a paid presentation for meaningful beauty, brought to you by guthy-renker. . there was no way it was supposed to end like this. >> she said they have been murdered. the former church decon and his

wife, who on earth would want them dead? >> it doesn't make sense. they were loved by everyone. >> everyone maybe but their own daughter who admitted to a bitter simmering dispute. >> it's been a life-long family feud. >> she wanted her property back. >> evidence pointed to her boyfriend as an accomplice. >> he had blood on his shoe. he was there. >> or was he? >> no hair or fingerprint or dna? >> a family now gripped by suspicion. >> i had a lot of people in my ear saying she did it. >> would the terrible truth rip them apart. >> this could not be happening. >> i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." here is dennis murphy. >> the old barn is a shambles now. steeled back in the day so lush

and productive, gone to seed. the farmhouse, empty. time was the farmland in the county was some of south carolina's finest. bambi bennett's granddad owned a big spread and created a legacy for the generations to come. >> that barn used to be tobacco barn and my granddaddy built that. i's tobacco property? >> uh-huh. he did farming and tobacco. >> bambi's roots here are as deep as the old oak tree draped in spanish moss that still stands tall in the front yard. they say land is worth dying for because it's the only thing that la lasts. truer words might never have been spoken. in this case, a beautiful piece of land turned out to be nothing but trouble. this is where bambi bennett's

family was ripped apart w parpa act of cruel unspeakable violence. bambi, her given name, was a fun, feisty good old girl, country through and through. >> i was at my grandparents a lot growing up. we gardened, we had a big yard, huge yard. >> you're a country girl? >> uh-huh. >> but she'd endured her share of heartache at a tender age. her parents divorced when she was just 6. mom re-married and a few years later came that terrible day she'll never forget. >> my daddy and my granddaddy passed away on the same day. i was 12 years old. >> all of a sudden you lost the two important men in your life? uh-huh. >> it was a bewildering and tragic day. there was so much sudden loss to absorb, young bambi not yet a teenager, paid no mind to her grandfather and father's wills. it turned outside she'd been

left the entire homestead, all 240 acres of it, to be held in trust until she turned 18. not long after bambi inherited the farm, her stepfather, charlie, moved the family onto the property, her property. most everybody called him big charlie. bambi called him daddy. >> daddy loved hunting and fishing. he always had fish fries and oyster roeast, always people at the barn. >> you called your stepfather daddy? >> uh-huh. >> easily do that? >> i always called him daddy. >> big charlie was a decon at chaurch and started a small business selling grass class, t converting the barn into a shop and her mom worked as a secretary at the schools. they were a happy respected couple, salt of the earth. >> she was the backbone of that

family. >> bambi's cousins jessica and amy loved diane. >> if your car literally stopped in front of their house or brkek down, she would make sure you had a meal and while she was doing that, big charlie was f fixing the car. >> good mom? >> fabulous mom. >> outstanding. >> her biggest thing was she wanted to make sure her kids were protected and their hearts were protected. >> and her daughter, bambi, would need a lot of protecting. the girl was growing up in a rush, married to her high school sweetheart and divorced after a few months. by the time she was just 24 years old she had another failed marriage and was struggling as a single mom, trying to raise two boy, cody and nathanathan. >> that had to be tough to keep your household going? >> yes. >> things went from bad to worse. bambi started popping painkillers. >> the old story, huh? >> yes. >> gobbled them down when you could get them. >> i liked the way it made me

feel. >> bambi was a single mom, ho hooked on pills and sitting on a piece of land worth a small fortune. diane decided it was time to intervene before another whirlwind husband got half the property. >> momma said if you put it in my name it will be protected. >> so she signed this deed to her property over to her mom and then bambi signed over her heart, sending cody and nathan to be raised by their grandparents. she calls it her lowest point. >> i didn't want to do it but i knew it was the right thing. she wanted to take care of them. she loved those children. >> it was a crushing loss, no question. but bambi agreed at the time the boys were better off. they loved diane and charlie. >> they were very loving, a lot of outdoor stuff. they spoiled us to death. >> nathan, how about you? >> they're the most loving individuals i've ever met in my life. my grandma is the most sweet woman and everybody says so.

