in november 2021, lubahn's murder conviction was reduced to voluntary manslaughter. he was sentenced to six years in state prison, the maximum penalty for voluntary manslaughter at the time carol was killed. but later that month, he was released from prison, having already served more than 10 years behind bars. as for carol lubahn, her remains have yet to be found. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. [music playing] stephanie roller bruner: i'm here, asking for help. hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." craig melvin: it was like hearing a ghost-- a voice from beyond the grave. stephanie roller bruner: there's no way i can go back.

craig melvin: can she help solve her own murder? jennifer voxakis: so surreal. this is something that happens to other people, not to you. craig melvin: she was a dancer who married a dashing photographer. they seemed the perfect family until the bone chilling night she went missing. greg sadar: you could see the body underneath the snow. craig melvin: where was her husband that night? dale bruner: my attorney said, you don't know the tidal wave that's coming towards you, do you? craig melvin: seems like it's always the husband, right? isn't that what police usually say? except this time, they weren't so sure. greg sadar: it's a whodunit. i have three viable suspects. craig melvin: three possible suspects. turns out the victim also had a boyfriend and he had a wife. everyone starts getting questioned. craig melvin: husband, boyfriend, jealous spouse. i said something like, i hope she rots in hell. craig melvin: so what did happen that snowy night? see what you think, because the most important clue of all may be the victim's own voice.

stephanie roller bruner: i knew there was a line to draw. [music playing] hello and welcome to "dateline." stephanie roller bruner and her husband appeared to have the picture perfect family. they'd fallen in love in the colorado rockies, where they settled to raise their three kids and ran a thriving photography business. then, one frigid night, dale said his wife walked out of their house and never returned. investigators quickly discovered the grieving husband was not the only man in her life. there were three potential suspects. police needed to focus on stephanie's life to figure out who may have caused her death. here's keith morrison with "secrets in the snow." keith morrison: it was cold the night it happened. so very cold.

a night to be inside by a fireplace, tucked under a quilt, not outside in the frigid dark. not way up here-- 9,000 feet up in the colorado mountains, snow thick already that late november night. and with the wind chill 24 below. dale bruner: i don't know enough to know exactly what happened. i'm still trying to figure it out. keith morrison: what in god's name was his wife doing walking out into the brutal cold? and more to the point, what happened to her? this middle class, married mother of three-- where did she go without a word to him or her friends? jennifer voxakis: you can't imagine that this is happening to you and to your friend. bill nielsen: she was just plain missing. keith morrison: yes, she was. and it was terrifying-- dreadful in the end. and as events were about to prove, a shocking lesson on what can dwell hidden beneath a person's public skin. so this is really a secret thing, as far as you know, then?

dale bruner: a lot of it, sure. keith morrison: everybody has secrets, of course. stephanie roller bruner's secrets lived as she did, in a skier's paradise. they met at the top of a mountain. dale bruner, a professional photographer, was taking and selling photographs of visiting skiers. a person has to make a living, and for dale, skiers were it. dale bruner: i love taking wildlife photos and scenics. and people say, well, why don't you sell more of your work that way? i said, well, buffalo don't carry credit cards, you know. keith morrison: anyway, it was up there on the mountain he spotted this young woman. she seemed to be conducting some sort of forestry service survey. dale bruner: i skied up to her and i said, what are you doing, writing parking tickets? and she looked up at me and smiled. keith morrison: and then she took off her big ski goggles. dale bruner: i was stunned and i'm like, wow, she's beautiful. keith morrison: they moved in together right away, and when they got married a few years later, they eloped. they jetted off to fiji. it was so stephanie, said her friends.

yeah, they kind of just went off and did it. keith morrison: they made their home in silverthorne, where dale's photo business grew and grew. dale bruner: when things were really rolling, i had several operations in different states around the country-- around 25 photographers working. keith morrison: stephanie got a job in county government-- environmental planning department. - look. look at the camera. keith morrison: they raised their three young children. awesome children. the best. how about a smile? keith morrison: and life for the bruner family was-- dale bruner: it was fantastic. we traveled. we vacationed. keith morrison: but it was in her spare moments and hours that stephanie was truly transformed. a ballroom dancer. dale bruner: dancing was probably to her what photography is to me. our guest star, bill. keith morrison: it was her passion, said her old friend, bill. he knows flamenco. bill nielsen: stephanie loved to dance. dance was her life. she was alive when she danced. keith morrison: hardly surprising, then, that stephanie and jennifer were very close, too.

