so, if i had any words of advice, don't wait for the praise. go do it. i don't know, figure it out. (orchestral music) ♪♪ nd there were office rs. rs. it looked straight out of a tv show. it was a crime scene. absolutely. the husband had gunshot wounds to the chest. and then, kathleen, there was a gunshot wound to her head. the police believed it was probably a murder-suicide. that changed once they heard about the phone call.

kathy called her mom and told her pete was in the house and that he was killing carl and that he was going to kill her next. that phone call was the evidence? yes, that was the evidence that put him in the house. they decided he was guilty, and that was it. are you thinking, is it possible we don't know our dad like we thought we did. - no. no. you knew in your heart of hearts he was innocent? yes, we all did. it's like you're in a real bad movie, like you're watching something happen to somebody else. finally, the truth has come out. woman: you wonder how somebody could come up with all that. it's just amazing. that's pure evil. i can't fathom what an evil person does that. i was in shock. tears. [audio out] natalie morales: it was early spring, a monday morning

in kansas city, kansas. two teenagers were trying not to be late for school. ben coones: you're shoveling some cereal down, taking showers, getting dressed. and then dad would start the car and wait for us to come out and get in. natalie morales: their father drove the family van just down the cul-de-sac to the bus stop-- an unremarkable day, until it wasn't. melody coones: i was fiddling with something, not paying attention. my dad stopped the car, and i looked up. and there were people getting out of a car that was pulled up in front of us with guns. natalie morales: melody was 14 at the time, ben, 17. and there was an immediate onset of fear. i mean, i don't think you can feel anything else when two people jump out of a car and point guns at your face. yelled at me to make sure that they could see my hands. so i was leaned over with my hands visible through the windshield. and then i saw a black and white

cruiser pull around the corner, and i felt such relief. natalie morales: but the police weren't there to help. they were there with handcuffs. i remember kneeling in front of the van with a shotgun pointed at the back of my head as several officers surrounded me. did they say what they were doing? nobody-- nobody said anything as to what was going on. are you crying or emotional or fearful? i was focused on breathing. natalie morales: the family members were put in police cruisers. on the way to the station, ben passed a house swarming with police. i remember seeing some news vans and a whole whirlwind of activity going on in the street. and there was police tape. it looked straight out of a scene from a tv show. it was a crime scene. yeah. natalie morales: a crime had been committed. that's for sure. it's one thing in this story that everyone can agree on--

maybe the only thing. here's how it all began. around 2:30 am, a man called 911, saying his sister needed help. natalie morales: the woman who needed help was named kathleen schroll officers arrived at her house within minutes, but it was too late. mark dupree is the current wyandotte county district attorney. once they go into the home, because it's a small house within a few steps of entering the door, you see the deceased laying on the floor. natalie morales: kathleen schroll was dead, and she wasn't the only victim. and then within a few feet from her is the entryway to the bedrooms, where you see her husband, laying in the bed, deceased. natalie morales: husband carl had been shot twice. you could visibly tell that he had gunshot wounds to the chest.

there was also blood on his head. and then, when you're dealing with kathleen-- that is, in the living room, on the floor-- there was a gunshot wound to her head. natalie morales: three shots had taken the lives of this married couple. the officers tried to get a handle on the scene. was there anything else suspicious in the home, any physical evidence that pointed to breaking and entering or somebody else having been in that home? so there was no physical evidence to show that there was any type of breaking or entering. the windows were not broken. the door was not kicked in. furniture was not thrown all around. nothing was rummaged through. natalie morales: as for the weapon involved, there was no mistaking it. a .38 revolver lay next to kathleen's body. you see the gun laying beside her, just a few feet,

on her left side, from her foot. natalie morales: the scene appeared to speak for itself. kathleen schroll had shot her husband, then taken her own life. so it was a murder-suicide? within the first 10 minutes of the sergeant appearing, the thought was this is a murder-suicide. natalie morales: but what did this possible murder suicide have to do with those kids and their dad apprehended by police? well, in a word, everything, because as you'll see, those two scenes were very much connected, just not in ways anyone would fully understand for years. lester holt: coming up. i just wanted to faint. i just wanted it to be a dream. lester holt: a daughter finds it hard to believe that her mom and stepdad are dead by her mother's hand. did that seem possible to you? no. that's not my mom.

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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. ♪♪ natalie morales: let's maapril 7, 2008.nd roll. it was the day 21-year-old blair hadley awoke to the worst news of her life. my daughter and i fell asleep in my rocking chair in front of the tv. and when we woke up, we heard banging on the door. natalie morales: it was her grandma telling her that her mother, kathleen, and stepfather were dead, found shot to death in their house. (crying) i just wanted to faint. i just wanted it to be a dream. mm. i just wanted it to be fake. and i asked, what did you say? describe what you saw when you got there at the house. (crying) they hadn't even took the bodies out yet.

they-- they were taking them out when i got there. so all i seen was body bags. natalie morales: it was unimaginable. blair and her young daughter, caroline, had just been with them the night before. they'd planned to sleep over, but there was a problem. she just said that carl and i aren't getting along right now. and you know how your stepdad is when he's upset. he just wants to be not bothered. so i think you guys need to go home tonight. and i said, ok. and they were arguing is what you understood? they-- well, i didn't hear them argue, but yeah, they were fighting-- not, like, fist-fighting, but arguing, yes. so you-- you left. i left. natalie morales: you went home? yes. natalie morales: her mom and stepdad were in a fight. that much was clear.

but dead in a murder-suicide? did that seem possible to you? no. why not? because that's not my mom. that's not who my mom is or was. natalie morales: her mom and carl may have been having a disagreement that night, but blair thought their relationship was strong. they'd met when blair was 10. seeing carl for the first time, what was your first impression? um, mom, he's old. [laughs] he was older than she was? yes. like, how much older? like, 20 years older. natalie morales: [laughs] what did she say to that? oh, blair, age is just a number. you're being silly. turns out her mom was right. blair grew very fond of carl schroll. blair hadley: i would call him dad, too. what did you see in their relationship? they were so happy. and they were always laughing and joking.

he loved kathleen? oh, yes. they were the life of the party. natalie morales: shannon elevere is one of blair's closest friends and like a second daughter to kathleen. i would describe her as a protector, a provider, fun, caring. what would she do? do you have a memory of her that really stands out in your mind? you know, i remember her teaching me and blair about being a young lady, you know, and the things that were going to happen to our bodies as being young ladies. and she would always have spa days. so you loved her like a member of your own family. i did. she was special to you. natalie morales: kathleen and carl seemed happy, comfortable. carl, who once had a steady job at a racetrack, was now retired. and kathleen worked at a local credit union. did she like her job? yeah, she seemed like she loved it. she was a very pleasant lady to work with.

