i just walked in like i normally would. i notice kim lying at the base of the bed, facedown. then i saw zip ties tied around her ankles and her feet. i still can't wrap my head around it. >> she was as helping others. now she needed help. >> i don't know what happened. please send an ambulance fast. >> his beautiful wife dead in their bedroom. >> something very violent had occurred here. >> you could see the bullet holes in the wall. >> he had he been keeping secrets? >> i said, "what about a girlfriend? he said, "there's a lot going on here." >> he was living two different lives. >> but maybe someone else had

>> up comes the menu for a porn video. i start shaking my finger at it. that's not mine. >> no shortage of suspects. >> have you ever had sex with her? be honest with me. >> putting you at the scene. i can do that. >> the detectives have to look at every single person. >> including me. >> a chilling crime. >> there's something deep down evil inside of you to do something like this. >> and a killer running out of time. >> he tells us some things that only the person that was there would know. >> i'm lester holt. and this is "dateline." here's andrea canning with "in cold blood." >> reporter: it was coming. hot air rising, cool air falling, swirling, spinning into a witch's brew of pure misery. she wasn't afraid of a hurricane, was she? >> no, ma'am. >> reporter: was she an expert on what the damage of a hurricane can do?

be done in order to prevent that damage. >> reporter: as luck would have it, there was a monster storm brewing off the florida coast, not far from her home, that last week of october, 2012. in the end, it largely spared her state. but she, locked inside that house, that gated community, was still doomed. >> the kitchen was just torn apart. and then her bedroom torn apart. and then upstairs. we didn't know, you know, really happening in this house. >> reporter: it had come. another storm, different in nature but not in fury. it had blown down her door and through her world without warning or a shred of mercy. fun loving. independent. lovely. kim dorsey. >> are you filming me? >> yes, i am. >> reporter: no wonder derrick dorsey fell for her.

eyes on kim, just thought she was beautiful. >> reporter: did you express how you felt even in that first moment? did it get there that night? >> no. i waited till the second date before i told her i loved her. >> reporter: second date? that's quick. >> well, when i told her i loved her, her response was, i like you a lot, too. >> reporter: kim wanted to take things slow, he said, for good reason. she was putting herself through school to become a civil engineer. seven year before he ever popped the question. >> well, that's the kicker. she got angry. she got up and walked away. >> reporter: why? >> without even saying yes. and i'm just like, oh, dear god. i've made a gigantic mistake. >> reporter: oh, no. >> i've moved too fast. and she gets over there and she goes to her purse, and she brings out this box. and it's, you know, a long box. and she hands it to me. she go, i thought you'd try this one of these days.

piece of paper, whatever? >> reporter: on the contrary. inside was a bracelet etched with the letters "y-e-s." yes. they were married almost a year later. after their wedding, they honeymooned in ireland. >> how do you like the beer here? >> beer is absolutely wonderful. much better than america. >> reporter: there was kim, ever fearless, trying her hand at the ancient sport of falconry. >> beautiful. that's the one. >> reporter: at times, this independent spirit seemed surprised to find herself no longer single. >> i'm on my honeymoon! >> reporter: not that married life changed her or either of them very much. he was a jacksonville firefighter and owner of a small general contracting business. kim got her degree and began training building inspectors in hurricane-prone florida. was she good at it? >> absolutely. within two weeks, they asked her

a hundred rough and tumble men looking at this little girl in high heels telling them how to build. but she held her own, which you have to. and they respected her for that. >> reporter: they both were laser-focused on their careers. you decided not to have any children? >> at the time we were both very busy and we just -- we felt if we were going to do it, we wanted to have time to carve out to dedicate to them. and so we never did. >> reporter: but you did have your babies? >> yes, we did. >> reporter: and how many of them? dexter, duncan and gracie. they were her children. no doubt about it. took them to the dog park religiously every weekend. walks every day. that was her little escape during the day when she got bogged down. she'd harness the herd and take them for a walk. >> reporter: kim's workload seemed to grow heavier by the day. it started to get to her. >> it became increasingly difficult for her to be able to turn work off. it just seemed like everything revolved around work.

doctor for depression. >> and she decided to take in medication to help her get a little bit brighter outlook on things. >> reporter: did it work? >> absolutely. it was like turning a light switch on. i even told the doctor -- he's a good personal friend of mine. i said, thank you for giving me my wife back. >> reporter: his relief didn't last long. >> the cure became worse than the ailment. >> reporter: was it causing her to gain weight? is that one of the side effects? >> it does. that's one of the large warning signs is on it. things like that. >> reporter: kim feared that stopping the medication too suddenly could make her more depressed. he said she was making plans that last week of october 2012 to see her doctor. in the meantime, it so happened that a storm, a brutal one called hurricane sandy, had been heading north off the atlantic coast. how well did she know the anatomy of a hurricane and what it was capable of? >> very well. being a civil engineer, she

what they can't do. with her teaching and so forth and training of the inspectors she knew what had to be done to a house in order to protect the inhabitants. >> reporter: she makes everyone safe. >> absolutely. >> reporter: eventually, the superstorm tracked east, giving most of florida a pass before barreling north and into the history books. kim didn't seem to have either the weather or personal troubles on her mind as the weekend rolled around. there she was, friday, the 26th, captured on supermarket security video casually shopping. that night, derrick said, the two watched a movie on their entertainment system that had just been repaired. >> kim used to call it nasa. because i would always have to change the input for her, change the channel or get it to the place that she wanted to watch. >> reporter: so many people can relate to that. >> too many remotes. >> reporter: you had just had a sound person -- >> correct. >> reporter: -- come in and help you out? >> i was trying to have him simplify it. take those five remotes on the

saturday, the 27th, derrick left his wife sleeping and headed to his fire station to begin a 24-hour shift. it coincided with a big college football game, florida versus georgia. >> how about them dogs, baby? >> it's a large influx of people into into the city. and of course, with the football game comes drinking and foolishness. >> reporter: what kind of calls do you get during a weekend like that? >> usually car accidents, stuff like that. there are more people on the road. a lot of them are alcohol involved. >> reporter: as busy as he was, he called kim later that day, several times, in fact. could you get a hold of her? >> no, i couldn't. >> reporter: was that strange, or not? >> not unusual. a lot of times, usually in the morning, if she didn't want to be bothered, she'd put her phone in the kitchen. >> reporter: on sunday, his shift over, he headed home. it was after 8:00 in the morning. as he walked into the bedroom, darkened by black-out shades, he said he expected to crawl into

she was on the floor. >> i notice kim lying at the base of the bed, facedown. >> reporter: what did you think when you saw her laying there? >> i didn't know what to think. i originally went up to her and thought maybe she'd fallen or hit her head, or maybe she had a few too many beers that night. but the closer i looked at her, i realized she was bleeding. >> reporter: he said the firefighter in him went into action. he did cpr and called 911. mouth. >> jacksonville, 911. who is calling? >> please send an ambulance fast. >> reporter: soon the emergency call would go out to derrick's fellow firefighters. men in trucks, sirens blaring, would be racing to the dorseys' safe, gated community, and into his home that looked like it had just been hit by a hurricane. >> what had happened to kim?

to save his wife? when we return -- >> are you with her right now? >> yes, i am. >> is she awake? >> no, she's not! >> did you think there was a chance that she might still be alive? >> at that point i didn't know. i was going to give her every opportunity i could. choose only the best ingredients. so that when they come together, they sing. ? ? no artificial flavors. no preservatives. swanson.

