Page 7 - Jack Jesse News Today

Be near her son tom. and soon her daughter followed, too. and they all lived within a couple blocks of each other with homes sandra helped purchase with jacks insurance money and savings. >> when everything was said and done, she got about $700,000. >> >> and as the months slipped past, leads failed to connect, and the investigation hit one dead end after another, and wyatt was promoted out of homicide. the case bounced from the p.d. to the orange county sheriffs department where before long it ...

To begin with, it was 1998. "shakespeare in love" won the oscar. monica lewinsky was freshly famous. it was a sweltering august night, hottest of the year, when cheryl got a strange call from her dad jack jesse. >> i was getting ready for bed and my phone rings, and its my dad on the phone. >> what time was this? >> it was 20 after 9:00. >> he was worried about his wife sandra. she was missing. >> what did he think had happened? >> he just thought maybe she had gotten in an accident or something...

And to those around her, the second seemed somehow worse. her beloved son tom up and moved to arizona. >> and she was flipping out about it. >> yeah. >> just -- >> she had to go there. >> she demanded jack move to arizona too. >> that woman was off her rocker. her tone was just scary. i never even -- its like somebody elses voice out of her. >> but surely that wasnt motive enough for murder. and with plenty of suspicion but little else to go on, wyatt spent months pouring over sandra and jacks p...

Heres keith morrison. >> after five years and a string of detectives, this was a game to avoid, and then one day, a whole impossible business was handed off to tom dove. >> i cant tell you how many times i thought, just move on, give up, move on. >> there was no hope of new evidence, obviously, like fingerprints or dna, just the infuriating puzzle that got more difficult with each passing year. >> after i reviewed the case, i had no feeling for the family, no feeling for jack jesse. >> to get hi...

The crime, which was his daughter, sheryl. >> the daughter, we had to look at her as a potential suspect. she was the one who found him. >> back at the station, wooitd intervi -- wyatt interviewed all of jacks relatives, including sand sandra, his wife, who was not missing, just on a shopping trip. >> came with us voluntarily, cooperating,me menwanted to hel solve the murder of the husband. >> and told them about life with jack, married 14 years, blended family, four kids between them, the patri...

>> in the deliberation room. >> these members of the jury told us 11 voted for conviction. but there was one lone juror who felt some level of compassion for sandra. >> she related to the sandra jessee concern that jack jessees illness would eat up their nest egg. >> i felt like she was enjoying the control she had. >> there was nothing. nothing we could do or say. >> people were getting so heated and there was so much anger that she started to shut down even more. >> and that scene played out f...

The shock, of course, but one of two shocks for sandra, and to those around her, the second seemed somehow worse. her beloved son, tom, up and moved to arizona. >> and she was flipping out about it. >> yeah. >> just she had to go there. >> she demanded jack move to arizona too. >> that woman was off her rocker. the tone was scary. like somebody elses voice coming out of her. >> surely that was not the motive enough for murder, and with plenty of suspicion, but little else to go on, wyatt spent m...

Hunting for years. the bartender. who called in the anonymous tip years earlier. >> and the first words out of my mouth were, hi, mike, im here about brett, and the face went completely flush, and he said, i knew youd find me sooner or later. >> what story did he tell you? >> brett confided in him for whatever reason telling him details of the murder of jack jesse including his involvement. that was a huge, huge quantum leap for us in putting this case to rest. >> now the time had come to spring...

There was small piece of note paper with the name, which appeared to me, at that time, to say schreuver. thats all it said. i thought. >> but where would he find this person? he unearthed another clue when asking wyatt about toms friend, sandra said the boys were once work buddies. so detective doug crossed california looking for employment records at every target store for this name in the employment records. nobody had heard of it. >> we were getting to a dead end there. >> thats when jacks da...

>> they thought they knew the motive, too, but -- >> a matter of proving it is a different story. >> until someone found the perfect bait. >> hey, dude, its me, you need to [ bleep ] call me asap. >> could they set the perfect trap in. >> these people might literally get away with murder. >> "deadly conspiracy." >> hello, welcome to "dateline extra," im craig melvin, with doting grandfather jack jesse at the helm, his big and blended california family seemed like one happy bunch. then jack was f...