as we like to say, please have a good weekend unless you have other plans. on behalf of all my colleagues at the networks of nbc news, good night. the minister called and said is, you need to come home. you never think had you will see your parents home taped off with that tape. >> as i started up stairs, it was blood on the walls. >> it was a brutal crime scene, one of the worst i have seen. >> a loving couple, dead. was the killer one of the family? >> he said they arrested matt, and i said, matt who? and he said our cousin matt. this case was not solved one tiny clue didn't fit at all.

>> the inscription, said love corey and ryan, who is corey and who is ryan. that must have been a shocker to cross your desk. >> sends a chill down your spine. >> i killed someone. he was older. i loved him. >> pretty scary. >> a sinister story. but not even it revealed the whole twisted truth. >> i know what happened and no one will believe me. >> it's like, this really happening? >> i didn't think i could feel so much anger. it was late, past midnight.

no sign of life. not so them anyway. he hit the brakes. this was the place, grabbed their weapons, headed for the house. a window, unlocked. pay dirt. the prairie takes on a sweet rolling pitch as it tucks in to a nebraska corner a mile south of omaha, it has grown solid and faithful americans. a tiny remnant of whom who have planted themselves around a place called murdock, a place where heads turn when strangers drive by and family names are carved in the local stone.

it was 2006, a big farm yard, and like every yard, an easter egg hunt. >> it was grandma and papa pa's yard. >> or mom and dad to tammy who brought her own son. like always. >> they found their easter eggs and they found their easter baskets. and mom always made it every individual east aer basket special to that child. >> they were like that, whestea and there for their children. the eldest, steve, and daughter tammy. >> they were loving parents. i don't think they missed a game of any of ours, he would stomach farming just to be at the game, so would mom. >> he ran the stock-k, company and a successful business it was. wayne owned a thousand acres of land, along with rental

properties. charmin was famous for specialty cakes, wedding and otherwise, they were church youth leaders. he had served on the school board. >> these are busy people. >> very, very, they touched the lives of so many people. >> she was a teacher's aide for so many years at a rural school, taught lessons that did not end in class. >> one thing i always heard from mom was, take responsibility for your actions. be responsible. >> she would praise you and keep pushing you to do better. she always wanted us to be better people. >> and then came that easter sunday, 2006, church services, a big family dinner. that easter egg hunt for the grandkids. their last day on this earth. >> we forgot that one day. my kids remember it. they talk about it all the time. >> i suppose as last days go, that would not be a bad one. >> no, it wasn't.

>> andy had missed the easter party, spent the day with his future inlaws and left his young puppy with his parents. >> called mom and dad on my way home and so, i'm going to come get the dog and they said, oh, no, you know, he can just stay here. and he will be fine. he sleeps on the porch. and we will watch him until monday morning. i said, no, i will come get him. >> would history have been different had he listened to his parents. hard to know, of course. >> they met me on the deck. on the back of the house and we talked about easter and what they did, and they each gave me a hug, and i went home. >> you remember that moment, it makes you feel pretty emotional, doesn't it? >> yeah. >> yeah. >> next morning. andy, who was being groomed on to run stock hay drove the mile from his place to his parent's farm ready on to go to work. >> i drove in and went in the shop, and dad's pickup was there, which i thought was a

little bit strange. and thought, well, i will see if he took mom's car somewhere, and looked in the garage and the car was there. picked up the phone in the house, and there's no dialtone. that's when my heart kind of sunk that for some reason it was a bit of a trigger in my mind. >> something was wrong. >> that something was wrong. i thought, better go up stairs. as i started up the stairs, there was some blooded on the walls, and you know, i knew it was bad. >> got to be surreal in a moment like that, does your mind even register? >> no i think, good lord protect us. >> yeah. >> until i rounded the corner and i saw dad laying there on the floor. and it was a horrible thing. >> it was perhaps, the central moment in his life so far. nothing would be the same after this. >> what did you do when you

found had i am? >> i never made it past the landing. my cell phone was out in my pickup, and just turned around and went to do call for help. >> the ambulance was there in 12 minute kpsthe first lawman in 20. he stood outside in shock, calling family without knowing what happened or what to say. >> andy's wife and i work together. she answered the phone call. and she didn't even recognize andy's voice. and they have been together for nine years. >> your own wife. >> she came in the back and said, tam, something's wrong. andy just called and said is, come quick. dad's laying in a pool of blood. >> coming up the stock's children face another stunning shock. >> is this really happening? in a gravel driveway, there was

a marijuana pipe and ten feet from it, there was a flashlight. >> when "dateline" continues. ♪ ♪ smooth driving pays off. ♪ with allstate, the safer you drive the more you save. ♪ you never been in better hands. allstate. click or call for a quote today. mom's love that land o' frost premium sliced meats have no by-products. (his voice) "baloney!" (automated voice) has joined the call. (voice from phone) hey, baloney here. i thought this was a no by-products call? land o' frost premium. fresh look. same great taste.

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the children of the stocks learned that something horrific had taken place. like the rational people they are the, 30 miles away, they did the not assume the worst, when they tried to call back their

brother, andy, who was on scene and not answering. >> by 11:00-11:30, we were like, something is really wrong and the minister called and said you need to come home. and i said, i'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's wrong and they said, your mom and dad have been killed. and i think i did start screaming. and we headed towards the farm to be with andy. and never in a million years would you think you would see your parents house taped off by the yellow tape. >>s the a stunning crime. big news throughout the midwest, the stocks the most unlikely victims. wayne found on the up stairs landing, dead of a shot gun blast, wife murdered in her bedroom, a telephone in hand as if trying to call help. the county sheriff advised caution. >> right now, it's an unsolved

homicide, whether it's somebody local or from another type, we don't know at this time. >> who could have murdered them and why? ♪ just a couple of hours after their son discovered their bodies in their rural nebraska farm house on easter monday, 2006, the word got around, law enforcement swarmed the scene, neighbors expressed shock in the under stated m ed midwestern wa. >> they are typical nebraska, farm background people and you would not expect it. >> andy stock, as you can see in the pictures taken on that very day, stood next to his pickup in utter shock waiting for his brother and sister to arrive and he struggled to process it all. as his father's words echoed in his mind. >> i will never forget july of '05.

dad and i were working together. we are standing there and he looked at me and he said, son, he said, when it's my day to go, hold your head high, and keep living life. i will never forget that. >> but it was all happening so fast. they had been gunned down in the safety of their own home, their own bedroom, why would anyone want them the dead and who? andy was the last to see his parents alive. the one who found their bodies in the morning. which made him bizarre though it sounds a potential suspect. >> before i even saw steve and tammy they had put me in the car and took me to another town and questioned me in a room. >> trying to establish whether or not you were involved? >> yeah. did gunshot residue tests. i was like, is this really happening? >> andy stock did not realize it

at the time, the investigators were soon looking hard right at him, after all, he was there, he opportunity. and he may have had motive. he might have had something to gain from his parents' death. why? andy stock was the already designated heir to the stock hay company which some people may consider a family fortune. and investigators questioned andy, csi units were working the crime scene as well. >> it was a very brutal crime scene, it was one of the worst i have ever seen. >> one of those leading the investigation, david cofo, the head of the csi squad from an hour away, he was called in to help the smaller cass county sheriff's department. >> what bothered me, these two people were sleeping in bed and the male victim was apparently crawling away, and he was shot in the head.

