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december, 1st, 2011, the kind of day that makes you teeth chatter. he was finishing his shift in deerpark, washington, a half-hour north of spokane, when his message chirped. >> it was from logan. >> logan, his sister at school. >> she said pick me up. >> wasn't she supposed to be there? austin, collected his belongings and the cold afternoon dark nled. >> i couldn't go to my mom's house.

i didn't know where to go. i took them to my dad's house where i had a key. >> evening came. the kids called the cell, afraid. more like irritated. >> it has happened by then, of course. as the children bedded down in their father's house, they never guess eed and wouldn't understa for days. everything about life was different now. nothing made sense at all. >> it was a belief. >> it was impossible that she only knew. >> it was hard to wrap your mind around that it occurred. >> but apparently it was possible. shannon, mother of five, was dead. wait. it made your skin crawl.

and she was so many things. mother, artist, on the brink of something new. >> she was funny. she was vivacious. she likes to joke around and have a good time. but classy, always very, very classy. >> her son remembers how she stood out. even if embarrassed a little. >> she was embroider the names and numbers on the shirts and hats. >> the only team with our names and numbers on the hats. >> she tried to keep faith in their lives, too. >> how was she with the kids? >> i wouldn't hesitate saying she was a good mother. >> this is their dad, clay starbuck, when he was away in florida when he saw her. >> i told her, you know, i lived in alaska. she probably thought she was

lucky she wouldn't see me again. >> but she did. they married within months. they were in alaska, where clay worked on the pipeline and started a family right away. there were issues. aren't there always? clay wasn't as interested in church, not the way she was. she wanted you to be there. >> yeah. i wouldn't meet her there. it is a big issue. >> i'm not sitting here saying it had to be my way or she was wrong. that's not an issue at all. we were different. >> they divorced in 2000. it lasted ten years that time, yes, that time. full of hope and goodwill, they tried again in 2006, they remarried. and moved to washington state, set up a house in deer park. clay commuted up to his job in alaska, which means he had to be gone weeks at a time. when he came home --

>> the kids and i were about playing catch, playing frisbee, playing basketball. >> all fun. >> so, it wasn't uncommon -- i know she had said it several times, making reference to me being a disneyland dad. that probably was true. she was making dinners and taking care of the kids and trying to maintain the house. >> it was up and down, good and bad. >> she and i never fully recovered. >> it was 2010 when the clouds of the divorce came a second time. they decided to live apart but close to each other. he got a house near shannon. the two oldest went with him. and the three youngest went with their mom. in 2011, clay was on disability, a back injury. he was able to share parenting,like swapping days

taking the kids to and from school. >> i would take them to school and sometimes she would pick them up. it just worked out. at least did it until that afternoon 2011, the day that shannon failed to show up at school. they weren't worried, said clay. they knew shannon had started dating again. maybe she went out, lost track of time. >> so, my thoughts were did anything happen to her. >> she was with a guy. >> she was with a guy and it probably went late. having a good dinner. >> the next day, one of the kids texted grandma in florida. and s had she heard from their mother? she had not. and that, said melanie, was alarming. >> i texted shannon.

and i never got anything back. and i call ed. and the phone box was full. and i knew something was wrong. >> she felt the panic rise in her throat. called her brother and unlikely shannon would not return her calls. >> they talked every day. >> they talked every day. they knew what was going on in each other's lives. mom tried to contact shannon and tried to talk to the kids. >> called the cops and asked them to check shannon's house. >> it was in even thing. it was, you know, find her. >> had a good look around outside and left. shannon's family in florida insisted something was wrong, had to be. and shannon's friend, summer, said, she would never not pick

up her kids at school and ignore their call. >> she doted on her kids. she loved them. >> it was saturday morning before shannon's mother got through to the sheriff's office. and a deputy went around the house. two deputies went inside. and right away, radioed for backup. they had found shannon. she was dead. her body on her bed and displayed in such a way that detectives knew her killer had more than just murder on his mind. coming up -- >> and i just backed up. and i screamed, no, no. can't be. it can't be true. >> the crime scene would raise more questions than answers, and so would a tip from someone close to shannon. >> she said, look at her computer. it will tell you what you need to know. >> when "dateline" continues.

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flashing lights, squad cars, violated the peaceful neighborhood in deer park, washington. something big going down at shannon starbuck's house. >> there's a lot of crime scene tape and a bunch of detectives outside our house. >> when shannon's son, blake, drove up the street where she livid lived, he stopped cold. >> the news was spreading beyond the crowded street. when shannon's friend saw her, all she could think was about the kids. >> where are they? i don't know. they've just lost their mother. they lost their mom. >> and thousands of miles away in florida, shannon's brother,

steven, heard it first from the local sheriff and phoned his younger sister. >> i called amy and told amy, you need to meet me at mom's. she could tell something was wrong. and she started crying immediately. >> i knew. >> i high-tailed it to mom's. we walked in together. >> he broke the news. >> looked at mom and told her she was gone. >> and i just backed up. and i screamed, no. no. it can't be true. but she was. she was gone. >> the detectives didn't tell anybody about that, at first, that shannon had been left mostly naked on her bed, posed pornographically, with a sex toy. and before she took her last breath, detective mike rickets knew, she suffered. >> she was tortured and beat

badly. >> inconceivable. why would anyone do such a thing? and why her, when she was just starting over in life? after she and clay called it quits the second time in 2010, she went back to school, to become a dental assistant. >> she presented herself in a very modest, very con servetive family sort of way. >> reporte >> these are shannon's classmates. they looked up to her. as a dun mothen mother and olde sister. >> she was the epitome of a dental assistant her her big teeth and her smile and her laugh. i love her laugh. >> very approachable. >> as busy as she was, said her school friends, she always seemed to have time for anyone who needed her. >> she was very strong. to be able to do that. that is a very hard program. >> sure. >> especially with children. >> yeah. with a family, to tend to and she was top of the class.

she graduated with honors or something? >> yes, she did. an excellent student, with, finally, some prospects of her own. her ex, clay, said he was happy about that. >> we were looking forward to our whole family was. >> including you? >> absolutely. >> but here was the strange thing. it appeared to her friends that shannon was in some sort of crisis in the months before her death. she was upbeat one minute, distraught the next. >> she's not public. she doesn't want her business known everywhere. >> there aren't that many of those people left. >> but we would come into school, come into class in the morning and we could see her crying in her truck. >> was it her ex-husband? her kids? or maybe some new man. there were one or two, new men that is. >> and there were a couple of times i could ask her if she was dating. she showed me a picture of this one guy, her friend that they would chat.

>> met them online, said shannon. summer starks is the one who encouraged her to get out there, get dating again. >> i tried to set her up and it didn't work out. but i said why don't you go date, just go out. >> nothing serious though. not yet. maybe she was finally having fun. >> i thought it would be great if she could have just focussed a little portion of herself, lived a little bit. yeah. she deserved that. >> of course she did. and her love life wouldn't have been anybody else's business, if it hadn't been for what happened. but now detectives went digging into hidden places. people she saw in private, things she did she might not want the world to know. if there were secret, and oh, there were, they were about to be exposed. coming up one of those secrets was right here on the dead woman's cell phone. >> there was a text message

to shannon, asking her to pose a specific way. >> the pose, it was one investigators had seen before at the crime scene. >> i'm appalled that she was found that way. awful and it's embarrassing for her. i'm embarrassed for her. it makes me mad. >> when "dateline" continues. my skin gets so tired. this new olay serum feels so dewy, and hydrated... gives my skin an extra boost of life. it's full of energy. it finally matches me. i'm denise bidot, and my skin is powerful.

