>> what is going on? >> then there was a murderer. the murderer is with us. and every one of you is a suspect. >> and who are you? >> i am probably the greatest detective in the world. this is the entran park where richard was the gunman lay in wait secluded dark place at. >> one way or another, execution.

>> absolutely. >> they were a busy ma couple meeting up for valentine's night rend. >> they always gave ea kisses, hugs. >> but that night some other plans. >> he's been what? >> he's been shot. >> before she even arr husband was dead. >> i could see him. i could see him laying ground. >> i couldn't think of that would want to hur >> then someone let a se slip. soon police were quest suspect with a motive suddenly changed his l. >> and in fact, when h up at work that morning, beardless. >> there was only one he had a rock-solid al >> where did that leav >> worried about my ca. >> that's when the pho >> he had no voice, >> a tip, a tire track case one detective w forget. >> it was a shot in the dark but i took it. >> i'm lester holt and this is

"dateline." here's keith morrison with "a perf >> reporter: a winter' a southern forest. the ink-black darkne briefly to their hea then closed around the shroud as they made th separate cars through overcast. and then, here it was. what is place for their valentine's tyrst. a hand in front of their faces or the fate lurking out there in the dark. waiting. but what a way to begin a love story. better, pr balloons the man so love and the motorcycle together, in daylight, discovered their own s

place, their remote fo clearing in a place ca belton bridge park. though park is much to word for their little beside the chatt north of atlanta, >> i knew them both ve >> reporter: they were and stacey schoeck. and it was another lov love of scouting, that admiration of greg gau. >> reporter: how'd you them? >> both of our sons were scouts. >> reporter: with kids, boys especially, they were naturals. >> stacey wa full of ideas, would drag us to do things. >> reporter: the go-ge? >> the go-getter. and we also joki mama spreadsheet because everything that she di be laid out in a spreadsheet. reporter. >> she was. >> reporter: scouting bill fanning got t too. >> richard was a good and i saw how much

having. and so i kind of asked could tag along and with scouts myself. >> reporter: stacey wa leader for the cub s she pretty good with t too? >> she was pretty good kids, too. yeah, she was. she and richard, they well together. >> reporter: as they d her three sons, greg was surprised, he said, wh told him that, biologi kids were stacey's. >> i just naively thought that they were his children. >> reporter: because it looked like that -- >> it looked like that. >> in the way that they treated them and they treated him? >> oh, yeah. oh, yeah. >> reporter: so when richard officially adopted the younger two of the three boys, cousin connie was thrilled. >> my heart melted. like, i was ju "that is, like, th >> and he wanted to kids because he loved children and those c loved him. >> reporter: richard h marched to the beat of drum. >> my brother was alwa kid. >> reporter: and said his big

sister, most certainly not a suit and tie sort of person, could not sit down behind a desk. >> he had to be out and about. he was a good athlete. >> reporter: kind of like a pied piper to his niece. >> he would roller skate with us or throw a ball with us or color with us. he was our cool uncle. >> reporter: no wonder, how many uncles take their 5-year-old niece and 5-year-old nephew for a ride in a hot air balloon. >> i could barely see over the edge. it was cool seeing skies and clouds all around you. >> reporter: dan martin was one of his balloon buddies. >> people would say, can i have richard today? and he was just the best crew person. we liked being around him because he's very eccentric and very funny. >> reporter: and stacey? >> she was funny. >> reporter: she administered a sizeable medical practice. richard was a maintenance

manager t remained the main caregiver for the kids and together the two of them were -- well, people noticed. >> they always gave each other kisses, hugs, so they seemed wonderful together. >> reporter: all which may explain why on valentine's day 2010, they decided to meet and make out a little at this special place in the woods. they say what happened next is shocking is an understatement. >> 911 -- >> oh, my god. please. i need help right now. >> reporter: the voice on the nine call was stacey's. the victim of whatever happened here was her husband, richard. he had arrived at their rendezvous first. got there later, he was lying on the ground beside his truck. >> my name is stacey and my

husband has been shot. >> he's been what? >> he's been shot! he is dead! >> reporter: then the sheriff's department got the call so there he was valentine's night all but groping as he drove a dark and winding road in search of that road by the river. >> it's in the middle of nowhere and so that creates a special kind of darkness that you can't appreciate until you're in the middle of it. >> reporter: detec franklin is an experienced man. and this -- >> this is one of the very few cases where the more i dug, the less sense that it made. >> reporter: no, nothing made sense about this. a murder so sudden and so brutal. was it a robbery gone bad? the investigation was just beginning. when we come back, tire tracks in the mud that belonged to neither richard nor stacey. >> you could see richard's

