file a brief. monday we could see a further exchange. responses between the house and president on tuesday next week the trial will start. in earnest at 1:00 p.m. eastern. you should clear your calendar now. that does it for us. a mystery in los angeles. a missing woman. >> he said, cindy, where is my mom? i instantly knew and i said, michael, call the police, i'm on my way. >> a loving mother. >> always there for me. >> a beloved friend. >> she was just so easy to like. >> vanishes. >> something was very, very wrong. >> was she murdered? was it for her money? >> how much money did chef in the bank? >> i think over seven figures. >> or was it something or someone else? >> it really threw him for a

loop when he found out that my mom had met somebody else. >> police have a suspect and a case that was about to take an unbelievable turn. >> one of the most shocking things i've ever seen in a courtroom. >> hello. welcome to date line extra. dee dee keller was a successful then, suddenly, dee dee disappeared. it was unthinkable someone would want to harm her. police were wondering what could have happened to a woman who seemed so adored? southern california south bay.

a singularly stunning shore line with hermosa, rah donned dough and sand box. >> no one thinks this part exists but it does. >> reporter: this seaside playground is lined with beach-front properties worth millions and nestled among these small beach towns is an oasis. >> it's main street usa. >> a great place to raise kids. >> and in 2003 one of the rainmakers in the real estate business selling those beautiful homes in that area and the south bay was julia keller known as dee dee. >> she really just embraced everyone that came into her path. >> reporter: dee dee's best friends, mortgage executive cindy ertman and real estate sales partner linda dondareo.

>> reporter: she was good at her job. >> i loved working with her. ives she always wanted the best for everybody and her clients were very loyal over the years. >> reporter: dee dee was loyal too. not only to her clients but as a divorced mom to her children mike and julie. >> i remember my mom explaining to me when i was about 10 years old, as you get older we probably will not be as close and you won't like me quite as much. it never happened. if anything, we just got closer. >> reporter: did you dee dee keller had a heart problem. not literally. it may have been a little too big. she loved, without limits, and she simply hated to disappoint or let anyone down. she loved dogs so much she literally couldn't say no to another one. she was surrounded by them at home. >> i always joked as soon as i graduated college, that's when she started replacing us with dogs. she never stopped being a mom.

>> reporter: she never stopped loving anybody? >> she never did. she was ready to embrace and embrace you whenever you wanted it. >> reporter: there was unarea of her life in which dee dee keller's honesty and embrace had not caught hold. your mom was so lucky and life was so easy in so many ways. she couldn't quite make the man in her life thing come out right. >> she had a wonderful life, but no, i guess she had not found that person. >> reporter: she did have a long-term relationship but that ended sadly in 1997, soon after she met someone knew. he was a real estate client named err win howard. a pilot and airline mechanic originally from bolivia. >> i remember dee dee telling me ma she was not going to date anyone else unless they loved and treasured and adored her and she felt that by erwin. he treated her like a queen.

>> reporter: when he popped the question, dee dee said yes. at dee dee's bridal shower in march of 1998, erwin dutifully devered his fiancee to the surprise party but the smiles didn't last after the engagement was over and the marriage began. >> it wasn't within six months appear they were married she just blurted out that she had married him on the rebound. >> reporter: and was having second thoughts? >> apparently so. >> it was very hard for her to think about ending it bauls of what it was going to to him because she knew he loved her. >> reporter: so much, in fact, that the marriage lasted another four years after that conversation. ultimately, their divorce was amicable and a year after the split in the summer of 2004, dee dee seemed to be finding her footing once again. she had begun dating a well-known south bay car salesman named bobby lowe.

that new relationship was going so well that on the evening of thursday, july 8th, bobby lowe took dee dee out to dinner at this restaurant to meet his father. >> i talked to her before her date. >> reporter: any sign that she was nervous about anything? >> she was in a happy state when i talked to her and we had made plans to hopefully, get together the following night and so i could get an update on the date. >> reporter: but that conversation never took place. >> i called her on friday and she didn't call me back, which was not unusual for dee dee. i called her on saturday and she didn't call me back. that was pretty typical. but by sunday, i started getting concerned. >> reporter: concerned, too, was daughter julie. she had talked of meeting her mom that same friday during a layover at l.a.x.

