>> reporter: pegye's mother and sister ended up raising her kids, and one more person who was stronger than she thought, tina new. >> you're leading a different life these days. >> completely different life now. >> reporter: she gave up drugs, married a nice guy and now she's a stay at home mom with five kids. a hollywood happy ending? no. sometimes real life is better. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline," i'm craig melvin, i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> it was tough to think that anybody could do that to someone. to look at the pictures of what they did to her and hear details of how it was carried out, it's just -- it's devastating. >> shauna tiaf fay, loving mother by day, cocktail waitress

by night. >> i was at one of the bars. every single head turned. >> it was after her shift they found her, the victim of a ruthless attack. >> your heart just drops to your stomach. >> potential suspects? how about a casino's worth of customers? >> we didn't know if there was some psycho watching us girls work at the palms. >> or did the answers lie in the dead woman's past? >> shauna started thinking, i have got to get out of this situation. >> from out of the blue, a tip. >> he had some information that was connected to a murder. >> that would reveal a diabolical plot. >> i just couldn't understand how this was reality. >> but was this killer too clever to be caught? >> he is extremely smart, smarter than we all are. ♪ >> welcome to "dateline."

shauna tiaffay hit the jackpot in las vegas. handsome husband, adorable daughter and a good job. but there is a dark side to sin city, and sadly, the beautiful cocktail waitress became its victim. in cases like this one, the husband is often a suspect, but the crime scene was telling investigators something else. and they got a hot tip. but like so many things in vegas, nothing was as it seemed. here's keith morrison with "under a full moon." >> reporter: she was finished now, tired, wrung out. must have been as she walked away from the incessantly chirping machinery. and the bleery eyes on holiday who called out to her again and again and again. outside in the night, a full moon bathed the houses in an unaccustomed shade of pale.

it was september 29, 2012. at precisely 3:00 in the back room of the palms casino, the cocktail waitress named shauna tiaffay entered her time card and set out to break a rule. she parked her car in the back lot, a practice discouraged because surveillance cameras are unable to track her to her car. still, easier this way, and quicker. after all, would a stalker really be waiting for her here under a full moon? >> it was absolutely horrible and we felt so helpless. >> it's every woman's worst nightmare. >> we didn't know if any of us were next. >> reporter: it never occurred to shauna to become a cocktail waitress when she moved to vegas as a 20-something back in the mid 90s. what she wanted then was to be closer to family, meaning, big sister paula. >> she originally just thought, oh, there's no way i could be a cocktail waitress. i don't even drink. >> reporter: but in a casino

town, a cocktail waitress could make good money. so now at 46 she was a veteran. >> she would laugh at herself and say, well, i still don't know what these cocktails. i order them, they give them to me and i take them to the people. >> reporter: but she was good at it. everybody could see that. >> all the customers loved shauna so much. >> reporter: why? >> she was a sweet person. >> beautiful. >> reporter: she made close friends. a work family really, including kelly chapman and stephanie vargas. >> i was at one of the bars and i saw her walk by. every single head turned on that bar watching her walk by. and i remember thinking, why don't i look like her? because men, women, they just loved her. >> reporter: but no one loved her quite the way he did. a handsome boy scout of a firefighter named george tiaffay. george was a genuine article, an all-american good guy. he had overcome early obstacles

to become a top notch student in high school. a star athlete. this is his sister maria mcgrew. and valedictorian and on the football team? >> yeah, you'd think he'd be just a jerk, right? just kind of a jock, mean spirited who knows, stereo typical. >> reporter: but it was quite the contrary, said maria. >> he was always the calming force amongst family and friends. he was the gentle speaker. he had this outlook in life where, i want to go out and make the world a better place. >> reporter: so george did. he earned a prestigious appointment to westpoint and after graduation became a combat engineer, served as a nation builder in panama. his childhood friend aaron solano went down for a visit. >> the stories he told me about the missions he accomplished, building schools, clinics, roadways and bridges, really had an impact on his life. he finally felt like, hey, i'm get fog do something.

