mean it. i think kamala harris being on the tick is an example of what happens when women work together. >> thank you so much. pal orchest palo ramos and natasha brown. that's it for "all in". have a great night. a mystery in los angeles. a missing woman. >> he said, where's my mom? >> and i just instantly knew. i said, michael, call the police. i'm on my way. >> a loving mother. >> always there for me. >> a beloved friend. >> she was just so easy to like. >> vanishes. >> something was very, very wrong. >> was she murdered? was it for money? >> how much money did she have in bank?

>> i think it was over seven figures. >> or was it something else? >> that threw him for a loop when he found out my mom met somebody else. >> police had a suspect in a case that was about to take an unbelievable turn. >> one of the most shocking things i've ever seen in a courtroom. >> betrayal of trust. hello, and welcome to "dateline extra". i'm craig melvin. dee dee keller seemed to have it all. she was a successful realtor who had a family and a new man in her life. then, suddenly she disappeared. to dee dee's loved ones it was unthinkable that someone might want to harm her and police were left wondering, what could have happened to a woman who seem ed so adore? >> southern california's south bay.

a singularly stunning strand of shoreline with familiar names like hermosa, redondo and manhattan. >> we call it the sandbox. no one thinks that part of los angeles exists but it does. >> this seaside playground has properties worth millions and in these beach towns is an oasis called el segun doe. >> it's a great place the raise kids. >> in 2003, one of the rainmakers selling the beautiful homes was a woman named julia keller, known as dee dee. >> she really just embraced everyone that came into her path. >> dee dee's best friends,

mortgage executive cindy earthman and linda dondero. >> i loved working with dee dee. >> she was so easy to like and always wanted to best of everything and her clients wither very loyal over the years. >> dee dee was loyal, too, not only to her clients but as a divorced mom, to her children mike and julie. >> i remember my mom exxoning to me when i was about ten years old that as you get older, we're probably not going to be as close or you won't like me quite as much, and it never happened. if anything, we just got closer. >> but dee dee keller had a heart problem. not literally. it may have been a little too big. she loved without limits and simply hated to disappoint or let anyone down. she loved dogs so much she literally couldn't say no to another one. she was surrounded by them at

home. >> i always joked that when i graduated college that's when she replaced us with dogs. she never stopped being a mom. >> and she never stopped loving everybody, i guess. >> never did. she was ready to be embraced and to embrace you whenever you wanted it. >> but there was one area of her life in which dee dee keller's honesty and embrace hadn't caught hold. >> your mom was so lucky and life was so easy in many ways, yet she wouldn't quite make the man many her life thing come out. >> she had a wonderful life, but no, i guess she hadn't found that person. >> she did have a long-term relationship, but that ended sadly in 1997. soon after, she met someone new. he was a real estate clientd na named erwin howard.

he was a pilot. >> i remember dee dee telling me she wasn't going to be with anyone unless she felt loved treasured and adored. she felt that with ewwin. >> dee dee said yes. at her bridle shower, erwin dutifully delivered her. the smiles didn't last when the marriage began. >> it wasn't six months after they were married she blurted out that she married him on the rebound. >> and was having second thoughts? >> apparently so. >> it was hard for her to think about ening it because of what it would do to him because he loved her. >> so much in fact that the marriage lasted another four years after that conversation. ultimately their divorce was amicable, and a year after the split in the summer of 2004, dee dee seemed to be finding her

footing once again. she had begun baiting a well known south bay car salesman named bobby low. that was going so well that on the evening he took dee dee out to this restaurant to meet his father. >> i talked to her before the date. >> any sign she was nervous about anything? >> she was in a happy state when i talked to her and we made plans to hopefully get together the following night so i could get the update on the date. >> but that conversation never took place. >> i called her on friday, and she didn't call me back, which was not unusual for dee dee. i called her on saturday, and she didn't call me back. this was pretty typical, but by sunday i started getting concerned. >> concerned, too, was daughter julie. she talked of meeting her mom that same friday during a layover at l.a.x. as julie

