>> i got a phone call, something was wrong with brandi, she's not moving and the car is running. emergency vehicles, officers, and that's as far as i can go. there is my baby and i can't do nothing about it. >> she was a hardworking, young wife and mom. >> sweetest gurley can ever asked to meet. >> just minutes from home when she saw the headlights. >> somebody was telling her. >> my sister is in my driveway.

and her heads bloody. >> so you bear your little girl and then it's a murder investigation? >> yes. >> there were two people brandi feared, one town. >> she thought she was being followed. >> one thousands of miles away. >> josh was still in alaska. >> then, there was the new man in her life. >> anybody close to brandi needed to take a hard serious look at. >> no fingerprints, no dna, and no arrests for years. >> you are grieving. how do you pull all of that together. >> day-by-day. >> the handsome urge of someone's dark past. >> you have robberies going on, a homicide. >> and one brave woman willing to talk. >> he called me, the same that happened to brandi will happen to me. >> the question wasn't just who murdered a young mother, it was why. >> there was no money, there just wasn't a reason to do it. >> she didn't hurt nobody. she did nothing to nobody. why did they have to kill her?

>> hello, and welcome to "dateline". imagine driving on the dark isolated road, then suddenly, there's a car behind you. it gets closer, and closer, to close for comfort. it's someone tailing you, or is your imagination in overdrive? for brandy daniels, her mind was not playing tricks. someone was stalking her. and then, the single mother was found slumped over in her passenger seat, shot dead. investigators would spend years navigating the twists and turns, searching for her killer. here is dennis murphy with "out there in the dark". >> it was a chillier than usual mckee night in may 2014, as brandi daniels drove home from her shift at kolh's. zanesville, ohio is the kind of not to be, not a small city where you can be off the downtown grid and the wooded rolling hills in just a few minutes. out there in the dark, that's

where this 25 year old single mom was heading. back home to her daughter waiting to be tucked in at brandi's mom's house, in the country where she'd been living lately. she had been through a rough three months, years, really. one of the reasons why things were turning around for her was that soothing voice on the cell phone that night, her fiancée, talking her home. >> i'm just talking to her as she's driving home, trying to drive a stick shift, which we just learned. talking on the phone. >> the fiancée was craig barry, her older brother's boyfriend. >> i'm a hairstylist, i have been for years. >> one day, brandi walked into his salon. >> we hit it. off >> it's funny how you never know you're gonna ten your head to. >> we turned out to be great friends. it was beautiful as you ever saw. >> like the song, brandi turned out to be a fine girl for craig. and right away, mutual attraction grew into something more serious. >> she had my heart, immediately. it was a connection like that

never felt. it just got bigger and bigger every time we talked. we were looking at houses. >> you guys were going to get married? >> oh. yes >> we brandi's mom was thrilled that the arrival of craig and her life, just when you needed something nice to happen. >> what did you think of him? >> he was really nice, he put her first. he put her first. growing up, brandy wasn't much for barbie dolls, but give her a sketch pad and pencil, and she was lost for hours. she loves to draw. she had a deft eye for realistic portraits. >> she took every kind of art class there was. if it had anything to do with art, she took. it >> is brandy enrolled at her local college, zane state, but before her freshman year was up, she left school to marry josh daniels, a part-time student she met. not too long after, she had news for mom. >> she called me a, said she was pregnant. >> you must have been so torn up. >> i was.

that was my baby. >> brandy, husband josh, and the baby daughter were living nearby. >> you couldn't ask for a better mother. if it was something that she needed or the little girl needed, the baby got it first. >> and had her grandmother? >> the baby got everything. yes. >> the marriage, after seven years of trying, fell apart. she filed for divorce. she seemed to be in a rough patch of her life. >> yes. >> but on this night, as she was driving home from work, with fiancée craig and her ear, he heard brandy starting to sound edgy. >> she said that she was being tailed, and have to get off my butt. and it went dead. >> it went dead. >> i texted her, you know, what's up? about ten minutes past by, and i called her sister, and said, is brand new home yet? she said no.

