honored to know her. so andrea mitchell, congratulations on everything you have accomplished. i like you all less than i like her, but i'm so grateful. >> bravo, bravo. >> i'm so grateful that you're all here tonight. thank you so much. and for you at home, i wish you a good night. remember, you can catch the nightcap again on saturdays at 11 p.m. eastern, right here on msnbc. but for now, i'm signing off from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news. thanks for staying up late. see you at the staying up late. see you at the end of monday. rebecca vega: how could this happen? a very healthy 31-year-old just winds up dead? keith morrison (voiceover): a young father's death so sudden, so strange. we wanted answers. the word "poison" just kept coming up. it was antifreeze poisoning.

you can't smell it. you can't see it. keith morrison (voiceover): someone wanted him dead, someone who was hiding something. the details of the case are very salacious. there's sex. there's the allegation of poisoning. cleaned out the bank account. woman (on phone): are you trying to accuse me of doing something to him? keith morrison (voiceover): a brother determined to find a killer. how dare anybody do that to my little brother? it wasn't supposed to happen like this. keith morrison (voiceover): a toxic mystery, an emotional trial. is the jury being out long a bad thing or a good thing? [sirens] keith morrison (voiceover): it was a mystery from day one. from that time right around the end of the hockey season, it didn't make sense what was happening to matt podolak.

matt, the happy hockey amateur. matt, the outdoorsman, the hunter, the fisherman, athlete. it didn't make sense from the very first day matt podolak woke up in the morning with that pain in his back. and after what happened in the hospital a couple of months later, nothing made sense after that. [beeping] though god knows there were accusations. oh, yes, plenty of those. and a brother, mark, for whom the story, the mystery, became a kind of obsession. it's had quite an effect on me over the past seven years. keith morrison (voiceover): but the story of what happened to matt podolak is one of those that-- well, you be the judge. let's begin in the spring of 2006. matt was 31 years old. maybe more than ever, he was loving the intense male roughness of amateur hockey.

he was number 10, and he was good at it. he even managed to keep all his teeth. mark podolak: he started to take it up when he was in high school. and that was really one of his loves. keith morrison (voiceover): mark podolak was just a little older, a little more academically accomplished than his kid brother maybe. but mark loved him, loved him for what he was. mark podolak: he was a good kid. i mean, he didn't get in any trouble. and to be honest with you, my dad is a cop. and so he sort of put the fear of god into me and my brother when we were growing up. keith morrison (voiceover): matt told his mom patricia he was going to join the police force when he came home to brooklyn after a stint in the navy. brooklyn, ohio, by the way. it's one of the towns around the edge of cleveland. matthew always wanted to be a police officer ever since he was little. keith morrison (voiceover): his dad len was a 39-year veteran of the brooklyn pd. there was a point in time where it looked like we may even work together. keith morrison (voiceover): but life is full of disappointments. matt didn't get the call. and so instead, he went to work for his uncle, whose

phoenix industrial powder coated engine parts for ford and other companies. what did he think of that job of his over at the factory? my uncle owned the shop. and so he liked it, and he kind of moved up through the ranks. the thing that excited him about it was that he was going to take over. my uncle was kind of grooming him to become the boss. i remember him on many occasions telling me about how he was looking forward to that. keith morrison (voiceover): but what matt wanted perhaps most of all was a family. and so when he met holly, holly mcfeeture-- when matthew fell in love, he fell 110%. and he really loved holly. keith morrison (voiceover): there are some people who plan out their lives very carefully. those people may have taken issue with matt and holly, whose daughter, samantha, was born, give or take, nine months after they met. the marriage part would come later, they decided. he loved being a dad. he loved that little girl. keith morrison (voiceover): and loved holly. holly loved him.

holly told her sister, chrissy, the story of how they eventually got engaged. it was during a romantic weekend in niagara falls, just before samantha was born. holly was preparing a bubble bath. and she couldn't hear him because the faucet's running. and here's matt down on his knee, like hello? and then she realized, oh, my gosh, you're proposing. that is a kind of a romantic proposal. i thought so, the bubbles. and i thought that was pretty romantic. keith morrison (voiceover): after samantha came along, matt and holly, now engaged, went to vegas to witness a friend's wedding, lynn korylko. did you almost make it a foursome wedding as well? yeah. oh, yeah. actually, yes. holly and matt said, we should do a double wedding. but holly knew that her family would not be happy with that. so i think that's what made them not get married. keith morrison (voiceover): didn't get married but something happened in vegas.

nine months after that, josh was born. from what holly has told me, josh was planned in vegas. keith morrison (voiceover): ready or not, matt was now the father of samantha and a baby boy he nicknamed little man and holly's daughter from a previous relationship. big changes in a very short time. and by the end of the hockey season, a lot of things started going wrong. josh was still very new then and colicky. matt was stressed. and with that young family to support, he'd gone and lost money gambling on the internet. he complained of feeling depressed, so depressed his doctor prescribed antidepressants. and that's about when it started-- the pain, that is, spasms of back pain. he ignored it, figured it would go away on its own. but it just got worse. after weeks of this, holly insisted he go see a doctor. he had been complaining of pain.

and she finally said, you need to go. obviously, something's not right. so she basically had to drag him there. keith morrison (voiceover): kidney stones was the diagnosis. the doctor gave matt pills to help dissolve them. four days later, he took a turn for the worse, way worse. holly called her father, matt's father, and 911. i got a call from holly saying something's wrong with matt. so i talked to matt, and he says, dad, i don't feel good. i fell off the couch. i'm really dizzy. i said, well, get in the ambulance. keith morrison (voiceover): holly's father, mike jusek arrived and followed the ambulance with holly to the hospital, where things went bad fast. it was nerve wracking because all we kept hearing about was, ok, they're trying to dial in on his kidney issue. well, then, that medication was making his heart go. so then they tried to address the heart. and it kept seesawing back and forth. and nobody seemed to know, really, what it was causing it.

no. keith morrison (voiceover): matt faded in and out of consciousness. doctors told holly and family members, go home, get some rest. and then a few hours later, they called everybody back to the hospital-- right away, they said. one look at the icu and big brother mark felt his world come apart. when i saw him in the hospital, it's something i won't forget. it seemed like he was in a coma. i knew if he made it through, he wouldn't be the same. keith morrison (voiceover): and everyone felt a particular kind of helplessness, knowing something was killing him, but not knowing-- how could they-- what it was. coming up. i got a call, and they said, you better get here because he's gone into full arrest. how could this happen? all of a sudden, a very healthy 31-year-old young man just winds up dead? keith morrison (voiceover): a family's simple question, which will take seven years to answer. how can you go into the hospital for kidney stones and then die 8 hours later? keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues.

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the end came on monday morning, july 31, 2006. there in the icu, the mysterious ailment that attacked matt podolak overwhelmed his defenses completely. i got a call, and they said, you better get here because he's gone into full arrest. and we've revived him already once. so when i got there, it was just downhill. keith morrison (voiceover): matt's fiancé, holly mcfeeture, begged the doctors, keep trying. and holly said, don't stop. don't stop. and saying, matt, don't leave me. keith morrison (voiceover): it was no use. and once the doctor or nurse stepped away, holly just lunged on matt and just wouldn't let go. they actually had to pull her off of his body.

