fractured intellectuals, broken souls who lost their humanity on a descent into evil. this is "dateline." i had got a call from alison who told me he was missing. >> would anyone want to hurt him? i knew that my dad had been on match.com. >> this is not going to end well. this is a crime scene. miles of nothing up here. it's an easy place for a man to go missing. >> i can't find my brother. >> he was the school superintendent, not the type to play hooky. >> he really loved teaching and working with kids. >> turns out he wasn't missing.

he was dead. >> a missing person that became a homicide. >> correct. >> solved one mystery but left another. why would anyone want to kill him? maybe it had something to do with the woman in his life. he's broken off an engagement with one. >> just found out he's dead this morning and now i feel like -- >> and somebody else nobody knew about. >> i was lonely, just needed someone to talk to. >> did it get a little steamy, mary? >> yes. >> passion, and a secret that the wrong person discovered. >> her face looked like she'd seen a ghost. >> stay with me. >> you have a phone call i think you need to take. hil hello and welcome to "dateline." keith reid was a school superintendent respected by students and adored by friends

and family. had he didn't show up at an out of town conference ts, it set o alarm bells. police took a hard life at his love life for clues and off radar to help detectives piece together this puzzle. here's dennis murphy with "at close range." >> reporter: winter comes early, stays late in far western new york. the farmlands near chautauqua lake filled by dutch families and amish are encased in snow for months at a time. in this place of frozen stillness the hottest of passions, boiling jealousy, came to call one day, and a tiny climate, 1,700 residents in the southwest part of the county is still shaking off the shock of it all. joe jarsy, sheriff of chautauqua county, my 35 years in law enforcement, ever remember a murder here?

never. >> reporter: began simply. the new school superintendent went missing in town just a few weeks into the school year, september 2012. keith reid, 5 years old, a longtime educator who landed in the sweet spot of his professional career. the up until then school principal applied for the top job in the district with his big brother kevin urging him on. >> old school. chautauqua county, called climbers. i don't know whether i should apply there. i said, apply! >> reporter: you might think a close-knit community like clymer would be stand offish to newcomers but students and parents quickly embraced the hands-on reid. >> kids in the morning, greeted them. talked to them during the day, in the hallways. he really loved teaching and working with kids, and he was wonderful at it. >> reporter: the new superintendent had three grown daughters and a painful divorce behind him. but he'd never let life's

difficulties district from his primary role, dad. megan is the middle child. >> he loved to have fun. he would always dance crazy with us, like pick us up in the air and slide us between his legs and throw us up. >> reporter: the old family snapshots, hiking in hawaii, disney world, all the christmases seemed to show a dad over the moon for his three girls. kaitlyn was a star volleyball player, an all-american, and knew without a doubt when her father was in the stands on game days. >> you could hear him? >> i could. i ruined him. >> reporter: her dad was in a long-term relationship with a single mom named kimberly roush. >> he had three daughters, i had two boy two boys. a lot of time spent at sporting events. >> reporter: on again/off again for years. they took time off from each other and then rubber band baggy

together. >> a song would come on and he would pull the car over, take me out of the car and dance along the side of the road. being with him was amazing. >> reporter: now that his girls were grown, keith reid was at long last finding his special place, getting comfortable. he bought a big house in town. a sign that the superintendent wasn't just using clymer was a career stepping-stone. >> he found where he wanted to be, finally, after years and years of looking. they'd have to pry him out of the bar. >> reporter: but on saturday morning, 2012, when clymer's school principal ed drove past his house he was surprised to see both of keith's vehicles in the driveway. the superintendent was meant to be across the state at an educator's conference. >> made a mental note. come back by, if both vehicles there, i'll stop by. >> reporter: with all the same on return trip the principal pulled into the drive i. actually went into the door of the house and yelled his name.

