murder. >> anybody who's been in a relationship knows that sometimes things go off, they snap, for no good reason. i think something like that happened. at some point ryan saw that his perfect marriage was falling apart and that's what led us here. >> the defense arguing a medically undetermined death by natural causes. >> it's probably going to bother me for the rest of my life, what happened to sarah we'll never know. >> sarah had drowned. but how? a third jury retired for deliberations. coming up. >> just telling me how much he loved sarah, and he could never,

ever love another woman as much as he loved her. i think i started crying because i felt so bad for him. >> another stunner. a new sarah enters ryan's life. do you live ryan? >> i love him. yes. >> just who is she? later, ryan tells all. >> she's awesome. so loving, caring. there's similarities i see in sarah my wife as i see in sarah now. >> you guys kept it secret, didn't you? >> oh, yeah, i knew they would try to make it into something negative. negative when you have pain... you want relief. fast. only thermacare ultra pain relieving cream has 4 active ingredients to fight pain 4 different ways. get powerful relief today, with thermacare. that's a reason to switch to jackson hewitt,. conveniently located in walmart. now enjoy a bonus gift card up to $100... ...when you file taxes with jackson hewitt -and get part of your refund on a walmart gift card. get your bonus at jackson hewitt at walmart. super emma just about sleeps in her cape.

but when we realized she was battling sensitive skin, we switched to tide pods free & gentle. it's gentle on her skin, and dermatologist recommended. tide free & gentle. safe for skin with psoriasis and eczema.

[coughs] kim is now demonstrating her congestion. save it, slimeball. i've upgraded to mucinex. we still have 12 hours to australia. mucinex lasts 12 hours, so i'm good. now move- kim nooooo!! mucinex has a patented tablet that lasts 3x longer, for 12 hours.

the jury had been out for a day. again, it seemed everyone in cincinnati was waiting for a verdict. while widmer still had a number of ardent supporters, trial watchers say this time things were changing in the court of public opinion. >> you have a candlelight vigil for now, and you could probably hold it in a phone booth. >> one strong voice that had turned against widmer was radio talk show host bill cunningham. he was disgusted saying widener had exploited the free rye at

widmer website. he used it to pick up chicks. instead of using it to get evidence, he was using it to get hot babes. >> it sounds like it fell apart for you on the character issue. >> it did. the wallpaper of the case changed. >> day two in the courthouse was going round and round. >> my stomach was cramping. my shoulders were starting. i felt awful. >> i was nauseous. i hadn't felt that way for 20 years. >> the jurors were working their way through the evidence. they parsed the 911 call. >> my wife fell asleep in the bathtub, i think she's dead. >> the more you listen to it, the more and more it starts to sound like it was staged. >> there was sarah's body. officers testified it was too dry. >> 2 1/2 minutes after being removed from a tub, you would expect a body to be wet. >> the alleged confession as recounted by jennifer crew. >> i just don't believe anything she said. >> the prints in the tub. >> under normal circumstances

you cannot leave those kind of fingertips on the side of a tub trailing down. >> the bruising to sarah. >> both the defense and the prosecution put up good arguments about that. that that's teetering on a razor's edge with me. >> at the end of the second day, they took their one and only vote. they had a verdict. a blast of calls went out. the kists grabbed a stunned ryan. >> i said, i can't believe they're back so soon, i'm worried. >> the judge asked for the jury ballot. anxious? >> very. sick. >> ryan widmer stood with his lawyers. his life hanging in the balance. >> i can actually hear ryan shaking. i can hear it. it's that silent in there and he's that nervous. >> the verdict. >> we the jury in this case find the defendant ryan widmer is guilty of murder. >> guilty.

ryan dropped his head to the >> hysterical. he was crying. he was a mess. >> a bad, bad, bad dream. >> ryan composed himself enough to proclaim to the court his innocence. >> i did not do this, judge. i don't know why this has to keep going on. my life has been ruined. i love sarah. i would never have hurt her. never. >> outside the court, ryan's father gary slumped to the ground. the son he was recently reunited with after years apart taken from him again. >> it was a horrifying moment. it just totally caught up with me at that point, the total shock. i just went weak. >> ryan widmer for the second time was given the mandatory sentence, 15 years to life. as court officers handcuffed him and led him away, few people were aware of a young woman on his side of the benches, crying. this is also a sarah. sarah manhurst. she's another twist in the story that has had so many. >> do you love ryan widmer?

