you know, for the role i played, i am deeply, deeply sorry. ♪♪ i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> do you have one that got away? he's my first love. >> the guy who disappeared, except in her case, he really disappeared. >> he's going to call me in a couple of days. he never called. >> his family in agony. >> i wrote letters to oprah winfrey, to america's most wanted. >> a rookie detective finally broke the case. >> i said, oh, my gosh, i think i hit pay dirt. >> a strange phone call revealed the secret. >> david needed to be gotten rid of. >> then we got the real story.

>> a bombshell revelation. was she really a bereaved ex- >> i always loved him. >> or maybe just a black widow. >> barbara briton is in the middle. hello and welcome to "dateline." for years judy carlson lived in the most painful kind of limbo. her son david had disappeared without a trace. the case went unsolved, sitting cold for more than a decade before rookie detective donna valazquez was assigned to investigate. digging into david's past she untwisted a tale of love gone bad and a grisly family secret. but detectives still needed to know, what motive was at the heart of this crime. here's keith morrison with "buried secrets."

it's a strange thing that happens among the boggs and marshes here in soft coastal florida. things have a way of coming up, things buried in the ground in the past. or both. it was july 2003. beaches quiet, snowbirds back up north. so no one noticed at first what was starting inland a little in a town called pembroke pines where donna velt velazquez, three month as detective, a rookie, had just been assigned to a brand-new cold case unit. >> the sar yenlt came into the office and dropped a box of papers right on my desk and said, here, see what you can do with this, and i began to wonder, hmm, is this a test to see could she really do this. >> that the case was a challenge was an understatement and now the all but forgotten mystery, the disafeerns 15 years earlier

of a young man named david jackson. and the file offered no hints, no pointers, nothing really yojd the basic bio. to unearth the truth, even the rookie cop knew she heed have to learn about the victim. so she began with something easy. she began with david jackson's mother, judy carlson. she found judy's son who called his mom. >> he said, are you sitting? i said yes. he said, they reopened david's case. >> the detective and mother talked about david's case for hours. it wasn't a problem for judy. she loves talking about her boy, even to us. >> david was my first child. he was just -- loved everything and everyone. he would walk in the room, and everybody would be just a magnet to him. >> david jackson was the eldest of judy's three children, and mark jackson idolized his older brother. >> he looked out for me.

when he went out of his way for everybody. >> bill brown was one of those friends. after high school he and david worked at a burger king. he was between the budding romance of a co-worker named barbara britton. >> that's awesome. >> all these years later detective velazquez paid a visit. happy to help. same thing when we called on her to talk about the david she knew. >> he was a very good looking man. we had an attraction for each other. started talking. sweet, nice, kind. swept me off my feet. he was a good guy. and as she talked it became clear deep emotions would not stay beneath the surface. >> i was young, still going to school. this was my first love.

>> two youngsters in love. and then, well, things happen, don't they. >> mom, i've got something to tell you. i said what. she said barbara's pregnant. >> judy was surprised, a little worried. but no one nearly as worried as her dad, a young marine, who was not impressed with mr. jackson. >> mr. briton did not like him, i don't know why. >> still david said his mother was walking on air. >> he came home one day and said, well, mom, i'm going to have to sell the truck. i said why. he said, i'm going to be a father and a husband and it's not promote to have a truck. >> so the pretty girl and handsome boy got married. sign they had a son john jackson, and they fought, made up, fought again, babies having babies is no easy thing.

>> we were just too young. it was difficult for him and it was difficult for me. >> so who was the first person to say, you've got to get a divorce. >> my dad. >> how did david take it? >> he was just kind of like, okay, let's just find somebody. >> get it over with. >> find sommelieriers and see what we have to do. that was it. >> the two divorced in 1985. david arranged weekend visits with john. >> how were they together? >> oh, wonderful. johnny just clung to him. they loved each other. >> they all moved on. a couple of years later barbara married again, michael wolf, an ex-military man like her dad, about the same age as her dad too. >> your dad and your new husband probably saw eye to eye a lot. >> they sure did. they had a lot in common, they would talk a lot. >> wolf took barbara and john to live with him in arizona, but david wanted to be a part of his son's life, so he traveled out west to see the boy.

