>> -- the minister collin said, you need to come home. never in 1 million years you would see your parents house -- by that yellow tape. >> inside a nebraska farmhouse,

an unspeakable site. >> when i started up the stairs, there was blood on the walls. >> it was a very brutal crime scene. it was one of the worst i have ever seen. >> a loving couple dead. was the killer one of the family? >> they said, they arrested matt. and i said, who? and he said, our cousin mapped. >> -- and blew it away -- >> but this case was not solved. one tiny clue did not fit at all. >> the inscription said that love always -- who is blind and who is -- the >> trail would leave hundreds of miles away to a chilling piece of evidence. >> that must have been a shocker to have it -- >> pretty much sends a chill down your spine. >> i killed someone. he was older. i loved him. he was scary. >> as soon as -- the story, but not even it revealed the whole twisted truth. >> i know what happened that no

one will believe me. >> -- this really happening -- >> i didn't feel i could feel so much anger. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> it was late past midnight, when the farmhouse -- no sign of life. not to them, anyway. he hit the brakes. this was the place. they grabbed their weapons, headed for the house. a window unlocked. pay direct. pay dirt.

>> reporter: >> the prairie takes on a sweet, rolling pitch as it tucks into a nebraska corner. and outside of omaha they are the rich black topsoil has grown generations of solid and faithful americans. a tiny remnant of whom appointed themselves in and around a place called murdaugh. it's the sort of place where heads turn and a stranger drives by. -- the family's name is carved in the local stone. it was easter sunday afternoon, 2006. a big farmyard and, like every year, an easter egg hunt. >> it was grandma and papa's yard. >> or mom and dad, to tammy, who brought her own some like always. >> they found their easter eggs. they found their easter baskets. and mom always made it every individual easter basket special to that child they were like that where wayne and

sherman stop, generous, steady, always there for their children. the eldest, steve, and the daughter tammy, the youngest -- >> they were loving parents. >> i don't think they ever missed a game of any of ours. that would always stop for them, just to be at again, similar with mom. >> wayne stop was a businessman farmer, around the stockade company, and the very successful business it was. -- owned 1000 acres of land along with rental property. sherman was locally famous for her special cakes, waiting and otherwise. they were church youth leaders, served on the school board. >> -- >> yeah, very. >> very. they touch the lives of so many people. >> she was a teachers aide -- taught lessons, also, that did not end in class. >> one thing i always heard from mom was take

responsibility for your actions, be responsible. >> she would praise you and just keep pushing you to do better and she would always want us to be better people. >> then came that easter sunday, 2006. church services, a big family dinner, that easter egg hunt for the grandkids. their last day on this earth. >> we forget that one day -- my kids remember it. they talk about it all the time. >> last days go -- wouldn't be -- >> no. it wasn't. >> and he had missed the easter party, spent the day with his future in laws. but left his young puppy with his parents. >> called mom and dad on the way home and -- i'm going to come in and get the dog and said no -- he can stay here. he will be fine. he just leaves in the porch. and we are watching the monday morning, he said, oh, i will come get him. >> would history have been different had he listen to his parents? it's hard to know, of course.

>> they met me on the deck from the back of the house and -- easter and. what they did -- and they each gave me a hug. i went home. >> did you remember that moment -- it makes you feel pretty emotional, doesn't it? >> yeah, yeah. >> next morning, andy, who has been groomed to run stop hay himself someday, drove a half mile from his place to his parents, form ready to go to work. >> we had joel hannon out in the shop and dads pick up was there, which i thought was a little bit strange. and i thought, well, i will see if he kept mom's car, somewhere and looked in the garage, and the car was there. they picked up the phone in the house, and there was no dial tone. that is when my heart kind of sunk, that, for some reason, it was a little bit of a trigger in my mind. >> -- >> thought, well, i had better go upstairs. because i had started up the stairs. there was some blood on the

walls. and i knew it was bad. >> it's kind of surreal, a moment like. that does your mind even register? >> no. i think the lord protects us. until i rounded the corner, saw dad laying there on the floor. it was a horrible thing. >> it was, perhaps, the central moment in his life so far. nothing would be the same after this. >> what did you do when you found it? >> never made it past the landing -- myself phone was out -- pickup. and just turn around and went to call for help -- >> the ambulance was there in 12 minutes. the first -- in 20. and east it outside in shock, calling family without even knowing what happened or what to say. >> and these wife and i worked together. she answered the phone call.

and she did not even recognize and these voice. and they had been together for nine years. >> your own wife. >> she came in the back and said, tim, something is wrong. and he just called and said, come quick. that is laying in a pool of blood. >> coming up -- the stocks children face another stunning shock. >> -- is this really happening? >> in a gravel driveway, there's a marijuana -- and about ten feet from it, there was a flashlight. >> when dateline continues -- teline continues - psych! and i'm about to steal this game from you just like i stole kelly carter in high school. you got no game dude, that's a foul! and now you're ready to settle the score. game over. and if you don't have the right home insurance coverage, well, you could end up paying for all this yourself. so get allstate, and be better protected from mayhem, yeah, like me.

thanks, bro. take a lap, rookie. real mature. hey hon. hey dad...(sniffs) that smell could be 8,000,000 odor causing bacteria. good thing adding lysol laundry sanitizer kills 99.9% of bacteria that detergents leave behind. clean is good, sanitized is better. ♪ ♪ (michael) my tip is, clean is good, the worst lies are the lies you tell yourself, like smoking isn't that dangerous. [announcer] you can quit. call 1-800-quit now for help getting free medication. >> the children of wayne and

sherman stock just learned that something horrific had taken place at their parents house. but, like the rational farm folk they are, 30 miles away and close to the nearest hospital, they did not assume the worst, even when they tried to call back their brother and

the, who is on scene and now wasn't answering. >> in my 11 -- 11:30, both cass and i were something like, something is really wrong. and the minister called and said, you need to come home. and i said, i'm not going anywhere until you tell me what is wrong. and they said, you -- being killed. i think i did start screaming. and we headed towards the farm to be with andy. knowing what -- parents house -- taped off by that yellow tape. >> it was a stunning crime. big news throughout the midwest. the stocks the most unlikely victims. wayne found on the upstairs landing, dead of a shotgun blast. wife sherman murdered in her own bedroom, a wife telephone in hand as --

the county sheriff advised caution. >> i know this is an unsolved homicide, whether it is somebody local or somebody from out of town, we don't know at this time. >> who could have murdered wayne and sherman stop? and why? just a couple of hours after wayne and sherman stop discovered there -- we will nebraska farmhouse -- easter monday 2006. the word got around and law enforcement swarmed the scene. neighbors expressed shock in that understated midwestern way. >> they are just typical nebraska farm background people. and you would not expect it. >> and the, stop as you can see in those pictures on that very day, stood next to his pick up in utter shock, waiting for his brother and sister are to arrive, and struggled to process it all, as his father's words echoed in his mind. >> i will never forget july of

05. dead and i were working together and we were standing there. he looked at me when he said son -- he said, when it's my day to go, hold your head high and keep living life. i will never forget that. >> but it was all happened so fast, wayne and sharmon stock had been gunned down in the safety of their own home, the sanctity of their own bedroom. how would anyone want them dead? and who? and he was the last to see his parents alive, the one who found their bodies in the morning which made him, bizarre though it sounds, a potential suspect. >> before i even saw stephen -- put me in a car and took me out to another town and questioned me in a -- >> trying to establish whether or not you were involved? >> yeah. did gunshot residue tests. is this really happening.

