don't let a cry for help go by. y i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." i called my mom and she didn't answer. i pretty much knew in my heart that something was wrong.h >> a mother vanished. >> i cried myself to sleep. it was awful realizing your worst nightmare had come true. >> a family anguished. >> she's gone. do you have any idea how hard that was? >> now the questions begin in a southern gothic mystery. >> the case is puzzling.

we didn't really know what had l happened. >> who would ever imagine you'd have a murder in your family?ed >> soon there would be secrets. >> we were dealing with a person that was leading a double life. >> and one of them would prove deadly. >> have you ever said i know you that did this? >> it hurts too much for me to say it out loud. ♪ hello. and welcome to "dateline." it's a case that centers on a th mother who had gone missing and the small town secret that led to a very big surprise. here's keith morrison. >> suppose for a minute you were sitting in your car smack dab in the middle of tuscaloosa, f alabama and you pointed southwest down highway 69 and 9 kept a sharp eye out after half

an hour or so. you'd roll into a sweet little place called moundville. one stoplight, one main street,t one general store. been around for a long time has moundville. but it's a sad truth, as the sheriff says, even here where everybody used to know everybody -- >> it's not that way anymore.th so many different people are moving in from around the world. >> trying to escape the crowds. >> well, escape the crowd or ow running from something. >> yes. and where have you gone, andy griffith? mayberry apparently has up and left us. sheriff ken ellis fights real crime nowadays. >> the crime that you see in the county is any crime you'd see in any large city, just a smaller version.e >> still, moundville is moundville and neighbors tend tv know more of each other's business than they might in tuscaloosa, for example. which can be a bit of a nuisancl as you're about to see if you need to keep a secret.

especially, for example, if your secret is about murder. to begin with, this thoughtful young woman was just a girl of 17 back in '07 when things 07 started coming apart in the way things do when parents don't talk about it. kelsey mayfield saw that troubled look in her mom's eyes mostly, her mom theresa. >> i could just tell she was very stressed. >> ever clear what it was she was stressed about?s >> money would be the main thing. she wanted to be sure she had enough money to take care of her family. >> a lot of that going around of course, moundville no exception. like so many americans, kelsey's dad had to work two jobs just tx keep his head above water. >> a very hard-working man. it took two jobs to take care of our family.ng >> but money trouble aside, ar teresa seemed to have a happy pp life as anybody could see including teresa's mother, reba

>> all teresa ever wanted was to have a husband that cared for her, somebody she cared for, and to have a family. >> and it was sweet and corny when even after her two little brothers arrived she could see the signs of her parents' affection for each other. >> every night before he got ready to go to work heht would give herto a kiss on the cheek d say good night, i love you. >> teresa was the softball mom, the trunk of her car a muddle of bats and balls. she shuttling kids back and forth. >> i had a softball game and they had a baseball game at the same time. she would stay 30 minutes at as their games and 30 minutes at my game. >> watching the clock and -- >> she was an amazing mother.es there was nothing she would not do for myself or my two brothers. >> then there was that sweltering morning, june 2007, teresa drove off to run errands

and didn't come back. kelsey was baby-sitting the boys, then 8 and 11. hours ticked by. she called her mom. where are you? >> and she didn't answer. then i called her back around lunch and she didn't answer. i called her pretty much all day long. >> her dad was at work, her mom was who knew where? just wasn't like her to do this. is she the sort of person who would take her cell phone with her? the >> yes. it was attached to her hip. >> you could always easily get hold of her? >> mm-hmm. >> and you couldn't? >> no. >> by nightfall still no word. kelsey was in a panic. she called her dad who had gone from his day job to his night shift at a local factory. >> i'm sure you told your dad you were worried.da >> yeah. we kept in touch during the day to see if one of us had talked to her. >> did he seem to be worried? >> he did. and we could never get in touch with her. >> at midnight it was clear, something was terribly wrong.

