48 Hours Mystery The Railroad Killer - Serial Killer

48 Hours Mystery The Railroad Killer - Serial Killer

The lone survivor of a serial killer on a multi-state killing spree tells her story
Produced by Lourdes Aguiar and Michael McHugh

This story originally aired Dec. 11, 2010.


What if someone wanted you dead... but you lived to tell?

At age 20, college junior Holly Dunn came face-to-face with an infamous serial killer who earned his nickname by choosing victims along the railroad tracks. After being raped, beaten and stabbed, Holly somehow found the will to survive. She would learn that her attacker was responsible for a multi-state killing spree. The race was on to find him before he killed again.

Heather Dunn Niemeier, Holly's sister: I began writing as a process of healing. ...The writing, I found, really helped me deal with what had happened.

Heather reads: "Since as far back as I can remember, I've had the same dream. I'm running. I was constantly running away from someone. We lived on 13 acres. So, I could never get someone to hear my screams or run fast enough. I would run down the hill of the front to our house across the fields.

There were many mornings that I would wake up after a night of running all night in my dreams. But, then run down the stairs to play with my younger sister. We had a great time growing up together. We had that special bond that you hear people talk about. We were so close.

[Aug. 29, 1997] I didn't get to hear the answering machine until I got home that night. ...I remember there being an oddly high number of calls. But three of the messages were from my dad.

The room was dark and she woke up [at University of Kentucky Medical Center]. She was lying on her side and I put my head to her face and just held her. It was there that she told me the worst story that I had heard in my life. Maybe this is what I had been running from in all those dreams as a child - this horrific story that happened to my sister."

Holly Dunn, Heather's sister: In late August 1997, I was a student at the University of Kentucky. It was about the second night of classes. It was a Thursday night. And I went to a party with my boyfriend, Chris Maier, not far from campus. It was a little bit boring, so we packed up Chris' backpack with some beers, and we were gonna head down to the tracks.

We sat there and talked for a while, I'm not sure how long, but we got up to leave and go back to the party. And we started walking along the tracks. And when we got to an electrical box beside the tracks a man came out from behind it. He asked us for money. We of course said, "We don't have any money, we're poor college kids".

And I don't know if it was an ice pick, if it was a screwdriver, but he had it on Chris the whole time. He asked Chris to get down on his hands and knees... He went through his backpack and didn't find anything that he wanted. And I didn't realize it, but he was tying up Chris' hands with the backpack... behind his back.

And he took off my belt and tied up my hands behind my back with my belt. And he actually pulled Chris from the tracks, on the gravel, into the grass beside the tracks. In my head, I was panicking. And I was like saying my last prayer. And thinking, "I'm going to die."

Holly Dunn: It was very dark and you couldn't see very well. So it was very startling to see someone come out that was crouched behind an electrical box.

Chris and I were looking at each other I think in disbelief that this was actually going on. Like, we were looking at each other very confused. Like, "What in the heck is happening?"

You know, I remember saying, "Why are you doing this? What do you want? Do you want credit cards? ATM cards? You can have our car it's just parked down the street." You know, we were just trying to figure out what he wanted.

And, at this point, our attacker ripped a shirt. And he gagged us. I actually stuck my tongue out so that the gag wouldn't work. It just fell off.

We had split seconds in where - our attacker would go back up to the tracks and we were down in the grass. And so, we could talk to each other, and... Chris and I started strategizing, you know, saying, "OK, should I run? Can you get untied?" I got my hands untied. I couldn't get my feet untied. I ripped Chris' gag off of his mouth. And so, we were talking to each other, trying to figure out how we were going to get away... Because Chris kept saying, "You know if you can get yourself untied get away, run away." Because he couldn't get - his arms were all tied up in his backpack. And he couldn't get untied.

And I really don't know how much time passed before our attacker came down carrying a rock. ...and he came over and literally just dropped it on Chris' head.

I think, at that point, I went into survival mode. I, you know, to see him drop this rock on Chris' head, and... He climbed on top of me. I realized, at that point, that he was going to rape me. I fought him. I tried to hit him. I tried to kick him. I tried to scream. That's when he took that weapon that he had, and he held it to my neck and he said, "Look how easily I could kill you." That's when he stabbed me in my neck. And so, I just stopped. I was like, "Okay, well, you know, what's gonna happen is gonna happen."

I was staring at every scar he had, every tattoo he had. I was thinking, "Let me remember everything about you that I can, because we'll get you at some point."

And I tried to rip off my fingernails and dig in the dirt so that if I was taken away, someone would know that I had been there. I started saying, you know, "What are you? Where have you been? What do you need?" You know, "how can I help you?" You know, "I really have a family that wants to see me again." I said, "Do you have friends? Do you have a family?"

I was begging him, "Please don't hurt me." You know, "I will let you go. I won't tell anybody what happened here, just don't hurt me."

That's when he started hitting me. I don't remember being hit. I was hit with some sort of wooden board. ...I think I put my hand up to block it. But I was hit five or six times in the front of my face and then, I turned over, and I was hit five or six times in the back of my head. I'm positive that he probably knocked me unconscious. And ... my breathing was shallow enough that he thought he had killed me.

I don't know how long I laid there. But, at some point, I got up, and I realized that he was gone. I knew that I was injured. I knew that I was hurt. I don't think I knew what my injuries were. I realized that my mouth wasn't shutting right. And I was covered in blood.

I walked about 200 yards or so ... maybe on the rocks along the tracks.

Chad Goetz, University Senior: It was - probably 1:00, 2:00 in the morning. It was between 1:00 and 2:00. I was sitting in my chair, studying. And out of the corner of my eye just glimpsed something go across the front yard. She was covered in blood from head to toe. And I could not figure where all the blood had come - was comin' from. ... Her face - it looked like a boxer whenever they - whenever they get cut during a boxing match. At that point, I brought her in and set her down on the couch. And she collapsed on the couch.

I thought she was going to die. There was no doubt in my mind. And she started - I kept losin' her a little bit here and there. And I just kept talkin' to her 'cause I definitely didn't want her to pass out, ya know, I was just trying to keep her awake until the paramedics got there.

Video: Paramedic recalls the events of that night

Holly Dunn: And I did keep saying to him, "My friend's still out there. You know, like, "be sure they know my friend's still out there. My friend's still out there."
Det. Craig Sorrell, Lexington Police Dept.: On Aug. 29, 1997, I received a call at home about 3:00 in the morning that there had been an attack on two students along the railroad tracks. My lieutenant asked me to come out and said it was a bad one.

Another detective and I were sent over to the University of Kentucky Hospital to check in on the victim. On the way, we learned her name was Holly Dunn.

Heather Dunn Niemeier, Holly's sister: Her face was disoriented. She had a broken eye socket, a broken jaw. And, so, her face looked off. It was very bruised - lots of cuts across her face. And then, of course, staples of where they could - just to stop the bleeding. They couldn't even, you know, cut her hair. They just stapled on top of her hair.

And even in that state of her looking the way that she did, I can just remember this feeling of overwhelming gratitude and love that she was alive. Just feeling so thankful that she was alive and that she was there. ... I have felt so guilty to not be there, to know that your sister is begging for her life. She is begging someone for her life, and you are... you're sleeping.

Holly Dunn: I remember they weren't talking about Chris. And, eventually, I asked my dad, I just said "Chris is dead, isn't he." And my dad was like, "Yes, he is." It was very hard to accept the fact that I lived through this and Chris didn't. And, you know, it was just - I just felt like it wasn't fair. It's not fair that - that I'm still alive and that Chris isn't.

Chris was so friendly... he was very laid back and down to earth... he loved the outdoors, he didn't have a care in the world.

I couldn't attend the funeral. I was really upset about that only because I really wanted to attend I never really got the chance to say goodbye and ... I wanted to have that chance to have some peace.

Det. Craig Sorrell: Despite her - state, she was ready and willing to try and communicate what had happened to her.

Holly Dunn: I was really trying to remember every detail about my attacker. And I remember hearing his accent, thinking, "that is a Mexican accent."

Det. Craig Sorrell: Holly described the suspect as a male, possibly Hispanic. Five six, five eight in height. Kind of a wavy, black hair, wearing glasses. She said that - he wasn't muscular, but he seemed somewhat wiry.

Holly Dunn: They repaired my jaw. They actually kind of just realigned it. And wired my mouth shut. And really that was the only thing that they could fix. The broken eye socket, there was nothing they could do. As soon as I could get the surgery to get my jaw wired shut and my jaw fixed, my parents took me home.

I definitely think that there's parts of me that wanted to retreat away. Right after this attack happened, I just wanted to lay in bed and not get out of bed again. But, you know, there's always something that's pulled me out of that.

My sister was my rock throughout this entire process... And she doesn't - maybe didn't even realize how much she was helping me by what she was doing.

Det. Craig Sorrell: We received a lot of phone calls and a lot of tips, and we followed up on a lot of people who thought they had seen this person. We were able to establish - that we had a DNA sample of the suspect - from the rape. The sketch was the best thing we had and the DNA evidence, of course. And then we also entered it into the National Database for Violent Offenders... in the hopes that maybe someday down the road - there would be some similarities to other cases that I could become aware of to try to track this fellow down.

