dad is kneeling, that was the first time i've ever seen him cry. >> they had a tumultuous marriage. >> there would be yelling and maybe slamming doors. >> according to him, he sees lisa with a gunshot wound to the head. initially ruled a suicide. her sister went to the missouri state highway patrol to express their believed that this was a murder. >> she had been having an affair with her boss. >> the prosecutor says after he shot his wife, he washed his hands and washed his forearms. >> they called us back and started the trial. >> i thought they made one of the worst mistakes i'd ever heard of. >> it was obvious there was something not right. >> the only thing i ever wanted was for everyone to hear the truth. i told them i would fight with everything i had. that's the promise i made. hello, and welcome to dateline. for many, the holiday season is a special time. for the jennings family, one christmas eve turned into a waking nightmare. it was followed by gunshot and a frantic call to police. lisa jennings was dead. the question for detectives was, did she take her own life? was this murder? here is keith morrison with a crack in everything. >> it was his secret that started it. a secret gift. it was christmas eve in the year 2006. a little farm not far from a little town called buffalo, buffalo, missouri. on that farm in the new house brad and lisa jennings had built for their family, the stockings were hung. the children were snug in their beds. lisa was sitting up, very late, drinking wine and crying. meaning, who knew? for one thing with lise in the way, brad could not sneak that secret of his into his -- her stocking which is what started the argument, slamming doors, the sudden silence. before amanda woke up to the sound of her dead on 911. >> he is very hysterical. he is crying, can't really say anything other than get here quick. get that quick. i heard that two or three times. >> such a complicated tale with its secrets, lies, shifting loyalties. here, of all places, this throwback to an idealized past. >> we hunted mushrooms and picked up walnuts. >> they were inseparable children, brad and his older sister marsha. >> we depended on each other. >> marsha became a nurse and brad ran the firm. the center their family since 1853. that christmas, brad and lisa have been married 18 mostly happy years. >> we had a fairly good life. >> there were three kids. amanda, dallas who was 11, lacey, lisa's daughter from her first marriage was 19 and just moved into her own place in town. as amanda said, life was fairly good. >> we would do lots of things go on vacation. go out to eat. my dad make pretty good money so we were good on that end. >> seemed like a good and stable environment. >> brad loved cars. especially classic muscle cars, and extra specially, the 1970 super sport he carefully restored. >> by the time he was 12, he was redoing motors and helping put motors in and out of different vehicles. >> brad opened a used car dealership. >> he was a great people person, and i guess it's what you have to be when you deal cars and stuff. >> their mom, lisa? >> very pretty. she could be very happy and the life of the party kind of person. >> brad ran the farm in car business and lisa worked at a local internet company. >> she was really good at it. >> she became like their top employee. >> at home, lisa liked video games. with dallas mostly. video games and movies. >> we had a projector screen we would put on the wall and watch movies really big. >> didn't seem like a happy household? >> yeah. >> and of course, there is, a crack in everything. in the house, those with the sudden blowups when the mood went dark and the kids scattered. >> they would fight maybe once every couple weeks. mostly later in the evening, at night, after they had been drinking. there would be yelling. maybe slamming doors, things like that. arguing about anything, nothing. >> i never thought too much about it. >> anyway, now is a calamitous christmas eve, 2006. there had been a happy dinner celebration with brad's side of the family. >> christmas eve, we would go to my grandmas in town. >> back home, games and stocking stuffing, and, of course -- >> wake up early and open the presents. >> lisa had no idea that bread butter $3500 diamond ring. got the kids to help him pick it out. back from grandma's he waited for the opportunity to hide it in her stocking but lisa kept fizzling on the computer and the kids were playing a board game. >> i think it was monopoly. >> we played downstairs for a while and eventually went to our rooms. >> it was after midnight when they heard the raised voices downstairs. >> i heard the yelling. a normal fight like they would always have. >> then a door slammed which means bread went to his workshop to cool down. lacey, home for the holiday, was various. another fight in this when i christmas eve and over some stupid, little thing? she was done. >> my sister decided to go downstairs and get into it with her. i think i remember my mom saying, i would never disrespect my parents that way. >> lacey was fed up? >> she couldn't believe they would fight on christmas. >> ben moore door slamming and lacey was out of there. >> she went back to her house and ski buffalo. >> by the time she left, your dad was outside in the workshop? >> he was outside. he does that a lot. >> amanda closed her eyes and drifted off. and then sometime after 1:30 a.m., the frantic sound. her father, 911. she ran downstairs to her parents bedroom. >> i opened the door and i see her laying there and my dad is kneeling next to her. as soon as i opened the door, he gets up and pulls me out of the room. he is hugging me and crying. >> their mother was dad. of that there was no doubt. but how and why? and who? >> coming up. what had happened in the bedroom? >> i did not realize the gravity of it. i thought there had been an accident, and she was on the way to the hospital. >> the truth would be much worse. >> did you have any inkling, suspicion, the bread might've had something to do with this? 