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tv   Dateline  MSNBC  September 7, 2024 12:00am-2:00am PDT

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not even you pablo. >> that's amazing. >> great story. >> thank you, thank you steve. maya, pablo, thank you for joining me tonight. and for you at home, thank you for being here. i wish you a great night, a great weekend. remember, you can catch the night cap again saturday at 11:00 p.m. eastern. you can watch the revs, go to dinner, come home and watch the night cap. for now, we are signing off. from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up late. see you at the end of monday. it is almost like a marble comic book average villain. he is bright. he's clever. evil as can be. >> reporter: on a beautiful sprawling farm, seeds of danger. >> we heard a big explosion.
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he is just laying on the ground. >> reporter: the loving father of three, the farm's heart and soul killed in a ball of fire. >> they are saying it was an accident. >> our ascension was it was a pipe bomb. >> someone claimed the dead man had reaped what he had sown. >> he had messed with a drug cartel. >> but maybe the truth lay with the owners. >> i wished there weren't so much hate and anger in our family. >> one family member seemingly held a grudge against the victim. >> he always had something mean to say. >> reporter: another came gunning for investigators. >> who chases the police? >> who was hiding the darkest of secrets?
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a blank sheet of paper with a diabolical clue. >> i fell to my knees and started screaming. there is an eden in the american west. a wide flat earthen cornucopia whose bounty daily fills the bellies of millions. whose fathers and mothers employ lee legions of worker. deeply conservative. self-reliant. tough enough to thrive in a dangerous business that takes cuts and brains in central california. too often lives. here among the churning slashing machinery, the high voltage power that helped grow the food of life, death can
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take a man unawares. even on a sleepy summer day. >> we just looked up and there he was. >> reporter: like today, a little boy burst from the field of sunflowers next to brandy's place. >> he was beet red. sweety. he was just covered in mud head to toe. carrying his shoes. >> he had been running barefoot. >> he said he had taken them off. i think he got stuck in the mud. >> reporter: brandy and her kids live in a rambling house next to one of those big farms in calusa county. quiet life. predictable. until saturday afternoon, that little boy appeared like magic from the sunflower field. couldn't have been more than seven years old or so. >> so what did he say? >> he said that his dad was on fire and he needed to call for help.
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>> on fire? how could that be? >> he was serious? >> he was serious. >> once he started to talk, was he making sense? >> yes. he was able to talk the whole time. answer whatever questions i had. >> reporter: brandy called 911 and passed along details from the little boy. >> what is the little boy saying? exactly? that his dad? >> his dad turned something on for the water, i'm guessing an irrigating pump and it blew up like a bomb. >> reporter: as they waited for the fire department, brandy began attending to the boy, fabian ayala. >> gave him the water to drink and rinsed the mud off and checked to see if there were any major injuries. >> were you hurt? >> no. >> not at all? >> uh-uh. >> this is fabian three years later. his family by his side.
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he told us about the last day he spent with his dad. >> he would take me out when he had something to do. >> his dad is a farm manager. a demanding sun up to sun down job. so toques in quality time with his family, he would often take one of these three kids with him. a proud man. always pictured with his chest out. his chin up. on july 16th, 2011, that saturday, roberto kneaded to flood the rice field by turning on a series of high voltage irrigation pumps. fabian by his side in his pickup truck, roberto drove. then stopped, got out. walked to the big electrical box. >> he was going to rice field. we heard a big explosion.
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>> so what did you do? >> i yelled his name out and he wasn't answering. so i wanted to go and try to get help. >> so did you do? you ran? >> yes. >> through what? >> the fields. the flower fields. >> big tall, you are running through them? >> yeah. >> how far did you have to go? >> i don't know. pretty far. >> reporter: far indeed. running, running, nearly two miles. running through the field of golden flowers that closed in about him. >> and i saw the house. and i just went toward it. >> did you remember what you said to him? >> something happened to my dead. he is that way. can you help me? they said yes. they called the police department and they came as quick as they can. >> reporter: when firefighters reached the irrigation canal from which little fabian had run for help, it was obvious there was no life left to save.
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roberto's body must have been on fire just as fabian said it was. why became clear. when they found burn holes about an inch wide near the bottom of his feet. an obvious sign of electrocution. a locker sized electric box used to turn on a high voltage irrigation pump that shorted out and exploded. metal fragments blew out the windows and covered the passenger side of roberto's ford. miracle little fabian wasn't killed too. roberto's wife. >> it is when we received a call from the police department and they said they had fabian and fabian was okay. but they couldn't tell us what happened to roberto. we thought he was in the hospital. >> you didn't know what happened to him. >> we didn't know what had happened. we called the hospital and the hospital didn't know anything
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about what had happened. but an hour, an hour-and-a-half later, they arrived with fabian. >> my brother started screaming he was dead. >> what was it like to see fabian in that situation? >> someone older wouldn't be able to handle it as well as my brother did. >> it was amazing to run all that way. >> i wouldn't have been able to run that much. i wouldn't have known what to do. to stay strong the way he did. i wasn't there. and i couldn't control myself. i don't know how he did it. >> reporter: farm accidents are as old as the wheel. bad things just happen sometimes. still, investigators scoured the area taking photos and collecting every bit of debris they could find whether it looked like it was from an electrical box or not. >> one of our jobs is to
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investigate all industrial accidents. >> reporter: because in calusa county, the sheriff does double duty as the county coroner. >> osha eventually will take over that investigation. >> reporter: it was an autopsy, too. routine of course. >> he told us the victim had been electrocuted. >> reporter: pacific gas and electric sent a team over which confirmed it looked like an accident. and sadly not unique. >> he said well we have seen stuff similar to this. what might happen is the operator will get into the panel with a tool for some reason. and cross the leaves with that tool. and cause a plasma type of explosion. and that could have been what happened here. the other thing is we have never seen anything this big. >> reporter: this is what it
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would have looked like before the explosionment about the size of a high school locker. after the explosion, that box was nowhere to be found. all that was left is a splintered post where it once stood. hard to know what to make of that. coming up, along with the crops growing resentments at the farm. >> robert cold paul he was going to get my share. >> your intention was to fight it? >> oh yeah. it settles things. >> reporter: the investigation continues as explosives experts try to determine what exactly happened to roberto. >> he came across a piece of metal. that piece of metal said to him there was something more going on. >> reporter: the first clue unearthed. when dateline continues. clue unearthed. when dateline continues. out ot and the furnace has been exorcised. another progressive home and auto bundle fully protected from the unexpected. beetlejuice caused quite a ruckus, huh. -jamie! don't say his name. -beetlejuice? saying his name three times is how you summon him. riiight. what if i say other words in between? -does that restart it? -don't overthink it! or what if i broke it up into two parts
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the power of nature. lester holt (voiceover): when people hear the words "fortunes" and "california" in the same sentence, >> reporter: when people hear the words fortune california in the same sentence, their minds generally go to google or
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apple. but just 50 miles from silicon valley is the sacramento san joaquin valley. the valley where fortunes were made long before the arrival of microchips and semiconductors. the farm roberto ayala ran worth tens of millions of dollars going to one extended family. the moores. >> they were very, very private. >> reporter: this is mary. part of the greater moore plan. her family like many of the big farming families around here keeps its wealth private too. >> i knew there was money there. but they didn't flaunt it in anyway and you weren't told about it. you just knew that it was there. >> reporter: she learned that the family fortune was also a tool to keep the descendents in line. >> when i was in high school, my dad said if you get into drugs, i'm kicking you out of my will. >> reporter: though she could have never inherited the land.
