now. >> reporter: i think she'd be pretty proud of you. >> i hope so. it's like a sadness. you can't sleep. it just kind of consumes you. and even when you can move on, you just never forget someone who's really left such an impact on your life. >> she was a really good mom. she really loved her kids. >> she was just 20 steps from her front door. she never made it. >> you can't explain what happened in those 20 steps. >> it just didn't make sense to me. >> a working mom murdered. >> it was hard to imagine that anybody would be capable of something like that. >> police started with the men in her life. was one of them behind her death? >> everybody was a suspect. >> the estranged husband.

>> you know you were a person of interest? the ex. >> susie, where are you? >> the brand-new boyfriend. >> somebody knew that we were seeing each other and didn't like it. >> and the unbelievable thing. they were all there the morning of the murder. so, who did it? >> my stomach was in my throat. >> all of us were a little taken back. >> it was really hard for my brain to wrap around that. it was early morning, still dark. the spring air was a cold bank et around the pickup parked and running near the main street of little glendive, montana. the passenger side opened, a woman stepped out and hurried across the empty street towards her downtown apartment, her coat disheveled, her bra slung over

one arm. the man's eyes in the dark. to the woman now crosses the sidewalk to her doorway, susie, lightning in a bottle. >> they were all there. >> there at susie's front door. >> each one of them was part of that crime scene. >> but how many and who? who owned the eyes in the dark that started that awful cascade of events of terrible things? >> i just dropped the phone and cried and cried and cried. i just couldn't believe that that could happen three times in one family. >> sunlight in the bad lands of eastern montana is like nothing else. that wide blue arch off unsullied sky, the rolling

prairie dotted sparsely with tiny old hamlets in which business is personal and where friends and families have worked the same sun baked gumbo for jen sagss, places like circle, population 600, susie's hometown. >> she livened things up a lot. >> this is susie's elder sister, carlene. >> it was nice to have the breath of fresh air in the family because the rest of us were a little more quiet. >> susie was the fifth of six kids born to the county undersheriff. >> she loved them horses, and she loved to go riding. her and i'd go riding quite a bit. >> susie's love affair with horses grew as she did and shaped her work ethic. her sister-in-law, value. >> she was not afraid to be out there shoveling manure or fixing a fence. she was a feisty thing. >> but if there was one word most used to describe susie, it

wasn't so much feisty as -- >> fun with a capital f. >> she was very impulsive, so she didn't think a lot ahead. she just kind of went with the moment. >> and so when susie went off to a technical school three hours away in billings and got herself a boyfriend, perhaps what happened next shouldn't have come as a very big surprise. >> it was, oh, she's pregnant, and well, you know, it's -- you get married. that's just what you do. >> and so she did. they made a big happy thing of it. the whole family gathered in circle for a real country church wedding where susie introduced her parents and siblings to her new husband, a kid named marty. >> what was that like for you two, finding out that she was pregnant and things were going to be a little bit different than you thought? >> you know, the whole family accepted because it was susie's

choice. >> before long, susie gave birth to a little girl named mariah, followed by a son, shay. but again, no real surprise. the marriage didn't last. >> she really loved her kids. they were really a big part of her life. and then when her and marty split, they were really everything in her life. >> so, late '90s now, susie was working as a medical transcriptionist in a place less than an hour from circle, in a place called glendive. that's where he met ted casey. he was a real deal this time, a grown up, a rancher, 14 years older than susie. >> he had horses and that was just right for her. >> wedding number two. this was 1998. the kids, shay and mariah, called ted dad. then there were two more kids,

girls. for almost a decade the marriage seemed to be just fine. but by then, susie was sharing secrets with value about ted. >> he wanted to tame her, i think. i guess i kind of joke around and say that he wanted her to be home in time for the 10:00 news. you know, he didn't want her to stay out and have fun. fun was just beginning at 10:00. >> at the casey ranch, love started to feel like one more chore to be put off until tomorrow. >> i think they grew apart. they just really both changed. >> then one liquid evening out at a bar, things went seriously sideways. ted got mad, dumped a beer on susie's head, slapped her, spent the night in jail. not long after, ted pleaded guilty to misdemeanor domestic assault. susie was gone from the ranch. >> she wasn't very happy with ted, and she was starting to make some good decisions to -- to find some happiness again.

>> and so by the spring of 2008, susie and the kids were living at the ponderosa apartments here in downtown glendive. a little town like this, people noticed what susie was up to. liked her, said family acquaintance olivia. but noticed -- >> people thought of susie as someone who was going through a time, kind of sowing some wild oats. she liked to have fun. >> sure. >> and she was having a lot of fun. >> and then it got to that friday evening in april. >> when she came in to see me, she was really happy, and she had make-up on, which wasn't really a susie thing, and that was great. so, i knew something was up. >> so, value watched as susie bounded out the door to take her two youngest kids to ted's for the night while the two older kids fended for themselves. and susie headed out on the town. >> i was like this girl's got to have a date tonight.

>> and the very next morning -- >> mom, pick up. >> when susie's worried children and increasingly frantic family called to ec which on her -- >> call me whenever you get the message. >> -- susie, who always kept her phone within reach, did not answer. . coming up, susie casey's sudden disappearance triggers a desperate search. can the people she loved help solve this mystery? >> what do you do? how do you find somebody? >> i was a detective. just going to backtrack over steps. you can tell the house was dark. it was kind of -- it was like an eerie feeling. >> when "dateline" continues. eerie feeling. >> when "dateline" continues ♪ since pioneering the suv in 1935, the chevy suburban has carried many things.

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glendive, montana. but in the ponderosa apartments, it was anxiety that infected the area as 14-year-old mariah tried again and again and again to reach her mother, susie. >> call me when you get this. >> mariah knew very well that her mother enjoyed evenings out and trusted her two older children to look after themselves in the apartment, but she never once failed to come home. mariah's next call was to her grandparents. >> she said, mom ain't around. >> so, mariah's anxiety affected jack and mar leeb too. >> sometimes you feel like mariah was the grown up and susie was the kid. >> she was the somewhat more level headed one. >> i thought this was silly, she went somewhere, the kids forgot, and it's going to be a funny ha ha. >> the kids were sufficiently

independent to get themselves up and leave for their respective activities, but from susie, not a word. across town, sister-in-law value hadn't heard yet that susie failed to come home. >> we had a craft show in town, and i thought that maybe she would want to come with me. >> hey, it's valerie, i'm just wondering if you're coming down. she didn't respond that morning and i thought that was kind of odd. when i was at the craft show was when i got the call from rusty. >> rusty, value's husband. >> what did rusty say? >> he told me that the kids couldn't find susie when they woke up and that everybody was just really worried because it just wasn't susie. she would never just not tell her children or be there for them. and she wasn't there. >> value's next attempt to reach