sandy layman was kathleen's partner at work. i would open, and she would close. and a lot of times, she was at work before me. why, did you think, she was coming in so early? well, a lot of times, she would give other ladies rides. and then they would sit in the break room and talk until it was their time to go to work. natalie morales: kathleen had also had a second job caring for an elderly man. she said that the man had given her some jewelry and stuff after the wife had passed away. his name was olin coones. he was in his 80s and suffered from dementia. when he died a year earlier, he left kathleen more than just a token of appreciation. she was the beneficiary on his $42,000 life insurance policy. what about money? did she say anything about money or the house? she did say that they had left her a house that she was working on. seemed awfully generous, right? it did. what do you remember about olin? he was a really, really nice man.

matter of fact, before i had my daughter, he let us use his house to have our baby shower. so he got to enjoy it with us and be there to see all the presents and eat all the snacks. he really enjoyed us being over there all the time. and was your mother loving towards him, caring? did she feel like it was more than just i'm working for them? yeah, like, it was like her father. like, she really cared for him, really loved him a lot. what kind of care did you see your mom giving him? my mom would come make dinner for him every night. the tradition was for him to have a frosty from wendy's after his dinner, so we would go get frostys for him. yeah, that was kathy priority.

her priority was, of course, blair, but her priority was also to care for olin. natalie morales: olin's passing had hit kathleen hard. but blair thought her mother weathered it well. i thought she was fine. you know, she was working at the credit union, so i thought, mom's doing great. natalie morales: but there was one thing in kathleen's life that wasn't so great. for months, kathleen had been embroiled in a bitter lawsuit. it involved money, and she said it wasn't looking good for the other party. my mom told me that he was going to lose and that he was mad. natalie morales: but how mad? that question would turn out to consume the investigation, because as kathleen's friends and family saw it, this was no murder-suicide. this was a cold-hearted execution. and they knew just who was responsible.

lester holt: coming up. he passed her and said, you will not be spending no more of my dad's money, bitch, and walked away. lester holt: could a legal battle have gone from contentious to dangerous? she thought the court case was getting ready to come to an end and that he was getting desperate, is how she worded it. your mom was afraid for her life at that point? yes. lester holt: when "dateline" continues. what causes a curve down there? is it peyronie's disease? will it get worse? how common is it? who can i talk to? can this be treated? stop typing. start talking to a specialized urologist. because it could be peyronie's disease, or pd. it's a medical condition where there is a curve in the erection, caused by a formation of scar tissue. and an estimated 1 in 10 men may have it. but pd can be treated even without surgery. say goodbye to searching online. find a specialized urologist who can diagnose pd and build a treatment plan with you.

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♪♪ natalie morales: not long after police discovered the bodies of carl and kathleen schroll, a car pulled up to the scene. it was kathleen's mother and brother, and they had an earful for the detectives. it wasn't until the family of the deceased arrived to the scene that things began to shift from a murder-suicide

possibility to this is pete coones who killed our loved ones. natalie morales: pete coones is the man who was in an ongoing legal dispute with kathleen. her mother and brother were convinced he'd murdered her. they told blair their suspicions when they delivered the news. and they were like, he got her, he got her. and i was like, who got her? it was like, pete killed your mom. natalie morales: pete was the son of the elderly man kathleen had taken care of. family and friends say that pete was upset that his dad had given so many of his assets to kathleen, and he wasn't taking it lying down. kathleen's work friend, sandy. she had said that they were fighting over the house and-- the house and the money. you know, she had said that he was a drug addict, and that's why his family gave the money to her instead of them. why olin, his father, gave the money to her?

to her instead of him, because you know, he-- she had said he had drug problems and all this stuff. natalie morales: from blair's point of view, pete didn't have much of a presence in his dad's life either. you helped take care of olin in his last few years. did he ever talk about his son? i never heard him say pete. never heard him talk about him. natalie morales: but after olin died, pete contested kathleen's claim to his father's life insurance policy. and she said pete started badgering her. she would tell me every time he would come to her work or see her at the gas station or anything like that. did she ever say anything to lead you to think that he was somebody to be afraid of? just that he kept threatening her, saying that she was stealing money and stuff like that from his father.

natalie morales: kathleen suspected pete had even vandalized the house his dad left her. she thought he had gone in and stole the plumbing out of the house. natalie morales: kathleen said the harassment was constant and getting worse. she thought the court case was getting ready to come to an end and that, you know, he was getting desperate, is how she worded it. getting desperate? yes. natalie morales: then, saturday, just two days before kathleen and carl were shot to death, a confrontation. kathleen told her friends and family that pete had gotten in her face at a local convenience store. what did she say? she had said that pete had confronted her at the quiktrip convenience store the morning before she came to work and kind of threatened her and said that she'd never be able to use any of the money you get. he passed her and said, you will not be spending no more of my dad's money, bitch,

and walked away. and your mom was afraid for her life at that point? yes. i said, did you tell carl? she said, no, because nobody does anything about it anymore. and i said, are you going to call the cops? she said, no, because they won't do nothing, because he didn't touch me. natalie morales: it was just two mornings later that kathleen and her husband were found dead. your minds were all racing, and you're putting it all together. yes. you're already assuming that pete went over there and killed kathleen and carl? that's-- you know, that's what everybody was kind of assuming, yes. natalie morales: pete's involvement made sense to blair's friend shannon, too. i thought, wow, like, with knowing that he was harassing her, i thought, for sure, they had definitely had the right person. natalie morales: but this history wasn't the only reason police decided this was a double homicide, not a murder-suicide. there was also a phone call that was just about as good

as an eyewitness to murder. lester holt: coming up. your grandmother got this very scary phone call. yes. my mom had called her and told her that pete was there, and that he was killing carl, and he was going to kill her next. i was just very, very confused and afraid and on the verge of tears. and i had zero insight as to what could possibly be happening. lester holt: 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.

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>> i am jessica layton with the hours top stories. south korea's national fire agency says 85 people are dead after a plane from bangkok. off the runway as it was landing. officials say 94 people are missing and at least two were

rescued alive with injuries. there were 181 passengers on board. strike in the south u.s., millions are under the threat of destructive storms including damaging winds and tornadoes this weekend. in fact, multiple tornadoes have been reported in texas, louisiana and mississippi. and now, back to dateline. sipp. and now, back to dateline. natalie morales: kathleen's family was sure of it. pete coones had killed kathleen and her husband, carl. and it wasn't just what they'd heard about the bad blood over his father's estate or her story of an ugly confrontation. it was a phone call kathleen made around 2:30 am, just minutes before she was shot. your grandmother got this very scary phone call? yes. my mom had called her and told her that pete was there, and that he was killing carl, and he was going to kill her next. natalie morales: it was word from the victim herself. pete coones was in the house with intent to kill.