keith morrison (voiceover): he was just 31 years old. and now his children were fatherless and holly a single mother of three. at the funeral, said her sister, she did not take it well. holly was sitting in her car for about 20 minutes, bawling her eyes out before she even went in. i don't know how i would be able to do that myself, going and see him lying there in the casket. if that was my fiancé, i probably wouldn't be able to go in that room because i would want to scream and cry and ask for him just to be back. keith morrison (voiceover): matt and holly's son josh was just six months old, and he cried a lot. so, said chrissy, holly repeatedly had to leave the reception line to care for her colicky baby. she was in the basement with josh because she was nursing. she had to still take care of her kids and show them that she had to be strong. keith morrison (voiceover): holly's friend, rebecca vega,

did what she could to help, especially with that little boy, so young. this poor baby, he would have never known his father. how could this happen? all of a sudden, a very healthy 31-year-old young man just winds up dead. it's kind of strange. keith morrison (voiceover): kind of strange? it certainly was. matt's brother mark couldn't stop thinking about how strange it was. he had kidney stones. how can you go into the hospital for kidney stones and then die 8 hours later? exactly what the coroner was wondering when he had a look at some of the damage to matt's organs, as if he'd been exposed to some toxic chemicals in his environment. matt had worked for four years for his uncle's phoenix industrial, supervised an assembly line involved in painting and powder coating. any toxic chemicals there? keith morrison (voiceover): the coroner called holly to ask, said her friend, lynn korylko. the coroner told her a lot of the chemical compounds

were very similar to what the chemical compound was that they found in him. keith morrison (voiceover): right after that, holly called matt's uncle, the man who owned the factory. saying that my brother needed to call the coroner so that he can explain what matthew was exposed to. keith morrison (voiceover): but soon after the coroner talked to matt's uncle, after he got a proper list of the chemicals they used, he pretty much ruled out any industrial cause. all those chemicals were safe to work with. they were osha-approved, and they had masks to wear. keith morrison (voiceover): so if not that, what? perhaps a cause unhappily all too common when death occurs in one so young, that a depressed young man, overwhelmed by his sudden responsibilities and the pain of his kidney stones, decided to end it all. it was a coroner's investigator who brought up the subject with matt's mother. and she was questioning me. would matthew have committed suicide?

keith morrison (voiceover): never, said his mother. never. but it was, his family had to admit, a not unreasonable question, given matt's depression at all, even though, mark believed, his brother had that under control. mark podolak: he went to a doctor to get some help with that. and the doctor gave him some antidepressants. did that help? i thought it did. he seemed to be better. keith morrison (voiceover): but then, matt had new family now. and you know how it is. matt was spending most of his time with holly and the kids and her parents, they said. so maybe mark didn't know. did he go to his own parents' house very often? i don't recall him talking about that much. his connection didn't seem to be that close then. it didn't seem to be. keith morrison (voiceover): and mark didn't know, not then anyway, that matt actually asked a friend to remove his hunting guns from his house as if he was afraid, perhaps, he might harm himself. keith morrison: was he really thinking about killing himself?

from what i heard, yes. i heard that he was having thoughts. he had told holly. i think he actually had told my dad. keith morrison (voiceover): just as she insisted he see the doctor for kidney stones, it was holly, said her sister, who insisted he get help for his depression. she had sent him to the doctor and got him on medication for that as well. keith morrison (voiceover): what happened to matt podolak? who knew? apparently not the coroner, who had still not issued any official report. and then finally, three months after matt's death, mark got a call from his mother. come to a family meeting, she told him. she refused to tell him what would be said there. because i knew he would be very, very upset. keith morrison (voiceover): the news was too bizarre, too shocking, to share over the phone. coming up. the whole family was there, and i kind of lost it. keith morrison (voiceover): the coroner's report

makes it clear matt's death wasn't just strange. it was also highly suspicious. we were all thinking it was kidney failure. we were not expecting that. it was my mission to find an answer for this. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. ooo! our car's value went up! maybe we should track all our cars' value on carvana? we need more trackers! oh! i'm getting a value update! do you see which one is going off? how's it trackin'? some dips, some rises. now what? "hold?" sold. track your car's value on carvana today. i got this wow skin from olay body wash. it's new super serum: sink into my skin with 5 powerful ingredients. 5 benefits in 1! look at this olay difference. so luminous! olay super serum body wash. >> for athletes in the ring.

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>> when you need brutal honesty. when you need answers first thing in the morning. when you need to go deep inside washington and hear from someone who's been there. you need your morning joe weekdays at 6:00 morning joe weekdays at 6:00 only on there were just the two of them, big brother mark and the kid he looked out for, his little brother, matt. and now, matt was dead. and nothing made sense to mark podolak. there's no way that a guy is going to go into the hospital with kidney stones, and you're going to die because of kidney stones. keith morrison (voiceover): three months after his death, matt podolak's family gathered for a meeting. matt's mother arranged it. beforehand, she told mark they'd be discussing a possible wrongful death suit against the hospital where matt died. my mom called me over.

and she said we're going to talk with a lawyer tonight. we're going to find out our next steps, what's going to happen. keith morrison (voiceover): but mark's mother wasn't exactly straight with her son. that was not what was going to happen. so when i got to her house, the whole family was there. and i was like, where's the lawyer? and she's like, he's not here. keith morrison (voiceover): no lawyer. something far more disturbing-- the autopsy report. matt's mother did not want her surviving son hearing about this over the phone, afraid of how he'd react. i felt it was almost kind of like an intervention. it was weird. it was somewhat surreal. so she sat me down, and the whole family was there as a support thing. and they said we got the coroner's report back, and it was antifreeze poisoning. and i kind of lost it. antifreeze poisoning? that's just-- yeah. keith morrison (voiceover): the correct phrase for this, said the coroner's report, was chronic intoxication by ethylene glycol, ethylene glycol being the active and toxic ingredient in antifreeze.

so i was like, what is that? i mean, ethylene glycol is antifreeze, but chronic? and so, you know, it happened over a period of time. so once that kind of set in, i was shocked. i was speechless. keith morrison (voiceover): and that's when something profound happened to mark podolak. maybe right that moment, a decision snapped into place. from that moment on when we found out, it was my mission to find an answer for this. keith morrison (voiceover): a mission complicated by the fact there was one very big question the coroner couldn't answer. was matt's death the result of some terrible mistake or suicide, or was it murder? nobody knew. and so the coroner labeled the manner of death undetermined. across town, matt's fiancé holly was getting the news, too. holly's sister, chrissy. what did she say? what can you say? what do you mean, there's antifreeze in his system? we were all thinking it was kidney failure. we were not expecting that?

keith morrison (voiceover): was it really possible that matt somehow ingested small amounts of antifreeze for a period of weeks, if not longer? that was the implication of the phrase "chronic ethylene glycol poisoning." mark had already made up his mind that his brother did not commit suicide and, certainly, not gradual suicide. but what did he have to go on? so far, only a growing suspicion and rage, which he made perfectly clear to the police. i finally got a hold of the detective on the case. and he did some initial stuff, but it wasn't the follow-through that i had hoped. maybe that was just because that i was just grieving, and i was so upset. but when something like that happens, you want the whole world to stand up and pay attention and do something. when something like that happens, i want every member of cleveland police department to be on it and over there and searching the house and everything. and i understand that it's not realistic, but i wanted somebody to find out what the hell happened.

and it seemed like nobody was finding out. it didn't seem that way. no, it just-- and just, time started to go on. and i became extremely frustrated. keith morrison (voiceover): matt's father, len, a former cop himself, could see the problem. the case file was stuck. it kind of became a catch-22 situation. keith morrison (voiceover): the coroner said he couldn't label it a homicide without more evidence from the police. well, at the very same time-- cleveland homicide was saying that they can't investigate it as a homicide until the coroner rules it a homicide. keith morrison (voiceover): and so it remained, month after month, year into years. and still, the manner of death was listed as undetermined. just like mark, matt's father, len, made something of a pest of himself. len podolak: i would call the detective that was assigned to the case and say, what have you got? and his standard answer to me was, i don't have anything. what have you got? and i said, well, this is your job, not my job, you know?

keith morrison (voiceover): not unlike the way matt's fiancé holly was thinking. she was upset, you know, that there was no cause of death. nobody was doing anything, yeah. none of our family was interviewed. it was like they were letting it go. exactly. keith morrison (voiceover): but holly had three children to raise alone. police versus coroner politics was not exactly uppermost in her mind. to make ends meet, she took on two and sometimes three jobs at the same time and threw herself into coaching her children's little league baseball teams. meanwhile, mark kept hounding investigators, but getting nowhere. it made me feel like there was nothing being done. it made me feel like there was a-- my brother's case was on the desk of somebody who could care less and was counting down the days to his retirement. keith morrison (voiceover): but, though, mark was getting nowhere, holly was hearing things, not from the police. remember the plant where matt supervised other workers?

what was really going on around the powder coating machines? coming up. holly and her sister had their own theory about how matt died. chrissy deluca: there were some people at his job that may have not liked him. he was supposed to get a promotion. and i think there were some people that-- didn't think he deserved it. --didn't think he deserved it. keith morrison (voiceover): were they right? he wasn't this guy that was going around picking fights with people. he was loved by his coworkers. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. i'm getting vaccinated... ...with pfizer's pneumococcal pneumonia vaccine. so am i. because i'm at risk for pneumococcal pneumonia. i'm getting prevnar 20 because pneumococcal pneumonia could put me in the hospital and my risk is 6 times greater because i'm over 50. the cdc just expanded its recommendation for those 50 or older to get vaccinated.

