>> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." she told archie she was dating this man. if he didn't like it, he could leave. >> he had been stabbed multiple times. nobody saw anything. >> i went, dad. and i touched him. i will never forget that feeling. >> it was just before dawn when he found his father dead in the driveway. >> there was no doubt in my mind what happened. i immediately knew. >> there was someone else who may have known too. >> i turned around and looked at my mom. i go, you know who did this. that son-of-a- -- >> there was one thing no one could know.

the strange twist still to come. >> it was a bit of a surprise. kind of a shock when you found out she was seeing him again. >> yes. >> a lover's triangle always leads to trouble. >> how could you do such a horrible thing? you've destroyed me. >> did this one lead to murder? >> what was it like watching him walk out of jail? >> he beat the system. hello and welcome to "dateline." how long does it take a killer to stop worrying about whether he will ever be caught? a couple of weeks? a couple of months? 25 years? if he still is a free man then, he is probably pretty sure he did, indeed, get away with murder. after all, detectives retire, witnesses forget. a trail goes cold, never to warm up again, until one day it does.

here's keith morrison. >> what a time it was. the year he turned up in that crazy little car. what a sweet, impossible, unexpected last chance. that love, that red passionate sin. just for mary ann. it was 1985, and it was magic. and now here she was, 2011, in a courtroom of all places. forced to confess her forbidden love, account for her sins. this grandmother, widow,

penitent. what story would she tell? >> the main thing going through my mind is to tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may. >> the truth. such a difficult word. especially when it bubbles up from a past which mary ann mcfarland must have believed was buried forever. >> and where was your husband? >> he was still in my -- in the house. >> men. trouble was there were two, which was the one central fact. the inconvenient truth that caused all the trouble. and might have been forgotten had it not been for this inquisitive d.a. and this long lean cop, jim wallace, looking on so intently. >> this is a case, a true love story between three people. one woman who was loved intensely over the top by two men in two very different ways.

>> he was the first, the husband. handsome, athletic, adventurous. a surfer. the real deal. his name was archie mcfarland. good ol' arch. everybody loved him. laid back, kind, reliable. ten years older than mary ann but crazy about her. she brought a daughter with her when they married in the early '60s, and together they had a son gary. they settled down near the ocean, an l.a. suburb. torrance. >> we had a great typical nuclear family. dad went off to work. my mom stayed at home and did all the home stuff, the stuff that you see in "leave it to beaver." >> you will see when gary talks about his dad how close they were. and it wasn't just because archie introduced him to surfing. >> i always looked up to my dad. my dad was a really soft-spoken,

easy-going yet affable guy. >> here they were to the outside world, an old-fashioned family. inside, secretly, something seething. it was almost christmas 1985. 5:30 a.m. archie started work early. so did gary, who was just 20 years old then. >> he had come into my room and he said, hey, gary, i'm going to be leaving now, so make sure you get up. i said, okay, no problem. thanks, dad, love you. see you. >> gary showered, dressed, headed outside into a cold, dark morning. it was then he saw something odd lying on the pavement. >> and as i got closer and closer, i started saying, wow, that looks like my dad. and when i finally got up and then realized it was my dad, i had that moment of like disbelief. >> archie was healthy, just 58. it didn't make sense seeing him

like this on the driveway. >> i went, dad? and i touched him. and there was just -- i will never forget that feeling. but it just -- it was very lifeless. it didn't -- it didn't feel good. so i started yelling, mom, mom, call 911, dad's lying on the driveway. i don't know what's the matter. >> when the paramedics arrived, it was too late to save archie or the innocent expectations about life, which gary now lost for good. >> there was just blood everywhere on the front of him, and i just lost it at that point. >> gil kranke arrived. >> he had been stabbed multiple times. two were upper torso as if the assailant was confronting him. >> couldn't have been a robbery.

not a thing was taken. archie's car still there. >> nobody saw anything. >> to the detective, it was clear enough. archie mcfarland had been targeted and executed. and whoever killed him had escaped without leaving behind a murder weapon or fingerprints or even a hair from what must have been a violent struggle. anyway, this was pre-dna. >> they just didn't have any physical piece of anything left on the driveway. that was the big focus. >> but there was a clue. oh, yes. and it was, frankly, very, very strange. >> one of the stab wounds was in the groin area. >> what did that tell you? >> it's personal. >> kind of like somebody sending a message? >> yes. >> maybe a sexual message? >> yes. >> and about then on that crisp december morning as gary and his

mother stood shivering and sobbing over archie's bloody body, the shocking realization suddenly hit. >> i turned around and looked at my mom. i go, you know who did this. that son-of-a- -- i just -- i immediately knew. i just -- it was like, there's no doubt in my mind what happened. >> coming up, there was someone else who also seemed to know who the killer was. >> how could you do this? do you know what you've done? you've destroyed me. >> when "dateline" continues. hi susan! honey? yeah? i respect that. but that cough looks pretty bad... try this new robitussin honey severe. the real honey you love... plus, the powerful cough relief you need. mind if i root through your trash? new robitussin honey severe. strong relief for your severe symptoms. here? nah. ♪

