something to know that and say that. >> reporter: want justice for sandi may not look quite like what and when imagine, her family is taking solace in the beautiful person sandi was. and the reflection they see of her and her children. your dad said he sees your mom and you. and in your sister. you think she would be proud of you and what you have accomplished? >> i think she would. >> that is all for this edition of dateline. i am craig melvin. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales, and this is dateline. >> the wedding was beautiful. i thought he was the love of my life. i wanted them to find the real killer.

i wanted all of this to be behind us, and go on happily ever after. single mom meets single dad, and in a single moment, it was love. >> he was very handsome. >> he was fun. >> all smiles. very outgoing, charming. >> everything he did melted my heart. >> there was something else about this dreamy single dad. something about his past. something deadly. >> i just came in the house. i saw january et on the floor. >> he was crying. he was in shock. >> his whole life was shattered. >> he said, i should probably let you know that my wife was actually murdered. >> killed in a crime that had never been solved. >> she was almost the perfect victim. >> and what about him? he had become the focus in his first wife's mysterious death. was he a victim, too? >> i'm a father, i have a family. >> i felt horrible for him.

>> you didn't want to believe it? >> who would want to believe that? hello, and welcome to dateline. vanessa pond was a single parent looking for a second chance at love, and then raven albaroa, she thought she found her soul mate. the pair started dating, then came a chilling admission. raven told vanessa he was carrying heavy baggage. more than 2,000 miles away, he was a suspect in his wife's unsolved murder. still, vanessa clung to the dream that they could live happily ever after. here's josh with "deadly denial." >> she found plenty of the wrong guys. now, here in front of her, was someone different.

>> we met at a daycare where both of our children went todaycare. >> vanessa pond of salt lake city was 25 and a single parent when back in 2007, she met raven abaroa. like vanessa, he was single and raising a child alone. >> he was very charming. he would always come up with such fascinating dates. >> he seemed different. >> he seemed very different. >> a good guy? >> very good guy. >> and you fell for him? >> hard. >> along with the charm and the lavish dates, raven also had a story. a horrible, awful story. that had changed his life and would also change vanessa pond's. the story raven told wasn't just about himself. it was about his first wife, janet. >> he said, well i should probably let you know that my wife was actually murdered. >> the murder, raven said, happened three years earlier when they were living in

durham, north carolina. >> it happened in a home invasion and he came home and found her and didn't want to talk about it any further. >> it's not the kind of thing vanessa expected to hear. >> i was beside myself. >> vanessa retreated to her laptop and began searching online. looking for exactly the details. raven had not provided. >> i had started researching and i stayed up until 4:00, 4:30 in the morning. >> the homicide, vanessa learned, occurred in april of 2005. raven had just come home from playing in a nighttime soccer game when he found his wife on the floor of their tinny second floor office. janet had been stabbed three times. raven talked to us about that dreadful discovery. >> when i initially look at her, i'm talking to her. like hey, janet, what's wrong? and then, it clicks on me that her eyes are open looking at

me, but she's not blinking her eyes. something was terribly wrong. >> okay, you're going have to calm down. what's the address? >> for janet's parents, val and janet jansen, it was the worst day of their lives. >> i pick up the phone and raven screaming into the phone. she is gone. that's what he was saying. she's gone. >> of course, i can't breathe. i thought for sure i was having a heart attack. >> they raced to durham, to be by raven's side. >> they immediately broke down into bawling. tears. i remember putting my arms around him saying, we'll get through this together. >> everyone was left to wonder. why janet? a woman as gentle as she is pretty.

