yeah. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): kelly said all of this changed her view of family and forgiveness. kelly connell: about one of the most painful lessons i've ever learned. josh mankiewicz: which is? make up. make up. don't go to bed mad. [chuckles] tell people you love them. i learned the hard way you don't get a-- can't expect the next day. josh mankiewicz (voiceover): for all those lessons learned, the connells suffered another blow in 2023. 10 years after joey and olga were murdered, kelly died of a drug overdose, another piece missing from a family that learned once again about love and loss. [theme music] i'm andrea canning, and this is "dateline."for ? andrea canning: a dramatic chapter in a story of two mothers fighting for their sons--

he knows, he hurt my son bad. i believed every word my son said, and i still do to this day. andrea canning: --a missing teen found dead. jody o'guinn: his body was laying in a little bit of a clearing. we want answers. we want answers. andrea canning: was it murder-- i said, who beat my baby? andrea canning: --or was it something else? penny bethune: how do you get in a scuffle with somebody and the next thing you know, you're being charged with murder? andrea canning: a trial-- penny bethune: i slowly watch my son die every day. andrea canning: --heartbreak-- nobody wins. andrea canning: --and a twist that stunned everyone. it was the first time i've ever had this happen. we had to stop and think, whether we heard it right. hello, and welcome to "dateline." it's been said, there is nothing more powerful than a mother's love for her child and no greater pain than losing a child.

both forces collided in a small midwestern town when a mysterious death sparked a search for justice. it also divided a community and turned strangers into allies. the outcome left both sides reeling. here's dennis murphy with, "at the edge of town." dennis murphy: hard by the four lane and yards from the chicken wing place is an unlikely, scrap of wilderness in a southern illinois town, a thicket of vines and brambles, acres of thorns that tear at the flesh. for years, people just sped by without a second look, but something terrible happened there one cold night in the winter of 2014 that brought a stranger to town. a mother looking for answers about her son. lovely varughese: i knew one thing, i wasn't going to stop. no matter how painful the truth turned out to be. does it hurt you to be back here? yes. dennis murphy: her heartbreak launched

another mother's fight-- i wanted to save my son. i'm a fighter. i'm a mom. dennis murphy: --and divided an entire community. monica zukas: no matter who you are, no matter where you came from, right is right and wrong is wrong. dennis murphy: few people know this part of southern illinois better than monica zukas. this mother of two children has spent most of her life in these parts. i'd say, we're the average small town america. who runs it? monica zukas: that's a hard question. until something goes wrong, we all do. welcome to "reality check with monica zukas." i hope-- dennis murphy: and for years, she hosted a friday night radio show called "reality check." did you touch scandal or city hall politics? oh, yeah. oh, yeah. i like to push the envelope a little bit. dennis murphy: so it wasn't unusual for people to send her tips about stories to watch.

that's how this all began, in february 2014. monica zukas: i had a random facebook message from somebody i'd never heard of, and it said, have you heard about this? and it was a link to a flyer for a missing person. dennis murphy: 19-year-old pravin varughese-- a college sophomore at southern illinois university, in carbondale, last seen leaving a house party, stepping out into the bitter cold. monica zukas: and i was, like, where's this kid at? what caught your interest? why didn't you think, maybe, he'd taken an early spring break and gone to baja? the young man that contacted me was in distress. he said, this is abnormal. he would not do this. something's wrong. dennis murphy: monica learned that pravin came from chicago-- a six-hour drive away. he was the adored middle child of two first generation immigrants from india. his dad was a respiratory therapist, his mom, lovely, a nurse. thursday morning, i woke up with this awful feeling of

something heavy in my chest. dennis murphy: when the phone rang that night, lovely expected to hear pravin's voice, he called home most evenings, but it wasn't her son. it was a police officer. lovely varughese: and he said, well, your son is reported missing by his cousin. i just screamed. everything changed. that moment, everything changed. dennis murphy: so lovely and her husband drove to carbondale and met their daughter, priya, at pravin's student apartment. there was no sign of their boy. priya varughese: my parents were just, so mentally out of it, and it was just so hard. i just, felt like i had to be the one to step up because that's my brother. i wanted to find him. more than anything in the world, i just wanted him back. dennis murphy: priya organized busloads of volunteers who showed up from chicago to help the family search. they handed out flyers, posted them on telephone poles, and in gas stations, desperate for clues. priya varughese: we had no idea what happened to pravin at that point.

