>> cleveland is like a big small town. we have like one of everything you need. little italy has the houses almost stacked on top of each other so close. and it seems like everybody knows somebody that knows somebody. so, for this to happen in little italy -- it was a horrible crime in the sense that it is a tight-knit communicate where things don't happen like that. >> at 1:30 on saturday, september 24th, 1988, a jogger noticed something floating in doan creek, a narrow waterway that twists through rockefeller park in cleveland, ohio. >> the case began when a jogger found the body of this poor young victim. two other detectives handled the scene. took a bunch of photographs, made a short report. >> detectives noticed immediately that the victim's neck was sliced open from ear-to-ear. the victim, a young male who appeared to be in his early 20s, also had three stab wounds in his chest and small cuts to his wrist and elbow. he was wearing no shoes and the only thing on him was $7, found in his pocket. no weapons or blood were found at the scene. >> the young man remained unidentified because he had no identification on him. >> with no leads police were baffled by the case until two days after the body was found when they received a mysterious phone call from a man who claimed to have knowledge of the crime. police asked if the caller could come in to help i.d. the body. that morning, homicide detective leo allen was at the morgue working on another case. >> i got notified by the morgue personnel that a man was there who thought he could identify the young man that was found on saturday. and that's how we got started. >> the man who came to the morgue was paul lewis, widely known by his nickname stoney apparently because of his affinity for being high. he identified the victim as his upstairs neighbor, tony klann. >> tony klann was 19. only a year earlier he had left home. his father told me he had written a note in which he said i emancipated myself. this was a young man searching for his identity. >> stoney lewis had gone out friday night drinking at a bar called coconut joe's. tony was with three co-workers, mike keenan, 39, owner of a local business called sunshine landscaping, eddie espinoza, 26, the company's foreman, and another part-time employee. 27-year-old joe d'ambrosio. stoney lewis said before he left the bar he saw a series of heated arguments between tony and eddie espinoza, with espinoza pushing tony around and threatening him. according to stoney, that was just the beginning. >> a couple witnesses were sleeping at 3:00 friday night, early saturday morning. and they were awakened by loud noises, yelling. and they saw joe, mike and eddie banging on doors, looking for paul lewis. and they had tony klann in the truck. >> apparently, mike, joe and eddie were convinced that stoney lewis had stolen drugs from them. and they were forcing tony klann to lead them to stoney. >> tony had been crying. he looked like he had been beat a little bit. and they saw joe d'ambrosio with a knife to his throat. this was at 3:00 in the morning, saturday morning. >> stoney lewis' story was all detectives needed to hear. >> we went up into cleveland heights and took five cleveland heights policemen with us. and we went to joe d'ambrosio's apartment, 1732 coventry road. >> eddie espinoza answered the door and was placed under arrest. next police searched for joe. >> first thing in the morning, the cops break in. i'm all the way in the back in the bathroom sitting on the toilet. all i see is the door fling open and i see two guys in plainclothes with guns pointing at me. and i'm like, what the heck is this? >> even without a warrant, police search joe's apartment. >> we did. we discovered three large knives and several other smaller items, some clothing, and we confiscated all kinds of stuff we found there. >> a black pickup truck later determined to belong to mike keenan was parked in the driveway and impounded by police. mike keenan was arrested the following day. from there, things moved fast. at the station, eddie espinoza immediately began talking. >> eddie espinoza told a story about mike keenan and joe d'ambrosio forcing tony klann into the pickup truck. they went around looking for stoney lewis. stoney lewis couldn't be found. and evidently in frustration decided to kill tony klann. >> eddie's story is that they drove down by doan creek. mike keenan got out of the truck. and were standing behind anthony telling him, where is stoney? where is stoney? and he kept saying i don't know where he is. keenan says put your head back. and that's when he come out with an 11-inch hunting knife and slit his throat. pushed him into the creek and told joe d'ambrosio, finish the job. >> at this point, espinoza said he heard tony screaming for mercy, crying out, please don't kill me. >> joe grabbed the knife. he jumped into the creek and put three big holes in that boy's chest. and killed him. that's eddie espinoza's story. my partner and i both felt that this man was telling us the truth. >> based mainly on espinoza's account, police charged mike and joe with aggravated murder. each would face the death penalty. joe's court-appointed lawyer convinced him to waive his right to a jury trial. >> i haven't a clue of the law. so, whatever they said, i did. >> the prosecution was handled by a tough veteran litigator named carmen marino. >> on this case from my standpoint, it was a job well done by the police officers. they investigated a good case, brought in good witnesses. there was nothing in this case that i had to do that the police didn't already do. that's rare. >> at trial, the state's case hinged on eddie espinoza's eyewitness account of the murder and the testimony of stoney lewis. to defend himself, joe took the stand. but his only alibi was that he was home alone sleeping. >> the prosecutor just tore me apart. you know. my attorneys did absolutely nothing and that was it. the case was over. they found me guilty of this crime. >> joe was sentenced to death. >> my trial was the shortest death penalty trial in ohio's history. 2 3/4 days. from let's start to you die. that's how fast it was. >> mike keenan also received the death penalty. eddie espinoza got 15 years. in march 1989, joe d'ambrosio arrived on death row at lucasville prison in southern ohio. he maintained his innocence. >> it's a nightmare. it has to be a nightmare. and i have to wake up. i really, really do. and you don't wake up. and it just goes on. no matter who i wrote and how much i begged. no one listens to a convicted murderer. they all say they didn't do it. in the fall of 1998, ten years after joe d'ambrosio was convicted of murder and sentenced to death his mother passed away. joe was not allowed to leave death row. so, a catholic priest and former lawyer named neil kookoothe decided to attend her funeral on joe's behalf. >> i asked the corrections officers, would you let me talk with joe for just a few minutes so that i can walk him through his mother's funeral. while joe was very appreciative of it, it was obvious that my goal for that meeting and his goal were not the same. >> a real human being i can talk to. i need help. nobody will help me. i didn't do this. >> i was very resistant to doing that. i knew these death row cases were immense cases. 