>> i'll text you and have coffee and we laid over in los angeles. i didn't get a text. it was a little odd. but didn't think much of it. >> reporter: dee dee's son mike was beginning to worry, after he returned from a business trip to the san francisco area. >> when i called her cell phone, the voice mail was full and that had never happened with my mom and she prided herself on being responsive. >> reporter: so you go over to your mom's house? >> i went in the back gate, instantly, it was clear that she had not been there for a while. >> reporter: what made that clear? >> the dogs' water dish was bone dry. my mom would dial of thirst before her dogs would go without water. >> reporter: mike's first call was cindy, where is my mom? i instantly knew in that moment that something had happened. i just knew and i just said, michael, call the police. i'm on my way.

>> reporter: where was dee dee keller? not only was there no water left outside for dee dee's beloved dogs, but detectives noticed lots of other things wrong inside the house. her purse was there but her wallet was missing. and this was a woman with money, a lot of it. was dee dee's hefty bank account the factor in her disappearance? investigators follow the money trail. coming up. >> who got that money in the benefit of her death? >> the beneficiaries were her two children. >> reporter: the detectives wondered where is her son and daughter when her mother vanished? >> they were both out of town when her mother went missing. when betrayal of trust continues.

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she told her friend she was going out with her new boyfriend. and nobody had heard from her since. her children were worried and an investigation was about to be launched. on a sun-splashed sunday in l.a.'s south bay, clouds were rolling in over one household. it was july 2004. elsa real estate agent keller known to the world as dee dee was missing. her son mike had gone to her home when he had not heard from her for three days. the biggest red flag? dee dee's beloved dogs left without food or water. what did you think it happened? >> i didn't know at that point. i just knew something was very, very wrong. >> reporter: mike called his best friends linda and cindy. cindy who had last spoken to dee dee three days before as dee dee prepared for a date rushed to the house.

>> you could tell just the dogs had been, you know, running around for days, but the way the tv was on and the way the shades were, i felt like thursday night had never ended. i felt like friday morning never came. >> reporter: cindy immediately phoned dee dee's new boyfriend car salesman bobby lowe. he reported they had dinner on thursday at a local restaurant, then returned to dee dee's house for a night cap. >> he said she had a little bit too much wine and she laid down on the couch and started to fall off to sleep so he said good night and let himself out. >> anything about what bobby lowe said sounded in any way suspicious to you? >> not at all. >> reporter: the next call? to the police and soon on the scene then detective sergeant carlos mendoza. >> this has not happened and especially people known as well as dee dee is. >> reporter: and what detectives

found in their initial search of dee dee's only only deepened the mystery. in the kitchen, her purse. her cell phone still inside but no wallet. a vodka bottle that police learned was usually kept in the freezer was out on the counter. and in the living room, the tv was on cnn. >> we discovered that whenever she left the house she would always put the tv on to a classical music station so it would relax the dogs but it was on cnn when we came into the house. >> reporter: so many dee dee was watching cnn, had the dogs there, was having a drink, and then left for some reason? suggesting kind of whatever happened, happened in a big hurry. >> reporter: she would have time to do her routine she usually does before she leaves she did not. >> reporter: it appeared that dee dee had left in her car. the garage was empty. her silver 1999 mercedes was gone.

but, strangely, police found the car keys sitting on her patio. >> we decided to call the l.a. county sheriff's department homicide bureau to come and assist us. >> reporter: jimmy gates was the detective who answered that call. >> there was no forced entry whatsoever. when we started walking through the house, i noticed several articles that were very valuable. >> reporter: so she let in whoever it was and it wasn't robbery? >> absolutely correct. if she didn't let them in, that person let themselves in and they may have had a key. >> reporter: gates wondered had dee dee left in her car with someone she knew? and how did her car get taken without its key? if you don't have a key, is it as easy to still a car as movies depict? >> certainly not 1999 mercedes. it's hard to hot wire or steal it. you almost need a key to gain access to it. >> reporter: if your car doesn't have a key, the next stop is a

car dealership to have a new one made. but, first, gates and his crew searched the house looking for dee dee's spare mercedes key, without success. and gates quickly became convinced of one thing. you thought finding dee dee's car was going to be the key to this? >> reporter: that was going to be extremely important. >> reporter: dee dee's friends and family printed up posters and along with law enforcement, launched a massive search. >> an army of people band together to trial to help find her and we broke up into teams and we mapped everything out in one mile increments to start to search every parking lot looking for her car. >> we would ask people, have you seen this woman? have you seen this car? >> it was frantic. it was hard breaking. >> reporter: and it was leading nowhere. at the same time, detective gates wondered who might have had a motive to have abducted dee dee from her home? those most common of motives -- love, money, jealousy are always