headed to mexico. >> she was like, i might have an appointment, but if i don't, i'll text you. we'll have coffee. we stayed over in los angeles. i didn't get a text, which was odd, but didn't think much of it. >> dee dee's son mike was beginning to worry after he returned from a trip to the san francisco trip. when i called her cell phone her voicemail was full. that never happened with my mom. she prided herself on being responsive. >> so you go over to your mom's house. >> i went in the back gate, and then instantly it was clear that she had not been there for a while. >> what made that clear? >> the dog's water dish was bone dry. my mom would die of thirst before her dogs went without water. >> mike's first call was to cin cindy. >> and he said, cindy, where's my mom? and i just -- i instantly knew in that moment that something

had happened. i just knew. i said, michael, call the police, i'm on my way. >> where was dee dee keller? not only was there no water left outside for dee dee's beloved dogs, but detectives noticed lots of other things wrong inside the house. her purse was there, but her wallet was missing and, this was a woman with money, a lot of it. >> was dee dee's hefty bank account a factor in her disappearance? investigators follow the money trail. coming up -- >> who got that money in the event of her death? >> the den ben feficiaries were her two children. >> detectives wondered where were they? re were they?

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she toll her friend cindy she was going out with her new boyfriend and no one had heard from her since. her children were worried and an investigation was about to be launched. here again is josh mank wits. on a sun splashed sunday on l.a.'s south bay, clouds were rolling in over one household. it was july 2004. el segundo real estate agent known to the world as deedee keller was missing. her son mike had gone to her home when she was missing for three days. the biggest red flag, her dog left without food or water. >> what did you think happened? >> i didn't know at that point. i just knew something was very, very wrong. mike called his mom's best friends.

cindy who had last spoke ton deedee three days before as she prepared for a date rushed to the house. >> you could tell the dogs had been running around for days, but the way the tv was on and the way the shades were, i felt like thursday night had never ended. i felt like friday morning never came. >> cindy immediately called her new boyfriend, bobby low. he reported they had dinner thursday and returned to her house for a night cap. >> he said she had too much wine, laid down on the couch and started to fall asleep, so he said good night and let himself out. >> anything bobby low said sound suspicious to you? >> not at all. >> the next call, to el segundo police, and soon on the scene,

sergeant -- >> what detectives found in their initial search of deedee's home deepened the mystery. in her kitchen, deedee's purse, her cell phone still inside, but no wallet. a vodka battle police learned was usually kept in the freezer was on the counter. and in the living room, the tv was on cnn. >> we discovered whenever she left the house, he always put the tv on to a classical music station so it would relax the dogs, but it was on cnn when we came into the house. >> so deedee was watching cnn, had the dogs there, was having a drink, and then left for some reason. >> suggesting that, kind of, what, whatever happened happened in a big hurry? >> she didn't have time to do her routine she usually does before she leaves. >> and it appears deedee left in

her car. the garage was empty. her silver 1999 mercedes gone bum strangely, police found the car keys sitting on deedee's patio. >> we decided to call the l.a. county sheriff's department homicide bureau to come assist us. >> jimmy gates was the detective who answered that call. >> there was no forced entry whatsoever, and when we started walking through the house, i noticed several articles that were very valuable. >> so she let in whoever it was and it wasn't robbery. >> absolutely correct. if she didn't let him in, that person let themselves in and they may have had a key. >> gates wonders, had dee dee left in her car with someone she knew? and how did her car get taken without its key. >> if you don't have a key is it as easy to steal a car as movies depict? >> certainly not a 1999 mercedes.