>> she was extremely loyal, i guess is the word, with all of her friends. when she has close friends, she's really good to them. she's really good to me. >> she always wanted everyone to be happy. >> very supportive of people. and love to help other people. >> that came in handy, growing up in a mormon household, with no fewer than nine siblings. >> she was a peacemaker. >> she didn't like confrontation. >> absolutely not. >> in college, janet excelled in the classroom, and especially on the soccer field. from a very early age, janet had her sight set on something more. >> her goal in life was to be married and have children and be a mom. to having, well, a perfect home. >> enter janet's college sweetheart, raven. >> with her, i want to say we

knew right away. we started talking about a relationship three weeks. >> he was very handsome. i said all the time, you're the all-american couple. >> it was a foregone conclusion that this young couple was destined for marriage. it rained the night of the wedding, but no one seemed to care. and then, the perfect all- american couple completed the perfect picture. welcoming into their world, a son, caden. >> she said, this is so phenomenal. >> oh, she loved, absolutely loved being a mother. >> just six months later, that perfect picture went dark and janet was discovered lying in a pool of her own blood. >> was there anyone who disliked her? >> not that i know of. >> she was a good person. >> three years later in salt lake city, the news of janet's homicide was also shocking to

vanessa pond. vanessa had learned the killing had never been solved. she wanted more details from raven about his terrible loss. >> we sat down and had a conversation. i had my questions written out and so we addressed every single one. >> how long did that take? >> we took an entire evening to go over everything. >> when the evening was over, vanessa was convinced that the horrific crime back in 2005 had claimed two victims. one, of course, was janet. the other was raven. >> i felt so, so, so, so sorry for him. i couldn't imagine possibly going through that. >> coming up, why had this killing never been solved? we delve into the clues. a bloody shoe print, mystery dna, and a coin in the yard. when dateline continues.

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the disturbing story of how raven's first wife many been killed did not scare off vanessa pond. she was in love with him, and committed to helping raven get beyond both the heartbreaking loss of janet, and the homicide investigation back in durham. >> i wanted to -- i wanted them

to find the killer. i wanted all of this to be behind us. >> but vanessa knew it wouldn't be easy. the past seemed to haunt raven, as he shared with vanessa just how much janet had meant to him. >> he layed kind of in a fetal position next to me and then he just started talking how mad he was after janet died. >> he said, i loved my wife. >> i loved my wife. >> for everyone who loved janet, the days following the homicide back in 2005 were agonizing. raven says he found himself asking the same question over and over again. >> why we could have this beautiful child. why we can have this beautiful relationship and then to have her die. >> misty foxily, a friend of janet and raven attended janet's memorial service. >> how did raven look? >> he looked crushed, but he

was trying to hold up. >> soon, attention turned to finding her killer. >> we didn't know exactly what happened. all we could think is somebody broke into the house. for what reason? didn't expect her there and killed her. >> charles, now retired was a cop with the durham police department in 2005. when he was called to the scene of janet's homicide. >> it was a two-story family residence. >> quiet for sure. exposing a wound through the center of her chest. >> janet also had a stab wound to her hand, suggesting she tried to protect herself. the fatal wound was to her neck and the weapon was nowhere in sight. >> there was literally no disturbance on the desk.

>> suggesting it was not some violent struggle? >> no, not at all. which was kind of odd based on it being a stabbing. >> crime scene investigators began the task of swabbing the entire house. it was no surprise that most of the blood and fingerprints tested came back as either raven's or janets. there were some things that tech had a harder time explaning. the first was a fingerprint found on the upstairs closet door, not far from janet's body. >> the print didn't come back to anybody? >> no. >> then there was a shoe print left in blood next to janet. >> could you tell anything about this bloody footprint? >> it was right there by janet, but nothing definitive about the type of shoe, the make or anything. >> finally, analysts found unidentified dna mixed with janet's blood on a storm door leading to the side entrance. none of that forensic evidence could be traced to raven,

janet, or anyone connected to the investigation. >> those are things as an investigator, you want to figure out. >> while technicians processed the house, detectives began interviewing raven, hoping he could help point them in the direction of janet's killer. >> raven was visibly crying. he looked like he was distraught and upset. he himself said that he knew of no enemy that she had. >> he realized that some items from the house were missing. >> and they asked me, well where was the last time you had the computer? >> this would have been later that night or the next day? >> it was later that night. it was in that initial meeting with them. >> his computer was gone. robbery? it was possible. >> he also talked about some knives being missing. >> had there been burglaries in that neighborhood? >> yes. >> lisa seely was one of the neighbors that had been burglarized. >> your car was broken into,