of course, no answer. >> reporter: someone else who started to wonder what was up that saturday as kaitlyn. the two spoke by phone every day. >> he been answer my phone call on that saturday, and so i thought that was a little strange, but i was really busy so just kind of forgot. >> reporter: by sunday the middle daughter megan became concerned. started worrying. >> answer the phone. this time answer your phone. you know? i was confused, because he always just answers the first time we call. >> reporter: that sunday night her uncle kevin a former fbi agent of 20 years, was being called to the house in clymer by a school official. >> can't find your brother. what do you mean? supposed to be as a conference in albany didn't check in at the hotel, both cars at the house. okay. we're coming. >> reporter: kevin was hoping for a simple explanation, that they'd come upon his brother on the property hurt, maybe unable to get up. >> my hope he had gone out back,

track land behind his house and had fallen down, was laying out there and couldn't get up. >> reporter: when the he walked into the house the former fbi man didn't like what he saw. >> looking around. here's $600. his wallet. suitcase partially packed. came downstairs said everybody out. out in the garage. this isn't going to end well and this is a crime scene. >> reporter: the principal was taken aback by the comment. >> i understand an issue here that keith's not where we thought he should be, but what do you mean it's not going to end well? >> reporter: the principal called the sheriff's office to report keith missing. deputies responded to the scene. >> nothing added up. he had a bag packed. it looked like he was preparing for his trip, but nothing else that was out of place. >> reporter: deputies broke out flashlights and searched the house. the grounds. no luck. keith reid was flat-out gone.

>> it's really a mystery to him. >> correct. >> reporter: sunday night ended in drenching rain, darker than usual around the house. they hadn't figured out why the exterior lights by the garage weren't working, hadn't talked to neighbors about loud voices they heard. where was the school superintendent, mr. reid? coming up -- as the search continues, police make a startling discovery. >> so missing person became a homicide? >> correct. and it was -- like, wow. >> when "dateline" continues.

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one down, mr. bailey. don't forget this. >> this snippet of cell phone individual crow shows keith reid end of first day of school in september 2012. in three weeks' time the high-profile educator would be reported to the sheriff's office as a missing person. >> the school superintendent that everybody loved, kids loved him. he was there every morning greeting them as they got off the bus. >> reporter: keith's last known whereabouts was dinner with a friend friday night. a security camera caught him leaving restaurant around 8:30 p.m. the next day a no-show at a big state educator's conference across the state. his bro r brothther, a former a

had a bad feeling, i didn't have time to get emotional. >> reporter: his brother grounded, stable, reliable, was no one's candidate to just one day go missing. especially not then. why, just a few weeks before he had the moment every dad lives for. walking his eldest daughter kaitlyn down the aisle. >> one of the most momentous moments of his life. >> he lift immediate up on the dance floor. >> a very happy guy? >> he was. >> that was 2012? >> uh-huh. >> reporter: as dawn broke a month later, keith reid had vanished. the sheriff's people dispatched to do a daylight search of the grounds. it wasn't long before a canine handling reported back. keith reid, his body, had been found. >> immediately the dog and he found the body in the shrubs. >> reporter: keith's girlfriend

kimberly was driving to a new job that morning when she got the news. she couldn't believe what she was hearing. >> he's dead. they found him. and -- i just started crying and i said, that's -- that's not possible. >> reporter: but tucked into the hedge row about 50 feet from his driveway lie keith reid's body, shot three times, twice in the back, once in the chest, all at close range. >> it was, like, wow. how could this happen? who could have done this? why would they do it? >> reporter: those same questions were still roaring through the halls of keith's school. the principal ed bailey had gotten the news from the sheriff's office. >> i just about dropped the phone. just couldn't believe it. >> talking about keith reid? >> yeah. my friend. >> reporter: along with the shock in the community came an unnerving question. given the national climate of school-related shootings, could keith reid have been targeted because of his work leading the district? an angry student, a disgruntled