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right, freshness for weeks! unstopables by downy. for a fresh too feisty to quit. >> reporter: if there thing as a perfect spo murder, then this just be it. wow, this is remote. my god, it's -- >> it's pretty secluded. >> reporter: if you were -- if you didn't know what to look for, you'd miss that sign. >> you would miss it. right. there's just a void on the side

of the road. it was a dark void. >> reporter: it was going on 11:00 p.m., february 14th, 10, when detective franklin found the place. >> this is the entrance to the park where richard was killed. >> reporter: that night, the cops lit up the crime scene surrounded by a clearing of bare soil, sand and muddied dirt. we've got this place lit up like it's christmastime but if these lights weren't on -- >> you can't see a hand in front of your face. >> reporter: richard was lying dead beside his truck. suffice to say, he had been shot five times. three times through his body, twice in the face. he lay on his back near the open door of his truck. it was probably a pretty ugly crime scene in terms much what to him? >> it was particularly gruesome. >> reporter: what did that say to you? >> that's overkill. especially with the placement of the shots. >> repor also, it was clear

fr get-go that this was not a robbery. >> the fact that richard had his weg ring on, a fairly expensive watch that he had on, there was cash on the center console of the truck that was undisturbed. the truck itself was still here. it was ripe for the taking. it was running and on and the door was open. >> reporter: something else the detective put in from the track of the bullets that went through richard's body. he must have gotten out of his truck and approached whoever shot him. >> when stacey found richard, his truck was running, lights were on. it appeared that he simply got out of his truck to approach the person that shot him, which was a compelling thing for us. it really got our attention. >> reporte who was it? who did richard approach? whoever it was was long gone by the time stacey arrived. so not much to go on. when the police technitr his li clearing from the side just so, a whole new picture suddenly

emerged. a story of tire tracks including those that belonged to neither richard's truck nor stacey's suv. >> you could see richard's impressions passover those and then stacey's back over richard's. that vehicle was here before richard got here and likely left after he was dead. >> reporter: had to be the killer. but how could common tire tracks help them find whoever did this? having seen what he could, the detective headed back to the sheriff's station to meet stacey and record her statement. was after midnight by then. >> this feels unreal. >> reporter: stacey explained it was her weekend to care for her grandparents and richard planned to come by on sunday to cook dinner. he arrived about 5:30. >> and i had my valentine's stuff for him sitting on the desk. when you walk in the back door, he was like, oh, well, mine are out in the truck and would do that at the park.

>> reporter: because they had already planned a brief romantic ron day vi day view on the way to see their kids. >> we'll exchange our valentine's and then he gave me a kiss and maybe even make out. she said, they both knew we had ridden by that park gazillion of times. lots and lots of times. even when we were dating, we would go and find little obscure paces and make out like teenagers. >> rep so after dinner, richard left for the park first, she said, and she followed a bit later when a night nurse arrived to look after the grandparents. >> i think i probably pulled out of the driveway at about 9:20 or so. i called richard and it went to voice mail and i didn't know why

and i didn't leave a message. and i left. >> reporter: and when she got there -- >> i knew something was wrong. i could see -- i saw his truck immediately. because the lights were on. and so i pulled down and i headed right towards his truck but as soon as i could see him -- i could see him laying on the ground. >> reporter: ah, but life is a complicated business, as everybody knows. even lovers aren't always straight with each other. these, however, were investigators stacey was talking to. she knew they'd figure out her secret sooner or later so right away she came clean. >> i've been having an affair for several -- six, seven months. >> reporte an affair. his name was juan reyes. he worked in stacey's office in a job she had gotten for him. >> you know, i'm in deep with juan. i know that. >> sure.

