I remember hearing, murder. i remember hearing him use the word, wife. i was not aware that there that there was an investigation. reporter: you were totally blindsided? was totally totally blindsided. reporter: blindsided because no one had really questioned cory s death before. even the police concluded she died of natural causes. back at the pie shop, an increasingly anxious christine got a phone call. it was someone from a local tv station. he said, i m holding a piece of paper in my hand. it s an indictment for the first degree murder of co cory lovelace. and i i immediately said, what? cor cory wasn t murdered. reporter: give me a word. that day in your life. horrifying. i was placed in an interrogation room immediately. reporter: curtis lovelace, the former prosecutor, had a crucial choice to make. either talk to the detective and try to clear this up right then and there, or listen to his lawyerly training and keep
And i had never taken time to actually think about it. i reporter: well, detective gibson did, a couple of years before, when he took your statement, right? but it again, i didn t know why he was askin me. i didn t know what was going on. and i gave the story i always gave. so when i had to sit there and think about it, i had to be honest with myself. and it wasn t the answer i wanted. i wish i could say i really do wish i could say, yes, i remember her, or, no, i know i didn t see her. reporter: but you cannot say that? but i cannot say that. reporter: and this is not you getting back at your dad who you re very sideways with, at this point? no, because it hurts my reporter: he needs that story and you re not gonna give it to him? no, because it hurts my brothers, too for me not to honestly say, yes, i saw her. but i m gonna say what i can remember, which is nothing. it s a black hole. it s a traumatizing event. and when kids go through traumatizing events,
Getting out of bed and going to his mom s room. but she didn t answer him. i just remember like going into the room and then she wouldn t wake up and i think it was valentines day. uh huh. yeah, dad was gone, came back and i told him, yeah that she was not waking up. reporter: but the two older boys said they did remember seeing their mom that morning. this is lincoln, the middle boy. i just remember like waking up and like i remember her not feeling good and i was sitting on the stairs and then i went to school. i think i remember saying i love you before we left but that s pretty much it. reporter: logan, the eldest son, said he knew for certain that his mom was alive that february 14th. she was sitting on the steps, like, ready for us to leave the house. reporter: christine was still trying to find her husband. she didn t know he had been transferred to a different jail. eventually, he called.
Christine is feeling optimistic. i knew in my heart he was coming home. until christine came in. and they explained to her what was about to happen. 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.
reporter: it looked as though curtis would have to use a public defender. but christine wouldn t accept that option. she worked her connections and eventually ended up here in chicago. she came to our office and told us her story and i remember finding it compelling and certainly worth exploring further. reporter: jon loevy is not a criminal lawyer. he s a civil rights attorney by practice who also does pro bono work with the exoneration project. its aim: overturn wrongful convictions. but curtis hadn t been convicted, at least not yet. still, loevy and co-counsel tara thompson decided to take the case. their services would be free. the main concern that i had in this case from the outset was really the lack of evidence. this didn t feel like a murder case from the beginning. reporter: with a new defense team in place, christine got working on her next goal: making bail to get her husband out of jail. friends eventually put up the cash.