the winter, to tend the small garden they've built for skylar. >> mary, how do you want skylar to be remembered? >> the happy, loving little girl that she was. >> and the smile. that smile could light up a room. my mom found her, she said it looks like she might have slipped in the shower, she was in the fetal position, in this bathtub. >> you could see marks on jessica's next. >> they said we will rule this as a homicide. >> detectives using new technology to be this crime,

scene in extreme detail. >> there's no forced entry, is no tool marks. >> who could've done. this >> they say usually it's someone close. >> an investigation focusing on friends and family, brought up his association with a motorcycle gang. kim office kind of a tough guy. >> he threatened to take out my whole entire family to get custody of our kids. >> a chilling story, a danger of duplicity. >> we are trying to figure out who did this. he knew the whole time. >> this is the ultimate betrayal. >> it was 9:00 in the morning on the 25th of june, 2015. omaha, nebraska. missy's normal ritual was interrupted by a phone call, it was the bank where her daughter

jessica worked, she was an hour late. >> i was like, what would he mean she's not. there they were like, she's not here, we've been coloring. her she's not answering. >> the thing was just caught was never late. missy tried calling or. no answer panic now she ran to her car, was jessica homesick, i was calling her on the way over. there i was thinking i don't know where she's at. and then i started to think really bad things, maybe she was in a ditch somewhere, passed out, maybe she was in a really bad car accident >> you knew it was something. bad >> i felt something was wrong. i get over there, and her cars in the driveway, and i'm like ok she's here she's not been an accident. but why isn't she answering the phone. >> the door was, locked so missy used her key to let herself in. >> i walk and inner houses really dark.

we can't find. everything's dark earn or i'm going, and the bathroom is like the first store in the left in the door was closed, i hear water running. and i'm like ok maybe she's just using the bathroom. i opened up the door and turned on the light. and she was in the bathtub. the water was running, it was up to her nose. she had something in her hand. it was a phone cord. and i didn't understand. where that came from, i started screaming. i had my and so i called 9-1-1. >> 9-1-1 deep freeze, fire, rescue. >> [inaudible] >> i don't understand a word you're. saying what's. going on >> i just found my daughter dead in the bathtub. it looks like she slipped and i don't know how long she's been there. >> i drained the water thinking they could helper, but they were already gone. >> he could tell. >> i could sell, she was blue. her face was weird pattern on

her face and look checkered, but her body was still like a normal color. >> i can imagine. >> it was horrible. it's like a nightmare. i still see it. one of the worst feelings in the world. that you can help your daughter. because she's gone. >> by the time jessica's father harry got there, not far away he found missy, iraq. a mess. >> i wonder what's going on. what do we know. we don't know anything. >> had she slipped in the? shower >> he thought that it first, but they saw that mark on her neck in the court in her hand. and i just didn't think it sounded right. that she should not have had her phone charger, their her phone was not there. >> i did not know what to think. >> i was devastated. i wasn't even thinking at that point. >> first responders trying to keep an open mind, not sure where to think either.

>> it was not an obvious homicide. they did not know if it was a medical emergency, because we find people like that that have suffered a stroke or heart attack or something in similar kind of situation. so they did not really know what they had. >> homicide detectives did -- where just go is that she's in the bathtub. oddly enough, her clothes were in the bathtub with her. >> but not on. her >> no knock on. her they were laying near her feet, the couch in the living room had blood all over. >> my initial reaction was maybe there is a medical emergency that occurred on the couch. she had gone to the bathroom to clean herself off, and had collapsed and succumbed to whatever medical emergency she was having. >> there was no obvious signs of trauma on her body. >> she had a small bruise on the side of her neck. it did not look like anything. >> it didn't look like she was assaulted. >> but there was something off

to it did not quite look right. they decided to treat it like a homicide. >> because you only get one chance at this. so if you go in and you go guns blazing, and you try to rush through things, you will miss things. >> the csi people arrived. they used a laser scanner to quickly take millions of measurements and create this virtual representation of jessica's house. 3d. so more accurate than any photo and then they removed her body. and yes, detectives could see, homicide was the recall. >> when we were able to actually look at her eyes, it was fairly evident that there had been some sort of strangulation, asphyxiation. or at least that took place. >> one of the things we noted right away was that she had longer fingernails. and one of those fingernails was quite evidently bent back. and we knew that there was a chance then that if she had fought back against her attacker,

