i told him i loved him. he said he would be right back. i could hear a commotion of some sort. and then i remember hearing gunshots. looking to see him lying there, it was bad. >> it's the website we're lovers go to meet and cheat. >> this was someone looking to have an affair. >> but this affair was about so much more than deceit. >> you couldn't write this as a movie. you couldn't write this as a book. >> this affair became a game. a wife and her lover, spying on her husband and his lover. >> you just think, well what else have they done? >> and then, this by game turned deadly. one of the four lovers was gunned down. >> it's obviously was not something that was random. >> waiting at the scene, a man with a strange story. and waiting for detectives, a strange video. >> how creepy was that video? >> it was very creepy. >> an affair to remember. >> he was the one. >> and a fair to forget. >> i shouldn't have done it. >> and one warmer secret still to be revealed. >> she said, i need you to sit down. i have something to tell you. the hair is on my the back of my neck stood up. >> hello, and welcome to dateline. by all appearances sam and danielle dreher had, a storybook marriage. then one traffic afternoon, their worlds came crashing down. destroyed by a series of bullets and a senseless killing. as investigators began today, they realize not all was as it seemed. they had entered a thorny maze of marital betrayal. here's thief andrea canning, with tangled web. >> sarasota, florida. the perfect backdrop for romance. beautiful beaches for a long walks, gorgeous sunsets, and this little rhythm of a gentle gulf tied. stories of love abound in this city by the city. but not all have ended happily ever after. like the one that unfolded hair back in december of 2012. when secrets, lies and infidelity led to murder. >> 9-1-1 was the location of emergency? >> hello? a man's been shot. >> it's really a trusted love story? >> it's so twisted. it's tangled. it's a not. i'm not sure that it will ever come undone. but i do know that there is more to the story than has been told. >> it all began back in 1998, when the 26-year-old local firefighter by the name of sam dreher, met the love of his life, danielle laborovo,. >> they were there just the ideal young couple. they held hands. they looked at each assure there. he seemed crazy about her. >> sam's older so sister, cindy lutz, was thrilled when she found out sam had a serious new girlfriend. what was your first impression? >> she was really sweet. she seemed crazy about him. she liked the outdoors. she liked to travel. so, they just have a lot in common. >> so it came as not a price when sam announced he was ready to pop the question. as for how he proposed, the firefighter didn't disappoint. >> he had hired a sand sculpture to build a rather large sense culture of a treasure test. and then he police the engagement ring in the box. >> so there was some rails pirates booty there? >> right, right. he pulled the bring out, got down on one knee, proposed. >> sends a romantic. >> he is, isn't he. >> the lucky in love newlyweds would become equally successful at work. sam quickly climb the fire department ladder, rising to the rank of lieutenant, at the young age of 33. >> he loved the fire services. absolutely loved it. lumping the paramedic. >> daniela was just as a ambitious, finding her stride in the administrative office of a local hospital. >> she became the regional marketing director for the hospital operation. >> sam and danielle didn't have children. but they have the next best thing, sounds great niece aubrey cake. >> you're like the daughter we never had. they always told me that. >> aubrey, who attended college nearby, often spec weekends with the dreher. >> sam was the best ever. he really took me in as family. right away. he was just like our dad. he just really cared. focus on school, don't let those boys ruin your life. you know? they are no good. don't let those boys get around you. and you are never allowed today a fireman. >> what's wrong with firemen? >> oh, he just work with them. he knew how they. we're [laughs] >> did danielle also take you in like you are one of your own her own? >> yes, she was as welcome as she was. >> but aubrey listen to their tails of romantic trips to exotic plants. they >> travel the world together. they had so many good times. and so many great experiences. i would >> i would imagine they're almost like role models? you >> yeah, they were, they were. >> perfect life, perfect wife. everything just seemed great. for both of them. >> but all of that changed in august of 2012. it was a hot saturday afternoon in sarasota, when registered nurse trish murphy, heard a disturbance coming from the stairwell just outside her apartment. >> it sounded like somebody was being chased. and then i heard somebody yell, oh god, no. >> the unmistakable sound of gunshots followed. four of them in quick succession. trish immediately called 9-1-1. >> 9-1-1, was the location of emergency? >> i just heard gunshots. and somebody screaming outside and somebody running outside. >> i think my heart was probably going a gazillion miles. >> trish slowly paired out of her apartment door and saw a man lying in the stairwell, believing. she knew he was an a resident of the apartment complex. >> i had no idea who he was. my concern was to get him over on his side, because he was face down and in a really big pool of blood. >> trish wasn't the only one at the scene. her upstairs neighbor, dianne mcknight, also try to aid the victim. >> there is just blood everywhere. and i just didn't know what to do. i ran back into my apartment england tells. >> as the minute stick by, trish began to worry the shooter might still be in the area. >> then all of a sudden you think, well, i wonder where the person is that did this. for all i knew, the person upstairs shot him. >> but those questions would have to wait, soon paramedics arrive on the scene. they learned the victim was one of their own. it was firefighter sam dreher, the paramedics immediately airlifted sam to the nearest trauma center. as word of the shooting spread. >> she is screaming into the phone, you have to come. he's been shot. he's been shot. and i said who's been shot? and she screams that, sam. >> but