detectives who the killer was, but maybe she didn't have to. >> the fact that cassidy was spared, would that mean anything to a jury? >> the person that killed the mother cared about cassidy. ♪ hello. and welcome to "dateline." michelle young was married to her college sweetheart and four months pregnant with their second child. when the unthinkable happened. the young mother was beat-tone death in her own bedroom. the investigation would quickly reveal a troubled marriage. but her husband was away on business. and unraveling this complicated case would take years. here's keith morrison with "silent witness." >> i think i paused for a second and had to take a deep breath and just the reality of what was going on sank in. >> those who saw the footprints will not forget them. they were tiny, and they were ey bloody. >> i had to get my composure to finish searching this house to make sure there was nobody else in the house. >> it was the 3rd of november, 2006, early afternoon. scott earp was the wake county sheriff's deputy dispatched to a quiet and leafy neighborhood called enchanted oaks on the outskirts of raleigh, north carolina. here because of the 911 call from this place on birch leaf dry. >> i think my sister is dead. ac >> tell me what happened, ma'am. >> i have no idea. oh, my god. t >> the caller was meredith fisher. she had just discovered on the floor of the master bedroom the savagely beaten body of her elder sister, 29-year-old michelle young, a woman who in death was about to be famous. >> you listen to me, ma'am. you need to calm down so you can help us. you said there is blood everywhere? >> yes. >> listen to me, ma'am. is she breathing? >> i don't think so. >> have you checked? >> michelle. she is cold. >> okay. >> as she spoke, meredith was cradling her 2 1/2-year-old niece cassidy, who had crawled out from under the bed clothes on her parents' bed just feet from where hered mother lay. cassidy's voice,ot chattering t her aunt, was caught on the recorded call. >> she got booboo everywhere. >> had cassidy witnessed the murder? awakened, alone, to find this? >> you just picture a small child walking around in this blood and tracking it across the hallway over into the bathroom. >> by now wake county investigators were descending on the house and having secured the crime scene, earp's job was p' done. but on his way out he saw cassidy again. she was still in her pink er pajamas, still in meredith's me arms. he asked meredith a question. >> i looked over the child, and i didn't see any blood, so i asked her did you clean the child? and her response was no. i thought it was kind of odd because i was expecting her to say yes, i guess. >> somebody did. e >> yeah. somebody did. >> but who? was it the same person who murdered the little girl's mother? on this november day all they hi had were questions. richard spivey, then a sergeant with the wakeey county sheriff' office, probably knows the case better than anyone. >> this was a brutal, vicious er beating. there was a lot of time and e energy invested into this assault. >> why do you say a lot of time and energy?lo >> i think the medical examiner told us there was over 30 blows with some sort of a blunt object. >> so detectives starting investigating the victim and everyone else around her. michelle young was born and raised on long island, new york. >> she was smiling all the time. and she was the life of the party. >> stacia grossman knew her from childhood. >> she didn't like being the center of attention but she liked creating a great atmosphere for everyone to have a good time. >> michelle was a cheerleader in high school and a straight "a" student. jennifer powers felt drawn to her. >> she had this kind of bookworm side to her where she was very studious and goal-oriented. i mean, she was also just a great person to be around, a fun, happy spirit. and you know, someone that i wanted to spend a lot of time with. >> lots of people did. and when she chose a college far from home, north carolina state, she was soon surrounded again by an admiring group of women friends, best friends, buddies. fiona childs was her sorority big sister. >> there's this one picture and it's like -- it just came out beautiful and we liked it because we thought we kind of looked likeht charlie's angels posed without intentionally doing that. >> it was sometime in 2001 when friends started hearing about michelle's new guy, a fellow student named jason young, heard how he'd grown up in the north carolina mountains, how he loved to camp, how he was the life of tailgatee parties. michelle fell hard and fast.t. >> they seemed like a good couple. he was different from other men that she'd dated in the past. he wasn't as serious about a career as she was. he was a little bit less sophisticated than michelle was. but she seemed to be very happy with him. >> michelle and jason married in october 2003. the day after the wedding they a shared their big secret, michelle was pregnant. their daughter cassidy was born early the next year. >> i love you, mommy. >> i love you, too, cassidy. ♪ twinkle twinkle little star >> and when she came along, it was love at first sight. ♪ how i wonder where you are >> yay! >> michelle was an enthusiastic mother. >> huh? >> huh? [ laughter ] >> huh? >> huh? [ laughter ] >> by all accounts jason was a good dad. >> he was a great playmate. he knew how to sit on the floor and play with his daughter, you know. >> the youngs moved into a big fine house on birch leaf in b 2005. both of them worked, he a salesman and she a financial specialist. f in the summer of 2006 michelle got pregnant again. they kept the news to themselves but it was clear something good was happening. >> the comment he said to me was he is excited to have another baby, not implying that she was pregnant but that he was excited at the prospect of it. >> but just a few months later michelle was dead. jason was 170 miles away in virginia on a business trip the night of the murder. he heard the news the next rd afternoon and returned to raleigh. stacia grossman got word from her mother. >> my mother calls and says michelle's dead. and i said, michelle who? some celebrity? like what are you talking about, like what do you mean, how is that possible, what happened? >> the very questions that wake county investigators were asking themselves. v >> as the investigation heats up, a security camera provides a critical clue. it's not what it caught, it's what it missed and why. >> coming up --wh >> there was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> who had something to hide? when "dateline" continues. ♪ protect your pet with the #1 name in flea and tick protection. frontline plus. trusted by vets for nearly 20 years. with acetaminophenction frontline plus. fights pain in two ways. advil targets pain at the source... ...while acetaminophen blocks pain signals. the future of pain relief is here. new advil dual action. who knows where that button is? i don't have silent. everyone does -- right up here. it happens to all of us. we buy a new home, and we turn into our parents. what i do is help new homeowners overcome this. what is that, an adjustable spanner? good choice, steve. okay, don't forget you're not assisting him. you hired him. if you have nowhere to sit, you have too many. who else reads books about submarines? my dad. yeah. oh, those are -- progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. look at that. when you bundle with us. did you know you can shorten your cold [♪] with cold-eeze® lozenges. cold-eeze® can shorten your cold by 42%. it releases zinc ions that some scientists believe inhibit cold viruses from replicating. try cold-eeze® the number one best-selling zinc lozenge. - hey. - [narrator] she takes two prescriptions. kate's son jack, takes one too. kate works hard, and thought she had good insurance. but she still pays too much. that's no good. so kate downloaded the goodrx app. now she can compare prescription prices, to find the best discounts. she even beats her insurance price. good for you kate, good for you. goodrx, stop paying too much for your prescriptions. download the free app today. puberty means personal space. so sports clothes sit around growing odors. that's why we graduated to tide pods sport. finally something more powerful than the funk. tide sport removes even week-old sweat odor. it's got to be tide. that's very common to have a gum health concern as well. you know, i talk to dentists every day, and they're able to recommend sensodyne sensitivity & gum. it's really good dentistry to be able to recommend one product that can address two conditions. the facts were stark and ugly. one night in november 2006, while her husband was away on business, michelle young was attacked in her own bedroom and brutally beaten to death, her body discovered the next day by her sister meredith, along with her 2 1/2-year-old daughter cassidy, who had been left to wander in her blood. for the investigators who set out to find her killer, no way to get those little footprints out of their minds. sergeant richard spivey, lead investigator. >> those of us who work in law enforcement, this is our profession, but we're also parents, and that certainly strikes a different note with you when you see something like that. >> michelle's husband, a medical software salesman, was 170 miles away the night of the murder. even so, investigators had to look at him. >> we know that he was the last person to talk to michelle that night, and he was also the reason why she was found. he called meredith fisher to go to the house. >> jason young's business trip that night was routine. security tapes showed him getting gas about 7:30 p.m. as he left raleigh. two hours later, he was seen on tape at a cracker barrel restaurant in greensboro. later he checked into this hampton inn in hillsdale, virginia. this is him front desk about 11:00 p.m. and him again at midnight. he also made a phone call around midnight, and that was the last time anybody heard from jason young until he made another call at 7:40 the next morning. >> a normal person would look at this and say he was 170 miles away, he's got an alibi. >> that sounds like a great distance, you know, but 170 miles, you can get from the crime scene to the hotel in about 2 1/2 hours. about two and a half hours. >> perhaps, but there were curious anomalies at the crime scene. couldn't explain them. a jewelry box was missing two drawers. so was it a bungled burglary? then there were footprints near the body that seemed to eliminate jason. an obvious print on the pillow was a size 10, but jason wore a size 12. but this was weird. there was another partial footprint that defied easy identification, so they began calling in shoe experts. and now they wondered, were there two attackers? of course, investigators discovered early on that michelle and jason's marriage was strained, and in the last weeks of michelle's life things were not good. >> at our friend shelly's wedding she was so drunk, just really out of it. when we got to the wedding, our friends were letting us know that michelle and jason were fighting and they were referring to it as world war iii. >> jennifer powers told investigators about another fight that october. michelle wanted her mother to stay with them for the holidays, and jason, who had a tense relationship with his mother-in-law, wanted to limit her stay and said so in an e-mail, along with another nugget. >> he wrote, "our marriage has seen better days and i don't see it trending up." and i remember that really striking a chord with me because i didn't know that their marriage had seen better days. >> so of course, investigators wanted to interview jason young. maybe he could tell them something. but he refused to talk to them. >> he talked to the lawyer, and then under the advice of counsel he declined to speak with us at all. >> didn't ask about it? didn't ask how his wife died? >> no. >> perhaps, investigators thought, that business trip deserved a second look. so they went to the hotel, poked around and discovered some odd activities that night in a stairwell near an exit. >> there was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> really? >> yes. it was one of the side exits of the hotel. one of i guess the fire stairs that go down to the first floor. >> was there any other tampering done? >> well, the door that was adjacent to where this camera was located, that door also had been propped open that night. >> how do you know that? >> the gentleman that was working as the clerk that night found a rock that had been placed in the door to keep the door from closing. then they plugged the camera back in, so it's now working again, and at about 6:35 that morning suddenly that camera is pointing straight at the ceiling. >> same camera. >> same camera. and it's tampered with yet again. >> if that was jason young's work, is it possible he did make the 340-mile round trip? could he have killed his wife and cleaned up his daughter all in 7 1/2 hours without ever being seen? to find out, investigators played a hunch. they visited every gas station along the route, showed jason's photo, talked to the night clerks, and came across a woman named gracie domes in a tiny place called king, north carolina. she took one look at that photograph and recognized it instantly. he was the foul-mouthed customer, she said, who came storming into the store to complain that the pumps were locked. and what time was it? 5:30 a.m., the morning of the murder. >> there was actually an altercation between the two of them, so you have a reason why she would remember him as opposed to any other customer that may have just happened into the store. >> if that attendant was right, investigators may have undercut jason's alibi. still, it wasn't enough. so they plodded ahead, painstaking work, took time. and then, years after the murder, they finally got a match for that partial footprint. >> the state bureau of investigation and the fbi were able to eventually identify that shoe as a hush puppy orbital shoe, and it was a size 12, which was the same size that he wore. >> throughout the investigation jason steadfastly maintained his silence. and rather than face a legal battle where he would be asked some tough questions, spivey said, he even gave michelle's family custody of his daughter. >> everyone that we spoke with, all of them talked about how much he loved cassidy and what a great dad he was. to just turn over primary custody, that was very surprising. >> investigators had heard enough. they believed they had a case. circumstantial, but a case. and three years after michelle young's body was found on the bedroom floor, jason young was charged with her murder. investigators and prosecutors knew that very little pointed directly toward jason young, but so far nothing pointed away. >> coming up, the case against jason young as an alleged killer and as a cheating husband. >> we had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there. >> we ended up having sex. >> he never settled down. >> when "dateline" continues. verizon knows how to build unlimited right. start with america's most awarded network. i'm on my phone 24/7. then, for the first time ever, give families more entertainment with disney+, hulu, and espn+ now all included, we're a big soccer family. handmaid's tale. i love "frozen." then, give families plans to mix and match, so you only pay for what you need. you get so much more than just a great network. with plans starting at just $35. the network more people rely on gives you more. this is unlimited built right. only on verizon. toi'm releasing a plan to save lives in the months ahead.irus. we need to increase federal support for testing, doubling the number of drive-thru testing sites. we absolutely need a clear message from the very top of our federal government that everyone needs to wear a mask in public. every single frontline worker should have the personal protective equipment that they need to be safe. we need to support schools and childcare programs so parents, if and when they can return to work, are confident that their children will be safe and cared for. and finally, we need to protect the populations most at risk: our seniors, vulnerable populations with pre-existing conditions. we need real plans, real guidelines, with uniform nationwide standards. it's a simple proposition folks, we're all in this together. we gotta fight this together. we'll emerge from this stronger because we did it together. i'm joe biden and i approve this message. where you can find games, news and highlights. all in one place, right on your tv. the xfinity sports zone. use your voice to search every stat and score. follow the teams you love. and, even get notifications with breaking news alerts and more. with the xfinity sports zone everybody wins. now that's simple, easy, awesome. say xfinity sports zone into your voice remote today. jason young went on trial for the murder of his pregnant wife, michelle, in june 2011. by then he had spent 18 months in a jail cell. the guy who lived for tailgates, the guy who loved to party, that guy was long gone. becky holt was the prosecutor who opened for the state. >> the defendant had a plan. his plan was to murder his wife. his plan was to get away with it. >> with no murder weapon found, the prosecution's case was built on that partial shoe print. they knew now that jason once owned a pair of hush puppies like these that matched the print. they were now missing. they also told jurors about that early morning visit to the gas station and the suspicious activity at the hotel. but the thrust of their case was this -- jason young was trying, in the most violent possible way, to get out of a troubled marriage. >> were you aware of tensions in that marriage? >> yeah. i was well aware. >> greta fisher, michelle's sister, lived near the couple and for a period was cassidy's nanny. as the youngs' fights intensified, she took on the role of marriage counselor, too. >> what would you say were the main issues? >> michelle's main issues were jason being more responsible, understanding her more, and his main concern was their lack of sex life. >> prosecutors called friends to the stand to paint a picture of a marriage that was unraveling, out loud and in public. >> jason made it very well known that, you know, he was upset about the lack of sex in the relationship. >> and at parties, said fiona childs, jason's x-rated tricks were famously over the top. >> i never observed it myself. i would just hear about it. you know, he would expose himself and do what he thought was these funny tricks. and i was always just rather embarrassed for michelle. >> he never settled down. it was as if he was still living the single life and he never bought into the marriage and what all that meant. >> in october 2006, when michelle was four months pregnant, jason became deeply involved with another woman. and not just any woman. >> truth, the whole truth -- >> michelle money was one of michelle young's close friends from college, one of those charlie's angels. in early october, days before his third wedding anniversary, jason flew to florida to see michelle money. she testified they both knew it was wrong. >> we basically just hung out at the house, and we had an intimate relationship for the two days he was there. >> jason was crazy about her, his friend josh dalton said. >> he basically told me he thought he was in love with her. >> michelle's mother, linda fisher, testified that in the final weeks of michelle's life, she could see the toll the failing marriage was taking on her pregnant daughter. >> she had her head on my lap, and she was lying out, and i was stroking her hair. and she was empty. >> and what did she tell you? >> things weren't working out with jason. >> two days before she was murdered, michelle phoned her sister meredith to report yet another blow-up with jason. >> she was just, i've had it. she said that, you know, more than one time. i can't do this anymore. >> jason was telling one of his close friends the same thing. and prosecutors said just days before michelle was murdered, he indulged in one last transgression, a casual hook-up with an old friend named carol anne sauerby in his own living room. michelle was away at the time. >> cassidy was put down to bed and we had a couple drinks. we just were talking and -- we ended up having sex. >> but divorce was apparently not an option for jason. >> he had made a statement at one time that he was afraid that if he ever got a divorce that michelle would take cassidy and move back to new york. >> did he indicate to you that he would have some concerns about ever being able to see cassidy again? >> correct. >> still, one big question remained. was a good time guy like jason young even capable of murder? genevieve cargo was engaged to jason in 1999 before he met michelle. and she took the stand to testify about a fight they had over jason's excessive drinking. >> he became agitated. he said something to the effect of if i'm going to make such a terrible husband then give me my ring back. >> did you give it to the defendant? >> no. he began trying to pull the ring off, and it wouldn't come off. he was throwing me from one bed to the other and jumping on me with all his weight and pinning my arms, both of them, behind me. >> prosecutors hoped to convince the jury it all added up to a motive for murder. so how would the defense counterattack? with a witness who could refute every charge. >> coming up -- jason young finally breaks his silence as he takes the stand to testify. >> did you kill your wife, michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> when "dateline" continues. sk. and is made with three times more odor fighters. with secret, odor is one less thing to worry about. secret. find your get-up-and-go. find pants that aren't sweats. find your friends. find your sense of wander. find the world is new, again. at chevy we'd like to take you there. now during the chevy open road sales event, get up to 15% of msrp cash back on select 2020 models. that's over fifty-seven hundred dollars cash back on this equinox. it's time to find new roads, again. which is why when it comes to his dentures only poligrip cushion and comfort will do. the first and only formula with adaptagrip cushioning technology. choose poligrip cushion and comfort. with adaptagrip cushioning technology. did you know that some aluminum- free deodorants only mask odor? secret aluminum free helps eliminate odor instead of just masking it. and is made with three times more odor fighters. with secret, odor is one less thing to worry about. secret. hello. i'm dara brown. here's what's happening. joe biden is heading to pittsburgh monday afternoon. according to the campaign, the democratic presidential nominee will lay out a core question to voters. are you safe in donald trump's america? over the weekend the president held a rally for supporters in new hampshire. portland on high alert tonight after a man was shot and killed during a protest saturday night. it happened after hundreds of trump supporters drove into the city and clashed with counterprotesters. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline," i'm craig melvin. jason young was on trial for the murder of his wife, michelle. prosecutors argued the software salesman killed his wife to get out of an unhappy marriage. to bolster their case, they called two of jason's lovers to the stand, women who shared the details of their extramarital affairs. but the defense had a star witness of its own. after five long years jason young was about to break his silence. here again is keith morrison with "silent witness." >> what the prosecution didn't tell you -- >> there is an art to the business of criminal defense, and it would take a true artist to repaint the prosecution's dark portrait of jason young. so what could defense attorney mike clinkerson do? well, to begin with, as he told the jury, he agreed with the prosecution. jason young was not a good husband. >> he acted at times like an immature jerk. but that does not make him a killer. >> the defense was not about to make any more concessions, mind you. that jewelry box from the bedroom, there was dna on it that didn't match either michelle or jason. the suspicious activity at the hotel? there was a fingerprint on that camera, and it wasn't jason young's. and there wasn't any forensic evidence that tied jason to the crime scene. and there was no blood in his car. there was not a scratch on him. >> ladies and gentlemen, jason lynn young did not murder his wife. he did not murder their unborn son. and this case has not been solved. >> who better to make that argument than jason young himself? but so far, remember, he had never said a word to anyone about that november night, an almost five-year silence. >> it's always a big decision for defense attorneys whether or not to call their client. >> beth karas is a former prosecutor and legal analyst. she covered the trial. >> this is a case that really begged for jason young to testify. >> why after all of this time? >> right. and if he's truly innocent get on the stand and tell the story. >> we call jason young. >> with his mother sitting in the front row, jason young prepared to do just that. defense attorney brian collins hit it hard off the top. >> did you kill your wife, michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> but what about jason's missing hush puppies that matched the partial shoe print? he no longer owned them, he said. >> are those the shoes you had on on november the 2nd? >> no, sir. >> they were ratty, he said, told michelle to give them to good will. as for the night of the murder, after he checked into the hotel, jason testified, he left his room twice. the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> i was going over the sales call that i had the next day. >> the second trip, he testified, was to smoke a cigar. >> i had to go outside to smoke a cigar. and i also wanted to look at some sports schedules and some standings, and so i wanted to see if i could pick up the "usa today" as well. >> that newspaper run explained why he was seen at the front desk, he said, around midnight. >> so between the time you smoked the cigar and went back upstairs and went to sleep, did you leave that room until the next morning? >> no, sir. >> the next morning after his sales call, jason testified, he realized he had left some ebay printouts sitting on the computer printer at home. they showed purses. he was thinking of buying one for michelle as a belated anniversary present. >> i realized i didn't bring those papers. >> why was it important to you that somebody get those papers? >> because i wanted it to be a surprise. a surprise for michelle means so much more than anything. >> so around noon november 3rd he called his sister-in-law meredith from the car to ask if she'd go to the house and get those ebay papers. >> friday november 3rd -- >> he left meredith a voice mail. >> if you could do me a huge favor and go over there and see if you could find them sitting on the computer. >> then he headed to his mother's place in the mountains nearby. and it was there, he testified, hours later that he learned michelle had been murdered. >> i just -- i just fell. i just -- i broke on the inside. i just broke and i didn't believe it. >> family members drove him back to raleigh. during the drive, he said his friends called. >> ryan and josh had said that the investigators were asking really ugly questions and pointing their finger at me and doing things like that, and they said, you don't need to talk to anybody. you need to get a lawyer before you talk to anybody. >> and then the explanation for his long silence. >> the lawyer that i got, after talking with him, he actually advised me to not go talk to the police. >> did you take that advice? >> yes, sir, i did. >> did he also tell you not to talk to anybody about it? >> that's actually exactly what he said, he said don't talk to anybody about anything. >> the defense also addressed the motives that prosecutors had laid out that jason wanted to escape a bad marriage and keep custody of cassidy and spend time with his new love. >> did you have any designs on leaving michelle young for michelle money? >> no, sir. >> describe why not. >> i think we both knew it was wrong. i don't think either one dreamed that it would ever be found out. >> pushing me around. >> as for that violent episode with his ex-fiancee, jason had an explanation for it. >> did you throw her around on the bed like she said? >> no, sir. what i did was wrong. i did pin her down and i took the ring. >> okay. what was your level of intoxication at that time? >> i was very intoxicated, but i don't feel like that's an excuse for what i did. >> and they questioned him about the most important woman in his life. >> did you want to stay married to michelle? >> yes, i did. i wanted to have another baby and i wanted the family to grow. >> he also explained why he gave up custody of his daughter without a fight. >> were you able to afford a lawyer for a full-blown custody battle? >> no, sir, i had -- due to the media and some of the internet website, the job that i'd had, i lost it. >> his testimony lasted three hours. >> jason young was a very good witness. he understood what he had to do when he was on the stand. >> so he didn't come off as contrived or phony, like he had put this together very carefully in order to account for all the evidence that they had? >> he had access to police reports, all the discovery. he knew the state's vulnerabilities, and so he could arguably tailor his testimony to fit with an innocent explanation. >> how did jason young do? 12 jurors were about to decide. >> coming up -- >> were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with caroline sauerby in your home? >> when "dateline" continues. 100% online wouldn't work. but we went to work. building an experience that lets you shop over 17,000 cars from home. creating a coast to coast network to deliver your car as soon as tomorrow. recruiting an army of customer advocates to make your experience incredible. and putting you in control of the whole thing with powerful technology. that's why we've become the nation's fastest growing retailer. because our customers love it. see for yourself, at carvana.com. that's very common to have a gum health concern as well. you know, i talk to dentists every day, and they're able to recommend sensodyne sensitivity & gum. it's really good dentistry to be able to recommend one product that can address two conditions. to be able to recommend one product pampers the #1 pediatrician recommended brand, helps keep baby skin dry & healthy so every touch is as comforting as the first pampers. the #1 pediatrician recommended brand protect your pet with the #1 name in flea and tick protection. frontline plus. trusted by vets for nearly 20 years. here's to the duers. to all the people who 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. dupixent can cause serious allergic reactions including anaphylaxis. get help right away if you have rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection and don't change or stop your asthma treatments, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. are you ready to du more with less asthma? talk to your asthma specialist about dupixent. if your financial situation has changed, we may be able to help. if your financial situation has changed, did you know you can shorten your cold [♪] with cold-eeze® lozenges. cold-eeze® can shorten your cold by 42%. it releases zinc ions that some scientists believe inhibit cold viruses from replicating. try cold-eeze® the number one best-selling zinc lozenge. with acetaminophenction fights pain in two ways. advil targets pain at the source... ...while acetaminophen blocks pain signals. the future of pain relief is here. new advil dual action. which is why when it comes to his dentures only poligrip cushion and comfort will do. the first and only formula with adaptagrip cushioning technology. choose poligrip cushion and comfort. the truth, the whole truth, and -- >> it was riveting. almost five years of silence about his wife's murder -- >> i went back to my room. >> -- broken here in this courtroom. >> i love cassidy and i loved michelle. >> and then he went to murder his wife. >> now prosecutor becky holt began pulling apart a story she had just heard for the first time. >> were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with caroline sauerby in your home less than two weeks before your wife was murdered? >> no, ma'am. that was not the way to work on a marriage. that was very detrimental. >> were you working on your marriage when you called michelle money? >> michelle and i confided a lot in each other and we talked about my issues with my wife, and she talked about her issues with her husband. >> so is the answer yes, when you had an affair with michelle money that you were working on your marriage? >> no, ma'am, having the sexual intercourse and having the intimacy was very detrimental to that. >> the cross-examination lasted a full hour, and the next day the case went to the jury. >> retire to the jury deliberation room. >> it soon became clear the jurors were having trouble. >> indicated you all have not yet reached a unanimous decision. >> the jury was split 6-6. the judge sent them back to try to make it unanimous. >> everybody else remain till the jurors leave for a second. >> but hours later they were back. and courtroom 3c was still. >> it appears they are hopelessly deadlocked at this point. >> eight jurors had voted for acquittal, four voted guilty. judge stevens declared a mistrial. was serious consideration given to dropping the case? >> i think there was serious consideration as to is there more we can do. >> so the prosecutors decided they would try again. but this time with the one thing they didn't have the first time. jason's own story. the second trial began in february 2012. this time howard cummings led the prosecution, hoping to use jason's own words to convict him. >> put your left hand on the bible, raise your right hand -- >> but first prosecutors called that night clerk at the gas station, gracie, who remembered jason complaining about the locked pumps. >> when he came to in pay he started cussing and raising cain. >> what time did this happen? >> that was about 5:00, 5:30 in the morning. >> a time jason said he was at the hotel. >> plaintiff's witness. >> then prosecutors had new witnesses and new testimony. they wanted jurors to hear about cassidy, whose bloody footprints, they contended, made her a silent witness to murder. >> when i got to cassidy, i said, what are you doing? >> day care worker ashley par ment yooer took the stand. she told jurors she watched cassidy playing alone days after the mother was murdered. >> she had the chair and the doll together and the mommy doll in her other hand and she just hit them. >> as unsettling as it was, the prosecutors wanted jurors to know the killer had left a silent witness behind, a witness he would never harm. >> the fact that cassidy was spared, did that mean anything to you, or would that mean anything to a jury? >> certainly. it meant that the person that killed the mother we felt cared about cassidy. >> i do. >> thank you. you may be seated. >> fiona childs took the stand. prosecutors pressed her about a life insurance policy jason arranged. >> it did raise a red flag to -- >> and michelle had questioned. >> that she brought up specifically her life insurance. she brought it up several times, asking me didn't i think that a million dollars was too much, and did they really need that? >> after michelle died, fiona found out the true amount of the policy was actually $4 million. >> i was just in total shock, like that is incredibly excessive. >> and prosecutors also told the jury about civil lawsuits against jason brought by michelle's mother and sister. one was a wrongful death case filed in 2008, a year before he was charged with murder. over the defense's objection, court clerk lauren friedman testified about that lawsuit. >> there is an alleged paragraph, paragraph 6, again, reading verbatim from the record, "in the early morning hours of november 3rd, 2006, jason young brutally murdered michelle young at their residence." >> freeman went on to testify that jason never responded to the allegations and that led to a default judgment against him. that judgment said jason killed his wife. >> a default judgment does not mean the facts alleged in the civil complaint are true. it does not mean he's guilty. and the judge at the criminal trial told the jury that in his instructions. however, when you hear the statement "jason young brutally murdered his wife, but that doesn't mean he's guilty, folks," hello. you know? >> and the prosecutor made sure the jury heard just who signed that ruling. >> i'm reading from this judgment which is signed actually by judge stevens. >> judge stevens. the very judge sitting before them in this trial. >> the jury hearing it, it's just something that's going to carry a lot of weight. >> this is the complaint that was filed in december seeking custody of cassidy. >> prosecutors also called the attorney involved in that custody case over daughter cassidy, and those same allegations were repeated yet again. >> the jury heard several times through these two civil complaints that jason young brutally murdered michelle fisher young. >> but the headline act came when prosecutors played jason young's entire testimony from the first trial. >> i wanted her to have that -- >> -- and began to rip it apart. >> i don't remember. >> prosecutors tried to show that jason's call to meredith to pick up those ebay printouts was merely a ploy to get her to discover the body and find cassidy. why else would he print an ebay auction ad and leave it on the printer and then hit the road where he couldn't bid during the actual auction? they called sergeant spivey to the stand. >> that auction was going to end 8:00 p.m. eastern standard time. >> what date was that? >> that was on november the 2nd, 2006. >> just hours before the murder. >> now prosecutors tried to prove jason lied for his reasons about leaving the hotel room. >> i didn't pull the door all the way -- >> in his original testimony he told the court he left the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> why was it that you wanted to look on your laptop? >> i was going over the sales call that i had the next day. >> but special agent mike smith took the stand to say young didn't use his laptop for work that night. >> this is an internet site dedicated to sports. >> jason said he went out a second time to smoke a cigar. but prosecutors contended jason was a fierce anti-smoker, and the weather that night was freezing. windy. >> can you tell me whether or not there was ever any substantial outerwear that the defendant either had in his luggage or was wearing? >> no, sir. there was a suit jacket. that was the only outerwear that i am aware of. >> jason chose not to testify this time, but the defense fought back, of course. they argued the gas station attendant's memory couldn't be trusted because of a childhood brain injury. >> i've had memory problems since '06 because i've been through a lot with myself and my kids and my ex-husband. >> the defense also argued the case really wasn't solved, that there was no physical evidence to prove jason was the killer. >> there wasn't one scratch on mr. young -- >> that he would never have had time to make that trip and commit murder, that he didn't v have the mindset of a killer, and that cigar? they showed jason young actually owned a humidor and he once made a purchase at a cigar store. >> you have ample evidence before you that jason young is not guilty. >> and then it was over again and time for another jury to consider whether jason young would go to jail or walk out of court a free man. >> coming up -- the verdict, take two. >> we the jury by unanimous verdict find the defendant, jason lynn young, to be -- >> when "dateline" continues. ins patients that have sensitivity, that's very common to have a gum health concern as well. you know, i talk to dentists every day, and they're able to recommend sensodyne sensitivity & gum. it's really good dentistry to be able to recommend one product that can address two conditions. subut when we realized she wasn hebattling sensitive skin, we switched to new tide plus downy free. it's gentle on her skin, and dermatologist recommended. new tide pods plus downy free. safe for sensitive skin with eczema and psoriasis. ♪ but come ye back when su-- mom, dad. why's jamie here? 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many thought they knew. >> it was him. i didn't know all the evidence. i didn't know half the things i know now, but i felt that way. >> one jury failed to decide. and now attorneys were making their final arguments to a second jury. >> be mad at him. hate him if you want to. but when you look at the physical evidence in this case, it does not match up. it does not match up to jason having killed his wife and unborn son. >> 30 blows? that's not from a stranger. that is a mad, mad domestic abuser. >> soon that jury was behind closed doors in the wake county superior court. after two days they were back, with a verdict. >> we the jury by unanimous verdict find the defendant jason lynn young to be guilty of first degree murder. >> guilty, first degree murder. jason young didn't flinch. behind him, his mother was equally stoic. on the other side of the court, michelle young's bereaved mother and sister wept. fiona, at home, got the news from a friend. >> said he's guilty. i was like, what? >> jason young received a life sentence, chose not to address the court. even as the bailiffs led him away, he remained expressionless. the prosecutors were, they told us, relieved. >> it was very emotional to have family members there who you've been working with for 5 1/2 years. and they finally have justice, you know. >> we've been telling them for years just trust. just trust that it will be the right result. >> but was it? a year and a half ticked by, and then this. >> attorneys for jason young demanding a new trial, saying the trial that led to his conviction had significant errors. >> december 2013, jason young's new attorney launched an appeal. >> who is the killer? is jason young the person responsible for ms. young's death? and you know, it seems fundamentally unfair. >> what was fundamentally unfair? remember, during the trial the attorney pointed out the prosecution introduced testimony about those civil cases against jason brought by michelle's family. they accused jason of murder. >> jason young brutally murdered michelle young. >> the defendant brutally murdered michelle marie fisher young. >> way out of bounds, said the attorney. the jury should not have been allowed to hear about any of that. outside the court michelle's sister meredith predicted the appeal would be thrown out. >> the jury came to the right verdict and we're confident it will stay. >> but she was wrong. >> a raleigh man is getting a third trial in the death of his pregnant wife. >> in april 2014 the judges ruled unanimously that testimony about those civil cases prejudiced the jury. and they took particular exception to the fact the prosecutor was allowed to tell the jurors it was their trial judge who signed the civil judgment against jason. which said that he killed his wife. in fact, said the appeals court, introducing evidence about the civil cases was a violation of north carolina law. >> that law says you cannot use a civil complaint, a civil allegation as proof in a criminal case. >> but a year later the state supreme court reversed the appeals court decision. and in 2017 yet another attempt by jason young to get a third trial, this time on grounds his defense team was ineffective, was also denied. >> i love you, mommy. >> i love you too, cassidy. >> but children know little of the arcane world of motions and appeals. cassidy has grown. her father, her mother, snatches of memory, ever farther away. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. she was family. a giant hole was ripped in our hearts. the first thing you want is, well, the police are going to go get the bad guys, right? i was not prepared for what happened. >> professor, artist, mom murdered. >> a primal scream came out of me. >> she just immediately broke down. started crying. pretty hard. >> police were quick to question her ex. maybe too quick. >> they focused in right from the very beginning. >> husband always does it, right? >> but what if the husband
