inollege, i didn't have friends. i stayed to myself. i went to my room looking behind my shoulder to see if somebody was following me. andrea canning (voiceover): time passed, and iliana married, had daughters of her own, but she still thinks about her friend often. do you feel like erika is watching over you? yes, every day. i miss her every day. it's been so many years, and i miss my friend every day. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm andrea canning. thank you for watching. [theme music]

issue just doesn't make sense. a vibrant young woman stalked by a killer. >> found dead by her boyfriend. >> my brother was just a mess. he was devastated. >> the most ominous clue. >> up on the wall to the left of where heidi's body was, was a number one. >> she is number one, and get ready, because here comes trouble. >> exactly. >> it was not a break-in. the windows, the door, nothing was broken. did the killer have a key? >> the question always was, how did the person get into the house? >> a decade later, in a state 1500 miles away, detectives finally found their answer. >> got a dna hit. >> and more questions. >> we knew there was more to this story than just coming from colorado to commit a murder and go back home again.

>> did someone closer to home want her dead? >> you are 99% sure he had something to do with it, but there's no smoking gun. so many secrets still to be revealed. hello and woman to dateline. she had been living with her boyfriend in a baltimore suburb for two years. there were whispers of a wedding. those plans were tragically cut short when steven arrived home to a scene that was both brutal and bizarre. heidi sprawled on the living room floor. who would want her dead, and

why? here is dennis murphy with, indiscretion. >> she was a bubbly woman looking for a clean break. heidi, a baltimore pool league ace had endured some tough times. but now the shots were starting to drop. a steady job as a receptionist. a boyfriend she could take to meet the parents. talk even of a summer wedding in las vegas. and then, it was game over for heidi. just like that. any parent opens the door, there are two cops standing there, you know it's not good. >> it was a murder case that wasn't going to be solved in a

few hours or a few weeks or even a dozen years. the heidi murder investigation would go stone cold until one day, in a matter of hours really, everything became clear. and how strange and terrifying it all turned out to be. when donna and walter burnette met at a church social, talk of a family even preceded the engagement ring. >> he used to scare the girls away by saying he wanted 12 children. i said wow, i always thought i wanted to have 12 children. he said, oh my god. >> they didn't have 12, but this devout roman catholic couple did raise their five in a baltimore, maryland, suburb. heidi, the only girl in a sea of brothers. >> when i hear that, i think poor heidi. growing up with all those boys. >> she wasn't treated like she was a little princess, that's for sure. >> heidi grew up to be a happy,

outgoing, athletic girl surrounded by friends. it was a noisy, loving family with strict rules. everyone at the table for dinner, mass on sunday, and no back talk. heidi's brothers, frank and harold -- >> true your mom was known to wash out a potty mouth with a bar of soap, or is that a metaphor? >> i got it. >> true, yup. they were strict. >> as she grew into her late teens, heidi started to bristle under her parent's strict house rules. by 19, she, the next to youngest, became the first to leave the family nest. but the grass wasn't greener. right away, reality offered up a deadbeat roommate and a succession of low paying jobs that evaporated like the morning dew. yet, she could count on her girlfriends to buoy her up. it was one night she caught the eye of a guy holding a cue

stick. it was steven cook. >> they were shooting against one another. he noticed heidi in the bar. the first night, they went home together and three days later, they moved in together. so it was really fast. >> steven was five years old enthat are heidi. his sister said he could be quiet and shy, but always wanted to be around heidi. >> they did everything together. i don't think they really did much without each other. >> in 1998, steven and heidi moved to this rental townhouse in maryland. steven's dad says after living together for nearly two years, the couple was talking about taking the next step. >> was it your understanding they were going to get hitched? >> yes, in vegas. that was their plans, it never changed. he loved her. >> the timing seemed good. heidi got a promotion.