and he stop did not realize at the time, but investigators were soon looking hard right at him. after all, he was there, he had opportunity, and he may have had motive. he might have had something to gain from his parents death. why? andy stop was the already designated heir to the stock a company, which some people might consider a family fortune. as investigators questioned andy, see if i units were busily working the crime scenes as well. >> it was a very brutal crime scene, one of the worst i've ever seen. >> one of those leading the investigation, david -- the head of the csi squat in douglas county, from omaha, nebraska's largest city in our way he was called into the help of the smaller -- county sheriff's department. >> what bothers me is that these two people were just sleeping in bed, the male victim was apparently >> either

shot in the head clearly in -esque execution in close-up and the female victim was along the side of the bed with a phone in her hand and she had been shot in the eye at close range. >> investigators found out quickly how the killer's out entered the house. a screen had been lifted, the window appeared to have been forced open leading into the laundry room. from there it appeared that the killers may have gone past now empty eastern basket that chairman have made, through the well kept kitchen and then up the stairs. for 12 gauge shotgun fills that failed to the body. by the look of it, the stocks woke up, wayne tried to get off and was shot first in the knee. the gunfire to so close to him that it left a huge powder burn on the bed. then, wayne was shot in the head. sherman killed two as she tried to call 9-1-1. and then it became apparent that it was not just one killer but at least two.

>> when we did the blood pattern analysis we saw a void area at the top of the step, -- >> which could only mean one thing. as one of the killers fired at stop from behind, this area called a void area was where another killer would have been standing. the second killer sprayed with blood splatter, instead of the wall. he and his team found a wealth of evidence outside the house, to. >> it was a big firm operation, there was a lot of outbuildings and it was complicated by the fact that they had an easter egg hunt today before so we had a lot of shoe prints and stuff. >> but one print stood out. >> i saw a shoe print in the mud that was unusual. by a flower bed near the front door. >> beyond the front flower bed there was a trail of virtual evidence left by the likely killers. >> in the gravel driveway there was a marijuana pipe and about ten feet from it there was a flashlight and those two things were obviously out of place. >> you could sort of imagine a television show, see as i, some

guy -- there is a light. it is too easy. and there it was. >> it was there. i think one thing i knew pretty much right at the beginning was that i could see visibly see blood on the outside the flashlight. we knew that had to be involved. >> then a real breakthrough. a newspaper carrier called in to report that he and his girlfriend saw something. they had been driving down this country road in the middle of the night, about a mile from the stock farmhouse down there, and just here outside the cemetery they saw a car. just parked here. strange corrodes do not just get parked on country roads outside of murdaugh, nebraska at 3:00 in the morning. >> it was ten or light brown ford or sedan said the young man. and what really struck out was that this car later passed them in the same area, that same night. this, time driving 60 or 70 miles per hour. it was in a rush, appearing to

get away. investigators now had a number of clues. that car, seen by the newspaper carrier, the flashlight which what appeared to be blood on it, the marijuana pipe, and detectives were looking for more than one killer. but a motive? who knew. not a thing was missing. wallet, purses, gun collections, even the safe hidden in the bedroom floor. all untouched. but, all of that evidence and asking questions of those closest to the stock would soon pay off because just a week later, an arrest and a confession and another shattering blow to the stock family. coming up, a story surfaces of a long simmering feud of the family's black sheep. >> i have my own suspicions. >> was the killer at his own

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grief stricken man. and it was not long before investigators restored him to his family and dropped him from the list of possible suspects and the awful murders of wayne and sharmon stock.

besides, as the detectives -- another elder's name came up quite often, actually. that liver he was their nephew, 28 years old, and in fact bartender the dinner on the afternoon of the murder. but he was -- in fact, livers was considered something of a black sheep. he bounced from job to job, never seeming to find his name. family members told police that he was slow, different. he had no criminal record, but there was, they said, an ongoing problem between matt and the stocks. they described disagreements, sometimes he did. they say that sharmon had a dislike for matt. >> i think in my head i went to it little bit, -- i have my own suspicions. >> just two days after the murders, detectives visited that livers former employer, asked about his personality,

rumors that he had a temper. they put a watch on livers, went through his garbage to. this was at his house in lincoln about 30 miles from the murder scene. and then on april 25th, eight days after the bodies were discovered, they asked matt livers to come in and answer some questions. >> you are free to leave it anytime. >> one here to cooperate with you gentlemen. >> and he was an airing late courteous. differential even to the two detectives questioning him. saying that he had never been interviewed by police before. >> what do you think happened? >> i don't know. i don't know. i really don't have any idea. i'd like to know why. the who, what, where, when, how and why. you know, why would somebody do this to such good people. very question people? very loving and likable people. >> livers told them that after the big family dinner with the stocks you drove home, the half

hour to lincoln where he stayed all night with his girlfriend, sarah, and her young son and a roommate. he did admit to having disagreements with his uncle, wayne, over the various family issues, but those were minor, he said. >> any problems between you guys? >> oh, years ago we had a tiff. but, you know, that's been done and forgotten. >> after five hours of questions that livers agreed to take a polygraph. >> do you know for sure who caused the death of wayne stop? >> no. >> if livers was looking to clear him self of suspicion by taking that test, it did not quite have the desired effect. >> your subconscious body is telling the machine. you cannot fool it. >> i didn't have anything to do with this. >> you did. >> i did not. >> you did. >> i'm sorry, you did. >> for more hours -- and despite his continued

denials of involvement they knew, they said, that he was lying. >> we've had so many people sitting in that chair, okay, who think that they're smarter than us. >> no. >> yes. >> i'm down at the break. >> you made a mistake. >> you did and i have to pay for. it >> why were investigators here in nebraska that that livers was lying. beside the polygraph, there is a state profiler who suggested that this was the sort of crime committed by young males who know the victims. how else will they know to find the farmhouse whale in the middle of nowhere if they did not know them? and after that, said the profiler, this was the sort of crime that appeared to be very personal. an execution. that livers rang those bells, all of them, and wearing them loudly. >> eventually detectives got quite explicit telling livers that he was headed for death row, unless he would start giving them what they knew to

be true. >> if you don't give it to me exactly what you've done, i'm going to walk out that door and i'm going to do my level best to hang you from the streets. this is when your one shot, this is your olive branch right now. we are attempting to help you, okay? electric chair, gas, lethal injection -- >> it was that technique that finally produced the desired effect. rough, perhaps. but matt livers started confessing. coming up, a case snares a second suspect, not just with an accusation but with what appears to be damning evidence. >> now that was the real smoking gun. i mean, you've got it. >> when dateline continues. teline continues with two max-strength pain relievers, so you can rise from pain like a pro. icy hot pro. ♪ ♪