and i said her call dropped on and she should be coming through the door by. now and she said, you want me to check? i said please. >> her sister, tests, headed from her mom's house to look for her. >> just a few minutes later, she had her sister called me back and was losing it. she was at the top of the driveway. and she says, i see her car, her headlights are on, but it's not moving. her heads them down. and then she became hysterical. and then i said, i will be there. i said, you need to call the cops. >> 9-1-1, hear emergency? >> the muskingum 9-1-1 center field at the. call >> my sister is in my driveway, and her heads bloody, and she's not moving. i just need someone to come quick, please. i'm just scared. i just -- i need someone to come now. >> stay on the line with me while i get a squat on the. way >> fiancée craig was on his way to. there was his girlfriends nissan center and the driveway. >> i call pull up behind the car and is a sheriff there are.

ready and i pulled up, and i see her in the driver seat, and i say, what's wrong? and he says, i think she's been shot. >> nothing can prepare you for that? >> no, she was dead. that's what he told me. >> he told you that at the scene? >> yes. and stay away. you don't want to contaminate the crime scene. >> no bridge ahead. into the abyss. >> blooming out of the water. >> brandy's was leaving the bottle factory where she worked. >> at 11:05, i got a phone call, and i went running to the truck. tests said there was something wrong with brandy. >> you saw the emergency vehicles, officers. >> we get off into the driveway and that's as far as i could go. >> the car, with the driver side window down, the vehicle stalled in first gear, and brandy inside, looking rag doll, shot three days times, execution style. the detectives were arriving. >> who would want brandy dead?

it's always the husband, right? maybe not this time. >> coming up -- >> josh was, in fact, still in alaska that night. >> but there was someone who lived right in town. >> did you wonder what was going on with the boyfriend? >> when "dateline" continues. e" continues get pataday once daily relief extra strength. the first and only 24-hour eye allergy itch relief drop without a prescription. a single drop of pataday once daily relief extra strength works on the cells that make your eyes itch. fast. in minutes you get relief that lasts 24 hours. that's a full day and night in one drop. available everywhere my a1c stayed here, it needed to be here. ruby's a1c is down with rybelsus®. my a1c wasn't at goal, now i'm down with rybelsus®. mom's a1c is down with rybelsus®. (♪ ♪)

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the car was at the head of the driveway, lights on, and two county detectives arriving to try to figure out what had happened to the young woman dead in the driver seat. detective mike ryan and captain steve welker, in the first minutes of what would be a years-long investigation. >> blake aniah ribald the same time. >> did the scene explain itself to you? >> we could see the basics of what had happened. >> their victim, brandy daniels, had been shot three times at close range. crime scene techs would recover three shell casings and a clip for semiautomatic pistol. her phone was beside her. >> we took out robbery because there was money that they would've taken if it was a robbery. >> as csis took pictures, they gathered blood, and dna. wasilla brandy's mom and fiancée watched him blank. or >> would you remember? >> sitting in her vehicle behind the car, just watching.

>> and there's your girl, gone. >> there is my baby, and i can't do nothing about it. it was 2:00, went to the house, 4:00, detectives came down to the house, said they removed her from the car. >> who would benefit from a single mom's death? of course, the questioning turned quickly to the soon to be divorced husband, the father of the little girl. brandy's mom told them about josh daniels, he was a personal trailer at the gym and an obsessive weightlifter. when you ran him through the computer, what did you find out about him? did he have priors? >> he did not. >> he was not a law enforcement's radar. >> not on law enforcement's radar, but nonetheless, somebody they wanted to talk to right now. but there was a problem, a big one. there was every reason to believe he was not in the driveway that night, but 4300 miles away in alaska. josh had moved up there to be near his mom, and he found work in the oil fields. >> josh was, in fact, still in

alaska that night. >> that's a pretty good alibi. >> yes. >> because there's domestic turmoil doesn't mean that you necessarily have a suspect, does it? >> not necessarily. not necessarily. but it's a good idea to eliminate the husband as a suspect in the get-go. >> detective ryan called josh daniels. >> can you discern things like demeanor and attitude through the phone line? >> not really. i wasn't detecting shock or grief or anything like that. >> nothing you can hang your hat on either? >> one of the questions i asked him was who have you've been talking to here in zanesville, ohio, and he gave me about half a dozen people. >> daniels told the detective he returned to zanesville, ohio as soon as he could. but there was another person much closer that the cops had to figure out, craig barry, the fiancée. he's a last person known to talk to her? >> yes. >> could you figure out what was going on with a boyfriend? he's quite earlier, 20 years on the victim.

