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tv   Dateline Extra  MSNBC  September 5, 2021 6:00pm-7:00pm PDT

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seat. it really does. life does not go on. people around you, life goes on. but you're still stuck. you're holding on to the hope. he wasn't my biological child but my heart, you can't tell that to your heart. i loved that boy. that's not fair that he was taken from his children or from his family. >> jesse fell for vince, a man in uniform holding the fort during his long deployments. >> my hat goes off to all military wives.
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it's not easy. >> it's not. she was a good mom. she loves the kids. >> reunited at last. they celebrated. then on the drive home -- >> there was a car there stranded. >> vince tells his wife that he is going to check on them. >> i heard two, three -- >> he was landing there with what appeared to know several gun shot wounds to the head. >> her husband, father of five, dead. no one could understand it. >> the time of person that he was. i don't think he ever had an enemy. >> or did he? >> he said we are now in debt to bad people. >> we knew that there was another personal that needed to be looked at. >> a winding investigation leading deep into the dark. >> this sounds like a love triangle. >> it's horrific. >> brutal. >> why? are you kidding me?
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>> pop kinsville, kentucky. corn fields, picket fences and patriotism. just to the south is fort campbell. home to more than 13,000 army soldiers and their families. after facing danger all over the world, soldiers return to a collective sigh of relief. after all, bad things aren't supposed to happen here. but when one young sergeant returned from a tour in afghanistan, he had no idea the enemy would be much closer to home. >> multiple gunshots to his face and head. >> he had only been back from fighting in the war for such a short period of time. it was tragic. >> my heart sunk.
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>> sergeant vincent gos lynn jr., a father of five had served in the army for seven years as a quarter master and mechanic. >> did vince ever express to you what it meant to serve his country? >> he loved it. >> to hamilton, his cousin. as he explains it, they were much more than that. >> were you like a big brother to vince? >> yeah. with him, i don't know, weighed bond. he had an outgoing personality. he had a crazy little grin when he was doing something mischievous. >> and he recalls the mischief they got into in a small michigan town called cadillac. >> we would be play in the creeks, climbing trees, just anything outdoors. we would leave in the morning, come back at night when it start
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to get dark. we actually built a raft out of old barrel that's we flew in the water and tied sticks to it and never floated. >> sounds like huckleberry fin. >> yeah. >> his mom left at 8 months old so he was raised with his dad. i think his dad was married six times so that was a little tough on him. >> janet considered her his surrogate mom. she said growing up he spent a lot of time at her house. his son was his friend. sne he was like one of the boys. they did everything together. >> it seems like you had quite a connection. >> we did. what was that about? >> i think a lot of it was i never judged him. vince was, you know, the purist tattoo kid. the droopy pants, the spiked
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hair. and i just treated him like, you know. >> and then one day he came to her with life changing news. >> was he scared finding out he would be a dad? >> he was probably scared. he was afraid that i would be mad at him. and i wasn't mad at him. >> vince had two sons from two relationships by the time he was 18. but janet says he only ever saw them as blessings. >> how was vince as dad? >> he was awesome, he changed that diaper, he cleaned up the puke. he didn't care. his kids were his world. >> then someone else entered his world. a home town girl named jessie. >> vince loved jessie unconditionally and you could see it. he was happy. >> how were jessie and vince when they were together? >> they had a lot of fun. they loved tricking out the cars.
