debbie's father, bud triantis, had a dying wish that she be found before he passed away. he left this earth just a week after that discovery. and the children who held opposing views about their father's innocence? it's complicated, isn't it? yep. has this created a rift between the two of you? yes. keith morrison (voiceover): surely not easy going for the children of dave and debbie hawk. well, we do the best we can. that's all for this edition of "dateline." thanks for watching. woman: it was a small new year's eve party. hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." we took off and then shortly thereafter we saw the police car. my gut was telling my feet to run back to that house. this can't be happening.

narrator: when the party ended, the mystery began. it was just crazy. i didn't understand what was happening and why. narrator: his wife, the hostess, had seemed fine all night. then-- tom: my wife just shot herself in the head! please, help me! please help me! narrator: her death was ruled a suicide, but not everyone agreed. i always was afraid he was gonna hurt her. always, always. narrator: did a fight that night lead to something much worse? i knew that ashley wouldn't take her own life. narrator: a troubled woman, or a troubled marriage. interrogator: that wound on the back of her head isn't where she could do it herself, tom. it is not. oh! [bleep] narrator: suicide or murder? i didn't do this. i just knew that my whole world is never going to be the same again ever. [music playing]

hello, and welcome to "dateline it was december 31 and by all appearances, ashley fallis was in the mood to celebrate. vibrant mother of three, she gathered her friends and family to ring in the new year. but as her guests began the countdown to midnight who could have known they were also marking the last hour of ashley's young life. here's keith morrison with "after the party". [music playing] keith morrison: what is so optimistic as a party on new year's eve? what night as hopeful, as full of anticipation as the clean slate midnight brings? it was a small new year's eve party. just family and friends. keith morrison: disappointment is inevitable of course. clean slates, no matter how ardently desired, are messy all too soon.

we noticed that there was a lot of alcohol out. keith morrison: still we celebrate possibilities and drown past sorrows and watch the clock that ticks toward our new beginnings. and our ends. on december 31, 2011, an hour north of denver in west evans, colorado, ashley and tom fallis, surrounded by friends and family, dance to the music that brought them together, their wedding song. they decided to get up and dance in the middle of their living room-- everybody watching. --with everyone watching. kind of romantic. i mean i think i said, "oh, this is sweet." keith morrison: it was their party, ashley's and tom's. she'd invited her coworkers like andrea. it was casual but she verbally told everyone at work, like, you should come. keith morrison: they worked together at a rehabilitation hospital where ashley was a respiratory therapist. she was crazy, nice. [laughter] - crazy, nice.

just spunky. just full of energy. she was a happy person. just laughed a lot and joked. keith morrison: their friendship was new. andrea didn't know a lot about ashley but had listened to her chatter about jobs, and marriages, and her three kids. the youngest of whom was born with a dangerous condition called hydrocephalus, which causes life threatening fluid build up of the brain. she talked about it a lot. - did she? - yeah. but i didn't get the impression that she felt burdened by any means. i felt like that was the cards that she was dealt. keith morrison: well, in fact she embraced the challenge, said ashley's mom, jenna, became a public advocate. she went to washington, d.c. in the fall of 2011 to speak before congress for funding for hydrocephalus. so she had a full plate. keith morrison: so did tom for that matter. i liked tom. he was a pretty good guy, very intelligent. keith morrison: jeff rodriguez was tom's boss at the weld county jail. they were corrections officers.

he was a good employee. he had a son that was sick so he did miss more work than what most fellow officers liked. keith morrison: stressful, draining thing caring for a sick child. so maybe their new year's eve party was a way to hope for a better times. and take a break too. ashley's adoptive dad, joel, was at the party. there was dancing going on, people were having a good time. keith morrison: ashley seemed to be having a fine time said andrea. she and tom seemed to be getting along fine. they seemed to be getting along fine. that's when ashley and andrea went off into the kitchen, had a little party of their own. what were you drinking? jungle juice and jello shots. oh my. yeah. i was having a good time, i intended to have a good time. keith morrison: there was one unusual thing though said andrea. ashley had just gone through something kind of awful. she found out that she had a miscarriage that day, and i said, "oh, i'm sorry, are you ok?" and, "oh yeah, it's fine".

