i'm getting framed for something i didn't [ bleep ] do. >> reporter: but it didn't look good for nick sampsond being a marijuana user any more, but he had had trouble with the drug before. and investigators found that marijuana pipe at the scene. when detectives visited nick's grandfather in murdock, the old man told them that a month ago nick borrowed a 12 gauge shotgun from him, the same gauge weapon that was used in the murders. then investigators executed a search warrant at sampson's home in palmyra. among the items seized, from under the bed, that 12 gauge bore ode from his grandfather, and a pair of blue jeans, examined by csi chief david kofoed's team. >> we had a pair of pants. it look like it had blood on it. we tested that with phenolphthalein and that tested positive. >> reporter: then there was more. remember that car seen by the newspaper carrier parked a mile from the farmhouse the night of the murders? detectives had found it, they believed. a 1997 ford contour owned by nick sampson's brother. and it had been cleaned and detailed actually at 5:30 easter monday morning just hou

. >> matt livers and nick sampson filed lawsuits against the state, claiming evidence was withhold.settled the cases for $2.6 million without admitting wrong doing. the citizen that went way beyond the call to find the critical evidence to save them shrugs as if it was no big deal. >> i heard whom sihomicide. if it was somebody in my family i would want the assistance. >> two marvel, even as the cops track the one piece of evidence that saved them and finally identified the real murderers, a simple gold ring. >> had they not been able to trace that ring to its owner in wisconsin, i'm really afraid we would have two guys sitting on death row for something they didn't do. ♪ >>> i'm craig melvin. >> i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline. >>> it was tough. it was tough to think that anybody could do that to someone. to look at the pictures of what they did to her and hear details of how it was carried out, it's just, it's devastating. >> reporter: shauna tiaffay, loving mom by day, vegas cocktail waitress by night. >> i was at one of the bars and