susie wasn't so calm. >> you need to call me back as soon as you get this message. your dad is freaking out because nobody can find you. >> what do you do? how do you find somebody? >> i was the detective. i was going to backtrack all of her steps. so, that's exactly what i did. >> val made some calls, found susie had been drinking with friends the night before until about 11:00 p.m. when she left for what was apparently a date with a new boyfriend, someone susie had just started seeing after her separation from her husband, ted. val's mind was racing. >> i also thought that maybe she had just fainted somewhere or had a heart attack or just an accident or anything. >> still, when her mindsetaled, her first move was -- >> i just figured that i had to go to teds. >> because? >> maybe she was at teds and they were having an argument and she couldn't answer her phone

or -- >> maybe something happened over there. >> maybe something happened, exactly. >> remember, ted casey had pleaded guilty to assaulting susie six months before. that's why she moved off the ranch to the apartment. but when val arrived at ted's place. >> you could tell the house was dark and there were no cars there and it was kind of -- it was an eerie feeling. i just felt like i couldn't get out of the car by myself. >> so, she decided to leave and picked up her husband, rusty. the two of them got a key to susie's apartment. they opened the door, and here's what they found. this is a video tape the police made later. >> as we kind of walked through the apartment and really realized that she wasn't there, again that adrenaline burst that something isn't right, something isn't right . she's not here. >> so, val decided to go find that new boyfriend susie had a

date with, the last person to be seen with her. his name was brad holzer. >> he would know where she was. >> brad lived with his soon-to-be ex-wife less than five minutes from susie's apartment. val drove over, knocked on the door. >> i said, susie's not home, we can't find her, she's not answering her calls and we're all really worried. and then i remember exactly what he said to me. he said, what do you mean she isn't home? i dropped her off at 5:00 a.m. that's when it hit that we're going to the police, something's not right. >> it certainly wasn't. the man whose marriage was breaking up, the last man to be with her didn't know a thing? really? coming up, susie's new boyfriend fields a few questions down at the station. >> did you guys make out or anything before she exited the truck? >> yeah. >> did you ever wonder about

brad and whether he was capable of any bad thing? >> when she went missing, i wondered about everybody. everybody was a suspect. >> when "dateline" continues. t. >> when "dateline" continues every minute. understanding how to talk to your doctor about treatment options is key. today, we are redefining how we do things. we find new ways of speaking, so you're never out of touch. it's seeing someone's face that comforts us, no matter where. when those around us know us, they can show us just how much they care. the first steps of checking in, the smallest moments can end up being everything. there's resources that can inform us, and that spark can make a difference. when we use it to improve things, then that change can last within us. when we understand what's possible, we won't settle for less. the best thing we can be is striving to be at our best. managing heart failure starts now with understanding.

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people disappear all the time in america. many of them turn up again. and maybe in some big city somewhere, susie's absence wouldn't have raised an alarm

quite so fast. but here? oliv olivia rieger was a young lawyer then. >> i was like, you've got to be kidding. this is glendive. she's got to be around somewhere. >> but when susie's brother and sister roared around town looking, it only made them more upset. >> when you're a kid and you're younger you always wished you had things you didn't have. i just always wished i had a big sister. and when i met susie, she was -- she was my big sister. and i just -- i guess i never, like, imagined that she wouldn't be in my life. >> mid-afternoon, val and her husband, rusty, drove over to the glendive police department. they sat down when then-captain then-captainty ulrich.

>> they said she always answers her phone, always. >> they were keenly aware of susie's history, the abuse six months prior at the hands of soon to be ex-husband ted. >> i had had a little insight and knew the dynamics. >> and susie's life had become even more complicated. the night before susie disappeared, she was with a guy named brad who are she said she was crazy about and who had to be the last person to see her before she vanished. >> did you ever wonder about brad and whether he was capable of any bad thing? >> when she went missing, i wondered about everything. >> yeah. >> everybody was a suspect. everybody was -- your mind continues to play and play and play, different scenarios of what could have happened, where she is. >> while that question remained

unanswered, matt holzer came in for an interview. >> appreciate you coming down. >> no problem. >> brad told police that he and susie had quite a long history. >> how long have you known history? >> well, we went out in high school. >> okay. >> she was 16. i was 19. probably went out a couple of months is all. >> then they lost touch for nearly two decades, said brad, until st. patrick's day 2008, just three weeks before she disappeared when their eyes met at a bar downtown. >> i knew who she was right away. i recognized her immediately. >> and in the weeks since, brad said he and susie spent every possible moment together. though given her kids and their respective tangled marital issues, it was complicated. the night before she disappeared, said brad, susie had been drinking with a couple of girlfriends before he picked her up and they drove out of town to sit by the yellowstone

river. >> that's where we were from about 10:45 or 11:00 until 5:00 a.m. we drove out there and parked and we did the same thing we usually did. talked, kissed, stuff like that. >> it was just about 5:00 in the morning, said brad, when he drove back to town and parked across the street from susie's apartment. >> did you guys makout or anything? >> probably about five minutes. >> before she exited the truck? >> yeah. she got out, walked toward the mouse luke she normally does. i know she was at least halfway across the street. >> brad swore he went straight home and went to bed. then brad casts suspicion elsewhere? >> do you have any idea where susan's at? >> i have no idea where she's at. >> where would you guess? >> my guess would be ted. he had to be behind this somehow. >> there was one more thing,

said brad, someone sent him a weird email the morning before his last date with susie. maybe ted was behind it somehow. here it is. it reads, how's your girlfriend. how does your wife feel about it? the sender? denise johnson. >> who sent that and who denise jones is. >> that made the cops' ears perk up, a missing come, one guy pointing to another. >> there's somebody with jealousy probably. i needed to find out who sent those emails. >> so, they told brad, don't leave town, and they set out to talk to susie's soon-to-be ex, ted casey. coming up. >> so much pressure, after a while. >> the scorned husband in the interrogation room and details of a confrontation with susie. >> i wasn't very happy. >> thoughts with ted were not

very friendly ones at that point. >> no. >> when "dateline" continues. n. >> when "dateline" continues oth. got to hand it to you, jamie. your knowledge of victorian architecture really paid off this time. nah, just got lucky. so did the thompsons. that faulty wiring could've cost them a lot more than the mudroom. thankfully they bundled their motorcycle with their home and auto. they're protected 24/7. mm. what do you say? one more game of backgammon? [ chuckles ] not on your life. [ laughs ] ♪ when the lights go down

president trump is closer to saying. >> don't talk to me that way. you're just a light weight. don't talk to me that way. i'm the president of the united states. don't ever talk to president that way. meanwhile president-elect biden spent the holiday with family and spoke to first responders about covid. back to "dateline." by the sunday of that anxious weekend the whereabouts of susie casey was a local preoccupation in glendive. >> there was a lot of talk of we sauk her walking down the street. maybe somebody picked up.