when police heard that, it seems that any ambiguity about the case fell away. da mark dupree. and that was the piece of police had received that ultimately led them to go and arrest pete. natalie morales: arrest him as he drove his kids to the school bus. pete coones is the father of those two teens at the beginning of our story. they handcuffed me in the front and put me in the back of a police cruiser and walked away. you're kids. you've got guns pointed at you. you're surrounded. your father is being hauled off. you're being torn apart physically from each other. what are you feeling in that moment? the obvious answer is fear. [chuckles] but more than anything, it was just a state of confusion,

because there had to have been a mistake. natalie morales: that morning, pete's wife, dee, says she had no idea what was happening with her husband or kids. he should have went down to the bus stop and been back in 10 minutes. well, almost an hour later, he's not there. and i'm like, oh, my god. well, maybe he had to take the kids to school. but he still would have been back by now. what were you thinking could have happened? they were in a ditch somewhere. that they'd had a car wreck. pete had a heart attack. and they, you know-- that's really what i thought. pete and dee had five children. their eldest daughter, mariah, was in college and living at home. that was not normal for him to just disappear and be gone. so i called the high school. and i said, well, i need these two students. and they said, they never showed up. are you freaking out yourself at this point? oh, by that point, i'm terrified. natalie morales: mariah jumped in the car with her then-boyfriend, now husband, ross. mariah: we drove every route that my dad had ever taken me to get to school.

so you were driving around. what are you looking for, ross? anything that looked like their van. anything that looked like their van that possibly could have been in an accident, where there might have been an accident. natalie morales: but of course, there was no accident. the two teenagers who'd been with their dad in the van were down at the station in interrogation rooms. melody was 14. and i was just very, very confused and afraid and on the verge of tears. and i had zero insight as to what could possibly be happening. and sitting there for how-- how long? hours. a few different people kept coming in to get my information, asked my name, my-- my birthday, my mom's phone number multiple times, which i gave every time, thinking she's going to come get me. natalie morales: they also had a few questions about her dad. i was just trying to answer the questions because i didn't want to make them angry. and i remember really wanting to ask for my mom.

but the male detective seemed so aggressive [nervous chuckle] that i was too scared to ask for anything. i was too scared to ask to go to the bathroom. i was too scared to ask for a drink. and nobody offered. no. and you're 13. ben, who was 17 then, says he was scared too. eventually, two officers came in and started questioning me about where my dad was the night before, what he was wearing, what he was doing, what i was doing the night before. and i couldn't really give them too much information, because i hadn't paid that much attention. not to mention i was already internally panicking and kind of shutting down to try and deal with what was going on. i was handcuffed to a chair in a interrogation room by myself for a solid three hours. natalie morales: it was afternoon when ben and melody were returned home. two cop cars pulled up. they got out.

melody was a ball of tears. i didn't know-- still didn't know what was going on. natalie morales: dee says she was completely in the dark until a detective finally laid it all out. her husband had been arrested for the murders of kathleen and carl schroll. they came back with a warrant, and the phrase they used was, we got to toss this house. and believe me, they tossed the house. do you remember that experience? i do remember when they came to search our home. i don't even know what they were really looking for at the time. and you're standing outside. i'm standing outside. i think they took maybe a couple of photos. and then when we went back inside, everything was turned upside down. and my bed had been tossed across the room. clothes were thrown everywhere. the bird cage was on the ground with the birds, you know, in it. natalie morales: investigators confiscated computers and looked for guns and ammunition.

they also searched pete's van for gunshot residue and blood. when you guys returned back to school, can you tell me what that was like? a lot of my classmates had seen me being arrested at the time. so there were some rumors going around already that i had heard. what were the rumors? oh, things like, hey, did you guys hear that ben got arrested for coming to shoot up the school? or did you hear that ben killed somebody? well, when they first released the information about the arrest, they didn't have a picture. and so i got a lot of messages asking me who ben killed. at this point, you've been tagged a killer. yeah. meantime, are you thinking at all about the night before? is it possible we don't know our dad like we thought we did? no. no. natalie morales: not a second? no. no. the only thought that crossed my mind is, why are they searching here? there's nothing they're going to find. they should go do their jobs and search the crime scene

and look for actual evidence. natalie morales: was there ever a thought in your mind-- no. - maybe? - no. natalie morales: never? never. natalie morales: never, because the family says they knew something the police did not. lester holt: coming up. at this point, are you thinking, this is all just a huge mistake? yes. natalie morales: this will all be fine-- yes. natalie morales: --tomorrow? yes. lester holt: why dee says she's positive her husband was home the entire night of the murders. i can remember hearing coughing all night long. he woke me up coughing between 2:00, 2:15, and then again at 4:30. lester holt: will investigators believe her? 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. ♪

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his wife, dee, simply could not believe it. at this point, are you thinking this is all just a huge mistake. yes. natalie morales: this will all be fine-- yes. natalie morales: --tomorrow? yes. to dee, pete was a devoted husband and dad, a career letter carrier with the us postal service to whom she had been married for almost 30 years. i couldn't imagine a day going by not talking to him, seeing him, being with him. natalie morales: the kids loved their dad, the fun-loving guy who lived to make them smile, especially at the holidays. the 4th of july was his favorite, big block parties. we would have all of the neighbors come over, open up the fences between our house and the next-door neighbors, and just massive fireworks displays. one year, my house, for christmas, was so lit up. we were in the car driving around looking at christmas lights because that was one of our traditions. and one of my younger siblings was like, we want to go see that house because we can see it.

and dad's like, that's our house. [laughter] it's our house. he likes to talk about going fishing all the time. i went fishing with him on a fairly regular basis. he used to be a touring musician back in the '60s and '70s. and i kind of started to play the drums because that's what he played. so of course that's what i wanted to play. natalie morales: in their minds, their father was no murderer. and it wasn't just because they loved him. they say they knew exactly where he was when kathleen and carl were shot. they'd all been at home, together. pete was on the computer. i can remember hearing coughing all night long. he woke me up coughing between 2:00, 2:15, something like that. i remember him going to the bathroom. and then again at 4:30, he woke me up again, 4:30, coughing. natalie morales: but their recollections didn't make a difference. pete coones was formally charged with double homicide. how quickly was he charged? it was pretty fast. the moment you make an arrest, the prosecutor's office

has 48 hours to make that determination on whether or not we're going to charge. and within 48 hours, he was charged with the crime. natalie morales: news of the arrest didn't immediately ease the pain of kathleen's daughter, blair. her mom had been her rock, her best friend. without her, she felt lost. she was just so loving and caring. god, i miss her so much. i stayed with blair for at least the first couple of days. and then it was like i couldn't leave her, you know? she would cry and beg for me to stay up and watch her go to sleep because she was just so-- she was in so much pain. and that was really hard. that was really hard. perhaps getting justice for kathleen and carl would help. in january 2009, pete coones went on trial for their murders.

mark dupree wasn't yet the da, but has reviewed the case. what was the prosecution's theory of what happened? the prosecutor was of the mindset that mr. coones went to the house, killed them, and then went home, because he did not like kathleen. no other suspects were investigated? no. not a possibility of somebody just off the street walking in? no. a robber, nothing? based off of our prosecutor's file, no evidence of that type of investigation happened. natalie morales: the prosecutor who tried the case told the jury that the reason for the shooting was that pete had a royal gripe with kathleen. she had stolen his inheritance, and he wanted it back. that was the motive? that was the motive. blair took the stand and told the jury about that run-in her mother described with pete at the convenience store.