14 MONTHS AFTER THE ATTACK

Drew Carter, Texas Ranger: In December of 1998, a doctor was murdered in the Houston area.... She had suffered both stab wounds and blunt trauma to the head. And she was also the victim of a sexual assault. And then, a pastor and his wife were killed in Weimar. And the pastor and his wife were murdered in their bed with a sledgehammer that was found in a tool room there at the house.

Photos: "The Railroad Killer" & his victims

When we first started working it, we approached it from the standpoint of a fugitive investigation and that was trying to learn as much as we could about the subject at hand. We knew that we had forensic evidence, we had fingerprint evidence that linked to a particular suspect and both houses were in the near vicinity of railroad tracks.

Det. Craig Sorrell: Somewhere around May or June of 1999, I got a call from ViCAP, which was the national database that we put the info in. Get a call from them saying, "Listen, we've had another homicide near railroad tracks in Texas." It was a loose connection at best... But it was near railroad tracks. And after two years, we hadn't had anything of substance anyway, so we chased any lead.

Drew Carter: Detective Sorrell called and we compared details about the cases. And realized that we not only had a serial killer that was within 150 mile radius of Houston, but we had one that was in other states as well.

Det. Craig Sorrell: They were able, through fingerprint analysis, to have a suspect. The suspect at that point had been identified as Rafael Resendez Ramirez.

Drew Carter: The majority of his attacks were by surprise. Often the people were in bed asleep when he was getting 'em. So he's like the boogeyman coming into your house. He supports the fact that true evil does exist in this world.

Holly Dunn: To know that he was doing it again, that he was more violent, that he was killing more people. That he was doing it over and over again. ...I started to feel like, "Wow, this is a lot bigger than me." It was almost like my worst nightmare coming true.

Det. Craig Sorrell: And that was when the ball started rollin' and it became a national serial killer manhunt. We were driven. We had to catch him before he killed somebody else.
Det. Craig Sorrell, Lexington Police Dept: We knew then we had a serial killer on the loose. We knew that he was extremely violent. And we had no information as to where he was. Our last clue was Texas. So it was an all out race then to try and figure out where he was and get hands on him.

So everybody went to Texas.

From what I've come to learn of Resendiz, he was an immigrant, transient, moved around, had done a lot of odd jobs... migrant work. He was prone to violence at least 20 years prior to this killing spree.

Drew Carter, Texas Ranger: He was nicknamed by the media as "The Railroad Killer." And he got that moniker just by the fact that most of his murders happened in and around railroad tracks and that that was a mode of transportation that he used to travel across the country.

Local news report: The dragnet for the suspected rail riding serial killer now stretches from Ohio to the Mexican border.

Det. Craig Sorrell: As part of the search, there was actually a huge operation to stop trains. A bunch of Texas agencies participated. We had helicopters in the air to fly over various train tracks. ...If they saw somebody, we'd get the train stopped, check the train - stop anybody and identify anybody on it.

Devon Anderson, Harris County Prosecutor: The sense of urgency was - it was unbelievable because people were dying.

He was continuing to kill. And he was killing effortlessly. No one was stopping him. He killed two women in one day, 90 miles apart. Four days later, he's in a different state. People were scared.

FBI press conference: We are here to announce that Rafael Resendez Ramirez has been elevated to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List.

Holly Dunn: I just got really scared, because it - it got so big. And they still couldn't find him. They didn't know where he was. And that - that was, you know, a very scary time, because I just - I felt - I knew that he knew I was still alive. I felt that. So, I was afraid. I thought he would come back and get me.

I was so scared that I had to get out of the country. I signed up that day to go to school in England.

Det. Craig Sorrell: The FBI, all the local agencies, the different areas, everybody was running leads. So the volume was huge, and you just started piecing the things together. But truthfully, the tip that made the case was a call from a family relative to "America's Most Wanted."

Drew Carter: And based on information from that phone call, it led us to go back - to go to New Mexico, to speak with his sister.

She hadn't been in touch with her brother but she had been in touch with someone that was in touch with her brother. And that's where we started the discussions about Resendiz and the fact that he was tired ...and that he might be willing to surrender.

Devon Anderson: She became the liaison between United States law enforcement and the serial killer.

Drew Carter: I believe that his options were limited. ...This man had no friends. I mean he was a loner, he had a high price on his head and he had an entire nation, really two nations, looking for him. And I think the - amount of pressure that was put on him, ultimately led to him to have to make a choice.

TWO YEARS AFTER THE ATTACK
INTERNATIONAL BRIDGE, U.S. - MEXICO BORDER

Devon Anderson: It was early in the morning, and Drew was on one side of the International Bridge, waiting. I mean, on the Texas side. And not knowing, I assume, whether he was gonna show up or not, if he was gonna show up armed. I mean, who knew?

Drew Carter: And so then, you know, the doubt sets in. Like, all right, you know, is this gonna happen? An amount of time passed, and you see a pickup truck drivin' up, drivin' across the bridge. And there's three people in that ol' pickup truck. And the center passenger, I immediately recognized as Resendiz. And that's kinda when I thought to myself, "Man, this is really gonna happen."

Resendiz surrendered to Texas Ranger Drew Carter and other law enforcement on the International bridge in El Paso. He was transported by the Rangers back to Houston to face charges.

Devon Anderson: I closed the door and started crying because I was so relieved there wasn't ... I don't want another case to prove up. I don't want another dead body.

Drew Carter: At the time of his arrest, Resendiz was linked to six murders in Texas, two in Illinois and one in Kentucky.

Det. Craig Sorrell: For two years we had operated under the belief that his name was Rafael Resendez Ramirez. We learned that he had a variety of names. But ultimately it was determined his name was Angel Maturino Resendiz.

Devon Anderson: And I had been waiting to see this guy. So when they walked him in [to the courtroom] it was a great moment, but he was so scary. He was a little guy. But wiry and strong, ropey muscles on his arms and curious. He would look - he'd look at everybody in there. He'd looked at me. And there is nothing there. There was nothing there. No humanity. No emotion. It's like somebody took a black magic marker and colored his eyes. They were flat black and expressionless face.

But I just buckled down and just decided - it's gotta be about the victims. And it's gotta be about gettin' this guy dead. Honestly. It's gotta be about convincing a jury to give him the death penalty, because he so richly deserved it and earned it.

Holly Dunn: And I knew that I was going to testify. I had always wanted to do that.... I just wanted the chance to tell what had happened to us. And that was my chance.

Devon Anderson: And I wish I could've seen his face when he heard that someone was living. I wish I could've seen his face when he knew she was comin' to testify against him. I just would love to know what he - what he thought when he found that out.
Holly Dunn: I don't have things that I think about all the time. ...I can't forget about Chris being hit... the rock hitting him. That really is probably the part that I try the hardest and can't forget.

Devon Anderson: She was definitely our star witness. She was our only living witness. Nobody else could speak out against him in first person. "This is what happened to me. This is what he did to me." We didn't have anybody else.

Trial started in May of 2000. It was held here in Houston.

He was so different at trial. I guess sitting in jail he got fat, he got the jail house pallor, had grew his hair, greasy.

There was not a shred of humanity about this man. He did not deserve to live among us. I wanted to put him down.

Local news report: Resendiz faces capital murder charges in the stabbing death of Dr. Claudia Benton.

Devon Anderson: [Dr. Claudia Benton] had been sexually assaulted, stabbed, beaten in the head. He was only charged with one because that's all you need to get the death penalty.

He ultimately pleaded not guilt by reason of insanity. The evidence was overwhelming as to his guilt. ...So that was really his only out - was the insanity defense. We knew we were battling with the jury not wanting to believe that someone could do these horrible things to people and be sane. ...A lot of people did not want to believe - you have to be crazy to do that to someone. You have to be crazy.

The jury reached a verdict after many hours of deliberation. It was pretty - nail biting... But they worked through the evidence. They saw all the indications that he knew what he was doing was wrong, and then they ultimately convicted him of capital murder.

Holly Dunn: I actually got involved in the penalty phase of the trial, so that's when they say whether he gets the death penalty or life in prison.

Devon Anderson: I knew I wanted Holly to testify last. So by the time she took the stand, the jury had heard the gruesome details of all the other murders we had solved at that point. It was a horror show. Heads beaten to a pulp. Knives put all the way through the body, that's how much force was used. Just horrific violence.

Photos: "The Railroad Killer" & his victims

Det. Craig Sorrell: We were the last of the cases presented. I testified as to the evidence at the scene, presented the pictures... And then, lastly, Holly testified as the only surviving victim.

Holly Dunn: I flew into Houston with my family the night before I was going to testify. And I woke up during the middle of the night screaming and crying.

I talk about the trial as the hardest day of my life. ...What I was most worried about, I think, was seeing him again.

Devon Anderson: I cannot imagine the amount of courage she had to marshal to come into that courtroom to walk in and face him.

