it's happening. switch to reliable comcast business internet with security and get started for $49.99 a month. plus ask how to get up to a $500 prepaid card. call today! hi, i'm richard lee with the news update. rescues are still underway in parts of florida after hurricane milton dropped a deluge of water causing rivers

to overflow. the water is expected to recede slowly over the next couple of days. in phoenix, arizona kamala harris says if elected she plans to put a republican in her cabin and set up a bipartisan council of advisors to work on policy. the stock market hit a record high with the dow jones industrial average and the s&p 500 responding positively to wall street a gurneys. -- bank earnings. for now, back to dateline. bac. reported him missing to police. at first, investigators believed he had simply left his wife. but then, there was a very strange incident fearing the worst, they reported him rthe worst, they reported him now, this case was about to heat up. once again, here's hoda kotb with "toxic." michelle hopkins: this sounds so hokey, but three months before, i had a terrible nightmare that something had happened to kevin, and that kevin was hurt. and i woke up crying hysterically in my bed.

hoda kotb: michelle hopkins, kevin mengel's younger sister, was now in a waking nightmare. her brother kevin had been missing for a week. and the young man who appeared to be having an affair with her sister-in-law had just fled from police. why did he just steal her pickup truck and flee when i asked him to come back to the police station? hoda kotb: the situation suddenly looked much worse then detective david maurer had thought. he brought morgan to the station and called his partner and longtime friend darren sedlak. darren sedlak: he said, can you get in here. something's going on. i'm not sure what, but shappell just stole morgan's truck, and fled, and we can't find him. we had no idea that it was going to turn out the way that it did. hoda kotb: their first priority was to find steve shappell, who was now on the lam. they tried tracking his cell, which was in the truck, but it was turned off. but morgan's phone was in there and it was turned on. she gave detectives permission to track it. darren sedlak: so we focused all of our efforts on morgan's telephone.

hoda kotb: meanwhile, morgan was downstairs in the interview room, as detectives tried to find out what steve was running from. david maurer: do you think maybe steve hurt kevin? morgan mengel: i don't know, but by his reaction today-- david maurer: he takes your truck without your permission. and in my terms, flees the scene. morgan mengel: absolutely. hoda kotb: although morgan had previously denied the affair with steve, the much younger landscape, she was now telling the detectives they were having a relationship, a result, she said, of an unfulfilling marriage. morgan mengel: it was just a bad marriage. darren sedlak: ok, tell us. morgan mengel: a real bad marriage. the yelling, the screaming, the fighting, the i can't ever do anything right. darren sedlak: so tell us about your affair. how did steve treat you? morgan mengel: he talked to me like i was a human being with feelings, paid attention to me. hoda kotb: and she repeated yet again how kevin had walked out on her and the kids one week earlier.

morgan mengel: he was leaving. he wanted a fresh start. david maurer: and did you respond to him? morgan mengel: i said, are you kidding me? he told me he was not kidding and to tell the children that he loved them. david maurer: now, i have to ask, in the truck, i saw a bunch of clothes in the back of the truck, who did they belong to? morgan mengel: steve. he said he was taking his stuff, his clothes that he had accumulated at my house. david maurer: he's been staying there? morgan mengel: a few nights, yes. david maurer: did you ever think that maybe kevin would come home, and steve would be there, and there would be an issue? morgan mengel: no, i hadn't thought about that. david maurer: and i said, if i get in a fight with my wife, i said, nobody's moving into my house. as a husband, as just a sensible person, that, to me, that-- morgan mengel: is poor judgment. hoda kotb: poor judgment and a bad marriage was all kevin's wife would admit to. but the family knew that morgan had

a history of deception, a strange one that went back many years. michelle hopkins: there's something that is innocent looking in her face that you just-- you just believed her. whatever she said, you just believed her. hoda kotb: one of her biggest lies, they say, was back when morgan got pregnant before the couple was married and refused to tell the truth about it. we were looking at her, saying, you're pregnant. and she said, i am not pregnant. and she would wear two girdles at a time and heavy sweaters. and i said to her, morgan, did you tell kevin? and she said, no, i just told him that i'm on the birth control and it's causing my stomach to swell. hoda kotb: and when the baby was born, kevin was in shock. michelle hopkins: and we got a phone call the next day from my brother, kevin, hysterically crying, telling me that i'm an aunt. hoda kotb: was he crying tears of joy? i don't think so at that time. i think he was so scared. and it caused the first real fight between my brother and i, because i was so very disgusted by morgan.

