it honors his commitment to the jessee case. tom dove: it means more to me than any other plaque or award i've ever received in my life. keith morrison (voiceover): in retirement, tom planned to set up a shelter for stray dogs. the urge to rescue runs deep. stop, you goofy dog. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. [theme music] . i'm craig melvin. and i'm natalie morales. and this is "dateline." craig melvin: with a life full of mystery to match. thomas testa: she was a stunner, physically. she was able to say "jump" and the men would say "how high." craig melvin: married to a wealthy lawyer. he always said, she has this hold over me.

craig melvin: but there was someone she seemed even closer to. they bought matching underwear together. craig melvin: they shared everything. they're eating together. they're sleeping in the same bed together. she's living at her house. craig melvin: did they also share a deadly secret? thomas testa: it was a love triangle, and one of them had to go. craig melvin: but was it her idea? craig melvin: or hers? craig melvin: and who would take the fall for evil? [theme music] hello, and welcome to "dateline." attorney larry mcnabney had been living fast and loose, but things were finally slowing down for him.

he had a thriving law practice, a wife he adored, and plenty of money. then, a new friend entered the picture, and a love triangle took shape. the murder was a whodunit involving three tangled lives. one of them was hiding a secret identity. but to untangle this mystery, police needed to know-- who was the mastermind pulling the strings? here's keith morrison with "poison." [music playing] keith morrison: it was september 11, 2001. just about everybody knows where they were that awful day, like the glamorous trio that was traveling north through california's yosemite national park. even as the rest of the world's attention was focused on new york city, they were intent on their own urgent needs, their desires, their fears, their deadly love triangle. so they probably didn't appreciate the passing wonders,

the astonishing cliffs, the waterfalls, the giant sequoias, any more than the one in the back seat, through fading eyes, saw anything at all. here is one of them. his name was larry mcnabney, and he was a tall, handsome man. a well-known and respected attorney from nevada. a personal injury specialist. made buckets of money. loved the big life. loved being in control. there was never a hair out of place. there wasn't dust on his desk. his pen was always in the same spot. keith morrison: larry's daughter tavia was crazy about him. in awe of his type a personality, his joy of life, his courtroom presence. not an ounce of shyness. he commanded the courtroom. i've been a trial lawyer for over 20 years. keith morrison: larry's longtime friend, fred atcheson. fred atcheson: he could open 50 files

a month in personal injury litigation, which made him a rich man. keith morrison: but nobody's perfect, of course. and for all of larry's unquestioned talents, the man carried around with him a raft of corresponding demons. tavia: i know he had a difficult childhood, and that a lot of your personality is shaped when you're a child. keith morrison: and, as an adult, larry struggled with alcohol and women. he married and divorced several times. tavia: it was like a void he was trying to fill, and he never could fill it. keith morrison: in fact, from time to time, larry had gone on benders and just vanished, weeks at a time. everybody would worry and wonder. but sure enough, he'd show up again. i had a t-shirt made up once, yellow with black letters saying, "where is larry mcnabney?"

keith morrison: but then, finally, larry, well into his 40s, seemed to get his act together for real. he set up a new office in las vegas. everything clicked. possibly for an attractive reason, as tavia discovered. i went by the office one day, and he said, i have someone i want you to me. he said, this is elisa. keith morrison: elisa, 17 years younger than larry. and he was in love. tavia: and he said, she's just fun and vivacious, and she's young, and it's just, we have a good time. keith morrison: tavia didn't stand in the way. she wanted her dad to be happy. tavia: and you welcome the new person in. it's my dad, so i didn't want anything that would inhibit me from spending time with him. and he really cared for this woman. he did. keith morrison: larry and elisa thrived, both personally

and professionally. they got married. elisa became his office manager. they opened up a firm in sacramento, california. another big success. so they hired a young, attractive college student named sarah dutra, the outgoing daughter of deeply religious parents, who soon became a friend as well as a sort of personal and office assistant. and together, elisa and larry enjoyed the high life. she was into the same thing that larry loved and style. and they went out and bought viper cars together. keith morrison: they also shared larry's newest passion-- quarter horses. fred atcheson: larry would show horses and show himself, which fit in with larry looking good and feeling good. keith morrison: larry could do more of what he liked while young sarah pitched in to help elisa run the business end of larry's law practice. just about perfect, though larry's friend fred