jennifer voxakis: we started a ballroom dance program together. pretty soon, she had me doing back flips. keith morrison: but it was dance that led off the whole cascade of trouble in the fall of 2010. there's an annual fundraiser here in silverthorne called dancing with the mountain stars-- local worthies paired with ballroom pros. did you go? oh, yeah. absolutely. i went to three years of them. the last one-- i did not go to the last one. keith morrison: had a wedding to shoot. so he missed the chance to watch stephanie teach those lead footed businessmen the foxtrot and the tango and so on, which means he also missed what happened that night. bill nielsen: she coached a number of couples, and in the process, she met a man named ron. keith morrison: ron holthaus, a local married physical therapist. jennifer voxakis: she started working with him

and got to know him, and she really did call it a true love moment. and he seemed to feel the same thing about her? well, yeah. they really clicked together. keith morrison: stephanie was dancing on air. she didn't realize that there could be love like that. keith morrison: a secret from her family, of course, but she told her friends she had found her soul mate. it was almost odd how she told a number of us that i just want you to know that i'm very happy. keith morrison: but joy and misery come in pairs sometimes. as thanksgiving approached, chaos took over what had been a well ordered life. it was a wednesday, middle of october, when things started piling up. dale bruner: horrendous day for her. keith morrison: because? well, she went to work that day and the county laid off 20 people that very day. keith morrison: including stephanie. in fact, stephanie's troubles and her secrets seemed to pile up like the snow. bill nielsen: she was behaving a little bit strangely. a little unpredictable.

a little bit, yeah. keith morrison: it was thanksgiving week. that cold, dark night. not far away from peaceful silverthorne, someone robbed a bank-- a very rare thing around here. dale was in bed, he said, when stephanie announced she was going out to clear her head, and then didn't come back. come morning, dale called the silverthorne police. veronica nicholas: i got a phone call from dale bruner and just said, i wanted to make a report that my wife is missing. keith morrison: it was a records clerk named veronica nicholas who took the call. he said, i got the kids up, i got them ready for school, and i got them on the bus. and then i thought i should probably call you guys. keith morrison: stephanie's car was in the driveway, said dale, and when he called her cell phone, it went to voicemail. veronica called stephanie's best friend, jennifer. i panicked. this is something that happens to other people, not to you. keith morrison: oh, but it had happened. as the silverthorne police checked local hotels and hospitals, stephanie's friends

scoured her neighborhood. bill nielsen: it just seemed unbelievable that stephanie would not check in. keith morrison: a day became two and then three, and some private secrets were about to become very public, indeed. where was stephanie? police had a lot of questions for her husband, dale. they also wanted to talk to that other man in her life-- her boyfriend, ron. coming up-- when "dateline" continues. [music playing] let's review. okay. . we're not gonna talk about traffic or weather. if anyone brings up lawn care, i will handle it. hosting can be extremely difficult for young homeowners turning into their parents. oh, are you done with this? i'll just take that. okay, he's still drinking. right. oh, look what the cat dr-- no, no. let's try again, if you wouldn't mind. it gets ugly.

you can either take it off or i'll take it off you. yeah. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. but you love to take it. she doesn't want it. sore throat got your tongue? mucinex instasoothe sore throat medicated drops, uniquely formulated for rapid relief that lasts and lasts. that's my babyyy! try our new sugar-free cough drops. instasoooooothe! try our new sugar-free cough drops. have you always had trouble with your weight? same. discover the power of wegovy®. with wegovy®, i lost 35 pounds. and some lost over 46 pounds. and i'm keeping the weight off. i'm reducing my risk. wegovy® is the only weight-management medicine proven to reduce risk of major cardiovascular events such as death, heart attack, or stroke in adults with known heart disease and obesity. don't use wegovy® with semaglutide or glp-1 medicines, or in children under 12. don't take if you or your family had mtc, men 2, or if allergic to it.

tell your provider if you plan to have surgery or a procedure, are breastfeeding, pregnant, or plan to be. stop taking and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or any of these allergic reactions. serious side effects may include pancreas inflammation and gallbladder problems. call your prescriber if you have any of these symptoms. wegovy® may cause low blood sugar in people with diabetes, especially if you take medicines to treat diabetes. call your prescriber about vision changes, if you feel your heart racing while at rest, or if you have mental changes. depression or thoughts of suicide may occur. common side effects include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, stomach pain, flu, or upset, headache, feeling tired, dizzy, or bloated, gas, and heartburn. some side effects lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. with wegovy®, i'm losing weight, i'm keeping it off, and i'm lowering my cv risk. ask your prescriber about wegovy®. hon', take airborne! it has 7 key nutrients to help fill those holes your immune system may have.

what holes? [screams] new airborne. 7 immune supporting nutrients. our most complete support yet. many remedies you take for chest congestion only mask the symptoms. you're gonna love this property. try this. mucinex 12 hour treats the mucus that causes chest congestion for all-day relief. ahhh! mucinex in, mucus out! treat the cause. (tony hawk) i still love to surf, snowboard, mucinex in, and of course, skate, so i take qunol magnesium

to support my muscle and bone health. qunol's high-absorption magnesium glycinate helps me get the full benefits of magnesium. qunol. the brand i trust. keith morrison: all night, the bitter cold pried at the windows and licked under the door frames of the bruner house here in silverthorne, colorado. hardly a night to take a walk. certainly not an all night walk. had she hurt herself or had someone else hurt her? it wasn't like stephanie roller bruner to just disappear. it seemed more likely that it might be a stranger that might be involved or that stephanie herself might have just run off in despair and maybe hurt herself. keith morrison: stephanie's friends and family pored over those last few weeks so full of change and secrecy-- turmoil. were there clues? of course, some knew about stephanie's relationship with that new man and how upset she was about losing her job.

