the ones you love. let them know. you never know the moment they may be gone. >> that is all for this edition of dateline. i'm

i think he got stuck in the mud. >> brandi and her kids live in a rambling house next to one of those big farms in colusa county. idyllic life out here. quiet, predictable. until the saturday afternoon that little boy appeared. like magic, from the sunflower fields. couldn't have been more than seven years older so. >> what did he say? >> he said that his dad was on fire and he needed to call for help. >> on fire? how could that be? >> he was serious? >> he was serious, very serious. >> once he started to talk, was he making sense? >> yes. he was able to talk the whole time. answer whatever questions i

had. there was no hesitation. >> randi called 9-1-1, passed along details as related to her by the little boy. as they waited for the fire department to arrive, brandi began tending to the boy. fabian ayala. >> i took the water to drink and then i rinsed all the mud off and checked under his shirt to see if there were major injuries. >> were you hurt? >> no. not at all. >> this is fabian three years later. his family by his side, he told us about the last day he spent with his dad. >> he takes me out when he has something to do. >> fabian's dad roberto was a farm manager, demanding sun up to sun down job. to squeeze in time with his

family he would often take his kids with him. a proud man. always pictured with his chest out and chin up. on july 16th, 2011, that saturday, roberto needed to flood the rice field by turning on a series of high voltage irrigation pumps. fabian by his side in his pick up truck, roberto drove the quarter mile distance from one pump to the next. and then he stopped. and got out. walked to the big electrical box. >> he was just going to the right field when this big explosion happened. i go out and saw him just laying on the ground. >> so what did you do? >> i yelled, i yelled his name out and he wasn't answering. so i was like, i'm going to try and get help. >> what did you do, you ran? >> yeah. >> through what? >> the fields. the flower fields. >> big, tall --

>> you are running through them. >> how far did you have to go? >> i don't know. pretty far. >> far indeed. more than two miles. running, running, running. blindly through the field of golden flowers that closed in about him. >> and i saw the house and i just went towards it. >> do you remember what you said to them? >> something happened to my dad and he was down that way. and can you help me? and they said yes. and they called the police department and they came as quick as they can. >> when firefighters reached the irrigation canal from which little fabian had run for help, it was obvious there was no life left to save. roberto ayala's body must have indeed been on fire. why became clear when they found burn holes an inch wide near the bottom of his feet. an obvious sign of electrocution. a locker sized electrical box used to turn on a high voltage

irrigation pump had apparently shorted out and exploded, with such intensity that metal fragments blew out the windows and covered the passenger side of roberto ayala's. it was a miracle that fabian wasn't killed two. >> we received information at something happened. >> roberto's wife. >> it was when we received a call from the police department, and they said that we have your son, and that he was okay. but they couldn't tell us what happened to roberto. we thought he was in the hospital. >> you didn't know what happened to him? >> we didn't know what had happened. we called the hospital, and the hospital didn't know anything about what had happened. about an hour, or an hour and a half later, they arrived with fabian. >> i asked my brother, where is

my dad? and my brother just started screaming that he was dead. >> what was it like to see faye being in that situation? >> as someone older, i wouldn't be able to handle it as well as my brother did. >> it was pretty amazing, wasn't it? to run all that way? >> i wouldn't have been able to run that much. i wouldn't have known what to do. just to stay strong in the way he did it, i wasn't there and i couldn't control myself. i don't know how he did it. >> farm accidents are as old as the wheel. bad things just happen sometimes. still, sheriff's investigators scoured the area taking photos and collecting every bit of debris they could find, whether it looked like it was from an electrical box or not. >> one of our jobs for the jurisdiction is to investigate all industrial accidents. >> because, said sheriff's detective david salm, the sheriff does double duty as the corner. >> a sheriff will eventually take over that investigation if it's determined to be that type of thing. >> there was an autopsy too. a team, of course. >> it told us that the victim had been electrocuted, he had been burnt.

near an explosion. >> pacific gas and electric sent a team over, which confirmed that it looked like an accident, and sadly not unique. >> he said we have seen stuff similar to this. what might happen is that the operator will get into the panel with a tool for some reason. and cross the leads with that tool. and cause a plasma type of explosion. and that could have been what happened here. the other thing he said was that we've never seen anything this big. >> this is what the electrical box would have looked like before the explosion. about the size of a high school locker. after the explosion, the box was nowhere to be found. all that was left was a splintered post. hard to know what to make of that. coming up. along with the growing crops, growing resentments at the farm. >> robert told paul that he was

going to get my share of what my dad was going to live me. >> your intention was to fight him? >> yes. it settled in. >> the investigations continue as explosives experts try to determine what exactly happened to roberto. >> he came across this metal, that middle told him that something was going on. >> the first clue unearthed. when "dateline" continues.

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dollars with just one family the moore. >> this is mary, part of the moore clan, her family keeps its wealth private to, like many families here. >> i knew there was well they but they didn't flaunt it. and you weren't told about it. he just knew that it was. there >> and she learned early, she said, that the family fortune was also a tool to keep the descendants in line. >> my dad would say, like when i was in high school, if you ever get into drugs or do anything i'm taking you out of my will. >> though she could never have inherited the land, that birthright was passed from father to son, not daughter. the custom started with the family patriarch who handed the farm down to roger and gus, now in their seventies. each of them had a son, just a year apart. paul and peter, in line to one

day run the farmers partners. cousins but raised more like brothers. here they are in 1978. fishing barehanded, latter day huck and tom. they were a pair. roger paul was smart and handsome, a bit of a playboy. while gus's boy peter was tough and blunt. hotheaded. >> pete has a reputation over in colusa county. his mouth has given him a reputation because of the things that he has said. >> i'm a little different than the rest of them. >> oh boy. so he is. calls him as he sees them, even when it comes to his own family. >> there's too much money involved. and everyone is afraid of what they might lose if they say something. >> there was one family member who he did have a deep connection with. his grandfather, the family patriarch.