Holly Dunn: [Devon Anderson] told me, "Don't look at him. Look at me. I'll be right in front of you. You know, look at your family. They'll be right behind me. He'll be off to your left. Just do not look at him."

The first question that the prosecutor asked me on the stand was "What did you do last weekend?" And so I was like, I graduated from college. ... It felt good for me to be able to say, you know, I graduated from college ... in front of the guy who basically could have ruined my life and destroyed it. And not that he cared, because I don't think he did.

For me to be able to say, "You didn't destroy me." Like... "I'm still here. I'm still strong. I'm still, you know, the same person I was" - it felt good. It felt like I'd finally had my chance.

I told all the details of what I knew, what I remembered. And, you know, cried through the entire testimony... I was crying - all the jury was crying. I don't even remember exactly what I said or how long it took.

Det. Craig Sorrell: Sometimes you don't always have the human picture, the actual human suffering. Because there's no victim to stand in front of you to tell you what they experienced, what they went through. Holly gave that to Chris and all the others that had been murdered. She was able to give a real-life person - to give them a real feeling of the brutality of this man.

Holly Dunn: They got to the moment in the trial when they say, "Is the person who attacked you in the courtroom today?" I hadn't looked at him yet. I knew he was there. I said, "Yes."

Devon Anderson: I wanted it to be the last thing that jury heard and the last thing they saw was Holly Dunn sitting on that witness stand saying, "That's the man."

Holly Dunn: They said, "Well, could you tell us what he's wearing?" And I turned and looked at him. It was surreal. I said, "He's wearing a white button-down shirt." And they - I mean, I literally - I felt my hearing going into my head. He had like this smug look on his face. And I mean, I was so close to fainting when I looked at him again that I mean - I don't know how I didn't.

Devon Anderson: It was devastating. And it was the best part of our case... I mean, she basically, from his perspective, came back from the grave - to nail him.

The jury did find that he was a future danger to society. So the judge sentenced him to death.

Holly Dunn: I felt, I guess, relieved. I mean it just felt good to know that he would never be able to hurt anyone ever again.

Devon Anderson: After the trial, Resendiz was sent to death row in Huntsville, Texas. He was not tried for any other crimes. He had gotten the ultimate penalty. When the last appeal was denied, he was put to death in June 2006.

Holly Dunn: I chose not to attend the execution because Resendiz represented all those angry feelings that I had. And I decided to stay with my family, be surrounded by my family. I had already seen one person die in front of me and I did not need to see another.

Devon Anderson: I read an account of the execution, and it said that right before they injected him, his feet were shaking under the sheet. And I hoped that he experienced some of the fear - that Holly did. That gave me a small sense of satisfaction, that he was scared.
Holly Dunn: I definitely feel like I have another opportunity at life. I wanna live it to the fullest.

I can't explain how this changes you. I'm a stronger person because of it. My whole life focus changed because of it. I'm a different person today because this happened. I knew that I had to heal physically first. And then I had to heal. I had to deal with Chris dying. I had to deal with myself almost dying. And then I had to deal with being raped.

Your brain works in amazing ways and it kind of sort of let me deal with each thing as I could.

In 1997, I met Jacob Pendleton at the outdoor store that I was working at. He was the first guy that I dated after the attack. And he just, like, reintroduced me to the world.

(Gets emotional) I don't think Jacob even knows like how much he helped me ... by just listening to me. There'd be days that I would literally cry to him. And, you know, be upset. And he would just listen to me. And, you know, really wouldn't judge me at all, which was great.

Heather Dunn Niemeier, Holly's sister: To see Holly happy, married is wonderful. She has led our family in how we have recovered from this and it could have gone a completely different way where our family was devastated by this, but instead, we are so happy for how she's led her life.

Holly Dunn: I started speaking about two years after the attack. To me it felt like part of my healing process to talk about it, and to cry about it and to be emotional, because for so long I had to kind of detach emotion from it...

When I was speaking, I didn't have to worry about that. I could work through my emotions and that really helped me in my healing process.

Being a survivor is one thing, but helping other survivors and knowing how to do that in a professional manner was another thing.

Holly's House is a child and adult advocacy center that provides a safe reporting location for victims of intimate crimes. It's a nonprofit center in Evansville, Ind. We opened on Sept. 2, 2008, and we have served over 300 victims since that time.

Holly's website
Learn more about Holly's House

Devon Anderson: Holly is a hero because she did not let what happened to her destroy her. But she did the opposite. She decided to make it her reason to live. Or her reason to help people.

Holly Dunn: It's important to me for victims to be supported. For them to know that they're not alone. That they're not going through what - what has happened to them alone. I get support through victims that come through Holly's House. I feel like through helping others they're helping me.

Det. Craig Sorrell, Lexington Police Dept.: This case for me has become one that I have looked back on many times. I keep a little bit of a reminder on my desk. A rock from our crime scene and a railroad spike that I got from down in Texas. ...Not so much as a reminder of the largest case I worked, but more a reminder that if you stick with a case and follow up on everything that you can be successful. So be determined. Don't give up.

I've stayed in touch with the victim, Holly, since it began. She's really just an amazing person individually. She is the model of survivor.

Holly Dunn: I remember Chris in a lot of ways. I like to keep things around me that remind me of him. I'm lucky enough to have my amazing husband and have Chris be a part of our lives.

I think to get over my survivor's guilt that I had, I had to know that I lived my life not just for me and not just for Chris. I'm living my life for all of Resendiz's victims, for all of them... And that I have to - or I want to - be the best person I can be and live the best life I can, because they didn't get that chance and I did. So I want to live for them. I want them to be remembered. ... and what I would want for them is to be proud of, you know, me.

By the time of his execution, Resendiz was linked to at least 15 murders in six states.

Authorities learned he killed a teenage couple in Florida just months before he attacked Chris and Holly.

48 Hours Mystery: Picture Perfect Real life drama

New books reveal Jodi Arias' troubled, highly sexual relationship with lover Travis Alexander — which ended in murder


48 Hours Mystery: Picture Perfect Real life drama  video;



Two new books uncover the sordid details of the relationship between the convicted killer and her young, Mormon beau, whose throat she slit ear to ear.
Jodi Arias and Travis Alexander's relationship ended on June 4, 2008, with Alexander’s naked body found in his Mesa, Ariz., home, covered in 27 knife wounds, his throat cut open. He had also taken a bullet in the face.

There's no question that Jodi Arias was a dangerous woman — slutty, nutty and, ultimately, murderous. As the convicted killer sits in prison awaiting the sentencing portion of her trial, two new books tell her story in chilling, salacious detail.

And not only her story, but that of Travis Alexander, the young Mormon man whose throat she slit ear to ear. No matter who’s telling the tale, it’s clear the two had an affair that was beyond sordid.

“Late at night, Jodi slipped into Travis’ house through the unlocked door. Creeping quietly up the stairs, careful not to disturb his roommates, she stepped into his bedroom. Stripping off her clothes, she crawled into his bed, stirring him awake with a lustful kiss,” writes journalist Shanna Hogan in “Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story,” out Sept. 3.

FILE POOL PHOTO
MARK HENLE/AP
On May 8, after dramatically changing her story three times and improbably claiming self-defense, Arias was convicted of first-degree murder.
“She was not simply placating Travis with sex; according to Travis, Jodi was a woman with a voracious sexual appetite. One of Travis’ best friends, Taylor Searle, said Travis revealed to him that Jodi was a sexual dynamo who could achieve numerous orgasms in a row,” writes Jane Velez-Mitchell, who covered the trial for HLN and is the author of “Exposed: The Secret of Life of Jodi Arias,” out Tuesday.

Their relationship would end on June 4, 2008, with Alexander’s naked body hunched sitting on the shower floor in his Mesa, Ariz., home, his upper body covered in 27 knife wounds, his throat cut open. Alexander had also taken a bullet in the face.

POOL PHOTO
ROB SCHUMACHER/AP
Though Arias originally said she wanted to be executed, following her conviction she changed her mind, claiming she wants to spare her family the pain of seeing her die.
Arias, back home in another state by then, thoughtfully called the police to offer her assistance in the investigation. But she had already done enough. On May 8, after dramatically changing her story three times and improbably claiming self-defense, Arias was convicted of first-degree murder. Still to be determined is whether she’ll get the death sentence.

Both authors agree that by the time Arias met Alexander, she was growing desperate. Though she was gorgeous — even more so after she dyed her hair blond in her 20s — she couldn’t find a man willing to marry her. She was in a tailspin from another failed relationship. By the time she stumbled across Alexander in 2006 she was searching for a way out of the financial sinkhole she’d created.

Both authors agree that by the time Arias met Alexander, she was growing desperate. Though she was a gorgeous woman, she couldn’t find a man willing to marry her.
JODI ARIAS VIA MYSPACE
Both authors agree that by the time Arias met Alexander, she was growing desperate. Though she was a gorgeous woman, she couldn’t find a man willing to marry her.
Alexander must have looked good to Arias when she met him at a convention for Pre-Paid Legal Services in Las Vegas. Alexander was a high-ranking executive with the legal insurance company that operated on a recruiting hierarchy some criticized as a pyramid scheme. He was 29, owned his own home, drove a nice car, and was looking to get married.