hoda kotb: so when kevin went missing, the family had been convinced from day one that morgan was hiding something. and now, the detective was too. after hours in the interrogation room, she gave the first hint that she knew more than she was saying about her young boyfriend, steve. morgan mengel: steve had said to me that he loved me and would do whatever it took to have me. and then last night, he said he had an uneasy feeling. he apologized to me and said it was his fault. i asked him what was his fault, and the only response i got was the entire situation. david maurer: you think steve hurt kevin? morgan mengel: at this point, yeah, i do. hoda kotb: morgan asked for a cigarette break. detective maurer went outside with her. she'd been talking all this time without a lawyer. and the detective wanted to keep the conversation going, hoping she'd reveal something. and did she ever. david maurer: were standing in the shade, because it's still extremely hot.

and there's no air conditioning in the building because of that thunderstorm. and she says, steve told me that he hit kevin in the back in the head with a shovel. and i'm like, whoa. we run back in, and i turn the recording back on at that point. morgan, you just told me something. would you mind repeating that? morgan mengel: steve hit kevin in the back of the head with a shovel. hoda kotb: here was morgan laying the blame on steve, telling police he had attacked and killed kevin at the landscaping garage on the day he'd supposedly left her and the kids. the detective was stunned. that earlier sighting of kevin alive and well in town, had it been a mistake? how long had she been lying to police? david maurer: i'm floored, and i'm, like, well, you know, why didn't you-- why didn't you tell me this? i said, when your boyfriend tells you that he hit your husband in the back of the head with a shovel, you call the police. are you trying to protect steve? morgan mengel: not at this point. hoda kotb: morgan said that steve had only just revealed to her what he'd done.

but the detectives suspected he wasn't getting the full story. hoping to trip her up, he asked her to write down a timeline of events for the week kevin disappeared. david maurer: you gonna write it down? morgan mengel: mm-hmm. hoda kotb: most of what she wrote stuck to the story. but this was a strange detail. david maurer: she writes snapple on one of her statements. i said, what does snapple mean? craig melvin: coming up, a new revelation. that single word morgan had written involved a deadly surprise. darren sedlak: who handed the snapple to your husband? craig melvin: when "dateline" continues. mr. clean ultra foamy magic eraser? it's more magic than ever. scrubbing power of magic eraser, cleaning power of dawn? it's the power of two in one! it makes bathroom soap scum here... disappear! compared to sprays, ultra foamy cleans up to 100% of dirt grease and grime with just water alone. magic!

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hoda kotb: the first break in the case of missing husband, and start erasing kevin mengel, had come out of the blue. morgan, the wife, under questioning by police revealed that her lover, steve, had killed her husband in the landscaping garage. she was saying, steve had done the deed a week earlier and only admitted it to her later. she hid his secret out of fear. morgan mengel: i didn't know if he was going to whack me updside the back of the head with a shovel, if i did, and you guys showed up, and he flipped out. david maurer: the man you're having a relationship with tells you that he hit your husband, the father of your children, in the back in the head with a shovel, and you don't tell me that information? morgan mengel: a bit of shock. david maurer: i personally feel it's because you had some role in this. morgan mengel: i had no role in this. hoda kotb: but detective maurer did not believe her.

he looked over the timeline she'd written out, puzzling over that one word-- snapple. why did she write that down? the detective took a break, went upstairs to speak with his partner, detective sedlak. darren sedlak: and it was sort of like a mental slip. and then i asked him if he minded if i had a shot. i wanted a chance to talk to her myself. hoda kotb: and so the detective decided to play good cop, bad cop with morgan. darren sedlak: i want to hear everything. and you better start at the beginning, because the game's over. hoda kotb: and now morgan was about to offer a new piece to the puzzle, a truly shocking one. it had started as a joke, she said, the two lovers imagining kevin out of the picture. morgan mengel: joking around, "oh, you know what? we could take kevin out." "yeah, right." hoda kotb: what would happen, they wondered, if they put something in his favorite drink. morgan mengel: he put nicotine, straight nicotine, in a snapple

that he bought. hoda kotb: following a recipe he found online, steve cooked up some chewing tobacco into a toxic substance called liquid nicotine. he then slipped the poison into kevin's snapple. darren sedlak: and then, who handed the snapple to your husband? morgan mengel: it was on the truck. i did. darren sedlak: did you say anything your husband, like that drink's for you? morgan mengel: no, the rest of us don't drink snapple. darren sedlak: ok, and then what? morgan mengel: i left and got my kids off to school. hoda kotb: but morgan insisted she never expected any real harm to come to kevin, never expected steve would take it as far as he did. and besides, it wasn't the poison that killed kevin, but the blows to the head, which steve had done alone inside the landscaping garage. morgan mengel: i wasn't being serious. apparently, it did turn into a serious conversation on his end. and, yes, i did hand kevin a snapple bottle with nicotine in it. after that, i was not involved in it.