>> we will never know what cassidy saw or didn't see. >> maybe she couldn't tell detectives who the killer was, but maybe she didn't have to. >> the fact that cassidy was spared, would that mean anything to a jury. >> the person that killed the mother cared about cassidy. >> "silent witness." h hello. welcome to "dateline extra." michelle young had a smile that lit up a room, the last person who anyone knew her would expect to be murdered. but it happened. she was at home with her daughter, cassidy, pregnant with her second child. her husband was away on business. unraveling this complicated case would take years. here's keith morrison. >> i think i paused for a second. had to take a deep breath. and just the reality of what was going on sank in. >> those who saw the footprints will not forget them. they were tiny. and they were bloody. >> i had to keep my composure to finish searching this house to make sure there was nobody else in the house. >> it was the 3rd of november, 2006, early afternoon. scott erp was the wake county sheriff's deputy dispatched to a quiet and leafy neighborhood called enchanted oaks. the outskirts of raleigh, north carolina. here because of the 911 call from this place on birchleaf drive. >> i think my sister's dead. >> tell any what happened, ma'am. >> i have no idea. oh, my god. >> the caller was meredith fisher. she had just discovered on the floor of the master bedroom the savagely beaten body of her elder sister, 29-year-old michelle young, a woman who in death was about to be famous. >> listen to me, ma'am. >> yeah, i'm here. >> i'm going to tell you what to do. you need to calm down so you can help us. with you said there's blood everywhere? >> yes. >> listen to me, ma'am. >> i'm listening. >> is she breathing? >> i don't think so. >> have you checked? >> michelle? she's cold. >> okay. >> as she spoke, meredith was cradling her 2 1/2-year-old niece, cassidy, who crawled out from under the bedclothes on her parents' bed feet from where her mother lay. cassidy's voice, chattering to her aunt, was caught on recorded call. had cassidy witnessed the murder or wakened alone to find this? >> you just picture a small child walking around in this blood and tracking it across the hallway over to the bathroom. >> now, wake county investigators were descending on the house and having secured the crime scene, erp's job was done. but on his way out, he saw cassidy again. she was still in her pink pajamas. still in meredith's arms. he asked meredith a question. >> i looked over the child, i didn't see any blood, so i asked her did you clean the child? and her response was, no. i thought it was kind of odd because i was expecting her to say, yes, i guess. >> somebody did. >> yeah. somebody did. >> but who? was it the same person who murdered the little girl's mother? on this november day, all they had were questions. richard, then a sergeant with the wake county sheriff's office, probably knows the case better than anyone. >> i mean, this was just a brutal, vicious beating. there was a lot of time and energy invested into this assault. >> why do you say a lot of time and energy? >> i think the medical examiner told us there was over 30 blows with some sort of a blunt object. >> so, detectives started investigating the victim. and everyone else around her. michelle young was born and raised on long island, new york. >> she was smiling all the time. and she was the life of the party. >> stasha grossman knew her from childhood. >> she didn't like being the center of attention but liked creating a great at mosphere fo everyone to have a good time. >> michelle was a cheerleader in high school and straight-a student. jennifer powers felt drawn to her. >> she had this kind of bookworm side to her where she was very studious and goal-oriented. i mean, she was also just a great person to be around. a fun, happy spirit, and, you know, someone that i wanted to spend a lot of time with. >> lots of people did. and when she chose a college far from home, north carolina state, she was soon surrounded again by an admiring group of women friends. best friends. buddies. fiona child was her sorority big sister. >> there's this one picture, it came out beautiful and we liked it because we thought we kind of looked like charlie's angels posed without intentionally doing that. >> it was sometime in 2001 when friends started hearing about michelle's new guy. a fellow student named jason young. heard how he'd grown up in the north carolina mountains. how he loved to camp. how he was a life of tailgate parties. michelle fell hard and fast. >> they seemed like a good couple. he was different from other men that she dated in the past. he wasn't as serious about a career as she was. he was a little bit less sophisticated than michelle was, but she seemed to be very happy with him. >> michelle and jason married in october 2003. the day after the wedding, they shared their big secret. michelle was pregnant. their daughter, cassidy, was born early the next year. >> i love you, mommy. >> i love you, too, cassidy. ♪ twinkle twinkle >> when she came along, it was love at first sight. ♪ wonder what you are yay. >> yay. >> michelle was an enthusiastic mother. >> huh? >> huh? >> huh? >> huh? >> by all accounts, jason was a good dad. >> he was a great playmate. he knew how to sit on the floor and play with his daughter, you know. >> the youngs moved into the big fine house on birchleaf in 2005. both of them worked. he a salesman. she a financial specialist. in the summer of 2006, michelle got pregnant again. they kept the news to themselves, but it was clear something good was happening. >> the comment he said to me was, he's excited to have another baby. not implying that she was pregnant but he was excited at the prospect of it. >> but just a few months later, michelle was dead. jason was 170 miles away in virginia on a business trip the night of the murder. he heard the news the next afternoon and returned to raleigh. stasha grossman got word from her mother. >> my mother called, said, michelle's dead. i said, michelle who? some celebrity? like, what are you talking about? like, what do you mean, like, how's that possible, what happened? >> the very questions that wake county investigators were asking, themselves. >> as the investigation gets under way, a security camera provides a critical clue. it's not what it caught, it's what it missed and why. coming up -- >> there was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> really? >> yes. it was one of the side exits of the hotel. >> who had something to hide? when "silent witness" continues. 3 ...and told people about geico... 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(beep) ♪these days, my waves get lost in the ocean♪ ♪seven billion swimmers man ♪i'm going through the motions ♪sent up a flare need love and devotion♪ ♪trade it for some faces that i'll never know notion♪ ♪can i get a connection? ♪can i get can i get a connection?♪ ♪can i get a connection? ♪can i get can i get a connection?♪ this is moving day with the best in-home wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. and this is moving day with reliable service appointments in a two-hour window so you're up and running in no time. show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. welcome back. what was once a quiet home in the suburbs of raleigh, north carolina, was now a horrifying crime scene bustling with activity. four months pregnant, michelle young had been murdered, and investigators were eager to talk to her husband, jason, but would jason talk to them? >> the facts were stark and ugly. one night in november, 2006, while her husband was away on business, michelle young was attacked in her own bedroom and brutally beaten to death. her body discovered the next day by her sister, meredith. along with her 2 1/2-year-old daughter, cassidy, who'd been left to wander in her blood. for the investigators who set out to find her killer, no way to get those little footprints out of their minds. sergeant richard spivey, lead investigator. >> those of us who work in law enforcement, this is our profession, but we're also parents. that certainly strikes a different note with you when you see something like that. >> michelle's husband, jason, a medical software salesman, was 170 miles away the night of the murder. even so, investigators had to look at him. >> we know that he was the last person to talk to michelle that night, and he was also the reason why she was found. he called meredith fisher to dwo go to the house. >> jason young's business trip that night was routine. security tapes showed him getting gas about 7:30 p.m. as he left raleigh. two hours later he was seen on tape at a cracker barrel restaurant in greensboro. later he checked into this hampton inn in hillsville, virginia. this is him, front desk, about 11:00 p.m. and him again at midnight. he also made a phone call around midnight, and that was the last time anybody heard from jason young until he made another call at 7:40 the next morning. >> a normal person would look at this and say he was 170 miles aw away, he's got an alibi. >> that sounds like a great distance, you know? but 170 miles, you can get between the crime scene and the hotel in about 2 1/2 hour the. >> perhaps, but there were curious anomalies at the crime scene. couldn't explain them. a jewelry box was missing two drawers. so was it a bungled burglary? then there were footprints near the body that seemed to eliminate jason. an obvious print on the pillow was a size 10. but jason wore a size 12. but this was weird. there was another partial footprint. it defied easy identification. so they began calling in shoe experts. and now they wondered, were there two attackers? of course, investigators discovered early on that michelle and jason's marriage was strained. and in the last weeks of michelle's life, things were not good. >> our friend, shelley's, wedding, he was so drunk. just really out of it. when we got to the wedding, our friends were letting us know that michelle and jason were fighting and they were referring to it as world war iii. >> jennifer powers told investigators about another fight that october. michelle wanted her mother to stay with them for the holidays. and jason, who had a tense relationship with his mother-in-law, didn't. so in an e-mail along with another nugget -- >> he wrote, our marriage has seen better days and i don't see it trending up. and i remember that really striking a chord with me because i didn't know that their marriage had seen better days. >> so, of course, investigators wanted to interview jason young. maybe he could tell them something. but he refused to talk to them. >> he talked to the lawyer and then under the advice of the counsel, h e dhe declined to sp with us at all. >> didn't ask about her, didn't ask how his wife died? >> no. >> perhaps, investigators thought, that business trip deserved a second look. so they went to the hotel, poked arou around, discovered odd activities that night in a stairwell near the exit. >> there was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> really? >> yes. it was one of the side exits of the hotel. one of the fire stairs that goes down to the first floor. >> was there any other tampering done? >> well, the door that was adjacent to where the door is located, the door had been propped open that night. >> how do you know that? >> the gentleman working as a clerk that night found a rock that had been placed in the door to keep the door from closing. >> well, then they plugged the camera back in so it's now working again and about 6:35 that morning, the camera is pointing straight at the ceiling. >> same camera? >> same camera. it's tampered with yet again. >> if that was jason young's work, is it possible he did make the 340-mile round trip? could he have killed his wife and cleaned up his daughter all in 7 1/2 hours without ever being seen? to find out, investigators played a hunch. they visited every gas station along the route. showed jason's photo. talked to the night clerks. and came across a woman named gracie doms in a tiny place called king, north carolina. she took one look at that photograph and recognized him instantly. he was the foul-mouthed customer, she said, who came storming into the store to complain that the pumps were locked. and what time was it? 5:30 a.m., morning of the murder. >> there was actually an altercation between the two of them. so you have a reason why she would remember him as opposed to any other customer that may have just happened entered the store. >> if that attendant was right, investigators may have undercut jason's alibi. still, it wasn't enough. so they plodded ahead, painstaking work. took time. and then years after the murder, they finally got a match for that partial footprint. >> the state bureau of investigation, and the fbi were able to eventually identify that shoe as a hushpuppie shoe. it was a size 12, the same size that he wore. >> throughout the investigation, jason steadfastly maintained his silence. rather than face a legal battle where he'd be asked some tough questions, he even gave michelle's family custody of his daughter. >> everyone that we spoke with, all of them talked about how much he loved cassidy. and what a great dad he was. to just turn over primary custody, that was very surprising. >> investigators had heard enough. they believed they had a case. circumstantial, but a case. >> did you kill your wife? >> three years after michelle young's body was found on the bedroom floor, jason young was charged with her murder. investigators and prosecutors knew that very little pointed directly toward jason young, but so far, nothing pointed away. coming up -- the case against jason young as an alleged killer. and as a cheating husband. >> we basically just hung out at the house and we had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there. >> cassidy was put down to bed and a couple drinks, just were talking, and we ended up having sex. >> he never settled down. >> when "silent witness" continues. 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>> yeah. i was well aware. >> meredith fisher, michelle's sister, lived near the couple. and for a period was cassidy's nanny. as the young's fights intensi intensified, she took on the role of a marriage counselor, too. >> what would you say were the main issues? >> michelle's main issues were jason being more responsible. understanding her more. and his main concern was their lack of sex life. >> prosecutors called friends to the stand to paint a picture of a marriage that was unraveling. out loud and in public. >> jason made it very well known that, you know, he was upset about the lack of sex in the relationship. >> and at parties, said fiona chil childs, jason's x-rated tricks were famously over the top. >> i never observed it, myself. i'd just hear about it, you know, he would expose himself and do what he thought was these funny tricks and i was always just rather embarrassed for michelle. >> he never settled down. it was as if he was still living the single life. he never fell into the marriage and wihat all that meant. >> in october 2006, when michelle was 4 months pregnant, jason became deeply involved with another woman. and not just any woman. michelle money was one of michelle young's close friends from college. one of those charlie's angels. in early october, days before his third wedding anniversary, jason flew to florida to see michelle money. she testified they both knew it was wrong. >> we basically just hung out at the house and we had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there. >> jason was crazy about her. friend, josh dalton, said. >> he basically told me that he thought he was in love with her. >> michelle's mother, linda fisher, testified that in the final weeks of michelle's rife, she could see the tole the failing marriage was taking on her pregnant daughter. >> she had her head on my lap and she was lying down and i was stroking her hair. and she was empty. >> and what did she tell you? >> things weren't working out with jason. >> two days before she was murdered, michelle phoned her sister, meredith, to report yet another blowup with jason. >> she was just, i've had it. she said that, you know, more than one time, i can't do this anymore. >> jason was telling one of his close friends the same thing, and prosecutors said just days before michelle was murdered, he indulged in one last transgression. a casual hookup with an old friend named carol ann. in his own living room. michelle was away at the time. >> cassidy was put down to bed, and had a couple drinks. just were talking. and we ended up having sex. >> but divorce was apparently not an option for jason. >> he had made a statement at one time that if he was afraid that if he ever got a divorce, that michelle would take cassidy and move back to new york. >> did he indicate to you that he would have some concerns about ever being able to see cassidy again? >> correct. >> still, one big question remained. with a good-time guy like jason young etven capable of murder? genevieve cargo was engaged to jason in 1999 before he met michelle. she took the stand to testify about a fight they'd had. >> that's right. >> over jason's excessive drinking. >> he became agitated. he said something to the effect of, if i'm going to make such a terrible husband, then i -- then give me my ring back. >> did you give it to the defendant? >> no. he began trying to pull the ring off and it wouldn't come off. he was throwing me from one bed to the other and jumping on me with all his weight. and pinning my arms, both of them, behind me. >> prosecutors hoped to convince the jury it all added up to a motive for murder. so how would the defense counterattack? with a witness who could refute every charge. coming up -- jason young finally breaks his silence as he takes the stand to testify. >> did you kill your wife, michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> when "silent witness" continues. -i've seen lots of homes helping new customers bundle and save big, but now it's time to find my dream abode. -right away, i could tell his priorities were a little unorthodox. -keep going. stop. a little bit down. stop. back up again. is this adequate sunlight for a komodo dragon? 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it was a question the defense was eager to answer. after five years, jason young was about to break his silence and explain what happened the night michelle was killed. here, again, is keith morrison. >> what the prosecution didn't tell you -- >> there's an art to the business of criminal defense. and it would take a true artist to repaint the prosecution's dark portrait of jason young. so, what could the defense attorney do? well, to begin with, as he told the jury, he agreed with the prosecution. jason young was not a good husband. >> he acted at times like an immature jerk. but that does not make him a killer. >> the defense was not about to make any more concessions, mind you. >> that jewelry box in the bedroom, there was dna on it. didn't match either michelle or jason. the suspicious activity at the hot hotel? there was a fingerprint on that camera and it wasn't jason young's. and there wasn't any forensic evidence that tied jason to the crime scene, and there was no blood in his car. there was not a scratch on him. >> ladies and gentlemen, jason lee young did not murder his wife. he did not murder their unborn son. and this case has not been solved. >> who better to make that argument than jason young, himself? but so far, remember, he had never said a word to anyone about that november night, and almost five years' silence. >> it's always a big decision for defense attorneys whether or not to call their clients. >> beth karas is a former prosecutor and legal analyst. she covered the trial. >> this is a case that really begged for jason young to testify. >> why? >> if he's an innocent -- >> after all this time. >> if he's truly innocent, get on the stand and tell the story. >> with his mother sitting in the front row, jason young prepared to do just that. defense attorney brian collins hit it hard off the top. >> did you kill your wife, michelle? >> no, sir. >> were happened? >> no, sir. >> what about jason's missing hushpuppies that matched the partial shoe prints? he no longer owned them, he said. >> are those the shoes you had on? >> as for the night of the murder, after he checked into the hotel, jason testified, he left his room twice. the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> i was going over the sales call that i had the next day. >> the second trip he testified was to smoke a cigar. >> i had to go outside to smoke the cigar, and i also wanted to look at some sports schedules and some standings and so i wanted to see if i could pick up the "usa today" as well. >> that newspaper run explains why he was seen at the front desk, he said, around midnight. >> so between the time you smoked the cigar and went back upstairs and went to sleep, did you leave that room until the next morning? >> no, sir. >> next morning after his sales call, jason testified, he realized he'd left some ebay printouts sitting on the computer printer at home. they showed purses. he was thinking of buying one for michelle as a belated anniversary present. >> i realized i didn't bring those papers. and so -- >> why was it important to you that somebody get those papers? >> because i wanted it to be a surprise. a surprise to michelle means so much more than anything. >> so brown knew november 3rd, he called his sister-in-law, meredith, from the car to ask if she'd go to the house and get the ebay papers. >> friday, november 3rd. >> he left meredith a voicemail. >> do me a huge favor, go over there, see if you can find this e-mail on the computer. >> then he headed to his mother's place in the mountains nearby and it was there he testified hours later that he learned michelle had been murdered. >> i -- i just -- i just fell. i just -- i just, i broke on the inside. i just broke and i didn't believe it. >> family members drove him back to raleigh. during the drive, he said his friends called. >> ryan and josh had said that the investigators were asking really ugly questions and pointing their finger at me and doing things like that and they said you don't need to talk to anybody, you need to get a lawyer before you talk to anybody. >> and then, the explanation for his long silence. >> the lawyer that i got after talking with him, he actually advised me to not go talk to the police. >> did you take that advice? >> yes, sir, i did. >> did he also tell you not to talk to anybody about it? >> that's actually exactly what he said, he said don't talk to anybody about anything. >> the defense also addressed the motives prosecutors had laid out that jason wanted to escape a bad marriage and keep custody of cassidy and spend time with his new love. >> did you have any designs in your own mind of leaving michelle young? >> no, sir. >> describe why not. >> i think we both knew it was wrong. i don't think we -- either one dreamed that it would ever be found out. >> pushing me around. >> as for that violent episode with his ex-fiancee, jason had an explanation for it. >> did you throw her around on the bed like she said? >> no, sir. what i did was wrong. i did pin her down and i took the ring. >> okay. what was your level of intoxication at that time? >> i was very intoxicated, but i don't feel like that's an excuse for what i did. >> and they questioned him about the most important woman in his life. >> is did you wadid you want to to michelle? >> yes, i did. i wanted to have another baby and i wanted the family to grow. >> he also explained why he gave up custody of his daughter without a fight. >> were you able to afford a lawyer for a full-blown custody battle? >> that's right. due to the media and some of the internet website, the job that i had, i lost it. >> his testimony lasted three hours. >> jason young was a very good witness. he understood what he had to do when he was on the stand. >> so he didn't come off as contrived or phony? like he had put this together very carefully in order to account for all the evidence that they had? >> he had access to police reports. all the discovery. he knew the state's vulnerabilities. and so he could, arguably, tailor his testimony to fit with an innocent explanation. >> how did jason young do? 12 jurors were about to decide. >> but first, the prosecutor gets her chance to go one-on-one with jason young. coming up -- >> were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with caroline in your home? >> when "silent witness" continues. and the alzheimer's association is going to make it happen by funding scientific breakthroughs, advancing public policy, and providing local support to those living with the disease and their caregivers. but we won't get there without you. join the fight with the alzheimer's association. the world is full of different hair. that's why pantene has the perfect conditioners for everyone. from air-light foam, to nourishing 3 minute miracle, to the moisture-infusing gold series. we give more women great hair days - every day. pantene. it's a revolution in sleep. the new sleep number 360 smart bed, from $999, intelligently senses your movement and automatically adjusts. so you wake up ready to train for that marathon. and now, save up to $500 on select sleep number 360 smart beds. ends wednesday. ♪ it's so hard to believe ♪ but it's all coming back me. ♪ baby, baby, baby. all you can eat is back, baby. applebee's. welcome back to "dateline extra." so far, jason young's testimony seemed to be answering years of questions. when asked by his attorney, jason admitted cheating on his pregnant wife, michelle, more than once. even so, the defense pointed out infidelity did not make him a murd murderer. now, it was the prosecution's turn to cross examine the witness and they'd start by attacking jason's alibi. but with no forensic evidence tieing him to the crime scene, could they convince the jury that jason was the killer? continuing with our story, here's keith morrison. >> the whole truth and -- >> it was riveting. almost five years of silence about his wife's murder. >> went back to my room. >> broken here in this courtroom. >> i love cassidy. i love michelle. >> and then he went to murder his wife. >> now prosecutor, becky holt, began pulling apart a story she had just heard for the first time. >> were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with caroline in your home less than two weeks before your wife was murdered? >> no, ma'am. that was not the way to work on my marriage. that was very detrimental. >> were you working on your marriage when you called michelle money? >> michelle and i confided a lot in each other and we talked about my issues with my wife and she talked about her issues with her husband. >> so is the answer yes when you had an affair with michelle money, that you were working on your marriage? >> no, ma'am. having the sexual intercourse and having the intimacy was very detrimental to that. >> the cross-examination lasted a full hour. and the next day, the case went to the jury. >> retire to the jury deliberation room. >> it soon became clear jurors were having trouble. >> indicated that you all have not yet reached a unanimous decision. >> the jurors were split 6-6. the judge sent them back to try to make it unanimous. >> the jury ors leave first. thank you. >> hours later, they were back. and courtroom 3c was still. >> it appears that they are deadlocked at this point. >> eight jurors had voted for an acquittal. four voted guilty. judge stevens declared a mistrial. was serious consideration given to dropping the case? >> i think there was serious consideration as to is there more we can do? >> so the prosecutors decided they would try again. but this time, with the one thing they didn't have the first time. jason's own story. the second trial began in february 2012. this time, howard cummings led the prosecution hoping to use jason's own words to convict him. >> put your left hand on the bible. raise your right hand. >> first, prosecutors called that night clerk at the gas station, gracie, who remembered jason complaining about the locked pumps. >> when he came in to pay, he started cussing and raising cane. >> and what time did this happen? >> that was a 5:00, 5:00 30 in morning. >> the time jason said he was at the hotel. >> call the next twwitness. >> then prosecutors had new witnesses and new testimony. they wanted jurors to hear about cassidy whose bloody footprints they contended made her a silence witness to murder. >> when i got to cassidy, i said, what are you doing? >> daycare worker, ashley, took the stand. >> i noticed what she was doing. >> she told jurors she watched cassidy playing alone. days after her mother was murdered. >> she had the chair and the doll in her hand together and then the mommy doll in the other hand and she just hit them. >> as unsettling as it was, the prosecutors wanted jurors to know the killer had left a silent witness behind. a witness he would never harm. >> the fact that cassidy was spared, did that mean anything to you or would that mean anything to a jury? >> certainly, it meant that the person who killed the mother we felt cared about cassidy. >> i do. >> fiona childs took the stand. prosecutors pressed her about a life insurance policy jason arranged. >> it did raise a red flag. >> and michelle had questioned. >> that she brought up specifically her life insurance. she brought it up several times, i think that $1 million was too much and did they really need that? >> after michelle died, fiona found out the true amount of the policy was actually $4 million. >> i was just, like, in total shock. that is incredibly excessive. >> and prosecutors also told the jury about civil lawsuits against jason brought by michelle's mother and sister. one was a wrongful death case filed in 2008. a year before he was charged with murder. over the defense's objection, court clerk lauren freeman testified about that lawsuit. >> there is an alleged paragraph, paragraph 6, again, reading verbatim from the record, "in the early morning hours of november 3rd, 2006, jason young brutally murdered michelle young at their residence." >> freeman went on to testify that jason never responded to the allegations. and that led to a fault judgment against him. that judgment said jason killed his wife. >> a default judgment does not mean the facts alleged in the civil complaint are true. it does not mean he's guilty. and the judge at the criminal trial told the jury that. in his instructions. however, when you hear the statement, jason young brutally murdered his wife, but that doesn't mean he's guilty, folks, hello, you know? >> and the prosecutor made sure the jury heard just who signed that ruling. >> i'm reading from this judgment which is signed actually by judge stevens. >> reporter: judge stevens. the very judge sitting before them in this trial. >> the jury hearing it, it's just something that's going to carry a lot of weight. >> this is the complaint that was filed in december seeking custody of cassidy. >> prosecutors also called the attorney involved in that custody case over daughter, cassidy. and those same allegations were repeated yet again. >> the jury heard several times through these two civil complaints that jason young brutally murdered michelle fi fisher-young. >> but the headline act came when prosecutors played jason young's entire testimony from the first trial. >> i wanted her to have that -- >> and began to rip it apart. >> i don't remember. >> prosecutors tried to show that jason's call to meredith to pick up those ebay printouts was merely a ploy to get her to discover the body and find cassidy. why else would he print an ebay auction ad and leave it on the printer and then hit the road where he couldn't bid during the actual i didn't pull the toor all the way. >> he told the court he left the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> why was it you wanted to look on it? >> i was going over the sales calls for the next day. >> mike smith took the stand to say mike young didn't use his laptop for work that night. >> this is an internet sports dedicated for sports. >> jason said he went out a second time to smoke a cigar, but they advocated jason was a fierce anti-smoker. and the weather last night was fiercely windy. >> it was a suit jacket. >> okay. >> that was the only outer wear that i'm aware of. >> jason chose not to testify this time, but the defense fought back. they argued the gas station attendants memory couldn't be trusted because of a childhood memory loss. >> i've been through a lot with myself and my kids and my ex-husband. >> the defense also argues the case really wasn't solved, that there was no physical evidence to prove jason was the killer. >> there wasn't one scratch on mr. young. >> that he would never have had time to make that trip and commit murder, that he didn't have the mindset of a killer. and that cigar that showed that jason smith once owned a humidor and made a purchase at a cigar store. >> and then it was over again. and time for another jury to consider whether jason young would go to jail or walk out of court a free man. >> coming up. >> the verdict. take two. >> the jury found the defendant jason young to be -- >> when silent witness continues. ♪ ♪ keep it comin' love. if you keep on eating, we'll keep it comin'. all you can eat riblets and tenders at applebee's. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. here's a trip tip: when you search hotels on tripadvisor... enter your destination and the dates of your stay. tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites... to find the best deal on the right hotel for you. tripadvisor. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from any one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase sensimist relieves all your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. and all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. flonase sensimist. welcome back. for the second time in less than a year, jurors were about to deliberate on the fate of accused killer jason young. in his first trial, jason took the stand to declare his innocence. but the jury was unable to reach a verdict. this time, prosecutors had re-played his testimony and called multiple witnesses to attack his credibility. did the jury believe them? turns out this case was far from over. here with the conclusion of our story is keith morris. >> for more than five years, michelle young's family and friends had been waiting for answers. who killed their pretty pregnant michelle? many thought they knew. >> it was him. you know, i didn't know all the evidence. i didn't know half the things i know now, but i felt that way. >> one jury failed to decide. but now attorneys were making their final arguments to a second jury. >> be mad at him. hate him if you want to. but when you look at the physical evidence in this case, it does not match up. it does not match up to jason having killed his wife and unborn son. >> 30 blows? that's not from a stranger. that is a mad, mad domestic n that jury was behind closed doors in the wake county superior court. after two days, they were back with a verdict. >> we, the jury, find the defendant jason lee young to be guilty of first degree murder. >> guilty first degree murder. jason young didn't flinch. behind him his mother was equally stoistoic. on the other side of the court, michelle's bereaved mother and sister went. >> they say he's guilty. i was like, what? >> jason young received a life sentence, chose not to address the court even as the befores led him away, he remained expressionless. the prosecutors were relieved. >> i was very emotional. had family members there who he had been working with for five and a half years, and they finally have justice. >> we have been telling him for years just trust. just trust that it will be the right result. >> but was it? a year and a half ticked by and then this. >> attorneys for jason young demanding a new trial saying the trial that led to his conviction had significant errors. >> december 2013 jason young's new attorney launched his appeal. >> who is the killer? is jason young the person responsible for mrs. young's death? and it seems fundamentally unfair. >> what was fundamentally unfair? remember, during the trial the attorney pointed out the prosecution introduced testimony about those civil cases against jason brought by michelle's family. they accused jason of murder. >> jason young brutally murdered michelle young. >> the defendant brutally murdered michelle marry fisher young. >> the jury should not been allowed to hear any of that. >> the jury came to the right verdict and we're confident it will stay. >> but she was wrong. >> a man is getting a third trial in the death of his pregnant wife. >> in april 2014, the north carolina court of appeals granted jason a new trial. but a year later, the state supreme court reversed the appeals court decision. and in 2017, yet another attempt by jason young to get a third trial. this time on grounds his defense team was ineffective was also denied. >> i love you, too. >> but children know little of the arcane world of motions and appeals. cassidy has grown. her father, her mother snatches a memory ever farther away. that's all for this edition of dateline extra. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. right now we're going to call the sergeant, let them know what's going on. and there's urine coming up the floor. >> recently sentenced to prison, a troubled, young inmate attempts to make a final impression on staff. >> why can't you ask like you have some sense? >> another inmate acts out in order to achieve a very different goal. >> i'd rather be someone for myself where i can focus on getting out, traveling to get my life back together.
see. >> maybe she couldn't tell detectives who the killer was, but maybe she didn't have to. >> the fact that cassidy was spared, would that mean anything to a jury? >> the person that killed the mother cared about cassidy. >> and now a stunning new twist >> i think i paused for a second and had to take a deep breath. and just the reality of what was going on would sink in. >> reporter: those who saw the footprints will not forget them. they were tiny and they were bloody. >> i had to get my composure to finish searching this house to make sure there was nobody else in the house. >> reporter: it was the third of november, 2006, early afternoon. deputy scott earp had been dispatched to a neighborhood, enchanted oaks, the outskirts of raleigh, north carolina. here for the 911 call from this place, on birchfield drive. >> i think my sister is dead. >> tell me what happened. >> i have no idea. >> the caller was meredith fisher. she had just discovered on the floor of the master bedroom the savagely beaten body of her elder sister, 29-year-old michelle young, a woman who in death was about to be famous. >> listen to me, ma'am. i'll tell you what you have to do. you need to calm down so we can help you. you said there's blood everywhere? listen to me. is she breathing? >> i don't think so. she's cold. >> reporter: as she spoke, meredith was cradling her 2 1/2-year-old niece, cassidy, who crawled out from under the bed clothes on her parents' bed, feet from where her mother lay. cassidy's voice chattering to her aunt. had cassidy witnessed the murder, awakened alone to find this? >> you just picture a small child walking around in this blood and tracking it across the hallway over into the bathroom. >> reporter: by now, wake county investigators were descending on the house. having secured the crime scene, earp's job was done. but on his way out he saw cassidy again. she was still in her pink pajamas, still in meredith's arms. he asked meredith a question. >> i looked over at the child. i asked her did you clean the child? her response was no. i thought it was kind of odd because i was expecting her to say yes, i guess. >> reporter: somebody did? >> yeah, somebody did. >> but who? the same person who murdered the little girl's mother? on this november day, all they had were questions. sergeant richard spivey of the wake county sheriff's office probably knows the case better than anyone. >> i mean, this was just a brutal, vicious beeting. there was a lot of time and energy invested into this assault. >> reporter: why do you say a lot of time and energy? >> the medical examiner told us there were over 30 blows with some sort of blunt object. >> reporter: so detectives started investigating the victim. and everyone else around her. michelle young was born and raised on long island, new york. >> she was smiling all the time. and she was the life of the party. >> reporter: stacia grossman knew her from childhood. >> she didn't like being the center of attention, but liked creating a great atmosphere to have a great time. >> reporter: michelle was a cheerleader in high school and straight a student. jennifer powers felt drawn to her. >> she had this kind of bookworm side to her. she was very studious and goal-oriented. i mean, she was also just a great person to be around, a fun, happy spirit. and, you know, someone i wanted to spend a lot of time with. >> reporter: lots of people did. and when she chose a college far from home, north carolina state, she was soon surrounded again by an admiring group of women friends, best friends, buddies. fiona childs was her sorority big sister. >> there is this one picture. it came out beautiful. we liked it. because we felt like we kind of looked like charlie's angels, posed, without intentionally doing that. >> reporter: it was sometime in 2001 when friends started hearing about michelle's new guy, jason young, heard how he had grown up in the north carolina mountains, how he loved to camp, how he was the life of tailgate parties. michelle fell hard and fast. >> they seemed like a good couple. he was different from other men she had dated in the past. he wasn't as serious about a career as she was. he was a little bit less sophisticated than michelle was. but she seemed to be very happy with him. >> reporter: michelle and jason married in october, 2003. the day after the wedding they shared their big secret. michelle was pregnant. their daughter cassidy was born early the next year. >> mwah! >> i love you, mommy. >> i love you too, cassidy. ♪ twinkle, twinkle >> reporter: when she came along it was love at first sight. ♪ how i wonder what you are >> yea! >> reporter: michelle was an enthusiastic mother. >> huh? >> huh? >> huh? >> huh? >> by all accounts, jason was a good dad. >> he was a great playmate. he knew how to sit on the floor and play with his daughter, you know? >> reporter: the youngs moved into the big fine house on birchleaf in 2005. both of them worked. he a salesman. she a financial specialist. in the summer of 2006, michelle got pregnant again. they kept the news to themselves, but it was clear something good was happening. >> the comment he said to me was he's excited to have another baby. not implying she was pregnant. but he was excited at the prospect of it. >> but just a few months later, michelle was dead. jason was 170 miles away in virginia on a business trip the night of the murder. he heard the news the next afternoon and returned to raleigh. stacia grossman got word from her mother. >> my mother called and said "michelle is dead." i said, "michelle who? some celebrity? like what are you talking about? what do you mean, how is that possible? what happened?" >> reporter: the very question that wake county investigators were asking themselves. >> when we come back, a security camera provides a critical clue. it's not what it caught on tape. it's what it missed and why. >> there was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> who had something to hide? 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fact is, there have been twenty-six in the last decade. allstate is adapting. with drones to assess home damage sooner. and if a flying object damages your car, you can snap a photo and get your claim processed in hours, not days. plus, allstate can pay your claim in minutes. now that you know the truth... are you in good hands? >> reporter: the facts were stark and ugly. one night in november, 2006, while her husband was away on business, michelle young was attacked in her bedroom and brutally beaten to death. her body discovered the next day by her sister meredith along with her 2 1/2-year-old daughter cassidy, who had been left to wander in her blood. for the investigators who set out to find her killer, no way to get those little footprints out of their minds. sergeant richard spivey, lead investigator. >> those of us that work in law enforcement, this is our profession, but we're also parents. that certainly strikes a different note with you when you see something like that. >> michelle's husband jason, a medical software salesman, was 170 miles away the night of the murder. even so, investigators had to look at him. >> we know he was the last person to talk to michelle that night. and he was also the reason why she was found. he called meredith fisher to go to the house. >> reporter: jason young's business trip that night was routine. security tape showed him getting gas, 7:30 p.m. as he left raleigh. two hours later seen on tape at a cracker barrel restaurant in greensboro. later checked into the hampton inn in hillsdale, virginia. this is him front desk. 11:00 p.m. and him again at midnight. he also made a phone call around midnight. and that was the last time anybody heard from jason young until he made another call at 7:40 the next morning. >> a normal person would look at this and say he was 170 miles away. he's got an alibi. >> that sounds like a great distance, you know? but 170 miles you can get between the crime scene and the hotel in about two and a half hours. >> reporter: perhaps. but there were curious anomalies at the crime scene. couldn't explain them. a jewelry box was missing two drawers. so was it a bungled burglary? then there were footprints near the body that seemed to eliminate jason. an obvious print on the pillow was a size 10. but jason wore a size 12. but this was weird. there was another partial footprint. it defied easy identification, so they began calling in shoe experts. and now they wondered were there two attackers? of course, investigators discovered early on michelle and jason's marriage was strained. and in the last weeks of michelle's life, things were not good. >> at our friend shelley's wedding he was so drunk. just really out of it. when we got to the wedding, our friends were letting us know michelle and jason were fighting and they were referring to it as world war iii. >> jennifer powers told investigators about another fight that october. michelle wanted her mother to stay with them for the holidays. and jason, who had a tense and jason, who had a tense relationship with his mother-in-law, wanted to limit her stay. and said so in an e-mail. along with another nugget. >> he wrote, our marriage has seen better days, i don't see it trending up. i remember that really striking a chord with me. i didn't know that their marriage had seen better days. >> reporter: of course investigators wanted to interview jason young. maybe he could tell them something. but he refused to talk to them. >> he talked to the lawyer. and then under the advice of counsel, he declined to speak with us at all. >> reporter: didn't ask? didn't ask how his wife died? >> no. >> reporter: perhaps, investigators thought the business trip deserved a second look. they want to the hotel. poked around and discovered some odd activities that night in a stairwell near an exit. >> there was a camera there unplugged. >> really. >> yes, one of the side exits for the hotel. one of the fire stairs that go down to the first floor. >> reporter: any other tampering done? >> the door that was adjacent to where the camera was located the door also had been propped open that night. >> how do you know that? >> the gentleman working as the clerk that night found a rock placed in the door to keep the door from closing. >> well, then they plugged the camera back in, so it's now working again. and at about 6:35 that morning suddenly that camera is pointing straight at the ceiling. >> same camera? >> same camera. tampered with yet again. >> reporter: if that was jason young's work, is it possible he did make the 340 round trip? could he have killed his wife and cleaned up his daughter all in seven and a half hours? without ever being seen? to find out, investigators played a hunch. they visited every gas station along the route. showed jason's photo, tucked to the night clerks. and came across a woman named tracy doms in a tiny place called king, north carolina. she took one look at the photograph and recognized it instantly. he was the foul-mouthed customer she said who came into the store to complain that the pumps were locked. and what time was it? 5:30 a.m., morning of the murder. >> there was actually an altercation between the two of them. so you have a reason why she would remember him as opposed to any other customer that may have just happened into the store. >> reporter: if that attendant was right, investigators may have undercut jason's alibi. still, it wasn't enough. so they plodded ahead, painstaking work, took time. and then, years after the murder, they finally got a match for that partial footprint. >> the state bureau of investigation and the fbi were able to eventually identify that shoe as a hush puppy shoe, size 12, which was the same size that he wore. >> reporter: throughout the investigation, jason steadfastly maintained silence. rather than face a legal battle where he'd be asked some tough questions, spivey said, he even gave michelle's family custody of his daughter. >> all of them talked about how much he loved cassidy. what a great dad he was. to just turn over primary custody, that was -- that was very surprising. >> reporter: investigators had heard enough. they believed they had a case. circumstantial, but a case. and three years after michelle young's body was found on the bedroom floor, jason young was charged with her murder. investigators and prosecutors knew that very little pointed directly toward jason young, but so far nothing pointed away. coming up, the case against jason young as an alleged killer and as a cheating husband. >> we had an intimate relationship for the two days he was there. >> we ended up having sex. >> he never settled down. >> when "dateline" continues. and then, more jobs began to appear. these techs in a lab. this builder in a hardhat... ...the welders and electricians who do all of that. the diner staffed up 'cause they all needed lunch. teachers... doctors... jobs grew a bunch. what started with one job spread all around. because each job in energy creates many more in this town. energy lives here. of great savings and service. with such a long history, it's easy to trust geico! thank you todd. it's not just easy. it's-being-a-master-of-hypnotism easy. hey, i got your text- sleep! doug, when i snap my fingers you're going to clean my gutters. ooh i should clean your gutters! great idea. it's not just easy. it's geico easy. todd, you will go make me a frittata. you want relief fast. only new thermacare ultra pain relieving cream has 4 active ingredients, to fight pain 4 different ways. get relief fast with new thermacare ultra pain relieving cream. a moment of joy. a source of inspiration. an act of kindness. an old friend. a new beginning. some welcome relief... or a cause for celebration. ♪ what's inside? 