after the gas station, after he threatened her, then that's when she really got scared. natalie morales: the prosecutor said 37 hours after that confrontation, pete sneaked out of his home and headed to the schroll's in a fit of rage. he barged in and used some type of weapon, not a gun, to bash carl over the head. the thought was, from our office, that it was simply a blunt force to the head. that bruise was caused by him being hit. natalie morales: then, the prosecutor said, pete grabbed kathleen's gun and fired three bullets, shooting carl twice and then killing kathleen from behind. medical examiner eric mitchell concluded that the evidence pointed to double homicide, not murder-suicide, as the responding sergeant initially suggested. kathleen had a gunshot wound to the back of the head. that's correct. natalie morales: making it hard to believe she

could have shot herself. and the state's proof that pete pulled the trigger-- that phone call from kathleen. her mother took the stand and described it word for word for the jury. she said kathleen sounded scared. mom, pete is in the house and is going to kill carl and then kill me, she said. kathleen repeated it, and then the phone went dead. natalie morales: it was kathleen's brother who called 911 and relayed his sister's words. natalie morales: that phone call was the evidence?

yes. that was the evidence that put him there. that was the evidence that our office used to say how they knew that mr. coones was in the house. natalie morales: pete coones named right there in the 911 call as a man kathleen said was in the house-- an open-and-shut case as far as the prosecutor was concerned. but pete's attorney would have a very different take on the story. she believed pete coones was an innocent man. lester holt: coming up. patty kalb: i believed it was a murder-suicide from the beginning. there was no sign of a struggle. nothing was messed up in the house at all. it was her gun. she carried it with her in her purse. it's like you're in a real bad movie. it's like you're watching something happen to somebody else. you're sitting there thinking, how do you have this so wrong? lester holt: but what would the jury believe? when "dateline" continues. long after guests leave, viruses and bacteria linger.

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natalie morales: pete coones was on trial for the double homicide of kathleen and carl schroll. but his family was convinced police had zeroed in on the wrong man from the start. they decided dad was guilty and they never looked. they never put any effort into anything else. they decided he was guilty, and that was it. natalie morales: pete's defense attorney, patty kalb, agreed. there was just no way that he could have done anything the way they said he did it. natalie morales: for one thing, there was absolutely nothing linking pete to the crime scene-- no blood, no dna, no fingerprint evidence. there's no physical evidence at this point to show that pete was anywhere near or in the house or near kathy-- - no. natalie morales: and her husband, carl. no. no dna evidence, no any kind of trace evidence, no indication that he'd ever been in the house. natalie morales: and what's more, she said it was physically impossible for pete

to have committed the murders. his wife, dee, testified about what she remembered, pete waking up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and typing on the computer. so there's no chance he went out? absolutely not. natalie morales: pete's daughter, mariah, and ross were up late watching tv in the living room. we started watching a movie. and her dad come out of their bedroom, and he told us to not stay up too much longer. we saw him. i mean, we physically laid eyes on him at the time that they said he was out of the house. and talked to him. and talked to him. there's no way he could have been anywhere else. natalie morales: they told the jury they were still awake around 2:30 am, when the shooting took place. did you hear any other movement, any other sounds that signaled your dad was still at home? he was coughing, and-- and we had to hear the keyboard. and he did-- there was some clicking. natalie morales: as for motive, pete's attorney had to concede he was in a dispute over his father's assets.

but she said there was no proof that pete was harassing kathleen or that there had been a confrontation. in terms of threats, was there any surveillance footage showing that pete maybe approached her at a convenience store? detective michaels said that there was not. he said he went and-- and checked it out, i believe. and that was brought up. so, again, there's no physical evidence showing that-- no. --pete made this threat? no. there was never a restraining order filed with the police-- patty kalb: no. natalie morales: --by kathleen. no. natalie morales: pete didn't testify at trial on the advice of his attorney. but he did tell his story to us. this is not real. i kept thinking, i'm going to wake up. natalie morales: pete says that, as he sat there in court listening, he kept thinking about his father, olin. my dad always told me, if you're in trouble, go find-- go find a policeman. never be afraid, because our system works, and they'll get it right.

natalie morales: pete says, from the moment he was arrested, he felt trapped in some kind of fiction. it's like you're in a real bad movie. it's like you're watching something happen to somebody else. you're sitting there thinking, how do you have this so wrong? natalie morales: pete says he was utterly confused as detectives grilled him. i kept telling him, look, just go and investigate. did they tell you why, at that point, they were so sure it was you? nope. he just said, i know it's you. natalie morales: and now in court, he said, the bad movie continued. and how were you portrayed? as a cold-blooded killer. their evidence was wanted kathleen dead because you weren't getting results quickly enough in your legal case. well, but that's-- that's the absurdity of it. we were getting ready to go to court on the legal issue to settle the life insurance dispute. i'm certainly smart enough to know

that, if you kill somebody, you can't take them to court. and motive, a life insurance policy. a $42,000 life insurance policy. i can see the fact that they say there's motive. but my motive was they needed to be alive because i couldn't get any of that money unless everybody was alive and able to go to court. and your anger towards kathleen at that point, was that enough of a motive? to this day, people just don't believe that it's possible. but i never hated kathleen. natalie morales: pete's attorney, patty kalb, told the jury there was only one logical explanation for what had happened inside the schroll residence. and it was just what the arriving sergeant on scene had suggested, as he observed kathleen lying by a gun-- her gun. i believed it was a murder-suicide from the beginning. there was no sign of a struggle. nothing was messed up in the house at all. carl was on the bed, and she was

right in front of the middle of the living room. it was a very small house and was dead. but it was her gun. she carried it with her in her purse. i mean. natalie morales: the defense said this was part of the state's case that made absolutely no sense. if pete showed up intending to kill kathleen, why didn't he bring a gun of his own to do it? and then, also, there was no sign of a struggle. correct. so how would he have gotten the gun? that was what i hoped the jury would see. how do you explain, though, the phone call that kathleen's mother said that she made? well, now, truly, i always believed in my heart of hearts that phone call never happened. natalie morales: what was fact, and what was fiction? i just knew he did it only because of the phone call. why would my mom say that? my mom went lie about it. blair's best friend, shannon, wanted justice, too, but found herself questioning the state's case.

there was no physical evidence, you know? and i thought, man, this is going to be hard. this is going to be hard for them to convict him with no physical evidence. natalie morales: on day two of deliberations, the jury notified the judge that it had a verdict. so when the jury walks back in, did they make eye contact? no. scared the daylights out of me. i looked at patty, and she just had a panicked look on her face. natalie morales: first, in the murder of kathleen schroll, the jury found pete coones guilty. i turned around and looked at my wife and my children. and i thought, what are you guys going to do? a family friend was sitting with us. and she actually pulled my head into her chest and covered my eyes. i remember sitting in the courtroom and just hearing the verdict read.

