my friend solve this murder. we were gonna set a trap for the people. and i wasn't sure if it was going to work. it had to be perfect. >> he was a family man, who didn't seem to have an enemy in the world. right up until, the night he was murdered. >> there was evidence of a violent struggle between jack and his killer. >> someone was keeping secrets and police thought they knew who. >> her -- was just scary. >> they thought they knew the motive to. but -- >> a matter of proving it was a

different story. >> until someone found the perfect bag. >> hey, dude it's me. you need to call me asap. >> could they set the perfect trap? >> these people might literally get away with murder. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> hello, and welcome to dateline. jack jessee, who was a doting granddad and the patriarch of a large blended and by all appearances, loving family. but when he was stabbed to death in the southern california home, police wondered if the jessee weren't quite as happy as the scene. the case went unsolved for years. but those who love jack never gave up hope. neither did the relentless detective who was determined to catch jack's killer. here's keith morrison with deadly conspiracy.

[noise] the game's call, mel strap. a little ball on its track with the tiny mouse which, how every lever works in unison this would not be caught. and, how often things go wrong to allow the mice to get away. so, did what really have been could so accurately mimic a children's game? >> all, how nice! >> these are the people that have been to, the jessie family of orange county, california. they vacation together. >> yes, i'm tired, i'm ready to go home. >> share birthdays. >> this was for them. >> happy new year! >> even got together for a month of -- full >> but what these grainy home videos show is what is yet to come, which is murder, conspiracy. one branch of the family against the other. a game so twisted, quite so clever, that crafting a trap to

catch the plotters just might be impossible. slits to begin with,, it was 1998. shakespearean love won the oscar. monica lewinsky was freshly famous. it was a school to learn august night, hottest of the year. when cheryl's deanda got a call from her dad. jack jesse. >> i was getting ready for bed. and my phone rings. and it's my dad on the phone. >> what time of this? >> 20 after nine. >> he was worried about his wife, sandra. she was missing. >> what did you think that happened? >> i just thought she maybe got into an accident or something. >> she rented this nearby mall on the quick aaron said shells that. but she was gone for so long. would cheryl deanda at least find, or ask that? that >> went through, there we went to the burger king which was near the walmart. and back above 50 minutes later. >> but, when she went back into her dad's house. she found --

>> most horrifying sight i ever saw my life. it was her, face down on the floor, in the pool of blood. it's horrible. >> what did you think happened? >> i thought he had fallen because he had a big gash in the back of his head. i just went to the kitchen phone and called 9-1-1. >> but when she rolled him over, she could see wounds all across his chess. he had been stabbed many times. >> every time i start doing cpr i could hear bubbling. and air escaping. and then i started feeling it all over his chest. >> it's not often little placentia has a murder. >> 10:00 at night, when i got the calling -- >> but at that time, he was the sole homicide detective. >> what did the crime scene itself look like? >> it was pretty bloody, there was evidence of a violent struggle between jack and his killer. the >> kind of thing that might happen if it was a home invasion robbery or something? >> or an assault between people

who knew each other. >> protocol told him, look first at the person who reported the crime. which was his daughter, cheryl deanda. >> my daughter, we have to look at her as a potential suspect. she was the one of. founded >> back at the station, why it interviewed all relatives, including cheryl and jack's wife sandra who hadn't been missing at all. just out on the shopping trip. >> mrs. jessee came to the station to us voluntarily, she wanted to cooperate and solve the murder of her husband. >> and, she told him about life with jack, married 14 years blended family for kids. jack was a patriarch in the jessee klan she said. a teddy man of a man. >> jack was a very, very loving person who doted on his children, doted on his stepchildren, doted on his grandchildren. >> but, jack was ill. housebound after colon cancer surgery. sandra told the detective, she'd been running a bit of a mercy mission for. jack and, doubled too long at

the mall. >> it's only like five minutes in and -- i was on the road for only 15 minutes. >> and she was very, very specific about where she had gone, at what time and what she had gone. >> as for cheryl, she told detectives she do anything to find out what happened to her dad in those 15 minutes she was away from the house. >> her actions were very very consistent with somebody who understands that police are looking at you right now. i know i didn't do anything. i'm gonna do everything i can to get full disclosure. >> and then, the day after the jack, just the murder, the guy walked into the bar, sat down on the bar stool and told the bartender a story about how the murder happened about who did it, about what's the motive was. the whole story. but of course that was just a story in a bar to take the -- didn't hear anything about. it and as he continue to dig for clues, he hit an unexpected wall. sandra, announced she had just

