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®. dennis murphy (voiceover): thad reynolds had been murdered. investigators were now looking into a steamy affair between thad's wife, michelle, and best friend scotty harper. and they were finding their secret tingles-- lovers' codewords, a discreetly brushed hand-- all with her husband and his wife only a few feet away.

is she the initiator here? absolutely, absolutely. he would never have crossed the line. he would never have initiated this. and he was willing to go along. he absolutely was. dennis murphy (voiceover): but the homicidal math was starting to add up. thad, the deacon, stabbed to death. the family pastor in a sexual relationship with the murdered man's wife. a dropped pair of prescription glasses spattered with blood. a burgundy van. on tuesday night, the day after thad's murder, the detectives told scotty they wanted him and his wife to come to the police station for an interview. the next morning, he arrived there with his wife, paige. they ask him, you know, where are your glasses? have you had an affair with michelle reynolds? he knows they're pinning him in at that point, huh? he can't explain. and he's lying to them flat-out when he says he's not having an affair to them. and they already had the emails, and they already had knowledge at this point. does he give it up? does he say, you got me? no, they ask consent to search his van, the burgundy van. and he agrees.

dennis murphy (voiceover): the police go to the hospital to get scotty's van for processing. paige is with him now, well aware from the police questioning where this is heading. he wants to go back into work, to the hospital. and paige says, no, we're going to your mom and dad's right now. dennis murphy (voiceover): investigators believed scotty was desperately trying to get back to his office to delete anything on his computer that would link michelle to the building case. he's trying to get rid of those emails because that's gonna hook michelle that he loves into this. dennis murphy (voiceover): surprising, of course, that a computer professional like himself would have kept the emails on his laptop in the first place. what was he thinking? why does he let this stuff reside on the computers? well, of course, he would save them so he could go back and reread and be excited all over again about this affair and its progression and all these things that they wrote to each other. he writes these long, flowery emails to her about how much he loves her, and how much he cares for her, and how much he wants to be with her.

and when she writes back to him, that's catnip to him. he's not going to destroy that. dennis murphy (voiceover): even an armchair detective would have started following the trail right to scotty harper's door. the killer had used a knife like this to stab thad reynolds 19 times that monday morning. the detectives knew that on the morning of the murder, scotty harper had gone to the er of the hospital where he worked to have a cut hand stitched up. those explicit emails he failed to get rid of told them he was a month into an affair with the murdered man's wife. had scotty harper murdered his best friend, the husband of his lover? every mirror i passed, i mouthed the words, "you just killed thad. you killed thad." dennis murphy (voiceover): scotty was confessing to the mirror, but not to anyone else. there was nothing i could say that could take it back. and there was nothing i could do that could fix it. dennis murphy (voiceover): even prosecutors who had seen a lot were sickened by the savagery committed on thad reynolds.

with a gun, you can stand far away from somebody and shoot them. and you don't have to touch them. and you don't have to smell the blood. and you don't have to put your hands on them. but a knife is pretty cold. dennis murphy (voiceover): and as unimaginable as it was for detectives in the early hours of the investigation, all signs were pointing to thad's close friend, scotty harper, as the killer. and the night before scotty harper had gone down to the police station for questioning by detectives, he called michelle and confessed to her that he was indeed the killer. i told her i did it. and her words, as you recall? she got quiet. i remember her saying, the nightmare never ends. she ended up saying she had-- she said, i gotta go. i gotta go. dennis murphy (voiceover): after hanging up the phone, scotty says they talked again, and michelle pleaded with him that if he was going to confess to the crime, that he not do it until after thad's funeral, still two days away. we talked later. she said, i don't want my girls to ever know you did this. this is crazy. i said, well, that's-- they're going to.