everything went mute for a little bit because i-- i just couldn't comprehend what i was hearing. how could 12 people listen to everything that was presented and with a cognizant, conscious decision, choose to convict a man who clearly didn't do it. natalie morales: and then there was that second verdict. in the death of carl schroll, the jury found pete coones not guilty. i was confused. literally confused. natalie morales: did you feel like justice had been done? (crying) no. because what about my stepdad? he's a-- he was somebody. natalie morales: it was a strange conclusion-- two people killed, only one guilty verdict. the way that they postulated that it happened--

there's no way he could have been guilty of one but not the other. he would have had to have been guilty of both. how do you process that or take that in in that moment? you don't. you just think, this makes no sense whatsoever. lester holt: coming up. that life insurance policy had been changed. the detectives discovered over the internet. so she became 100% his beneficiary? exactly. lester holt: and later, a new witness with a damning tale. lester holt: when dateline continues. what causes a curve down there? is it peyronie's disease? will it get worse? how common is it? who can i talk to? can this be treated? stop typing. start talking to a specialized urologist. because it could be peyronie's disease, or pd. it's a medical condition where there is a curve in the erection, caused by a formation of scar tissue.

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( ♪ ♪ ) start your day with nature made. the #1 pharmacist recommended vitamin and supplement brand. the natalie morales: petended was sentenced to 50 years without parole. for him, that amounted to a life sentence. he told us the jury didn't get the full story about kathleen.

how was she portrayed in the trial? the prosecutor said she was a wonderful woman who was just working as a caregiver because she cared so much for people. natalie morales: but pete believed kathleen had been taking advantage of his dad for years, like olin's life insurance. pete never thought his dad meant to leave it to her. he thinks kathleen altered it herself. that life insurance policy had been changed, the detectives discovered over the internet. so she became 100% his beneficiary. exactly. natalie morales: and pete says kathleen had purposely driven a wedge between him and his dad, keeping olin cut off from the family. because we'd go over and nobody would answer the door. no, we had no idea what was going on. i mean, i even called and begged her on the phone to please let his grandkids come see him. natalie morales: and it was becoming impossible to see

your dad to visit him. it was impossible. she told me he doesn't ever want to see you again. and if you're going to see him, you'll have to bring the police. natalie morales: pete and dee had a family friend stop by the house. that friend managed to talk kathleen into letting her take olin out for dinner. she reunited him with his family. what did he look like when you saw him for the first time? he had huge sores on his nose. he had scratches on his face. he had bruises on his arm. he had bedsores that were terrible. he was in atrocious shape. natalie morales: pete moved his dad into his house. he filed an elder abuse complaint, and police were sent to investigate. how angry are you at this point? well, certainly i was angry. but that goes back into the life

that my father had installed into me. i had already contacted the police. i had detectives working on it. so i wasn't worried because the system was going to work. natalie morales: but now, sitting in prison, pete believed the system hadn't worked at all. how do you explain to a family your dad is going to be locked away, maybe for life? there is no real explanation. i treated it almost like a death and coped with it that way. natalie morales: pete's children felt their anger mostly directed at law enforcement. it caused a lot of emotional trauma for me to know that i'm telling the truth and be told over and over and over i'm lying. and not being able to-- who has physical proof of where they're at in the middle of the night? that was the first time i really

learned how to hate people, how to actually hate somebody. i felt a lot of anger towards people i had never met before for betraying me and my family. natalie morales: as pete's family tried to deal with his absence, he settled into the lonely existence of prison life. so morning to night, is it just one day after another after another, time just ticks slowly by? every morning i got up, and i started looking for the reason that i wanted to get up the next day. that sounds strange, but you have to find a reason to keep going. when you're in prison for something you didn't do, serving a life sentence, there's no finish line. natalie morales: pete says he had a hard time imagining how all this would end, but his attorney had made a discovery that she believed

could change everything. narrator: coming up, the tale told by a computer disk. natalie morales: that was evidence that proved you were home at the time? i believed it was. narrator: new evidence, but also a new witness against pete-- narrator: --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

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natalie morales: from let'sher mother's murder roll. up through the trial, kathleen's daughter, blair, had been haunted by the specter of pete coones. i automatically thought he was the monster. i couldn't sleep at night because i was so scared that he was going to come for me. natalie morales: but now that pete was convicted, blair felt some relief. so did her friend shannon. we were all so happy that there was a conviction because this man killed kathy and killed carl. and, you know, we got to hold somebody accountable for this. natalie morales: but any closure they were experiencing didn't last long because pete's defense attorney discovered something that she believed would have made a big difference. the trial had already started when the prosecutor gave her a disk of documents from pete's computer. at the time, she believed it was a copy

of evidence she already had. when i got done with the case that day, went and looked at it, and it showed all of this evidence that there was people-- somebody on the computer at certain times, like right after the alleged time of the murder and right before. natalie morales: pete's wife and kids had mentioned hearing him on his computer that night. but the jury never got a chance to see the computer logs that appeared to back up that story. that was evidence that proved you were home at the time? i believed it was. natalie morales: pete's attorney, patti kalb, filed a motion requesting a new trial, stating that the prosecution failed to turn over the computer evidence in a timely manner, and the judge granted it. he said, i'm ordering a new trial right now. natalie morales: so 11 months after trial number one, all parties returned to the courthouse for trial two. because pete was found not guilty in carl's murder

the first time, this trial would only concern kathleen's death. so the second trial, are you feeling confident this time this will go my way? ms. kalb said to me, well, i got you one not guilty the first time. let's go get the other one. did you trust her at this point? i did, because she got me one not guilty. and yes, i trusted her. natalie morales: the prosecutor told this jury the same story he told the first jury about pete and kathleen warring over estate money, their confrontation at the convenience store, the crime scene with kathleen shot in the back of the head, and, of course, kathleen telling her family that pete was in the house. natalie morales: the defense fired back, leaning into that new computer evidence and suggesting, once again, that kathleen had pulled the trigger herself.

i actually thought we presented a better case the second trial. natalie morales: but the prosecutor did have a new key witness, someone who came forward after the first trial. when my attorney told me there's a guy named robert rupert going to testify against you, i said, who? natalie morales: pete met robert rupert in jail. they had shared a cell briefly. pete says he hardly remembered him, but here he was now, the state's star witness. what was his story? his story was that mr. coones told him everything, and that mr. coones committed this crime. natalie morales: rupert told the jury much the same story he told detectives in this audio-taped interview.