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that birthright was passed from father to son, not daughter. the custom started with the moore family patriarch who handed the farm down to his two sons, roger and gus, now in their 70s . each of them had a son born just a year apart. paul and peter who were in line to one day run the farms as partners. cousins, raised more like brothers. here they are in 1978. latter day huck and tom. in 1980 they were on the same high school football team. roger was apaul and peter. >> pete has a reputation in calusa county. his mouth basically has given him a reputation because of the things he has said. >> i'm different from the rest
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of them. >> reporter: calls them as he sees them. >> there is too much money involved. everybody is afraid of what they might lose if they say something, even if it's right. >> reporter: there was one family member pete did have a deep connection with. his grandfather, the family patriarch. >> he is special. >> reporter: he taught peter about farming, tending the orchards. >> he had mackular degeneration so i was his eyes. >> reporter: so when his graph died, pete's life changed suddenly. >> after we buried my grandpa, in short order i was pretty much told they didn't need my help anymore. i don't know whether it was animosity because i had gotten so close to their dad or what it was. >> reporter: after a particularly ugly fight with
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his dad, pete was exiled. moved north of this eden into town. and started a landscaping business. >> my wife and i had nothing to do with the moores. >> reporter: and paul, paul remained the family golden boy. his doting grandmother made sure he never went. paul married a local beauty. this is his wedding video. and he waited for the day when he would reign over the land. but he was never involved in the big questions, when and what to sow, when to reap. those multimillion dollar decisions were left up to roberto alaya who had once been a lowly field hand. but anyone could see roberto was a natural farmer. and gradual, trust and responsibility and the owner's affection came to rest with him. >> paul and i were the boying in the family. we should have been the next in
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line. it wasn't fair. it was a slap in the face. >> reporter: and, to make matters worse, roberto brought his brother eduardo in as his assistant. the cousins, their birthright withheld, fumed. >> paul told me horrible stuff about ed and robert. that robert was saying about me. he said that robert was, robert told paul he was going to get my share of what my dad was going to leave me. >> fair to say your nerving were a little raw about ed and robert? >> oh no. i was mad. i'm going to be honest with you. it was a lot of animosity. >> reporter: so much so, that one day pete jumped into his truck and drove down to the farm and called roberto out. >> i told him, let's go. >> your intention was to fight him? >> oh yeah. it settles things. >> reporter: but roberto politely declined. he had a farm to run. and the next time peter heard alaya, it was that he was dead.
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>> what did you think? >> i was told it was an accident. >> reporter: which is certainly what it was. at least according to the experts from pg&e. but just to be sure, the detective called explosives experts from a neighboring county. >> just to ask them, have you ever heard of an electrical panel like this blowing up? and they hadn't. and they came out to look at what we had. and formed the opinion it was possibly an explosive device. they in turn called atf and fbi. >> reporter: to some, that felt like jumping the gun. last thing he wanted was the big city feds treating him like a country cop crying wolf. >> and now i have atf and fbi showing up. i was a little overwhelmed. i was a little concerned that maybe we were calling these big agencies for help. and really what we have is an accident. we had a bomb guy saying it was
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a bomb. we are not 100% convinced it is a bomb yet. >> reporter: then three days after the explosion. >> we got a visit from paul moore. >> reporter: paul, pete's beloved cousin. the handsome golden boy of the pair cold detectives he found something. something that shouldn't have been there. >> he came across a piece of metal he found. looked like galvanized iron. and that piece of metal said to him there was something more going on. >> did he have any ideas? >> he said his cousin pete made threats toward the victim. and the time leading up to the incident. >> reporter: and there was more. texts received from the very rice field where roberto was killed. coming up, the focus shifts from the nuts and bolts of electrical explosions to an
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explosive personality. >> he is always the one that had something to say. he always hated him. that was the only person i could think of. >> why did you hate him? >> he was arrogant. >> pete had a reputation for being a real hot head. without hard any any effort, he could upset you. >> when dateline continues. ups. >> when dateline continues. how do i love thee? ...let me count the ways. ♪ love can get a little messy... good thing there's resolve. love the love. resolve the mess. what can you do with sensitive skin? ( ♪♪ ) cetaphil moisturizing lotion hydrates for a full 48 hours.
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keith morrison (voiceover): district attorney john pointer's one of colusa's most popular raconteurs. by the way, i changed that to 8:45 or 6. keith morrison (voiceover): he's been in office nearly 30 years, >> etreporter: ondistrict attor john pointer. in an office nearly 30 years, knows where the skeletons are buried and knows just about every prominent family in the county. including the moores. >> i said they were odd. that would have been a pretty good way of summarizing it. >> odd? >> yes. >> odd how? >> you don't hear a lot about a lot of families you you would hear about the moore family.
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>> because they complained? >> they complained in a way that other people found out about it. >> reporter: and the two cousins? >> pete i have known since i came here. pete had a reputation as a hot head. he had a lot of mouth. without hardly an effort. pete could upset you. >> so when paul came to the authorities and said i think pete is responsible for this, did the suspicion seem plausible? >> yes it did. we knew pete didn't get along with his family. we knew pet had a hot head and access to the property. >> reporter: and for paul to denounce peter who was like his brother? sad perhaps. but made sense to the da's office who signed off on the warrant to have pete's house searched. it was just a few blocks away. >> went out to grab a bite to eat. when we came home, we saw them searching the house. >> reporter: mary ellen is
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peter moore's wife. >> we couldn't believe it. >> i thought what is he doing in our house? >> i said what the is going on here. two cops grabbed me. >> reporter: mary ellen and peter asked investigators what was going on. they were handed the search warrant saying investigators were looking for anything connected to bomb making. >> i said how do you know it was a bomb? we don't know it was a bomb. >> that was the first you heard of such a thing? >> we thought it was an accident. >> did they seem to be accusing you? >> yes. >> both of you? >> yes. >> were you frightened? >> oh yes. >> what were you afraid of? >> that they thought we did it. >> reporter: around calusa, the raid on peter's house just days after roberto's death was big news. a neighbor began sending out realtime updates on facebook. >> there was a parade of cars
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driving around the whole neighborhood. >> as these detectives were asking questions? >> as they were going through my house. >> and when they left? >> they took our computers and our cell phones. nobody could call us. >> and the whole neighborhood was watching this? >> yes. >> reporter: so the search, said the detective, didn't yield a thing. >> we didn't find anything as far as bomb making materials and instructions on bombs. even anything remotely close to that. gun powder or anything like that. >> so pete was doing something, he wasn't doing it at his house? >> not that we could find evidence of. >> he denied he had anything to do with it? >> yes. >> reporter: so pete couldn't and didn't try to deny his hatred for roberto. >> why did you hate him? >> he is arrogant. he flaunted stuff in my face. >> reporter: as if this were some biblical epic, stolen his birthright. a lot of people around town
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knew about that. when they heard peter moore' house was being searched. >> i thought it was pete all along. >> why? >> he was always the one that had something new to say. he was always the one that hated him. >> reporter: there was a lot of town talk going on. goes up. a week after his house was searched, pete got a visit from a friend who had leader some things. >> get in your car, go to sacramento. get an attorney, pete. they are coming after you. you are the number one suspect. coming up. >> i didn't know what to think. i had never seen anything like that before in my career except on something similar on tv. >> reporter: though pete is in the cross hairs, investigators are about to learn that their victim may have made a very
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different and deadly enemy. >> the letter suggested that roberto had messed with a drug cartel. >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues. with dupixent, show off your clearer skin and less itch. because you have plenty of reasons to show off your skin. with dupixent, the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists, you can stay ahead of your eczema. it helps block a key source of inflammation inside the body that can cause eczema to help heal your skin from within. many adults saw 90% clearer skin, some even achieved long-lasting clearer skin and fast itch relief after first dose. serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems such as eye pain or vision changes including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor.
