i was just in hysterics crying, there's blood on the pillow. >> somebody was stalking the young women of reno. and now one of them had vanished. >> there was obviously, you know, there was something really bad. >> her name brianna. she was just 19 years old. >> just want to say to my daughter, banna, that i love you and i miss you, and nobody's ever giving up. >> nobody was giving up, but nobody was any closer to solving the mystery. where was brianna? >> within a three-mile radius there were hundreds of

registered sex offenders. >> then a tip about a woman who found something odd in her boyfriend's truck. women's underwear. and when she asked him for the truth, she discovered something even stranger. >> did you do this? oh, my god. did you? >> adam called me up and he said, we have him. >> what really happened the said, we have him. >> what really happened the night brianna vanished? captions paid for by nbc-universal levision good evening. i'm ann curry. they call themselves the biggest little city in the world, and this is one of the biggst cases they had ever seen. a local girl, a college student named brianna, had disappeared on a nter's night. what had happened, no one knew. where it would lead, no one could predict. but this entire city would galvanize get justice for one of its own. here's josh maiewicz. >> reporter: sunday, january 20th, 2008,n a neighborhood just up the hill from reno's

silver plated heart. college student jessica biel and k.t hunter were waking up from a night of partying with their friend brianna denison. brianna had slept on the living room couch, but when jessica woke up. >> we went out to the kitchen and started making breakfast. the kitchen was right in front of the couch and brianna wasn't sleeping there any more. >> reporter: at first they weren't concerned. >> we figured maybe she was upstairs in one of the roommate's empty rooms. >> reporter: k.t. went upstairs to see if brie was sleeping there. >> hey, time to get up. >> reporter: about 9:45 k.t. tried once again to wake brianna. once again, she got no response. >> i just am pounding on the door and things start entering my mind. so i start just pounding on my other roommate's door. it was just like all these things running through my mind, like whats going on?

ere is brie? >> reporter: only then it hit k.t. that brianna was not in the house. what scared k.t. was what brie had left behind. >> her whole life was there, cell phone, shoe purse, all her clothes she had brought, everything was at my house. >> reporter: so she couldn't have left? >> no. >> reporter: especially since it was winter time and freeng cold that night. k.t. called brianna's mom bridget. >> she called around 10:00. >> reporter: and your first thought was -- >> not good. >reporter: you were worried right away? >> well, yeah, because her cell phone was there and she had no car. i knew she wasn't out walking around with no shoes on. so i sai i'll be right there. >> reporter: back at the house, k.t. made another discovery. a terrible one. > i called her mom right back. and i'm like, i was just in hysterics crying. i'm like there's blood on the pillow. and so then i called 911.

dispatch. can i help you? >> hi, i need the police at my house. my friend spent the night last ght on my couch. she's gone and there's something that looks like blood on the pillow and all her stuff's still here. >> reporter: brianna's mom bridget couldn't g to k.t.'s house fast enough. so you're mind's got to be working oveime. >> yeah, i wa really freak out. there was obviously -- you know, it was something really bad. blood. and my chd without her cell phone. i mean, what kid is without their cell phone? >> reporter: soon police were everywhere. veteran homicide detectis dave jenkins and his partner adam were investigating the scene at mackay court. their combined 53 years of police work told them the same thing. >> it was pretty apparent that this was not a voluntary missing rson. >> reporter: family and friends

gathered at bridget's house. >> and i said, i need this in the media. and they went with it. and they didn't stop. >> described at 5 foot tall, 98 pounds, last seen wearing pink sweats. >> reporter: krntv crime reporter victoria campbell. >> police officers everywhere searching for garbage can, searching for sewers checking to see if she'd been placed nadz sewer. >> reporter: where was brianna? her pillow told a frightening story. friends had seen blood on it. detectives sent it to the crime lab. >> they identified some stains of mascara and a pattern between the stains. >> reporter: patterns that looked like bite marks. >> suggestive that that pillow had been pressed ha against the face of miss denison. >> reporter: days later tests confirmed the bod on the pillow was brianna's.

reno is a casino town that's not easily shocked, but this case hit everyone hard. even reporter victoria campbell. >> she was one of ours. and we weren't going to let her go without a fight >> reporter: brianna denison was a dazzling beauty with a thousand watt smile. a straight arrow kid with a huge heart, who had a tough start in life. her dadpassed away suddenly when she was just 6 years old. and her younger brother an infant. her mom bridget says that made their family even closer. >> we had to team up. and the kids all had to help. you know? i had a little baby. and she became very protective of me. >> reporter: as she got older, she stayed close. that doesn't happen with a lot of kids. >> she stayed close and she followed the rules. and the more she followed the rule, the more freedom she had. >> reporter: brianna decided on college in california and was in

her sophomore year at santa barbara city college. she had a steady boyfriend, was studying psychology, and wanted to work with kids. you worry about her away from home? >> yeah, i wake having dreams and i call her. i called her like at midnight. are you okay? reporter: ovprotective mom. >> i just had to ease my mind that the dream wasn't real. >> reporter: then came winter break. and brianna came back to visit her hometown friends. and you thought, great, home, safe. >> i never really felt like she was unsafe because she was so responsible. >> rorter: detectis wanted to know, how did this responsible girl end up missing? they began to retrace brianna's steps the day before she disappeared. e morning of saturday, january 19th started with brianna at her mom's house, doing laundry and puttering around in sweats. brian had plans to join her

reno friends at a concert that night. about 9:00 p.m., brianna went into her mom's bedroom, gave her a hug good-bye and asked if she wanted a check-in call at the end of the night. and you said? >> i said,no, because i knew whe she was staying. ♪ >> reporter: by 10:00 p.m. brie and her friend fromigh school, k.t. hunter, we at the concert. >> she wanted to enjoy it. so we pushed our way to the front. we had so much fun dancing and stuff. >> reporte at some pot between 12:30 and 1:00 a.m. detectives determined that k.t. and brie met uith another girlfriend, jessica. all three left the concert together on a shuttle bus. >> i actually got a picture of her when we were riding the bus. >> reporter: brie and her friends were dropped off at the sands regency casino hotel. the center of the college party crowd that weekend. ♪ i like it when you do i like that ♪ >> reporter: as k.t. recalls,

nothing feltut of place. during that time, meetanybody new? meet anybody that later seemed suspicious to you? >> there was nobody we met or anything that seemed suspicious. >> repoer: abt 2:00 a.m., one of brianna's frids jessica decided to leave the party and head back to k.t.'s to crash. she later told police she said good night to her friends and went outside and then flagged down a guy driving an suv in the parking lot. a totalstranger. to get a ride home. >> iould have probably easily walked, but it was freezing. so i just got a ride from the parking lot from someone who was leaving. it was a bad ide >> reporter: k.t. and bree had breakfast at a casino diner. poce later secured these pictures from a security camera. these are the lastdenisn. a friend dropped them off at k.t.'s home at mackay court.