>> reporter: when he left as a captain, he took a corporate job and soon realized life in an office building wasn't for him. he wanted to work for real people, which is why george put aside that fancy degree of his and went to vegas to train as a firefighter emt. >> focusing on himself was not how he wanted to live his life. he wanted to serve. that was a favorite word of his, to serve. >> reporter: so, while shauna served drinks at the palms, george served as a firefighter and found time to volunteer, do what he could for the down on their luck souls who lived on the fringes of so much glitz here. in 2004 they had a baby. >> here's daddy and mama. >> she loved it. her daughter was the most important thing to her in this world. and everything she did revolved around her daughter. >> and they're dancing to everybody's favorite. >> reporter: then two years later, a marriage in hawaii. >> mama and dada just got

married. what do you say? >> just the three of them. >> see my beautiful ring? >> reporter: back in vegas it was a busy complicated life. but with george's 24-hour shifts and shauna's nighttime at the casino. then it was september 29, 2012, 3:00 a.m. she walked the empty lot to her car, started it, pointed away from the strip, and under that full moon headed home. no idea what was waiting for her. it was 9:00 a.m. when george arrived with their daughter. she'd spent the night at grandma's. he at the firehouse at work. but why was the garage door open? what was that inside? george had grown accustomed to trauma and death. but this? >> i think i need to report a break-in and a murder. >> it was a chilling discovery. shauna tiaffay found beaten to death inside her home and some

of shauna's personal items found outside the house. what might they reveal? coming up. >> what crosses your mind when you realize it's somebody walking away from the scene discarding things as a stranger does or predator? >> absolutely, a predator, sexual predator. >> when "dateline" continues. ws pain gel. the first full prescription strength non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gel... available over the counter. voltaren is powerful arthritis pain relief in a gel. voltaren. the joy of movement. ♪ ♪ since pioneering the suv in 1935, the chevy suburban has carried many things. nothing more important than family. introducing the most versatile and advanced chevy suburban and tahoe ever.

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when you drink or eat something that's acidic everyone is at risk for enamel loss. it sucks the minerals out of the tooth's surface. pronamel is formulated to help deliver minerals to the tooth's surface to help reharden and strengthen your enamel. part of what made it so incomprehensible was where it happens. shauna tiaffay lived in a good, safe neighborhood, part of town where vegas does not party.

the part of town where the people who work the casinos, raise their families and live ordinary quiet lives. but this is where they found her. george and their 8-year-old daughter, inside her own house. not so safe after all. >> i think i need to report a break-in and a murder. >> reporter: george would have known, even if he hadn't been an emt. >> what's going ton there? >> reporter: she'd been dead for hours. >> my wife -- my wife is on the floor bloody, stiff, not moving. >> we got a call in the morning. >> reporter: detective dan long has been in homicide a long time and god knows vegas has kept him busy. him and his partner, terri miller. >> when we arrived, there were fire department personnel everywhere. >> reporter: it was all too obvious. shauna had been attacked probably as she had walked into her house, beaten with something blunt and hard.

>> and there was things done with the body that made us think that there was possible sexual assault of some type, and there was posing of the body. >> reporter: some kind of predator at work here? a predator who escaped with a good hunk of cash from the looks of it. shauna's purse was missing. >> cash and casino chips. they get tipped with casino chips quite a bit. they're known to make 300, 400, $500 in the night. they make a lot of money, especially if they're good. and we did send detectives over to the palms. we talked to them. they said shauna is one of the best employees they had. >> reporter: but something happened after she left the palms. so what? >> shauna was very beautiful. is it someone that saw her at work and followed her home? >> there we are. >> reporter: of course, as the husband, george would have to be considered a possible suspect, too. so detectives pulled him aside, interviewed him right on the

spot. >> george, you understand the statement is being recorded? >> i understand. >> okay. and you understand that we want to talk to you about what happened this morning? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: george told the detectives when he saw the garage door open, he had their daughter hang back while he went inside. >> i saw shauna's feet just laying there frozen looking. and in my job, i know what that means. >> are you a paramedic? >> i'm an emti firefighter. >> reporter: their daughter, thank god, didn't see anything, said george. he rushed her out to the street. >> i didn't know if somebody was there. i wanted to get out of there with my daughter. >> reporter: he had taken the little girl to shauna's place because it was shauna's turn. >> because we're currently separated and we're planning on moving back in together because we started getting along again. >> reporter: meanwhile they had this complicated arrangement. shauna worked 7:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. at the casino. george as a firefighter worked

