Codys Mom Mona News Today

He missed his wife. brian was sad. >> reporter: as they coped with the loss themselves, emily and sara had a flashback, and pieced together another incident when tragedy struck the family about two years before. >> i wasnt there, and im glad i wasnt there. that would be more that i had lost. >> reporter: not long before trishs death, the sisters met 15-year-old cody griffith from texas, whod also once been on the fringes of the family commune. hed been close to trish and lou thanks to his mom, m...

Mona and codys younger sister lindsey ended up leaving corpus christi and settled near rapid city, south dakota, where, one christmas, cody paid them a visit. it was an extremely small home. it was like in the mountains. we even went and cut our own christmas tree. >> reporter: off the grid kind of a cabin place? >> yeah. >> reporter: the cabin was a tight-squeeze for sure, but the family commune was growing. it was here that trish met and married brian, the auto mechanic, and they had a daughte...

She, cody and codys young sister lindsey moved in with their good friends trish and lou from the apartment complex. i can remember lou taking us to baseball practice when my sister was little, picking her up from school and stuff like that. >> reporter: his mom, mona, and trish took turns cooking for what was the beginnings of the commune. so youre really an extended family? >> yeah, pretty much. i mean, it was like living with an aunt and uncle. >> reporter: so when trish and lou suddenly decid...