attempted kidnapping and indecent exposure. he was sentenced to 15 years, barring new evidence, the state does not plan to file charges against him for a third time in the nona dirksmeyer killing. >> that is all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin, thank you for watching. >> i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline. >> it happens on tv, it doesn't happen to your family. to your brother. but it does. >> no one thought it could happen to him. he was a tough guy prepared for anything. >> he always would say, if anyone tries to break in here, i'll kill him. >> instead, he was a kid. stabbed in his own home. >> you sure your dad's cool to the touch? >> his son and daughter in law stumbled into a terrifying scene.

>> that's when i saw the gun. >> they said, we're going to have to kill you. >> now, a strange story that only got stranger. >> they had purple gloves on. >> and they had blue, fuzzy gloves. >> something isn't right here. >> could he have killed his own father? what really happened in that house? >> i did not do this. >> then, a witness came forward and changed everything. and this bizarre story, the strangest thing of all was the truth. >> he planned for any scenario. except for the one that happened to him. >> hello, and welcome to "dateline". ken mortensen was a strong minded man who had built fortune and a fortress to protect it. and then kay was attacked, turning his home into a bloody crime scene. how, police wondered, could someone so vigilant be taken by surprise? it was a riddle that threatened

to destroy kay's family. until someone with an explosive secret revealed a horrifying truth. here's keith morrison with "mystery at payson canyon". >> there are people on this glorious, sunkissed planet of ours who get up each morning to the miracle of being alive and worry. not that there aren't things to worry about, of course. whether we can do anything about them or not. but some people worry a very great deal indeed, and do try to be prepared for whatever. and one of those prepared people was a brilliant retired university professor named kay mortensen, whose sister was a woman name fern. >> i said, well kay, what would happen if i'm not prepared and i'm hungry? or my kids are hungry? can we come to your house? and he said no, i'll probably just shoot you. so, he said it jestingly. but he was definitely willing to protect.

>> oh yes, he certainly was. and sure enough, one night -- >> 9-1-1. what's the address of your emergency? >> but we're getting ahead of ourselves. what happened that night was a long time coming. it was long before that when kay became a survivalist. with attitude. >> he knew exactly what he thought about everything. and even though he knew what he was saying was going to be outrageous and not accepted, he would say it anyway. >> he had a black belt in karate. he owned scores of firearms. kept guns in just about every room of the house. and in all of his cars. a fully stocked, concrete bunker, outside his home in payson, utah. >> he had food. he had everything there. water, a way to go to the bathroom, magazines, books to read. >> kay was very clear about it with his wife darla. >> and he would say this is

where you and i are going to end up, because there is going to be a nuclear war. >> i would say, i don't want to live if everybody else is. dying [laughs] so, he was a true patriot. he worried about things and wanted to be prepared for the civil war that was going to erupt. so, he was little over the top. >> darla wasn't thrilled about it. but she accepted him and his radical views. after all, they were still kind of in their honeymoon phase. >> it was all kind of surreal. i think we both felt like we were back being teenagers again. [laughs] so -- because we both hadn't really had love for quite a few years. >> they found each other late in life. after both had raised families. kay had three adult children by then. one of whom, his eldest, roger, stayed close. >> he was my best friend. we did everything together. >> mind you, roger was not at all like kay. for one thing, he'd suffered a brain injury in an accident

years ago. so, unlike kay, he couldn't work much. lived on disability. but he liked to hang out with his dad. >> we lived less than a mile apart because we did enjoy spending so much time together. if i ever needed needed help, he would be there in a minute to help me. >> although, said roger's wife pam, it wasn't always easy. that's just the way kay was wired. >> roger's dad was a very strong willed person. it was his way or the highway. >> so, roger learned early to shy away from confrontation with his father. not at all how it was with his new love, darnella. when she was around they said, keys tough hide melted. >> we knew that he really loved her and that he was willing to compromise and do some things so that he could make her happy over. >> did it seem to kind of soften him up a little bit? >> yes, it did.