scott left work to file a ly missing persons report with the moundville police. and then they all waited. what was it like for you that night? >> it was awful. i was very scared when she didn't come home. and i pretty much knew in my heart that something was wrong.t >> the next morning, said kelsey, she woke up in a house that no longer felt like home. she called her grandmother reba at her home in prattville, a town two hours away. >> she said is mama down there at your house? >> i said no, she's not here. and she said, mama didn't come home last night. >> so what was going on in here? >> i'm just turning upside down. you know, i'm just tied in a knot. >> reba called teresa's younger sister, ashley, at her office at the local circuit court. >> mama called me up.ic she said teresa is missing.ed i said let me make some phone calls. >> right away ashley called the sheriff of her town and he

called sheriff ellis. >> to see if they knew anything. his response to me was it's bad. it's bad. >> it certainly was. they had found teresa's truck on a dirt road less than a mile from home.uc she was slumped behind the wheel and she was dead. and this much was perfectly clear. it wasn't an accident. coming up -- the investigation begins. >> we had to ask ourselves, who would get her to this location and why was she murdered? >> 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. ♪ here? nope. ♪ here. ♪ when the middle of nowhere... is somewhere. the all-new chevy trailblazer. ♪ who've got their eczema under control. with less eczema, you can show more skin. so roll up those sleeves. and help heal your skin from within with dupixent. dupixent is the first treatment of its kind that continuously treats moderate-to-severe eczema,

or atopic dermatitis, even between flare ups. dupixent is a biologic, and not a cream or steroid. many people taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin, and, had significantly less itch. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. if you take asthma medicines, don't change or stop them without talking to your doctor. so help heal your skin from within, and talk to your eczema specialist about dupixent. if your financial situation has changed, we may be able to help.

if your financial situation has changed, when you drink or eat something that's acidic everyone is at risk for enamel loss. it sucks the minerals out of the tooth's surface. pronamel is formulated to help deliver minerals to the tooth's surface to help reharden and strengthen your enamel.

it was a lover's lane. a quiet dusty, dead-end road miles from main street moundville. a spot so uncommonly traversed a car with engine running taillights blazing late into the night could go unnoticed. it was here they found teresa mayfield's truck, body inside, gunshot wound to the head. teresa's younger sister broke the terrible news to their mother.

>> when i went to the house, mama was sitting in the recliner. i knelt down on my knees and i grabbed her and i said, mama, she's gone. she's gone. do you have any idea how hard that was? >> teresa's daughter kelsey had spent a sleepless night waiting in vain for her mother to come home. >> how did you find out? >> my dad came and told my brothers and i. it was just awful realizing that your worst nightmare had come true. for a brief second i thought she had committed suicide just because i knew how stressed out she was. but then i also knew how much she loved her family. >> everybody who knew teresa knew that. even sheriff kenneth ellis, who drove out to the crime scene, if that's what it was. corporal mark boyd, alabama bureau of investigation, met him there. this case was kind of personal for you, sheriff. >> yes. my daughter and miss teresa and scott's daughter played softball together.

>> you would see teresa out at the ballpark. >> every game. it felt like part of my family was gone too. >> they had a look around the truck. no sign of a struggle. dusting revealed no viable fingerprints. there were no footprints. not even a loose hair. puzzling. was there any thought once you saw the scene that this was a suicide? >> there was things missing that prevented the suicide theory. >> like what? >> if you're going to commit suicide with a gun, it's usually at the scene. >> it was clear teresa had been murdered. shot with a gun which was now missing. and what was more, her cell phone, the one that was always attached to her hip, was nowhere to be found. >> did it look like it could have been a robbery? >> the wallet wasn't taken. the purse was on the console.

but the contents of the purse had been dumped out in her lap. >> a clumsy attempt at staging, you might say? >> yes. >> but there was one important clue the killer left behind. >> we noticed that the only window down was the driver's window. so we figured that she had to have known the person because she had let down her window. we had to ask ourselves, who could get her to this location and why was she murdered? >> someone in moundville had to know something. >> from there the investigation went where? >> investigating her inner circle, trying to find a motive. >> usually, so i'm told, in cases like this the husband has got to be a person of interest. >> yes. >> so as the family gathered to mourn the loss of their beloved teresa, scott couldn't be with them. he was down at the sheriff's office answering questions. >> came willingly, no issue? >> yes. >> did he ask for an attorney

or anything? >> no, he did not. >> corporal boyd chatted with scott for three long hours. and during the whole time he was cooperative and helpful. >> you know, the standard questions that we would ask is, is anyone having an affair? are you having an affair? no. >> was she having an affair? no. >> good marriage, happy marriage, christian marriage? >> right. i asked them did they argue? he said no. >> scott answered all their questions about what teresa was supposed to be doing that morning. he told them he phoned teresa from his morning job on the farm, a wake-up call. and then about two hours later she called him. but the call faded out. he couldn't hear a thing. >> scott said that it sounded like she was on the road. >> he thought nothing of it then, he said. but now was it a distress call? no way to know. but there was one thing that call certainly cleared up for investigators. scott could not have killed teresa.