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december 1985, torrance, california, christmas coming, but not for archie mcfarland, whose earthly remains were now a crime scene in the pre-dawn driveway and while police searched for the crews. in fact, even as he cradled his father's body and his mother rushing to his side, they both knew without a shadow of a doubt who did it. >> she immediately started saying, oh, my god, i'm sorry, i can't believe he did it. i'm so sorry. i'm so sorry. >> mary ann met with the cops and told them. >> janos did it. >> who was janos?

detectives pressed mary ann for more. >> she told us that her boyfriend was responsible for this. >> that's right, boyfriend. she had been having an affair? >> yes. off and on. >> he was janos kulcsar, originally from hungary. and once the police got the gist of mary ann's tearful confession -- she had a picture of him. said here's his address. >> they high tailed it over to his apartment in long beach, where they found his car. this was an hour after the murder. sitting all innocent not far from his door. the officers, having had some experience with this sort of thing, performed a little test to see just how innocent that car was. >> and the engine hood was hot to the touch, so it appeared that it had just been driven back. >> somebody had been pushing the old volkswagen bug pretty hard.

the cops laid low just across the street there and kept an eye on the car and the apartment over there. and sure enough, a few minutes later, out comes janos, big as life, walking to the car. and his hair was wet as if he just had a shower. >> he said he was going to his brother's house. to do laundry. >> laundry at 6:30 a.m.? seemed a little odd. the more pressing question, why was his car engine hot, especially if he was just now leaving the house? janos backtracked a bit then. he said he left earlier, then returned to the house. >> because he forgot something. came back home. went into the apartment. >> what did janos claim he forgot? the laundry. even though cops had spotted a basket of clothes inside his car before he came out of the

apartment. so they searched the car and found nothing. nothing suspicious anyway. no blood or other evidence related to archie mcfarland's murder. same inside the apartment. except there was this one weird thing. hanging over the bathtub were -- >> clothes that were wet, a shirt and pants. if he is going to do laundry, why would you spot wash something and leave it hang in your bathroom to dry if you are going to do laundry? go do laundry. >> janos was arrested and taken back to the p.d. where the detective had 72 hours to compile a case that would convince the d.a. to file murder charges. otherwise he would be released. he was confident he could wrap this up quickly. >> we had the wet clothes. he was changing his statements. his girlfriend, our victim's wife, was very positive he was the one responsible for this. >> he grilled him for hours.

but janos was insistent he had nothing to do with mcfarland's murder. crime lab tests didn't find a speck of blood on his clothes. nor was there a trace on him or scratches or any history of committing any kind of crime, was it possible janos wasn't the killer? the detective had an idea. mary ann wanted to see her former lover in jail. what if they taped the conversation? so the two met for the first time since archie's murder as the tape rolled. >> how could you do such a horrible thing and think you are a man? if you get out of here alive, i'll kill you. do you know what you've done? you've destroyed me. >> i didn't do what you accuse me. i did not do it. >> if i had a gun, i would blow your damn brains out right now. >> at one point mary ann became so enraged, she even spat on him. >> you did this in the name of love?

>> i didn't kill him. i did not kill him. and i don't know anybody who did. >> i hate you with all the passion i can dig up. >> mary ann's tirade certainly seemed authentic, but, of course, the cops weren't sure at least at this point if she knew more than she was saying. did you ever think, mary ann has to have been involved in this somehow? >> i don't think she could have been directly involved, but she could have thrown out some ideas to him and he might have taken them on his own. >> but janos' guilt seemed clear enough. so kranke took his case to the d.a. and got a big surprise. without a confession, a witness, or a murder weapon, the d.a.'s office refused to gamble on such a circumstantial case. so no charges were filed against janos.