there is potentially the any there. >> the next day, the autopsy confirmed that jessica had indeed been strangled to death. -- >> there was a slightly ligature sure mark around her neck. that was disrupted. it was almost appeared that there was possibly a hand -- >> her hand maybe trying to pull the ligature marks were quite kind of intermittent. >> one more thing the autopsy revealed. she had been sexually assaulted. >> the first thing that goes through your head is why? how? who? i mean, everybody is a suspect and nobody is a suspect. who could've done this? why? >> did she have any enemies? >> none that we knew of. >> coming up -- the man in jessica's life and her volatile relationship. >> she would call us like every

other week. me and jon had a. fight >> and then, did a facebook post to put her in danger? >> she just put out there that she was alone. and she did it without even realizing. when evil intent continues. and gentler on your skin. try downy free & gentle. we are hoping things will pick up by q3. yeah...uh... doug? [ding] never settle with power e*trade. it has easy-to-use tools and some of the lowest prices. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today. you need an ecolab scientific clean here. and here. which is why the scientific expertise that helps operating rooms stay clean now helps the places you go too. look for the ecolab science certified seal. now helps the places you go too. we did it again. verizon has been named america's most reliable network by rootmetrics. and our customers rated us #1 for network quality

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a close family and friends who are like family. missy and harry nelson had, three kids, kids partners, grandchildren until -- until the morning they found jessica, just 28 years old, dead in her own bathtub. but who was she? detectives needed to know. and so did we. >> everybody loved her. >> very smart. >> jessica was ashley and matt's big sister. >> she was very outgoing. she always wanted to have fun. but

older we got, the more she was kind of like another mom to us. she would always be there, even if we were fighting, if we needed her she was there. >> big sister to the whole extended family. her cousins, her close friends who were more like siblings. her siblings close friends who are more like relatives. >> she was always really nice to everybody. >> laura wonder had been a friend since grade school. >> she just wanted to have a good time, she was i wouldn't say crazy but she was -- >> goofy? >> goofy. she did whatever she wanted to do. >> and that held true and her choice of men. her forced serious boyfriend was him. >> with the tattoos and stuff, he seemed to be something that she would've been into because she had a few tattoos as well. >> his name was john mcdowell. he and jessica were good together, and sometimes not. >> she would call us like every other week, can you come and

get me, me and john how to fight and i'm not staying in their. so we will drive to missouri valley, and a couple of weeks late issues back out there. >> a year in, there are still no wedding. but there was a baby. dominic, dom. >> i just remember everyone was so excited wanting to meet him. >> she loved him. i think it was just an instinct she had, to be a mother. she wanted to be the best mother she could. that drove everything else. >> and then one day, dom was still small it all seemed to come apart. >> they were doing okay, until he left her a voice mail. >> an unintentional voice mail. and the message that was left was bad. very bad. >> talking to friends he didn't know he left her a voice mail saying that he slept with another girl, and that was it. she was done. so i helped her move that day.

>> she must have been so upset? >> she was. she was devastated. >> to get an accidental voice mail from the guy -- the father of your baby. i slept with another woman. >> kind of bragging about it. you should've seen the one i was with. >> and that's why jessica elected to be a single mom. better she decided to concentrate on her little boy the center of her life, dominick. >> she did everything she could for her son. just try to do it right, paid bills, i have things that i want him to have, i have to pay for those things. >> so she worked? >> 2 to 3 jobs. >> how does a person even do that? >> i had no idea. >> that was a dream job. >> by then jessica and dominick lived in a little house on a north side of town. >> it wasn't very big, but dom had the bigger room and she said while he has more toys and his bed has a slide. i said he

has a slide? and she said yeah he needed a slide. and i was like sure he needed a slide. she gave everything up for him. he was her world. >> in fact jessica's last word on facebook the night she died when dom was at his dad is i am such a mess when dom is gone. >> she had lost the remote and thought it was the worst 15 minutes of her life. >> she was lost without dominick because he could find the remote. >> but, -- >> she just put out that that she was home alone. and she did it without even realizing. >> so if anybody was following her, they know. >> they would know. >> but of course someone was following her on facebook. maybe even quite a few someone's. but finding the one with evil intent, not so easy. >> investigators start the

search with jessica's acts and soon hear some troubling stories. coming up. >> she would post pictures, and if she's around just another guy, even though they were just friends, john, you could tell that he was a little like, who's that? >> her sister ashley's ex raises eyebrows to. >> he threatened to take out my whole entire family to get custody of our kids. >> wow. >> wow. when evil intent continues a unicorn whenraining. evis a corner to build a legacy. a vision for tomorrow. a fresh start. a blank canvas. a second act. a renewed company culture. a temple for ideas. and a place to make your mark. loopnet. the most popular place to find a space. growing up in a little red house, on the edge of a forest in norway, there were three things my family encouraged:

