friday night broadcast. and for this week. with our thanks for being here with us. have a good weekend. stay safe out there. and behalf and all of our colleagues at the networks of nbc news. good night. comic book archvillain. it's almost like a marvel comic book arch villain. he's right. he's clever. evil as can be. on a beautiful, sprawling farm, seeds of danger. >> i heard this big explosion. you just laying on the ground. >> this loving father of three. the farms heart and soul, killed in a ball of fire. they were saying it was an accident. >> our assumption was it was a pipe bomb. >> someone claimed the dead man head report he had.

zone >> he later implied that roberto had messed with the drug cartel. >> but maybe the truth lay with the farms owners. a wealthy clan known for harvesting rice and resentment. >> i wish that there weren't so much hate and anger in our family. >> one family seemingly held a grudge against the victim. >> he always had something mean to say, he hated him. >> another whodunnit for investigators. >> who chases the police? >> but who is hiding the darkest of secrets? >> i got chills going through the back of my neck, this is not happening right. now >> a blank sheet of paper hiding a diabolical clue. >> i felt monies and started screaming. screaming. an eden in the american west. a wide, flat, earthen cornucopia whose bounty there is a need in the american

west. a wide and flat cornucopia whose belly fills millions. whose farms employ millions and enriched with the profits they passed along down. a father decision, generation to generation. they live modestly here in california central valley. multi millionaires in crop dusters and pick up trucks. deeply conservative, self reliant, tough enough to thrive in a dangerous business that takes guts and brains. too often, lives. here among the churning, slashing machinery, the high voltage power that helps grow the seat of life. death can take a man unaware, even on a sleepy summer day. >> we just looked up and there he was. >> like the day a little boy burst through the field of sunflowers next to brandi higgins place. >> he was beat red, sweaty.

just covered in mud, head to toe. he had his ten issues in his hands. >> carrying? issue >> in his hands. >> he had been running barefoot? >> he said he took them off but i think he got stuck in the mud. >> randi and her kids live in a rambling house next to one of those big farms in colusa county. i did look life out here. quiet, predictable. until the saturday afternoon that little boy appeared. like magic, from the sunflower fields. couldn't have been more than seven years older so. >> what did he say? >> he said that his dad was on fire and he needed to call for help. >> on fire? how could that be? >> he was serious? >> he was serious, very serious. >> once he started to talk, was he making sense? >> yes. he was able to talk the whole time. answer whatever questions i had. there was no hesitation. >> randi called 9-1-1, passed

along details as relate to her by the little boy. by the little boy. as the waited for the fire keith morrison (voiceover): as they waited for the fire department to arrive, brandy began tending department to arrive, brandi began tending to the boy. fabian iowa fabian ayala. >> took the water to drink and then i rinsed all the mud off and checked under a shirt to see if there were major injuries. >> were you hurt? >> no. not at all. >> this is faye b in three years later, his family by his side, he told us about the last day he spent with his dad. >> he takes me out when he has something to do. >> fabian's dad roberto was a farm manager but demanding sun up to sun up down june. to squeeze in time with his

family he would often take his kids with him. a proud man. always pictured with his chest out and chin up. on july 16th, 2011, that saturday, roberto needed to flood the rice field by turning on a series of high voltage irrigation pumps. fabian by his side in his pick up truck, roberto drove the quarter mile distance from one pump to the next. and then he stopped. and got out. walk to the big electrical box. >> he was just going to the right field when this big explosion happened. i go out and saw him just laying on the ground. >> so what did you do? >> i yelled, i yelled his name out and he wasn't answering. so i was like, i'm going to try and get help. >> what did you do, you ran? >> yeah. >> through? what's >> the fields. the flower.

fields >> big tall -- >> you are running through them. >> how far did you have to? go >> i don't. no pretty far. >> far indeed. more than two miles. running, running, running. blindly through the field of golden flowers that closed in about him. >> and i saw the house and i just went towards it. >> do you remember what you said to them? >> something happened to my dad and he was down that way. and can you help me? and they said yes. and they called the police departments and they came as quick as they can. >> when firefighters reached the irrigation canal from which maybe not run for help, it was obvious there was no life left to save. roberto ayala's body must have indeed been on fire. why became clear when they found burn holes an inch wide near the bottom of his feet. an obvious sign of electrocution. a locker sized electrical box used to turn on a high voltage

irrigation pump had apparently shorted out and exploded, with such intensity that metal fragments blew out the windows and cover the passenger side of roberto ayala's. miracle that fabian wasn't killed two. >> we received information at something happened. >> roberto's wife. >> it was when we received a call from the police department, and they said that we have our son, and that he was okay. but they couldn't tell us what happened to roberto. we thought he was in the hospital. >> you didn't know what happened to him? >> we didn't know what had happened. we called the hospital, and hospital didn't know anything about what had happened. about an hour, or an hour and a half later, they arrived with fabian. >> i asked my brother, where is my dad? and my brother just started screaming that he was dead. >> what was it like to see faye being in that situation? >> as someone older, i wouldn't

be able to handle it as well as my brother did. >> it was pretty amazing, wasn't it? to run all that way? >> i wouldn't have been able to run that much. i wouldn't have known what to do. just to stay strong in the way he did it, i wasn't there and i couldn't control myself. i don't know how he did. it >> farm accidents are as old as the wheel. bad things just happen sometimes. still, sheriff's investigators scoured the area taking photos and collecting every bit of debris they could find, whether it looked like it was from an electrical box or not. >> one of our jobs for the jurisdiction is to investigate all industrial accidents. >> because, said sheriff's detective was david salm, the sheriff does double duty as the corner. >> a sheriff will eventually take over that investigation if it's determined to be that type of thing.

>> there was an autopsy to. a team, of course. >> it told us that the victim had been electrocuted, he had been burnt. near an explosion. >> pacific gas and electric santa team over, which confirmed that it looked like an accident, and sadly not unique. >> he said we have seen stuff similar to this. what might happen is that the operator will get into the panel with a tool for some reason. and cross the leads with that tool. and cause a plasma type of explosion. and that could have been what happened here. the other thing he said was that we've never seen anything this big. >> this is what the electrical box would have looked like before the explosion. about the size of a locker. after the explosion, the box was nowhere to be found. all that was left was a splintered post. hard to know what to make of that. coming up. along with the crops, growing resentments at the farm.

>> robert told paul that he was going to get my share of wet my dad was going to live me. >> your intention was to fight him? >> yes. it settles. thing >> the investigations continue as explosives experts try to determine what exactly happened to roberto. >> he came across this metal, that middle told him that something was going on. >> the first clue unearthed. when "dateline" continues. "dateline" continues.