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>>wh the 911 dispatcher that sunday morning -- >> send rescue 50. i'm an off-duty fireman. come on. >> reporter: he said he couldn't grasp what he was seeing. his 38-year-old wife kim lying naked and bloodied on the floor. >> i rolled her over, and i saw she wasn't breathing. and i tried to give her cpr. >> reporter: did you think there was a chance that she might still be alive? >> at that point, i didn't know. i was going to give her every

>> yes, i am. >> is she awake? >> no, she's not! >> reporter: on the 911 call, you -- it's almost like you're wearing two hats. you're the distraught husband, and then you're the firefighter. did you feel yourself going back and forth? >> well, i wanted them to know that i was an off-duty fireman for the simple fact i wanted them to understand it wasn't a layperson that didn't know what wrong. >> reporter: even as he begged for help, he said he kept trying to revive kim. >> and they wanted all this other information, and all i could focus on was giving her cpr. and then, after a couple minutes of giving her cpr, i realized

and that she was gone. and i -- i told communications, i told them she was signal seven. >> reporter: what does that mean? >> i basically pronounced her dead. >> so, you think s >> yes. send rescue anyway. >> yes. rescue's on the way, okay? >> reporter: you're the first responder. you see this happen to other people. >> i didn't want anybody rushing to the scene to get hurt. for somebody that was already dead. >> reporter: you're a firefighter. you're used to saving people. >> yes. >> reporter: and it's your own wife and you can't save her. >> yes.

>> after 15 years of going to gunshots, cardiac arrest and everything else, and helping everybody else on god's green earth, i can't help my own wife. it's like all that training had just been put to waste. >> reporter: his once-vibrant, beautiful wife lay dead on their bedroom floor, and he believed he knew why. she did. what happened? >> i don't know. she either cut herself or something. i can't see. i'm trying to figure it the [ bleep ] out. i thought maybe she'd tried to hurt herself. >> reporter: derrick dorsey was telling county dispatch his wife had committed suicide. he immediately thought about kim's struggle with her medication and the warning that came with it. >> don't bring yourself off the medication. seek a doctor's advice on coming off of it. >> reporter: now, as he stood over the body of his wife, he

that warning. >> i had originally thought, damn it, she tried to take herself off her own medication. she had -- typical kim wanted to do it herself. >> reporter: she just quit cold turkey which she was told not to do. >> that was one of my worries. yes. >> reporter: within minutes of calling 911, derrick's colleagues came to his aid. your fellow firefighters and paramedics. what do you say to them when they arrive? >> she's dead. >> reporter: you had a reaction to seeing them. your wife is laying there. what did you do when they got there? >> i covered her up with a comforter. >> reporter: was that more the husband instinct? >> yeah. husband and fireman. it's decorum.

dozen people in the house. you just cover her up. >> reporter: at some point, a call went out to the jacksonville sheriff's office. >> when something like this happens, they'll call me first. >> reporter: assistant chief t.k. waters was the on-duty officer that weekend. >> i'll make the decision on whether we're going to go out to that call, we're going to respond to that call or not. and that happened to be one that i knew we had to respond to. >> reporter: the officer on the other end was telling the detective about a woman's we have to make sure that everything lines up and looks as if someone committed suicide. >> reporter: the homicide detective figured the call would be a relatively quick one. he figured wrong. >> coming up -- people who commit suicide don't usually miss. >> you can see the bullet holes in the wall. >> no way could somebody have

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assistant chief t.k. waters not very far from the beach at all. beautiful homes. very nice neighborhood. and not very easy to access. you have to have a way in. >> reporter:n kusckowski, who was also taken with the affluent community and the dorseys' house itself. you raced to the scene and came up to the house. did you see anything before you even got into the house? >> yes, as i was walking up the sidewalk to the front door here. i saw a statue of a dog that was laid over in the bushes here. >> reporter: anything that was odd about it? >> just the fact that it looked out of place that it was tipped over. but i just took note of that and moved on from there.

>> yes, absolutely. >> reporter: you just didn't realize it at that moment? >> that's correct. >> reporter: he made a mental note and met waters in the darkened bedroom. >> it was chaos, and you could tell that something really horrible had happened here. you walk in initially you see our victim lying at the foot of the bed. you can see, even as dark as it was in the room, the lighting wasn't very good. it was just a scene that read that something horrible had happened here. kim lay, they found a knife. they saw patches of blood soaked into the carpet and specks of red on one wall. and on another something that jumped right out at them. >> there had been some gunshots in a wall and you could see the bullet holes in the wall. >> reporter: officers later found those bullets and the gun that fired them. a pink handled revolver had been tossed on the bedroom floor. there was something else they noticed. >> there was a pool cue, a broken pool cue in the bedroom.

the fat end of the pool cue. >> reporter: as they looked closer, they could see kim was covered in bruises. it was clear she had not killed herself. >> the room was -- there was blood all over the place. i mean, the condition of her body, no way could somebody have done this to themselves. this was obviously a murder scene. >> probably one of the most horrific ones that i have ever seen. >> reporter: just because of the amount of blood and -- >> the sheer violence that was evt looking around the rest of the house. they noticed the kitchen sink filled, bizarrely they thought, with tv remote controls and a cell phone. cabinet drawers opened. a floor used as an ashtray. all that and the toppled statue at the front door suggested a break-in. especially when investigators learned more about the gated community. >> unfortunately, at the time that kim dorsey was murdered, i believe that the community was

to the murder scene that day. >> so it wasn't as secure as, you know, someone, like, showing a card and, yeah, come on in. it was one of those things where, at that point, it could be anybody because they could have walked through, they could have driven through. >> reporter: but the closer they looked at the house, they more they felt this attack had not been a random break-in. >> there was no signs of forced entry. so somebody either had let themselves into the house or kim had answered the door. >> reporter: and if someone had come to job of it. kim's yellow hummer sat in the driveway. the big screen tv was still on the wall. there were some expensive items that were in plain sight that were still there, correct? >> yes. >> yes. >> big house, a lot of nice things. there were computers on the table. >> reporter: rolex watches? >> yes, there was a watch case next to the bed. nothing of value seemed to be missing, you know, that we could

them. it was clear she'd been beaten savagely, bound at some point with zip ties and likely raped. this was such a violent attack on kim dorsey. did that tell you anything, just the level of violence? >> yes. it told us that there was possibly some sort of connection between the person that committed the act and kim. >> reporter: that they perhaps knew each other? >> that's correct. >> reporter: and this was some >> right. >> yes. >> reporter: the bloody scene made them skeptical about the story kim's husband had told the 911 operator. >> you ask yourself, how could he believe she committed suicide? how could he actually believe that? when you look at that crime scene. >> reporter: that was only one of so many questions they had for derrick dorsey, a man it seemed with plenty of stories to tell.

lives. >> a husband with a secret. >> i said, what about a girlfriend? you got a girlfriend? and he readily said there's a lot going on here. jack be nimble, jack be quick, jack knocked over a candlestick onto the shag carpeting... causing him to stop, drop and roll. luckily jack recently had geico help him with renters insurance. because all his belongings went up in flames. jack got full replacement and now has new pants he ordered from banana republic. visit geico.com and see how affordable renters insurance can be. upgrade season's here. i got my new iphone 7 from sprint.

