about the missile drill and i worry about gotta god forbid anything else and we have to hope the election is secured coming up in november. for us, for now, these are all topics for another time. that is going to do coverage. >> thanks for joining us tonight. the coronavirus pandemic has left almost no part of the united states untouched. and tonight, you'll see rare reporting from two of the hardest hit cities. good evening. i'm joshua johnson. this country is facing a challenge that modern american medicine has never confronted. our partners at sky news got a rare look inside one of the busiest hospitals in the center of new york city as it struggles with the sick and dead. our correspondent gets amazing access as the pandemic hit the city. then she takes us to the deep south where the virus is affecting a community that's already seen its share of hardships. you'll hear from a first responder who says he's not the last line of defense but the first. as he puts it, first responders

are 911 and there is no 912. [ sirens ] >> reporter: th >> this is a moment that is going to change this nation. this is a moment that forges character. ♪ >> 9/11 was nothing compared to this. people come in, they get intubated, they die. the cycle repeats. >> we are new york tough.

we are tough. you have to be tough. this place makes you tough. we're going to overcome this. and america will be the greater for it. >> times square normally a manic mass of people, now almost to l totallydy voed of them. this is a city many of us feel we know, the one that they have sleeps. now look at it. once again, it is ground zero. ♪

>> this is going to be weeks and weeks and weeks. this is going to be a long day. and it's going to be a hard day, and it's going to be an ugly day, and it's going to be a sad day. this is a rescue mission that you're on. the mission is to save lives. >> this hospital in queens, the site of an apocalyptic surge in one of new york's poorest neighborhoods. the most powerful country on

earth, overwhelmed. america went from just 15 cases of coronavirus in the last week of february to having the world's highest number of deaths. now tens of thousands of people. we saw that disaster unfold on the front line. it was a journey that started in new rochelle, a suburb of new york. the national guard deployed, a containment zone established. but it didn't stop spring breakers, weeks later, flooding florida's beaches. now it's the horrifying numbers of the hungry that fill our screens. millions out of work and in

search of a meal. the specter of a 21st century great depression. >> there's no magic bullet, no magic vaccine. it's our behaviors, each of our behaviors translating into something that changes the course of this viral pandemic. ? >> the next self-days to a week or so, we'll continue to see things go up. >> the next week is going to be our pearl harbor moment, our 9/11 moment. it's going to be the hardest moment for many americans in their entire lives. >> how quick and stark it was, the sight of a field hospital in central park. a tourist hot spot, now called the hot zone.

at the start, hospitals couldn't find enough space for the sick. the city still can't find it for the dead. >> it's hell. biblical. i kid you not. >> covid positive. >> 303, receive, respond. >> we're on shift with captain a.j. briones in yonkers. he's a paramedic working seven days a week, and it's nonstop. >> everybody calls us the front line. but really, we're the last line. somebody who's really sick, you have to get there as quick as you can, but you also want to be safe.

the thing that we talk about is, we're 911. there is no 912. >> a.j.'s team is getting three times the usual number of call-outs because of coronavirus. these days they're the first and sometimes the only emergency responders that go into people's homes. it's an eerie feeling here. we're waiting outside. he's gone inside to see the patient who's struggling with breathing. you get a real sense of just how much pressure, how much work these paramedics are having to do, often on their own. they're at risk. there's every chance they too could get exposed to covid-19. back in new york city, we go inside brooklyn's biggest hospital. an e.r. that's become a war zone.

where there's a constant crush of covid-19 casualties. >> so we're now in the critical care area of the emergency department. everyone that's in here today is here due to breathing problems. almost uniformly all have coded. we're seeing such a large increase on a day-to-day basis on the number of patients presenting in critical condition, requiring really all the resources that we have to provide in order to help them. >> dr. atan dickman says there are normally 17 beds in this room at maimonides medical center. today there are 32 patients and the numbers are rising rapidly every hour. this pandemic demands more people, more space, and more staff willing to confront a lot more danger.

>> so we have opened up new icus, new intensive care units, new medical units in order to accommodate for this increased demand of patients who are coming in so ill. >> everywhere in the hospital is now effectively an intensive care unit. and they're seeing every type of person in this ethnically diverse borough. this is an intense, demanding, and desperate atmosphere in here. the patients keep coming. and it's not just the elderly, it's the young too. and they're all struggling. it's a daunting new frontier for medics. even for the most experienced. >> we're obviously seeing a large number of critically ill patients. >> yeah, some of the sickest patients i've ever seen in my whole career. not only do they have coronavirus, they also have their diabetes that's out of control.

so it's particularly hard. and we're learning how to do it. >> it's a very sharp learning curve. and an often brutal experience for those with existing health conditions. >> really, the main effect that we're seeing is a significant effect on impairing the lungs' ability to provide the oxygen the body needs. then it spreads. it affects the heart, it affects the kidney. ultimately, unfortunately, oftentimes taking the ultimate toll. >> throughout this crisis, there has been a shortage of personal protective equipment. maimonides was well prepared. but across the city, supplies are on a tightrope. how concerned are you about the days, the weeks, the months ahead? >> i think we're in for a significant period of seeing a lot of very, very ill patients. and this is going to put a strain on the system. we want to make sure that we

have enough supplies, including ppe for the staff, including ventilators, high-flow oxygen devices. at this time we do have sufficient supplies, but that's something that we're monitoring very, very closely. >> their work starts on the streets. triage tents at the front for the living. refrigerator trucks at the back to carry the dead. but here is where brave doctors and nurses work every minute, risking their lives so others can avoid that fate. america imposed travel restrictions on china pretty quickly. it has now tested more people for covid-19 than any other country, too. but that aggressive screening didn't happen early enough. regulatory hurdles, technical

flaws, and lapses in leadership meant it spread undetected for weeks. president trump, meanwhile, has gone from skepticism to optimism to sounding the alarm. >> one person coming in from china, and we have it under control, it's going to be just fine. is this just like flu? because people die from the flu. when you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done. it's going to disappear one day, it's like a miracle, it will disappear. this is a pandemic. i felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic. but this is going to be a very painful, very, very painful two weeks. we took good care of every place. we didn't -- we didn't miss a trick. >> but could he have seen what

was coming? eric lipton and a team of journalists at "the new york times" claim health officials concluded that it was time to move to social distancing back in the third week of february. but that recommendation wasn't made directly to mr. trump then. >> there was a consensus that was reached among the medical advisers that the time had come to flip the switch and to go to what's called mitigation, which means, social distancing, closing schools, closing businesses, causing -- intentionally causing economic harm to the united states, which is something president trump really didn't want to do. the time had come by the third week of february to make that difficult choice. because you were going to save potentially 1 million lives if you did that. trump was unwilling to do that until march 16th. that was a week or two late for places like new york, michigan, massachusetts, new jersey, connecticut, louisiana. places where there are more

