courtroom. and apparently not for the jury. as deliberations dragged on. >> the time rolled on, people were thinking oh there was a hold out. there's someone out there who actually does believe mark twitchell. >> after all, he was a masterful liar. maybe the ultimate fantasy of him would be kyle the jury. and then, that audience troops back into the courtroom. and gave him his last review. they found him guilty. of the premeditated first degree murder of johnny altinger. he was sentenced to life in prison. >> i have never been involved in an investigation like this in my whole career. as homicide detectives, you theorize about how someone has died. and there's no doubt that we do not always get it right. we have a good idea, but we're never right. here, we knew exactly what happened to johnny. >> because he told you? >> he told us. ultimately, johnny led us to it. and mark twitchell closed in on himself, by writing >> i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline. >> that night it's absolutely pitch dark. it was abandoned and it was secluded. this was his playground. this was the place we had been searching for. >> it was the still of the

night when the killings started. >> i have been shot me and my mother have been shot. >> you can feel in here the fear in her voice. >> a single mother and her teenage daughter, ambushed in their bedrooms. >> here comes a monster into your house. >> i just broke down. i just couldn't imagine who wanted to do this. >> then it happened again to another mother and another daughter. >> somebody is killing mothers

and daughters. that is about as scary as it. gets >> who is out there. and who would be next. >> something you would never imagined would happen. >> the clues lie here, in abandon mansion, erie, haunting. where was this killer? hiding >> cold calculating eyes,

lifeless. he was almost a ghost. >> could they catch him? could they stop him? >> i get chills all over. i'm kind of on the edge of my. seat >> he truly thought he could outsmart us. >> hello and welcome to dateline. would you recognize danger, if it was lurking nearby? this story that you are about

to hear, is a tale of true

terror. a killer was stalking victims in a quiet neighborhood, leaving residents panicked that they would be next. police were determined to catch him, unaware he was hiding in

plain sight. but soon, a stolen set of keys

would help investigators unlock a mystery and unmask a murderer. here is dennis murphy, with the unusual suspect.

>> consider for a moment that cozy word home, and all it evokes.

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executed. detective bernie nelson had investigated hundreds of murders. and had learned to keep the recurring images of death at arms length. but this case was different. he was the father to a teenager around karissa lofton age. >> ma'am i've been shot. me and my mother have been shot. i'm bleeding to death. >> that poor little girl in her bedroom. she has the gumption to get on the phone and call you. >> it hurts to listen to the 9-1-1 call because you can feel and hear the fear the fear in her voice. >> even though nothing was taken it seemed clear the killer broke into the house. in fact the burglar alarm had gone off, but it was disabled in under one minute. and that put karen's thing kion loft and at the top of police is persons of interest. list he lived in the house. he knew the code. police brought him in for questioning. >> does your mom set the alarm for the? house all the time? >> one of the detectives plainly said, everybody in that room things it's you, you're the only one that had access to the code. >> would you have hurt your mom and sister? >> you would've never hurt your moment sister. >> i was upset, i don't have

anything to do with it. whatever you need to do. it's not going to be me. >> keyon told investigators he was spending the night as fiancã©e's house. her mom woke him and told him she had heard on the news that two women on history had been murdered. >> i just ran out of the house. my heart was racing. i just hopped the gate, hopped the car, i'm running late, some speeding, i'm still calling at the same time. and when i got there they asked me for my name. and the police officer just turned his head thing anyone said ok we got the sun. here and i just broke down you know. >> keyon's alibi checked out. it wasn't him. investigators also interviewed kirkland, karen's ex husband and caresses father. he too had an airtight alibi. he'd been in atlanta at the time of the murders. >> did you go a lot of places? together >> next on detectives list was karen's former boyfriend, michael lacey. he refused to take a lighted tech to test so police interviewed him three separate times. >> did you all have keys to each other's?