the ones police hug first like old friends. detee made a lot of money being a realtor. >> she was successful, yes, sir. >> reporter: how much money did chef in the bank? >> i think it was over seven figures. >> seven figures? a lot of murders committed for a lot less than that. >> absolutely. >> reporter: who got that money in the event of had err death? :the beneficiaries were her two children. >> reporter: and the detective noticed something about the whereabouts of dee dee's two children mike and julie at the time of dee dee's disappearance. >> they were both out of town at the time that their mother went missing. >> reporter: why is that significant? why wouldn't the reverse be more true? >> i thought the mother goes missing and so happens that mike is in san jose and julie is in a resort and sometimes my experience that people dissipate stress after a crime is committed. some people drink and take drugs or leave the area just to dissipate stress. >> reporter: there was strangely

one more person who just happened to have been traveling near the time of dee dee's disappearance 36 her ex-husband erwin howard had just flown to his home country of bolivia. and erwin was a mechanic who worked for american airlines in l.a. the common thread in all of these trips? nearby lax airport. what a better place to dump a car? >> lax is a big place and a lot of parking lots. >> a lot of parking lots and a lot of cars. >> reporter: you looked through every one of them? no mercedes and no shortage of person of interests. a lot of people close to dee dee keller were about to be hugged like old friends. >> coming up. >> her daughter rushes back to help find her missing mother. meet you in person.

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dee dee keller vanished. a search of her home revealed her wallet and car were missing. strangely, not her car keys. she had plenty of close friends and a new boyfriend. and an ex-husband. but why might someone want the beloved realtor gone? searching high and low for a motive. detective could think of a million reasons. all sitting in her bank account. it was time to turn up the heat on her beneficiaries. her children. in the days after the disappearance of realtor dee dee keller, all of l.a.'s south bay seemed to be looking for her. and for her missing mercedes. leading the search was her best friend cindy and linda. >> reporter: a lot of times people disappear, like you get the immediate family working on it and then everybody else is like, well. >> not in this town. >> she had an army.

>> reporter: dee dee's daughter julie rushed back to l.a. from a trip to mexico. >> it was the most surreal experience. >> reporter: only to be greeted by suspicion. l.a. sheriff's deputy jimmy gates discovered in the event of their mother's death, julie and her brother mike stood to inherit more than $1 million, so he confronted dee dee's kids using one of the oldest tricks in the investigator's handbook. do you remember an interview that you did with jimmy gates? >> i do. >> reporter: in which he asked you some pretty basic questions like what is your name, where do you live, pretty ordinary stuff. then, all of a sudden, he says, did did you have anything to do with your mom's disappearance? >> ty this was more did you kill your mother. >> reporter: and you're startled or angry? >> it was a horrible question but i can understand why it needed to be asked. >> reporter: detectives asked similar questions of julie. next in attempting to rule out

as suspects those closest to dee dee, detectives turned their taepgs to her ex-husband erwin howard. it turned out even though the two had been divorced more than a year at the time of her disappearance, friends told police that she had recently invited him back into her life. about six months earlier, dee dee had been in a car accident. as she recovered she needed help with her dogs and she apparently felt bad about the pain their divorce had caused erwin. >> she called erwin to help her because that is what he did best was to help and assist her so he helped kind of nurse her back to health and take care of the dogs and the house and her. >> reporter: and in taking a hard look at erwin howard, the detective found he had a rock solid alibi. on the night of dee dee's disappearance july 8thth, erwin had clocked into his job as work at the american airlines hangar at lax at 8:30.

he worked all night. he had to use an electronic key card to get into the hangar. that is a pretty good alibi. that's not something generally the employee can influence. >> that is correct. absolutely correct. >> reporter: that left the last person to admit seeing dee dee alive, her new boyfriend car salesman bobby lowe. lowe said he left dee dee's house between 11:00 and midnight that night, then gone to the gym the next morning. what possible motive could bobby lowe have to want dee dee dead or out of the picture? >> there was no motive that i could determine whatsoever. >> reporter: and lowe provided investigators with two important clues. first, he said, while he was at dee dee's that night, her dogs had all started barking at something outside as if someone were lurking. and the next morning, he discovered someone had keyed the

