of "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. . i'm craig melvin. and i'm natalie morales. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> horrible, knowing the person you love is dead and you're being looked at for it. >> imagine you're shaken in the dead of night. >> my ears were ringing, i thought i was dreaming. >> in bed right next to you, your husband murdered. >> hard to get that one out of your head, isn't it? >> yeah. >> and here's the twist, you're the suspect. >> worst feeling to hear you're being blamed for your husband's death. >> could she have been the killer?

or was someone keeping a secret? >> i said what do you do, what did you do? >> i don't know. >> just the truth. hello and welcome to "dateline." it's the stuff of nightmares. an intruder creeps into your bedroom in the middle of the night and opens fire. for melissa oxley, the bad dream was all too real. she told investigators she had been startled from her sleep to find her husband ben dead from a shotgun blast. it seems strange they thought that no one else in the house was hurt, including melissa, who was sleeping by his side. stranger still was who the killer ultimately turned out to be. here's keith morrison with

"while they were sleeping." >> it was cold the night the full moon rose, february cold in the desert valley that spilled down from reno, nevada. and in that moonlight all silver pale, wind worried the gray ends of the grass, whistled past the unlocked door. something evil afoot, something here inside where the moon peered through the window and into the master bedroom, a little after 3:00 in the morning. >> it's really, really dead. >> what's really dead? >> my husband. >> strange the things that happen to people under a full moon. good people. not so good people. under the moon that night, it's hard to tell which was which, who was who.

>> this is a case built on lies and deception and cat and mouse. who knew what it was. >> but the story when it began back in 2005 was about love. or what certainly felt like it. in fact fair to say it was two kinds of love. there was what happened to ben when he met melissa. >> as soon as he met melissa, it was something i'd never seen, just for no reason he'd call her and say i love you. >> he was a changed man. >> absolutely. >> he was happy. melissa really made the difference. >> and if anybody would know, his best friends, cindy and scott graham. >> ben was family. he was family. >> and then there was ben's other love, the brightest thing in his life, the one good thing that came from his first marriage, alyssa. >> everybody said that he loved me more than anything and i think it's true.

>> quite true of course, a little jockeying at first, two women and one man, even if one of the women was just three. >> our first date alyssa was there. we were eating and i was just trying to talk to ben and get to know him. and alyssa was don't talk to my dad. >> i remember meeting her, i didn't really like her. she was talking to my dad. >> more than talking to him, as it soon turned out. ben and melissa moved into together just a month later, the sort of thing a 3-year-old finds hard to understand. >> she said i love you, i said don't talk to my dad that way. >> but as we said, it was a love story, for both of them. as jamie hart, friend and future bridesmaid put it -- >> he was truly her best friend and he was the best dad. that's all he cared about was alissa. that was his priority.

so it was melissa and ben, and alissa, the threesome. >> he was so involved in every aspect of her life. they were like two peas in a pod. >> one september day in 2006 as the sun was setting into the sierra nevada mountains, ben and melissa got married, the ceremony at nearby lake tahoe. melissa a glowing bride, alyssa the little flower girl. >> it wasn't just melissa and ben getting married. it was alyssa marrying too. >> they made a ceremony of it. >> alyssa, will you promise to share in the love of this family? if so, will you please say i will? >> i will. >> i got her a little bracelet, letting her know i would always love her as my own. and gaift to her that day. >> from that moment on, called melissa mom. how did it make you feel? >> happy, very happy. >> what a happy couple they

where, a happy family. >> for her to be my wife, it's a blessing. >> that's what you wait for all your life. >> what were your plans? >> to buy a house, to have babies, have a family. >> they eventually moved here, a three-bedroom ranch in the carson valley looking up towards the sierra nevadas. alyssa spent half time with ben and melissa, other time with her birth mom, ben's ex-wife, dawn. but above all, what ben really wanted was to have his little girl permanently. >> he never thought he could have his daughter. i was like, yeah you can. you could. >> and he did. he won custody. >> it was him and his daughter, and that's what he always wanted. >> and then the little household grew. melissa's teenaged brother craig moved in. and then winter came and the wind.