did that strike you as odd? no. i didn't think that it was odd. was she unhappy about the miscarriage? my impression of it is she already has her beautiful family. it seemed like her life was already complete. so i don't think that she was devastated that she had found out that she had a miscarriage. keith morrison: no tears, andrea said, just a quick casual mention and then the conversation moved on. went on to talk about other things. went on to talk about things, probably went and got another jello shot. keith morrison: midnight arrived. there were as there always are kisses and smiles and toasts. by 12:30, the party was over. i gave her a hug, told her bye, we talked about future plans. how did she seem? happy. keith morrison: but oh how quickly the new year's clean slate darkened. as an uncle prepared to leave, ashley asked him for a bit of his marijuana

to smoke later she said. tom, the sheriff's department employee, was furious and reminded ashley's family that her employer required regular drug tests. was it the alcohol that amped up the family screaming match? whatever. ashley's parents have their own recollections. he walks by me and he says he hated us all and wish we would all bleeping die. and he went into the bedroom and slammed the door. ashley came out of the bathroom and was just kind of like what's going on? and we're like, we're going to leave. and then she's like, hey, i'm having a super bowl party in a couple of weeks, you know, don't forget about that. keith morrison: but ashley's parents were rattled. they drove away then pulled off to the side of the road to talk. ashley's mom sent a text to tom. and i'm like, you know, hey there's those kids in the house, calm down. which arrived as their young granddaughter was involved in quite another discussion, with 911.

dispatcher: can you go open the door and let the officers in? daughter: it's open, it's open. the new year was less than an hour old and off to a very bad start. coming up-- chaos, it was shocking. narrator: --a frantic race to save a life. what happened in that house? i just knew that my whole world is never gonna be the same again, ever. narrator: when dateline continues. still have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis... ...or crohn's disease symptoms after taking... ...a medication like humira or remicade? put them in check with rinvoq, a once-daily pill. when symptoms tried to take control, i got rapid relief with rinvoq. check. when flares tried to slow me down,... ...i got lasting remission with rinvoq. check. and many were in remission... ...even at nearly 2 years. and rinvoq... ...helped visibly reduce damage of the intestinal lining.

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you did it! with centrum silver, clinically proven to support memory in older adults. keith morrison: 2012 is not even an hour old. with centrum silver, new year's celebrants had only just poured themselves into their cars to head home. and in a little house in west evans, colorado it was already the worst year ever. [screaming] dispatcher: 911. what's the address of your emergency? tom: my wife just shot herself in the head! please help me, please help me! keith morrison: the man on the phone tom fallis begging for help and willing his wife to live. tom: no! dispatcher: sir. tom: you're staying here! you're staying here! keith morrison: tom told the dispatcher she shot herself, then he put the phone down. he was holding his hand to her head trying in vain to stop the bleeding. so he had his 9-year-old daughter pick up the phone. dispatcher: honey, are you there? daughter: yes. dispatcher: ok. can you open the door and let the officers in?

daughter: yes. dispatcher: ok. daughter: mommy got shot. dispatcher: ok. we're gonna help her. i need you to go open the door. keith morrison: brian spencer was a weld county sheriff's deputy back then. he arrived within minutes to discover that the local police, the evans police, had beaten him there. i believe there was three there ahead of me and then there was more sirens, lights. you could hear them coming. that's a pretty fast response. very fast. keith morrison: and this bit of news was going around fast too. this was a sheriff's employee, a jail employee. keith morrison: not that that should matter. the effort then was save ashley fallis' life. this was recorded by a police body camera, shows the paramedics arriving. - chaotic? - the scene? very. frantic, the officers located ashley fallis somewhere in the home. keith morrison: the local police took charge. they asked brian spencer to watch the front of the property. and that's when from his post on the front porch he saw tom.

