and kevin was very committed to making sure that he stayed in a relationship, and he gave it his all. >> reporter: kevin was 20 when he met the one, his forever girl. morgan, from a few towns away, where she graduated from an exclusive catholic girls school. >> morgan was very, very charming. i mean, she was very sweet. and very attentive to me. always came over the house just to hang out with me. >> reporter: outgoing and charismatic, morgan made an effort to win over kevin's friends, too, mike and his fiancee, noel. >> very nice, very upbeat, very friendly. always smiling. >> reporter: and kevin? well, he fell hard for morgan's charm. >> he just -- he loved her. >> he was head over heels for her. >> reporter: so kevin was about to get what he'd always wanted -- a wife and kids, but just not in that order. morgan gave birth to their first child a few months before he got married. still, theirs was no shotgun wedding. the young couple celebrated in traditional style. >> kevin was on top of the world. >> reporter: was the perfect picture, wasn't it? >> it was the perfect picture. >> reporter: kevin loved being a dad, and he and morgan had two more children, but his relationship with his own father was rocky, had been since his parents' divorce. >> we're both stubborn and we're both pig headed. he didn't call me, i didn't call him, then it got into a little bit of a battle. >> reporter: and years went by? >> and years went by. >> reporter: but by june 2010 kevin and his dad had patched things up, grown closer than ever. they made plans for the whole family to celebrate father's day together. >> he was so excited. he said to me, been i can't wait to come out for father's day. i said i can't wait to have you. i love you and this is so wonderful. >> he seemed to be at a peace that i'd not ever seen him at. >> reporter: then the morning of the father's day party when it happened. sister called their mom to check in. >> she didn't sound right. i said, are you okay? and she said, kevin left. she started crying hysterically. kevin left, kevin left. i said, mom, something's not right here. he left the three kids. he left morgan. i don't know where he went. he won't pick up his phone. he just sent me a text. >> reporter: kevin leave his wife and kids? perhaps morgan put it best when she typed out their father's day regrets to kevin sr. >> we received a text message from morgan saying, due to unforeseen circumstances, we'll not be able to be there today. happy father's day. >> reporter: unforeseen circumstances? what exactly did that mean? >> we all knew how excited he was for father's day. it would be the one day kevin would not miss, ever, no matter what happened. >> reporter: no matter what happened. where had kevin mengel gone? >> so we know that kevin's family was concerned, but the police? not so much. when we come back, we'll hear from investigators. >> there was no reason to believe that anything had happened to kevin. >> and we'll learn that maybe there was a reason for kevin to hit the road. >> i thought morgan was having another affair. to other leading brands, it has 50% more animal protein. ...to help keep his body as strong as a love that never fades. iams. keep love strong. now you can keep love fun with new shakeables meaty treats. in our homes, our minds. we can share every second in data dressed as pixels. a billion roaming photojournalists... uploading the human experience. and it is spectacular. so why would you cap that? my iphone 5 can see every point of view... every panorama, the entire gallery of humanity. i need to upload all of me. i need, no, i have the right to be unlimited. only sprint offers truly unlimited data... for iphone 5. ♪ [ male announcer ] open up to a fresh new world of taste at mcdonald's. ♪ introducing the new premium mcwrap -- a blend of tender, juicy chicken and tantalizing fresh veggies in three captivating flavors. more than enough to pull you in. [ bump ] [ chuckles ] cherry berry chiller? the new premium mcwrap. a whole new way to love mcdonald's. when kevin mengel was a no show for the family barbecue on father's day, his sister michelle was disappointed and more than a little confused. >> he had called my husband to say how excited he was to spend father's day that sunday with all of us. >> reporter: so it was supposed to be a big father's day celebration. >> big father's day, and he couldn't have been more excited. >> reporter: kevin's younger brother chris also knew how much he was looking forward to being with his family. after all, kevin had just reconciled with their dad after many rocky years. >> i thought, man, this is odd. why would he do this now? it doesn't make any sense. >> reporter: the story morgan, the wife, told was that kevin had taken off, told her that the marriage was over. in fact, by father's day, he'd already been gone for two days. >> kevin's fine, he's clearing his head. >> reporter: what do you mean kevin's fine? >> he just had to leave and get away and clear his head. >> reporter: she's trying to tell you he needed space. >> he needed space. >> i can see him blowing off and taking off and saying i'm just going to get away. so that part of me said okay. he just did that and he's going to come back in today or tomorrow. >> reporter: we just have to be patient and wait? >> yes, we just have to be patient. >> reporter: patient because those close to kevin and morgan had seen the couples' ups and downs before. their breakups, in fact, were almost an annual event. >> it was like clockwork, every august around their anniversary, we'd expect the phone call that morgan picked up and left. kevin would call us crying hiss ta tarikcally. he would be completely distraught. >> he said, i love her. i can't help it. i love her. >> reporter: and soon morgan would return. kevin's world would right itself. and they'd be as good as newlyweds. for a while. >> she could act like nothing ever happened. and acting all lovey-dovey, sitting down on his lap. >> reporter: but now what was weird about this separation was that kevin had taken off. not the other way around. >> she always took the kids, and she always left. kevin never once walked out on her. >> reporter: his family worried this must have been the fight to end all fights. and it wasn't like kevin not to call his family for support. the only person he reached out to was his mom. a few days after he disappeared, he sent her a cryptic text message that seemed to alarm her more than put her at ease. and so kevin's mom did something that seemed a little drastic. she called the west goshen police to report him missing. >> we thought maybe she was overreacting to kevin leaving. >> reporter: detective david maurer. >> there was no reason to believe that anything had happened to kevin. she was receiving text messages from kevin's phone. >> their feelings were that if somebody's communicating with him, then he's not missing. >> reporter: kevin's dad agreed. >> i was a little concerned that