in all my years of doing this job, i've never had a case with so many twists and turns. it was highly disturbing to know and see what happened here. >> it was strange from the start. a newly divorced dad, devoted to his little girl, dropped her off in the driveway and vanished. >> totally out of character for him. >> police were quick to question his ex, a teacher, devoted to their daughter, too. >> then came the u-turn. right there on tape, someone dumping evidence. >> it looks like a tarp, a rope. >> everything you might need for a murder. >> murder? who was this guy? and where would this case lead? >> they wanted to make it look like some type of medication overdose. >> enter a hit man with a

secret, and a family chat that was more than just snarky. >> i thought i told you to have one, doofus. >> it was downright sinister. >> it's kind of already in motion. you need to do your part. >> the most sick and twisted case you've ever -- >> absolutely. just unbelievable. >> "family affair." but first, a story of doctors, love, and a mysterious drink. >> nothing in this case makes sense. >> they say doctors make the worst patients, no matter how sick. >> is it his high blood pressure? is he having a heart attack? >> but this doctor wasn't just sick. he was dying. >> no one knew exactly what it was. >> and then, they found the crystals. >> it's a poisoning case, which are very rare. >> but solving the medical mystery didn't solve the main mystery. who poisoned him? >> he took a drink of it and said, "there's something wrong with this." >> was money the motive? or was there another reason? >> everything about this case is nuts. it's sex, lies and audiotape.

>> turns out this busy doctor also had a busy love life at home and at work. >> she loved him. >> i think she loved dr. blumenschein. >> i said, "why?" she said, "it was just sex, evette." >> who wanted the doctor dead? >> who has the motive? it's the person who isn't getting what they want. >> i'm lester holt, and this is "dateline." here's andrea canning with "fatal attraction."3 f2 dateline. "mecca" of medicine, m.d. anderson cancer center. >> their goal is making cancer history. and so the best and the brightest work there. >> reporter: a hive of top-tier physicians researching, saving lives. >> i was never a number. i was never just a patient. i was a human being. >> reporter: but what happened when one of their own became dangerously ill? >> i was shocked.

it's crazy things happening. >> i never imagined that that would happen to anybody that i know. >> reporter: not with cancer, but still something lethal and bizarre. >> it was the worst kept secret at m.d. anderson. >> hollywood couldn't write this script. it's unbelievable. and that's why it's true. >> reporter: it was around midnight, january 27th, 2013. a 48-year-old man wobbled through the doors of m.d. anderson, slurring his words, disoriented. >> keep in mind, he didn't go to the emergency room at a standard hospital. >> reporter: ryan korsgard is a reporter with nbc station kprc-tv in houston. >> he went to a cancer hospital. >> reporter: perhaps just where he felt safe? >> perhaps. and his office was also there. >> reporter: maybe he felt safe there because the sick man was george blumenschein jr., a doctor specializing in neck, head and lung cancer at m.d. anderson.

like many of his talented peers dedicated to researching and curing cancer, dr. blumenschein's life seemed to revolve around his work. >> the people who worked with him said he revealed very little about his personal life. he didn't talk about anyone he was dating, anything along those lines. >> reporter: now, this very private man was at m.d. anderson not to be examined but to research his own symptoms. friends at the hospital urged him to go straight to the e.r. >> and it sounded like it was tough even to coax him into the emergency room. >> so i'm sorry, but i'm in a little drama. >> reporter: george's girlfriend, evette toney, a scientist, shot this video on her cell phone as they sat outside the e.r. she wanted to show george that he wasn't acting normally and convince him that he needed to check himself in. the video would later be crucial to solving a mystery. >> i've gotten progressively discoordinated.

>> reporter: to see the usually articulate doctor like this was a strange sight. sandy molina is a friend and former assistant of george's. what's george like? >> very charming. he's a great guy. >> reporter: she says that george was professional, friendly and always had a good bedside manner. was it just the way he greeted you? >> yeah, the way he greeted you, i thought he was very respectful, caring. patients did call me and make comments about him that he's a great doctor and they're so glad he's their doctor. >> reporter: but now the doctor was the one in need of care. george's research partner, a doctor named ana maria gonzalez, was also with him outside the e.r. ana had seen him at the office that day and later at a business dinner. that cell phone video documents her describing his symptoms. >> he was a little slurred. for people that know him he's still slurred. >> reporter: finally, george agreed to be examined.

and in the small world of m.d. anderson, word spread fast that one of their esteemed doctors had checked into the e.r. what's your gut telling you, though, when you're thinking about what he could be sick with? >> first thing was like, oh, my gosh, is it his high blood pressure? is he having a heart attack? or you know, what is it? is he stressed? >> reporter: doctors suspected george might have suffered a stroke, but his mri was clear. whatever was wrong, it was getting worse. >> he's deteriorating quickly. his health is going downhill. >> reporter: just a few hours after arriving at the e.r. the doctor was unconscious, his organs failing, and he was rushed to the icu. >> there seemed to be concern that he might not make it. >> reporter: through the night, george lay near death as his loved ones stood vigil outside the room. inside, the medical staff wondered exactly how had their colleague ended up here. and it wasn't long before police

were wondering the same thing. >> when we come back, as doctors work to save one of their own, someone notices something strange. >> they started doing tests. and that's when they found these crystals. you're a doctor. you know everything that goes into your body. how was this introduced?

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>> reporter: in the early morning hours after he was admitted to the e.r., dr. george blumenschein lay unconscious. he was in critical condition in the icu of the very hospital where he practiced medicine. >> i was worried about him. >> reporter: were you just really praying that he would come through this?

>> oh, of course. he's a great person. >> reporter: no one was sure why this perfectly healthy man in his 40s was working one day and on the brink of death the next. >> it was a race against time because no one knew exactly what it was. they knew that there was kidney failure. >> reporter: did they just start running a battery of tests? >> they started doing tests, and that's when they found these crystals. >> reporter: crystals in his system? that can be a sign of anything from dehydration to kidney stones. but looking at those crystals under a microscope, one of george's doctors made a startling discovery, an unusual chemical formation, a deadly one. it was ethylene glycol, most commonly known as the toxic ingredient in antifreeze. it damages the heart, attacks the kidneys, and just a half a cup can kill you. this must be just a shock to everyone when they realize that this top-notch doctor has taken ethylene glycol.

>> absolutely. you're a doctor. you know everything that goes into your body. how was this introduced? >> reporter: george was in and out of consciousness and being kept alive on dialysis. now that doctors knew what was making him sick, they called in investigators to figure how it happened. >> it's a poisoning case, which are very rare. we don't see those very often. >> reporter: assistant district attorney nathan hennigan has a background in science and medical crimes. he and his partner, justin keiter, had to co every possible way the poison got into george's system. >> he wanted to find out this was all a mistake. maybe he's accidentally ingested something somewhere else. he would have preferred that than to know that someone did this to him. >> reporter: accidental poisoning was not so farfetched. in its pure form ethylene glycol is used in labs all over m.d. anderson. it's colorless, odorless and has a sweet taste. but after checking out the accident theory, it seemed unlikely. george hadn't been in a lab

recently. >> we couldn't establish that he had access to ethylene glycol at all. >> reporter: lieutenant mac sosa was a university of texas police officer and part of the investigative team. the former houston homicide detective took his job at the medical center as a quiet retirement gig. you would deal with things like stolen lunches from the communal fridge, a missing dolly. not exactly houston homicide. >> they have their own forms of crimes, but nothing on the same scale as municipal law enforcement. >> reporter: lieutenant sosa looked at george's case and found it puzzling. if this wasn't an accident, there were still other possibilities. suicide came to mind. did you ask dr. blumenschein, "did you try to take your own life?" >> yes, i asked him. there was no history of any mental health issues or conditions. >> reporter: he said, "no," i take it.