a lot. >> so, kate and darnella got married. >> and they were as happy as either one of them had ever been. >> he'd say, what else do we need to do? we're retired. we have plenty of money. we'll just have fun. >> kay was a rich man. made most of his money buying gold at 250 an ounce, said darla. >> he just had the foresight. he was always -- you know, the dollar bill is not going to be worth anything. >> he put his money into a trust, so that roger and his other children would inherit everything once he was gone. heaven knows, he wasn't spending it. worth millions but -- >> he was very frugal. very frugal. and i just used to say to him -- i said, when is it you are going to spend your money? you know? what are you waiting for? >> so kay promised darla he'd travel with her. see the world. but he made sure his bunker was stocked. and he kept his guns close to hand. just in case.

and then it was november 16th, 2009. darla was away watching her granddaughters. kay was alone at his house in payson. >> 9-1-1. what's the address of your emergency? >> it was evening when the call came in. >> i have help on the way but i just need to get some information. are you sure that he's dead? >> darla was on her way home. herself phone chirped. it was a neighbor. >> and he just says, well something terrible has happened in peyson canyon. he says, i think it's at your house. >> darla's might flashed to kay and his guns. >> and i thought, oh my gosh, he's probably shot somebody. an invader or something. >> she phoned a family friend named chris. >> i said something is going on, i'm alone. i just need somebody. can you come down to be with me? >> chris rushed to meet darla at the foot of the canyon. police had blocked off the road that led to kay and darla's house. but now darla and chris thought exactly the same thing. >> kay probably shot someone.

>> turned out kay never got the chance. -- >> coming up -- roger makes an agonizing discovery. and stumbles directly into murder scene. >> they said, wrong place, wrong time. >> when "dateline" continues. people everywhere living with type 2 diabetes are waking up to what's possible with rybelsus®. ♪ you are my sunshine ♪ ♪ my only sunshine... ♪ rybelsus® is a pill that lowers blood sugar in three ways. increases insulin when you need it...

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[ sneezing ] needs, plop plop fizz fizz. alka seltzer plus cold relief. dissolves quickly. instantly ready to start working. so you can bounce back fast with alka-seltzer plus. now available for fast sinus relief. >> everyone knew that kay mortensen was always prepared, surrounded himself with a veritable arsenal, with firearms. just a tough old bird that could defend himself against anything. >> he would always say if someone tries to break in here, i will kill them.

>> but life, no matter how well we prepare, is full of rude surprises. as it was for kay mortensen. it was november 16th, 2009, just before thanksgiving. >> we have the police one the way to help you there. are you sure your dad's cold to the touch? >> kay did not shoot some intruder, as he promised he was prepared to do. no, someone killed him. without firing a shot. >> yes, he's leaned over, face forward in the bathtub with his throat sliced. >> and the man on the phone reporting the crime? roger mortensen. kay's eldest son. >> they sliced his throat. >> it wasn't long before kay's wife darla had made it to the mouth of the canyon, and was led to the command post that was set up beyond the hill before their home. that's where they gave her the news. >> your life just comes tumbling down. you had it all planned out, you thought you knew it was going

to be okay, then everything is gone. >> kay caught off guard? not kay, thought dara. impossible. but that seemed to be just what happened. at least, that's what roger and pam told the police and later us. and a very strange story it was. that began, they said, when pam received a pie at work as a gift. >> we knew how much he loved that pecan pie and she decided after work to take him the pie. >> so they went to his house intending to drop off the pie and then leave. but when they got there, they said, there was an unfamiliar car in the driveway. pam said she knocked on the door and a young man answered. >> i said is kay here? he said yes he is, he's here top drop off a pie. i said we were just here to drop off of a pie. and they said, go right in. i got to about the landing when i was asked to come back down, i heard the door shut. and when i turned around,

that's when i saw the gun. >> what was it like to see that? >> it was a shock. as soon as we turned around and saw the gun, another guy started walking down the stairs, he had in his hand award of sikh ties. they turn to us and said, your here at the wrong place, wrong time, pull out your hands. >> the intruders zip tied the wrist, force them down on the living room forward. then zip down their ankles. >> while we were down they said, we're sorry, you've seen our faces, will have to kill you now. >> pam, quaking of terror, she said, looked at a picture of jesus hanging on the living room wall. >> i kept thinking, heavenly father if you really love me and care for me, please make us get through this. and it calmed me to keep looking at that picture of christ and to be able to help

