i know she's -- i know she's here. and that's for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. teline." i'm craig melvin thank you for watching i'm craig melvin. >> i'm natalie morales. >> and this is you have one that got away? >> he was my first love. >> the guy who disappeared, kbept in her case, he really disappeared. >> he's going to call ne a couple days. he never called. >> his family, in agony. a rookie detective finally broke the case. >> i said, oh my gosh, i think i hit pay dirt. strange phone call revealed a secret. >> david needed to be gotten rid of. >> then we got the real story.

>> a bomb shell revelation. was she really a bereaved ex? >> i always loved him. >> or just maybe a black widow. >> barbara britten is the middle. ♪ hello and welcome to "dateline." for jeers, judy carlson lived in the most painful kind of limbo. her son david disappeared without a trace. the case went unsolved, sitting cold for more than a decade. digging into david's past, she uncovered a twisted tale of love gone bad and a grisly family secret. but the detective still needed to know, what motive was at the heart of this crime? here is keith morrison with "buried secrets." it's a strange thing that

happens among the bogs, marshes, the soft soil here in coastal florida. things have a way of coming up. things c buried in the ground i the past. it was july, 2003, beaches quiet, snow birds back up north. so no one noticed at first what was starting inland a little in a town called pem broke pines where donna velasquevelasquez. >> the sergeant dropped a box of papers right on my desk and said, here. see what you can do with this. and i began to wonder, huh, is this a test to see can she really do this? >> though the case was a challenge wasse an understateme. and now all be forgotten mystery, the disappearance 15

years earlier of a young man named david jackson. to viunearth the truth, even th rookie cop knew she had to learn about the victim. so she began with something easy, she found david jackson's mother, judy carlson. found judy's son actually who called hison mom. >> you sitting? >>ou yes. they reopened david's case. >> the detective and the mother talked about david for hours. wasn't a problem for judy. she loves talking about her boy, even now to us. >> david was my first child. he was just loved everything and everyone. ♪ happyyt birthday to you >> he would walk in the room and everyone would just be a magnet to him. >> david jackson was the eldest of judy's three children. and mark jackson idolized his older brother. >> he looked out for me. he was that way with his

friends, with everybody. >> billfr brown was one of thos friends. in 1982 after high school, brown and david jackson worked together atd a burger king. where david became a manager. brown also had a front row seat to the budding romance between jackson and a pretty 16-year-old co-worker named barbara britton. >> they were together. that's awesome. if you can find love, that's what we all want. >> so all these years later, detective velasquez paid a visit to thela woman who had been the girl whoan had fallen in love wh david jackson. happy to help, she told the detective. same thing when wed called on r to talk about the david she knew. >> he was a very shgood-looking man. you know, we had an attraction for each other and started talking. sweet, nice, kind. swept me off my feet. he was a good guy. >> and as she talked, it became clear deep emotions would not stay beneath the surface. >> i was young. i was still going to school. this is my first love.

>> two youngsters in love and then things happen, don't they? >> enmom, i have something to tl you. what? bar ra is pregnant. >> judy was worried. her dad, an ex-marine was not impressed with young mr. jackson orse so judy heard. >> mr. britton did not like him. i don't know why. >> still, david said his mother was walking on air. >> came home one day, mom, i'm going to have to sell the truck. >> why? >> i'm going to be a father and a husband and that's not froept have a truck. >> so the pretty girl and the handsome boy got married. bigar wedding, too, even though they were just kids. and very soon parents also to a son, john jackson. and they fought. madean up. fought again. babies having babies is no easy thing. >> we wereas just too young.

it was difficult for him. and it was difficult for me. >> so who is the first person to say youir got to get a divorce? >> my dad. >> how did david take it? let's just -- >> get it over with. >> find somebody, some lawyers and see what we have to do. and that wase it. >> the two divorced in 1985. david arranged weekend visits with john. >> how were they together? >> oh, wonderful. johnny just clung to him. theyt loved each other. >> theyac all moved on. couple years later barbara married again, michael wolf, an ex-military mann like her dad, about the same age as her dad, too. >> your dad and your new husband probably saw eye to eye a lot. >> they sure did. they had a lot in common. they would talk a lot. >> wolf took barbara and john to live with him in arizona. but david wanted to be a part of his son's life, so he traveled out west to see the boy. >> he wentav out there with a