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if there is such a thing as a fate worse than death, then

certainly someone seemed to intend that chanin starbuck met one. lead detective mike rickettes. >> chanin was posed on her bed in a manner to bring disrespect to her. >> and though chanin was blessedly beyond embarrassment to her, family and friends, as you can well imagine, were not. >> she had so much going for her for it to all end like that. the way it ended, she did not deserve that at all. she did not deserve that whatsoever. >> i'm appalled that she was found that way, you can know. awful and it's embarrassing for her. it makes me mad. >> who could be so cruel? well, of course it's the homicide detective's job to figure that out. >> could mean many things. it could mean somebody close to her who is very upset and angry

with her or it could mean something else. >> the investigation began the very day chanin's body was found. and as luck would have it, among those just beyond the yellow police tape that night was a man police surely would have looked up sooner or later. khan chanin's ex-husband clay was clearly looking for them. his ex-wife was missing. was she okay? >> he was asking to talk to the lead detective. he wanted some answers. >> first responders at the scene wouldn't tell him anything about what was found inside the house, not even that chanin was dead. an ex-husband after all is no longer next of kin. he went to the sheriff's station. i said come in. we need have a chat and he said your jacket says major crimes. what's going on? nobody will tell me anything. >> the detective broke the news. chanin was gone. waited for clay to collect himself, and then -- >> i start by asking him very

simple things. give me a little bit about chanin's history. was she on medication? does she have any enemy, you know. and what i ask everybody in that situation, what do you think happened. >> and he asked me, do you know anybody who wants to harm her? do you know who she was seeing? were you over there? when did you see her last? do you have any idea of these things? >> clay recalled telling the detective he knew his wife had been dating again. in fact he was pretty sure he said that chanin had a profile on a website that caters to mormon singles. >> last i knew there was an lds planet website and i don't know. i don't have any idea who she's seeing. you'd need to look or talk to somebody else. >> they talked to plenty of others. that was just day one of of the investigation and a logical step in a case like this, the ex himself would have to be checked out thoroughly.

but right then the detective had no more from clay starbuck. >> i said we'll talk to you again later. why don't you take care of your kids. >> but even as he left the station, detectives recall, clay starbu seemed eager to help. >> he said look at her phone and her computer. it will tell you what you need to know. >> no detective worth his salt needed to be told that. chanin starbuck's cell phone was right there in the bedroom. couldn't miss it, said detective lyle johnston. >> the phone was on a table right next to her bed a couple of feet from the body. >> like she'd just been using it. >> correct, right. >> i wanted to look at the cell phone right away because it would tell us who she may have been in contact with last. >> there was a text message from clay thursday morning telling chanin he had car trouble, asking chanin to take the kids to school. and later exchanges about who would take them up. not terribly interesting stuff,

except that wasn't all they found on chanin starbuck's phone. and the what else that was there was very interesting. >> she'd had communications with at least two other men that appeared that she was planning on meeting with one or two of them. >> now that got the detective's attention and fairly jumped at them a particular text, a very specific, very explicit one. >> there was a text message that was to chanin asking her to pose a specific way. >> the hair rose on ricket's neck. that was almost exactly the way the killer posed chanin's body. a coincidence? the detective had to think it was anything but. >> there were normal text messages and then they moved into more sexually suggestive text messages. >> investigators took a hard

lock at two men chanin seemed to have contact with the day of her murder. one guy posted a picture of himself. but -- >> we found that he had actually stolen it from another person's website, a doctor who lived in new york city. >> who was this mystery man and what was he hiding? when "dateline" continues. .. 'cause you're all over your overall wellness so #treatyourself with the cleaningripples of cottonelle toilet paper and flushable wipes, the refreshingly clean routine that leaves you feeling... ahhhh inside and out, care. downtherecare with cottonelle ahhhh and here we have another burst pipe in denmark. if you look close... jamie, are there any interesting photos from your trip? ouch, okay. huh, boring, boring, you don't need to see that. oh, here we go. can you believe my client steig had never heard of a home and auto bundle or that renters could bundle? wait, you're a lawyer?

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hello, i'm dara brown. here's what's happening. congress and the white house pushed a $2.2 trillion rescue package to shore up the economy as. the it will help support struggling businesses, health care workers. the united states has surpassed china in the number of confirmed cases of covid-19. there are more than 100,000 cases in the u.s., and 1500 deaths. now back to "dateline." ♪

strange the small things that can offer comfort, however cold in the midst of horror. once, long before her death, she chanin told her mother how she wanted her funeral to be. more of a talk and now a blessing in the midst of so much grief. >> so mom was able to give chanin what she wanted for a funeral, if that was something you really want. >> her old classmates went to the funeral and brought along the candy they used to share cramming for tests. >> i felt kind of silly, but i brought some to her funeral. but then i didn't feel so silly because someone else brought chocolate too and set it up there. so i didn't feel so silly. >> but nothing could sweeten the bitterness, nothing. >> the children were allowed to see her and i remember one of them saying he was look at her, he said "it doesn't look like

mom." and i don't think he even recognized her. >> that's how badly she'd been beaten. it made her family furious someone had done that to her. so in the days that followed, they seethed, quite unaware that investigators thought they had a huge break in the hunt for her killer. meet detective mike rickets. >> they were normal text messages. then they moved into more sexually suggestive text messages. >> on the last day she was seen alive, chanin exchanged text messages with men she had apparently been seeing. rocketing to the top of the list of potential suspects is the gentleman who sent their sexually explicit text asking her to pose a certain way, take a picture and send it to him. >> it was alarming because the text mimicked somewhat what we

found at the crime scene. as far as chanin being posed. >> chanin did not take or send the picture. but the request wasn't just a red flag. that was a canon shot. within a matter of hours, the detective had that man on the phone. after all, his number was right there on chanin's cell. >> i told him who i was and i asked if i could come speak to him, and he stated yes. >> he was a car salesman from spokes an named tom walker. in his statement said he had nothing to hide. >> i said good morning, sexy. she text me back 14 minutes later and said good morning, handsome. >> walker admitted trying to sext with chanin starbuck that morning, but he denied he had been anywhere near her house. he said he was at work and a funeral that day.