it's hard to hot wire. hard to steal it. you almost need a key to ax it. >> if your car doesn't have a key, the next stop is the car dealership to have one made. but first, gates and crew scoured the house looking for the spare key, without luck. gates thought one thing. you thought finding deedee's car was going to be the key to this. >> that was extremely important. >> deedee's friends and family printed up posters. >> an army of people banded together to help find her. he broke up into teams and mapped everything out to start to search every parking lot looking for her car. >> we would ask people, have you seen this woman? have you seen this car? it was frantic. it was heartbreaking. >> and it was leading nowhere. at the same time, detective gates wonders who might have had a motive to abduct deedee from

her home, the most common, love, jealousy, are the ones police hug first like old friends. >> deedee made a lot of money as a realtor. >> she was successful. >> how much money did she have in the bank? >> i think it was over seven figures. >> a lot of murders committed for less than that. >> yes, sir. >> who got that money? >> the beneficiaries were her children. >> and detectives notice something about the whereabouts of her two children at the time of dee dee's disappearance. >> they were both out of town at the time of their mother's disappearance. >> why was that significant? won't the reverse be true? >> i just thought, mike is in l.a. and julie's in a resort, and people -- stress some people

leave the area just to dissipate stress. >> there was, strangely, one more person who just happened to be traveling near the time of deedee's disappearance, her ex husband erwin howard had just flown to his home country of bolivia, and erwin was a mechanic who worked for american airlines in l.a. the common thread in all these trips? nearby l.a.x. airport. and so the detective thought, what better place to dump a car? >> l.a.x. is a big place. >> very big place. >> a lot of parking lots. >> a lot of parking lots and it took a few days. >> you looked through them all. >> every one of them. >> no mercedes, and no shortage of persons of interest. a lot of people close to deedee keller were about to be hugged like old friends. coming up -- >> dee dee's daughter, julie rushes back from vacation to help find her missing mother.

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welcome back. deede keller had vanished a search of her home revealed deede's wallet and mercedes were missing but strangely, not her car keys. she had plenty of clothes, a new boyfriend, and an ex-husband. but why might someone want the beloved realtor gone? searching high and low for a motive, detective gates could think of a million reasons, all sitting in her bank account. it was time to turn up the heat on deede's beneficiaries, her children. once again, here's josh. >> in the days of the disappearance of deede keller all of el segundo seemed to be looking for her, leading the search, her best friends cindy and linda. >> a lot of times people disappearing you get the immediate family working on it

and everybody else is like, well -- >> not in this town. >> she had an army. >> deede's daughter julie rushed back to l.a. from a trip to mexico. >> it was the most surreal experience. >> only to be greeted by suspicious. l.a. sheriff's detective jimmy gates discovered in the event of their mother's death, julie and her brother mike stood to inherit more than $1 million. he confronted deede's kids using one of the oldest tricks in the investigators' handbook. >> do you remember an interview you did with jimmy gates in which he asked you basic questions like, what's your name? where do you live? pretty ordinary stuff, and then he says, do you have anything to do with your mom's disappearance? >> i think it was more, did you kill your mother? >> and you're what, startled or angry? >> it was a horrible question, but i can understand why it

needs to be ask. >> detectives asked similar questions of julie. next, in attempting to rule out as suspects those closest to deede, detectives turned their attention to her ex husband erwin howard. it turned out although they had been divorced for more than a year, friends told police she had invited him back into her life. deede had been in a car accident and needed help for her dogs. deede also felt bad about the pain their divorce caused erwin. >> she called erwin to help her, because that's what he did best. he helped nurse her back to health and help take care of the dogs and the house and her. in taking a hard look at erwin howard, the detective found he had a rock solid alibi. on the night of deede's disappearance, july 8th, erwin

clocked in for his job at the american airlines hangar at 8:30 p.m. he said he worked all night, but it wasn't just erwin's word. he had to use an electronic key card to get into the hangar. that left the last person to admit to seeing deede alive, her new boyfriend, car salesman, bobby low. low said he left deede's house midnight and then had gone to the gym the next morning. what possible motive would bobby low have to want deede out of the picture? >> there was no motive i could determine whatsoever. >> low provided investigators with two important clues. first he said while he was at deede's that night, her dogs had all started barking at something