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(music throughout) jason young went on trial jason young went on trial for the murder of his pregnant wife michelle in june 2011. by then, he had spent 18 months in a jail cell. the guy who lived for tailgates. the guy who loved to party, that guy was long gone. prosecutor becky holt opened for the state. >> defendant had a plan. his plan was to murder his wife. his plan was to get away with it. >> reporter: with no murder weapon found, the prosecution's case was built on that partial shoe print. they knew now that jason once owned a pair of hushpuppies like these that matched the print. they were now missing. they also told jurors about the early morning visit to the gas station and the suspicious activity at the hotel, but the thrust of their case was this. jason young was trying in the most violent possible way to get out of a troubled marriage. >> were you aware of tensions in that marriage? >> yes. i was well aware. >> reporter: meredith fisher, michelle's sister, lived near the couple. and for a period was cassidy's nanny. as the young's fights intensified, she took on the role of marriage counselor too. >> what would you say were the main issues? >> michelle's main issues were, jason being more responsible, understanding her more, and his main concern was their lack of sex life. >> prosecutors called friends to the stand to paint a picture of a marriage that was unraveling out loud and in public. >> jason made it very well known that, you know, he was upset about the lack of sex in the relationship. >> reporter: and at parties, said fiona childs, jason's x rated tricks were famously over the top. >> i never observed it myself. i would just hear about it. and you know, he would expose himself and do what he thought was these funny tricks. and i was always just rather embarrassed for michelle. >> he never settled down. it was as if he was still living the single life, that he never bought into the marriage. what that -- what all that meant. >> reporter: in october 2006, when michelle was four months pregnant, jason became deeply involved with another woman. and not just any woman. michelle was one of michelle young's close friends from college. one of those charlie's angels. in early october, days before his third wedding anniversary, jason flew to florida to see michelle who testified they both knew it was wrong. >> we basically just hung out at the house and we had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there. >> reporter: jason was crazy about her. his friend josh dalton said. >> he basically told me that he thought was in love with her. >> reporter: michelle's mother, linda fisher, testified in the final weeks of her life. she could see the toll the failing marriage was taking on her pregnant daughter. >> she had her head on my lap. and she was lying down. and i was stroking her hair. and -- and she was empty. >> what did she tell you? >> things weren't working out with jason. >> reporter: two days before she was murdered, michelle phoned her sister meredith to report yet another blowup with jason. >> she was just, "i've had it." she said, "you know, more than one time, i just can't do this anymore." >> reporter: jason was telling one of his close friends the same thing. and prosecutors said just days before michelle was murdered, he had indulged in one last transgression. a casual hook-up with an old friend named carol ann sauerby in his own living room. michelle was away at the time. >> cassidy was put down to bed. and i had a couple drinks. just were talking. and we ended up having sex. >> reporter: but divorce was apparently not an option for jason. >> he had made a statement at one time he was afraid if he ever got a divorce that michelle would take cassidy and move back to new york. >> and did he indicate he would have concerns about seeing cassidy again? >> correct. >> reporter: one question remained. was a good time guy like jason young even capable of murder? genevieve cargo was engaged to jason before he met michelle. she took the stand to testify about a fight over jason's excessive drinking. >> he became agitated and said something to the effect if i am going to make such a terrible husband, then give me my ring back. >> did you give it to the defendant? >> no. he began trying to pull the ring off. it wouldn't come off. he was throwing me from one bed to the other and jumping on me with all his weight and pinning my arms, both of them, behind me. >> reporter: prosecutors hoped to convince the jury it all added up to motive for murder. so how would the defense counterattack? with a witness who could refute every charge. coming up, jason young finally breaks his silence as he takes the stand to testify. >> did you kill your wife, michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. plant. but we brought power to the people- redefining what that meant from one era to the next. over 90 years later we continue to build as one of the nation's largest investors in infrastructure. we don't just help power the american dream. we're part of it. this is our era. this is america's energy era. nextera energy discover.o. i like your card, but i'm absolutely not paying an annual fee. discover has no annual fees. really? 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well, to begin with, he told the jury, he agreed with the prosecution. jason young was not a good husband. >> he acted at times like an immature jerk. but that does not make him a killer. >> reporter: the defense was not about to make any more concessions, mind you. the jewelry box in the bedroom, there was dna on it. didn't match michelle or jason. suspicious activity at the hotel? there was a fingerprint on that camera and it wasn't jason young's. and there wasn't any forensic evidence that tied jason to the crime scene. there was no blood in his car. there was not a scratch on him. >> ladies and gentlemen, jason lynn young did not murder his wife. he did not murder their unborn son. and this case has not been solved. >> reporter: who better to make the argument than jason young himself. but so far, he had never said a word to anyone about the november night. and almost five years silence. >> it is always a big decision for defense attorneys whether or not to call their clients. >> reporter: beth carris is a former prosecutor and legal analyst. she covered the trial. >> this is a case that really begged for jason young to testify. if he is innocent. >> reporter: after all this time. >> if he is truly innocent, get on the stand and tell the story. >> we call jason young. >> reporter: with his mother in the front row, jason young prepared to do just that. defense attorney brian collins hit it hard off the top. >> did you kill your wife michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> reporter: what about jason's missing hushpuppies that match the shoe print? he no longer owned them. >> are those the shoes you had on november 2nd? >> no, sir. >> they were all ratty. >> reporter: they were all ratty. told michelle to give them to goodwill. as for the night of the murder, after she checked into the hotel, he left his room twice. the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> i was going over the sales call i had the next day. >> reporter: the second trip he testified was to smoke a cigar. >> i had to go outside to smoke a cigar. i also wanted to look at sports schedules and some standings and so i wanted to see if i could pick up the "usa today" as well. >> reporter: the newspaper run explains why he was seen at the lobby round midnight. >> between the time you smoked the cigar, went back upstairs and went to sleep, did you leave the room until the next morning? >> no, sir. >> reporter: the next morning he realized he had left e-bay printouts on the computer at home. they showed purses thinking of buying one for michelle as belated anniversary. >> i realize i didn't bring the papers. >> why was it important to you somebody get the papers? >> because i wanted it to be a surprise. a surprise to michelle means so much more. >> reporter: noon, november 3rd. he called his sister-in-law, meredith, from the car and asked if she would go to the house and get the e-bay papers. he left meredith a voice mail. then he headed to his mother's place in the mountains nearby. and it was there he testified, hours later that he learned michelle had been murdered. >> i just fell. i just -- i just broke on the inside. i just broke and i didn't believe it. >> reporter: family members drove him back to raleigh. during the drive, he said his friends called. >> ryan and josh had said that the investigators were asking really ugly questions and pointing their finger at me and doing things like that. they said you don't need to talk to anybody. you need to got a lawyer before you talk to anybody. >> reporter: and then the explanation for his long silence. >> the lawyer that i got after talking with him, he actually advised me to not go talk to the police. >> did you take that advice? >> yes. i did. >> did he also tell you not to talk to anybody about it? >> that's exactly what he said. he said don't talk to anybody about anything. >> the defense also addressed the motives prosecutors had laid out that jason wanted to escape a bad marriage and keep custody of cassidy and spend time with his new love. >> did you have any designs in your own mind of leaving michelle young for michelle miney? >> no, sir. >> describe why not. >> i think we both knew it was wrong. i don't think either one dreamed that it would ever be found out. >> pushing me around. >> as for the violent episode with his ex-fiancee, jason had an explanation for it. >> did you throw her around on the bed like she said? >> no, sir. what i did was wrong. i did pin her down and i took the ring. >> okay. what was your level of intoxication at that time? >> i was very intoxicated. but i don't feel like that is an excuse for what i did. >> reporter: they questioned him about the most important woman in his life. >> did you want to stay married to michelle? >> yes, i did. i wanted to have -- have another baby and i wanted the family to grow. >> reporter: he also explained why he gave up custody of his daughter without a fight. >> were you able to afford a lawyer for a full blown custody battle? >> no, sir, i had -- due to the media and some of the internet website, the job that i had, i lost it. >> reporter: his testimony lasted three hours. >> jason young was a very good witness. he understood what he had to do when he was on the stand. >> reporter: so he didn't come off as contrived or phony? like he had put this together very carefully in order to account for all of the evidence that they had? >> he had access to police reports. all of the discovery. he knew the state's vulnerabilities. and so he could arguably tailor his testimony to fit with an innocent explanation. >> reporter: how did jason young do? 12 jurors were about to decide. coming up, the prosecutor gets her chance to go one-on-one with jason young and it isn't pretty. >> were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with carolyn sauerby in your home? 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>> no, ma'am, that was not the way to work on a marriage. that was detrimental. >> were you working on your marriage when you called michelle miney? >> michelle and i confided a lot in each other. we talked about my issues with my wife. she talked about her issues with her husband. >> so is the answer yes when you had an affair with michelle miney that you were working on your marriage? >> no, ma'am. having sexual intercourse and having intimacy was very detrimental to that. >> the cross-examination lasted a full hour. and the next day the case went to the jury. >> retire to the jury deliberation room. >> reporter: it soon became clear jurors were having trouble. >> indicated that y'all have not reached a unanimous decision. >> reporter: the jurors were split 6-6. the judge sent them back to try to make it unanimous. >> the jurors leave for a second. >> reporter: hours later they were back. in courtroom 3c, and it was still. >> it appears that they are hopelessly deadlocked at this point. >> reporter: eight jurors had voted for acquittal. four voted guilty. judge stevens declared a mistrial. was serious consideration given to dropping the case? >> i think there was serious consideration as to is there more we can do. >> reporter: so the prosecutors decide they would try again. but this time with the one thing they didn't have the first time. jason's own story. the second trial began in february 2012. this time howard cummings led the prosecution, hoping to use jason's own words to convict him. >> put your left hand on the bible, raise your right hand. >> reporter: first prosecutors called the night clerk at the gas station, gracie, who remembered jason complaining about the locked pumps. >> when he came in to pay, he started cussing and raising cane. >> what time did this happen? >> that was 5:00, 5:30 in the morning. the time jason said he was at the hotel. >> call your next witness. >> prosecutors had new witnesses and testimony. they wanted jurors to hear about cassidy, whose bloody footprints they contended made her a silent witness to murder. >> when i got to cassidy, i said what are you doing? >> day care worker ashley pomentier took the stand. she told jurors she watched cass -- cassidy playing alone days after her mother was murder. >> she had the chair and the doll in her hands. she took the dolls and just hit them. >> reporter: as unsettling as it was, prosecutors wanted jurors to know the killer left a silent witness behind. a witness he would never harm. the fact that cassidy was spared, did that mean anything to you? or would that mean anything to a jury? >> certainly. it meant that the person that killed the mother, we felt, cared about cassidy. >> i do. >> thank you. >> fiona childs took the stand. prosecutors pressed her about a life insurance policy. and michelle questioned. >> that she brought up specifically her life insurance. she brought it up several times, asking me did i think a million dollars was too much and did they really need that. >> reporter: after michelle died, fiona found out the true amount of the policy was $4 million. >> i was just like in total shock. that is incredibly excessive. >> reporter: and prosecutors told the jury about civil lawsuits against jason brought by michelle's mother and sister. one was a wrongful death case filed in 2008, a year before he was charged with murder. over the defense's objection, the court clerk laura freeman testified about that lawsuit. >> there is an alleged paragraph, paragraph 6, again reading verbatim from the record, in the early morning hours of november 3, 2006, jason young brutally murdered michelle young at their residence. >> freeman went on to testify that jason never responded to the allegations. and that led to a default judgment against him. that judgment said jason killed his wife. a default judgment does not mean the facts alleged in the civil complaint are true. it does not mean he is guilty. and the judge at the criminal trial told the jury that in his instructions. however, when you hear the statement jason young brutally murdered his wife, but that doesn't mean he's guilty, focuses. hello? you know? >> reporter: and the prosecutor made sure the jury heard just who signed that ruling. >> i'm reading from this judgment which is signed actually by judge stevens. >> reporter: judge stevens, the very judge sitting before them in this trial. >> the jury hearing that, it is just something that is going to carry a lot of weight. >> this is the complaint that was filed in december seeking custody of cassidy. >> reporter: prosecutors also called the attorney involved in that custody case over daughter cassidy, and those same allegations were repeated yet again. >> the jury heard several times through these two civil complaints that jason young brutally murdered michelle fisher young. >> reporter: but the headline came when prosecutors played jason young's entire testimony from the first trial -- >> i wanted her to have that. >> -- and began to rip it apart. >> i don't remember. >> reporter: prosecutors tried to show jason's call to meredith to pick up the e-bay printouts was merely a ploy to get her to discover the body and find cassidy. why else would he print an e-bay auction ad leave it on the printer and hit the road where he couldn't bid during the actual auction? they called sergeant spivey to the stand. >> that auction would end, 8:00 p.m. eastern standard time. >> what day was that? >> that was on november 2nd, 2006. >> reporter: just hours before the murder. now prosecutors tried to prove jason lied about his reasons for leaving the hotel room. >> i didn't pull the door. >> reporter: in his original testimony, he told the court he left the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> why did you want to look at the laptop? >> i was going over the sales call the next day. >> special agent mike smith took the stand to say that young didn't use his laptop for work that night. >> this is an internet site dedicated to sports. >> reporter: jason said he went out a second time to smoke a cigar. but prosecutors contended jason was a fierce anti-smoker and the weather that night was freezing, windy. >> can you tell me whether or not there was any substantial outerwear that the defendant either had in his luggage or that he was wearing? >> no, sir, a suit jacket. that was the only outerwear that i am aware of. >> reporter: jason chose not to testify this time. the defense fought back of course. they argued the gas station attendant's memory couldn't beep trusted because of a childhood brain injury. >> i have had memory problems since '06 because i've been through a lot with myself and my kids and my ex-husband. >> reporter: the defense also argued the case really wasn't solved. that there was no physical evidence to prove jason was the killer. >> there wasn't one scratch on mr. young. >> reporter: he never would have had time to make the trip and commit murder, that he didn't have the mind-set of a killer. and that cigar, it showed that jason young owned a humidor and once made a purchase at a cigar store. >> you have ample evidence before you that jason young is not guilty. >> reporter: and then it was over again. and time for another jury to consider whether jason young would go to jail or walk out of court a free man. coming up, the verdict take two. >> we, the jury, by unanimous verdict find the defendant, jason lynn young, to be -- ♪ ♪ [ telephone ringing ] -whoa. 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through internet essentials, comcast has connected more than six-million low-income people to low-cost, high-speed internet at home. i'm trying to do some homework here. so they're ready for anything. for more than five years, michelle young's family and friends had been waiting for answers. who killed their pretty pregnant michelle? many thought they knew. >> it was him. you know, i didn't know all the evidence. i didn't know half the things i know now. but i felt that way. >> one jury failed to decide. and now attorneys were making their final arguments to a second jury. >> be mad at him. hate him if you want to. but when you look at the physical evidence in this case, it does not match up. it does not match up to jason having killed his wife and unborn son. >> 30 blows? that's not from a stranger. that is a mad, mad domestic abuser. >> reporter: soon that jury was behind closed doors in the wake county superior court. after two days, they were back with a verdict. >> the jury by unanimous verdict find jason lynn young to be guilty of first-degree murder. >> reporter: guilty. first-degree murder. jason young didn't flinch. behind him his mother was equally stoic. on the other side of the court, michelle young's bereaved mother and sister wept. fiona at home got the news from a friend. they said, "he's guilty." i was like, "what? what?" >> reporter: jason young received a life sentence. chose not to address the court. even as the bailiffs led him away, he remained expressionless. the prosecutors were, they told us, relieved. >> i was very emotional. i have family members there who i have been working with for five, five and a half years. and they finally had justice, you know? >> we have been telling them for years, just trust. just that it will be the right result. >> reporter: but was it? a year and a half ticked by. and then this. >> attorneys for jason young demanding a new trial saying the trial that led to his conviction had significant errors. >> reporter: december 2013. jason young's new attorneys launched his appeal. >> who is the killer? is jason young the person responsible for ms. young's death? it seems fundamentally unfair. >> reporter: what was fundamentally unfair? remember during the trial, the attorney pointed out, the prosecution introduced testimony about those civil cases against jason brought by michelle's family. they accused jason of murder. >> jason young brutally murdered michelle young. >> the defendant brutally murdered michelle marie fisher young. >> way out of bounds, said the attorney. the jury should not have been allowed to hear about any of that. outside the court, michelle's sister meredith predicted the appeal would be thrown out. >> the jury came to the right verdict. we are confident it will stay. >> reporter: a raleigh man is getting a third trial in the death of his pregnant women. >> reporter: in april, 2014, the judges ruled unanimously that testimony about the civil cases prejudiced the jury. and they took particular exception to the fact that the prosecutor was allowed to tell the jurors it was their trial judge who signed the civil judgment against jason, which said that he killed his wife. in fact, said the appeals court, introducing evidence about the civil cases was a violation of north carolina law. jason young remains in prison. the children know little of the arcane world of motions and appeals. cassidy is 11, lives with her aunt meredith. her father, her mother, snatches of memory ever farther away. >> that's all for now. here's this woman smiling, about to take a hike for her anniversary. there's nothing you can see from those photos that they took that would ever begin to suggest how it would all end. it's chilling. >> she was a beloved doctor, amazing mom, sunday school teacher. >> she'd given so much love to others. finally, she'd found it for herself. a handsome widower touched by tragedy. >> his first wife died in a car accident. >> my heart went out for him. >> now he and the doctor were bound for adventure. a surprise weekend away. >> i was excited for her. >> a romantic hike to a remote mountain spot. the scenery was breath-taking. the danger was, too. >> my wife has fallen from a rock. >> an accidental fall, and she was gone. >> i remember going, what?
see. >> maybe she couldn't tell detectives who the killer was, but maybe she didn't have to. >> the fact that cassidy was spared, would that mean anything to a jury? >> the person that killed the mother cared about cassidy. "silent witness." i'm craig melvin. michelle young had a smile that would light up a room. she was the last person anyone who knew her would expect to be murdered. but it happened. she was at home with her toddler pregnant with her second child when tragedy struck. the investigation quickly revealed a troubled marriage but her husband was away on business and unraveling this complicated case would take years. here's keith morrison. >> i think i paused for a second and had to take a deep breath and just the reality of what was going on would sink in. >> reporter: those who saw the footprints will not forget them. they were tiny, and they were bloody. >> i had to get my composure to finish searching this house to make sure there was nobody else in the house. >> reporter: it was the 3rd of november, 2006, early afternoon. scotter was the sheriff's deputy dispatched to a neighborhood, enchanted oaks, on the outskirts of raleigh, north carolina. here because of the 911 call from this place on birchfield drive. >> i think my sister is dead. >> tell me what happened. >> i have no idea. oh, my god. >> the caller was meredith fisher. she had just discovered on the floor of the master bedroom the savagely beaten body of her elder sister, 29-year-old michelle young, a woman who in death was about to be famous. >> listen to me, ma'am. i'll tell you what you have to do. you need to calm down so we can help you. you said there's blood everywhere? >> yes. >> listen to me. is she breathing? >> i don't think so. >> have you checked? she's cold. >> okay. >> reporter: as she spoke, meredith was cradling her 2 1/2-year-old niece cassidy who crawled out from under the bed clothes on her parents' bed, feet from where her mother lay. cassidy's voice chattering to her aunt. it was caught on a recorded call. >> she's got boo-boo. >> reporter: had cassidy witnessed the murder awakened alone to find this? >> you just picture a small child walking around in this blood and tracking it across the hallway over into the bathroom. >> reporter: by now wake county investigators were descending on the house and having secured the crime scene, earp's job was done. but on his way out he saw cassidy again. she was still in her pink pajamas, still in meredith's arms. he asked meredith a question. >> i looked over at the child. i didn't see any blood. i asked her did you clean the child? her response was no. i thought it was kind of odd because i was expecting her to say, yes, i guess. >> reporter: somebody did? >> yeah, somebody did. >> but who? was it the same person who murdered the little girl's mother? on this november day, all they had were questions. richard spive, a sergeant with the wake county sheriff's office probably knows the case better than anyone. >> i mean, this was just a brutal, vicious beeting. there was a lot of time and energy invested into this assault. >> reporter: why do you say a lot of time and energy? >> the medical examiner told us there were over 30 blows with some sort of a blunt object. >> reporter: so detectives started investigating the victim and everyone else around her. michelle young was born and raised on long island, new york. >> she was smiling all the time. and she was the life of the party. >> reporter: stacia grossman knew her from childhood. >> she didn't like being the center of attention but liked creating a great atmosphere for everyone to have a great time. >> reporter: michelle was a cheerleader in high school and a straight "a" student. jennifer powers felt drawn to her. >> she had this kind of bookworm side to her. she was very studious and goal-oriented. i mean, she was also just a great person to be around, a fun, happy spirit. and, you know, someone i wanted to spend a lot of time with. >> reporter: lots of people did. and when she chose a college far from home, north carolina state, she was soon surrounded again by an admiring group of women friends, best friends, buddies. fiona childs was her sorority big sister. >> there is this one picture. and it's like, it just came out beautiful and we liked it because we felt like we kind of looked like charlie's angels, posed without intentionally doing that. >> reporter: it was sometime in 2001 when friends started hearing about michelle's new guy, a fellow student named jason young, heard how he had grown up in the north carolina mountains, how he loved to camp, how he was the life of tailgate parties. michelle fell hard and fast. >> they seemed like a good couple. he was different from other men that she had dated in the past. he wasn't as serious about a career as she was. he was a little bit less sophisticated than michelle was. but she seemed to be very happy with him. >> reporter: michelle and jason married in october, 2003. the day after the wedding they shared their big secret. michelle was pregnant. their daughter cassidy was born early the next year. >> mwah! >> i love you, mommy. >> i love you too, cassidy. ♪ twinkle, twinkle >> reporter: and when she came along it was love at first sight. ♪ how i wonder what you are >> yea! >> reporter: michelle was an enthusiastic mother. >> huh? >> huh? >> huh? >> huh? >> by all accounts, jason was a good dad. >> he was a great playmate. he knew how to sit on the floor and play with his daughter, you know? >> reporter: the youngs moved into the big fine house on birchleaf in 2005. both of them worked. he a salesman. she a financial specialist. in the summer of 2006, michelle got pregnant again. they kept the news to themselves, but it was clear something good was happening. >> the comment he said to me was he's excited to have another baby. not implying that she was pregnant but that he was excited at the prospect of it. >> but just a few months later, michelle was dead. jason was 170 miles away in virginia on a business trip the night of the murder. he heard the news the next afternoon and returned to raleigh. stacia grossman got word from her mother. >> my mother called and said "michelle is dead." and i said, "michelle who? some celebrity? like what are you talking about? like what do you mean, how is that possible? what happened?" >> reporter: the very questions that wake county investigators were asking themselves. as the investigation gets under way, a security camera provides a critical clue. it's not what it caught. it's what it missed and why. coming up -- >> there was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> really? >> yes. it was one of the side exits of the hotel. >> who had something to hide? when "silent witness" continues. this is how it made me feel. it was like that feeling when you're mowing the lawn on a sunny day... ...and without even trying, you end up with one last strip that's exactly the width of your mower. when you're done, it looks so good you post a picture on social media. and it gets 127 likes. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. fifteen minutes could save you unstopand it's strengthenedting place, the by xfi pods,gateway. which plug in to extend the wifi even farther, past anything that stands in its way. ...well almost anything. leave no room behind with xfi pods. simple. easy. awesome. click or visit a retail store today. ♪ welcome back. what was once a quiet home in the suburbs of raleigh, north carolina, was now a horrifying crime scene bustling with activity. four months pregnant, michelle young had been murdered. investigators were eagle story talk to her husband jason, but would jason talk to them? here's keith morrison. >> reporter: the facts were stark and ugly. one night in november, 2006, while her husband was away on business, michelle young was attacked in her own bedroom and brutally beaten to death. her body discovered the next day by her sister meredith along with her 2 1/2-year-old daughter cassidy, who had been left to wander in her blood. for the investigators who set out to find her killer, no way to get those little footprints out of their minds. sergeant richard spivey, lead investigator. >> those of us that work in law enforcement, this is our profession, but we're also parents. that certainly strikes a different note with you when you see something like that. >> michelle's husband jason, a medical software salesman, was 170 miles away the night of the murder. even so, investigators had to look at him. >> we know he was the last person to talk to michelle that night. and he was also the reason why she was found. he called meredith fisher to go to the house. >> reporter: jason young's business trip that night was routine. security tape showed him getting gas about 7:30 p.m. as he left raleigh. two hours later he was seen on tape at a cracker barrel restaurant in greensboro. later he checked into the hampton inn in hillsdale, virginia. this is him front desk about 11:00 p.m. and him again at midnight. he also made a phone call around midnight. and that was the last time anybody heard from jason young until he made another call at 7:40 the next morning. a normal person would look at this and say he was 170 miles away. he's got an alibi. >> that sounds like a great distance, you know? but 170 miles you can get between the crime scene and the hotel in about 2 1/2 hours. >> reporter: perhaps. but there were curious anomalies at the crime scene. couldn't explain them. a jewelry box was missing two drawers. so was it a bungled burglary? then there were footprints near the body that seemed to eliminate jason. an obvious print on the pillow was a size 10. but jason wore a size 12. but this was weird. there was another partial footprint. it defied easy identification, so they began calling in shoe experts. and now they wondered were there two attackers? of course, investigators discovered early on that michelle and jason's marriage was strained. and in the last weeks of michelle's life, things were not good. >> at our friend shelley's wedding he was so drunk. just really out of it. when we got to the wedding, our friends were letting us know that michelle and jason were fighting and they were referring to it as world war iii. >> jennifer powers told investigators about another fight that october. michelle wanted her mother to stay with them for the holidays. and jason, who had a tense relationship with his mother-in-law, wanted to limit her stay and said so in an e-mail along with another nugget. >> he wrote, our marriage has seen better days, and i don't see it trending up. i remember that really striking a chord with me because i didn't know that their marriage had seen better days. >> reporter: of course investigators wanted to interview jason young. maybe he could tell them something, but he refused to talk to them. >> he talked to the lawyer. and then under the advice of counsel, he declined to speak with us at all. >> reporter: didn't ask about her? didn't ask how his wife died? >> no. >> reporter: perhaps, investigators thought, the business trip deserved a second look. so they went to the hotel, poked around and discovered some odd activities that night in a stairwell near an exit. >> there was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> really. >> yes, one of the side exits for the hotel. one of the fire stairs that go down to the first floor. >> reporter: was there any other tampering done? >> well, the door that was adjacent to where the camera was located the door also had been propped open that night. >> how do you know that? >> the gentleman working as the clerk that night found a rock placed in the door to keep the door from closing. >> well, then they plugged the camera back in, so it's now working again. and at about 6:35 that morning suddenly that camera is pointing straight at the ceiling. >> same camera? >> same camera. and it's tampered with yet again. >> reporter: if that was jason young's work, is it possible he young's work, is it possible he did make the 340-mile round trip? could he have killed his wife and cleaned up his daughter all in 7 1/2 hours without ever being seen? to find out, investigators played a hunch. they visited every gas station along the route, showed jason's photo, talked to the night clerks and came across a woman named tracy doms in a tiny place called king, north carolina. she took one look at the photograph and recognized it instantly. he was the foul-mouthed customer she said who came storming into the store to complain that the pumps were locked. and what time was it? 5:30 a.m. morning of the murder. >> there was actually an altercation between the two of them. so you have a reason why she would remember him as opposed to any other customer that may have just happened into the store. >> reporter: if that attendant was right, investigators may have undercut jason's alibi. still, it wasn't enough. so they plodded ahead, painstaking work, took time. and then years after the murder, they finally got a match for that partial footprint. >> the state bureau of investigation and the fbi were able to eventually identify that shoe as a hush puppy orbital shoe, size 12, which was the same size that he wore. >> reporter: throughout the investigation, jason steadfastly maintained his silence, and rather than face a legal battle where he'd be asked some tough questions, spivey said, he even gave michelle's family custody of his daughter. >> everyone that we spoke with, all of them talked about how much he loved cassidy. and what a great dad he was to just turn over primary custody, that was -- that was very surprising. >> reporter: investigators had heard enough. they believed they had a case. circumstantial, but a case. and three years after michelle young's body was found on the bedroom floor, jason young was charged with her murder. investigators and prosecutors knew that very little pointed directly toward jason young, but so far nothing pointed away. coming up, the case against jason young as an alleged killer and as a cheating husband. >> we basically just hung out at the house and we had an intimate relationship for the two days he was there. >> cassidy was put down to bed and a couple of drinks and just were talking and we ended up having sex. >> he never settled down. >> when "silent witness" continues. ♪ ♪ applebee's bigger bolder grill combos are back. now that's eatin good in the neighborhood. i've always been amazed and still going for my best, even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin... i want that too. eliquis. eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. what's next? 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(burke) a fly-by ballooning. seen it, covered it. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ welcome back to "dateline extra." jason young had been charged with murdering his pregnant wife michelle. from the day her body was found in the bedroom jason had refused to talk to detectives but there were several women in jason's life who were willing to share intimate details about the man and his marriage. with the case heading to court, they would soon tell their stories on the stand. here again is keith morrison. >> reporter: jason young went on trial for the murder of his pregnant wife michelle in june 2011. by then, he had spent 18 months in a jail cell. the guy who lived for tailgates. the guy who loved to party, that guy was long gone. becky holt was the prosecutor who opened for the state. >> the defendant had a plan. his plan was to murder his wife. his plan was to get away with it. >> reporter: with no murder weapon found, the prosecution's case was built on that partial shoe print. they knew now that jason once owned a pair of hushpuppies like these that matched the print. they were now missing. they also told jurors about the early morning visit to the gas station and the suspicious activity at the hotel, but the thrust of their case was this, jason young was trying in the most violent possible way to get out of a troubled marriage. >> were you aware of tensions in that marriage? >> yes. i was well aware. >> reporter: meredith fisher, michelle's sister, lived near the couple and for a period was cassidy's nanny. as the youngs' fights intensified, she took on the role of marriage counselor too. >> what would you say were the main issues? >> michelle's main issues were jason being more responsible, understanding her more, and his main concern was their lack of sex life. >> prosecutors called friends to the stand to paint a picture of a marriage that was unraveling out loud and in public. >> jason made it very well known that, you know, he was upset about the lack of sex in the relationship. >> reporter: and at parties, said fiona childs, jason's x-rated tricks were famously over the top. >> i never observed it myself. i would just hear about it. and, you know, he would expose himself and do what he thought was these funny tricks. and i was always just rather embarrassed for michelle. >> he never settled down. it was as if he was still living the single life, that he never bought into the marriage and what that -- what all that meant. >> reporter: in october 2006, when michelle was four months pregnant, jason became deeply involved with another woman and not just any woman. michelle money was one of michelle young's close friends from college. one of those charlie's angels. in early october, days before his third wedding anniversary, jason flew to florida to see michelle money. she testified they both knew it was wrong. >> we basically just hung out at the house and we had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there. >> reporter: jason was crazy about her. his friend josh dalton said. >> he basically told me that he thought was in love with her. >> reporter: michelle's mother, linda fisher, testified in the final weeks of michelle's life she could see the toll the failing marriage was taking on her pregnant daughter. >> she had her head on my lap. and she was lying down. and i was stroking her hair. and -- and she was empty. >> and what did she tell you? >> things weren't working out with jason. >> reporter: two days before she was murdered, michelle phoned her sister meredith to report yet another blowup with jason. >> she was just, "i've had it." she said, "you know, more than one time, i just can't do this anymore." >> reporter: jason was telling one of his close friends the same thing. and prosecutors said just days before michelle was murdered, he had indulged in one last transgression. a casual hook-up with an old friend named carol ann sauerby in his own living room. michelle was away at the time. >> cassidy was put down to bed, and i had a couple drinks. just were talking. and we ended up having sex. >> reporter: but divorce was apparently not an option for jason. >> he had made a statement at one time that he was afraid if he ever got a divorce that michelle would take cassidy and move back to new york. >> and did he indicate to you that he would have concerns about seeing cassidy again? >> correct. >> reporter: still, one big question remained. was a good time guy like jason young even capable of murder? genevieve cargo was engaged to jason in 1999 before he met michelle and she took the stand to testify about a fight over jason's excessive drinking. >> he became agitated and said something to the effect of if i am going to make such a terrible husband, then give me my ring back. >> did you give it to the defendant? >> no. he began trying to pull the ring off. and it wouldn't come off. he was throwing me from one bed to the other and jumping on me with all his weight and pinning my arms, both of them, behind me. >> reporter: prosecutors hoped to convince the jury it all added up to a motive for murder. so how would the defense counterattack? with a witness who could refute every charge. coming up, jason young finally breaks his silence as he takes the stand to testify. >> did you kill your wife, michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> when "silent witness" continues. the wonderful thing about polident is the fact that it's very, very tough on bacteria, yet it's very gentle on the denture itself. polident consists of 4 powerful ingredients that work together to deep clean your denture in hard to reach places. discover.o. that work together i like your card, but i'm absolutely not paying an annual fee. discover has no annual fees. really? yeah. we just don't believe in them. oh nice. you would not believe how long i've been rehearsing that. no annual fee on any card. only from discover. ♪ applebee's bigger, bolder grill combos are back. now that's eatin good in the neighborhood. for each job exxonmobil creates, many more are created in the community. because energy touches so many industries, it supports 10 million u.s. jobs. i'm daraa brown. a huge winter storm affecting the mid-atlantic. snow, ice and freezing rain blanketing much of the southeast. it's been blamed for four deaths in the region. president trump is still searching for a replacement for former chief of staff john kelly. nick ayers announced he will leave the white house at the end of the year. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. prosecutors painted a picture of a marriage in pieces. but did a string of affairs mean the husband killed his pregnant wife? it was a question the defense was eager to answer. after five years, jason young was about to break his silence and explain what happened the night michelle was killed. here again is keith morrison. >> reporter: there is an art to the business of criminal defense. and it would take an artist to repaint the prosecution's dark portrait of jason young. so what could the defense attorney, mike clinkson, do? well, to begin with, he told the jury, he agreed with the prosecution. jason young was not a good husband. >> he acted at times like an immature jerk, but that does not make him a killer. >> reporter: the defense was not about to make any more concessions, mind you. that jewelry box in the bedroom, there was dna on it. didn't match michelle or jason. the suspicious activity at the hotel? there was a fingerprint on that camera and it wasn't jason young's. and there wasn't any forensic evidence that tied jason to the crime scene. there was no blood in his car. there was not a scratch on him. >> ladies and gentlemen, jason lynn young did not murder his wife. he did not murder their unborn son. and this case has not been solved. >> reporter: who better to make the argument than jason young himself. but so far, remember, he had never said a word to anyone about the november night and almost five years silence. >> it is always a big decision for defense attorneys whether or not to call their clients. reporter beth karas is a former prosecutor and legal analyst. she covered the trial. >> this is a case that really begged for jason young to testify. if he is innocent. >> reporter: after all this time. >> if he is truly innocent, get on the stand and tell the story. >> we call jason young. >> reporter: with his mother in the front row, jason young prepared to do just that. defense attorney brian collins hit it hard off the top. >> did you kill your wife michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> reporter: what about jason's missing hushpuppies that match the partial shoe print? he no longer owned them, he said. >> are those the shoes you had on november 2nd? >> no, sir. >> reporter: they were all ratty, he said. told michelle to give them to goodwill. as for the night of the murder, after he checked into the hotel, jason temperatured, he left his room twice, the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> i was going over the sales call that i had the next day. >> reporter: the second trip he testified was to smoke a cigar. >> i had to go outside to smoke a cigar. i also wanted to look at some sports schedules and some standings and so i wanted to see if i could pick up the "usa today" as well. >> reporter: that newspaper run explains why he was seen at the front desk around midnight. >> between the time you smoked the cigar, went back upstairs and went to sleep, did you leave the room until the next morning? >> no, sir. >> reporter: the next morning after his sales call, jason temperatured, he realized he had left ebay printouts on the computer at home. they showed purses. he was thinking of buying one for michelle as a belated anniversary present. >> i realize i didn't bring the papers. >> why was it important to you somebody get the papers? >> because i wanted it to be a surprise. a surprise to michelle means so much more than anything. >> reporter: around noon, november 3rd, he called his sister-in-law, meredith, from the car and asked if she would go to the house and get those ebay papers. >> friday, november 3rd. >> reporter: he left meredith a voice mail. >> if you could do me a huge favor and see if you can find its. >> reporter: then he headed to his mother's place in the mountains nearby. and it was there he testified, hours later that he learned michelle had been murdered. >> i just fell. i just -- i just broke on the inside. i just broke and i didn't believe it. >> reporter: family members drove him back to raleigh. during the drive he said his friends called. >> ryan and josh had said that the investigators were asking really ugly questions and pointing their finger at me and doing things like that. they said you don't need to talk to anybody. you need to get a lawyer before you talk to anybody. >> reporter: and then the explanation for his long silence. >> the lawyer that i got after talking with him, he actually advised me to not go talk to the police. >> did you take that advice? >> yes, sir, i did. >> did he also tell you not to talk to anybody about it? >> that's actually exactly what he said. he said don't talk to anybody about anything. >> reporter: the defense also addressed the motives prosecutors had laid out that jason wanted to escape a bad marriage and keep custody of cassidy and spend time with his new love. >> did you have any designs in your own mind of leaving michelle young for michelle money? >> no, sir. >> describe why not. >> i think we both knew it was wrong. i don't think either one dreamed that it would ever be found out. >> pushing me around. >> as for the violent episode with his ex-fiancee, jason had an explanation for it. >> did you throw her around on the bed like she said? >> no, sir. what i did was wrong. i did pin her down and i took the ring. >> okay. what was your level of intoxication at that time? >> i was very intoxicated. but i don't feel like that is an excuse for what i did. >> reporter: and they questioned him about the most important woman in his life. >> did you want to stay married to michelle? >> yes, i did. i wanted to have -- have another baby and i wanted the family to grow. >> reporter: he also explained why he gave up custody of his daughter without a fight. >> were you able to afford a lawyer for a full-blown custody battle? >> no, sir, i had -- due to the media and some of the internet website, the job that i had, i lost it. >> reporter: his testimony lasted three hours. >> jason young was a very good witness. he understood what he had to do when he was on the stand. >> reporter: so he didn't come off as contrived or phony like he had put this together very carefully in order to account for all of the evidence that they had? >> he had access to police reports. all of the discovery. he knew the state's vulnerabilities. and so he could arguably tailor his testimony to fit with an innocent explanation. >> reporter: how did jason young do? 12 jurors were about to decide. but first the prosecutor gets her chance to go one-on-one with jason young. coming up -- >> when you were working on your marriage, when you were having sex what carolyn in your home. >> when "silent witness" continues. 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(announcer) redeem your season on fanduel. play free until you win. fanduel. more ways to win. ♪ applebee's bigger bolder grill combos are back. now that's eatin good in the neighborhood. than psoriatic arthritis. as you and your rheumatologist consider treatments, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. xeljanz xr is a once daily pill for psoriatic arthritis. taken with methotrexate or similar medicines, it can reduce joint pain... ...swelling and significantly improve physical function. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma and other cancers have happened. don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests, and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. tell your doctor if you were in a region where fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. xeljanz xr can reduce the symptoms of psoriatic arthritis. don't let another morning go by without talking to your rheumatologist about xeljanz xr. welcome back to "dateline extra." so far jason young's testimony seemed to be answering years of questions. when asked by his attorney, jason admitted cheating on his pregnant wife, michelle, more than once. even so, the defense pointed out infidelity did not make him a murderer. now it was the prosecution's turn to cross-examine the witness and they'd start by attacking jason's alibi. but with no forensic evidence tying him to the crime scene, could they convince the jury that jason was the killer? continuing with our story, here's keith morrison. >> the whole truth and -- >> it was riveting. almost five years of silence about his wife's murder broken here in this courtroom. >> i loved cassidy. and i loved michelle. >> and then he went to murder his wife. >> reporter: now prosecutor becky holk began pulling apart a story she heard for the first time. >> were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with carolyn sauerby in your home less than two weeks before your wife was murdered? >> no, ma'am, that was not the way to work on a marriage. that was very detrimental. >> were you working on your marriage when you called michelle money? >> michelle and i confided a lot in each other. and we talked about my issues with my wife. and she talked about her issues with her husband. >> so is the answer yes when you had an affair with michelle money that you were working on your marriage? >> no, ma'am. having the sexual intercourse and having the intimacy was very detrimental to that. >> the cross-examination lasted a full hour. and the next day the case went to the jury. >> retire to the jury deliberation room. >> reporter: it soon became clear jurors were having trouble. >> they indicated that y'all have not reached a unanimous decision. >> reporter: the jurors were split 6-6. the judge sent them back to try to make it unanimous. >> the jurors will leave first. >> reporter: hours later they were back. and courtcourtroom 3c was still -- >> it appears that they are hopelessly deadlocked at this point. >> reporter: eight jurors had voted for acquittal. four voted guilty. judge stevens declared a mistrial. was serious consideration given to dropping the case? >> i think there was serious consideration as to is there more we can do. >> reporter: so the prosecutors decided they would try again. but this time with the one thing they didn't have the first time, jason's own story. the second trial began in february 2012. this time howard cummings led the prosecution, hoping to use jason's own words to convict him. >> put your left hand on the bible, raise your right hand. >> reporter: but first prosecutors called that night clerk at the gas station, gracie, who remembered jason complaining about the locked pumps. >> when he came in to pay, he started cussing and raising cane. >> reporter: and what time did that happen? >> that was 5:00, 5:30 in the morning. a time when jason said he was at the hotel. >> call your next witness. >> reporter: then prosecutors had new witnesses and new testimony. they wanted jurors to hear about cassidy, whose bloody footprints they contended made her a silent witness to murder. >> when i got to cassidy, i said what are you doing? >> day care worker ashley pomentier took the stand. >> i noticed what she was doing. >> she told jurors she watched cassidy playing alone days after her mother was murdered. >> she had the chair and the doll in the hand together, and the mommy doll in the other hand and she just hit them. >> reporter: as unsettling as it was, the prosecutors wanted jurors to know the killer had left a silent witness behind. a witness he would never harm. the fact that cassidy was spared, did that mean anything to you, or would that mean anything to a jury? >> certainly. it meant that the person that killed the mother, we felt, cared about cassidy. >> i do. >> thank you. >> reporter: fiona childs took the stand. prosecutors pressed her about a life insurance policy jason arranged. and michelle had questioned. >> that she brought up specifically her life insurance. she brought it up several times, asking me didn't i think a million dollars was too much and did they really need that. >> reporter: after michelle died, fiona found out the true amount of the policy was actually $4 million. >> i was just like in total shock. like that is incredibly excessive. >> reporter: and prosecutors also told the jury about civil lawsuits against jason brought by michelle's mother and sister. one was a wrongful death case filed in 2008, a year before he was charged with murder. over the defense's objection, court clerk laura freeman testified about that lawsuit. >> there is an alleged paragraph, paragraph 6, again reading verbatim from the record, in the early morning hours of november 3, 2006, jason young brutally murdered michelle young at their residence. >> freeman went on to testify that jason never responded to the allegations, and that led to a default judgment against him. that judgment said jason killed his wife. >> a default judgment does not mean the facts alleged in the civil complaint are true. it does not mean he is guilty. and the judge at the criminal trial told the jury that in his instructions, however, when you hear the statement jason young brutally murdered his wife, but that doesn't mean he's guilty, folks, hello, you know. >> reporter: and the prosecutor made sure the jury heard just who signed that ruling. >> i'm reading from this judgment, which is signed actually by judge stevens. >> reporter: judge stevens, the very judge sitting before them in this trial. >> the jury hearing that, it is just something that is going to carry a lot of weight. >> this is the complaint that was filed in december seeking custody of cassidy. >> reporter: prosecutors also called the attorney involved in that custody case over daughter cassidy, and those same allegations were repeated yet again. >> the jury heard several times through these two civil complaints that jason young brutally murdered michelle fisher young. >> reporter: but the headline came when prosecutors played jason young's entire testimony from the first trial -- >> i wanted her to have that. >> -- and began to rip it apart. >> i don't remember. >> reporter: prosecutors tried to show that jason's call to meredith to pick up those ebay printouts was merely a ploy to get her to discover the body and find cassidy. why else would he print an ebay auction ad leave it on the printer and hit the road where he couldn't bid during the actual auction? they called sergeant spivey to the stand. he couldn't bid during the actual auction? they called sergeant spike to the stand. >> that auction was going to end 8:00 p.m. eastern standard time. that was on november 2nd 2006. >> just hours before the murder. now prosecutors tried to prove jason lied about his leaving the hotel room. in his original testimony he told the court he left the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> why was it you wanted to look on your laptop? >> i was going over the sales call i had the next day. >> but special agent mike smith took the stand to say young didn't use it to work that night. >> internet site dedicated to sports. >> jason said he went out a second time to smoke a cigar. but the weather that night was freezing, windy. >> can you tell me whether or not there was any substantial outer wear the defendant was wearing? >> no, sir. a suit jacket, that was the only outer wear i was wearing. >> jason chose not to testify this time, but the defense fought back. they argued the attendant couldn't be trusted because of memory. >> i've been through a lot with myself and my kids and my ex-husband. >> the defendant also argued the case really wasn't solved, that there was no physical evidence to prove jason was the killer. and he never would have had time to make that trip and commit the murder, that he didn't have the mind-set of a killer. and that cigar, they showed that jason young actually owned a humidor and he once made a purchase at a cigar store. and then it was over again and time for another jury to consider whether jason young would go to jail or walk out of court a free man. coming up -- the verdict. take two. >> we the jury by unanimous verdict find the defendant jason young to be -- >> when silent witness continues. shaquem get in here. take your razor, yup. alright, up and down, never side to side, shaquem. you got it? come on, get back. quem, you a second behind your brother, stay focused. can't nobody beat you, can't nobody beat you. hard work baby, it gonna pay off. you got this. with the one hundred and forty-first pick, the seattle seahawks select. alright, you got it, shaquem. alright, let me see. welcome back. for the second time in less than a year jurors were about to deliberate on the fate of accused killer jason young. in his first trial jason took the stand to declare his innocence, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict. this time prosecutors had replayed his testimony and called multiple witnesses to attack his credibility. did the jury believe them? turns out, this case was far from over. here with the conclusion of our story is keith morrison. >> for more than five years, michelle young's family and friends had been waiting for answers. who killed their pretty pregnant michelle? many thought they knew. >> it was him. you know, i didn't know all the evidence. i didn't know half the things i know now. but i felt that way. >> one jury failed to decide. and now attorneys were making their final arguments to a second jury. >> be mad at him. hate him if you want to. but when you look at the physical evidence in this case, it does not match up. it does not match up to jason having killed his wife and unborn son. >> 30 blows? that's not from a stranger. that is a mad, mad domestic abuser. >> soon that jury was behind closed doors in the wake county superior court. after two days, they were back with a verdict. >> the jury by unanimous verdict find jason lynn young to be guilty of first-degree murder. >> guilty. first-degree murder. jason young didn't flinch. behind him his mother was equally stoic. on the other side of the court, michelle young's bereaved mother and sister wept. fiona at home got the news from a friend. they said, "he's guilty." i was like, "what? what?" >> jason young received a life sentence. chose not to address the court. even as the bailiffs led him away, he remained expressionless. the prosecutors were, they told us, relieved. >> i was very emotional. i have family members there who i have been working with for five, five and a half years. and they finally had justice, you know? >> we have been telling them for years, just trust. just that it will be the right result. >> but was it? a year and a half ticked by. and then this. >> attorneys for jason young demanding a new trial saying the trial that led to his conviction had significant errors. >> december 2013. jason young's new attorneys launched his appeal. >> who is the killer? is jason young the person responsible for ms. young's death? it seems fundamentally unfair. >> what was fundamentally unfair? remember during the trial, the attorney pointed out, the prosecution introduced testimony about those civil cases against jason brought by michelle's family. they accused jason of murder. >> jason young brutally murdered michelle young. >> the defendant brutally murdered michelle marie fisher young. >> way out of bounds, said the attorney. the jury should not have been allowed to hear about any of that. outside the court, michelle's sister meredith predicted the appeal would be thrown out. >> the jury came to the right verdict. we are confident it will stay. >> but she was wrong. >> a raleigh man is getting a third trial in the death of his pregnant wife. >> in april, 2014, the north carolina court of appeals granted jason a new trial. in 2017 yet another attempt by jason young to get a third trial, on this time on grounds his defense team was ineffective, was also denied. cassidy has grown. her father, her mother, snatches of memory ever farther away. >> that's all for this edition of dateline extra. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >> msnbc takes you behind the walls of america's most notorious prisons. into a world of chaos and danger. now, the scenes you've never seen. now, the scenes you've never seen. "lockup: raw." >> behind every murder is a motive. >> they're crying on the phone, they're screaming, telling me that their daughter cannot spend another day around this guy, they're afraid of what he's going to do. >> i felt that the person was more like a man than like a woman. this was after we got married. >> behind every murder is a story. >> i went to trial. lu
>> maybe she couldn't tell detectives who the killer was, but maybe she didn't have to. >> the fact that cassidy was spared, would that mean anything to a jury? >> the person that killed the mother cared about cassidy. >> silent witness. hello and welcome to dateline extra. i'm craig melvin. michelle young had a smile that would light up a room. she was the last person anyone who knew her would expect to be murdered. but it happened. she was at home with her toddler cassidy, pregnant with her second child when tragedy struck. the investigation quickly revealed a troubled marriage. but her husband was away on business, and unraveling this complicated case would take years. here's keith morrison. >> i think i paused for a second, i had to take a deep breath and just the reality of what was going on sink in. >> those who saw the footprints will not forget them. they were tiny and they were bloody. >> i had to get my composure to finish searching this house to make sure there was nobody else in the house. >> it was the 3rd of november, 2006, early afternoon. scott erp was the wake county sheriff's deputy dispatched to a quiet community called oaks. here because of the 911 call from this place on birch leaf drive. >> i think my sister is dead. >> tell me what happened. >> i have no idea. >> the caller was meredith fisher. she had just discovered on the floor of the master bedroom the savagely beaten body of her elder sister, 29-year-old michelle young, a woman who in death was about to be famous. >> listen to me, ma'am. i'll tell you what you have to do. you need to calm down so we can help you. you said there's blood everywhere? listen to me. is she breathing? >> i don't think so. >> have you checked? >> michelle? she's cold. >> as she spoke, meredith was cradling her 2 1/2-year-old niece, cassidy, who crawled out from under the bed clothes on her parents' bed, feet from where her mother lay. cassidy's voice chattering to her aunt. had cassidy witnessed the murder, awakened alone to find this? >> you just picture a small child walking around in this blood and tracking it across the hallway over into the bathroom. >> by now, wake county investigators were descending on the house. having secured the crime scene, earp's job was done. but on his way out he saw cassidy again. she was still in her pink pajamas, still in meredith's arms. he asked meredith a question. >> i looked over at the child. i didn't see any blood, so i asked her did you clean the child, and her response was no. i thought it was kind of odd because i was expecting her to say yes, i guess. >> somebody did? >> yeah, somebody did. >> but who? the same person who murdered the little girl's mother? on this november day, all they had were questions. richard spivey, then a sergeant with the cake county sheriff's office probably knows the case better than anyone. >> i mean, this was just a brutal, vicious beating. there was a lot of time and energy invested into this assault. >> why do you say a lot of time and energy? >> the medical examiner told us there were over 30 blows with some sort of blunt object. >> so detectives started investigating the victim. and everyone else around her. michelle young was born and raised on long island, new york. >> she was smiling all the time. and she was the life of the party. >> stacia grossman knew her from childhood. >> she didn't like being the center of attention, but liked creating a great atmosphere for everyone to have a great time. >> michelle was a cheerleader in high school and straight a student. jennifer powers felt drawn to her. >> she had this kind of bookworm side to her. she was very studious and goal-oriented. i mean, she was also just a great person to be around, a fun, happy spirit. and, you know, someone i wanted to spend a lot of time with. >> lots of people did. and when she chose a college far from home, north carolina state, she was soon surrounded again by an admiring group of women friends, best friends, buddies. fiona childs was her sorority big sister. >> there is this one picture. it came out beautiful. we liked it. because we felt like we kind of looked like charlie's angels, posed, without intentionally doing that. >> it was sometime in 2001 when friends started hearing about michelle's new guy, jason young, heard how he had grown up in the north carolina mountains, how he loved to camp, how he was the life of tailgate parties. michelle fell hard and fast. >> they seemed like a good couple. he was different from other men she had dated in the past. he wasn't as serious about a career as she was. he was a little bit less sophisticated than michelle was. but she seemed to be very happy with him. >> michelle and jason married in october, 2003. the day after the wedding they shared their big secret. michelle was pregnant. their daughter cassidy was born early the next year. >> mwah! >> i love you, mommy. >> i love you too, cassidy. ♪ twinkle, twinkle >> when she came along it was love at first sight. ♪ how i wonder what you are >> yea! >> michelle was an enthusiastic mother. >> huh? >> huh? >> huh? >> huh? >> by all accounts, jason was a good dad. >> he was a great playmate. he knew how to sit on the floor and play with his daughter, you know? >> the youngs moved into the big fine house on birchleaf in 2005. both of them worked. he a salesman. she a financial specialist. in the summer of 2006, michelle got pregnant again. they kept the news to themselves, but it was clear something good was happening. >> the comment he said to me was he's excited to have another baby. not implying she was pregnant. but he was excited at the prospect of it. >> but just a few months later, michelle was dead. jason was 170 miles away in virginia on a business trip the night of the murder. he heard the news the next afternoon and returned to raleigh. stacia grossman got word from her mother. >> my mother called and said "michelle is dead." i said, "michelle who? some celebrity? like what are you talking about? what do you mean, how is that possible? what happened?" >> the very question that wake county investigators were asking themselves. >> as the investigation gets under way a security camera provides a critical clue. it's not what it caught, it's what it missed and why. coming up -- >> there was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> who had something to hide? when silent witness continues. up and down, never side to side, shaquem, you got it? come on stay focused. hard work baby, it gonna pay off. xfinity mobile is a designed to save you money. even when you've got serious binging to do. wherever your phone takes you, your wireless bill is about to cost a whole lot less. use less data with a network that automatically connects you to the most wifi hotspots in millions of places and the best 4g lte everywhere else. saving you hundreds of dollars a year. and ask how you get xfinity mobile included with your internet. plus, get $200 back when you when you buy a new smartphone. xfinity mobile. it's simple. easy. awesome. click, call or visit a store today. welcome back. what was once a quiet home in the suburbs of raleigh, north carolina, was now a horrifying crime scene bustling with activity. four months pregnant michelle young had been murdered and investigators were eager to talk to her husband, jason. but would jason talk to them? here's keith morrison. >> the facts were stark and ugly. one night in november, 2006, while her husband was away on business, michelle young was attacked in her bedroom and brutally beaten to death. her body discovered the next day by her sister meredith along with her 2 1/2-year-old daughter cassidy, who had been left to wander in her blood. for the investigators who set out to find her killer, no way to get those little footprints out of their minds. sergeant richard spivey, lead investigator. >> those of us that work in law enforcement, this is our profession, but we're also parents. that certainly strikes a different note with you when you see something like that. >> michelle's husband jason, a medical software salesman, was 170 miles away the night of the murder. even so, investigators had to look at him. >> we know he was the last person to talk to michelle that night. and he was also the reason why she was found. he called meredith fisher to go to the house. >> jason young's business trip that night was routine. security tape showed him getting gas, 7:30 p.m. as he left raleigh. two hours later seen on tape at a cracker barrel restaurant in greensboro. later checked into the hampton inn in hillsdale, virginia. this is him front desk. 11:00 p.m. and him again at midnight. he also made a phone call around midnight. and that was the last time anybody heard from jason young until he made another call at 7:40 the next morning. >> a normal person would look at this and say he was 170 miles away. he's got an alibi. >> that sounds like a great distance, you know? but 170 miles you can get between the crime scene and the hotel in about two and a half hours. >> perhaps. but there were curious anomalies at the crime scene. couldn't explain them. a jewelry box was missing two drawers. so was it a bungled burglary? then there were footprints near the body that seemed to eliminate jason. an obvious print on the pillow was a size 10. but jason wore a size 12. but this was weird. there was another partial footprint. it defied easy identification, so they began calling in shoe experts. and now they wondered were there two attackers? of course, investigators discovered early on michelle and jason's marriage was strained. and in the last weeks of michelle's life, things were not good. >> at our friend shelley's wedding he was so drunk. just really out of it. when we got to the wedding, our friends were letting us know michelle and jason were fighting and they were referring to it as world war iii. >> jennifer powers told investigators about another fight that october. michelle wanted her mother to stay with them for the holidays. and jason, who had a tense relationship with his mother-in-law, wanted to limit her stay. and said so in an e-mail. along with another nugget. >> he wrote, our marriage has seen better days, i don't see it trending up. i remember that really striking a chord with me. i didn't know that their marriage had seen better days. >> of course investigators wanted to interview jason young. maybe he could tell them something. but he refused to talk to them. >> he talked to the lawyer. and then under the advice of counsel, he declined to speak with us at all. >> didn't ask about it? didn't ask how his wife died? >> no. >> perhaps, investigators thought the business trip deserved a second look. so they went to the hotel, poked around and discovered some odd activities that night in a stairwell near an exit. >> there was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> really? >> yes, one of the side exits for the hotel. one of the fire stairs that go down to the first floor. >> any other tampering done? >> the door that was adjacent to where the camera was located the door also had been propped open that night. >> how do you know that? >> the gentleman working as the clerk that night found a rock placed in the door to keep the door from closing. >> well, then they plugged the camera back in, so it's now working again. and at about 6:35 that morning suddenly that camera is pointing straight at the ceiling. >> same camera? >> same camera. tampered with yet again. >> if that was jason young's work, is it possible he did make the 340-mile round trip? could he have killed his wife and cleaned up his daughter all in seven and a half hours? without ever being seen? to find out, investigators played a hunch. they visited every gas station along the route. showed jason's photo, talked to the night clerks. and came across a woman named tracy doms in a tiny place called king, north carolina. she took one look at the photograph and recognized it instantly. he was the foul-mouthed customer she said who came storming into the store to complain that the pumps were locked. and what time was it? 5:30 a.m., morning of the murder. >> there was actually an altercation between the two of them. so you have a reason why she would remember him as opposed to any other customer that may have just happened into the store. >> if that attendant was right, investigators may have undercut jason's alibi. still, it wasn't enough. so they plodded ahead, painstaking work, took time. and then, years after the murder, they finally got a match for that partial footprint. >> the state bureau of investigation and the fbi were able to eventually identify that shoe as a hush puppy shoe, size 12, which was the same size that he wore. >> throughout the investigation, jason steadfastly maintained silence. rather than face a legal battle where he'd be asked some tough questions, spivey said, he even gave michelle's family custody of his daughter. >> all of them talked about how much he loved cassidy. what a great dad he was. to just turn over primary custody, that was -- that was very surprising. >> investigators had heard enough. they believed they had a case. circumstantial, but a case. and three years after michelle young's body was found on the bedroom floor, jason young was charged with her murder. investigators and prosecutors knew that very little pointed directly toward jason young, but so far nothing pointed away. coming up, the case against jason young as an alleged killer and as a cheating husband. >> we basically just hung out at the house, and we had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there. cassidy was put down to bed, and we ended up having sex. >> he never settled down. talk to your doctor and say yesss! to linzess. yesss! linzess treats adults with ibs with constipation or chronic constipation. linzess can help relieve your belly pain, and lets you have more frequent and complete bowel movements. see if you're eligible to get 90 days for as little as 30 dollars. do not give linzess to children less than 6 and it should not be given to children 6 to less than 18, it may harm them. do not take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. get immediate help if you develop unusual or severe stomach pain, especially with bloody or black stools. the most common side effect is diarrhea, sometimes severe. if it's severe, stop taking linzess and call your doctor right away. other side effects include gas, stomach-area pain, and swelling. so say yesss! to help for recurring constipation. yesss! to help for belly pain. talk to your doctor and say yesss! linzess. welcome back to dateline extra. jason young had been charged with murdering his pregnant wife, michelle. from the day her bloodied body was found bludgeoned to death in the couple's bedroom, jason had refused to talk to detectives. but there were several women in jason's life who were willing to share intimate details about the man and his marriage. with the case heading to court they would soon tell their stories on the stand. here again is keith morrison. >> jason young went on trial for the murder of his pregnant wife michelle in june 2011. by then, he had spent 18 months in a jail cell. the guy who lived for tailgates. the guy who loved to party, that guy was long gone. prosecutor becky holt opened for the state. >> defendant had a plan. his plan was to murder his wife. his plan was to get away with it. >> with no murder weapon found, the prosecution's case was built on that partial shoe print. they knew now that jason once owned a pair of hushpuppies like these that matched the print. they were now missing. they also told jurors about the early morning visit to the gas station and the suspicious activity at the hotel, but the thrust of their case was this. jason young was trying in the most violent possible way to get out of a troubled marriage. >> were you aware of tensions in that marriage? >> yes. i was well aware. >> meredith fisher, michelle's sister, lived near the couple. and for a period was cassidy's nanny. as the young's fights intensified, she took on the role of marriage counselor too. >> what would you say were the main issues? >> michelle's main issues were, jason being more responsible, understanding her more, and his main concern was their lack of sex life. >> prosecutors called friends to the stand to paint a picture of a marriage that was unraveling out loud and in public. >> jason made it very well known that, you know, he was upset about the lack of sex in the relationship. >> and at parties, said fiona childs, jason's x-rated tricks were famously over the top. >> i never observed it myself. i would just hear about it. and you know, he would expose himself and do what he thought was these funny tricks. and i was always just rather embarrassed for michelle. >> he never settled down. it was as if he was still living the single life, that he never bought into the marriage. what that -- what all that meant. >> in october 2006, when michelle was four months pregnant, jason became deeply involved with another woman. and not just any woman. michelle money was one of michelle young's close friends from college. one of those charlie's angels. in early october, days before his third wedding anniversary, jason flew to florida to see michelle who testified they both knew it was wrong. >> we basically just hung out at the house and we had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there. >> jason was crazy about her. his friend josh dalton said. >> he basically told me that he thought was in love with her. >> michelle's mother, linda fisher, testified in the final weeks of her life she could see the toll the failing marriage was taking on her pregnant daughter. >> she had her head on my lap. and she was lying down. and i was stroking her hair. and -- and she was empty. >> what did she tell you? >> things weren't working out with jason. >> two days before she was murdered, michelle phoned her sister meredith to report yet another blowup with jason. >> she was just, "i've had it." she said, "you know, more than one time, i just can't do this anymore." >> jason was telling one of his close friends the same thing. and prosecutors said just days before michelle was murdered, he had indulged in one last transgression. a casual hook-up with an old friend named carol ann sauerby in his own living room. michelle was away at the time. >> cassidy was put down to bed. and i had a couple drinks. just were talking. and we ended up having sex. >> but divorce was apparently not an option for jason. >> he had made a statement at one time he was afraid if he ever got a divorce that michelle would take cassidy and move back to new york. >> and did he indicate he would have concerns about seeing cassidy again? >> correct. >> still, one big question remained. was a good time guy like jason young even capable of murder? genevieve cargo was engaged to jason before he met michelle. she took the stand to testify about a fight they'd had over jason's excessive drinking. >> he became agitated and said something to the effect if i am going to make such a terrible husband, then give me my ring back. >> did you give it to the defendant? >> no. he began trying to pull the ring off. it wouldn't come off. he was throwing me from one bed to the other and jumping on me with all his weight and pinning my arms, both of them, behind me. >> prosecutors hoped to convince the jury it all added up to motive for murder. so how would the defense counterattack? with a witness who could refute every charge. coming up, jason young finally breaks his silence as he takes the stand to testify. >> did you kill your wife, michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> when silent witness continues. this is not a bed. it's proven quality sleep. the new sleep number 360 smart bed, from $999, intelligently senses your movement and automatically adjusts... so you can get a running start on the holidays. and now, save up to $500 on select sleep number 360 smart beds. limited time only. it's softer than ever. charmin ultra soft is softer than ever so it's harder to resist. okay, this is getting a little weird enjoy the go with charmin i'm dara brown with the hour's top stories. the body of former president george herbert walker bush will lie in state at the u.s. capitol ahead of a state funeral at the national cathedral and then a private burial service back in texas. and former fbi director skramz comey has dropped efforts to fight a subpoena from a house committee. he has now agreed to a closed door interview after the judiciary committee agreed to release the transcript. now back to "dateline." welcome back to dateline extra, i'm craig melvin. prosecutors in the jason young murder trial painted a picture of a marriage in pieces. but did a string of affairs mean the husband killed his pregnant wife? it was a question the defense was eager to answer. after five years jason young was about to break his silence and explain what happened the night michelle was killed. here again is keith morrison. >> what the prosecution didn't tell you -- >> there is an art to the business of criminal defense. and it would take an artist to repaint the prosecution's dark portrait of jason young. so what could the defense attorney, mike clinkson, do? well, to begin with, he told the jury, he agreed with the prosecution. jason young was not a good husband. >> he acted at times like an immature jerk. but that does not make him a killer. >> the defense was not about to make any more concessions, mind you. the jewelry box in the bedroom, there was dna on it. didn't match michelle or jason. suspicious activity at the hotel? there was a fingerprint on that camera and it wasn't jason young's. and there wasn't any forensic evidence that tied jason to the crime scene. there was no blood in his car. there was not a scratch on him. >> ladies and gentlemen, jason lynn young did not murder his wife. he did not murder their unborn son. and this case has not been solved. >> who better to make the argument than jason young himself. but so far, he had never said a word to anyone about the november night. and almost five years silence. >> it is always a big decision for defense attorneys whether or not to call their clients. >> beth carris is a former prosecutor and legal analyst. she covered the trial. >> this is a case that really begged for jason young to testify. if he is innocent. >> after all this time. >> if he is truly innocent, get on the stand and tell the story. >> we call jason young. >> with his mother in the front row, jason young prepared to do just that. defense attorney brian collins hit it hard off the top. >> did you kill your wife michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> what about jason's missing hush puppies that match the partial shoe print? he no longer owned them, he said. >> are those the shoes you had on november 2nd? >> no, sir. >> they were all ratty. told michelle to give them to goodwill. as for the night of the murder, after she checked into the hotel, he left his room twice. the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> i was going over the sales call i had the next day. >> the second trip he testified was to smoke a cigar. >> i had to go outside to smoke a cigar. i also wanted to look at sports schedules and some standings and so i wanted to see if i could pick up the "usa today" as well. >> the newspaper run explains why he was seen at the front desk around midnight. >> between the time you smoked the cigar, went back upstairs and went to sleep, did you leave the room until the next morning? >> no, sir. >> the next morning after his sales call, jason testified, he realized he had left e-bay print outs on the computer at home. they showed purses thinking of buying one for michelle as belated anniversary presents. >> i realize i didn't bring the papers. >> why was it important to you somebody get the papers? >> because i wanted it to be a surprise. a surprise to michelle means so much more. >> noon, november 3rd. he called his sister-in-law, meredith, from the car and asked if she would go to the house and get the e-bay papers. he left meredith a voicemail. then he headed to his mother's place in the mountains nearby. and it was there he testified, hours later that he learned michelle had been murdered. >> i just fell. i just -- i just broke on the inside. i just broke and i didn't believe it. >> family members drove him back to raleigh. during the drive, he said his friends called. >> ryan and josh had said that the investigators were asking really ugly questions and pointing their finger at me and doing things like that. they said you don't need to talk to anybody. you need to got a lawyer before you talk to anybody. >> and then the explanation for his long silence. >> the lawyer that i got after talking with him, he actually advised me to not go talk to the police. >> did you take that advice? >> yes. i did. >> did he also tell you not to talk to anybody about it? >> that's exactly what he said. he said don't talk to anybody about anything. >> the defense also addressed the motives prosecutors had laid out that jason wanted to escape a bad marriage and keep custody of cassidy and spend time with his new love. >> did you have any designs in your own mind of leaving michelle young for michelle miney? >> no, sir. >> describe why not. >> i think we both knew it was wrong. i don't think either one dreamed that it would ever be found out. >> pushing me around. >> as for the violent episode with his ex-fiancee, jason had an explanation for it. >> did you throw her around on the bed like she said? >> no, sir. what i did was wrong. i did pin her down and i took the ring. >> okay. what was your level of intoxication at that time? >> i was very intoxicated. but i don't feel like that is an excuse for what i did. >> they questioned him about the most important woman in his life. >> did you want to stay married to michelle? >> yes, i did. i wanted to have -- have another baby and i wanted the family to grow. >> he also explained why he gave up custody of his daughter without a fight. >> were you able to afford a lawyer for a full blown custody battle? >> no, sir, i had -- due to the media and some of the internet website, the job that i had, i lost it. >> his testimony lasted three hours. >> jason young was a very good witness. he understood what he had to do when he was on the stand. >> so he didn't come off as contrived or phony? like he had put this together very carefully in order to account for all of the evidence that they had? >> he had access to police reports. all of the discovery. he knew the state's vulnerabilities. and so he could arguably tailor his testimony to fit with an innocent explanation. >> how did jason young do? 12 jurors were about to decide. but first the prosecutor gets her chance to go one-on-one with jason young. coming up -- >> were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with carolyn in your home? 