he's a person of interest until he's not, i'm guessing? >> at that point, anybody close to brandy, we need to take a hard, serious look at. >> within hours of brandy's death, craig got the third degree. they're asking you hard questions? >> where where have you been, where what were you doing? >> they thought you were a suspect. >> oh yes. >> until you are in, it and they're grilling you. >> they asked for myself, and i handed. their >> holiday? last >> i got home at 5:30 that morning. >> then the legwork of the investigation began in earnest. starting with where she was last seen alive. so you're talking to your victims coworkers. what's the picture coming together there? >> they all described brandy as a very good young lady. devoted mother, in a marriage that she really wanted to get out of. >> patrol officers traced the route from kolh's to the murder scene, hoping they find these security camera. there's a guy right on her bumper, but the image doesn't show up anywhere, right?

>> no. >> when the lab results came back, disappointment. no useful fingerprints or dna, and the long slog of getting search warrants to recover data from the cell phone and the tower the signals bounced off of have just begun. a few days after the murder, brandy's has been josh daniels returned to zanesville, ohio from alaska. he was fully cooperative. the detectives asked for his cell phone. >> he and his attorney voluntarily turned it over. >> you can look him in the eye and check his demeanor. what were you seeing? >> he was very cool and collected. he looked very confident. >> but the data from his phone, on the way to the lab, josh returned to alaska with his eight year old daughter. molly and her family had buried brandy, but no one was coming to terms with the magnitude of this crime. did the officers tell you anything about how the case would go? >> they figured it would be summed up within a couple of days. >> if only. >> coming up -- a new suspect, but he has an

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shot to death in the front seat of her car in the driveway. detectives through her fiancé

craig in the ringer, but the story of his last text to brandy checked out. >> within two or three days, we were sure he was clear. >> but craig was not a total dead and. the fiancée did have a tip for the detectives. he told them they should check out a fellow gym rat at josh daniels, a guy who gave brandy the creeps. with the usual first name, sirius. when they run the name, investigators found the son of a local preacher who had some juvenile offenses. but in the years since redeemed himself. he graduated from zane state, got a job at a local manufacturer, and seem to trim every woman he met. four days into their investigation, detective brady found that he was at his girlfriend's place. >> i asked if i could have his cell, phone if i could downloaded, he agreed. >> how did he present himself? >> calm. he claimed that he did know that brandi was killed. calm, cool, collected. >> sirius came to the sheriff's

office. while the squads phone expert examined his cell, sirius explained how he knew brandy's husband josh daniels. >> i hooked up with him and stuff like that. >> he said that he hardly knew brandy. >> i didn't, like, meet her, i met her one-time. >> as for his pile in alaska, sirius said they weren't in contact for a while. >> when did he contact? >> you two or three weeks ago. >> not this? week >> identity him this week,. no >> sirius said he had been with his girlfriend by the time that cops believe brandy died. >> i was at my girlfriend's house. >> officers returned sirius's iphone and thanked him for coming. in the girlfriend in his alibi was next up on the detectives list of people to talk to. wendy, a mother of five, said that she met sirius a couple of years earlier, the same place where brandy and josh got

