>> i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> did you shoot your parents? >> no. >> either one of them? >> no. >> you're not a murderer? >> i'm not a murderer. >> madison holton, high school senior, accused killer. >> i literally got chills. this is a huge deal. >> the father had come home and found a lot of drug paraphernalia. >> they were having issues with him. it was hurting her heart to have this happen. >> distraught parents, a rebellious teen. a family meeting explodes into violence. >> that situation goes from calm to murder in 11 minutes? >> i mean it's homicide. >> i didn't hurt either of my

parents. >> i don't think anybody is j umping up and down about having to put a 17 year old boy in jail. >> this was a lot bigger and a lot deeper than what initially we thought. >> they thought they picked out some weak minded kid. they didn't know who they were playing with. >> hello, and welcome to "dateline. " madison holton was a restless teenager itching for independence, but his parents were worried he was headed for trouble. they gave him an ultimatum, shape up or suffer the consequences. then in the blink of an eye, two people were dead. police thought it was an open and shut case but a chance meeting in church would lead to a jaw dropping conclusion. here's josh mankiewicz with "11 minutes." >> the long road of parenthood,

always watching as your kids grasp at life. you cheer from the stands. >> get him madison. >> do your best to keep them safe, hoping they make it through this world in one piece. madison holton was born a handful. his parents, april and michael, could barely keep up. >> madison was always the helpful kid. >> tanya was madison's mom's best friend. she says madison was always sweet and a little different. >> i remember we had a birdhouse that my mom had brought over, and she was going to put it in my backyard. the other kids run, go, play, have fun, oh, mom needs help? whatever. >> not available. >> not available. madison's like hey, do you want me to help you do it? >> school was a battlefield. madison was picked on, the

scrawny kid and a bit of a loner. >> he was always doing his own thing. >> everything changed by madison's senior year school. he sprouted to almost 6 feet and had less time for dad and mom. >> madison was very social. he had a lot of friends. >> hannah traylor and madison grew up in the tiny town of eclectic, alabama. >> he was always the class clown, like really goofy, trying to make everybody laugh. he might get in trouble for talking too much in class. >> as madison crossed over into the land of teendom, his parents found themselves without a map. >> during senior year, people are turning 18, they're about to graduate high school. you know, he was just like any of the other kids that thought, oh, i'm about to gain freedom and i'm just going to like push my boundaries a little bit. >> madison had started hanging out with with a group of friend, but i feel like, too, that group of friends kind of opened

a door to marijuana and partying and all that stuff. >> they opened the door and madison walked through it? >> yeah. >> april worried about where this road might take her son. so she begged her brother chris, a police officer, to talk some sense into madison. >> i sat down with him, and i a long talk with him. and i said, look, this is not the lifestyle you want to choose. >> at the same time madison was going through his teenage rebellion, his parents april and michael, were separating. they were united in their message to madison. mess up again and you'll go to jail. he had one chance left, and on september 11th, 2016, he blew it. while his dad was at work, madison threw a house party. >> someone else called michael and said my kid came home from your house under the influence of something, and i want to know why. so michael was embarrassed at that point.

michael calls april and says you need to get to my house. we've got to deal with this. >> chris has a twin brother, mike, who thought madison's dad had good reason to be embarrassed. michael holton had a reputation to protect in eclectic. >> he was the former mayor, former fire chief. very well-known. how dare you embarrass me in this community, so i'm sure he was (bleep). i don't blame him. i would be (bleep) too if my kid threw a house party. >> when michael holton walked into the house, he found the remnants of a teenage party, homemade bongs were scattered throughout the house, a box that smelled suspicious. that was it. >> and what he did, he called the sheriff's office and we sent a deputy up there. >> bill franklin is sheriff of elmore county, and the deputy sent to the house that day happened to be his son. when deputy franklin arrived, michael had something to say. >> mr. holton had actually greeted him in the yard and told him, hey, when you come in,

you're going to see my son is handcuffed. and he said, "i'm trying to discipline my son." >> sheriff franklin said he's seen parents discipline their kids in all sorts of ways. >> i don't think that his intent was to harm or hurt the kid. he was merely trying to see twht he could do to get his attention. >> to me putting a kid in handcuffs says either i'm disciplining you and i'm serious about this, or i'm afraid of you. possible that's what was going on there? >> could have been. could have been. >> the deputy reported april was in the living room, madison solemn on the couch. his hands cuffed behind his back. michael asked the deputy how as parents they could get the juvenile exp>> call report the next day, a monday. >> he was very, i would say inquisitive, about what could he do paperwork wise to get his child in front of a judge, so he could talk to the judge about the problems that he was