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>> jessie liking cars. that sounds like a match made in heaven. >> yeah. and i know she went throughout and worked on the cars with him. she got her hands dirty. they had a lot in common that way. >> and janet said he started to settle down, moved in with jessie's family and quickly bonded with her dad, a vietnam vet. he was the one who suggested the military might be a good way for vince to get on the straight and narrow. so vince joined the army in 2005. he was 21 years old. >> this is a boy who has gone from baggy pants and spiky hair to now he's going to have the military cut and the uniform. >> uh-huh. that's like a 180. >> it is a 180. it is what he needed. >> you must have been really proud of him for making that stop. >> i was always proud of him. i am still proud of him. >> the military comes with danger and risks. >> it is. >> did you worry about vince
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going overseas? >> you always worry. but there is an lot you can do when your children make decisions, except for support them. i was not going to tell him no, don't do it. i think he did the best that he could. i think he knew what he was doing. >> with vince' career heading in the right direction, he took another big step and popped the question. jessie said yes. >> there was a connection between them two. they loved each other to death. they would argue. i think they just argued just so they could make up. >> some people say that is best part. >> it is. >> after the wedding, kids soon followed for the happy couple. two girls and a boy. as a sergeant in the earl, vince spent a lot of time overseas so it was up to jessie to handle the home front. >> it is not easy having a husband who is away. it takes someone special to end
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dur that and get through that. >> tim says somehow jessie and vince made it work. >> seeing them as a family, they looked like a great family. >> by 2012, vince and jessie had been married six years. despite some bunches, tim thought life was good for vince and his family. shortly after returning from afghanistan, vince's second tour there, tim got an unsettling call from him. what did he tell you in that call? >> he told me that he needed, he needed to talk on me and he wanted to see me. he didn't want to talk to me over the phone. >> was it kind of cryptic? >> i think he knew something was going on. >> something bad? >> the sound of his voice. if something happens, i wanted you to know what's going on but he wouldn't tell me anything. >> did that leave with you an uneasy feeling?
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>> it did. >> a if you days later on february 3rd, vince and jessie went out to dinner to celebrate his return at a place called o'charlie's. they started driving home back to the base and then turned off to this dark and winding road. the road where evil was waiting. >> i don't know where my husband is. >> coming up, a wife's harrowing tale. >> i just stopped on the side of the road. >> soon after, another driver makes an alarming discovery. >> over there to see if he was awake, alert, something. when "even was waiting" continues. waiting" continues. ork that's built right. verizon business unlimited starts with america's most reliable network. then we add the speed of verizon 5g. we provide security that's made for business and offer plans as low as $30 per line.
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call or go online today to learn more. comcast business. powering possibilities. >> reporter: it was a moonless, february night in hopkinsville, kentucky, around 8:00 pm, when a frantic call came into 911. >> yes, um, i just stopped on the side of the road.
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my husband got out to see if some guy needed help. >> reporter: jessie goslyn told the operator that her husband, sergeant vincent goslyn, had been shot when he tried to help a motorist stranded on the side of the road. jessie was hysterical. >> listen to me. listen, listen, listen. i can't understand a word you're saying. you're going to have to calm down and talk to me. >> reporter: as she tried to calm down, jessie told the operator after being shot, vince came back to their car but was unable to get in because a man was pulling him back. >> my husband tried getting in the vehicle. he couldn't get in the vehicle. he screamed for me to go. >> reporter: jessie says she drove away from the scene as her husband had instructed. >> i don't know where he is right now. >> reporter: minutes later, another 911 call came in. >> there's a guy that's been killed. he's dead. down the road from my house. >> reporter: this is the man who made the call. walter ferguson said he was getting ready to visit his cousin when he heard the
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gunshots. >> livin' around here, we hear a lot of gunshots. so i didn't think nothin' of it. i got in my truck, started to come down the road, and as soon as i crest the hill, i saw the truck's lights came on and he hit -- just bolted off. >> reporter: so what did you do when you when you saw this truck? >> well, i mean, i -- i went and turned around, and as i came back around, i made sure my high beams were on and i ended up seein' his body. >> reporter: there on the side of the road walter spotted a man, lying face down in the dirt. >> so, i stopped and i tried yellin' at him and talkin' to him to see if he was awake, alert, somethin'. and i started lookin' for my phone and i didn't have it on me, so i had to end up zoomin' back to the house to call 911. >> reporter: christian county detective ed stokes raced to the scene. >> we were just notified that there had been a shooting on fidelio road and one male, possibly deceased.