>> i'm telling you. >> reporter: oh, yes, she certainly was. stacey and richard owned the house reyes lived in with his family. she met juan for sex at an apartment that stacey rented for the purpose. she paid for the truck he drove, paid his cell phone bills and she admitted she had just taken him to vegas and disguised it as a work trip. >> did juan know that you were supposed to meet richard at the park up here? >> he did. >> how did he know that? >> i had told him. probably tuesday night, it was either tuesdaythursday. >> reporter: was stacey saying juan may have been the killer? >> no. i just -- i can't imagine -- i mean, i guess i've seen enough tv to know that strange things -- you know, things happen. but i can't -- i can't imagine him doing that. >> but the detectives certainly could. >> and we start getting some

direction and we have this unknown set of impressions and a third party at the scene so now we have to ask ourselves if it's juan. >> time to have a chat with mr. juan reyes, even if it was 4:00 in the morning. coming up -- >> we knocked for a while and we knocked on windows, around the house, never could get anybody to the door. >> where would somebody be at 4:00 a.

richard schoeck, 46-year-old, had been suddenly escorted from this life while he waited for his wife in this secluded georgia park on valentine's day. there was an outside chance, of course, that it could be a chance of a murder by mistaken identity. maybe richard showed up at the wrong time or maybe he witnessed something he wasn't supposed to

see. but when stacey told the story of her affair with this guy, juan reyes, the cops knew they were listening to a motive as old as time. jealous boyfriend gets rid of competition. the cops showed up at juan's house that very night. >> we walked around and could never get anybod door. >> reporter: politely or -- >> no, law enforcement banging on the door and on the side of the house and that kind of thing. e fled? run away? later that morning, the detectives went to his workplace to see if he would show there. he did all right but -- >> his appearance had changed from the information we had gathered from different sources, that showed that he had a beard. >> reporter: woodrow was chief of detectives at the time and worked with franklin. >> and in fact when he showed up at work that morning, he was beardless. >> rep or at least removed his full beard and changed it to

a goatee. he agreed to talk without a lawyer. he sat in the interrogation room for more than four hours with several detectives having a go at him, including franklin and trip. >> it's my understanding that you and stacey are romantically involved. >> yes. >> reporter: he revealed all of that. and then they caught him on something. stacey had already told the detectives that she informed juan on tuesday or possibly thursday about the plans to meet richard that sunday night of valentine's day. >> when did she tell you that? >> she told me friday. friday after work. >> would you find it odd if i told you that she's made a statement that she told you earlier than friday? >> um, no. i mean, i remember the conversation on friday.

if she mentioned it before then, i wasn't thinking about it or didn't pay attention to it. i'm forgetful sometimes. >> reporte was he forgetful or was he hiding something? >> okay. let me ask you this. did you have anything to do with what's happened to richard? >> no. no. >> do you know who did? >> no. huh-uh. >> reporte and so they asked him, where was he before and after dinner on valentine's day? >> me and my son went out to blockbuster. we ate about 7:30 and about 10:30 i was in bed. i don't sleep much, so three, four hours later i'm up tossing and turning. >> reporter: wait a minute. if he was up tossing and turning, how did he not hear the cops banging on his door? >> i don't know what to tell you, man. i was in my bed. >> you were there? >> yeah. >> we rang the bell like eight

or ten times. >> i didn't hear it. we sleep with fans on, as i said, box fans. i took tylenol p.m., as i stated to you. >> but then you also said that you're a light sleeper, you tossed and turned last night and maybe three, four hours and that's it. >> right. i was up about 40 tossing and turning. i looked at the clock again at 5:00. >> we were there. >> i didn't hear you. i don't know what to t you. >> reporter: juan reyes was like a brick wall. didn't don't it, didn't know who did. really? the polygraph told a different story. >> the polygraph results indicated that he was not telling the truth or not being truthful to those relevant questions posed to him about the homicide. >> reporte questions such as, did you shoot richard schoeck, do you know if anyone shot richard schoeck, were you

