till the day i die. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." she told archie she was dating this man. if he didn't like it, he could leave. >> he had been stabbed multiple times. nobody saw anything. >> i went, dad. and i touched him. i will never forget that feeling. >> it was just before dawn when he found his father dead in the driveway. >> there was no doubt in my mind what happened. i immediately knew. >> there was someone else who may have known too. >> i turned around and looked at my mom. i go, you know who did this.

that son of a [ bleep ]. >> but there was one thing no one could know. the strange twist still to come. >> it was a bit of a surprise. kind of a shock when you found out she was seeing him again. >> yes. >> a lover's triangle always leads to trouble. >> how could you do such a horrible thing? you've destroyed me. >> did this one lead to murder? >> what was it like watching him walk out of jail? >> he beat the system. ♪ hello and welcome to "dateline." how long does it take a killer to stop worrying about whether he'll ever be caught? a couple of weeks? a couple of months? 25 years? if he's still a free man then, he'd probably be pretty sure he did indeed get away with murder. after all, detectives retire, witnesses forget. a trail goes cold, never to warm

up again. until one day it does. here's keith morrison. >> what a time it was. the year he turned up in that crazy little car. what a sweet, impossible, unexpected last chance. that love, that red passionate sin. just for mary ann. it was 1985, and it was magic. >> ready to call your first witness? >> and now here she was 2011, in a courtroom of all places. >> raise your right hand. >> forced to confess her forbidden love, account for her sins.

this grandmother, widow, penitent. what story would she tell? >> the main thing going through my mind is to tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may. >> the truth. such a difficult word. especially when it bubbles up from a past which mary ann mcfarland must have believed was buried forever. >> and where was your husband? >> he was still in my -- in the house. >> men. trouble was there were two, which was the one central fact, the inconvenient truth that caused all the trouble. and might have been forgotten had it not been for this inquisitive d.a. and this long lean cop, jim wallace, looking on so intently. >> this is a case, a true love story between three people. one woman who was loved

intensely, over the top by two men in two very different ways. >> he was the first, the husband. handsome, athletic, adventurous. a surfer. the real deal. his name was archie mcfarland. good old arch. everybody loved him. laid back, kind, reliable. ten years older than mary ann but crazy about her. she brought a daughter with her when they married in the early '60s, and together they had a son, gary. they settled down near the ocean, an l.a. suburb called torrance. >> we had a great typical nuclear family. dad went off to work. my mom stayed at home and did all the home stuff, you know, the stuff that you see in "leave it to beaver." >> you will see when gary talks about his dad how close they were. and it wasn't just because archie introduced him to surfing. >> i kind of always looked up to my dad. my dad was a really soft-spoken,

easygoing yet affable guy. >> here they were to the outside world, an old-fashioned family. inside, secretly, something seething. it was almost christmas 1985. 5:30 a.m. archie started work early. so did gary, who was just 20 years old then. >> he had come into my room and he said, hey, gary, i'm going to be leaving now, so make sure you get up. i said, okay, no problem. thanks, dad, love you. see you. >> gary showered, dressed, headed outside into a cold, dark morning. it was then he saw something odd lying on the pavement. >> and as i got closer and closer, i started saying, wow, that looks like my dad. and when i finally got up and then realized it was my dad, i had that moment of just like disbelief. >> archie was healthy, just 58.

it didn't make sense seeing him like this on the driveway. >> i went, dad? and i touched him. and there was just -- i will never forget that feeling. but it just -- it was very lifeless. it didn't -- it didn't feel good. so i started yelling, mom, mom, call 911, dad's lying on the driveway. i don't know what's the matter. >> when paramedics arrived, it was much too late to save archie or in this next moment the innocent expectations about life which gary mcfarland now lost for good. >> there was just blood everywhere on the front of him, and i just lost it at that point. >> torrance police detective gil kranke arrived. >> he had been stabbed multiple times. two were upper torso as if the assailant was confronting him. >> couldn't have been a robbery.