side of his ford explorer, leaving a long scratch. >> reporter: which suggests somebody is following them on that date? >> absolutely. that's what it meant to me. >> reporter: but who was following dee dee and bobby? who was that angry? that act of vandalism pointed away from bobby lowe. >> i was an variation for several years and i've never known anybody to vandalize their own car. >> reporter: that kind of thinking would make it a perfect alibi. >> sure. sure. if he is sophisticated enough but his background indicated that, you know, he was well-liked guy, kind of successful himself and didn't have a lot of enemies. >> reporter: and then even as investigators looked at suspects, came the news that all who knew dee dee had, at once, hoped for and feared, dee dee's car had been found. not at lax two and a half hours down interstate 5 in san diego. that silver mercedes-benz had

been parked on this downtown street in san diego for days and earning it several parking tickets. when the local pd ran the plate it came up alonging to a missing person and when the trunk was finally opened there was a body wrapped in sheets covered by a blanket which was, itself, decorated with dog paws. dee dee keller was no longer missing. police asked to meet with dee dee's family. >> it was just -- it was a wide range of emotions. there was almost some type of relief that they had found her because had he were starting to think at that point how long could this go on? >> hardest days of my lirve and one of the hardest days for my children and all of her friends and her family. >> reporter: dee dee keller was dead at age 54. an autopsy showed she had been asphyxiated and the clues that were or were not left in her car

were about to take this case back in a familiar direction. >> coming up. just days before she was murdered, dee dee had a visit from a stalker. >> she said that she was in the shower, kind of pulled her out of shower and she had this huge altercation. he was calling her every name under the sun. >> reporter: when "dateline" continues. nce of a 165-point certification process. or it isn't. it's either testing an array of advanced safety systems. or it isn't. it's either the peace of mind of a standard unlimited mileage warranty. or it isn't. for those who never settle, it's either mercedes-benz certified pre-owned. or it isn't. the mercedes-benz certified pre-owned sales event. now through march 2nd. only at your authorized mercedes-benz dealer. remember, you have out the hilton app. can the hilton app help us win? hey, hey-we're all winners with the hilton price match guarantee, alright?

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prince harry broke his silence at a charity event speaking publicly for the first asyl time since announcing they would be stepping back from royal duty. it brought great sadness but had no other options. >> the teams are set. the 49ers beat the packers. they will be goij up against the kansas city chiefs who haven't been to the super bowl in 50

years. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. her children received the news they dreaded. their mother's body was found 100 miles from her home. it was a tragic blow. but came with the potential for answers. detectives went looking for clues. and that's what they would find. a downtown street in san diego in july 2004, dee dee keller had finally been found, dead in the trunk of her silver mercedes. the car had been the subject of a massive search ever since dee dee had been discovered missing a week earlier from her home two hours north in l.a. homicide detective jimmy gates, who had always thought finding the car would be the key for finding dee dee. now gave the mercedes a thorough going over. fingerprints or dna in the car?

>> there wasn't one fingerprint either on or in that car or was there any partial print. nothing. >> reporter: dee dee's or anybody else? >> nobody. >> reporter: so what does that say professional? >> well, someone went to great lengths to make damn sure they were not identified by fingerprints, that's for sure. >> reporter: but the killer did leave a clue in the tape wrapped around dee dee's body. >> i never seen tape like that. it appeared to us to be consistent with red duct tape. >> reporter: that started gates in one direction but he also looked closely at the way dee dee's body had been placed in that car. >> someone took great care to place her in that car and that indicated to us that someone cared deeply about her. >> reporter: so part of this is professional and part of this is somebody who knew her? >> exactly correct. >> reporter: the suspicions that said professional soon fell away in favor of those that said someone who knew her. not her children but someone who

re-enter dee dee's life the months before her death. her ex-husband erwin howard. >> reporter: do you ever think of him as violent or dangerous? right. no. i never suspected that he would do something physical. >> reporter: but detectives soon learned something had changed in erwin howard in the months before dee dee's murder. remember, after a car accident in january 2004, dee dee had invited erwin back into her life to help care for her and her dogs. that request apparently been misinterpreted by erwin. we know. he started wearing his wedding ring again. erwin wanted her back into his life and seemed to me on some level she sort of appreciated that part of him that adored her and wanted to take care of her, even if it's somebody you're not going to be with any more? >> yes. >> right. >> reporter: do you think she made that point clear enough to him? >> no.