experiencing with the child. >> so maybe straighten him out in his view? >> that's right, that's right. >> call it tough love if you want, to the sheriff michael and april just seemed to be grasping for a solution. >> they were pretty much reached their wit's end, one of those things. >> but these were not people who were in the midst of some huge fight? >> no, no, not at all. >> the deputy left michael and april with instructions about how to get a copy of the police report the next day, a monday. >> he leaves and supposedly everything's okay. >> and then 11 minutes later there's a 911 call? >> that's correct. >> now law enforcement was rushing back to michael holton's house. gunshots had been fired. only three people had been in that home, and now one of them was dead, another lay dying. what had happened in just 11 minutes? >> coming up -- >> we noticed trauma, what

appeared to be blood trauma. >> a marriage on the rocks. >> what did you see? >> she would just share little stories. >> and bodies in the bedroom. >> we discovered what appeared like an entry wound to the back of his head. >> you go forward with a homicide investigation. >> it's not a head scratcher. you get a piece of paper that says homicide. >> when "dateline" continues.

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was a disaster scene with everyone trying to make sense of what had happened. inside two people lay on the bedroom floor, a pistol between them. all arriving deputies knew for sure was that the situation had escalated in almost no time at all. >> about 4:48 our deputy leaves. 4:59 we receive another 911 call. >> so whatever happens, it happens in 11 minutes? >> that's right. >> captain chris ogden was an investigator on the case. >> madison left his residence and reported to his neighbors that his parents were involved in a physical altercation. >> madison told investigators it all started as soon as the deputy who'd been there about the house party had left. >> after his parents came back in after speaking with the deputy, they went into the bedroom and became involved in a physical fight. >> does madison say what the fight was about or what sparked the fight?

>> i believe the assumption was obviously it had to do with madison. >> on the phone with 911, the neighbors said it was an attempted murder-suicide. michael holton was dead by the time deputies arrived. madison's mom was unconscious but breathing. so investigators first thought was mr. holton shot his wife and then himself. >> from what we had been told, you would think that he actually shot her, mr. holton, and then would have turned the gun and shot himself. that's what one would tend to believe. >> april's injuries suggested she'd been shot through her hand first, as if she'd put it up to protect herself. and then as she turned her face away from the gun, she was shot in the head. michael's injuries appeared self-inflicted. >> and we noticed trauma, what appeared to be blood trauma in his mouth. the first formulated thought is well, he probably shot himself in the mouth. >> earlier, they'd seemed like

two parents on the same page about their teenage son. what had happened to this couple in only 11 minutes? april and michael got together in high school. they married after graduation and pretty quickly became the parents of three kids. >> she was all about her kids all the time, always kind of thought she was this do it all kind of mom. >> made it seem effortless? >> but i knew it wasn't, but yeah, she did. she always looked good. she always put her best foot forward. >> michael holton's friend tony remembers him as a fixture in eclectic. >> he couldn't go around town without being recognized. >> he'd worked his way up from paramedic to fire chief and then mayor. >> everyone knew him. >> he was always very nice, very funny, have r easy going. >> he and april seemed happy? >> yeah, yeah, they did seem happy for a long time.

>> and then that changed? >> yeah. >> what did you see? >> she would share little stories. maybe he wasn't as nice to her. >> tanya says april felt she couldn't do anything right in the marriage. by summer 2016 she was done. april filed paperwork for a divorce. >> i think she was at peace with her decision. >> was mike at peace with it? >> no. no, mike was not. >> too late. april had made her decision, and on september 11th, 2016, april only answered michael's call because the latest family crisis was about madison. >> obviously madison had thrown a party and so, they had to talk to madison about it, and she sh >> obviously madison had thrown a party and so, they had to talk to madison about it, and she was like i'm going to have to go over there. >> sounds like she didn't want to go over to mike's? >> no, she did not want to go. she did not, but she was going to. i mean, she needed to go for madison.