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derrick dorsey sat in the back of a squad car, staring at the crime scene tape surrounding his home. it was like rubbernecking at someone else's tragedy, waiting for the nightmare to slip by. >> i still can't wrap my head around it. >> reporter: he said he kept trying to piece together what had happened. later he went with officers to the station for questioning. >> i know it's difficult right now, a lot going on. >> reporter: detective larry kuczkowski interviewed derrick, still in his firefighter uniform. he said the husband seemed willing to answer all his

morning. >> okay, so you left the house yesterday morning, probably -- >> about 7:10. >> your shifted started at 8:00 a.m. saturday? >> yes. >> did you go back home for any reason? nothing like that? his alibi at that point is that he's at work. and he does work for the fire department. they work 24-hour shifts, they start 8:00 in the morning, they work till the following morning at 8:00. >> reporter: a story that would be easy enough to check out. next, the detective asked derrick how he'd found kim when he got home from work. >> i go in, just go straight to the bedroom, and i opened it up. there, she's not laying down, she's on the damn the floor. >> did you touch her or anything? >> yeah. i touched her. i turned her over. i think she was on the right side. >> he was upset. you know, did he break down? not as much as i think some people would, you know, telling the story about what they just came home to. >> i start looking around the house. first thing that's popping into my head is she's taken her life.

dispatch he thought kim had cut herself. now, he was telling the detectives something different. >> so she has a gun of her own? >> yes. >> what kind of gun? >> pink taurus, .38. >> semi automatic? >> a revolver. >> revolver. where is it normally kept? >> in her drawer that was open. to the left of the bed. >> did you open that drawer? >> i don't think so. >> you don't think so. did you look in the drawer? >> absolutely. th >> reporter: he explained kim had been battling depression, then battling side-effects from the medicine. he said their marriage had suffered. >> when is the last time that you and kim had sex? >> a while back. >> a while back? when you say a while back like -- >> weeks. >> reporter: derrick dorsey had something else to reveal. >> were either one of you stepping out, you know, girlfriend on your behalf or boyfriend on hers? >> i do. >> okay, you got a girlfriend.

you got a girlfriend? and he readily said, there's a lot going on here. >> reporter: derrick had just admitted that he'd been unfaithful to kim. >> obviously, big, big red flags. >> reporter: assistant state attorney london kite was listening in on the interview from another room and hearing a possible motive for murder. >> he was living two different lives. we really had to figure out what was his, you know, true passion. did he want to live there with kim or did he -- did he want the more seedier, dark side of his life? >> firefighter, had done the unthinkable at a crime scene. >> now was she covered up when you got there? >> no, she was buck naked on the floor. i put the -- after rescue came, pronounced her dead, i was like, jesus, guys, guys. so i covered her. >> so you pulled that on top of her. >> yeah. they saw me do it. >> okay. that's important to us. >> the thing that he did that

body with the bedding. you know, you wouldn't want that to happen in the crime scene. >> reporter: to the investigators, it was possible derrick dorsey had tried, literally, to cover up evidence. everything they were hearing led them to wonder, had he killed his wife? by then, the line of questioning seemed to weigh on derrick. >> i'm not stupid. you're asking me certain questions in certain ways. >> right. >> and that means you're thinking certain things. >> did someone harm her? is that what it's looking like? >> looks like that. >> did you worry that they might think it was you? >> i don't doubt they did think it was me. but i knew that, if they originally thought it, it would come to light that there's just obviously no way i could have done it. >> reporter: even as he sat in that interview room, detectives outside it were, in fact, checking out his fire station alibi. did derrick dorsey's alibi check out? was he really at work? >> yes, he was. he had spent the whole day at work. there were some phone calls that

went unanswered, but that wasn't unusual. >> reporter: surveillance footage supported derrick's account. it showed his truck leaving the gated community in the early hours of saturday morning. even though his alibi checked out, derrick wasn't off the hook. investigators thought he still could have had something to do with kim's murder. >> and that's why we wanted to make sure that we looked at his phone records to see who he was contacting. >> reporter: as investigators tried to size up the man before scene canvassed nearby homeowners. a neighbor had seen something. >> and he remembered a car, a small suv pulling up in front of the dorseys' house. it wasn't really anything unusual to him. >> reporter: so here's what detectives had so far. a mysterious car. a husband who might or might not be involved. a victim who likely knew her killer. and a house that was ready to tell investigators a whole lot

a rare look at a crime scene inch by inch, minute by minute through the eyes of an expert. >> she's zip tied to this dresser. she opens this drawer somehow. she got the gun out and she fired off five shots. >> she missed. >> she missed. sometimes you can feel the indulgence of nature. sometimes, you can taste it. sweet granola clusters, a touch of ooey gooey almond butter. savory almonds, and a hint of salt.

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as detectives interviewed >> did you text her yesterday? >> reporter: -- their colleagues were searching for clues across town. a man's castle was now a crime scene and a confusing one at that. assistant state attorney london kite. this was a real puzzle? >> it was. the kitchen was just torn apart. the drawers were pulled out. and then these electronics were in the sink. and then her bedroom torn apart. we didn't know really where the struggles were happening in this

>> reporter: soon they would. they believed kim died sometime saturday morning, not long after derrick left for work. her cell phone, damaged from being thrown in the kitchen sink, had stopped receiving signals around then. so you know she was alive to a certain point at least -- >> to a certain point, yeah. >> reporter: her autopsy filled in more details. kim had died of blunt trauma to the head and a single stab wound to the neck. but it was officers like detective karen smith who helped the team understand how this what's the first thing you saw when you came into the room? >> the first thing i saw was what's called an impact pattern right here on this wall that we've sort of recreated with stickers today. >> reporter: this is blood spatter? >> correct. >> reporter: smith, a bloodstain pattern analyst and crime scene expert, followed the trail of kim's blood in the bedroom, speck by speck, using string and 3-d diagrams. she believed kim had just gotten out of bed when her attacker

completed, we found that her nose had been damaged. so to me that meant that it was a sucker punch. >> reporter: so where would she have been standing exactly to create this spatter? >> right about here. >> reporter: and then something, would have, you believe, hit her in the face. >> right. probably in the nose. since it bleeds very heavily. quickly, your eyes water. you can't see. it's very painful and normally when somebody's punched in the noseha go down. >> reporter: this first blow, she said, would have brought kim down by the side of her bed. >> she's actually down here on the floor. and there was the large saturation stain here on the carpet. she was down here for quite some time. >> reporter: blood found on the nearby wall and marks on kim's body suggested she was struck repeatedly and so forcibly that she probably blacked out. smith believed kim was then bound at the wrists. >> she's zip-tied to this dresser. >> reporter: giving kim's attacker time to step out of

beyond. drawers randomly opened indicated someone had been rifling through the room. but that pause also gave kim time to regain consciousness, free herself and do something incredible. >> she opens this drawer somehow. she got the gun out and she aimed. now, she probably can't see really well. she's been punched in the face. so she fired the gun five times. it went through the doorjamb and up into the ceiling in the kitchen. was, you believe obviously was outside the door. >> she either saw him or heard him, and she fired off five shots, and the gun was empty. >> reporter: but she missed. >> she missed. >> reporter: even then, she said, kim did not give up. >> so she's able to move and she leaves this area. she still has the gun in her hand and as she moves around the bed the gun is tossed and it's found right underneath the bed here. it's useless to her. it's empty. >> reporter: blood, lit by luminol, traced kim's desperate

>> we know that she is opening these curtains. there are transfer stains and saturation stains on the curtain. the pull cord for the blinds has blood on it. so she's opened the blinds and there's blood on the window so now we know she's clamoring to get out of this window. >> reporter: this could have been her escape. >> this could have been her escape route. >> reporter: but he came back. >> unfortunately, he came back. >> reporter: smith said the man probably grabbed kim as she tried to escape and beat her to the floor again -- likely with that pool cue -- before stabbing her once in the neck. floor, and the knife was found next to it. this is basically where she was killed. this is where ultimately she lost her fight. >> reporter: the scenario told investigators about kim's brave but doomed struggle. but it also told them about her killer. the zip ties on kim's wrists and the pool cue on the floor appeared to have come from the home. the knife matched a set from the kitchen.

downstairs, too. >> reporter: someone who might possibly know where those zip ties are? >> yes. and also know the habits of kim dorsey. that she's a late sleeper. she sleeps pretty hard was my understanding, too. >> reporter: obviously, one man, derrick, knew all of that. but evidently, there were others who did as well. >> one guy that used to work with us and everything and used to work with me. >> reporter: derrick told them about a friend who had worked construction jobs for him and had even lived with them for a his name was lance kirkpatrick. but derrick set detectives straight. >> i honestly really think you're barking up the wrong tree. i had made the comment, lance would have taken a bullet for kim. so you guys are wasting your time. fine, talk to him. you'll understand. you'll know where i'm coming from after you meet him. >> reporter: lance, he added, not only wouldn't kill kim. he couldn't. derrick said his friend had taken a new job just before her death. >> well, he's up in georgia, shrimping.