>> he werchlt out with a friend of his to see johnny for three days. i've got pictures of johnny in an old western town. >> maybe it was something about the distance, said barbara. >> david and i became very good friends when i was out in arizona and we used to talk a lot. >> in fact, she said what she felt deep in her heart never did go away. >> i am always loved him. >> then it was june 25th, 1988, david's brother mark was flying into town to visit the family. david was to pick him up at the airport, but when mark arrived, he waited and waited. no david. and mark jackson had a terrible feeling. >> no matter what, he'd have been there for me. i knew something was wrong. something bad happened. >> oh, yes, very bad. and as the rookie detective donna velazquez poked around deep in the past, that something was reached up through the mud to tell her its long neglected story.

>> the case was both cold and baffling, but maybe nature in south florida could help the investigation. coming up -- >> with the crazy weather and the water table that we have, if he were ever buried anywhere, somewhere along the line, you're going to pop up. >> when "dateline" continues. ws that work around your schedule. jackson hewitt is here to fight for the biggest refund you deserve. whether you're a 9-5er or 5-9er. ♪♪ do we really need a sign to live, laugh, and love? -yes. -the answer is no. i can help new homeowners not become their parents. -kee-on-oh... -nope. -co-ee-noah. -no. -joaquin. -no. it just takes practice. give it a shot. [ grunts, exhales deeply ] -did you hear that? -yeah. it's a constant battle. we're gonna open a pdf. who's next? progressive can't save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto with us. no fussin', no cussin', and no --

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it was june 25th, 1988, ft.

lauderdale, the day the mystery began, when a young man david jackson failed to meet his brother mark at the airport. >> it was a gut feeling something was wrong, and i knew it. >> 15 years later, detective donna velazquez relived that puzzling time. david ee ex-wife barbara, by then remarried and living in arizona, as she told detective vel as kiz, got a call from david's worried mother. barbara said she wasn't worried, not then. >> okay. he was with one of his girlfriends and she said, we're doing a missing person report. and i said, no, he's going to call me in a couple of days. i know he is. he's going to call me in a couple of days. and he never called. never called. >> one day turned into the next. police, family, everybody tried to find him. couldn't. >> started looking, searching,

canals, pipes, bridges on little dirt roads, anywhere. if you see a car go by that looked like his, you'd do a u-turn and chase him. >> how long did that gone on. >> until they found his car. >> that would be at the airport. so did he just take off? his close friend didn't think so. >> maybe he got on a plane and maybe he wanted to do something different and then it was like, no, he wouldn't do that. >> for one thing, david had been preparing for the arrival in two weeks of his son john. this was a big one. a month-long visit. >> for johnny, he wanted everything perfect. >> and right in the middle of prep rags he vanished? didn't make sense. the days turned into weeks, months, years. not a sign of david. the police went on to newer cases, but his mother never let up. phoning, begging, writing. she knew david was out there

somewhere. >> i wrote letters to oprah winfrey, to "america's most wanted." i thought maybe i could have semis put a picture on the back of the semis. i got a list and did all the letters, but it took a long time for me to finish any letter about him because i didn't want the ending to be like i thought it was. >> it was, she said, a horrible limbo achlt little piece of her still hoping for good news. part of her morning loss. >> i found a therapist who said take 20 minutes out of every day. scream or cry in the morning, scream or cry at night. >> can anybody who hasn't been in your shoes understand what it's like for a mother to grieve? >> no. >> now the investigation was back in high gear. judy told donna velazquez she felt somewhere in her heart she hoped david might turn up safely one day. the detective was not inclined to false hope.

she did not think he was still alive. had he died accidentally, surely a sign of him would have disappeared. no, she believes when bodies aren't found it's because somebody has intentionally hidden them. david jackson might show up, but just not alive. >> my wheels started turning and i was thinking, you know, we lever in florida. with the crazy weather that we have and the water table that we have, if he were ever buried anywhere, somewhere along the line, you're going to pop up. >> maybe, detective thought. remains had popped up. after all, it had been a decade since he disappeared. she googled unidentified remains. it led her down a never-ending internet trail. >> it was 1:00 and he was probably saying, where is that old girl. >> then she found something