>> the young attorney olivia rieger couldn't help hearing what people were saying. >> susie's mother called her sister in north dakota. >> that's when i knew something was really wrong, so we packed up suitcases and headed to glendive to see what we could do to help find her. >> but where should they look? glendive is the biggest county, far more hunting places than people. >> we had a few pings off cell towers, so we had an idea off the phone where it would have been last. we had airplanes, helicopters, people on foot and nothing. >> meanwhile they processed susie's chevy trailblazer for any sort of evidence. same in her apartment. and found, well, nothing -- of

particular importance anyway. but then they had a look around outside susie's apartment building and found something kind of curious, a couple of curious things actually. thing was the shoe print in theout cove to the building next door to susie's place. and thing two, over in the alley, 40 or 50 feet away, looked like something had had been dragged, something heavy along the ground near the dumpster. did anything have to do with susie's disappearance. maybe ted casey knows something. by the next day, police were eager to talk to ted. >> your thoughts about ted were not very friendly ones at that point. >> no. >> ted had reasons to be upset with the woman who was leaving him. he was angry, humiliating arks costly divorce was looming, child support to pay.

first they asked ted about that incident in the bar the night they arrested him and put him in jail. >> i dunked the drink on her head, barely slapped her. she threw herself on the ground. we were both drinking. and this happened. but i suppose you get to such a -- so much pressure and after a while, you know, it explodes. >> explodes? that was a curious thing to say. ted insisted he'd last seen sue suh about 7:00 the evening before she disappeared when she dropped off the two little girls at his house for the night. but ted did admit he confronted susie on the phone a couple hours later after receiving a strange phone call himself around 9:00 p.m. >> what was said? >> just that brad holzer or whatever, however you say his last name, has been screwing my wife, click. >> brad holzer, susie's

boyfriend of three weeks. >> what did you think of the deal with this brad guy? >> well, i wasn't very happy. i mean, i called her up. >> okay. >> and said, hey, who's this brad holzer or whatever? i said, i just got a call that you've been doing. oh, no, no, no. i'd never do that. i'd never cheat on you. i said, you know, we are still married even though we're not living together. and i just hung up the phone, you know. well, she called me right back. and then she admitted that she knew the guy. she knew who he was. and that was about the end of the conversation. >> was he upset? yes, of course, he said he was. and yet ted told his inter gator he fell asleep right away and got up to do chores meet the girls with the baby seater and

meet a coworker. >> i was thinking it was 10 to 6:00 or something like that when i got there. >> but here's the thing. ted drove right past susie's apartment. he admitted as much on his way to meeting at city hall. his own time line put him near the front door within minutes of her walking to the front door after making out all night with brad holzer. as the glendive police department checked out the story, ted went home to look after the two youngest girls who were living with them full-time while susie's two oldest kids went to live with val and her husband. >> mariah was just tormented. she just didn't know what to do with herself. she was so close to her mom. it was just really, really hard for her. >> harder and harder for everyone, as day after day the search for susie produced nothing. >> as time went on, it was clear

that she wasn't around anywhere. so, it was just a really scary time. >> what were those days like? >> they were pure hell. you just sat and wait and wait for the phone to ring. >> and then nearly after a month after susie's disappearance, it did. coming up -- >> the hardest day of my life. >> a horrifying discovery by the river. and another discovery at the station. brad holzer's wife. what was she doing there? >> when dateline continues. >> ws airlines, hotels, food delivery, and especially car dealers all charge excessive, last-minute fees. when you want something badly enough, it feels like your only choice is to pay up. but what if you had a choice to take a stand instead? at carvana, we believe in treating you better. with zero hidden fees, you can drive off

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nearly a month after susie casey vanished on an early spring morning in glendive, montana, it was the yellowstone river that finally gave her back. >> i was sitting at my desk when the sheriff walked over and said there's a body found in fallen. >> fallon is upstream from glendive. >> by the time we got there, it was on shore. took a look. i knew at that point we're changing from missing persons to homicide. >> susie's family gathered at

val and rusty's house. >> we knew it couldn't be anyone else, but i didn't go there all the way because i had a job to do. and my job was to keep this family together and to get us through this. the authorities came and told us adults that it was her body. i didn't let my emotions just run with it because i knew we had those children downstairs. >> the older two, mariah, 14, shae, 12. carlene is the one who told them. >> i think that's the hardest day of my life. and i've had a lot of hard days, but that was the hardest, i think. that was tough. but when we finished up, i stepped outside. and there were two perfect double rainbows. and i thought, it's going to be

all right. it just felt like a sign that susie was letting us know that, okay, you finally found me and now we'll work through it and it's going all right. >> as word spread that susie had finally been found, the town of glendive both mourned and relaxed, to some degree. >> i think it was almost like a sense of relief, like, oh, we found -- we found her. we can move forward and see what happens. >> by this time, agents from montana's department of criminal investigation had been called in to help the local police. dci agent legion son. >> we determined from the autopsy that she was not breathing when she went into the water. so, it was not a drawning. >> so, it was killed first. >> that's correct and her hyoid bone was broken, which is consistent with strangulation. >> strangled. but when and by whom? at this time, brad, the last

person known to have seen susie alive -- >> i'll be right back. >> okay. >> -- had been interviewed time and again. >> when she left, she was wearing my white sweatshirt. >> okay. >> and they talked repeatedly to brad's wife. though she and her husband maintained they had no motive to kill susie, they were headed for a divorce. but how did she feel really? after all, they were still living together? did brad's wife who are might be considered the odd woman out in a love triangle, have a reason to get rid of susie? >> honestly, we have a variety of suspects, and yeah, right now, both you and brad are. >> but brad's story didn't change. he and susie were out all night. he dropped her at her apparent around 15:5:00 a.m. then drove few blocks home and went right to sleep. his wife insisted that was true,

said she came home from a date of her own about 6:00 a.m. and he was already asleep. >> he was in bed sleeping. >> but brad's wife added to the mystery as well, because it turned out she too claimed she got a strange phone call that week, the week susie disappeared. >> it was like, can i leave a message for brad, and i said, okay. they said, tell him to stop messing around with married women. and i said, what are you talking about? and she hung up. >> so, it was a female? >> yeah. >> a woman? this was greting stranger by the moment. ted, remember, claimed it was a male who called him to rat on susie. brad said a female named denise johnson sent him an email asking how his wife felt about his girlfriend. what police really needed was something concrete, something physical, proof of brad's whereabouts to back up his story and clear his name. and -- >> it was just by fluke that we

decided to check the bank for the footage. and sure enough, there it is. >> the bank. a u.s. bank branch just a couple doors down from susie's apartment. of course it had a camera on its atm. so, they asked to see the video. and what do you know? though very grainy and extremely hard to see clearly, it appeared to back up everything brad said. early in the morning, just before 5:00 a.m., 4:52 to be exact, you can see a pick up pull up across the street from the ponderosa apartments. >> we see brad holzer pull up in his vehicle in the security cameras. and susie casey is with him in that vehicle for a period of time, over 20 minutes. the dome light comes on. we believe this is when susie exits the vehicle. this is about 5:19 a.m. >> then brad's pick up pulls away out of frame. >> so, when brad's wife says

brad was in bed sleeping, we have a time frame from 5:20 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. where brad holzer has to commit this homicide and dispose of the body or hide the boi body and dispose of it later. we just didn't feel mr. holzer had strong opportunity in that time frame and much of a motive to murder susie casey. >> to hear that is a relief for brad who said good night countless times. >> in hindsight it bothers me that i didn't wait and watch. but there is no reason that anybody should be there. it's 5:00 in the morning. the whole town was dead. i just remember needing to get home, wanting to get home as soon as possible. didn't cross my mind for a second that anything would happen or that anyone was there.

