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tv   Dateline  MSNBC  January 5, 2025 12:00am-1:00am PST

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of miles away from the cabin in kafue national park, where a fatal shot took the life of bianca, the hunter, the mother, the friend. bianca was a beautiful, vibrant woman. andrea canning (voiceover): betsy wandtke hopes the focus can once again be on bianca's memory. she was this just wonderful woman who made a difference in this world. without people talking about bianca and what a great woman she was, larry wins. and i'm not gonna let that happen. [tense music] [music playing] hedebra newell: it was ag, awhirlwind love affair. i felt, like, this was the one that i'd been waiting for.
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maybe, it was too good to be true. did he love me, or was this all a game? andrea canning (voiceover): a beautiful businesswoman falls for a dashing doctor, but her daughters have doubts. i had lots of suspicions. she thinks his fingernails are dirty, and this does not look to her like the hands of an actual doctor. andrea canning (voiceover): who was this guy? his nickname was dirty john. andrea canning (voiceover): this woman knew him all too well. i started snooping, and i found everything. andrea canning (voiceover): this reporter made some unnerving discoveries, too. he scared a lot of people. he swindled a lot of people. andrea canning (voiceover): the story of his dirty deeds riveted the nation in a hit podcast-- [music playing] podcaster: this is "dirty john." andrea canning (voiceover): --but dirty was about to turn dark. he's got duct tape. he's got all the tools ready to kidnap her. andrea canning (voiceover): would this mom and her daughters learn the truth in time? she was in a panic. she said, i saw john outside in a car.
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andrea canning (voiceover): a story ending in savagery that would stun even police. there's no way he gets away with this, unless he kills her. hello, and welcome to "dateline." after a string of failed relationships, debra newell thought she had finally found her mr. right. john meehan seemed smart, handsome, and kind, but from the get go, debra's daughters sensed something felt wrong about him, so the girls started digging into his past. their harrowing search for answers would reveal a double life and expose a dangerous man, but would the truth be discovered too late? here's keith morrison with "the women and dirty john." keith morrison (voiceover): in the beginning was desire, natural human desire for connection,
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for love, so she aimed her arrow at that online ocean of intimate strangers and found him. it was summertime, when the awful climax came, a late afternoon, a marmalade sun beating down on the parking a rental apartment complex in newport beach, california. that's when they heard it. the whole complex must have heard it-- terrified, howling, desperate. there was a man down there. they could see him. he had a knife. he was stabbing the screaming woman, and nobody was helping her. [sirens] too late, too late.
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the bloody ending, but the story, the whole terrible tale, is much deeper than that one thing, dreadful though it was. a story christopher goffard of the "los angeles times" spent months unraveling strand by disturbing strand. christopher goffard: it's a story about trust and betrayal, and it's a story about family. keith morrison (voiceover): about a woman, two protective daughters, and what those daughters did when the man came into their mother's life, before the death in the parking lot. hi, i'm christopher goffard. keith morrison (voiceover): the story became a podcast produced with the podcast network wondery, the number one podcast in the country for a time voted by "entertainment weekly," "usa today," and "the guardian" as one of the best of 2017, downloaded 28 million times in the first year
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of its release. the story and the man at the heart of it was called dirty john. dennis luken: he was a very creative-- matt murphy: super manipulative-- dennis luken: --charismatic-- matt murphy: --handsome-- dennis luken: --charming, intelligent. he was a nightmare to everybody. keith morrison (voiceover): but not to her. to debra newell of orange county, california, the man who presented himself on the dating website, dr. john meehan, anesthesiologist, looked very promising. he was the total package-- a doctor, very intelligent, family man, loved his kids. keith morrison (voiceover): not that attracting men had ever been difficult for debra or any of the women in the family, according to her daughter terra. men kind of flock to them. really? what is it about the women of your family? well, they have really great hearts, and they're pretty
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decent-looking. keith morrison (voiceover): good women, happy, successful, attractive. i love those bar stools. keith morrison (voiceover): debra owned a thriving interior design firm and a moving company and a silk flowers business. had dozens of employees, certainly no money worries, but she was in her 50s, marriage is behind her, and she was looking. each potential mate carefully vetted by her watchful daughters. terra newell: we were very judgmental of all the men that she dated. keith morrison (voiceover): a little too judgmental? maybe. terra newell: me and my sister could go over the top sometimes, just very protective over my mom. keith morrison (voiceover): but now, debra wanted a romance, just for her on her terms. i had always done everything for my children, so i felt, like, it was me time. keith morrison (voiceover): and this guy on the website was "me time" to a t.
