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hi, i am jessica layton with the hours top stories. we begin with breaking news in georgia for at least seven people are believed to be dead after a gangway collapsed. georgia's department of natural resources say at least 20 people went into the water when the structure gave way. the incident is under investigation. in california, crews are working to put out the oakland hills fire. authorities have ordered evacuations.

officials with the california department of forestry and fire protection say the fire was about half contained as of saturday morning and now, let's get you back to dateline. u bac everybody's about to come downstairs. i hear them making noise. andrea canning: three years before lorenzen wright's death, his family can be seen in this rare home video celebrating what would be one of their last christmases all together. [kids babbling] her herself. give it here. andrea canning: the house was decorated, and there were plenty of presents under the tree. ren was playing santa for the kids. now we got one of these. andrea canning: and in the garage, sherra had a surprise waiting for him. sherra wright (on recording): do you love it, daddy? i love it. andrea canning: it was right out of a christmas movie. but behind the scenes, reporter marc perrusquia says ren and sherra's life wasn't always so picture perfect. merry christmas. marc perrusquia: people who knew

them well, beyond the public arena, knew they had troubles. andrea canning: a volatile mix of infidelity and jealousy, says perrusquia. it was his darker-- darker side. andrea canning: for lorenzen, life in the nba was intoxicating. under the bright lights in the biggest cities with plenty of cash, clubbing, and women. phil dotson: he was a rock star. and with being a rock star comes certain temptations that come at you. and those temptations, unfortunately, did win over at times. phil dotson: yes, at times. at times, they were. i think that literally, the thrill of being on the road-- nba seasons can go eight or nine months at a time, and you're in city to city, city to city, and you're hanging out with nba players and other millionaires. and the temptations-- temptations are real marc perrusquia: by sherra's account, from the time

that he got in the nba, it was like, a constant parade of women. he was young. he was a good-looking guy, i mean, and he had all this opportunity. i think he took advantage of it. andrea canning: sherra, according to lorenzen's mother, was cheating, too. and not very discreetly. sherra was being seen-- not heard, seen-- doing things she shouldn't be doing. infidelity? deborah marion: mm-hmm. if you're going to do that, go to the next town over. she was flaunting other men in her hometown. deborah marion: yes. she wanted to do what her single friends did. so she wanted to act like a single woman, even though she was married. mm-hmm. she didn't want to, she did. andrea canning: ren was upset about sherra's alleged affairs, according to close friend bill adkins. he was very concerned about what he perceived as her infidelity and things. i can't leave home. trust her. i'm hearing stories and rumors about all these guys. at the same time, he knew he wasn't totally a saint, as well, in that area.

he was looking for solutions to solving some of the marital issues that he was having at the time. andrea canning: he wanted to make it work. he absolutely wanted to make it work, yeah. andrea canning: in 2003, amidst all the turbulence, an unexpected tragedy rocked their world. it involved the couple's 11-month-old daughter, sierra. reporter: wright's wife found the baby not breathing in her crib saturday. she rushed her to a nearby medical center, where she was pronounced dead. phil dotson: the doctor's report said that she died from sids-- sudden infant death syndrome. that was the hardest thing i know that he ever went through in his life. lorenzen wright: she's in heaven with god, and i know that. so now i'm just going to work harder on trying to get myself there. andrea canning: did it cause a strain in his marriage? phil dotson: i think it did. he was on the road when it happened. and not being able to get there and protect his daughter. awful. phil dotson: and i think he always regretted that. andrea canning: ren's friend said that two years later,

the couple's problems escalated to a whole new and now, dangerous level. there was a situation that happened and lorenzen went to the house where supposedly, she was there with another guy. he knew the gentleman. he went ballistic. and i think he had a gun. andrea canning: the story made the local newspapers, which reported that ren threatened the man and also, attacked sherra. marc perrusquia: she had some marks on her face. he hit her. and the police were going to arrest him, but she would not testify against him. lorenzen had a public image to uphold. she didn't want to expose that part of him. andrea canning: no charges were filed. in a newspaper account, ren denied harming his wife or having a gun. but we spoke to a woman who was there, who told us she feared for sherra's life. with the help of counseling, their tumultuous marriage somehow stayed intact. and in 2007, they even renewed their vows.

