paine was broken. glass on the ground. >> a valentine's day that ended with a different kind of red. >> i was in shock. >> we knew somebody was out there doing something. >> a mother, a wife, a missionary. >> denise sounds like a saint. >> probably was. >> something had been happening behind closed doors. >> there's nothing more torrent to me than you in this relationship. >> was it love? >> this was his valentine's day present to aina. >> or hate? >> one shot to the head. >> what was the motive for a valentine's day murder? >> we had a note that she had written. >> she was speaking from the grave, in a way. >> that note was powerful. it happened on the least likely day imaginable. a day devoted to love and

valentine's day, and it happened to the last people on earth you would expect. a religious family dedicated to god and making the world a better place. >> we had a break-in. >> is it going on right now? >> i don't know. the garage door is open. there's glass in the back door, somebody broke in. >> my world had just been shattered. >> reporter: their perfect world broke bein an act so evil it tore a family apart. >> the worst day of my life. >> and put an entire town on edge. >> be extra cautious, lock your doors, windows. pay attention to strangers in the area. >> they devoted their lives to others others. who would ever want to hurt they were them? >> absolutely -- >> it began with a happy way. with flowers and expression of love.

back when they were students apartment a small baptist school in central illinois. even a the that young age, nathan knew there was something to this sparkling little girl. >> i was in third grade and she was in fourth grade at the time and i doud doubt she even knew i existed but she was the cutest girl. >> what did you like so much? >> the bouncing curls and happy-go-lucky smile in junior high. i began to see her character and what person she was that way. >> in high school nathan and denise got to know each other better bu they didn't date, because that both came from very religious families. >> my parents didn't believe in dating. we want to church events, saw her at school. she was my first and only girlfriend. >> reporter: got to know nathan

nathan a basketball player, denise a cheerleader. >> inseparable. goof around with each other. in a loving, maybe puppy love-ish way and it group into something special and we knew they'd be together. >> what's more, nathan was inspired by her parents and what he saw as a perfect marriage. >> i looked at denise's mom saw what she was am a woman a wife are and mother and saw that denise really favored her mother so i said, that's what i want. >> for denise's mom, diane newton, the feeling was mutual. >> was he over all the time? >> yeah. he practically lived at our house. >> when denise went off to college, nathan, a year longer, followed. no surprise. the couple got engaged a year later. diane knew it was coming. >> i knew they would end up getting married.

>> i was always very happy being a wife and mother and was happy she had found someone to love and share her life with. >> right before we did our vows denise prepared a song talksing about everything she wanted was in me. and that our marriage was going to be the kind she had always hoped for and dreamed for as a little child, and -- a wonderful day. >> after the young come settled in their hometown of peoria, illinois, denise went to work at an insurance company while nathan started a career in sales, but he couldn't shake a higher calling. for several years he dreamed of becoming a baptist missionary's in 1998 he finally seized the opportunity when another young couple at their church began their own missionary work in lithuania. >> so i approached the fella and said, you know, what would you think about denise and i coming and helping you guys? he said, that would be great. >> they moved in with us for six

sold all their possessions. tried to save up money. >> we didn't know any lithuanians at the time. didn't know the language, studying, trying our best but if was definitely a shock. >> they returned home after a year and soon welcomed a son, seth, and a daughter julia. in 2002, the family went back to lithuania, which became their second home on and off for the next eight years. >> that's a big undertaking, to -- >> right. i think it was very hard for denise to leave her family, leave everything she'd known and to go over to a strange country, you know, with a toddler and a baby. it was -- traumatic experience for her, i think. >> this is because, really, nathan wanted to do it? >> right. she was -- supporting him. it was -- wasn't really her calling. she was basically being a wife and a mother. >> but denise also became very devoted to the church there.

she played the piano for the children and taught them songs and taught the little girls especially bible stories. >> they grew particularly close to some of the children and their families. >> we had helped women who had been in abusive relationships. we had brought several lithuanians to the united states over the years. for cultural reasons, for musical purposes, for sports. >> their generosity extended to a young lithuanian they had gotten to know by who eventually came to the u.s. as a college student and even lived with them for a while in peoria. >> nathan has a very big heart for people. he just loves to help people out, and just wants to do the lord's work. >> by the fall of 2010, nathan and denise were living back in the states. by then they had a third child, janel. their days were filled with shuttling kids to school and day

their next overseas mission. life with three young kids was busy, hectic, normal. but then came valentine's day 2013, when nathan pulled into their driveway mid-afternoon and discovered something terribly wrong. >> i could see that the windowpane was broken, glass on the ground. at that point i began to put things together and someone had broken into the home, and at that point i calmed the police. called 911. >> 911. where's the emergency? >> we had a break-in. >> a daring burglary in the middle of the day that would rob this family of everything.this family of everything. >> there would be no more cards, candy or flowers this valentine's day. no one can find denise. >> she hadn't answered her phone calls. hadn't answered her text messages, and what police do find is terrifying. >> everything stopped. i just kept looking at my daughter. my world had just been shattered

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overseas as missionaries, the leuthold family returned to peoria, illinois. denise, nathan and their three kids. seth 12, julia 10 and janel 4 were living with denise's parents. nathan says it felt good to be home. >> we had tremendous friends and family here in the states. and that's always what he missed the most. >> being back in the state also gave nathan an opportunity to travel to churches where he reported on his and denise's missionary work and raised more funds so they could soon return to lithuania. in the u.s. they could also celebrate holidays american-style as they did on valentine's day 2013. >> as is our tradition on holidays, whether it's easter or christmas or birthdays or valentine's, for the children we started off, right off the bat,

so the children had their valentine sacks that denise prepared sitting there on the table for them. >> and for his wife -- >> my gift to her was the roses and the card that i had bought the night before and placed on the take. >> after the early morning celebration, the family went back to their usual routine. taking the kids to school, shopping, running errands. denise's parents were at work, but that day something happened that was completely out of character for denise. she failed to pick up julia from school. >> my parents called me. you want us to pick her up? i said, denise should be there any minute. she must have been late. >> turns out, no one had been able to reach da fleiss forenise for a while, including nathan. >> hadn't hadn't answered a phone call or messages. let me get to daycare i'll leapt you know. still hasn't come. hasn't called. well, i'm right by the house. i'll run by the house and see if

as soon as i pulled into the driveway, garage door was open. >> is that odd? >> very odd. no car in the garage, but the garage door's open. then as i got -- about half way into the garage, i could see that windowpane was broken. the glass is on the ground, and at that point i began to understand that someone had broken into the home. >> did you fear that the person could still be in the house? >> i did. >> with his young daughter in the car, nathan backed into the neighbor's driveway across the street so he could watch the house as he called 911. >> what's the problem? >> we got a break-in. >> is it going on right now? >> i don't know. i -- the garage door is open. there's glass on the back door where somebody's broke in. i've not gone into the house yet. >> nathan waited at the neighbor's repeatedly calling family to see if anyone had heard from denise. then police arrived. detectives jason lee and shawn curry were among the first on