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>> reporter: tell us what you see when you arrived here at the scene. >> the first thing i noticed was sergeant goslyn's body layin' here in the gravel, with a large amount of blood around the body. >> reporter: could you tell if he had been shot? >> we found what appeared to be gunshot wounds to the head, and the shell casings laying near the body inside the crime scene backed up the -- the thought that he was shot. >> reporter: you say he was shot in the head -- >> correct. >> reporter: -- and the face? >> correct. >> reporter: was this personal? >> it's personal to me because that person that -- that shot him nine times wanted him dead. >> reporter: while detective stokes worked the crime scene, about a quarter of a mile down the road, deputies were talking to jessie. >> she was hysterical, crying,
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almost sometimes where you couldn't even understand what she was saying. >> reporter: there's jessie on her knees, collapsed on the side of the road. this was a wife who had clearly been through a traumatic situation? >> she had just watched her husband get shot multiple times, yes. >> reporter: detectives took jessie back to the station to get her statement. her stomach, it seemed, couldn't take the horror she'd just witnessed. >> i'm gonna be sick. >> let me get a garbage can for you or something. >> reporter: by now, christian county commonwealth's attorney, lynn pryor, had been notified. >> i remember them telling me a man had been killed on the road, that his wife was there. she had been a caller. and there was another witness that had heard shots but didn't actually see who had fired the shots. >> what did you think when you heard that a soldier from fort campbell has been gunned down? he's barely been home from his tour of duty.
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>> it hurt. we take a great pride in having fort campbell as part of our community -- the fact that our soldiers protect us every day. and we wanted to make sure that we got justice for him. >> reporter: was jessie able to describe the person who shot her husband? >> she initially described him as a black man. and i believe that's pretty basically all the description she was being able to give. >> reporter: jessie also described the killer's car. >> what kinda car? >> an old one. one of them big ones. >> what color was it? >> i don't know, like a reddish brownish color. >> reporter: it wasn't much for police to go on, and to make it even more difficult, the eyewitness, walter ferguson, had seen something different. >> reporter: describe the truck that you saw speeding off. >> um -- as he passed me, i could see that it was, like, a white truck.
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and i saw the four-by-four on it, but that was about as much as i could see on it. >> reporter: so the witness had seen a white truck and jessie said she saw a reddish brown car. investigators had a lot to sort out -- a murdered soldier, a distraught wife, an unknown motive, and a giant secret about to be discovered. coming up -- jessie reveals a bombshell about her husband. that could blow the case wide out. coming up -- >> he had told me, he said, we are now in debt to bad people. >> if this story checks out, that's pretty serious. >> if we could prove that, yes. >> when "evil was waiting" continues. was waiting" continues. it's where people meet people. where cultures and bonds are made between us. where we create things together. open each other's minds. raise each other's ambitions. and do together, what we can't do apart.
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no canceling. flexible cancellation. kayak. search one and done. the live better u program basically just provides the answer to the question: what if? with live better u, my 'what ifs' were erased. ♪ ♪ >> was this case a top priority? you have an american soldier gunned down and a shooter on the loose. >> every detective we had was working this case. >> did you worry about the safety of others? >> at first it's always a thought through our mind is -- is this a, you know, serial killer? because we had no motive yet. so yes, it was very important. >> reporter: back at the
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christian county sheriff's department, 25 year old jessie goslyn continued to speak to detectives. she was emotionally and physically distraught -- and she kept asking about her husband. jessie still hadn't been told if he was dead or alive. >> stomach feel any better? >> not really. >> is there anything you need? >> no. >> okay. >> my husband. >> okay. well, just sit there and relax. >> and i want my mommy. >> and i want my kids. >> reporter: finally, the detective came back and broke the news about vince. >> he was pronounced dead at the scene. i'm really sorry for your loss. >> reporter: the tragic news of vince's murder spread fast throughout the base, and to family members. janet, vince's surrogate mother got a call from jessie's mom. >> and she just said, "janet, there's been an accident.