>> reporter: she was too nice? >> always too nice and very trusting. >> reporter: and that maybe why investigators thought erwin seemed surprised when just two weeks before dee dee's murder, erwin gained access to dee dee's computer and found emails referring to a relationship with a new man bobby lowe. >> i think that really threw him for a loop when he found out that my mom, you know, had met somebody else and that is when things started getting scary. >> reporter: scary because erwin, detectives learned, had started doing things that pointed to an obsession with dee dee and how did they know that? in one of those only in a small town coincidences, dee dee's son miked lived just down the block from dee dee's new boyfriend bobby lowe. one night mike was sitting in his living room when he saw a familiar green range rover driving by and inside was erwin.

>> as the evening went on, he continued to drive by the house. >> reporter: did you call your mom' say, by the way, erwin is driving around the block while you're with bobby lowe? >> i didn't. i didn't really put two and two together. >> reporter: the next day now ten days before her murder, dee dee would call her friend sinned cindy ertman in a state of panic. >> she was crying and saying erwin came into the house without her knowing and pulled her out of the shower and she had this huge altercation and that he was calling her every name under the sun. >> reporter: dee dee told the same story to her friend linda. >> i said do you realize that erwin's behavior is escalating, dee dee? and she said yes. >> reporter: you said call the police? >> no. i said have you changed your locks? she said, no, i'll do it on the way home and, of course, she never did. >> reporter: investigators soon

learned that in those conversations with her friends, dee dee had left something out. a detail she mentioned only to her daughter julie that during that argument, erwin howard had also slapped her. >> i said, mom, you have to call the police. you have to get a restraining order and then i remember her asking me not to tell michael and that she was going to handle it. i remember being torn like, okay, this is my mom telling me i got it. but also thinking maybe she didn't have it. >> reporter: a few days later, it was clear julie was right. the very night her mom went missing, julie got another phone call, this time from erwin. >> i got on the phone and he is like, joule, what is your mom thinking? erwin, i don't want to talk about this. i feel like this is between you and my mom and he is like, well, you just need to pray for her soul. and i remember thinking it was a

little odd but then you know what? given his, you know, his grasp on the english language, sometimes he would say some funny things or, you know, get something wrong but i just remember thinking that was an odd comment. >> reporter: detective gates now felt erwin howard's motive for killing dee dee keller was clear, but proving erwin had the means to commit the murder was another matter and erwin from the moment he stepped off the plane when he returned from bolivia even though he was clearly the prime suspect and the case against erwin was not without its problems. it's one thing to stalk someone. quite another to kill them. there was no physical evidence tying erwin howard to the crime and there were those key card records showing him clocking into his job at american airlines the night of the murder. still, detective gates took the

information he had gathered to the l.a. county district attorney's office and asked for a warrant. >> they declined to file charges. >> reporter: they won't file? >> they won't file. >> reporter: did jimmy gates have the wrong man in his sights? was there ever going to be enough evidence to arrest a killer, any killer? >> coming up. investigators get the break they needed. it was not the only surprise in store. >> reporter: it's like lightning striking. >> twice. >> make that three times. >> one of the most shocking things i've ever seen in one of my cases in a courtroom. >> when "dateline" continues. (mom) were you planning on mowing the lawn today? [thunder] (son) no. (burke) saved by the bolt. seen it. covered it. at farmers insurance, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ (vo) get a quote today. itso chantix can help you quit slow turkey.

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and killed her. he had an alibi for the night. he was at his job at an airline mechanic. with no physical evidence tieing him to the crime making a case is very difficult. so the detective decided it was time for an advanced course in airport employee security procedure. summer had come and gone in l.a.'s south bay without an arrest in the murder of beloved real estate agent dee dee keller. and as the months dragged on, detective jimmy gates kept pounding the pavement. building what em thought was a strong circumstantial case against keller's ex-husband erwin howard but the l.a. county's d.a. office had so far declined to issue a warrant for howard's arrest. dee dee's son michael wanted answers. there was a lot of time erwin was walking around free. >> seemed like decades.

so painful and emotional. >> reporter: jimmy gates was feeling the same way. soon his hard work had paid off. the red tape found on dee dee's body. a specially trained dog found erwin's consent on it and similar evidence at at the hanger at l.a.x. what about his ten-hour shift? the more the detectives dug into that alibi, the less solid it seemed. detective gates painstakingly dissected the procedures at the hangar and he found that erwin howard could swipe into work at the employee parking lot using a key card at this turnstile ian then clock in inside the hangar.

