this quiet country road. at became a crime scene in no time flat. >> oh, my god. >> oh, my god. >> reporter: a wild ride in a speeding, 8,000-pound truck with a drunk teenager behind the wheel. playing chicken with other peoples' les. four innocent people dead. >> there's another child in the ditch. >> it was carnage. carnage and destruction. >> reporter: a perfect storm of wrong place, wrong time. >> i started screaming, where is my dad? >> reporter: shattered lives and a fancy defense that for a rich kid. affluenza. >> this is preposterous. when a teen, with blood on his hands and money in his pockets, >> i'm sickened by this judge. >> up to thapoint life has just told hihim you cat away with it. >> reporter: the question on

parents? >> reporter: tonight, they're here with their son. for thfirst time on camera answering from the hot seat in exclusive deposition tapes. >> tell us your name, please sir. >> ethan couch. >> tonya-couch. >> frederick anthony couch. >> reporter: did they shower him with everything except the word "no"? a case of affluenza. it set off a national fire storm in a case settled just last affluenza. >> outrage not just at the teenager, but a mother and father as well. decide for yourselves, when you hear from them under oath, for the first time ever. here's matt gutman. >> reporter: take i-35 20 miles

south of ft. worth and you land of big houses and big trucks. what kd of people live here? >> probably just a good, average, middle-class, hard-working folks who get up every morning and go to work. >> reporter: it was the night before father's day and eric boyles was spending it with his >> shelby and hollie really here." when i walked through the door, they were standing at the >> reporter: out in front of the house a young woman driving of a now standing by her disabled car. front door. >> repororter: theriver of the suv called for help while shelby and hollie waited with her. that same night, down the road from the boyles' house, cas mcconnell's family was hosting a party organized by their youth pastor, brian jennings. >> he waone, the closest people that i had who wasn't family. i was around him all the time. >>eporter: around 11:00 p.m. with the party winding down brianeeded to return some tables and chairs to his church. lucas and a friend jump into the back of brian's whe truck and they head down the road that would take them right past the boyles' house.

the right-hand side of the road, and he decides to pull over. >> reporter: it was that disabled car along with holly and shelby boyles standing on the road with the driver. >> we are trying to get out of the car, and he tells us, he is like, "no, y'all just -- y'all sit tight, i'll be back in just a minutete." >> reporter: with brian jennings on the scene, there are now four people by the side of the road. meanwhile, a third location just a few houses down, there's another party in progress. but this one's not so innocent 16-year-old ethan couch is there with seven friends. >> they're drinking, they're having a good d time, anthen the young woman, um, needs to go to the convenience store. so they decide, well, we'll go get them. >> reporter: all of them? >> all of them decide to go. >> reporter: eight teenagers load into ethan's souped-up, fire engine red pick-up. six in the cab, two in the flatbed, and head out onto thehe ad.

truck barreling toward the scene at the boyles family mailbox. chance is bringing together a crowd of people whose lives are about to violently collide. eric boyles is inside when his world changes forever. >> i felt, "wait, you know, we don't liven california, but you would almost think, you would almost think you just had an earthquake." i mean, the house shook. >> reporter: when that red pick-up truck packed with eight teenagers, two in the flatbed, lost control, it swerved into a ditch, sideswiping that disabled white suv, then mowed down those four bystanders. crhing into brian jennings' into a tree. these photos show what remains of the ford f-350 that ethan turned into a weapon of mass destruction and brian jennings' white chevy tossed across the road. the boes had b been scatred hundreds of feet. at the moment of impact, lucas mcconnell was seated in the back

truck. do you remember the sound of metal crunching, of glass breaking? >> glass breaking, and tires screeching. the car that we were in got hit, and we got shot across the road, and we nailed a tree. the back window was completely shattered. and a lot of that glass was in the back of our heads. >> reporter: just seconds later, lucas' father kevin, part of a caravan coming back from that party, pulls up on the scene. >> i see taillights up ahead, as i got a little closer, i see debris in the road and i'm thinking, that's not a party, that's a wreck. the debris in the road tt i saw was the chairs that we had been taking back to the church and my heart just sank. i was like, oh, my god. > reporte eric boyles is in his house when he feels the explosion, rusheout his front door to where he left his wife and daughter. he starts dialing the phone. >> i was on n the phonwith 911. >> tarrant county 911. what is your emergency? >> there's a multicar accident out in front of my house.