what was it like watching him walk out of jail? >> it hurts. because you know he's the guy that did it. and he beat the system. >> i was dumbfounded. to me there was so much evidence, it didn't make much sense to me. >> then mary ann approached the cops with a second proposal to trap her ex-lover into a taped confession. a month after the murder, the two of them met at a local restaurant. >> so you tell me then. you tell me what happened. >> nothing happened. and why do you think i would do such a thing like this. >> you are not being honest with me, and i know it. >> what do you want to hear? do you want me to lie to you? >> again, janos' denials were complete and determined, just like his passion for mary ann. >> please. >> no. it's the end. this is good-bye. do you understand that?

it's good-bye forever. >> and that was that. but, of course, you know how it is with lovers, ex or otherwise. what may sound like the end isn't always. why don't we check back in, say, 20 years. a new detective and a new prosecutor turn up the heat, and suddenly a cold case is red hot again. coming up -- >> as soon as i looked at it, i said, this guy is good for this murder. janos truly loved her. >> when "dateline" continues. so what's going on?

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it was a mean and bitter christmas for gary mcfarland, the year his father was murdered. the spring of '86 brought no solace. the summer surf lost its appeal. >> the whole thing didn't make sense to me. >> it didn't make sense because no matter how thoroughly gary wished otherwise, janos kulcsar was as free as a bird. >> kind of made me question the whole system. >> the cops were sure janos killed archie. gary was doubly sure. >> he still is hoofing around, breathing air, and has all the freedoms that you and i have. it just didn't seem right.

>> perhaps not. but the cops were simply stuck. >> the murder weapon, the confession, or an eyewitness, we didn't have any of that. >> so the case went cold. not much more detective kranke could do. >> you put it away and then let some fresh eyes look at it later on down the line and see if there's something you missed. >> and then a very strange development. not a police issue. but for gary, it was awful. it was a few years after the murder. gary was paying his mom's phone bill, and he noticed several calls back and forth to long beach. he dialed the number. and on the other end was janos kulcsar. would it be fair to say, it was a bit of a surprise? kind of a shock? >> yeah. >> when you found out she was seeing him again. >> yes. it was very difficult. >> how could she? go back to the lover who gary

was sure stabbed his father, her husband, and left him to die in the driveway? >> when i first found out, all ties were cut. i wrote her a letter. dropped it in her mail slot. as far as i'm concerned, our relationship is over. mary ann, remember, accused janos of murder the day it happened, confronted him in jail. now here she was back with him. they didn't actually move in together. they were certainly a couple, passion apparently undimmed. >> i just believe that in her own mind that it was okay to go back with him because there was really no proof that he did it. >> just how much mary ann knew, if anything, about janos's role in her husband's murder, she wasn't saying. certainly not her son, gary. the rift in the relationship between mother and son now seemed irreparable. for gary, it was like he had lost both his parents.

and years passed. the silence continued. gary got married, started his own family. but the loss of his father still haunted him. >> he never got to see me be successful in my career. never got to see me get married. never got to be the grandfather. >> 17 years went by. 17 awkward christmases. detective kranke retired. but remember that fresh set of eyes he was hoping for? it was 2002 and an aggressive deputy d.a. read about archie mcfarland. >> and as soon as i looked at it, i said, this guy is good for this murder. >> just what police thought at the beginning, of course. difference was, where some d.a.'s avoid circumstantial cases, lewin loves them.

he was an nbc news consultant on other cases. especially the riddles of cases gone cold. lewin called a regular partner, a veteran detective jim wallace. >> in almost every case there's something you can do. if nothing else, an opportunity to look at the evidence anew. you see things missed. >> so wallace and lewin began, by digging into the love triangle, by reinterviewing mary ann, asking about her relationship with both archie and janos, and about the events that preceded the murder. >> typically when these murders occur, behaviors start to fall apart. you see the behavior of the murderer become more and more aggressive and the murder occurs. >> so to the beginning, which was, of course, the love story or the betrayal, call it what you will. mary ann was, frankly, a little bored with archie. he loved her unreservedly. she knew that. but passion, excitement, not so much. and she was a vibrant woman

still and attractive. but 47 and in need of something. and then there he was, janos. she met him at a local club. he was just 32, 25 years younger than stale old archie. >> he was everything archie wasn't. he satisfied everything that archie couldn't satisfy for her. she told archie she was dating this man. archie was passive about it. she told archie if he didn't like it, he could leave. >> archie accepted it, hoping his marriage would somehow survive. gary was just 18 then. didn't know for sure about the affair. but suspected his mom was seeing someone, especially the day he caught her sneaking off to take a private telephone call. >> i grabbed the phone from her and said, do you have any idea what you're doing to my family, and i hung the phone up. and that's basically when she left.