friend o of his and they saw johnny for three days. i got pictures of johnny in the old western town and everything. >> maybe it was somethingwe abo the m distance, said barbara. >> thensa i became very good friends when i was out in arizona and we used to talk a lot. >> in fact, what she felt deep in her heart never did go away. >> i always loved david. >> and then it was june 25th, 1988. david's brother mark was flying into town to visit the family. david was to pick him up at the airport. but whenth mark arrived, he waid and waited. no david. and mark jackson had a terrible feeling. >> no matter what, he would have been there for me. i knew t something was wrong. i knew something bad happened. >> hioh, yes, very bad. and as the rookie detective donna velasquez poked around deep in theve past, that somethg was reaching up through the mud to tell her its long neglected

story. >> the case was both cold and baffling, but maybe nature in south florida could help the investigation. he coming up -- >> crazy weather and the water table that we have, if he were ever buried anywhere, somewhere along the line, you're going to pop up. >> when "dateline" continues.po >> when "dateline" continues ls . a mighty small pill with concentrated power that works at liquid speed. you'll ask... what pain? advil liqui-gels minis. protect your pet with the #1 name in flea and tick protection. frontline plus. trusted by vets for nearly 20 years. frontline plus. 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.

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lauderdale, the day the mystery began, when a young man named david jackson failed to meet his brother mark at the airport. >> it was a gut feeling something was wrong. i knew it. >> 15 years later, docketective donna velasquez relived that time. she got a called from david's worried mother. barbara said she wasn't worried. not then. >> i thought, okay. he was with one of his girlfriends. and she was like, no, we're doing a missing person report. and i said, no. he's going to call me in a couple days. i know he is. he's going to call me in a couple days. and he never called. he never called. >> one day turned into the next. police, family, everybody tried to find him. couldn't. >> started looking. searching. canals, through pipes, under

little bridges, dirt roads, anywhere. you see a car like his go by, you do a u-turn and chase them. >> how long did that go on? >> that went on until they found his car. >> which more than three months later turned out to be at the airport. so, did he just take off? his close friend didn't think so. >> if he got on a plane and maybe he wanted to do something different. no. he wouldn't do that. >> one thing, david had been preparing for the arrival in two weeks of his 5-year-old son john. this was a big one a month-long summer visit. >> he was preparing for this visit. >> oh, yeah, for johnny. wanted everything perfect. >> right the middle of preparations he vanished? didn't make sense. the days turned into months, weeks, years. not a sign of david. the police went on to newer cases, but his mother never let up. phoning. nagging. writing. she knew david was out there

somewhere. >> i wrote letters to oprah winfrey, "america's most wanted." okay, maybe i can have the semis put a picture on the back of the semis. i got a list of all the big trucking companies and did all the letters. it took me a long to finish any letter about him because i didn't want the ending to be like i thought it was. >> it was a horrible limbo. little piece of her still hoping for good news. >> i found a therapist right away. she said take 20 minutes out of everyday. scream and cry in the morning or scream and cry at night. >> can anybody who hasn't been in your shoes understand what it's like? >> no. >> now years later the investigation was back in high gear. judy told detective velasquez in some corner of her heart she still hoped david might turn up safely some day. the detective, however, was not inclined to false hope. she did not for a minute think she was still alive. had he died accidentally, surely

a sign of him would have appeared. no, she believed when bodies aren't find it's because someone has intentionally hidden them. but david jackson might show up, just not alive. >> and my wheels started turning and i started thinking, you know, we live in florida, with the crazy weather that we have and the water table that we have, if he were ever buried anywhere, somewhere along the line you're going to pop up. >> reporter: maybe, the detective thought, remains had popped up. after all it had been a decade and a half since he'd disappeared. and so she googled unidentified remains. it led her down an endless internet trail. >> and it's probably going on 10:00, 11:00 o'clock. and i'm sure my husband's saying, "well, where in the heck is that ol' girl?" >> reporter: one site after another. dead ends. until she got to one created by a florida medical examiner. promising. but exhausting.