The son of two meth addicts in Riverside, Calif., eventually taken in by his grandparents, Alexander had converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as a young man. He had already strayed from the vow of chastity and served his penance. Now that he was approaching 30, still being single was an odd fit in the Mormon Church.

Shanna Hogan’s 'Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story' details a night that Jodi Arias snuck into Alexander's house and crawled into his bed naked.
Shanna Hogan’s 'Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story' details a night that Jodi Arias snuck into Alexander's house and crawled into his bed naked.
Velez-Mitchell writes that very early on, Alexander talked to Arias about how important marriage and family were, and that Arias might well have translated that to mean that he was interested in marrying her, although he never said precisely those words. It turned out to be the wrong message to send to the new recruit to legal service association, a waitress struggling financially.

There’s no question that their affair became sexual almost immediately. Velez-Mitchell recounts Arias’ version of events that first weekend when they joined another Latter-Day Saints couple, Chris and Sky Hughes, at their home.

In 'Exposed: The Secret of Life of Jodi Arias,' Jane Velez-Mitchell writes that Jodi Arias may have misinterpreted Travis Alexander's marriage talk to mean that he was interested in marrying her, though he never said those words.
In 'Exposed: The Secret of Life of Jodi Arias,' Jane Velez-Mitchell writes that Jodi Arias may have misinterpreted Travis Alexander's marriage talk to mean that he was interested in marrying her, though he never said those words.
“Travis came to see her in her bedroom after everyone had gone to sleep ... Jodi recalled that Travis was wearing his temple garments, the Mormon Church’s symbolic protection from the evils of the world, under his sweatpants. Before long the temple garments were discarded in a joint effort, and, according to Jodi, Travis performed oral sex on her. She then reciprocated.”

Sky Hughes claims that Alexander told her that “I left her wanting,” and that he had said, “I want you to know that I respect you, and I don’t want you to regret anything and let’s move slowly.”

A nude photo of Arias was part of the evidence at trial. Velez-Mitchell writes that according to Alexander, Arias was 'a woman with a voracious sexual appetite.'
A nude photo of Arias was part of the evidence at trial. Velez-Mitchell writes that according to Alexander, Arias was 'a woman with a voracious sexual appetite.'
Arias would also claim that Alexander forced anal sex on her shortly after baptizing her into the church and then was brusque with her, making her feel like “a used piece of toilet paper.”

Meanwhile, Alexander would talk to friends about Arias’ almost insatiable sexual needs, calling her a nymphomaniac. His friends also noticed how provocative she was with him, all over him in public to the point where he had to push her off.

Arias' behavior became more bizarre when Alexander began seeing another woman. She sent a sinister email to the new girl, and the tires on Alexander's car were slashed twice.
ROSS D. FRANKLIN/AP
Arias' behavior became more bizarre when Alexander began seeing another woman. She sent a sinister email to the new girl, and the tires on Alexander's car were slashed twice.
Sex seemed to be the only aspect of their relationship that was working. While the two could have deep, meaningful phone conversations when she was back home in Palm Desert, Calif., when they were around his friends he’d often act distant, disavowing her as his girlfriend. And she was a little stalkerish from the start. That Christmas, she crashed a massive party at his house after he had told her not to come. The next morning a guest found her asleep under the Christmas tree.

But things truly turned sordid and steamy after the two broke up. Her paranoia and jealousy were the cause. Arias was banned from the Hughes home after she shot Sky a look of “pure evil” when she was caught lurking outside a closed door, eavesdropping on a private conversation. According to Velez-Mitchell, Arias elicited “Travis’ reckless forbidden passion” but he felt she was also “the vehicle of his moral corruption.”

The debauchery of their last day and night together was endlessly detailed during the trial when Arias took the stand for 18 days. Time-stamped photos from Alexander’s camera showed her naked on his bed and then in the frame with his bloody corpse.
ROSS D. FRANKLIN/AP
The debauchery of their last day and night together was endlessly detailed during the trial when Arias took the stand for 18 days. Time-stamped photos from Alexander’s camera showed her naked on his bed and then in the frame with his bloody corpse.
In June 2007, they ended their relationship. And, incredibly, it was then that Arias moved to Mesa. Alexander started dating a nice Mormon girl, but continued a secret sex-driven relationship with Arias that was degrading to both of them.

Their texts and emails ranged from merely lewd to incredibly nasty. In one, Alexander referred to her as a “slut” and a “three hole wonder.”

A bizarre video shows Arias singing, talking to herself and doing a headstand in an interrogation room minutes before she's charged with brutally murdering Alexander.
NEWSAROUNDU VIA YOUTUBE
A bizarre video shows Arias singing, talking to herself and doing a headstand in an interrogation room minutes before she's charged with brutally murdering Alexander.
Arias got crazier, sending a sinister email to the woman Alexander was seeing. She’d obviously been following them. The tires on his car were slashed twice. She stole his journals. Alexander started seeing another Mormon woman, but still didn’t quit Arias. Even after she moved back to her hometown of Yreka, Calif., he was sexually wired to her.

At the trial, a tape Arias had made of a phone conversation was played and in it Alexander uses extremely pornographic language, saying that he wants to tie Arias to a tree and sodomize her, among other things. The conversation took place a month before the murder.

Arias, now 33, faces either execution or life in jail.
NEWSAROUNDU VIA YOUTUBE
Arias, now 33, faces either execution or life in jail.
But Hogan reports there was another phone conversation after that, one that was possibly even more provocative. Alexander told a friend, Taylor Searle, that he had confronted Arias, saying, “I never want to see you again. This is it.”

“They had a chat where he tore her apart,” Searle recalled. “He called me and told to me what he had said to her. I said, ‘Aren’t you afraid she’s going to hurt you?’”

Alexander responded, “No. She’s crazy, but she’s harmless.”

The debauchery of their last day and night together was endlessly detailed during the trial when Arias took the stand for an incredible 18 days. She tried to deny the murder at first but the police had the pictures to prove it. Time-stamped photos from Alexander’s camera — which Arias had dumped in the washing machine at his Mesa home — showed her naked on his bed and then in the frame with his bloody corpse.

Arias claimed intruders broke into the house and gave interviews to “Inside Edition” and “48 Hours Mystery.” After two years in jail, she changed her story, claiming she had murdered Alexander in self-defense. After a day of sex and bondage, she was photographing him nude in the shower when she dropped his expensive camera, she said. Arias claimed Alexander was so furious he body-slammed her into the tile floor and went for her again after she got up.

On the stand, she said she remembered shooting him but not stabbing him more than two dozen times.

After a trial that became a media circus in the face of her preposterous claims and sensational disclosures, Arias, now 33, faces either execution or life in jail. Though she originally said she wanted the former, following her conviction she changed her mind, claiming she wants to spare her family the pain of seeing her die.

She can tell that to the jury, and see what they come back with.

48 Hours Mystery: The Craigslist Killer The Final Chapter

The Craigslist Killer is a 2011 American crime drama television film directed by Stephen Kay, written by Donald Martin and Stephen Tolkin. It stars Jake McDorman, Agnes Bruckner, Kevin Kilner and William Baldwin. It follows the dark, mysterious life of Philip Markoff.

The film made its debut on January 3, 2011 on Lifetime, It is based on the book A Date with Death: The Secret Life of the Accused "Craigslist Killer", written by Michele McPhee.



The man suspected as the "Craigslist Killer" takes another life: his own. "48 Hours Mystery" exposes new details in the death of Philip Markoff.

Philip Haynes Markoff (February 12, 1986 – August 15, 2010) was an American medical student who was charged with the armed robbery and murder of Julissa Brisman in a Boston, Massachusetts hotel on April 14, 2009, and two other armed robberies. Markoff maintained his innocence of all charges and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment. A grand jury indicted Markoff for first-degree murder, armed robbery, and other charges.

On August 15, 2010, Markoff committed suicide in Boston's Nashua Street Jail, where he was awaiting trial. The media have referred to this murder and other murders as "Craigslist killings" because the killer was alleged to have met his victims through ads placed on Craigslist, two of which were offering erotic services.

Background

Markoff was the son of Susan (née Haynes)[10] and Richard Markoff, a dentist in Syracuse, New York. He had an older brother, Jon Markoff. He graduated in 2004 from Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School,[11] where he was a member of the National Honor Society,[12] the History Club, and the Youth Court, and the school bowling and golf teams.[13]

After high school, Markoff attended SUNY Albany where he was a pre-med student and member of the Young Republicans. He graduated from SUNY Albany in 2007.[2][14] He was a second-year medical student at Boston University School of Medicine at the time of the crimes. He was suspended from the school following the charges against him.[14]

Markoff met Megan McAllister, a native of New Jersey, in 2005 while they were both volunteers at the Albany Medical Center Hospital emergency room.[15] They were engaged to be married, with their wedding planned for August 14, 2009.[16] McAllister was to have begun medical school in the fall of 2009.[17]

Robberies and murder

Markoff was suspected in three robberies – one of which resulted in the murder of Julissa Brisman – that occurred in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Each robbery involved a female victim, and the crimes were closely spaced in time and exhibited strong similarities.