roger stay calm. that really had an impact on you. >> when it did. >> why? >> it brought me comfort, it brought me peace to know that. >> even if they killed. you >> to know that, my heavenly father loves me and he would do the right thing for me worth. >> man left the room, they said, then roger began playing a allowed. he was midsentence when he said when the men walked back in, and something quite amazing happen. >> what my wife looks back at me and she says the quiet, they're back. and one of them says it's okay, keep praying. and they both folded their arms and bowed their heads and listen to me as i continue this entire prayer. >> how weird is that? >> when i got done with the prayer we both sat down and their demeanor changed at that point. one of them looks at us and says, well we've decided we will not kill you. we've decided we are going to

tell you a story you need to relate to the police. >> but was that story that the instructed to him to say? the three black men with ski masks, three, not two as they actually were. and black, not white as they actually were. and then, said roger, they took his drivers license and said they would know if they ever told the truth and then they would hunt them down and kill them. then the two men left. roger and pam waited a while, got off the zip ties, and roger ran upstairs while pam dialed one 9-1-1. she was on the phone with the operator when roger found his father upstairs in the bathroom. >> and i saw my father kneeling over the bathtub. his feet were tied, his head was down in the bathtub. >> inconceivable. tough, brazilian, i'm to the teeth, murdered with his own kitchen knife?

what a story. >> eric, than a sergeant with the utah county sheriff's office was assigned as one of the leading tech gives. he was sitting in the office when, from up of the house, the first officer to talk to pam and roger called them. >> i said, you know, something isn't right here. it seems from his perception that something was staged, or something was not wet normal for crime as vicious and heinous has this. >> something about this bizarre story did not sit right. he just could not put his finger on it. we're not yet, anyway. >> coming up, problem was, that bizarre story got winner by the minute. >> we have purple gloves on. they had been, fuzzy gloves. >> when dateline continues . . hand me some potato skins. theyyyy're loooaded!

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was horrific, humiliating. helpless to defend himself inside his own secret fortress. the killer had been him over his own bathtub. slashed his throat several times, stabbed his neck. all those guns and not a single one fired. it seemed so personal. sergeant eric of the utah county sheriff's office got a briefing from the first officer on the scene. turned on his audio recorder

when he met kay's son roger, and roger's wife. pam roger had found the body was already suggesting possible killers. >> he told me he had appointment for lunch at noon with a guy named mike kit, discussing $25,000 worth of guns. >> mike kit? mike was kay's former student. >> roger and pam identified him real quick, saying he's involved. he owes my dad money. he's the one that did this. >> roger told detectives that kay was holding a connection of mics weapons. about 30 of them, mostly pistols and rifles. and some shotguns. kay put the guns in his bunker. roger thought there might be a grudge involved. when detectives went to look for the guns they were gone. >> so we pile in michael cape and we interview him and we can get his alibi as quick. >> nothing suspicious about it turned out. mike had not nothing to do with

kay's murder. he simply needed money and martin kay agreed to buy his guns. by now kit tips were coming in. >> and this female said is the bigger voice. she said, the bigger boys. do this >> the baker boys were brothers who fairly or not, had developed a reputation as the towns troublemakers. detectives found them. they had solid alibis. then the next day another tip. a woman who implicated her own husband. >> he came home last night in the timeframe before the homicide. he grabbed a bunch of stuff including a knife. and he's been looking for guns. so, i know he's involved. >> but the woman's husband was eventually eliminated as a suspect. detectives hopes maybe the stolen guns would lead them to kay's killers. >> and we recovered a lot of firearms worse that were stolen. but again, none linked. >> that just highlighted another aspect of the mystery. kay remember, collected

firearms and how close to hundred valuable guns locked up at his house. yet, the thieves just stole the cheaper ones from the bunker. >> pretty bizarre robbery to take those guns and not take the far more valuable collection. >> agreed. >> in fact, the inside of kay's was pristine, untouched. no sign anybody had stolen anything. if this was a home invasion, it was an odd one. but by then, truth be told, detectives were already honing in on the two people who admitted they were there the whole time. kay's sun roger and his wife pam. >> you sure that he's dead? >> starting with that 9-1-1 call they made. something odd about it. >> it didn't sound how i would think that a phone call should be made to 9-1-1 right after discovering your father had just been killed with of throat cut and sit tight bound up. >> roger and pound, said the detectives, appear to be an emotional.