>> yes, ma'am. >> reporter: satisfied that this was neither suicide nor accident, there was only one conclusion left, someone tried to kill george. it's starting to look like a prominent doctor was poisoned. what's your gut telling you? >> at first the only thing that we can do is try to narrow down who was around the doctor. >> reporter: the first person they wanted to talk to, of course, was george's live-in girlfriend, evette toney. the woman in charge of the emergency room that night had concerns about evette toney, and she told you that. >> she indicated that we needed to look at evette. she shared food with him. she shared wine with him the night before any of this. >> reporter: evette told lieutenant sosa she didn't have a clue why someone would want to hurt george. she suggested that maybe it was a random act. >> she was throwing out all kinds of hypotheses and hypotheticals. she actually tells detective sosa, "well, i don't know, maybe he was an unintended victim and

he was the victim of some psycho waiter that wanted to hurt a lot of people." >> reporter: there wasn't a psycho waiter. none of evette's theories made sense. investigators wanted to know more about evette and her relationship with george. they found out that the couple dated on and off for about a decade. they'd lived together, then broken up, and she'd recently moved back in. dr. blumenschein is somewhat of a commitment phobe? >> dr. evette toney said that she had real issues with the fact he didn't want to a commit, and she said that her remedy for that was they were going to have a baby. >> reporter: now that they were trying to start a family, george the bachelor was also talking about marriage. evette had once called herself george's common-law wife. investigators wondered if she had anything to gain financially if george was killed. how much is he worth? >> he's worth several million dollars.

and that fact alone is motive. >> reporter: they pressed that lead, pulled his insurance papers, and requested george's will. would she have been entitled to his money if he died? >> no, this man didn't even have a will. and everything was left on the insurance policies to his brother. >> reporter: dead end there. still, lieutenant sosa put in a request to do surveillance on evette and george's house. did you ask evette toney, "did you have anything to do with this?" >> yes, ma'am, i did. >> reporter: what response did you get? >> she said, "absolutely not." she offered her financials, she offered anything under the sun. she offered to submit to a polygraph. >> reporter: she even turned over the bottle of wine she and george drank the night before he got sick. tests on the bottle came up clean. the lieutenant decided to call off the survellance. the cooperative, mild-mannered girlfriend hardly seemed like a killer to him. so if not evette toney, who in the world wanted dr. george blumenschein dead?

did you worry there was somebody responsible out there? >> yes. >> reporter: so? >> and if they didn't succeed, were they going to try again. >> reporter: that's exactly what investigators were thinking. they placed a guard at george's door. >> at that point, we didn't know if anyone would attempt to go into his room and try to do it again. >> reporter: you were concerned about his life? >> yes, ma'am, very concerned. >> reporter: a second murder attempt? >> yes, ma'am. >> coming up -- behind closed doors at the hospital. >> the plot started to thicken. >> i think people started to realize and put pieces together. >> when "dateline" continues. is our delicious mayo greater than eighties dance moves? can hellmann's be greater, even, than the internet? well keith, if you say so. we're just working hard to...

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>> reporter: two weeks after he was poisoned, dr. george blumenschein was still suffering, his body ravaged by the toxic chemical ethylene glycol. after digging around in his personal life, investigators were no closer to figuring out who wanted george dead. so they turned their attention to his professional life. but to the investigators' surprise, many of the brilliant scientists at m.d. anderson were less than chatty. the doctors who you were dealing with are very private people. >> they are, yes. >> reporter: and very intelligent. were they eager, willing witnesses? >> no. >> reporter: did they want to be part of this? >> no one wanted to be a part of this case. >> reporter: still, one of george's closest colleagues made herself available. dr. ana maria gonzalez, george's research partner, the co-worker who was by his side as he

checked into the e.r. a fellow workaholic, ana knew the details of george's life at the hospital. how often were they together working? >> seemed like all the time. they traveled together. they worked either in his office or her office. they were always on the phone. >> reporter: dr. gonzalez, who was born in colombia, was a fast-rising star in breast cancer medicine. her research garnered international attention. the susan g. komen foundation even produced this video about her work. >> i truly believe that she holds the cure for women in the world. >> reporter: as patients like silvia lieber saw it, dr. gonzalez was nothing short of a miracle worker. >> she has this compassion and understanding about the disease and about the women she treats. >> reporter: dr. gonzalez also treated nadine eidman. >> i was never a number. i was never just a patient. i was a human being who had a

full life. >> reporter: did she immediately put you at ease? >> she absolutely did. you know, she's really small of stature, but she's feisty. and she said, "we're just going to go after this." and i said, "yeah, you and i are going to get along just fine." and we have. >> reporter: ana met george years earlier when she referred a patient to him. soon after, she invited him to collaborate on a research project. multiple studies followed. they were invited to lecture and travel around the world. after working for george, sandy molina took a job assisting ana. >> i know she was trying to get his career going, writing more grants, and helping him get promoted, and he wasn't the most organized person. >> reporter: so ana really had an impact on george's life? >> yes. >> reporter: was he very grateful for that? >> i think he was. >> reporter: how eager were you to talk to dr. gonzalez? >> very eager. she knew his habits, his

schedule, about the timeline that i needed information on. >> reporter: ana provided valuable details about the day george got sick. she told the lieutenant she and george worked in their offices at m.d. anderson, then attended a business dinner together that evening. she witnessed his condition slowly worsen and even followed george as he drove himself to the hospital around midnight. and every minute that you can account for i would imagine helps you put together that crucial timeline. >> yes, ma'am. >> reporter: what does she tell you? >> i asked her for an account of the week prior to him going into the hospital. >> reporter: ana told him all about george's week, the details of his busy schedule. she was sharing a lot. but as lieutenant sosa listened, he had a hunch she might also be leaving something out. so he went back and pressed george and ana's reticent colleagues for more information.

what was up with george and ana? >> sosa starts to find out that there might have been something more than just a working relationship with doctors blumenschein and gonzalez. >> reporter: the plot started to thicken. >> i think people started to realize and put pieces together. >> reporter: even though the folks at m.d. anderson weren't so keen to talk to investigators, that didn't keep them from whispering about george and ana among themselves. did ana know that people were gossiping? >> i'm sure she did, and i'm sure some of it got to her, too. but she and i never really talked about it. >> reporter: lieutenant sosa asked ana point blank were she and george having an affair? she denied it. he also asked george the same thing, and george also said no. but the investigator wasn't convinced. the question nagged at him. now, weeks since he was poisoned, george was out of the hospital, feeling stronger and back at work. the investigator decided to invite him out for a drive, away

from his girlfriend and colleagues. in the car, george finally confessed. he and ana were partners in more ways than one. were these quick trysts that they were having, or was this a deep, emotional connection? >> i never got an indication from dr. blumenschein that it was a deep connection. it was just a fling. >> reporter: george told the lieutenant the affair went on for a year and a half. he said it was a casual thing, but sometimes when they travelled to professional conferences, they'd share a room. a sort of co-workers with benefits arrangement. in fact, the day he got sick, he'd stopped at ana's on the way to work. >> they go upstairs. they have a sexual liaison. >> reporter: he carried her up the stairs. that sounds like kind of romantic, not a casual, "i'm not into this." >> they were having some sort of a romantic, casual, sexual, romantic thing going on. >> they split a shot of vodka before they left for m.d. anderson.

>> reporter: to investigators, this prestigious hospital was looking more and more like the setting of a soapy daytime drama, drama that changed the shape of the investigation. >> any time you have a love triangle the different points, the vertices of that triangle, are going to be the ones you look at. you have evette. maybe she's mad because she's got a cheating boyfriend, and she wants to get revenge. and you have ana, who's the other woman. >> reporter: poking around george blumenschein's professional life had led investigators right back to his private life, giving them a dramatic new theory of the crime. >> coming up, one secret is out, but there are many more. >> who has the motive? it's the person who isn't getting what they want, who has to have what they know they can't.