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continuing with our story here's keith morrison. >> it was riveting. almost five years of silence about his wife's murder broken here in this courtroom. >> i loved cassidy. and i loved michelle. >> and then he went to murder his wife. >> now prosecutor, becky holk, began pulling apart a story she heard for the first time. >> were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with caroline sauerby in your home less than two weeks before your wife was murdered? >> no, ma'am, that was not the way to work on a marriage. that was detrimental. >> were you working on your marriage when you called michelle miney? >> michelle and i confided a lot in each other. we talked about my issues with my wife. she talked about her issues with her husband. >> so is the answer yes when you had an affair with michelle miney that you were working on your marriage? >> no, ma'am. having sexual intercourse and having intimacy was very detrimental to that. >> the cross-examination lasted a full hour. and the next day the case went to the jury. >> retire to the jury deliberation room. >> it soon became clear jurors were having trouble. >> indicated that y'all have not reached a unanimous decision. >> the jurors were split 6-6. the judge sent them back to try to make it unanimous. >> the jurors leave for a second. >> hours later they were back. in courtroom 3c, and it was still. >> it appears that they are hopelessly deadlocked at this point. >> eight jurors had voted for acquittal. four voted guilty. judge stevens declared a mistrial. was serious consideration given to dropping the case? >> i think there was serious consideration as to is there more we can do. >> so the prosecutors decide they would try again. but this time with the one thing they didn't have the first time. jason's own story. the second trial began in february 2012. this time howard cummings led the prosecution, hoping to use jason's own words to convict him. >> put your left hand on the bible, raise your right hand. >> first prosecutors called the night clerk at the gas station, gracie, who remembered jason complaining about the locked pumps. >> when he came in to pay, he started cussing and raising cane. >> what time did this happen? >> that was 5:00, 5:30 in the morning. the time jason said he was at the hotel. >> call your next witness. >> prosecutors had new witnesses and testimony. they wanted jurors to hear about cassidy, whose bloody footprints they contended made her a silent witness to murder. >> when i got to cassidy, i said what are you doing? >> day care worker ashley pomentier took the stand. she told jurors she watched cassidy playing alone days after her mother was murdered. >> she had the chair and the doll in her hands. she took the dolls and just hit them. >> as unsettling as it was, prosecutors wanted jurors to know the killer left a silent witness behind. a witness he would never harm. the fact that cassidy was spared, did that mean anything to you? or would that mean anything to a jury? >> certainly. it meant that the person that killed the mother, we felt, cared about cassidy. >> i do. >> thank you. >> fiona childs took the stand. prosecutors pressed her about a life insurance policy jason arranged. and michelle questioned. >> that she brought up specifically her life insurance. she brought it up several times, asking me did i think a million dollars was too much and did they really need that. >> after michelle died, fiona found out the true amount of the policy was $4 million. >> i was just like in total shock. that is incredibly excessive. >> and prosecutors told the jury about civil lawsuits against jason brought by michelle's mother and sister. one was a wrongful death case filed in 2008, a year before he was charged with murder. over the defense's objection, the court clerk laura freeman testified about that lawsuit. >> there is an alleged paragraph, paragraph 6, again reading verbatim from the record, in the early morning hours of november 3, 2006, jason young brutally murdered michelle young at their residence. >> freeman went on to testify that jason never responded to the allegations. and that led to a default judgment against him. that judgment said jason killed his wife. a default judgment does not mean the facts alleged in the civil complaint are true. it does not mean he is guilty. and the judge at the criminal trial told the jury that in his instructions. however, when you hear the statement jason young brutally murdered his wife, but that doesn't mean he's guilty, folks, hello. you know? >> and the prosecutor made sure the jury heard just who signed that ruling. >> i'm reading from this judgment which is signed actually by judge stevens. >> judge stevens, the very judge sitting before them in this trial. >> the jury hearing that, it is just something that is going to carry a lot of weight. >> this is the complaint that was filed in december seeking custody of cassidy. >> prosecutors also called the attorney involved in that custody case over daughter cassidy, and those same allegations were repeated yet again. >> the jury heard several times through these two civil complaints that jason young brutally murdered michelle fisher young. >> but the headline came when prosecutors played jason young's entire testimony from the first trial -- >> i wanted her to have that. >> -- and began to rip it apart. >> i don't remember. >> prosecutors tried to show jason's call to meredith to pick up the e-bay printouts was merely a ploy to get her to discover the body and find cassidy. why else would he print an e-bay auction ad leave it on the printer and hit the road where he couldn't bid during the actual auction? they called sergeant spivey to the stand. >> that auction would end, 8:00 p.m. eastern standard time. >> what day was that? >> that was on november 2nd, 2006. >> just hours before the murder. now prosecutors tried to prove jason lied about his reasons for leaving the hotel room. >> i didn't pull the door. >> in his original testimony, he told the court he left the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> why did you want to look at the laptop? >> i was going over the sales call i had the next day. >> special agent mike smith took the stand to say that young didn't use his laptop for work that night. >> this is an internet site dedicated to sports. >> jason said he went out a second time to smoke a cigar. but prosecutors contended jason was a fierce anti-smoker and the weather that night was freezing, windy. >> can you tell me whether or not there was any substantial outerwear that the defendant either had in his luggage or that he was wearing? >> no, sir, a suit jacket. that was the only outerwear that i am aware of. >> jason chose not to testify this time. the defense fought back of course. they argued the gas station attendant's memory couldn't be trusted because of a childhood brain injury. >> i have had memory problems since '06 because i've been through a lot with myself and my kids and my ex-husband. >> the defense also argued the case really wasn't solved. that there was no physical evidence to prove jason was the killer. >> there wasn't one scratch on mr. young. >> he never would have had time to make the trip and commit murder, that he didn't have the mind-set of a killer. and that cigar, it showed that jason young owned a humidor and once made a purchase at a cigar store. >> you have ample evidence before you that jason young is not guilty. >> and then it was over again. and time for another jury to consider whether jason young would go to jail or walk out of court a free man. coming up, the verdict take two. >> we, the jury, by unanimous verdict find the defendant, jason lynn young, to be -- >> when silent witness continues. welcome back. for the second time in less than a year jurors were about to deliberate on the fate of accused killer jason young. in his first trial jason took the stand to declare his innocence, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict. this time prosecutors had replayed his testimony and called multiple witnesses to attack his credibility. did the jury believe them? turns out, this case was far from over. here with the conclusion of our story is keith morrison. >> for more than five years, michelle young's family and friends had been waiting for answers. who killed their pretty pregnant michelle? many thought they knew. >> it was him. you know, i didn't know all the evidence. i didn't know half the things i know now. but i felt that way. >> one jury failed to decide. and now attorneys were making their final arguments to a second jury. >> be mad at him. hate him if you want to. but when you look at the physical evidence in this case, it does not match up. it does not match up to jason having killed his wife and unborn son. >> 30 blows? that's not from a stranger. that is a mad, mad domestic abuser. >> soon that jury was behind closed doors in the wake county superior court. after two days, they were back with a verdict. >> the jury by unanimous verdict find jason lynn young to be guilty of first-degree murder. >> guilty. first-degree murder. jason young didn't flinch. behind him his mother was equally stoic. on the other side of the court, michelle young's bereaved mother and sister wept. fiona at home got the news from a friend. they said, "he's guilty." i was like, "what? what?" >> jason young received a life sentence. chose not to address the court. even as the bailiffs led him away, he remained expressionless. the prosecutors were, they told us, relieved. >> i was very emotional. i have family members there who i have been working with for five, five and a half years. and they finally had justice, you know? >> we have been telling them for years, just trust. just that it will be the right result. >> but was it? a year and a half ticked by. and then this. >> attorneys for jason young demanding a new trial saying the trial that led to his conviction had significant errors. >> december 2013. jason young's new attorneys launched his appeal. >> who is the killer? is jason young the person responsible for ms. young's death? it seems fundamentally unfair. >> what was fundamentally unfair? remember during the trial, the attorney pointed out, the prosecution introduced testimony about those civil cases against jason brought by michelle's family. they accused jason of murder. >> jason young brutally murdered michelle young. >> the defendant brutally murdered michelle marie fisher young. >> way out of bounds, said the attorney. the jury should not have been allowed to hear about any of that. outside the court, michelle's sister meredith predicted the appeal would be thrown out. >> the jury came to the right verdict. we are confident it will stay. >> but she was wrong. >> a raleigh man is getting a third trial in the death of his pregnant wife. >> in april, 2014, the judges yet another attempt by jason young to get a third trial, this time on grounds his defense team was ineffective was also denied. cassidy has grown. her father, her mother, snatches of memory ever farther away. >> that's all for this edition of dateline extra. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. msnbc takes you behind the walls of america's most notorious prisons. into a world of chaos and danger. now the scenes you've never seen. 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spared, would that mean anything to a jury? >> the person that killed the mother cared about cassidy. >> silent witness. hello, and welcome to "dateline extra." i am craig melvin. michelle had a smile that would light up the room, and she was the last person that anybody that knew her would expect to be murdered. she was at home with her daughter, cassidy, pregnant with her second child when tragedy spoke. her husband was away on business and unraveling this complicated case would take years. here's keith more sun. >> i think i paused for a second and had to take a deep breath, and just the reality of what was going on sank in. >> those who saw the footprints will not forget them. they were tiny, and they were bloody. >> i had to get my composure to finish searching this house to make sure there was nobody else in the house. >> it was the third of november, 2006, early afternoon. scott urp, he was here because of the 911 call from this place on birch leaf drive. >> i think my sister's dead. >> tell me what happened, ma'am. >> i have no idea. >> the caller was meredith fisher. she just discovered on the floor of the master bedroom the savagely beaten body of her elder sister, 29-year-old michelle young, a woman who in death was about to be famous. >> listen to me, ma'am. i will tell what you to do, but you need to calm down so you can help. you said there was blood everywhere. >> yes -- >> listen to me ma'am. is she breathing? >> i don't think so. >> you have checked? >> michelle? she is cold. cassidy had crawled out just feet from where her mother lay. cassidy's voice, chattering to her aunt was caught on the recorded call. had cassidy witnessed the murder? awakened alone to find this? >> you just picture a small child walking around in the blood and tracking it across the hallway into the bathroom. >> by now county investigators were ascending on the house and having secured the crime scene, but on his way out he saw cassidy again, and he was still in her pink pajamas and in meredith's arms, and he asked meredith a question. >> i looked over to the child and did not see any blood, and i asked if she cleaned the child, and her response was no. it was odd, because i was expecting her to say yes. >> somebody did. >> yes, somebody did. but who? was it the same person that murdered the little girl's mother? on this day, all they had were questions. and richard probably knows the case better than anybody. >> this is a brutal and vicious beating. there was a lot of time and energy invested into this assault. >> why do you say time and energy? >> the medical examiner said there was over 30 blows with some sort of a blunt object. >> detectives started investigating the victim, and everybody else around her. michelle young was born and raised on long island, new york. >> she was smiling all the time. she was the life of the party. >> her friend knew her from childhood? >> she didn't like being the center of attention, but liked to create an atmosphere for everybody to have a good time. >> she was a cheerleader and straight a student. >> she had a bookworm side to her, and she was studious and goal-oriented, and a great person to be around, and a fun and happy spirit. she was somebody that i wanted to spend a lot of time with. >> lots of people did. when she chose a college far from home, north carolina state, she was soon surrounded by a group of admiring friends, best friends, buddies, and whichchils her sorority sister. >> we felt like we looked like a "charlie's angles" pose. >> and they started hearing about her new guy, and he loved to camp and he was a life of tailgate parties. michelle fell hard and fast. >> they seemed like a good couple. he was different from other men that she dated in the past. he was not as serious about a career as she was. he was a little less sophisticated as michelle was, but she seemed to be very happy with him. >> michelle and jason married in 2003, and the day after the wedding, they shared a big secret, michelle was pregnant and their daughter, cassidy, was born early the next year. >> i love you, mommy. >> i love you, too, cassidy. >> and when she came along, it was love at first sight. >> michelle was an enthusiastic mother. >> huh? >> huh? >> by all accounts, jason was a good dad. >> he was a great playmate. he knew how to sit on the floor and play with his daughter, you know. >> the youngs moved into the big fine house on birch leaf in 2005. both worked. he a salesman and she a financial specialist. in the summer of 2006, michelle got pregnant again. they kept the news to themselves, but it was clear something good was happening. >> the comment he said to me was, he's excited to have another baby, not implying that she was pregnant but excited at the prospect of it. >> just a few months later michelle was dead. jason was 170 miles away on the night of the murder, and he heard the news the next afternoon and returned to raleigh. >> my mother calls and said michelle is dead. i said, michelle who? some celebrity? what are you talking about? what do you mean? how is that possible? what happened? >> the very questions that the investigators were asking themselves. >> as the investigation gets under way, a security camera provides a critical clue. it's not what it caught, it's what it missed, and why. coming up -- >> there was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> really? >> yes. it was one of the side exits of the hotel. >> who had something to hide, when silent witness continues. i. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ so shark invented duo clean. while deep cleaning carpets, the added soft brush roll picks up large particles, gives floors a polished look, and fearlessly devours piles. duo clean technology, corded and cord-free. it's proven quality sleep. the new sleep number 360 smart bed, from $999, intelligently senses your movement and automatically adjusts... so you can get a running start on the holidays. and now get 48-month financing on all sleep number 360 smart beds. ends monday. opportunity is everywhere. like here. where nothing stands between you and your best friends. ♪ after bill's back needed a vacation from his vacation. so he stepped on the dr. scholl's kiosk. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain so you can move more. dr. scholl's. born to move. not long ago, ronda started here. and then, more jobs began to appear. these techs in a lab. this builder in a hardhat... ...the welders and electricians who do all of that. the diner staffed up 'cause they all needed lunch. teachers... doctors... jobs grew a bunch. what started with one job spread all around. because each job in energy creates many more in this town. energy lives here. this is moving day with the best in-home wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. and this is moving day with reliable service appointments in a two-hour window so you're up and running in no time. show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. welcome back. what was once quiet suburbs in north carolina was now a horrifying crime scene busting with activity. four months pregnant, and michelle was murdered. here's keith morrison. ♪ >> reporter: the facts were stark and ugly. one night in november, 2006, while her husband was away on business, michelle young was attacked in her bedroom and brutally beaten to death. her body discovered the next day by her sister meredith along with her 2 1/2-year-old daughter cassidy, who had been left to wander in her blood. for the investigators who set out to find her killer, no way to get those little footprints out of their minds. sergeant richard spivey, lead investigator. >> those of us that work in law enforcement, this is our profession, but we're also parents. that certainly strikes a different note with you when you see something like that. >> michelle's husband jason, a medical software salesman, was 170 miles away the night of the murder. even so, investigators had to look at him. >> we know he was the last person to talk to michelle that night. and he was also the reason why she was found. he called meredith fisher to go to the house. >> reporter: jason young's business trip that night was routine. security tape showed him getting gas, 7:30 p.m. as he left raleigh. two hours later seen on tape at a cracker barrel restaurant in greensboro. later checked into the hampton inn in hillsdale, virginia. this is him front desk. 11:00 p.m. and him again at midnight. he also made a phone call around midnight. and that was the last time anybody heard from jason young until he made another call at 7:40 the next morning. >> a normal person would look at this and say he was 170 miles away. he's got an alibi. >> that sounds like a great distance, you know? but 170 miles you can get between the crime scene and the hotel in about two and a half hours. >> reporter: perhaps. but there were curious anomalies at the crime scene. couldn't explain them. a jewelry box was missing two drawers. so was it a bungled burglary? then there were footprints near the body that seemed to eliminate jason. an obvious print on the pillow was a size 10. but jason wore a size 12. but this was weird. there was another partial footprint. it defied easy identification, so they began calling in shoe experts. and now they wondered were there two attackers? of course, investigators discovered early on michelle and jason's marriage was strained. and in the last weeks of michelle's life, things were not good. >> at our friend shelley's wedding he was so drunk. just really out of it. when we got to the wedding, our friends were letting us know michelle and jason were fighting and they were referring to it as world war iii. >> jennifer powers told investigators about another fight that october. michelle wanted her mother to stay with them for the holidays. and jason, who had a tense and jason, who had a tense relationship with his mother-in-law, wanted to limit her stay. and said so in an e-mail. along with another nugget. >> he wrote, our marriage has seen better days, i don't see it trending up. i remember that really striking a chord with me. i didn't know that their marriage had seen better days. >> reporter: of course investigators wanted to interview jason young. maybe he could tell them something. but he refused to talk to them. >> he talked to the lawyer. and then under the advice of counsel, he declined to speak with us at all. >> reporter: didn't ask? didn't ask how his wife died? >> no. >> reporter: perhaps, investigators thought the business trip deserved a second look. they want to the hotel. poked around and discovered some odd activities that night in a stairwell near an exit. >> there was a camera there unplugged. >> really. >> yes, one of the side exits for the hotel. one of the fire stairs that go down to the first floor. >> reporter: any other tampering done? >> the door that was adjacent to where the camera was located the door also had been propped open that night. >> how do you know that? >> the gentleman working as the clerk that night found a rock placed in the door to keep the door from closing. >> well, then they plugged the camera back in, so it's now working again. and at about 6:35 that morning suddenly that camera is pointing straight at the ceiling. >> same camera? >> same camera. tampered with yet again. >> reporter: if that was jason young's work, is it possible he did make the 340 round trip? could he have killed his wife and cleaned up his daughter all in seven and a half hours? without ever being seen? to find out, investigators played a hunch. they visited every gas station along the route. showed jason's photo, tucked to the night clerks. and came across a woman named tracy doms in a tiny place called king, north carolina. she took one look at the photograph and recognized it instantly. he was the foul-mouthed customer she said who came into the store to complain that the pumps were locked. and what time was it? 5:30 a.m., morning of the murder. >> there was actually an altercation between the two of them. so you have a reason why she would remember him as opposed to any other customer that may have just happened into the store. >> reporter: if that attendant was right, investigators may have undercut jason's alibi. still, it wasn't enough. so they plodded ahead, painstaking work, took time. and then, years after the murder, they finally got a match for that partial footprint. >> the state bureau of investigation and the fbi were able to eventually identify that shoe as a hush puppy shoe, size 12, which was the same size that he wore. >> reporter: throughout the investigation, jason steadfastly maintained silence. rather than face a legal battle where he'd be asked some tough questions, spivey said, he even gave michelle's family custody of his daughter. >> everybody we spoke with, all of them talked about how much he loved cassidy, and what a great dad he was. to just turn over primary custody, that was -- that was very surprising. >> reporter: investigators had heard enough. they believed they had a case. circumstantial, but a case. and three years after michelle young's body was found on the bedroom floor, jason young was charged with her murder. investigators and prosecutors knew that very little pointed directly toward jason young, but so far nothing pointed away. coming up, the case against jason young as an alleged killer and as a cheating husband. >> we basically just hung out at the house and had an intimate relationship for the two days he was there. >> cassidy was put to bed and a couple drinks, we were just talking, and we ended up having sex. >> he never settled down. >> when "dateline" continues. ♪ -morning. -morning. -what do we got? 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(bob) the first call that we've made on the cellular system. welcome back to "dateline extra." jason had refused to talk to detectives, but there were several women in jason's life who were willing to share intimate details about the man and his marriage. with the case heading to court, they would soon tell their stories on the stand. here, again, is keith morrison. jason young went on trial for the murder of his pregnant wife michelle in june 2011. by then, he had spent 18 months in a jail cell. the guy who lived for tailgates. the guy who loved to party, that guy was long gone. becky holt was the prosecutor who opened for the state. >> defendant had a plan. his plan was to murder his wife. his plan was to get away with it. >> reporter: with no murder weapon found, the prosecution's case was built on that partial shoe print. they knew now that jason once owned a pair of hushpuppies like these that matched the print. they were now missing. they also told jurors about the early morning visit to the gas station and the suspicious activity at the hotel, but the thrust of their case was this. jason young was trying in the most violent possible way to get out of a troubled marriage. >> were you aware of tensions in that marriage? >> yes. i was well aware. >> reporter: meredith fisher, michelle's sister, lived near the couple. and for a period was cassidy's nanny. as the young's fights intensified, she took on the role of marriage counselor too. >> what would you say were the main issues? >> michelle's main issues were, jason being more responsible, understanding her more, and his main concern was their lack of sex life. >> prosecutors called friends to the stand to paint a picture of a marriage that was unraveling out loud and in public. >> jason made it very well known that, you know, he was upset about the lack of sex in the relationship. >> reporter: and at parties, said fiona childs, jason's x rated tricks were famously over the top. >> i never observed it myself. i would just hear about it. and you know, he would expose himself and do what he thought was these funny tricks. and i was always just rather embarrassed for michelle. >> he never settled down. it was as if he was still living the single life, that he never bought into the marriage. what that -- what all that meant. >> reporter: in october 2006, when michelle was four months pregnant, jason became deeply involved with another woman. and not just any woman. michelle was one of michelle young's close friends from college. one of those charlie's angels. in early october, days before his third wedding anniversary, jason flew to florida to see michelle who testified they both knew it was wrong. >> we basically just hung out at the house and we had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there. >> reporter: jason was crazy about her. his friend josh dalton said. >> he basically told me that he thought was in love with her. >> reporter: michelle's mother, linda fisher, testified in the final weeks of her life, she could see the toll the failing marriage was taking on her pregnant daughter. >> she had her head on my lap. and she was lying down. and i was stroking her hair. and -- and she was empty. >> what did she tell you? >> things weren't working out with jason. >> reporter: two days before she was murdered, michelle phoned her sister meredith to report yet another blowup with jason. >> she was just, "i've had it." she said, "you know, more than one time, i just can't do this anymore." >> reporter: jason was telling one of his close friends the same thing. and prosecutors said just days before michelle was murdered, he had indulged in one last transgression. a casual hook-up with an old friend named carol ann sauerby in his own living room. michelle was away at the time. >> cassidy was put down to bed. and i had a couple drinks. just were talking. and we ended up having sex. >> reporter: but divorce was apparently not an option for jason. >> he had made a statement at one time he was afraid if he ever got a divorce that michelle would take cassidy and move back to new york. >> and did he indicate he would have concerns about seeing cassidy again? >> correct. >> reporter: one question remained. was a good time guy like jason young even capable of murder? genevieve cargo was engaged to jason before he met michelle. she took the stand to testify about a fight over jason's excessive drinking. >> he became agitated and said something to the effect if i am going to make such a terrible husband, then give me my ring back. >> did you give it to the defendant? >> no. he began trying to pull the ring off. it wouldn't come off. he was throwing me from one bed to the other and jumping on me with all his weight and pinning my arms, both of them, behind me. >> reporter: prosecutors hoped to convince the jury it all added up to motive for murder. so how would the defense counterattack? with a witness who could refute every charge. coming up, jason young finally breaks his silence as he takes the stand to testify. >> did you kill your wife, michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. when "silent witness" continues. (chime) - [narrator] meet shark's newest robot vacuum. it powerfully cleans from floors to carpets, even pet hair, with ease, and now for cleaning surfaces above the floor, it comes with a built in shark handheld. one dock, two sharks. the shark ion robot cleaning system. opportunity is everywhere. like here. where you can explore the world knowing you can always find your way home. ♪ i am richy louis with you. nearly 800,000 federal employees will not be paid over the holidays due to the partial shutdown. president trump and republicans shooting down a budget compromise and democrats are saying they will not pay for the border wall. the top u.s. envoy against isis is resigning over the president's decision to full out of syria. he served in the gorge bush and obama white houses. back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline extra." i am craig melvin. prosecutors painted a picture of a marriage in pieces, but did the husband kill his wife. jason young was about to break his silence and explain what happened the night michelle was killed. here again is keith morrison. what the prosecution didn't tell you -- >> reporter: there is an art to the business of criminal defense. and it would take an artist to repaint the prosecution's dark portrait of jason young. so what could the defense attorney, mike clinkson, do? well, to begin with, he told the jury, he agreed with the prosecution. jason young was not a good husband. >> he acted at times like an immature jerk. but that does not make him a killer. >> reporter: the defense was not about to make any more concessions, mind you. the jewelry box in the bedroom, there was dna on it. didn't match michelle or jason. suspicious activity at the hotel? there was a fingerprint on that camera and it wasn't jason young's. and there wasn't any forensic evidence that tied jason to the crime scene. there was no blood in his car. there was not a scratch on him. >> ladies and gentlemen, jason lynn young did not murder his wife. he did not murder their unborn son. and this case has not been solved. >> reporter: who better to make the argument than jason young himself. but so far, he had never said a word to anyone about the november night. and almost five years silence. >> it is always a big decision for defense attorneys whether or not to call their clients. >> reporter: beth carris is a former prosecutor and legal analyst. she covered the trial. >> this is a case that really begged for jason young to testify. if he is innocent. >> reporter: after all this time. >> if he is truly innocent, get on the stand and tell the story. >> we call jason young. >> reporter: with his mother in the front row, jason young prepared to do just that. defense attorney brian collins hit it hard off the top. >> did you kill your wife michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> reporter: what about jason's missing hushpuppies that match the partial should shoe print? he no longer owned them. >> are those the shoes you had on november 2nd? >> no, sir. >> they were all ratty. >> reporter: they were all ratty. told michelle to give them to goodwill. as for the night of the murder, after she checked into the hotel, he left his room twice. the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> i was going over the sales call i had the next day. >> reporter: the second trip he testified was to smoke a cigar. >> i had to go outside to smoke a cigar. i also wanted to look at sports schedules and some standings and so i wanted to see if i could pick up the "usa today" as well. >> reporter: the newspaper run explains why he was seen at the lobby round midnight. >> between the time you smoked the cigar, went back upstairs and went to sleep, did you leave the room until the next morning? >> no, sir. >> reporter: the next morning he realized he had left e-bay printouts on the computer at home. they showed purses thinking of buying one for michelle as belated anniversary present. >> i realize i didn't bring the papers. >> why was it important to you somebody get the papers? >> because i wanted it to be a surprise. a surprise to michelle means so much more than anything. >> reporter: noon, november 3rd. he called his sister-in-law, meredith, from the car and asked if she would go to the house and get the e-bay papers. he left meredith a voice mail. then he headed to his mother's place in the mountains nearby. and it was there he testified, hours later that he learned michelle had been murdered. >> i just fell. i just -- i just broke on the inside. i just broke and i didn't believe it. >> reporter: family members drove him back to raleigh. during the drive, he said his friends called. >> ryan and josh had said that the investigators were asking really ugly questions and pointing their finger at me and doing things like that. they said you don't need to talk to anybody. you need to got a lawyer before you talk to anybody. >> reporter: and then the explanation for his long silence. >> the lawyer that i got after talking with him, he actually advised me to not go talk to the police. >> did you take that advice? >> yes. i did. >> did he also tell you not to talk to anybody about it? >> that's exactly what he said. he said don't talk to anybody about anything. >> the defense also addressed the motives prosecutors had laid out that jason wanted to escape a bad marriage and keep custody of cassidy and spend time with his new love. >> did you have any designs in your own mind of leaving michelle young for michelle miney? >> no, sir. >> describe why not. >> i think we both knew it was wrong. i don't think either one dreamed that it would ever be found out. >> pushing me around. >> as for the violent episode with his ex-fiancee, jason had an explanation for it. >> did you throw her around on the bed like she said? >> no, sir. what i did was wrong. i did pin her down and i took the ring. >> okay. what was your level of intoxication at that time? >> i was very intoxicated. but i don't feel like that is an excuse for what i did. >> reporter: they questioned him about the most important woman in his life. >> did you want to stay married to michelle? >> yes, i did. i wanted to have -- have another baby and i wanted the family to grow. >> reporter: he also explained why he gave up custody of his daughter without a fight. >> were you able to afford a lawyer for a full blown custody battle? >> no, sir, i had -- due to the media and some of the internet website, the job that i had, i lost it. >> reporter: his testimony lasted three hours. >> jason young was a very good witness. he understood what he had to do when he was on the stand. >> reporter: so he didn't come off as contrived or phony? like he had put this together very carefully in order to account for all of the evidence that they had? >> he had access to police reports. all of the discovery. he knew the state's vulnerabilities. and so he could arguably tailor his testimony to fit with an innocent explanation. >> reporter: how did jason young do? 12 jurors were about to decide. first, the prosecutor gets her chance to go one-on-one with jason young. coming up -- >> were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with karen in your home? >> when "silent witness" continues. 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continuing with our story, here's keith mo here's kei here's keith morris zoon. >> reporter: it was riveting. almost five years of silence about his wife's murder broken here in this courtroom. >> i loved cassidy. and i loved michelle. >> and then he went to murder his wife. >> now prosecutor, becky holk, began pulling apart a story she heard for the first time. >> were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with caroline sauerby in your home less than two weeks before your wife was murdered? >> no, ma'am, that was not the way to work on a marriage. that was detrimental. >> were you working on your marriage when you called michelle miney? >> michelle and i confided a lot in each other. we talked about my issues with my wife. she talked about her issues with her husband. >> so is the answer yes when you had an affair with michelle miney that you were working on your marriage? >> no, ma'am. having sexual intercourse and having intimacy was very detrimental to that. >> the cross-examination lasted a full hour. and the next day the case went to the jury. >> retire to the jury deliberation room. >> reporter: it soon became clear jurors were having trouble. >> indicated that y'all have not reached a unanimous decision. >> reporter: the jurors were split 6-6. the judge sent them back to try to make it unanimous. >> the jurors leave for a second. >> reporter: hours later they were back. in courtroom 3c, and it was still. >> it appears that they are hopelessly deadlocked at this point. >> reporter: eight jurors had voted for acquittal. four voted guilty. judge stevens declared a mistrial. was serious consideration given to dropping the case? >> i think there was serious consideration as to is there more we can do. >> reporter: so the prosecutors decide they would try again. but this time with the one thing they didn't have the first time. jason's own story. the second trial began in february 2012. this time howard cummings led the prosecution, hoping to use jason's own words to convict him. >> put your left hand on the bible, raise your right hand. >> reporter: first prosecutors called the night clerk at the gas station, gracie, who remembered jason complaining about the locked pumps. >> when he came in to pay, he started cussing and raising cane. >> what time did this happen? >> that was 5:00, 5:30 in the morning. the time jason said he was at the hotel. >> call your next witness. >> prosecutors had new witnesses and testimony. they wanted jurors to hear about cassidy, whose bloody footprints they contended made her a silent witness to murder. >> when i got to cassidy, i said what are you doing? >> day care worker ashley pomentier took the stand. she told jurors she watched cassidy playing alone days after her mother was murdered. >> she had the chair and the doll in her hands. she took the dolls and just hit them. >> reporter: as unsettling as it was, prosecutors wanted jurors to know the killer left a silent witness behind. a witness he would never harm. the fact that cassidy was spared, did that mean anything to you? or would that mean anything to a jury? >> certainly. it meant that the person that killed the mother, we felt, cared about cassidy. >> i do. >> thank you. >> fiona childs took the stand. prosecutors pressed her about a life insurance policy jason arranged, and michelle questioned. >> that she brought up specifically her life insurance. she brought it up several times, asking me did i think a million dollars was too much and did they really need that. >> reporter: after michelle died, fiona found out the true amount of the policy was $4 million. >> i was just like in total shock. that is incredibly excessive. >> reporter: and prosecutors told the jury about civil lawsuits against jason brought by michelle's mother and sister. one was a wrongful death case filed in 2008, a year before he was charged with murder. over the defense's objection, the court clerk laura freeman testified about that lawsuit. >> there is an alleged paragraph, paragraph 6, again reading verbatim from the record, in the early morning hours of november 3, 2006, jason young brutally murdered michelle young at their residence. >> freeman went on to testify that jason never responded to the allegations. and that led to a default judgment against him. that judgment said jason killed his wife. a default judgment does not mean the facts alleged in the civil complaint are true. it does not mean he is guilty. and the judge at the criminal trial told the jury that in his instructions. however, when you hear the statement jason young brutally murdered his wife, but that guilty, folks. hello? you know? >> reporter: and the prosecutor made sure the jury heard just who signed that ruling. >> i'm reading from this judgment which is signed actually by judge stevens. >> reporter: judge stevens, the very judge sitting before them in this trial. >> the jury hearing that, it is just something that is going to carry a lot of weight. >> this is the complaint that was filed in december seeking custody of cassidy. >> reporter: prosecutors also called the attorney involved in that custody case over daughter cassidy, and those same allegations were repeated yet again. >> the jury heard several times through these two civil complaints that jason young brutally murdered michelle fisher young. >> reporter: but the headline came when prosecutors played jason young's entire testimony from the first trial -- >> i wanted her to have that. >> -- and began to rip it apart. >> i don't remember. >> reporter: prosecutors tried to show jason's call to meredith to pick up the e-bay printouts was merely a ploy to get her to discover the body and find cassidy. why else would he print an e-bay auction ad leave it on the printer and hit the road where he couldn't bid during the actual auction? they called sergeant spivey to the stand. the actual auction? >> that auction was going to end 8:00 p.m. eastern standard time? >> what day was that? >> that was on november 2nd, 2006, just hours before the murder. prosecutors tried to prove jason lied about his reasons for leaving the hotel room. >> in his original testimony, he told the court he left the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> why was it you wanted to look on the laptop? >> i was going over the sales call i had the next day. michael smith took the stand to say young didn't use his laptop for work that night. >> it's an internet site dedicated to sports. >> jason said he went out a second time to smoke a cigar. prosecutors tended he was a fierce anti-smoker, and the weather that night was freezing, windy. >> can you tell me whether there was any substantial outer wear that the defendant had in his luggage or was wear something. >> no, i think there was a suit jacket. >> okay. >> that was the only outer wear i'm aware of. >> jason chose not to testify this time, but the defense fought back, of course. they argued the gas station attendant's memory couldn't be trusted because of a childhood brain injury. >> i've had memory problems since '06 because i've been through a lot with myself and my kids and my ex-husband. >> the defense argued the case wasn't really solved. there was no physical evidence to prove jason was the killer. >> there was not one scratch on mr. young. >> he would never have the time to commit that murder and make the trip. the cigar, jason young actually owned a humidore. >> jason young is not guilty. >> and then it was over again. and time for another jury to consider whether jason young would go to jail or walk out of court a free man. coming up, the verdict, take two. >> we find the defendant, jason young to be -- >> when silent witness continues. matt: whoo! whoo! jen: but that all changed when we bought a house. matt: voilà! jen: matt started turning into his dad. matt: mm. that's some good mulch. ♪ i'm awake. but it was pretty nifty when jen showed me how easy it was to protect our home and auto with progressive. [ wrapper crinkling ] get this butterscotch out of here. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents. there's quite a bit of work, 'cause this was all -- this was all stapled. but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. but we can protect your home and auto not long ago, ronda started here. and then, more jobs began to appear. these techs in a lab. this builder in a hardhat... ...the welders and electricians who do all of that. the diner staffed up 'cause they all needed lunch. teachers... doctors... jobs grew a bunch. what started with one job spread all around. because each job in energy creates many more in this town. energy lives here. for the second time in less than a year, jurors were able to deliberate on jason young. the jury was unable to reach a verdict. this time, prosecutors had replayed his testimony and called multiple witnesses to attack his credibility. did the jury believe them? turns out this case was far from over. here with the conclusion of our story is keith morrison. >> for more than five years, michelle young's family and friends had been waiting for answers. who killed their pretty pregnant michelle? many thought they knew. >> it was him. you know, i didn't know all the evidence, i didn't know half the things i know now. but i felt that way. >> one jury failed to decide. now attorneys were making their final arguments to a second jury. >> be mad at him. hate him if you want to. but when you look at the physical evidence in this case, it does not match up. it does not match up to jason having killed his wife and unborn son. >> 30 blows, that's not from a stranger. that is a mad, mad domestic abuser. >> soon that jury was behind closed doors, in the wake county superior court. after two days, they were back with a verdict. >> we the jury find jason young to be guilty of his wife. >> guilty, jason didn't flinch. on the other side of the court, michelle young's bereaved mother and sister wept. fiona at home got the news from a friend. >> he's guilty. i was like, what? >> jason young received a life sentence, chose not to address the court, even as the bailiffs led him away, he remained expressionless. prosecutors were relieved. >> i was very emotional, have family members there who you've been working with for 5 1/2 years. they finally have justice. >> we've been telling him for years, just trust, just trust that it will be the right result. >> but was it? a year and a half ticked by, and then this. >> attorneys for jason young demanding a new trial saying the trial that led to his conviction had significant errors. >> december 2013. jason young's new attorney launched his appeal. >> who is the killer? is jason young the person responsible for miss young's death? >> and it will seems fundamentally unfair? >> what was fundamentally unfair? during the trial, the prosecution introduced testimony about those civil cases against jason brought by michelle's family. they accused him of young. >> the defendant brutally murdered michelle marie fisher young. the jury should not have been allowed to hear about any of that. outside the court, michelle's sister meredith predicted the appeal would be thrown out. >> we're confident it will stay. >> but she was wrong. >> a raliegh man is getting a third trial in the death of his pregnant wife. >> in april 2014, the north carolina court of appeals granted jason a new trial. a year later the state supreme court reversed the appeals court decision. and in 2017, yet another attempt by jason young to get a third trial. this time on grounds his defense team was ineffective was also denied. children know little of the arcane world of motions and appeals. cassidy has grown. her father, her mother, snatches of a memory ever further away. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline" extra. i'm craig melvin, thank you for watching. she was a person out of a '40s film noir movie. >> reporter: with a life full of mystery to match. >> she was a stunner physically, she was able to say jump and the men would say how high. >> married to a wealthy lawyer. >> he always said she has this hold over me. >> someone she was even closer to. >> eating together, sleeping in the same bed together. she's living at her house.