not a thing was taken. archie's car still there. >> nobody saw anything. >> but to detective kronke it was clear enough. archie mcfarland had been targeted and executed. and whoever killed him had escaped without leaving behind a murder weapon or fingerprints or even a hair from what must have been a violent struggle. anyway, this was pre-dna. >> they just didn't have any physical piece of anything left on the driveway. that was the big focus. >> but there was a clue. oh, yes. and it was, frankly, very, very strange. >> one of the stab wounds was in the groin area. >> what did that tell you? >> it's personal. >> kind of like somebody sending a message? >> yes. >> maybe a sexual message? >> yes. >> and about then on that crisp december morning as gary and his

mother stood shivering and sobbing over archie's bloody body, the shocking realization suddenly hit. >> i turned around and looked at my mom. i go, you know who did this. that son of a [ bleep ]. i just -- i immediately knew. i just -- it was like, there's no doubt in my mind what happened. >> coming up, there was someone else who also seemed to know who the killer was. >> how could you do this? do you know what you've done? you've destroyed me. >> when "dateline" continues. saturdays happen. pain happens. aleve it. aleve is proven stronger and longer on pain than tylenol. when pain happens, aleve it. all day strong. at walgreens, we understand the speed of life never slows down. that's why we're helping you

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december 1985, torrance, california, christmas coming, but not for archie mcfarland, whose earthly remains were now a crime scene in the predawn dark of his own driveway. and even before police arrived to begin their search for the usual clues. in fact, even as gary mcfarland cradled his father's lifeless body in his arms as his mother mary ann rushed to his side, they knew both of them without a shadow of a doubt who did it. >> she immediately started saying, "oh, my god, i'm sorry, i can't believe he did it. i'm so sorry. i'm so sorry." >> mary ann met with the cops and told them. >> janos did it.

>> janos? who was janos? detectives pressed mary ann for more. >> she told us that her boyfriend was responsible for this. >> that's right, boyfriend. she had been having an affair? >> yes. off and on. >> he was janos kulcsar, originally from hungary. and once the police got the gist of mary ann's tearful confession -- >> she had a picture of him. said here's his address. >> they high-tailed it over to janos's apartment in nearby long beach. where they found his car. this was an hour after the murder. sitting all innocent-like not far from his door. so the officers, having had some experience with this sort of thing, performed a little test to see just how innocent that car was. >> and the engine hood was hot to the touch, so it appeared that it had just been driven back.

>> somebody had been pushing the old volkswagen bug pretty hard. the cops laid low just across the street there and kept an eye on the car and the apartment over there. and sure enough, a few minutes later, out comes janos, big as life, walking to the car. and his hair was wet as if he just had a shower. >> he said he was going to his brother's house. to do laundry. >> laundry at 6:30 a.m.? seemed a little odd. the more pressing question, why was his car engine hot, especially if he was just now leaving the house? janos backtracked a bit then. he said he left earlier, then returned to the house. >> because he forgot something. came back home. went into the apartment. >> what did janos claim he forgot? the laundry. even though cops had spotted a

basket of clothes inside his car before he came out of the apartment. so they searched the car and found nothing. nothing suspicious anyway. no blood or other evidence related to archie mcfarland's murder. same inside the apartment. except there was this one weird thing. hanging over the bathtub were -- >> some clothes that were wet, a shirt and pants. if he's going to do laundry, why would you spot wash something and leave it hang in your bathroom to dry if you're going to do laundry? go do laundry. >> janos was arrested and taken back to the torrance p.d., where detective kronke now had 72 hours to compile a case that would convince the d.a. to file murder charges. otherwise janos would be released. kronke was confident he could wrap this up quickly. >> we had the wet clothes. he was changing his statements. his girlfriend, our victim's

wife, was very positive he was the one responsible for this. >> kronke grilled him for hours. but janos was insistent he had nothing to do with archie mcfarland's murder. crime lab tests didn't find a speck on his clothes. nor was there a trace on him or scratches either. with no history of committing any kind of crime, was it possible janos wasn't the killer? the detective had an idea. mary ann wanted to see her former lover in jail. what if they taped the conversation? so the two met for the first time since archie's murder as the tape rolled. >> how could you do such a horrible thing and think you're a man? if you get out of here alive, i'll kill you. do you know what you've done? you've destroyed me. >> i didn't do what you accusing me. i did not do it. >> if i had a gun, i would blow your damn brains out right now. >> at one point mary ann became so enraged she even spat on him.

