you. we'll be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." it's shocking. you just kind of go into crisis mode. i don't think they knew exactly what had happened other than he was covered in blood. she was just broken and lost. >> there is a murderer out there. and it's terrifying. >> reporter: it was supposed to be an anniversary celebration. 32 years together. >> they were in love, even after all those years.

they were very happy together. >> suddenly, an intimate moment turned to infinite terror. >> i just hear help. someone's in trouble. i was scared. i was scared. >> a husband found murdered in a closet. a wife tied up in another. >> they found her on the ground with her hands behind her back. >> she just had bruising on her arms and on her face. >> inconsolable, screaming, crying. >> reporter: who could be behind this? >> it just eats me up inside! >> reporter: their only daughter, desperate for justice for her dad. be careful what you wish for. >> everybody gasped. nobody could believe it. >> this terrifies me because this could happen to anybody. >> reporter: the scented candles were lit. the jacuzzi jets turned on high. it was a belated anniversary evening but not some big blowout. sandra and jamie really weren't that kind of couple. >> they were just always so kind

to each other and always very respectful. >> reporter: it was really the start of a life victory lap for the two. they had raised a daughter, juggled all the usual things that families do, and now retirement for jamie was right around the corner. >> they sat there and they talked about the future, and what they were looking forward to. >> reporter: but the future for these two would last no longer than the flame on that candle. by the next afternoon, there would be blood, lots of it. somehow, someone had turned a cozy celebration into a monstrous crime scene. >> it was just -- it was horrible. >> what in the world had happened in that house? >> i have no idea. >> reporter: the story of the two begins as high school meet-cute. sandra, the new girl from laredo assigned a seat in her houston classroom just in front of jaime melgar. their daughter lizz doesn't know how many times she heard that story. >> he used to pull on her hair.

>> oh, you're kidding. >> in the middle of class. >> "who's this guy behind me, pulling on my hair?" >> yeah. apparently, one time he invited her ice skating. and he told her a bunch of friends were going so it wouldn't really be a date. when she shows up there, it's him and one of his friends, and his friend left shortly after that. >> so a little bit of a scheme going on. >> yeah a little bit. but, you know, it ended well. >> reporter: and that was that. sandra and jaime were a done deal, an inseparable couple. sandra studied nursing, and jaime set aside every dime he could for his family, juggling a job as a computer programmer while investing in real estate. >> happy family? >> very happy family. i was definitely a daddy's girl growing up. >> personality, lizz, your dad? >> he was very analytical and he was conservative, and he was very loving, and he was very dedicated to family. >> he was an immigrant from guatemala? >> yes, he came here when he was 3. his mother brought the family

here. he made a life for himself from nothing. >> reporter: and jaime carried himself with a certain goofy joy as his niece marissa campos remembers it. >> easy going guy? >> yes, very easy going. easy to talk to. had the worst jokes. >> they were so bad that you would just stop and groan. and they became known as jim jokes. >> reporter: marissa's aunt sandra would roll her eyes, then laugh indulgently at uncle jim. >> i remember her being like, "oh, your uncle. oh." >> reporter: the melgars' life revolved around not just family, but church, too. they'd joined the jehovah's witnesses early in their relationship, but by her early 20s, daughter lizz had left the church. newly independent, she rushed into a marriage. a bad one. >> i got married when i was about 22, and we ended up divorced not long after. maybe a year. >> true that he was involved in heavy drugs? >> yes. >> and wanted you to follow him down that path? >> yeah.

>> that was the end of it? >> that was it. i didn't want to live that kind of life, and he couldn't step away from it. so we had to part ways. >> reporter: but her parents' marriage just kept going through sickness and health. in fact, in recent years, jaime was looking younger than ever on a vegetarian diet and exercise regimen. >> he realized he was getting older and he just wanted to make sure he was in the best physical shape. >> your mom. your poor mom meanwhile had a constellation of health problems. >> yes. >> lupus. chemotherapy involved in that. >> at times. she also had epilepsy. >> did she have the seizures? did you ever see her? >> yes, she did. >> artificial hips. moving about with a cane. did she feel sorry for herself that this had happened to her? >> no, she never did. she never complained. she was a very strong woman. >> reporter: then december 2012 rolled around. their 32nd wedding anniversary. sandra was ill on the actual