uncaring, even callous. even though they claimed the gunmen stood over them, kept them hostage for almost two hours. at first, pam couldn't seem to describe the man. >> okay. did the guy that had the gun. what did he look like? we see a white guy, black guy, hispanic? >> she seemed uncertain even about the number of gunmen. >> how many were there? how many guys were? >> there could have been three. >> but listen to what happened next. roger took the phone and changed the story. >> where they white, black, hispanic? >> they were white. >> three white males. okay, how -- >> two white males. >> two white males? >> roger explained the reason for all the apparent confusion, that if they ever revealed whether captures looked like they would be hunted down and kill. did you buy that? >> not really. i didn't. they didn't appear fearful. they were saying it. but they were really acting fearful. >> anyway, why would vicious killers not have killed than, two?

the night of the murder he they were interviewed. >> my name is eric by the way. >> did they seem nervous or agitated? >> not really nervous or agitated. just kind of an emotional. >> even at times, cold towards the victim. roger's father. >> he was a cantankerous old far and he says his mouth everybody. >> and as they told their stories. detective started noticing subtle differences. >> and they had blue, fuzzy gloves. they looked like women's winter driving gloves. or something. >> they had -- i know they had purple gloves. purple, you know, your medical gloves. >> lots of details in which they didn't agree. so the sergeant decided to employ a well-known prerelease interview technique. he got tough. accusing. >> quite frankly, i think this story is a bunch of crap. i think this story is a bunch of crap that you and roger have come up with. okay? >> and sorry you can't believe me. but --

>> i'm trying to. >> does it sound to rehearsed -- or. >> yes. >> okay. >> i want them to say i had nothing to do with this. you know? detective, you're crazy. i had nothing to do with this. that is what i wanted to hear. and it never came up. >> but listen to what did come out. >> is your husband capable of killing somebody? >> i need to get a drink. >> i wouldn't hope. i mean i wouldn't think he is. i wouldn't think that he's capable of killing his father -- >> a search of roger and pounds whom showed they appear to be in financial trouble. detectives found collection notices and and sent mortgage coupons. suggesting at least, that they were behind in their house payments. >> i know we're in a lot of that. but we -- i, personally -- would not have my father in law killed for his money. >> and yet, as roger told the detective -- >> i get a big share of my dad

's millions, to. >> within days of the murder, pam and roger agreed to go back to the house with detectives for a videotaped retelling of their intruder story. >> at the front door, my wife was holding right here. >> did that provide you any useful information? >> it provided useful information as far as more circumstantial evidence that they are not being 100 percent truthful. >> once again, detectives heard foggy memories. >> she either knocked on the door rang the doorbell. i believe she knocked on the door. >> they heard dialog about sounded like a bad cry movie. >> he pointed at us and said, your here at the wrong time. put out your hands. >> but then there was that same, strange lack of emotion. when roger described what should have been the worst moment of his life. >> came back downstairs and my wife was talking at the time to 9-1-1 dispatch. and i said, he's dead.

>> roger and pam took a polygraph tests. and what do you know, roger was found to be deceptive. and pam was jumpy. the operator couldn't complete the task. but still roger and panned swore up-and-down brought they had nothing to do with it. they were victims himself. truth be told, the police needed some real evidence. when out of the blue, something arrived. >> investigators are confronted with new evidence and strange does not begin to describe it. someone saw the killing in a dream. coming up -- >> i have a photo lineup drawn up. and she puts her finger on it, she puts it right on roger's face. >> when dateline continues.

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million dollar settlement with the family of elijah mcclain. mcclain was killed in a violent confrontation with a role for police in 2019. this marks the largest police settlement in the city's history. and rolls-royce and as the major milestone in the future of air travel, claiming to have developed the world's fastest all electric aircraft. the spirit of innovation reached top speeds of 387 miles per hour. now back to dateline. back to dateline >> welcome back to "dateline", i'm craig melvin. police suspected roger and pam mortensen were cold blooded killers. to investigators, they story about finding k dead at the head hands of two armed intruders, did not add up. and with kagan, roger stood to inherit a fortune. unlikely witness would bolster the detectives case with her

own chilling tale of what happened tonight. continuing with mystery at pace in canyon, here is keith morrison. >> within days of k mortensen murder, his family found some deeply troubling reports. the investigation was leading, shores can be, detectives told them, to kay's son roger and rogers wife pam. garland said she could not believe it at first. >> i was just adamant that they could not have done it. i was their biggest defender. >> but then detectives asked her to listen to roger in pans recorded statements. and she too started to wonder. >> they told lies and it just put more suspicion on them. gradually, her conviction grew, same for k's sister, fern. >> i could by the fact that they were thinking of rodgers involvement. >> they were just too many things about roger and pam's story that didn't make any sense to fern.