outside, as if someone were lurking and the next morning he discovered someone keyed the side of his ford explorer, leaving a long scratch. >> which suggests what, someone's following them on that date? >> absolutely. that's what it meant to me. >> but who was following deede and bobby? who was that angry. that act of vandalism pointed away from bobby low. >> i was an investigator for several years. i've never known anybody to vandalize their own car. >> that kind of thinking is what would make it a perfect alibi. >> sure, sure. if he's sophisticated enough, but his background indicated that he was a well liked guy, kind of successful himself, and didn't have a lot of enemies. >> and then, even as investigators looked at suspects, came the news that all who knew deede had at once hoped for and feared. deede's car had been found. not at l.a.x., not in l.a., but two and a half hours down

interstate five in san diego. that silver mercedes had been parked on this street for days, earning it several parking tickets. when they ran the plate it came up linked to a missing person, and when the trunk was finally open there was a body wrap in the sheets covered by a blanket, which itself was decorate with dog paws. deede keller with us as no long missing. police asked to meet with deede's family. >> there was a wide range of emotions. there was some type of relief that they found her, because we were starting to think at that point, how long could this go on? >> worst days of my life. and all of her friends and family. >> deede keller was dead at age -- she had been asphyxiated

and the clues that were and were not left in her car were about to take this case back in a familiar direction. coming up -- just days before she was murdered, dee dae had a visit from a stalker. >> she said she was in the shower, he kind of pulled her out of the shower and they'd this huge altercation. he was calling her every name under the sun. >> when betrayal of trust continues. mly and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. for 45 days. (brad) well, it's because we're willing to scout them out no matter

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heart forever. now back to "dateline". welcome back to "dateline extra". i'm craig melvin. deede keller's children received the news they dreaded. her mother's body had been found more than 100 miles from her home. it was a tragic blow, but also came with the potential for answers. detectives went looking for clues and that's exactly what they would find. >> reporter: on a downtown street in san diego in july 2004, deede keller had finally been found, dead in the trunk of her silver mercedes. the car had been the subject of a massive search since deede went missing a week early for her home, two hours north in el segundo. homicide detective jimmy gates who always thought finding the

car would be the key to finding deede now gave the mercedes a thorough going over. finger prints or dna in the car? >> there wasn't one finger print on or in that car or a partial. >> deede or anybody else's? >> nothing. >> what does that say as a professional. >> someone went to great lengthing to make sure they weren't identified that's for sure. >> the killer did leave a clue in the tape around deede's body. >> it appeared to be consistent with red duct tape. >> that started gates in one direction. he also looked closely at the way deede's body was placed in that car. >> someone took great care to place her in that car and that indicated to us someone cared deeply about her. >> part of this says professional and part of this says somebody that knew her. >> that's exactly correct.

>> the suspicions that said professional soon fell away in favor of those that said someone who knew her. not her children, but someone who had reentered deede's lives in the months before her death. her ex husband, erwin howard. >> did you ever think of erwin as violent or dangerous? >> no, i never suspected that he would do something physical. >> but detectives soon learned something had change in the erwin howard in the months before deede's murder. remember, after a car accident in january 2004, deede invited wynn win back into her life to help care for her and her dogs that many request had apparently been misinterpreted by erwin. he started wearing his wedding ring again. erwin wanted back in her life and sowns to me like on some level she sort of appreciated that part of him that adored her and wanted to take care of her. even if it's somebody that

you're not going to be with anymore. >> yes. >> right. >> you think she made that point clear enough to him? >> no. >> she was too nice? >> always too nice and very trusting. >> and that may be why, investigators thought, erwin seemed surprised when just two weeks before deede's murderer erwin gained access to deede's computer and found emails referring to a relationship with a new man, bobby low. >> and i think it really threw him for a loop when he found out that my mom, you know, had met somebody else, and that's when things started getting scary. >> scary because erwin, detectives learned started going things -- her son mike lived

