token of our appreciation and love for everything they have done. they gave terror peace and justice. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. >> i'm craig melvin. and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline. >> she was there. >> she walked into the building and you just brighton. >> and then she wasn't. >> my next reaction was, oh my gosh, what's happening. >> mother the adored. missing. and her place, a trail of blood. >> my biggest fear was what we are going fine. >> police found instead was a puzzle. >> my 28 years, i've never seen it before. >> a missing woman. a mystery with new clues. >> did you find any fingerprints? >> no.

>> here's, anything? >> no. >> but did one man have a motive? >> he steals $300,000 and is about to be exposed. >> a set without proof, how could anyone convince a jury? >> so, you don't think they had any evidence against you at all? >> can they give any names. anything? >> could anyone solve the mystery? >> we the jury find the defendant david martin hawk -- >> hello and welcome to dateline. when someone goes missing, one of the hardest things for those left behind is not knowing the truth. was a voluntary or foul play? that three children in this story arrived home one evening to discover their mother was missing. but for them, the truth about what really happened may have been the hardest thing of all. here's keith morrison.

>> the key was waiting for them under the math that evening in june, 2006, outside their mothers homes. has silence, in the one home. where was she? she was always on time to pick them up from their dad's place. but tonight, he had to drive them. this just wasn't like her. where was she? conrad, the eldest, put the key in the law can open the door. chelsa, the middle, cross the threshold. stopped. what was this? >> once we took a few more steps than i realize what was happening. >> this was the moment, the defining one. nothing the same after this. >> and there was a lot of blood everywhere. >> and the adrenaline kicked in. instinct took over. we >> just dropped our stuff. split throughout the house. >> panic rising now. comrade was 15 then.

his little sisters chelsa 14, and savannah ten, three kids trying to make sense of a horrible, frightening scene. >> my mom you normally keeps it completely spick and span. there is hardly any dust anywhere. let alone, anything out of order. >> and now, things were anything but. >> whether desk was, you could see they were papers scattered around. drawers were ripped open. >> and you went into the bedroom? >> i think that was the first place my sister ran into. so she quickly called us and we fold followed her. >> did what did you see there? >> there was blood on the ground. a >> lot? >> yeah. >> her mom's bed, it was made. but -- >> it was kind of haphazardly thrown together. you know, not quite smoothed out. >> she would've done a different way? >> right. >> at that point you were pretty upset, i imagine? >> yes, my biggest fear was that we were going to find her. that's what scares me most. was that we find her somewhere

in the house. >> but they did not. no debbie hawk, not anywhere. >> there was drag marks, smear marks, leading out to the garage where they stopped. >> and debbie's then was gone too. >> my initial reaction was oh my gosh, what was happened? who would've done? this >> the girls ran to a neighbor's house. comrade called 9-1-1. >> we went in our moms room and her bathroom, and there's blood on the carpet. >> after the initial shock of it i kind of start to the reasonable think, wait a minute, let's not overreact. here clearly she cut her hand with a knife. or something. and she was bleeding and she raced out to the car to go to the emergency room. this was all just a big misunderstanding. >> but it wasn't. though they were plenty of misunderstandings to come. and questions that stubbornly refused to be answered. like, were was debbie mark?

what happened to her? i will happen to the sacred bond that once held three children together. back at the beginning, even the police were confused. >> this case seems very unusual from the start. >> a sign of the case at the time, a hannaford california police investigator, along with a kings county investigator. both ed work other cases here in hanford. out among the suburbs and almond archers and giant, odorous dairy farms that simply across the miles of flatland. but this one did not smell right at all. >> it appeared that she was dragged out of the house obviously against her will. in my 28 years, i've never seen it before. >> whatever happened here must have been planned, thought out. >> it looked like a staged crime scene. her jewelry in her bedroom neatly laid at worship put it. nothing was missing about her and her van. >> had somebody been trying to

make it look like debbie hawk had been kidnapped. or was intentioned, afield intention perhaps, to show that she just left him? >> i believe it was designed to look like a missing persons case. >> yeah. >> but most year crooks don't do that? >> and had the criminal here been looking for something? >> there was paperwork that normally would've been put away, at least stepped up, it wasn't. it was scattered and, this financial document was on top. >> significant? maybe. but certainly significant were the sounds neighbors reported hearing in the middle of the night. the night before debbie's arrived at her doorstep and discovered she was. missing >> several neighbors actually heard a loud scream. it was a blood curdling type. >> why did nobody call 9-1-1? >> that is not the type of neighborhood that bad things happen in. >> no one, not the type of bat person bad things happen to.