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look at what is happening. texas governor greg abbott has issued a disaster reparation for parts of texas after a deadly string of tornadoes there. at least three people were killed, hundreds of homes and businesses destroyed, thousands

more right now left without power. and the weather system also wreaked havoc in mississippi and florida where parts of those states got more than a foot of rain, triggering flash flood emergencies. the national weather service warns a thunderstorms are still likely for parts of alabama. and now back to dateline. and now back to dateline livers was grilled for hours over his possible involvement in the murders of his aunt and uncle sherman and wayne stock. now you are starting to tell investigators what they suspected. >> you've got a gun, right or wrong? >> right. >> and you took that gun back to your uncle wayne and aunt sharmon house, right? right or wrong? come on, that. >> right. >> now that the cat was out of the bag, livers began filling

in more of the blanks. how the murder went down, for example. >> put the gun to her face and blew it away. >> okay. >> and then, as i headed out, i just stuck it to him and blew him away. >> and then a bonus. remember how that blood splatter indicated a second killer was involved? well now, the four they took him off to jail, matt livers gave them a name to match the void on the wall. so perhaps it is not so surprising that in the elation of the moment, detectives had no idea, not a clue, that they had just jumped down an alice in wonderland rabbit hole. wayne and sharmon children were still reeling from their grief as they buried their parents less than a week after perhaps the most horrific murder the town had ever seen. and then, to grief ad shock. andy stock answered his phone

and one of the detectives was on the other end of the line with news. they spoke, and then and he called his sister. >> it was about 12:30 at night, he said tam i need you to be awake. are you awake? i said yeah. what is going on? they arrested that and nick. and i said, that and nick who? and he said our cousin matt and nick samson. >> it was true, that livers had confessed to the murders of his aunt and uncle. >> but the gun to her face and blew it away. >> and he named an accomplice, 22-year-old nick sampson. a cousin of mats on another branch of the family tree. >> for i was sitting up in bed and i said, andy, should i be shaking? and he said that is normal shock. >> but matt livers had been with him at easter dinner just a few hours before. now, he said, he and nick had

returned to kill his aunt and uncle. >> our first reaction was that -- she had just lost her only son and her grandson is being arrested for this. and, just like us, she said i do not understand. i said, grandma, nobody understands and of this. >> did it give you any sense of well at least somebody has been found responsible. did it make you feel any better? >> i want to move on to the next phase of this. i was relieved i guess to know that they had somebody. >> with livers already in jail, police descended on murdaugh to arrest sampson. he was a cook at boondocks bar in -- yet a minor criminal record, he was a guy by who his own admission like drive too fast, had a problem with marijuana as a teenager, and had done two separate stints in boys homes. and now, simpson had been printed and processed and then, like livers, question on videotape. >> i guess i'll just ask you

flat out. why do you think you're here? >> i think the things that i'm involved with the murders. >> but nick samson, unlike his codefendant -- >> i had absolutely nothing to do with us. >> during three hours of questioning did not confessed anything. >> if something is left at that house for, okay, with your dna and or your prints. how are you going to explain how it got there? >> i'm not, because i don't think you have my dna anywhere near that house. because i've never been in that house. never, ever once in my entire life have i ever been inside their house. >> like livers, samson volunteered to take a polygraph test. but again, the result was not quite what the accused of hope for. the plug your four said that the test showed sampson was deceptive when he denied being at wayne stock home when wayne was shot. and, investigators seized on

that. to ratchet up the pressure. >> you are at the house for when he was killed. >> no, i was not. >> your body is telling me otherwise. so we need to get past that. what's going on here? >> i honest to god was not at this house when they were killed. >> but the investigators do not believe nick samson. after all, that livers had already told him that nikki sampson was behind the whole thing and the two them had actually planned the crime together on their cell phones in the two days or so before the murder. and so, said the detectives, they were pretty sure. that livers was telling the truth, nick samson was lying. for >> you were there when he was shot. >> i was not there. >> i want you to understand how this system works. >> i do understand. i'm getting framed for something i didn't [bleep] do. >> but it did not look good for nick samson.

he denied being a marijuana user anymore, but he had had trouble with the drug before and investigators found that marijuana pipe at the scene. when detectives visited nick's grandfather in murdaugh, the man told him that a month ago nick borrowed a 12 gauge shotgun from him, saying -- the same gauged weapon that was used in the murders. then, investigators executed a search warrant of sampson's home. among the items seized from under the bed that 12 gauge borrowed from his grandfather and a pair of blue jeans, examined by csi chief david -- >> we had a pair of pants and the pants had what looked like blood on them. we tested that and it was positive. now, that was the real smoking gun. i mean, you've got it. >> and then there was more. remember the car apparently seen by the newspaper carrier parked a mile from the farmhouse? detectives had found it, they believed.

a 1997 ford contour owned by nick simpson's brother. and it had been cleaned, detailed actually, at 5:30 eastern monday morning hours after it had apparently been used in the murders. >> who details a car at 5:30 in the morning? >> that's exactly what the detectives thought it was suspicious. >> wait, it gets even better. the car had been searched for evidence once and nothing was found, but then csi chief got a call from one of the lead investigators. >> matt confessed, he said that they threw the shotgun in the back seat of the ford contour and he said maybe you can find some transfer -- if you can take another look at it and i said, well, maybe they missed it. >> so they examined the car again and this time, lo and behold, a stain was found just below the steering wheel on the dashboard. a stain found by suicide chief covode him self. >> i just took it along the edge and wiped out because a

figure that way i would not miss anything and it reacted. >> so you've got to hit? >> a presumptive positive, yes. >> and before long, tests confirmed that what the csi chief found under the dashboard was blood, the blood of wayne stock, the victim. only one way it could get there, carried by livers and sampson. with a confession in our physical eye evidence to back it up, meaning the community sought case closed. but they were mistaken. coming up, a piece of evidence that had gone unnoticed turn the case upside down, when dateline continues. dateline continues and papa is hungry. and while you're hittin' the trail, i'm hitting your cooler. oh, cheddar!

i've got hot dog buns! and your cut-rate car insurance might not pay for all this. so get allstate, and be better protected from mayhem, like me. roar. (sfx: family screams in background)

i know there's conflicting information roar. about dupuytren's contracture. i thought i couldn't get treatment yet? well, people may think that their contracture has to be severe to be treated, but it doesn't. if you can't lay your hand flat on the table,

talk to a hand specialist. but what if i don't want surgery? well, then you should find a hand specialist certified to offer nonsurgical treatments. what's the next step? as april turned to a midwest visit findahandspecialist.com today to get started. may, less than two weeks after the murders of wayne and sharmon stock, the investigators were a mop up mode. they had arrested 28 year old matt livers. he confessed, and he named an accomplice, his cousin 22-year-old nick sampson. so, the cast county sheriff's department called in the press and announced that one of the most shocking crimes in this part of nebraska in decades was solved. >> people ask, is this closure on the case? it is not, i think it is another chapter, turning the

page. there is still a lot of work to be done. >> and though he was right. . the sheriff had no clue just how much work there was yet to be done. but, for the stocks children the arrest brought a small measure of relief. at least they decided they could try to move on, as they knew their parents would have wanted them to. >> i can hear mom and dad say tammy, you can let this eat you live or you can go on and be the best that you can be and do what needs to be done and that his family. so we can dwell on it, but we choose not to. because that is not what moment out would've wanted. >> and now the system they grind forward to, and the system and provided defense attorneys. jerry soucie for nick sampson, and julie bear for that livers. >> the first thing he says look, i told them i did this but i did not do this and you've got to believe me. >> they all say they didn't do it.

