presentation for specific beauty, brought to you by juneend when i found out she was missing, i fought tooth and nail. we searched the entire summer, day and night. i even got hypnotized once to try to communicate with my mom to have her tell me where she was. i did everything i could possibly do. rachael anderson had one great passion -- >> she would have had a child every year if she could. she just loved being a mom so much. >> and with kids at home, it w extra scary when someone start stalking her. >> we were talking late at night and she got real panicked, and she said, i think there's somebody outside. >> watching her every move. >> knowing where she's at in h house, which lights were on.

a disguised voice. and a desperate search began. >> you can see the vastness in all the various places that yo could conceal a body. >> months went by, the case stalled, then investigators learned that the plot might be bigger and darker than they ev could have guessed. >> this is a very tantalizing thread that comes together. >> absolutely. >> whispers that rachael was t victim of something out of a hitchcock movie, a moment of pure evil. >> i looked in his face, what described as satan. >> and just maybe a second woman in the crosshairs. >> if the stories were true, then you had married a strange >> exactly. >> i'm lester holt. and this is "dateline." here's dennis murphy with "secrets of the snake river." >> reporter: in country so beautiful as the palouse, the

but gaze, and listen closely, and sometimes you'll uncover secrets in the shadows. murder and betrayal as close a the stranger sleeping beside you. here in the city of clarkston, 40-year old single mom was raising her two young sons. she also had two older daughters. rachael anderson was her name, just 5-foot and a bit, and how susie jeppson enjoyed her company. >> we were just friends from t get-go. she was just spunky and fun. and she just loved to laugh. >> reporter: her grown were out of the house. amber -- she was my everything. >> she was my hero. she just had a really fun spir about her. >> ashley. >> she raised us, gave us

they'd gone out on a date. and that she was very impresse because he wanted to have a blessing over the food that he -- and she thought that was just wonderful. >> reporter: a publicly christian man with a notorious gangster's last name, charles capone. >> i asked her out for dinner and we went to dinner and we found each other attractive. >> what made you laugh about her? >> how she looked at life, everything is to be absorbed. everybody should have a good time, nobody should fight. >> reporter: what was going on in her life? >> i thought she was a brillia woman. i thought, oh, this woman's focused, got direction, awesom >> reporter: rachael told her daughters about charles. how devout, kind and handsome was and successful. he owned a busy auto repair sh up the road a ways in moscow, idaho. >> he did service on people's cars for no charge to help, yo know, people who didn't have t money in the community.

>> reporter: the new couple we so >> reporter: rachael and charl in november. the newlyweds made their home rachael's place about 30 miles south of charles' auto shop. rachael's sons 6 year old gavi and 10 year old aiden lived wi them. >> we took the kids fishing. they'd never been fishing before. she'd throw on camo and go hunting with the guys. >> reporter: but the thrill wa gone not more than a month aft the wedding. the couple went their separate ways. a lonely charles moved into hi shop for a while until a frien offered him a place to stay. separated but their lives remained curiously entwined. >> we're talking all the time. we're either getting along or we're not getting along. we could have one phone call that was, you know, just

thned en hav spring in 2010 rachael and charles did have something to talk about. strange, unsettling things wer happening to rachael. she told her friends someone w stalking her. >> we were talking late at night, and she got real panicked. and she said, i think there's somebody outside. >> reporter: and then came a rash of disturbing phone calls no caller i.d., disguised voices. >> it's funny. you just don't get it. >> reporter: she gave her frie jennifer norberg the low down. what kinds of things were goin on with her? >> phone calls. distorted voices. >> reporter: creepy movie kind of stuff? >> knowing where she's at in h house, which lights were on. >> reporter: not just i know where you are. you know you are in the bedroom right now? >> um- i know what time you came home last night and what time you left today. just watching her every move. >> it's only a matte before we get your cell phone

>> reporter: charles meanwhile windows broken. charles volunteered to fix her car, even though they were living apart. he gave her a loaner suv to drive. rachael was pretty sure who wa behind all the scary nonsense, guy she'd gone out with a few times and had developed, she thought, an unhealthy thing about her. rachael went to the county sheriff's office and told her story to captain dan hally. >> she was extremely frightene she believed an individual tha she had dated for a couple wee by the name of william slemp, was the one stalking and harassing her. >> reporter: so when rachael left that day, what was the plan? ? she was going to essentially put together the information she had and th meet again that friday. >> reporter: did you see her again, captain? >> i talked to her on the phone, but i never saw her again.