phil dotson: everybody thought that ok, now, they're good again. and sure enough, a few months passed by and the same thing's happening again. back to the fighting. back to the fighting. andrea canning: and often, it was about money, says close friend phil dotson. especially when it came to sherra's spending. there were times when she would spend money and not tell him that she would spend money. maybe get back at him for indiscretions. there would be large sums of money that he would think is in the checking account, and it's not there. and it'd be because of her spending. this was causing stress in the marriage. absolutely. andrea canning: by 2009, lorenzen's nba career was winding down, and so were those multi-million dollar paychecks, which didn't help his rocky relationship with sherra. you could see very quickly that the marriage was headed to a demise. andrea canning: lorenzen and sherra split up that year and went their separate ways, says ren's

close friend mike gipson. he says she's doing her thing. i'm doing my thing. hell, she can sleep with the lawn man. andrea canning: the lawn man, you may want to remember him. sherra filed for divorce, and their marriage was officially over in 2010. ren's mom says he was relieved. he just couldn't take it no more. she started making him sick, just to her face. but was it somewhat, also, liberating for lorenzen to finally be-- free andrea canning: --out of the marriage? free. that's all he wanted to be, free and have his kids. [music playing] andrea canning: as part of their divorce settlement, lorenzen took out $1 million life insurance policy that would be paid to the six children upon his death. it would be administered by sherra since she was awarded custody. ren was, also, ordered to pay alimony and child support totaling $26,000 a month. marc perrusquia: lorenzen, even though he made $55 million playing basketball, he was broke. he had two very expensive homes that were foreclosed on.

they were bouncing checks left and right. i mean, they burned through all this money. he seemed to be in need of money. andrea canning: big money, but from where? detectives had a new lead about how ren was trying to raise some quick cash. and it would take his murder investigation in a whole new direction. you had to take the drug theory seriously. it was something that everybody was talking about. absolutely. alright, we got your home and auto bundled and you saved hundreds. oh, that's nice, with the economy and all. what's the economy? [chuckling] where do we start? what isn't the economy? yes. [ laughter ] uh, it's -- it's so many thing. right. look, all you really need to know is that progressive can save you money without sacrificing quality coverage. you follow? i'll just look it up. hmm. that went well.

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. without talking to your doctor. when police catch a homicide case, the victim is usually a stranger. but many at the memphis police department knew lorenzen wright, including tony armstrong. this is a guy that i used to talk to. i used to eat in his restaurant. occasionally, he'd come sit down with me. we'd have conversations when he was in town. it was chilling. andrea canning: chilling to think how this hometown hero was so brutally murdered

seemingly for no reason. so armstrong and his team of detectives started their investigation by looking at the victim himself. let's retrace lorenzen's steps. who was the last person to see him alive? who knows him better than anybody else? let's talk to his wife. there are no new leads or anything. it's mind boggling. andrea canning: that would be sherra wright, ren's ex-wife. she was interviewed by investigators when he first went missing. i just need somebody to call if they see him or hear anything from him. andrea canning: sherra told police something strange happened in the weeks before ren's murder. marc perrusquia: there were these mysterious gunmen showing up with guns tucked in their waistbands who were knocking on doors, knocking on her door, looking for lorenzen. andrea canning: sherra said she wasn't sure who they were or what they wanted. she also told police about the last time she saw ren on the night he disappeared. she gives a statement that basically

said the resident left in the middle of the night. he had been at her house? he had been at her house. he had gotten there from atlanta. and sometime during the night, he leaves. andrea canning: sherra's timeline of lorenzen's last night had him arriving at her home around 8:00 pm. she said ren later left the house around 10:30, but soon returned. then sometime before 3:00 am, said sherra, he left again with an unknown person. but that wasn't all. marc perrusquia: she told police that the night he was killed, he left with a box of drugs. he said he was going to flip something. she hears him talking on the phone about flipping or turning over a large sum of money. but she doesn't say who he's talking to. andrea canning: so detectives dug deeper into lorenzen's life. they confirmed, he was nearly broke. and they found something else. a connection of sorts to a shady character named craig petties. tony armstrong: he's probably, one of the largest drug dealers that we've ever seen. andrea canning: in 2009, lorenzen's name surfaced

