emergency vehicles, officers, and that's as far as i can go. there is my baby and i can't do nothing about it. >> she was a hardworking, young wife and mom. >> sweetest gurley can ever asked to meet. >> just minutes from home when she saw the headlights. >> somebody was telling her. >> my sister is in my driveway. and her heads bloody. >> so you bear your little girl and then it's a murder investigation? >> yes. >> there were two people brandi feared, one town. >> she thought she was being followed. >> one thousands of miles away. >> josh was still in alaska. >> then, there was the new man in her life. >> anybody close to brandi needed to take a hard serious look at. >> no fingerprints, no dna, and no arrests for years. >> you are grieving. how do you pull all of that together. >> day-by-day. >> the handsome urge of someone 's dark past. >> you have robberies going on, a homicide. >> and one brave woman willing to talk. >> he called me, the same that happened to brandi will happen to me. >> the question wasn't just who murdered a young mother, it was why. >> there was no money, there just wasn't a reason to do it. >> she didn't hurt nobody. she did nothing to nobody. why did they have to kill her? >> hello, and welcome to "dateline". imagine driving on the dark isolated road, then suddenly, there's a car behind you. it gets closer, and closer, to close for comfort. it's someone tailing you, or is your imagination in overdrive? for brandy daniels, her mind was not playing tricks. someone was stalking her. and then, the single mother was found slumped over in her passenger seat, shot dead. investigators would spend years navigating the twists and turns, searching for her killer. here is dennis murphy with "out there in the dark". >> it was a chillier than usual mckee night in may 2014, as brandi daniels drove home from her shift at kolh's. zanesville, ohio is the kind of not to be, not a small city where you can be off the downtown grid and the wooded rolling hills in just a few minutes. out there in the dark, that's where this 25 year old single mom was heading. back home to her daughter waiting to be tucked in at brandi's mom's house, in the country where she'd been living lately. she had been through a rough three months, years, really. one of the reasons why things were turning around for her was that soothing voice on the cell phone that night, her fiancée, talking her home. >> i'm just talking to her as she's driving home, trying to drive a stick shift, which we just learned. talking on the phone. >> the fiancée was craig barry, her older brother's boyfriend. >> i'm a hairstylist, i have been for years. >> one day, brandi walked into his salon. >> we hit it. off >> it's funny how you never know you're gonna ten your head to. >> we turned out to be great friends. it was beautiful as you ever saw. >> like the song, brandi turned out to be a fine girl for craig. and right away, mutual attraction grew into something more serious. >> she had my heart, immediately. it was a connection like that never felt. it just got bigger and bigger every time we talked. we were looking at houses. >> you guys were going to get married? >> oh. yes >> we brandi's mom was thrilled that the arrival of craig and her life, just when you needed something nice to happen. >> what did you think of him? >> he was really nice, he put her first. he put her first. growing up, brandy wasn't much for barbie dolls, but give her a sketch pad and pencil, and she was lost for hours. she loves to draw. she had a deft eye for realistic portraits. >> she took every kind of art class there was. if it had anything to do with art, she took. it >> is brandy enrolled at her local college, zane state, but before her freshman year was up, she left school to marry josh daniels, a part-time student she met. not too long after, she had news for mom. >> she called me a, said she was pregnant. >> you must have been so torn up. >> i was. that was my baby. >> brandy, husband josh, and the baby daughter were living nearby. >> you couldn't ask for a better mother. if it was something that she needed or the little girl needed, the baby got it first. >> and had her grandmother? >> the baby got everything. yes. >> the marriage, after seven years of trying, fell apart. she filed for divorce. she seemed to be in a rough patch of her life. >> yes. >> but on this night, as she was driving home from work, with fiancée craig in her ear, he heard brandy starting to sound edgy. >> she said that she was being tailed, and have to get off my butt. and it went dead. >> it went dead. >> i texted her, you know, what's up? about ten minutes past by, and i called her sister, and said, is brandi home yet? she said no. and i said her call dropped on and she should be coming through the door by now. and she said, you want me to check? i said please. >> her sister, tess, headed from her mom's house to look for her. >> just a few minutes later, she had her sister called me back and was losing it. she was at the top of the driveway. and she says, i see her car, her headlights are on, but it's not moving. her head is slumped down. and then she became hysterical. and then i said, i will be there. i said, you need to call the cops. >> 9-1-1, your emergency? >> the muskingum 9-1-1 center field at the call. >> my sister is in my driveway, and her heads bloody, and she's not moving. i just need someone to come quick, please. i'm just scared. i just -- i need someone to come now. >> stay on the line with me while i get a squat on the way. >> fiancée craig was on his way too. there was his girlfriends nissan center and the driveway. >> i call pull up behind the car and is a sheriff there are. ready and i pulled up, and i see her in the driver seat, and i say, what's wrong? and he says, i think she's been shot. >> nothing can prepare you for that? >> no, she was dead. that's what he told me. >> he told you that at the scene? >> yes. and stay away. you don't want to contaminate the crime scene. >> no bridge ahead. into the abyss. >> blew me out of the water. >> brandy's mom was leaving the bottle factory where she worked. >> at 11:05, i got a phone call, and i went running to the truck. tessa said there was something wrong with brandy. >> you saw the emergency vehicles, officers. >> we get off into the driveway and that's as far as i could go. >> the car, with the driver side window down, the vehicle stalled in first gear, and brandy inside, looking rag doll, shot three days times, execution style. the detectives were arriving. >> who would want brandy dead? it's always the husband, right? maybe not this time. >> coming up -- >> josh was, in fact, still in alaska that night. >> but there was someone who lived right in town. >> did you wonder what was going on with the boyfriend? >> when "dateline" continues. eel more with less asthma... ...thanks to dupixent. dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems. it's an add-on treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma. and can help improve lung function for better breathing in as little as two weeks. dupixent helps prevent asthma attacks... and can even reduce or eliminate oral steroids. imagine that. dupixent can cause allergic reactions that can be severe. get help right away if you have rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor about new or worsening joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. who knows what you can do when you du more with less asthma. ask your doctor about dupixent. the most prescribed biologic for asthma. my active psoriatic arthritis can make me feel like i'm losing my rhythm. with skyrizi to treat my skin and joints, i'm getting into my groove. ♪(uplifting music)♪ along with significantly clearer skin... skyrizi helps me move with less joint pain, stiffness, swelling, and fatigue. and is just 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. skyrizi attaches to and reduces a source of excess inflammation that can lead to skin and joint symptoms. with skyrizi 90% clearer skin and less joint pain are possible. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to. thanks to skyrizi, there's nothing like clearer skin and better movement... and that means everything. ♪nothing is everything♪ now's the time to ask your doctor about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. 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[rewind sound] before advil: [grunts] oh. advil dual action back pain fights back pain two ways. for 8 hours of relief. fights back pain two ways. dennis murphy (voiceover): it was may 5, 2014. >> it was may 5th, 2014. the car was at the head of the driveway, the car was at the head of the driveway, lights on, and two county detectives arriving to try to figure out what had happened to the young woman dead in the driver seat. detective mike ryan and captain steve welker, in the first minutes of what would be a years-long investigation. >> blake and i arrived at the same time. >> did the scene explain itself to you? >> we could see the basics of what had happened. >> their victim, brandy daniels, had been shot three times at close range. crime scene techs would recover three shell casings and a clip for semiautomatic pistol. her phone and purse were beside her. >> we took out robbery because there was money that they would've taken if it was a robbery. >> as csis took pictures, they gathered blood, and dna. brandy's mom, sister and fiancée watched in blank horror. >> what do you remember? >> sitting in her vehicle behind the car, just watching. >> and there's your girl, gone. >> there is my baby, and i can't do nothing about it. it was 2:00, went to the house, 4:00, detectives came down to the house, said they removed her from the car. >> who would benefit from a single mom's death? of course, the questioning turned quickly to the soon to be divorced husband, the father of the little girl. brandy's mom told them about josh daniels, he was a personal trailer at the gym and an obsessive weightlifter. when you ran him through the computer, what did you find out about him? did he have priors? >> he did not. >> he was not on law enforcement's radar. >> not on law enforcement's radar, but nonetheless, somebody they wanted to talk to right now. but there was a problem, a big one. there was every reason to believe he was not in the driveway that night, but 4300 miles away in alaska. josh had moved up there to be near his mom, and he found work in the oil fields. >> josh was, in fact, still in alaska that night. >> that's a pretty good alibi. >> yes. >> because there's domestic turmoil doesn't mean that you necessarily have a suspect though, does it? >> not necessarily. not necessarily. but it's a good idea to eliminate the husband as a suspect in the get-go. >> detective ryan called josh daniels on alaska's north slope. >> can you discern things like demeanor and attitude through the phone line? >> not really. i wasn't detecting shock or grief or anything like that. >> nothing you can hang your head on either? >> one of the questions i asked him was who have you've been talking to here in zanesville, ohio, and he gave me about half a dozen people. >> daniels told the detective he returned to zanesville, as soon as he could. but there was another person much closer that the cops had to figure out, craig barry, the fiancée. he's the last person known to talk to her? >> yes. >> could you figure out what was going on with a boyfriend? he's quite an older guy, 20 years on the victim. he's a person of interest until he's not, i'm guessing? >> at that point, anybody close to brandy, we need to take a hard, serious look at. >> within hours of brandy's death, craig got the third degree. they're asking you hard questions? >> where where have you been, what were you doing? >> they thought you were a suspect. >> oh yes. >> until you are in it and they're grilling you. >> they asked for my cellphone, and i handed it. >> how long did it last? >> i got home at 5:30 that morning. >> then the legwork of the investigation began in earnest. starting with where she was last seen alive. so you're talking to your victims coworkers. what's the picture coming together there? >> they all described brandy as a very good young lady. devoted mother, in a marriage that she really wanted to get out of. >> patrol officers traced the route from kolh's to the murder scene, hoping they find these security camera. there's a guy right on her bumper, but the image doesn't show up anywhere, right? >> no. >> when the lab results came back, disappointment. no useful fingerprints or dna, and the long slog of getting search warrants to recover data from the cell phone and the tower the signals bounced off of have just begun. a few days after the murder, brandy's husband josh daniels returned to zanesville from alaska. he was fully cooperative. the detectives asked for his cell phone. >> he and his attorney voluntarily turned it over. >> you can look him in the eye and check his demeanor. what were you seeing? >> he was very cool and collected. he looked very confident. >> with the data from his phone, on the way to the lab, josh returned to alaska with his eight year old daughter. molly and her family had buried their brandy, but no one was coming to terms with the magnitude of this crime. did the officers tell you anything about how the case would go? >> they figured it would be summed up within a couple of days. >> if only. >> coming up -- a new suspect, but he has an alibi. >> i went to my girlfriend's house, and i kind of stayed there. >> was he telling the truth? the texts tell the tale. when "dateline" continues. what is cirkul? cirkul is the fuel you need to take flight. cirkul is the energy that gets you to the next level. cirkul is what you hope for when life tosses lemons your way. cirkul. it's your water, your way. 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