leaving the sheriff's office, rachael applier le began to realize that something had gone very wrong.s e that he shown up to work as a medical technician. totally unlike her? >> yeah, i knew immediately th it was bad. >> reporter: amber got word to sister ashley and they raced t their mom's home. when there was no answer at th door, they called police. captain hally dispatched his lead detective jackie nichols. >> there were several people i the front yard. rachael's daughters, and they were frantic. i searched the house looking f any type of evidence. >> reporter: nothing, huh? >> no. >> the last time i had seen he she said i think this will end in my death. where was rachael anderson? an all-out search is about to set off a string of alarm bells. when we return, the first ominous clues.

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the new atmosphere collection. sc johnson, a family company. rachael anderson's loved ones were filled with dread wh she failed to turn up for her job as a medical technician that monday morning in 2010. >> she would have never left h children. she would not have left her sons, not for a minute, not fo a day. >> reporter: investigators had

voice mail rachael left at 8:09 fy , wung into action? >> i had about a thousand flye printed at staples. >> reporter: monday afternoon law enforcement pinged rachael's cell phone and got a weak echo just across the snake river fr her home. >> we got a lot of people out into that field that night. also used a bloodhound to do a live search. >> we were looking in trash ba and tarps and under bushes. >> we searched all night. by the time i got home my knee were bloody and my hands. >> reporter: the search was futile. early the next day, tuesday, captain hally formed a regiona

so what's on your white board? at >> other exboyfriends, ex-husbands. ig fam from rachael that had some suspicious behaviors. he'd ask rachael out on a date and she'd turned him down. and then he left town very abruptly. >> i mean that's certainly suspect. is he involved? >> we're c travel information. we checked every bus ticket th was sold that weekend. >> reporter: an early lead may have come when rachael talked sheriff's captain dan hally th week before. she told him that day she was terrified of the slemp guy messing with her, but the captain had a different stalki suspect in mind after rachael told him she was divorcing charles. so an early stop for investigators was charles' sho so who's the guy you met? >> easy going, you know, he wa very cordial. he's being cooperative. >> i didn't have ain

car. you're not vandalizing the vehicle,use? tires? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: he told the cops was helping rachael get to the bottom of the harassment. he said the estranged couple together went out looking for the obsessed ex-boyfriend to sort him out. >> she tells me about him and go driving over to his house because there's a pay phone right near his house that's one of the pay phones that was making phone calls to her. >> reporter: you thought slemp was the stalker? >> i thought he was still involved with her because he h this huge crush on rachael. >> he tells me he was being a helpful guy and trying to help her figure out who is stalking her. >> reporter: charles went on t tell investigators he hadn't seen rachael since friday nigh when she stopped by to pick up her car. it wasn't ready.

>> h she wanted, but returned a six pack. they drank a o and she left. what's the picture coming together for you? >> i'm trying to keep all options open. because i was concerned that s might have been impaired and driven off the road. >> reporter: a benign explanation to why she's gone missing. >> right. >> reporter: but that theory later was doused when they found her suv at a store that doubled as a bus station not far from her house >> the vehicle was left unlock with her purse in plain sight with the keys in plain sight. >> reporter: what woman leaves her purse behind? >> it was a bad sign. >> reporter: and the detective had to consider another scenario. had pretty 5'4" rachael 120 pounds soaking wet offered an easy target for an abduction b ? while detectives wer their official thing, rachael's loved ones were wide t

all across the palouse. from here to colfax, east, wes north, south, we were out ever available minute. >> reporter: it was as though the palouse had just swallowed her up. >> coming up -- finally a break, police learn there was somebody else with charles capone the night racha disappeared, but something doesn't add up. >> he provided a timeline for that evening, and it was different than charles capone' timeline. >> when "dateline" continues. y25eiy y16fy

rachael has not hopped a bus. >> no. >> reporter: she's not in anybody's emergency room? >> no. >> that's correct. >> reporter: you suspect foul play. >> light. >> absolutely. >> reporter: the investigators working their way through a li men who wanted to be in rachael's life. there was the neighbor who tri to take her out and been turne down. he had an alibi. that left the old boyfriend named slemp, the one rachael said she was afraid of, but he could account for his whereabouts when rachael went missing. the former boyfriend was not playing out? >> correct

