ll a series of rituals on the anniversary of sandra's death. they bring flowers to her memorial outside the ywca, have lunch at the beach house restaurant, where sandra once worked, and they pray by her graveside at holy cross cemetery, where she is surrounded by her ancestors. sandra, so homesick when away from this island she loved, is now forever a part of it. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm andrea canning. thank you for watching. [theme music] [music playing] hkendra smith: i've known, those kids their whole life.

i don't believe for a minute that they made any of that up. kendra smith: they believe their father killed their mother. andrea canning: they found her in the bedroom-- a young mom, stabbed to death. i could see her fighting, fighting for her life. kendra smith: i was so distraught. she was gone. dennis murphy: she was your wife, the mother of your children. jarod ingram: it's awful. i wouldn't wish that on anybody. andrea canning: her ex had been to visit the day she died-- a trip with the kids. and just like that, he was suspect number one. they had no evidence. i was absolutely flabbergasted. katie duke: how could anyone think this? andrea canning: police said they were a key to the mystery-- his own young children. dennis murphy: she said she peeks through the mail slot. she looks in the mail slot, yes. ideas were planted in their minds. we're going to prove that he's innocent.

andrea canning: two children on the stand. what did they see? that was the hardest thing. because i love them so much. i didn't do this. [music playing] hello, and welcome to "dateline." there should be nothing more innocent than seeing the world through the eyes of a child. but in this story, that may not have been the case. detectives believed a six-year-old girl and her seven-year-old brother witnessed the unthinkable-- the brutal murder of their mother. the case would be built around what those kids observed, but it wouldn't be so simple. this crime was as brazen as it was mystifying. here's dennis murphy with "what they saw." crew: ready, sam? got it? mm-hmm. crew: dennis, i think you're good to go. all right. jarod, thanks for sitting down with us. you're welcome. thanks for having me. dennis murphy: did you take a butcher knife and plunge it into ciara's neck and kill her-- no.

dennis murphy: --while the kids were waiting outside? absolutely not. that did not happen. no. dennis murphy: credibility, the reliability of years-old memories-- there's a lot of that ahead, because this is the story of a murder. june 8, 2012, columbus, georgia. it was an apartment maintenance man who found her. she'd been stabbed to death upstairs in the bedroom. in the kitchen sink-- a butcher knife. the victim was ciara ingram, a 28-year-old nurse and mother. her good friend, kendra smith, says she hadn't been answering her phone for days. at first, i thought, you know, why didn't i go down there? well, i knew something was wrong. dennis murphy: police would later estimate that ciara had been dead in her apartment for nearly a week. (crying) i think i was-- i think i was so distraught that she was gone, that i don't really think that, at the time, i put a lot of thought into, like, who did it or why.

dennis murphy: apartment managers told the arriving officers that ciara had small children. so first questions was, where are the kids now? and that led to a bigger question-- one all homicide inspectors ask. what is the backstory here? what was this victim's life all about? they began piecing together the story of ciara and jarod? she was your wife, the mother of your children. what do you think about her end, the brutality of it? it's awful. i-- i wouldn't wish that on anybody. dennis murphy: ciara, already the mother of a young boy, met jarod ingram when they both enlisted in the army in the early 2000s. he and a friend cozied up to the pretty, young recruit and tried to get her attention. jarod ingram: we started talking about how none of the soldiers who got off the last bus looked like they were going to make it. and she stood up, and she challenged me, and she said, i'm going to be at the top of the class. and i said, ok, and i asked her if she wanted to go out that weekend. now, you had a momentous early date.

is that too nosy a question? [jarod chuckles] you know what i'm referring to, right? i do. our first date, we-- conceived a child. yes. were you ok with that? yeah, i was ok, and i was excited. i'd always wanted to be a father. dennis murphy: ciara and jarod, intimate strangers, decided to make a go of it when the army forced them into a quick decision-- get married or be stationed apart. jarod ingram: when we got in the cab to go to get our marriage license, the cab driver mentioned to us that she was also a licensed pastor. so she drove us to her church. we got married on the steps. you got married by your cab driver? we got married by our cab driver. one-stop shopping. yeah. dennis murphy: the army, as the army does, moved them about. they tried to build a happy home, had another child. but jarod acknowledged they weren't good at living together. once we got married, we actually had our first argument that evening. on the 10 scale, how active an argument was this?

a good 8. but that set the tone for the rest of the relationship. that was every night. why didn't you guys just shake hands and say, see you later, it's been nice? the kids, mainly. dennis murphy: they decided co-parenting was the arrangement that worked best for them. they divorced in 2009 and shared custody. by then, they'd both left the military. ciara had become a nurse. her friend and co-worker at the hospital, samela payne, says the main thing keeping ciara in georgia was being near her ex. samela payne: she didn't want the children be without their father. she tried her best to co-parent. and like, you understand that she didn't have anybody here. so she'd sacrificed her short-term happiness. right. for the kids. samela payne: for her children. that's the type of mother she was. dennis murphy: her friend, kendra, lived in tennessee, but they were as close as could be. dennis murphy: when did you talk? end of the day? start of the day? middle of the day? all day. we were single moms dealing with our exes. and she was my support system, and hopefully, she thought of me as hers.

