test. i laid there and cried. i couldn't believe it. somebody that i talked to almost every day is gone. it doesn't make sense. >> a mother of two, shot dead. it was her husband, a cop, who found her. >> please, have somebody come here right away. >> it was disturbing. a young handsome police officer, a young beautiful wife. >> it looked like suicide. but was it something else? >> when you hear suicide, what did you think? >> no way. no, no way. >> things about it started stinking.

>> she'd met another man. >> yep. >> and her husband, he really played the field. >> how many other women besides you was levi chavez having an affair with? >> ten. >> ten. >> so many suspects. but so few clues. what really happened to tera? >> she had told her boss that she had done something bad. >> if i never said anything maybe she'd still be alive. >> i think the last statement in her diary said it all. >> reporter: the life of a police officer is full of danger and stress. >> they have rough days at work and they end up holding it in. >> reporter: they're our protectors, our first responders. >> it's hard. it's hard work. >> from one call to the next,

you don't know what you're going to meet up with. >> reporter: but our story is about what happened when a first responder had to face a crisis in his own home. >> baby, please wake up, please! >> reporter: a cop, pleading for help, from his fellow men and women in blue. >> tell them i'm a cop. please tell them to hurry, please. >> reporter: in one moment a family is shattered. >> it was, like, disbelief. it's like a surreal moment. >> reporter: and over time, an entire community's secrets would be revealed. >> i laid there and cried. it doesn't make sense. >> reporter: it starts here in the village of los lunas, new mexico, 25 miles south of albuquerque. tera chavez grew up in a loving family, with her twin brother josh and younger brother aaron. joseph and theresa cordova are their parents. >> she was a girly girl.

very motherly. >> she always was working with drawings and poetry, always writing. >> reporter: melonie gonzales was tera's best friend growing up. >> she was amazing. she was shy. i know a lot of times in school people thought that she came off kind of stuck up. >> but that wasn't her? >> not at all. >> reporter: then, one day at summer camp, that shy girl met the handsome boy who would change her life in so many ways -- levi chavez. >> how did she talk about him? >> she loved him. it didn't take very long before she fell hard for him. he was charming towards her and she thought he was gorgeous. >> reporter: tera was quiet and artistic. levi was a guy's guy. he loved basketball and boxing. >> reporter: their love bloomed in the new mexico desert.

tera got pregnant while they were still in high school, and they got married just before her graduation. >> he was happy about it, scared as well, just like she was. something that they -- neither one of them expected. it just happened. >> every time we would see them, they were happy. >> reporter: michael romero is levi's uncle. and as a town magistrate, he performed the ceremony. >> on that wedding day, the whole family was there? >> yes, our family was there. it was a joyous occasion. they were a lovely couple. >> reporter: and together, they dreamt of the life they'd have. tera worked as a hair stylist but had bigger goals. >> she was really wanting to start her own business. >> her own business meaning her own salon? >> yes. so, she approached me. i'm all for it. i'll be a silent partner -- although she did laugh at me, 'cause, dad, you're not silent. >> reporter: levi worked long hours as an officer with the albuquerque police department. it was his dream job.

in levi's world, police work was known as the "family business." >> his grandfather from his father's side was a police officer. and -- and he has, four, five uncles that are police officers. and i'm an ex-police officer myself. >> he was a natural police officer? >> he was a natural. >> reporter: by 2007, they were raising two children -- andrea and little levi -- and had settled into a new house in los lunas. but while levi was out fighting crime in the big city, tera was finding out that life in the suburbs wasn't entirely crime-free. tera's brother aaron -- >> she called me and told us, you know, "i think somebody tried to break in my house." so, we immediately, "let's go to the house." we checked and the door did look like somebody had messed with it a little bit. >> reporter: whoever did that didn't steal anything, but it put levi and tera on alert. he says he suggested she keep one of his old duty guns at home to protect herself. >> did levi and tera live in a tough neighborhood? >> valencia county, in general, i think they have a high crime

rate. they tend to have a lot of break-ins, a lot of crime there in that area. >> reporter: and levi and tera were about to experience it firsthand. levi had recently bought an expensive new truck. late one night, tera was home alone and heard their dog bark. she looked outside and the truck was gone. >> she said, "hey, guess what, levi's truck got stolen." and i was like, "well, what happened? are you okay? is levi home?" she said, "no, he was at work last night." >> reporter: that made melonie worry. and it turned out there was plenty to worry about. two weeks later, on a sunday, the kids were away visiting levi's dad. levi himself had a pretty quiet weekend on patrol. but when he stopped to check on tera, and saw what was in front of him, this police officer found himself on the other end of an anguished call to 911. >> please, please have somebody come here right away. please.

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it was a blustery october night, with high winds gusting over new mexico's sandia mountains. albuquerque police officer levi chavez called 911 from his own home. >> baby, baby, please, wake up! please! >> reporter: he told police he'd found his wife lying in a pool of blood in their bed. in a panic, levi begged for help. >> okay, they're on their way. levi, is it going to be easier for you if you go to another room? >> i can't leave her alone. >> okay, okay. that's okay. >> oh, my god. >> reporter: aaron jones was a detective with the sheriff's department in suburban los lunas.

>> i received a call from my sergeant saying that there had been a police officer's wife that had been shot. >> reporter: it was just after 9:00 p.m. when jones got to the chavez home. >> it was disturbing. i mean, it was a young, handsome police officer, a young, beautiful wife. >> reporter: jones saw tera lying on the bed with a gunshot wound to her head and he found this glock 17 by her body. it was the same gun levi said he'd given her for protection. >> it was his service weapon? >> it was his service weapon. >> that he left at home? >> yes. >> reporter: and beside the bed on the nightstand, there was a three-word note -- "i'm sorry, levi." jones quickly determined that tera hadn't been a victim of crime but had turned the gun on herself. she was only 26. >> we do have a lot of suicides out there, unfortunately. valencia county has a high rate of suicides. it's not uncommon. the uncommon part of it was the fact that it was a police

officer's wife. >> reporter: within minutes, members of levi's own police department in neighboring albuquerque came over to the house to offer levi support as the news of tera's death spread. one officer's wife called tera's best friend melonie. >> she just came out and said it, "mel, tera's dead." and it took me a minute to process it. and i was like, "well, what do you mean? i don't understand." >> reporter: at the scene, police saw an inconsolable husband. >> he kept referring to himself as a piece of crap and other things that, you know, he just should have been a better husband and that he should have just been with her. >> i will never forgive myself. never. god, let her go to heaven. >> reporter: jones, the local detective, took a statement from levi, the big city cop, who bared his soul. >> dude, the rest of my life, i'll never be able to move on. >> reporter: he told jones he blamed himself for tera's suicide.

his wife was prone to drama and depressi depression, he said, but at times he didn't take it seriously. now, it was too late. >> how old are the kids? >> 10 and 6. >> reporter: the detective did his best to bring a weeping levi under control. >> whatever is going on right now, take a deep breath. >> you're trying to make this guy feel better. >> i am. i was concerned that possibly -- i guess my -- my sympathy and empathy gone to the point where i was afraid that he might hurt himself, too. >> reporter: officers went through the scene in the bedroom and stumbled on something. tera, the writer, had kept a journal tucked under her mattress. >> parts of it were very dark, described a young woman that was having some dark times in her life. >> reporter: tera had laid bare the depths of her despair. writing -- "sometimes i want to just disappear" and "i'm depressed. i want to fall off the face of the earth."

