welcome back italy style, michael is hanging out at one of the most recognizable spots and one of italy's best kept secrets just next time save a little room for me come on buddy. >> you got it mario, i'm here at the coliseum in rome a beautiful sight and another beautiful sight? seeing this guy, the go-to guy for oprah and many other celebrities when they want to see rome. why is it everybody wants to see rome with you? >> because i love my city and i think i know how to show. >> when in rome do as the stars do. we're in italy getting the only tour oprah takes with the only man who can truly deliver -- >> welcome to rome. >> our new pal is on the speed dial of oprah, stallone and michael j. fox. and always by his side in work and play wife eva and sons

marko and simone and always on their agenda, showing you italy at the highest level. >> we're atop of the mayor's palace. >> the best view of rome. >> if you want to see this whole view you've got to call angelo sneaks you in. now they understand but tell them one more thing they don't already know about italy. >> october is the best month to come. because the sunset is spectacular. and there's not many people. >> but no matter when you come it's italy, it's always about the food. tucked away 20 minutes south of rome the chicken enticed every a-listers. >> diane sawyer. >> the 110-year-old landmark was known to make special concessions for one blue eyed fan. >> to rent a villa, not too far

from this place and have a nice party here with the chicken. >> it's like seafood sushi, it's so fresh, it practically crawls on your plate. a favorite of susan sarandon and cameron diaz the finest mediterranean sea food you'll ever place. >> lobster -- >> welcome to italy. a mix of fish seafood and pasta and look around you're likely to see a familiar face. >> adrian brody, pen nell pea cruz. >> only one day to complete perfect day of eating gelato? >> what's your favorite flavor? >> now i like -- >> thank you. this is --

>> and one of the few shops that boast all fresh ingredients, sasha and malia gave the stamp of approval. >> the aobamas were here? >> they went behind counter and made their own desserts. >> extra in italian we say extra. >> perfect. >> salud. >> you don't want to jet out without at least spending a night or two. we come to a hotel that makes the most of your his toric surroundings. >> a grand slam in the heart of rome. >> most of the attraction. >> with this swimming pool overlooking the walls of the vatican, only luxury urban resort in the city center. >> with the vatican a five minute stroll it is the perfectly located getaway, if being a tourist isn't your own

desire chill and enjoy the amenities. >> the spa is 400 square meter boutique spa which is intimate. the only spa in rome with daylight. fantastic pool pool bar and restaurant. >> the suites also a big draw for those with big bank role. >> the penthouse 12,000 euro a day. >> if the price tag scares you, check in off peak. >> offseason is during the winter from november through february the entire resort is fantastic, but it's easier than in the high season. >> any time is a great time to check in. >> atmosphere of calm and tranquillity it's the reason why most of the guests will come here. >> coming up on mansions and millionaires. >> scattered throughout this countryside are the ruins, centuries old farm homes. >> the mini castles covering the

hills of tuscany and how you could own one. >> plus take the stress out of your trips. >> exceptional comfort on board and fantastic experience. >> coming up on "mansions and millionaires."

what do you get when you combine a medieval village with a perfect destination, the perfect tuscan holiday. deep in the hill sid sits a five star destination as ancient as rome. >> scattered throughout the countryside are the ruins of centuries old farm homes. >> 4200 acres with now updated farm house villas filled with modern amenities combined with their old world charm. >> really a great place for

entertaining the blend of old and new really works. >> each villa is approximately 6,000 square feet includes four bedrooms and best views of the italian sunset and wait until you see the bathrooms. >> italians are known for badge design. if there's one room in the house you want to be modern it's the bath room. >> and the amenities, just as classy. >> original wood burning oven and amphitheater, big infinity edge swimming pool. >> if the scenic beauty hasn't taken your breath away listen up. >> 3.7 million euro up to 6.25 million euro. >> too pricey? you may want to think of splitting it with a few friends. >> 290,000 euro everybody will get four weeks a year and beyond that stay whenever you want in the other homes when there's