3:30 a.m. at the house, brianna made a fateful decision. she decided to sle on the living room couch. >> she wanted to text her boyfriend anyways and maybe even call him because they were ighting at the time. >> reporter: the couch was a few fee from the front door. and the front door was glass paned. giving anyone onthe street an easy view of the couch. and that night the door was unlocked, which was not unusual. >> it was kind of like a hotel. we all lock our indivual doors, but the living room is jt kind of a lobby. we left it unlocked in case someone forgot their keys. >> reporter: around 4:00 a.m. k.t. said good night to her friend and went into her bedroom right next to the living room. >> last words were if you need anything just come in my room. >> reporter: detectives looked at her cll phone records. at 4:23 a.m., brianna text messaged her boyfriend in oregon. exactly what happened after that, in the predawn hours of the 24-hour town, was a mystery.

because by 9:00 a.m., the couch was empty an brianna denison had vanished. now with the evidence they had before them, homicide detectives adam and dave jenkins, thought brianna had been abducted. >> we suspected that she might well have been taken out the back door. >> reporter: besides brianna's blood and teeth marks on that pillow, crime labechnicians found another important piece of evidence on the back door. >> we were able to get a touch dna profile off the rear doorknob of the residence. >> reporter: touch dna meaning someone had just grabbed the door knob with eir bare hand? >> there had been sufficient skin cells transferred on just the mere grabbing and opening of the door to allow a dna profile to be obtained. >> reporter: but whose dna was

it? where would the evidence lead? and would they find brianna in time? her mother was in a living hell. that night, what are you thinking? >> i'm thinking what any parent would think. everything goes through my mind, and it's just, you know, it's easy enough to imagine. coming up -- a new lead, a frightening one. >> the previous month there ha been a stranger sexual assault abduction in that same neighborhood. >> was a rapist stalking the young women of reno? did he have the misng teenager? announcer: if we all lived here

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looks good son! [ female announcer ] new charmiultra strong. enjoy the go. for an extra clean finish, try charmin freshmates. >> reporter: brian denison had disappeared. detectives believed she'd been abducted from this house. her attacker taking her out the

book door in the middle of the night. the crime lab found a tce sample of dna on the door handle. it didn't match anyone in the house sodetectives were pretty sure that dna had been left by whoever had taken brianna. reporter victoria campbell was on the air almost nstop. >> we learned early on that brianna's favorite color was blue. blue ribbons covered every inch of this city. every car antenna, every fence post,very mailbox, every telephone pole. >> reporter: brianna's picture was everywhere. ♪ not too late to bring back bree ♪ >> reporter: peop gathered to pray for her safe return. >> we are the biggest little city in the world. and we are the ones to find her. >> reporter: the family set up a command post at a casino. and every morning hundreds of people showed up to he in the search. some after working all night.

>> you would see people still in their work clothe, still in the black pants and white shirt of a slot machine repairman would put on a parka over their work clothes and go stand in line to search all day. >> reporter: it would not take long for police to identify a suspect. >> a person of interest, somebody we need to talk to. >> rorter: remember the man who drove jessica back to k.t.'s home the night of the abduction? the total stranger she flagged don? investigators released this image of his suv and urged him to come forward. lieutenant robert mcdonald. >> we had an individual that's unknown to these women that had drove one of them home to the residence. he could have come back and certainly abducted brianna. >> reporter: within days, the man contacd police. his dna was tested and he was cleared. a dead end. but now dtectives had another lead that would take this case to a different level. it would no longer be a case of

one missing young woman. >> the previous month there had been a stranger sexual assault abduction in that same neighborhood. >> reporter: brianna's still missing, but immediate you're thinking sexual assault. >> when you get down to it, very few motives to abduct a young woman. >> reporter: back in mid-december, a little more than a month before brianna was taken, a 22-year-old foreign exchange student had been attacked in the early morning hours in this parking loton the university of nevada reno campus. it was just a few blocks from the house on mackay court. theattacker came at his victim from behind. >> armacross the chest, one arm, then in the other hand cupped her nose and her mouth. she went unconscious shortly after that, most likely from being smothered. the next thing she remembers is coming to in a vehicle. >> reporter: the woman was driven a short distance, then sexually assaulted inside the car. >> during the assault, she was

told not to look at the suspect. when the assault was over, she was brought back to he residence and told to get out of the car and not look back. >> reporter: she hadn't looked at his face. ut she had seen a lot. >> she was absolutely certain that the offender was caucasian. she also described the suspect as having very noticeably thick and meaty fingers. he spoke clear english without discernible or noticeable accent. >> reporter: and from the words the man used, a behavioral analyst gave detectives a profile. >> the offender was not well educated, was kind of a loner. likely ployed in a construction trades. >> reporter: even better, the victim described his vehicle so wl that detectives figured out the make and model. >> it was most likely a 2005 to 2006 toyota tacoma extended c four-wheel drive pickup. >> reporter: and the victim gave police other crucial clues.

she saw a babyhoe on the floor of the car. and tere was something else that made the suspect stand out. when he was done, she said, the man tooker underwear and kept it. but even more important, police were able to obtain a sample of her attacker's dna and when the crime lab compared that sample with the one they took off the back door at mackay court, it was a match. >> that's when they knew that there was someone out there who was making this a habit and what we hoped wouldn't become a deadly habit. >> reporter: for brianna's family, that news was devastating. bu it also gave her mother some hope. >> you just hope that he let her go like the last one. you kw, all through the process, i prty much had hope that we would find her. what else do you d >> reporter: there's nothing else u can do. >> the alternative is hard to think about. >> reporter: police released a

description of the attacker and of his vehicle. suddenly it seemed everyone in reno was looking suspiciously at white guys driving extended cab pickup trucks. but a third vtim was about to come forward, and she would fill in a big piece of the puzzle because she had information no one else in this case had. s had seen her attacker's face. coming up -- a valentins day appeal straight from a mother's heart. >> just wanted to say to my daughter, brianna, that i love you and i miss you and nobody's ever giving up. >> but was it already too late? [ indistinct conversations ] ♪ ♪ ♪

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bob ehrlich's 24 years in politics. in congress ehrlich voted with george bush 90% of the time, protecting the special interests. as governor, ehrlich cut education, increased college tuition by 40%, and vetoed an increase in the minimum wage. and after losing his election, bob ehrlich joined a lobbying firm and got paid $2.5 million to represent casinos and wall street banks. bob ehrlich--24 years of putting the special interes first.

>> rorter: four days after brianna disappeared, police released a description of the man who they now knew had struck before. a sexual predator linked to two crimes >> he's a white male, somewhere between the ages of 28 and 40 years old, between 5'6" and 6 feet tall. he drove an suv or an extended cab pickup. >> reporter: as that became ingrained in the collecti mind of reno, another woman came to poce saying she had been attacked back in october, three months before brianna's abduction. at the time -- >> she didn want to subject herself to the inevitable indignities that come from a woman reportng a sex crime. >> reporter: but when she hea about brianna, she knew she had to tell the police her story. she said she was attacked in this parking garage on the university of nevadareno campus, just a few blocks from the house where brianna would later be taken.