dennis murphy: by june 2012, ciara decided it was time for a fresh start. she made a plan to move home to indiana to be near her family. their kids, ages 6 and 7, would stay with jarod for the summer and join her later. was she dating again? - yes. she was. absolutely. she was young, so of course, she didn't want to be alone, you know. dennis murphy: in fact, even before the move to indiana, she'd already met a guy online who lived up there. he was going to help her move. he was going to come down to georgia. he had made plans, bought a plane ticket. dennis murphy: and that brings us back to ciara's apartment and the bloody bedroom. as ciara moving day approached, kendra noticed her friend's daily texts and phone calls had stopped completely. samela payne: i didn't talk to her on the second. so on the third, i messaged her and got nothing. so i was like, ok, she's busy. i called her. then, on the fourth, start to get worried some more. you wondered, is she ditching me here? samela payne: i thought, ok she dropped

her phone in the toilet. but then, you think about, ok, well, there are other phones in the world, or send me an email. hey, i'm not ignoring you. dennis murphy: samela was worried, too. she'd helped plan a goodbye party for ciara at the hospital, but ciara never showed up. i remember sitting around the table, all the co-workers looking at each other. and you fully expected that she was going to walk in the door. i wanted her to. but i knew something was wrong. dennis murphy: samela was at work on june 8 when ciara's brother called her with the news. i answered the phone, and he told me, we just found ciara dead. i don't remember nothing else after that. dennis murphy: jarod says he got a call that afternoon as well. there was crime scene tape up at his ex-wife's apartment. the coroner was there, too. he says he feared the worst, and went to go talk to the children, just six and seven years old. jarod ingram: we said a prayer. i told them, you know, no matter what happens, i love you very much. i didn't tell them any details.

but i told them, you know, something might be going on with mommy. we don't know yet. asked if they had any questions. did they? yes. my son asked me if he could have some candy. and-- did he know his mom was dead? he didn't know. i didn't know. at this point, i only had assumptions and worries and fears. dennis murphy: assumptions, worries, fears-- and that was just day one. the investigation begins. and ciara's ex-husband is the first person in the hot seat. coming up-- jarod ingram: i see an officer approaching me with his gun drawn. and he raised it up, and he said, don't move. andrea canning: police have some questions for jarod-- andrea canning: --and for the man ciara had met online. andrea canning: when "dateline" continues. i have active psoriatic arthritis.

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with inadequately controlled copd dennis murphy: ciara ingram was dead-- stabbed three times in the neck and left to die at the foot of her bed. her ex-husband, jarod, was tending to their two children when a police officer reached him on the phone. jarod ingram: he asked me if the kids were ok. i said, yes, they're fine. he said, they're going to send some officers out to talk to me, and they're sending a counselor to talk to the kids. dennis murphy: moments later, jarod saw a woman he assumed was that counselor in his front yard.

jarod ingram: as i approach, i look. and i can see, out of my peripheral vision, an officer approaching me with his gun drawn. and he raised it up, and he said, don't move. and so i put my hands up. he pressed me against the wall and put my hands behind my back and cuffed me. dennis murphy: before he could get his bearings, jarod says his kids were whisked off in an suv. jarod okayed a search of his home and was taken to the police station for an interview. dennis murphy: the conversation started amicably. jarod said the last time he'd seen ciara was six days before. he and the kids had stopped by to pick up some toys before her move to indiana. dennis murphy: he said they hadn't talked since. dennis murphy: detectives wanted

to know about the state of jarod and ciara's relationship. how had they been getting along? he said they hadn't had any issues lately, but admitted things between them were strained. dennis murphy: they also asked jarod how he felt about ciara's decision to move to indiana. dennis murphy: after about an hour, the interview took a turn when detectives hit jarod with a revelation. as far as they could tell, no one had heard from ciara since jarod's visit with the kids-- meaning, jarod was quite possibly the last person known to have seen ciara alive.

dennis murphy: the detective told jarod that as they were speaking, officers were spooling through the video cameras at ciara's apartment complex. dennis murphy: and a look at some of the evidence made it seem unlikely that jarod could have done it. the murder was brutal, bloody. jarod's two small children had been there with him

the whole time, though jarod did mention that as they readied to leave the apartment, the kids went outside first. dennis murphy: did detectives really think jarod had something to do with his ex-wife's murder? or were they just pressing him, because he was the ex-husband? they ended the interview on friendly terms. dennis murphy: it had been a very long night. jarod says he was just desperate to hug his kids, who'd lost their mother. you can see why you became a figure of interest here. when i sit back and put myself in the shoes of the police officers, absolutely. they show up at ciara's house. they find her body. they go, they pick me up. dennis murphy: back at the crime scene, investigators look for clues to fill in the story. could it have been a botched robbery?