>> reporter: at sea. >> yes. miles away. >> reporter: but derrick did give detectives another name. and this young man had definitely been in the area that week, in jacksonville, and in trouble. coming up -- a suspect who seemed infatuated with kim. >> had you ever had sex with her? be honest. >> no, i wish. >> and had a history with police. >> did it make you question him, this guy on your radar was just in jail? >> yes. does he need money? does he need something? with downy fabric conditioner. it not only softens and freshens... it helps protect clothes... from stretching, fading and fuzz... so your favorite clothes stay your favorite clothes. downy fabric conditioner

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investigators were untangling the m familiar with her home. her husband derrick certainly fit that bill, but he had a strong alibi and a willingness to share everything, it seemed, even his infidelity. >> typically in cases like that, you know, husbands that are suspects is, they try to hide all those things. they say, oh, no, our relationship was perfect. but derrick, on the other hand, started exposing, kind of, the darkness that was inside that beautiful house.

know. >> reporter: did you worry how that might look to the detectives? >> i didn't even care. they asked me if i had any relationships on the side, and i fessed up to it right then and there. that was the least of my worries, knowing that i'd done that. i wanted them to find who killed her. >> reporter: still investigators couldn't overlook the possibility that derrick had did you worry that they might think that you could have enlisted some help? >> no. >> reporter: hired someone? >> i knew that i could account for my whereabouts. i didn't know how they could even think i was an accomplice to something like that, no. >> reporter: he said he was an open book with investigators. in fact, when they asked if anyone else knew the layout of his home, besides his pal lance, derrick gave them another name. joshua veal.

didn't have a whole bunch of construction experience and everything. but i always needed someone to help clean up and straighten up the job sites and such. >> reporter: so he gave joshua work in the general contracting business he ran on the side and, later, a place to say. >> we saw a young man that needed some direction and we tried to help him out the best we could. >> reporter: for a few months, joshua lived with the dorseys. but derrick said the arrangement soured when joshua took a wrong rn >> josh decided that recreational pharmaceuticals were more fun than working in the hot sun every day. >> reporter: that must have been heartbreaking for you because you really wanted to see this young man succeed. >> it was. you wanted to shake sense into him, but people have to make their own mistakes in order to learn. >> reporter: he told joshua to leave but said they remained friends. >> he'd call up and say, hey, mr. d., i need to do some work. and i was more than glad to help him. he did a good job when he showed up. >> reporter: yet joshua couldn't let go of his vice.

before kim was murdered. that really got the detectives' attention. did it make you question him, this guy on your radar was just in jail? >> yes. does he need money? does he need something? >> reporter: and joshua had also been kicked out of the dorsey house. >> yes. >> reporter: he could be angry by that. >> of course. >> reporter: not the best house guest? >> not the best houseguest. >> reporter: there was more and to detectives it was explosive. derrick said that on that sunday mog, station to pick up joshua for a job. only joshua never showed. >> at that point we set out trying to put our hands on joshua. >> reporter: and he's just out there. no one seems to know where he is. >> that's correct. >> right. >> reporter: is that a sign that there might be something up there? that this guy didn't show and now no one can find him? >> yes, absolutely. >> reporter: and right around the time that kim dorsey was murdered. >> right. the morning that she's found, he can't be found. >> reporter: but he didn't stay hidden for long. later that same day, derrick told investigators that joshua

the two men arranged to meet at a local restaurant. but detective larry kuczkowski decided to surprise the young man instead. >> we were sitting there waiting on him. and as soon as he got out of the car, introduced myself to him and said, we need to have a talk. >> reporter: this is joshua veal, and he remembers that moment very differently. were you scared? >> yes, ma'am. six, seven undercover cars come pull up and ask about you. tend to get a little nervous. >> reporter: the talk the took place downtown at the sheriff's office. the officer didn't mention kim's murder at first. >> i see you get home from 10:00, 11:00 from jail. >> reporter: did it feel, though, like it wasn't a friendly conversation? >> yes, ma'am. >> reporter: like you were being treated kind of as a suspect type? >> i was already under the impression i was treated as a suspect for something. but i had no clue what for. >> you spent friday night at the house? >> yeah. >> you didn't go anywhere friday

with friends. >> so you go to wing it saturday to watch the football game or what? >> yeah, i think i did. >> anybody else up there that can vouch that you were up there saturday? >> probably so. >> now were you supposed to go to work for anybody on sunday? >> reporter: they asked why he hadn't shown up at the gas station to meet derrick for work that sunday morning. surveillance showed derrick at the station but not joshua. where was he? >> yeah. i didn't make it today. i kind of slept in and didn't hear my alarm. >> did he call you to like chew you out or anything? he was like you little [ bleep ]. you should have come or you should have been at the kangaroo this morning at 8:00. >> reporter: finally, the investigators asked about kim dorsey. they wanted the 21-year-old to explain his relationship with the 38-year-old woman. >> how did she look? >> one to ten? would you ask me if i would hit it? >> sure. >> eight. >> kim ever come onto you? >> nah. >> come on now. a little bit maybe? >> no, i wish. >> have you ever had sex with

>> nah. i wish. >> what he revealed about kim was really interesting, is that he almost had an infatuation with her. not that, you know, she was just my boss' wife but someone that he almost had a romantic pull towards. >> reporter: how were investigators feeling now about joshua veal? is he starting to go to the top of the list? >> yeah, he's definitely going -- he's going up. >> reporter: now, the detective was ready to drop a bombshell. >> and eventually i brought up kim and why we were talking. >> well, i got some bad news. something happened to kim. >> i just talked to derrick like 45 minutes ago. what do you mean something happened to miss kim? >> i had asked him, do you know what happened to kim? and he didn't know. he was unaware that she was dead. >> reporter: how did he take the news? >> he took it like you had told him that his mother died. >> she's dead.

>> reporter: did his emotional reaction to her death, was that enough for you for -- for your gut to say, mm, not sure he's our killer? >> it was for me at that point. i just, you know, don't eliminate him completely but set him off to the side for now. and we knew where he was. he wasn't going anywhere. i'm trying to find out and need to know if you know anything or somebody that might be trying to hurt her? >> bro, i promise you, you wouldn't catch me right here if i knew somebody was trying to hurt them. i promise you that, man. >> all right. >> that was a good woman. you don't know. you don't know. she was. >> i'm sure she was. >> [ bleep ] damn. this ain't fair! >> there's just about anybody out there who can be our suspect. >> reporter: days passed without

help. >> like i said, because of the lack of witnesses, the physical evidence, nothing has led us a whole lot farther today in identifying or leading us to a suspect than we had that sunday morning. >> reporter: but there was another piece of evidence. it had been right inside the house all along hiding in the dark just waiting for someone to come along and push the right bu. coming up -- an x-rated clue. >> i looked at the dvd player. and i'm going that's your murderer. that's going to be who was in my house. -stone diamond collection.