>> the gallant little gesture he didn't make, brad holzer has all kinds of time to think about that. >> sometimes i think about her. i wonder what we'd be doing right now. there could have been a future there. >> susie was laid to rest in a sunny day in may, 2008, in the little cemetery outside her hometown. no one the slightest aware of how much more was still to come. coming up -- >> seems like you didn't make it home last night. >> an angry message from susie's husband ted, and a closer look at his story. what did he do the morning of the murder? >> when "dateline" continues. tis our new house is amazing. great street, huge yard. there is a bit of an issue with our neighbors fencing. neighbor 1: allez!

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misdemeanor, on the hook for child support and a life

beneficiary. he drove right past susie's apartment very near the time she disappeared, that he was angry, tried to reach her on the phone. >> actually i called susie, but every time i left. >> and yes indeed, here is the angry voice mail ted left. >> well, susie, i just called mariah, and it seems like you didn't make it home last night. so, maybe somebody told me is true that you're doing somebody else. >> it seems once again those age-old motives point at the husband. >> 90% of the time, you'd be right. >> but could he be the exception that proves the rule? a checking revealed ted was in fact at work that morning when he said he was. >> if he did commit a homicide,

when did he have time to dispose of the body? >> they found susie in the yellowstone river, 25 miles upstream from glendive. once again they pulled out that atm video. ted said he dropped his girls off at his brother's house that morning. it's a small town and city hall is just blocks from susie's place. ted said he drove right past her apartment, and sure enough -- >> we could see a vehicle driving by at approximately the time said he drove by the ponderosa apartments on the video at the bank. >> the time, 5:52 a.m., just like ted told police. >> so, he's basically got a 15-minute window in there where he's dropping his kids off, and drives to city hall. >> driven how close together everything was, wouldn't take

much time to kill susie, hide her body and retrieve it later for disposal. possible? quite, thought police. mind you, phone records seemed to back up what ted said about calling susie the night she went missing. that angry message she left on her voice mail. the time stamp proved it was hours after she vanished, meaning either ted was trying to fool the police with the voice mail or his movements that night or he didn't have any idea what happened to susie, and the husband didn't do it. if he was telling the truth, that is. >> you know you're a person of interest. >> yeah, and you can expect that. >> sure, but how was it to be treated that way? >> it doesn't feel good. you know every place you go, everything you do, you've got people watching, talking, you know, pointing. but i did nothing wrong and i had nothing to hide from so. >> did the police believe that?

you'd think if they did believe him they'd make some sort of announcement that ted was in the clear. but they did not. and so it was awkward, especially when they were looking for susie. >> did you take part in the search? >> i did. >> what was that like? >> it's kind of a tough situation. you know, what happens if you find her? if you're by yourself and you find her -- >> that would suggest you knew where she was in the first place because you put her there. >> so, ted was still a target for the investigation. and also quite suddenly a single parent of two little girls, age 6 and 8. >> six days seemed like six months. i mean, you weren't sleeping much. i had headaches every day for over a month all day long. >> so, how do you tell a little girl that her mother's never

coming home, that she's dead? zbl >> well, i guess, i just told them. >> how did they take it? >> they broke down. you know, they didn't let me out of their sight for quite a few days. >> i can imagine. >> and especially when it came nighttime. you know, they were -- they were glued to you. >> there was, remember, an insurance poll soin susie's life. ted was the beneficiary. wasn't a lot, but they cut the check. and ted casey cashed it. >> what did you do with it? >> paid her funeral expenses and what was left i split four ways between the four kids. >> could have kept it. >> could have, but that's not the right thing to do. >> was it enough to be very much help to the kids? >> not much. you know, there was probably maybe 3,000, $4,000 left after funeral expenses.

but -- >> so, does ted sound like a guilty man? but if it wasn't him and it wasn't the boyfriend, brad, then who killed susie? and why? there was something in the air that night, no doubt about it. not every deadly sin, but certainly several swirling on one city block in little glendive, montana. who owned those eyes in the dark that watched susie casey in the moments before she disappeared? >> mom. >> from the first moments the kids, parents, siblings that susie casey hadn't come home. >> as you know, everybody's looking for you. give me a call. >> not all of them --

>> give me awe call. >> -- tried calling the woman who never went anywhere without her phone. >> hello, just me. >> that phone was her lifeline as rusty and val said during their interviews with investigators. among whom was then captain ty ulrich. >> i thought let's see what phone calls she had. >> that's what a strange story began to emerge. >> that's when we started to see these phone calls. >> a number nobody recognized calling susie again and again all night long. but did that mystery caller leave a message? neither val nor rusty knew how to access susie's voice mail, but they did know who just might. >> when i called mariah and i asked her if she knew her mother's password to get into her voice mail, she knew it instantly.

and ty was sitting across the table from us, and the messages started to play. >> if you don't call me back by 1:00 -- >> overand over again, it was this same voice. >> i would love to hear from you and make sure everything is okay with you. >> and they were starting to get more desperate and needy. >> i don't know what to do. you won't answer me. >> really reminding me of when you're a teenager and you have your first crush and the guy or the girl goes to call them the next day and they don't answer. usually most of us would stop. >> please let me know that you're okay. >> but as a teenager, sometimes their emotions aren't really under control and they'll continue to call and call and call. >> i still need to hear from you, please. >> it was like that, but the messages just continued to get closer together and just more desperate. >> please let me know that you're okay. please. everybody is very worried about you. >> i just thought that this guy's strange to call that many

times, really kind of obsessive. >> and we're all worried, call us. >> yeah, who was he talking about, yeah? >> and another point, who was this guy? who was he to susie? and why in less than four hours did he leave not one or two or four or six but 22 voicemail messages for susie? coming up -- >> susie, where are you? where are you? >> the mystery caller revealed and a revelation for the police. >> were you thinking that you two would get back together? >> that was the plan. >> when "dateline" continues. "ds ♪ ♪ since pioneering the suv in 1935, the chevy suburban has carried many things.