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the new data. from the centers. >> for. disease control and prevention, the agency estimating at least 24. >> million cases. >> so far. >> this. >> season. >> marking a 28 year high. >> and president trump. >> revoking former. >> president joe biden's.

>> clearances and access to. >> daily classified intelligence briefings. >> trump saying the. >> move. is payback. >> for biden doing the same in. >> 2021, after. >> trump attempted. >> to. >> overturn the 2020 election. >> and incite an attack. >> on the capitol. for now, back >> on the capitol. for now, back to dateline. holly mcfeeture was up against it big time-- three kids, two still in diapers. she had lost the father of her children. the police couldn't seem to figure out what happened to him, didn't seem even to be trying. the little bit of cash left over in matt's checking account was soon gone. eventually, matt's work-based life insurance paid out 10,000, but that was way off yet, and it wouldn't be very much. so, in the meantime, she did what she had to do. she took on several jobs at a time, even babysat for neighbors when she had a spare hour or two. the children needed food. they still needed a roof over their heads. and that's exactly what she was doing. she was paying their bills and making sure that the kids

were taken care of. keith morrison (voiceover): and the thing is holly mcfeeture loved kids, not just her own. while matt's passion was playing hockey, holly's was coaching little league baseball. she threw herself into it after matt's death. baseball is how rebecca vega met holly. our kids were in little league together at that time. keith morrison (voiceover): that was the spring of 2006 before matt died. their oldest girls were school classmates and sports teammates. and holly? she was friendly in a way that it was intoxicating, i guess. it was like an intoxicating friendliness. you just wanted to be around her. you did. you did. you wanted to be around her. keith morrison (voiceover): being around holly was how rebecca met matt, actually. and then one day, matt tagged along with holly to one of the kid's tee ball games. he was already sick by that time, though nobody knew yet how sick.

he was sitting under this tree all alone, said rebecca, watching the game. you could tell he didn't feel well. you could tell that he was in pain. he shifted in the chair quite often. keith morrison (voiceover): and four days later, matt was dead. after the funeral, rebecca tried to comfort holly and help with the kids. if she needed help with the children, if the children needed something, yeah, it was just to kind of help her. keith morrison (voiceover): when the coroner's report came out and shocked everybody, holly told rebecca, of course, right away. what did you think when you heard that he died of antifreeze poisoning? it kind of put the mystery of how does a healthy 31-year-old actually pass. suddenly, you know, he was poisoned. keith morrison (voiceover): but who would want to poison matt podolak? just a regular guy. no enemies-- no known enemies, anyway. holly told rebecca the police didn't seem to be doing anything to find out, but that she

had some leads of her own. keith morrison: and she suspected somebody at work. she had suspected some somebody at work. keith morrison (voiceover): and eventually, she told rebecca, the police did, too. they thought that somebody poisoned him at work. the word "poison" just kept coming up. keith morrison (voiceover): sister chrissy heard the rumors, too. keith morrison: why would they do such a thing? there were some people at his job that may have not liked him. it was his uncle's company. and people, i think, were a little jealous. he was supposed to get a promotion. and i think there were some people that-- didn't think he deserved it. --didn't think he deserved it. increasingly, holly and members of her family became all but convinced that somebody at work found a way to put antifreeze into, well, matt's drink or something. and if that phrase in the coroner's report was true, "chronic ethylene glycol intoxication," that somebody would have done it several times.

keith morrison (voiceover): but one person who wasn't buying that theory was matt's brother, mark. he didn't have any enemies. keith morrison (voiceover): matt had worked his way up from the production line to supervisor at the plant, said mark, and he was well liked by the people at phoenix industrial. he wasn't this guy that was going around picking fights with people. he was loved by his coworkers. keith morrison (voiceover): by then, solving the case of his brother's murder had become mark's obsession. he collected stories from matt's factory co-workers, from the streets, from friends. he fumed when the official investigation seemed to go nowhere. and then after three frustrating years, one small change that made a huge difference. a new supervisor in the cleveland homicide division took over matt's case. his name? detective sergeant mike quinn. keith morrison: so at the time you took it over, it was-- i took it over. keith morrison: --pushing three years? pushing three years. and i reviewed the file. keith morrison (voiceover): with fresh eyes, quinn went over the case, re-interviewed people

who knew both matt and holly. and suddenly-- i felt a completely different sense of what was happening. keith morrison (voiceover): now, said mark, when he called with questions or suggestions, he felt like somebody was listening, especially when he told them what he was hearing on the street. mark podolak: i was trying to-- hey, maybe this is something that could help you. maybe you should look into this. you heard about things. absolutely. it was a really close knit town. so people talk. there's chatter out there. keith morrison (voiceover): strange how that chatter seemed to focus on one particular person. coming up. a possible motive for murder. she went to the atm machine and used his card the day after his death. she wrote checks, writing his name on the checks. cleaned out the bank account and left one penny in it. well, what did that say to you? obviously, a huge red flag. in my mind, there was nobody else. there was no other way that it could have happened. how dare anybody do that to my little brother?

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three years after matt podolak died of antifreeze poisoning, two families had sharply differing theories about the cause. matt's fiancé, holly-- her whole family, in fact-- suspected somebody at work had it out for him. but mark and his family were looking closer to home. how close? let's put it this way. the two sides of the family weren't talking anymore. an already existing mistrust ramped up that night in the hospital years before, when matt was in the icu. that's when matt's brother mark began to wonder if holly was in some way responsible for matt's mystery illness. my mom and i had a specific conversation. i remember it. you don't think she could have did this to him, do you? and we kind of were like, well, i don't know, maybe. but at the time, we didn't know why he passed. keith morrison (voiceover): and then there was the funeral.

holly's family said she was very upset, cried in the car before going in. but when sergeant quinn read the old case file, he found a curious statement from holly's friend, rebecca vega. keith morrison: what sort of grief was this? she was back and forth talking to different individuals, almost like a flirtatious, that intoxicating friendliness that she had, as if her fiancé wasn't even laying there in front of everyone. talking to just everybody, or was she concentrating on men or women or-- mostly men. flirtatiously. flirtatious, mm-hmm. keith morrison (voiceover): that's how she was, said matt's family, how she always was. at first, friendly, magnetic, even, but didn't stay that way for long. later, matt told them, holly became controlling and demanding. did he ever complain about his relationship? oh, of course, he did. yeah, he did. what did he say? she's nagging me, type thing.

she's yelling at me. she's calling me all the time. she's doing all this stuff. there were some incidents that happened, some times where they had to have the police show up. keith morrison (voiceover): matt's protective big brother called it downright nasty the way she treated him. said so, too. we told him, look, it's not worth the heartache to keep going through this. he was afraid that he wouldn't see his kids if they were apart. and i had discussions with my mom and my dad on many occasions about how, hey, he's worried about this. let's get him out of the situation, so he can kind of move on. and he can still be a father. keith morrison (voiceover): and now he was dead, and his family was raw with suspicion. when they went to collect some of matt's personal effects like his computer, they told sergeant quinn, holly told them she no longer had it, that the hard drive was being fixed, which sounded fishy to the detective. was this any effort to destroy evidence? that's what most people do when they get rid of a computer that may have been

connected with the crime. they're going to get rid of it. keith morrison (voiceover): not evidence, really, but suggestive, like when, according to them, holly said right after matt died, he wanted to be cremated, an idea matt's family quickly shot down. still, why would she have said that? and then, they said, when they asked her for his clothes and other effects, she told them she'd already gotten rid of them. it was as if she wanted to erase matt from her life. was there anything left of this guy at all in her house? not that i'm aware of, not too much. keith morrison (voiceover): then there was the business about the money. a big deal, that, said detective quinn. she went to the atm machine and used his card the day after his death. two days later, she wrote checks, writing his name on the checks. cleaned out the bank account and left one penny in it. wow. well, what did that say to you? obviously, a huge red flag. keith morrison (voiceover): it was a measure of the suspicion, the broken trust, that matt's mother, in charge of his estate,

reported holly to the police. holly was arrested and charged with theft and two counts of forgery. she agreed to make restitution and was put on probation for a year. in return, prosecutors dropped the charges. what happened to her? what was the sentence? she was given a first-time offender's program. so she didn't do any jail time. keith morrison (voiceover): then there was the life insurance. it wasn't much, including matt's 401(k). it amounted to just $15,000. but here's what made matt's brother, mark, suspicious. my brother was talking about, a couple of days before, removing her from a life insurance policy, removing her from-- as a beneficiary of the policies and the 401(k). and that's how serious it was getting. keith morrison (voiceover): and so when holly actually got 10,000 of that insurance, it seemed to mark to confirm what he had been thinking since the beginning. she must have killed him. in my mind, there was nobody else. there was no other way that it could have happened. none. so the first reaction is the shock.

