dennis murphy (voiceover): mona wehde's son dustin had been shot dead. and she knew tracey robert's story didn't add up. but it was a conversation with the town's funeral director that made her think tracey might be deliberately

misleading police. that she had something to hide. he told me that dustin was shot three times in his underarm, two times in his hip, and, at that point, four times in the back of his head. and i went, what? dennis murphy (voiceover): the violence of dustin's death overwhelmed her. mona now believed not only that tracey's story of self-defense was bogus. not only that her son was innocent of any crime the night of the home invasion. she now believed dustin had been murdered. targeted. dennis murphy: so it's an execution he walks into. is that the way you see it? totally. dennis murphy (voiceover): but years after the attack, she felt as though there was no one to listen to her. mona wehde: you know, i felt like my hands was tied because i couldn't do the investigation. i couldn't do anything. and i was so sad because my son's file was just sitting on a shelf. and i'm like, how long is that going to sit there? will there ever be a day of justice?

dennis murphy (voiceover): for years, mona had quietly watched the woman who had shot her son give interviews. i turn around, and then fired at-- dennis murphy (voiceover): a time came when mona fired back in the local paper. i did put one small, little article in the paper. and i just really asked, why did you kill my son? tell me why. dennis murphy (voiceover): the grief and the frustration was taking its toll on mona's family. mona wehde: i just felt everybody ripping apart from everybody. i didn't know how to pull them back, and i hurt. dennis murphy (voiceover): but then, on christmas eve, seven years after dustin's death, mona got a surprising phone call. iowa's division of criminal investigation had given the home invasion case file to a cold case investigator. at last, she had a reason to hope. someone else was suspicious of tracey's story. i had a hard time making sense out of it

because i could not get past her original statement. dennis murphy (voiceover): special agent trent vileta noticed a number of inconsistencies in tracey's statements to police. basic facts she kept changing, like the number of intruders in the house. another red flag-- the crime scene photos. trent vileta: why isn't things broken? why isn't things on the cupboards or dressers laying on the floor? it didn't make any sense. it looked to me like dustin just got shot and died. dennis murphy (voiceover): had tracey been lying about what really happened in the house? and if so, why? agent vileta came to realize he knew almost nothing about tracey, the woman at the heart of the crime. what i did is, i slowed down. i went back to the beginning, really, that i could find for her. and that was about 1988. dennis murphy (voiceover): 1988. the year tracey married john pitman, the doctor, in virginia. after talking to tracey's ex and sifting through court documents surrounding their marriage, the investigator realized that pitman was nothing like the ogre tracey had

described to investigators. bullying incidents? the doctor said it was tracey, not he, who had been abusive. in one memorable set-to, he said she pulled a gun on him. john pitman: she turned to me and said, you're never going to leave this house alive. [chuckles] i was sort of stunned. and next thing i know, she disappears in the bedroom and comes out waving a gun. dennis murphy (voiceover): tracey fired the revolver into the ceiling, and pitman called the cops. tracey admitted firing the gun. told police she'd been contemplating suicide. dr. pitman told agent vileta that wasn't the end of tracey's bizarre behavior. pitman pulled out surveillance logs and photos taken by a private eye that he said proved it was tracey, not he, who had been unfaithful. and that was a real shocker because it started to look like she almost had a second life that i wasn't aware of. and she hung around with male strippers, and you know, just all kinds of unsavory characters. dennis murphy (voiceover): tracey later told people that it was her first husband, not she, who had enjoyed the company of strippers.

she also denied having had affairs. but dr. pitman says his private eye warned him he shouldn't take any chances. his life might be in danger. he said, look, you know, she's already shot at you. now, the first one always goes in the air, the second one goes over your head, and the third one hits you. dennis murphy (voiceover): at the end of the day, tracey's first husband said it was his flat-out fear of tracey that had ended the marriage, not his infidelity and abuse, as she'd claimed. but what about the biggie? tracey's accusation that dr. pitman had sexually abused his own son, bert. he said, none of it was true, and he had a court finding to prove it. i've never done anything-- no inappropriate touching, exposure, grooming, anything. dennis murphy (voiceover): the cold case investigator believed tracey's ex was telling the truth. that doctor who had seen evidence of abuse? she'd been wrong, said illinois child abuse investigators who had exonerated pitman back in the day. even more telling, agent vileta thought, was the fact