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it has long-lasting light scent, no heavy perfumes, and no dyes. finally, a light scent that lasts all day. new downy light! word of jessica nelson's death spread quickly. among her friends in omaha. >> i get a phone call from a mutual friend of ours, she was so hysterical i couldn't understand where she was saying. i thought she said that dom had been killed. so, i got off the phone with her and i called john. and he said, they found jests dead. and it was just unreal. i just couldn't believe that. >> laura's friendship with jessica had drifted a bit after high school, but by 2015, it was a little unusual. laura and

jessica both had babies with john. laura dated him first. but it was after she broke up with john that her son christopher was born. and that was not long before jessica got pregnant. >> i found out when i was six months pregnant with our son that him and jessica had been dating. or just started dating. i'm pretty sure unaware, that she and i even knew each. other so both of us found, out from him. that she is dating him, and i have a child with him. so it was kind of like a surprise to everybody. >> what kind of a surprise would you say it was? >> well i wasn't too happy about it. >> two women, two children, one man. >> i wanted to be mad at her and i couldn't, because she was just too nice. >> anyway, pretty soon, john was no longer in the picture

for either of them. then, as single mother's, laura and jessica reconnected so their sons, half brothers, could bond. >> our kids met each other and they got to play together. >> now her friend was dead. and the father of both their sons was sitting in the police station answering questions. >> when was the last time you're actually at the house? >> i could even tell you for sure. >> ballpark. >> probably been three months ... >> so when did you actually last see jessica? >> when she dropped my son off last night. >> which meant john was the last known person to see jessica alive. except for the killer. unless he was the killer. detectives brought in jessica's family members and friends and questioned them on about john. i >> think everybody kind of had their own impression of jonathan. >> and some of those impressions were not flattering. >> she would post pictures, you

know, of us just out with friends. and if she's around just another guy, even though they were just friends -- >> right. >> john you, could tell he was a little who, is that? >> jealous. >> yeah. >> did jessica trust john? >> no. >> no. >> i knew she was planning on filing for sole custody of dominick, because she was just tired of it. because you know, half the time when it was john's time to take him, he refused. >> they have these fights over dominick. over custody. over money. jessica was routinely upset with him. >> john seemed to be trying to minimize those issues. >> you guys don't have issues or -- >> no. >> or at each other's throats or anything like, that? >> and it's the biggest thing we might fight about is, she's like, you have a pair shorts that bought two weeks ago, and i haven't gotten -- >> you need to find them? >> okay. >> after a few hours of questioning they let john go. with a warning, he was suspect number one. and they kept an eye on him as they investigated other men who had crossed paths with jessica. >> we were interested in any

male party she had recently been introduced. to anybody at all that could have been showing interest in her, communicating that with her via social media or any other means. that maybe seemed kind of unwanted. >> can you tell me is there anybody seeing what she's seeing right now up until recently? and i'm talking about any, even casual hookups, one in a great while hookup. anything at all? >> i know her last took up was with a high school crush that had come back to town. he doesn't live here. >> he was a high school crush and he's in the military. so, when he was home on leave she would hang out with him for a few days. but then that was it. he was gone again. and i know she stayed over there once. >> detectives looked into his whereabouts the night escalates killed. he was nowhere around. couldn't have been him. thing was, it had to be someone

close. someone she knew or trusted. someone with a key, maybe? after all, there was no forced entry. but the door was locked when jessica's mother arrived in the morning. and then her family told police about someone who had been violent towards jessica's sister, ashley, just a few days before the murder. >> i was going through divorce and my ex was not so nice. he threatened to take out my whole in fact tire family and then myself, just to get custody of our kids. >> wow. >> and the week before that he visibly assaulted me. >> he pinned or on the floor and had bruises on her arms. >> he'd been arrested. was facing charges for a domestic assault. the man who'd been violent or threatening family? detectives checked out his alibi. the night of just his murder. but they also went looking for anyone else who might have had access to just goes home. like maybe some spurned lover. but apparently, there weren't any, spurned or