he was something like 30 miles away up near tuscaloosa, had a breakfast receipt to prove it. >> he had stopped at hardees and had a receipt showing he was there. >> so scott rejoined his family. caught up in the terrible business of grieving. >> i kept wondering, why was it happening to our family. >> it was awful. who would ever imagine you'd have a murder in your family? >> investigators tried with the help of friends to fill in the gaps of teresa's last hours. they talked to scott and teresa's friend dawn lavender. she had plans to go shopping with teresa the morning of the murder. >> i'm sure dawn was shocked and upset by what had happened. >> she did cry during the interview. she was at her house waiting on teresa to come pick her up because she was going to ride with her. she finally got the chance to talk to teresa around 7:00. >> and after that call, nothing. dawn told the investigators she phoned teresa over and over and each time the phone went to a recording. just to be sure of all this, they pulled teresa's cell phone

records and began plotting out a timeline of her whereabouts. but the picture the records painted wasn't quite what they expected. that morning call to scott, the one he couldn't hear, teresa did not call from moundville. >> cell tower shows thta it's pinging from up in tuscaloosa. >> wait a minute. how could it be pinging from tuscaloosa? that's miles and miles away. >> right. there's no way she could have made the call and been back to the location where she was murdered at. >> so courtesy of the cell towers, you were able to show that teresa could not have made that call. it had to be somebody else using her phone and what do you know? her phone is missing from the crime scene. >> correct. >> so the person who very likely killed teresa mayfield must have used teresa's cell phone to call her husband, scott. what could that mean? did the killer know scott? and did scott know something he wasn't sharing?

coming up -- >> we were dealing with a person that was leading a double life. >> secrets and lies. >> this was betrayal. >> that's a very good word. >> when "dateline" continues. at leaf blowers. you should be mad your neighbor always wants to hang out. and you should be mad your smart fridge is unnecessarily complicated. make ice.

making ice. but you're not mad because you have e*trade which isn't complicated. their tools make trading quicker and simpler so you can take on the markets with confidence. don't get mad get e*trade and start trading commission free today. don't get mad get e*trade and start trading verizon knows how to build unlimited right. start with america's most awarded network. include the best in entertainment and offer plans to mix and match starting at $35. plus, get the samsung galaxy s20 5g uw on us when you buy any note20 5g. only at verizon. 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.

strong relief it's totally not the same without you. we miss your "let's do this" look, the sound of your laugh cry screams, and how you make every day here the best day ever. we can't wait to get you back so we've added temp checks, face coverings, social distancing and extra sanitizing to get the good times going again. we're finally back... and can't wait until you are too. buy now and get two days free at the parks. restrictions apply.

welcome back to "dateline." even though teresa mayfield's husband, scott, had been very cooperative with investigators,

they wondered if there was something he wasn't telling them. here again with "secrets in a small town" is keith morrison. it's a funny thing about secrets. they can only stay hidden for so long. especially in a little place like moundville. and it didn't take very long for sheriff ellis and corporal boyd to stumble on a secret scott had been keeping. >> while we was out at the crime scene scott had had a young lady to come pick up the boys. >> it was only later when the fog of grief had lifted that one of teresa's relatives wondered to police who was that woman hanging around the day teresa died? ellis and boyd tracked her down and what they discovered, well, that changed everything. or seemed to. the person they were talking to was scott's mistress.