she said her attacker grabbed her from behind lieutenant robert mcdonald. >> put his arm around her and knocked her to the ground, told her not to scream. >> reporter: he held a gun to her head and raped her. there was no dna, but the victim gave police something almost as valuable. what did that victim tl you that you didn't already know? >> she had an opportunity to see the offender's face. >> reporter: and from her description, a polic artist made this sketch that was released to the public. and one more thing. like the attack on that foreign exchange student a month later, the man made her hand over her underwear. police were now convinced he was keeping his victim's underwear as some sort of trophy. but they didn't release that information, not yet. it was now the biggest manhunt in the city's history, trying to fid a rapist and kidnapper before he struck again. >> we had three linked serious violent felonies by the same

individual in a 400-yard radius area in the same neighborhood. >> reporter: in a pretty short period of time. >> a very chilling thing for the community. people were rightfully scared to death. >> reporter: parents started pulling their daughters out of the university of nevada reno. those who stayed were on high alert. >> any odd noise, i just screamed. like i looked behind me and i'm like, okay, it was just a car door. >> reporr: owners and gun and specialty stores saw a spike in their business, selling apon, pepper spray and even tasers. >> i actually came and got pepper spray abt a week all this stuff started happeng. >> reporter: police knew that dna would be the key to breaking the case. the county crime lab tested 3,000 criminal dna samples that had been sitting on the shelf. but there was no match. no match in any national database either. detectives looked hard at the hundreds of registered sex offenders in the area. >> and we began doing face-to-face interviews with any

individual who didn't already have a dna profile in the system. >> reporter: investigators gathered 700 new dna samples from men they questioned. and from others who just volunteered. >> they came down and said, hey, i think i match the description, i wan to give my dna just so you don't have to worry about me. >> reporter: but there was no match there either. >> we were pretty comftable that that individual would likely not be o suspect. >> reporter: and that when you did find the guy, he'd say no. >> we were pretty certain that the offender would probab not be too excited about giving up his dna. >> reporter: the search dragged into february. 25 days since brianna disappeared. the posters a ribbons around town were fading a bit. but her family still held out hope that she was alive. bree's mother bridget me a valentine's day appeal on tv. >> just want to say to my daughter, brianna, that i love

you and i miss you and nobody's ever giving up. there are thousands of people looking for you. >> reporter: the next day, the weather had turned warm and the snow had started to melt in reno. at lunchtime, a man was taking a shortcut across this field in an industrial park south of town. he stumbled on to something he thought might be a body. then he called polic >> this is breaking news. >> a grim discovery in south reno today. >> we raced to the scene. you know initially we're told that it's a young caucasian-appearing female. >> reporter: the field is about nine miles from the house on c mackay court. victoria campbell was there. >> people started walking up, pulling over, coming over, is that brianna, is that brianna? i wason a search team. i've been looking for her. i hope it's not her. >> reporter: on the other side of the yellow tape detective

wygnanski could see what was coming. >> this is not what we wanted to be. this is not the outcome. i knew deep in my stomach it was her. >> reporter: but for aeasoned homicide detective that horrible sight isn't the worst part. >> what bothers you i that other victims like family who are, you know, 24/7 wanting to know what happened to their loved one and we have to be the bearer of that news. and it's -- it hurts. >> reporter: wygnanski's next stop was bridget's house. did police tell you in that first conversation that they thought it was probably her? >> yeah. and then i kept asking about her nose stone, because she doesn't have pierced ears. i asked if they could tell that she didn't have pierced ears. the scar on her ankle. and they said, the elements, they weren't able to tell. so we had to wait for dna.

>> reporter: the next day, after an all-nighter by the crime lab, police made it official. >> an autopsy today has determined that the remains of that female discovered in the field are those of 19-year-old brianna denison. the official cause and manner of death w strangulation. it is a sexually motivated crime. >> all i n say to that is at least i'm not waiting four years later. wondering. that's about the only positive i can get out of it. >> reporter: back at that field detectives found something that looked like the killer's calling car >> there was two sets of panties that were on her right side and that were tucked underneath the right side. >> reporter: thong underwear, one pink and one black with an

image of the pink panther cartoon character. crime lab technicians tested everything. and determined that neier pair of underwear belonged to brianna. the pink panther underwear had dna from anunknown person, but the other pair -- >> weredentified by forensic dna evidence as having belonged to one of the roommates in the residee where ms. denison had been abducted from. >> reporter: they belonged to k.t. hunter, the friend of brianna's that lived atackay court. there was more dna on that pink thong, some of it from the suspect, some of it from brianna. >> and that hip strap matched to the ligature marks on brianna's neck. she was strangled with the stolen underwear. >> reporter: even though bridget knew that the killer couldn't hurt her daughter any more, she still couldn't stop worrying.

>> i went from being fearful for brianna's life to being fearful for whoev he was going to get next time. >> reporter: you were not just thinking about the last victim, you were thinking about the next one. >> i was. >> reporter: were police encouraging toyou? did they make it sound like they thought this was going to be solved? >> yes. one of the detectives actually promised me that they would find him. which i thought, wow, that's being pretty confident. >> reporter: now investigators weren't just lookin for a rapist and kidnapper. they were looking for a killer. reno had a murderer in its midst and the whole town was on edge, buteeks passed with no arrest. more than 40 detectives chased thousands of leads. but all the public heard was silence. from the outside there was this perception that you guys weren't getting anywhere. was that frustrating? >> very. every day we'd come to work and we knew that --

>> we were a phone call away. >> we were a phone call away. >> reporter: but would that phone call ever come, hoping to shake out alead, police finally released the information about the underwear found with brianna. they had guessed right. that one tawdry detail would breakhis case. closing in on a killer. >> when i obtained that photograph and our initial sketch that we had from the forensic sketch artist, it was eerily similar. you want to make a big screen... bier. and you want to make a long flight...horter. and you want to relive every little detail. and you want to rediscover something you've seen your whole life. and while you want to share this live with a friend, you want to share this... with everyone around you. you've always dreamed of tngs you wanted your phone to do. you just didn't think anyone was listening. the htc evo 4g at sprint. because you want a phone that gets you.

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>> reporter: homicide detectives wygnanski and jenkins were consumed with the hunt for the killer of brianna denison. >> i didn't have a single day off, and i don't think i was at home for more than five or six hours on any day from january 20th until sme time in the middle of june. >> reporter: they had the killer's dna, and they were looking for a white male who drove an extended cab pickup truck. you looking at every extended cab pickup you pass? >> oh, gosh. >> extended cab pickup. >> thehysical description when we're in a grocery store, parking lots. >> i went through lots of license plate numbers that i would see in the community and make a note and we follow down. >> reporter: but there was nothing. >> y know, we feared the worst. you know, that, god, we sure hope nothing else happens. >> reporter: there had been some promising leads. thinking that a killer who strangled his victim with underwear might also visit prostitutes, police started canvassing some of the legal

brothels. the moonlight bunny ranch is about 30 miles south of reno. the owner is dennis hof. >> police asked me for help and i said, let's talk to the girls. let's talk to the girls and see if we can find somebody that fits that profile that comes into the ranch. >> report: one of the women who works at the bunny ranch told police about a regular client who seemed to fit the profile. >> she was scared. he had tried to choke her a few times in a party. >> reporter: you mean during a session. >> during the session. >> rorter: police asked the woman to entice the man back to the ranch. >> when the customer came back the next session, the girl kept the condom and she kept the glass that he drank out f. and we turned that over to the police. >> reporter: the dna was rushed to the crime lab. but it didn't match the killer. an investigation that had started off so well with so many clues about the killer, his habits, his truck, his dna, had now gone almostcold.