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detectives investigating the murder of susie kasey had unlocked a clue on her cell phone. 22 voicemail messages, each one more urge gemt than the last from a number susie's family didn't recognize. >> please call me. i'm worried. >> but who was he? sister in law val racked her brain for answers, and then suddenly she knew. susie had only hinted at it, but there was another man in her life, someone from her past with whom she had reconnected as her marriage to ted fell apart. this man, her long ago first

husband, the father of her two older children. >> did she talk about him at all? >> i knew she had had a previous marriage and she had had mariah. i didn't know anything more beyond that. >> marty had been out of susie's life for nearly a decade. no contact. no child support. nothing. but then in 2007 mariah, curious about her biological father, found him on the internet and reached out. marty came to visit a time or two. at least once susie took the kids to see him three hours across the prairie in billings, montana. her parents were among the very few people who knew. they were not happy. >> we got into an argument and i said, susie, you don't want to do this. and i said, you know, the family isn't going to really go for this. and she said, you mean everybody's going to disown me?

so i just backed off. i told him. i said, i'm not going to lose my daughter over him, and that was the end of it. >> how serious it got nobody knew really. maybe they were just friendly. maybe it was more than that. now investigator ulrich typed marty larson in the database. >> it popped up. i seen criminal trespass. >> remember, susie married ted pretty quickly after she left marty back in 1998, but that wasn't the end of it. not long after the wedding apparently in a fit of heat, marty drove three miles down the road to the newlywed's house with a shotgun. what he intended to do was never made clear but he was convicted of criminal trespass and was slapped with a lifetime restraining order. no contact with susie or ted ever. >> at that point i had a little red flag go up and said, boy,

this is something we need to look at here. >> reporter: to judge from his 22 phone messages, marty, his given first name walter, was very worried about susie, desperately, as though his nighttime hours went by without a word from her but he still lived three hours away from billings. was that where he was calling from? one sure fire way to find out, check the cell towers. >> we started seeing him pinging from billings all the way to glendale. >> it's a long, lonely road under the montana moon, and even at the elevated speeds allowed on i-94, it's a good three hours east northeast across the rolling prairie from billings to the ponderosa apartment building in downtown glendale. ping, ping, ping past the ever listening cell towers, and

suddenly the cop had some homework to do. >> i didn't know who marty was. i had no idea. >> but he knew from the towers that marty larson was the third man to put him 1e6 near susie casey on the night she vanished which is why he called the state department of criminal investigations and agent lee johnson found himself standing outside marty's apartment staring at this freshly washed mini van. video, again, courtesy of the police. >> it was obviously very clean on the exterior because it had been through an automatic car wash. the interior of the vehicle had heavy condensation. >> what did you find inside? >> the vehicle had been shampooed. the carpets had been clieeaned. the back had been vigorously cleaned out, water, some type of cleaning solution. >> in marty's apartment? >> there was an empty bottle of

toilet bowl cleaner. they didn't look like they had been recently cleaned but yet we have an empty container of lie sol bathroom cleaner. they found a list of expenses as if someone was planning, quite seriously, for a las vegas wedding. >> basically a breakdown of the trip for lodging, paying for a minister to marry them and return trip home. >> then when investigators asked marty to take off his shirt they saw scratches on his back. how in hechbsz name would he have gotten those? some sort of struggle perhaps? while the search for susie was still going on, the agent suggested they all sit down for a little q&a, and marty said sure but -- >> can i ask you one question first in. >> sure. >> am i under arrest for

something? >>. >> being charged with something? >> no. >> marty said he and susie had reconnected the year before, mostly for the children. right away, said marty, they fell for each other all over again, like true soul mate. that time ten years prior when he had taken a shotgun to ted and susie's house, all forgiven. he was a different man now. >> the ten years we spent apart i spent thinking she hated me, she thought i hated her in fact we still love each other very much. >> were you kind of thinking that you two would get back together? >> that was the plan. >> so, said marty, just before susie went out the night she vanished, he talked to her on the phone. >> i said, make sure you eat. make sure you don't drink too much. don't -- you don't need to get a dui and get in trouble like that. >> and she promised to call him back later. >> i said, if i'm sleeping, don't worry about it. it's okay. wake me zblup after all, said

marty, they were a couple again. it was his business to worry about her. >> then i called her at 12:30 because i hadn't heard from her. i thought i would make sure everything was okay. >> if you don't call me back until 1:00 -- >> i didn't know whether she had gotten arrested or what was going on. and then i thought i'm going to go out there and i'm going to see if she's okay, make sure that she got home, make sure everything is okay. >> what time did you leave billings, do you recall? >> 1:30ish? >> sure enough, when police pulled video at the blue basket, time said 1:39 a.m. so he drove calling and leaving voice messages for susie during the entire 220 mile trip. >> i just need to hear from you. please. please call me. i'm worry rid. >> expecting to hear from her,

i'm fine, but susie's call never came. >> what time did you get to glen dive? >> 4:30. >> he said he parked around the corner, walked to her apartment. her car was parked outside, as if she was home. >> i went in the building, knocked on the door softly because her bedroom is near the door hoping, you know, it would wake her, not any of the kids. and hoping she would come and tell me she was okay. and there was no answer so i went out and called and texted a few times hoping to wake her up. >> so did you ever encounter susie at all? >> no. i wish i would have seen her. >> he swore he didn't see susie arrive just before 5 a.m. with brad. he didn't see what they were doing in the truck. he didn't see her cross the

street to her door at 5:19 a.m., but he did leave at 5:45 a.m. leaving one last frantic voicemail. >> hello. just hoping to hear you're okay. >> police are paid to be skeptical. >> there's no doubt in my mind you saw her this morning. >> no, i didn't. >> but marty stuck to his story. and when detectives asked him why his mini van was so freshly washed -- >> on the way out there i did one major thing. there was a deer in the road i hit and there was a bunch of deer stuck to the bottom of it. i went and cleaned the bugs off of it went through the drive through car wash. it didn't do a good job though. >> a deer, really? >> but -- >> did you check into whether or not he actually hit a deer?

>> we did. we did. we checked with the highway patrol. it was consistent with a deer. it was not a live deer, it was laying in the interstate. >> when they tested the tissue on the van, sure enough, it was not human. it was animal tissue. but then when police asked if there was any way they would find susie's dna in, on the van. marty said something that made police wonder. >> i guess what i'm saying, what i know is -- what i thought is that was a deer. i guess i don't know for certain that it couldn't have been her. >> what? was he trying to tell police he ran sushi down. >> is there something you want to tell us? >> no. i haven't done anything. you can go -- you can describe everything out from underneath that van. it's deer as far as i know. >> and if that wasn't weird enough, as the detectives left

the room -- >> oh, susie, where are you? where are you? those kids need you. i need you. i love you, susie. wish i knew where you were. >> he'd hardly say it. marty now was the prime suspect, the man in the cross hairs, but suspicion is so easy. the real question was, did he prove bring do it? what cop or prosecutor would want to stake his or her career on a wild bet like that? coming up -- >> susie's death consumed him. he was going to get justice for our family even if he had to do it our self. >> a whole new tragedy was about to hit susie's family when

