>> 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 disappeared.

you just hear the awful things they say. >> i knew they were focusing on me. >> there was no body, no weapon, no eyewitness. >> there is not one doubt in my mind that he is guilty. >> now after four trials, the final verdict is in. >> i'm not guilty. i didn't do this. welcome to dateline. cal harris seemed to have it all. a beautiful family and successful business and big but always not as it seemed. it was september 11th, 2001 as the world was watching what is happening in the family was struck by heartbreak closer to home. here with the house on the lake

is keith morrison. >> it's a long winding ride. this tale studded with surprises. >> i felt like i was being kidnapped in broad daylight and no one can help me. >> reporter: it's the story of his life and theirs. >> we cannot sit here in silence and watch another travesty of justice take place. it's about their world. the one that fell apart in a time they can't recall. >> do you remember much about your mom any more? >> not really. >> it's been a long time. >> it's about what happened on a september day the rest of the world can't forget. is there a corner of your brain that thinks maybe it was somebody else? >> not at all. not at all. >> 15 years, four trials. would it never end? >> i put my head down. i went numb. i just went numb. >> this is the climatic chapter

in a family saga one, that began in a moment all but drowned out in the chaos of history. it was september 2001. harris kids were little. 7, 6, 4, and it. the family lived in this sprawling patch of wilderness with a private lake. living in paradise, it seems like. >> yeah, kids have a lot of happy memories out here. it was a very unique and special place that we were fortunate enough to purchase. years and years ago. >> reporter: unique and special place only a prosperous person could perform like the prominent car dealer cal harris. he taught his kids to love it. you went hunting with the kids here? >> hunting, fishing, you name it. we swim the lake, jet ski in the lake and water-ski and my kids bring their friends out and like to be outdoors. a fun place. >> christmas was always fun.

>> reporter: i can't imagine. >> opening presents, playing with the new things you get. >> reporter: i can't think of a a more ideal place to have christmas. did it feel like that at the time? >> yeah. >> reporter: it was here in this patch of paradise, said cal, that he woke up one morning, years ago, to find that his wife michelle wasn't home. she had gone to work the evening before and didn't come back. mary harris is cal's aunt. >> she didn't know where she was and didn't know what had happened. >> reporter: woke up and she wasn't there? >> and honestly he didn't -- it wasn't something he seemed comfortable talking about a lot. i think it was very emotional for him. >> reporter: she was gone. gone without warning. her friends distraught. called her cell phone. they called her cheery cell

phone message haunting them. i, this is michelle, leave me your name a number and i will call you back. >> what's going on here? >> reporter: there is something else about this you should know. the night michelle harris vanished was not just any night. it was september 11th, 2001. >> things were in disarray. >> so they were and no one was paying much attention about the disturbing events in oswego, new york. troopers had all been sent to new york city. there is a skeleton crew left at all of the stations. back then sue was a investigator with the new york state police. she took the call on september 12th. >> what did you do? >> i sent investigators over to calvin harris and a u.s. troop or up to the house.

>> reporter: cal opened up his house to them. >> he said look wherever you want. i want it know what happened. that morning, the investigator knew that she had a missing person case on our hands. we thought it would resolve itself speedily. >> we kept hoping as everyone did that michelle would call her house or call one of her friends and show up. >> reporter: cal said his aunt mary was completely focused on his four children and had to leave it to others to search for michelle. >> his thing was, okay, it's time for them to go to school and now it's time for me to pick them up. i have to be sure it is the routine that is normal for them, we will keep them in their routine. >> >> reporter: but where was their mother? there was a clue and it didn't look good. michelle's van had been left at the foot of the long driveway leading up to her house out here on that big country lot and the keys were still in the ignition. but where was she?