deaths than there needed to be, if the united states had switched to mitigation sooner. >> how can i help you? small groups, yes. if you just give me a call to let me know when you're coming, because we are a little busy and i want to make sure somebody is here to sit down and speak with you properly. ♪ >> gerard neufeld funeral home was at the heart of managing the mounting death toll, and it still is. >> demand is just -- unfortunately a lot of deaths all at the same time. so we're trying to manage services for all the families in

a proper way, whatever they want to do. so -- it's just a lot of families all at the same time. so we're trying to get -- fit in schedules, trying to keep track of who's -- you know, which day which family's going to go, and go from there. people are unfortunately passing away in big numbers. because they live in this area, and i'm the only funeral home left in this area, they're coming to me. so -- so i'm trying to accommodate them best i can. >> and every day, more and more bodies come? >> yes. yes. i mean, we left the office last night, and i think we had about 12 services or so scheduled. and shortly after i left the office, within two hours, i had three more services. and then this morning, as soon as we came in, we put on three or four more services. so that's what's happening. and it's only 12:00. >> robert lugo has just lost his

grandmother, anna. her family suddenly robbed of the chance to grieve together. >> my grandmother died alone. that was my grandmother. she died alone. we didn't ever get to say bye to her. and i understand that's part of the death process -- but she was there, she was in the hospital, she was feet away. we couldn't even see her, we couldn't talk -- talk to her, we couldn't even give her a boost of morale to say, hey, you know, you're going to come out of this, or we need you to come out of this. like -- there was nothing. >> what would you say to those people who don't think coronavirus is a serious threat? >> if you don't think that it's a serious threat, here i am. i lost my grandmother. and i'm in the midst of less than a week.

>> robert's family had just celebrated her 80th birthday. they call her the glue. now they, too, are infected. >> she was exposed to the virus. they also became exposed to the virus. and half of our family members right now are in quarantine because they tested positive. >> with collective mourning forbidden and traditional rituals removed, death is marked by a drive-thru. >> the crematories really aren't letting anybody in. the cemeteries are limited for the most part to people staying in their cars and just watching the burial from the gravesite. >> joe negotiates at the gates. carrying the candles for the families that can't. >> sometimes it's so brief, it almost leaves them still feeling hollow.

like, what just happened? they don't have enough time to process it. you know, and -- it's heartbreaking. it's really sad. >> in these alien times, there is no group good-bye. >> yeah, yeah i'll let you know. right, bye. >> it's a little after dawn when we witness how great and grim the scale of the problem is. on this truck, bodies of the dead. this is hart island, where coronavirus victims are among those being temporarily buried in mass graves.

unclaimed by a family member or unable to afford a private funeral. there are normally 25 caskets a week placed here. now it's nearly that many every day. in the center of the city there are makeshift morgues everywhere. some places are running out of body bags.

the authorities acknowledge the death toll is likely higher than the official figures, but no one knows just how much. this team at long island jewish medical center work in a morgue, processing and examining those killed by coronavirus. >> i really admire our colleagues on the front lines that are dealing with the patients that are coming in with the covid-19, triaging them, managing them, treating them. but i think people also need to realize that there's another front to this war, and that's the front with the dead. >> it's not just the sheer volume of cases that's challenging. they're also trying to find a new way of communicating with relatives. >> it's always hard working with the families at this point in time, but even more so now, when, you know, they're not able to see their loved ones in their last moments. >> they have to proim vise to

try and support the bereaved. a chance to see those they lost with video calls. >> this time it was a facetime. so i did first let her see me, explain, you know, what she's going to see, asking her if it's okay that, you know, are you able to see this? because we couldn't ke-- it was body bag and you're seeing her face. so that was difficult. >> it must be very surreal and distressing for a family to have to look at their loved ones on facetime. >> i'm not going to lie, i croixed. it was tough. if we could do at least one small thing to make this hard time for them a little bit easier, that's what we're going to do. no matter how crazy your day is, how much work we have to get done, we're going to do our best for our families that we're dealing with, dealing with their families.

>> carrying out lots of postmortems will be crucial to understanding the virus, and ultimately saving lives. lisa normally deals with all the administrative issues. but there are so many bodies, she now has to help move them too. >> the three of us were outside, and we just collapsed on a crate, and we were just done. you know, we're exhausted, we're physically exhausted. we're mentally exhausted. >> they expanded their morgue. others haven't been able to. it is a structure that simply wasn't built for this level of strain.

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sky news and correspondent cordelia lynch. ♪ across america, what we can now see is that certain groups are disproportionately affected. in louisiana, 70% of those who have died are african-americans. yet they represent only 32% of the population. in the lower ninth ward, destroyed by hurricane katrina, they're bracing for another disaster. anita's mother, mary, has fluid on her lungs. but she took her out of hospital, fearful she might also get coronavirus.

>> to make sure she don't die from it. because another thing, you know, your people dying from it and they're alone. they're alone. who want to go out like that? you can't have a proper burial for them. you know, and it's -- it's sad. so we just said we'll stay here with mom until this pass over. >> it's quite a risk you took. >> right, it's very risky for her, and for us just as well, because it's a monster. we can't even see it. but we know it's here. so basically that's all we've been doing. keep the house bleached, clean, everything. so we can have more time with my mom. she's 75 years old. >> how scared are you for your mom? >> i'm scared to death. like she come out and catch a little fresh air?

but i let her catch a little fresh air because she still have to live. she can't stay in that day in, day out, day in, day out. come catch a little fresh air, then we go back in. >> black people are more likely to suffer comorbidities, two diseases, like obesity and diabetes. they also work in riskier, front-facing service jobs. those factors have played a huge role in this pandemic. it's the perfect storm of problems here. poverty, poor access to health care, and poor health. when you speak to people, they'll also tell you that this is a place of big families who live close together and love to hug. that has been a hard thing to shake. ♪ the famous mardi gras is, too. city officials pressed ahead with it in late february. a heaving pass of people on the

streets. two months later, new orleans had the highest death rate in america. but that was long before a national emergency was declared. >> thank jesus! >> this is long after. an easter sunday service in baton rouge. >> we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed with rights from their creator. certain unalienable rights. among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. and this freedom that i have does not come from my governor, it comes from my god. >> a fierce, uncompromising show

of american individualism. >> this morning we had 1,425 people in attendance. people came here from 20 different states this morning to worship with us. the reason being is people have deep convictions about going to church. especially on easter sunday. easter sunday is the greatest christian holiday of the year because we celebrate our resurrected savior. every church's doors are shuttered in america. as you know, worshipping god behind the screen on a television is not the same as worshipping god in person. >> what do you say to those people that accuse you of being irresponsible, putting lives at risk? >> i say to them, don't be a hypocrite. anybody that's on that road right now, anybody that's in a retail store such as walmart, such as a liquor store, if you go to those places but will not come to church, you're two-faced.