5, 10, 15 volumes long. >> no, it's one volume big. that's all it is. >> one volume? >> that's where the attorney of him kicked in. >> i was just stunned that a man could be brought to trial for his life and be convicted in the amount of space it took to record that event was in one volume. so, i thought, whoa. something is not right. >> in addition to being a priest and a lawyer, neil was a registered nurse with 15 years experience in critical care. >> it is one of those, if you're a believer it is a god moment. a priest who was an r.n. and an attorney. where did that come from? and he shows up right at joe's cell. >> the thing that struck me right away was the coroner's testimony. anthony klann had sustained a very significant and deep neck wound from ear to ear. that neck wound opened up two large holes in anthony's trachea. >> but at trial, the state eyewitness eddie espinoza said he heard tony scream for mercy after his throat had been slit. >> i work with trachea patients every day. i knew if you can find the hole in your trachea, you can plug it perhaps, you might be able to make a noise. it might sound something like this. so, there is no way that anthony klann could be running down a creek bed trying to plug two holes in his trachea so he can scream for his life. >> after visiting the crime scene, father neil had other suspicions about espinoza's testimony. >> joe supposedly grabs the knife and goes after anthony in the creek bed stabbing him. yet there were no tire tracks or anything on the side of the creek. so, i thought, whoa. something is not right here. >> neil believed espinoza had to be lying. but a witness who was lying did not necessarily mean joe was telling the truth. neil needed to know more about joe's background. >> joe's father died when he was 17 years old. joe is the only boy in the family. so his father's death was very traumatic for him. >> i had to become the bread winner. and as soon as i graduated i went right into the military. i was what they call a shade tree mechanic. i worked on everything from a jeep to a 35,000 k.w. generator that used to launch missiles. i loved it. >> joe worked his way up to sergeant and was honorably discharged. but when he returned to the distressed economy of 1980s rust belt cleveland, joe couldn't find work. >> he thought he was a certified mechanic. i don't know what certification is in the military. but people were telling him, you're not a certified mechanic. >> in the spring of 1988, joe moved into a basement apartment near little italy. >> he lived in the coventry area which at the time was something a lot of 20-somethings did. they were blue-collar workers and they partied a lot. >> i was not an angel. i drank. i drank like a fish. >> right across the street from where i was living was a bar called the saloon. and i was in there throwing darts one day and ed espinoza, the foreman for mike keenan, came in and threw out a general question. who needs a job? and he hired me as a landscaper plus home repair work. i started work the next day, september 1st. september 26th, i'm sitting in jail. >> in contrast to joe's story, neil discovered that the man who put joe on death row, eddie espinoza, had a very checkered past. >> eddie espinoza was someone who, in court, admitted that he was an alcoholic. also a drug abuser, a welfare cheat, he was someone who was known to drink a 12-pack of beer, would follow that up with snorting cocaine and then follow that up with tequila shots. but eddie espinoza had agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors. so, his story became the prevailing narrative. >> there is absolutely no motive here that would impel joe d'ambrosio to inflict harm upon anthony klann. >> given what he had learned so far, kneel -- neil was feeling that something had gone terribly wrong in the police investigation of tony klann's murder. >> stoney lewis points his fingers and they stop focusing on any other person or any other circumstances that might literally take them away from their case solved. >> remember, they had this crime solved, according to them, within a day. and so, the investigation was only to gather evidence to support a theory that they already had. >> if joe was indeed an innocent man on death row, neil would have to figure out how to prove it. i was so angry when i got locked up. i couldn't understand how this could happen. i must have been angry for months. and then, one day, i was like, you know what? i'm sick and tired of this. i have to start learning the law. i knew if i went back for a retrial, i can prove that i didn't do this. >> as father neil kookoothe looked into joe d'ambrosio's case, he became suspicious that prosecutors had not told joe's defense team everything they knew about the murder of tony klann. >> i felt from the neck wound to the scene at the crime, it seemed like at every other turn there was more that was being discovered. >> neil was also shocked to learn that in 1988, ohio law did not require the state authorities to share all their evidence with defendants. >> what would happen back in those days is that the prosecutor would look at their files and they would determine what to hand over or to reveal to the defense attorneys and that's what they would get. >> the sixth amendment protects your right to an attorney. the right is no good if the attorney doesn't have the information. >> in addition to ohio's draconian discovery laws, neil would also learn that the prosecutor in joe's case, carmen marino, had his own controversial reputation. >> with carmen marino, there were ten cases where he had been reprimanded by the courts. i summarized it as cheating to win. get a conviction at all costs seemed to be the approach. and let the truth fall where it may. >> in fact, in the tony klann murder case, marino was cited by the ohio supreme court for prosecutorial misconduct in the trial of joe's co-defendant, mike keenan. >> i gave a good closing argument. and i ended by taking this big bully knife. stabbing it at the evidence desk. that's the prosecutorial misconduct that was alleged. my argument was you're criticizing me for stabbing this knife in the desk when that was the knife that slashed this kid's throat when they murdered him. you think that's the balance that should overturn the case? well, it was. >> because of marino's antics, mike keenan received a new trial. but once again he was convicted and received a death sentence. by 2001 joe d'ambrosio had been on death row for over 12 years. his state appeals had all been rejected. his execution could come at any time. >> our legal system is just designed to make it very, very difficult to prove that someone did not commit a crime after they've already been convicted. you're talking, the most up-hill of up-hill battles. >> father neil was desperate to help prove joe's innocence. in order to get a new trial they had to find new evidence. so, neil took a new approach. >> i thought, one of the things i need to do to get help is media attention. one of the first media outlets that i got was "the cleveland scene" magazine. >> neil kookoothe came into the office a couple weeks