dennis murphy: police were searching, too. jody o'guinn is the former police chief. we had 14 canines to help search the areas for him. we had two helicopters up. we had a state police plane. so you weren't blowing this thing off. - no, not at all. - and then, the road ran out. you didn't know where he was, what had happened. did not. did not know where he was. dennis murphy: lovely's family asked the public for help. they offered $15,000 in reward money. this is really the start of a very long journey for you. yes. dennis murphy: a journey that began as a search for her son, but soon became something else-- a search for truth and kindness and finally, justice. andrea canning: coming up-- jody o'guinn: his statement was, pravin seemed to be intoxicated and was unable to tell where it was that he was going. andrea canning: --a first clue from the last person to see pravin alive-- jody o'guinn: now, we have an area to look for him. andrea canning: --but what they discover will tear two families apart--

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powering five years of savings. powering possibilities. comcast business. >> already taken. >> get 20% off and free. >> shipping on your first order. >> at pets.com. >> breaking news. a fast moving. >> disaster in california. >> breaking news israel and hamas will enter a cease fire. >> in the. nation's capital. >> philadelphia. >> el paso. >> the palisades. >> from msnbc. >> world headquarters. >> each week on my podcast, i'm joined by uniquely qualified guests who help me take a big picture look at the issues like representative jasmine crockett, late night host seth meyers, former attorney general eric holder, and many more. why is holder, and many more. why is this happening? dennis murphy: lovely gazed out a hotel window and waited for news of her missing son. memories crowded out the quiet. pravin, her chatty, energetic child, was always in motion from the time he was little-- singing-- [inaudible singing]

--dancing, running. he'd made varsity on his high school track team. lovely varughese: his cross-country coach said, i don't know any kid that can run that fast and talk and crack jokes. dennis murphy: personality, who are we talking about? just goofy and funny, always joking and always smiling. never held a grudge, ever. dennis murphy: but his real dream, since he was a little boy, was to become an fbi agent. the criminal justice program at southern illinois university was well regarded, and there was something else the university was known for. when we looked at the college, my husband said, that's a party college. party, party boys, huh? and then, he said, which college is not a party college? dennis murphy: a party was the last place pravin had been seen. did this kid fit into that party crowd, from what you could tell? we had a lot of his friends that told us that he did party with them on a regular basis.

drink until he got sloppy or how did they characterize him? well, he did consume alcohol, and there were times that they had seen him drunk. dennis murphy: including, some witnesses told police, at the party on the night he disappeared. jody o'guinn: he was kind of creating somewhat of a little bit of a disturbance there and was asked to leave. dennis murphy: pravin's friends expected him to meet up with them at a bar a few blocks away, but he never showed. they didn't see him the next day or the day after that. finally, four days after he was reported missing, someone came forward with a tip. pravin, it seemed, had scored a ride after the party. cops tracked down the driver. jody o'guinn: his statement was, pravin seemed to be intoxicated and was unable to tell where it was that he was going. dennis murphy: there had been a fight, and the driver said pravin had run into the woods at the edge of town. jody o'guinn: well, now, we have an area to look for him. dennis murphy: teams fanned out to search. it didn't take long. jody o'guinn: his body was laying in a little bit of a clearing. he didn't have a shirt on.

he had a cell phone nearby. temperature had been 14 degrees- 14 degrees. dennis murphy: --overnight? yes. dennis murphy: it looked as, though, pravin had frozen to death in the woods. so this is the worst possible news, of course, for the family. yes. dennis murphy: a police officer showed up at lovely's hotel room door. he said, we found pravin, and i said, is he alive? he said, no. and it turned out, he was found in some rough woods, not all that far from the window of your motel. 400 yards from the motel. the while-- all those you were wondering, where he was. i think, that's always the hardest part for me, just thinking that he was alone, and there wasn't anyone by his side to tell them that we love him, and he just had to die alone in the middle of nowhere in the woods. dennis murphy: and she wasn't just sad. she was angry. priya thought she could hear the police judging her brother.