>> so had michael holton just snapped in a fit of sorrow and rage? that's what it looked like to investigators, at first. >> so when you finally actually move his body. >> we discovered what appeared like an entry wound to the back of his head. >> so that's the first false note here. >> that changed the dynamics of the investigation. >> i've been in law enforcement for 39 years. i've never seen somebody try to commit suicide in such a weird, unique manner. if you argued that mr. holton did shoot his wife and then turn the gun on himself, why such a bizarre way to do that? >> the next morning a state pathologist confirmed michael holton had a close contact wound at the base of his head. and to investigators the angle seemed telling. >> the only way we were able to

do that is hold a gun upside down and place it upside down and then angle it because, remember, the angle is upwards. >> upside down and using his left hand. the thing about that is michael holton was right-handed. normally when men commit suicide, they use their dominant hand. >> sure. >> not their weaker hand. >> that's right. >> to the sheriff and his investigators, that made suicide improbable, and the pathologist agreed. he classified michael holton's death a homicide. >> he does not believe that that man would have killed himself or would have been able to kill himself in that manner. >> and so you go forward with a homicide investigation. >> it's not a head scratcher. you get a piece of paper that says homicide. >> this was now a murder investigation, and if there were three people in that house and two were victims, that simple arithmetic made madison the prime suspect.

>> what happened in those 11 minutes? the interrogation begins. coming up -- >> i jumped up, i ran to the master bedroom door. i kicked it open. my dad was holding her like this. i was like, i need to go get help, and then i ran screaming help to my neighbor's house. >> madison's dramatic story. will police believe it? >> he didn't seem that upset? >> no, no, he seemed more concerned about missing home coming. >> when "dateline" continues.

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chris and mike were keeping vigil in the icu. their sister had been shot in the head, and there was little doctors could do. >> you see in the movies with the machine breathing for the person, and this is far more surreal than what it seems like in the movies. this is good-bye, there is no more hellos, there is no more hugs. no more phone calls, there's no more birthday videos. this is it. >> it was 11:00 september 12th when they pronounced april dead. >> worst day of your life? >> to date. >> one person who did not get to say good-bye was april's oldest son. madison was now a murder suspect. he'd been

questioned that morning at the sheriff's office. after one round of the interrogation, the sheriff asked madison's uncle chris to join them. >> there's a reason he is here, okay? he's got your best interests at heart. >> at that point, i really -- i didn't know what to think. i didn't know if madison did it. i didn't know if he didn't do it. i wasn't there. i had not seen any evidence. >> here's what madison said happened after the first deputy left. >> my dad like signaled my mom to come into the room, and she did. and he shut the door. >> after about five minutes you say your heard your mom -- >> scream help. >> scream help. >> okay. and what did you do? >> i jumped up, i ran to the master bedroom door, i kicked it open, and my dad was holding her like this. i was like i need to go get help, and then i sprinted screaming help to my neighbor's house. >> madison said he didn't see or hear what happened next, not even the gunshots while he was at his neighbor's house. the sheriff wasn't buying that one bit.

>> will you agree with me that there was a gunshot fired? >> i mean, what i've been told, yes. >> but you've never heard that? >> no, sir. >> investigators thought madison didn't seem like a kid who was sad about what had happened to his mother and father. >> do you feel like any of this is on you? >> i don't know. i didn't hurt either of my parents. >> the doctor down there said they didn't shoot themselves. >> i don't care what the doctor said, i didn't shoot my parents. >> and madison's own uncle, an officer himself, knew the significance of this moment. >> this will be the only time that if your story is any different than what you've told me -- listen to me. if it's any different, okay, now is the time to tell them. let's say you walked in there and your dad's got your momma by the throat, and you did what you thought you had to do. >> so maybe madison shot his dad to protect his mom? that sounds almost like you're

offering him a story that you know fits the evidence and is also exculpatory. >> well, at that point, though, i had not seen any evidence. at that point i had only seen my sister. i had seen that her hand was wrapped in gauze, which tells me that something happened it her hand, and at some point i that somebody told me she was shot in the hand and the head. >> back in the interrogation room, madison stuck to his defense. >> i already told you all everything that i know. i've told you all everything that i know. >> as the interrogation was wrapping up and the sheriff and chris were walking out, madison made a gesture in their direction. to the sheriff that middle finger came out of nowhere. and later investigators reported madison was talking about homecoming on the way to take a blood sample. >> he seemed more concerned about a missing homecoming, school and things of that