otherwise. >> everybody when i asked that question they would say, that jessica often referred to the only man in her life as dominick. her other man was her job. and that's all she wanted to concentrate on, was her work and providing for dominick. >> but sometimes, jessica had friends over for saturday night gatherings when dom was at johns. and the last one, maybe ten-year days before she was killed, came with trouble. >> jessica was freaking out. she's like, are they doing a drug deal in my house? >> coming up -- >> you kind all kinds of stuff on people cellphones? >> oh gosh, yes. absolutely. >> investigators discover odd text messages on discuss one. >> there was just something weird about it. maybe we didn't figure out who this person is.

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have a funeral for jessica. a small with family and friends is what they expected but it was not small. anna. >> it was overwhelming, just to see that, that many people that

knew her or at some point had cared enough to show up and say hey, we're sorry. >> and some of the young men vowed revenge as they wore their justice for jessica bracelet, her brother, matt, her brother's best friend also named matt once lived with him who knew jessica like a sister. >> he was with us throughout everything, like another son. what you need help with, people would bring over food, he's there helping us carry it in. that kind of thing. >> and helping out, grieving was john mcdowell, just because jessica's ex. he may have looked like a tough guy but police had checked his alibi. he could not have been the killer. >> we were also able to look at his cell phone locations. they were exactly where he said he was. at no point did his phone ever put him near jessica's house.

>> john did not kill jessica. and when he first learned he she was dead. >> i just felt completely lost, i was trying to figure out how it was going to tell my son that his mother, which was his world, was no longer here. i didn't want to do. it was the hardest thing i ever dealt with. >> did you do with that day? >> i did it a night. i called missy and harry. just his parents. and i asked them, what should we do. how do they think i should approach it? and explain to him. and we decided that me, my siblings, my parents, jessica's siblings, just because parents, we all got together as a family to try to explain it to him. >> who did the talking? >> i. did >> i can imagine. would you remember most about that conversation?

>> that he did not understand. he thought that she was still going to come pick him up. >> that tears that you doesn't. >> yes. it's does. >> even at jessica's funeral, her son then just six years old, didn't seem to comprehend. what was that like for you? >> it was horrible. especially with her being right there though and he still wasn't comprehending that she wasn't with us anymore. >> that was when the detectives or tracking down, while they didn't know who. the sisters ex, the guy who had been charged with salt? he had a solid alibi. but what about the men who had attended just a small party? one party in particular. >> one of her friends invited her boyfriend, her boyfriend invited some of his friends, those friends invited others. so as this get together kind of

went on in the evening more and more people weren't showing up to jessica's residents, whom she didn't know. >> what does that do to an end get investigation? >> it opened our suspect for quite a bit. >> especially after friends told detectives that jessica thought something illegal was going on in her party. asking them -- >> are they doing a drug deal in my house? this is not okay. >> i just know that he came outside and said hey, that guy in there he's got pills if anyone needs any. >> so i want to know exactly who invited this guy to jessica's house that night. who thought that would've been okay to do? >> the answer? complicated matters even more. friends told detectives that the man who invited the drug dealer, also tried at the party to initiate some kind of sexual encounter with jessica. >> he was in the bathroom and she want to go grab a towel and he said hey, can you grab me a tell. he lead her into the bathroom and then he was like,

do you want to stay here with me? and she said no i just want a towel. and he said, i guess he tried to close the door and all that stuff. she said no, opened the door and walked away. >> now they had to track him down, him and every male that attended the party. how long did you spend on this? >> we spent several weeks, that's all we were doing those attempting to identify these people. locate them, interview them and go through the same vetting process as far as getting a timeline, and an aliby for them >> we were taking dna samples from every single person we talk to. >> at the same time, they asked one of their tech investigators to look for clues in jessica cell phone. you find all sorts of stuff on people's cellphones? >> oh my gosh, yes, absolutely. what was remarkable about this, when you say all kinds of stuff, on this one, it was pretty much just one thing on there. pictures of her son.