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>> reporter: the first big break in the investigation into who poisoned george blumenschein came when the doctor finally admitted he was a cheater. he was carrying on an affair with his esteemed research partner, ana maria gonzalez, while going home to his girlfriend, evette toney. investigators went back to talk to evette. evette did have a motive. her guy is having an affair with another doctor. >> the thing about evette is she didn't know about this affair until after blumenschein was poisoned. >> evette toney is so naive and so clueless as to what's going on, she says, "yeah, no, no, there's nothing funny going on. they're really good friends.

i've asked him before and he's told me no." she doesn't know what's going on. >> reporter: she told investigatiors that george only fessed up about the affair a few weeks after he was poisoned. so with evette essentially cleared again, investigators turned to the other sharp point of this love triangle, dr. gonzalez. and george had some interesting things to say. as he told it, in the weeks before his poisoning, ana's affections intensified. she called and texted him constantly, showered him with gifts, and even started buying the same things he owned. >> buying the same type of car that he has, buying the same type of watch he mentions. she buys herself the exact same luggage. >> reporter: after he was hospitalized, george believed ana might be behind the poisoning, but he kept his suspicions quiet until pressed by investigators. george broke off the affair with ana, but never told her why. instead, he decided to secretly

record their calls. >> i feel that, you know, i helped you, a lot. and i feel completely betrayed. the fact that you and i, you know, slept together, it's out of the picture. it's the friendship that hurt, because i trusted you. that's what hurts. >> reporter: george later gave the recordings to investigators, and in those calls, they heard a woman distraught over the lover she couldn't have and jealous of the woman who had him. >> it's just not worth it anymore. it's too late, you know. as i say, she won. you know, go have a kid, have a good life. i'll leave, you'll be fine. >> you listen to that, you can hear it in her voice. she says, "she won, she won." >> it's too late. she won. >> reporter: she needed dr. blumenschein to continue her research. they had a special bond.

why would she want him dead? >> little did dr. blumenschein know how special that bond was that she wanted. who has the motive? it's the person who isn't getting what they want, who has to have what they know they can't. that's her. she wanted more. >> reporter: and it turns out, prosecutors thought ana had opportunity, too. she had access to ethylene glycol in her lab. and she and george had been together the whole day he got sick, giving her plenty of chances to slip him the poison. on may 29th, 2013, police arrested ana on charges of aggravated assault. ana's patients didn't believe it. >> i didn't understand it. that was devastating for me. she was what held me together. >> she's incapable of that. she heals people. >> reporter: last fall, ana's trial began. the courtroom was filled with family and patients there to

support her. she is so highly accomplished, she is about 100 pounds, she doesn't exactly look like a killer. did you worry that the jury would have a hard time convicting someone like dr. gonzalez? >> worried about it every night and every day. holy smokes, this is a doctor. who in their right mind can look at her and think this is someone that was capable of doing such unimaginable things? >> reporter: prosecutors told the jury how this so-called casual affair with george blumenschein wasn't so casual to ana. >> and it led to her absolute obsession. >> reporter: a string of colleagues testified she couldn't contain her feelings for george. >> it seemed like ana was very infatuated with dr. blumenschein. >> whenever we discussed any topic, really, within a few sentences george's name would come up. she loved him. >> i think she loved dr. blumenschein. >> reporter: the affair was the

worst kept secret at m.d. anderson, according to this doctor. >> were you ever under the impression that there was more than just a work relationship between the defendant and dr. blumenschein? >> i had heard rumors, yes. >> reporter: the doctor also said she and ana weren't even close friends, but that didnt stop ana from volunteering details about the relationship. >> she told me a little bit information about their intimacy. basically, she said that they were seeing each other. >> reporter: another doctor testified about a curious conversation with ana the morning after george was hospitalized. ana told her that george was poisoned. the only problem, this was hours before doctors even confirmed it. >> she told me that george was very sick and he was in the icu, and he had ingested ethylene glycol. >> she told you that monday morning? >> monday morning. >> reporter: and the witness also recalled a conversation

with ana that sounded to her like a confession. >> she then told me, while quite tearful, that she had ethylene glycol in her labs, as did most m.d. anderson. she said, "i'm going to get in so much trouble for this." >> reporter: knowing the jury would wonder about the other woman in this love triangle, the prosecution called evette toney to the stand. she testified how she only found out about the affair after george became sick. >> i felt so stupid. i mean i was -- i trusted her. i trusted him. >> reporter: the prosecution asked evette what everyone in court was thinking. why was she still with george? >> because i know the affair with the defendant is not the we're still working on our relationship. it's a work in progess. >> reporter: then evette told

the jury about what happened when she confronted ana. >> did she seem to care? >> no. >> did that hurt worse? >> yes, it did. >> what did you say? >> i said, "why?" she said, "it was just sex, evette." >> reporter: but the prosecution thought it was about much more than that. >> everything about this case is nuts. you couldn't write this script in hollywood. it's sex, lies and audiotape. >> reporter: the jury was about to go on a wild ride full of wicked plots and homicidal obsession. >> coming up, ana is the one on trial, but george is the one in the hot seat. >> i was wrong. it was the wrong thing to do. >> when "dateline" continues. if you're salt-n-pepa, you tell people to push it.

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>> make no mistake about this. she is devious, diabolical and dangerously deadly. >> reporter: to the prosecution in the trial of ana maria gonzalez, the defendant was an increasingly unhinged lover. >> she became absolutely and totally obsessed with him and wanting him. >> reporter: they argued that ana, the successful doctor, had been on a downward spiral, doing crazy things to stir up trouble in george's relationship with evette. things like sending evette an unsigned letter, declaring that ana and george were having a baby together. >> the anonymous letters she's dropping off, this is all an attempt to manipulate george away from evette. >> reporter: the prosecution said the manipulation didn't end there. ana told george that evette was behind a series of threatening phone calls she received at her office.

according to the prosecutor, those phone calls never happened. >> m.d. anderson has an incredibly sophisticated phone system that tracks every single call, and we have all those records. there ain't any anonymous phone calls. >> reporter: and strangest of all, the prosecution contended, just a month before the poisoning, ana staged an assault on herself. she told anyone who would listen that evette orchestrated the whole thing. >> she said she worked with a private investigator to try to find out who it was. she said that they traced this person back to louisiana, and he was a relative, i believe she said a cousin, of evette toney. >> reporter: but investigator sosa told the jury he thought her wounds were actually self-inflicted. you felt that they were inconsistent with the supposed attack that had happened? >> that's correct. >> reporter: the person who'd seen ana's apparent obsession up close was the object of it, a reluctant george blumenschein took the stand.

>> are you a private person? >> i would say yes. >> how private? >> very private. this is not easy. >> reporter: the prosecution needed george to rehash their relationship, how casual sex turned into something that almost killed him. >> it's hard saying no to her. she doesn't accept no. >> would you often tell her that this was a bad idea? >> regularly. >> reporter: george recounted how ana initiated their affair one day in his office. >> at some point, she sat on my knee. she said, "just shut up let me sit on your knee. it's not a problem." she started to kiss me on my neck. i remember what she would say, she said, "i'm going to eat your ear." >> reporter: but the prosecution didn't pretend their victim was an angel. >> well you didn't stop her. did you? >> i didn't, no. >> you cheated on evette. >> i did. i cheated on evette. it was the wrong thing to do. >> reporter: george said he was always clear with ana.

he wasn't leaving evette, but ana was still demanding. >> she accused me of not returning phone calls. >> reporter: ana, according to george, went over the top with fancy gifts, like gold jewelry from columbia, and a $5,000 watch. >> she bought herself the ladies version of it, and then said, "well, i can get you the guys version. would you like it?" i'm like, "you know i don't want that. that's too expensive. i don't want it." and then suddenly, "i bought it for you. here it is." >> reporter: and he said she forced him to accept a thousand-dollar suit. >> i'm like, "ana, i don't want a suit that i haven't seen." "no, no, no, you need a suit." i was like, "fine. if that's what you want to do, go ahead and do it." i ended up giving it to goodwill, and i felt like it was again pushing the boundary. >> reporter: what finally pushed ana over the edge, claimed the prosecutors, was when george and evette started talking babies and marriage. george recalled ana made this bizarre offer. >> she said, "you know what, i'd have a kid with you." "well, that's kind of you to say." "no, no, no, i can have a kid

with you, and i could move to europe for a year, and i can come back and you could be the uncle." and i was like, "no, thank you. that's not what we want to do." >> reporter: the prosecution argued if ana couldn't have george, no one could. >> the defendant had a fatal attraction. >> reporter: is dr. gonzalez glenn close? >> she fits the role, without a doubt. >> she's a bunny boiler. >> reporter: and then, the prosecution had george tell the jury about the day he almost died. >> the only thing that had been strange was that cup of coffee, the coffee that i had on sunday. >> reporter: and that was the key to the prosecutions case. ana served george coffee during their morning rendezvous. it was the only thing he said he drank that day before he felt sick. >> when you started drinking it, did you notice anything about it? >> it was incredibly sweet.

