Solving Lynn Shockner News Today

Outside the long beach p.d., the pressure was on. >> and my department wanted a quick resolve because we have a black eye. the press was just beating us up daily because of what we did. >> reporter: so the clock was ticking. detectives needed to prove the murder-for-hire plot, and they needed to do it fast. >> so that was the whole game is trying to play cat and mouse, trying to get more. we want to get them to talk. we want to get them to communicate. >> reporter: but wasnt going to happen, by ...

And once he got out of jail, he was going to find frank and -- >> take care of him myself. >> reporter: the detectives played along, of course. let nick dream up whatever conspiracy theory made him happy. but meanwhile, they requisitioned el cubanos phone records, and they found something quite surprising. >> not only had frank jaramillo been talking with nick harvey, but he also had talked to the husband. >> reporter: fred schockner. >> fred schockner. >> reporter: fred schockner, lynns husband...

Here she is with her two older brothers, john and mark. but lynn was not like them. >> she was a tentative girl, whereas my brother and i were very outgoing. >> their father died young. lynn often fought with her mother. >> love/hate, call it what you want. >> she got married. moved to california with a brand new husband. it didnt work out. it ended pretty quickly. but then one day, she went to a ball game. dodgers versus somebody. who knows? and she found him. the right guy. her guy. fred schoc...

Someone to himself. >> reporter: but somehow, hed found plenty of trouble. police started to figure out how when they subpoenaed his phone records. >> my partner discovered that there was a person that he talked to. and multiple times right before the murder. >> frank haramia? >> correct. >> reporter: frank, aka el cubano. unless, of course, he was in on it. how to find out? step one, said chris nelson, go back to nick harvey. lean on him a little bit. >> you got to talk to this guy before he ge...

>> when detective birdsall and his partner first asked him, nick gave them an answer that, frankly, still didnt make sense. >> we came at him and his initial story was i heard this is a good area. >> reporter: really? there wasnt a good area closer to home? well, then nick gave them another answer. >> he wanted to get out of his area. and he worked out at a local gym up there. he was a gym rat and he worked out with police officers and did martial arts with police officers. he felt they would re...

Crashing down. >> reporter: his home was a crime scene. >> the house was taped off. and just people going in and out of the house. a lot of neighbors around. like everything you see on tv. >> reporter: you never think its gonna be you. >> oh, no. no. no. no. its surreal. very much so. >> reporter: what does that loss feel like? >> yeah. i -- i cant put it into words. it was tremendous. it was awful. i immediately called mark and im babbling on the phone. i cant even speak. >> mark is charlies un...

>> but the killer caught red handed starts pointing fingers. >> the burglary was staged. >> this is a guy who aspired to be a hit man. >> he was a sitting target. >> doesnt mean you can now go out and charge em all with murder? >> i have no facts. >> so detectives lay a trap. >> trying to play cat and mouse. >> he was already really paranoid about being fed up. >> you hand a little note that says are you wired? >> will they catch their prey? >> you hold your breath. the world kind of stops. >> "...

What the hell was going on here? why did you guys let that happen? right? >> yeah. they did. you know, because youre trying to defend the officers, they didnt do anything wrong. you were waiting for someone to bring you the key. they waited a short period of time. within a minute. you know, theyre yelling for her. maam, can you come back? hello? where are you? >> reporter: just a minute or so. enough for lynn to surprise the burglar who stabbed her in the neck and grabbed some jewelry and ran. i...

Lynn and charlie to visit him in georgia. >> i basically told my sister not to bother to bring him. stay as long as she wanted. leave her old man at home. >> reporter: and on one of those visits, mark told lynn exactly how he felt. >> i said how can you let someone run your life and forett about yourself? >> reporter: afterward, he sat down and wrote many of the same things in a harshly-worded letter to fred. >> i wrote that letter. i signed the letter. i handed it to my sister. and i dared her ...

Seemed happier. more able to get excited. just really interested in everything. and very lighthearted. >> reporter: but her happiness was short lived. and when mark first heard she was murdered, his mind went to a very dark place. could fred have had something to do with it? but as much as he disliked fred, he just couldnt see it. >> there were no connections in their personal life to this person that committed the crime. >> reporter: no, it seemed pretty clear. fred had nothing to do with lynns...