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(announcer) the people you love are worth quitting for. you can quit. for free help, call 1-800-quit-now. hi, i'm gina. i've tried so many things to lose weight. none of it worked. i would quit after a few days or a week at the most. golo is not like any of those. with golo and release i not only met my goal i've surpassed it. and i'm keeping it off. her uncle's unhappy. i'm sensing an underlying issue. it's t-mobile. it started when we tried to get him under a new plan. but they they unexpectedly unraveled their “price lock” guarantee. which has made him, a bit... unruly. you called yourself the “un-carrier”. you sing about “price lock” on those commercials. “the price lock, the price lock...” so, if you could change the price, change the name! it's not a lock, i know a lock. so how can we undo the damage? we could all unsubscribe and switch to xfinity. their connection is unreal. and we could all un-experience this whole session. okay, that's uncalled for. keith morrison: dallas jennings was only 11 that awful christmas morning in 2006, dallas was only 11. that awful christmas morning in 2006. the morning he lost his mother and probably a blessing that something in his brain has blocked the memory. >> a lot of it is a blur to me. >> amanda, 16 at the time, remembers every detail. >> shocked and upset but didn't know what to do. you know? it was very hard. >> the ambulance arrived and the policeman. >> they all arrived and we had to leave the house so they could do their work. we went outside and waited in my truck because it was cold out. >> huddled together in there? did you talk? >> shocked. dallas kept saying she's going to be okay. he didn't really know what had happened because he did not see her, nothing. no one was saying what happened. my dad was sitting in the passenger seat a mess. that was a first time i'd ever seen him cry. >> news spread very fast but often in confused and incomplete, fuzzy bits. went brad's sister heard something happened at the farm? >> i didn't realize the gravity of it. i thought there had been an accident and she was on the way to the hospital. >> it was anything but an accident. lisa was gone, dead at 39, killed by a bullet at close range to the head. brad toll sheriff's deputies how he argued with lisa then went to his workshop to cool off. when he came back in 20 minutes later, he found her on the bedroom floor, his handgun nearby. deputies tested lisa's hands for gunshot residue and did the same with brad and laci. that to tell them who fired the gun. and? lisa's right-hand tested positive for gunshot residue. brad and laci came out negative. meaning it seemed to look coroner, that lisa for reasons unknown must've killed herself. did it make sense that she would commit suicide? >> nothing made sense to me that night. >> i bet. >> i have heard statements that she was troubled about reaching 40. she had had cosmetic surgery. that could be a red flag. >> their brother-in-law paul was stricken. what did they miss? >> all the kids loved lisa. >> lisa seemed so together. she loved family events. loved having kids around. >> there was never a time lisa did not want the kids to spend the night or stay. she might end up with five or six different children -- spent the night. >> it was fine with her. >> she loved it. >> now, she was dead and it was shocking. >> it's not like you've had a long illness and get prepared. this was sudden. >> the idea she would commit suicide so abruptly and violently like that. >> that wasn't something that would be expected. >> of course, the alternative was quite unthinkable. did you have any suspicion that brad might've had something to do with this? >> i had none. brad told me christmas morning, and you could tell he was terribly distraught. that morning, i came over and he told me the whole story. no. it never crossed my mind. >> in fact, after the lab results were in, the sheriff and coroner and prosecutor, all officially ruled the death suicide. the local newspaper, the buffalo reflex, quoted the prosecutor who said there's zero evidence to show otherwise. you had no sense anyway, no reason to think it was anything other than with the coroner and share said it was? >> absolutely not. >> but, there were others in the family and they were not so sure. >> it starts widths suspicion. lisa's sister feels compelled to share what she knows. coming up. >> she went to the missouri state highway patrol to express their belief that this was a murder. >> investigator's prime suspect? brad jennings. >> he started asking questions about brad. he goes, what did jennings say to you about his wife having an affair? affair? in 99% of people over 50. it's lying dormant, waiting... and could reactivate. shingles strikes as a painful, blistering rash that can last for weeks. and it could wake at any time. think you're not at risk for shingles? 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[ minion language ] keith morrison: it's a sweet little piece of america-- buffalo, missouri, population 3,000 or so, where people tend to know each other's business. is a sweet little piece ouo america. buffalo, missouri. population 3000 are sorber people's tend to know each other's business and where brad could have a best friend that met when they were in diapers. dale rushed over to see brad that christmas morning. >> he kept saying why? why did she do this? he was a mess. >> all those guns you see in the background? dale owns the only gun and pawn shop. when lisa's death was declared to be a suicide and the share return brad's gun, the one that killed her? brad called dale. >> he said i don't want the gun back. he said, do you want it? i said i do. i cleaned it and put it in the safe and forgot about it. >> the family tried to move on and did not pay much attention and laci began saying odd things. >> you know, when mom was murdered. >> murder? not that it was like an accusation or unfriendly? >> she didn't act different with dad. she came around and he still helped her. >> but, sometimes, the smaller your town the less you know about what your neighbors are saying