all those leads? >> reporter: captain dan hally had been suspicious of charles c the ex-boyfriend, but that sam day rachael had also told the captain she was in the midst o divorcing charles capone. the grounds? she said he tried to choke her. that was a huge red flag. captain hally advised her to get a restraining order right away against her estranged husband. rachael didn't want to hear that. >> she was agitated because i' telling her that your soon to ex charles is doing this, not slemp. >> reporter: two days later th friday she vanished, the captain's phone ra >> she called me and she told that she was going to see charles that night, she was going out to tell him that the were done. >> reporter: what did you tell her? >> i told her don't go. i said he's dangerous. do not go up there. >> reporter: charles' account

the cop's suspicions grete have a more formal conversation. >> on the 21st, that's correct. you don' >> i talked to my attorney. he said have them contact me if they have any more questions. you don't havee. >> reporter: the car mechanic had a secret he knew the polic would uncover. it turned out that the publicl pious, pray-over-his-pancakes christian had a past that rachael and her family knew nothing about. a back story that included prison time for bank robbery a assault. but the one-time felon had apparently changed. >> i'm going and doing everything that a normal perso does because i always feel lik okay, i paid my debt, let me g and move on and do something good and constructive. >> reporter: you're paying you taxes, mowing the lawn. >> nice to be able to walk around with your head up. >> reporter: the cops weren't sure and were now chasing down his friends, including his goo pal, david stone, a married hi school baseball coach and employee at the moscow idaho

maintenance department. to >> that's absolutely -- >> reporter: you got another g -- somebody with information. >> immediately raises the questio why didn't charles capone ever mention david stone to me duri the entire time i interviewed him? >> reporter: three days after rachael was reported missing, the task force detectives sat david stone down and grilled him. >> he provided a timeline for that evening, and it was different than charles capone' timeline. >> reporter: the husband's friend told the cops rachael came by the shop about 5:00 p. and waited for charles to finish her car. david stone says he then left get some food at an a & w and when he got back to the garage around 8:00, rachael was gone. stone said he drove charles to local bar, swung by his home for a while, then went out lat to pick up many of the investigators knew

she worked in moscow citeport r were they friends? >> i now her only from church. >> repor husband was at the garage that friday night and said nothing seemed amiss. what did he say was going on? >> he dropped charles off at mingles and there had been som interaction with rachael that wasn't happy and charles said wanted to have a drink and he dropped him off and he was goi to go back and pick him up and he'd be home. >> reporter: intriguing perhap but the two friends' mismatche stories did nothing to advance the cop's case. with rachael still missing, there was no evidence an actua crime had even occurred. all they had were their suspicions about david stone and charles capone. so now you got two different versions. >> two different versions. they were supposedly together but they're telling two different stories.

in the differing accounts, the organizing searches, building web page and pressuring the police. >> we searched ditches, we searched, gosh, abandoned buildings, we searched -- yeah we put flyers in towns so that somebody would see her passing through. >> their mom meant so much to them. and they did not want this to just become another cold case. >> reporter: the investigation was heading that way until the detectives revisited an early lead. a nefarious scheme, if true, hard to believe that something as evil as that could happen i the palouse. this is a very tantalizing thread that comes together. this is stuff of the movies? >> absolutely. coming up -- the case is about to go in an unthinkable direction. with the clock ticking, police realize anothe

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the #1 brand used by dentists worldwide. oral-b. brush like a pro. >> reporter: the high and low search across the eerily beautiful palouse country for any trace of rachael anderson was turning up nothing.

months after her disappearance, detectives were convinced they had identified their prime persons of interest -- rachael estranged husband charles and his church-going buddy david stone. but the investigation had stalled and was at an apparent dead end. no secret what the biggest obstacle was for lead investigators captain dan hall and detective jackie nichols. >> it's an axiom in law enforcement, no body, no crime. >> it's a challenge. >> at this point, we don't eve know for sure that we have a death. we believe that in our gut. >> reporter: as the cops dug deeper into the background of the husband's friend david stone, the case suddenly became way more complex. a mind blowing theory. maybe this wasn't just about o wife, rachael. maybe it was about two. the investigation had led them to the city maintenance yard where stone worked. a fellow employee there had related a conversation he'd ha with david stone a while back. >> it surfaces that there had been some conversations betwee

david stone and this individua wife for $10,000. >> reporter: then stone, the story went, came back sometime later and told the maintenance yard guy to forget they'd talked. he'd arranged a plan b for murder. >> and later, that deal was canceled because stone had reached an agreement with charles capone that they would kill each other's wives. >> reporter: i'll kill your wi if you'll kill mine. this is the stuff of the movie >> right. >> it is. absolutely. >> let's say that that you'd like to get rid of your wife. >> reporter: to be specific, a 1950 alfred hitchcock thriller titled "strangers on a train." in the movie two strangers eac agree to commit a murder for t other. >> they swap murders. >> reporter: did capone and stone each agree to do in the other's wife? could that be? do you believe it? >> i think there was something to it. because the --