>> love? you did this in the name of love? ptoo on your love. >> i didn't kill him. i did not kill him. and i don't know anybody who did. >> i hate you with all the passion i can dig up. >> mary ann's tirade certainly seemed authentic, but of course the cops weren't sure at least at this point if she knew more than she was saying. did you ever think, mary ann has to have been involved in this somehow? >> i don't think she could have been directly involved, but she could have thrown out some ideas to him and he might have taken them on his own. >> but janos's guilt seemed clear enough. so kranke took his case to the d.a. and got a big surprise. without a confession, a witness, or a murder weapon, the d.a.'s office refused to gamble on such a circumstantial case. so no charges were filed against

janos kulcsar. what was it like watching him walk out of jail? >> it hurts. because you know he's the guy that did it. and he beat the system. >> i was dumfounded. to me there was so much evidence, it didn't make much sense to me. >> then mary ann approached the cops with a second proposal to trap her ex-lover into a taped confession. a month after the murder, the two of them met at a local restaurant. >> so you tell me then. you tell me what happened. >> nothing happened. and why do you think i would do such a thing like this? >> you're not being honest with me, and i know it. >> what do you want to hear? do you want me to lie to you? >> again, janos's denials were complete and determined, just like his passion for mary ann. >> please. >> no.

it's the end. this is good-bye. do you understand that? it's good-bye forever. >> and that was that. but, of course, you know how it is with lovers, ex or otherwise. what may sound like the end isn't always. why don't we check back in, say, 20 years. >> a new detective and a new prosecutor turn up the heat, and suddenly a cold case is red hot again. coming up -- >> as soon as i looked at it, i said, hey, this guy is good for this murder. janos truly loved her. love bordering on obsession. >> when "dateline" continues. e"s when you move homes, you move more than just yourself.

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it was a mean and bitter christmas for gary mcfarland, the year his father was murdered. the spring of '86 brought no solace. the summer surf lost its appeal. >> the whole thing didn't make sense to me. >> it didn't make sense because no matter how thoroughly gary wished otherwise, janos kulcsar was as free as a bird. >> kind of made me question the whole system. >> the cops were sure janos killed archie. gary was doubly sure. >> he still is hoofing around, breathing air, and has all the

freedoms that you and i have. it just didn't seem right. >> perhaps not. but the cops were simply stuck. >> the murder weapon, the confession, or an eyewitness, we didn't have any of that. >> so the case went cold. not much more detective kranke could do. >> you put it away and then let some fresh eyes look at it later on down the line and see if there's something you missed. >> and then a very strange development. not a police issue. but for gary, it was awful. it was a few years after the murder. gary was paying his mom's phone bill, and he noticed several calls back and forth to long beach. he dialed the number. and on the other end was janos kulcsar. would it be fair to say, it was a bit of a surprise? kind of a shock? >> yeah. >> when you found out she was seeing him again. >> yes. it was very difficult.

>> how could she? go back to the lover who gary was sure stabbed his father, her husband, and left him to die in the driveway? >> when i first found out, all ties were cut. i wrote her a letter. dropped it in her mail slot. as far as i'm concerned, our relationship is over. mary ann, remember, accused janos of murder the very day it happened, confronted him in jail. now here she was back with him. while they didn't actually move in together, they were certainly a couple, passion apparently undimmed. >> i just believe that in her own mind that it was okay to go back with him because there was really no proof that he did it. >> just how much mary ann knew, if anything, about janos's role in her husband's murder, she wasn't saying. certainly not to her son, gary. but the rift in the relationship between mother and son now seemed irreparable. for gary it was like he had lost both his parents.