reported by a medical examiner. >> i'm there typing away, typing and typing and it pops up, about 100 matches. >> she was determined. she find whittled it down to a possible three. >> it popped out to me. white male, over 6 foot. david's a tall guy, white male. possibly. >> particular bones, a few partial skeleton turned up during construction of a walmart parking lot not far from where david lived. the detective went to see a forensic anthropologist, but when the doctor measured the bones -- >> she comes out and says, no, it's looking like he's only about 5'9". >> still, velazquez had a hunch she had finally found david jackson and she wasn't the sort of person to give up on a hunch. >> and i said, can we please do

this one more time. she comes back and says honey, i was wrong the first time. she says, this person is anywhere between 5'9" and 6'1". i said, oh, my gosh, i think i've hit pay dirt. >> she got dna from david's mother, waited for the lab to compare the samples, and ten days later, detective velazquez calls the testing facility. >> she said, i hope you're sitting down. i said why. she said you got a 100% match. i couldn't believe what i was hearing. >> 15 years later david had finally been found. the question now was, what happened to him? how did he end up here? coming up -- >> a strange coincidence or was it. >> it's an eerie feeling that i

didn't even know about. >> when "dateline" continues. didn't even know about. >> when "dateline" continues

it was good detective work that identified david jackson's earthly remains, what was left of them. >> they were getting ready to build a walmart and a construction worker came across some bones. reported it, they went out and dug up a bunch of bones.

>> they forgot all about it. >> they sat in the morgue for 15 years. >> sat there for all those years. 6 even as those who loved david held out a shred of hope that he was alive, somewhere. >> as far as i know, he was disappeared. he was missing. >> but now detective velasquez had a hard truth to tell. david jackson was dead. not missing. and the way he had been hidden made it perfectly clear he had been murdered all those years ago. most likely before his friends or family even noticed he was gone, which put a final period on his mother's lingering hope for his return and apparently an ex-wife's what-ifs. >> were you seriously thinking, you know, maybe some day i'll get back together with him?

>> when it's your first love, you're always think, you know, wow, you know, could it work? what if? >> strange how things turn out. barbara had moved back to florida, remarried, again, had a daughter, took a job at walmart, but still held a candle for david, even as he lie under the ground practically next door to the very walmart where she worked. >> what did that do to you? >> it's an eerie feeling. it's, you know, that he was in that area, that i didn't even know about. >> such an odd coincidence. too odd, maybe? time for a chat. detective velasquez called barbara, got herself invited over to barbara's house. barbara seemed to have no problem talking about david. she said she cared about him a lot. and i say, well, how is david as a father? well, david became abusive towards johnny physically and emotionally, verbally. >> wait a minute. this was a whole new wrinkle. up until now, everybody about david's history had been squeaky clean.

>> as an investigator and as a mom, i begin to say, did you ever call the police? she said, oh, no, i -- i never called the police, she says. i just thought he would change. she proceeds to tell me that i documented the injuries with photographs. never produced any photographs for me. >> for us, by the way, barbara changed her story. said it was really her father, not her, who accused david of abusing his son. >> my dad was looking into counselors and having him, you know, evaluated and stuff like that, because i would just be like, this is david, you know, what are you talking about? >> but, of course, the detective couldn't talk to barbara's father about abuse or murder or anything else. harry britton had been dead for years, but barbara had more information for the detective. she recalled a troubling conversation she'd had with david. at the time, said barbara, david was working for coca-cola, delivering the product. >> he told me that someone was

placing drugs on his coca-cola truck and through his route, they were being taken off of the truck. i said, wow. i said, that's pretty serious. and she says, yeah. >> interesting. >> very. >> to detective velasquez, that sounded like a made-up story, almost as if she was trying to divert suspicion away from someone. an ex-wife would qualify, of course, as a person of interest in this kind of case, but as velasquez and we learned, barbara had an alibi. she wasn't anywhere near florida, she said, when david disappeared. >> i was not in florida. i was in arizona, in the apartment. i was nowhere around here. >> and lacking any further evidence, detective velasquez was stalled, dead in the water. unless, maybe the man barbara was married to at the time knew

something, michael wolfe. a little checking revealed wolf had been married seven times. number six, a woman named nancy graham, lived in alabama. velasquez called her. >> i told her, i'm investigating the disappearance to have david jackson. and she said to me, how much evidence do you have against him? and i said, i can't discuss the evidence with you, but i can tell you that it's enough for me to put him away right now. i was just totally bluffing. i had really, nothing. i'm just throwing it out there, you know, fishing that long line, f and if something bites, i'm reeling it in. and she says, honey, she says, let me call you back. >> the minutes ticked by, velasquez waited by the phone. and when nancy called back, what she said blew the case wide open. >> she started telling me about who was involved, how it happened, where it happened,