was a bit of a stick in the mud about it. fred atcheson: the fact that she took control of his business allowed him to engage in drinking and partying. which is not really what larry needed. no, he didn't need that, because his appetites would run amok. keith morrison: so when, after nearly seven years of marriage, larry suddenly dropped out of sight, close friends weren't extremely alarmed, at first. after all, larry had gone on drunken benders before. but this time, as days stretched into weeks, it seemed different, extremely odd. ginger miller started working at the law firm as a secretary in september, 2001, just about the time larry went missing. elisa kept the business going in his absence, but couldn't seem to settle on what the staff should tell people about larry. i was told to tell his kids and different people in his family different things. so i was told that he was golfing or skiing, someplace they probably

couldn't get a hold of him at. so it was all obvious bs. yeah, yeah. and then, if it was a client, i would have to say that he was working on the deposition, he was with another client, and he had to fly out. keith morrison: larry's kids didn't know what to think. tavia: and i said to my brother, this doesn't sound right. why do the stories keep changing? keith morrison: october arrived, still no larry. thanksgiving. and december, he was always with family on his birthday. but still no sign of larry mcnabney. i didn't get a good feeling. and what i worried about was, had something gone wrong, and dad was scared and he took off? keith morrison: had larry offended the wrong person? tavia had a friend in law enforcement who told her-- you have to look at it two ways. either, if he's in hiding, he's not going to be happy you found him because, obviously, he's hiding for a reason. or something's happened to him.

keith morrison: meanwhile, back at the office, ginger was hearing things, worrisome things, until she just couldn't keep it in anymore. i went to the sheriff's department and wasn't sure what to do, so i just asked for a piece of paper, and i slid it under the window. detectives got her note all right and thus figured they should have a chat with elisa mcnabney. but by the time they went looking for her, just like larry, she was gone. who exactly was elisa mcnabney, and what did she know about her husband's disappearance? the investigation heats up when police uncover the dark secrets in elisa's past. coming up. thomas testa: she was a person out of a '40s film noir movie. she was a stunner, physically. but more importantly, she had a control over men that just amazed me. craig melvin: when "dateline" continues.

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keith morrison: by the dawn of 2002, while the rest of us were getting used to a post-9/11 new normal, it seemed pretty clear that something very abnormal must have happened to that successful personal injury attorney, larry mcnabney. nobody had seen him in five months. he'd never been on a bender for this long. and now his wife elisa was missing too.

by this time, ginger had dropped off her note at the sheriff's office, and detectives were poking around in the abandoned remains of larry's law practice, talking to employees like sarah dutra, the attractive 21-year-old art student from sacramento state who worked at the mcnabney law firm as an office secretary. she brought her little dog ralph with her to the sheriff's office. sarah told the detectives that she and elisa had become close friends, and so she, sarah, certainly noticed how erratic elisa became after larry went missing. keith morrison: sarah confirmed what ginger miller said, that elisa kept changing her explanations for larry's whereabouts. and sarah said she saw elisa signing larry's name on checks and day-to-day business transactions.

keith morrison: in early january, 2002, said sarah, elisa planned a trip to arizona to attend a horse show, and, in the absence of larry, invited sarah to go along. keith morrison: but when sarah got to the airport, the ticket was not paid for. keith morrison: and that was that, said sarah. she hadn't heard from elisa since. keith morrison: thomas testa was the san joaquin county prosecutor. he had handled a number of missing persons cases. and so, when he heard about the case of larry and elisa mcnabney, he gravitated toward it.

thomas testa: he was an attorney with a caseload who just disappeared. this isn't someone who's a homeless person who just vanishes and you think, maybe they took a greyhound and went to nevada. keith morrison: testa began by taking a good, hard look at elisa. thomas testa: she was a person out of a '40s film noir movie, in that she was a stunner, physically. everyone said that. but more importantly, she had a control over men that just amazed me. she was able to say "jump" and the men would say "how high?" keith morrison: it certainly seemed true for larry, so said his old friend fred atcheson. fred atcheson: she was controlling him to the extent that she was keeping him away from his family and his former friends. did that include the relationship he had with you? no question about it. you found yourself shut out. yeah. keith morrison: so did larry's daughter, tavia. elisa completely kept me out of the picture, and i was devastated.