long shifts and got lots of days off. their daughter shuttled back and forth between them. when they were both at work, the girl spent nights with george's mother. >> okay. what shift did you work yesterday? >> a 24-hour shift. >> reporter: so he was at work when shauna was killed. of course, they did some checking just to be here. >> you know if he was there on every run, if he had left for any reason. >> reporter: but he was on every run. did you leave work at all. so not the husband this time. >> he had nothing to do with the attack of shauna. >> reporter: but george did offer a possible lead. >> the garage door was open, which is unusual. so we were worried because my wife's house got broken into a week or two ago. >> reporter: the thief in that earlier burglary, it appeared, used shauna's bathroom to take a shower and left with several

pairs of shauna's panties and some jewelry. he left behind a pair of boxer shorts size small. back then shauna immediately suspected some neighborhood teens, said george. >> so she had discussed it with several people, including george, and decided that it may be that she left something unlocked, and it could be maybe some kids that live in the neighborhood. >> reporter: so is that who killed her? looking around the crime scene, the detectives realized that shauna's killer or killers had been into her booze, had taken not just her purse, but like in that earlier burglary, her underwear. so they set about checking every one of the neighborhood boys, and they had solid alibis, all of them. >> they were not involved in the break-in. they were not involved in shauna's death. now things get even more scary. because we don't know what we have. >> reporter: once that word got

out, it could very quickly spread the terror around. like it already had among shauna's coworkers. >> we didn't know if there was some psycho watching, you know, watching us girls work at the palms and we didn't know if any of us were next. >> reporter: the predator theory got a boost the second day when on a walking path near shauna's house, someone found bits from her purse. i.d., makeup kit, personal things. what crosses your mind when you realize it's somebody walking away from the scene discarding things? >> a stalker. >> reporter: stalker? >> absolutely. predator, sexual predator. >> reporter: they spread out, got the rest of the homicide involved. days off were canceled. they looked everywhere. >> there was considerable pressure. pressure from media, pressure from our administration. he everybody wants this thing solved and put away quickly. >> reporter: and then quite suddenly, a break. a tipster on the crime stoppers

line with a story to tell. >> he had some information that he thought was connected to a murder. >> reporter: a wild goose chase? maybe. and maybe not. >> coming up, the tipster mentioned a detail about the crime, one that gets everyone's attention. >> no one knew that but the two of us. >> when "dateline" continues. nus

good job. >> yay. >> good singing. >> it's a terrible thing to bury a young mother in the prime of her life, especially in the shadow of murder. big sister paula had felt somehow frozen in a terrible dream that refused to end or make sense. ever since her mother called with the news about shauna. what's it like to hear something like that? >> i don't know that you can describe it, you know. i mean, your heart just drops to

your stomach. >> reporter: paula and shauna's family and friends gathered to mourn and remembered how much they cared about her. the funeral itself was standing-room only. >> it was a beautiful tribute to shauna. >> reporter: george's big sister maria. >> i could see george was heartfelt and did what he could to express himself at a terrible time. it was all about showing that shauna was loved and cared for. >> reporter: meanwhile, las vegas homicide detectives worked diligently to identify and track down whoever killed her. >> did we have a predator? did she come home and they were burglarizing the house? is there an enemy somewhere that she made that we need to find? >> reporter: and then they got lucky. a man who called himself "big will penix" called the

crimestoppers hotline. big will had a story to tell. >> he had spent time in prison and he worked as a maintenance man. but he found satisfaction in helping others coming out of prison and helping them find the right path. >> reporter: one such man, said big will, was a homeless handyman who lived out in the desert. went by the name "greyhound." >> he did a lot of drugs, drank a lot of alcohol, and was volatile. >> reporter: according to big will, this "greyhound" told a lot of tall tales. but will called police this time because "greyhound" bragged about killing someone, a woman. and said he used a hammer to do it. >> and we had just come from autopsy that morning. marks that were seen on shauna's body, we thought that it was possibly a hammer. so no one knew that but the two of us. >> reporter: when this guy

brings it up -- >> exactly. >> reporter: a homeless drug addicted ex-con with a volatile temper, said big will. certainly fit the profile of a potential predator detectives were looking for. >> he told us "greyhound" walks everywhere, lives out in the desert. >> reporter: big will wanted to help and took them to places he thought "greyhound" liked to hang out. and what do you know, they ran into him in the parking lot of a gas station. detective long approached him. sweet as pie, "greyhound" was, said he'd be perfectly willing to go to the station, have a chat. his real name was noel stephens. what did he tell you? >> he knows shauna, he knew where they lived. said he did yard work and handyman work for george and everybody else in the neighborhood. >> reporter: so someone shauna knew, someone george the do-gooder had tried to help. a thing be out of character for