what they did, how they did it, how they planned it. >> they? why, yes, they. and, by the way, beware the sting of an ex-wife's tale. >> she says, i'm going to tell you everything you need to know. she has a jaw-dropping story to share and it will send the investigation into overdrive. coming up -- >> the first shot department kill him. he had to shoot him zbechb. >> when "dateline" continues. o >> when "dateline" continues my doctor recommended eliquis. eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot. almost 98 percent of patients on eliquis didn't experience another. ...and eliquis has significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. don't stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to.

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hello. i'm dara brown. here's what's happening. a group release and ad called for 12 gop lawmakers to resign from their roles after the capitol riot. after that they'll elected to reject the electoral count vote. in south africa where a

contagion was seen, the effectiveness is at 50% while other regions are higher. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. divorced dad david jackson had been murdered, his body buried in a shallow grave. then years later detective donna velazquez tracked down david's killer. there was one staggering new wrinkle. was david jackson's murder a family affair? once again here's keith morrison with "buried secrets." david jackson was murdered in 1988 in florida. that much detective donna velazquez could say for certain, but the rest? after more than a year of phone

calls and late nights, all velazquez could come up with was an increasingly complicated web of stories and relationships. david jaxson was married to barbara britton. her father didn't like him. barbara became the fifth wife of michael wolff, they divorced and he later married two more times, but now finally one of wolfe's ex-wives nancy was sitting with detective velazquez telling police she knew everything about what happened to david. >> can you tell me again. >> i know how he was killed and what they did with him. >> how did she know? according to the ex, michael drank, a lot. >> every night he would almost down a whole bottle of scotch. and i guess he just needed to talk. >> and the story wolf told, according to the ex, implicated more than just himself.

here's what happened as nancy heard it. wolf and harry britton, barbara's father, rented a motel room on that long ago july night and invited david to a meeting there. >> and when he gets to the motel, they had a very small conversationen and michael shot david in the head. >> he told me he had to get so drunk to do it, and that the first shot didn't kill him, he had to shoot him again. >> after which, as nancy relayed the story -- >> they did take his car to the airport and left it there. then they took him over to -- i mean, there was an empty lot there, and that's where he buried him. >> he did not spare the detail, said nancy. >> and he did tell me he poured some corrosive, and i think it was lye, is what he said over the body. >> and sure enough, i mean, that was consistent with the investigation. >> along with that story came what sounded like a motive. david disappeared, remember, as

he was preparing for a visit from his 5-year-old son, john. >> they decided that david needed to be gotten rid of, because they never wanted david to be in johnny's life. >> david was murdered in cold blood, just to keep him out of his son's life. >> and, boom, it clicked for me, all of a sudden. i said, wow. i said, that's over child custody. that's why he's not here today. >> that was the motive? >> that was the motive. >> but was wolf's confession to an ex-wife a true story or just alcohol-fueled bravado? there was no way to know, for sure. but it was enough to at least bring about the arrest in october 2004 of michael wolfe now living in ohio. but an arrest does not a conviction make. and as michael wolfe cooled his heels in an ohio jail, he professed his innocence to anyone who would listen, including the local police, to whom wolfe sent a letter in which he claimed all he knew of a crime centered on a conversation with his ex-wife

barbara's father, harry, a few months before the murder. stephen kamp was a reporter with the "palm beach times" and read this letter. all he would admit to was meeting harry at a park, a place where david's bones would later come out of the ground. >> mike wall wolfe said he basically pointed over to a plot of land and said if you needed a place to bury a body, that would be a good place to do it. and he concluded this letter with, and i don't know if he had listened or not. >> apparently he did. >> if michael wolfe had really not known anything beyond that point, it would get him off the hook and leave it all in the hands of harry britton. >> so michael was pinning the murder on no one but harry, who was safely dead and could tell no tales. but now detective velasquez believed she had enough evidence to bring michael wolfe back to florida to stand trial for the murder of david jackson. >> we did the arrest warrant,