>> plsz mrs. stone is alive and well and among us. did you talk to her? >> yeah, there was. >> she is. >> yes we did. >> reporter: boy, what a table conversation, huh? >> >> we wanted her to know th she was potentially in danger herself. >> reporter: you get some devastating news, but you continued to share a house wit him? >> i did. i remember many times when i would question david and say something's not right. >> reporter: david stone was able to convince alisa that th cops had dreamed up the murder plot story as a way to put pressure on him to turn him against his friend. and putting pressure on that friend, charles capone, is wha happened next. he'd been found in possession a gun, a big no-no for a forme felon. capone was placed in the county jail while awaiting federal charges on a firearm violation. in a cell, the visiting detectives had his full attention. >> and i get this interesting visit from dan hally and jackie nichols. >> i essentially opened it up with today, charles, you're going to tell me you killed rachael and where her body is. his response was, well, you on got one of those right. i di

>> reporter: if charles didn't kill her, who did? the investigators landed hard david stone, the only other person known to have been with rachael that night. >> and we confront him with, stone we know you got blood on your hands. his response was he just sat back and he said, i need a dri of water. never denied it. but that's when -- then he wanted his attorney after that. >> reporter: with no reason to hold him, david stone was free to go home to wife alisa, the woman cops fear he wanted dead. but not charles. he was about to be put on ice. five months after rachael disappeared, he pleaded guilty to the federal firearms charge and was sentenced to almost three years. so capone wasn't going anywher but still the task force investigation focused on him a stone appeared to be at a dead end. the missing woman's daughters were in limbo, too. >> it just went on for years. years of one nightmare. >> reporter: as happens, racha became old news and the case

fresh cases demanded the attention of detective jackie nichols. no problem. she took to looking for rachae on her days off. >> as you look around here you can see the vastness of the countryside here and all the various places that you could conceal a body. >> reporter: and going up in t mountains, coulees and gorges. >> mountains, ravines. we even did some searches base on psychic visions and dreams. >> reporter: oh really? rachael's family at as much of dead end as the cops also turned desperately to the supernatura >> we did some pretty extreme things to find her. i even got hypnotized once to try to communicate with my mom not alive to have her tell was. i did everything i could possibly do. >> reporter: the hunt for the slightest trace of rachael continued for years. meanwhile, david stone was on the street and by 2013 his fellow suspect buddy charles capone was about to be release from jail. >> we said, now is the time. we have to charge these guys

we know, we know that they did this crime. >> this case wasn't going to g any better. >> reporter: the idaho latah county prosecutor agreed and o may day 2013, three years afte rachael vanished, david stone and charles capone were charge with her murder. they pleaded not guilty. >> this case is all about smok and mirrors and convincing people from day one that i murdered my wife. >> everyone please rise. >> reporter: in the preliminar hearing prosecutors laid out their theory of the crime, producing that maintenance yard worker who told the story about charles and david's alleged you'll kil my wife, i'll kill yours plan. stone's wife alisa hung on eve word. frightening connections were being made in her head, and wi that came the sudden awful awareness that the sheriff's officers may have been right after all. her husband did want her dead. she immediately filed for divorce. >> theie

>> reporter: and there's this u. what do you think of that stor that he was soliciting someone to kill you? >> yeah, i'll never know. >> reporter: this is beyond marital deceit. >> oh yeah. >> reporter: if the stories we true, then you had married a stranger? >> exactly. >> reporter: who's dave stone? >> it's a mystery to me at thi point. >> some of the things that cam up in that preliminary hearing i looked like a monster. and i'm not. coming up -- david stone tells a chilling tale of what he says happened the night rachael disappeared. >> i said what the [ bleep ] a you doing? and he looked at me and i look in his face and i describe as satan. when "dateline" continues. your true self is never lost.

