we've had to share with each other. i think when i get rid of those base feelings, you know, the underlying feeling, just gratitude that he was in my life, even for a brief moment in time. >> that's all for this edition of suddenly there was a man with his arm around my neck and a gun to my head. i shoved my purse into his chest and i said, "jesus, save me." and the bullet shot me right in the head, and i went down. >> oh, my got. he shot me. >> it came out of nowhere. a sweet stay-at-home mom from a strong family of faith shot point blank at her own garage door. >> my dad is like collapsed on the ground. >> it was very traumatic to see, very -- very emotional time.

>> her survival seemed like a miracle. >> i didn't know if i would live. >> was this some awful random crime, or did someone want her dead? that was mystery number one. >> someone was out there. >> yeah, we were scared. >> mystery number two, a secret 1,600 miles away. >> there were several text messages. >> it's just slowly snowballing. >> it was like a punch in the gut. >> and mystery number three? >> i'm going to hurt you. >> who would they turn out to be? >> i'm like damn, what did this lady do? >> faith, temptation, and a twist the size of texas. >> let's be very clear. justice needs to be served. i don't think it has been. carrollton, texas, just north of dallas, is the kind of place where the upwardly mobile

go to buy their dreams. the schools are good. golf courses dot the landscape. and churches are more ubiquitous than starbucks. >> there's not a whole lot of violent crime in that area. it's a great area to raise kids and a family. >> reporter: but travel east 100 miles or so and you enter the piney woods of east texas. jobs are not as plentiful here. dreams are deferred. and some keep bail bondsmen on speed dial. >> all the people that we're dealing with here are poor. there's a lot of drugs, a lot of methamphetamine out there. >> reporter: different cultures, worlds apart. and yet one summer those two worlds collided in a most unlikely way. this is the story of that summer, when money seemed to fall like ticker tape on the piney woods and an affluent carrollton family experienced the kind of violent crime that had always happened somewhere

else. >> help me! help me! >> i need you to call me needily. your mom is in the hospital with a gunshot wound. and i'm like, i'm sorry, what? >> we look at each other, michael and i just say we can't make this up. >> our story begins in august 2012. >> can you believe it? 100 degrees again this afternoon. >> it was the kind of heat that melts asphalt and has everyone searching the sky for some sign of mercy. but in carrollton 52-year-old frank howard wasn't sweating it. frank was an accountant. his life was good and getting better by the day. >> i took on a new client. that would have been probably in 2009. >> very wealthy client? >> yes. >> what did that come along, those perks? >> well, the wealthy client, he had his own airplanes, and so i guess for the first time probably, you know, flying around in private planes and

going to cowboy games. >> as they say in texas, frank howard was standing in high cotton. >> i was still the same old guy, but it was definitely doing some fun things as well. >> frank had come a long way since his days as a preacher's son growing up in south central texas. >> very conservative upbringing. you know, there was no drinking and cussing. never been to the dance, you know, the school prom. never did any of that kind of stuff. but at the same time, you know, wanting to be just very down to earth, very honest, and try to be the best person you could be. >> solid values to last a lifetime. but it wasn't all smooth sailing. in college frank had a brief marriage that ended in divorce. eventually he fell in love with a girl from his church. her name was nancy shore. a brunette with dazzling blue eyes. >> it was a great time. you know, i still look back at that and think it was a good time. >> reporter: frank's father married the happy couple in

1983, and two years later they had their first child, a daughter they named ashley. >> that wasn't an easy birth. >> no. >> there were problems. >> yeah, there were complications. she spent the first ten days of her life in the -- in the neonatal unit at the hospital. >> it was a close call but one that seemed to deepen and enrich the couple's faith. soon the family grew to include a son, jay, and another daughter, brianna. >> growing up was great. i had a wonderful older sister and older brother who kind of helped guide me through stuff and obviously a wonderful mom and dad. >> eldest daughter ashley says that whatever the howard family did they did together. >> both our parents did choir in church. anytime they need aid family it was oh, get the howards, they'll come and like bring all the

kids. >> we were, you know, always together, always a family. we went to all of their events. they were busy. they were always doing something. i mean, whether it was soccer or anything of the fine arts musically. >> you guys almost do sound like "leave it to abeaver." >> oh, we joke that we were the cleavers and jay was cleaver, i was the beavette. >> we would have game nights and -- >> legitimately the cleaver family. >> yeah. absolutely. >> but by 2012 those days were gone. frank and nancy were now empty nesters. ashley and her brother jay were each married and on their own. brianna was in college and in nashville. >> you were so close with your kids. was it hard as one by one they started leaving the nest and going off to college? >> sure. yeah, it was. i mean, i'm proud of them. but it was difficult. i mean, change is difficult.

>> now nancy was often home alone. frank's work with his new client, a wealthy defense contractor, had him traveling to florida, california, even kuwait. >> there was a little bit more, you know, freedom or whatever. and like i said, a lot of it was work. and so you know, i was out there kind of trying to build it and she was sitting at home. >> still, nancy had her faith and church activities to fill the empty hours. in fact, that's where she'd been the evening everything changed for the howard family. it was a saturday night. august 18th, 2012. >> you're out of town. >> yes. >> you got a call that something horrific has happened to nancy. there's been a robbery at your own house. >> yes. it was just -- just beside myself. i didn't know what was happening. >> and so began one of the longest nights of frank howard's life. coming up -- a harrowing cry for

help. >> god help me. >> yes, ma'am. >> help me! >> terror was at the door. >> i'm like, our mother? that just makes no sense. >> almost like it wasn't real? >> yeah, like it wasn't real. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues to. but this one can clean, sanitize and steam... it's what we've been wanting anyway. shop lowe's and save on the samsung laundry pair and get free delivery. discover what's possible at lowes.com.

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after months of broiling temperatures the afternoon of august 18th, 2012 brought the welcome sound of summer rain to carrollton, texas. but shortly before 8:00 that evening the sound of a gunshot split the night. a 911 operator picked up the phone and heard a woman's anguished cry. >> lord jesus, help me. oh, my god. help me. help me. >> the woman said she had just been shot in the head by an intruder in her garage. >> i've been shot. >> what's the address, ma'am?

>> the caller was frank's wife, nancy howard. she'd somehow managed to drag herself into the house and in spite of taking a bullet in the head she was able to give critical details to the 911 dispatcher. >> how many people was it? >> just one that i was aware. can you stay on the phone? >> yes, ma'am, i'm going to stay on the phone with you until they get there. >> a few minutes later carrollton police officers arrived at the home on blue bonnet way. remarkable as it sounds, nancy managed to open the front door for them. >> help me. >> yes, ma'am. >> help me. help me. >> soon carrollton police detectives michael wall and brian turner were on the case. >> it's just incredible how she was able to give the information to the dispatcher about what had happened and be able to wait for the police at the front door. >> this was a really bloody crime scene. >> there was quite a bit of blood, yes. >> there was a small hole just

above nancy's left eye. she was struggling for breath. and her vital signs were slipping. as paramedics rushed her to parkland hospital in dallas, detective wall turned his attention to the crime scene. >> you could see exactly where she'd gone through the house. >> the garage and the hallway leading into the house were bloody. but the rest of the house appeared to have been untouched. >> the suspects had taken nancy's purse. >> did you have any reason to believe when you arrived that there was anything other than a burglary gone bad? >> we didn't have any other reason to suspect that it was anything other than an aggravated robbery given the information that nancy had given us. >> what details did you get from that 911 call specifically? >> nancy was able to give us suspect description of the person that shot her. it was a white male. he was wearing a black hat. the suspect was in his 20s. >> police officers could find no one in the neighborhood who'd seen or heard anything. >> it hadn't been raining significantly. obviously, when it rains people were inside. there's no witnesses.