down the street. he was sitting in his living ram when a su a familiar green range rover. in the was erwin. as the evening went on he continued to drive by the house. >> did you call your mom and say, by the way, erwin is driving around the block while you're with bobby low? >> i didn't. i didn't put two and two together. >> but the next day, two days before her murder, deede called her friend in a state of panic. >> she was crying, said she was in the shower and wynn win came in the house, pulled her out of the shower hrk an altercation and erwin was calling her every name in the book. she told the same friend to her friend linda. >> i said, do you realize erwin's behavior is escalating, deede? >> she said, yes. >> you said call the police.

>> no, i said, have you changed your locks? she said, no, i'll do it on the way home. of course, she never did. >> investigators soon learned in those conversations with her friends deede had left something out, a detail she mentioned only to her daughter, julie, in that argument, erwin howard slapped her. >> as a mom, you have to call police, get an a restraining order. i remember her asking me not to tell mike and that she was going to handle it. i remember being torn like, okay, this is my mom telling me, i got it, but also thinking maybe she didn't have it. >> and a few days later, it was clear julie was right. the very night here mom went missing julie got another phone call. this time, from erwin. >> i got on the phone and he was like, jules, what was your mom thinking? i said, erwin, i don't want to talk about this.

i feel lick this is between you and your mom. he said, well, you just need to pray for her soul. i remember thinking it was a little bit odd, but then, given his grasp on the english language sometimes he'd say funny things or get something wrong, but i just remember thinking that was an odd comment. >> detective gates now felt wynn win howard's motive for killing deede keller was clear. but proving he had the means to commit the murder -- and erwin steadfastly maintained his innocence to investigators from the moment he stepped off the plane after the murder to the moments after, even though he was clearly the prim suspect. and the case against erwin was not without its problems. it's one thing to stalk someone. quite another to kill them. there was no physical evidence trying erwin howard to the crime, and there were those key card records showing him

clocking into his job at american airlines the night of the murder. still, detective gates took the information he gathered to the l.a. county's office. >> they won't file. >> did jimmy gate haves the wrong man in his sights? was there ever going to be enough evidence to arrest a killer? any killer? >> soon investigators would get the break they needed and it was not the only surprise in store. coming up -- >> that's like lightning striking. >> twice. >> make that three times. >> one of the most shocking things i've ever seen in one of may cases in is the courtroom. >> when betrayal of trust continues. for people living with h-i-v, keep being you.

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that deede keller's ex-husband erwin howard was obsessed and deede and killed her. but he had an alibi for the night she disappeared. he was as his job as an airline mechanic. with no physical evidence tying him to the crime, making a case would be very difficult, to detective jimmy gates decided it was time for an advanced course in airport employee security procedures. >> summer had come and gone in l.a.'s south bay without an arrest in murder of beloved el segundo real estate agent deede keller. detective gates kept pounding the payment, building what we thought was a strong circumstantial case against keller's ex husband erwin howard. but the l.a. county d.a.'s office declined to issue a warn for his arrest.

deede's son michael wanted answers. there was a long time when erwin was walking around free. >> seemed like decades. it was so frustrating, painful, emotional. >> jimmy gates was feeling all those same things and soon his hard work started paying off. that unusual red tape found on deede's body? a specially trained dog found erw erwin's scent on it and detectives found similar tape at erwin's workplace, the american airlines hangar at l.a.x. what about his alibi? computer records showing him at work in that same hangar the night of deede's disexperience and he worked a ten-hour shift? the more detectives dug into that alibi, the less solid it seemed. detective gates painstakingly dissected the procedure at the hangar.

and he found this. erwin howard could swipe in at the lot using a key card and then clock in inside the hangar, but he could also leave whenever we wanted by walking out the large bay doors and catching a employee shuttle back to the parking lot. there would be no record of his leaving. jimmy gates discovered that on the night of the murder, erwin used his key card to swipe into the parking lot at 8:24 p.m. and again at 10:21 p.m. and for a third time at 1:47 a.m., which completely blew apart his alibi that he had been at work the whole time. so he would swipe his card to get back in after there was no record of him leaving. >> right. >> by now you're convinced erwin is the guy. >> absolutely. all the witnesses, all the evidence, everything pointed directly at erwin.