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vince has been shot." and i was devastated. i was like, "what? what-- what do you mean, he's been shot?" >> reporter: vince's cousin, tim, immediately left his home in virginia and traveled to kentucky still in disbelief. >> how can he survive two times in afghanistan, come home to be shot by some worthless thug that didn't even know him? >> you must've felt so horrible for jessie and for the kids. >> absolutely. i--i must've called her at least 50 times, you know, trying to figure out what's going on and be there for her and the kids. >> reporter: by now, jessie had left the christian county sheriff's department and headed home. >> she's picked up by a friend, taken back to her house on fort
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campbell. >> reporter: the day after the murder, local police and agents from fort campbell were canvasing the goslyn's neighborhood. >> this is now a mix of army investigators and local investigators? >> it is. >> reporter: they knocked on the door of kay and william ray, the couple who lived next door to the goslyn's. what they had to say was so compelling, they asked them to immediately come in for an interview. >> you said you have some information about something that, uh, ms. goslyn had told you. pertaining to some trouble her husband was in? >> somehow or another got involved with a drug dealer, at least $20,000 of meth. and got jumped and stole away from him. well, being that happened, these guys were supposedly after him for the money. >> reporter: the rays explained to the investigators, jessie had told them about the drug dealers weeks before the murder.
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>> she seemed worried at all about what was going on? >> she's been pins and needles ever since this has happened. >> okay. >> she's been scared, she's feared for her life and her children's. >> ok. did they ever say who these people were? >> no. >> or where these people were from? or anything like that? >> no, never said a word about that right there. >> reporter: later that day, detective stokes says kay ray convinced jessie she should talk to military investigators, tell them what she told local police. it turned out to be a fateful decision. >> jessie gets in with the -- the friend and they go to cid headquarters. >> reporter: with kay ray sitting next to her for support, jessie gave a detailed explanation about why she turned down that deserted road. she said as they were driving home, she was at the wheel, and she started to feel sick. vince suggested they pull over. >> and he said, "there's a road. turn down it." i turn down the road. he told me to drive until there was a spot we could pull off. >> reporter: she said that's when they saw the vehicle with the hood up and vince got out to help. not long after she heard gun
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shots. >> i heard, like, two, maybe three, like, like, popping sounds. and my husband had rounded the edge of the passenger side of the vehicle. he was trying to get in. and the guy was behind him and he kept pulling him back out. he was hitting him. all my husband kept saying was, "go drive, go, get out of here." >> reporter: she described a chaotic scene with a random motorist, but then investigators asked her about vince's involvement with those drug dealers, suggesting perhaps it wasn't so random after all. jessie told them what she knew. >> he had told me that, he had bought a large quantity of methamphetamines. he said, "we are now in debt. to people-- to bad people."
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>> about $20,000? >> we had to check into his drug usage, if we could find anything out from friends, family-- if he was using or even dealing drugs. >> if this story checks out i mean that's pretty serious. >> if we could prove that, yes. >> reporter: while jessie did her best to give the investigators leads, police working the case in the field got a new lead of their own and it sent them in a very different direction. coming up -- did vince's killer threaten jessie, too? >> she was getting text messages from this man she said? >> that's what she indicated, yes. and that he would kill her and her children, if she didn't comply with what he was telling her to do.