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when people hear the words lester holt (voiceover): when people hear the words "fortunes" and "california" in the same sentence, fortunes, and california in the same sentence, their minds generally go to google or apple. but 60 miles from silicon valley is the san joaquin valley, the valley where fortunes were made long before the arrival of microchips and semi-conductors. the farm roberto ayala ran was

worth tens of millions of dollars with just one family the more's. >> this is mary, part of the moore klan, her family keeps its wealth private to, like many families here. >> i knew there was well they but they didn't flaunt it. and you weren't told about it. he just knew that it was. there >> and she learned early, she said, that the family fortune was also a tool to keep the descendants in line. >> my dad would say, like when i was in high school, if you ever get into drugs or do anything i'm taking you out of my will. >> though she could never have inherited the land, that birthright was passed from father to son, not daughter. the custom started with the family patriarch who handed the farm down to roger and gus, now in their seventies. each of them had a son, just a year apart. paul and peter, in line to one

day run the farmers partners. cousins but raised more like brothers. here they are in 1978. fishing barehanded, latter day how can tom. they were a -- roger paul was smart and handsome, a bit of a playboy. while gushes boy peter was tough and blunt. hotheaded. >> pete has a reputation overrun colusa county. his mouth has given him a reputation because of the things that he has said. >> i'm a little different than the rest of them. >> oh boy. so he is. calls him as he sees them, even when it comes to his own family. >> there's too much money involved. and everyone is afraid of what they might lose if they say something. >> there was one family member peach did have a deep connection with. his grandfather, the family patriarch. >> he was special.

>> he taught peter about farming, tending the orchard. he had masculine degeneration. so i was his eyes. >> but when his grandfather, his patron died. pete's life changed quite suddenly. >> after i buried my grandpa, in short order i was pretty much told by my dad and uncle that they didn't need my help anymore. and i don't know whether it was animosity because i had gotten so close to their dad, or what it was. >> but after a particularly ugly fight with his dad, pete was exiled from the land of plenty. moved north of this eaten into town and started a landscaping business. >> my wife and i had nothing, and i mean nothing to do with the mourners. >> and paul, paul remain the

family golden boy. paul married a local beauty. this is his wedding video. and he waited for the day when he would rain over the land. but he was never involved in the big questions, when and what to so, what to reap. those multi million dollar decisions were left up to roberto ayala, who had once been a lowly field hand. but anyone could see he was a natural farmer. trust, responsibility and the owners affection came to rest with him. >> all new, the boys in the family, we should have been the next in line. it wasn't fair. it was a slap in the face. >> and to make matters worse, roberto ayala brought his brother eduardo in as his assistant. the cousin, they're birthright with health, fumed. >> paul would come over and tell me horrible stuff about ed

and robert, what robert was saying about me. that robert told paul that he was going to get my share of wet my dad was going to leave me. >> fair to say that your nerves were a bit raw about ed and robert. >> i was mad, i'm going to be honest with you. there was a lot of animosity. >> so much that one day pete jumped into his truck, drove into the farm and called roberto out. >> i told him, let's go. >> your intention was to fight him? >> oh yeah. it settles. things >> but roberto politely declined. he had a farm to run. and the next time peter heard anything more about roberto ayala it was that he was dead. >> what did you think when you heard that he was dead? >> i was told it was an accident. >> which is certainly what it was, at least according to the experts from pg&e. but just to be sure, detective david salm called experts from

the neighboring county. >> just ask them, have you ever heard of an electoral pickle panel like this blowing up? they hadn't. and at their own insistence, they came out to look at what we had, and formed the opinion that it was possibly an explosive device. they intern called the atf and fbi. >> for some that felt like jumping the gun. the last thing he wanted was the feds treating him like a country cop. now i have atf an fbi showing up. i was a little overwhelmed. i was concerned that maybe they were calling these big agencies for help and really what we have is an accident. we had one guy saying it was a bomb, but the bomb guys. >> right. >> we are not 100% convinced it's a bomb yet. >> and then three days after the explosion -- >> we got a visit from paul paul moore. >> the cousin, the handsome golden boy of the pair. told him he found something at

the scene of the accident. something that shouldn't have been there. >> we came across a piece of metal that he found with a galvanized iron, or some kind of galvanized metal. and that piece of metal said to him that there was something more going on. >> did he have any other ideas about what may have happened? >> he did. he told us that his cousin pete had made some threats where the victim. in the time leading up to the incident. >> and there is more. paul showed detective david salm's text from peter sent from the right field we are roberto was killed. >> and it was dated the time before. >> coming up, the focus she is from the nuts and bolts of electrical explosions to an explosive personality. >> he was always the one who had something mean to say. he was always the one that hated him. and that was the only reason i could. think >> why did you? item >> he was arrogant. he flaunted stuff in my face. >> pete had a reputation for being a real hothead.

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♪ the barnes firm, injury attorneys d.a. poyner is one of colusa's keith morrison (voiceover): district attorney john pointer's one of colusa's most popular raconteurs. most popular raconteurs. in an office nearly 30 years, he knows where the skeletons are buried. and know just about every prominent family in the county. including the moores.

>> if i said they were on that would be a good way of summarizing. >> odd? >> yes. >> on how? >> you don't hear about a lot of families but you hear about the moore. >> because they complained about other wings about the family? or at least complain in a way -- that >> complain in a way that he will find out about. it >> -- >> he had had a reputation for being a hothead, i knew that since i had been here. he had a lot of mouth. without hardly an effort, pete could pass you off. >> so when paul came to the authorities and said i think pete is responsible for this, did his suspicion seem plausible? >> yes. >> yeah. >> it did. because we knew he didn't get along with his family, we knew that he had a hothead an access to the property. >> and for paul to denounce peter like who is like his brother? it sounded odd but it made sense to the da office, which

signed off on the warrant to have the house searched. it was just blocks away. >> we went out to grab a bite to eat. and we saw them searching the house. mary ellen is peter more's wife >> i didn't think it at first, i said what are they doing other? house >> i said what the bleep is going on here? >> and two cops came over and escorted me to the front of the. house >> mary ellen and peter ask investigators what was going. on they were handed the search warrant, stating that investigators were looking for anything connected to bomb making. >> how do you know it was a bomb? we didn't even know it was a? bomb >> that was the first words you heard the detective say. >> we thought it was an accident. >> they seem to be accusing? >> yes. >> both of you? >> were you frightened? >> yes. >> what were you frightened? of >> that they thought we did. >> around colusa the raid on peter's house, just days after

roberto's's death was big news. neighbors began sending out realtime updates on facebook. >> there was a parade of cars driving around the neighborhood. >> because these detectives were asking questions? >> and at my house. >> when they left? >> they took our computers and cellphones. we had a business. nobody could call us. >> meanwhile the whole neighborhood was watching this? >> yes. >> but the search, said detective david salm, didn't yield thing. >> we didn't find anything as far as bomb making materials, instructions for bombs. anything remotely close to that, even, like gunpowder. >> so if pete was doing something he wasn't doing it close to his house? >> now that we could find evidence of. >> he denied he had anything to do with? it >> yes he did. >> pete didn't try to deny his hatred for roberto ayala.

>> why did you pay? tim >> he was arrogant and thought the stuff in my. face >> if this seems like a biblical ethic -- lots of people knew about that, especially roberto ayala's family >> i thought it was pete all along. >> why? >> he was always the one that had something mean to say, that was the only person i could think. of >> there was a lot of town talk going on. a lot of gossip, and rumor. about a week after the house was searched, pete got a visit from a friend who had heard some things. >> i was working one day and the tsunami, with a friend of mine, and he backs up and says what the heck are you doing? >> i'm working, no you're. not go to sacramento, they are coming after you, there are the number one suspect. >> coming up.

