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was nothing compared to what investigators found in the embers. >> it's a bullet. >> yes. >> so this woman's been shot to death. >> yes. >> the obvious suspects. neighborhood thieves. >> there were half a dozen house burglaries, unsolved. >> investigators, also, dug into a favorite theory. the husband did it. >> i was angry. i felt that the detectives were on a manhunt and they were after my dad. >> then, up popped a text that might just be a clue. >> you could say, maybe she's driving events here. >> that's correct. >> the truth, beyond twisted. leaving behind smoking ashes and burning questions. >> i, physically, started shaking and i started crying. >> i want to know why. w why. welcome to "dateline." julie griffith was a loving wife and doting mother. then, a blaze ripped through her home, and she was gone. was this an accident? a bungled burglary? or was it something else entirely? here's dennis murphy with "consumed." >> reporter: the canterbury hills subdivision in kentucky is a good place to raise kids. tidy homes kept by neighbors living ordered lives. what happened one cold january night in the wee hours was especially alarming. a roaring, all-consuming fire, was devouring one of the nice homes. >> it was awful. half of the house was gone. >> what would rise from those ashes was far more than a fire marshal's investigation into cause. there would be a probe into the deepest root of a treachery beyond most people's comprehension. what had they all missed? >> a monster. a liar. a cheater. >> he's destroyed my entire family. >> before it became charred rubble, the house was home to a longtime couple. keith and julie griffith. church going, golf playing, high school sweethearts. 36 years into a marriage that produced two sons. aaron, the older. >> they were very supportive parents. they were loving. they loved my kids. >> aaron took after his dad. athletic, easy going, level headed. younger brother, zack, was more of a firecracker like his mom. there was the time, for instance, in the 6th grade, zack grabbed a shovel and started digging a hole for a koi pond in the backyard. >> my parents come home like what are you doing? i'm like, we're going to have a pond. >> were they okay with it? >> yeah. they were fine. they were kind of like, well, this is going to be a nightmare. >> when aaron and zack flew the nest, the griffiths' lives seemed to only get busier. they joined a motorcycle class through their church, and frequently were a golf foursome with friends greg and temple bradley. >> everybody that knew keith loved him. great guy. >> did he become your best friend? >> yeah. definitely, one of my very best friends. >> temple felt that way about julie, too. >> she had a heart of gold. she would do anything for you. but she also wasn't afraid to tell you exactly how it was, either. >> did she get people's feathers ruffled? >> oh, yeah. yeah. but everybody loved her. >> after early retirement from the water company, keith found a second career as a traveling lawnmower salesman, which left julie to spend a lot of nights alone in the how is. but keith never worried for her wellbeing in a safe neighborhood. their own door, watched over by their beloved great dane cleo. >> they would leave and go to dinner or go to town and leave the door unlocked because cleo was the guard dog. >> fulfilled as the giriffith's lives seemed to be, keith and julie were transformed when they brought into the world their first doubt. >> when i had that first child, it was the greatest day of her life i think. >> julie lived for my little girl. she wanted to be a part of everything that she did. >> and julie was there for ali when she went into labor with their second daughter, anna elise. her dash to the hospital earned julie the affectionate name nascar nana. >> the flashers were going and she was honking the horn. she says don't have a baby in my car. keep your legs crossed. don't have a baby in the car. >> everything seemed to be going great for the griffiths in 2013. keith had weight loss surgery, and dropped more than 100 pounds. julie was over the moon with two granddaughters. but, also that year, came the rift. zack disclosed to his very religious, conservative parents, that he is gay. >> itse was definitely hard. my mom was my best friend and going from talking to her multiple times a day, to just being completely -- just completely shut off. >> julie visited zack that fall. they tiptoed around the elephant in the room. but the time together gave zack hope. >> was that the step, as you look back, to patching things up between you and your mom? >> yeah. yeah. >> there was a way forward. >> there was definitely a way forward. we just needed more time. >> but, then, came that cold night in january. >> 911. where is your emergency? >> there is a house on fire in canterbury and there is not a fire truck here. >> a deputy drove toward the griffith home. his dash-cam recorder catching this quick glimpse of the braise. then, the fire trucks arrive. mccracken county sheriff's detective matt carter received a call in the middle of the night. >> this is a bad fire. >> very hot. that whole left end of the house was just completely consumed with fire. >> it took about an hour for firefighters to knock down the flames. hours more, for them to make their way through the blackened wreckage of the house to what seemed to be the heart of the fire. the master bedroom. ghastly, what they would discover. >> investigators make a pair of discoveries and relation they are dealing with, both, a tragedy and a mystery. >> coming up. >> he had recovered a projectile. >> a bullet. >> yes. >> when "dateline" continues. >>s when a stuffy nose closes in... 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daybreak revealed the grim aftermath of the blaze. wisps of smoke from the black wreckage that was once the griffith home. >> this entire structure had crumbled. it was a pile of ashes that was on the ground. we didn't even know if anyone was home or not. we knew that they were in and out of town a lot. >> as firefighters carefully walk through what appeared to be the fire's epicenter, the master bedroom, their worst fears were confirmed. julie had, in fact, been home that night. >> it was to the right of the box mattresses that we found the remains of -- of julie. they were unsure, initially, that it was human remains. >> even with all their experience. >> yes. everything was just consumed by fire, to the point that things were unrecognizable. >> as for keith, he was away, calling on customers in indiana. word of julie's death spread almost as fast as the fire had raised through the house. >> i'm getting ready for work. have the tv on in the background. >> we are live in the canterbury hills subdivision on tooter boulevard. >> then temple bradley's phone rang. it was a friend who also knew julie. >> said you know there was the fire. >> yeah, i saw it on tv. she said it's keith and julie's house. and i just sat there. >> did she know, at that point, that julie, in fact, was gone? >> she knew. and so she told me. >> temple's husband immediately tracked down keith, as he was making the three-hour drive home from indiana. >> he said i'm -- i'm on my way. i'm probably, you know, two hours away. said are you all right? he goes, yeah, yeah. i could tell he was in shock. >> the news hit zack griffith particularly hard. since coming out to his mother, his relationship with her had been strained. and, now, this. >> i guess you're just beating yourself up something terrible that you'd been sideways with her. >> yeah. and i know that if we were just given more time, that we would have been close again. that we would've been, you know, that mom and son duo that we were. but we just -- we didn't have the time. it was ripped away from us. and never get it back. >> aaron, the elder son, had more of a take-charge reaction. >> i got to take care of my brother. i got to take care of my dad. >> got logistics before the grief. the news can even get absorbed. >> yeah. for me, it's just kind of the way my brain is wired i guess. >> within hours, the griffiths would head, from all directions, toward what used to be an anchor in their lives. the family home. >> just gave my dad a big hug and we were both crying like i can't believe this. you know, what happened? >> keith's good friend craig bradley was there to lend his support. >> i could just tell he was shaken. >> as if the news couldn't get any worse, the griffith's great dane cleo, along with a second pet daisy, had also perished in the flames. craig and keith walk the property surveying damages. >> we get to the koi pond and he's like we got to get -- got to get those fish out of there. julie'd kill me if something happened to those fish. you know, like let's not worry about that right now. >> overwhelmed by loss, the griffiths were faced with a question. how could this have happened? >> the first thought was it was the new heating and air unit. it had just gone in. >> the unit had been installed just days before the fire. adjacent to the master bedroom. >> that was my very first thought. that, somehow, the new heating and air unit wasn't put in properly. >> faulty installation. >> yeah. >> as for the cause of julie's death, that was left to the county coroner's office. deputy coroner ben bradford. >> what were you working with? >> a very -- a very charred body. i could not, very well, identify it being a person. >> the cause of death seemed obvious. but just to be sure, julie's remains were sent on to the medical examiner for an autopsy. what he discovered was as deeply troubling as it was unexpected. >> he had recovered a projectile in the remains. >> a bullet. >> yes. >> suddenly, what was thought to have been death by smoke inhalation was, now, a homicide. closer examination revealed three bullet holes in all in julie's torso. the deputy coroner immediately called the sheriff's office. >> i said we need to get some people back to that house because this is going to be a homicide. >> what'd you think? wow? >> absolutely. >> lady in a nice neighborhood, good house, and she's got three bullet wounds. >> on a who-did-it crime. >> would the charred wreckage of the home once filled with joy and laughter now hold clues pointing to a killer? >> coming up. this detective spies what could be a critical clue on someone's phone. >> ping. up comes a text message? >> that's correct. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues the biggest week in television is here. now through may 17, enjoy free access to the best shows and movies from favorites like hbo, showtime, starz and for the first time ever, hulu and peacock! watch the show starring that guy you saw in that other thing... you know the one. or the series this kid on reddit says is "legit," punch emoji, explosion emoji. even the one with the actor people say looks just like your boss. and maybe sounds like him too. put your phones down. everyone's got a show to recommend. watch the best for free. just say "watchathon" into your voice remote, or download the xfinity stream app. the theory that julie died by accidental fire had collapsed as suddenly as the griffith house itself. for detective matt carter, a 45 caliber slug recovered from julie griffith's torso turned the charred rubble into the scene of a homicide. >> so i'm guessing your day's changed a whole lot here detective. >> it's changed a lot. >> despite more than a decade on the job, the detective had his work cut out for him. >> no hair, fiber, bloody footprints, none of that stuff. >> right. you've got an arson that's destroyed any kmans chance of obtaining any of that from the scene. >> for detective carter, the most obvious theory, this was the work of a home intruder. >> a burglary gone bad. >> someone's looking for the laptop or jewelry and the thing goes down. >> right. we had had some burglaries within a few miles of this area. >> what? within weeks? or months? >> within weeks. within weeks. >> as police canvas the neighborhood for leads and witnesses, the investigator, also, had to consider the perpetrat perpetrator may have been someone julie knew. >> you're not ruling anyone out or in. you're simply going through the motions. you're speaking to immediate family, first, and working your way out. >> the sheriff's department did not tell the griffiths julie had been murdered. >> we were not told anything by -- by the police, at that point. >> but anyone at the scene might have guessed foul play was, somehow, involved. >> there was just cops all over the property. >> so you said why -- why the cops here? >> exactly. yep. >> naturally, the first person detective carter interviewed was julie's husband keith. >> first of all, we are sorry for your loss. >> appreciate that. >> at first, keith talked about what everyone perceived was the cause of the inferno, an accidental fire set off by a newly installed heating unit. >> i mean, it was a whole new system. >> keith explained the contractor was a friend of his, who had done the work just a few days earlier. >> they put a rush on it. i mean, kind of what friends do for each other. and i -- and i hope, to god, that this problem is not his. >> but, eventually, without giving details, the detective revealed julie's death was no accident. >> the investigation is showing that -- that foul play is involved. >> okay. >> i do not believe, at this point in time, that this was any kind of an accident. i want to ask for your cooperation on several things. okay? >> okay. >> one of the first things detective carter asked about was how keith and julie were getting along. >> any problems at all? that y'all had? anything like that, whatsoever? >> no. she's my best friend. but i mean, i know -- i mean, that woman loved everybody. >> the investigator also asked keith for details about his business trip to indiana. >> didn't leave the hotel? >> i did leave the hotel about -- at about 11:00. i went and got something to drink. and i left, again, about 4:00. and just went and got a doughnut and a coke. like i say, i get up pretty early. >> and what about weapons? did keith own a gun? >> i have a 45 in my work truck that i just got. and it's never had any -- i mean, it's never been loaded. >> as part of standard protocol, the detective asked for keith's clothes. they would be tested for gunshot residue. >> what you're wearing now, is that -- was that fresh clothes from this morning? whenever you -- >> this is what i wore yesterday. >> before wrapping up the interview, the detective took a look at keith's cell phone. >> while i'm reviewing this phone, i see that he obtains a text message, an incoming text message, from a lady by the name of deanna james. >> ping up comes a text message. >> that's correct. >> the message read, did you make it home okay? >> keith was quick to point out his relationship with deanna was completely platonic. >> she's more like a guy friend. >> no big deal. nothing sexual? >> no big deal. that's right. >> after that, keith was released to go and grieve with his family. detective carter, meanwhile, set out to verify keith's story. >> he had a receipt where he had stayed. >> so that puts him three hours away from this house fire and the death of his wife. >> it showed his check-in time and check-out time. >> a quick check of keith's gun showed he was telling the truth about it, as well. the gun looked as though it had never been fired. >> so maybe he's not the guy. >> he may not be. >> so, then, who was? >> coming up. the detective sits down with deanna. was she really like a guy friend to keith? >> you could say maybe she's driving events here. maybe she wants to get rid of the wife. >> that's correct. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues dear freshpet, tank was overweight and had no energy. until freshpet... put the puppy back in my dog. ♪ and beverages that are very acidic. it can soften the enamel. pronamel repair, what it's doing is driving more minerals deep into the enamel surface, that's going to help actively repair. pronamel is taking it to another level. hello. here's what's happening. former president barack obama criticized a lack of leadership in the u.s. during an online graduation address on saturday. the former president told graduates, quote, this pandemic has fully, finally, torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they're doing. and after months of lockdown, italy has announced its plans to ease coronavirus lockdown measures. some shops will be permitted to reopen, as early as monday. now, back to "dateline." ." julie griffith's family had hardly had time to absorb the horrific news of her death in a house fire when disturbing rumors started reaching them that investigators thought her death was foul play. the sheriff's department kept details of the murder quiet for days. >> i could not believe it. >> daughter-in-law ali. >> i couldn't imagine anyone that would ever want to hurt her. much less, set the house on fire, the dogs perished. i had no idea what could've happened. >> no enemies. i mean, it made no sense. just who would want to kill her? >> after keith was released the night of his interview with detectives, he headed straight to his friends, the bradleys. they were floored to hear the line of questioning that he recounted. what was up with his marriage? his alibi? the gun he owned? >> he had been questioned to the point that he almost felt like that they thought that he had done this. >> son aaron also got called down to the station that same evening. and he, too, was questioned about his parents' marriage. >> noticed anything lately in their relationship as far as any problems or anything like that that you're aware of or anything? >> no. nothing. >> was there any money troubles? was there any relationship things that we knew of? >> but, to a person in the griffith circle, the very idea keith might know something about julie's death was, well, just flat-out crazy. >> i knew he didn't do it. >> there wasn't any way that keith was involved in this. i remember sitting there and looking over at keith and just watching him for a while. and, then, finally, i just said you can't even grieve, can you? and he said, no, they've taken it all away. >> the friends' working theory was a botched break-in. they had heard about the neighborhood's recent rash of burglaries. maybe that's what happened to julie. >> and they started cleo because julie would wake up and they got scared and they shot her. >> it made perfect sense. >> but for detective carter, the burglary theory of the crime wasn't panning out. even as they sorted through the rubble, detectives at the scene found untouched valuables. two safes. a cache of guns. and julie's purse, sitting in plain sight. >> you think an intruder would have grabbed it. >> you would think so. >> so carter set out to follow the most promising lead he had. who was this woman, deanna? the text messager who wanted to know if keith made it home okay. >> there was just something about that text message that seemed to stick out, and it seemed to create that question of, you know, what's missing here? >> carter had called ahead to the authorities in the indiana town where deanna lived. they'd arranged to bring the woman down to an interview room. she was waiting. >> my name's matt carter. >> deanna was about to tell the detective a story that would dramatically reshape his investigation. >> was she a guy friend? >> no. it was more than that. >> deanna shared the same story with us. >> he wanted me to love him. >> deanna says she and keith first met years earlier, at a vendor fair. she was the cfo of an i.t. company. keith, the road-warrior lawnmower salesman had a booth there. >> keith was sitting there and i guess i caught his attention right away. >> you noticed he was -- >> right. i noticed he was staring at me and so i kind of, you know, just smiled. >> she says he asked her to dinner. they quickly discovered how much they had in common. >> he talked about both his sons and being a grandpa. so i just really connected because i had grown kids, too. >> after several dates, deanna says, keith expressed interest in a relationship. but she wanted to keep it just friends. they stayed in touch, but didn't see each other for a while. then, just a few months back, he sent her a flirty text message. >> the text just said, did you cast a spell on me? and i'm like -- i look down at my phone. i'm like, what? he says, well, i was at a party last night and this woman was chatting me up. he goes and all i could think about was you. >> deanna, who is in the throes of a traumatic romantic breakup had agreed to start seeing him again for dinners. and she says he seemed excited to show off the new post-surgery keith. >> he goes you're not going to recognize me. i've lost over 100 pounds. and i said you have? >> did he look okay? >> he looked fine. i mean, he felt -- i think he was more confident as well. >> deanna says keith now began aggressively courting her, showering her with gifts, flowers, notes of affection. it was all, she said, a pitch. pitch bit much. >> i told him you need to slow down because i'm just not there. >> deanna said she couldn't put her finger on it, but there was something about keith that was holding her back. maybe it was the fact that he still seemed unusually bound to a woman he called his ex-wife. from the very beginning, deanna says, keith told her that he was divorced. >> very first conversation. >> i'm a divorced guy. >> right. >> by the time she was sitting across from detective carter in that interview room, deanna says she and keith had never been intimate, but they were dating. and keith was talking long-term. house hunting for them. >> he said i don't want to scare you. but i want you to know that i'm looking for properties here in mooresville to buy so -- for us to be together. >> for the detective, deanna's story put a whole new spin on the investigation. keith griffith now seemed like a man with a very big secret. or thinking like a homicide detective, was she the one with the secret? >> you could spin it another way and say maybe she's driving events here. maybe she wants to get rid of the wife. >> that -- that's correct. we were open for that being an idea or a possibility. >> in fact, the detective had let her tell her story, without ever explaining the reason for his visit. now, he laid out his cards. >> was he not divorced? >> no. >> he says, first of all, keith's not divorced. according to him, he's been married to his high school sweetheart for 36 years. and i just broke down because i -- i couldn't believe it. >> but, of course, there was more. >> we're conducting an investigation. and this investigation involves what we believe to be a homicide of his wife. >> i was in shock. like, oh my gosh, i couldn't believe what he just said to me. i had no idea. >> so you believed she had been played by this guy? >> i believe that she had. >> so detective carter wondered, if keith griffith had manipulated and lied to this woman, had keith lied to him, too? maybe it was more about what keith hadn't said. rewind to that moment when the detective had dropped what should've been devastating news on keith. >> the investigation is showing that foul play is involved. >> did he ask you the questions? what happened? what are you telling me here? she was killed? i mean, you'd expect that, right? julie was shot by an intruder? what's going on here? >> that's right. there was no questions to that. >> but if keith griffith was somehow involved in his wife's murder, how, on earth, had he pulled it off? after all, he was hundreds of miles away at the hotel the night of the crime. unless, of course, he wasn't. >> coming up. a security video surprise. >> you're scrolling through the tape. >> going through. going through. >> and then where'd your bingo moment come up? >> and, then, a twist rocks the entire griffith family. >> we were all frantic. we had no idea how it could have happened. >> when "dateline" continues. happened. >> when "dateline" continues lio. that's why centrum contains 14 key nutrients to help feed your cells, nourishing your body inside and out so you can focus on what matters most. centrum. feed your cells. fuel your life. with this one little nexgard chew comes the confidence, you're doing what's right, to protect your dog from fleas and ticks for a full month. and it's the only chew, fda approved to prevent infections that cause lyme disease. nexgard. what one little chew can do. they're out there. thousands ofr allergensyes know in each cubic yard of air. no wonder you rub your eyes hundreds of times a day. but now, relief is just one drop away. introducing pataday® full prescription strength pataday works right in your eyes. right on the cells that make them itch. fast. just one drop, once a day means relief that lasts all day. so turn your day, into a pataday. now get pataday without a prescription. everywhere. 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we're here for you during this challenging time--and always. yes. with the sleep number 360 smart bed, on sale now, you can both adjust your comfort with your sleep number setting. can it help me fall asleep faster? yes, by gently warming your feet. but can it help keep me asleep? absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. so, you can really promise better sleep? not promise. prove. and now, save $1000 on the sleep number 360 special edition smart bed, now only $1,799. plus, free premium delivery & setup when you add an adjustable base ends monday. cold-blooded murder of julie griffith, family and friends gathered at her church to say good-bye. between the visitation and the memorial service, son zack was overwhelmed. >> just showed like what an amazing woman that my mom was. to have that many people come out, just to say that, you know, they just wanted to give their condolences. >> to close friends craig and temple bradley, julie's husband keith was more emotional that day than they'd ever seen him. >> tears. >> tears. >> sadness. i never seen him cry. you know, in my life. >> but, even as the griffith family mourned, zack and his brother were feeling uneasy about the investigation, which seemed to be focused, exclusively, on their father. >> i was angry. i felt that the detectives, the sheriff's department, were on a manhunt. and they were after my dad. >> because the husbands always do it? >> yep. husbands always do it. and they just seemed like they just zeroed in on him, and were going at it 110 miles an hour. and were not respectful to my brother and i about any developments or anything going on. >> but detective matt carter had an ongoing investigation, and he felt there was ample reason to pursue their dad. after his interview with deanna, he'd driven to the hotel that was keith's alibi. there, he uncovered a bombshell. remember keith saying to the detective he had been at the hotel the entire night? ducking out, just twice, to get a drink and a snack. well, unhappily for keith's alibi, when the detective hit play on the hotel security video, it told a vastly different story. keith is seen leaving, as he claimed, around 11:00 p.m. but -- >> i think within 15 to 30 minutes, he's going to be returning. that never happened. >> you're scrolling through the tape. >> going through. going through. >> and then when's your bingo moment come up? >> he finally arrived back at that hotel 6 hours and 34 minutes after he had left initially. >> gone for more than six and a half hours. was that enough time for keith to drive all the way back to his house in kentucky, commit the crime, and return? >> so what did you and your partner find when you put a clock to it? >> driving the speed limit to and from, it would have allowed approximately 20 minutes, at least, to have committed the crime. >> is that enough time for him to do this lethal act? >> i believe it was ample time. >> 15-20 minute window. >> yes. >> keith griffith was arrested and charged with arson and murder. he could face the death penalty. he pleaded not guilty. >> we were all frantic. we had no idea what was happening. how it could've happened. because, at that point, we knew that there was -- there was no way that he had anything to do with it. >> so this is nightmare country. >> yes. but, again, we thought it would all be explained. you know, they would do their job. they would take him. and tally did it was getting away. >> family and friends were, for sure, distressed to learn that keith had another woman on the road. but the revelation wasn't enough to shake their support for him. >> it was a shock. but was something that we accepted as a mistake. but that did not mean that he killed julie. >> just no way he did it. not to julie. his wife. kids' mother. there's no way keith did it. >> but, when keith griffith went to trial in february 2015 -- >> all rise. >> prosecutor raymond mcgee laid out a formidable circumstantial case. >> on january 17th, 2014, keith griffith decided that he could kill his wife. >> a cornerstone of the case was that hotel security video. not only did it show keith gone for enough time to commit the crime, the prosecutor said. it, also, caught him in a lie. remember, in his interview, keith told police he hadn't swapp swapped clothes that night. >> did not, at any point, change clothes? >> no. >> but a look at the security footage showed he had. >> he left wearing one set of clothes. it was one of his work shirts. he came back dressed in all black. >> the prosecutor, also, showed security video captured from a residence near the griffith home. it caught a glimpse of an suv pulling into the subdivision shortly before the fire. >> it was a little blurry. it was a few seconds long. but it sure looked like keith griffith's car. >> and another circumstantial bit. who else, but keith, the prosecutor said, could have gotten by the griffith's aggressive great dane cleo? certainly, not an unknown intruder. >> a burglar couldn't have come in. a family member could have. >> as for the why question, how could a man who loved his wife by all accounts do it? the prosecutor turned to two age-old motives. >> almost every case involving a husband and wife, it's lust or greed. one or the other. and this one had both. >> the lust part of the equation, he said, was deanna. she took the stand and told the jury that, not only was keith house hunting for them, he was also making plans to bring her down to paduca for a concert and introduce her to his family. >> i'd love for you to come for the weekend. stay for the weekend. we'll go to the concert and i would really like for you to meet my dad. >> as for the greed part, that was life insurance money. two policies on julie's life worth $250,000. one of them, the prosecutor said, had taken effect just eight days before julie died. >> keith griffith got to the point in his life, he just wanted to start something new. and he didn't want to give julie griffith what she would have needed in a divorce and been entitled to. >> keith's daughter-in-law, ali griffith, listened to the entire prosecution's case. all she heard were theories. >> they spun a story, and they told the story how they wanted it to go. and they had facts that supported their story but did not prove it. >> and that's what keith's defense attorney, mark bryant, hammered home for the jury. >> what's no evidence mean? >> they didn't have dna. they didn't have any kind of forensics. they didn't have a confession. they had nothing. they had circumstantial