all of the investigators, cameras in hand, searched the house with 200 or more acres to look through. >> that area was homesteaded early in the late 1800s. a lot of old foundations and things like that. >> reporter: didn't find anything? >> no, we didn't. >> reporter: not at first or outside but a few days later they did. >> i entered the residence through the opened garage door. >> reporter: senior investigator steve anderson. >> i noticed blood stains on the floor and on the moldings of the doorway that led out to the garage. >> reporter: and more blood, tiny stains on a kitchen rug. they sent it out for tests. >> everything on the floor, on the inside walls and on the carpet came back to being michelle's blood. >> reporter: and suddenly the case looked very different. >> then we knew we had a real problem. >> reporter: what in the world happened to michelle harris? coming up. >> they had what would appear

to be an idyllic life in beautiful home and beautiful children. we learned more and more, he became the focus. >> reporter: a husband suspected. a daughter questioned. >> i didn't talk. i just sat there and cried the whole time. >> when "dateline" continues. wow, that's a low price. ooh, that's a low price. huh. that is a low price. what's a low price? ♪ ♪ ahh, that's a low price can you let me shop? hmm, that's a low price. i'm gonna get it at amazon, anytime is a good time to save. ♪i want to break free♪ (vo) ready to break free? it's time to get away to a place where we can finally be free. ♪i've got to break free♪ (vo) plan your future getaway with norwegian. sail safe. feel free. we're carvana, the company

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investigators felt sure of one thing. michele had not abandoned her children. >> the clear picture we developed is michele would never leave her children, ever. >> reporter: so was it foul play? after all, michele's van was abandoned at the foot of her driveway. and that blood on the garage floor and in the kitchen alcove, testing proved it was michele's blood. >> there is a lot of blood in the garage and spread over a wide area, and there's a lot of blood splatter, i mean, over 60 drops of blood that has been not just dripped but splattered by some force on that throw rug. >> reporter: and, yet, didn't make sense. this woman, wife of an affluent car dealer, devoted mom, seemed like an unlikely victim. >> and they have what would appear to be an idyllic life and a beautiful home and

beautiful children. >> reporter: it got off to a story book start. he, the attractive wealthy car dealer, she a pretty young woman from modest means, opening and answering phones at the harris county car dealership. >> my mother had his office across the street from mine. and i just saw her one day and just kind of evolved from there. >> reporter: what attracted the two of you to each other? >> she was very outgoing and very attractive, and good personality. >> she was a knockout. she was funny. she was vibrant. >> reporter: aunt mary harris was taken by cal's new girl. michelle, she said, was a woman up for anything. >> athletic. let's have a good time. you know? jump on the jet ski. jump on the four-wheeler. >> reporter: wasn't as dainty as you think? >> no. >> reporter: and not shy of retiring type either? >> no that is part of why -- their personalities to me seemed to really mesh. we shall hail fell hard to for the man and his lifestyle.

gary taylor is her dad. >> he won some dealership thing and they went to switzerland, i think. >> wow. i mean, there was a lot of perks he hadn't had before. >> reporter: in august 1990, michelle and cal got married here beside empire lake. >> a great day. a beautiful setting and very relaxing. not very stressful. just kind of it being a big party afterwards. >> reporter: the fairy tale rolled on. kids kept coming. they built a house on empire lake and here on their private preserve they were a family in motion. fishing, swimming. skating. michelle and all of it. the kids, of course, grew older. taylor is the oldest. followed by kayla and jenna and tanner. their mom? about her, they have no real memories. >> been a long time. >> reporter: it's true. most of your lives. and how old were you? >> i'm not sure how old i was

but i don't have any memories. >> reporter: jenna is often told by those who knew michelle how much she resembles her mom. >> i have seen pictures of her. she is really pretty and she's always smiling. she seems like a really happy person. so it makes me feel good that people see me in her. >> reporter: and with that terrible loss, say the kids, they have grown up happy and content for the most part. all thanks to one person. tell me about your dad. what kind of guy is he? >> funny. >> reporter: funny? he is funny and he's the most caring guy in the world. >> he is nice and we are his whole world and he is protective. and just loves us so much. and once the best for us. >> reporter: protective dad who said he tried to shield them as best he could from the not so happy times. >> michelle was really struggling with those kids at a young age, which i totally understood. what i noticed was

that she was just drifting away from being a stay-at-home mom and i understood that. >> reporter: there was friction in the harris family. he loved order and she not so much. >> she had had a room downstairs and she called it a chuck room. if there a party or picnic, she would throw it and take it down to the chuck room. >> reporter: as she told friends and family had he a controlling temper. she called her sister-in-law one day from a closet terrified. he had the gun outside the closet and she was inside, hiding. >> what did you hear about that? >> he was out there as a pump gun, and he was ramping the pompoms shut up and down. >> >> reporter: cal later denied it was true that he had been fighting or threatening michelle with a gun. then in 1999, michelle learned cal was having an affair. she was devastated but not ready to end the marriage. and cal said he wasn't either.