they said he was too drunk to figure out where he was. college kid, couldn't handle a little liquor, and ended up dead. mm-hmm. that's what they said. dennis murphy: the police chief held a news conference that same afternoon, seen here on the local cbs affiliate. the difficult terrain and low temperatures are believed to have contributed to pravin's difficulty finding his way out of the wooded area. dennis murphy: monica zukas, who had been following the story, watched the presser at a friend's house. no foul play is suspected at this time. and i thought, this just doesn't sound right, though? dennis murphy: she was struck by the sight of pravin's mother on tv. lovely had gone to the scene where her son died. monica zukas: when i first saw his mom, she broke my heart. and i remember, thinking, she's obviously, not from southern illinois. she's a stranger in a strange land. monica zukas: she does not know this town. i have so many questions, and i'm from here. dennis murphy: monica didn't know it, but lovely had questions, too. when she got back to chicago, the funeral director

handling pravin's body had disturbing news for her. lovely varughese: he said, lovely, you are a nurse, right? i said, yes. he said, you need to see him. this is not a frostbitten body. dennis murphy: lovely had seen several dead bodies during her career as a nurse, but she never expected to see her own son's. she was shocked by what she saw-- a massive bruise on pravin's forehead and other bruises on his thigh. his lip was busted up. if a civilian had seen the body, would they have said, i see an injury? yes. dennis murphy: but lovely wanted an expert opinion so she hired her own pathologist, dr. ben margolis, to examine pravin's body. ben margolis: this was someone who had a violent encounter. dennis murphy: dr. margolis noted injuries lovely hadn't seen, including a bruise on pravin's arm that went all the way to the bone, possibly a defensive injury. theoretically, if you're stumbling around the woods

in the dark and you trip and you hit a rock, could that cause that kind of injury? that's really not enough. so the more you became familiar with the body you're looking at, did you think, this boy suffered a terrible beating, or i don't know what caused this? if the body was found the way it looked on a city street, you would think that somebody hurt him. dennis murphy: but who? lovely was determined to find out. and she'll have help. lovely forms a powerful bond with the radio host obsessed with her son's case. can they solve this mystery together? coming up-- monica zukas: she was completely shattered. she just said, this isn't my kid. something's wrong. i'm like, boy, there is another mother that's asking the same questions that i have. andrea canning: --two mothers united in a common cause-- monica zukas: lovely said from the beginning, i don't want revenge. i just want answers. andrea canning: --when "dateline" continues.

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blunt force trauma. yes. dennis murphy: lovely wasn't alone in her suspicions. monica zukas: we've had a situation in southern illinois that has been kind of disturbing. dennis murphy: the same weekend pravin's family and friends gathered for his funeral in chicago, monica zukas was on the radio 300 miles away, asking questions about his death. monica zukas: we have, what we believe to be, a healthy 19-year-old found dead in the woods. dennis murphy: during her show, a mourner, who'd been at pravin's open casket wake, sent monica a text. monica zukas: i just got a text message from a dear friend of pravin. "i went to pravin's visitation. his face looks like he was beat bad." dennis murphy: someone told lovely about monica's show. lovely varughese: when i was listening to her, i'm, like, boy, there is another mother that's asking the same questions that i have. dennis murphy: the two women started talking on the phone every day. lovely varughese: i just, felt an automatic connection with her, and i thought, i can tell her anything.

dennis murphy: lovely confided in monica, how hurt she was by all the talk of pravin drinking. she was completely shattered. she just said, this isn't my kid. something's wrong. dennis murphy: pravin's cousin, ashley, had already given lovely his version of events. was pravin drinking that night? he was. was he drinking too much? no. dennis murphy: and what of those reports of pravin's rowdy behavior? ashley: that's just kind of how pravin is, like, in general. [inaudible yelling] dennis murphy: friends and fa have posted videos of his boisterous behavior, but if you didn't know him. yeah, like, he's kind of, like, energetic. you know what i mean? dennis murphy: but it was hard for lovely not to wonder, if ashley was just telling her what she wanted to hear, until monica interviewed three other students on her radio show who were at the party that night. monica zukas: this is our second show we've done on this particular issue. dennis murphy: they explained that, from what they'd seen, pravin hadn't been drinking all that much. witness: he was standing, talking to me