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police in lakeland, florida,
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arrested a former marine they say shot and killed three people including a mother and her baby. the suspect claimed only the a survivalist and high on meth. an 11-year-old girl was shot seven times but is expected to recover. vice president kamala harris is heading to california wednesday to campaign for governor newsom. he is facing possible renewal from office in a recall election on september 14th. now back to "dateline." one day after the murder of sergeant vin goslyn, evidence was gathering fast. in the field, detectives were gathering evidence and talking to witnesses, and at fort campbell, the interview rooms were filling up. in one of those rooms, jessie goslyn. >> when you have drug dealers that are after you, you never know what the hell's gonna happen. >> reporter: jessie had given law enforcement a possible
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motive for her husband's murder. she said vince owed money to drug dealers -- a lot of money. >> did you know who the drug dealers were? >> no, i don't. >> reporter: prosecutor pryor was getting regular phone updates about all the witness interviews. but to her, jessie's was the most important. jessie gave police a key new detail. she said on the night of the murder one of those drug dealer contacted her. >> did you have to talk to the drug dealers directly? >> reporter: she was getting text messages from this man, she said? >> that's what she indicated, yes. and that he would do harm, or kill her and her family, her children, if she didn't comply with what he was telling her to do. >> reporter: that's when jessie admitted she didn't drive down fidelio road because she was feeling sick. >> i got a text that told me to turn on the road. >> what did the text say? "turn on this road," or "turn on the next --" or what did it say exactly? >> it told me to turn on the road after the stoplight.
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>> okay. >> "if you do not your whole family's dead." >> reporter: she said she felt she had no choice but to go through with what the man said, even though she suspected something bad was about to happen. >> i kind of figured it as we're gonna down here and you're gonna get your ass beat. >> reporter: as jessie's interview on fort campbell headed into its second hour, sheriff's detectives across town were working on tracking down the truck seen leaving the murder scene, figuring if they could find the truck, they would find the killer. >> i heard about three or four shots. >> reporter: walter ferguson, the witness who had described seeing a white colored 4x4 truck speeding down the road, gave police more distinctive descriptions about the vehicle. >> the headlights were higher than my hood, so they were, like, in my eyes. >> okay, so kind of a lifted truck. >> yeah. >> was it loud?
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>> it was like -- very loud. could you find it easier, quicker, being lifted up and loud. >> reporter: detectives quickly found neighbors who told them they'd seen a truck just like that many times in the neighborhood. they searched dmv records and found the truck. it was registered to a former soldier who had lived on base at fort campbell -- 24-year-old jarred long. >> jarred long was very much a person of interest at that point. >> reporter: he's not on base anymore? >> no. >> reporter: where is he? >> we didn't know. >> reporter: so detective stokes says law enforcement immediately got busy trying to find him. >> we actually put an intent to locate out all surrounding states and counties from here to colorado where he was from. and in fact, he was stopped by a trooper in colorado. >> reporter: he must've really hightailed it out of kentucky to
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get to colorado that fast. >> quick. >> reporter: when he was pulled over was he driving a raised white truck? >> he was in a light gray dodge pickup truck that was lifted with large tires and loud exhaust, matching the description of our witness. >> reporter: so you're thinking you might have your man here? >> yes. >> reporter: he might have thought he had his man, but police decided the fact that jarred's truck matched the description of the eyewitness wasn't enough to arrest him. >> they stalled as long as they could i think, and ultimately had to let him go. >> reporter: that's potential evidence driving away. who knows what's in that truck, what's on his clothes? i mean, you have -- it's all -- it could all be destroyed. >> that was all evidence, potential evidence, that we wanted to get our hands on, and had no ability to do so at that time. >> reporter: that's tough. >> very tough. >> reporter: but detectives pressed on, and while trying to figure out who jarred long was and why he would want vince dead, they uncovered new information about their main witness -- jessie.
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coming up -- jessie's neighbors reveal that they, too, had seen jarred's truck -- outside jessie's house. >> how often would you see that vehicle there over that period of time while vincent was deployed? >> maybe two or three times a week? >> when "evil was waiting" continues. g" continues. in america according to j.d. power. number one in reliability, 16 times in a row. most awarded for network quality, 27 times in a row. proving once again that nobody builds networks like verizon. that's why we're building 5g right, that's why there's only one best network.