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continuing our story, kim dorsey was dead. >> this was obviously a murder scene. >> her husband had been hiding something. >> upon occasion. >> a crime with no shortage of suspects. and tonight you'll hear from all of them. >> i don't doubt they did think it was me. >> did they take your dna sample? >> they did. >> did you murder kim dorsey? >> no, i did not. >> and now a new clue. and i'm going, that's your murderer. >> here again is andrea canning. >> reporter: days after finding kim's body, detectives crossed one name off their suspect list. they looked into joshua veal's alibi, and it checked out. >> josh was just up on the north side of jacksonville. >> reporter: nowhere near the dorsey home as far as they could tell. kim's husband derrick, likewise,

but detectives still weren't sure what to make of him. they knew he was an unfaithful husband, which gave him a possible motive. at this point, were you able to rule out derrick dorsey? >> absolutely not. i mean, you know, he could have definitely had someone setting this up. >> reporter: then again, if he had hired someone to kill kim, why was he acting so darn helpful? >> derrick's calling me daily, and obviously there are times i had to call him, you know, to get some information about things at the house. you know. and so, yeah, he'soo he's doing everything, you know, that i'm asking of him. >> reporter: finally, officers and technicians were done processing the crime scene and derrick could return to the house. >> so the night we go to turn the house back over, i think it was halloween, the 31st. >> reporter: they hoped the walls might talk to derrick, might reveal something officers had missed. >> part of the turnover back to him was to bring him out to the house, to have him look around, walk us through the whole house,

investigators and the evidence technicians to say, that's not right. >> reporter: as it turned out, the house wasn't just speaking to derrick. it was practically shouting. >> the blood's still on the floor. the plates shattered on the ground are still there. at that point, they wanted me to try to help piece together things. and i'm noticing everything, everything. you know, this is wrong, this is here. i don't understand why the damn >> reporter: detectives larry kuczkowski and t.k. waters showed us what happened when they ushered derrick into his tv room. >> so we're standing here and we asked derrick, can you turn on the tv? so derrick comes in here. >> reporter: why? why did you ask him to turn on the tv? >> well, we had never, the tv wasn't on when we got here and we had found all of the remotes on the sink so we just wanted to see how it worked.

changed the input to the dvd player, up comes the menu for a porn video. at that point, i start shaking my finger at it and going, that's not mine. there's no way that's mine. and there's no way kim would be looking at that. and i look at the dvd player. and i'm going, that's your murderer. that's going to be who was in my house. >> reporter: that's a creepy clue. >> as soon as i knew that, i knew they were going to be able to get him. they were going to be able to find out who did this to my wife. >> it was one of those moments where the hair would stand up on the back of your neck. because to have that video in there and having derrick here saying, that's not mine. so, it automatically raises an antenna and gets you curious. >> reporter: but it was what derrick said next that really got their attention. he told them the man who installed that complicated entertainment system, the one kim nicknamed nasa, had been

before her murder. >> so he would have known, you know, where the kitchen was and everything else. it's an open floor plan in the center. but he would have had a familiarity with the house. >> reporter: derrick told the detectives that the installer, a man named j.r., could be the person they were looking for. >> in my mind, that was a very strong possibility it was him. i'd known him before. he worked on another house i'd done. i had no reason to think that. logical person that i could think of had done it. >> reporter: so what would his motivation be? >> stealing the system that he just tweaked. have no earthly idea. >> reporter: was there anyone else who knew how to work the entertainment system? >> no. >> i mean, who else would be handling the remotes when he's tuning the surround sound system, and then throw them in a sink to get the evidence off of it? so you had all those things come into play. >> reporter: so detectives paid

>> i came back and it was a couple detectives here at the shop, wanted to ask some questions. >> reporter: at that point, j.r. said he hadn't heard about kim's death. and detectives were vague about why they needed to talk to him. initially, he thought they simply wanted information about his client derrick dorsey. >> they said, do you know derrick dorsey? and i said, yeah, he's one of our customers. he's like, when was the last time y w and i told him, you know, ways there friday or whatever it was. >> reporter: they also asked if he knew anything about kim. even then, he said he had no idea why police were so interested in the dorseys. >> she was very sweet, very nice. you know, she'd always, you know -- and i've only saw her a couple times. >> reporter: one of them was that friday. he had been called to the dorsey home to fine tune the entertainment system. while he was there, he noticed a chill between the husband and

she would walk by and say, hey, guys, i'm headed to the gym. and i said, okay. we'll see you. and derrick didn't say anything to her. i thought that was weird. you know, i was like, you don't say bye to your wife? but i guess he was more interested in getting his electronics fixed, i guess. >> reporter: yeah, because something must have jumped out at you. first of all, you don't even know this couple very well. >> kind of weird. they didn't have a very -- to me i never saw an affectionate kind at all. >> reporter: as the detectives listened to j.r., they took in what he did for a living. they noticed the wires and cables he worked with, the tool hess used. more importantly, they noticed his hands. coming up -- >> he's got cuts on his hands. >> and something interesting in his tool kit. >> he worked with zip ties? >> yes. >> yes. >> we're thinking he's a

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the man who had been inside the dorseys' home the day before the murder said at first he had no idea why detectives were and the layout of their house. >> i was like, yeah, i know kim just by being at the house doing their installs >> reporter: the entertainment system installer, j.r., said he thought derrick gave his wife the cold shoulder, especially that friday as she headed off to the gym. >> he just sensed there wasn't a strong, you know, loving relationship. >> reporter: other than that, he said he didn't make much of the investigators' questions. but they found a lot in his answers.

kim. >> did he have the hots for her? you know, did he come -- show back up on saturday morning, he had been there friday night, you know, felt maybe he'd go over saturday morning? you know, remember he doesn't think they're in a loving relationship. does he go back, thinking, hey, you know what? i have some opportunity here with her? >> reporter: they wonder had j.r. come calling on kim only to get a chilly reception? had kim's rejection set him off? detectives got to the point. they asked j.r. if he'd heard aboum' his reaction seemed calm. too calm, for the prosecutor. what did that tell you that he wasn't overly emotional about the news? >> that could be, you know, a sign that he's more involved. a person like that committed this type of crime, obviously they're cold-blooded. >> reporter: but it was his hands more than his demeanor that really heightened their interest. >> he's got cuts on his hands. and we're thinking well, could these be defensive wounds from

those scratches. j.r. said he got them on the job handling wires and plastics. he also worked with zip ties? >> yes. >> reporter: what are you thinking then about the sound man? can you cross him off your list? >> we think he's a possibility. >> reporter: more than a possibility thought the prosecutor. >> he had scratches. he had injuries to his hand, which, you know, from kim's body, we knew that she fought for her life. she was engaged in a tremendous so he said that was just something he got, you know, during the course of his job. but obviously, as an investigator, you're seeing the other side of that. is he just making an excuse? >> reporter: there are some things they're seeing that could potentially be tying him to this crime? >> absolutely. >> reporter: they just need to find out more? >> yes. >> reporter: the detectives asked j.r. where he'd been the previous weekend when kim was killed. he explained he'd been around town, had even been at a local ball field. did you feel like their questions were getting a little

>> i guess at the moment, i didn't because i didn't think that much about it. i was more like thinking of the situation that they just told me happened. >> reporter: it wasn't until the detectives left that he had that light bulb moment. they weren't looking to him for information. they were looking at him. >> did they -- were they thinking that might have been scratches on my arms from something like that? but that crossed my mind. that probably bothered me more than anything in the whole interview, you know, whole questioning. >> reporter: because kim reall >> wow. >> reporter: and whoever she was fighting with would have had scratches on them. >> yeah. >> reporter: no doubt. >> right. >> reporter: he also thought back to how he'd answered their questions about the murder and about kim. did you have that little moment where your heart's beating like, i was just there. >> yes. >> reporter: i hope they don't think i had anything to do with this.

and i was like, are you kidding me? i was just there friday night. they even asked me did i have any relationships with her. no. they asked me did i kiss her. no, nothing like that. >> reporter: did you know that derrick had been pointing the finger at you? >> i had no clue. >> reporter: he was telling the police that he thought you could be a suspect. >> that's interesting. i had no clue. >> reporter: if anything he saw derrick as the most likely suspect. >> he seemed like a very short-tempered kind of guy. how he gets amped on certain situations. gets excited. you could tell how he just kind of short fuse kind of thing. it crossed my mind, yeah. because usually they do think it's someone very close to them that does this stuff first. >> reporter: still, j.r. said he did his best to cooperate fully with the police. did they take your dna sample? >> they did. right here at the office they did.