like i would talk to anybody else. it wasn't like he was leaning on me or, like, couldn't talk or think straight. dennis murphy: so if pravin wasn't that drunk, lovely wondered, how had he ended up lost in the woods? police had found his body hundreds of yards from the road. you can see them try to retrace his steps in this video. lovely walked the route, too. what's it like? very thick and full of thorns and vines. you have to kind of spread it. dennis murphy: there was barbed wire, too, fencing off some of the woods from the highway. and that's where they found a piece of his clothing. yep, this is where. dennis murphy: a piece of pravin's t-shirt snagged on one of the barbs. so the lower strand has got a piece of his clothing. yeah. dennis murphy: lovely thought that the rough terrain, the barbed wire made it unlikely pravin would have wandered aimlessly into the woods and gotten lost. if he had been lost, why hadn't he just headed towards the cars or used his phone to call for help? and where was the phone?

his phone was found just, right to his right side. dennis murphy: lovely was more convinced than ever, that pravin's death was the result of foul play, which is why she was so surprised when, six weeks after pravin's death, the official autopsy report came back and confirmed, what police had originally said. pravin had died of hypothermia. the report did note some abrasions on his body, but said there was no significant trauma. so one report doesn't have so much as needing a band-aid, the other's got blunt force trauma. yes. that's one of the times that i thought, i'm in the twilight zone. dennis murphy: but there was something else in that autopsy report, something big. no alcohol had been found in pravin's blood. didn't that undermine the theory that pravin had gotten lost because he was drunk? it certainly caught the attention of the police pathologist who wrote, "strangely, tox is negative. no reason for pravin's bizarre behavior and hiding in the woods." did that say something about your attitude

towards the investigation because it threw out your theory, that he was drunk? well, you know-- dennis murphy: surprisingly, he's not drunk. right. it didn't change, in my mind, didn't change the direction of the investigation, but it was definitely, a surprise, that there wasn't more of an alcohol level in his toxicology. dennis murphy: police had a theory, though. maybe, pravin had metabolized the alcohol as he lay dying in the woods. lovely didn't buy it. she went back to carbondale and staged a protest in the town square. we will not rest until we find the truth. dennis murphy: it was the first time she and monica met in person. monica zukas: and we were just, hugging crying, hugging, crying. yeah. dennis murphy: they started planning their next move. monica zukas: lovely said from the beginning, i don't want revenge. i just want answers, and if the answers are that somebody hurt my baby, i want justice. dennis murphy: over the next few months, lovely and her supporters organized

protests and press conferences demanding a new investigation. we are seeking justice that every human being deserves. dennis murphy: and a year passed. lovely went to prey in the woods where pravin's body had been found, and she waited, and then, suddenly. he releases a report. he didn't call us. he gave it to the press. dennis murphy: it turned out, the local prosecutor had been investigating behind the scenes. he had consulted new pathologists and convened a grand jury. in his report, he wrote, the evidence showed, "pravin's death was an accident caused by intoxication, frigid weather, and poor judgment." he said pravin was drunk, intoxicated, highly intoxicated. but what did the science say? he didn't mention that the tox was negative. dennis murphy: lovely felt as, though, pravin's story wasn't being heard, but monica had an idea about how to turn up the volume. dennis murphy: monica, why did you invest so much of your personal capital for a young man you didn't know,

for a mother you didn't know? i know. it sounds cheesy, and it sounds cliche, but i'm a mother, and there's nothing we won't do for our kids. lovely and monica doubled down on their search for answers, an inch closer to the truth. coming up, one possible answer to what happened that night-- andrea canning: --and another mother tells her side of the story-- he immediately went to his father and they went and took care of things. andrea canning: --when "dateline" continues. hey, i just got a text from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor? sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right? sadly, not anymore. wow. so sudden. um, we're not about to have

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>> that's a duck. >> start your will. >> at trust and wilcom now and make it count. >> hi, i'm richard lui with some breaking news. hamas today, just within the last hour, releasing four israeli hostages karina arroyave, daniella gilboa, naama levy and lira alba are soldiers

who were taken hostage at their base, nahal oz. the hostages were initially met by the red cross in gaza and just moments ago, crossing into israel, meeting idf, meaning the idf. they will now reunite with their families in the southern part of the country. for now, back to the country. for now, back to dateline. welcome back to "dateline." i'm andrea canning. authorities concluded that pravin varughese's death was an accident, saying he was drunk, got lost in the woods, and froze to death, but an autopsy found no alcohol in his blood, and pravin's mother, lovely, was convinced, there had to be another explanation. then, she discovered, police had not shared a key detail about the night pravin disappeared. here's dennis murphy with "at the edge of town." dennis murphy: in the town where her son had lost his life, tiny, soft-spoken lovely was finding her voice.

