. ♪ ♪ ♪ hello and welcome to "dateline. " growing up, cousins nick brady and haile kifer were close. oved to joke, and haile loved to laugh. the teenagers were together that cold, november day, when tragedy struck. the horrible incident was all there for police to hear, on a perfectly-clear recording. so, why was what happened so unclear? a mystery that would divide a community, and spark a national debate. here's kate snow with "12 minutes on elm street. " >> 12 minutes. not a long time. but for three people, whose paths collided on thanksgiving day, 12 minutes was all it took for their lives to explode, in a flash. >> i refuse to live in fear. >> 12 minutes, that would haunt their families. >> i dropped to my knees, and i was like, this can't be happening. >> basically, why? >> every second of those terrifying minutes would be fiercely debated. >> your natural instinct is to save yourself, however you need to do it. >> a town divided over what happened inside this house, on elm street. >> got a lot of weird things happen in trial. i've never, in my life, had evidence such as this. >