>> this kind of stuff? >> her life completely revolved around him. >> but there are text messages to. lots of them. some were pretty interesting. >> one of the last people she was communicating with, someone who was named matt kidder. >> he was a friend, who had grieved with the nelson family and was like a second brother to jessica. always had an easy teasing relationship, so of course they texted each other. but the officer didn't know any of that when the texts cocked his attention. >> there is just something weird about the. just the way that he would be constantly asking her, basically, out to do stuff. he would say hey do you want to go bowling? >> and she would be like you know what, i have to clean up the house. and then he would be like i can come over and maybe help you clean the house. and then she would reply like oh, you know what, i'm almost done, don't worry about it. now i'm really tired, i'm just gonna go to bed. something like that. it was like this over and over. so i talked to the sergeant who was in charge and said, that maybe we need to figure out who this person is.

>> jessica's friends and family said that sort of back and forth was quite typical of their relationship. >> it was just like brother and sister type of thing, he gets smart with her, and they would be on the way. nothing to see here. but of course detectives had to dig a little. who was this matt kidder, whom the nelson's loved like their own? >> in the interrogation room. matt opens up to police revealing that he feels guilty he didn't stop the killer. >> i feel like i was there and i could've done something if i drove by that night, or if i had known. when evil intent continues. en evil intent continues en evil intent continues kills plaque bacteria at the gum line to help keep the gum seal tight. new parodontax active gum repair toothpaste. frequent heartburn? not anymore. the prilosec otc two-week challenge

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often a collection of stories. whodunnit stories, yes. but also, love, loss, regret. john mcdowell was innocent. but he didn't feel innocent. >> the only thing that went through my head is that it was all my fault. if i would've never messed up we would've never split up. and i could've been there to protect her. >> i still think you still feel that we are little bit, don't you? >> yes, sir. >> did she intrude upon your thought a lot? >> yes, sir. pretty much anytime i look at my son. he looks just like. or >> one of the feelings that camera area when you think about her, and the fact that she's gone. it won't come. back >> that it's not fair. >> so many stories. witnesses, family, friends of

the victim. like matt kidder. >> when i got the call, i walk out of the room to make sure the sky was on fire. no, jessica, wouldn't be dead. >> when detective davis interviewed matt, he encountered a man still apparently grieving. >> she had a really good heart. >> yeah? >> good mother. good friend. she -- i don't think i've ever heard her not put herself out for somebody in need. >> as so davis was sympathetic. and matt opened up. talked about his brotherly teasing relationship with jessica. >> me and just, we always had the relationship where we have inside sexual innuendo jokes. even though we have never had interest in each other like. that i've kind of always enjoyed -- that being able to do around would somebody without, you know, it's never going to lead anywhere, so it's like everything is on the table. >> and like brother and sister, he said, they sometimes get physical in a playful way.

>> we'd fool around a little bit, but i, mean -- >> how do you mean? >> it's just kind of like she would pinch me, i would poke her in her side. just like teasing. sibling teasing, i guess you could call. it >> okay. >> kind of like flirting, no? >> not quite like -- i don't know, maybe. i didn't consider it flirting. it was unlike, as far as i know she was never interested in me. we were just friends. >> and after jessica was murdered, it was matt who vowed to take her revenge and told detectives he felt so guilty for failing to protect her. >> i would do anything for my friends. >> okay. >> i would die for them if i had. to >> okay. >> it's just, i know it's stupid, i talked to her mom because she's going through the same. thing i shouldn't put it on myself but, i feel like i was there and i could've done something. if i drove by that

night, or if i had known. >> after all, he was at work that evening close by. so he said he struggled with regret even as he tried to figure out what happened. >> i have an overactive imagination, or brain. whatever you want to call it. >> whoever did it, said matt, must have been waiting to find her home alone and must have seen her facebook post. the one about her son dom being away that night. >> it has to be 1 million shot to get there without being dom. like, if they're watching her facebook feed to go in. somebody had to be watching the house for a while to know that she was 100 percent alone there. >> maybe, he said, maybe it was more than one guy. >> i'm fairly strong guy. i have weaknesses, my body is pretty -- so she can take my (bleep) so it doesn't make sense for one person. >> he knew something about bad guys. he'd spent some time in prison, he said, for something he didn't do. attempted sexual assault. >> i was dating a married woman. >> okay. >> and when i broke up with her, she called the cops and reported me for rape. >> but she lied, he said. a false accusation. and the nelsons supported him. >> this guy's somehow got