>> i love him, yeah. >> sarah wore an engagement ring and is the mother of ryan's son, born in the summer after trial number two. >> what did you name the baby? >> his name is ryan. >> you see ryan's face in the baby's? >> yeah. >> sarah, a canadian via new york, like jennifer from iowa and melissa from seattle, also became aware of ryan after our first "dateline" program on the case aired back in 2009. >> i thought that he was railroaded. i really did. >> she sent an e-mail to ryan saying how sorry she felt with him. he sent one back. soon they were talking on the phone. a little more than a month later, sarah came to cincinnati to visit ryan. she stayed at his mother's house. >> i thought it was a little awkward, because we had talked on the phone but hadn't met. he was telling me how much he loved sarah and could never love another woman as much as he loved her.

i think i started crying because i felt so bad for him. >> sarah went back to new york and three weeks later returned to cincinnati as ryan's guest at his mother's thanksgiving dinner. that was the weekend they became intimate. >> the first time we were together i got pregnant. >> how did ryan take the news? >> shocked, obviously very bad timing. >> they kept the pregnancy a secret, as ryan's second trial would take place the following may. >> i decided, yeah, i was going to have the baby. and he was okay with that. but it was just difficult, because i'm thinking, here i am pregnant, and you're facing another trial, and my child could potentially grow up without a father, which -- [ crying ] -- now he's in jail. >> with ryan sentenced to 15

years to life, sarah is raising their son. >> i'm still in shock. i can't believe this happened to him. >> if in your own mind you couldn't get to beyond reasonable doubt, if there was a sliver of doubt that he had done this thing, would you have stayed? >> never. i would never have stayed with him. there's no way he could have done this, ever. >> but had he? in the course of three trials, played out before three injure , -- three juries, ryan widmer's guilt or innocence has been passionately debated. he's now telling his story. widmer speaks from prison, when we return. >> did you kill your wife sarah? you think they fabricated this? >> i know they did. >> why would they lie? they don't even work for the same agency. this young husband is about to make a startling claim. laim

this is ryan widmer's story as he tells it. he remembers a loving relationship with his wife sarah that was right from the first date. >> we hit it off perfect. >> was there any friction? >> none whatsoever. >> everything was cool? >> perfect. >> he only had one worry about sarah. >> my biggest problem with her was her sleep. she would work a regular day and need to be going to bed early or taking a nap. i just thought something wasn't healthy about it. you're 24 years old. >> but he says they fell into their everyday lives, their jobs, walking the dog, building a deck on their house. all routine, he says, until that august night. sarah had come home from work, he says, with a headache. they had dinner, watched tv. >> she's what? >> laying on the couch. she says her neck is killing her, she's going to get in the bath and go to bed. >> ryan says he stayed downstairs and watched the game until he, too, was ready for bed. upstairs to the master bedroom and bath. tell me what you see, just

like a videotape recording. >> i walk in the room. i walk over to the night stand. and i put some things down, turn on the tv. and then i walked in the bathroom. that's when i saw sarah, i knew something wasn't right. she was just unconscious. >> how did you see her? >> her head was just underneath the water. i don't even remember. >> was she face down in the tub as you told 911? >> all i remember, yeah, just finding her. i mean, i knew it wasn't good. she was laying in the water. i don't know what else to say other than it wasn't right. the only thing i remember certain things because of what i heard on the 911 tape. >> it's such a shocking image, you would think you would remember. >> i wasn't thinking i would have to remember. what did i see, what did you do? >> head, nose, under the water? >> everything, yeah. >> what did you do next? >> i tried to get a reaction out of her, nothing. >> that's when he says he called 911. >> my wife fell asleep in the bathtub, and i think she's dead. >> when you chose that word, i

