w abe is to know that he'll start writing the next chapter now. and whereas, the last chapter was about seeking justice for adam, i'm certain this next chapter will be about living adam's legacy. "down on the ground. so i did. i could be dead right now. i wish i had put my face over his so he could look at me. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): she had to relive it all for the cameras. she was a new bride, married just six days. then came that horrible night. i see kind of a dark shadow.

all i remember was the bright flash of the gun. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): she told police a mysterious man burst into their new home and killed her husband. i put my hands on his face, and i told him i loved him. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): there's no doubt her story was heartbreaking, but it was puzzling too. who was the strange man? or as you may find yourself asking, was there a strange man at all? a brand new bride tells the story of some mystery man. that's got to set off alarm bells. she was somebody we had to look at. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): now she's the one under scrutiny, her clothes examined, her account questioned. the detective asked me if i killed my husband. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): what did happen that night? the truth would be far stranger than anyone knew.

hello and welcome to "dateline." life changed quickly for katherine pierce. she married scott, who was the love of her life. then, as the couple was busy setting up home, scott was murdered. katherine said an intruder shot him, a story police found suspicious. but the truth behind the crime was far darker than anyone imagined. here's josh mankiewicz with "out of the shadows." josh mankiewicz (voiceover): albuquerque, new mexico, a mile-high city famous for its annual balloon festival and the city where a match made in heaven came in 2005, when a friend of katherine bailey's set her up with a man named scott. what was it that made your friend think that the two of you would be a good match? i'm not sure if it was anything other than he

was a tall, handsome man, and she knew that's what i liked. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): and scott pierce certainly was tall, at 6 foot 8 and more than 350 pounds. he was a gentle soul trapped in the body of an nfl lineman. the two soon fell in love. and nature played an important role in their lives, both their own good natures and their love of nature. josh mankiewicz: what did you like about him besides that he was 6' 8"? he saw the beauty in anything. i mean, he would stop to take a picture of anything. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): scott was behind the lens for pictures like these. katherine pierce: we would make special trips out into the desert when the cactuses were blooming. we took a lot of photographs. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): but nature alone wasn't important to scott pierce. he was also nurturing. this big guy also had a big heart. he dreamed of one day becoming a nurse practitioner. if i had a plant and it was almost dead and i was, like, ready to give up on it,

he wouldn't let me because there was a chance it could come back. he just wouldn't give up on anything. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): in may 2008, nearly three years after they were matched, scott and katherine, who worked in retail, took a big step as a couple. they bought a house in northeast albuquerque. josh mankiewicz: this was your first home. mm-hmm. i qualified for it on my own, actually. but with his nursing career finally taking off, we're going to be living ok. what appealed to you about that house? it looked very homey. and it gave us more room. i mean, we didn't need a huge house. we were both simple people. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): a month later, they were married. officiant: i, scott. scott pierce: i, scott. officiant: take you, katherine. scott pierce: take you, katherine. officiant: to be my wife. josh mankiewicz: was there a honeymoon coming? katherine pierce: the honeymoon was going to take a back seat for a little while, which was fine. we had a house, you know? we still had boxes everywhere. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): that decision to buy that home at that time on that schedule would one day become

a choice katherine and others would examine and re-examine-- [tense music] --because that honeymoon the new couple had put off would never come. just six days after the wedding, scott and katherine's new life took a turn no one saw coming. he actually stayed up late that night watching a movie and then came to bed. next thing we know, the dogs are barking. i got up, went down the hall. i noticed the back door was open. and i thought it was 3 o'clock in the morning, i didn't have my glasses on, and i thought, why would scott leave the back door open? so if the back door had been open when he went to bed, he probably would have noticed it. yes. his routine was to go through the house and check that everything was locked. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): then from nowhere, katherine noticed something strange.