and she said, can you at least give them the funeral? don't talk to the police until after the funeral? - well-- well, no, i mean-- - that's her message? i was wanting to talk to her oldest daughter and thad's mom and her. i was wanting to be able to sit down with all three of them. that's when she said she didn't want her daughters to ever know that i did this. dennis murphy (voiceover): and while he'd confessed to his lover, scotty still hadn't broken the news to his wife. had you told paige? no. dennis murphy (voiceover): but the morning of the detectives' questioning, scotty says his wife had started to figure out that he had killed thad reynolds. we go to my mom and dad's house, paige and i. they call my sister over there. they call the pastor over there. you say i did it? yes. i was the one that murdered thad. yes. dennis murphy (voiceover): in the next 24 hours, scotty met with a lawyer and then checked himself overnight into a psychiatric hospital. the lawyer suggested it? he said, i think you really need to go there, because i--

and i probably did. and i'm not suggesting i was insane when it happened. i remember it happening. dennis murphy (voiceover): scotty, out of sight overnight in a psych ward, was also buying michelle the time she wanted to prepare for thad's funeral without the pall of scotty's involvement hanging over it. but no one in their circle suspected yet that scotty harper could be the killer. friends were, nonetheless, privately buzzing about the new widow's demeanor. why did michelle seem so calm? and why did she tell the ladies who asked if they could help her shop for a funeral dress that that wouldn't be necessary? she had a new black dress in her closet with a price tag still on it. what was going on with the newly widowed michelle? thad's mother and sister don't remember michelle shedding any tears at all. there was, like, no emotion, no-- i thought maybe she was in shock. i remember michelle coming outside and hugging me, but i saw no tears.

dennis murphy (voiceover): michelle had also requested that police not give her any details about her husband's murder. the investigator saw it all as odd behavior. everybody thought that she acted very strange. there weren't really any tears. she wasn't crying. and people at the church, again, were just devastated. and she wasn't shedding a tear. in fact, she was making jokes to some of the people that came in and would say inappropriate things. dennis murphy (voiceover): friends at the house told investigators, though michelle would later say she was just joking, that she initially talked about getting a nose ring soon after thad was killed. michelle looked over and said, do you like so-and-so's nose ring? no, i don't really-- i don't really like nose rings. and michelle said, well, now that thad's dead, i think i'm going to get one. and everybody in the room just kind of went-- something like-- because he won't be able to say anything about it. yeah, thad didn't like them. she's cold, ice cold. dennis murphy (voiceover): michelle, thad's family says, is also talking about cremating thad's remains.

if that was his wish, he'd never mentioned it to them. i was shocked, but i knew that there was, you know, nothing we could do because she was calling the shots. dennis murphy (voiceover): and it all started crashing down on thursday morning, when thad's mother went over to the house and was told that she couldn't go in. one of the ladies from church kind of backed me up against the car and said, you can't go in. they're searching the house. they're seizing the computer. and that's when she told me that scotty and michelle had had an affair. dennis murphy (voiceover): when the detectives read through all the emails that scotty, the computer expert, had failed to delete, when they saw a message from michelle about when and where scotty would be able to find thad the morning he was killed, and when they considered how coolly the new widow took the news of her husband's death, arrest warrants were drawn up not just for scotty harper, but surprisingly, for michelle as well. she would be charged as his co-killer. she is one of the most evil people

that i've ever dealt with in all the years i've been a prosecutor. dennis murphy (voiceover): the two lovers, the deacon's wife and the family pastor, were issued jailhouse jumpsuits and charged with murder. they would face the highest count. you announce your intention to go for the death penalty on the both of them. yes. her as well. yes. even though she was clearly not at the scene. even though she was clearly not at the scene, she is a party to the crime. she aided, abetted, encouraged, and helped plan this. dennis murphy (voiceover): but could the state prove that michelle knew all along what scotty was going to do? the prosecutor was confident she could. she's the brains, and he's the muscle. dennis murphy (voiceover): coming up. it always amazed me. they were talking about how much they missed each other. dennis murphy (voiceover): astonishing phone calls between the jailed lovers. dennis murphy (voiceover): would they give prosecutors the proof they need? there were several of these conversations, and in none of

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sharing is caring, bro! let's make like dice and roll. ♪♪ man: then the king said let'to all his servants, roll. do you not know that a prince and a great man-- [crying] forgive me-- has fallen on this day in israel? dennis murphy (voiceover): thad reynolds was eulogized as a man of god, sent to his rest

by his many friends at hollywood baptist church, where he'd been a beloved deacon. so poignant, those four little girls, stair-stepped in size, their father suddenly dead, and their mother charged with killing him. if you could hear them pray, olivia prayed just exactly like her daddy. and the baby, she always says when she prays, she says, you know, the usual stuff. keep our family safe. bless mama, bless papa, bless mama and bless daddy. dennis murphy (voiceover): mama, michelle reynolds, was not at the funeral, but in the county jail, charged with planning thad's murder with her lover, scotty harper. both were denied bond as flight risks. if convicted, both could face the death penalty. but the two were still apparently so desperately in love that they convinced a recently released fellow inmate to set up three-way calling for them. operator (on phone): an inmate at the floyd county jail. if you wish to accept this call-- dennis murphy (voiceover): the inmate turned out to be a jailhouse snitch.