>> with the boys living at their grandparents, bambi tried to get her own life back on track. that's when she met rick, a new hire at charlie's glass company. there was an instant attraction. >> i've always liked the bad boy image, i guess. he had the go tee and shaved head. i don't know, we had a good time together. >> was it a serious relationship? >> yes, it was. >> rick was serious, too, he confronted bambi about her demons. >> i told her if she wanted to be in a relationship, she had to do something about the pills. >> by the spring of 2005, bambi felt she had turned the corner. she and rick found a home of their own in myrtle beach. after a long struggle, she was ready to be a mom to her boys again. >> i was getting on my feet and i wanted cody and nathan there with us. >> grandparents charlie and diane agreed very reluctantly to

let the boys move in with bambi and rick. no sooner had they moved, diane was making the case to get them back. >> mama was concerned. >> did she want to hold onto the bo boys? >> she said she would like for them to continue to stay with her. boyfriend, rick, thought bambi couldn't catch a break with her family. >> everybody pretty much treated bambi like crap. it stemmed from issues that diane, charlie and bambi had. >> those issues were simmering into an angry family drama. then, just a few weeks after the boys were turned over, it happened. it was april 12th, a tuesday morning, bambi called her mom, no answer. big charlie was late for work. one of his barn employees went up to the house to look for him. moments later, he called 911. >> 911. >> she's laying on the floor and there's blood everywhere. >> blood everywhere? >> yes, ma'am. >> inside, things were chaotic,

an appalling sight. big charlie and diane were dead. the old farmhouse they loved so well was now a crime scene. >> charlie and diane parker lying dead in their own home, when we come back, the investigation begins. at a grizzly crime scene, some small stray drops of blood might just provide a huge clue. >> it appeared someone involved in the crime was a bleeder. >> so that's great evidence. >> it is if you can match it up. ugh, this pimple's gonna last forever. oh come on. clearasil ultra works fast to begin visibly clearing up skin in as little as 12 hours. and acne won't last forever. just like your mom, won't walk in on you forever. stephen! stephen! stephen! stephen! stephen! you see what i'm saying. acne won't last. but for now, let's be clear. clearasil works fast. and discover clearasil 5in1.

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hurry up! hurry up! >> give me a minute. >> the horror described inside the farmhouse confused the caller and 911 operator. what happened to charlie and diane was all too clear. she was found lying next to her bed, big charlie sprawled on the bathroom floor. each had been shot multiple times, both by then dead for hours. >> the county she, firiff phonel was ringing and he rushed to the scene to investigate. charlie and diane were his best friends. >> they weren't just mine, they were everybody's friends. what we remember is how good they were, how kind they were and what good people they were. >> down at her house in myrtle beach 30 minutes from the crime

scene, bambi was getting ready to go antiquing with her mom. she called her cell. one of charlie's glass company employees answered. said, can i speak to my mama, please. >> he said, bambi, your momma and daddy is dead. >> just like that. >> yes. i said, what? he said, somebody broke in here and killed them and shot them. i just dropped the phone. and started crying. >> when bambi arrived at the house, yellow caution tape blocked her way. police were everywhere. >> my mom was like freaking out. >> rick tried to comfort bambi. young cody turned to him, too. >> and then i remember rick, he was near me, i was crying on his shoulder. and everybody was kind of -- it was a madhouse. >> those moments it seemed the whole county had gone mad. the murders of diane and charlie came hard on the heels of two other vicious killings nearby.

the suspect, a man all over the news named steven stanco was at large. >> they were looking for steven s stanco when charlie and diane were discovered. >> vivian was their neighbor and runs a flower shop nearby. >> tell me about the fear, was this something you could feel in the air? >> you could feel it in the air. i was at the flower shop. >> probably not too thrilled to get in your car. >> i didn't want to go home. it was pretty bad that day. >> i was looking for an opportunity to get oriented to the crime scene. >> the man responsible for making sense of the crime scene was prosecutor fran humphries, then deputy chief solicitor for the county. >> had the house been tossed, rifled? >> it had. this appeared to be a home invasion burglary. >> first take? >> home invasion. >> it was a gruesome crime scene, the bathroom awash in