and within a couple of days we were flying out to kettering, ohio, to extradite michael wolf eck back to florida. >> how did he react? >> he said some pretty harsh words. it's not very ladylike if i said it, though. >> you can say it. >> he said, i'm [ bleep ]. >> this was it. velasquez had her momentum. finally, after 15 years, she had made sure that someone was going to be held accountable for the death of david jackson. >> it was the culmination of 16 months of such a long, grueling, up-and-down, tiresome investigation of nights of not sleeping, of days of going to work and living off of coffee, and i thought, you know what? this is what it's all about. >> it was november of 2007 when michael wolfe went on trial for murder. after so many years, any physical evidence that might have tied him to the crime was long gone. but what prosecutors did have was the verbal confession, the drunken story his ex-wife said he had told her. >> i'm sure he told me -- >> and then, checkmate.

another ex-wife told police virtually the same story. >> he told me he'd shot him in the head. and he -- he told me that he had a silencer on the gun. >> now she, too, was called to the stand. that was enough. the jury was out less than an hour. the verdict was guilty. at the sentencing, life in prison, david jackson's family confronted michael wolfe. not just to condemn him, but to ask a question because there was still a piece missing. something that still didn't make sense. what was david doing in that motel room the night they killed him? why did he walk into that trap? >> why would he go to a motel to meet mr. britton when mr. britton was ten minutes down the road? i mean, david is not a stupid child at 24. why would mr. britton want to see him in a motel? >> tell them what you know, they demanded. there would be no justice, they told wolfe, unless everyone involved was held accountable. outside the courtroom, david's brother encountered the state's

attorney and said -- >> he's going to tell you, and he said, he's not going to tell me anything. i saw it in his eyes, he'll tell you. and then we got the real story. >> in fact, it was just two days later when wolfe finally confessed the true measure of his guilt and gave police firsthand his unedited version of events the night he said they buried david jackson in the shifting florida clay. was someone else involved? oh, yes, said michael wolfe. she certainly was. coming up -- what made david go to that motel? >> it was a woman who was on the phone. david takes the phone, comes out a little highly later, he's all spruced up, ready to go out. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues

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in november of 2007, the man who shot david jackson to death was found guilty of the crime and sent to prison for the rest of his life, but a couple of days after he was sentenced, wolfe september out word he was ready to tell the rest of the story. sure, he says he was the trigger man, and, yes, his father-in-law was determined to get rid of david personally, but to set their trap, to lure david to the kill site, the motel, they needed bait, and that bait, said wolfe, was barbara.

barbara who did not require persuasion. quite the contrary, said mr. wolfe. >> barbara britton is in the middle. from what i was able to learn about david, he would have never gone to that hotel room to meet harry britton. he would have never gone to that hotel room to meet michael wolfe. he agreed to come meet barbara. >> the woman who wept tears of love for her long lost david, who professed to have held a torch all of those years, was the very same woman who called david on the phone and enticed him to go to that hotel room to be killed. >> they needed to use barbara as the lure, because david still had feelings for barbara. >> evidence? david had a roommate, reported journalist stefan kamp, and that roommate heard david take a phone call just before he went out that night. >> he was pretty sure it was a woman who was on the phone. david takes the phone, goes into his room, comes out a little while later, he's all spruced up, ready to go out, he's got a smile on his face, he's combing his hair, he's putting on his

cologne, and david jackson left the apartment at that point. that was the last that any of his friends saw him at that point. >> what really happened in the motel? wolfe said he hid in the bathroom when david arrived. >> barbara answered and he was glad to see her. he said, they walked in, sat down on the edge of the bed, and barbara had a stun gun. and barbara hit david with the stun gun. >> but the stun gun malfunctioned. so wolfe stepped out of the bathroom with his gun. >> he said, so i had the gun wrapped in a towel, and he showed me like this, i picked the gun up and fired one shot, and about that time, harry britton came into the room and said, he's not dead yet, he's still breathing, shoot him again, so he said, i shot him again and that shot killed him and they put david's body in the back of harry's vw and transported it to the site where they had already pre-dug the grave so all they had to do was just lay his body in there and cover him up. >> but that wasn't the end of

wolfe's tale. a year after the murder, they got a call from harry britton. >> he had learned that they were going to build a new wal-mart right there at the corner. >> where the bones were. >> where the bones were. and harry, michael wolfe said, told him, you have to come back down here and move the bones, almost as an order. >> wolfe came back to florida. >> he said he went out there in the middle of the night, collected what he could find, put them in a trash bag, and went back to barbara britton's family's house and put the bones out for the trash in a plastic bag. >> michael wolfe's story seemed to tell it all and to cast barbara britton in a leading role. and once she heard that story, detective velasquez was convinced, barbara, determined to keep david away from their son, was a full partner in his murder. >> what are the chances that either michael wolfe or harry britton forced her to take part in this scheme? >> forced? >> yeah.