>> right, i have been lied to a lot as a defense lawyer so this nickel side of me goes, right. >> and yet bear and susie were 's puzzled to. there were things that did not just quite add up. both nick and matt and there live in girlfriends swore up and down that on the night of the murder they were at home, asleep, 25 miles away. and nick claimed, despite what the cops believed, he had never talked to matt by phone or purse in the week before the murders. what? >> the thing was implicit concerned about was what was the evidence against nick samson whether he did it or not. i just had to know what the evidence. was >> more than, quite by chance, this tiny piece of what seemed to be evidence showed up. police missed it the motor after the murder, but the one sharp ride koch happened to notice it a couple of days later. it was this gold ring on the kitchen floor. >> i thought, well, somebody took it off to wash their hands

and then somebody forgot about it. >> at the time, it could've belonged to the victim? it could belong to anybody? >> except one thing people should know about the stock house. nothing was ever out of place. so, one of the investigators picked up the ring, bagged it, and tagged it as evidence. it was a size ten, a man's wearing, bearing a message. >> the inscription said love, always cory ryan. so they want to figure out who is a ryan, who is a cory. >> who is cory? who is ryan? detectives asked the stock children, and in the new anybody by those names, and didn't recognize the ring either. but as livers was confessing and heme samson or put in jail, one of the officers kept puzzling over that little ring. on the inside or three tiny letters, a a j. the manufacturer perhaps? well yes, it turned out to be a place called a and a jewelers, buffalo, new york.

>> a remember when the girls in shipping had indicated that there was a call from somebody in the nebraska police department. >> barry martinez running what was left of buffaloes and a office just then. what was left? the place was going out of business, massive layoffs, 200 jobs lost. by the time nebraska cops started calling, barry was one of only three people left to clean up the buffalo office, close it down. and now, here was this investigator asking married to track down a ring the company likely had shipped years ago. >> you said what? >> it is like looking for a needle in a haystack. however, she mentioned homicide. >> and that is when mary martin over at about the ring and the double homicide and the fact that nobody else in the company would be able to help. >> she said she had made several attempts and nobody was willing to assist her. >> this so mary martino said

she'd be -- certainly the company took the order, made the, ring inscribed did love always cory and ryan, and shipped it. but where? mary went to the warehouse where tens of thousands>> so i x number one, stores one through 25. then box number two, storage 25 through 30. >> you went through each one? >> yes. until i got to like 100, i think it was 108 or 118 and i said this is going to be impossible. >> so mary asked for help and a colleague made a computer grid of the more than 3000 stores that and a shipped to throughout the country. a block of dates, when the ring might have been ordered, and cross matched that with the inscription. >> how long did that process take? >> it took me probably three days and two nights. >> does that seem a little over the top?

i mean you could look for an hour so and say i can't find it, sorry, and that would be that. >> i heard homicide, i heard it was important. >> and lo and behold, after three days of searching, suddenly there it was. >> i got up for my chair and i said bingo, i found it, i found it. >> any specifics about what you found out on that order form? where it was sent? >> it was wisconsin, i do know that. >> wisconsin, not nebraska? actually, it was quite specific. the ring was sent to the town of beaverdam wisconsin, to this walmart store. this is where a girl named cori bought the ring for a boy named ryan. but, it was not love always and the ring was soon gathering dust in the cab of his pick up truck. then the strange thing happened, it was reported stolen from ryan's farm just a few days before the murders of wayne and

sharmon stock in four of nebraska. >> nothing more than a standard missing vehicle. >> jim roar was back then a detective in dodge county, wisconsin. when the call came in experienced gestures that probably some local joyride, they would find it nearby. instead, what a surprise. >> our dispatch had received confirmation from a parish down in louisiana that they had the stolen truck. >> stolen in wisconsin and abandoned way down in louisiana. >> that's a long way to go. what did you think? >> a couple of kids on a joyride, somebody taking it that needed to get back down south for whatever reason. >> it was not long before they fingered the suspected thieves. there were two of them, greg foster age 19 with a history of drug use, suicide attempts, anger issues. he was on probation for weapons and disorderly conduct convictions. >> he seemed a bit slow, he did not seem to grasp things quite

as well as a typical person. >> festers alleged accomplice was the 17 year old named jessica varied, a former honorable student and cheerleader turned troubled team after a divorce. she had become mixed up with drugs, and by extension, faster. >> not exactly master criminals were? they >> know, not by any sense of the word. two teenagers from wisconsin, worked out on drugs and not knowing what the hell they were doing. >> out of control. >> the detective had no idea just how out of control these two had been, or where the stolen truck had taken them. that, a few weeks later, is where the rain came in. that is when norah got a call from nebraska, heard how the ring turned up at the scene of a double murder, heard how they tracked it back to the walmart and beaver dam, and to cory and ryan, and the store and truck.

>> it must of been a shocker to get that explanation across her desk? >> a huge shocker. it pretty much sense of chill down your spine. >> what was going on? how or are these two teenagers, green and fester, tied to the murders of wayne and sharmon stock? or were they had all? coming up, an interrogation of the teens and a chilling first glimpse of what may have happened inside that farmhouse. >> so i freaked out and left because obviously that guy is up there killing somebody. >> unless of course she is lying. when dateline continues. when dateline continues. s. use with caution in dogs with a history of seizures or neurologic disorders. for a limited time, get up to a 2-month rebate when you buy 12 doses of both nexgard chews and heartgard plus chews from your vet. terms apply. (tap, tap) listen, your deodorant just has to work. i use secret aluminum free. just swipe and it lasts all day. secret helps eliminate odor, instead of just masking it.

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the stock firm turn from brown to green, and women and sharmon children struggled as best they could to put their lives back in place. >> they both want to just just

drive us for so much more and said, you know, you can always do better. >> so they may not have noticed so much of the riddle that sprouted along with the corn. two towns, murdaugh nebraska, beaver dam wisconsin. more than 500 miles apart. now united undeniably by a single band of gold. that ring, sold in a beaver dam walmart and found days after the murder in the kitchen of the stock farmhouse. how did it get there? matt livers never said anything about a ring when he confessed to killing wayne and sharmon stock. nothing about a stolen truck or out of control wisconsin teenagers, either. one of whom, just carried out on bail over the vehicle theft responded to investigate -- an invitation to visit a detective. >> she had to know somewhere in the back of her mind that maybe they know more or they want to talk to me about more than just a stolen truck.