availability. >> another reason to answer the call of the most captivating countryside. >> of course, if you're watching this you're not in italy, right? if you want to get there right now, here's a pretty good place to begin. >> coasting at 30,000 feet my getaway to italy begins. >> the 380 airbus was the way to go. >> exceptional comfort on board, gives you a fantastic experience. 14 private suites and great deal of space. >> the seats changing into flat beds if you would rather snooze. and at london's heath row, a coveted layother at terminal five with simon brooks giving us the tour. >> terminal five is not just a connecting place. people see it as a destination in its own right. >> 34 million passengers touched down here and many enjoying the exclusive layover luxuries. >> here in terminal five, we

have choice of six premium lounges. when they come here they've got a choice basically just to relax, the option of spa treatment. >> the best part. >> an arrivals lounge, champagne is served in all six lounges and everything is complimentary. >> for the ultimate in air travel luxury the concord room but -- >> flies to over 130 destinations. >> we started flying from aust continue texas to here the only european carrier that connects those two great cities. >> and a brand-new virtual bonus, these europe interablgtive videos offering a preview of your exact trip.

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that's it for extra's mansions and millionaires a big thank you to the international kitchen and if you think you have a taste for italy, you won't be disappointed. mario, thanks for taking the tour. >> thank you, michael. why not leave you wanting more pasta, here's a little lesson in cooking the authentic tuscan favorite picci pasta. >> what are we going to make? >> picci pasta. >> a tuscan tradition, picci pasta, not to be confused with the fuzzy fruit pici hand rolled and simple as one, two, three. first, add flour to the bowl. >> we make a volcano. >> yes. and now start to pour water in the middle. >> stir and knead and fold the

dough. >> we're ready to work it into shape and of course the best are made by hand. >> like a big spaghetti. >> we are ready to cook our pasta. very fresh. >> and you can't have pasta without an authentic tuscan sauce. saute sliced garlic in olive oil and sliced cherry tomatoes and a secret -- >> water from the pasta becaus it makes your sauce very very creamy. >> and mangia. >> look at that beautiful. >> easy to do at home, more fun when you're in italy. >> it's delicious.

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♪ >> reporter: michelle mockbee's siblings remember her as the big sister who literally couldn't lose. >> she was the contest queen. she won every contest there was for like a two-year run. >> yeah. you name it flat screen tvs, tickets to everything gift cards. >> super bowl parties. >> reporter: lucky. >> she loved it. it made her so happy and made it more happy to share her winnings with other people. >> reporter: now it was michelle's family who had lost so much. >> we were completely dumbfounded as to why anyone would want to hurt her. >> reporter: as investigators worked through their list as

five initial suspects one by one, like the prosecutor's game of clue they started at the most obvious square one, the victim's husband. >> reporter: first couple of days police weren't letting you out of their sight. >> not at all. >> were you worried you would be put in jail. >> absolutely. you know you're as innocent as can be but always a possibility of something. >> reporter: dan was a suspect, almost from the get-go. were you guys aware of that? >> i was aware of it because the detectives they came to my house, asked me if there was any trouble in their marriage to which i replied, no not at all. not for one second thought that dan would be responsible ever. i don't think any of us did, never. >> reporter: but detectives weren't so sure. they peppered dan with questions. including the big one -- when police ask you where you were at the time your wife was killed -- >> i was doing what most sensible people are doing at 6:00 a.m. in the morning if they don't have to get up and go to work i was sleeping. what a great alibi, right?

i'm home in bed. it's not a very good alibi, but it's the only one i had. >> reporter: but exactly where he was sleeping that night raised a red flag for detective stall. dan volunteers he was downstairs on the couch. was that a sign of trouble in the marriage? >> i said well why did you sleep on the couch and she sleep in the bed? and he said well typically the girls sleep with her and i get off of my shift late. by the time i get home she's already in bed for the next day. so he had just made a habit to sleep on the couch. it made us want to take a closer look at dan. >> reporter: detectives weren't the only ones interested in the husband. a cadaver dog named little joe had been called in to search outside the warehouse. the dog searched two cars with no success, but then he went up to a third vehicle, a silver mini van. >> the dog did have some interest in the back of that vehicle. >> detectives knew what was the