>> i didn't know what to think, i had never seen anything like that before in my career, except on tv. >> though pete is in the crosshairs, investigators are about to learn that their victim may have made a very different and deadly enemy. >> we let her imply that roberto had messed with the drug cartel. >> when "dateline" continues. n "dateline" continues hide my skin? not me. by hitting eczema where it counts, dupixent helps heal your skin from within, keeping you one step ahead of eczema. and that means long-lasting clearer skin... and fast itch relief for adults. hide my skin? not me. by helping to control eczema with dupixent, you can show more with less eczema. 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.

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the bureau of alcohol, tobacco

lester holt (voiceover): the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms has become something of a legend. at solving puzzles. these little bits and pieces, fragments of this and that were about all that was left around roberto ayala's body the day of the explosion. a story had to be in there somewhere, not the 80th. agent was brian parker assigned to find out what it was. >> what does this tell you overall? >> what it tells us is that there was an incredible amount of force in the explosion. >> most of these pieces were once part of the electrical box. >> you have washers, different types of hardware in here. screws, nuts, why. or >> others are just trash. >> but a few fragments, just a handful, looked like they were pieces from a different puzzle. odd. >> sales from a nine volt battery, galvanized steel ripped apart. >> parker sent off these bits

to the west coast crime lab. >> to determine whether or not there was explosive residue present on some of the fragments that were collected at the scene. >> gunpowder, nitroglycerin? >> correct. >> then there was this. discovered on the fifth day of the investigation, the panel box door found 160 feet from the site of the explosion. >> about two feet wide, probably weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 or 20 pounds. >> this we are the large hole is would be the bottom of the panel. >> the forensic scientists at the 80th continued their tests, hunting for bomb residue, dna, fingerprints. detective david salm was on peter moore's sale, waiting for him to make a mistake. did he leave? what did he do? >> he didn't leave. >> what were people saying around town? >> we were hearing that people were saying that i thought pete

did it. >> everyone. >> didn't make a secret over, said mary ellen, or the neighbors. >> what did people? think >> that we were guilty. >> after they raided my house, i spent days crying. days and days. i would be at work and we just trying, because you don't know what is going on. you don't know who to trust. >> how much were you watched? >> i would wake up in the morning to people outside my house. >> they watched me go out in public, with everyone thinking i'm a murderer. >> even some of pete's own relatives seem convinced that. fellow sister mary stuck by him. >> i'm amazed at how much talking goes on there, with no actual evidence. it's a lot of gossip and people knowing your business. >> mary placed a call to one of the investigators, told him they were going after the wrong guy. >> he was extremely rude. and he said you and your family

just need to accept that your brother did this. i just broke down in tears because i thought they just unlike him as a person. and i think they just -- to me, my opinion was they wanted it to be him. >> four weeks into the investigation, peter moore was not just the top suspect, he was the only suspect. they had no physical evidence that a murder had even occurred. but they continue to watch and wait. and the weeks stood by. a month after the explosion, there was news, from the atf crime lab. they had found something. >> there was the presence of explosive residue on the metal fragments that we saw. >> so it was, a bomb. a murder. we then the very next day -- >> i'm seeing in my office, talking about what we are doing next, and the civil deputy walks in with a non-below. and says i think this is for you guys. it says colusa county sheriff's

office. no street address. and then it says case. and there's eight stamps on it. it was pretty light, so is way too much postage. >> because inside was just a single sheet of paper, an open letter to the cops. >> what did that letter say? >> it was claiming responsibility for the bombing. >> the letter, full of misspellings a bad grammar, had been written on the label maker and photocopy. its author claim to be a military trained contract killer who had been hired to kill roberto ayala over a mexico deal gone wrong. >> and it was ms-13 behind. it >> what is ms-13? >> it's a violent el salvador criminal shriek gang. >> and roberto ayala was supposed to be a target of this group? >> the letter implied that roberto ayala had messed with a

drug cartel and that's ms-13 had been contracted. >> the author of the letter talented the detectives, writing that lab results will find military grade powder but no dna. which is true so far. but the point of the letter wrote that its author was a warning. roberto's brother, eduardo, was next on the hit list. the writer said he had turned down the job to kill eduardo, but a second assassin would soon be on the way. >> did you think it was a hoax or real? >> i didn't know what to think. i had never seen anything like that before, except something similar on tv. >> the one thing about that strange letter was all too obvious. whoever wrote it had inside knowledge. because nobody, besides the cops, new with the atf had discovered. >> we didn't tell anyone it was a bomb, so for someone to write a letter, claiming responsibility for a bombing,

that landed some credence to the fact that the author of that letter was the real thing. >> weird. all too weird. we detective david salm and the others went home for the weekend to digest what they had read and seen. and then monday morning the phone of david salm rang. >> we he said we have another one of those letters. i came to work, a second letter sitting on my desk. this one was a slightly smaller. i have size mila envelope. but configured the same way, label maker address, roberto ayala case. and way too much postage. >> what was inside? >> a diagram of a bomb. >> coming up. invitation from a killer. >> the letter said if you have any questions, place an ad in the sacramento be. make sure the last. that >> and another victim in

the crosshairs? >> thinking keeping that stuff confidential was important? >> a man's life may be in jeopardy. >> we gave him a strong warning as we could. >> when dateline continues. teline continues (tonya) smoking damaged my heart. now i have a battery-operated heart pump. my tip is, stop thinking this can only happen when you get old. my heart failure happened at 38. [announcer] you can quit. for free help, call 1-800-quit now. growing up in a little red house, on the edge of a forest in norway, there were three things my family encouraged: kindness, honesty and hard work. over time, i've come to add a fourth: be curious. be curious about the world around us, and then go. go with an open heart

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xfinity mobile with your internet. it's wireless so good, it keeps one upping itself. on august 15th, 2011, 30 days keith morrison (voiceover): on august 15, 2011, 30 days after roberto iowa's death, investigators receive this

picture of a bomb. >> what did you think when you saw that. diagram >> shocked. >> we were amazed. i had never seen anything like that before. >> the device, as shown in the diagram, was a two inch pipe bomb placed next to a one leader soda bottle full of gasoline. spray-painted black. a large bowl tied off with a fishing line and acting as a drop waits. it would fall on a rat trap causing it to strike a fire in cain, kind of like a rube goldberg device. it also said that there was a second secret triggering device. the bomb was divined designed to go off when roberto ayala open the door of the electrical box. >> it could've been almost anything? >> now suddenly, agent brian parker saw how they all fit. those confusing bits he'd been pouring over. >> it was almost like someone had sent us the cover of the puzzle box. >> now they match the bits to the diagram. >> the first thing i look for

with this bolt. and there. was >> the thing that made it exceptionally clear was that the bull still had some fishing string attached just under the head of the boat, which is how it was depicted in the diagrams. >> so it would've been hanging? >> yes >> we as a wait? >> yes. >> it was clear that that bolt was part of our device that was described in the letters. >> and we're fragments of a plastic soda bottle. black paint still clinging to them. again just like the diagram. >> so it's a spring that was similar to a rat trap spring, there was gasoline on the victims clothing. and then we recovered pieces of a nine volt battery that we were able to determine had no business being in the panel. >> so if you found the writer of those letters you had found the killer? >> that was our opinion, yes. >> along with a diagram was a second letter, in which the bomber repeated his earlier claim that he was a reluctant