>> reporter: that has to be unnerving, too, though. >> yeah. fingerprints and did a mouth swab and all that. and i've never had that in my life. i've never been arrested in my life, you know? >> reporter: there's a lot of things that might make the police look at you. >> i could see that, yeah. >> reporter: that's not a great place to be in. >> no. >> reporter: but he wouldn't be there long. by then, a police report was making its way downtown through the sheriff's office. it was about to change everything. >> yes. >> in the gated community the day that kim dorsey was murdered? >> yes. >> that's huge. >> what that tells us is he's in town. this super absorbent core turns liquid to gel,

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>> he installs sound systems. and so, you know, he's always working in tight spaces and that's how he's cut his hands up. >> reporter: did you believe him? >> it's believable. >> yeah, it's very understandable. i mean, with the kind of work that he does, you could see his hands getting cut up. >> reporter: and they learned that j.r.'s alibi for the weekend kim died checked out. two men, josh way veal and j.r., the installer, were now off the suspect list. you're going from person to >> no, not yet. >> reporter: are you getting a little frustrated? or are you just following the trail? >> just following the trail. because the trail -- it tends to -- tends to start narrowing after a period of time. we felt like it wasn't going to be a situation where this was going to go unsolved. there was just too much, too much information for us to follow up for that to happen. >> reporter: optimism alone

but so, too, can luck. a stolen car doesn't usually fall into that last category, but it did for investigators in this case. >> there's a lady here in jacksonville, she reports her car stolen. the report is written by a patrol officer with the sheriff's office. eventually that report gets, you know, goes through the channels. >> reporter: where it might have gone largely unnoticed if not for an eagle-eyed crime analyst who saw the name of the the suspected car thief listed on the report. >> lance kirkpatrick was listed in that report as possibly stealing this car. >> reporter: an suv? >> suv, yes. >> reporter: lance kirkpatrick, as in derrick's good friend, employee and houseguest. the man derrick said would take a bullet for kim. lance kirkpatrick is the one person you haven't been able to talk to? >> that's correct. >> reporter: derrick had also insisted that lance had been on a shrimp boat all week.

challenging that story. what does this mean to you? >> what that tells us is he's in town. he's not on a shrimp boat. >> that's picking up team again. that helped us go in the direction that we needed to go in to put the pieces of this puzzle, the pieces of this case together. >> reporter: the woman said someone had taken her car in the early morning hours of october 27th. only he never came back. where is lance kirkpatrick? does anyone know? >> not at that point. >> reporter: any friends or family who had any idea where he was? >> no. we talked with his father and grandmother. they hadn't heard from him. him and his father had a -- wasn't the best relationship. so it wasn't unusual that they wouldn't hear from him for a period of time. >> reporter: suddenly, they remembered the neighbor who saw a small suv the day kim died. his description matched that of

outside the dorseys' gated community caught the car coming or going. did you find it on the video? >> yes. >> reporter: in the gated community the day that kim dorsey was murdered? >> yes. >> reporter: this is your huge moment in this case. >> yes. >> yes. >> reporter: but the video didn't reveal who was driving the suv. and they also weren't sure if the woman who reported it stolen, a known drug user, was telling the truth. >> things like that, unfortunately, aren't uncommon for, you know, peoplth trade their car for drugs, so we weren't really sure about that whole situation. >> reporter: even so, they needed to find lance. >> so i called the coast guard to see if there was anything that when the shrimp boats go out, if they file a manifest of any kind of who is on board. and they don't. >> reporter: it's not something that you can radio each boat and say, hey, is lance kirkpatrick on your boat? >> correct, yes. >> reporter: the search for

named brian. he'd been at the same house party when the suv disappeared. there was someone else who also had access to that suv potentially. brian kiefer? >> yes. >> reporter: brian kiefer, aka, money. brian's nickname is money? >> yes. >> reporter: do you know why? >> he said that's what, you know, the drug dealers call him. and i believe it's probably because he is a boss. he owns his own company. and he runs in those same circles of people. >> reporter: brian ran a building renovation business, but he also had a criminal past. troubling to you? >> yes. it's always troubling when you know they have records and they're doing things that are outside the law. so that's always a concern. >> reporter: did you think for a moment that possibly he might have done this? >> yes. everybody -- once again, everybody is still on the table.

who either was or wasn't on a shrimp boat, detectives learned that brian had been spotted in jacksonville recently. now they wanted to talk to him. coming up -- >> brian tells us some things that only the person that was there would know. >> and he also reveals something else. what a friend told him. >> he said the lady was saying, stop. you're killing me. ...details in with a pen. i could never do that with a mac. i feel like my job is... ...to put out there just enough detail to spur the audiences... ...imagination to fill in all the blanks. this windows pc is amazing, having all of my tools... ...right at my finger tips is incredible.

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detective larry kuczkowski needed to find lance kirkpatrick >> yes. >> reporter: soon brian was in cuod and prosecutor london kite. >> can i stand up? >> if it makes you feel better. >> well, brian comes in and basically he's real animated. full of energy that night. >> reporter: they asked brian where he'd been the last weekend of october. >> i want to direct your attention to florida/georgia weekend. do you remember that weekend? >> yes. >> reporter: brian told them he was at his place. and, yes, he had company. >> it's lance kirkpatrick, but

>> and he goes by the nickname of l.j.? >> l.j. >> reporter: and he told them lance had been at his apartment that friday night, partying. he said lance had borrowed someone's small suv to buy drugs and never came back. >> i spent $480 for about four hours of riding around in a cab looking for l.j. everywhere he'd been to, went, everything. >> and were you able to find him? >> didn't find a trace of him. >> reporter: it wasn't until a day later,un gas station. brian said he immediately noticed lance's hands. >> you noticed i guess that his hand was hurt at that point in time. do you recall what hand? if you don't, it's okay. >> i thought it was a left, but i know he hits with his right. so i just -- >> if you can't recall, that's fine. >> i can't recall. that would be the better

>> but you did remember that he had an injury to one of his hands? >> yes. >> reporter: brian said he was unprepared for what lance was about to tell him. >> he tells me that he murdered somebody and just pretty much is going to prison, and there's nothing that can be done about it. and i'm saying, i said, what do you mean you murdered somebody and your life is over and you're going to prison? and he was like, i'm going to prison. >> reporter: he thought lance was making up stories. but a few days later, lance he said he had let himself into his boss' home, only to be confronted by the man's wife. when she picked up her phone to call for help, he panicked. >> he said i took her cell phone and i told her to get out of my way, that i just wanted my stuff. >> reporter: from there, brian said the argument quickly turned violent. >> pretty much just goes into -- i don't know whether he hit her with that pool stick, but he