dennis murphy (voiceover): and while michelle and scotty talked, their conversations were being recorded. michelle sullins (on phone): it's not funny. dennis murphy (voiceover): listen for yourself. scotty and michelle from behind bars still hinting at ending up in portland, their fantasy city where they'd start a new life together. dennis murphy (voiceover): even though they faced the possibility of death row, scotty and michella's conversations remained light, flirtatious, even racy. dennis murphy (voiceover): and they kept speaking of their devotion to each other as investigators listened in. it always amazed me. they were talking about how much they missed each other. they're stopping in the middle of the conversation and saying things like, oh, wait a minute, i love you.

did you know that i love you? and they'll say it over and over and over. dennis murphy (voiceover): and it's what they weren't hearing from michelle, a lack of outrage that reinforced the prosecutor's conviction that michelle knew all along that murder was afoot and was actively planning it with scotty. if you were arrested for the murder of your spouse, and you got to have communication with the person who actually committed the murder, don't you think you would say something like, what have you done? what did you get me into? why did you do this? there were several of these conversations, and in none of them are there denials of any of it. dennis murphy (voiceover): there were prison letters exchanged, too. in one from michelle to scotty two weeks after the murder, she uses some verses from the bible to pass on an only slightly encoded message to him. the letter page is headed, "freedom for me and my children." she quotes a verse from genesis, and you see that she's underlined the word "all." the next bit of scripture is from psalms, "who

have i in heaven but you?" the "i" is underlined. in all, michelle writes out 17 verses with certain words underlined. and when you read all those underlines together, it forms the thought, "all i knew was that you were going to speak to him about us. help me if a man would give for love." and that's her message to him. she still-- she knows that he loves her. and she wants him to save her and take her away from this. take her out of it. so that's her campaign at this point. yes. she's setting up her defense, which is, i had no idea. right. you were so much in love with me. and i had no idea that you would go to that length. yes. dennis murphy (voiceover): and in the days following the arrest, the detectives continued to build their case. they took note of an insurance policy on thad that would have paid michelle more than $250,000. was money part of the motive? but what the detectives initially didn't have was the murder weapon, the knife scott harper had used.

but that changed when one of his co-workers at the hospital had an inkling of where a good hiding place would be. he and another guy who worked at the it department started looking. and they went into the server room and they took the suction cup device, and they started pulling up the tiles one at a time. and i think he told us he got to the third one. and he pulled it up, and there was the jcpenney's bag. dennis murphy (voiceover): inside this bag was scotty's bloody clothing, his shoes, the knife, and even this receipt for the knife from kmart. it was virtually a murder conviction in a bag. i've never had a case where somebody gave me not only the receipt from them buying the murder weapon, but packaged it all up along with what they were wearing at the time they did it. dennis murphy (voiceover): later, they'd recover the security camera tape from kmart. scotty, seen here, goes into the store to buy the 4-inch hunting knife. so was he among the world's stupidest guys? yeah. you got everything but a movie of him doing it. that's true. hers is definitely the harder case.

dennis murphy (voiceover): not in any of the recovered emails had michelle written words to the effect, "we need to kill thad." so instead, the prosecutors focused on that 4th of july weekend that began with that frosty rendezvous at the levee on friday. by that day, scotty had already failed on two occasions to confront thad after he says michelle had given him instructions as to where he would be. to scotty, she seemed upset that afternoon that he hadn't been manly enough to tell thad. he thought he'd lost her. sunday, she emailed scotty, letting him know where thad will be early the next morning. and the best nugget the prosecution had was this-- an email exchange late sunday evening. he writes, "stop me if you have any hesitations." she replies, "i'm ready. please be observant of your surroundings and be careful. i can't wait to be your bride." was it enough? would a jury buy that as her knowing, deliberately giving her head over heels lover a green light for murder? michelle had hired seasoned criminal defense lawyers