"every day, i feel my time and work, kids and endlessly trying to make my marriage work, i'm getting nowhere. i never do." that sounds like depression to me. >> classic depression. >> reporter: and police found another page of writing that sounded desperate, torn up and buried in the trash can. and levi showed detective jones something else. >> i've got a text. >> reporter: a text he received from tera earlier that day. >> it says, "i'm afraid i'm going to hurt myself. i'm so, s-o-o-o, upset, sad and hurt." >> reporter: open and shut. by 2 a.m. police were wrapping up their work at the chavez house. and detective jones headed to tera's parents' home to break the news. >> he introduced a deputy and a chaplain. and they said, "it's about your daughter." so, i'm already feeling weak. >> what did you think? >> i thought there was a terrible traffic -- traffic accident. i never -- never thought to hear

otherwise. >> i asked them what happened. and aaron jones said, "it's an apparent suicide." >> reporter: possibly the most painful news a family can ever hear, but the cordovas weren't prepared to accept it and they felt a deep conviction that no one outside this family saw coming. when you hear suicide, what did you think? >> no way, no, no way. >> that girl loved those children. and i knew right then and there that she would not take her life and leave those children behind. heartbreak and disbelief. >> it's not the tera i knew. i never would have in a million years thought that she would ever take her life. >> was tera's death definitely a suicide? >> something about it, just thinking about it, started

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family and friends awoke to a piercing sadness in this tight new mexico community. tera chavez, the wife of an albuquerque police officer, had committed suicide. >> i laid there and cried. i couldn't believe it. i mean, somebody that i talked to almost every day is gone and you don't know why, you don't understand it. it doesn't make sense. >> reporter: when levi's uncle michael tried to help his nephew that next morning, he says he saw a broken man. >> i went and saw levi. and he was in bed and i just didn't know what to say. it's the worst thing that could happen to anybody. >> what did levi say to you that day, do you remember? >> he didn't say. he was too emotional. he couldn't even speak.

>> reporter: but along with the shock, tera's best friend was overcome with a sense of disbelief. >> part of me was like, "no, this isn't right. this isn't what happened. like, they're lying, it's not -- it's not true." >> reporter: and that's exactly what tera's parents were telling the detective who'd come to their home with that terrible news. for one thing, they told him there was simply no way tera would leave her children. >> you would not be the first family of a loved one who committed suicide who did not want to believe that that was possible. >> well, josh, i don't know about other families. but i knew tera. i knew tera. >> reporter: but what about the depressed person who emerges from that diary police found at the scene? tera's family points out that many of the darker passages in that journal were several years old. >> her journal, i think, was an outlet for her just to vent sometimes.

>> reporter: gina cordova is tera's sister-in-law. >> i mean, i'm married. i have kids. sometimes, i just want to disappear and it doesn't mean that i'm going to harm myself in any way. >> reporter: and the very last entry, three months before her death, suggests tera was in fact the opposite of depressed. tera wrote -- "good-bye to the person i used to be. welcome new day. happiness." >> i think the last statement within her diary said it all, happiness. >> reporter: and her family says she had lots to be happy about. tera was finally making plans to open that new hair salon she had long dreamed of. she was even starting to look at real estate. >> she was so excited to do it. r>>orepter: gina says tera had an appointment to look at this location with her dad scheduled for just two days after her

death. >> she was thinking about how she was going to decorate and how it was going be, you know, girly. and she was just really excited about it. >> reporter: that's the tera her brother aaron saw all the time. and, he says, just two days before she died, she had sent him this funny video of her kids. >> and they were dancing around the shop, just being goofy, joking around, you know. and it was pretty funny, actually. >> nothing on that video to suggest that she was in a miserable place. >> no, and, you know, there's a little second in there on that video that you see her and she's -- she's laughing 'cause her daughter and her little boy are just goofballs, you know. >> reporter: and tera's best friend melonie reread the last text tera had sent her around that same time and saw nothing frightening. >> it was real simple. she just said, "hi, i haven't talked to you all day. how are you doing?" >> doesn't sound like someone in the middle of a terrible depression. >> not at all. >> could you have conceived of her taking her own life? >> not the tera i knew. i never would have, in a million years, ever seen or expected or thought that she would ever take her life.

>> reporter: melonie and the cordovas say their instincts were telling them something was wrong in that suicide scene at the house and they let detective jones know it. >> i talked to aaron jones. i don't think he believed you. >> no, i'm sure he didn't. >> it looked like a suicide to them. >> that's correct. >> but something you said to him or some way you said it made him think that he needed to dig a little deeper. >> yes. >> i promised tera's mom and dad that i would look at it. i knew that i couldn't just close this case out without -- without looking at it and digging into it. >> reporter: to begin with, jones knew from experience that bedroom scene was very unusual. just 10% of gun suicides are committed by women. and he wondered about that recent break-in attempt and levi's stolen truck. had someone been casing the neighborhood, targeting the officer's house? >> i wanted to check and make sure that -- that there wasn't any kind of indication of any kind of break-in or that maybe

somebody else had done this. >> reporter: but nothing seemed to be missing from the house, and jones could find no sign of forced entry. still, he went back to the photos from the bedroom, started noticing things. like, what appeared to be a swipe of blood on the bed. >> what could that smear of blood on the bed sheets indicate? >> well, it could indicate the fact that she didn't commit suicide and the person that fired that fatal round would have had blood on their hands. >> reporter: and the detective remembered something else from that night that now struck him as odd. a red substance in a toilet on the other side of the house. was it tera's blood, and if so, how did it get there? >> if you're in a situation where someone's died, they certainly didn't get out of bed and go bleed in the toilet. >> reporter: jones also focused closely on that gun and noticed the patterns of blood on it. to the detective it looked like whoever had fired it had to be

left-handed. >> the areas of the gun that didn't have blood on them. >> like a perfect hand print. like a perfect hand print of a human hand. >> reporter: a left hand? >> yes. >> reporter: tera was right handed? >> yes. >> reporter: was it suicide or could it be homicide? jones turned all of it over in his mind. he even handled the gun himself. >> you physically put a glock in your own mouth? >> well, yeah -- yeah. >> unloaded i hope? >> oh, of course. >> reporter: the medical examiner, however, had ruled tera's death a suicide the day after she was found and the lid on this case might have been shut then and there. but jones hesitated. >> it was written as a suicide. unless i came up with something pretty contradictory to that, then my job was to write it up as a suicide and close the case. >> and why didn't you? >> i just couldn't do it. just something about it, just things about it started

stinking. >> reporter: after three weeks of investigation, instead of closing the case, jones asked the medical examiner to change the manner of death from suicide to "undetermined." now the hard part -- determining what really happened to tera chavez. it didn't take police long to find out that tera had a secret. >> she'd met another man. >> yep. a big, messy triangle. >> but was it a motive for murder? humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to both joint and skin symptoms. it's proven to help relieve pain,

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the more detective aaron jones looked at that scene where tera chavez died, the more questions he had. then he says, a lightbulb went off -- something that seemed like the key to the case. jones says that when he found the gun next to tera, the magazine with the bullets wasn't locked in place. it had been partially released. >> suggesting what?

>> suggesting that the scene was tampered with. >> so, someone uses the gun to shoot tera, the gun recycles and then what, in putting the gun down or dropping it they accidentally released the magazine? >> well, that's what i believe, yes. >> reporter: but if tera didn't shoot herself, then who shot her? now, jones would have to delve into tera's life and relationships. and jones soon learned that tera had a secret. >> she'd met another man? >> yep. >> reporter: jones heard from melonie and others that tera and her husband had been growing apart for years. and three months before she died, tera stepped over a line. his name was nick wheeler. like levi, he was another handsome police officer in the albuquerque p.d. nick would get his hair cut by tera every thursday and sparks flew. >> what drew tera to this guy, to nick?