helped as much as she could. she was done. >> i was referred to her attorney, she didn't want to meet with us again. >> same thing happened with sandra's kids, jacques step children. while the blood relations practically beg to help solve the case. so, what's happened to that big happy family in the video? a mirage perhaps? in fact, living with sandra suggest daughter chere and cheryl -- >> it's too late. now >> the kind of written by the brothers. grieve >> oh, she was just mean to me. she wanted me completely gone. she did everything she did to get rid of me. >> but, when it came to her own children, they said, sandra was indulgent. eerily so with her son, tom. he was a really big mama's boy. he took -- >> very weird, very weird. >> weird thing to watch. >> they were always walking into the other room and closing the door. >> though,, jack seemed quite happy with sandra, until the spring of 98, that.

is just a few months before the murder when jack was diagnosed with colon cancer. the shock of course. but one of two shocks for sandra. and, to those around her, the second seemed somehow worse. her beloved son, tom up and moved. to arizona. >> and she was flipping out about it. >> yeah. >> she had to go. there >> she demanded jack moved to arizona to. >> that woman was off her rocker. her tone was just scary. it was like somebody else's voice coming out of her. >> but, surely that wasn't motive enough for murder. and, with plenty of suspicion, little else to go. on why it spent months pouring over sandra and jack's record statements, credit card bills, searching for, well he didn't know exactly what he was searching for. but, he was getting basically nowhere. >> we couldn't establish a pattern that was suspicious. >> then, why it's investigation

sputtered sandra leff. so jacks house here in california moved to arizona to be near her son tom, and soon her daughter followed to. and they all lived within a couple of blocks to each other in the home sandra helped percentage with sandra's insurance money and savings. >> when everything was said and done, she got close to $700,000. and, as the month slip back, leads failed to connect the investigation hit one dead after another. and why it was promoted out of homicide. the case bounce from the placentia pd to the orange county sheriff's department. way before long and became a case to avoid. toxic, an unsolvable career killer. and, so, five years after his brother's murder, when david jessie met the detective name tom doug said he picked up the case. >> i said, oh really? well, that's great. let me ask your question. >> yeah. >> what are you going to do? you're gonna get my case for

three, four, five months, a year and then move up and become a sergeant or something and move on? and tom says to me and says, listen buddy. nobody likes me in that apartment. he says, i'm not going nowhere. he said, i got five years to put in your brother's case. or else i retire and i'm out of here. he said but i'll give it my all. i will give everything to this case that i have. i looked over at him and i said you're the man. >> what david did not know, clearly sensed was that detective tom that was the real deal, a legendary lawman. he seemed to have stepped out of his own crime time drama. >> it wasn't a whole lot to go. on there wasn't any physical evidence, there wasn't any eyewitnesses. >> in other words, the perfect -- >> correct. >> coming up -- that bartender with the customer who liked to talk. now, he's talking. to >> this person has specific

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and outdoor allergens, day after day. feel the clarity and make today the most wonderful time of the year. live claritin clear. after five years in a string of homicide detective the jack jesse murder case became a game to avoid. and then one day the whole impossible business was handed off. to tom dove. >> i can't tell you how many

times that i thought, just move on. give up. move on. >> there was no hope of any new evidence, of course like fingerprints or dna. there was just the infuriating puzzle, which had become more difficult with each passing year. >> after i reviewed the case, i had no feeling for the family, no feeling for jack jessee. so, to get his head in the game. doug met with the people closest to jack, like his brother david. >> and, when i'm with david he inspired me. his determination not to let the love for his brother go was a big motivating factor. >> but david also had some provocative information, something jack told him after arguing with sandra about moving to arizona. >> if anything ever happens to me it's her. >> -- >> he actually told me i would be surprised if -- killed me. he said that. >> and so dove stick to all the