what's the second reaction? anger, and then sadness. how dare anybody do that to my little brother? how dare they? keith morrison (voiceover): but really? 10,000 in life insurance a motive for murdering the father of your children? keith morrison: what did you think when you heard that? i mean, this was a fairly serious allegation, right? oh, absolutely. absolutely. i thought it was ridiculous that somebody would actually think that. i mean, seriously. [laughs] that's silly. you're laughing. why would somebody kill somebody over a life insurance policy? well, they do it all the time. well, i know my sister didn't because holly is a very strong woman. and if, you know, she was not happy with him, she would have left. keith morrison (voiceover): oh, yes, holly and her family heard all the whispers. they knew all about the podolaks' suspicions, which were, they said, absolutely baseless. that business about stealing money from the bank account, for example? did she understand that she was breaking

the law when she did this? no. absolutely not. she was thinking that she had to take care of her children and his. what else was she supposed to do? keith morrison (voiceover): and as for getting rid of his stuff, erasing him from her life. that's not true at all. as a matter of fact, she still has a lot of matt's shirts that she actually wears. keith morrison (voiceover): but quietly, four years after matt's death, sergeant quinn collected the stories he heard. but there was one story he hadn't heard-- nobody had-- holly's story. coming up. keith morrison (voiceover): holly is invited downtown for a little chat with detectives. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues.

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four years after matt podolak's death by antifreeze poisoning, the machinery of justice was puffing and sputtering to life and pointing at her-- matt's fiancé and the mother of his children, holly mcfeeture. holly mcfeeture was the suspect from day one. keith morrison (voiceover): prosecutors were appointed, brian mcdonough and alison foy, though they were soon frustrated. but we were missing pieces, missing critical links on the case. keith morrison (voiceover): the evidence already collected was maddeningly inconclusive. for example, detectives recovered two bottles of antifreeze from the garage where holly and matt lived. but it turned out somebody else had been living in the house for more than a year by the time they found it. whose antifreeze was it? nobody knew. but still, was there a way that we could

go ahead and link it up? keith morrison (voiceover): nope. tests confirmed the garage antifreeze didn't match the antifreeze that killed matt. but remember holly's friend rebecca vega? detective quinn found her name in the old file, called her up, and discovered that after matt died, she spent practically every day with holly. and here's where detective quinn's eyes really opened wide. rebecca told him that one day, she was at holly's house when she noticed some odd-looking jugs of chemicals in holly's kitchen. she had said that it was antifreeze and that it was to winterize matt's boat. did you ask why they were there? i mean, you said-- yeah, i-- --fixing the boats, but. i thought, well, it's in the kitchen, and the boat's outside. you know, why would antifreeze be in the kitchen? keith morrison (voiceover): and then there was the time she, rebecca, was complaining about her husband, and holly said-- i can get rid of him. and i thought--

"i can get rid of him"? i can get rid of him. and i kind of thought, oh, that was-- kind of joked about it and i laughed. but she actually backed up that statement with, well, you can work, and we could just move into your house. keith morrison (voiceover): weird, as she looked back on that. so once she heard about the coroner's report and the podolak family's suspicions, she cut off all contact with holly, ended the friendship without saying why. i had thought to myself, i had exposed my family to murder. she seemed to me like she believed that holly poisoned matthew. was she a little freaked out by this? she stated that she was afraid of holly. keith morrison (voiceover): so quinn kept an eagle eye on holly mcfeeture. and one day, he heard about holly and the karaoke bar. holly and her sister were singing a song by the dixie chicks. it's a song about an abused woman in a relationship

with a man, who, to get back at the man, ends up poisoning his food. and they were up there, singing the song and laughing about it. this was after matthew's death. i thought it was really cold-blooded when i heard about it. keith morrison (voiceover): that was 2010, four years after matt's death, the same year sergeant quinn received a big gift. maybe it was the fact prosecutors were appointed. maybe it was sergeant quinn's investigation. maybe it was the karaoke. whatever it was, that's when the coroner changed his ruling on matt's manner of death from undetermined to homicide. and with that little bureaucratic stroke of the pen, everything changed. detective: you can take a seat in that gold chair. keith morrison (voiceover): thing one-- for the very first time, holly was invited to the police station to give a formal statement.

keith morrison (voiceover): chewing gum, looking casual, holly came in without a lawyer and was read her miranda rights. keith morrison (voiceover): so what would she say about her relationship with matt? keith morrison (voiceover): holly said it happened when she had a male friend over at their house. keith morrison (voiceover): she told them, if they really wanted to solve the mystery, they should look for answers at matt's factory.

what? >> he would come home and tell me? there was a lot. >> of people. >> there that he didn't get along with. >> he was considered. >> he was considered. >> one of the supervisors. keith morrison (voiceover): and remember the 10,000 in life insurance bandied about as a possible motive for murder? holly said she didn't there was life insurance until after matt was dead. >> until at the. keith morrison (voiceover): but how about that night in the karaoke bar?

>> about it. >> with. >> the reference. >> about an abusive relationship. >> where the female. >> poisons the man and. >> he dies. >> it's a song. >> yes. >> yes. >> it's a karaoke keith morrison (voiceover): over and over, the detectives challenged holly with the accusing question. >> did you. >> give matthew any. >> type of antifreeze? >> no. >> is it the fact that you poisoned? matthew? >> no, it's not a fact. >> because i. >> didn't do it. >> i didn't. >> do that. >> have you ever. >> have you ever. >> told keith morrison (voiceover): holly protested. none of this made sense, she said.

am i going to hurt him in any. >> way possible? >> i mean. >> dreams. >> our goals, everything. my whole life has. >> completely been changed >> completely been changed upside. down keith morrison (voiceover): and with that, detectives thanked her for coming in and sent her on her way, with a warning that most likely, she'd be indicted. keith morrison (voiceover): that was late september 2010, but holly wasn't indicted, not that year, not the next year either. but something strange happened in 2011. holly answered her phone and found herself talking to a guy she dated briefly after matt died. man: do you remember what you told me about the drinks? keith morrison (voiceover): do you hear the trap snapping shut? coming up. he claimed to have heard holly mcfeeture confess by saying she

puts something in his drinks. keith morrison (voiceover): police and prosecutors think they've hit pay dirt with the new witness. what was so compelling about his testimony was that he was the only person to have that knowledge. keith morrison (voiceover): but is he enough to take this case to court? the details of the case are very salacious. there's sex. there's the allegation of poisoning. it's very interesting, but that doesn't make it necessarily a dead bang winner for trial. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. inspector, has won some of the biggest verdicts in american history. so if a. defective product, motor vehicle accident or medical. malpractice caused. >> a catastrophic. >> injury. >> contact klein. >> inspector. >> those 26 miles. >> in the rain. yeah,