>> his personality. he treated her great. another guy that comes in and is nice to her and shows her attention and treats her good. >> and you've got the recipe for an affair? >> exactly. >> reporter: but there was a problem. tera was married to levi. and nick -- >> he was married to a friend of ours. >> of yours and tera's? >> yes, sir. it's a big triangle, messy triangle. >> reporter: now, that big messy triangle was suddenly part of detective aaron jones' investigation and a tricky one. jones and nick wheeler had been friends. >> back in, like, 2005 we had worked together in the field. he was a very likable guy. >> reporter: but jones said he couldn't let that get in the way of his investigation. he was going to take a long hard look at his friend, and he remembered something that now seemed suspicious. the night tera was found, nick

had called him, digging for information. >> probably within an hour of me getting on the scene, i started getting texts and phone calls from him. >> and nick wants to know what? >> well, i wasn't sure at first, but he was just asking questions about what was going on and if i knew anything. >> reporter: was nick concerned about keeping his affair with tera under wraps or something else? melonie told the detective that tera had broken things off with nick before she died and told melonie that it had not ended well. >> she just told him, "it's not right. you know, we're both married. what we're doing is not a good thing." >> her conscience? >> uh-huh. >> he didn't want to let her go? >> it didn't sound like it. >> reporter: now jones thought nick could be a potential suspect. so, he and another detective visited nick's home and didn't tell him the conversation was being recorded. nick quickly admitted the affair. his wife samantha was right there to hear all of it.

>> there's going to be some things you hear sam that you ain't going to want to hear. this -- this is your husband. this is your wife. >> i know. >> tell me. >> tell her. >> tell me. >> reporter: detective jones found himself witnessing the kind of domestic argument investigators usually hear about only after the fact. >> how many times did you sleep with her? >> and when we're saying sleeping, we're talking about sex. >> how many times did you touch her? >> well, she kissed me in the truck. >> and you kissed her back? >> and i pushed her off. >> why didn't you just leave me? >> because i didn't want to. >> but you wanted to kiss her. >> reporter: then, samantha said something that surprised jones. she had known all about the affair. because tera had confessed and apologized. >> she was so nice and -- and i -- i told her, i said, "tera, i'm not going to say anything until nick tells me because that's his responsibility as a husband." >> what did she say? >> she said she didn't want me to kill her, she didn't want me

to go after her and beat her ass. i told her i would never do it because i understand where she was coming from. >> reporter: so, if you believe that, the two women in this love triangle had made peace. if you believe that. >> did you think it was possible that either nick wheeler or his wife had killed tera? >> absolutely. >> well, let me ask you a question. did you kill her? >> no, i really loved her. really, i did. i did. >> reporter: that left one more question about the man in the middle, nick. where was he that weekend tera died? >> well, i'll tell you. the main thing i need to make sure, i need to be able to prove that he didn't kill her. >> he was with me. >> are you sure? >> positive. >> he was her alibi and she was his? >> pretty much, yeah. >> and that doesn't necessarily mean anybody's lying, sometimes that's the way it works out. >> it is, because they were a couple and i -- and i knew from experience with them that they spent time, you know, either with friends or family or to -- with themselves at home. >> reporter: the investigator says he didn't dismiss the

wheelers as potential suspects. but he had no evidence to link them to tera's death. so, jones started focusing on the man any detective would need to look at -- tera's husband, levi. and jones says there was plenty to examine. >> their whole relationship seemed like it was just a rollercoaster. her husband levi would be a natural suspect. women as they to build their businesses and careers. my name is yasmin belo-osagie and i'm a co-founder at she leads africa. i definitely could not do my job without technology. this windows 10 device, the touchscreen allows you to kind of pinpoint what you're talking about. which makes communication much easier and faster than the old mac that i used to use. you can configure it in so many different ways, it just, i don't know, it feels really cool.

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if tera chavez's death was homicide and not suicide, then her husband levi would be a natural suspect. and it didn't take long for detective aaron jones to find out that when it came to levi chavez, the albuquerque cop, there apparently was something about a man in uniform. >> levi's a very charming guy.

>> he's a very charming guy. >> he clearly knows how to talk to women. >> he clearly does. >> reporter: there's no evidence that levi knew about tera's brief affair with nick wheeler, but it turns out that levi was carrying far more secrets than his late wife had. levi had been cheating on tera. but that doesn't quite tell the story. levi chavez was racking up infidelities at a rate that might have made tiger woods want to take notes. tera's friend melonie says that kind of thing had been going on since high school. >> it wasn't just one girl, two girls, it was numerous girls. >> so, he never really stopped? >> no. >> reporter: detective jones tracked down this woman -- rose slama, a married mother of three. rose says that at the time of tera's death, she and levi had been sleeping together for two years. >> by the time i came around, i was -- i was shocked to be number three. >> number three -- you were the third affair he had had?

>> no, i was on -- in his phone. when he opened it up, i was number three on his phone's speed dial. >> so, levi was open with you not just that he was married but that he, in addition to being married and in addition to having an affair with you, had another girlfriend. someone who was, what, a little higher up in the hierarchy than you were? >> uh-huh. >> and you were okay with that? >> yeah. >> reporter: juggling multiple mistresses while married was apparently nothing new for levi and rose said levi's multi-tasking skills made it all possible. >> how many other women besides you was levi chavez having an affair with? >> ten. >> ten? >> yes. >> you and nine other women? >> yes. >> how did levi find the time to be with ten different women and still presumably also, you know, fight crime? >> we were actually almost neighbors. we lived really close to each other. >> that would be essential in a situation like that. >> yes.

>> 'cause you couldn't have, like, a one-hour commute to see somebody 'cause when -- >> yeah. >> there's, like, nine others. >> yeah, and all -- i think a couple others lived around us. >> where did you and levi usually meet up? >> on the running trails, the kids' school, my school, the duck ponds between our houses. >> okay. so, there was a lot of meeting up outdoors? >> uh-huh. yeah, and even if i went to his house and the kids were there, he would just pop in a movie and have the kids watch a movie. and we would take off and do adult things. >> reporter: and rose says those "adult things" didn't have anything to do with love. >> i didn't love him. >> this was just sex? >> just sex. >> reporter: but listen to this. one time when rose and levi were together at his house, she noticed a photo near the bed. >> and i put two and two together. and i had asked levi. and -- and he said, "yeah, we're married." >> reporter: rose recognized the woman in the photograph because she knew tera and had just figured out she was sleeping with her hair stylist's husband. >> and you say, "great, honey,

lie down," not, "i gotta get out of here. this is weird." >> it was a little weird. i'm not going to lie. but there was -- seemed to be no love lost between them. there was, like, no love there. so, i didn't care. >> reporter: rose told detective jones a lot about her affair with levi, but didn't seem to know anything useful about tera's death. so, jones turned to others on levi's speed dial, including heather hindi, a fellow cop in levi's department. in fact, she'd been on "cops" the tv show. >> suspect returned fire. >> reporter: jones interviewed heather but she didn't seem to have any leads. so, he found levi's more serious girlfriend at the time, another cop, named debra romero. >> i think she believed that levi was going be the real deal for her. >> reporter: levi had admitted to jones in their very first conversation that he'd been with another woman the night tera died. now, debra romero would become a key part of jones's investigation as he began to track levi's whereabouts that weekend.