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christopher goffard: he's just back from a year in iraq, where he's volunteered with doctors without borders. keith morrison (voiceover): he was charming, kind of old fashioned. when he asked her out, he didn't just meet her somewhere or wait in his car. debra newell: he insisted on coming upstairs to get me, said, that's what a gentleman does. keith morrison: yes. keith morrison (voiceover): he took her to a fancy place for dinner and all courtly manners, paid the not inconsiderable bill. on their second date, he arrived in medical scrubs. he'd come straight from an operation. and he was handsome and tall and very fit and very into her. he swept me off my feet, said everything right, took me everywhere that i wanted to go. did you have that walking on air feeling that you get when you fall in love? a little bit. i fell in love. terra newell: she had called me one day and told me that she met someone amazing, and that she really liked this guy. she wanted me to meet him. keith morrison (voiceover): but true to form, perhaps,
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debra's daughters reacted just as they often did to a new man in her life, especially terra's sister. debra newell: she didn't like him immediately. and i thought, oh, she'll eventually like him. he's a lot of fun. he'll win her over. keith morrison (voiceover): debra rented a house, part of her new start, in a picturesque part of newport called balboa island. and she ran her business with a new lightness, and at night was loved by this accomplished doctor, this sensitive man. what did he do for you? everything, from running errands for me to a back rub every night, just would listen to my day. we would take walks every night. he held my hand. i mean, he was everything that you would want. pinch yourself. you've got it, finally. yeah. keith morrison (voiceover): then, just before thanksgiving, as terra helped her mother move into the balboa house-- terra newell: he started moving his stuff in, too.
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keith morrison (voiceover): terra didn't like it, not a bit. she confronted her mother. terra newell: i told her, it looks fishy. i don't get it. she told me, i needed to mind my own business. and he came up behind her. what did he say? he was saying that, you're just trying to get your mom all to yourself, and i started screaming back at him-- "no, john, that's what you are trying to do." keith morrison (voiceover): the next day was thanksgiving, and debra, quite fed up, told her suspicious daughters not to bother showing up for dinner. keith morrison: neither one of you? neither one of us. what was that like? really hard. keith morrison (voiceover): hard for debra, too, but she needed her own life. she and john asked a counselor for advice. and the counselor suggested that i have rules for the girls. keith morrison (voiceover): boundaries. christopher goffard: the therapist said, look, you have a right to be happy, this is your relationship, and john's position
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was this therapist is absolutely right. keith morrison (voiceover): so debra weighed the options-- listen to her family or embrace what felt, like, the best thing to come along in years. she chose love, or what certainly felt like it. what's the old expression? "till death do us part." the bond between mother and daughters, already fraying, might just break, thanks to a startling decision by debra. coming up-- i knew my family would be not very happy with me. andrea canning (voiceover): --the daughters fight back by doing some digging into john. terra newell: she bought these trackers for cars, and she put one on my mom's tesla, so she found out where john was going. andrea canning (voiceover): --when "dateline" continues. have you always had trouble with your weight? same. discover the power of wegovy®. with wegovy®, i lost 35 pounds.
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keith morrison (voiceover): las vegas, nevada, so you can rise from pain. the great glittering temples to gambling will happily take your money of course, and perhaps you'll leave the city a little poorer. and if you want to bet your heart in las vegas, well, you can put that on the line too, if you're in a betting mood, and debra newell was. debra newell: i felt very adored and very loved, and i thought, oh, well, if he's the love of my life, i'm ready. keith morrison (voiceover): they had been dating two months when she went to vegas on business in december 2014.