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and no yellow stains on white. so your white clothes stay white... and your black clothes stay black. ♪ choose degree ultraclear black + white. it won't let you down. >> reporter: almost four years after that weekend rachael anderson never came home, her family believed they might finally get some answers. police had arrested her estranged husband charles capo and his pal david stone in connection with her death. but in september 2014, it was only charles capon county courthouse facing a murder charge. >> we are convinced that you

verdict finding the defendant . >> reporter: as the trial opened, the state's case had zig-zagged another unpredicted turn. the maintenance yard worker ha backpedaled on his murder-for-hire story and wouldn't testify to it. so now the jurors wouldn't hea of the juicy you kill my wife, i'll kill yours plot. but rather, a straightforward and nonetheless terrifying sto of a lousy marriage turned fatal. county prosecuting attorney bill thompson and deputy prosecuting attorney mia vowel knew they had their work cut o for them. >> our approach was convince t jury through the evidence not only that rachael was dead, bu there's only one person in thi world who could have been responsible for it, and that's charles capone. >> reporter: what was the biggest hill to climb in this? >> because we didn't have a body, it was mostly a circumstantial case. >> reporter: mia vowels took t lead and called a parade of witnesses to convince the jury that rachael was indeed dead. >> a good mother. had a goodit

family. >> repor dennis plunkett had missed a call from her at 8:09 that friday night. >> and that was the last conta i ever had with her. >> reporter: rachael's two son testified they'd never seen their mother again after that friday. >> have you seen your mom since? >> no. >> reporter: to show jurors ju how nasty charles and rachael' divorce was, they played back some of those eerie stalking phone calls. >> it's funny. you just don't get it. >> very concerned for her safety and well-being. >> reporter: captain dan hally testified that the defendant h been behind those head-game calls all along. capone even admitted as much t him. >> he told me that he had been involved in the stalking and harassment. >> yeah, i know she was afraid. >> reporter: ashley and amber, the daughters, recounted the terror of their mom's ordeal. >> she had the feeling like he life was going to end, a dreadful feeling. >> reporter: the prosecutors zeroed in on charles' characte jennifer norberg recalled what

her friend's neck looked like after charles allegedly attack rachael four months before she disappeared. >> i observed that she had som red, dark-colored marks on her neck. >> reporter: then prosecutors produced a business neighbor, actual eyewitness, who saw charles arguing with a woman outside his auto shop that fat night. >> she jumped out of the car, flailing her arms right up int his face. >> raise your right hand to be sworn, please. >> reporter: so far the testimony was all appetizers before the prosecutors' main course. their head-snapping all or nothing star witness, none oth than charles' good buddy, davi stone. no longer a co-defendant for murder. now the man pointing the accusing finger. >> s-t-o-n-e. >> reporter: stone's journey t the witness stand began a year earlier during that preliminar hearing when capone whispered something to him.

>> charles leaned over to me a said, you shouldn't even be here. and i thought, how right you are, you son of a bitch. >> reporter: a shaken stone listened to the state's mounti case against him and decided h wasn't going to take the fall for charles. >> the prosecution did a real good job in making me out to b a monster, and i'm not. >> reporter: they told you something like, we know there' blood on your hands here. >> that was one of the things they said. >> reporter: in cop talk, they flipped you. they flipped you against him. they were going to give you consideration in exchange for your story. >> the cops had nothing to do with me telling the story. >> reporter: stone says there was no deal with the cops, rather his pastor convinced hi to come clean. >> throughout numerous visits prayed in closing prayer that the truth would set me free. >> reporter: maybe so, but the prosecution counted on his testimony to put away his form friend away for a long, long time. >> do you know the defendant, charles capone? >> i do.

>> reporter: once on the stand stone set off on his tale abou the events of friday, april 16 2010. >> i was inside the shop, and i -- i'd heard a noise. >> what kind of noise? >> like a thud outside or a ba or something kind of loud. >> reporter: when he looked outside, a struggle. >> when i came around closer toward the back side of rachael's car, rachael was on her back, and charles he was o top of her strangling her. >> was rachael moving? >> very little. >> what did you say? >> i said what the [ bleep ] a you doing? and he turned around and he looked at me. had a look in his face i had described as satan. and he told me shut the [ bleep ] up. get hold of myself. you're in this with me now. i know where your family's at. >> why didn't you intervene at this point? ea