>> he was special. >> he taught peter about farming, tending the orchard. he had macular degeneration. so i was his eyes. >> but when his grandfather, his patron died. pete's life changed quite suddenly. >> after i buried my grandpa, in short order i was pretty much told by my dad and uncle that they didn't need my help anymore. and i don't know whether it was animosity because i had gotten so close to their dad, or what it was. >> but after a particularly ugly fight with his dad, pete was exiled from the land of plenty. moved north of this eaten into town and started a landscaping business. >> my wife and i had nothing, and i mean nothing to do with the mourners. >> and paul, paul remain the

family golden boy. paul married a local beauty. this is his wedding video. and he waited for the day when he would rain over the land. but he was never involved in the big questions, when and what to so, what to reap. those multi million dollar decisions were left up to roberto ayala, who had once been a lowly field hand. but anyone could see he was a natural farmer. trust, responsibility and the owners affection came to rest with him. >> all new, the boys in the family, we should have been the next in line. it wasn't fair. it was a slap in the face. >> and to make matters worse, roberto ayala brought his brother eduardo in as his assistant. the cousin, they're birthright with health, fumed. >> paul would come over and tell me horrible stuff about ed

and robert, what robert was saying about me. that robert told paul that he was going to get my share of what my dad was going to leave me. >> fair to say that your nerves were a bit raw about ed and robert. >> i was mad, i'm going to be honest with you. there was a lot of animosity. >> so much that one day pete jumped into his truck, drove into the farm and called roberto out. >> i told him, let's go. >> your intention was to fight him? >> oh yeah. it settles things. >> but roberto politely declined. he had a farm to run. and the next time peter heard anything more about roberto ayala it was that he was dead. >> what did you think when you heard that he was dead? >> i was told it was an accident. >> which is certainly what it was, at least according to the experts from pg&e. but just to be sure, detective david salm called experts from the neighboring county. >> just ask them, have you ever

heard of an electoral panel like this blowing up? they hadn't. and at their own insistence, they came out to look at what we had, and formed the opinion that it was possibly an explosive device. they in turn called the atf and fbi. >> for some that felt like jumping the gun. the last thing he wanted was the feds treating him like a country cop. now i have atf and fbi showing up. i was a little overwhelmed. i was concerned that maybe they were calling these big agencies for help when really what we have is an accident. we had one guy saying it was a bomb, of the bomb guys. >> right. >> we are not 100% convinced it's a bomb yet. >> and then three days after the explosion -- >> we got a visit from paul moore. >> the cousin, the handsome golden boy of the pair. told him he found something at the scene of the accident. something that shouldn't have

been there. >> we came across a piece of metal that he found with a galvanized iron, or some kind of galvanized metal. and that piece of metal said to him that there was something more going on. >> did he have any other ideas about what may have happened? >> he did. he told us that his cousin pete had made some threats where the victim. in the time leading up to the incident. >> and there is more. paul showed detective david salm's text from peter sent from the right field we are roberto was killed. >> and it was dated the time before. >> coming up, the focus she is from the nuts and bolts of electrical explosions to an explosive personality. >> he was always the one who had something mean to say. he was always the one that hated him. and that was the only reason i could think. >> why did you hate him? >> he was arrogant. he flaunted stuff in my face. >> pete had a reputation for being a real hothead. without hardly an effort, pete

could pass you off. >> when dateline continues. >>

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in an office nearly 30 years, he knows where the skeletons are buried. and know just about every prominent family in the county. including the moores. >> if i said they were on that

would be a good way of summarizing. >> odd? >> yes. >> on how? >> you don't hear about a lot of families but you hear about the moore. >> because they complained about other wings about the family? or at least complain in a way that -- >> complain in a way that others will find out about it. >> -- >> he had had a reputation for being a hothead, i knew that since i had been here. he had a lot of mouth. without hardly an effort, pete could (bleep) you off. >> so when paul came to the authorities and said i think pete is responsible for this, did his suspicion seem plausible? >> yes. >> yeah. >> it did. because we knew he didn't get along with his family, we knew that he had a hothead and access to the property. >> and for paul to denounce

peter, who is like his brother? it sounded odd but it made sense to the da office, which signed off on the warrant to have the house searched. it was just blocks away. >> we went out to grab a bite to eat. and we saw them searching the house. mary ellen is peter moore's wife. >> i didn't think it at first, i said what are they doing other house? >> i said what the bleep is going on here? >> and two cops came over and escorted me to the front of the house. >> mary ellen and peter ask investigators what was going on. they were handed the search warrant, stating that investigators were looking for anything connected to bomb making. >> how do you know it was a bomb? we didn't even know it was a bomb? >> that was the first words you heard the detective say. >> we thought it was an accident. >> they seem to be accusing? >> yes. >> both of you? >> were you frightened? >> yes. >> what were you frightened? of >> that they thought we did.

>> around colusa the raid on peter's house, just days after roberto's's death was big news. neighbors began sending out realtime updates on facebook. >> there was a parade of cars driving around the neighborhood. >> because these detectives were asking questions? >> and at my house. >> when they left? >> they took our computers and cellphones. we had a business. nobody could call us. >> meanwhile the whole neighborhood was watching this? >> yes. >> but the search, said detective david salm, didn't yield a thing. >> we didn't find anything as far as bomb making materials, instructions for bombs. anything remotely close to that, even, like gunpowder. >> so if pete was doing something he wasn't doing it close to his house? >> now that we could find evidence of. >> he denied he had anything to do with it? >> yes he did. >> pete didn't try to deny his hatred for roberto ayala. >> why did you hate him? >> he was arrogant and flaunted

stuff in my face. >> if this seems like a biblical epic -- lots of people knew about that, especially roberto ayala's family. >> i thought it was pete all along. >> why? >> he was always the one that had something mean to say, that was the only person i could think of. >> there was a lot of town talk going on. a lot of gossip, and rumor. about a week after the house was searched, pete got a visit from a friend who had heard some things. >> i was working one day and the he saw with a friend of mine, and he backs up his car and says what the heck are you doing? >> i say, i'm working. he says, no you're. he told me to get out, go to sacramento, they are coming after you, you are the number one suspect. >> coming up. >> i didn't know what to think,

i had never seen anything like that before in my career, except on tv. >> though pete is in the crosshairs, investigators are about to learn that their victim may have made a very different and deadly enemy. >> we let her imply that roberto had messed with the drug cartel. >> when "dateline" continues. catching my train... making moves... ♪♪ making a connection... a train connection. that's how you du more with dupixent, which helps prevent asthma attacks. dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems. it's an add-on-treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma that can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as two weeks. and can reduce, or even eliminate, oral steroids. and here's something important. dupixent can cause allergic reactions that can be severe. get help right away if you have rash, chest pain,

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and firearms has become something of a legend. at solving puzzles. these little bits and pieces, fragments of this and that were about all that was left around roberto ayala's body the day of the explosion. a story had to be in there somewhere, thought the atf. agent brian parker was assigned to find out what it was. >> what does this tell you overall? >> what it tells us is that there was an incredible amount of force in the explosion. >> most of these pieces were once part of the electrical box. >> you have washers, different types of hardware in here. screws, nuts, wire. >> others are just trash. >> but a few fragments, just a handful, looked like they were pieces from a different puzzle. odd. >> cells from a nine volt battery, galvanized steel ripped apart. >> parker sent off these bits to the west coast crime lab to determine whether or not there was explosive residue present

on some of the fragments that were collected at the scene. >> like gunpowder, nitroglycerin? >> correct. >> then there was this. discovered on the fifth day of the investigation, the panel box door found 160 feet from the site of the explosion. >> about two feet wide, probably weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 or 20 pounds. >> this where the large hole is would be the bottom of the panel. >> the forensic scientists at the atf continued their tests, hunting for bomb residue, dna, fingerprints. detective david salm was on peter moore's sale, waiting for him to make a mistake. did he leave? what did he do? >> he didn't leave. >> what were people saying around town? >> we were hearing that people were saying that i thought pete did it. >> everyone. >> didn't make a secret over, said mary ellen, or the

neighbors. >> what did people think? >> that we were guilty. >> after they raided my house, i spent days crying. days and days. i would be at work and we just crying, because you don't know what is going on. you don't know who to trust. >> how much were you watched? >> i would wake up in the morning to people outside my house. >> they watched me go out in public, with everyone thinking i'm a murderer. >> even some of pete's own relatives seem convinced that. his sister mary stuck by him. >> i'm amazed at how much talking goes on there, with no actual evidence. it's a lot of gossip and people knowing your business. >> mary placed a call to one of the investigators, told him they were going after the wrong guy. >> he was extremely rude. and he said you and your family just need to accept that your brother did this. i just broke down in tears because i thought they just didn't like him as a person.