railroaded over. this >> this poor kid had some kind of sexual relationship and then afterwards he got in it said again in trouble for it she blames. >> yeah. >> i even knew somebody that knew her. as she told me the same thing that she was always up to no good. >> so after matt got out of prison, the nelsons celebrated with him and his family. after all, his dad and harry nelson had been best friends for decades. just as he was best friends with jessica and her brother. >> they've had my back for as long as i can remember. >> after jessica's death, matt provided a sample of his dna. said of course he had been to just his house, so if his dna happened to turn up their, well, perfectly innocent reason for that. >> and pretty much bleed in everybody's house i go to. because i get bored and i either pick at scrap or i cup myself on something. >> but if they were looking at him as a suspect, they had the

wrong guy. >> i wouldn't be able to look them in the eye if i did this. i wouldn't be wearing justice for jessica on my wrist. i wouldn't be sharing her picture on facebook looking for the (bleep) that did this. i'm not built that way. >> no. matt kidder was virtually a member of the family. >> because we're all suffering. i feel better being around their family sometimes. >> he couldn't have killed jessica. could he? >> coming up -- stunning and heartbreaking. what this woman has to say about jessica's murder. >> never should've happened. >> because you already warned everybody about him? >> yeah. >> what her story will mean for the case. when evil intent continues. ah...u the case when evil intent continues when evil intent continues when evil intent continues sorry about that. umm... what...its...um... you alright? [sigh] [ding] never settle with power e*trade.

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station. three weeks after jessica's death >> do you think i consider your suspect? >> i think you consider everybody a suspect at this point. >> okay, but specifically do you consider -- >> i hope not. >> but by then the police did see him as a suspect. they knew that matt checked facebook the night jessica was killed, would have seen the post that reveal that she was alone, and discovered that matt's cell phone was near jessica's place for 17 minutes. police tech expert. >> right now it's about 11:00. and you're gonna see a couple more activations where he's still at work. and right there. and all of a sudden it switches. >> and that's at her house. >> yes. >> that is directly near the house. >> and there was more. the detective had noticed a crescent shaped cut on match hand. it could've been made by just a custom nail bending back as she was defending herself. and they found his dna under

that fingernails and on the courts were strangled with. so now the detective played his hand. >> i think you were there when this went down and i think you had something to do with it. >> and matt exploded. a stream of loud and determined denials. >> i didn't kill her. i don't know who did. i wasn't (bleep) that night. i wouldn't be able to watch my uncle harry over the body of his daughter if i had done this. somebody's murdered my friend and here you are trying to accuse me of it. you arrest me for something i didn't do, especially on this, it's gonna destroy her family. >> she was lead prosecutor. >> he was narcissistic and he

is a sociopath. and so if you were just watching that interview without knowing the evidence we had, you might scratch your head and go do they have the right guy? because he was so convincing. >> but police believe that they did have the right guy. and they arrested him. for the murder of his lifelong friend, jessica nelson. >> stand up,. man >> i'm not going to jail for this. >> it's not up to you. >> decisions been made. so i need you to stand up. >> it's the wrong (bleep) decision. >> that's something you can take up with your attorney. right now you need to stand up cause you're leaving here, okay? >> now it was time to tell the nelson's. >> they said we have made an arrest and we have arrested matthew kidder. my head hit the table. we did not get into details on the evidence we had against them but we make sure they understood there was no doubt in our minds, that we had the

right person in custody. in the only way i can describe it is, they were in disbelief. they were very quiet. i don't think anywhere in their conscience, did they believe that somebody so close to them, could have been responsible for taking their daughter away from them. >> missy and harry gathered the family to tell them. >> i said look around, look at everybody here, who is one person that would probably be here but isn't? and my son matthew raised his eyebrows like oh my god no. >> up until that moment, matt kidder had been matt nelson's best friend in the world. the one he trusted implicitly. the one who would never, ever, betray them. and here they were. >> everyone who was there broke down, bawling their eyes out.