>> by the time we got here, officers starting to rope everything off. securing the inside of the house. >> they didn't find an intruder. instead, they found something far worse. >> while searching the house, i discovered a female obviously lyly deceased in the houses. >> 39-year-old denise leuthold lying in a pool of blood had barely made it inside the house. her coat was still on. >> right on the other side of this door is where we found her laying down. just right in the front door here. >> they quickly determined she had been killed by single gunshot to the head. >> she didn't even have time to take her coat off, her gloves, anything. when she entered the door, the next shot was immediate. >> and the weapon appeared to be a .40 caliber landgun, but no sign of the gun. >> did it seem denise had possibly startled a burg bler? >> it looked like she

door and started going through the house and maybe startled the burglar when she came in through the front door. >> while investigators combed the crime scene, nathan anxiously watched the police activity from the house across the street. >> how did they tell you what they had found? >> the police -- were not the first people to tell me. unfortunately i found out about it from my father. i was calling my dad, and dad said, well, i'm on my way. i just heard on the radio, the local news media just put it on the radio that at your house somebody was shot. >> nathan realized it had to have been denise. when you came to that realization -- what was going through your mind? >> everything stopped.

daughter -- who is the image of her mother. curly hair and bouncy step and -- i just kept looking at my daughter, and i wanted to hug her and i wanted to -- i wanted to just let out all of the pain that was associated with knowing that there she was standing -- staring at me just smiling. my world had just been shattered, and i had to tell her at some point. >> denise's mom had no idea what happened, but she rushed home when nathan told her there'd been a break-in. >> adrove out there and the roads were all road blocked. >> is that a sick feeling when you see all of the police and you know that -- >> oh, yeah. >> what are you thinking? >> well, i didn't know what to think. i tried to run up there and to go into the house and they were like, no, you can't go in, and i'm like, i just want to know. i just want to know what

is she in there? where is she? they eventually took me downtown and then one of the policemen came in and told me that she had been shot. the worst day of my life. >> now she had to tell her husband, denise's father. >> fell apart and cried. i guess it's every parent's worst nightmare to have a child taken from them. >> as denise's faemily reeled from their unimaginable loss, this quiet central illinois community was starting to grapple with the fallout of a murder on valentine's day. >> did you feel like, we have a mystery on our hands. we got to solve this. >> yeah. we knew we had something bad and it was going it take a lot of work to get to the point where we knew who had done it. a possible clue? nathan remembers seeing a suspicious car near his house not long before the murder. >> this is kind of weird.

usually go through into the -- into the front door, and flip the outside lights on. >> was the killer in that car?r in that car? (flourish spray noise) (flourish spray noise) (flourish spray noise) (flourish spray noise) the joy of real cream in 15 calories per serving. enough said. reddi-wip. (flourish spray noise) share the joy. what about this guy? this guy's... been through a lot.

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shot to death in her home peoria, illinois. a friend, norm aldrick couldn't comprehend the news. >> who could do something like this to a great, a great young woman. a family of three children. a great husband. >> nathan said when he lost denise, he lost his foundation. >> my wife, my best friend, from third grade. the mother of the three most

how do i function now? without her? >> with the house now a crime scene, nathan went with detectives to the police station where they asked him if he could think of any reason his family would be targeted. >> do you have any personal problems with anybody? >> no. >> your wife? >> no. >> was there anything of extreme value. >> in the house? >> in your room, in that room in particular? >> i -- i had, um, two watches. a couple hundred dollar watches. >> what about -- >> no. >> a laptop, digital camera and jewelry had been stolen. two guns had also been taken including a .40 caliber glock. the same caliber to kill denise. had the killer used that weapon to shoot her? >> do you know why anybody would have broke in there.

that question since i pulled in the driveway. >> nathan gave them a clue when he remembered a suspicious car in the neighborhood late at night a couple of weeks before the murder. >> headlights. >> that's all i saw. >> but they were on, on the road, when they turned in, they turned it off. >> you know, this is kind of weird. pulling in the driveway i usually go through into the, the front door, and flip the outside lights on. >> then, a few days before the murder, he said it happened again. >> similar situation, but this time in the neighborhood. >> that time nathan called police and spoke with an officer. >> he said they probably were people that were out, his phrase was, casing the neighborhood. >> people in peoria, illinois were spooked. could a brazen burglar willing to kill be on the loose? >> it caused a lot of stress in the neighborhood. i mean, the local school don thewn the street they locked to down. >> this stuff doesn't happen here. >> you come down during the day

streets. peek in the park walking around. it's not like a high-crime area, gunshots all the time. it was enough to scare everybody. >> it was a big story in town. >> be extra cautious. lock your doors, lock your windows. pay attention to strangers in your area. >> what was the mood of the neighborhood? >> it was very eerie. >> bow ebenezer is a reporter for nbc's week-tv in peoria. >> a lot of people in the community really wanted to know what happened. i mean, they're going to sleep every night not really sure who killed their neighbor. >> one neighbor says with two small kids at home she is feeling panicked and even a little paranoid. >> tips started coming in right away. diane parrish who lives a few houses down from nathan and denise remembered seeing a strange man on her street right around the time of the murder. >> so describe the man you saw walking along this road. >> he had a black hoodie sweatshirt on with the hood pulled up, and his hands were in

and i will never forget the look on that man's face. >> what was so odd about the look on his face? >> he was very agitated. i knew immediately something was wrong with him. >> neighbors were anxious, and detectives were puzzled. denise's neighborhood was normally very quiet. not the type of place you'd expect 0 burglary, even if she had accidentally stumbled upon an intruder, how had it turned so vicious so quickly? >> why would somebody want to come into this particular house? >> not typical as far as a burglary that results in a murder. >> maybe it wasn't a burglary at all. if it wasn't a burglary, what was it? was nathan's life also in danger? >> nathan's parents told me that nathan and the three children had been moved to a safe house, just to protect them. just to protect them. to take care of business

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it looked like a burglary gone bad.

missionary brutally shot and killed in her parents home where she and her family had been living. typical scenario. robberies happening in peoria. this one just laps to be a lot worse? >> it's not typical as far as a burglary that results in a murder. that doesn't happen very often. >> this was an odd one. detectives needed to know more about denise and began questioning her family, including nathan her husband of 17 years. >> you talking to us and cooperating with us is, it's the best information that we can get. >> we want to talk to the people closest to her first to try to figure out what makes her tick, what's her routine like. >> did you start to think that someone may have targeted denise? >> well, you know, we didn't know. i mean, you know, nathan -- he's going to be our best witness. you know? you're living with this lady, married a long time.