assassin. after a career of killing, he wrote, i want to save a life before i take my life. the bomber repeated his warning, roberto ayala's brother eduardo was next. the whole ayala family was in danger. >> he said i want to make sure you get this letter to help these guys. >> so it was designed to do something, i don't want to happen, i want you guys to prevent. it >> that was basically the gist of the litter. >> did you believe? it >> not exactly. there are things in the investigation that we could not release. there was information about the letters that we couldn't release. keeping that stuff confidential was important for the integrity of the investigation. >> but the man's life may be in jeopardy. >> we did talk to ed. we gave him as strong warning as we could, without going into specific details. >> one of those details was that the killer had been given

a deadline. the letter said, he was given eight weeks to do this job and it will be reassigned in five weeks. i want to give you guys time to help these guys and do something about. it >> so you release had some time? >> maybe. >> maybe. >> dave tells me that they hadn't received a letter, and the letterhead mentioned me. >> roberto's brother eduardo. >> it says be careful. watch yourself. >> but it wasn't just eduardo in the crosshairs. he claimed whoever was driving the pick up truck, that white f-250, the bomber wrote, is in great danger. and who was that person? roberto ayala's sun jesus. well >> it didn't just look real, it was real.

a lot of sleepless nights. >> because this ex marine not only had a farm to run, but as he sought, a murder to solve, and now to families to protect. >> going through my mind was just, look out. take care of my brother's family. primarily, take care of my brothers family take care of my family, look after myself. look over your shoulder. >> the first thing eduardo did was hide the pick up truck. now with the truck out of sight, with the killer or killers just found a different or a better place for a bomb? >> i wanted everyone to sleep. all i could do is think, run things through my mind. >> it's somebody sneaking around enough to plant a bomb to kill somebody and they did it to one person, there is nothing that is going to stop them from doing it to someone else. >> in the second letter, the bomber left open one possible line of communication.

>> the letter said if you have any questions, place an ad in the "sacramento bee", i guess 21st issue, help wanted. make sure it's the last dad. >> and so they placed this classified ad. and waited for a killer to call. >> coming up. a son and his all too close call with death. >> i have an argument that morning so i didn't get to tag along with the ride that day. >> because you might otherwise have been there? >> i probably won the one to get out and check the pump. >> and another member of the moore dynasty comes forward with a fresh piece of evidence. would an answering machine message finally solve the question about a motive for murder? when "dateline" continues. en "dateline" continues.

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letters from a purported killer. plus a diagram of what's certainly looked like the actual bomb that killed roberto ayala. was it real, a ruse, a lucky guess? if it was real, who sent? it was it from the lead suspect, peter moore or a hitman as the letter claimed? or was it from somebody who is not even on david salm's radar? whoever was, five weeks and it was the only lead investigators had. so they played along with the guy, played an ad, as requested, in the "sacramento bee". and sure enough, somebody responded. cops rushed to see him, perhaps arrest him. >> he was pretty surprised when he got a visit. >> false alarm, it was just an unlucky guy looking for a job. the killer though? the killer never called.

so the whole ms-13 thing, was just a game. the real bomb was playing this game. nobody knew the rules or the purpose or where the game might end. but more than one way to find a guy brazenness to send band material to the cops. >> we had letters we wanted analyzed, we wanted fingerprints and dna. >> the letters anomalous came back clean. what was going on? to investigators, one theory seem the least likely, that roberto ayala was mixed up with the drunk gang ms-13. the iowa's are a classic boot strap story, a religious man was roberto ayala. he worked his way up from far manager to oversee a multi million dollar farm. he knew the machines and was other lee committed to that work. >> what did working that far mean to your dad? >> that was everything, that

was our whole live, even his life revolved around it. we were always there growing. up >> first jobs as kids? >> yeah, learned how to drive on the farm. we learned how to do everything on the farm. >> tell me about your dead. what kind of guy was he? >> he was a hard worker, someone to look up to. we admired him. >> and it did not go unnoticed on the moore farm. over the years, owners roger and gust came to rely a great deal on roberto ayala. they treated him more like a son than an employee. >> how important was family too roberto ayala? >> the most important thing. it all revolved around this. we didn't have much but everywhere he went, we went to. so we were always together. >> whatever went wrong, he was

the one to go to, the one to keep everyone together. >> latino cultures celebrate a coming of age ritual called quinceanera, when a girl turns 15. when roberto's daughter turned 15 -- >> i was the only girl so he did everything he could to make that day the best. >> so what kinds of things do you do? >> you have to have your father daughter dance. >> ♪ ♪ ♪ you just feel like you're the only person that exists at that moment. you just feel important. you really do feel like a princess. >> probably won't forget that. >> no. >> of course, four teenagers there is another right of passage. butting heads with parents. which, that last morning, by pure chance, saved his uses life. >> we were supposed to work together. and for some reason we had an

argument that morning, so i didn't get to tag along with the ride that day. >> you might otherwise have been. there >> i probably would have been the one to get off, to check the pump. >> why would anyone want to hurt him? >> i can't find a reason why someone would want to do it, to kill him. >> and this bomber, whoever it might be, came very close to also murdering fabian ayala. >> if you want my butt in for spring a child into. it >> d.a. poyner found this to be particularly heart breaking. >> i couldn't imagine being seven years old and seeing my dad low. up >> and running all that. way >> people don't understand, it was like maybe a couple of miles as the crow flies. but to run through colusa, which is the rice fields, he had to take issues off, you can hardly walk through it. and for him to run all that way, who is amazing. i remember asking him if he knew it 9-1-1 was?

and he told me that he was right. and he said did he know how to use the cellphones? and he asked if the dad had a cell phone? why don't use the cell phone? why didn't you call for help? and he was reaching out like this and he said, i can't, it's in his pocket and he's on fire. >> yeah. >> yeah, that stays with you. >> but now these talking letters from roberto's killer almost taking prideful delight and how he killed a man, and almost murdered the boy. who could it be? who would do such a thing? and why? then, four days after the diagram showed up, one of the alpha males of the moore klan rocked in the front door. roger moore, who like his son wanted to help catch the killer. and told the detectives he had an important audio to share. answering machines that his nephew p left on his phone. coming up, investigators

discover a brand-new suspect. >> we may somebody have else to look at. >> but who are the hunters and who are the hunted. >> and all of a sudden the tire went flat. >> as police go after more evidence, someone goes after them, leaving a taunting message out in the fields. >> here i am, i'm doing this to, you can find. me >> when "dateline" continues. continues. it's more treatable. hey, cologuard! hi. i'm noninvasive and i detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers, even in early stages. early stages! yep, it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your provider if cologuard is right for you. count me in! me too! why choose proven quality sleep from sleep number? because every new day starts the night before. count me in!