present when richard was shot. >> he knows where he's going to be, he's in an affair with stacey. he's not at home at 3:00, 4:00 in the morning the night of the murder. he shows up the next morning, altered his appearance. when you put all of that together, there's a lot of ringing bells there. coming up -- will juan's wife back up his alibi when she finds out he was cheating on her? >> if she wanted to throw him under the bus, that was the time to do it. >> she had a g. ndering if an elc toothbrush really cleans... ...better than a manual, and my hygienist says it does. but... ...they're not all the same. turns out, they're really... ...different. who knew? i had no idea. so, she said look for... ...one that's shaped like a dental tool with a round... ...brush head. go pro with oral-b. oral-b's rounded brush head surrounds each tooth to... ...gently remove more plaque and... ...oral-b crossaction is clinically proven to... ...remove more plaque than sonicare diamondclean. my mouth feels so clean. i'll only use an oral-b! the #1 brand used by dentists worldwide. oral-b. brush like a pro.

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there can be few thing in life as shocking, as disorienting as a sudden death of a loved one, especially one so affectionate, so endearing, so apparently happy. and when the dreadful news came with the word murder attached --

>> i couldn't think of a soul that would want to hurt the man. i couldn't think of anyone. >> reporter: richard and his scouting buddy spent the evening together the night before richard was killed and so bill heard him get the phone call from stacey about their plans for valentine's day. >> he said, we're making plans to get together up near her grandma's. >> rec s staying up there for the weekend? >> she was looking after her grandmother. >>r: was he happy about that? >> he thought, that's great. >> reporter: a wee he at richard's memorial. stacey asked bill to give the eulogy. >> it was one of the most difficult things i've ever done, is to get up and talk about him. i -- i remember looking down at thepallbearers and they were all scouts. there was not a dry eye there. >> reporter: everyone e on bal released them into the air.

>> everybody had their own personal little story. richard helped me tie my first knots in my tent. richard helped me build my first fire. you could tell the cub scouts he was working with, that he touched their lives like he had me and my sisters. >> reporter: meanwhile, the hall county sheriff's department was working on their only lead. >> we were focusing pretty hard on one person. >> reporter: juan reyes, the boyfriend. >> though we thought that he was the shooter, at the same time, he deserved for us to verify his story. >> reporte remember, here's where juan said he was late in the day, february 14th. >> me and my son went to blockbuster. ate dinner about 7:30 and by 10:30 i was in bed. >> reporter: there were ways to check, of course. they talked to juan reyes' wife.

ex-wife, actually. she was living with him in an effort to reconcile. >> the f thing that i told her is that juan had been having an affair with stacey for quite some time. she wasn't happy about that. >> reporter: no, she wasn't. but listen to this. the woman scorned still confirmed his alibi. >> he had goneo blockbuster while i was cooking, so between 6:00 and 7:30 and he came home, had dinner in the room, i laid down and we went to bed. >> what time was that? >> i know we were watching the 10:30 news. i think it was 10:00. last time i looked at the clock it was like 10:37. >> reporter: if she wanted to though him under the bus, that was the time to do it. >> she had the great opportunity. >> r so maybe juan wasn't the guy who did it? >> correct. >> reporter: juan reyes was innocent. he didn't do it. well, where did that leave you? >> worried about my case. >> reporter: a case that had

become personal for detective franklin. he felt like he knew richard, like he was mourning him somehow. >> i we scene, stand at the scene and reflect and sit there and try to go over things in my head and try to figure out what direction to take. >> reporter: what could he do? all franklin had to go on was this picture of tire tracks left in the soft soil of the clearing. could he use this to find his killer? not so easy. didn't even know the make of the tire. >> we looked on the internet but we're coming up empty. we went to car dealerships. we went retail tire establishments. we would pull up next to cars at traffic lights and look at what kind of tires they had on them. and anybody that we talked to, we looked at their tires just to be sure. >> reporter: and then one day, at yet another tire store, a colleague called into a stock area out back. >> he pointed at this tire and i said that's it.

