them to jail. >> reporter: and while they had james, they asked him pointblank about the murder of ben oxley kill ben? no. do i know who kill ben? no. did dawn kill ben? no. do i know anything about the murder? no. >> were you and dawn involved in any way in the planning of the murder of ben? >> no. i'm looking you in your eyes. i did not kill him. >> reporter: but that was it. lots of denials. no real evidence. a year and a half had gone by since the murder. it was the summer of 2009. on to cold case territory. >> getting there. >> reporter: then one afternoon, as detective elgis was recovering from a night on the graveyard shift, his cell phone rang. it was dawn oxley. >> she basically said she couldn't take it anymore and she wanted to talk. >> what were you thinking on the way to see her? >> it's about time. >> reporter: the detective drove over to dawn's house. she was inebriated. >> i didn't hurt him. >> reporter: she had quite a story to tell about james, about how he offered to murder ben. >> the night ben died, he said now or never. and i said no. i said not today. don't do it. no.