>> reporter: ethylene glycol has an intensely sweet flavor. george told the jury ana served the sweet coffee at her home and then brought more of it in travel mugs to the hospital. within hours of drinking it, he was lightheaded and slurring. >> i couldn't even remember who i was talking to or why i was there. >> reporter: and by night, he was in the icu. >> what's so hard about reliving this part? >> because i almost died. >> reporter: to button up their case, the prosecution called a leading expert in ethylene glycol. >> based on the time frame for when symptoms appear, i would conclude that he had ingested the ethylene glycol on sunday morning. >> the only thing he drank that morning was the coffee. and it was the coffee that strangely tasted sickeningly sweet. >> reporter: according to the prosecution, ana spent the day with the man she was trying to kill, watching him deteriorate

and following him as he finally drove himself to the hospital. >> we were working. >> reporter: the prosecution entered that cell phone video into evidence and told the jury to take a good look. ana was right there next to george, smiling, pretending to help when she knew full well what was wrong. >> coming up -- now, it's the defense's turn. the case against ana? >> nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nada. >> will the jury see it that way? i... didn't. it's buffering right out of the box he was impressed. i couldn't be happier. couldn't see him but i could hear him making fun of me. vo: you waited this long for the s6

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>> reporter: as the case against dr. ana maria gonzalez unfolded, she stood stoic, in a suit that seemingly overwhelmed her frame. nadine eidman, her former patient and now friend, came to court with ana each day. >> she just held on to her emotions, because she didn't want to fall apart in front of her family. but we get back in the car, and we'd would cry. we would pray, we would -- i'd scream. >> reporter: but now it was ana's defense team's turn to hit back. derek hollingsworth, andy drumheller and billy belk were ana's attorneys. they called her devious, dangerously deadly, diabolical. "fatal attraction." do you think that that started to stick with the jury. >> well, i mean, that was clearly what their goal was. i thought that the prosecutors' theory of the case, this diabolical killer, was a bit of an overreach. >> reporter: certainly, the defense told the jury, ana cared

for george, but not in the outrageous, homicidal way the prosecution claimed. >> this case is about a consenting consensual relationship between two peers. it's not a case of fatal attraction. >> reporter: the defense argued ana wasn't obsessed. she bought george gifts because she was generous. all those alleged plots were just sheer speculation. and under cross-examination, george had positive things to say about ana. >> she was a dear friend and somebody i cared about. >> reporter: as for ana becoming increasingly unhinged? george told the jury how in the days leading up to his poisoning, their casual relationship showed no signs of trouble. >> this wasn't a relationship that was in any kind of crisis on the week of january 25th, was it? >> no. >> in fact, nothing had changed in your relationship with dr. gonzalez at this point in time, had it? >> no. >> reporter: in fact, on the morning the prosecution said ana tried to poison george, he came

on to her. >> you actually carried her up the stairs to the bedroom she has upstairs, did you not? >> i did. >> surprise, you all have a romantic encounter when you're there, right? >> yes, sir. >> and it was one you initiated, not that she initiated that day. >> yes, sir. >> in fact, everything that happened in your relationship with this woman was consensual, wasn't it? >> yes, it was consensual. >> reporter: ana's attorneys attacked the investigation, charging that investigators dismissed the most obvious suspect too quickly. >> there can be no doubt that dr. evette toney would be a natural person of interest. and the fact of the matter is, she was never, ever investigated. >> reporter: the defense wasn't buying evette's story that she had no clue about the affair. >> you're a smart woman. >> thank you for saying that. >> aren't alarm bells going off in your head? >> i asked him the few times that i thought maybe something

was going on, and he said no. there's nothing i can do if someone's lying. >> did you ever follow him? >> no. >> did you ever think about it? >> no, it's just ridiculous. >> did it ever cross your mind? >> no. i'm sorry, i'm evette. >> reporter: then the defense flipped evette's cell phone video on its head, said it made her look suspicious. >> when she finally sees the man that she's in love with and wants to have children with she takes a cell phone video. she's not sitting next to the guy that she's been worried about all day but with her arms around him trying to comfort him and make sure he's okay. shes videoing him. it's just weird. >> reporter: and when it came to ana's behavior on that tape, the defense said she did something only an innocent person would do. she told the doctors about the coffee. >> he hadn't had anything to eat except for coffee and some cheese bread. >> don't people who commit crimes run away from the crimes scenes? don't they clam up and be quiet? but she's on the video talking about what happened that day.

>> reporter: but the defense's target was the science, or lack thereof. they went after the investigation for what they thought was a huge mistake, never testing the coffee cups. >> there's no scientific evidence. there's no scientist who came in here out of their 22 witnesses who talked. look if they're right i guess you could call this the murder weapon, right? if they're right then this is the weapon, the deadly weapon that dr. gonzalez used in this case, and you don't bother to test it? give me a break. >> reporter: so they grilled that expert who testified that george could only have ingested the poison sunday morning. turns out george had been drinking wine and vodka in the days before his symptoms surfaced. the defense got the expert to concede a big point. alcohol, or in technical terms, ethanol, could throw off his findings. >> if it was demonstrated that he had been consuming a large amount of ethanol over a long

period of time that would probably change my opinion. >> reporter: in their final words to the jury, ana's lawyers drove it home. >> what is the state's case missing? this is overly simple, but one shred of direct evidence. and there's nothing, this is nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. nada. >> reporter: after eight long days of testimony from experts, friends, and the well-respected doctors of m.d. anderson, the case against dr. ana maria gonzalez was now in the hands of the jury. both sides paced the halls of the courthouse waiting, hopeful and anxious. then after five hours of deliberation -- >> mr. foreman, i understand the jury has reached a verdict. >> we, the jury, find the defendent ana maria gonzalez-angulo guilty of aggravated assault of a person with whom the defendant had a dating relationship as charged in the indictment. >> she's innocent. she didn't do it. she's a good person. >> reporter: in texas, a

defendent can ask the jury to determine sentencing, as ana did. >> she was extremely kind. >> reporter: ana's patients filed in with pleas for leniency. >> she saved my life, and i always felt like she'd save a whole lot of other lives. >> reporter: ana's punishment could have been up 99 years in prison, but her character witnesses had an effect on the jury. >> you are sentenced in accordance with the terms of the jury's verdict to ten years in the texas department of criminal justice. go with the bailiff. >> reporter: ana, once among the top breast cancer doctors in the world, was now just another convict in the texas prison system. >> the medical community has definitely lost a giant. but not just us, but future generations. >> reporter: one month after she was sentenced, ana's lawyers filed an appeal. it contained statements from three women claiming they'd also had affairs with george, statements ana's lawyers said the jury should have heard. >> there could be other suspects out there that the police never

investigated. >> reporter: today george blumenschein is back at m.d. anderson, the world-class cancer center, treating patients and researching cures for lung cancer. in prison, dr. gonzalez is helping cancer patients in a support group. but she surrendered her medical license after the trial, and it's uncertain if she'll ever be able to practice medicine in the united states again. >> she took an oath to not hurt anyone, to do no harm. in the hippocratic oath, it actually says, "you shall not administer poison." she violated that in the worst possible way. she spun a web of lies, of deceit, of manipulation. and in this case, now she's paying for it. 3 f2 ahora está pagando por eso. y another mystery, this one deadly. >> he loved his daughter. his daughter was his life. >> it was a puzzle for police. why would a father drop off his