together. >> i knew from the moment that i met sirius that this was a new friend. happy, always smiling. >> the midlife single mom, back to college, and in the sirius were ambassadors for their school. >> they were just looking for a face for zane state that would be friendly and that would be outgoing. so that we could go to different defense in the community, as well as giving tours on campus. >> sirius had found time to work as a campus security guard. and that's where he met josh who did the same thing. sirius was an overachiever, even featured in rushers about the college. wendy liked almost everything about him. they became a couple. >> one year from my birthday, he totally set up an entire day skydiving. >> happy birthday! >> it was so amazing. so awesome. we took motorcycle rides and went on picnics. >> now, when she found herself caught in the undertow of a

homicide investigation. cops had her downtown the same day as sirius. >> i just want to let you know, you're not under arrest. okay? >> detective brian asked her about the night of the murder. he used wendy's text with sirius to refresh her memory. >> oh yeah. >> may 5th. >> okay, yeah. >> did wendy's text that night fit in the timeline that they fit with brandy's murder. and did they speak to sirius's whereabouts? >> you are sure he was not in the house? >> yes. >> he was not in the house then. >> sirius arrived, wendy said, after that 11:00 text. sirius had given wendy as his alibi, and she inadvertently made him someone to take a closer look. at >> there was a window of opportunity. >> yes. >> another thing, the squads phone expert filled them in about some internet searches that he found on sirius's device. >> he opened every news article

that had to do with the homicide. >> interesting, because early in the day, he said he did not know about the murder. question, was sirius the gunman and her driveway? he seemed to be no more than a casual friend of josh's. but when the i.t. guys cracked his phone use history, told a different story. what had he deleted? >> a lot of text messages. >> to? home >> to sirius underwood. he was the one by four he was in contact with the most. >> what were you thinking? >> when we first talked to josh, he never mentioned sirius underwood. why would they be lying to us about that? >> why, indeed. the story told by the phones, that concealed relationship, fed a growing theory of the crime. that they were looking at a long distance killing between ohio and alaska. if that was their case, then technology was going to be as valuable to them as dna or bloody fingerprints. the first question, did the killer, assuming he was a man, have a phone on him when he did the shooting? and, what's our near the river

scene at the phone pinned off? >> we had tons of -- and i'm not exaggerating, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of phone calls. >> and that electronic haystack, a sharp eyed cop noticed a call around the time they believe that brandy was killed. it was made from a number with a 310 area code. normally, that southern california. the county lawmen trace that 310 number back to an unarmed amiss disposable phone, a, burner purchased in zanesville, ohio, a week before brandy died. >> i get the collar records for the 310 area code and start going through those. it only call two people. a second burner phone and josh daniels. those were the only two. >> was this their breakthrough? that burner phone at the right time, right place had called josh's phone in alaska. then the phone tested another extraction of josh's phone, and they retrieve something that josh thought he deleted.

>> a voice mail that was left on josh daniels cell phone from this california area code. >> hey, what's up man, it's me. hit me up on this phone right here, whenever you need to talk about something. here? me hall at me later. >> detective hittle's perked up when you heard. it >> i listen to it and then i know, that, phone 310, is sirius underwood's, that's his voice. >> the detectives went into a deeper dive on sirius iphone. he came back downtown as requested, but while the cops were preoccupied chasing down a search warrant for his device, he outfox them. he found a computer and remotely wiped his phone clean. >> when i reached in and got sirius's phone, i saw that it was factory restored from the icloud. >> what other story that he was gonna tell, you are going to hear. >> there was nothing left on the phone. >> pretty clever. it was like a whole evidence locker going up in smoke.

their whole techy crime trail, proof. detectives by then we're sure serious underwood and josh daniels were -- we >> had a problem with our evidence. we were not dead in the water, but we were definitely struggling. >> coming up -- a stalled case. >> you're starting to lose faith and your police, the investigation? >> it was stressful. >> and then a threat convinces a woman to talk. >> he told me, the same that happened to brandy will happen to me. >> what did he say happened to brandy? >> he killed her. he killed her. >> when dateline continues. n dateline continues

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here's what's happening. ukrainian ago she aiders sajak peace treaty documents between ukraine and russia are adding events not staged to allow for direct talks between president zelenskyy and vladimir putin. there is a high probability that such a meeting could take

place soon in turkey. ukraine's defense deputy minister also announced the entire kyiv region has been liberated from russian led military forces. this comes as ukrainians were said to spend saturday evacuating from humanitarian corridors. now, back to dateline. welcome back to dateline. it had been nearly three months since brandi daniels was shot, execution's tile, in the front seat of her car. brandi's a stranger ton spend, josh and his friend, serious underwood, where the prime suspects. sirius managed to wipe a cell phone, erasing any potential evidence police believed could time to the evidence. josh had an ironclad alibi. soon, detectives will get startling new information. it would be a game-changer. here's dennis murphy, without there in the dark.

