i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> i'm going to destroy you. the fear was terrible. i can't even describe it. it's a surreal thing. people thought i was dead. >> the attack sudden, savage. >> i saw a man standing there. >> i heard multiple shots. >> the wife, the only witness. >> the only thing i could see was his eyes. >> her story was concerning about a masked man, shooting her husband and leaving her alive. i'm worried, did she hire somebody? >> then a revelation. the dead man had a dangerous dream.

>> ended up finding a lot of people related to the oil business. >> i remember him telling us, i'm going to make millions of dollars. >> a big money venture oozing with outlaws. >> a violent individual, been to prison for robbery. 250 pounds of steroid, rock muscle. with a significant criminal history. >> greed is what killed my dad. greed is what caused all of this. >> a first for oil, a lust for blood. >> a sociopath. >> what can happen in a quiet little prairie town until oil comes around. >> yeah. ♪ among the green and pleasant landscapes of american privilege is the rise of historic land

called the south hill. here for 100 heres has been the home of spokane, washington's elite, in their queen ann and craft madge's homes, it's quiet, and not the sort of story we're about to tell, the kind of story with ambitious men, dark plots and dames. >> i asked him. am i just the dumb blonde who missed it? or did everyone miss it? >> the one so many people missed, before that dreadful event here in the wooded enclave. >> he thought that god was blessing hem and my mom. >> we thought we were walking on water. >> here they were, empty nesters, all alone in their house on the south hill, convinced that their successes, their six grown kids, their good life were products of an unflinching trust in god. >> you know, we finally got out of the desert. and he was going to get into the promised land.

>> yes, the promised land. riches beyond imagining. as the not so dumb blonde knew so well. >> it was a madhouse, it was the wild west. >> so maybe that's why the thing on the south hill wasn't going to stay here. >> my life will never be the same. i'm sorry. >> it was wintertime when it happened. christmas season, 15th of december, 2013. a sunday evening after church. >> 911, what are you reporting? >> there's been shots. a man kicked into our house and shot my husband. >> this is how our story began. in an ugly splash of violence and terror. >> he's going to shoot me. >> but was this the beginning of the story? or the end?

that was the evening spokane police detectives brian sesnick and mark burbridge were pulled into the strangest case of their careers. >> it was the most unique homicide i'd investigated, and i knew that from the first moments of my involvement. >> really? just you knew? >> yes. >> it was sesnick who drove over first to the address at south hill. the sort of place a homicide detective can go a whole career without visiting a single time. >> the house is in a very upper-class neighborhood. >> and the south hill, that's where you want to be. >> right. the street that it's on, i'd never been to before. >> why would you as a homicide detective? >> there's just not crime up there in general. so it was very odd. >> the home the detective was going to was owned by a businessman named doug carlisle, and his wife of many years, alberta. first responders had arrived and put up their crime scene tape.

sesnick walked into the house. >> it was just a weird scene all in all. this was december 15th. there's christmas music playing throughout the house. >> that's bizarre. >> it was very bizarre. they're very religious people, so there's religious scripture written on the walls. them you have this horribly violent and gruesome murder. with a body laying on the floor that you're investigating. it was a very, very odd scene. >> 63-year-old doug carlisle was lying on the kitchen floor, clearly the victim of a close-range shooting. >> there was a lot of blood around the body. a lot of shell casings. a lot of bullets laying around. >> how badly was this person damaged? >> he'd been shot seven times. it was obviously a very brutal attack. it wasn't just a one time shot and the person ran out. >> clearly someone was making sure. >> correct. whoever had done this, we knew they wanted to make sure he didn't survive. >> and whatever happened here

didn't appear to be motivated by burglary or robbery. the house was locked up tight. windows, doors. >> he still had his wallet and cell phone. walking throughout the house, everything was in place. nothing was ransacked that we could find. >> it was elberta, doug's wife, who called 911 in what sounded like a state of abject terror. arriving first responders found her leading in an upstairs closets. they took her downtown. >> i want to see my husband. but they won't let me see him. >> the detective was ready to sympathize, of course, but his training, his instinct, his eye told him not yet. something looked a little off here. >> what did you make of her? >> she's unique, and some of her responses, threw up red flags, made me concerned about whether she was involved in this or not.

>> what kind of responses? >> she didn't care about the police investigation. all she cared about was her husband, praying over him, she was upset that the patrol officers wouldn't let her do that. >> i want my husband! >> there's nothing we can do for your husband right now. >> well, i can hold him. i could have told him i loved him. i could have prayed for him. >> then when the detective asked what happened elberta told a story, and neither the telling or the story made any sense at all. coming up -- >> i'm worried whether she had a motive, money, jealousy, a boyfriend, he has a girlfriend she's mad about. >> the wife's tale raises questions and suspicions. >> rehearsed is a good word. >> that sounded that way to you? >> yes, it did. >> 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

...with air wick essential mist. nature... with kits starting at just ten dollars you can transform natural essential oils into mist at a price that is just right. it's a like, a dagger?a worm! a tiny sword? bread...breadstick? a matchstick! a lamppost! coin slot! no? uhhh... 10 seconds. a stick! a walking stick! eiffel tower, mount kilimanjaro! (ding) time! sorry, it's a tandem bicycle. what? what?! as long as sloths are slow, you can count on geico saving folks money. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. we were paying an arm and a leg for postage. i remember setting up shipstation. one or two clicks and everything was up and running. i was printing out labels and saving money. shipstation saves us so much time. it makes it really easy and seamless. pick an order,

print everything you need, slap the label onto the box, and it's ready to go. our costs for shipping were cut in half. just like that. shipstation. the #1 choice of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv and get 2 months free. shipstation. the #1 choice of online sellers. ♪ ♪ ♪ shbecause xfinity mobilehen ygives you more flexible data.. you can choose to share data between lines, mix with unlimited, or switch it up at any time. all on the most reliable wireless network.

which means you can save money without compromising on coverage. get more flexible data, the most reliable network, and more savings. plus, get $200 off when you buy an eligible phone. that's simple, easy, awesome. go to xfinitymobile.com today. mark burbridge had seen a

thing or two during his time on the police force, so he kad careful, experienced attention when elberta carlisle told him what happened that sunday evening in the house on south hill. >> what happened tonight? >> we went to church. then we went to a church function. nothing, i don't know what happened, a hell happened, a nightmare happened. >> and elberta's story, said detective burbridge just didn't add up. >> all of a sudden i hear it's okay, it's okay. then i hear back off, back off, back off! then when i heard the back off, i saw, i looked and saw a man standing there in all black. >> her story was concerning about a masked man wearing all black, coming into the house and shooting her husband and leaving

and leaving her alive. made me worry that maybe she hired a hit man or maybe she was making up the story and she was involved in what happened. >> the thing was, the killer saw elberta. she came right out and said so. they stared at each other, soul to soul. so why would a hit man leave an eyewitness alive? unless she was in on it. >> i'm wondering whether she had a motive. money, jealousy, boyfriend, he has a girlfriend she's mad about. did she kill him herself? did she hire somebody? did she get one of the children to do it? these are all my concerns. >> besides, says burbridge, he's seen many people caught by sudden violence and grief, and elberta was agitated, certainly, but to his practiced eye, her emotional reaction was somehow flat as if practiced. it bothered him. >> how long had you been home? >> it happened instantly. when we got home, it was like somebody ambushed him. >> the way she told her story about a masked man killing her husband of 42 years.

>> it almost seemed like it was rehearsed or like she thought about this and what could i say? >> rehearsed is a good word. >> it sounded that way to you? >> yes, it did. >> but you don't have to take it from the detective. we were able to arrange an interview with elberta, too. >> my whole life was over as i knew it. >> she said when she and her husband returned from church that evening they drove through the gate of their property as usual. >> i'll get the gate, you get the door. >> did everything look pretty much the same as when you left? >> no, it just didn't feel right. so i started to head up the stairs at this time. i got all the way to the top of the stairs and i started down the hall when i heard muffled noises. headed right down the stairs, i got back to the bottom of the stairs and i called out to doug, "doug, is somebody here"? and i looked to my left. the man was standing right in front of the doorway.