that tracey had let bert move to virginia after her separation from michael roberts. if she believed her first husband was an abuser, why would she send her son to live in his care? tracey robert's and the truth. agent vileta started to suspect that other events in this woman's dramatic life story might not hold up to examination. trent vileta: either you have to believe the whole entire world is out to get tracey, or tracey's a criminal and she just does bad things. dennis murphy (voiceover): agent vileta took another look at the story of the chicago dentist whom tracey claimed had raped her. he'd signed a confession offering to pay tracey damages, or so she claimed. but the dentist told the cold case investigator that the confession was a forgery. he basically said she extorted him. dennis murphy (voiceover): it all made the agent wonder anew about tracey's relationship with michael, husband number two. sure, some people around the farming town didn't care much for the businessman. but had he really been abusive to his wife? back in 2000, michael had been arrested for that alleged

assault on tracey. but he told the investigator that he had actually been trying to protect tracey at the time, not hurt her. she started kicking holes through both levels of drywall to the other side, where there was a 220-volt heater. dennis murphy (voiceover): he showed the investigators photos he said he had taken of those holes. he said tracey had been about to electrocute herself when he grabbed her and forced her to the floor. as for his stepson's claims that michael had beaten him-- dennis murphy: did these things happen? breaking his nose. did that happen? no. no. i spanked him quite a few times, and i made quite a few mistakes is a parent. dennis murphy (voiceover): michael admitted he was a stern father, but said he loved his children and had never hurt them. michael also denied harassing his wife after their breakup, saying it was the other way around. tracey was the violent one in the family, he claimed. he says she tried to kill him more than once. she got me drunk, and she rolled me up in a cotton-- king-sized cotton sheet very, very tight.

pinned me with baby safety pins, and reached underneath or behind the bed and took out a plastic bag, and put it over my head. she put a plastic bag over your head? yeah. dennis murphy (voiceover): the way michael tells it, tracey tried to suffocate him. tracey said michael's story was sheer fantasy but not long after he filed for divorce but what about michael's polygraph that had seemed so suspicious to earlier. investigators michael had an answer for that too. he said the lie detector had caught his own squirmish doubt about tracey's story, not that he was the brains behind the home invasion. trent vileta: it's hard to answer a question as to do you know the identity of the second intruder if you don't believe there was a second intruder. dennis murphy (voiceover): agent vileta had ruled out michael roberts as a suspect. and he started to wonder, you couldn't get two more poles apart men than tracey's two ex-husbands, the australian entrepreneur and the virginia doctor. and yet both had similar horror stories

to tell about their ex-wife. he believed he had uncovered tracey's true character. trent vileta: when she got mad at someone, she wasn't mad at them. she was enraged with them. she didn't want someone to be embarrassed. she wanted them to be destroyed. dennis murphy (voiceover): agent vileta was now convinced that much as she'd fabricated her stories about the dentist's and both husbands' abuse, tracey had also fabricated her account of what had happened on december 13, 2001. her dramatic description of the break-in, of being chased and choked. her firing deadly shots to protect both herself and her children. lies, he thought, but he could not figure out why. the answer, it turned out, was tucked away in the 10-year-old case file, a top-secret piece of evidence that was going to break the investigation wide open. coming up. he said, there's more to this than what people know. and i said, do you mean that stupid notebook? dennis murphy (voiceover): investigators may have

just found the smoking gun. just sitting right in the front seat as if somebody sat at there, you know, nice and neat. and it was not reported about in the news media? never. nope. dennis murphy (voiceover): if they can figure out what it means. ben smith: i stared at that thing for weeks trying to understand it. dennis murphy (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. 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.

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of the home invasion. the concern in her voice weeks after. had it all been an act? investigators now suspected that tracey robert's, the woman who said she'd been attacked in her home, had staged the whole thing. that she'd shot to death young dustin wehde as part of some twisted plan. tracey's the suspect. tracey's the one i know who did it. dennis murphy (voiceover): tracey had long since left the small town of early, iowa. she'd moved to nebraska, where she was living under a new name. but she'd kept in touch with her old friend mary higgins back in iowa. mary was spooked. in the back of my calendar, there's like, a list of numbers. every time she changed it, i-- i'd cross it out and move on. why, mary wondered, did tracey keep changing her contact information. what or who was she running from? tracey's best friend was afraid. i feared that i knew something that i didn't know i knew. and i feared that--