george. but "greyhound" or noel was adamant that he had nothing to do with shauna's murder. then he agreed to show the detectives his camp site out in the desert. what did you find? >> swimsuit bottoms that in our search of shauna's house appeared to be that matched the top that i had seen in her bedroom. >> reporter: so "greyhound" was the burglar poking around shauna's personal things. and, in fact, her friends recalled shauna had grown uncomfortable with this particular charity case who had been doing work around the house. >> she didn't want noel in the house any more. she said you better get out of this house or i'm calling the police on you. >> reporter: so was he the killer? out at the camp site, detectives did not find any evidence linking him to the murder, so they kept looking. >> one of the other things that big will told us was that noel had a camp site number 1 and a camp site number 2. >> reporter: a second camp site,

out there somewhere. but where? and what, if anything, was hidden there? >> coming up. >> under the bush he saw a pair of jeans that appeared to have blood on them. >> when "dateline" continues. ats one of the worst things about a cold sore

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hello. i'm dara brown. here's what iss's happening. chinese officials put 11 million people under lockdown. as china looks to contain its worst covid flare-up in months. the u.s. economy lost 140,000 jobs in december, though the unemployment rate remained the same at 6.7%. this means donald trump will be the first modern president to leave office with a smaller work force than when he began. now back to "dateline."

>> reporter: it's not on any sight-seeing itinerary this way. but this, too, is las vegas. rugged desert terrain that is a kind of refuge or hiding place for the desperate and troubled. >> believe it or not, that whole area has homeless people that are up there. >> reporter: this is where "greyhound" took them. this is where he lived, he said. but out there somewhere, they were convinced there must be a second camp site with possible evidence about the killing of shauna tiaffay. so police went up with the air unit to have a look around. >> those pilots decided they were going to fly the whole area for us and they actually located the second camp site. >> we entered and we found a citation in the name of noel stephens. so we were at the right place. >> reporter: so they spread out, kept looking, and pretty soon one of them called out. >> about 175 feet from the tent he found a bush, and under the

bush he saw a pair of rolled up denim jeans that appeared to him to have blood on them. we put those in for immediate dna testing. >> reporter: how did that come back? >> it was shauna tiaffay's blood and the pants were worn by noel stephens. >> reporter: that's kind of your story there, huh? >> that's kind of our story. >> reporter: proof the homeless handyman george and shauna tried to help was a murderer. but could the story be that simple, really? listen to shauna's sister paula, for example. and things start to sound a bit more complex. >> i just think that he always loved himself more than he loved anyone else, and it was all about him and what he wanted. >> reporter: that was george she was talking about, the selfless firefighter had another side, said paula. >> the verbal abuse, the intimidation, the control. i mean, george was always a controlling guy. >> hold the camera in your hand.

push it away, please. >> reporter: according to paula, george had become ever more controlling and judgmental especially about shauna's spending habits. >> we're spending time at the beach. >> reporter: shauna told george the marriage was over. >> he said, you know, if you don't come back to me and we can't sort this out, you're going to lose custody of your daughter. and that was her number one fear. oh, absolutely. he used their daughter as a way to manipulate shauna time and time again. >> reporter: shauna had been letting her work mates read the text messages george sent as things got worse in the marriage. >> one text, it would be nice, short and sweet, like i love you, i've been thinking about you all day. we need to work things out. and then, you know, we would be working. she wouldn't be able to text him back right away. and ten minutes later he's blowing up her phone, cussing her out, calling her names. >> reporter: shauna's supporters

remember her funeral quite differently than george's people did. >> he had no emotion. no emotion at all. he did a eulogy. talking about how much money shauna liked to spend and that there was one time she was at the gas station and accidentally left the pump in the car. >> reporter: in the eulogy? >> in the eulogy. >> reporter: paula watched george and his daughter at the cemetery and fumed. >> they hadn't even lowered her in the ground yet and he said, come on. and took her hand. it's time to go. and i watched him walk off with my little niece, you know, 8 years old, just lost her mom, and i watched him walk off with her. and i thought, you know, this is exactly what he wanted. he wanted all the control over my niece. >> reporter: paula told the police her suspicions even before they began chasing down leads on "greyhound." so even though they had their killer, the idea that george was involved somehow was already in the back of their minds.

on the other hand, george's family was just as eager to assure the police that those attacks on george's character from shauna's side were complete nonsense. >> i never saw shauna act cowed or frayed of my brother. she had an equal footing in the way they interacted with one another. so that's why i still can't believe the insinuation, the allegations that he was abusive or even controlling. >> reporter: george's friend aaron solano couldn't agree more. >> no matter where he finds himself, what challenging situation he finds himself in, he has always been consistently kind, consistently caring. >> reporter: so which george was the real one? the detectives decided to pay george a visit at his house. though they didn't tell him what they'd heard about him, the good or the bad.