detectives pressed on, following more than 4,000 leads. all of them to dead ends. but one day in november, ten months into the investigation, wygnanski was thumbing through yet another stack of tips, and one of them caught his eye. >> one thing just struck me as odd because they were talking about underwear. >> reporter: the anonymous tip was about a woman who had found someone else's thong underwear in her boyfriend's truck. did they have a name? >> they said the last name was biela d had a first name that started with a j. >> reporter: a driver's license search produced a name. >> james biela. >> reporter: about the right age? >> about the right age. >> reporter: you look at his driver's license photo and -- >> well, the eerie part was, when i obtained that photograph and our initial sketch that we had from the forensic sketch artist, it was eerily similar. >> reporter: seemed an

interesting lead. wygnanski drove straight to biela's house. no one was home. so he left his card. >> wrote on the back of my business card, which obviously identified me as a robbery homicide detective, mr. james biela, please call me at your convenience. >> reporter: and about 45 minutes later biela called wygnanski. he sounded a little uncomfortable, but who wouldn't be? >> youave a detective that leaves a card on your door, you expect these people to be a little nervous. >> reporter: the detective told biela he'd like to talk to him about an investigation. biela agreed to meet wygnanski after work, the next day. >> i hung the phone up and i just sat back down. and my wife looked at me and said, what's wrong? and i said, the guy never asked me what i was investigating. >> it says homicide, most decent people call and say, oh, my god, what's happened? who do i know that's been

harmed. >> reporter: he didn't do that. >> pretty unusual response. >> reporter: you'd been looking for a long time. >> this was t months of terror. >> reporter: the next d as wygnanski drove to meet james biela, his instincts told him that james biela was different than the hdreds of others he'd spoken to, right down to the truck biela used to drive. he recently owned the right kind of truck. >> absolutely. matched perfectly. four by fou extended cab pickup, toyota pickup. >> reporter: but he didn't want to get his hopes up. thousands of guys drive pickup trucks in reno. what were the chances this would be the right guy? >> it was like a common practice, hey, we're going to talk to the guy, get a dna swb, submit to it the lab and move on to the next tip. >> reporter: but it would turn out to be anything but common. coming up -- the suspect's girlfriend asks the question. >> did you do this? oh, my god? did you ?

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>> reporter: reno homicide detective adam wygnanski was sitting in this wendy's parking t waiting for james biela, who was a potential suspect in the murr of brianna denison. it had been t months since brianna had been killed. wygnanski was willing to wait the ten minutes it took for biela to drive up. he shows up. >> he shows up, in his truck. parked just to the right of me. >> reporter: biela got into wygnanski's r. >> it was weird because when i shook his han one of the witnesses said he had meaty fingers, like construction type hands. that's exactly what it felt like. >> reporter: at first the detective kept it casual.

>> he told me he was from chicago. him being a white sox fan, m being a cubs fan. >> reporter: then he told him. >> i said, hey, i'm investigating the murder of brianna denison. and his mood just totally change. i could see beads of sweat forming. he was very nervous, all i need is a smple dna swab and that's it. submit to it the lab and noig deal. he goes, no, i'm not going to give it to you. >> reporter: detectives had suspected one person and one person only would refuse to give them a dna sample. the killer of brianna denis. >> he goes, look, you can call my girlfriend. she'll be my alibi. >> reporter: detectives went to speak to biela's girlfriend, but far from giving him an alibi, she confirmed for detectives that she had found another woman's underwear in biela's truck. >> she suspected at that time that he was having some kind of an affair. >> reporter: knowing that one of the victims had seen a baby shoe in her attacker's truck, detectes asked biela's

girlfriend if she had a child. she told them, yes, she had a 4-year-old boy and that james biela was the father. she agreed to gi them a sample of her son's dna. police knew that if the boy was the son of the suspect, the two of them wouldave similar dna. >> adam and i were very aware that they would share half of the profile with each other. >> reporter: it would take a couple of weeks for an overworked crime lab to process the sample. detectiv started digging into his background. they learned that he was a regular at this sports bar in the same neighborhood. biela worked in nstruction as a pipe fitter. he had only a high school education and had been a b and c student. all of that fit the profile police had been working with. >> we were trying to findthings to eliminate him and we couldn't. >> reporter: detectives brought biela's girlfriend in for more

questioning. remember that field where they found brianna's body? >> we learned that his girlfriend actually worked in that building. >> reporter: she told them biela used to drive her to work, and on that day in february she id she was looking out her office window. >> and wched as brianna denison's body was being discovered and called james biela from that window as she was watching and let him know that, i think they found the girl they were looking for. >> reporter: she told detectives biela hardly said a word on the phone then, but within minutes after he hung up, police found out biela had told his boss had was quitting, but -- >>he told his girlfriend that he h been laid off. >> reporter: detectives found out that the very next day biela had left town and ler sold his extended cab pickup truck. eight months later, he had returned to reno in a new truck. that's when his girlfriend discovered that underwear. now, finally, the dna result

came back on james biela's son. and confirmed what detectives already felt in their gut. >> the child was 99% certain to have been the biolocal son of the unidentified suspect. >> reporter: the following day when biela went to pick up his son at a day care center, dectives arrested him. >> i pced him in my car, and i said, james, you're under arrest for the murder of brianna denon. and it was a good feeling. >> reporter: back at the police station, biela wouldn't talk. he was charged with kidnapping. with three counts of sexual assault. and with the murder of brianna. now detectives were finally able to make that phone call they had promised they would make to brianna's mother bridget. >> adam called me. i was home. he said, we have him. can you come down. >> reporter: and you're feeling what then, pity, hatred, anger?

>> relief. that he would be off the streets now. >> reporter: detectives had made another promise, this one to biela's girlfriend. they said they would lether know the results of her son's dna test. and when they told her that her son's dna was a close match to the dna of the killer, she came to the police station to speak to biela. there, police cameras captured an incredible moment as horrible as it is remaable. >> did you do this? oh, my god. did you? did you? i don't know if i should hit you or hug you. did you? did you? look me in the face. did you? did you? >> now is not the time.

>> reporter: down the hall detectives were glued to the monitor. >> it's gut wrechng. she begs him to convince her that it's not him. >> reporter: he never does it. >> ifact, i think he acknowledges thate is, in fact, the murderer although he doesn't admit it directly. >> tell me the truth, please. >> reporter: she doesn't want to believe ta the fathe of her child can be a killer. >> i can't right now. >> because if you didn't do it, iwill fight to prove your innocence. but if you did it -- >> with what? >> dna. they have dna. so what the -- does it matter, and then you get an attoey? oh, yeah, that will work. >> reporter: later they get a sample of biela's dna and i matches the suspect's dna from all the crime scenes. at last detectives are sure that the man they knew so much about but were unable to find, the

killer that terrorized reno was now in custody. biela was facing the death penalty. he would later plead not guilty. he went on trial earlier this year. prosecutors played that extrrdinary tape for the jury. ifhat wasn't enough, prosecutors had rock solid dna evidence. more than two years after brianna was murdered and after three weeks of testimony, it tookthe jury just six hours to reach a verdict. >> we the jury in the aboventitled matter find the defendant james michael la guilty of count one sexual assault, guilty of count two, kidnappinin first degree, kidnapping of count three, secretary of state wal assault, guilty of count four, murder of first degree of brianna denison. >> reporter: guilty on all counts. and the jury gave him the death

penalty. that verdict meant the end of a long and difficult ordeal for the city of reno, but especially for brianna's mother bridget. for her, this was also the beginning of something. the first interview i did, you were coming apart at the seams. you've come a long way. >> ihave. in 2 1/2 years. you hve to make a choice. you know. you can be miserable and let it control your life. or you can move on and hopefully try to not let this happen to anyone else. >> reporter: for that reason, bridget has set up the bring bree justice foundation. she's advocating for a law that would require anyone arrested for a felony, as biela hadbeen in 2002, to give a dna sample to be added to police databases. >> not like it brings brianna back to me. i gss i can just move on and do other things.