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john meehan went long and-- we went to a courthouse and just got married before a judge. like that. just like that. keith morrison (voiceover): married, nobody there, but them. and their secret, they decided, said debra, they wouldn't tell anyone. debra newell: i knew my family would be not very happy with me. what'd it feel like? very mixed emotions. a little empty, knowing that they're not on board with this. keith morrison (voiceover): but that's all on that one side. on the other side, there's this rush of happiness and good feeling. right? yes. keith morrison (voiceover): so debra's daughters, protective as usual, had no idea that their mother was a newlywed. the therapist debra had seen recommended she keep her relationship separate from her family, but of course, christmas was coming. and there were very important family traditions, like, the one where terra would have her own special time
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with the nieces and nephews of her extended family. so they made a deal. john would stay in a different room while terra had the kids to herself. debra newell: she was going to be able to enjoy the kids, and he had to sort of stay away. keith morrison (voiceover): didn't work out so well. keith morrison: what actually happened? well, he walked in with all the presents, and of course the kids congregate all around him. he went straight up to them. he gave them gifts-- like, being santa claus or something. i mean-- something like that--yeah --that sort of role. yeah. keith morrison (voiceover): did he do it on purpose? of course, thought terra. terra newell: that made me so upset. terra was very emotional. i thought, just suck it up. it's christmas. have fun. instead, she felt that, that man had come and usurped-- debra newell: yes. keith morrison: --something. yes. keith morrison (voiceover): he had not only stolen their christmas, thought the daughters, but both of them worried he was stealing their too trusting mother, taking advantage of her.
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she just let him drive her car, but why would he need to? wasn't he a prosperous doctor, an anesthesiologist? couldn't he afford a car? well, there was a reason, debra told them. that while john was in iraq, working with doctors without borders, he was robbed. his house, his clothes, his cars. he was working with insurance company of getting the claim, so i let him borrow my car. keith morrison (voiceover): john would get all his money back soon enough, said debra. didn't wash with terra. sounded, like, a shaggy dog tale. terra newell: at that time, i had lots of suspicions. keith morrison (voiceover): and that's when she and her sister decided to do some snooping. terra newell: she bought these trackers for cars, and she went and put one on my mom's tesla, so she found out where john was going. where was he going? he was going to multiple doctor's offices. keith morrison (voiceover): not so unusual perhaps, for an anesthesiologist, but the sisters noticed something.
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he was there for not that long of time. keith morrison (voiceover): not long enough to conduct any medical procedure, so what were those quick visits all about? seemed more like a man trying to get access to something, like, maybe drugs. it was just a hunch, but they went to debra with that, said, maybe, he's an addict. and debra refused to entertain their wild suspicions. keith morrison: this was more, like, stop interfering in my life. somewhat, yes, but i'd fallen in love. keith morrison (voiceover): debra's daughters were not about to be put off. christopher goffard: one of her daughters is particularly suspicious. she doesn't know why he wears surgical scrubs everywhere. it seems to be a costume, he's wearing. she thinks his fingernails are dirty, and this does not look to her, like, the hands of an actual doctor. keith morrison (voiceover): so they started digging, an investigation that would lead halfway across the country to the depths of evil,
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to an appointment with death. andrea canning (voiceover): coming up, troubling revelations about john-- they learned that he was not a doctor. andrea canning (voiceover): --discoveries that we're about to go from disturbing to terrifying. dennis luken: i said, he's very, very dangerous. andrea canning (voiceover): --when "dateline" continues.