>> i'm there typing away and typing and typing. and it pops up about 100 matches. >> reporter: but she was determined. she finally winnowed it down to a possible three. >> and one of them really stands out for me in that it says, white male. and it says, over six foot. david's a tall guy and he's a white male. possibly. >> reporter: those particular bones, just a few, a partial skeleton, turned up during construction of a walmart parking lot not far from the place where david lived, surfaced just a year after david died. had been gathering dust in storage for 15 years. the detective went to see a forensic anthropologist, but when the doctor measured the bones -- >> so she comes out and she says, "no, it's looking like he's only 5'9". >> still, velasquez had a hunch she had finally found david jackson. and she wasn't the sort of

person to give up on a hunch. >> and i said, can we please do this one more time? and she comes back and she goes, "honey," she says, "i was wrong the first time." she says, "this person is anywhere between 5'9" and 6'1." i said, "oh my gosh, i think i've hit pay dirt." >> reporter: she got dna from david's mother, waited for a lab to compare the samples, and ten days later detective velasquez called the testing facility. >> she comes to the phone and she says to me, "well, i sure hope you're sittin' down." i said "why?" "you got a 100% match." oh my gosh. i said, "what?" because i'm not believing that i'm hearing what i'm hearing. 15 years after he disappeared, david jackson had finally been found. question now was, what happened to him? how did he end up here? coming up -- a strange coincidence or was it? >> it's an eerie feeling, you know, that he was in that area that i didn't even know about. >> when "dateline" continues.

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it was good detective work that identified david jackson's earthly remains, what was left of them. but pure chance that partial skeleton was found at all. david's brother mark found that. >> they were getting ready to build a walmart. a construction worker came across bones. they reported it. they dug up a bunch of bones. >> they were found a year after he disappeared. they sat in the morgue for 15 years. >> sat there all those years, even as those who loved david held out a shred of hope that he

was alive somewhere. >> as far as i know he was disappeared. he was missing. >> but now detective velasquez had a hard truth to tell. david jackson was dead. not missing. and the way he had been hidden made it perfectly clear he had been murdered all those years ago. most likely before his friends or family even noticed he was gone, which put a final period on his mother's lingering hope for his return. and apparently an ex-wife's what-ifs. were you seriously thinking, you know, maybe some day i'll get back together with him. >> when it's your first love, you're always think, you know, wow. could it work? what if? >> strange how things turn out. barbara had moved back to florida, remarried again. had a daughter. took a job at walmart. but still held a candle for david, even as he lay under the ground practically next door to

the very walmart where she worked. >> what did that do to you? >> it's an eerie feeling. you know, that he was in that area, that i didn't even know about. >> such an odd coincidence. too odd maybe? time for a chat. detective velasquez called barbara, got herself invited over to barbara's house. >> she cared about him a lot. i say, well, how is david as a father? well, david became abusive towards johnny physically and emotionally, verbally. >> wait a minute, this was a whole new wrinkle. up until now everything about david's history had been squeaky clean. >> as an investigator and as a mom, i begin to say, did you ever call the police? she said, oh, no. i never called the police. she says, i just thought he would change. she proceeds to tell me that i

documented the injuries with photographs. never produced any photographs for me. >> for us, barbara changed her story, it was really her father, not her, who accused david of abusing his son. >> my dad was looking into counselors and having him evaluated and stuff like that. i would just be like, this is david. what are you talking about? >> but of course the detective couldn't talk to barbara's father about abuse or murder. harry britton had been dead for years but barbara had more information for the detective. she recalled a troubling conversation she had with david at the time, said barbara, david was working for coca-cola, delivering the product. >> he told me that someone was placing drugs on his coca-cola truck. and through his route they were being taken off of the truck. i said, wow. i said, that's pretty serious.

she says, yeah. >> interesting. >> very. >> to detective velasquez, that sounded like a made up story, almost as if she was trying to divert suspicion away from someone. an ex-wife would qualify, of course, as a person of interest in this case, but as velasquez and we learned, barbara had an alibi. she wasn't anywhere near florida, she said. when david disappeared. >> i was not in florida. i was in arizona in the apartment. i was nowhere around here. >> and lacking any further evidence, detective velasquez was stalled dead in the water, unless maybe the man barbara was married to at the time knew something, michael wolf. a little check revealed wolf had been married seven times. number six, a woman named nancy graham lived in alabama. velasquez called her. >> i told her i'm investigating

the disappearance of david jackson. and she said to me, how much evidence do you have against him? and i said -- i can't discuss the evidence with you, but i can tell you that it's enough for me to put him away right now. i was just totally bluffing. i had really nothing. i'm just throwing it out there, you know, fishing that long line and if something bites i'm reeling it in. and she says, honey, she says, let me call you back. >> the minutes ticked by. velasquez waited by the phone. and when nancy called back, what she said blew the case wide open. >> she started telling me about who was involved, how it happened, where it happened, what they did, how they did it, how they planned it. >> they? why, yes, they. and by the way, be aware of the sting of an ex-wife's tale.