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unlimited lines for $30 each. that's just $60 a month. so switch to the carrier ranked number. one in network coverage satisfaction. now new customers get your second month free when you switch. >> a heart attack. >> do they have. life insurance? >> no. >> but we. >> have life insurance. >> john. >> i'm trying to find something we can afford. >> fortunately, in. only a few. >> minutes. >> selectquote found john. >> a $500,000. >> policy for. >> only $29 a month. >> and his wife, anne, a. >> $500,000 policy for only $21. >> a month. >> go to selectquote. >> com now. >> and get the insurance your family needs. >> at a price you can afford. >> at a price you can afford. select quote we shop, you save. keith morrison (voiceover): in the summer of 2011, five years gone, matt podolak's death was still an unsolved mystery. all that time, mark podolak had neglected his own life in his quest to prove holly was the killer.

i know that my relationships with my friends suffered. ultimately, it led to me getting divorced. it was destructive on a lot of levels because you focus so much on a certain goal, a certain mission. and you're so damn angry on it. and i'm angry. keith morrison (voiceover): even angrier now, if that was possible, because there had been a change. the case was reclassified as a homicide. but holly was living her life, free, no charges filed. i became extremely frustrated. i'm not going to lie. keith morrison (voiceover): so frustrated, he sent a message to "dateline" on facebook, asking us to look into his brother's death. holly and her family, meanwhile, were waiting to see if the hammer would fall. i can't tell you how many times she's cried knowing that people are saying, you know, that she's a murderer and that this loving mom and softball coach can kill a man that she loved.

keith morrison (voiceover): but day by day, sergeant mike quinn was closing in on holly. just one more big thing, one solid piece of evidence, all he needed. and maybe, he and the prosecutors decided, maybe a jailbird could provide it. holly briefly dated a man named jamison kennedy a year or so after matt died. and, according to kennedy, during a wine and sex driven evening, holly made some kind of confession. this, thought the prosecutors, was gold. what did he claim he heard? he claimed to have heard holly mcfeeture confess by saying she puts something in his drinks. keith morrison (voiceover): then prosecutor brian mcdonough. and that she wanted to stop, but that his kidneys had failed. and that was compelling evidence. keith morrison (voiceover): but always something. mr. kennedy was not exactly the local church pastor.

his rap sheet was longer than a sunday sermon. in fact, when he came up with that little offering about holly, he was in county jail under arrest for beating up some cops. so, a snitch. as a prosecutor, we don't like informants. but what was so compelling about his testimony was that he was the only person to have that knowledge. how would he have that knowledge in the-- where would he-- how would he hear that? he heard that from her lips to his ears. keith morrison (voiceover): but how could they possibly prove it? one possible way, sneaky, but it might work. [dial tone] they set up a phone call. kennedy in prison called holly. and they turned on a tape recorder. keith morrison (voiceover): sometimes these things work. sometimes they don't. jamison kennedy (on recording): so what's going on with you? keith morrison (voiceover): just how it is with investigations of this sort.

suffice to say the call wasn't everything they hoped it would be. so here they were at a kind of crossroads. should they go forward or finally drop it? the evidence? the story of a jailhouse snitch with multiple felony convictions-- never an easy sell. an ex-friend whose talk of antifreeze in the house and offers to get rid of her husband might have been real or imagined. a financial motive that, at most, might have amounted to a paltry 15 grand and a bit of dixie chicks karaoke, the performance of which may have been monstrously cruel or perfectly innocent. still, who else could have done it? the details of the case are very salacious. keith morrison (voiceover): then prosecutor alison foy. there's sex. there's the allegation of poisoning. it's very interesting, and it's certainly enough to keep anyone's attention. but that doesn't make it necessarily a strong case or a dead bang winner for trial. keith morrison (voiceover): and so

the prosecutors consulted mark and his family. they were all committed now, all emotionally attached. but the family should decide. he said, this is where we are. he laid it all out. and he said, we could take our shot and see where this goes. and-- you might lose. we might lose. and we all agreed that we wanted to go with it. we've suffered long enough. woman: case number 564265, holly mcfeeture. keith morrison (voiceover): so, in 2012, six years after matt podolak's death, holly mcfeeture was indicted for aggravated murder and contaminating a substance for human consumption. from her mugshot, it didn't look like she was too worried about the outcome of the case. but this was serious. maximum sentence-- life without parole. her attorney, brett jordan, applied for bail. she was scared. she missed her kids. i would say probably in some state of shock at that point. keith morrison (voiceover): the judge took a look

at the circumstantial case against her and granted the bail request-- half a million bond with an ankle bracelet. but though the case was not the strongest, there was publicity. antifreeze poisoning? holly was suddenly famous, and not in a good way. the old brooklyn little league told the once beloved coach she wasn't welcome anymore. and holly mcfeeture prepared to defend her life in court. coming up. his body was shutting down. his organs were systematically shut down. keith morrison (voiceover): iced tea spiked with antifreeze. the prosecution's theory of how holly poisoned matt. you can't smell it, and you can't see it in the tea. he would have no way to know that it's coming. it's so secretively done. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues.

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215215. >> now we do have major developments out of washington. have we already sort of crossed a rubicon in terms of who we are as a country and what the rule of law is? america is listening to you right now thinking about what might have been. people hearing you, talking about the pushback and the fight and not mattering. what does that mean in practical terms? what they're doing to immigrants is something they say they're going to do every day. what's democratic strategy for trying to take that on? we've got a free press, a free people, and an organized political opposition that represents fully half the represents fully half the country. so seven years, seven years of pestering the investigators, seven years of brooding in the cemetery, seven years after the sudden agonizing death of his kid brother, matt. mark podolak watched with grim satisfaction as holly mcfeeture walked into the courtroom. i finally felt that we were going to make this happen. woman: please rise. keith morrison (voiceover): mind

you, the case against holly was possibly a reach. no guarantees here, and mark knew it. i was extremely nervous. oh, my gosh. being in that courtroom-- and you don't know how it's going to turn out. i have no idea how it's going to turn out. keith morrison (voiceover): truth was, the prosecution didn't have much to work with. without any hard evidence to pin on holly, their case boiled down to a process of elimination. someone did this to matt. who else could it have been other than his fiancée? in this case, telling a story would be crucial because there wasn't a whole lot else to do, right? absolutely. keith morrison (voiceover): prosecutor brian mcdonough began his story with the scene inside the hospital room the night matt died. his body was shutting down. his organs were systematically shut down. keith morrison (voiceover): and then matt's father, len podolak, described the horror of watching his son's final agonies, so much pain he couldn't talk, except to ask

for his children. he would say, where's little man, and where's samantha? keith morrison (voiceover): a picture was passed around the courtroom-- matt dead, lying on the autopsy table. mark began to cry. across the courtroom, so did holly. and then coroner dan goleta told the jury what he found during his autopsy, discoveries that became the core of the case against holly. the cause of death was chronic intoxication by ethylene glycol. keith morrison (voiceover): poisoned with antifreeze very, very slowly. he explained he'd found crystals in matt's heart and brain, having inched their deadly way through his body, kidneys to heart to brain. how much time would it take for the crystals to deposit themselves in the blood vessels of the heart? it takes weeks, at least. the fact that his-- that crystals were forming in his heart

and actually had traveled to his brain indicated long-term exposure, and not a one-dose deal. keith morrison (voiceover): and matt's friends and work colleagues testified they had seen his body disintegrate before their eyes, starting weeks, if not months, before his death. he began sweating profusely. and he complained of back pain. he was sitting beside me and practically was hunched over to where his chest was on his knees. keith morrison (voiceover): who could have made that happen, and how? investigators, remember, had found antifreeze in holly and matt's garage, admittedly a year after holly moved out. and prosecutors knew they couldn't link these bottles to the crime. but even so, detective quinn took them out of the evidence bags for the jury to see, left them on the witness stand, a prop, little courtroom theater. bottle of saturn antifreeze and coolants. keith morrison (voiceover): take a look at those bottles, the prosecution seemed to be saying,

and common sense would tell you it wasn't suicide. nobody would down antifreeze on purpose, said the prosecutor, let alone bit by bit, as indicated in the coroner's report. there was no suicide note. he didn't go ahead and give away his possessions. suicide did not make sense. keith morrison (voiceover): now there was one person, the prosecutor argued, and only one, who had the means and the motive to poison matt-- his fiancée, holly mcfeeture. a parade of witnesses testified about matt and holly's rocky relationship, the bitter words, fierce arguments they couldn't help but overhear. when we would be fishing, that phone would be ringing every five minutes. she'd be screaming so loud, he'd be holding the phone out to this-- way away from his ear. i told him that he needed to protect himself. and i told him that he should remove his shotgun and-- from his house. keith morrison (voiceover): and far from being shattered

by matt's death, as her family claimed, prosecution witnesses described how holly seemed almost giddy after matt died. what did you observe the defendant at the wake? almost a party atmosphere, like nothing had happened. keith morrison (voiceover): and then the prosecution called holly's old friend, rebecca vega. if anybody had a ringside seat to holly's life after matt, it was rebecca. keith morrison: how was it to actually be in that courtroom, see her there and answer those questions? couldn't even look at her. keith morrison (voiceover): rebecca told the jury, holly didn't wait long after matt's death to remove any trace of him from their house. it seemed as if everything that-- of being of matt had been taken out of the home. keith morrison (voiceover): but it was what holly hadn't cleaned up that make the biggest impression on rebecca-- those bottles of chemicals on the kitchen floor. what was holly's response when you asked her about those items?