right? >> yes, it was unlocked and someone took out some change. >> a seamingly petty, relatively insignificant theft. until a k-9 dog was called to search the grounds of the home where janet had been killed. when the dog got to the front of the house, it stopped unexpectedly. >> it was in that proximity where the bottle was. the dog made his alert that there was something in that area. >> there, among the weeds, the dog had found a coin. >> one of the neighbors reported her car had been broken into and some change had been stolen. >> that's correct. >> one theory is that maybe this coin was from that? >> certainly could have been. >> a homicide, a burglary down the road. and a coin that could link the two. detectives needed to find out more about that coin. >> coming up, secrets from the past revealed. >> you never knew when the coin would flip and all of a sudden,

everything that was wrong in the world was her fault. >> when "dateline" continues.

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the theory that janet aboroa's death was collateral damage from a burglary gone bad was not getting much traction. >> generally, when you surprise a burglar, they don't fight you or kill you, they try to run

away. >> correct. there was no rummaging. none of the ransacking you would see in a break-in. it just didn't add up. >> as for the coin found in front of the abaroa home, the police dog was unable to track a scent from it. back to the house or anywhere else. detectives were having a hard time finding a link between the burglary down the road and janet's killing. the next step was the obvious one. detectives took a look at janet's husband, raven. >> it's pretty common to look at the spouse in situations like this. >> that's correct. that's, you know, part of the process. >> according to raven, the day of the murder was like any other for the abaroa's. >> raven told investigators that a member of the church had come over the evening of the incident. >> later that night is when raven left janet and his son at home to go play in a nighttime soccer game about a half hour

away. jason small, was one of raven's teammates. >> business as usual. a bunch of guys playing soccer together, nothing out of the ordinary. >> raven seemed normal to you that night? >> completely normal. >> after the game, raven told police he drove to a gas station to grab a sports drink. just to be sure, detectives checked the station's security video. and there was raven. raven said he then headed home to find caden undisturbed in his crib, but janet laying in a pool of blood. >> she's dead. >> calm down, okay? what's the address? >> detectives also talked to raven's family and friends. on all accounts, he was outgoing, friendly, charming, and broke. >> they don't have any money. they can't rub two nickels together. >> money or the lack of it may have been behind something that happened five months earlier.

raven had been caught stealing sporting equipment from his employer, and reselling it on ebay. raven's mother, karen, was stunned. >> i just couldn't believe it. i was like, how could you be so stupid? at least he admitted it. he didn't try to get out of it. i was proud of him for that. >> for owning up? >> for owning up. >> along with the young couple's financial stress, friends told detectives raven and janet had also had a brush with infidelity. according to janet's friend, brittney, within months of the wed, raven had cheated on janet. >> how did she sound when that happened? >> devastated. >> she forgave him. she made promises to love him for good, for bad, for ugly, and to support him. >> but brittney noticed other problems in the marriage. janet was struggling with what appeared to be raven's

increasingly dramatic mood swings. >> she told me that sometimes things were like perfect, and it was like holding your breath, because you never knew when the coin would flip and all of a sudden, everything that was wrong in the world was her fault. >> things got so bad, that a year before the homicide, janet and raven briefly separated. by itself, a marriage on the rocks did not mean raven was in any way responsible for janet's death. despite police suspicion, many refuse to believe raven could or would kill janet. including janet's own parents. >> when you heard the police thought raven was a suspect, what did you think? >> i defended him. >> you stuck up for him? >> i did. i couldn't bear the fact that someone who i entrusted my child's life with would turn on her like that. i could not go there. >> neither could raven and

janet's friend, misty foxly. >> raven could not have killed janet. he loved her. he loved her. he wouldn't have done that. >> detectives had an equally difficult time convincing the district attorney, who felt there wasn't nearly enough to get an indictment. >> they are the ones who make the decision. why they didn't do it, i don't know. >> with no other strong leads, the investigation into janet's homicide began to cool. raven had relocated to utah to be closer to his family. which is where, two years later, he met vanessa pond. >> he wanted to move things very, very, very quickly. >> with you? >> yes. >> despite all the things vanessa had learned about raven, she stood by him. in part, because raven was very upfront about how police were investigating him. >> he said they didn't have anybody else to look at, which is why he was the only person