>> reporter: while eric's on with 911, , a half den other frantic calls come in. >> there's four or five kids. there's kids laying in ditches in the street. >> are you with the accident right now? >> oh, l lord, oh s. there's another child in the ditch. >> oh, my god. we've got one layingn the road unconscious. they say he's breathing. >> there were already people out there in front of thhouse. there was just debris everywhere. a table and chairs and car parts and everhing else. i walked in the road, and the firsrst thing did was, i found there waa male laying in the road, wasn't moving atll. >> reporter: between the four people dead in the street, and the teninjured in the vehicles the casualty count is staggering. eric boyles was yelling for his wife hollie and daughter shelby. >> i am calling out hollie and shelby as i walk. and i kinda got halfway between the road and my fence. and that's when i found hollie. and when i found her, i mean, there was no doubt that, that she was gone.

then it was a matter of "okay, so where is shelby?" >> reporter: as eric stumbles along searching for his daughter, about 20 feet down the road, he sees a young woman. her body thrown up against the fence. >> everything told me this should be shelby, it didn't look like shelby. and i am sitting there trying to process, the amount of trauma the bodies went through and, and what would the impact be. and what would that do to you? >> reporter: at the same time on that same dark road, kevin mcconnell is also searching for his friend, youth pastor brian jennings. >> on the other side of the road i see brian laying in the ditch. i ran over there. >> reporter: so, you're on the ground trying to tend brian and suddenly hear what you think is the voice of your son from the truck. >> yes. i just heard his voice and it was just at that moment that i realized that cas had been in that truck with brian. >> right as we got out, we realized that it wasn't just us. there was people everywhere and

>> i tried to feel for a pulse, i didn't feel a pulse. and i pull out my phone, i'm calling 911. >> sir, how many people are injured? do you know? >> one, two, three, multiple. >> multiple? >> i don't even know how many. >> my dad said, "just hold this fence right here, and just pray." >> reporter: you can hear lucas' terrified voice in the background on that call. >> i need you to sit here, and i need y you to pr. >> oh, my god. >> come here. need you to sit here and i need you guys to pray, okay? >> reporter: do you remember what you were praying for? >> for brian's safety. >> about that time is when the other cars from the party started getting there. >> reporter: brian's wife shaunnarrives on this hellish scene. >> it was a normal drive. and then, all of a sudden, i saw teenagers walking down the side of the road and my first thought was, why do people let their teenagers walk down the side of the road? it's like almost midnight. >> reporter: shaunna pulls over and realizes there's been a crash and her husband was

involved. >> i really though okay, he i'm thinking god wouldn't do >> reporter: but her faith is down the road. >> well i saw him and i knew that it wasn't good because i could see that kevin was, um, doing cpr. >> reporter: and by now shuanna's three children are also on the scene. >> i was just crying out to god. i was like, "please save my dad. i need him. you can't take him yet. i am not ready." >> the first emt or firefighters that got there, they were just so overwhelmed. >> they would just walk down the road and, is he conscious? are they conscious? are theyey conscio? >> thehe scene w as bad if not worse than anything i've seen and that's 35 years of law enforcement. it was a huge crime scene spread over hundreds and hundreds of >> tonight we're hearing the chaos in the moments after a

truck full of teens -- >> slamm into three cars full of good samaritans said a woman with a flat tire -- movie. it's like it's not happening to you. and it's just surreal and it's not, it's not real life. but it was. the 16-year-old who was behind left the scene. but does he really think he can just walk away? >> he was like, "yeah. you out of all this." >> reporter: stay with us.etty stuffy. when dad opens up the window, what's the first thing he does? the tobin stance. but when we open up the windows, you can see the dust floating around. there's dog hair. pollen. more work. (doorbell) whoa! what's this? swiffer sweeper! swiffer dusters! removes up to 70% of dust and allergens. stays on there like glue. can't do that with the other broom. wow, i love it. the tobin stance! that is totally what it is!