darren sedlak: you guys killed someone. and you expect me to believe that you didn't talk about it? morgan mengel: no, i didn't want to talk about it. i looked at my kids and felt terrible. darren sedlak: so terrible that you made up text messages to his family members about him calling you and texting you. morgan mengel: i did not do that. darren sedlak: who did? morgan mengel: steve did that. hoda kotb: it was steve, she said, who used kevin's phone to send messages to his family, pretending kevin was still alive. and steve, and steve alone, who had buried kevin in some woods a few towns over. darren sedlak: and where did he tell you that he took kevin? morgan mengel: behind a high school. there was a development being built. hoda kotb: the interrogation had turned deadly serious. but the detectives thought that morgan's demeanor was odd. when detective maurer asked if he could take pictures for evidence, he says, she didn't look like someone facing

a potential charge of murder. and while i'm taking these, pictures she's actually smiling for the camera, which is weird. hoda kotb: and in the middle of his bad cop interrogation, detective sedlak says, it was almost as if she was flirting with him. my questioning was not nice by any means. and i just couldn't believe that she was smiling and looking up at me. darren sedlak: is this funny? morgan mengel: no. am i laughing? darren sedlak: you just smiled. morgan mengel: no, i didn't. hoda kotb: the detectives felt they had enough. they issued a warrant for steve shappell, who was still on the lam. and morgan-- darren sedlak: we handcuffed her inside of the interview room and told her that she was under arrest for the murder of kevin mengel, jr. hoda kotb: they sent a police officer to talk to kevin's father. kevin mengel, sr: he said that we believe that your son has been murdered. it was not easy to sit and listen to.

hoda kotb: kevin's three children we're spending the day at his sister michelle's house when she learned that kevin was not coming back. kevin's kids came in. and they just came up and started hugging me. and they're like, what's wrong? they just-- i think they knew. hoda kotb: michelle had known all along, she says, in her gut, that kevin was dead. but how it happened, michelle could not believe what police were telling them. she remembered steve shappell as that scrawny, unassuming guy who worked for kevin mowing lawns. in fact, he'd done some work on michelle's yard just a few weeks earlier. michelle felt badly when he told her he'd just had his wisdom teeth out. i was so worried about him for the two days that he was there. and to think what he did to my brother. hoda kotb: and her sister-in-law, it felt impossible to take that in. michelle hopkins: when i saw her mugshot,

i didn't even recognize her. she just had a different look about her. she's been in my life for 15 years and i didn't even know who she was. hoda kotb: the next morning, detectives recovered kevin's body buried in a shallow grave behind that high school, right where morgan said it would be. and the following day, steve shappell was picked up, nearly 2,000 miles away, in colorado. i still can't imagine him doing it. i can imagine morgan doing it. i don't know what they were thinking. hoda kotb: figuring out what they were thinking was now the job of the county prosecutor. and it would prove to be more complicated than expected. detective: did she say you need to go dig a hole? hoda kotb: morgan had pointed the finger at steve. but now he was back and about to tell a very different version of events. on the day of the murder, she's texting him that, has the poison worked yet. and when it's not working fast enough, she says, couldn't you just pick up a shovel? hoda kotb: the truth, well that takes us right back

to where our story began, the tale of the texts has another chapter to come. craig melvin: coming up, who was the mastermind? morgan or steve? when "dateline" continues. dupixent can help people with asthma breathe better in as little as 2 weeks. so this is better. even this. dupixent is an add-on treatment for specific types 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.

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all in one place? my favorites. get xfinity streamsaver with netflix, apple tv+, and peacock included, for only $15 a month. hoda kotb: morgan mengel and her young lover, steve shappell, were both sitting in jail for the murder

of morgan's husband, kevin. morgan had confessed to playing a small part in the crime, helping steve shappell come up with the plan to spike her husband's snapple iced tea with poison, only it was a joke, she said, that was taken too far. what were your first impressions of her? very good. i mean, the allegation compared to the person i was speaking did not seem to fit. hoda kotb: morgan's attorney, jack mcmahon, says the case for murder against morgan was weak. she wasn't at the crime scene when kevin was killed and had no convincing motive for wanting her husband dead. jack mcmahon: in fact, financially, she was way worse off with her husband's death than she would have been with him alive. because he was the lifeblood of the company and there was no life insurance. hoda kotb: you think that she sort of had some musings about, oh, i wish my husband wasn't around i, wish someone would take care of it? i think morgan was a person walking around with dynamite, so to speak, and with these musings, and saying this to various people. and stephen shappell was the match that lit that dynamite.