dog handler didn't that the silver mini van belonged to dan mockbee. >> after the dog is up in the vehicle searching, he was finding nothing. there was no findings of human remains or blood. >> reporter: a disappointing dead end. >> investigators had been in and out of this place all day long. >> reporter: but the cadaver dog was sent over to the mockbee house to join a search in progress. one dan had consented to. >> whatever we asked of dan, he was willing to do. >> reporter: suggesting either that he wasn't guilty or that he was supremely confident he wasn't going to get caught. >> that's right. >> reporter: while dan was feeling the heat detectives were pulling numbers off michelle's cell phone. and tracking down truckers who would deliver to thermo fisher. and of course stall and mcvay were taking a hard look at the other four names on their initial suspect list. two men who were the last known to see michelle mockbee alive, one a warehouse worker named joe seager had seemed unusually

unemotional about michelle's death when he was first questioned. >> he was one of the ones that made it to the top of the list. >> joe presents himself as a loner. kind of a dry, dark sense of humor and personality. >> reporter: the other guy at the time clock that morning was doug tongate. doug was a temporary employee a newcomer to thermo fisher and an outsider. >> we started looking into his past. saw that he had a couple felonies and some alcohol issues so we thought, this might be a good guy to look at. >> then there was david dooley, the janitor. he and his wife janet has cleaned at thermo fisher for years. david was one of the two to find michelle's body. >> detective mcvay interviewed him the day of the homicide and really nothing that put him to the forefront of anyone's mind. >>. >> reporter: and last there was ed yus ka he was the supervisor who called 911 after finding

michelle. >> the blood is right by her office door. it looks like she never got in her office. >> reporter: detective stall found out that ed yuska had health issues. >> the thought that he could do this to michelle drag her down the hallway and get hoer to the mezzanine logically to us says that zed is not our guy. he physically probably couldn't have done that. >> reporter: which made detectives feel comfortable eliminating ed yuska from their suspect list and so then there were four. now how to rule out the next one the c zirks team had collected some dna from michelle's body and belongings but detectives knew it would be months before a forensic lab could report whether any suspect was a match. meanwhile, investigators were starting to scan through a promising new piece of evidence. security video from the warehouse's parking lot. could the clue they needed be somewhere in those thousands of

frames of footage? >> there it is. coming up -- >> it was nerve wracking. >> another elimination round, this time the lie detector test. and police soon detected something was up. >> he stops himself at the door and says no no no, i'm not doing this. want that one. yea, actually i do. it's mucinex fast-max night time and it's got a nasal decongestant. is that really a thing? it sounds made up. i can't sleep when i'm all stuffy. i take offense to that. i'm not going to argue with a talking ball of mucus. i think you're being a little hasty... he's not with me. mucinex fast max night time. multi-symptom relief plus nasal decongestant. breathe easy. sleep easy. start the relief. ditch the misery. let's end this.

♪ mother of two, michelle mockbee has been murdered at the office. she had gone into work earlier than usual that morning to do the payroll. an hour and a half later, she was dead. police have no witnesses, no murder weapon no fingerprints. but they do have four lead suspects all coworkers. one of them michelle's husband, dan. here again, josh mankiewicz. ♪ >> reporter: michelle mockbee's funeral brought her

brokenhearted family some small comfort. >> i remember how many people came to the funeral and just the endless line of people coming in. in your mind you're just like wow, she touched this many people's lives. >> reporter: soon red ribbons popped up throughout town in honor of michelle. but all the community support in the world still couldn't answer the family's questions -- >> i feel like we're kind of in limbo. we don't know really what to do how to move on just yet. >> we didn't know what this was all about. we didn't know if it was somebody after our family why they would be we didn't know but we didn't know. >> reporter: early on the investigation has yielded frustratingly few clues on the four lead suspects but the detective kept up hope. >> i knew once we could get that one little bit of lead on this investigation, it would open many, many more doors. >> reporter: they were now hunting for that next lead. by scanning through hours of