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i'm richard with a news update. the boeing starliner landing safely in white sands, new mexico. it was supposed to bring home two astronauts but they will remain on board the international space station until february. and the freshman suspected of killing two students and teachers at a georgia high school will face murder charges for each of the victims. his father colin gray is also facing charges of involuntary manslaughter and second degree murder. for now, back to dateline.
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>> reporter: the bureau of tobacco and firearms, solving puzzles. pieces of this and that. all that were left around roberto ayala's body the day of the explosion. there's a story in there somewhere, thought the atf. agent brian parker was assigned to find out what it was. >> what does this tell you overall? >> what it tells us is there was an incredible amount of force in the explosion. >> reporter: most of these pieces were once part of the electrical box. >> you have washers, different types of hardware in here. screws, nuts. wire. >> reporter: other pieces are just trash. a few fragments, just a handful. looks like they were pieces from a different puzzle. odd. >> cells from a nine volt battery. steel ripped apart. >> reporter: he set off these misfit bits and pieces to the crime lab for analysis. >> to determine whether or not there was explosive residue present on some of the fragments that were collected
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out at the scene. >> like gun powder or gasoline? >> correct. >> reporter: then there was this. discovered on the fifth day of the investigation. the panel box door found 160 feet from the site of the explosion. >> probably weighs 10 to 20 pounds. this would be the bottom of it. >> reporter: the forensic scientists continued their battery of tests. dna. >> did he go aground? did he leave? what did he do? >> we were hearing people saying they thought pete did it. >> reporter: didn't make a secret of it either said mary ellen for them or the
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neighbors. >> they thought we were guilty. >> after they raided my house, i spent days crying. days and days. i would be at work and just crying because you don't know what's going on. you don't know who to trust. >> how much were you watched? >> i would wake up to people outside my house. they watched me get up every day. go put a shirt on when everybody thinks you're a murderer. >> reporter: even some of pete's own relatives seemed convinced of that. his sister mary stuck by him. >> i'm amazed at how much talking goes on there with no actual evidence. a lot of gossip and people in your business. >> reporter: mary placed a call to one of the investigators, told them they were going after the wrong guy. >> he was extremely rude. and said you and your family just need to accept it. your brother did this. i just broke down in tears. i thought they didn't like him as a person.
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and i think they just, to me, my opinion was they wanted it to be him. >> reporter: four weeks into the investigation, peter moore was not just the top suspect. he was the only suspect. they had no physical evidence that a murder had occurred but they continued to watch and wait as the weeks slipped by. then a month after the explosion, there was news from the atf crime lab. they had found something. >> there was the presence of explosive residue on the metal fragments we submitted. >> so it was a bomb. a murder. then the very next day. >> i'm sitting in my office talking about what we are going to do next. and the civil deputy walks in. a big manila envelope. it says calusa sheriff's office. and in the upper left hand corner it says ayala case.
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and eight stamps on it. and it was pretty light. so it was way too much postage. >> reporter: because inside was just a single sheet of paper. and open letter to the cops. >> what did that letter say? >> basically it was claiming responsibility for the bombing. >> reporter: the letter full of misspellings and bad grammar had been written on a label maker and photo copied. the owner claimed to be a military trained contract killer who had been hired to kill roberto over a mexico deal gone wrong. >> and it was ms13 behind it. >> what the heck is ms13? >> it is a violent el salvadorian criminal street gang. >> and roberto was supposed to be a target of this group? >> the letter implied that roberto had messed with a drug cartel. and that ms13 had been contracted. >> reporter: the author of the
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letter taunted the detectives. writing that lab results would find military grade powder but no dna. which was true so far. but the point of the letter wrote this author was a warning. roberto's brother eduardo was next on the hit list. the writer said he had turned down the job to kill eduardo. but a second assassin would soon be on his way. >> did you think it was a hoax? it was real? >> i didn't know what to think. i had never seen anything like that before in my career except on something similar on tv. >> reporter: it was all too obvious. who wrote it had inside knowledge. because nobody besides the cops knew what the atf had discovered. >> we hadn't told anybody it was a bomb. so for somebody to just write a letter claiming responsibility for a bombing, that lended some credence to the fact the author of that letter was the real
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thing. >> reporter: weird, all too weird. the detectives went home for the weekend to digest what they haread and seen. and then? monday morning, the phone rang. 7:00 a.m. >> we got another one of those letters. i came to work. there's a second letter on my desk. this one was slightly smaller manila envelope. but con figured the same way. label maker address r. way too much postage again. >> huh. >> what was inside that one? >> it was a diagram of a bomb. coming up, invitation from a killer. >> letter said if you have any questions, place an ad in the sacramento bee. >> reporter: and another victim in the cross hairs? >> keeping that stuff confidential was important to the integrity. we gave him as strong a warning
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as we could. >> reporter: when dateline continues. >> reporter: when dateline continues. mptoms kept me out of the picture. with skyrizi, feel significant symptom relief at 4 weeks. many people were in remission at 12 weeks, 1 year, and even at 2 years. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to. liver problems may occur in crohn's disease. ask your gastroenterologist about skyrizi. ♪ control is everything to me ♪ abbvie could help you save.