parent? was any of that even remotely possible? >> i think going back through he didn't have enemies. who possibly could have bun yep set or crazy enough to do this? >> did you come up with possibilities? >> one incident i know of that the family was very upset with him. >> school-related beef? >> school related, but nothing out of the ordinary. nothing that should have ever rose to this level. >> reporter: neighboring districts were understandably on edge, too. were they next? >> my phone blew up from other ? >> and my phone blew up from other schools. are we in danger? is this the beginning of something bigger? there's a lot of people worried. >> and concerned only heightened the sheriff said when word spread that an unknown man had stopped by keith's school around noon that friday asking to see mr. reed. >> he had told them that he was applying for a job as a substitute teacher, he came in

from connecticut looking for work. >> the man seen here was captured on school surveillance cameras. was this visitor a piece of the puzzle? detectives didn't know. but given the potential nightmare of schools and children in jeopardy, it was more important than ever for the sheriff to have all hands on deck at the crime scene. david fully was county district attorney. >> a neighbor couple had heard gunshots, three gunshots, friday evening, somewhere around 9:00 p.m. >> on the property on itself, detectives found themselves frustrating short of clue. they found a shog gi piece of paper that looked like a receipt. it would be work for the lab to figure out. around the garage, investigators took notice, something perpl perplexing, three exterior lights, the bulbs are missing. >> why are the bulbs gone? this is odd.

this is really odd. >> rang the doorbell, can't see who is out there. flips the door. opens the door, there's his assailant. >> the shooting of the superintendent for a grievance unknown became one theory to pursue, but detectives were about to hear a story that would make them look at the crime scene in a completely different way, something more traditional. was it possible that keith reed was the victim of a bad romance? as it happened, a candidate for a suspect, someone on again, off again, was about to pull into the drive. coming up, angry texts put a girlfriend in the hot seat. >> i just found out that he was dead this morning. and now i feel like i'm a suspect. >> when "dateline" continues. suspect. >> when "dateline" continues plus a powerful decongestant. so you can always say "yes" to putting your true colors on display. say "yes" to allegra-d.

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♪ the body of keith reed, the admired school superintendent had been found in a hedge by his house. he had been shot three times. keith's brother, kevin, a law enforcement veteran, had caravanned to the house monday morning with his 80-year-old parents expecting to search for a missing person. the sheriff broke the news. >> so now i've got my mother wanting to go and cover him up with a blanket because he's cold. try that some time? it's a crime scene, mom, you can't go up there. it's tough. >> as the reed family struggled to make sense of the horror, investigators would put the question to keith's daughters, did they know of anyone who had

a reason to hurt their dad? >> we could not think of anyone to tell them. >> no one. >> everyone was just -- no. >> but a name had occurred to their uncle kevin. of the lead's to sort through, he suggested investigators look at keith's on again, off again of many years, kimberly rausch. >> first thing you need to do is talk to kimberly. >> where did that come from in you? >> experience and knowing their relationship. >> the investigators learned from kevin and others that the superintendent's relationship with kimberly had at times been rocky. they had been engaged to be married, but keith recently called off the wedding. >> by the time summer was over, no, we're not doing this. >> was this what the crime scene was all about? a deadly confrontation between a man and his lover upset over a cancelled wedding? kimberly, who was almost two hours away, raced to the house. >> i said, kevin, what happened?

i said, did he have a heart attack or something? and he said, no. somebody shot him. and i just started sobbing. and i started to go down to my knees in the road. >> investigator randy bolen was assigned to talk to her. >> she is crying and very, very, very emotional. so i immediately go and speak to her, but i give her some moments. >> but in the investigator's eyes, kimberly quickly went from grieving girlfriend to potential suspect. he asked for her phone. >> i said, okay. is there a reason why? you know, i just was kind of shocked. >> it turns out that keith had asked kimberly to join him at the educator's conference that weekend. she said they had never finalized the plan, but she had been mad at him for not returning her calls. >> she gets very upset in her text messages back, like, i can't believe you're not talking to me. you know, and they're half