and i think they just -- to me, my opinion was they wanted it to be him. >> four weeks into the investigation, peter moore was not just the top suspect, he was the only suspect. they had no physical evidence that a murder had even occurred. but they continue to watch and wait. and the weeks went by. a month after the explosion, there was news, from the atf crime lab. they had found something. >> there was the presence of explosive residue on the metal fragments that we saw. >> so it was, a bomb. a murder. we then the very next day -- >> i'm seeing in my office, talking about what we are doing next, and the civil deputy walks in with a envelope. and says i think this is for you guys. it says colusa county sheriff's office. no street address. and then it says ayala case. and there's eight stamps on it.

it was pretty light, so is way too much postage. >> because inside was just a single sheet of paper, an open letter to the cops. >> what did that letter say? >> it was claiming responsibility for the bombing. >> the letter, full of misspellings a bad grammar, had been written on the label maker and photocopied. its author claimed to be a military trained contract killer who had been hired to kill roberto ayala over a mexico deal gone wrong. >> and it was ms-13 behind it. >> what is ms-13? >> it's a violent el salvadoran criminal street gang. >> and roberto ayala was supposed to be a target of this group? >> the letter implied that roberto ayala had messed with a drug cartel and that ms-13 had been contracted.

>> the author of the letter taunted the detectives, writing that lab results will find military grade powder but no dna. which is true so far. but the point of the letter wrote that its author was a warning. roberto's brother, eduardo, was next on the hit list. the writer said he had turned down the job to kill eduardo, but a second assassin would soon be on the way. >> did you think it was a hoax or real? >> i didn't know what to think. i had never seen anything like that before, except something similar on tv. >> the one thing about that strange letter was all too obvious. whoever wrote it had inside knowledge. because nobody, besides the cops, new with the atf had discovered. >> we didn't tell anyone it was a bomb, so for someone to write a letter, claiming responsibility for a bombing, that landed some credence to the fact that the author of

that letter was the real thing. >> weird. all too weird. we detective david salm and the others went home for the weekend to digest what they had read and seen. and then monday morning the phone of david salm rang. >> we he said we have another one of those letters. i came to work, a second letter sitting on my desk. this one was a slightly smaller. a half sized manila envelope. but configured the same way, label maker, no address, ayala case. and way too much postage. >> what was inside? >> a diagram of a bomb. >> coming up. invitation from a killer. >> the letter said if you have any questions, place an ad in the'sacramento bee'. make sure its the last ad. >> and another victim in the crosshairs? >> we were thinking keeping that stuff confidential was important. >> but a man's life may be in

jeopardy. >> we gave him as strong a warning as we could. >> when dateline continues.

on august 15th, 2011, 30 days keith morrison (voiceover): on august 15, 2011, 30 days after roberto iowa's death, investigators receive this picture of a bomb. >> what did you think when you saw that diagram. >> shocked. >> we were amazed.

i had never seen anything like that before. >> the device, as shown in the diagram, was a two inch pipe bomb placed next to a one liter soda bottle full of gasoline. spray-painted black. a large bowl tied off with a fishing line and acting as a dropweight. it would fall on a rat trap causing it to strike a firing cane, kind of like a rube goldberg device. it also said that there was a second secret triggering device. the bomb was designed to go off when roberto ayala open the

door of the electrical box. >> it could've been almost anything? >> now suddenly, agent brian parker saw how they all fit. those confusing bits he'd been pouring over. >> it was almost like someone had sent us the cover of the puzzle box. >> now they match the bits to the diagram. >> the first thing i look for with this bolt. and theree it was. >> the thing that made it exceptionally clear was that the bolt still had some fishing string attached just under the head of the bolt, which is how it was depicted in the diagrams.

>> so it would've been hanging? >> yes. >> we as a weight? >> yes. >> it was clear that that bolt was part of our device that was described in the letters. >> and there were fragments of a plastic soda bottle. black paint still clinging to them. again just like the diagram. >> so it's a spring that was similar to a rat trap spring, there was gasoline on the victim's clothing. and then we recovered pieces of

a nine volt battery that we were able to determine had no business being in the panel. >> so if you found the writer of those letters you had found the killer? >> that was our opinion, yes. >> along with a diagram was a second letter, in which the bomber repeated his earlier claim that he was a reluctant assassin. after a career of killing, he wrote, i want to save a life before i take my life. the bomber repeated his warning, roberto ayala's brother eduardo was next. the whole ayala family was in danger. >> he said i want to make sure you get this letter to help these guys. >> so it was designed to do something, i don't want to happen, i want you guys to

prevent. it >> that was basically the gist of the litter. >> did you believe it? >> not exactly. -- >> the first thing eduardo did was hide the pick up truck. now with the truck out of sight, with the killer or killers just found a different or a better place for a bomb? >> i wanted everyone to sleep. all i could do is think, run things through my mind. >> it's somebody sneaking around enough to plant a bomb to kill somebody and they did it to one person, there is nothing that is going to stop them from doing it to someone else. >> in the second letter, the bomber left open one possible line of communication. >> the letter said if you have any questions, place an ad in the "sacramento bee", august

21st issue, help wanted. make sure it's the last ad. >> and so they placed this classified ad. and waited for a killer to call. >> coming up. a son and his all too close call with death. >> we had an argument that morning so i didn't get to tag along with the ride that day. >> because you might otherwise have been there? >> i probably would have been the one to get out and check the pump. >> and another member of the moore dynasty comes forward with a fresh piece of evidence. would an answering machine message finally solve the question about a motive for murder? when "dateline" continues. but i didn't wait. i could've delayed telling my doctor i was short of breath just reading a book... but i didn't wait. they told their doctors. and found out they had... atrial fibrillation. a condition which makes it about five times more likely to have a stroke.