>> how far away from you? >> ten feet at the most. nine feet. and i looked at him. and it was a man. all in black. and he had a mask on. and he had a gun pointed where i knew my husband was standing. >> you couldn't see doug. >> i couldn't see doug. i only saw this man in black. he had a mask on. only thing i could see was his eyes. and he looked at me. he never moved the gun. and he blinked three times, and i thought, why is he blinking at me? >> i would think why is that kawhi in my householding a gun? >> i thought oh, my god, he's going to kill me before i get up the stairs. i tried to go up the stairs. my legs weren't working and i started going up the hall when i heard multiple shots. >> did you realize right away what must have happened? >> oh, absolutely. i knew my husband had to have been shot. so i thought i have to hide.

>> she ran to a closet and shut the door and called 911. >> do you remember what it felt like in there, what you felt like? >> oh, sheer desperation. just sheer desperation. and this overwhelming need to go to my husband. i wanted to go to him. i wanted to comfort him. i wanted to tell him i loved him. i wanted to tell him, it's going to be okay. i wanted to pray for him. >> when the police arrived, they

found elberta in the closet. >> i want to go to my husband. they said they're working on him. and i said no, i want to go see him, please let me go to my husband. and they said no, you can't go down there. >> did you ever get to see him that night? >> no. no. >> now elberta found herself face-to-face with detective burbridge, trying to get him to believe a story about a masked killer who stared right at her and yet left her alive to tell the tale. that sounds a little made up almost. >> yes, it does. sounds hollywood. >> have you ever heard of a case of somebody laid eyes on a witness of him killing someone and didn't take action? >> i haven't had that happen. >> but there was something in elberta's story that did make sense. before the murder as she and doug drove to church they saw something out of place. >> there was a van kind of

sitting up against the curb. a white van. >> like it didn't belong there or something? >> yeah. >> a white van. as police canvassed the neighborhood after the murder, a witness across the street said she saw it too. >> she had come home around 5:00 that evening and noticed a white van parked in front of her house. and it was parked in a way that made her nervous. to the point she thought maybe someone was breaking in. >> why would she be suspicious of a van? >> a van she'd never seen before, in that neighborhood, everyone knows everyone. >> the question was, what did the white van have to do with the murder of doug carlile, or they wondered, his wife elberta. coming up, a neighborhood security camera. what tales would it tell? >> we actually saw that suspect and saw the path that he ran. >> could you tell who it was? >> all you could see is it was a

subject that appeared to be muscular build wearing all black. >> when "dateline" continues. people used to care. heck, they'd come all the way out here just for a blurry photo of me. oh, that's a good one. wait, what's that? that's just the low-battery warning. oh, alright. now it's all, "check out my rv," and, "let's go four-wheeling." maybe there's a little part of me that wanted to be seen. well, progressive helps people save when they bundle their home with their outdoor vehicles. so they've got other things to do now, bigfoot. wait, what'd you just call me? bigfoot? ♪ my name is daryl. lowe'to supportitted frontline workers, and our more than 300,000 dedicated associates. thank you for everything you're doing.

up here on spokane's south hill, beat cops and detectives fanned out around the neighborhood unused to violent crime. but downtown at police headquarters. >> this is a secure building, if you need to go somewhere, knock

on the door, okay? >> i'm in jail? >> the victim's wife, elberta carlile, told a crazy story about a man in black bursting into the house killing her husband, looking her square in the eye but leaving her alive. no, burbridge wondered, did she hire him? >> in my world, wives kill husbands. >> but then they heard a curious story from a neighbor. that very evening for a couple hours before the shooting a mysterious white van was parked just across the street from the carliles' house. >> 911, what are you reporting? >> of course, in many if not most neighborhoods in america, a parked white van might not attract a bit of attention. >> this is the south hill after all. nondescript white vans don't

just show up and hang around here. so the neighbor noticed, and then doug carlisle winds up murdered. >> we didn't know if it was related or not, but it was something we considered immediately. >> and again, this being the south hill, another neighbor had the wherewithal to provide a special kind of help. >> a homeowner had a video camera that covered his driveway and we picked up what we thought was the van about two hours before the murder. >> here it is, that video. and sure enough, a white van coming and going on the streets of south hill that night. but did it have anything to do with the murder? and what about the man in black elberta said she saw? if he actually existed. a hired killer or whatever, he must have waited somewhere around the house for the carliles to get back from

church. he could have killed doug carlile, then possibly escaped in the white van. no one saw anyone going out the front door, but what about back here? behind the house? they called in a tracking dog and stood back and watched. >> basically, the track went through some arbor vitae. and there was a puddle of water and a good foot print. and it was apparent it was fairly recent. >> could be your guy. >> could be our guy. just beyond that, outside the gate, there was what appeared to be a welding glove lying in the leaves. >> a welding glove? >> a welding glove. we thought is this something that may have been dropped? but it was odd enough and in a place we knew the suspect had run after the incident that we ended up collecting it as evidence. >> not really knowing whether that had anything to do with your murder. >> correct. we didn't know. you know, in something like this, where it's a complete whodunit, you take everything and hope something ends up helping your case. >> they kept looking.

so did the dog. just beyond where the welding glove was found was a small wooded area, and across the street, an elementary school which maenl maybe the school security system could get them a picture of the guy. >> another detective was able to get that video, almost immediately. >> and sure enough, when they looked at the video, there he was. >> we actually saw that suspect and saw the path that he ran. >> could you tell who it was or very much about him? >> it was very grainy video. all you could see was that it was a subject, appeared to be muscular build wearing all black. >> all black. it was hard to make out, but there he was in the video. the elusive man in black running toward a main road. when detective burbridge arrived and got a look at this -- >> i've done a lot of homicides and at that point thought it was a professional hit man, probably unrelated to our victim at all or the person involved in this, and i went and found my lieutenant.

i knew this was going to be a very complicated investigation and we needed a lot more manpower to get very fast on the case further down the road. >> and so in a matter of hours, detectives were called in from all over the department, time off was canceled. so many questions to answer. what else did the neighbors see? what did that welding glove have to do with anything? and who was the man in black? and a more basic question. was elberta carlile involved in a plot to kill her husband? >> coming up -- >> the closer i got to the lord, it's like the further we got apart. >> even elberta admits their marriage had seen its share of trouble. >> i did something drastic and left him without his knowledge. >> take the kids with you? >> of course. >> when "dateline" continues. here's ella. whose idea was once again commandeered by brad. while he droned, her bladder dripped. but, she keeps it together. because ella has poise.

poise under pressure and poise in her pants. ♪ it takes poise. it's starting to people are surprising themselves the moment they realize they can du more with less asthma. thanks to dupixent, the add-on treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma. dupixent isn't for sudden breathing problems. it can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as 2 weeks and help prevent severe asthma attacks. it's not a steroid but can help reduce or eliminate oral steroids. don't use if allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. tell your doctor right away about signs of inflamed blood vessels, such as rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection and before stopping any asthma medicines, including oral steroids. du more with less asthma.

talk to your doctor about dupixent. but when allergies attack,f any the excitement fades. allegra helps you say yes with the fastest non-drowsy allergy relief and turning a half hearted yes, into an all in yes. allegra. live your life, not your allergies.

here are the hour's top stories. a state of emergency in

mississippi after severe storms and tornadoes rolled through, leaving at least six people dead. the dangerous front continued into alabama as it heads east, but leaving homes flattened and trees down across the southeast. hospitals in new york are preparing for gusty winds, as well. nearly 10,000 people have died there. but the number of admissions is flattening. now back to "dateline." as police combed the south hill looking for suspects in the murder of doug carlile, his wife had no idea that her demeanor had raised alarm. but police 101. the victim's nearest and dearest often become suspect number one. and elberta, with her wild story, was no exception. then detective burbridge was able to get a close look at the evidence, especially that video of the running man in black.

and -- >> it became apparent that whoever did this spent time planning it because of the escape route. made me concerned that she was telling the truth about what happened. >> when he saw all that planning including the videotape showing the man in black he felt it was far less likely that elberta carlile was anything but a victim. but in her brain, while the detectives kept going over this and that, two thoughts blocked out everything else, a need to see her husband and a need to tell her children what happened. >> i went to call them and i couldn't see the numbers. i was just frantic. i said to the police, help me. and i said wait, you can't help me, you don't know who i'm looking for. >> the phone rang at the home of shane carlisle. >> i received a call from my mother. we were hanging ornaments on the

christmas tree. she said in just kind of a screaming panic, shane, your dad, your dad, he was shot six times. >> you called everybody? >> yeah. the thought hadn't even sunk in yet we just started contacting everybody and had to listen to everybody's cries and screams over the phone. >> she was at her own daughter's ballet retitle. >> he goes dad's been shot. and i said what do you mean dad's been shot? dad has been killed. >> and so she greeted her daughters after the recital with the news about grandpa. >> they loved their grand pa. he was the greatest to all three of them. they had really good relationships with him. >> it was a relationship that almost wasn't for any of them.