Trisha Leffler (an escort) was bound, gagged, and robbed at gunpoint on Friday, April 10, 2009, at the Westin Copley Place Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts.[citation needed]
Julissa Brisman (who had posted an advertisement online offering massage services) was found dead on Tuesday, April 14, 2009, at the Copley Marriott, also in Boston.[7][18][19]
Corinne Stout (an exotic dancer offering lap dance services) was the victim of attempted robbery on Thursday, April 16, 2009, at a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, Rhode Island.[8]
Law enforcement officials suspected that all three were committed by the same individual.

Arrest and legal proceedings

On April 20, 2009, citing security camera footage, cell phone activity, and email accounts as evidence,police arrested Markoff. Markoff was charged with armed robbery and kidnapping for the events of April 10, and murder in the death of Brisman on April 14. The arrest took place on Interstate 95 in Walpole, Massachusetts, while Markoff and McAllister were en route to Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut.

On April 21, Markoff was arraigned on murder and gun chargesbrought by the Suffolk County DA in Brisman's slaying. The DA stated that physical evidence, including a semi-automatic handgun, wrist restraints, duct tape, and other materials were found in Markoff's apartment when the police executed a search warrant.At his arraignment, where he was represented by Boston attorney John Salsberg, Markoff maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty to all charges. He was held without bail on a murder charge, although separate bonds were set on charges of armed robbery and kidnapping stemming from the incident involving a second woman.

On May 4, 2009, a warrant was issued in Warwick, Rhode Island, for Markoff's arrest, seeking to charge him with assault, attempted robbery, and weapon possession in the April 16 Holiday Inn Express case. However, the Rhode Island Attorney General said that their prosecution would not go forward until the Boston cases ended.

Originally, the trial against Markoff was expected to begin in July 2010. A judge subsequently delayed the start of the trial until March 2011. Markoff's lawyer had contended that Markoff had already been unfairly "convicted" in the media at the time of his arrest, thereby adversely prejudicing his right to a fair trial.

The Suffolk County District Attorney formally terminated prosecution as a result of Markoff's death.

Reaction of family and friends to allegations

Friends, neighbors, and former teachers expressed shock and disbelief at the charges.[12] Some of his friends set up a Facebook group entitled "Philip Markoff Is Innocent Until Proven Guilty". Markoff's fiancée Megan McAllister initially issued statements affirming her belief in his innocence. She described Markoff as "beautiful inside and out" and stated that he "couldn't hurt a fly".

On April 29, McAllister's attorney Robert Honecker accompanied her to visit Markoff in jail and said that the couple's August 14 wedding plans were "dismantled".[16] She visited Markoff again on June 11, 2009, and Honecker said McAllister told Markoff she was going to medical school and said it would be "a long period of time, if ever, before she would see him again".

Suicide attempts and death

Unsuccessful suicide attempts

Markoff had made several apparent suicide attempts while at the Nashua Street Jail. In the first incident, jail officials found "shoelace marks" around Markoff's neck on April 23, 2009, three days after his arrest, and they placed him under suicide watch in the psychiatric unit of Nashua Street Jail, where he was monitored around the clock.

In a second incident, on the night his fiancee broke up with him, Markoff attempted to slice his wrists with a spoon he sharpened to a point using concrete in his cell.[32] He was taken off suicide watch a few days later. In a third incident, on August 14, 2009, the day his wedding had been scheduled to take place, Markoff was found to have stashed medication and was taken to a medical facility.

Death

On August 15, 2010, one year and one day after the date his wedding was to have taken place, Markoff was found dead in his cell at Boston's Nashua Street Jail. The cause of death was later confirmed as suicide.[1] Markoff reportedly wrote "Megan", his former fiancee's name, and "Pocket" (their pet name for each other) in blood on the wall of his cell, and distributed photographs of his fiancee and the couple around the cell.[35] He then used a "primitive scalpel", made from a prison issue pen and a piece of metal pried from a wall outlet, to open major arteries in his ankles, legs, and neck. After swallowing toilet paper to ensure that he could not be revived, he tightened a plastic bag over his head with gauze.[36]


Markoff's death while in custody raised concerns about the safety of inmates in Massachusetts prisons. The Chairman of the Boston City Council Public Safety Committee, Stephen Murphy, called for an independent investigation of Markoff's death and procedures at the Nashua Street Jail. Murphy asserted that jail officials had a duty of proper care and custody of all inmates and that Markoff should have been watched more closely given his prior suicide attempts.

48 Hours Mystery: Murder at the Manor - CBS News

48 Hours Mystery: Murder at the Manor - CBS News

(CBS) - After covering countless trials in the Unites States it was a fascinating (and frustrating) experience to cover one in England.

Harold Landry, a millionaire businessman from Louisiana, was charged with the murder of his British wife, Lucy. He was tried at the Crown Court in Wolhermapton, England in February 2011.

Sneak peek: Murder at the Manor

There is something charming about seeing bewigged lawyers presenting their cases politely and quietly. There was not even one objection from either side in the entire trial. Can you imagine that happening in an American court?

The jurors are given all the evidence at the outset in what is called a 'jury bundle.' And it is just that..a bundle of paper documents and photos and recordings of some testimony taken out of court....about 400 pages in all, in this case. The jury gets it...reporters do not. That can make it hard to follow the trial since the lawyers routinely tell the jurors to turn to a specific page in their 'bundle' leaving observers to infer what the evidence shows based on what the lawyers say in court. Of course in this country, we can see all the evidence during the trial...in the U.K. we had to wait until everything was done.

The rules of a British court will look familiar to an American observer. But there are some stark differences. The defendant is kept in a glass enclosed room in the back of the court. There are, of course, NO cameras in the courtroom, and no sketching is allowed by courtroom artists. Our sketch artist had to take notes during the trial and then draw based on her recollections. It's hard to believe, when you see Julia Quenzler's drawings, that she did them that way. The sketches are remarkably accurate. What a talent!

One other difference in the British system: Like in America suspects have a right to remain silent. UNLIKE the American system, judges in the U.K. are allowed to tell jurors they can infer something from a defendant's decision to refuse to answer questions. The British defense lawyers have fought that...but it's still the rule.

You'll learn more about how the Harold Landry case unfolded on this week's 48 HOURS Mystery called Murder At The Manor. It's one of the most intriguing cases we've done in quite some time!

Media
Sneak peek: Murder at the Manor

48 Hours Mystery Murder In The Hamptons - CBS News

48 Hours Mystery Murder In The Hamptons - CBS News

Danny Pelosi, an electrician who married Generosa Ammon three months after her multimillionaire husband was bludgeoned to death in his Long Island mansion, was convicted of second-degree murder on Dec. 13, 2004.



This Saturday at 10 p.m. ET/PT, Correspondent Richard Schlesinger updates a 48 Hours report on the Ted Ammon murder case, which was broadcast last February.
It has all the ingredients of a Hollywood drama. It's a horror story, in a fairy-tale setting, complete with love and hate, money and murder.

"Bad news is a good story," says Kieren Crowley, a reporter for the New York Post, who has written a book, "Almost Paradise," about the murder of Ted Ammon. "This guy was tall, dark and handsome. He was brilliant."

Ammon, who grew up in a middle-class childhood, breezed through Bucknell University as a frat boy and lacrosse player. He married in 1973 and moved to London to practice law.

When his first marriage ended less than 10 years later, Ammon started looking for an apartment in New York City. He booked an appointment with a real estate agent named Generosa Rand.

Generosa was tough and outspoken, and Ammon wanted to meet her in person. They married in 1986, and Ammon went on to make tens of millions of dollars on Wall Street before he quit. That's when the couple adopted 2-year-old twins from the Ukraine, Greg and Alexa.

A few years later, the Ammons abruptly left New York to move into a rambling, stone manor house in the English countryside.

"She was trying to pull Ted out of New York City and the very busyness of his life," says Ed Meyer, one of Generosa's lawyers. "She persuaded him to start to relax, to enjoy the family. Enjoy the English countryside."

But the couple didn't enjoy it for very long. Ammon took frequent trips back to New York, and Generosa became convinced that they weren't all business-related. She began telling friends he was having an affair.

By the summer of 2000, they were both back in Manhattan, living apart. Generosa had filed for divorce and was looking for more than $1 million a year in living expenses.

"Between $100,000 and $150,000 a month was not that much, believe it or not, when you're talking about that kind of income," says Meyer.

Generosa evidently wanted to hurt Ammon, and not just financially. Before the divorce was final, she found a new boyfriend – Danny Pelosi. And he was everything that Ammon was not.

"It was the princess and the pauper. That was the relationship," says Pelosi. "She came from a world of enormous wealth. Been to every continent, and I've been to Florida."

To see the full report, tune in to 48 Hours Saturday at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

Pelosi and Generosa remained the focus of scrutiny and suspicion and soon they gave everyone even more to talk about. The couple got married in January 2002, just three months after Ammon was murdered.