>> michelle said that, you know, we can work through this but, you know, you got to get rid of the girl. she worked up at the dealership. >> reporter: they did what they could to salvage the marriage. it didn't work. she told her family he cut off her spending money. she took up with a young man in november of 2000. a month later she told cal she wanted a divorce. her family said he didn't take it well and things in that big house in paradise grew strained, indeed. why did she stay in the house? >> her attorney had advised her to stay in the house and to not leave. >> reporter: so they divided the parenting duties and worked on a settlement. michelle got a job as a waitress. and a bar. and that's where she was on september 11th. she had her fished shift finished at nine. and had some drinks with coworkers and drove to her boyfriends apartment. she left about 11 and that, we

believe, is the last time anyone saw michelle harris. >> we did a lot of work on a lot of different people early on and it wasn't until they were eliminated and then we learned more and more about calvin, that he became the focus. >> reporter: the district attorney even tried to speak to the eldest children. didn't accomplish much beyond frightening them, apparently. >> i know i just sat there and cried the whole time. i didn't talk. i wasn't allowed to be in there with taylor. >> reporter: how old were you at the time? >> i was in fourth grade and he was in fifth grade. so 9 and 10. >> reporter: the d.a. jerry keen said he interviewed plenty of other witnesses who convinced him that the police had the right man. in september '05, four years after michelle disappeared, they charged cal harris with murder. >> three state police and personnel literally busted into my office and kicked the door open. the three of them jumped me and handcuffed me and

shackled me and walked me out the front door of my office. >> reporter: you got a taste of law and order up close and personal? >> yeah. >> reporter: the d.a. was going to take the case to trial even though there was no body, no murder weapon and he himself was by no means convinced he could prevail. >> i thought that it was maybe a 50/50 shot at a conviction. i thought that a jury could go either way. >> coming up. >> it hurts. absolutely. all of it was just taken away. >> prosecutors come on strong. >> he told her that he would put her body in a place where it would never be found. >> when "dateline" continues. eliquis. eliquis reduces stroke risk better than warfarin. and has less major bleeding than warfarin.

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late of the night on 9/11. >> the more i talk to people close to michelle, the more convinced i became that he really did this. >> reporter: the trial began in 2007 with the prosecution claim the cal harris was a man used to being in charge of everything and everyone in his life. >> he is in control of his businesses, he is in control of his wife, he is in control of his finances, his employees and his children, and just kind of a domineering person. >> reporter: more than that, said the prosecutor, cal harris could be volatile. michelle harris began to keep notes about what she said was abusive language and behavior. in fact, when a temporary order of protection against him. >> he said i don't need a gun to kill you. and if i did kill you, they wouldn't be able to find your

body. >> people say terrible things in the heat of passion. >> it went beyond that. he said he would put her body in place it would never be found. that's one of the biggest facts of the case. we have looked and looked for the woman's body. and i've never been able to find it. >> reporter: the harris family babysitter a woman named barb thayer said she found michelle's van parked at the end of a long driveway. >> she yelled in the house is michelle here? the defendant said without missing a beat said we better go get the car. >> reporter: according to the babysitter, cal didn't seem surprised. he doesn't ask any questions about the keys. >> he knows the keys are in the van. >> this is interpretation of his reaction. >> but it's all these little things that convinced me, that he's just not acting like someone would act if they didn't know what had happened to their wife.