original files hoping he might come across something that had been overlooked. and buried inside, he found this. a simple two-page report. apparently unread by any detective. we remember the guy who walked into the bar the one who told the story about the jessee murder. well, years later when the case had gone cold the bartender decided to call the placentia cops an officer took the call typed out the report and stuck it away in the file, where it set unseen until tom dove came along. >> two things caught my mind when i read it. one whoever the color is knew how many stab wounds were involved. and to the collar stated that the person had used the back door or window to enter the residence that night. that was significant in that this person had specific details unknown to the general public about the murder of jack

jessee. >> most of the tipsters information we're frustratingly vague like a riddle. yet another game to be played. there were two killers though he gave no names one had a knife and the other had the getaway car. both worked at a big box department store. the man who told the story in the bar that they had been the driver of the car and with the blood money he bought a truck and nasty doom. >> but on the question of who was behind the plot that is when the story named names. two of them they were sandra's son tom. the mama's boy jack raised us his own. on the the direction of the mastermind herself jack's wife. sandra. we >> go with that new perspective on the case dug revisited sandra's full interview. the hours of mostly useless chatter. >> how many times did you listen to that? >> it least ten times. >> and then it jumped out at him right about here on the table sandra's going through slips of paper in her day

planner. she looks at one and. says >> this is my son's friend. >> listen to it again. >> this is my son's friend. >> this is my son's friend. one phrase of hours of material but it got doves mine racing. if the bartender was right that the killers were friends with sandra son, was that slip of paper holding the key to the case? dove toward through bags of evidence and there was the day planner. seized five years earlier just after the murder. >> i went through that day planner for probably a day or more, i went through every scrap piece of paper every notation. there was a small piece of notepaper with the name which appeared to me at that time to say schreiber with no telephone number and no significant. just schreiber. >> i thought schreiber. >> but where would he find this schreiber? dove went back to sandra's interview and under one more

clue when asked by detective wide about tom's friend. sandra said that the boys were once worked by these. >> -- >> so detective dug crisscrossed southern california searching through the employment records of every target store for a guy named schreiber. but nobody had ever heard of him. >> and we were starting to come to the end of our rope we were getting to a dead-end. >> that was about the time jack's daughter reveal big game getting packages in the mail from sandra who said that they were keepsakes that jack wanted his girls to have. >> like what? >> little boxes like ash trees bowling ball bag. it was just weird stuff that just kept coming. >> which seem designed to provoke exactly the reaction the sister's fault. >> hatred. >> more than i had before. >> sandra seemed to be telling them she had beaten them got away with it won the game. >> he just said are we cursed? is there something with this

case that's just not going to be solved? >> it's frustrating for him putting all this work in and to think that these people might get away with literally literally murder. >> patty is tom's wife and together since high school knows them better than anyone. she was used to his compulsive perfectionism. >> it is comforting to me i think to just know what things are and where they're going. >> is nothing out of place since of order? >> he's a very stubborn man so for him to take a case he is going to do it and solve it. >> and so detective dove decided to start over. take a different approach this time he immersed himself and sandra's old phone bills. seized by detective why years before. >> i did is i went through every telephone call on those phone records looking for somebody related to this case. there had to be some communication. >> get anywhere? >> --

>> what's the phone had been overlooked before was a cluster of calls who not long before the murder, all short within minutes of each other. >> one of those calls was to a target store one was to a pager and one was to a boarding house. so he called that last number asked if anybody there knew a guy named schreiber. and the landlady said no. but there was once a tenant name shrub, she said, could he be the man the detectives were looking for? >> it was brent shrub. >> shrub? >> doug tracked him down to a distance aboard in the mojave desert, and right there, parked in the driveway, was in 1999 pick up truck and the sea do just like the anomalous bartender said. >> this was a huge break for us. we now had a name of somebody that's involved in jack jessee murder. >> coming -- up >> often people throw away valuable evidence.

detective dove finds treasure in trash. this is too good to be true. when dateline continues. eline continues. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (vo) the fully electric audi e-tron family is here. with models that fit any lifestyle. and innovative ways to make your e-tron your own. through elegant design and progressive technology. all the exhilaration, none of the compromise. the audi e-tron family. progress that moves you. shingles. the rash can feel like pulsing, electric shocks and last for weeks. a pain so intense, you could miss out on family time. the virus that causes shingles