she said i'm going to tell you everything you need to know. >> michael wolf's ex-wife nancy has a jaw-dropping story to share and it will send the investigation into overdrive. coming up -- >> the first shot david killed him. shoot him again. >> when "dateline" continues. m . >> when "dateline" continues activia is here with billions of probiotics to support your gut health. and help you thrive while you stay inside. activia. thrive while inside. from anyone else. so why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms which most pills don't. get all-in-one allergy relief for 24 hours, with flonase. which most pills don't. i've tried the $200 creams, the $400 creams olay regenerist microsculpting cream makes my skin feel so hydrated. i can face anything with my olay. and my latest beauty secret... for bright, smooth skin...

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♪ hello i'm dara brown. here is what's happening. texas experienced is second highest single day increase in coronavirus of 1,300 new cases saturday. this comes as the state begins reopening some businesses due to restrictions. the white house has blocked dr. anthony fauci from appearing before congress to answer questions about the administration's response to the coronavirus. the white house officials say they will allow fauci to testify at the senate health committee hearing on may 12th. now back to "dateline."

welcome back to "dateline" i'm craig melvin. divorced dad david jackson had been murdered. years later, a stunning development, rookie detective donna velasquez tracked down a woman who claimed david's killer had confessed to her in detail. but there was one staggering new wrinkle, was david jackson's murder a family affair? once again, here is keith morrison with "buried secrets." >> reporter: david jackson was murdered in 1988 in florida. that much detective donna velasquez could say for certain. but the rest? after more than a year of phone calls and late nights, all velazquez had come up with was an increasingly complicated web of stories and relationships. david jackson was married to barbara britton. her father, harry, disliked david. barbara went on to become the fifth wife of a man named michael wolfe. they divorced and he later

married two more times. and now, finally, one of wolf's ex-wives, woman named nancy, was sitting with detective velazquez, telling police she knew everything about what happened to david. >> can you tell me again? >> because i know how he was killed and what they did with him. >> reporter: how did she know? according to the ex, michael drank. a lot. >> every night he would almost down a whole bottle of scotch, and i guess he just needed to talk. >> reporter: and the story wolfe told, according to the ex, implicated more than just himself. here's what happened, as nancy heard it. wolfe and harry britton, barbara's father, rented a motel room on that long ago july night, invited david to a meeting there. >> when he gets at the hotel, they have a very small

conversation and michael shot david in the head. >> he told me he had to get so drunk to do it. and that the first shot didn't kill him. he had to shoot him again. >> reporter: after which, as nancy relayed the story -- >> they did take his car to the airport and left it there. then they took him over to -- i mean there was an empty lot there. and that's where they buried him. >> reporter: he did not spare the detail, said nancy. >> he did tell me he poured some corrosive, and i think it was lye, is what he said, over the body. >> and sure enough, that was consistent with the investigation. >> reporter: and along with that story came what sounded like a motive. david disappeared, remember, as he was preparing for a visit from his 5-year-old son, john. >> they decided that david needed to be gotten rid of. because they never wanted david to be in johnny's life. >> reporter: david was murdered in cold blood just to keep him out of his son's life? >> and boom, it clicked for me

all of a sudden. i said, "wow." i said, "that's over child custody. that's why he's not here today." >> reporter: that was the motive? >> that was the motive. >> reporter: but was wolfe's confession to an ex-wife a true story or just alcohol fueled bravado? there was no way to know for sure. but it was enough at least to bring about the arrest in october of 2004 of michael wolfe, now living in ohio. but an arrest does not a conviction make. and as michael wolfe cooled his very sober heels in an ohio jail, he protested his innocence to anybody who would listen, including the local police, to whom wolfe sent a letter, in which he claimed all he knew of the crime centered on a conversation with his ex wife, barbara's father, harry, a few months before the murder. reporter stefan kamph writes for the "broward-palm beach new times." and read michael's letter. all michael would admit to is meeting harry in a park near the walmart overlooking the place where david's bones would later come out of the ground.