Then, Generosa moved with her two kids to Danny's hometown, Center Moriches. It was a nice town, but hardly a millionaire's playground.

"Generosa moved to CM for the one reason that she wanted her kids to have a family," says Pelosi. "She wanted me to be around my kids. They live four minutes from here."

Joanne Matheson, Generosa's full-time housekeeper, says her boss was happy with her new life: "As long as she was with Danny, she didn't care. If she was in East Hampton or over there, it didn't matter to her. She was happy."

But just months after they were married, Generosa, 46, learned she was dying from breast cancer. Matheson says the couple spent the next year trying to enjoy most of the time they had left.

Meanwhile, Generosa and Pelosi were emerging as the prime suspects in Ammon's murder and their marriage started falling apart under pressure from the investigation and Generosa's illness.

In July 2003, after nearly two years of marriage, Generosa left Pelosi and moved with her two children back to the East Hampton mansion, where she would spend the last weeks of her life.

But when Generosa died, Danny was on his own, as the lone suspect. "I was freaking out big time," says Pelosi. "Because that's when I realized this is for real."

It made perfect sense to Danny Pelosi at the time to go to the Stanhope Hotel for a farewell drink, with his wife's ashes.

"She told me to take her remains, to go to the bar and sit in the booth that we sat in every night," says Pelosi.

Photographer Robert Kalfus says he found Pelosi sitting in a booth, drinking a beer: "He had a lit cigarette lit for her."

When the New York Post ran the picture the next day, Pelosi started to have some regrets. "Was I embarrassed by that picture they showed? Yes, absolutely."

But Pelosi would soon have a lot more than his image to worry about. He had become the lead suspect in Ammon's murder. In March 2004, after nearly a three-year investigation, Pelosi was arrested and charged with murder.

"We had some pretty powerful circumstantial evidence," says Albertson. "But we did not have the smoking gun. And by no means was this a slam dunk."

"He may not speak the King's English. And he doesn't have a PhD. And in fact, he's a high school dropout. But he's not a killer," says Pelosi's lawyer, Gerald Shargel.

There was no physical evidence linking him to the murder -- no forensics, no witnesses. And Shargel insists that Pelosi, who was only Generosa's boyfriend at the time of the murder, had no motive, because he had no right to Ammon's wealth.

"I will tell you that there was absolutely no motive here," says Shargel. "There was no financial motive, and there was no other motive of any kind."

In fact, according to Generosa's attorney, Ed Meyer, Pelosi got along with Ammon: "He liked Ted Ammon."

But everyone knew that Generosa hated Ammon. In fact, she hated him so much that she didn't want his family caring for her twins after her death.

Generosa was raised an orphan, and had no family of her own. But as she entered the final chapter of her life, Generosa had to pick a guardian for her children. She thought Pelosi was unsuitable, so that left only one person -- 57-year-old British nanny, Kay Mayne.

Pelosi says the Ammon children did not like Mayne. He says he spoke to Generosa about how the kids felt about their nanny. He had a habit of recording his private conversations, he says, to protect him legally.

Generosa's full-time housekeeper, Joanne Matheson, says, "Kay made her feel that she was the only one that could really possibly take care of these children. That she would raise them the way Generosa wanted them to be raised."

When Generosa died of breast cancer in August 2003, she took the answers to many questions with her to the grave.

Last year, when Danny Pelosi was arrested for murdering Ted Ammon and in jail to await his trial, he was trying to move on with his life. He was expecting a new baby with his new fiancee, Jennifer Zolnowski. 

But now, there is another woman in his life: prosecutor Janet Albertson. 

"Danny Pelosi is a drinker, a gambler," says Albertson. "He's a petty thief."

As the trial begins, all she has is a lot of circumstantial evidence to offer as proof that Pelosi killed for money. 

So who says Pelosi was at the murder scene? According to Albertson, Pelosi himself. She says he confessed to a number of people: "Stupid people do stupid things. That's why we catch them."

Albertson calls a contractor to the stand who worked with Pelos who says a year before the murder, Pelosi talked to him about killing Ammon. One of Pelosi's ex-girlfriends also testifies that Pelosi admitted to the murder.

But Pelosi's own father may have been the most damaging witness of all. He testifies that Pelosi asked him, just hours after the murder, how to dispose of something where no one could ever find it. 

The prosecution thinks Pelosi was trying to get rid of evidence from the crime scene, especially the hard drive with pictures from the night of the murder. 

"That unit recorded 24 hours a day, so of course it would have recorded the image of the murderer, coming in, going out, removing all the evidence," says Albertson. 

But for jurors, it was what Pelosi did and said to his father as he left the courtroom that was the most telling. He snarled at his father in front of the jury and said, "I hate him."

"That had a tremendous effect on me," says one juror. "Not just his relationship with his father, but the anger and rage that just suddenly came up like that."

Pelosi's attorney argues that his client had a love-hate relationship with his father. He also tells the jurors that each of the witnesses had a reason to lie about Pelosi's confession. 

But another relative, Pelosi's sister, Barbara, was subpoenaed by the prosecution. Generosa had hired her to monitor the surveillance system on her laptop and spy on Ammon in the mansion. 

Barbara says she saw something suspicious earlier in the evening, during a routine check, and that when Pelosi arrived the night of the murder, she asked him to log on and check it out. "I think I hurt Danny," says Barbara. "Because I told him to go on the computer that night. Because he honestly did not ask me to turn it on."

But Albertson says Pelosi had his own reasons for logging on that night: "I think what he wanted to know was when Ted Ammon was at the house. I think he also had an interest in whether anyone else was there." 

Shargel, however, set out to prove that there is no evidence Pelosi was even at the crime scene: "Ted Ammon died at a time when Danny Pelosi was not on Eastern Long Island. And as far as I'm concered, that's the case." 

The night of the murder, Ammon went out for dinner, paid for his meal and left around 9:30 p.m. At 9:44 p.m., he made what could be his last phone call, to his girlfriend. He said he saw something that scared him and he was heading back home. 

That phone call is the cornerstone of Shargel's defense. He believes that someone could have followed Ammon home from the beach and killed him: "To have what seemed to be a confrontation, or a near confrontation, I think, is significant."

The timing of the call fits neatly into Shargel's theory. According to his star witness, Dr. Werner Spitz, a world-renowned scientist, there was still enough undigested food in Ammon's stomach to prove he could not have lived more than four hours after eating. 

Spitz insists Ammon was dead by 1 a.m., and Shargel proves that Pelosi was miles away from East Hampton during that time. His cell phone records show he was driving from Manhattan to his sister's house. 

Medical experts brought in by the prosecution, however, say Ammon could have been alive much longer, giving Pelosi time to get there. 

As the trial wears on, all eyes turn on Pelosi himself. He told 48 Hours in a phone call from jail that he's feeling the pressure: "I'm afraid to look at the jury. I'm afraid to do anything, because I'm too emotional, everyone says. I'm too emotional."

Pelosi won't take the stand in his own defense. But can he really keep quiet? "I'm going to follow the advice of my attorneys because it looks like I don't even have to testify at this point, because the truth is the truth," says Pelosi. 

On the day that Shargel hoped to hand his case over to the jurors, there's a surprise witness, one Shargel never wanted to call. 

Pelosi, against Shargel's advice, had ecided to take the stand. "My mouth dropped to the floor," says Shargel. "I couldn't believe he took the stand." 

Pelosi told 48 Hours by phone from jail that he knew what was at stake from the moment he took the oath. "When I got on the stand, the first thing I had to do was get my heart back in my jacket," he says. 

Albertson says she was hoping to get a rise out of Pelosi.

"She got under my skin a few times," says Pelosi. "And I know I came back a little arrogant a few times, but the woman was attacking me."

While Pelosi was on the stand, he dropped what he called a bombshell and implicated his late wife, Generosa. He says she asked him to kill Ammon for her, but he refused. He also said Generosa's alibi, that she was in her Manhattan apartment the night of the murder, was a lie. In fact, he says she left the apartment before he did. 

"This woman told me a hundred times that she was going to go kill her husband," says Pelosi. "Maybe this time it happened."

On the stand, Pelosi only suggested Generosa was involved. But later, in a phone conversation, he went further. "I kept my mouth shut because my wife, right," he says. "Generosa married me to keep my mouth shut. That was the whole reason, to keep my mouth shut."

Pelosi also says the evidence shows Generosa did it, but not alone. And that he was not involved: "I had nothing to do with it." 

In his closing argument, Shargel asked repeatedly, "Where was Generosa Ammon that night?"

"I don't think she was there alone," says Shargel. "But she wasn't there with Danny Pelosi."

Finally, after more than two months of testimony, the jurors got the case late on a Friday night. All throughout the weekend, both sides camped out and waited. 

Inside the jury room, the jurors were troubled by the lack of physical evidence. And that was reason for Pelosi to be optimistic. "If they do their job properly, and they weigh the evidence, and they listen to everything that was said, I'm going to be sitting home for Christmas with my son that I still haven't seen," he says. 

After three long days of deliberating, the jury reached a verdict. Pelosi was convicted of second-degree murder. When he heard the verdict, he started softly crying. 