daughter and disappear? >> there was something going on here. >> then they found it -- the diary he recorded in secret. >> this whole thing is just getting absurd. >> and the clues came pouring out. blood in the bushes. >> this was the hot spot, this was your crime scene. >> a stunner of a surveillance tape. >> a tarp, a rope. >> everything you might need for a murder. >> exactly. >> and what just may be -- >> i told you to have one, doofus. >> you did not. >> -- the most sinister mother-daughter conversation you've ever overheard. >> it's kind of already in motion. you need to do your part. >> these are not the same people that the public thinks they are. >> you realize how cold this family is. >> it's pretty twisted. >> very twisted. >> tonight, andrea canning with "family affair." >> 9-1-1 where is the emergency? >> there's a fire burning. it may be a car. >> you think it might be a car? >> reporter: as a hot august night turned into day, a car

burst into flames. the sound of popping tires woke up the neighbors on a quiet street near the jersey shore. >> is anybody in the car, can you tell? >> reporter: no one knew how it happened, or why. but when those questions were finally answered, a bigger mystery unraveled. >> reporter: only four miles from there, but a world away, was a cosy cul-de-sac, where the dorsett family lived. everyone knew the dorsetts. there was thomas, busy with his refrigeration business, but not too busy to lend a hand. wife lesley, a school board member. and daughther kathleen, a kindergarten teacher. kathleen loved her work, loved her parents and seemed happy nestled into the neighborhood where she grew up. but she longed for a family of her own. and then she met stephen moore, could she have found someone

more different? stephen grew up in southern california. chillin' at the beach taking things, easy according to his friend cam graham. >> he never really held a job. but he always was working. he always would find something to do. >> stephen's mom evlyn says her son wasn't lazy, just laid back. >> he got by. but he wasn't truly motivated. >> reporter: but if stephen was serious about anything, it was skating. >> we'd go skating on the beach. >> his friend missy queen skated too, but not like stephen. he took the bronze at the national speed skating competition. >> he would encourage me to, you know, to skate fast. and he'd be away ahead of me. [ laughter ] >> reporter: when he wasn't skating, he was happy to go wherever, whenever. like when his mother,evlyn, a travel agent invited him to see the world. he was 30-something, free and hehis mom. so why not? >> he was adventurous. >> here i am, on an elephant

ride. >> what countries did you take him to? >> boy. lll well, we did most of asia, most of europe, south america. we had a lot of interesting experiences and had a lot of fun. >> i have not inhaled. me and clinton. don't inhale. >> reporter: eventually evlyn decided to retire to the jersey shore, and she wanted stephen to come too. she needed his help. so her loyal son grabbed his skates and the rest of his stuff and jumped in his car. >> it was packed with every, every single thing that he owned was in that car. it was funny. >> reporter: he knocked around for a few years, and then one day in 2006 he met kathleen dorsett. >> i knew she was a schoolteacher and that she lived in jersey and that he was in

love with her. >> it seemed like he found the one. >> reporter: and if opposites attract, this match couldn't miss. kathleen dorsett seemed as grounded as it gets. she had her own house, right across the street from her folks. and she was great with children, as friends noticed when stephen brought her out to california. >> and they came down and stayed, i think, a week with us. she seemed really nice. they took my kids out and took 'em shopping and bought some games for them and stuff like that. stephen started taking life a little more seriously, he got a job at the local honda dealership, and did really well according to his co-worker and friend lloyd mccracken. >> oh, absolutely. absolutely. he -- he -- it's more -- he was a team player, you know? he -- if -- if you needed something, you can always -- you can always depend on him. >> reporter: kathleen was eager to start a family of her own. so about a year after they met, she and stephen got married. >> he couldn't believe this was happening, he was just so happy. >> reporter: so there he was.

stephen moore. solid citizen with the steady job, the wife, and the nice in-laws across the street. >> you know, he said, "i'm finally settlin' down. you know, i got a family. besides takin' care of his mother, he had somebody else he could actually take care of. >> reporter: and kids couldn't come fast enough after that. elizabeth was born about a year and a half after the wedding. >> do you remember the day she was born? >> oh my god yes. and i can remember standing at the nursery, and he stood there with his arms around me. crying, both of us, lookin' at her. >> reporter: kathleen seemed born to be a mother. and stephen? >> and all of a sudden it all came together for him. and his daughter made a man out of him. >> reporter: that should have been the beginning of the happy ending for stephen and his wife kathleen. but in 2010, on a monday morning in august, stephen just didn't show up for work. the guys at honda called kathleen. she hadn't seen him since early morning.

>> i knew somethin' was wrong, 'cause he's -- he's there before me. and when he didn't show up i started callin' his phone, but it kept on going to voice mail. his mom evlyn was taking a little vacation in maine. maybe he had blown off work to join her. lloyd mccracken doubted it. >> when i finally got ahold of her, i just said, "do you know where your son is? and she says, "no." and then she started panicking. >> i called him, and he didn't answer. >> reporter: the honda folks waited a couple of hours, then called the police, detective al vega handled the missing persons investigation. >> about noon on august 16th we received a call from the employer of stephen, expressin' that he didn't show up for work. >> reporter: police learned stephen had loaned evlyn his own car to make the long drive to maine because it was newer and safer. he was driving his mom's car until she got back. >> maybe he's -- he drove somewhere and there's a bad car crash and no one knows where he's at. >> reporter: where was stephen moore? as police followed his trail they caught a tantalizing

glimpse of where he had been. but the question remained, where did he go? >> when we come back, the first clues to stephen's disappearance. a text from kathleen. >> said where are you, everyone is looking for you. >> a stop at the store. >> there was a transaction, a local quick check. >> investigators couldn't imagine. >> never had a case with so many twists and turns. ♪ ♪

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>> reporter: as the day wore on, stephen's work friends grew more worried. a no-show at the dealership, he

wasn't answering his phone. detectives looking for him needed a crash course in stephen's life. they started with the family he had married into. there was kathleen of course. dedicated teacher. attentive mother, the kind who made her own baby food and fretted over every detail of her daughter's care. did you check into their standing in the community? >>i knew what and who they were to the fact that she was a teacher, and where they resided. >> reporter: detective jeff wilbert learned that stephen's father in-law thomas adored his granddaughter. and he got along with the neighbors too. >> we had stories of thomas shoveling sidewalks and driveways. and if there was a mechanical failure on an air conditioner or something like that, a simple phone call and thomas would be there. >> reporter: and stephen's mother in law, leslie. nearly everyone saw her campaign ads when she ran for the school board.

>> today i want to introduce myself, tell you who i am and tell you why i am qualified to serve you. >> reporter: detectives also learned that the dorsetts often hosted pool parties and barbeques on this little block. stephen's friend cam came for a visit. >> her parents lived on the corner right there. so i mean, it was just like right across the street. >> reporter: but when investigators talked to kathleen and her parents about where stephen might be, they weren't much help. because, as it turns out, stephen didn't live there any more. for stephen and kathleen, wedded bliss didn't last very long. detectives learned the marriage went downhill after the baby was born. kathleen, always driven, was a super-mom and friends say she made stephen feel like he couldn't do anything right. >> he wasn't holding the baby right. he wasn't changing the diapers right. he wasn't putting her down for naps at the right time.