and it exploded. but somebody took action. and that person that took action was shappell. he is a cold-blooded killer. hoda kotb: a cold blooded killer? he hardly looked like one when police picked him up in denver and got him into the interrogation room. he was meek. his voice was quiet and shaking with fear. district attorney pat carmody-- he admitted the whole crime. he said that he was in love with this woman. and he thought this was the way to get her forever. hoda kotb: steve said morgan was not kidding when she came up with the plan to kill kevin. she just wanted him dead, and that she wanted to be with me forever. hoda kotb: and steve said that after the murder, far from being scared, morgan was grateful. asked me if i was all right and kissed me. and she came back with water. and began like rinsing off the area where it happened. hoda kotb: which is why the garage looked so clean when employees arrived for work that monday morning, after kevin's so-called departure. pat carmody: she walks in the garage,

steps over her dead husband, kisses shappell, tells him to get a tarp, and let's get to work cleaning the scene. hoda kotb: so now steve and morgan were pointing fingers at each other about who really planned the murder. and the da, he believed steve. he offered him a lesser charge of murder to testify against morgan, and charged morgan with premeditated murder, a mandatory life sentence. pat carmody: i think she found the most gullible person she could. she used him as a pawn to do her actions. he held the shovel, but morgan held the strings. hoda kotb: so you think morgan was in charge of this operation? 100%, i believe that. morgan had a way with men. she just did. she had a way with men. and i think the same way that she had my brother, you know, under her spell, she had this kid as well. hoda kotb: and the da says it was morgan herself who had been sending those fake text messages to kevin's family after the murder, not steve. cell phone tracking records proved it.

she's texting kevin's family, assuring them that he's ok, he just wants to be left alone. she's the most evil woman i've dealt with. hoda kotb: morgan mengel went on trial in late january 2012, a year and a half after kevin mengel had been murdered. but in addition to steve shappell waiting in the wings to testify, the da had something else, something extremely rare in a murder trial, a play by play of the crime, courtesy of text messages between morgan and steve as it happened. we were like, holy smokes, there it is, it's right there. hoda kotb: the detectives had discovered the trove of messages during their interrogation, when they pulled morgan's phone records looking for steve. we knew the exact time of death. we knew how it happened. and so, we were floored. hoda kotb: the texts are chilling. four hours before the murder, morgan texts steve. we ready, she types. steve responds, yep, at the shop now.

then a half hour before the murder, morgan asks steve about the poisoned snapple. he drinking it, she asks. steve writes back, yeah, kind of, really just waiting for him to bend over. i have a shovel in my hand, ha, ha. morgan's response, nice, babe. steve doesn't reply. morgan writes, you backing out? there's a gap there where nothing happens. and she then gives him the final taunt, you backing out-- and when she says that, he texts back, it's done, get here now. these text messages don't even seem real, like they don't-- they just don't seem real. hoda kotb: as incriminating as those messages sounded, morgan's defense was ready to press her case in court, claiming she was no murderous mastermind. i'm not so sure, even to this day, that she had a fully formed belief that stephen shappell was actually going to do this. hoda kotb: but the defense never got a chance. a few days into the trial, a police officer

said something on the stand, hearsay that could prejudice the jury. and the judge sent everyone home. chester county judge declares a mistrial in a love triangle murder case. hoda kotb: for kevin's family, the delay was torture, more waiting for answers to questions they never wanted to ask. i wanted to know if he knew it was happening. i wanted to know if he begged. hoda kotb: why did you want to know? kevin was so sweet and kind. and i know he must have been so, so scared. hoda kotb: the story of those final moments could only be told by steve shappell. but even from jail, as they awaited their fates, morgan was trying to keep him quiet. she wrote him a letter, saying she had given birth to his twins. so her game plan was if he thinks we have kids together, he's not going to rat me out. yes, and she would always ask him then in letters,

have you figured out who has a better chance to get out of here? i need you to do this for me so i can raise our children. hoda kotb: except, of course, it was another lie, another manipulation. the prosecution and defense were back at the chester county courthouse for morgan mengel's retrial. steve was set to testify. but then another surprise. the day the testimony was set to begin, morgan stopped the trial from happening and changed her plea. she admitted to first degree premeditated murder. even her own attorney was stunned. i believe morgan saw the handwriting on the wall. she realizes that whatever actions she took resulted in his death and resulted in shappell killing him. hoda kotb: steve was sentenced to 40 to 80 years. and morgan, life without parole. for the mengel family, who are raising kevin and morgan's

children, there was finally some justice, they said, in knowing morgan will remain behind bars forever. michelle hopkins: i want her to be in jail for the rest of her life. i want her to know that i'm going to be there when her daughter walks down the aisle. i'm going to be there when her daughter has a baby. i'm going to be there with her sons when they meet their wives and graduate from high school. i'm going to get to see all of that, and she's not. she's in hell. and she's going to live this way for the rest of her life. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. welcome to the saturday edition of morning joe weekend.