after i joined the staff. neil did not oversell what he believed to be joe's case of actual innocence. he came to me with pieces of the case that he felt were questionable. >> he interviewed dozens of witnesses and discovered information of evidence that joe's defense didn't have at trial. >> i got in touch with the two detectives who first responded to this case. and confirmed my instinct that there was more to the story than had previously been told. the human body holds eight to ten pints of blood. when tony's body was found, he had two pints of blood left. yet, there was no blood or forensic evidence of any kind along the river bank. based in part on that, the two detectives were adamant that tony klann had been murdered elsewhere, not at the river bank as eddie espinoza had claimed. if the location of the murder is different from what the key prosecution witness is claiming, that's a pretty big discrepancy. but the lead detective on the case, leo allen, did not visit the river bank until four or five days after the murder. >> we're involved in other cases. not the only case we have. my goodness. we've got all kinds of work to do. so there was no reason for my partner and i to go back there to see what we could see. we did go back there just to see where the heck it happened. >> the two original detectives were never called to testify at joe's trial. >> the prosecutor suggested a defense trial counsel that they didn't need to talk to anybody else except detective allen, which is pretty suspicious conduct, trying to keep the views of the officers first on the scene away from defense counsel. >> he also reported about the lack of physical evidence in the case. >> you had no forensic evidence, blood, tissue, hair, on the knife that was supposedly used that killed tony klann. you had no blood that was found in the pickup truck. you had no blood on mike keenan's clothes or joe d'ambrosio's clothes. that's a lot of question marks. kooz's article also highlighted a discrepancy about which night the murder took place. >> there were question marks about when the murder occurred, whether it was thursday night or friday night. he had been with mike keenan and joe d'ambrosio for a short time. a manager had told me, he remembered those guys being there thursday night when the bar held its tequila shot night. but not on friday night. >> but late friday night was when the state had argued the murder took place. >> there's evidence of testimony that they're all drinking thursday night. and the state tried to take two days and put them into one. >> how can you, based on that information, convicted two men and sentence them to die? >> the article was a turning point in joe's case. >> it was the seminal story that began to unravel things and to cause people to look deeper. >> the most explosive bombshell would come from kuz' conversation with tony klann's father richard. someone the police had neglected to thoroughly interview. >> he shared something with me that i heard no one else mention. [ male announcer ] it's here -- xfinity watchathon week, your chance to watch full seasons of tv's hottest shows for free with xfinity on demand. there's romance, face slaps, whatever that is, pirates, helicopters, pirate-copters... argh! hmm. it's so huge, it's being broadcast on mars. heroes...bad guys... asteroids. available only on mars. there's watching. then there's watchathoning. ♪ as journalist martin kuz was researching his article about death row inmate joe d'ambrosio, he was finally able to make contact with the murder victim's father, richard. >> richard and i spoke on the phone. it was a long conversation. by the time we actually finished, i was the last person in the office. >> richard klann gave kuz a fuller portrait of his son, tony, who along with his sister had been adopted. >> they had been into foster homes a couple of times. so, we did everything we could to help the kids be comfortable and safe where we lived. >> growing up, a learning disability had made things difficult for tony. >> because of all the teasing and the other things that went on in his early life, he did not fit in real well. >> tony barely finished high school. but in late august 1988, he told his dad he wanted to start a lawn mowing business. >> i was going to help him with that. i was going to help him get a truck. well, he never called me that weekend. and i found out on monday that he had been killed on friday. it was the coldest day in my life. >> as we covered all this ground, he shared something with me that i had heard no one else mention. he said that tony klann had told him, richard, that he had witnessed a rape in the apartment building where he lived. >> i understood that there was going to be a trial and tony was going to be a witness for that. >> after we hung up, i felt like i needed to share that information with neil. >> martin told me that. and i went down to the justice center. i pulled anthony klann's file. and i discovered that he indeed had witnessed a rape and that the rape victim was a young man by the name of christopher longenecker. you don't really hear about male on male rape all that often. to me that suggests a whole other degree of violence. but then it went a step further because it was that the man who had been arrested for the rape was stoney lewis. >> the same stoney lewis who had first tipped off police that joe, keenan and espinoza might be the ones responsible for tony's murder. >> my heart just dropped into the pit of my stomach. and i'm thinking, oh, my god, the deceased in this case has witnessed a rape. and the rapist is the man who is pointing his finger at other men. >> but if neil was able to connect these two cases in an afternoon, why hadn't police and prosecutors done the same? >> the prosecutor of joe's case was carmen marino. it turned out that the prosecutor of the rape case was carmen marino. at the same time. so, it doesn't take too much to ask that you put two and two together. >> yeah, i didn't see any connection. who would murder him for what reason? contrary to what you may hear, it is truly extraordinary that someone would murder another witness to keep them from testifying. >> but to joe d'ambrosio's defense team, it seemed very connected. >> tony klann was the only eyewitness called by either side for that trial. the only eyewitness suddenly ends up killed and the case goes away. to us, that was a far better motive and opportunity than the prosecution had theorized. >> in order to prove their theory, joe's team would need to interview the alleged rape victim. but chris longenecker had vanished without a trace. the new discoveries in joe's case caught the attention of one of the most prominent law firms in town, jones day, which agreed to fight for him on a pro bono basis. >> it was like night and day. it went from i have two appeals left and then they're going to murder me to now i have neil and all these resources from the world's third-largest law firm backing me up. >> armed with the fact that prosecutor carmen marino had withheld information, joe's team submitted a sweeping discovery request to the federal court. >> to me, it seemed like a logical question. what else is in there? >> meanwhile, the