charlie's blood. there was blood spatter in the bedroom where diane laid. several feet from diane there were notably a few small dropl t droplets. >> it appeared someone involved in this crime, not the criticism, was a bleeder. >> why couldn't that be from one of your two victims? >> it was apparent big charlie never left the area of the bathroom and it was apparent diane died where she lay. >> so it looks like your shooter, your intruder is bleeding. >> is bleeding. >> that's great evidence. >> it is if you can match it up. >> while crime scene techs processed the house, investigators started taking stateme statements. big charlie and diane had a large family and knew a lot of people. >> we talked with everybody. the list of people that we talked to is exhaustive. >> a parade of friends, employees and family was brought down to headquarters for interviews including bambi and her boyfriend, rick. >> they did gunshot residue t t tests on all of us. >> including you? >> uh-huh.

>> they had me remove my shirt with my pant legs up. they took my shoe, took pictures of my shoes, tops, bottoms. >> both bambi and rick told police they had spent the night at home, never left. with the interviews complete, police drove rick and bambi back to the farmhouse. everyone was gone. bambi says she realized she had left her purse with her phone and car keys in the detectives cruiser. she decided she'd take her mother's vehicle to get home. >> we didn't have any way to get in touch with nobody, didn't have anything. i told rick, see if you can find mama's purse or cell phone. so he went in the house. >> police had released the crime scene but it still looked like one. detectives told the family they would have to clean it up. so when rick says he went in to fetch diane's car key, he found himself tiptoei ining through a bloody mess. >> what were you seeing. all the blood, one of this most

horrible things i had ever seen. >> rick approached the bathroom where charlie had been killed. he says he noticed bambi through the window pacing in the backyard. >> she was calling out mama, mama, cry, screaming. i stepped into the bathroom around the most beess as best i and i closed the blind. >> you closed them because you didn't want bambi to see the blood and gore? >> yes. i think i said to bambi i stepped in some blood in this bathroom and wiping my shoe off on the sand. she was telling me to wash my shoe so i didn't get blood in her mom's truck. >> that must have been erie being in that house that night? >> extremely. >> it was an erie moment. one that would haunt bambi and rick for years to come. coming up, bambi makes a stunning admission. >> (sounds of birds whistling)

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the cold-blooded killing of big charlie and diane parker had a great many people in and around conway, south carolina, bolting their doors and locking their windows. >> had you had any trouble in that neighborhood out in the countryside with break-ins? >> not that i know of. it's always been a wonderful place. it just doesn't make any sense. >> was this more of the murderous rampage of the notorious steven stanco all over the news? no, said prosecutor, fran humphries, who knew he had been cite in georgia at the entitlement of the murders 200 miles away. >> this awful thing at the farmhouse, you weren't associ e associating that with stanco. >> i was not. >> even though in the public mind they made that connection? >> yes. even though at that time law enforcement knew he was physi l physically in augusta. >> rather, he was focused on the evidence coming from the parker

crime scene. he quickly came to believe this was more than a bungled home invasion. >> it was apparent nothing had been taken or nothing you would suspect to be taken in a burglary. >> humphries thought back to some curious statements bambi had made in her interview with police which she said she had given willingly. >> you sure you're okay to sit down and do this interview? >> i want to help you. >> soon after the interview, he said bambi began describing a feud within her family. at issue was he land bambi ow ed and her family were living on. >> there was a family feud. >> over the land? >> according to humphries, bambi and diane argued over who should control that property. >> diane wanted to make sure that that property was there for the kids. i think she had become convinced

that bambi was not going to be in a position to manage that property. >> i love this girl, my daughter, but she's beyond hope, is that the feeling? >> she can't be trusted with it. >> bambi didn't agree. >> she wanted the property back. >> i didn't want to anger her about that. >> humphries learned the land wasn't the only hot button between bambi and step-dad. they also argued over the rai raising of bambi's boys, nathan and cody. >> were there any issues where your parents didn't want the kids to go back do you guys or anything like that? >> yeah. i understand that. that was hard for her to give them back. >> diane wasn't comfortable with bambi having custody of those children. >> in fact, just four months before the murders a mother-daughter shouting match over care for the boys got so

out of hand diane called 911. the responding officer arrived with his dashcam rolling just moments after bambi had stormed away. >> no, you're not bothering me at all. >> diane explained the argument to the officer. >> she usually does what she wants to do. she doesn't decide anything for them. >> diane went on to say she felt threaten by her daughter. >> she scares me. she got in my face and took the phone out of my hand. >> then came this chilling pronoun pronouncement. >> if anything happens to me, you'll know she's the responsible person. >> how telling is that? she was in fear, in grave fear. >> humphries by now suspected bambi was involved in her parents' murdered but she was skeptical she could commit a double homicide on her own so the prosecutor turned her attention to her boyfriend. >> she's faithful to bambi.