>> what is the next thing we have to do? >> investigators were pretty sure they have the right guys for brandi daniels murder. they learned a lot about just how awful her marriage to josh was. cops found a 9-1-1 call brandi had made six months before her murder. >> i'm in a abusive relationship, and i'm afraid to go home. i tell my husband that i want to leave but he won't let me. it gets physical. >> brandi didn't request -- but she did follow restraining order against josh, when she left him. cops knew josh's body from the gym, serious, was likely involved in the murder. they just couldn't tie the two of them together, despite some suspicious phone traffic between the pair. an additional difficulty in the investigation was the fact that josh was still living in alaska, about as far away as you can get from ohio, and still be in the same country.

josh daniel was -- living in waasila, about an hour after anchorage with his mother and stepfather. keeping tabs on him from thousands of miles away with the zanesville police. they were seeing some patterns. when he was a a job in the oil fields, he was partying, pumping iron and chasing women. in zanesville, the cops kept their pressure up on the person of interest they did have a news of code, serious underwood. the detectives were all over his girlfriend, wendy. >> every time i had a little spat, i was frustrated, or -- with sirius. he would show up again. just wondered if, maybe you remember. something >> trying to get you in a vulnerable man, and maybe you're gonna spill this. >> i already told you everything, and it's never going to change. if you don't, light on to cover a lie. >> randy's mother was losing faith in the cops ever making an arrest in the case of her daughter's brutal murder. -- >> yeah. every time we hear something,

we contact him. still need to get more evidence, something to get more evidence. >> but, something was about to happen, and it was enormous. call it a good luck bowl from the land of the midnight sun. alaska was calling. it was three months to the day after brandi's murder, when the ohio investigators got a phone call from up here in wasilla. it was a woman on the line, saying that she had been seeing josh daniels, and he had a story till the police. something he had told her. well, -- they were on the plane to alaska within hours. the young woman explained that she and josh had been engaged at the time of brandi's death, but he had commitment issues. he'd lie all the time. he was dating multiple people at the same time. she had the detectives undivided tension, as she related wooden intoxicated josh told her on the 4th of july. >> he told me that the same thing that happened brandi would happen to me. what >> did he say happened to

brandi? >> he killed her. >> he said that? >> yes. >> he said a killer? >> yeah. >> do you embodies exact words were? >> he said, he killed brandi with a phone call. and i believe everything he said. i believe that he killed her. i was so afraid. >> did he say who killed brandi? >> he said it's a black eye, at the gym, that was in this group of people. >> it looked as though the detectives were ready to put a bow on their investigation. take the blizzard of messages between the two men, mix in the geography of the cell phone towers that put a suspect burner phones had to serious right near the crime scene, and now, adding the story of the woman from alaska, food apparently heard a confession and you should be ready to swear out a -- not quite. when the detectives got back to ohio, their first stop was at the office of state attorney, mike headaches. they come to you and say, are we there yet? >> yes. >> and you're telling them, no, we're not quite there. >> i wanted to make sure that

before we took the case a grand jury, that we had a motive. obviously in the case of josh daniels, the husband, we had a motive. marriage was breaking up, he had been violent with her in the past. >> but he was mild thousands of miles aware, in alaska? >> we knew he didn't pull the trigger. when we came up with sirius underwood, the most obvious is there's been some sort of a payment. we spent about a year looking through bank accounts, and couldn't find any. >> almost two years went by and nothing. how do you put all that awful time together? >> day by day. >> are you starting to lose faith in your police, the investigation? >> it was stressful. mike ryan would call, and i would say, have you heard anything? we still have to get some more evidence, more evidence. >> but it's funny how things sometimes work out, because the