>> okay. >> and then he emphasized being shot at five times. >> reporter: the story was so awful, so incredible, brian said he didn't think it was true. yet, investigators did. they believed brian had just described the murder of kim dorsey. >> and i told my brother, you know, like -- and he's like, do you really believe that [ bleep ]? and i was just like, not really. you know. but i didn't -- you know, i didn't know. >> reporter: brian's not sure if he should believe lance. are you believing brian? >> brian tells us some things that only the person that was there would know. >> reporter: but couldn't that make him a suspect? >> yes. >> it could. >> reporter: were you looking at him as a possible suspect? >> at that point he was, yes. >> yes. >> reporter: what were the details he knew about? >> he knew about the electronics in the sink. that's not anything that we ever released. that's not something we would

and he knew that it was a very expensive pool cue, that it was over $1,000, which that was accurate. >> reporter: and he gave detectives a chilling detail. kim's last words. >> what does he say? does he say that she was dead or does he say anything about that? >> he said the lady was saying, stop. you're killing me. >> reporter: investigators were now determined to find lance. brian knxa >> our friends from the marshal's office went and paid that apartment a visit and lance was found hiding in the apartment. >> reporter: the long-missing lance kirkpatrick, once thought to be at sea, had now washed up in a police interview room. >> lance, have a seat over there, okay? >> the beginning of the interview was -- i mean, it was just a conversation. he was fairly forthcoming with his answers. well, i'd like to talk to you, okay, about some stuff, all right? >> reporter: the detective asked lance about the dorseys. he was careful not to mention

pretty well? >> oh, we get along great. >> how about you and kim? >> we get along fine. >> have you ever had any problems with her. >> uh-uh. >> no, nothing like that? all right. >> no, i pretty much get along with everybody. >> reporter: lance said he'd been to see his pal derrick at his fire station. >> went out to the station 45 and got a hundred bucks from him to go down south. >> reporter: he said he was only gone for a day or so. he later tried to pay derrick another visit at his home. >> i went over there a week ago, maybe a week and a half ago looking for him. >> you remember what day it was that you went over there and did that? >> yeah, it was georgia/florida. >> georgia/florida. >> it was georgia/florida. right before the game. >> reporter: the very day kim died. lance was now putting himself at the crime scene. he told the detective he knocked on the dorsey door, but no one answered. >> did you go inside? let yourself in? >> no, no, no, no, no, the key

be? >> it's supposed to be up under the dog right there. >> where's the dog where? >> there's a little dog about like a fake dog by the door. >> reporter: spare key? little dog? lance had just admitted he knew how to let himself into the dorsey home. suddenly, the upended statue the detective noticed the morning they found kim's body made sense. >> what if i told you i didn't believe all your story? >> what part of the story don't you believe? >> reporter: larry kuczkowski was convinced lance had, in fact, found that key and sneaked into kim's house. the detective was certainly not t lie. coming up -- betrayed by a friend. >> you the only thing i could do was howl.

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detectives he had driven over to >> the house. >> i haven't even given you the tip of the iceberg yet bro. all right. you play cards? if i show you my hand, do you think i'm going to win?

ain't going to break a sweat. i can do that. the scene is going to tell a story. >> reporter: that's when lance put down his cards. >> i'm not saying anything else. >> reporter: even so, the detectives felt they had enough. >> okay. man, time to go to jail. >> reporter: lance kirkpatrick was under arrest for kim's murder. but had he acted alone? investigators cleared brian of any involvement. though they still weren't sure about derrick. they examined his electronic and financial records and eventually came up with nothing thaed him to his wife's murder. >> we were looking to see if derrick had a life insurance policy on kim that he was trying to connect or gain. you know, some type of financial benefit from her death. >> reporter: did he? >> to my knowledge, he didn't. it actually put him in a worse position to have kim out of the picture. >> reporter: derrick dorsey was no longer a suspect in his wife's murder. the jacksonville sheriff's office called to give him the news about lance. >> the chief of detectives said,

we made an arrest last night. and i said, who was it? and they told me, lance kirkpatrick. and i said, what did you arrest him for? >> reporter: it didn't dawn on him that lance had, in fact, been arrested for kim's murder. >> he had an outstanding warrant for some traffic violations and so forth. i figured finally they're questioning him. they're going to clear him. and okay, so this is no big a deal. >> reporter: but it wasn't to be. >> no. he told me they had arrested him for the murder of my wife. animal in a trap. it was the betrayal. >> reporter: this is the man that you said you believed would take a bullet. >> i defended him. >> reporter: he would take a bullet for your wife, you said. >> how could somebody do that to begin with? but then, how could someone do that to someone who didn't have a mean bone in her body? how could someone do that to someone who had went out of their way to try to help him? >> reporter: lance kirkpatrick pleaded not guilty to the

it would take more than two years for lance kirkpatrick to stand trial. the prosecutor knew the challenges that lay ahead. was there a weak area of your case? >> yeah. there's no witnesses. not one single person could say, yes, that's what happened to kim dorsey. >> reporter: still, she believed the evidence would show lance kirkpatrick's guilt. the state opened its case, explaining how lance had been determined to get inside the that saturday, october 27, 2012. >> we know how his day started. >> reporter: the prosecutor showed the video of lance pulling into the dorseys' community in that sufb. >> i went over there a week ago, maybe a week and a half ago looking for him. >> reporter: she replayed lance's police interview, where he put himself on the couple's doorstep that morning. >> did you go inside?

wasn't even there. >> reporter: she said the evidence would show that lance had lied to police then and was still lying about what really happened that day. lance had broken into the dorsey home, intending to rob them. >> it was our theory that kim was asleep and was awakened by, you know, noise, and that she wasn't expecting anyone and that she wasn't inviting anyone in. >> reporter: so when she awoke that saturday morning to find lance kirkpatrick standing in her home, kick likely went ballistic. the prosecutor called a reluctant brian kieffer to the stand. >> to get up on the stand and to tell the truth, everybody's sitting there going, you snitch. you this. you that. you that. you know, but they don't know the whole story. >> reporter: he explained how lance had confessed everything to him. how lance admitted entering the house and confronting kim, violently, when she picked up her phone to call for help.

a pool stick and hit her a bunch of times and smashed the pool stick. >> reporter: leaving her unconscious on the bedroom floor. he said lance described stepping out of the room. but then, kim woke up. >> and she got a gun and started shooting at him. and he said, and i knew it was a revolver. he didn't say he was in fear of his life or nothing like that. but he was -- you could tell he was angry. and then i just said that she said, stop, you're killing me. and he said, and that's when i just stabbed that bitch in the neck. >> reporter: and if you didn't believe brian kiefer, said the state, believe the science. an analyst testified that lance's dna had been found on kim's body on the pool cue used to beat her and on the trash he left behind. did you find any dna on those

>> reporter: and it belonged to lance kirkpatrick. more evidence against him that he was there. >> yes. >> reporter: derrick dorsey also took the stand. he said lance and kim had once been friends but in the months before her death, she had grown tired of their houseguest. kim had a house rule? >> no smoking in the house. >> reporter: was lance able to follow that rule? >> not 100%, no. >> reporter: that must have driven kim nuts. >> it would aggravate the daylights out of her. >> reporter: did it get to the it? >> yes. >> reporter: so it was really because of the smoking. after they kicked lance out, kim wanted nothing more to do with him. in closing, the prosecutor said the defendant broke into the house because he knew that kim would never willingly let him in. when she confronted him, he killed her. as he listened, kim's husband realized how badly he had misjudged his former friend. >> you know the old saying, the devil's in the details?