>> doug and bertie, as he liked to call her, were teenaged sweet hearts, married young. and as often happens, even as their family grew their marriage shrivelled. what happened? >> life happens. >> bertie found god. doug did not. >> the closer i got to the lord, it's like the further we got apart. >> until it became clear to bertie she won't go into detail, that she and doug were doomed, unless -- >> i did something drastic. i left him without his knowledge. >> take the kids with you? >> of course. >> so you went off on your own with four kids. >> mm-hm. no job, no nothing. yeah. to a city i didn't know. >> to seattle. 350 miles in the little town in oregon where they lived back then. her church kept her going. well, doug, here's the story according to bertie. he kept guns, said bertie, lots

of them. and lost and alone, he decided to use one on himself. >> as he crawled toward the guns, he said he heard this horrid voice that said "he's mine". and then he heard another voice that said "no, he's not. he belongs to me". and he said it was a thunderous, authoritative, shook the whole room voice. and next thing he knew, he felt arms picking him up. and putting him on the bed. >> he told you this. >> yes, he told me this months later. >> quite a story. the one that got doug saved and back with his family. after that, he started an excavation business, and as his kids grew up, six of them. many followed him, and it became the family business. >> he's a salesman, you know. he can talk you into something. >> a charmer. >> yeah.

totally. total charmer. >> what was his business philosophy? was he a numbers-crunching guy or a handshake guy? >> he was a hand shake guy. he expected his word and a hand shake was good. and he knew it was. he expected that of others and that isn't always true. >> and there were setbacks. two bankruptcies. trouble with the irs and falling out with business partners who accused doug of being less than honest and of not paying his bills. how would doug react to those? >> he never gave up. and we always took care of what we owed. and we would move forward. >> and as he entered mid life, doug carlile seemed content doing deals while his sons shane and seth ran the business. >> he'd give the shirt off his back to anybody. he had a huge heart. enough room in it for everybody. huge heart. >> and taught you what you know. >> absolutely.

every aspect of business. every aspect of life. >> when the kids were grown, doug and bertie ended up in spokane to be next to their church whose pastor preached the prosperity gospel, that god rewards true belief with financial success. well, they certainly looked successful when they bought that sprawling house in the south hill. >> they wanted to get an older house like that. it's something they love, but they also always wanted all the family to come for all the holidays and stay with them. >> so there's a bedroom for everybody. >> we all had our own room. worked out pretty good. >> did it look to you as if your dad and your mom were finally at the place where they were on the top of the hill? >> they were doing the best i ever saw them do. they were happy. they had got it. they'd figured it out. >> but now, doug carlile was dead. and detectives tallied up the signs of his earthly wealth. still parked in the drive, elberta's new mercedes. doug's new pickup and inside

doug's office, documents detailing the family's fortune. >> there was a lot of financial paperwork. and the ones that struck me immediately was there was loan paperwork that had appeared mr. carlile had filled out for different businesses and they had his net value at between $6 million and is $12 million, depending on which piece of paper you looked at. >> and then there were the documents the detectives couldn't read. that is the ones written in arabic. who was doug carlile? successful, god-fearing businessman? or what? coming up -- >> i remember him telling us, you know, i'm going to make millions of dollars, and that is going to be it. this is going to be for our family. we're all going to be rich. >> investigators took a hard look at doug's business practices, did he make any enemies? they may have a reason to be angry at him. >> our suspect list kept growing.

>> i was run thing investigation in about eight directions, trying to eliminate any business partners, trying to see if he had a secret life. >> each seasoned detectives were surprised. when "dateline" continues. 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. unlike ordinary wmemory supplementsr? neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try neuriva for 30 days and see the difference.

it was obvious now. no getting around it. spokane detectives burbridge and sesnick took a look at the clues dug up that first night.

surveillance videos showing a white van circling the area. elberta's story about a masked shooter dressed in black. the video of a black-clad man running away. all that could mean one thing. this was a hit, a professional killing. which begged the question, why would anyone want to kill a beloved, god fearing grandfather, murdered while christmas music filled his big old house. >> it was almost a surreal scene. christmas music playing. >> in doug's office, documents, half in english, half in arabic. and those they could read were very interesting indeed. >> there was prefilled out paperwork promising 100% return on investment in 90 days if you'd invest in their company. >> so it appeared your victim was promising huge ruin return

investment. >> correct. he had a whole binder of names of people who have bought into this and invested. >> wait a minute, who offers a 100% return so fast? was this for real? the names and reports all seemed to be related to one thing. >> we found a lot of paperwork related to the oil business in north dakota. >> the oil business? why that? doug carlile, remember, was an excavator, not an oil man. but, of course a whole army of ambitious, hard-working men had fled to establish careers to grab for a piece of the wealth dangled so enticingly by north dakota's oil fracking boom. thus, were prairie towns on steroids and men bursting with pent-up testosterone. by the time doug met his awful date in december of 2013, the wild black gold rush around the bakken airfields had peaked. but investors looking for a big payday wouldn't have known that yet.

and with great wads of eager cash, they chased a stake in what they hoped were still bills in the ground. apparently, doug carlile was one of them. according to family, he got turned onto oil by a friend who knew a guy. >> he told us about north dakota. hey, it's booming there. you should go check things out and see what's happening. >> first, doug partnered in a trucking company that served north dakota's many oil rigs. a company called blackstone, started by the guy his friend introduced him to. then opportunity knocked. one of those opportunities of a lifetime, ordained from above, according to doug. >> the whole thing kind of fell into his lap. and i think he felt like that was his calling from god to move forward in that lease. >> an oil lease that is. a lease that would give doug and any partners he could bring in, the exclusive right to drill for oil on 640 acres of land on the mha indian reservation.

the catch was, that sort of opportunity doesn't come cheap. so you had to raise some money. >> oh, yeah. the lease was almost $2 million. >> and to raise that, doug carlisle tapped his friends around washington state, his business that's righters, even his kids. >> i put $100,000 in it. it wasn't for a return or anything. it was to help him with his dream to fulfill that. >> but the next step to fulfilling doug's dream was even more daunting. finding investors to pay for drilling as many as eight wells on the property and that price was much steeper, more than $100 million. but the potential payoff was immense. and doug firmly believed, god's will, a reward for his faith. >> we thought we were walking on water with the whole deal. this is a miracle. >> i remember him telling us we're going to make millions of dollars, this is for the family. we're all going to be rich.