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tt2watv# #d bt@q?=l tt2watv# #d "a@q/1( tt2watv# #d bm@q$:$ tt4watv# #d " dztq.lh tt4watv# #d " entq ^h( tt4watv# #d " gzt& gop tt4watv# #d " hnt& wa< tt4watv# #d " iztq =(d tt4watv# #d " jntq /x$ tt4watv# #d lzt& 75x once again, matt gutman and "20/20." >> reporter: the carnage out on burleson retta road looked like four people killed itantly, responders a and victi' families, like eric boyles, jamming the street. >> i have never been in the military, i have never appreciate what they go through. >> reporter: local news crews capture this footage. authorities scanning through the wreckage.. they needed to find the person responsible for the crash. as it turns out, police wouldn't be the first to do that. what condition was he in? >> he was unconscious. >> reporter: corbin clark and his mother shana, two neighbors heading to the scene, find a passed-out teenager in a ditchch a quarter mile down the road. >> and i kept saying, "hey, what's your name, what's your name?" he said, "what's your name?" and he said, "hey man, i am -- i

am ethan. i can get you out of all of this." and i was ke, i guess he thought i was involved. but he was like, "yeahah. st remember my name, i can get you out of all this." he kept sayi that. >> reporter: his name -- ethan couch -- is now w one everybody in burleson remembers. somehow he not only survived the crash, but managed to free himself from the mangled truck and, rather than help anyone, he walked away. >> the police came. and they said, "we need to get you in an ambulance." >> reporter: was he struggling with the officers? >> he kept shaking, trying to shake 'em off, saying "i don't need all this." >> once ethan couch was found, the story came together pretty quickly. >> reporter: that shocking story would turn sadness into outrage. get this -- ethan's a 16-year-old living the life of an adult, by himself, just seven doors down from eric boyles. ethan was supposed to be cleaning the place up so it could be sold. where were his parents? well, fred and tonya couch had

sprawling place in ft. worth. a 7,000 square foot compound. take a look at that glittering metal of, you're looking at the couch money-maker. fred's got a multi million dollar sheet metal business, and guard towers, a guest house and a steel gate surrounding it. but the story of the crash beginso be told by ethan's blood alcohol content. it comes back three times the that's three hours after the crash. >> understand this is three hours of time he had for his body to clear alcohol out of his system. speculation, what his blood alcohol waat the time of the accident is through the roof. >> reporter: as ethan awakes in a hospital bed, the sun also rises over burleson retta road. it is father's day. >> and the next day, yeah, i find thehese packas, where my father's day cards had been

filled out. and my father's day gifts were there, but they were gone. there was no preparationon, no time to say good-byes. >> reporter: out in front of eric's house, investigators are still sifting through the crash site. wreckage that spans almost a city block. and seseven doordown, officers pay a visit to ethan's burleson house. no one is home, but a trash bin brimming with cans and bottles right outside paints a vivid picture of the last night's activities. not only was he drunk, but there were traces of thc, valium, and some other drugs. >> right. which according to our toxicologist, um, were bad enough on their own. but you combine those with alcohol, just a recipe for disaster. >> reporter: ricrd alpert is an assistant district attorney who came ontnto the ca just a day after the crash. >> the first thing we started doing is bringing those witnesses in and talking to 'em. >> will you please state your name. >> garrett ballard.