you're a hypocrite. >> it is hard to comprehend when you hear stories like this one. the franklins lost four members of their family in just 12 days. >> every other bed was one of the family members. four family members in the same icu at the same time. >> it was first my uncle passed. then a few days later my grandmother passed. then a few days later my dad passed. and a few days later after that my other uncle passed. >> you've dealt with so much loss in such a short space of time. how are you coping? >> the whole virus is just unbelievable. and what's the hardest for me is some people really think that it doesn't exist and it's not real. and we've buried four family members. we've buried my husband and two of his brothers in the same funeral, three caskets in a row. and i just want the world to know that this is real.

>> do you think that probably to some extent new orleans and louisiana as well has played a role? people fearing they won't have enough money to go to the doctors? >> i think health conditions has a huge part of it in some cases. but people in new orleans are very culturally superstitious. people don't like hospitals here. you have to be really sick to go to a hospital in new orleans. >> yeah. my dad's fiancee forced him to go. >> especially african-american families. we have big stigmas about hospitals. >> local author maurice ruffin sees a past and present marked by disadvantage. why do you think louisiana is suffering as much as it is? >> well, i think that part of it's economic disparity. the south has less money than the northern part of the country.

here in louisiana in particular there's this legacy of systemic racism that has been brought forth by the president. that means a lot of african-americans in the city and state don't have good economic opportunities to get education or health care and those things have played forward throughout this entire pandemic. >> the homeless in the city have lost their shelters and soup kitchens. some only just lost their homes after losing their jobs. now they stand six feet apart, hoping to get food. and that hunger, that insecurity, is everywhere. just look at this. san diego and a seemingly endless line of cars wait for a meal. with more than 22 million

unemployed, the desperation dwarfs anything in recent history. >> 3, all the way to 3, 3. >> the food bank, feeding america, has seen a 40% increase in demand. it expects a shortfall of $1.4 billion. the government has tried to ease the financial pain, sending $1,200 checks to americans as part of an historic stimulus package. early evidence suggests most of it is being spent on food. there will likely be a tale of two pandemics in america that emerges in the next few months.

one about those who were scared, disrupted, but thanks to luck and advantage, they will survive. physically, emotionally, financially. there are the others, though, who will be left with deep scars. this crisis will change the course of their lives. ♪ new orleans is a city divided by the haves and have nots. it is now being stalked by a virus. once again, the poorest people are carrying the heaviest burden.

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unlike some countries, america has no experience of such a testing public health emergency. in a cramped new york, hospitals are so full they're ferrying patients around in groups in a vehicle normally used for mass casualties. >> nothing? did you get her last name? >> what have the last couple of days been like for you? >> like lost time for me. >> trouble breathing? what about nausea? any nausea or vomiting?

any nausea or vomiting? >> none. >> the united states is a global leader in science, technology, and medicine. but it wasn't prepared for a pandemic. no one really was. and it has never had to collectively sacrifice quite like this. in just one week, the world's superpower was asking nurses to make their own gowns and masks.

inside st. joseph's medical center in yonkers, they're still processing it. >> i always trusted our government to be able to provide the stuff we need. i'm sorry, you know? and then when you hear the difference in the government and people speaking for the government, doesn't make sense. we need nursing staff, we need physicians, we need ppes. >> america is not italy, but you know, it turned out that we were much worse. so it's definitely something that we think about, and it's hopefully going to change in the future. because this -- this is unnecessary. and just -- sad, at this point. >> why do you think america's suffered so much? >> we were unprepared. we were unprepared for this.

>> the decisions made by state governors had been critical. some moving quickly, others not moving at all, with some high-stakes consequences. but there are those who still feel the buck stops with the president. >> i think he needs to accept his responsibility in this and now try to fix it. but don't blame everybody else and all the other people and the other governors and mayors and things like that when early intervention? i think he could have prevented some of this. >> you feel let down by donald trump? >> yeah, for sure. i mean, it's a -- the administration i guess just had no plan for this. so it's hard when you are going through this and you're in the midst of it and there's really no support coming from anywhere except, you know, this local community.

>> are you having chest pain? >> yes. >> yes, okay. so they want to make sure everything in your lungs are okay. so this is a special kind of film that we're ordering to look at it, okay? >> what is clear inside st. joseph's is the inherent goodness of this country. the selflessness and the heroism of its people, however politically divided it may be. what are the things that stick in your mind the most? >> i guess stories. stories of the nurse saying, i had the day off yesterday, and tears just kept coming to my eyes, and here she is back again to work through the day. >> families being separated from their dying loved ones. i just -- to me, that's inconceivable. >> knowing that unfortunately there will be a lot of people that don't survive this.

at least 75% of the people who go on ventilators are not coming off. >> this team has seen things they couldn't possibly coach their hearts or minds for. how much death have you personally confronted? >> we've never seen anything like this. personally in one 12-hour shift, i pronounced six people dead, just me. that didn't include the other physicians who had deaths as well. >> that's a staggering number. >> it's a staggering number. i've never had anything like that in my entire 20 plus year career. >> the psychological impact on medical staff will likely be felt and studied for years to come. >> when you feel like you're just stretched so thin. where it feels like there's no -- there's no way that you could take care of the patients

that are here in the way that you're trained to do so. that's really the hardest part. because all of us here, i mean, we went to school, we learned all the things you're supposed to do on a regular basis. and when the capacity is overloaded and you just can't -- you can't make those things happen, it really -- it weighs on you. and you know there are people that are -- that are going through some serious hard times and possibly their last moments on this earth. and you just want to be able to stand there with them and hold their hands. and it's impossible. >> this was new to everyone. dislocating. bewildering. will reshape the country and many families. there are just so many stories of loss and isolation. i've just been told they had a wife and husband, a sister and brother. they came in together. they had to place them apart.

and they all died, alone. and yet some states are already starting to reopen. >> usa, usa, usa, usa! >> open texas now! >> the fact is america is a decentralized country that champions individual liberties. protests in texas, michigan, and minnesota show people are impatient to get back to normal life. others want to keep the brakes on. what mr. trump has had to wrestle with is that choice is theirs to make. >> when somebody's the president of the united states, the authority is total. and that's the way it's got to be. >> total?