>> reporter: it doesn't bring her back, but it kind of brought you back. >> well, kd of. kind of. ♪ somewhere behind the scenes ♪ beauty for everyone to see >> reporter: today brianna denon would be 22 years old. ♪ bring back bree cing up next -- one woman, two men, her husband the air force captain, and the ranger, her rendezvous man. >> he was a playboyhimself. >> one man too many. until suddenly there was one man less. >> it wasn't like bang, bang, bangbang. it was like bang, pause, bang, pause. >> which sounds more like what? execution? >> you could take it that way, yes. >> a cold blooded killing,ut who pulled the trigger? did jealousy drive someone to

murder? or did she? >> a brilliant, cunning, ruthless woman. >> three lives lost in a deadly triangle. we're cracking down on medicare fraud. the new healthcare law gives usowerful new tools to fight it.... to investigate it... prosecute it... and stop criminals. our senior medicare patrol vonteers... are teaching niors across the country... ...to stop, spot, and report fraud. you can help. guard your medicare card. don't give out your card number over the phone. call to report any suspected fraud. we're cracking down on medicare fraud. let's make medicare stronger for alof us. or does frizz make you start over? pantene knows thick hair absorbs more moisture, so we customized a pro system to make smooth stay into the second day. frizzy to smooth system. pantene. healthy makes it happen. the pantene re-iention is here. introducing the new pantene custom solutions.

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welcome back to "dateline." in our second hour tonight, the story of a death in the military thousands of miles from a battlefield. a dedicated military man who survived war zones only to be caught in the crossfire of a lover's triangle. here's keith morrison. >> reporter: what washe thinking? when she went to the computer,

when she typed in those five little words. did she notnderstand where those little words might lead? >> where are you at? what's your name? >> michelle. >> reporter: michelle theer was, no doubt about , dissatisfied. here she was, young, successful, attractive and yet it wasn't exactly boredom that was eating at michelle. after all, she was just starting a new career as a psychologist often counseling troubled couples. >> she was relatively new with her life, i think that was her first real job. >> reporter: of course, michelle would have laughed at the idea that pretty soon now events wold propel her to such notoriety that newspaper reporters like melissa stoddard diaz would be poking around in her past. >> ichelle, from everyne i've spoken to, wanted to be somebody. and really worked hard to get to

where she ultimately got her degree and became a professional. >> reporter: but then michelle, even at an early age, always seemed confident about getting what she wated. she was just 16 when she started dating marty. marty theer was a couple of years older, worldly, bright, friendly. had big plans. he wanted to be an astronaut. he went to the air force academy. ♪ she was 20 when she married him at the academy's famous chapel outside colorado springs. >> marty, you may kiss your bride. >> repter: this was back in 1991, when marty was all she ever wanted. long before she talked to that psychologist, agreed to record for the record her thoughts about the weird events yet to come, and those happy days with marty, too, of course. >> we did everything together. he treated me really well.

i thought we will the perfect relationship. we were best friends. >> reporter: he was the dashing young officer back then. she his lovely bride. the future she imagined an endless honeymoon in which marty's air force career would take them to exotic destinations all around the world. she just didn't imagine that world would be unromantic air force outposts in oklahoma and alabama and florida and finally fayetteville, north carolina. they came here in 1999. marty was captain by then, flew one of those huge c-130 cargo planes. all that time alone. not so easy a marriage. as she revealed during those tape recorded interviews with psychologist dr. debora layton foal. >> she talked about a few problems in the marriage, primarily growing apart over the

years. marty was away for extended periods of time. she was lonely. >> reporter: sometimes he was gone for months. when he finally did come home, milary families have come to kn that adjustment period all too well. they bickered, they argued about her housekeeping, h job, about having children. he wanted them, she didn't. she was worried she'd be stuck raising them by herself in a town where she was already miserablend lonely. >> loserville. and had nobody to hang out with, nobody i could fick up the phone and call. >> reporter: about that time it started. harmless really, just a few key strokes, see what might happen. goes on all the time these days on the internet. sexy brunette seeks rendezvous man. befe long, her internet inquiry got a response. from him. his name was john, john diamond.

>> jn loved women, john was a ladies man, john always had girlfriends. >> reporter: so debby, john's sister could see him responding to a question like michelle's. >> he had a great personality. he's an attctive guy. his personality makes him that much more attractive. >> reporter: then a few days after meeting online, they met in perso at a local restaurant. >> he was charming, he was funny. talked about movies and music. >> reporter: he was an army ranger, trained as a sniper, highly regarded, decorated. he'd been in the service since he was 18. >> by all accoun she was a good soldier, but he was a playboy himself. he had been married once before and had a child from his fir marriage. and he left the first wife and married and they had a son together. >> reporter: michelle didn't know that john was still

married. but maybe it didn't matter. at least not then. she loved the sex, the attention, the excitement. >> he was very attentive. he was very affect et, very adoring. yeah, it felt great. >> reporter: what made her so desirable to him. >> i think it was just the sex. that's what he was obssed with. she was smitten with having sex with her. >> reporter: for michelle, well, it was more lust than love. >> she felt that the affair did not take away from the fact that she loved marty. she said he was the love of her life and that she never loved john diamond. >> reporter: and marty, was in the dark, of course. when michelle told him their marriagwas in crisis and they needed to see a counselor -- >> he he wouldn'tgree with counseling and i moved out. he was shocked. >> reporter: she spent that steamy summer with john diamo.

>> he was so attentive. he would rub my feet for five hours if i wanted to. >> reporter: diamond was apparently nuts about michelle. never met anyone like her before. >> she challenged him in ways he'd never been challenged before. >> reporter: paul wol verton is a reporter with the fayetteville reporter. >> shes with intelligent and exciting for him. >> reporter: but was he enough for her? apparently not. because after three months on her own, michelle went back to marty. >> she felt that the marriage could survive despite everything that has happened, that they could make it. >> repter: so john and michelle's simonth affair seemed to be off, but then a few weeks later it was apparently back on. ♪ the two traveled to the tropical island of saba, where michelle interviewed for a job at a local university. and later that fall, a rontic rendezvous at a raleigh hotel where they celebrated michelle's 30th birthday. but michelle, as she would ter

tell the psychologist, insisted it was just a relapse. >> i knew that i loved marty. and i knew that i wanted to make it work, in my heart. >> reporter: but john diamond was devastated, or so said michelle. >> he said specifically, i'm going to kill mifts. i can't live without you. don't do this to me. i'm going to go drive my car off a bridge. >> reporter: it was awful said michelle. diamond kept calling. made a scene at her office in front of some students she taught. even threatened to call marty and tell him everything. so nearly a week after that romantic night in raleigh, michelle says she met john at a local restaurant to end the affair. gently, but for good. >> we had the whole talk, yes, we can only be friends. this can never happen again,

ever, ever, ever. he seemed rational. >> reporter: now time for peace and joy, christmas party, one in particular at which the spirits flowed and the fuse rned down to its explosive end. somebody was about to die. and somebody else wasn't taking any chances on missing. >> it wasn't likebang, ng, bang, bang. it was bang, pause, bang, pause. >> sounds more like that, an execution? >> you could take et that way, yes. [ male announcer ] if you've had a heart attack caused by a completely blocked artery, another heart attack could be lurking, waiting to strike. a heart attack that's caused by a clot, one that could be fatal. but plavix helps save lives. plavix, taken with other heart medicines, go beyond what other heart medicines do alone, to provide greater protection against heart attack or stroke and even death by helping to keep blood platelets