clearly an execution. >> close up. >> close up. and the female victim was along the side of the bed, holding a phone in her hand and she had been shot in the eye at close range. >> investigators found out pretty quickly how the stocks' killer or killers had entered the house. a screen had been lifted. a window appeared to have been forced open. leading in to the laundry room. from there, it appeared, the killer's route may have gone past the empty easter basket, through the well-kept kitchen and up the stairs where the stocks lay sleeping. four 12-gauge shot gun shells leaving a trail to the bodies. by the look, they woke up and wayne got up first and he was shot in the knee. then wayne was shot in the head, sharmin killed too as she tried to call 9-1-1 and then it was apparent, it was not just one killer, but at least two. >> when we did the blood pattern analysis, we saw avoid area at the top of the steps.

>> which would only mean one thing. as one of the killers fired at wayne stock from behind. this area, called avoid area was where another killer would have been standing. the second killer sprayed with blood spatter. instead of a wall. >> cofoe and his team, found a wealth of evidence outside the house too. >> it was a big farm operation and there was a lot of out buildings and it was complicated by the fact that they had an easter egg hunt the day before, we had a lot of shoe prints. and one print stoodout. i saw a shoot print in the mud, it was unusual, near a flowerbed by the front door. >> beyond the flowerbed, there was a trail of evidence, left by the likely killers. >> in a gravel driveway, there was a marijuana pipe, and ten feet from it, there was a flashlight and those two things were obviously out of place. >> you could sort of imagine the television show, csi, some guy from the -- there's a light p

oh, there's a -- you know, it's just too easy. >> but there it was. it was there. i think one thing that i knew right at the beginning was that, i could see visibly, see blood on the outside of the flashlight. we knew it had to be involved. >> and then, real break through, a newspaper carrier called in to report that he and his girlfriend saw something. they have been driving down this country road, a mile from the stock farm house, down there. and just here outside this cemetery, they saw a car. just parked here. strange cars just don't get parked on country roads outside of murdock, nebraska, at 3:00 in the morning. it was tan or light brown, four-door sedan, said the young man. what stuck out, this car later passed them in the same area that same night. this time, driving 60 or 70 miles an hour, it was in a rush, it appeared to get away. investigate ers now had a number

of clues. that car, seen by the newspaper carrier, the flashlight with what appeared to be blood on it and the marijuana pipe. and detectives were probably looking for more than one killer. but a motive? who knew? not a thing was missing. wallets, gun collections, and a safe hidden in the bedroom floor, all untouched. but all that evidence and asking questions of those closest to the stocks, would soon pay off. because just a week later, an arrest and a confession. and another shattering blow to the stock family. coming up. stories surface of a long sm simmering feud of the couple and the black sheep. was the killer at his own

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♪ andy stock was and still is a grief-stricken man. and it was not long before investigators restored him to his family anddropped him from the list of possible suspects in the awful murders of wayne and sharmin stock, besides, as detectives questioned the large

extended family, another relative's name came up quiet often, actually. matt livers. he was their nephew, 28 years old, he attended the easter dinner the afternoon leading up to the murder. but he was not there by virtue of being a family favorite. in fact, livers was considered something of a black sheep. he bounced from job to job, never seeming to find his niche, and family members told police matt was well, slow, different. he no criminal record but, they said, an ongoing problem between matt and the stocks. they described disagreements, sometimes heated. they said sharmin had a dislike for matt. the stock's oldest son. steve. >> so just two days after the murders, detech toughs visited matt livers former employer, asked about his personalities,

rumors that he a temper. put a watch on him, went through his garbage too. this is at his house 30 mile prosecutes murder scene. and then, on april 25th. eight days after the body was discovered. they asked matt livers to come in and answer questions. >> you are free to leave at any time. >> well, i'm here to cooperate with you, gentlemen. >> and he was being courteous and deferential, said he never been questioned before. >> i don't know. i don't know. really don't have any idea, i had like to know why, the who, what, when where, and why. why would somebody do this so such good people. very christian people. very uh loving and likeable people? >> liver wills told them that after the big family dinner with the stocks, he drove home the half hour to lincoln.

where he stayed all night with his girlfriend sarah and sarah's young son, and a roommate. he did admit to having disagreements with his uncle wayne over the various family issues but those were minor he said. >> any problems between you defy -- you guys? >> oh, years ago, we had a tiff but, you know, that is done for kb got ern. he agreed to take a polygraph? >> if he was looking to clear himself from taking the test, it did not have that affect. >> the subconscious body is telling the machine, you cannot fool it. >> i didn't have anything to do with it. >> you did. >> i did not. >> you did. >> i did not. no i didn't. >> i'm sorry, you did. >> for more hours the detectives locked horns with livers and despite his continued denials of

involvement, they knew, they said, he was lying. we had so many people sit in the chair that think they are smarter and they are not. >> i'm not dumb as a brick. >> you are not dumb as a brick. you made a mistake. you did. and now you have to pay for it. >> why were investigators here in nebraska is so convinced matt liver-s was lying? well, besides the polygraph, there was a state profiler who suggested that this is a sort of crime committed by young males who know their victims. how else would they know to find the farmhouse way out in the middle of nowhere if they didn't know them? and add to that, said the profiler this was the sort of crime that appeared to be very personal. an execution. matt livers, rang those bells all of them and rang them loudly. eventually detectives got explicit, telling liver wis he headed for death row unless he started to give them what they knew to be true. >> ifyou don't admit to me what

you have done, i will walk out the door and i will do my level best to hang your -- from the highest tree. this is your last shot. the olive branch is out right now in an attempt to help you. >> it was that technique that produced the desired affect. rough, yes, but he started confessing. >> coming up, the case snares a second suspect, not just with an accusation, but with what appears to be damning evidence. >> now, that was the real smoking gun, i mean, you have it. >> when "dateline" continues. for adults newly diagn ed with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread and that tests positive for pd-l1 and does not have an abnormal egfr or alk gene. it's the first and only approved chemo-free combination of two immunotherapies