>> your authority is total? >> it's total. and the governors know that. >> what, are you going to grant me what the constitution gave me before you were born? it's called the 10th amendment. i didn't need the president of the united states to tell me that i'm governor. >> i think that states are much more leery of relying on the federal government now. they've formed the western -- states in the west coast and the northeast have formed their own consortiums that are going to make decisions together about when to reopen. i think they've learned a lesson about relying on leadership from the white house and that they are going to largely try to do this on their own. and it doesn't really matter, almost, what trump is going to say. >> the united states was challenged by a complex foe undaunted by its borders and military might. it didn't mobilize a global response. few expect that of anyone anymore.

no amount of money or power protected america. like so many other nations, it was flat-footed. what does seem distinct here, though, are the extremes. of the spread, inequity, and politics. lives have been ruptured. but that trauma has also brought a unity of purpose. we've seen an abundance of courage, kindness, and compassion.

♪ there was no single guiding light for the world to follow. drastic, draconian action isn't easy in any democracy. this one won't ever be the same again. isn't just a department.

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thanks for watching and thanks to our partners at sky news. i'm joshua johnson. there's much more straight ahead here on msnbc. all right, let's do it. yeah. (laughing) we're returning $2 billion dollars to our auto policyholders through may 31st. because now, more than ever, being a good neighbor means everything. like a good neighbor, state farm is there.

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marvel comic book archvillain. he's bright. he's clever. he's almost like a marvel comic book arch villain. he's bright. he's clever. evil as can be. >> on a beautiful, sprawling farm, seeds of danger. >> we heard this big explosion. he's just laying on the ground. >> this loving father of three, the farm's heart and soul, killed in a ball of fire. >> they were saying it wasn't an accident. >> our assumption was it was a pipe bomb. >> someone claims the dead man had reaped what he'd sown. >> he had messed with a drug cartel. >> maybe the truth lay with the

farm's owners, a wealthy clan known for harvesting rice and resentment. >> i wish that there weren't so much hate and anger in our family. >> one family member seemingly held a grudge against the victim. >> he's always the one that had something mean to say. he was always the one that hated him. >> another came gunning for investigators. >> who chases the police? >> but who was hiding the darkest of secrets? >> got chills going up the back of my neck. this is not happening right now. >> a blank sheet of paper hiding a diabolical clue. >> i fell to my knees and started screaming. ♪ >> there is an eden in the american west. a wide, 234r59 -- flat earthen

cornucopia whose bounty daily fills the bellies of millions. great farms employ legions of workers and enriched with their profits, families pass the land down father to son, generation after generation. they live modestly here in california's central valley. multi-millionaires in crop dusters and battered pickup trucks, deeply conservative, self-reliant, tough enough to thrive in a dangerous business that takes guts and brains, too often lives. here among the churning, thrashing machinery the power that helps grow the food of life, death can take a man unawares, even on a sleepy summer day. >> we just looked up and there he was. >> like today. a little boy burst from the field of sun flowers next to brandy's place. >> he was beet red, sweaty, he was just covered in mud head to toe.

he had his tennis shoes in his hand. >> carrying his shoes. >> he was running barefoot? >> he said he took them off. i think he got stuck in the mud in the sun flowers. >> brandy and her kids live in a rambling house next to one of those big farms. idyllic life out here -- quiet, predictable, until the saturday afternoon that little boy appeared. like magic from the sun flower field. no more than 7 years old or so. so what did he say? >> he said that his dad was on fire and he needed to call for help. >> on fire? how could that be? he was serious. >> he was serious. he was very serious. >> once he started to talk, was he making sense? >> yes. he was able to talk the whole time, answer whatever questions i had. there was no hesitation. >> brandy called 911, passed along details as relayed by the little boy. >> what is the little boy saying exactly, that his dad --

>> okay. he's saying his dad turned something on for the water, i'm guessing maybe like an irrigating pump. and it blew up like a bomb. >> as they waited for the fire department to arrive, brandy began tending to the boy, fabian ayala. >> gave him some water to drink. then i took the water and rinsed all the mud off and checked under his shirt to see if there was any major injuries or not. >> were you hurt? >> no. >> not at all? >> uh-uh. >> this is fabian three years later, his family by his side, he told us about the last day he spent with his dad. >> he would take me out when he had something to do. >> fabian's dad roberto was a farm manager, a demanding, sun up to sun down job so to squeeze in quality time with his family he'd often take one of his three kids with him. a proud man. always pictured with his chest out, his chin up.

on july 16th, 2011, that saturday, roberto needed to flood a rice field by turning on a series of high voltage irrigation pumps. fabian by his side in his pickup truck, roberto drove the quarter mile distance from one pump to the next. and then he stopped, got out, walked to the big electrical box. >> he was just going to the rice field when there was this big explosion. i go out and see what happened. he was just laying on the ground. >> so what did you do? >> i yelled his name out and he wasn't answering so i went to try and get help. >> so what did you do? you ran? >> yeah. >> through what? >> the field. the flower field. >> yeah. big, tall -- >> yeah. >> you're running through them trying to -- >> yeah. >> how far did you have to go? >> i don't know. pretty far.

>> far indeed. more than two miles running, running, running blindly through the field of golden flowers that closed in about him. >> and i saw the house and i just went toward it. >> do you remember what you said to them? >> something happened to my dad. he was that way and can you help me and they said, yes. they called the police department and they came as quick as they can. >> when firefighters reached the irrigation canal from which little fabian had run for help, it was obvious there was no life left to save. roberto ayala's body must indeed have been on fire just as fabian said it was. why became clear when they found burn holes about an inch wide near the bottom of his feet, an obvious sign of electrocution. an electrical box used to turn on a high voltage irrigation pump had apparently shorted out and exploded with such intensity metal fragments blew out the

windows and covered the passenger side of roberto's new ford f-250. a miracle little fabian wasn't killed, too. >> translator: we received a phone call that something had happened. >> reporter: roberto's wife fabiola. >> translator: it was when we received the call from the police department and they said they had fabian and fabian was okay but they couldn't tell us what happened to roberto. we thought he was in the hospital. >> reporter: and you didn't know what happened? >> translator: we didn't know what had happened. we called the hospital and the hospital didn't know anything about what had happened. about an hour, hour and a half later, they arrived with fabian. >> it was my dad. my brother just started screaming that he was dead. >> what was it like to see fabian in that situation? >> i think someone, being older, wouldn't be able to handle it as well as my brother did. >> reporter: pretty amazing,