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enough evidence to make an arrest. the voice on the tape? none other than roger's nephew, pete. >> hey, this is pete. i've worked for 28 years doing what i'm doing so that i could eventually one day have a chance to farm. >> pete wanted to talk about having been disinherited. >> and -- i've just, you know -- i've been taken out of my dad's will. >> the phone messages contained nothing directly incriminating, but after being diverted by those strange letters about assassins and a drug gang, the investigation was now back to where it started, that peter moore was the prime suspect. but just as all eyes were focused in one particular direction, the very next day the phone rang. six weeks into the investigation, detective soloman and agent parker had an

audiotapes, texts, letters, a diagram, fragments of leads pointing in wildly different directions to pete moore or a drug car tell or a crazed assassin. and now they had another lead to work on. >> somebody made an anonymous call to the sheriff's department, said -- the caller basically stated, you need to be looking at paul moore. >> paul, not peter? >> paul, not peter. >> for all the produce that comes rolling out of colusa county, california, its population of humans is small. just 22,000. everybody seems to know just about everybody here. so when a would-be anonymous tipster called the sheriff's office, it turned out he wasn't anonymous at all. the detective who took the call recognized the voice and phoned him right back. >> says, hey, you need to come in and talk to us. >> the caller as it turned out was this man, dave moore,

cousin of roger and gus, with a multi-million-dollar spread of his own and a passion for war birds. dave's stepdaughter had once been married to paul. this is a video from their wedding day. a messy divorce followed a few years later. >> so david and susan moore came into our office. >> susan moore is dave's wife. what did they say when they got into the office? >> the first thing they told us was a wiretapping incident. >> wiretapping? >> yes. >> dave and sue claimed paul tapped his wife's phone to spy on her during divorce negotiations and, sure enough, here are the court documents. in 1997 paul was arrested on four counts related to tapping both his wife's and in-laws' phones. he pleaded guilty to one count of electronic eavesdropping, a felony.

the other charges were dropped, and paul served no jail time. but the wiretapping story was just a prologue to what they were really there to talk about. >> who do you think is capable or responsible for actually setting up an explosive device in that panel? >> i think, like, probably 90% paul. >> but dave and susan couldn't really give a reason why paul would want to kill roberto, other than they felt paul just had the kind of personality to do something like that, while pete didn't. >> so you don't think peter is capable of actually developing a very sophisticated device to create an explosion? >> i -- i'm -- i'm doubtful of it. i don't know him that well. that well. but i -- i -- i really wouldn't think he could. >> all right. >> and i also think he doesn't have the moxie to do something like that. >> what do you mean, moxie? >> just the -- >> the intelligence? >> the meanness. >> the meanness? >> yeah. >> but peter had actually threatened roberto, wanted to fight him. and as far as anybody knew, paul

had never done anything like that. nevertheless, based on this new information from david and susan moore, detectives asked paul to come in for another meeting. >> come on in, have a seat. >> which he did quite willingly. took time off on a sunday afternoon, and detective salm asked paul directly. >> do you have a prior criminal record? >> yes. as in drugs and stuff when i was younger. >> committed felonies, in fact. then he said he just grew up and now wanted to help in any way he could, even if it meant informing on his beloved cousin peter. >> i think pete is a little envious of robert. i think he felt his dad treated robert better than pete got treated when he worked there. he said something about his dad taking him out of the will. >> one thing though. paul, like his second cousin dave, didn't think that pete was capable of making that bomb.

somebody must have helped him. >> i just don't think pete has the technical ability to do it. unless he seriously had some help. >> okay. so this type of thing was done by somebody who is pretty intelligent, maybe got some know-how? >> well, that's kind what was you guys said, and i -- i think that's right. >> who do you think is capable of -- >> but remember, paul's ex-in-laws told detective salm that paul was more likely the guilty party. >> probably 90% paul. >> so now the detective turned the tables a little, suggested maybe it was he, paul, who was jealous of roberto. >> i didn't hate robert. >> okay. did you not like him? >> i didn't like the fact that he would cop an attitude with me. just over something stupid, you know, and little. >> detective salm pressed paul

about his past. >> you've got several incidents here -- >> i have a criminal record. >> you've been involved in some bad stuff. okay? you've cut phone wires. >> i've tried to help you guys out through this whole thing. if you're going to start to cop an attitude -- >> i'm not trying to cop an attitude with you, but i'm having trouble with some of the stuff you're saying. >> i know my word doesn't [ bleep ], i'm a felon, a drug addict. everybody knows about it. i put up with a lot of [ bleep ] here -- >> so this must have put a whole different complexion on paul. >> it did. >> having thought for some time that maybe peter was your guy. what was that like? >> it's possible we may have somebody else to look at. >> and indeed they did. attached gps trackers to both peter and paul's vehicles, which produced precisely nothing. more weeks slipped by. eduardo ayala, aware he and his family could be the killer's

next targets, lay awake at night thinking. >> i would imagine peter trying to build this bomb. had to do it on a work bench obviously, but he's got the shakes. so i think about that. did he, or did he have somebody else do it for him? boy. then i would think the same thing about paul. by working side to side with the guy, i could see that he was smart. super smart guy. >> by the time the rice crop came in the first couple weeks of october, the whole case had gone into a kind of stall. atf agent brian parker was particularly frustrated. while the door of the electrical panel had been recovered. the box itself where the bomb had been placed was still missing. >> the most logical place where that remains of that panel was, was in the river that was directly behind where the explosion occurred.

>> so they called in an fbi dive team which spent days mucking through the bottom of the canal next to where the bomb had gone off. agent parker, who had been monitoring the search, had a strange incident as he was leaving one day. >> and all of a sudden the tire went flat. >> this is what flattened the tire. a homemade spike. >> the spike was constructed of a harvester sickle welded to a two-inch washer. further inspection of the area, we found another one of these spikes. >> almost like a challenge to us. here i am. i'm doing this to you. now come find me. basically, they're coming after the cops. coming up -- investigators may be able to fight back with new ammunition as they find dna on one of the stamps.

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keith morrison (voiceover): three months after the bombing, the fbi dive team found the electrical box in which the bomb had been placed. but after months of sitting in water and mud, there was no trace of dna or fingerprints. three months after the bombing, the fbi dive team found the electrical box in which the bomb had been placed. but after months of sitting in water and mud there was no trace of dna or fingerprints. the only story this peeled metal told was -- >> this case is going nowhere. >> now with little hope of finding that key piece of evidence that would put the case away, the detectives tried that good old-fashioned tool of policing, shoe leather and tire tread. round-the-clock surveillance of peter and paul moore. aided by tracking devices with a particularly helpful app. >> they're called geo fences. i put a geo fence around where i live, i put a geo fence around the sheriff's department. >> protection he felt he needed after someone targeted law enforcement with those spikes on the road. >> if the vehicle or the gps

monitor travels into those locations, you get an alert. >> in addition, detective salm would routinely log in to check on the whereabouts of peter and paul's trucks. on the morning of thanksgiving day, more than four months after the bombing, salm turned on his computer to find the gps tracker on paul moore's truck. >> it had gone dead. we had no signal whatsoever. this is also the type of gps that you could call. you know, just like calling on a cell phone. and wake it up. because they go to sleep when they're not having. and where are you? well, we couldn't get a response from it. >> the device may have just died or been found, so salm got into his car with his partner, drove to paul's house to see if the truck was there. >> we got to his house. i look in the kitchen window and he's staring at me. okay. >> hoping paul hadn't recognized him, detective salm hit the road.