and february 20th, 2008, the moon rose full over the carson valley. after dinner ben, melissa, her teenaged brother craig and little alyssa settled in the den to watch a movie. alyssa remembers falling asleep on the couch, waking up with a start. >> thinking i was late for work. it was 2:30 in the morning. oh, i'm not late. got into bed. >> crawled in with ben, she said, moonlight on the covers, warmth inside. >> about an hour later is when i was woke up by the smell and then a loud noise. my ears were ringing, at first i thought i was dreaming. >> a smell? >> the smell of the gunpowder. >> as she told it, she looked over to ben, saw by the light of the moon he appeared to have slept through whatever it was. she nudged him. he didn't stir. >> it's okay, i'll go check it

out. so i walked around our bed and got halfway down the hallway and realized that our front doorway was open. >> but you didn't see anybody? >> no. >> halfway down the hall, she said, cold air rushing in, she knew something was very wrong. so she ran back to the bedroom, turned on the light. >> i went to go wake him up, and i could see him. >> hard to get that out of your head, isn't it? >> yeah. >> and thus her call to 911 and the detective who rushed over to find out what happened and discovered that he could not tell. >> you got the wife, you've got a small six-year-old child and 15-year-old boy in the house and everybody saying they don't know what happened. >> how did everyone else survive that night without a scratch? coming up, the investigation

begins and melissa is at the very center. >> asking you to help me solve the problem, the questions i have, okay? >> a dramatic police interrogation when "dateline" continues. 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. we love our new home. there's so much space. we have a guestroom now. but, we have aunts. you're slouching again, ted. expired, expired... expired. thanks, aunt bonnie. it's a lot of house. i hope you can keep it clean. at least geico makes bundling our home and car insurance easy. which helps us save a lot of money oh, teddy. did you get my friend request? uh, i'll have to check. (doorbell ringing) aunt joni's here! for bundling made easy, go to geico.com. hello? wouldn't iprotected if there was a place that kept you... for bundling made easy, go to geico.com.

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you know, i talk to dentists every day and they're able to recommend new sensodyne sensitivity & gum. it's really good dentistry to be able to recommend one product that can address two conditions. i was just confused and shocked because at this point i still felt like i was asleep. >> on february 21st, 2008 at 3:00 in the morning, melissa

oxley called 911. >> okay, so there is gun noises like a gunshot? >> yeah. i turned on the lights to wake up my husband and he is really, really dead. >> he certainly was. ben oxley had been shot point blank in the head. yet melissa lying in bed right beside him was unharmed. she ran then to alyssa's room to check on her and call 911, and of course alyssa, then 6 years old and completely unaware of what had just happened asked to see her father. >> i want to go see my dad, i want to go see my dad. and i just told her you can't. you can't go see your dad. >> ron elgis was the detective who got the call. >> do you remember getting that call? >> yeah, because i was sleeping. >> he woke up fast to a very big problem. the killing just didn't make sense. >> appearing that ghost had done this, no evidence, no weapon, everyone in the house said i don't know. >> a ghost. >> that's what it feels like

because you have no idea. >> how was it possible melissa hadn't seen the person who had shot ben? she had been lying right next to him. why was she unharmed? >> that's a red flag popping up, doesn't seem right. >> and had craig, melissa's teenaged brother truly slept through the whole thing as he claimed? >> i opened my eyes and right in my face was a bunch of barrels from a machine gun. >> it was police guns he was looking at, police who had already discovered shotgun shells on craig's bedroom dresser. >> here comes another red flag. is this a possibility? is he faking? >> melissa, craig, and little alyssa were taken to the sheriff's department at 4:00 a.m. an hour after the shooting. melissa's best friend jamie got a phone call. >> it was alyssa and she was hysterically crying. i'm at the police station.

please come down here, come down here, my daddy's been shot. >> alyssa was being grilled by detectives. detective elgas had questions, lots of them. so many things about the murder didn't make sense. >> why didn't they take you out, you were right there? >> that's what i thought. >> another thing i don't understand is why somebody shoots him and why you don't see anything. >> i don't know. honestly don't know. >> maybe it was the man ben warned her about, she said, a rough customer who once dated his ex-wife dawn and threatened to kill any man dawn had been with. was this true? sheriffs were sent to her house where they woke her up, sleepy but unharmed. man in question was hundreds of miles away when the murder happened. again the questions for for melissa. >> sometimes people know more than they want to tell the sheriff. >> but i'm telling you, i honestly don't know.