security footage of the thermo fisher parking lot. >> when we had several sets of eyes on this video. >> reporter: and meanwhile, stall and mcvay decided to turn up the heat on the four. starting with the husband, dan. >> we asked him, would you take a polygraph for us. >> reporter: you agreed to take the polygraph. >> yes, sir. that's a scary thing. >> reporter: because if it goes wrong, all of a sudden there's a case against you. >> right. it was nerve wracking. i mean i took a deep breath like this and the guy is like hold on hold on. you can't do that. it's registering on the censers and you're like -- what if i took a deep breath at the wrong time. >> reporter: but dan told detectives he was eager to be put under the micro scope. please do all this stuff so you can figure out that i have nothing to do with this so you can go find whoever did this. dan mockbee passed the polygraph and this time the husband didn't do it.

and so then there were three. and around that time major huff and his team spotted something they thought was unusual on the security footage. >> there it is. >> reporter: a vehicle in the parking lot, not entering but leaving around the back of the building. >> bright red, fire engine red, chevy pickup truck, two-door. that's not the normal route for any employee to take. >> detectives matched the truck to it owner, david dooley the janitor. >> dave dooley's truck is seen living parking lot at 6:31 that morning. >> right after the murder. >> that's right. that's right. >> reporter: and detectives could tell from the security tape that dooley had returned to the warehouse around 7:00 a.m. in time to be with ed yuska when he discovered michelle's body. detectives went to the apartment david dooley shared with his wife janet to ask where he went during that half hour trip. >> they got there 6:30 in the evening and i kind of figured it would happen just to do a

followup. >> he told me why he left the building that he was trying to call his wife. she wouldn't answer the phone. >> my wife does take ambien to help her sleep at night and i went home to check on her, make sure she was okay. >> reporter: his wife janet said her husband often worried about her health and would check in on her. >> he drives me crazy with janet, did you take your medicine? janet, did you take your vitamins today. that's the kind of person he is. he's a very sweet guy, loving guy. >> reporter: but detectives wondered did he really come home to check on his wife or to get rid of evidence? >> we started working on a search warrant residence and the truck. >> reporter: you execute those search warrants and you find bloody clothing footprints? >> no. >> stuff taken from the crime scene that shouldn't be at his house? >> no. >> some kind of murder weapon? >> no. >> are you thinking now okay maybe this isn't the guy. >> while they're searching the house, they collected some clothing and then just some other odds and ends but nothing

that directly tied michelle mockbee to him. >> reporter: so investigators kept working. they asked two other suspects joe, the warehouse worker and doug the temp employee to take polygraphs. both men agree, both passed. two more names scratched off the list. detectives had also asked david dooley to take a polygraph. >> and he said yeah i'll take one. >> reporter: but when they brought him down to head quarters -- >> we walk him in. and detective mcvay says this is our polygraph operator and he stops himself at the door and says no no no, i didn't agree to this. i did not agree to this. he said i'm not doing this. >> there was no ask me to do it. it was sit down and do it. and i said well i want to do this with an attorney. >> reporter: dooley didn't take a polygraph at a later time either. but he says that wasn't his fault. >> i did offer to take the polygraph, and they said it's too late. >> reporter: over the next few months detectives focussed on

dooley. significantly for detectives he was the only one they could ever identify who left the building around the time michelle mockbee was killed. after eliminating other suspects detectives now believed they had cracked the case. in september, 2012 the boone county sheriff's department arrested david dooley. >> just very glad he's behind bars. that's where he needs to be. as to why this happened we have no idea. >> reporter: and then there was one. >> i didn't know what to say. i didn't know what to do. i was never going home. >> reporter: you want to stop a minute? >> it's fine. i knew i was never going home. and i was upset. >> reporter: did you tell them they had the wrong guy? >> yeah i did. >> reporter: didn't do any good? >> no. >> reporter: but then the long-awaited results from the dna found at the crime scene came back from the forensic lab.