and years passed. the silence continued. gary got married, started his own family. but the loss of his father still haunted him. >> he never got to see me be successful in my career. never got to see me get married. never got to be the grandfather. >> 17 years went by. 17 awkward christmases. detective kranke retired. but remember that fresh set of eyes he was hoping for? it was 2002 and an aggressive deputy d.a. named john lewin read about archie mcfarland. >> and as soon as i looked at it, i said, this guy is good for this murder. >> just what police thought back at the beginning, of course. difference was, where some d.a.s avoid circumstantial

cases lewin, who has by the way served as an nbc news consultant, loves them. especially the riddles of cases gone cold. lewin called a regular partner, a veteran detective jim wallace. >> in almost every case there's something you can do. if nothing else, there's an opportunity to look at the evidence anew. >> so wallace and lewin began, by digging into the love triangle, by reinterviewing mary ann, asking about her relationship with both archie and janos, and about the events that preceded the murder. >> typically when these kinds of murders occur, behaviors start to fall apart. you see the behavior of the murderer become more and more aggressive and then the murder occurs. >> so to the beginning, which was of course the love story or the betrayal, call it what you will. mary ann, as lewin and wallace discovered, was frankly a little bored with archie. he loved her unreservedly. and she knew that. but passion, excitement, not so

much. and she was a vibrant woman still and attractive. but 47 and in need of something. and then there he was, janos. she met him at a local club. he was just 32, 25 years younger than staid old archie. >> he was everything archie wasn't. he satisfied everything that archie couldn't satisfy for her. she told archie she was dating this man. archie was passive about it. she basically told us if he didn't like it he could leave. >> archie, ever easygoing, accepted it, hoping his marriage would somehow survive. gary was just 18 then. didn't know for sure about the affair. but suspected his mom was seeing someone, especially the day he caught her sneaking off to take a private telephone call. >> i grabbed the phone from her and said, do you have any idea what you're doing to my family, and i hung the phone up. and that's basically when she

left. >> that very day, mary ann moved into janos's one-bedroom apartment, leaving home and kids and of course archie. >> he still loved my mom. after she left, he wouldn't let me say anything negative. she's still your mother. she's still my wife. >> perhaps archie understood the human heart after all. it took a year or so, but mary ann's ardor began to cool a little there in that cheap little apartment. >> the kind of interest she had in being chases, that infatuation, that period rubbed off. after a period of time, it was -- she was certainly still passionately being chased by janos. but he just became a guy in the apartment. >> archie had a pension, after all, savings, life insurance. mary ann was almost 50. did she worry also that janos was too young for her, that maybe his feelings would change? >> eventually mary ann decides,

you know what? this is stressful. i kind of miss my life. i don't have the security that i had. mary ann decides, i want to move back home. >> archie welcomed her back. forgiving as always. no resentment, no anger? >> he didn't show any. >> how is that possible? >> that was my dad. >> but across town in long beach, janos kulcsar wasn't so forgiving. he was fuming. >> janos truly loved her. love bordering on obsession. unfortunately it takes two people to quit the relationship. and janos was just not going to accept it. >> and here in his little apartment, he prepared a secret plan to get her back. coming up, an old pair of pants reveals new secrets.

>> when i saw the report where he said there was dirt on the pants, that's when the light bulb went off for me. >> when "dateline" continues. it's full of energy. it finally matches me. i'm denise bidot, and my skin is powerful. and i can face anything with my olay. skip to the good part with alka-seltzer plus. now with 25% more concentrated power. nothing works faster for powerful cold relief. oh, what a relief it is! so fast!

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i'm lindsey reiser, and here's what's happening. prince harry and his wife, meghan markle, will no longer use royal highness titles. buckingham palace announced they will also not be receiving public money for their royal duties. the queen released a statement showing support for the couple. the white house has responded to the senate impeachment trial summons. in a statement earlier today it called the two articles of impeachment a "dangerous attack on the right of the american people to freely choose their president." now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. two decades after archie mcfarland had been murdered, investigators were digging up

new details about his wife's younger boyfriend. here's keith morrison. >> the phone calls did not stop. mary ann mcfarland moved back home to archie, but her spurned lover janos kulcsar wouldn't move on. >> my dad is like, why does he keep calling? she's like, i don't know. the whole aura of this guy was that he wasn't accepting it. >> in fact, as d.a. john lewin and the detective reviewed the evidence, they encountered a man who seemed obsessed, who first pleaded with mary ann, then began using language that sounded more threatening. >> i want you to come back to me kind of statements. and then you'd better come back. she was afraid he would skin her alive, she told her daughter. >> skin her alive? >> if she didn't come back to him. >> but janos wouldn't stop calling or even making threats over the phone to archie. >> and archie hung up on him. he called back immediately.

