Page 7 - Jon Ralph News Today

Crying. he said she is in the kitchen. ill go get my neighbor. ralph, were getting help for you ralph. >> the police arrive. went into the house with guns drawn. at the entrance to the kitchen, still in her nightgown lay pam. her head covered in blood. >> i knew she was dead when the ambulance showed up because they did not go into the house. they just stayed and were working on ralph. >> ralph wasnt shot, but he was hurt. he was air lifted to the nearest trauma hospital. the local reporter knew...

But heres what pams daughter, shannon, thought. >> it felt overly dramatic and really just glamorous that he was the victim of this. and that wasnt -- that made me sick. >> and angry obviously. >> yeah. >> her sister kelseys interpretation? >> i thought it was very strange. i thought that he had some work to do on a story because it sounded really phony. >> entitled to their opinions, of course. but then so were the cops. recovered memory? no, said the cbis jody wright. more like a cover-up. >> ...

But i looked down the hall, and i could see pams legs in the kitchen. thats when he ran out of the house and found his neighbor who called 911. of course, the "world journal" printed all that though the police werent too happy about it. and eric mullens? >> i remember taking it home and reading it and putting it down and thinking, no, it didnt say that. and picking it back up again. >> but remarkable as ralphs letter was, it still wasnt the whole story. a few weeks after the murder, he mustered ...

Hillary clinton campaign. this comes three days ahead of the meeting with president trump and vladimir putin in helsinki. and demonstrators protested his visit in nearby london as president trump meets with the queen. now back to "dateline." >> welcome back. im craig melvin. when ralph candelarios account of the home invasion was published, it became the talk of the town. everyone wondered, could this story be true? ralph said yes. and police wondered if the truth was in there, somewhere. retu...

Somebody was breaking into the house. the police, of course, brought that up with ralph. and what did he write in his letter? i went out the back, and the rear door glass was broken. some pieces fell out when i opened the door. ralph even had answers to questions he wasnt asked, like, why was the fireplace poker exactly where it belonged by the fireplace? >> normally if you used a weapon, youre going to find it somewhere around where your victim is. and it looked like the poker had been put back...

It was, said the prosecutors, one of the more disturbing motives for murder theyd ever heard. so his religious beliefs were more important than somebody elses life? >> ralph candelarios life was more important than anyone elses life. >> so the jury got the case. and they worked till the end of the day and then through a second and then a third. tick tock. >> whether they convict him or they dont is going to be a different set of emotions. >> and then in the middle of the third day -- >> we the j...

>> best he could remember said ralph, he got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. then decided to go downstairs to make sure the wood burning stove was still lit. on the way to the bottom of the steps, he said, somebody hit him from behind and again from the side. >> i put my arm up and boom. it hit me like a ton of bricks. it hit me hard. so i went backward. the ringing. i could not see if i more. >> ralph -- see anymore. >> ralph was knocked unconscious. >> i dont remember anythi...

Painstaking police work before investigators finally had enough evidence to arrest ralph candelario for the murder of his wife pam, but theyd have to find him first. ralph was on vacation or maybe on the run. >> i initiated some phone calls with ralph so that we could try to track him down. >> they tracked his cell phone and caught up with him. >> driver, get your hands in the air. >> in northern california. >> walk back to the sound of my voice. back to me. >> you all right? >> yeah. >> charged...

Can you tell me anything? >> yeah. the only thing, you know, that i know is that a lot of stuff was stolen from the house. >> okay. >> ralph stuck to his story. a deadly home invasion. >> and then i found her. >> yeah. >> and thats, you know -- >> yeah. >> i tried to deal with that. >> shannon pressed ralph for details. >> the one guy that hit me that i saw from the front was taller than me. >> okay. >> and he had a dark complexion. you know, he had marks on his face. >> and then something that ...

Ralphs story about what happened to pam had to be true. remember those two men fingered as possible killers? they had records, drug offenses, burglaries. >> she walks in on a burglary. burglaries arent uncommon in walsenburg especially with all the drugs around. >> reporter: then, said the defense, one of the bad guys saw pam and -- >> he hits pam in the head hard. hes standing there in the kitchen, fire poker in his hand, wondering what to do. >> the robbers must have thought pam and ralph had ...