we basically had nothing to go on. >> no witnesses. and precious little in the way of leads. they wondered if the shooting was part of a pattern of crimes in the area. it seemed unlikely, but they couldn't rule it out. >> there had been some break-ins in the area? >> there were some home break-ins that we were looking at to see if they may be related to this, but at this point we were kind of checking out everything to see if there was anything that may be related to this. >> but there had not been any robberies for people actually being robbed at gunpoint for their property. >> the cops knew they had to notify nancy's family. but as it turned out, her husband was out of town. a police officer who belonged to the howards' church got word to nancy's eldest daughter ashley. >> it's a close friend of me mom's calling to say your mom's in the hospital with a gunshot wound. and i'm like, i'm sorry, what? >> that must be the most bizarre phone call. >> it's the weirdest phone call. it was not even like scary or worrisome. it was more like so confuse --

like we just couldn't cross the hurdle of where she could have been to get shot. >> almost like it wasn't real? >> yeah, like it wasn't real and it's just -- our mother? that just makes no sense. like she's not the type of lady that's going to get shot. you know? >> ashley finally reached her father in california with the news. >> i was actually in south lake tahoe at the casino whenever i got there and i was taking a break. and noticed i'd missed a call from my daughter. and so i stepped outside and called her back. and then that's when i found out that something had happened. >> how does he react to this situation? >> he couldn't speak. i mean, he couldn't breathe. and it was like okay, dad, who is with you? because you're not in good shape. "okay, i'm going drive to the ar airport." you're not driving to the airport. get someone to take you. >> i was crying and just going cra crazy. then i was on the phone trying to find flights out and tyisand to figure out what to do and how

to do it p. >> it was 6:00 the next morning before frank howard could find a plane to go home. he could only imagine the nightmare that awaited him in texas. coming up -- >> my dad is like collapsed on the ground. he was in terrible shape. >> as doctors race to save nancy, her family races to her side. who could possibly be behind this? >> we were trying to figure out what happened and how it happened. and we didn't have any idea. >> someone was out there. >> yeah. we were scared. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues on . and your health is key to that. centrum supports your body with vitamin c and zinc to help maintain your immune system today and into the new tomorrow. centrum.

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frank howard arrived home in dallas the morning after his wife was shot. his daughter ashley says he looked awful when she finally saw him. they drove to the hospital together and by the time they got there he could hardly walk. >> and i hear just like this crash and i look back and my dad has like collapsed on the ground. he was in terrible shape. and every time the little monitors would beep he was jumpy. i mean, just terrible shape. >> was he in tears? >> yeah. >> tell me what happened the first time you saw nancy in the icu. >> it was a difficult time. she was real drugged up. but all the family and a lot of people from the church and stuff were there. >> doctors told the family the bullet had entered nancy's skull just above her left eye and

traveled downward through her sciences and throat before it collapsed one of her lungs. she'd already had the first of many surgeries. she would lose one of her blue eyes. but luckily she seemed to have escaped serious brain damage. >> there's tubes, there's wires, there's lines. so even though you can say she's all right, it's like it doesn't look like she's all right. you know. and there's swelling. there's inflammation all over. there's things attached to her feet. so it's kind of hard to feel like okay, this is okay and this is right. >> it was very traumatic to see. to see that happen to her. very difficult. very emotional time. >> was she able to talk to you the first time you saw her? >> i don't believe so. she had tubes in her throat. she was conscious, and so she had knowledge of kind of who we were, but she really couldn't talk or anything. >> while the family waited for some definitive word from the police on what had happened,

they filled the void with theories of their own. >> everybody in the family were sitting around talking about it. we were trying to figure out what happened and how it happened. and we didn't have any idea. >> someone was out there. >> yeah. we were scared. >> there had been a series of break-ins in the area. did that cross your mind? >> that was one of the things that came up. i believe the detectives or whatever had told us there had been break-ins. in fact, they had somebody that fit kind of the general description, that he was someone that they knew of that had participated in some break-ins in the area. >> detectives wall and turner were eager to talk to nancy. >> she's our only witness to this offense. we just had the minimal suspect description at this time. so we felt it was important to confirm those details with her as soon as possible. >> while they waited for nancy to get well enough to speak, they called in frank, hoping he could fill in some of the blanks.

>> can you update me on her condition, what the doctors have said? >> yes. actually, very -- i mean, actually very good. >> he had confirmed that she had actually lost her left eye. >> no brain damage. no -- you know, none of that. she'll lose her left eye, but -- but from there it will be cosmetic stuff. >> detective wall asked if frank knew anyone who might want to hurt his wife. >> what i know about her doesn't seem like she would have anybody that -- >> oh, no, absolutely not. >> in fact, everyone knew that nancy had a soft spot for anyone with a sob story. >> i mean, she can be real giving and -- and open. >> it was not unusual he said for her to pick up a hitchhiker

or open her door to a stranger. a month or two earlier she'd done just that. >> somebody came to the door and they just needed money to get a hotel room because their car broke down. >> mm-hmm. >> and -- >> they came to your house? >> to the house. at the front door. and nancy told them -- i mean, she's just -- she just said that she would try to help them find a hotel room. >> maybe that's what happened. a good-hearted woman befriended a dangerous stranger. the howard children thought that was a distinct possibility. >> that was my first thought, was oh, she probably was willing to help someone at some point and they figured out okay, this woman is an easy target. >> could your mom be naive when it came to these people and this helping nature she had? >> yeah, definitely. i think that sometimes her willingness to see the good in everybody, it opened her up to more risk than most other people

would take. >> frank didn't know much because he was out of town that night. >> doesn't sound like frank is really able to help you with anything. he's cooperative. >> he is being cooperative. he confirms that he had actually sent a few texts and e-mails back and forth to nancy. he knew that she was going to church service. and so in order to confirm that i asked if i could see his cell phone. >> would you have a problem if we ran an analysis on your cell phone? >> no. >> in addition to turning over his cell phone, frank told the cops to let him know if they needed anything else from him, anything at all. he even offered money to generate leads. >> i mean, if there's, you know -- you put up a reward or do anything like that, i'll be -- >> okay. >> again, whatever -- >> once we get to the point where we've exhausted all our investigative leads, that's another step we would take. >> i understand. just whatever we need to do. >> because obviously money can prompt people to give information. >> at the hospital doctors were optimistic about nancy's

condition. she was still in intensive care but making progress. there was every reason to believe that she'd be able to tell her own story in a day or two. coming up -- >> i shoved my purse into his chest, and i said "jesus, save me." >> nancy's dramatic story. exactly what did she remember about that night? >> i did look him in the face, and i did look him in the eyes. no pity. no emotion. he looked intent on doing what he came to do. >> when "dateline" continues. protect your pet with the #1 name in flea and tick protection. frontline plus. trusted by vets for nearly 20 years. i got this mountain bike for only $11. dealdash.com, the fair and honest bidding site. an ipad worth $505, was sold for less

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in a historic day mississippi state house and senate passed a bill to change the state flag removing the confederate battle emblem. the bill heads to the governor who says he will sign it. the european union may ban americans from travel into the bloc. the u.s. was not on a recent list of approved countries since it's the nation with the most covid-19 deaths and cases in the world. a decision is expected sometime this week. now back to "dateline." nancy howard lay in parkland hospital's intensive care unit sedated and surrounded by blinking, beeping machines. a breathing tube prevented her from speaking, but her daughters say she could still communicate. >> she used to do sign language, so she knows how to spell. so, like, bri and i know how to spell a little bit. so she's over there doing stuff with like the bottom of her hand. and i'm like, okay, she's spelling something. crap! brianna, what is that letter again? >> yeah.