it was a goodyear integrity. >> reporte that wid delled it down. couldn't be more than millions of tires with goodyear integrity tires. and just as he was contemplating that little problem -- >> got a phone call from an i.t. technician at the dekalb medical center. >> reporter: out of the blue? >> yes. >> reporter: that's where the office was that stacey managed. the guy's job there was, in part, clearing the junk from employee e-mail accounts. >> and he noticed that stacey's inbox for friday, saturday and sunday have been completely cleaned out. >> reporter: curious. that was the very weekend of the murder. >> so he thought enough to give us a call. >> reporter: was stacey, the can you be scout den leader, actually hiding something or did she just accidently hit delete too many times? of course, all of those deleted files have been backed up. so they got a warrant, collected all of stacey's e-mails, not just from that weekend, 4,000

e-mails in all. >> it was quite a task. >> reporter: and a lot of it was spam. except two e-mails seemed -- well, they stood out. requesting stacey to transfer money out of something called a real estate account. >> r a few weeks before the mu the first transfer. 8,902. the second transfer was for $1100. >> reporter: both times the money went into the account of someone named lyntitra ross, who was stacey's tenant and co-worker. she was renting a house from stacey. they had a talk with lynitra. >> she seemed very collected and so i asked her about the money transfer. >> reporter: he made an audio recording of the interview. >> how much money did you get

overall? >> it's been about -- it was 89 at first. >> 89 -- >> 8900. >> reporter: why did stacey give her $8900? >> she transferred money to me for the repairs and stuff. >> she said they had redone the roof, the interior of the house, carpet, flooring, that kind of thing. >> repor $1100? still more repairs. >> and then we got another leak, a main water valve leak. >> reporter: but the story made sense? >> and she was cooperative. >> repor a simple business transaction. detective franklin was right back where he started. >> yeah. it gets to a point where you're still looking for ways to move forward. >> reporter: it was march by then. close to a month since the murder. and they seemed to be going nowhere what to do now? how about grasp at straws? >> it's called a tower dump. >> reporter: a tower dump?

>> it was a shot in the dark but i took it. coming up, a killer with a cell phone about to make a big mistake. >> my thinking is if he's sitting there in a secluded park, will he make a phone call in i had no idea. >> when "dateline" is that the rest of our food? what? no. how come you have cheese in your beard? because switching to geico could save you 15% or more on car insurance. oh! ok. geico. because saving 15% or more on car insurance is always a great answer. whoa! gross! tha...oh, burnt-on gravy?ie. ...gotta rinse that. nope. no way. nada. really? dish issues? throw it all in. new cascade platinum powers through... even burnt-on gravy. nice. cascade.

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investigation of the murder of richard schoeck, detective franklin was stuck in the weeds. >> i'd sit down with my supervisor and say i'm worried about the case. he said, hang in there. it will take a small piece of information to break this thing loose. >> repor and, sure enough, what do you know, the detective got a phone call. >> during the crime, when it happened, a car was missing. >> reporter: the caller was stacey's cousin connie. she had been troubled by something, she told us. >> it took me a good three weeks contemplating, you know, should i call, should i not? >> reporter: after all, stacey was like a big sister, said connie. but there was something wrong, like the strange business of her grandparent's 2009 impala. >> stacey was supposed to sell it for them because they needed money for medical bills. a couple weeks later it would be back at her house and then it

wasn't and then she said that she sold it for 16,000. >> reporter: and yet stacey never produced the money. >> the family was persistent about this car. and so finally we're like, it's likely that it was used. we don't know where it's at. let's run this thing. >> reporter: they ran the v.i.n. number and they found the car. stacey had sold it by then. >> and lo and behold, it had integrities on it. i found the car that richard was killed from. >> reporter: which was great, but who was in it? no idea. detective franklin was stuck. he took a long shot. he asked for something called a tower dump, information dump, that is, from this cell tower on a farm near the crime scene. >> i subpoenaed all calls that generated from the tower that services belton bridge park from the night of the murder from about 7: p.m. until about 9:30. >> reporter: bec that's when stacey arrived and found richard. why start looking at 7:00 p.m.?