nature. >> he didn't seem that upset? >> no, no. >> and here's a call that was recorded from jail a few days later. >> what have all the girls said about it? like that's what i wondered, like the people i slept with, like what are they thinking about it right now? oh, (bleep), i'm a (bleep) murderer murderer. >> that kind of talk didn't prove anything, but it did strike investigators as odd as they continued gathering evidence. they decided to test some elements of madison's story. madison had said he didn't hear the gunshots so law enforcement did an experiment and they recorded it. >> we took the same weapon and the same grade ammo to do these tests. >> madison's story is that he ran from his dad's house to a neighbor 200 feet away, and that he didn't hear his shots on his way or once he arrived. investigators listened closely.

here's what that test sounded like standing at the neighbor's front door. to investigators that made madison a liar. a troubled kid who had exploded into violence. you think madison saw his parents getting ready to begin a process that might have resulted in him being locked up, and he got angry, and he decided to kill them. >> i don't know what his mindset was there, but could that have triggered him? sure, it could have. >> by the end of the week, 17-year-old madison holton was charged with murdering his mom and dad? >> holton's bond now set at -- >> i don't go out here and beat a drum because we were able to put a 17-year-old boy in jail, but pretty much, josh, if it looks, walks, talks, feels, and smells like a duck, we're pretty much going to treat it like a duck. >> madison says he was no one's sitting duck.

>> my opinion is they picked a fight. they thought they picked out some weak-minded kid. they didn't know who they were playing with. >> you're tougher than they thought you were? >> oh, yeah. >> coming up -- >> i just want to be set up for a polygraph test honestly. as soon as you all can do it, i want a polygraph test. >> i asked like three or four times for a polygraph. >> generally guilty people do not ask for polygraphs. >> madison stands by his story and supporters stand by him. >> he didn't do it. that's not possible. >> i knew like he wasn't capable of that. >> when "dateline" continues. best almondmilk. blue diamond almond breeze.

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happening, a five-year-old broken boy has been pulled out of a 500 foot well, some are reporting that he'd did not survive, he fell into the well located in and outside his home village, tuesday, february 1st.

thousands of people woke up without power sunday, after major storms battered huge swaths of the country, from the deep south of the nation's northeastern tip. new york governor hochul says we're not out of the woods yet. now, back to dateline. woods yet >> welcome back to "dateline, " i'm natalie morales. april and michael holton were dead and their son was charged with murdering them. madison told police he ran to the neighbor's for help while his parents argued, but investigators were not buying his story forming their own theory instead. friends and family were choosing sides, and we sat down with the teen to hear what he said did and did not happen. here again is josh mankiewicz with "11 minutes. " >> there is no more high school confidential when a senior is charged with double murder,

that is on every iphone in class. >> i'm on snapchat all the time, so when i'm scrolling through snapchat and then you see his mug shot pop up on daily mail and you click through and then he's next to kim kardashian. that in itself was absolutely crazy for me, for my classmates, for all of us, and i knew like he wasn't capable of that. but you know, a lot of people had opposite opinions like oh, well, they wouldn't have put him in jail if they didn't have evidence to lead towards him, or he wouldn't be staying in there so long if there wasn't something pointing towards him. >> the sheriff believed that when madison realized his parents were about to take him to juvenile court he killed them and then lied about it to investigators. the sheriff also believed some time in jail might encourage madison to come clean. >> there's a lot of people that come to jail and there's a lot of people that profess their innocence, and they've been found guilty or later they will pretty much profess their guilt on what they did. >> that, however, did not

happen, not as the teenager sat in the county lockup. and not when he sat down to talk with us. >> did you shoot your parent? >> no. >> either one of them? >> no. >> did you hear any gunshots when you were on the way to the neighbors? >> on advice of counsel, madison wouldn't talk specifics about the day of the shootings. he did tell us his story about how his family started to fall apart. >> whenever things started to fall down, it just got worse and worse. >> could you tell there was tension in the house? >> yeah, sometimes i could. sometimes i couldn't. sometimes they would be giving each other the silent treatment. sometimes they would be arguing in front of us. most of the time it was more of like behind closed doors. >> he says the holton house became an unpleasant place to live. >> i wanted to go do my own