what would happen when tracey figured out. dennis murphy (voiceover): because tracey had confided in mary in the months after the attack and told her all sorts of things. things that didn't add up. like the fact that the second intruder had been wearing a ski mask. well, if he had, mary wondered, how had tracey given police a description of his face? but it was actually seeing for herself the space where tracey said she'd fired from that gave mary pause. it was just too tight a squeeze for tracey to have dived for the gun safe, shot over her shoulder, and then turned around to keep firing. there's no way she could get in between the bed and that wall. i thought, this isn't adding up. but i didn't know. i didn't know. dennis murphy (voiceover): cold case investigator trent vileta doubted tracey's story too. after doing a background check on her, he was convinced that the home invasion was just one more lie from a woman who had conned people her entire life. she was a tornado, just wreaking

havoc everywhere she went. dennis murphy (voiceover): so had tracey gotten away with murder by pretending to be a victim? it wasn't an entirely new idea. investigators had discussed it back in the day. but then, in 2010, agent vileta found someone willing to listen to his wild theory. ben smith: he would send me little teasers, and he would continuously call me. what did you think about that? dennis murphy (voiceover): the newly elected sac county prosecutor, ben smith, was a captain in the iowa national guard, and knew his way around guns. he was immediately skeptical of tracey's description of the shooting. you're talking somebody that has said every shot she took from that beretta was either sitting, kneeling, with her eyes closed, with her glasses off. what's the degree of difficulty here? probably a, you know, army ranger difficulty. it would be challenging exercise? i don't think that i would be up for it right now, no. according to what she's saying. if you believe that it's in the dark, your eyes close, you just got choked to the point of unconsciousness, and two people are grabbing at you, you have all your faculties together to sit

there, open up the gun safe. one point in time, she goes under the bed, opens it there, comes out. i mean, it's choose your own action adventure story. at one point, she opens up the gun safe because somebody tugged hard at her feet, and she just happened to be holding the door. it's ludicrous. dennis murphy (voiceover): but it was something else in the file that really intrigued him-- a top secret piece of evidence that had baffled investigators for years. i stared at that thing for weeks, just reading it, trying to understand it. dennis murphy (voiceover): when police had searched dustin's car back in 2001, they'd found not just a battered old computer, but this-- a pink spiral notebook. just sitting right in the front seat as if somebody said it there nice and neat. dennis murphy (voiceover): and it was not reported about in the news media? never. nope. dennis murphy (voiceover): the secret six-page document with its scratchy writing, misspellings, and bizarre content was hard to read. but the prosecutor quickly realized that it could be the key to the investigation. it began, "one day about 20 years ago, a boy was born

into a middle class life." the author was 20-year-old dustin wehde. and there's no question that this is dustin's handwriting? it's dustin's, yeah. yeah. he's got very distinct writing. dennis murphy (voiceover): the heart of the pink journal, its core story, outlined a strange plot. a mysterious fellow, dustin wrote, had contacted him to carry out a shocking mission-- kill tracey roberts. and the identity of this mysterious fellow commissioning the crime? it was none other than tracey's first husband, dr. john pitman. surely this was the smoking gun that confirmed exactly what tracey had suggested to investigators so long ago. that her first husband, angry about that bitter custody battle, had been behind the attack. but even though dustin had physically written the journal, investigators didn't believe that he'd authored it. it contained personal information about tracey's ex that he would never have known about. that he'd once wanted to be a psychiatrist, not a plastic surgeon. and another remark that he liked to play mind games.

dennis murphy: why would this 20-year-old kid in early, iowa know any of these details about a doctor named pitman? i mean, where's this stuff coming from? i mean, you've got one of two things. he's either clairvoyant, or tracey told him to put it in there. you think he's being dictated to? absolutely. i mean, he's a scribe. dennis murphy (voiceover): and the cold case investigator told the prosecutor he had what he thought was proof that tracey had dictated the journal. i basically asked her to describe her two ex-husbands for me. i said i was going to go interview them. please describe them for me what kind of people they are. john pitman gets a one-paragraph response. and what was very interesting about the one paragraph response is it was incredibly similar language to paragraph five of the journal. if i had any lingering doubt at that time when that email came through and she described john pitman the exact same way that dustin wehde described john pitman, there was no doubt that she was the one that authored the journal.

dennis murphy (voiceover): so if the journal was a fake, what did that mean? well, this is where this serpentine tale gets really kind of simple-- motive. the prosecutor says tracey staged the home invasion to frame her ex and gain the upper hand in the custody battle over bert. here's what tracey is hoping, ok? law enforcement finds this pink spiral notebook, and they find its contents. they read it and they're thinking, holy cow. it's going to raise enough suspicion that they have to spend all this time and energy to go out and interview dr. pitman about this murder-for-hire scheme. and it's just enough for her to get that into the juvenile court setting to say, he's being investigated for this attack. he's never going to see that kid again. it's a golden ticket. dennis murphy (voiceover): and dustin? well, according to this new theory, he was no attacker, but collateral damage. one boy dead because of the fight over another. he had no life value to her. and she used him. and killed him. and killed him.