it turned out, david dooley was not a match. and in the local media, janet called for him to be freed. >> we've been telling everyone you know he didn't do this. nobody deserves to be accused of a crime of this magnitude without something to prove that he did it. >> reporter: but even without forensic evidence tying david dooley to the crime, prosecutor linda tally smith remained confident, deciding to move forward with the case. this past september, david dooley went on trial for murder. >> the truth is there is no smoking gun. there is no one fingerprint. there is no eyewitness. >> reporter: so just what did the prosecutor have on david dooley? coming up -- >> our belief has always been that david dooley was in the middle of breaking into her office when she came up the steps and surprised him. >> a break in? what was he after and how could he have managed such a spotless

escape? >> he has a clean pair of jeans clean shoes. >> when "dateline" continues. coughing can really be disruptive. with a record breaking fifty million votes, your superstar is... that's why there's delsym. delsym helps silence coughs for a full 12 hours with an advanced time release formula for all day or all night relief. up to twice as long as other cough liquids. so the only sounds you'll hear are the ones you want to hear. bianca! (cheering) delsym. silence is relief. and now for a limited time try delsym for free, with mail in rebate. cold and flu season is back. before the first sneeze, help prevent with a spray. and use lysol hand soap for ten times more protection with each wash. this season, help protect your family with lysol. start healthing.

eh, you don't want that one. yea, actually i do. it's mucinex fast-max night time and it's got a nasal decongestant. is that really a thing? it sounds made up. i can't sleep when i'm all stuffy. i take offense to that. i'm not going to argue with a talking ball of mucus. i think you're being a little hasty... he's not with me. mucinex fast max night time. multi-symptom relief plus nasal decongestant. breathe easy. sleep easy. start the relief. ditch the misery. let's end this. ♪ ♪ michelle mockbee's favorite color had always been red and since her death, her family has worn red in her honor. you're all wearing your red wristbands today.

>> yes. they say michelle ann mockbee in our hearts, 1969 to 2012. >> reporter: that was your idea? >> yes. just a little something to remember her by. >> reporter: there was a sea of red each day as michelle's family and supporters flowed into this northern kentucky courthouse. where david dooley faced trial for her murder. >> on may 29th of 2012 dan mockbee lost the love of his life. and two little girls lost their mom. at the hand of a man who couldn't even keep his story straight from one day to the next. >> reporter: prosecutor linda tally smith began by telling the jurors they wouldn't hear about any smoking gun. but they would hear david dooley's own words -- which she said had made him the last man standing in the detective's process of elimination. >> it was through this process

that the path kept turning back to one person the defendant, david dooley. >> reporter: the prosecutor explained that at thermo fisher warehouse employees used hand held scanners like this one on the job. and the scanner data could help locate where employees were around the time of the murder. >> we were able to create pretty much a time record of where everybody was and what they were doing at different points during the morning. >> reporter: jurors heard that almost all the employees were working on the warehouse floor, far away from the upstairs office area where michelle was killed. but where was david dooley? because he was the janitor, he didn't use a scanner, which meant, said the prosecutor he could have been upstairs near michelle's office during that critical time. david dooley was captured on security video that morning. >> there's the red pickup truck. >> reporter: his red truck was seen leaving the thermo fisher parking lot. >> the defendant actually left

that building that day, at 6:31 a.m. which was about half an hour after michelle walked into the building. >> reporter: the prosecutor filled in what she believed happened between the time michelle mockbee arrived and when david dooley left. >> she entered the warehouse, gathered the time card from the time clocks and headed upstairs into the offices to do her work. >> reporter: the prosecutor showed the jury a photo of fresh pry marks on michelle's office door which she said indicated an attempted break-in. michelle as you'll remember had come in earlier than usual that morning. >> our belief has always been that david dooley was in the middle of breaking into her office when she came up the steps and surprised him. and ultimately she was assaulted and retrained. >> reporter: because she was a witness to a crime in progress. >> absolutely. >> the medical examiner says michelle was bludgeoned to death with something similar to an industrial packing tape gun, but