>> she was under the impression that scott was not married at that time. >> what did you make of that when you heard it? >> we knew that wasn't correct. >> a love triangle, jealous home wrecker kills wife, claims husband? no, not even close. scott's girlfriend thought his marriage was over, his divorce finalized. >> what was her reaction to getting the real story? she must have been upset. >> more hurt probably than upset because i think she had fallen in love. >> he had been lying like a sidewalk. >> that's right. >> and you had no idea that woman was associated with him that way either, did you? >> mm-mm. i had met her once or twice. but i just thought they were friends. i didn't think it was anything else. >> this was betrayal in all capital letters. >> that's a very good word. >> you were betrayed. >> lied to. yeah.

taken advantage of in a way. >> kelsey may have been surprised, but teresa's mom and sister, they knew better. because this wasn't scott's first dance with infidelity. no, no, there had been others. in fact, scott and teresa divorced during one of his affairs. that was just after kelsey was born. and then three years later teresa took him back. remarried him. >> she wanted to have her family back together. that was her whole thing, family. >> what was it like for you when scott came into your house? what was happening here as he walked in the door? >> i tried to be sociable, mutual with scott. but i always had that thought in the back of my mind, he hurt my sister, and i would not forget it. >> for a while things were as teresa had always hoped. but wishes don't always come true. soon scott was back to his old ways with that girl cops were talking to in tuscaloosa. and you know how gossip can be. scott when from sympathetic

figure, bereaved widower, to cad. and maybe worse. he must have been aware of the fact that people were suspicious of him. >> it bothered me hearing the bad things people had to say about him. and i knew my dad was never capable of doing something like that. i was going to have his back regardless. >> but to investigators, scott's affair and the fact he lied about it to police certainly was suspicious. ellis and boyd asked the girlfriend to help them out by recording her conversations with scott. maybe he'd let something slip. [ phone ringing ] >> hello. >> hi. >> are you okay? >> yes. i'm okay. they just left. look, all i want to know, did you do it? >> of course not. they told me on the get-go, i would be number one prime suspect. >> i know.

>> because i'm the husband. >> do you still love me? >> yes, i do. >> if you do have anything do with her dying, was it because you love me? >> i didn't have nothing to do with it, no, no, no. i had nothing. my hands are clean as they can be. >> so infidelity? yes. murder? didn't sound like it. >> we could prove that he was an adulterer. but we was trying to prove the murder. >> guess there's no crime against being a lying sack of you know what. >> it's not against the law to have a mistress. >> so now the corporal and the sheriff reverted to standard procedure. they followed up every tip, tracked down every tenuous lead, knocked down rumors. somebody called scott from teresa's cell phone that morning, whether he heard it or not. the investigation dragged on. >> weeks and months went by and there was nothing. >> we had no idea how that anger

will get the best of you, not knowing who done this and you want the person that done this to be punished for it. >> kelsey took on the most difficult job of her life. at 17 she stepped into her mother's shoes, defended her father, tried to maintain something of a normal life for her little brothers. >> me trying to fill my mother's shoes. those are some big shoes to fill. i just felt like it was my responsibility to help my dad take care of my family. >> so you were able to continue to have a relationship of trust with your father. >> right. >> he was there for you guys? >> yes. he tried to be strong for us so we wouldn't have a breakdown. >> by the first anniversary of teresa's death, there was still no arrest and the story was old news. so teresa's mother plastered this poster on doors and windows

and telephone poles all around moundville, hoping it would help dislodge some clue. and then the weirdest thing happened. >> we found out that just about as quick as we were putting posters up, they were being taken down. >> taken down by someone who didn't want teresa's killer found, she presumed. and a dark thought crystallized in reba's mind. was it scott? >> you know, he never acted like a grieving husband. if he had, i wouldn't have had these thoughts. >> so your thoughts actually increased over the course of the time that you were with him? >> yes. >> but you know what they say about assumptions. it wasn't scott. >> me and my brothers took them down. at first, i was okay with it. but once they put the posters up and everywhere i went i saw my mother's face, it just drove me crazy, it broke my heart seeing her face splattered all over these pictures. >> and so expectations faded again.

a couple more months went by and then a girl who knew kelsey heard a strange little story. overheard it actually. a guy saying he saw someone with a gun on a dirt road around the time teresa was killed. >> did she associate it with this crime? >> she knew that miss teresa was killed down that way, so she just reported it. >> was this the break they were looking for? well, we can tell you this. the tip led to real flesh and flood. in fact, to a quite literal snake in the grass. a curious incident from teresa's past. could it shed light on the crime? coming up -- >> i looked at her, and i said you need to stay away from that woman. she is no friend of yours. >> when "dateline" continues. hope it doesn't cost too much.