wasn't it? to run all that way. >> i wouldn't have been able to run that much. i wouldn't even know what to do. to stay strong the way he did. i just -- i wasn't there and i couldn't control myself. i don't know how he did it. >> reporter: farm accidents are as old as the wheel. bad things just happen sometimes. still, sheriff's investigators scoured the area, taking photos and collecting every bit of debris they could find, whether it looked like it was from an electrical box or not. >> one of our jobs for the jurisdiction is to investigate all industrial accidents. >> reporter: because, said the sheriff's detective, in colusa county the sheriff does double duty as the county coroner. >> osha eventually will take over that investigation if it is determined to be that type of thing. >> reporter: there was an autopsy, too, routine of course. >> told us that the victim had been electrocuted. he had been burned and he had been near an explosion. >> reporter: pacific gas and

electric sent a team over, which confirmed it looked like an accident and, sadly, not unique. >> he said, well, we've seen stuff similar to this. what might happen is the operator will get into the panel with a tool for some reason and cross the leads with that tool and cause a plasma type of explosion and that could have been what happened. here, the other thing he did say is we've never seen anything this big. >> reporter: this is what the electrical box would have looked like before the explosion about the size of a high school locker. and after the explosion, that box was nowhere to be found. all that was left was a splintered post where it once stood. hard to know what to make of that. coming up, along with the crops, growing resentments at the farm. >> robert told paul that he was going to get my share of what my dad was going to leave me at the

ranch. >> your intention was to fight him? >> oh, yeah. >> the investigation continues as explosives experts try to determine what exactly happened to roberto. >> we came across a piece of metal. that piece of metal said to him there was something more going on. >> first clue unearthed. when "dateline" continues. water let's skip the rinse. new finish quantum with activeblu technology, designed to clean without pre-rinsing. switch to finish and skip the rinse to save water. 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?

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lester holt (voiceover): when people hear the words "fortunes" and "california" in the same sentence, when people hear the words "fortune" and "california" in the same sentence their minds generally go to some internet sensation like google or apple. but just 50 miles from the silicon valley is the san joaquin valley where fortunes were made long before the arrival of micro chips and semiconductors. the farm roberto ayala ran, worth tens of millions of dollars, all going to just one extended family, the moores. >> they were very, very private.

>> reporter: this is mary, part of the greater moore clan. her family, like many of the big farming families around here, keeps its wealth private, too. >> i knew that there was money there, but they didn't flaunt it in any way and you weren't told about it. you just knew that it was there. >> reporter: she learned early, she said, that the family fortune was also a tool to keep the descendents in line. >> my dad would say like when i was in high school, if you ever get into drugs or do anything i'm kicking you out of my will. >> reporter: though she could never have inherited the land, that birthright was passed from father to son, not daughter. the custom started with the moore family patriarch, who handed the farm down to his two sons, roger and dusk now in their 70s. each of them had a son born just a year apart, paul and peter, who were in line to one day run the farms as partners. cousins but raised more like brothers.

here they are in 1978 in cut offs fishing bare handed, latter day huck and tom. in 1980 they were on the same high school football team. roger's son, paul, was smart and handsome and a playboy, while gus's boy peter just two rows down was tough and blunt, hot headed, really. >> pete has a reputation, i think, over in colusa county. his mouth basically has given him a reputation because of the things that he has said. >> i'm a little different than the rest of them. >> reporter: oh, boy. so he is. calls them as he sees them even when it comes to his own family. >> there is too much money involved and everybody is afraid of what they might lose if they say something, even if it's right. >> reporter: there was one family member pete did have a deep connection with. his grandfather, the family patriarch. >> he -- he was special. >> reporter: he taught peter

about farming, about tending the orchards. >> he had demacular degeneration, so i was his eyes. >> reporter: but when his grandfather, his patron, died, pete's life changed quite suddenly. >> after we buried my grandpa, in short order i was pretty much told by my dad and my uncle that they didn't need my help anymore. i don't know whether it was animosity because i had gotten so close to their dad or what it was. >> reporter: after a particularly ugly fight with his dad, pete was exiled from the land of plenty, moved north of this eden into town and started a landscaping business. >> my wife and i had nothing, i mean, when i say nothing, i mean nothing to do with the moores. >> reporter: and paul? paul remained the family golden boy. his doting grandmother made sure he never went without. paul married a local beauty.

this is his wedding video. and he waited for the day when he'd reign over the land. but he was never involved in the big questions when and what to sow, what to reap. those multimillion dollar decisions were left up to roberto ayala, who had once been a lowly field hand, but anyone could see roberto was a natural farmer and gradually trust and responsibility and the owners' affection came to rest with him. >> paul and i were the boys in the family. >> reporter: yeah. >> we should have been the next in line. it wasn't fair. it was a slap in the face. >> reporter: and to make matters worse, roberto brought his brother eduardo in as his assistant. the cousins, their birthright withheld, fumed. >> paul would come over and tell me horrible stuff about ed and robert, that robert was saying about me, like he said that robert was -- told paul that he

was going to get my share of what my dad was going to leave me of the ranch. >> reporter: fair to say though that your nerves were a little bit raw about ed and robert. >> oh, no. i was mad. i'm going to be honest with you. there was a lot of animosity. >> reporter: so much so that one day pete jumped into his truck and drove down to the farm and called roberto out. >> i told him, well let's go. >> reporter: your intention was to fight him. oh, yeah. it settles things. >> reporter: but roberto politely declined. he had a farm to run. the next time pete heard anything more about roberto ayala, it was that he was dead. what did you think when you heard that he was dead? >> well, i was told it was an accident. >> reporter: which is certainly what it was. at least according to the experts from pg&e. but just to be sure, the detective called explosives experts from a neighboring county. >> just to ask them, hey, have you ever heard of an electrical panel like this blowing up?

and they hadn't. and at their own insistence came out to look at what we had and formed the opinion that it was possibly an explosive device. they, in turn, called atf and fbi. >> reporter: to some, that felt like jumping the gun. last thing he wanted was the big city feds treating him like a country cop crying wolf. >> now i've got atf and fbi showing up. i was a little overwhelmed. i was a little concerned that maybe, you know, we're calling these big agencies for help and really what we have is an accident. we had bomb guys saying it was a bomb, but they're bomb guys. >> reporter: right. >> we're not a hundred percent convinced it's a bomb yet. >> reporter: then, three days after the explosion -- >> we got a visit from paul moore. >> reporter: paul, pete's beloved cousin, the handsome golden boy of the pair told the detective he found something out at the scene of the accident, something that shouldn't have been there. >> he came across a piece of metal that he found.