"you don't hang up on me. unless you call me back, i'm going to get you." >> the next day janos showed up at the mcfarlands' house carrying a small pouch. mary ann was in the shower. so archie let him in. the two started talking. then mary ann entered the room. >> janos says, darling, come sit over by me. and mary ann puts the hammer down and says, it's over. >> janos, perhaps upset, went to the bathroom. mary ann was curious about that pouch he brought with him. took a peek. >> and inside is a loaded semi-automatic firearm. ready to go. and an extra magazine. >> janos later told mary ann that his plan if she refused to come away with him was to go outside and kill himself with that gun. >> our theory was that if you're planning on killing yourself in the front yard you don't need to bring the gun into the house. you don't need to have an extra magazine with you. i believe that something much

more sinister was going to happen that day. >> in fact, nothing happened. janos went home. but he came back here to mary ann's house a few days later, lewin and wallace learned. it was on the friday before the murder. he met with mary ann alone and had an epiphany. it was something he referred to in one of those conversations the police recorded between janos and mary ann. >> i left friday. i remember. it never clicked until i came home. it never clicked. >> clicked? what did he mean by that? >> he realized, you know what? she doesn't love archie. she's not going back to archie because she loves him. she loves me. so if i could just find a way to get rid of archie, i don't need to kill myself. if i get rid of him, i get the girl, she gets the security, and

he's out of the way. six days later he's dead. >> lewin and wallace now believe they had a motive, but that didn't mean janos did commit the murder either. they still needed something, anything, to connect him to the bloody crime scene. >> i knew there would always be a question about how does janos get away from this crime scene without getting any blood on him. if there's no piece at all that implicates janos i think there's lingering doubt. >> the kind of doubt that might trip up a jury. so wallace took a long hard look at the original police report. >> i have a case where it's very visual. for me, everything comes down to, can i see it again? >> as wallace pored over the photographs, he could see something was off, didn't make sense. archie had been stabbed four times. there was plenty of blood around. if janos did the stabbing, some of that blood must have wound up on him, on his clothes. wallace knew the crime lab never

found a trace of blood back in 1985. but now he needed to know why not. >> he does the murder. where did he go next? i know this. when they got to his house, he had wet clothing hanging in his bathtub. there was one pair of pants, one shirt. in other words, it's one outfit that needed washing that day, on the day he told us he was going to go to his brother's to do the wash. what is it about that one outfit that needed washing that day? >> back in 1985, those clothes were tested for blood using a chemical called luminol. >> when you spray it on the clothing, it will luminesce in those areas where you have body fluids. blood is a body fluid. that will luminesce. it turns out these clothes glowed in two areas, two important areas. when they tested them for blood, they were negative for blood. something is there but it's not blood. >> so now, two decades since archie mcfarland's murder,

wallace found janos's clothes. they were still in the evidence locker. he sent them off to the crime lab for retesting. once again, there wasn't a speck of blood on the clothes. but there was something on those pants. janos had supposedly washed them and hung them up to dry. but still, there it was, something very strange. >> dirt and mud stains all over the pants. when i saw the report, he said there was dirt on the pants, that's when the light bulb went off for me. coming up -- caught on tape. caught in a lie. >> this is something you arranged with your brother? >> yeah. >> we sent detectives out to interview the brother afterwards. he didn't know the story janos had given. >> do detectives finally have enough evidence to arrest janos? when "dateline" continues.