alleged rape victim, the only person who could corroborate what tony klann had witnessed, was finally located living in florida. and it would be up to neil to convince him to testify. ñ 13 years after joe d'ambrosio had been sentenced to death, federal judge kathleen o'malley finally granted access to all police and prosecutor files related to his case. >> they turned over a stack of paper like a foot and a half thick. >> it was the first major judgment to go joe's way since he had been convicted. >> the way to get a new trial was to show a constitutional violation had occurred. in other words, the failure to turn over exculpatory evidence. evidence that tended to prove he was innocent would have mattered to a jury. i took every page and i went through line by line. >> some of the most compelling evidence concerns stoney lewis, including police reports about suspicious activity at stoney's apartment the morning tony klann was killed. >> the lady that lived next door to stoney heard a loud, violent argument on -- get this -- saturday morning. she called the police. they hid that from us. >> there's witness statements again in police and prosecutor files. i think it was an older couple said they heard someone say, let's dump the body in the basement. >> joe and his lawyers believed that at the very least, the withheld evidence provided reasonable doubt the crime could have happened differently than the state presented at trial. in july 2004, joe's team went before judge o'malley to obtain a new trial. >> we put up all our witnesses. the newly discovered people, the newly discovered evidence. >> by far the most powerful witness at the hearing was chris longenecker, stoney lewis' alleged rape victim who had been found living in florida. neil convinced chris his testimony could save joe's life. >> i wasn't able to do anything for tony because -- so, i figured, if i could help someone else, then i'll do that. >> chris, who is legally blind and born with a physical disability on the left side of his body, was 22 years old and tony klann's roommate in 1988. he told the court what happened one evening when he was hanging around with his downstairs neighbor, stoney lewis. >> we went back to his place to hang out. and decided to make something to eat, i guess. and he started pressing up against me and crap. and i was like, dude, what the hell are you doing? i told him i was not into that. and he was a little more threatening. he started pulling my hair. some hands-on stuff. and -- and that happened and there was some fear issues there from from the fact that he had a firearm in his apartment. and the whole time that i was being assaulted, i told him, this is not consensual. this is rape. >> chris says just after the rape, tony klann showed up at stoney's apartment. >> there was a knock on his door. it was tony klann. then i left when tony left. i figured that was my way out. i told him that paul lewis raped me. and sort of freaked out a little bit. and then i went to the police department and filed a report. >> soon after, stoney was arrested and indicted for reportedly raping chris. he spent a few weeks in jail before being released on bond. when it was time for stoney's pretrial hearing, chris missed the court date. >> and i misread the court date, or memorized the wrong date. so i called them. that's when they told me that i was a day late. and that paul lewis went free. >> after tony's murder, chris called the police and mentioned the connection to the earlier rape case. >> i never accused paul lewis of murdering tony klann. i just told someone of authority that all the people in both cases know one another. but i guess they paid no attention to that. >> when you hear chris longenecker tell the story about what happened to him and who paul lewis really is based on that event, then you start to imagine that this is a guy who could have orchestrated this type of crime. >> following the hearing, joe felt good about his chances of getting a new trial. but the decision would not come quickly. >> two years. judge o'malley took two years to rule. >> finally in march 2006, the judge released her decision. >> she overturned my case. she granted me my retrial. which i've wanted all along. i wanted my day in court. she said, look, no reasonable jury would have convicted him if it had heard this evidence. >> when that ruling finally comes out, i mean, such elation. the combination of 15 years of pleading and searching for the truth because joe always said, the evidence will prove that i didn't kill anthony klann. >> carmen marino, who retired in 2002, strongly disagreed with the decision. >> i'm disappointed. it is disappointment from the standpoint that those cases were well tried. in my considered opinion, there is a very limited trialability on many judges. they don't understand the full dynamics of either investigating a criminal case or trying a criminal trial. >> marino also disputed that he withheld evidence. >> we strictly followed the ohio law. if it was in my file, they saw it or heard in addition to what the law required us to give them. i gave them copies of everything they were entitled to. >> like marino, the state of ohio stood firm. >> and of course, after she gave it to me, they appealed it. so i had my retrial. but i couldn't go nowhere. >> the prosecutor's office began preparing for another trial. they were convinced they could reconvict joe and put him to death once and for all. your chance to watch full seasons of tv's hottest shows for free with xfinity on demand. there's romance, face slaps, whatever that is, pirates, helicopters, pirate-copters... argh! hmm. it's so huge, it's being broadcast on mars. heroes...bad guys... asteroids. available only on mars. there's watching. then there's watchathoning. ♪ by 2009, joe d'ambrosio's murder conviction had been overturned by a federal judge. but since the state chose to retry him, joe still sat on death row, waiting. >> the county prosecutor's office wanted to preserve a conviction, which is typical of the prosecutor's offices. no matter what evidence you give them to the contrary, they're going to do everything to protect that conviction. >> in february 2009, pretrial hearings began presided over by judge joan synenberg. >> by the time the case landed in my courtroom, someone had been sitting on death row for over two decades. this is very serious. because of mistakes that were made, a process was flawed. all i wanted to do was make sure that the process was fair. >> but just days before the trial was to begin, prosecutors disclosed they had found additional evidence in their files. >> despite having a federal court order, in fact there was physical evidence that had not been turned over to joe's trial council. not only in 1988, but in this particular proceeding itself. >> it was a circus. and i'm sitting out there watching it in total disbelief, total disbelief. >> the sudden release of new evidence would delay joe's retrial even more. so joe's attorneys petitioned the court for bail. >> the state of ohio said, it would be unheard of for a judge to let a man off of death row on bond. and i said, i agree. he's not on death row. he stands convicted of nothing. and based on what