>> reporter: garrett ballard, ethan's bestst friend ncgrade school, and starr teague, a former and brief love interest, were two of the teens in ethan's red truck that night. these are never before seen deposition tapes from a civil lawsuit resulting from the crash. starr says ethan, garrett and another boy started drinking around 6:00 p.m. the night of the crash. >> all three of them did a shot of vanilla -- i don't, i don't know what it was. >> so they start drinking, tang some shots, and then they decide to go pick up some friends. on the way back they decide we want to get some beer. so there's already alcohol at the house and ethan clrly has money, but they decide it would be more fun to steal the beer. >> at the walmart, i went in. grabbed the beer. >> reporter: this is surveillance video from that walmart. sure enough, there's garrett ballard and four other teenage boys. >> and then we walked out the fire exit. >> ethan stayed with the vehicle. and when the other five stole

ran out the exit door. >> reporter: the teens head back to ethan's empty house, and the drinking continues. not just beer, but shots of the 190-proof grain alcohol called everclear. >> and then the young woman, um, needs to go to the convenience store. but even the other ones who'd been drinkinknew ethan had too much to drink and they tried to talk him out of it. and he would have none of it, just made him angry. >> reporter: with that, all eight teenagagers pilento the truck, with ethan couch behind the wheel. right away, things start breaeaking b >> pulls out of there and immediately is going so fast that they're, starr is telling him to slow downwn. and so his response is, well, i'll just drive into oncoming trfic, so he starts playing chicken with the car in front of him. >> i was yelling at him. get over, get ovover, you ed to get over. and when he swerved, the back

>> just remember seeing something in the road and then a loud bang, then i remembmber being in the air. >> the vehicle was going about 68 miles per hour. >> reporter: had ethan ever pumped the brakes? >> no brakes. >> reporter: never touched the brakes? >> no evidence of braking was there. when you're that intoxicated doesn't work the way it should. >> at that point, i thouought that ethan was dead. i freaked out and, uh, i got out of the truck, i climbed out the back and i guess i had tunnel vision, i just walked, i just took off. >> reporter: but for ethan couch, walking away from the consequences of this accident wouldn't be as easy. not with this prosecutor determined to hold him accountable. >> i don't know if ethan's life is salvageable and quite franankly, i d't care. >> reporter: but this guys about to give him thshock of his career. >> i believe ethan couch is

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we return to "20/20"'s a case of affluenza. >> reporter: more than 1,000 people gathered in burleson to remember a youth pastor killed on a tarrant county roalast week. >> i'm going to live to make my daddy proud. >> reporter: the memorial for local youth paor brian jennings drew so many mourners it had to be streamed online. while crowds were mourning in texas, ethan was in a west coast resort town. >> ethan was at a spa-like treatment center in california. > reporte welcome to newport academy. its promotional video shows sunsets around the firepit, equine therapy and yoga. rehab that cost ethan's dad

living in luxury even while he's being treated. >> reporter: ethan's parents, meanwhile, were trying to figure out how to keep their kid out of prison. they quickly assemblbled the bt criminalefense team money could buy. and what a memorable defense it turned out to be. >> when did you first see ethan couch? >> it was about two hours after he got home from the hospital. >> reporter: this is dr. dick miller in another deposition video. now, he's a prominent psychologist hired as part of that powerhouse legal team. suffering from adjustment reaction to adolescence, i would >> reporter: what dr. miller was learning in his meetings with ethan would come to shape this story, that throughout his young life ethan's parents showered him wi everything, except responsible parenting. able to do what you want to do whenou want to do it. generally. >> before too long we realized that we weren't dealing with a typical juvenile.