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investigation had been six years were dead ends -- blind alley is now on the trail on the suspect uncovers to discover new. game one where he could write the rulebook. >> but it would be very

complicated. because doug wanted more than just a getaway car from branch of enough. he wanted everyone connected to jack jesse's murder. >> and the only way we could tie that together for this conspiracy was to do a wiretap. >> but wiretaps are notoriously difficult to get. doug needed permission from a judge and to get that he needed to prove schrauben was still in contact with tom and tom's mother sandra. it was a catch 22. so time to get creative. >> it had been my experience when i had work in the narcotics section of the sheriff's department that often people throw away valuable evidence. >> doug asked his fellow detectives to help him because he decided to search schrauben's garbage. so >> what did they tell you when you came up with that idea? crazy? >> i think they really thought that i was starting to lose it that i wanted to dig through someone's trash. >> so faithfully once a week on

pickup de d'agata a daybreak in an hour-long journey in schrauben's neighborhood. where a trash truck -- >> we would have the dump truck trash in somewhat of a pile here regardless of the size. >> right on the turmeric? >> right on the tarmac. scattered everything out opened every bag. get down on our hands and knees and slowly shift through every piece of paper that looked like it might be a document of some kind. >> and that's how doug's team found this coffee stain phone bill. showing call after call from schrauben to sandra's son tom -- >> and that number tom's numbers popped up how often did a pop-up? >> i think the average we figured out was about 24 times in a building cycle in about a month. so anywhere -- from >> that's almost every day. >> yeah. it's almost like going through a crime scene in finding pieces of evidence. it's an excitement that you

realize this is going to. work we are going to find what we are looking for. >> but there was yet again a problem. schrauben's phone was in someone else's name. and he had a war type schrauben had to prove he was the primary user. so how would he do that? >> so what we ended up having to do was literally follow brett schrauben around until we saw him on his telephone. we later took that evening further in that i went into the target store that he was working at one day. i noticed that he was stocking shelves in certain sections of the store so i just started randomly picking up items and looking like i was interested. at that point i called on my cellular phone to one of my other investigators outside. and i said put a call in now. and i heard him onto the phone. so i was able to say that is his phone he talks on it. he put the phone in his hand. >> but as they continue to shift through trash week after week they found something even more important than the phone bill. something quite unexpected.

this day planner. >> from the year is 96, 97 and 1990. eight >> what were the chances of that here six years later was the day planner for 1998. the year jack jessee was murdered crucial evidence tossed in schrauben's garbage. >> a treasure that we did not expect to find. but what's that the plunder did was connected all the people back in 1998 that were associated with brett schrauben. >> what did you think? >> this is too good to be true. i thought good things were going to happen. somebody is back on her side again. >> and with this evidence doug was able to get a judge to approve a wiretap on brett schrauben's phone. then as doug waited for the -- he continued to go through schrauben's trash lucky so far he thought he'd find not more. and didi? he did! and it turned the case upside down. he found rental listing in arizona. brett schrauben was moving out

of the state. he would be gone before the wiretap ruling took effect. and in arizona california warrant was worthless. >> this completely took all that work and we're talking probably six months of work and just threw it out the window. >> the killers? they slip the track. game over! >> but the detective is not giving up. his team builds a new and better mouse trap. and guess who takes the bait. >> coming up -- >> hi dude it's me you need to call me asap. >> when dateline continues. n dateline continues nexgard is the flea and tick protection that's #1 with vets. your vet trusts it for her patients and her own dog. plus, its delicious beef flavor is #1 with dogs.

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i'm craig melvin. detective tom dove had just secured a warrant to put a wiretap on murder suspect brett schrauben's phone. but schrauben was moving to arizona. so, the detective hatched yet another plan. an elaborate trap using anonymous letters as the fate. could he spook his targets, spurring them to talk about jack jessee -- orchestrates slipped through the stare yet again? here again is keith morrison with deadly conspiracy. >> after two years of relentless police work tom doves investigation of the murder of jack jessee generated enough evidence to fill this milk heart. all apparently for.