that's him in the background in the white t-shirt. he was pacing around in the front yard and front sidewalk area. frantic, screaming. screaming what? do you remember? i heard him say, she's dead. a lot of mumbled stuff. he would put his hands up over his face and screaming and crying. keith morrison: by this time, ashley's parents had pulled off the road home to talk and worry about the fight that ended the party. when they heard the sirens, saw the lights flash by headed that way-- something automatically felt bad. and i whipped a u-turn. he didn't have the car stopped and i was out running to the house. were you able to go and see ashley? no. i could hear what was going on. i had all three kids and they were just crying and crying and screaming and i'm crying. it was just crazy, it was like a nightmare. i can see blood splatter on the wall, the master bedroom wall. what was that like? chaos. it was shocking.

did you understand it was your daughter? yes. i do recall just being hysterically upset and crying. and thinking that this can't be happening to my daughter, this can't be happening to us. but yet it was. keith morrison: inside the master bedroom ashley was alive but the wounds to her head were catastrophic. the police body cameras shows officers kneeling on the floor trying to stabilize her condition. [inaudible] paramedics went in and they made a decision to do what we call "a load and go", which means they're not going to spend any time doing life support stuff. paramedic: [inaudible] all the way up front? paramedic: yep, they're right on the cot and get her on there and go. keith morrison: ashley's mom, jenna, huddled with her grandchildren in a neighboring bedroom, listened to it all through a closed door. is there any way to describe what it's like for a mother to be in that situation? no. your brain does funny things. i just knew that my whole world is never going to be the same

again, ever. keith morrison: outside brian spencer watched tom pacing back and forth, crying, talking to himself. i notice he's wearing a white t-shirt and he's covered, i believe it was on his left side, in a large amount of blood. keith morrison: it was odd, brian thought, that the evans police officers didn't take tom's clothes or bag his hands for gunshot residue. he still had evidence on him and he needed to be preserved, he needed to be controlled. he needed to be processed. and clothing removed, everything. keith morrison: but that's not what happened, not at all. and soon after ashley was rushed off to the er. tom got in the back of a squad car and was driven away but surprisingly not to the hospital. narrator: coming up tom tells his story. i heard her gun cock and i looked out.

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one (800) 403-7539. >> for the first 100 days of this new administration, i am going to be here on msnbc at 9 p.m. eastern five nights a week, monday through friday. we will watch what they do and not just what they say from now on. and 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 and i, we are going keith morrison: in the first cold dark hours of 2012, ashley fallis' parents followed an ambulance to the hospital and caught up to her in the icu.

we walked into her bleeding out of everywhere. keith morrison: there wasn't really any hope. they could see that she was going to die. i just sat down and held her hand. keith morrison: but tom wasn't there to hold her hand. tom fallis was of the evans police station, answering questions. interrogator: i don't know what's going on. i have no idea and that's why i'm asking to speak with you. keith morrison: it was 2:00 a.m. and tom was still wearing bloodstained clothes, the ones that a sheriff's deputy thought should've already been bagged as evidence. interrogator: how is your relationship with your wife? really good. keith morrison: but, said tom, ashley was devastated when she miscarried the very day of her new year's eve party. it was hard for ashley, it was hard for me. ok.

i didn't think that there was getting to this point. keith morrison: still at the party itself, said tom, she seemed all right. they got on fine. until the argument about the marijuana. tom admitted he was furious at ashley's family, said he was trying to protect her and they weren't. i had told ashley, i was like, you don't need to get high. i was like, if whatever happened today with miscarriage, it happened. i was like, you know what, [bleep] you mom, [bleep] everybody. keith morrison: so there was no love lost between tom and ashley's parents, that was clear. and tom admitted that he and actually kept arguing as they got ready for bed. and then he turned around and went to the closet he said and it was all over. but while i was in the closet i heard her gun cock, and i looked out. i was like, what are you doing? and before i even had a chance to finish my sentence or close the door--

there was smoke. i heard it and it was just smoke. i just ran over here and i just grabbed your head. keith morrison: tom told detectives that sadly he had been worried about just this sort of thing for more than a year because ashley had threatened suicide before. interrogator: what was she saying that she wanted to do to herself? just that she wants to end it. she like, "you and the kids would be better off without me". interrogator: and so she had just said those words but she never acting on anything. no. interrogator: and so how long-- never once. never once have she ever grabbed her gun, has she ever loaded it, has she ever made this type of gesture whatsoever. keith morrison: by this time while the doctors tried to save ashley, tom had been answering questions for hours.