natalie morales: rupert had lots of details about the murder to share as well. natalie morales: what's more, he suggested to detectives that pete's wife, dee, had been an accomplice. natalie morales: after that, rupert

said pete drove to the schroll's in a red jeep. natalie morales: as he listened to rupert's story, pete was in disbelief. not only did he think rupert was lying, but he also thought his details were demonstrably false. yes, pete had owned a red jeep, for example, but he'd sold it well before the crime. a letter carrier named james rumley bought that jeep from me about a year and a month prior to the murders. i no longer had a red jeep. what else did robert rupert say you told him? well, he told the jury that i climbed out a window. and i've got to be truthful with you. at that time, weighing close to 300 pounds, i was so fat i couldn't have got through a window

if my life would have depended on it. if the house would have been on fire, i'd have burned to death because i couldn't have got out the window. natalie morales: again, as in the first trial, pete chose not to take the stand. why not? in the three discussions with my attorney, she told me that she was confident that we had put forth enough of a defense that there's no way that a sane-- that's the word she used-- that a sane jury could convict us. natalie morales: second time you're going through this-- yeah. natalie morales: --out to deliberate. what were you feeling in that moment? i really thought it was going to come back different. i really did, because i couldn't believe that 24 people would believe this scenario. natalie morales: describe what you were feeling. scared to death. narrator: coming up, a fresh look at the case could change everything.

branden bell: the state's theory made no sense. natalie morales: what baffles you the most? no one stopped to think, like, wait a second, why is she calling her 78-year-old mother and not 911? natalie morales: when "dateline" continues.

natalie morales: it was deja vu. the jury deciding pete coones' fate filed back into the courtroom to deliver the verdict. and when they came back in the room the second time, did they look at you? nope. i looked at patti and i said, "here we go again." natalie morales: and then he heard it, the word he'd been dreading-- guilty for the second time.

i turned around and looked at dee and she said-- she was crying, and she said, "i don't know what to do for you. you're going to die alone." i was devastated. because you don't even know where to go from there. what did you tell pete, do you remember? no. because he turned around to say something and they yanked him back around. natalie morales: did you pretty much give up all hope then? i don't want to say that we gave up hope. we never understood. it wasn't plausible. we never understood. natalie morales: pete's attorney says the loss was crushing. i knew that he was an innocent man and believed i had done everything that i could have and just it was bad. natalie morales: she wasn't the only attorney bothered by the case. before pete was even sentenced, his family reached out for help. a defense attorney named branden bell tried to get the conviction thrown out. we took a look at the case and decided

something had gone wrong. the state's theory, it was impossible. it made no sense. what baffles you the most? i guess that no one, like, stopped to think like, wait a second, why is she calling her 78-year-old mother and not 911? the cell phone's right there and the front door is 5 feet away from her. if this guy has really come in and is killing her husband and says he's going to kill her, why didn't she just run out the front door? natalie morales: remember, the state argued that pete coones had used a weapon that was not a gun, whacked carl on the head and then killed them both with kathleen's gun. totally implausible, thought bell. look, his job was as a mail carrier. and even that was-- they had to put him on a medical disability because even sitting in a jeep and delivering the mail was too strenuous to him. but somehow you want us to believe that he got into a house and managed to subdue two adults at 2:30 in the morning and not leave a single object

in that house out of place. natalie morales: but ultimately, branden bell's efforts failed and pete was again sentenced to 50 years without parole. pete began the appeals process. years went by. pete coones: i thought i would never walk out of prison alive because the system had failed me twice. natalie morales: dee took more hours at work to support their family and eventually moved out of state. pete encouraged her to make another decisive break. i told dee, you need to get a divorce and move on because you need to live your life. you know, he did ask me why don't-- i've got the papers. all you got to do is sign them. i'll send them to you. you can sign them, and you can get divorced, and it'll be all right. you can go find somebody else. but he was innocent. and you don't walk away from that. [crying] because that would be me telling him that i thought he did it, and i know he didn't.

natalie morales: ben and melody graduated high school and tried to get on as well. ben pursued a degree in psychology. but neither of them could fully escape the family trauma. you felt broken. i did for a long time. melody, what about for you? absolutely. i didn't have that role model. natalie morales: their dad's incarceration was also difficult for pete and dee's other children. jeremiah is the oldest. it was hard. it was hard to even talk to him because it just wasn't-- it wasn't fair. we-- and i didn't know what to say. natalie morales: youngest son, quinn, was just seven when pete was arrested and says it was lonely growing up as the murderer's son. the stigma didn't come from the kids. it came from the parents, the teachers, staff, places like that.

that's where the darting eyes, the glares, the telling your kids, don't talk to them, their dad killed somebody. natalie morales: time passed, but the family was stuck on pause. each holiday without pete, a painful reminder of his absence. each birthday that went by-- every anniversary, every christmas, halloween-- halloween and the 4th of july, those were his holidays. [laughs] natalie morales: pete's daughters grew up, married. melody asked ben to walk her down the aisle. mariah couldn't bring herself to have a wedding. we got married. i refused to have a wedding. like, i couldn't do it. i couldn't bring myself to have a wedding because he wasn't there. natalie morales: while pete was behind bars, he also became a grandfather. but he decided it was better for the grandkids not to know he was alive.

why did you not want your grandchildren to know that you were in prison? i didn't want my grandchildren to have to live with the stigma of grandpa being in prison. that's a terrible thing for a family to live with. natalie morales: as he approached a decade behind bars, pete had exhausted his appeals. he says he was losing his will to live. did you think even about taking your own life? yes, i did. yes, i did. you gave up. i told my wife that i'd never spend 10 years and one day. it was all going to end at 10 years. i didn't know whether i was weak enough. not strong enough, weak enough to take my own life or not. but i planned every-- every bit of it. how were you going to do it? with a sheet tied with knots in it, i was going to hang myself.

natalie morales: but there, in his darkest moments, pete found a ray of light-- a couple he met in prison who, like pete's family, believed he had been wrongly convicted. we gave him compassion. yeah. empathy. natalie morales: sandy was pete's boss at the prison laundry. her husband, tom, was pete's corrections counselor. when pete told sandy he wasn't planning to be around for another christmas, they tried to talk him out of suicide. and i said, what's your main goal? your main goal is to get out of here. and i said, you do that-- i said, they're-- your family's going to always be remembered as the people whose husband, whose father who did this. and i said, you can't do that to your family, meaning you can't harm yourself. tom, did he talk to you about losing hope as well? basically, i just listened to him. i let him talk. and then i just reassured him. i said, you don't want to do what you think you're going

to do, because you need to fight and keep fighting because eventually you're going to get out. you really believed that? yeah. natalie morales: their timing couldn't have been better, because in the fall of 2018, a family friend called dee with major news. there was a new prosecutor in town, and he was starting a unit devoted to wrongful conviction claims. dee thought this could be pete's chance. and then i told him, this is what you have to do. you have to write a letter to the da's office. natalie morales: when sandy heard that, she was all over him. and i walked in to work the next morning and my boss said, so what time are you going to leave work today to get to the law library so that you can start this process? and i said, oh, i don't know whether i got it in me. and she said, you better, or i'll figure

out how to call your wife. [laughs] and with all of us working on it, you'll have it in you. you'll get this done. natalie morales: pete sat down to write a letter. maybe his case wasn't over just yet. narrator: coming up, could there be a silver bullet for pete's defense? natalie morales: right there. right there. pristine condition. been sitting in the stuffing of that pillow, buried half an inch deep for 12 years. narrator: 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.