one of the items was brought up as antifreeze for matt's boat to winterize his boat. keith morrison (voiceover): but who winterizes their boat in the summer? remember, matt died in july, said the prosecutor, so rebecca's story was evidence that holly had access to antifreeze around the time of matt's death. she was able to put antifreeze in the kitchen of holly mcfeeture after the death of matthew podolak. keith morrison (voiceover): now they needed to convince the jury that holly actually fed the antifreeze to matt. that would take a little doing. first, several of matt's coworkers testified that holly sometimes dropped off matt's lunch at the factory. holly would bring it in every once in a while for him. how many occasions do you recall that happening? half a dozen. keith morrison (voiceover): and holly always made sure to include matt's favorite drink, he said-- half a gallon or more of raspberry iced tea.

antifreeze is sweet, but otherwise tasteless. did holly spike the tea? you can't smell it. and you can't see it in the tea. he would have no way to know that it's coming. but why in heaven's name would she do such a thing? what was her motive? well, as the prosecution saw it, at least, all those arguments matt and holly were having represented the death throes of their relationship, a relationship she wanted to leave, and he did not, stubbornly, because he didn't want to lose custody of those kids. keith morrison: so it's your claim that he was sticking like glue. and to get rid of him, she had to poison him? that is what she saw as the way out. keith morrison (voiceover): a way out sweetened, suggested the prosecution, by the fact that holly was the beneficiary of matt's life insurance policy and 401(k). he was worth $15,000 to her if he died. so that was clearly not a motive, really. i mean, it's chump change, basically, right?

well, $15,000 for some person might be worth $150,000 for another. keith morrison (voiceover): interesting theory. trick was to persuade the jury that a hard working, committed young mother, a woman who was always volunteering to help others, who coached t-ball teams, could, at the same time, be a devious, cold-blooded murderer. yup, absolutely possible, said the prosecution's star witness, still to come, a man who knew all about violence and secrets and kissing and telling. coming up. holly melts down in court. what happened? when "dateline" continues. touch can mean so many things. even for people with moderate-to-severe eczema. touch can make two feel like one. or simply be a helping hand. dupixent can help you stay ahead of eczema as you welcome the feeling of touch. dupixent helps block a key source of inflammation

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for the first 100 days and for the duration. but what they are saying thus far, and what they are doing thus far, have both been utterly shambolic. and none of us should be afraid to say so. and none of us here are so for these first 100 days, you for these first 100 days, you way up on the 22nd floor of the criminal courts building here in downtown cleveland, holly mcfeeture sat through a hailstorm of allegations and attacks on her character and motivations. practically a monster, if you believed some of the witnesses. and for the most part, she listened politely, turned occasionally to smile at her sister or share a word of encouragement. and then, then the announcement was made. your honor, at this time, we have jamison kennedy. keith morrison (voiceover): and with those words, jamison kennedy, holly went into a kind of shock. and then, as quickly, even before kennedy walked into the courtroom, came the tears, and something in her seemed to crumble.

the tears became wracking sobs as if she, in full blown terror or panic, simply could not go on. all this happened as the attorneys were at the bench conferring with judge brian corrigan before kennedy's testimony began. [crying] holly left her seat, rushed to her sister, chrissy, in the gallery, and broke down. and it all happened in front of the jury. mark podolak was not moved. in fact, he was disgusted. where was that emotion during the funeral? where was that emotion when your lover was dying in the hospital? yeah, a guy that you haven't seen in years steps into the courtroom, you have an emotional breakdown? that's courtroom drama, in my opinion. keith morrison (voiceover): was she afraid of the man? or was she afraid of what he had to say? the whole business was highly unusual.

holly, visibly shaking, was allowed to leave the courtroom while kennedy testified. how do you know of holly mcfeeture? i originally met her at a bar that she worked at, the dirty dog. keith morrison (voiceover): jamison kennedy was that ex-con holly dated a year or so after matt's death, the snitch who peddled his story from the jail cell. was it wise to call him a prosecution witness? the man had eight felony convictions under his belt and was serving 10 years for beating up cops. and yet, here he was, central witness against holly. he's an alcoholic. he's a drug addict. and he wants something from you guys, so he'll say whatever he has to say, right? the thing about this witness, about jamison kennedy, is that he didn't want anything in exchange for what he was going to come into court and say. he knew that he was going to be in prison for quite a while and that nothing he could say in court would ever change that. keith morrison (voiceover): and kennedy's story, if the jury chose to believe it, was a potential game changer.

it was september 26, 2008, two years after matt died. kennedy was on probation, he told the jury, when holly stopped by the law office where a kindly defense attorney had given him a job and a place to sleep. they shared a bottle of wine, ate some takeout. we both were kind of a little bit tipsy. after drinking, we ended up having sex. and after the sex is when things got really emotional. she just started crying. what did she say? she made some remarks that she just wanted it to all go away. she wanted to move out of cleveland. she was regretful for what had taken place. keith morrison (voiceover): regret about what? kennedy told the jury that he pushed holly to tell him more. but she just told me at that time that she was sorry for what she had done. what had she done?

on her words was that she had put something in his drink. what had she put inside of his drink? she didn't tell me. did she say what happened after putting something inside his drink? that he had gotten sick, and passed away. keith morrison (voiceover): it was, quite simply, stunning. but-- big but-- was it true? could the jury really take the word of this eight-time convicted felon? yes, said the prosecution, because of this. did you tell anyone about what holly mcfeeture told you about putting something in his drinks? yes. who did you tell? my attorney. keith morrison (voiceover): well, not exactly that, said the attorney in question, who testified that kennedy asked him in a cryptic sort of way

what he should do if he knew about a murder. didn't name holly or any particular murder. as an officer of the court, did you provide him with any advice? i told him that if he had any information of that nature, that he had to inform whomever about this supposed situation. keith morrison (voiceover): but kennedy didn't tell authorities anything then, not until he was sitting in a jail cell under arrest for assaulting those cops. did he hope police would go easy on him if he told them something they wanted to hear? sergeant quinn told the jury he believed kennedy's story because kennedy offered details only someone close to the crime would know. there was no mention in the media anywhere. where did it come from? the fact that this is the one witness who we could bring forward for the jury to say that i heard holly mcfeeture confess to putting something in matthew

podolak's drinks, it's so important that, i think, in our minds, it couldn't not go to the jury. thank you so much for your time and your consideration. keith morrison (voiceover): and with that, the prosecution concluded its case of circumstantial evidence. but there was a giant void in the room, a big empty hole, where the hard evidence usually goes. what would the defense make of that? coming up, the defense strikes back. you have no idea how that man died, do you? i didn't have to see physical proof in order to-- please, i asked a question. you have no idea whatsoever how that man died, do you? not to my knowledge. it was all speculation. it was all just finger pointing without any basis. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. (♪♪) ♪ (slow down) ♪ (♪♪) cut!!!! i get it! slow motion.