in a federal drug investigation involving a lieutenant of petties named bobby cole. cole turned over two luxury cars to police. when they ran the vin numbers, it turned out the vehicles were registered in ren's name. marc perrusquia: lorenzen never transferred ownership into bobby cole's name, which is a classic drug scheme where drug dealers come into money illicitly, and they've got to launder it. deborah insists, it wasn't her son who sold the cars, but a guy who worked for him. in fact, ren was never charged with anything. but now that he was dead, the city buzzed with rumors that ren may have been the victim of a drug hit. especially given the way he was found in that field, executed. you had to take the drug theory seriously. it was something that everybody was talking about. absolutely. in my experience as a law enforcement officer, do famous people get killed in the drug world? absolutely. do athletes get killed in the drug world? absolutely. so we had to make sure that we looked at all of that.

andrea canning: with his nba career done, the big paychecks had dried up. plus, those huge alimony and child support payments were due. police wondered if ren was desperate for money. could he have been dealing drugs to make some quick cash? so detectives started interviewing a whole new cast of characters to answer that very question. tony armstrong: we talked to informants that we had on the streets. every drug dealer, every informant that we talked to basically said that, that just wasn't the case. andrea canning: ren's family and friends were outraged at sherra for even suggesting he might be dealing. phil dotson: when she came out and said that he left with a box of drugs and some people came to the house, well, you take all his credibility away. none of it made sense. was lorenzen knowingly involved in any criminal activity? not that i know of at all. i never saw anything that would be out of the ordinary.

andrea canning: so the drug theory, which seemed to sidetrack the investigation, was now dead. ren's mother had never believed it, anyway. she was certain the key to solving her son's murder was much closer to home. i told the police, y'all need to go talk to his ex-wife. andrea canning: lorenzen's mother had never been sherra's biggest fan. she was convinced her former daughter-in-law knew a lot more about what really happened to ren. what did the police think about you? that i was a crazy lady. but i told them, i'm going to keep on doing this while the blood's running warm in my body. you would have needed a sign from god-- right. andrea canning: --to back off sherra wright. exactly. exactly. andrea canning: detectives did notice one thing. while deborah was relentless, sherra was reclusive. police didn't hear a peep from her. the level of grief from both of those women, they were polar opposites of each other. now in fairness, one's the mom, one's divorced. tony armstrong: but you still have six kids by this man, and he's been murdered. andrea canning: sherra isn't acting upset enough?

because that doesn't make somebody a killer. it doesn't make you a killer. it makes you a high level person of interest, though. andrea canning: sherra hardly seemed like a killer. she was dating a sheriff's deputy, was deeply religious, and spent a lot of time at church, where she was on track to become an ordained minister. she was, also, extremely devoted to her six kids. how was sherra as a mother? phil dotson: she loved her kids. i saw love. i saw nurturing. there's no way she could have anything to do with taking their father away. andrea canning: in fact, police couldn't find any evidence linking sherra to the murder. as months ticked by with no new leads, the case began to go cold. reporter: it has been 365 days since-- andrea canning: on the first anniversary of ren's death, his mother held a vigil. reporter: family, friends, and fans of lorenzen wright gathered in front of the fedex forum. deborah marion: i'm not giving up. i'm not tired, yet. somebody's going to tell on a friend. that's how this going to end.

andrea canning: but the end didn't come. the case gathered dust. more months passed, then years. sherra laid low and moved on with her life, until somebody decided to follow the money. i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. thanks to skyrizi, i'm on my way with clearer skin. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. 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. nothing on my skin means everything! ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save.