investigators were about to get another bold out of the blue lead, like the one from alaska. it began with -- a message to the facebook page of the zanesville pd. the tipster had volunteered that her husband was part of a stick up gang. >> we came and spoke with her and obtained a lot of valuable information for this investigation. >> detective phil michael, of the zanesville pd, had been working for two years on a string of armed robberies. when he got the facebook tipster in for an interview, guess who she identified as two members of the robbery crew. none other than serious underwood and josh daniels. if the tipster could be believed, they had been banned its two years before brandi had been shot to death. the woman confirmed something that detective michael had long suspected, but had been a unable to prove. the robbery of a local department store had been an inside job. josh daniels had been working at the store at the time, and handed over $7,000 to a masked gunman. if we had been here, on january

1st, 2012, what might we have seen? >> you can see an individual come from the southwest side of the parking lot, he stopped the gun in josh's face >> a pistol? >> yes. he ended up falling, down being knocked down. >> the tipster claim that josh was in the victim of the robbery, but actually one of the participants. and that is powell, sirius, had been the mastermind, not only of the departments are job, the prime mover in the crime wave, responsible for multiple armed robberies. most of them were captured on surveillance video. the two bodybuilders secret sideline was ahead snapping revelation. >> sirius underwood was robbing tumbleweed restaurants, drug dealers, or hitting the gabriel brothers. during the day, he's the sweetest guy, loves the women, and they love him, we'll train with you, poster boy, just an all great american. >> the cops believe that linking serious and his partner in crime, josh daniels, to the

violent robberies would help nail the two for brandi daniels murder. we're >> on the right track for the robberies. we're gonna try and confront josh. >> back to alaska. when josh landed at anchorage international on his way from north slope, airport police with him into the office. detective michael show josh photographs of the department store robbery suspects. >> have you ever seen him before? around the store, or anything like that? >> no. >> detective michael then handed josh another photo. >> you ever seen sirius underwood? >> yeah. i used to work with him. >> would you have talked to serious that day -- >> not at all. >> really? the cop accused josh of lying, of being up to his eyeballs in the robberies. >> so if you guys came up with some -- scheme to take some money, then would you be honest? >> no. >> josh up to his story and then lawyer it up. the detectives flying home to ohio knew they had more work to

do, but in any conspiracy, there's a weak link. they just had to pick their man. >> coming up, who would crack first? we get the phone call saying, hey, let's make a deal >> let's talk. >> when dateline continues. n dateline continues for romance. your home for big savings. [ laughs ] hey, mom, have you seen m-- ew. because when you bundle home and auto with progressive, your home is a savings paradise. bundles progressive. your home for savings.

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revealed that josh and sirius where more than jim bugs, they were armed robbers together. look brandy, their victim, must have known about sirius and her husband's part in the holdups. for -- the homicide case had achieved critical mass. what was the final greenlight for investigators? when did they have it? >> when we found that these two guys where criminal conspirators, violent criminals in several robberies. there was our motive. once i felt that we had the motive for them sirius underwood to be involved in this murder, we would go. >> which is, josh's wife might be a risk for him? >> that's correct. >> she might snitch him? out >> she might's mission. that >> had a -- juan welch and john ladle would present the case. there would be a lot of convoluted storytelling and evidence for the jurors to follow. >> you have robberies going on, a homicide, the cell phone data,

how you link all these people up. you're gonna have multiple snitches who are all going to be testifying will have their own issues. >> the grand jury sat for three months and heard more than 100 witnesses. in march 2016, it returned indictments against josh daniels and serious underwood. >> at the request of authorities and ohio, the alaska state troopers located josh and his mother's home in wasilla. once ohio gave the greenlight to the troopers to move on the suspect, they. did the cops went on without incident. josh was put in the back seat of a cruiser and driven downtown. >> detective michael confronted him. >> you've been charged with several counts, including the robberies that occurred at gabriel brothers, tumbleweed, the one you are going to do at campbell's, and the murder of your soon to be ex-wife, brandy. >> josh was shown a graphic crime scene photos of poor brandy. >> this is what you are responsible for. this is what happened to your