>> reporter: later that morning, when new york state troopers talked to cal, they, too, made note of his demeanor. >> he seemed kind of unconcerned. he was more concerned with getting michelle harris'van cleaned up and back on the lot. >> reporter: the motive, said the prosecutor, was simply money. cal had learned that michelle was demanding an appraisal of a car business that she intended to take a piece of it in the divorce? >> all of a sudden, everything is out of his control. >> reporter: so the argument went, if michelle disappeared, cal's problems did too. >> he was going to have his finances scrutinized. he was perhaps not going to be able to stay in the marital residence. certainly his children were leaving. and the next day, all those things were back in his control. >> reporter: final that blood. they called it medium velocity

spatter and had been left there only recently. >> i think it could have been the most important part of the case as far as placing michelle bleeding in the house with some force having been applied to that blood and no explanation for it. >> reporter: so what happened that night? prosecutor keen put his theory to the jury. >> she got home that night about at 11:30, parked her car, went in through the garage door and instance she got inside the house, she was struck with something by the defendant. >> reporter: she went down on the kitchen rug, he said, was struck again. that blood spatter. >> so this would put her down either on her knees or on her bottom and she is being struck and the blood splatters on the door and on the carpet. took her back out into the garage and laid her down on the garage floor. she must have bled some

onto the garage floor, because there is an area three feet by six feet where blood was found. >> reporter: then, said the prosecutor, cal tried to clean up before he disposed of the body. >> he then would have taken the car back down to the end of the driveway, walked back up to the house and disposed of the body during the seven hours or thereabouts before he called mrs. thayer. >> reporter: the defense attorneys tried to swat it all down and cal harris, himself, was adamant he had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance. >> it's one thing to say, look, i'm innocent, i didn't do this but another thing to have so many people accusing you and pointing the finger at you. look. i'm not guilty. i didn't do this. i didn't commit this crime. >> reporter: there was no body, no murder weapon and the defense said the forensics were unconvincing at best but the jurors weren't having it. june

2007 they came back guilty. cal harris broke down and sobbed. >> because i knew i was going to not see my kids. i knew i wasn't going to go home that night and i knew how they were going to be and it was overwhelming. >> reporter: but in the eyes of michele's family, it was finally justice. and then? then an extraordinary thing happened. >> my first reaction was, come on. the judge is not going to accept this guy's claim. >> reporter: a new witness with an amazing story and it turned the harris case on its head. coming up. >> as always walking by the harris property, there was a blond woman out there, looked like she was crying. i know is her. >> reporter: had someone seen michelle? >> the most bizarre story that you could have ever told. >> reporter: get ready for trial number two. when when

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in 2007 cal harris was convicted of killing his wife michelle but there was still a small glimmer of hope. a new witness was about to come forward who could possibly shed light on what really happened that night michelle disappeared. here again is

keith morrison. >> reporter: what happened here in oswego in 2007 was almost unbelievable. cal harris convicted of killing his wife michelle, was about to be sent away for 25 to life. and suddenly, it all blew up right in gerry keynes face. >> i came into the courtroom thinking the defendant was going to be sentenced. and it ended up being more of my being on trial. >> reporter: who on earth had the power to make this happen? he did. kevin tubbs. >> i know that she was there, okay? i know she was. >> reporter: kevin tubbs. a plain spoken farm worker back then was hauling hay and why was he so important? because after six years during which tuff's war he barely registered

the fuss over the harris case, he picked up a paper and saw the story of cal's conviction, and. >> i seen that and, you know, i started, like, recalling, you know, thinking like, oh, my god. >> reporter: just like that! he suddenly knew, he said, that what he saw the morning after 9/11, the morning michelle harris disappeared, was important. it was between 5:30 and 6:00 in the morning, he said, he was hauling a load of hay. >> as i was going by the harris property, there was a blond woman out there and a young gentleman, you know, in his early 20s. >> reporter: standing by a pickup truck. >> my lights were right on them. >> reporter: hardly more than ten feet away, he said he looked straight at the young man, saw he was dark haired and muscular and visibly angry. >> he looks at me like this, like what do you want? >> reporter: and the woman? she was looking down. >> just by her face, looked like she was crying. she was either upset or wasted. >> reporter: the woman he said,

he was certain of it, was michele harris. >> i know it was her. >> reporter: was it true? if kevin tubbs really did see michelle in the early morning hours of september 12th then the prosecutor's case was in ruins, because cal harris couldn't have murdered her some seven hours before. an innocent man had just been convicted and so the judge tossed out the verdict, called for another trial and sent cal home to his kids. many, including michelle's family, thought tubbs'story was bogus. >> everybody knew he was lying. it was the most bizarre story you could have ever told. >> reporter: and, of course, when trial number two opened in 2009, the prosecution attacked tubbs'crediblility. why wait six years to come forward? still for the defense tubbs was pure gold and a man to create reasonable doubt. >> there simply isn't enough evidence to convict cal harris of murder.