>> michael wolfe said that he had basically pointed over to that plot of land and said, "well, if you needed to bury a body, that would be a good place to do it." and then he concluded this letter with, "and i don't know if he had listened or not." >> reporter: apparently, he did. >> if michael wolfe had really not known anything beyond that point, it would get him off the hook, and it would leave it all in the hands of harry britton. >> reporter: so michael was pinning the murder on no one but harry. who was safely dead and could tell no tales. but now detective velasquez believed she had enough evidence to bring michael wolfe back to florida to stand trial for the murder of david jackson. >> we did the arrest warrant and, within a couple of days, we were flying out to kettering, ohio to extradite michael wolfe back to florida. >> reporter: how did he react? >> he said some pretty harsh words. it's not very ladylike if i say it, though. >> reporter: you can say it. >> he said, "i'm [ bleep ]." >> reporter: this was it. velasquez had her moment.

finally after 15 years she had made sure someone was going to be held accountable for the death of david jackson. >> it was the culmination of 16 months of such a long, grueling, up and down, tiresome investigation of nights of not sleeping, of days of going to work and living off of coffee. and i thought, you know what? this is what it's all about. it was november of 2007, when michael wolfe went on trial for murder. after so many years, any physical evidence that might have tied him to the crime was long gone. but what prosecutors did have was the verbal confession, the drunken story his ex wife said he had told her. and then, check-mate. another ex-wife told police virtually the same story. >> he told me he shot him in the head. and he told me that he had a silencer on the gun. >> reporter: now she too was called to the stand. that was enough.

the jury was out less than a hour. the verdict was guilty. at the sentencing, life in prison. david jackson's family confronted michael wolfe. not just to condemn him, but to ask a question. because there was still a piece missing. something that still didn't make sense. what was david doing in that motel room the night they killed him? why did he walk into that trap? >> why would he go to a motel to meet mr. britton when mr. britton was ten minutes down the road? i mean, david is not a stupid child at 24. why would mr. britton want to see him in a motel? >> reporter: tell what you know, they demanded. there would be no justice, they told wolfe, unless everyone involved was held accountable. outside the courtroom, david's brother encountered the state's attorney, and said -- >> "he's going to tell you." and he said, "he's not going to tell me anything." "i saw it in his eyes. he'll tell you." and then we got the real story. >> reporter: in fact, it was just two days later when wolfe finally confessed the true measure of his guilt and gave

police, first hand, his unedited version of events the night he said they buried david jackson in the shifting florida clay. was someone else involved? oh, yes, said michael wolfe. she certainly was. coming up -- what made david go to that motel? >> a woman on the phone. david takes the phone, comes out a little while later, all spruced up, ready to go out. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues of 1, 2, 3 medicines with trelegy. the only fda-approved once-daily 3-in-1 copd treatment. ♪ trelegy ♪ the power of 1,2,3 ♪ trelegy ♪ 1,2,3 ♪ trelegy man: with trelegy and the power of 1, 2, 3, i'm breathing better. trelegy works three ways to open airways, keep them open and reduce inflammation, for 24 hours of better breathing. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler

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>> reporter: in november of 2007, the man who shot david jackson to death was found guilty of the crime and sent to prison for the rest of his life. but a couple days after he was sentenced, wolfe sent out word he was ready to tell the rest of the story. sure, he said. he was the trigger man, and yes, his father-in-law was determined to get rid of david permanently. but to set their trap, to lure david to the kill site, the motel, they needed bait. that bait, said wolf e, was barbara. barbara who did not require persuasion. quite the contrary, said mr.

wolfe. >> barbara britton was the middle. from what i was to learn about david, he would never have gone to that hotel room to meet harry britton. he never would have gone that hotel room to meet michael wolfe. he agreed to come meet barbara. >> the woman who wept tears of love for her long, lost david who professed to held a torch all those years was the very same woman, said wolfe, who called david on the phone and enticed him to go to that motel room to be killed. >> they needed to use barbara as the lure because david still had feelings for barbara. >> evidence, david had a roommate reported journalist stephen kafp and he heard a phone call. >> he was pretty sure it was a woman on the phone. david takes the phone, goes into his room, comes out a little while later. he's all spruced up, ready to go out. he has a smile on his face, combing his hair. putting on his cologne and david