"dateline" continues. r doctor about treatment options is key. today, we are redefining how we do things. we find new ways of speaking, so you're never out of touch. it's seeing someone's face that comforts us, no matter where. when those around us know us, they can show us just how much they care. the first steps of checking in, the smallest moments can end up being everything. there's resources that can inform us, and that spark can make a difference. when we use it to improve things, then that change can last within us. when we understand what's possible, we won't settle for less. the best thing we can be is striving to be at our best. managing heart failure starts now with understanding. call today or go online to understandheartfailure.com for a free heart failure handbook.

once susie's family found out that her ex-husband marty larson had been in glen dive the night she disappeared, reaction was quick and to the point. >> if i'd of knew all of this ten years earlier, i'd of took him for a ride. >> meaning -- well, you know. here's what most of them thought

right away. >> it just didn't add up that it was brad. and it didn't add up that it was ted. >> but marty perhaps? there were signs, like those obsessive voicemails. >> please call me. >> and a bank. his own admission that he hoped to reunite with susie. the probability that he saw susie canoodling with brad. the mini van washed fairly well on his return home and yet marty larson was not arrested. >> i think that frustration was really, really hard for the family. >> what was your expectation that they would look at this material that they had and just go and arrest marty? >> i guess i just anticipated that these things would move forward and that who was responsible would be held accountable and time just kept on going. >> thing is at that point, val

and rusty were hearing marty and ted were both suspects. at the time, susie's two youngest kids were with ted. the oldest two, shea and moriah were living with val and rusty. >> it was extremely difficult for shea and moriah both. i remember we were so excited for him to have his own bedroom, his own space but at night he couldn't -- couldn't sleep in his room. he had to sleep with moriah. >> because? >> i think he was scared marty was going to come and take him. >> his own father? >> i don't think he called him father. i don't think any of us really did. i think he was just afraid of marty. >> val had a newborn of her own to go along with those extra responsibilities and an overwhelming sadness that sneaked into her bed, her kitchen, her life, an unwelcome houseguest that simply refused

to leave. >> my son was four months old when susie was taken from us and i don't remember -- i don't remember him walking. i don't remember those moments i should remember as a mother. >> meanwhile, the investigation was stuck. >> i was thinking a couple months and we're going to have an arrest and we just didn't have the pieces at that time that we needed. >> 2008 went the way of all years. ted kept to himself. marty moved, left billings, went to phoenix, got a job. and at home in glen dive, susie's brother, val's husband rusty, was having trouble with rage. >> susie's death consumed him. wouldn't sleep much at night and he told me one night that he just wanted to stop feeling.

i think it just haunted him that he felt like he could have done something. >> by the time a representative of montana's attorney general's office met with the family, many felt they were teetering on the edge of sanity, still wondering. marty or ted? what was the holdup? >> that day i asked if she could tell us as a family that ted was no longer a suspect? because the two little girls were living with ted at the time and moriah and shea were living with me and i felt like i was the only person trying to salvage the relationship with the little girls and the siblings. i wanted her to crash that wall down and say he wasn't a suspect. her response to me was that the case is still moving forward and he's still a suspect. >> quite a thing to hear. >> yeah. i mean, i just -- i just really felt like i needed to hear that

at that time and i didn't get to hear that and that it was still possible he could have had involvement. >> ted, who still lived under a cloud of suspicion, believed marty killed susie. >> there was a lot of nights i didn't sleep real good wondering if somebody was going to show up in the middle of the night with a gun. >> but it was rusty during his many sleepless nights who devised a plan to do what police and prosecutors seemed unable or unwilling to do. >> he was going to get justice for our family even if he had to do it himself. >> what do you mean by that? >> he had made several plans about how he was going to kill marty, take marty's life just like marty took susie's. >> what would you say to him when he said things like that? >> that the case was moving forward and that that wasn't

something he needed to do. we had a son and our son needed him and me and he couldn't leave us. >> eventually it all came to that anyway. first val and rusty divorced and then in november 2011, 3 1/2 years after the night susie was murdered -- >> got a phone call in the middle of the night. it was really impossible to believe that. >> rusty, her brother, 32 years old, died by suicide. >> we've already lost susie. this can't be happening too, you know? and so it was really hard for my brain to wrap around that. >> and so jack and marlene went to the little cemetery to lay another child to rest. >> it crushed them and then to lose their two youngest. it just seems like they aged 15 years. >> do you think rusty would be around today if they had moved

quicker on that case? >> i try not to go there. i mean, there's all these what ifs, what ifs. >> then it wasn't long after her rusty was put in the ground a new county attorney was elected in glen dive. you've already met her. olivia rieger. >> i felt like we had a duty to give some sort of explanation to jack and marlene and their family as to what was going on. if the case wasn't going to go somewhere or it was. >> they needed to know. >> and they certainly were dangling. >> absolutely. >> if that were all, the hope for an answer and justice might have simply ended there, but one morning as olivia was settling into her new office there was a knock at the door. a man had come to call, and he smiled and said -- >> hi, i'm brad light and we're going to try a homicide.

>> my stomach was in my throat. >> an arrest at last and new anguish that no one in the family saw coming. >> that hit you pretty hard, didn't it? >> yes. >> when "dateline" continues. got to hand it to you, jamie. your knowledge of victorian architecture really paid off this time. nah, just got lucky. so did the thompsons. that faulty wiring could've cost them a lot more than the mudroom. thankfully they bundled their motorcycle with their home and auto. they're protected 24/7. mm. what do you say? one more game of backgammon? [ chuckles ] not on your life. [ laughs ] ♪ when the lights go down

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president trump is going to head and campaign in georgia.

if they both lose in a january 5th runoff, democrats will take control of the senate. meanwhile, donald trump jr. says he has recovered from the coronavirus and was out of isolation for the thanksgiving day holiday. he plans to spend the weekend with his family. now back to "dateline." olivia rieger could scarcely believe her eyes. the man at the door, the plan who clearly intended to enlist her in a cause was one of the best known prosecutors in montana. >> when you saw him at the tore that day, what happened to you? >> i think my stomach was in my throat. especially when he said, we're going to try a homicide. i was like, are you kidding me? because i am new here. he brought boxes of files and he said i'm going to be back in six weeks and i want you to get on this and read all of this stuff and we're going to talk about

how we're going to do this. >> this is brandt light who was appointed the chief prosecutor. they usually help small jurisdictions with big cases. >> how did you get involved in this case? >> well, i had come to the attorney general's office. there was another chief prosecutor at that time. simply didn't think there was enough evidence. i then took her position and i told my team, let's look really hard at this and months later after a very hard look i thought it was a great case. i thought circumstantially it was overwhelming. >> then brandt light met with susie's family. asked for their patience and promised he would issue an arrest want for the man he was now convinced was the killer, marty larson. >> i saw my family in their family. a good, strong family. and to have this death occur, to have her get out of a car and then never make it to the front