violent, like why are you not calling me? >> really flaming stuff. >> yeah. >> and something else, in keith's bedroom upstairs, crime scene analysts noticed this picture frame. it was toppled over and taken apart on a bookcase. whatever picture had been in it was gone. >> you can put a story together with that pretty easy. >> the pieces of the puzzle were just starting to come together. >> investigator bolen brought kimberly in for a formal taped interview. she was read her rights. >> i'm still in shock. i barely have my head around that he was killed, and now i feel like i'm going right from that into are you the one that killed him? >> i just found out he was dead this morning and then i show up and i found out he was shot. and now i feel like i'm a suspect. >> kimberly told investigator bolen she had been three hours away at her parent's house at the time they believe keith was shot.

she admitted that while she did get angry with him, she would never hurt him. >> never in a million years no matter what he said or did did i ever consider or conceive of the thought of harming him or hurting him or living without him. i remember feeling absolutely terrified. and i thought, i have two little boys at home. i need to get home. they don't even know he's gone. >> through some of your messages, you've displayed that -- >> people say things. >> anger, you know what i mean? >> have i been angry? you bet i have been angry. anybody would be in certain situations. that doesn't make them a killer. >> but had there been a trigger leading up to friday night? the investigators saw in kimberly's text messages that she was intent on getting back from reed a high school diploma, something she thought might be at his house. >> yeah. i used the f word. i'm sure obviously you're there with another woman and i don't

even care. i just need my [ bleep ] diploma. why won't you just pick your [ bleep ] phone up. >> you think i'm going to show up and shoot him over my missing diploma i can't find? i would just go there, look through the bins, find it, take it and leave. >> but what about that picture frame? detectives thought it might have been toppled over during a fight. >> no. we've never broken pictures of each other. so i really had no idea what they were talking about. >> investigator bolen confronted kimberly with a working theory. thinking keith was away, she stormed over to his house with a male friend to get her diploma back. only keith was still home an unhappy surprise. >> there's an issue of two males going at it. did you see something you didn't want to see? >> i wasn't there. >> seriously? not at all? >> not at all. >> they were thinking i was guilty of this. and i loved him so much. i could never have even thought

of doing anything like that. >> the nearly three-hour long interview was over. kimberly was still in the cross-hairs and the thought was terrifying to her. >> am i going to go to jail for something i didn't do? >> but investigator bolen had his doubts that she had anything to do with keith reed's death. >> she didn't lead my suspect list, but at the same time, she seemed genuine that she didn't -- she would never do something like this. >> meanwhile, there had been a very puzzling development in the investigation. the sunday night the superintendent was reported missing, the cops had asked the phone company to ping keith reed's cell phone to ask it the technological question, where are you? the phone answered back electronically, i'm in harrisburg, pennsylvania. >> this man is dead in the hedges by the house and his phone is in harrisburg, pa, hours away? >> yes, hours away. >> his phone more than 200 miles away, he's dead at his home,

what was going on? things get way more complicated when a second woman makes a phone call to the sheriff. coming up -- >> i don't know. i don't -- >> okay. just relax. >> she was very, very upset. >> when "dateline" continues. 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. they're out there. thousands ofr allergensyes know in each cubic yard of air. no wonder you rub your eyes hundreds of times a day. but now, relief is just one drop away. introducing pataday® full prescription strength pataday works right in your eyes. right on the cells that make them itch. fast. just one drop, once a day means relief that lasts all day. so turn your day, into a pataday. now get pataday without a prescription.