after such a violent attack why was no blood evidence ever found on david dooley? and why wasn't any of his dna left at the scene? the prosecutor argued that's because the janitor worked everyday with cleaning supplies and plastic bags. perfect for removing evidence of a crime. >> at the time david dooley attacked michelle in that hallway, what did he have with him? a rolling crime scene cleanup cart with a trash bag in the middle of it. >> it's my personal belief that when he left that building he took with him a bag containing all of the evidence that was missing from the scene. >> reporter: but you never found any of that stuff. >> never found any of it no. >> reporter: and once dooley was back at the warehouse, detectives recalled he looked noticeably fresh. >> this guy is the janitor but he's really clean. he's got a clean pair of jeans, clean shoes. >> reporter: a coverup so spotless only a john tor could

manage it said the prosecutor. it was only his story, she said that was a mess. >> it's very hard for a person to explain how they can't tell the same story twice and in these circumstances we had four separate statements from him. and he never told the same story twice. >> r. >> reporter: detective mcvay testified that it was what dooley didn't say in his first interview on the day of the murder that made them take a hard look at him. >> at any time did he tell you that he left that building? >> no he did not. >> during that first interview, did he tell you that he was one of the people who found michelle mockbee's body? >> no he did not. >> reporter: mcvay says it was only in dooley's second interview at his apartment that he first mentioned leaving work and going home. >> and i came back here. >> okay. what time did you come back here? >> 6:30. i couldn't get ahold of my wife. >> reporter: but detective stall says dooley's wife janet told stall something different. >> i asked her specifically if

dave ever came home that morning and she says no. >> >> reporter: in a later set of his and her interviews janet says david did come home to change a pair of ripped pants. >> he had to come home and just grab a pair of pants. >> reporter: it sounds like an alibi, except david dooley adamantly denied doing that. >> i never said that. >> you didn't rip your pants? >> no. >> okay. >> reporter: however jurors heard that a warehouse coworker also remembered dooley talking to him the morning of the murder about ripped pants. >> he had a conversation in which he said that he had to go home and change his clothes because he had ripped his pants. >> reporter: while the prosecutor had focussed on david dooley's own words and that suspicious drive away from the murder scene, next the defense was about to point out to the jury all the hard evidence investigators didn't have on david dooley. >> dna evidence murder weapon blood evidence marks on david

dooley -- >> reporter: and the defense would ask who else might have more of a reason to want michelle dead? coming up -- >> reporter: did you have anything to do with the death of michelle mockbee? >> no i did not. i did not kill her. >> mystery dna. a possible intruder. a husband on the stand. so many questions and a final bomb shell from the prosecutor. >> sometimes desperate people do desperate things.

♪ jurors had listened for 12 days as prosecutors laid out a very circumsubstantial case against david dooley. so circumstantial that his attorneys wonder why dooley was even on trial. >> we're trying to figure out exactly what they were saying linked david to this murder at all. the one thing that we could see that was bad for him at that point was just he went home that day. >> reporter: in court, prosecutors had focussed on that

trip home and according to detectives that dooley never mentioned the trip in his first statement to them. but the defense said because that interview wasn't recorded what can anyone really know about what was or wasn't said? >> without actually having his interview, now we're going based on one detective's notes saying that he didn't go home that day. >> reporter: david dooley says he knows what he told them. >> i did tell them i went home. i was always veried a mat about that. >> dooley never testified in front of jury but he did talk to "dateline" about the case against him and his story that differed from his wives. you said you went home to check on your wife and your wife says he never came home. then later she says he came home to change his pants. so what's the truth and why can't you and your wife agree on the same story? >> we do agree that i came home. i have never heard an interview where she said i did not come

home. this was his testimony. >> the detective. >> yes. as far as i'm concerned, it is not the truth if it cannot be factual proved. >> reporter: did you go home to change your pants? >> no, i did not. >> why would your wife say you did? >> i do not know. we've talked about that a couple of times. the only thing we can come up with is she didn't hear me properly. >> reporter: janet says she's been diagnosed deaf in one ear. on the day of the murder she says she only saw a pair of ripped pants in the house and thought david said that's why he came home. >> i told them what i thought i heard him say. so a person that cannot hear they put things together themselves through their eyes and i did. >> reporter: in court, the defense sought to set the record straight for the jury. >> dave didn't change his clothes and dave didn't change his story. >> reporter: as for that coworker who also had a story about dooley telling him he ripped his pants?