>> it was apparent to me that the gunman lay in wait for richard. my way of thinking is, if he's sitting there waiting in this secluded dark place at night, is he going to twiddle his thumbs or call somebody? >> reporter: it should show up. four major carriers on that tower, thousands of calls. but what number should he look for? why not play a hunch he had all along. >> stacey's involved somehow. you have this third vehicle at the scene. you have overkill with the way that richard died. based on all of those things, a murder-for-hire starts crossing your mind. >> reporter: he was going to compare e numbers from the tower dump to stacey's contact list. >> the best source of information is stacey's contact list. it was 258 contacts, i think. >> reporter: so if you could find any phone call coming from the crime scene that happened to be on her contact list, that

would give you -- >> that would give me some direction. >> r a lot of numbers to compare. but then he got lucky. really lucky. maybe 150 numbers in his search, there it was, a match. >> it said reggie. >> reporter: the call was placed at 8:40 p.m. >> it was a 28-second call. richard left the grandparent's house at about 8:15. it's about a 15-minute drive. >> reporter: he got there about and we felt he was killed as soon as he got out of his truck so killed around 8:30 to 8:45 and here's a call from reggie to stacey on the night of the murder. >> repor who was reggie? >> under the company name, it said mr. results. >> reporter: so franklin's next step, naturally -- >> i simply googled mr. results. the first link was a personal trainer.

>> repor a former semiprofessional boxer and he held workout sessions at stacey's office. then detective franklin looked at the number reggie called. >> i should have already recognized it because i already had it in my notes because it was lynitra ross. >> reporter: the woman who claimed she received $10,000 from stacey for house repairs within three weeks of the murder. now the trail was warm. very warm. he pulled phone records for all three, reggie, lynitra and stacey. combed through hundreds of calls and texts until -- >> a very interesting sequence of calls actually emerged from that. >> reporte a sequence on february 14th. it went like this. at 6:42 p.m., reggie called lynitra. at 6:45, lynitra called stacey. at 6:48, lynitra called reggie back. >> in my mind, reggie called lynitra and said are we still doing this and lynitra called stacey and stacey confirming,

yes, he's here. i'll have him at the park and then lynitra calling reggie back and saying, yes, go out there. >> reporter: after that, no more calls until 8:40 p.m. when reggie's call to lynitra was captured by the tower near the crime scene. >> the call was reggie saying it's done. >> reporter: and then, get this, at 9:00 p.m., lynitra sent stacey a text saying, happy valentine's day, it said. >> was that a code? >> it was. >> reporter: code for, it's done. he's dead. almost there now. all he needed was a money trail to prove murder-for-hire. so bank records this time. >> the same tedious work as the cell phone records. >> reporter: guess what, that $10,000 that was transferred repairs, only 1800 went t for into that. the rest was cash. lynitra wrote reggie a cash for

$700. >> all within three weeks of the murder. that's the whole thing that had come together at this point. reggie's my trigger person. the middle person is lynitra ross. >> reporte and the mastermind, stacey. three months later after the murder of richard, lynitra ross -- >> you're aware of what the charges. >> rep reggie coleman and stacey schoeck were arrested and charged are with murder. >> i told stacey we can fight this. >> reporte surprises. more than one. stacey had a story t. coming up -- is there ever an excuse for murder? >> having lived through that, i would never going to let it ha k

three months after stacey schoeck found her husband's bullet-riddled body, she was arrested for murder. it was crazy. it didn't make sense. a mother of three, cub scouts leader? surely she would come up with a defense when she met with her attorney. but, no, that's not what

happened. far from it. >> she laid it all out. she didn't hesitate, she didn't minimize. she told me exactly what the plan was. >> reporter: the plan for murder. her lawyer, no surprise, had his own plan. >> i told stacey, i already know how we would defend this case. she looked me straight in the eye without hesitation and said, no. the gig is up. i did this. what i did was wrong. no more lies. >> reporter: stacey wanted to confess. it took a while to arrange it, but seven months after the murder, with the recorder running, confess she did. >> i'm not going to keep lying. i'm done. i'm done, you know. >> reporter: it all started over lunch with lynitra, said stacey, when she told her friend she wished her husband was dead and lynitra offered the services of her sometime boyfriend reggie. >> and i was like reggie,