jimmy berry and vic reynolds. they were very worried about trying a case in a town they believe was ready to convict their client with biblical fury. in this case, there was absolutely a moral backlash against michelle. i think there was a perception by the community that she had initiated this affair, had taken this man of god with her womanly ways, sexual ways, had gotten him to do this heinous act. and i think the community was convinced that that's what michelle had done. dennis murphy (voiceover): but despite the defense attorneys fear a local jury would be willing to brand their client with a scarlet letter, they didn't believe those emails between the lovers gave the prosecutors the smoking gun they needed to send michelle to death row. there's a lot of ways to interpret what some of these emails may have indicated. dennis murphy (voiceover): the defense attorney's version of events would be that scotty acted entirely on his own, just crazy in love with their client. talk to thad, he suggests, means that and only that. no coded language.

she basically indicates to me that she never indicated to scotty that she wanted him to kill her husband. dennis murphy (voiceover): so, which was it? two lovers who'd carried out a murder in order to get to their fantasy land of portland together, or was she totally in the dark? was it really about one crazed man killing the husband who stood in the way? and would the prosecutors be forced to cut michelle loose from their case altogether? was it time for prosecutors to play their least favorite game, let's make a deal? coming up. and how about, let's piece together the evidence? some wondered why michelle seemed to have a brand new funeral outfit ready to go. every woman needs a black dress. dennis murphy (voiceover): when "dateline" continues.

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amichelle would write in an email later that she could relate to the words of that old song, "torn between two lovers." i loved my husband, and i didn't want him to be hurt. dennis murphy (voiceover): but the prosecutors had come to look at michelle reynolds in the worst possible light-- a seducer who used her sexual powers to dupe a sap of a lover into killing her husband for her. she's been referred to as a "puppet master." she was absolutely pulling his strings and pushing him and hinting and saying,

we're never going to be together unless-- dennis murphy (voiceover): unless, they argued, scotty killed her husband. did you ever have a conversation, michelle, where you said, we've got to think about the worst possible thing. the only way we're going to be together is to get rid of thad. no, sir. dennis murphy (voiceover): michelle denied that she sent her lover to kill her husband as she talked about her extramarital affair with "dateline." at one point, we were both talking about it. you know, we need to stop. and then he came back, and he says, i can't. i can't stop. dennis murphy (voiceover): guilty of adultery, she says, but not murder. and as you hear her tell her story, you'll realize that for michelle, it was never endless love. she talks of scotty indifferently, as though he's an inconsequential old boyfriend she has to squint to remember. michelle sullins: we met in the parking deck at his job, and we-- we just kissed. did anything else happen that day? no, sir. and when did you go past kissing

into actual having sex? we actually didn't have sex. you never had sex? no, sir. he couldn't get-- he couldn't get an erection. dennis murphy (voiceover): scotty, michelle was saying, was impotent. a startling revelation if true, given all the horror that had spilled out of the affair. she says the trysts at the motels, all heavy petting and making out without consummation. and ditto for him sneaking into her room during that weekend in alabama. again, he couldn't get an erection. kissing and hugging? yes, sir. and then at dawn, he'd leave? yes, sir. dennis murphy (voiceover): when scotty was in the county jail months after the murder, authorities confiscated in his cell a 58-page letter he'd written michelle, but she'd never received. over and over, he writes lines like these, "i want to love you," "spend the rest of my life devoted to you," and "making you the happiest woman alive." but the letter is more than just another avowal

of his endless love for her. it's also a bullet point outline for how they need to keep their stories together for their upcoming trials. in this phone book of a letter, scotty also outlines for her how he plans to defend himself. he's going to argue that he took a pill for erectile dysfunction, something which triggered a psychotic episode, during which he killed thad. not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. so this idea of impotency is floating around the case, but the prosecutor isn't buying the argument. she says she has on the record michelle boasting about her sexual dexterity. she bragged about that she had shown him positions that he'd never seen before. and he loved it. those were exactly her words, and he loved it. dennis murphy (voiceover): whatever the truth, michelle and scotty were only a few weeks into their romantic relationship when they met at the levee the day she didn't want to cuddle. she wanted to talk about the dead end they were facing, unless scotty had a man-to-man confrontation with thad