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keith morrison (voiceover): on august 15, 2011, 30 days after roberto ayala's death, investigators received in the mail this hand-drawn picture of a bomb. >> reporter: 30 days after roberto ayala's death. investigators received this hand drawn picture of a bomb. >> what did you think when you saw that diagram? >> shock. >> we were amazed. absolutely amazed. i had never seen anything like that before. >> reporter: the device as shown in the diagram was a two- inch pipe bomb placed next to a one liter soda bottle full of gasoline spray painted black. a large bolt tied off with a fishing line and acting as a drop away. would fall on a rat trap causing it to strike a firing pin. kind of like a rube goldberg device. the bomb was designed to go off when roberto ayala opened the door of the electrical box. >> could have been almost anything. >> reporter: now suddenly,
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agent parker saw how they all fit. those confusing pits and bees he had been pouring over the past month. >> it was like someone had sent us the cover of the puzzle box. >> reporter: now they matched the bits to the diagram. >> first thing i looked for was this bolt and there it was. >> the thing that made it exceptionally clear was the fact the bolt still had some fishing string attached just underneath the head of the bolt. which is how it was depicted in the diagram. >> so it would have been hanging from that string. >> correct. >> as a weight. >> yeah. that was very clear that bolt was in fact part of our device that was described in the letters. >> reporter: and there were fragments of a plastic soda bottle. black paint clinging to them just like the diagram. >> there was a spring that was similar to a rat trap spring. there was gasoline on the
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victim's clothing. >> so if you found the writer of the letters you found your killer? >> that was our opinion. yes. >> reporter: along with the diagram was a second letter. in which the bomber repeated his earlier claim he was a reluctant assassin. after a career of killing, he wrote, i wanted to save a life before i take my life. the bomber repeated his warning. roberto's brother eduardo was next. in fact, the whole ayala family was in mortal danger. >> i wanted to make sure you get this letter and have time to help these guys. >> so it was sent as if i have been assigned to do something. i don't want to happen. i want you guys to prevent it. >> that was the gist of the letter. >> did you warn ed? >> not exactly. there were things in the investigation we could not release. information about the letters we could not release. >> but the man's life might be
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in danger. >> we did talk to ed. we gave him as strong a warning as we could without going into specific detail. >> one of those details was that the killer had been given a deadline. >> i was given eight weeks to do this job and it will be reassigned in five weeks. i wanted to give you guys time to help these guys. >> so you had some time. >> maybe. >> they told me that had received a letter and the letter had mentioned me. >> reporter: roberto's brother eduardo. >> be careful. watch yourself. >> reporter: it wasn't just eduardo in the cross hairs. whoever was now driving roberto's now repaired pickup
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truck is in great danger. and who was that person? roberto's son jesus. the threat against the ayalas was looking very real. >> it was real. it didn't just look real, it was real. a lot of sleepless nights. >> reporter: this ex-marine not only had a farm to run, but a murder to solve. and now two families to protect. >> take care of my brother's family. take care of my family. look out for myself. look over your shoulder. >> reporter: the first thing eduardo did was hide the pickup truck. but now with the truck out of sight, did the killer or killers find a different or better place for a bomb? >> all i could do was just think. and think and run things through my mind. >> it is somebody sneaky and
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violent enough to plant a bomb to kill somebody and he did it to one person. there is nothing that will stop him from doing it to somebody else. >> reporter: in this second letter, the bomber left open one possible line of communication. >> if you have any questions, place an ad in the sacramento bee, august 21st issue. help wanted. make sure it's the last ad. >> reporter: so they placed this classified ad. and waited. for a killer to call. coming up, a son's all too close call with death. >> had an argument that morning. i didn't get to tag along. >> you might otherwise have been? >> and another member of a moore dynasty comes forward with a fresh piece of evidence. would an answering machine message finally solve the question about a motive for murder?
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when dateline continues. murder when dateline continues. rsv can severely affect the lungs and lower airways. but i'm protected with arexvy. arexvy is a vaccine used to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. rsv can be serious for those over 60, including those with asthma, diabetes, copd and certain other conditions. but i'm protected. arexvy is proven to be over 82% effective in preventing lower respiratory disease from rsv and over 94% effective in those with these health conditions. (♪♪) arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint pain. arexvy is number one in rsv vaccine shots. rsv? make it arexvy.
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of 7 moisturizers and 3 vitamins. keith morrison (voiceover): who ever heard of such a thing? letters from a purported killer, plus a diagram of what certainly looked like the actual bomb that killed roberto ayala. was it real, a ruse, a lucky guess? if it was for real, who sent it? was it from the lead suspect, peter moore, or a hitman as the letter claimed? or was it from somebody who wasn't even on detective song's radar? wherever it was, five weeks into the case it was about the only lead investigators had. so they played along with the guy, placed an ad as requested in the sacramento bee. and sure enough, somebody responded. cops rushed to see him, perhaps arrest him. he was pretty surprised when he got a visit.
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keith morrison (voiceover): false alarm. it was just an unlucky guy looking for a job. the killer, though? the killer never called. so this whole ms13 thing, this mexico deal gone wrong, was just some sort of game the real bomber was playing. trouble was, nobody knew the rules or the purpose, or where the game might end. but more than one way to find a guy brazen enough to send that material to the cops. brian parker: we had the letters that we wanted to get analyzed. we wanted fingerprints, we wanted dna. lester holt (voiceover): but the letters and envelopes came back clean, just as the bomber said they would. what was going on? to investigators, one theory seemed the least likely-- that roberto was mixed up with a drug gang, ms13. the ayala's are a classic bootstrap story, roberto a very religious man who worked his way up from field hand to farm manager, oversaw that day to day operations of a multimillion dollar spread.
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he knew the land. he knew the machines that worked it. he was utterly committed to that work. what did working that farm mean to your dad? that was everything. that was our hole-- even our lives and his life, our whole life revolved around it. we were always there as growing up. keith morrison: first jobs as kids, right? yeah? - yeah. learned how to drive on the farm. learned how to pretty much do everything on the farm. tell me about your dad. what kind of a guy was he? he was a hard worker. someone to look up to. we all admired him. lester holt (voiceover): and it did not go unnoticed on the moore farm. over the years, owners roger and gus came to rely a great deal on roberto. over the years owners roger and gus came to rely a great deal on roberto. they treated him more like a- and-a-halved son then just an
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employee. >> most important thing. it all revolved around this. didn't have much. but, everywhere he went, we went to. >> he doesn't just wants to keep everybody together. >> reporter: latino culture celebrated a coming of age ritual called the quincinera. when the girl turns 15. so when she turned 15. >> i was the only girl. so he did everything he could er to make that day the best. >> so what do you do? >> you have to have your father daughter dance. you feel like you are the only person that exists at that moment. you just feel important. l you really do feel like the princess. >> probably won't ever forget that. >> reporter: of course for
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teenagers there f is another ri of passage. butting heads with parents which that last morning may have perchance saved jesus' life. >> we went to work together. for some reason, we had an argument that morning. so i didn't get to tag along with the ride that day. >> might you have otherwise? >> i might hthave been the one get off. >> why would anyone warrant to hurt him? >> i can't find a reason why anyone would want to kill him. >> reporter: and this bomber, whoever it might be came very close to also murdering fabian. >> reporter: he found fabian's plight to be particularly heartbreaking. >> i couldn't imagine being seven years old, seeing my dad blown up. >> and running all that way. >> people don't understand. it was maybe a couple of miles as the crow flies but to run through what we call calusa
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mud, the rice fields, he had to take his shoes off. he is covered with mud. you can hardly walk through it. and for him to run all that way, it was amazing. i remembered asking him if he knew what 911 was and he told me and was right. and i asked if his dad had a cell phone. he said yes. he said why didn't you call for help? and he is reaching out like this. and he said i can't. it is in his pocket and he is on fire. yeah. that stays with you. >> reporter: and now these taunting letters from roberto's killer almost taking prideful delight in how he killed the man and almost murdered the boy. who could it be? who would do such a thing? and why? then, four days after the diagram showed up, one of the alpha males of the moore clan walked in the front door. roger moore. paul's dad.