dennis murphy (voiceover): but how could the prosecutor prove his new theory? it came down to this. investigators had always kept the journal top secret. but if tracey had created it, she obviously knew about it. so if investigators could prove she knew about it, they could prove that she'd created it. got it? that's why the prosecutor lost it one night when he was talking to tracey's old friend mary higgins. he told her the investigation had been reopened. he said something like, there's more to this than what people know. and i said-- i don't know why i said it. i don't. i said, do you mean that stupid notebook? and ben just-- he just turned white. i kept saying to him, what? what? and he said, how do you know about a notebook? dennis murphy: should mary higgins have known anything about the existence

of a notebook in this case? nothing about it. and i was leaning against the wall to begin with, but i did get lightheaded because, as far as i was concerned, that was it. dennis murphy (voiceover): it was the final piece of the puzzle. the moment tracey had slipped up and told someone she knew about the journal-- the journal that was supposed to be top secret. the investigator and prosecutor wondered if they had enough for an arrest. and they worried what would happen if they didn't move soon because tracey, it turned out, had gotten in trouble with the authorities in nebraska. she'd been accused of forging documents and lying about her identity. she was ultimately convicted of perjury, but investigators wondered if tracey was getting ready to run. would they be able to arrest her in time? coming up. tracey gets a big surprise, and so does this story's other mom, mona. i was like, it's unbelievable because i never thought that that day was going to come.

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a summer's day in omaha, nebraska. tracey was driving down the highway in her fiance's truck. she had a new man in her life, a new job, a new name. had she finally put the home invasion behind her? then she noticed the police blue lights in her rear view mirror.

next thing i know, there's a bunch of police cars, and there's men pointing guns at me and telling me to get out of the car. and-- and i kept asking, what's this about? and then a man came over and he said, i was under arrest for the murder of dustin wehde. dennis murphy (voiceover): 10 years after she told police she'd been attacked by the teenager, tracey was charged with dustin wehde's murder. the news was overwhelming to dustin's mother. i just kind of went blank and went, what? it was just, like, so heavy. and i was like, it's unbelievable because i never thought that that day was going to come when i would get told she was actually arrested for murder. dennis murphy (voiceover): but that day did come on a mild october morning in fort dodge, iowa. tracey standing trial for murder as tracey richter, her maiden name. she'd entered a plea of not guilty. rookie prosecutor ben smith sat at his table next to a recently assigned veteran state's

attorney, doug hammerand. it was such a bizarre set of facts. we knew it would be difficult to show that this was a setup versus a home invasion. dennis murphy (voiceover): at the heart of the prosecution's case was its assertion that dustin was no home invader. mona wehde testified that tracey had actually invited dustin to stop by the house. she had some odd jobs for him and expressly asked him to come alone. tracey said, yeah, we have a whole, whole, whole bunch of copies that we want dustin to make. send him down on his own the next day or two. dennis murphy (voiceover): and he did go. the prosecutor showed the jury a photo of dustin's car parked in plain view outside the roberts' home. doug hammerand: if he was going to commit a burglary, it made no sense that he would park his car in the driveway. dennis murphy (voiceover): once inside the house, the prosecution argued, dustin had taken down the dictation for the journal. investigators found a black rollerball pen sticking out of dustin's back pocket. the same type of pen used to make the journal. it makes no sense why dustin would

go in and commit a home invasion with a black rollerball pen in his pocket. made more sense that pink spiral notebook was done that day. dennis murphy (voiceover): the pink journal, written in dustin's chicken scratch, that stated tracey's first husband, dr. john pitman, had hired him to kill tracey. the prosecution decided to clear that up for the jury once and for all. doug hammerand: did you ever ask dustin wehde to set up a plan to kill tr, tracey richter, or your son, bert? god, no. dennis murphy (voiceover): because the cops had long believed dr. pitman was innocent of any murder-for-hire scheme, they'd kept the journal implicating him a secret, thinking whoever knew about it was probably behind the home invasion plot. enter mary higgins, the prosecution's star witness. even though she was testifying for the prosecution, she was still desperate to make a connection with the woman who'd once been her friend. mary higgins: the whole time i'm in the stand, i wanted to look at tracey.