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who ever heard of such a thing?

letters from a purported killer. plus a diagram of what's certainly looked like the actual bomb that killed roberto ayala. was it real, a ruse, a lucky guess? if it was real, who sent? it was it from the lead suspect, peter moore or a hitman as the letter claimed? or was it from somebody who is not even on david salm's radar? whoever it was, five weeks in and it was the only lead investigators had. so they played along with the guy, played an ad, as requested, in the "sacramento bee". and sure enough, somebody responded. cops rushed to see him, perhaps arrest him. >> he was pretty surprised when he got a visit. >> false alarm, it was just an unlucky guy looking for a job. the killer though? the killer never called. so the whole ms-13 thing, was just a game. the real bomb was playing this

game. nobody knew the rules or the purpose or where the game might end. but more than one way to find a guy brazenness to send bad material to the cops. >> we had letters we wanted analyzed, we wanted fingerprints and dna. >> the letters were anomalous but came back clean. what was going on? to investigators, one theory seemed the least likely, that roberto ayala was mixed up with the drug gang ms-13. the iowa's are a classic boot strap story, a religious man was roberto ayala. he worked his way up from far manager to oversee a multi million dollar farm. he knew the machines and was utterly committed to that work. >> what did working that far mean to your dad? >> that was everything, that was our whole live, even his life revolved around it. we were always there growing

up. >> first jobs as kids? >> yeah, even learned how to drive on the farm. we learned how to do everything on the farm. >> tell me about your dead. what kind of guy was he? >> he was a hard worker, someone to look up to. we admired him. >> and it did not go unnoticed on the moore farm. over the years, owners roger and gus came to rely a great deal on roberto ayala. they treated him more like a favorite son than an employee. >> how important was family to roberto ayala? >> the most important thing. it all revolved around this. we didn't have much but everywhere he went, we went too. so we were always together. >> whatever went wrong, he was the one to go to, the one to keep everyone together.

>> latino cultures celebrate a coming of age ritual called a quinceanera, when a girl turns 15. when roberto's daughter turned 15 -- >> i was the only girl, so he did everything he could to make that day the best. >> so what kinds of things do you do? >> you have to have your father daughter dance. >> ♪ ♪ ♪ you just feel like you're the only person that exists at that moment. you just feel important. you really do feel like a princess. >> you probably won't forget that. >> no. >> of course, for teenagers there is another right of passage. butting heads with parents. which, that last morning, by pure chance, saved jesus''s life. >> we were supposed to work together. and for some reason we had an argument that morning, so i didn't get to tag along with the ride that day. >> you might otherwise have

been there. >> i probably would have been the one to get off, to check the pump. >> why would anyone want to hurt him? >> i can't find a reason why someone would want to do it, to kill him. >> and this bomber, whoever it might be, came very close to also murdering fabian ayala. >> if you want your -- for it, bring a child into it. >> d. a. poyner found this to be particularly heart breaking. >> i couldn't imagine being seven years old and seeing my dad blow up. >> and running all that way. >> people don't understand, it was like maybe a couple of miles as the crow flies. but to run through colusa mud, which is what we call the mud in the rice fields, he had to take his shoes off, you can hardly walk through it. and for him to run all that way, who is amazing. i remember asking him if he knew it 9-1-1 was? and he told me that, he was right. and i said did he know how to use a cellphone? and i asked if the dad had a cell phone.

and why didn't he use the cell phone? why didn't you call for help? and he was reaching out like this and he said, i can't, it's in his pocket and he's on fire. >> yeah. >> yeah, that stays with you. >> but now these stalking letters from roberto's killer almost taking prideful delight and how he killed a man, and almost murdered the boy. who could it be? who would do such a thing? and why? then, four days after the diagram showed up, one of the alpha males of the moore clan rocked in the front door. roger moore, who like his son wanted to help catch the killer. and told the detectives he had an important audio to share. answering machines that his nephew pete left on his phone. coming up, investigators discover a brand-new suspect. >> we may somebody have else to look at. >> but who are the hunters and

who are the hunted. >> and all of a sudden the tire went flat. >> as police go after more evidence, someone goes after them, leaving a taunting message out in the fields. >> here i am, i'm doing this to, you can find me. >> when "dateline" continues. ♪“i swear”♪ jaycee tried gain flings for the first time the other day... and forgot where she was. you can always spot a first time gain flings user.

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[theme music] and when you book and pay throug you're covered by our happiness keith morrison (voiceover): roberto ayala, manager of a multimillion-dollar california farm owned by the powerful moore family, had been killed by a complicated homemade bomb. the prime suspect? pete moore, famously hotheaded, angry, because he believed his father might have given his inheritance to ayala. pete's uncle, roger moore, believed an audio tape from his answering machine could help detectives, who still didn't have enough evidence to make an arrest. the voice on the tape? none other than roger's nephew, pete.

keith morrison (voiceover): pete wanted to talk about having been disinherited. keith morrison (voiceover): the phone messages contained nothing directly incriminating. but after being diverted by those strange letters about assassins and a drug gang, the investigation was now back to where it started, that peter moore was the prime suspect. but just as all eyes were focused in one particular direction, the very next day, the phone rang. six weeks into the investigation, detective salm and agent parker had an audiotape, texts, letters, and diagrams, fragments of leads pointing in wildly different directions-- to pete moore, or a drug

cartel, or a crazed assassin. and now they had another lead to work on. dave salm: somebody made an anonymous call to the sheriff's department and said-- the caller basically stated, you need to be looking at paul moore and, um-- paul, not peter? paul, not peter. keith morrison (voiceover): for all the produce that comes rolling out of colusa county, california, its population of humans is small, just 22,000. everybody seems to know just about everybody here. so when a would-be anonymous tipster called the sheriff's office, it turned out he wasn't anonymous at all. the detective who took the call recognized the voice and phoned him right back. says, hey, you need to come in and talk to us. keith morrison (voiceover): the caller, as it turned out, was this man, dave moore, cousin of roger and gus, with a multimillion spread of his own and a passion for warbirds. dave's stepdaughter had once been married to paul.

this is a video from their wedding day. a messy divorce followed a few years later. dave salm: so david and susan moore came into our office. keith morrison (voiceover): susan moore is dave's wife. keith morrison: what did they say when they got into the office? the first thing they told us was a wiretapping incident. wiretapping? yes. keith morrison (voiceover): dave and sue claimed paul tapped his wife's phone to spy on her during divorce negotiations. and sure enough, here are the court documents. in 1997, paul was arrested on four counts related to tapping both his wife's and in-law's phones. he pleaded guilty to one count of electronic eavesdropping, a felony. the other charges were dropped, and paul served no jail time. but the wiretapping story was just a prologue to what they were really there to talk about.

keith morrison (voiceover): but dave and susan couldn't really give a reason why paul would want to kill roberto, other than they felt paul just had the kind of personality to do something like that, while pete didn't. keith morrison (voiceover): but peter had actually threatened roberto, wanted to fight him. and as far as anybody knew, paul had never done anything like that. nevertheless, based on this new information from david and susan moore, detectives asked paul to come in

for another meeting-- come on in and have seat. keith morrison (voiceover): --which he did quite willingly, took time off on a sunday afternoon. and detective salm asked paul directly. keith morrison (voiceover): committed felonies, in fact. then he said he just grew up and now wanted to help in any way he could, even if it meant informing on his beloved cousin peter. keith morrison (voiceover): one thing though, paul, like his second cousin dave, didn't think that pete was capable of making that bomb. somebody must have helped him.