house >> definitely. not >> you could just walk over and walk in? >> we would. call >> he is someone that we had to rule out completely and we did. that >> so if you're thinking in your line of work, the usual suspects, the usual suspects were not going to figure in this one. >> not the media. family >> defective is nelson ensured or realize they had on their hands, while homicide cops, he obtrusively. the first 48 hours of a case, usually you get a break. and there's something that says chase this, right? >> yes. normally you would get something within the first 48. hours >> so this is as baffling as it was. cruel >> exactly. it did make any sense. >> then came march 16th, 2009. six weeks after the lofted killings went to unsolved murders became four. >> and begin with a report of a stolen nissan maximal, just a couple of blocks away from where the law often's had been killed. >> what is the nature of? emergency >> i just left my house about an hour ago and came back in my car was missing out of the port.

detective shatner was on call that. night >> she's on the phone with the 9-1-1 call take, or she notices that her car comes zooming up from up here on the street, and comes by her at a fast rate of speed. that's my car. okay it just seems past me. wow. she sees it while she's on the phone. there comes, there goes. absolutely. >> police swarmed the neighborhood hoping to nab the car thief. he was nowhere to be found but police soon discovered the stolen car captured here on a cruisers dash camera. it was parked in the driveway with vacant houses engulfed in flames. firefighters called to the scene to extinguish the fire made agreeably discovery. two bodies burned beyond recognition. and the victims, another mother

and her teenage daughter. >> dental records confirmed the identities of the bodies found monday in the trunk of the stolen car. 42 year old dolores do it and her daughter, 19 year old ebony to it. >> she worked at a nursing home and she love taking care of the elderly population. i mean, she loved those people. and they loved her. >> patricia smith remembers her sister dolores as a mother and nurse who worked hard to provide a good life for her two daughters, but always saved a little time for herself. >> she liked to go places. every year she would treat herself on vacation. she felt like she worked hard, she would play hard. >> and i've been? she was the livewire at family get togethers. >> we made everybody laugh. she just acted crazy until the end of the day. i mean, she loved life. >> the last person known to have seen ebony alive was her boyfriend. he told detectives that the previous night they have a late dinner, she was wearing her

favorite blue sweater. then he drove her home, watched her go inside her house. the killer may have been waiting. and now, when police once again made no arrests within 48 hours of the murders, waiting to was a devastating patricia. >> i started going back to my sister's house. late at night, i would go and sit in the yard and just hoping that he would come back. i would sit there with a knife and my hand. and i will hold, i will hold it. like real tight just in case he came up on me or something. because it would be him or me. either him or may. and i told the detectives what i did. >> she couldn't sit still and do nothing. she wanted to be involved in the investigation from day one. she would actually go door to

door in the neighborhood and talk to neighbors, try to ask them questions but i had to repeatedly explain to her that we can't have her interrupting our case. >> she's a thorn in your side. >> she is. but i understood because if my sister were killed, it would be hard for me to sit still to. >> so detective shot near made patricia a promise. >> we were sitting in the car and i remembered just crying and crying and crying. and then he promised me, he said i'm gonna get him. he said if it's the last thing i do. he said i'm gonna get. him >> to do that, detective shot near and nelson had to confront a terrifying question. >> you've got to murdered mother daughters within, across the fence, virtually. >> right. >> same neighborhood. so you're thinking are these things related? right? >> you'd have to think that if they are related, you have a serial murderer on your hands and you don't know when he's going to hit next. and you don't know who he's going to hit next. >> coming up. >> a neighborhood on edge. police under pressure, and the question everyone feared, would there be another victim? >> it was wide open. we had nothing. that's when it gets scary. >> when dateline continues. its activelift technology provides an unbeatable clean