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i'm cori coffin with the hour's top stories. according to the white house physician, president trump has tested negative for the coronavirus. this comes after growing concern over the president's contact with multiple people at his mar-a-lago resort in florida who tested positive for the virus. france has shut down all bars and rest raumpbts effectively suspending night life across the country in an effort to control the spread of coronavirus. grocery stores, pharmacies, banks and other public services will remain open. now back to "dateline." ♪

welcome back to "dateline" i'm natalie morales. police discover that kimberly rausch and her on again/off again boyfriend keith reed were going through a rough patch around the time he was shot dead. detectives had their eye on kimberly, but they were about to hear from another woman in keith's life who would change the course of the investigation. once again, here is dennis murphy with "at close range." >> of the many details concerning the homicide of well-liked school superintendent keith reed, perhaps none was more perplexing than the murdered's man cell phone. why would the phone company report it was in harrisburg, pennsylvania. four hours east of the crime scene. >> i thought it was a mistake. no one knew of anyone he would know in harrisburg. >> in the hours after keith's body was found, relatives frantically called that phone, desperate to get a voice on the other end. the sheriff was shocked on monday when one of them hit pay

dirt. >> i just called keith reed's phone and somebody answered it. what? >> that's a holy cow moment. >> oh, yeah. >> it turns out the person saying hello was a construction foreman on a bridge near harrisburg. the phone had been found on some scaffolding which suggested to detectives someone in a car had tried to toss the phone into the river. >> it landed on a bridge deck that was -- that had been set up to do repairs to the bridge. it was a very lucky break for us. >> what are the odds? >> one in a billion. >> while this recovered cell phone was on its way to the fbi lab, crime scene analysts spent the next day at keith reed's house, scouring the property for clues. district attorney david foley knew the clymer community on edge about a school-related shooting was anxious for the case to be looked a long ways off. >> would be nice to announce an arrest. >> then something totally out of the blew happened that turned the investigation upside down.

the sheriff was in a closed door meeting when his secretary interrupted. >> i thought it was a family emergency. that her face looked like she had seen a ghost and she said, sheriff, you have a phone call. i think you need to take. >> a panic-stricken woman was on the phone. she needed to talk to the sheriff immediately. the sheriff returned to his office so he could take the phone call. >> i don't know. i don't -- >> okay. just relax. >> okay. sorry. >> her name is mary. she was calling from virginia. no one in keith reed's life including his daughter megan heard of her. >> that name mean anything to you? this mary woman? >> not at all. >> anybody in the family, did it ring a bell? >> no. >> megan's older sister kaitlyn didn't know the name either but would soon realize this mary was a woman her dad taken to dinner during 2010 during an hour period with kimberly. >> i remember him saying he was going out to dinner. yeah, no. nothing ever came from it. >> but now this mary was on the phone. >> she was very, very upset.

>> stay with me. this is going to be okay. relax. >> i kept her on the phone purposefully as long as i could and while we were talking i had my staff scrambling to get somebody in law enforcement to her home. >> almost 400 miles south, officers brought mary to an interview room. she was the second woman in three days investigators were speaking to about the murder of the superintendent. >> i'm glad they have these here. i just might need them. >> oh, okay. >> mary said she and keith first developed a relationship on match.com. she had separated from her husband and had moved with her four children to up state new york. after 11 years of marriage, she says she was trying to figure out how to get back into the dating game. >> i was lonely and just needed someone to talk to, a friend. >> mary said she was intrigued by the superintendent and responded when he sent her a message saying hello.

>> and i said, yeah, you're really good looking, but we started talking and we had some things in common. and then he asked if he could call me. >> they talked on and off for a couple of months, she says. keith, who always had a soft spot for someone in need, provided emotional support as she struggled to find her footing as a newly separated woman. >> i kind of felt lost, you know. i didn't know what to do or where to go next. and he was great. he was really encouraging. >> it was some time in the summer of 2010, she told the detectives, that she met her online match for their one and only date. >> he took me to dinner and we had a night together. >> it was little more than a one-night stand. mary says she decided to try to make things work with her husband. keith reconciled with his girlfriend. >> we both just kind of said good luck to each other. >> so it was like a handshake and good-bye. >> pretty much, yeah.