still, she seemed to be holding the trouble at bay. six weeks before she disappeared, as dale recalled, she suggested a little family holiday. dale bruner: she says, let's go to glenwood springs for the weekend. old, classic, wonderful place. keith morrison: and it was almost romantic, said dale. just like the old days, but when they got back, she gave him the news. dale bruner: she goes, i want a divorce. i said, you don't love me anymore? she goes, i've met this other person. and she even said, it's not that i don't love you, but i think i love-- i think i've met my soul mate again. keith morrison: and just like that, dale's world came crashing down. i called her brother. i called her sisters. i called her mom. i said, do you know what's going on? do you know what's happening? keith morrison: he talked to her sister, ramona. ramona roller: i remember during the phone call feeling really annoyed, like why are you calling me to try and sway me to your side? but then by the time the phone call ended, i remember thinking, yeah, what is this steph doing?

keith morrison: he begged stephanie's friend, jennifer-- do something. you've got to talk some sense into her. you know, you've got to make her see that she needs to stay with me. keith morrison: you had no inkling that this was coming? dale bruner: no, not until she told me that she was in love with somebody. keith morrison: helplessly in love, she told him. fell for her other man that night dancing with the mountain stars. dale bruner: i go back to the day that i asked steph if i should shoot that wedding or not, and i didn't go to the event with her. i wasn't going to be dancing with her on a big, important night for her. keith morrison: it was a curiously old fashioned affair, apparently. stephanie told her friends her feelings were not so much physical, as pure and emotional. but she made it clear to dale that even though she still loved him, she had no choice but to follow these powerful feelings and make a life with that new man. i said, if this is what you want, this is what you want. keith morrison: they would share the children, of course.

dale, at the family house. stephanie, in a rented condo. the weekend before she disappeared, he helped her move out. why in heaven's name did you do that? dale bruner: she asked me to help. isn't that what you do? i didn't fall out of love with her. i still loved her. keith morrison: and then, middle of the night, her very first night away, dale says he woke up to a commotion downstairs. it was stephanie. she crawled right back into bed with him. dale bruner: she had come home. wow. she said this was all a horrible mistake and that she wanted to move back in. and i said, are you sure? she said, don't worry. everything's fine. keith morrison: but now, just two days later, things were not fine. not at all. stephanie was missing and dale was down at the police department, telling officers where he thought his wife might have gone. dale bruner: i thought she would go somewhere with her wi-fi and be on the computer, and my other guess was maybe she went to ron's house. i didn't know. keith morrison: the police interviewed the other man,

of course. ron holthaus. oh yes, ron admitted he and stephanie had a romantic relationship, but he denied they ever slept together. and then ron told them something very interesting-- that he had ended the affair. it was the night she moved into the condo, he told them. he said to stephanie, it was over. but thanksgiving day came, went. no stephanie. an overstretched local police force called in the colorado bureau of investigation. greg sadar was the agent who answered the call.

soon, he was standing beside the shallow blue river, staring at what looked like a lump of snow and some rocks. greg sadar: there was several inches of snow on top of her and you could see the body underneath the snow. keith morrison: it was stephanie, all right. but how did she get here? craig melvin: "dateline" returns after the break. [music playing]

where can nfl fans get a great deal that turns christmas day into game day? x marks the spot. the nfl is streaming christmas day games exclusively on netflix, and you don't want to miss a moment. gather round the game because nothing says holidays like family and football. now xfinity customers can add streamsaver including netflix, peacock, and apple tv+ for just $15 a month. stuff your stockings with tons of entertainment and tons of savings. bring on the good stuff. xfinity.

keith morrison: it was perplexing, almost, that a thing so awful could happen in the midst of such beauty. here, in the frigid, rushing water of the blue river, 3 and 1/2 days after she disappeared, they found stephanie roller bruner nude, but for a tie dyed shirt that still clung to her body. she had come to rest against a tumble of snow covered rocks. it was just a little bit farther beyond that where the water gets calm where we located her remains. keith morrison: just over by that second bend there. yes, sir. keith morrison: she hadn't gone far. agent greg sadar of the colorado bureau of investigation. how far from her house? a rough guess off the top of my head-- 300, 350 yards. keith morrison: the news spread fast. today, investigators say that they have found a body. yeah, that was a pretty bad day. your heart drops. let's find out what happened to her, along with humongous sadness. keith morrison: the county coroner broke the news to dale.