>> that very day, mary ann moved into janos' one-bedroom apartment, leaving home and kids and, of course, archie. >> he still loved my mom. after she left. he wouldn't let me say anything negative. she's still your mother. she's still my wife. >> perhaps he understood the human heart after all. it took a year or so, but mary ann's ardor began to cool in that cheap little apartment. >> the interest she had in being chased, that period rubbed off. after a period of time, it was -- she was certainly still passionately being chased by janos. >> archie had a pension, after all, savings, life insurance. mary ann was almost 50. did she worry also that janos was too young for her, that maybe his feelings would change? >> eventually mary ann decides, you know what?

this is stressful. i kind of miss my life. i don't have the security that i had. mary ann decides, i want to move back home. >> archie welcomed her back. forgiving as always. no resentment, no anger? >> he didn't show any. >> how is that possible? >> that was my dad. >> but across town in long beach, janos kulcsar wasn't so forgiving. he was fuming. >> janos truly loved her. loved boring on obsession. unfortunately it takes two people to quit the relationship. and janos was just not going to accept it. >> and here in his little apartment, he prepared a secret plan to get her back. coming up, an old pair of pants reveals new secrets. >> when i saw the report where he said there was dirt on the pants, that's when the light

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download the app and shop in a whole new way. hello. i'm dara brown. here's what's happening. justices on the supreme court are honoring justice ruth bader ginsburg. john roberts called her a tireless and resolute champion of justice. brett kavanaugh stated, no american has ever done more than justice ginsburg to ensure equal justice under law for women. at a rally in north carolina on sunday, president trump said he would nominate a woman next week to fill the seat. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. two decades after archie mcfarland was murdered, investigators were digging up details about his wife's younger boyfriend. here's keith morrison.

>> the phone calls did not stop. mary ann mcfarland moved back home to archie, but her spurned lover janos kulcsar wouldn't move on. >> my dad is like, why does he keep calling? she's like, i don't know. the whole aura of this guy was that he wasn't accepting it. >> in fact, as the d.a. and the detective reviewed the evidence, they encountered a man who seemed obsessed, who first pleaded with mary ann, then began using language that sounded more threatening. >> i want you to come back to me kind of statements. and then you'd better come back. she was afraid he would skin her alive. >> skin her alive? >> if she didn't come back to him. >> he wouldn't stop calling or even making threats over the phone to archie. >> and archie hung up on him. he called back immediately. you don't hang up on me. unless you call me back, i'm

going to get you. >> the next day janos showed up at the house carrying a small pouch. mary ann was in the shower. archie let him in. the two started talking. then mary ann entered the room. >> janos says, darling, come sit over be me. mary ann puts the hammer down and says, it's over. >> perhaps upset, he went to the bathroom. mary ann was curious about that pouch he brought with him. took a look. >> inside, a loaded semiautomatic firearm. ready to go. and an extra magazine. >> he told mary ann that his plan if she refused to come away with him was to go outside and kill himself with that gun. >> if you are planning on killing yourself in the front yard, you don't need to bring the gun into the house. you don't need to have an extra magazine with you. i believe that something much more sinister was going to happen that day. >> in fact, nothing happened.

janos went home. but he came back here to mary ann's house a few days later, lewin and wallace learned. it was on the friday before the murder. he met with mary ann alone and had an epiphany. it was something he referred to in one of the conversations the police recorded between janos and mary ann. >> i left friday. i remember. it never clicked until i came home. >> clicked? what did he mean by that? >> he realized, you know what? she's not going back to archie because she loves him. she loves me. if i could find a way to get rid of archie, i don't need to kill myself. if i get rid of him, i get the girl, she gets the security, and he's out of the way. >> six days later he's dead.

>> lewin and wallace now believe they had a motive, but that didn't mean janos did commit the murder either. they still needed something, anything, to connect him to the bloody crime scene. >> i knew there would always be a question about how does janos getaway from this crime scene without getting any blood on him. i think if there's no implication at all, i think there's lingering doubt. >> the doubt that might trip up a jury. so wallace took a long hard look at the original police report. >> i have a case where it's very visual. for me, everything comes down to, can i see it again? >> as wallace pored over the photographs, he could see something was off, didn't make sense. archie had been stabbed four times. there was plenty of blood around. if janos did the stabbing, some must have wound up on him, on his clothes. wallace knew the crime lab never found blood in 1985.