keith morrison (voiceover): but remember, paul's ex in-laws told detective salm that paul was more likely the guilty party. probably 90% paul. keith morrison (voiceover): so now, the detective turned the tables a little, suggested maybe it was he, paul, who was jealous of roberto. keith morrison (voiceover): detective salm pressed paul about his past.

keith morrison: so this must have put a whole different complexion on paul. it did. having thought for some time that maybe peter was your guy, what was that like? it's possible we may have somebody else to look at. keith morrison (voiceover): and indeed they did, attached gps trackers to both peter and paul's vehicles, which produced precisely nothing. more weeks slipped by, eduardo ayala, aware he and his family could be the killer's next target, lay awake at night thinking. eduardo ayala: i would imagine peter trying to build this bomb, had to do it on a workbench,

obviously. but he's got the shakes, so i'd think about that. did he? or did he have somebody else do it for him? boy, and then i think the same thing about paul. by working side to side with the guy, i could see that he was a smart, super smart guy. keith morrison (voiceover): by the time the rice crop came in, first couple of weeks of october, the whole case had gone into a kind of stall. atf agent brian parker was particularly frustrated. while the door of the electrical panel had been recovered, the box itself where the bomb had been placed was still missing. the most logical place where that remains of that panel was in the river that was directly behind where the explosion occurred. keith morrison (voiceover): so they called in an fbi dive team, which spent days mucking through the bottom of the canal

next to where the bomb had gone off. and agent parker, who had been monitoring the search, had a strange incident as he was leaving one day. and all of a sudden, the tire went flat. keith morrison (voiceover): this is what flattened the tire, a home-made spike. dave salm: the spike was constructed of a harvester sickle that was welded to a two-inch washer. further inspection of the area, we found another one of these spikes. almost like a challenge to us. here i am. i'm doing this do you, you know, come find me. basically, they're coming-- they're coming after the cops. lester holt: coming up, investigators may be able to fight back with new ammunition as they finally turn up scientific evidence on one of the letters the killer sent. there was a dna profile on the back of one of the stamps that was affixed to the envelope. lester holt: when "dateline" continues. okay, this is a freezer, not a time capsule. sometimes the house itself can tell you how a young homeowner

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keith morrison (voiceover): three months after the bombing, the fbi dive team found the electrical box in which the bomb had been placed. but after months of sitting in water and mud, there was no trace of dna or fingerprints. the only story this peeled metal told was-- this case is going nowhere. keith morrison (voiceover): now, with little hope of finding that key piece of evidence that would put the case away, the detectives tried that good, old fashioned tool of policing-- shoe leather and tire tread, round the clock surveillance of peter and paul moore, aided by tracking devices, with a particularly helpful app. dave salm: but they're called geo-fences. i put a geo-fence, a pretty big geo-fence, around where i live. i put a geo-fence around the sheriff's department. keith morrison (voiceover): protection he felt he needed after someone targeted law enforcement with those spikes on the road. dave salm: if the vehicle or the gps monitor

travels into those locations, you get an alert. keith morrison (voiceover): in addition, detective salm would routinely log in to check on the whereabouts of peter and paul's trucks. and on the morning of thanksgiving day, more than four months after the bombing, salm turned on his computer to find the gps tracker on paul moore's truck-- dave salm: had gone dead, we had no signal whatsoever. and this is also the type of gps that you could call, just like calling on a cell phone, and wake it up because they go to sleep when they're not moving. and where are you? well, we couldn't get a response from it. keith morrison (voiceover): the device may have just died or been found, so salm got into his car with his partner, drove to paul's house to see if the truck was there. dave salm: we got to his house. and i look at the kitchen window, and he's staring at me. ok. keith morrison (voiceover): hoping paul hadn't recognized him, detective salm hit the road. dave salm: as we're leaving town, i look in the rear-view mirror, and there he is following us in his truck.

he pulls in behind us. i speed up. he speeds up. i'm up to about 85, and he's still gaining on me. he pulls in the opposing lane. i slam on the brakes, and he keeps going. we've pace him. i lose pace of him at 95. i called him in, and chp was actually able to get a stop on him. what was that all about? i have no idea who chases the police. that's the first time that's ever happened to me in my career. were you worried about your own safety? at parts during the investigation, there were concerns for our own safety. yeah. dave salm: we're dealing with a person who is violent enough to plant a bomb. keith morrison (voiceover): but was that person paul moore? paul had a criminal history, to be sure, but was he a killer? there were certain things about paul's past detective salm was unable to share with us for reasons we'll explain later. but we discovered in old court records a saga of smart, expensive lawyering dealing

with misdeeds that go way beyond tapping an ex-wife's telephone. in 1997, paul was arrested after an incident in san francisco one night, an ugly accusation of rape, false imprisonment, assault with a deadly weapon, trying to run his alleged victim over with his pickup truck, charges that could put paul in prison for a decade or more. instead, paul spent nearly three years driving back and forth between his place here in colusa and san francisco engaged in a series of court maneuvers. the result? paul simply got probation after pleading no contest to assault with intent to commit rape but denying blame for the offense. the other charges were dropped. keith morrison (voiceover): but the conviction put paul on california's sex offenders list, searchable by county. and out of fear that someone in colusa was bound to find out his secret,

paul went into exile near santa cruz. however, as part of the original plea deal, paul's intent to commit rape conviction was dropped, vacated in 2007, seven years later. in exchange, paul pleaded no contest to the assault with a deadly weapon charge, which meant paul was no longer a registered sex offender. and the prodigal son was welcomed home, that part of his past a carefully-guarded secret from most of the folks here in colusa county. keith morrison (voiceover): but pete's past was not a secret. everybody knew he didn't like roberto ayala, and everybody knew he was a suspect. keith morrison: around town, could you hear what people were whispering? pete. pete, pete, pete. pete, pete, pete. but not paul. not paul. keith morrison (voiceover): then, five months into the investigation, there was news-- of a sort-- from one of the crime labs. a male leg hair was found under a label of one

of the envelopes, and the dna came back matching nobody, no one in the moore family or anyone in the codis database, anyway. odd. had it been planted there to throw off investigators? then one of these envelopes finally gave up what appeared to be a real clue. brian parker: there was a dna profile from fingerprint ridge detail on the back of one of the stamps that was affixed to the envelope that one of the letters was sent in. so what came back from these dna tests? the contributor of the dna from the fingerprint material was similar to paul moore. keith morrison (voiceover): case closed, right? not this time. this time, there was a but. similar to paul moore-- uh-oh. --but it wasn't a match. keith morrison (voiceover): the dna sample was so minute that forensic scientists were unable to build a full genetic sequence, meaning the dna may have come

from paul moore, but the scientists couldn't say it was a 100% match. and while the dna didn't match anyone else in the family, including peter, the fact that paul couldn't be excluded was nothing that would hold up in court. dave salm: it was beyond frustrating to hear that we have an almost match, but we can't say for sure. keith morrison (voiceover): still, it did give them an idea. they'd get one shot at it, might work. lester holt: coming up. that got my attention right away. exciting doesn't begin to describe. elated maybe? dave salm: the most amazing thing in the world, this is the smoking gun. lester holt: a killer seemingly revealed by a blank sheet of paper. i got chills going on the back of my neck. i'm like, this is not happening right now. lester holt: when "dateline" continues.