keith morrison: but why? why was elisa keeping larry away from his family and friends? what did she have to hide? he called me up once on the phone and said, fred, i don't know who she is. and, you know, i thought he meant, well, we don't really ever know who our spouses are deep down. and he said, no, i don't even know if this is who she is, if her name is what she says it is or anything. keith morrison: by then, said fred, larry had discovered ample reason to stop trusting elisa. he couldn't keep his wallet in his pants. he told you that? yeah. she would steal money out of his wallet. he had to hide his wallet in his own house. keith morrison: it turned out she was also stealing from the law firm. she'd ripped him off. for how much? any idea? over $100,000. keith morrison: larry told fred all about his troubles with elisa. and, yet, he kept her around. not like he hadn't divorced women before, but not this one.

tavia didn't get it. i mean, he always said, she has this hold over me. and i never understood what that meant. keith morrison: and larry's comments to fred about not knowing his wife, well, his suspicions turned out to be true. a little research told detectives that the real woman behind the name elisa mcnabney had a considerable criminal rap sheet, including stolen property, credit card fraud, grand theft. she really had a way of ingratiating herself with men and using her female charms, and she was very, very good at it. she was a true and true con artist. keith morrison: so was elisa just conning larry? surely, thought fred, she wouldn't have done away with him, would she? it wouldn't make any sense, even for a dedicated polecat to do anything like that because he was the goose that laid the golden egg. it wouldn't make any sense whatsoever.

it was a farm worker who noticed a flock of vultures or buzzards drifting above one of these grape fields. he saw something sticking out of the ground. and, soon, a missing person's case turned into something much, much worse, and considerably more bizarre. craig melvin: dateline returns after the break. (♪♪) stay ahead of your moderate- to-severe eczema and show off clearer skin and less itch, with dupixent. the number one prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists that helps heal your skin from within. severe allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for face, mouth, tongue, or throat swelling, wheezing or trouble breathing. tell your doctor of new or worsening eye problems like eye pain, vision changes, or blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma or other medicines without talking to your doctor.

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keith morrison: it was february, 2002. minimal ingredients. a remote vineyard up in the northern end of california's central valley. a farm worker checking the outer reaches of a giant field of grape. he couldn't help but see the big birds wheeling round and round. there's something out there. vultures were circling. he spotted the vultures, and so he went out to see what they were circling. keith morrison: investigator javier ramos and lieutenant robert bookwalter worked with the san joaquin county sheriff's department at the time. they were among the first on the scene. it must be some dead animal or something. well, i believe he said that. that's what he figured he was going to find. just some dead animal out there. keith morrison: but it wasn't a dead animal. the leg that was sticking out of the ground was decidedly human. and soon larry's daughter tavia heard the news.

tavia: i got a call from the sheriff's department. i felt myself get really hot and nauseous. and she said that the body they found, the dental records, it was him. and i remember, i never swear, and i yelled out this cuss word. and i slammed down the phone, and i just started shaking. it was a moment in time that i've never felt such anguish. it's still raw even now. it is because i thought-- i don't know. i thought-- i guess i was hoping he was in hiding. very fortunate that the body was discovered, and now we can move on and investigate it as a homicide. keith morrison: tavia's hopes crushed. police had ample proof now, five months after he vanished,

that larry had been murdered and left to rot out here in the middle of nowhere. there weren't any stab wounds or any bullet holes. keith morrison: there were no obvious signs of larry's cause of death, so they looked further and found something very unusual. the medical examiner was able to find out that the cause of death was poisoning with a horse tranquilizer. horse tranquilizer? yes. keith morrison: now, that was strange. but get this. he'd been dead for an extended period of time. however, the body had not decomposed consistent with the time frame that we were looking at. meaning? meaning that it was preserved, kept cold. one of the first things that i thought is, where would the person that killed larry, where would they have access to a walk-in refrigerator large enough to hold a human body? keith morrison: detectives wanted answers. and so did larry's daughter tavia, who sometimes believed she could hear her father in her sleep.

when i would go to sleep at night, i would wake up and i would hear him calling for me to help him. and i didn't know what to do. and i didn't understand what was going on. sometimes people get a sense of knowing either what or who was responsible. did you? i knew elisa had done something. keith morrison: larry's much-younger wife elisa. she vanished a few months after he did. and now that larry was dead, she was the prime suspect in his murder. sheriff's deputies and the fbi finally tracked her down in march, 2002, in florida. she cut her hair short and changed her name. keith morrison: elisa was now going by the name of shane ivaroni and was working as a paralegal at a florida law firm. elisa was a very smart person. she had, i believe, 140 iq. she could talk anybody into anything. right.