this is somebody who's been as close to you as anybody can be. >> right. >> >> as matt kidder waited in the local jail, evidence piled up. he talked to his father on the phone. recorded of course. >> i think she fell asleep on the couch after i left, and somebody came in behind. >> after you left? you were never there. >> dad, my phone puts me there. dad, my phone puts me there. >> oh. >> it's changed now from the 169 times he denied being at the house. yelling at the detective very sternly deny that he was even there. that was big. >> there was more. he got chatty with his cellmate. told him the whole ugly story. this is prosecutor beth beninato. >> the details were accurate from walking into her house. headbutting her which would explain the blood we saw and the blood patterns on the couch cushions, to the sexual assault

itself, to the things that she said to the injury on his hand and the injury on her finger. to the cell phone charging cord, this informant gave us a view on what jessica went through. >> it was about power, control. and i think being rejected by her, via text, just made him angry. he's a very angry individual. >> but isn't that a weird way his turn on? the more he's rejected the more he needs power, it's part of the buildup? >> we think so. >> which brings us to this woman. patricia springborg, the woman who accused mat of rape. remember he went to prison, attempted sexual assault, but convince the nelsons she was lying. it was no lie. i won't patricia heard about jessica -- >> that's the hardest thing for me. because it never should've happened.

>> because you already warned everybody about him? >> yup. >> her experience with matt, at first, was not unlike the nelson's. >> he wormed his way into our family and none of us thought that he would do anything like that. >> so he was a friend of your family too? >> yes. i met him through my oldest daughter. >> wow. >> my husband taught him how to drive his truck. things like that. things that you would do if we had a teenage boy. >> sure. >> and then one day he caught her alone at home and she grabbed her neck and tried to choke her. and she fearing he would kill her stopped struggling, and discovered something revealing about matt. >> from what i could tell, and with my situation is the violence and stuff, is what got him. >> yes. because when you

relented, it honestly wasn't a turn on for him anymore? >> yes. >> and if she hadn't given in. >> i wouldn't be here. >> you would've been in jessica's place? >> yes. it shouldn't have happened to that girl. >> it shouldn't have. >> and she has a little boy. and it just shouldn't have happened. that's why after everything that happened was, when the prosecutor asked me if i would testify for them. >> yeah. >> damn right. >> and she did. and there is one more thing. the police had seized matt's laptop when they arrested him. and what they found, well -- >> i've seen some weird stuff. but nothing like this. it was a lot of rape videos. torture videos. and just like the

combination of them, it let us know basically his intent and his mindset because what he ended up doing is recreated one of these videos that he likes in real life. where he stormed somebody, assaulted them, kill them and then left. >> matt kidder did not testify but his defense said all the evidence, dna, cell phone traffic, the cellmate story had innocent explanations. and besides, they said he wasn't the killer, plain and simple. but the jury? they deliberated just 41 minutes, before convicting math kidder of jessica's murder. he was sentenced to life in prison. >> the nelson's, of course, it's hard not, to my mom was a single mom. it's hard not to be personally tied to it in some ways it certainly affected me, and i think ryan. a lot of us. here you are at home and year

where you should be the safest in life for somebody so devoted to her son, it, i don't know. >> she was innocent. she was so innocent. she did not put herself in a position to. >> nothing she ever did brothers to her. door >> betrayal. the trail, why did you want to do it to her? >> are you glad you know? >> kind of. it's still haunts me. >> i can start thinking. about it >> it still hurts. it's still painful. but we are glad to know, especially now that he is where he is, that he can no longer her anybody else. >> right. >> and the monster within our family has been taken away. >> the nelsons still miss

jealous terribly. the last time we spoke, dominic was living with his dad john. and also with laura and his half brother christopher. after jessica's death, laura stepped in to help out as much as she could. >> we were over there all the time. with dom and john in the kids all playing together. and it was one day after the next. after the next. and you just fall together. it's one good thing that came out of this tragedy. dame has a whole family. and he is happy about that. he says i have a mommy and heaven. i got a mom here. >> in time, laura and john got engaged. and the nelson family grew by a few more. just one empty place. he never fill the hole in your life when you lose a.

child >> no. >> how often do you think about? jessica >> every day. >> i think a better more than anybody. does everybody said she was my mini me. when i look at myself in the mirror. i see her. so. i just want to make her proud. to be able to carry on without her here. >> >> i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline >> he's a good dad. he loves us so much. no one wants to have both their parents taken away from them. >> it's a tale with so many dramatic turns. the story of a young family facing heartache beyond measure appear a mom who suddenly disappear.