of interest. >> okay, wait a minute. you find out that a guy you're going out with was a suspect in a murder, is still a suspect in a murder? >> yeah. >> and he gets another date? >> he talked me into that. everything he did just melted my heart, because i felt so bad for him. >> and that's how vanessa decided raven, the person of interest, remained the only person she was interested in spending the rest of her life with. after a four month long courtship, raven proposed and vanessa said yes. before vanessa walked down the aisle, she saw randy. randy pond wasn't just vanessa's father. he was also a retired cop. randy decided he needed a man to man with raven. >> he just came in and was all

smiles and very fun to be around. very talkative. very outgoing. >> you and your wife thought, good. >> i was very impressed with raven, yeah. >> so impressed, randy gave the two his blessing. >> how-the wedding? >> the wedding was beautiful. it was great. >> and you thought what? we're going to be okay? >> absolutely. coming up. and you think at last, justice. >> yes. >> an arrest in the case when "dateline," continues. and is e 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. emergen-c crystals pop and fizz

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hi, i'm richard lui. a man hunt is underway in kentucky. numerous people were shot just north of the city of london. the mayor says no one was killed. that suspect is 32-year-old, joseph couch, on the run and considered armed and dangerous. and boeing starliner spacecraft finally home. the capsule on dock from the

international space station without astronauts on board friday, touching down in new mexico, after 12:01 a.m. eastern saturday. for now, back to "dateline." welcome back to dateline, i'm craig melvin. vanessa pond thought that raven abaroa she just married was honest and true, but that was a far cry from what investigators in north carolina had uncovered. a trail of circumstantial evidence led them to believe that raven was a killer. yet, he remained a free man and janet's family was desperate for answers. here again is josh with, deadly denial. >> the chris jansen family never gave up to find their

daughter's killer. >> we weren't sure they would ever be able to solve the case. >> detectives felt they already had. they shared with janet's family the evidence of raven stealing and cheating. eventually, janet's parents agreed that raven was responsible for killing janet. >> i just knew in my heart that he had done it. and it was a horrible realization. >> in 2009, new more aggressive prosecutors reach the same conclusion. after taking a fresh look at the old evidence and concluding there was, afterall, enough to seek an indictment. five years after janet's killing, raven abaroa was arrested and extradited back to durham to stand trial for first- degree murder. >> when raven was finally arrested, you think, at last, justice.

>> yes. >> finally. >> in april, 2013, assistant district attorney, a charlene franks, was tapped to prosecute the case. >> you felt in good shape headed for trial? >> yes, i did. >> prosecutor franks first went after raven's character by calling women from his past. she hoped the jury would start to see the defendant as a controlling man who cared little about his marriage. charlotte ravel testified one afternoon, she went over to the abaroa's house, and raven showed her a sex tape, and then janet came home. >> he is like, you have to go hide. you have to go hide. he almost physically pushed me into the closet. so, i just stayed until she left, and then i left. >> next to testify was raven's coworker, annabel. she said raven flirted with her and they eventually had sex. >> i did say to him, what if your wife finds out? he said, she won't ever know.

>> prosecutor franks then got to the heart of her case. hoping to prove that janet was trapped in an emotionally abusive marriage. >> now did janet talk about problems she had with her marriage? >> yes. >> best friend said she heard firsthand just how destructive janet's marriage had become. >> i overheard him talking to janet in a way that you wouldn't want your dog talked to. >> what did he say? >> he told her she was good for nothing, she couldn't do anything right. >> brittney said raven had taken control over every aspect of janet's life, including her phone calls. >> she said, he doesn't like me talking to you. she said, i have to walk to the pay phone to talk to you. and i'm like, my heart just -- i said, but how long have you been walking to a pay phone and how far away is this pay phone and does any of this make sense to my friend who is so smart? >> she was almost the perfect victim of a domestic violence