>> why did he wait five to seven days later on to recall oh yeah david said this. >> reporter: and the defense posed the million-dollar question to the jury who would want michelle mockbee dead? >> was money motive? for whom? not david dooley. >> reporter: the jurors herd that the mockbee had around $25,000 in credit card debt. dan said he had no idea. >> i never took care of the finances at all. she wanted to do it and i was more than happy to let her. >> reporter: the defense then asked dan about the insurance payout he received after his wife's death. >> do you recall the amount of that payment? >> 700 grand, something like that. >> we're not saying that we know or believe whether or not dan mockbee killed his wife but it's about reasonable doubt for our client david dooley. >> reporter: but more significant to the defense was the unknown dna found at the

crime scene. dna was found on michelle's body or on her belongings in at least five different places. >> we heard testimony that there were many unknown dna profiles. could one of these unknown profiles been the killer? >> reporter: the defense also disputed that thermo fisher was a secure facility and noted that something had set off the warehouse alarm system just three days before the murder. you think that's significant? >> yeah. yeah it's significant. that means that someone could have gained access to thermo fisher. >> reporter: after both sides had presented their cases, it was time for closing arguments. now, each side would have its last opportunity to speak to the jury. the defense went first. >> no one could think of any reason to kill michelle mockbee. so what motive would david dooley have to kill michelle mockbee? >> reporter: but it was only after the defense had wrapped up its closing that the prosecutor

gave her answer to that question. laying out her theory of motive for the first time. >> i would suggest to you that the evidence is right in that stack of stuff over there. we have time cards, you have invoices all kept in michelle's office. >> reporter: you think the motive was the time cards. >> yes. i believe that michelle had actually discovered the fact that he had actually been triple dipping by clocking himself in clocking his wife in and getting paid hourly to do a job that there were already being paid a monthly salary to do. >> reporter: that feels like a thin motive. >> sometimes desperate people do desperate things. >> reporter: defense attorneys never had a chance to challenge that theory in court, but they say there was zero evidence presented by the prosecution to prove it. >> the thing about it is if there was some evidence they would have put it in there. >> reporter: what about the theory that you were double dipping your pay. >> it is not true. >> reporter: you were not double dipping your pay or triple

dipping or stealing? >> no we were not. >> reporter: but the jury would have to render its decision based only on what was presented in court. after deliberating for some 16 hours over two days word came there was a verdict. >> we the jury find the defendant, david dooley guilty of murder under instruction number five. >> reporter: guilty of murder of michelle mockbee. the jury foreperson told "dateline" that in the end, david and janet's own statements which jurors felt were inconsistent helped them reach their verdict. david dooley was sentenced to life in prison. he says he regrets not taking the stand and he plans to appeal. did you have anything to do with the death of michelle mockbee? >> no i did not. i did not kill her. >> reporter: you know getting convictions reversed on appeal is a long shot. >> but when you're innocent it does happen. and it will happen.

just like it always has. >> reporter: you think you'll be a free man one day? >> yes, i do. >> reporter: michelle's family believes strongly that the jury got it right, though the aftermath is bittersweet. >> nothing is going to bring michelle back. there is no justice that is good enough. >> reporter: now their focus moving forward is on giving love and support to dan and the girls. what did your daughters say to you about this. >> neither one of them want to talk about it to this day because they're just too sad. >> reporter: dan is hoping the two young women he is raising will carry the spirit of the one he lost. >> we talked about mom and things she liked to do. she just exuded personality and fun and happiness and that's what michelle was.

♪ that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us. this sunday, outpourings of grief at the funeral of a slain new york city police officer. >> when an assassin's bullet targeted two police officers, it targeted this city. and it touched the soul of the entire nation. >> what can be done to alleviate tensions between the black community and police in the country. i will be joined by william bratton. with the stock market at record levels how a booming economy could change politics next year and in 2016. why hollywood and comedy loves washington. >> for those of you climbing to the top of the food chain, there can be no mercy. >> the public may be fed up with