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hello, i'm dara brown, here is what is happening. house speaker pelosi said nothing is off the table when it comes to reof monthing president trump from office. following the athat account on the u.s. capitol, the speaker called for his resignation. and twitter joined facebook and instagram in suspending trump's account, trump's most recent tweets were likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts witnessed on january 6th. now, back to dateline. >> matt livers was grilled for hours over his possible involvements in the murders of his aunt and you think he'll, sharmon and wayne stock. and now he was starting to tell

investigators what they suspected. >> you got a gun. >> right. >> and you took that gun back to your uncle wayne and aunt sharmon's house, right? right or wrong, come on, man. >> right. >> now, that the cat was out of the bag. livers began filling in more of the blanks. how the murder went down for example. >> put the gun to her face and blew it away. and then i headed out and i stuck it at him and blew him away. >> and then a bonus. remember how that blood spatter indicated a second killer was involved? well, now, before they trooped him off to jail, matt livers gave them a name to match the individual on the wall, so perhaps it's not so surprising that in the elagz of the moment, detectives had no idea, not a

clue that they had just jumped down a alice in wonder land rabbit hole. wayne and sharmon's children are reeling from their grief as they bury their parents a week after the most horrific murder the town had seen and to add grief, add shock. andy stock answered his phone and one of the detectives was on the other end of the line with news. they spoke, then andy called his sister. >> it was about 12:30 at night. he said tam, i need you to be awake. are you awake? and i said, yeah, what's going on? and he said, they arrested matt and nick. and i said, matt and nick who? and he said, our cousin matt and nick sampson. >> it's true, they had confessed to the murders of the aunt and uncle and he named an

accomplice, 22-year-old nick sampson, a cousin of matt's on the other branch of the family tree. >> i was sitting up in bed and i said, andy should i be shaking and he said, that is normal. it's shock. >> but matt livers had been with them, at easter dinner just a few hours before. now, he said that he and nick had returned to kill the aunt and uncle. >> our first reaction was is, somebody needs to tell grandma, she had just lost her only son and her grandson is being arrested for this. and just like us, she is like, i don't understand. i said, grandma, none of us understand any of this. >> did you get any sense of well, at least somebody is found responsible, did did it make you feel any better? >> i felt like we were moving to the next phase, so i was relieved, i guess, to know they had somebody. >> with livers in jail, police

descended on mourdock to arrest nick sampson, he was a cook at bulldog's bar in mourdock, had a minor criminal conduct. he by his own admission liked to drive too fast. had a problem with marijuana as a teenager had done two separate stints in boy's homes and now he been printed and processed and like livers questioned on videotape. >> i'm going to ask you flat out, why do you think you are here? >> i think you think i'm involved in the two murders. >> but nick sampson, unlike his co-defendant. >> i had nothing to do with this. >> during three hours of questioning did not confess to anything. >> if something's left at that house, okay, if your dna, and your prints, how are you going to explain how it got there? >> i'm not. cause i don't think you have my dna, i was not anywhere near

that house, i have never been in that house, never, ever, once in my life have i been in the house. >> like livers he took a polygraph test. it showed that he was deceptive when he denied being at the home, and they seized on that to rachet up the pressure. >> you were at the house when he was killed. >> no, i was not. >> your body's telling me otherwise. so we need to get past that. >> i honest to god was not at that house. >> but the investigators did not believe nick sampson, and after all, matt livers had told them nick sampson was behind the whole thing that the two of them planned the crime together. on their cell phones in the two days or so before the murder. and so, said the detectives they were pretty sure.

matt livers was telling the truth. nick sampson was lying. >> you were there, when they were shot. >> i was not there. >> i want you to understand how this had system works. >> i do understand. and i'm getting framed for something i didn't -- do. >> but, it didn't look good for nick sampson. >> he denied being a marijuana user anymore, but he had trouble with the drug before and investigators found that marijuana pipe at the scene. >> when had detectives visited nick's grandfather in mourdock, the old man told them a month ago, nick borrowed a 12-gauge shot gun from him. the same gauge weapon that was used in the murders. >> then, investigators executed a search warrant at sampson's home in pal myra, from under th bed, the 12 gauge borrowed from his grandfather and a pair of of blue jeans. examined by csi chief, david

cofid team. >> we had a pair of pants with what looked like blood on them. and now, that was the real smoking gun. you have him. >> interest and then there was more. remember the car apparently seen by the newspaper carrier parked just a mile from the farm house, the night of the murders? detectives had found it. they believed. and a 1997 ford contour, owned by nick sampson's brother. and it had been cleaned, and detailed actually. at 5:30 easter monday morning. just hours after it apparently had been used in the murders. >> who detail as car at 5:30 in the morning. that is why the detectives thought it was suspicious. >> wait, it gets better. the car had been searched for evidence once and nothing was found, but then, csi chief cofoe got a call from one of the lead investigators. >> when matt confessed, he said he threw the shot gun in the back of the seat of the ford

contour, he said maybe you can find transfer evidence and take a look at it and i said, well, maybe we missed it. so they examined the car again and this time, low and behold a stain was found just below the steering wheel on the dashboard. a stain found by, csi chief can cofoe himself. >> i took it, along that edge and wiped it and i figured that way with, i would not miss anything and it reacted. >> so you got a hit. >> i got a presumptive positive. yes fwlmpt and before long, tests confirmed that what the csi chief found under the dashboard was indeed blood. the blood of wayne stock the victim. only one way it could get there. carried by livers and sampson. with a confession and now, real physical evidence to back it up, many in the community thought, case closed. oh. but they were mistaken.

coming up. a piece of evidence that had gone unnoticed turned the case up side down. when "dateline" continues. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best with emergen-c.

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matt livers, he confessed. and he named an accomplice, his cuss, 22-year-old nick sampson. so the sheriff's department called in the press and announced that one of the most shocking crimes in this part of nebraska in decades was solved. >> people ask us, is this a closure on the case? it's not, i think it's another, it's another chapter, turning the pange. >> he was right. the sheriff had no clue just how much work there was yet to be done. for the stock's children, the arrest brought a small measure of relief, at least they decided they could move on. as they knew their parent wos have wanted them to. i could hear mom and dad say, tammy, you can let it this eat you alive or you go on and be the best you can and do what needs to be done, and that is

family. so, you can dwell on it, but we choose not to. that is not what mom and dad would want. >> now the system could grind forward too. and the system provided defense attorneys. >> first thing he said, is look, i told them i did this, and i didn't do this. and you have to believe me. >> they all say they didn't do it. right? >> yeah. right, and i have been lied to a lot as a defense lawyer. so, the cynical side of me goes, right. >> but they were puzzled too. there were things that just didn't quite add up. both nick and matt, and the live in girlfriend swore up and down, they were at home, asleep 25 miles away. and nick claimed that he never talked to matt by phone or in person the week before the murders. what? >> the first thing i simply was concerned about was what was the evidence against nick sampson,

regardless of whether he did it or not. i had to know what the evidence was. >> and then, quite by chance. this tiny piece of what seemed to be evidence showed up. police missed it the morning after the murder. but one sharp-eyed cop happened to notice it a couple of days later. it was this gold ring on the kitchen floor. >> i thought, well, somebody took it off to wash their hands and it fell down and they forgot about it. >> at the time, could have belonged to the victim or anybody. >> right, it on could have. >> except, one thing people should know about the stock house, nothing was ever out of place. so, one of the investigators picked up the ring and bagged it and tagged it as evidence. it was a size ten, a man's ring, bearing a message. >> it says, love always corey and ryan and this they wanted to fu find out who was ryan and who was cori, the detectives asked the stock's children, nobody

knew anybody by those names and did not recognize the ring either. as livers was confessing and he and sampson were arrested and put in jail, one of the officers kept puzzling over that little ring. on the inside were three tiny letters. aaj. the manufacturer perhaps? well, yes. turned out to be a place called a and a jewellers. buffalo, new york. >> i remember one of the girls in shipping indicated that there was a call from somebody in the nebraska police department. >> mary martina was running what was left of thes of then had. why, what was left? the place was going out of business. massive lay-offs. 200 jobs lost. by the time n ninety-three cops started calling, mary one of three people to clean up the office and close it down and now, here was this investigator asking mary to track down a ring the company had likely shipped years ago.