situation. she did exactly what she was told, when she was told. >> you feel sorry for janet, don't you? >> yes. i felt sorry that she didn't have an outlet to get help with. >> if janet was the perfect victim, who was raven? >> he's a predator. >> a predator who according to charlene franks, lied repeatedly to police. for proof, she turned to janet's contact lenses. >> one of the biggest things were the contacts. >> in his interview with police, raven said janet was in bed watching tv and about to go to sleep when he left her to go play soccer. >> the sisters, mom, dad, they were addment before going to bed, janet always took out her contact lenses. >> so on a hunch, unearthed the truth, when she was still wearing her contacts. >> suggesting she wasn't about to go to bed, as he husband

suggested. >> correct. when he left, she was dead. >> prosecutor franks turned to raven's 911 call. >> is your wife conscious? >> he said she was dead. her lips were blue and her eyes were open. >> but mike gusman, the church counselor, testified raven told him something completely different about finding janet. >> i believe he said to me that she had asked him why do i hurt so bad? >> that statement he made to mike is extremely important, because that shows she was not dead at the time he originally was with her. >> one of those is a lie. >> exactly. >> one item conspicuous. the evidence that raven was a

collector of knives. raven had told detectives his collection was missing along with his laptop. then there was the issue of motive. prosecutors don't need to prove it, but jurors come to expect it. so charlene franks called cindy, raven's boss at the time of janet's death. garrett told the injury, raven knew he was about to lose his job. >> he looked at me, got my pink slip, boss? i said no, we're going to wait until the end of the month for that to come. >> charlene frank's point is that looming unemployment and looming debt could have driven raven to kill. she then showed the jury janet's life insurance policy. the payout was $500,000. the beneficiary was raven abaroa. >> the only way for him to live his lifestyle was to get that insurance policy. >> but another piece of this puzzle was about to be presented in court.

and it had to do with raven's second wife, vanessa pond. it turns out, vanessa and raven were not a match made in heaven. >> i was way too naive. way too naive. >> vanessa traveled from salt lake city to durham to testify. not for the defense, but for the prosecution. >> do you solemnly swear -- >> she told the jury how her storybook romance ended almost as quickly as it began. >> did he hurt you a lot? >> yeah. >> at one point, vanessa said raven became physical. >> he had me by the arms and he threw me up against the wall. >> he told me how much he hated me and how much he didn't care if i died. >> right after that, he calmed right down. i'm so sorry. i'm so sorry. i'm so sorry. >> according to vanessa, raven

displayed that same moody, unpredictable behavior, again and again. >> the moment he got fired up about anything, he flew off the handle with -- >> that quick? >> instant. >> their marriage lasted only three months. >> you think you escaped something worse than just a bad three month marriage? >> absolutely. >> charlene franks rested her case with confidence. even as she admitted there were some things she didn't have. >> no murder weapon. >> no. >> no witnesses? >> no. >> no blood in his car? >> no. his advantage was trying to say, i'm just a bad husband. i'm a criminal as far as money goes, but there's no evidence i kill my wife. >> now, it was the defense's turn to fire back. coming up, and fire back they did. among their targets, raven's

second wife. >> vanessa has her motives for saying what she's going to say. >> which would be? >> when dateline continues. lo. ♪ ♪ and i'm keeping the weight off. wegovy® helps you lose weight and keep it off. i'm reducing my risk. wegovy® is the only fda-approved weight-management medicine that's proven to reduce risk of major cardiovascular events in adults with known heart disease and with either obesity or overweight. wegovy® shouldn't be used with semaglutide or glp-1 medicines. don't take wegovy® if you or your family had medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop wegovy® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may happen, including pancreatitis and gallbladder problems. wegovy® may cause low blood sugar in people with diabetes,

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now with vitamin d for the dark days of winter. raven sat quietly at the defense table. inside, raven says he was fuming. >> there's no evidence that says that i did it. they are coming up with circumstantial stuff that quite frankly, they are lies. >> raven maintained his innocence.

