her dash to the hospital earned julie the affectionate name nascar nana. >> the flashers were going and she was honking the horn. she says don't have a baby in my car. keep your legs crossed. don't have a baby in the car. >> everything seemed to be going great for the griffiths in 2013. keith had weight loss surgery, and dropped more than 100 pounds. julie was over the moon with two granddaughters. but, also that year, came the rift. zack disclosed to his very religious, conservative parents, that he is gay. >> itse was definitely hard. my mom was my best friend and going from talking to her multiple times a day, to just being completely -- just completely shut off. >> julie visited zack that fall. they tiptoed around the elephant in the room. but the time together gave zack hope. >> was that the step, as you look back, to patching things up between you and your mom? >> yeah. yeah. >> there was a way forward. >> there was definitely a way forward. we just needed more time. >> but, then, came that cold night in january. >> 911. where is your emergency? >> there is a house on fire in cant

as my youngest gets older, we'll tell her the nascar nana story about when she was born, and just never let her memory die. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin, thank you for watching. melvin. thank you for watching. >>> i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> it's never good news when the phone rings at 5:00 in the morning. i knew something wasn't right. he just began sobbing and saying no, no. >> it was just before midnight when the shooting started. >> he had been shot multiple times. he was on the ground, face down. >> a man was dead. but not just any man. >> how do you kill superman? how is superman dead? >> he was an olympian and a father. killed, his wife says, by an intruder in his own back yard. >> describe how fast they were. >> pop, pop, pop. >> but if her husband was dead outside, why was the gun found hidden inside? and what other secrets were hidden away? >> sometimes she would say things like "i'd be better off if dave wasn't around." >> was her husband defending his family or was she? >> she rose that night.