>> and there was one more thing that pointed to erwin. a day after the murder, a witness saw a mercedes on a street in el segundo. she thought it was her friend. >> she sees it's not a friend and seeing a male hispanic driving the car. she remembers that license plate. >> the license plate that belongs to the mercedes of deede keller. the man driving -- this sketch. who does it look like? >> looks like erwin howard. >> she was ginn a photo lineup and picked out erwin howard. >> that's light lightning striking. >> twice. >> six months later, detective gates' phone rang who had been interviewed twice and -- she was

having an attack of conscious. she told detective she saw wynn win on june 30th. >> she said the conversation lasted 15 or 20 minutes that he articulates he was mad enough to strangle her with work gloves. >> that's what deede's neighbor said he said to her? >> correct. >> why do you think she didn't tell you for six months? >> i have no idea why a neighbor during a murder investigation didn't tell the cops he just wanted to kill her. >> armed with that statement, detective gates was able to get a statement and soon erwin howard was under arrest for the murder of deede keller. >> now the case was in the thanes of l.a. county district attorney john lewan. >> what made this case different? >> i love cases where you have a very good idea who the suspect is, but it's a question of kind of putting the evidence together. so circumstantial cases, where

you have high motive but you're looking at lots of little facts and seeing, okay, what can you turn this into? >> it would take three years for the case against erwin howard to come to trial. cameras were not front in the courtroom that day when trial began in the fall of 2008. john lewan laid out in his case in a devastatingly thorough 2 1/2 hour long power point presentation to the jury. >> opening statements are like a check. i'm writing a check, the jury hears it, and if i do my job right after opening all they're waiting to see if there are funds in the bank. >> in order, if you deliver in your case what you say you're going to deliver in the opening statement, you're going get a -- >> that's my hope. >> never in this prosecutor's wildest dreams did this prosecutor believe it would have

the effect on erwin howard and his attorney. >> you hear that opening statement and something changed. >> something changed. i went to lockup and spoke to erwin and said, listen, remember how have i was speaking about the circumstantial case and it could be powerful? i think there could be some problems now, and his answer was, i need to tell you something. >> that something would stun deede keller's family and friends and the prosecutor himself. zbl >> one of the most shocking things i've ever seen in one of my cases in a courtroom. >> betrayal of trust returns after break. with its irresistible scent. looks like their dog michelangelo did too. unfortunately for him, it's more of a forbidden love. gain ultra flings with two times oxi-boost and febreze... seriously good scent. and if you love gain flings, you've gotta try the dish soap.

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click, call or visit a store today. welcome back to "dateline extra". erwin howard was on trial for the murder of his ex wife, deede keller. on day one, the prosecution laid out a detailed circumstantial case. jurors expected to hear weeks of testimony, but erwin was about

to deliver a bombshell, a twist everyone the most seasoned people in the courtroom did not see coming. here's the conclusion of our story. >> in a los angeles courtroom in september 2008, something extraordinary was taking place. the murder trial of erwin howard, expected to last three months, was on the verge of ending in just two days. prosecutor john lewan had presented a powerful opening statement. >> i had seen the defendant during the opening and i thought maybe, you know, something had gotten to him. >> and d.a. was right, because after the opening, defense attorney andrew flyer had spoke within howard, who then made a stunning admission. >> for the first time in my career, i heard a defendant confess to a crime, and i was the first one he told. >> and until that moment, his defense was, i wasn't there and i didn't have anything to do with it.