as he promised. dennis murphy: were you on him saying, have you talked to him yet? has this happened? we had discussed it because there, at that time, he said, oh, my gosh, i'm losing you, because thad had said was going on a date. and so that even increased his wanting to move forward even more so. dennis murphy (voiceover): that was the friday of 4th of july weekend, when a dejected scotty felt he was losing michelle. that weekend, there was barbecue, volleyball, fireworks. [fireworks exploding] and on sunday, michelle remembers scotty telling her he was finally going to talk to her husband. michelle sullins: he said, send me your husband's schedule so i'll know where he's at. and i'll, you know, hook up with him. and that's what i did. what did that mean to you, michelle? that he was going to go and confront him about us. did you get the feeling he was talking about a violent resolution of this thing? no, sir. i really-- scotty was a nice, outgoing guy. i would never imagine him hurting anyone.

dennis murphy (voiceover): but what about those troubling emails the lovers exchanged on sunday, the day before the murder? scotty sends you an email that says, "i'm ready for tomorrow. stop me if you have any hesitation. do you remember that?" yes, sir. what did you think that meant? if i wanted him to go and tell thad about us or not. and you reply, "no hesitation. i'm ready. please be observant of your surroundings and be careful. i do want to spend time with you. i want to be your wife." yes, sir. is there any way to read that, michelle, other than to say, be careful in what we both know is going to happen, and look over your shoulder. and do pull this thing off? i know that there's people there because they come in and out. being careful is like, don't get in a fight. dennis murphy (voiceover): remember, during that church trip in alabama, michelle and scotty started using the words "talk" and "ugly" as a lovers' code for scotty's upcoming confrontation with thad. you'd used a shorthand, the word "ugly," between you? yes, sir.

dennis murphy: what did the word "ugly" mean to you? don't get in a fight. so when you say in this email, be careful, you're thinking about don't do something dumb, don't get in a fight. right, right. dennis murphy (voiceover): michelle says she never told or even hinted to scotty that he needed to kill thad. there were no special looks, no nods, nothing. dennis murphy: had you told scotty explicitly or given him some sort of body language that we've got to kill thad? no, sir. this is how we're going to be together? no, sir. dennis murphy (voiceover): and when scotty called her that morning, she says she still didn't suspect that he had killed thad. michelle sullins: he had said that he met with him and told him, but he didn't bring up the fact that what happened. dennis murphy: so what did you think had happened? i mean, you're a bright woman. here, it was the morning of the confrontation. he says they did have the confrontation. and then thad is found stabbed to death. i didn't want to believe that it was him. did you suspect it? no, because that is just not his character. it's not part of him. he's just an all-time sweet guy.

and no. so at the very moment he's supposed to have this confrontation, which is going to be unpleasant in the best of all worlds, it happens. and then out of the blue, somebody else comes in to the place of business and stabs your husband 19 times at dawn in a botched robbery? i mean, that doesn't add up. yes, sir. dennis murphy (voiceover): michelle also says there was no dark humor between her and scotty about killing thad. dennis murphy: you don't remember joking with him about, well, we'll make a poisoned batch of spaghetti, and that will take care of it? no, sir. we'll annihilate them? no, sir. dennis murphy (voiceover): as for the perception that she seemed unreasonably cool at the house in the days after the murder, michelle says she was simply in shock. michelle sullins: in all honesty, i was blacked out for the most part because those people that said they came to my house and that they saw me, and i don't ever recall. dennis murphy (voiceover): and the fact that she had what seemed to some a pre-need black funeral dress already hanging in the closet, michelle says this has been taken entirely out of context.

every woman needs a black dress. and along with that black dress, they didn't mention the fact that i had, like, two other dresses, a top and skirt, still with the tags on them. dennis murphy (voiceover): to michelle's lawyers, none of it may have looked good, but it was still all very thin evidence for the prosecutors to build a capital murder case against their client. they were all just bad innuendos. dennis murphy (voiceover): and even the prosecutor knew if they were going to get a conviction on michelle, they'd need scotty to testify against her. and four years after the murder, as the two lovers sat in separate cells in the county jail, prosecutors finally got just that. dennis murphy (voiceover): a sworn, taped confession from scotty harper. dennis murphy (voiceover): scotty cut a deal with the district attorney. he taped this confession and would testify

for the prosecution in michelle's upcoming trial, provided the state drop the death penalty on not just him, but also on her. i had to hold my nose in a major way. you don't offer a get out of death row free card casually. no. he is gonna have to give us her and her part in it and her complicity in it, not "i love her, and she had nothing to do with this." he's gotta-- he's gotta come off that line. yeah, he's gotta tell the truth. dennis murphy (voiceover): but would they ever get the complete truth from a man who would do anything for the woman he loved? coming up. dennis murphy (voiceover): scotty recounts what happened when he called michelle to tell her he'd finally confronted thad. did she say words to the effect, scott, "is he dead? did you kill him?" dennis murphy (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. (cough cough) (sneeze) (♪♪)