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>> the coast guard. >> locating a missing plane with ten people. >> on. board in alaska friday. that plane left. >> for nome. >> thursday afternoon. >> and. >> officials lost contact. >> less than an hour later. >> the wreckage. >> was found. >> on sea ice 34 miles southeast. >> of nome. >> there were no survivors. >> and a trump appointed federal judge. >> temporarily blocked the administration from placing thousands of. usaid workers on leave friday. >> citing undue. >> risk and hardship. >> to the federal employees. >> however, in. >> a blow to the. >> agency. >> the. >> judge declined to lift the funding freeze. for now. funding freeze. for now. >> back to dateline. for almost a week, holly mcfeeture's family sat in a courtroom listening to prosecutors accuse holly of drip by drip, ounce by ounce, feeding her fiancée the poison and watching him die. monstrous, evil, and, said her family, completely untrue. just nasty gossip gussied up as evidence.

it was just a bunch of people talking bad about my sister. such a one-sided "burn her at the stake" type of scenario. keith morrison (voiceover): defense attorneys brett jordan and billy summers agreed. it was all speculation. it was all just finger pointing without any basis. keith morrison (voiceover): and now they knew they'd have to persuade the jury to buy something they personally believed in their gut, that holly mcfeeture was wrongly accused. i don't think i have ever believed in the innocence of a client more than i believe in holly mcfeeture. keith morrison (voiceover): the defense began by putting some negative cards on the table. that is, the fighting. holly and matt had been fighting a lot, but that was hardly a surprise, said the defense. two babies, one of them colicky, and matt was out fishing all the time. you can't say that just because somebody is arguing every day, that's a sign of hatred, and i'm going to kill that person.

keith morrison (voiceover): and that story that went around about holly's behavior at matt's funeral? uninformed judgments made from afar, said the defense, that somehow became this big myth that holly didn't care. oh, i can tell you right now she didn't care. you can't. i bet you. so you can crawl into her mind and you can tell-- no. --everybody here what she was thinking? no. you can read it on her face. "read it on her face." you don't have to be crying your eyes out at a funeral to not be grieving. keith morrison (voiceover): no, the defense argued, all the testimony maligning holly's behavior was really a product of the six plus years of rumor and innuendo, which had, courtesy of the authorities and matt's family, hardened into what sounded like truth, even if it wasn't. if you listen to all the witnesses, anybody that was holly's friend, they all turned away once they talked to the detective. keith morrison (voiceover): that was certainly the case, said the defense, when holly's friend rebecca

vega cut off contact with holly about a year after matt died. who's the accused murderer in this room? holly is. yeah, and, you know, you can't even look at her anymore. - no. keith morrison (voiceover): only then, after she heard from the police, said the defense, did she begin saying what she said at the trial. but you have no idea how that man died, do you? i didn't have to see physical proof in order to-- please, i asked you a question. you have no idea whatsoever how that man died, do you? not to my knowledge, no. keith morrison (voiceover): did the memory of all those happy days rebecca spent with holly suddenly sprout with dark suspicion once the police whispered in rebecca's ear, like the bit about the antifreeze in the kitchen? holly has children, and she's very careful. and i know she would not leave chemicals like that just lying around the house. keith morrison (voiceover): no, the assault on holly by her former friend, the defense said, was just a smokescreen for the hard evidence the prosecution

did not have, like anything connecting holly to the murder weapon, by which, of course, we mean the antifreeze. remember those two bottles of antifreeze investigators found in holly and matt's house after she moved out? this is a blue bottle of pink antifreeze and coolant, it says. keith morrison (voiceover): the prosecution showed them off like the crown jewels, all the while knowing they had no known connection to anything or anyone. the defense was on that like a terrier on a bone. no fingerprints on the bottles, no indication the antifreeze was even the same kind that killed matt, no indication the bottles were in holly's house when she actually lived there. those two bottles of antifreeze are not linked to matthew podolak at all. no. and those two bottles of antifreeze are not linked to holly at all. other than the fact that they came from that address. what was the point of that? that's why-- exactly. there wasn't any. were they implying a connection or--

yeah, there wasn't any. yeah, they were grasping. keith morrison (voiceover): another glaring weakness, the defense said, was the prosecution's theory that holly disguised the antifreeze in matt's beloved raspberry iced tea. zero forensic support for that, said the defense. do you know how that iced tea got into that thermos? i have no clue. none of the cups at the homes were ever tested. the thermos that he allegedly brought to work every day was never tested. there was nothing ever connecting that it was even iced tea. keith morrison (voiceover): and the motive, the prosecution suggested, the modest life insurance money? laughable, said the defense. wouldn't even buy a decent car. besides, holly said she had no idea the insurance existed. matt's uncle, who owned the factory where matt worked, couldn't say otherwise. do you have any personal knowledge that holly actually knew there was a life insurance rider on this health issues. i can't say that i did.

keith morrison (voiceover): but holly's defenders did have a problem-- no getting around it-- huge problem, that pillow talk with jamison kennedy, when, according to him, holly actually confessed. if they couldn't knock him down, they were done. coming up. was the prosecution's bombshell witness a dud? keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. hon', take airborne! it has 7 key nutrients to help fill those holes your immune system may have. what holes? [screams] new airborne. 7 immune supporting nutrients. our most complete support yet. did you know... 80% of women are struggling with hair damage? just like i was. pantene miracle rescue deep conditioner

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what in heaven's name would holly mcfeeture's defense attorneys do about this? her words was that she had put something in his drink. keith morrison (voiceover): there was no avoiding the impact of those few words from jamison kennedy. remember, just the mention of his name sent holly into an epic breakdown, weeping, sobbing, fleeing the courtroom. next day, it was the defense attorney's turn to take him on. good morning, mr. kennedy. how are you doing? keith morrison (voiceover): holly had regained her composure. she came back into court. the strategy was to pick apart kennedy's story, expose him for what the defense said he most certainly was-- a liar. like the bit about being tipsy. holly, kennedy said, had a glass of wine or two that night, but he knocked off an entire bottle himself. you still are telling the jury here that holly was tipsy or drunk that night, right?

yes, sir. when, in fact, it was you that was drunk that night, not holly. i think we were both, you know, feeling a buzz. keith morrison (voiceover): now this is the sort of moment a defense attorney probably lives for. listen. were you aware that holly's allergic to grapes, and she can't drink wine? no. keith morrison (voiceover): was this a man who could be believed when he said he had a real relationship with holly? she had told me that he was stalking her. he had got her name tattooed on him. he would not leave her alone. how did she feel about this? oh, she was afraid. keith morrison (voiceover): and kennedy admitted under defense questioning that he got very angry with holly when he heard a rumor that she was with another guy. so angry that you you grabbed her by the neck. you threw her against the wall. you punched her numerous times. that type of angry, right? no, sir. oh, that didn't happen. i do believe i pushed her. only when she approached me to try to hit me,

i think, with the phone or to smack me or something, i just kind of stiffed armed her away. i think she fell down. that was the extent of it. keith morrison (voiceover): really? holly called the cops that night and said kennedy punched her five times. he'd already fled, but she said she was going to get a restraining order against him. but before she could, he was at her door again. and when holly called the police this time, kennedy tried to escape and fought with two of them before he was finally arrested. and it was only then, after she turned him in and he was in jail facing years in prison, burning up with anger toward holly, that he called his attorney, charlie feliciano, to try to make a deal. you say, charlie, get me the police. i got to help myself get out of this jam. i'm going to tell on holly, right? also, he was concerned that she would try to put this on me. oh! so now we got a conspiracy theory going here that holly's now going to blame

you for the death of a man. is that what you're telling me? it was attorney's recommendation. keith morrison (voiceover): this attorney, who'd bent over backwards to provide jamison with a job and a place to stay while he was on probation from an earlier conviction. and what happened? kennedy stole from him and-- jamison threatened your life? he threatened me, yes. ok, he threatened your family also? yes. he had mental problems and was not stable, right? correct. keith morrison (voiceover): according to the defense, not even the police believed kennedy. for more than two years, they did nothing about his allegation. and after those years, when, according to the defense, they couldn't find any other evidence, they put his story to the test by orchestrating that phone call from kennedy in prison to holly, trying to get her to incriminate herself. curiously, the prosecution didn't mention that call in court. so the defense was only too happy to push

play for the jury. this was something they had to hear. jamison kennedy (on recording): holly. holly mcfeeture (on recording): yes? jamison kennedy (on recording): do you know who this is? holly mcfeeture (on recording): yeah. hi, jamison. keith morrison (voiceover): holly was taken by surprise, hadn't heard from him for years. police, of course, were listening. keith morrison (voiceover): didn't work out so well for the police or for mr. kennedy. trying to do to me? >> i'm not trying to accuse you of anything. >> well. >> you're putting. >> words in my mouth right now because. >> i never said. >> any such words to you about ever putting anything. >> into. >> his drink. >> i would never have. >> done that. >> done that. >> never. i'm not that type. keith morrison (voiceover): no, said the defense, holly didn't confess.