on 24 hour dried-on stains. skip the rinse with finish to save our water. -hi, dr. rick. it's julie. -[ gasps ] that's me. just leaving you a voicemail. my number is 618-437-7425. okay. can anyone tell me what julie did wrong there? you got to repeat the number. i mean, no one's ever gonna get it the first time. -nope. -didn't leave her last name. no, the -- the phone tells you who called. she didn't mention a good time to call her back. how am i supposed to know when to call her back? no. she just shouldn't have left a voicemail. 9 out of 10 times, a text will do. progressive can't save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto with us. ever leave your clothes in the dryer and find a wrinkled mess? try downy wrinkle guard fabric softener! wrinkle guard penetrates deep into fibers, leaving clothes so soft, wrinkles don't want to stick around. make mornings smoother with downy wrinkle guard fabric softener. prince george is homicide

detectives bernie nelson and tony sharpton or hope that their collective experience would help crack two of the most horrific murder cases they had ever encountered. >> when you back up and look at what you've got, the scary fact is somebody is killing mothers and daughters, right? that's the commonality.

>> yes and within close proximity of where the duets were found burned in the vehicle it was just two blocks away from where the often's were shot in their house. . >> the detective suspected they were dealing with the same murder and both cases, especially when they realized dolores the wit was a single mom and a nurse, just like karen loft in. but first, they exhausted the usual suspects. dolores had an ex husband and an ex girlfriend, but both had solid alibis. >> we had given them polygraph tests. they passed. we did bound ground checks on them. we found out where they were and there was nothing that would lead us to say that they were involved. >> as in the lawton case, when detectives shirts the towards home, they found no sign of a forced entry just an unlocked side window. and inside the house, once again, no forensic evidence. but a different pattern. the killer had taken his victims with him. >> we don't know if they were killed inside the house and transported away, or if they were just transported away and killed elsewhere. >> the burned out nissan maxima that carried the mother and

daughters bodies didn't yield any significant clues either. the fire had destroyed everything but a tiny piece of jeans on dolores his body. and attached to the jeans, some leaves foliage experts identified as coming from a beach tree. odd because there were no trees like that in the neighborhood. and the mystery only deepened when the autopsy results came back. >> ebony and dolores were actually killed 24 hours prior to them being burns in the car. that was another hiccup in the case. where were these two bodies kept for a full day? >> it seemed the debates killer took immense risks to get rid of the bodies. >> you're talking about taking two women out of their house and transporting them to another location and then stealing a car, putting those dead bodies in the car, driving past the house that you just stole the car from, and then parking in a driveway of a vacant house, that setting that

car on fire and walking away. >> and the autopsy also revealed that tillerson ebony were strangled, not shot as the lofted's had been. it was a puzzle. were they dealing with a serial killer are not? >> did you think one guy was responsible for both these crimes? >> i would go back and forth. one day i would -- it was all in that it was the same person. the next day, i thought it wasn't. because both crimes are so different. >> then finally the detectives caught a break. they learned that a month before the dewitt murders, the owner of the stolen we saw maxima had been the victim of a break in. she reported it but at the time, told the police that nothing had been taken. now she noticed that her spare set of car keys was missing. >> so tony, as i understand your detective logic goes something like this. if i can find the person who broken who stole the key but then use the vehicle to transport the bodies i'm getting close to my killer. >> exactly. it gives me direction to where i can find the killer. >> 200 police officers blanketed the area and brought in more than 80 people for questioning, all to no avail. for many prince george county

residents, home invasion victims vicky and lloyd urban that man only one thing, panic. >> it was crazy. i couldn't sleep at night. any sound, i had alarms put up throughout the entire house and plus we got the dog, -- >> and bars on the windows. >> yes. >> the house was turned into four knocks. a barking crazy dog who closet the windows if he hears a doorbell ring. there was no peace in the house. i was like, we have to turn some of this stuff down. i can't live like this because he's, like i don't care if this is going to save our, life you know? >> just the fear that spread was absolutely amazing. >> by july 2009, four months after the debate murders and six months after the lofted murders, detectives were stumped. >> we kept calling them and they weren't giving us no answers so that pisses me off because i felt like we deserved to know something. >> it was wild.