>> you don't have to force a willing participant. >> and you believe she was willing? >> yes. >> the detective couldn't help remembering she said what barbara told her when she heard that david's bones had been identified. >> strangely enough, the first thing she said to me was, how many bones do you have? >> come on! >> she had participated in retrieving those bones. and they thought they had gotten them all! when they had left about 50% behind. >> all this time, said the detective, she just knew barbara had been lying. and now she had the goods. we asked barbara about all of this, of course, about her ex-husband's allegations that she was deeply involved in the murder. and she denied it. >> and you had no part in killing david? >> no, i did not. i had no knowledge and i had no part. >> and, you know, little lies here and there that mike keeps changing his story, i think it's just psychotic.

i think it's just psychotic for the things that he has said. i was 21 back then. i was very, like -- i don't think i could plan much, you know? i mean, i'm not stupid, but i'm not that smart, you know? >> no, said barbara, it was all ex-husband michael wolfe's doing. his guilt, she said, make sense of his strange behavior during their time in arizona, particularly the weekend david disappeared. a weekend when, barbara says, that her ex-husband was not with her at home. >> he would always go on business trips, and every time i asked, he would tell me, don't worry about it, you know, i've got business to take care of. >> but she knew nothing at all about the murder, she insisted, until the penny dropped during a conversation years later with her father. >> i'm like, i wonder, you know, what he's doing or i wonder if he's coming back, you know, i wonder where he's at or what happened.

and he would just be like, you don't have to worry, you know, he's not around to bother you. >> what was that like to deal with? >> very, very rough. you know, it's like, it's my dad. i couldn't accept it. and what satisfaction did it get, you know? i mean did it satisfy him because it sure didn't satisfy me. >> still, in december of 2007, it was detective velasquez who got what she wanted. she had worked hard to prove what she believed to be true, that barbara was an integral part of the plot to kill david jackson. and finally, now, barbara britton was arrested and charged with murder. now, perhaps, a jury could answer the question. do you believe this woman? a woman whose hands literally shook, whose tears flowed at the mere mention of her departed ex-husband? do you believe the things she said? >> all the time we thought he was -- it's always been -- he's missing. >> "dateline" returns after the break. >> "dateline" returns after the break.

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barbara britton, the woman who sobbed at the mere mention of michael wolfe's name was now in trial for killing him, exactly where barbara belonged, said the detective. she made it happen, was the instigator, as well as being the one in the middle? >> i had no doubt in my mind that she was the catalyst. >> barbara, meanwhile, maintained her innocence,

claimed there was a certain reason michael wolfe lied about her that way. it was payback, she said, for something that happened when they were married. and here came another one of those odd stories. earlier, remember, there was the one suggesting drug-running on david's delivery truck. now a story about michael and gun-running. >> i was putting away laundry one day, and i saw a bulge in a dress shirt pocket. >> yeah? >> and there was quite a bit of money there. and when he got home from work that night, i confronted him on it, and he told me that he was doing gun runs to haiti. >> barbara said she told the police about wolfe's alleged gun-running. >> and he got mad and he even told a cell mate of his that, that's it, you know -- >> he can pay the price. >> interesting, but true, wolfe

hasn't commented, but keith seltzer, barbara's defense attorney, thought he had a much more practical motive. >> michael wolfe was initially offered a 15-year plea bargain to take 15 years and testify against whoever his accomplices might be. >> sure. >> and lo and behold, a week after the jury convicts him of first-degree murder, there was an option at that point to maybe get that 15 years back. that was his motivation. >> in other words, said barbara's attorney, wolfe would sell out barbara any way he could to get a reduced sentence. of course, there was the uncomfortable fact of the two unprompted confessions he'd made to his ex-wives, confessions in which he portrayed barbara as a sort of black widow, intent on having david killed. >> well, there are two versions that he gave to each of those ex-wives. >> the stories were not entirely consistent, said attorney seltzer. besides, he said, barbara was home in arizona the night of the