>> reporter: bill easton was one of cal's attorneys. there is not an eyewitness to, it or ear witness to it. none of this is direct evidence is present in this case. he didn't confessed to. it >> reporter: the prosecution argued that cal showed how unfeeling he was by failing to join the search for michelle. that was nonsense said his aunt mary. cal was simply trying to keep it altogether for his small children. >> there were dozens, maybe hundreds of experts scouring the area looking for her and there was one person taking care of these four kids. >> reporter: that alleged motive that cal was worried the dealerships would take a hit because of the divorce? not so said cal's side. his lawyer told him michelle couldn't touch the business and that any way before she vanished michele had dieded to accept cal's settlement offer, $740,000. >> she had indicated to

numerous people she was happy with the settlement. >> reporter: besides, said aunt mary. >> it was plenty of money to go around. and no amount of money would have made cal say, oh, for $2 million i'm just going to wipe her out. >> reporter: then there was the blood. spatter in the kitchen alcove, could have been a cut finger, said the defense but any way nobody could really tell when it was left there. the prosecution claimed that cal tried to wash away blood on the garage floor. >> there is a small amount of diluted blood that was found days after the new york state police had walked through this particular area of the house while they were conducting the search. >> reporter: walking out is not going to destroy the blood cells. >> it could dilute it if their boots are wet. >> reporter: finally, the defense decided jurors needed to hear from cal harris, as a caring father, not as the husband the state made him out to be so the defendant took the

stand. >> it was nerve wracking at at first. obviously my life is on the line. and my kids, their lives to. the >> reporter: he admitted to an affair, blamed himself for the end of the marriage but denied will he had threatened, hurt, or tried to control michelle. if anything, he said, michelle had been living a bit of a wild life staying out all hours just before she disappeared. >> she came and went as she pleased. she had money to spend. wasn't tracking her down. the babysitters were here, the nannies were here and she was off doing -- i don't even know what she was doing. >> reporter: was it enough? the jury deliberated for almost two days and it wasn't guilty again. >> takes your breath away. you know? it's like getting stabbed in the stomach and just i'm numb. you know? i had already been through it once.

>> reporter: family and friends stepped in, took care of his small kids, who began a weekly ritual visiting dad in prison. taylor, the eldest. >> you go and see him two hours a week and a bunch of other people talking and it's loud and can't really have a private conversation. leaving was definitely the hardest part for us. i mean, he held it together well. >> reporter: what was it like driving? >> it was quiet. >> reporter: watching his kids walk away week after week, said cal, was unimaginably hard. >> it was the worst. i went back to my cell and just laid there for hours and hours and just closed my eyes and tried to block it out. >> reporter: three years rolled by. then came a day in october 2012 when cal harris found himself crying for joy in the prison yard. coming up. >> it's rare, though. this is really rare. >> yes. >> a new chance at freedom and

new urgency from the kids. >> this is kind of our time to come out and do our part. >> reporter: >> and a whole new thorough of the case. >> it's all coming together. >> it's time to look elsewhere. >> trial number three. when dateline continues. teline continues it all starts with the most innovative technology. like the new miracle-earmini, available exclusively at miracle-ear. so small that no one will see it, but you'll notice the difference. and now, miracle-ear is offering a thirty-day risk-free trial. you can experience better hearing with no obligation. call 1-800-miracle right now and experience a better life. so what's going on? i'm a talking dog.