thing and that included partying and smoking pot and stuff like that, so i mean, i couldn't do it at home when my parents were around, so i decided to go other places. >> after his parents separated, madison lived with his dad and was present when his father discovered april had a new boyfriend. >> he like freaked out, and then he called her and was like going off on her about it. >> saying what? >> it was like i need you, like i can't live without you, stuff like that. and whenever we got back home, i had never seen my dad cry before, but he was bawling. >> madison was remembering all of this sitting in jail, months and months contemplating the past. >> you wrote people letters? >> yeah. >> apologizing in some cases for things you had done? >> yeah! dear, hannah, i know getting a letter from me right now. >> i opened it up. it was

stamped like elmer county jail in like a red stamp. so like i'm reading this letter and you know, like in the letter he like apologizes for something that happened like back in 9th grade just because he wanted to like apologize to everybody he had wronged. >> every person i've written i've told the exact same thing. i'm not a murderer, i don't know if you believe me or not, but i'm not. i couldn't kill anybody. and then like in the end he put a bible verse so like that just showed me in the midst of this situation that you're in, you're trying to encourage other people, so it was just like really crazy to see that. >> i was just thinking about the light at the end of the tunnel, my favorite bible verse, jeremiah 29:11. >> you still thought you had a future? >> i knew i had a future. >> madison's present, though, was the four walls of a cell. time in jail did not motivate him to confess to crimes he says he didn't commit. his

story never changed from the one he told the night his parents were shot. >> i think i asked like three or four times for a polygraph. >> i just want to be set up for a polygraph test honestly. >> all right. >> like as soon as you all can do it i want a polygraph test. >> okay. generally guilty people do not ask for a polygraph. >> yeah, i mean, it's a lie detector test. yeah, some people can find a flaw in that. some people can beat it even when they are lying, but i mean, i was 17 years old. i mean, i didn't know nothing about it. i just knew it was a lie detector test. >> that polygraph never happened, and madison remained a teenager facing two murder raps. law enforcement was lined up against him. his mom's family felt differently. they saw madison behind bars as just another tragedy. >> i told him on day one the only role he played in this case was the fact that he threw a house party, but you don't

put somebody in prison for life for throwing a house party. >> mike hadn't even known madison well before all of this. >> before this happened i never even had more than like a five-minute conversation with him but whenever i got to the jail, i mean, we'd just sit there and talk on the phone until the time ran up on the phone. >> and he was pretty solidly in your corner? >> oh, yeah, without a doubt. >> and mike was going to make sure his nephew didn't spend his life locked up. he had worked as a police officer and was now hunting for anything that might prove madison's innocence. >> he didn't do it. that's not possible. >> coming up -- >> no dna, no blood on madison. not on his clothes, not on his hands. >> if madison had committed this crime, he'd shot both his parents at pretty close range, he'd have some blood on him. >> he'd have some forensic evidence. >> this is the same make and model of the gun.

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>> my wife and i were able to eventually bond him out of jail. >> after. >> a year and three or four months. >> where'd you get the money for madison's bond? >> my wife and i took out a loan, and we're still paying for it. >> after 15 months and seven days, the guard said today's your lucky day, pack it up. >> madison was out, but far from free. now he was prepping for a murder trial with the help of his twin uncles. his uncle mike discovered information critical to madison's defense when he went through madison's dad's autopsy report. >> michael holton was under the influence of heavy narcotics. >> michael holton had a cocktail of tramadol, oxycodone, and hydrocodone in his system at the time of his death. >> was pretty much everybody in your family aware that michael had a drug problem? >> they were. it was something nobody wanted to talk about. >> and it's an embarrassment? >> right. i mean, he was -- at

one point he was the mayor of eclectic, the fire chief. he was the best paramedic i knew. his drug problem got away from him and just down the hill he went. >> chris speculated that on the day out of the shootings michael was using the latest problem with their son as a way to win april back. >> it's an opportunity for michael to say, look, you know, if the two of us were together this probably wouldn't have happened. >> and she says it's too late for that conversation. i'm moving on. >> that ship has sailed, and i think at that point michael just snapped. i think michael killed april and then killed himself. i think michael couldn't face the world knowing he killed his wife and the only option left for him was to end his own life. >> mike learned madison's dad might have thought about suicide annui in the past. it was right there in the pages of his diary. to april he wrote, i just can't go on knowing you are with somebody else, and it was either me or the both of