think she fell asleep. >> when you chose that word, falling asleep -- >> it's not about choosing a word. it was her sleeping issue. >> they would say the call is suspicious because this guy is giving us too much information, he's downstairs what's going on, she's upstairs. do you know why you told them you were downstairs watching the game? >> i was watching the football game. i don't know what they wanted me to they will them. >> maybe just get an ambulance here quick. >> i don't know. i called and that's what i said. i don't know. >> prosecutors say the first arriving officer was at the house no more than six minutes after the 911 call was answered and less than three minutes after ryan lifted sarah's body out of the tub. the observations of the arriving officer, what do we have here, why is this woman's hair damp and her body dry? >> yeah, well -- >> it doesn't make sense, ryan. >> i understand that. >> how do you explain it? >> i left the house and there was cops there by themselves and they came up with the story they came up with. >> you think they fabricated this? >> i know they did. >> you think they wanted to make

a case here? >> i know they did. why would they arrest me the day after if they didn't want to make a case? >> why would they have it in for you? why would they lie? emts and police officers don't even work for the same agency. >> they clearly do when they get up to testify, they're coached what to say. >> what about the story of the woman who says ryan confessed to her that he killed sarah? >> listen to me, i did it. >> here's jennifer crew from iowa on the stand saying he called me one night, he was sloppy, and he confessed to me. >> right. >> jennifer, i did it. i'm telling you i did it. >> mm-hmm. >> did that conversation happen? >> nope. it never happened. >> jennifer crew's story is made up? >> 100% made up. >> the same goes, right now told us, for sarah's mother's testimony about hearing hateful arguments between the couple. >> they would just call each other names. >> she's a liar. >> sarah's mom is making this stuff up? >> we were never mean to each other. never.

>> a one-time mother-in-law from an earlier life who he says is embellishing the reality of his marriage. now ryan widmer has a baby with a new sarah. >> she's awesome, so loving, caring. there are similarities i see in sarah, my wife, as i say with sarah now. >> you guys kept it secret? >> oh, yeah. because i knew they would try to make it into something negative. >> in that court of public opinion, the women from far away places, iowa, seattle, new york, who became involved in his case, didn't go down well with everyone. a character issue. we talked to somebody who says you're abusing the free ryan widmer website as a dating service, just a way to meet women. >> i don't know who said that, but it's not true. >> but investigators wondered how good the marriage really was based on what they found on widmer's computer. >> did you have an unhealthy addiction to porn? >> no. >> but you looked at porn? >> yes. >> he says that certainly does not make him a murderer.

did you kill your wife sarah? >> no, i did not. i couldn't hurt sarah either emotionally let alone physically. >> she didn't get in your face and say she's leaving you? >> no. >> didn't happen? >> didn't happen. >> you were watching the ball game, went upstairs and found her in a bad situation? >> yes. >> you say you're wrongly convicted? >> i'm 100% wrongfully convicted. >> and the 30 jurors or more found you guilty after hearing the story? >> yes. >> they're not getting it? >> they're not getting it at all. >> these jurors from his third trial are confident they got it right. they say among other things it came down to what they saw as sarah's too-dry body, oddities in the 911 call, prints on the tub, and the unlikeliness of an out of the blue medical event striking sarah in the bath. >> i went into it believing he was innocent. but everything that was put together with the evidence came down with four or five facts

that we could not deny. we believe he intentionally drowned her. >> and the guilt of ryan widmer will also never be doubted by the prosecutors. >> do you believe he actually did this thing? >> absolutely. she was murdered. he killed her. and he was the only one who could have done it. >> ryan widmer lost a federal appeal in february of 2017. >> i'm not letting this stand. i'm going to fight this until it's made right. >> the passage of time hasn't made the events inside the little house on crested owl court any clearer. and time, of course, brings changes. sarah manners and ryan are no longer a couple. she says she still believes in his innocence. and more change. his mother jill passed away. nothing, it seems, stays quite the same except the central mystery itself. and that will likely be argued for years still to come.

i'm craig melvin. >> i'm natalie moralis. >> and this is "dateline." >> here is the person i love. he's dying. >> her husband, a decorated military officer, shot in the dark of night. >> it was an execution. >> was this some sort of hit? >> he was in special forces. there must have been something at work. >> that's what police thought too. until they learned about the secret life of this husband and wife. >> they would meet couples on the internet. >> was there a forbidden affair? >> they were probably meeting for sex about four times a week. >> and did it lead to murder? >> she is absolutely cold-blooded.