>> according to humphries, willing to do anything for her. >> you have the daughter and boyfriend who seem to be in some kind of conspiracy, the theory goes? >> agreement to accomplish a goal. >> the alibi rick and bambi gave detective this is a were at home in the hours leading up to the murders was difficult to prove. each gave the other as a witness. we were at home. rick was there, i was there, my boys were in the other room. >> the prosecutor began to wonder, could those mysterious blood droplet at the crime scene be linked to rick and bambi. >> you didn't know who it was. >> we didn't know. it could have been richard. >> while humphries waited for the results, he obtained a software and took another look at rim and bambi's belongings include his shoes. >> there was blood on his shoe. >> what did the lab analysis say about that? >> it was big charlie's blood. >> the prosecutor didn't buy the

story of looking for bambi's car keys and they found what nay thought was blood on one of bambi's boots. >> now you have two persons of int, fair to say? >> no question. >> 10 days after the murders, humphries asked rick and bambi to take polygraph tests. both agreed and both showed deception. >> rick in particular showed deception. >> police sat rick and bambi down in separate rooms for another round of questioning. this time the gloves were off. >> are you going to charge me with something? >> i didn't do anything. >> they hoped for a confession or at the very least she'd give up rick. she didn't do either. >> you don't want to be charged. >> no, i'm not going to be charged because i didn't do anything. >> lock her up. if you're not going to say anything, lock her up. take her to jail and charge her with two counts of murder. >> the detectives weren't done yesterday trying to break bambi. on the way to her booking bambi said the hammer came down hard

one more time. >> they surrounded me like a pack of wolves. they said, go get those crime scene photo es of her mama and daddy. and i said, no, no, no. i was trying to cover my face. he was prying my hands off of my face. and he said you did this, you! >> chedetectives said the same thing to rick. >> they arrested me and that was pretty much it. if bambi did it then i had to be a part of it. >> so there it was, a daughter and her boyfriend partners in love and suspected of murder. the alleged motive was basic, get the deed to the land and resolve the custody issue of the boys in one bloody rampage. the county could sleep easier at night with case closed. but was it case solved?

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bambi bennett sat in an horry county jail cell stunned. she had just been charged with two counts of murder. >> i thought, i'm just having a bad dream. this cannot be happening. not only were my parents just murdered, now i'm being accused of being the one that killed them. i said, y'all have lost your mind. i said, this doesn't make any sense, didn't do anything wrong. >> but to prosecutor, fran humphries, it made perfect sense. >> the motive is unavoidable in

this case. bambi needed her stepfather and mother dead to get her property back. >> property valued at north off a million dollars. >> the classic question in your line of work poses, who benefitted zbloonkts bambi. >> as for bambi's boyfriend, rick, humphries believed bambi persuaded him to carry out the murderous deed. >> gagnon is her puppet carrying out her orders? >> i think he's been her puppet from the beginning. >> what did you think? >> i don't know. scared to death. >> in cahoots with your girlfriend, bambi, that's the theory, correct? >> i guess so. >> both rick and bambi said the prosecutor had it all wrong. they insisted they would never do anything to harm diane or charlie and bambi downplayed the feud over the land. >> she wants the land. that this is most ludicrous thing ever. it was given to me by my daddy to begin with, even if it was in