>> and then anytime somebody would say something, you know, she'd beat her hand on the pillow to be like, no, no, no. we're like, okay, put our spelling caps on. >> reporter: nancy's recovery was remarkably speedy. just days after she was shot in the head at close range, she was able to get out of bed, take a few steps. and best of all, the breathing tube was removed. the howard family rejoiced. finally nancy could speak. do you consider it a miracle? >> oh, absolutely. there's no explanation except my heavenly father was there. >> reporter: what did she say to you when she finally was able to speak? >> it was just, you know, i love you. glad you're here. i mean, that was the sense that we were both saying to each other. >> reporter: and then it was time for business. detectives wall and turner wanted to know every last detail of that night. it began at nancy's church. >> i had a plan that evening to

go to church to see one of my little children that i've known since she was born. and she was being baptized that night at church. >> reporter: surveillance cameras caught nancy's car pulling into the church parking lot shortly before 6:00 that evening. >> in the service i got my picture with their family. it was just a very, very special time. and then i walked on out. and got in my car and started heading home. >> reporter: it was 7:26 when nancy pulled out of the church parking lot. on the way home, she picked up dinner at a place called taco bueno. her receipt shows it was 7:32 when she paid for the meal. >> drove on in my driveway. lifted the garage door as i usually do. drove in. got out of my car. got up to the door. didn't hear a thing. but suddenly there was a man with his arm around my neck and a gun to my head demanding my purse. and -- >> reporter: what's that feeling like? >> it didn't really register

what was going on. so much so that i guess i didn't have quite enough fear. i don't know. because i wrestled away from him and turned and faced him and realized, this is for real. this guy's got a gun, robbing me. he demanded again my purse. and i had my purse on this shoulder. and my taco bueno bag. and so i gave him my taco bueno bag. i bet that guy was thinking, what is this woman doing giving me her supper? she doesn't get it. and so finally, the third time he demanded with expletives my purse. and i finally caught on. and i reached off. and i was standing close enough to him to have an arm's length to shove my purse into his

chest. and i shoved my purse into his chest. and i said, "jesus, save me." and the bullet shot me right in the head, and i went down. >> reporter: nancy doesn't know how long she lay unconscious on the garage floor. when she came to, the shooter was gone, but she says she was not alone. >> i began to kind of come to. and i thought, i think you've been shot. you're going to die. and then there was another voice. and it was voice of my heavenly father, who is more powerful than a speeding bullet. and he said, get up. get up. >> reporter: how much pain are you in? >> i'm in excruciating pain. but it's more the pain of not to be able to get a breath and knowing i'm simply gurgling and spitting blood the whole time

and barely able to breathe, trying to have the strength. and so i ended up belly crawling. >> reporter: nancy knew she needed help fast, but her cell phone was gone. it had been in her purse, and that had been stolen. so she crawled into her car in hopes of activating her car's emergency response system, but she couldn't get it to work. amazingly, she got to her feet and walked into the house. >> and i was able to turn off my house alarm. the presence of mind to come up with those numbers. that's only a god thing. because i'd been shot in the head. >> reporter: she went to nearest bathroom. when she turned on the light, she saw an absolute horror looking back at her in the mirror. that was when she called 911. >> tell me exactly what happened. >> reporter: did you still think you could die at that point? >> i didn't know if i would live. >> i've been shot. please help me. >> what's the address, ma'am? >> and i told her. i said, please don't leave me.

she said, no, miss howard, i will stay here with you until they come. because anyone who is fighting for their life and has called 911 knows that they could die. they don't want to die alone. and i wanted to live. >> reporter: now three days later, nancy was able to give police a more detailed description of the man who shot her. >> he had a strong chin with facial hair. he was wearing dark rimmed glasses and a dark baseball cap. >> reporter: could you see his eyes? >> i did look him in the face and i did look him in the eyes. but i don't know how to describe what that felt like. >> reporter: did he just look blank? did he look evil? >> he looked intent on doing what he came to do. i would say he certainly had no

pity, no emotion of doing to some homemaker what he was doing. >> reporter: the detectives now had something to work with. but then their investigation developed a new and surprising twist. they discovered the cell phone frank had handed over contained some jaw-dropping information. turns out frank had been keeping a secret. >> coming up -- >> that was the big red flag when looking at everything. >> soon that secret would come tumbling out to everyone he loved. >> my dad actually called me at work and said, you know, i've got to tell you something. >> that's a hard thing to hear. >> it is. a punch in the gut. it's like this is not what's supposed to happen. >> when "dateline" continues.

the investigation into nancy howard's shooting was still in its early stages when detectives made a surprising discovery. remember, frank had given them his cell phone. >> would you have a problem if we ran an analysis on your cell phone? >> no. >> reporter: when they examined that phone, they realized frank wasn't the devoted husband he appeared to be. nancy's husband had been having an affair. >> we noticed on his cell phone that there were several text messages to a contact in his phone which was identified as s. tahoe cell.

those text messages, it was clear from the content of those messages that frank was involved in an extramarital affair. >> reporter: there was more. photos that showed frank with the other woman. >> there was photos on his phone of frank and this female that we believe to be the person that was sending those text messages back and forth with frank. >> reporter: the detectives asked the fbi to find out more about frank's mistress. they learned she was a 40-something mother of two teenage daughters. her name, suzanne leontieff. >> we were able to speak with suzanne and confirm that frank was in fact with her on the night nancy was shot. he had originally told us that he was in california on business. >> then that was a big red flag when looking at everything. and we got to take a harder look at frank and what's going on with frank because he didn't mention anything about this mistress. >> reporter: the detectives

wanted to know if frank had any more secrets they should know about. so they decided to interview his children. >> we had no idea that they were looking at my dad so seriously until, you know, we got in that room and they just kept hounding and hounding and hounding on my dad. and it was like, you know, this line of questioning is concerning. >> they just started telling me that something's not right. and we think that before you talk to them anymore, dad, you need to talk to a lawyer. >> reporter: why would they say that? >> because they've seen shows like "dateline nbc" and said that's what they always tell you to do. you know, they always suspect the husband so, you know, get a lawyer. >> reporter: though frank says that at the time he didn't think innocent people needed lawyers, he hired one anyway. then he had a heart-to-heart with each of his kids. >> my dad actually called me at work and said, you know, i got to tell you something. and he said, the reason they're looking at me so closely is that i've been having an affair. and i was like, crap.

like dad! come on. don't have affairs. you know? >> reporter: that's a hard thing to hear. >> yeah, it is. it is. a punch in the gut. it's like this is not what's supposed to happen. you know? >> reporter: you guys were the cleavers. >> yeah, we were the cleavers. and it was like okay, this is not a good situation. >> reporter: there is never a good time to get caught cheating, but getting caught by police while your wife is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head has to rank as one of the worst. now frank had to tell his family embarrassing details about his other life, the one he had been living in california with his mistress, suzanne. how did you meet her? >> we found each other basically playing at a gambling table one night. and that's kind of what started it. >> reporter: there was just an attraction you couldn't fight? >> yeah, that's the way -- i fell in love with her. i mean, i actually really did. i mean, i loved her. >> reporter: for his part, frank says he wasn't trying to hide anything from police. >> i knew there was evidence of

the affair. and i felt like it's going to be difficult, but i felt like that nancy and i could somehow work through that. >> reporter: did you think at all, well, the police are going to find this information, should i just tell them? >> no. i didn't think it was relevant to what happened to nancy. that's why -- i didn't think that way. i don't -- you know, it never dawned on me to make that connection. >> reporter: frank knew he had to tell nancy about the affair before the police did. but because he was now considered a suspect, the cops had asked the hospital to keep him away from nancy. now one of the most delicate conversations of frank and nancy's married life had to happen on the phone. >> he was just broken apart, just broken apart weeping. to the point that i just almost couldn't even understand him. >> a lot of crying. a lot of apologizing and telling her that i'm sorry about the affair. and that i'm going to make it right. and i'm going to do whatever i can do, and i want to do that.