i wanted to see her eyes. i wanted to see if the tracey i knew was still in there. dennis murphy (voiceover): she told the jury about the moment tracey had mentioned to her the journal. mary higgins: she said that in the car, next to the computer, was a pink spiral notebook. doug hammerand: did she say anything about the pink spiral notebook would prove anything? it would prove that john pitman did this. so there was the foundation of the prosecution's case. the motive-- slime the ex-husband with that pink journal to keep custody of bert. the opportunity-- lure a naive, young dustin wehde into her web, and then dispose of him. now the prosecution was going to take the jury back 10 years to that wintry house and show them how tracey had done it. first, they had to clear up what the physical evidence didn't show. tracey's story of a home invasion did not match the crime scene. a series of investigators testified there was no sign of a break-in, no signs

of ransacking or an attack. as for her strangulation injuries, this emt, who transported tracey to the hospital, was skeptical. are the marks on the front of the defendant's neck consistent with your experience for someone having ligature marks in a strangulation? no, sir. dennis murphy (voiceover): the prosecution argued that tracey had made the marks on her neck herself. it was just one more aspect of her staged home invasion. so what did the physical evidence show had actually happened in the house that night? the prosecution's last witness was a forensic expert who'd analyzed the blood spatter and bullet trajectories to explain the sequence of events. using rookie prosecutor ben smith as a stand-in for dustin, he recreated the shooting in the courtroom. there's a wound to the right arm. the lower abdomen, right here on the side. the shoulder, right here. dennis murphy (voiceover): just as she'd told investigators, tracey had indeed started firing from beside the bed, the expert testified. but then she tracked dustin as he tried to turn away.

and tracey had continued shooting as she moved closer and closer to dustin. he is down and going down to the floor. there's a shot number four in the right neck. dennis murphy (voiceover): the expert testified about those final shots fired into the back of dustin's head. one of them exits out of the left ear. dennis murphy (voiceover): any one of them could have been fatal, according to the prosecution. and it was highly unlikely that dustin could have been trying to get up, as tracey had told the police over the years. i mean, unless he's, you know, as a zombie. i mean, he's got eight bullets in his body. he's got two in the back of his head. dennis murphy (voiceover): the prosecution's expert then explained what the blood spatter evidence showed about the last shot. he testified that tracey had waited up to 15 minutes before firing a final round into the boy's skull. and it was tracey's best friend, once again, who had something startling to say about this new evidence. mary higgins testified that she'd

overheard something disturbing during a visit to tracey's house. bert, who had always publicly supported his mother's account of that night, was confronting tracey. we're sitting at a table, and bert comes in, and bert's extremely agitated. bert starts to hit his head on the table. not to hurt himself, i didn't feel, but out of frustration. and he said, why did you go up there? why did you go back up there? and he said, you-- you didn't have to shoot him. you didn't have to kill him. dennis murphy (voiceover): was there something bert had seen his mother do that terrible night in 2001 which he'd been keeping a secret all these years? and what truths could bert tell the jury as he took the stand? coming up. karmen anderson: common sense tells you that you don't plot, plan, and execute a murder during this hour time frame when you have three children at home. dennis murphy (voiceover): the heart of the defense case. what tracey's son remembers about that night. i was very, very, very, scared.

doug hammerand: and did dustin say anything to you at that time? yes. he told me to stay in the room, my mom was dead, and i was next. dennis murphy (voiceover): but will he stand by his story under cross-examination? when "dateline" continues. the freestyle libre 3 plus sensor tracks your glucose in real time, and over time it can help lower your a1c. ♪♪ this is progress. learn more and try for free at freestylelibre.us ♪♪ feeling ughh from a backed up gut? ughh. miralax works naturally with the water in your body to help you go. free your gut and your mood will follow. for 8 grams of fiber, try mirafiber gummies.