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keith morrison (voiceover): terra newell and cash, her miniature australian shepherd, were inseparable. went to cosmetology school, but chose to work with four-legged clients instead, as a dog groomer. keith morrison: what do you like about dogs? terra newell: i really like that they're innocent. they don't have any evil in them, unless they were taught to have evil in them. keith morrison (voiceover): and terra was something of a student of evil. she was a fan of the tv show "the walking dead," zombies. she had a feeling that evil was lurking in the life of john meehan, so did her sister. they knew he was hiding something, said reporter christopher goffard, and they were determined to find out what it was. christopher goffard: they hired a private investigator to look into his past. keith morrison (voiceover): debra, meanwhile, was in love. the newlyweds had settled into a simple life on newport's balboa island. debra convinced she'd found the perfect man, even when sometimes things didn't quite make sense,
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like, the time she picked up the mail and saw a strange return address on a letter to her husband. keith morrison: you opened a letter to him? terra newell: yes, i did. i was so curios, and he was irate. that's fraud. i can't believe you did that. keith morrison (voiceover): but what had caught her attention was that letter was from an inmate at the orange county jail. keith morrison: did you read the letter? - i did. - what was in it? it was talking about how lucky he was that he had found love and that his life had turned around, and i'm thinking, life had turned around? hmm. hmm. debra newell: so i questioned him, and he said that he writes and sends care packages to people in prison. keith morrison (voiceover): sounded plausible enough to debra, but not to the sisters, especially not once their private investigator began reporting his findings on john meehan. christopher goffard: they learned that he was not a doctor. he was not an anesthesiologist. keith morrison (voiceover): john had worked as a nurse anesthetist, but not recently. and he had certainly not been in iraq with doctors without borders. instead, just before he met debra-- they learned that one of his recent addresses was the orange county jail. keith morrison (voiceover): john was not a sender of care packages. he had been an inmate. and then, in march 2015, four months after john moved in with debra, the sisters snooped around the balboa house, and jackpot. they found a stash of paperwork john had left there-- legal documents, police reports. terra newell: reports that he stalked other women and that other women had restraining orders on him. keith morrison (voiceover): john's papers outlined a long criminal history-- multiple arrests and incarcerations, drug convictions, alarming stuff. and debra was hesitant to believe this stuff. she believed john. keith morrison (voiceover): even after her daughters told her what they'd found, debra went straight to john, and he said, they had the wrong guy. debra newell: he said, there's going to be allegations that other john meehan's did. and i thought, well, you've got to a point. keith morrison (voiceover): john said, he was a victim of mistaken identity in some cases, and in others, he was framed. debra newell: and he said, i was set up. and i said, but you lied to me. he goes, because i knew you would never date me if you knew the truth. and i said, you're right. i wouldn't have. keith morrison (voiceover): thing was, john was so sad, seemed so sincerely contrite. he started crying and crying and crying.
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and he said, please forgive me, i love you so much, i could never live without you. keith morrison (voiceover): and it was true, that he made her feel like she was the only woman in the world. and when they were alone together, she felt truly loved. debra newell: and i'm thinking, ok, 90% of me doesn't believe him, but there is that 10% that maybe he's right. and i'm going to throw away the person that i fell in love with without trying to work it through. keith morrison (voiceover): so she accepted his explanations, and she forgave him. keith morrison: there was always a reason. yes. keith morrison (voiceover): in march 2015, soon after they found that stash of papers, terra and her sister discovered their mother was married to the guy. that was it. they were fed up, refused after that to speak to her. keith morrison: this was a very big, bad problem in your life. yeah. keith morrison (voiceover): just how big and how bad, they didn't know yet, but buried in that stash of john's papers
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was the name of someone who did, a detective way off in ohio. one of the sisters picked up the phone, called him. keith morrison: what did you think when you got her call? dennis luken: i said, he's very, very dangerous. you need to talk to your mother. you need to have her call me. i will tell her everything. keith morrison (voiceover): that is, the strange and disturbing tale that begins with her. andrea canning (voiceover): coming up, thousands of miles away, this woman also had questions about john. tonia bales: i started snooping, and i found everything. andrea canning (voiceover): and when she spoke up, that's when things got really scary, when "dateline" continues.