detectives who the killer was, but maybe she didn't have to. >> the fact that cassidy was spared, would that mean anything to a jury? >> the person that killed the mother cared about cassidy. >> "silent witness." hello and welcome to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. michelle young had a smile that would light up a room. she was the last person anyone whoso knew her would expect to murdered. but it happened. she was at home with her toddler, cassidy, pregnant with her second child, when tragedy struck. the investigation quickly revealed a troubled atmarriage, but hered husband was away on business and untraveling this complicated case would take years. here's keith morrison. >> i think i paused for a second and had to take a deep breath. and just the reality of what was going on would sink in.at >> reporter: those who saw the footprints will not forget them. they were tiny and they were bloody. >> i had to get my composure to finish searching this house to make sure there was nobody elsei in the house. >> reporter: it was the third of november 2006, early afternoon. scott earp was the wait county sheriff's deputy dispatched to a quiet leafy neighborhood called enchanted oaks on the outskirts of raleigh, north carolina. here because of the 911 call from this place, on birchfield drive. >> i think my sister is dead. >> tell me what happened. m >> i have no idea. >> the caller was meredith fisher. she had just discovered on the floor of the master bedroom thet savagely beaten body of her elder sister, 29-year-old michelle young, a woman who in death was about to be famous. >> listen to me, ma'am. i'll tell you what you have to do. you need to calm down so we can help you. you said there's blood everywhere?ne listen to me ma'am. >> i'm listening. >> is she breathing? >> i don't think so.th >> have you checked? >> no. she's cold. >> okay. >> reporter: as she spoke, meredith was cradling her 2 1/2-year-old niece, cassidy, i who crawled out from under the d bed clothes on her parents' bed, just feet from where her mother lay. cassidy's voice chattering to her aunt was caught on the recorded call. >> she's got booboos everywhere. >> had cassidy witnessed the murder, awakened alone to find this?ne >> you just picture a small child walking around in this t blood and tracking it across the hallway over into the bathroom. >> reporter: by now, wake county investigators were descending ot the house. and having secured the crime scene, earp's job was done. but on his way out he saw cassidy again. she was still in her pink pajamas, still in meredith's wa arms.'s he asked meredith a question. >> i looked over at the child. i didn't see any blood. so i asked her, did you clean the child? and her response was no. i thought it was kind of odd because i was expecting her to u say yes, i guess. >> reporter: somebody did? >> yeah, somebody did. >> but who?di was it the same person who murdered the little girl's mother? s on this november day, all they had were questions.mb rich spivey, then a sergeant with the wake county sheriff's office, probably knows the case better than anyone.th >> i mean, this was just a brutal, vicious beating. there was a lot of time and energy invested into this assault.at t >> reporter: why do you say a lot of time and energy? >> i think the medical examiner told us there was over 30 blows with some sort of blunt object. >> reporter: so detectives bl started investigating the victim and everyone else around her. michelle young was born and r. raised on long island, new york. >> she was smiling all the time. and she was the life of the party. >> reporter: stacia grossman knew her from childhood. >> she didn't like being the center of attention, but she liked creating a great atmosphere for everyone to have a great time. >> reporter: michelle was a cheerleader in high school and a straight-a student. jennifer powers felt drawn to her.ig >> she had this kind of bookworm side to her where she was very studious and goal-oriented. i mean, she was also just a great person to be around, a fun, happy spirit. and, you know, someone i wanted to spend a lot of time with. >> reporter: lots of people did. and when she chose a college far from home, north carolina state, she was soon surrounded again by an admiring group of women ai friends, best friends, buddies. fiona childs was her sorority big sister. >> there is this one picture. and it's like -- it just came out beautiful. we liked it. because we felt like we kind of looked like charlie's angels, posed, without intentionally ed doing that. >> reporter: it was sometime in 2001 when friends started hearing about michelle's new guy, a fellow student named jason young, heard how he'd grown upyo in the north carolin mountains, how he loved to camp, how he was the life of tailgate parties. michelle fell hard and fast. >> they seemed like a good couple.e he was different from other men she had dated in the past. he wasn't as serious about a career as she was. he was a little bit less sophisticated than michelle was. but she seemed to be very happyi with him. >> reporter: michelle and jason married in october 2003. the day after the wedding they shared their big secret.te michelle was pregnant. their daughter cassidy was born early the next year. >> mwah!rl >> i love you, mommy.yo >> i love you too, cassidy. ♪ twinkle, twinkle >> reporter: and when she came along it was love at first sight. l ♪ how i wonder what you are >> yay! >> reporter: michelle was an enthusiastic mother. >> huh?e >> huh? >> huh? >> huh? >> by all accounts, jason was a good dad. >> he was a great playmate.od he knew how to sit on the floor and play with his daughter, you know?da >> reporter: the youngs moved into the big fine house on birchleaf in 2005. both of them worked. he a salesman. she a financial specialist. in the summer of 2006 michelle got pregnant again. they kept the news to themselves, but it was clear something good was happening.as >> the comment he said to me was he's excited to have another me baby. not implying she was pregnant. but he was excited at the prospect of it. >> but just a few months later michelle was dead. jason was 170 miles away in virginia on a business trip the night of the murder.n he heard the news the next afternoon and returned to raleigh.d stacia grossman got word from her mother.t >> my mother called and says "michelle's dead." i said, "michelle who? some celebrity? like what are you talking about? what do you mean, how is that possible?tye what happened?" >> reporter: the very questions that wake county investigators t were asking themselves. >> as the investigation gets under way, a security camera provides a critical clue. it's not what it caught. it's what it missed and why. >> coming up -- >> there was a camera there that had beenas unplugged. >> d really? >> yes. it was one of the side exits of the hotel. >> who had something to hide? when "silent witness" continues. . it was a horrifying crime scene busting with activity. four months pregnant, michelle young had been murdered. and investigators were eager to talk to her husband, jason. but would jason talk to them? here's keith morrison. >> reporter: the facts were stark and ugly. one night in november 2006, while her husband was away on business, michelle young was attacked in her own bedroom and brutally beaten to death. her body discovered the next day by her sister meredith along with her 2 1/2-year-old daughter cassidy, who had been left to wander in her blood. for the investigators who set out to find her killer, no way to get those little footprints out of their minds. sergeant richard spivey, lead investigator. >> those of us that work in law enforcement, this is our profession, but we're also parents. that certainly strikes a different note with you when you see something like that. >> michelle's husband jason, a medical software salesman, was 170 miles away the night of the murder. even so, investigators had to look at him. >> we know he was the last person to talk to michelle that night. and he was also the reason why she was found. he called meredith fisher to go to the house. >> reporter: jason young's business trip that night was routine. security tape showed him getting gas, 7:30 p.m. as he left raleigh. two hours later he was seen on tape at a cracker barrel restaurant in greensboro. later he checked into this hampton inn in hillsdale, virginia. this is him front desk. about 11:00 p.m. and him again at midnight. he also made a phone call around midnight. and that was the last time anybody heard from jason young until he made another call at 7:40 the next morning. >> a normal person would look at this and say he was 170 miles away. he's got an alibi. >> that sounds like a great distance, you know? but 170 miles you can get between the crime scene and the hotel in about 2 1/2 hours. >> reporter: perhaps. but there were curious anomalies at the crime scene. couldn't explain them. a jewelry box was missing two drawers. so was it a bungled burglary? then there were footprints near the body that seemed to eliminate jason. an obvious print on the pillow was a size 10. but jason wore a size 12. but this was weird. there was another partial footprint. it defied easy identification, so they began calling in shoe experts. and now they wondered were there two attackers? of course, investigators discovered early on michelle and jason's marriage was strained. and in the last weeks of michelle's life, things were not good. >> at our friend shelley's wedding he was so drunk. just really out of it. when we got to the wedding, our friends were letting us know that michelle and jason were fighting and they were referring to it as world war iii. >> jennifer powers told investigators about another fight that october. michelle wanted her mother to stay with them for the holidays. and jason, who had a tense relationship with his mother-in-law, wanted to limit her stay. and said so in an e-mail. along with another nugget. >> he wrote, "our marriage has seen better days and i don't see it trending up." i remember that really striking a chord with me. because i didn't know that their marriage had seen better days. >> reporter: so of course investigators wanted to interview jason young. maybe he could tell them something. but he refused to talk to them. >> he talked to the lawyer. and then under the advice of counsel he declined to speak with us at all. >> reporter: didn't ask about it? didn't ask how his wife died? >> no. >> reporter: perhaps, investigators thought, that business trip deserved a second look. so they want to the hotel, poked around and discovered some odd activities that night in a stairwell near an exit. >> there was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> really? >> yes. it was one of the side exits for the hotel. one of the fire stairs that go down to the first floor. >> reporter: was there any other tampering done? >> the door that was adjacent to where the camera was located, that door also had been propped open that night. >> how do you know that? >> the gentleman working as the clerk that night found a rock that had been placed in the door to keep the door from closing. >> well, then they plugged the camera back in, so it's now working again. and at about 6:35 that morning suddenly that camera is pointing straight at the ceiling. >> same camera? >> same camera. and it's tampered with yet again. >> reporter: if that was jason young's work, is it possible he did make the 340-mile round trip? could he have killed his wife and cleaned up his daughter all in 7 1/2 hours without ever being seen? to find out, investigators played a hunch. they visited every gas station along the route. showed jason's photo, talked to the night clerks. and came across a woman named gracie doms in a tiny place called king, north carolina. she took one look at that photograph and recognized it instantly. he was the foul-mouthed customer, she said, who came into the store to complain that the pumps were locked. and what time was it? 5:30 a.m., morning of the murder. >> there was actually an altercation between the two of them. so you have a reason why she would remember him as opposed to any other customer that may have just happened into the store. >> reporter: if that attendant was right, investigators may have undercut jason's alibi. still, it wasn't enough. so they plodded ahead, painstaking work, took time. and then, years after the murder, they finally got a match for that partial footprint. >> the state bureau of investigation and the fbi were able to eventually identify that shoe as a hush puppy orbital shoe, size 12, which was the same size that he wore. >> reporter: throughout the investigation, jason steadfastly maintained his silence. and rather than face a legal battle where he'd be asked some tough questions, spivey said, he even gave michelle's family custody of his daughter. >> everyone that we spoke with, all of them talked about how much he loved cassidy and what a great dad he was. to just turn over primary custody, that was -- that was very surprising. >> reporter: investigators had heard enough. they believed they had a case. circumstantial, but a case. and three years after michelle young's body was found on the bedroom floor, jason young was charged with her murder. investigators and prosecutors knew that very little pointed directly toward jason young, but so far nothing pointed away. coming up, the case against jason young as an alleged killer and as a cheating husband. >> we basically just hung out at the house and we had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there. >> cassidy was put down to bed, and had a couple drinks. just were talking. and we ended up having sex. >> he never settled down. >> when "silent witness" continues. teeth? now i don't have to choose! from crest 3d white the whitening therapy collection with new spearmint and peppermint oil. it gently whitens, plus it has a fortifying formula to protect your enamel. look for a $1 coupon in this sunday's paper. welcome back to "dateline extra." jason young had been charged with murdering his pregnant wife michelle. from the day her bloodied body was found bludgeoned to death in the couple's bedroom jason had refused to talk to detectives. but there were several women in jason's life who were willing to share intimate details about the man and his marriage. with the case heading to court, they would soon tell their stories on the stand. here again is keith morrison. >> reporter: jason young went on trial for the murder of his pregnant wife, michelle, in june 2011. by then he'd spent 18 months in a jail cell. the guy who lived for tailgates. the guy who loved to party, that guy was long gone. becky holt was the prosecutor who opened for the state. >> the defendant had a plan. his plan was to murder his wife. his plan was to get away with it. >> reporter: with no murder weapon found, the prosecution's case was built on that partial shoe print. they knew now that jason once owned a pair of hushpuppies like these that matched the print. they were now missing. they also told jurors about the early morning visit to the gas station and the suspicious activity at the hotel, but the thrust of their case was this. jason young was trying in the most violent possible way to get out of a troubled marriage. >> were you aware of tensions in that marriage? >> yeah. i was well aware. >> reporter: meredith fisher, michelle's sister, lived near the couple. and for a period was cassidy's nanny. as the youngs' fights intensified, she took on the role of marriage counselor too. >> what would you say were the main issues? >> michelle's main issues were jason being more responsible, understanding her more, and his main concern was their lack of sex life. >> reporter: prosecutors called friends to the stand to paint a picture of a marriage that was unraveling, out loud and in public. >> jason made it very well known that, you know, he was upset about the lack of sex in the relationship. >> reporter: and at parties, said fiona childs, jason's x-rated tricks were famously over the top. >> i never observed it myself. i would just hear about it. and you know, he would expose himself and do what he thought was these funny tricks. and i was always just rather embarrassed for michelle. >> he never settled down. it was as if he was still living the single life, that he never bought into the marriage. what that -- what all that meant. >> reporter: in october 2006, when michelle was four months pregnant, jason became deeply involved with another woman. and not just any woman. michelle money was one of michelle young's close friends from college. one of those charlie's angels. in early october, days before his third wedding anniversary, jason flew to florida to see michelle money. she testified they both knew it was wrong. >> we basically just hung out at the house and we had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there. >> reporter: jason was crazy about her. his friend josh dalton said. >> he basically told me that he thought was in love with her. >> reporter: michelle's mother, linda fisher, testified in the final weeks of michelle's life she could see the toll the failing marriage was taking on her pregnant daughter. >> she had her head on my lap. and she was lying down. and i was stroking her hair. and -- and she was empty. >> what did she tell you? >> things weren't working out with jason. >> reporter: two days before she was murdered, michelle phoned her sister meredith to report yet another blowup with jason. >> she was just, "i've had it." she said, "you know, more than one time, i just can't do this anymore." >> reporter: jason was telling one of his close friends the same thing. and prosecutors said just days before michelle was murdered, he had indulged in one last transgression. a casual hook-up with an old friend named carol ann sauerby in his own living room. michelle was away at the time. >> cassidy was put down to bed. and had a couple drinks. just were talking. and we ended up having sex. >> reporter: but divorce was apparently not an option for jason. >> he had made a statement at one time that he was afraid if he ever got a divorce that michelle would take cassidy and move back to new york. >> and did he indicate to you that he would have concerns about ever being able to see cassidy again? >> correct. >> reporter: one question remained. was a good time guy like jason young even capable of murder? genevieve cargol was engaged to jason in 1999 before he met michelle. she took the stand to testify about a fight they had over jason's excessive drinking. >> he became agitated. he said something to the effect of if i'm going to make such a terrible husband then give me my ring back. >> did you give it to the defendant? >> no. he began trying to pull the ring off. and it wouldn't come off. he was throwing me from one bed to the other and jumping on me with all his weight and pinning my arms, both of them, behind me. >> reporter: prosecutors hoped to convince the jury it all added up to a motive for murder. so how would the defense counterattack? with a witness who could refute every charge. coming up, jason young finally breaks his silence as he takes the stand to testify. >> did you kill your wife, michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> when "silent witness" continues. continues. i'm dara brown. here's what's happening. president trump praised treasury secretary steve mnuchin calling him a very talented guy but criticized the fed for raising interest rates too fast. this just one day after markets had the worst christmas eve trading day ever. and james mattis wished u.s. troops a merry christmas telling them in this world you hold the line. president trump is pushing his defense secretary out next week two months earlier than planned. that is the latest from msnbc. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. prosecutors in the jason young murder trial painted a picture of a marriage in pieces. but did a string of affairs mean the husband killed his pregnant wife? it was a question the defense was eager to answer. after five years jason young was about to break his silence and explain what happened the night michelle was killed. here again is keith morrison. >> what the prosecution didn't tell you -- >> reporter: there is an art to the business of criminal defense. and it would take a true artist to repaint the prosecution's dark portrait of jason young. so what could defense attorney mike clinkelson do? well, to begin with, he told the jury, he agreed with the prosecution. jason young was not a good husband. >> he acted at times like an immature jerk. but that does not make him a killer. >> reporter: the defense was not about to make any more concessions, mind you. that jewelry box in the bedroom, there was dna on it. didn't match either michelle or jason. the suspicious activity at the hotel? there was a fingerprint on that camera and it wasn't jason young's. and there wasn't any forensic evidence that tied jason to the crime scene. there was no blood in his car. there was not a scratch on him. >> ladies and gentlemen, jason lynn young did not murder his wife. he did not murder their unborn son. and this case has not been solved. >> reporter: who better to make the argument than jason young himself. but so far, remember, he had never said a word to anyone about that november night. and almost five years silence. >> it is always a big decision for defense attorneys whether or not to call their clients. >> reporter: beth carris is a former prosecutor and legal analyst. she covered the trial. >> this is a case that really begged for jason young to testify. if he is innocent. >> reporter: after all this time. >> if he is truly innocent, get on the stand and tell the story. >> we call jason young. >> reporter: with his mother in the front row, jason young prepared to do just that. defense attorney brian collins hit it hard off the top. >> did you kill your wife, michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> reporter: what about jason's missing hushpuppies that match the partial shoe print? he no longer owned them, he said. >> are those the shoes you had on on november the 2nd? >> no, sir. >> reporter: they were all ratty-e said. told michelle to give them to goodwill. as for the night of the murder, after he checked into the hotel, he left his room twice. the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> i was going over the sales call i had the next day. >> reporter: the second trip he testified was to smoke a cigar. >> i had to go outside to smoke the cigar. i also wanted to look at some sports schedules and some standings and so i wanted to see if i could pick up the "usa today" as well. >> reporter: that newspaper run explained why he was seen at the front desk he said around midnight. >> between the time you smoked the cigar, went back upstairs and went to sleep, did you leave that room until the next morning? >> no, sir. >> reporter: the next morning after his sales call jason testified he realized he'd left some ebay printouts sitting on the computer printer at home. they showed purses. he was thinking of buying one for michelle as a belated anniversary present. >> i realized i didn't bring the papers. >> why was it important to you somebody get the papers? >> because i wanted it to be a surprise. a surprise to michelle means so much more than anything. >> reporter: so around noon november 3rd he called his sister-in-law meredith from the car to ask if she'd go to the house and get those ebay papers. >> friday november 3rd. >> he left meredith a voicemail. >> could you go over there and see if you can find them on the computer? >> reporter: then he headed to his mother's place in the mountains nearby. and it was there, he testified, hours later that he learned michelle had been murdered. >> i just fell. i just -- i just broke on the inside. i just broke and i didn't believe it. >> reporter: family members drove him back to raleigh. during the drive, he said his friends called. >> ryan and josh had said that the investigators were asking really ugly questions and pointing their finger at me and doing things like that. they said you don't need to talk to anybody. you need to got a lawyer before you talk to anybody. >> reporter: and then the explanation for his long silence. >> the lawyer that i got after talking with him, he actually advised me to not go talk to the police. >> did you take that advice? >> yes, sir, i did. >> did he also tell you not to talk to anybody about that? >> that's exactly what he said. he said don't talk to anybody about anything. >> the defense also addressed the motives prosecutors had laid out that jason wanted to escape a bad marriage and keep custody of cassidy and spend time with his new love. >> did you have any designs in your own mind of leaving michelle young for michelle money? >> no, sir. >> describe why not. >> i think we both knew it was wrong. i don't think either one dreamed that it would ever be found out. >> pushing me around. >> as for the violent episode with his ex-fiancee, jason had an explanation for it. >> did you throw her around on the bed like she said? >> no, sir. what i did was wrong. i did pin her down and i took the ring. >> okay. what was your level of intoxication at that time? >> i was very intoxicated. but i don't feel like that is an excuse for what i did. >> reporter: and they questioned him about the most important woman in his life. >> did you want to stay married to michelle? >> yes, i did. i wanted to have -- have another baby and i wanted the family to grow. >> reporter: he also explained why he gave up custody of his daughter without a fight. >> were you able to afford a lawyer for a full-blown custody battle? >> no, sir, i had -- due to the media and some of the internet website, the job that i had, i lost it. >> reporter: his testimony lasted three hours. >> jason young was a very good witness. he understood what he had to do when he was on the stand. >> reporter: so he didn't come off as contrived or phony? like he had put this together very carefully in order to account for all of the evidence that they had? >> he had access to police reports. all of the discovery. he knew the state's vulnerabilities. and so he could arguably tailor his testimony to fit with an innocent explanation. >> reporter: how did jason young do? 12 jurors were about to decide. coming up, the prosecutor gets her chance to go one-on-one with jason young. >> coming up -- >> were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with carolyn sauerby in your home? >> when "silent witness" continues. ilent witness" continues. cleans below the gum line and helps repair weakened enamel. gum & enamel repair. look for a $1 coupon in this sunday's paper. it's softer than ever. charmin ultra soft is softer than ever so it's harder to resist. okay, this is getting a little weird enjoy the go with charmin welcome back to "dateline extra." so far jason young's testimony seemed to be answering years of questions. when asked by his attorney, jason admitted cheating on his pregnant wife, michelle. more than once. even so, the defense pointed out infidelity did not make him a murderer. now it was the prosecution's turn to cross-examine the witness. and they'd start by attacking jason's alibi. but with no forensic evidence tying him to the crime scene, could they convince the jury that jason was the killer? continuing with our story, here's keith morrison. >> reporter: it was riveting. almost five years of silence about his wife's murder broken here in this courtroom. >> i love cassidy. and i loved michelle. >> and then he went to murder his wife. >> reporter: now prosecutor becky holt began pulling apart a story she was just hearing for the first time. >> were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with caroline sauerby in your home less than two weeks before your wife was murdered? >> no, ma'am, that was not the way to work on a marriage. that was very detrimental. >> were you working on your marriage when you called michelle money? >> michelle and i confided a lot in each other. and we talked about my issues with my wife. and she talked about her issues with her husband. >> so is the answer yes, when you had an affair with michelle money that you were working on your marriage? >> no, ma'am. having the sexual intercourse and having the intimacy was very detrimental to that. >> reporter: the cross-examination lasted a full hour. and the next day the case went to the jury. >> retire to the jury deliberation room. >> reporter: it soon became clear jurors were having trouble. >> bailiff indicated that y'all have not yet reached a unanimous decision. >> reporter: the jurors were split 6-6. the judge sent them back to try to make it unanimous. >> everybody else remain. jurors leave first. thank you. >> reporter: but hours later they were back. and courtroom 3c was still. >> it appears that they are hopelessly deadlocked at this point. >> reporter: eight jurors had voted for acquittal. four voted guilty. judge stephens declared a mistrial. was serious consideration given to dropping the case? >> i think there was serious consideration as to is there more we can do. >> reporter: so the prosecutors decided they would try again. but this time with the one thing they didn't have the first time. jason's own story. the second trial began in february 2012. this time howard cummings led the prosecution, hoping to use jason's own words to convict him. >> put your left hand on the bible, raise your right hand. >> reporter: but first prosecutors called that night clerk at the gas station, gracie, who remembered jason complaining about the locked pumps. >> when he came in to pay, he started cussing and raising cain. >> what time did this happen? >> that was about 5:00, 5:30 in the morning. the time jason said he was at the hotel. >> call your next witness. >> reporter: then prosecutors had new witnesses and new testimony. they wanted jurors to hear about cassidy, whose bloody footprints they contended made her a silent witness to murder. >> when i got to cassidy, i said what are you doing? >> day care worker ashley pomentier took the stand. >> i noticed what she was doing. >> reporter: she told jurors she watched cassidy playing alone, days after her murder was murdered. >> she had the chair and the doll in her hand together. and then the mommy doll in the other hand. and she just hit them. >> reporter: as unsettling as it was, the prosecutors wanted jurors to know the killer had left a silent witness behind. a witness he would never harm. the fact that cassidy was spared, did that mean anything to you? or would that mean anything to a jury? >> certainly. it meant that the person that killed the mother, we felt, cared about cassidy. >> i do. >> thank you. you may be seated. >> reporter: fiona childs took the stand. prosecutors pressed her about a life insurance policy jason arranged. >> it did raise a red flag -- >> reporter: and michelle questioned. >> that she brought up specifically her life insurance. she brought it up several times, asking me did i think a million dollars was too much and did they really need that. >> reporter: after michelle died, fiona found out the true amount of the policy was actually $4 million. >> i was just like in total shock. that is incredibly excessive. >> reporter: and prosecutors also told the jury about civil lawsuits against jason brought by michelle's mother and sister. one was a wrongful death case filed in 2008, a year before he was charged with murder. over the defense's objection, court clerk lauren freeman testified about that lawsuit. >> there is an alleged paragraph, paragraph 6, again reading verbatim from the record, "in the early morning hours of november 3rd, 2006, jason young brutally murdered michelle young at their residence." >> reporter: freeman went on to testify that jason never responded to the allegations. and that led to a default judgment against him. that judgment said jason killed his wife. >> a default judgment does not mean the facts alleged in the civil complaint are true. it does not mean he's guilty. and the judge at the criminal trial told the jury that in his instructions. however, when you hear the statement "jason young brutally murdered his wife but that doesn't mean he's guilty, folks." hello. you know? >> reporter: and the prosecutor made sure the jury heard just who signed that ruling. >> i'm reading from this judgment which is signed actually by judge stephens. >> reporter: judge stephens, the very judge sitting before them in this trial. >> the jury hearing that, it's just something that's going to carry a lot of weight. >> this is the complaint that was filed in december seeking custody of cassidy. >> reporter: prosecutors also called the attorney involved in that custody case over daughter cassidy, and those same allegations were repeated yet again. >> the jury heard several times through these two civil complaints that jason young brutally murdered michelle fisher young. >> reporter: but the headline came when prosecutors played jason young's entire testimony from the first trial -- >> i wanted her to have that. >> reporter: -- and began to rip it apart. >> i don't remember. >> reporter: prosecutors tried to show that jason's call to meredith to pick up those e-bay printouts was merely a ploy to get her to discover the body and find cassidy. why else would he print an e-bay auction ad leave it on the printer and hit the road where he couldn't bid during the actual auction? they called sergeant spivey to the stand. >> that auction was going to end 8:00 p.m. eastern standard time. >> what day was that? >> that was on november 2nd, 2006. >> reporter: just hours before the murder. now prosecutors tried to prove jason lied about his reasons for leaving the hotel room. >> i didn't pull the door all the way -- >> reporter: in his original testimony, he told the court he left the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> why was it that you wanted to look on your laptop? >> i was going over the sales call that i had the next day. >> reporter: but special agent mike smith took the stand to say young didn't use his laptop for work that night. >> this is an internet site dedicated to sports. >> reporter: jason said he went out a second time to smoke a cigar. but prosecutors contended jason was a fierce anti-smoker and the weather that night was freezing, windy. >> can you tell me whether or not there was ever any substantial outerwear that the defendant either had in his luggage or was wearing? >> no, sir. there was a suit jacket. >> okay. >> that was the only outerwear that i'm aware of. >> reporter: jason chose not to testify this time. but the defense fought back of course. they argued the gas station attendant's memory couldn't be trusted because of a childhood brain injury. >> i've had memory problems since '06 because i've been through a lot with myself and my kids and my ex-husband. >> reporter: the defense also argued the case really wasn't solved. that there was no physical evidence to prove jason was the killer. >> there wasn't one scratch on mr. young. >> reporter: that he never would have had time to make the trip and commit murder, that he didn't have the mind-set of a killer. and that cigar, it showed that jason young actually owned a humidor and he'd once made a purchase at a cigar store. >> you have ample evidence before you that jason young is not guilty. >> reporter: and then it was over again. and time for another jury to consider whether jason young would go to jail or walk out of court a free man. coming up, the verdict take two. >> we, the jury, by unanimous verdict find the defendant, jason lynn young, to be -- >> when "silent witness" continues. hen "silent witness" continues. get stronger... get closer. start listening today to the world's largest selection of audiobooks on audible. and now, get more. for just $14.95 a month, you'll get a credit a month good for any audiobook, plus two audible originals exclusive titles you can't find anywhere else. if you don't like a book, you can exchange it any time, no questions asked. automatically roll your credits over to the next month if you don't use them. with the free audible app, you can listen anytime, and anywhere. plus for the first time ever, you'll get access to exclusive fitness programs a $95 value free with membership. start a 30-day trial today and your first audiobook is free. cancel anytime and your books are yours to keep forever. audible. the most inspiring minds. the most compelling stories. text "listen27" to 500500 to start your free trial today. the most compelling stories. if your moderate to severeor crohn's symptoms are holding you back, and your current treatment hasn't worked well enough it may be time for a change. ask your doctor about entyvio®, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohn's. entyvio® works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract, and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. entyvio® may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. tell your doctor if you have an infection experience frequent infections or have flu-like symptoms, or sores. liver problems can occur with entyvio®. if your uc or crohn's treatment isn't working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio®. entyvio®. relief and remission within reach. welcome back. for the second time in less than a year jurors were about to deliberate on the fate of accused killer jason young. in his first trial jason took the stand to declare his innocence, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict. this time prosecutors had replayed his testimony and called multiple witnesses to attack his credibility. did the jury believe then? turns out this case was far from over. here with the conclusion of our story is keith morrison. ♪ >> reporter: for more than five years michelle young's family and friends had been waiting for answers. who killed their pretty pregnant michelle? many thought they knew. >> it was him. you know, i didn't know all the evidence. i didn't know half the things i know now. but i felt that way. >> one jury failed to decide. and now attorneys were making their final arguments to a second jury. >> be mad at him. hate him if you want to. but when you look at the physical evidence in this case, it does not match up. it does not match up to jason having killed his wife and unborn son. >> 30 blows? that's not from a stranger. that is a mad, mad domestic abuser. >> reporter: soon that jury was behind closed doors in the wake county superior court. after two days, they were back with a verdict. >> we the jury by unanimous verdict find the defendant jason lynn young to be guilty of the first degree murder of michelle -- >> reporter: guilty. first-degree murder. jason young didn't flinch. behind him his mother was equally stoic. on the other side of the court, michelle young's bereaved mother and sister wept. fiona at home got the news from a friend. they said, "he's guilty." i was like, "what? what?" >> reporter: jason young received a life sentence. chose not to address the court. even as the bailiffs led him away, he remained expressionless. the prosecutors were, they told us, relieved. >> i was very emotional. you have family members there who you've been working with for 5 1/2 years. and they finally had justice, you know? >> we have been telling them for years, just trust. just trust that it'll be the right result. >> reporter: but was it? a year and a half ticked by. and then this. >> attorneys for jason young demanding a new trial saying the trial that led to his conviction had significant errors. >> reporter: december 2013. jason young's new attorneys launched his appeal. >> who is the killer? is jason young the person responsible for ms. young's death? and you know, it seems fundamentally unfair. >> reporter: what was fundamentally unfair? remember during the trial, the attorney pointed out, the prosecution introduced testimony about those civil cases against jason brought by michelle's family. they accused jason of murder. >> jason young brutally murdered michelle young. >> the defendant brutally murdered michelle marie fisher young. >> reporter: way out of bounds, said the attorney. the jury should not have been allowed to hear about any of that. outside the court, michelle's sister meredith predicted the appeal would be thrown out. >> the jury came to the right verdict. we are confident it will stay. >> reporter: but she was wrong. >> a raleigh man is getting a third trial in the death of his pregnant wife. >> reporter: in april 2014 the north carolina court of appeals granted jason a new trial. but a year later the state supreme court reversed the appeals court decision. and in 2017 yet another attempt by jason young to get a third trial, this time on grounds his defense team was ineffective, was also denied. >> i love you, mommy. >> i love you too, cassidy. >> reporter: but children know little of the arcane world of motions and appeals. cassidy has grown. her father, her mother, snatches of memory, ever farther away. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching.
detectives who the killer was, but maybe she didn't have to. >> the fact that cassidy was spared, would that mean anything to a jury? >> the person that killed the mother cared about cassidy. >> "silent witness." hello and welcome to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. michelle young had a smile that would light up a room, she's the last person anyone who knew her would expect to be murdered, but it happened. she was at home with her toddler, cassidy, pregnant with her second child with tragedy struck. the investigation quickly revealed a troubled marriage, but her husband was away on business and unraveling this complicated case would take years. here's keith morrison. >> i think i paused for a second and had to take a deep breath. and just the reality of what was going on would sink in. >> those who saw the footprints will not forget them. they were tiny and they were bloody. >> i had to get my composure to finish searching this house to make sure there was nobody else in the house. >> it was the 3rd of november, 2006. early afternoon. scott earp was the wake county sheriff's deputy dispatched to a quiet and leafy neighborhood called enchanted oaks. the outskirts of raleigh, north carolina. here for the 911 call from this place on birchleaf drive. >> i think my sister is dead. >> tell me what happened, ma'am. >> i have no idea. >> the caller was meredith fisher. she had just discovered on the floor of the master bedroom the savagely beaten body of her elder sister, 29-year-old michelle young, a woman who in death was about to be famous. >> listen to me, ma'am. i'll tell you what you have to do. you need to calm down so we can help you. you said there's blood everywhere? >> listen to me, ma'am. >> i'm listening. >> is she breathing? >> i don't think so. >> did you check? >> michelle? she's cold. >> as she spoke, meredith i was cradling her 2 1/2-year-old niece, cassidy, who crawled out from under the bed clothes on her parents' bed. feet from where her mother lay. cassidy's voice chattering to her aunt was caught on the recorded call. had cassidy witnessed the murder, awakened alone to find this? >> you just picture a small child walking around in this blood and tracking it across the hallway over into the bathroom. >> by now, wake county investigators were descending on the house. having secured the crime scene, earp's job was done. but on his way out he saw cassidy again. she was still in her pink pajamas, still in meredith's arms. he asked meredith a question. >> i looked over at the child. i asked her did you clean the child? her response was no. i thought it was kind of odd because i was expecting her to say yes, i guess. >> somebody did. >> yeah, somebody did. >> but who? the same person who murdered the little girl's mother? on this november day, all they had were questions. richard spivey, then a sergeant with the wake county sheriff's office probably knows the ka s better than anyone. >> i mean, this was just a brutal, vicious beating. there was a lot of time and energy invested into this assault. >> why do you say a lot of time and energy? >> the medical examiner told us there were over 30 blows with some sort of blunt object. >> so detectives started investigating the victim and everyone else around her. michelle young was born and raised on long island, new york. >> she was smiling all the time. and she was the life of the party. >> stacia grossman knew her from childhood. >> she didn't like being the center of attention, but liked creating a great atmosphere to have a great time. >> michelle was a cheerleader in high school and a straight "a" student. jennifer powers felt drawn to her. >> she had this kind of bookworm side to her. she was very studious and goal-oriented. i mean, she was also just a great person to be around, a fun, happy spirit. and, you know, someone i wanted to spend a lot of time with. >> lots of people did. and when she chose a college far from home, north carolina state, she was soon surrounded again by an admiring group of women friends, best friends, buddies. fiona childs was her sorority big sister. >> there is this one picture. it's, like, it just came out beautiful and we liked it because we thought he kind of looked like charlie's angels posed without intentionally doing that. >> it was sometime in 2001 when friends started hearing about michelle's new guy. a fellow student named jason young. how he had grown up in the north carolina mountains, how he loved to camp, how he was the life of tailgate parties. michelle fell hard and fast. >> they seemed like a good couple. he was different from other men she had dated in the past. he wasn't as serious about a career as she was. he was a little bit less sophisticated than michelle was. but she seemed to be very happy with him. >> michelle and jason married in october 2003. the day after the wedding, they shared their big secret. michelle was pregnant. their daughter, cassidy, was born early the next year. >> i love you, mommy. >> i love you too, cassidy. ♪ twinkle, twinkle >> and when she came along, it was love at first sight. ♪ how i wonder what you are >> yeah! >> michelle was an enthusiastic mother. >> huh? >> huh? >> huh? >> huh? >> by all accounts, jason was a good dad. >> he was a great playmate. he knew how to sit on the floor and play with his daughter, you know? >> the youngs moved into the big fine house on birchleaf in 2005. both of them worked. he a salesman. she a financial specialist. in the summer of 2006, michelle got pregnant again. they kept the news to themselves, but it was clear something good was happening. >> the comment he said to me was he's excited to have another baby. not implying she was pregnant. but he was excited at the prospect of it. >> but just a few months later, michelle was dead. jason was 170 miles away in virginia on a business trip the night of the murder. he heard the news the next afternoon and returned to raleigh. stacia grossman got word from her mother. >> my mother called and said "michelle is dead." i said, "michelle who? some celebrity? like, what are you talking about? what do you mean, how is that possible? what happened?" >> the very question that wake county investigators are asking themselves. >> a security camera provides a critical clue. it's not what it caught. it's what it missed and why. coming up -- >> it was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> really? >> yes. it was one of the side exits of the hotel. >> who had something to hide? when "silent witness" continues. . hard work baby, it gonna pay off. welcome back. what was once a quiet home in the suburbs of raleigh, north carolina, was now a horrifying crime scene bustling with activity. four months pregnant, michelle young had been murdered. and investigators were eager to talk to her husband, jason, but would jason talk to them? here's keith morrison. >> the facts were stark and ugly. one night in november, 2006, while her husband was away on business, michelle young was attacked in her bedroom and brutally beaten to death. her body discovered the next day by her sister, meredith, along with her 2 1/2-year-old daughter cassidy, who had been left to wander in her blood. for the investigators who set out to find her killer, no way to get those little footprints out of their minds. sergeant richard spivey, lead investigator. >> those of us that work in law enforcement, this is our profession, but we're also parents. that certainly strikes a different note with you when you see something like that. >> michelle's husband jason, a medical software salesman, was 170 miles away the night of the murder. even so, investigators had to look at him. >> we know he was the last person to talk to michelle that night. and he was also the reason why she was found. he called meredith fisher to go to the house. >> jason young's business trip that night was routine. security tape showed him getting gas, 7:30 p.m. as he left raleigh. two hours later seen on tape at a cracker barrel restaurant in greensboro. later checked into the hampton inn in hillsdale, virginia. and him again at midnight. he also made a phone call around midnight. and that was the last time anybody heard from jason young until he made another call at 7:40 the next morning. >> a normal person would look at this and say he was 170 miles away. he's got an alibi. >> that sounds like a great distance, you know? but 170 miles you can get between the crime scene and the hotel in about 2 1/2 hours. >> perhaps, but there were curious anomalies at the crime scene. couldn't explain them. a jewelry box was missing two drawers. so was it a bungled burglary? then there were footprints near the body that seemed to eliminate jason. an obvious print on the pillow was a size 10. but jason wore a size 12. but this was weird. there was another partial footprint. it defied easy identification, so they began calling in shoe experts. and now they wondered were there two attackers? of course, investigators discovered early on michelle and jason's marriage was strained. and in the last weeks of michelle's life, things were not good. >> at our friend shelley's wedding he was so drunk. just really out of it. when we got to the wedding, our friends were letting us know michelle and jason were fighting and they were referring to it as world war iii. >> jennifer powers told investigators about another fight that october. michelle wanted her mother to stay with them for the holidays. and jason, who had a tense and jason, who had a tense relationship with his mother-in-law, wanted to limit her stay. and said so in an e-mail. along with another nugget. >> he wrote, our marriage has seen better days and i don't see it trending up. i remember that really striking a chord with me. i didn't know that their marriage had seen better days. >> of course, investigators wanted to interview jason young. maybe he could tell them something. but he refused to talk to them. >> he talked to the lawyer. and then under the advice of counsel, he declined to speak with us at all. >> didn't ask about it? >> didn't ask how his wife died? >> no. >> perhaps, investigators thought, that business trip deserved a second look. so they went to the hotel. poked around. and discovered some odd activities that night in a stairwell near an exit. >> there was a camera there unplugged. >> really? >> yes, one of the side exits for the hotel. one of the fire stairs that go down to the first floor. >> was there any other tampering done? >> well, the door that was adjacent to where this camera's located, that door also had been propped open that night. >> how do you know that? >> the gentleman working as the clerk that night found a rock placed in the door to keep the door from closing. >> well, then they plugged the camera back in, so it's now working again. and at about 6:35 that morning suddenly that camera is pointing straight at the ceiling. >> same camera? >> same camera. tampered with yet again. >> if that was jason young's work, is it possible he did make the 340-mile round trip? could he have killed his wife and cleaned up his daughter all in 7 1/2 hours without ever being seen? to find out, investigators played a hunch. they visited every gas station along the route. showed jason's photo. talked to the night clerks. and came across a woman named tracy doms in a tiny place called king, north carolina. she took one look at the photograph and recognized it instantly. he was the foul-mouthed customer she said who came storming into the store to complain the pumps were locked. and what time was it? 5:30 a.m., morning of the murder. >> there was actually an altercation between the two of them. so you have a reason why she would remember him as opposed to any other customer that may have just happened into the store. >> is if that attendant was right, investigators may have undercut jason's alibi. still, it wasn't enough. so they plodded ahead, painstaking work, took time. and then, years after the murder, they finally got a match for that partial footprint. >> the state bureau of investigation and the fbi were able to eventually identify that shoe as a hush puppy shoe, size 12, which was the same size that he wore. >> throughout the investigation, jason steadfastly maintained his silence. rather than face a legal battle where he'd be asked some tough questions, spivey said, he even gave michelle's family custody of his daughter. >> everyone that we spoke with, all of them talked about how much he loved cassidy and what a great dad he was. to just turn over primary custody, that was -- that was very surprising. >> investigators had heard enough. they believed they had a case. circumstantial, but a case. and three years after michelle young's body was found on the bedroom floor, jason young was charged with her murder. investigators and prosecutors knew that very little pointed directly toward jason young, but so far nothing pointed away. coming up, the case against jason young as an alleged killer and as a cheating husband. >> we basically just hung out at the house and we had aintimate relationship for the two days that he was there. >> cassidy was put down to bed and a couple drinks, just were talking. we ended up having sex. >> he never settled down. >> when "silent witness" continues. ent witness" continues. here is another laundry hack from home made simple. do you want ready to wear clothing without all the hassle? you can, with bounce dryer sheets. simply toss two sheets in the dryer to iron less. we dried one shirt without bounce, and an identical shirt using bounce. the bounce shirt has fewer wrinkles, less static, and more softness and freshness. for extra large or wrinkly loads, toss in three sheets. dermatologist tested bounce free and gentle is free of dyes and perfumes. bounce out wrinkles, bounce out static. welcome back to "kadateline extra." jason young was charged with murdering his wife, michelle. from the day her body was found in the couple's bedroom, jason refused to talk to detectives but there were several women in jason's life who were willing to share intimate details about the man and his marriage. with the case heading to court, they would soon tell their stories on the stand. here, again, is keith morrison. >> jason young went on trial for the murder of his pregnant wife, michelle, in june 2011. by then, he had spent 18 months in a jail cell. the guy who lived for tailgates. the guy who loved to party, that guy was long gone. becky holt was the prosecutor who opened for the state. >> defendant had a plan. his plan was to murder his wife. his plan was to get away with it. >> with no murder weapon found, the prosecution's case was built on that partial shoe print. they knew now that jason once owned a pair of hushpuppies like these that matched the print. they were now missing. they also told jurors about the early morning visit to the gas station and the suspicious activity at the hotel, but the thrust of their case was this. jason young was trying in the most violent possible way to get out of a troubled marriage. >> were you aware of tensions in that marriage? >> yes. i was well aware. >> meredith fisher, michelle's sister, lived near the couple. and for a period was cassidy's nanny. as the young's fights intensified, she took on the role of a marriage counselor, too. >> what would you say were the main issues? >> michelle's main issues were jason being more responsible, understanding her more, and his main concern was their lack of sex life. >> prosecutors called friends to the stand to paint a picture of a marriage that was unraveling out loud and in public. >> jason made it very well known that, you know, he was upset about the lack of sex in the relationship. >> and at parties, said fiona child, jason's x-rated tricks were famously over the top. >> i never observed it myself. i would just hear about it. and you know, he would expose himself and do what he thought was these funny tricks. and i was always just rather embarrassed for michelle. >> he never settled down. it was as if he was still living the single life, that he never bought into the marriage. what that -- what all that meant. >> in october 2006 was michelle was 4 months pregnant, jason became deeply involved with another woman. and not just any woman. she was one of michelle young's close friends from college. one of those charlie's angels. in early october, days before his third wedding anniversary, jason flew to florida to see michelle monie who testified they both knew it was wrong. >> we basically just hung out at the house and we had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there. >> jason was crazy about her. his. frie friend, josh dalton, said. >> he basically told me that he thought was in love with her. >> michelle's mother, linda fisher, testified in the final weeks of her life. she could see the toll the failing marriage was taking on her pregnant daughter. >> she had her head on my lap. and she was lying down. and i was stroking her hair. and she was empty. >> and what did she tell you? >> things weren't working out with jason. >> two days before she was murdered, michelle phoned her sister, meredith, to report yet another blowup with jason. >> she was just, "i've had it." she said, "you know, more than one time, i just can't do this anymore." >> jason was telling one of his close friends the same thing. and prosecutors said just days before michelle was murdered, he had indulged in one last transgression. a casual hook-up with an old friend named carol ann sauerby in his own living room. michelle was away at the time. >> cassidy was put down to bed. and i had a couple drinks. just were talking. and we ended up having sex. >> but divorce was apparently not an option for jason. >> he had made a statement at one time he was afraid if he ever got a divorce that michelle would take cassidy and move back to new york. >> and did he indicate he would have concerns about seeing cassidy again? >> correct. >> still, one big question remained. was a good-time guy like jason young even capable of murder? genevieve cargo was engaged to jason in 1999 before he met michelle. she took the stand to testify about a fight over jason's excessive drinking. >> he became agitated and said something to the effect if i am going to make such a terrible husband, then give me my ring back. >> did you give it to the defendant? >> no. he began trying to pull the ring off. it wouldn't come off. he was throwing me from one bed to the other and jumping on me with all his weight and pinning my arms, both of them, behind me. >> prosecutors hoped to convince the jury it all added up to a motive for murder, so how would the defense counterattack? with a witness who could refute every charge. coming up, jason young finally breaks his silence as he takes the stand to testify. >> did you kill your wife, michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> when "silent witness" continues. t witness" continues. cvs pharmacy. ed gets copays as low as zero dollars on medicare part d prescriptions. ed gets labels clear as day. and, lily.... lily gets anything she wants. ed knows he could just have us deliver his prescriptions. but what's the fun in that? switch to cvs pharmacy. i'm richard liu with the hour's top stories. the brother of an american citizen arrested in russia is speaking out insisting his brother is innocent. paul whelan was arrested friday in moscow for allegedly spying but his brother says he was there for a wedding. the u.s. state department says it's pushing for access to