>> he sat on the couch and said what would you do if you had all the money you could ever want? i said, so if we had this money, then we would use it to serve the lord, to serve ministries, to serve people, our family. >> but now all those good intentions, all those dreams were gone. now detectives slogged through the paperwork on doug carlile's desk. those documents in arabic turned out to be a scam a con man was trying to run on doug. but doug you could see had been making promises, too, to investors. promises he couldn't keep and he must have known it. 100% return practically overnight? impossible. >> many of these were partners who had come in, and now he may have owed them a tremendous amount of money. >> correct. >> they may have a reason to be pretty mad at him. >> and our suspect list kept growing. >> how many partners did that guy have anyway? >> about ten that we could find,

there may be more. >> detective burbridge began calling doug's partners and discovered most of them lived in or around washington. anyone of them who could be considered a person of interest was hundreds or thousands of miles away from spokane the night he was murdered. >> i don't believe in coincidences like that. >> coincidences that they were not there? >> correct. >> that they may have planned not to be there when something happened? >> yes, sir. >> how did you know which one to target? >> i was running this investigation in about eight different directions trying to eliminate a lot of business partners, seeing if mr. carlisle had a secret life, did he owe somebody else money. he had a lot of failed business dealings in his other businesses. so i had a lot of concerns. >> angry ex-business partners? angry current business partners? what, if anything did she have to do with it? >> yeah. i mean, obviously, i didn't know at the time what he was doing. >> coming up -- detectives learn

about a charismatic couple knee-deep in doug's oil venture. >> they looked like ken and barbie, their perfectly white teeth and tans. >> did they know anything about the murder? and then finally, investigators have someone to question. >> i researched his criminal history and knew he had a very significant criminal history. i was concerned, was he my hit man? >> we're going to start talking about some things honestly here. >> when "dateline" continues. new sociates, and all of you doing your part - at home. ♪ who've got their eczema under control.rs, with less eczema, you can show more skin. so roll up those sleeves. and help heal your skin from within with dupixent. dupixent is the first treatment of its kind that continuously

treats moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, even between flare ups. dupixent is a biologic, and not a cream or steroid. many people taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin, and, had significantly less itch. that's a difference you can feel. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. if you take asthma medicines, don't change or stop them without talking to your doctor. so help heal your skin from within. and talk to your eczema specialist about dupixent. when they bundle home and auto with progressive. wow, that's... and now the progressive commercial halftime show, featuring smash mouth. ♪ hey now, you're an all star ♪ get your game on, go play thank you! goodnight! [ cheers and applause ]

now enjoy the second half of the commercial! even renters can bundle and save! where did that come from? the kitchen. it was halftime.

elberta carlile was inconsolable. >> instantly, that night, that night, lost everything. >> elberta's eldest daughter left her own family for a while to stay with her mom, try to keep her sane. >> she would wake up screaming every single night. and there was nothing i could do besides just hold her. it was horrible. >> the very thing the carliles

hoped would create wealth, security, happiness had brought instead nothing but grief. but, remember, this, the evidence suggested, was a hit job. somebody must have ordered doug's execution. so now the detectives try to figure out who. >> did he have any disputes with anybody? >> yes. >> inevitable probably, when high stakes investors go after a prize, an oil lease, and doug had been promising potential investors returns that so far just hadn't materialized. any number of partners might have felt they'd been taken for a ride. but who? and elberta who was no longer a suspect offered a possibility. >> who did he have a dispute with? >> his name is james henrikson. >> james henrikson. he was the man who had gotten doug interested in the oil play in the first place. the man with his wife sarah were known as the barbie and ken of the oil patch.

this guy worked for them. his name is rick airy. >> for lack of a better turn, they stuck out like a couple of turds in a punch bowl. >> well, one way to put it. james met her at a coffee stand. she was a barista. >> what was he like? >> he was calm, cool, collected, older man, good-looking. he was fun. we'd always go out. we would go out. he was nice. it was easy. i never thought i'd marry him or go to business with him. >> but that's what she did. they moved to the oil patch in 2011, got married in minot, north dakota, and by 2013, he was the charismatic face of a major trucking operation called blackstone, and she was the blond on his arm and the senior company official. sarah signed the checks. blackstone was the business doug

first invested in, before he got interested in the oil lease. it was a big operation. 100 trucks hauling water to and from oil fracking sites. very profitable. james let it be known that he was backed by a billion dollar trust fund. >> i was like, this guy's a winner. >> a lot of money around. were they making money? >> yes, it sure seemed like it. >> and japs was tough and >> and james was tough and buff and all man. >> it's 20 degrees outside and he'd be wearing a tee shirt. he's making sure his arms are pumped up. he wants you to see his guns. he's showing them off. they're perfectly white teeth and tans. they looked like ken and barbie. they didn't fit in at all. >> not a nickname sarah took to, mind you. >> no, i feel like i have somewhat of a brain, i don't want to be called just a barbie. >> you're living in a town of men. >> 92-1. >> all jacked up on testosterone.

>> yeah, it was rough. i hated it. it was miserable. every day was a plan on how to get out. >> with him? >> yeah, we wanted to leave the oil field, but he just saw so much opportunity and money. he was like one day we'll get there. >> doug carlile liked james and sarah's entrepreneurial style a lot. so when the chance to buy an oil lease came up they went in on it together. james kicked in $600,000. doug only $40,000. they needed $2 million, remember. yet, doug was saying he'd be taking over. there were disputes, then, over control and money and accusations flew. the facts doug's son said. >> he basically said i'm concerned with what james is going to try to do. >> that was serious. >> and he said that if anything happens to me, you know, it's james henrikson. >> but, like the other partners, james henrikson was far away when doug was killed, 700 miles away in wofford city, north dakota.

detectives pinged his phone and confirmed it. and then something happened that seemed straight out of some detective novel. detective burbridge put out a plea for information from anybody who'd done business with doug carlile, and what do you know? in walked a guy who could have just as easily been a murder suspect himself. >> robert, thanks for coming down voluntarily. >> his name was robert delao. career criminal, gang member and sometimes a police informant. he'd served time on drug and weapons charges. >> i researched his criminal history and knew that he had a significant criminal history. i was concerned, was he my hit man or what was his involvement in this? >> he knew doug carlisle and james henrikson. why was he here? to tell the cops just in case they were wondering, that he didn't have anything to do with the murder. >> did you drive somebody up there? >> no, no, no, i had nothing to do with it, nothing. >> but burbridge had seen a

thing or two. he pushed. >> we're going to start talking about some things honestly. and i'm going to have a heart to heart with you. >> okay. that's fine, that's fine. >> people tell me you are the shooter. >> i say hell no. you know that night i was in wofford city, north dakota. >> you went after him pretty hard, accused him of murder? >> i did. >> how did he respond to that? >> he denied it and didn't even flinch. >> did you think he was your guy? >> i did not think he was the guy. >> why did you do that? >> sometimes you do things, put them under pressure to see their reaction. and he did not flinch. >> the detectives asked delao to take a polygraph, and he did. did he pass the test? >> yes, he did. >> so curious, certainly, but a real lead? or a dead end? hard to know. so burbridge and his team of investigators kept working other leads. and christmas happened.

sort of. >> it was really a rough christmas. i look back on pictures. we had smiles on our faces but you weren't really smiling. and my mom, it was so hard to watch her. she wanted to give the grandkids gifts but she was almost like a zombie. you can't not have christmas, you know, but nobody felt like it. >> but grief wasn't all the family was feeling. the debilitating fear took hold, too. whoever killed their patriarch might not be done. >> we armed ourselves. i spent about $10,000 on a security camera system around the house. went out and bought an attack dog, german shepherd. >> meanwhile detectives hit the road and that's when they discovered something truly shocking. doug carlile wasn't the only victim of the weird goings on around the oil patch. coming up -- for this investigator, a tantalizing tip at his finger tips.