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and improves 7 key areas of visibly healthy skin. try olay total effects. sometimes the biggest breakthrough in a murder case can come from the most unassuming clues. for detective jim wallace, it was something buried in a routine crime lab report. janos kulcsar's pants, which he'd washed the morning of the murder and hung up to dry in his shower, again tested negative for blood. but this time the lab report noted something else found on those pants which caught the eye

of detective wallace. dirt. >> if you are washing these pants, what is the goal? aren't you trying to wash the dirt out? >> you would think. >> in this case the dirt was present, except there was luminol glowing in two areas. >> luminol, the chemical police use to detect blood and body fluid. this didn't make sense. with no blood on the pants, the luminol was still highlighting something else on two very specific areas of the pants. >> one on each side, right at about the area of the knee, right on the front of the pants. >> if you're kneeling down in something. >> if you're kneeling down and later want to get something out by spot cleaning with detergent. and he actually did successfully get it out. this would glow exactly as we saw it. this will glow because cleaning detergents also make it glow. so you think you have blood, you have cleaning detergent. >> so the pants that janos had apparently washed the morning of the murder were still dirty. except for the knees.

why would they spot-clean there? wallace went back to the autopsy report. archie's fatal stab wounds were to his torso. it didn't make sense the killer would stab him there while kneeling. but there was that other wound. remember that rather peculiar one near archie's groin? >> where would that person have to be relative to the victim to make that kind of an injury? and i think it would put you on your knees in order to do it. so when you look at that and you're spot cleaning on the pants, i think you have a pretty good description of how it is he got blood on his pants and what he had to do to get it off. >> finally, some physical evidence, but was it enough? d.a. john lewin didn't think so. he needed more evidence to file murder charges. >> i wanted to get janos on tape. so the detectives went out and they contacted janos kulcsar. >> janos worked in a shop preparing electronics. detectives showed up at his shop

with a hidden tape recorder to ask him all those years later about the murder, about that day. he remembered every detail, he said, vividly. >> why were you going out there to your car for? >> i was going to go to my brother. i remember it very good because the kids get ready going to school because my brother was working nighttime. >> oh. so this is something you arranged with your brother? >> yeah. >> wait a minute. didn't he say back then he was going to do laundry? >> his version now was his brother called him because a babysitter had to go to school and he had to take over baby-sitting that morning. he was on his way to the house to babysit. >> the babysitting thing was a brand new alibi. he never mentioned that before. >> we sent detectives out to interview the brother afterwards. he didn't know the story janos had given. so that pushed me over the top. >> a few weeks later cops returned to janos kulcsar's

electronics shop, this time to arrest him. >> he was there working on a flat-screen tv. he was right in the middle of it. he's trying to put things away in a certain position so you can come back. it's not like you have to put your tools away so you can find them. you're not coming back. >> word of the arrest spread fast. first to gary, who had waited 25 years. >> completely 100% happy. because after so much time goes by you think it's a foregone conclusion, it's over. everyone moves on with life. >> including, of course, mary ann, who had moved on with janos. didn't go to him for a little while. in fact, spent the last 20-plus years with janos, the very same man she once accused of killing her husband. but as it turned out janos was the only man in her life ever since archie was murdered. >> she loves janos and she does not want to believe he's the killer.

>> in the summer of 2011, 2 1/2 decades after archie mcfarland was murdered, the case against janos kulcsar finally came to court. and, of course, the prosecution's star witness was mary ann mcfarland. what did she know, and what would she admit? could her testimony sink her lover or maybe save him? coming up -- tough questions. >> let me make it very simple. are you in love with him? >> and raw emotions. >> i'm so sorry. i'm so sorry, son. she was -- she went hysterical. she lost it. >> when "dateline" continues. that keeps you up again, and again. advil pm silences pain, and you sleep the whole night. advil pm [baby crying]