>> alyssa was 6 by this time, was the only person who remembered seeing anything unusual, and she told the detective right away. >> i was fast asleep, but i woke up and heard this creep. i saw somebody walking in. and then i just went back and -- >> do you know who they were? >> i don't know who it was. >> she saw a shadow in her doorway looking at her, the shadow left. she went back to sleep and then melissa came in and grabbed her and was talking to 911. >> the detective discovered the bullet that killed number ben was a number 8 bird shot, same ammunition as they discovered in craig's room. so the question to craig -- >> i apologize for doing it, but i have to. did you kill ben? >> no, i did not. >> okay. >> sure enough when they tested craig for gun residue or blood cast off, he was clean. could not have fired that gun. and so back to melissa. >> i know it doesn't make sense

to you. it doesn't make sense to me either. >> it's not a huge bad thing -- >> it's the worst feeling that you think you're to blame for your husband's dead. >> i understand that, i'm not blaming you, i'm asking you to help me solve the problem with the questions i'm asking, okay? >> because there was blood on melissa and gunshot residue. >> i don't know what to tell you. >> just the truth is all i'm hoping you're giving me. >> i am. >> melissa's friend jamie was there when she came out of the interrogation room. >> melissa just dropped to the floor when she saw me. she had a little bit of blood on her. she just said i didn't do this. and we -- i know you didn't do it. >> but jamie knew there were others and not just the police who were very suspicious of melissa.

>> she's the prime suspect, the wife. she was laying in bed with him. it doesn't make sense that she wasn't shot. >> did melissa do it? geez, i hope not, but she could have. why wasn't she shot? >> i thought if she did commit the murder, she's going to make a mistake. you can only live that lie so long. coming up, a new clue, what police believe might be a reason for murder. >> $400,000 life insurance policy. she had the motivation to want this to happen. >> when "dateline" continues. this isn't just a wifi upgrade.

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>> melissa oxley was just 27 years old and already a widow. her 36-year-old husband, ben, shot dead while he slept in bed right next to her. as far as she could tell, said melissa, the shooter managed to break into the house, walk right into the master bedroom, shoot ben without harming her and leave not a trace of evidence behind. the case boggled the detective's mind. >> is there somebody who doesn't like him? is it a murder for hire pay? what could this be? >> melissa's closest friend believed her when she insisted she had nothing to do with it, in fact, she lost the love of her life. and that now she and those around her were probably in terrible danger. >> because you don't know who did it.

you don't know if they're going to come back for melissa. if melissa was supposed to be in that. >> melissa meanwhile tried to be a source of comfort for her 6-year-old stepdaughter alyssa. the little girl's father had been her world, leaving her now in a world of chaos. and with her home and love nest now a crime scene, melissa and alyssa moved in with the woman who had been bridesmaid at the wedding, jamie, and it was at night when the curtains were drawn that jamie watched melissa reeling with pain. >> many nights of crying in the middle of night, i would hear her. i kind of went and laid in bed with her. >> i didn't sleep, couldn't sleep. >> just getting into a bed after that happened -- >> i didn't want to. >> so where would you sleep? >> on the floor. >> and if the pain and suffering of losing her husband wasn't hard enough, melissa was a lead

suspect and not just in the eyes of the police. >> because nobody including the public, including the family had any idea why this would happen. they're all grasping at straws to try to figure out this possibility, that possibility. >> ben's sister was certain that melissa arranged ben's murder and wasn't afraid to make it known around town. >> she had quite a little following of all these people. it's always the wife, you know. >> so did that mean little alyssa just 6 years old so vulnerable was living with a murderer? alyssa began to spend more time at her mother dawn's house and one day while she was there, ben's sister warned her about the stepmom she had come to love. >> she told me that she thought my stepmom killed my dad that night. >> must have been pretty weird to hear that. >> yeah. i didn't believe it. >> you didn't believe it at all? >> no. >> but if alyssa didn't believe it, others did.

and before long they had more ammunition because of something else the detective discovered. >> a $400,000 life insurance policy. it sounds a lot like she had the motivation to want this to happen. >> and once again, melissa found herself answering difficult questions. >> i didn't even know about the insurance policy. i guess i was sort of naive to it. we were looking at it for retirement. >> but while the investigation went on, the insurance company held back any payments while the whispers went around. it was shocking really. ben had been dead just a few months, and melissa was dating already. >> it was soon sort of but it was like if i didn't do it then, you almost would get stuck in this rut of never doing it. i would have just hung up the towel and been done. >> put on a black dress and be a widow the rest of your life. >> yeah.