>> reporter: was that a bombshell for you? >> i was dumbfounded, really. i was just dumbfounded. i'm like, really? and i was -- i think there was a side of me that i didn't really even believe it. >> reporter: nancy had never thought of frank as the philandering type. but in hindsight, she felt their relationship changed in 2009, the year frank went to work for that rich client. a defense contractor named richard raley. raley had made millions during the iraq war, trucking supplies to the troops. he made frank his chief financial officer. and soon nancy began noticing changes at home. >> it increased our lifestyle a bit. we were able to do more things. but it did begin to interfere. >> reporter: with your marriage? >> with our marriage. mm-hmm. >> reporter: how did it change your marriage?

how did it make it more difficult? >> there was a lot of travel, and we became empty nesters that year. i really missed my kids. i think he really missed his kids. but i think he had his work to help fill that void. >> reporter: nancy says once frank even ditched her on new year's eve so he could be with his new business associates. >> and i just blew a gasket. >> reporter: you're really on the back burner at this point? >> mm-hmm. absolutely. and i said, okay. i'm going to counseling. because if we don't get into counseling, we're going to lose our marriage. >> reporter: did he agree to go? >> and he went for a little while and determined that he didn't feel that it was doing any good. >> reporter: now, as she recovered in the hospital, it was obvious to nancy why frank hadn't been interested in saving their marriage. her husband was in love with somebody else. >> i said, where did you meet her?

and he told me. and i said, and how long has it been? and he told me. >> reporter: three years, frank told her, three years of lying. three years of living a double life. one in texas. one in california. frank wasn't proud of it. you're a preacher's son. you know better than that. >> sure. it was very wrong. and you know, i know it now, and i knew it then. i mean, i knew it going through it. it was just trying to figure out, you know, how to deal with it. >> reporter: while most men try to keep their indiscretions private, frank howard's dirty laundry was now part of a criminal investigation. but the detectives say they were determined to keep an open mind. >> i think i told michael, let's not get tunnel vision on this. just because he's got a girlfriend, you know. let's make sure we look outside and not just key on that as a possible motive or reason for the shooting. >> reporter: so the detectives

went back to work examining every piece of evidence they had. turns out that church surveillance tape would take their investigation in a whole new direction. >> coming up -- >> the video clearly showed nancy arriving at the church. as she's pulling into the parking lot, there's a silver vehicle that's following in behind her. >> had someone been stalking nancy? >> oh, yeah. >> it was clear from that video that she was followed. >> we know she's not just a random target. it appears there's something else that's going on here. >> when "dateline" continues. still fresh... unstopables in-wash scent booster. downy unstopables.

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detectives wall and turner were following all leads in their investigation into nancy howard's shooting. evaluating and re-evaluating every new scrap and tidbit that came their way. take nancy's purse and its contents. after the shooting, they'd had her cell phone tracked and

quickly discovered her purse in a nearby dumpster. >> there was still $11.10 inside the purse, cell phone and keys. it appeared as if all of the contents of the purse were still there. >> reporter: but what really caught their attention was the fact that her driver's license seemed to have been removed and cast aside. >> that was the only item that was taken from the purse. it was at that point in time that i became suspicious. >> reporter: if the shooter didn't want nancy's money and credit cards, then maybe he'd planned to kill her. why was the driver's license found separate from the wallet? >> i believe -- i think you would agree -- that they pulled out the driver's license out of the billfold to make sure that they had gotten nancy howard and confirmed it with her driver's license. >> reporter: working on a hunch that nancy had been marked for death, the detectives decided to take a closer look at the video from the security cameras at her church. >> the video clearly showed nancy arriving at the church. as she's pulling into the

parking lot, there's a silver vehicle that's following in behind her. she drives around to the south side of the church and parks. that silver vehicle parks a few parking spots away from her. >> reporter: could you make out the license plate? could you make out the people in the vehicle? >> no. the video wasn't clear enough for us to see the license plate. you could tell from the video that there was two occupants, a driver and a passenger, in the front seat. >> reporter: shortly after nancy enters the church, the silver car drives away but returns just before the church service ends. then a big moment in the case. the church cameras catch a glimpse of a possible suspect. >> the driver exits the vehicle and enters the church to use the restroom. he was wearing a hat and it was brought down partially covering his face. the driver comes back out and gets in the silver vehicle. and as nancy leaves the church service and gets in her car, she backs out and leaves the parking lot and that vehicle follows her out of the parking lot.

>> reporter: is this crystal clear to you now that nancy was a target? >> oh, yeah. >> oh, yeah. >> yeah. it was clear from that video that she was followed and that they came back to the church to wait on her to leave. >> it was an exciting moment, because we've got a lead now. we know that she's not just a random target. it appears that there's something else going on here. >> reporter: something else indeed. in fact, a fellow cop told them about a routine traffic stop a month before that suddenly seemed quite significant. >> white honda accord. >> reporter: it was in the early morning hours that carrollton police officers stopped a car about a mile from the howard home. >> so, how long you been in carrollton tonight? >> we've been trying to find my uncle's house for two, three, four hours. >> okay. the reason i ask is because i saw you guys earlier. and i see you again. and it's now -- now it's -- >> we were going in circles and circles and circles. >> reporter: there were two men in the car. they were a hundred miles from their homes in east texas.

>> could you step out of the car just for a second? i want to talk to you for a little bit. >> reporter: the driver was a 19-year-old named dustin hiroms. according to the police, hiroms appeared to be high on something, possibly meth. initially he told the police that he'd come to carrollton to get money from his uncle. but seconds later he said he was looking for his stepfather. then he said his stepfather was in jail and that he was really looking for someone else. >> tell me who you are visiting here because now i'm confused. you said uncle, and then you just said -- >> his name is john, okay? >> okay. >> we always called him john, that was it. >> so john's a friend of the family? >> yes, basically. >> reporter: john? that's a name you'll hear later in this story. but at the time it meant nothing to the officers. >> we're not trying to cause no problems, ma'am. >> reporter: the whole thing might have been forgotten except for this. at one point hiroms blurted out that he was a hit man involved in a plot to kill a carrollton woman.

at the time it sounded like another craze story from a drug-addled teenager. police looked into it anyway, but they couldn't pin it down. hiroms was booked on minor charges and released. weeks later nancy was shot. >> once the incident occurred on august 18th where nancy was shot, it really kind of tied those two things together. >> reporter: police wondered if dustin hiroms and his buddy in the car were tied to the shooting? if nancy could pick either of those men out of a photo lineup, the detectives figured it would be case closed. are you thinking she's going to be able to i.d. one of these guys immediately? >> oh, yeah. if we could get the shooter identified, i mean, that's over half the battle right there. >> reporter: so you show her the photos. and? >> she wasn't able to identify anybody from the photo lineups. >> reporter: was that a letdown? >> yeah, but it's expected. >> reporter: are you thinking still, it still could be them, she might have just gotten it wrong? >> oh, yeah. just because she didn't identify them, that wasn't for us to

change direction, go anywhere else. we're still on the trail of those two. >> reporter: but just as they were beginning their hunt for dustin hiroms, the investigators got a call. as luck would have it, there was someone over at the county jail who claimed he had the inside story of the shooting. >> our denton county investigator called us and stated that billy johnson, an inmate, wanted to speak with us about the shooting. >> the detectives were intrigued and set up a meeting at the county jail. >> just for the record, billy, you have asked to speak with us, is that correct? >> yes, sir. >> his full name was billy earl johnson. his rap sheet showed he was a career criminal with a reputation for being mean and scrappy. a reputation billy didn't mind discussing. >> i've got a reputation for being a bad-ass. i ain't -- everybody's claiming to be tough and bad. i don't claim to be tough and bad. i'm mean. i'm going to hurt you. if you jump on me, i'm going to

hurt you. >> if billy was mean, he was also calculating. police would soon learn that whatever tale he had to tell could be theirs. for a price. coming up -- >> there was two of them that done it. >> he's providing a lot of information that he should not know. >> billy seems to know all about the plot to murder nancy, and it may be a family affair. >> they're certainly a strange cast of characters. some people might depict them as the hee-haw gang. >> the hee-haw gang? they're about to hit this case like a monster truck. when "dateline" continues. an, sanitize and steam... it's what we've been wanting anyway. shop lowe's and save on the samsung laundry pair and get free delivery. discover what's possible at lowes.com. stop struggling to clean tough messes with sprays. try clean freak! it has three times the cleaning power to dissolve kitchen grease on contact. it works great on bathtubs. and even stainless steel.