jackson left the apartment at that point. that was the last that any of his friends saw him at that point. >> what really happened in the motel? wolfe said he hid in the bathroom when david arrived. >> barbara answered and he was glad to see her. they walked in an sat down on the edge of the bed and barbara had a stun gun. and barbara hit david with the stun gun. >> but the stun gun malfunctioned. so wolfe stepped out of the bathroom with his gun. >> he said, so had the gun wrapped in a towel and showed me like this. pick the gun up and fired one shot. about that time harry britton came into the room and said, he's not dead yet. he's still breathing, shoot him again. so he says i shot him again and said that shot killed him and put david's body in the back of harry's vw and transported it to the site where they had already pre-dug the grave so all they had to do was lay his body in there and cover him up. >> but that wasn't the end of

wolfe's tale. a year after the murder, he said, he got a call from harry britton. >> he learned they were going to build a new walmart there right where the bones were. and harry, michael wolfe said told him, you have to come back down here and move the bones. almost as an order. >> wolfe flew back to florida. >> michael says he went out there the middle of night, collect what had he could find and put them in a trash bag and then he went back to barbara britton's family house and put the bones out for the trash in a plastic bag. >> michael wolfe's story seemed to tell it all and cast barbara britton in a leading role. once she heard that story, detective velasquez was convinced barbara determined to keep david away from their son was a full partner in his murder. >> what are the chances that either michael wolfe or harry britton forced her to take part in this scheme? >> forced?

>> yeah. >> you don't have to force a willing participant. >> and you believe she was willing. >> yes. >> the detective couldn't help remembering she said what barbara told her when she heard that david's bones had been identified. >> strangely enough the first thing she said to me was how many bones do you have? >> come on. >> she had participated in retrieving those bones and they thought they had gotten them all. when they left about 50% behind. >> all this time, said the detective, she just knew barbara had been lying. and now she had the goods. we asked barbara about all this, of course, about her ex-husband's allegations that she was deeply involved in the murder. and she denied it. >> and you had no part in killing david? >> no, i did not. i had no knowledge and i had no part. and, you know, little lies here and there that mike keeps changing his story. i think it's just psychotic. i think it's just psychotic for

the things that he has said. i was 21 back then. i was very -- i don't think i could plan much, you know. i'm not stupid but i'm not that smart, you know. >> now, said barbara, it was all ex-husband michael wolfe's doing. his guilt made sense of their strange time in arizona particularly the weekend david disappeared. a weekend when, barbara says, her ex-husband was not with her at home. >> he would always go on business trips and every time i asked he would tell me don't worry about it. i got business to take care of. >> but she knew nothing at all about the murder, she insisted. until the penny dropped during a conversation years later with her father. >> i wonder what he's doing or i wonder if he's coming back. i wonder where he's at or what happened. he would just be like, you don't have to worry. he's not around to bother you.

>> what was that like to deal with? >> very, very rough. it's my dad. it's my dad. i couldn't accept it. what satisfaction did he get, you know? did it satisfy him because it sure didn't satisfy me. >> still in december of 2007, it was detective velasquez who got what she wanted. she had worked hard to prove what she believed to be true. that barbara was an integral part in the plot to kill david jackson. finally now barbara britton was arrested and charged with murder. now, perhaps, the jury could answer the question. do you believe this woman? the woman whose hands literally shook, whose tears flowed at the mere mention of her departed ex-husband. do you believe the things she said? >> all the time we thought -- it's always been he's missing. "dateline" returns after the break. "dateline" returns after the break. oost of life.

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♪ ♪ ♪ barbara britton, the woman who sobbed at the mere mention of david jackson's name was now in jail awaiting trial for killing him. exactly where barbara belonged, said detective donna velasquez. >> she made it happen, she was the instigator as well as the one in the middle? >> hi no doubt in my mind that

she was the catalyst. >> barbara, meanwhile, maintained her innocence, claims there was a certain reason michael wolfe lied about her that way. it was payback, she says, for something that happened when they were married. and here came another one of those odd stories. earlier, remember, there was the one suggesting drug running on david's delivery truck. now a story about michael and gun running. >> i was putting away laundry one day and i saw a bulge in a dress shirt pocket. >> yeah. >> and there was quite a bit of money there and when he got home from work that night i confronted him on it and he told me that he was doing gun runs to haiti. >> barbara said she told the police about wolfe's alleged gun running. >> and he got mad and even told a cellmate of his -- >> you're going to pay the price?