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here's what's happening. six months after the boston marathon this -- two mile race happens. today 126 -- back on patriots day for the first time since 2019. and the white house easter april returns after two-year hiatus due to the covid pandemic. first lady jill biden dubbed this year's theme, education. it will welcome some 30,000 children and their chaperones to different educational stations. now, back to dateline. ce that came back as a partial match to paul moore was not enough to get him charged with roberto ayala's murder, far from it. but it was enough to get some people in town whispering. rumors run. rumors are like a bad smell. they move fast. keith morrison (voiceover): eduardo heard those rumors, heard that maybe paul had something to do with roberto's

murder, which placed eduardo in the hitchcock-ian situation of working side-by-side with the man who may have murdered his brother. i looked at him just like i'm looking at you. i talked to him just like i'm talking to you. and in the back of my mind, i'm thinking, you're the one that did it. keith morrison (voiceover): and while that dna result from the stamp wasn't strong enough to hold up in court, it was significant enough to get a warrant to search paul's home, for whatever that was worth five long months after the bombing. he had done some kind of major cleaning of this house. so we'd had actually had conversation about this, and-- like a what's-the-point conversation? that was one of the things that was talked about. and the decision was made, and i didn't want to leave it untouched. sure. but your expectations were not that high. no, they weren't. keith morrison (voiceover): with just this one crack at paul's house, detective salm wanted to make sure they did a thorough search. so he cobbled together a team of investigators

from various law enforcement agencies. jose ruiz: before we served the search warrant, we had a briefing. keith morrison (voiceover): one of the cops helping them was a detective from a neighboring town, jose chuy ruiz. they actually showed us a diagram of the bomb, and that's pretty much what we were instructed to look for. anything related to that. yes, exactly, anything related to bomb making. keith morrison (voiceover): they arrived en-masse right after daybreak, unannounced, of course. paul waited outside while each investigator took a piece of the house. and in they went. i found some manila envelopes, a copier, and also a printer. keith morrison (voiceover): the problem, though, was that paul's home, owned by the moore family, doubled as the farm office. there were printers, and copiers, envelopes-- expected to be there, too. keith morrison: as you went around and you found those things, what were you thinking? we really want that one really, really good piece of physical evidence.

and what you found so far wasn't it. no. ok, so specifically, what did you find of probative value? anything? dave salm: no, i didn't find anything. we took his cell phones. there were two cell phones in the car. but basically nothing. no. keith morrison (voiceover): detective ruiz was assigned to the dining room, which clearly doubled as an office. keith morrison: what did you see? i saw a lot of paperwork. there was lots of papers, files everywhere on that table. room was full of paper. yes. keith morrison (voiceover): the sun was just breaking over the horizon, long rays of morning light angled through the blinds. detective ruiz was poking through all those papers and office supplies when a curious thing caught his eye. it was the way that almost horizontal beam of light glanced off a blank sheet of paper. i noticed that that white sheet of paper had several impressions on it. impressions? jose ruiz: yes. you mean some writing on it? jose ruiz: yes, like when you draw something on a top sheet of paper and it goes through. to the next sheet down? jose ruiz: yes.

and that got my attention right away. i picked it up, and it was one of those moments where i was like, hm. i turned it different angles. the paper bowed in half. and it was one of those where i got chills going on the back of my neck and hairs are standing up. i'm like, no way, this is not happening right now. and one of their officers that was helping us looked at me, and he goes, what are you looking at? because it was just a blank sheet of paper. and i was like, you're not gonna believe this. and i said, you need to go get detective salm, like, now. and he's holding this white piece of paper in his hands, and he's kind of got it bent a little bit. and he's like, look at this. and immediately, i looked at this, and i'm going, [gasp] oh, my god. what he's holding in his hand is an indented writing copy of the diagram that we received in the mail. keith morrison (voiceover): this is the sheet of paper detective ruiz found. you can see the indentations of the bolt threads in the middle of the page about a third of the way down.

and here's that same sheet of paper enhanced by the atf crime lab. and here is the original bomb diagram mailed to investigators back in august. dave salm: the most amazing thing in the world, this is the smoking gun. unbelievable. couldn't believe it. exciting doesn't begin to describe. elated maybe? then what happened? i went out and arrested paul moore. lester holt: coming up, pete moore seems to be in the clear. but he's got yet another shock in store. there's no scale from this. this changes you forever. lester holt: when "dateline" continues. there's an invisible threat in your backyard [theme music] that could cause deadly heartworm disease for your dog. but not if you protect him every month with heartgard plus, the #1 choice of dogs. digestive and neurological side effects have rarely been reported. ask your vet for heartgard plus.

♪ es el mes de la camioneta chevy. y es momento de añadir los accesorios ideales a tu chevy. hazla más audaz. hazla más trabajadora. hazla tuya. find new posibilidades. find new roads.

clientes muy bien calificados pueden obtener 0% de financiamiento en la mayoría de camionetas chevy. además, ahora en el mes de la camioneta, obtén un bono para accesorios de mil dólares para la compra de una camioneta chevy nueva con accesorios. find new roads en tu concesionario chevy. chevy nueva con accesorios. keith morrison (voiceover): little colusa california was dumbstruck. paul moore? arrested for the killing of roberto ayala? few even knew he was a suspect.

mary, paul's cousin and pete's sister, got a barrage of texts at work. it was bittersweet there was a part of me that was relieved that it was over for pete or that he wasn't, you know, mixed in with it. and at the same time, i was sad because it was my cousin that we grew up with, you know, and it was part of my family. my youngest sister, mary, called me on the phone and she said, they just arrested paul for the murder of robert ayala. and i was in the middle of the parking lot, and i fell to my knees and just started screaming. keith morrison (voiceover): but human nature is a funny thing. suspicion once embedded is remarkably resistant to actual evidence that might disprove it. when paul moore was arrested and charged with the murder of roberto ayala, his cousin peter began to experience that particular phenomenon quite personally. around town, people still seemed to believe that pete was the murderer. ironic, perhaps, that for all his bluster,

pete has never been arrested, never been in trouble with the law, runs his own business, has been a good father, and, over the years, has taken in wayward teens to give them a better start-- kids like nick hecker. other foster homes, they do it for the money. pete, he didn't ask for any money in return. he fed me, clothed me, gave me a car to drive. and now i look at pete like a dad. and anybody that has anything bad to say about pete's never really took the time to get to know him because he's a good, loving person with a huge heart. and we need more pete's in this world. so why were the cops so focused on pete to begin with? well, as pete tells it, his cousin paul planned the whole thing, set out to frame him. first, by lying to him, telling him that roberto, or robert, as pete calls him, was out to steal his birthright. paul would come over and tell me horrible stuff about ed and robert.