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stick hi, i'm frances rivera and wishing you a happy new year. large crowds ring in the new year in new york city with

the famous ball drop in fireworks display in times square. the president elect celebrated at his mar-a-lago club. asked about his new year's resolutions, he said he wanted everyone to be happy, healthy, and well. he confirmed he will attend the state funeral of former president jimmy carter. those are the headlines and now back to dateline. to datel um, the day i was arrested. dennis murphy (voiceover): the stakes were high at tracey richter's murder trial. this mother, who could be looking at a future in a prison cell without her children, says she was being punished for protecting them. dennis murphy: this is an admirable story for a lot of americans. this is a woman defending her cubby bears at the risk of her own life, eh? that's exactly what she was doing. dennis murphy: protecting them from peril. that's certainly what we believe happened that night. dennis murphy (voiceover): tracey's defense attorneys scott bandstra and karmen anderson didn't want the jurors to lose sight of the woman they believed their client to be-- a heroic mother.

her story certainly seemed much easier to believe than the prosecution's theory of an elaborate frame-up to resolve a custody dispute. common sense tells you that you don't plot, plan, and execute a murder during this hour time frame when you have three children at home. dennis murphy (voiceover): as for the journal, the defense argued, forget about it. it may be a good yarn, but it doesn't tell you who killed dustin and is irrelevant to the case. a red herring. as far as him going in the home, or tracey having him come in to home to author this journal, i mean, there is absolutely no evidence to support that. tracey and i wouldn't talk about the attack a lot. dennis murphy (voiceover): and the testimony of tracey's best friend mary higgins. garbage, said the defense. when she's interviewed in-- in 2002 and 2003, she makes no reference to any journal. mary gave four or five different versions of what she allegedly knew and what she didn't know. dennis murphy (voiceover): let's take it back to basics, the defense told the jury. the evidence supported tracey's story of a home

invasion, it argued, but investigators had missed it because of their incompetent police work. and that was one of our biggest hurdles in the case, was we-- they didn't do what they needed to do. dennis murphy (voiceover): the crime scene had been contaminated from the outset, the defense argued. paramedics had stepped in dustin's blood, evidence had been lost, and basic forensics had been botched. tracey richter's clothes were not retrieved after the shooting. that's correct. the defense argued that tracey's injuries spoke for themselves. they were the marks of someone who had been strangled. the doctor who had treated her at the er said he never doubted her story. but perhaps the investigator's biggest omission, the defense argued, was in giving up on the hunt for that second intruder. they presented the jury with a possible suspect for that person. someone who'd been having an affair with dustin's mother, mona wehde, and had left town abruptly after the attack. and you thought it was suspicious that he broke up with you immediately after dustin's death?

i did. dennis murphy: you believe he's the second man? well, yes. absolutely. dennis murphy (voiceover): and so, it appeared, did tracey. when the defense's alternate suspect was called to the stand, tracey wept, her body language gasping in effect, yes, this is the man who tried to kill me and got away. dennis murphy: was she acting for the jury, karmen? - i don't believe so. - absolutely not. no. dennis murphy (voiceover): the man adamantly denied any involvement in the break-in. scott bandstra: did any time you go with dustin wehde and try to attack tracey richter? no. dennis murphy (voiceover): the defense then put dustin wehde, the alleged perpetrator turned victim, on trial. according to their portrayal of the long-dead boy, he was an unpredictable young man, perfectly capable of lashing out and committing the crime. scott bandstra: you testified yesterday on-- dennis murphy (voiceover): during the cross-examination of dustin's mother, the defense attorney asked mona about occasions when dustin had lost his temper in the wehde home. you were afraid to leave your daughters alone with dustin prior to the death, weren't you?

i wasn't afraid to leave them alone. i didn't like to leave my children alone. dennis murphy (voiceover): mona told the jury that, yes, her son had been difficult, but not violent. she said she'd never told tracey that dustin was a threat to her or her other two children. they made dustin look like the bad boy and a violent child and a violent adult. it was horribly hard for me to listen to that. dennis murphy (voiceover): but what about the other boy at the heart of this crime-- tracey's son, bert? he was going to be the defense's trump card. all right, this is a-- a guardian angel right here. and that right there is the head of a demon. dennis murphy (voiceover): bert has an elaborate tattoo depicting the home invasion. and that's my mom. dennis murphy (voiceover): his mother is pictured as the hero. i know for a fact that if my mom didn't do what she did, i would be dead. dennis murphy (voiceover): now his mother was relying on him to save her from a life behind bars. tracey sobbed as her son took the stand. scott bandstra: how do you feel

about being here today, bert? pretty nervous. dennis murphy (voiceover): bert walked the jurors through the home invasion. i heard someone coming towards my door. and what did you do? i still had my bat ready to hit whoever came in first. dennis murphy (voiceover): bert told the jury there was no mistaking dustin's criminal intent. he had a disturbing look on his face. bert pitman: angry and threatening. scott bandstra: and how did you feel when you saw dustin? bert pitman: i was very, very, very scared. scott bandstra: and did dustin say anything to you at that time? yes, he told me to stay in the room, my mom was dead, and i was next. dennis murphy (voiceover): burt told the jury how he'd seen dustin trying to get back up after he'd been shot. i thought that the threat was back on. were you afraid you were going to die? yes. were you afraid for your brother and your sister? absolutely. scott bandstra: were you afraid for your mom? absolutely. dennis murphy (voiceover): there was no doubt about it, bert said. his mother had shot dustin to protect him and his siblings.