and i see kind of a dark shadow that looks like he's pointing a long, pointy thing at me. and i said, scott, stop messing around. you thought it was your husband. it didn't make sense that it would be a stranger in my home pointing a shotgun at me. so it had to be scott playing a trick. josh mankiewicz: tell me about this man with the shotgun. white, black, hispanic? a black shadow. that's literally all i saw. and then it snapped. this wasn't scott. what'd you think? your mind works very fast. he said, get down on the ground. so i did. and he said, where's manny? manny? and i said, what? what did you say? and he said, where's manny? josh mankiewicz (voiceover): and that's when, from the corner of her eye, katherine caught sight of her husband. he'd woken up to see a man pointing a shotgun at his wife. katherine pierce: he was charging this guy. your husband of six days was coming to your defense. yeah. at that point, it was kind of a blur.

all i remember was him turning very fast. but i saw the bright flash of the gun, and i think that kind of temporarily blinded me. where's the guy with the gun? the only thing i can imagine is that he ran out the back door as soon as the gun went off. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): katherine grabbed the phone, called 911, and says she found scott on the kitchen floor with a gaping wound in his neck. did you say anything to him? oh, yeah. i told him i loved him. i put my hands on his face, and i told him i loved him. he had his hand up on his stomach. and i noticed it fell. i'm fairly certain he died right there. so by the time they loaded him into the ambulance and took him away, you didn't have a lot of hope. i wouldn't even say that. i wasn't going to give up hope until somebody told me finally. [siren wailing] josh mankiewicz (voiceover): and minutes later

at the hospital, someone did. i remember the doctor finally walking in. and he said, so tell me what happened. and i said, no. is he alive? i wasn't going to play this game. i just-- i wanted to know right away. and he-- he said no. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): at age 41, scott pierce was dead, six days after his wedding. and just like that, katherine pierce was a widow. what had happened in that kitchen? who was manny, the mysterious man for whom the killer had come calling? and who held the answers to all those questions? a whole lot of questions in this case. it's time for police to take a closer look at their witness, katherine pierce. craig melvin (voiceover): coming up. it's more than her story that's under scrutiny. it's everything. her clothes from that night, her marriage, even a life insurance policy.

i knew something was coming. craig melvin (voiceover): did she have something to hide? when "dateline" continues. ooo! our car's value went up! maybe we should track all our cars' value on carvana? we need more trackers! oh! i'm getting a value update! do you see which one is going off? how's it trackin'? some dips, some rises. now what? "hold?" sold. track your car's value on carvana today. why pay more for an effective daily body lotion? gold bond healing lotion hydrates for half the price of the leading daily moisturizing lotion. it visibly heals and moisturizes dry skin in just 1 use. choose gold bond. 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. ♪ ♪ control of my crohn's means everything to me. ♪ ♪ control is everything to me.♪ and now i'm back in the picture. feel significant symptom relief at 4 weeks with skyrizi,

including less abdominal pain and fewer bowel movements. skyrizi helped visibly improve damage of the intestinal lining. and with skyrizi, many were in remission at 12 weeks, at 1 year, and even at 2 years. don't use if allergic. serious allergic reactions, increased infections, or lower ability to fight them may occur. before treatment, get checked for infections and tb. tell your doctor about any flu-like symptoms or vaccines. liver problems leading to hospitalization may occur when treated for crohn's. now's the time to take control of your crohn's. ♪ control is everything to me. ♪ ask your doctor about skyrizi, the #1 prescribed biologic in crohn's disease. 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. hey, get your head in the game, son. scent can't sanitize. the scout from football college is up in the stands. maybe i'd rather go to school for insurance. i didn't raise no insurance man. but you did, dad. football's your passion. but mine is providing around-the-clock protection to progressive customers who bundle home and auto. jamie, we need you out here for football. you're giving up on your dream, james. no, dad. i'm giving up on yours. no, james, wait! oh, that's not the exit. why pay more for an effective daily body lotion? gold bond healing lotion hydrates for half the price of the leading daily moisturizing lotion. it visibly heals and moisturizes dry skin in just 1 use. choose gold bond. mega-heist! -yeah! -i can't go back to jail!