>> he said he hadn't been home until he discovered the body? >> right. >> reporter: the detective believed tera had been killed sometime on saturday night. and levi's story was that he'd been on duty until midnight and then went to debra's house. jones went to talk to her. >> what is the first recollection that you have of seeing him physically at your house? >> when i woke up, he came into the bedroom, he was still in his uniform. >> reporter: debra confirmed she was with levi from the time he got off work that night, until the following evening. >> you guys were together the whole time? >> we were together the whole time. >> it was an outing for both of you together? >> yes. >> correct. >> reporter: maybe not a squeaky-clean alibi but for now at least their stories were a match. but jones still had questions for levi. so, the next time levi came to his office, jones set up a camera to record their conversation without levi knowing.

he wanted to see how levi would react to the suggestion that tera had not killed herself. >> it seems like you kind of caught him off guard. >> i did. i wanted to make him know that i had some concerns about some of the behavior was going on. >> reporter: at first, it was all pretty routine. >> but whatever you need. i mean i got nothing to hide, dude, nothing. >> reporter: then jones told levi he suspected tera had been murdered. >> but levi, do you understand why this whole thing looks like a pile of [ bleep ]? >> no, i really don't. >> when i walked in your house that night, man, i really honestly believed this was suicide. but the problem is the evidence don't lie. somebody killed your wife. >> i don't know. i -- that blows my mind. it'd be easier to tell my kids that than what really happened, what i think happened but i can't tell it's possible. i mean, i didn't see -- i think i would've saw something. >> reporter: jones tells levi he has some questions about all those women. >> you know the problem is this, what it looks like is you got so many freaking girlfriends, dude. >> i know.

>> i mean, you got some you don't even know their names. >> i told you that i know. i mean, i might be an [ bleep ] but i'm -- >> you're like a major romeo, dude. >> reporter: a major romeo, who said he still cared for his wife despite all those infidelities. >> she was like my partner, man. >> who? >> tera. we might not be in love but -- >> business partner or parent raising partner? >> just everything partner. >> well, it almost looked like she was your nanny. >> i'm sorry, man. if you want me to apologize for being a bad husband, i was. >> no, no. trust me, bad husbands, i'll probably take the cake! >> i don't know what you want me to tell you. i was a [ bleep ] husband, but i didn't have [ bleep ] anything to do with this, man. >> he admits to some of the affairs, he admits to being a bad husband, but says he's no murderer. i don't see a guy who looks tremendously guilty there, but -- but you did. >> well not necessarily over just that.

it was the totality of everything. >> reporter: that's because the totality of everything for jones included some startling information he was getting, something tera's family and friends say she told them just before she died. she had made a couple statements to me that if anything ever happened to her that levi did it. it took me a while to even think, oh, my god, maybe she was right. >> did tera have a premonition about her own death? it's hepatitis c. one in 30 boomers has hep c, yet most don't even know it. that's because hep c can hide in your body silently for years, even decades, without symptoms and it's not tested for in routine blood work.

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the family of tera chavez never believed she committed suicide, and they also didn't buy her husband levi's story about how he found her. >> there were a lot of just suspicious things. nothing added up. >> reporter: to tera's sister-in-law gina, the so-called suicide note found on the bedside table just didn't make sense, mostly for what it didn't say. >> i think my first thought was like, i want to read it because i want to see it. >> and the note says, "i'm sorry, levi."

but it doesn't mention her kids. can you conceive of her writing a note like that and not mentioning her children? >> no. she wouldn't have left her kids. she would not have left her kids. >> reporter: detective jones had come to agree the one sentence didn't seem like a suicide note, at least not one tera would write. >> she was a very expressive person. >> you would have expected a more detailed and expressive note? >> absolutely. >> reporter: tera's best friend also told the detective that the behavior of the levi she knew was much worse than the philandering he had admitted to. >> he would break her down so bad verbally. he would tell her all the time that she was worthless, that she was nothing without him. >> reporter: tera tried to keep it to herself, but especially from her dad. >> we didn't like seeing our daughter go through what she was going through with levi. and being the father and wanting to fix everything, i think it created this curtain of don't

let dad know. >> reporter: but in the months before she died, tera did tell both of them she was getting fed up with levi and was ready to end her marriage. >> she just told me she was going to be okay and the kids were going to be fine. they were going to be getting divorced. and she was going to be moving forward. >> reporter: after tera's death, the cordovas say levi never appeared to be the grieving husband, but instead seemed cold and distant. by the time of tera's funeral, they say, levi had already wiped away all traces of his dead wife. >> everything my daughter did in that house was either in a box or somewhere -- somewhere else. it wasn't in the house any longer. we were there to pick out clothing for a viewing that was going to happen wednesday afternoon. >> and there was nothing left. >> there was nothing. who does that? who boxes up the person that made that house what it is?

>> within 48 hours. >> within 48 hours. she was gone. >> reporter: it made the family wonder if evidence of levi's guilt was also being boxed up and hidden, especially when they learned that potential evidence from the house had been destroyed the night tera was found. remember that red substance detective jones saw in the toilet that night? it turns out that never made it to the crime lab. >> were you able to collect that evidence? >> no. >> because? >> because it had been flushed by an albuquerque police officer who was in the house. >> one of levi's friends had come over to offer support? >> well, friends, co-workers. >> so, was it tera's blood? was it even blood? we're never going to know? >> no, we're sure not. >> reporter: and that bedding with the mysterious blood swipe was also removed by apd cops. tera's family couldn't shake the feeling that levi's fellow officers from albuquerque might

have been helping out their friend and that the local investigators in charge should have stopped them. >> i was extremely angry with the valencia county sheriff's department. i was beside myself with them. how could you allow another agency to come into your jurisdiction and enter that house? >> the jurisdiction of the man who found the body. >> yes. >> reporter: detective jones says there's no evidence of a conspiracy or cover-up and he blames himself for not immediately treating the house as a crime scene. because of that, he was forced to work backwards to find both evidence and a possible motive. and soon, he found something interesting -- a life insurance policy that covered tera. >> how much money would levi get in the event of the death of his wife? >> $100,000. >> what about if it was a suicide? >> $100,000. >> reporter: and tera's family told the detective that the couple, headed for divorce, had

been having financial problems. but the main reason tera's family and friends believed levi had something to do with her deathing is this -- >> she had made a couple statements to me that if anything ever happened to her that levi did it. >> did you take that seriously? >> obviously not serious enough. it took me a while to think, "oh, my god, maybe she was right." >> reporter: and her mom said a few months before she died, tera told her the same thing. >> she did tell me, "if anything ever happens to me, levi did it." and i immediately asked her if she was okay and the kids were okay? and she told me everything was fine. >> but why say something like that? >> i couldn't tell you why she said that. but she did tell me that. >> reporter: tera told her mom not to worry and not to say a word to her dad. >> and you didn't tell him. >> and i didn't tell him. >> i don't blame my wife for anything.

tera knew me well. she knew that i would intervene. >> is there any part of either of you that thinks that levi might not be responsible for this? >> no. >> no. >> reporter: now, the family and the detective were on the exact same page. >> you didn't believe tera had killed herself? >> no. >> you thought levi killed her? faked it? made it look like a suicide? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: but the feeling that levi was responsible for tera's death wasn't widely shared in law enforcement, largely because levi had that alibi. debra romero, a fellow police officer who said they were together that night. jones wanted to interview levi's police co-workers who'd been on the scene that evening, and his many other mistresses for more information, but some weren't talking. after a year, the investigation had reached a standstill. >> i was allowed to officially work the case for some time, but after that i -- i worked it when i could and how -- however i

could. >> reporter: levi's uncle and family of cops felt jones's investigation was pure witch hunt. >> when the police start to focus on levi, what do you think? >> when you mention police, my thought is not police, it's aaron jones. >> you think this is all him? >> this is all aaron jones. >> he was driving the bus here? >> he was driving and he was the only one on that bus on the highway. >> reporter: while jones's bus was stalling, the albuquerque press corps rolled on with the story. even though no arrest was made, levi was put on administrative leave at his job and remained the one and only person of interest in the case. >> to be honest with you, they didn't have a case and i think they were trying to make levi look -- look like a bad guy. >> so, maybe he's not a good husband, but he's not a murderer? >> he's definitely not a murderer. she took her life and levi found her. >> reporter: but jones refused to give up and was determined to dig up new information anyway he could.