she was finally a 9:00 to 5:00 after years of temping. >> she was just getting settled in when things happened. >> strange things that rattled heidi. in april of that year, it appeared someone was trying to break into their townhouse. there was chipping around a lock on their basement door. >> looked like the doors had been monkeyed with. >> not long after the mischief on the locks, a stranger knocked on the front door, saying he was forming a neighborhood block watch. he scared heidi, that she told her friends and described the stranger as african american with a tattoo. steven demanded new locks and keys from the townhouse management. they were installed on april 19, 2000, the very next evening was when it happened. >> are you sending somebody? send somebody. >> stay with me, okay? >> an officer dispatched to their home saw heidi on the living room floor. her boyfriend leaned up against the wall cradling her and

crying uncontrollably. her throat so severeically slashed, her blood dripped through to the basement. and something else scrolled on the wall in red lipstick was the number one. coming up, a possible suspect? >> i'm thinking maybe this is our guy, butcher, heidi was killed with a knife. >> when "dateline "continues. by dermatologists and allergists, that helps heal your child's 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. ask your child's eczema specialist about dupixent. alright, we got your home and auto bundled ask your child's eczema and you saved hundreds. oh, that's nice, with the economy and all.

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he has her wrapped in his arms. >> steven cook, heidi's live-in boyfriend of nearly two years told the arriving officer he came home that night only to find an apparently lifeless heidi in their living room. nonetheless, he says he tried cpr, at 8:58 p.m., he called 911. >> are you sending somebody? >> they're on the way, sir. i want you to stay with me. >> i have to go with her. >> baltimore county homicide detectives, al and gary arrived later that night. it appeared to them heidi had been strangled. it was obvious her throat was

deeply cut with something sharp- edged. probably a knife. when you go to a scene like that, detective, does it explain itself on what happened here? >> it was an odd scene. in the living room of the house, was no real furniture to speak of. up on the wall to the left of where heidi's body was, was a number one written on the wall. so, found that obviously to be odd. >> she's number one, and get ready, because here comes trouble. >> exactly. >> those first few hours left investigators wondering, was this the first signature of a budding serial killer? was there going to be a number two or was it something else? >> the house was tossed, ransacked. you have a potential motive of burglary and the other motive on the wall, of a serial murder. >> 20 miles away, walter and donna got a knock on the door at their maryland home.

it was the police. >> he says, you have a daughter, heidi? yes, you know, and i said what's the matter? you know, was she in an accident? he said, heidi is dead. >> it is quite a shock. i started pinching myself. i have to wake up from this dream. this has to be a dream. >> our whole world just changed. >> a short time later, steven's sister, kim, got a knock, too. >> i remember running to the bathroom and getting sick and i was kind -- i couldn't do anything. >> heidi's boyfriend, steven, had been down at the police station the whole time being interviewed. officer snapped this picture. his clothes bloodied from trying to perform cpr and cradling heidi's bleeding body. >> how much did you know about him? >> not a lot. they were in a relationship and relationship was good. >> husbands and boyfriends are always persons of interest.

but homicide investigators say steven was cooperative. he told them how after his shift ended at a local lowes, he picked up heidi from her job in the care they shared, a 1994 red honda civic. it was 5:45 p.m., he thought, when he dropped her off at their home. it was, he said, the last time he saw her alive. the detectives put together a time line for the boyfriend who run a bunch of errands after dropping heidi off. a stop at the atm, and oil change at a jiffy lube.

after about six hours of police questioning, steven went home. his sister remembers her being a wreck. >> i could certainly tell my brother was just a mess. he was devastated. i could see in his face that he was, just looking at him, that he was crying. >> in the days that followed, al and other investigators felt a serial killer unlikely. the robbery gone bad theory, because there were no signs of a forced entry. but dna was found under heidi's fingernails, presumably from her killer. their hopes were soon dashed when the sample turned out to be virtually useless. detective gary chiles. the technology, you couldn't separate it. >> but detective mire did have one suspect he was very

interested in finding. that suspicious neighborhood block watch person. the dark skinned man with a tattoo who scared heidi at her front door. and one person of interest was a local butcher. terri worked with steven's sister at a safeway miles from heidi's house. >> i'm thinking, okay, he's african american. so i'm thinking maybe this is our guy. butcher, heidi was killed with a knife. >> investigators theorized a connection through steven's sister. >> they are looking for somebody that comes to the door. did you go to heidi's door and knock on the door? saying you are from the block watch association? >> i don't know where heidi lived at. no. never knocked on her door. >> the cops wouldn't just accept the butcher's denials and be done with them. there were reasons to dig deeper, including an irregularity on a time card. a time had been changed on one specific day. >> the only day of the month,