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and like his son, wanted to help catch the killer. and told the detectives he had important evidence to share. it was an audio tape. answering machine messages his nephew pete left on his phone. coming up, investigators discover a brand new suspect. >> we may have somebody else to look at. >> reporter: but who are the hunters? and who are the hunted? >> and, all of a sudden the tire went flat. reporter: as police go after more evidence, someone comes after them. >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues.
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[theme music] keith morrison (voiceover): roberto ayala, manager of a multimillion-dollar california farm owned by the powerful moore family, had been killed by a complicated homemade bomb. the prime suspect? pete moore, famously hotheaded, angry, because he believed his father might have
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given his inheritance to ayala. pete's uncle, roger moore, believed an audio tape from his answering machine could help detectives, who still didn't have enough evidence to make an arrest. the voice on the tape? none other than roger's nephew, pete. keith morrison (voiceover): pete wanted to talk about having been disinherited. keith morrison (voiceover): the phone messages contained nothing directly incriminating. but after being diverted by those strange letters about assassins and a drug gang, the investigation was now back to where it started, that peter moore was the prime suspect. investigation is now back to where it started.
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just as all eyes were focused in one particular direction, the very next day, the phone rang. six weeks into the investigation, text and diagram, fragments pointing in wildly different directions. a drug cartel or a crazed assassin. and now they had another lead to work on. >> somebody made an anonymous call to the sheriff's department and the call basically stated, you need to be looking at all. >> paul not peter. >> paul not peter. >> is a lot of produce that comes out of colusa county, cal. everybody seems to know just about everybody here. but it would be anonymous tipster called the sheriff's office. turned out he was at
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anonymous at all. the detective he took the call recognized the voice and phoned him right back. >> he says, you need to come in and talk to us. >> the caller, as it turned out, was this man -- roger moore. a multi-million-dollar spread of his own and a passion for warbirds. this is a video from their wedding night. a messy divorce a few years later. >> they came into our office. >> susan moore is dave's wife. >> the first thing they told us was the wiretapping in the. >> wiretapping ? >> yes. >> tapped her phone to spy on negotiations, and sure enough, here are the core documents. in 1997, he was arrested on
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four counts of tapping both his wife and in-laws bones. he pleaded guilty to eavesdropping, a felony. the other charges were dropped, and paul served no jail time. the wiretapping story was just a prologue to what they were really there to talk about. give a reason why paul would want to kill roberto, other than they felt paul just had the kind of personality to do something like that, but dave and susan couldn't really give a reason why paul would want to kill roberto, other they felt that paul just had a kind of personality to do that. but pete didn't.
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keith morrison (voiceover): but peter had actually threatened roberto, wanted to fight him. and as far as anybody knew, paul had >> but peter had actually threatened roberto, wanted to fight him. and as far as anybody new, paul had never done anything about that. nevertheless, based on this new information by david and susan moore, detectives asked paul to come in for another meeting, which he did quite willingly. took time off on a sunday afternoon. the detective song asked paul directly. d paul dir. then he said he just grew up and now wanted to help in any way he could, even if it meant informing committed felonies, in fact. and he said he just grew up and wanted to help in any way he could, even if it meant in forming on his beloved cousin, peter. peter.
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keith morrison (voiceover): one thing though, paul, like his second cousin dave, didn't think that pete was capable of making that bomb. >> one thing, though, paul, like a second cousin dave, didn't think that pete was capable of making that bomb. somebody must have helped him. >> i just don't think pete has a technical capability to do it. it. keith morrison (voiceover): but remember, paul's ex in-laws told detective salm that paul was more likely >> but remember -- paul's ex-in- laws will detective psalm that paul was more likely the guilty party. so now, the detective turned the tables a little and suggested maybe it was he, paul, who was jealous of
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roberto. keith morrison (voiceover): detective salm pressed paul about his past. >> detective salm pressed paul about his past. his past. keith morrison: so this must have put a whole different complexion on paul. it did. having thought for some time that maybe peter was your guy, >> so this must have put a whole different complexion on paul. >> it did. >> having thought for some time that peter was work i. what was that like?
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>> it is possible we might have somebody else to look at. >> the attached gps trackers to both peter and paul's vehicles, which produced precisely nothing. or weeks went by. aware that his family could be the killer's next target, he lay awake at night, thinking. >> i would imagine peter trying to build this bomb. had to do it on a work wrench, obviously. but he's got the shakes. so i think about that. pity, or did he salve somebody else do it for you? i think the same thing about paul. i work side-by-side with the guy. i could see he was smart. a super smart guy. >> by the time the rice crop came in the first couple of weeks of october, the whole case had gone into a kind of
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stall. agent brian parker was particularly frustrated. while the door on the electrical panel had been recovered, the box itself with a bomb had been placed was still missing. >> the most logical place where the remains of that panel was, was in the river that was directly behind where the explosion occurred. >> so they called in and the iodide team, which spent days mucking through the bottom of the canal next with a bomb had gone off. and parker, who had been wandering the search, had a strange incident as he is leaving one day. >> all of a sudden, the tire went flat. >> this is what flat the tire. they told me bike. >> it was composed of the harvester cycle and we found another one of the spikes. >> almost like a challenge to us. here i am, doing this to you now. come find me. basically, they are coming after the cops. >> coming up. investigators may
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be able to fight back with new ammunition as they finally turnup scientific evidence on one of the letters the killer sent. >> there was a dna profile on the back of one of the stamps i was affixed to the envelope. >> when dateline continues. ced. our ground-breaking plug-in that pulses scent for staying power, up to 60 days. plus a fragrance boost button. our noses won't be ignored again. clogged gutters can cause big problems fast. until now. call 833-leaffilter today for your free gutter inspection. i've had terrible flooding problems on my porch. now i understand why. right now leaffilter is offering a free inspection, on your schedule. leaffilter is a permanent gutter solution, so you never have to worry about costly damage from clogged gutters again. call us today and schedule your free inspection. to schedule your free inspection, cal swiffer duster trapsay or vis 4x more dust.com.
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- [narrator] life with ear ringing sounded like a constant train whistle i couldn't escape. then i started taking lipo flavonoid. with 60 years of clinical experience, it's the number one doctor recommended brand for ear ringing. and now i'm finally free. take back control with lipo flavonoid. keith morrison (voiceover): three months after the bombing, the fbi dive team found the electrical box in which the bomb had been placed.