and you said what? you have to be can kidding? >> i said, that is like looking for a needle in a hay stack. however, she mentioned homicide. >> and that's when mary mar tino heard about the ring and the double homicide and the fact that nobody else at the company seemed able to help. >> she said she had made several attempts and no one was willing to assist her. >> so she said that she'd see what she could do. certainly the company would have taken the order. made the ring. inscribed it, love always, cori and ryan and shipped it. but where, mary went to the wear had house where 10s of thousands of back orders were kept. so i started with box number one. stores 1-25. then box number two, 25-30. >> and you went through each one? >> yes. until i got to like 1, i believe, 108 or 118, and i said,

this is going to be impossible. so mary asked for help. had a colleague make a computer grid of the more than 3,000 stores a and a ship to droacros the country. a block of dates when the ring may have are been ordered and cross matched it with the inscription. >> how long did it take? >> three days and two nights. >> did that seem over the top. ? i heard homicide and it was important. >> after three days of searching, suddenly there it was. i got up and i said, bingo. i found it. i found it. >> any specifics of what you found out on the order form, where it was sent. do you remember that? >> it was wisconsin, i do know that. >> wait, wisconsin? not nebraska? actually, it was quite specific. the ring was sent to the town of beaverdam, wisconsin to this

walmart store. this is where a girl named cori bought the ring for a boy named ryan, but it was not love always. and the ring was soon gathering dust in the cab of ryan's redpickup truck. then, the strangest thing happened. the truck was reported stolen if hear on ryan's farm. just a few days before the murders of wayne and sharmon stock in far-off nebraska. >> really nothing more than a standard missing vehicle. >> jim was back then a detective in dodge county, wisconsin. when the call came in, experience suggested, probably some local joyride, they would find it nearby. but instead, what a surprise. >> our dispatch had receive e r confirmation of the truck. and abandoned in louisiana. what did you think, that was a

long way to go? >> somebody took it and needed to get back down south. it was not long before they fingered the suspected thieves. there were two of them. the guy was greg fester with a history of drug use. suicide attempts and anger issues. he was on probation for weapons and disorderly conduct convictions. >> dwrgreg was odd. he seemed a bit slow. he did not grasp things as well as a typical person. >> fester's alleged accomplice was a 17-year-old named jessica reed. a former honor roll student, turned trouble teen after a divorce. she had become mixed up with drugs and by extension, fester. >> not exactly master criminals, were they? >> no, not by any sense of the word. >> two teenage ers from wisconsin -- >> whacked on out on drugs and not knowing what they were doing. >> out of control. >> but the detective had no idea

how out of control the two had been. or where their jaunts in the stolen truck had taken them. and that, a few weeks later is where the ring came in. that's when roar got a call from nebraska, heard how that ring turned up at the scene of a double murder. hurd heard how they tracked it back to the walmart in beaver dam and to cori and ryan and the stolen truck. >> that must have been a shocker to get a that information to have it cross your desk. >> a huge shocker. that pretty much sends a chill down your spine. >> what was going on? how were these two teenagers reed and fester tied to the murders of wayne and sharmon stock, or were they at all? coming up. an interrogation of one of the teens provide as a chilling first glimpse of what may have happened merchandise that farm house. >> i freaked out because obviously like that guy is up there will killing somebody. >> unless of course, she is

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♪ spring arrived. the stock farm turned from brown to green. and wayne and sharmon's children struggled best they could to put their lives back in place. >> they both wanted us to stride for so much more. and said, you know, you can always do better. >> and so is they may not have

noticed so much the riddle that sprouted along with the corn. two towns, mourdock, nebraska, beaver dam, wisconsin, now united by a single band of gold. that ring. sold in a beaver dam walmart and found days after the murder in the kitchen of the stock farm house. how did it get there? matt livers never said anything about a ring when he confessed to killing wayne and sharmon stock. nothing about a stolen truck or out of control teenagers either. one of them, jessica rooeeed responded to an invitation to visit the detective. >> she had to know somewhere in the back of her mind, maybe they know more and want to talk about more than just a stolen truck. >> the ddid she?

she seemed to view it as a little more than a nuisance to be endured. >> my grandma is coming in to town and i want to do this faster. >> she was all of 17. did she wonder why the wisconsin cop was joined by investigators from nebraska? >> well, i really want to know what nebraska has to do with this because i don't think that we entered nebraska? >> didn't go to nebraska and didn't know anything about a gold ring. >> they stole a truck and went off in is search of the ocean before running out of gas and money and leaving that pickup truck in louisiana. but then, they showed her a picture of the marijuana pipe. which along with the gold ring turned up at the stock farm house. and jessica reed's mantel began to crack. >> okay, i did steal, i stole a

bunch of money from somewhere. i don't know who or where, i remember stealing a bunch of money and yes, we did lose the pipe when we stole the money. >> reed then blurted it out, and this farm house, now apparently to her surprise in nebraska, coming up, a letter from jessica reed, what she wrote stupid people. i loved it. when "dateline" continues. "dateline" continues. >> . to get here today,

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teens from wisconsin who admitted being in the home the night they were killed. >> the reason i ask you is two people upstairs were shot to death. >> and you are saying that we did it? >> i'm telling you, you are telling us, you were in this house. okay. did you not tell him? >> oh god. i never killed anybody. okay. i really didn't. this is so serious. i didn't do it. >> this is why we are here. >> i took money, that's all i sid, i don't want to go to jail for murder because i didn't do it. >> then who did? remember, matt had already confessed and named big sampson as his accomplice. >> tell us who you were with. >> that's ail was w. i was with reagan. >> wait a minute. she must have known that. so the investigators showed her pictures. no idea who they were, she said. never saw them before. >> if they did it, i swear to

god. >> and then the visiting investigators from nebraska informed her that nebraska's electric chair stood ready for her if she refused to cooperate and jessica reconsidered. >> this guy, i don't know why, but he does look kind of familiar. >> that's nick sampson who looked kind of familiar. and from there, as the hours wore on, jessica's story shape-shifted as did the players time and again until it evolved eventually into a tale that began easter night at bulldogs bar in murdock, where nick sampson worked as you recall and ended at the farm house. >> all i remember hearing in the house is babe, babe, babe. so i froze down, because, obviously, if he's up there killing somebody, i don't want to stick around and have to do this. i'm sorry. but i don't know what happened

up there. >> and then with that off her chest, jessica looked again at the photo of nick, the man she claimed was the mastermind of the murder. >> i feel really dumb, i wish he would have been a better murder? not really a dumb one. >> with that, jessica reed's well-planned day, in fact, all of her plan evaptd in a jail cell. while detectives focus next on jessica's partner in crime, greg fester. >> she conned me into going with her. >> it was all jessica's idea, said fester, stealing the truck. the ridiculous trip across the country. as for the murder in the farmhouse, that was the guy they met outside bulldog's bar he said squeezed into the stolen pick-up truck, led them to the farmhouse, went upstairs and started shooting.