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>> reporter: at fort campbell, jessie gosyln was talking to a military investigator giving possible clues about her husband's killer. meanwhile, detective stokes and others from the christian county sheriff's department thought they were on to something. they believed they had located the truck from the crime scene and knew the name of the driver, jarred long. now they needed to know why he would be involved in vince's
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murder. >> our units -- detectives along with the cid agents from fort campbell did a neighborhood canvas on post. >> reporter: and what they discovered was a bombshell. neighbors said they'd seen jarred's truck, not just in the area, but parked in jessie's driveway. kay ray lived next door. >> i would see him driving the truck with her and the three kids. i would see her driving the truck with the kids. >> reporter: and what she said next really got the investigator's attention. >> reporter: how often on a weekly basis, would you see that vehicle there over that period of time while vincent was deployed? >> maybe two or three times a week? >> reporter: as you looked deeper into this potential relationship between jarred and jessie, how serious was it? >> from what we could gather, they lived together on base. and if sergeant goslyn came home for any reason, then jarred long would leave for a couple of days while he was here. >> reporter: it was stunning. stokes was now convinced. jessie was not the devoted army
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wife she seemed to be. instead, she was at the center of a deadly love triangle. >> both men in love with jessie. >> correct. >> jessie in love with one man? >> i believe so. >> reporter: to the detective, evidence that jarred and jessie were a couple was piling up, like when police ran the plates of the car jessie was driving the night of the murder. >> it came back to jessie goslyn and jarred long. >> reporter: they owned a car together. how did she explain their names being together on the same car? >> she said she couldn't get a loan herself so he co-signed for her. >> so she had a logical explanation for that. by now, police had had enough of jessie's shifting stories and confronted her with what they knew. >> jessie, we know there wasn't a black guy. >> there was, yeah. >> no, we know. >> yeah, there was. >> -- that it was jarred. we know that his truck was there.
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>> it was not, no. >> everything that witness has said has been true. >> no. >> yeah, very true. >> no. >> reporter: he told her they knew all about her romantic relationship with jarred. jessie admitted she and jarred hung out together but continued to deny there was anything sexual between them. >> she said they were friends, and he stayed there on the couch and that was it. >> reporter: jessie did admit she and vince were going through a tough time, but she claimed they were working things out. >> i always reassured vince that, i'm not just gonna walk i'm not that person. i'm not gonna leave you. um, we were planning on going to marriage counseling. he actually called friday before we left. >> reporter: and besides, she said vince knew all about jarred. >> vince knew that he had been staying in the house. >> reporter: but investigators didn't believe her. more than three hours into jessie's interview, after repeatedly denying she and jarred had a romantic relationship. >> we did not have sex. >> reporter: jessie finally
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changed her story. >> there was times when i was drunk. yes, i'm sure we had sex. i knew that jarred loved me. >> right. >> and i know he loves my kids. >> ok. >> reporter: when investigators told prosecutor lynn pryor that jessie had admitted to having a romantic relationship with jarred, she knew this was a big moment. >> they were planning a life together. >> reporter: that could be a motive. >> absolutely a motive. because who was in their way of being together for the rest of their life? her husband. >> reporter: and jessie had another possible motive. as a military wife, she would receive a big payout from her husband's life insurance policy, $450,000. >> she certainly could've benefitted greatly from the death of her husband. >> reporter: before jessie's eight hour interview was over, she had admitted to seeing jarred the day before the murder. >> he wanted me to meet him at the motel while he was in the town.
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i said fine. we had lunch, and we talked, and we did have sex. >> reporter: but it wasn't the sex investigators were interested in. jessie had one more story to tell. she claimed that jarred had talked to the drug dealers and if he roughed up vince, somehow, that would satisfy them. then she said jarred told her what her job would be. >> he told me, "you need to meet me on this road." "you need to pull down to the shoulder where you can pull off." "i'm gonna set your husband straight." >> reporter: but the prosecutor and detectives weren't buying it. instead, without realizing it, jessie had finally given them what they needed. >> reporter: why is there now enough to arrest her? >> because she's admitted her part in getting vincent to the location where he was ultimately killed. in kentucky, being an accomplice to murder is the same as
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actually committing the murder. >> reporter: that grieving wife, hysterical by the side of the road, getting sick in front of police, was charged with her husband's murder. >> let me see your hands! as for jarred long, because of jessie's admission that she and jarred had a plan to harm vince, police now had enough to arrest him too. they tracked him down again, this time near his home in colorado. >> they did a felony stop, called him out, made him go prone on the ground and placed him in cuffs. >> reporter: they had a warrant to search his truck this time? >> colorado authorities were able to obtain a warrant for mr. long's truck. >> they found a shell casing that ultimately was matched to the shell casings found at our murder scene. and they swabbed the truck, which eventually led to evidence that indicated gunshot residue had been left in several places around his vehicle.