wait, did you rob my bank? sharing is caring, bro! let's make like dice and roll. ♪♪ let's make like dice and roll. tle music] josh mankiewicz (voiceover): a new day dawned in albuquerque that june morning in 2008. and as the sun came up, katherine pierce realized she'd been transformed. in just six days, she'd gone from smiling newlywed

to blood-stained widow and to possible suspect in the murder of her husband, scott. you know, when a husband or wife dies, it's very natural for police to at least look at the surviving spouse. i knew something was coming. it wasn't unusual. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): and soon, katherine was face to face with veteran albuquerque homicide detective mike fox. if a brand new bride tells a story of some mystery man coming into the house and executing her new husband, that's got to set off alarm bells. she was somebody we had to look at. tell me about katherine pierce's demeanor. she actually shocked me how well she was able to put it together. calmer than you would expect? yes. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): detectives had many questions, especially after looking hard at the crime scene and finding something confusing. the killer had dumped out katherine's purse on the back deck. but on the purse, no fingerprints.

so was this a robbery gone wrong? or was the purse some kind of diversion? we knew we were dealing with somebody at that point that had gloved up either with rubber gloves or something like that. which says to you what? it tells me that whoever's involved was going in there to-- to kill somebody and not leave any evidence behind. burglars generally do not carry shotguns. no. and if somebody surprises them, instead of shooting them, they just run away. typically, that's what i've seen through my career. and so even though the fact that katherine's purse was sort of dumped out and searched through, everything about this says planned murder, not planned burglary. correct. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): but planned by whom? tell me about scott pierce. anybody didn't like him? no. everybody liked him. great guy. nothing bad in his background at all. you no doubt did your due diligence

to find out whether that marriage was as happy as it appeared to be. yes. talking to people around him, everything was fantastic. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): but detectives had heard that story before. when they looked deeper, they learned that katherine's husband had a life insurance policy. the payoff was in the mid six-figure range. and she was the beneficiary. when they canvassed the homes nearby, police found neighbors who'd heard a man and woman talking at around 3:00 am. detectives wondered, had that been scott and katherine? within hours of her husband's murder, criminalists confiscated the clothes katherine was wearing when she said her new husband was gunned down right in front of her. police took your clothing because they wanted to test it. everything is evidence at that point. i understood that. you weren't concerned. not at all. the detective asked me if i killed my husband. straight out? and i said no. and he seemed fairly satisfied with that.

josh mankiewicz (voiceover): but detectives asked katherine to run through her story again, looking for inconsistencies. so she went through what happened that night again, just as she did in this video she would later make for her attorneys. from here, i turned around. and there was the person, a tall person, standing here. so i said, oh, scott, stop messing around. and then he said, get down on the ground. that's when i knew somebody was in my house that didn't belong. i saw scott standing at the other end of the room. i held out my hand. and i said, scott, wait. the gun went off. his head was right here. and his neck was blown open, all of this, his throat, everything to back here. it was just-- it was gone.

did she say or do anything that made you suspicious? no, nothing showed that she wasn't telling the truth. but unfortunately, in her situation, i have to go after her as a possible suspect. it's to find out if she is involved, a, and then b, if she's not, later on, make it so that when this does go to trial, it's not brought up by a defense attorney that tries to throw it on her and make her look like she's the one that did it. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): but remember, there was something katherine heard on the kitchen floor that night, something that came from that shadowy figure who'd held a shotgun to katherine's head before firing the fatal shot at scott. the killer had also asked her a question that would soon become the focus of this investigation. he said, where's manny? manny? and i said, what? what did you say? and he said, where's manny? josh mankiewicz (voiceover): it was a name that meant nothing to homicide investigators. but katherine pierce says she knew exactly who the man was after.

now, police were looking for him, too. craig melvin (voiceover): coming up-- josh mankiewicz (voiceover): so who was this mystery man named manny? and could he help break this case? it didn't quite seem right that this random person just happened to break in. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): police are getting closer. when "dateline" continues.