>> and there were something else as well, a possible witness. >> remember that woman who suspected her husband was involved? police found him here in salt lake city, on a drug binge, they were high on matt. one of the people, a woman named can me bills, told detectives she had a story to tell about a dream she had had. >> she described what she calls a dream, well, seeing someone get killed. she describes being outside of a room. she describes a female off to her left crying in his there. and she describes three or four males in the bathroom. and she says there is one male, and i think this relates to the female on the floor screaming. >> remember, the woman was on methamphetamine, reporting not what she saw where she dreamed she saw. still, you never know until you ask. >> so i have a photo lineup drawn up, and she stares at, it puts your finger on it after

staring down. she puts it right on roger's face. >> the next day, detectives took county to kay's house, showed her the crime scene, and again she named roger. >> i can see roger, his arms, he's holding k. >> you don't hear a story and say, wow, that's a piece of crap and go on from there? >> no, now when she gives that amount of detail. >> the story was hardening by the minute. now the tests actives kept the rest of the family and forms of developments. >> what did you think? >> it threw me for a loop. >> when pam and roger attended case funeral, the tension was stick. >> it was very difficult to be there there because everyone wanted to know what happened that night. >> but they couldn't say anything, said pam. detectives told him not to. >> my sister came up to me and said, tell me what really happened? and i said, i'm sorry, i cannot

talk about this. >> shortly after roger and pam took the polygraph test, and we're told about the dismal results, they hired a lawyer. >> few in the mortensen family could understand why they would do a thing like that, if they were innocent, that is. >> i tried to say, what would i do if i was in their situation? i would do everything i could to help get these people that had caused such horror in their lives and murdered k. >> on the advice of their attorneys, roger and pam stopped talking. and a lopsided rift in the mortensen family widened, from mistrust to anger to accusation. chris andrus, the woman called the night of the murder, with one of the few people to support roger. >> they will have to hang out and dry. >> how did you feel? >> i was so angry, so, so angry. i couldn't believe that you could love somebody and do that

to them. even if i thought roger had done it, i would not have abandoned him. >> and they did it? >> absolutely, not only did they abandon, they crucified him. >> months went by and roger and pam were headline news in utah. but the absence of physical evidence meant they remain free. day-by-day, they went about their business, as though their lives were still quite normal. then, on july 28th, 2010, utah county prosecutor tim taylor took a dramatic step to break the logjam. he presented the case against roger and ban to a grand jury. >> so why call the grand jury? why not just charge them? >> we thought the grand jury was a great tool to force them to come in to talk. >> it was a secret proceeding. no defendants, no defense attorney. only prosecutors, police, some members of the mortensen family,

even some of pans coworkers, all in front of 16 jurors, whose job was to decide whether or not they should charge roger in pam with kay's murder. then, in just over an hour, the jury decided to indict. >> what did that say to you? >> well, there was enough to proceed. >> it's sort of reinforce where you are already thinking. >> it did. >> and that same day, eight months after k mortensen was found dead in his home, roger and pam were deposited in the county jail. chris angeles, the family friend who still believe they were one innocent, went to her sister. i >> said to julie, we need some money to hire an attorney for roger. we think pam stanley can come up with the money but roger needs a separate attorney. there's millions of dollars in the trust. can you help me? she said, not one red penny will be spent on his defense. >> julie told us she did not use those specific words, but

she said the family was advised by their attorney not to use k's money to pay for roger's defense, which meant that roger, who stood to inherit a big chunk of his dad's millions, would rely on a public defender. we're pam and roger, the cold blooded killers that their family had come to believe them to be? of course, we, and everyone else, just had to know. >> coming up, roger and pan face some tough questions. >> as the interrogations continue, your stories didn't stay the same, according to the police at least. >> when dateline continues. hen dateline continues walter, twelve o' clock. get em boy! [cows mooing] that is incredible. it's the multi-flex tailgate. it can be a step, it can even become a workspace. i meant the cat. what's so great about him? he doesn't have a workspace.