>> as we're leaving town i look in the rear view mirror and there he is following us in his truck. he pulls in behind us. i speed up. he speeds up. i'm up to about 85 and he is still gaining on me. he pulls in the opposing lane. i slam on the brakes and he keeps going. we pace him. i lose pace of him at 95. i called him in. and chp was actually able to get a stop on him. >> what was that all about? >> i have no idea. who chases the police? that's the first time that's ever happened to me in my career. >> so by now your suspicions were ratcheted up quite a bit i would think. >> yes, they were. >> were you worried about your own safety? >> at parts during the investigation there were concerns for our own safety. we're dealing with a person who is violent enough to plant a bomb. >> but was that person paul moore? paul had a criminal history to be sure, but was he a killer? there were certain things about paul's past detective salm was unable to share with us for

reasons we'll explain later that we discovered in old court le records, a saga of smart expensive lawyering dealing with misdeeds that go way beyond tapping an ex-wife's telephone. in 1997, paul was arrested after an incident in san francisco one night. ugly accusation. rape, false imprisonment, assault with a deadly weapon, trying to run his alleged victim over with his pickup truck. charges that could put paul in prison for a decade or more. instead, paul spent nearly three years driving back and forth between his place here in colusa and san francisco engaged in a series of court maneuvers. the result? paul simply got probation after pleading no contest to assault with intent to commit rape but denying blame for the offense. the other charges were dropped. but the conviction put paul on california's sex offenders list, searchable by county. out of fear that someone in

colusa was bound to find out his secret, paul went into exile near santa cruz. however, as part of the original plea deal, paul's attempt to commit rape conviction was dropped, vacated in 2007, seven years later. in exchange paul pleaded no contest to the assault with a deadly weapon charge, which meant paul was no longer a registered sex offender. and the prodigal son was welcomed home. that part of his past, a carefully guarded secret from most of the folks here in colusa county. but pete's past was not a secret. everybody knew he didn't like roberto ayala. and everybody knew he was a suspect. around town could you hear what people were whispering? >> pete. >> pete, pete, pete? >> pete, pete, pete. >> but not paul? >> not paul. >> then five months into the investigation there was news of a sort from one of the crime labs.

a male leg hair was found under a label of one of the envelopes, and the dna came back matching nobody. no one in the moore family or any one of the codis database, anyway. odd. had it been planted there to throw off investigators? then one of these envelopes finally gave up what appeared to be a real clue. >> there was a dna profile from fingerprint ridge detail on the back of one of the stamps that was affixed to the envelopes that one of the letters was sent in. >> so what came back from these dna tests? >> the contributor of the dna from the fingerprint material was similar to paul moore. >> case closed. right? not this time. this time there was a "but." >> similar to paul moore, but it wasn't a match.

>> the dna sample was so minute that forensic scientists were unable to build a full genetic sequence. meaning the dna may have come from paul moore, but the scientists couldn't say it was a 100% match. and while the dna didn't match anyone else in the moore family, including peter, the fact that paul couldn't be excluded was nothing that would hold up in court. >> it was beyond frustrating. to hear that we have an almost match but we can't say for sure. >> still, it did give them an idea. they'd get one shot at it. might work. coming up -- >> that got my attention right away. >> exciting doesn't begin to describe. elated maybe? >> most amazing thing in the world. this is the smoking gun. >> a killer, seemingly revealed

by a blank sheet of paper. >> got chills going on in the back of my neck. >> when "dateline" continues. e back of my neck. >> when "dateline" continues

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i'm dara brown. here's what's happening. u.s. forces have started using helicopters over kabul walls surrounding the airport. dozens of women, mostly women and children, have been evacuated this way. however, there are still planes leaving with empty seats. >> and in san francisco, it's the first major city to require foolproof of vaccination to dine inside restaurants, work out in gyms, or attend indoor concerts. new york city requires proof of at least one vaccine dose for similar activities. now back to "dateline." the dna evidence that came back as a partial match to paul moore was not enough to get him charged with roberto ayala's murder. far from it. but it was enough to get some people in town whispering. >> rumors run. rumors are like bad smell.

they move fast. >> eduardo heard those rumors. heard that maybe paul had something to do with roberto's murder. which placed eduardo in the hitchcockian situation of working side by side with the man who may have murdered his brother. >> i'd look at him just like i'm looking at you, i talked to him just like i'm talking to you, and in the back of my mind i'm thinking, you're the one that did it. >> and while that dna result from the stamp wasn't strong enough to hold up in court, it was significant enough to get a warrant to search paul's home. for whatever that was worth, five long months after the bombing. he had done some kind of major cleaning of his house. so we'd actually had conversation about this and -- >> like a what's-the-point conversation. >> that was one of the things that was talked about. and the decision was made. i didn't want to leave it untouched. >> sure. but your expectations were not

that high. >> no, they weren't. >> with just this one crack at paul's house, detective salm wanted to make sure they did a thorough search. so he cobbled together a team of investigators from various law enforcement agencies. >> before we served the search warrant, we had a briefing. >> one of the cops helping him was a detective from a neighboring town, jose "chewy" ruiz. >> actually showed us a diagram of the bomb, and that's pretty much what we are instructed to look for. >> anything related to that. >> yes. exactly. anything related to bomb making. >> they arrived en masse right after daybreak. unannounced, of course. paul waited outside while each investigator took a piece of the house. and in they went. >> i found some manila envelopes, a copier, and also a printer. >> the problem, though, was that paul's home, owned by the moore family, doubled as the farm office.

there were printers and copiers, invel lopes, expected to be there too. as you went around and found those things, what were you thinking? >> we really want that one really, really good piece of physical evidence. >> what you found so far wasn't it. >> no. >> okay. so specifically what did you find of probative value? anything? >> i didn't find anything. we took his cell phones. there were two cell phones in the car. >> but basically nothing. >> no. >> detective ruiz was assigned to the dining room, which clearly doubled as an office. what did you see? >> i saw a lot of paperwork. there was lots of paperwork. files everywhere on the table. >> room was full of paper. >> yes. >> the sun was just breaking over the horizon. long rays of morning light angled through the blinds. detective ruiz was poking through all those papers and office supplies when a curious thing caught his eye. it was the way that almost horizontal beam of light glanced off a blank sheet of paper. >> i noticed that the white

sheet of paper had several impressions on it. >> impressions? >> yes. >> you mean writing on it? >> yes. like when you draw something on a top sheet of paper and it goes through. >> to the next sheet down. >> yes. and that got my attention right away. i picked it up and it was one of those moments where i was like, hmm. i turned it different angles. the paper bowed in half. it was one of those, i was -- got chills going the back of my neck, just hairs are standing up, i'm like, no way, this is not happening right now. one of the officers that was helping us looked at me. he goes, what are you looking at? because it was just a blank sheet of paper. and i was like, you're not going to believe this. i said, you need to go get detective salm now. >> he's holding this white piece of paper in his hands and kind of has it bent a little bit. he's like, look at this. immediately i looked at this and i'm like, oh my god. what he's holding in his hand is an indented writing copy of the

diagram that we received in the mail. >> this is the sheet of paper detective ruiz found. you can see the indentations of the bolt threads in the middle of the page about a third of the way down. and here's that same sheet of paper enhanced by the atf crime lab. and here is the original bomb diagram mailed to investigators back in august. >> the most amazing thing in the world. this is the smoking gun. >> unbelievable. couldn't believe it. exciting doesn't begin to describe. elated maybe. >> then what happens? >> i went out and arrested paul moore. coming up, pete moore seems to be in the clear, but he's got yet another shock in store. >> there's no scale for this. this changes you forever. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues

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paul moore? arrested for the killing of roberto ayala? little colusa, california, was dumbstruck. paul moore arrested for the kill of ayala? mary, pete's sister, got a barrage of texts at work. >> it was bittersweet. there was a part of me that was relieved that it was over for pete or that he wasn't, you know, mixed in with it. and at the same time i was sad because it was my cousin that we grew up with, you know, and it was part of my family. >> my youngest sister mary called me on the phone and she said, they just arrested paul for the murder of robert ayala. and i was in the middle of the parking lot, and i fell to my knees and just started screaming. >> but human nature is a funny thing. suspicion once embedded is remarkably resistant to actual evidence that might disprove it. when paul moore was arrested and charged with the murder of roberto ayala, his cousin peter

began to experience that particular phenomenon quite personally. around town people still seemed to believe that pete was the murderer. ironic, perhaps, that for all his bluster, pete has never been arrested, never been in trouble with the law, runs his own business, has been a good father, and ore the years has taken in wayward teens to give them a better start, kids like nick hekker. >> in other foster homes they do it for the money. pete, he didn't ask for are any money in return. he fed me. clothed me. gave me a car to drive. and now i look at pete like a dad. and anybody that has anything bad to say about pete never really took the time to get to know him because he is a good, loving person with a huge heart. we need more petes in this world. >> why were the cops so focused on pete to begin with? well, as pete tells it, his cousin paul planned the whole thing. set out to frame him. first by lying to him, telling

him that roberto or robert as pete calls him was out to steal his birthright. >> paul would come over and tell me horrible stuff about ed and robert. like he said robert told paul that he was going to get my share of what my dad was going to leave me of the ranch. so paul would come over and say stuff to me, and he knew he was going to make me want to go say something or fight with somebody. >> and pete? said he was simply blind to paul's manipulation. >> when you're going through your everyday life, and someone has set you up for over a year and a half, you don't know who to believe. and so it kept everybody at odds. my life was so spun out of control, and i couldn't figure out what was going on. >> but pete's wife mary ellen said she could clearly see paul was baiting pete. >> i would talk to him all the time. >> when pete got home, would he be upset? >> yeah, he would be angry, upset. telling us things we didn't even know if they were true. >> dave and sue moore told

investigators they, too, thought paul had been setting pete up. >> they'd talk a lot between themselves too. and i think paul has been able to manipulate peter. >> but pete just didn't see it. didn't realize he was being played by his cousin. that just couldn't be. >> we grew up together. we were together every day. our parents bought us walkie-talkies when we were 7 and 8 years old. i'd sit in my back bedroom where my bedroom was. he lived right down the block on the corner down there, and we'd talk to each other until we went to sleep. >> but now peter's cousin paul, the princeling, the golden boy, was about to go on trial for the murder of roberto ayala. as for pete, the person who was treated in this town like he bore the mark of cain -- >> i've had several low points in my life. and it's -- there's no scale for this. this changes you forever.

>> the next chapter wasn't a lift from the book of genesis. more like the story of job. >> well, one thing that's kind of unique maybe or especially about colusa county, every time i've ever had a big case, i can go into almost any coffee shop or restaurant, and they're solving it for me. >> those things can get twisted very fast. >> they get twisted really fast. in this case it was constantly, you know pete moore did it. you know pete moore did it. my response was, well, that's not the direction i'm going in. >> not the direction at all. in fact, d.a. pointer was about to put pete on the prosecution team. as a key witness against paul. making pete work with the same people who at one point were hoping to put him in prison. that uncomfortable fact was irresistible catnip for paul's defense attorney. pete's first day on the stand. >> he said, you're a murderer, aren't you, mr. moore? coming up --

the defense says pete had a master plan that would give him everything he wanted. >> peter is the one who has indicated, i've been in landscaping for years. i've broken down. i want to be in the farming operation. what better way than to take out roberto and to take out paul. >> when "dateline" continues. e >> when "dateline" continues ion a place like this must rely on? -no. they just sell candles, and they're making overhead? you know what kind of fish those are? -no. -eh, don't be coy. [ laughs ] [ sniffs, clears throat ] koi fish. it can be overwhelming. think a second. have we seen this shirt before? progressive can't save you from becoming your parents. but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto with us. but you know what? i'm still gonna get it.

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talk to your child's eczema specialist about dupixent, keith morrison (voiceover): in the months following roberto ayala's murder, investigators suspected in the months following roberto ayala's murder, investigators suspected peter moore was the bomber and built a case against him. so when peter's cousin paul was arrested, his defense asked an obvious question. what if the cops' first instinct was correct? what if pete did it? >> peter has animosity towards roberto. peter has made threats to roberto. peter is the one that wants in to the farming operation. >> linda parisi, paul moore's attorney, presented in court a mirror image of the state's case acknowledging that one cousin was out to frame the other, only

in her version of the story paul was the stooge and peter the mastermind. >> peter is the one who has indicated, i've been in landscaping for 20 years. i'm tired. i'm broken down. i want to be in the farming operation. what better way to take out roberto and to take out paul? >> to counter that argument the prosecution was forced to call pete as a witness, knowing that would make him a punching bag for parisi. >> she told me, you're a murderer aren't you, mr. moore? i said, those are your words, not mine. >> she thought she could, by grilling peter, uncover the evil, the monster. >> assistant attorney general david drewliner was pete's wrangler during the trial. >> i was completely satisfied there was no monster to uncover. so i, for the most part, let her go at him. >> a courtroom tactic not

appreciated by pete. >> after the first day i said, you guys need to get this lady off of me. she's on me like a dog on a piece of raw meat. they looked me right in the eye and said, there is nothing we can do for you. this is an open investigation and we have to let her ask anything or the jury will think we're hiding stuff. you've got to be kidding me. >> one hour of his testimony felt like eight. i can tell you that. it was excruciating because i knew what he was going through and i was waiting for him to explode any minute. >> paul's attorney linda parisi claimed that pete somehow planted the imprint of the bomb diagram in paul's home. >> mr. moore who works at that desk daily? he never notices it? if he is your culprit, he never sees an indentation of a diagram he drew and thinks, oh, my gosh, thank god i saw that, let me get rid of it. it just raises so many questions. >> it just beggars the imagination to think that peter

would know enough about when the police are going to arrive and know that some junior officer is going to happen to notice this very faint little image of a diagram on a white piece of paper, which he never would have seen if the light hadn't been just right on that table. >> if i'm peter moore and i engage in this, and they don't find it, all right. my plan didn't work. but if they do find it, it's a home run for me. and there's very little risk to me, peter, to engage in it. it's not like i have to break into the police department and tamper with some evidence. >> but paul's fingerprints were all over that piece of paper. peter's were not. >> i would agree that that shows that this had been in the house and that he may have touched it and, in fact, leaned on it in the way the prints were situated, likely that one would have leaned on it to reach over

to open up the window. so it was very consistent with that. >> peter, of course, denied that he placed that blank sheet of paper in paul's home, said he hadn't been in paul's house for years. then at the trial defense attorney parisi played a wild card. she confronted pete with this. a video found on one of pete's computers seized just days after the bombing. slow-motion video of a rat trap snapping on carrots and the like but ending on a burst of flame as the trap sets off a lighter, just like a bomb. >> and i submit to you this video more or less comports with the diagram. >> well, it shows a rat trap hitting a lighter. >> what it shows though is a rat trap, just an unusual kind of triggering device. it shows a screw activating the rat trap and then an incendiary component. >> so was pete investigating bomb-making ideas?