not then, not ever. and kennedy was a sick puppy, who saw an opportunity to combine revenge with a little self help. you are now trying to tell everybody that holly confessed to you about this case because it would benefit you. correct? i don't think-- i know it's morally right, sir. you know it's morally right. if you knew it was morally right, sir, you would have gone to the police on september 26. isn't that correct, sir? i should have. big morals, right? i should have, but i was very confused. thank you very much. i have no further questions. keith morrison (voiceover): the prosecution said kennedy did not get a deal in exchange for his story. one more question to answer. if it wasn't holly, who was it? for that, the defense offered dr. robert bux, forensic pathologist. matt wasn't poisoned slowly over time, said dr. bux.

the coroner simply made a mistake. all that pain matt suffered in the weeks before his death, that was from simple kidney stones, said dr. bux. nothing at all to do with antifreeze. is flank pain a symptom of ethylene glycol poisoning? shouldn't be, no. keith morrison (voiceover): no, this wasn't a case of chronic antifreeze poisoning. this was a textbook case of acute poisoning. one large dose, said dr. bux. this is a massive acute ingestion. these types of ingestions, he's going to have to drink almost a pint of it. keith morrison (voiceover): and the most likely person to have poisoned him with a drink of that size was matt himself. as to the manner of death, what would your ruling be? probably be a suicide. keith morrison (voiceover): suicide by antifreeze, a method more common than most people realize,

said the defense. who kills himself with ethylene glycol? with antifreeze? the stuff would be horrible. what a terrible death! not true. it happens all the time. keith morrison (voiceover): and there have been some famous cases covered in the media-- a retired pro football player, a writer for saturday night live. but why matt? he had gambling debts. he was depressed. he wasn't happy at work. throw in experience of pain from kidney stones. throw in maybe they weren't having the best relationship at that time. that all adds up to suicide. keith morrison (voiceover): and at that, the defense asked the judge to throw out the charges against holly. your honor, there has to be evidence. there has to be proof. there has to be something that the state did to show that holly was the one who did it. and it just doesn't exist. keith morrison (voiceover): for a moment, it seemed the judge might grant the motion. but no, he ruled. holly mcfeeture's fate would be decided by the jury,

as it turned out, very slowly. coming up. ethylene glycol, odorless, colorless, sweet tasting. keith morrison (voiceover): but did holly use it to kill matt? you don't know is the jury being out long a bad thing or a good thing. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. [coughing] copd is an ugly reality. do you have his medical history? i watch as his world just keeps getting smaller. but then, trelegy helped us see things a little differently. with 3 medicines in 1 inhaler, trelegy keeps airways open for a full 24 hours and prevents future flare-ups. once-daily trelegy also improves lung function, so he can breathe more freely all day and night. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition

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it was seven years almost to the day since matt podolak took his last painful breaths. the prosecutor appealed to the jury. convict holly mcfeeture. he fell in love with the wrong woman. she was toxic to him. keith morrison (voiceover): this was the closing message, a stark visual. look how easy, said the prosecutor, for holly to mix antifreeze into matt's beloved iced tea. look how hard for matt to detect the poison. ethylene glycol-- odorless, colorless, sweet tasting. keith morrison (voiceover): the defense appealed to the heart. there were two tragedies in this story, they said-- matt's death and holly's suffering. nothing could be done about the first, said the defense. but the jury could rectify the second. you've got to end the nightmare. you've got to put to rest this family's tragedy. keith morrison (voiceover): this could be a close call. the jury went out.

no verdict at the end of that first day or the next. matt's brother mark didn't know what to think. you don't know is the jury being out long a bad thing or a good thing. keith morrison (voiceover): holly's sister chrissy was nervous, tried to stay confident. i mean, they had hearsay from a man that was in prison and some iced tea on a table. keith morrison (voiceover): finally, toward the end of day three, cell phones started buzzing. verdict. holly, looking like she'd seen a ghost, headed toward the courtroom, surrounded by her family. woman: please rise. keith morrison (voiceover): as the jury filed in, holly began mouthing the lord's prayer. i understand you've reached a verdict in this case. is that correct? keith morrison (voiceover): and then the judge began to read. we, the jury in this case, being duly impaneled and sworn, do find the defendant, holly mcfeeture, guilty of aggravated murder, violation of section 29.03.01-- i heard those words, "guilty."

and it was emotional. keith morrison (voiceover): mark turned to hug his mother, her face awash in tears. across the courtroom-- nobody could react because it was total shock. nobody was expecting that. keith morrison (voiceover): the guards came then, wrapped handcuffs around holly's wrists. she shook her head no, seemed to be reeling, her words less than a whisper. well, she looked at me, and she was gone. what that did to you? it tore me apart. i really couldn't understand how this happened. it wasn't supposed to happen like this. keith morrison (voiceover): the defense team felt gutted. the prosecution's case had been so flimsy, they felt. how had it all gone so wrong?

still wondering what happened. keith morrison (voiceover): this was not an easy one for the prosecutors either. the sort of case you might reasonably have walked away from if you didn't let yourself get caught up, didn't start to care a lot. keith morrison: what was it like to get your guilty verdict? it affirms the work that we do. it was a good one. a very good one. what made it so good? you meet with the family at the beginning. and you're on this journey all the way through. and to be able to deliver something to them that they believed from the beginning made it very satisfying. keith morrison (voiceover): a month later at the sentencing, holly's sister wanted the judge to know what the children thought, that their mother was not a murderer, and that they were begging him, send her home to them. my mom is the greatest mom in the world because she is sweet and kind. i really want to see her again. i really miss her.

i wish i could have my mom back. keith morrison (voiceover): then, a surprise. matt's father, the retired cop, had become an ordained minister since his son's death, and he told the judge he had made a decision. i have come to the point where i can forgive holly. and i have forgiven her. and i'm asking you, your honor, to temper justice with mercy. keith morrison (voiceover): but mark? seven years of suspicion, frustration, anger finally came bursting out and filled the courtroom. i just have one simple question. why? why put someone in unimaginable pain when you could have just walked away from the relationship? why continue to slowly poison him when you could have stopped? and why take him away from those children that he so dearly loved? keith morrison (voiceover): the sentence was swift and stern. the nature of the crime in the case cannot be overlooked in this matter. and the court's going to impose a sentence of life with parole eligibility after 34 years.

keith morrison (voiceover): holly mcfeeture won't be eligible for parole until 2043. as for the children, samantha and josh moved in with one of holly's sisters. mark said he and his parents see the kids often and that both families have been very friendly toward each other, something that would have made his brother proud. we want them in our lives. we want them to know who their dad was. keith morrison (voiceover): the night before holly was shipped out to state prison to start serving her life sentence, chrissy took the children to visit with her. they couldn't touch. a glass barrier separated them. they spoke over a jailhouse phone. chrissy deluca: that just breaks my heart. it's hard to watch, huh? very hard to watch. i had to turn away numerous times because like i said, it was just heartbreaking, knowing that they couldn't just touch. she couldn't touch her babies that she loves so much. keith morrison (voiceover): and mark podolak went where he always goes on the anniversary of matt's death, to talk to his brother at the cemetery.

mark podolak: i hope they're proud of your big brother a little bit because i kind of hopefully helped you rest in peace a little bit more than you have been. keith morrison (voiceover): and there was still a podolak playing amateur hockey here in cleveland. matt loved the game. mark took it up in his memory. and since matt couldn't be here to play, said mark, he'd play for him. hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." katherine walton: it was just chaos. hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." craig melvin: a day at the mall descends into mayhem as armed men turn shoppers into prey. lots of screaming, lots of gunfire. they had a demeanor like they owned the place.