were you at work all day thursday? >> except for the funeral, yes. >> except for the funeral? >> yes. >> did you have any involvement in her death? >> no. >> investigators took a dna sample and set about taking a hard look atom walker's alibi. the problem is they still weren't exactly sure when chanin was killed. and besides, they still had lots of other people to interview. that's what happened in a murder investigation. everybody gets pulled, in especially those closest to the victim. detectives even called chanin's eldest son austin in to question him. >> when is the last time you saw her. they asked me how our relationship was. >> austin lived with his father and said he was closer to his dad since his parents split up. and did the question seem cruel? the adult son had to be looked at, eliminated if possible. >> did it feel weird to be put in a position like that. >> yeah. he tried more leaning on me like

did you do it, did you do it it wasn't like i know you did it. it wasn't like that. maybe stand up and i actually cut glass. i had some older cuts on my hands. where did you get that one from? >> of course, they talked to the other man in the family too, blake, then 18. and naturally, the ex-husband clay. what was he doing on december 1st, the day she went missing, the day she likely died? >> he told me his carer had broken down in deer park. >> clay said he spent the day fixing his car, never saw chanin at all. so who, if anyone, was chanin with that day. as detectives continued to dig that. >> found what might be an answer, right there in chanin's phone. a message from a different man, one named john wilson. >> hey, chanin. >> wilson also seemed to be messaging chanin on her phone

using another name, just wonderering 06. >> it appeared from the communications they were trying to meet, set up a date, or they were going to meet on december 1, 2011. >> the very day detectives believed chanin was murdered. but when they traced the phone no, ma'am new mexico from which this john wilson called, they found themselves looking at a public pay phone. but when they google names, they found profiles on dating sites and facebook and quickly realize this man wasn't who he appeared to be. >> it was a pretty minimal site. >> and a photograph purporting to be this john wilson guy. >> correct. an we found he had actually stolen it from another person's website, a doctor who lived in new york city. >> so now you know john wilson is not the person you see on the screen. >> correct. >> a phony picture, a phantom who was clearly interested in keeping his real identity a

secret. but why? exactly who was this latest mystery man? >> thanks, and i look forward to hearing from you. bye. >> coming up -- >> he completely stressed out. he is completely worried about his personal life, his professional life. >> how do you track down a guy determined to hide? >> he is doing everything from public locations. >> what does all this sort of thing tell you? >> well, it caused us a lot of concern. this certainly could be our suspect. >> one detective would try his luck with an instant message. >> i said i need to talk with you about chanin starbuck. i bet it wasn't 20 my phone rang. >> when "dateline" continues. build up its not as hygenic as you think use finish dishwasher cleaner its dual action formula tackles grease and limescale finish clean dishwasher clean dishes

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what's a 40-something single woman to do if she's looking for a little romance and who isn't? why not press a button, type a name and see what happens. it looked like that's what chanin starbuck dead. i said we'll get on line. she said i'm online. i'm own line for a dating site. >> it's not uncommon for this day and age to online date. >> and she wouldn't have put herself in danger or harm's way whatsoever. >> you wouldn't think. >> no. >> but in fact that was

something chanin's children did worry about. a lot. >> i'm sure you know "dateline" nbc and how to catch a predator. i've seen that, and it's where weirdos go on the internet. so we were all afraid she was going to meet this one weirdo that was on the internet. >> now those sons were eager for investigators to find their mother's killer. and detectives were, in fact, chasing down a new lead in connection with chanin's internet dating. >> if there's a murder investigation, there's no stone unturned. >> hiding under one particular rock was one very likely suspect. the man calling himself john wilson who planned to meet with chanin on december 1st, the last day she was seen alive. detectives quickly figured out he was some kind of impostor, had posted a fake picture in his online dating profile, and had been communicating with chanin from locations clearly designed to hide his real identity. >> they were all public place, public phones, universities,

places like that. >> boy, this guy's been careful. >> right. he's doing everything from public locations. >> what does all this sort of thing tell you? >> well, it caused us a lot of concern that this certainly could be our suspect. >> to trace one of those pay phones he used to call chanin, it was here outside a university library. it happened to have a surveillance camera. was this john wilson? only one way to find out. detective johnston sent him an instant message of his own. >> identified myself as being from the shoyeriff's office and said i need to talk to you about chanin starbuck, and i bet it wasn't 20 minutes before my phone rang. >> it was him. he said yes, he knew chanin starbuck, yes, the two had been seeing each other, but --

>> he was very reluctant to identify himself. >> sounded a bit shaky, distrustful. >> it was obvious he didn't seem to believe i was with the sheriff's office either. >> mike rickets was in on the conversation and scribbled a note to the detective. >> tell him we need to have his true identity shortly or i'm going to post this picture and show it all over the media, and i will find out who he is. >> and at that point, he told me his true name. >> suddenly wanted to cooperate? >> well, he didn't really want to, but he expressed the fact that he had been having an affair. he was married. >> that was his explanation for the fake name, the skulking around, hiding from his wife, he said. his name, his real name was john kenline. he was a school teacher. he agreed to talk to the detectives in person, but asked to have the conversation at the office of his lawyer, a man named robert cosi. >> he is completely stressed out. he's completely worried about

his personal life, his professional life. >> this interview is done with your permission and your attorneys? >> yes. >> so tell me, if you can, how december 1st panned out? >> december 1st, the last day chanin was seen alive. detectives already knew the answer from messages on chanin's phone the man they were talking to had plans to meet chanin at her house. but they wanted to see if he'd tell the truth. >> at 10:30 i was at her house. knocked on the door. >> what he told us was that he had made prior arrangements to meet with chanin. >> so he actually went to her house? >> he did go to her house. >> only she never answered the door, he said. so then he went to a public phone to call, left a voice message. he even stopped by her house

again, frustrated, peered through her windows. didn't see anything, he said. and then he told detectives he spent the rest of the day and into the evening exchanging messages with chanin. >> i texted her and i got a text message in reply from her that said did you come over? and she says something to the effect of how about tonight or later tonight? >> he really wanted to see her? >> right. >> but never did? or at least said he never did? >> right. >> there was, however, a problem with his story. for much of december 1st, he couldn't tell detectives if anyone had seen him. in other words, no one to really back up important portions of his alibi. lead detective mike rickets didn't know what to think. >> here is an individual who is

going to great lengths to hide his identity, but at the same time, here is an individual who is being as detailed as he possibly can in providing us as much information as he can. so i was on the fence but someone we had to investigate. >> boy, did they ever. to see if the school teacher, chanin's mystery man was telling the truth or trying to cover up a crime, detectives waded through all of his communications with her. >> we didn't let the idea that he could still be our killer. i don't remember the number of days. but it was a week or two that we realized chanin had called 911. >> 911? spokane county sheriffs detectives were about to discover a new piece of evidence. it was a recording. erie and garbled and fleeting, and it might just be enough to help solve a murder. coming up --

>> the records we get from a phone company reflect a 911 call. >> a break and a shock. >> 911, what are you reporting? hello? >> it hit me really hard. it was like a rock in my stomach. >> when "dateline" continues. confidence, reassurance you're doing what's right, to protect your dog from fleas and ticks for a full month. this one little nexgard chew is the #1 vet recommended protection. and it's the only chew, fda approved to prevent infections that cause lyme disease. plus, it's safe for puppies. there's a lot of power in this one little nexgard chew. nexgard. what one little chew can do.