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doanother bamillion.apsed.axers7 h big s don't need help. middle class marylanders do. ♪ >> reporter: here in the heart of the american bible belt, on the fringe of vast sprawling army and air force bases, like a patient accommodating landlord is fayetteville, north carolina. imagine, most of the suburban strip mall devoted to strip clu. and a downtown which is charming, elegant. an old town fayetteville. that tower marks the spart where north carolina ratified the federal constitution back in 1789. standing on what was a slave

market. shermafought battles here in the civil war. now it's a military town and 160,000 acres back there is the army's ft. bragg where soldiers prepare to go to war. nesed up beside th is pope air force base. two institutions, two professional military men, one woman. and that woman, michelle, now fond herself caught between her husband, air force captain marty theer, and her former lover, army ranger john diamond, who just woul't go away. >> i told him i don't want to leave my husband. i never told him i love you. i never said, i want to be with you. i think i was pretty straight up. >> reporter: so now with the holiday season in full swing and a new commitment to her marriage, michelle and marty were o the road to raleigh for a night out. traveling with them was another couple from her office. >> th had gone to this

christmas party that she pecifically asked her boss if marty could go. >> reporter: it was sedate by office party standards an over early. since marty had to fly first thing in the morning. so now it was 9:30 p.m. marty, michle and the co-workers prepared to leave the restaurant. then an interruption. michelle excused herself, made a brief phone call out of ear shot of the otrs. then the drive to fayetteville, one hour. they dropped the other couple at michelle's office. then left for home, stopped on the way for gas. and then sitting at the gas pump, michelle told marty she'd forgotten something at the office. >> turning around going back to the office. to get stuff that i needed so i could stay up and work that night. >> reporter: marty parked behind the office building. michelle walked up an outside staircase, disappeared inside. marty, waiting in the car. apparently he got impatient. headed up the stairs to check

out michelle. and that's when it happened. ♪ she found him, she said, at the bottom that outside stairway. she could see the blood. she ran to the nearest store, called 911. >> somebody shot your husband? >> i think so. >> where you are at? >> i don't know. >> what's your name? >> michelle. >> reporter: within minutes paramedics arrived and they found michelle cradling her husband in a pool of blood, but it was too late. marty theer was dead. he was just 31. because marty was an air force captain, military investigators were soon on the scene as well as police. makinghis a joint investigation with the fayetteville pd. both teams were eager to speak to the only known witness, michelle theer.

special investigations agent vince castillo. >> she said she heard what sounded to her like three bangs of a c back firing. >> reporter: did she tell you whathe did at that point? >> she then opened the door and noticed that her husband was laying at the bottom of the stairs. >> reporter: shetold them she thought she saw somebody moving in t bushes near the stairway, but she wasn't sure. >> initially i think police were looking at perhaps a robbery of some time. >> reporter: detectives combed the parking lot, surrounding area, but found no one on this cold, dark december nht. >> there was a man who lived behind the office building who heard the shots fired who later said that h said somebody's getting murdered out there because of the order in which the shots were fired. they were very calculated. >> it wasn't like bang, bang, bang, bang, it was like bang, pause, bang, pause, a space between ch of the five shots. >> reporter: which sounds more

like what, an execution? >> you could take it that way, yes. >> reporter: at the top of that stairway were a few clues. bullet holes sprayed in the wall, sequins from marty's holiday suspenders littered the landing. looked like he was at the top of the stairs, shot from dn below. >> i think that's what made him roll down the stairs. then the final shot was to the back of his left ear. >> reporter: the ki shot. >> the kill shot. close range. reporter: they found shell casings in the parking lot. appeared to be from a 9 millimeter handgun, but the were no fingerprints, no footprints, new useful dna. but investigators did find marty's wallet still on him, complete with cashnd credit cards. >> mart theer was not robbed. the other thing was that it was a very, very cold night. not a night where a prowler would be out onthe streets just looking to find someone. made it very suspicious. >> reporter: investigators couldn't imagine who would want to kill such a wonderful man

like captain marty theer? but of course, out in this dark parking lot, theyidn't know any of what you know, not yet, anyway. assuming what you have heard so far is the real story. and as you'll see, th question of what was tue and what wasn't could be very tricky indeed. coming up -- michelle said she'd gone back to her office because she'd forgotten something. so what took so long? >> they found a candy wrapper that had been opened and in the trash can. it was almost like a thing where she'd gone upstairs and sat and waited for a few minutes. >> for what? that's a lot of mpgs. sure is... know what else you get with every new toyota? wow... what is it? peace of mind... a complimentary maintenance plan with roadside assistance. it's called toyota care and we're the only full-line brand to offer anying like it.

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>> reporter: was a week before christmas 2000 and fayetteville was aglow, but not everywhere with the lights of christ christmas. a few hours after marty theer turned up dead in the parks lot of his wife's office building, the news was out. and it was big.

michelle theer now marty's grieving woid, told police she was insid her office looking for a book when she heard someone firing outside. >> by all accounts an assassination. >> reporter: greg buckner was the deputy district attorney in fayetteville at the time. >> somebody wanted to kill marty theer that night. no evidence of robbery, no evidence of any other thing going on here. >> reporter: though inside michelle's office, what they found seemed a little odd maybe. >> she'd gne to the bathroom. the toilet had notbeen flushed. they found a candy wrapper that had been opened and in the trash can. it was almost like a thing where she'd just gone upstairs and sat and waited for a few minutes because to find a book wouldn't take very long. >> reporter: strange. as dawn approached mielle was allowed to go home. later that morninger boss arrived. so the cops talketo him, too. >> during that interview it came

out that she was having marital problems and was having era marital affairs. >> reporter: funny, miclle hadn't mentioned anything about that. so detectives went to her house to follow up, and sure enough, michelle did admit having an affa with staff sergeant john diamond. michelle also said she hadn't spoken to diamond in two days. but when pressed, she remeered trying to call him unsuccessfully just before leaving that christmas party, about 90 minutes before marty was murdered. so detectives decided to check their cell phone records and discovered -- >> they'd been calling each other regularly, minimum times a day. >> reporter: now detectives paid a visit to john diamond, who freely admitted having a sexual relationship with michelle, but claimed she wasust one of many ladies in his life. and as for the night of the murder, he had an alibi. he was home with his family watching a movie.

still, michelle must have harbored some sort of suspicion about john diamond who was n a person of interest. not long after the murder, as she told detectives and that psychologist, she went to see diamond, conduct her own investigation. find out what h knew about marty's death. >> i said, did you know anything about this? did you have anything to do with this? he said, no, i would never do anything to hurt you. i know how much you love him. i i believed him. he looked so trustful. >> reporter: they questioned john after her husba died. >> there were witnesses who said that he parked down a little side street, then walked through their yard, going in the back door of their house. >> reporter he couldn't stay away from her. >> stay in there all night. >> reporter: not commonly the way widows grieve, spending the night withhe person of interest in her husband murder. but michelle told psychologist

dr. deborah layton foal that she needed support fro someone, anyone. >> she feltore alienated from family and friends and more threatnd by the police. the only person in her life that wa willing to be there for her was john diamond. >> i knew tt i was getting more and more depressed. i think i went to john for comfort. >> reporter: michelle and john drove t florida for a long weekend. michelle wanted to see a former professor for grief counseling, she said later. while diamond stayed with his sister, debbie. >> he acted as if nothing was wrong. because he knows he didn't have anything to do with it. he didn't shoot him. >> reporter: who did kill dr. martin theer? was it possible john diamond actually executed his romantic rival? he may have had a moti. police were very suspicious.