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i'm jessica lleyton with the hour's top stories. authorities are investigating that deadly christmas day plane crash in kazakhstan. the country says at least 38 of the 67 people on board were killed. early findings say the plane collided with birds. and thousands of ukrainians are without heat and power after russia launched a christmas day attack on that country's power grid. president volodymyr zelenskyy called the strike inhumane but said it will not distort the holiday. and now back to "dateline." .

dennis murphy (voiceover): scotty harper had fallen hard for the former homecoming queen at his high school. the enormously tangled dilemma was that michelle reynolds was also his best friend's wife, the mother of four little girls. for him, what had started out as email flirtations turned into irresistible, hot sex. was it exciting? was it risky? was it good? exciting and risky, i mean, it was something i wanted. i think i hear you saying this is like a narcotic, that michelle has become your drug, and you cannot get enough of it. i guess that's fair to say. she was. everything-- yeah, everything i needed, dennis murphy (voiceover): as part of a plea deal with the state, scotty harper had agreed to testify for the prosecution in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table for both of them.

dennis murphy (voiceover): in this sworn confession that was taped before michelle's pending trial, scotty described the path he says they traveled down that ultimately led to murder. it all started in earnest, he says, at the weekend church trip in alabama, when he sneaked away to the private room, he'd arranged for her.

dennis murphy (voiceover): scotty also said he heard relief in michelle's voice when he spoke to her the morning of thad's death. dennis murphy (voiceover): but when "dateline" talked to scotty harper, he backed away from that position he'd given the prosecution as part of his plea deal, that michelle was relieved the morning thad is found dead and that she even knew what "talk" and "ugly" were really all about. he seemed to once again want to protect her from any involvement in the murder. dennis murphy: so what's the truth? there's nothing to cover for. there's nothing to protect her from. the truth is, i did this. i see no guilt on her part. i really don't. dennis murphy (voiceover): scotty said he acted alone and that when he went to sleep that sunday night, even he didn't know how the confrontation with thad was going to play out. he said he got up before 5:00 that monday morning,

but instead of his usual trip to the gym, he made the decision to drive to the frito-lay warehouse. scotty harper: it's hard to believe that things got to where it was. full in, i'm looking at myself in the rearview mirror for a minute before i go in. was that always going to be the outcome from that moment on, as you're looking at yourself in the rearview? it's like i was sitting outside, looking in. and i'm not-- and i'm not removing myself from the responsibility because that was me. but it's hard to imagine myself with the thoughts that i was having. see yourself walking in? yeah. you hear him saying, hey, scotty harper, what are you doing here? yeah. what do you say to him? i want what you got. dennis murphy: michelle. correct. dennis murphy (voiceover): scotty says he then pulled the knife out of the sheath.

thad, he says, thought he'd simply come to return the hunting knife he'd lost on that family camping trip. it was in my right hand. he sees it. he looks down. he holds out his left hand. as though you're going to, what, hand the knife to him? i guess so. you know, me saying, "i want what you got," he had a little confused look on his face. he didn't know what i was talking about. but he didn't have much time to reflect because you're on him with a knife right away. correct. the worst minute of your life and a lot of other people's lives. yeah. dennis murphy (voiceover): thad tried to fight back. dennis murphy: do you remember anything about it? mm, pretty much. they would say later in the autopsy report that you stabbed him 19 times. i don't remember 19 stabs, but i remember enough. he went down and stayed down. did you say, "i want what you have," again?