debris was an accomplished woman, a sales referee from a school full firms. who was immensely popular. >> she was very real regal, to us royalty. she definitely fits the bill as a princess. >> she should have been a kennedy. >> which is why the ribbons that suddenly bloomed everywhere around hanford were royal purple. and the people who put the ribbons on and up also joined the search to find her. they walk to the river banks. they peered among the trees. not a trace. by then, as you can imagine, the whole town knew about the disappearance of debbie hawk. and they knew something else too. two days after she vanished, there was a find and, it was in good. but it wasn't debbie. instead, police found her van. it was parked on the street in a high crime district of fresno, 40 miles from home. the drug samples debbie had in

the van, medications for nasal allergies and asthma, we're missing. this was weird. the windows were down. the keys in the ignition. the license plate had been replaced with a stolen one. >> it appears that whoever left it there wanted somebody to get in and drive off. >> oh, and one more thing. the vans backseat was covered with blood. >> at that point, whoever was driving the ban would become a suspect in debbie hawk's disappearance. >> police were pretty sure that was exactly what the killer wanted. it was a ruse. an attempt to plant billion something where else. around town, some people have already begun directing blamed. at one individual they thought they knew who did it. >> she has said to me, if anything were to happen to me, you know where to look. >> but suspicion runs fast. the truth doubles along. as it arrives even though.

>> someone seemed to hold a grudge against debbie hawk. but who? and why? coming up -- >> is things like she's getting a taste of her own medicine. she's gonna get hers. she's gonna get what's coming to her. >> when dateline continues. if you can help heal your skin from within. with dupixent adults saw long-lasting, clearer skin and significantly less itch. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur including anaphylaxis, which is severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. if you take asthma medicines don't change or stop them without talking to your doctor. talk to your doctor about dupixent. so what's going on?

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summer of 2006 without seeing those purple ribbons, a vivid reminder of debbie hawk the mother of three, vanished from her home in california leaving only traces of blood. before long, in her absence, debbie was famous as if everybody in town had known the woman whose children so loved. >> you walked into a room and she brought ended. >> she was all for her family in her children. >> these were her parents, -- >> hard worker. to me she was perfect. she was the perfect daughter. i dearly love her and mr.. >> a lot of lives have been shattered because of her demise. >> demise, yes. no getting around it now. in july of 2006 the case was reclassified for a missing person to homicide. a formality, really. they knew from the moment they

arrived at the house, said the investigator, somebody killed debbie. >> we kept up hopes, obviously for the family's sake, but it was clear that she was not alive based on the crime scene. >> investigators poked around debbie's life history, looking for clues. >> she was very talkative, friendly, likable. always was the life of the party. >> this is debbie sister, diane, who were called how friends set her up on that blind date years ago. >> firecracker. >> he was the date. dave hawk. >> she was short and attractive and a lot of fun. pretty good sense of humor. you would say something in man, she would pop back with something that you didn't quite expect. >> they were married within a year, they built a home among

his families almond groves. >> they both wanted to have a family and i think that was the impetus for the acceleration, i guess you would say, of the relationship. >> though debbie's big sister wasn't sure what she saw in him. >> he seemed very quiet. very opposite of my sister. >> then before long, comrade arrived and chelsa and savannah. >> i saw at christmas is where we would run around and deliver gifts to everybody and everybody was getting along. definitely some happy memories there. >> but sadly, a lot of unhappy ones to. >> pretty much from when i can remember, fighting and arguing were pretty routine. >> and after nearly nine years, this marriage, like so many others, fell apart. >> we might have been a little more different than we were