he began to think outside the box and suggested something highly unusual. >> i had told the cordovas at the time, "if you gotta sue me, sue me. you got to sue somebody, but in order to get some answers on this case, you're going to have to file a civil suit." >> reporter: so, they did. a wrongful death suit against levi, the city of albuquerque and members of the albuquerque police department, claiming they had all played a role in tera's death. it was a huge fishing expedition but would they catch anything? levi's first testimony under oath, and one of his girlfriends tells a new story of what happened the night he found his wife's body. >> he's like, "my wife just died." was in the shower and heard the pop. iful jewelry.

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tera chavez's parents were determined to help get their son-in-law arrested for their daughter's murder. so for their civil suit, the family's lawyer subpoenaed more than 50 people for depositions with the hope of learning something new. >> please state your name for the record. >> levi chavez. >> reporter: levi was called in to give a videotaped deposition. >> were you aware that officer wheeler was seeing your wife? >> we're gonna object. >> reporter: he'd always been cooperative with police in the past. but this time, levi was under oath, and now, as his lawyers invoked his fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination, levi was far less chatty. >> when do you remember receiving an alleged text message from tera saying she might hurt herself? >> we're going to assert the same privilege as to that. >> reporter: so little was learned from levi that day, but attorneys also put his talkative mistress rose slama under oath, and in her deposition, she revealed something she had never told police, and later told us. >> the night that i had talked to him, i text him. he's like, "my wife just died." and i was like, "well, what happened?" and he was like, "well, i don't know, i was in the shower and i heard the pop."

>> reporter: levi told you that he was there, in the house, in the shower, and heard a pop? >> uh-huh. and then when he got out, he had found her dead. >> reporter: levi's story to investigators had always been that he'd been with one of his other girlfriends, debra romero, that night, and only found tera dead when he returned home to check on her. but this story rose says he told her is quite different. you know, you are the only person that tells that story. >> yes. >> you're sure that's what he said to you? >> i am absolutely, positively sure. >> reporter: this new story was puzzling to jones, but it did match one thing the detective recalled seeing at the scene, a wet towel. and rose had even more to reveal in her deposition. remember she'd been sleeping with levi, but had also been a client of tera's at her salon. presumably, you chatted with her the way women do with their hairstylists. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: and it was this double-edged role, as paramour to levi, and as it turned out, confidante to tera, that would

put rose at the center of this investigation and lead investigators to a possible motive. the last time she saw tera, rose says tera told her something odd about that truck that had disappeared from the family driveway. you had a conversation with tera about levi's truck being missing. >> yeah, we were talking. and i was like, "well, what's -- you know, what's going on with the truck?" i was like, "have you guys heard anything about it?" and she was like, "it didn't come up stolen." and i was like, "what do you mean it didn't come up stolen?" >> reporter: rose says tera told her the story of the truck being stolen had been a lie, and that she believed her husband levi, the cop, was mixed up in something very illegal. >> she said that levi had some friends take it to claim the insurance. so he had the truck taken. >> reporter: tera was very up front with you that she thought that the truck's disappearance was part of an insurance scam by levi? >> yeah, and she told me she was gonna call the police and tell 'em. >> reporter: and when she later saw levi, rose says she told him his wife thought that he was

involved in some kind of scam. what was levi's response when you told him about that? >> that she didn't know what she was talking about. >> reporter: levi maintained the truck was legitimately stolen? >> yeah. >> reporter: still, if tera was telling rose she thought her husband was a criminal, what might happen next? >> i believe he was scared because she was gonna turn him in. and he had a lot to lose. >> reporter: to detective jones, that sounded like a reason for levi to want to make his wife disappear. and he found more evidence to suggest tera was planning to report her husband. six days before she died, the new mexico insurance fraud bureau received a tip about a fake stolen vehicle. the investigator's notes say the caller's name was sara, but later said he thought it could have been tera and in fact the woman's contact number was for the salon where tera chavez worked. what did you learn from people who worked at that salon? >> about three days prior to her death, she had told her boss that she had done something bad, and that if she ended up dead, levi killed her. >> reporter: for jones, it was

all adding up, possibly as part of a much bigger criminal operation. >> there's been talk for years about this whole rio grande cartel of police officers and bad guys that are running dope, guns, money, stolen vehicles up and down the rio grande corridors. so it at least starts giving some credibility to it. >> reporter: and if you believe that, then tera chavez, by turning in her husband, was a threat to bring not just him down, but a lot of other people, too. >> absolutely. it's pretty scary, isn't it? >> i feel a sense of responsibility for tera's death. because if i never said anything, then -- >> reporter: about the truck to levi? >> yeah. >> reporter: then what? >> maybe she'd still be alive. >> reporter: as the cordovas' civil lawsuit wound its way through court, detective jones retired from law enforcement. but the revelations that came from the suit jump started the investigation into tera's death,

and eventually caught the attention of prosecutors. assistant d.a. bryan mckay. you felt the truck was a motive? >> we think the truck was the motive in a really simple sense. he's just moved to apd. he's wanting to move up the ranks. i'm sorry. you know the brass is gonna do something if everyone's going around, if your wife's reporting that you're committing fraud. >> reporter: all of the defendants except levi settled their parts of that civil suit, denying any liability. but the cordova family got what they really wanted. in april 2011, more than three years after tera's death, levi chavez was charged with her murder. levi chavez goes on trial, but will his alibi hold up in court? >> is there any way for you to actually know what time he got there? >> i do not know.

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in june 2013, levi chavez was to stand trial in a new mexico court for killing his wife, tera. he'd been out on bail, fired from his job as an albuquerque cop after he was indicted. >> the trial for an apd officer accused of killing his wife is finally under way. >> reporter: tera's family and friends thought justice was near. was there a time when you thought, "levi's never gonna be prosecuted?" >> no, we knew we would get here. we just had a lot of hurdles to get over. >> reporter: levi's family saw the trial very differently, as a chance to clear his name and theirs. you ever have any doubt as to whether or not levi was capable of this? >> i didn't have no doubt. from day one, i was one that was, you know, advocating that there's no way -- there's no way that he could have done this. >> reporter: david serna is

levi's defense attorney. >> i think that the evidence strongly suggested that the investigators ignored all evidence other than evidence pointing to levi's guilt. >> all rise. >> reporter: two families, once joined by marriage, could now hardly look at each other as they sat on opposite sides of a courtroom. the state set out to prove levi, the cheating husband, killed tera and staged her suicide to keep her from exposing a big secret. >> this was not a suicide. >> reporter: it was a purely circumstantial case, but lead prosecutor bryan mckay thought he had more than enough to brand levi a cold-blooded killer. >> so the perfect homicide equals suicide. >> reporter: you begin by talking about the perfect murder. isha twht at you think this was? >> yeah. a cop knows -- a suici, de if they're convinced early on that this is a suicide, it's closed. it's over. it's done.

there is no investigation. >> reporter: mckay thinks levi didn't count on the determination of tera's loved ones, who tookhe tta snd to make their own passionate case that tera would never have killed herself. >> there's no way that tera would have done this. no way. >> she had said that she was done, done putting up with him and his cheating and she was ready to move on with her life. >> reporter: prosecutors thought a big part of their case would be levi's alleged involvement in a stolen truck scam. rose slama came to court to testify about what she'd heard. >> i had asked her about the truck situation, and she had told me that levi had had it stolen for insurance. >> reporter: prosecutors told the jury they would prove this was levi's motive for murder. >> he knows tera's telling people that he is involved in some kind of a fraud. that's bad news.