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with roger's own family and many of their longtime friends, joined a lineup against roger and pam mortensen charged with murdering roger's father kay and they waited for their day in court. but the evidence against them? they are strange demeanor, alleged financial troubles, rodgers failed polygraph. but mostly, according to detectives, the bizarre and ever-changing story they told about the night of the murder. what was the truth? we ask the only people who knew for sure. starting at the beginning with that strange 9-1-1 call. >> who held you hostage? >> i don't know.

>> viewers here that 9-1-1 call and they think, hey, something is wrong here. people scream on 9-1-1 calls. they are crazed. >> and i think i wasn't a lot of shock that and i don't know the real reason why i was -- i could stay as calm as i can. but that's just my personality. that's the type of person i am. >> and although she didn't sound like it, she was terrified, she said. their captors had just threatened to kill them if they told the truth. >> so when the 9-1-1 operator asked me how many where there, i was totally confused as to what to say. do i tell the truth? which is what i wanted to do. >> roger said he knew exactly what he had to do when he discovered his father in the bathtub. >> i hollered down to her but when she was still on the phone, tell her the exact truth, we

are going to get these guys. >> but pam said, she still couldn't spit it out. >> i was staggering through what was going on -- well, there was two, maybe there was three -- because i didn't know. i was terrified for my life, still. and i didn't know what i should have said. >> what about their police interrogations? when there stories didn't match? >> i thought their gloves were one color, she thought their gloves were another color. other than that, our stories were basically the same. >> both cooperated fully, said. roger kept talking for days, even as police brought up one accusation after another. >> there was an inheritance involved. >> yes. >> and you talk about that with the police? >> i may, have i'm not sure. >> well, according to them, you talked about it. and provided one of the classic motivations that children have for killing their parents. cops run into it all the time. right? >> they say they do.

>> and that's clearly what they were thinking when they talked to you. >> yes. >> did they make that clear? >> they didn't make very much clear to us. they just said that we were not being cooperative with them, even though from the very beginning, we told him everything that happened. >> they just didn't believe it. they didn't believe that two people would kill one person and leave two more alive. >> perhaps. but what about roger and pam's apparent financial troubles? >> we were not having any financial problems. if we were having financial problems, my father would be glad to help us. we had that type of relationship. >> they were certainly not debt free, they said, but it didn't amount to a whole lot. transfer the pile of unscented mortgage coupons, they simply started paying online, they said, like everyone else. and as for the failed polygraph test, roger said he should never have been asked to take it.

remember, he is on disability because years ago he had a serious accident that left him with a brain injury. it caused him, among other things, short term memory loss and confusion. the sort of thing that would make a polygraph result useless. >> i said, how could i have failed? i did not do this? >> so, was he lying? or did police have it all wrong? >> they didn't know how to proceed. they couldn't find fingerprints because the people had gloves on. they didn't find a gun because they took it with them. they did not know what to do, so being confused, they went after the easiest subjects they good find. it was us. >> the days piled up, a month, two months, four months in jail, waiting for their day at court. a day for which rogers lawyer wasn't quite so eager. >> we had a case that i believed in. we had a case that i thought we could defend. at the end of the day, i was scared.

>> and no one was prepared for when cold winter day in the utah county sheriff's office, the phone rang. >> coming up, the unexpected call, the truth revealed. >> -- >> a surprise ending you won't believe. when dateline continues. en dateline continues. point. then break it. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best with emergen-c. why hide your skin if dupixent has your moderate to severe eczema or atopic dermatitis under control? hide my skin? not me.

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again. the family marked a grim anniversary of kay mortensen's murder. as case on roger and his daughter-in-law pam cooled their heels in jail, all the while maintaining their innocence, they waited in jail. pam said she was offered a deal if she turned against roger. >> if you tell them what they want to hear, you can go home. but for me, i was not going to lie just so that i could be a free person. i >> public defender anthony howl believed his client was innocent. i >> was looking for that piece of evidence -- oh, there is that thing i can't explain -- but there was nothing. >> here's the rub. new juries and but -- he was deeply unsettled. >> i was worried he would be convicted regardless of what i tried to do. >> why? >> because this is the kind of case where a jury would be

worried that if they didn't convict, then they would be letting a murderer go free. but >> howell didn't get the opportunity to defend his client in court. the reason was, that phone call to the utah county sheriff's office, a call from a woman named cheryl bingham. here's what she had to say. >> i watched it on the news -- these people are going to go to jail, prison. probably a life sentence. >> what's she had been blocking out was a bombshell. her ex husband, martin bond, told her her and a friend went to kay's house to seal his guns. >> they pulled out their guns and he said that she wasn't willing at first. but he eventually did. i >> bond, she said, told him her everything.