>> what were you afraid of? >> i'm watching somebody kill his wife. i don't know what he's going t do to me. >> reporter: the two men moved rachael's body into the shop. david stone testified they ditched the loaner vehicle rachael was driving at the convenience store bus depot ne her home and then returned to stone's garage. after that stone said he went his job site and rounded up so old truck tire snow chains, li these. they wrapped up rachael's body. >> once we placed rachael acro the chain, then we rolled her into the chain. >> reporter: then, he said, th two put rachael's trussed-up, weighted-down body into his su with david stone at the wheel, they drove south and onto the red wolf bridge over the snake river. >> he just said stop! i put the durango in park. got out. opened the hatch. we pulled rachael out. went to the side of the bridge

and threw her over the side. >> reporter: prosecutors interrupted stone's narrative play for jurors a recording ma at the bridge. >> he was pulling the package out, and i assisted him, and w proceeded to the side of the wall here and threw the packag over the side. >> and what was in the package >> the body of rachael anderso >> reporter: into the fast moving river, never to be seen again. what would the jury make of th man giving them such critical evidence? the play-by-play of the crime itself? you know they're going to hate this guy. >> that's the reality of the case. >> reporter: did it matter whether the jury sat in moral judgment of your star witness, mia? >> no. they won't like that he didn't intervene and that he helped dispose of her body, but that doesn't change the fact that h witnessed what he did. >> reporter: as the state rested, it looked, ironically, as though its star witness wou prove to be the best thing the

defense had going for it. david stone. would the jury believe a word said? coming up -- and what about the other man a the center of this case? though he won't take the stand charles capone takes the tough questions from us. this whole thread of this thin i'll kill your wife if you'll kill mine, did that happen?

you may find yourselves in quandary about what actually happened. >> reporter: charles capone's defense team had to convince t jury that their client hadn't strangled his estranged wife,

into the snake river with the help of his friend david stone. charles had maintained his innocence. >> this is -- this just can't what's going on in life right now. i can't be at this point right now sitting here with -- with guy from "dateline" -- >> and the guy from "dateline" is here because of what is believed to have happened by t authorities on that friday night. his attorneys' strategy was threefold -- discredit the buddy's damning eyewitness testimony, sow reasonable doubt about the state's evidence and offer alternate suspects. right off the bat they suggest to the jury that there was another person who just might have had a hand in rachael's disappearance. maybe that infatuated one-time boyfriend, william slemp. slemp died before the case cam to trial so the defense attorn asked daughter amber what she knew about him. >> did you also, in your conversation with your mother, consider another person as bei the suspect? >> yes. >> and was that william slemp? >> yes. >> reporter: and was the

another connection between rachael and slemp. >> i recall seeing letters fro william slemp. >> reporter: after seeding the thought with jurors that maybe someone other than capone did it, the defense team turned it sights on the cops. all the things they hadn't fou in their investigation. for starters, there was no physical evidence recovered at charles' garage. >> you didn't see any signs of struggle outside? >> that's correct. >> reporter: and when cops recovered rachael's vehicle, there were fingerprints, but n capone's. >> they didn't match anybody that was in the system. >> reporter: but attacking the evidence wouldn't be enough. just as for the prosecution, t defense case lived or died on the credibility of david stone. during a grueling, day-long cross examination, charles' lawyer attacked david stone's veracity and his motives.

in fear of his life from en ke charles, and yet they continued to pal around. >> why did you keep that conta every day? >> well, i kind of like to kno where someone's at if i'm concerned about my safety. >> reporter: capone's lawyer suggested that david stone was only out to save his own neck. >> and were you hoping for some leniency? >> and still am. >> reporter: hour after hour t lawyer hammered away at david, who'd easily admitted to lying his way through any number of police interviews. >> did you feel that your word might not be real good? >> i mean, based on the fact that i had been lying for 3 1/ years? wouldn't you? >> reporter: in the defense close, it came back again to a central question. could the jury believe david stone? >> at the end of the day, what stone is telling you, it can't be true. there is no physical evidence any foul play anywhere at or near that shop. >> reporter: charles capone

tried to be a better person. of this thing, i'll kill your wife if you'll kill mine, did that happen? >> i can't answer that for you right now. >> reporter: you can't? >> i can't. >> reporter: capone says he's made mistakes along the way, but did not kill rachael. >> i don't have that in me. i don't have that -- i wanna ca