keith morrison: but now that she was finally exposed for the con artist she was, and was in custody, elisa decided to tell her story, starting, at long last, with her legal name. keith morrison: elisa, or laren, was from massachusetts and was a mother of two. she was wanted in florida for violating probation on a burglary and theft charge and had been on the run for nine years, she said. she eventually settled in las vegas where she met larry and, by this time, had changed her name to elisa. she told the police that she was at the horse show in arizona

when she found out police wanted to talk to her about larry. and so she took off in her jaguar. drove from state to state. keith morrison: so with the preliminaries out of the way, now came the big question. what happened to larry mcnabney? elisa, without hesitation and without even being asked, spilled the beans. keith morrison: there it was, no apology, no evasion. she simply confessed to killing her husband larry mcnabney. but, and this was a "but" with a capital b, that wasn't the whole story. not even close. craig melvin: coming up. did elisa have help?

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the federal government is sending so-called drone detectors to new york state following a request from local lawmakers. it comes after weeks of drone settings across the northeast including one that closed the close of the new york airport. secretary of state antony blinken said the u.s. has made direct contact with serious rebel leaders. a joint statement called for a more peaceful future for the nation following the ouster of the assad family. for now, back to dateline. in a california vineyard. it would have seemed like a straightforward case if not for what she told investigators next. elisa mcnabney was a killer all right, but did she act alone?

here again is keith morrison with "poison." [music playing] keith morrison: there is a purity to confession, a real cleansing of the soul. and now, after months on the lam, elisa mcnabney, a.k.a. laren renee sims, et cetera, et cetera, was finally in custody and offloading the secrets of a lifetime. didn't hold back. yes, she killed larry, her husband of nearly seven years, she said. but it wasn't her idea. keith morrison: she said? who was this other woman who pushed elisa to commit murder? it turned out, detectives had already talked with her. remember sarah dutra, the young secretary, elisa's friend who came in with her little dog and had been so helpful to detectives after larry

and elisa disappeared? now, elisa was saying that killing larry was sarah's idea. keith morrison: elisa told the story this way. larry was a heavy drinker and drug user. he was abusive, she claimed, and she feared for her life. one day, she said, she confided in her young friend sarah, and sarah said there was just one thing to do-- kill larry mcnabney. now, in this three-hour-long interview, elisa went into detail after gruesome detail of how she and sarah did it. elisa and larry were at a horse show in los angeles, she said. and sarah flew down to meet them, or rather to meet elisa since larry didn't like sarah, said elisa.

keith morrison: that was september 9, 2001. according to elisa, larry had already passed out after imbibing a little horse tranquilizer on his own, for fun. so sarah decided, according to elisa, to just give him more, and no one would ever find out. keith morrison: well, larry slept, said elisa. she and sarah squirted drops of horse tranquilizer into his mouth, but larry didn't die. instead, the next day, on september 10, larry got up, showed his horse, and then went right back to bed.

keith morrison: but he was so heavily drugged, he couldn't walk. keith morrison: this, by the way, was september 11, 2001. everyone else in the known world preoccupied elsewhere. well, elisa and sarah drove north through california with larry slowly dying in the back seat of the truck. keith morrison: so, she said, they drove on.

they thought larry would die in the car, but he didn't. so when they finally made it back to larry at elisa's home near sacramento, larry was slipping in and out of consciousness, still alive. keith morrison: that was the morning of september 12.

keith morrison: they stuffed larry's body in the refrigerator while they decided what to do with it. keith morrison: but they couldn't quite decide, and so they kept larry's body in the refrigerator for three months. and then they decided to take it to las vegas. find someplace there to bury it.

keith morrison: en route to las vegas, with their two dogs in the back seat, larry in the trunk along with two shovels. once there, sarah hung out at a hotel with the dogs. elisa went out looking for a burial place for larry. but when she started digging, she said, the ground was too hard. keith morrison: so elisa said they drove back to california. and the next morning at 4 o'clock, she drove out to a vineyard, dug a hole, and buried him.