>> mr. -- can i call you george? thank you. >> reporter: george said, sure, he knew "greyhound," but never heard him called noel stephens before. >> you knew him as something else? >> i knew him as neal smith. >> reporter: george told detectives how he and shauna had befriended this neal smith. tried to help him get back on his feet. >> me and the wife looked at him as our charity case. he was a nice guy, down on his luck. >> reporter: find out the detectives knew "greyhound" was an addict and a big drinker. so they asked george. >> was he a drug user? >> nothing. >> alcohol? >> yes, he would drink alcohol. not a lot, a beer or two. >> just a beer or two every now and then? >> yes. >> reporter: that raised the antenna a bit. in his interview with the detectives, "greyhound" said he and george were great friends, worked out together, drank together, a lot. but then listen to this. as george kept talking, the man

he said he knew as neal became noel. >> she said, can noel help us out with this if i wasn't good at it? noel seemed to be good at everything i wasn't good at. >> reporter: remember, george said he never heard the name noel stephens before. knew "greyhound" as neal smith. was it an honest little slip or was george hiding something? is it possible he was confused about the name, you know, "greyhound" used several different names? >> when you get nervous, you're going to revert back to whatever's natural. and he reverted back to noel. he just got done telling us, i've known this man for years as neal. and then noel helped me move. so that's a tell. >> reporter: why would george admit to knowing "greyhound" and lie about the name? dete detectives left george at home and made a plan they hoped would shake out the truth. >> we decided to amp up the pressure.

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>> reporter: it's an old police tactic to stimulate, maybe upset the suspect you haven't quite cornered, hoping for an overreaction. sometimes it works, sometimes not. so even though they didn't have a solid case yet, the detectives let word slip that they intended to arrest george, charge him with murder, hoping he would do something rash and incriminate himself. >> he was told by his former attorney that he was going to be arrested at the same time police officers were showing up at my mother's doorstep. >> reporter: what did george do?

got into his truck, raced over to his mother's house, dropped 0 of his daughter, roared off again. police watching. >> he was driving extremely fast. he was forcing vehicles out of his way, forcing vehicles off the road. and then plowed straight into a cement barrier. the officer following said he just committed suicide. >> reporter: so what did you think when you got that report, you heard about that? >> i think it was a very good indication to us that we were definitely on the right track. >> but if suicide was his intent, as the detectives assumed, it didn't work. his injuries were not severe. still, it looked to detectives like a guilty george would rather kill himself than face a murder charge. and as george lay in the hospital bed recovering, noel stephens gave police the final piece they needed. he confessed that he killed shauna and said his good pal george asked him to do it. >> so, we went to see him at the hospital. we went in and told him that he

was under arrest. >> reporter: did he say anything? >> he asked to speak with his attorney. >> i just knew that george had something to do with it. >> reporter: both george and noel were booked on murder and conspiracy and burglary charges. >> george is the one that wanted shauna dead. george is the controlling man that needed that control of shauna. and he had a tool at his disposal that worshipped him, that loved him, that would do what needed to be done. >> reporter: noel stephens pleaded guilty and spent the next three years cooperating with the investigation while george, who pleaded not guilty, set up a ministry in the clark county detention center. he looked his family, including his sister maria, square in the eyes and swore he did not do this. the age-old conclusion the husband always does it? >> he was a statistical suspect from day one for sure.