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they're adapting to support their communities. but many need our help. if you're a small business in need, or want to help a local business, go to quickbooks.com/smallbusinesshelp intuit quickbooks. there is nothing quite like a murder to put the most intimate parts of life on public display. investigators had tracked down two suspicious men chanin was dating. one a married teacher was at her house on the day she likely died. the other sent chanin a racy text message that almost mimicked the crime scene. they offered alibi, of course, but since detectives didn't know exactly when chanin died that. >> couldn't check them out.

funny how one little break can make all the difference. >> it hit me really hard. it was like a rock in my stomach. >> detective mike ricketts wasn't expecting it, not at all, that piece of evidence that suddenly surfaced weeks into the case. his colleague, detective lyle johnston had just gotten a record of the calls dialed from chanin's phone, and there it was, staring back at him. >> the records that we get from the phone company reflect a 911 call. >> a 911 call. 9:17 a.m. december 1st, not long after chanin dropped the kids off at school. the 911 operator failed to properly file the call with the sheriff's department. and you may not know this, but some cell phones don't store 911 calls in their call list, an effort to protect callers in dangerous situations, like somebody had been kidnapped, say. all that and detectives trying to solve a murder had no idea

chanin called 911 until they got the records from her wireless carrier. were you able to find out what was in the 911 call? how long it lasted? when it came? >> yes, they were able to, based on date and time, find a recording of the exact date and call. >> it was just 28 seconds long. it started with a noise. could you hear it? >> you could. and unfortunately for the 911 call operator, i believe he talked over it and he didn't hear it. >> 911, what are you reporting? >> so brief, so garbled but listening to it now, they became convinced this must have been chanin as she was being attacked. 9:17 a.m. >> 911, what are you reporting? hello. >> what it sounded like as if someone was struggling over the phone, and you could definitely hear a female's voice kind of

ugh, and that's about all it amounted to. >> but who was the attacker? the car salesman? the teacher? or somebody else? now the investigators had to go back over those alibis and compare them to the time of that 911 call. they started with the salesman, tom walker. >> were you at work all day thursday? >> except for the funeral. >> his phone never pings off any of the towers in the deer park region. he is at work on december 1. he attends a funeral. we confirm that. >> the salesman, the guy who sent the racy request for a photo was in the clear. that left the school teacher, john kenline. he admitted he was actually outside the deer park house that morning, 10:30. but in the hour before that he when it appeared chanin was being attacked according to the 911 call, he said he was not at chanin starbuck's house, but at a starbucks in spokane, getting coffee.

a specific frappuccino the store happened to have a record of selling. i heard there was a great to do about whether he ordered a very specific and unusual drink? >> correct. that is the case. he purchased coffee at about the same time the 911 call came in. just a little variation of time but well within the time frame that he couldn't have been at starbucks and he couldn't have been in deer park at the same time. >> and so the man who once looked so suspicious convinced detectives he was telling the truth. >> they looked at him every which way you could be looked at. they check out every part of his story and every single fact, everything that he told them checked out 100%. >> now he just had to deal with his wife. and detectives, they went through the list of possible suspects. shannon's killer was still out

there, a killer who judging from the story chanin's friends were telling might have been building up to an attack. during the last six months of chanin's life said summer starks, her friend was convinced somebody was out to get her. >> chanin's house had been broke into quite a few times, and minor things would be missing, or the barbecue would be messed up, knocked over. lights would be unscrewed. you could tell somebody had been in but things went missing sometimes. odd things you would notice weren't right when you would come home. >> chanin filed police report. the incidents were investigated. but never solved. chanin had been accusing clay. >> chanin thought clay was behind everything that was happening. that he was trying to scare her or trying to assess a way into her home. >> but police didn't find any evidence of that, and clay said the idea was ridiculous.

besides, he said he was in alaska when at least one of those strange disturbances supposedly happened. >> at first i was like no way, i didn't do that. and then the date hits me, well, for sure i didn't do that. i wasn't even -- i wasn't even here. >> in fact, he said he and chanin got along better than most divorced couples. >> chanin and i made things work. we would text or say hey, i'll get the kids. i know next week is my weekend, but can you take them that weekend? >> but now that chanin was dead, detectives had to rethink their suspicions as related to them by summer. and she wasn't the only person who viewed chanin and clay's relationship through something other than rose tinted glasses. chanin's siblings, for example, who ahead clay accused chanin of cheating on her that was the reason for both breakups. the last breakup was so nasty, in the months before chanin

died, clay stopped paying child support. >> we were paying her rent. >> power. >> providing food for her children. >> she was going to the food bank for food. >> my mother was paying for her school and her computers. >> fascinating how the issues of a divorce can seem to change depending on who's doing the looking. now the detectives were. and they at least began to make that kind of progress that comes from dead ends. >> i was able to eliminate tom walker. i was able to eliminate john kenline. >> and so one name they hadn't quite been able to cross off their list seemed more and more important. >> clay starbuck was never eliminated as the suspect. >> clay starbuck, the ex-husband and by now they had something else to consider. a slew of unflattering tidbits from chanin's family. >> he was constantly trying to belittle her, make her feel like she was inanimate.

>> i always thought he was a creep. >> and those dental school classmates were also eager to pass on a few of the stories chanin told them about clay. >> he was always bugging her, i guess if you will, wondering what are you doing or can you do this or just trying to keep her in -- taps. >> yeah. >> chanin told them that clay wouldn't leaf her alone, was some kind of control freak. they didn't know clay, of course, never met him. but their opinion went from beside to worse when chanin came into school visibly upset one day when clay sent her a gift, a text soy. >> it was in a gift bag, if you will, hanging on her door knob. with a note from clay that said here enjoy. i can't have you so you can have this. or something like that. >> he was very jealous. he was very controlling and he was losing control.

>> coming up -- >> he told me that he had to go back and forth to his residence four times that day. >> a home surveillance camera provides a clue that reboots the investigation. >> what did you think when you saw that? >> well, i thought that he was lying. >> when "dateline" continues. it's a burst of mango & hibiscus. a rush of green apple & aloe. an explosion of mandarin & ginger lily. add excitement to your cleaning routine with lysol wipes. the smell of clean - reimagined in three energizing scents. lysol. what it takes to protect.®

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>> reporter: about, chanin schar buck was murder, we told her friends and family that her ex-husband clay had been controlling. still, says summer starks, it seemed almost like a joke the first time chanin wondered outloud if clay mid try hurt her. >> i told her quit being so dramatic. she's kind of being a drama queen. and you know, that's ridiculous. that only happens in the movies or on "dateline." and i just said you're just so full of it. >> reporter: but according to summer, chanin was scared, particularly after the windows were mysteriously shot out of the car parked in her driveway.

chanin changed the locks in her house, didn't even give the kids a key, telling friends she was afraid clay would find a way to steal a copy. >> she was very vocal about her fear that he would kill her. >> reporter: hardly surprising those stories would tend to put a sinister spin on everything that police observed about clay, starting with that very first police interaction the day chanin's body was discovered. detective dressback thought something was off the minute clay arrived at the station and he told clay the news. >> and he goes, oh, my gosh, what happened to my wife. i said, well she's dead. and his knees buckled and everything became very histrionic crying and wailing, and that was okay for a while. but it became ridiculous. >> reporter: ridiculous? >> it became ridiculous. >> reporter: even more ridiculous, more suspicious, said the detective, was when clay, told he was free to go,

didn't. >> then i couldn't get rid of him. he would not leave me alone. >> reporter: kept wanting to talk. >> he kept wanting to talk. what he kept telling me was the same thing over again. look on her phone, look on her computer, that will tell you everything you need to know. >> reporter: it's suspicious to you but it's not really evidence. is it? >> no, not necessarily. it's suspicious, circumstantial, but suspicious to me. >> reporter: which meant that right there on day one clay needed to be checked out but good, and they began with his alibi for that december morning. his day started with car trouble and his text to chanin. asking her to take the kids to school. he said he spent much of december 1st walking between his home and the spot the car broke down, about a mile away. >> he told me that he had to go back and forth to his residence four times that day to work on his car and get tools, to eat, to take a nap. >> reporter: but detectives couldn't find anyone along that route who remembered seeing clay.

and another odd thing, his cell phone was off for several hours, no pings to trace. but in the area clay said he walked, a little shoe leather produced a stroke of luck attached to a house. >> there was a camera on the side of the house. >> reporter: a home surveillance camera pointed in the very direction they remembered clay telling them he walked. and no sign of clay as far as they could tell. >> i mean, there's no indication that he ever passed by there that day. >> reporter: what did you think when you saw that? >> i thought that he was lying. >> reporter: one statement that looked like a lie, one dead cell phone, a complaint about overdue child support and a bunch of tales about alleged threatening behaviors, which, try as they might, they couldn't verify. the detectives didn't have enough for an arrest let alone a murder charge. they needed something more, something to tie clay directly to the crime scene. and? enter the dna.