keith morrison: that was elisa's story. and just a few hours after she finished telling it, california detectives hauled in sarah dutra, the alleged driver of the whole plot. and her story? well, it was a little different. craig melvin: coming up. is sarah dutra a cold-blooded killer or an innocent who was just trying to survive? craig melvin: when "dateline" continues. [theme music] can neuriva support your brain health? mary. janet. hey! eddie. no! fraser. frank. frank. fred. how are you? support up to seven brain health indicators, including memory. when you need to remember, remember neuriva. ♪ rinse it out ♪ ♪ every now and then ♪ ♪ i get a little bit tired of the stinks ♪ ♪ that just will never come out ♪

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keith morrison: sarah dutra appeared confused. ♪ every now and then i rinse it out! ♪ no little dog to keep her company now. her close friend elisa mcnabney he had confessed to murdering her husband larry and claimed that sarah, just 21 years old at the time, not only helped with the murder but was actually the driving force behind it.

keith morrison: they confronted her with elisa's written confession. keith morrison: sarah dutra broke down and told detectives her side of the story. and in this version, it was elisa, not sarah, who was the cold-blooded killer. it was elisa, she said, who dosed

larry with horse tranquilizer. elisa who ordered sarah to bury him in yosemite, even before he was dead. keith morrison: elisa who was eerily calm when larry finally did expire. keith morrison: that was the morning of september 12, after the long and harrowing drive home from the horse show in los angeles, said sarah. and through her tears, she told the detectives how larry's body ended up in the refrigerator.

keith morrison: and this was the heart of sarah's version. she went along with the whole awful, crazy thing for one reason, she said. she was deathly afraid of elisa. keith morrison: was it possible? an innocent young woman in the thrall of a con artist and killer? sarah dutra seemed so frightened, so emotional. and, yet, thought the detective-- i felt, a little bit over the top. she was a little over the top. yeah.

you mean she was acting, putting it on? i believe so. keith morrison: after more than nine hours of questioning, sarah dutra was arrested and charged with larry's murder. it was a classic crime story. two killers, mutual finger-pointing. and prosecutors knew they could use each woman's testimony against the other. an easy checkmate. that is, until elisa took herself off the board. on march 30, 13 days after her arrest, a jailer found her hanging by the neck in her cell. a suicide. a million questions for elisa. and now that door has been slammed shut. keith morrison: and now, sarah, left holding the bag, would face murder charges alone. craig melvin: coming up. when you try only one defendant,

it's very easy, as it was for sarah dutra, to point the finger at the one who's not there. craig melvin: when "dateline" continues. speaker: who's coming in the driveway? speaker: dad. dad, we missed you. daddy, hi. speaker: goodness. my daughter is being treated for leukemia. [music playing] i hope that she lives a long, great, happy life and that she will never forget how mom and daddy love her. saint jude-- maybe this is what's keeping my baby girl alive. [music playing] narrator: you can join the battle to save lives by supporting st. jude children's research hospital. for just $19 a month, you'll help us continue the life-saving research and treatment these kids need now and in the future. speaker: cancer makes me feel angry, like not in the feel on the outside, just the inside.

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welcome back. sarah dutra was behind bars, charged with the murder of larry mcnabney. larry's wife elisa told detectives they killed the attorney together, but insisted it was sarah's idea. then elisa committed suicide, leaving

sarah to face trial alone. sarah's defense claimed that she was the pawn, forced to commit the horrendous act, and it was elisa who was the real mastermind. which story would the jury believe? here's keith morrison with the conclusion of "poison." keith morrison: it was the winter of 2003, more than a year after larry mcnabney was poisoned with horse tranquilizer. his admitted killer, his wife lisa mcnabney, chose her own destiny. and her alleged accomplice sarah dutra, alone, faced the possibility of spending the rest of her life behind bars. you attended the trial every day. yes, 11 and 1/2 weeks. why? why? our da had talked to us about the importance of our family being represented, that my dad not being forgotten. keith morrison: tavia believed that her father died at the hands of both elisa and sarah. although sarah admitted to being there when larry died,

and in the days and months that followed, she adamantly claimed she never went to the police because she was so afraid of elisa and of ending up just like larry. a theory that even prosecutor thomas testa found, well, believable. when i first got this case, people in my office will tell you, that's exactly what i was saying walking up and down the halls. keith morrison: poor sarah. she's a victim here. thomas testa: poor sarah, she's just an aider and abettor. but as i got deeper into the case, i totally turned around on this. but i started with that very mindset. keith morrison: as testa reviewed the evidence in preparation for trial, he became convinced that sarah dutra was, in fact, the woman in charge. sarah did not like larry. she always accused him of being full of himself, talking about himself all the time, self-centered. she didn't like him. so larry didn't want sarah around. sarah did not like larry. you know, this sounds to me like two people who both love elisa and want the other out of the way.