willing to admit, early on. >> even at that age i could definitely see, the water was about to boil over. >> the kids were nine, eight and four when the divorce was finalized in 2000. young colin rad, chelsa and savannah learned how to navigate the choppy waters known all too well from children of divorce. >> they couldn't talk to each other, really, i try to step in and help. >> you were mediator, in a way? >> yes. >> tough role for kit to play, isn't it? >> it was easy or to be a mediator that have them yelling at each other on the phone. >> living apart, comrade said? >> my mom was happier than ever. >> debris did well enough as a pharmaceutical representative that she was able to buy her own home. >> she could finally start living her life the way that she wanted to. >> except, there were issues. once after they separated

during the squabbles of her divorce, she claimed that he tried to choke her. >> she said, he just looked like a crazed animal and i thought he was going to kill me. not too long after that she had said to me if everything ever happens to me, you know where to look. >> dave said that choking thing never happened, he was never violent with her. >> i've never choked anybody. >> things settle down eventually, though there was always some dispute and the things connor ad said he has heard his dad say about his mom, awful. >> things like she needs a taste of her own medicine, she is going to get hers, she's gonna get what she has coming for her. >> in fact, the very night they discovered that we had vanished, comrade told police that his dad might have done this. >> anything that would disqualify him from being able to carry that out.

>> which is why, just hours after the kits discovered that debris was missing, it was 2 am by them, police called dave, woke him up and asked him to drive to the police headquarters for a top. the phone call was curious. because dave didn't ask why. >> i've received calls in the middle of the night, my first thought is family. what's going on, especially if it's the police department. he didn't. >> and when he arrived at the interview room? >> what's going on? >> dave didn't seem to have much of a reaction at all to learning his ex wife, the mother of his three kids was missing. >> at this point, i have no clue as to where she might be. >> well -- >> what did you expect? >> more surprise, any surprise. i didn't see that at all. >> of course people do react in different ways to traumatic news. besides, dave told him he was

asleep when police believe debbie must have been killed. his kids said that they didn't hear him leave the house and they were there to at the time. there is no evidence that they've ever been at the crime scene. did you find any dna? >> no. >> did you find fingerprints? harris? anything? >> no. >> but then they just begun to uncover the troubling secrets of dave and debbie hawk. >> coming up. of family divide. >> i don't believe that he would be capable of doing something like this. >> my suspicion was growing stronger and stronger. >> when dateline continues.

>> it was a frustrating summer back in 2006 here in the farmlands of california central valley, the search teams came up empty do they searched everywhere for weeks. police think dave hawked was a person of interest, but he seemed to have an alibi. all three kids were with him in his house the night debbie vanished, and beside there wasn't a shred of physical evidence to tie him to the scene of the violent abduction. his own daughter who spent the day after the objection with dave told the police it could've been him.

>> i don't believe that he would be capable of doing something like this. >> but then they started poking around in the relationship between debbie and her ex husband, and there's some curious things began to emerge. for example, in the months before debbie disappeared, dave took deputy to court and she was fighting back. >> the issues that she was dealing with was custody and support. >> david asked the court for his reduction in his child support payment. why? because he claimed he only earned $6,000 a year. her salary came from his dad, who pay them $500 a month to pay on his farm. his only income, which the lawyer found it hard to believe. >> he drove a late model suburban, it's hard to do on 6000 a year. >> debbie asked the court for

more time with children. >> his response was forced to ask for half custody. the percentages were something like 65 with debbie and 35 with dave, and he wanted to make it and even 50/50. >> and that's when the battle move to these, trust funds set up for the kids future. the money came from dave's father. but they've controlled the funds. debbie was sure dave was stealing from it to supporters a lifestyle. why would you think that? this was actually the second set of trust established for the children. several years before a judge caught days hand in the cookie jar of the first drugs. dave was removed as trustee of those funds, but during the force his father gave him sole control of a second, quite generous, trust fund. but when investigators ran the