>> did you love her? >> i did love her. >> and raven says he did not emotionally abuse janet either. >> you have been accused of dominating her. >> yes. >> bullying her, keeping her down? truth to that? >> no truth to that. no truth at all. i have a strong personality, but i've never been dominating. >> you solemnly swear -- >> just as the state had done, called character witnesses of their own. offering the jury a completely different image of raven and raven's relationship with janet. >> they were a close couple. they really seemed to have a genuine concern and love for each other. >> misty foxily also couldn't recognize the man the state was describing. >> i didn't know what the heck they were talking about. about janet. >> when you heard janet described in court as kind of

this sort of meek little mouse who you were pushing around, that sound familiar to you at all? >> no. she's quiet and reserved, but when she did talk, people listened. >> but what about the testimony that janet would walk a mile to a pay phone so raven wouldn't find out she was talking to her best friend, brittney? >> that doesn't make you look like a good guy. >> that didn't happen. totally fabricated story. >> more evidence janet was an independent spouse came from, of all places, the prosecution. after it made a stunning announcement. a computer hard drive had suddenly been found in an evidence locker. >> it was an inconvenient piece of evidence. >> it was the hard drive from janet's work computer. containing e-mails she sent right around the time of her death. >> the hard drive to me was janet's voice and it was the truth about who janet really was. >> some of the e-mails selected

by the defense exposed a flirtation. raven's side said those e-mails -- >> it showed that people were taking the stand. >> immediately made a motion for a mistrial. arguing that without this new evidence, they were unable to properly cross examine the state's witnesses. the judge did not agree. >> the defense decided to hit head on what were by now, raven's undenial misdeeds. >> i have done a lot of bad things in my life. i admit that. >> most damaging was raven's history of infidelity. janet knew of at least one affair. when janet confided in her

mother-in-law, karen said she was furious with raven. >> i said, she doesn't deserve you, leave him. >> you told her to go? >> yeah. they did separate. janet called me just a few months later and she says, we have been through counseling and we love each other. i'm not leaving and neither is he. >> did you think their troubles were behind them? >> i knew their troubles were behind them. they were stronger than ever. >> then came the horrible night in 2005. almost as soon as karen arrived in durham, she says she got an uneasy feeling about the investigation and the way police were looking at raven. >> i think they immediately decided, oh, this guy is not perfect. he's embezzled. they wanted it to be raven. >> defense attorneys hammered crime scene analysts about the possible evidence, they claimed

was being ignored. the bloody footprint near janet's body. the fingerprint on the office closet door. and the dna on the storm door to the side entrance. all of which were never identified and any of which the defense said, could have been left by an unknown killer. >> there was a lot of things that they didn't do. forensic evidence that wasn't pursued. >> defense attorneys felt jurors wouldn't have to look any further than raven's alibi to be convinced of his innocence. the abaroa's church counselor was the last person to see the couple on the night of the killing. >> on that particular night, did there seem to be any stress in their relationship? >> no. >> did they seem to be getting along just fine? >> yes. >> he left the abaroa's at 7:00 p.m. >> seemed like any other time that i was there. >> the prosecution and defense agreed, it would have taken raven about 30 minutes to drive to the sports arena where he played soccer that night.

the defense called raven's teammate, jason small, who testified raven got to the game right before it started at 9:00 p.m. >> was raven there when you got there? >> yes. >> and what was he doing when you got there? >> he was warming up on the field. >> add it all up, and raven would have had to kill janet, clean up, and compose himself enough to appear normal on the soccer field, all with less than 90 minutes. >> there wasn't the time for him to get it all done. change clothes. get to the game, and it just didn't make sense. >> the defense was about to rest. but first, it needed to address the damaging testimony of vanessa pond, raven's second wife. >> she says, you put your hands on her at one time, shoved her, pushed her against the wall. >> i pointed my finger. didn't leave bruises, though, but i poked her. >> you want the key to the city for that?