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wouldn't it be easier if you could find what you want, all in one place? my favorites. get xfinity streamsaver with netflix, apple tv+, and peacock included, for only $15 a month. lorenzen wright (on recording): this one is my daughter right here. my dogs. i breed rottweilers. andrea canning: to his fans, lorenzen wright seemed like a gentle giant. the last person anyone would want to kill. but someone most certainly did. problem was, police couldn't figure out who? by now, four long years had passed since his murder. and the case that once consumed the city of memphis was now ice cold, according to former wmc-tv anchor kontji anthony. nothing.

crickets. crickets. it was just crickets for years. and every now and then, somebody would just say, gosh, do you think they'll ever figure out who killed lorenzen wright? andrea canning: memphis detectives had cleared almost every possible suspect, but one in particular remained in the forefront, lorenzen wright's ex-wife, sherra. tony armstrong: she's always been a person of interest. and no matter who we talk to, no matter what door we knocked on, no matter what crime stoppers tip we got, it always led right back to sherra. andrea canning: was anyone coming to her defense and saying she loved lorenzen, she would never do this? tony armstrong: i've investigated people that have committed multiple murders and had people come to their defense. i'd never gotten a call from anybody that has defended sherra ever. andrea canning: maybe that's why sherra had lawyered up and stopped talking to the police. out of the public eye, she sometimes surfaced at the mount olive baptist church, where she was now an ordained minister

and ran a nonprofit called born to prosper ministries, which helped local kids. as for supporting her own children, sherra's primary source of income still came from ren. she is getting his insurance money and the pension from the grizzlies and all the other nba teams. so the money is going to sherra because she is the custodian of her own children with lorenzen. andrea canning: there was that life insurance policy lorenzen put in place for his six children when he and sherra divorced. when his father herb wright found out sherra wasn't using the money in the children's best interest, he sued. marc perrusquia: she collected the $1 million and had spent somewhere like $930,000 of it. reporter: herb wright versus sherra wright. she received more than $1 million between august 1, 2011-- kontji anthony: so we end up going to court. the entire insurance fund is almost all gone,

and his father wanted to put a stop to that. reporter: herb wright is asking the court for sherra wright to be removed as trustee of $1 million life insurance proceeds trust. andrea canning: the lorenzen wright case was back in the spotlight, as sherra was now in court and on camera. my whole life has been in the home, pretty much. going through quite a bit. it's difficult for the kids, and it's been difficult for me, but i believe that we deserve to be happy. andrea canning: the court proceedings were contentious and exposed all the specifics of sherra's spending. reporter: more than $55,000 for furniture. more than $180,000 spent on expenses at four different properties. construction. kontji anthony: and the judge decided to get a receiver to take over the funds and to investigate what was going on with the money. andrea canning: which meant, what was left of lorenzen's insurance money was now out of sherra's control. but losing in court didn't stop sherra from launching

a new career, as an author. she wrote and self-published a book called "mr. tell me anything." you can probably guess who the title character was supposed to be. michael gipson: i think a lot of it might have been true, but i think a lot of it is still made up. i think a lot of it was still her perspective, and she wanted to make him seem like a really bad guy. andrea canning: the book seemed to be a fictionalized account of sherra's tumultuous life with lorenzen. it was hardly a bestseller, but kontji anthony found it quite read. the similarities between sherra and lorenzen and the two main characters in the book are uncanny. and as you're going through the book, you're hearing claims of infidelity to domestic violence. marc perrusquia: so i asked her. i said, did this really happen? she goes, oh, yeah. absolutely, this happened. 99.9% of that book is our real life. i just changed some names around. andrea canning: the book ends with the sherra and lorenzen characters settling in for a night of romance.

but in real life, ren's close friends were beginning to share the same suspicion his mom and police already had. that on the last night of his life, sherra wasn't ren's lover. she just might have been involved in his murder. bill adkins: i felt very confident that she played some kind of role in it. but to what degree, i did not know. so maybe even indirectly. indirectly, directly, yeah. before the fact, after the fact, she had something to do with it. andrea canning: maybe, but no one was able to prove it. as the fifth anniversary of ren's murder came and went, sherra would embark on a whole new chapter of her life with a new man in a new city. but could she shake her past and finally, clear her name? you can run, but you can't hide.

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