>> i believe it was january 24th, 2012, when i obtained the initial dna report. >> reporter: they had submitted several samples from chanin's body for dna testing. thought the most important thing would be from her neck where she was strangled and her fingernails as she fought off her attacker. some of the samples came back labeled unknown male. which didn't match any of the known suspects, but some other of the dna material could be narrowed down to a very small pool of candidates. starbuck male. >> clay starbuck or austin starbuck or blake starbuck. >> reporter: there was no getting around it, dna didn't lie, after all. detectives were now convinced that a starbuck male killed chanin. but which one? was it possible one of chanin's own sons killed her? not a chance, said detective rickets. >> we obtained records that indicated they were at work and

at school. we eliminated them as suspects. >> reporter: only one man left standing now, but not for long. on february 6th, 2012, two months after they found the body of chanin starbuck, they arrested clay and charged him with murder. it was the moment chanin's siblings and mother had been waiting for. >> when clay was arrested, it was a big relief. >> we felt as though clay should have been arrested right off the bat. >> i knew that he was the one that murdered her. >> reporter: it was, of course, a victory for the detectives, too, but it came at a terrible price. >> i didn't want it to be clay starbuck. i didn't want to take those children's father from them. >> reporter: chanin and clay's five children, still in shock over their mother's death, now had another blow to absorb. chanin's brother was especially worried about the three young children in the family. >> that means they have no guardian then, so we all just

decided that it would be best that we try to get custody of the kids and get them out of that situation. >> reporter: but the starbuck children weren't going anywhere. austin, just 21, filed to be the guardian for his younger siblings so they could all stay together and fight together for their dad. >> it's hard to grieve, you know, over our mother when we're fighting for our dad's innocence. >> reporter: yes, they said, their dad was innocent. and if that meant sacrificing their mother's good name to save their dad, so be it. coming up. >> she lived a whole different lifestyle. she lived her church lifestyle, her homelife style and then her online dating lifestyle. >> the things we were able to find and confirm on the laptop were not normal dating relationships. most of those relationships can be confirmed that they were only

sexual in nature. >> reporter: chanin's private life was about to become very public. >> we can verify at least ten men that she was meeting with electronically, most of which she had met one on one. >> a string of strangers, now potential suspects. when "dateline" continues. you're doing what's right, to protect your dog from fleas and ticks for a full month. it's the #1 vet recommended protection. and it's safe for puppies. nexgard. what one little chew can do. what if your clothes could stay fresh for weeks?t smell clean? now they can! this towel has already been used and it still smells fresh. pour a cap of downy unstopables into your washing machine before each load and enjoy fresher smelling laundry for up to 12-weeks.

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or download the xfinity my account app. we're working to make things a little easier on everyone. reporter: at first the arrest of clay starbuck for the murder of his ex-wife chanin seemed to be playing out with all the predictability of a well-worn movie plot. in hindsight it all seemed so obvious, at least to chanin's close friends and family. >> we knew that clay killed her. just because he'd been stalking her and causing her so much grief. we knew what he did to her. >> reporter: but you might be surprised to hear the starbuck children weren't buying any of it. so you believe that your dad is innocent?

>> yes. >> reporter: there's no way he could have possibly done it? >> no. >> reporter: arguably the only witnesses with ringside seats to clay and chanin's long-running drama were their five kids. and those kids, every single one, including the three youngest, seth, marshall and logan, rally to their father's defense. >> he's in the and didn't do it. he's a nice, caring, loving person. why would you kill your ex-wife? >> that he still loves. >> that he still loves and leave all your five children parentless? >> reporter: yes, so often what a family looks like depends on who's doing the looking. the kids? all their lives they said it was their father who was the long suffering one, not their mother. in fact, they said their mother chanin was not always what she seemed to be. over the years, they said, she would up and leave, taking them

with her, to live with other men. more than once. for months at a time. but they said their dad would always take her back. >> even through all this, he would always say he loved her. just through this last divorce he would say that -- like no matter what, he could forgive her and take her back. >> reporter: the older starbuck boys said it was patently obvious to them that the case against their dad was a frameup from start to finish. >> there's no physical evidence. >> there were a couple times where i actually laughed out loud reading what they had said in there and how ridiculous the story is that they put together of what he did and how he did it. >> reporter: none of it, they said, beginning with the dna evidence detectives found so incriminating, that male starbuck dna, in all likelihood, they said, came from one of them, austin or blake. but it couldn't have come from the youngest, marshall, who

learned in the process that he was not clay's biological son, was conceived during a relationship chanin had after their first divorce. murder, as we say, exposes all kinds of secrets. >> the evidence they have is trace dna. it's like i go up to you and touch you on the hand. it's that small. >> reporter: but there is starbuck dna. >> yeah. >> reporter: and there are some who have said, if it's not him, was it one of you guys. >> there's starbuck dna in the starbuck house. >> kind of funny how that worked. we all lived there. my dad lived there months before this happened. his hair everywhere, his sweat. >> the kids coming over back and forth from our house to her house. >> reporter: according to the starbuck children, their father was essentially a victim of a kind of marital profiling. a suspect simply because husbands and ex-husbands of murder victims are always suspects. if not for that bias, they said, the investigators would have

found the real murderer. >> the evidence is shoddy. >> reporter: and there's so many other possible suspects, they say. take this theory of blake's. not long after clay's arrest, there were news reports about a man named israel keys. he was arrested for murdering a young coffee barrista in alaska and later admitted he'd killed many more people, some in washington state. a serial killer whose family hailed from, of all places, a town just a few miles from chanin's house. well, why would you think it was israel keys? >> because he has killed over ten women. he admitted to four in washington. he was arrested a month about after my dad, so he wouldn't have been on the radar until then. >> reporter: serial killer? maybe. but here's the biggest reason they don't believe their father is a murderer. it was the children's bombshell. their mother had been keeping a

dangerous secret, they said, a secret life, one austin said he figured out when he was just 8. >> she lived a totally different lifestyle. she lived her church lifestyle, her home lifestyle and her online dating lifestyle. >> reporter: to hear the starbuck kids tell it, that the mom known to most as a prim and proper mormon home maker lived a racy and risky personal life. a secret from even her closest friends and family but impossible to hide from them, the kids. >> it wasn't normal online dating. it wasn't like she didn't meet some guy and be with him for three, four, five months to a year at a time. she was with him for, you know, just a short visit. you know, on to the next one. >> reporter: was it true? sitting in jail awaiting trial, clay told his public defenders derek reed and jill gannon neagle, the same thing he said to sheriff's detectives, look at her phone, look at her computer. >> the things that we were able to find and confirm on the