lovely varughese: i am not trying to blame anyone or point fingers. we just demand answers. dennis murphy: the investigation appeared to be over, but lovely refused to give up. lovely varughese: this is not over. monica zukas: no, this is not over. dennis murphy: she had filed a lawsuit against the city of carbondale and its police chief, accusing them of negligence. 12 days after the boy's family files a lawsuit against you, you're fired. is that correct? - yes. it was actually over the weekend. so 30 years of law enforcement work goes up in smoke. jody o'guinn: yes, pretty much, gutted my career. dennis murphy: the city manager said his dismissal was a confidential matter that had nothing to do with any litigation, but the former chief believes, he was the scapegoat of a city under siege from pravin's family. did you think it was a good investigation, what you'd done to that point? i did. i did think it was a good investigation. i think, there were a lot of conscientious people that were working hard. dennis murphy: and there was one other person lovely sued. remember, a driver had given pravin a ride that night.

he was the last person known to have seen pravin alive. what's the character of this kid? what did you learn about him? monica zukas: at face value, typical southern illinois guy, middle class family. dennis murphy: his name was gaege bethune. just like pravin, gaege was 19 years old. just like lovely, his mom, penny, was also a nurse. penny bethune: gaege was just very laid back, good kid, had a lot of dreams and hopes. dennis murphy: penny says, gaege had felt sorry for pravin walking by in the bitter cold. didn't have a coat on and asked gaege a ride so gaege said, yes. dennis murphy: she says gaege had no idea pravin was missing, until days later, when he saw story about it on tv. he immediately went to his father, and they went and took care of things. dennis murphy: gaege told police, he was upset when he heard pravin was missing.

dennis murphy: he seemed eager to tell detectives everything he knew. dennis murphy: after he got in his truck, gaege said pravin didn't seem to have a clue as to where he was going. they drove around in circles for 30 minutes. he said they didn't really talk that much. dennis murphy: gaege said the talk of drugs made him nervous. he wanted to get home. dennis murphy: gaege said he immediately pulled over, and that's when he said things got ugly. it. and then i hit him and we it. and then i hit him and we rolled down the

dennis murphy: maybe, that would explain the bruise on pravin's forehead. dennis murphy: at that moment, he said a state trooper had arrived at the scene, and pravin had dashed into the woods. really? that was something easy for police to verify, and they did. here's the dash cam video. there's no audio, but you can see gaege walking into shot, and the trooper shining his light into the woods looking for someone. the trooper told gaege to head on home before leaving himself. police hadn't told the family about the trooper, but monica did, after getting a tip. it just haunts me because i think my brother could have been alive at that time. dennis murphy: monica was getting tips about that roadside fight, too. monica zukas: our kids are talking over here. they're saying that this driver beat this kid up.

dennis murphy: and pravin's family thought, they had proof pravin had been scared. a friend of his had been on the phone with him when the incident occurred and told the family what she'd heard. she said, it just sounded like someone was running, and he said, "don't hang up." dennis murphy: "don't hang up." could that have been a call for help? lovely was at her wit's end, imagining her son's last hours in the woods, and frustrated that the case was going nowhere. and then, she got a surprising break because the prosecutor did something lovely never expected. he asked the judge to appoint a special prosecutor to take a fresh look at the case. is this credit to the guy-- i know, you're not very fond of him as an individual-- but that he did this thing? i guess. he was, i believe, it's god pushing him to do that because the truth still needed to come out. dennis murphy: lovely dropped her lawsuit against the city

and the police chief and waited to see what would happen, but half a year went by. i said, that's it. we're going to the city council meeting, and i'm going to get 8 by 10 pictures of pravin's injuries, and i'm going to put it in their face. any other citizens' comments? yes, ma'am. i took a six-hour train ride to be here today, and i request your kind attention to me. she didn't damn them to hell. she didn't cuss them out. she didn't threaten them. she said, please, i just want answers and common courtesy. dennis murphy: then, it was monica's turn. i just want to show you a few images of what we're being told here are not injuries. dennis murphy: she handed out photos of pravin's injuries. monica zukas: one lady excused herself was, like, crying, and then this guy was, like, crying, and i thought, oh, my god. dennis murphy: their presentation seemed to have an impact. a few weeks later, city officials handed over a copy of the case file. lovely and monica couldn't believe