the couches had plenty of coin, and for ethan that meant every day was christmas. nintendos and jet skis as a kikid, later that tricked out truck and his own credit card. >> instead of the golden rule. he was taught that we make t rules at the couch household. >> reporter: those rules included traffic laws. for ethan there weren't many. his parents happily handing over the keys of their trucks to their 13-year-old. someing that, at the time, caught the attention of one of ethan's teachers. >> and what did she say? >> mrs. anderson said he's not allowed to drive to school. >> and what was fred's response? >> something to the effect that, i'll buy the school or something impulsive. >> and when he didn't buy the school, he pulled ethan out of the school. >> yes, he did. >> reporter: after that, ethan's parents opted for

home-schooling. it's not clear how much schooling he actually got, but he definitely got the home. as in the 4,000 square foot ranch hoe he frequently stayed at just down the street from the boyles family. these pictures from the website zillow show a wet bar in the den and a swimming pool out back. anif his parents weren't around, it sure seems that alcohol often was. >> from the e friends talked to, the one thing they admitteted ry early on was that ethan was no stranger to alcohol. >> i think one nig we went through 30-pack just between us. >> roughly 15 beers apiece. >> probably about that. >> reporter: ethan's buddy garrett even admits to seeing him drive drunk on at least three different occasions. there was history there. >> there absolutely was history. there was history and warng after warning that this was gonna happen. >> reporter: for prosecutor alpert, enough was enough. it was time for young ethan to get a dose of reality. >> up to that point life has just told him you can get away with it. we were gonna make sure he didn't get away with this.

>> reporter: and he charged ethan with everything he could including four counts of intoxication manslaughter. alpert wanted the poor little rich kid to do some serious time. >> we were hoping for and asked for 20 years. >> repeporter: wn ethan couch loped into court, the selfie swagger from facebook had been replaced by this. brian jenngs' dauger abby couldn't believe it. > they ma him look really innocent for the trial. and that's not who he was. >> reporter: but it turned out there would be no trial. ethan couch admitted guilt and the proceedings moved directly to a sentencing hearing. >> he real didn't look at anybody. he just kind of sat ere. basically stared off into space. >> reporter: and now we come to the key moment in the case. while recommending treatment over incarceration, dr. miller drops a curious term which goes off like a bomb, affluenza. >> he got up there and he talked

about the fact that the reason for this crime was, he was a child of privilege and his parents didn't say no to him. >> reporter: when you heard it what did you think? >> i smiled. i mean, it was ridiculous. >> i looked at my mom, and she just kinda gave a look. it seemed like a made-up word. >> we all agreed he had terrible parents. but at some point, offering up that because he was raised as a rich kid and he didn't know the difference between right and wrong as a result of affluenza, just kind of blew our mind. >> reporter: and they were in for an even bigger shock when judge jean boyd announced her ruling. ethan couch was sentenced to ten years' probation and time in a rehab facility. four dead, nine injured and not a single day behind bars. wfaa reporter jim douglass covered the case. what was the reaction? >> volcanic. mainly aimed at judge jean boyd, longtime juvenile court judge

>> she really never even got through with her sentencing. the, the place kinda lit u and the bailiffs escorted her out pretty quick. >> i felt like the judge spit in my face. >> reporter: the media crushed to get a shot of the boy who cried affluenza. >> to me it's not right. >> he'll be feeling the hand of god. >> money always seems to keep ethan out of trouble. >> reporter: ethan's lawyer had a different take. >> we applaud judge boyd for having the courage to issue this sentence that's going to give ethan couch a chance. >> reporter: the affluenza defense and judge's sentence lit the national media on fire. >> too rich for jail! >> judge jean boyd said ththe teen wouldn't get the therapy he needed in jail.

>> i am sickened by this judge! >> people wanted this judge's head. they just felt like there have never been consequences in this kids life and here's one more example. noonsequences. >> reporter: judge boyd wasn't the only one in the public's crosshairs. so was dr. miller, who took to cnn to defend himself. >> this kid has about an 80% chance of becoming a full functioning citizen.n. if he goes to the jail he has about a 10% chance. >> i mean, he killed four people. you can call it affluenza. >> i wish i hadn't used that term, everyone seems to have hooked onto it. >> what he didn't anticipate was that the b.s. of what his opinion was gonna be, hit the winds and he was gonna get the reaction he got, which he deserved to get. >> reporter: so many people were now asking did ethan couch's affluence actually buy him a slap on the wrist? maybe and maybe not, because for one family, the case was far from over. not so fast. this is not the end of th. >> reporter: they were about to