laptop were not normal dating relationships. it was sexual relationships. and most of those can be confirmed that they were only sexual in nature. >> reporter: and explicitly so. >> explicitly so. >> reporter: with videos and photos and you name it. >> yes. >> reporter: all there on the laptop, evidence of trips to meet men she had connected with online but didn't know in person until she made them completely vulnerable to them, these strangers. >> several men. i don't think that we can even give a number of the amount at least e-mail addresses. >> reporter: two, three, ten, 15? >> ten would be a minimum, i would say. >> we tried to keep it as close to the incident as possible, and in november of 2011 -- >> reporter: the month leading up to her murder. >> -- we can verify ten men she was communicating with electronically most of which she

had met one on one and we can verify that. >> reporter: every one of them a possible suspect. at least that's what clay's public defenders thought. >> well, investigators had run down leads from chanin's phone the lawyers said. that crack team of detectives didn't follow up on any of the potential leads from her laptop. it was there. they had it, right? >> it was there. they swabbed it. at some point somebody suspected something. i'm not quite sure why they didn't follow up. but isn't this all just a smoke screen? because the evidence is pretty clear that clay starbuck's alibi doesn't hold up and the alibis of other people do. >> the alibis of the ones they looked into. >> reporter: so armed with the evidence they found on that computer alone, defense attorneys were confident they would instill in the jury at

the very least reasonable doubt. as the day of the trial approached the starbuck children were giddy with the anticipation that soon dad would be coming home to stay. >> i know he didn't do it. we need to fight for our dad's innocence, get him out, so we can go back and hit it on the head again and find out who did it and solve it. >> reporter: coming up. at trial, the jury hears a prediction about chanin. >> he says i wouldn't be surprised if we found her dead with her throat slit open. >> reporter: when "dateline" continues. a delicious way to enjoy probiotics every day. with 20 years of devotion to gut health. activia. like no other. hello, i saw you move in, and i wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood with some homemade biscuits! >>oh, that's so nice! and a little tip, geico could help you save on homeowners insurance. >>hmm!

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hello. here's what's happening. president donald trump signed the $2.2 trillion stimulus package into law, the largest emergency relief measure in u.s. history. it will provide relief to american workers and business affected by the spread of covid-19. meanwhile, surgeon general is warning that detroit, chicago, and new orleans will have, quote, a worst week next

week as the coronavirus spreads. the he sper thus far has been the new york metropolitan area. now back to "dateline." every trial for murder has this simple question at its core -- whose version of the truth will the jury believe? and in the case of chanin starbuck, the two competing realities set for display could not have stood in starker contrast. >> we'd been waiting over a year for this moment. >> i guess you could say i'm on a mission. i want him put away. >> reporter: the divided family couldn't have been farther apart in the small spokane county courtroom when the trial began in may 2013. the prosecution set out to prove clay starbuck was a jealous, controlling and ultimately violent man who murdered his devout and long suffering ex-wife. well, the defense prepared to argue that chanin herself

recklessly courted danger and, quite possibly, died at the hands of one of the many strangers she met online for sex. to chanin starbucks' friends and family who heard in advance what the defense had planned, it sounded like an old fashioned smear campaign. >> that's all they had to go on. that's the only thing that they could turn chanin into was this awful person. >> she wasn't a sexual deviant. she wasn't -- she wasn't running around sleeping with everybody in deer park and spokane. >> reporter: the state presented its case first, argued in court by larry steinmetz, and he began not with sex but with that other less titillating root of all evil -- money. the jury heard from summer starks that chanin didn't have any. >> with respect to miss starbuck's financial situation, how would you define that? >> dire.

>> do you know whether or not miss star buck had been receiving any child support or spousal maintenance from mr. starbuck during that time period? >> she had told me she did not. >> reporter: clay owed more than $9,000 in back child support. eliminate the ex and his financial obligations would die with her, thus a money motive said the prosecution. and then they brought it up -- sex. or rather chanin's love life, not the sex life the defense had in mind, but the romantic kind that sometimes produces jealousy, the other age-old motive for murder. >> miss starbuck now a single woman dating other men, much to chagrin and dismay of the defendant clay starbuck. >> reporter: chanin's newfound romantic freedom enraged clay. one of the couple's friends testified that clay seemed unnaturally obsessed with his ex-wife's personal life.

>> he basically gave me a litany of things about chanin, about what she was doing and how she was seeing lots of other men. >> reporter: and one of the kids' teachers testified that she heard clay predict something that sounded to her quite chilling. >> he said, i wouldn't be surprised if we found her dead, i wouldn't be surprised if we found her with her throat slit open. >> reporter: then the view from the detectives who testified how it seemed to them clay was just a little too eager to direct their suspicions away from himself. and towards some anonymous online lover. >> i don't very often have people pushing at me a piece so much that it pushes everything else, all the other information out. just constantly pushing that at me. >> reporter: jealous, resentful and on the morning of december 1st luring chanin out of her house with a phony story about a

broken-down car. remember clay texted chanin, asked her to take the kids to school, then shut off his phone to avoid detection, or so said the prosecutor. a killer laying a trap. >> getting the children out of the house, staking out the house, entering the house, waiting for ms. starbuck to return. >> reporter: they played that snippet of a 911 call that the prosecution said confirmed the time of the attack. >> 911, what are you reporting? >> reporter: then an expert told the jury about the dna they found on chanin's neck. >> is this wstr match that you described an exact match to clay starbuck and the male bloodline of his family? >> yes. >> reporter: the dna had to be clay's. he was the one with the weak alibi. and detectives had already cleared his sons, though the prosecutor called them as witnesses anyway.

>> during the school week, what time would you normally go to school? >> it was just after 9:00. >> on december 1 of 2011, did you work that day? it would have been thursday. >> yes, i was. >> reporter: and someone else cleared by his alibi, john kenlein, the married teacher, was forced to appear, admitted an unfaithful with chanin. >> we engaged in a sexual relationship yes. >> he was not here to be ashamed but to testify about curious messages he received from chanin's phone, messages sent long after the 911 call. >> again, sir, could you read that? >> did you stop by, question mark, question mark, question mark. do you want to come over tonight? >> reporter: those messages found on chanin's phone, investigators believe, could only have been sent by chanin's killer. and by this time you believed she was dead? >> right. based on the 911 call, we

believe she's deceased and yet someone is using her cell phone to communicate. >> reporter: and to prove it must have been clay who sent those messages, they entered into evidence this seemingly innocuous text message from around 3:00 p.m. that afternoon. >> at 3:06 p.m. chanin starbuck phone to logan starbuck phone, send marsh a note, dad will be there in ten minutes. >> reporter: send marsh a note? who besides his mother might know the nickname marsh? the youngest starbuck marshall came to the stand. no video of the minor allowed in court. >> how often would your dad call you marsh? >> a lot. he also called me son and marshall. >> but he did call you marsh a lot? >> mm-hmm. >> reporter: yes, it had been an intimate act, an angry ex-husband killing the mother of his children, then staging the

scene as a humiliating sex crime, premeditated murder said the state. and as evidence of clay starbuck's twisted state of mind, the prosecution offered this final piece to the puzzle. detectives said they found chanin's death certificate on a wall in clay's house pinned up like a trophy. >> as a reminder, she's no longer in my life, she's no longer going to cause me any misery or pain. >> reporter: so no smoking gun but a pile of circumstantial evidence deep enough, the prosecution hoped, to bury any chance of acquittal. >> at the heart of this killing -- and i would submit the motive -- greed, anger, obsession and jealousy. >> reporter: and, through it all, clay and his defense waited to tell an entirely different story about a risky life and unsolved murder.