>> but a couple of years later, mary says, her marriage was once again coming undone. in the spring of 2012, she tried to friend keith on facebook. he didn't accept the request, but the superintendent did write her a message. >> he sent me a message back asking me how i was and i told him that i wasn't happy and things weren't going too well. >> she says they started calling each other on the occasional evening. keith struggling with his relationship and mary lonely in her's confided in each other. >> was that something nice in your life at that time, mary? >> yes. >> what was it doing for you? >> it was a piece of happiness. like i felt a little more fulfilled. >> but she says their phone conversations did at times get sexual. >> was it hi, how you? did it also get a little steamy, mary. >> yes. >> still it hardly seemed like a big-deal relationship. could a single date and some suggestive phone calls really add up to murder? in mary's mind, yes.

but she hadn't called the sheriff to confess to the crime. nor had she called to point her finger at a potentially jealous girlfriend. no, mary had someone else entirely in mind and the clue to who killed the superintendent could be found on his compute we are. coming up, the secret comes out. >> was this long thing about don't you dare contact my wife ever again and if you do, you're going to be sorry. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues for most patients that have sensitivity it's very common to have a gum health concern as well. but if you have sensitive teeth, you probably aren't going to brush your teeth as effectivity because it causes pain. and if you see blood you should do something about it. you know, i talk to dentists every day and they're able to recommend one product, new sensodyne sensitivity & gum, to address both conditions at the same time. if we only treat one versus the other, the patient's mouth is never going to be where it needs to be. it's really good dentistry to be able to recommend one product for patients that can address two conditions.

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♪ the internet had given renew liefd to the cyber relationship between school superintendent keith reed and mary tag leah netty. now mary would explain why she feared their digital trail led to his death. >> i'm trying to give you everything that i can. >> mary had met her husband rob in college. he was an historian with the marines and she was mostly a stay at home mom to their four kids. she told detectives that their 11 years together had been difficult at times. but something had happened that august which pushed the marriage to the brink. she was at the doctors when her husband discovered an email. his wife thanking reed for the previous night's phone sex. >> he said do you mind telling me who keith reed is. >> you knew what he had come

across, huh? >> yes. >> mary, who struggled through the pain of the separation once, now decided to try to keep her family together. >> i was really thinking about the kids and i just thought, you know, they deserve to be in their home with their father and mother. >> but her husband was adamant, she says, if he was going to stay, there was a condition attached. she would have to hand over her pass words. mary told detectives he later logged on to her email account and fired off a blistering message to reed. >> but it was this long thing about don't you dare contact my wife ever again. and if you do, you're going to be sorry because i have the emails and i'll post it at all your schools. >> the superintendent responded simply, back off stay away from me or i'll take action and i'll tell your wife the same. >> it should have been the end of things. >> it should have been the end of hinges. >> but it wasn't. >> no. >> mary said rob started getting

dress affidavit reading the emails. she asked him where he was going. >> he said where do you think i'm going? i said you're going to go see keith? and he said, well i guess you know me. >> does he take off in the car? >> he leaves late. 11:00 p.m. at night. >> that all happened, she said, the night before investigators suspected keith reed had been killed. >> i had thought in my mind like, there's no way he's going to go all the way up there just to try to beat this guy up. >> that's what you thought this was, confrontation, a fistfight. >> oh, yeah. he had gotten into fistfights before. >> for the past few years, mary says, she had been concerned about her husband's trip wire anger. >> he would have episodes where i would be afraid of him or the children would be afraid of him. >> it had caused their separation two years before and now she worried her husband had lost all perspective. >> i hear you saying it may have been a love triangle only in rob's mind, but that was not what was going on. >> no. it was more like a connective friendship.

and it was flirting. >> she says she emailed keith several warnings and tried to reach her husband throughout the next day, but her calls went straight to voice mail. >> i was just thinking i was going to get a phone call from the police saying your husband was acting like an idiot, but i didn't hear anything from anybody. >> mary says rob returned home saturday morning, telling her keith had been out of town. >> instantly i was like, oh, good. i was so happy. like i was so relieved. >> relieved, she told the detectives, until four days later when she ran an internet search to see what her husband could have found out about the superintendent. >> there it was, keith's picture saying 51-year-old keith reed shot to death. >> i couldn't believe it. like, i lost my breath and i was shocked. and i knew right away that it had to be rob.