seemed to be extensive community support, i set a bail. >> are you okay? >> yeah. >> judge synenberg lets him out of jail on a $50,000 bond with a leg brace. that, to me, is the most appalling thing anyone could ever do. >> joe was released on house arrest. >> any thoughts about what it feels like to be out? none at all? >> no comment. >> okay. >> for the first time in 20 years, joe would go to sleep someplace other than an 8x10 jail cell. >> prison is always noise, 24/7. never silence. never dark. for half my life. so, to sit in utter silence is amazing because that's what i used to do when i was at the house. i would turn off the lights and sit in utter silence for hours. >> but there was still one more battle to go. as joe's retrial was finally about to start, news broke that eddie espinoza had died of liver failure. espinoza had served only 12 years in prison before being set free. despite losing their star witness, the state asked the court to admit into evidence espinoza's testimony from 1988. >> i said, no, because mr. d'ambrosio would have not had his constitutional right to confront someone who is not there. i didn't see any reason to permit testimony from years ago in a process that was already tainted. >> the state pursued the case for seven more months. but without espinoza's testimony, they had little against joe. finally, in march 2010, judge synenberg dismissed all charges and ordered that joe be released from house arrest. >> joe d'ambrosio is free. and she exonerated him. look at his record, it's gone. >> and with that, case is over. they can never put me back in jail for this. >> the original prosecution team was outraged with the court's decision. >> you know, some things just don't go the way they ought to in terms of equity and justice. the case hasn't changed in 25 years. it is not going to change. they're the ones that murdered this innocent guy. >> it is the biggest smoke screen i've ever seen in my life. the judge is bought. >> after his exoneration, joe went to work as a maintenance man at neil's parish, the church of st. clarence in north olmstead, ohio. >> the state did absolutely nothing for me because i'm an exonoree. i'm the sixth in ohio history and 140th in the united states to be exonerated. they do nothing for us, nothing at all. they open the door, they kick you out, get out. everything that i fought for for this country was taken from me. every last single right, for near 80% of my adult life. >> joe knows that he owes his freedom and his life to one man. >> if it wasn't for neil, i would have been murdered ten years ago, easily. and the state wouldn't have batted an eye. >> it was just a matter of, i think, common human decency and a matter of justice. i was astonished at how far wrong the system can go. and how slow it works. and how much is at stake. >> joe and neil travel around ohio speaking out against the death penalty. >> i started finding out the things that he was telling me could be independently verified. >> that i'm here is a blessing from god. i prayed for him to end this nightmare. i wanted it right then and there, but he answered my prayers. it just took 22 years. that's all. the clock is ticking to find missing malaysian flight 370 black box before it dies. and it could be a landmark election. the motive is still unclear about the shooting at the ft. hood air force base. the father, though, is speaking out. hello to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm natalie allen and you're in the cnn newsroom. the malaysian airliner mystery now crosses the four-week mark with a new question about the pilot's flight simulater. on the water, two vessels are using special sonar technology to try to detect pings from the jet liner's flight recorders before their battery runs out. one of the ships is using an underwater microphone from the u.s. navy. up to 13 planes are part of today's operation conducting a visual search for remnants of the missing jet. no trace has been found four weeks after it took off from kuala lumpur for beijing. nick raja is live with the investigation, and erin is live in perth. erin, let's start with you. what is going on with this search, which, as we know, is really coming at this from every angle. >> now a 24-hour operation, natalie, some 13 planes and 11 ships are scouring an area the size of ireland today, three separate search areas within that 217,000 square kilometre vast search area that had been identified. one of the areas is a 150-mile-long track that a team of international experts has identified as the most likely placed, the plane went down. in that track, two vessels, the british echo, call me, because it really is a race against time. that operation expected to take around two days. if they don't find anything, they'll move on. but the battery of the black box pinger expected to last some 30 days, and this plane has already been missing for 28. natalie? >> and, of course, finding it will help solve this mystery of what in the world happened. and the other thing that we're hearing about, erin, is the investigation that continues into the chief pilot's personal flight simulator. what do you know about that? >> that's right, cnn learning new details about the contents of the hard drive of the flight simulator belonging to malaysian pilot zahari shaw. according to a senior american source familiar with the investigation, that hard drive yielding some curious clues considering the nature of the situation but nothing particularly alarming. there are three different types of information, according to the source, that were on this hard drive. it also appears shaw had searched what to do in flight emergencies in the event of perhaps a fire in the back of the plane or sudden cabin decompression. and he also searched nearest airports on the route from kuala lumpur and beijing, places that he could go in the event of an emergency. all that a normal pilot would use a flight similarity, the investigati investigation. no clearing of wrongdoing. no criminal motive established yet for the co-pilot or the pilot. . we are expecting more information from malaysia in the next half hour, natalie. >> let's head over to kuala lumpur here now, where they're answering some tough questions. one could personally understand, nick, the relentless pleas for any, any answers or information as these families continue to ask. >> and it continued into today. we understand that chinese families here, relatives of those chinese passengers aboard the aircraft, handed to the malaysia another letter of participation, questions this com comes. . trying to get answers to those questions, government officials wanting to know what was in the cargo. what was the management sponsor? . they said they couldn't tell them -- they couldn't allow them to listen to the traffic controllers, questions about the end. but some of the families here chose not to go to that briefing. rather, they went to a prayer service for those missing passengers. >> prayers in remembrance before many. in one of kuala lumpur's elite boarding schools, 800 students and their months tour, struggling with the loss of loved. >> where. his wife, a passenger aboard the plane, came to the prayer. his son at his