evidence. >> in their haste to arrest keith, the defense argued that police had gotten it wildly wrong. yes, he conceded keith wasn't the husband of the year. but, he said, deanna's story that keith was pursuing her for a long-term commitment was nonsense. rather. >> what he wanted was a port in every storm. >> as for the life insurance, $250,000 was far from a financial windfall, he said. they bought the policy because of a friend's tragedy. >> she was nagging them about making sure they had plenty of life insurance. >> and he argued the footage of the suv pulling into the subdivision was far too blurry to i.d. it as keith's ford expedition. besides. >> if a guy is going through this much trouble to kill his wife, why would he drive an expedition that everybody knows he has? >> but the big question still remained. if keith hadn't driven back to kill julie, where had he gone the night of the murder? the only person who could answer that was keith, himself. >> he was very adamant about taking the stand. >> he wanted to talk to the jury. >> he did. >> what would he say? and would the jury believe him? it was roll-the-dice time. >> coming up. keith's eyebrow-raising alibi. >> i was embarrassed and ashamed of what i was doing the night my wife died. >> and, then, what keith revealed to us. >> that's what i've told everybody, when they hear the story, they're not going to believe it. >> why even a jury could not, in this case. when "dateline" continues. ld non this case. when "dateline" continues. people are surprising themselves the moment they realize they can du more with less asthma. thanks to dupixent, the add-on treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma. dupixent isn't for sudden breathing problems. it can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as 2 weeks and help prevent severe asthma attacks. it's not a steroid but can help reduce or eliminate oral steroids. don't use if allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. tell your doctor right away about signs of inflamed blood vessels, such as rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection and before stopping any asthma medicines, including oral steroids. du more with less asthma. talk to your doctor about dupixent. and beverages that are very acidic. it can soften the enamel. pronamel repair, what it's doing is driving more minerals deep into the enamel surface, that's going to help actively repair. pronamel is taking it to another level. but when allergies and congestion strike, take allegra-d... a non-drowsy antihistamine plus a powerful decongestant. so you can always say "yes" to putting your true colors on display. say "yes" to allegra-d. welcome back. the prosecutor laid out his case against keith griffith. now, the accused murderer was insisting on taking the stand in his own defense. and he had a bombshell to reveal. here's dennis murphy with the conclusion of "consumed." >> keith griffith was about to take the stand and explain the most damning piece of evidence against him. hotel security footage that put him off the grid for more than six and a half hours the night his wife julie was murdered. but, if he wasn't perpetrating the crime during that time, then, where was he? >> tell us your name, please, sir. >> keith wayne griffith. >> keith's explanation came with an embarrassing secret. his lawyer argued that, ever since becoming a traveling salesman, keith had struggled with an addiction to sex. >> keith, until you got out on the road, several years ago, did you have this kind of a sexual addiction? >> no, sir. >> and the night julie was murdered, he said he spent those hours out prowling for women. after he left the hotel, he changed out of work clothes into his man-out-looking duds. >> didn't like people to put my job with my carousing. >> with your carousing? >> he says he went to a massage parlor, a bar, and couple strip clubs. but, try as he might, he never found a hookup. >> i was trying to find somebody available or interested, however you want to put it. >> after last call, he said he went down to the river to watch the boats, before returning to the hotel to catch some shuteye. as for why he lied to the police. >> i was embarrassed and ashamed of what i was doing the night my wife died. >> did you kill your wife? >> no, sir, i did not. lived my wife. >> did you kill those dogs? >> no, i loved those dogs. >> when the case went to the jury, keith's friend, craig bradley, didn't know which way the jury would fall. >> i didn't know if he'd get acquitted. but i didn't think he'd get convicted. i mean, i really felt like it'd be a hung jury. >> turns out, he was right. after six hours of deliberation, the jury was deadlocked. >> i am going to declare a mistrial at this time. >> keith would sit in jail for another year, as he awaited a second trial. a long time for his family to process the story he told on the stand. >> he left to go to a bar, to go cruising, or something. and, then, he goes and sits on the riverfront? like, he has never done that before in his entire life. >> so when he stepped down, you thought my father did this thing? >> yeah. i mean, i definitely wasn't saying it out loud. and i wasn't ready to accept it. but i definitely was moving in the direction of the only thing that makes sense, at this point, is that he committed the crime. >> after months of wrestling with his thoughts, zack decided it was time to send his dad a letter. >> i put in the letter, my opinion was that you did it. you know, you took away the -- the last chance that i had at rebuilding a relationship with my mom. you know, you're no longer allowed to contact me. and i don't want you to ask about me to anyone. >> wow. dear dad, you are dead to me. >> exactly. >> his brother's wife ali had started to feel that way about keith, too. >> it seemed like he was fabricating everything that came out of his mouth. >> but there was a split in the family. despite doubts of his own, her husband aaron, the one closest to his father, was still a supporter. >> whatever issues my mom and dad would've had, i just could not believe that my dad would take my kids away from their nana. >> then, a few months before keith's retrial, detective carter's phone rang. there was news from the jail. an inmate had some information about keith, and it was as eerie as it was chilling. the detective in the bullseye. >> keith had come forward to him, wanting to have me killed. >> to put a hit on you. >> put a hit on me. >> orchestrating your death. >> yes. he had drawn a map of what he believed to be my residence. suggested the caliber of weapon to use to kill me. the informant specifically asked him what if my family was present? and his response was one word and that was tragedy. >> wow. that does make the hair on your neck stand up. >> it does. >> that wouldn't look good to a jury. the development brought aaron to a tipping point. >> were you no longer wavering at this point, aaron? had you come down on the side of, oh my god, my father killed my mother? >> yeah. yeah. >> now, aaron, too, wrote his dad a letter. if he was guilty -- >> it's time. it's time to man up and -- and do what you should have done two years ago. >> keith's defense attorneys went to the prosecutor to hammer out a plea deal. they agreed on 30 years in prison for the murder and for soliciting the hit. moments later, keith was standing in a courtroom, speaking the words his family and friends, never in a million years, thought they'd hear him say. yes, he murdered julie. >> there's no excuse for what i did. and i can't take it back. and she was my best friend, and i don't know what happened to me. but i did it and there's nothing i can do about it. >> temple bradley, who works near the courthouse, was there. >> my heart is breaking that the person that i have put -- wholeheartedly put my trust in, for two years, has lied to my face. >> you know, i just can't believe we've been deceived in that way. because we were there for him the whole time. >> for keith's family and friends, there are so many questions. but one seems to tower above all the others. >> i want to know why. and i want to know how you go from a loving husband and father, grandfather, to driving all that way, killing your wife, and then covering it up. and, then, lying to your family for so long. knowing that we had everybody doubting us. we still defended him. disgusting. he's a monster. >> all i can tell you is that had a lot of bad thoughts. wrong thoughts. mistakes. >> we sat down with keith, hoping for answers. but, as many times as we asked him why this all happened -- >> why'd you do it? >> i -- i -- i really can't tell you. i mean, i don't know. just -- just a bad decision. >> we never did get a satisfying response. >> so this isn't some kind of delayed midlife crisis here, where you're trying to be with deanna or someone like her? to have -- >> no. >> -- a final, happy chapter in your life. >> no. julie and i were happy. >> do you see how perplexing it is to hear this? it's absolutely confounding. >> that's what i've told everybody, when they hear the story, they're not going to believe it. i have a hard time believing i did what i did. >> and one thing i he didn't do. >> how about a divorce? >> never crossed my mind. >> trying to get out of the subdivision. crying before i ever get out. regretting what i done. i probably drove 100 miles an hour all the way back, hoping to get caught. >> as for the future, keith says he is prepared to die in prison. >> i don't have anything to live for. except maybe forgiveness. >> from who? >> from my boys. >> and that's why you're talking today. >> exactly. yes. >> well, it's between you and them. but i tell you. my take on it is you got some distance to make up. >> i know i do. i've got a lot to make up. >> of the countless things keith stole from his family, resilience was not among them. aaron and zack are closer than they've been in years. and now that they know what happened to their mother, they say they can finally mourn her passing. and focus on keeping her spirit alive for those two little granddaughters, who were the center of her universe. >> my oldest daughter will remember. like i said, she talked about her almost every day. we have pictures of her up in her room. as my youngest gets older, we'll tell her the nascar nana story about when she was born, and just never let her memory die. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin, thank you for watching. melvin. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> it's never good news when the phone rings at 5:00 in the morning. i knew something wasn't right. he just began sobbing and saying no, no. >> it was just before midnight when the shooting started. >> he had been shot multiple times. he was on the ground, face down. >> a man was dead. but not just any man. >> how do you kill superman? how is superman dead?

Transcripts For MSNBCW Dateline Extra 20180715

inferno. >> it was to the right of the mattresses that we found the remains of julie. >> shocking as the blaze was, it was nothing compared to what investigators found in the embers. >> it's a bullet? >> yes. >> so this woman's been shot to death? >> yes. >> the obvious suspects, neighborhood thieves. >> there were half a dozen house burglaries unsolved. >> investigators also dug into a favorite theory. the husband did it. >> i was angry. i felt that the detectives were on a manhunt and they were after my dad. >> then, up popped a text that might have been a clue. >> he is over 200 miles away. >> and then, up popped a text that might just be a clue. >> i physically start shaking. >> i want to know why. welcome to "dateline." julie griffith was a loving wife and doting mother. then, a blaze ripped through her home and she was gone. was this an accident? a bungled burglary? or was it something else entirely? here's dennis murphy with "consumed." >> the canterbury hills subdivision in paducah, kentucky, is a good place to raise kids. tidy homes kept by neighbors living ordered lives. so as the front porch lights winked out on just another day, what happened one cold january night in the wee hours was especially alarming. a roaring, all-consuming fire was devouring one of the nice homes. >> it was awful. half of the house was gone. >> what would rise from those ashes was far more than a fire marshal's investigation into cause. there would be a probe into the deepest roots of a treachery beyond most people's comprehension. >> it's not true. no way. >> what had they all missed? >> a monster. a liar. a cheater. >> he's destroyed my entire family. ♪ >> before it became charred rubble, the house was home to a long-time paducah couple, keith and julie griffith, church going, golf playing, high school sweethearts, 36 years into a marriage that had produced two sons. aaron the older. >> they were very supportive parents. they were loving. they loved my kids. >> aaron took after his dad, athletic, easy going, level headed. younger brother zach was more of a firecracker like his mom. there was the time, for instance, in the sixth grade zach grabbed a shovel and started digging a hole for a koi pond in the backyard. >> my parents come home. they're like, what are you doing? i'm like, we're going to have a pond. >> were they okay with it? >> yeah, they were fine. they were kind of like, well, this is going to be a nightmare. >> when aaron and zach flew the nest, the griffiths' lives seemed to only get busier. they joined a motorcycle class through their church, frequently were golf foursome with friends, craig and temple bradley. >> everybody that knew keith loved him. great guy. >> did he become your best friend? >> yeah. definitely. one of my very best friends. >> temple felt that way about julie, too. >> she had a heart of gold. she'd do anything for you. but she also wasn't afraid to tell you exactly how it was, either. >> did she get people's feathers ruffled? >> oh yeah, yeah. yeah but everybody loved her. >> after early retirement from the water company, keith found a second career as a traveling lawnmower salesman, which left julie to spend a lot of nights home alone in the house. but keith never worried for her well-being in a safe neighborhood. their own door watched over by their beloved great dane cleo. aaron's wife ali. >> they would leave and go to dinner or go to town and leave the door unlocked. because cleo was the guard dog. >> fulfilled as the griffiths' lives seemed to be, keith and julie were transformed when aaron and ali brought into the world their first daughter, aria. >> when i had that first child, it was a greatest day of her life i think. >> julie lived for my little girl. she wanted to be a part of everything that she did. >> and julie was there for ali when she went into labor for their second daughter analiese. her white knuckled dash to the hospital earned julie the affectionate nickname nascar nana. >> the flashers were going and honking the horn. >> what is she saying to you? talking to you. >> don't have a baby in my car. keep your legs crossed. don't have the baby in the car. >> everything seemed to be going great for the griffiths in 2013. keith had weight loss surgery and dropped more than 100 pounds. julie was over the moon with two granddaughters. but also that year came the rift. zach disclosed to his very religious conservative parents he is gay. >> was definitely hard. we went from my mom was my best friend and going from talking to her multiple times a day to just being completely -- just completely shut off. >> julie visited zach that fall. they tiptoed around the elephant in the room but the time together gave zach hope. was that the step as you look back to patching things up between you and your mom? >> yeah, yeah. >> there was a way forward? >> there was definitely a way forward. we just needed more time. >> but then came that cold night in january. >> 911, where is your emergency? >> there is a house on fire in canterbury, and there's not a fire truck here. >> a deputy drove toward the griffith home, his dash cam recorder catching this quick glimpse of the blaze. then the fire trucks arrived. mccracken county sheriff's detective matt carter received a call in the middle of the night. it's a bad fire? >> very hot. that whole left end of the house was just completely consumed with fire. >> it took about an hour for firefighters to knock down the flames. hours more for them to make their way through the blackened wreckage of the house to what seemed to be the heart of the fire. the master bedroom. ghastly what they would discover. investigators make a pair of discoveries and realize they're dealing with both a tragedy and a mystery. coming up -- >> he had discovered a projectile. >> a bullet? >> yes. >> when "dateline" continues. you got it from your parents. and they got it from theirs. it's your skin, and it can protect you from millions of things. so we're here to help you protect your skin. walgreens pharmacists and beauty consultants are specially trained to know what works for the health of your unique skin. walgreens. trusted since 1901. now all walgreens brand sun care products are buy one get one half off. yeah... but popping these things really helps me...relax. please don't, i'm saving those for later. at least you don't have to worry about renters insurance. just go to geico.com. geico helps with renters insurance? 