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hi, i'm richard lui with a news update. in new orleans, authorities say the driver that killed 14 people in and isis inspired attack plan to use a transmitter to detonate two explosive devices he placed nearby. neither of those devices detonated. at the white house, president biden honored 19 people with presidential medal of honor -- freedom rather. one of the recipients are hillary clinton him magic johnson. for now, back to dateline. suspicions about their mother's new husband, john meehan, had driven debra newell's daughters to become amateur detectives. so far, they had uncovered a hornet's nest of deception. not only had john lied about being a doctor, several women had restraining orders against him, and he had served time for multiple crimes. yet, debra was still standing by her man.
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now, a woman from john's past was about to tell an even more disturbing tale. was debra in danger? here's keith morrison with, "the women and dirty john." keith morrison (voiceover): who was this man, who'd stolen debra's heart, this john meehan? tonia bales had no idea either, when he stole her heart decades ago. he was playful. he was interested, engaging, smiley. keith morrison (voiceover): it was the late 1980s tonia was a young nurse anesthetist in dayton, ohio. john was in law school there, until he met her, that is, and said he had a kind of epiphany. tonia bales: he said, i'm not even sure i'll be happy being an attorney. i think i want to be a nurse anesthetist. and i think my jaw fell to the ground because i thought he was a second-year law student. keith morrison (voiceover): in fact, he wasn't. he had been kicked out. though, he didn't tell her that. officiant: all the days of my life all the days of my life.
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keith morrison (voiceover): so in her blissful ignorance, she married him, in her family's church in 1990-- officiant: mr. and mrs. john meehan. keith morrison (voiceover): --and she helped put him through nursing school. they had two daughters, before things stopped adding up. tonia bales: and i found out that he was having an affair. keith morrison (voiceover): tonia wondered, what else did she not know about her soon-to-be ex-husband? like, why did he refuse to invite his family to their wedding? why not let her even meet them? she decided to call his mother. tonia bales: i said, "delores, this is tonia. i'm married to your son john. and the phone was quiet for a minute, and she said, oh, tonia, i knew you'd call me someday. wow. tonia bales: so then, of course, my heart was racing and my knees were shaking, just to make the phone call. and then, she just unloaded on me, all the details of trouble in the past. keith morrison (voiceover): according to his own mother, john had been cheating and stealing and lying for years, even lied to tonia about his age--
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lopped off five years. oh, and he had been convicted of cocaine trafficking. she said, "is he still using drugs?" and i said, "what?" keith morrison (voiceover): so in something like shock, tonia became a sleuth. who was this man? tonia bales: i started snooping, and i found everything. it was under my nose all the time. keith morrison (voiceover): evidence of a criminal double life and something else. a cedar box full of fentanyl and versed and some of the things that aren't controlled substances. keith morrison (voiceover): she started watching that cedar box. tonia bales: and things did come and go. so now, i thought-- it's a stash. --it's a stash-- yeah. keith morrison (voiceover): was he using his position as a nurse to steal drugs? keith morrison: like, getting a ticket to be in the candy store all day long. tonia bales: right. i mean, it's, like, putting an alcoholic as a bartender. keith morrison (voiceover): she told the authorities, she had to. it was the law.
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he had to be stopped. he was going to hurt patients. keith morrison (voiceover): and on a dime. tonia bales: he turned on me. he flipped, like, a switch. keith morrison (voiceover): now, the man she once thought she knew turned scary, threatening. she began recording their phone conversations. he was arrested for making threats against tonia in june 2001, was convicted of menacing, and put on probation. keith morrison: he wasn't the man she thought he was. that's exactly right. there was another version of john.
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keith morrison (voiceover): dennis luken was a police detective back then. he investigated the source of those drugs tonia found in the cedar box. he started at john's house and found a gun, illegal because john was on probation. so he was arrested again and sent to jail. when he went to montgomery county jail, i called a supervisor. i said, you've got an individual there, john meehan, and he's going to try to con you out of drugs. and he says, he already has. he claimed he fell out of the top bunk, and he got pain medication. you're dealing with an incorrigible person here. dennis luken: yes, sir. you're dealing with an addict, a very smart, articulate addict. keith morrison (voiceover): eventually, thanks to luken, john did jail time for stealing drugs in ohio and michigan, and tonia felt guilty, wondering if she'd missed warning signs. wondered, what else john might have hidden from her? never thought about the clue way back at the beginning on her wedding video.