had a reason to be in that house outside of just a random burglary. >> we didn't know. >> yeah, we didn't know. >> but we needed to lock down initially, we needed to lock down what she planned on doing that day, and they started at the very beginning. >> she wouk up at 6:45, which is normal. i was already shaving and showering. >> where the kids already up? what time -- >> she had got them up 6:45. >> nathan told police he took the children to school and went on a series of errands including going to a day spa to buy gift certificates for denise. >> a massage. >> you remember how much you spent? >> police say he spent the day until he drove janel to day care. nathan had his own list of things to do that day. >> we got to figure where she

>> uh-huh. >> try to place the last time we can see her -- we can narrow the window down. >> yeah, and -- tedious and we appreciate, you know, you cooperating. believe me. >> by mid-afternoon, when denise should have been done shopping and on her way to pick up julia, nathan said he tried reaching her, but couldn't. at first, he wasn't concerned. >> so i called. she didn't answer. no big deal. driving. a text message. >> but became worried once he got home and saw denise's car wasn't in the driveway and it looked like the house had been broken into. >> i don't know what to think. she's not answering my phone calls. she's not answering my mom's phone calls. she didn't go to school. she didn't call. where's she at? if she's late. if she broke down, if she had a flat tire she would have called on her cell phone. i'm going through all of these 101 options in my head.

nathan's uncomfortable questions they ask anyone whose spouse has been murdered. >> this is kind of a personal question. take no offense because we have to cover every base. at any time has your wife ever done anything behind your back? have you had in issues? any boyfriends, anything like that? what about you? >> did he describe a good marriage? >> yeah. i mean, he described -- denise as the backbone of the family. if it wasn't for her, he wouldn't be able to do his work. that she does everything for the kids. >> and she's the main one that holds it all together. she did everything that the kids likes. >> denise sounds like a saint. >> she probably was. >> everyone we talked to had nothing but good things to say about her. >> must have really perked your attention, that this woman is considered to be this amazing mom and does this religious work and why would she have any enemies? >> yeah. i mean, nothing was coming to

>> nathan said he was doing his best to hold it together so he could help them catch the killer, but he was anxious to be with his children. >> we appreciate the cooperation, and, you know, as much information as we can get from you the better that is going to help us. >> i want to get back to my kids. >> and we hope you will be. >> i can't leave them all that long. >> nathan finally did leave the police station late that night, hours after his wife had been killed. he went to his sister's home where his children were sound asleep. >> i was exhausted. i was emotionally spent. i spent the next several hours with my mother and my sister, and at some point i fell asleep. my sister just trying to comfort mere. >> the next day, nathan said he was struggling with the fact that his wife was gone, and now had to explain that to his kids.

that their mother had been killed? >> mom went home to be with god. we know that -- she loves us, and we know that we loved her, and at that point i reached out for them, and we just hugged. it was quiet. my tears soaked their faces and their tears soaked my face. and then we prayed. and we thanked god for the most wonderful mother and wife that ever had been on this earth. >> later, nathan took the children and went to stay at a church mission house in a nearby town. >> nathan's parents told me that nathan and the three children had been moved to a safe house. just to protect them, because they didn't know if they were being targeted for anything.

brought them home-cooked meals. >> nathan was very quiet. almost in a state of shock, maybe. i had noticed him when him and i were in the living room alone together, and it was just complete silence. it felt a little awkward, but i could just see him just staring into space almost. >> in the meantime, denise's parents made the difficult choice to return to their home, the scene of the crime. and a few days later, they asked nathan and the kids to come over to be with family. >> how was he with you the first time you saw him after denise was killed? >> he seemed very emotional. he originally said that he didn't want to come back in the house. that the kids were afraid to come in. >> it was a lot to take in. denise was dead. three young children were without a mother, and nathan said he'd lost the love of his life.

clock to solve the crime, and as they did, they began to get the idea that not everything was as it seemed. this is strange. denise had just gotten home when she was killed. so why was her car someplace else? >> this is a problem we've got. she's been shot in the house. okay? i need to figure out how that car got to robinson park..i've been coloring since i was 19. my hair showed it. then everything changed. introducing new and improved garnier olia... the only haircolor powered by 60% oils, zero ammonia i love that, with olia... ...my hair gets better every time i use it. now i don't see dryness or dullness. all i see is shiny, brilliant color. and zero grays. it feels so soft and healthy. it's the best experience i have ever had coloring my hair. new garnier olia. brilliant color, visibly healthier hair. why have your glasses fit manually, when there's the lenscrafters accufit system.

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death, nathan and his children stayed at a church mission house and his friend norm visited he said nathan seemed quiet, stoic. >> i've never seen nathan in an emotional state as far as crying or in panic, or anything like

i just took it as he was just really stressed out, and what's happening to my family right now? why did this happen? >> as denise's parents were wondering the same thing, they also began to ask other questions. >> and we kept kind of going over the robbery, like, how it would have happened, and just -- it didn't really make sense. >> what was suspicious about what was taken? >> i worked at a store that sold high-def tvs and we had a lot of small ones they could have just picked up, taken away. you know? electronics. blu-ray players. none of those things were touched, and i only had probably three rings that were of any value, but those three rings were taken. why would they know those were the only three that were valuable? >> some things seemed off to police as well. >> the more we started looking at the house, it just didn't seem like a real burglar. there was a junk drawer

why would a burglar go through a junk drawer with pens, scissors and then lay it? >> they also analyzed things nathan told them during the interview at the police station dur the night of the murder. also the fact that he owned three guns. >> a .12 gauge shotgun. i have a .22. little. then i have one which is a glock. >> what model? >> i don't know the model i know it's a .40. >> a lot of things about nathan's gun that didn't add up for police, starting wit fact he happened to own the same gun involved in denise's murder. >> how did he explain that? >> he couldn't. i think he was trying to allude that the burglar must have got ton it and taken it. >> yeah. >> nathan also told police he kept that gun in a locked case. >> how hard to pry it open would you need a crowbar or something?

at the house. that said a lot to the detectives. >> then i asked him, why open the box? he didn't know. insinew waited the burglar took it. they're gotting to to dak atake a busted bok. >> nathan indicated he fired that gun in oklahoma. >> a couple weeks ago. >> nothing here lately? >> i shot the .40. >> and there was something else troubling police. even though denise had been killed in her home, her cass was found in a nearby park. the police figured whoever drove it there must have been involved in denise's murder. >> this is the problem i got. she's been shot, in the house. okay? i need to figure out how that car got to robinson park. okay? >> a key to that car was found tangled in denise's hair under her head. so clearly, that key wasn't used to move the car. there had to be another one. >> i'm just trying to figure out

there because i'm trying to find the set of keys. >> i know there's one set of keys and whenever i borrowed the car to get something fixed, oil changed or whatnot, i just asked her for the keys and she gives me the keys or sets them on a plate. >> none of that made any sense to detectives. there had to be a second key somewhere visible in the house in order for an intruder to easily find it and drive the car to the park. there was no other way, they said. >> denise interrupted a burglary, and he shoots her. that guy's getting the hell out of town. he's not going to wait to try to find a spare set of keys in the house. he's leaving. >> questions about denise's car led to questions about nathan's car, and something he said caught the detectives attention. >> your vehicle, ever at robinson park today? >> might be a -- today, yes. >> when was this.