>> you know, just very protective of the child, which is sometimes, you know, mothers are like that in the beginning. >> reporter: so in love with her baby, friends told police how kathleen hovered over her care. >> i was like, "hey, you know, it's the hormones and everything going on with her and blah, blah, blah. just relax and just, kind of go with it a little bit and see what happens. >> reporter: but stephen complained it didn't get better. >> she wasn't showing him any love anymore and no -- the intimacy, everything was gone. >> reporter: and there was another problem for stephen. the cozy life across the street from the in-laws had gotten a little too cozy. police learned that the doting grandparents couldn't stay away. >> they would just pop in unannounced, not even knock, just walk in the house at any time. he was kind, felt that was kind of weird. >> reporter: investigators learned that stephen felt so smothered that when elizabeth

was ten months old he walked out on his wife and in-laws, and moved back in with his mom. the divorce became final just a few months before stephen disappeared. cam had to wonder, maybe stephen just needed to get away. >> it did cross my mind, you know, when you're going through these things, sometimes, you just want to disappear for a little bit and not talk to anybody and kind of get your thoughts together and find out exactly what's going on. >> reporter: but that's not the vibe investigators were getting. his mother said stephen didn't sound like he wanted to get away. in fact, he sounded pretty happy the night before he disappeared. he was enjoying an overnight visit with 20-month-old elizabeth. >> he called me. he said, "we're in our jammies and we're watching cartoons." and i said, "sleep tight. i'll talk to you tomorrow." >> reporter: the next morning, he left the baby with kathleen. >> stephen showed up to her house around 7:45 a.m. with their daughter. he drops them off. >> reporter: kathleen told investigators she hadn't heard from him since, even when she sent him a text. what was the text message she sent to him? >> she showed me her phone and

it said, "where are you? everyone is looking for you." >> reporter: so investigators ran through all the possibilities. did he have a girlfriend? >> no, not that we were aware of. anything bad? was he into drugs? anything that would get him into trouble? >> no, not that we're aware of. >> reporter: financial issues? >> no. >> reporter: but when police looked at his checking account, it showed something. two debit charges posted on monday afternoon. >> i found out that there was a transaction at a local quick check on that day for, like, $9. and then there was another transaction, later on that day, at a chipotle in eatontown, which is in the same town as that he works in. >> reporter: this is after he dropped off his daughter at kathleen's. >> correct, correct. >> reporter: so whatever happened to stephen could well have happened later on monday. another day went by. no stephen. then, in the early morning hours of wednesday, august 18th, a 911 call came into dispatch.

>> 9-1-1, where is the emergency? >> there's a fire right outside my apartment. >> reporter: a car fire had erupted in a lonely section of of long branch, new jersey, not far from the dorsett's tidy, peaceful little street. the question "where was stephen moore" was about to be answered. 3 f2 stephen moore iba a ser do descubren un diario secreto >> recordings by stephen himself when "dateline" continues. help. i'm so glad somebody helped. hunger lives closer than you think. purchase participating items at walmart and you can help secure a meal for

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>> reporter: the call went out just after 4:00 in the morning. a car had erupted in flames in long branch, new jersey. by the time detective al vega arrived on the scene, he'd already gotten word -- the car was evelyn moore's, the same one her son stephen was driving when he disappeared. detective vega had a bad feeling. >> i'm like, gosh, here we go. you know, it's -- i knew -- i had that intuition -- it's

going to be bad and then it was. during fire suppression efforts, they found unidentify -- unidentifiable human remains in the -- in the trunk. >> reporter: it was the body of a man, burned beyond recognition. investigators could make out a tattoo that was identical to stephen's. the missing person's case had just taken a tragic turn. stephen moore, devoted father and loving son, was dead. detective jeff wilbert with the monmouth county prosecutors office took charge. >> the vehicle was parked here and this is when we picked up the homicide investigation. >> and then it took on a whole new direction. >> it did. >> did you have any theories as to what might've happened? >> no, at that point in time, we did not. >> reporter: one thing was clear, whoever torched the car had started with the trunk, where the victim was. >> the rear bumper just completely melted off the rear of the vehicle. >> could you tell how the fire

was started? >> once you open the trunk and once the body was removed, there definitely was an obvious odor of gasoline. >> reporter: now that he had gone from missing person to murder victim, investigators had to look at everything in stephen's life. >> we -- we spent some time looking into stephen's background. we learned that stephen was a competitive speed skater. >> reporter: but his life as a skater turned up nothing. >> how was he doing at work? >> we learned that he was doing really well at work. >> reporter: so, investigators took a closer look at stephen's brief marriage to kathleen and learned how bad it really got. friends like missy queen thought kathleen had gone mad with motherhood. like the time stephen tried to feed elizabeth a smidgen of sauerkraut. >> she screamed at him, there's -- that -- you know, "you don't feed a baby sauerkraut, you know, that's not

baby food." >> reporter: stephen's divorce attorney veronica davis says she'd never seen anything like it. >> she had a list. she gave him a schedule, a written schedule, an outline and she wanted him to fill in the blanks. "what did she eat today? when did she nap? when did she go to the bathroom? how long did she sleep?" and she would call. even if he had her for three hours, she would call four times. "what is she doing?" it was very disconcerting. it was dysfunctional. >> reporter: the dysfunction was seeping into stephen's life at work. lloyd mccracken told police how kathleen would bring the baby over, it seemed, just to humiliate him in front of his co-workers. >> i think it was more out of spite she would bring the baby in, and he would try to pick up the baby or ho out of his arms. and then it came into a yelling match and then she would storm out. >> he goes, "i just feel like i -- that's all she wanted out of me was just the baby." he was basically a sperm donor, basically, yeah. that's how he felt. >> reporter: investigators learned that even though the divorce was final, the custody

battle was never-ending. stephen fought for more time with his daughter, but to his mom it looked like an uphill battle. he couldn't afford the endless litigation. >> her parents had more money than i did to help him. and so he didn't -- he didn't stand a chance. >> reporter: but his divorce attorney saw him toughen up, deciding when enough was enough. >> she was issuing all these edicts and that's when he came to me, panicked, and we did go into court immediately. >> reporter: so stephen was pushing back and investigators looking at this case took note -- stephen's friends and family believe kathleen thought she had married a passive, go-along guy but end up with a man who wouldn't roll over. >> he had overnight visits and stuff like that. i know that she did not like that at all. because she could not control what was happening. >> reporter: detective wilbert heard plenty about the custody battle from friends and family,

but then discovered evidence that was both powerful and unique. stephen had kept an audio diary. >> he was documenting all the issues that were going on between he and kathleen. >> reporter: stephen made this recording about three weeks before his murder. >> i'm getting very tired of katy calling me and questioning every move i make. i'm able to take care of our child just as well as she can. >> it's one of those few homicide cases that when you really want to get into that victim's head and know exactly what's going on. stephen left it for us. >> it's always b.s. and it's her way or no way. i just want to be able to spend bull. >> reporter: investigators also heard stephen standing up for

his rights. he recorded one exchange with kathleen as he was picking up the baby for a short visit. kathleen was planning to take elizabeth for a weekend trip out-of-state against his wishes. >> are you still planning on going to florida? >> yeah. >> okay, i would like an itinerary. i would like to know who, what airline you're flying on. >> why? >> why? because it's my right. >> okay. >> and times. >> okay, we'll see. yeah, sure. i'll give 'em to you. >> and when are you leaving? >> thursday, like i told you. >> okay, i'm still not -- this is still not right. >> good for you that it's not right. >> reporter: investigators could hear kathleen digging at stephen in front of their daughter. >> i know you don't want to go, but it is what it is. it is what it is my princess. >> reporter: and what it was was ugly and bitter. but a lot of custody fights are like that and they don't end in murder. the mystery of who killed stephen moore was still a puzzle. but the pieces were about to

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>> reporter: kathleen dorsett and stephen moore seemed to be at war over custody of their baby. so detectives were surprised to learn that the couple had actually agreed on something a couple of months before stephen's disappearance. they were planning a move. together. >> were they moving soon? >> they were. she said construction was ahead of schedule and that they planned on moving in the next couple weeks. >> reporter: the plan came together after kathleen announced she was taking the baby and moving with her parents to florida. instead of fighting it, stephen worked with his attorney to iron out an agreement. the dorsetts could take elizabeth to florida, if they took stephen too.