everything else is machines? >> i have him not being able to account for himself the day of the murder. >> there was something else, heidi herself said the suspicious block watch person had a tattoo on his left arm. >> do you have a tattoo on your arm? >> on your left arm? >> yes. >> let me ask you, did you kill heidi? >> definitely not. >> officials weren't done yet with the butcher. and heidi's boyfriend, steven cook, remained a suspect, too, despite his receipt heavy alibi. >> a lot of times, starts to go by, doesn't it? >> too much. >> at first, months go by. then years. more than a decade. no arrest. but there would be one advantage to the passage of time. breakthroughs in dna technology and it finally gave police a suspect. who it was, shocked everyone. >> coming up, it's always the husband or the boyfriend, right? but, that did not seem to be

where this investigation was going. >> the headline here, steven cook is not the guy. >> right. >> when dateline continues. with vaseline, hydrated skin is just the beginning. level up to even toned, radiant skin. new vaseline radiant x body lotion with 1% niacinamide. level up to even toned skin. what are folks 60 and older learning these days? new perspectives! ♪♪ how to fix things. ♪♪ fun recip... (high pitched sound) (high pitched sound) (high pitched sound)

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♪ ♪ [ gasps ] you're green. i am. oh! ahh!! [ laughter ] don't tell me you have nothing to wear? you've been glinda-fied. the wonderful wizard of oz, summons you to the emerald city. think of what we could do... together. as the years rolled by, the case grew colder and colder. he was promoted out of homicide, but he never forgot the case. >> even when he was in another unit, he would come back up to

the homicide unit and go through the file. >> never got squirreled away? >> no, never. he never let it go. >> heidi's grieving family was trying to get on with their lives. remembering her on her birthday by eating her favorite shrimp alfredo. family events were hardly the same. >> you couldn't fully enjoy these special occasions because you're always painfully aware. >> you have an empty chair. >> she should be there and she's not there. >> heidi's boyfriend, steven cook, was trying to move on with his life as well. he married, had a child, and landed a steady job with veteran's affairs. >> he has a normal life for the first time in a long while. >> he does, things are looking pretty good for him. >> in 2011, eleven years after heidi's murder, meyer rejoined the homicide unit and once again, cracked the file. this time, he and veteran baltimore county detective, gary chiles got an idea.

>> dna technology had progressed and we knew now that there's a possibility that heidi's fingernails may contain some physical evidence. >> so what's the thought? let's run it again? >> the thought was, to resubmit. >> to their surprise, the criminal data base spit out a match. >> got a dna hit. i couldn't believe it. >> but the hit wasn't for anyone in heidi's known circle. even in her geography. it was a name completely off the radar from a state over 1500 miles away. >> they tell me it's this guy, alexander bennett from colorado. i'm like, wow, that's not good. >> baffled detectives started to dig. they called the colorado authorities and learned bennett was an unlikely suspected killer. in his early years, he showed promise as an opera singer.

♪ performing recitals and winning a scholarship to the manhattan school of music. after moving back to colorado, though, he had gotten into some small-time trouble. but then, he did something just plain crazy. >> he is a pretty talented guy. he had some issues with people he hung with. one of these issues is with a friend of his named grant lewis. >> in 2003, bennett and grant lewis was arrested in a scheme. they called 911 and said that a friend of bennett's wanted to bomb the courthouse. but they went further, building a real bomb and planting it in his house. the bomb squad was dispatched and that friend hauled down to the station for an interview. >> it is a serious crime. one of detectives ultimately lets him listen to the 911 call. within days, lewis and bennett

confessed to the whole thing. building the bomb, breaking into the house, even uploading bomb related materials to the buddy's computer to ensure he would be arrested. also, that friend who bennett said beat him up would notice they made off with his jeep. >> it's a hoax. this elaborate caper to plant an explosive device, so they can steal the car? >> yes. >> my word is harebrain. what's yours? >> double harebrain. >> alexander was required to give dna. now years later, that dna was tieing him to heidi's murder back east in baltimore. for baltimore prosecutors, the dna was an entizing lead, but far from definitive proof. it was enough to say it looks like it came from him, but we can't say it's his. there is more investigation to do. >> so the detectives went to work looking for another