not early, but it would have been before -- before i came back to the house. >> what was it down there for? >> i pulled over to take a phone call. >> so it turns out on the day of the murder, nathan was at the same park where denise's car was later found. and that's when one of the detectives got frustrated with nathan's whole story and confronted him. >> it's not a coincidence that we're missing a .40 caliber glock handgun and there's evidence that leads us to believe that your wife was probably shot way .40 caliber handgun. okay? and then furthermore to have her car down the street at the park, right where you failed to tell us that you were there prior to going home earlier that day. >> it was a short phone call. >> i know, but the thing is, we're talking about things that once you start piecing things together, we're trying to figure things out. >> i understand. >> okay? so if you're at a park, the exact same park your wife's car was in, i need to figure out how

i don't have the answer. >> you don't have a key, either? >> correct. >> it wasn't just that nathan stopped to take a short phone call. it was who was on the other end of the line that piqued their interest. >> and he said he received a phone call from a lithuanian ex-training student. >> how she came on your radar? >> yeah. >> she was 20-year-old aina dobilaite, the young exchange student who had been close to the family for years. she baby-sat for them in lithuania and they were sponsoring her as a student in the u.s. just what was that call about? >> and it just kind of kept snowballing from there until we figured we had to go up and track her down. >> a missionary's unusually close relationship with a young exchange student. >> did you outright ask were you having a sexual relationship with nathan? >> yeah.

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police found denise

three, shot to death in her home. at first it looked like a possible burglary gone bad, but after questioning her husband, nathan, and combing the crime scene, detectives started to see things differently. >> things just weren't adding up. we're not accountants but we know when it doesn't add up. >> police now wanted to look more closely as the lithuanian student nathan had spoken to on the day of the murder's they had first met on a miss trip in 1998. >> there was a church there already established and that church really took us in and did their best to communicate with us and helped us out and there was a particular woman in the church we worked with that was aina's mother. >> aina dobilaite was just a child at the time, and as she grew up, her relationship with the family grew as well. >> as a teenager, it was very clear she had given her life to the lord and wanted to serve him. she was always the one volunteering, helping at church,

and she was very gifted in music and then as we started brarchling out in ministry, aina was the one that took care of the music. >> when she was 16, she became a baby-sitter for nathan and denise's three children. >> aina was helping with the children at church and it was natural for denise to want to hire her and we trusted her 100% with them and that's how she came to be a part of our family. >> then you ended up bringing her over to america? >> we were her sponsors here in the u.s., yes. she came here for education. her desire from the very beginning was to go back and help her own country and churches there, how to work for the lord that started in 2010 when aina came to the u.s. to study at a christian college in florida where nathan would occasionally visit her. what did denise think about that? >> i asked her more than one time. i said, aren't you jealous that he's traveling around with this young girl? and she was like, no.

>> this is a girl they wanted to help? >> exactly. and she trusted nathan. >> during school vacation, iaina would stay in eporia with the whole family. >> she seemed very shy. very -- she kind of kept to herself. >> did you like aina? >> yes. she was really good with the kids. she seemed like she was a sweet girl. >> and if your daughter liked her -- >> she was a friend of our daughter's and son-in-law's, we accepted her into our home. >> then in december 2011 aina last that school, so close with the family she moved in with nathan, denise and denise's parents while she attended a community college in peoria. >> it wasn't the first time we'd done that. aina was one of many that we worked with uxso it was very natural. >> they had sponsored other lithuanian students before to come here so it didn't seem strange to us that that's what

>> they were really making a difference in that young girl's life? >> giving her a chance to get her easy kags here. >> six months before denise's death, aina transferred to a college 160 miles from peoria, so police drove there to talk to her. >> when we first started the interview, a lot of background information, and it was -- we were coming across as concerned with denise. you lived with him x amount of years, known the family, and she was fine. as we started ramping up the questioning, getting more direct about her relationship with nathan, then all of a sudden perfectly speaking english girl starts saying, i may -- i don't understand that, or, i'm not going to answer that question. and then it turned into a -- more of a, just a cold stare, and no emotion whatsoever. >> you describe it almost like a staring contest? >> yeah. we threw out there crime scene pictures of denise laying dead. autopsy pictures to get her reaction.

her out on it. i said, these people took you into your home. brought you back from lithuania, you lived with them. that didn't bother you? she looked at me stone cold and said i cried oerchver the weekend. >> remember, one. places he said he visited was this day spa where he bought a valentine's day gift certificate for denise, but when detectives stopped there they discovered that nathan had been bringing another woman to the spa, and it was none other than aina. it had happened so often, the owner said, she thought they were a couple. >> he's taking this woman in her early 20s, an exchange student, to the spa? >> yeah. to get massages and waxed up. my stuff would be in the front yard if my wife found out i was washgsing up a 20-year-old. i kept asking what exactly is

glare. i'm not answering. >> they also asked her about the bill which nathan paid. >> she painted it up as, hey, it's his money and it's denise's money, too. so if she'she's spending the money she should be all right with it. >> did you ask if she was having a sexual relationship with nathan? >> yeah. >> what did she say? >> she denied it. >> then something else. she had stilded music her entire life and gone to florida to play the piano, but she told detectives she'd left the school because of problems with her hands. >> i think it was officially titled like academic withdrawal or something. >> so they subpoenaed aina's school records. >> the records we got said her dismissal had some stuff to do with inappropriate relationships with her sponsor, including staying off campus overnight with just them two. >> that sponsor, of course, was nathan.

relationship when they pulled nathan and aina's phone records. >> what did you find on her phone? >> just that they communicated a lot more than nathan let on. >> it didn't look like a typical sponsor/responsible sponsor/sponsee relationship. multiple texts each day. >> denying a relationship. did the texts say otherwise? >> one, she was at the gym. he asked her if she was wet. i didn't find that appropriate for the relationship they were leading on. the biggest thing was just the sheer volume of contact that they had. saying you're just checking on her making sure she's doing good in school. >> it appeared to be like a dating-type relationship. >> more questions for and about nathan. >> my husband thought, well, he's a missionary. he wouldn't kill anybody.. there's no one i'd rather... share with.