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tonia bales: and the groomsmen, who'd had some drinks and had their arms around each other, and they're talking about how they met him. we're here to celebrate john. tonia bales: one of the groomsmen said-- john meehan's nickname is "filthy jon meehan." keith morrison (voiceover): filthy john over the years became dirty john, and the nickname stuck. keith morrison: you found out later on, there was a story to that. tonia bales: yes. he was basically conning little old women out of money for jobs that he didn't do, and also that he had a way with the ladies. keith morrison (voiceover): luken discovered darker secrets, as well. john supplied the opioids that killed his own addicted brother. he was alone with his sick father when the old man died rather suddenly. john wasn't charged in those cases, but there were others, said luken. and as the years went on, he developed a certain criminal specialty. he would go on dating websites. he would find women that usually
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had good financial backing. he always told people he was a doctor. he seemed, like, an ideal catch, i suppose-- dennis luken: yes. --for a lot of these women. he was a true con man. he'd take their money, and when they would find out about him, john would threaten them. he would terrorize them. keith morrison (voiceover): how bad was he? dennis luken: john was the most dangerous, treacherous, manipulative, deceitful criminal that i'd investigated in 40 years of law enforcement. keith morrison (voiceover): once terra learned about john's past, she was consumed with worry. i was very distraught at the time. keith morrison (voiceover): because this dangerous man was now married to a very successful businesswoman, who happened to be terra's mother. he couldn't get enough of me. that's a good feeling. it is. the trickery of love. yes. keith morrison (voiceover): trickery, but something far worse than that was coming soon.
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andrea canning (voiceover): coming up, one of debra's daughters is about to make an ominous discovery. she was in a panic. she said, "i saw john," and i said, "where?" she goes, "outside in a car." andrea canning (voiceover): are this terrified family's worst fears about to come true? when "dateline" continues. speaker: who's coming in the driveway? speaker: dad. dad, we missed you.
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and when her daughter spoke with the detective, who'd been investigating john meehan for years. i said, this guy is bad news. you need to get your mother away from him. keith morrison (voiceover): debra had bought a house near las vegas, where john could live away from her family. she split her time between there and orange county, but the daughters went into rescue mode. one thing they found especially alarming was yet another police report about dirty john. this one from just two years earlier and much closer to home. the police in laguna beach had arrested john meehan for stalking a woman, and they discovered he'd rented an office space in which they found zip ties, cyanide, and two loaded guns. keith morrison: what did all that say to you? terra newell: he might be a killer, and she has to get out of this. has to. has to. keith morrison (voiceover): john had an explanation, of course, even for that cyanide. christopher goffard: he says, he has multiple sclerosis, and that he kept the capsules around in case
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he needed to kill himself if it got too painful for him. keith morrison (voiceover): this time, however, john's story didn't ring true, not even to debra. he still continued to treat me incredibly well, but he tried to isolate me from everyone. especially your family. especially my family. keith morrison (voiceover): and now, chastened and afraid, she reconciled with her daughters and read everything they had uncovered about john meehan's past. keith morrison: i assume, by this time, you didn't feel in love with him anymore. no. what did you feel? confusion. i thought, how could this man fake it to this degree? did he love me, or was this all a game? and i realized, i was his newest victim. keith morrison (voiceover): in april 2016, 16 months after marrying john meehan, she fled from the home they shared in vegas, back to orange county. and from a safe distance, she filed for an annulment. and soon discovered just, as tonia bales
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had discovered years before, that john could turn on a dime. he started by trying to ruin her reputation, sent weird inappropriate emails to her colleagues, her clients. keith morrison: did he send photographs of you to anybody? he sent nude photos-- yeah. that's a nightmare for any woman to be in. debra newell: oh, yeah. there are so many things that he did, but one of them-- he burnt my car. he took it, stole it, and then set it on fire. did he threaten you physically? yes, but not in a direct way. he would say, "boo, i know where you are. it's not going to be for long." keith morrison (voiceover): the same way he threatened tonia. i went into hiding. i bought a dark wig, changed my clothes, got a rental car, stayed in different hotels. i went everywhere that he wouldn't suspect. how long did that go on?