side. the burden of non across town, as that. there was frustration, rell tifz telling cnn it was a waste of time. . . . after that, the indian ocean. and where in. snend ♪ >> in the absence of certainty, prayers the only hope. >> i think is good. at the same time, we are aware that any information we get, we may not be able to see them again. >> a pain few here are ready to bear. and even despite that pain, despite the questions being unanswered, the government here really doesn't seem to be able to bend in its position, that so much of what the family wants to know is confidential because it's under investigation, natalie. >> that has got to be so hard for them to hear. thank you. the weather in the indian ocean has thrown just about everything in the search efforts. but now it's throwing cyclone. maybe inching close to the area swt. >> natalie, you know. we had all the gusty winds, powerful winds, large swells. we had, a tropical cycle this one sitting. the temperatures here are very cool ton the scattered showers a possibility. the issue with this, let's keep in. as opposed to the united. they're going to be here in the eastern periphery of it, that there there's. as we approach this, day 30 and even day 31, we'll have a lot purcha purchase. >> they're looking for information after the deadly shootings at ft. hood military base. >>. >> cnn has learned in the weeks before his deadly rampage at. we'll be leaving a stock pile of your application. he also purchased what one. the 34-year-old returned to the store repeatedly to buy nen. . it started as a dispute with another for. our next waiting argument is unity area. >> cnn has. . he snapped, returning a short time later with his gun. >> the first guy he shot with his gun was killed. then he turned the gun toward jonathan, aimed it and fired. >> investigators are still trying to piece together an exact mode many of the shooting. . the war veteran had a spotless service record. he also appeared to have an unstable psychiatric condition. >> he was seen just last month by a psychiatrist. he was fully examined, and as of this morning, we had no indication on the record of that examination that there was any sign of likely violence. >> sources tell cnn police searched the apartment where lopez has recently moved with his wife and young daughter, but it found no evidence, such as a suicide note, to explain the shooting. ivan lopez's family broke their silence for the first time on friday. his father said in a stormt. this is not all with 150. . what exactly sent lopez off? hanna brown, cnn, killeen, texas. >> who will follow humidity. we'll have a live report coming from kabul. how much they're delivering to viewers this weekend. in afghanistan, voters are choosing a successor to hameed karzai, the decision coming four years and 12 months as troops withdraw from the country. the taliban threatens anyone who goes to the polls. three will have any chance of winning, just three. results aren't expected until april 28. the run-up to today's vote has been an especially violent time in afghanistan. on friday, two journal lists from the associated press were shot by an afghan policeman. one of the women died. anna joins us live about the violence. anna, leading up to this, we've seen people shot, local police shot and golden a real change for afghanistan. >> absolutely, natalie. i'm very happy to report that there was a good turnout in the polling station. it's actually a girls' school, and despite that it's been raining all day, there were hundreds of people lined up waiting to get inside and cast their vote. you know, there is such momentum in this country right now, despite the taliban threats of violence, and obviously those attacks are very high-profile attacks and stop people from voting. well, the people of afghanistan are incredibly defiant and williams. they have i'll do change, whatever is the next country, they can deliver to these pain and that we do, in piece and stability. you'll notice that i am an ap journalist, which really rattled people yesterday. no high-profile attacks today. a couple minor incidents in outlying provinces, but here and the capitol, so far, so good. >> that is very good news, especially the fact that people are denying the taliban, and all they want is to have what other people in the front runners bring. >> what would they bring to the leadership there in kabul? >> natalie, we spent time with the three top residential candidates. all these three men are promising peace and stability for this country. now, president karzai, who is stepping down after two terms in office, he never endorsed any of these candidates publicly. however, it's widely known that he threw his support between mon seek oe and the front runner of this apartment, this is a man who was he had indicated, karzai's government. >> i think the sticking point, u.s. forces in this country bringing security to this country. yes, this war has been gog on for 1 is years. but at the meeting, it really does mean that in the made up of pat's 10,000 coalition. it will help with the security i so desperately need. today. you have to say, what, it's 10 to 200. they have passed these tests with flying colors. today they're standing on their own two feet, but to ensure this country needs to jerry forward. but they have indicated they will sign that longlasting pieces of in your in your. >> well, u.s. defense secretary, chuck nag he will, the come feert. annexation of crimeblackberry. have a dispute with china. china in the. impose its will to reinternational boundaries. and violate. >> all of the world take note of that. the world won't respond to that. >> hagel will meet sunday with japan's foreign and defense ministers. the mother of one of the passengers on flight 370 is speaking exclusively with cnn. up next here, assess snaj but one is so clever that your skin looks better even after you take it off. neutrogena healthy skin liqakeup. 98% saw improved skin. does your makeup do that? 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[ female announcer ] lactaid. 100% real milk. no discomfort. . welcome back. live picture from kuala lumpur. we're expecting them to brief the public about malaysian flight 370. just a few minutes from now, we'll bring you the live news conference as it ends. up to 13 helicopters, resuming the stresh of medicine. pilots had programmed severalal alternate fat reports are he is it. one passenger who got a lot of attention early in the investigation was an iranian teenager traveling on a stolen passport. after seeing our coverage, his mother reached out to cnn. she says she said she wanted to defend her son's honor and she. the world is tormented in conjunction are her son. terrorist and suspect. she's asked us not to see her face knowing the family been relaxed. >> my son isn't a bad boy. he wanted to study, and he wants to be near the m and a former plans. the investigators later said they had nothing wd. . >> were you hoping that they had caught him? >> yes. >> it turns out he was trying to be with his mother, who has cancer. she see and it was waiting refuse u. the best way to get to his mom was to use a stolen passport. >> yes, that reminds me that we have a short