>> did she? in fact, as she settled in, young miss reid seemed to view the police interview as a nuisance to be endured. >> my grandma is coming into town and i kind, i want to do this, but i want to do it a little bit faster. i know this is going to take forever. >> just go with all of 17. did you wonder why the wisconsin cop was joined by investigators from nebraska? >> i really want to know what nebraska has to do with this. i don't even think that we entered nebraska. >> they didn't know anything about a gold ring, she said. she and faster just stole a truck as she said and fueled by pot and massive doses of over the counter coughed, europe before running out of gas and money and leaving that pickup truck in louisiana. but then they showed her a picture of a marijuana pipe, which, along with a gold ring, turned up at the stop farmhouse. and jessica reads mantle began

to crack. >> okay, i did steal. i stole a whole bunch of money from somebody. i don't know, who i do not know where, i just remember stealing a whole bunch of money and yes, we did lose that pipe only solace. money >> read then blurted it out. at this farmhouse, now apparently to her surprise in nebraska, greg faster sneaked in through a window and let her in the back door. in the kitchen, she said, she found $500 in an envelope and then, she said, they left. and the rain? well, now she admitted finding it in that stolen pickup, putting it on and then feeling it slide off her thumb inside that house. where was all of this going? coming up, a letter from jessica reid and what she wrote stunned investigators. i killed someone, he was older, i loved him. when dateline continues. eline continues. ♪ breeze driftin' on... ♪

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from wisconsin admitted to being in wayne and sharmon stock home that they were killed. >> the reason i ask is that the two people upstairs were shot to death. >> and you are saying that me and greg did? >> what i'm telling you that you are in this house and -- did you not tell? >> oh my god i've never killed anybody, okay? i really didn't, this is so serious. please. i took money, that's all i did, i swear to god, all i did was take money. i don't want to go to jail for murder because i did not do. it >> then who did? remember, that livers had already confessed and named nick samson as his accomplice. >> tell us who you're with. >> i was with greg. that's all i was with. i was with greg. >> wait a minute, she must have known matchup and nick. so the investigator showed her

pictures. no idea who they were, she said. never saw them before. >> if they did, i swear to god. >> then the visiting investigators from nebraska informed her that nebraska's electric chair stood ready for her if she refused to cooperate and jessica reconsidered. >> this guy, i do not know why, but he does look kind of familiar. >> that is nick samson, who looked kind of familiar. from there, as the hours wore on, jessica's story shape-shifted as did the players, time and again. and until it evolved eventually into a tale that began easter night at bulldogs bar in murdaugh where nick sampson, you will recall, worked. >> all remember hearing in this house was bang, bang, bang. and so i was like -- i freaked out and left because obviously that guy is up there killing somebody.

i do not want to stick around and -- excuse my language, i'm sorry, but i do not know what happened up there. >> and then, without off her chest, just got looked again at the photo of nick, the man she claimed was the mastermind behind the murder. >> i know this is really dumb but i wish you -- >> he's really hot. why do the hot ones off to the dumb ones. >> after that just carried's well planned day, in fact all of her plans, evaporated in a jail cell. detective focus next on justice partner in crime, greg foster. >> she kind of economy and going with. her >> it was all just his idea, side faster, stealing the truck, they ridiculous trip across the country. as for the murder in the farmhouse, that was the guy they met outside of bulldogs barr, he said, who squeezed into their stolen pick up truck, led them to the stocks

farmhouse, went upstairs and just started shooting. >> he walked, kind of ran into the room. and he, i heard the scream and he shot again. we all run out of the house. >> but then, surprise, surprise, foster insisted that the man who committed the murders was not nick samson. it was not even matt livers, who had already confessed that he was a killer. no, greg foster said it was some friend he had communicated with via text message, a guy that he called thomas. so a little confusing, perhaps, but for the investigators from nebraska it seemed to be starting to come together. >> what was their sense of things after that first day of questioning? >> i think sense of accomplishment, mainly because we do have confessions from greg and just go for the homicides. >> let's go out and have a beer

time? >> it's a reason to do a high five. >> that's what these investigators did. now, with greg foster and jessica reid in jail, detectives said about finding physical evidence to backup their claims and, incredibly, once again, one little saying. not a ring this time, it was about to turn the whole business upside down all over again. detective jim roar looked for evidence to support or refute the stories told by those teenagers, jessica reid and greg faster. stories they had witnessed but did not commit the gruesome murders of wayne and sherman stock, before in nebraska. roar went to reads place, a flophouse for teens, as he called it. >> what we are looking for was anything at all that would tie them to nebraska or any other location that they were out during the crime sprees.

>> but he found it all right. here, are hidden behind a picture frame was this cigarette box and inside? a shotgun shell, 12 gauge, the same gauges used in the murders. and there is a more folded up in that little box. this letter, apparently meant for greg fester. it said, quote, this bullet, well, it is the only thing left and i loved it. but that is something that we will talk about some day, but it is here also because that is something i did for you. me and for you to love me as much as i love you. that is the end of the quote. >> when you read the material that you found, what did you think? >> this was so bizarre. that gives you a mindset of the type of person that we are dealing with. >> then he found a notebook, incredibly, with more words

penned by just hurried. i killed someone, he was older, i loved it, i wish i could do it all the time. if craig does not watch it i'll just leave one day and do it myself. >> pretty scary. >> 17 years old. >> with this is telling us is that she truly was involved in pulling the trigger on it least one of the people there. >> time for another meeting with jessica. >> you have some explaining to do. i'm willing to tell you right now, i am at the end of my rope over this whole thing between you and young gregory. i am giving you one opportunity and one opportunity alone to come completely clean with every bit of your involvement in this. so, you quit dancing around with me because i know the truth. >> greg blue a guy's head of. and he shot a hole through the ladies face. >> there, she had decided.

it was greg fester who killed the stock. but why would she then write that note? >> i killed someone, he was older, i loved it. i wish i could do it all the time. if greg doesn't watch what i'm going to just leave one day and go do it myself. you're in a lot of trouble, young lady. >> i didn't kill this guy, though. i didn't have a gun. how my supposed to kill somebody without a gun? i watched greg do it, i didn't kill anybody. i am not kidding, i didn't kill anybody. i promise you that. >> you know what? you are 17 years old and he was just thrown the rest of your life away. >> she tried to explain the words, changed her story again, confessed to firing one gunshot. but then admitted to something else quite shocking. that she had enjoyed it. >> okay, i'll tell you guys what i did like. i like the adrenaline rush. >> i know you. did >> i didn't like what caused the adrenaline rush. but i liked the adrenaline

rush. >> that's a real shocker for. you don't run into that in this little town too often. >> no, and you don't run into it with a young girl, either. >> ballistic tests soon confirmed that the shell found and reads cigarette box matched spent shells at the murder scene. the murder weapon? stolen from the same wisconsin foremost where reed and fester stole the red pick up truck. blood found on reads clothes and fester shoes matched the victim, wayne stock. and icing on the cake, dna found on the gold ring and marijuana pipe matched only fester and read, both were charged with a first-degree murder. of course, as all this was happening, back in nebraska nobody outside law enforcement nothing. the stock children or certainly in the dark as they struggled to curb the wheel of their new strange lives. >> we just lost both our mom and her dad, to love this one

is horrible but to lose both of them and not have those apparent figures that kept this family going, where do we go? how do we help andy with the farm? how do we let our children have a normal life? >> meanwhile, in their cells in the county jail, matt livers and nick samson knew not -- about these developments. defense attorney susie heard the words that changed everything. >> i got a call saying they have arrested read and fester up in wisconsin, and we got no details on it at all. >> but when they did the lawyers just knew. their clients were innocent. >> everything clicked, he knew exactly what the case was at that point. >> or did they? the attorneys for matt livers and nick sampson thought their clients were in the clear, they had to some more thinking to do.