>> we kind of ran into the living room and i heard a scream and he shot the gun. we all run out of the house. >> but then, surprise, surprise. fester encysted the man who committed the murders was not nick sampson. it wasn't matt who already confessed that he was the killer. no, greg fester said it was some friend he communicated via tech message, a guy he called thomas. so, a little confusing, perhaps. but for the investigators from nebraska, it seemed to be starting to come together. >> what was their sense of things after that first day of questioning? >> i think sense of accomplishment, mainly because we do have confessions from greg and jessica for the homicides. >> let's go out and have a beer time? >> well, it's a reason to pretty much do a high five. >> that's just what these

investigators did. now, with greg fester and jessica reed in jail, detectives set about finding physical evidence to back up their claims and, incredibly, once again, one little thing. not a ring this time was about to turn the whole business upsidedown all over again. detective jim rohr looked for evidence to refute the teenagers, stores that they had witnessed but did not commit the gruesome murders of wayne and charman stock six weeks before. he went to reed's place, a sort of flophouse routine as he called it. >> what we were looking for was anything at all that would tie them to nebraska or any other location that they were at during their crime sprees. >> oh, when he found it, all right. here, hidden behind a picture

frame was this cigarette box and inside a shotgun shell, 12 gauge the same gauge as used in the murders and there was more folded up in that little box. this letter, apparently meant for greg fester, that said, quote, and this bullet, well, bunny, it's the only thing left. and i loved it, but that's something we'll talk about one day. but it's here also because that's something i did for you, me -- and for to you love me as much as i love you. that's the end of the quote. you read the material that you found. what did you think? >> this was so bizarre. that gives you a mindset of the type of person we were dealing with. >> and then, he found a notebook. incredibly, with more words pennedpy jessica reed. i killed someone. he was older. i loved it. i wish i could do it all the

time. if greg doesn't watch it, i will leave one day and do it, myself. >> pretty scary. >> 17-years-old. >> what this is telling us is that she truly was involved in pulling the trigger on at least one of the people there. time for another meeting with jessica. >> you got some explaining to do and i'm going to tell you right now, the i am at the end of my rope over this whole thing between you and young gregory. i am giving you one opportunity and one opportunity alone to come completely clean with every bit of your involvement in this. so, you quit dancing around with me. because i know the truth. >> all right. well, guys, it was greg. >> there she said it. it was greg fester.

why would she write that note. >> i wish i could do it all the time. if greg doesn't watch it, i'm just going to leave one day and go do it, myself. you're in a lot of trouble, young lady. >> i didn't kill this guy, though. i didn't have a gun. how am i supposed to kill somebody without a gun? i watched greg do it. i didn't kill anybody. i am not kidding. i did not kill anybody. i promise you guys this. >> you know what, 17-years-old and you've just thrown the rest of your life away. >> she tried to change the word, changed her story again, confessed to firing one gunshot. then admitted something else quite shocking, that she had enjoyed it. >> okay. i'll tell you guys, i liked the adrenaline there i know you did. >> i didn't like what caused the adrenaline rush. but i liked the adrenaline rush there that's a real shocker. you don't run into that in a

little town too often. >> no, and you don't run into it with a young girl eater. >> ballistic tests shouldn't confirmed the shells found in the cigarette box matched spent shells at the murder scene. the weapon stolen from the farmhouse, bloot found on reed's clothes and fester's shoes matched the victim, wayne stock. and icing on the cake, dna found on the gold ring and the marijuana pipe matched only fester and reed. both were charged. first degree murder. of course, as all this was happening, back in nebraska, no one outside law enforcement knew a thing. the children were certainly in the dark as they struggled to grip the wheel of their new strange lives. >> we have lost our mom and dad, to lose one is horrible, but to lose both of them and not have

those apparent figures that kept his family going, where do we go? how do we help andy with the fund? how do we let our children have a normal life? >> meanwhile, in their cells in the county jail, they knew not a whip about these developments. and then well into june, defense attorney heard the word that changed everything. >> i got a call saying they've arrested reed and fester up in wisconsin and we got no details on it at all. >> but when they did, the lawyers just knew their clients were innocent. >> everything clicked. you knew exactly what the case was at a that point. >> or did they? >> if they thought their clients were suddenly in the clear, they had some more thinking to do. had some more thinking to do . coming up, because now the question was, were matt and nick

in it together with jessica and greg? >> presented them with, do you know these people? >> and? >> not a clue. >> maybe he was lying to you. >> when "dateline" continues. yu >> when "dateline" continues for the whole family. trusted soothing vapors, from vicks today's discussion will be around sliced meat. moms want healthy... and affordable.

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summer, 2006.

the arrest 500 miles away in wisconsin of two teenagers in connection with the savage shotgun murders of prominent farm couple wayne and sharmon stock sowed seeds of doubt in the official version of events. that version had this an open and shut case against two local men. confessed killer matt livers and the accomplice he named nick sampson. their arrests trumpeted weeks earlier in banner headlines and news conferences. now, these latest arrests of teens jessica reid and greg fester announced so quietly had many wondering what was the connection among these four alleged killers. >> i called a newspaper reporter. i says, you won't believe this, but they arrested two other people. >> reporter: sampson's defense attorney jerry soucie and livers' attorney julie bear spread the word themselves to local reporters. >> he called me back about three hours later. and he says, you won't believe this, but i got the arrest

warrant from wisconsin. and he said, do you want the read it? i said, oh, yeah. >> reporter: you got that from a newspaper reporter? >> i got that from a newspaper reporter. >> reporter: it didn't come from the prosecutor's office. >> no, it was being sealed. i met him at a bar and for the price of a budweiser i was able to read the affidavit of the arrest warrant. >> reporter: those affidavits slipped to attorneys by a reporter contained details culled from the hours and hours of police interviews with greg fester and jessica reid. >> greg blew a guy's head off. >> reporter: and told the story of the 12-gauge shotgun. the shells, the ring, the marijuana pipe and, most tellingly, that dna. irrefutably linking reid and fester to the crime scene. suddenly, it was all beginning to make sense to those public defenders. remember, they'd been skeptical when their new clients professed innocence, but ever since then, they'd been asking themselves one very simple question, where was the evidence? and in their six weeks of looking for it, they had found, well, none. after all, livers' girlfriend, a