>> i clicked on it and a flyer came up that basically said beware of these two people. >> and then a potential suspect gives cops the brushoff. >> he leaned over and slapped me on the shoulder and shut the door. >> when "dateline" continues. just like your fingertips, your lips have a unique print and unique needs your lips are like no others, and need a lip routine that's just right for you chapstick has you covered chapstick. put your lips first. ok. it was an accident. he was tickling me and... [laughing] stop it! yeah. whoops! but julie has resolve pet expert. its latest formula attacks odors at the source. no odor. no stain. no nothin'. whatever happens, no big deal. resolve.

but when allergies and congestion strike, take allegra-d... a non-drowsy antihistamine plus a powerful decongestant. so you can always say "yes" to putting your true colors on display. say "yes" to allegra-d. robinwithout the commissions fees. so, you can start investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood.

there are times when our need to connect really matters. to keep customers and employees in the know. to keep business moving. comcast business is prepared for times like these. powered by the nation's largest gig-speed network. to help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. and a team of experts - here for you 24/7. we've always believed in the power of working together. that's why, when every connection counts... you can count on us.

spokane police detective mark burbridge called in the troops. a few hours after the execution-style killing of doug carlile on south hill, it was all too clear this had to have been a professional hit. burbridge would need all the help he could get. and now every available investigator, nearly 20 of them, chased the scattered clues. did you actually need them all? >> yes, i kept them busy. one investigator, his whole job was to try to identify the white van. >> remember that white van the neighbors saw?

>> it was unique enough. it was an after-factory extended van that they make for specific professions. once we were able to identify the make and model we had washington provide us with all the vans registered in spokane county, and there were 75 of them. >> which possibly fit that description. >> yes, sir. >> every one of those vans had to be tracked down. and that welding glove, the one found outside a back gate, maybe the killer dropped it as he escaped or maybe it happened to be there. they swabbed it for dna anyway. they scoured social media, the internet, looking for connections, looking for anything. and then one night after christmas, a couple weeks after the murder. >> i was at my desk. i got a hit on what's called a ripoff report which i'd never heard of. and i clicked on it and a flyer came up that said beware of these two people. >> what do you know, the ken and

barbie of north dakota's oil patch, james and his wife, sarah. doug's primary north dakota partners. >> it said they're known frauds. they're running fraud scams in north dakota. don't do any business. >> of course, as the detectives figured out by now, rivalries, disputes, grievances were life around that oil lease project in which doug and james and others were involved. the ripoff report was put out as a flyer in stores and businesses all around the oil patch. it was pay back, apparently. by one particularly disgruntled former partner. but then not everybody was a boy scout. james for example had a criminal record going back to his teens. anyway, whether detective sesnick read the flyer, his eye landed on a very curious detail. one of james' employees, a man named casey clark had up and disappeared. >> i printed it off and handed it to mark and said hey, what do you think about this?

>> what did you think about that? >> it was the first time we'd every heard of that name. >> so who was casey clark? >> he was funny, well-mannered. >> didn't take long to find out. casey was an old friend of james henrikson. he moved to the oil patch specifically to work for henrikson at blackstone, james' trucking company. rick airy knew him well. so what did you do, the two of you? wed go out to the bar, chase girls, do the normal things guys do during the boom. >> rick and casey were field superintendents for the trucking company. how were you involveded with the business? >> i worked with the accountant, to make sure think got signed off to make sure they got paid and i was sort of the middleman for the paperwork. >> were you a minor partner. >> it was the james show for sure. people saw me all the time. >> time off was rare. and eventually, rick airy and casey made secret plans to work

for a rival trucking company. >> he was extremely worried about james finding out about this whole transition. >> on february 22nd, 2012, casey dropped briefly into black stone's headquarters and then was gone. so, did he leave in a huff? or was it something else? because nobody ever saw him again. >> no sign of him at all. he'd been missing for a year. almost two years at that point. >> was henrikson ever questioned about it? >> had he been questioned about it. >> he took a polygraph with north dakota law enforcement. >> and had passed. >> yes. >> still, james henrikson had to know something about casey clark and doug carlile. and so the two detectives got in the car and drove 700 miles to wolford city, north dakota. >> with the wind chill, i believe it was 60 below when we were there. >> their destination, the home of james henrikson and his sarah. >> we went to the side door.

from there you could see the garage and in the garage was like a two-year-old bentley, flat tires, almost laying on its belly. >> an almost new bentley. >> yes. >> obviously not taken care of at all. >> no. >> sarah answered the door, very pleasant said detectives, and went to get james. how did james henrikson greet you? did he tell you a story, sit you down for a cup of tea? what? >> he leaned out the door, slapped my on the shoulder and said too bad you drove all that way, my attorney told me not to talk to you and he shut the door. >> and you got nothing? >> got nothing. >> except for a rude reception which might have told you something? >> he was a big man, 5'10", 250 pounds of steroided rock muscle. he bragged he was benching over 500 pounds and he looked like it. but i don't intimidate and grew werewolf fans when he reached out and tried to belittle me. >> nothing to do but suck it up

and drive those 700 miles back home empty handed. along the way, the detective got a blood clot that nearly killed him. a month after the murder they had suspects, oh, yes, but nothing was coming together. >> coming up, finally, a clue, and it's a big one. >> the very top of the paper is the word "glove." and there's she'll get away route on google earth. practice with pistol. >> what killer makes a to-do list? jackpot. >> jackpot. >> when "dateline" continues. and all of you doing your part - at home. ♪ when you take align, you have the support of a probiotic and the gastroenterologists who developed it. align naturally helps to soothe your occasional digestive upsets 24/7. so where you go the pro goes. go with align, the pros in digestive health.

[ chuckles ] so, what are some key takeaways from this commercial? did any of you hear the "bundle your home and auto" part? -i like that, just not when it comes out of her mouth. -yeah, as a mother, i wouldn't want my kids to see that. -good mom. -to see -- wait. i'm sorry. what? -don't kids see enough violence as it is? -i've seen violence. -maybe we turn the word "bundle" into a character, like mr. bundles. -top o' the bundle to you. [ laughter ] bundle, bundle, bundle. -my kids would love that. -yeah. we were paying an arm and a leg for postage. i remember setting up shipstation. one or two clicks and everything was up and running. i was printing out labels and saving money. shipstation saves us so much time. it makes it really easy and seamless. pick an order, print everything you need, slap the label onto the box, and it's ready to go. our costs for shipping were cut in half. just like that. shipstation. the #1 choice of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv and get 2 months free.

shipstation. the #1 choice of online sellers. you know when your dog is itching for an outing... or itching for some cuddle time. but you may not know when he's itching for help... licking for help... or rubbing for help. if your dog does these frequently. they may be signs of an allergic skin condition that needs treatment. don't wait. talk to your veterinarian and learn more at itchingforhelp.com.

back in north dakota, suspicious, but empty handed, detectives burbridge and sesnick got back to grunt work. sesnick still recovering from a near fatal blood clot. >> i got ordered to go home, but

obviously i wasn't going anywhere. >> the case? well, they knew they had something but what exactly? >> it was just one of those cases where we knew we were on the right track, but we also knew that there was a lot of work left. >> and for the carliles, a lot of grief. elberta was a barely-functioning mess. >> i didn't lose just my dad. i lost my mom, too. because she wasn't the same person for a really long time. >> and adding insult, doug's secrets were exposed for the whole world to see. that big house on the south hill, heavily mortgaged. the fancy cars not paid for. the paperwork that claimed he was worth millions, a facade. doug carlile was flat broke. hadn't even bought life insurance. >> do you ever feel angry at all at doug for not providing more for like a insurance policy or something? >> no, not at all. because he was a very good

provider every day he was alive. and i didn't believe in insurance policies like that. i believed in trusting the lord for our finances, and that's what we did. >> secrets, just another casualty, as the little army of detectives searched the neighborhood for clues, like for example the strange find that turned up in the killer's escape path. that weirdly out of place welding glove. they swabbed it for dna on the off chance really, just a shot in the dark, that something in or on that glove might match dna on a felon stored in a data bank. and how about that? it did. what was the name? >> timothy suckow. >> what did you think when you found this out? >> who was he if >> a violent individual. >> i thought this could be our guy. >> was he local? >> he was local. >> he was working at irs environmental, an asbestos removal company. >> they don't drive around in

white vans by any chance? >> i checked that list, and lo and behold, they owned a vehicle that matched our vehicle in the video. >> well, well, well, what were the chances? timothy suckow must have been the muscular man in black seen in this video, running for dear life towards the equally mysterious white van. they looked him up. he lived in the suburbs. a wife, kids, his house was ten miles from the murder scene. >> we had the s.w.a.t. team sitting on him waiting for him to move because we didn't want to take him at his house because potential of firearms. >> but when suckow and another man left the house police moved in. police photographed suckow's many tattoos. >> mr. suckow is a hardened prison type individual, very large man, 275 pounds of solid muscle. >> the interview began,

detectives made no bones about it. they thought they had suckow dead to rights. >> today is the day to help yourself out. i didn't come to you by accident, okay? my killer left something up at the house, and your dna is all over it. no joke. the van at your work that you drive is on my video up there. >> you're scaring me now. >> you should be scared. you're looking at federal conspiracies to commit murder, fraud, life in prison. >> [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. >> yeah. [ inaudible ] >> that's your choice. >> probably would be smarter. these are serious accusations. >> at this point, we're probably beyond accusations. you are under arrest. and you can help yourself out. >> you can take me to jail.