force the couches onto the hot seat to answer tough questions under oath. >> when's the last time you recall disciplining ethan for anything? >> reporter: you're gonna want to hear this. stay with us. introducing... the biggest of five sizes on verizon's new simple plan. 18 glorious gigs for $100 a month plus $20 per phone. that's 50% more data for just $20 more. so you can do more of what you love without compromising on a... so-so network. because verizon is the only network that's number one in speed, call, data, and reliability. what's better than that? get $300 when you trade in your device and buy a new one. stop by or visit us online and get the biggest deals... on the best network... waking up to fatigued skin? sleep on this! garnier miracle e sleepingream. like a lightweight mask of continuous hydration, it works while you sleep, so you wakake up to freshed, younger-looking skin. miracle sleeping cream. from garnier. around here, i'm lucky to get through a shift without a disaster.

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once again, matt gutman and "20/20." >> reporter: if ethan couch's affliction was excessive wealth, the viims' families were eager provide a remedy. five of the families involved in the fatal crash brought civil lawsuits against the couches and their family sheet metal businessss, while han was spending eight months in a state run rehab, g getting wl. the couches settled those suits wiout admiing any wrongdoing. >> never once has ethan apologized in any shape or form. >> reporter: but one family announces they're holding out. >> i i have yeto see anything good come out of this. >> reporter: the mcconnells, remember, they lived down the

booze-binge pad in burleson. 15-year-old lucas was injured in the crash. now they are determined to have their day in court. >> and i thought, not so fast. this is not the end of this. >> reporter: so when your parents told you that they decided to go through with an actual court case, what did you tell them? >> i was ready for that. >> reporter: a lot of people were ready to hear something they'd never heard before -- the boy and his parents at the center of this story speak. >> tell us your name, please, sir. >> ethan couch. >> tonya couch. >> frederick anthony couch. >> reporter: it fell to lawyers greg coontz and todd clement to extract the peculiar family history that shaped young ethan's life. his parents seem like, you know, regular old texas parents in some wayays. >> there's nothing regular about

>> reporter: fred couch, a rags to riches millionaire, has his own history with the law. and get a load of what he allegedly said during a 1992top for a dui. >> did you tell the arresting ficer, i make more in a day than you make in a year? >> probably. >> reporter: fred and tonya had an on-again/off-again marriage. the second for them both, the kind of fractured family life which might require extra care for an only child entering adolescence. instead, these lawyers say, the couches let ethan fast-forward into adulthood. >> people don't allow their kids to d drive at . >> you understood, if he was at any time he was under 16, he was never to be driving by himself >> yes. >> nevertheless, you allowed that behavior to happen, correct? >> yes. >> i j just keptsking because i wanted to.

the corner store by myself. >> yes. >> reporter: fred couch admitted parents say they didn't know >> have you ever seen ethan drink as we sit here today? >> i don't remember ever seeing him drink. >> reporter: maybe not. but she definitely saw him drunk. just four months before the fatal crash, 15-yearar-old eth was stopped by police at 1:00 a.m. relieving himself in a parking lot. >> ft. worth officer comes upon him, he's taking a pee outside of a truck, there's a half-naked 14-year-old girl passed out drunk and this 15-year-old kid is just mouthing off to this officer, using profanity, his mother shows up, starts talking to him. so she clearly knew he was out there. >> did you ask him where he got the alcohol and the vodka that was inhe truck?