josh mankiewicz (voiceover): it was just a few hours into a sunny saturday morning

in albuquerque, june 2008. katherine pierce was in a police car being taken home from the hospital where her husband of six days, scott, had just been pronounced dead. from the start, she'd been treated as a suspect in her husband's murder. katherine's story was that a shadowy figure had broken into their home in the middle of the night and had then killed scott but for some reason, spared katherine's life. detective mike fox was working homicide for the albuquerque police. it didn't quite seem right that this random person just happened to break in and was looking for a guy named manny. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): manny. it was the name that was about to break this case. it had to do, it turned out, not just with katherine pierce and her husband, but with the house, the piece of property they'd just bought as they began their life together. the couple had moved in just a month before the murder, a month before that question asked

by the intruder in the middle of the night about where to find manny. you knew who he was talking about. yes. i knew exactly who he was talking about. that's who you bought the house from. yes. and they had moved out, how long before? almost exactly a month prior. suddenly, the murder case had moved off of katherine pierce and onto the presumed target that night, a man named manny. it turned out he was known to the albuquerque police. and within hours, after detectives put out word they were looking for him, manny called police. he offered to come in, sit down, and help out any way he could. i'm guessing the first question is, who's looking for you that wants to kill you? yeah. who would want you dead? and he says? he says jason skaggs. he's the only one i can think of that would want to have me killed. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): this is jason skaggs. manny told police he and jason worked together at a roofing company. originally from california, skaggs was an ex-marine, a former trucker

with a minor criminal record. and some of the story manny was telling police added up. at 6'3" and only 200 pounds, jason skaggs matched almost exactly the description given by katherine pierce of a tall, slender intruder. but he was not, as far as police knew, a killer. to detectives, a home invasion that ended in murder seemed to be outside jason skaggs' criminal skill set. if he was the guy in katherine pierce's house with the shotgun, he was a rookie. and that didn't really match up with the gloves and some of the other things that were kind of popping in our heads as somebody that might be more experienced at this. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): detectives started tracking skaggs' cell phone. the cell phone started pinging off of el paso, texas. that sounds like a guy on the run. yeah. i thought, ok, is this guy just heading for mexico? josh mankiewicz (voiceover): but it turned out el paso was just the closest cell tower to elephant butte

lake, the campground where jason skaggs was spending the weekend with his wife. and not only did he say it, his employer backed him up. even with what seemed an airtight alibi, detectives brought in skaggs. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): skaggs stuck to his story of a weekend camping trip at the lake. but what skaggs didn't know was that his wife had already been interviewed. and she told a completely different story of what they did and when. detective fox broke that news to jason skaggs. at that point, i could see that we had the right guy. how can you tell when you have the right guy? when a person's cooperating with you, they have a certain demeanor. and when you start to turn things on them and start to show that what they're telling you isn't the truth and that i know it, then you can see a change in the eyes. and so it just all starts to unravel.

and you can tell? you can see that? oh, yeah. and it's probably the most exciting part of a homicide investigation is breaking a murderer with their own words. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): to detectives, it was looking more and more as if jason skaggs had been the man with the shotgun in katherine pierce's home. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): police kept hammering away. and that's when jason skaggs changed his story. he said he wasn't the man in katherine pierce's home, and he wasn't the person who'd pulled the trigger on that shotgun and killed scott. but he did know exactly who it was.

craig melvin (voiceover): coming up-- police uncover crucial new evidence, a duffel bag, a gun, and gloves. these belong to the killer? who was in the house that night? craig melvin (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. (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. why pay more for an effective daily body lotion? gold bondo water needed. healing lotion hydrates for half the price of the leading daily moisturizing lotion. it visibly heals and moisturizes dry skin in just 1 use. choose gold bond. 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. why pay more for an effective daily body lotion? gold bond healing lotion scent can't sanitize. hydrates for half the price of the leading daily moisturizing lotion. it visibly heals and moisturizes dry skin in just 1 use. choose gold bond.

much of the country will wake up to a new round of winter weather. these pacific northwest is being slammed by rain and snow while in the south are at risk for storms. beyonce brought down the house at the halftime. it marked the first live performance of songs from her grammy nominated album, cowboy carter. let's get you back to dateline. e

y suspected killed scott pierce. skaggs told police he was innocent, but his alibi was in tatters. with his back against the wall, skaggs was about to reveal not only why scott died, but who fired the fatal shot. back to josh mankiewicz with "out of the shadows." josh mankiewicz (voiceover): albuquerque police were moving full force in the first 48 hours after the murder of scott pierce. scott's widow, katherine, returned to the house they had shared to find more than a piece of her heart was missing. quite a bit had been stolen now by that shadowy figure with a shotgun. it wasn't just the life of the man she'd married less than a week before. it was also the future they had planned together. but gone, too, was katherine's camera, a gift from her husband who had so loved photography.