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jushgs had denise leuthold been killed by an intruder, part of a burglary gone wrong or had someone close to her been involved? denise's daughter believed her daughter was killed by a stranger until their minister came to visit one day. >> he asked us, well, do you have any suspicions that your son-in-law was involved? >> wow. >> and we both answered, no, but as soon as i said, no, i'm like, well, wait a minute. you know -- then i of course started having suspicions. my husband was kind of shocked that -- because he just thought,

he wouldn't kill anybody. >> but investigators weren't so sure. they garn to take a hard look at nathan's whereabouts that day and collected surveillance from the places he said he's been. while he was at those places, chase bank, starbucks, the day spa, a car wash, there was a problem. >> we were able to account for him up to about 11:30 in the morning and then there was a gap between him leaving a starbucks around 11:30 and then he shows back up at the same starbucks around 12:45 p.m. and then in between there, we could not account for him anywhere. >> that gap was crucial, because it was during that time frame that police believe the murder happened. the detectives even traced a route they thought nathan might have taken that day from the starbucks to the park, a quick walk to his house. then back to the starbucks to see if he could have done it in time.

>> not only possible, they said, but probable. more likely, they figured than a stranger breaking into the house during the roughly 20 minutes denise was ounchts it's unconceivable to think somebody breaks into the house at that exact same time. rummages through the house, finds a glock, pries it open, loads it up. hides behind the door to execute her. it just can't happen. >> something else that didn't make sense -- they said denise's car was not in her driveway. amp the murder they found her silver ford here in this nearby park. nathan had told police he only knew of one key, the key found at the crime scene. but now police had a second key that they found in this trash can in the park. they believe nathan was lying to them and that he had used that key to move the car. >> another suspicious finding -- a black, hooded sweatshirt on the floor of nathan and denise's

investigators said it seemed to match the one a strange man was seen in the neighborhood that day. >> somebody in a hurry, threw it down. >> something else was even more troubling. police had ordered an extensivenathan's laptop and a couple of weeks after the murder they received a report. >> the computer report the browser was set to delete. we found out just because you delight something doesn't mean it's gone what they saw floored them. >> a .40 caliber handgun. how to silence. a glock specifically, the gun he owned and she was shot with. how to silence that. how to overdose something on insulin. drowning. >> cushion, the bathtub. things like this, and this goes back several months before the murder. >> wait. he's potentially thinking of all of these different ways to kill his wife? >> i honestly think -- he planned it out. >> did you straight up ask him? did you have anything to do with your wife's death?

>> and -- >> he denied it. >> he said, no. >> not only did he deny killing his wife, nathan told us there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of those internet searches police uncovered. electrocution in the bathtub, how to silence a gun. >> we had a, started a foundation in overseas called hope for tomorrow, to combat suicide. and we were doing research and looking at blog sites where young people were desperate people were giving information about what they were thinking. >> still, it was obvious from nathan's interview video that detectives had questions about his story early on. >> i would love to think that you're a god-fearing man and you would never do that. but -- >> [ inaudible ]. >> trust me, i do not have a preconceived idea, but when i'm painting a picture trying to put the pieces together, okay?

have to either rule you in or rule you out. >> and you want to real me in based upon. >> no, no, no. >> i'd rather rule you out. >> rule you out? i want to rule you out because i hope you didn't do it. >> between learning about aina and all of the evidence they collected, police had enough to arrest nathan. three weeks after denise had been killed, they pulled her husband over. he'd just dropped his kids off at school. >> there were officers with all kinds of weapons pointed at me. at the point where i was there on the ground on my knees. my hands behind my head and they were checking my pockets. down the road coming towards me was my sister bringing her children to school that day, and there i am in the middle of 9 street, they handcuffed me. they put me in their car. at that point i didn't know where we were going and finally

i said, where are we going? what's going on? we're taking you to jail for the murder of your wife. >> he seemed scared. he seemed surprised i think it was disbelief he was being arrested. >> it was a shock. nathan leuthold, missionary and father of three, a native son of peoria, was now on his way to jail to a wait trial for the murder of his wife. his friend, norm allrick who had known the couple for decades, was stunned. >> there's no doubt in my mind that nathan was arrested because they needed somebody in jail. there's no way that i could ever fathom nathan doing this. to his wife. >> hard to imagine anyone doing something this evil. if it's true --. this was his valentine's day present to aina and that is

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three weeks after denise leuthold was shot to death, her husband nathan was arrested for her murder. at first denise's mother couldn't quite grasp it. >> he was part of our family for is 17 years, and you know, he was like a son to us, and to think that he could actually, you know, just shoot her in the head. >> and this is the man devoted to being a good person? >> right. exactly.

mind. >> he had been leading a double life. >> the bad dream that wouldn't end? >> right. kept going on and on and on. >> and this just won't end until -- >> exactly. >> nathan is -- convicted. >> exactly, uh-huh. >> here in the peoria county courthouse -- >> the trial was big news in town. after all, the defendant was a missionary, accused of killing his wife a in their home in an upscale neighborhood. things like that just don't happen in peoria. nathan pleaded not guilty. he insisted he would have never done anything to harm his beloved wife. >> ever a time there was a difficulty in life, the first person i would talk to would be denise, and there were several times within the first few days after her death trying to figure out what to do with the children next, i wanted to just grab the phone and call her. she was my support. >> but denise was not there to

state argued, he killed her. >> you will have eyewitness identification, dna, gunshot residue, motive and they all point to one person. he's sitting right across from you. >> nathan's trial began on july 14th. exactly 17 months after the murder. reporter bo ebenezer reported the trial for nbc's snags peoria. >> were a lot of people anxious for the trial to start? >> i think a lot of people were anxious, especially the family. the family wanted to find out what had really happeneden. >> what happened said the prosecutors, was a cold-blooded execution. >> ladies and gentlemen, burglars commit burglaries. killers execute in a style consistent with what the defendant did. hiding in that cubicle to kill her the moment she walked through the door. >> the state's here toly --

when denise left the ho us to take their daughter to daycare. first he drove his car to the park down the street. >> parked his car in robinson park. you know, somewhere close to 12:15 to 12:20. walked up to the house. went into the house. the burglary probably was already staged, if not, he went ahead, and then he knew that denise would be coming back. stood in the doorway and as soon as the door opened, denise tried to take her coat off and he shot her in the back of the head. >> nathan then drove denise's car to that same park, prosecutors said, and hopped back in his own car and drove to starbucks, arriving at 12:45. >> 12:45 to 12:50. five minutes only, but long enough to be on that camera. >> and long enough, they said, for nathan to wash his hands to get the gunshot residue off, then leave to start his afternoon errands before picking up janel from daycare. >> about 3:00, the defendant

wants you to believe that he sees the door open and glass. that's the extent of his knowledge. but with that he calls the police. >> he knew full well when he called the police what they were going to find. >> from our perspective that's what makes this case so disturbing. the cold, calculated manner in which he did this. >> one of the first officers to testify for the state described the scene at the house just after nathan called 911 that day. >> i observed some kitchen cabinets open, and some kitchen drawers on the floor. in my experience as a police officer, an investigator when a burglary occurs, the kitchen is not a common place that a burglar would look for items and a burglar also items are scattered about, drawering dumped on the floor. i felt this was not an ordinary burglary and i expressed that to my partner.