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but after months of sitting in water and mud, >> three months after the bomb,o the fbi dive team found the electrical box. in which the bomb had been placed. but after months of sitting in water and mud, there is no trace of dna or fingerprints. the only story this metal told was -- >> this case is going nowhere. >> now, with little hope of finding that key piece of evidence that would good the place away, the detectives tried the good old-fashioned tool -- the shoe leather and tire trick. around-the-clock surveillance of peter and paul moore, aided by tracking devices with a particularly helpful app. >> they are called geo fences. i put a pretty big geo fence around where i live, around the sheriff's department. >> protection he felt he needed after somebody targeted law enforced it with those bikes in the road. >> the vehicle or the gps monitor travels into those locations -- >> and edition, detective salm
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would routinely check in for the whereabouts of peter and paul. on the morning of thanksgiving day, more than four days after the bombing, tom turned on his computer defined the gps tracker on paul morse truck. >> it had gone dead. this was also the type of gps that you can call, just like calling on a cell phone, and wake it up, because they go to sleep when you're not moving. and where are you? we could get a response from it. >> the device may have just died, or been found. so salm got into his car with his partner and drove to paul's house to see if the truck was there. >> we got to his house and i look at the kitchen window, and he is staring at me. okay. >> hoping paul hadn't recognized him, detective salm hit the road. >> is a leaving town, look in the rearview mirror, and there he is following me.
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i speed up, he speeds up. i'm up to about 85 and he is still gaining on me. he pulls in the opposing lane, i slam on the brakes and he keeps going. we paste him, i lose pace of him on 95. i call him and and chp was actually able to get a stop on him. >> what was that all about? the mac i don't know. who chases the police? >> so by now, your suspicions were ratcheting up quite a bit, i think. you worry about your own safety? >> at parts of the investigation, there were concerns for my own safety. you are dealing with a person who is violent enough to plant a bomb. >> what was that person paul moore? paul had a criminal history, to be sure, but was he a killer? were certain things about paul's past detective salm wasn't able to share with us for reasons we will explain later. we discovered in old court records a saga of smart, expensive lawyering dealing with misdeeds that go long
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beyond tapping and ex-wife's cell phone. in 1997, paul was arrested after an incident in san francisco. an ugly accusation. assault with a deadly weapon, tried to run his alleged victim over with his pickup truck. charges that could put paul in prison for a decade or more. he spent three years driving between this place here in colusa and san francisco engaged in a series of court removers. the result? paul simply got probation after pleading no contest to insult assault with attempt to commit -- with the offense. the other charges were dropped. but the conviction put paul on california's offender list, searchable by county. he was -- near santa cruz. however, as part of the
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original plea deal, his attempt conviction was dropped and vacated in 2007, seven years later. he pleaded not guilty. which meant paul was no longer a registered sex offender and the prodigal son was welcomed home. that part of his past, carefully guarded secret to most of the folks here in colusa county. but pete's past was not a secret. every new he didn't like roberto , and everybody knew he was a cessna act. >> around town, good your people were whispering? >> pete, pete, pete. >> would not paul. >> five months into the investigation, there was news of a sort for one of the crime labs. and mail leg hair was found under a label in one of the
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envelopes and the dna came back matching nobody. no one in the moore family or everyone in the database, anyway. out of been planted there to drop investigators? then, one of these envelopes finally gave up what appeared to be a real clue. >> there is a dna profile from fingerprint ridge detail on the back of one of the stamps that was affixed to the envelope, that one of the letters was sent in. >> what came back in these dna test? >> the contributor of the dna from the fingerprint material was similar to paul moore. >> is closed, right? not this time. this time, there was a but. >> similar to paul moore. but it wasn't a match. >> the dna sample so minute that forensic scientists were unable to build a full genetic sequence.
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meaning the dna may have come from paul moore, but the scientist couldn't say it was a 100% match. and while the dna didn't match anyone else in the moore family, including peter, the fact that paul couldn't be excluded was nothing that would hold up in court. >> it was beyond frustrating to hear that we have an almost match, but we can't say for sure. >> still, it did give them an idea. give you one shot at it. might work. >> coming up. >> that got my attention right away. >> exciting doesn't begin to describe. >> this is the smoking gun. >> a killer seemingly revealed by a blank sheet of paper. >> i got chills going down the back of my neck. this is not happening. >> when dateline continues. ne arexvy is a vaccine used to prevent
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lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. rsv can be serious for those over 60, including those with asthma, diabetes, copd and certain other conditions. but i'm protected. arexvy is proven to be over 82% effective in preventing lower respiratory disease from rsv and over 94% effective in those with these health conditions. (♪♪) arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint pain. arexvy is number one in rsv vaccine shots. rsv? make it arexvy.
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keith morrison (voiceover): the dna evidence that came back as a partial match to paul moore was not enough to get him charged with roberto ayala's murder, far from it. >> the dna evidence it came back as a partial match to paul moore was not enough to get them charged with roberto's murder. far from it. but it was enough to get some people in town whispering. rumors. >> rumors move fast. >> eduardo heard those rumors and heard that maybe paul had something to do with roberto's murder, which placed eduardo in the situation of working side
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by side with the man who may have murdered his brother. >> i look at them just like i'm talking to you. and in the back of my mind, and thinking -- he really did it. >> while the dna result wasn't strong enough to hold up in court, it was significant enough to get a warrant to search paul's home. for whatever that was worth, five long months after the bombing. >> he had done some major cleaning of his house. so we had actually had a conversation about this. >> like a, what's the point conversation? >> that was one of the things that was talked about, and the decision was made, and i didn't want to leave it untouched. >> what your expectations were not that high. >> no, they weren't. >> detective salm wanted to make sure that they did a thorough search. so he cobbled together a team of investigators from various law enforcement agencies.
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>> before we served the search warrants, we went there briefly. >> he actually showed us a diagram of the bomb. that is pretty much what we were instructed to look for. >> anything related to that. >> exactly. anything related to mom making. >> arrived unannounced, of course. paul waited out side while each investigator took a piece of the house, and in they went. >> i found some of the law envelopes, copier, and also a printer. >> the problem was, paul's home, owned by the moore family, doubled as an office. there were copiers and envelopes . they were expected to be there. >> what were you thinking? >> we really want that one, really good piece of physical evidence. >> which so far, that wasn't it. >> no.
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>> said specifically what did you find? >> we took his cell phones. there were two cell phones in the car. >> detective ruiz was assigned to the dining room, which clearly doubled as an office. >> what did you see? >> i saw a lot of paperwork. files everywhere on that table. >> groups full of paper. >> yes. >> the sun was just breaking over the horizon. long rays of light angle to the blinds. the detective was poking through all those papers and office supplies, but the curious thing caught his eye. it was the way that almost horizontal beam of light glanced off a blank sheet of paper. >> i noticed that the sheet of paper at several impressions on it. >> like some writing on it? >> yes. when you write something and it goes through to the next sheet down. that got my attention right away.