katherine pierce: of all the things he could have taken, that was actually the best thing because it still had all my wedding pictures on it. i hope he saw the pictures. i hope it sunk in what he just did. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): who had killed scott pierce was still an open question, but police thought they were zeroing in. because remember, katherine said the shadowy figure who'd come into the house in the middle of the night was looking for a man named manny who had lived in the house previously. when detectives found manny, he said a co-worker named jason skaggs was the likely killer. when questioned, skaggs denied any role in the murder and said he and his wife had been camping a couple of hours from albuquerque on the night scott pierce was killed. but detective mike fox soon broke down that alibi. and so in the police interview room, he went after skaggs with a new tactic. i mean, you're thinking that at that point that that was skaggs saying, where's manny? yeah, i'm saying, you know, whatever part you played in this, a good guy was killed.

and you got to feel bad about that. i mean, i got into that they'd been married a week, that they had just moved into the house. and if you're a good person, that has to weigh on you. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): whether skaggs was a good person is debatable. whether he cracked under the pressure is not. soon he was singing like a canary. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): skaggs said he wanted manny hurt because manny had slept with his wife. skaggs admitted the home invasion was all about jealousy, but said he never wanted anyone dead. but jason skaggs also had a surprise for detectives. i said, you went in there with a shotgun. and he goes, no, i didn't go in there. i had someone else go in there for me. and we're like, what? who did skaggs say was his accomplice?

he said it was clifton bloomfield. that name mean anything to you? no. the name didn't ring a bell at all. but it didn't take you long before you knew a lot about him. correct. this is a serious guy. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): serious and scary. clifton bloomfield was 39, an ex-con who'd done prison time in arizona for robbery, kidnapping, and assault. after his release, he had moved to new mexico, where he dabbled in acting. but bloomfield's new career apparently wasn't working as well as his old one. he was soon arrested and pleaded no contest to a home invasion robbery. bloomfield was now on probation for that crime. released from jail less than a year earlier, he'd been set free into the custody of a co-worker at a roofing company, a man named, you guessed it, jason skaggs. clifton bloomfield-- he was the kind of guy you'd send into somebody's house to either beat them up or kill them. yes.

and he physically met the description. he was also tall and slender. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): when police searched bloomfield's home, they found a black duffel bag containing a shotgun, bullet-proof vest, and a mask. also, latex gloves used, as police soon learned, by the killer who had dumped out katherine pierce's purse to try to make this murder look like a botched burglary. detectives now believe jason skaggs was telling the truth. it had been bloomfield behind the shotgun. his criminal history fit the crime. he'd been convicted of a violent home-invasion robbery before. it wasn't long before police tracked down bloomfield and arrested him. this is a guy who's done prison time. i would think this is a guy who's not going to talk. i didn't think he would. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): but maybe bloomfield had seen those wedding pictures of scott and katherine on the camera he'd stolen. had he also picked up a conscience somewhere on his journey? because the hardened con surprised

detectives by opening up. i was a little shocked, but pleasantly shocked. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): as police would soon learn, clifton bloomfield's version of the truth changed with the new mexico wind. but among the several statements bloomfield gave was an explanation for his mission that night, looking for manny. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): but in the house that night, bloomfield said he realized that the manny he knew from work bore no resemblance to the 6-foot-8-inch hulk he found bearing down on him in the dark.

josh mankiewicz (voiceover): he says he was about to leave when scott pierce charged him. true or not, the result was that bloomfield put himself behind a murder as a favor to a friend, except he killed the wrong man. this was all just spectacular bad luck. if you'd moved into that house a month later, would your life be different? it would be very different. if your husband were a sounder sleeper, if he hadn't woken up. things could have been different. if the guy with the gun had left when he realized manny didn't live in the house anymore. yeah. so many things. the wrong place at the wrong time. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): bloomfield and skaggs were charged with murder. for detective mike fox and his colleagues, it was a job well done, a case quickly solved.