>> detective elgas, of course, was keeping track and trying not to be judgmental. >> she has to do what she needs to do to heal. it doesn't mean i wasn't paying attention to what was going on. >> but as months passed and elgis scratched away at the few paltry leads that went anywhere at all, a certain clarity began to emerge. despite his own early suspicions and those of others, hard evidence against melissa just didn't materialize. in fact, said elgis, he couldn't help thinking -- >> she probably didn't do it. she was so startled she went into a fight or flight response and just jumped out of bed. and then went to a normal reaction which is what's going on? >> and that's when she discovered that he -- >> that's when she discovered he has been shot. >> but there was another reason melissa dropped down the detective's list of suspects, and that reason was a certain someone else who it became clear did not like that love story we told you about. not one bit.

>> i said what did you do? what did you do? and she said, what do you mean what did i do? you've known me all these years and you would think that i would do something like that? and i said, absolutely. coming up, a whole new theory of the crime. a whole new list of suspects eager to share secrets. >> i didn't know. i didn't know. no, no, no, no, no. >> when "dateline" continues. ship shape soothed comfortable restocked ...and safe? well, there is, and always has been. walgreens. everyone's place, for healthy and safe. all the way out here just for a blurry photo of me. oh, that's a good one. wait, what's that? that's just the low-battery warning. oh, alright. now it's all, "check out my rv," and, "let's go four-wheeling." maybe there's a little part of me that wanted to be seen.

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enhanced employment benefits which expired last week, but at a lower rate of $400 a week. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. melissa oxley could now breathe a little easier. while still on their radar, detectives no longer considered her the prime suspect in the shooting death. they shifted their focus to another woman in ben's life, someone they believed held a grudge. investigators were about to bring her in for testimony and story she would tell would send the investigation in a new direction. here is keith morris again with "while they were sleeping." >> there is no way that anybody

would want him dead. >> dawn, dawn oxley, alyssa's mother. even as a few local gossipers pointed fingers at melissa, ben's best friends told each other -- >> everything in me said that dawn had something to do with that. >> of course, just a few years back, that sort of thinking would have been unimaginable to dawn and ben's best friends, scott and cindy graham, not dawn. dawn the force of nature, the center of any room she was in. >> i don't know if it's manipulating or what, but everybody agreed with dawn. as long as dawn was happy, then we're all happy. marriage, neither ben nor dawn was happy. and the marriage went up in flames. >> ben had cheated on dawn. i could see that. this probably wasn't going to be something that she was ever going to get over. >> dawn changed after that said cindy, didn't seem to want to act like a parent anymore.

>> she met a guy and she would stay the night at his house. i mean when her kids are calling us up saying we don't have any food in the house, can you come and bring us food, there's a problem. >> and so when dawn and ben went to court to fight for custody of alyssa, cindy had to tell the truth. >> i told the judge that dawn wasn't taking care of her kids anymore. they weren't a priority. they weren't even number five. >> when ben won custody of alyssa and more than $200 a month in child support, dawn was devastated. this is her mother sherry rosten, a retired deputy sheriff. >> she would sit in the garage and just bawl about not -- about not getting her day in court. >> this was eating her alive. >> yeah. it was really taking its toll on her. >> dawn started drinking heavily. her teenage son devin watched his mother fall apart.

>> she started to lose jobs. it's like all hell broke loose in her head. >> but murder? remember, the police went to see dawn just a couple hours after ben was killed, found her fast asleep. >> what time did you think you went to sleep? >> oh, god, i watched a movie, "the departed" and i don't know, about 4:00? >> in fact, she happened to be sharing her bedroom with a 21-year-old family friend named james matlean. >> we watched a movie and went to bed. >> yeah, that's her story. that's it. >> not exactly a convincing alibi. any more than the obvious fiction that james, a new man in her life, was just a friend. even less convincing when devron elgas learned about a trip to a 7-eleven store, middle of the night, about an hour and a half before the murder. >> why are they hiding little pieces that's seem insignificant to what is going on? then we started to do surveillance on them.