not a chance, countered the state. >> there is nothing on this hard drive that indicates to me that anyone was using it to research how to build explosives. >> kevin is the investigator who did the initial search of peter moore's computer. >> sometimes what is not there is more important than what is there. what was not there was anything indicating someone was looking for directions on how to build a bomb. what i saw was somebody who's just surfing the internet aimlessly. there was nothing about that video that was tied into making a bomb. >> and pete told the court the laptop on which the video was found belonged to his son, who was then forced to testify, which did not sit well with pete. >> i tried to keep my kids away from this. and they, once again, tied my hands behind my back and i had no choice. and so my son had to go on the stand. >> a sense of betrayal deeply felt by the man who speaks his mind.

>> everybody pretty much threw me to the wolves. >> for three days you were essentially on trial. i mean, your cousin was on trial for murder, but it was like you were on trial for murder. >> i was on trial. i was. i was on trial for -- basically for my life. and i had no protection. >> with pete now off the stand, the prosecution team still had a case to make, but with limited evidence. they couldn't mention the dna found on the stand, not conclusive. nor could they tell the jury about paul's previous assault and intend to commit rape convictions in san francisco, not relevant. in addition, linda parisi claimed there was no motive, no reason for paul moore to kill roberto ayala. >> for all of law enforcement's investigation, they could not come up with anyone who said, i heard paul moore say he wanted

to hurt roberto. >> no. but they did find this document on paul's computer titled "my life" a rambling, self-pitying screed. what did i do wrong to be treated this way? i think my dad really thinks i'm stupid, he's always saying how smart robert is. but ultimately the trial came down to a single sheet of blank paper. almost like a rorschach test for the jury. what would they see? paul moore's guilt or a plot to frame him? coming up -- a verdict that will divide this tight knit town and rip apart this family all over again. >> we just started crying. >> when "dateline" continues. g. >> when "dateline" continues reliable network by rootmetrics. and our customers rated us #1 for network quality in america according to j.d. power.

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moore had found ways to charm the folks around him, get away with bad behavior. at his trial here in sacramento paul's defense attorney followed what was by now a familiar script. she accused peter of murdering roberto ayala. >> peter moore has a lifetime of making threats. paul does not make threats to roberto. paul works with roberto. >> which is how parisi presented paul to the jury. of course, as you know, paul had a deeply troubled history with the law. violent sexual offense in his background. but the jury didn't get to hear about that. nor were they told about the dna, quite possibly paul's, that was found on the envelope containing the bomb diagram. excluded. so would the jury see the same paul moore that prosecutors saw? >> he's almost like a marvel comic book archvillain. he's bright, he's clever, he's evil as can be, and he's got a flaw to him. his flaw is his arrogance.

>> the jury retired to think about it. and they were not fooled. after just five hours of deliberation, they walked back into the courtroom and declared paul moore guilty of murder. the judge sentenced him to life in prison. >> i remember driving away from the courtroom, and my wife and i were together -- we just started crying. because we knew it was over. you know, i did a job. i went in there, i -- i did my job. i told everything i knew. and it -- and it wasn't easy, because -- i basically put away somebody who i loved. >> but pete is not so blind that he doesn't see how he was used by his boyhood playmate, the kid with whom he once spent those

long lazy days on the river, the man he treated and trusted like a brother. what do you think paul's motive was? why did he kill robert? >> he used to always talk about, oh, robert thinks he's so smart. and so by -- by killing him, he feels like in his own mind that he got one over on robert. i believe paul's trying to finger me for doing it, him and his dad would have the whole place by themselves. that's what i believe today. it is the only thing that makes sense to me. >> pete wishes the moores could go all the way back to the beginning when the farm meant family. >> if i had it my way right now, i'd be running the ranch. grandkids would be over here and enjoying themselves. it would be like a family-run business. >> but that's just a fantasy really.

the family is divided now more than ever. >> it's almost like we're all our own worst enemies. i've asked people in the family, where does all the anger come from? because it's like the whole family's mad. >> i wish that there weren't so much hate and anger in our family and that we just -- everybody treated each other like a family's supposed to treat each other. >> throughout the trial, paul's father roger thought his son innocent and declined to talk to us. his own son convicted of murdering the man whom he treated like a son. other members of the moore family declined our request for interviews after the verdict too, even most of those who support pete. they said they didn't want to stir things up. >> i know some of the people you talked to, and i know they backed out and they called me and told me. i respect them for calling me and telling me. but it's all about what might possibly come somebody's way, you know. >> would it be fair for us to

say that some members of the family are afraid to talk to us because maybe they are afraid they may be disinherited? >> that's 100% true. nobody wants to do what's right for fear of losing their chance at some money. >> would you want to have this farm? >> no. >> why? >> there's too much anger here. >> rumors, whispers, lies can come disguised as truth just about anywhere, including a small town in the california valley. whispers are still working their way around town. people still talk. what do you hear them say? >> i guess the most recent one was, well, pete must have at least been involved. so they've moved some. >> one of the reasons d.a. pointer agreed to talk to us was to make perfectly clear to his friends and neighbors that peter

moore was in no way involved in roberto ayala's murder. >> and i get the feeling that some people are mad it wasn't me. when you're looked at as a murderer, it's not like you can go out there and voice your opinion to somebody because you're a murderer, you know? no one will take me serious anymore. and where i go from here? i don't know. i want peace in my life. i want to be left alone. >> what's the moral behind all of this, if there is one? >> wow, it's a big question. it's just there is so much involved here. i'd say the moral of the story is -- be happy with what you have. respect the family that you do have. >> and the ayalas? >> i was relieved i didn't have to look over my shoulder anymore. i knew at that point that everybody was safe. >> after their father's murder, jesus went off to college, as

did paula. and fabian? the boy who ran for miles through the fields of sunflowers trying to save his dad's life has grown into a a disciplined athlete. plays football, baseball, soccer. and wanted to talk to us about his dad. what did he want for you? >> a good career. >> did you talk about that with him? >> yes. he told me to study hard. >> what do you want the world to know about your father? >> that he was a good person. like he would always want to do things. he would take me out when he had something to do. >> you were the apple of his eye, i bet you. >> yes. >> you loved to be with him? >> yeah. >> two families in the great

fertile valley of california. one of them worth millions. and the other far more. . i'm craig melvin. and i'm natalie morales. and this is "dateline." >> i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." she was beautiful. her eyes were remarkable. i was going to be there for her and she was going to be there for me. it didn't matter what it was. i thought maybe she had been kidnapped. no one knew what was happening. there was nothing i or anyone could have done. >> skylar, rachel, sheila. total bffs. >> they hung out all the time. >> you thought of them as a team. >> the three of them became inseparable.