behind your back. nothing in-your-face. nothing like that. >> it was more subtle. >> what do you mean? >> everybody was talking about it but did not talk to us about it. >> they didn't but lisa's younger sister was talking. >> she saw iraqi marriage and her sister would not be a person who would commit suicide. >> this is steve who writes a column called poking around, which he did, and discovered that lisa's sister got busy soon after the deadly christmas morning. >> early january, she went to the office of the missouri state highway patrol to express their belief that this was a murder. >> she loved into a highly experienced detective named dan nash. >> longtime investigator involved in high-profile murder cases in the ozarks. >> when sergeant nash looked at the file, something forensic seemed off. he was inclined to agree with sean. it didn't look like suicide at all. >> he was struck by the fact that if lisa jennings had shot herself using the right hand there would be more blowback than one drop of blood. >> three months after that christmas eve, the investigator drove over to the farm and said he was looking at the case again. >> and one of the bathrobe that mr. jennings was wearing that night. >> the rope he had on when he said he found lisa debt and held her in his arms, why three months later what a bathrobe be of use at all? i'm sure it had been cleaned or something. >> apparently, it had not. mr. jennings spent little time going back into the bedroom where from his perspective his wife had taken her life. >> brad gave him the bathrobe and still had blood on it. they ran some tests and kept in touch with brad. >> he was questioned a couple of times. >> one month later, this was april, the sheriff came to call. at dale's gun and pawn. >> he said i'm here to seize the jennings gun. >> than a guy in a t-shirt and khakis walked in. >> he said he is a sergeant with the missouri highway patrol and said i'm here to investigate the murder of lisa jennings. i said what you talking about murder? it was ruled a suicide. he said, no, he killed her. >> that wasn't all. >> then he said what did jennings say to you about his wife having an affair? i said he never said a word. was she? he said yes and we can prove it. is said that explains a lot. he said, you mean why he killed her? i said no. i said why she did this. maybe everything caught up with her. >> maybe something about the affair pushed her over the edge. and dale offered the sergeant a little family history. >> i said you do know that her dad killed his son and he goes, you're full of . her dad is alive. i said no, you're full of bad. her stepdad lives. her real dad killed himself in kansas years ago. >> another family suicide? an affair? where was this investigation going? >> coming up. a determined detective. >> he looked at me and told me, screwed up. >> a confused friend. >> what did you think? my name is jaxon, and i have spastic cerebral palsy. it's a mouthful. one of the harder things is the little things that i need help with: getting dressed, brushing your teeth, being able to go out with your friends by yourself. those are hard because you don't want help, but you need it. children like jaxon need continued support for the rest of their lives. whoa, whoa, whoa. and you can help. please join easterseals right now, with your monthly gift. i'm almost there. the kids that you are helping, their goal is to be as independent as they can. these therapies help my son to achieve that goal. easterseals offers important disability and community services that can change a life forever. please, go online, call or scan the qr code right now with your gift of just $19 a month. it really does make a difference. strengthening with easterseals helped me realize i can get through hard things. don't give up. keep trying. even better! please visit helpeasterseals.com, call or scan the qr code on your screen with your gift of $19 a month and we'll send you this t-shirt as a thank you. mother: your help and your support, the need for it is endless. jaxon: thank you, 'cause there's a lot of people with disabilities out there. people like me. please join easterseals with your monthly gift right now. ( ♪♪ ) i'm richard lui and these are the news headlines. much of the country expected to start the day baking under that he wave that began last week. record temperatures in 15 states with dangerous heat targeting the planes and southeast. play was disrupted sunday after climate protesters storm the 18th of the travelers championship. taken into custody after dumping a substance on the green. scottie scheffler went on to win the tournament. , her death ruled a suicide. but the file was now in the hands of sergeant dan nash, welcome back to dateline. lisa jennings had died from a single gunshot to the head. her death ruled a suicide, but the file was in the hands of sergeant dan nash, and to him the details were not adding up. he believed lisa had been murdered and her husband, brad, was the trigger man. nash was about to pay brad visit in a fractured family would be torn apart . once again, here is keith morrison with a crack in everything. probably everybody in buffalo, missouri news app brad jennings, the apparently grieving husband was now a murder suspect. everybody waiting for something to happen. in july 2007, seven months after lisa's death, it did. >> about a mile from his house and two or three highway patrol sergeants and the sheriff stopped him and arrested him and took him to the county jail. >> what did you think? >> i thought they made one of the worst mistakes. >> later we were told there were people around that knew it was going to happen. >> people like lisa's sister shawna went to highway patrol in the first place and lisa's daughter from her first marriage, laci. we asked for interviews and they declined. >> when my dad got arrested, laci and shawn showed up at the house to pick me in dallas up in my grandma showed up as well to pick us up. my aunt and grandma got into it. >> it sounds like that's a moment when the family broke apart? >> that's when a blue