now they're starting to get worried because they think we're watching them. >> surveillance photos show her with james matlean and her two daughter, brandy, her 13-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, and alyssa, 7 by this time. that's right. a year into the investigation, little alyssa was back with her biological mom, with ben dead, the courts had slowly weaned her back there permanently. >> so there you are still trying to grieve the loss of ben at the same time as alyssa is being pulled back toward dawn. >> yeah, i lost both of them truly. >> and while the police were watching dawn, dawn was telling her children, including brandy, that the real suspect was melissa. she confidently told you it was melissa that committed this murder? >> yes. >> brandy was hearing that from her mother, dawn, who she could see was drinking too much, getting duis, spending more than a few nights in jail. >> they started getting arrested dawn and james both.

we were finding reasons to take them to jail. >> and while they had james, they asked him point blank about the murder of ben oxley. >> did i kill ben? no. do i know who killed ben? no. did dawn kill ben? no. do i know anything about the murder? no. >> were you and dawn involved in any way in the planning of the death of ben? >> no. i'm looking you in your eyes. i did not kill him. >> but that was it. lots of denials. no real evidence. a year and a half had gone by since the murder. it was the summer of 2009. on toward cold case territory. >> getting there. >> then one afternoon as detective elgas was recovering from a night on the graveyard shift, it was dawn oxley. >> she basically said she couldn't take it anymore and she wanted to talk. >> what were you thinking on the way to see her? >> it's about time.

>> the detective drove over to dawn's house. she was inebriated. >> i'm hurting. >> but she had quite a story to tell about james. about how he offered to murder ben. >> the night ben died, he said now or never. and i said no. i said not today. don't do it. no. i said no. i said no. no, no, no, no. >> hours later, she said, james woke her up from a sound sleep and told her ben was dead. but that, she said, is all he told her. all she knew. >> so you're confident that james had something to do with it? >> i don't know. >> but was that really all she knew? dawn, remember, had a 16-year-old son named devon, who detectives learned was at home and listening in the hours before ben oxley was murdered. so if anyone could confirm dawn's version of events, surely it would be devin. but he wasn't talking. not yet anyway.

>> coming up, the question haunting this whole case. >> what's our evidence? >> was there any proof against anyone? prosecutors were about to make a deal to get the evidence they need. >> do you want to talk about this case? >> you know i do. >> when "dateline" continues. 't. but we went to work. building an experience that lets you shop over 17,000 cars from home. creating a coast to coast network to deliver your car as soon as tomorrow. recruiting an army of customer advocates to make your experience incredible. and putting you in control of the whole thing with powerful technology. that's why we've become the nation's fastest growing retailer. because our customers love it. see for yourself, at carvana.com. and it's negatively impacting your enamel. eating and drinking healthy things that are acidic thinning and yellowing can happen as a result of that. pronamel is a proactive solution designed to help

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oxley's murder, bit by bit, was leaking out. but could dawn's version be believed that she had nothing to do with it? here's what dawn's mother sherry thought. >> i can see her sitting there saying, god, i wish he was dead. >> yeah. >> and i can see james going you want me to go kill him for you and her going whatever? it was more of a disbelief than an affirmation. >> that's the story dawn told, too, she did not want james to kill her ex-husband. >> do you want to talk about this case? >> you know i do. >> okay. >> it was now the fall of 2009. dawn was in jail for a dui and agreed to talk in more detail about the night of ben oxley's murder. >> and he said do you want me to go do that? i'm sitting there going are you serious? are you kidding me? all i know is he's on the phone. he's asking me if i wanted him to go take care of ben and i was saying no. >> and then she went to sleep, she said.

and the next thing she knew, james was back. >> he woke me up and he said it's done. i was totally drunk. and then turned around and now i'm waking up out of a dead sleep. i'm like what the hell are you talking about? he said the cops are going to be here. seriously right now you're telling me the cops are going to show up at my house because my ex-husband is dead? >> and she did not take part, she swore, not at all. >> i didn't drive. i was not -- i didn't. i did not go anywhere. i did not plan this. i did not want ben dead. >> so truth or fiction? there was no solid evidence either way, nor that james matlean killed ben oxley, only dawn's story, at which point tom gregory, who was the assistant district attorney decided he needed her help. >> you love to get everybody involved in the case, but there's a reality in many cases that sometimes you need the help