woman with an impeccable reputation, insisted matt was home all night with her, 30 miles away in lincoln the night of the murders. the same with nick sampson's girlfriend who swore he never left their house that night. and she passed the polygraph. >> if she would have thought that nick had done this, she would have thrown him under the bus in a heartbeat. there's just no doubt about that. >> reporter: then the lawyers went looking for evidence of the phone calls matt described in his confession, calls in which he and nick supposedly planned the murders and the records revealed there wasn't one call, not one between matt and nick in the days before the murder. >> that phone communication never took place. you know, it simply didn't occur. >> reporter: but couldn't they have used, you know, those kind of phones that you can buy that you can't trace? >> that's theoretically possible, but there's no evidence of that. >> reporter: add to that a ballistics test confirmed the gun found under nick's bed was

not the murder weapon. the spot on nick's jeans thought to be blood wasn't human blood at all. and now the arrests of these teenagers from wisconsin, two people clearly present at the crime scene, but never mentioned at all in any of matt livers' hours and hours of police interviews. all this led julie bear to head over to the jail to ask matt livers face-to-face about these alleged accomplices, reid and fester. >> present him with, you know, this is what's being said. do you know these people? >> reporter: and? >> not a clue. not seen them, never spoke to them. >> reporter: maybe he was lying to you. >> not a chance. >> reporter: it would take another month for copies of those videotaped interrogations of jessica reid and greg fester to inch their way over to the defense attorneys. but when they finally did? more surprises. like this comment during the interrogation of jessica reid. >> i know there was nobody else there.

it was just me and greg. that's what happened. i am not kidding. and if no one believes me, then i really want to go back to my cell. >> reporter: there were, she said, no other killers. just her, just greg. and that whole story about meeting nick sampson at bulldog's bar? she made it up, she said, after detectives showed her a picture of the place and asked her if it looked familiar. for nick sampson's lawyer, the case was now as good as done. is must be a good feeling. >> no, it wasn't. it was a good feeling to know your client's innocent. it is bad feeling to know your client's still in jail, you can't get him out. the cops are coming up with every other kind of theory they can think of to drag him in. >> reporter: oh, yes. there was, remember, that blood from victim wayne stock found in a car connected to nick sampson and spotted near the murder scene. so the prosecutor wasn't about

to drop charges against mr. sampson. and he, sitting in jail, had become suicidal. >> nick was in really, really bad shape. and so at that point, i'm trying to do m.a.s.h. psychiatric holding him together, it's going to work out, it's going to work out. >> reporter: but would it? the summer dragged by followed by a depressing september. and then first week of october, the county attorney nathan cox met the press. the murder case against nick sampson was dropped. sort of. >> since there's no statute of limitations on murder, the state reserves the right to refile the charges in the future. >> reporter: hardly the news the stock family expected or wanted to hear. though they handled it with surprising grace. >> it's not for us to judge or, you know, to make a statement on that because we don't know. it was this and then it was that and then it was this and then it was that.

>> reporter: but imagine being nick sampson. on that amazing day. was cloud nine. it was incredible feeling. >> reporter: after five months in jail, he was free. >> it was incredible. i'm finally out. >> reporter: but nick sampson, even free, was not carefree, not by any means. some things could never be the same again. >> i was constantly looking over my shoulder. seeing who was behind me. you know. >> reporter: so there was a real genuine itch in your back fear that somebody was going to come after you? >> come after me, come after my family. you know? revenge. >> reporter: because around this county in rural nebraska were a great many people perhaps a majority who were still quite certain of nick's guilt. after all, his own cousin matt admitted full out that they both killed those lovely people.

>> i was upset, at a loss of why my own cousin could do this to me. >> reporter: why would he do it to you if it wasn't true? >> to make himself look better. just using me as a scapegoat. >> reporter: nick sampson was now off the hook. but what about matt? coming up. true, he confessed to the murders, but was there more to the story? a tape surfaces of what he said to investigators the very next day. >> i've been just making things up to satisfy you guys. . >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues me . let's go... 1, 2, 3, 4... mr. blanks? there's no need to be stressed. geico makes it easy to file a claim online, on the app, or over the phone. yeah, but what if i never hear back? that's gonna make me want to go jab...jab! nope! your geico claims team is always there for you. that makes me want to celebrate with some fireworks. 5,6,7 go... boom, boom, boom, boom boom boom boom boom

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hello, i'm dara brown, here's what's happened, lawmakers plan to introduce articles of impeachment for president trump. twitter, and facebook, ban trump for continuing to incite

violence. this comes as the u.s. number of coronavirus cases and the death toll continues to hover around 4,000 a day. now, back to coverage. back to . the autumn moon in nebraska, that troubled year of 2006, watched over a crop of confusion. nick sampson struggled with the bitterness the long jail-bound nightmare had planted in his soul while the children of wane and sharmon stock tried to make sense of the release of the man they had been told had killed their parents. >> it's a difficult situation. none of us are attorneys. none of us are in law enforcement. and you're just sitting there trying to take it all in, trying to figure out, okay, how does this work? why does this happen? >> reporter: hadn't their cousin matt livers confessed?

at least he was still in custody. as were those two teens from wisconsin. so it wasn't as if the whole case was falling apart. at least not yet. but if anyone did not feel confused in the october chill, it was defense attorneys bear and soucie, who were as sure as the summer day that both nick sampson and matt livers were innocent, despite what matt told police during his interrogation. >> it was just screaming to me false confession. there was every indication in there that there was a problem. >> reporter: what made it look like a false confession? >> as reports start coming in, we start learning that none of the details that matt provides are accurate. >> reporter: something else investigators may not have understood but perhaps should have. matt livers, as his friends and family knew very well was slow. he had a low i.q., at least the sort of i.q. people can measure. in a conversation with authority

figures under pressure, matt livers was prone to being led. he was gullible. >> there was a portion of the questioning where they won't let him finish his sentence. they're belittling him. they're screaming at him. they're threatening him with the death penalty. >> reporter: and he believed them when they said those things. >> yes, very much so. >> reporter: and one moment stood out. defense lawyers say. when detectives should have realized just how little matt livers understood what was happening to him. here it is. watch what happens when they ask him to be a man and take responsibility. >> you consider yourself a man? stand up. >> he takes them very literally and starts to rise up out of his chair. >> reporter: he's going to stand up. >> he's going to stand up. >> no, be a man, okay? >> reporter: were those detectives even paying attention to the sort of man they were talking to? maybe not. just after nick sampson's release, julie bear received a dvd she'd never seen before.

even though she'd asked months earlier as was her right, for all the available material. this is a tape of matt livers in a second interview the day after his confession. once he'd had a chance to regain his equilibrium. >> the absolute truth is i was never on the scene. i don't know if nick is the actual person involved in this. i've been just making things up to satisfy you guys. >> reporter: how long was that second tape withheld? and by whom? months and months and months after because he said those things the day after his confession. >> right. >> i don't know that nick is involved in this because we never -- i mean, you can check my phone records. we never talked on thursday or friday about this. and the only reason i picked him out of that crowd was i heard through the grapevine that his

brother's car was used. >> what are you telling me this now for? what do you think will accomplish now? >> nothing. i'm just trying to come clean, i mean. >> reporter: now, that was a bombshell. livers' own attorney had never been told by authorities that he'd recanted his confession. so basically from the official story, his recantation simply disappeared? >> right. >> reporter: the cass county sheriff's department declined "dateline's" request for interviews or explanations of how this happened or, for that matter, anything else about the case, but in december, 2006, seven months after the murders, prosecution experts finally agreed, too, livers' confessions were deemed unreliable. >> i went over to the jail and matt was in his cell and we told him, you know, it's over. you're going home.