we had nothing. >> we were out of the investigative playbook and that's when it got scary. >> the detective had made a promise to patricia that he would take down her sister's killer. with that turnout now to be an empty promise? at this point, what he needed was luck. and luck was about to come his way from the most unexpected source. coming up, an unassuming neighbor comes forward with some unbelievable information. >> at that point we realize that our investigation just took a drastic turn. >> when dateline continues. dancing is everything. soccer is the best. but her moderate to severe eczema could make it hard for her. my skin was so itchy. and my outfit was uncomfortable. now, my skin's not as itchy. now we're staying ahead of her eczema. there's a power inside all of us, to live our passion. and dupixent works on the inside, to help heal your skin from within. it helps block a key source of inflammation inside the body that can cause eczema.

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she started in 2016 oscar winner the salesman, now back to dateline. >> welcome back to dateline. to double murders in one maryland neighborhood, send the community into a full blown panic. investigators had cleared the usual suspects, and that's where both cases seem to stall. then, detectives linked to nearby break into one of the crimes. all roads to find the thief led them nowhere but a big break was just around the bend. here again is dennis murphy with, the unusual suspect. >> prince george is county detectives tony shatner and bernie nelson theorize the house theft burglars stole a spare key to a nissan maximum, might lead them to a serial killer. by how to find them? >> we chased down all those leads, it took us several weeks,

we came up with nothing. >> then, in july 2000, nine shirt near got an unexpected tip. federal agents from the atf, the bureau of alcohol tobacco and firearms, had arrested two men for selling stolen weapons. keith they suspected one of them had also been involved in several burglaries in the area and his name was jason scott. >> jason scott lived two or three blocks away from the dewitts dewitts house, -- the subject was quick to deny he had anything to do with any of the burglaries, look to shirt near like a pipsqueak. >> he was a small guy. he was meek. his voice was very low. he would not speak to me as you and i are speaking. he would only whisper. he would actually come up and only whisper in my ear. >> did you think i, have a

suspect? here >> now. >> atf agents led the festering vegetation into the weapons theft, and they to how having a tough time trying to re-jason. scott >> unusually were pursuing the most violent criminals in the united states. for lack of a better word, you know, this guy was not a. thug >> in fact, jason turned out to be a college graduate and a valued employee at ups. >> we did a background check on him and really he had no criminal history. >> jason and his accomplice were charged with weapons theft and possession. given that neither had a criminal record, the judge released them pending trial. >> she had to basically make a decision, all right, you're not a flight risk, you're not a danger to the community, so both were released to home monitoring. >> so they could come and go. court is telling to the go and say no more, don't be stupid, don't be about. guy >> yes. >> but the atf agents were not about to lead jason scott walk away so easily. they suspected he had other coconspirators in the weapons

theft, an instinct suggested he might be the kind of petty criminal that might be happy to throw others under the bus for a lenient deal. so the feds offer him a proffer session. sometimes called king for a day. in monopoly it's called get out of jail free card. it's an agreement between the prosecutor and suspect that essentially says, you tell us everything you know and we'll go easy on you. and the stuff to they spilled out, you will not come after me? that's the agreement? >> if we can't prove that any other way besides him telling, us than there is nothing you can't do. you can't use his statements against him when that statement is given in that proffer session. >> agents chuck black and company had been on the job for a long time. but will happen next them even them. >> we come into the room to conduct the session with jason scott. myself and dave chapped like around the side of the table. jason in his defense to turn air sitting across. for us we see jason is three pieces of paper in front of him

on the table. david i look at the table, and see 40 different addresses. suddenly jason admits to breaking into all of these houses. not only that, nine of the houses he tells us he breaks and do, wakes people up, points guns at their heads and rob them of their valuables. >> at that point we realize they were not just dealing with a guy selling in stealing guns, our investigation took a drastic turn. >> jason had rocked the federal agents off their script. the king for a day deal was about copping to firearms charge, and here he was telling them instead that he and his accomplice marcus hunter, made a living by pointing guns that many people's heads, including during the botched home invasion of the ervin family. but he's cut this deal john. you can't go after him on those burglaries. the home invasions. >> at that point, your. correct >> he's home. he's off scot-free. >> home. free >> even better for jason, he believed his accomplice marcus hunter alone, would be left to take the fall for their crime spree. he figures, if i'm the one who's willing to testify