it looked like galvanized iron or metal and that piece of metal said to him that there was something more going on. >> reporter: did he have any other ideas about what may have happened? >> he did. he told us his cousin pete had made some threats toward the victim and the time leading up to the incident. >> reporter: and there was more. paul showed the detective texts he received from peter sent from the very rice field where roberto was killed. >> that text was dated and timed the day before. coming up the focus shifts from the nuts and bolts of electrical explosions to an explosive personality. >> he was always the one that had something mean to say. he was always the one that hated him. that was the only person that i could think of. >> why did you hate him if >> he was arrogant. he flaunted stuff in my face. >> pete had a reputation for being a real hot head without hardly an effort pete could tick you off. >> reporter: when "dateline" continues.

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keith morrison (voiceover): district attorney john pointer's one of colusa's most popular raconteurs. the district attorney is one of colusa's most popular. been in office nearly 30 years. knows where the skeletons are buried and knows just about every prominent family in the county including the moores. >> if i said they were odd, that would be a pretty good way of summarizing it. >> odd. >> yes.

>> odd how? >> you don't hear a lot about a lot of families but you hear about the moore family. >> reporter: because they complain publicly about other wings of the family or at least complain in such a way that people -- >> complain in a way that other people found out about it. >> reporter: now the two cousins? >> pete i've known for years almost since i've been here. had a reputation for being a real hot head. a lot of mouth. he couldn't back it up. but he had a lot of mouth. without hardly an effort pete could piss you off. >> reporter: so when paul came to the authorities and said, i think pete is responsible for this, did the suspicion seem plausible? >> yes. >> reporter: yeah. >> it did. we knew pete didn't get along with his family. we knew pete had a hot head. we knew pete had access to the property. >> reporter: and for paul to denounce peter who was like his brother, sad, perhaps, but made sense to the da's office, which signed off on the warrant to have pete's house searched. it was just a few blocks away. >> went out to grab a bite to eat.

when we came home we saw them all at the house searching the house. >> mary ellen is peter moore's house. >> couldn't believe it. >> reporter: did you think it had something to do with what happened to roberto? >> well, i didn't think that at first. i said, what are they doing at our house? >> i got out of the house and said what the -- is going on here? two cops came over and grabbed me and escorted me to the front of my house. >> reporter: mary ellen and peter asked investigators what was going on. they were handed the search warrant stating investigators were looking for anything connected to bomb making. >> i said how do you know it was a bomb? we don't even know it was a bomb. >> reporter: that was the first you heard of such a thing? >> because we thought it was an accident. >> reporter: did they seem to be accusing the two of you? >> yes. >> reporter: both of you. >> yes. >> reporter: were you frightened? >> oh, yes. >> reporter: what were you afraid of? >> that they thought we did it. >> reporter: around colusa the raid on peter's house just days after roberto's death was big news.

the neighbor began sending out real time updates on facebook. >> there was a parade of cars driving around the whole neighborhood. >> as these detectives were asking their questions and as they were ripping my house -- going through my house. >> reporter: when they left? >> they took our computers and our cell phones. we had a business. nobody could call us. >> reporter: meanwhile the whole neighborhood was watching this. >> yes. >> reporter: so the search, said the detective, didn't yield a thing. >> we didn't find anything as far as bomb making materials, instructions on bombs, even anything in remotely close to that like gun powder. >> reporter: sure. >> or anything like that. >> reporter: so if pete was doing something he wasn't doing it at his house. >> not that we could find any evidence of. >> he denied he had anything to do with it. >> yes he did. >> reporter: though pete couldn't and didn't try to deny his hatred for roberto ayala. why did you hate him? >> he was arrogant. he flaunted stuff in my face. >> reporter: still the man had as if this were some biblical

epic stolen his birthright. lots of people around town knew about that especially the ayalas so when they heard peter moore's house was being searched. >> i thought it was pete all along. >> reporter: why? >> he was always the one that had something mean to say. he was always the one that hated him. that was the only person i could think of. >> reporter: there was a lot of town talk going on. a lot of gossip, rumor. about a week after his house was searched pete got a visit from a friend who had heard some things. >> i was working one day and he saw me and he backs up and he goes what the hell are you doing? i go i'm working. he goes no you're not. he goes you go get in your car. you get to sacramento, get an attorney, pete. they're coming after you. you're their number one suspect. coming up -- >> i didn't know what to think. i had never seen anything like that before in my career except

on something similar -- >> though people in the cross hairs, investigators are about to learn their victim may have made a very different and deadly enemy. >> the letter implied that roberto had messed with a drug cartel. >> when "dateline" continues. c. hold on one second... sure. okay... okay! safe drivers save 40%!!! guys! guys! check it out. safe drivers save 40%!!! safe drivers save 40%! safe drivers save 40%!!! that's safe drivers save 40%. it is, that's safe drivers save 40%. - he's right there. - it's him! he's here. he's right here. - hi! - hi. hey! - that's totally him. - it's him! that's totally the guy. safe drivers do save 40%. click or call for a quote today. i'm a talking dog. the other issue. oh... i'm scratching like crazy. you've got some allergic itch with skin inflammation. apoquel can work on that itch in as little as 4 hours, whether it's a new or chronic problem. and apoquel's treated over 7 million dogs. nice.