door, 20 steps and we can't explain to them what happened in those 20 steps, i thought they deserved to find out. >> in february 2012, almost four years after susie's murder, a phoenix s.w.a.t. team descended on marty larson as he walked out of his apartment on his way to work. back in glen dive, a certain ex-suspect finally relaxed. >> when you knew he was under arrest and in jail, how did it change your life? >> you know, it took a lot of stress off me. >> mr. larson, i'm assistant chief with the police department. >> the man who took susie's original missing person's report sat down with marty. >> when i walk in i'm expecting somebody to say, you're crazy. i didn't do this. i don't want to talk to you at all. i find a guy sitting in a chair with his legs crossed, arms across the side. >> the only thing i have to say is i have no idea what happened to her. i don't know how she passed

away. that's it. i pretty much knew when i was targeted years ago that something like this could happen at any time. i knew this day could come. >> what did that say to you? >> that said to me he's been thinking in the back of his head he would be arrested for this crime. >> they took marty back to montana, stuck him in the county jail to await his murder trial and as the spring of 2012 arrived, it seemed that things were finally looking up for susie's family. >> it was a lot of relief, especially mom and dad i think really felt like susie would finally get some justice. >> and there was another reason finally for the family to celebrate. susie's eldest child, moriah, was graduating from circle high school. senior photos were taken, announcements were set up, a party was planned and then the

day before the ceremony -- >> she had said, you know, is dad going to be at my graduation. i said, i know, she'll be with you. she cried. >> and so marya and marlene dried their tears and the young girl bounded out of the house and drove away. >> what happened, anyway? >> they said she fell asleep. >> went off the road? >> there were no skid marks or nothing until she hit the ditch and it rolled and that kid would never leave without her seat belt on. that night she didn't have it on and it throwed her out. >> marya larson was just 18 years old. >> all i remember is answering the phone, my mom telling me and that's all i remember. i just dropped the phone and just cried. cried and cried and cried.

i just -- i couldn't believe that that could happen three times in one family. >> i never really grieved for susie, just like i never really grieved for rusty until marya's accident and that was the day i grieved for all three of them. >> i can't imagine that scope of loss. i don't know how you managed it. >> i don't know either. >> that hit you pretty horribly when she was killed, didn't it? >> yeah. >> is that the point that gets you every time? >> yeah. >> marya was laid to rest in that little cemetery outside circle next to her uncle rusty and her mom susie. >> she had a hard time living

without her mom and i guess that's why she finally went to be with her mom. just about didn't make it through that one, three of them. >> and right along with the family that day was the new prosecutor on the case. >> it showed me a lot about brandt light because he traveled from helena after only meeting that young girl one time he came to her funeral. >> he had a message for the family and marty larson. >> it was very clear in this case from both sides there was not going to be any plea negotiations. we never talked negotiations, we simply talked about trial. let's go to trial. >> bravado? circumstantial cases, especially like this one, can be tricky. coming up -- that shoe print.

those drag marks, and the surveillance video from the bank. would any of it point to marty? >> it looked like a different person. all of us were a little taken aback. >> when "dateline" continues. and especially car dealers all charge excessive, last-minute fees. when you want something badly enough, it feels like your only choice is to pay up. but what if you had a choice to take a stand instead? at carvana, we believe in treating you better. with zero hidden fees, you can drive off without feeling ripped off. that's what it means to live feelessly. [ sneeze ] skip to cold relief fast with alka seltzer plus severe powerfast fizz. dissolves quickly. instantly ready to start working. ♪ oh, what a relief it is! so fast! the medicare enrollment deadline is only days away. with so many changes, do you know if your plan is

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then break it. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best with emergen-c. glen dive is, as we have said, not a very big place. the walk from susie's apartment door to the county courthouse would take less that be a

minute. five years from crime to trial. five years and one city block where in april of 2013 marty larson finally faced a jury. >> clearly to me he was the person that committed that crime. now my chore was to go out and prove it. >> but when marty walked in, the courtroom gasped. >> it sure didn't look like the picture that i was shown of him. >> he had lost like 77 pounds or something like that. so he looked like a different person altogether. so i think there was a little shock in everyone's mind that all of us were a little taken aback. >> wait. was it intentional? more on that in a minute. first prosecutor light listed what he said were motives for marty to kill susie. motives as old as time. jealousy, pride, rage. >> i think marty was absolutely convinced that he and susan were going to get back together and i really think he thought that was going to happen and all of a

sudden here comes brad. >> that's why, said the prosecutor, and phone records backed it up, marty made those phone calls to brad's estranged wife and to ted kasey certainly before the murder alerting these strange but still married people that something untoward was going on. >> i think at that point he thought, well, let me just break this up. so his efforts were all just about breaking them up. >> that effort included emails though marty denied it. >> did you send the emails. >> no, i did not. >> a search of marty's computer said he had created that email account under the name of denise johnson and asking how his wife felt about his girlfriend. when police showed up at marty's door the very first time -- >> he's erasing things on his computer and defragmenting the hard drive. >> appeared to be getting rid of something. >> something, yeah. >> the night susie disappeared

phone records revealed that she and marty last spoke at 9:51 p.m. and susie was aware that marty had been trying to sabotage her relationship with brad. after the phone call she called her daughter, marya. >> she wanted to know how to restrict a number and i asked her why and she told me because marty was calling. he was calling ted and saying stuff about her. >> the phone records showed susie stopped returning marty's call, that's why at 1:39 a.m. marty was caught on that gas station surveillance camera leaving billings to head towards glen dive. >> i think when he left billings it was never his intent to kill her. it was his intent to confront her. >> please call me. >> the jury heard that marty left 22 voicemails as he drove over the next three hours.

his cell phone pinging in glen dive just before 4:30 a.m. then by his own admission marty parked right around the corner from susie's apartment building, next to the bank, and that's when the bank's atm started telling the story like nothing else could. 4:27 a.m. prosecutors argue this figure here is marty walking towards susie's apartment. >> our theory was he got to susan's apartment before brad -- before she returned and there's a little concave, a little store front. we believe that's where he was standing. >> that's when he left that footprint found in the dust in the alcove of the building next to susie's. then the tape showed at 4:52 a.m. brad and susie pulled up in brad's truck. 5:19 a.m., the dome light came on. susie opened the door, got out just steps from her apartment. >> when she stepped out of brad's car after he had stewed

in that concave for 15 to 20 minutes as they were in the car doing whatever they were doing, i think he was extremely angry. and when he saw her, i think he confronted her. i think she confronted him right back. >> i think when she told him that she was going to continue her relationship with brad and that marty and her were done, i think he was saying no one was going to have susie. >> it came to a head in that little alley there and i think that's when he strangled her. >> strangled her prosecutors argued, but not before susie left those telltale scratch marks found on marty's back. the state's theory, that marty dragged her body across the alley leaving those drag marks near the dumpster. then at 5:38 a.m. a figure walked back to marty's van. >> after he walks back you see that silver van pull back in front of susan's.