i said it more than once, yes. did you think, "now i've got her"? no. i-- i couldn't believe what i'd done. i couldn't believe what i'd done. dennis murphy (voiceover): scotty left thad, his best friend, bleeding to death on his office floor. he knew he needed to get away quickly. i had to wrap my fingers. i'd cut myself. and there go your eyeglasses. you've lost them. it's dark and they're gone. and you've lost the sheath to the knife. scotty harper: no plan. dennis murphy: this is no plan, scott. no plan. what's going on? no idea how it got there. not a thing to do to take it back. what are you going to do next? that's what 6:00 am is about. what's 7:00 am? what's 8:00 am? what are the next years of your life going to be about coming off of this moment? the after-effects wasn't planned, no. not thinking about running, escaping, doing anything. but also not going to the police.

and also not going to the police. dennis murphy (voiceover): he drove to the hospital where he worked and entered through a side door. i had blood all over me. i changed clothes. there's other people going to be coming in. i'm not going to just leave bloody clothes and a knife sitting out. i just put them under the floor. and there's a raised floor at the data center where we had our servers that you could pull the tiles up. dennis murphy: so did you think, "wow, this is going pretty good now"? scotty harper: no. at no point during that time, i felt like, this is going pretty good, no. dennis murphy (voiceover): he then headed to the er to get stitches for the knife wound on his hand. later, he drove to his gym to shower up. every mirror i passed, i mouthed the words, "you just killed thad. you killed thad." it just seemed surreal. it was like it didn't happen. but i knew it did. your blood's on him. his blood's on you. your good friend. yeah. dennis murphy (voiceover): scotty then calls michelle. she asked me, did you talk with him.

i said yes. did you say, "it got ugly"? yes. did she say words to the effect, scott, "is he dead? did you kill him? is it over?" no. no. you're saying that her understanding was that you've had the talk with him, and it was nasty and it was ugly. and, what, i'll talk to you later? yeah, i mean, she says she's sure she'd hear-- hear all about it a little bit later, dennis murphy (voiceover): soon after speaking to michelle, scotty got the official word from their pastor that thad was dead. he headed over to michelle's, where he was immediately surrounded by thad's family. and these pictures were snapped of him holding the dead man's youngest daughter. scotty harper: so i see his daughters. dennis murphy: the children who don't have a father. yeah, i see his sister. i see his mom. the mom of the man you've just murdered. yes. now how are you holding it together? why don't you just come undone at that point and say, i throw myself at your mercy.

this thing happened. there was nothing i could say that could take it back. and there was nothing i could do that could fix it. so you're just going to muddle forward and see what happens? i didn't know what to do. dennis murphy (voiceover): scotty says he and michelle had barely any time alone that day. too many friends were arriving to express their condolences. but when he called her late that night, he says it still hadn't occurred to her that he was the killer. before we hung up, she said, do you think this was a sign? a what? a sign. a sign-- dennis murphy: a sign from where of what? a sign from god. and i asked her, what are you talking about? and she said, of all days for you to go talk to him. i saw then she didn't know. she didn't know that you were going to go kill him? no. no, she didn't. when i went to bed that night, i can't say i knew that i was going to kill him. so i know she couldn't have. michelle had no idea.

dennis murphy (voiceover): scotty harper's story from friendship to homicide, all for a one-time homecoming queen who now says their fling was just a big mistake. was he still the 15-year-old boy in high school fixated on the homecoming queen? michelle sullins: i believe so. yes, sir. dennis murphy (voiceover): coming up. she taught him how to walk on the wild side. and he didn't want to ever give that up. dennis murphy (voiceover): and now, after everything-- what would you say to scotty? dennis murphy (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. let's monopoly go! friends are like money. keke, i won again? they make everything more fun. and you can never have enough! toodaloo. my moderate to severe crohn's symptoms kept me out of the picture. now i have skyrizi. ♪ i've got places to go and i'm feeling free. ♪