against marcus, that will be his opportunity to lessen his sentence. smart. cunning. how good was this guy? >> he certainly had a plan any at an idea of what he was trying to get away with. it really was a life cat and mouse game for him. >> back at the county, detective shirt near was floored when he heard from a colleague that the pipsqueak eaton been interviewed and dismissed the week before, had fest up to the majority of unsolved home invasions and burglaries of the neighborhoods of prince george is county. including one of his colleague had been investigating. >> and i thought, oh good for. you you've got your kids. close but i'm still here with four dead women that we have not solved. and i said, hey. just out of curiosity. can you give me that list. >> when the detective plotted the addresses jason had pushed across the table on a map, he could not believe the picture that emerge. >> this is in awe moment in your investigation. >> this is the assam omit. this is our first break in the case.

>> coming up. we don't know if we have our guy, but we certainly have something to investigate. >> the investigation was about to lead them here, something called the spooky house. and federal officer on this case would soon be spooked himself, when dateline continues. a mystery! jessie loves playing detective. but the real mystery was her irritated skin. so, we switched to tide pods free & gentle. it cleans better, and doesn't leave behind irritating residues. and it's gentle on her skin. case, closed! it's gotta be tide. plan a didn't work out? get plan b one-step. plan b helps prevent pregnancy before it starts, and it won't impact your ability to get pregnant in the future. find it yourself in the family planning aisle

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this is where responded to, was this location, in this was where though dewitt's were found. >> thinking he made the deal of a lifetime, mild, meek, jason scott had confessed to a wave of home invasions and burglaries in prince george is county maryland. but by doing so, he had unwittingly provided homicide investigators with the first lead in the lofton and dewitts murder investigations. >> why happens up here as you continue to go? up >> these other various dots along the map other locations where jason's got admitted to breaking into the houses here on woodland. >> here is what the detective found strange. jason had admitted to every unsolved burglar on the block. all but one, the house where those nissan spare cues were stolen. >> for me the most important part of this puzzle, was to find out who broke into this house, right here, where the

vehicle cues were stolen. >> in the interrogation he did not give you that. adjusts >> he did. not >> in anonymously, or to jason know-how import in the car cues were deliberately keep the house office. list >> we don't see guys they break into houses and steal a tv, then morph into a serial killer. we don't know if we have our guy. but we certainly have something to investigate. >> detectives sharpen are and nelson teamed up with detective agents to create a task force to solve the riddle of jason scott. >> when you guys talk to friends and family, trying to figure out who he was, did anybody tell you, he was a nice guy, i can't believe you've got him in the frame for? this >> nobody had anything like that to say about him. as a matter of fact, most people knew nothing about him. he was almost a ghost. >> a ghost indeed. when investigators sam and item seized at jason's home, they found.

this videos he apparently shot as he snuck around the neighborhood. turns out jason scott was a scary a peeping tom as investigators had ever seen. >> video of someone walking through the woods, videotaping people through their homes in various states of dress and undress. getting ready for work, or getting ready to go to bed. this is deeply creepy stuff. >> absolutely. >> the person who knew him best, was marcus hunter, the accomplice first arrested with was no one to cross. >> he's sensitive. you gotta watch how you talk to him. >> these guys would say, if i ever got into a fight with jason, jason you know one fight me, back two years later he be the type of guy to come back and burn my house down. >> that's the type of duty, was he's. crazy >> three weeks after is king for a day deal, jason scott was still walking the streets. investigators knew an off about him to worry for their own safety. >> his mo was, he would specifically go and cut the power to these homes, caught the fire alarm so one night sleeping, and i kind of become aware that all the sudden the power is off in my house.