day, so they went out together ten days later on december 22nd. >> she was finally feeling well enough to go and have dinner. >> reporter: the next day, the 23rd, marissa's family would join them to celebrate again over a late lunch. >> on our way there, i remember texting him. >> texting your uncle? >> yes. i didn't get a response but -- >> was that unusual that he didn't text you back? >> yes. >> reporter: they got to the house around 4:00 p.m. and knocked on the front door. >> nothing. no answer. >> reporter: marissa's father, jaime's brother, herman, checked around the back of the house. no sign of jaime or sandra. >> we thought, okay, maybe they left. maybe they went to go get something. my dad is like, no, his truck is out there. finally that's when my dad said, i'm going to go inside. >> reporter: herman walked through an open garage door and entered the house itself through an unlocked interior door. >> then he comes around to open up the front door. >> reporter: the visitors huddled in the dark entrance hall, expecting a greeting from sandra or jaime. but none came. just as they got ready to leave, they heard something.

it sounded like sandra. >> it was mumbling. >> where was her voice coming from, marissa? >> we did not know. my dad, i just remember, just ran straight into the master bedroom. >> reporter: marissa raced after her father. >> i just hear her saying help, someone's in trouble. >> reporter: the voice was coming from inside a walk-in closet attached to the bathroom. herman moved closer. wedged against the doorknob was a dining chair. he tugged it aside, opened the door, and there was sandra on the floor, tied by her arms and ankles but alive. >> he said that she did not look well at all. >> reporter: as marissa's mom cut sandra loose, her dad spoke. >> where's my brother? where's your uncle? >> reporter: the answer to that unspeakable. coming up -- >> she looked like she had aged ten years overnight.

broken and lost. >> reporter: sandra melgar, the only possible witness to a night of terror. what would she remember? when "unspeakable" continues. ♪ chicago! okay, so, magnificent mile for me! i thought i was managing my moderate to severe crohn's disease. until i realized something was missing me. you okay, sis? my symptoms were keeping me from really being there for my sisters. so i talked to my doctor and learned

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so when a hand specialist told me about nonsurgical treatments, it was a total game changer. like you, my hands have a lot more to do. learn more at factsonhand.com today. marissa, rattled to her core, stood in her uncle jaime and aunt sandra's bedroom doorway, waiting for first responders. trying to calculate her family's terrible new math. >> i still didn't know everything that was going on. >> reporter: in the bedroom, open drawers, a tossed wallet. had this been a home invasion? and where was her uncle jaime? then she glanced to her side, and there about 20 feet away from the bathroom, next to jaime and sandra's bed. >> i just saw his -- his ankles. >> and this was what, in a closet area off their master, huh?

>> yeah. >> so you just saw his feet? >> mm-hmm. i didn't even know what had happened to him. i just know his ankled were tied up. it was horrible. >> reporter: there was jaime, naked, covered in blood on the floor, not far from his safe. a red rope encircled his chest, a phone cord looped around his ankles. sandra now freed of her ties sprang from her closet captivity. a former nurse, she checked for his pulse and found none. your aunt is distraught. she's crying? >> yes. >> marissa, what in the world had happened in that house? >> i have no idea. i'm not sure who could have done something like that to him -- to them. >> it didn't make sense to you at the time. this is going to take a while to digest what these events are, what you're seeing, huh? >> correct. >> reporter: first responders weren't exactly sure what they'd been dispatched too either. >> they told us there's possibly two victims and that's all we knew when we got there. >> reporter: emt stephanie robinson was the first responder on the scene. she checked on jaime. what did you see? >> i walked through the front

door. i was escorted by the niece to the back bedroom, and she said, he's in there, and she just pointed to her right. i glanced in, and it was a closet, and he was scrunched down in the closet. >> he was clearly dead? >> clearly dead, yeah. >> you know gunshot wounds from knife wounds. >> you couldn't really tell. there was so much dry blood. i didn't notice the gash down his neck. >> reporter: next, emt robinson found her way to sandra, by then collapsed on a chair in the bathroom, a family member by her side. >> she was kind of balled up a little bit, and she was crying hysterically. >> reporter: the emts started to assess sandra, who said her head hurt but -- >> she said she has no injuries. >> reporter: still, sandra seemed disoriented. what time was it? morning or afternoon? then between gulping sobs, sandra said she simply could not remember what happened the night before. she'd been unconscious, maybe had one of her seizures. >> she said after a seizure, that it's not uncommon that she falls asleep for several hours.