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xfinity. the future of awesome. nancy howard was shot point blank at her home in carrollton, texas. remarkably, she survived. and a week into the investigation detectives wall and turner got a lead from an inmate who claimed to know he knew the real story behind the

crime. his name was billy earl johnson. the cops knew billy earl was a tough guy from east texas, an area about 90 miles from carrollton, home to those piney woods. billy was the ringleader of a colorful crew, many of them petty criminals related to billy by blood or marriage. >> it's certainly a strange cast of characters. but they're east texas folks. and people might depict them as the heehaw xwagang. >> a gang that was just getting by in a region struggling to make it. >> there's a lot of drugs, a lot of methamphetamine out there. if somebody makes money out there, has extra money, they just hand it out to each other. >> at his meeting with investigators billie earl was a man on a mission. he wanted to cut a deal and fast. >> i'm 49 years old. i don't get out till 15 years. i have grandkids i want to spend the rest of my life with.

i want to be free. >> billie told the cops he knew things about the shooting that they did not, including the identity of the hit team. he played hardball. even as he mixed his metaphors. >> i got the big ace in the hole and i got the ball in my court on this. if y'all want this murder, this attempted murder solved y'all need to work with me because i ain't playing. y'all want it i'll give it to you. >> but if the cops didn't want to play then billie earl was going to zip it. >> i'm not giving up nothing until i've got something solid on my end. i'll die with it. >> he thought he was in control. >> because he was sitting on an important piece of information. >> oh, yeah. and so i, you know, i told him, i can't go to the d.a. with you just saying this. you got to provide some information. >> reporter: so billie did. he was in jail on drug charges the night nancy was shot. but he told investigators he not only knew who ordered the hit on nancy, he knew how it went down. >> there was two of them that done it. one driving to pick him up and one that pulled the trigger.

now which one drove and which one pulled the trigger, i don't know. but i know both of them. >> reporter: billie told the detectives he thought the murder for hire plot began sometime around 2009. >> i was laying on the couch and the phone rang. >> reporter: a stranger was on the line. >> how he got my information from them, i don't know. >> reporter: the stranger said his name was john. >> he said you don't know me, told me his name. said, i don't know you but i was told you might be the one to do a job for me. >> reporter: the job? kill nancy howard. >> he wanted it done as an accident so it wouldn't come on him. like a carjacking or a purse snatching. >> reporter: john was a man of means, he told the detectives, who drove a lexus and communicated with a disposable drop phone. >> see that number right there? >> 1764? >> that's john's contact number if he's still got the phone. >> that's how you called him? >> yep. >> he had it memorized. and so he provided the whole

phone number, which was that 1764 number. >> reporter: billie knew more. he could describe nancy's car. >> she ain't had it long. it's brand new. >> okay. >> it's dark blue. it's a four-door. it's like it's got a hatchback. >> he's providing a lot of information that he should not know. so it's pretty obvious. >> reporter: you're buying it? >> oh, yeah, we're buying that he knows a lot about what's going on and that he's involved in this. >> i don't think this woman deserved what happened. >> no. she sure didn't. >> and she deserves a little bit of justice. >> yep, and she'll get it. but i want my back scratched, too. >> maybe not from you. >> i want my back scratched too. >> reporter: billie told the cops he never intended to follow through with the hit. >> i'm not going to go kill nobody. >> reporter: instead he was going to play john, take him for as much money as possible. and for more than two years that's just what happened. >> how many conversations have you had with john regarding this being done? >> numerous. >> more than 10? >> yeah. >> more than 20? >> 50, 60. >> reporter: detectives say it wasn't just billie playing the john game.

members of billie's crew were at it as well and the cops already knew one of them. >> his name's john. okay? we always called him john, that was it. >> reporter: remember dustin hiroms? he was the young man pulled over a month before nancy was shot. he spun a crazy story that night about being a hit man. turns out dustin is billie's stepson. maybe his story hadn't been so crazy after all. >> coming up -- could the hee-haw gang hold the key to this case? >> he started laying out the whole thing. >> when "dateline" continues.

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detectives wall and turner headed for east texas immediately after hearing details only an insider could know about the nancy howard shooting. their informant was billie earl johnson.

he was the patriarch of an east texas family. he claimed he'd been involved in a plot to kill nancy. wall and turner wanted to talk to those family members starting with billie's stepson dustin hiroms. billie earl didn't seem to think much of him. >> he's so stupid. he didn't know how to put antifreeze in a pickup truck. that dude don't know nothing about nothing. >> reporter: dustin hiroms, remember, was the young man pulled over in nancy's neighborhood a month before she was shot. >> his name is john, okay? >> okay. >> we always called him john. that was it. >> reporter: the detectives found dustin staying with friends in a trailer. >> we were able to locate him, get him in custody and then for the next probably 2 1/2 to 3 days bryan and i spent talking to dustin. >> you're a good kid. got yourself messed up in a little thing, but you're a good kid. >> reporter: what was that like? >> the first night, of course, he was on meth. crying. he was pretty upset. >> reporter: and so it was dustin, scared and strung out, who provided the detectives with

new details about this man named john. a man who wanted nancy howard killed and wasn't shy about suggesting how it could be done. >> he told dustin that he wanted nancy to be robbed while she was staying at the hotel in grapevine and he wanted it done with a baseball bat. >> reporter: john provided a photo of her, details about her schedule and even suggested nancy be killed while scrapbooking with friends. >> she didn't do nothing wrong. she's a christian woman, dude. that's it. you know? >> who shared with you that she's a christian woman? >> john did. >> reporter: dustin told the detectives john liked to spread his money around. >> he started laying out the whole thing regarding his step-dad, billie johnson, his mom, meetings with john, large sums of money being transferred. he was talking right in the millions. >> sounds hard to believe. >> yeah. so he lays out including his grandmother receiving money. billie's other children that

were involved. >> reporter: soon dustin says members of the johnson clan were calling john whenever they needed money. >> when they're in jail and can't get bonded out, then he decides, short story, that he decides, well, i can do this and start getting all this money. >> reporter: at one point, dustin said john gave him $24,000 to carry out the hit, money that he promptly spent on meth or gave away. >> he had $8,000 blow off his car, he told us, at a church parking lot. >> reporter: didn't care? >> i said, did you go back and get it? nah. are you kidding me? no. i'll get more. >> reporter: as the investigators dug deeper, they learned that nearly a dozen people from east texas knew about the plot to kill nancy. charlie louderman was one of them. >> so have you heard about the shooting in carrollton? >> yeah, i heard about it. >> everybody else heard about it, and do you know who's involved with it? >> yeah. >> who's that? >> billie earl johnson and mr. john.

>> mr. john. so you know mr. john? >> yeah, i know mr. john. >> reporter: charlie louderman was one of the few who was not related by blood or marriage to billie earl johnson. >> billie earl johnson. he's one mad son of a bitch. >> reporter: charlie, who started out as a bodyguard for billie earl, says billie and mr. john tried to get him to shoot nancy howard. >> this [ bleep ] man, he tried to get me to kill that woman. >> did he really? because he -- >> do you want the truth? >> yeah, i want the truth. >> you got that recorder on? >> yeah. i've got to have the truth. >> yeah, you're [ bleep ] right that son of a bitch tried to get me to kill that woman. >> reporter: now out of jail, charlie told us that sometimes john transferred money between bank accounts and sometimes john met charlie and billie and handed over packages of cash at a hamburger joint or gas station, and john was always pressing them to get the hit done. >> i mean, he was, hey, do you think you can get it done now? what's the chances?

where are you all at? billie would tell him, you know, we're about an hour away. we'll call you when we get close. okay. well, call me when you got confirmation. i want this thing done. and i was like, damn, what did this lady do? >> reporter: as long as john was willing to pay, charlie says billie and his family were willing to talk about killing nancy. and every time the hit didn't happen, john wanted to know why. billie was the master of outlandish excuses. >> he had a brain tumor. he had seizures. he had spells. he'd done too much dope. the neighbors were home. he [ bleep ] him just as far as he could take it. and john would buy it hook, line and sinker every time. >> reporter: mr. john's big money scheme to kill nancy howard was an economic bonanza for east texas. according to charlie, billie earl couldn't seem to spend that money fast enough.