and, you know, i probably had the biggest hug from a man that i've ever had in my life. >> reporter: cass county prosecutor nathan cox was, once again, left to make the announcement. >> it's not my intention to try to convict somebody that is not guilty. that's not why i'm in this business. but winning isn't the issue. the issue is whether justice is being done. >> reporter: with that, after more than seven months in jail, matt livers was free. >> i'm innocent. i had absolutely nothing to do with this. >> reporter: and the doubters in the town all around him vanished for him in the joy of it all. >> i just went crazy, praise the lord, praise, thank you, thank you, praise the lord type thing. >> reporter: sara was there, of course, to take him home. they are now, by the way, mr. and mrs. livers. >> best day of my life. best day, besides marrying my wife here. sorry.

>> reporter: what was it like watching him come out of there? >> it was awesome. a relief. just great to be able to be with him again and everything. >> it was a wonderful day. >> reporter: but why in heaven's name did he confess in first place? finally now that he was free, we could ask him. a lot of the audience watching will say, come on. nobody's going to confess to something they didn't do. especially something so horrible as the murder of your own relative. >> well, they changed their tactics on me. my rear end was going to be in the frying pan. they were going to be going for the death penalty. >> reporter: you're scared. >> yeah. tremendously. i thought if i tell them what they wanted to hear, that i could get to go home. >> reporter: how did nick's name come up? >> they asked me who else was involved and i started just throwing out names. finally when i said nick's name, then that's when they seemed

they were happy and believed me. >> reporter: but the damage is done. although they've patched things up a bit, for years, matt and his cousin barely spoke. it hurts knowing that he couldn't be man enough after all this happened to apologize. >> reporter: what's he chosen to do, forget all about it? forget about you? >> i think he wants to forget it ever happened. people give me [ bleep ] about it all the time. i try to make a joke out of it. but it hurts every once in a while. >> reporter: what will it take to convince them that you're an innocent man? >> i don't think anything will. i love murdock, it's my home. >> imagine how bizarre it was about to become as the accused and the accuser played out a truly disturbing drama we'll call trading places. coming up. troubling accusations about one of the lead investigators.

>> so, you wake up one morning and they say you're a criminal. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues ♪ ♪ the calming scent of lavender by downy infusions calm. laundry isn't done until it's done with downy.

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and then there were two in the county jail in plattsmouth, nebraska, that is. only those two teenagers from wisconsin remained behind bars, charged with murdering wayne and sharmon stock. the d.a. had let matt livers and nick sampson go. cropped the charges. which to a suspicious family was upsetting and puzzling. after all, hadn't the head of csi, david kofoed found a blood sample that tied them to the crime? it must have seemed to you as if they were letting two murderers back on the street. >> that was the way i felt. >> it did seem like they were just letting them go, but i guess nobody knew any different.

>> reporter: in fact, some of the investigators remained convinced sampson or livers or both had to be involved somehow. they didn't buy the notion that two drug-addled teenagers just happened to stumble on the place by pure chance in the dark. and anyway, fester, remember, said the main shooter, the guy that led them to the farm was a local named thomas, with whom fester had been communicating by phone before the murder. but detectives could find no evidence whatsoever against this thomas or anyone else. and meanwhile, jessica reid kept trying to persuade investigators that nobody else was there besides her and fester, of course. >> i am not lying! if i was lying, i would not still be going on about this. >> reporter: she'd been saying that for months. >> i know what happened and no one will believe me. >> reporter: and though she was right about that, the detectives did not believe her.

they still suspected livers and sampson of some involvement. why? remember way back at the beginning of our story, that speck of evidence that csi chief kofoed had found this a car connected to nick sampson and spotted near the murder scene? here's the stain right here on the filter paper that kofoed swiped under the dashboard of the car. a second search of the car, by the way. the first by an officer under kofoed turned up nothing. this was blood from the murder victim, wayne stock. how would it get there? it was the fbi that started asking that question. not of livers or sampson. the fbi's investigation was aimed at the local investigators who handled the case. in fact, csi chief david kofoed himself. and after months of digging, the fbi concluded that kofoed must have planted that swipe of blood himself. phony evidence to nail down a shaky case.

it was a bombshell. david kofoed, division commander of the csi unit in douglas county, nebraska, was indicted on four federal charges including falsifying records and violating livers' and sampson's civil rights. kofoed pleaded not guilty to all charges, defiantly told reporters he'd rather go to prison than resign, even passed the polygraph and was cleared in an internal sheriff's department investigation. so you wake up one morning and they say you're a criminal. >> well, it kind of was like that, but it was more of a long process. and i didn't do it. i just didn't. and it doesn't make any sense. >> reporter: kofoed blamed the stain on accidental contamination. somehow, he said, blood from the victim, wayne stock, ended up on that filter paper probably out at the murder scene and somehow the kit containing that same filter paper was what he later used on the car.

but kofoed did admit he broke the rules, failed to log the evidence properly, even misdated the report. >> i did make a mistake. i didn't follow procedures. and that bothers me. and there's no way around that. that was wrong because i'm a boss, because i'm supposed to set the example. >> reporter: it is a little disconcerting, though. >> it is disconcerting, but it is also the reason why i say this is ridiculous to accuse me of planting evidence. why would i screw it up? why wouldn't i log the evidence in? why would i make mistakes that point the finger at me. a federal jury heard the s case sand it took just an hour to acquit kofoed of all counts. but the state of nebraska wasn't satisfied. appointed a special prosecutor

and charged kofoed with evidence tampering. and this time, after a week-long trial before a cass county judge on what one headline called "a dark day for law enforcement" kofoed was found guilty. >> you understand what you were convicted of? >> yes, your honor. >> reporter: at sentencing the career law enforcement man stood up and again denied planning any evidence said the truth would eventually come out. >> i don't believe this is the last of this case for me. i'm going to continue on. that's nothing personal with you. >> reporter: but the judge, acknowledging he was moved by letters written by livers and sampson asking him to throw the book at kofoed, did just that. >> the defendant has not acknowledged any wrong doing. he's not appeared to be particularly remorseful. >> reporter: the sentence? 20 months to 4 years. kofoed is in a minimum security state prison. he was ordered to pay. he is appealing his conviction. >> you talk about forgetting to write the report but you don't forget about logging in the evidence. he not only forgot, but he falsified a lot of stuff on the report. that's a bad thing to say it's okay to plant evidence just

because the guy's guilty, because how else do you know who is guilty or who is not guilty? >> reporter: no matter whom you believe on the blood issue, there are two people who know in living technicolor exactly what happened at the stock farmhouse that night. and one of them is about to tell us. coming up. jessica reid, on the evil of easter night. >> two people are dead because of me. you know, and i have a very hard time with that. >> i killed someone, he was older. i loved it. i wish i could do it all the time. if greg sedan watch it, i'm just going to leave one day and do it, myself. i don't understand it. >> i hate hearing it. >> when "dateline" continues.