coming up, because now the question was, or matt and nick in it together with jessica and greg? >> -- you know these people. >> and? >> -- >> maybe he was lying to you? when dateline continues. when dateline continues. there's a chance to let the light shine through. and light tomorrow, with the hope from today. this is a chance to let in the lyte. caplyta is a once-daily pill that is proven to deliver significant relief across bipolar depression. unlike some medicines that only treat bipolar i, caplyta treats both bipolar i and bipolar ii depression. and in clinical trials, movement disorders and weight gain were not common. call your doctor about sudden mood changes, behaviors, or suicidal thoughts. antidepressants may increase these risks in young adults. elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. report fever, confusion,

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miles away and of two teenagers in connection with a savage shotgun murders of wayne and sharmon stop so seeds of doubt in the investigation. this had -- confessed killer matt lifers and the accomplice he named nick sampson. there are arrests couple of weeks earlier -- now these latest arrests of teens jessica read and fester

announcer quietly had many wondering what was the connection among these for alleged killers. >> i call a newspaper reporter i said they arrested two other people. >> sampson's defense attorney and lifers attorney julie bear spread the word themselves to local reporters. >> he called me back about three hours later and he says you won't believe this but i have the rest warrant from wisconsin. and he said do you want to read it? i said, oh yes. >> you've got that from a newspaper. >> i got from a news report. >> didn't come from the prosecutors? >> no i was being sealed i met him at a bar for the price of a budweiser i read the affidavit for the arrest warrant. >> this affidavit -- contain details called from the hours an hours of police interviews with greg foster and jessica reid. >> greg blue guys head off. >> and told the story of the 12 gauge shotgun, the shells, the ring the marijuana pipe. and most tellingly, that dna.

irrefutable-y linking read and fester to the crime scene. suddenly it was all beginning to make sense to this public defenders, remember, they had been skeptical when their new clients professed innocence but ever since then, they had been asking themselves one very simple question where was the evidence? and in their six weeks of looking for it, they had found well, none. after all, lifers girlfriend a woman with an impeccable reputation insisted max was home all night with her, 30 miles away in lincoln, the night of the murders. same with nixon's girlfriend who swore he never left their house that night. and she passed a polygraph. >> if she would've thought that nick had done this, she would've thrown him under the bus in a heartbeat, there was no doubt about that. >> then, the lawyers went looking for evidence of the phone calls, matt described in his confession calls in which he and nick supposedly planned

the murders, and, the records revealed there wasn't one call, not one between matt and nick in the days before the murder. >> that phone communication ever took place, you know, it's simply didn't occur. >> but, couldn't they have used, you know, those kind of phones you can buy that you can trace? >> that's theoretically possible but there's no evidence of that. >> and add to that a ballistic test confirmed the gun found under nick bed was not the murder weapon. the spot on next genes thought to be blood wasn't human blood at all. and now the arrest of these teenagers from wisconsin, to people clearly present at the crime scene but never mentioned idle in any of matt live years hours and hours of police interviews. all of this lead julie baird to head to the jail, to ask matt live first face to face about these alleged accomplices. read and fester. >> present him with what is

being said do you know these people. >> and? >> not a clue. never seen them. spoke to them. >> maybe he was lying to you? >> not a chance. >> it will take another month for copies of those videotaped investigations of reade and fester to inch their way to the defense attorneys, but when they finally did? more surprises. like this comment there in the interrogation of jessica reid. >> i know there was nobody else there, it was just me and greg. that's what happened. i am not kidding. and if no one believes me, then i really want to go back to myself. >> there were, she said, no other killers just her, just greg. and that whole story about meeting nick sampson at the bar, she made it up, she said, after detective showed her a picture of the place and asked or if it looked familiar? for nick simpson's lawyer, the case was now as good as done.

that was a good feeling? >> no, it wasn't, it's a good feeling to know your client is innocent it's a bad feeling to know that your client is still in jail. you can't get him out, the cops are coming up with every other kind of theory they can think of to drag him in. >> oh, yes, there was remember, that blood from the victim wayne stock found in a car connected to nick samson and spotted near the murder scene. so, the prosecutor wasn't about to drop charges against mr. sampson. and he, sitting in jail, had become suicidal. >> nick was in really, really bad shape. and so at that point i'm trying to do psychiatric holding together, it's gonna work out, it's going to work out. >> but would it? the summer dragged by, followed by depressing september. and then, first week of october, the county attorney nathan cox met the press. the murder case against nixon

was dropped. sort of. >> since there is no statue of limitation on murder the state reserves the right to we filed the case in the future. >> hardly the news that the stock expected or wanted to hear. though they handled it with surprising grace. >> it's not for us to judge or to, you know, make a statement on that because we don't know. it was this, and then that, and then it was this, and that. >> imagine being nick samson? on that amazing day. >> it was cloud nine, incredible feeling. >> let's go home. >> after five months of jail, he was free. >> it was incredible. i was finally out. >> but nick samson, even free, was not carefree, not by any means. some things could never be the same again. >> i was constantly looking over my shoulder seeing who was

behind me, you know? >> there was a real genuine itch in your back fear that somebody was going to come after you? >> come after me, come after my family, you know revenge. >> because around this county borough nebraska were a great many people, perhaps the majority who are still quite certain that nick was guilty. after all, his own cousin matt admitted full-out that they both killed those lovely people. >> i was upset, at a loss of why my own cousin would do this to me. >> why would he do it to you? if it wasn't true. >> to make himself look better. use me as a scapegoat. >> nick samson was now off the hook, but what about matt? coming up -- true, he had confessed to the murders, but was there more to the story? a tape surfaces of what he said to investigators. >> i've been just making things

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is what is happening. the department of justice says an investigation of the minneapolis police department uncovered cases of excessive force, a lawful discrimination, and violations of constitutional rights. this 89-page report released friday wraps up a two-year study following the death of george floyd. the man who killed 11 worshippers at the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh, back in 2018, was found guilty of federal hate crimes. the jury will now decide if robert barbers should get the death penalty. for now, back to dateline. >> the autumn moon in nebraska, that troubled a year of 2006, watched over a crop of

confusion. nick sampson struggled with the bitterness, the long jail bound nightmare had planted in his soul. while the children of wayne and sharmon stop tried to make sense of the release of a man who they had been told killed their parents. >> it's a difficult situation, none of us are attorneys, none of us are in law enforcement, you just sit there and take it all in, try to figure out okay, how does this work, why did this happen? >> i hadn't their cousin matt livers confessed, at least he was still in custody, as for those two teams in wisconsin, it wasn't as if the whole case was falling apart. at least, not yet. but if anyone did not feel confused in the october chill it was defense attorneys baer and soucie who were usher as the summer day that both nick samson and matt livers were innocent, despite what matt

told police during the investigation. >> it was just screaming to me false confession, there was every indication in there that there was a problem. >> what made it look like a false confession? >> the reports start coming in, we start learning that none of the details that matt provides are accurate. >> there was something else investigators may have not understood but perhaps should have, matt livers as his friends and family knew very well was slow. he had a low iq,, in a conversation with authority figures under pressure, matt livers was prone to being led. he was gullible. >> there was portion of the questioning where they won't let him finish the sentence, they are belittling him, they are screaming at him, they are threatening him with the death penalty. >> he believed them when they set those things? >> yes very much. oh >> one moment stood out, defense lawyers say when