>> reporter: by now, harris county sheriff's investigators had descended on a crime scene that was once just the melgars' modest home. jaime, they could see, had suffered multiple stab wounds to the torso. by the looks of it, well over a dozen. the crime scene unit got to work inside, collecting evidence, things like a bloody chair near jaime's body and a kitchen knife fished out of the bottom of the jacuzzi. sandra, seemingly in shock from her ordeal, declined to go to the hospital. instead, she went to talk with investigators. sandra told investigators the last thing she remembered was her anniversary night with jaime. >> we went out to eat. >> what time was that? >> that was about 8:00. i'm just guessing. i don't know. >> reporter: sandra told them they stopped for mixers at a cvs on the way home. >> what time did you get home? >> um, probably midnight. >> reporter: she said they intended to share some

late-night romance, candles and strawberries. >> we made some drinks, and we got in the jacuzzi. >> in your master bathroom? >> right. >> and then what? >> reporter: but the intimate jacuzzi was interrupted by their dogs barking outside in the office. >> he got out and said he was moving the dogs to the office cause when they're too loud, we don't want the neighbors to complain. >> reporter: maybe that's when she had the seizure. as they talked, sandra broke down. who could have done this, she wondered? she recalled for the detectives the scary moment on their way home. >> i think when we left cvs, there was a car following us

because when we came in our neighborhood, it was still behind us. >> reporter: something for the detectives to check out. after sandra was done talking, her cousin, diana, who had rushed into town to help, met her at a friend's house. >> when i first saw her, she was unrecognizable to me. she looked like she had aged ten years overnight, and she couldn't stop shaking. and so i didn't want to ask her too many questions. i was just happy that she was alive, but i knew she was hurting because jim wasn't -- >> lizz, remarried now, was an ocean away, living in europe when she finally got her mother on the phone. what did you hear in her voice? >> she was just broken and lost. she was just devastated. >> and at that point you had very fragmentary information, huh? >> i knew my dad was killed in a home invasion, and thankfully my

mom was still alive. >> just not any kind of news you should ever hear. >> it's shocking. it really doesn't sink in for a while. you just kind of go into crisis mode, put your head down and try and get things done so you can get back home. >> reporter: lizz booked the next flight back to texas. >> i knew i had to get there. >> reporter: had to get back, back to a new reality with a murdered father and a traumatized mother. grieving would have to take a number while the daughter held everyone together. nothing made sense. coming up -- were you worried about your mother, that whoever this person was might come back for her? >> absolutely. she was traumatized. >> reporter: tips begin to trickle in. who could have done this? >> you're getting information right away that kind of a sketchy neighbor. >> that's right. just getting out of jail who was suspicious. >> reporter: when "unspeakable" continues.

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a daddy's girl shaken even more by the face that was missing. >> i think at that time, it really hit me that, i wasn't gonna see him anymore. he wasn't going to be there to pick me up from the airport. >> reporter: a still very rocky sandra came, with family, to pick up her daughter. >> we both just broke down at the sight of each other. >> she'd been through a terrible ordeal? you don't really know the whole story yet. but did you see injuries on her? >> she just had bruising on her arms and on her face. >> did she have a bump on her head? >> she did. she told me her head was hurting. and i could feel it back there. >> reporter: lizz insisted her mom get some rest. so the next day, when detectives came by the house where lizz and sandra were staying, the daughter was the one to field their questions. >> and you flew in, uh, yesterday? >> yes. >> that's right. >> okay. >> reporter: and lizz thought it prudent to record the conversation. she updated the detectives on

her mother's health. >> she's just in complete shock, and she has retrograde amnesia at the moment. she has a hard time remembering things as it is because of the seizures. >> reporter: lizz had witnessed her mom's seizures before. and now she theorized that's what might have kept her alive during the home invasion. >> i think she -- she probably had a seizure and that probably freaked out whoever was there, and maybe they thought they killed her. >> reporter: the detectives asked lizz to keep them updated on her recovery. >> because if she could ever remember a suspect, that's the best thing for me and him. >> no i agree. >> yeah. >> 'cause then we have a description, everything else, right now at this point. >> we have nothing. >> i've been asking. i've been asking her. >> reporter: and then the detectives asked lizz if she could pay a visit to her parent's house. >> anything you think's missing, because we need to start searching for the items that are missing. >> i can't imagine you going back to this house, where you've kw your prents in happy times, and then it's a crime scene. >> absolutely. it's the one place you're supposed to be safe. and it's just been, i don't know. it's been tainted. >> reporter: she went through