i hope my insurance pays for it. can you tell me how much this will be? - [cashier] 67. - sorry. - wait, have you heard about goodrx? goodrx finds free coupons to help you save up to 80% on your prescriptions. - wow, i had no idea. - [announcer] goodrx, stop paying too much for your prescriptions. the first and only full prescription strength non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gel available over-the-counter. new voltaren is powerful arthritis pain relief in a gel. voltaren. the joy of movement.

new voltaren is powerful ...could be all your softf odor. surfaces?ome... odors get trapped in your home's fabrics and resurface over time. febreze fabric refresher eliminates odors. its water-based formula safely penetrates fabrics where odors hide. spray it on your rugs, your curtains, your furniture, all over your home to make it part of your tidying up routine. febreze fabric refresher, for an all-over freshness you'll love.

hello. i'm dara brown. here's what's happening. new evacuations are under way in california as wildfires explode in size fueled by relentless high winds and high temperatures. the bobcat fire in l.a. county has burned nearly 100,000 acres, including structures, homes, and a nature center. officials say the fire is just 15% contained. and the death toll from coronavirus here in the u.s. passed the 200,000 mark this weekend. this as the number of confirmed cases closes in on 7 million. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. years after teresa mayfield's murder, a casual conversation overheard in a bar gave authorities their first break. a break which would lead them to the chilling tale of teresa's murder. once again, keith morrison.

>> under a setting sun on a sweltering summer night, two years after her death, teresa mayfield's friends and family gathered to remember. >> i talked to her almost every day and i miss those talks. >> they took turns talking about the loving daughter, the softball mom, the sweet woman gunned down on that lonely country road. a murder that was still a mystery. >> my family will not stop searching or doing whatever it takes to find out who took teresa's life. >> when scott got up to speak, you can bet people were paying special close attention. >> yes, she was a loving wife, loving mother and a loving friend to the community. yes, she would do anything for anybody at any time. >> having discovered he was not exactly husband of the year, some people still nursed a lingering suspicion and yet here he was devoted to the care of his children and full of praise for his dead wife.

>> she did a wonderful job raising these kids. she was the one who got them to practice on time, got them to ball games on time. >> when sheriff ellis walked up to the podium, he looked at teresa's mother reba and vowed he'd get justice yet. >> miss reba, i won't quit until we find out what happened to miss teresa. >> and in fact, even as he spoke, the sheriff along with the corporal were facing down their first honest to god lead in, what, over a year? didn't seem like much really, not at first, just an overhead story from a guy in a bar, something about how he and a friend ran into someone with a gun. not so terribly uncommon around here, mind you. except it happened around the same time and not very far away from where the murder occurred. so ellis and boyd tracked the kid down and he repeated the story for them. >> they were on a dirt road and they came up on a snake, a rattlesnake, and they was trying

to kill it, find something to kill it with. >> trouble was, they were plum out of rattlesnake killing tools. and that's when an suv just happened to pull up on the dirt road behind them. the driver was a woman in her 40s or thereabouts who said the young man offered them a surefire way to dispatch that rattlesnake. >> lady in the car had a gun? >> right. >> it was a handgun inside a ziploc plastic bag. >> i think she handed him the plastic bag for him to take it out. >> and that was a little weird. why would it be in the bag? >> right. >> a peculiar story for sure. certain details were a little fuzzy. kid couldn't remember the exact day, for example. but he did recall with absolute clarity who the driver was because he knew her. knew her name. and here was the most curious thing of all. it was a name you've heard before. dawn lavender.

small town moundville suddenly got even smaller. dawn lavender, you'll recall, was teresa's friend, the one who said she waited in vain for teresa to pick her up on the morning of the murder. great buddies according to dawn. but maybe not so much, said kelsey. >> if our moms saw each other at games or whatever they would speak. but they weren't best friends or anything. >> they did go out together a couple of times. >> i think my mother did it because she was bored and wanted to get out of house. >> but when they did get together, at least on one occasion, said kelsey, it was certainly memorable and not in a good way. they went out to a local casino one night, she said, and her mother came home stumbling. >> i thought she was drunk. and i knew that that couldn't be right because she didn't drink. she didn't know where she was at. you couldn't hardly understand a word she was saying. she came in and my dad and i got her and put her in the bed. >> how long did she sleep? >> she slept for two days. two straight days. >> what did you think about that?