dale bruner: they said, dale, we need to tell you something. and i'm like, what? and i just went into convulsions. keith morrison: but how did she get here? was it suicide, accident, or murder? there's a bridge just upstream from the place they found stephanie's body. dale told police she often liked to walk there. she could have been attacked on this bridge and shoved over. that was one of our early fears. keith morrison: or that she just simply committed suicide-- jumped in the water, hit her head, and that was that. that was also another legitimate consideration. so, thus the puzzle. it is. keith morrison: until four days after thanksgiving, when the autopsy revealed a curious detail-- one that seemed to rule out suicide. greg sadar: there was no wounds at all to the soles of her feet. what did that mean? well, that certainly means that she did not walk to where we had found her without shoes.

keith morrison: and just in case there was any lingering doubt, the autopsy also revealed she'd taken a blow to the head and then she'd been strangled, but was still alive when she was thrown into the freezing water. the ultimate cause of death-- hypothermia and drowning. well, we knew at that point-- she had been murdered. keith morrison: first murder in silverthorne in decades. but who would do such a thing? and why? it was just hours before stephanie took her walk in this virtually crime free community that somebody robbed that nearby bank. so did the robber later encounter stephanie and then assault and kill her? greg sadar: this is where a predator could have been hiding out. there was any number of opportunities at that point. keith morrison: still, it was so cold. perhaps too cold for a lurking predator. this is one of those very few cases where it's a whodunit, if you will. and where you've got-- i had at least three viable suspects.

any one of whom had potential motive. absolutely. there was ron holthaus, the other man who had just suddenly dumped stephanie. there was cindy, ron's wife, who, if she knew about the affair, could have wanted revenge. and then there was dale. dale bruner, the husband. and any one of them, thought the detective, was certainly physically capable of committing the crime. her husband is 6', 200 pounds-- very athletic guy. and mr. holthaus, a big, strong guy. his wife was actually a very physically fit woman. so she'd be outgunned by any one of them. i would believe so, yes sir. keith morrison: they took ron in for questioning several times, and again and again, he insisted it wasn't him. he admitted that in the last hours of stephanie's life, he met her here in this clothing store parking lot

around dinner time, and it wasn't a happy meeting. he had earlier sent her a breakup email, he said. she insisted on seeing him in person. she wasn't taking it well at all. she was still interested in having a relationship with him. and didn't want to let him go. correct. and i'm sure that he was motivated to not let his wife find out about that. keith morrison: which begged the question, where was ron holthaus later that monday evening when stephanie went for her walk? the detectives called in ron's wife, cindy. it would not be unheard of for a woman to be very upset to find that her husband has been seeing

another woman, and want to go to significant lengths by eliminating that temptation. keith morrison: her alibi-- she was home sleeping right next to ron. so their alibis were each other. detectives kept prodding. for almost a month, detectives went back and forth between ron and cindy and stephanie's husband, dale, who, by that time, had been advised by a friend, better get a lawyer.

dale bruner: so i called and my attorney said, you don't know that onslaught-- the tidal wave that's coming towards you, do you? you have no idea. i said, apparently not. keith morrison: oh, yes. and what a tidal wave it was. craig melvin: "dateline" returns after the break. many remedies you take for chest congestion only mask the symptoms. you're gonna love this property. for all-day relief. only mask the symptoms. ahhh! mucinex in, mucus out! treat the cause.

still congested? —nope! —uh oh. new mucinex 2-in-1 saline nasal spray. spray goodbye. aaaaaaahhhhh! new mucinex 2-in-1 saline nasal spray with a gentle mist and innovative power-jet. spray goodbye to congestion. it's comeback season!

z's bakery is looking to add a pizza oven, arissa's hair salon wants to expand their space, and steve's t-shirt shop wants to bring on more help. with the comcast business 5-year price lock guarantee, they can think more about possibilities for their business and not the cost of their internet. it's five years of gig-speeds and advanced security. all from the company with 99.9% network reliability. get the 5-year price lock guarantee, now back for a limited time. powering five years of savings. powering possibilities™.

hi, i'm richard lui with a news update. at least five people hurt at a mall in texas after a driver crashed into a jcpenney in killeen. they say there was not an active shooter situation at this texas mall, disputing e ing claims tt viral on line. lara trump removed her name from contention for senate, but has a special announcement coming in january. donald trump's daughter-in-law

stepped down as co-chair of the rnc earlier this month. for now, back to "dateline." earh for now, back to "dateline." investigators zeroed in on three people of interest-- stephanie's boyfriend, ron, who just broke up with her, ron's wife, cindy, and stephanie's husband, dale bruner. and as detectives dug deeper into the bruner marriage, ugly secrets emerged that would put dale at the very top of the suspect list. here again is keith morrison with "secrets in the snow." it's horrible. i don't even know how to explain having a microscope go into your world. it's surreal. keith morrison: there are few secrets in a person's life that can escape the attention of a determined homicide detective. greg sadar: everything comes out. absolutely everything. keith morrison: and dale and stephanie, it turned out, have their share of secrets.