the house room by room, cataloging what she thought was missing. a tv set, jewelry, cash, and medication. last stop, the garage. the grauarage was full of thing that could easily be stolen and pawned. >> yeah. >> reporter: there lizz spied something to her eyes oddly out of place. her middle school backpack. sticking out of it, an xbox console. could this have been the killer's loot dropped in a panic as he ran from the scene? lizz called investigators. they returned to the house, snapped even more photos, and collected the backpack as potential evidence. they'd later find beneath that xbox some of sandra's jewelry. and lizz realized she had an idea for detectives too, a possible suspect. is it true, lizz, you even suggested they take a look at your ex at that point? >> yes. i had tried to give them as much information as i could. >> reporter: yes, the ex-husband the melgars regards as a no-account. turns out during the rocky last days of his marriage to lizz,

the melgars suspected he and a buddy lifted some of sandra's medication, the same sort now believed to be missing. the melgars never reported their suspicions to authorities, but now lizz told detectives, talk to the ex. by now, the murder break-in story was all over the news. >> deputies say melgar told them she can't remember who tied her up or who may have hurt her husband. >> reporter: and neighbors started offering up crime stopper tips. one of them, check out a guy seen lurking around outside the police tape. amanda orr, who worked for reuters, and brian rogers, a legal affairs reporter for the "houston chronicle," covered the melgar murderer. >> you're getting information right away about a sketchy neighbor, known into break into houses and pawn it, and he's up the block and maybe at the scene that night. >> that's right. a neighbor who has just gotten out of jail, who was suspicious. >> reporter: lizz thought add him to the list of potential suspects. did you have ideas for them? >> i did. >> reporter: she also suggested they talk to one of her parents' tenants, someone who had had

disputes with her dad. and there was a co-worker of jaime's she got a bad vibe from. and, again, lizz says she urged detectives to look at her ex. he had a record of drug arrests. if not him, what about people in his circle? months dragged by without word on the investigation. you believe someone is out there, has gotten away with killing your father? >> yeah, absolutely. it was hard to sleep at night. i was -- every little noise was -- had me on edge. >> were you worried about your mother? >> yeah. >> that whoever this person was might come back for her? >> absolutely. i was constantly worried. >> and how was her health at that time? >> she had started having seizures, and, you know, she was traumatized. she had post-traumatic stress. she had anxiety. she had depression. she was a mess. >> reporter: lizz clung to the hope that one of those leads she gave detectives would eventually pan out. but for now anyway, it looked as though law enforcement was playing its cards close to the vest. according to prosecutor colleen barnett of the harris county

district attorney's office, that was because they'd made some early observations about the crime scene. >> officers had investigated burglaries and robberies for many years before they get into homicide, and they thought that the scene looked kind of suspicious. >> so what was off kilter with this one? >> the fact that it didn't look burglarized. >> the doors were open? >> they were open a little bit, but nothing was tossed. things that were standing up in the drawers were still standing up. burglars, as a general notion, want to get in and out. they want to take some stuff and get out, get some easy things they can sell on the street without any problems and make their money and go. >> reporter: but what about those items lizz noticed were missing from the house and that backpack of apparent burglar's loot she found in the garage? well, detectives took careful note of many other items, pricey things that had been left untouched. >> cameras, the bicycle. there was some painting equipment. there were things that were easy to take that weren't taken. and then the stuff that was taken and put in the backpack

was left in the garage. doesn't make sense. >> reporter: the home, to investigators, showed no sign of forced entry. that open garage door the only possible way in for an intruder. but law enforcement thought that too seemed as though it could have been staged. to investigators, this didn't look like a burglary gone bad but more like a targeted killing. and they theorized their suspect was somebody already inside the house. coming up -- >> my memory is so bad. >> how murky was her memory really? investigators are about to listen very carefully to sandra's story. >> do you know what has happened today? >> my husband was murdered. >> when "unspeakable" continues. quitting smoking is hard. like, quitting every monday hard. quitting feels so big. so try making it smaller, and you'll be surprised at how easily starting small can lead to something big.

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i'm dara brown. here's what's happening. an historic moment in the fight against coronavirus. the first pfizer vaccines are en

route to cities across the country, and vaccinations are set to begin in just hours. the rollout came as the cdc director signed off on an advisory panel's recommendation to use the vaccine for people 16 and older. in the northeast is bracing for a massive winter blast. the storm system already hit oklahoma city burying roads and snow. some areas got up to five inches of snow. now back to "dateline." >> reporter: december 23rd, 2013, the day before christmas eve, also the first anniversary of jaime melgar's death, was impossibly hard for his family. >> i mean it's all we really think about. >> should be holiday season, but it's that awful memory coming back, huh? >> yes. >> so i imagine the family is waiting for an arrest to be made in this thing, huh? >> yes. we are anxiously waiting for that day to come. it doesn't matter if it's tomorrow or ten years from now, but we would like some answers.