coming up, unsolved, the defense would argue, because investigators blew it right from the start at the crime seen. >> they swabbed the face of the cell phone. they got dna. it's not his. the phone doesn't have mr. starbuck's dna. >> reporter: whose dna did it have? when "dateline" continues. overall wellness so #treatyourself with the cleaningripples of cottonelle toilet paper and flushable wipes, the refreshingly clean routine that leaves you feeling... ahhhh inside and out, care. downtherecare with cottonelle ahhhh just likand unique needss, your lips have a unique print your lips are like no others, and need a lip routine that's just right for you chapstick has you covered chapstick. put your lips first. about the colonial penn program. here to tell you if you're age 50 to 85 and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three p's.

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were poised to tell in court. and then a ruling from the judge. the evidence was inadmissible. the children's story, the activities revealed in the laptop, the evidence pointing to other men chanin knew intimately, it was all too speculative, too prejudicial. and it was out. the jury wouldn't hear it. suddenly at the defense table, the air went out. >> i think the court was thinking we don't want to make this a forum to run somebody who was murdered down. unfortunately, this isn't something that's just being made up. we didn't create this, these allegations. >> reporter: clay starbuck's lawyers needed a plan b. so they went after the murder investigation itself. pointing out in court all the things investigators failed to do.

>> on the right hand, they found on one of the nails what tested positive for blood. they don't test it. don't even look at it. in fact, you'll hear from the crime lab that they intentionally swabbed around the blood. >> reporter: it was a recurring theme for the defense -- they didn't test it. evidence collected but untouched by lab techs. and under cross-examination detective rickets was pilloried for making the decision. >> did you direct anyone to collect any piece of evidence from the master bathroom that would be consistent with that crime scene? >> no. >> as far as you know have you or have you directed anybody to have those items tested? >> no. >> and if there was any potential trace evidence or any evidence on that, we don't know? >> we don't, right. >> the crime lab didn't test it? >> right. >> reporter: but there were also issues with the evidence that was tested, said the defense. that cell phone, for instance,

the one the prosecution went to great lengths to say clay used after killing chanin -- >> they swabbed the face of the cell phone and they got dna. and they got this dna and it's not his. unidentified male. the phone doesn't have mr. starbuck's dna on it. >> reporter: and more unidentified dna found on chanin's neck, where she was strangled. >> fair to say going back to the term match, that there was another contributor on the sample referenced miss starbuck's neck male contributor that has not been identified? >> correct. >> reporter: whose dna was that, the defense asked? no one knows. but the presence of male starbuck dna at the crime scene was no mystery at all. not only had clay lived in that house but the dna could have been transferred from children going back and forth between

parents as marshall explains. only his audio could be shown not his face. do you ever share clothes with austin now? >> if, like, all my shirts are dirty or something, i'll borrow one of his shirts. and i use also blake's old sweatshirt. >> reporter: the matter of the alibi. neighbors in the area where clay starbuck claimed his car broke down testified that they did see a car matching that description parked by the side of the road. >> i came up -- i go out early in the morning to smoke a cigarette so i seen i had parked up the street. >> reporter: austin told the court that the jury should not be suspicious about clay's phone being off that day. >> why would he have it off? >> so he wouldn't be interrupted when he was sleeping because he had back surgery and he needed his sleep. >> reporter: yes, the back surgery. the reason clay was in deer park and not out working on the pipeline at the time of chanin's murder. clay was simply too weak, said his kids. didn't have the physical strength to kill their mother.

>> so my mom, she's 5'10", 5'11", 180 pounds. she's not a small lady. she's not big, but she's not small. >> reporter: debilitating surgery? absolutely said clay's doctor. >> he would probably still be somewhat limited after surgery, yes. >> reporter: austin also addressed that so-called trophy the prosecution brought up, chanin's death certificate supposedly hanging on clay's wall. it was actually his, said austin. as executor of chanin's estate, he needed copies of the death certificate. and he wanted to keep one safe where it wouldn't be lost. >> and where did you put that? >> the master bedroom my dad stayed at in a closet we use for a gun safe it was behind a key locked door handle. >> reporter: but the star defense witness? clay starbuck himself. >> mr. starbuck, you were married to ms. chanin starbuck at one time? >> yes.

>> reporter: speaking in calm, deliberate tones, he told the court his back surgery forced him out of work which is how he came to be more than $9,000 behind in child support and alimony. >> i couldn't do anything about it till i went back to work. that was my goal. >> reporter: money was no motive said the defense, and as for jealousy, not him. his talk about chanin's online dating had been misconstrued. >> why did you tell people about that information? >> concerned and to see if we could help her. >> reporter: some of the officers testified that you told them about the same sort of activity after the death of miss starbuck. >> yes. and they were interested in anything that could help them with the investigation as well so that's why. >> reporter: on the stand clay starbuck patiently followed his lawyer's lead, no gaffes, no

slipups. >> did you kill chanin starbuck? >> no, i did not. >> thank you, no further questions. >> reporter: when it was over clay and his defense team felt so confident they encouraged him to talk with us about the case and some things that did not come out in court. coming i up, in an exclusive interview, clay tells us why he believes he's about to go free. >> there's been many things that have not been true from a case standpoint. >> the case has been botched in your view. >> i wouldn't say botched. there's smart people that have made elementary mistakes. >> when "dateline" continues. 101 reasons. get your coupon code at jacksonhewitt.com and get $100 today.

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they use stamps.com all the services of the post office only cheaper get a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. and platelet donations and asks all healthy donors to schedule an appointment to give. now, with the corona virus outbreak, it is important to maintain a sufficient blood supply. your blood donation is critical and can help save lives. please schedule an appointment today. download the blood donor app. visit redcrossblood.org or call 1 800 red cross today. you can make a difference. reporter: on the stand, clay starbuck was one cool customer. taciturn and stoic when pressed by the prosecutor on

cross-examination. >> are you a jealous person? >> not at all. >> do you ever get angry? >> not at all. >> ms. starbuck was granted 50% of your pension. did that make you angry? >> no. >> did it bother you? >> no. >> do you think that chanin starbuck's killer was trying to send a message? >> i don't know. >> but make no mistake, clay starbuck has plenty to say about his ex-wife chanin, about the detectives whom he believed ignored promising leads in order to hang her murder on him. >> they were after me. they had their guy. they didn't want anybody else. they wanted to drive me to prosecution. >> for starters, clay starbuck told us in an interview given near the end of his trial, the case against him is based largely on a faulty understanding of the dna evidence.

