she was convinced an innocent man, gary thibodeau, was in prison. in touch with a new york federal public defender named lisa peebles, someone who had ties to the defense lawyers who'd worked on thibodeau failed appeals. >> tonya felt as though things were amiss by the time she called our office. >> reporter: lisa, the lawyer, listened to that secretly recorded phone call tw came away with a different take than the d.a. >> i would never open a can of worms like that. god almighty. >> that was, like, jaw dropping. >> reporter: what do you hear on that tape? >> a woman confiding it took her a long time to get the images out of her head. i heard her say they made her sit in the van. she also said that she would never go to police. >> reporter: did you believe tonya priest when she came forward? >> i absolutely did. i said, we can't let this go. >> reporter: lisa called up her friend, john o'brien, a reporter with syracuse.com. >> she says, you know, you've always told me to call you when i have a good case. and i got one. >> reporter: lisa had a morsel