Page 23 - Finally Ralph News Today

Ralph was on vacation or maybe on the run. >> i initiated some phone calls with ralph so that we could try to track him down. >> they tracked his cell phone and caught up with him. >> driver, get your hands in the air. >> in northern california. >> walk back to the sound of my voice. back to me. >> you all right? >> yeah. >> charged him with first degree murder. pams daughters were relieved when they got the news. >> all i could think to myself was finally. >> what was that like? >> it was like,...

Had destroyed this relationship with me and kelsey, and shes gotten into this new marriage, telling me that she just wasnt as happy as she should have been. >> lots of circumstantial evidence, almost enough. not quite. and then the antique rugs. >> i was searching the kitchen area and found in the washing machine two small size rugs. and the rugs were still very wet. and they were balled up to one side. >> but when ralph saw the rugs during a walk-through with the police, he didnt seem to recogn...

Remember, in his letter, ralph said his captors held him and abused him for nearly two days. >> in my mind, if youre not going to tell me what happened, and youre going to dance around the issue and tell three different stories, what are you hiding? >> investigators wondering the same thing, tried to find answers in the evidence. on a laptop they found hits for, match.com, just days before the murder. somebody had been visiting the site at least. >> that would have been our suspicion. >> its goi...

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 agreed to show the investigators exactly what happened and where. >> he grabbed me with the other hand on my hip right here. and he proceeded to assault me. >> so that was the whole awful story. but if ralph thought that sharing his new more detailed recollections would clear the air, he was wrong. what did you think when you saw it? >> i was pret...

Be at the crime scene. it just didnt make sense. none of it. >> it wasnt really that ralph changed his story in his "world journal" manifesto, not exactly. more like he kept adding to it. so he watches very carefully what youre doing and tailors his story to match what he thinks youre finding. >> exactly. >> ralph kept explaining, kept offering not less, but more details. about, for example, the drawer pulls in his house, the ones investigators removed to test for fingerprints. >> in the event t...

>> ralph candelarios life was more important than anyone elses life. >> reporter: so the jury got the case. and they worked till the end of the day and then through a second and then a third. tick tock. >> whether they convict him or they dont is going to be a different set of emotions. >> reporter: and then in the middle of the third day -- >> we the jury find the defendant, ralph leroy candelario, guilty of count number one of first degree murder. >> reporter: guilty. but the end of ralphs sto...

It didnt work. a day later the judge ordered ralph back to court. >> people versus ralph lee candelario sentencing. >> reporter: and ralph, bandaged up, got another day in the spotlight. >> your honor, i have maintained that i have been innocent through this whole process. >> reporter: and then a keen observer might almost have heard the jaws drop around the courtroom. >> pam will be resurrected. we will be able to see her again. we will be able to watch her laugh and sing and do all the things ...

>> 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 i ran out of the house. >> and that, said ralph, is when he saw his neighbor and yelled for help. but who did it? robbers? or someone else? normally, said walsenburg police cap...

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. him and his wifes house. >> how are they doing? >> hes not good. crying. he told me to go help her. shes in the kitchen. im going to get my neighbor to help me here. ralph, were getting help for you, ralph. okay? >> the police arrived. went into the house with...

Welcome back to "dateline extra." im tamron hall. pam candelario was found murdered in her home. her husband, ralph, was badly beaten. ralph told police his version of the events. then a letter arrived at a local newspaper. was the news fit to print or an exercise in creative writing? thats what investigators wanted to know. continuing with "tangled," heres keith morrison. >> its a grand name perhaps for a weekly paper in an out of the