us. >> you read it, and it clearly indicates a person who is not in their right state of mind. >> madison's uncles shared their discoveries with his court appointed attorney, and they worried. the family didn't have money for fancy experts or the things they would need to make a strong case. as his uncle stressed, madison went to church, and that's where everything changed in the form of greg biggs. >> on sunday afternoon we had a prayer meeting. so, to get your prayer partner, the pastor put our names in a hat and started drawing our names out, so drew my name out, and he drew madison's name out. >> did you know madison? >> i had no idea, but i got to meet him that day. he was a nice kid. it is only a few days later his uncle chris tells me, you know, he's indicted for murder. i'm going, what? madison? >> greg is a former fbi agent and state's attorney. he knew his way around a case file and

offered to help. he says the impressions deputies formed during the investigation were off base. >> his parents have just been killed, and he's, what, talking about homecoming? >> i don't think you can get yourself in the mind of a 17-year-old to make him out to be a ted bundy when he's just a kid. i mean, i did a lot of stupid things when i was 17. i kissed a dead dog on a road on a dare when i was 17. so kids are kids. >> and this is just madison being a kid. >> just madison being a kid saying stupid things. >> and if law enforcement didn't catch madison in tears, madison said he had a good reason and said as much in the interrogation. >> i can't even cry because it hurts so bad, because it just keeps replaying in my head. >> greg says the physical evidence supports madison's

story that his parents had been fighting. april had michael's dna under her fingernails. michael had scratches on his face, and if madison had shot them during the fight, where was the proof of that? >> no dna, no blood on madison. not on his clothes, not on his hands. so all the evidence points toward exactly what madison said, mom and dad were in the bedroom. >> if madison had committed this crime, if he'd shot both his parents at pretty close range, he'd have some blood on him. >> he'd have some forensic evidence on him to demonstrate he had fired a gun at a very close range. >> law enforcement was never able to lift a full print from the gun, and the only dna they found was april's on the trigger. and what about that head wound? the one a pathologist said made michael's death look like a homicide? >> i've consulted with a forensic pathologist who said he looked at the wound, and he

said it is more probable that it is suicide than homicide. >> if investigators thought it was difficult for michael to shoot himself at that odd angle, defense attorney biggs demonstrated for us how easy it could be using an unloaded gun identical to the one found at the scene. >> this is the same make and model of gun? >> same make, it's a. 380 colt. not impossible, is it? >> greg said he didn't even need the forensics to show madison was innocent. common sense he claimed said it all. remember, madison's dad had handcuffed him behind his back, and when deputies arrived after the shootings, they found madison still in those handcuffs. >> my hands were like this on my back last night. i couldn't move them. >> the sheriff's theory?

madison had been able to take the cuffs off using a handcuff key investigators found in the living room. >> our primary investigator is in his mid-30s. our chief investigator is in his late 40s. they were both able in about 12 to 15 seconds to stand up, slip it below their feet, get in front of them, take a handcuff key that's been placed right in front of them and get out of the handcuffs. >> wait, wait, wait, that'st you think madison did? you think his took his handcuffs off and shot his parents and then put the handcuffs back on? >> yes, i think that's what happened. >> did you slip out of the handcuffs and commit murder and then put the handcuffs back on? >> no. >> would you know how to do that? >> no, that was the first time i had ever been put in handcuffs. >> the state was moving ahead. a date for madison's double murder trial was set.

>> they seemed pretty determined. >> yeah, they seemed pretty determined, but i was pretty determined myself. >> coming up -- >> this is the start of war, you know. >> everything's at stake. >> i was like if this goes downhill, i would have two life sentences and be in prison for the rest of my life. >> some jaw dropping news that no one expected. >> did you have your suspicions about what was coming? >> no. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues plus, patients get 20% off their treatment plan. we're on your corner and in your corner every step of the way. because your anything is our everything. aspen dental. anything to make you smile. book today at aspendental.com, walk in, or call 1-800-aspendental.