it's a virtual given in legal circles when it comes to cutting a deal for a lighter prison sentence, the first criminal to the court house wins. in cass county, nebraska, the first to the courthouse was accused killer jessica reid. jessica agreed to plead guilty to second degree murder charges in exchange for testimony against her accomplice greg fester. when it came to him, it seemed prosecutors were certain to seek the death penalty. wayne and sharmon stock aroused terrified from their sleep sanctity of their own bedroom easter sunday night and shot to death in cold blood. if any case warranted the ultimate punishment thought many nebraskans, then this surely was it. but to all the mystifying moves by police and prosecutors, add one more. a judge ruled that they missed the deadline to seek the death penalty. first degree murder for greg fester was off the table.

before long, a new deal was reached. both fester and reid pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree. and in march 2007 not yet a year since the killing they entered a courtroom. >> reporter: you went to the sentencing. >> i did. the first time i saw them. i didn't think i could feel so much anger and sorrow and sadness. >> i remember thinking i didn't think i could be this mad. >> yes. >> reporter: in the courtroom, jessica reid and greg fester each apologized to the stock family. and then the judge handed down their sentences. for fester, two consecutive life terms plus another 10 to 20 for using a weapon. for reid, the first to the courthouse, remember, no break at all. the same sentence. two life terms back-to-back. no parole, ever. and for the stock family, ever graceful and remarkably forgiving people, afterwards?

the rare flash of anger. >> i hope they live a miserable life because it's turned our lives upside down. they made the choice to go into that house. mom and dad didn't have a choice. my son, who will never know his grandma and grandpa, doesn't have a choice. >> reporter: what really happened that night? what led two wisconsin teenagers to throw away their life by so callously killing a nebraska farm couple everyone loved? perhaps only two people in the world know what happened inside that farmhouse and why. and one is now speaking out. >> two people are dead because of me. you know? and i'm -- i have a very hard time with that still. >> reporter: jessica reid is 21 now. her demeanor, her presence, as

she sits with us here, could easily be that of a kindergarten teacher. instead, she knows she will die in prison and says she is haunted by what happened in that farmhouse. what was it like to watch those people die? >> hell. >> reporter: and when you see it in your head? >> it makes my heart drop. that's one thing in this world that i can't go back and fix. >> reporter: the truth about that night? here it is, said jessica. she and fester, days without sleep or real food, have been driving aimlessly through wisconsin, iowa, nebraska, breaking into homes along the way. in one, she, too, grabbed a shotgun, so on easter night there they were both armed, drugged and wired when they drove down another back road completely at random. and greg said stop. and at what turned out to be the stock farmhouse, in they went.

>> greg was like, follow me real quick. so i followed him and we went upstairs and when i turned around, greg had turned on a light in the room. and i seen this guy laying in the bed. and i said, come on, let's go, let's do something. because there was people there. >> reporter: what was the feeling you had as you said that? >> like panic. it was like craziness like god, what if they wake up. you know? >> reporter: but. >> he just turned and went into that room. the guy had rolled out of bed and they were wrestling with the gun. and i just was like startled and my gun went off. and i have no idea where that shot went. >> reporter: sources close to the investigation, though, tell "dateline" there's reason to believe that whether jessica knows it or not, her wild shot may have been the fatal one. that it may have struck wayne stock in the head with evidence of the blast obliterated by another shot from greg fester's

12 gauge. >> then greg shot the guy in the back of the head. and he went back in that room and shot that lady. he ran down the stairs and i ran after him. and that ring that they found -- >> >> reporter: yeah. >> it flew off and i didn't know until way, way later when they showed me a picture of it. because i knew i lost that ring, but i had no idea where. >> reporter: what was it like in that truck on the way away? >> we didn't say anything. i mean, i started crying at one point and greg just looked at me and he was like, don't do that. you know. >> reporter: but what about those letters? the words found later in that house with reid's belongings, with that cigarette box? words she wrote. boldly admitting to her crimes. "i killed someone. he was older. i loved it. i wished i could do it all the time. if greg doesn't watch it, i'm going to just leave one day and do it myself." i don't understand it. >> i hate hearing it because it's just kind of like how

everything was portrayed. i hate hearing it. >> reporter: because it was how everything was portrayed? >> because i'm not like that. >> reporter: were you like that at the time? >> no. that was my way of showing greg that i was okay with it. because when he told me not to cry, it was like, what? i'm not supposed to feel bad about this? i mean, how can you have no remorse for this at all? >> reporter: it's all a black hole of regret now, of course. except she says for one good thing she did. she refused to implicate two men who had nothing to do with the murders. turned down a golden chance to cut herself a better deal with prosecutors by lying and nailing nick and matt. do you kick yourself about that sometimes? >> no. >> reporter: why is not? >> because when i wake up in the morning, i can look at myself and be okay.

they're where they should be on the streets because they didn't do anything. and i'm where i should be. you know. >> reporter: a lot of the members of their family believe that they got away with it. what would you say to those people with their suspicions? >> to stop being suspicious. >> reporter: because? >> they weren't there. they had nothing to do with this. >> reporter: but for the stock family, it's just not that simple. can you believe jessica, they ask? they're driven, they say, by a common sense instilled at an early age by their murdered parents. so they keep asking who and why. who did this? >> i'd like to know the honest truth about everything. i hope some day we can all sit down and look at each other and say, were these two involved, yes or no, definitely. was the blood planted, yes or no, definitely.

i don't know if we'll ever know those answers, but i hope some day we'll know. matt livers and nick sampson are still struggling to get back their good names. the citizen who went way beyond the call to find the critical evidence that saved them shrugs as if it was no big deal. >> i heard homicide. if it were somebody in my family, i would have wanted the to assist them. >> reporter: and two still marvel that poor police work almost did their clients in even as the very same cops brilliantly tracked the one piece of evidence that saved them and finally identified the real murderers. a simple gold ring. >> had they not been able to trace that ring to its owner in wisconsin, i'm really afraid we'd have two guys sitting on death row for something they didn't do. . >> sand two defense lawyers marvel they almost did their clients in. even as the very same cops brilliantly tracked the one piece of evidence that saved them and identified the real murderers. a simple gold ring. >> had they not been able to

trace that ring to its owner in wisconsin, i'm really afraid we'd have two guys sitting on death row for something they didn't do. good evening once again, day 1450 of the trump administration, 12 days remain until the inauguration of joe biden as our 46th president. the effort to stop donald trump from doing anything over the next week and a half is gaining momentum inside, even outside the nation's capitol. tonight the worst fate of all has befallen the president, his cell phone has been rendered mute and ineffective. the man who said he could not have been elected president without twitter has been tossed off of twitter. they announced tonight that his