Think Dawn News Today

Outages here and travel is going to be very difficult, if not impossible. so listen to your local weather officials. fox weather.com. download the app. we will give you the very latest in the winter storm details. all right, brian, you know i dont think dawn is going to have to shovel but i will keep you posted. >> brian: for some reason your snow storms are monday through friday when im at work causing a lot of stress at my house which cant be overstated. thank you so much, janice. rise in crim...

>> reporter: dawn. dawn oxley. ben oxleys ex-wife, alyssas mother. even as more than a few local gossipers pointed suspicious fingers at melissa, bens best friends told each other -- >> everything in me said that dawn had something to do with that. >> reporter: of course, just a few years back that sort of thinking would have been unimaginable to dawn and bens best friends scott and cindy graham. not dawn. dawn, the force of nature, the center of any room she was in. >> i dont know if its manipu...

>> i pulled the trigger. >> reporter: but james matlean did not shrink from it. he murdered ben oxley in his sleep and must live with what he did for the rest of his days. >> im afraid to deal with what i actually did. >> reporter: he told his story in court last december. it was after the d.a. took the death penalty off the table and james decided to plead guilty. and thats when melissa sitting in the courtroom heard for the first time about something else. james was supposed to kill her, too. ...

A heated conversation about ben oxley. james asking dawn if she wants to have him killed. but thats where the stories diverge. dawn remember, says she told james, no, dont do it and fell asleep on the couch. but thats not james matleans story. >> she was ecstatic about what was happening. she was happy i was going to kill somebody. you know? >> reporter: it was after midnight. dawn drew him a diagram of ben oxleys house, said james, so he could find his way to the bedroom. then he went to the 7-...

They were. a happy family. >> for her to be my wife is just -- its a blessing. >> its what you wait for all your life. >> reporter: what were your plans?s l >> to buy a house and to have babies and have a family. >> reporter: they eventually moved here, a three-bedroom ranch in the carson valley looking up toward the sierra nevadas. alyssa spent half her time with ben and melissa. the other time with her birth mom, bens ex-wife, dawn. but above all, what ben really wanted was to have his little ...

Made him feel rescued. gave him a place to live. he had just been paroled from prison after doing time for stealing a truck. >> kind of gave me a sense of hope. there was somebody out there besides my mom who cared. >> reporter: at dawns house, james discovered what others had, he said, as long as dawn was happy, everybody was happy. and if she wasnt -- well, then james could not be happy either. >> she was very, very upset the fact she lost alyssa. >> reporter: and she went on rants, he said ab...

And i didnt know how to get in. >> or where the bedroom was? >> or where the bedroom was. so dawn had to go inside. >> reporter: the front door was locked, so dawn took him around back, he said, where a sliding glass door was unlocked. and they eased their way in and walked down the hall. then, said james, dawn pointed him towards the master bedroom. >> and i turned around and she was going into alyssas room. >> going into the room? >> yeah. she was about -- half her body was into the room. she ...

Thats where everything in my mind that should have happened three or four hours ago happened. i started thinking why am i here? something i heard to my left -- >> reporter: a sudden noise? >> yeah. and as i turned and jerked to see what it was, i pulled the trigger. >> reporter: he ran then, he said, left the front door wide open. caught up to dawn at the truck. >> reporter: who drove? >> she did. i started yelling at her when we got in the truck. >> reporter: the truth, said james matlean, all ...

The facility in the past week according to north koreas academy of defense science. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." im craig melvin. melissa oxley could now breathe a little easier. while still on their radar, detectives no longer considered her the primary suspect in her husband bens shooting death. theyd shifted their focus to another woman in bens life. someone they believed held a grudge. investigators were about to bring her in for questioning. and the story shed tell ...

>> reporter: finally, the story of ben oxleys murder, bit by bit, was leaking out. but could dawns version be believed, that she had nothing to do with it? heres what dawns mother sherry thought. >> i can see her sitting there saying, god, i wish he was dead. >> yeah. >> and i can see james going you want me to go kill him for you and her going whatever? it was more of a disbelief than an affirmation. >> reporter: thats the story dawn told, too, that she did not want james matlian to kill her ex...