connective between alexander bennett and the maryland murder. all the usual computer searches failed. but, when sergeant meyer had the maryland state police offline data base. >> i get this phone call from the trooper and he tells me, he said, i got alexander bennett, somebody running a wanted check on him, march 30 of 2000. >> a maryland officer? >> in maryland. i'm thinking, holy cow. >> three weeks before heidi's murder, an officer had spotted alexander bennett walking down a baltimore highway. >> a wanted check is run by a patrolman, that check remains in the computer for ever. >> how important was that? >> incredibly important. >> detectives meyer and chiles hopped a flight to denver. it was time to meet this alexander bennett. coming up, a suspect's story. a surprise to even these experienced detectives. >> i tell you, that's strange. >> that's why -- it is strange.

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hi, i'm richard louie. a hack of the e-mail system exposing messages from january to september of this year. law enforcement and capital officials are investigating, but the identity of the hacker and the exact timing remain unclear. and president-elect trump has named chris wright ceo of liberty energy as his pick to lead the department of energy. a strong supporter of fossil fuels, wright is expected to boost oil and gas production and address rising electricity demand. for now, back to "dateline." welcome back to dateline. police finally got their first break in the heidi bernadzikowski case. detectives could not figure out

the connection between two people that lived more than 1500 miles apart. they hopped on a plane to ask their suspect. once again, here's dennis murphy with "indiscretion." rph >> in january 2012, two baltimore county detectives flew to denver, colorado, their mission to track down alexander bennett, the man whose dna had been tied to heidi's murder eleven years after the fact. >> dna is a good piece of evidence. we want to find out if alexander bennett is a part of this. >> a day after their plane was wheels down, detective chiles was face to face with their target. >> at first, the detective kept it vague, trying to confirm that bennett had indeed been in baltimore at the time of the murder, the year 2000. bennett said he was. he spent about a month on the streets there after being ditched by some friends on their way to a concert. >> i tell you, that's strange.

>> that's why it is strange. it is strange. >> you cannot remember anybody you stayed with or you hooked up with? >> detective played his hand. layed out the reason for his visit. >> this girl's fingernails were taken at the time of her death. and under her fingernails is your dna. there's no denying it. >> but bennett did have an explanation and it had nothing to do with committing murder in a house. >> he remembers a confrontation that he had in a bus stop with a female in maryland, in baltimore, right around the time of the murder. >> i got kind of scared, because you know, i was trying to fight back. i'm not sure. >> the detective didn't buy it and thought he used bennett's story to his advantage. he presented bennett with several photographs. a technique police use to identify criminals. this time, he was asking a

killer to identify the victim. could bennett pick out the picture? >> he knows he can't give this explanation about having this fight in the bus stop and pick some other girl. so our belief is that if we showed him these pictures, he will pick her, and he does. >> kind of looks like her. >> there was one more crucial detail. remember the neighborhood block watch guy who frightened heidi? the one with a distinctive tattoo? >> do you have any tattoos on your left arm? >> yeah. >> can we see them? >> when i saw the tattoo on his arm and he picked heidi's picture out, i knew it was him. >> he was the block watch guy. >> but they didn't have enough evidence to book him, so they decided to call in bennett's buddy from that crazy bomb plot grant lewis, to see what he knew. and lewis was nervous. >> he was evasive about his friend's time in baltimore.

the detective didn't buy his story. because lewis had an outstanding warrant, the colorado authorities arrested him. the next day, detective chiles kept pressing. >> i think you don't want to tell me certain things because you don't want to hurt a friend of yours. what i'm trying to explain to you, nothing you say hurts him, because what is done, is done. >> at last, grant lewis cracked. he divulged a drunken conversation the two had down by a river after bennett got back. >> he said i heard someone, and i said i don't want to know. he said, i think someone's dead. i think that's how he said it. >> that was it. corroboration. 12 years after heidi's murder, alexander bennett was charged. he was extradited to maryland to stand trial. heidi's brother, frank, got the news from their dad. >> it was another one of those things that just brings you to tears, just because all that comes flooding back in.