"When I heard guilty, I was in shock," says Pelosi. 

In the end, the jurors couldn't ignore the missing hard drive that could have recorded images from the murder. And, there was the matter of the millions in fortune.

Jurors believe Pelosi was worried that he might lose access to the money if Generosa signed a proposed divorce settlement, as scheduled. 

But jurors still believe there's room for more suspects. In fact, some jurors still aren't sure if Pelosi was there at all. 

But in the end, the jury voted that whatever his exact role was that night, Pelosi intended to kill Ammon, and took part in the murder. 

In January, Pelosi was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. 

"I'm not doing it for 25 years. Listen to me loud and clear," says Pelosi. "I'm appealing this issue, and on the appellate circuit, it will be heard. I guarantee it."

The Ammon twins are now 15 years old. They live in the South with Ted Ammon's sister

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48 Hours Mystery: The Guessing Game - CBS News

This story first aired on Dec. 6, 2008. It was updated on Feb. 20, 2010.

In January 1999, Belinda Temple, the pregnant wife of a popular high school football coach, was found murdered inside a closet of the family's home.

Police soon suspected David Temple had something to do with the murder, but had no physical evidence to tie him to it. But after years of piecing circumstantial evidence together, police arrested him.

What would follow was a courtroom clash of legal titans, with a hard-charging prosecutor on one side, and a legendary defense attorney on the other.

Did David really murder his expecting wife, as the prosecutor charges, or is he innocent and unjustly accused.

Even while he called 911 for help, David knew his wife had no chance - she had taken a shotgun blast to her head. There was also no hope for the baby that Belinda Temple was just weeks from delivering.

David and his three and a half year old son, Evan, were now alone.

Asked how he broke the news to Evan, David tells correspondent Richard Schlesinger, "I told him the next day. You just lay down in the bed with him and told him that some madman had broken into the house and momma's heart stopped and she's gone to be with Jesus and she won't be with us any more."

Suddenly a single parent, David turned to his parents, moving into their home, and finding comfort in good memories.

The Temple family was well respected in Katy, a Texas town near Houston. David was a gifted athlete and became a star defensive linebacker for Katy High School. He was a force to be dealt with when he played.

David won a football scholarship to Stephen F. Austin State University, and on the field became known as "The Temple of Doom," thanks to his imposing stature.

But off the field he was a bit of a romantic, especially when it came to an attractive physical education major named Belinda Lucas.

Before long, David asked Belinda's parents, Tom and Carol Lucas, for her hand. With her parents' blessing, David proposed to Belinda in the most sentimental setting he could imagine. "So we walked down and got went out on the field I took her down to the 50 yard line. And got down on my knee and told her how much I loved her and asked her if she'd marry me," he remembers.

They married and both ended up working with children. Belinda taught special ed at Katy High, where her husband had ruled on the football field.

Debbie Berger, who taught in the same classroom, was a close friend. "You could tell in her voice, very direct, but yet very loving and warm."

David landed a job in a nearby town, teaching and coaching alongside Wade Luker, who had coached a rival team when David was in high school.

By all accounts, David and Belinda were devoted to their son, and by January 1999, the birth of their daughter was just one month away. "January 10th, we were a happy threesome as anybody in the country. Being at the zoo. Her fryin' chicken for me, which is my favorite meal, when we got home. That weekend was perfect," David remembers.

It was also the last weekend of Belinda's life. On Monday, Jan. 11, just like every day, Evan was in daycare while his parents were at work. But he was sent home early that day with a fever. David came home to watch him.

When Belinda returned around 4 p.m., David says she went upstairs to rest. David took Evan out to play. "We went to the park in our neighborhood, which we spent a lot of time at. He loved to go to the park," he remembers.

After that, he says, they made their trip to the grocery store and then to the Home Depot, never imagining what awaited them at home. When they got back, David says he saw the back door broken, dropped Evan off at a neighbor's, then ran up the stairs, where he found Belinda's body sprawled on the floor of the bedroom closet.

Crime scene investigator Dean Holtke was surprised that a burglar would be so violent. "How many burglars do you think walk around carrying a shotgun? In broad daylight?"

Holtke followed standard procedure, and asked to test David's hands for gunshot residue. He says he explained to David for what it was for and that he didn't resist.

David also agreed to go with the police to give a statement. Asked what was going through his mind at that moment, David says, "Totally shocked. Sometimes it feels like an eternity and sometimes it feels like it went really quick. I could remember having trouble just walkin' out to the cruiser. To even make your legs move."

Belinda's parents remember getting the phone call. "I dropped to my knees," her father Tom remembers. "I not only lost my daughter, I lost a granddaughter that I'm sure was beautiful as her mama. And I never got to see."

This was no ordinary crime scene. It affected even veteran homicide detective Tracy Shipley. "It was one of the few cases we have where you have a completely innocent victim. She had lived a low risk lifestyle. She was a teacher. She was a mother. She was a wife. She didn't have any bad habits, and to find her dead in her house was very heartbreaking."

In the following days, Detective Shipley began canvassing the neighbors. But police would soon learn that one young neighbor lied about his whereabouts that day, and he had had a run-in with Belinda before.

48 Hours Mystery: The Guessing Game - CBS NewsaThe night Belinda was murdered in January 1999, David told police he had no idea who did it, but, later, he wondered about one of her students, the Temples' next door neighbor, Riley Joe Sanders.

At the time, he was 16 and perpetually truant. Belinda had reported him to his parents. Asked if he thinks he Riley killed Belinda, David says, "I honestly don't know."

Sanders told a reporter he was in school all day, but later admitted to police he cut out to smoke pot with friends. He was known to use his father's twelve-gauge shotguns without permission; his friends had stolen shotguns a few weeks earlier. Sanders was in the area around the time that other neighbors heard a sudden and startling noise.

Growing up, Ed and Herman Roberts lived in the house behind the Temples. Police spoke with them shortly after the murder.

The boys say they are sure they heard one gunshot. But when exactly did they hear that bang?

The brothers happened to be watching Dr. Doolittle at the time, and nine years later they remember the exact point in the film when they heard the bang - a scene 24 minutes and 50 second into the movie.

With that information, the police could calculate when the boys heard that noise.

They were dropped at the bus stop around 3:45 p.m., came home, did what they estimated to be 10 to 15 minutes of homework, horsed around a little, and started the video. It the boys are right, it means the shot was fired around 4:30 p.m.

That was the time that David was out shopping. He and Evan were caught by a surveillance camera at the grocery store.

Within days, police discovered that Riley lied about where he was and asked him to take a lie detector test. He agreed, and failed at least twice.

But there was no way to link any of the shotguns Riley and his friends had to the crime, and there was no other evidence to put him at the scene. What's more, police had another suspect in their sights.

Dean Holtke looked at the Temples' broken back door. Something about the way the pieces of glass fell seemed odd to him. "You would expect the glass to go in the direction of the break. Yet the glass in this one was inside the house, further into the living room."

He took a lot of pictures, and a lot of what Holtke saw that day made him wonder if a burglar had really broken into the home. The TV was down on the floor, but was not unplugged. "If you're there to steal a TV, first you'd unplug it, right?"

He started to think the scene had been staged. "There's jewelry out in the open," he remembers.

And there was more: detectives were troubled to learn that David Temple had become a little too close to a fellow teacher named Heather Scott. David had neglected to tell police how close they were. "We started e-mailin', flirtin' through the e-mails, talkin' just about goin' to Happy Hour, callin' her sexy. It's nothin' what I would call nasty or provocative," David says.

Police questioned Heather twice. The first time, she said that although she and David had never been alone, they had what she called a "casual romantic relationship."

But Det. Shipley took a second statement from Heather, given after Heather consulted a lawyer. "She said, 'I just need to explain our situation a little more. He was at my house for New Year's Eve,'" Shipley says.

And this time, Heather said the relationship was somewhat more than casual. "She said that they had had sex," Shipley says.

Temple admits he spent that New Year's Eve at Heather's apartment, and that he had told Belinda he was going hunting. But he insists Heather meant nothing to him. He says it wasn't love, just a "physical" thing.

"You left your wife while she was pregnant to be with this other woman. And you felt nothing for her?" Schlesinger asks.

"I enjoyed the attention," David says.

He says he was happy with Belinda. "I loved my wife very much. Would have laid my life down for her. What I did was wrong."

But Heather's signed statement says that just three days before Belinda was killed, "David said something like 'I think you know I have totally fallen in love with you.'"

David denies saying that. "I didn't want to be with Heather. Heather knows that."

Whatever the relationship was, it was not a secret anymore. And David knew that put him under suspicion.

Three months after the crime, a grand jury was convened. In the end the jury indicted nobody - not Riley Joe Sanders, the neighbor who police all but dismissed as a suspect, nor David Temple, the man police believed committed the crime.

With no hard evidence connecting anybody to this murder, the case went cold. David got on with his life, and went back to teaching.

A year and a half later, he remarried. His new wife? Heather Scott.

Asked when he fell in love with Heather, Temple says, "It'd be hard to pick a day."