number of that second fun administered only by dave -- >> basically that was supposed to be several hundred thousand dollars in each account, and instead there is just $100. he had been living off of it for up to five years at that point. >> something like $300,000 was missing, though dave cried poverty he bought his girlfriend a 27,000 lexus, took her on vacation to hawaii and you 60,000 to pay divorce cost and $15,000 he owed from his kids from the first set of trust funds. but here, was the high of the motive for murder. debbie, if she hadn't disappeared, was about to expose all of that in court. >> to still $300,000 and to be exposed for -- it >> by woman that you despise -- >> another piece of the puzzle. >> there was another strange piece of the puzzle, remember that mess on debbie's desk,

documents scattered everywhere? sitting right on top of the pile was the records from the children's first set of trust, the one only debbie controlled. >> there was $166,000 in those accounts. >> the investigators now focused hard on dave. searched his home several times, -- which he had bought a month before davie had disappeared. he told investigators it was for home protection for his girlfriend, mary. >> he had never discussed it with mary, he never discussed it with the children, atul. they did not know it existed. >> they couldn't find anything to connect the stump gun to the crime. it was odd. they also took us computers, of course. since dave did volunteer work at a church, they seized the church computer to. they even cuffed him outside his house in full view of

cameras which were now buzzing around endlessly, asking did you do it? >> for the last time, no. i'm getting tired of answering that question. no means no. the fools at the hanford police department don't seem to understand that. they are on a witch hunt. >> whatever they were on, they couldn't find the evidence to arrest him. they've remained a free man, something that made his own son, comrade, very nervous. >> my suspicion was growing stronger and stronger. conrad had already told police about the night he discovered his mother's disappearance, his father was cheering with his girlfriend. >> i did want to jump to conclusions but at this point i thought that my father and girlfriend are in poor taste. >> they spent the summer on the oust, in august 2006 two months

after his daughter's disappearance, child protective services took him to a foster home. >> there were a few altercations, kind of like my mom had gotten through. >> they had talked many times to dave's girlfriend, mary. and eventually this exchange occurred. >> has he ever verbalized to you at all how much he hated the woman? >> absolutely. >> what did he say? >> it's not gonna stop until that -- is -- >> when did he say? that >> numerous times. >> and a hot moment, maybe not quite. >> no, early on i thought, it's never going to stop till she's dead. never in my life thought that he would kill her. >> it all seemed quite suspicious, in fact most people in town seem to have made of their minds about dave hawk, but one of them was not the da.

>> i kept pushing and pushing. we kept setting back. >> did the cops have it wrong? dave hawk's long pastor felt. >> coming up. >> this person who was portrayed as a monster isn't. >> another side of an accused killer. >> when dateline continues. hen dateline continues namaste... ...surprise parties. aww, you guys. dupixent helps prevent asthma attacks... ...for 3!... ...so i can du more of the things i love. dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems. it's an add-on-treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma that can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as two weeks. and can reduce, or even eliminate, oral steroids. and here's something important. dupixent can cause serious allergic reactions,

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i'm craig melville. even though investigators looking into the homicide of debbie hogg had no physical evidence tying her husband dave to the crime, they did uncover some information about possible financial wrongdoing on his part. police considered it strong enough to warrant an arrest, but, could they get the prosecutor to agree. here with more of our story is keith morrison. >> they kept pushing and pushing. and we kept setting back. >> the prosecutor at the time, larry crouch told the investigators that he would not charge dave hawk with the murder of his ex-wife even though it was obvious that this single mom was murdered. even months after searching around california turned out no sound of her ever, and after

police had convinced themselves that dave was responsible, prosecutor crouch would not bite, not yet anyhow. >> we're gonna wait, until we find the body or get the body more time to come up. >> instead, a year after debbie vanished, dave was charged with embezzlement, stealing more than $300,000 of his children's trust funds. he pleaded not guilty, was released on bail. >> how does it feel to be out of jail? >> and waited for the other shoe to drop. now imagine this, the police, not to mention most of the town, believed their father killed their mother leaving three children caught in the middle. he had no doubt his dad killed his mom, a dad he started referring to as dave. >> i tried to cut all ties that i had with him as much as i could, he means nothing to me