so knowing that jason knew my name and thinking he could figure out where i live, i actually grabbed my gun and proceeded to tactically clear my house. just to make sure that he wasn't the reason for the power being out. as i worked my way through the house and into the kitchen, i finally came up and i noticed that in the backyard, the entire neighborhood is dark. at that point, i take a sigh of relief and i realize it's not him. but that's how concerned i was. he is that dangerous of a guy, that i recognize he needed to be in jail. >> if jason scott was smart, the task force simply had to be smarter. and investigators notice jason did not seem to understand an important legal nuance. his proffer did not guarantee him complete immunity. the cops could not use his own words against him, but they

could use the words of others. so one investigators found that other accomplices of jason's, they grilled him. >> do you know of him to break into a house and just take carcass? >> yeah he talked about one job, a couple of jobs going in and take the keys and just have just in case he needed the car. >> these details eerily mirrored what happened in the dewitt murders. >> he likes to steal car keys, spare keys. he likes to come back later and get that car. >> that was exactly the case with the nissan, right. >> first. check he likes to park carson vacant houses, preferably houses that were for sale. >> again the torched car with the bodies, was a vacant house that was up for. sale >> detective nelson nail down several connections between jason's got in the first mother daughter murder. the law often. 's most important of those, jason's car, a dark blue toyota kammuri. it matched the description of the mysterious car one of the law often's neighbors had seen.

>> that could very well have been the vehicle the neighbor had seen the night of the killing. >> then investigators discovered another sticking piece of evidence, a video jason made of the victims of one of his home invasions. a mother and her teenage daughter. >> he brought her into her bedroom instead of a video camera. and in the process of setting up the camera in which he was going to, basically film him self sexually assaulting her, the kim and happen to pan right to his face and the screenshot showed us this. wow. >> this is what a lot of justin 's victims. saw it's cold, calculating eyes, lifeless. >> investigators were shocked. even more so when they dug up the old police report and notice with the perpetrator they now new to be jason, ed blurted out to the mother and daughter just before he left. >> okay. here it is. >> he said he didn't to hurt us, but he said he was supposed to

kill us. >> yet all the evidence was purely circumstantial, not enough to charge, let alone convicted jason with murder. that was about to change. and it had to do with the one case police had plenty of evidence for, the weapons theft. when the agents talked to jason's about it, he mentioned the spooky house, an abandoned building off to be in path and upper marlborough. he said he is a complicated sweat to divvy up dilute. detective shark never had a spooky feeling he'd bought more than guns there. >> we're still trying to find the place or house or whatever where the do its were stored or kept for those 20 someone hours. >> so this spooky, house whatever it, is could be the place. >> absolutely. >> and according to jason's proffer, if his statements led

to new evidence, that evidence could be used to prosecute him. >> mice thirst thaw and impressions were that this is going to be like, and old rickety alice, maybe even falling apart. >> it doesn't feel like we're heading to spooky house, guys. >> it wasn't until we came here, that we realize there is a long driveway here that maybe made sense. >> there it, is when? >> the spooky house was a georgian mansion up for sale, like the property where the nissan was set on fire, vacant. what a hideaway to do whatever you want to do from prying eyes, have? >> absolutely. and at night this is absolutely pitch. dark this is just a playground the jason sky had. >> the task force called in the forensic team. >> we walk down here through these rocks here and that's when i first initially saw the sweater, which was right down here in the rocks. >> it was the charred remains of a blue sweater, the kind ebony dewitts had worn the last time she was seen alive. >> once we saw, that we said

hey this is it this is finally, something you were talking about a high five moment. you walk further down these rocks here, and gathered in these leaves where the other two pieces. >> jeans that seem to match the gene fragments covered from dolores dewitt body. -- detective sharpen are brought in expert to the spooky, house to identify the foliage. >> and he pulled up here and he said, this is the jackpot of beach trees. >> poor ebony and her mom were here. no question. >> without a. doubt >> but to arrest jason, vest gaiters needed more. so the heat they eliminated is complicit as a murder suspect, so they hear him up again into jason is talking, if you don't, you'll be the want to take the fall. that did it. marcus hunter finally agreed to cooperate. right away he dropped a bombshell about jason. the specter of him becoming a

monster grows with each and every stone we overturn. >> coming up. >> i think he truly thought he could outsmart us. >> could? he >> wouldn't take to put jason