murder. how does he know that? >> a phone bill from her mother's home placing calls to her home in arizona that night, when nobody else could have been there. >> and what's a phone bill of that age doing lying around somewhere where it can be grabbed for evidence by the defendant? >> the father was a meticulous record-keeper. >> what's to say that wasn't an answering service that picked it up? >> michael wolfe testified in their first deposition that they had no answering machine. >> could have been somebody else in the house. >> we questioned mr. wolfe about that, and he said that there was nobody there. >> but as the defense prepared for trial in december of 2010, something changed. >> there was new evidence discovered. >> lany bandell was the prosecutor who inherited the case. >> that new evidence was what we consider a jailhouse snitch. he came forward and stated that michael wolfe told him that he had fabricated the entire story about barbara participating in the murder of david jackson. >> that particular jailhouse snitch was well known, the d.a. said, mostly for the false

information he provided. still, after three years in jail, it was enough to get barbara released and placed on house arrest pending trial. and then, prosecutor vandell met michael wolfe to ask about testifying against barbara. it didn't go well. >> the blow came to me when he said, what am i getting in return? what will my sentence be reduced to? >> now the state reassessed its options. >> i think with any case, you're taking a 50-50 chance. the lack of forensics, the lack of physical evidence that a jury wants to see, but most importantly, again, the fact that you have a co-defendant who is giving the testimony, which was the foundation of this prosecution, who wanted something in return. >> the people who conducted the investigation, you know, deep down in their guts, are sure that she was at the center of it. did you think so, too? >> what i think as a person and what i think as a prosecutor, i have to keep them separate.

and while i may have believed that barbara was a full participant in this, what i can prove is totally different. >> so, you made an offer? >> we made an offer. >> barbara britton was offered two more years of house arrest and eight years of probation. she would avoid trial, but she had to plead guilty to accessory after the fact in david's murder, meaning she acknowledged knowing about the crime but only after it occurred. something she'd always denied. >> you've got to remember, i had an option to go to trial and take it as just taking a chance with 12 to 14 other -- >> jurors who would hear a story about a control freak who very cleverly manipulated men to get them to do these awful things. >> right. they already know what you're there for, so they're already going to have somewhat of an opinion. >> even though she accepted the deal, barbara was not happy.

true, there was no prison time, but she was a felon now. >> you have a title over your head. it's life-changing. it's very life-changing. >> do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? >> yes, i do. >> okay. >> detective velasquez joined david's family at barbara's sentencing hearing. >> you're okay with the stipulation and the fact that it's a guilty plea? >> yes, judge. >> okay. >> judge, for the record, david jackson's mother would like to speak, judy. >> of course. >> david's mother read a victim's impact statement. >> because of you, barbara, i have cried endlessly for 24 years. i wanted to die myself to be with david. >> her gaze fixed on the woman her son once loved. >> you are guilty. michael wolfe is where he should be, in prison. your father is where he should be. and you will join him one day because that is where you should be, in hell. >> david's broth, mark, was not

at all sure that justice was served. >> if you lose in trial, that's god's will. you can't control that. but i think it should have gone to trial. i think society in two years when she comes off of house arrest needs to worry. >> may i have a picture of david and -- >> but his mother? >> it was justice, yes. and she's a felon now for life. she's got to live with all that. i don't. oh, my god, every time i get out of bed in the morning, one leg says guilty and the other one says felon. >> as for the detective who so doggedly pursued the case, who now thinks a murderer got away -- >> at first, i was disappointed, so i had to make peace with it. and when i put my head down on the pillow at night, at the end of the day, she's a felon. mentally, when you're in prison here, do you ever escape that? >> as for barbara, she spent the remainder of her house arrest at

her father's home. that old vw, the one that allegedly carried david's body the night he was killed, still parked outside. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. good morning. breaking news right here on msnbc. a major development overnight in the battle against the pandemic. the new order by the cdc that will impact every american. and also next week, johnson & johnson getting ready to file for an emergency use authorization. now, this vaccine has a lower efficacy than other shots already in circulation, but dr. anthony fauci says this one-dose regimen will be an added tool in the toolbox. >> from a perspectivical standpoint, from what you want to do to keep people out of the hospital and prevent death, this is value added.