>> yeah. >> interestingly. wolfe hasn't commented but keith, barbara's defense attorney, suggested wolfe had a much more practical motive. >> michael wolfe was initially offered a 15-year plea bargain to testify against whoever his accomplices might be and lo and behold, there was an option at that point to maybe get that 15 years back. that was his motivation. >> in other words, said barbara's attorney, wolfe would sell out barbara any way he could to get a reduced sentence. of course, there was the uncomfortable fact of the two unprompted confessions to his ex-wives, in which he portrayed barbara as sort of a black widow, intent on having david killed. >> well, there are two versions that he gave to each of those ex-wives. >> the stories were not entirely consistent, said attorney seltzer.

besides, barbara was at home in arizona the night of the murder. how does he know that? >> a phone bill from her mother's home placing calls to her home in arizona that night when nobody else could have been there. >> what's a phone bill of that age doing lying around somewhere where it can be grabbed for evidence by the defendant? >> the father was a meticulous record keeper. >> what's to say that wasn't an answering service that picked it up. >> michael wolfe testified in their first deposition that they had no answering machine. >> could have been someone else in the home. >> we questioned mr. wolfe about that and he said nobody was there. >> but as the defense prepared for trial in december 2010, something changed. >> there was new evidence discovered. >> lenny is the prosecutor who inherited the case. >> and that new evidence is what we considered a jailhouse snitch. and he came forward and said that michael wolfe fabricated the entire story about barbara participating in the murder of david jackson. >> the jailhouse snitch was well-known, the d.a. said, mostly for the false information

he provided. still, after three years in jail, it was enough to get barbara released and placed on house arrest pending trial. and, then, prosecutor bendale met michael wolfe to ask him about testifying against barbara. didn't go well. >> the blow came to me when he said, what am i getting in return? what will my sentence be reduced to? >> now the state reassessed its options. >> i think with any case you're taking a 50/50 chance. it's the lack of forensics, the lack of physical evidence that a jury wants to see but most importantly, again, the fact that you have a co-defendant that is giving the testimony which is the foundation of this prosecution who wanted something in return. >> the people who conducted the investigation, you know, deep down in their guts are sure that she was at the center of it. did you think so, too? >> what i think as a person and what i think as a prosecutor, i

have to keep them separate. and while i may have believed that barbara was a full participant in this, what i can prove is totally different. >> so you made an offer? >> we made an offer. >> barbara britton was offered two more years of house arrest and eight years of probation. she would avoid trial but she had to plead guilty to accessory after the fact in david's murder, meaning she acknowledged knowing about the crime but only after it occurred. something she had always denied. >> you've got to remember, hi the option to go to trial and take it as just taking your chance with 12 to 14 other -- >> jurors who would hear a story about a control freak who very cleverly manipulated men to get them to do awful things? >> right. they already know what you are there for.

they're going to have somewhat of an opinion. >> even though she accepted the deal, barbara was not happy. true, there was no prison time, but she was a felon now. >> you have a title over your head. it's life changing. it's very life changing. >> do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? >> yes, i do. >> detective velasquez joined barbara at the sentencing hearing. >> judge, for the record, david jackson's mother would like to speak. >> of course. >> david's mother read an impact statement. >> barbara, i've cried endlessly for 24 years. i've wanted to die myself to be with david. >> her gaze fixed on the woman her son once loved. >> you are guilty. michael wolfe is where he should be in prison. your father is where he should be and you would join him one day because that is where you should be. in hell. >> david's brother mark was not at all sure that justice was

served. >> if you lose in trial, that's god's will. you can't control that. but i think it should have gone to trial. i think society in two years when she comes off of house arrest needs to worry. >> we have a picture of david. >> but his mother -- >> there is justice. yes. and she's a felon now for life. she's got to live with all that. i don't. every time i get out of bed in the morning, one leg says guilty and the other one says felon. >> and as for the detective who so doggedly pursued the case who now thinks a murderer got away -- >> at first i was disappointed so i had to make peace with it and when i put my head down at the pillow at night, at the end of the day, she's a felon. mentally when you're in prison here, do you ever escape that? >> as for barbara, barbara is

spending her house arrest in her father's home, that old vw, the one that allegedly carried david's body the night he was killed. still parked outside. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. first up on msnbc, crowd control. new york city police by the hundreds, sent into the streets and parks on one critical mission. back in business, restaurants and malls in parts of the country open their doors with some surprising results. short cuts. the potential dangers in rushing to create a coronavirus vaccine. is it even possible? bird's-eye view. a different perspective from the flyovers that are saluting front line workers. good morning, everybody. it's sund