>> why didn't you ask him where he got it, to try to stop it >> i don't know. >> reporter: these attorneys say ethan couch, who wasn'n't even o enough to drive was violating g as >> five violations of the law and nothing's done by tonya. >> reporter: well, not quite nothing. tonya does admit to concocting a story with ethan to keep her husband in the dark about the more criminal details. >> i wasn't sure how he uld react so i didn't tell him the whole truth. >> tonya told me that ethan was peeing at the dollar general. >> what action did you take? >> ethan walked back and forth to work for a month. >> reporter: oh, really? >> do you remember any occasion where your dad punished you by making you walk to work? >> no. i don't remember ever having to walk to work. >>eporter: ethan was required

course and eight hours of community service within 90 days. guess what. it didn't happen. >> we didn't do the community service. >> you understood, did you not, that he was likely to continue the drinking and driving if there weren't consequences? >> i should have known that, yes. i really didn't think that that would happen again. >> i just told her that i was nervous that he might be drinking being at that house by himself under no supervision. >> how long prior to the crash was that told to her by you? >> a wk. >> reporter: and that same week ethan's friend starr teague says tonya witnessed ethan in the house th an open beer. >> do you know for a fact whether tonya saw y'all with beer sitting there? >> she saw us. >> tonya wanted to come in and

say, i was always really against drinking and driving but then when you sayhat'd you do to enforce that? there was just nothing, zero. >> do you recall ever disciplining ethan for anything? >> sometimes i would take little things away from him or we would just discuss the problems. >> when's the last time you recall disciplining ethan for anything? >> i don't remember. >> reporter: of course, it's hardo discipline a k when n he isn't always under the same roof. remember, the couches were letting ethan play grownup by himself in the burleson house. >> in your mind, it was okay to let a 16-year-old kid stay at the burleson retta house by himself without anyone present, correct? >> that 16-year-old kid, however foolish that it may have been, he seemed pretty responsible. >> was there always alcohol then when you were at the burleson location? >> not always, no. >> most of the time?

the time there was drugs as well? >> yes. >> reporter: ethan rattles off a list of drugs shocking for anyone, much less a 16-year-old. >> i've taken valium, hydrocodone, marijuana, cocaine, xanax. i think i tried ecstasy once. pretty sure that was it. >> reporter: which brings us back to that deadly june night. >> and what was your plan? >> i was gonna have a couple peoplever and drink. >> do you rell any sort of text exchange with your mom the night of this crash? >> yes. she had just sent me a text lilike, don'be out late and don't drink and don't be drinking and driving. >> she was asking what we were all doing and he was telling her, she was telling she knew that we were drinking, she was like, well, just don't drink and drive. >> reporter: that was certainly

thoughul but by now ethan had years of experience blowing off the rules without facing consequences. why should tonight be any different? >> do you remember pulling out of the driveway? >> not really, i have like a, little like, a picture in my head of just like turning out of the driveway but that's it. >> what's the next thing you recall? >> waking up handcuffed to thehe, e hospital bed. >>eporter: and after all this ethan's father actually distances himself from the "affluenza" dedefense heaid for. i don't even know that i believe affluenza is real. >> reporter: and despite all the terrible media coverage, even being branded "the worst parents ever," fred defends his family. >> i don't think we're profoundly dysfunctional. >> did you teach ethan that wealth bought privilege? >> i don't believe i ever intentionally tried to teach him that. >> did you teach ethan that

indeed because your family was wealthy, that the rules didn't apply to you? >> never. >> reporter: the mcconnells are eager for a civil jury to hear every word of this testimony. >> i feel like it needed to be done. >> reporter: why? >> because i haven't seen any punishment. >> reporter: but the couches are as determined to avoidnother court room as they are to avoid our cameras. mr. couch? stay with us. until i realized our body handles a lot. 1,100 meals a year... 730 rushed snacks... add 300 stressful decisions... no wondeour digestive system sometimes acts up. so try activia! enjoying activia twice a day for 4 weeks may help reduce the frequency of bloating, gas, discocomfort orumbling. the best part, it tastes great! dannon [ female announcer ] take skincare to the next level wh roc multi correxion 5 in 1. prov to hydrate dryness, illuminate dullness,