>> reporter: but the state couldn't really deliver on that supposed motive. levi always maintained the truck was stolen, and fraud charges were never filed against him. so the judge wouldn't allow any testimony into trial to back up rose's story. the jury also never heard family or friends testify that tera thought levi might hurt her, perhaps over the truck. all of that was hearsay. still, mckay and his co-counsel ann keener believed they had much more evidence against levi, and made his infidelity the centerpiece of their case. they said levi had simply grown tired of tera. how would you describe him? >> levi chavez was a -- is a very me-centered person. everything about levi is about levi. >> reporter: among the mistresses who arrived in court

was katrina garley, a verizon store clerk levi met shortly before tera's death. they began an affair the day they met, and a few weeks later, they were in bed together again in the same home where tera had died. >> when you went to the residence, did you have a sexual encounter? >> yes, i did. >> do you know if the children were there? >> he said they were but, i did not see them. >> reporter: next up, a fellow apd officer, regina sanchez. tera had called her when she learned regina had been sleeping with levi. >> the nature of that phone call was to pretty much get mad at me, ask what was going on. >> was she upset? >> yes, very. >> reporter: and investigators showed that not long after that phone call, someone had typed in a web search on levi's computer, "how to kill somebody." >> after the "how to kill somebody" search, there was a web page that was visited, and that's on how to kill someone. >> reporter: the state's implication?

that levi thought murder might be easier than divorce. the prosecution said levi had grown tired of tera. >> that computer shows you that something's going on. he tells tera she's holding him back. calls her a worthless piece of skin. >> reporter: and the prosecution suggested levi had a plan to get rid of tera for a new girlfriend, heather hindi. she was the other albuquerque cop who got to know levi in the weeks before tera's death. >> you had indicated that you didn't start a sexual relationship until the end of november of 2007? >> correct. >> 63 days after tera died, the man who once tearfully told aaron jones he would never get over his wife's suicide gave heather a diamond ring. >> and when did you get married? >> july 5th, 2008. >> reporter: the official story is that heather and levi met just a couple of weeks before tera's death, but things didn't evolve until long after tera's

death. knowing what we know about levi, do you believe that? >> no, i think she was the ultimate goal. >> reporter: and the state had something else. debra romero, the mistress who had been levi's alibi, now took the stand to testify for the prosecution. >> i actually think he called me that evening. >> reporter: romero originally told investigators levi was with her right after his shift ended, during the period when it's believed tera was killed. now, years later, she testified that she couldn't be sure when he arrived at her house. >> is there any way for you to actually know what time he got there? >> i do not know. >> reporter: according to the prosecution, levi got off work at midnight and did something that his cell phone records show was highly unusual -- he shut off his phone for 15 hours. >> on october 21st, after midnight, 2007, the defendant

turned his phone off. >> reporter: his phone's off for a longer period of time than it had been off in a very long time? >> yes. that was a huge piece of evidence, because of the timing. really, that's the only time, this big break and it happens to be when your wife's killed? >> reporter: prosecutors then laid out for the jury exactly what they believed happened that night. they said levi got to the house and walked inside to the bedroom where he found his wife asleep. >> slams that gun in and pulls the trigger, instantly killing tera chavez. and then he pulls the gun out, and he turns it over and he lays it down. >> reporter: and then? >> and then at that point in time is when he hops in the shower, in case the gunshot's heard. comes out. nothing. nobody's responded. towel. that's when he sends that text. >> reporter: prosecutors said it was levi who sent that text from tera's phone, "i'm afraid i'm

going to hurt myself. i'm sooo upset, sad and hurt." it was the text levi would later show investigators. but detective jones took the stand to describe what he believed was levi's one mistake. >> did you push the magazine release of -- in this case? >> no. >> reporter: detective aaron jones testified how he had found the gun at the scene with the magazine already released. the state called experts to the stand to say that if tera had shot herself, she wouldn't have been able to release it. >> i found that it took better than five pounds of direct pressure in order to release this magazine. >> reporter: and prosecutors believed the person who did release the magazine was levi, the cop. they said levi's perfect crime wasn't perfect after all. >> this was not a suicide. the defendant killed tera chavez. >> reporter: but the defense was ready to tell a very different story, one of a lovesick woman

in a spiral of despair. the case for the defense starting with the cross-examination of the lead detective. turns out he had a troubled past. >> found you mentally unfit to be a police officer, right? >> that's what he ultimately said, yes. would you really pay twice as much? no i wouldn't. copy that! (vo) switch to sprint and get iphone 7. plus save 50% off most current national carrier rates. don't let a 1% difference cost you twice as much. for people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay.com. for people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay.com. whoooo! rightso roast the turkey, time for make the cookiesning

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it seemed all of albuquerque was transfixed by the sex-drenched narrative that was the levi chavez trial. prosecutors argued the former police officer killed his wife and staged it to look like a suicide. now it was the defense's turn. their first argument, the reason investigators initially thought tera committed suicide, was because she did. defense attorney david serna.

>> it was called a suicide because their own investigators whose job it is to go and see what kind of death it is called it a suicide. >> reporter: stating what he knew the jury must have been thinking, serna admitted levi was a failure as a husband, but said that didn't make him a murderer. >> he was completely unfaithful to her. >> in just about every way and just about every opportunity? >> absolutely. but, you know, he talks about tera being his partner. she was his partner because they had gone through so much. they had had children together. >> reporter: all along, levi's family felt the investigation into tera's death was flawed and fueled by an obsessed detective. >> when one theory came up and it didn't pan out, then he had another theory. i think in police work, you gotta have evidence. you have to have something that we can hold onto. >> reporter: in a series of testy exchanges, the defense tried to discredit aaron jones on the stand. >> i just thought as a world-class cop, maybe you could -- were clairvoyant, as

well. >> i'm working on it. >> i know you -- i bet you are, i have no doubt of that. >> reporter: serna grilled jones about his work history. turns out he'd been fired twice and formally reprimanded for his handling of cases, including one that caused jones to be written up as unfit for duty. >> dr. role basically found you, in a five-page written report -- >> objection. >> -- mentally unfit to be a police officer, right? >> that's what he ultimately said, yes. uh-huh. >> reporter: jones was later found fit to serve and left law enforcement voluntarily. but the defense argued his troubled record cast a cloud over all his police work. how important was it to sort of chip away at aaron jones -- >> oh. >> reporter: -- credibility? >> it was absolutely necessary that the jury see aaron jones for what he is. >> reporter: remember jones' theory that the blood pattern showed that the shooter was

left-handed while tera is right-handed? that theory never made it into court because it couldn't be backed up with forensics. and that insurance policy covering suicide that jones found suspicious? the defense showed it was an old policy that had been in place for years through levi's military service. >> my client never changed the amounts or coverage or clauses or anything of his insurance policy, right? >> i didn't know that then. >> reporter: and to cast more doubt on jones' investigation, the defense suggested he never really took a serious look at tera's lover, and his former buddy, nick wheeler. >> so they never got -- they never took your dna. did they take fingerprint exemplars from you? >> no, sir. >> reporter: in the end, the sheriff's department concluded there was no evidence that nick wheeler or his wife had anything to do with tera's death.