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dennis murphy (voiceover): one woman, two men, seven children among them being raised in good solid middle class homes. i don't know how you explain it. if you try to wrap your mind around it, you can't, because we always come back to the question, why not just get a divorce? but they didn't. dennis murphy (voiceover): and the prosecutor believes it was scotty harper's sexual obsession with michelle that led him to murder. she taught him how to walk on the wild side, and he didn't want to ever give that up. dennis murphy (voiceover): even, apparently, if it meant going to prison for the rest of his life for it. there would be no trial. scotty harper pleaded guilty to stabbing to death his good friend, thad reynolds. dennis murphy (voiceover): he was given life in prison

without the possibility of parole. michelle reynolds also ended up taking a deal from the prosecutor. dennis murphy (voiceover): knowing that scotty was planning to testify for the prosecution, michelle agreed to a sentence of 10 years for voluntary manslaughter and 10 years for party to the crime of burglary, a charge related to scotty entering the frito-lay warehouse. it's always hard to roll the dice when you're talking about a death penalty. dennis murphy (voiceover): michelle's lawyers were prepared to go to trial and argue that she had no idea that scotty was going to kill her husband. but when they hadn't managed to get a change of venue out of rome, georgia, and when the prosecution was offering to swap the death penalty for a much lesser charge, they advised michelle to take the deal. it's the bible belt. nobody likes folks in the bible

belt having affairs. everybody pretty much had made up their mind that she was guilty, that she forced this boy-- and never been in any trouble, good boy. she forced him into killing her husband so that they could be together. dennis murphy (voiceover): michelle accepted the 20-year prison term without a trial because a part of her does feel responsible for thad's death. morally, because i had the affair, i feel responsible. because had i not had the affair, this wouldn't have happened. and i'm deeply sorry that so many people were hurt, that i've hurt a lot of people. so you agreed to do 20 years for an affair? yes, sir. dennis murphy: is that what it comes down to? yes, sir. but you didn't ask your lover to kill your husband? no, sir. dennis murphy (voiceover): scotty, though, says he wished michelle had fought the charges. i don't understand why she pled. because if she lost her bet, she might have ended up on death row. you're innocent. why would you plea? i mean, i just-- i just don't understand. dennis murphy (voiceover): scotty told us he took the plea deal because he didn't want his family

to go through a death penalty trial, and he didn't want michelle to face that either. was that as important as your deal that they take death off the table for her? correct. so you're still trying to do her some good. for what good it is. i mean, i can't say that i've done good for anybody, but yeah. dennis murphy (voiceover): as part of her sentence, michelle could not have contact with her four children until each turned 18. and what would you say to scotty? at this time, i don't have anything to say to him. he's just a memory and not good ones? yes, sir. i was definitely crazy about her. but now? some things you have to suppress. suppress. it's there, but you don't want to touch it? you can't so you don't. dennis murphy: the other thing that michelle said, which just really surprised me when you think of everything that you guys gambled, she said that you never really completed a sexual relationship. i've-- i've heard that from-- from people. i don't know. dennis murphy: she said that basically you were impotent with her and never consummated the act.

i'm not sure why she said it, but i'll just leave it at that. you loved her? yeah. dennis murphy (voiceover): michelle's four girls went to live with thad's family. his life insurance went to their care. scotty's wife, mother of his three, divorced him. he was left with only regrets. i'm sorry doesn't cut it. that's all i have now. there's nothing i can say to undo what i've done. dennis murphy (voiceover): the prosecutor is not surprised by any of it, that scotty said he still loved michelle from behind bars and that michelle seemed not to care. when last heard from, he was still hanging the moon and the stars for her. yes, and probably will for the rest of his life. he's giddy as a teenager. he still loves her. she's still all he has. but what about her? she never loved him. she used him. she uses people as objects. if you're useful to her, she'll use you for a while,

and then she's going to cast you aside. sweetheart, wasn't the service great today? it sure was, sweetheart. dennis murphy (voiceover): in the church play michelle and thad were featured in, they go to a cotton candy heaven as their reward. this is heaven. this is what we've lived for. isn't it wonderful? dennis murphy (voiceover): a sunday school dream. nothing in that script about sexual obsession and a hunting knife, a man who wanted what the other had. long after guests leave, viruses and bacteria linger. air fresheners add a scent. but only lysol air sanitizer helps erase the trace, eliminating odor and killing 99.9% of viruses and bacteria in the air. scent can't sanitize. lysol can. my moderate to severe crohn's symptoms kept me out of the picture. now i have skyrizi. ♪ i've got places to go and i'm feeling free. ♪

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powering five years of savings. powering possibilities™. comso this isess. where it happened? this is it. he was stabbed in the chest, left to die right here abe said he felt like his son was targeted, right? correct. that it was a hit job? correct. i made a resolve, whoever did this is going to pay for it. when people are desperate, they do desperate things. very evil and conniving. she used her sexuality in such a calculated way.