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was heading to trial for the double murder of his parents. investigators were prepared to testify that he slipped out of handcuffs, shot them both, then cuffed himself again before running for help. the defense would argue, michael holton, distraught over his impending divorce, was the real killer, but a startling twist would soon leave both sides stunned. here's josh mankiewicz with the conclusion of "11 minutes. " >> murder has a way of splitting a small town in two. that's what happened in eclectic, alabama, after the killing of april and michael holton. each side felt they knew what had happened on that september afternoon in 2016. to county sheriff bill franklin, it was clear -- madison holton killed his parents after their threats to take him to court. >> i had missed immense sleep

at night because we were able to charge that kid. >> just as sheriff's investigators said madison could have gotten out of his handcuffs and committed a double murder, the lack of blood on him was also easy to explain. >> it was a small-caliber weapon, and small-caliber weapon doesn't cause a whole lot of initial damage to a person. >> so, it's conceivable that madison was involved in that shooting and didn't get any blood on him? >> that's correct. >> even if michael was physically able to shoot himself, he'd hardly seemed suicidal to the sheriff's son, who was that first deputy on the scene. >> the conversation that he had had with the deputy, i don't think anyone would agree that the man, well, is going to go in there and he's fixing to kill his wife and kill himself. he was very clear-minded. >> did your deputy in that initial encounter with mr. holton describe him or think of him as being under the influence of any kind of drug? >> none whatsoever. >> and he didn't seem

excessively angry? >> no. no. >> the showdown was set for october 22nd, 2018, the first day of madison's murder trial. >> this is the start of war, you know? >> madison, who had always been so convinced he would be found not guilty, was worried. he'd found a new girlfriend while out on bond and told her this -- >> if this goes downhill, i would have two life sentences, be in prison for the rest of my life. and i was like, it's okay. like, if you don't want to be with me anymore, you can go. that was pretty tough, having to tell her that, you know? >> in court, attorneys were about to start the last phase of jury selection, when, suddenly, the mood in the room seemed to shift. >> people running all over the courthouse, back and forth. >> the sheriff was there, too, waiting for proceedings to begin. >> did you have your suspicions about what was coming? >> no. >> what was coming was a stunning announcement from the

district attorney. >> we don't have proof beyond a reasonable doubt. >> after two years of investigating, prosecutors had decided they didn't have enough. >> we are ethically obligated at this point to dismiss those charges. >> if this had been a battle, then the d. a. had just retreated. the murder charges were dismissed, just like that. in a press conference, the d. a. explained. the pathologist, who had already ruled michael's death a homicide, was not prepared to say on the stand that he was 100% sure. >> the most they could say was, it's more likely than not a homicide, which is not beyond a reasonable doubt. >> and so, the answers eclectic was waiting for never came. >> the son was released not too long ago, and that's really all i know about the case. >> tony prefers to think about his friend, michael in happier

times. >> i want to remember michael the way he was, smiling, having a beer, kicking back with guitars and just playing music. >> tanya says she thought of april every day throughout madison's ordeal. >> finding out that madison was released and that it was done, i feel like she's finally at peace. she can be at peace because, for her babies to be in turmoil? that's not something that would be acceptable for her. >> for the sheriff, the murder case is far from over. >> you think madison's getting away with murder? >> it's an open case. but as long as i'm sheriff, that's an open case. >> you could refile against madison? >> absolutely. >> which is why madison doesn't want to discuss the specifics of the case. he's not cleared. he's just not charged. >> from everything that i've been through, i have no doubt in my mind that the sheriff will try to put me back in jail. i don't know why he has such a grudge against me. >> well, he thinks you're guilty of murder. >> let him think that. he's

going to think wrong for the rest of his life. >> madison is hoping to live out the rest of his life as a free man. he finished high school and he's joined the army to help pay for college. he's even considered becoming a criminal defense attorney. >> are you ready to go back in a courtroom? >> oh, yeah. >> maybe not wearing handcuffs. >> yeah. i want to find that kid who was put in the odd predicament that i was put in, that doesn't know what to do, that doesn't know how to act, and fight for them. and it's not about the money for me. yeah, lawyers make good money. it's not about the money. it's about that one life out there that could be saved. >> they are dreams madison shares with his mother when he goes to visit her grave. she's buried right next to his dad. >> when you're visiting her grave and he's five feet away or less. >> like, i've forgiven him for what he's done, but i can't come to the point where i'll visit his grave like i do my

mom's. >> what do you say to your mom when you go? >> i'm sorry and i love her. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline. " i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin, and i'm natalie morales. this is dateline. >> if you admit that she's never coming home, it's like you're admitting defeat, or that she's dead. >> a hardworking wife, a loving mother, a woman that complicated love life. >> she was having affairs. >> they were in those same office areas, they some time -- >> kathy was trying to break out the relationship. >> now the secret was out,