but the weird thing-- one chilly morning six weeks before stephanie was murdered, as stephanie told her friend, jennifer-- jennifer voxakis: she heard spanking and she told me she counted at least eight spanks before she got up the stairs and down the hall to the kitchen. well, my boy was acting out far beyond the norm. and i said, come on. keith morrison: that was a wednesday morning. stephanie was furious about the spanking and stormed off to work, and that very day, was laid off from her county job. and then, still upset with dale, stephanie went to see a judge and filed a restraining order against him-- sought advice from her friend, bill. honestly, i was a little bit surprised. i had never detected any major problems in their relationship. keith morrison: but-- and this was distinctly odd-- she asked the court to delay implementing the order until the following monday. and then she went home and, said dale, suggested that family holiday.

dale bruner: we had a wonderful weekend at the hotel colorado and the hot springs, swimming with the kids. keith morrison: but then, back in town is when stephanie revealed, one, that she was in love with another man, and two, her restraining order was about to be served. she told me that the sheriff's department was going to come to the house and i'm going to have to leave. keith morrison: so he did, after which, said dale, they calmed down and, 10 days later, went back to ask the judge to rescind his order. the court recorded the session. dale bruner: i'm never going to spank again. this, potentially, could crush my entire world and i'm so sorry to you, and i will make it up in any and every way i possibly can. she wanted to leave, but she felt like the restraining order was too much-- that dale didn't deserve that, and that maybe she had overreacted. and so they talked about it like adults, and eventually, they signed divorce papers. and dale even helped stephanie move into her condo,

where, as you know, the very night she moved in, her new love, ron, told her the affair was over. they weren't going to be together. not then. not ever. he was staying with his wife. two days later, she was dead, and ron and his wife and dale were all under suspicion. they said i was a person of interest. i didn't think i had any worries. keith morrison: but agent sadar wasn't so sure. as his investigation continued, he became convinced that ron holthaus and his wife, cindy, had been telling him the truth. but he kept encountering suspicious things about dale. why had dale waited until morning to report his wife missing. and why, while dale's friends and family scoured the town looking for her-- why didn't he take part at all? it was kind of this mounting series of things that we started to be concerned about. keith morrison: and it was dale, said sadar,

who had motive and opportunity. for one thing, the place they found her body-- dale could certainly have carried her that far. greg sadar: yeah, we were struck by how close it is to the house and how accessible it was, even under those snowy conditions. yeah. and when dale was still talking before he lawyered up, his demeanor seemed odd to the detective. one of their meetings at a local restaurant was recorded. very probative. he wanted to know what we had learned from the autopsy, where we were going with the investigation. he was nervous, but not outwardly sad. keith morrison: and then, two weeks after the murder, when detective sadar got a search warrant,

a house that had been cluttered at the time of the murder was now spotless. what did you find this time? nothing. there was nothing to find. keith morrison: there were no signs of blood, no evidence of any struggle, nor, in fact, was there any sign that stephanie had ever lived there. greg sadar: there wasn't a single photograph of her. every trace of her had been scrubbed from the house. keith morrison: it also seemed suspicious, said the detective, that dale changed his story a bit. first time he called the police, he said they'd had an argument before she left to go out walking. later, he said, there was no argument. within a few weeks of stephanie's murder, the state ramped up the pressure on dale. social services sent the bruner children to live with stephanie's brother in california. dale bruner: i'm in a fight with mike tyson with no gloves

and then they're taking my kids away, too. keith morrison: dale wasn't completely alone, mind you. some family stayed around, reported back to stephanie's sister, ramona, that dale was truly grieving. ramona roller: we kept asking, what is dale acting like? what is he saying? unless he's some kind of actor that deserves some kind of oscar performance, this guy really seems distraught. keith morrison: and stephanie's friend, bill, even moved in for two months to help out-- console dale. bill nielsen: we were just trying to hold dale together. he was having a very difficult time. did you ever either confront him or say, come on. tell us what happened. looked every one of us in the eye and said, i had nothing to do with this. i'm innocent. reporter: dale, can you talk at all about the investigators only focusing on you? i hope they're investigating someone else. keith morrison: didn't look like it. it was summer, 2011-- nine months after stephanie's murder when it happened. dale bruner: i was coming back from one of my photo shoots,

and a little unmarked car with a light on it flashed and a siren went. and they have guns drawn on me. keith morrison: dale bruner was charged with second degree murder in the death of his wife. he pleaded not guilty, posted bond, and was offered a plea deal by the da's office. why did you turn it down? because innocent people don't plea. keith morrison: besides, now, said dale, it was time to fight back. craig melvin: "dateline" returns after the break. [music playing] i told myself i was ok with my moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis symptoms... ...with my psoriatic arthritis symptoms. but just ok isn't ok. and i was done settling. if you still have symptoms after trying a tnf blocker like humira or enbrel, rinvoq works differently. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that can rapidly relieve joint pain, stiffness, and swelling as fast as 2 weeks for some. and even at the 3-year mark, many people felt this relief. rinvoq can stop joint damage.