>> reporter: but law enforcement wasn't exactly forthcoming with the melgar family. might have been a reason. they doubted jaime's murderer was a burglar or even someone else in sandra and jaime's remote orbit. >> there's always a first suspicion of family members if there's nothing that really makes sense. >> reporter: and that suspicion had narrowed down to the person inside the house with jaime -- sandra. her account of a blacked out 14 hours after their anniversary celebration -- >> i wish i could recall. >> reporter: -- to investigators was just too weird to be believed. >> my memory is so bad. >> reporter: it seemed implausible to them that sandra really heard nothing the entire night. this is happening in a very small space. the husband is stabbed to death and found in one closet, and she's been tied up in another. >> that's right. >> reporter: the investigators closely studied that interview they'd conducted with sandra. they found her more indifferent than distraught. >> do you know what has happened

today? >> my husband was murdered. >> how? >> i don't know. i don't think he was shot. >> who told you that he was murdered? >> i saw him. >> you did? >> yes. when they untied me, i heard hysterical screaming, and i ran over there, and i checked his pulse. >> okay. >> to see if there was anything we could do, yeah. >> reporter: and when sandra broke down crying, the detectives couldn't recall seeing any tears. detectives believe sandra's story morphed over time. for instance, the part about how long she'd waited to get out of the tub after jaime left to fetch the dogs. at first she was vague. >> it was taking a while, so i got out. >> reporter: then move specific. >> about 15 minutes, 20 minutes. >> reporter: later, another revision. >> maybe about five minutes.

>> reporter: and detectives were perplexed by what sandra claimed she did and did not hear that night. >> did anybody scream? >> no. >> hear the dogs -- you did hear the dogs bark? >> yeah, this he were outside our window. >> so he had to go outside to get them? >> i don't think so. usually he just calls them, and they come. >> did they come in the doggy door? >> yeah. >> reporter: but after almost two hours as investigators pushed her, sandra seemed to tweak this key element of her story. >> actually, i don't even remember hearing the dogs. my husband is the one that said -- he's got better hearing than i have. >> reporter: of course the changes in sandra's story could be attributed to shock. but as the detectives viewed it, sandra was being deliberate le evasive, enhancing her story to align with a conjured up crime scene. it sounds leekike a bloody even. was it? >> it was bloody in the area he was in. he himself was very bloody and

the closet, but nowhere else in the house was there any blood. >> reporter: to investigators' way of thinking, home invaders would have dragged at least a trace of blood on their way out of the house. but crime scene techs did not find any. when the rest of the forensics came back, the findings had limitations. reporter amanda orr. >> you have the murder weapon, it's been washed in water for several hours. a large kitchen knife was found in the bathtub. so any dna that could have been on it from the murderer was gone. it was washed away. >> reporter: what's more, no blood was detected on sandra. in fact, no dna or fingerprints linked sandra to jaime's body or jaime to sandra's. and while detectives had a hunch about sandra, the evidence didn't seem quite there yet for an indictment. as more time went by, it became clear to members of sandra's family, like her cousin diana, that law enforcement was eyeing her. >> okay. it's okay for you to think that, investigate her, and then you'll

see that there's nothing there and move on. >> reporter: but as the investigation dragged into july of 2014, their worst fears were realized. lizz and her mom found out in a most unusual way. >> i went to the mailbox, and it had been absolutely filled with fliers from lawyers trying to get our business for a pending case. >> did you know what that was about? >> i had no idea what that was about. and so i got onto the harris county website, and i entered my mom's name, and i saw that she had been charged with my father's murder. >> reporter: a few days earlier, a grand jury had quietly voted to indict her. she turned herself in and posted bond, and then she hired veteran attorney max seacrest to defend her. >> quite frankly, i can smell b.s. from across the room. and when i sat down and spoke with her, her story was plausible. i didn't hear anything that rang kind of a false note.

but on top of that, her demeanor, her sincerity was totally there. here's a woman that has no criminal history, and she had a documented history of pre-existing medical problems, which come into play in this case on several difl levels. >> reporter: alison sea kraeft served as co-counsel. >> she's a sweet person, and it was apparent she had a good relationship with her husband. everybody across the board said that she was very devoted to her husband. they never argued. they got along well, and it didn't add up what the state and what the investigators were accusing her of. >> reporter: they couldn't fathom how sandra was under suspicion for a crime that defied physical possibilities. after all, she was found tied up, barricaded in her closet. >> she believed she's had a seizure, or maybe she was actually hit in the head and was knocked unconscious.