like he said robert told paul that he was gonna get my share of what my dad was gonna leave me of the ranch. so paul would come over and say stuff to me, and he knew he was gonna make me want to go say something or fight with somebody. keith morrison (voiceover): and pete said he was simply blind to paul's manipulation. when you're going through your everyday life and someone's set you up for over a year and a half, you don't know who to believe, and so it kept everybody at odds. and my life was so spun out of control, and i couldn't figure out what was going on. keith morrison (voiceover): but pete's wife, mary ellen, said she could clearly see paul was baiting pete. he would talk to him all the time. and when pete got home, would he be upset? oh yeah, he'd be angry, upset, telling us things that we didn't even know if they were true. keith morrison (voiceover): dave and sue moore told investigators they, too, thought paul had been setting pete up.

keith morrison (voiceover): but pete just didn't see it, didn't realize he was being played. by his cousin? that just couldn't be. we grew up together. we were together every day. our parents bought us walkie-talkies when we were seven and eight years old, and i'd sit in my back bedroom where my bedroom was-- and he lived right down on the corner down there-- and we'd talk to each other till we went to sleep. keith morrison (voiceover): but now peter's cousin, paul, the princeling, the golden boy, was about to go on trial for the murder of roberto ayala. and as for pete, the person who was treated in this town like he bore the mark of cain-- i've had several low points in my life, and there's no scale for this. this changes you forever. keith morrison (voiceover): the next chapter wasn't a lift from the book of genesis. more like the story of job. well, one thing that's kind of unique maybe, or special, about colusa county is every time i've ever had a big case, i can go into almost

any coffee shop or restaurant and they're solving it for me. and those things can get twisted pretty fast. they get twisted really fast. in this case, it was constantly, well, you know pete moore did it. you know pete moore did it. and my response was, well, that's not the direction i'm going in. keith morrison (voiceover): not the direction at all. in fact, da pointer was about to put pete on the prosecution team as a key witness against paul, making pete work with the same people who, at one point, were hoping to put him in prison. and that uncomfortable fact was irresistible catnip for paul's defense attorney. pete's first day on the stand. she said, you're a murder, aren't you, mr. moore? lester holt: coming up, the defense says it was pete who had the motive to kill one man and implicate another, a master plan that would give him everything he wanted. linda parisi: peter is the one who has indicated,

i've been in landscaping for 20 years. i'm broken down. i want to be in the farming operation. what better way to take out roberto and to take out paul? lester holt: when "dateline" continues. the lows of bipolar depression can leave you down and in the dark. but what if you could begin to see the signs of hope all around you? what if you could let in the lyte? discover caplyta. caplyta is a once-daily pill, proven to deliver significant relief from bipolar depression. unlike some medicines that only treat bipolar i, caplyta treats both bipolar i and bipolar ii depression. and, in clinical trials, feelings of inner restlessness and weight gain were not common. caplyta can cause serious side effects. call your doctor about sudden mood changes, behaviors, or suicidal thoughts right away. antidepressants may increase these risks in young adults. elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. report fever, stiff muscles, or confusion, which may be life-threatening,

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keith morrison (voiceover): in the months following roberto ayala's murder, investigators suspected peter moore was the bomber and built a case against him. so when peter's cousin paul was arrested, his defense asked an obvious question. what if the cop's first instinct was correct? what if pete did it? peter has animosity towards roberto. peter has made threats to roberto. peter is the one that wants in to the farming operation. keith morrison (voiceover): linda parisi, paul moore's attorney, presented in court a mirror image of the state's case, acknowledging that one cousin was out to frame the other, only in her version

of the story paul was the stooge and peter the mastermind. linda parisi: peter is the one who has indicated, i've been in landscaping for 20 years. i'm tired. i'm broken down. i want to be in the farming operation. what better way to take out roberto and to take out paul? keith morrison (voiceover): to counter that argument, the prosecution was forced to call pete as a witness, knowing that would make him a punching bag for parisi. oh, she told me. she said, you're a murderer, aren't you, mr. moore? i said, those are your words, not mine. she thought that she could, by grilling peter, uncover the evil, the monster. keith morrison (voiceover): assistant attorney general david druliner was pete's wrangler during the trial. i was completely satisfied that there was no monster to uncover. and so i, for the most part, let her go at him.

keith morrison (voiceover): a courtroom tactic not appreciated by pete. after the first day, i said, you guys need to get this lady off of me. she's on me like a dog on a piece of raw meat. and they looked me right in the eye and said, there's nothing we can do for you. this is an open investigation, and we have to let her ask anything or the jury will think we're hiding stuff. i mean, you've gotta be kidding me. one hour of his testimony felt like eight, i can tell you that. it was excruciating because i knew what he was going through. and i was waiting for him to explode at any minute. keith morrison (voiceover): paul's attorney, linda parisi, claimed that pete somehow planted the imprint of the bomb diagram in paul's home. mr. moore, who works at that desk daily, he never notices it? if he's your culprit, he never sees an indentation of a diagram he drew? and thinks, oh my gosh, thank god i saw that. let me get rid of it. it just raises so many questions. it just beggars the imagination to think that peter would know enough about when

the police are going to arrive and know that some junior officer is going to happen to notice this very faint, little image of a diagram on a white piece of paper, which he never would have seen if the light hadn't been just right on that table that afternoon. if i'm peter moore, and i engage in this, and they don't find it, all right, my plan didn't work. but if they do find it, it's a home run for me. and there's very little risk to me, peter, to engage in it. it's not like i have to break in to the police department and tamper with some evidence. but paul's fingerprints were all over that piece of paper and peter's were not. i would agree that shows that this had been in the house, and that he may have touched it and, in fact, leaned on it. the way the prints were situated, likely, that one would have leaned on it to reach

over to open of the window. so it was very consistent with that. keith morrison (voiceover): peter, of course, denied he place that blank sheet of paper in paul's home, said he hadn't been in paul's house in years. then, at the trial, defense attorney parisi played a wild card. she confronted pete with this, a video found on one of pete's computers seized just days after the bombing, slow motion video of a rat trap snapping on carrots and the like but ending on a burst of flame as the trap sets off a lighter, just like a bomb. and i submit to you this video, more or less, comports with the diagram. well, it shows a rat trap hitting a lighter. what it shows, though, is a rat trap. uh-huh. which is an unusual kind of triggering device. it shows a screw activating the rat trap. uh-huh. and then an incendiary component. keith morrison (voiceover): so was pete investigating bomb making ideas?