>> to investigators looking for the killer in up state new york, mary's husband made more than a lot of sense. there was keith reed's cell phone found off this bridge in pennsylvania. >> harrisburg is on the way to virginia. see, now that makes sense too. that piece of the puzzle. >> and something else clicked, remember that man who appeared at clymer central school asking to speak to the superintendent. investigators sent a freeze frame down to the interview room in virginia. >> does this look like him? >> yes. that's him. >> yes. >> mary identifies those stills as being her husband, so we know that it's him in the school. >> now authorities had a suspect, but where was he? mary said that a few days after her husband returned he told her he got a new job and had quit his position as an historian at the marine base in quantico. rob also packed up some things and taken off, leaving behind a cryptic note about going to a

camping trip to clear his head. at the time, it hadn't made sense to her. >> i didn't understand why he didn't want to take us, you know, if he's going to take a couple of weeks off for vacation, why wouldn't he take his family. >> but now everything added up. the authorities issued a bolo, a be on the lookout for anthony rob taglianeti. a man hunt was under way. >> we are actively looking for this individual to pick him up for questioning and we consider him to be armed and dangerous. >> where are you? where are the children? >> we were at a hotel. they were worried that he was going to try to come back and look for us. >> as the authorities search for rob taglienetti, keith reed's family in up state new york gathered to say their good-byes. the church in his hometown was too small for the hundreds of mourners, all the people whose lives the educator had touched. his brother was a pallbearer. >> could you speak that day? >> i couldn't.

my son had to hold me up. >> you were a wreck. >> oh, yeah, completely. >> keith's daughters held the strength. years before they almost lost their father in a motorcycle accident. he per severed. now they were determined to make him proud. >> i knew that he wouldn't want us to be sad and depressed. i knew he would want it to be a celebration of his life. >> it was that same afternoon that taglienetti's gold buick was spotted speeding down a road near a national park in virginia. >> make the plate, pull it over and take him into custody without incident. >> anthony rob was charged with the second degree murder of keith reed. to the prosecutor, the theory of a jealous husband killing his perceived rival connected all the dots. but wait, the defense said, the real story of who was to blame had yet to be heard. rob was merely the puppet. it was his wife, mary a cunning and manipulative woman who

pulled the strings. >> all she wanted was to be with keith reed, which means she's got to get rid of rob. she's got to get him out of the picture. coming up, an angry husband or as the defense argued a scheming wife. >> this is a story about manipulation and exploitation. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues stop dancing around the pain that keeps you up again, and again. advil pm silences pain, and you sleep the whole night. advil pm free! free!! uh...free! free, free, free. free. free free! free!! that's right, turbotax free is free. free,free free free. protect your pet with the #1 name in flea and tick protection.

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after the killing of the popular school superintendent, keith reed, rob taglianetti went on trial for second-degree murder. he pleaded not guilty. the prosecutor told the jury this case was about an explicit e-mail that provoked a husband to kill. >> he sought out keith reed and shot him to death. >> the prosecutor laid out his case. taglianetti caught here on tape the day of the murder. a gold buick like taglianetti's was in the driveway that afternoon. and the soaked piece of paper on the lawn, it was an atm receipt from taglianetti's bank account. there were more incendiary e-mails, too, a flurry of them, sent to keith reed the night before the murder. capital letters stuff, exclamation points. >> i'm going to get you. i'm going to take care of you. you don't mess with me and my

family. >> reporter: and all say good night to the evidence found in taglianetti's car. under the driver's seat was a revolver. it was wrapped in a printout of his wife's steamy e-mail. and on the gun itself -- >> we had keith reed's glad not only on the barrel but in the barrel. that was the barrel that was pressed on keith reed's back. >> reporter: and there was an exit strategy. he bought a one-way ticket to israel. >> his ultimate idea was to get out of the country. >> reporter: but the defense attorney told the jury it is not at all what it seemed. >> this is a story about manipulation and exploitation. >> reporter: he said that rob taglianetti was a devoted husband that loved his wife and wanted nothing more than to keep his family together. his wife, mary, on the other