>> reporter: to these attorneys, the case seemed suspiciously thin. >> where's the beef? where's the crime? i guess more importantly, where's the investigation? >> reporter: it had taken more than a year and a half and indict sandra. so what were the detectives doing all that time? well, that's an involved story investigated by nbc affiliate kprc tv. the lead detective on the case, seen here interviewing sandra, had become the center of a scandal. >> a controversy is growing tonight over a document falsified by a harris county detective now working for the district attorney's office. >> reporter: drkt carrizal got himself into serious trouble for falsifying a search warrant in a case not connected to sandra's, and that cast a shadow on his other investigations. >> that became probably a really big issue for the prosecution and something that the defense, you know, would be able to definitely use against him. >> reporter: after the story broke, the detective left the sheriff's department. would it end the case against sandra too?

did your lawyers tell you, this thing may never go to trial here? this thing has got so many holes in it? >> that's what we believed. absolutely. >> reporter: by the summer of 2017, it had been three years since sandra's arrest. she had a right to a speedy trial. it was put up or shut up time for the d.a.'s office. when you read all your stuff and you stepped back and said, what do i have here, what was the biggest problem? >> the biggest problem was that i didn't have that many affirmative acts from her standpoint. >> what do you mean? >> i couldn't put the knife in her hand. i didn't have any eyewitnesses that she killed him. she didn't confess. >> what did you have going for you? >> her story was ridiculous. >> reporter: so the prosecution made the call. the people versus sandra melgar would proceed to trial. coming up -- a deadly seduction?

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remember, safe drivers save 40% with allstate. saving is easy when you're in good hands. call a local agent, or 1-800-allstate for a quote today. . >> reporter: august 2017, more than 4 1/2 years after jaime melgar was murdered in what seemed at the time a brutal home invasion. but now sandra, his wife of 32 years, was on trial for jaime's murder. she'd pleaded not guilty. it put daughter lizz in a painful judicial paradox. the people versus are bringing you, the family victim, justice in their mind. and yet justice is putting your mother away. >> correct. i've lost my father, and here i am about to lose my mother. this is supposed to be the

justice system. it's just completely broken. >> reporter: prosecutor colleen barnett's message for the jury was simple. sandra and only sandra could have done this. >> there's zero evidence, no evidence that anybody else did this. >> reporter: the prosecutor set out to dismantle the idea that jaime's death resulted from a botched robbery. first responder emt stephanie robertson told the jury that to her, the crime scene just looked off. >> it was a little disarrayed. the drawers were pulled out, and i remember on the bed there was her purse was dumped out and it looked like her wallet was rummaged through, but nothing appeared to be missing. and there was clothes strewn about. >> i'm sure you've been to houses and scenes that have been tossed. >> right. >> was that the case here? >> my opinion, no. i mean if you're being burglarized, they're yanking it out and throwing it across the room. >> so the drawers were open but the stuff is neatly stacked inside the drawers? >> right. >> reporter: and the prosecutor

used sandra's own words against her. the jury heard that interview with the defendant, the one where detectives found her so oddly indifferent. >> do you know what has happened today? >> my husband was murdered. >> reporter: and sometimes her story to the detectives didn't jibe with what they believed to be the facts. >> she's just trying to tell a tale so that she can go on with her life without being in prison. >> reporter: for instance, her account of jaime getting out of the jacuzzi to quiet the barking dogs. >> there was a next door neighbor to the melgars who constantly complained about the barking dogs. she said that night, she didn't hear the dogs barking, like she slept wonderful. >> reporter: one of the main problems for sandra was the big picture. so you want us to believe, the prosecutor argued, that home invaders were slashing your husband to death just feet away from you, and you remember nothing? really? >> nobody running? nobody saying anything, shouting? >> no, nothing. >> reporter: sandra's