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before dolores and of any were killed, he'd given jason a ride to his car, parked just a block or so from the dewitt house. in the accomplice had more. >> he said there was at one point and it was during the time that the law often's were murdered, that he had seen

jason scott for a short timeframe, with a glut 17. >> a glut 17. the very weapon used to murder karen and carris. >> i had one of our investigators try to find out who purchased glut 17's of the last two years, and then contact those people and find out if they can account for their handgun. any found out that a home was broken into 13 days before the law often's were killed, and during that break in, they're glut 17 handgun was stolen. >> and here is where detective nelson got lucky. the state of maryland requires handguns to be test fire before they are sold so it can archive eats gun shell casings to help identify, or trace the weapon should it be later used in a crime. >> we immediately took out the

shell casings and had them compared to the known shell casings from that known handgun. and during that testing, they were able to verify that all six shell casings came from that one particular glut 17. that was the weapon that was used to kill both of my victims. once we found out where the murder weapon came from, that was used to kill the lofton we need to find out of jason's guy ever had that gun in his hands. we asked his accomplice marcus hunter if they ever broke into a house in this one particular neighborhood. he said they did, it was only one house. we never told him which when it was and he looked took us directly to it. the house that the glut was stolen from that killed the law often's. >> this far as the handgun goes, i think that was the nail in jason's coffin. we know he stole that weapon. >> did that solve the lofton murders? >> it got us as close as we are going to. get >> detective schatner and melted arrested jason's at his home in 2009. >> i remember telling him jason take a look at your house, this is last time you will see. it >> he didn't have a response, he just gave some type of noise.

smacking his lips of if i'll be back. >> i think he truly thought he could outsmart. us and fortunately for bernie and i and the two agents from the atf we outsmarted him. >> and personally, the takedown of jason scott made the detective a promise keeper. >> he said i am going to get him. if it's the last thing i do. he said i am going to get him. and he got him. >> in exchange for his cooperation, marcus hunter got a reduced seven year sentence for weapons possession. it would be another three years before the atf and county police analyzed all the evidence against jason scott. when all was said and done he was sentenced to 185 years in prison. >> one of the things that the judge said, and i'll never forget this, he said you're not even a crime wave year a tsunami of crime. >> the satisfaction take down a guy like? this >> extreme. >> it was the proudest moment

in my career. >> but just did cut one final deal. in exchange for acknowledging the prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him for the dewitt, the state agreed not to prosecute him for the lofton. that did not sit well with the lofton family. but that's the best investigators thought they could do. >> the bottom line is we know jason is gone forever. he only has one life to give. we cannot punish him anymore than what he is already being punished. >> this serial killer, the master robber and burglar, will likely die behind bars. the neighbors he terrorized are safe again. but under some roofs, there's been damage to the concept of home as a sanctuary. take vicky in lloyd ervin. they've kept their burglar bars their home alarm system, they didn't know how much they needed that stuff until we fill them in. >> let me tell you something that, will probably freak you out in this comes from a guy number two in your house. he said, after the home

invasion they came back. >> are you serious? >> he wanted another round, they parked in front of your place, did a little surveillance, sculpted out, and jason scott wanted to come back in and even the score. >> i didn't know that, that's scary. >> could've been your picture on the 11:00 news. >> that's. right >> how does one person cause so much damage and so much her in so much loss for so many people? it still blows my mind. >> that's all for this edition of dateline thank you for watching. this sunday, criminal charges? the january 6th committee is considering voting on at least three criminal charges against donald trump. >> donald trump's role was far more central than inciting.