detectives should've realized just how little matt livers understood what was happening to him. there he is, watch what happens when they ask him to be a man and take responsibility. >> do you consider yourself a man? then stand up! >> he takes them very literally and starts to rise up -- he >> was going to stand up? >> he was going to stand up. >> no, stand up and be a man. okay? >> were those detectives even paying attention to the sort of man they were talking to? maybe not. just after nixon's release, julie bear received a dvd she had never seen before. even though she had asked months earlier as was her right for all the available material. this is a type of math livers in a second interview the day after his confession. once he had a chance to regain his equilibrium. >> the absolute truth is, i was never on the scene. i don't know if nick is the

actual person involved in this, i've been just making things up to satisfy you guys. how long was that second tape withheld? and by whom? >> over five months. >> months and months after because he said those things the day after his confession? >> right. >> i don't know that nick is involved in this because we never -- i mean, you can check my phone records, we never talked on thursday or friday about this. and the only reason i picked him out of the crowd was i heard through the grapevine that his brother's car was used. >> what are you telling me -- what do you think this is going to accomplish now? >> nothing, i mean, i'm just trying to come clean, i mean. >> that was a bombshell. i livers own attorney had not been told by authorities that he recanted his confession. basically, from the official story, his reconditioned

disappears? >> right. >> the sheriff counties office declined their request for interview or explanation as to how this happened, or for that matter, anything else about the case. in december 2006, seven months after the murder, prosecution experts finally agreed to livers confessions were deemed unreliable. >> i went over to the jail and matt was in the cell and i told him, it's over. you are going home. and, you know, probably had the biggest hug from a man i had ever had in life. >> nathan cox was once again left to make the announcement. >> it's not my intention to try to convict someone who is not guilty. that is not why i am in this business. what the issue is whether justice is being done. >> with that, after more than

seven months in jail, matt livers was free. >> i'm innocent, i had nothing to do with this. >> and the doubters in the town all around him vanished for him and the joy of it all. >> i just went crazy, praise the lord! thank you, thank you, praise the lord type thing. >> sarah was there, of course, to take him home. they are now, by the way, mr. and mrs. livers. >> best day of my life. best day besides my wife here, sorry. >> what was it like watching him come out of there? >> awesome. it was a relief. it was great to be able to be with him again, you know? everything. >> it was a wonderful day. >> for why in heaven's name did he confess in the first place? finally, now that he was free, we could ask him. a lot of the audience watching will say we'll come on, nobody

is going to confess to something they didn't do, especially something so horrible as the murder of your own relatives. >> well, they changed their tactics, my reverend was going to be on the frying pan, they were going to be going for the death penalty. >> you are scared? >> yes! tremendously! i thought if i told them what they wanted to hear i could get to go home. >> how did nickname come up? >> they asked me who else was involved, and i started just throwing out names, finally when i said nickname, that's when they seemed happy and believed me. >> the damage was done. although they've patch things up a bit, for years matt and his cousin nick barely spoke. >> i think he just wants to forget it ever happened. people give me [bleep] about it all the time, i try to make a joke out of it, but, it hurts every once in a while. >> what will it take to convince them that you are an

innocent man? >> i don't think anything. >> we're gonna have to live under this cloud for the rest of your life? >> probably. unless i move. but i don't want to move. i love murdaugh. it's my home. >> if it seemed strange to you, than an innocent man could remain so long under suspicion imagine how bizarre it was about to become, as the accused of the accuser out of a disturbing drama will call trading places. coming up -- troubling accusations about one of the lead investigators. so, you wake up one morning and they say you are criminal. when dateline continues. when dateline continues. in the nicu. my tip is, speak into the opening so your baby can hear you better. (announcer) you can quit. call 1-800-quit-now for help getting free medication. (swords clashing) -had enough? -no... arthritis. here. aspercreme arthritis.

full prescription-strength? reduces inflammation? thank the gods. don't thank them too soon. kick pain in the aspercreme. >> and then there are two, in

the county jail in nebraska, that is. only those two teenagers from

wisconsin remained behind bars. charged with murdering wayne and sharmon stock. the dea had let matt livers and nick samson go, drop the charges, which to a suspicious county and stop family was both upsetting and puzzling. after all, had in the head and csi found a blood sample that tied them to the crime? >> did it seem to you that we they were letting two murders out on the scene? >> yes, it seemed like they were just letting them go. but, i guess nobody knew any different. >> in fact some of the investigators remained convinced sampson or livers or both had to be involved somehow. they didn't buy the notion that to drug adult teenagers happened to stumble on the place by pure chance in the dark. and anyway fester said the main shooter the guy who led them to the farm was a local named thomas with whom fester had

been communicating by phone before the murder. but detectives could find no evidence whatsoever against this thomas or anyone else. and meanwhile, jessica recap trying to persuade investigators that nobody else was there, besides her and fester, of course. >> i am not lying though! if i was lying, i would not still be going on about this. >> she had been saying that for months. >> i know what happened and no one will believe me. >> and although she was right about that the detectives did not believe her, they still suspected live years and sampson of some involvement, why? remember way back in the beginning of our story, the speck of evidence that csi she found in a car connected to nick samson spotted near the murder scene? there is the stain, right here on the filtered paper he swept under the dashboard of that car,

a second search of the car, by the way, the first by an officer turned up nothing. this was blood from the murder victim, wayne stock, how did it get there? it was the fbi that started asking that question. none of sampson or livers, -- handled the case, csi chief david cofield himself and after months of digging the fbi concluded co-filled must have planted that swipe of blood himself, phony evidence. to nail down a shaky case. it was a bombshell. david co-full division commander of the csi unit in douglas county nebraska was indicted on for federal charges including falsifying records and violating live hours and sampson civil rights. he pleaded not guilty to all charges, defiantly told reporters he would rather go to prison then resign.

even passed a polygraph and was cleared in an internal investigation. so you wake up one morning and they say you are a criminal? >> it kind of was like that but it was more of a long process, and i didn't do it. it isn't make any sense. >> he blamed the stain on accidental contamination, somehow, he said, blood from the victim wayne stock ended up on the filtered paper probably out of the murder scene, and somehow the kit containing that same filtered paper was what he later used on the car. but he did admit he broke the rules, failed to log the evidence properly even misstated the report. >> i did make a mistake, i didn't follow procedure, and that bothers me in there's no way around that, that was wrong because i am a boss, i'm supposed to set the example -- >> it's concerning? >> it is concerning but it is also the reason i say that this is ridiculous to accuse me of

planting evidence. why would i screw it up? why would i log the evidence in, why would i make mistakes that point the finger at me? >> the federal judge took just an hour to acquit him of all counts but the state of nebraska wasn't satisfied, appointed a special prosecutor and charged him with evidence tampering and this time after a weeklong trial before a judge on what one headlined call a dark day for law enforcement kofoed was found guilty. >> you understand what you were convicted of? >> yes, your honor. >> at sentencing, he stood up and again denied planting any evidence the truth would eventually come out. >> i don't believe this is the last of this case for me i want to continue on and it is nothing personal with you. >> but the judge acknowledging he was moved by letters written by livers and sampson, asking to throw the book at kofoed did