>> it was very strange. she didn't really remember what happened. she just knew that she had taken some pills, i believe. >> how did she get them? >> i believe dawn gave them to her. >> remember how teresa was stressed out those last weeks of her life? the night of the casino trip, teresa told kelsey, dawn gave her xanax, the anti-anxiety medication, just to calm her down, dawn told her. and it certainly did that. out like a light calm, for two whole days. >> i looked at her, i said teresa, you need to stay away from that woman, she is no friend of yours. >> how did teresa respond to that? >> she said, i've learned my lesson. >> or maybe she didn't. because the morning of the murder teresa had arranged to run errands with dawn, or at least that's what dawn said. and then it all clicked together. dawn on the dirt road, a gun in a plastic bag, teresa's car window down as though she knew

her killer. sheriff ellis and corporal boyd picked apart dawn's early interview with a suspicious eye. they pulled her phone records. and there it was plain as day. dawn's lies caught by cell phone technology. >> it painted a clearer picture that dawn was in the location of teresa the morning that she was murdered. >> but why in heaven's name would a woman who claimed to be teresa's friend want to kill her? good question, which perhaps they'd get answered once they accused dawn lavender of murder, which they did. she, however, had but one thing to say to police. >> she just kept saying that it was wrong, that we made a mistake. >> coming up -- >> as far as physical evidence. we really didn't have any. >> but they did have a plan. an undercover sting could get the evidence they need.

>> 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 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. that's why i've got the power of 1,2,3 medicines with trelegy. the only fda-approved, once-daily 3 in 1 copd treatment. ♪ with trelegy and the power of 1, 2, 3, i'm breathing better. trelegy works 3 ways to open airways, keep them open,

and reduce inflammation for 24 hours of better breathing. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. trelegy is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. think your copd medicine is doing enough? maybe you should think again. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy. we know times are hard and we're here for you. find support at trelegy.com. who knows where that button is? i don't have silent. everyone does -- right up here. it happens to all of us. we buy a new home, and we turn into our parents. what i do is help new homeowners overcome this. what is that, an adjustable spanner? good choice, steve. okay, don't forget you're not assisting him. you hired him. if you have nowhere to sit, you have too many. who else reads books about submarines? my dad.

yeah. oh, those are -- progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. look at that. don't settle for less. revitalift triple power with pro-retinol plus hyaluronic acid and vitamin c. it visibly reduces wrinkles. firms. and brightens. now that's triple power. revitalift triple power moisturizer from l'oreal. introducing the future of fitness. it's every class you can imagine, live. welcome back to the mirror. you've got this john. and on demand. it's boxing... cardio... yoga... and more. it's an interactive, goal crushing...whole family...whole body fitness machine. it's so cool! the future of fitness is at home. the mirror. new advil dual action with acetaminophen fights pain in two ways. advil targets pain at the source...

...while acetaminophen blocks pain signals. the future of pain relief is here. new advil dual action. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ welcome back. after years of investigation, police had a suspect in the murder of teresa mayfield. it was her friend, dawn lavender. but what was dawn's motive for murder?

once again, here's keith morrison. on june 11, 2010, almost three years to the day teresa mayfield was killed, sheriff ellis and corporal boyd drove to the wire factory where dawn lavender worked. she was halfway through her day shift. and they told her she was under arrest for the murder of her friend, teresa mayfield. >> she first wanted to know why we was arresting her and then when we went to the jail she said this was wrong, we made a mistake. >> the corporal and the sheriff were only too happy to explain how one clue had led to another and eventually an inescapable conclusion. but prosecutor evans had questions, pointed ones. >> you could tell it was going to be difficult. >> where was the smoking gun? where was the murder weapon? where was even one single fingerprint tying dawn to the crime? >> as far as physical evidence,

we really didn't have any. it was truly circumstantial because we didn't really know anything about what had happened. >> as far as evidence could see, the case was a maybe at best. she had no reason to kill teresa. >> so to bring a case against her would be pretty tough, i would think. >> the case with dawn is puzzling. when you're working with a circumstantial case, every piece of evidence is definitely important. >> how could corporal boyd and sheriff ellis thought they were wrong. they believed dawn was the killer. they told the prosecutor not only that dawn murdered teresa but they were convinced she tried and failed to kill her with a xanax overdose at the casino. >> the sheriff's department believed that was an attempt on her life, but we had nothing to really support that. >> but if tim evans was to get a conviction, he needed more, more evidence, some concrete proof that dawn had pulled that trigger.