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it's time to get away to a place where we can finally be free. ♪i've got to break free♪ (vo) plan your future getaway with norwegian. sail safe. feel free. >> reporter: had cal harris won the lottery it could be hardly more surprising than the news he heard in the prison yard in october of 2012. this is rare.

this is rarely rare. what happened? new york's court of appeals overturned the guilty conviction. said the trial judge made mistakes during jury selection. and allowed hearsay testimony. though the appeals court order trial court number three. cal, once again, went home to the house and empire lake. and his four growing children. tanner, the youngest, was in eighth grade then. the rest were in high school. >> it was great. >> reporter: what a change, huh? >> back to normal. >> reporter: it didn't take long to adjust? >> we had to adjust what our plans were. i >> reporter: you had been coping on your own for so so long. >> yeah. >> reporter: this time, the kids were determined this would be different. >> we wanted to know that our dad will not be taken away from us again for a crime we know he did not commit. >> it was a very public coming

out. kayla addressed the cameras. the rest of the kids and their teary-eyed dad stood by. >> >> we will not sit here in silence and watch another travesty of justice take place. >> reporter: the family asked the public to find out what really happened to michelle. it was march 2014. >> it's time for a real investigation that will get us answers. >> i think that it was a good thing for us to finally come out and talk about. it >> reporter: how did it feel to do it? >> good. >> we newell it was time to come out and give our side and do our part in this. >> reporter: cal hired new lawyers and they condemned the state for an investigation which they said was blind to any suspect but their client. the defense attorney bruce broquette. >> they have pursued this man for 14 years with scant evidence, evidence that really no prosecutor should bring a case on. >> reporter: the defense went

back to witnesses the police had interviewed years before, talked to others, and heard a whole new story of michele's last hours on earth. earlier trials, they said, revealed the mother of four had been hanging with an unsavoring crowd, coworkers and customers from her waitressing job. attorney ieta. >> there were people there had criminal records and dealing drugs and people there making sexual advances. >> reporter: and on the night she vanished after she left her boyfriend's place, they now knew, they said, that michelle did not go home because one of those witnesses reported seeing her later that night with another man, a local steel worker. attorney donna el dia. >> on september 11th in a bar and in a dance club and he was there and he left the two of them and they went alone. >> reporter: the steel worker was stacy stewart. he told his

friends had he a sexual relationship with michelle and said the defense stacy stewart appeared to be the very man kevin tubbs saw with michelle in the early hours of september 12th. >> there was a blond woman out there and a young gentleman, you know, in his early 20s. >> reporter: tubbs identified that man from a photograph. >> his physical appearance, his facial hair, his height, his age, and the type of vehicle he drove. >> reporter: tubbs said the man he saw was standing beside a black truck. stacy stewart owned a black truck. same kind and it's a new model and it's a chevy. you look everything up and it's all coming together. >> reporter: stacy stewart has denied any involvement in michele's disappearance and he has denied he ever had a relationship with michelle. he said he was never even alone with her. still cal's side was convinced that stewart and a friend of his played some role in michelle's disappearance. in

2015, trial number three opened to the town of schohaire a change necessary said the defense because the case was too well known in tioga county. and the defense managed to get some of the prosecution's case thrown out. the state wasn't allowed to suggest, as it had before, the blood was spilled around the time that michelle disappeared. >> to have forensic scientists get up and speculate and guess at how old the blood was based on the color from a photograph is unsupported proposition. >> reporter: and out was evidence that cal threatened michel michelle's life. then >> we don't believe that it ended up in evidence. >> then the defense had an opportunity to present its evidence, about the alternate suspect, stacey stewart. they judge shut them down. the jury would only be allowed

to hear stewart's name, that michel knew him, that kevin tabs had ided him, and that he owned a black truck at the time. no more. why? because stacey stewart wasn't on trial. cal harris was. the wrong man, his attorneys insisted. >> cal did not deserve to be on trial. and, frankly, michelle and her family deserved better. we all want to know what happened to her. it's time to look elsewhere. >> reporter: there was a new prosecutor this time, tioga county's kirk martin. he made the same arguments the previous d.a. did and said the harris -- pointed to harris killing his wife. the trial took three months. finally, late april, the jury got it and the waiting began. michelle's family was still convinced that calloway's guilty. >> is there a corner of your brain that thinks, maybe it was somebody else? >> not at all. not at all. >> reporter: well kyle and his

family hope the jury had been persuaded otherwise. you know you had been confident before. because you have said, i didn't do it. i should be acquitted. and yet you weren't. so how does that impact your thinking now? >> just by what bruce and his team have done in the investigation. we didn't have what we have now. >> reporter: so uncertainty, by this time it was a way of life for the children. so i think, you know, if things don't go our way, it will definitely turn our worlds upside down. >> i know we are tough enough and we will get through it. but you definitely don't like to think about that kind of thing. >> we definitely have plans, what we want to do. when it all is said and done, we will see how the interns out. >> reporter: >> reporter: want to talk about that at all?