of one of the people involved to get the main person. >> and so dawn oxley was offered a limited immunity agreement, cooperate with the prosecution, testify truthfully against james matlean, and you won't be prosecuted. a sort of get out of jail free card. why go ahead and make that deal with her so soon? you had her statement. why not hold off for a while and be patient and then get them both? >> let's say we don't do the deal with her and we go out and arrest him. what's our evidence? >> dawn signed the agreement and james matlean was charged with first-degree murder. but the end of the story, oh, no, not even close. the truth had been hiding but it was itching to come out. young devin, remember him? dawn's son? devin finally decided it was time to reveal what he overheard the night of the murder. >> my mom was like i want ben to die. i just want him dead. yada, yada, and james said i'll go out and kill him right now. you just say the word i'll kill

him. she was like a broken record. i want him dead. i want him dead. >> sound like a woman who was shocked when the murder happened? but there was more. it was after that when james matlean told his attorney it was time to tell the whole story. >> i could tell he was telling the truth. over the course of 15 months, he's always told the same story. >> so now comes another story. james' story. not a love story this time. >> nobody could believe that i did what i did. i had never been a violent person. >> james matlean did not have an easy start in life. by the time he was a teenager, he was drinking, doing drugs, stealing things. >> i had pretty much given up any hope on continuing successfully in life. >> dawn, after her marriage to ben, befriended james. made him feel rescued. gave him a place to live.

he had just been paroled from prison after doing time for stealing a truck. >> kind of gave me a sense of hope. there was somebody out there besides my mom who cared. >> at dawn's house, james discovered what others had, he said, as long as dawn was happy, everybody was happy. and if she wasn't -- well, then james could not be happy either. >> she was very, very upset the fact she lost alyssa. >> and she went on rants, he said about, ben oxley, a man james didn't know, had never met. but he listened. >> kind of felt like you were in love with her? >> yeah, for a little while. it gave me a sense of feeling wanted. >> and then he realized, he said, she would never be happy unless he fixed what was upsetting her. >> i just wanted to make dawn happy. >> so what happened? dawn and james' stories begin the same way. february 20th, 2008, night of heavy drinking at dawn's house, a heated conversation about ben oxley.

james asking dawn if she wants to have him killed. but that's where the stories diverge. dawn remember, says she told james, no, don't do it and fell asleep on the couch. but that's not james' story. >> she was ecstatic about what happened. she was happy i was going to kill somebody. >> it was after midnight. dawn drew him a diagram of ben's house, said james, so he could find his way to the bedroom. then he went to the 7-eleven, drew $40 out of the atm with dawn's bank card, and then together, he said, they went to the walmart. dawn waited in the car while james did the shopping, shotgun shells, gloves, a flashlight. >> she was very happy about it. like you would imagine a kid going to disneyland, you know. >> but there was a problem. they'd forgotten to bring the diagram of ben's house with them. >> the plan wasn't for dawn to go in the house. the plan was just for me to go

in the house. i didn't know how to get in. >> or where the bedroom was? >> or where the bedroom was. so dawn had to go inside. >> the front door was locked so dawn took him around back where a sliding glass door was unlocked and they eased their way in and walked down the hall. then said james, dawn pointed him towards the master bedroom. >> and i turned around and she was going into alyssa's room. >> going into the room? >> yeah. she was about -- half her body was into the room. she said she was going to take alyssa with her. i said you can't take alyssa. >> is this true? remember, alyssa just 6 years old at the time told police she remembered seeing someone in her doorway. >> i just looked out and i saw somebody walking in. >> and then said james, he walked into the master bedroom, saw ben and melissa sleeping in the moonlight. >> and i raised the gun.

that's where everything in my mind that should have happened three or four hours ago happened. i started thinking why am i here? something i heard to my left -- >> a sudden noise? >> yeah. and as i turned and jerked to see what it was, i pulled the trigger. >> he ran then, he said, left the front door wide open. caught up to dawn with the truck. >> who drove? >> she did. i started yelling at her when we got in the truck. >> the truth, said james, all of it. >> dawn knows the truth and i know the truth. and that's all that matters. i take full responsibility for what i did. dawn needs to take full responsibility for what she did. >> coming up, was ben the only one who was in danger that night?

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it's a rare thing to sit in a jailhouse room such as this while a murderer confesses chapter and verse, denial of the more common language here. >> i pulled the trigger.