you can bet dawn wasn't about to tell them anything. but that doesn't mean she wasn't talking. >> we had another young lady that was getting out of jail and she came to us and said that dawn had been talking about the murder. >> but that could have been just gossip, mind you. from a jailhouse snitch who couldn't back it up. but dawn did have a cellmate. >> she was kind of in a jam herself. and she wanted us to try to help her. we can put a word in to the d.a or put a word in to the jail. >> that was enough to get cooperation from her. >> right. >> the objective was simple. get dawn talking, wrangle from her something that at least sounded like a confession. ellis and boyd outfitted dawn's cellmate with a digital recorder no bigger than a matchbox. and on a friday afternoon as an unsuspecting dawn sat in her cell reviewing her case file, her cellmate walked in and waited for some incriminating

tidbit. what she got instead was the whole sickening story. here's what dawn told her cellmate about the morning teresa was killed. around 7:00 a.m. dawn called teresa with a lie to set the plan in motion. >> [ bleep ]. >> no more vacation days. i told her my car was dead. >> she claimed her car had broken down. could teresa pick her up. of course she said yes. finished drying her hair, got into her car. made the short drive to the dirt road and there standing alongside the road was dawn.

>> with calculated, cold precision, dawn lavender lured teresa mayfield to that dirt road. she then shot her in the back of the head and steered her car into the brush hoping it would stay hidden for a while. >> you will have to lie on the stand. >> like poor little innocent dawnie. >> cold blooded killer. >> if you think about it, that's exactly right. >> yeah. >> terrible looking at it that way, though. >> but it's the [ bleep ] truth. >> it was all there. a prosecutor's dream confession. she even referred to herself as a cold-blooded killer. but there was one question anyone with a beating heart wanted to ask. why?

there just had to be an answer. of that they were sure. would they ever get it out of her? >> why in the hell did you do it? coming up -- >> at some point she was calling herself a hit man. >> a hit man for whom? another painful revelation was in store for teresa's family. >> it hurts too much for me to say it out loud. >> when "dateline" continues. oikos triple zero has 15 grams of protein. saquon barkley needs protein to get the groceries from car to house. in one trip. i eat the protein that comes in this yogurt. ♪ ♪ here's to the duers. to all the people who realize they can du more with less asthma thanks to dupixent, the add-on treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma. dupixent isn't for sudden breathing problems. it can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as 2 weeks and help prevent severe asthma attacks. it's not a steroid but can help reduce

or eliminate oral steroids. dupixent can cause serious allergic reactions including anaphylaxis. get help right away if you have rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection and don't change or stop your asthma treatments, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. are you ready to du more with less asthma? talk to your asthma specialist about dupixent. if your financial situation has changed, we may be able to help. if your financial situation has changed, when you drink or eat something that's acidic everyone is at risk for enamel loss. it sucks the minerals out of the tooth's surface. pronamel is formulated to help deliver minerals to the tooth's surface to help reharden and strengthen your enamel. the antes been upped. to lead the charge... good had to be amazing...

and amazing had to become the expectation. the drivers feel it every time they get in. ♪ the power... ...has shifted. no uh uh, no way come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card. n-n-n-no-no verizon knows how to build unlimited right. start with america's most awarded network. include the best in entertainment and offer plans to mix and match starting at $35. plus, get the samsung galaxy s20 5g uw on us when you buy any note20 5g. only at verizon.

welcome back. dawn lavender told her cellmate she killed teresa mayfield in a murder for hire scheme. but who did the hiring? here's keith morrison with the conclusion to "secrets in a small town." >> i have to look just like poor little innocent dawnie. not the cold-blooded killer i am. >> dawn lavender sounded for all the world like she was boasting as she confessed to her cellmate that she murdered teresa mayfield in cold blood. in fact, in recorded conversations with her cellmate, dawn not only admitted to shooting teresa but said that she had tried once before. that strange night at the casino when teresa came home stumbling, that was her first attempt at murder.

