here's keith morris. >> reporter: the game is called "mousetrap." a little ball on its track. the tiny taunting mice which, unless every lever works in unison, will not be caught. and how often things go wrong to allow the mice to get away. so odd that what really happened could so eerily mimic a children's game. >> oh how nice! >> reporter: these are the people it happened to, the jesse clan of orange county, california. they vacation together -- >> i'm tired, i'm ready to go home. >> reporter: share birthdays -- >> this one's for bev. >> happy new year! >> reporter: even got together for a monthly game of 10-pins. what these grainy home videos don't show is what is yet to come. which is murder, conspiracy. one branch of the family against the other. a game so twisted, mice so clever that crafting a trap to catch the plotters just might be impossible. to begin with, it was 1998. "shakespeare in love" won the oscar. monica lewinsky was freshly famous. it was a sweltering august night, hottest of the year, when cheryl deedham got a strange call from her dad, jack gemsy. >> i wa

here is keith morris. >> reporter: it was september 11th, 21. just about everybody knows where they were that awful day, like the glamorous trio that was traveling north through california's yosemite park. even as the rest of the world's attention was focused on new york city, they were intent on their own urgent needs, their desires, their fears, their deadly love triangle. so they probably didn't appreciate the passing wonders, the astonishing cliffs, the waterfalls, the giant sequoias any more than the one in the back seat through fading eyes saw anything at all. here is one of them. his name was larry mcnabney, and he was a tall handsome man, a well respected man from nevada. loved the big life, loved being in control. >> there was never a hair out of place. there wasn't dust on his desk. his pen was always in the same spot. >> larry's daughter octavia was crazy about him. in all of his type a personality, his joy of life, his courtroom presence. >> i loved to go to the courtroom and watch my dad. it was mesmerizing to me. he was completely

hear with the conclusion of our story is keith morris. >> it was the winter of the 2003, more than as poisoned with horse tranquilizer. his admitted killer, his wife. she chose her own destiny. and sara alone faced the possibility of spending the rest of her life behind bars. you attended the trial every day. >> yes, 11 1/2 weeks. >> why? why? >> our da had talked to us about the importance of our family being represented, that my dad not being forgotten. >> she believed her father died at the hands of both elisa and sarah. but though sarah admitted to being there when larry died in the days and months that followed she adamantly claimed she never went to the police because she was so afraid of elisa and of ending up just like larry. a theory that even the prosecutor found believable. >> when i first got this case people in my office were telling you that's exactly what i was saying walking up and down the halls. poor sarah, but as i got deeper into the case i totally turned around on this. but i started with that very mindset. >> he reviewed the evidence in preparation for trial. he

here with the conclusion of our story is keith morris. >> chris wright's murder trial began april 2010 been more than two years sense kept dolezar was shot det. chris' defense did more than challenge the evidence, it made a provocative claim that chris wright was the victim of a conspiracy. a conspiracy hatched right here in the loft by former neighbor david novak to protect the real killer by setting up chris to take the fall. a conspiracy the prosecution brushed off as nonsense. >> you'd have to believe for it not to be chris wright that it was somebody that looked like chris wright, sounded like chris wright, had the phone bought by chris wright, used the gun bought by chris wright, had chris wright's dna, and had a connection to ken dolezar, to find that it wasn't chris wright. >> reporter: all of that, claimed chris' defend, the clever novak was quite capable of setting up. >> he had it nailed from start to finish. >> like a chess game somehow, 20 moves ahead? >> yep. >> reporter: that didn't explain lee carlson, the good samaritan eyewitness who sat in court and pointed his finge

here with the conclusion of our story is keith morris. >> more than 15 years after angie dodge was murdereda quiet street in idaho falls, something was about to change in the case of her confessed killer, christopher tapp. for the first time in his trial a hearing on evidence was about to be held before a judge. and as chris tapp entered the courtroom, he and his supporters finally had reason for hope, not that the judge could review the evidence and just declare tapp innocent, no. this would have to be based strictly on points of law. idaho's court of appeals had over the years thrown out all but one of tapp's video taped interviews, that being the one where he said he took part in the crime. but in this hearing, it could be thrown out, too. if the court decided tapp believed he was in custody when he said those incriminating things. if he thought he was unable to leave this little room because that would have violated his basic constitutional rights. tapp's attorneys dennis benjamin and ben thomas. >> what's the best result from this? new trial? or is it possible to have an exoneration? >