as for rose slama -- >> i had an itch and he scratched it, and that was it. >> you had an itch and he scratched it. >> that was it. >> reporter: serna argued rose couldn't be trusted. in fact, she was facing felony charges of her own. >> you were arrested for fraud over $2,500, right? >> yes, sir. >> and forgery over $2,500, right? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: the defense suggested rose made up the levi stories, hoping for leniency with her own legal problems, which she says all stemmed from a messy divorce. she would later plead out to lesser charges and get probation. but rose swears all her testimony was the truth. >> i got no deal. i testified because it was the right thing to do. >> reporter: and the rest of that parade of mistresses? the defense argued those women only bolstered levi's case, proving he was a lousy husband in a crumbling marriage, which

gave tera ample reason to be depressed, even suicidal. >> he wasn't a good husband. and he wasn't there and he didn't respond when she was making these cries for help. and he feels horrible. >> reporter: the defense's suicide expert, dr. alan berman, testified all the evidence pointed to tera taking her own life. >> she had a number of both chronic and acute risk factors for suicide. >> reporter: dr. berman read tera's diary and saw a woman who felt alone, abandoned, angry and trapped. >> when he hurts me again, i just hope it will kill me. because emotionally, i will not survive. >> reporter: and the "i'm sorry levi" note left on tera's bedside table? dr. berman said that note was too ambiguous for him to call it a suicide note. but that ripped up page, found buried in the garbage, the expert said that had the hallmarks of a real suicide note. >> the line, "i hope you'll be happy now," is something we

sometimes see in suicide notes. >> reporter: originally, the state suspected both notes were forgeries, but their own handwriting expert confirmed tera wrote both of them. >> so you came back with an opinion that tera wrote both of these so-called "suicide notes." >> i don't know what kind of notes they are, sir, but they are those notes, yes. >> reporter: one thing to keep in mind -- no expert on either side could say when those notes were written. that day tera died? years earlier? no way to tell. but the weekend tera died, the defense said there was more evidence of her spiraling out of control. she called levi 315 times. and that's the reason levi shut off his phone. not to escape detection, but to escape his wife. >> he doesn't want to be having his wife bugging him, bugging him, bugging him when he's, you know, hanging out at his

mistress' house. >> reporter: or he doesn't want any record of where he is. >> well, now look at this. the prosecution's theory is that he knew about all of these cell phone tower pingings. well, he didn't know anything about that at all. >> reporter: well, there isn't a police officer in america who doesn't know about that. >> well, he doesn't know that there's going to be a trail of where he is every minute. i gotta tell you, levi is not a criminal mastermind. >> reporter: that still left the question of how tera could have shot herself and then partially released the gun magazine. the defense hired a crime scene expert to make this video, demonstrating how they believed it could be done. >> the magazine released -- >> reporter: but when he came to court to do the same demonstration in person, he failed. >> the gun is cocked. if you work the trigger, can you

get around to the magazine? and sometimes i can, sometimes i can't. sometimes you can get to the magazine release after you fire the gun but today i can't. >> reporter: there were smiles on your faces when that happens. >> i'm sure there were. >> reporter: it was a high five moment for the prosecution. >> reporter: did you think when that's happening this is like the greatest thing? >> oh, absolutely. the fact that he gets up there to show how his theory would work and is unable to do it, you know, once again, went absolutely to what we were saying. she could not have killed herself. >> reporter: would that one mistake cost levi his freedom? the defense attorney didn't think so, because he had another strategy -- a surprising and risky move. >> the defense calls levi chavez. leavi chavez take the stand and tells his story. >> there was a -- a little light

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theresa cordova says the woman levi's defense attorney described at trial was not her daughter. >> tera was a very needy person. she was a desperate wife. >> i walked out of there numb. it was horrible. >> reporter: attorney david serna said tera chavez was a sad, needy woman desperate for male attention, and the breakup with nick wheeler sent her over the edge. >> that was really the double whammy, because now she thought she found someone else to, you know, latch her star to and he said, "nope" to her also. >> reporter: latch her star to? how about, you know, make her feel happy and not cheated on? >> that's fine, okay. >> reporter: i mean, there's very little to suggest that tera was interested in latching her star to anybody. >> i think you're right. she wanted somebody who was gonna treat her right.

the defense calls levi chavez. >> reporter: and now the man whom everyone agreed had treated her so wrong was going to take the stand himself. >> please spell your last name. >> levi chavez, c-h-a-v-e-z. >> reporter: levi said he and tera had been living on the verge of divorce for years, and she had become lonely and depressed. >> did she express, ever, thoughts to you, like she just wanted to disappear off the face of the earth? >> all the time. >> reporter: and he said that on the weekend tera died, he did ignore the 315 phone calls his wife placed to him. >> she would call and i just would hit the end button because i didn't wanna be bothered by her. >> reporter: levi says he worked till midnight on saturday, then went directly to his girlfriend's house. >> deborah's nice. she was, like, a nice person. i didn't want -- i liked her. i didn't want -- i didn't wanna take my phone in there and just

ringing off the hook and have to explain, "you know, it's my ex." so i just turned it off so i didn't have to deal with it. >> reporter: his attorney took levi through his account of the next day, sunday. the kids were out of town at his dad's. levi said he had gone from debra's house to his mom's house, where she was watching "desperate housewives." his mom said she couldn't reach tera and was concerned. >> when i was talking to mom, you know, everything's kind of coming together in my head, like the -- her threats and -- >> and when you say threats -- >> 200 phone calls. >> what do you mean by threats? >> like, "i'm gonna hurt myself if you don't come home." >> okay, threats to herself? >> yeah. >> okay. >> so, like, i had that information. and then she just stopped corresponding totally. and then my mom said she called in sick and didn't go to work on

sunday. i got afraid. >> reporter: he says fear made him race to the house to check on tera. >> i walked in and the house was dark and to the -- >> do you need a little time? you need a little break to kinda -- >> no. >> -- to collect yourself? >> so i walked in. and our bedroom's to the left. and there was a little light on from the tv. i couldn't believe what i was seeing. >> reporter: he says he instantly knew what had happened, and that he was to blame. >> i felt like i was telling myself, like, this is your fault. this right here is -- it's your fault. because i didn't answer the phone and i was -- i blame myself. >> what emotions were you feeling? >> guilt. but guilt doesn't even begin to even describe it. like there was something gone. and i was by myself for the

first time. and it felt like god was telling me, like "this is all your fault." like, "this is all your fault." >> reporter: after his emotional account of finding tera, his attorney gave levi a chance to explain away a series of other prosecution points. that computer search for "how to kill?" levi told the jury that all came from his passion for martial arts. >> and i remember looking up "how to rip somebody's throat out," because i wanted to find that martial art. >> reporter: and rose slama? yes, they had an affair, but levi testified the rest of her story was a lie. >> rose slama told you, "tera seems to think that your truck wasn't really stolen." did rose slama ever say such a thing to you? >> never. she never told me nothing like that. i didn't even -- i don't even know for sure if tera really cut

her hair. >> reporter: and remember how tera's things were so quickly packed up? levi said his family did that all on their own. >> did you know anything about family members of yours boxing stuff up? >> no, i didn't have anything. all i remember was the bed was gone. >> reporter: to close, the defense lawyer had two more questions for his final witness. >> did you kill your wife, the mother of your children, tera chavez? >> absolutely not. >> did you tamper with any evidence to make her death look like a suicide when it was really a murder? >> no, i did not. >> reporter: on cross-examination, prosecutor mckay tried to rattle levi, grilling him about that text the state believed levi had faked from tera's phone and showed investigators. >> you thought that was an important text, didn't you? >> of course i did. >> reporter: the prosecutor thought it suspicious that levi had deleted all of tera's other texts that weekend. >> yet you deleted every text except that one?