not the suspect and his key to tracking the case had skipped the case. a detective doug's jurisdiction. >> we were so close. >> the jessie family sense that they had been beaten that sandra jesse had one. had gotten away with murder. >> i put this pictures way i said this is tough. because he was so fantastic. put >> his pictures away? i >> had. to >> yeah. >> i couldn't look at them. >> at the dove home tom's wife patty began to worry about her husband's health. >> if he tends to hold things in and you can't hold in that kind of frustration and emotion without starting to affect you. i mean with that kind of stress it takes a toll on him physically and mentally. >> that's what you're worried about? >> exactly what i worry about. >> because she knew if he didn't solve the jessie case he might die trying. >> he's like a dog with a bone he's gonna take it and he's going to do it until it gets

done. >> dove was not a lone mine do there was a prosecutor to who shared his david conviction. a man named michael marie who wanted sandra ducey and his -- just as badly as doug. >> this case seem to be full of obstacles. >> he would've been probably forgivable just illogical at that stage. on some level. >> maybe to some people. >> so marriott called it a legal long shot. they flew to phoenix presented their evident to the state attorney pleaded for an arizona wiretap warrant. and they got it! >> the game was back on if they could make it work. >> we were going to try to set a trap for three people. and keep track of those three people and i wasn't sure if it was going to work. >> what if it didn't? >> in the back of my mind i gave it, probably a 30% chance of success. >> but you're giving yourself a 70% chance of being echoed at

the end of the day. >> it had to be perfect. we were only going to get one try. >> so tom begin to comply a team of investigators even called there and why it. the first detective on the case to see if the pd wanted in. >> and i said let me fall at your feet and do what we can now [laughs] you know i felt like this was going to be good. >> the phoenix pd also provided scores of officers. so by game day dove had close to 100 cops working the case. >> i reminded them of that mouse trap game you played when you were a kid. >> in that this huge ball was going to have to go through a tremendous amounts of obstacles that were kind of thrown together. >> in order to lower the trap that catches the mouse. and anywhere along the wire there could be a snag. there could be something that we hadn't planned for that could throw this ball completely off the board. >> okay so what was the plan?

what was the nature of your trap your mouse trap? >> we believed that if we did something to get these people uptight if we were able to rattle the tree if we were able to put some fear in it than maybe the police were on to him and they would talk about the murder of jack jesse. >> so what was that little piece of cheese you put in the mouse trap? >> we nailed a simple copy of the newspaper article when jack jesse was murdered anonymously to sandra jussie, tom healer and brett schrauben. the significance of that was they didn't know that we knew about brett. and they're going to know that something is up. and sure enough as soon as tom heard that he had gotten in the nomination letter he called his mother sandra. >> whoever sending all that crap is sent one to brett too. >> give me a break. >> really? >> you're kidding. >> no why would i kid about something like that. >> they sent one to brett?

>> yep. >> why would they someone to him why would they how would they -- even >> i have no idea. >> next dove started poking brett's friends in california who of course called brett. >> i'll get back to you thank. you >> hey dude it's me you need to call me asap. this is no joke some guy from the sheriff in orange county sheriff's octave in the division was calling me asking about you. >> brett -- >> hello? >> hello? >> you have tom. i just got i got a call from scott the orange county homicide division. they left an answer on the answering machine and they want to talk about. me >> about? you >> what are you on right now? >> myself. and >> are you uncomfortable or. no >> that call was making its way through the maze. but after a few calls of the

game sandra tom and brett became to wonder if they were getting played. suspected their phones were tapped. maybe even their houses bugged. >> i'm gonna call you back in a couple of seconds. >> okay. >> i just want to talk or not i do either pick you up and going -- >> the church? >> well i mean just somewhere outside. >> okay. >> away from your place or my please. >> okay. >> and not on the cell phone. >> okay. >> okay. when would you have time? >> now. >> and so they started meeting in shopping centers. >> we decided to put surveillance teams on each of the individuals sandra jesse tom haley and brett schrauben. during the duration of the war tough to capture some things they may not do that may not be normal while the wiretap was in place. >> kept standing shoulder to shoulder in a parking lot. watching at the parking lot and not looking at each other. >> there was, like a scene from

a mafia movie. the suspect out of range of recording devices apparently deep in conversation as they appeared out into the parking lot. >> i think the photographs of tom wheeler and sandra jussie was worth 1 million words as to the death of their involvement and how far they would go to conceal what they had done. in their minds they had thought they got away with the perfect crime. >> meanwhile doug would hop on a flight back to orange county to pressure schrauben's friends for information. he was of course, relentless. chase down anybody who knew the man. followed one tip to another. until the finally encountered the man he'd been hunting for years. the bartender. who called in the anonymous tips years earlier. >> with the first words out of my mouth where i'm like. i'm here about. brett and his face went completely flush. and he said i knew you were gonna find me soon. >> what story did he tell you? >> that schrauben for whatever