there's a 5 minute wait. i believe he's putting that body into the van and then you see the van pull aside. >> that is when prosecutors say marty started driving back to billings. >> you have a body in the van. the river was the fastest and easiest way for him and to buy him some time. >> prosecutors produced this video showing marty at 8:15 a.m. 78 miles down the road stopping for gas wearing a white t-shirt, black shoes, that were never found. did he throw them away when he dumped her body? 10:29 a.m. marty was back in billings leaving his first voicemail in almost five hours. this one with a decidedly different tone. >> good morning, sweetie. i was just hoping you might talk to me. i have my other phone charging right now. if you could give me a call, thank you. >> totally different tenor when he still hadn't talked to her. i would have thought that you would have been even more angry

as time went by that he still hasn't returned your calls, they still don't know where you are. now he's gone into alibi mode. >> the final piece of the puzzle for the prosecutors. remember how marty vigorously cleaned his mini van inside and out? not quite enough. one hair was found. it was in the back of the van where he had put a body. >> of course, you know, we did the mitochondrial dna and it was hers. it was in the back where we believe he laid her. >> oh, a strong circumstantial case except the marty who showed up in court did not look a bit like the man in the video. >> my belief was he tried to change his look so he would not look like the person who was on the bank atm. you know, there's a big husky guy, maybe 210 pound man and here is a moern might be 150 pounds, 160 pounds.

>> but would it work? the question. after all, the state's case was entirely circumstantial. there were no eye witnesses. the bank video was so bad even the judge wondered at times what he was looking at and they never found shoes to match the footprints in the alcove. brandt light had taken a chance, all right, on a difficult case. and the defense was yet to come. coming up -- >> ted kasey, i believe, was the only one who had a real motive. >> a shot from the defense. was the wrong man on trial? >> i couldn't have done that. >> can you see how it looks? >> oh, yeah. >> marty larson speaks. >> i can. >> when "dateline" continues. neighbor 1: allez!

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marty larson's defense attorney had one big headline for the jury. >> i don't think anyone knows how this crime happened. >> she's a seasoned and respected montana defense attorney, and her review of the prosecution was harsh. sheer speculation, she said. made for a good story but offered very little in the way of actual proof that marty killed susie. >> i believe that there was not enough evidence to bring this case and that's one of the reasons why it wasn't filed for

all of those years, because other prosecutors had determined there wasn't sufficient evidence. >> much more evidence against ted kasey, she said. >> ted kasey, i believe, was the only one who had a real motive. they were fighting about the children, the monetary aspects of their marriage, and she had indicated to marty on several occasions that she was fearful of ted. and i believed that recounting what he did that morning, had it been properly investigated, would have found to have been less than a perfect alibi. >> prosecutors, of course, argued that there was no evidence that ted or for that matter brad or his then wife or anyone but marty larson killed susie. the defendant himself testified at the trial. and agreed to sit down with us too. >> so what do you want people to know about you?

>> i guess the main thing is just that i had nothing to do with killing susie. i -- i would never have done anything to her or to take her away from my kids or her two little girls. i couldn't have done that. >> marty insisted that his very last contact with susie was that phone call 9:51 p.m., eight hours before she disappeared. >> what happened in that conversation? why did she not want to talk to you at all afterwards and block your number? >> during that call she called to ask me -- i don't remember if she asked me or xiao cuesed me of calling ted. >> and in fact you had. >> i did. >> and she was mad about that? >> yes. >> i told her i didn't do it, it wasn't me. >> why? why would you do that? lie about it? >> the lying about it was because i knew i had done something stupid and i felt

guilty about it. why i did it? a lot of it was because of being hurt because what she had been telling me was that whatever she had as far as a relationship with brad, she had been telling me for a week to ten days that that was over. >> apparently it wasn't. >> no. and i guess somewhere in my head i suspected that, that's why i sent the emails. there was a lot of confusion. >> confusion or something else that made him decide to drive three hours to susie's place in the middle of the night. >> that's a bad decision, right? you see that now? >> oh, yeah. the whole time i was driving he was hoping she would respond and say, i'm fine, so i could just turn around and go home. that was -- that was all i wanted was to know she was okay. >> and still marty insisted that when he got to her apartment, he

just didn't see susie right across the street with that guy, brad. no, he claimed he waited for her at a spot where he couldn't have seen her walking to the door. >> that's the part that sticks with me. i'm thinking, here's a guy who cares deeply about this woman and what she's up to and he sits where he can't see the entrance to her apartment building? don't give me that. that's crazy. >> i can't make people believe anything. i know what i did, where i was. >> listen, you put yourself there. you put yourself at the crime scene. >> i put myself in a position for them to look at me. >> right. you had the opportunity. you had the motive. >> if just being in the vicinity -- >> you could have. >> within that time frame, yes. >> can you see how it looks? >> oh, yeah. i can.

i can. there are a lot of things i don't understand why i do. i don't understand why especially now why i couldn't have just stayed home and tried to contact her a few times. i guess in my head i had some sort of thought i could do something to help if she needed help. >> sometimes with a girl like susie, the thing you can do to help is to walk away. >> yeah. probably. probably would have been best, at least for me. >> marty larson's jury was out for about as long as it took to drive from billings to glen dive the night poor susie left his life. three hours. the verdict, guilty. >> what was it like to hear that guilty? >> everybody hooped and hollered and hugged. it was just like a big weight just lifted off you. >> there's something hugely important about justice. couldn't bring her back but did the verdict matter? >> oh, yes.

>> it did really set my mind at ease. it did help us to move on. >> every time we get a guilty verdict the first thing i do is turn to the family. i love for that two or three minutes and look in their eyes, see the smile in their faces, the joy that they have. for me, that's what it's all about. >> i'll never, ever probably in my whole career that i loved being a prosecutor like i did right then. >> this is where marty larson was sent to serve his time, crossroads correctional in shelby, montana, up near the canadian border. >> what did they sentence you to? >> 110 years. >> your first parole possibility is what -- >> 2042. >> long ways. >> yes, it is. >> but, of course, it's far more than just a long wait for susie, rusty, marya. the cass gad of grief that night

were deep and long. >> i just can't understand how the guilt and the emotions are just consuming him because losing her, it's still consuming us. >> he took her life and he took part of our hearts but he'll never break this family up, and he hasn't. >> no, he hasn't. shea, just 12 when his mom was murdered, graduated from high school in 2013. ted and susie's daughters were junior bridesmaids when their aunt val remarried but there are too many from this family in the circle cemetery. not something a family gets used to. they just learn to work around it. they go on. >> we're not victims, we're

survivors and survivors keep on living life. and we're survivors. i'm craig melvin. >> i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." i tell people it's the miracle of facebook. all i did was put one sentence, just one sentence. >> it's not often that you get to be a hero. >> i got halfway through this and just went, "oh, my god!" >> the murder happened in seconds. >> one was coming straight at me in gym with a gun leveled at us. i never ran so fast in my life. >> the truth took decades. >> i said, you know what, give me a lie detector test. >> i never believed it for one minute, never.