>> timothy suckow was done talking. and -- >> he just looked me in the eye, laid his head down and went to sleep. >> seriously? >> seriously. like a big emotional release that it's finally over. >> after that, the detectives rounded up search warrants for his house and his car. >> in his car we found a very significant piece of evidence. >> what was that? >> a piece of notebook paper with a list of items to be done. at the very top of the paper is the word glove with a question mark. and there's statements about wheel man and wing man. show get away route on google earth, practice with pistol. >> that's almost like a confession on a note pad. what killer makes a to-do list? >> it was a to-do list on how to do a murder. >> what did you think when you saw that? >> it was almost hollywood like. it was shocking. >> it was a month after the murder and we arrest what we

think is the shooter and he has a to-do kill list in his car. you can't make this stuff up. >> suckow also had a storage unit. where? a surveillance camera picked up a white van pulling up soon after the murder. suckow had to be their shooter. question was, who put him up to it? and why? suckow wouldn't tell them. refused to say a word. so then they got a search warrant for his phone. >> his contact list said james in nd. >> jackpot. >> jackpot. that is what the first time we had ever connected him with henrikson. >> james and sarah arrived to become the ken and barbie of the oil patch and before long one man is missing and another dead and the suspected hit man has james on speed dial. and as for sarah, there was a shock in store for her too.

>> emotionally you have a lot to deal with. >> oh, absolutely. it's ruined my life. coming up -- sarah becomes suspicious about her husband. >> did you think at the time, i wonder if james had something to do with this? >> it seemed fishy to me. >> then she gets a call from the sheriff. >> he said you need to come to my office right this second. >> when "dateline" continues.. with this one little nexgard chew comes power, 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. for over 75 years people ...with geico... ohhh...sorry!. director's voice: here we go. from the top. and action for over 75 years people have saved money with gecko so....

director's voice: cut it! ...what...what did i say? gecko? i said gecko? aw... for over 75 year...(laughs. but still trying to keep it contained) director's voice: keep it together. i'm good. i'm good. for over 75...(uncontrollable laughter). what are you doing there? stop making me laugh. vo: geico. saving people money for over seventy-five years. gecko: don't look at me. don't look at me. who've got their eczema under control.rs, with less eczema, you can show more skin. so roll up those sleeves. and help heal your skin from within with dupixent. dupixent is the first treatment of its kind that continuously treats moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, even between flare ups. dupixent is a biologic, and not a cream or steroid. many people taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin, and, had significantly less itch. that's a difference you can feel. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent.

serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. if you take asthma medicines, don't change or stop them without talking to your doctor. so help heal your skin from within. and talk to your eczema specialist about dupixent.

here are the hour's top stories. mississippi's governor declared a tate of emergency as severe storms and tornadoes tear through the region, leaving six people dead. the storm destroyed homes and downed powerlines. president trump has reposted a tweet calling for the firing of dr. anthony fauci. this comes after he acknowledged on sunday that earlier action on covid-19 could have saved lives. now back to "dateline."

>> sometimes the best detective is named luck. a dropped welding glove leads to a tattooed man named timothy suckow, whose phone had the number of a man who may have ordered the murder of doug carlisle, james henrikson in north dakota. did you feel as if you had the outlines of what the conspiracy was? >> i thought we had a pretty good idea of what had actually been going on, but it turned out to be a lot more. >> a sentiment, which, as the investigation turned rapidly back to north dakota, sarah, a-k-a mrs. james henrikson could have put in the same words but for more personal reasons. >> best i remember is there was rumors of james having an affair. >> it's an old story, of course. husband cheats on wife with a younger woman.

even younger than sarah, who was only in her 20s. >> what was it like to hear that he was cheating on you in the first place? >> it was hurtful, but it was so off the wall. i just didn't believe it. >> like generations of wives before her, until the truth was impossible to avoid. what was that like to hear? >> horrific. especially when i found out with who. i just thought absolutely not. no way. >> wouldn't believe it. >> wouldn't believe it. she was like my little sister. >> this is her. the young woman in the unpleasant little triangle. but she wasn't just some other woman. this is peyton martin, daughter of tex hall, the chief of the mha nation on whose tribal land was the oil lease, the one james and doug carlile wanted so badly. peyton was 19. >> you knew her. >> mm-hm. yeah. i had a vacation, family vacation with her. >> in fact, here they are in

hawaii. james in the water. sarah there on the paddleboard and there on another board was peyton. >> i think i found a picture of her on facebook where she was pregnant. and so i called her and asked her. and she said it's none of my business, but if it's my husband's then get over it. mm-hm. >> peyton denied saying that, by the way. but when the baby was born, a very healthy and happy-looking little boy. james and peyton named him -- >> bentley, of all things. >> bentley. just like that expensive automobile james bought for sarah, then left in the garage with flattened tires. >> you can't make it up. >> it's weird. it's so strange. >> bentley. >> yeah. as you can see, he was the one who wanted the car and the name and the show. >> chief tex hall, as you might imagine was not pleased about

any of that. he banished james from the reservation. but there was something neither tex nor sarah knew just then. not just that the spokane cops were investigating sarah's wayward husband. out on the north dakota prairie, another lawman had been poking around for more than a year. homeland security agent derrick truedell had heard from a colleague about the missing casey clark and the ripoff report and other possible crimes. >> he told me the story, and it sounded unbelievable is what it did. >> eric truedell was hooked. so by the time burbridge started showing up, he could tell them a thing or two about james henrikson. how would you describe him? >> he comes across as just -- >> you're at a loss for words. >> he comes across as a used car salesman, but that's not fair to used car sales men. the guy is just, he's a scumbag. >> by the time doug carlisle was

murdered, he had been on james' trail for more than a year, looking into possible illegal drug imports and the mysterious disappearance of friend and employee casey clark. it began to look like henrikson was behaving like some latter day wild west outlaw. >> he's a sociopath and a coward. and he didn't get his hands dirty in any of it. >> truedell already suspected henrikson may have ordered someone to kill casey clark. then doug carlile was murdered in washington and he began working with detective burbridge. if timothy suckow was the hit man in spokane, did he kill casey clark, too? >> they checked mr. suckow's number at the time against the phone records they acquired back when mr. clark disappeared and his number was in those records.

>> meaning suckow was in the area when casey clark disappeared. sarah, meanwhile, her marriage falling apart, had begun to harbor suspicions about james and not just his cheatin' ways. it went back to the day james told her about doug carlile's death. >> he just walked into the room and was like, doug's dead, straight-faced, nothing. it was the strangest thing ever. >> did you think at the time, i wonder if james had something to do with this? >> it seemed fishy, it did. but again, your life's already crumbling. you don't want to think that your husband could be doing anything like that. >> why didn't you get out of that marriage? >> i was scared of him. so. everyone wants the fairy tale. everyone wants to be married with a good life of kids and it came crashing quickly. >> so finally, sarah started talking about divorce.