>> but why? why would she want to kill her friend? because, listen to this, the answer to the whole puzzle really comes down to one little word. dawn uses it when telling her cellmate what she did. >> i mean, we tried. >> we? dawn was not acting alone. she had a co-conspirator. >> i don't know if she was trying to be a show-off, because she was calling herself a hit man. >> dawn was a hired gun for -- you guessed it. scott mayfield. >> she was a loving wife, loving mother. >> the man who heaped praise on his dead wife, his grieving children by his side, was according to dawn the architect who designed her death, a revelation finally made sense of a trail of disturbing stories the investigators had been

running down for months. >> we had one guy that worked around there in moundville, said a fellow offered him $500 to kill his wife. and a little while later we got a call from another guy's son saying his daddy wanted to talk to me. scott had approached him about killing his wife. >> his response to scott was get a divorce. that's what divorces are for. >> and then a third man told him a story. >> he had told us that scott mayfield had hired him, had given him $15,000 to kill his wife. he did not have any intentions on killing her. he just wanted the man's money. >> what's the old saying? two is a coincidence, three is a pattern. which is why even before dawn told her grisly tale on tape, in fact, on the same day dawn was arrested, a warrant was also issued for scott. kelsey was outside mowing the lawn when she saw a cop car whiz by, then another and another. she called her dad on his cell

phone. >> i asked him where he was at. and he said the cops have me pulled over. >> your dad, for heaven's sake, was being arrested. had to be a shock. >> i was very confused. so i asked the arresting officer, why are you arresting my dad? and he said it was solicitation and conspiracy. >> to commit murder. >> to commit murder, yes. >> in other words, he said your father was responsible for the death of your mother. >> mm-hmm. >> still, as he sat behind bars awaiting his day in court he assured his children that it was all a mistake. he was innocent. >> what did you expect would happen? >> i thought he would be found not guilty and be able to come home. >> but at that point, the case against scott was almost entirely circumstantial. that was until dawn got to talking to that cellmate, the one with the little recording device. and sure enough, as the whole story spilled out, there was scott's name on tape, proof at last.

>> did scott give you the gun? >> he stole it from -- >> once the job was done, the car half hidden by the brush, dawn said, she drove to tuscaloosa and dialed a familiar number from teresa's cell phone to let her boss know his wife was dead. >> did you call scott and let him know that it was done? >> the only thing left was to collect the $20,000 scott had promised her and go. except -- >> scott never gave you no money? >> but of course dawn didn't keep her mouth shut about what she and scott had done.

>> from what i could tell, he was just a coward. he wanted a divorce, but he didn't want to live with the responsibilities that accompany a divorce. >> in other words, he didn't want to pay her alimony. >> or child support. evil was the only thing you can use to describe that man. evil. >> and on may 19, 2011, almost four years after teresa mayfield was gunned down on that lonely dirt road, her mother, sister and daughter sat in a courtroom and listened as dawn and scott, having pleaded guilty to both murder and attempted murder, were each sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. >> he looked straight at me, like he was looking at a tree or something. there was no emotion. and neither was there anything from dawn. it was like they were empty inside. >> but for kelsey, it was simply overwhelming.

at the moment of sentencing, for the very first time, she saw her dad not as the loving father who took her shopping for her senior prom dress but as the man who orchestrated the death of her mother. >> have you ever brought up the issue with him? and said i know that you did this? >> one day i will. i don't have it in me right now to confront him and tell him what i know. it hurts too much. for me to say it out loud, for me to tell my dad i know what he did and that i -- i hate what he did. but he's still my father. and i'll always love him. >> her mother loved him too. loved him through infidelity and trouble, loved him always. even as she loved her children, her family. as she tried her best to make life good while he plotted to kill her. >> a couple years earlier you

had a great, full, lovely family life. >> there's really not a word that you can use to describe what our family has been through. >> and you've got such a nice sunny disposition. how do you do that? >> i get my strength from my mother. sunny disposition. how do you do that? >> i get my strength from my mother. that's all for now. thanks for joining us. he was born with a gift. he spoke to the animals. >> a dog trainer to the stars with a beautiful wife. >> he was totally crazy about her. >> but an ill wind would blow through paradise. >> the kennel dogs were very, very upset. there was a huge ruckus. >> they told me, we haven't seen mark.