explanation was that she'd suffered from seizures and memory loss for years. reporter amanda orr was in the courtroom as the prosecution introduced some of sandra's medical history refuting that. >> she did go to her doctor's appointments that reported she's not having seizures, that her medication was controlling them pretty well. >> reporter: so if sandra was in fact lying about being unconscious for hours, then she had plenty of time to pull herself together and make the house appear ransacked. >> she'd had a lifetime to get rid of the clothes, to wash herself up, to get ready for the big finale. >> reporter: though not required to prove a motive, the prosecutor offered one up for the jury anyway. there was no evidence of infidelity or typical marriage troubles. still, she suggested that sandra wanted out. but their religion made it impossible to split up the usual way. >> jehovah's witnesses don't allow you to divorce unless someone's cheating, and it's

very clear jaime is not that guy. if i get divorced, i get ostracized and i can't talk with my friends. but if i kill him and nobody finds out, i'm not ostracized. >> reporter: but wasn't sandra too frail to commit such a violent, close-quarters crime? maybe not. the medical examiner's report concluded jaime suffered 31 sharp force wounds, but none very deep. so kind of stab, stab taunting kind of injuries? >> or maybe not much force used or maybe a weaker person. >> reporter: so how did the attack go down? the prosecutor had a vivid scenario of a lethal seduction. >> prosecutors think that sandra melgar lured jaime to the bedroom under the guise of sex play. >> so she gets jaime to sit down in a chair, and maybe she's massaging his neck. and then she pulls it out, and while he isn't looking, she makes a strike straight up all the way to his neck. >> reporter: it was a dramatic

show and tell for sure. then it was show time for the defense. the prosecution's case was all invented nonsense, they said. theory-strong, evidence-light. >> this case ought the scare the hell out of all of you. >> reporter: attorney mac secrest told the jury that sandra was the victim of a bumbling, myopic investigation. >> we've got this lady falsely accused. >> reporter: and the defense said sandra was so clearly attacked herself, barricaded and bound. >> she's been tied up. she's been left in a closet for 14, 16, 17 hours. >> reporter: they showed these photos in court and told the jury sandra went to a doctor, who confirmed her injuries. >> when sandy went to the doctor a couple of days later, she had a full examination, and of course hematoma was found on her head. >> reporter: as for that interview, the defense said the only thing it revealed was that

the blinker detectives felt sandra was guilty from the get-go. >> would you want us to find the killer? >> of course. >> i don't think you do. >> reporter: and they said it showed in the most trying of circumstances, sandra remaining consistent and composed. >> i had a seizure, and so i usually can't move anyway. >> reporter: another point, a forensic one, the defense told the jury about dna evidence that had been collected but not presented by the prosecution. >> there's unknown male dna on various drawer pulls from the master bedroom and door handles and also on that backpack. so it's huge because it points to a possible other suspect. >> reporter: and the csis had photographed a bloody swipe on the handle of the closet safe just a short distance from jaime's body. the defense told the jury how detectives never ran it for a possible print nor had it swabbed for dna. >> isn't that the kind of

evidence you'd want to have available to consider? why wouldn't you at least test it? >> reporter: the defense ticked off more examples of what they regarded as inept detective work. they never brought lizz's ex-husband in for questioning or that neighbor with a history of petty burglaries, the one fresh out of jail. >> the police go to his house, knock. he doesn't answer, and they leave their car -- >> reporter: and the defense thought they knew how the investigation got so bungled. look at the man who led it. >> what kind of murder investigation would you have where you knowingly, intenti intentionally, and willfully don't bring the lead investigator to court? >> reporter: the defense, not the prosecution, called the onetime lead detective. they weren't allowed to tell the jury about the scandal involving that other case, but they asked him to account for a litany of perceived fumbles in this investigation. case in point, a pair of sandra's socks found not in the evidence room but instead in a filing cabinet long after he'd

left the job. >> it's a really horrible investigation. it's just inept. >> there's no physical evidence in this case that points to her at all. >> reporter: but there was another key element to this prosecutor's case. she knew the jury had one big question. was sandra a houdini-level escape artist? coming up -- so how do you tie yourself up with that? >> all do you is just put it on your tie. >> reporter: a wickedly clever bag of tricks? could sandra melgar really pull something like this off? the jurors would have a stunner of an answer when "unspeakable" continues. day congestion with vicks sinex saline nasal mist. for drug free relief that works fast. vicks sinex. instantly clear everday congestion. shingles doesn't care. i logged 10,000 steps today.