what they found inside. andrea canning: coming up-- it's such a relief. andrea canning: --news welcomed by one mother that stuns another-- i fall to pieces. andrea canning: --when "dateline" continues. we're in a limestone cave, letting extreme residue build up to put finish jet dry to the test. dishwashers are designed to use jet dry to defend against tough residues for a practically spotless shine. mobile slots. game that. always gives you. >> more download. >> jackpot party. >> for free and get. >> a 45. >> million. >> million. >> coin to my son, i've never been the cool dad. i always wanted to know what he's up to online. but with tiktok's privacy settings being on by default for teens under 16, accounts are set to private. he cannot send or receive dm's, and only his friends can comment.

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dennis murphy: --it will devour her? because that's my brother, i want anything and everything done for him to get justice so we have to fight. dennis murphy: for lovely, that no longer meant protests or speeches. it meant hours studying the police case file. monica traveled to chicago to help her. monica zukas: we got dry erase boards. we want to know which officers were here, what they'd do, who saw what, what'd he say in his report, does it match with his? like, we were-- we were pretty awesome. and visitors were not welcome to your war room, huh? don't touch our stuff. dennis murphy: they started to question just, how cooperative gaege had really been with the police. remember, he'd said how badly he felt about pravin's death-- dennis murphy: --but it turns out, gaege hadn't come forward to the cops of his own accord. it was only after his cousin told police about him that he went to see them. if he was in a fight with pravin and it was completely innocent,

why wouldn't he have called immediately and said, oh, my god, i got in a fight with that guy. let me show you right where it happened. dennis murphy: and here's what they learned from the case file. gaege hadn't talked to law enforcement once or twice. he talked to them three times, and each story was slightly different. dennis murphy: his first story was to the state trooper. gaege told him, he'd picked up a black hitchhiker walking along route 13. he said the hitchhiker tried to rob him and then ran off into the woods. in a follow-up interview, gaege admitted to the cops that, that was a lie. dennis murphy: and gaege said there was something else he'd lied to the cops about before bumping into pravin he'd been at a party trying to score some drugs. dennis murphy: but hadn't he said, pravin was the one looking for cocaine? the things that we are seeing in here, i'm speechless. dennis murphy: as lovely and monica talked

about the case live on facebook, gaege's mom, penny, watched with dread. i felt guilty. why would you feel guilty? penny bethune: because i didn't do enough to try to save my son, maybe? i didn't speak out enough. maybe, i should have. dennis murphy: penny said her son was no angel. she knew that he drank, sometimes. dennis murphy: i don't hear you making him saint gaege here, penny. you're not saying, they're never going to hear a bad thing about my kid. i'm a realistic mother. no child is perfect. so there could have been a little beer in the car. i wouldn't be shocked. i'm not, you know. dennis murphy: gaege, she says, was just like any other teenager. that explained his lies to police, too. he thought he was going to get in trouble for the drinking and driving. penny, maybe, his number one problem-- the different stories he told the authorities. exactly. we've all been 19. whether or not, you've been in trouble or not or in that situation, you've fibbed about something in one way or another. dennis murphy: penny said gaege had

been honest when it mattered. he told that state trooper, pravin was in the woods. penny wondered, why the trooper hadn't gone to look for him? so you put some blame on the officer in that vehicle that night. i put most blame on the officer. why didn't he look for the kid in the woods? right, when he had been told. dennis murphy: whatever gaege did or did not do that night, his mother says, he was certainly not responsible for pravin dying in the woods. he had done nothing wrong besides got into a scuffle, gave a kid a ride. dennis murphy: the special prosecutor thought differently. in july 2017, three years after pravin's body had been found, gaege was charged with two counts of felony murder. the special prosecutor had a new theory. check out these tweets that appear to have been posted by gaege. the prosecutor believed that gaege, using a racial epithet, was bragging about hustling people of color. that's what he thought gaege had done to pravin, not just beaten him, but robbed him. under illinois law, if the special prosecutor could prove pravin died as the result of gaege's blows