but the physical evidence was, frankly, rather weak. so detectives kept digging in the arcane world of phone records. boring but sometimes revealing. and one telephone number in particular caught their attenon. a call from diamond to one of is army buddies at ft. bragg. >> so we asked them if diamond had any access to any weapons. he said that he loaned diamond his personal pistol. >> reporter: which just happened to be a 9 millimeter beretta pistol, the same kind of gun that killed marty theer. >> john diamond had aually borrowed the gun from him during the timeframe wn the murder occurred. john diamond had possession of it. >> reporter: detectives were now convinced that diamond not only had access to a gun, but maybe even the actual murder weapon. did he still have it? well, apparently t. because just a short time after cops nt to the home of diamond's army buddy asking

about that gun, diamond made a phone call to f bragg and reported that his car, which he claimed to have left in the base parking lot, had been broken into and one of the things stolen from it was a 9 millimeter handgun. >> when we got there the passenger door had already been opened and there was a pile of glass sittin next to the rocker panel on the passenr side. but if you look on the inside, there was very little glass. >> reporter: what did that tell you? >> he had the door open when he broke the window, then tried to make it look like it was broken in. >> reporter: a bogus break-in? military police sure tught so. john diamond was arrested for admitting that he brought an unregistered gun on base. clearly diamond was now the prime suspect in the murder of captain marty theer. but was he really the killer? coming up --

the secret about john and michelle's steamy affair becomes ry public. >> she was taking him to these sex clubs and saying it's okay. go, you know, if you want to have sex with her, that's fine. he's like, w, okay.

take a closer look at keitn and his inspection business. fimian's former business partner id fimian lied, his record "built upon a fraud." his business sued more than 40 times. slapped with thousands in liens. its corporate status revoked. now we learn fimian signed a campaign pledge that protected tax breaks for corporations outsourcing jobs. fraud, failed policies. unfortunately, that's keith fimian.

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>> reporter: fascinating how this machine has altered the field on which cheating spouses play their secret games. once a key is struck, is anything secret any more? a few weeks after the murder of captain marty theer, while policechased more earthbound clues a fayetteville police detective named c.t. williams was asked to look at a couple of computers szed from michelle theer's home, see if they might contain any clues. >> i just was looking for documents or text messages or e-mails. >> reporter: like an onion, he peeled back the lers of text, which though they'd been

deleted, reappeared under his expert touch. boxes of delete documents, 88,000 of them. buried deep inside michelle's hard drive. and out spilled some of michelle's most intima sexual secrets. >> she seemed to be seeking affai with a number of people over time. she was looking for an alternative lifestyle. she was seing a partner escort for sexual clubs. >> reporter: that would be carolina friends, a swingers club. it boasted more than 10,000 members. and within michelle's lengt list of e-mails, detectives also discovered that not-so-innocent inquiry she typed sking a rendezvous man. that was john diamond, of course, replied and who the e-mail trail revealed quickly joined plishl in the lifestyle. >> she was taking him to these sex clubs and saying, it's okay. go, you know, if you want to have sex with her, that's fine. , i'm fine with it. and she just, wow, okay. >> reporter: but as investigators sorted through the

sexually charged e-mail, they could pinly see a story as old as time. john diamond fell head over heels in love with michelle. >> he was her little pupp to be controlled any way she wanted to control. >> reporter: he was like the child in the relationship. >> whatever she wanted he was at her beck and call. >> reporter:undreds upon hundreds of lid lovesick e-mails, john diamond appeared to be a man obsessed. i can't wait till you come ba so we can take care of each other. you know, sex, sex, sex and, of course, more sex. i know that we're meant to be together and areindred soulmates. i will always lo you no matter how you hurt me. >> you can tell it changed from a sexual relationship to a completely totally enamored with her. >> reporter: and he was getting desperate. >> his plans were to be with her. keep the woman he's totally in love with. >> reporter: anything? perhaps even kill the man who stood between him and michelle?

>> she was beginning to set him up. she was playing this emotion. >> rerter: she was pushing him away. >> in some ways but without completely pushing him away. i think she was manipulating him at that point. >> reporter: manipulating him into murdering her husband? but why would she want to do that? >> there was a $500,000 life insurance policy that had been taken out in 1999 on marty theer. >> reporter: and the sole beneficiary? michelle theer. john diamond's family was outraged at such a theory. they were convinced michelle typed all those e-mails and sent them to herself to steer investigators away from her and to diamond. so he'd take the rap. >> he never once expressed a love feeling about her to me. so unless you come to me with a handwritten letter that he was obsessed with her, i'll never believe that. >> reporter: w do you know that? >> because he told me. he did not wa to marry her, he did not want to spend the rest of his life with her.

>> reporter: according to debbie, it was michelle who was obsessed with john andnever more so than when she gave debbie two wedding rings to take to her brother who, was by this time locked in the brig. >> she was obsessed with him to th point that she couldn't control him, she couldn't control the situation. >> reporter: she wanted to control and if she gave him the wedding ringnd he wore it, wouldn't that give her all kinds of reason to claim that he would anything for her, including kill her husband? >> that could be. i don't know. what i got from him after he was arrested was he didn't want anything to do with her. nothing. >> reporter: with or without michelle, john was in big trouble. sohe lawyered up with prominent fayetteville attorney coy brewer. >> i believed that he was an innocent man wrongly cused, that any rational interpretation of the circumstantial evidence is consistent with sergeant diamond not being the shooter.

>> repoer: but military investigators were convinced that dmond was the triggerman and decided to quickly proceed with their case against him. and michelle remained free, and what did she do? well, she left town. >> i think she planned to kill her husband a long time ago. i think sheaited and researched d waited for that right person that would look and fit the part to pin it on. >> reporter: if that was true, mihelle's plan was working perfectly. because in a few short weeks john diamond would be on trial for murdering her husband. coming up -- the prosecution's case against john and the defense's case against michelle. ♪ [ female announcer ] getting in the halloween spirit is so easy,

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>> reporter: in the dead center of ft. bragg, north carolina, is a nondescript red brick

building. no colonnad, no corinthian flourishes, no do dads, just justice, military style. this is where army staff sergeant john diamond found himself, a prime suspect in the murder of air force captain marty theer. >> military justice is much swiftr than civilian justice. so you go to the article 32 hearing which is like the grand jury. they immediately find cause and they charge him. >> reporter: nine months after the murder in a small ft. bragg courtroom diamond went on trial before a military jury. >> diamondwas very, very cocky at the beginning. he would laugh and joke with reporters in there. he was just so sure that he was going to get acquitted. >> reporter: but john diamond wasn't the star of his own trial, michelle was. she was free as a bird then, though still under invesgation by fayetteville civilian homicide cops. and here she was called to testify at her former lover's

milita trial. >> she shows up, her hair is now like a red color that she's colored it. she's lost a bunch of weight. and she's got a gaggle of media following her into the building. >> reporter: it was all image, no substance. michelle took the stand, but took the fifth. the prosecution's case against diamond, his accusation, was simple. driven by his obsession for michelle, he conspired with her to kill her husband by borrowing the gun, arranging to be in a position in that dark parking lot, waiting until mrty ter had placed himself in the kill zone at the top of the staircase outside michelle's office and fired the five shots that killed him. as for diond's alibi that he was home with his wife watching a movie, that now ex-wife came to court and told the jury that the evening wasn't quite like that. halfway through the movie, his phone rang, she said, and suddenly he was gone.