It's an important detail, because no matter what the grand jury thought, investigators were convinced Temple fell in love with Heather before Belinda was killed.

Despite Temple's apparent alibi, police believed he was responsible for his wife's murder pretty much from day one. "Did I have an opinion that it was a staged crime scene? Absolutely," Holtke says.

But years passed and no one was charged with the crime.

Belinda parents suspected David after they found out he betrayed their daughter. They did all they could to keep the case alive, paying for a billboard next to a busy highway and taking TV crews to their daughter's grave. 

But nothing changed until November 2004, more than five years after the murder, when the Scott Peterson case in California caught the nation's attention.

Peterson was convicted of killing his pregnant wife Laci. The Lucas' saw parallels to their case and contacted prosecutors once again. This time the case landed on the desk of one the toughest DA's in the nation, Kelly Siegler.

Siegler had no murder weapon to work with, no incriminating fingerprints or DNA, and no eyewitnesses. What did evidence did she have?

"A story that he told that never made any sense," Siegler says. "The story was, according to David Temple, at the very time he was out with his sick son running errands that didn't need to be run, a random burglar just happened to break into his house and shoots Belinda Temple in the back of the head when she's eight months pregnant while David Temple is having an affair with a woman he was madly in love with."

Siegler has a theory: she believes Belinda was killed around 4 p.m., about a half an hour before David was seen by the surveillance cameras at the stores. Whatever the Roberts brothers heard around 4:30 p.m., Siegler says it was not the fatal shot.

"I have no idea what they think they heard," she says. "They're good kids. I just don't think they know what they heard."

Besides, Siegler says since Belinda was shot in the closet, the sound would have been muffled by clothes. Once Belinda was dead, Siegler says Temple went right to work concocting his alibi.

Siegler says David planned to be seen on camera, but did not expect to be seen in a different out-of-the-way part of town. A witness, who recognized David from his glory days as a high school football star, saw him.

Siegler may not have had the gun, but she did have some new ammunition - fresh evidence. After more than three years of laboratory delays and snafus, a critical FBI report came back: gunshot residue was found on a jacket of David's that was lying on a bedroom chair.

Finally, the prosecutor had hard some forensic evidence. She took the case to a new grand jury and got an indictment. 

On Nov. 29, 2004, nearly six years after his wife was killed, David Temple was arrested. "I dropped my son off at school, like I did every day. An officer pulled me over just like I thinkin' it was routine traffic stop. Handcuffed me and put me immediately in the back of the detective's car," he remembers. 

One of the detectives in that car was Dean Holtke. "The only thing I'd asked him the entire time was, 'You know what this is about, right?' And he says, 'No, what?' I said, 'Belinda,'" Holtke remembers. "He's like, 'You gotta be kidding me, man. That was like, six years ago.'"

To go up against the hard-charging prosecutor, David turned to Dick DeGuerin, a legendary Houston attorney every bit as tough as Kelly Siegler. The two lawyers had clashed many times before. 

DeGuerin immediately went gunning for what might be Siegler's best evidence, the gunshot residue found on the jacket. "It's really junk science," he says. "The jacket could be expected to have gunshot residue because it's airborne. It could get on anything in that room and probably was on just about everything in that room."

Even before the trial begins, the judge agrees with DeGuerin and throws out the evidence. 

So this is now a purely circumstantial case, and DeGuerin says circumstances point more directly to Temples' troubled teenaged neighbor, Riley Joe Sanders. 

Asked if he thinks Sanders killed Belinda, DeGuerin says, "My opinion is that he's much more likely to have done it."

But Siegler says there's nothing in the evidence that makes him a true suspect. 

DeGuerin believes Siegler is ignoring Sanders, and is hell-bent on convicting Temple

In October 2007, Siegler unloaded her evidence against David Temple in front of a jury. "The defendant says to Heather Scott, 'You know I'm fallin' in love with you.' Three days later, Belinda Temple was executed in the back of the head in the home where she lived with this man."

He got away with murder for nearly nine years, she says, and that's long enough.

But DeGuerin says he thinks, in his mind, there wasn't enough evidence to take this case to trial. In his opening statement, he comes out swinging, blasting investigators for letting the real killer get away. "The evidence will show that they ignored other leads."

But Dean Holtke says the evidence shows that Temple's claim that his house was broken into is impossible. "You would expect normally to find the glass directly away from the point of impact. That's not we found here. There was actually a couch a few feet away from this door, there was no glass on it at all," he explains, talking about the broken door. 

Asked what that is consistent with, Holtke says, "The door being open when the glass was broken."

DeGuerin argues those pieces of glass flew out when David barged into the house looking for his wife. "David had to push it aside when he ran full bore into the house. When it stopped suddenly, the shattered glass that was remaining would have then been propelled out."

For two weeks, Siegler calls 23 witnesses. 48 Hours was not allowed to record any of their audio. DeGuerin has answers for everything. The witness who claims he saw David at that out of the way intersection? DeGuerin says the man is mistaken about the date. 

The state meanwhile contends that an intruder could not get past Temples' dog, Chaka, who was in the yard. But DeGuerin says Chaka was locked up. 

DeGuerin insists there is no real evidence against David, and furthermore, he says, Siegler knows it.

Judge Doug Shaver has his hands full - he has to keep the trial moving and keep the lawyers from each other's throat. The judge admits it was difficult for him, "I believe someone could say good morning and the other side would've objected to it."

Siegler continues to fight - not just with DeGuerin - but with everyone on David's side, especially one of the most reluctant witnesses, David's current wife, Heather.

David and Heather have always said their early relationship was not serious. But DeGuerin admits it complicated his defense. 

Siegler doesn't buy that the relationship was casual, and grills Heather, who, blurts out a less than flattering account of sex with David, saying it was not memorable. 

When DeGuerin gets his turn, he launches an aggressive defense. He calls most of David's immediate family to paint a picture of David as a good father and loving husband. He also has the Roberts brothers testify about that loud bang they heard when they were children.

DeGuerin believes the best witness for David is David himself.

David says he wasn't afraid of Kelly Siegler, but knew it was a risk. "I look mean. I'm not. My eyes are sunk back in my head. You look like a football player. You look like you could be aggressive. Some things work against you."

When the defense rests, DeGuerin hopes the jurors will look past David's appearance and focus their suspicion on the Temples' former neighbor Riley Joe Sanders.

DeGuerin believes Sanders and his friends may have staked out the Temple house.

But Siegler tackles DeGuerin's theory head-on, and calls Riley Joe Sanders to the stand as a witness for the prosecution. "Riley Joe Sanders admitted, 'Yeah, I smoked dope. Yeah I cut school 100 something times," Siegler says.

He denies under oath that he had anything to do with Belinda's murder, but there was that polygraph.

Siegler says the jury did not hear about the polygraph test. "I just think it's important for everyone to understand that that's not admissible evidence," she says.

"It's an investigative tool. How did he do on the polygraph?" Schlesinger asks.

"Not well," Siegler says. 

Riley declined to be interviewed, saying he did not want to discuss false allegations against him. Siegler hopes that Riley Joe Sanders will not distract the jurors from her case against David Temple, but she knows better than to underestimate her rival.

Dick Deguerin's job, as he begins his closing argument, is to focus the jury's attention on the boy next door. "There is more circumstantial evidence against Riley Joe Sanders than there is against David Temple," he tells jurors.

He wants the jury to remember that Sanders had lied. "At first he denied having cut school that day. Why?"

And he argues that while Temple was wrong to be unfaithful, he is guilty of nothing more than adultery. "The circumstances do not lead to the inescapable conclusion that David Temple murdered Belinda. They simply don't," he argues. 

Siegler gets the last word, and one last chance to make her case. "The lies that this man told and the things that he chose not to say are the little pieces that are the truth," she tells the jury.

After only eight hours, the jury has its verdict: guilty.

David Temple was sentenced to life in prison. Evan, who is now 14, lost his father eight years after losing his mother. He is now being raised by Heather. "He knows he has a mother here and he has a mother in heaven. And that's the way he talks about it," Temple says.

Not surprisingly, DeGuerin plans to appeal. "This case is stuck in my craw, and it'll stay there until I get it over with," he says.

It's partly personal. He's lost to Siegler before, but this time, he believes is different. "Kelly Siegler has finally convicted an innocent man. David Temple did not kill Belinda Temple," DeGuerin says.

But she says, "That's funny because I've had four cases with Dick and he's said that on all four defendants, that they were innocent."

But this case was tougher than most, and Siegler says that's probably why every prosecutor before her passed it up. "It's real easy to do with cold cases. You just say what everyone who's gone before you says. 'Not enough here. Maybe one day.' And keep a family's hopes strung out forever."

Belinda's family believes justice was finally done, but they are still left with questions, questions they believe can only be answered by David Temple. "I don't know how you could've done that to my daughter," Carol says. "I'll never be able to see her again. Did you ever hear of divorce? Just why did you have to do it like that?"

David Temple has appealed his conviction. He is waiting for the decision.

Produced by Gail Zimmerman and Jenna Jackson

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