mama's name, if i wanted the land back all i had to do was tell mama that. >> also absurd, she said, was the allegation she'd killed her parents over disagreements about how to raise her boys. >> who does not have disagreements ever with their mother or their father? me and mama didn't always agree on the upbringing of cody and na. but that doesn't mean i will kill my mama because we don't agree. that is ridiculous! >> but by now, even some of bambi's family believed she was responsible for her parents' murders, including bambi's own sons, nathan and cody. >> you lost your grandparents in the most awful fashion and then your mom is swept away from your life within minutes. >> it's crazy, like you don't know how to turn to. >> when did you come to the idea maybe she was the one that did this? >> it was a mixture of things. i had a lot of people in my ear saying she did it. i came to the conclusion she basically put it in rick's head for rick to do it. >> i only thought she had

something to do with it from what i had been told. >> i resented her and hated her and didn't want to see her face ever again. >> it seemed bambi supporters were few and far between. one who did believe in her innocence was her attorney. >> everybody rushed to judgment in this case. >> the way jim saw it, the prosecution's case against bambi was a weak circumstantial one that hinged on a bunch of theories as to motive. >> the wh-- what always bothderd me about this case, when you looked at the gunpowder residue, there was none on bambi. >> he said one bit of hard evidence they had against bambi what they thought was blood on her boot turned out to be nothing. >> the detective said, we got her. the blood dna on this boot willg to one of two people. they couldn't even say it was dna. >> the poll groh teygraph test

failed they said the results were suspicious. >> the last question, have you told me everything you know about this case. if i asked a detective that same question he couldn't pass it either. it's too broad a question. >> bambi sat in jail six months. >> they were hoping she would flip and tell them the story. >> that's exactly what they were ho hoping. >> finally the judge said enough is enough. the prosecutor had to let bambi go. >> it became apparent there evidence was not sufficient to bring her case to trial. >> didn't have the goods. >> wasn't there. >> yet she's the foundation of your theory. no-no question about it. >> for the time being, mamby was able to put horry county jail in her rear view mirror. wit it, rick. by now, bambi had cut ties with her old boyfriend. >> sounds like she had your back and then she didn't. >> yeah. >> what happened? >> jail changed people. >> rick was hoping it would be a matter of time before he would be released.

>> the frisk they hadorensics t against you, no hair or dna? >> nothing. >> but he did have charlie's blood on his shoe. that evidence was part of a bloody trail from the crime scene that was about to lead the prosecutor and rick gagnon into a courtroom show-down. coming up, one of rick gagnon's fellow inmates comes forward with a damning story. >> he's been giving a fairly detailed account what occurred that evening or what the crime scene looked like. >> stuff that hadn't been in the newspapers? >> not at all. when "dateline" continues. break the cycle by starting with the superior clean of lysol power toilet bowl cleaner. and then add the lysol click gel, so the toilet can stay fresh, flush, after flush, after flush.

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♪ sc johnson rick gagnon was in a world of pain. locked up in the county jail facing two murder charges. he shared his woes with another guy in a jumpsuit, two inmates power walking together around the yard. >> we would walk around the pod, do laps. >> the jail yard buddy was named robert mullin, a petty crook who seemed strangely interested in rick's troubles. >> did he want to talk to you about the case? was he grilling you? >> yeah. all the time. all the time. >> then, it seemed everyone in this part of south carolina w t wanted to know more about this case and its two beloved victims. it took three years but in 2008, the state was ready to try rick gagnon for the murders of

charlie and diane parker. a camera was rolling as prosecutor, fran humphries, began his case. >> this is purely mode of evidence which establishes a motive for richard gagnon to end the lives of these two people? >> as humphries recalls, the case against rick was always motivation strong, evidence weak. not much more than a drop of charlie parker's blood on shoe, when you came right down to it. even so, humphries told the court the blood put rick at the murder scene. >> but he had story for it, didn't he? >> he did. it didn't hold water but he had a story about it. >> humphries recited rick's version how blood got on his shoe, how he had gone into the parker house to get a set of car keys sometime after crime scene techs finished up. >> he went to his right in the window leading to the bathroom where big charlie died and noticed the blood. >> rick said he worried bambi

pacing outside might look in the window and freak out all over again. >> he went in and stepped through the bathroom and closed the blind. >> and whoops, i stepped in the blood. that's the story, right? >> yep. >> it didn't hold up? >> no. because they were already closed. >> that was the gotcha. this crime scene photo was taken hours before rick stepped inside that house. notice the bathroom blinds were already drawn. they argued rick could not have closed the blinds because they were already shot. the prosecutor said rick was lying although he believed rick had told the truth about the murders to at least one other person. state star witness, robert mullins. >> the witness i call the jailhouse snitch and you call jailhouse informant. >> he's a snitch, no question about that. the end of the day what we learned about robert mullins, he's been given a fairly detailed account by gagnon of