but he could also leave whenever he wanted by walking out the large bay doors and catching an employee shuttle back to the parking lot. there would be no record of his leaving. jimmy gates discovered that on the night of the murder, erwin used his key card to swipe into the parking lot at 8:24 p.m. and again at 10:21 p.m., and for a third time at 1:47 a.m., which completely blew apart his alibi that he had been at work the whole time. so he would swipe his card to get back in. >> absolutely. >> reporter: after there was no record of him leaving? >> right. >> reporter: by now you're convinced erwin is the guy? >> absolutely. all of the witnesses, all of the evidence, everything pointed directly at erwin. >> reporter: there was one more key piece of evidence. the day after the murder, a witness saw a mercedes on the street in the area and she

thought it belonged to a friend so she sped up to catch her. >> she sees it's not her friend and he is she sees a male hispanic driving the car and she remembers that license plate. >> reporter: the license plate belonged to the mercedes owned by dee dee keller. the man driving? the witness helped the police artist draw this sketch. who does it look like? >> it looks like erwin. >> reporter: the witness was then shown a photo lineup and she picked out erwin howard. >> that is like lightning striking. >> reporter: twice. >> then it struck again. six months after the murder, jimmy gates' phone rang. it was dee dee's next door neighbor who had been interviewed once and had offered nothing of value. but now, apparently, she was having an attack of conscience. the neighbor told the detective she had seen erwin on june 30th, the day erwin had confronted and slapped dee dee.

>> she said the conversation lasted 15, 20 minutes he articulated he was mad enough to strangulate her with work gloves. >> reporter: what dee dee's neighbor told you? >> right. >> reporter: why do you think she did not tell you for six months? >> i don't know why a neighbor during a murder investigation wouldn't simply tell the cops the truth that he wanted to kill her. >> reporter: armed with that new and threatening statement, detective gates was able to get his warrant and soon erwin howard was under arrest for the murder of dee dee keller. now the case was in the hands of l.a. county deputy district attorney john louin. what made this case different? >> i love cases where you have a very good idea who the suspect is but it's a question of kind of putting the evidence together. so circumstantial cases where you have high motive but you're looking at lots of little facts and seeing, okay, what can you

turn this into? >> reporter: it would to three years for the case against erwin howard to come to trial. cameras were not present in the courtroom that day when trial began in the fall of 2008. john lewin laid out his case in a devastating thorough two and a half hour long power point presentation to the jury room. >> opening statements are like a check. i'm writing a check, jury hears it, and if i do my job right after opening, all they are waiting to see is if there are funds in the bank. >> reporter: in other words, if you deliver during your case what you say you're going to deliver in the opening statement, you will get a conviction? >> that is my hope. >> reporter: never in this prosecutor's wildest dreams did he believe his opening statement would have the affect it did on erwin howard and his defense attorney andrew flyer. you hear that opening statement and something changes? >> something changed. after the opening statement i

went back into lock-up and i spoke to erwin i said, hey, listen. remember how i was speaking about the circumstantial case and it could be powerful? i think there could be some problems now. and his answer was i need to tell you something. >> reporter: that something would stun dee dee keller's family and friends and the prosecutor, himself. >> one of the most shocking things i've ever seen in one of my cases in a courtroom. >> "dateline" returns after the break. lumber. if you need lumber wood, lumber. lonnie's is better than good. we got oak, cherry, walnut, and more. and we also have the best selection of plywood (clattering) in the state... hey! (high-pitched laughter) man: dang woodchucks! (wood clattering) stop chuckin' that wood! with geico, the savings keep on going. just like this sequel. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.

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welcome back. howard was on trial for the murder of his ex-wife. on day one the prosecution laid out a detailed circumstantial case. jurors expected to hear weeks of testimony. but he was about to deliver a bomb shell.

a twist efb the most seasoned people in the courtroom didn't see coming. in a los angeles courtroom in september 2008, something extraordinary was taking place. the murder trial of erwin howard, expected to last three months was on the verge of ending in just two days. prosecutor john lewin had presented a powerful opening statement. >> i had seen the defendant during the opening and i thought maybe, you know, something had gotten to him. >> the d.a. was right because after the opening defense attorney andrew flyer had spoken to howard who then made a stunning admission. >> for the first time in my career, i heard a defendant confess to a crime and i was the first one he told. >> until that moment, his defense was i wasn't there and i didn't have anything to do with it? >> correct. >> reporter: the defense attorney walked into the courtroom and made a statement that caused mouths to fall open.