now. >> but chelsa has been and is her father's starches defender. why do you think your siblings have chosen the other path? >> i think there are very upset by what happened and their relationship was not as close to my dad. they were either not home or not awake when i was awake, and they were not around him the next day like i was around him. >> she says that dave was acting normal the day after whatever happened happened, no odd behavior, nothing to suggest that he had been up all night committing a crime. >> the things that convinced me about his innocence aren't there to convince them. i think they are defending my mom so much so that they are going to point to the most obvious suspect. >> but chelsa wasn't the only one in the small time who believe dave hawk was innocent. >> i believe what he said that

he had nothing to do with her disappearance and presumed death. >> sandy brown is his longtime pastor, friend. >> this person was portrayed as such a monster isn't. he is a man who has worked hard in the church, he is a good father. >> as their son prepared to face financial charges, dave's parents took over custody of chelsa and savannah, not the way they expected to spend their eighties, anymore that they expected to defend their son. >> well, he's made some mistakes but nothing of the scope that is generally accepted in the community. >> stand established those funds for his grandchildren and said they've had the right to use the money how he saw fit to benefit the children. were you surprised to discover how it was used? >> yes. apparently his financial situation was worse than i knew. >> a year past, in this gossipy

limbo, now it was may 2008, two years after debbie's disappearance, her body still hadn't been found, and there was no new evidence tying dave to her murder. but prosecutor larry crouch heard disquieting reports from his investigators. >> they started surveilling the office, the police offices and eventually started driving by investigators home. it was getting pretty concerning. >> time to move. on may 29th 2008, dave hawk was arrested and charged with first degree murder and the special circumstance, murder for financial gain. he pleaded not guilty. when the trial finally began more than a year later, day faced murder and the earlier embezzlement charges together. prosecutor larry crouch offered the jury this theory. that dave snuck out of his house in the middle of the night without waking his sleeping children, maybe even

used a ladder to get out from the window and got someone to give him a ride to debbie's house and entered her bedroom. >> i think he tried to surprise her and she screamed very loudly and he struck her with something. more than once. at that point, i assume that he suffocated her. >> then, said the prosecutor, he must of dragged his body to the garage. put her into her own van, disposed of her somewhere, then, drove the van to fresno and left it in a high crime zone. how did he get back home? that accomplice, said the prosecutor, must of picked him up and driven him to the 40 miles back to his farm. but really, there was no body, there was no dna, no forensic evidence to show dave had even been at the murder scene. everybody in town seem to have a theory, apparently the prosecutor did to, but was that proof? the state tried to build a bridge from dave's alleged financial crimes to the murder,

painting him as an evil man who decided to eliminate his ex-wife when he knew his misuse of the trust funds was about to be exposed. enough? well, we shall see. >> there is a number of other explanations for what could have happened other than dave. dave was a convenient ex-husband. >> coming up. one of his children is convinced that he is not guilty, but could dave hawk convince a jury. >> i told them that i wanted to testify. >> when dateline continues. hen dateline continues

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in this case was just stacked against us. stacked against dave hawk. >> at least in the harsh court of public opinion, it looks bad for dave hawk as his murder trial approached in hannaford, california. dennis peterson and mark coleman, dave's attorneys. >> allegedly taking from his kids. same bad things about him. a sympathetic victim. and all these things mean wildly played in the press. >> if there ever was a case for change in venue, this must be, said the defense. after all, almost everybody seemed to have heard the accusations about dave. every time he had a court appearance, purple clad friends of debbie's crowded in the public gallery. in fact, during julie jury

selection, he actually heard some jurors tell the judge they had already decided dave hawk was guilty. >> the judge asked him, will if i order you set those opinions aside, can you do it? we're well, i guess so. >> still, the defense application for change of venue was denied. as was the defense request to separate the financial charge from the murder charge. the defense argued the embezzlement accusations were unfairly prejudicial. >> they wanted to make him look like a bad person. a person who would take money from his kids would be likely to murder his ex-wife. >> in fact, the prosecution would say dave's fear that debbie was about to relieve in open court his theft of the kids truffles fun, was a powerful motive for murder. >> but the fact of the matter was, that was already exposed. it had already been filed in open decorations in court. >> he would've gain nothing by getting rid of her it at that stage? >> no. >> will you also have that