scott pierce is murdered early on a saturday morning. and less than 48 hours later, you have all the suspects in custody and confessions. yes. good job. came together pretty well. case closed. that's what we thought. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): they were wrong. katherine pierce was about to learn that the shadowy figure she'd confronted that night was one of the most cold-blooded killers her part of the world had ever seen. and her involvement with him wasn't over. craig melvin (voiceover): coming up, a twist that stuns katherine pierce. it doesn't make any sense that he left me alive. craig melvin (voiceover): it would stun the police, too. 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. ♪ ♪ control of my crohn's means everything to me. ♪ ♪ control is everything to me.♪ and now i'm back in the picture. feel significant symptom relief at 4 weeks with skyrizi, including less abdominal pain and fewer bowel movements. skyrizi helped visibly improve damage of the intestinal lining. and with skyrizi, many were in remission at 12 weeks, at 1 year, and even at 2 years. don't use if allergic. serious allergic reactions, increased infections, or lower ability to fight them may occur. before treatment, get checked for infections and tb. tell your doctor about any flu-like symptoms or vaccines. liver problems leading to hospitalization may occur when treated for crohn's. now's the time to take control of your crohn's. ♪ control is everything to me. ♪ ask your doctor about skyrizi,

the #1 prescribed biologic in crohn's disease. why pay more for an effective daily body lotion? gold bond healing lotion the #1 prescribed biologic hydrates for half the price of the leading daily moisturizing lotion. it visibly heals and moisturizes dry skin in just 1 use. choose gold bond. 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®.

josh mankiewicz (voiceover): in the weeks after the murder of her husband, scott, katherine pierce was still living in the home where he had been killed by mistake. instead of moving out, katherine cleaned up the bloodstains and stayed. she says she was determined to face her own fears. i began to get up in the middle of the night and kind of walk through the house with the lights off just so i could get that out of my system so i wouldn't be afraid of it. i walked down the hall without the lights on. i went to the back door. i let the dogs out. you walked through the kitchen. i relived it over and over and over again.

and that made it easier. if you repeat something over and over and over again, it lessens a little bit every time. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): but katherine was also facing a broken-hearted truth that she'd lost the love of her life. i had no idea what my future would hold, especially in the romance department. you could not conceive of ever finding that kind of love again. no, i could not. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): and now the detectives who'd quickly closed the case by getting a confession from that armed intruder, clifton bloomfield, were about to realize they weren't done with either bloomfield or katherine pierce. that's when the crime lab here in albuquerque got a hit on clifton bloomfield's dna. but it had nothing to do with the murder of scott pierce. this was a dna sample left at the scene of a completely different albuquerque homicide. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): the killing ground was in this neatly kept home in 2007, some six months

before the murder of scott pierce. the murders of tak and pung yi had been front page news and sparked citywide outrage and fear. the yis were beloved figures, pioneers in the city's korean-american community. they'd come to the us in the '70s, worked multiple jobs, raised four successful children, and lived the american dream. mr. yi had just retired so they could travel. and then they were murdered in their own home. detective mike fox had a personal connection to the case. he actually was my neighbor at one point, so i'd see him out gardening and-- very pleasant man. not a neighborhood where you would expect this to happen. no. this is another crime where you have a victim that hadn't done anything to deserve it. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): and the crime detective fox and his colleagues had investigated had been especially vicious.

mrs. yi had been beaten and suffocated with a plastic grocery bag. her husband had been beaten to death. but before he died, mr. yi took a swipe at his killer, and his dna was found under mr. yi's fingernail. police now knew it was the dna of clifton bloomfield. he had not even been a suspect in the murders. part of me was shocked, but part of me was like, makes sense, the brutality of the murders. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): news that bloomfield had committed two more murders sent a shockwave through katherine pierce. i realized that i really could be dead. he could have killed me for fun because i was in the wrong place at the wrong time. or because you possibly could have identified him. anything. why leave a witness behind? it doesn't make any sense that he left me alive. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): the story gets stranger. before getting the dna hit on bloomfield,