now he needed to know why not. >> he does the murder. where did he go next? i know this. when they got to his house, he had wet clothing hanging in his bathtub. one pair of pants, one shirt. it's one outfit that needed washing on the day he told us he was going to go to his brother's to do the wash. what is it about that one outfit that needed a washing that day? >> back in 1985, those clothes were tested for blood using a chemical called luminol. >> when you spray it on the clothing, it will luminesce when you have body fluids. blood will luminesce. turns out they were glowing in two important areas. when they tested them for blood, they were negative for blood. something is there but it's not blood. >> now two decades since archie mcfarland's murder, wallace found janos' clothes. they were still in the evidence locker.

he sent them off to the crime lab for retesting. once again, there wasn't a speck of blood on the clothes. but there was something on those pants. janos had supposedly washed them and hung them up to dry. but still, there it was, something very strange. >> dirt and mud stains all over the pants. when i saw the report, he said there was dirt on the pants, that's when the light bulb went off. coming up -- caught on tape. caught in a lie. >> this is something you arranged with your brother? >> yeah. >> we sent detectives out to interview the brother afterwards. he didn't know the story janos had given. >> do detectives finally have enough evidence to arrest janos? when "dateline" continues. when we started carvana, they told us that selling cars 100% online wouldn't work. but we went to work. building an experience that lets you shop over 17,000 cars from home. creating a coast to coast network

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>> sometimes the biggest breakthrough in a murder case can come from the most unassuming clues. for detective jim wallace, it was something buried in a routine crime lab report. janos kulcsar's pants, which he washed the morning of the murder and hung up to dry in his shower, again tested negative for blood. but this time the lab report noted something else found on those pants which caught the eye of detective wallace. dirt. >> if you are washing these pants, what is the goal?

aren't you trying to wash the dirt out? >> you would think. >> in this case the dirt was present, except there was luminol glowing. >> the chemical police used to detect blood and body fluid. this didn't make sense. with no blood on the pants, the luminol was still highlighting something else on two very specific areas of the pants. >> one on each side, right at about the area of the knee, right in front of the pants. >> if you're kneeling down in something. >> if you're kneeling down and later want to get something out by spot cleaning with detergent. and you actually did get it out, this would glow as we saw it. because cleaning detergents also make it glow. so you think you have blood, you have cleaning detergent. >> so the pants that janos washes the morning of the murder were still dirty except for the knees.

why would they be there. ar there was that other wound, remember that rather pe cue lar one near archie's groin? >> where would that person have to be relative to the victim to make that kind of an injury? and i think it would put you on your knees in order to do that. so when you look at that and you're spot cleaning on the pants, i think you have a pretty good description of how it is he got blood on his pants and what he had to do to get it off. >> finally, some physical evidence, but was it enough? d.a. john lewin didn't think so. he needed more evidence. >> i wanted to get janos on tape. >> so they went out and contacted janos kulcsar. he worked in a shop preparing electronics. detectives showed up with tape recorder to ask him about the murder, about that day.

he remembered every detail, he said, vividly. >> why were you going out there that day? >> i was going out to my brother's. i remember this very good because the kids had to get ready to go to school because my brother was working nighttime. >> this was something you arranged with your brother. >> yeah. >> wait a minute. >> didn't he say back then he was going to do laundry? >> his version was his brother called him and he had to go over and take over babysitting that morning. he was on his way to the house to baby-sit. >> the babysitting thing was a brand-new alibi. he never mentioned that before. >> we sent detectives to interview the brother after wards. he didn't know the story janos had given. that pushed me over the top. >> a few weeks later cops returned to janos kulcsar's electronic shop, this time to arrest him.

>> he's working on a tv, and he's putting things away like he's coming back. it's not like you have to put them back. you're not coming back. >> word of the arrest spread fast. first to gary, who waited 25 years. >> completely 100% happy. after so much time goes by you think it's a foregone conclusion, it's over. everyone moves on with life. >> including, of course, mary ann who moved on with janos. didn't go to him for a little while. in fact, spent the last 20-plus years with janos, the same man she accused of killing her husband. but he was the only man in her life since archie was murdered. >> she loves janos and does not want to believe he's a killer. >> in the summer of 2011, two

and a half decades after archie mcfarland was murdered, the case finally came to court. and, of course, the prosecution's star witness was mary ann mcfarland. what did she know, and what would she admit? could her testimony sink her lover or maybe save him? coming up -- tough questions -- >> let me make it very simple. are you in love with him? >> -- and raw emotions. >> i'm so sorry. i'm so sorry, son. and she went hysterical. she lost it. >> when "dateline" continues. saquon barkley needs protein to get the groceries from car to house. in one trip. i eat the protein that comes in this yogurt. ♪ ♪