whelan now. far awi from home a nasa space object threw past an item -- farther than any other a nasa spacecraft has done before. for now, back to "silent witness." welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. prosecutors in the jason young murder trial painted a picture of a marriage in pieces. but did a string of affairs mean the husband killed his pregnant wife? it was a question the defense was eager to answer. after five years, jason young was about to break his silence and explain what happened the night michelle was killed. here, again, is keith morrison. >> what the prosecution didn't tell you -- >> there's an art to the business of criminal defense. and it would take a true artist to repaint the prosecution's dark portrait of jason young. so what could the defense attorney, mike clinkson, do? well, to begin with, he told the jury, he agreed with the prosecution. jason young was not a good husband. >> he acted at times like an immature jerk. but that does not make him a killer. >> the defense was not about to make any more concessions, mind you. >> the jewelry box in the bedroom, there was dna on it, didn't match either michelle or jason. the suspicious activason young's. and there wasn't any forensic evidence that tied jason to the crime scene. there was no blood in his car. there was not a scratch on him. >> ladies and gentlemen, jason lynn young did not murder his wife. he did not murder their unborn son. and this case has not been solved. >> who better to make that argument than jason young, himself? but so far, remember, he'd never said a word to anyone about that november night. and almost five years' silence. >> it's always a big decision for defense attorneys whether or not to call their clients. >> breaeth karas is a former prosecutor and legal analyst. she covered the trial. >> this is a case that really begged for jason young to testify. if he was innocent. >> after all this time. >> if he is truly innocent, get on the stand and tell the story. >> we call jason young. >> with his mother sitting in the front row, jason young prepared to do just that. the defense attorney hit it hard off the top. >> did you kill your wife, michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> what about jason's missing hushpuppies that matched the partial shoe print? he no longer had them, he said. >> are those the shoes you had on november 2nd? >> no, sir. >> they were all rattie, he said, told michelle to give them to good will. as for the night of the murder, after she checked into the hotel, he left his room twice. the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> i was going over the sales call i had the next day. >> the second trip, he testified, was to smoke a cigar. >> i had to go outside to smoke a cigar. i also wanted to look at sports schedules and some standings and so i wanted to see if i could pick up the "usa today" as well. >> that newspaper run explained why he was seen at the front desk, he said, around midnight. >> so between the time you smoked the cigar and went back upstairs and went to sleep, did you leave that room until the next morning? >> no, sir. >> next morning after his sales call, jason testified he realized he left some ebay printouts sitting on the computer printer at home. they showed purses thinking of buying one for michelle as a belated anniversary present. >> i realize i didn't bring the papers. >> why was it important to you somebody get the papers? >> because i wanted it to be a surprise. a surprise to michelle means so much more than -- >> around noon, november 3rd, he called his sister-in-law, meredith, from the car to ask if she'd go to the house and get those ebay papers. >> friday, november 3rd. >> he left meredith a voicemail. >> do me a huge favor and go over there, see if you can find something on the computer. >> then he headed to his mother's place in the mountains nearby and it was there, he testified, hours later that he learned michelle had been murdered. >> i just fell. i just -- i just broke on the inside. i just broke and i didn't believe it. >> family members drove him back to raleigh. during the drive, he said his friends called. >> ryan and josh had said that the investigators were asking really ugly questions and pointing their finger at me and doing things like that. they said you don't need to talk to anybody. you need to get a lawyer before you talk to anybody. >> and then the explanation for his long silence. >> the lawyer that i got after talking with him, he actually advised me to not go talk to the police. >> did you take that advice? >> yes. i did. >> did he also tell you not to talk to anybody about it? >> that's exactly what he said. he said don't talk to anybody about anything. >> the defense also addressed the motives prosecutors had laid out that jason wanted to escape a bad marriage and keep custody of cassidy and spend time with his new love. >> did you have any designs in your own mind of leaving michelle young for michelle monie? >> no, sir. >> describe why not. >> i think we both knew it was wrong. i don't think we either one dreamed that it would ever be found out. >> pushing me around. >>? as for that violent episode with his ex-fiancee, jason had an explanation nr it. >> did you throw her around on the bed like she said? >> no, sir. what i did was wrong. i did pin her down and i took the ring. >> okay. what was your level of intoxication at that time? >> i was very intoxicated. but i don't feel like that is an excuse for what i did. >> they questioned him about the most important woman in his life. >> did you want to stay married to michelle? >> yes, i did. i wanted to have -- have another baby and i wanted the family to grow. >> he also explained why he gave up custody of his daughter without a fight. >> were you able to afford a lawyer for a full-blown custody battle? >> no, sir, i had -- due to the media and some of the internet website, the job that i had, i lost it. >> his testimony lasted three hours. >> jason young was a very good witness. he understood what he had to do when he was on the stand. >> so he didn't come off as contrived or phony? like he had put this together very carefully in order to account for all of the evidence that they had? >> he had access to police reports. all of the discovery. he knew the state's vulnerabilities. and so he could arguably tailor his testimony to fit with an innocent explanation. >> how did jason young do? 12 jurors were about to decide. but first, the prosecutor gets her chance to go one-on-one with jason young. coming up -- >> working on your marriage, you were having sex with caroline sauerby in your home. in your hoe welcome back to "dateline extra." so far, jason young's testimony seemed to be answering years of questions. when asked by his attorney, jason admitted cheating on his pregnant wife, michelle, more than once. even so, the defense pointed out infidelity did not make him a murderer. now it was the prosecution's turn to cross examine the witness and they start by attacking jason's alibi. but with no forensic evidence tieing him to the crime scene, could they convince the jury that jason was the killer? continuing with our story, here's keith morrison. >> it was riveting. almost five years of silence about his wife's murder broken here in this courtroom. >> i loved cassidy. and i loved michelle. >> and then he went to murder his wife. >> now prosecutor, becky holk, began pulling apart a story she had just heard for the first time. >> were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with caroline sauerby in your home less than two weeks before your wife was murdered? >> no, ma'am, that was not the way to work on a marriage. that was detrimental. >> were you working on your marriage when you called michelle monie? >> michelle and i confided a lot in each other. we talked about my issues with my wife. she talked about her issues with her husband. >> so is the answer yes when you had an affair with michelle miney that you were working on your marriage? >> no, ma'am. having sexual intercourse and having intimacy was very detrimental to that. >> the cross-examination lasted a full hour. and the next day the case went to the jury. >> retire to the jury deliberation room. >> it soon became clear jurors were having trouble. >> indicated that y'all have not yet reached a unanimous decision. >> the jurors were split 6-6. the judge sent them back to try to make it unanimous. >> everybody else remain, the jurors leave for a second. >> hours later, they were back, and courtroom 3c was still. >> it appears that they are hopelessly deadlocked at this point. >> eight jurors had voted for acquittal. four voted guilty. judge stevens declared a mistrial. was serious consideration given to dropping the case? >> i think there was serious consideration as to is there more we can do? >> so the prosecutors decided they would try again. but this time with the one thing they didn't have the first time. jason's own story. the second trial began in february 2012. this time howard cummings led the prosecution, hoping to use jason's own words to convict him. >> put your left hand on the bible, raise your right hand. >> but first, prosecutors called that night clerk at the gas station, gracie, who remembered jason complaining about the locked pumps. >> when he came in to pay, he started cussing and raising cane. >> and what time did this happen? >> that was 5:00, 5:30 in the morning. >> the time when jason said he was at the hotel. >> call your next witness. >> then prosecutors had new witnesses and new testimony. they wanted jurors to hear about cassidy whose bloody footprints, they contended, made her a silent witness to murder. >> when i got to cassidy, i said what are you doing? >> daycare worker ashley pomentier took the stand. >> i noticed what she was doing. >> she told jurors she watched cassidy playing alone, days after her mother was murdered. >> she had the chair and the doll in her hand together then the mommy doll in the other hand and she just hit them. >> as unsettling as it was, the prosecutors wanted jurors to know the killer had left a silent witness behind. a witness he would never harm. the fact that cassidy was spared, did that mean anything to you or would that mean anything to a jury? >> certainly it meant the person who killed the mother we felt cared about cassidy. >> i do. >> thank you. >> fiona childs took the stand. prosecutors pressed her about a life insurance policy jason arranged. >> it did raise a red flag. >> and michelle had questioned. >> that she brought up specifically her life insurance. she brought it up several times, asking me didn't i think that a million dollars was too much and did they really need that? >> after michelle died, fiona found out the true amount in the policy was actually $4 million. >> i was just, like, in total shock. that is incredibly excessive. >> prosecutors also told the jury about civil lawsuits against jason brought by michelle's mother and sister. one was a wrongful death case filed in 2008, a year before he was charged with murder. over the defense's objection, court clerk laura freeman testified about that lawsuit. >> there is an alleged paragraph, paragraph 6, again reading verbatim from the record, in the early morning hours of november 3, 2006, jason young brutally murdered michelle young at their residence. >> freeman went on to testify that jason never responded to the allegations. and that led to a default judgment against him. that judgment said jason killed his wife. >> a default judgment does not mean the facts alleged in the civil complaint are true. it does not mean he's guilty. and the judge at the criminal trial told the jury that in his instructions. however, when you hear the statement, jason young brutally murdered his wife, but that doesn't mean he's guilty, folks. hello? you know? >> and the prosecutor made sure the jury heard just who signed that ruling. >> i'm reading from this judgment which is signed actually by judge stevens. >> judge stevens. the very judge sitting before them in this trial. >> the jury hearing that, it is just something that is going to carry a lot of weight. >> this is the complaint that was filed in december seeking custody of cassidy. >> prosecutors also called the attorney involved in that custody case over daughter, cassidy, and those same allegations were repeated yet again. >> the jury heard several times through these two civil complaints that jason young brutally murdered michelle fisher young. >> but the headline act came when prosecutors played jason young's entire testimony from the first trial. >> i wanted her to have that. >> and began to rip it apart. >> i don't remember. >> prosecutors tried to show that jason's call to meredith to pick up those ebay printouts was merely a ploy to get her to discover the body and find cassidy. why else would you print an ebay auction ad they called sergeant spivey to the stand. >> that auction would end, 8:00 p.m. eastern standard time. >> what day was that? >> that was on november 2nd, 2006. >> reporter: just hours before the murder. now prosecutors tried to prove jason lied about his reasons for leaving the hotel room. >> i didn't pull the door. >> reporter: in his original testimony, he told the court he left the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> why did you want to look at the laptop? >> i was going over the sales call the next day. >> special agent mike smith took the stand to say that young didn't use his laptop for work that night. >> this is an internet site dedicated to sports. >> reporter: jason said he went out a second time to smoke a cigar. but prosecutors contended jason was a fierce anti-smoker and the weather that night was freezing, windy. >> can you tell me whether or not there was any substantial outerwear that the defendant either had in his luggage or that he was wearing? >> no, sir, a suit jacket. that was the only outerwear that i am aware of. >> reporter: jason chose not to testify this time. the defense fought back of course. they argued the gas station attendant's memory couldn't beep trusted because of a childhood brain injury. >> i have had memory problems since '06 because i've been through a lot with myself and my kids and my ex-husband. >> reporter: the defense also argued the case really wasn't solved. that there was no physical evidence to prove jason was the killer. >> there wasn't one scratch on mr. young. >> reporter: he never would have had time to make the trip and commit murder, that he didn't have the mind-set of a killer. and that cigar, it showed that jason young owned a humidor and once made a purchase at a cigar store. >> you have ample evidence before you that jason young is not guilty. >> reporter: and then it was over again. and time for another jury to consider whether jason young would go to jail or walk out of court a free man. coming up, the verdict take two. >> we, the jury, by unanimous verdict find the defendant, jason lynn young, to be -- hey, who are you? 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[crash] what?! haha, it happens. and if you've got cut-rate car insurance, paying for this could feel like getting robbed twice. so get allstate... and be better protected from mayhem... like me. ♪ are welcome back. for the second time in less than a year, jurors were about to debate on accused killeder jason young. in the first trial, the jury was unable to reach a verdict. this time, prosecutors had replayed his testimony and called multiple witnesses to attack his credibility. did the jury believe them? turns out this case was far from over. here with the conclusion of our story is keith morrison. for more than five years, michelle young's family and friends had been waiting for answers. who killed their pretty pregnant michelle? many thought they knew. >> it was him. you know, i didn't know all the evidence. i didn't know half the things i know now. but i felt that way. >> one jury failed to decide. and now attorneys were making their final arguments to a second jury. >> be mad at him. hate him if you want to. but when you look at the physical evidence in this case, it does not match up. it does not match up to jason having killed his wife and unborn son. >> 30 blows? that's not from a stranger. that is a mad, mad domestic abuser. >> reporter: soon that jury was behind closed doors in the wake county superior court. after two days, they were back with a verdict. >> the jury by unanimous verdict find jason lynn young to be guilty of first-degree murder. >> reporter: guilty. first-degree murder. jason young didn't flinch. behind him his mother was equally stoic. on the other side of the court, michelle young's bereaved mother and sister wept. fiona at home got the news from a friend. they said, "he's guilty." i was like, "what? what?" >> reporter: jason young received a life sentence. chose not to address the court. even as the bailiffs led him away, he remained expressionless. the prosecutors were, they told us, relieved. >> i was very emotional. i have family members there who i have been working with for five, five and a half years. and they finally had justice, you know? >> we have been telling them for years, just trust. just that it will be the right result. >> reporter: but was it? a year and a half ticked by. and then this. >> attorneys for jason young demanding a new trial saying the trial that led to his conviction had significant errors. >> reporter: december 2013. jason young's new attorneys launched his appeal. >> who is the killer? is jason young the person responsible for ms. young's death? it seems fundamentally unfair. >> reporter: what was fundamentally unfair? remember during the trial, the attorney pointed out, the prosecution introduced testimony about those civil cases against jason brought by michelle's family. they accused jason of murder. >> jason young brutally murdered michelle young. >> the defendant brutally murdered michelle marie fisher young. >> way out of bounds, said the attorney. the jury should not have been allowed to hear about any of that. outside the court, michelle's sister meredith predicted the appeal would be thrown out. >> the jury came to the right verdict. we are confident it will stay. >> but she was wrong. >> a raleigh man is getting a third trial in the death of his pregnant women. >> reporter: in april, 2014, the judges ruled unanimously that testimony about the civil cases prejudiced the jury. and in 2017, yet another attempt by jason young to get a third trial, this on grounds his defense team was ineffective, was also denied. >> i love you, mom. >> i love you too, cassidy. >> the children no little care about motions and appeals. cassidy has grown. her father, her mother, snatches of memory ever farther away. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline" extra. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. i said, did you ever contemplate committing the perfect murder? and he said yes. the key element to that is making sure that someone is caught. once they have somebody, they'll stop looking, and that's how you can get away. a cold blooded killing. a victim worth millions. and all kind of conflicting clues. >> i never had a case this complicated before. >> police following multiple
but maybe she didn't have to. >> the fact that cassidy was spared, would that mean anything to a jury? >> the person that killed the mother cared about cassidy. >> "silent witness." hello and welcome to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. michelle young had a smile that would light up a room. she was the last person anyone who knew her would expect to be murdered. but it happened. she was at home with her toddler, cassidy, pregnant with her second child, when tragedy struck. the investigation quickly revealed a troubled marriage, but her husband was away on business and untraveling this complicated case would take years. here's keith morrison. >> i think i paused for a second and had to take a deep breath. and just the reality of what was going on would sink in. >> reporter: those who saw the footprints will not forget them. they were tiny and they were bloody. >> i had to get my composure to finish searching this house to make sure there was nobody else in the house. >> reporter: it was the third of november 2006, early afternoon. scott earp was the wait county sheriff's deputy dispatched to a quiet leafy neighborhood called enchanted oaks on the outskirts of raleigh, north carolina. here because of the 911 call from this place, on birchfield drive. >> i think my sister is dead. >> tell me what happened. >> i have no idea. >> the caller was meredith fisher. she had just discovered on the floor of the master bedroom the savagely beaten body of her elder sister, 29-year-old michelle young, a woman who in death was about to be famous. >> listen to me, ma'am. i'll tell you what you have to do. you need to calm down so we can help you. you said there's blood everywhere? listen to me ma'am. >> i'm listening. >> is she breathing? >> i don't think so. >> have you checked? >> no. she's cold. >> okay. >> reporter: as she spoke, meredith was cradling her 2 1/2-year-old niece, cassidy, who crawled out from under the bed clothes on her parents' bed, just feet from where her mother lay. cassidy's voice chattering to her aunt was caught on the recorded call. >> she's got booboos everywhere. >> had cassidy witnessed the murder, awakened alone to find this? >> you just picture a small child walking around in this blood and tracking it across the hallway over into the bathroom. >> reporter: by now, wake county investigators were descending on the house. and having secured the crime scene, earp's job was done. but on his way out he saw cassidy again. she was still in her pink pajamas, still in meredith's arms. he asked meredith a question. >> i looked over at the child. i didn't see any blood. so i asked her, did you clean the child? and her response was no. i thought it was kind of odd because i was expecting her to say yes, i guess. >> reporter: somebody did? >> yeah, somebody did. >> but who? was it the same person who murdered the little girl's mother? on this november day, all they had were questions. rich spivey, then a sergeant with the wake county sheriff's office, probably knows the case better than anyone. >> i mean, this was just a brutal, vicious beating. there was a lot of time and energy invested into this assault. >> reporter: why do you say a lot of time and energy? >> i think the medical examiner told us there was over 30 blows with some sort of blunt object. >> reporter: so detectives started investigating the victim and everyone else around her. michelle young was born and raised on long island, new york. >> she was smiling all the time. and she was the life of the party. >> reporter: stacia grossman knew her from childhood. >> she didn't like being the center of attention, but she liked creating a great atmosphere for everyone to have a great time. >> reporter: michelle was a cheerleader in high school and a straight-a student. jennifer powers felt drawn to her. >> she had this kind of bookworm side to her where she was very studious and goal-oriented. i mean, she was also just a great person to be around, a fun, happy spirit. and, you know, someone i wanted to spend a lot of time with. >> reporter: lots of people did. and when she chose a college far from home, north carolina state, she was soon surrounded again by an admiring group of women friends, best friends, buddies. fiona childs was her sorority big sister. >> there is this one picture. and it's like -- it just came out beautiful. we liked it. because we felt like we kind of looked like charlie's angels, posed, without intentionally doing that. >> reporter: it was sometime in 2001 when friends started hearing about michelle's new guy, a fellow student named jason young, heard how he'd grown up in the north carolina mountains, how he loved to camp, how he was the life of tailgate parties. michelle fell hard and fast. >> they seemed like a good couple. he was different from other men she had dated in the past. he wasn't as serious about a career as she was. he was a little bit less sophisticated than michelle was. but she seemed to be very happy with him. >> reporter: michelle and jason married in october 2003. the day after the wedding they shared their big secret. michelle was pregnant. their daughter cassidy was born early the next year. >> mwah! >> i love you, mommy. >> i love you too, cassidy. ♪ twinkle, twinkle >> reporter: and when she came along it was love at first sight. ♪ how i wonder what you are >> yay! >> reporter: michelle was an enthusiastic mother. >> huh? >> huh? >> huh? >> huh? >> by all accounts, jason was a good dad. >> he was a great playmate. he knew how to sit on the floor and play with his daughter, you know? >> reporter: the youngs moved into the big fine house on birchleaf in 2005. both of them worked. he a salesman. she a financial specialist. in the summer of 2006 michelle got pregnant again. they kept the news to themselves, but it was clear something good was happening. >> the comment he said to me was he's excited to have another baby. not implying she was pregnant. but he was excited at the prospect of it. >> but just a few months later michelle was dead. jason was 170 miles away in virginia on a business trip the night of the murder. he heard the news the next afternoon and returned to raleigh. stacia grossman got word from her mother. >> my mother called and says "michelle's dead." i said, "michelle who? some celebrity? like what are you talking about? what do you mean, how is that possible? what happened?" >> reporter: the very questions that wake county investigators were asking themselves. >> as the investigation gets under way, a security camera provides a critical clue. it's not what it caught. it's what it missed and why. >> coming up -- >> there was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> really? >> yes. it was one of the side exits of the hotel. >> who had something to hide? when "silent witness" continues. ♪ and if you feel, ♪ like i feel baby then come on, ♪ ♪ oh come on ♪ let's get it on, applebee's. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. 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[ clanking ] tartlets? we cover commercial vehicles, too. i think there's something wrong with your sink. we cover commercial vehicles, too. amazon prime video so when you say words like... show me best of prime video into this... you'll see awesome stuff like this. discover prime originals like the emmy-winning the marvelous mrs. maisel... tom clancy's jack ryan... and the man in the high castle. all in the same place as your live tv. its all included with your amazon prime membership. that's how xfinity makes tv... simple. easy. awesome. it was a horrifying crime scene busting with activity. four months pregnant, michelle young had been murdered. and investigators were eager to talk to her husband, jason. but would jason talk to them? here's keith morrison. >> reporter: the facts were stark and ugly. one night in november 2006, while her husband was away on business, michelle young was attacked in her own bedroom and brutally beaten to death. her body discovered the next day by her sister meredith along with her 2 1/2-year-old daughter cassidy, who had been left to wander in her blood. for the investigators who set out to find her killer, no way to get those little footprints out of their minds. sergeant richard spivey, lead investigator. >> those of us that work in law enforcement, this is our profession, but we're also parents. that certainly strikes a different note with you when you see something like that. >> michelle's husband jason, a medical software salesman, was 170 miles away the night of the murder. even so, investigators had to look at him. >> we know he was the last person to talk to michelle that night. and he was also the reason why she was found. he called meredith fisher to go to the house. >> reporter: jason young's business trip that night was routine. security tape showed him getting gas, 7:30 p.m. as he left raleigh. two hours later he was seen on tape at a cracker barrel restaurant in greensboro. later he checked into this hampton inn in hillsdale, virginia. this is him front desk. about 11:00 p.m. and him again at midnight. he also made a phone call around midnight. and that was the last time anybody heard from jason young until he made another call at 7:40 the next morning. >> a normal person would look at this and say he was 170 miles away. he's got an alibi. >> that sounds like a great distance, you know? but 170 miles you can get between the crime scene and the hotel in about 2 1/2 hours. >> reporter: perhaps. but there were curious anomalies at the crime scene. couldn't explain them. a jewelry box was missing two drawers. so was it a bungled burglary? then there were footprints near the body that seemed to eliminate jason. an obvious print on the pillow was a size 10. but jason wore a size 12. but this was weird. there was another partial footprint. it defied easy identification, so they began calling in shoe experts. and now they wondered were there two attackers? of course, investigators discovered early on michelle and jason's marriage was strained. and in the last weeks of michelle's life, things were not good. >> at our friend shelley's wedding he was so drunk. just really out of it. when we got to the wedding, our friends were letting us know that michelle and jason were fighting and they were referring to it as world war iii. >> jennifer powers told investigators about another fight that october. michelle wanted her mother to stay with them for the holidays. and jason, who had a tense relationship with his mother-in-law, wanted to limit her stay. and said so in an e-mail. along with another nugget. >> he wrote, "our marriage has seen better days and i don't see it trending up." i remember that really striking a chord with me. because i didn't know that their marriage had seen better days. >> reporter: so of course investigators wanted to interview jason young. maybe he could tell them something. but he refused to talk to them. >> he talked to the lawyer. and then under the advice of counsel he declined to speak with us at all. >> reporter: didn't ask about it? didn't ask how his wife died? >> no. >> reporter: perhaps, investigators thought, that business trip deserved a second look. so they want to the hotel, poked around and discovered some odd activities that night in a stairwell near an exit. >> there was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> really? >> yes. it was one of the side exits for the hotel. one of the fire stairs that go down to the first floor. >> reporter: was there any other tampering done? >> the door that was adjacent to where the camera was located, that door also had been propped open that night. >> how do you know that? >> the gentleman working as the clerk that night found a rock that had been placed in the door to keep the door from closing. >> well, then they plugged the camera back in, so it's now working again. and at about 6:35 that morning suddenly that camera is pointing straight at the ceiling. >> same camera? >> same camera. and it's tampered with yet again. >> reporter: if that was jason young's work, is it possible he did make the 340-mile round trip? could he have killed his wife and cleaned up his daughter all in 7 1/2 hours without ever being seen? to find out, investigators played a hunch. they visited every gas station along the route. showed jason's photo, talked to the night clerks. and came across a woman named gracie doms in a tiny place called king, north carolina. she took one look at that photograph and recognized it instantly. he was the foul-mouthed customer, she said, who came into the store to complain that the pumps were locked. and what time was it? 5:30 a.m., morning of the murder. >> there was actually an altercation between the two of them. so you have a reason why she would remember him as opposed to any other customer that may have just happened into the store. >> reporter: if that attendant was right, investigators may have undercut jason's alibi. still, it wasn't enough. so they plodded ahead, painstaking work, took time. and then, years after the murder, they finally got a match for that partial footprint. >> the state bureau of investigation and the fbi were able to eventually identify that shoe as a hush puppy orbital shoe, size 12, which was the same size that he wore. >> reporter: throughout the investigation, jason steadfastly maintained his silence. and rather than face a legal battle where he'd be asked some tough questions, spivey said, he even gave michelle's family custody of his daughter. >> everyone that we spoke with, all of them talked about how much he loved cassidy and what a great dad he was. to just turn over primary custody, that was -- that was very surprising. >> reporter: investigators had heard enough. they believed they had a case. circumstantial, but a case. and three years after michelle young's body was found on the bedroom floor, jason young was charged with her murder. investigators and prosecutors knew that very little pointed directly toward jason young, but so far nothing pointed away. coming up, the case against jason young as an alleged killer and as a cheating husband. >> we basically just hung out at the house and we had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there. >> cassidy was put down to bed, and had a couple drinks. just were talking. and we ended up having sex. >> he never settled down. >> when "silent witness" continues. (in-store music) need a change of scenery? kayak searches hundreds of travel sites - even our competitors - so you can be confident you're getting the right flight at the best price. kayak. search one and done. welcome back to "dateline extra." jason young had been charged with murdering his pregnant wife michelle. from the day her bloodied body was found bludgeoned to death in the couple's bedroom jason had refused to talk to detectives. but there were several women in jason's life who were willing to share intimate details about the man and his marriage. with the case heading to court, they would soon tell their stories on the stand. here again is keith morrison. >> reporter: jason young went on trial for the murder of his pregnant wife, michelle, in june 2011. by then he'd spent 18 months in a jail cell. the guy who lived for tailgates. the guy who loved to party, that guy was long gone. becky holt was the prosecutor who opened for the state. >> the defendant had a plan. his plan was to murder his wife. his plan was to get away with it. >> reporter: with no murder weapon found, the prosecution's case was built on that partial shoe print. they knew now that jason once owned a pair of hushpuppies like these that matched the print. they were now missing. they also told jurors about the early morning visit to the gas station and the suspicious activity at the hotel, but the thrust of their case was this. jason young was trying in the most violent possible way to get out of a troubled marriage. >> were you aware of tensions in that marriage? >> yeah. i was well aware. >> reporter: meredith fisher, michelle's sister, lived near the couple. and for a period was cassidy's nanny. as the youngs' fights intensified, she took on the role of marriage counselor too. >> what would you say were the main issues? >> michelle's main issues were jason being more responsible, understanding her more, and his main concern was their lack of sex life. >> reporter: prosecutors called friends to the stand to paint a picture of a marriage that was unraveling, out loud and in public. >> jason made it very well known that, you know, he was upset about the lack of sex in the relationship. >> reporter: and at parties, said fiona childs, jason's x-rated tricks were famously over the top. >> i never observed it myself. i would just hear about it. and you know, he would expose himself and do what he thought was these funny tricks. and i was always just rather embarrassed for michelle. >> he never settled down. it was as if he was still living the single life, that he never bought into the marriage. what that -- what all that meant. >> reporter: in october 2006, when michelle was four months pregnant, jason became deeply involved with another woman. and not just any woman. michelle money was one of michelle young's close friends from college. one of those charlie's angels. in early october, days before his third wedding anniversary, jason flew to florida to see michelle money. she testified they both knew it was wrong. >> we basically just hung out at the house and we had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there. >> reporter: jason was crazy about her. his friend josh dalton said. >> he basically told me that he thought was in love with her. >> reporter: michelle's mother, linda fisher, testified in the final weeks of michelle's life she could see the toll the failing marriage was taking on her pregnant daughter. >> she had her head on my lap. and she was lying down. and i was stroking her hair. and -- and she was empty. >> what did she tell you? >> things weren't working out with jason. >> reporter: two days before she was murdered, michelle phoned her sister meredith to report yet another blowup with jason. >> she was just, "i've had it." she said, "you know, more than one time, i just can't do this anymore." >> reporter: jason was telling one of his close friends the same thing. and prosecutors said just days before michelle was murdered, he had indulged in one last transgression. a casual hook-up with an old friend named carol ann sauerby in his own living room. michelle was away at the time. >> cassidy was put down to bed. and had a couple drinks. just were talking. and we ended up having sex. and we ended up having sex. >> reporter: but divorce was apparently not an option for jason. >> he had made a statement at one time that he was afraid if he ever got a divorce that michelle would take cassidy and move back to new york. >> and did he indicate to you that he would have concerns about ever being able to see cassidy again? >> correct. >> reporter: one question remained. was a good time guy like jason young even capable of murder? genevieve cargol was engaged to jason in 1999 before he met michelle. she took the stand to testify about a fight they had over jason's excessive drinking. >> he became agitated. he said something to the effect of if i'm going to make such a terrible husband then give me my ring back. >> did you give it to the defendant? >> no. he began trying to pull the ring off. and it wouldn't come off. he was throwing me from one bed to the other and jumping on me with all his weight and pinning my arms, both of them, behind me. >> reporter: prosecutors hoped to convince the jury it all added up to a motive for murder. so how would the defense counterattack? with a witness who could refute every charge. coming up, jason young finally breaks his silence as he takes the stand to testify. >> did you kill your wife, michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> when "silent witness" continues. welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. prosecutors in the jason young murder trial painted a picture of a marriage in pieces. but did a string of affairs mean the husband killed his pregnant wife? it was a question the defense was eager to answer. after five years jason young was about to break his silence and explain what happened the night michelle was killed. here again is keith morrison. >> what the prosecution didn't tell you -- >> reporter: there is an art to the business of criminal defense. and it would take a true artist to repaint the prosecution's dark portrait of jason young. so what could defense attorney mike clinkelson do? well, to begin with, he told the jury, he agreed with the prosecution. jason young was not a good husband. >> he acted at times like an immature jerk. but that does not make him a killer. >> reporter: the defense was not about to make any more concessions, mind you. that jewelry box in the bedroom, there was dna on it. didn't match either michelle or jason. the suspicious activity at the hotel? there was a fingerprint on that camera and it wasn't jason young's. and there wasn't any forensic evidence that tied jason to the crime scene. there was no blood in his car. there was not a scratch on him. >> ladies and gentlemen, jason lynn young did not murder his wife. he did not murder their unborn son. and this case has not been solved. >> reporter: who better to make the argument than jason young himself. but so far, remember, he had never said a word to anyone about that november night. and almost five years silence. >> it is always a big decision for defense attorneys whether or not to call their clients. >> reporter: beth carris is a former prosecutor and legal analyst. she covered the trial. >> this is a case that really begged for jason young to testify. if he is innocent. >> reporter: after all this time. >> if he is truly innocent, get on the stand and tell the story. >> we call jason young. >> reporter: with his mother in the front row, jason young prepared to do just that. defense attorney brian collins hit it hard off the top. >> did you kill your wife, michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> reporter: what about jason's missing hushpuppies that match the partial shoe print? he no longer owned them, he said. >> are those the shoes you had on on november the 2nd? >> no, sir. >> reporter: they were all ratty-e said. told michelle to give them to goodwill. as for the night of the murder, after he checked into the hotel, he left his room twice. the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> i was going over the sales call i had the next day. >> reporter: the second trip he testified was to smoke a cigar. >> i had to go outside to smoke the cigar. i also wanted to look at some sports schedules and some standings and so i wanted to see if i could pick up the "usa today" as well. >> reporter: that newspaper run explained why he was seen at the front desk he said around midnight. >> between the time you smoked the cigar, went back upstairs and went to sleep, did you leave that room until the next morning? >> no, sir. >> reporter: the next morning after his sales call jason testified he realized he'd left some ebay printouts sitting on the computer printer at home. they showed purses. he was thinking of buying one for michelle as a belated anniversary present. >> i realized i didn't bring the papers. >> why was it important to you somebody get the papers? >> because i wanted it to be a surprise. a surprise to michelle means so much more than anything. >> reporter: so around noon november 3rd he called his sister-in-law meredith from the car to ask if she'd go to the house and get those ebay papers. >> friday november 3rd. >> he left meredith a voicemail. >> could you go over there and see if you can find them on the computer? >> reporter: then he headed to his mother's place in the mountains nearby. and it was there, he testified, hours later that he learned michelle had been murdered. >> i just fell. i just -- i just broke on the inside. i just broke and i didn't believe it. >> reporter: family members drove him back to raleigh. during the drive, he said his friends called. >> ryan and josh had said that the investigators were asking really ugly questions and pointing their finger at me and doing things like that. they said you don't need to talk to anybody. you need to got a lawyer before you talk to anybody. >> reporter: and then the explanation for his long silence. >> the lawyer that i got after talking with him, he actually advised me to not go talk to the police. >> did you take that advice? >> yes, sir, i did. >> did he also tell you not to talk to anybody about that? >> that's exactly what he said. he said don't talk to anybody about anything. >> the defense also addressed the motives prosecutors had laid out that jason wanted to escape a bad marriage and keep custody of cassidy and spend time with his new love. >> did you have any designs in your own mind of leaving michelle young for michelle money? >> no, sir. >> describe why not. >> i think we both knew it was wrong. i don't think either one dreamed that it would ever be found out. >> pushing me around. >> as for the violent episode with his ex-fiancee, jason had an explanation for it. >> did you throw her around on the bed like she said? >> no, sir. what i did was wrong. i did pin her down and i took the ring. >> okay. what was your level of intoxication at that time? >> i was very intoxicated. but i don't feel like that is an excuse for what i did. >> reporter: and they questioned him about the most important woman in his life. >> did you want to stay married to michelle? >> yes, i did. i wanted to have -- have another baby and i wanted the family to grow. >> reporter: he also explained why he gave up custody of his daughter without a fight. >> were you able to afford a lawyer for a full-blown custody battle? >> no, sir, i had -- due to the media and some of the internet website, the job that i had, i lost it. >> reporter: his testimony lasted three hours. >> jason young was a very good witness. he understood what he had to do when he was on the stand. >> reporter: so he didn't come off as contrived or phony? like he had put this together very carefully in order to account for all of the evidence that they had? >> he had access to police reports. all of the discovery. he knew the state's vulnerabilities. and so he could arguably tailor his testimony to fit with an innocent explanation. >> reporter: how did jason young do? 12 jurors were about to decide. coming up, the prosecutor gets her chance to go one-on-one with jason young. >> coming up -- >> were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with carolyn sauerby in your home? 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[beep] you should be mad your neighbor always wants to hang out. and you should be mad your smart fridge is unnecessarily complicated. but you're not mad, because you have e*trade which isn't complicated. their tools make trading quicker and simpler. so you can take on the markets with confidence. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today. welcome back to "dateline extra." so far jason young's testimony seemed to be answering years of questions. when asked by his attorney, jason admitted cheating on his pregnant wife, michelle. more than once. even so, the defense pointed out infidelity did not make him a murderer. now it was the prosecution's turn to cross-examine the witness. and they'd start by attacking jason's alibi. but with no forensic evidence tying him to the crime scene, could they convince the jury that jason was the killer? continuing with our story, here's keith morrison. >> reporter: it was riveting. almost five years of silence about his wife's murder broken here in this courtroom. >> i love cassidy. and i loved michelle. >> and then he went to murder his wife. >> reporter: now prosecutor becky holt began pulling apart a story she was just hearing for the first time. >> were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with caroline sauerby in your home less than two weeks before your wife was murdered? >> no, ma'am, that was not the way to work on a marriage. that was very detrimental. >> were you working on your marriage when you called michelle money? >> michelle and i confided a lot in each other. and we talked about my issues with my wife. and she talked about her issues with her husband. >> so is the answer yes, when you had an affair with michelle money that you were working on your marriage? >> no, ma'am. having the sexual intercourse and having the intimacy was very detrimental to that. >> reporter: the cross-examination lasted a full hour. and the next day the case went to the jury. >> retire to the jury deliberation room. >> reporter: it soon became clear jurors were having trouble. >> bailiff indicated that y'all have not yet reached a unanimous decision. >> reporter: the jurors were split 6-6. the judge sent them back to try to make it unanimous. >> everybody else remain. jurors leave first. thank you. >> reporter: but hours later they were back. and courtroom 3c was still. >> it appears that they are hopelessly deadlocked at this point. >> reporter: eight jurors had voted for acquittal. four voted guilty. judge stephens declared a mistrial. was serious consideration given to dropping the case? >> i think there was serious consideration as to is there more we can do. >> reporter: so the prosecutors decided they would try again. but this time with the one thing they didn't have the first time. jason's own story. the second trial began in february 2012. this time howard cummings led the prosecution, hoping to use jason's own words to convict him. >> put your left hand on the bible, raise your right hand. >> reporter: but first prosecutors called that night clerk at the gas station, gracie, who remembered jason complaining about the locked pumps. >> when he came in to pay, he started cussing and raising cain. >> what time did this happen? >> that was about 5:00, 5:30 in the morning. the time jason said he was at the hotel. >> call your next witness. >> reporter: then prosecutors had new witnesses and new testimony. they wanted jurors to hear about cassidy, whose bloody footprints they contended made her a silent witness to murder. >> when i got to cassidy, i said what are you doing? >> day care worker ashley pomentier took the stand. >> i noticed what she was doing. >> reporter: she told jurors she watched cassidy playing alone, days after her murder was murdered. >> she had the chair and the doll in her hand together. and then the mommy doll in the other hand. and she just hit them. >> reporter: as unsettling as it was, the prosecutors wanted jurors to know the killer had left a silent witness behind. a witness he would never harm. the fact that cassidy was spared, did that mean anything to you? or would that mean anything to a jury? >> certainly. it meant that the person that killed the mother, we felt, cared about cassidy. >> i do. >> thank you. you may be seated. >> reporter: fiona childs took the stand. prosecutors pressed her about a life insurance policy jason arranged. >> it did raise a red flag -- >> reporter: and michelle questioned. >> that she brought up specifically her life insurance. she brought it up several times, asking me did i think a million dollars was too much and did they really need that. >> reporter: after michelle died, fiona found out the true amount of the policy was actually $4 million. >> i was just like in total shock. that is incredibly excessive. >> reporter: and prosecutors also told the jury about civil lawsuits against jason brought by michelle's mother and sister. one was a wrongful death case filed in 2008, a year before he was charged with murder. over the defense's objection, court clerk lauren freeman testified about that lawsuit. >> there is an alleged paragraph, paragraph 6, again reading verbatim from the record, "in the early morning hours of november 3rd, 2006, jason young brutally murdered michelle young at their residence." >> reporter: freeman went on to testify that jason never responded to the allegations. and that led to a default judgment against him. that judgment said jason killed his wife. >> a default judgment does not mean the facts alleged in the civil complaint are true. it does not mean he's guilty. and the judge at the criminal trial told the jury that in his instructions. however, when you hear the statement "jason young brutally murdered his wife but that doesn't mean he's guilty, folks." hello. you know? >> reporter: and the prosecutor made sure the jury heard just who signed that ruling. >> i'm reading from this judgment which is signed actually by judge stephens. >> reporter: judge stephens, the very judge sitting before them in this trial. >> the jury hearing that, it's just something that's going to carry a lot of weight. >> this is the complaint that was filed in december seeking custody of cassidy. >> reporter: prosecutors also called the attorney involved in that custody case over daughter cassidy, and those same allegations were repeated yet again. >> the jury heard several times through these two civil complaints that jason young brutally murdered michelle fisher young. >> reporter: but the headline came when prosecutors played jason young's entire testimony from the first trial -- >> i wanted her to have that. >> reporter: -- and began to rip it apart. >> i don't remember. >> reporter: prosecutors tried to show that jason's call to meredith to pick up those e-bay printouts was merely a ploy to get her to discover the body and find cassidy. why else would he print an e-bay auction ad leave it on the printer and hit the road where he couldn't bid during the actual auction? they called sergeant spivey to the stand. >> that auction was going to end 8:00 p.m. eastern standard time. >> what day was that? >> that was on november 2nd, 2006. >> reporter: just hours before the murder. now prosecutors tried to prove jason lied about his reasons for leaving the hotel room. >> i didn't pull the door all the way -- >> reporter: in his original testimony, he told the court he left the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> why was it that you wanted to look on your laptop? >> i was going over the sales call that i had the next day. >> reporter: but special agent mike smith took the stand to say young didn't use his laptop for work that night. >> this is an internet site dedicated to sports. >> reporter: jason said he went out a second time to smoke a cigar. but prosecutors contended jason was a fierce anti-smoker and the weather that night was freezing, windy. >> can you tell me whether or not there was ever any substantial outerwear that the defendant either had in his luggage or was wearing? >> no, sir. there was a suit jacket. >> okay. >> that was the only outerwear that i'm aware of. >> reporter: jason chose not to testify this time. but the defense fought back of course. they argued the gas station attendant's memory couldn't be trusted because of a childhood brain injury. >> i've had memory problems since '06 because i've been through a lot with myself and my kids and my ex-husband. >> reporter: the defense also argued the case really wasn't solved. that there was no physical evidence to prove jason was the killer. >> there wasn't one scratch on mr. young. >> reporter: that he never would have had time to make the trip and commit murder, that he didn't have the mind-set of a killer. and that cigar, it showed that jason young actually owned a humidor and he'd once made a purchase at a cigar store. >> you have ample evidence before you that jason young is not guilty. >> reporter: and then it was over again. and time for another jury to consider whether jason young would go to jail or walk out of court a free man. coming up, the verdict take two. >> we, the jury, by unanimous verdict find the defendant, jason lynn young, to be -- >> when "silent witness" continues. if you like geico commercials, you're gonna love the best of geico. it's geico's all-time greatest hits back on tv for a limited time. and if you love the best of geico, you're gonna really love voting online for your favorite. you can even enter for a chance to appear in an upcoming geico commercial. this fire's toasty, linda but the best of geico collection sounds even hotter. to vote for your favorite geico ad and enter to win, visit geico.com/bestof. that's geico.com/bestof. ♪here you come again lookin' ♪a body has a right to ♪and shakin' me up so applebee's all you can eat is back. now with shrimp. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. you may have gum disease and could be on a journey to much worse. try parodontax toothpaste. it's three times more effective at removing plaque, the main cause of bleeding gums. leave bleeding gums behind with parodontax toothpaste. leave bhey, darryl. behind would you choose the network rated #1 in the nation by the experts, or the one awarded by the people? 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(vo) switch to the network awarded by rootmetrics and j.d. power. buy the latest galaxy phones, get galaxy s9 free. hey, batter, batter, [ crowd cheers ] like everyone, i lead a busy life. but i know the importance of having time to do what you love. at comcast we know our customers' time is valuable. that's why we have 2-hour appointment windows, including nights and weekends. so you can do more of what you love. my name is tito, and i'm a tech-house manager at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. welcome back. for the second time in less than a year jurors were about to deliberate on the fate of accused killer jason young. in his first trial jason took the stand to declare his innocence, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict. this time prosecutors had replayed his testimony and called multiple witnesses to attack his credibility. did the jury believe then? turns out this case was far from over. here with the conclusion of our story is keith morrison. ♪ >> reporter: for more than five years michelle young's family and friends had been waiting for answers. who killed their pretty pregnant michelle? many thought they knew. >> it was him. you know, i didn't know all the evidence. i didn't know half the things i know now. but i felt that way. >> one jury failed to decide. and now attorneys were making their final arguments to a second jury. >> be mad at him. hate him if you want to. but when you look at the physical evidence in this case, it does not match up. it does not match up to jason having killed his wife and unborn son. >> 30 blows? that's not from a stranger. that is a mad, mad domestic abuser. >> reporter: soon that jury was behind closed doors in the wake county superior court. after two days, they were back with a verdict. >> we the jury by unanimous verdict find the defendant jason lynn young to be guilty of the first degree murder of michelle >> reporter: guilty. first-degree murder. jason young didn't flinch. behind him his mother was equally stoic. on the other side of the court, michelle young's bereaved mother and sister wept. fiona at home got the news from a friend. they said, "he's guilty." i was like, "what? what?" >> reporter: jason young received a life sentence. chose not to address the court. even as the bailiffs led him away, he remained expressionless. the prosecutors were, they told us, relieved. >> i was very emotional. you have family members there who you've been working with for 5 1/2 years. and they finally had justice, you know? >> we have been telling them for years, just trust. just trust that it'll be the right result. >> reporter: but was it? a year and a half ticked by. and then this. >> attorneys for jason young demanding a new trial saying the trial that led to his conviction had significant errors. >> reporter: december 2013. jason young's new attorneys launched his appeal. >> who is the killer? is jason young the person responsible for ms. young's death? and you know, it seems fundamentally unfair. >> reporter: what was fundamentally unfair? remember during the trial, the attorney pointed out, the prosecution introduced testimony about those civil cases against jason brought by michelle's family. they accused jason of murder. >> jason young brutally murdered michelle young. >> the defendant brutally murdered michelle marie fisher young. >> reporter: way out of bounds, said the attorney. the jury should not have been allowed to hear about any of that. outside the court, michelle's sister meredith predicted the appeal would be thrown out. >> the jury came to the right verdict. we are confident it will stay. >> reporter: but she was wrong. >> a raleigh man is getting a third trial in the death of his pregnant wife. >> reporter: in april 2014 the north carolina court of appeals granted jason a new trial. but a year later the state supreme court reversed the appeals court decision. and in 2017 yet another attempt by jason young to get a third trial, this time on grounds his defense team was ineffective, was also denied. >> i love you, mommy. >> i love you too, cassidy. >> reporter: but children know little of the arcane world of motions and appeals. cassidy has grown. her father, her mother, snatches of memory, ever farther away. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. talk about shudders going down your spine. >> what does the scene tell you? what do your victims tell you?