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six months. wow. yeah. keith morrison (voiceover): now, stories john had told her before she left played over and over in debra's worried mind, disturbing stories. he'd told similar ones to tonia years before, stories about the mafia. tonia bales: if they want to get back at you, say you took money from them or something, they don't kill you. they kill someone you love because then you live in pain the rest of your life, knowing that your actions caused the death of a loved one, and now you don't have them. i learned that from him. keith morrison (voiceover): and the man debra once loved, she now feared. that had to be a very, very strange feeling. very much, yes. scared for my life. keith morrison (voiceover): and not just her own life. terra newell: i was afraid he would kill my mom, i was also afraid he would kill me or my sister or someone. keith morrison (voiceover): after all, they'd ruined all his plans. in the summer of 2016, debra began staying in secret with her other daughter,
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hoping she was safe there. and then, it was the night of august 19. debra newell: she came home, and she was in a panic. she said, "i saw john, i saw john." and i said, "where?" she goes, "outside in a car." keith morrison (voiceover): watching them? he was supposed to be in las vegas. why was he back in orange county? she didn't have to wait long to find out. andrea canning (voiceover): coming up, the evil that had been gathering for almost two years explodes into broad daylight-- he's planned this out. this was a revenge killing. andrea canning (voiceover): --and the shattering end that would stun even the police, when "dateline" continues. type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight.
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powering possibilities™. comcast business. welcome back. debra newell had finally accepted the unsettling reality, that her husband john meehan was a dangerous con man. she had filed for an annulment and was now in hiding, fearing for her life and the lives of her children. then, her daughter saw him lurking outside their home. he came prepared, but this story had a twist in store. here's keith morrison with the conclusion of, "the women and dirty john." keith morrison (voiceover): august 20, 2016, 5:00 pm. a 14-year-old named skylar sepulveda was returning home from her junior lifeguard training,
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when she heard a woman screaming out in the parking lot of her newport beach apartment building. i've never heard anybody else scream like that before. and a lot of people would just dive under the covers, and say, i hope that stops. yeah. once i found out what was going on, i knew what i had to do. keith morrison (voiceover): she raced to the parking lot. her mother called 911. skylar reached the parking lot, saw a man and a woman she didn't know. skylar sepulveda: as i was running, i could see everything that was going on. so i saw him actually stab her. keith morrison (voiceover): that woman being stabbed was terra, who, with her dog cash, had just stepped out of her car to find someone waiting-- dirty john. terra newell: he said, "do you remember me?" he looked me right in the eyes. keith morrison (voiceover): there was no pause, no time to think. terra, sitting here talking about it, was still struggling with what happened, still visibly keeping an emotional distance, as if it happened to somebody else. he was trying to push me into the car. he actually had the trunk wide open. trunk, so he wanted you in the trunk of his car. yes. keith morrison (voiceover): john was 6' 2", a foot taller than terra. as he pushed her, he began hitting her with a bag, something hard in it. it just felt, like, i was getting punched over and over, again. keith morrison (voiceover): but it wasn't that. there was a knife in the bag, cutting her, slicing into her. terra newell: and i put my arm up with my purse above my heart, and i tried to get away from him. and i was screaming, he put his hand over my mouth, and i bit as hard as i could. keith morrison (voiceover): cash, the dog, barked furiously, bit into john's ankle. terra newell: i got thrown down onto the ground somehow, and i was just pedal kicking him, trying to block the knife when he's stabbing me. and i kicked the knife out of his hand, and it landed on my right-hand side.