such a great feeling to feel like finally, something has happened. >> steven cook's family was relieved as well. there had been such a cloud of suspicion around him for so long, news that someone else was arrested for his girlfriend's murder felt like vindication. >> i was just ecstatic. wow, this is great. >> this is relief. >> finally. it's not steven cook. >> i was so excited for my brother. i was just so happy. he can put this behind him. >> two years later in march, 2014, both steven and heidi's families converged on the baltimore county courthouse for the start of alexander bennett's trial. grant lewis was headed there, too. he was flown in to testify. >> he's going to be your star witness? >> absolutely. the idea that bennett killed heidi all on his own never made sense. they held out hope that bennett would come clean. but he maintained his innocence. then came the morning of jury

selection. >> gary and i are out getting breakfast and gary's phone goes off and he looks down at it, he looks up at me, and he's like, alex wants to talk. i'm like, wow, here we go. >> a heart to heart with his mother convinced bennett to spill everything. prosecutor, garrett glennon. >> she basically told alexander, if he didthis, it was time to come clean. jesus would forgive him. >> it appeared that way. >> bennett confessed that he killed heidi, but he hadn't acted alone. he had an accomplice. and that person was who else? but the state's star witness. >> he and grant lewis, as in the bomb scheme, developed an idea, contract murders. >> he was the brains of this operation. >> lack of brains. >> grant lewis was sitting in a hotel room preparing to testify. now detectives brought him in and turned the tables opposed

him. >> grant, you're in the middle of this thing. >> at first, lewis denied involvement, but as the detective revealed details from alexander's confession, he started to open up. >> did you send him to baltimore? >> i didn't send him to baltimore, but i know more about this than i've said. >> lewis admitted to being involved in a murder for hire scam. but said bennett was never supposed to kill anyone. only to get the up front money before turning the person who hired them over to the fbi. >> did you believe that story? >> not in the least. >> so now do you read grant lewis' rights? >> yes. and the cuffs went on. >> but there was still one major detail left. who hired them to kill heidi? >> what really happened the day heidi died? detectives are about to get a first-person account from the killers. coming up. >> i was making sure that she

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type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. ♪ ♪ i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. i'm lowering my risk. adults lost up to 14 pounds. i lost some weight. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. don't take ozempic® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop ozempic® 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 include pancreatitis. gallbladder problems may occur. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking ozempic® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may increase low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems.

living with type 2 diabetes? ask about the power of 3 with ozempic®. for more than a decade, detectives tried to untangle the mystery of 24-year-old heidi burnette's murder. on the morning of his own murder trial, alexander bennett unexpectedly confessed to a plot. he was really a cash for hire hitman. >> you all right? >> bennett agreed to a deal.

tell the truth to investigators and avoid the possibility of getting sentenced to life in prison. interviewed by detective chiles, bennett layed out the bone chilling details of heidi's murder. >> grant was discussing about receiving money to kill somebody. >> according to bennett, he and lewis had been brainstorming ways to raise seed money for a nightclub. so lewis placed a coded message online, advertising discreet house cleaning services. >> by discreet house cleaning, understand that to mean they were hitmen. bennett says a client did respond to the ad and offered $60,000 to kill heidi. >> i know from the client, from the person, you know, emphasized to grant and grant

emphasized to mideast, it needed to look like an accident. >> lewis, the middleman, communicated with a client and organized everything. in late march, 2000, bennett arrived in baltimore from denver. he says he waited for the signal to act. in the meantime, he scoped out his victim, breaking into heidi's home by tampering with the locks and posing as that neighborhood watch volunteer who so scared heidi. >> did you remember her answering the door? >> it was just that one time. >> on april 20, bennett says he heard through lewis that the plan was a go. after getting into heidi's house, he hid behind the front door. >> now, my plan was to just try to get her and still make it look like an accident, you know, like maybe snap ore neck