>> correct. >> the district attorney walked into the courtroom and made a statement that caused mouths to fall open. >> the defense donor geattorney and he says, you're going to see something you'll never see in a court ever. he says, my client killed deede keller but didn't murder her. >> what did that mean? >> they were trying to get a manslaughter. >> lewan asked to speak with howard behind closed doors. and made an offer. plead guilty to second-degree murderer and be eligible for parole in 15 years. >> my memory is that as i was saying this he was nodding. >> but he also had to come into court and admit it to everybody. >> yes and erwin howard did just that. >> i do. >> surprising a courtroom filled with deede's friends and family. >> howard. h-o-w-a-r-d. >> there was such a sense of

relief to think that, oh, my gosh, you know, we're going to hear the truth, finally and erwin's going to confess. >> lewan guided howard through the sequence of events, including why he went to deede's house on the night of july 8, 2004. >> i wanted to talk to her. >> what did you want to talk to her about? >> to apologize for my act on june the 30th. >> june 30, 2004, when after discovering she was dating another man, erwin stormed into dee deede's house, confronted her in the shower, tossed emails in her face, and slapped her. on that final night, though, erwin says he knocked and deede, alone after her new boyfriend left, he says, let him in. >> i said, please, listen to me. please listen to me. at some point, i guess i raised

my voice. and the little dog rossi started growling. >> erwin says he threw a pillow at the dog and that angered deede. >> she said, how dare you hurt my dog? and slapped me. i reached at her. she grabbed my hand, started punching the other hand on my chest. i put her hand down, i grabbed her, pulled her toward me, we struggled. >> erwin says he put deede in a sort of bear hug. >> i just holding her and telling her, please listen to me. i don't want to lose you. i love you. i don't want to lose you. >> how tightly were you holding her? >> i felt her body going limp. >> i stood there and i thought, god, i've killed her. i've killed her.

i killed her, i killed her, i killed her. >> erwin says he came back the next evening and put deede's body in the car. using a spare key he had for the mercedes he started driving and heading for mexico. but wonders how he would get back over the border. so they left the car on the street and hired an offduty taxi to take him back the l.a. >> he committed to the murer but made it team accidental. >> he was willing to take responsibility for the rage and anger. he have not willing to accept responsibility that the murderer happened intentionally. >> second-degree murder. >> but didespite that, lewan fe a second-degree murderer conviction was the best he could secure. and after erwin left the stand and took the plea, deede's friends and family had the chance to speak to him. they offered surprising words of

gratitude and forgiveness to a now confessed killer. >> thank you. and we also will find it in our hearts to forgive you. >> you did the right thing with the circumstances and -- and for that i thank you. >> thank you. thank you for doing the right thing. >> i remember thinking that something really special had happened, that, you know, although nothing is going to bring my mom back, we got the best possible outcome given the circumstances. >> it's rare in a murderer trial to hear so much of a sort of lack of anger and visit roll towards the defendant. >> they're good people. they also realized deede in hindsight had not handled things as best she could have in terms of terminating that

relationship. >> with credit for time served before sentencing and good behavior, erwin howard was granted parole in february 2019. deede's friends and family, their sorrow tinged with regret honored deede by warning women not to ignore the warning sign of domestic violence. >> i just hope people will reach out for help, get support. >> i know you don't blame deede for this, but i know you also wish she would been more forthright with the two of you, because you would have acted even though she didn't want to. >> yes, we would have. >> there's no question i would have done things differently if i could go back and relive it. if zbl >> but for deede's friends regrets gave way to wonderful memories. today there's a black at the local dog park, both remembering and honoring a woman whose wig heart wouldn't ever let her turn

away a stray. >> that's all for this edition. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. for watcg i'm craig melvin.m >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline."nd >> my mom found her.un she said it looked like she might have slipped in the shower. >> she was in the fetal position in this bathtub.n >> you could see marks on jessica's neck. >> they said, "we're going to rule this as a homicide." >> detectives using new technology to view this crime scene in extreme detail. >> there was no forced entry, no tool marks. >> there was blood on the couch. >> who could have done this?no >> they say that usually