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while that's not 100% confirmation that someone has fired a weapon, it is very indicative of the fact whoever handled the driver handle on the door, the gearshifter and the steering wheel on the truck had recently fired a weapon. >> can i ask you to take that seat over there? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: colorado police brought jarred in for questioning. unlike jessie, he didn't hesitate to talk about his romantic relationship with her. >> we hooked up awhile back. it was sometime around september. we started going out, then the next thing i knew, we were living together. i knew she was married. i knew it was horrible, but -- >> reporter: he also admitted to being in kentucky on the day of the murder, but he says he left before dark. >> when do you think you left? >> about 5:30. >> reporter: what he didn't know was jessie had already pointed the finger at him. >> she has spoken with the detectives and she has told them about the plan that you guys
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had. >> excuse me? >> she puts her and vince and you at the scene and the witness puts you and your truck at the scene. but you need to help us out at this point, jarred, and explain to us what happened there. >> i believe at this point, i need to say stop and that i believe i need a lawyer. >> ok. >> because this has gone well beyond what i'm capable of, so -- >> reporter: they now had two suspects in custody. and as for that drug dealer story, detective stokes says that was just a hoax jessie cooked up to throw off police. and she told the story to several people, including her neighbors, the rays, who unwittingly corroborated her story. >> reporter: did you ever find any evidence that vince was involved in some type of drug deal gone bad? >> no. >> reporter: that men were -- were out to get him and his
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family? >> no, we did not. we couldn't find anything that -- that would take us there other than her story. >> reporter: janet, vince's surrogate mom, was horrified when she learned that jessie, the woman who had seemed so good for vince, was now implicated in his murder. >> i was devastated. i was like, "why is she arrested?" >> reporter: did you think she was capable of -- of killing vince? >> never. never. why? there's divorce. why wouldn't she just get a divorce? >> reporter: but even with jessie's story, and the evidence against jarred, the case was far from closed. an unexpected twist was about to put the whole investigation into a tailspin. >> reporter: did you worry that one or both of them could get away with murder? >> prosecutors face a major setback. >> i was livid.
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prosecutor lynn prior already felt she had a solid case against jared long. and after his arrest, police found more evidence in his truck. >> there was one spot of blood that belonged to vincent. this is bingo right here. >> this is more evidence than i had in most of the murder cases i prosecuted. >> how do you explain the victim's blood on your backpack when you're hundreds of miles away? >> you can't. unless you're the person who killed him. >> reporter: but prior knew the case against jesse wasn't as air-tight. >> it was very much a circumstantial case. this wasn't as much physical
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evidence on her. >> reporter: did you worry that you wouldn't be able to get a conviction? >> somewhat. jared long was not giving us anything in regard to implicating jesse. we knew it was her involvement that got jared to when vincent was killed. >> reporter: how were you going to prove that? >> with her own words. >> reporter: enter defense attorney mark bryant. he represented jared long. he had a plan that could benefit jesse, too. his strategy was to get jesse's interview with police thrown out. how would he do that? >> mrs. gosselin told the local police department she didn't want to talk. she wanted a lawyer. >> i want an attorney. >> under the law, you have to break up any questioning. and they did. and they sent her back home to ft. campbell. >> reporter: but you might remember after that, her friend convinced jessie to go speak to the military police on base.