>> defense attorney gets up and he says that you're going to see something you'll never see in a court ever. he says my client killed dee dee keller but he didn't murder her. >> reporter: what did that mean? >> they trying to to see if they could get a manslaughter out of it. >> reporter: the d.a. asked to speak with erwin howard behind closed doors and made an offer. plead guilty to second-degree murder and be eligible for parole in 15 years. >> my memory as he is saying this he is nodding. >> reporter: this wasn't just about he admitteding it to you? he had to come into court and admit it to everybody? >> yes. >> reporter: and erwin howard did that just surprising a courtroom sfiled with dee dee's friends and family. >> h-o-w-a-r-d howard. >> there was such a sense of

relief. >> reporter: oh, my gosh, we are going to healer the truth finally and erwin is going to confess. >> reporter: he guided erwin through the sequence of events beginning with why he went over to dee dee's house on the night of july 8th, 2004. >> i wanted to talk to her. >> what did you want to talk to her about? >> to apologize for my act on june the 30th. >> reporter: june 30th, 2004 when, after discovering she was dating another man, erwin stormed into dee dee's house and confronted her in the shower, tossed emails in her face, and slapped her. on that final night, though, erwin said he knocked and dee dee, alone after her new boyfriend left, he says let him in. >> i said, please, listen to me. please listen to me. at some point i guess i raised my voice and little dog rossy

started growling. >> reporter: erwin said he threw a pillow at the dog and that angered dee dee. >> she told me, how dare you hurt my dog and she slapped me. i reached towards her, i grab her hand, she start punching with her hand on my chest. i put her hand down. i crowd her and pulled her towards me. we struggled. >> reporter: erwin said he put dee dee in a sort of a bear hug. >> i just kept holding her and telling her, please, listen to me, please i don't want to lose you. i love you. i don't want to lose you. >> how tightly were you holding her? >> i felt her body. go limp. i stood there and i felt, i killed her. i killed her. i've killed her. >> reporter: erwin said he came back the next evening and put

dee dee's body in the car and using a spare key he had for the mercedes, he started driving and headed for mexico. but he wondered how he would get back across the border so he left the car on a street in san diego and hired an off-duty taxi to take him back to l.a. erwin admitted to the murder he talked about it in a way that made it seem almost accidental? >> yes. he was willing to accept responsibility for the rage and the anger. he was not willing to accept responsibility that the murder happened intentionally. >> second-degree murder. >> reporter: but despite that, lewin felt a second-degree murder conviction was the best he could secure. and after erwin left the stand and took the plea, dee dee's friends and family had the chance to speak to him. they offered surprising words of gratitude and forgiveness to a now confessed killer.

>> you did the right thing under the circumstances and for that, i thank you and -- >> thank you. >> thank you for doing the right thing. >> i remember thinking that something really special had happened, that, you know, will nothing is going to bring my mom back, we will got the best possible outcome, given the circumstances. >> reporter: it's rare in a murder trial to hear so much of sort of lack of anger and towards the defendant. >> they realized dee dee in hindsight had not handled things as best she could have in terms of terminating that relationship. >> reporter: erwin howard was

granted parole in february 2019. dee dee's friends and family, their sorrow tinged with regret, now honor dee dee by urging other women not to ignore the warning signs of domestic violence. >> we want dee dee's life to count for something so i just hope people will reach out for help and get support. >> reporter: i know you don't blame dee dee for this, but i know that you also wish that she had been more forthright with the two of you because you would have acted even though she didn't want to? >> yes, we would have. >> there is no question i would have done things differently if i could go back and relive it. >> reporter: but for dee dee's friends, regrets give way to wonderful memories. today there is a plaque at the local dog park, both remembering and honoring a woman whose big heart wouldn't ever let her turn away a stray. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin.

thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." he had deeper feelings for me than just friends. he managed to get me to care about him. he had my whole life wrapped up. >> she's at the center of a riveting courtroom drama. the wife whose entrepreneur husband was found murdered one cold autumn morning. >> our whole family has lost its brightest light, and we don't know why. >> he's the one accused of the crime. so why is she under the microscope? >> she's gotten i