reason had confided in him and told him specific details of the murder of jack jessee. including his involvement that was a huge huge quality for up in putting this case to rest. >> now the time had come to spring the trap. brett schrauben was arrested. and soon thereafter sandra jessee herself was in handcuffs. finally to be held accountable for judge jessee's martyr. >> that was wonderful. >> that was -- in my head. >> that too. that was a pretty good day. >> didn't last. for one thing tom was not arrested. insufficient evidence said the prosecutor. and then as he rolled out the case against the others. that little ball came off track again. this time it happened that sandra's preliminary hearing. judge ruled there there wasn't enough evidence to hold. or she was free to go. we >> i solved all the way home. i don't even know how i made it back -- >> only brett schrauben was to

face a murder trial. it was december of 2006, eight years after jack jessee's murder. and justice, not yet. if ever. >> coming up -- finally, the break the detectives had been waiting for. >> she won ejected. >> the information that he provided would blow this case wide open. >> until something slammed and shut again. when dateline continues. dateline continues. this is my life. it's not always “picture perfect.” plus i'm dealing with bleeding from uterine fibroids. enter myfembree, a once-daily pill for women with heavy menstrual bleeding due to uterine fibroids. with myfembree, heavy bleeding went down by 84%. serious risks include heart attack, stroke, and blood clots. don't take myfembree if you've had any of these, or have uncontrolled high blood pressure, are over 35 and smoke, could be pregnant, or have or had osteoporosis, liver disease,

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the month it can do a lot to alter a person's take on the work. even more so if the inmate is looking at the possible life sentence. and that is when brett schrauben had an epiphany. just days before his murder trial was to begin he said he was finally willing to testify against tom and sandra. but, he won it out. now! the deal had to be for time served or nothing at all. >> what do you think when you heard what he wanted? with this cooperation? >> i thought it was outrageous. but it's not a perfect world. and the people who were likely to have some of the best most detailed information about what takes place inside a conspiracy is a coconspirator. >> we needed brett. >> so what was a story?

the story was a pretty detailed and amazing story. >> schrauben describe the whole affair on tape laid it out in all of a chilling detail. in a way of a murder the conspiracy was launched he said with a phone call from tom. >> he told me his moment after $50,000 to kill him. >> robbyn said he met with sandra in a parking lot. she gave him a 5000 dollar deposit. she won ejected and she wanted it done at the house to look like a robbery. she told me that she would leave her in x amount of time. and that's one -- >> schrauben said he hired a good friend to be the getaway driver. and on the afternoon of august 13 1998 while sandra was out having her nails done chauvin claimed he and the friend drove to the jessie house to murder jack. i was already having cold feet. and by the time i was walking down the street i was having

cold -- feet i got in the house and i was standing there. and i put on a rubber glove. and i reached inside the door and i locked it and shut. it and i i couldn't do. i called tom and i told tom that the door was locked and he said that to call moment get back to. me >> and according to schrauben tom called back within minutes with a backup plan. >> he told me that his mom was going to go out that night and that they needed tonight because they can't take it anymore. and he said that if they do it tonight then they weren't going to do. it >> the return that night about at 9:00. schrauben's story was that he drop is friends out at the house drove around the neighborhood while his friends stuck inside and stabbed jack jessee to death. >> we had walkie talkies and afterwards he was on the walk when he was done and he said to pick him. up i made a u-turn to go back. he had blood on this lakes and

we looked for a place where we could clean himself up. i believe it was a dull top we phone for him to clean himself up. >> the information that he provided if we could corroborate what he said would blow the case wide open. >> police questioned schrauben's friend. he denied everything he said he wasn't in the car wasn't at the scene he didn't kill jack jessee. and there was no evidence to indicate that he was involved at all. police southern. go investigators focused on building their case against tom and sandra by documenting money transfer phone calls air travel. >> so when you had all that together what did you think? >> i'm sure we were going to put together a pretty good case. >> good enough that murray had tom and sandra arrested. and in the summer of 2000 9:11 years after the murder the mother and son team went on trial for the murder of jack jessee. >> it was like. or going to my dad's funeral every day. it really. was >> you know knowing people around you who killed your dad it was a ridiculous feeling. you can't even put into words.

it's just soul wrenching. >> schrauben testified against them. in court it was argued that sandra had a variety of motives for killing jack she wanted his money before medical bills ate up their saving. and she couldn't bear being away from her son tom. >> did you think the case had gone well? i thought the case had gone extremely well. >> except. months again that little ball came off the track. >> what happened? >> dateline returns after the break. ter th break. outside your teeth. pronamel repair is our first line of defense. it goes deep into the surface of the tooth to actively repair it. i personally use pronamel repair every single day, morning and night.