and in psa, can leave skin clear or almost clear. rinvoq can lower ability to fight infections. before treatment, test for tb and do bloodwork. serious infections, blood clots, some fatal; ...cancers, including lymphoma and skin; serious allergic reactions; gi tears; death; heart attack; and stroke occurred. cv event risk increases in age 50 plus with a heart disease risk factor. tell your doctor if you've had these events, infection, hep b or c, smoked, are pregnant or planning. don't take if allergic or have an infection. done settling? ask your rheumatologist for rinvoq. and take back what's yours. (♪♪) sore throat got your tongue? mucinex instasoothe sore throat medicated drops, uniquely formulated for rapid relief that lasts and lasts. that's my babyyy! try our new sugar-free cough drops. instasoooooothe!

if you have wet amd, you never want to lose sight of the things you love. some things should stand the test of time. long-lasting eylea hd could significantly improve your vision. more people on eylea hd had no fluid in the retina compared to those on eylea at 4 months. eylea hd is the only wet amd therapy that helped 8 out of 10 people go up to 4 months between injections after 3 initial monthly treatments. if you have an eye infection, eye pain or redness, or allergies to eylea hd, don't use. eye injections like eylea hd may cause eye infection, separation of the retina, or rare but severe swelling of blood vessels in the eye. an increase in eye pressure has been seen.

there is an uncommon risk of heart attack or stroke associated with blood clots. the most common side effects were blurred vision, cataract, corneal injury, and eye floaters. and there's still so much to see. if you are on eylea or a similar type of treatment, ask your retina specialist about eylea hd today for the potential for fewer injections. still congested? —nope! —uh oh. new mucinex 2-in-1 saline nasal spray. spray goodbye. aaaaaaahhhhh! new mucinex 2-in-1 saline nasal spray with a gentle mist and innovative power-jet. spray goodbye to congestion. it's comeback season! keith morrison: two winters passed here in the colorado

rockies between the untimely demise of stephanie roller bruner and the district attorney's effort to pin the blame on stephanie's husband, dale. and he fumed in silence about the allegations against him. dale bruner: the lies are really tough to take. you're like-- you just can't believe it. like, really. keith morrison: waiting for trial, he continued to live here all alone, now, in the family house by the blue river, working with his attorney in the effort to clear his name. robert bernhardt was the attorney-- a man not at all impressed, he told us, with the police investigation. robert bernhardt: their position was i think dale's the easy guy. you know, the worst pieces of investigating that i've ever seen in my career. keith morrison: dale and his attorney told us that despite a show of interviewing other suspects, the police quite clearly had made up their minds the very day she disappeared. the police came to my house. i don't know what the exact first thing he said,

but he goes, did you kill your wife? and i was just stunned. keith morrison: the police didn't seem to want to believe what he told them about how happy he was that last evening, discussing new possibilities-- a fresh start, when around 9:00 pm, their daughter came into the bedroom to ask for help with her homework. when she came into our room, we were laying on top of our bed cuddling. keith morrison: nor, he said, did the cops seem to want to believe his explanation for not reporting stephanie missing until morning, more than nine hours after she walked out into that frigid night. why would he? if he was aware of the fact that she was having an affair, he probably assumed that she went to her boyfriend. the last thing i was going to do was make waves. just do what you've got to do. keith morrison: they made such a big deal of the fact that dale didn't join the search for stephanie, even though-- i called the police and they told me, stay home, in case she comes home. keith morrison: so by the time dale's trial began, he and his attorney were ready for evidence that was,

they knew, only circumstantial. questions like this. beaten the way she was beaten on her head and strangled the way she was strangled-- that's a very intimate crime. it's the sort of crime that husbands commit when their wives are about to leave them. or should i say boyfriends? or boyfriends. well, there you go. that was the point his lawyers wanted to make in court-- that police and prosecutors had unfairly brushed off the possibility that stephanie's new soul mate or his wife had anything to do with it. that would be ron holthaus. robert bernhardt: when everybody found out that stephanie was missing, did any police officers come and visit you at work or at your home that day? no, they did not. keith morrison: and didn't ron's wife, cindy, have a motive? and i said something like, i don't know where she is, but i hope she rots in hell. and i'm very sorry i said that. keith morrison: of course, dale and his attorney knew the prosecution would make a big deal of that

