and then your being looked at for it. imagine, your shaken in the dead of night. my ears were ringing. i thought i was dreaming. in bed, right next to you. your husband, murdered. hearty wrap around your head, is it? yes. and here s the twist. you are the suspect. it s the worst feeling, thinking you re gonna be blamed for your husband s death. could she have been the killer? or, with someone keeping a secret? he said, what did you do. what did you do? i don t know what to tell you. just of the truth. hello, and welcome to dateline . it s the stuff of nightmares. and a traitor creeps into your bedroom in the middle of the night and opens fire. but for melissa oxley, the bad dream was all too real. she told investigators she d been startled from her sleep to find her husband, ben, dead from a gunshot blast. it seems streams, they thought, that no one else in the house was hurt. including melissa, who was sleeping by his side. stranger still, was
love is dead. and then your being looked at for it. imagine, your shaken in the dead of night. my ears were ringing. i thought i was dreaming. in bed, right next to you. your husband, murdered. hearty wrap around your head, is it? yes. and here s the twist. you are the suspect. it s the worst feeling, thinking you re gonna be blamed for your husband s death. could she have been the killer? or, with someone keeping a secret? i said, what did you do. what did you do? i don t know what to tell you. just of the truth. hello, and welcome to dateline . it s the stuff of nightmares. and a traitor creeps into your bedroom in the middle of the night and opens fire. but for melissa oxley, the bad dream was all too real. she told investigators she d been startled from her sleep to find her husband, ben, dead from a gunshot blast. it seems strange, they thought, that no one else in the house was hurt. including melissa, who was sleeping by his side. stranger stil
james matlean did not have an easy star in love life. by the time he was a teenager he was drinking, doing drugs, stealing things. i had pretty much given up any hope on continuing successfully in life. dawn, after her marriage to ben, befriended james. made him feel rescued. give him a place to live. he just been paroled from prison after doing time for stealing a truck. kind of gave me a sense of hope. there was somebody out there who cared. at s house, james discovered what others had. as long as dawn was happy, everybody was happy. and if she wasn t? well, then james could not be happy, either. she was very, very upset at the fact that she lost alyssa. and she went on rents, he said. about ben oxley. a man james didn t know. had never met. but he listen. you felt like you are in love?
Successfully in life. dawn, after her marriage to ben, befriended james. made him feel rescued. give him a place to live. he just been paroled from prison after doing time for stealing a truck. kind of gave me a sense of hope. there was somebody out there who cared. at s house, james discovered what others had. as long as dawn was happy, everybody was happy. and if she wasn t? well, then james could not be happy, either. she was very, very upset at the fact that she lost alyssa. and she and she went on rents, he said. about ben oxley. a man james didn t know. had never met. but he listen. you felt like you are in love whether? yeah, for a while. it gave me a sense of feeling wanted. and then he realized, he said, she never be happy. unless he fixed what was upsetting her. i just wanted to make don
Yada, yada, and james said, i ll go out and kill him right now. you just say the word i ll kill him. she was like a broken record. i want him dead. i want him dead. sound like a woman who was shocked when the murder happened? but there was more. it was after that when james matlean told his attorney ken stover it was time to tell the whole story. i could tell he was telling the truth. over the course of 15 months he s always told the same story. reporter: so now comes another story. james s story. not a love story this time. nobody could believe that i would do what i did. i had never been a violent person. reporter: james matlean did not have an easy start in life. by the time he was a teenager, he was drinking, doing drugs, stealing things. i had pretty much given up any hope on continuing successfully in life. reporter: dawn, after her marriage to ben, befriended james.