he adamantly denied what tracey's best friend had told the jury, that he'd been upset with his mother for going back to shoot dustin again. do you have a recollection of that ever occurring? no, sir. absolutely not. dennis murphy (voiceover): if bert was telling the truth, there was no doubt he had experienced something truly terrifying. something unforgettable. would his memories be enough to convince the jury his mother was his savior and not a killer? coming up. tracey decides not to take the stand and face prosecutors' questions. but she does answer ours. dennis murphy: when they looked at the injury to your neck, it just seemed to be some kind of sawing back-and-forth abrasion. did you fake it? did you do that to yourself? dennis murphy (voiceover): and then the jury's verdict. when they read the verdict, i thought i misheard it. i did not expect it. dennis murphy (voiceover): when "dateline" continues.

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awhen he was 11 years. old, bert pitman heard something monstrous through his bedroom door. a struggle. shots fired. it changed his life forever. dennis murphy: did your mom know that you had the weight of the world on your shoulders? i mean, she-- she knew. i mean, it was hard. at that point, you either grow up or you-- you fail. dennis murphy (voiceover): now age 21, he was up on a witness stand, trying to convince a jury that his mother was not a murderer.

if it wasn't for what my mom did, i wouldn't be sitting here today. dennis murphy (voiceover): the prosecutors didn't buy it. and they grilled bert pitman on cross-examination. ok. you may answer that. dennis murphy (voiceover): they wanted the jury to know that tracey's son was coming up with dramatic new details he'd never told investigators before. ok. dennis murphy (voiceover): they confronted him with a transcript of his first statement to police from the night of the alleged attack. doug hammerand: you never said anything about hearing your mom having a choking sound out in the hallway, did you? i-- it's not on the-- not on this, no. you never told lieutenant sesford anything about dustin starting to move, and was rocking and trying to get up either, did you? it's not written down. i don't know if i told him that and he didn't write it down. dennis murphy (voiceover): tracey sat stony-faced as her son got down from the witness stand. but she mouthed "i love you" across the courtroom. what would the jury make of it all? then a moment of decision. would tracey testify in her own defense? she opted not to.

but she did agree to talk to us. dennis murphy: did you lure dustin wehde over to your house that day and execute him in cold-blooded fashion? - no. no. dennis murphy (voiceover): as she dabbed at her tears with a washcloth and shook in her chair, tracey seemed nothing like a ruthless killer. you're fired 11 times, they say. that's what they say. and you hit nine times. i don't remember that, firing that many times. i was surprised. dennis murphy (voiceover): tracey didn't waver from her story of that night. she had shot dustin to protect herself and her family. he had been attacking her. she'd been a victim, desperate to get away. i was in the corner. the person had to follow me into the corner to get to me. you couldn't have gotten more further away in the house and been, like, in a more defensive position than huddled on the ground in a corner. the forensic reconstruction expert described this person retreating from you. and that you're the aggressor. no, that's-- dennis murphy: shooting at him. --that's not true.

and they don't believe your story about being pulled by the legs either. they say if you had done this kind of over-your-shoulder shot, there would have been traces of gunshot residue on the victim. and they don't see that. well-- so he had to be further away from you as you began shooting. i know i was in the corner, and the person was coming at me. that i know. i mean, i will take that to my grave. there's no doubt-- dennis murphy (voiceover): there were other details tracey was less sure of. bert says that your hands were loosely bound with pantyhose and he had to untie them. is his memory correct? i don't know. because this would make it very difficult to understand all the things that you say you do. - right. dennis murphy: manipulate the gun safe. well, i don't know if-- with your arms bound like this, get control of the gun. i don't think they were-- i don't recall ever-- i don't recall ever saying that they were bound. well, you know. i mean, were they there or not? i want to say they were more wrapped around my arm. dennis murphy (voiceover): pantyhose. such a strange choice of weapon for a burglar or a hitman. but nonetheless, one that caused tracey to black out, or so she had told police. dennis murphy: when they looked at the injury