burglary it was nath' behavior that struck the officer even more. >> describe his demeanor. >> as i'm speaking to him, he -- he never showed any sort of emotion or asked any questions of me as to what was going on. >> prosecutors said nathan also showed no emotion during his police interview. even when a detective told him denise was dead. >> you can't tell me things about her that i'm not -- you can't tell me thing answer her -- >> she is dead. >> you told me that prosecutors played the interview for the jurors hoping they would see what they saw. >> when the police first gave us the case i watched his videotaped statement. five minutes into it, i knew he did it. i knew he was guilty. his demeanor, attitude. not a single tear was shed. >> they presented evidence that the bullet casing found at the

kind of gun nathan owned. >> the only firearm to generate those marks would be a glock. >> are you able to say that within a reasonable degree of scientific certainty? >> yes. >> but police everybody never did find the murder wep. >> did you worry you weren't able to find the gun? >> obviously there was a concern. >> anytime in a murder case when you don't have the handgun, weapon, whatever it was, it's an uphill battle. because that's what the jury wants. they want the smoking gun and we didn't have it. >> still, the prosecutors felt he had more to prove their case. remember the neighbor who saw the man in a sweatshirt walking near the time of the murder? >> the whole thing struck me as wrong. i thought, i told my husband to slow down. i wanted to get a good look at him, and i was worried that he saw us pulling out of our driveway and that he knew we

>> she didn't recognize the man a that day, but later when she looked as a police lineup, she quickly pointed to this man, and it turned out to be nathan leuthold. >> did you think it was possible when you're looking it's a this photo lineup, maybe you'd seen nathan in the neighborhood and subconsciously were choosing that photo because you'd already seen him before? >> no. >> why were you so sure? >> because of the look on his face. i knew i didn't make a mistake. and i was very careful when i looked at the photos so i would not make a mistake. >> when she testified, you could hear a pin drop in that courtroom. i mean, everybody was glued to her testimony. i don't think there's a person in that courtroom that disbelieved what she was saying. >> prosecutors said it must have been nathan the neighbors saw that day, because police found a black hooded sweatshirt on his bedroom floor. what's more, and expert testified it had gunshot residue on the right cuff.

the gun range. is that feasible? if he was shooting off his gun at the gun range there would be res due? >> important, too, he said it was in oklahoma two weeks prior. no way there would have been gunshot res dew on that sweatshirt, too. >> another neighbor who didn't want to be on camera said she heard a gunshot at the time prosecutors said denise was killed. now they had to explain why he did it so they calmed this man to the stand he said he could answer that precise question, because nathan told him everything. >> would you state your name? >> david d. smith. >> david smith was a fellow inmate of nathan's at the county jail. he said nathan told him he researched ways to kill da fleiss denise on his laptop. >> talked how he was planning to

>> well, at first he told me he was thinking about some poisoning, with some type of insulin or potassium, something like that. >> according to the inmate, nathan said he ran a lot of around on the day of the murder to create an alibi, and -- >> he told me he had presented some gifts, some valentine's day gifts and stuff to his wife. and so that everything would look fine. >> how important was david smith, the jailhouse snitch? >> david smith said that nathan was worried that a lady might have seen him while he was walking. well, obviously, nobody knows that can except nathan, and it's consistent with our evidence. >> what's more, the inmate also testified why nathan wanted denise out of his life. >> well, he said that, he said that she was overbearing, and that he had got to the point where he had wanted to move on with his life, and he had met someone else, and stuff like that.

that someone else? >> somebody -- some student named anna, lana, something like that. >> but it was what the inmate told prosecutors about the timing of the murder that they found particularly chilling. smith testified that nathan told him he planned the murder specifically for valentine's day. >> it was supposed to be some type of present to this other chick. >> to the -- i think you referred to her as anna? >> yeah, yeah. >> and there it was. nathan's motive. prosecutors said he killed his wife so he could be with his true love, aina. >> do you believe that this was some kind of sick and twitched valentine's day gift to aina? this murder? >> well, absolutely. >> i don't know what else it would have been. >> absolutely this was his valentine's day present to aina and that is despicable. >> aina who prosecutors said was

a star witness at the biggest trial in town. >> please state your name. >> ana dobilaite. >> nathan's note to aina. >> there's nothing more important to me than you in this relationship. >> and a note to him from the woman he's accused of murdering. >> she was speaking from the grave, in a way. >> absolutely. and that note was powerful.that note was powerful. with the pain and swelling of my moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis... ordinary objects often seemed... intimidating. doing something simple... meant enduring a lot of pain. if ra is changing your view of everyday things orencia may help. orencia works differently by targeting a source of ra early in the inflammation process. for many, orencia provides long-term relief of ra symptoms. it's helped new ra patients and those not helped enough by other treatments. do not take orencia with

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for murdering his wife on valentine's day 2013. a scenario impossible to have predicted. for a man devoted to god who appeared to have been happily married to his high school sweetheart for 17 years. what would make him commit such a crime? the state argued he was in love with another woman. >> the motive -- his real valentine, a 20-year-old lithuanian sponsor student. >> aina dobilaite, his motive for murder. >> i think aina was a big bombshell. >> aina testified in both english and lithuanian through a translator. >> nathan leuthold visited you in hotels yaufr camps on at least five occasions. correct? . [ speaking in foreign language ]. >> translator: i can't remember how many times. >> during those visits you went to a hotel with nathan, and just

part of the time? correct? [ speaking in foreign language ] language ]. >> translator: i'm not sure every time we at the hotel we were together alone. >> did you spend the night with mr. leuthold? >> aina was called as a witness for the prosecution which granted her immunity toy encourage her to talk but her testimony made it clear she was not eager to help the state. >> when mr. leuthold visited you in chicago in 2012, did he buy you presents? [ speaking in foreign language ] language ]. >> translator: i'm not really sure what presents means. >> despite having studied in the states for four year, aina seemed incapable of understanding english at times, which frustrated the prosecutors. >> and, in fact, you are proficient in both written and spoken english. isn't that correct? [ speaking in foreign language ]. >> translator: yes.