>> i told him and he'd be like, how are you going to feel if you divorce me and find out all this isn't true and the kid's not mine? you'll be a horrible person and i'm going to destroy you and he was very threatening. >> was he serious? a month after the murder of doug carlile, january 2014, sarah got a call from her local sheriff. >> he said you need to come to my office right this second. coming up -- sarah gets some frightening news. >> homeland security was waiting for me. and they were like, your husband is trying to have you killed today. >> what was that moment like for you? >> doesn't seem real. it's like a movie. >> when "dateline" continues. sog that's acidic it sucks the minerals out of the tooth's surface. pronamel is formulated to help deliver minerals to the tooth's surface to help reharden and strengthen your enamel.

♪ ♪ ♪

you can't always stop for a fingerstick.betes with the freestyle libre 14 day system, a continuous glucose monitor, you don't have to. with a painless, one-second scan you can check your glucose with a smart phone or reader so you can stay in the moment. no matter where you are or what you're doing. ask your doctor for a prescription for the freestyle libre 14 day system. you can do it without fingersticks. learn more at freestylelibre.us. sarah didn't know which way to turn.

with investigators in two states closing in, her husband, james had vanished. their marriage was on life support, and she'd just been summoned by her county sheriff. >> so i went into his office and homeland security was waiting for me. and they were like, sit down, we need to talk to you. and they said we just received in the last ten minutes that your husband is trying to have you killed today. >> sarah? on a hit list? why? sarah had a pretty good idea. >> they wanted all the money. and he knew i had it locked up with the divorce getting ready. so get her out of the way and we'll get all the assets. so they could run to brazil. >> but sarah marked for death? yes, the sheriff told her, she was supposed to die that very day. >> what was that moment like for you? >> i can't even describe it. doesn't seem real.

it's like a movie. i sat there and spoke with them all day. and i'd asked, can i call someone? like, i don't know what to do. they said nope. we have to take you into a safe home. >> call no one? >> hm-mm. >> not even your mom? >> no, no one. because they were afraid james would harass my family and friends to find my location, once he realized i wasn't responding to him, he went into panic mode. he didn't know if i was working with the police, if i was dead, if i was on the run. >> the cops knew her husband was lurking somewhere out there. but they couldn't find him. >> he was harassing a lot of my friends and family, trying to see if they'd heard from me, which they hadn't. >> now the cops were sarah's best hopes to stay alive. they tried a ruse to throw him off the scent. >> they drove me to the border in canada to make it look like i had jumped the border to see if james would chase me. >> he did not. but where was he?

no one seemed to know. with sarah close enough so they could actually see her, investigators tried to track her husband's phone. >> you're sitting in a homeland security office and listening to them ping him across the state. he's on the run, he's on the move. a car backfired in the parking lot and all these agents pull their guns out and run to the windows, because they didn't know if james was in town. it's a surreal thing. >> even if they found him, though, they couldn't charge him with murder or conspiracy. didn't have enough evidence for that. but they did have something quite useful. a few days earlier, a search warrant enhanced federal and state agents descended on james and sarah's empty house while they were out of town. what did you find in the house? >> found a lot of financial records. found some firearms. >> some firearms? >> yeah. i can't remember the exact number. >> it didn't matter if there was one there, he was a convicted felon, right?

>> correct. >> grounds for immediate arrest. agents fanned out around north dakota. and a few days later, in a little place called mandan, there he was. >> what was he doing? >> he was over at his girlfriend's friend's apartment. >> that is the apartment of a friend of peyton. the chief's daughter. >> we had guys stake out around it, doing surveillance on it. as we drove by, i recognized him. and i knew that was him. >> on the street. >> we hopped out, told him to show us his hands. >> he was surrounded by cops, guns drawn and pointed. so what happened then was very odd. >> he had his hands in his pockets. kept telling him to show me his hands. he wouldn't show me both hands at the same time. he had this stupid smirk on his face. we helped him to the ground. he's smiling up at me and asked me, you know, hey, how are you?

he instantly went into like trying to charm us. >> trying to pull a con on the cop. >> yeah, like he was going to build rapport and we were going to be buddies? >> bizarre though the arrest was, james henrikson was in custody. sarah, no choice, had to stay in deep cover, hiding in a secret shelter. unable to call friends or even her parents just in case the hit was still a go. >> i had a bunch of friends call the sheriff and the police, and they were asking, they said we think he's had her killed. we drive around looking in ditches, because no one was allowed to know. they wanted him to think that it had gone through to see what he would do. >> can't imagine what it would be like for your family. >> it was hard for them. >> and james agreed very civilized, to talk to investigators, but what he did

not do -- [ laughter ] [ bleep ]. >> was tell them the real story of what he'd been up to. >> he gave us, to me, it was a story. he talked about the cartels. the triad, all these organized crime groups that he implied having connections to. >> did he think you were buying it? >> oh, i think in his mind he thought we were buying it. but it was so outlandish, nobody's going to believe that.

>> trouble was, investigators in north dakota and spokane still didn't have enough solid evidence to tie james henrikson to the murders of carlile and clark. henrikson would have to wait in jail. that is if they could keep him there while he had other ideas. coming up -- preparing for the great escape. >> they knocked out that window, dropped some bed sheets to the ground, nine stories. >> oh, my god. >> when "dateline" continues. lowe's has committed over $170 million to support frontline workers, and our more than 300,000 dedicated associates. thank you for everything you're doing. 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? only licensed in stockholm. what is happening? jamie: anyway, game show, kumite, cinderella story. you know karate? no, alan, i practice muay thai, completely different skillset. and that's not a tissue. protection. lysol spray kills over 100 illness causing germs, even this season's most common flu strains. lysol what it takes to protect. could another come aroundot, the corner. or could it play out differently? i wanted to help protect myself. my doctor recommended eliquis. eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot. almost 98% of patients on eliquis didn't experience another. and eliquis has significantly less major bleeding

than the standard treatment. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. don't stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. if you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling numbness or muscle weakness. while taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily. and it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding like unusual bruising. eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planed medical or dental procedures. what's around the corner could be your moment. ask your doctor about eliquis. they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the amazing services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer

a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again! james henrikson was one of the stranger perks homeland security agent truedell had ever encountered. and had an attitude. henrikson was also an inept

criminal, rarely seeming to get his illegal schemes to work. >> it's almost like a tragic comedy when you see this group of people involved with this case. >> like the time they put out a hit on another business partner, but the hit man ran off with the money. >> the guy rips them off for $10,000. as he said, it was the easiest $10,000 he ever made. >> gradually, agent truedell and burbridge and sesnick amassed circumstantial evidence to show henrikson for all his criminal fumbling did orchestrate two murders, casey clark and doug carlile. but it was not quite enough circumstantial evidence to take to trial. till finally, the break they needed. timothy suckow, remember him? admitted he killed both victims on orders from james henrikson,

and the middleman caved, too. robert delao. the man who came snooping around the investigation a couple of days after the carlisle murder and passed a polygraph. which might say something about polygraphs. now deleo admitted he recruited suckow and transmitted henrikson's orders and the money. so september 2014, nine months after his arrest on weapons charges, james henrikson was flown from north dakota to spokane, washington and charged with multiple counts of conspiracy, solicitation and murder for hire in the deaths of casey clark and doug carlile, and attempts on the lives of three more business partners. he was not charged, however, with trying to kill his wife sarah, because, said the prosecutors, they went with the charges that were easiest to prove.