>> but james matlean did not shrink from it. he murdered ben oxley in his sleep and must live with what he did for the rest of his days. >> i'm afraid to deal with what i actually did. >> in december 2011, he told his story in court. it was after the d.a. took the death penalty off the table and james decided to plead guilty. and that's when melissa sitting in the courtroom heard for the first time about something else james was supposed to kill her too. >> dawn asked me if i would kill melissa. i just automatically just said, yeah. >> there was a bullet there for you. what was it like to hear that? >> unreal. >> do you believe that she was in the house that night? >> i do, which makes me sick. i have a harder time with dawn than i do james, because if it wasn't for her, none of it would happen. >> and that's where melissa oxley and james matlean's

attorney kent stover firmly agree, only a half a measure of justice since dawn is protected by that immunity agreement she signed with the d.a. >> james is not the type of boy who's going to go out and commit a murder in the hopes that dawn will find it acceptable. he didn't do this as a surprise gift. >> dawn herself declined our request for an interview, though her mom, the retired deputy sheriff has remained in her corner. >> i know that a lot of people believe that. that it was a blatant conspiracy on her part. but i don't think dawn really wanted ben dead. i don't think dawn was there. >> you're trying to hold it all together. all the way along and even now. >> you got to understand. ben was a good guy.

they had their problems. everybody loved him. he didn't deserve to die. >> so for the time being it's a he said/she said story. and the d.a.'s deal with dawn to to the dismay of james matlean's attorney means she may never face a murder charge. >> the prosecutor made a deal with the devil. now we just need to show him how far in hell she is. >> deal with the devil? well, the d.a. said without dawn's testimony at the preliminary hearing, the murder charge against james would never have stuck. but dawn wasn't totally off the hook because there was one possibility still. if the d.a. could find hard evidence that dawn lied when she was given that get out of jail free deal when implicating james -- >> it's still an open book on dawn oxley for murder. if somebody comes today with credible evidence that she did in fact go, we could prosecute her.

>> in 2011, dawn was sent to prison on another offense. she pleaded guilty to using her teenaged daughter brandy to sell prescription drugs. was she employing you as her assistant in that business? >> i was driving, yes. >> dawn was released from prison in march of 2014, but not to be the mother of alyssa. the judge terminated her parental rights. both alyssa and brandy went to live with melissa, who offered them a kind of family life they didn't know with their biological mom. >> it is a family and that's what i need. >> one more thing to do. in 2011, having pleaded guilty to murder, james matlean prepared to be sentenced. is there redemption for a person like you? >> i don't know. i don't expect anybody that i've harmed or hurt to forgive me for what i've done. >> you looked in the lens as you said that. you're talking to them. right?

>> basically talking to melissa. i'm sorry. >> in exchange for his guilty plea, the d.a. agreed to recommend that james could be eligible for parole after serving 24 years. >> all rise. >> the final decision was up to the judge. defense attorney stover made the argument. and then melissa took the stand. >> emotionally the damage you have caused me is almost unbearable. for alyssa, you crumbled her foundation and everything she knew to be right and true. and as hard as this is to do or believe, i also want to you know i have found it in my heart to forgive you. >> and then james got his sentence. >> the murder charge, you're

sentenced to life in prison. >> life without parole ever. afterwards the little girl in the middle of the family drama turned to melissa with a remarkable request. alyssa asked to meet with james an was ushered in to see him before he was whisked away. >> i told him that i decided to forgive him and that i wanted him to have hope. >> and she wept then, tears of forgiveness, the lingering grief for her father. as for melissa, after the trial she told us she was ready to move on. >> where will you keep ben? >> always be in my heart, will never be forgotten, but we do have to go on, we still have to be here and live a day-to-day life. >> if he's looking down and watching you, what would he think about his daughter? >> i think he still loves me and

i'm doing much better than i was at my other house. >> do you miss him? >> yeah, i miss him a lot. >> you're a pretty strong kid, aren't you? >> yeah. >> and that's all for this edition of "dateline," i'm craig i am being followed. there are threats on my life. i know we're in danger. i know we are. it's a riveting mystery that started in a place of glamour. >> it became a destination for frank sa gnat ra. >> and ended in a case of murder. the wealthy heir to this legendary hotel dead. >> he was my father. he is the only father i ever knew. >> now police said she was next. someone in the shadows gunning