>> it wasn't a rage, and vanessa's story had been totally twisted. vanessa has her motives for saying what she is going to say. >> which would be? >> she's bitter, obviously. >> you didn't believe anything vanessa pond said? >> no. >> karen suggested her testimony was from a bitter breakup. >> i didn't believe someone would do that, but she's doing it. >> karen says she once overheard raven on the phone with vanessa. >> he happen to have it on speakerphone. she was screaming at him. how dare he leave her. she flat out said, all it takes is one phone call from me, it doesn't matter what i say, people will believe me. >> you heard her say that? >> i heard her say that. >> have you ever threatened him like that? >> no, he threatened me. >> a courtroom battle between two bitterly divided families was about to come to an end. now, it it was up to the jury,

but just after 24 hours, word began to spread throughout the courthouse, there was trouble in the jury room. >> coming up, another stunning turn was in store for both sides. >> heartbroken, shocked. stunned. >> scared? >> terrified. >> when "dateline" continues. of moderate-to-severe asthma that's not for sudden breathing problems. dupixent can cause allergic reactions that can be severe. tell your doctor right away if you have rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor about new or worsening joint aches and pain or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines including steroids, without talking to your doctor. ask your specialist about dupixent. introducing new advil targeted relief. the only topical pain reliever with 4 powerful pain-fighting ingredients that start working on contact to target tough pain at the source.

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an investigation spanning eight years. a five-week long trial with more than 80 witnesses. all building to this one moment. >> it was painful. it didn't feel like it was going good. didn't feel like it was going bad. it was painful. painful three or four weeks. >> janet's parents felt optimistic. >> were you hopeful? >> yes. in one word, yes. >> but after just ten hours, word came out of the deliberation room that the jury was deadlocked. >> the cause of the opinion that was deliberations, this jury would not likely reach a verdict. the court will declare a mistrial. >> the split came down 11-1, in favor of conviction. >> they come back and they can't reach a verdict. what did you think?

>> i had prepared to walk out of court that day or spend life behind bars. never even crossed my mind that a mistrial could be declared. the one thing i wasn't prepared for is to sit in durham county and do this all over again. >> it was an outcome no one seemed to want. >> for all but one person to say that he was guilty and one of them undecided, i was thinking, really? send them back. >> vanessa pond was back in salt lake city, when she heard. >> how did you feel when the jury couldn't come to a verdict? >> heartbroken, shocked, stunned. >> scared? >> terrified. >> prosecutor, franks, immediately announced she would try raven again. but almost one year after the judge declared a mistrial, and less than one week before round two of jury selection was scheduled to begin, the state made a stunning announcement. >> late last week, the district

attorney's office extended a plea to the defendant, and that has been accepted. >> the d. a.'s made raven abaroa an offer he couldn't refuse. plead guilty to manslaughter, not murder, and serve less than four more years in prison. >> you now personally accept this plea offer? >> yes. >> you were okay with that deal? >> given the alternatives. >> because if he gets tried again and it's an acquittal? >> he walks free. >> this wasn't just any plea. raven was offered an alford plea, he would not be required to admit to killing janet. that didn't sit well with prosecutor franks. >> it wasn't my decision to make. i'm not the administrator. that was up to my boss and my supervisor. >> why did you take the plea? >> i took the plea to get out. to get out.

to have a guaranteed date to get out and be with my son. i felt that there was so much corruption, so much lying that was going into that trial that i just knew i wasn't going to get a fair trial the second time around. >> denied any responsibility for this crime that we were very disappointed in that. >> i wanted to throw up. that was like stabbing janet all over again. >> he didn't mention, i'm sorry. he admitted nothing. apologized for nothing. and it was so cold. >> in trials like this, there are no winners. just two sides, bitterly divided. >> the person who killed my wife right now thinks he is home free, but i'm trying to clear my name so that we can shift the focus and know that there is still a killer out

there who right now is walking on the streets. >> custody of janet and raven's son, caden, was granted to raven's mother. janet's mom is left with the memories of the daughter she loved and lost. >> how often do you think about janet? >> constantly. the only way i can handle it, i know she's happy. i know she is. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. . good morning and welcome to the sunday edition of morning joe weekend. it was another fast moving newsweek, and here are some of the conversations you might have missed. >> we had a good debate