wife janice ruhter was a microbiologist at a children's hospital. they had one child and another very much on the way. how big out to here were you at the time, janice? >> pretty big out, yeah. i was about, what, eight, nine months, i think? >> reporter: they'd been saving for a house and thanks to friend and real estate agent renee milton, they got one. this one-story house in a peaceful cul-de-sac. >> it's a wonderful place where everyone pretty much knows each other. people, in the morning, go for walks. they take their dogs out. they skip by the park on the way to school. >> reporter: at $779,000, the house scraped the top of their range, but -- >> it was amazing. it was like, "what? this is ours?" we were going to raise our family in the house. and we were going to start -- >> really soon. a home is a big deal. to purchase a home is a huge deal. >> reporter: excited for the imminent arrival of daughter avery, jerry says he barely noticed the unusual note that would be a kind of introduction to their nightmare. a note that came to the house in th