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june 2011, archie mcfarland had been dead more than 25 years. janos kulcsar was 60 now, just about the same age archie was when he was murdered and as janos sat here in court, the prosecutor sought to find justice, much delayed, though, his case was very much circumstantial evidence and didn't feature much new evidence. >> janos kulcsar woke up on december 19, 1985, with a plan. this man decided, came to the conclusion that archie mcfarland

was in his way and needed to die. >> the defense argued the evidence was thin. no blood, no murder weapon. no witnesses. and dna found under archie's finger nails, it had now been determined, did not match janos. >> even if everybody right away thinks that janos kulcsar is the killer, there has to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt. >> of course, gary mcfarland had no doubt he killed archie. he told the jury about that awful december morning when he discovered his dad dead on the driveway and knew instantly who did it. >> i turned around, looked at my mom, and said i can't believe [ bleep ] you know exactly who did it. she goes, i'm so sorry. i'm so sorry. i can't believe he'd do this. i'm so sorry, son. she was just -- she went hysterical. she lost it.

>> so difficult to rein in the emotion even after all these years. easer for him to listen to the prosecution, listening to the evidence, that the man spot cleaned the pants, easier for him to listen to the prosecution to pick apart janos's alibis. and janos never took the stand, just listened as his argued those changing stories were simply honest mistakes. >> when you ask somebody to remember something from 25 years ago, they're not going to remember every single detail, every single thing that they did. >> but the d.a. had someone he hoped would remember the whole story, that is, if she chose to. the woman who accused her lover of murdering her husband and then resumed her affair with him. so under oath what would mary ann mcfarland say about janos

kulcsar now? >> mrs. mcfarland, step up, please. >> the d.a. didn't believe mary ann was involved in the murder, but now would she help protect her lover or prosecute? for two days, the two duel over the relationship with janos. >> let me make it very simple. are you in love with him? >> no. >> you're not? over the past 30 years have you been involved with anybody else? >> no. we're friends and companions. >> ma'am, during that 30 years you were having sex with him, correct? >> yes. >> i assume you have friends and companions that you don't have sexual relationships with, right? >> no. >> so he's the man in your life, is that correct? >> yes. >> mary ann, now 75 years old, seemed evasive, her usually

sharp memory often fuzzy. >> that's all i recall. i don't know. i misunderstood your question. >> watching all this with mixed emotions was mary ann's son gary. even after all these years, their relationship has never fully recovered. >> it was tough on her. i know she felt like she was on trial. but a lot of the stuff they went over and they pinned her on was to explain the mindset of janos and the whole circumstances that led to this, and it was necessary, but it was tough. >> finally, after three weeks, it was up to the jury to decide. then after just two hours -- >> and has the jury reached a verdict? >> yes, we have. >> we, the jury in the above-entitled action, find the defendant janos kulcsar guilty of the crime of murder.

>> it was just relief. it was like a big weight was lifted off my shoulder. janos got a free 25-year ticket that most people who commit a murder don't get. >> conspicuously absent on the day that finally brought justice for her late husband and a conviction for her lover was mary ann mcfarland. >> she does not want to believe he did this, for a lot of reasons. if mary ann were to accept that he committed this crime, she admitted that she would hold herself morally responsible. so some people decide i'm not going to accept reality unless it absolutely punches me in the face. and i guess we didn't punch hard enough. >> reality for janos kulcsar, the man she loved, the man now convicted of murdering her husband, has the almost certain

prospect of spending the rest of his days in prison. in january 2012, janos was sentenced to 26 years to life. just about the same amount of time he spent with mary ann. occasionally you'll still find gary mcfarland at the beach where his dad archie brought him to surf. and he thinks about father and mother and forgiveness, the lesson gary is still learning from archie mcfarland. >> i still love my mother. i don't harbor bitterness or resentment. there are tons of questions you'd love to ask and get answers to, but i'm not in a position, nor in my opinion anyone is in a position, to completely understand what's

going on in somebody else's heart. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. zooifrnl craig melvin. >> i'm natalie morales. this is "dateline". the first time i saw her, i thought she was beautiful. we just loved being together. we were always together. our kitchen back door was open and the glass was broken. >> i need an ambulance now. my wife! oh my god! >> he was the one who found her. >> i didn't know how to handle that. i wish i could have been there to protect her.