it was hard to tell if anything had been taken. the apartment was in such disarray with moving boxes. and there were no signs of a forced entry, but there was an attempt to clean up the scene with bleach. and they did find a man's watch tucked into the sheets of ciara's bed. who could that belong to? what about this guy she'd met online-- the man flying in to help her move? dennis murphy: his name was ryan morgan. detectives got him on the line. dennis murphy: ryan thought he'd been ghosted, said that he'd canceled his plane ticket. dennis murphy: detectives didn't tell him right away why they were calling.

dennis murphy: was that genuine surprise? dennis murphy: of course, they'd have to check out ryan's story and pick through every detail of the last day of ciara's life. that meant talking to her children. what did they see? what did they hear? andrea canning: coming up-- andrea canning: that final family visit. what was happening inside their mother's apartment? andrea canning: when "dateline" continues. rsv can severely affect the lungs and lower airways. but i'm protected (pause) with arexvy. arexvy is a vaccine used to prevent lower respiratory disease

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welcome back. in a tense interview, police questioned jarod ingram about the vicious murder of his ex-wife, ciara. jarod insisted he was innocent, but knew that being the last person to see her alive did not look good for him. as news of ciara's death spread, one friend would come forward with alarming secrets about what ciara said was really happening inside that relationship. once again, here's dennis murphy with "what they saw." dennis murphy: kendra smith felt she'd found a kindred spirit when she met ciara ingram.

losing her was awful. kendra smith: every day, i'd get in my car and cry all the way to work. because i talked to her every day on my way to work, you know, every day on my way home. i mean, i'm just in tears all the way home. dennis murphy: samela payne felt hollowed out when she heard her good friend, fellow nurse-- gone, just like that. so you were going to be friends for life, no matter where-- absolutely. --each of you traveled, too. kendra smith: absolutely. we were family. dennis murphy: the day after she got the news, samela drove to ciara's home. she just had to see the place with her own eyes. you went to the scene. i went to the scene, because i still did not want to believe that she was gone. so everything's yellow-taped and closed off, right? i was in denial that my friend was gone. dennis murphy: she spoke to an officer who was there guarding the crime scene. what did you talk to him about? any and everything that i could remember that she would tell me, and what she was going through. dennis murphy: and what samela said about her conversations with ciara caught the officer's

ear, because it certainly didn't match jarod's story. this post-divorce relationship was more than just a little strained. samela says ciara had long confided in her that it was tumultuous. samela payne: she would tell me how he would break her computers, break tv's. just, i'm mad at you, bang, here's one for your computer? oh, yeah. yeah. dennis murphy: the way the stories went, jarod would lash out if he couldn't get his way. did he ever get physical with her, sam, as far as you knew? she told me that. yes. but you didn't see any bruising or scratches or anything like that, huh? no, if she did, she would hide it. she's the type that want to be strong. she didn't want you to be upset or worried about her. dennis murphy: as for jarod, he told us any stories about abuse in his relationship with sierra just weren't true. were there any hands-on altercations here? her on you, you and her? absolutely not. she threw some things-- small things, not-- like, a remote control. dennis murphy: jarod told us anyone who knew ciara well knew that she wouldn't put up with abuse. jarod ingram: she was a very fierce woman.

she had her way. she's not going to let you tell her any different. and she's very determined. i couldn't see her being in an abusive relationship. dennis murphy: of course, he says, he and ciara had plenty of scorching disagreements during their marriage. but once they split, the drama ended. and he says they shared responsibility for the kids amicably. co-parenting, and very successfully. i think the biggest issue we ever had was that when she cut my son's hair, i didn't really like that. he had a big puffy afro, and it was really cute on him, and i liked it. dennis murphy: but given what investigators had heard, they were now very focused on jarod. did he have any opportunity to murder his ex, what with the kids in tow? jarod said he put the kids in the car and went back inside ciara's place to get the last of their things. two kids sitting in the back seat of a car-- a boy and a girl, aged six and seven. what did they see? what did they hear in the next few moments of their lives? and importantly, what would they say about it?

dennis murphy: the police talked to the children the day they discovered ciara's body. dennis murphy: the kids confirmed that for at least some period of time, mom and dad had been inside the apartment without them. dennis murphy: here they are, talking to a forensic interviewer a few days later. dennis murphy: jarod's six-year-old daughter says she got restless and did what six-year-olds do. she says she got out of the car and went to the door, lifted the mail slot, and peered inside. she told investigators she saw her dad.

dennis murphy: she says he told her to go back to the car, but she says she peeked in again. investigators were interested in what she saw and what she says she heard. dennis murphy: her brother says he got out of the car, too, and he also heard the laughter. or was it something else? dennis murphy: screaming. what in the world was going on inside ciara's home

while the children waited outside? andrea canning: coming up-- if you're asking, did i think he did it, it was an absolute no. andrea canning: a new relationship for jarod, and new questions about those interviews with the children. those statements that come out later are, in my opinion, conditioning. what do you mean? i mean that the police are suggesting something for the children to say. andrea canning: when "dateline" continues. ♪♪ stay ahead of your moderate-to-severe eczema. and show off clearer skin and less itch with dupixent, the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists, that helps heal your skin from within. 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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