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i picked it up, and it was one of those moments where i was like, i turned it at different angles, the paper boat in half. i got chills going down the back of my neck, or just standing up. no way, this is not happening right now. one of their officers that was helping us looked at me and goes, what are you looking at? it was just a blank sheet of paper. and i was like, you are not going to believe this. you need to go get the detective, now. he is holding this white piece of paper in his hands, and is kind of got it bent a little bit, and he's like, look at this. and immediately, i looked at this and i am going -- oh, my god. what he is holding in his hand is an indented writing copy of the diagram that we received in the mail. >> this is the sheet of paper the detective found. you can see the indentations in the middle of the page about a third of the way down. and here is that same sheet of
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paper enhanced by the atf crime lab. and here is the original bond diagram mailed to investigators back in august. >> the most amazing thing in the world. this is the smoking gun. >> unbelievable. couldn't believe it. exciting doesn't begin to describe. elated, maybe. >> then what happened? >> i went out and arrested paul moore. >> coming up. pete moore seems to be in the clear, but he has yet another shock and store. >> there is no scale for this. this changes you forever. >> when dateline continues. co it can progress faster than you think. when ga threatens your eyes, take a stand. slow ga with syfovre. syfovre is an eye injection that was proven to slow damaging lesion growth over 2 years with increasing effect over time. it's the only fda-approved treatment to slow ga
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>> i am richard with a news update. donald trump's sentencing for 34 counts related to falsifying records is postponed until november 26th, after the election. the second related to his new
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york cost money case was originally scheduled for november 18th. former vice president cheney officially endorsed kamala harris in the 2024 election. cheney emphasized putting country over partisanship to defend our country's constitution from the dangers of another trump presidency, in his words. for now, back to dateline. arrested for the killing of roberto ayala? >> was dumbstruck. paul moore, arrested for the killing of roberto ayala? you even knew he was a suspect. mary, paul's cousin and pete's sister got a barrage of text at work. >> it was bittersweet. there was a part of me that was relieved it was over for pete, or that he wasn't, you know, mixed in with it. and at the same time, i was sad, because it was my cousin that we grew up with, you know? it was part of my family.
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>> my youngest sister, mary, called me on the phone and said, they just arrested paul for the murder of robert ayala. i was in the middle of the parking lot, and i just fell to my knees and started screaming. >> with human nature is a funny thing. suspicion, once embedded, is remarkably resistant to evidence and might disprove it. when moe paul moore was arrested and charged, his cousin peter began to experience that particular phenomenon quite peculiarly. around town, people seemed to still believe that pete was the murderer. ironic, that for all his luster, pete who had never been in trouble with the law, runs his own business, who has been a good father and over the years has taken in wayward teens to give them a better start. kids like nick becker. >> he didn't ask for any money in return.
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he fed me, clothed me, gave me a car to drive, and now, i look at pete like a dad. anybody that has anything bad to say about heat didn't really take the time to get to know him, because he was a really good, loving person. a huge heart. we need more pete in this world. >> why were the cops so focused on pete to begin with? as pete tells it, his cousin paul said the whole thing. set out to frame him. first by lying to him, telling him that roberto, or robert, as pete calls him, was out to steal his birthright. >> paul would come over and tell me horrible stuff about roberts. he said robert told paul that he was going to get my share of what my dad was leaving him. so he would come over and say stuff to me and you he was going to make me want to go say something or fight with somebody. >> and pete said that he was simply blind to paul's manipulation. >> when you are going to your everyday life and someone has set you up for over a year and
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a half, you don't know who to believe, and so i kept everybody like, my life is so out of control and i couldn't figure out what was going on. >> but she said she could clearly see paul's bathing of pete. >> you talk to him all the time. >> and when he got home, he would be upset? >> oh yeah. he would be angry upset. telling us things that we didn't even know if they were true. >> they, too, found that paul had been setting pete up. >> they talked a lot about themselves, to. and i think paul has been able to manipulate pete. >> but pete just didn't see it. didn't realize he was being played by his cousin. >> we grew up together, we worked together. every day. our parents bought us walkie- talkies and we were seven and eight years old and i was in my back bedroom. he lived right down the block down there.
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we would talk to each other until we went to sleep. >> peter, his cousin paul, the prince link -- the golden boy -- was about to go on trial for the murder of roberto ayala. as for pete, the person was treated in this town like he bore the mark of cain -- >> i've had several low points in my life. this changes you forever. >> the next chapter wasn't a lift from the book of genesis. more like the story of job. >> one thing that is kind of unique maybe, is anytime i ever had a big case, i can go into almost any coffee shop or restaurant, and they are solving it for me. they get twisted really fast. in this case, it was constantly -- well, you know pete moore did it. my response was, well, that's not the direction i'm going in. >> not the direction at all.
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in fact, d.a. poynter was about to put pete on the prosecution team is a key witness against paul. making pete work with the same people who at one point were hoping to put him in prison. that uncomfortable fact was irresistible catnip for paul's defense attorney. pete's first day on the stand. coming up. the defense says it was pete who had the motive to kill one man and implicate another. a master plan that would give him everything he wanted. >> peter is the one who is indicated -- i broken down. i want to be in that farming operation. what better way to take out roberto and to take out paul? >> when dateline continues. ne air wick.
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keith morrison (voiceover): in the months following roberto ayala's murder, investigators suspected peter moore was the bomber and built a case against him. so when peter's cousin paul was arrested, >> in the months following roberto ayala's murder, investigators suspected peter was the bomber and build a case against him. so in peter's cousin, paul, was arrested, his defense asked an obvious question. what is the cops first interest was correct? what if he did it? >> peter is animosity towards roberto. peter is the one that wants him to the farming operation. >> paul moore's attorney presented in court a mirror image of the state's case, acknowledging that one cousin was out to frame the other. only in her version of the story, paul was the stooge, and peter the mastermind.
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>> peter's the one who indicated , i'm tired and broken down. i want to be in the farming operation. what better way to take out roberto and to take out paul. >> the prosecution was forced to call a witness, knowing that would make him a punching bag. >> she told me, you're a murderer, aren't you? i said, those are your words, not mine. >> she thought she could, by grilling people, uncover the evil, the monster. >> the assistant attorney general was on the trial. >> i was completely satisfied that there was no monster to uncover. and i, for the most part, let her go at him. >> a courtroom tactic not appreciated by pete.
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>> after the first day, i said, you need to get this lady off of me. she is on me like a dog on a piece of raw meat. they said, there's nothing we can do for you. it's an open investigation and we have to let her ask anything or the jury will think we are hiding something. >> one hour of his testimony felt like eight. i will tell you that. it was excruciating. i was waiting for him to explode at any moment. >> paul's attorney claimed that pete somehow planted the imprint of the bomb diagram in paul's home. >> mr. moore, who works at that desk daily, he never noticed this? if use your culprits, he never sees an indentation of a diagram he drew and thinks, oh my gosh, thank god i saw that, let me get rid of it? it just raises so many questions. >> it just beggars the imagination to think that peter would know enough about when the police are going to arrive and know that some junior
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officer is going to happen to know this very faint little image of the diagram on a white piece of paper, which he never would have seen that the light hadn't been just right on the table that afternoon. >> if i am peter moore and i engage in this and they don't find it, my planted and work. but if they do find it, it is a home run for me. and there is very little risk to me, peter, to engage in it. it's not like i have to break into the police department and tamper with some evidence. >> paul's fingerprints were all over that, and peters were not. >> i would agree that that shows that -- and that he may have touched it. and in fact, i leaned on it the way the prince were situated, it was likely that one leaned on it to reach over to open up the window. so it was very consistent with that.