>> -- >> and cut his throat and then -- >> i heard the doorbell ring, i and then it was the two -- >> the two? roger and pam. and we know the rest of the story. rachel bingham kept the secret for months until finally her conscience went out. she told the police one more thing. how the crooks got the drawn kate mortensen. it turned out that martin's dad and kay world friends. kaye had known martin as a kid, which is why k, and against intruders, welcomed him in and turned his back to his killers. >> he had planned for any worst-case scenario to happen, except for the one that happened to him. >> in that there are so many ironies, aren't there? >> there are so many ironies, yeah. >> the biggest, perhaps? >> roger in pam's crazy story about armed intruders was true all along, though the sergeant still had trouble believing it. >> i could pick up the case,

and i could read through it. i could read through it and i can see the discrepancy after discrepancy. i can see -- >> but can you see where maybe that isn't enough? >> yup. >> as for treating as possible evidence the dream sequence of a girl on meth? >> this is evidence? >> well, it's more circumstantial evidence. it's a lead -- >> you'd call that circumstantial evidence? >> she had a dream. >> she had a good dream and it's pretty close. >> in the end, the prosecutor admitted, he and the detectives got it wrong. >> based upon the new physical evidence that we have located, we anticipate dismissing the charges against roger and pam mortensen tomorrow. >> roger and pam were finally freed. >> that was four and a half months seem like four and a half thousand years.

i felt like i was in a forever. >> them got a standing ovation from an unlikely crowd. >> as always walking out of that big dorm area there was 90 women clapping and cheering for me. they knew i was innocent. and for me, having the situation that we dealt with with rodgers family turning against us, friends turning against us. to have that support of those people that people would consider criminals, to have them cheer and yell and scream, it was a very emotional thing for me. >> pam wanted the prosecutor to issue a public apology, to help make up for what all this has cost them. they offer this prosecutor this form. >> am i sorry? i am. i have no problem with saying that. we didn't try to defraud

anyone. we didn't try to lie or fabricate anything. but we made a mistake. >> pam and roger filed a lawsuit, arguing that the prosecutors and detectives lied to the grand jury. but just a few months later, the u.s. supreme court ruled that grand jury witnesses and prosecutors were immune from civil litigation. so the judge dismissed their case. >> let me understand this. the police come to your house, you are arrested, your names are dragged through the mud. then somebody gets the right guy and they say, well, she later? >> exactly. >> as with so many cases, they ended up blaming each other. ready took a deal 25 to life. bond was convicted and doing life without parole. the star witness? rachel bingham. if she hadn't come forward, with two innocent people be in prison today? >> it's going to chase you for

a while? >> a little, but i can put it behind me. the case is closed enough. what i'm happy about is that the family has closure. >> but do they? it isn't just k.'s murder than what's going to live with. but also the wreckage strewn from god knows how long through the family story. >> i had emotions of happiness and relief but still there is some regret that i didn't support roger and pam. support them from the beginning. >> it changes your perspective on the world, it really does. >> and by the way, said roger and pam, a little piece of advice. >> if anything happens and there is anything dealing with law enforcement, you don't say a word and you get and tierney. >> as for garland, who finally found the love of her life, what was there to say? >> that moment of sunshine snatched away. >> yeah. you just take what life brings

you and it's not always what you expected when you are a young girl. you have all your dreams of what your life is going to be. and somehow it just doesn't quite work out that way. >> that's all for this edition of dateline, i'm craig melvin, thank you for watching. watching >> and andrea canning and this is dateline. >> what i focus on when i'm working a case, what drives me the most, is the victims. i wanted to speak for them. i want to speak for helene. >> i just turned on the news, women found murdered in denver, colorado. i just grabbed my son and screamed and cried. >> was it somebody she worked with at the radio station? could it be the boyfriend that she just broke up with and december? >> you're giving the detectives names of people? >> yes. he looked at everything. i was