time. >> shorter than she could come get him. >> but i'm here alone and i don't have any possibility. >> so she can't travel to malaise to be close to the nefgs and 130. she is also still undercover as tree weeks. . there is that ryan paerlz. i want to say that. i need to know what happened. >> after reading our story about her oldest son on line, she decided to speak to us via skype. >> it was the first time that hln. . >> i need you to understand me. i feel you near me. >> thank you. >> a mother with no support system at home, crushed by the burden of waiting to find out what happened to her firstborn son. sara snider, cnn, kuala lumpur. . yet another family's agony, and here we have the malaysian authorities to start this news conference to bring the world since he begins. >> we have excessive problems of our malaysia airlines system. for the press conference this evening, i hereby call upon. if you could please do us the honor. >> ladies and gentlemen, it has been almost a month since malaysia flight 370 went missing. the search operation has been difficult, challenging and complex. but despite all of this, my determination remained unpunished. we oe this to the families of those on board and to the wider ald. >> as for the requirements set out of the recommended practices, malaysia will tinto meet the information as to how steers independent. >> the investigation team will contain three groups. a aedufi to examine things such as slight recorders, operations, and appear pravb factors kheil. survival and factor. malaysia has already asked a credit to the investigation team and they have kpepd. >> we also include china, the u nights red. we need to go in other countries i feel we're in a position to help. >> the government, in order to stream line and strengthen our ongoing efforts has established three ministerial committees. presley, we have established a head of pa material. we knew we didn't, needs this committee. this committee will oversee all piks regarding the next of kin or those on board amway flight 317. offering support after the search operation has been concluded. the committee recording it was and will come. >> the second other than the did you say tee. sh the in the casely joint agency coordination center. this morning i returned from the u.s. ackellium. >>, diligent efforts in the search of 2017 and the spirit of cooperation at this meeting off it. she's talking about the secretary. . what i do, necessarily. thanked secretary ho go on which we need support. sophisticated under pressure assistance and the fup from the fhh. at the forum, i also rp 317. out loud the joint. >> end. we as members of the tie. on board the missing malaysian flight nang. she has buttons in yerch of theal of. i'm going to continue to assist in every way possible. >> wauz. so when he is. prus lirch the sell of the. . . a field of disaster management under the framework of the asean agreement among austin jumt here. >> porn us the information. a beer of collections. and is toll. we are res lous in lg. before i end, ladies and gentlemen, let me touch on some unfounded allegations made against malaysia. these obligations include aviation authorities were somehow complicit to airlines flight 370. i'd like to state for the record, these are unclear completely, eye too. a call on all relations to unite, to stand by our armed forces as they were in difficult conditions with their foreign counterparts thousands of miles from home and to support all those who are working tightly in the search for nh 370. lastly, as i mentioned on wednesday, while i was on the u.s. osean defense program, i spoke to the ministry of defense filed hlm tu is. i confirmed the now is now in the key area. i know you want the police force to update you on the submarine's capabilities. >> this is a summary with range and endurance. some news require refueling. the style us is only limited by foot supplies and human ignorance. this is designed to bring globally, including in the most exterior conditions, auch as. . >> ladies and gentlemen of the media. the polz are open with the start of. yes, chris? would you stand up and. [ foreign language ] [ foreign language ] >> as we monitor this news conference, we expect hussein to go back and forth in different languages as he takes questions from different reporters, but we do want to highlight the announcement he made. there is an independent investigation beginning that will involve australia, the u.k., the u.s., france, china and other countries, and they will operate in three groups, if you're just joining us, and you mentioned it. the first group will look into airworthiness and maintenance. the second group will look into operations, the third into medical and human factors that might have affected this aircraft. he also talked about the unfounded allegations against malaysian officials that somehow they were complicit with what happened in this flight, and he said that is absolutely false. let's talk with our senior international correspondent nick robinson who was in kuala lumpur. he's been listening to this news conference. it sounds like they're moving forward to try to appease those or with this country. the opposition here, i'm worried, a policy the government deeply dislikes. he's been taking. we need to listen to the transport box and the defense minister said the country should reunite and put it back in the domestic political angle there. we also heard tuck about thro h through. >> we'll go back. they're speaking in english again, and listen for a moment. >> the work shop is 35 to do so. and as far as the entry, we confirmed that estimate in this we do know that the batteries. >> yes. could you stand up and identify yourself, please, sir? [ foreign language ] >> all right, they're speaking -- yet again, we'll take you back to dick robertson listening in. they're talking about the different cities, and the ceo of our battery is with the known that part of the date to date, because the maintenance hasn't been done, this could mean the pingers are under water. we understand they have a dirty light disruptives now, so that clearly isn't the way to do it. the procedures were carried out by the airline correctly, and the pang chb rye to. the light of the factors would be strong thuf. i think one of the other. >>. they say tech kay -- deployments of assets for the search. it's very interesting, the first commission there being told by the information. from the overseen by deck rarts who also report in some. it does certainly seem that t they're taking a close look to relating with the families, dealing with the families for their cottons. we know the family is disa poind they're not getting their questions answered fully. . perhaps what the government. overwhelmed by the pressure, certainly from these families that want answers. they have indicated that they are not going to reveal parts of the investigation that need to kept confidential right now, and i understand that quite frank the is driving the family crazy, having to sit and wait and thinking there could be information that could help them but it's not being revealed. >> what little more can you tell us about that part of this. we know their families, their chi