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day break revealed the grim aftermath of the blaze at 307 tudor boulevard. wisps of smoke rose from was once the griffith home. detective matt carter. >> this entire structure had crumbled. it was a pile of ashes that was on the ground. we didn't even know if anyone was home or not. we knew that they were in and out of town a lot. >> as firefighters carefully walked through, what appeared to be the fire's epicenter, the master bedroom, their worst fears were confirmed. julie had, in fact, been home that night. >> it was to the right of the box mattresses that we found the remains of julie. they were unsure initially that it was human remains. we knew that there was -- >> even with all their experience? >> yes. everything was just consumed by fire to the point that things were unrecognizable. >> as for keith, he was away calling on customers in indiana. word of julie's death spread almost as fast as the fire had raced through the house. >> i'm getting ready for work, have the tv on in the background. >> we're live in the canterbury hills subdivision on tudor boulevard. >> then temple bradley's phone rang. it was a friend who also knew julie. >> she said, you know there's a fire. i said, yeah, i saw it on tv. she said, yeah, it was keith and julie's house. and i just sat there. >> did she know at that point that julie, in fact, was gone? >> she knew. so she told me. >> temple's husband immediately tracked down keith as he was making the three-hour drive home from indiana. >> he said, i'm on my way. i'm probably, you know, two hours away. i said, are you all right? he goes, yeah, yeah. i could tell he was in shock. >> the news hit zach griffith particularly hard. since coming out to his mother, his relationship with her had been strained. and now this. >> i guess you're just beating yourself up something terrible that you had been sideways with her. >> yeah. and i know that if we were just given more time, that we would have been close again. that we would have been, you know, that mom and son duo that we were. but we just -- we didn't have the time. it was ripped away from us. and we never get it back. >> aaron, the elder son, had more of a take-charge reaction. >> got to take care of my brother, i got take care of my dad. >> you've got logistics. before the grief that you can absorb. >> yeah, for me, it's just kind of the way my brain is wired i guess. >> within hours, the griffiths would head from all directions toward what used to be an anchor in their lives, the family home. >> just gave my dad a big hug and we were both crying. we're like, i can't believe this. you know? what happened? >> keith's good friend craig bradley was there to lend his support. how is he doing? this was the first time you've seen him eye-to-eye? >> i could just tell he was shaken. >> as if the news couldn't get any worth, their great dane cleo along with a second pet daisy had also perished in the flames. craig and keith walked the property, surveying the damages. >> we get to the koi pond. got to get those fish out of there. julie would kill me if something happened to those fish. i was like, you know, let's not worry about that right now. >> overwhelmed by loss, the griffiths were faced with the question, how could this have happened? >> the first thought was that it was the new heating and air unit. it had just gone in. >> the unit had been installed just days before the fire adjacent to the master bedroom. >> that was my very first thought, that somehow the new heating and air unit wasn't put in properly. >> faulty installation? >> yeah. >> as for the cause of julie's death, that was left to the county coroner's office. deputy coroner ben bradford. what were you working with? >> a very charred body. i could not very well identify it being a person. >> the cause of death seemed obvious. but just to be sure, julie's remains were sent on to the medical examiner for an autopsy. what he discovered was as deeply troubling as it was unexpected. >> he had recovered a projectile in the remains. >> a bullet? >> yes. >> suddenly what was thought to have been death by smoke inhalation was now a homicide. closer examination revealed three bullet holes in all in julie's torso. the deputy coroner immediately called the sheriff's office. >> i said, we need to get some people back to that house because this is going to be a homicide. >> what did you think? wow? >> absolutely. >> lady in a nice neighborhood, good house. >> right. >> now she's got three bullet wounds. >> that's right. on a who-did-it crime. >> back on 307 tudor boulevard, fire equipment pulled out as sheriff's cruisers pulled in. would the charred wreckage of the home once filled with joy and laughter, now hold clues pointing to a killer? coming up, this detective spies what could be a critical clue on someone's phone. when "dateline" continues. paying too much for insurance you don't even understand? well, esurance makes it simple and affordable. in fact, drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved an average of $412. that's auto and home insurance for the modern world. esurance. an allstate company. click or call. paying too much for insurance that isn't the right fit? well, esurance makes finding the right coverage easy. in fact, drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved an average of $412. that's auto and home insurance for the modern world. esurance. an allstate company. click or call. esurance. an allstate company. are you ready to take your then you need xfinity xfi.? a more powerful way to stay connected. it gives you super fast speeds for all your devices, provides the most wifi coverage for your home, and lets you control your network with the xfi app. it's the ultimate wifi experience. xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. the theory that julie died by accidental fire had collapsed as suddenly as the griffith house itself. for detective matt carter, a .45 caliber slug recovered from julie griffith's torso turned the charred rubble into the scene of a homicide. i'm guessing your day changed a whole lot, detective. >> it changed a lot. >> despite more than a decade on the job, the detective had his work cut out for him. no hair fiber, bloody footprints, none of that stuff. >> right. you've got an arson that destroyed any chance of obtaining any of that from the scene. >> for detective carter, the most obvious theory, this homicide was the work of a home intruder. >> a burglary gone bad. >> somebody's looking for the laptop or whatever, jewelry, and thing goes down. >> right. we had had some burglaries within a few miles of this area. >> within weeks or months? >> within weeks. within weeks. >> as police canvassed the neighborhood for leads and witnesses, the investigator also had to consider the perpetrator may have been someone julie knew. >> you're not ruling anyone out or in. you're simply going through the motions. you're speaking to the immediate family first. working your way out. >> the sheriff's department did not tell the griffiths julie had been murdered. >> we were not told anything by the police at that point. >> but anyone at the scene might have guessed foul play was somehow involved. >> there was just cops all over the property. >> you said, why the cops? >> exactly. yep. >> naturally the first person detective carter interviewed was julie's husband, keith. >> first of all, we are sorry for your loss. >> appreciate that. >> at first, keith talked about what everyone perceived was the cause of the inferno, an accidental fire set off by a new newly installed heating unit. >> you had it installed tuesday? >> it was a whole new system. >> keith explained the contractor was a friend of his who had done the work just a few days earlier. >> they put a rush on it. i mean, you know, that's kind of what friends do for each other. >> okay. >> and i hope to god that this problem is not his. >> but eventually without giving details, the detective revealed julie's death was no accident. >> the investigation shows that foul play is involved. i do not believe at this point in time that this was any kind of an accident. i want to ask your cooperation on several things. okay? >> okay. >> one of the first things detective carter asked about was how keith and julie were getting along. >> any problems at all that you all had? anything like that whatsoever? >> she's my best friend. i mean, i know it. that woman loved everybody. >> the investigator also asked keith for details about his business trip to indiana. >> didn't leave the hotel? >> i did leave the hotel about -- about 11:00 i went and got something to drink. and i left again about 4:00 and just went and got a doughnut and a coke. like i say, i get up pretty early. >> and what about weapons? did keith have a gun? >> i have a .45 acp in my work truck that i just got. it's never had any -- it's never been loaded. >> as part of standard protocol, the detective asked for keith's clothes. they would be tested for gunshot residue. >> what you're wearing now, is that -- was that fresh clothes from this morning, whenever you >> this is what i wore yesterday. >> before wrapping up the interview, the detective took a look at keith's cell phone. >> while i'm reviewing his phone, i see that he obtains a text message, an incoming text message, from a lady by the name of deanna james. >> ping, up comes a text message? >> that's correct. >> the message read, did you make it home okay? keith was quick to point out his relationship with deanna was completely platonic. >> she's more like a guy friend. >> no big deal? nothing sexual. >> no big deal. that's right. >> after that, keith was released to go and grieve with his family. detective carter, meanwhile, set out to verify keith's story. >> he had a receipt where he'd stayed. >> so that puts him three hours away from this house fire. >> correct. >> and the death of his wife. >> right. it showed his check-in time and check-out time. >> a quick check of keith's gun showed he was telling the truth about it, as well. the gun looked as though it had never been fired. so maybe he's not the guy? >> he may not be. >> so then, who was? coming up, the detective sits down with deanna. was she really like a guy friend to keith? >> you could say, what, maybe she's driving events here? maybe she wants to get rid of the wife? >> that's correct. >> when "dateline" continues. the moment you realize your paint isn't laser proof. at lowe's we have the right paint for every family. with our collection of stain resistant and durable paints, we've got you covered. ♪ ♪ happiness is powerful flea and tick protection from nexgard. a delicious chew that protects for an entire month. ask your vet for more information. reported side effects include vomiting and itching. nexgard. the vet's #1 choice. you need to power your wellness. new emergen-c probiotics plus. purposeful probiotics to help boost your microbiome, plus vitamin c to support your natural immune defenses. new emergen-c probiotics plus. emerge and see. new emergen-c probiotics plus. olay regenerist wipes out the competition; hydrating better than $100, $200 even $400 creams. with our b3 complex, beautiful skin doesn't have to cost a fortune. olay. i wok(harmonica interrupts)ld... ...and told people about geico... 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(harmonica interrupts) everytime. geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. after spending saturday playing golf in scotland, president trump will be heading to helsinki, finland, on sunday, ahead of his meeting with vladimir putin. tensions saturday after the fatal shooting of a man, police say the man was stopped on suspicion being armed. a confrontation ensued and a man was shot. a weapon was found at the scene. p an investigation into the shooting is under way. now, back to "dateline." >> julie griffith's family had hardly had time to absorb the horrific news of her death and in a house fire when disturbing rumors started reaching them that investigators thought her death was foul play. the sheriff's department kept details of the murder quiet for days. >> i could not believe it. >> daughter-in-law ali. >> i couldn't imagine anyone would ever want to hurt her. much less set the house on fire. the dogs perished. i had no idea what could have happened. >> no enemies. i mean, it made no sense. just who would want to kill her. >> after keith was released the night of his interview with detectives, he headed straight to his friends, the bradleys. they were floored to hear the line of questioning that he recounted. what was up with his marriage, his alibi, the gun he owned? >> he had been questioned to the point that he almost felt like they thought he had done this. >> son, aaron, also got called down to the station that same evening. and he, too, was questioned about his parents' marriage. >> notice anything lately in their relationship as far as any problems or anything like that? that you're aware of anything? >> no. nothing. >> was there any money troubles? was there any relationship, things that we knew of? >> but to a person in the griffiths' circle, the very idea that keith might know something about julie's death was, well, just flat-out crazy. >> i knew he didn't do it. >> there wasn't any way that keith was involved in this. i remember sitting there, and looking over at keith, just watching him for a while. and finally i just said, you can't even grieve, can you? and he said, no, they've taken it all away. >> the friends' working theory was a botched break-in. they had heard about the neighborhood's recent rash of burglaries. maybe that's what happened to julie. >> they come in, and they startled cleo. >> the dog started to bark. go for them? >> caused julie to wake up and got scared and shot her. >> it made perfect sense. >> but for detective carter, the burglary theory of the crime wasn't panning out. even as they sorted through the rubble, detectives at the scene found untouched valuables, two safes, a cache of guns and julie's purse sitting in plain sight. >> you would think an intruder would have grabbed it. >> you would