ex. and i'm willing to talk to you to get your side of the story if you're willing to talk to me. >> i think you're good investigator, but i'm gonna have an attorney. so -- >> okay. >> we're going to do that. >> that's fine,. josh >> meanwhile, back in there zanesville, police surrounded sirius's car and arrested him. his interrogation did last. long >> do you know what your? here >>. yes >> you we have a grand jury and you've been indicted. aggravated murder, aggravated robberies, attempted robberies, weapon under disability. tampering with evidence. josh daniels was also arrested. if josh is up there talking, then i think it's the proper thing to tell you that you have the opportunity to tell me, too. would you like to talk to me about this? >> no. >> i want to lawyer. >> you want to? lawyer >> yes. >> josh waived extradition was brought back to ohio. they brandy's got word at the end of her shift. >> i get a phone call, you need to get down here, now.

>> there you are in a courtroom. what's going on? >> josh is there. doing his plea. and then they go over details that we weren't aware of. >> so it's gonna bring all the pain back up again? how did he look to you in the courtroom? >> not a care in the world. >> wendy was in the courtroom as well. >> this is big news. that sirius is charged, he's in jail. do you believe that he killed brandy? >> no, i don't. sirius had so much going for him, and he had worked so hard, and i would just say, why? what did he have to gain from doing something like that? >> over the next few months, welch and ladle prepared their cases. josh would be tried first, then sirius. they laid out their case on index cards. motto was looking more complicated than ever. in opening arguments, they have to explain to jurors just to these defendants are. sirius, the overachieving charm

are, and bad husband josh, who had been abusing steroids for years. >> he was freud it out. he was out of his mind using steroids. sears as a sociopath. whereas for josh it was a status of being enraged and jealous -- >> i think he still loved her, and she was just done with him. >> josh sat behind bars for seven months. deprived of elephant doses of steroids, his chemically enhanced muscles deflated like spent balloons. they found their weak link. >> we get the phone call from josh's defense attorney saying, hey, let's -- >> let's make a? deal >> let's talk. the issue we had is, who do you make a deal with? the guy who got his wife killed or the guy who shot her point like in the face? >> the state attorney agreed. but he would have to tell all. >> i want to start off with the murder. >> making a deal with the devil? but who will get burned?

coming up -- one down, one to go. >> what was the weakness in the case? you're still gonna have josh come in as the week witness. >> josh, the jury would like. i'm >> so there might be wiggle room for sirius. >> correct. when >> dateline continues. >> dateline continues wait, what? it sounded like you just said an eye drop that may help you see up close. i did. it's an innovative way to... so, wait. i don't always have to wear reading glasses? yeah! vuity™ helps you see up close. so, i can see up close with just my eyes? uh-huh. with one drop in each eye, once daily. in focus? yep. [laughs] like, really? really. vuity™ is a prescription eye drop to help you see up close. ow! wait, what? wait. wait? wait, what? see for yourself. use vuity™ with caution in night driving and hazardous activities in poor light. also, if your vision is not clear, do not drive or use machinery. contact your doctor immediately

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and once in a lifetime moments. two tickets to nascar! yes! find rewards like these and so many more in the xfinity app. >> welcome back. it had been two and a half years since brandy daniels was killed. the states attorney had been holding out hope that one of the two defendants would take a

plea deal in exchange for their detailed confession. then, after seven months and present, josh daniels agreed to tell investigators what he knew. but would his story help them convict sirius underwood? here is dennis murphy with the conclusion of "out there in the dark" what. >> as part of pleading guilty to murdering his wife, brandy, josh daniels had to admit what he'd done. provide what lawyers call a proffer. he was brought to a conference room in the prosecutors office. >> when was the first time that she this idea came about? >> i've known sirius underwood for a while. we had a conversation one day, in his apartment, and i was telling him about how hard this was on me we me and brandy splitting up. well how pissed off i was that she was seeing that guy, craig, and he made the comment, we'll,

