estate. i know a couple people that used to work there. who s that? daniel? what goes through your mind when she says that? well the bells and whistles definitely start going off. reporter: bells and whistles because after vern had been assaulted, his family had flooded detectives with calls. so you sit down and you start thinking to yourselves, who d wanna hurt him? one person. his name is daniel blizzard. reporter: daniel blizzard. that ambitious agent to whom vern was going to sell the company. someone vern had once trusted. did you think daniel had something to do with it? well, yeah i was pretty sure. reporter: why, with zero proof, would so many believe blizzard was behind the attack? detective perrault soon heard a story that went like this, in the fall of 2008, vern called employees like bookkeeper judy craven to a meeting.
upon vern s death. vern knew they were taking that policy out on him? he did. and he was comfortable with it? i wouldn t say he was comfortable with it. reporter: the blizzards never missed a payment on the life insurance. but they never made another payment on the business. so in january 2010, just sixteen months after selling the company, vern sent out another email to staff. this time to say daniel is no longer with aspen real estate . vern was taking back the company he d built. it s like if you can t make your payments, you can t keep it. and so i think y know he had to. reporter: there were complaints filed with the real estate board. lawsuits. countersuits. and all the while, that life insurance policy seemed to weigh on vern s mind. he went to the life insurance company and he asked em to remove it. no one in that company would remove the policy. because somebody was paying
and if they don t like it, they give em their money back. wait, they take the car back? that s crazy! what if it was driven by like a zookeeper? or a mud wrestler? or a guy who s on the outs with the missus and he just needs a place to sleep for seven days? yeah. (vo) buy your car online. love it or return it. with carvana.
no, whatever. y know. he wasn t buying it. no he didn t think much of it. reporter: and then as the trials of the four suspects wound their way toward the courthouse vern s family was blindsided yet again. prosecutors called to say they were offering deals to two of the suspects. to make sure their cases were rock-solid against accused shot-caller daniel blizzard, and the alleged attacker luis gomez-monges, the state would allow luis s girlfriend adriana mendez, and jill taylor, to walk out of jail if the two women would agree to testify against the two men. did they ask your permission for this, or were they essentially saying this is the way the cookie crumbles? we didn t have a choice, but we were made aware that this is what they were thinking of doing. reporter: why were those deals necessary? it s kind of trying to pick the lesser of two evils on that. meaning, you get the
all of the information about them fighting about the selling of the house, he says that was truthful. that occurred. then carol stormed out, and it might have blown over, as arguments do, but she came back at 1:30 a.m. and said the one thing that would not blow over, not ever. she told him that she was going to be taking somebody else, another man, to her sister, terry s upcoming wedding. he said he was very upset. she tried to comfort him. then, he said. and she was telling him, don t worry, you ll find somebody else, et cetera. and that was the last thing carol lubahn ever said. he didn t want to hear it, and he said that he pushed her. she fell and hit her head on a heavy end table in the living room. he said that she didn t bleed, but he knew instantly that she