Page 12 - Finally Ralph News Today

Anybody to get hit by a sledgehammer or whatever. first youre just kind of shocked, then a little bit of denial. >> suddenly i realized that that last conversation i had with her was -- that was it. >> no fresh start now. her mother was dead. and then shannon saw ralph. >> and he lost it. he just turned into a sobbing, shaking maniac. >> ralphs face was banged up. he had bruises in several places. he was confused. like a man coming out of a concussion. >> just exhausted. my head still just hurts...

Had never heard of that. they do exist. >> in the letter, ralph also changed the time of pams death, backed it up by more than 24 hours. why? could that perhaps have been a response to this investigators challenge? >> she didnt die at 3:00 in the morning. it had to be earlier than that. well know after today. well know that. >> okay. >> and thats going to come back to you. >> okay. >> but thats when ralph reported the invaders were in his house just a few hours. now in his letter, he remembered ...

Bull [ bleep ]. i said, this is the worst -- i could barely stomach to finish it. >> and aaron, shannons ex-husband, ralphs son? aaron went to a very dark place indeed. oh, you have no idea. you were 11 years old when your mother disappeared. >> yes. >> coming up, secrets in the basement. >> i had been going through some of my dads stuff in the basement and found a box of stuff that supposedly she had taken with her. >> when "dateline extra" continues.

Life. >> so after high school, they got engaged, and full of excitement, planned a wedding. then one night shannons mother, pam, sent the girls off to bible study and told their father, jerry, they needed to talk. >> she looked up and says, i dont want to be married to you anymore. i dont want to be here. >> everything was fine, fine, fine, then -- >> we seemed to be getting along. everything was fine. she said, this is it, im done. >> what did that feel like? >> it was a crush. you were crushed...

And so i went backwards. the ringing -- i couldnt see no more. >> ralph was knocked unconscious. >> i mean, i dont remember anything else, other than waking up in the morning. >> then, said ralph, still disoriented, he tried to sit up. >> i looked down the hallway. i could see pam, her legs. she was there. >> revealed by the first rays of a warm morning sun. >> her head -- there was just blood all over. and there was blood on the floor. and i touched her cheek. and she was cold, cold, cold. and ...

Pam and -- >> he hits pam in the head hard. hes standing there in the kitchen, fire poker in his hand, wondering what to do. >> reporter: the robbers must have thought pam and ralph had already left on vacation. >> this family was supposed to be gone. that was the talk around town. >> reporter: so, for the jury it came down to whose story to believe. prosecutors said the police cleared those suspects right back at the beginning. but nothing could clear ralph. and nothing could soften a truly sho...

>> but remarkable as ralphs letter was, it still wasnt the whole story. a few weeks after the murder, he mustered up the courage and told the police -- >> while he was held captive, he had asked to go to the restroom and he was sexually assaulted in the bathroom. >> why didnt he say anything about that before? >> his explanation was, that he was embarrassed. >> it might be a little bit difficult to talk about, but the smallest details could be very important, so keep that in mind. >> ralph agree...

>> ver va had never encountered anything like this before. >> i looked over and he was saying, help me, help me. >> ralph was on the ground, in front of his house, hurt. >> i got to him and asked him if he needed help. and he seemed to be kind of out of it. >> finally ralph managed to get the words out. he and his wife had been attacked and robbed. very afraid the attackers might still be in the house, called 911. >> he looks like he had been shot. he said somebody broke in last night. >> how ar...

Hadnt happened. and when they hit the little bumps most young marriages encounter, it colored everything. did your father and her mothers relationship have anything to do with what happened to you and shannon? >> you know, we were pretty determined not to let their relationship have an effect, but, you know, its always something thats in the back of your head. >> after a year and a half, shannon and aaron divorced. pam and ralphs marriage, on the other hand, thrived. they moved into a big house ...

>> okay. >> ralph stuck to his story. a deadly home invasion. >> and then i found her. >> yeah. >> and thats, you know -- >> yeah. >> i tried to deal with that. >> shannon pressed ralph for details. >> the one guy that hit me that i saw from the front was taller than me. >> okay. >> and he had a dark complexion. you know, he had marks on his face. >> and then something that didnt sound quite right. >> and i dont know. and thats -- and it felt like a split second. >> a split second? remember, in ...