restraining order stephanie took out after dale spanked their son. but her decision to ask for that order, said dale, sprang from her own confusion. the affair, the chaos in her life. i believe she built a fake little world where i was the bad guy. keith morrison: but was stephanie ever worried that dale might get violent? hardly, said the defense. why else would she ask the judge to delay the order until after their little family holiday? the judge said he had never seen someone have a restraining order, but then have them say, well, don't enact it yet-- not 'til next week. keith morrison: and why would she go away on a yoga retreat and decline this friend's offer to babysit. can i take care of the kids? she said, no, they're fine with dale. and that's because she knew that dale wasn't a threat to her. he wasn't a threat to those children. keith morrison: and remember how the detective found the house unusually spotless two weeks after the murder? it was, turned out, family and friends

who cleaned up, apparently because dale was paralyzed by grief. dale walks into his walk-in closet, and half of the stuff is stephanie's. and he comes out and he's just crying. he's just like, i've got to get this stuff out of here. keith morrison: so it's clearly a rush to judgment-- a sloppy investigation, said the defense, by detectives who bought the holthauses' alibi too easily, who failed to consider that the murder might have been committed by whoever robbed the nearby bank just before stephanie disappeared. attorney bernhardt confronted cbi agent greg sadar. robert bernhardt: you had no direct evidence of mr. bruner assaulting his wife. correct. no direct evidence of mr. bruner murdering her. keith morrison: of course, had dale taken the stand, he'd have had to answer to some stubbornly uncomfortable facts, and this question that hung over the defense table like a cloud. you loved your wife. you loved her a lot. but in that moment of extreme rage when she was leaving you,

you killed her. you strangled her and then threw her body in the river. that's so not true. the theme of the prosecution was that you were an abuser and that it was a-- it's beyond so not true. it's just not true. they painted quite a picture, though. keith morrison: oh, yes. they certainly did, with the help of a woman whose message, in a way, came back from the grave. craig melvin: "dateline" returns after the break. [music playing] hon', take airborne! it has 7 key nutrients to help fill those holes your immune system may have. what holes? [screams]

new airborne. 7 immune supporting nutrients. our most complete support yet. money is tight, so we must make sacrifices. i give up my bespoke shaving subscription. and i'll stop ordering everything that's trending on instagram. and i will no longer agree to the add-ons at the oil change place just because the mechanic called me "ma'am." it really is a top-of-the-line filter, ma'am. and of course, we'll downgrade our insurance -to get a lower rate. -well, you know, you don't have to make sacrifices now that you're saving money with the progressive home and auto bundle. you couldn't have said that like 6 seconds ago? (cough cough) (sneeze) (♪♪) new alka-seltzer plus cold or flu fizzy chews. chew. fizz. feel better fast. no water needed. new alka-seltzer plus fizzychews. sore throat got your tongue? mucinex instasoothe sore throat medicated drops, uniquely formulated for rapid relief

that lasts and lasts. that's my babyyy! try our new sugar-free cough drops. instasoooooothe!

what if your mobile network wasn't try our new sugar-free cough drops. just built to work out here... ...but was designed differently to also give you blazing fast wifi where you are most of the time? reliable 5g, plus wifi speeds up to a gig where you need it most. xfinity mobile. xfinity internet customers, ask how to get a free 5g phone and a second unlimited line free for a year.

keith morrison: i'm sitting across from a man who may be telling me a true story, who may also be living with the knowledge that he hit his wife on the head and then strangled her and put her in the river, and that's where she died. and you have to live with that secret. well, fortunately, i don't have to live with that. that, i don't have to live with. keith morrison: what dale bruner would have to live with would depend on the outcome of his trial, of course, and whether or not the prosecutor, mark hurlbert, would persuade the jury without the benefit of physical evidence that dale killed the love of his life in a fit of blind rage. mark hurlbert: i think dale bruner strangles her, believes that she is dead, takes her to the river, and dumps her in the river. keith morrison: so, what did happen on the night of the murder? the prosecutor called a child to start the story.

dale and stephanie's eldest daughter-- the girl who walked into her parents' bedroom around 9:00 pm. and at 10 years old, she could say what happened with specifics. keith morrison: out of the view of the media, she told the court she heard her parents arguing, not cuddling, as dale claimed. after which, remember, dale claimed stephanie went for a walk to clear her head. but at temperatures well below freezing? you've got to be kidding, said the prosecutor. his wife goes for a walk and he wouldn't call anybody until eight or nine hours later? 10 hours later? that just doesn't make any sense. keith morrison: which, by itself, didn't mean dale was guilty. this was where some of those secrets began to spill out-- the terrifying secrets of a fatally troubled marriage, like the one stephanie told this friend after that spanking incident when she applied for a restraining order. did she express fear to you at the time? yes, she did.