>> reporter: why, she asked, would anybody believe an addict and known liar over george? and the detectives theory that a guilty conscience led to a suicide attempt. >> let me tell you, he has been on suicide prevention squads. he is an emt. he is quite knowledgeable about what it takes to kill yourself in a vehicle. so driving that large vehicle into a k-rail with your seat belt on is not how an expert tries to commit suicide. he did something stupid, but he didn't try to kill himself. >> reporter: fellow firefighters came to his defense, too. fellow westpoint grads, childhood friends. >> i truly believe he's innocent. he gives too much of himself and i think that that is one of the reasons he finds himself in this situation he's in. >> reporter: were you surprised at the amount of support that george got? >> no. no. george, he makes lifelong connections as part of his generosity. >> reporter: and so on a searing

hot summer day in late august 2015 -- >> good morning. >> reporter: those lifelong connections sat on one side of a las vegas courtroom. >> george was adamant that this go to trial. he would not accept any plea deals, anything. >> reporter: and on the other side a sea of hot pink. >> there was just an outpouring every day, lots of people that showed up wearing pink and -- >> reporter: why that? >> pink was shauna's favorite color and, not pale pink, hot pink. >> reporter: ex-work mates were there, too. >> i wanted the jury to see that she wasn't just a vegas cocktail waitress, you know, that she was a good person, a beautiful person, a good human being. >> reporter: prosecutors told the jury that while noel "greyhound" stephens was the killer of shauna tiaffay, he

never would have done it. >> he kept pushing noel to do it. >> reporter: paula's sister testified that she encouraged her sister to move out. >> i told her that based on things she was telling me that had been going on for quite a while, i believed she should separate herself from george and move to a different home. >> reporter: so she did. and george increased his contact with noel. his phone calls to stephens in the month before the murder proved a conspiracy, said the prosecutors. they showed the jury george's phone records. >> if you looked at how much he called noel, there's 87 phone calls. >> reporter: three, four calls a day. >> yes. his mother is about once a day. >> reporter: then they said, look at this. here are george and noel shopping together, buying gloves, dark clothing, a knife, and on four different occasions they bought hammers.

>> this is at miss tiaffay's house where they have perfect hammers in the garage. >> reporter: what else could this be, they asked, but a murder kit? one final thing noel told the cops he had a key george gave him. here's george at the hardware store buying a key just like the key noel used. only one possible conclusion, said the prosecutors. >> noel stephens used a hammer. the person who used noel stephens is george tiaffay. >> reporter: ah. but. >> it's a good story. it's real interesting, but it's not evidence yet. >> reporter: this is george's defense attorney robert langford. >> there is absolute reasonable doubt as to george tiaffay's involvement in this case. >> reporter: those surveillance videos, for example, that the prosecution found so damning. none of the hammers they bought was the actual murder weapon. and besides, most of what they

bought together was simple and innocent camping gear. george helping a man in need, as usual. >> he thought he was helping out noel stephens to live out where noel wanted to live, which was outside of town. >> reporter: as for the 87 phone calls, the prosecution said george and "greyhound" conspired to kill shauna, there was nothing sin they are there, said the defense. just a man trying to contact his charity-case handyman. >> i live out in that area and cell service is notoriously bad. on top of, have you ever tried to call a handyman in this town? it is ridiculously difficult to get hold of those kinds of workers to come do work. >> reporter: in fact, said the defense, the only thing the state had tying george to the murder was noel stephens' word. >> without noel stephens' statement to the police, george

is an innocent man. >> the report -- >> reporter: the jury believed stephens, said the defense. even his friend the tipster big will said the man was an habitual liar. >> at a scale of 1 to 10, i would put him at a scale of maybe 1 1/2. >> 10 being very honest and -- >> 1 1/2, meaning not honest at all, correct. >> reporter: george's attorney was itching to cross-examine the habitual liar who condemned his client which presented prosecutors with a dilemma. the man at the center of the case might just destroy it. could be a real problem. >> he could be a real problem. there was a substantial amount of discussion between him and i over whether or not we're calling him or not. >> reporter: does that imply you disagreed? >> oh, yes, we disagreed. >> coming up, a risky decision looks like it might just

backfire. >> do you hear voices? >> yes. >> do you remember saying to that person that they sounded like monsters? >> yes. >> not just voices, hallucinations, too. >> what kind of hallucinations? >> i see shauna sometimes. >> when "dateline" continues. on: stand up to moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. and take. it. on... ...with rinvoq. rinvoq a once-daily pill can dramatically improve symptoms... rinvoq helps tame pain, stiffness, swelling. and for some rinvoq can even significantly reduce ra fatigue. that's rinvoq relief. with ra, your overactive immune system attacks your joints. rinvoq regulates it to help stop the attack. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious infections and blood clots, sometimes fatal, have occurred... ...as have certain cancers, including lymphoma, and tears in the stomach or intestines,

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welcome back. noel stephens murdered shauna tiaffay. he confessed to it. but he also claimed he was told to do it by her husband george. prosecutors had a tough decision to make, and their case hinged on the outcome. here's keith morrison with the conclusion of "under a full moon." >> reporter: prosecutors mark and pat had a big problem, and they knew it. the problem had a name, noel stephens, "greyhound." >> noel is a very important piece of information. >> reporter: sure. >> but he's also the biggest risk. >> reporter: in the credibility sweepstakes he's way down here and your defendant is way up there. so they argued these two prosecutors. she said put him on the stand. >> my thought was, you don't understand who george is and how sinister this was until you meet noel and say, this is the person that he gave access to.