or a possible robbery, even if he didn't mean to kill him, gaege could be found guilty of felony murder. it's such a relief. it's a peace of mind. dennis murphy: after the charges, lovely felt as, though, she could breathe for the first time since pravin's death. for penny, it was agony. what do you do? i fall to pieces, at first. and then, i gather myself up, and i hug him, and i tell him, everything's going to be ok. dennis murphy: derek hargrave, gaege's best friend, says gaege was terrified. since pravin's death, gaege had become the father to a little girl. derek hargrave: i've never seen the dude cry until, the day before he started going to trial. i mean, that's a guy that's scared for his life. dennis murphy: pravin had died in the most bitter of winter colds. it was blazing summer when his family and gaege's family stepped foot into the jackson county courthouse. did you ever catch eyes with pravin's mom?

i tried. yes. i wanted her to feel my sympathy. dennis murphy: but it didn't happen. no because, by that point, they wanted my son to pay. dennis murphy: the prosecutor's case was this-- gaege's blows, inflicted during a robbery, had sent pravin fleeing into the woods where, disoriented from his injuries, he died in the bitter cold. and the prosecutor argued, you didn't have to look further than gaege's lies to police to see a guilty man trying to cover his tracks. the prosecutor pointed out, the very first question they asked him, other than his name, he answered with a lie. dennis murphy: gaege's defense attorney michael wepsiec came back swinging, arguing pravin's death was a tragedy, but one of his own making. the problem with pravin that night was he was poorly dressed for the weather. all he had was a t-shirt and a pair of jeans on. he froze to death. mike wepsiec: he froze to death. that was the cause of death. that was the cause of death. dennis murphy: the defense said pravin's injuries

were hardly life-threatening. if anything, the defense argued, it was the alcohol in pravin's system that had made him more vulnerable to hypothermia, but what about those negative tox results? how do you reconcile the scientific finding, that the kid was not wrecked? mike wepsiec: because he lived for at least three or four hours after he went into the woods. so the body's metabolizing whatever was in there. absolutely. dennis murphy: and yet, how drunk could pravin have been if he'd made that phone call to his friend telling her, "don't hang up." he's having a sensible phone conversation with that friend in chicago. he's able to dial his phone. then, he gets his bell rung. well, you're assuming that this lady wasn't on speed dial, and she was. dennis murphy: the defense said the prosecution's case added up to a bunch of nothing. there was no proof of a beating and zero evidence of a robbery. he said those tweets were posted almost a year before pravin's death, that they were "crude and stupid," but that's all they were words and didn't prove anything. they hadn't even been allowed into trial by the judge.

what's more-- when pravin was found, he had his wallet on him. he had $24 of cash in his wallet. dennis murphy: then, the defense attorney made a bold move. he called gaege to the stand. it didn't go well. gauge's first day of cross-examination was tough. it was tough. shocked, miracle, dream come true. dennis murphy: because gaege did something monica had never imagined. he admitted punching pravin and demonstrated to the jurors just, how he'd done it. lovely said, he said it. he finally said it. i hit him right here, and she's, like, that's all i need. dennis murphy: lovely had fought for years to get her son's case heard inside a courtroom. after nine days of testimony, it was in the hands of the jury, but what happened next, surprised everyone. andrea canning: coming up-- the jury comes in. several of the jurors were visibly shaken.

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>> already taken. >> already taken. >> get 20% off and free welcome back. accused murderer gaege bethune testified that he punched pravin varughese the night

the teenager went missing. gaege's lawyer argued that the injuries his client inflicted were not life-threatening, and pravin later froze to death due to his own poor judgment. the jury was about to deliver its verdict then, a surprise that would leave the courtroom stunned. here's dennis murphy with the conclusion of, "at the edge of town." dennis murphy: lovely and her family waited patiently inside the jackson county courthouse as a jury decided whether to find gaege bethune guilty of their son's murder. one hour turned into two, then six, then seven hours of deliberation. it was about 10:15, we were called back-- get in here. mike wepsiec: --called back to the courtroom. the jury comes in. several of the jurors were visibly shaken. they looked like they had been crying. when we sat down, i just touched my son's picture, and i always tell him what's going on,

and i hear him saying, in my heart, mommy, we got it. dennis murphy: the jury didn't believe the prosecutor's theory, that a robbery was behind pravin's death, so he was acquitted on that count, but they did believe gaege's blows had caused pravin's death, and for that, they convicted him of felony murder. penny bethune: i remember, seeing my son hit his hand on the table, and then he started throwing up. he yelled, "mom," as he was throwing up. and all i wanted to do was get to him. i just wanted to hold him, and i wasn't allowed to even touch him. i could hear crying from the other side. i could hear crying from our side. i was numb. i was thankful. i was devastated. nobody wins. dennis murphy: is it justice? is justice done? yes, yes.