interrogator: i have to ask these questions. that i have to understand-- i know but the problem is is that i've been here since frickin what, 2 o'clock, and now it's already 5 o'clock, and i don't know what's going on with my wife. keith morrison: but then the detective noticed something else about tom. interrogator: the scratch mark that's on your chest, what is that? you have like a long red scratch. oh, probably because i've been doing this all freaking night. interrogator: this one just goes straight across here. oh, i don't know. it's just me. it's not-- interrogator: ok. so it isn't-- i just had to ask. keith morrison: the detective left the room and spoke with ashley's parents who'd arrived with the purpose of telling officers just one thing, their daughter did not shoot herself. we had just seen her seven minutes this, she was completely fine. you know, she wouldn't do anything like this. keith morrison: she was in good spirits when they left, they said, she was already planning her next party.

but tom he'd always had an awful temper they said. i always was afraid he was going to hurt her always, always. why? what about him? his temper. you can't go from zero to 100 and think clearly. i think that he was just in a fit of rage and he shot her. keith morrison: armed with that new information, the detective went back to talk to tom and zeroed in on those scratches. officers had given him something clean to wear so they could collect his bloody clothing. interrogator: and you have scratches on your body. ok. see this, is a shaved chest. do you know how bad this hurt and itches? so when i'm sitting there i do this all freaking day. this is actually her blood, it comes off. see? oh my gosh, it's coming off, it's her freaking blood. interrogator: that's actually a scratch, ok? that's a scratch. keith morrison: still the detective pressed him.

he had motive and opportunity she said. interrogator: and so when you went upstairs you were arguing with her, and you know you were arguing with her. keith morrison: she was also reluctant to believe the shooting happened so quickly, no threats, or warnings, or hesitation. interrogator: she went from saying, i'm going to do what i want to just-- yeah. yeah. she did. i'm not lying to you. keith morrison: and when the detective gave a description about the gunshot wound, a description that turned out to be inaccurate, that really set tom off. interrogator: that wound on the back of her head isn't where she could do it herself, tom. it is not. [bleep] keith morrison: and then quite suddenly, in the middle of it all completely out of nowhere the detective made an abrupt declaration. interrogator: and i have to let you know your wife did not make it. your wife did not make it.

[crying] she was breathing when i was holding her. she was breathing. they told me she was breathing when she left the house. keith morrison: ashley died while tom was in police custody. i didn't shoot my wife. i didn't shoot the mother of my kids. i didn't shoot the person who i wanted to have another one with. keith morrison: what would the police believe? tom's story that the shooting was a suicide or ashley's parents' story that he'd shot their daughter in a fit of rage? narrator: coming up, ashley's family is outraged by the investigation's final report. it was incomplete, it was inconsistent, no follow up. it was unbelievable. narrator: when dateline continues. stay ahead of your child's moderate-to-severe eczema with dupixent as they welcome the feeling of touch with clearer skin and less itch. the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists helps heal their skin from within.

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>> over. the weekend. >> putting 95 million people under winter weather alerts. >> the northeast. >> is expecting the most. >> severe conditions. >> up. >> to a foot of snow by sunday morning. >> and the national institutes of health. >> has announced cuts to. grants that support. research institutions. >> by limiting the amount. of indirect funding. >> for. >> research projects. >> to. >> just 15%. scientists saying. >> cutting these. >> costs could. >> be detrimental to research studies. for now, back to studies. for now, back to da welcome back to dateline. i'm craig melvin. though covered in blood and suspicious scratches, tom fallis insisted he did not harm his wife, that she was the one who pulled the trigger. ashley's parents weren't buying it. but would the police? here again is keith morrison with "after the party". keith morrison: ashley fallis, 28 years old, wife and mother of three, was dead. the gunshot wound in her head unsurvivable. it was suicide said her husband tom.

i didn't shoot my wife. i didn't do this. keith morrison: it was murder said her parents. i had three grandkids that i dearly, dearly love that i knew in my heart that tom had just killed their mother. keith morrison: the news of ashley's death spread quickly the morning after the party. i didn't understand what was happening and why because everything was fine that night. it's about as confusing anything. very confusing. she was happy she didn't seem suicidal. keith morrison: andrea, new friend, coworker, drinking buddy at the party, couldn't shake a feeling. i don't feel like she would have taken her life. tom was the only other person that was there. so if it wasn't her it had to be him. right. keith morrison: but for all their middle of the night questions the police did not arrest tom nor charge him with anything. what were they telling you along the way?

that they were investigating it. keith morrison: at ashley's funeral tom was one of the speakers. ashley didn't have much patience. keith morrison: and what he said wasn't the sort of thing people expected to hear. --and she goes i don't care when you do it, where you do it, i want it now. keith morrison: it was an unusual, and frankly, not very emotional eulogy for reasons only tom might understand. but her parents were furious. when he had that opportunity to speak and share about the woman he so-called loved and called his eternal wife, all he did was degrade her. what was it like to hear that? it was shocking. it was unbelievable. keith morrison: as the days turned into weeks and tom remained free ashley's parents became convinced that something about the investigation was not right.

joel and i sat down and said, look if for some crazy reason she walked in the house and shot herself and they can show that, we will accept and support tom. we didn't feel like that was the case. keith morrison: they weren't alone. remember on the night it happened former deputy brian spencer saw tom roaming around freely with blood and other potential evidence all over him. police 101, very basic thing, any scene that you respond to you want to treat as the highest level of what it could possibly be. sure. so he would be a suspect. and he needed to be preserved, he needed to be controlled. keith morrison: but none of that was done at the scene. pretty soon ashley's parents began to suspect it was a cover up to protect tom. perhaps the so-called "blue wall of silence" looking out for a fellow law enforcement officer. it's a hell of an accusation to make, though. it is. it is strong. but that is how we feel.

keith morrison: mind you, the evans police department strongly disagreed. both the coroner and the crime scene investigator issued reports concluding ashley's death was indeed suicide. and remember tom told the police she'd expressed suicidal thoughts before. and she had two close relatives who'd taken their own lives. and investigators found prescription psychotropic drugs in ashley's purse and nightstand, which tom told them she quit cold turkey without medical supervision when she learned she was pregnant. and so two months after ashley's death her parents got the news they feared. police ruled her death a suicide, case closed. made me angry. made me angry because i knew that he shot her. i knew that ashley wouldn't take her own life. once the case closed and we got the police report we realized they didn't do anything.

so tell me more about the police report and what you didn't like about it. it was incomplete, it was inconsistent, it could have been written by a high school student. no follow up. it was unbelievable. keith morrison: the evans police department declined to speak with "dateline" on camera but said this about the allegations against them, "the investigation we conducted was thorough and complete. a conclusion of suicide was determined after an exhaustive review and analysis of all evidence physical, forensic, and testimonial, by all of the five agencies involved." as for ashley's parents there was nothing more either of them could do apparently. and two years went by during which tom moved to indiana with the kids and enrolled at a local university. and i said to him, tom, murderers always move away. keith morrison: it was important to ashley's parents to remain close to those three kids so they fought for grandparents' rights and tried, they said, to be civil with tom.

but they also told anybody who would listen that they believed their daughter had been murdered. like a local reporter. then he said, do you mind if i start looking into this? and joel and i said, no go ahead, start looking into it. and it didn't take him much. keith morrison: the reporter asked around, talked to neighbors, and asked the evans police department to comment on what he had heard. and before you knew it the chief announced ashley's case would be reopened. i extend my sincere sympathy to the family of ashley fallis for their loss, and for the revisited grief that accompany the reopening of a difficult case such as this one. i start crying because it's the catalyst for opening everything up. i finally have someone who's taken it seriously. keith morrison: denver's fox 31 aired the startling discovery that prompted a new investigation. in particular, a neighbor who was only 15 at the time, said he heard tom admit to shooting ashley.

it's pretty hard to forget hearing somebody confess their murder and then getting away with it. keith morrison: to prevent any suggestion of taint or cover up, the case was turned over to the nearby fort collins police department. for the next seven months, officers talked to witnesses both old and new and hired experts to re-examine forensic evidence. and when their work was done, weld county da michael rourke decided to assemble a grand jury. what i want to do is i want to put all of that information as much as we can gather and almost use it as a test run. and they said? and they indicted him. and i got the phone call that they indicted him, and i just start crying. keith morrison: tom fallis was arrested in indiana, charged with second degree murder and brought back to colorado to stand trial. ashley's parents were finally optimistic. i believe that they will find him guilty of murdering

our daughter. i believe that's going to happen. you decided to believe it or do you really believe it? i really believe it. narrator: coming up, a powerful one two punch from the prosecution. i heard him saying, oh my god, what have i done? she said, i could hear her screaming, get off me, get off me. narrator: when dateline continues. upset stomach iberogast indigestion iberogast bloating iberogast thanks to a unique combination of herbs, iberogast helps relieve six digestive symptoms to help you feel better. six digestive symptoms. the power of nature. iberogast. ooo! our car's value went up! the power of nature. 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.

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>> that's. peter should. >> that's. peter should. >> have known. when bad allergies attack... ♪♪ trust claritin to keep you in the game. ♪♪ nothing is proven more powerful for continuous non-drowsy allergy relief. live claritin clear.® ♪♪ >> this show began. and continues being the place to have the hard conversations. >> to understand. >> to understand. >> more with keith morrison: four years after ashley fallis' death her husband tom was on trial for murder.

dan grossman of nbc's denver affiliate, kusa, was in the courtroom for opening statements. the room was packed. you have ashley's parents who were there, a lot of family members, aunts, uncles, and even just people from the public who were interested in this case. keith morrison: the prosecution's allegation was perfectly clear. tom fallis argued with his wife, and in a fit of rage, shot and killed her. at the conclusion of this case after you've received all of the evidence you will be convinced, beyond a reasonable doubt, that it is him who pulled the trigger. keith morrison: prosecution witnesses said ashley was in high spirits at her new year's eve party, not at all suicidal. she was happy the whole night, laughing, smiling. she was dancing with her children, interacting with all the guests. keith morrison: tom though, ashley's uncle john testified about tom's sudden blow up when he discovered ashley asked him for a joint.

and i was sort of taken back by it because everything was fun that night and all of a sudden, boom. so i was just like, whoa. keith morrison: a neighbor said ashley told her how tom got physical with her. she told me how he had pushed her around before. he had never hit her, but he was physical and pushing her. keith morrison: da rourke wanted the jury to hear that tom had a hot temper, that he was volatile. anger would have been the most obvious motive. simply lost his temper. anger. gun nearby, bang. right. to prove it, the witness, ear witness you could say. nick glover, the neighbor whose story was reported on television and helped to reopen the case. i heard him saying, "oh my god, what have i done? oh my god, what have i done?" keith morrison: nick was 15 at the time. he said he remembered crouching down inside his house under an open window listening to tom speak to people in his driveway. you can hear one of them, i do not who it was, say "what?

what do you mean?" and he proceeded to say, "i shot my wife." keith morrison: nick said he knew it was tom, you could see him out the window. woman: how certain are you that the voice you're hearing is tom fallis' voice? i'm 100%. keith morrison: there was more. nick's mom, kathy glover, testified that on the night of the shooting, she got a strange phone call from a teenage neighbor around 1:00 a.m. she said, "please tell me you called the police". and i said, "no i didn't. why?" and she said, "because your neighbor just shot his wife". and i said, "what?" and she said, "i could hear her screaming 'get off me, get off me'". keith morrison: powerful evidence. and then that neighbor testified. but, uh oh. do you recall telling kathy glover in a phone conversation that same early morning, "i heard her screaming, 'get off me, get off me'".