cindy jumped in her car to be at her brother side. 1000 questions world through her mind. why sam, who shot him, and why was gave apartment complex? >> a firefighter gunned down. but this seems like more than just a random shooting. coming up -- >> there some infidelity going on and there's no cause for concern. >> when dateline continues. hey jim! can we talk about casual fridays? oh sure. what's up? get fast, powerful cough relief with robitussin, and find your voice. ♪robitussin♪ i have moderate to severe crohn's disease. now, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are looking up, i've got symptom relief. ♪ ♪ control of my crohn's means everything to me. ♪ ♪ control is everything to me. ♪ feel significant symptom relief at 4 weeks with skyrizi, including less abdominal pain and fewer bowel movements. skyrizi is the first il-23 inhibitor that can deliver remission and visibly improve damage of the intestinal lining. and the majority of people experienced long-lasting remission at one year. 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. liver problems may occur in crohn's disease. ♪ now's the time to ask your gastroenterologist how you can take control of your crohn's with skyrizi. ♪ ♪ control is everything to me. ♪ ♪ learn how abbvie could help you save. teeth sensitivity is so common. it immediately feels like somebody's poking directly on the nerve. i recommend sensodyne. sensodyne toothpaste goes inside the tooth and calms the nerve down. and my patients say you know doc, it really works. my a1c was up here; now, it's down with rybelsus®. his a1c? 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[coughs] when caroline has a cough, she takes robitussin. so, she can have those one on ones again. hey jim! can we talk about casual fridays? oh sure. what's up? get fast, powerful cough relief with robitussin, and find your voice. ♪robitussin♪ >> as cindy lutz raced to the hospital, all she knew that was that her brother sam had been shot. >> it was a nightmare. it seemed like we were traveling 1000 miles. we just could not get there fast enough. >> when cindy finally went to the icu, sam's wife daniel was already there, waiting in the hallway. >> she started crying. and i said, is your life? just tell me he's alive. >> she said he's alive. >> but the prognosis wasn't good. >> then the doctor said he was shot four times. and i'm thinking, wrong place, wrong time. i didn't know what happened. >> the responsibility to finding out what happened fell to detectives chad mcdonald and jarek mike szalbirak, who began gathering pieces of the puzzle as soon as they arrived on scene. >> this case was personal? >> law enforcement and firefighters are very close? in this case it was in just another victim. this victim was part of this larger brotherhood. and it kind of hit home. >> first, they interviewed the two neighbors who found sam lying in the stairwell. >> whenever we work a crime, that is usually when you're gonna start with. your 9-1-1 caller. >> trish murphy told detectives this normally quiet, upscale gated community had never experience anything like this before. >> it was a nice quiet place to be. >> but she did remember seeing something that troubled her one evening, just a month before the shooting. a man standing in the woods across the lake, staring at the building. >> i thought to myself, this that was an odd thing. who would just be standing there? >> the detectives then turned to trish is traumatize labor with dianne mcknight. they learned dianne was holding on to a secret. >> it turns out that the witness, dianne mcknight, was a lot more than just a witness. she was very important to this case. >> yes, she was. >> dianne revealed that she knew sam, intimately. >> she intimated that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. she had stated that they had only been dating for a few months. and stated that they were enough. >> so sam was having an affair? >> yes. >> which is why sam was at the apartment complex that day. >> there's some infidelity going on and there's cause for concern. >> did you ever think that you would be the kind of person to have an affair? >> no. >> dianne told the detectives that her affair with sam started as affairs will often do -- with an innocent encounter at the bar. >> he asked me if i was married and had kids. and i told him that i was. no kids. i'm like, what about you? he said yes. married. >> in fact, sam had been married for 13 years. but according to me dianne, it took just a month for sam to fall in love with her. and she said, the feelings were mutual. what was it about him that made you fall hard? >> he was just the most thoughtful person. he was just comforting. and it just couldn't wait to always be around him. >> did you still feel a little guilty? >> oh, yes. >> but dianne said there were already issues in her marriage. >> i just thought, if i'm doing this, my marriage is definitely already over. >> a few months after the affair began, she decided it was time to tell her husband she wanted a divorce. >> i remember just saying, we need to talk. nobody ever wants to hear that. and he looked at me and said, are you having an affair? >> wow. >> and i said, no. >> why didn't you just be honest at that point? >> i didn't want to hurt him. >> what came next? >> we both got very emotional. and he agreed to it. >> then came the shooting. dianne tried to think of anyone who could've been responsible. that's when she remembered a strange visit a month before the shooting, from a man claiming to be a plumber. he said he was looking for a water leak in the building. >> he needed to check our pipes, something along that lines. >> i said, okay. thinking what am i doing letting the strange person into my home. i just had this feeling that this just isn't right. >> five minutes later, the plumber was done and on his way. >> did you ever check with your super? >> yes, i call the office and told them about the incident. and they said, there should not have been anybody at my door. >> wow, that must have been just a weird feeling. >> it was very unnerving. >> the following day, the same man appeared again, right below her apartment balcony. >> he was standing down there on the ground by a tree and looking directly up, right at