>> motorcycles, vehicles for his children, all three of them, a car for his mother, three or four four-wheelers, something for the grandkids. a ski boat. he bought me a riding mower, a four-wheeler, numerous assault weapons. just anything he wanted. >> reporter: and so for more than two years the murder plot bankrolled by john killed nothing but time. >> they didn't follow through with it because they wanted more money. >> reporter: they have been called the hee-haw gang. but they were very valuable to you, all of these characters. >> it would have been a tough case if we only had one or two of them as witnesses. but when we have this number of people involved, someone either is telling the truth, or someone handed out a script to all these people with all the information. because it was all the same information. >> reporter: the east texas crowd was canny enough to document their dealings with the mysterious mr. john. they even had a picture of him in his fancy car. wait till you see it.

it's a stunner. >> coming up -- who is this infamous mr. john? it's the biggest twist of all. >> i was in disbelief. it was so far-fetched. >> when "dateline" continues. cs devin, did you know geico is now offering an extra 15 percent credit on car and motorcycle policies? ok? that's 15 percent on top of what geico could already save you. so what are you waiting for? dj khaled to be your motivational coach? yo devin! remember to brush in a circle motion.

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i'm zaira brown. here's what's happening. a grim milestone as the world continues to fight the spread of the coronavirus. there are now more than 10 million people around the globe infected with covid-19. over 500,000 people have died from the virus. and the u.s. is the country most affected with more than 2.5 million cases of the coronavirus. the death toll in america has surpassed 126,000 since the end of february. new york, new jersey and massachusetts have seen the most deaths. now back to "dateline." throughout the piney woods of east texas, detectives turner and wall heard the same refrain.

a man named john was paying top dollar to rid the earth of a church lady named nancy howard. to hear the east texans tell it, john was a murky blend of money and murderous intent. but a picture snapped by one of the locals of the man they called john made everything crystal clear. john was frank howard. >> he had a photograph of frank howard sitting in his gray lexus. and in the foreground of the picture billie johnson's sitting on his motorcycle. >> reporter: he may have been frank to his friends and mr. john to the east texans, but in truth he was both. his full name was john franklin howard. >> john franklin howard. >> reporter: aka frank? >> frank. >> frank, yeah. >> reporter: three names for a man who'd evidently been living three lives. one with his wife in carrollton, one with his mistress in

california and a third one with the east texas crowd. >> it was a surprise just based on being the beaver cleaver family, being involved with the church. it was unusual. >> reporter: so eight days after nancy was shot, the detectives returned to the scene of the crime. this time they had a warrant. >> and i'm sitting there watching tv and working. and the police show up at the door to arrest me. and that was very -- i've never experienced -- you know, i have no clue what's going on and what's happening. >> reporter: they just put you in the car and took you to the station? >> yeah. yeah. >> reporter: the charge -- solicitation for murder. frank's children were in shock. their father may have had an affair, they thought, but hiring hit men? that made no sense. >> it's a very specific type of evil person that tries to kill their spouse. and my dad is just not that

person. you know, having an affair is a human mistake. trying to murder someone is not human. no human would do that. and i'm sorry, my dad is a human. humans make mistakes. >> it was such a huge leap to what they were accusing him of. and i had never felt like my dad hated the kids enough to do that to our mom, and he never hated my mom, never talked poorly about my mom enough to do that. >> reporter: even nancy refused to believe that her husband of nearly 30 years could have orchestrated a plot to have her killed. >> well, you know, i was totally in shock. this is so far from anything, first of all, that i ever dreamed that i would be involved in. but second of all, i mean it all came at the same time. i'm shot. and then i find out my husband has been having a three-year affair. i was in disbelief. it was so farfetched. >> reporter: his friends felt the same way.

in fact, frank was so well regarded in carrollton that his friends offered to post his $1 million bond. at his bond hearing, witness after witness testified to his character and sterling reputation. even denton county prosecutor jamie beck was impressed. >> people from his church, people from his community, clients, current clients came forward and packed the courtroom for a bond hearing, which is just unheard of. they took the stand. they, you know, just sang his praises on what a good guy he was. >> reporter: though he quickly bonded out of jail, the investigators were convinced frank howard was behind the attempt on his wife's life. not only could they prove he'd been having an affair and that he'd paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a bunch of make-believe hit men, they also had a picture of him meeting with one of them. still, a crucial element for solving this case was missing. >> we're still knee deep in the middle of this. we don't have the shooter

identified. and everyone that we have arrested up until this point, we can only confirm that they're involved in a solicitation to have nancy killed. >> reporter: which is not to say that they didn't get some useful hints from the east texans. >> dustin hiroms, he gives us the name of michael speck. and michael speck is billie johnson's nephew. >> reporter: the investigators zeroed in on that name, michael speck. a search of jail recordings of billie earl johnson's phone calls soon revealed a surprise. not only did they hear billie earl talking about somebody named michael, they also heard another familiar voice. it was the voice of frank howard. >> i can get out of here, which will take about a month to get out of here, but i need some money. >> well, that's part of my problem. i mean, what happened to michael? i gave him a bunch of money. >> how much you give him? >> i don't even know anymore it's been so long. >> did you give him 20? >> uh, at least. >> it's clear from those phone

conversations at the jail that frank's directly involved in orchestrating this. >> michael's got everything i had left. he said he could take care of everything. >> reporter: even though the police were sure michael speck was one of the men in that silver car, they had no idea who the other man was. then a few months later, a call out of the blue seemed to provide the break they'd been looking for. the caller sounded credible because she knew details that only the shooter and nancy would know. for instance, in a flustered moment nancy had handed her bag of food to the shooter. >> my ears perked up, and i felt like she had some pretty good information about who was responsible for shooting nancy. >> reporter: the caller led them eventually to someone who they believed was the shooter. his name was also michael, michael lorance. he and speck had been prison cellmates. this is like six degrees of separation. >> it is. >> reporter: everyone in this case. >> all the puzzle pieces were starting to come together for us.

>> reporter: the police thought they could finally put both michaels in that silver car on the night nancy was shot. it would now be up to a jury to decide whether frank howard had paid them to kill his wife. >> coming up -- the case begins. and the witnesses sure are colorful. but are they credible? >> very questionable characters. >> absolutely. >> how do you get the jury to believe what they're saying? >> when "dateline" continues. tie ordinary memory supplements, neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel five indicators of brain performanc: memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference.

how are you doing? >> in the months after nancy howard was shot in the face and left for dead she tried to move on. she divorced frank and found comfort in the sheltering embrace of her faith and family. >> isn't that pretty? >> she even enjoyed happy moments when the shooting was almost forgotten. like the day her youngest daughter got married and frank walked brianna down the aisle. >> it was very special that he

was able to do that. and for me there was, you know, never a doubt in my mind that my dad would be walking me down the aisle. >> and we actually had a very good time. it was a very joyful time. i can remember walking with him and then saying, hmm, well, we ended up doing this together after all, didn't we? >> reporter: hard to imagine? not really if you remember that frank and nancy always put family first. for a long time nancy refused to believe the worst about frank. as the months passed, she had a change of heart, though she kept hoping she was wrong. >> i believe he had relationships with the kind of people who would do something like this. but i am going to let the jury make the decision on whether he called the shot. >> reporter: so you're not ready to say he ordered -- >> i'm not ready to say that.