>> they would get him an apartment. and he would only have to pay $600 a month towards the rent, and that it would be in close proximity to where they lived. and that they would actually give him financial support until he got a job. >> with this agreement, did stephen sort of think that things were turning around? i mean-- >> yeah. >> was he okay with it? >> yeah, he was hopeful. he was willing to move to florida. >> reporter: stephen's friend cam thought it was a bad idea. >> i really told him, "no, no. don't do it." and i -- i just wouldn't trust 'em. >> reporter: and in fact, investigators learned the florida plan wasn't solving the problems between kathleen and stephen. his friends said kathleen was criticizing him more than ever. so stephen stopped answering his phone so he could save kathleen's voicemails. just keeping a record in case he needed it some day. >> i'm gonna tell you for the last time, we are following the schedule we've been following since we got a divorce. >> reporter: investigators heard th reaching the boiling point. >> stephen left it for us. he left it for the investigative team.

even leading up ten days prior to his death, he had his voice recording diary going. and it was very helpful. >> and i don't give a [ bleep ] what you think. you're right, my way or the highway, [ bleep ]. >> reporter: as police considered the awful problems between kathleen and stephen, another key piece of information came to light. those debit charges that hit stephen's account after he dropped the baby off? well, another check with the bank revealed that stephen made those charges a few days before. here he is at chipotle a few days before he disappeared. that charge he made just didn't show up until monday. >> once we realized it brought us back to the fact that stephen was last seen alive, in front of kathleen dorsett's house that monday morning. >> reporter: so, with all that information, investigators made a bee-line back to kathleen dorsett and that cozy cul-de-sac. detective wilbert began with an update from the medical examiner. >> i said, "the medical examiner

ruled it as a homicide. traumatic, blunt-force trauma was the -- was the -- you know, the cause." and -- i said -- you know, "do you have any questions?" and -- and she said -- "how -- how am i supposed to respond to this?" >> reporter: so calm. it still wasn't clear where this line of questioning would lead -- until another investigator pulled detective wilbert aside. he'd been talking to the neighbors and they had a story to tell. >> on the morning of august 16th, they were both woke from their sleep after hearing screams. and, in fact, one of the neighbors actually looked out her window, her bedroom window, and she saw kathleen towards the back of the house. >> reporter: and the neighbor, she inquired, "are -- are you okay? what's going on?" and kathleen said, "close the window." >> reporter: screams, on the morning stephen disappeared. later, kathleen told the neighbors that it was the dog,

having a seizure. detective wilbert thought he might be standing at a crime scene. he asked kathleen if they could search her property. >> without hesitation, she said, "no, that's fine." >> reporter: the detective was struck by her nonchalant response but still wasted no time in telling his investigator. >> "make sure the -- the entire crime scene unit gets here as quick as possible." >> and while we were waiting for the crime scene unit to show up, she offered us food, a drink, the bathroom. i remember eating grapes with her in her kitchen. and, like, everything was normal. >> reporter: kathleen also talked about her gardening efforts. they put in some new mulch to spruce up the yard for the upcoming open house, she said. >> it was odd. and it was an area of interest >> reporter: it seemed like she was just trying to make small talk but when the crime scene investigators showed up -- it was one of the first places they checked. one of the forensic detectives put on protective gloves. he had put his hand into the mulch. and in fact, came up with --

with blood on the protective glove. not a few smatterings. lots of blood. and it tested human. >> coming up. the ex-wife makes a trip to the station. and then a stunner on surveillance tape. >> looks like a tarp, a rope, a 4 x 4. >> everything you might need for a murder. >> yes, exactly. >> someone is caught on camera, and it is definitely not kathleen when "dateline" continues. ht. plug it in for ten minutes and they say you get, like four hours of battery. what? they're coming? ♪♪ (clattering, struggling)

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>> reporter: some home improvement had changed the landscape of the stephen moore murder investigation in ways that no one saw coming. crime scene investigators found human blood around some new mulch at the home of kathleen dorsett. detective wilbert brought kathleen down to the station and the chatty woman who'd just been serving him grapes now refused to talk. >> do you wish to? >> no. >> reporter: prosecutor marc lemieux had the blood, along with the reports of screaming on the morning stephen disappeared, and the bad history

between kathleen and stephen. but he wanted to nail down the details of the case -- so he let her leave the station. >> we did not charge her yet and the reason for that is we wanted to sit back and figure out was there more to this story. >> reporter: two days later, they made a decision. with police cameras rolling, the investigation team went back to kathleen's home. >> i remember walking up to the door and knocking on the door. >> thomas had answered it and invited me in. i told kathleen that she was under arrest for the murder of stephen moore. she was handcuffed and she was quickly escorted from the residence. >> reporter: the neighbors watched, flabbergasted, as kathleen dorsett, teacher, devoted mother, and daughter of a nice respectable couple, was arrested for the murder of stephen moore. her father, still standing in her house, was clearly devastated. who knows what triggered his

next move but very early the next morning, thomas dorsett drove to his attorney's office. >> he parked there and it looked like he was taking a nap. >> was he really taking a s attorney arrived shortly after 8:00 a.m., he pulled in, parked his vehicle next to thomas dorsett's vehicle, and then all of a sudden panic set in. >> reporter: thomas wasn't sleeping. >> thomas had a tube hooked to a 30-pound refrigerant canister. and -- the tube was in his mouth. >> reporter: police busted through his truck window and pulled him out. he was rushed to the hospital in a coma. >> suicide attempt? >> that's what it was. >> reporter: his daughter's arrest may have pushed him over the edge, but police suspected something other than despair caused thomas to try to kill himself. they took a closer look. one thing they knew: thomas shared his daughter's over the top devotion to little elizabeth. it was something detective wilbert noticed when they first met. >> and i said -- "you know, i

noticed it looked like there was a picture in your pocket, what is it?" and like a deck of cards, he laid out 17 photographs of his daughter and his granddaughter. >> reporter: family members say he carried those photos with him all the time. they were there on the dashboard when he tried to kill himself. investigators also heard from lloyd mccracken that thomas shared his daughter's rage at stephen. lloyd remembers the calls stephen used to get at work from thomas. >> pretty much every day. you'd hear everything, all the yelling, the screaming, the threats. >> reporter: and during kathleen's arrest, thomas did something the investigators all noticed. >> as soon as we entered into the residence, thomas dorsett removed his wallet from his back pocket and as if he was gonna turn it over like. "let me --." >> as if he was --. >> exactly. like, "let me get rid of my property right now." >> he was gonna get arrested was what it looked like. >> right. >> reporter: but more than anything, the prosecutor focused on the cause of stephen's death: blunt force trauma and strangulation. >> what was the significance of

the injuries? >> the significance of that led us to clearly know that this was something more than just kathleen being involved. >> reporter: but police still didn't have any hard evidence to connect thomas to the crime until -- >> there was a phone call that came in from a restaurant owner in long branch -- >> reporter: this restaurant owner had some videotape he said, that might be of interest to the investigators. >> we left the scene where thomas tried to commit suicide and we immediately responded to the restaurant in long branch. >> reporter: there they found this security video recorded monday, august 16th -- the morning of stephen moore's disappearance. it shows two cars arriving one after another. the first car grabbed their attention. it was evlyn moore's, the car stephen was driving before his death and there, behind the wheel -- evlyn moore's vehicle and kathleen dorsett following thomas in her vehicle. >> this is such a moment for

you. >> it's a breaking moment. >> reporter: evlyn moore's car? what was thomas doing with it? the investigators were sure at the moment the video was taken, stephen's body had to be in the trunk of that car. an hour later, thomas returned to the dumpster, this time in his white van. >> it got better. thomas dorsett pulls back into that parking lot area. thomas is seen wearing protective gloves and discarding a number of items into the dumpster to include a garbage can filled with items. it looks like a tarp, a rope, and a four-by-four. >> everything you might need for a murder. >> yes, exactly. >> reporter: so to investigators that put thomas, as well as kathleen, in the thick of the crime. >> but thomas is now in a coma. are you just waiting and waiting for him to wake up so you can get this show on the road? >> we didn't care if he woke up or not. we -- we charged him that-- that day. we had officers surrounding his