not a chance, countered the state. there is nothing on this hard drive that indicates to me that anyone was using it to research how to build explosives. keith morrison (voiceover): kevin condi is the investigator who did the initial search of peter moore's computer. sometimes what's not there is more important than what is there. and what was not there was anything indicating someone was looking for directions on how to build a bomb. what i saw was somebody who's just surfing the internet aimlessly. there was nothing about that video that was tied into making a bomb. keith morrison (voiceover): and pete told the court the laptop on which the video was found belonged to his son, who was then forced to testify, which did not sit well with pete. i tried to keep my kids away from this. and once again, they tied my hands behind my back, and i had no choice. and so my son had to go on the stand. keith morrison (voiceover): a sense of betrayal deeply felt

by the man who speaks his mind. pete moore: everybody pretty much threw me to the wolves, and, uh-- keith morrison: for three days, you were essentially on trial. i mean, your cousin was on trial for murder, but it was like you were on trial for murder. i was on trial. i was, but i was on trial basically for my life. and i had no protection. keith morrison (voiceover): with pete now off the stand, the prosecution team still had a case to make, but with limited evidence. they couldn't mention the dna found on the stand, not conclusive. nor could they tell the jury about paul's previous assault and intent to commit rape convictions in san francisco, not relevant. in addition, linda parisi claimed there was no motive, no reason for paul moore to kill roberto ayala. for all of law enforcement's investigation, they could not come up with anyone who said, i heard paul moore say he wanted to hurt roberto.

keith morrison (voiceover): no, but they did find this document on paul's computer, titled "my life," a rambling, self-pitying screed. what did i do wrong to be treated this way? i think my dad really thinks i'm stupid. he's always saying how smart robert is. but ultimately, the trial came down to a single sheet of blank paper, almost like a rorschach test for the jury. what would they see? paul moore's guilt? or a plot to frame him? lester holt: coming up, a verdict that will divide this tight-knit town and rip apart this family all over again. we just started crying. lester holt: when "dateline" continues.

keith morrison (voiceover): for much of his life,

paul moore had found ways to charm the folks around him and get away with bad behavior. at his trial here in sacramento, paul's defense attorney followed what was by now a familiar script. she accused peter of murdering roberto ayala. linda parisi: peter moore has a lifetime of making threats. paul does not make threats to roberto. paul works with roberto. keith morrison (voiceover): which is how parisi presented paul to the jury. of course, as you know, paul had a deeply troubled history with the law, violent sexual offense in his background, but the jury didn't get to hear about that. nor were they told about the dna, quite possibly paul's, that was found on the envelope containing the bomb diagram, excluded. so would the jury see the same paul moore that prosecutor's saw? he's almost like a marvel comic book arch villain. he's bright. he's clever. he's evil as can be, and he's got a flaw to him. his flaw is his arrogance.

keith morrison (voiceover): the jury retired to think about it, and they were not fooled. after just five hours of deliberation, they walked back into the court room and declared paul moore guilty of murder. the judge sentenced him to life in prison. i remember driving away from the courtroom, and my wife and i were together. we just started crying because we knew it was over. i did a job. i went in there. i did my job. i told everything i knew. and it-- and it wasn't easy because i basically put away somebody who i loved. keith morrison (voiceover): but pete is not so blind that he doesn't see how he was used by his boyhood playmate, the kid with whom he once spent those long, lazy days

on the river, the man he treated, and trusted, like a brother. keith morrison: what do you think paul's motive was? why did he kill robert? he used to always talk about, oh, that robert thinks he's so smart. and so by killing him, he feels like, in his own mind, that he got one over on robert. i believe paul was trying to finger me for doing it, and him and his dad would have the whole place to themselves. that's what i believe today. it's the only thing that makes sense to me. keith morrison (voiceover): pete wishes the moores could all go back to the beginning when the farm meant family. pete moore: if i had it my way right now, i'd be running the ranch. grandkids would be over here and enjoy themselves. you know, it'd be like a family-run business. keith morrison (voiceover): but that's just a fantasy, really. the family's divided more now than ever. pete moore: it's almost like we're all our own worst enemies.

and i've asked people in the family, where does all the anger come from? because it's like the whole family's mad. mary: i wish that there weren't so much hate and anger in our family. and that everybody treated each other like a family's supposed to treat each other. keith morrison (voiceover): throughout the trial, paul's father, roger, believed his son to be innocent. and after the verdict, declined to talk to us, his own son convicted of murdering the man he treated like his son. other members of the moore family declined our request for interviews after the verdict, too, even most of those who support pete. they said they didn't want to stir things up. i know some of the people that you talked to, and i know they backed out. and they called and told me. i respect them for calling and telling me, but it's all about what possibly might come somebody's way, you know. would it be fair for us to say that some members of the family are afraid to talk to us because they're afraid they

may be disinherited? that's 100% true, and nobody wants to do what's right for fear of losing their chance at some money. keith morrison: would you want to have this farm? no. why? just too much anger over here. [sobs] keith morrison (voiceover): rumors, whispers, and lies can come disguised as truth just about anywhere, including a small town in the california valley. keith morrison: whispers are still working their way around town. people still talk. mm-hm. what do you hear them say? i guess the most recent one was, well, pete must have at least been involved. so they've moved some. keith morrison (voiceover): one of the reasons da pointer agreed to talk to to us was to make perfectly clear to his friends and neighbors

that peter moore was in no way involved in roberto ayala's murder. and i get the feeling that some people were mad it wasn't me. when you're looked at as a murderer, it's not like you can go out there and voice your opinion to somebody because you're a murderer. and no one will take me seriously anymore. and where do i go from here? i don't know. i want peace in my life. i want to be left alone. what's the moral behind all of this if there is one? wow. the big question. it's just there's so much involved here. i'd say the moral of this story is be happy with what you have. respect the family that you do have. keith morrison (voiceover): and the ayalas? i was relieved i didn't have to look over my shoulder any more. i knew, at that point, that everybody was safe.

keith morrison (voiceover): after their father's murder, jesus went off to college, as did paola. and fabian? the boy who ran for miles through those fields of sunflowers trying to save his dad's life has grown into a disciplined athlete, plays football, baseball, soccer, and wanted to talk to us about his dad. what did he want for you? a good career. did you talk about that with him? yes. he told me to study hard. what do you want the world to know about your father? that he was a good person. he would always want to do things. he would take me out when he had something to do. you were the apple of his eye, i bet you. yes. you loved to be with him? yeah. keith morrison (voiceover): two families in the great, fertile

valley of california. one of them worth millions. and the other? far more. [theme music] this sunday, putin's warning. as the war moves to the east -- >> they are in a dire situation. save them. we need more weapons. >> and ukraine sinks a key russian warship. the u.s. announces a new $8 million weapons package. >> president biden said repeatedly. >> but president zelenskyy says he still needs more. >> we need it sooner. we need it now. is it enough? we don't think so.