great old american saying, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, is probably a duck. but you are seeing it's a turkey? >> the courted burden is on them to prove it's -- in this case they do. to >> know the defense argued that the prosecution has to look at the even left his hands. and presumably murdered. >> in fact his daughters chelsea insisted he could go have left the house without her having heard. him >> it just as a seat at all possible. >> and even though investigators would tell the court the kids slip so soundly it was hard to wake them up. the defense claim that the prosecution's theory of what happened just didn't add up. >> that's just beyond belief that somebody could take that kind of a risk. that he would sneak down the hallway, open the door, drive the ten or 12 miles, subdue her,

bludgeoned her, load her into the van, drive it to fresno. and then get back to his house without getting any blood on him. without being discovered. >> so what did happen to debbie hawk? the defense floated this theory. debbie worked in farthest pharmaceutical sales. perhaps a drug addict went after the samples she kept in the van. >> all of the pharmaceuticals in her van were missing. >> somebody took them. >> but that was a ludicrous idea, counter the prosecution. debbie carried very few samples. and anyway, if drug theft was behind it, why didn't the thief take any jewelry or electronics? >> no it, all seemed to come down today if. his behavior, his character, his own words. like the conversation with a friend police recorded. i wish dave speculated on what might have happened to debbie. the defense pleaded in court as an unguarded indication that they've had no idea what

happened. >> i tell you, if i was a bad guy, i go through somebody off a bridge. that's what i do believe it or not. i toss them in and they float downstream and they go away. >> he basically offered, i don't think she ever is going to be found. >> did it work? >> listened prosecutor lori crouch. >> he went, oh no why are they bringing that in. it was horrible. >> what the jury thought, no one could say. then there was inevitably a conversation about whether or not dave would testify. >> i told them that i wanted to testify. >> bad idea said dave's attorney, they did not like it one day. >> dave is a combative individual. he's very prideful. these offended easily. >> he's 60 smarter than everybody. and he think he for anybody to think he's not smart. he's perfect fodder for a trained prosecutor. >> so, they've held his tongue in court. he saved his story for us. >> so you don't think you had

any evidence against you at all? >> can anybody name anything? >> coming up, dave hawk speaks out. and so does the jury. >> we the jury find the defendant david martin talk -- >> when dateline continues. now, simparica trio simplifies protection. ticks and fleas? see ya! heartworm disease? no way! simparica trio is the first chewable that delivers all this protection. and simparica trio is demonstrated safe for puppies. it's simple: go with simparica trio. this drug class has been associated with neurologic adverse reactions, including seizures; use with caution in dogs with a history of these disorders. protect him with all your heart. simparica trio.

with less moderate-to-severe eczema why hide your skin if you can help heal your skin from within. with dupixent adults saw long-lasting, clearer skin and significantly less itch. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur including anaphylaxis, which is severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. if you take asthma medicines don't change or stop them without talking to your doctor. talk to your doctor about dupixent. >> welcome back to dateline.

with no physical evidence tying

dave hawk to the crime scene, his defense attorneys tried to poke holes in what they saw as a purely circumstantial case. would this be enough to sway the jury? here with the conclusion of our story is keith morris. >> dave hawk, on trial for the murder of his ex wife debbie did not testify. didn't tell the members of the jury what he was thinking. he had a feeling that he knew what they were thinking. >> always blamed ex-husband first? >> it was an awful problem, as he saw it, had been from the day debbie disappeared in a trail of her own blood. the number one suspect, was him. that is what the police had been saying all along. that is apparently what a great many people thought in hand furred california, even as he sat here in a as a defendant in a murder case. even though -- >> i didn't have the motive and the capacity. >> you know how it can be, said