i don't want to take somebody' life. you know, one officer, she say i'm a sociopath and i have no heart and i don't care. i haven't suffered from this. yeah, okay. >> are you a sociopath? >> no, i don't believe so. i've seen my share of psychologists and stuff like that and i think i'm pretty normal. i mean i'm just like most men, just make poor decisions. >> charles was on top of racha strangling her. >> reporter: does why he tell the story in court that he doe because he sinks you. >> because he's going to get charged with solicitation of murder. how much time was he gonna do for trying to hire somebody to kill his wife, you know? wouldn't you have tried to get out of that? >> reporter: it took the juror nine hours to decide whether they believed david stone's story. there was a verdict. rachael's family and friends were called back to the courthouse. >> when the jury came in and w stood there it seemed like for an eternity. >> madam clerk if you would re the verdict of the jury. >> you know, our hearts were pounding. >> the defendant charles antho capone guilty or notlt

>> reporter: the crk >> it was like this weight just was lifted from everyone. >> reporter: rachael's daughte had waited 4 1/2 years for thi day. so you hear the words, huh? >> it's just bittersweet. >> reporter: you're not gettin your mom back at the end of this. >> no, uh-uh. all this is protecting other women and children from being harmed by him. >> reporter: charles capone wi -- was sentenced to life without parole in february, 2015. david stone, who ultim pleaded guilty solely to failu to notify authorities of a dea was sentenced in october to three to seven years. >> i want to apologize to rachael's family. >> reporter: when we spoke with stone, he expressed remorse for what he had done? >> it's a day that i think about every da

>> reporter: why didn't you go get your phone and call 911? you knew you had just witnesse a murder. >> i froze. and all the way up to that point, i thought he was my friend. hit on your wife? >> never. >> reporter: did you want her dead in those days? >> no. >> reporter: so where does thi story come from? >> that's a good question. >> reporter: david stone's former wife alisa still doesn' know for sure if he wanted her dead. i bet there are very few people on earth that could put themselves in your shoes and even understand what you've be through, alisa. >> you know, i've been through lot but nothing compared to wh rachael's family's been throug i don't think my pain is comparable to what her daughte and sons have been through. at all. >> reporter: ever since the da in november 2013 when david stone gave his horrific tale t the cops there have been intensive searches made of the snake river below the red wolf bridge. captain dan hally enlisted

coast guard and volunteers wit specialized sonar to help. but the depths of the swift-moving snake have yet to surrender rachael's body. is she gone forever? >> i know we're not going to give up. >> hopefully we might still fi her remains. >> reporter: for the justice system, it's case closed. but for those rachael left behind -- >> you know, there's no true justice. doesn't bring her back. >> reporter: is there a new chapter opening up for you? >> it's just begun because whe i found out my mom was missing i fought tooth and nail, so di ashley, that's what we did. and so at this point, it feels like the fight is over. the grieving process for me ju begun because there's nothing left to fight for. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us.

and the russia connection. president trump thrills supporters with his attacks on the press. >> a few days ago i called the fake news the enemy of the people and they are. they are the enemy of the people. >> but could his media attacks be designed to distract attention from those disturbing russia stories that just won't go away? i'll ask republican tom carton of arkansas who sits on the senate intelligence committee. also, those angry town halls. can republicans afford to ignore the growing opposition to repealing and replacing obamacare? plus, meet the new boss. former labor secretary tom perez elected the head of the democratic party. >> where were you in 2017 when

we had the worst president in the history of the united states? >> but the party's growing progressive wing is not happy. i'll talk to tom perez about healing a divided party, and our brand new nbc news/wall street journal poll. the bad news for president trump, an approval rating at a historic low. the good news, his supporters are as enthusiastic as ever. joining me for insight and analysis are jerry gerry saa ebb of the wall street journal, helene cooper of the new york times, and eliana johnson of politico. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press qwest qwest. from nbc news in washington, the longest-running show in television history, celebrating its 70th year this is "meet the press press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. the president's approval rating stands at 44% with 48%

recorded in our poll at this early stage of a presidency. it took president obama 32 months to fall into negative territory and george bush 42 months to fall under rocky water. mr. trump's approval rating suggests a durable floor of support for him. that support comes almost entirely from republicans who approve of the president by 86% and democrats disapprove by exactly 86 to 9. it is independences that put him under water. they disapprove by a nine-point margin, 38 to 47. one issue that doesn't seem to hurt the president right now at least in the eyes of his supporters are the reported ties he and his aides may or may not have with russia. whenever stories break on that subject, press bashing which is always part of the president's