law well, at the time, being delusional, mad, i made the decision that maybe that wouldn't be a bad idea. >> josh helped him stop his wife. >> he asked me where she lived. i told him. and he asked me about her work schedule, and i told him. >> and it wasn't just brandy josh wanted dead. >> i told him if he could see if he could go over to her boyfriend's house, craig, see if he could find out where he lives. and break into his house and killed both of them. >> did? he did you find out where he lived? >> yes. >> did he try to break in the house? >> no. not that i know. if >> they skim together on the eve of the murder. >> he asked me a day before we, are you sure? do you want this done? and i had been drinking and, i

had those alcohol problems and steroid problems, and i was just mad. i said, yeah. >> how did it go down? >> i told him when she was going to get off work. i would text sirius. and he said i've got this. i see her car. i don't know actually what took place on the night. i know that she was shot. i don't know if he parked his vehicle somewhere and came running out of the bushes. i never talked to sirius after the murder happened. >> he's only confirmed with you. >> he said, done. >> they asked, how could josh live with himself after killing the mother of his child? >> i thought that it would just go away. that this day would never come. we that i'd begin the rest of my life. like it never happen. after brandy's death came alcohol, drinking every day. look and using heroin.

downers. anything to numb that pain. >> the killer has been sounded almost contrite. >> if i could go back and change it, i would. we brandy didn't deserve what happened to her. she was a good girl. ultimately, years down the road, having brandy gone, seeing how that affects my -- how that's gonna affect my daughter's life, we she'll never know. i played a part in that. i can live with. that >> with josh up to three himself at the mercy of the port, accuser still had the trigger man to deal with. but sirius was hanging tough, not single word. so with only one of the two accused going to trial, the state star witness would be josh daniels. as prosecutors prepared him to testify, they were still trying to wrap their arms around's sirius's motive for the murder.

>> what is he telling? you >> when he pushed josh, on why? why would he do this? and he says, that's what dudes do for dudes. that's what sirius told him. he said, you do that for me? and that's where dudes do for dudes. >> kill your wife? >> right. >> crunch time for the prosecutors. sirius's trial was looming, they were far from confident. what's the weakness in the case? you're still gonna have just committed at the witness. >> you're asking the jury to rely upon someone who admitted to having their wife executed. it's a tough pill to swallow. >> so there's wiggle room for sirius? >> right. >> just days before this -- >> i got a text message from the defense attorney saying, you guys doing it for? plea >> sirius's lawyer was proposing a plea deal. a screwball pitch of american jurisprudence. it has a sketchy feel to it. do you want to take a crack at

explaining why it enough for please? >> sure. it's basically when someone says, i'm willing to say that you have lots of information and i'm going to plead guilty, but i'm not going to say i actually did anything wrong. >> and i say -- and i turn around, and say, how is this gonna go again? >> he will take responsibility without seeing he didn't. >> the states attorney signed off in the trial judge accepted sirius's alfred plea. he was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 38 years. josh daniels got life with the possibility of parole after 28 years. not enough time for some of brandy's loved ones. >> where do we stand? now they've both been dealt with? >> yeah, i guess. >> your opinion, do you think they got off easy? >> yes, i did. they are still breathing. she's not. >> josh and sirius are serving their sentences in separate maximum security presence.

brandy's parents are raising her daughter. the families left with a snapshot album with the young woman in the pictures inside never's always staying the same. never gonna have her own album of her daughter graduating, getting married. being killed on a hilltop before she could kiss her daughter goodnight. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline". i'm natalie morales, thanks for watching. >> i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline. >> i felt like this was the one -- a whirlwind. a love affair. i feel like this is the one i've been waiting for. maybe was too good to be true did you love me, or was a solid game? >> a beautiful business woman falls for a dashing doctor, but her daughters have doubts. >> i have lots of sp