tease. we do know they have many outstanding questions. one of them, they wanted. we also hear from the malaysian families that they want to know if the investigators can trust the data which provides the track of the. >>. i've done an investigation on tore rerism, high skij. i did last night. [ foreign language ] >> during the last press conference, one of the questions that was raised was about the a because this document has not been verified. make the loop instead of going to the left. i had a question. during the last press conference, at a summer hotel, i remember her looking well. so if any piece of evidence 37. so during the time the flight was last deprotected. then it was already about eight hours' polite. is it possible for. the idea of cap lis. how much was the feeling during that time. thank you. >> for the first question, the manner that the aircraft made the turn as reported, in inner vat i vating. >> as far as the fuel is concerned, we wheer exact figure and even veg an tujt -- this is about eight hours of flight. we do not have any more after that. i know they are looking for some more data, but that's it. the aircraft will just run out of fuel, all right? >> it is revealed that there's been $3 million spent so far, how much will malaysian taxpayers spend, and if you can't redeem it now, when will the public know? thank you very much. >> as i said earlier, i would need it to focus on the kennedys is really to look forward, the loved ones and the convene. >> from here, last question from the local media. >> good evening. i'd like to ask you, do you think malaysia should make an apology to all the nationalalities on board? >> i don't think there is one solution to smooth anything in this tragic incident. it requires not just an apology, it requires a lot of soul searching, it requires a lot of emotional support, it involves a lot of sharing of information and data. but what is more important right now is to remain focused, which is already a very massive task. to a little kid, the aircraft in the indian ocean with all its challengers, and to coordinate so many countries and so many assets to do that. the sophisticated equipment that's being used in itself is a message for operation. but what gives me strength right now is not about money, is not about apology, but the fact that so many people have looked at it in such a positive way, i have come forward to assist, and that is something that we can all draw strength from, because if this goes on any longer, we need every bit of strength that we can, especially to get to the truth of what happened to flight 370. >> ladies and gentlemen. >> good to see all of you. we're four weeks into this, and i know you've been working tirelessly. i want to go back over, you know, right from the start just a little bit i know you. as we combine all that, work with the international team members, what do we know. have we got a greater understanding. >> good question, in trying to find the black box, it will give more to what we already have. but my discussions with the osean defense ministers and our forum with the united states in hawaii yesterday showed how much we can learn from this incident. and we're looking at a whole new landscape, be it through primary/secondary radar, military, and it makes us all relook at our capability and our capacity. and the contacts of osean, all nations in the south china sea and looking at the primary radar. and all that will have to be redigested, and those panels of inquiries, those groups that we are establishing which will include experts from most of these countries, i think, will make us relook at that landscape that you were asking about, sir. but i would not limit it specifically to this particular case because it's ongoing operations we are doing, and like i said, in this particular case, by finding data and the black box and the plane itself, i think that would help us find out what happened to nh 370. but bigger than that, how are we where we are today after a month requires all of us, the world, actually, to relook at what we have, that we can do more together, and i think that's a much more positive way of looking at this journey we're going through right now. >> the companies on the radar, can you name them? >> i can just rely on what i read to you just now in osean. the data information and my capacity as defense minister, i have no problems getting the military information and the radar from those countries. then countries outside osean, unless i get their permission, you will appreciate this is sensitive information. you might want to ask them directly. but as far as osean is concerned, and from my own experience, there has been no country out there in this particular information of flight 370, whether it's from radar, whether it's from military or civil. >> okay. >> considering the search analysis and the investigation. >> what do we have to make it easier on the relatives? thank you. >> once we have any evidence of the aircraft, we'll make arrangements to fly all the relatives and also families down to -- i think the current arrangement is to fly them to perth. >> i announce us now the deputy minister of foreign affairs who is leading the ministerial committee regarding next of kin to say a few words, too. >> we actually just filmed our new comedy. we're looking at all possibilities. the comedy is actually to look in into. . we are not looking to all communities involved. by having this committee, we can coordinate the work down the original cap overall in terms f of. may i just add something? china counted by the number of passengers that are missing. . this is why the deputy minister of foreign affairs has been appointed to lead this committee. >> okay. gentlemen? okay. yes. if we are looking for this, we have -- [ inaudible ] >> all missions are very close. at one point we will have to discuss what happened. you mentioned we are getting to that. can you tell us anything about what happened in the other one? >> yeah. i can only speak for malaysia, and malaysia will not stop looking for nh 370. [ inaudible ] >> there is no arrangement when the aircraft will be declared lost. that's more if we talk about the missing persons, it could be for seven years, you know. but that's human being. but for aircraft, to search for aircraft, as mentioned by the minister, we will look for them for as long as it takes. >> eileen from associated press. sir, it's been more than two weeks, i think, since the search began in the indian ocean and so far no wreckage has been found. i just want to find out, do experts and the search team think wreckage. could you perhaps -- is that a possible scenario that you're looking at? >> that would be speculative. good morning. christi paul and victor blackwell here. an intense search this morning as they frantically try to find malaysia airlines flight 370 before the black box stops pinging. you are watching a live press conference from malaysia right now. let's continue to listen. >> -- four days. individuals have tolds that you none of the family members have been able to listen to it that recording. it would seem that apparently a commercial pilot or

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