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>> jessie gosselin spent eight hours with the police after that very day she wasn't going to talk without a lawyer. it was just a different police agency. >> reporter: bryant argued in front of a circuit judge, since jessie asked for a lawyer, the military police should never have questioned her. the judge agreed. >> he made a decision that that confession that she made, implicaing our client, should be set aside, because the law enforcement agency for the military police should have followed the same rules that earlier police department in christian county followed during that day. >> jessie gosselin's statement was thrown out. the news hit vincent's family hard. >> hearing the news that vince was killed was horrible. but what the justice system did was unfair.
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we thought they were going to get away with it. >> reporter: that was a huge blow. >> it was devastating. without jessie's statement about how all this happened and the planning that went into vincent's murder, our case was circumstantial, at best. we had the physical evidence that jarred was found with in colorado. and we had the neighbors who had seen him at jessie's house. but the connection between the two and the reasoning behind the murder was gone. >> reporter: but prosecutor prior wasn't going down without a might. she filed a motion with the kentucky court of appeals. and jessie and jarred was out and about, relatively flee froo e. how did you feel about jessie and jarred being out on ankle bracelets? >> i was livid. i argued to the best of my
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ability why someone who was charged with such a heinous murder should be out on an ankle monitor. none of the arguments i made were convincing to the judge. >> reporter: and everyone waited and waited. four, long years went by and sided with the prosecution. what is that like when you get word that the statement will be allowed? >> i was relieved. >> reporter: prior considered her options and concluded of the two, jarred deserved the harshest punishment. jarred took the life of vincent goslyn. we wanted to make sure he received the maximum punishment. >> reporter: to do that, the prosecutor needed jessie's videotaped statement and she needed jessie to tell the whole story, that she and jarred
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planned to murder vince. >> we needed her testimony about the reasons why they planned to kill vincent and the way they planned it out. >> reporter: so, the prosecutor maid a bargain. if jessie pleaded guilty and could testify against jarred, she would recommend a sentence of 22 1/2 years behind bars. she agreed to this plea deal? >> she did, after long talks and a very heated discussion. >> reporter: now, with time served, the woman who had played the victim, detrayed her husband and lover, would spend 14 years behind bars. some think that the sentence was too light. >> i don't disagree with that. the sentence was too light. after discussions with law enforcement, with family members, we determined that it was worth it to have her, to be able to say in her own words, what happened and why.
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>> reporter: a different prosecutor then took over the case against jarred long. his name was mark blankenship. as he looked over the case, he came to a different conclusion about who was most responsible. >> i felt that the mastermind of the crime was jessie. she didn't pull the trigger. but without her this doesn't happen. what bathered me is that the bar was set for 22 years for the mastermind of the crime. >> reporter: blankenship offered jarred a deal, too. 30 years in prison for pleadle guilty to first-degree murder. jarred agreed. jarred, being played as the victim. but vince was shot nine times in the head and the face. you cannot discount that for anything. >> it bothers me. he should have gotten more than 30 years. >> reporter: tim,
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vincent's cousin, was torn about the punishment. >> jessie, she should have gotten more time than she did. she manipulated him. >> reporter: is that the jessie you knew? >> she was manipulating us. i would never have pegged her. >> i believe she should do life. >> reporter: as for janet, the woman who stepped in as vince's mother, it's hard for her to describe the pain she feels. she watched her surrogate son go from a tough kid to a tough soldier. he became a good and honorable man, only to have it all needlessly taken away. he wasn't my biological child. but my heart, you can't tell that to my heart. i love that boy. and it's not fair that he was taken from his children or from his family. he had so much potential. he had gone so far.
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she was a very loving person. she had a heart of gold. what happened to this woman? my job is to be a true teller and seek out the truth. i wanted to solve it. >> her case was a mystery, for years. the mom with the tender heart and tough-as-nails career. >> she was part of the sheriff's department. her ultimate goal was to try to get into the fbi. >> she had found a new sense of purpose, in the church. her pastor and his wife like family. >> they had taken

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