>> maybe she couldn't tell detectives who the killer was, but maybe she didn't have to. >> the fact that cassidy was spared, would that mean anything to a jury? >> the person that killed the mother cared about cassidy. >> "silent witness." hello and welcome to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. michelle young had a smile that would light up a room. she was the last person anyone who knew her would expect to be murdered. but it happened. she was at home with her toddler, cassidy, pregnant with her second child, when tragedy struck. the investigation quickly revealed a troubled marriage, but her husband was away on business and untraveling this complicated case would take years. here's keith morrison. >> i think i paused for a second and had to take a deep breath. and just the reality of what was going on would sink in. >> reporter: those who saw the footprints will not forget them. they were tiny and they were bloody. >> i had to get my composure to finish searching this house to make sure there was nobody else in the house. >> reporter: it was the third of november 2006, early afternoon. scott earp was the wait county sheriff's deputy dispatched to a quiet leafy neighborhood called enchanted oaks on the outskirts of raleigh, north carolina. here because of the 911 call from this place, on birchfield drive. >> i think my sister is dead. >> tell me what happened. >> i have no idea. >> the caller was meredith fisher. she had just discovered on the floor of the master bedroom the savagely beaten body of her elder sister, 29-year-old michelle young, a woman who in death was about to be famous. >> listen to me, ma'am. i'll tell you what you have to do. you need to calm down so we can help you. you said there's blood everywhere? listen to me ma'am. >> i'm listening. >> is she breathing? >> i don't think so. >> have you checked? she's cold. >> okay. >> reporter: as she spoke, meredith was cradling her 2 1/2-year-old niece, cassidy, who crawled out from under the bed clothes on her parents' bed, just feet from where her mother lay. cassidy's voice chattering to her aunt was caught on the recorded call. >> she's got booboos everywhere. >> had cassidy witnessed the murder, awakened alone to find this? >> you just picture a small child walking around in this blood and tracking it across the hallway over into the bathroom. >> reporter: by now, wake county investigators were descending on the house. and having secured the crime scene, earp's job was done. but on his way out he saw cassidy again. she was still in her pink pajamas, still in meredith's arms. he asked meredith a question. >> i looked over at the child. i didn't see any blood. so i asked her, did you clean the child? and her response was no. i thought it was kind of odd because i was expecting her to say yes, i guess. >> reporter: somebody did? >> yeah, somebody did. >> but who? was it the same person who murdered the little girl's mother? on this november day, all they had were questions. rich spivey, then a sergeant with the wake county sheriff's office, probably knows the case better than anyone. >> i mean, this was just a brutal, vicious beating. there was a lot of time and energy invested into this assault. >> reporter: why do you say a lot of time and energy? >> i think the medical examiner told us there was over 30 blows with some sort of blunt object. >> reporter: so detectives started investigating the victim and everyone else around her. michelle young was born and raised on long island, new york. >> she was smiling all the time. and she was the life of the party. >> reporter: stacia grossman knew her from childhood. >> she didn't like being the center of attention, but she liked creating a great atmosphere for everyone to have a great time. >> reporter: michelle was a cheerleader in high school and a straight-a student. jennifer powers felt drawn to her. >> she had this kind of bookworm side to her where she was very studious and goal-oriented. i mean, she was also just a great person to be around, a fun, happy spirit. and, you know, someone i wanted to spend a lot of time with. >> reporter: lots of people did. and when she chose a college far from home, north carolina state, she was soon surrounded again by an admiring group of women friends, best friends, buddies. fiona childs was her sorority big sister. >> there is this one picture. and it's like -- it just came out beautiful. we liked it. because we felt like we kind of looked like charlie's angels, posed, without intentionally doing that. >> reporter: it was sometime in 2001 when friends started hearing about michelle's new guy, a fellow student named jason young, heard how he'd grown up in the north carolina mountains, how he loved to camp, how he was the life of tailgate parties. michelle fell hard and fast. >> they seemed like a good couple. he was different from other men she had dated in the past. he wasn't as serious about a career as she was. he was a little bit less sophisticated than michelle was. but she seemed to be very happy with him. >> reporter: michelle and jason married in october 2003. the day after the wedding they shared their big secret. michelle was pregnant. their daughter cassidy was born early the next year. >> mwah! >> i love you, mommy. >> i love you too, cassidy. ♪ twinkle, twinkle >> reporter: and when she came along it was love at first sight. ♪ how i wonder what you are >> yay! >> reporter: michelle was an enthusiastic mother. >> huh? >> huh? >> huh? >> huh? >> by all accounts, jason was a good dad. >> he was a great playmate. he knew how to sit on the floor and play with his daughter, you know? >> reporter: the youngs moved into the big fine house on birchleaf in 2005. both of them worked. he a salesman. she a financial specialist. in the summer of 2006 michelle got pregnant again. they kept the news to themselves, but it was clear something good was happening. >> the comment he said to me was he's excited to have another baby. not implying she was pregnant. but he was excited at the prospect of it. >> but just a few months later michelle was dead. jason was 170 miles away in virginia on a business trip the night of the murder. he heard the news the next afternoon and returned to raleigh. stacia grossman got word from her mother. >> my mother called and says "michelle's dead." i said, "michelle who? some celebrity? like what are you talking about? what do you mean, how is that possible? what happened?" >> reporter: the very questions that wake county investigators were asking themselves. >> as the investigation gets under way, a security camera provides a critical clue. it's not what it caught. it's what it missed and why. >> coming up -- >> there was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> really? >> yes. it was one of the side exits of the hotel. >> who had something to hide? when "silent witness" continues. it's tough to quit smoking cold turkey. so chantix can help you quit "slow turkey." along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting. chantix reduces the urge so when the day arrives, you'll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix. you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in... behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or life- threatening allergic and skin reactions. decrease alcohol use. use caution driving or operating machinery. tell your doctor if you've had mental health problems. the most common side effect is nausea. quit smoking "slow turkey." talk to your doctor about chantix. it's nice. ♪ you got this! ♪ woo! ♪ ♪ ♪ this and even this.hark, i deep clean messes like this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair, while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans, now cleans itself. it was a horrifying crime scene busting with activity. four months pregnant, michelle young had been murdered. and investigators were eager to talk to her husband, jason. but would jason talk to them? here's keith morrison. >> reporter: the facts were stark and ugly. one night in november 2006, while her husband was away on business, michelle young was attacked in her own bedroom and brutally beaten to death. her body discovered the next day by her sister meredith along with her 2 1/2-year-old daughter cassidy, who had been left to wander in her blood. for the investigators who set out to find her killer, no way to get those little footprints out of their minds. sergeant richard spivey, lead investigator. >> those of us that work in law enforcement, this is our profession, but we're also parents. that certainly strikes a different note with you when you see something like that. >> michelle's husband jason, a medical software salesman, was 170 miles away the night of the murder. even so, investigators had to look at him. >> we know he was the last person to talk to michelle that night. and he was also the reason why she was found. he called meredith fisher to go to the house. >> reporter: jason young's business trip that night was routine. security tape showed him getting gas, 7:30 p.m. as he left raleigh. two hours later he was seen on tape at a cracker barrel restaurant in greensboro. later he checked into this hampton inn in hillsdale, virginia. this is him front desk. about 11:00 p.m. and him again at midnight. he also made a phone call around midnight. and that was the last time anybody heard from jason young until he made another call at 7:40 the next morning. >> a normal person would look at this and say he was 170 miles away. he's got an alibi. >> that sounds like a great distance, you know? but 170 miles you can get between the crime scene and the hotel in about 2 1/2 hours. >> reporter: perhaps. but there were curious anomalies at the crime scene. couldn't explain them. a jewelry box was missing two drawers. so was it a bungled burglary? then there were footprints near the body that seemed to eliminate jason. an obvious print on the pillow was a size 10. but jason wore a size 12. but this was weird. there was another partial footprint. it defied easy identification, so they began calling in shoe experts. and now they wondered were there two attackers? of course, investigators discovered early on michelle and jason's marriage was strained. and in the last weeks of michelle's life, things were not good. >> at our friend shelley's wedding he was so drunk. just really out of it. when we got to the wedding, our friends were letting us know that michelle and jason were fighting and they were referring to it as world war iii. >> jennifer powers told investigators about another fight that october. michelle wanted her mother to stay with them for the holidays. and jason, who had a tense relationship with his mother-in-law, wanted to limit her stay. and said so in an e-mail. along with another nugget. >> he wrote, "our marriage has seen better days and i don't see it trending up." i remember that really striking a chord with me. because i didn't know that their marriage had seen better days. >> reporter: so of course investigators wanted to interview jason young. maybe he could tell them something. but he refused to talk to them. >> he talked to the lawyer. and then under the advice of counsel he declined to speak with us at all. >> reporter: didn't ask about it? didn't ask how his wife died? >> no. >> reporter: perhaps, investigators thought, that business trip deserved a second look. so they want to the hotel, poked around and discovered some odd activities that night in a stairwell near an exit. >> there was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> really? >> yes. it was one of the side exits for the hotel. one of the fire stairs that go down to the first floor. >> reporter: was there any other tampering done? >> the door that was adjacent to where the camera was located, that door also had been propped open that night. >> how do you know that? >> the gentleman working as the clerk that night found a rock that had been placed in the door to keep the door from closing. >> well, then they plugged the camera back in, so it's now working again. and at about 6:35 that morning suddenly that camera is pointing straight at the ceiling. >> same camera? >> same camera. and it's tampered with yet again. >> reporter: if that was jason young's work, is it possible he did make the 340-mile round trip? could he have killed his wife and cleaned up his daughter all in 7 1/2 hours without ever being seen? to find out, investigators played a hunch. they visited every gas station along the route. showed jason's photo, talked to the night clerks. and came across a woman named gracie doms in a tiny place called king, north carolina. she took one look at that photograph and recognized it instantly. he was the foul-mouthed customer, she said, who came into the store to complain that the pumps were locked. and what time was it? 5:30 a.m., morning of the murder. >> there was actually an altercation between the two of them. so you have a reason why she would remember him as opposed to any other customer that may have just happened into the store. >> reporter: if that attendant was right, investigators may have undercut jason's alibi. still, it wasn't enough. so they plodded ahead, painstaking work, took time. and then, years after the murder, they finally got a match for that partial footprint. >> the state bureau of investigation and the fbi were able to eventually identify that shoe as a hush puppy orbital shoe, size 12, which was the same size that he wore. >> reporter: throughout the investigation, jason steadfastly maintained his silence. and rather than face a legal battle where he'd be asked some tough questions, spivey said, he even gave michelle's family custody of his daughter. >> everyone that we spoke with, all of them talked about how much he loved cassidy and what a great dad he was. to just turn over primary custody, that was -- that was very surprising. >> reporter: investigators had heard enough. they believed they had a case. circumstantial, but a case. and three years after michelle young's body was found on the bedroom floor, jason young was charged with her murder. investigators and prosecutors knew that very little pointed directly toward jason young, but so far nothing pointed away. coming up, the case against jason young as an alleged killer and as a cheating husband. >> we basically just hung out at the house and we had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there. >> cassidy was put down to bed, and had a couple drinks. just were talking. and we ended up having sex. >> he never settled down. >> when "silent witness" continues. fact is, every insurance company hopes you drive safely. but allstate actually helps you drive safely... with drivewise. it lets you know when you go too fast... ...and brake too hard. with feedback to help you drive safer. giving you the power to actually lower your cost. unfortunately, it can't do anything about that. now that you know the truth... are you in good hands? 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(man over radio) ...go for landing. ♪ welcome back to "dateline extra." jason young had been charged with murdering his pregnant wife michelle. from the day her bloodied body was found bludgeoned to death in the couple's bedroom jason had refused to talk to detectives. but there were several women in jason's life who were willing to share intimate details about the man and his marriage. with the case heading to court, they would soon tell their stories on the stand. here again is keith morrison. >> reporter: jason young went on trial for the murder of his pregnant wife, michelle, in june 2011. by then he'd spent 18 months in a jail cell. the guy who lived for tailgates. the guy who loved to party, that guy was long gone. becky holt was the prosecutor who opened for the state. >> the defendant had a plan. his plan was to murder his wife. his plan was to get away with it. >> reporter: with no murder weapon found, the prosecution's case was built on that partial shoe print. they knew now that jason once owned a pair of hushpuppies like these that matched the print. they were now missing. they also told jurors about the early morning visit to the gas station and the suspicious activity at the hotel, but the thrust of their case was this. jason young was trying in the most violent possible way to get out of a troubled marriage. >> were you aware of tensions in that marriage? >> yeah. i was well aware. >> reporter: meredith fisher, michelle's sister, lived near the couple. and for a period was cassidy's nanny. as the youngs' fights intensified, she took on the role of marriage counselor too. >> what would you say were the main issues? >> michelle's main issues were jason being more responsible, understanding her more, and his main concern was their lack of sex life. >> reporter: prosecutors called friends to the stand to paint a picture of a marriage that was unraveling, out loud and in public. >> jason made it very well known that, you know, he was upset about the lack of sex in the relationship. >> reporter: and at parties, said fiona childs, jason's x-rated tricks were famously over the top. >> i never observed it myself. i would just hear about it. and you know, he would expose himself and do what he thought was these funny tricks. and i was always just rather embarrassed for michelle. >> he never settled down. it was as if he was still living the single life, that he never bought into the marriage. what that -- what all that meant. >> reporter: in october 2006, when michelle was four months pregnant, jason became deeply involved with another woman. and not just any woman. michelle money was one of michelle young's close friends from college. one of those charlie's angels. in early october, days before his third wedding anniversary, jason flew to florida to see michelle money. she testified they both knew it was wrong. >> we basically just hung out at the house and we had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there. >> reporter: jason was crazy about her. his friend josh dalton said. >> he basically told me that he thought was in love with her. >> reporter: michelle's mother, linda fisher, testified in the final weeks of michelle's life she could see the toll the failing marriage was taking on her pregnant daughter. >> she had her head on my lap. and she was lying down. and i was stroking her hair. and -- and she was empty. >> what did she tell you? >> things weren't working out with jason. >> reporter: two days before she was murdered, michelle phoned her sister meredith to report yet another blowup with jason. >> she was just, "i've had it." she said, "you know, more than one time, i just can't do this anymore." >> reporter: jason was telling one of his close friends the same thing. and prosecutors said just days before michelle was murdered, he had indulged in one last transgression. a casual hook-up with an old friend named carol ann sauerby in his own living room. michelle was away at the time. >> cassidy was put down to bed. and had a couple drinks. just were talking. and we ended up having sex. >> reporter: but divorce was apparently not an option for jason. >> he had made a statement at one time that he was afraid if he ever got a divorce that michelle would take cassidy and move back to new york. >> and did he indicate to you that he would have concerns about ever being able to see cassidy again? >> correct. >> reporter: one question remained. was a good time guy like jason young even capable of murder? genevieve cargol was engaged to jason in 1999 before he met michelle. she took the stand to testify about a fight they had over jason's excessive drinking. >> he became agitated. he said something to the effect of if i'm going to make such a terrible husband then give me my ring back. >> did you give it to the defendant? >> no. he began trying to pull the ring off. and it wouldn't come off. he was throwing me from one bed to the other and jumping on me with all his weight and pinning my arms, both of them, behind me. >> reporter: prosecutors hoped to convince the jury it all added up to a motive for murder. so how would the defense counterattack? with a witness who could refute every charge. coming up, jason young finally breaks his silence as he takes the stand to testify. >> did you kill your wife, michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> when "silent witness" continues. 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flonase sensimist relieves all your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. and all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. flonase sensimist. welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. prosecutors in the jason young murder trial painted a picture of a marriage in pieces. but did a string of affairs mean the husband killed his pregnant wife? it was a question the defense was eager to answer. after five years jason young was about to break his silence and explain what happened the night michelle was killed. here again is keith morrison. >> what the prosecution didn't tell you -- >> reporter: there is an art to the business of criminal defense. and it would take a true artist to repaint the prosecution's dark portrait of jason young. so what could defense attorney mike clinkelson do? well, to begin with, he told the jury, he agreed with the prosecution. jason young was not a good husband. >> he acted at times like an immature jerk. but that does not make him a killer. >> reporter: the defense was not about to make any more concessions, mind you. that jewelry box in the bedroom, there was dna on it. didn't match either michelle or jason. the suspicious activity at the hotel? there was a fingerprint on that camera and it wasn't jason young's. and there wasn't any forensic evidence that tied jason to the crime scene. there was no blood in his car. there was not a scratch on him. >> ladies and gentlemen, jason lynn young did not murder his wife. he did not murder their unborn son. and this case has not been solved. >> reporter: who better to make the argument than jason young himself. but so far, remember, he had never said a word to anyone about that november night. and almost five years silence. >> it is always a big decision for defense attorneys whether or not to call their clients. >> reporter: beth carris is a former prosecutor and legal analyst. she covered the trial. >> this is a case that really begged for jason young to testify. if he is innocent. >> reporter: after all this time. >> if he is truly innocent, get on the stand and tell the story. >> we call jason young. >> reporter: with his mother in the front row, jason young prepared to do just that. defense attorney brian collins hit it hard off the top. >> did you kill your wife, michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> reporter: what about jason's missing hushpuppies that match the partial shoe print? he no longer owned them, he said. >> are those the shoes you had on on november the 2nd? >> no, sir. >> reporter: they were all ratty-e said. told michelle to give them to goodwill. as for the night of the murder, after he checked into the hotel, he left his room twice. the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> i was going over the sales call i had the next day. >> reporter: the second trip he testified was to smoke a cigar. >> i had to go outside to smoke the cigar. i also wanted to look at some sports schedules and some standings and so i wanted to see if i could pick up the "usa today" as well. >> reporter: that newspaper run explained why he was seen at the front desk he said around midnight. >> between the time you smoked the cigar, went back upstairs and went to sleep, did you leave that room until the next morning? >> no, sir. >> reporter: the next morning after his sales call jason testified he realized he'd left some ebay printouts sitting on the computer printer at home. they showed purses. he was thinking of buying one for michelle as a belated anniversary present. >> i realized i didn't bring the papers. >> why was it important to you somebody get the papers? >> because i wanted it to be a surprise. a surprise to michelle means so much more than anything. >> reporter: so around noon november 3rd he called his sister-in-law meredith from the car to ask if she'd go to the house and get those ebay papers. >> friday november 3rd. >> he left meredith a voicemail. >> could you go over there and see if you can find them on the computer? >> reporter: then he headed to his mother's place in the mountains nearby. and it was there, he testified, hours later that he learned michelle had been murdered. >> i just fell. i just -- i just broke on the inside. i just broke and i didn't believe it. >> reporter: family members drove him back to raleigh. during the drive, he said his friends called. >> ryan and josh had said that the investigators were asking really ugly questions and pointing their finger at me and doing things like that. they said you don't need to talk to anybody. you need to got a lawyer before you talk to anybody. >> reporter: and then the explanation for his long silence. >> the lawyer that i got after talking with him, he actually advised me to not go talk to the police. >> did you take that advice? >> yes, sir, i did. >> did he also tell you not to talk to anybody about that? >> that's exactly what he said. he said don't talk to anybody about anything. >> the defense also addressed the motives prosecutors had laid out that jason wanted to escape a bad marriage and keep custody of cassidy and spend time with his new love. >> did you have any designs in your own mind of leaving michelle young for michelle money? >> no, sir. >> describe why not. >> i think we both knew it was wrong. i don't think either one dreamed that it would ever be found out. >> pushing me around. >> as for the violent episode with his ex-fiancee, jason had an explanation for it. >> did you throw her around on the bed like she said? >> no, sir. what i did was wrong. i did pin her down and i took the ring. >> okay. what was your level of intoxication at that time? >> i was very intoxicated. but i don't feel like that is an excuse for what i did. >> reporter: and they questioned him about the most important woman in his life. >> did you want to stay married to michelle? >> yes, i did. i wanted to have -- have another baby and i wanted the family to grow. >> reporter: he also explained why he gave up custody of his daughter without a fight. >> were you able to afford a lawyer for a full-blown custody battle? >> no, sir, i had -- due to the media and some of the internet website, the job that i had, i lost it. >> reporter: his testimony lasted three hours. >> jason young was a very good witness. he understood what he had to do when he was on the stand. >> reporter: so he didn't come off as contrived or phony? like he had put this together very carefully in order to account for all of the evidence that they had? >> he had access to police reports. all of the discovery. he knew the state's vulnerabilities. and so he could arguably tailor his testimony to fit with an innocent explanation. >> reporter: how did jason young do? 12 jurors were about to decide. coming up, the prosecutor gets her chance to go one-on-one with jason young. >> coming up -- >> were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with carolyn sauerby in your home? >> when "silent witness" continues. yeah, i thought doing some hibachi grilling would help take my mind off it all. maybe you could relieve some stress by calling geico for help with our homeowners insurance. geico helps with homeowners insurance? they sure do. and they could save us a bundle of money too. i'm calling geico right now. cell phone? it's ringing. get to know geico and see how much you could save on homeowners and condo insurance. to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing it's best to make you everybody else... ♪ ♪ means to fight the hardest battle, which any human being can fight and never stop. does this sound dismal? it isn't. ♪ ♪ it's the most wonderful life on earth. ♪ ♪ it's the most wond[laughter] on earth. ♪ ♪ "i'm okay." ♪ ♪ with advil liqui-gels, what stiff joints? what bad back? advil is... relief that's fast. strength that lasts. you'll ask... what pain? with advil liqui-gels. this and even this.hark, i deep clean messes like this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair, while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans, now cleans itself. welcome back to "dateline extra." so far jason young's testimony seemed to be answering years of questions. when asked by his attorney, jason admitted cheating on his pregnant wife, michelle. more than once. even so, the defense pointed out infidelity did not make him a murderer. now it was the prosecution's turn to cross-examine the witness. and they'd start by attacking jason's alibi. but with no forensic evidence tying him to the crime scene, could they convince the jury that jason was the killer? continuing with our story, here's keith morrison. >> reporter: it was riveting. almost five years of silence about his wife's murder broken here in this courtroom. >> i love cassidy. and i loved michelle. >> and then he went to murder his wife. >> reporter: now prosecutor becky holt began pulling apart a story she was just hearing for the first time. >> were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with caroline sauerby in your home less than two weeks before your wife was murdered? >> no, ma'am, that was not the way to work on a marriage. that was very detrimental. >> were you working on your marriage when you called michelle money? >> michelle and i confided a lot in each other. and we talked about my issues with my wife. and she talked about her issues with her husband. >> so is the answer yes, when you had an affair with michelle money that you were working on your marriage? >> no, ma'am. having the sexual intercourse and having the intimacy was very detrimental to that. >> reporter: the cross-examination lasted a full hour. and the next day the case went to the jury. >> retire to the jury deliberation room. >> reporter: it soon became clear jurors were having trouble. >> bailiff indicated that y'all have not yet reached a unanimous decision. >> reporter: the jurors were split 6-6. the judge sent them back to try to make it unanimous. >> everybody else remain. jurors leave first. thank you. >> reporter: but hours later they were back. and courtroom 3c was still. >> it appears that they are hopelessly deadlocked at this point. >> reporter: eight jurors had voted for acquittal. four voted guilty. judge stephens declared a mistrial. was serious consideration given to dropping the case? >> i think there was serious consideration as to is there more we can do. >> reporter: so the prosecutors decided they would try again. but this time with the one thing they didn't have the first time. jason's own story. the second trial began in february 2012. this time howard cummings led the prosecution, hoping to use jason's own words to convict him. >> put your left hand on the bible, raise your right hand. >> reporter: but first prosecutors called that night clerk at the gas station, gracie, who remembered jason complaining about the locked pumps. >> when he came in to pay, he started cussing and raising cain. >> what time did this happen? >> that was about 5:00, 5:30 in the morning. the time jason said he was at the hotel. >> call your next witness. >> reporter: then prosecutors had new witnesses and new testimony. they wanted jurors to hear about cassidy, whose bloody footprints they contended made her a silent witness to murder. >> when i got to cassidy, i said what are you doing? >> day care worker ashley pomentier took the stand. >> i noticed what she was doing. >> reporter: she told jurors she watched cassidy playing alone, days after her murder was murdered. >> she had the chair and the doll in her hand together. and then the mommy doll in the other hand. and she just hit them. >> reporter: as unsettling as it was, the prosecutors wanted jurors to know the killer had left a silent witness behind. a witness he would never harm. the fact that cassidy was spared, did that mean anything to you? or would that mean anything to a jury? >> certainly. it meant that the person that killed the mother, we felt, cared about cassidy. >> i do. >> thank you. you may be seated. >> reporter: fiona childs took the stand. prosecutors pressed her about a life insurance policy jason arranged. >> it did raise a red flag -- >> reporter: and michelle questioned. >> that she brought up specifically her life insurance. she brought it up several times, asking me did i think a million dollars was too much and did they really need that. >> reporter: after michelle died, fiona found out the true amount of the policy was actually $4 million. >> i was just like in total shock. that is incredibly excessive. >> reporter: and prosecutors also told the jury about civil lawsuits against jason brought by michelle's mother and sister. one was a wrongful death case filed in 2008, a year before he was charged with murder. over the defense's objection, court clerk lauren freeman testified about that lawsuit. >> there is an alleged paragraph, paragraph 6, again reading verbatim from the record, "in the early morning hours of november 3rd, 2006, jason young brutally murdered michelle young at their residence." >> reporter: freeman went on to testify that jason never responded to the allegations. and that led to a default judgment against him. that judgment said jason killed his wife. >> a default judgment does not mean the facts alleged in the civil complaint are true. it does not mean he's guilty. and the judge at the criminal trial told the jury that in his instructions. however, when you hear the statement "jason young brutally murdered his wife but that doesn't mean he's guilty, folks." hello. you know? >> reporter: and the prosecutor made sure the jury heard just who signed that ruling. >> i'm reading from this judgment which is signed actually by judge stephens. >> reporter: judge stephens, the very judge sitting before them in this trial. >> the jury hearing that, it's just something that's going to carry a lot of weight. >> this is the complaint that was filed in december seeking custody of cassidy. >> reporter: prosecutors also called the attorney involved in that custody case over daughter cassidy, and those same allegations were repeated yet again. >> the jury heard several times through these two civil complaints that jason young brutally murdered michelle fisher young. >> reporter: but the headline came when prosecutors played jason young's entire testimony from the first trial -- >> i wanted her to have that. >> reporter: -- and began to rip it apart. >> i don't remember. >> reporter: prosecutors tried to show that jason's call to meredith to pick up those e-bay printouts was merely a ploy to get her to discover the body and find cassidy. why else would he print an e-bay auction ad leave it on the printer and hit the road where he couldn't bid during the actual auction? they called sergeant spivey to the stand. >> that auction was going to end 8:00 p.m. eastern standard time. >> what day was that? >> that was on november 2nd, 2006. >> reporter: just hours before the murder. now prosecutors tried to prove jason lied about his reasons for leaving the hotel room. >> i didn't pull the door all the way -- >> reporter: in his original testimony, he told the court he left the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> why was it that you wanted to look on your laptop? >> i was going over the sales call that i had the next day. >> reporter: but special agent mike smith took the stand to say young didn't use his laptop for work that night. >> this is an internet site dedicated to sports. >> reporter: jason said he went out a second time to smoke a cigar. but prosecutors contended jason was a fierce anti-smoker and the weather that night was freezing, windy. >> can you tell me whether or not there was ever any substantial outerwear that the defendant either had in his luggage or was wearing? >> no, sir. there was a suit jacket. >> okay. >> that was the only outerwear that i'm aware of. >> reporter: jason chose not to testify this time. but the defense fought back of course. they argued the gas station attendant's memory couldn't be trusted because of a childhood brain injury. >> i've had memory problems since '06 because i've been through a lot with myself and my kids and my ex-husband. >> reporter: the defense also argued the case really wasn't solved. that there was no physical evidence to prove jason was the killer. >> there wasn't one scratch on mr. young. >> reporter: that he never would have had time to make the trip and commit murder, that he didn't have the mind-set of a killer. and that cigar, it showed that jason young actually owned a humidor and he'd once made a purchase at a cigar store. >> you have ample evidence before you that jason young is not guilty. >> reporter: and then it was over again. and time for another jury to consider whether jason young would go to jail or walk out of court a free man. coming up, the verdict take two. >> we, the jury, by unanimous verdict find the defendant, jason lynn young, to be -- >> when "silent witness" continues. ree, two, one... in 1969, engineers put the first man on the moon. everyone looked up at the sky, in awe... but if you're an engineer, you look in awe at those men and women in the room. because they did it with technology less powerful than any smartphone. think of that... it's what inspires us all to get there first. i became an engineer because of them. now i'm part of the team at verizon building an incredibly powerful 5g experience for america. we call it 5g ultra wideband. it's wider for ultra-fast speeds and ultra-low lag times. when i think of it... i think of what people might do with it. i think of where people might go with it. i think of... them. (man over radio) ...go for landing. ♪ guys go through a lot to deal with shave irritation. so, we built the new gillette skinguard with a specialized guard designed to reduce it. because we believe all men deserve a razor just for them. the best a man can get. gillette. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from any one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase sensimist relieves all your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. and all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. flonase sensimist. welcome back. for the second time in less than a year jurors were about to deliberate on the fate of accused killer jason young. in his first trial jason took the stand to declare his innocence, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict. this time prosecutors had replayed his testimony and called multiple witnesses to attack his credibility. did the jury believe then? turns out this case was far from over. here with the conclusion of our story is keith morrison. ♪ >> reporter: for more than five years michelle young's family and friends had been waiting for answers. who killed their pretty pregnant michelle? many thought they knew. >> it was him. you know, i didn't know all the evidence. i didn't know half the things i know now. but i felt that way. >> one jury failed to decide. and now attorneys were making their final arguments to a second jury. >> be mad at him. hate him if you want to. but when you look at the physical evidence in this case, it does not match up. it does not match up to jason having killed his wife and unborn son. >> 30 blows? that's not from a stranger. that is a mad, mad domestic abuser. >> reporter: soon that jury was behind closed doors in the wake county superior court. after two days, they were back with a verdict. >> we the jury by unanimous verdict find the defendant jason lynn young to be guilty of the first degree murder of michelle -- >> reporter: guilty. first-degree murder. jason young didn't flinch. behind him his mother was equally stoic. on the other side of the court, michelle young's bereaved mother and sister wept. fiona at home got the news from a friend. they said, "he's guilty." i was like, "what? what?" >> reporter: jason young received a life sentence. chose not to address the court. even as the bailiffs led him away, he remained expressionless. the prosecutors were, they told us, relieved. >> i was very emotional. you have family members there who you've been working with for 5 1/2 years. and they finally had justice, you know? >> we have been telling them for years, just trust. just trust that it'll be the right result. >> reporter: but was it? a year and a half ticked by. and then this. >> attorneys for jason young demanding a new trial saying the trial that led to his conviction had significant errors. >> reporter: december 2013. jason young's new attorneys launched his appeal. >> who is the killer? is jason young the person responsible for ms. young's death? and you know, it seems fundamentally unfair. >> reporter: what was fundamentally unfair? remember during the trial, the attorney pointed out, the prosecution introduced testimony about those civil cases against jason brought by michelle's family. they accused jason of murder. >> jason young brutally murdered michelle young. >> the defendant brutally murdered michelle marie fisher young. >> reporter: way out of bounds, said the attorney. the jury should not have been allowed to hear about any of that. outside the court, michelle's sister meredith predicted the appeal would be thrown out. >> the jury came to the right verdict. we are confident it will stay. >> reporter: but she was wrong. >> a raleigh man is getting a third trial in the death of his pregnant wife. >> reporter: in april 2014 the north carolina court of appeals granted jason a new trial. but a year later the state supreme court reversed the appeals court decision. and in 2017 yet another attempt by jason young to get a third trial, this time on grounds his defense team was ineffective, was also denied. >> i love you, mommy. >> i love you too, cassidy. >> reporter: but children know little of the arcane world of motions and appeals. cassidy has grown. her father, her mother, snatches of memory, ever farther away. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. it's been 15 years of frustration, of tears, and fighting for what we wanted. how long can you keep reliving your sister's murder? >> reporter: it all began when this bestselling author married this elegant executive. >> they brought us together. they made us a family. >> but in the we hours of a winter night -- >> i found her at the base of the stairs. >> reporter: kathleen peterson, dead. >> was this a fall, or was this murder?