dennis murphy: gaege was led away. his sentencing set for a later date. he faced 20 to 60 years in prison. his defense attorney filed a motion for a new trial, but the judge rejected it. i called up. i said, look, i'm telling you, something's wrong here. dennis murphy: chicago defense attorney steve greenberg believed the whole case had been an outrage from the get go and offered to work for the bethune family. when we start letting someone for a fistfight get convicted of murder, that's a real problem. dennis murphy: he got the judge to let him file another motion asking for a new trial, arguing, among other things, that the way prosecutors had charged gaege was flawed. the way the indictment was phrased, the jury didn't have to find that gaege ever intended to cause great bodily harm. they just had to find that he touched the guy. dennis murphy: gaege had been sitting in jail awaiting his sentencing. penny says it was hard to see him there, but harder still was explaining to his daughter,

why he wasn't coming home. you told his daughter, he was at work. i absolutely did. dennis murphy: daddy will be back. yes. she's three. you can't explain something like that to her. dennis murphy: finally, the day of sentencing arrived. lovely prayed as she made her way to carbondale one more time, driving the six hours from chicago past the woods where her son had died. at the courthouse, she sat in her usual spot, but something seemed odd to her. gaege wasn't in a jumpsuit. and i asked the prosecutor, why is he in street clothes? where is this handcuffs? and he said, i don't know. i have to figure out. dennis murphy: then, she says the judge issued a stern warning to the two families. lovely varughese: i want to warn you, one side of this courtroom is going to be very upset. if any of you cannot handle this, you need to leave the room right now. dennis murphy: lovely assumed, he meant gaege's family, but she was wrong. logan gay: everybody in the courtroom was shocked.

so i've been doing this over 30 years, and it was the first time i've ever had this happen. dennis murphy: rather than sentencing gaege, the judge threw out the verdict and ordered a new trial. he ruled that the evidence had been sufficient to convict gaege, but the wording in the indictment might have confused the jurors. so gaege was a free man, for now. when i saw him walk out and i got to put my arms around him and hold him, it was the most amazing feeling in the world. dennis murphy: gaege's best friend says gaege couldn't wait to be reunited with his daughter. derek hargrave: she just has, like, these big old, bug eyes and just jumped straight into his arms, and it's one of those hallmark movies kind of things. dennis murphy: not for lovely. she couldn't believe what had happened lovely varughese: i was shocked, disgusted, and i felt, like, how can you trust in the justice system, anymore? a jury of 12 members found this man guilty, and the judge just turned around and threw

it away with no reason. dennis murphy: the special prosecutor promised to fight another day. prosecutor: there's never a question, in my mind, that we proved the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and we're absolutely going to retry this case. dennis murphy: but a few months later, he dropped the charges against gaege. although, he said, he is keeping all options on the table. there is no statute of limitations on felony murder charges, but when we contacted him two years later, the special prosecutor had not refiled any charges. if gaege is stopped tonight by a trooper for a broken tail light, what will they pull up about him? what will the trooper learn about him on his computer? they'll learn that he was charged with murder. dennis murphy: that hasn't gone away? it'll never go away. dennis murphy: lovely ended up settling her lawsuit against gaege out of court. what she says she really wants is something she thinks he'll never give her, an apology. as for her boy, her pravin-- lovely varughese: i miss hearing him call me mommy.

yeah, i miss hearing his footsteps. dennis murphy: but she thinks, he would have been proud of her. lovely varughese: i believe, it was pravin's spirit who brought us all this way. he wanted us to know what happened to him, and who did this to him, and we got it. we know who did this to pravin. that's all i needed to know. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm andrea canning. thank you for watching. >> good morning. >> and welcome to this. >> saturday edition of morning joe. weekend. >> it was. a truly busy. >> week as. >> president donald.

>> trump took office. >> for.