>> reporter: he said, don't take a chance. >> they ca sould say this crazy psychotic man did it on his own. >> reporter: who prevailed? she did. >> state calls noel stephens. >> reporter: so up went "greyhound" to the witness stand and offered his grisly story. >> i hit her in the head. >> when you hit her in the head what happens? >> she hits the floor. >> and after she hits the floor, what do you do? >> i jump on top of her. >> after you jump on top of her, what do you do? >> i keep on hitting her. >> how long did you hit her for? >> hit her until she doesn't move any more. >> reporter: why? because, he said, someone told him to. >> who told you to kill shauna? >> george. >> reporter: but was it true? now the defense got to ask "greyhound" about -- well, for starters, his addictions. >> wild turkey 101? >> yes, vodka, whatever i can get my hands on.

>> you drink it every day? >> every day. >> just one or two? >> i drink it till ain't no more until i don't have no more money or -- i drink. >> reporter: yes, and he smoked weed he admitted and did speed. but it got worse. >> do you hear voices? >> yes. >> do you remember saying to that person that they sounded like monsters? >> yes. >> reporter: hallucinations, too. >> what kind of hallucinations? >> i see, uh, shauna sometimes. >> sometimes? >> yes. >> do you see other people? >> sometimes. >> i think everybody agreed that noel stephens is crazy as an outhouse rat. >> reporter: how could you believe a man as crazy as that? >> you are outside of reality at that point. >> reporter: so, a man who hears voices? that got the jury's attention. one juror even submitted a question read by the judge.

>> did the voices you said you would hear from time to time ever tell you to kill shauna? >> no. >> reporter: there was the choice for the jury. george used noel as a murder weapon, or the drunk who heard voices killed shauna and blamed an innocent man. the lawyers, the friends, the family from both sides could only sit and wait. >> it was nerve-racking. >> reporter: for three days they waited. the prosecutors once confident worried >> hung jury. >> a hung jury situation. by day three you think, oh, oh, is there a hold up? >> count one? >> reporter: then finally here it was. >> guilty of first degree murder. >> reporter: guilty. george tiaffay, his face almost serene absorbed the verdict. >> it was just this big weight taken off my shoulders, you know, because i felt this entire time that shauna hasn't had a

voice in this and i've been so worried about representing her right and saying the right things and making sure that i portray her as the wonderful person that she was. >> both george and noel were sentenced to life. george has no chance at parole. >> there was so much relief. >> closure. >> um-hmm. >> reporter: george began serving his life sentence. and then in july 2017, he filed a handwritten petition asking to be released from prison. and it included an explosive admission. he told the court, my wife whom i truly loved dearly is dead, brutally murdered and it's my fault. after denying it for six years, george finally confessed, but he did not take full responsibility for what happened. instead, he explained that prescription drugs caused him to

hallucinate, that god was directing him to perpetrate a crime to protect his child. protect her from what exactly he did not say. and he blamed his attorney for not bringing up the drug-induced hallucinations at trial. george's family felt blind sided by the confession, said his sister maria. and now she feels he's where he belongs, behind bars. george's petition was denied. and the young girl at the heart of the tragedy? >> i really do feel that my niece is the true victim in all of this. it's so tragic and i just don't have words for what she's going to have to come to terms with and understand as she gets older, you know. it's really tough. >> reporter: paula plans to make sure the daughter of shauna tiaffay never forgets. >> we talk about her mom and how

much she loved her and what we think her mom would want for her now. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. the house is preparing for the second impeachment of president donald trump, and the nation is preparing for whatever comes next. hey there, i'm joshua johnson. this is "the week." donald trump has 11 days left in his presidency. democrats are setting the stage for a second impeachment. we're getting a look at the first draft of those articles of impeachment titled "incitement of insurrection."