so henrikson was toast, unless? as he sat in the spokane jail awaiting trial, henrikson did his best to see that the trial would never happen. >> he tried to hire people to attack the marshal man that was transporting him. shoot the driver, set fire to the van and break him out the back while the van's on fire. >> oh, lord. >> he was still letting on that he had a lot of money. and in jail obviously, it doesn't take too long to find people that will bite on that. he found one that needed help with his current charges, so he turned him in pretty quickly. >> thus the plan was foiled. >> yes. >> but henrikson wasn't done. >> he was in another cell with a person suspected of murder. in our jail, there are windows in each of the cells. they knocked out that window, dropped some tied-together bed sheets down to the ground nine stories. >> oh, my god. >> some people showing up for

work saw it hanging out the window. >> can you squeeze someone out the window? >> they're purposely designed so an adult human head can't get out the window. so there was no way they were getting out. >> they could have charged him for escape attempts. they didn't. the prosecutor had bigger things to do. and finally, january 2016 james henrikson encountered them. >> i was so mad i couldn't see straight. >> doug carlisle's still grieving family. >> i had to say a prayer for god to calm me down. i wanted to put my hands on him, for sure. >> then you'd be in trouble. >> it would be worth it. >> the federal prosecutors were, however, not exactly confident about their case. >> proving casey clark's murder was the toughest part that i was thinking of. we didn't have a body. we had no forensic evidence. >> so, to get a conviction, they'd need these two sketchy characters, who allegedly on

orders from henrikson had done some truly awful things. if they didn't tell the story and make the jury believe it, henrikson would get away with murder. but if they did tell it? what sort of credibility would a person like that have? >> my concerns our most important witness is going to admit that he killed two people, literally beat casey clark's brains out. >> how do you handle that? >> you have to embrace it, that our number two witness has a tattoo on his back of him urinating on the headstone of the last guy that he killed. these are our two star witnesses. >> still, tim suckow, the actual killer was by far the more important witness. after all, suckow could tell the jury chapter and verse about the many twisted and homicidal plots set in motion by james henrikson. so, two nights before the trial was to begin, attorneys jones and ahmed went to see suckow, to prepare him for his testimony. and that's where it all went south.

suckow is bipolar. >> he was laying down on the floor of the prison cell in a fetal position. so this is two days before our star witness is going to testify. and he's basically sucking his thumb on the floor of a jail cell. we're there at 10:00 at night, trying to make sure this guy gets his medication so he can effectively testify before a jury. >> would james henrikson, the desperado of the oil patch go free? coming up -- the entire courtroom stunned. >> i had decided long before then james henrikson was crazy. i didn't know he was that kind of crazy. >> when "dateline" continues. i'm searching for info on options trading,

and look, it feels like i'm just wasting time. that's why td ameritrade designed a first-of-its-kind, personalized education center. their award-winning content is tailored to fit your investing goals and interests. and it learns with you, so as you become smarter, so do its recommendations. so it's like my streaming service.

well except now, you're binge learning. for a limited time, get up to $800 when you open and fund an account. call 866-300-9417 or visit tdameritrade.com/learn. ♪ and... l(music fades in). hey! -hi! ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ it was no easy task, preparing tim suckow to testify at the trial of the man accused of paying him to kill two

people. he was off his meds. he was a mess emotionally. so when the trial began in federal court, no cameras allowed, the prosecutors held their breath, and suckow, back on his meds came through. and in court he repeated just what he said here in his pretrial interviews, that he met delao and they both worked for the company that owned the white van he drove the night he shot doug carlile, but the year before that job, delao told him he could make money for roughing up some guy in north dakota. but then the boss, james henrikson, changed the plan. so when casey showed up at james' office before going on

vacation, suckow was behind the door with a heavy truck jack. >> they ditched casey's truck in a nearby town said suckow, and then they took casey's body to a lonely spot 20 miles out of town. he said he did the digging while henrikson stood nearby.

anyway, he said he got the $20,000 and he burned the bloody clothes. investigators found buttons and other evidence of that burn pile. but though they took suckow to the prairie twice to look for the burial site, they never found casey clark's body. >> casey clark was simply killed for the reason that he just wanted to leave james henrikson's employment. >> he felt wrong. >> so he was going to kill him? >> it was like a jealousy, cheating spouse kind of thing. >> and why did he want doug carlile killed? >> he really felt that the oil deal they were involved with was worth tens of millions of dollars, and he thought that doug carlile was standing in the

way of him getting most, the large share of those tens of millions of dollars. >> mr. carlile had already threatened mr. henrikson that he was going to get him out of the oil drilling business. >> and that was the thing that triggered this whole business? >> yeah, they were each trying to get each other out of the deal. >> at the trial, prosecutors introduced hundreds of text messages, an almost play by play account as the plan rolled out. >> you can watch a text message go from henrikson to delao and then the content is passed from delao to suckow and back the other way. negotiations over payment, who's going to be there, an alarm system. >> though, when doug carlile returned from church that evening in december, suckow was waiting. he brought a heavy welding glove in case he had to punch in a window. he didn't have to.

and then somehow the welding glove got left behind. the glove that revealed suckow's dan and broke the case. >> without the glove we would probably be unsolved to this day. >> and what could have happened then? james henrikson was a very dangerous man, was actively planning more murders. eventually, they said, had suckow not lost his welding glove, henrikson might have become that worst of all criminals. >> a serial killer is someone who causes the death or murder of three people.

he certainly got an "a" for effort, because he tried. there were about 11 people that we know of that he tried to have murdered. >> james henrikson's attorneys declined our request for interview, but they blamed suckow and delao and said the jury should not believe such unsavory characters. elberta watched the trial play out day after day, same prayer on her lips. >> i prayed for justice for my husband, that the truth would come out and that there would be a way to go on in life. >> deliberations took less than a day. on all 11 counts, murder for hire, solicitation, conspiracy and more, the jury found james henrikson guilty. >> we wanted to jump up and down and clap, you know, as a family, because our whole family was there. it was great. >> in the weeks that followed,

robert delao, the go-between, was sentenced to 22 years in prison. when timothy suckow, the hit man, faced the judge? >> the only thing he ever asked for was that we do what we can to ensure that he was sent to a prison with appropriate mental health facilities so he could figure out what was wrong with him. >> then, in court, he turned around and faced elberta. >> said please forgive me. i'm so sorry for what i've done. >> did he seem genuine? >> he did. he said it in tears, and he said i can't forgive myself, but can you forgive me? and i, i told home yes. i said i forgive you. and god forgives you. >> 30 years for tim suckow. when it was james henrikson's turn, a ripple ran through the court. would he, too, ask forgiveness, admit guilt? apologize? reveal the location of casey clark's body? well, no. not a chance. >> he read a short story that

was very graphic about abortion. so much so that everybody in the courtroom was very uncomfortable with what he was saying. and i think he just did that to purposely upset people. >> i had decided long before then that james henrikson was crazy. i didn't know he was that kind of crazy. >> henrikson will leave prison only in a box, having received two consecutive life sentences. he's chosen not to appeal. and here in the vast north dakota grass lands, casey clark's friends and family are still searching, vowing to stay with it until they find him. >> i just want to like, all right, james, you son of a bitch, we're going the get him. we're going to finally get some closure for everybody here. >> and elberta? >> sometimes grief overwhelms me. i'm in a pile of tears, and i've not lived alone ever. >> takes some figuring out.

>> it takes figuring out. >> sarah, thoroughly investigated, was held blameless, not involved in james' violent conspiracies. but in the community and among some in law enforcement, suspicion lingers. in june 2017, she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud. sarah was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay over $340,000 in restitution. >> so, as you look at all these events, and you think, gosh, what sin did i commit to be in this spot. what would you say? >> i trusted a con artist. i trusted a sociopath. i married a monster. some people think i should be one, too, but i'm not. >> wreckage, lots of it. once upon a time, in a flat and gracious land, where tough men wrestle for oil, murderous ambition bubbled up with the crude and made a play as old as

human kind. what was it all about, really? why? >> greed. plain and simple. it came down to greed. all about money. this sunday, flattening the curve. >> we know now for sure that the mitigation that we have been doing is having a positive effect. >> good news as new cases are easing. >> the last few days we have been able to take our first breath. >> but the death toll still rising. >> the bad news isn't just bad. the bad news is actually terrible. >> it's almost unfathomable, folks, when you think about that. >> with millions newly unemployed, president trump wants to reopen the economy quickly. >> hopefully we're going to be opening up very, very, very, very soon, i hope. >> but how can we do that without adequate testing?