she looked at me and she said, he just sees red. he gets so mad that he goes into a red zone and he doesn't even know what he does. keith morrison: and so, said this friend-- woman 1: she was afraid to get a restraining order against dale because he had already threatened to harm or kill her. keith morrison: that threat from dale was years earlier, but stephanie had never forgotten how terrified she was. she told the story to her friend, jennifer, just before the murder. jennifer voxakis: he strong armed her into a corner, choking her, threatening to hit her. keith morrison: yeah. he stopped short of hitting her, but he did. and there was another time he threw her on the bed and put his knee on her pregnant belly. how often would this happen? you know, there were maybe three of those-- two or three, i don't know, of those incidents that she talked about. keith morrison: then there was leah aiken, lifelong friend of dale's, who told the court about dale's reaction when stephanie told him she was in love with another man.

leah aiken: he just wanted her dead, you know? maybe she would have a heart attack or get hit by a car, and i kept telling him to stop talking like that. keith morrison: but did dale really mean that? could he be truly violent? consider this woman, said the prosecutor-- an ex-girlfriend from dale's past-- a woman named jodi who told the jury and us the strange tale of what happened one night when she lived with dale 20 years ago. he hadn't come home for dinner one night, and had said he would be home. you called him on it. jodi eberhart: he came home. we argued about it and he became very angry, yelling at me. he pushed me down onto the floor and put his hands around my neck and said, if you ever say or do that again, i'll kill you. he had a look on his face that i'd never seen or recognized before. i was the most scared i've ever been in my life. keith morrison: and even though that was a long time ago, said the prosecutor, it told a terrible tale, which,

sadly, is as old as time. dale, he said, was a man sometimes overcome by rage, and his mo was to go for the throat. mark hurlbert: she was strangled so hard-- such force that it broke a bone in her neck. keith morrison: and then the prosecutor introduced his bombshell. stephanie herself on tape. six weeks before her murder, stephanie begged the judge for that restraining order. and now in court, her recorded plea was a voice from the grave. stephanie roller bruner: he has threatened my life years ago, but you know, with a hand on my throat. didn't squeeze it, screaming in my face, i will kill you if you leave-- that i've never forgotten. keith morrison: her sister was sitting in the courtroom, listening, and was overcome. and that was when we lost it because it was feelings of, oh my god. and she's crying.

keith morrison: it was as if stephanie was testifying in her own murder trial. stephanie roller bruner: i would so love to talk to him about it and say can he leave or can he get help? and i just think that would go really bad. so i'm here asking for help. and i'm going to end up getting a divorce because there's no way i can go back. keith morrison: only she did. finally, this domestic violence expert weighed in. when a victim is attempting to leave a relationship or has left a relationship, it is by far the most dangerous time for a victim. keith morrison: but what was the trigger that, according to the prosecution, set dale off? the answer, he said, may lie in an unfinished email stephanie was writing to the other man, ron, just before she was murdered. and though dale denied he knew what she was doing-- i honestly didn't know.

i had no idea. keith morrison: the prosecutor said dale must have seen her writing it. an email begging ron for another meeting because she couldn't accept the idea that her new love was leaving her. i think dale bruner got angry at that and hit her with something, then he strangles her-- believes that she is dead. she's probably unconscious at that point, but she is not dead. takes her to the river and dumps her in the river. keith morrison: the jury stayed out four hours. the court has reviewed the verdicts. it was kind of early, which is always worrying. keith morrison: dale bruner stood, awaited his fate. dale bruner: you're just trying to maintain and not just melt on the-- you know, so you prepare yourself to just breathe. just breathe. keith morrison: and then there it was. we, the jury, find the defendant, dale bruner, guilty of murder in the second degree. keith morrison: dale bruner was also convicted of two counts of sexual assault

and sentenced to a total of 112 years in prison. an appeals court vacated the sexual assault convictions, and in 2018, bruner's sentence was reduced to 48 years. dale bruner: it is a perfect storm. i'm going down with the ship. keith morrison: stephanie's friend, jennifer, was driving when the verdict came in. i was in my car, yeah. parked on the side of the road, crying like a baby. keith morrison: and like others who knew stephanie, she wishes now she had taken her friend's secrets more seriously. i beat myself up over it every day about how i should have done this or should have done that. keith morrison: an almost good marriage with one deadly flaw. bill nielsen: a lot of stephanie's close friends and family didn't even know what was going on, and i knew of a couple of events over the years, and let's say it was only two. keith morrison: yeah. it only took three, and she's dead.

keith morrison: and so, say her friends, take some advice. heed the warning. don't hide the secret. jennifer voxakis: that's why i'm talking about it now. and hopefully, just one woman would have the courage to stand up and say, i'm being abused. i'm living in fear. i'm living with secrets and i need to stand up and be bold. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. [music playing] . i'm craig melvin. and i'm natalie morales. and this is "dateline." new would want to hurt her. how could this happen? how could this happen to someone that we knew? it's been a very long 13 years. craig melvin: homecoming queen hannah hill was just 18