just that. >> the defendant has not acknowledge any wrongdoing he is not up to be remorseful. >> kofoed what served two years and state prison in the federal judge would order him to pay six point $5 million to livers and sampson for violating their civil rights kofoed who maintains his innocence says he was broken. >> you can talk about forgetting your right to report but you don't forget about locking in the evidence. he not only forgot but he falsified a lot of stuff on the report. it is a bad thing to say it is okay to plant evidence just because the guy is guilty, how else do you know who is guilty and who's not guilty? >> no matter who you believe, on the blood issue, there are two people who know in living technicolor exactly what happened to the stock. one of them is about to tell us. coming up -- jessica reid, on the eve of

easter night. >> two people are dead because of me, you know? and i have a very hard time with that. >> i killed someone, he was older, i loved it, i wish i could do it all the time. if greg doesn't watch it, i will leave one day and do it myself. i don't understand it. >> i hate hearing it. >> when dateline continues. teline continues called td, tardive dyskinesia. td can be caused by some mental health meds. and it's unlikely to improve without treatment. i felt like my movements were in the spotlight. ingrezza is a prescription medicine to treat adults with td movements. ingrezza is different. it's the simple, once-daily treatment proven to reduce td that's #1 prescribed. people taking ingrezza can stay on their current dose of most mental health meds. ingrezza 80 mg is proven to reduce td movements in 7 out of 10 people. don't take ingrezza if you're allergic to any of its ingredients. ingrezza may cause serious side effects,

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legal circles, when it comes to cutting a deal for a lot of prison sentence the first criminal to the courthouse winds. in cast counting nebraska, the first to the courthouse was accused killer jessica read. jessica agreed to plead guilty to second degree murder charges in exchange for a testimony against her accomplice greg faster. when it came to him, it seems prosecutors were seeking the death penalty.

they were terrified from -- sanctity of their own bedroom easter sunday night, and shot to death in cold blood. if ever a case warranted the ultimate punishment -- to all the mystifying moves by police and prosecutors add one more, a judge ruled the county attorney actually missed the deadline to announce his intention to seek the death penalty. so first degree murder, for gregg fester, was off the table. >> before long, a new deal was reached, both fester and reed pleaded guilty to the murder of second degree. in march 2007, a year since the killings, they entered a courtroom. you went to the sentencing, i did. >> the first time i saw him, i didn't think i could feel so much anger and sorrow, and sadness. >> i remember thinking i did not could be this mad.

>> in the courtroom jessica reid and greg fester reached apologize to the stock family and the judge handed down their sentences, for fester two consecutive life terms plus another 10 to 24 using a weapon. for weed, the first in the courthouse remember, nor break at all the same sentence, to life terms back to back. no, ever. and for the stock family ever graceful and forgiving people afterwards? a rare flash of anger. >> i hope they live a miserable life because it has turned our lives upside down. they made the torch to go into that house, mom and dad didn't have a choice. my son, who we'll never know his grandma and grandpa doesn't have a choice. >> what really happened that night? what led to wisconsin teenagers

to throw away their lives by so callously killing a nebraska couple everyone loved? perhaps only two people in the world know what happened in that farmhouse and why. and one is now speaking out. >> two people are dead because of me, you know? and i have a very hard time with that still. >> her demeanor, her presence, could easily have been that of a kindergarten teacher. instead, she knows she will die in prison, she says she is haunted by what happened in that farmhouse. >> what was it like to watch those people die? >> hell. >> and when you see it in your head -- >> it makes my heart drop. one thing in this world that i can't go back and fix. >> the truth about that night? here it is says jessica. she investor days without sleep

or real food had been driving aimlessly breaking into homes along the way. in one, she too grabbed a shotgun, a 4:10, so an easter night there they were both armed drugged and wired when they drove down another back road completely at random and greg said stop, and what turned out to be the stock farmhouse, in they went. >> greg was like follow me real quick. so i followed him, and we went upstairs and when i turned around greg had turned on the light in the room, and i saw the guy lay in the bed and i said come on, let's go, let's do something. because there were people there. >> what was the feeling you had as you said that? >> panic. it was like craziness, like, god, what if they were caught? >> but -- >> he turned in and went into that room.

>> the guy rolled out of bed and they were wrestling with the gun and i just was like startled and my gun went off. and i have no idea where the shot went. >> of course -- they tell dateline that whether jessica knows it or not her wild shot may have been the fatal one, that it may have struck struck wayne stock in the head with evidence of the blast obliterated by another shot from greg festers 12 gauge. >> greg shot the guy in the back of the head, and he went back in the room and shot that lady. he ran down the stairs and iran after him, and that ring that they found -- >> yes? >> it flew off then, i didn't know until way later when they showed me a picture of it because i knew i lost the ring but i had no idea where. >> what was it like in the truck on the railway? >> we didn't say anything. i mean, i started crying at one point and greg looked at me and

said don't do that. you know? >> but what about those letters, the words found later in that house with reeds belongings, with that cigarette box, words she wrote? boldly admitting to her crimes. i killed someone, he was older, i loved it. i wish i could do it all the time, if greg doesn't watch it i'm going to just leave one day and do it myself. >> i don't understand it -- >> i hate hearing them because it's kind of like, how everything was portrayed. i hate hearing it. >> because it was how everything was portrayed? >> because i'm not like that. >> were you like that at the time? >> no. that was my way of showing graphic that i was okay with it, because when he told me not to cry it was like, what? i'm not supposed to feel bad about this. how can you have no remorse for

the subtle? >> it's all a black hole of regret now, of course. except she says for one good thing she did, she refused to implicate two men who had nothing to do with the murders. turned down a golden chance to cut herself a better chance with prosecutors by lying and nailing nick and matt. do you kick yourself about that sometimes? >> no. >> why not? >> when i wake up in the morning i can look at myself and be okay. they are where they should be on the streets because they didn't do anything. and i'm where i should be, you know? >> a lot of the members of their family believe that they got away with it, what would you say to those people and their suspicions? >> to stop being suspicious. >> because? >> they weren't there. they had nothing to do with this. >> for the stock family it's just not that simple, can you believe jessica, they ask?

they are driven by common sense instilled by an early age by their murdered parents and so they still keep asking who, why? who did this? >> i would like to know the honest truth about everything. i hope someday we can all sit down, look at each other and say where these two involved, yes or no? definitely? was the blood planted, yes or no, definitely? i don't know if we will ever know those answers but i hope someday we will know. >> matt livers and nick samson, filed lawsuits against the counties in the state of nebraska claiming evidence was fabricated and withheld. without admitting wrongdoing the government settled the cases for two point $6 million. the citizen who went way beyond the call to find the critical evidence to save them, shrugs. as if it was no big deal. >> i heard home side, if it was

somebody in my family i would've wanted the assistance. >> and two defense lawyers still marvel that poor police work almost did their clients and even as the very same cops brilliantly tracked the one piece of evidence that saved them, and found finally identified the real murders. a simple gold ring. >> had they not been able to trace that rain to its owner in wisconsin, i'm really afraid we would have two guys sitting on death row for something that they did not do.

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>> hello, i'm adrian canning. and this is dateline. >> she was a wife, she was a mother. >> she was the most amazing woman i had ever met in my