bed. he was never going anywhere again but to a jail cell. >> reporter: and that's indeed what happened when thomas woke up. he was transferred to the monmouth county jail. >> what do you think happened that morning in that driveway? >> i think that on monday morning, a plan was made for kathleen to have stephen to go down the driveway to go get some tools from the basement. as he came down, thomas was standing behind a bush, next to the driveway, and as he came down, he was struck right in the face. stephen was bleeding all over that driveway, bleeding into the bushes. and we know that thomas takes a rope that he throws out later and he uses that rope to extinguish any ounce of life that stephen had left. >> reporter: with kathleen and

her father in jail, a court decided that kathleen's mother lesley wasn't a fit guardian. so grandma evlyn, stephen's mother, got the baby. in the end, the investigators believed kathleen and thomas killed stephen because they wanted him away from the baby and out of their lives. >> if they had have ever made it to florida, did they have a backup plan for stephen? >> someone that got close with kathleen after the murder had told her that one of their plans was to feed stephen to the alligators down in florida. >> it's like it just keeps getting taken to a whole new level. >> exactly. >> reporter: it seemed like a slam-dunk case but as kathleen sat in jail awaiting trial, she didn't sound like a woman facing hard time. on the phone with her mother, she sounded oddly breezy, almost cheerful. >> how was dinner? >> very nice. we went to the place where luigi's funeral was. >> oh, ok. >> reporter: just the beginning

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>> reporter: four months after the death of stephen moore, kathleen dorsett and her father were in jail awaiting trial for his murder. the baby at the center of the tragedy, elizabeth, was no longer living on the friendly street where the dorsetts once threw barbeques and christmas parties. she was wtih stephen's mother evlyn. >> i just want her to be happy and able to live the way she wants to. >> reporter: and so kathleen dorsett lost the thing she cared about the most.

her baby. given all that, you would think that kathleen would have been wallowing in despair while she was sitting in jail but that's not how she sounded when she called her mother. >> how was the party? >> ok. >> how was everybody? >> wonderful time. everybody sent you their regards. laura specifically. >> oh really? >> yeah. >> oh, good. >> reporter: they talked about the weather. >> yeah, we're only supposed to get four or six inches. >> reporter: and the cats. >> you know what those bratty cats knocked down? elizabeth's strawberry shortcake plate and broke it. >> oh, no. >> and i didn't think they could be broken. >> reporter: and gossiped about a friend's kids. >> yeah, she can't take care of them by herself. >> well, they're uncontrollable. >> yup. >> reporter: and they also talked about money. kathleen, an inmate, suddenly needed a lot of cash. >> how much can you come up with in cash? >> i told you. >> just $1,000? that's it? >> that's all i have left. >> reporter: mother and daughter

met in person after that. then came this cagey call. >> what we discussed at the visit. >> yeah. >> it's kind of already in motion. you need to do your part. >> reporter: something was brewing. >> remember natural? write that. the word diabetic. that's it. and, the original amount i told you in money, $1,000. that's it. >> ok. >> seal it. someone will meet you there. it's not even gonna be someone you know. >> reporter: that "someone" was this man. >> i'm sami. i'm the guy kathleen dorsett hired to kill evlyn moore. >> reporter: evlyn moore, the grandmother who had custody of baby elizabeth. >> kathleen dorsett had set up that i would meet the mother at the target in ocean township. >> reporter: so on the appointed day, elizabeth's grandmother leslie dorsett arrived at the target with an envelope of cash and evlyn moore's address, ready

to put the hit on the other grandmother. there she is looking for sami. >> hello? what's happening? >> hi. >> did she have the $1,000? >> she provided me a white envelope with the $1,000 cash. >> how much is in here? >> 1000. >> cash? >> cash. >> 1-2-3-4. >> they also provided me, evelyn moore's address on that envelope. >> how do you want this done? looking like an accident? >> no. natural. >> natural? >> as possible. >> natural. did they have any suggestions? >> poisoning. >> so, like a poisoning, or, you tell me. >> she's a diabetic. >> they told me that evelyn moore was a diabetic and they wanted to make it look like she either died in her sleep, some type of medication overdose. but certainly they didn't want a brutal murder where it would bring attention coming back to them. >> you also had asked for a photo. was was that provided? >> it was not. >> reporter: she said that kathleen dorsett did not tell her to bring the photo. >> thought i told you to have

one, doofus. >> i did -- you did not. >> yes i did. i told you to write the stuff on the back of the picture. that's what i told you. >> nope. >> yes, i did. >> i never. >> yes, i did. yes, i did. yes, i did. yes, i did. yes, i did, mother. >> reporter: so mother did as she was told. she got the picture of evlyn, got back in her car, and headed out to mail the photo to the hitman. however -- >> this hit was never really gonna happen, was it? >> it was not. >> why not? >> because i'm a detective from the monmouth county prosecutor's office. >> reporter: not hitman sami, but detective scott samis. it turns out, kathleen's cellmate tipped him off that kathleen wanted to put a hit on evlyn. the cellmate said kathleen was so angry evlyn had custody, she wanted to have evlyn killed. so the cops were onto them from the start. >> lots of people don't like their mother-in-law. but murder? >> it was highly disturbing to know and see what happened here. >> reporter: lesley was arrested with evlyn's picture in an envelope on the passenger seat. and now kathleen, already

charged with murder, was also charged with attempted murder. >> how shocking was it? how did you even find out that this plan was in motion? >> to kill me? jeff'll tell you. >> i said, "lesley's been arrested for conspiracy to commit murder." and she said, "on who?" and i said, "on you. lesley and kathleen had plotted to kill you." >> reporter: with the murder for hire plot revealed, the case against the dorsetts came together, so 3 years after stephen was killed. >> after stephen was convinced to retrieve his tools, i took my daughter into my house knowing all the time my father was back there waiting to kill him. >> reporter: the dorsetts had a family reunion of sorts in monmouth county superior court. kathleen dorsett, the former school teacher, pleaded guilty to those charges of murder and attempted murder. thomas dorsett, doting grandfather and good neighbor, pleaded guilty to murder and arson for hire.

leslie dorsett, former school board member, pleaded guilty to 2nd degree conspiracy to commit murder. >> the goal was to kill evlyn. >> reporter: leslie was sentenced to 7 years in prison, thomas 45, and kathleen got 58. thomas wrote a letter to dateline, to say that stephen's murder "was not planned." it was, he wrote, "the first fight of my life." and katy was not involved. he also wrote that he and kathleen, "took the pleas to save my wife's life". reporter: kathleen will not be allowed to see her daughter. elizabeth can decide for herself when she comes of age. >> the crazy thing about this is that it all centered around a child. and she so desperately wanted to have this child. >> and that's what she never thought about. she didn't realize at the end of the day she was eliminating her own ability to be a mom. >> did it feel though, like kathleen was the ringleader of everything that happened in this family? >> absolutely. definitely. she was running the show.

it was her world and everybody else was just living in it. >> reporter: evlyn tries not to think about the dorsetts. she is so grateful to the prosecution team who solved her son's murder and saved her life. >> and scott had my back, literally. >> he's my hit man. my own private hit man. and detective jeff wilbert has a special place in her heart. >> jeff, i couldn't love him more if he was my son. that's really the way i feel. >> reporter: mostly she wants to give her youngest son the credit she feels he deserves. >> what do you tell your granddaughter about her father? what's the most important thing that she knows as she grows up? >> that he loved her. that he's in heaven, and he's looking down. and he'll always be there, loving her.

>> how you doin' big girl? hi there. oh daddy loves you. oh daddy loves you. yes he does. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." we'll see you again sunday at 7:00, 6:00 central.

now at 11:00, new details about the census bureau shooting mayhem. a business manager talks about how the chaos cost her thousands the of dollars. crews race to the scene after a car flies off the road. chopper 4