the investigation, i wanted to know every detail i possibly could. i wanted to know when, where, why, how and in what chronological order. i'm here to tell you that's not something you want. i'm here to tell you that's not something you want to know. >> reporter: now those details were out, made public in a court of law, and lance kirkpatrick was about to use them, awful as they were, to defend himself. coming up -- lance talks to the jury and to us. >> i have never so much as

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"in the dead of night," the homicide case from the heartland.

but he didn't mean to kill her. >> the whole thing was just a terrible tragedy. i mean, you know, i'm sure he wishes he could just rewind that whole part of his life. >> reporter: attorney teresa sopp said lance kirkpatrick's defense was that he tried to protect himself from a raging, violent kim that morning, and he went too far. >> he was being fired at, he was shot at five times by a pink handled revolver held in the hand of a woman who was irate.

actions. it was a very intense social setting that resulted in just a very tragic end. >> reporter: she said the state could not prove otherwise. >> when you just put the physical evidence out there, and lance is the only one to explain what happened, that's a reasonable hypothesis of innocence. >> reporter: lance kirkpatrick took the stand. >> i've never my hand to a woman. >> reporter: lance told the court then and maintains now there was no bad blood between him and kim, that she never kicked him out, as derrick claimed. he simply chose to live elsewhere. he sat down with "dateline" to explain. >> we were still friends at this point. just because i wasn't living with them i decided not to go stay there doesn't mean we stopped being friends. >> reporter: he told an entirely different story about that

>> i went over there to get my georgia jersey which i left over there before, which i thought i'd left over there. >> reporter: kim answered the door and let him in, he said. for awhile he played pool upstairs then came down to talk to her. he felt sorry for her. >> she didn't have friends. she didn't go out. >> reporter: she was suffering from some depression? >> yes. she was. weight. >> reporter: you saw that? >> oh, yeah. >> reporter: he started watching a porn movie on that big entertainment system. he said kim wasn't interested in the show but she was interested in him. before long, they were having sex in the bedroom. afterwards, he recalled kim's mood changing. >> she was depressed, you know? she was insecure. that, you know, i antagonized her a bit after -- you know, we argued. >> reporter: as they argued, he said he stepped away to the kitchen. he insisted it was kim who first became violent. >> she was standing in the

and you can see at the kitchen right there. well, the next thing you know, pow, pow, two shots. i hit the floor. i don't know where she's at. when she took it to that, you know, extreme, what was i supposed to do? >> reporter: leave. >> listen, where i was at in the kitchen, there's only two ways out. there's a back door and a front door. i go either way, i have to stop i unlock the door, she's got a clear shot at me. >> reporter: based on the trajectory of the bullets, she was on the floor next to the nightstand beside the bed shooting up at you. >> yes. >> reporter: so again why don't you just run out of the house? the gun was unloaded. why didn't you run out? >> i don't know where she -- i didn't know where she was at. >> reporter: he said his gut reaction was to pick up the pool cue and charge toward her. >> i don't know how many times i swung.

swinging. my adrenaline was pumping to hard i probably could have bench pressed a car. my aim was not to hurt kim. it was a reaction. >> reporter: even when she was down and out, he said, he still felt the need to act. why did you zip tie her after she was unconscious? >> my first thought was to restrain her till the police got there. and then once i started putting them on, i was like, oh, this is stupid. then i went to the kitchen to get scissors. couldn't find scissors. got the knife, come back in to cut them off. without cutting her. so i did away with that whole idea. >> reporter: he said he dropped the knife, stepped away and came back to the bedroom. kim had somehow freed herself. she was now standing, holding the knife. >> in that situation, it's -- you know, it's hard to say what you would do or what the right thing is to do or -- you're not thinking, you're just reacting. >> reporter: this went very wrong. >> yes, i agree. >> reporter: again he said, they fought.

on the floor and so was kim. dead. >> i remember getting up, i remember looking at the knife and seeing the blood and knowing that i had to have stabbed her or something, and i went to check to see where she was stabbed. >> reporter: at first, he said he waited for police, but when they didn't show, he left. when the police brought you in, why didn't you tell them the story that you told in trial? >> i was scared to death. i was scared to death. i didn't say it out loud even to myself for six months after this happened. >> reporter: did you rape kim dorsey? >> no, i did not. >> reporter: did you murder kim dorsey? >> no, i did not. no, i did not. when i took her life, it was totally unintentional. >> reporter: not true, countered the state on cross. it said lance kirkpatrick intentionally killed kim when she dared to confront him. >> you were pounding on that woman, weren't you? >> i wasn't aware of how hard or how light i was punching.

>> yes, i did. >> when you stabbed kim dorsey in the neck, she would never walk this either again. >> i didn't know she was dead until after i checked. >> reporter: there are people, law enforcement, prosecutor, people have heard the story who think that what you say happened that day are just totally far-fetched. >> they're far-fetched. they took this bloody horrible scene and just thought of the worst possible thing that could that you turned into an animal when you went into that room. >> and if you show blood splatter and everything else and just throw it out everywhere, yes, that can be said. but that wasn't what happened. that wasn't what happened at all. >> reporter: he insisted he had killed kim to protect himself. there was no premeditated murder, he said. no burglary. and certainly no rape. the defense noted the medical

kim and lance had sex, not that kim had been raped. >> the only testimony was that the sex was consensual. everything else is physical evidence and speculation. so unless there's somebody else testifying, yes, i was physically assaulted, no, i did not consent, you don't have that and all you have is the physical evidence, it's difficult to speculate that it was sexual battery. >> reporter: the defense closed by saying the state had failed to it argued lance kirkpatrick should only be convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter. those who worked to build the murder case against him shook their heads in disbelief. >> if you're defending yourself, do you need to tie her up with zip ties? do you need to rape her? beat her with a pool stick? do the things you did to her in defense of her life? complete madeup story. >> reporter: as the case went to the jury, derrick dorsey sat in

>> he killed her, raped her, sodomized her. this wasn't just some loss of control. to do something like this, you've got a hole in you. there's something deep down evil inside of you to do something like this. >> reporter: the jurors agreed. they found lance kirkpatrick guilty of murder in the first degree. now they faced another agonizing decision, whether to sentence him to death. >> i never thought i was ever in any danger of the death penalty. because i didn't feel i had do something to deserve that. >> reporter: in the end, the jury sentenced him to life. he is appealing his conviction. derrick dorsey thinks his old friend got off way too easy. if you could say anything to lance kirkpatrick, what would you say? >> at what point did you make the decision that kim's life had less value than you getting into trouble? at what point did you decide to kill her?

life. he's retired from the fire department. >> we have derrick dorsey's last day pulling engine out for the last time. >> reporter: he's also remarried and works with his new wife in a mental health counseling service. >> this is derrick. can i help you? >> reporter: that's not to say he's forgotten kim, their life together or the mistakes made. >> it led to infidelity on my part. probably the most disrespectful, for the rest of my life. she didn't deserve it. >> reporter: and didn't deserve, either, the man derrick knows he brought into their world. still, he clings to the good things they shared. what memories does she leave behind for you? >> every time i look at the dogs, i think of her. they were her children. she was quiet, a little bit of an introvert. just a caring individual.

needs someone to talk to, she was there. >> reporter: in some ways she still is. but he knows that for every welcome memory, there's a brutal one of her and what happened churning somewhere like a storm surprising and devastating when it hits. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." we'll see you tomorrow at 8:00, 7:00 central for the "dateline" saay again next friday at 9:00, 8:00 central. i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, good night.

another election bomb shell, an october surprise, 11 days out. >> new reaction from both candidates on the campaign trail. >> another clinton lie. >> the american people deserve