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keith morrison (voiceover): and then, full of adrenaline, she did something astonishing. terra newell: i picked up the knife, and i started just wailing on him and stabbing him. and i pushed him down. i stabbed him at the top of his head and then the last time was in the eyeball. keith morrison: did you aim for that? i did. that's the zombie kill. keith morrison (voiceover): that show, "the walking dead," her education for fighting evil. keith morrison: what did you understand from watching that show, about how you deal with zombies? you have to kill them in the head. like, you have to kill their brain. keith morrison (voiceover): the police arrived. their dash cam video picked up skylar, the junior lifeguard, leading a very shaken terra to the curb. right down here to the bottom, ok. keith morrison (voiceover): where, still terrified, she called her mother. she said, mom, i just killed your husband, i'm so sorry, and i'm thinking, what? keith morrison (voiceover): debra raced over there. debra newell: you could see police cars blocking it off, fire engines. it was crazy. they wouldn't let you in. they said it was a crime scene. keith morrison (voiceover): john meehan never regained consciousness, and four days later, dirty john was dead. right after the attack, newport beach detective rick henry found john's killer terra at the hospital, her dog still guarding her. and she told me the whole story. the whole story is pretty complicated mess. yes. keith morrison (voiceover): as doctors treated terra's wounds, detective henry began investigating, and the whole family waited and worried. so what were you afraid of? well, i didn't know if they would, for sure, know that it was him attacking her, and she-- it was self-defense. so you were afraid that they might charge her with something. yes. keith morrison (voiceover): there's a process the law must follow, careful consideration. august became september, october, november. debra didn't know it, but the detective had discovered something in the trunk of john's car. matt murphy: we found a backpack with numerous other knives inside. we found zip ties. we found duct tape. we found his passport. it took some organization. it took thinking. he's planned this out. this was a revenge killing.
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man: when you look out there. keith morrison (voiceover): orange county deputy district attorney matt murphy believed the evidence spoke for itself. matt murphy: there's an image of this young woman in the hospital with her dog sitting on her bed. talk about a picture saying thousand words. it screams out that this is an innocent woman who came very close to being murdered by a really bad guy and fought bravely and survived. keith morrison (voiceover): the prosecutor said it was an easy decision. this was self-defense, case closed. did a feeling come with that? a sense of relief that it's finally over. keith morrison (voiceover): john meehan's ex-wife tonia bales was working when she got the news. do you remember that moment? oh, yeah. it made me tremble. i was in the middle of the case, and i just-- it popped up on the screen, as a notification-- john was killed. by the time i took the patient out of the room, i was in tears. yeah. i wasn't in tears because he died. i was in tears because i had to tell his children, and that made me very sad, to have to tell them. it was awful. keith morrison (voiceover): her daughters, 16 and 21 at the time, said they regretted not being able to show him how well they turned out in spite of him. and now? debra still struggles with guilt. debra newell: i would have never, ever in my entire life put my kids in fear or put them in danger. that was the last thing on my mind, is that he would be going after one of my kids. you feel lucky in a way? oh, i feel very lucky. i believe, terra saved many lives-- saved my life, saved many other victims. so what goes through your mind-- keith morrison (voiceover): terra was diagnosed with ptsd. she still has some healing to do, but she returned with us to that parking lot. i don't want to poke and prod too much, but what happens inside your stomach when you're here? i just get a lot of anxiety. i just have flashbacks of me running down the ramp and just, like, going to the cement. keith morrison (voiceover): she gamely showed us the spot where she looked death in the eye and struck back. this wasn't an easy thing to do. terra newell: i'm just taking it all in right now. uh-huh. i think, you're a tough cookie, right? yeah, that's what a lot of people say.
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i guess so. keith morrison (voiceover): and dirty john meehan is an ever more distant memory now. his trail of victims safe from his terror, thanks to a young woman and a little dog, who fought for her life and won. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm andrea canning. thanks for watching. [music playing] hello, i'm andrea canning, and this is "dateline." maria was a very loving person. she had a heart of gold. what happened to this woman?
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