>> it was not considered a match of dna. it was not a 100% match, it was not a full inclusion nor could they exclude it. >> reporter: the starbuck dna found is actually a partial strand but can occur in nearly 1 in 300,000 males in the u.s. according to the state's crime lab, not nearly as accurate as standard dna testing yet that evidence, said clay, was blown out of proportion by investigators on a mission. >> mishandling. really, i can state a lot of things. >> reporter: the case has been botched in your view? is botched a big word or is it okay in this case? >> i would concur. i would say botched is fair game. there's some smart people that have made some elementary mistakes. >> reporter: but even if that was his dna at the scene, said clay, it proves nothing. he told us that not only had he slept in that bed for years, he'd been there since his breakup with chanin.

>> i left june of 2010. was that the last time that chanin and i were intimate? no. not even close. >> reporter: really? >> absolutely. >> reporter: feelings, hopes of reconciliation perhaps? no, not that at all, said clay. he had moved on. >> at the time of chanin's death i was seeing a gal in valdez, alaska, it was a long distance relationship. >> reporter: you were otherwise engaged? >> i was otherwise engaged. >> reporter: and he disputed all the nasty stories chanin supposedly told her friends about him, wondered why detectives would listen to what he considered to be gossip. she was terrified of you and she told her friends this. and so when she winds up dead and humiliated that way, who else are they going to look at but the person she was terrified of? >> chanin's friends that you mentioned, if they make those comments, i don't control those comments.

i have no way of knowing what chanin told them, but i would hope that they would follow the evidence. i would hope that they wouldn't chase somebody down over a comment made off the cuff. >> reporter: and those were secondhand stories about clay the jury never heard anyway. as for his alibi that morning in the surveillance video, it was nothing said clay. of course the camera didn't show him on that street, he never told the cops that's where he walked and they never asked. they didn't ask you where you went. >> no. >> reporter: they say you told them. >> i did hear that. >> reporter: are you saying their memories are bad? or something, that they're lying or what? >> many statements in this that have not been true from law enforcement standpoint. >> reporter: and speaking of alibi, clay said he doesn't believe the time of that 911 call means anything at all. >> it is so short, you can't tell what it is.

>> reporter: but a call to 911, she winds up dead, they kind of go together. so the time of death makes most sense right around that time. just after because she would have been under attack at that point. >> i don't see how with any of the evidence that's been provided in statements by witnesses that anybody can make that assumption that a 911 call at a quarter after 9:00 and her death were exactly related. >> reporter: for more than two hours as he talked to us clay starbuck remained unflappable, quite determinedly so. i can see why you would be quite a hard guy to argue with. >> i'm an easy guy to argue with because i don't argue. >> reporter: that's the problem. makes you crazy. >> it doesn't make me crazy. >> reporter: no, the other person crazy. >> then i suggest you get counseling. >> reporter: never angry, never jealous, the only emotion clay starbuck pleads guilty to is disappointment. he was disappointed, he said,

when his youngest daughter told him about some explicit images she'd seen on her mother's computer. pretty upsetting for you? >> it was disappointing. i wouldn't say upsetting. >> reporter: now, according to clay starbuck, murder never crossed his mind. >> she was a beautiful woman, smart woman. she didn't need to travel those paths to find men to be with. it was senseless. >> reporter: and did you try to stop that behavior by killing her? >> absolutely not. absolutely not. i wouldn't kill her. i wouldn't harm her. i wouldn't kick, bite, scratch anything her. i've never done anything to hurt her. and i didn't kill her. >> reporter: he faulted once, only once. the question was about his children. what have you wanted to say to them all these months? >> you're going to end up making me get emotional. so i'll just leave it that i'm just very proud of them.

>> reporter: pretty tough thing for kids to handle. >> it is. it is. not only did they lose their mother, they lost their dad for a period of time. >> reporter: maybe forever. >> it's not going to be forever. it's going to be till next week. >> reporter: clay starbuck was, he said, a confident man, quite sure that acquittal was just days away. all he needed now, he said, was to hear the jury say those words, not guilty. coming up -- >> never see a courtroom again. >> i was sick to my stomach. i was nervous. knowing what i know and i know into my heart clay can did this. >> verdict form "a." >> the verdict and the emotional fallout. >> i jumped up and i screamed. i screamed. >> reporter: when "dateline" continues.

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that turns everyday transactions into extraordinary experiences. hi there. how are you? do you have any lollipops in there? (laughing) no, sorry. we're helping all kinds of businesses go beyond customer expectations. how can we help you? reporter: for more than two weeks, discussions about the

murder case sounded a little like political debates these days, polarized and as the judge sent the jury out to deliberate -- >> you'll now be escorted back to the jury deliberation room. >> chanin's two families, her mother and siblings who believed clay poisoned the children against their mother on one side of the great divide. >> i hope that they learn the truth. >> and those very children on the other wanting nothing more than to have their father come home. >> i hope had this is done to never see a courtroom again. >> but of course it was only those 12 strangers who could decide. the hours went by. people close to the question on both sides were in some kind of agony. >> i was sick to my stomach, i was nervous. knowing in my heart, i know clay did this. all it takes is one person, one person not to believe and we have to start all over again.

>> not easy for any of them. but austin had an especially difficult task. a new father himself and now after fighting with his uncle and grandmother over custody he was guardian of the three younger children. and until this moment he had said his siblings, like a rock. funny how these things sneak up on a person. >> if you could speak to your dad and just say one thing the two of you, what would it be? >> see you soon. >> yeah. >> i miss him. >> and then, then they were all in court, their opposing wishes on full display. the jury was back. >> has the jury reached a

verdict? >> reporter: they had been out one full day. here was their decision. >> narrator: the matter of state of washington versus mr. clay starbuck verdict form a count one reads, we the jury find the defendant mr. starbuck guilty of the crime of premeditated murder in the first degree. >> reporter: guilty. his face looked like stone. but something else going on inside said his lawyers. how was he when that verdict happened? >> shocked. >> he actually thought he was going to be acquitted. >> absolutely. >> reporter: but chanin's mother and siblings finally felt vindicated. all along they believed it was him. and now a jury agreed. >> as soon as that first guilty verdict was read, it was like a ton of bricks were lifted off of us. >> and got the text, guilty. i jumped up and i screamed. i screamed. i was like, yes, yes!

>> reporter: clay starbuck was snbs sentenced to life in prison. weeks later he filed an appeal. all five starbuck kids said they still believed their dad was innocent, led by austin, head of the household. weight of the world on his shoulders. >> it's not over yet. there's still appeals and there's other things we can do. so it's still not over. >> reporter: two years later in 2015, clay starbuck lost his appeal. >> i thought would bring me more peace than it did. i was relieved that he was found guilty. but it didn't bring me the peace that i thought it would. >> reporter: justice, sometimes what feels like justice to some doesn't to others, not at all. but this we can say. once there was a fine and lovely woman whose life was good and useful who loved her children. >> they were her world. and no matter what had happened, what was said, what's been done,

what's been drug up that she loves them and she wants them to be successful and have good lives. >> reporter: now, she did not deserve the way her life ended on that cold december morning m washington. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline". he told me he loved me. i told him i loved him. he said he would be right back. i could hear a commotion of some sort and then i remember hearing gunshots. to see him lying there, it was bad. >> it's the website where lovers go to meet. and cheat. >> this was someone looking to have an affair. >> but this affair was about so much more than deceit. >> you couldn't write this as a movie. you couldn't write this as a