albuquerque police and prosecutors had already arrested, indicted, and jailed two other men who they believed were responsible for the yi murders. one of the men had even confessed. but the dna of those two men was never found at the murder scene. dna now linked only clifton bloomfield. those results came back from the crime lab just days after the murder of scott pierce. my lawyer called me up and said, we found something. it looks like he could have been arrested before he ever killed scott. i kind of get the feeling that it's also when you kind of began to get angry. yes. somebody like that-- why did it take so long to put him behind bars? josh mankiewicz (voiceover): katherine's lawyers, ben davis and brad hall. how long did it take them to test that dna? seven months. and during that seven months, mr. bloomfield was on the street. and one of the things he did was kill scott pierce.

correct. they had seven months to prevent the murder of scott pierce, and they chose not to do that. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): kari brandenburg was the bernalillo county da. should police have submitted that dna sooner than they did? hindsight, yes. at the time, it was done the way things are done. we have limited resources. we had cases that were going to trial that we needed dna on. and so there's a priority. so this was something that fell through the cracks. i can't say that it fell through the cracks because that insinuates that something wrong happened. and i can't say that anything wrong happened. the process worked the way it always works. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): but that answer wasn't good enough for katherine pierce. this widow was about to begin a crusade. and clifton bloomfield was about to come out of the shadows. craig melvin (voiceover): coming up-- i'm not the monster you may make me out to be.

craig melvin (voiceover): haunting words from the killer himself. katherine pierce and you are about to hear his story. when "dateline" continues. 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. ♪ ♪ control of my crohn's means everything to me. ♪ ♪ control is everything to me.♪ and now i'm back in the picture. feel significant symptom relief at 4 weeks with skyrizi, including less abdominal pain and fewer bowel movements. skyrizi helped visibly improve damage of the intestinal lining. and with skyrizi, many were in remission at 12 weeks, at 1 year,

and even at 2 years. don't use if allergic. serious allergic reactions, increased infections, or lower ability to fight them may occur. before treatment, get checked for infections and tb. tell your doctor about any flu-like symptoms or vaccines. liver problems leading to hospitalization may occur when treated for crohn's. now's the time to take control of your crohn's. ♪ control is everything to me. ♪ ask your doctor about skyrizi, the #1 prescribed biologic in crohn's disease. why pay more for an effective daily body lotion? gold bond healing lotion the #1 prescribed biologic hydrates for half the price of the leading daily moisturizing lotion. it visibly heals and moisturizes dry skin in just 1 use. choose gold bond.

welcome back. police investigating the murder of scott pierce had made a stunning discovery. dna evidence linked their main suspect to a double homicide committed six months earlier.

to police, it looked like clifton bloomfield took not one, but three lives. that is until they heard bloomfield's chilling confession that there were more victims. here with the conclusion "out of the shadows" is josh mankiewicz. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): the range of emotion katherine pierce experienced after the mistaken-identity murder of her husband, scott, had gone from devastation to relief when his killers were caught and then to anger when she realized that if a double murder investigation six months earlier had been handled differently, clifton bloomfield might have been in jail instead of in her kitchen. dna evidence could have prevented him from killing scott. and it infuriated me. i mean, i couldn't believe that such a minor, insignificant detail from a previous murder could have saved scott.

josh mankiewicz (voiceover): that detail she's talking about? the dna that linked bloomfield to the yi murders, the dna taken from under mr. yi's fingernail. it sat in the albuquerque police crime lab with no tests being performed to identify it for months. the match didn't come until after scott pierce was dead. katherine pierce thought the process had failed her, so she filed a lawsuit against the city of albuquerque, its police department, and various detectives, including the man who had helped to quickly solve scott's murder, detective mike fox. it's kind of ironic. you find her husband's killer in less than 48 hours, and you still get sued for not having found him earlier. i guess one of the pitfalls of being a police officer, no one's ever really happy with the police. they always like the firemen better. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): and by 2012, katherine's lawsuit was headed for trial. katherine was dreading having to revisit