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june 2011, archie mcfarland had been dead more than 25 years. janos kulcsar was 60 now, just about the same age archie was when he was murdered. and as janos sat here in court, silent and watching, prosecutor john lewin so the to find justice, much delayed. though his case as he presented it to the jury was very much circumstantial and really didn't feature much new evidence. >> janos kulcsar woke up on december 19, 1985, with a plan. this man decided, came to the conclusion that archie mcfarland was in his way and needed to

die. >> the defense argued the evidence was thin. no blood, no murder weapon. no witnesses. and dna found under archie's fingernails, it had now been determined, did not match janos. >> even if everybody right away thinks that janos kulcsar is the killer, there has to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt. >> of course, gary mcfarland as you know had no doubt janos killed archie. he told the jury about that awful december morning when he discovered his dad dead on the driveway and knew standly who did it. >> i turned around, looked at my mom, and said i can't believe [ bleep ] you know exactly who did it. she goes, i'm so sorry. i'm so sorry. i can't believe he'd do this.

i'm so sorry, son. she was just -- she went hysterical. she lost it. >> so difficult to rein in the emotion, even all these years later. easier for gary to listen to the prosecution, suggesting the evidence the man spot cleaned the knees of dirty bants to wash away just the blood. easier for him to listen to the prosecution pick apart janos's changing alibis. and janos, he never took the stand. just listened stoically as his attorney argued those changing stories were simply honest mistakes. >> when you ask somebody to remember something from 25 years ago, they're not going to remember every single detail, every single thing that they did. >> but d.a. lewin had someone, a witness who he hoped would remember the whole story. that is, if she chose to. the woman who first accused her lover of murdersing her husband and then resumed her affair with him. so under oath what would mary ann mcfarland say about janos

kulcsar now? >> miss mcfarland, step up, please. >> d.a. lewin didn't believe mary ann was involved in the murder, but now would she protect her lover or help prosecute him? for two days their battle of wills mesmerized the courtroom as the two duelled over their relationship with janos. >> let me make it very simple. are you in love with him? >> no. >> you're not? over the past 30 years have you been involved with anybody else? >> no. we're friends and companions. >> ma'am, during that 30 years you were having sex with him, correct? >> yes. >> i assume you have friends and companions that you don't have sexual relationships with, right? >> no. >> so he's the man in your life, is that correct? >> yes. >> mary ann, now 75 years old, seemed evasive, her usually sharp memory often fuzzy. >> that's all i recall.

i don't know. >> i misunderstood your question. >> watching all this with mixed emotions was mary ann's son gary. even after all these years, their relationship has never fully recovered. >> it was tough on her. i know she felt like she was on trial. but a lot of the stuff they went over and they pinned her on was to explain the mindset of janos and the whole circumstances that led to this, and it was necessary, but it was tough. >> finally, after three weeks, it was up to the jury to decide. then after just two hours -- >> and has the jury reached a verdict? >> yes, we have. >> we the jury in the above-entitled action find the defendant janos kulcsar guilty of the crime of murder. >> it was just relief.

it was like a big weight was lifted off my shoulder. janos got a free 25-year ticket that most people who commit a murder don't get. >> conspicuously absent on the day that finally brought justice for her late husband and a conviction for her lover was mary ann mcfarland. >> she does not want to believe he did this, for a lot of reasons. if mary ann were to accept that he committed this crime, she admitted that she would hold herself morally responsible. so some people decide i'm not going to accept reality unless it absolutely punches me in the face. and i guess we didn't punch hard enough. >> reality for janos kulcsar, the man she loved, the man now convicted of murdering her husband, is the almost certain prospect of spending the rest of

his days in prison. in january 2012, janos was sentenced to 26 years to life. just about the same amount of time he spent with mary ann. his attorney has appealed his case. occasionally you'll still find gary mcfarland at the beach where his dad, archie, brought him to surf. and he thinks about father and mother and forgiveness, the lesson gary is still learning from archie mcfarland. >> i still love my mother. i don't harbor bitterness or resentment. there are tons of questions you'd love to ask and get answers to, but i'm not in a position, nor in my opinion anyone is in a position, to completely understand what's going on in somebody else's heart.

>> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. r. i'm craig melvin. >> i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." the first time i saw her, i thought she was beautiful. we just loved being together. we were always together. our kitchen back door was opened, and the glass was broken. >> my wife! oh my god! >> it was him who found her. >> i just didn't know how to handle it. i wish i could have been there to protect her. >> a wife murdered. and later a husband under suspicion. >> he was such