really? and she said, yes, that's what he does. that's how he supplements his income, you know, he does jobs. >> reporter: so, said stacey, lynitra arranged for the three of them to meet and reggie agreed to kill richard. >> then i was like, well, how much cash? and he was like, well, you know, i was thinking around $10,000. i was like, okay. >> reporter: that was the $10,000 stacey transferred to lynitra. she gave the money to reggie. stacey also agreed to give him her grandparents' 2009 impala. yes, that impala. and the house lynitra was renting from her. a week later, all three went to scout the crime scene. >> so he was like, yeah, this is a perfect place. and even made a comment that, you know, i might have to use this place for often. >> reporter: but the night of the murder, says stacey, reggie botched the plan. >> it was supposed to be a robbery. that's what he had said. it was supposed to be one shot

to the head. i said, i don't want him to suffer. i don't want him to see anything. >> reporter: but why would she possibly want to have richard killed? to that question, stacey offered this story. >> things started clicking in my brain of what was happening with my kids and my family and -- and i was convinced that my kids were being harmed. >> reporter: stacey said she believed richard was molesting her sons. they were acting out and there was something one of them told her. >> you don't know what happens -- what he does to me when you're not here. that kind of -- you know, that stuck in my brain, for sure. >> reporter: to her, there was just one solution. >> i didn't want police, i didn't want a divorce, i just wanted him dead. >> reporter: and so here it was, her reason for murder. stacey said she had been molested as a child repeatedly

and she knew what it was like. >> having riffed throud throu t was never going to let my boys go through this. >> had you asked the boys? >> not directly. not then. i have since. >> reporter: her sons asked her, why, what would make you want to hurt him and she explained -- >> people touched me bad when i was a kid and i reacted in certain ways and sometimes your behaviors made me worry that you were getting touched in a bad way. >> reporter: and the son who made that earlier statement to his mother responded devastated. >> he said, no. he said, no, i'm sorry. i exaggerated. i am sorry that i said those things. i blew things out of proportion, mom. >> reporte stacey was wrong. there was no abuse. >> now that's a hard thing to deal with, too, because he has guilt. >> repor b was the motive

she admitted true or with there still more truth withheld? there would be an answer, just not quite yet. we asked for an interview with stacey but prison rules wouldn't allow it so her attorney spoke on behalf. >> she understands completely what she did. she understas it is her fault richard schoeck is dead. she doesn't have excuses. >> reporter: stacey pleaded guilty to murder. reggie coleman did the same. lynitra ross stood trial and was found guilty. all of them were sentenced to life in prison without parole. the case solved. three convictions for the detective who poured through reams of phone numbers and sniffed out a murder-for-hire case. >> you know, when your gut tells you something, you should go for it and if it makes sense, then that's probably what it is. >> pretty obvious if i ask you where this fits in your catalog of cases. >> there will be another one

like it, i'm pretty sure. i hope not. >> and now finally, the last admission. a few days after stacey was sent away, richard's sister carol went to see her, dplglared at stacey through the glass partition. she didn't buy stacey's story about her reason for killing richard. >> i said, okay, stacey, this is it. i want to know and i said, no bull, no lies, i want to know why you had richard killed. >> the the was a long pause and then out it came. >> she said, because of my actions back then and because of the way i was living my life, i knew that i couldn't divorce richard because if i divorced richard, he would have enough of

a chance to get custody of my kids, which he had adopted legally, and i couldn't let that happen. and i just looked at her and i said, thank you and i hung up the phone. >> reporter: but if the answer satisfied some need to know, the pain was and is no different. richard schoeck is dead. his quirkiness and spirit and devotion to those boy scouts all gone. >> we a thing, it was called a richard fire. if it wasn't stoked up and running bright and flame licking the tree tops, it wasn't a richard fire. so if you want a richard fire, that's the fire you've got to have. and when we're at scouting events and we see the big fire we built and the smoke coming up, we all talk about richard. that's all for now. i'm lester holt.

thanks f this sunday -- violence in virginia. >> disperse immediately or you will be arrested. >> white nationalists clash with counterprotesters in charlottesville. one person is killed when a car plows into a crowd. we'll have a report from are the screen th scene this morning and i'll talk to the mayor of charlottesville. plus, the president's reaction. president trump denounces the disturbance but not the n neo-naz neo-nazis, nor the klan participants. >> we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. >> did the president fail his first test as healer in chief. and the president's tough talk on north korea. it started here -- >> they will be met with fire and fury like the world has