the time of scott's murder. she'd already done it once in this video assembled by her attorneys as they prepared her case. josh mankiewicz: you've moved on a little bit. moved on because i don't want to relive it. do you feel at all bad suing the police department that brought in your husband's killer in a couple of days? no, i don't feel bad. for me, it was more about bringing awareness to what the police are doing or not doing in this case. all i want is for them to do their job all the way through. you talk to police, and they say, one, we did do our job. we brought those guys in the minute we knew they were suspects. dna is not like it is on television. we don't have an answer in 15 seconds. and i-- and i do understand that. and we get a lot of murders. we do the best we can. we wish we could solve every one. we wish we could close every one right away. but that's not real life. and i know the police department or the detectives

did not come in and kill scott. i get that. it's not about smearing the albuquerque police department or detectives. it's about giving them more incentive to do their job better. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): just before trial, the city settled with katherine pierce for close to half a million dollars. her attorneys-- the city admitted no liability in that settlement. routine. what's that mean to you, that the city settled just before it went to trial? you don't pay a lot of money if you didn't do anything wrong, do you? josh mankiewicz (voiceover): although it settled the suit, the city defended the work of its police department throughout what it called a complex investigation. josh mankiewicz: to katherine pierce, it felt like an ending to a sad string of what ifs. what if she'd moved into this house a week later? what if scott hadn't woken up? what if the dna from the yi homicides had been tested sooner? she'd had what felt like a very

long run of very bad luck. and the connective tissue in all of it was clifton bloomfield. i'm not the monster people make me out to be. but i'm not perfect either. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): this is clifton bloomfield in an interview in 2009 given to the albuquerque journal newspaper. i've done my share of wrong. i've done plenty of dirt. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): bloomfield was willing, even eager, to talk about the pierce case, to explain what went wrong. reporter: feel bad about what happened? me? i feel bad about what happened there. what happened in the pierce case, it's a tragedy. imagine in a darkened room, just seeing shadows. and you tell the person to stop. you have a shotgun in your hand.

and they continue trying to grab it from you. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): it's hard to imagine being blase about murder. but then, clifton bloomfield has committed a lot of them. maybe that's why he tells the story as if he's an observer and not a participant. and he said, get down on the ground. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): bloomfield's version doesn't quite match with that of katherine pierce, the only other survivor of that night. i saw that interview. and he exaggerated a lot. he said scott was reaching for the gun. that never happened. i think scott just lunged. he turned, and pulled the trigger. i think it was as simple as that. the tragedy? he'd been married a week. another tragedy, he was a nurse. tragedies don't end. just keep on going. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): and the list of tragedies clifton bloomfield brought about just kept going. faced with the death penalty in the yi murders,

bloomfield cut a deal. he pleaded guilty to murder charges. and in exchange for a life sentence, he admitted committing two more killings before the yis, before scott pierce. the first was a talented designer found strangled in his home in 2005. three days later, the body of an 81-year-old retired school teacher was found beaten and suffocated. but he wasn't even a suspect in any of those. no, he was good. he wore gloves. he made it so no traces of him would be left behind except when he got scratched. and suddenly he's not just the guy you brought in on the scott pierce homicide. suddenly, he's-- he's what? a serial killer. he's his own kind of serial killer. he's not hunting prostitutes or somebody that looks like his mom. he just kills and keeps on killing. he's just killing for the art of killing.

how many murders do you think clifton bloomfield has committed for which he's never been charged? i honestly couldn't tell you. 10 wouldn't surprise me. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): bloomfield declined "dateline's" request for an interview. jason skaggs pleaded guilty to murder in the pierce case and is serving a 30-year prison sentence. meantime, the da's office in albuquerque freed those two men, the original suspects in the yi murders. one of them settled a lawsuit with the city for nearly $1 million. the city again admitted no liability. and katherine pierce has at last been able to move on. the woman who once thought she would never find love again has remarried, fulfilling one of the wishes scott had for her in their brief time together. when i was trying to talk about forever in our little pillow talk, he said, i might not live to be an old person.

but he said, if that happens, i want you to move on and find somebody. wow. what a gift. and you did. and i did. i could be dead right now. i know that. it's like being given a second chance. so i'm running with it. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching.