>> he was stressed out, something was going on there. >> reporter: what had happened to ray. soon it wasn't just doctors and his family asking that question. it was detectives. >> this was most likely not a suicide. he had enemies. he received a surprise package from one. >> this man sent my dad a bomb. we were there for a surprise phone call from another. >> can i get it? >> reporter: it's josh mankiewicz from dateline. is there anything you wanna say? >> reporter: no shortage of suspects. just a shortage of detectives. >> reporter: all kinds of things go wrong in murder investigations, but the police department running outta money is usually not one of the things you think of. >> no. i pressed on. i did what i had to do. >> reporter: would she ever find justice? >> it's your father. your father was murdered, you're not gonna give up. >> reporter: i'm lester holt and this is dateline. here's josh mankiewicz with

reporter: the course of true love takes some strange twists and turns, particularly when it flows out of an online dating site. occasionally, a cyber-fling blossoms into a marriage. this is the story of one of those marriages. what went right. and what did not. back in 2002 ray kotomski was a 60-year-old, happily retired, former corrections officer, living comfortably by himself in a house in the pennsylvania woods after his 36-year marriage had ended in divorce. ray had three grown children. monica, is his middle child. >> reporter: tell me about your dad? >> a man's man. he was -- he loved outdoor kinda stuff. he loved hunting, fishing, stuff like that. a hard worker. he had a heart of gold. >> reporter: after his divorce from monica's mother, ray was lonely. the next step was as close as his keyboard. >> reporter: so he tried online dating. >> yeah.

>> yes, absolutely. i did, yes. yes, i did. >> reporter: you said, "you never know who you're gonna wind up with." >> that's right, yeah. >> reporter: and one day he tells you he met someone. >> well, he just said that he liked her, he was gonna go on a few dates with her. >> reporter: the woman ray met was teresa bowers lovin. she lived one state over in ohio. a 43-year-old nurses assistant, teresa had three kids herself. a grown daughter and son, and a younger son at home. >> i've kinda known her my whole life. >> reporter: beth burcham is a friend of teresa's who grew up with teresa's daughter sara. the three women all went to meet ray on that first date. >> she was, like, "well, i'm gonna go meet him. do you guys wanna go with me? >> reporter: what'd you think of ray? >> i liked him. he was smart-mouthed and just fun.

when they got together. >> he made my mom happy. she definitely had a smile. >> what did she like about him? >> a big country music fan. i think that was her kenny rogers the making right there. >> she thought he looked like kenny rogers. >> that's what we joked with her about. she thought he was handsome. >> things were clicking for josh's mom and ray. in may 2004, though got married. friends and family said he couldn't do enough for theresa, starting with an elaborate wedding. spent a lot of money on her. >> absolutely. >> took her out? >> uh-huh. >> pampered her. >> absolutely. >> old-fashioned gentleman type. >> yes, he was. >> a match made in cyber-heaven. bought a house close to theresa's home.

in october 2006, came a terrible blow. theresa's daughter was killed in a car krarks leaving her infant daughter and toddler son without a mom. roy loven, jr. was his brother. >> she's 21 years old, on her way to work one morning, and i guess hydro planes and hit a tree. >> the fact that she had two little babies, two little kids and the fathers were not in the picture. somebody had to step up and take them kids. >> that was your mom. >> she was the first one with her hands out, ready and willing to take them. >> theresa and ray transitioned from when they're crying grandparents to the daily grind of surrogate parents to gaffen

then not long after theresa's death, another body blow. diagnosed with cancer. ray did the right thing. he and theresa were spending alternates weeks at a cleveland hospital, where baby helena was being treated. ray even shaved his own head when the little girl lost her hair from the chemo. >> it sounds like he bonded with them. >> absolutely. he mentioned to a family member that he felt that god put him reason. and it was to take care of her. >> helena's cancer went into remission, but ray and ter reeseryreesetheir relationship suffered. the strain made ray toxic. he was angry and drinking more beer than usual. >> mom was scared. mom couldn't tell him to cutback on his drunking. he was stressed out.

>> totally. >> ray's family says he was fine. and that his drinking was never a problem. but by august 2009, theresa had enough of ray. she and the grandchildren moved to an apartment in a nearby town. on tuesday, august 11th, a few days after she moved out, theresa and ray reconciled enough to take the grand kids to lunch, and feed the fish at a state park. the following day, theresa left the children with her friend beth, and went back to the house to do laundry. what theresa said she found when she got there mid morning was a clearly sick, nearly naked, somewhat incoherent ray. he refused to let her call a doctor. theresa told beth about it. >> she said he was acting so weird when she came back to get the kids and he wasn't feeling good. >> the next morning, when she couldn't reach rayon the phone,

lived near ray, to check on him. when theresa's mom got to the house, she found him unconscious. she called theresa, who alerted 911. >> what's the emergency? >> i need an ambulance. >> okay. >> down barely not -- it's husband. >> all right, i'll send the ambulance. >> all right, thank you. >> she phoned beth and raised to be with ray. >> what did she say happened? >> that her mom found him naked on the floor unresponsive. >> the ambulance arrived at the house around the same time as theresa. emts scrambled to stabilize him. she road with him to the nearest hospital. they struggled to revive him. but whatever ailed ray, it was too serious a case for the local hospital. he was taken to a level two trauma center in erie, en vein yeah,

>> a medical crisis, but also a mystery, what had happened to ray. when we return -- >> i didn't know what to think. nothing was making sense. >> but when investigators looked more closely, they find something suspicious. >> he had those crystals, there was no question. >> no question.ur technology. technology... say, have you seen all the amazing technology in geico's mobile app? mobile app? look. electronic id cards, emergency roadside service, i can even submit a claim. wow... yep, geico's mobile app works like a charm. geico. expect great savings and a whole lot more. my son and i used to watch the red carpet shows on tv now, i'm walking them. life is unpredictable being flake free isn't. because i have used head and shoulders for 20 years. used regularly, it removes up to 100% of flakes keeping you protected

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the icu, ray lay deathly ill. doctors tried to determine what was killing him. and blood work told the story. ray had somehow ingested a toxic dose of ethylene glycol, but it looked as though they figured it out too late. even in small amounts, just a few ounces, antifreeze is almost always freight al. ray's daughter monica was with her dad. >> he was just laying in bed. >> how did he look? >> horrible. >> what were you thinking? >> i didn't know what to think. because nothing was making any sense. >> ray had missed the narrow window in which antifreeze poisoning can be reversed. end of life discussions with doctors began. as his wife, it was theresa's call. three-days after he was admitted to the hospital, she told the

her son, josh, watched theresa make that agonizing decision. >> she was devastated. absolutely devastated. i could see it in her face. >> hard to do? >> uh-huh. >> ray's death was referred to dr. eric have avay, the erie county coroner. >> by the time he got to you, it was already suspected, so you were looking specifically for that? >> my job in autopsy was to confirm the crystals in the kidneys which confirmed he had it on board. >> and those crystals. slam dunk. >> the medical examiner determined it was, and it was listed as undetermined. ray told her he drank something sweet around the time he got sick and antifreeze had a very sweet taste.

the ohio hospital that he had been threatening to kill himself. it was looking like suicide. ray's children didn't buy it. >> what were you thinking? >> the only thing i was thinking was i didn't believe the whole he tried to commit suicide with antifreeze. my dad would never do that. all of us knew that. >> so when ray died, the wheels of justice began to slowly spin. taylor cleveland is a detectoto with the sheriff's office. >> we received a call from the erie county coroner's office and they wanted to give us the earliest heads up they could that there was probably something in this case, ray's death, that was not natural. something that was quite possibly a homicide. >> if this was homicide, investigators had plenty of work to do. >> raymond had been a corrections officer. >> yes. >> and had unquestionably during his career dealt with some pretty bad guys that were locked up.

>> cops started looking into ray's past, to see if someone was settling an old score. three-days after his death, they processed his house as a crime scene. but it had been cleaned by the time they got there. ray's bedding was in an outside trash can. there were numerous crushed beer and dr. pepper cans, and in the garage, right where you would expect to find them, were two containers of antifreeze. one sealed, one opened. and that told investigators nothing. because there were no fingerprints or dna on either container. >> how long after raymond die did you speak with theresa? >> a couple of days after. >> typically when investigators start looking back at somebody's marriage, they see either a great marriage or a bad marriage or something in between. this was what? >> according to theresa, this was not a good marriage. >> she admitted that?

>> so she had to be a suspect pretty much right from the get go. >> unfortunately, wives kill their husbands and we see that quite often. so you have to at least look at her. >> theresa laid out for investigators her actions in the days leading up to ray's death. she again said she tried to get ray to seek medical assistance when he first got sick, but he refused. she said ray had been miserable and unhappy, and she speculated that he committed suicide. this was looking like intro to detective work 101. theresa, the suspect's spouse had means, mottiv and opportunity. but when investigators dug deeper into the strange life and times of theresa and ray, their case took a head snapping turn, in the direction of a totally new suspect.

>> this man had a bomb.

to kill ray once >> reporter: ray kotomski was dead -- and his wife teresa believed it was suicide. but law enforcement thought this smelled like a murder. that someone had poisoned ray with anti-freeze. detectives looked for his killer among the thousands of the worst of the worst criminals ray had spent a career guarding in pennsylvania's maximum security prisons. raymond was not the corrections officer that all the inmates hated and, you know, vowed to get even with once they got outside? >> quite the opposite, that -- raymond and the people that raymond associated with during his time at the prison were generally respected and did not run into a lot of problems with inmates.

didn't look like anyone from back in the day had it in for ray. but there was someone from his and teresa's recent past who had once wanted ray out of the way, if not dead. detectives learned that in the winter of 2003, when ray and teresa were first getting to know one another, she was also seeing another man she'd met online -- a fellow by the name of robert reichard-- and she left ray for a few weeks to be with robert. when teresa went back to ray, robert did not take that well. not at all. >> robert was infatuated with her, and wanted teresa to leave ray. to leave ray for him. >> reporter: reichard stalked the couple. he vandalized teresa's car. and then it really escalated. >> robert decided to try and remove raymond from the equation, sent raymond a letter bomb.

>> a real bomb, a functional, working bomb. raymond went to his mailbox, found a package that looked odd and//brought it to the state police barracks. the bomb squad detonated it. >> reporter: if raymond had opened that package would he have been killed? >> he would have been severely injured if not killed. robert said-- at the time that he had wanted to be with teresa and that he thought that raymond was in the way. >> reporter: now, when i look at teresa i guess i don't see the femme fatale that guys wanna kill for. >> neither do i. >> reporter: but it's there. >> in some fashion, yes. >> reporter: ray's daughter monica remembers a phone call from her father about the bomb. >> his voice was shaky, it was something i've never heard before. >> reporter: what'd you say? what'd you think? >> i didn't know what to think. i-- i think-- at first i couldn't believe it. >> reporter: robert reichard pleaded guilty to manufacturing a firearm and was sentenced to

he was paroled just months before ray kotomski became mysteriously ill. did you wonder whether he had anything to do with it? >> yeah. absolutely. i mean, teresa was the last one with him. but this man sent my dad a bomb. >> reporter: monica wasn't the only one wondering about that. when you discover that somebody else tried to kill your victim, and is now out of prison, that changes everything. >> it does. we had one of two options in this case. either it was a wife killing her husband, or some elaborate plot to finish what mr. reichard had started and was unsuccessful with. >> reporter: detectives tracked down their new suspect. >> he was living what appeared to be a normal life in western pennsylvania. >> reporter: you or other investigators probably spoke

family? >> investigators from our office spoke with a lot of people associated with robert reichard. >> reporter: could you track mr. reichard's movements? >> he was not on gps monitoring at the time, no. >> reporter: so, if he was going to see teresa or if he was gonna stalk raymond nobody would've known about it? >> be a fair assessment. >> reporter: he certainly would've had access to antifreeze. everybody has access -- >> everybody has access to antifreeze. >> reporter: while detectives were trying to find out if teresa's ex-boyfriend turned letter bomber had anything to do with ray's death, they dug deeper into teresa's past. but the investigation went slowly. weeks became months. ray's family counted the days. >> it just felt like we were gettin' swept under the rug. >> reporter: some people woulda given up in that instance. >> how could you? it's your father. your father was murdered, you're not gonna give up. >> so what'd you do? >> i pressed on. i did what i had to do. i made sure that there was

>> reporter: that was easier said than done. hard times were coming to ashtabula county. >> coming up, the case goes cold, because instead of looking for killers, detectives are looking for work. >> all kinds of things go wrong in murder investigations, but the police department running outta money is usually not one of the things you think of. >> no.w much they move,... and created degree with motionsense. the world's first antiperspirant activated by movement, it has unique microcapsules that break with friction to release bursts of freshness all day. keeping you fresher with every move. motionsense. protection to keep you moving.

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in america, our do-it-yourself culture extends even to killing. there are more than 40-thousand suicides each year in the united states, far more than the number of homicides. and that was the issue. there wasn't any question what killed ray kotomski. that was antifreeze.

ray's widow, teresa, and her family maintained a despondent ray killed himself when teresa left him. ray's children and the cops thought it was murder. two theories and if murder. two possible suspects. teresa, the grieving wife and teresa's fresh-from-the-slammer ex-boyfriend who'd once tried to mail-bomb ray out of the way. but his story was checking out. >> we just couldn't find anything other than his prior association with raymond that would suggest that he did this. >> what kind of vibe did you get after his death? >> the last thing he said to me is that could have been me. he looked concerned. he looked like somebody dodged a bullet. >> i'm guessing she and robert

>> 100%. >> she's at the top of the list. >> yes >> reporter: but the investigation into the death of ray kotomski was about to turn as cold as ashtabula county in february for a very odd reason. >> shortly after this case was investigated by our department there was a financial collapse and we laid off about 90% of our officers. >> reporter: the county, what, ran out of money? >> yes. >> reporter: and the result was. >> murders were not getting solved. >> reporter: ray kotomski's case was one of them. his children were not happy. >> i wasn't trying to be a pain in the butt. i didn't want them to drop the case. >> reporter: then the county runs out of money. >> yes. >> reporter: i mean, all kinds of things go wrong in murder investigations, but the police department running out of money is usually not one of the things you think of. >> no. unh-uh. >> reporter: and for almost two years, nothing happened. >> yeah. >> reporter: monica's two children were out of the house. she was able to take time off from helping her husband with his construction business and

>> i sent letters to everybody. and i was constantly calling the sheriff's dept for new information and whatnot but i wasn't getting anywhere. >> reporter: and meanwhile, back in ashtabula county life went on. what was teresa doing during those 18 months that you weren't able to investigate? >> she was filing for life insurance, collecting life insurance from raymond kotomski. >> some of the $150,000 for insurance, went to buy a house where she was raising her grandchildren. and, about a year after ray's death, there was a new man in her life. tim schumaker was an over-the-road trucker when he and teresa found each other. >> reporter: how'd you and teresa meet? >> on the internet. >> reporter: what'd you like about her? >> she was attentive. just a sweet lady. >> reporter: before long, tim and teresa were living together. tim gave up long distance trucking for a job closer to home. >> reporter: did she tell you

>> she told me. >> reporter: and she said, "i didn't do it. i didn't have anything to do with it." >> she didn't have to say that she didn't do it. i knew she didn't do it. >> reporter: ashtabula county's investigation may have been frozen in red ink, but ray's daughter monica was still in action, emailing, cajoling, pleading. >> i wrote letters to the ohio attorney general. then i got a phone call and they said they were looking into it. >> reporter: ohio attorney general mike dewine had recently started a cold case unit and, in september 2012, three years after ray kotomski's death, dewine's office reopened the case, with teresa the prime suspect. >> i didn't want her to get away with murder. my prosecutors and detectives didn't want to see that happen either. >> reporter: those investigators were glad to be back in business.

teresa for ray's murder. one had to do with a story they heard about her first marriage. >> her previous husband, roy lovin, told us that teresa had put rat poison in his mashed potatoes. >> reporter: and he knew that how? >> roy said that he took two bites and fed some to their son teresa reached into her son's mouth, pulled out the mashed potatoes. roy said that he got pretty ill after that. >> the son was okay? >> the son was okay, yes roy said that the only other thought that he gave that was when his german shepherd was poisoned. roy said that he never connected the two until raymond was poisoned. >> reporter: teresa's son from that first marriage is roy, jr., and he says that never happened. there's a story out there that your mom tried to poison your father. >> it's all lies.

father lie about this? >> maybe he is jealous. maybe he -- maybe he feels that she ruined his life. i don't know. maybe this is his way of getting back at her. >> reporter: and, there was a polygraph she took early in the investigation. the examiner had asked teresa two questions: did you poison ray with antifreeze? and do you know who poisoned ray? teresa's answer to both, no. which was also the answer to whether teresa was telling the truth. >> she failed her polygraph test. >> reporter: that lie detector failure was inadmissible in court but helped convince cops they were on the right track. they turned the heat back up on teresa. >> and they told her that they know that she snapped, and she killed him. she needed to confess, so they kind of threatened her. >> reporter: she didn't bend to that. >> no.

lawyer." >> reporter: teresa's family and friends like beth burcham rallied around her. they felt ray's family just wouldn't or couldn't face the fact that he committed suicide. >> i think they don't want to believe that ray would do that. i really do. >> reporter: you think they're just looking for somebody to blame. >> yeah. other than ray. >> reporter: but on march 28, 2014, five years after ray's death, officers surrounded teresa's house. >> we knocked on the door early in the morning, told teresa that we had a warrant for her arrest and she was under arrest for the murder of raymond kotomski. she didn't look surprised. >> she kissed me as she was going. she almost started bawling, but something -- god come over her, and she was okay. >> i was crazy happy. it was like, "wow, we finally got somewhere." >> reporter: after a few days in jail teresa was released on bond.

the case had problems. ohio attorney general mike dewine's people gave ray's family a depressingly realistic appraisal. >> we told them all along, "this is going to be a tough case. be prepared. be prepared for a loss." >> reporter: we might not win this. >> we might not win this case. >> reporter: coming up -- >> proof teresa is innocent or proof of the perfect crime. >> did you find any dna on teresa? >> no dna. >> no fingerprints, correct? >> that's correct. >> when "dateline" continues.and how it's available 24/7 and then our car overheated... what are the chances? can you send a tow truck please? uh, the location? you're not going to believe this but it's um... it's in a tree. i wish i was joking, mate, but it's literally stuck in a tree. (car horn honking) a chainsaw?

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geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. >> reporter: it was july of 2015, almost six years after ray kotomski's death., when his wife teresa went on trial. there were two charges -- contaminating a substance for human consumption, and murder, both part of the accusation that teresa poisoned ray with antifreeze by somehow slipping it into something he ate or drank like beer or soda. teresa's lawyer, veteran trial attorney paul hentemann, was confident. >> there's no question in my view she was absolutely innocent of the crime. >> reporter: prosecutors offered teresa plea deals which would have resulted in little jail

>> she was absolutely, categorically convinced that she did not commit the crime. and she felt that god was in her corner and she was not going to be convicted of -- of any crime. she did nothing wrong. >> reporter: another twist -- attorney hentemann asked for a bench trial, no jury. judge gary yost would alone rule on teresa's guilt or innocence. if she killed ray, or if he committed suicide. in her opening statement, prosecutor emily pelphrey attacked the idea that ray killed himself. >> he was planning for his future. he loved his grandchildren. >> reporter: the doctor who treated ray in the hospital where he died testified teresa herself said ray was not suicidal. >> she had indicated that he had not mentioned anything about feeling suicidal at that time. >> reporter: no, the state argued. this was murder. medical examiner dr. eric vey testified that antifreeze killed ray.

complications of ethylene glycol toxicity. >> reporter: but exactly how antifreeze kills was critical to the state's case. >> when somebody ingests antifreeze, either deliberately or because somebody else gave it to them, what's the progression of symptoms? >> well, initially they'll appear to be drunk or stuporous. and then they'll become progressively lethargic, and then become comatose. and then they'll start to have congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema. and then they'll start to go into renal failure and then eventually die. >> you can sort of estimate when they ingested the antifreeze based on where their symptoms are at that point? >> that's exactly right. it's possible to get a rough estimate of when the ingestion occurred. >> reporter: the keystone of the state's case was the progression of symptoms that prosecutors contended would show when ray ingested the antifreeze. >> you were able to establish a timeline?

residence he was already lethargic and almost comatose. so we already know from his clinical presentation at that point that he's probably 12 to 24 hours in. >> reporter: the m.e.'s estimate dovetailed with the prosecutor's timeline that ray must have ingested the antifreeze the day he and teresa took that outing with the grandchildren. to support their timeline, prosecutors introduced this voicemail. ray left it for a friend several hours after the state says teresa poisoned him. >> i'm sorry, i'm sorry, i'm sorry. >> reporter: on the tape, the prosecution argued, ray sounds drunk. >> have i told you i think you're a nice person? call me back if you can, okay? bye. >> reporter: prosecutors say he was really in the stuporous early stages of antifreeze poisoning. >> we contend that that's when the ethyl glycolene, or the antifreeze was ingested. >> reporter: and, they argued,

gave it to him because no one else was with ray then. and how did they know that? well, from what she told this fbi agent -- >> she stated that over that week she -- he did not have any visitors and she was the only one there. >> reporter: in addition to their science-based timeline that put teresa in the bullseye, the state wanted judge yost to consider teresa's behavior while ray was dying. in the gallery, monica wept as her younger sister kimberly testified how teresa ended life support for their father without consulting ray's side of the family, and the terms she said teresa dictated for releasing ray's body to her. >> the conditions were that i had to have him cremated and that she wanted to make sure i wouldn't be the beneficiary. >> reporter: it was all part of a pattern, prosecutors argued, that added up to murder. >> the state contends there is

is at all reasonable to conclude that anyone other than the defendant, mrs. kotomski, is the one who provided that ethyl, that antifreeze to her husband. >> reporter: when the defense had its turn, attorney hentemann told the judge the state had no case, not a scrap of evidence. he got the fbi agent who took teresa's initial statement to concede she may have been confused about whether she was even with ray on the day the state says she poisoned him. >> she may have been wrong about that, correct? >> she could have been wrong about that. >> reporter: this was suicide, he argued. not murder. and what practically proved it, according to the defense, was the fact that ray did nothing to save himself. >> and one could conclude that, if someone gave you poison and you became ill, what would be the first thing you would do? you would call the police or you would call a hospital. that never occurred. >> reporter: hentemann then attacked the state's most

a total lack of physical evidence connecting his client to containers of antifreeze. lead detective taylor cleveland was cross-examined about the absence of any forensics. >> did you find any dna on the part of mrs. kotomski? >> no we found no dna, mr. kotomski or otherwise. >> and you found no fingerprints of mrs. kotomski on the can, correct? >> that's correct. >> reporter: teresa's attorney went after the prosecution's timeline. he got one of the state's medical witnesses to concede she couldn't tell exactly when ray drank the antifreeze. >> you don't how long he suffered from it nor do you know how much he had ingested? >> correct. >> reporter: under cross-examination the m.e. admitted he couldn't answer the question at the heart of the case. >> you don't know whether it was a homicide or you don't know whether it was a suicide. is that a fair correct? >> that is correct, yes. >> reporter: hentemann produced

the state's toxicity timeline as suspect science. >> it's impossible to determine when the ethylene glycol may have been ingested because it may have been ingested as one dose, or at one time, or several smaller dose over an undermined period of time. >> reporter: in his close, attorney hentemann suggested all of it amounted to at the very least, reasonable doubt. >> i'm suggesting to you that it's a suicide. and if the facts don't add up, then you have to rule in favor of the defendant. >> reporter: teresa never testified. her family and ray's waited, as judge yost retired to his chambers to make his decision. >> coming up >> i was so afraid that she was gonna get away with it. >> i have faith in her. >> reporter: the verdict, and a

>> they have no evidenc >> reporter: stuck in a bad marriage, most people swallow only their pride. it turns out, they're the lucky

thursday, july 30, 2015. judgment day in ashtabula county. judge gary yost had reached his decision. the families of accused murderer teresa kotomski and her dead husband ray made their way to the courthouse. >> by the time i got to the courthouse, my whole body was literally shaking. i was so afraid, like, i worked up to that -- almost six years. and i was -- i was so afraid that she was gonna get away with it. >> reporter: it looked as if ray's daughter's fears were justified. >> the court finds the defendant, teresa kotomski, not guilty of contaminating a substance for human consumption. >> the judge reads the first count, tampering with food. >> yeah. >> not guilty. >> um-hm. >> and you think, "well, that's it." >> yeah, we're done.

>> reporter: it is a moment monica will look back on for the rest of her life. >> yeah. >> and thinking what? >> i had hate. i did. >> the court finds that the state has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant, teresa kotomski, is the person who administered the antifreeze to raymond kotomski. the court finds the defendant guilty of murder ms. kotomski, do you wish to make a statement at this time? >> your honor, i want you to know i did not hurt my husband. i did not give him poison. i did not give him anything to harm him at all. i loved my husband. i swear before god. i never, ever, would hurt anybody, especially my husband. >> reporter: the sentence was mandatory. >> which has an indefinite term of imprisonment of 15 years to life.

i want to be with her. i have faith in her. i don't think she's guilty. >> reporter: while teresa's attorney appeals her conviction, tim shumaker, teresa's boyfriend of five years, is standing by his woman. he's raising her grandkids. and not long after teresa began serving her sentence, tim asked her to marry him. teresa said yes. >> you meet this woman. she's already a suspect in a murder investigation. and then she's arrested, and tried, and convicted. you could find somebody who wasn't locked up. but you don't want anybody else. you want her. >> yeah, i want her. >> why is that? >> because i love her. and i wanna spend the rest of my life with her. i think -- i think she's -- she's an awesome woman. she's everything that a man looks for in a woman. >> reporter: while we were

>> she went into detail -- [ phone ringing ] oh, can i get it. >> reporter: it was teresa calling from behind bars. she and tim caught up for a few minutes. then he put her on speaker. >> oh, i -- hi. teresa, it's josh mankiewicz from "dateline." >> hi. >> hi. how are you? >> could be better. could be worse. >> okay. >> i understand you and tim are engaged. >> yes we are. ain't that awesome? >> congratulations. >> thank you. thank you. i appreciate it. >> is there anything you wanna say? >> well, i just -- i just want everybody to know that, you know, i'm innocent. i didn't do what they're accusing me of doing. i loved my husband. someday we'll know why -- why he did what he did. >> you think he killed himself deliberately. >> i think it was an accidental suicide. i think he took in that antifreeze enough to make himself sick, and called me out there thinking that i would feel sorry for him, because that's the type of person i am. >> this call is originating from

>> i just wanna be clear. you think ray took the antifreeze deliberately, to make himself sick, and get you to come back to him? >> yes. yes. i believe that his intention was to get me to come back. >> do you think you'll be outta there one day? >> i believe i'm gonna be outta here. i believe that the truth is gonna set me free. i'm hopin' that somebody really goes over this and finds out that i had no part of that. 'cause they have no evidence on me. they have none. because there's n -- no evidence there. >> i love you. we're gonna get cut off, babe. >> thank you for using -- >> yeah. we got cut off. >> okay. well, thank you for letting us talk to her. >> reporter: we wanted to interview teresa in person, but our request was denied by the department of corrections. teresa's hypothesis -- that ray took antifreeze so she would come back to him -- is one that her family and friends to a person are on board with. they see teresa as a decent

who, through no fault of hers, become obsessed with her, >> let me make sure i understand. one guy, mr. reichert, wants to kill to have teresa. another guy, roy, makes up a story that she's a murderer because he doesn't want anybody else to have her. and ray tries to kill himself to get her to come back. have i got that about right? >> yeah. >> do you know anybody else around here who leads that kind of life, who drives men to do those kind of things? >> no. no. not at all. >> what's her secret? >> i have no idea. no idea. i think she's just a good woman. >> reporter: that's pretty much the opposite of what ray's daughter monica thinks. for her, this was all very personal. >> this was my dad. this was -- this was justice. this is the way it should be. you killed my father, somebody's

and damn well right she's gonna. >> that's all for now.

thanks for joining us. it's monday, march 7th. coming up on "early today," worldwide outpouring of the passing of nancy reagan continues as admirers remember a shrewd adviser and devoted partner to ronald reagan. then to politics as the democrats debated flint's water crisis and the auto industry bailout when things got testy. >> if you are talking about the

of your friends destroyed this economy -- >> you know -- >> excuse me. i'm talking. >> we'll tell you how the candidates faired after weekend voting ahead of tuesday's big day. and check out the world's largest aircraft. nfl legend peyton manning plans to call it a career later today. and much more on a big monday. "early today" starts right now. good morning. i'm dara brown. world wide reaction continues to pour in over the death of nancy reagan. the words used to describe her. loyal, devoted, shrewd, and protective. former president jimmy carter said she'll also be admired for her strength of conviction and livelong devotion to her husband. nancy reagan was totally devoted to president ragger. her strength of character and legendary particularly when tested by the attempted