>> reporter: -- the hit? denton county prosecutor jamie beck was ready to say that and a lot more. >> i try not to get too personally involved, so to speak. but i just -- i did not like him. i did not like the good versus evil aspect to him and the manipulation that i felt. >> reporter: in early august 2014, frank howard went on trial for attempted capital murder. prosecutors started with nancy's 911 call. >> lord jesus help me. oh, my god. help me. oh, jesus, help me. >> reporter: it was an emotional opening punch, one that left frank visibly shaken, as did nancy's testimony about her injuries and overwhelming feelings of betrayal. >> i was married to a man named frank howard. for the majority of our marriage, i was married to frank howard. but when john walked in the door, he started taking over. frank was a man who was loving and kind. he had integrity. john?

john was about himself. >> reporter: prosecutors laid out their theory. john, aka frank howard, had hired a hit man to kill his wife, but for more than two years he'd ended up throwing money at one potential killer after another to get the job done. this group of characters, some people have even called them the hee-haw gang. >> yes. >> reporter: very questionable characters. >> absolutely. >> reporter: with long rap sheets. how do you get the jury to believe what they're saying? >> when you're going to go out and hire a hit man, you're not going to hire a good person off the street. you're going to hire a criminal. you're going to hire somebody with a seedy past and that's willing to do that job. >> reporter: if orange is the new black, this was a fashionable crowd. on the stand the witnesses from east texas corroborated each other's stories. they testified they'd received money from a man named john to kill his wife. they had communicated with john

by calling his drop phone. and each of them said that john and frank were one and the same. charlie louderman says john didn't seem happy to see his east texas friends again. >> he didn't want to see me there. he didn't like that. he was twirling on his pen, pop, pop, like a principal going to give me some licks. >> reporter: charlie told the jury about seeing vast sums of money change hands. >> sometimes it'd be $5,000, sometimes it'd be $80,000. i counted $83,000 on my bedroom floor. >> reporter: investigators were able to follow the money on frank's computers. they found wire transfer receipts that added up to more than three-quarters of a million dollars. assistant prosecutor rick daniel. it sounds hard to believe that frank, the accountant, the meticulous numbers guy, is just throwing around money. and not only throwing around money, but they're documenting it. they're wire transfers. it's hard to believe. >> right. at first it was all cash.

and i think he just kind of got tired of having to go and meet, and once he started with the wire transfer, i think he probably realized that, you know, it's done. might as well keep doing it now. and i think he just kept trying to get a solution to his problem by throwing more money at it. >> reporter: the east texans who gladly took that money were not charged because they were either doing time or facing prosecution for other crimes. still jamie beck and her team wanted to link frank to the men who they believe actually shot nancy, the men in the silver car. first they tried to establish that frank had paid the alleged driver. they played a snippet of the jailhouse call recorded a few weeks before the shooting. >> and so i basically, you know, gave michael every -- i said, i'm all in with you, buddy because i don't know what else to do. i was all in with him. >> reporter: even more incriminating, prosecutors said phone records proved frank was communicating with the alleged

driver the day of the shooting. as for the alleged shooter, the other michael, the prosecution called a witness who testified he confessed to her the night nancy was shot. jamie beck summed up that testimony. >> he does a full-out confession. i've murdered someone. i shot a woman in the forehead in her garage, took her food and her purse, and then we dumped everything on the way back. >> reporter: both michaels pleaded not guilty. their day in court would come later. as for motive, the prosecutors told the court that was as old as time. frank had another woman. and this was no casual fling. they presented evidence of frank's devotion, the flowers, letters and cards he sent to suzanne leontieff when he wasn't with her. police also discovered frank had spent enormous sums of money on

his mistress. >> i think the figure that he had given suzanne was $1.9 million. ultimately we discovered that they had purchased a home together in california. they had purchased a condo in lake tahoe together. he had given her $500,000 in cash. and so it's my understanding she was certainly living a life with a lot of money from frank. >> reporter: the pictures police found of suzanne on frank's cell phone show a happy couple. but suzanne had grown tired of being the other woman. she began putting pressure on frank to get a divorce. the police found a letter from frank, dated december 2011, eight months before the shooting, pleading for patience. >> reporter: one of the lines was "all i know to do is to get things done and hope you're still around." what do you think he meant by, "to get things done?" >> i think he meant following through with killing nancy. >> in this text suzanne wrote, "i'm so sick of being alone. you need to file by this friday or move on. i've waited long enough."

prosecutors said that affair was frank's motive. so all eyes were on suzanne when she took the stand. >> she believed he was in a loveless marriage, that he was basically separated from his wife, that living under the same roof for convenience sake. but in separate bedrooms. >> how important was the mistress's testimony, suzanne? >> you know, i don't think suzanne had any kind of knowledge of any of this. i don't think she knew that there was a murder for hire plot. i don't think she knew about any association with criminals. i think suzanne fully believed, just like everybody else around frank, they take him at his word and they believe him. >> reporter: prosecutors told the jury that for a family man like frank, divorce was not an option. but, they argued, murder was. >> i mean, it didn't have to happen. a divorce was the solution. >> reporter: frank was with suzanne in california on the day nancy was shot. even so, he still found time to

send an e-mail to his wife. prosecutor jamie beck read it to the jury in her closing argument. >> "i know you have a busy day today." because he knows her schedule. he's provided it to the two michaels. "so i will try to call you sometime today. i love you and can't wait to get home to you." that's sick. that is sick. he wanted to get home to her casket. that's what he wanted to come home to. >> reporter: on august 18th, 2014, two years to the day after nancy was shot, the prosecution rested. now it was the defense's turn to convince the jury that all those east texans were lying and that frank never paid anyone to kill his wife. >> coming up -- the defense comes out swinging. and in its corner, two devoted daughters. >> i wanted to be there for my dad. he's not this man that you're talking about.

>> when "dateline" continues. alright so...oh.

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frank howard was a confident man. or at least he claimed to be when he spoke to us a few months

before his trial began. did you have anything to do with your wife being shot that day in your garage? >> no. no, i did not. i absolutely did not. >> reporter: nevertheless, defense attorneys jerry cobb and ricky perritt knew they had their work cut out for them when they rose to frank howard's defense. >> the state put on a large, large amount of evidence. they showed a lot of money being transferred. they showed the affair. they showed sympathetic pictures of the poor lady shot in the head when she's at the hospital. >> reporter: powerful images to be sure. but the prosecution's case, they argued, simply didn't make sense. >> it was really incredible to hear the allegations that a man would have spent the kind of money that they said was spent in order to have someone shot. and particularly in light of the fact that when you saw all the people that were saying he paid them, look at the kind of people they were. >> reporter: so the first line of defense was don't trust anybody who wears prison garb to

court. >> i just believe that when the jurors look at the case and they see how these people are liars, they're criminals, they're drug users, that they won't lend any credibility to it, and if they don't believe those people, they can't convict him for attempted capital murder. >> you got all these people who supposedly got hundreds of thousands of dollars to kill somebody, and they're not even being prosecuted. i mean, it makes no sense. >> reporter: not only that but, the defense argued, some of their stories were just too fantastic to be believed. take one from charlie louderman. he testified that some of frank howard's cash had come from the middle east in body bags. it was money that literally reeked of death. >> some of it had hair with blood stuck to it. some of it had burn marks on it. and i said, what in the hell is that awful damn smell? and billie looked at me and said, you know that's how we're getting that money in here, is on dead bodies coming from

kuwait in the caskets. >> reporter: the defense called that claim outrageous. >> just crazy things, crazy. $80,000 or $100,000 in cash coming back in the body cavities of dead soldiers from iraq? i mean, this man had crazy things. >> reporter: the defense attorneys not only challenged the credibility of billie earl and his crew, they told the jurors the real reason frank howard was in contact with the east texas crowd boiled down to one word -- blackmail. >> you take a guy who's been a straight arrow all of his life, has a great reputation in his hometown, i'm sure it would bother him if the people at church knew he had an affair, knew he had a girlfriend, knew he went to las vegas, things like that. i think all those things would go into a reason for them to blackmail him and him to pay them money. >> reporter: frank's daughter ashley agrees. >> you see all this money going out to all of these really shady people. you never really see any return. there's no action. so my belief is that he was being blackmailed. >> for the affair?