thought she was an important witness. >> i think it was significant for the jury to see aina. we could give them the text messages, the e-mails, the phone calls, the jury is going to hear all that. >> the state showed the jury texts between nathan and aina from the day of the murder. they started at 7:36 a.m. with mutual hellos. at 8:37 a.m., nathan detecttexted aina. i know there is a lot to do today. i pray there is enough time to do everything. have good lectures and meeting. take care of yourself. then, after nathan arrived home mid-afternoon, aina texted him, and he replied, i can't now. police checked. it looks like the house was robbed. i r aina responded, interesting. followed by a smiling face. >> you would respond with, oh, my, what happened? concern for the family. so i suspect that based on that

she had some knowledge as to what was maybe going to take place. >> prosecutors accused aina of coaching aina during jailhouse phone calls how to cover up the relationship. those call was in lithuanian. for the trial, english translations were read allowed. >> your spiritual adviser her clergy here in america because nobody else speaks ling wannian. this may be important in the futures just as all of your communication with an attorney is private, communication with your clergy is also private. >> but, prosecutors said, there was no covering up letters nathan sent aina including this one read by an interpreter during a deposition. >> i love you because you understand me better than anybody else, because i am a better person with you next to me. my life has a deeper meaning and purpose, because you are my world and my everything, and that will never change. >> with words like that, prosecutors didn't believe

nathan. he made her read aloud another ob fusive note nathan sent other a month before the murder. >> i let you down. i'm not making excuses. that would not be fair. you deserve someone who respects you and puts the relationship first. from now on i want to be all i can to be that person. there's nobody more important than you in this relationship and p. >> presented herself for what she was in a relationship with nathan. >> nathan and i were making eye contact quite a bit throughout the trial. sometimes when she answered a question or said something he didn't like, kind of laugh ared and threw his hands up in disappointment. >> prosecutors had another piece of evidence they said proved an affair. a secret that shook the courtroom. it challenged the very core of nathan's defense that denise was at the center of his life and he would never hurt her. it was a gut-wrenching note written by denise discovered tucked in her day planner.

have the victim. you never get to hear the victim's story, that person is dead. and here we had a note that she had written to lay the whole thing out. >> the highly personal, very painful note was obviously aimed at nathan. police investigator read the note in court. >> i have tried to please you for 17 years, and never succeeded. i've never been good enough, never done enough. i know that you want me dead. i'm not stupid. >> denise seemed to confirm that she believed her husband was having an affair. while she didn't name aina, she mentioned a much younger woman. you want to humiliate me by running around with a 20-year-old, fine. i won't grovel. if i haven't believed you in 17 years nothing i do now will please you. how long are you going to do this to me? oh, yeah. until i break. that's what you said, isn't it? well, happy waiting.

i was -- i was shocked that it had gone that far. so she wale ras jealous even though she said that she wasn't. >> she was speaking from the grave in a way. >> absolutely. absolutely. too the jury, to everybody. her story. i mean, that note was powerful. powerful. >> powerful, but not proof that nathan's attorney, in fact, he argued there was no evidence that nathan had done anything wrong at all. >> in your judgment that this all happened because he was having an affair and i would submit as we started off there is not a scintilla of thaefdt that was the case. >> was there less to this relationship than meets the eye? >> he was the only person with whom i could talk in lithuanian so he was a friend. >> were you and nathan ever lovers? >> no. >> if the prosecution couldn't prove that, could it prove

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nathan leuthold had spent a week listening to prosecutors paint him as a monster who had planned the execution of his wife.

to fight back. >> to say that i killed my wife goes beyond what i ever fathom hearing from anyone. and to say that i had an affair -- it's absurd. >> i think nathan was being tested by god, about his faith. i just thought, nathan, you got to be strong, man. we'll get through this. >> nathan's lawyer was hugh turner, a former prosecutor turned defense attorney who argued that the investigation was faulty. >> there were certain pre-conceived notions of who did it, for lack of a better term. it never went anywhere. and for that reason, i'm going to ask you to find nathan not guilty. >> he insisted the cop zeroed in on nathan right from the start, and never pursued any other leads. >> this was an incomplete

that while the spouse, nathan in this case works have been the logical place to start, the problem with that is, if you follow that gut feeling, that's going to cause you very likely to miss other things, and in this case simply not look for them at all. >> for instance, what about those cars nathan said he had seen in the neighborhood, which he thought were suspicious, not too long before the murder? his attorney called a neighbor to the stand who'd also seen strange activity. >> i observed a vehicle parked with its headlights on for some extended period of time, five, ten minutes at least, which i considered to be somewhat unusual. and i feltz with the directionry the direction of the headlights could probably see me in my residence, and it

>> when he cross-scamexamined diane, she admitted her husband had a different recollection. >> you and your husband had had a discussion about the race of the person who was walking along the side of the road? >> that's correct. >> and your husband, dr. parrish, thought it was a black man? >> that's correct. >> another problem with the investigation. the defense pointed out, while the state made a big deal about the gunshot residue on nathan's sweatshirt they never tested his hands for the substance. >> why not cut to the chase and take a test from nathan? >> an herbissue with the state's timeline. after the murder, prosecutors said nathan would have had to drive denise's car to the park, get in his own car, drive to starbucks, seen at the video at 12:45 p.m. >> and he would have had to have

any blood smears, getting any blood on him. >> it was all coming down to that crucial 15-minute window. we decided to see for ourselves how long that drive would take. we retraced what investigators said were nathan's steps that day. i've just left nathan's house and am heading to robinson park, which is just a few blocks away. i am now arriving at robinson park. it took me 1:15. this is where police say the cars were switched. so now we are going to switch cars. take another drive. in this second car we're going to drive to starbucks. let's see how long that takes. red light. going to add on a little bit of time. we're now at 4:30 minutes. going just about the speed limit right on which is 45 miles per

pulling into the starbucks parking lot. we are looking at a travel time of 7:55. >> in all, it add up to 9:10 of driving that would have left him just under six minutes to ran zach the house and shoot denise. his lawyer, hugh turner, says that would have been nearly impossible. >> the timing just really gets to the point where it's almost not realistic. >> and what about the state's witness who claimed that nathan had confessed the whole crime to him? the defense argued david smith was a jailhouse snitch. a convicted felon, who had gotten a deal for his testimony. he was not even worth cross-examining. >> do you really believe that david smith is the type of person that nathan is going to confide in?