hand, was a master manipulator, dead-set on destroying the marriage anyway she could. >> rob taglianetti, she wanted him out of his life. keith reed, she wanted to be with him. and she did whatever accomplished those ends. >> reporter: the defense suggests that mary left an e-mail open on purpose. why? maybe a confrontation between the two men was her goal. why would not not have alerted the authorities to her husband's impending actions against the student. superintendent. wouldn't you call the police? wouldn't you call authorities? she waited days to call the police. >> reporter: mary said she was appalled by the defense's theory. how was getting keith reed killed and her husband accused,

do her any purpose? >> no, i wish i would have never left that e-mail open. >> reporter: that's the story the jury is hearing about you, that you're driving the events. >> yeah. that's not true at all. >> reporter: but the defense attorney went even further. maybe the blistering e-mails from taglianetti to reed had really been written by mary. she denies it. he implied it would be a way for her to frame her husband, to show he left the house with murder on his mind. >> there's no corroborating evidence whatsoever, of mary's testimony, that rob authored those e-mails. >> reporter: to try to prove that point, the defense attorney cited a phrase in one of the messages that he said rob taglianetti would never have used. the marine would not refer to himself as a former marine. once a marine, always a marine. >> reporter: as for what happened on keith reed's property the night he was killed, the defense did not concede that rob taglianetti was

there. but if he had been, he said, maybe the superintendent was the aggressor. after all, it was his reputation that was at stake if the folk sex with mary was exposed. >> when someone's confronted with that situation, who knows what they can do? >> reporter: there were too many unanswered questions to justify a guilty verdict the defense told the jury in closing arguments. >> the prosecutor has failed to establish this case and every element of the charge beyond a reasonable doubt. >> reporter: it didn't take the jury long, just three hours to come to its decision. >> the jury finds him guilty. >> reporter: guilty of the second-degree murder of school superintendent keith reed. rob taglianetti received 25 years to life in prison. he is appealing this case and declined an interview with "dateline." outside, kevin reed embraced his

niece, the father and husband of a woman he had dinner with one time in his life. a woman he believed to be single. so overwhelming. >> i thought i would feel relief or happy. it just -- it wasn't. it was tough. >> reporter: among those thi thinking about keith reed's family, is mary taglianetti. >> my heart goes out to them almost every day. it's the tragedy. my heard breaks. >> reporter: the reed family is far from the only victim in this case. kimberly had little to do with the crime but she had to be questioned as a suspect, while struggling with the grief of losing a man she loved and admired. >> he was an incredible man who loved life. his girls always came first. he was a wonderful father figure

to my children, as well. >> reporter: keith reed's three daughters face a future without his dad. he won't be there to walk the two younger girls down the aisle, or be a loving grandad to their children or take their daily phone calls. when do you miss your dad the most? >> when i drive home from work, i always grab my own to call him. it's just hard without that person there, that i talked to so often. >> reporter: it has been close to impossible for his family to understand it. an educator that did so much good for so many students, ripped from their lives. a single dinner date, more flirtation, two years later, and three quick shots. >> it was a complete waste. lives of kids he could have helped, who knows what path they would have taken if they had contact with him. >> reporter: the homicide brewed

in cyberspace may sound modern, but they're as combustibles here, one woman, two men and a situation that was all-consuming. that is all for "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. first up on msnbc, new word on the president's coronavirus test. the results now in, while around the country, some drive-up testing sites overwhelmed. at this drive-through location in colorado, cars stretched down the road. the demand so high, officials closed early. airport nightmare. travelers rushing back to the u.s., caught in line waiting for hours. so, what's the holdup? we'll tell you. another coronavirus test of sorts. four k