that is what it-- that's it. that's exactly it. it was a love triangle, and one of them had to go. keith morrison: sarah, said prosecutor testa, was enjoying a very fancy life with elisa, and larry was simply in the way. if your theory is right, these are two kind of good time girls who have got this great relationship, and they're living off the proceeds of larry. why get rid of him? they have no motive. larry was elisa's golden goose, but elisa was sarah's golden goose. and sarah was about to be cut out of this whole triangle. larry had just told her, the day before he was killed, two days before he was killed, that he wanted her gone, he wanted her fired. keith morrison: so, said testa, it was sarah who had the motive to kill larry. sarah's lawyer, of course, saw it differently. this seems like a classic instance of evil sort of wrapping around a sweet, young little baby.

keith morrison: at the trial, defense attorney kevin clymo portrayed elisa as a black widow, a sophisticated con artist who wanted her husband dead. and sarah was her innocent and terrified pawn. keith morrison: really? now prosecutor testa introduced ginger miller. remember her, the other secretary who worked alongside sarah and elisa? she said, in the days and weeks after larry vanished, elisa and sarah seemed to feel anything but remorse. they're laughing together. they're shopping together. they're eating together. they're sleeping in the same bed together. she is living at her house. so they were not really working, were they? they were. they would get maybe two hours of work done a day. and what did they do the rest of time, just party?

shop, hang out, sleep late, go flirt with boys. keith morrison: all the while, spending the firm's money, larry's money. a lot of money. elisa got a red jaguar. sarah got a red bmw. keith morrison: such close friends, or maybe more than friends. they bought matching underwear together. keith morrison: come on. no. my first week, they're like, look what we bought. they pulled up-- they both were wearing matching underwear. they were best friends. keith morrison: they were blowing through money so fast, they fell behind on rent payments for the law office. got evicted. so they moved the office into elisa and larry's home. which, according to ginger, now seemed more like elisa and sarah's home. up in the rooms they had no clothes of larry's. the closet was cleaned out. and in the bathroom, hers and sarah made the sinks hers and hers instead of his and hers. like they knew he wasn't coming back.

well, she said-- yeah, they were pretty much moving him out. keith morrison: well, not quite. because, all this time, remember, larry's body was still in the garage. still in the refrigerator. and as for the idea that sarah was an innocent child, elisa's puppet, that was nonsense, said ginger. everybody knows that she wasn't terrified of her. sarah had as much say as lisa had in the whole situation. keith morrison: but at her trial, sarah, the daughter of those devout christians, sat quietly at the defense table, a wide-eyed innocent. elisa wasn't around to be cross-examined, so her videotaped confession didn't get played for the jury. and with no dna, no prints, no trace evidence, no living eyewitnesses, the case against sarah was entirely circumstantial. it's first degree murder. it's first degree. yeah. keith morrison: but would the jury see it the way he did? after four days of deliberations, the jury found sarah dutra guilty

of voluntary manslaughter and accessory to murder, not first degree murder. had she not been a young, attractive, tall blonde whose parents were clutching bibles, crying in the first row, one wonders if this verdict would have been the same. sarah dutra was sentenced to 11 years. served eight. and in the summer of 2011, at age 31, she was released. it's painful to know that such little time was given for such a horrific crime, and one that seemed so premeditated to me, and so thought out, and so callous to the end. keith morrison: sarah dutra did not respond to our interview request. and tavia, she told us she'd forgiven sarah, as much for her own sake as anything. tavia: will i ever forget what she's done?

never. but i don't want to have my whole life be their cruelty and the things they chose to do to him. i'd rather remember the loving times we had together. and they're not going to take that away from me. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. [theme music] hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." evidence doesn't lie. hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline."ox: d it actually tells a story. craig melvin (voiceover): you're there at the crime scene. anna cox: you can almost recreate the crime. craig melvin (voiceover): right there on the wall, a mystery scrawled in blood-- three cryptic letters.