what occurred that evening and what the crime scene looked like. >> in fact, he said mullins was the first to tell police this piece of bombshell news. gagnon had mentioned an accomplice in this killings. >> the only way he can have that information is someone who had known the crime scene, participated in the crime. >> then the prosecutor tried to spin an inconvenient fact in his favor, the mystery blood drops at the murder scene had been te tested. the khdna was not a match to ri but unidentified male. that said the prosecutor supported what mullins said, that rick had an accomplice. humphries believed the evidence was enough to put the kedefenda away. he only wished he could make the same case against rick's old girlfriend. >> how about bambi? she wasn't being tried in that courtroom. >> a travesty. >> her fingerprints are on this? >> figuratively.

>> he said this was a story about a spoiled woman, bambi bennett, who manipulated her boyfriend, rick gagnon, into doing her murderous dirty work, get back the deed and get her mother off her back. >> he had heard from bambi how her parents were not fair to her, they have her land. my parents are horrible people and they're taking advantage of me. >> to make things right argued the prosecutor, the dutiful boyfriend and his right handman entered the house and hunted down bambi's parents in their night clothes. the jury heard a drama of southern gothic proportions dripping with greed. now time for a different story. >> none of the puzzle pieces fit. >> reporter: rick's defense team said the case was heavy on fiction, light on facts. >> they had a puzzle and neat little pieces but the pieces weren't exactly right. >> the state was so desperate to

prove its case, she said, it clung to the word of a jailhouse snitch and career criminal. >> a fellow there to cut himself a deal and get himself some assistance, i guess, in his own case, is not likely to be credible. >> not only was the snitch not to be believed, the defense told the jurors but the state was also trying to confuse them about the mystery blood found at the crime scene. the bottom line said pratt, the dna cleared their client from the murders. >> the dna did not match and we knew it would not match rick. >> they knew that because rick had an alibi the night of the murders. he had been asleep in myrtle beach with bambi. the way pratt saw it the most challenging part of the case was the blood on rick's shoe. to explain how it got there, rick took the stand. he pointed out the morning the bodies were discovered police examined him thoroughly and found nothing. >> if there had been blood on my shoes that morning i would have been arrested right then and

there. there was no blood on my shoes that morning. >> that came later, he said, when he stepped into the blood soaked bathroom. despite the police photo, he said the blinds were open and worried bambi might see the horror that was inside. >> i shut the blinds and didn't think she needed to see that. >> he testified she blood got on his shoe that moment. >> did you go in the house and kill big charlie and diane? were you in a conspiracy to kill those people? >> no, sir. >> so who did kill the couple. we don't know, said the defense but it wasn't rick gagnon. with that, the jurors filed out to deliberate. rick waited with his attorneys and the woman many felt to be at the heart of it all, held her breath. coming up. the jury rebounders its verdict. >> i didn't know what to thing, i didn't know what to think anymo

anymore. >> this isn't the end of a case, final finally, investigatorers learned who left their blood drops at the crime scene. >> he said they identified the killer. (sounds of birds whistling)

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jurors in rick gagnon's murder case deliberated for only a few hours. when they filed back into the courtroom, he read their faces and knew. they'd found him guilty. >> two counts of murder, received two life sentences. >> that's called a pine box sentence. >> pretty much. >> you'll be in a pine box when you're dead. >> bambi bennett said she didn't want to be in court for the verdict. her attorney called her with the news. >> here i am thinking, oh, my gosh, could he have done this

and then i'm going in the back of my head, there's no way he could have did this. >> rick felt as though he'd been sandb sandbagged. >> i believed if god saw fit to have me go home i would go home. >> and that was about all he had left, faith in god and a good appellate lawyer. in this case, rob. >> in my 22 or 23 years of being an appellate defense attorney, rick gagnon was only one of about two or possibly three people that i genuinely believed was innocent. >> that certainty would mean exactly nothing to an appeals court unless bob and rick could come up with new evidence. then, in 2009, a year after his verdict, rick had an encounter in prison with yet another inmate. >> and excited about something. >> authorities in tennessee, the