i do not. keith morrison: she was 16 and drinking that night, she says, so that might explain her faulty memory. man: do you recall telling officer [inaudible] that you heard a female yelling, "get off of me, get off of me"? i do not. did you expect that from her? yeah. it didn't surprise me. it hurt you though. it hurt. but i thought when you have a police officer who interviews her within an hour, hour and a half of the shooting and she is clear as day is saying these are the things i heard from my back window, whether she had been drinking that night or not, to me, that's the most believable version of events. keith morrison: so a hiccup perhaps. but then there was the crime scene. remember the coroner and the csi officer said at the time that the scene screamed suicide. but this prosecution witness-- my name is jonathan w. priest. keith morrison: priest is a former homicide detective and forensic consultant who used a miniature model of the fallis bedroom to show ashley's position.

so she has to be here and then bent down so that she'll fit into this trajectory area. keith morrison: he was convinced that if ashley shot herself there would be more blood on the floor and surrounding surfaces not just this one carpet stain. we have indications of a bleeding. but the type of injury that we're talking about is going to bleed a lot. and that's not the kind of stain i would expect to see if that's what was occurring. something is keeping that blood from reaching that area. keith morrison: and he believed that something was tom fallis. remember, his clothing was drenched with blood and so priest concluded tom and ashley must have been in close contact when the gun went off. using the prosecutor he suggested there was a struggle when the shot was fired. i can keep blood staining from getting onto the wall or on to the cabinet and i can lower her continuing to bleed onto my shirt

or i get her this position. keith morrison: the prosecution rested its case. and what possible defense could there be? well for a start, this. i have so much pain on the inside i can no longer take it. keith morrison: a letter and what a letter it was. narrator: coming up, our troubled marriage or a troubled young woman. what kind of mental health issues did you observe ashley fallis to be going through? mood swings, impulsive behaviors. narrator: and the verdict. when "dateline" continues. my moderate to severe crohn's symptoms kept me out of the picture. now i have skyrizi. ♪ i've got places to go and i'm feeling free. ♪ ♪ control of my crohn's means everything to me. ♪ ♪ control is everything to me.♪ and now i'm back in the picture.

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it brings people together in meaningful ways. keith morrison: it can't be an easy thing for a juror imagining a moment he or she didn't see-- woman: please rise for the jury. keith morrison: --and deciding what must have happened. did tom fallis kill his wife ashley in a fit of violent temper or what? tom fallis did not kill his wife and mother of their three children. ashley fallis committed suicide. keith morrison: remember how the prosecution talked of ashley's happy frame of mind? that ashley was a kind of lie said the defense. ashley fallis was a beautiful woman,

but she had a terrible pain inside. she was mentally ill. keith morrison: the defense put one of ashley's close friends on the stand. what did you know of ashley having a mental illness? i knew that she was on medications. we spoke pretty in-depth about that. keith morrison: but even with medications the friend testified ashley had trouble controlling her emotions. what kind of mental health issues did you observe ashley fallis to be going through? depression, mood swings, impulsive behaviors. keith morrison: in fact the defense argued ashley was so depressed the summer before she died she wrote this letter to tom. i have so much pain on the inside, i can no longer take it. i'm sorry to do this to you and the kids, but i find myself not even liking my children.

keith morrison: every day is a chore with them and you. i have to pretend to be happy, i have to pretend to be someone i am not. please make sure you raise the kids to continue to go to the school we have chosen. i do love them, i just can't take this life any longer. please make sure you let them know every day that i do love them, and this was not their fault. suicide expert, dr. michael allen studied the letter as well as ashley's medical records and testified about his review. woman: do you have an opinion in this case about whether or not ashley fallis was of high risk to commit suicide on january 1, 2012? yes. my opinion is that she had many, many risk factors and warning signs. keith morrison: remember, detectives had learned years before that ashley had a family history of suicide. both her maternal uncle and her grandmother took their own lives. that, said dr. allen, put ashley at a higher risk