>> but according to the defense, the main weakness with the state's case was motive, an affair with aina. turner argued there was absolutely no evidence to support the theory that nathan killed his wife so he could be way 20-year-old. no matter who asked her, aina insisted her relationship with nathan was platonic. >> what's the relationship between you and nathan? >> he is my sponsor. i worked for him. i did a lot of translating work and helping with organizing christian conferences mostly in lithuania, and he is also, was nds of like my mentor, and -- and leer in america he was the only person with whom i could talk lithuanian. so he was a friend. >> the defense attorney said the state was making more of those

there. >> would mr. leuthold there be with you when you were having a waxing? >> he was there to drive me and to pay for it. >> but he wasn't there when that was, the procedure was being done? >> no. >> were you and nathan ever lovers? >> no. >> that's been asked of you many times. correct? police asked you about that, correct? >> that's correct, and that answer has never changed. has it? >> that's correct. >> his bottom line was this -- the state never even came close to proving a sexual relationship. not even with the hundreds of hours of taped phone calls nathan made from jail over lis 16 his 16 months there. >> 1,700 hours. of recorded telephone conversations involving nathan leuthold. do the math.

approaching darn close to almost an entire work year. listening to telephone conversations involving nathan. where in any one of those things do you have any indication at all that nathan and aina were lovers? >> in fact, for all of the searches through nathan's and aina's cell phones, turner discovered something he says is especially telling. >> how many people, particularly young people, are going to have a relationship with a significant other and not have a picture of their significant other? did they find any photos, anything where it would indicate that nathan and aina were involved in that way? no.

hard evidence, nathan pulled the trigger, turner said all the prosecution had were lies, misinterpretations, and omissions. >> not guilty. that's what nathan is. and i would suggest to you respectfully that's what i ask the verd be returned. >> though nathan leuthold did not take the stand, he would have plenty to say about the evidence and his innocence, particularly that chilling note left behind by his wife. >> she essentially lyspoke from the grave saying that you wanted to kill her, that you were humiliating her with a 20-year-old. 20-year-old. >> nathan's answer, and the jury's verdict. >> i was 99% sure they had to come back with a guilty verdict.

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nathan leuthold's murder trial was nearing its end when he had to decide whether to testify. at the last minute, he chose not >> i had chosen to testify prior to trial, but as the state

context, and continued to throw as much mud as they could on the wall, hoping that some of it would stick, they had moved beyond what i felt were the facts of the case. i wasn't going to give them anymore fuel or anymore fodder to use or to misconstrue. >> but he wanted to set the record straight with us insisting he'sments. he also wanted to say that police never looked past him to catch the real intruder in what was a real burglary. >> the police believe it was staged. that it just looked too kind of perfect, the way that everything was placed, and what was taken. >> but things were stolen. insurance claims verified they were stolen and paid the claim on those items. it was a burglary. did it look like a normal burglary? i'm not sure what a normal burglary looks like.

had been found on a jewelry box from which those three rings had been stolen. police could not identify that fingerprint. >> that's not my mother-in-law's, not my father-in-law's. not my wife's. not my daughter's, who clean that jewelry box every week for their grandma. not my fingerprint. >> but what really upset nathan was how the state depicted his relationship with aina. someone he had known since she was a little girl. someone he had mentored, you can see how it would look bad going to the spa getting aina waxing treatments. the text messages that went back and forth. it seems like there was something going on. >> aina had no driver's license at the time. she had no way of getting around. i was a translator. take her for waxing treatments. it's not as if i'm in there

so you check the records. the waxing treatments was the same day i'm getting a haircut at the same place. take things out of context, you can make them say whatever you want to make them say. >> like aina's text the day of the murder. >> why did aina say, after the robbery, interesting, smiley face? >> you're asking me what somebody else meant. i just assumed aina hit the wrong prompt. >> one of the harshest accusations that has come out of all of this is that you killed your wife and it was a valentine's day gift for aina. >> the harshest statement has been that i killed my wife. was. i intentionally did it on valentine's day as a gift?

person, the person to actually do that, or the person just to suggest that? >> and what about those haunting words written by denise in that note found in her day planner, clearly aimed at nathan. how would he answer that? >> she essentially spoke from the grave saying that you wanted to kill her. that you were humiliating her way 20-year-old. >> what you're referring to says i know you want me dead, i'm not stupid. now, to say that, that implies that she felt in danger. seems to go against the facts. she never shared that with her best friend. her super close sister. her mother. her father. she never called police. she never called a counseling hot line. she never did any domestic battery or restraining order, any anything, because there was

>> did you want her dead? >> no. why would i want her dead? >> to be with aina. to groom aina as your new wife. that is the accusation. >> that is the accusation by those who from day one wanted to portray something that fits modern society. fits the culture we live in. fits the cheater's lifestyle, the jerry springer show mind-set. it fits those things of making things look salacious. >> the jurors, of course, never heard any of that, because nathan never took the stand. >> how nervous were you when the jury went to deliberate? >> from a jurors self-perspective, it's my life.

it means that i could go back to being the father to the children. the children would be robbed of just one parent. not both. one was stolen away. by someone who was seeking gain. and a guilty verdict would steal from the children their other parent. >> for denise's family, that was exactly what they were hoping for. for the man they'd known since he was a young boy who lived with them, now they believed lied to them. >> when they went into deliberations i was like 99% sure that they had to come back with a guilty verdict, but there's 1% you're thinking, oh, no, what if someone -- you know? >> i really wasn't sure what the jury was going to come back with. there was a lot of evidence provided by the prosecution. i think they did a great job but at the same time a lot of circle evidence. there was no evidence to actually point to somebody

so i think it was very hard to tell what the jury was going to do. >> it was a highly lyly circumstantial case. no clear evidence nathan killed denise and no clear evidence nathan and aina were lovers. whatever jurors heard and saw in the courtroom it was enough. in a mere 90 minutes they reached a verdict. >> we the jury find the defendant nathan leithold guilty of first-degree murder. >> what went through your mind when you heard that one word, guilty? >> very close to the same feeling i had when i heard that my wife had been shot. i just remember hearing that the loss just got that much greater. >> the judge sentenced nathan to 80 years in prison. seeing how shameful it was nathan killed denise in her own

>> -- it seems only appropriate that you will likely end your life in a very different type of place, too. cold and gray, isolated -- >> nathan has filed an appeal for the state it was a satisfying ending to a case they had to painstakingly stitch together. >> i think he tried to portray this image of this wonderful person, when in reality, you know, he was nothing more than a cold-blooded killer. >> as for denise's parents, they're still hurting from sump a sudden loss. but at least they have her children losclose and are now raising them. >> how did you tell them that their father killed their mother? >> they knew he had been on trial for murdering their mother and that a jury had convicted him, and right away the older boy said, well, everybody makes mistakes, and my husband said, no. your dad made bad choices.

and he made some really bad choices. >> bad choices. that left denise's parents coming to terms with the notion that everything they knew to be true wasn't. >> i felt bad for highmy husband because he told someone that he always thought whad the perfect family. the perfect wife and he just -- you really don't expect something like that to happen to you. but in reality, you know, bad things happen to good people all the time. the following program contains mat

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