think so. >> so carter set out to follow the most promising lead he had. who was this woman, deanna, the text messenger, who wondered if keith had made it home okay. he had described her as a guy friend. >> there was just something about that text message that seemed to stick out, and it seemed to create that question of, you know, what's missing here. >> carter had called ahead to the authorities in the indiana town where deanna lived. they'd arranged to bring the woman down to an interview room. she was waiting. >> my name's matt carter. >> deanna was about to tell the detective a story that would dramatically reshape his investigation. >> is she a guy friend? >> no. it was more than that. >> deanna shared the same story with us. >> he wanted me to love him. >> deanna said she and keith first met years earlier at a vendor fair. she was the cfo of an i.t. company, keith the road warrior lawnmower salesman had a booth there. >> keith was sitting there. i guess i caught his attention right away. >> you noticed he was eyeing you? >> i noticed he was staring at me. so i kind of, you know, just smiled. >> she says he asked her to dinner. they quickly discovered how much they had in common. >> he talked about both his sons and being a grandpa. so i just really connected, because i had grown kids, too. >> after several dates, deanna says, keith expressed interest in a relationship. but she wanted to keep it just friends. they stayed in touch but didn't see each other for a while. then just a few months back, he sent her a flirty text message. >> the text just said, did you cast a spell on me? and i'm like, i looked down at my phone, i'm like, what? he said i was in a party last night and this woman was chatting me up. he goes, and all i could think about was you. >> deanna, who was in the throes of a traumatic romantic break-up agreed to start seeing him again for dinners. and she says, he seemed excited to show off the new post-surgery keith. >> he goes, you're not going to recognize me. and he goes, i've lost over 100 pounds. i said, you have? >> did he look okay? >> he looked fine. i mean, he felt -- i think he was more confident, as well. >> deanna says keith now began aggressively courting her, showering her with gifts, flowers, notes of affection. it was all, she said, a bit much. >> he kept pushing for more. and i kept telling him, you need to back off, you need to slow down because i'm just not there. >> deanna said she couldn't put her finger on it, but there was something about keith that was holding her back. maybe it was the fact that he still seemed unusually bound to a woman he called his ex-wife. from the very beginning, deanna says, keith told her that he was divorced. >> very first conversation. >> i'm a divorced guy. >> right. >> by the time she was sitting across from detective carter in that interview room, deanna says she and keith had never been intimate, but they were dating. and keith was talking long-term. house-hunting for them. >> he said, i don't want to scare you, but i want you to know that i'm looking for properties here in morrisville to buy, so -- for us to be together. >> for the detective, deanna's story put a whole new spin on the investigation. keith griffith now seemed like a man with a very big secret. or thinking like a homicide detective, was she the one with the secret? >> you can spin it another way and say maybe she's driving events here. maybe she wants to get rid of the wife. >> that's correct. we were open for that being an idea or a possibility. >> in fact, the detective had let her tell her story without ever explaining the reason for his visit. now he laid out his cards. >> was he not divorced? >> no. >> he says, first of all, keith's not divorced. according to him, keith had been married to his high school sweetheart for 36 years. and i just broke down because i -- i couldn't believe it. >> but, of course, there was more. >> we're conducting an investigation, and this investigation involves what we believe to be a homicide of his wife. >> i was in shock. i felt like, oh, my gosh, i couldn't believe what he just said to me. i had no idea. >> so you believed she had been played by this guy? >> i believe that she had. >> so detective carter wondered if keith griffith had manipulated and lied to this woman, had keith lied to him, too? maybe it was more about what keith hadn't said. rewind to that moment when the detective had dropped what should have been devastating news on keith. >> the investigation has shown that, that foul play is involved. >> okay. >> did he ask you the questions, what happened? what are you telling me here? she was killed? >> no. >> you'd expect that, right? julie was shot by an intruder? what's going on? >> right, there was no questions to that. >> but if keith griffith was somehow involved in his wife's murder, how on earth had he pulled it off? after all, he was hundreds of miles away at that hotel the night of the crime. unless, of course, he wasn't. coming up, a security video surprise. >> scrolling through the tape. >> going through, going through. >> and then when did your bingo moment come up? >> and then a twist rocks the entire griffith family. >> we were all frantic. we had no idea how it could have happened. >> when "dateline" continues. got simparica now. simpari-what? simparica is what kills tick and fleas, like us. kills? kills! studies show at the end of the month, it kills more ticks in less time than frontline plus and nexgard. guess we should mosey on. see ya never, roxy! use simparica with caution in dogs with a history of seizures or neurologic disorders. the most common side effects are vomiting, diarrhea, and lethargy. say goodbye to ticks and fleas... with monthly simparica chewables. and now for the rings. 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>> yep, the husbands always do it. and they just seemed they zeroed in on him and were going at it 110 miles an hour. and were not respectful to my brother and i about any of the developments or anything going on. >> but detective matt carter had an ongoing investigation, and he felt there was ample reason to pursue their dad. after his interview with deanna, he had driven to the hotel that was keith's alibi. there he uncovered a bombshell. remember keith saying to the detective he had been at the hotel the entire night, ducking out just twice to get a drink and a snack? well, unhappily for keith's alibi, when the detective hit play on the hotel security video, it told a vastly different story. keith is seen leaving as he claimed around 11:00 p.m. but -- >> i think within 15 to 30 minutes he's going to be returning. that never happened. >> you're scrolling through the tape. >> going through, going through. >> and then when did your bingo moment come up? >> he finally arrived back at the hotel six hours and 34 minutes after he left initially. >> gone for more than 6 1/2 hours. was that enough time for keith to drive all the way back to his house in kentucky, commit the crime, and return? >> so what did you and your partner find when you put a clock to it? >> driving the speed limit to and from, it would have allowed approximately 20 minutes, at least, to have committed the crime. >> is that enough time for him to do this lethal act, kill his wife and torch the house? >> i believe it was ample time. >> 15, 20-minute window? >> yes. >> keith griffith was arrested and charged with arson and murder. >> you care to answer the allegations, sir? >> he could face the death penalty. he pleaded not guilty. >> we were all frantic. we had no idea what was happening, how it could have happened. because at that point we knew that there was no way that he had anything to do with it. >> this is nightmare country? >> yes. but again, we thought it would all be explained. they would do their job, they would take him, and the truth would come out. >> i was 100% convinced that he was innocent. and they were taking the wrong person in. meanwhile, the person who actually did it was getting away. >> family and friends were for sure distressed to learn that keith had another woman on the road. but the revelation wasn't enough to shake their support for him. >> it was a shock. but it was something that we accepted as a mistake. but that did not mean that he killed julie. >> there's no way he did it. not to julie, his wife. >> yeah. >> kids' mother. no way keith did it. >> but when keith griffith went to trial in february 2015. >> all rise. >> prosecutor raymond mcginty laid out a formidable circumstantial case. >> on january 17th, 2014, keith griffith decided that he could kill his wife -- >> a cornerstone of the case was that hotel security video. not only did it show keith gone for enough time to commit the crime, the prosecutor said, it also caught him in a lie. remember in his interview, keith told police he hadn't swapped clothes that night? >> -- change clothes? >> no. >> but a look at the security footage showed he had. >> he left wearing one set of clothes. one of his work shirts. he came back dressed in all black. >> the prosecutor also showed security video captured from a residence near the griffith home. it caught a glimpse of an suv pulling into the subdivision shortly before the fire. >> it was a little blurry. it was a few seconds long, but it sure looked like keith griffith's car. >> and another circumstantial bit. who else but keith, the prosecutor said, could have gotten by the griffiths' aggressive great dane cleo? certainly not an unknown intruder. >> the dog and keith were very close. a burglar couldn't have come in. a family member could have. >> as for the why question, how could keith, a man who by all accounts loved his wife, actually do it? the prosecutor turned to two age-old motives. >> almost every case involving a husband and a wife, it's lust and greed. one or the other. this one had both. >> the lust part of the equation, he said, was deanna. >> raise your right hand. >> she took the stand and told the jury that not only was keith house-hunting for them, he was also making plans to bring her down to paducah for a concert and introduce her to his family. >> i would love for you to come for the weekend, stay for the weekend. we'll go to the concert. and i would really like for you to meet my dad. >> as for the greed part, that was life insurance money. two policies on julie's life worth $250,000. one of them, the prosecutor said, had taken effect just eight days before julie died. >> keith griffith got to the point in his life he just wanted to start something new, and he didn't want to give julie griffith what she would have needed in a divorce and would have been entitled to. >> keith's daughter-in-law ali griffith, listened to the entirety of the prosecution's case. all she heard were theories. >> they spun a story. and they told a story how they wanted it to go. and they had facts that supported their story. but did not prove it. >> and that's what keith's defense attorney, mark bryant, hammered home for the jury. >> what does no evidence mean? >> they didn't have dna. they didn't have any kind of forensics. they didn't have a confession. they had nothing. they had circumstantial evidence. >> in their haste to arrest keith, the defense argued the police had gotten it wildly wrong. yes, he conceded keith wasn't the husband of the year. but he said deanna's story that keith was pursuing her for a long-term commitment was nonsense. rather -- >> what he wanted was a port in every storm. >> as for the life insurance, $250,000 was far from a financial windfall, he said. even the bradleys knew that the reason keith and julie bought that new policy was because of a friend's recent tragedy. >> she had been nagging him about getting -- making sure they had plenty of life insurance. >> and he argued the footage of the suv pulling into the subdivision was far too blurry to i.d. it as keith's ford expedition. besides -- >> if a guy is going to go to this much trouble to kill his wife, why would he drive an expedition that everybody knows he has? >> but the big question still remained, if keith hadn't driven back to paducah to kill julie, where had he gone the night of the murder? the only person who could answer that was keith himself. >> he was very adamant about taking the stand. >> he wanted to talk to the jury? >> he did. >> what would he say? and would the jury believe him? it was roll the dice time. coming up, keith's eyebrow-raising alibi. >> i was embarrassed and ashamed of what i was doing the night my wife died. >> and then what keith revealed to us. >> that's what i've told everybody, when they hear the story, they're not going to believe it. >> why even a jury couldn't end this case. when "dateline" continues. you get ultimate protection on your heaviest days and smooth removal for your lightest. tampax pearl and pocket pearl for on the go. ♪ happiness is powerful flea and tick protection from nexgard. a delicious chew that protects for an entire month. ask your vet for more information. reported side effects include vomiting and itching. nexgard. the vet's #1 choice. but it's tough to gete enough of their nutrients. new one a day with nature's medley is the only complete multivitamin with antioxidants from one total serving of fruits and veggies try new one a day with nature's medley. before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn, lucy could only imagine enjoying a slice of pizza. now it's as easy as pie. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? well, esurance makes finding the right coverage easy. in fact, drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved an average of $412. that's auto and home insurance for the modern world. esurance. an allstate company. click or call. esurance. an allstate company. are you ready to take your then you need xfinity xfi.? a more powerful way to stay connected. it gives you super fast speeds for all your devices, provides the most wifi coverage for your home, and lets you control your network with the xfi app. it's the ultimate wifi experience. xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. ♪ welcome back. the prosecutor laid out his case against keith griffith -- that now the accused murderer was insisting on taking the stand in his own defense. and he had a bombshell to reveal. here's dennis murphy with the conclusion of "consumed." >> keith griffith was about to take the stand and explain the most damning piece of evidence against him. hotel security footage put him off the grid for more than 6 1/2 hours the night his wife julie was murdered. but if he wasn't perpetrating the crime during that time, then where was he? >> tell us your name, please, sir. >> keith wayne griffith. >> keith's explanation came with an embarrassing secret. his lawyer argued that ever since becoming a traveling salesman, keith had struggled with an addiction to sex. >> keith, until you got out on the road several years ago, did you have this kind of a sexual addiction? >> no, sir. >> and the night julie was murdered, he said he spent those hours out prowling for women. after he left the hotel, he changed out of work clothes into his "man out looking" duds. >> i didn't like people to put my job with my carousing. >> with your carousing? >> mm-hmm. >> he said he went to a massage parlor, a bar and couple of strip clubs. but try as he might he never found a hookup. >> i was trying to pick somebody up. wasn't anybody available or interested or whatever, however you want to put it. >> after last call he said he went down to the river to watch the boats before returning to the hotel to catch some shut-eye. as for why he lied to the police -- >> i was embarrassed and ashamed what i was doing the night my wife died. >> did you kill your wife? >> no, sir, i did not. i loved my wife. >> did you burn the house down? >> no. >> did you kill those dogs? >> no, i loved those dogs. >> when the case went to the jury, keith's friend craig bradley didn't know which way the jury would fall. >> i didn't know if he would get acquitted. but i didn't think he'd get convicted. i mean, i really felt like it would be a hung jury. >> turns out he was right. after six hours of deliberation, the jury was deadlocked. >> i'm going to declare a mistrial at this time. >> keith would sit in jail for another year as he awaited a second trial. a long time for his family to process the story he told on the stand. >> he left to go to a bar, to go cruising, or something? and then he goes and sits on the riverfront? like, he has never done that before in his entire life. >> so when he stepped down, you thought? your father did this? >> yeah. yeah. i mean, i definitely wasn't saying it out loud. and i wasn't ready to accept it. but i definitely was moving in the direction of the only thing that makes sense at this point is that he committed the crime. >> after months of wrestling with his thoughts, zach decided it was time to send his dad a letter. >> i put in the letter, my opinion was you did it. you know, you took away the last chance that i had of rebuilding a relationship with my mom. you're no longer allowed to contact me. and i don't want you to ask about me to anyone. >> wow. dear dad, you are dead to me. >> exactly. >> his brother's wife, ali, had started to feel that way about keith, too. >> it seemed like he was fabricating everything that came out of his mouth. >> but there was a split in the family. despite doubts of his own, her husband aaron, the one closest to his father, was still a supporter. >> whatever issues my mom and dad would have had, i just could not believe that my dad would take my kids away from their nana. >> then a few months before keith's retrial, detective carter's phone rang. there was news from the jail. an inmate had some information about keith. and it was as eerie as it was chilling. the detective in the bull's-eye. >> keith had come forward to him wanting to have me killed. >> put a hit on you? >> put a hit on me. >> orchestrating your death? >> yes. he'd drawn a map of what he believed to be my residence. suggested the caliber of weapon to use to kill me. the informant specifically asked him what if my family was present, and his response was one word, and that was tragedy. >> wow. that does make the hair on your neck stand up. >> it does. >> that wouldn't look good to a jury. the development brought aaron to a tipping point. were you no longer wavering at this point, aaron? had you come down on the side of, oh my god, my father killed my mother? >> yeah. yeah. >> now aaron, too, wrote his dad a letter. if he was guilty -- >> it's time. it's time to man up and do what you should have done two years ago. >> keith's defense attorneys went to the prosecutor to hammer out a plea deal. they agreed on 30 years in prison for the murder and for soliciting the hit. moments later, keith was standing in a paducah courtroom speaking the words his family and friends never in a million years thought they'd hear him say. yes, he murdered julie. >> there's no excuse for what i did. and i can't take it back. and she was my best friend. and i don't know what happened to me. but i did it. there's nothing i can do about it. >> temple bradley who works near the courthouse was there. >> my heart was breaking. that the person that i have -- that wholeheartedly i put my trust in for two years had lied to my face. >> i just can't believe we've been deceived in that way. we were there for him the whole time. >> for keith's family and friends, there are so many questions. but one seems to tower above all the others. >> i want to know why. and i want to know how you go from a loving husband and father and grandfather to driving all that way, killing your wife, then covering it up, and then lying to your family for so long? knowing that we had everybody doubting us, that we still defended him. disgusting. he's a monster. >> all i can tell you is that i had a lot of bad thoughts, wrong thoughts, mistakes. >> we sat down with keith hoping for answers. but as many times as we asked him why this all happened -- >> why did you do it? >> i really can't tell you. i don't know. i mean, just a bad decision. >> we never did get a satisfying response. >> so this isn't some kind of delayed midlife crisis here? >> no. >> where you're trying to be with deanna or someone like her to have a final happy chapter in your life? >> no. >> new house -- >> julie and i were happy. >> you see how perplexing it is to hear this. >> i know. >> it's absolutely confounding. >> that's what i tell everybody when they hear the story, they're not going to believe it. i have a hard time believing i did what i did. >> one thing he didn't do -- >> how about a divorce? >> never crossed my mind. >> keith now says the remorse began the moment he pulled out of his driveway. >> trying to get out of the subdivision, crying before i ever get out. regretting what i'd done. i probably drove 100 miles an hour all the way back, hoping to get caught. >> as for the future, keith says he is prepared to die in prison. >> i don't have anything to live for. except maybe forgiveness. >> from who? >> from my boys. >> that's why you're talking to me today? >> exactly. yes. >> well, it's between you and them. i'll tell you, my take on it is you've got some distance to make up. >> i know i do. i've got a lot to make up. >> of the countless things keith stole from his family, resilience was not among them. aaron and zach are closer than they've been in years. and now that they know what happened to their mother, they say they can finally mourn her passing. and focus on keeping her spirit alive for those two little granddaughters who were the center of her universe. >> my oldest daughter will remember. like i said, she talks about her almost every day. we have pictures of her up in her room. as my youngest gets older, we'll tell her the nascar nana story about when she was born. just never let her memory die. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> when i saw her, i lost concept of time. i reached in, pulled her out, and started screaming help. >> please! oh, my god! wake up! wake up! >> it was the worst seconds in my life. >> how was it possible? >> i would give anything if she were alive today. >> such a sweet young wife and mom. such a shattering death. >> i cried all night long. >> he was downstairs with the kids.

Transcripts For MSNBCW Dateline 20190721

>> it's a bullet, yes. >> reporter: this woman had been shot to death? >> yes. >> the obvious suspects, neighborhood thieves. >> there were half a dozen house burglaries and assaults. >> investigators also dug into a favored theory. the husband did it. >> i was angry. i felt that the detectives were on a manhunt and they were after my dad. >> then up pox a text that might be a clue. >> you could say she is driving events here? >> yes. >> the truth behind convicted and leaving behind ashes and burning questions. >> i physically started shaking and i started crying. >> i want to know why. welcome to "dateline. julie griffith was a wife. was it a bungled burglary or was it something else entirely? here's dennis murphy with "consumed." reporter: the canterbury hills subdivision in paducah, kentucky, is a good place to raise kids. tidy homes kept up by neighbors living ordered lives. so as the front porch lights winked out on just another day, what happened one cold january night in the wee hours was especially alarming. a roaring all-consuming fire, was devouring one of the nice homes. >> it was awful, half of the house was gone. >> reporter: what would rise from those ashes was far more than a fire marshal's investigation into cause. there would be a probe into the deepest roots of a treachery beyond most people's comprehension. >> it's not true. no way. >> reporter: what had they all missed? >> a monster. a liar. a cheater. >> he's destroyed my entire family. ♪ >> reporter: before it became charred rubble, the house was home to a longtime paducah couple, keith and julie griffith. church going, golf playing high-school sweethearts 36-years into a marriage that had produced two sons. aaron, the older. >> they were very supportive parents. they were loving. they loved my kids. >> reporter: aaron took after his dad, athletic, easy going, level-headed. younger brother zach was more of a firecracker like his mom. there was the time, for instance, in the sixth grade, zach grabbed a shovel and started digging a hole for a koi pond in the backyard. >> my parents come home. they're, like, "what are you doing?" i'm, like, "we're gonna have a pond." >> reporter: were they okay with it? >> yeah, they were fine. and they were kind of, like, "well, this is gonna be a nightmare." >> reporter: when aaron and zach flew the nest, the griffith's lives seemed to get only busier. they joined a motorcycle class through their church and frequently were a golf foursome with friends craig and temple bradley. >> everybody that knew keith loved him. great guy. >> reporter: did he become your best friend? >> yeah, definitely. one of my very best friends. >> reporter: temple felt that way about julie, too. >> she had a heart of gold. she would do anything for you. but she also wasn't afraid to tell you exactly how it was either. >> reporter: did she get people's feathers ruffled? >> oh yeah. yeah, but everybody loved her. >> reporter: after early retirement from the water company, keith found a second career as traveling lawnmower salesman, which left julie to spend a lot of nights alone in the house. but keith never worried for her well being in a safe neighborhood, their own door watched over by their beloved great dane cleo. aaron's wife, ali. >> they would leave and go to down and leave for a long time because cleo was the guard dog. >> reporter: fulfilled as the griffith's lives seemed to be, keith and julie were transformed when aaron and ali brought into the world their first daughter, aria. >> when i had that first child, it was the greatest day of her life, i think. >> julie lived for my little girl. she wanted to be a part of everything that she did. >> reporter: and julie was there for ali when she went into labor with their second daughter, analiese. her white knuckled dash to the hospital earned julie the affectionate nickname, nascar nana. >> the flashers were going and she was honoringing the horn. >> reporter: and what is she saying to you? >> she says, "don't have a baby in my car." she says, "keep your legs crossed, don't have a baby in the car." >> reporter: everything seemed to be going great for the griffiths in 2013. keith had weight loss surgery and dropped more than 100 pounds. julie was over the moon with two granddaughters. but also that year came the rift. zach disclosed to his very religious, conservative parents that he is gay. >> it was definitely hard. i mean, it went from my mom was my best friend and going to talking to her multiple times a day to just being completely -- just completely shut off. >> reporter: julie visited zach that fall. they tip-toed around the elephant in the room but the time together gave zach hope. >> reporter: was that the step, as you look back, to patching things up between you and your mom? >> yeah. >> reporter: there was a way forward? >> there was definitely a way forward. we just needed more time. >> reporter: but then, came that cold night in january. >> 911, where is your emergency? >> there's a house on fire in canterbury and there's not a fire truck here! >> reporter: a deputy drove toward the griffith home, his dash cam recorder catching this quick glimpse of the blaze. then, the fire trucks arrived. mccracken county sheriff's detective matt carter received a call in the middle of the night. >> reporter: this is a bad fire? >> very hot. that whole left end of the house was just completely consumed with fire. >> reporter: it took about an hour for firefighters to knock down the flames. hours more for them to make their way through the blackened wreckage of the house to what seemed to be the heart of the fire, the master bedroom. ghastly, what they would discover. >> investigators make a pair of discoveries and realize they are dealing with both a tragedy and a mystery. coming up. >> he recovered a projectile. >> reporter: really? >> when "dateline" continues. 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-what teach here isn't telling you is that snapshot rewards safe drivers with discounts on car insurance. -what? ♪ -or maybe he didn't know. ♪ [ chuckles ] i'm done with this class. -you're not even enrolled in this class. -i know. i'm supposed to be in ceramics. do you know -- -room 303. -oh. thank you. -yeah. -good luck, everybody. 3 days is really fast. sensitivity, sensodyne rapid relief is a game changer. it's going to let the dentist offer their patient sensitivity relief in 3 days. say over the course of a weekend you're going to start feeling significant results. >> reporter: daybreak revealed the grim aftermath of the blaze at 307 tudor boulevard. wisps of smoke rose from the black water-soaked wreckage that was once the griffith home. detective matt carter. >> this entire structure had crumbled. it was a pile of ashes that was on the ground. we didn't even know if anyone was home or not. we knew that they were in and out of town a lot. >> reporter: as firefighters carefully walked through what appeared to be the fire's epicenter, the master bedroom, their worst fears were with confirmed. julie had, in fact, been home that night. it was to the right of the box mattresses that we found the remains of -- of julie. they were unsure, initially, that it was human remains. we knew that there was -- >> reporter: even with all their experience? >> yes. everything was just consumed by fire to the point that -- that things were unrecognizable. >> reporter: as for keith? he was away, calling on customers in indiana. word of julie's death spread almost as fast as the fire had raced through the house. >> i'm getting ready for work, have the tv on in the background. >> we are live in the canterbury hills subdivision on tudor boulevard. >> reporter: then, temple bradley's phone rang -- it was a friend, who also knew julie. >> she said, "you know there's the fire." and i said, "yeah, i saw it on tv." and she said, "it's keith and julie's house." and i just sat there. >> reporter: did she know at that point that julie in fact was gone? >> she knew, and so she told me. >> reporter: temple's husband immediately tracked down keith as he was making the three-hour drive home from indiana. >> he said, "i'm on my way. i'm probably, you know, two hours away." i said, "are you all right." he goes, "yeah, yeah." i could tell he was in shock. >> reporter: the news hit zach griffith particularly hard. since coming out to his mother, his relationship with her had been strained, and now this -- i guess you're just beating yourself up something terrible, that you'd been sideways with her? >> yeah. and i know that if we were just given more time, that we would've been close again, that we would've been, you know -- that mom and son duo that we were. but we just -- we didn't have the time. it was ripped away from us and never get it back. >> reporter: aaron, the elder son, had more of a "take charge" reaction. >> i gotta take care of my brother. i gotta take care of my dad. >> reporter: you got logistics before grief? >> yeah. >> reporter: the news didn't even get absorbed? >> yeah. yeah. for me -- that's just kind of the way my brain is wired, i guess. >> reporter: within hours, the griffiths would head