>> i don't know. i don't -- how am i supposed to know what texts i deleted? >> reporter: mckay went on to needle levi as a lying philanderer. the answer? that was the old levi and he was now a changed man. >> it's impossible for any person to change in one day. it was a process. >> reporter: and levi wasn't afraid to interrupt to make his points -- >> it was -- i'm -- i was explaining to the jury that it's a process. like -- >> i got -- let me speak to my jury, please. >> reporter: -- referring to the jury as "my jury." >> early october. >> can i speak to my jury, please? >> your honor, no. you need to answer the question. >> reporter: in nearly six hours of testimony, levi chavez tried to show he had nothing to hide and that he did not kill his wife. >> turns out levi didn't do it. nobody else did it. tera wrote those suicide notes, and they are suicide notes. >> reporter: but would his jury agree? as they begin deliberations, jurors are unanimous on at least one point.

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the trial of levi chavez was drawing to a close as the judge charged the jury to deliberate. >> just go into the jury room and select a foreperson.

>> reporter: was tera chavez's death a suicide or murder? if levi's convicted, life in prison. >> yeah, life in prison. >> reporter: or he walks free. >> yeah. >> reporter: behind closed doors, after five weeks of testimony, the jury could finally discuss the evidence. >> it's mentally, emotionally draining. >> yes. >> reporter: we spoke to six of the people that levi had called "my jury." what'd you think of him continually referring to "my jury?" >> that was a little disturbing. >> yes. >> reporter: they began deliberating and took a quick vote and realized they were far from unanimous. but they did agree on some things. all of you know someone who's had an affair? >> yeah, yes. >> yeah. >> yes. >> reporter: any of you know someone who's had as many affairs as levi chavez? >> no, no, no. no. >> someone made the comment, "can we all agree that levi

chavez is a dirtbag?" >> reporter: and apparently, they could agree on that while simultaneously setting it aside, concentrating on the evidence and not levi's bad behavior. >> we all felt that we couldn't judge him on his character. it was our job to judge him on the facts that were presented to us. >> reporter: but some of the comments the state said levi made about his wife, they couldn't get over. >> he called her a useless piece of skin. to me, that meant, "i'm done with tera." that's kind of what made me think he killed her. >> reporter: they thought long and hard about how tera was found, and about the gun that killed her. they asked for the glock to be brought into the jury room. >> we played a lot with the gun. we put the magazine in. we took the magazine out. we put the magazine in. we compared it to the photos. >> reporter: after a day of

examining the evidence, they couldn't agree. >> my question was, "what happens if we can't make a decision?" i thought for sure there was no way. we were too far apart. >> reporter: the jurors went home for the night. and when they came back the next day, they took a vote. now they were unanimous. the court summoned the cordova and chavez families. >> i'm shaky. wasn't quite prepared for that moment. >> reporter: how did levi look? >> he looked very worried. >> before i call out the jury and find out what the verdict is, i've been observing throughout this trial that there's a lot of animosity in this court room. you can cut the tension with a knife in here. >> reporter: the judge ordered quiet in the courtroom and instructed the families to leave separately after the verdict. >> okay, juror number 51, has the jury reached a verdict? >> yes, your honor. we have. >> can you hand the verdict forms to my bailiff? mr. chavez, please rise. "we find the defendant, levi chazez, not guilty of first degree murder as charged in

count one." >> reporter: not guilty. levi chavez was about to walk free. were you looking at levi at the moment they read the words? yes. and all of us were hugging and said a little prayer after. it was very -- i mean, it's just like it's over. >> reporter: but the other family in court listened in agony and quickly left. >> justice has not been served. >> justice wasn't served. i immediately put my arm around theresa and got her out of there. and i wanted to get her home. >> i was shocked, disappointed and disgusted with our system. >> reporter: so how did the jury reach that not guilty verdict? prosecutors, they said, had simply failed to make their case. several said they were baffled at how little evidence was presented. >> when the prosecution rested, i was like, "seriously?" >> that's all we -- >> like, i was expecting much

more from them. >> i really would've hoped them to take out two of the mistresses and put in something else that would give us more hard evidence. but they didn't. >> reporter: many told us they specifically didn't believe one of those mistresses. rose slama? >> no. >> no. >> reporter: didn't trust her? >> not at all. >> reporter: what did you say? >> don't trust her with a ten-foot pole. >> reporter: aaron jones. good police officer? >> definitely not. >> no. >> not. >> no. >> definitely not. >> reporter: jones testified that the gun's magazine had been released. but when the jury looked at the photos, they weren't so sure. >> for me, no one proved to me that that magazine was unseated. >> reporter: so the fact that the defense expert tried to show how it could be done and couldn't do it, that wasn't some huge fail for the defense? >> no. >> no, not at all. >> reporter: remember, the jurors never heard the comments attributed to tera from her family and friends, "if something happened to her, levi

did it." in the end, all of the jurors we spoke with said it came down to reasonable doubt. one was upset that they weren't able to convict. >> it was not a decision that i wanted to give. but i had to because of the reasonable doubt. >> reporter: so you think levi got away with murder? >> unfortunately, i do. >> reporter: the jurors that i talked to said they were stunned when the prosecution rested. they thought to themselves, "that's it? there's no more?" did you guys screw this up? >> no, i -- we gave them the evidence, one, we were allowed to give and, two, that was out there. we don't get to create the evidence. >> reporter: so my question is, was it worth it? >> yes. >> yes. >> reporter: even though you didn't get the result you wanted? >> yes. >> yes, we know the truth. >> we know the truth. and tera's words, even though they weren't heard in that courtroom, they're being heard

today. >> not guilty. i'm innocent. >> reporter: after the acquittal, levi charged out of court and straight through the press corps he felt had been harassing him for years. >> i knew i'd be acquitted. i didn't do anything wrong. i'm not surprised at all. >> reporter: you were the only member of levi's family who was willing to talk to us. how come levi doesn't want to talk? >> well, i feel that the media has really -- i don't think they gave him a fair chance. i mean, none of my family has ever said anything bad about the cordovas. we're all victims. and i really do feel sorry for them. i really do. they can take this apology from my family, but, you know what, levi is -- was a victim. >> reporter: his attorney says levi has no plans to return to law enforcement and hopes to go to law school some day. he still lives in the albuquerque area with his wife, heather, their young son, and levi's two kids with tera. >> reporter: you think levi's

being a better husband to her than he was to tera? >> levi's being an excellent husband and father. >> reporter: the cordovas later decided to drop their wrongful death civil lawsuit against their former son-in-law. >> we're all here to remember tera. >> reporter: a few weeks after the trial, family and friends came together in los lunas to remember tera chavez on what would have been her 32nd birthday. for all of those who loved her, tera is never really that far away. >> i'll be in good company if something ever happened to me now, wouldn't i, josh? i have my baby. she's looking over me. she's my angel.

. good evening. i'm piers morgan. or as you know me, the british mario lopez. this week, a series of shocking and confusing revelations. who lied about what in who's still hiding the truth and who, what, who, what, who. [ laughter ] joining me first is say