>> i can't say what. my dad was a really generous person. maybe somewhere in there, you know, it was hey, give a guy a second chance, help me out. and then it just snowballed into either threatening his family or telling about the affair. i mean, i don't know. so i think it probably started as a generous, you know, give grace to somebody, help another human, and became something way out of his control. >> reporter: according to the defense, frank stopped paying members of the johnson clan weeks before the shooting. and that, frank's attorneys suggested, could be the reason nancy was shot. do you think that this was payback to frank because the money train had stopped? >> i believe it was something to get the money going again. i believe they were sending him a message, you know, you're not going to quit paying us. >> very well could be that, and also, you know, they may not have really intended to kill nancy. you know, the guy's standing right there, he shoots her in

the head. she's still conscious. if he's going to kill her, why didn't he shoot her again? >> reporter: frank did not take the stand in his own defense. but all three of the howard children did. was it hard to take the stand in the trial knowing what was at stake? >> it definitely was because, you know, i wanted to be there for my dad. and i wanted to do things and say things that gave a different perspective to he's not this man that you're talking about. he's imperfect, absolutely. but he's a good person. >> reporter: you could have been his best weapon, his own children standing behind him. >> when we say that we support our dad, it's not a blind support. it's a well thought out support. and it's a reasoned support. and we've been able to separate the feelings about the affair from the feelings about his involvement in this criminal scheme. >> reporter: in closing, the defense attorneys urged jurors to ask themselves one question. did the prosecutors' theory of why and how frank howard plotted his wife's murder make any

sense? >> where in the world has any evidence been told to you that divorce is unacceptable to mr. howard? he's already had a divorce. he's been married once. look at the evidence and ask yourself if that's what that means. >> and i do not believe as reasonable people you can convict someone on the testimony of the kind of people they brought in here that their house of cards has to be built on, and it starts with billie johnson and it ends with billie johnson. because i do not believe that's the kind of evidence in this country that we want to use to convict someone of a crime, to deprive them of their liberty if they're convicted. >> reporter: the jury now held frank howard's fate in its hands. >> coming up -- the man of rock solid character or this cast of characters? who would the jury believe? when "dateline" continues.

they'd once called themselves the beaver cleaver family. close, wholesome and picture perfect. if nothing else, john franklin howard's attempted capital murder trial proved that image was as dated as a black-and-white rerun. nancy sat on the prosecution side of the courtroom surrounded by her friends and family. and frank's supporters sat across the aisle behind the defense table. as for the children, when they were in the courtroom they almost always sat on their dad's side of the aisle. >> for me i was just very, you know, focused on the goal, focused on what we're here for. and it was my dad all the way. >> reporter: the tension and stress caused by the howard children's devotion to their father was at times etched on nancy's face. >> i'm trying to -- trying to understand. you have to understand they had continual contact with their father for the past two years. and they, too, wanted to believe

that their father was the same man. >> reporter: after ten days of testimony and a mountain of evidence, jurors might have been expected to be out for a while. >> has the jury reached a verdict in this case? >> reporter: but they weren't. >> yes, we have, your honor. >> and is that a unanimous verdict of each and every one of the twelve jurors in this case? >> yes, it is. >> please hand that to the bailiff. >> reporter: it had taken just 90 minutes of deliberation for the jury to reach a decision. >> we the jury find the defendant, john howard, guilty of the offense of attempted capital murder as alleged in the indictment. >> reporter: when you heard that word, "guilty," what's going through your mind? >> just complete heartbreak. but yet it was also peace because it was finally over. >> reporter: in a separate hearing frank howard was sentenced to life in prison. >> my gut reaction is, well, now we have to appeal. >> reporter: so you didn't even let the guilty process?

>> no, i mean, for me, i mean, that was the plan. not guilty, we move on. guilty, we appeal. there's no let's all cry and hold hands and be sad because dad is in jail for -- no. we're going to appeal. >> reporter: it's probably easier to cope that way, i would think. >> yeah, at first there's kind of shock. >> mm-hmm. >> and then it's like, you're just angry. you're angry that they didn't be as -- you know, you don't feel like they got the truth. >> you may be seated, sir. >> reporter: in the end, frank howard's appeals were denied. but even then this case was far from over. remember the michaels, the two men prosecutors say actually carried out the attack on nancy? in 2015 billie earl's nephew michael speck turned on his former cellmate michael lorance. in return for a reduced sentence speck testified at lorance's trial that michael lorance had been the trigger man. lorance was convicted of aggravate add salt with a deadly

weapon and sentenced to 6 o'years. he appealed and in 2017 a texas court overturned his conviction on the grounds that evidence introduced relating to the overall murder for hire scheme was misleading and unfairly prejudicial. lorance was retried, and this time a jury found him not guilty. but lorance isn't off the hook yet. the district attorney has decided to prosecute him for conspiracy to commit murder in the nancy howard case. he has pleaded not guilty. as for the money frank howard used to finance the murder plot and support his lavish lifestyle? turns out it was stolen from that wealthy contractor that frank once worked for. some people might have a hard time wrapping their head around the fact that he was so haphazardly giving money out. >> yes. >> just freely giving it out. >> just freely giving it out. the only way i can explain that is when you don't earn the money, when it's not from your hard work and efforts, it has no value. as a matter of fact, for the two

years i called it his monopoly money. the money didn't have meaning to him other than how he could use it to manipulate people. >> reporter: in late 2015 an arbitration panel determined that frank howard had embezzled more than $6 million from his former boss between 2009 and 2012. frank was ordered to repay that money with interest. you went into this hoping there was a chance that maybe he didn't call the shots. >> right, i did. i tried to keep my heart open. >> reporter: so you have no doubt in your mind now -- >> absolutely. >> reporter: that frank called the shots on your attempted murder? >> absolutely. john called the shots. >> reporter: almost like an alter ego? >> yep. it is. >> i want to say john howard, you messed up, buddy. >> reporter: perhaps nobody knew john better than the east texas crowd. charlie louderman in full finger wagging mode says john howard

got what he deserved. >> you're smart and you hired an idiot to do your dirty work. >> reporter: charlie says he regrets he ever got involved with billie johnson and he's remorseful about what happened to nancy. >> i carried a lot of guilt over her injury with her eye because she just looked like a really happy lady in the pictures to me. and to john's children, i'm sorry, but your dad did it. you know. there's no getting around it. >> reporter: but even after hearing the evidence, john and nancy's daughters still believed their father was innocent. there are going to be people watching this saying you two girls are delusional. your dad was found guilty of trying to have your mom killed and here you are supporting your dad. >> i get that. but i would say those people that think that we're delusional have not shared our experiences, they haven't sat down and they

haven't gone to jail, sat behind that glass, picked up that phone and talked to the same man that they've been talking to for the last 28 years. and you can say all day long, oh, that poor girl, you know. she just wants to support her dad. let's be very clear. i think that justice needs to be served. i don't think it has been. and i think it's unfortunate that now we're all going to say we've gotten justice for my mom and that man is a terrible human being and the truth is there's no justice for my mom and now there's no justice for my dad. >> reporter: though the sisters conceded in 2014 that the family's bonds had been strained by this case, they insisted those bonds had not been broken entirely. do you hope that as time goes on, things can be healed with your mother? >> oh, absolutely. it's a very raw time. a big life event happened. a big change happened. so we're all having to process

what we feel and then come back together and really sort it out. >> reporter: the future for the howard family? >> we were a strong family then. we're going to be a strong family in the future. and those two are not going to look the same, but that's okay. we're going to figure it out. >> reporter: it's unclear how frank howard's daughters feel about their father and mother now. neither of them responded to "dateline's" requests for comment. for her part, nancy says she has forgiven and moved on with her life. she's gone back to work at a law firm as an administrative assistant and now goes by her maiden name, nancy shorr. in the spring of 2017 nancy told her story in a book titled "the shooting of nancy howard: a journey back to shore." >> deep in my heart, my heart is broken because i would have loved to have continued being the beaver cleaver family. i would have loved to continue being married to frank because i loved that man with all my heart.

and that man loved me at some point, but it was obviously a change in who he was and is. ♪ this sunday the coronavirus surge. >> we find ourselves careening toward a catastrophic and unsustainable situation. >> half the states seeing a steep rise in infections. >> time for prevention measures was a month ago. now -- i mean, the wheels are coming off. >> we might feel like we're done with covid-19, but covid-19 isn't done with us. >> states slowing reopenings as younger americans drive the surge. >> are you concerned about coronavirus really? >> not anymore, i'm really not. >> vice president pence spins

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