from all directions toward what used to be an anchor in their lives -- the family home. >> i just gave my dad a big hug, and we were both crying and we were like, "i can't believe this." "what happened?" >> reporter: keith's good friend craig bradley was there to lend his support. and how was he doing? this is the first time you have a chance to see him eye-to-eye. >> i could just tell he was shaken. >> reporter: as if the news couldn't get any worse, the griffith's great dane cleo, along with the second pet daisy, had also perished in the flames. craig and keith walked the property surveying the damages. >> we get to the koi pond and he's like, "gotta get -- gotta get those fish outta there. julie would kill me if something happened to those fish." i was like, "you know, let's not worry about that right now." >> reporter: overwhelmed by loss, the griffiths were faced with the question -- how could this have happened? >> the first thought was that it was the new heating and air unit that had just gone in. >> reporter: the unit had been installed just days before the fire, adjacent to the master bedroom. >> that was my very first thought, that somehow the new heating and air unit wasn't put in properly. >> reporter: faulty installation? >> yeah. >> reporter: as for the cause of julie's death, that was left to the county coroner's office. deputy coroner ben bradford. what were you working with? >> a very, very charred body. i could not very well identify it being a person. >> reporter: the cause of death seemed obvious. but just to be sure, julie's remains were sent on to the medical examiner for an autopsy. what he discovered was as deeply troubling as it was unexpected. >> he had recovered a projectile in the -- the remains. >> reporter: a bullet? >> yes. >> reporter: suddenly, what was thought to have been death by smoke inhalation was now a homicide. closer examination revealed three bullet holes in all in julie's torso. the deputy coroner immediately called the sheriff's office. >> i said, "we need to get some people back to that house, because this is going to be a homicide." >> reporter: what'd you think? wow? >> absolutely. >> reporter: lady in a nice neighborhood, good house? >> right. >> reporter: and now she's got three bullet wounds? >> that's right. on a who did it crime. >> reporter: back at 307 tudor boulevard, fire equipment pulled out as sheriff's cruisers pulled in. would the charred wreckage of a home, once filled with joy and laughter, now hold clues pointing to a killer? coming up -- this detective spies what could be a critical clue on someone's phone. >> up comes a text message? >> that's right. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues - how many people love you unconditionally? while you ponder that, consider adopting a rescue pet. there are 6.5 million of them; they all need a forever home. it would mean the world to them, and they will love you forever. >> reporter: the theory that julie died by accidental fire had collapsed as suddenly as the griffith house itself. for detective matt carter, a 45-caliber slug recovered from julie griffith's torso turned the charred rubble into the scene of a homicide. so i'm guessing your day's changed a whole lot here, detective, huh? >> it's changed a lot. >> reporter: despite more than a decade on the job, the detective had his work cut out for him. no hair, fiber, bloody footprints, none of that stuff. >> right. you've got an arson that's destroyed any chance of obtaining any of that from the scene. >> reporter: for detective carter, the most obvious theory this homicide was the work of a home intruder. >> a burglary gone bad. >> reporter: somebody's looking for the laptop or whatever jewelry and thing goes down? >> right. we had had some burglaries within a few miles of this area. >> reporter: what? within weeks or months or -- >> within weeks. within weeks. >> reporter: as police canvassed the neighborhood for leads and witnesses, the investigator also had to consider -- the perpetrator may have been someone julie knew. >> you're not ruling anyone out or in. you're simply going through the motions. you're speaking to immediate family first, and working your way out. >> reporter: the sheriff's department did not tell the griffiths julie had been murdered. >> we were not told anything by the police at that point. >> reporter: but anyone at the scene might have guessed foul play was somehow involved. >> there was just cops all over the property. >> reporter: so you said, "why are the cops here?" >> exactly. yep. >> reporter: naturally, the first person detective carter interviewed was julie's husband, keith. >> first of all, we are, are sorry for your loss. >> i appreciate that. >> reporter: at first, keith talked about what everyone perceived was the cause of the inferno, an accidental fire set off by a newly installed heating unit. >> you had a new gas pack put in tuesday? >> mmm hmm. >> okay. >> i mean it was a whole new system. >> reporter: keith explained the contractor was a friend of his who'd done the work just a few days earlier. >> they put a rush on it. i mean, you know, that's kind of what friends do for each other. >> okay. >> and i hope to god that this problem is not his. >> reporter: but eventually, without giving details, the detective revealed julie's death was no accident. >> the investigation is showing that, that foul play is involved. >> okay. >> i do not believe at this point in time that this was any kind of an accident. i'm going to ask for your cooperation on, on several things. okay? >> okay. >> reporter: one of the first things detective carter asked about was how keith and julie were getting along. >> any problems at all that y'all had or anything like that whatsoever? >> no. she's my best friend. >> okay. >> i mean, i know i mean that woman loved everybody. >> reporter: the investigator also asked keith for details about his business trip to indiana. >> didn't leave the hotel? >> i did leave the hotel, about 11:00 i went and got something to drink. and i left again about 4:00 and just went and, and got a doughnut and a coke. like i said, i get up pretty early. >> reporter: and what about weapons. did keith own a gun? >> i have a .45 acp in my work truck that i just got, and it's never had any, i mean it's never been loaded. >> reporter: as part of standard protocol, the detective asked for keith's clothes. they would be tested for gun shot residue. >> what you're wearing now, is that, was that fresh clothes from this morning whenever you? >> this is what i wore yesterday. >> reporter: before wrapping up the interview, the detective took a look at keith's cell phone. >> while i'm reviewing this phone, i see that he obtains a text message, an incoming text message from a lady by the name of deanna jaynes. >> reporter: ping, up comes a text message? >> that's correct. >> reporter: the message read: "did you make it home okay?" keith was quick to point out, his relationship with deanna was completely platonic. >> she's more like a guy friend. >> reporter: no big deal? nothing sexual? >> no big deal, that's right. >> reporter: after that, keith was released to go and grieve with his family. detective carter, meanwhile, set out to verify keith's story. >> he had a receipt where he had stayed. >> reporter: so that puts him three hours away from this house fire. >> correct. >> reporter: the death of his wife? >> it showed his check-in time and check-out time. >> reporter: a quick check of keith's gun showed he was telling the truth about it as well. the gun looked as though it had never been fired. so maybe he's not the guy? >> he may not be. >> reporter: so then who was? coming up -- the detective sits down with deanna. was she really like a guy friend to keith? >> you could say maybe she's driving events here. maybe she wants to get rid of the wife. >> that's correct. let's see, aleve is proven better on pain than tylenol extra strength. and last longer with fewer pills. so why am i still thinking about this? i'll take aleve. aleve. proven better on pain. you only talk about your insurancet, when you complain about it. 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>> reporter: after keith was released the night of his interview with detectives, he headed straight to his friends, the bradleys. they were floored to hear the line of questioning that he recounted. what was up with his marriage, his alibi, the gun he owned? >> he had been questioned to the point that he almost felt like that they thought he did some -- that he had done this. >> reporter: son aaron also got called down to the station that same evening and he, too, was questioned about his parents marriage. >> noticed anything lately in their relationship as far as any problems or anything like that? >> no. >> that you're aware of? >> no. >> or anything? >> no, nothing. >> was there any money troubles? was there any relationship things that we knew of? >> reporter: but to a person in the griffith's circle, the very idea that keith might know something about julie's death was, well, just flat out crazy. >> i knew he didn't do it. >> there wasn't any way that keith was involved in this. >> i remember sitting there and looking over at keith and just watching him for a while and finally i just said, "you can't even grieve, can you?" and he said, "no, they've taken it all away." >> reporter: the friends' working theory was a botched break-in. they'd heard about the neighborhood's recent rash of burglaries. maybe that's what happened to julie? >> they'd come in and they startled cleo. >> reporter: dog started to bark and go for them? >> uh-huh. it caused julie to wake up and they got scared. and they shot her. >> it made perfect sense. >> reporter: but for detective carter, the burglary theory of the crime wasn't panning out. even as they sorted through the rubble, detectives at the scene found untouched valuables -- two safes, a cache of guns, and julie's purse sitting in plain sight. >> reporter: you think an intruder would have grabbed it? >> you would think so. >> reporter: so carter set out to follow the most promising lead he had. who was this woman deanna? the text messager who wondered if keith made it home ok. he had described her as a "guy-friend." >> there was just something about that text message that seemed to stick out. and it seemed to create that question of, you know, what's missing here? >> reporter: carter had called ahead to the authorities in the indiana town where deanna lived. they'd arranged to bring the woman down to an interview room. she was waiting. >> my name's matt carter. >> matt. >> reporter: deanna was about to tell the detective a story that would dramatically reshape his investigation. >> reporter: was she a "guy friend?" >> no. it was more than that. >> reporter: deanna shared the same story with us. >> he wanted me to love him. >> reporter: deanna says she and keith first met years earlier at a vendor fair. she was the cfo of an i.t. company. keith, the road-warrior lawnmower salesman, had a booth there. >> keith was sitting there. and i guess i caught his attention right away. >> reporter: you'd noticed he was eyeing you, huh? >> right. i noticed he was staring at me. and so i kinda, you know, just smiled. >> reporter: she says he asked her to dinner. they quickly discovered how much they had in common. >> he talked about both his sons and i think being a grandpa. so i just really connected, because i had grown kids, too. >> reporter: after several dates, deanna says, keith expressed interest in a relationship, but she wanted to keep it just-friends. they stayed in touch but didn't see each other for awhile. then, just a few months back, he sent her a flirty text message. >> the text just said, "did you cast a spell on me?" and i'm like, i looked down at my phone, i'm like, "what? he says, "well, i was in a party last night, and this woman was chattin' me up." he goes, "and all -- all i could think about was you." >> reporter: deanna, who was in the throes of a traumatic romantic break-up, agreed to start seeing him again for dinners. and, she says, he seemed excited to show off the new post-surgery keith. >> he goes "you're not gonna recognize me." and he goes, "i've lost over 100 pounds." and i said, "you have?" >> reporter: did he look okay? >> he looked fine. i mean he felt -- i think he was more confident, as well. >> reporter: deanna says keith now began aggressively courting her. showering her with gifts, flowers, notes of affection. it was all, she said, a bit much. >> he kept pushing for more. and i kept telling him, "you need to back off. you need to slow down, because i'm just not there." >> reporter: deanna says she couldn't put her finger on it, but there was something about keith that was holding her back. maybe it was the fact that he still seemed unusually bound to a woman he called his ex-wife. from the very beginning, deanna says, keith told her that he was divorced. >> very first conversation. >> reporter: "i'm a divorced guy." >> right. >> reporter: by the time she was sitting across from detective carter in that interview room, deanna says she and keith had never been intimate but they were dating. and keith was talking long term. house-hunting for them. >> he said, "i don't want to scare you, but i want you to know that i'm looking for properties here in mooresville to buy, so, for us to be together." >> reporter: for the detective, deanna's story put a whole new spin on the investigation. keith griffith now seemed like a man with a very big secret. or, thinking like a homicide detective, was she the one with the secret? >> reporter: you could spin it another way and say, "maybe she's driving events here. maybe she wants to get rid of the wife"? >> that's correct. we were open for that, being an idea or a possibility. >> reporter: in fact, the detective had let her tell her story without ever explaining the reason for his visit. now, he laid out his cards. >> was he not divorced? >> um -- no. >> he says, "first of all, keith's not divorced. according to him, he's been married to his high school sweetheart for 36 years." and i just broke down, because i -- i couldn't believe it. >> reporter: but, of course, there was more. >> we are conducting an investigation, and this investigation involves what we believe to be a homicide of his wife. >> i was in shock. i was like, "oh my gosh." i couldn't believe what he just said to me. i had no idea. >> reporter: so you believed she had been played by this guy? >> i believe that she had. >> reporter: so detective carter wondered, if keith griffith had manipulated and lied to this woman -- had keith lied to him, too? maybe it was more about what keith hadn't said. rewind to that moment when the detective had dropped what should have been devastating news on keith. >> the investigation's showing that, that foul play is involved. >> okay. >> reporter: did he ask you the questions, "what happened? what are you telling me here? she was killed?" >> no. >> reporter: i mean, you'd expect that, right? "julie was shot by an intruder? what's going on here?" >> that's right. there was -- there was no questions to that. >> reporter: but if keith griffith was somehow involved in his wife's murder, how on earth had he pulled it off? after all, he was hundreds of miles away at that hotel the night of the crime. unless, of course, he wasn't. coming up -- a security video surprise. >> you're scrolling through the tape. >> going through, going through. >> reporter: what was your bingo moment? >> and then a twist rocks the entire griffith family. >> we were all frantic. we had no idea how it could have happened. >> when "dateline" continues. i'm just a normal person who got an awful skin condition. with uncontrolled moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, you feel like you're itching all the time. and you never know how your skin will look. because deep within your skin an overly sensitive immune system could be the cause. so help heal your skin from within, with dupixent. dupixent is not a steroid, and it continuously treats your eczema even when you can't see it. at 16 weeks, nearly four times more patients taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin compared to those not taking it, and patients saw a significant reduction in itch. do not use if you are allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, a severe reaction. tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems, including eye pain or changes in vision. if you are taking asthma medicines, do not change or stop your asthma medicine without talking to your doctor. help heal your skin from within. ask your eczema specialist about dupixent. still nervous about buying heuh-oh, la new house.meone's n. is it that obvious? 