me. >> creepy. >> yes. >> and now are you thinking, i'm being stalked? >> yeah. >> but dianne then saw him a third time. this time immediately after some had been shot. >> that same man -- >> that just gave me skills. >> came running up the stairs towards me. i just looked at him and i said what are you doing here? >> she recognized him and you can hear her on the 9-1-1 call. >> i didn't see who -- i don't know -- i don't know -- what are you doing here? >> i just member him making this motion like, whoa. then he ran off. >> did you start to think in those seconds that, this mystery man was really after sam? >> yeah, it was definitely a suspicion. >> it must have been such a puzzle. >> yes. >> puzzling too for detectives. >> we needed to know what this connection was. >> coming up. more secrets waiting to be revealed. >> she said, i need you to sit down i have something to tell you. and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. >> when dateline continues. goli, taste your goals. you want to be able to provide your child with the tools or resources they need. with reliable internet at home, through the internet essentials program, the world opened up. fellas, fellas. that's how my son was able to find the hidden genius project. we wanted to give y'all the necessary skills to compete with the future. kevin's now part of this next generation of young people who feel they can thrive. ♪ ♪ >> sam dreher clung to life in the icu, dianne mcknight, remained at the crime scene wondering who could've been responsible for his shooting. >> how scared are you knowing that there is a shooter on the loose? >> i was terrified. >> dianne told the tech gives about the strange man she had seen multiple times around her apartment complex. the same man who appeared moments after sam was shot. >> they said, could you describe him? so i described him. >> little did dianne know, a man fitting that very same description had just been arrested. he had approached sheriff deputies moments after they arrived on scene and confessed to the shooting. >> the deputy had him in the back of the patrol car. he told us that he made statements that he was a shooter. >> did you feel like this could be an easy one? case closed? or did you think there's got to be more to the story. >> there's never an easy one. there's always more to the story. >> the man identified himself as michael minor. detectives mcdonald and szalbirak immediately brought him down to the sheriff's office for questioning. >> he's very distraught, but but he's willing to talk to us. and we were very much ready to listen to him. >> michael outlined for detectives the details of the shooting. he started by insisting it was all an accident. >> i never intended to pull that trigger. i -- >> but detectives weren't so sure. after all, michael shot him not once but four times. one of the shots was to the back of his head. so sam is laying here and michael is right on top of him, basically, giving him the final shot? >> he would have had to have been. that's when the evidence indicates. >> one shot, in the back of would've been an accident. not the four shots that he actually fired. that was no accident, at all. >> but detectives wanted to know, if this was an accident, why then did michael shoot sam? >> we had all these pieces of the puzzle and we're trying to fit them altogether. >> that's when michael revealed something that would turn the case on its head. he told detectives about an affair. but it was in the affair between sam and dianne. it was an affair he was having with the victim's wife, danielle dreher. >> they have been having an affair for four years. >> it was a mind spinning a moment. detectives had just discovered the victim sam had been treating cheating on his wife danielle. now they were learning danielle had also been cheating on sam. >> everybody here is involved with somebody else. it was interesting to say the least. >> and challenging for detectives, who now had to contend with a second affair. michael minor, the plumber, 13 years younger than danielle, told them the two had met on ashley madison, a website for husbands and wives looking to cheat. the websites slogan, life is short. have an affair. >> this was someone looking to have an affair. >> they both were. >> yes. >> but michael insisted this was north casual fling. after all, the affair had lasted for years. what's more, he told detectives, he had fallen in love with danielle. >> it was like i really found my soulmate, man. it was so wonderful. i really had every intention of marrying this girl. >> he was smitten. i mean, he was totally obsessed with her and in love with her. >> he went on to say that on the day of the shooting, he decided it was finally time to talk to sam, man to man. he wanted to come clean about his love for danielle. >> he wants to confront sam, basically tell him that he is the other man. >> i concocted this scheme to go up there and tell him, you know, yeah i'm seeing your wife. i'm seeing your wife. >> that day, michael said he tracked some down and found him in the parking lot of dianne's apartment complex. he also said he bought a gun because he had no idea how sam would react. >> he's better than me. so i just, you know i brought my fire arm. i intended to go up there and just scare him. >> according to michael, his man-to-man with sam didn't go as planned. when sam saw michael was armed, he fled. >> don't run, don't run. i'm trying to force him to talk to me. >> michael run after some of these stairs. he said at some point, while the two were at in the stairwell, sam turned. >> michael claims that he was in fear and closed his eyes and just fired his gun. >> then he, comes towards me and i just -- i close my eyes and they just pull the trigger. and i'm so sorry. >> with all the things he's telling you, he's in a relationship with daniel, do you start to think we need to talk to danielle dreher? >> yes, so the next step was let's hear danielle's story. >> so detective szalbirak left michael and headed to the hospital where danielle had been waiting for updates on sam 's condition. all danielle had been told was that sam had been shot. no one told or by whom. >> when i go over there, she was crying, she was very upset. >> detectives recorded the interview. >> we're