maybe. maybe not. >> it's the end of cal harris's third murder trial, his attorneys determined to show there was reasonable doubt in the case. but would that be enough to persuade the jury? >> breaking news out of the courthouse. >> would you believe trial number four? when dateline continues. en dateline continues. sn't care. i keep my social distance. shingles doesn't care. i stay within my family bubble. shingles doesn't care. because if you've had chicken pox, you're already carrying the virus that causes shingles. in fact, about 1 in 3 people will develop shingles, and the risk only increases as you age. so what can protect you against shingles? shingrix protects. now you can protect yourself from shingles with a vaccine proven to be over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions

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harris'first two trials, jurors returned their verdicts swiftly. third time, deliberations dragged. finally, almost two weeks in, the jurors made it clear they simply could not reach a verdict. >> breaking news out of the schoharie county courthouse, the third trial has been ruled a mistrial. >> reporter a mistrial. it was the outcome nobody wanted. >> we got closer to justice, but we're not there yet. >> michele's family, convinced they knew the truth, that cal murdered michelle, left the courthouse without comment. >> not right now. >> reporter: and tioga county prosecutor martin vowed to do it again. >> there have been two guilty verdicts in this case and i eagerly await the earliest possible trial date that fits with the court's schedule. >> reporter: a fourth trial? really? yes, indeed. in march 2016, deja vu all over again.

same courthouse, same cast of characters with one notable newcomer. >> how are you? >> reporter: judge richard maher. when cal waived his right to a jury trial, the new judge suddenly had a starring role in trial number 4. he would decide the case. he'd also decide whether to hear the defense's new evidence. in the end, he allowed some, but not all. lead defense attorney bruce barquette. >> the truth finally began to peek its head at this trial. we finally begin to see at least an outline of who is actually responsible for michelle harris'demise. >> reporter: a peek or two, that's all. he made the most of it. talking about testimony tham steelworker stacy stewart once said, something about michelle. >> he says i was the last person to be seen with her when she was alive. >> reporter: defense attorneys wanted to put stacy stewart on the stand but couldn't track

him down. so now, in closing, he didn't offer a detailed theory about what happened to michelle. didn't have to. >> i'm asking the court to find mr. harris not guilty because there's not proof beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed this offense. >> reporter: four trials and now it was all on the line. and so d.a. kirk martin came on strong. that whole defense theory, he told the judge, was a fantasy. >> there's no evidence stacy stewart had any sort of relationship with michele, let alone any reason or motive to harm one hair on her head. >> finally, said the d.a., after so many years, so many trials, it was time to convict cal harris once and for all. >> michele died at the hands of her husband, the defendant, calvin harris. >> so what would the judge do? >> we presented the evidence about what we think happened. >> the judge was terse. the verdict brief with no

explanation. just two words. words cal harris and his children had waited 15 years to hear. not guilty. >> when he came back with a not guilty, i was shocked. i was truly shocked. >> reporter: shocked. overjoyed. and saddened by what he had lost. >> best years of my life as a parent. i'll never get those years back. >> reporter: he will also never stand trial for his wife's murder again. exonerated now. and free finally to speak his mind about his terrible 15-year ordeal. >> from my standpoint personally, i think one of the greatest hypocrisies in our country is our criminal justice system. there is nothing fair about it. >> reporter: cal did something more than speak out. they filed a sweeping 26-page federal

complaint claiming malicious prosecution and violations of civil rights. the lawyer representing tioga county, the county's district attorney's office and several members of the new york state police, have denied allegations of misconduct. still, a mystery endures. about a woman who vanished on a warm september night. while the rest of the world was looking the other way. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. thanks for watching. her name was sarah, a sweet single mom, the baby in a big-hearted family. >> tried to protect her any way that we could. a family turned army when she vanished. >> this is how many people we have right now. >> we just started searching. >> they just wanted to find her. >> that kind of emotion really