prisoner told rick, had just arrested someone for a home invasion there. >> he told me, said they identified the killer. >> that man's name was bruce hill. when tennessee authorities ran his dna through the database, they had a match to the mystery blood found at the parker crime scene. in 2011, a jury convicted hill of the murders of big charlie and diane. his motive for the crime was never firmly established. >> who's bruce hill? do you know that name? >> no. >> ever see him at the farm property, on job sites? >> no, never. >> but rick's lawyer needed proof there was no connection between the two man so he paid hill a visit. >> bruce hill shown was picture of rick gagnon and his words were, i've never seen that cracker [ bleep ] before. bruce hill had been unambiguous and was very blunt that he did

not know rick gagnon. >> all hill had to do now was admit that in open court and gagnon might go free. hill flatly refused. once again, rick was out of luck but not hope. >> it was the first piece of good news i had had in a long time. i was excited to see what god was getting ready to do. >> there were developments? >> yes, sir. >> mainly the arrival of a new inmate. >> i was in the chapel at the time, my job assignment. he was brought into the chapel. >> one day the man opened up and stunned rick. he said he had known a guy in jail names, wait for it. robert mullins, the very same who testified against rick. the man then said mullins shared a secret. he had lied about rick's involvement in the murders. >> i already knew it but to hear somebody else say it -- >> that mullins had lied. >> yes. >> kind of proud what he was able to do? >> yeah. >> now, this snitch on snitch

story had the appeals judge's attention. >> the judge had to make a determination that the result of the trial would probably have been different -- >> because mullins story was that important in getting the conviction? >> right. >> the judge vacated rick's conviction saying the 23450u county solicitor could refile charges if he wanted. the solicitor said he did not. in 2013, after eight years inside, rick gagnon walked out of prison. he's settled on the carolina coast now married with children. >> just the smell of the ocean, it's like freedom. it's a terrible thing i went to prison for something i didn't do. it's changed my life. >> his old girlfriend believes her life was up ended, too. bambi's said she's cut ties with most of the people she grew up with, the tobacco field she still owns are pretty much her

only connection to the place. >> i didn't want to be there anymore. that was my home, but my home that i had known just falsely accused me and destroyed -- destroyed me. >> but there is something she'd like from the people of horry county, south carolina. >> do you want an apology? would that go anywhere for you? >> i do want an apology. no, it doesn't change what they did and not going to fix what they took away. >> she'd like nothing more than apology from you for the heartache you've caused her. >> she's not getting that. she ae's entitled to something m me but an apology is not it. >> what would you expect? >> i would have liked to her receive justice in this case. >> meaning he would have liked her charged, tried and convicted. >> i would like to have been an agent of that justice. >> all but forgotten from the finger-pointing are her sons,

cody and nathan, from hating their mom to being completely innocent. >> i don't believe she had anything to do with it. >> and to show a change of heart they joined their mom in florida and finally feel like family. >> it took a while to trust your feelings and hug her and mean it. >> you can be her sons again? >> definitely. >> for that at least bambi is grateful. for the future, she is hopeful even if every once in a while she looks back in anger. >> i lost my mom and dad and my children lost their grandparents. my children have no answers still saying the case isn't completely solved. maybe if they took their time in the beginning we wouldn't be in this predicament today. >> maybe there are no more answer, no reason to keep d digging up the past. just leave it rooted right where it is and let the spanish moss grow.

>> that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us. this sunday, now, it's the democrats who are fighting in public. >> we will have the opportunity to defeat donald trump, we're going to have to defeat secretary clinton. >> this morning, my sitdown with hillary clinton. on bernie sanders. >> het me shea i don't think he has had a single negative ald against him. >> donald trump. >> no evidence he has ideas s about making america great. >> if you listen closely, it appears she has a new slogan. >> we're stronger together. we're stronger together. >> plus, the new findings from our new poll just out this morning. how much is bernie sanders damaging hillary clinton's chances? >> also, donald trump claims he's bringing in countless new voters into the republican party. >> they're