to your neck, it didn't seem to be the kind of injury that could cause you to pass out. it just seemed to be some kind of sawing back-and-forth abrasion. did you fake it? did you do that to yourself? no. no. that's ridiculous. it's-- it's hurtful. i'm prone to blacking out. i have very low blood pressure. but, um, i don't know if it was out of fear. i do know i could not breathe. i felt like i could not breathe. dennis murphy (voiceover): even more ridiculous, tracey said, was the motive the prosecution had ascribed to her. that dustin had been the fall guy in an elaborate scheme that she'd concocted to save her own son bert from her ex-husband, dr. john pitman. dennis murphy: did you think you were going to lose bert, tracey? - no, i didn't. i honestly had never-- that was never a concern. dennis murphy (voiceover): tracey said she had no reason to create the pink journal to try to frame her first husband. in our interview, she said that their relationship at the time of the home invasion was nothing but cordial. but if she hadn't authored the journal, how could she explain those biographical details about her ex

contained in the journal? they were the same details that showed up in an email tracey later wrote to investigators. dennis murphy: there is language in the diary, tracey, that is eerily like language that you used, phrases, in an email to the investigator. it was the same topic, but not the same words. isn't that quibbling? no, but-- why would dustin be picking up on this, if this is his journal? oh, i agree with you on that, 100%. but i'm not-- see, i'm not the only person that would have known that. i mean, michael knew it also. dennis murphy (voiceover): michael roberts, tracey's second husband. tracey scoffs at her second husband's claims that she tried to kill him. no, she says, he was the would-be killer. and the journal was part of his grand scheme to kill her and frame her first husband for it. the only person that benefits is michael roberts. and it benefits michael roberts because if i died, while he was out of town,

and he was going to collect, you know, several million dollars in insurance on me. he was going to be the number one suspect. and you think that today? no matter what. i think it more today than i ever have. dennis murphy (voiceover): michael robert's watched the trial from across the country in california, where he was now taking care of his and tracey's kids, struggling with their questions, and what he says is his continued fear of his ex-wife. neither the prosecution nor the defense called him to testify. did i conspire with dustin to kill tracey or whatever theory the defense wanted to throw out there? no, i didn't. dennis murphy (voiceover): but there was something michael said he did feel bad about all these years later. something he wanted to say to dustin's mother. my apologies to mona and dustin's sisters to have to go through 10 years, not only of knowing that your son or your brother has been murdered, but has then been demonized. and that i contributed to that when i came to the defense of tracey. you know, for any pain, any salt

that i put on the wehde's wounds, i am so, so sorry for that. dennis murphy (voiceover): back in court, dustin's mother waited anxiously. after seven long days of testimony, the jury had started its deliberations. what was a few more hours after 10 long years of waiting for answers? what made you keep going forward? everything you had to endure. the death of your son, the death of your husband. my girls. i'm like, they don't have a dad. they lost their brother. i tried to give them everything. didn't always do a good job, but i knew i had to be there for them. dennis murphy (voiceover): and her daughters were there for her when the verdict was read. we the jury find the defendant tracey ann richter guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree. [tracey gasps] dennis murphy (voiceover): tracey buried her head in her hands. when they read the verdict, i thought i misheard it. i did not expect it. dennis murphy (voiceover): her son

bert sat there stunned, expressionless, until he too dissolved in tears. a few weeks later, a judge listened to mona's daughters as they explained the price they'd paid for tracey's acts. after all, dustin had been not just a son. he'd been a brother, too. you cheated my brother, dustin, out of his future. as i looked around the room again and saw my big brother wasn't there. [sobbing] man: take your time, ok? if you need a second. dennis murphy (voiceover): the judge sentenced tracey richter to spend the rest of her life in prison. mona wehde finally had justice for her son. and what about that other son at the heart of this story? once a little boy huddled behind a bedroom door, listening to the sounds of a killing on a cold december night. i know the truth. and knowing that she's in prison for something she didn't do is-- i mean, it's-- it's tough to move on. dennis murphy (voiceover): bert denies lying on the witness stand.

the prosecutor isn't so sure. any time she was in a pinch, he was the alibi. he was the piece of evidence. and i-- it's easy, you know, for me to sit on the outside, and i see it. it's his mom, man. i would have done the same thing. dennis murphy (voiceover): so at the end of things, maybe it's really the other way around. for so long, tracey had told the story of a mother protecting her children. but perhaps the real story is the tale of a loyal son protecting his mom. trying and ultimately failing to shield her from herself inside a wintry house long, long ago. type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events

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