or something to make it look like she fell down the stairs. >> heidi walked through the door and bennett said he pounced. >> when she came in, she saw me. panicked, i panicked and rushed at her at the front and you know, try to muffle her screen. i was making sure that she was alive. i didn't know. that's when i had the knife and -- to make sure, had cut her throat. >> then bennett said he wiped the place down and to throw forensics off, he ransacked the bedroom and used heidi's lipstick to make that number one on the living room wall. after that, bennett says, he fled. >> that's it. poor heidi is dead. >> heidi is dead. >> detective chiles pressed, who was the client? he showed bennett a photo array

of six suspects. assistant state attorney, matt. >> he immediately separates four photographs and says it's not these four. he is left with two. and he takes a couple of moments and stares at them. and eventually, he says yes, this is him, i remember him. >> this one. i recognize him as the boyfriend. >> bennett picked out steven cook. heidi's boyfriend was arrested for first-degree murder. >> deep in our hearts, we all had the feeling that he had something to do with it. >> steven's trial began in june 2015, he pleaded not guilty. glennon had a task of convincing a jury that he was capable. rely on the word of one man,

the killer of bennett. >> your case was going to rise and fall on that. >> he was going to be the rise witness against steven cook. >> bennett told jurors the same story he told investigators. how he killed heidi. video cameras weren't permitted, but bennett's testimony was audio taped. he decided to confess, he says, because of his faith and for heidi's family. >> i wanted to be a human being. i wanted to give a family some type of peace. i wanted to have faith enough and to grow up into a man and to accept and take responsibility for what i did. >> but the question still remained, if steven cook had planned heidi's murder, why had he done it? according to steven, they were in love and planning to marry. but some of heidi's friends testified she was so miserable in the relationship, she was preparing to leave. >> she had asked a friend of hers for a small loan for an easy storage facility in an

effort to move out. >> the real reason for the murder, the prosecutor told the jury, was pure and simple greed. $700,000. two months before heidi's death, steven and heidi had taken out hefty life insurance policies on each other. >> do i wonder why an hourly employee is buying -- >> you should. >> almost a million dollars worth of coverage? >> as we explained, they had one car between them, which was hers. they were no the married, they didn't have children. they didn't have a lot of belongings. there wasn't anything to ensure. >> once they buy the policy, it's tick tock. >> heidi had no idea what was going to happen when her boyfriend dropped her home that night. according to investigators, steven knew there was a hired killer in the house. >> he set the wheels in motion. >> driving her home to her death. >> he knew what was in that house. he knew what he was doing.

doesn't get any worse than that. >> the defense would have an answer for those insurance policies and everything else. and the person to explain it all to the jury would be steven cook himself. >> coming up, the defense. just how strong was the prosecution's case? >> all you have is a confessed murders words, that's all. >> when "dateline" continues. oa 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. long after guests leave, viruses and bacteria linger. air fresheners add a scent. but only lysol air sanitizer

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alexander bennett, the admitted killer on the stand had spilled out a gruesome attack on the murder heidi. hired him via the internet to kill his girlfriend. the motive, the boyfriend wanted her life insurance payout. $700,000. but steven's defense attorneys conceded nothing. they thought the prosecution had a weak case overall and one big problem in particular. its star witness, alexander bennett. >> bennett had something to gain by changing his story. >> plea deal. >> tara and breon johnson were the defense attorneys. before the confession, bennett faced life in prison without the chance for parole. once he cut a deal with the state to testify, he could look forward one day to walking free. >> so he is singing for his

supper here. >> exactly. the less time he would spend in jail for his own deeds. >> another glaring hole in the prosecution's case was the lack of any physical evidence tieing steven to the crime. the computer in the house that steven and heidi shared was never taken in as evidence. >> it's a digital crime at heart. >> not in this case. >> not in this case. >> what happened? >> heidi and steve did have a fairly new desktop computer. that was never seized by the police. >> we don't know what that hard drive would have shown? >> no. >> so your guys being charged with a contract killing, but nobody can produce the contract? >> no. >> not only did investigators not have any computer records, they didn't have a record of bennett's plane ticket, phone records, credit card receipts, eyewitnesses who saw bennett and cook together. not even the murder weapon. steven's sister, kim. >> all you have is a confessed murder's words, that's all. there's not one piece of evidence in this whole entire