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>> yep, husbands always do it. and they just seemed like they just zeroed in on him and were going at it 110 miles an hour and were not respectful to my brother and i about any of -- developments or anything going on. >> reporter: but detective matt carter had an ongoing investigation and he felt there was ample reason to pursue their dad. after his interview with deanna, he'd driven to the hotel that was keith's alibi. there, he uncovered a bombshell. remember keith saying to the detective he'd been at the hotel the entire night? ducking out just twice to get a drink and a snack? well, unhappily for keith's alibi, when the detective hit play on the hotel's security video, it told a vastly different story. keith is seen leaving, as he'd claimed, around 11:00pm. but -- >> i think within 15 to 30 minutes, he's gonna be returning. but that never happened. >> you're scrolling through the tape? >> going through, going through. >> and then when'd your bingo moment come up? >> he finally arrived back at the hotel six hours and 34 minutes after he had left, initially. >> reporter: gone for more than six and a half hours. was that enough time for keith to drive all the way back to his house in kentucky, commit the crime, and return? so what did you and your partner find, when you put a clock to it? >> driving the speed limit to and from, it would've allowed approximately 20 minutes, at least, to have committed the crime. >> is that enough time on the ground for him to do this lethal act, kill his wife and torch the house? >> believe it was ample time -- >> 15, 20-minute window? >> yes. >> reporter: keith griffith was arrested and charged with arson and murder. >> care to answer the allegations sir? >> reporter: he could face the death penalty. he pleaded not guilty. >> we were all frantic, we had no idea what was happening, how it could have happened. because at that point, we knew that there was -- there was no way that he had anything to do with it. >> so this is nightmare country? >> yes. but again, we thought it would all be explained. you know, they would do their job, they would take him and the truth would come out. >> i was 100% convinced that he was innocent and that they were taking the wrong person in. meanwhile, the person who actually did it was getting away. >> reporter: family and friends were, for sure, distressed to learn that keith had another woman on the road but the revelation wasn't enough to shake their support for him. >> it was a shock, but it was something that we accepted as a mistake. but that did not mean that he killed julie. >> there's just no way he did it. >> yeah, this is -- >> not to julie. >> definitely. >> his wife, you know, kids' mother, there's no way keith did it. >> reporter: but when keith griffith went to trial in february 2015. >> all rise! >> reporter: prosecutor raymond mcgee laid out a formidable circumstantial case. >> on january 17, 2014, keith griffith decided that he could kill his wife. >> reporter: a cornerstone of the case was that hotel security video. not only did it show keith gone for enough time to commit the crime, the prosecutor said, it also caught him in a lie. remember, in his interview, keith told police he hadn't swapped clothes that night. >> not at any point changed clothes? >> no. >> reporter: but a look at the security footage showed he had. >> he left wearing one set of clothes. it was one of his work shirts. he came back dressed in all black. >> reporter: the prosecutor also showed security video captured from a residence near the griffith home. it caught a glimpse of an suv pulling into the subdivision shortly before the fire. >> it was a little blurry. it was a few seconds long. but it sure looked like keith griffith's car. >> reporter: and another circumstantial bit. who else but keith, the prosecutor said, could have gotten by the griffith's aggressive great dane cleo? certainly not an unknown intruder. >> the dog and keith were very close. but a burglar couldn't have come in. a family member could have. >> reporter: as for the why question, "how could keith, a man who by all accounts loved his wife, actually do it?" the prosecutor turned to two age old motives. >> almost every case involving a husband and a wife, it's lust and greed. one or the other, and this one had both. >> reporter: the lust part of the equation, he said, was deanna. she took the stand and told the jury that not only was keith house hunting for them, he was also making plans to bring her down to paducah for a concert and introduce her to his family. >> i'd love for you to come for the weekend, stay for the weekend. we'll go to the concert and i would really like for you to meet my dad. >> reporter: as for the greed part, that was life insurance money, two policies on julie's life worth $250,000. one of them, the prosecutor said, had taken effect just eight days before julie died. >> keith griffith got to the point in his life he just wanted to start something new. and he didn't wanna give julie griffith what she would have needed in a divorce and been entitled to. >> reporter: keith's daughter-in-law ali griffith listened to the entirety of the prosecution's case. all she heard were theories. >> they spun a story, and they told a story how they wanted it to go. and they had facts that supported their story, but did not prove it. >> reporter: and that's what keith's defense attorney mark bryant hammered home for the jury. >> reporter: what's no evidence mean? >> they didn't have dna, they didn't have any kinda forensics, they didn't have a confession. they had nothing! they had circumstantial evidence. >> reporter: in their haste to arrest keith, the defense argued, the police had gotten it wildly wrong. yes, he conceded, keith wasn't the husband of the year. but, he said, deanna's story that keith was pursuing her for a long term commitment was nonsense. rather -- >> what he wanted was a port in every storm. >> reporter: as for the life insurance, $250,000 was far from a financial windfall, he said. even the bradleys knew that the reason keith and julie bought that new policy was because of a friend's recent tragedy. >> she had been nagging them about getting -- making sure they had plenty of life insurance. >> reporter: and, he argued, the footage of the suv pulling into the subdivision was far too blurry to i.d. it as keith's ford expedition. besides -- >> if a guy is gonna go to this much trouble to kill his wife, why would he drive an expedition that everybody knows he has? >> reporter: but the big question still remained, if keith hadn't driven back to paducah to kill julie, where had he gone the night of the murder? the only person who could answer that was keith himself. >> he was very adamant about taking the stand. >> he wanted to talk to the jury? >> he did. >> reporter: what would he say? and would the jury believe him? it was roll the dice time. coming up -- keith's eyebrow raising alibi. >> i was embarrassed and ashamed of what i was doing the night my wife died. >> and then what keith revealed to us. >> that's what i've told everybody. when they hear the story, they're not going to believe it. >> why even a jury could not end this case, when "dateline" continues. 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(vo) there for you when it matters most. and now, get a free samsung galaxy s10e when you buy one. that's verizon. welcome back. ment prosecutor laid out his case. he was insisting on taking the stand in his own defense. he had a bombshell to reveal. here's dennis murphy with the conclusion of "consumed". keith griff inwas about to stake the stand. hotel security footage putting him off the grid for more than 6 1/2 hours the night his wife julie was murdered. but if he wasn't perpetrating the crime during that time, then where was he? >> tell us your name please, sir? >> chief wayne griffith. >> his explanation came with an embarrassing secret. ever since becoming a traveling salesman, he struggled with an addiction to sex. >> until you got out on the road several years ago, did you have this kind of a sexual addiction. >> the night julie was murdered. he spent the hours prowling for women. after he left the hotel, he changed out of work clothes into his man out looking duds. >> didn't like people to put my job with my carousing. >> with your carousing? >> uh-huh. >> he went to a massage parlor, a bar and a couple of strip clubs. try as he might, he never found a hookup. >> there wasn't anyone available or interested or however you want to put it. >> after last call, he went to the river to watch the boats before returning to the hotel to catch some shut-eye. as for why he lied to the police -- >> i was embarrassed and ashamed what i was doing the night my wife died. i loved my wife. >> did you burn the house down, keith? >> no. >> did you kill those dogs? >> no. i loved those dogs. whi didn't know if he'd get acquitted. i didn't think he'd get convicted. i thought it would be a hung jury. >> after six hours of deliberation, the jury was deadlocked. >> i'm going to declare a mistrial at this time. >> keith would sit in jail another year as he awaited for a second trial. >> he left to go to a bar to go cruising or something and then he sits on the riverfront? like, he has never done that in his entire life. >> when he stepped down, you thought your father did this? >> yeah. i wasn't saying it out loud. i wasn't ready to accept it. but i definitely was moving in the direction of the only thing that makes sense at this point is that he committed the crime. >> after months of wrestling with his thoughts, zack decided it was time to send his dad a letter. >> i put in a letter my opinion was that you did it. you took away the last chance that i had at rebuilding a relationship with my mom. you know, you're no longer allowed to contact me and i don't want you to ask about me to anyone. >> dear dad, you're dead to me. >> exactly. >> hit seemed he was fabricatin everything that came out of his mouth. >> despite doubts of his own, her husband, the one closest to his father, was still a supporter. >> whatever issues my mom and dad would have had, i just could not believe that my dad would take my kids away from their nana. >> a few months before the retrial, detective carver's phone rang. there was news from the jail. an inmate had information about keith and it was as eerie as it was chilling. the detective in the bull's-eye. >> keith had come forward to him wanting to have me killed. >> put a hit on me? >> orchestrating your death? >> he had drawn a map of what he believed to be my residence, suggested the caliber of weapon to use to kill me. what if his family was present? >> his response was one word, tragedy. >> that does make the hair on your neck stand up. >> it does. >> that wouldn't look good to a jury. the development brought aaron to a tipping point. >> were you no longer wavering at this woint, aaron? had you come down on the side of oh, my god, my father killed my mother. >> yeah. >> aaron, too, wrote his dad a letter. >> if he was guilty -- >> it's time to man up and do what you should have done two years ago. >> keith's defense attorneys went to the prosecutors to hammer out a plea deal. they agreed on 30 years in prison for the murder and for soliciting the hit. >> moments later, keith was standing in a paducah courtroom speaking the words his family and friends never in a million years thought they'd hear him say. yes, he murdered julie. >> there's no excuse for what i did. i can't take it back. she was my best friend and i don't know what happened to me. but i did it. there's nothing i can do about it. >> temple bradley who works near the courthouse, was there. >> my heart was breaking that the person that i have put wholeheartedly my trust in for two years has lied to my face. >> you know, i can't believe we've been deceived in that way. >> we were there for him the whole time. >> for keith's family and friends, there are so many questions. but one seems to tower above all the others. >> incompetent want to know why. i want to know how you go from a loving husband and father, grandfather to driving all that way, killing your wife and covering it up and lying to your family for so long? knowing that we had everybody doubting us. we still defended him. disgusting. he's a monster. >> all i can tell you is that i had a lot of bad thoughts, wrong thoughts, mistakes. >> we sat down with him hoping for answers. as many times as we asked him why this happened -- >> i don't know. just a bad decision. >> we never got a satisfying response. >> so this isn't some kind of delayed mid life crisis here, where you're trying to be with deanna or someone like her to have a final happy chapter in your life? >> no. >> julie and i were happy. >> do you see how perplexing it is to hear it? >> it's confounding. >> that's what i told everybody. when they hear the story, they won't believe it. >> i have a hard time believing i did what i did. >> how about a divorce? >> never crossed my mind. >> keith now says the remorse began the moment he pulled out of his driveway. >> trying to get out of the subdivision. crying before i ever get out. regretting what i had done. i probably drove a hundred miles an hour all the way back hoping to get caught. >> as for the future, keith is prepared to die in prison. >> i don't have anything to live for. except maybe forgiveness. >> from who? >> from my boys. >> that's why you're talking today? >> yes. >> well, it's between you and them. i tell you my take on it is you got distance to make up. >> i know i do. i've got a lot to make up. >> of the countless keith stole from his family, resill yep was not among them. aaron and zack are clo closer t they've been in years. they can finally mourn her passing and focus on keeping her spirit alive for the two little granddaughters who were the center of her universe. >> my oldest daughter talks about her almost every day. we have pictures in her room. as my youngest gets older, we'll tell her about nascar nana the day she was born and never let her memory die. >> i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. good morning. i am jo ling kent in new york at msnbc world headquarters. 6:00 in the east, 3:00 out west. here's what's happening right now. >> new insight on the president's tweets that set off a week long firestorm. how white house aides reacted after it happened. their attempts at damage control also. and his biggest mistake was that he said the quiet part loud. >> firing back at the president. a.o.c. opening up at a town hall. and beating the dangerous heat. 170 million people gearing up for another day drenched in

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