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without breaking a sweat. now that's simple, easy, awesome. xfinity makes moving easy. go online to transfer your services in about a minute. get started today. >> reporter: sandra melgar's defense attorneys had tried to portray the murder investigation as seriously flawed. but perhaps their most persuasive argument was sandra herself. she didn't testify, but "houston

chronicle" reporter brian rogers said her muted appearance spoke volumes. >> you know, there's an old adage in defense law, if you can make your client look like a school marm, do it. she sort of comes across that way. >> kind of frail? >> small. >> depending on a cane? >> you have a hard time believing she could yell, much less stab anyone. >> reporter: how could that same petite woman have managed, as the prosecution contended, to wedge a chair beneath the doorknob of the closet that she was already inside? and beyond that, bind her own hands and feet. the prosecution had an answer for those how dee any like skills. >> she definitely prepared for this. i don't know how long it had been in her head but she prepared for it. i'm sure she practiced tying herself up, the chair behind the door. she had it all arranged. >> reporter: the prosecutor said sandra had come up with an ingenious way to wedge that

chair under the doorknob by sliding a pill slow sham along the door. she played the video of investigators recreating the process. >> the detectives videotaped themselves putting the chair on the pillow sham and pulling the pill slow sham underneath the door so you can pull it closed. >> you have to be inside the closet. >> that's right. >> reporter: prosecutor barnett said it wouldn't be all that hard for sandra to tie her own hands behind her back. she showed us what she showed the jury. >> how do you tie yourself up with that figure eight? >> it's pretty simple. all do you is just put it on your tie, turn it in the back and you just mess around with it any kind of way. the point is that it looks legitimate. not that it is legitimate, but it looks legitimate. >> reporter: the prosecutor argued sandra did this just minutes before the family discovered her, which explains what the emt says she did not see on sandra's wrists. >> she had no bruises, no ligature marks, nothing. >> reporter: but the very thought that sandra could have

come up with these elaborate tricks and executed them, that's sheer speculation, said the defense. >> that's a theory, folks. there's no evidence of that. >> reporter: a theory that the defense said investigators didn't even try to corroborate with the eyewitnesses who had found sandra. daughter lizz said after that night, investigators never came back to ask the family what they saw. they never really spoke to your family again, is that right? >> yeah, they never reached out to anybody. they could have asked them about, you know, the theory of the chair and the mat under the chair, you know. they could have asked them about the surroundings. >> reporter: and they would have heard how the family said they needed scissors to cut sandra free. her wrists so tightly bound. >> i have a big problem with them not following through and talking to witnesses who had personal knowledge. >> reporter: the prosecution said investigators followed the evidence and did a thorough job. it was now up to a harris county jury to decide sandra's fate. the first day of deliberations

ended with no decision. when the jury is out, do you go back to your office and pretend to work or what? >> you can't work, no. you try and do other stuff, but you really can't. >> reporter: finally on day two, there was a verdict. >> we were all, everything's going to be fine. this is a joke. no worries. >> surely the jury will see it the way we, the family, do. >> exactly. >> reporter: sandra melgar stood to learn her fate. >> we, the jury, find the defendant, sandra jean melgar, guilty of murder as charged in the indictment. >> reporter: sandra collapsed into her chair sobbing. lizz, beyond devastated, grasped for her mother as she was led away. >> it sucked the life out of me. i just felt like my world was collapsing. >> we just could not believe it. could not believe this was happening to her. >> reporter: why don't you think they bought the story of intruders coming into the house and doing what they did?

>> i don't really know. >> happens all the time. >> exactly. i don't really know what was going on in their heads. i wish i knew why they, you know, found her guilty. >> reporter: to prosecutor barnett, this was justice, both for the state and for jaime melgar. >> she's committed a crime, and they found her guilty, and i'm glad. i've done my job, and justice has been served. >> reporter: the jury sentenced sandra to 27 years in prison. her lawyers have begun the years-long appellate process. from behind bars, sandra wrote us this letter saying she's at peace because she knows she's innocent. her family supports her, so she's not giving up. and lizz, well, she and her kids do their best to carry on without jaime or sandra. >> my daughter just loves her nana so much, and it was so heartbreaking to tell her that nana wasn't coming home. >> when do you miss your dad the most? >> every day when i look at my kids, because i know what a

wonderful grandfather he would have been. the jokes and the games and probably the toys he would have made for them. >> they never got a chance to roll their eyes at a jim joke. >> yeah. yeah. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." it happens on tv. doesn't happen to your family. to your brother. but it does. >> no one thought it could happen to him. he was a tough guy prepared for anything. >> he always would say, if anyone tries to break in here, i'll kill them. >> instead, he was killed, stabbed in his own home. >> you're sure your dad's cold to the touch? >> his son and daughter-in-law stumbled into a terrifying