trial that points to steven other than the confessed murder and these detectives with, oh, their belief. >> and when it came to motive, they turned the case on its head. the defense version. this isn't about steven searching for a contract killer online, but rather heidi looking for love on a dating website and finding alexander bennett. who surprised her by showing up in baltimore. >> we thought that he met her online, came here to be with her, and she rejected him and he killed her. it made sense to us. it made sense with the forensics. it made sense with the physical evidence. >> to back up the theory, the defense pointed to this police photo of heidi's keys and bag. he jumped her when she walked in the door, how did her door keys and makeup bag end up on the kitchen table in another room? >> so the bag on the kitchen table is not a trivial thing for you? >> i think she made it to the kitchen. i don't think he attacked her

at the front door. >> and if prosecutors thought bennett was the foundation of their case, the defense felt it had its own star witness, steven cook. he would take the stand. >> the bottom line is, by this time, we had come to the conclusion that it's bennett versus cook. it's who you believe. >> for a second, i looked at her, like what in the world is going on? >> steven told finding heidi, the love of his life, slumped on their living room floor that night. >> i held her in my arms and was rocking her, crying, just calling her name and all. >> steven testified the couple were planning on a future together. he was surprised when others said that they were finished. >> you keep saying you and heidi are going to get married. we heard from other individuals that she was thinking about leaving you. >> i never heard anything like that. until now. >> they were also planning for kids, and that was the reason he wanted a big insurance policy on himself. >> we were going to start a

family. we were going to have children. i wanted to make sure there was enough money for heidi in case i died. >> he added heidi wanted insurance for herself. he never pushed her to get it. >> heidi asked me if it was all right if she could get $700 worth of life insurance. i said fine. >> the defense added heidi was actively nudging along the life insurance policy application. she faxed over final documents days before her death. it is a fact of the case, even heidi's own brothers, harold and frank, can't quite account for. >> there are persuasive stories that she was going to leave him. yet, there's also compelling evidence that she was trying to get this insurance policy up and running. she's active in getting the insurance going. >> yeah, that's the biggest mystery to date. that's one of the things we don't fully understand. >> as for the murder, steven flatly denied ever meeting alexander bennett, and said he had nothing to do with heidi's

death. >> you heard through testimony that you arranged for heidi's murder via the internet. did you do that? >> not at all. not at all. i didn't have anything at all to do with heidi's murder. >> why are you testifying? >> i'm testifying because i want my family and friends and i want heidi's family and friends to know the truth and for 15 years, they haven't heard the truth. for 15 years, i've been blamed for something i didn't do. i didn't kill heidi. >> both sides rested, which argument would jurors believe? the state and the key witness, alexander bennett, the acknowledged murder, or steven cooke, the man with a good job, middle class lifestyle, and father of a seven-year-old son? the jury was out, but steven cooke's sister knew the verdict she wanted to hear. >> he's not guilty. they are going say not guilty. they are going to say not guilty. >> after a day and a half of deliberations, that wasn't the jury verdict. >> guilty or not guilty?

>> guilty. >> steven cooke was found guilty of first-degree murder. hiring a long distance killer to murder his girlfriend. >> i felt like i lost my breath. i was in shock. i could not believe that's what they said. i remember screaming, oh no. >> thank you lord. prayers are answered. it is relief, joy, and happiness, and also sadness because we still don't have heidi. >> grant lewis, the denver middleman was sentenced to life in prison. alexander bennett was sentenced to 30 years as part of a plea agreement which he testified against lewis and steven cooke, who was also sentenced to life in prison without parole in september 2015. and remember the butcher, terry, police have totally cleared him of any involvement and in fact, offered him an

apology. it isn't everything. it does mean something. [ applause ] >> as for heidi's family, their days are all about the kids and grandchildren. and parents who believe devoutly in a here after, always remember, of course, heidi. >> did you talk to heidi? >> oh yes, i did. >> what did you tell her? >> i said sweety, we finally got the answers we have been praying for and justice will be served. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. good morning, and welcome to this sunday edition