keith morrison: and the jury found chris kruse not guilty.d of surprised at how much they were lacking in full proof evidence. keith morrison: when they said not guilty? i remember vonnie, like, squealing. it was absolutely, wonderful because we just-- i mean, we were all just cheering and hugging each other. the weight of the world was off my shoulders. i think i hugged everybody in that courtroom before i got out of there. keith morrison: including the man from whom the clouds were suddenly lifted, chris kruse. you know, you can't-- i don't know how to put that into words. it's hard finding words for things, sometimes. yeah. what have the last five years been like for you? it's been a real rough five years. unimaginable. keith morrison: and now, finally, he could face his family and the world as an innocent man, vindicated. except, after the verdict, the county attorney issued a statement saying, while they respected the jury's verdict, they firmly believed after a long and thorough investigation that chris did, indeed, kill his wife. as of

prosecutor braden hoefert had a story for the jury in the trial of chris kruse. illing of jan kruse was an inside job. nothing had been missing from the house. and so this was clearly, a premeditated murder. keith morrison: committed by the one person in a position to do it said the prosecutor, the husband, chris kruse. the evidence? well, for one thing, he told the jury, there were all those hours of police interviews full of, he said, inconsistencies. he played them for the jury. the version of events changes over time. and it, also, does not appear to be possible based off of the physical evidence. so break that down a little bit. he gave a similar version in the first two interviews. jan was asleep or lying down when she is shot.

so he and his fellow investigators were certainly not finished with chris kruse and things that seemedkeith morrison: coming up, another puzzling detail. if his wife was bleeding to death, how did chris come away so clean? keith morrison: when "dateline" continues. keith morrison: chris kruse had buried his wife of 20 years, along with their dream of owning a lakeside resort. now, he sat in an interview room in the county

keith morrison: chris's brother, josh. josh kruse: it wouldn't have worked out good for chris and jan because chris is a really good handyman, construction guy. he could have take care of the resort. and jan is pretty business smart. it would have fit them. keith morrison: would have. until-- until the events of the summer of 2015. by the time all this happened, chris and jan kruse had been married for two decades. had lived here in a tiny place called brewster, population 473, the rural southwest corner of minnesota. a good, apparently happy marriage. a happy life. what they had was what i hoped to have someday. i loved our family. keith morrison: isaac, their eldest, was 20 then. his sister bailey was 15 that summer. that was the year, spring of 2015, when isaac's parents discovered that spider lake resort was for sale. and a buzz of excitement filled the house. did you ever fantasize about the family owning that place? isaac kruse: absolutely. when i found out that they were talking about buying it, i was starting to look for my l