for doing the same thing. to close family members who had died by suicide would suggest a genetic propensity for suicide. keith morrison: the defense argued that on new year's eve 2011 it was the miscarriage that broke her will to go on. that she spent the night masking her pain with alcohol, that she planned to dull it further with marijuana after the party. and that's why tom was upset. she was vulnerable. he was concerned about her. he didn't want her to add marijuana to this toxic system that was developing inside of ashley fallis. keith morrison: the defense conceded ashley and tom quarreled that night, but insisted it never got physical. those scratches on tom's chest, the ones that prosecutors believed were proof of a struggle, dna tests never found any evidence to support that.

woman: you did not find any ashley fallis' dna, cellular material on those swabs from tom's chest, correct? - that is correct. keith morrison: the defense reminded jurors that tom told the police why he had the scratches, that he'd done a little "manscaping" to spice up his marriage. he had texts and photos to prove it. there's tom fallis when he has hair on his chest. all the way to the left. and on december 17, 2011, he texted ashley, "there you have it. you get your way so here it is. thought you might like it." keith morrison: so the scratches, said the defense, were because it was itchy. that's all. as for the so-called witnesses, said the defense, totally unreliable. the one changed her story on the stand and the other? just months after the shooting young nick glover went camping, of all things, with tom. the very man he said he heard confess

to shooting ashley fallis. woman: at no time during the camping trip with tom fallis did you ever tell anybody that you were uncomfortable being there with tom fallis. i do not recall. keith morrison: who to believe? for example, it wasn't one, but two prosecution crime scene analysts. this one, you've already heard, believed it was murder. but this one? most people that shoot somebody in an act of rage they don't stop with one shot. dan gillam was the crime scene expert from the first investigation of ashley's death. using a defense attorney about the same height as ashley he demonstrated how difficult it would have been for someone as tall as tom to have shot ashley at an angle that matched the bullet's trajectory. first of all, is that an unnatural position for another person to be holding the gun in that manner? it is for me. ok. and mr. fallis is 6 feet tall. how tall are you?

i'm 6 feet as well. ok. keith morrison: and the gun was ashley's. the shooting happened in arm's reach of where it was usually stored said the defense. after examining all the ballistic and blood spatter evidence gillam just didn't believe the shooting was murder. i believe that the story that mr. fallis gave is consistent with the evidence found at the scene. keith morrison: in other words, he thought it was suicide. so what happened in that moment after midnight? how would a juror decide? upon reaching a verdict you will inform the bailiff who will in turn notify me-- keith morrison: kusa's dan grossman settled in for a bit of a wait. this is almost a three week trial, there's a lot of evidence. you thought that you were looking at coming back the next day to hear the verdict. keith morrison: but, no. less than four hours later, a verdict. we the jury find the defendant, thomas fallis, not guilty of murder in the second degree and all lesser

included offenses signed by the jury foreperson. keith morrison: not guilty, not murder. after four long years of living under a cloud of suspicion, tom fallis was acquitted of all charges. he stayed straight faced, his defense attorney, iris eytan, was very emotional. but ashley's parents, they left the courtroom fairly quickly. keith morrison: ashley's parents declined to talk with "dateline" after the verdict. but their legal battles were far from over. they filed a civil lawsuit against several law enforcement officers of the evans police department who they believe falsified, altered, and omitted key evidence to make ashley's death look like a suicide. despite the verdict they continue to pursue the case. but in 2017, a us district court issued a final judgment dismissing their claims. what about ashley's family? can they just accept this and go on?

i don't think they'll ever accept it. to say that they were distraught would be an understatement. they, i think, truly believe that tom fallis killed their daughter and they are never going to let that go. keith morrison: an idea once so deeply ingrained, true or not, will not go away. and tom fallis and his children make a life as best they can. that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." feel that so many people hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline."ou think steven avery is innocent? it's emotional. tom fassbender: they made him look like he was just a nice person. what's happening is wrong. the evidence is beyond overwhelming.