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i am jessica layton. the death toll is rising in south korea after plane from bangkok veered off the runway as it was landing at the international airport in the country's southwest. south korean officials say 117 of the 181 people on board are

dead. two were rescued alive with injuries so doesn't are still missing. officials say the pilot declared may day after an bird straggler. a passenger plane -- train collided with a train. thankfully, no one was seriously hurt. the cause is under investigation. for now, back to dateline. natalie morales: by 2019, 11 years after pete coones' arrest, change had come to law enforcement in kansas city. the regime that prosecuted him was gone and a new district attorney was in charge. it was mark dupree. he played no role in pete's original prosecution. and you were a defense attorney at the time when the case was originally tried, right? yes. natalie morales: and had nothing to do with this trial, of course. nothing to do with this trial at all. natalie morales: when he was elected as da, dupree believed his mission was not just to prosecute the guilty, but to investigate

claims of innocence. we had told the community that if you believe that there are wrongful convictions, if you believe that one of your loved ones did not get a fair trial, please reach out and to let us know. and when you first started the convictions integrity unit, i mean, how many letters did you get? a plethora. natalie morales: one of those letters stood out-- the letter written by pete coones. as the staff brought it to me, they said, this is one of the best written letters that we've received from an inmate. and in that letter, he started with, "i have never killed anyone in my life." and then he began to lay out all of the inconsistencies with the case. natalie morales: dupree's investigators looked closely at the case and quickly came to the conclusion that there were serious reasons to doubt pete's guilt. they showed up at the prison and told him in person.

what was that like? like the weight of the world just fell off. and i sat there and just cried like a baby. natalie morales: now the da's office would work in conjunction with the midwest innocence project and pete's own attorneys to re-investigate the case. and so i drove out the other side of the state to go see him. natalie morales: it had been almost 10 years since branden bell tried and failed to get pete's conviction overturned. the case had always bothered him. and how much did that stay with you? honestly, i thought about walking away from the practice of law because i didn't want to be part of a system that could produce that kind of result. natalie morales: so he and his colleague, lindsay runnels, jumped at a second chance to help. they dove into the case files provided by the new da, and after some digging, bell found something. so i bring up the pictures of the bedroom, and i'm sort of scouring them pixel by pixel.

natalie morales: he'd always thought there was something terribly wrong with the state's theory that pete had beaten carl with an object before grabbing kathleen's gun. now, here in the crime scene photos, he found evidence suggesting that carl's head injury was actually a graze wound from a bullet. and i see this sort of shadow in the stuffing. and i'm like, what is that? and i blow it up a little bit more. i'm like is that an object in there? natalie morales: lodged in a pillow on carl's bed was a fourth bullet. investigators had missed it at the scene. they pulled the pillow out of the evidence room, and there it was. right there? branden bell: right there. pristine condition. been sitting in the stuffing of that pillow just half an inch-- buried half an inch deep for 12 years. natalie morales: to bell, that meant that kathleen's gun was the only weapon used in the crime. more evidence the state's theory was deeply flawed.

but who fired that gun? well, also sitting in the evidence room were swabs from kathleen's hands that had never been tested. the new da's office sent them off, and sure enough-- it came back that, yeah, they had gunshot residue on her hand-- her left hand. --on her left hand. and that the gun itself had only her dna on it. and so this information combined then painted a whole picture. and that whole picture was not what the jury was able to see. natalie morales: there had never been any physical evidence linking pete to the crime scene, but the jurors had heard plenty of incriminating testimony. pete's attorneys tracked down robert rupert, the jailhouse snitch who claimed pete had told him all about committing the murders. he had a different version of events now.

it was not true. natalie morales: and did he admit all of that? he admit he made it up? he admitted that he was compromised in his testimony and that pete never said that he killed anyone. natalie morales: rupert said he'd made up the story, hoping to get time off his own sentence. not only was the story a lie, but right there in pete's case file were emails warning that rupert was unreliable. it was becoming clear to the current da that pete had not been treated fairly by the original prosecutor. mark dupree: the state at the time knew that this specific jailhouse informant was not trustworthy, that he was just chasing after any way to get out of jail, and, in fact, had been told by another county prosecutor's office, don't use him, don't trust him. none of that information was turned over to the defense. how is that possible? there are those who are in these prosecutor positions

that their focus is not justice. their focus is winning. and i'll tell you that there was a policy in the office at that time. you do not dismiss murder cases. you try them at all costs. natalie morales: there was also an email in the file that appeared to show the original da, ed brancart, had pressured the jailhouse snitch into testifying. mr. brancart tells his attorney, i'm going to have rupert, your client, brought up here. tell him this. once he's here, he either has to answer his questions or he goes to jail. so he's going to get more time, was the threat. right. natalie morales: all these discoveries were welcome news to pete. his wife had another take. pete was like, they got new stuff and it's all good stuff. and i'm like, if there's so much stuff, why couldn't we do this 13 years ago?

natalie morales: but remember, some of the strongest evidence against pete was his conflict with the victim, a plausible motive. and of course, that phone call. but as pete's attorneys dug through the old case files, all of that was about to turn on its head. what other motives were lurking there? narrator: coming up-- why would she kill carl, and then why would she kill herself? this is a woman that was just drowning. narrator: --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.♪

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were now working with pete coones' attorneys to try to prove his innocence. i was really good about being able to be hopeful, but not pinning all of my heart into it working. i tried really hard not to get my hopes up, because the harder you get your hopes up, the harder they fall. natalie morales: there had been two trials, two guilty verdicts, and the medical examiner's conclusion that the crime was a double homicide. but as the new investigation dismantled the evidence bit by bit, it was looking more like a murder suicide committed by kathleen. the only thing that doesn't make sense yet is motive. right. why would she kill carl, and then why would she kill herself? this is a woman that was just drowning. she was overwhelmed financially. natalie morales: a little digging in the file revealed kathleen was under tremendous financial stress. she was underwater with loan payments that far surpassed her monthly income.

the prosecutor's team focused in on documents that showed she'd compensated by draining pete's father's bank account. how many thousands of dollars? we knew that she had taken over $30,000 out of pete's father's savings account. natalie morales: the case against pete had hinged on stories about his anger toward kathleen, his desperation. but maybe kathleen was the desperate one. turns out she didn't just face losing her legal battle over the insurance money. she was possibly on the verge of facing criminal charges for embezzling from pete's father. at one point, the office was considering filing charges. and her attorney wrote a letter saying, if you're going to file, let us know. this is within months of her dying. so she was expecting she might get charged. there was no doubt. there was no doubt she knew-- so the police had a file on her? police had a file on her.