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white house coronavirus task force coordinator dr. birx told nbc's chuck todd social distancing policies will likely persist through the summer. she said the u.s. needs a "breakthrough innovation in t t testing." doctors say the u.s. has reached a plateau of new coronavirus cases but still could see a million confirmed cases as soon as this week. now back to "dateline." lester holt (voiceover): the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms has become something of a legend >> reporter: the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms has become something of a legend

at solving puzzles, these little bits and pieces, fragments of this and that were about all that was left around roberto ayala's body the day of the explosion. a story in there somewhere thought the atf. agent brian parker was assigned to find out what it was. what does this tell you overall? >> there was an incredible amount of force in the explosion. >> reporter: most of these pieces were once part of the electrical box. >> you have washers. different types of hardware in here, screws, nuts, wire. >> reporter: other pieces just trash. but a few fragments, just a handful looked like they were pieces from a different puzzle. odd. >> cells from a 9 volt battery, galvanized steel ripped apart. >> reporter: parker sent off the misfit bits and pieces to the west coast crime lab for analysis. >> to determine whether or not there was explosive residue present on some of the fragments that were collected out at the scene. >> reporter: like gun powder,

gasoline, nitroglycerin? >> correct. >> reporter: then there was this discovered on the fifth day the investigation. the panel box door found 160 feet from the site of the explosion. >> about four feet tall about two feet wide. probably weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 pounds. this where the large hole is would be the bottom of the panel. >> reporter: the forensic scientists of the atf continued their battery of tests hunting for bomb residue, fingerprints, dna and all the while the detective david psalm was on peter moore's tail waiting for him to make a mistake. did he go to ground? did he leave? what did he do? >> he didn't leave. >> reporter: what were people saying around town that you were hearing? >> we were hearing that people were saying they thought pete did it. >> they were following us everywhere. >> reporter: didn't make a secret of it either said mary ellen, from them or the neighbors. >> reporter: how did they start to look at you? >> like we were guilty. >> after they raided my house, i

spent days crying. days and days, you know, i'd be at work and just crying because you don't know what's going on. you don't know who to trust. >> reporter: how much were you watched? >> i'd wake up in the morning to people outside my house. they watched me get up every day, go put a shirt on, and go out and be in the public's eye when everybody thinks you're a murderer. >> reporter: even some of pete's own relatives seemed convinced of that though his sister mary stuck by him. >> i'm amazed at how much talking goes on there with no actual evidence of, you know, a lot of gossip and people in your business. >> mary placed a call to one of the investigators, told them they were going after the wrong guy. >> he was extremely rude and said you and your family just need to accept it your brother did this. i just broke down in tears because i thought they just didn't like him as a person and i think they just, to me, my opinion was they wanted it to be

him. >> reporter: four weeks into the investigation, peter moore was not just the top suspect. he was the only suspect. they had no physical evidence, though, that a murder even occurred. but they continued to watch and wait and the weeks slipped by. then a month after the explosion there was news from the atf crime lab. they had found something. >> there was the presence of explosive residue on the metal fragments we submitted. >> reporter: so it was a bomb, a murder. then the very next day -- >> i'm sitting in my office talking about what we're going to do next and the civil deputy walks in with a big manila envelope and he says, i think this is for you guys. it says colusa county sheriff's office, colusa, california, no street address and in the upper left-hand corner says ayala case and then there are eight stamps on it. it was pretty light.

it was way too much postage. >> reporter: because inside was just a single sheet of paper. an open letter to the cops. what did that letter say? >> basically it was claiming responsibility for the bombing. >> the letter full of misspellings and bad grammar had been written on a label maker then photo copied. its author claimed to be a military trained contract killer had been hired to kill roberto over a mexico deal gone wrong >> and that it was ms-13 behind it. >> reporter: what the heck is ms 13? >> it's a violent el salvadorian criminal street gang. >> reporter: and that roberto was supposed to be a target of this group? >> the letter implied roberto had messed with a drug cartel and that ms 13 had been contracted. >> the author of the letter taunted the detectives writing

the lab results would find military grade powder but no dna which was true so far. the point of the letter wrote its author was a warning. roberto's brother eduardo was next on the hit list. the writer said he had turned down the job to kill eduardo. but a second assassin would soon be on his way. do you think it was a hoax? do you think it was real? >> i didn't know what to think. i had never seen anything like that before in my career except on something similar on tv. >> reporter: one thing about that strange letter was all too obvious. whoever wrote it had inside knowledge because nobody besides the cops knew what the atf had discovered. >> we hadn't told anybody it was a bomb so for somebody to just write a letter claiming responsibility for a bombing that lended credence to the fact that the author of that letter was the real thing. >> weird. all too weird.

detective salm and the others went home for the weekend to digest what they had read and seen. then monday morning his phone rang, 7:00 a.m. >> hey, we got another one of those letters. i came to work. there was a second letter sitting on my desk. this one was slightly smaller manila envelope or half size. but configured the same way. label maker, address, aayala case, and way too much postage again. >> reporter: huh. what was inside that one? >> it was a diagram of a bomb. coming up, invitation from a killer. >> the letter said if you have any questions, place an ad in the "sacramento bee" and make sure it's the last ad. >> and another victim in the cross hairs? >> keeping that stuff confidential was important to integrity. >> a man's life might be in

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keith morrison (voiceover): on august 15, 2011, 30 days on august 15th, 2011, 30 days after roberto ayala's death investigators received in the mail this hand drawn picture of a bomb. what did you think when you saw that diagram? >> shock. we were amazed. absolutely amazed. i had never seen anything like that before. >> the device as shown in the

diagram was a two-inch pipe bomb placed next to a one liter soda bottle full of gasoline spray painted black. a large bolt tied off with a fishing line and acting as a drop weight would fall on a rat trap causing it to strike a firing pin. kind of like a rube goldberg device. the author also said there was a second secret triggering device as backup. either way the bomb was designed to go off when roberto ayala opened the door of the electrical box. could have been almost anything. now suddenly agent parker saw how they all fit. those confusing bits and pieces he'd been poring over for the past month. >> it was almost like someone had sent us the cover of the puzzle box. >> reporter: so now they matched the bits to the diagram. >> the first thing i looked for was this bolt and there it was. >> the thing that made it exceptionally clear was the fact that the bolt still had some fishing string attached just under the head of the bolt which was how it was depicted in the

diagram. >> it would have been hanging from that string as a weight. >> correct. right. so that was very clear that that bolt was in fact part of our device that was described in the letters. >> reporter: and there were fragments of a plastic soda bottle, black paint still clinging to it again just like the diagram. >> there was a spring that was similar to a rat trap spring. there was gasoline on the victim's clothing. we recovered pieces of a nine-volt battery, that we were able to determine that had no business being in that panel. >> reporter: so if you found the writer of those letters you had found your killer. >> that was our opinion. yes. >> reporter: along with the diagram was a second letter in which the bomber repeated his earlier claim that he was a reluctant assassin. after a career of killing he wrote, i wanted to save a life

before i take my life. the bomber repeated his warning. roberto's brother eduardo was next. in fact, the whole ayala family was in mortal danger. >> he said i wanted to make sure you get this letter and have time to help these guys. >> reporter: it was sent as if i've been assigned to do something i don't want to happen. i want you guys to prevent it. >> that was basically the gist of the letter. >> reporter: did you warn ed? >> not exactly. there are things in the investigation we could not release. there was information about the letters that we could not release. keeping that stuff confidential was important to the integrity of the investigation. >> reporter: but a man's life might be in jeopardy. >> we did talk to ed. we gave him as strong a warning as we could without going into specific detail. >> reporter: one of those details was that the killer had been given a deadline. >> the letter said i was given eight weeks to do this job and it will be re-assigned in five weeks. i wanted to give you guys time to help these guys and do

something about it. >> reporter: so you at least had some time. maybe. >> maybe. >> he tells me that they had received a letter and the letter had mentioned me. >> reporter: roberto's brother eduardo. >> they said, be careful. watch yourself. >> reporter: but it wasn't just eduardo in the cross hairs. the letter writer claimed whoever was now driving roberto's now repaired pickup truck, that white f-250 the bomber wrote, is in great danger. and who was that person? roberto ayala's son, jesus. the threat against the ayalas was looking very real. >> it was real. it didn't just look real. it was real. a lot of sleepless nights. >> reporter: because this ex-marine not only had a farm to run, but now as he saw it,

a murder to solve, and now two families to protect. >> going through my mind was just look out. take care of the -- take care of my brother's family. primarily take care of my brother's family. take care of my family. look out for myself. look over your shoulder. >> reporter: the first thing eduardo did was hide the pickup truck. now with the truck out of sight would the killer or killers just find a different or better place for a bomb? >> once everybody was asleep all i could do was think and think and run things through my mind. >> it's somebody sneaky and violent enough to plant a bomb to kill somebody and he did it to one person. there's nothing that is going to stop him from doing it to somebody else. >> reporter: in this second letter the bomber left open one possible line of communication. >> the letter said if you have any questions, place an ad in "the sacramento bee", august 21st issue help wanted. make sure it's the last ad. >> reporter: and so they placed

this classified ad. and waited for a killer to call. coming up, a son's all too close call with death. >> i didn't get to ride that day. >> you might otherwise have been there. >> i probably would have been the one to get off. >> and another member of the moore dynasty comes forward with a fresh piece of evidence. would an answering machine message finally solve the question about a motive for murder? when "dateline" continues.

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plus a diagram of what certainly looked like the actual bomb that killed roberto ayala. was it real? a ruse? a lucky guess? if it was for real, who sent it? was it from the lead suspect, peter moore? or a hit man as the letter claimed, or was it from somebody who wasn't even on detective salm's radar? whoever it was, five weeks into the case it was the only lead investigators had. they played along with the guy, placed an ad as requested in "the sacramento bee." and sure enough, somebody responded. cops rushed to see him, perhaps arrest him. >> he was pretty surprised when he got a visit. >> false alarm. it was just an unlucky guy looking for a job. the killer, though? the killer never called. so the whole ms 13 thing, the mexico deal gone wrong was just some sort of game. the real bomber was playing it.

the trouble was, nobody knew the rules or the purpose or where the game might end. more than one way to find a guy brazen enough to send that material to the cops. >> we had the letters we wanted to get analyzed. we wanted fingerprints. we wanted dna. >> reporter: the letters and envelopes came back clean just as the bomber said they would. what was going on? to investigators one theory seemed the least likely, that roberto was mixed up with a drug gang ms 13. the ayalas are a classic bootstrap story. roberto a very religious man who worked his way up from field hand to farm manager, oversaw the day-to-day operations of a multimillion dollar spread. he knew the land. he knew the machines that worked it. he was utterly committed to that work. what did working that farm mean to your dad? >> that was everything. it was our whole, even our lives and his life, our whole life revolved around it. we were always there and growing up. >> reporter: first jobs as kids, right? >> yeah. learned how to drive on the

farm, how to pretty much do everything on the farm. >> reporter: tell me about your dad. what kind of a guy was he? >> he was a hard worker. someone to look up to. we admired him. >> reporter: and it did not go unnoticed on the moore farm. over the years, owners roger and gus came to rely a great deal on roberto. they treated roberto more like a favored son than just an employee. how important was family to roberto? >> probably the most important thing. it all revolved around this. we didn't have much, but everywhere he went, we went, too. we were always together. >> whatever went wrong, he was the one to go to. he was the one to keep everybody together. >> reporter: latino culture celebrated coming of age ritual

called the quinceanera, when a girl turns 15. so when roberto's daughter turned 15 -- >> he went all out. it was his only -- i was the only girl so he did everything he could to make that day the best. >> what kinds of things do you do? >> you have to have your father/daughter dance. you just feel like you're the only person that exists at that moment. like you just feel important. you really do feel like a princess. >> reporter: probably won't ever forget that. but of course for teenagers there is another rite of passage. butting heads with parents. which that last morning may have, pure chance, saved jesus' life. >> we always went to work together. for some reason we had an argument that morning so i didn't get to ride -- tag along with the ride that day. >> reporter: you might otherwise have been there. >> i would have probably been the one to get off to go check that. >> reporter: why would anybody

want to hurt him? >> i can't find a reason why somebody would want to do it, to want to kill him. >> reporter: and this bomber, whoever it might be, came very close to also murdering fabian. >> if you want my button pushed, bring a child into it. >> reporter: the d.a. john pointer found fabian's plight to be particularly heartbreaking. >> i couldn't imagine 7 years old and seeing my dad blown up. >> reporter: and running all that way. >> people don't understand, it was like maybe a couple miles as the crow flies. but to run through what we call colusa mud which is the rice fields and it's just, i mean, he had to take his shoes off. he was literally covered with it. you could hardly walk through it. for him to run all that way, it was amazing. i remember asking if he knew what 911 was. and he told me, and he was right, i asked him if he knew how to use a cell phone, and he said yeah. i asked if your dad had a cell phone. he said yes he did. i asked, why didn't you use a cell phone?

why didn't you call for help? and he was reaching out like this and he said, i can't. it's in his pocket and he's on fire. yeah. that stays with you. >> reporter: and now these taunting letters from roberto's killer almost taking prideful delight in how he killed the man and almost murdered the boy. who could it be? who would do such a thing? and why? then four days after the diagram showed up, one of the alpha males of the moore clan walked in the front door. roger moore. paul's dad. and like his son, wanted to help catch the killer. and told the detectives he had important evidence to share. it was an audiotape, answering machine messages his nephew pete left on his phone. coming up -- investigators discover a brand-new suspect. >> we may have somebody else to look at. >> but who are the hunters? and who are the hunted? >> and all of a sudden the tire went flat.

>> as police go after more evidence, someone comes after them, leaving a taunting message out in the fields. >> here i am, i'm doing this to you now, come find me. >> when "dateline" continues.