dave, once people have in their head that you did something double misinterpret everything to make you look guilty. >> i was home with my children, in another town all night. but i'm being accused of being in another place, committing a terrible crime, based on financial shenanigans that did not exist in the first place. >> shenanigans like for example that trust funds for his kids. his father made the terms very broad, said dave, so he could spend the money as he saw fit. anyway that would benefit the children. >> the money used to be used for the health, education, support and meat tenants of the children. and that is exactly what it was used for and i acted legally in that respect. >> then, since they didn't have any evidence against him, said dave, prosecutors made a case

based on misinterpreting things he said. like the time he said to a friend, if i was a bad guy, i throw somebody off a bridge. >> my point was, they haven't looked for her, if someone had thrown her off a bridge, it would have floated downstream. they did not look anywhere. >> so did you through her off the bridge? >> no, i didn't throw anybody off a bridge. >> they also made a huge deal about something he supposedly said to his girlfriend about that. >> dave said, we won't be rid of that -- till she's dead. >> i might have, but i don't remember that. that certainly does not mean that i'm going to go kill somebody. >> and then there was his own son conrad, who after all believed he was guilty. he told police that he saw dave and mary share a celebratory toasts after debbie's disappearance. >> conrad said they just didn't

get it. >> whenever we open a bottle of wine, we always raise our glasses and say cheers, that is a tradition. we were not toasting to anybody's anything. >> why haven't you been able to persuade conrad of your innocence? >> i don't know. he knows that i was at home the whole time and never left. didn't have any involvement in anything illegal, but he's, perhaps's, angry and needs to fill in the blanks with something. >> maybe he's angry at his dad because his dad killed his mom. >> his dad did not kill his mom. >> he thinks so though? >> he could be wrong. >> so who did kill debbie? dave has an opinion about that to. who else would want her dead? >> maybe the boyfriend that was

stalking her? >> stalking her? >> this is somebody who was reported to the police and the police swept it under the rug, apparently. it was an ex-boyfriend. >> of course investigators said that they did look into that and other leads to. they all came back to dave. and one primary motive. so, some cross-examination. prosecutors say that you killed your ex-wife because she was gonna exposure embezzlement in the children's trust funds. are you afraid that your father was going to find out what you are doing with the money, the father who lovingly put the money into the trust funds before you took it out? >> i really don't like the way your characterizing these things. i don't like the way the prosecutor has accused me of -- >> but those are the accusations. >> yeah, and they're not right. they are wrong, they are false. which part did you not

understand? >> which part did i not understand. i understood that you bought an expensive car using trust fund money. you took a trip to hawaii with your girlfriend. you paid off your divorce attorney fees and money you took from the first set of trust by taking $60,000 out of the kid second trust fund. >> the money was used for the children. >> which child drove the lexus? >> all three children were driven in the lexus. >> which child went to hawaii on vacation? >> perhaps that money was my own money. prosecutor never bothered to figure out what dollar went where. >> you made it hard because you were mixing all the money's together all the time. and that's what scam artists do. >> i'm not a scam artists. >> why didn't you go get a job? >> i have a job. >> i'm talking about a job that would pay enough to support your family, that is what a

father does. >> you're reading from a script that the prosecutor gave you, because none of that is true. >> a guilty man or not. the jury did not take very long to decide. >> we the jury find the defendant, david martin hawk, guilty of the murder of debbie hawk. >> guilty of murder and nine financial crimes. dave hawk was sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars. but was that the end of the story? none in the least. his defense attorney appeal the case as high as he could, even trying the supreme court which declined review. then in march 2016, ten years after debbie hawk disappeared, a farm murphy found her remains. debbie's farther had a dime wish that she would be fined before he passed away. he left the earth just a week after the discovery.

the children who held opposing views about their father's innocence? it's complicated? >> yes. >> has this created a rift between the two? >> yes. >> surely not easy going, but the children of dave and debbie hawk -- >> we did the best we could. >> that is all for this edition of dateline, thank you for watching. >> i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline. >> she was crying and crying. i said, what's wrong? and she says, that he's dead. we all wanted to believe that it was an accident. there is no possible way he could do this. on purpose. >> a dark house. a husband with a gun. a wife dead on the floor. >> make sure that she still breathing. >> oh, i don't think she