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>> peter, of course, deny placing that blank sheet of paper in paul's home and said he hadn't been in paul's house in years. in the trial, the defense attorney played a wildcard. she confronted pete with this -- a video found on one of pete's computers seized just days after the bombing. slow-motion video of a rat trap snapping on carrots, but ending on a burst of flame as the trap sets off a lighter -- just like the bomb. >> and i submit to you that this video, more or less, comports with the diagram. >> it shows a rat trap hitting a lighter. >> a rat trap, which is an unusual kind of triggering device. it shows a screw activating the rat trap, and then an incendiary component. >> so was pete investigating bomb making ideas? not a chance, counter this date.
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>> there is nothing on his hard drive that indicates to me that anyone was using it to research how to build a close to. >> the investigator who did the initial search of peter moore's computer. >> sometimes what is not there is more important that what is there, and what was not there was anything indicating that someone is looking for directions on how to build a bomb. what i saw was somebody who is just surfing the internet aimlessly. there is nothing about that video that was tied into making a bomb. >> and pete told the court, the laptop on which the video was found belonged to his son, who was then forced to testify, which did not sit well with pete. >> i tried to keep my kids away from this. and they -- once again, they tied my hands behind my back and they had no choice. and so my son had to go on the stand. >> a sense of betrayal deeply felt by the man whose weeks his mind. >> everybody pretty much turned me to the wolves.
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>> for 3 days, you are essentially on trial. i mean, your cousin was on trial for murder, but it was like you are on trial. >> i was on trial. i was. i was on trial basically for my life. i had no protection. >> with pete now off the stand, the prosecution study case to make, limited evidence. they couldn't mention the dna found on the and. not conclusive. nor can they tell the jury about paul's previous assault and intent to commit rape convictions in san francisco. not relevant. in addition, linda claimed there was no motive, no reason for paul moore to kill roberto ayala. >> for all of loss enforcements investigation, they could not come up with anyone who said, i heard paul moore say he wanted to hurt roberto.
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>> no, but they did find this document on paul's computer, titled my life. a rambling, self pitying scream. what did i do wrong to be treated this way? i think my dad really thinks i am stupid. he's always saying how smart robert is. but ultimately, the trial came down to a single sheet of blank vapor -- almost like a rorschach test to the jury. with ac paul moore's guilt? or a plot to frame him? coming up, a verdict that will divide this tightknit town and rip apart this family all over again. when dateline continues. ntinue. this is better. that's better. and that. even this. dupixent is an add-on treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma. it works with your asthma medicine to help improve lung function. that's pretty good!
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keith morrison (voiceover): for much of his life, paul moore had found ways to charm the folks around him and get away with bad behavior. at his trial here in sacramento, paul's defense attorney followed what was by now a familiar script. >> for much of his life, paul moore and found ways to charm the folks around him to get away with bad behavior. at his trial here in sacramento, paul's defense attorney followed what by now was a full script. she accused peter of murdering roberto ayala. >> peter moore has a lifetime of making threats. paul does not make threats to roberto. paul works with roberto. >> which is how parisi reported paul to the jury. a deeply troubled history with the law, a sexual offense and
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his background, but the jury didn't get to hear about that, nor were they told about the dna, quite possibly paul's, was found on the envelope containing the bond diagram. with the jury see the same paul moore prosecutor saw? >> is almost like a marvel comic book arch fiend. he is bright, he is clever, he is evil as can be, and he's got a flock to him. his flaw is his arrogance. >> the jury retired to think about it, and they were not fooled. after just five hours of deliberation, they walked back into the courtroom and declared paul moore guilty of murder. the judge sentenced him to life in prison. >> i remember driving away from that courtroom and my wife and i were together. just started crying. because we knew it was over,
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and i did the job. i went in there, and i did my job. i told everything i knew. and it wasn't easy, because i basically put away someone. >> but pete is not so blind that he couldn't see how he was used by his boyhood playmates, who once spent long and lazy days on the river. the one he treated and trusted like a brother. >> what you think paul's motive was? >> used to always talk about, robert thinks he is so smart. and so by killing him, he feels like in his mind he got one over on robert. i believe paul was trying to finger me for doing it. that's what i believe today. it's the only thing that makes sense to me.
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>> pete wishes the moore's did all go back to the beginning, when the farm meant family. >> ever had it my way right now, i will be running the ranch. the grandkids would be out here, enjoying themselves. you know, it would be like a family run business. >> but that is just a fantasy, really. the family is more divided more now than whenever. >> i have asked people in the family, where does all the anger come from? because it is like the whole family is mad. >> i wish that there weren't so much hate and anger in our family. and that we just -- everybody treated each other like a family is supposed to treat each other. >> throughout the trial, paul's father, roger, believed his son to be innocent. and after the verdict, the client to talk to us. his own son, convicting the man of murdering he treated like his own son.
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other members of the moore family declined our request for interview after the verdict, too. they said they didn't want to stir things up. >> i know some of the people that you talked to, and i know they backed out. they called and told me. i respect them for calling me and telling me. but it's all about what might possibly come somebody's way. >> would be fair to say that some members of the family are free to talk with us because they feel they may be disinherited? >> that is 100% true. nobody wants to do what is right for fear of losing their chance at some money. >> would you want to have this? >> no. >> why? >> it is too much. anger here. keith morrison: whispers are still >> rumors, whispers, and lies can come disguised as truth just about anywhere, including the small town in the
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california valley. >> they are still working their way around town. people still talk. >> what you hear them say? >> the most recent one was, pete must have at least been involved. so they have moved some. >> one of the reasons d.a. pointer agreed to talk to us was to make perfectly clear that his friends and neighbors that peter moore was in no way involved in roberto ayala's murder. >> i think i get the feeling that some people are mad it wasn't me. you can go out there and voice your opinion to someone because you are a murderer. no one will take me seriously anymore. and where do i go from here? i don't know. i want peace in my life. i want to be left alone. >> what is the moral behind all of this, if there is one? >> well, that's a big question. there's so much involved here. i would say the moral of the story is be happy with what you
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have. respect the family that you do have. >> and -- >> i was relieved that i didn't have to look over my shoulder anymore. >> i knew at that point that everybody was safe. >> after their father's murder, jesus went off to college, as did pablo. and fabian -- the boy who ran for miles through those fields of sunflowers trying to save his dad's life has grown into a disciplined athlete and plays football, baseball, and soccer. and wanted to talk to us about his dad. >> went to the one for you? >> a good career. >> did you talk about that with him? >> yes. he told me to study hard.
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>> what you want the world to know about your father? >> that he was a good person. he would always want to do things. he would take me out when he had something to do. >> you are the apple of his eye, i bet. you love to be with him? >> yeah. >> two families in the great furred aisle valley of california. one of them worth millions, and the other far more. jaclyn reagan: i couldn't believe it. the first thing out of my mouth was there's no way he did this. >> hello. i am craig melvin, and this is daylight. >> i couldn't believe it. the first thing out of my mouth was, there's no way he did this. they have the wrong guy.

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