the very same prosecutor had a file on her. and so he knew what was going on, which all goes to really painting the entire picture of what was happening. natalie morales: and the entire picture included this-- allegations she had also been stealing from the bank where she worked. pete's attorneys went to talk with kathleen's former co-worker, sandy. she told them how her boss discovered the bank books were off shortly before kathleen died. so he asked her to get it balanced. if she couldn't, to come to me. and how much was it off by, the account? i believe around $11,000 or $12,000. natalie morales: sandy had never doubted that kathleen had been murdered by pete coones. but as she spoke with his attorneys, it dawned on her that maybe there was more to the story. it seemed clear that kathleen had every reason to be desperate, angry, the opposite of what

the jurors had been told. and the prosecutor said something in closing argument that just struck me as incredibly dishonest. he tells the jury in the closing argument of the second trial, kathleen had no reason-- no reason to take her own life. he knew that wasn't true. natalie morales: pete's attorneys came to believe that with her world collapsing, kathleen did something not just drastic but diabolical. [sirens] and if true, it would turn the entire case inside out. kathleen was not the victim, they said, but the villain. she'd planned to kill her husband and herself and bring pete down with her, framing an innocent man for murder. to frame me, that's pure evil. natalie morales: pete's attorneys said she'd been spreading false rumors about pete, that he did drugs and had vandalized the house

his father left her. and that story about that confrontation in the convenience store, they said was made up. these are breadcrumbs to if the police start asking around, did she have any enemies, is there anyone who might want to harm her, that they would all lead back to pete. and to come up with this plot, horrible plot to frame pete, why would she do that? maybe we'll never know exactly why she would do that. but if there's life insurance policies-- and there were-- it enables those to be paid out to people who are important to her, i imagine. and then pete is somebody who she has, you know, probably some real animosity toward, right? mhm. he's called her out and he's made public what she has done to his father. natalie morales: and that phone call saying pete was in her house, the attorneys say it did happen. showed up right on her mother's caller id. a final decisive act to frame pete before turning the gun on herself.

lindsay runnels: it's that phone call that started these dominoes. and from that point on, just the taint from start to finish. i can't fathom what an evil person does that over something as common as money. natalie morales: it was a head-spinning tale. was it all just too fetched to be true? a judge was about to hear the story. would he believe it? narrator: coming up, the pressure's on. i went into panic because this was it. there was no second chance. narrator: 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. ♪

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natalie morales: in november 2020, more than 12 years after his arrest, pete coones walked back into a kansas city courthouse. but this time, he wasn't the one on trial. this is our chance to put the state on trial. so, in essence, we are the prosecutors. natalie morales: pete's attorneys laid it all out-- the physical evidence that contradicted the state's case, the jailhouse snitch who recanted, kathleen's history of embezzlement, her likely efforts to frame pete, and the exculpatory evidence the state withheld. we were victims of an evil plot that goes far beyond just what kathleen decided to do. natalie morales: pete's attorneys said kathleen's plot

to frame pete was so diabolical, it even extended to the way she killed herself. they believe she shot herself in the back of the head to make it look like an execution, not a suicide. medical examiner, erik mitchell, who testified at both of pete's trials, says it's not impossible. you get injuries to the back of the head with suicides, especially if somebody's trying to stage something. natalie morales: in fact, all the new evidence led mitchell to tell the judge he'd gotten the case wrong. he says it's a mistake he deeply regrets. not every decision you make is going to be correct. and you do have to be able to survive the impact of incorrect decisions because they will have an inordinate impact on others. but it doesn't make it easier when it happens. natalie morales: still, as the hearing drew to a close, pete's family couldn't help but expect the worst. i went into panic because this was it.

yeah. there was no-- there was not a second chance. it was it. natalie morales: then, the judge started to speak. lindsay runnels: he started the conversation by telling the courtroom how hard it is sometimes to be a judge. and this was one of those days. natalie morales: in the gallery, dee couldn't tell what was happening. her son tried to reassure her. he's like, it's all right, mom. it's all right. it's all right. this is how it has to go. as he went through the evidence, he talked about the misconduct on behalf of the state. and then he just says, not fair. and in this country, the due process clause means something, and it was violated, and we are sorry, and you are free to go. natalie morales: that moment that the judge said, you're free to go. i sort of went into a daze. i was like, it's over.

natalie morales: it was over, after almost 13 years. pete's wife couldn't believe it. branden bell walked over to her and said, don't you want to go hug pete? natalie morales: that hug, what did that feel like? overwhelming. [laughs] overwhelming. and of course, i was crying. natalie morales: kathleen's daughter, blair, was not in court that day. she chose not to attend the hearing. the day it happened, my aunt ran in my room and was like, they just released pete. and i was like, what? natalie morales: blair was shocked to learn how the theory of the crime had changed. her mother had gone from victim to villain. when we spoke with her a few weeks later, it was still sinking in. i don't--

i'm confused. i don't-- i don't know what-- i don't know what to believe. if your mother did kill carl and then kill herself, how do you process that? (sobbing) if that did happen, i feel so bad for his family. for pete's family? (sobbing) yes. natalie morales: da mark dupree believes the ruling is a victory, even though the case represents a massive failure for the office he now leads. this was, in my opinion, something that a first-year assistant district attorney learns never to do, and that is never withhold evidence, period. natalie morales: that original prosecutor, ed brancart, didn't respond to our requests for comment.

in november 2020, pete coones walked out of prison. his family was waiting for him. how are you buddy? oh, god. it was like i was in a dream, because it was like, this is the day that we've all been hoping for, praying for for so many years. i can't wait to get to be dad all the time. i was in shock for a long time, tears. [chatter] natalie morales: when we met the coones family in december 2020, they were just starting to make new memories together. it is very much like picking the pieces back up and trying to put them back together. [laughter] dad and i had a pretty good relationship before everything, and that didn't really change when he came home. natalie morales: do you have a favorite moment just in these last few weeks that you've had him back? honestly, walking around walmart, he gets so excited about picking things up, like, oh, i haven't seen these in 13 years. this is new. it's really awesome seeing him so excited about little things that all of us would take for granted.

natalie morales: that first time getting to see your dad again, and for him getting to know his granddaughter, what was that like for you? i don't think that there is a word to describe it. seeing my daughter say "grandpa" and being able to point that person out is overwhelming. i mean, it's amazing. i always knew that he was going to make a great grandpa. pete coones: being able to put my arms around deirdre, free outside with no fence around us, was magnificent. being able to hug my children was incredible. but i can't describe to you what it's like to meet your grandkids. natalie morales: pete got to spend christmas together with his family. he told us he was looking forward, not back. down the road, 5, 10, 20 years,

i like to say, it's nothing but a speed bump in the rearview mirror. and if you don't dwell on it, you win. and i just want to spend the rest of my life being happy with what i have, not sad about what i lost. natalie morales: but it turns out that pete didn't have much time left. doctors discovered he was suffering from stage iv lung cancer. pete coones passed away. it was just 108 days since his release. 108 days cherished by those who loved him. as hard as his ordeal had been, pete coones remembered his father's faith

in the justice system. before pete died, he told us he still believed in it, too. pete coones: a lot of this comes right back to everything he told me. freedom is not free. it's tough. and you always stand up for what you believe in. and i did. hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." garrett warren: you know when they tell you your life passes before your eyes? you think about everything that happened in your life and, you wonder am i ready to die? craig melvin: he was a hollywood stuntman, but this was no hollywood stunt. this was a hit.