what's more -- >> her mother heard him come home, you know, in the wee hours and wash clothes. >> reporter: true? maybe not said defense attorney coy brewer. her story changed after she talked to police. >> she was afraid of the government. i don't ink that she was telling the truth. >> repter: had she been pressured? besides, said the defense, there was no dna, no footprints, no fingerprints to prove that diamond shot marty theer. anyway, diamond was a trained sharpshooter. but thehots that felled marty were sloppy. must have been the work of an amateur, said diamond's attorney. an amateur like michelle. >> michelle theer had asked for the gun several days before the murder. she had told him that her husband had been abusive and that she was afraid of him. so he gets the gun and gives her the gun. now, he didn't think she was going to kill him with the gun. >> reporter: did she just use

him knowing he was somebody that she could use to serve her purposes? >> she set this up to kill her husband because she wanted the insurance money and fosergeant diamond to take the fall. michelle theer was a brilliant, cunning, ruless woman who wanted her husband dead. >> reporter: the military jury, however, didn't see it quite that way. >> the verdict was swift. guilty as charged. as from that moment on, his demeanor changed. i mean, iwas like somebody just sucked the air out of him. the john diamond full of bravado and ego just shriveled away. >> reporter: diamond w sentenced to life in prison without parole. his family was furious, convinced he was framed >> you don't expect to be convicted on theory and myth and what if. show me blood, show me a gun,

show me the timeline that works. show me the facts. i'll believe till the day i die that she killed her husband, that she planned to have my brother go down for it, so she could live this happy, wonderful life. >> reporter: curious thing that. john diamond settled into a life in prison, people around fay yetville could see to their great disapproval that michelle went on with a life uninterrupted. then quite suddenly they didn't see her at all. because michelle theer disappeared. michelle wasn't just a missing woman. she was also now a wanted woman. >> there's some speculation that she was tipped off that she had been indicted. because she seemed really sort of fall off the face of the earth. coming up next friday on "dateline" -- the preacher's wife. they seemed so perfect, the

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>> reporter: leavenworth federal prison. doing time doesn't com much harder than it does here. this is where john diamond was now serving a life sentence for murdering air force captain marty theer. but his former lover michelle seemed to have dropped rightout of sight. where was she? people weren't seeing her around fayetteville. the d.a. meanwhile, was convinced she must have conspired with john diamond to kill her husband, she was the ains, he was the brawn. or in this case, the shooter. though it was all circumstantial said greg butle it was persuasive. >> there was an amount of evidence. there's no question as to who was involved, diamond and her

together. >> reporter: the idence? the life insurance, the affair, the access to a murder weapon, those e-mails, the cover-up. taken together it was enough to convince a grand jury. and finally, in may of 2002, nearly 18 months since her husband was killed, michelle theer was indicted for first degree murder and conspiracy. but arrested? no. why? >> there's some speculation that she was tipped off that she had been indicted because she seemed to really sort of fall off the face of the earth right before that came down. >> reporter: michelle theer vanished. no one, not even her amily, knew where she was. lauderdale by the sea is a charming town just north of miami. quaint and quiet, low profile. in the summer of 2001, cindy geezy, a local landlord, met with a woman who wanted to rent

room at her cottage. >> she gave her name as liza pendragon. she told me that she was on the un from an abusive boyfriend in california. >> reporter: liza told everyone she was a teacher looking for a job. she made friends around the neighborhood. before long she had a new beau. liza -- it was really michelle of course -- kept in touch with her family secretly. she only called on pay phones, and that rarely. two months after michelle arrived in florida, she asked her boyfriend to call her parents to pass on a message. use a pay phone, she told him. and maybe he forgot or perhaps she didn't tell him why, but he called from his parents' house phone. u.s. marshals were monitoring. they looked up the number that had called michelle's parents. >> the database told them that this woman had a son in his

mid-20s who lived in south florida. >> reporter: did he know the missing michelle? the cops found him, staked him out. then followed him to that little white beach cottage where he and michelle were in for a big surprise. >> following a deveping story out of florida. a woman wanted for the murder of her husband, a pope airman, has been arrested in florida. >> at the time of her arrest inside the artment, we found magazines describing ways to go undercover in the united states, obtain new identity. >> reporter: boks, too, on learning spanish, travel guides for several latin countries, an array of fake i.d.s. and then there was michelle's appearance. >> she had changed her appearance, cut and dyed her hair, had some plastic surgery done. >> do you have anything else to say? >> reporter: a few days later, michelle her face still red and swollen and smeared with ointment from cosmetic surgery, was driven back to fayetteville.

she was charged with first degree murder and locked up without bail. and two years later, in september 2004, after turning down a plea deal that would have imprisoned her for ten years, the prosetor laid out his case against michelle theer. >> she was the mastermind behind this whole thing. she induced john diamondinto doing whatever she wanted and used sex as a way to do that. and had him convinced that she was a victim of spousal abuse and that marty needed to die. >> reporter: the proof? for one thing, all those intimate e-mails which showed, said the prosecutor, how michelle manipulated diamond into a fatal frenzy and made him her fall guy. >> she got john diamond to the pont where he was so upset if he didn't have her, he was going to kill himself. if you're willing to kill yourlf, it wouldn't take much for you to redirect that and

kill someone else. michelle got him to the point where he was willing to kill marty. >> reporter: that point arrived said the procutor after that office christmas party when michelle called diamond to tell him that she and marty were heading to theill zone, the parking lot of her oice building. but she needed them there alone. after they dropped two co-workers at the lot, she made a move that led to the murder. they began driving home, stopped for gas, but then michelle had marty return the office, supposedly to pick up some work she needed. while she dawdled in the offe, marty became impatient, went up those stairs to check on her. and thus walked into an ambush. >> when they left, there would have been no way for that shooter to believe that there was any way they would come back unless he had known from a previous conversation with michelle the she would bring him back to that location, go up

and do her business, leave him outside the door so that he he could then muer her husband. >> reporter: that was really your smoking gun. >> that was the smoking gun that tied her to it. >> reporter: michelle did not testify, nor did john diamond. her attorney belittled the state's office as thin and circumstantial. among those speaking for michelle, psychologist dr. debra layton foal, she'd been hired by the defense to testify as an expert witness. those were the recorded conversations, excerpts of which you heard earlier. the doctor told the jury, michelle wasn't manulating diamond by stopping and starting their elicit romance. no, itas something else. >> when somebody's in long-term affair, there does tend to be a pattern of pulling away and th coming back together. an inability to be deisive. that's not unusual with affairs. >> reporter: besides, claimed the defense, being involved with another man didn't mean michelle

was also involved in murder. the two sides battled through threeonths of trial time. frolabor day past thanksgiving, 11-week trial, three-hour deliberation. the verdict -- guilty. >> she stood up, they p the handcuffs on her and she walked out of the courtroom and she never looked back into the courtroom area not even toward her family. >> reporter: michelle theer now sits in a north carolina prison halfway across the country from her co-conspirator john diamond. today these former lovers share only one thing. life without parole. each blaming the other for the murde of air force captain rty theer. which keeps some people wondering, what really happened that cold dark north carolina night? his supporters heartfelt in their certainty that she was the bad thing. sheid it all.

>> and her supporters all blame him and said he did it without her knowledge because he was in love with her. >> reporter: also a possibility. >> or theyoth did it together, which is the lely possibility. which is what the jurors in both cases believed. >> reporter: michelle theer rolled the dice. she turn down aeal which would have released her before long. instead, the woman who followed her dissatisfaction to an internet romance went on trial and as a result will die in prison. that all for this edition of "dateline" friday. we're back again next friday at 9:00, 8:00 central. i'm ann curry. 9:00, 8:00 central. i'm ann curry. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com