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we return to "20/20"'s a case of affluenza. >> reporter: it's been nearly two and a half years since the june night when so many lives intersected on this road. and the victims' families, like eric boyles, who lost his wife house, remain convinced that this was an accident in name only. >> this was not an accident. just made a poor decision. this event was going to occur

who it was going to affect. >> reporter: the search for justice has been an exercise in not just for them but also for prosecutor richard alpert. what would justice have looked like to you? >> justice would have been the system doing something to ethan thatat point, ich is hold him accountable. >> reporter: did you ever think of prosecuting the parents? >> we did. we, if there was a way to do it, we wouould have ne it. is not a crime. >> reporter: as the one remaining civil case, the one brought by the mcconnell family, worked its way through the courts, the judge from the criminal case decided to call it quits. jean boyd, the judge who handed sentence, retired last year. she declined our request for comment. her r career ithe publblic mind

will always be defined by this case. >> reporter:housands of cases, but affluenza's the one people will remember. these days ethan back working at his dad sheet metal plant. we reached out to ethan and his parents but they had no comment so we headed back to texas to track him down ourselves. it was no easy task. we checked out the fancy ft. worth house but no answer there. so we went the family business. we've been staking out ethan and fred's business which is right across the way for about a week now. but they're not like regular people. they d don't comto work at regular hours. they don't keep regular hours so it's been really hard finding them. when that steel gate slid open and ethan finally emerged, he clearly wasn't looking to talk. but if you take a closer look,

the good news, he's not abiding by at least that part of his probation. and just as the trial in the mcconnell case is about to begin ethan lucas and his parents have had a change of heart settling instead of moving forward with a trial. the last time that we met, you were very serious about taking this all the wayay what haened? >> i think we've succeeded. at least a littlbit. >> reporter: by showing the world those deposition videos, the mcconnel belive they're showing the couches for who they rereally are >> by you guys coming here and focusing attention on this, we've achieved our goals of letting the world hear about this story. >> reporter: the couches don't want to talk. we'll probably never hear their side of the story, or hear them apologize. >> i think when you have things that you want to hide, you tend to stay in the shadows. it's time to move on. my family has been through a lot. >> reporter: these days the mcconnells are teaching lucas to drive on the same roads ethan couch tore through. and eric boyles is still in his home, even though reminders of

that hideous night are just outside his front door. a lot of people would ask, why stay here? >> people have asked, how can you come back to the house? people may not understand this but there's probably a little bit of peace knowing where they were. this is where their last moments were. faith, family, and friends is the only thing that gets you through it. >> reporter: shaunna jennings, the widow of youth pastor brian jenninings, belies her husband did not die in vain. his purpose, she says, could be to reach the very person who took his life. >> maybe this is a wake-up call or that somehow brian's life can show him a different life that he could have. >> reporter: for her the time for outrage has passed and the time for forgiveness has begun.

>> it's daily decisi to forgive. >> reporter: because it's so easy to hate, isn't it? >> it is. but that doesn't do anything except punish you. i can't live my life bitter or angry.stephanie: why is this happening in a tiny iowa town? brad: weather ad lib mary gets her bounce on. wow mary, is like, every mom from the neighborhood here? look at them all... ...'judgie'. see? you are looking good! using bounce dryer sheets is paying off. your clothes have fewer wrinkles, and static cling... ...ain't bringing you down. oh! and look, it's that ms.brooke-thinks-she's-all-that- and-a-bag-of-chips. good thing you brought your a-game. your a-game. bounce, the 4 in 1 dryer sheet. get your bounce on.

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that usually leads to death or severe disability, and decreases in your white blood cells. the most common side effects are flushing and stomach problems. tell your doctor about any low white blood cell counts, infections, any other medical conditions, or if you are pregnant or plan to bececome pregnt, or are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. learn more about the most prescribed pil for relapsing ms in the us, at tecfidera.com. talk to your doctor about tecfidera, and take another look at relapsing ms. that's our program. but keep the conversation going. who is more respsible? ethan or his parents? let us know on facebook and twitter. i'm elizabeth vargas. >> and i david muir. have a great weekend.

representive and his wife with threethe home of an iowa fire chief. his familyas all home at the time, they lost everything. it's next on local five news at 10--next.