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circuit with prosecutors and exchange for his release he detailed how sandra jesse and her son -- orchestrated a murder for hire to kill jack jesse, and how he and his friend carried out the plan. no the case was in the hands of a jury, and there were still a couple big surprises in store. with a conclusion of deadly conspiracy, here is keith morris. >> when the jury went into seclusion to deliberate, the jesse family thought justice was just hours away. but as the sunset on the courthouse, nothing, no word, same thing again next day.

and the day after that. the problem, there was a whole there. >> it got very heated in the deliberation room. >> these members of the jury told us -- for conviction, but there was one lone juror who felt some sort of level of compassion for sandra. >> she related to the center jessie's concern that jack jessie's -- would eat up their nasdaq. >> i kind of felt like she was enjoying the control she had. >> there was nothing, nothing we could do or say. >> people were getting so he, did there was so much anger that she started to shut down even more. >> had that scene played out for three and a half days until the judge said, enough. and declared a mistrial. >> i wasn't hears. i was in tears. >> i was as well. >> thinking of the family, what they have gone through, that was part a, just heartache. >> i thought i was going to pass out. >> yeah.

>> just horrible. >> it is just so eating. >> the whole night had have been all over again. >> that one sure, you know, i saw her and went to talk to her. >> what did you say? >> i thought she was an idiot. >> it was certainly difficult for me, it was far more difficult for the family. >> murray promised the family justice, spent two years putting a new case together, and just weeks before trial he got a call. it was from thompson tierney, saying his client was ready to cut the apron strings and testify against his mom. >> there is no way that we ever suspected that tom would have return on his mother. he was known to be a mama's boy. >> but a mama's boy who decided he did not want to die in prison, tom pleaded guilty to second degree murder, got 15 to life. besides helping connect the crime to his mother, tom had someone else he wanted to give up. that friend of brett schwab, the one --

claim to drive with him in the car and killed check jesse. despite the fact there was no forensic evidence to -- involve, his case went to trial. in february 2013, a jury found him not guilty, is defensive tierney believes he had been set up to take the fall as part of a conspiracy. that front is now a free man. as for sandra, her case went to court one month after her son one state sentence, the scent -- question was, what a jury believe tom's story? and as the jury deliberated and the family waited, there was no euphoria. they knew from bitter experience that anything could happen. >> there's a lot harder this time, not knowing what is going to happen. >> on the second day, they got word the jury had a verdict. >> must homages a knots. >> my hands are shaking. we are just really very nervous at this moment. >> 13 years after jack jessie's murder, sandra jesse was found

guilty. finally, that little ball state on its track, that key found was caught. >> i hope that she routes in hell. i just really do. i'm glad it wasn't the death penalty, i want her to stay there and suffer, with all the other miserable people that go to prison. >> what's the feeling to get justice finally? >> it feels. good feels good, but not completely. not complete. lost a guy, the nicest guy i've ever met. >> and for tom dove, he is now retired from the sheriff's department, and is going away party, his fellow detectives give him this. it honors his commitment to the jesse case. >> it means more to me than any other plaque or award i've ever received in my life. >> in retirement, tom planned to set up a shelter for stray

dogs. the urge to rescue runs deep. >> that is all for this edition of dateline, i'm craig melvin, thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin, and i'm natalie morales. and this is dateline. a doctor's wife dies after a minor fender bender. so why do her brothers believed this was no accident? >> so i pulled my brother out and i told them you are not going to believe what i just heard. the startling news came from her sister's friend. >> she just kept insisting promise me you'll get a full autopsy. >> the brothers kept it a secret. >> we wouldn't tell the parent week to -- wouldn't tell my sister diana. we wouldn't tell anybody. >> it was information about a family member they loved with