she may end up with a little egg on her face because he was going to show up and -- >> reporter: and she'd called the cops. okay. and not long after that initial missing person report was filed with the police department, an officer called the family back to say kevin had been spotted not far from his home. >> one of the officers stopped at a check cashing place right up the street from where morgan and kevin lived. and the owner of the check cashing place was very familiar with kevin, and he saw him across the street. so that lended some credibility also that kevin was in the area. >> reporter: he was close to home, sending texts to his wife and mother, just refusing to see or speak to his family. and he did finally respond via text to his father. what did you get back? >> doing okay. just need time away. >> reporter: and kevin's sister received this message. >> hey, sis, i'm fine. worry about morgan. she's the one you should be worried about. >> reporter: but morgan, it appeared, was doing just fine. the couple owned a landscaping business. and monday morning morgan showed up to meet the crews and told them she was now in charge. employee al recalls she had the garage looking spotless. >> there's always oil drips on the ground. this day, you could have ate off this floor. >> reporter: but this was new, too, as al went about his monday landscaping jobs. he noticed morgan, the boss' wife, flirting with a 21-year-old employee named steve shappell. >> morgan looks at me and says steve knows what color underwear i have. steve goes, yeah, pink with black stripes. right off the bat. >> reporter: when al had a question about an assignment -- >> i would call morgan, and steve's ere. steve's answering her phone. >> reporter: why was this kid who mowed lawns and was barely old enough to buy a beer suddenly acting like the new man in charge? kevin's sister michelle remembered him as a quiet unassuming young guy who'd done some work on her yard just weeks earlier. >> this kid steve could not have been more polite to us. >> reporter: so what would kevin think now of his employee spending the work day at the pool with his wife and kids as michelle observed when she took a drive by? >> i drove by her development, and she was sitting out at the pool with steve and the kids. >> reporter: okay, you see steve sitting with her and you think what? >> i thought morgan was having another affair. >> reporter: it was no secret among those that knew the couple that morgan had strayed before. could kevin had suspected morgan was at it again? and was that the final straw that drove him out? no way to know. he said was not taking calls. and then five days after he disappeared, kevin finally had something to say to everyone who knew him in the most public way possible. he posted an update on facebook. status -- wants to be left alone. >> he wants to be left alone. some of his friends backed off then. his friends also were looking for kevin. after that facebook thing came up, they were like this must just be another morgan and kevin fight. >> maybe he just kind of had a nervous breakdown or had enough, needed a vacation for himself. >> reporter: but to kevin's immediate family this facebook update was far from reassuring. to them, it was an ominous red flag. >> every other update that kevin had put on there had come from his cell phone because it shows the little cell phone. this one came from a computer. >> reporter: which seems so odd. the family knew that kevin did everything on his cell. what's more, the wording in the text messages he'd been sending just didn't sound like kevin. for example, michelle wondered when did he start calling her sis? >> in the pit of my stomach, i just felt something bad had happened to kevin. >> reporter: and if the cops would not investigate, the family decided it was time to do some detective work themselves. >> i'm afraid his wife and the new boyfriend are making a move right now to leave. they're leaving. coming up -- a confrontation. >> i said i'm not okay with this. he just disappeared. i don't believe you. >> what would it take to alert the police? >> things just aren't adding. you. would you mind coming back to the station. i do have a few more questions for you. 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[ male announcer ] subway, eat fresh. i remember sitting at my mother's house. and she just saying i feel like the gates of hell are opening. >> it was a there's afternoon, summer 2010, and a violent summer rainstorm had barreled through the towns ringing the outskirts of philadelphia brig down trees and power lines. almost a week had gone by since kevin mengel left his wife and kids. >> people gathered at my mom's house. everybody just sat there waiting. >> reporter: kevin's parents and siblings had not spoken with him, heard his voice, that is. the only communication he was making was on facebook and through text messages. >> i think i may have said in there, call me or one of the family members, and he said, i am speaking to a family member. i'm speaking to my wife. and that should be enough for everybody. >> reporter: but it was not enough because now a bizarre and horrifying thought had begun to take root and grow. the mengel family suspected that all those messages were not coming from kevin at all. >> i left another message for him saying, can you just tell me the name of the street we grew up on. tell me that and i'll leave you alone. >> reporter: the police initially didn't even consider kevin a missing person, but now the family begged them to take another look. >> we went back to the police again and pleaded. we tried to think of anything. the kids are home alone, she's not there. anything that we could do to get them to go over there. >> reporter: detective maurer agreed to stop by the apartment and talk to morgan. >> and she seemed genuine, like she wanted to help me. >> reporter: morgan invited the detective in and told him the same story. kevin had walked out on her and the kids, and she had proof. text messages in her own phone from kevin breaking it off. >> she had received a message from kevin that he was leaving and she showed me these text message exchanges, something to the effect, are you kidding me? and he said, no, i'm done, i can't do this any more. >> reporter: the detective also kevin's young employee howho'd been hanging around the apartment complex with morgan and the kids. >> he just seemed like a young kid, 21 years old. >> reporter: morgan scoffed at the idea that they were anything more than friends. >> she laughed and said, no, i'm a married mother of three, i'm 34, he's 21. that's absurd. there's no affair. >> reporter: absurd is precisely what friends mike and noel would have said had they heard that. they knew firsthand that morgan had a long history of cheating sometimes even with kevin's closest friends. >> she would tell me how they would have sex in her and kevin's bed, when he would go out, how they would have sex in the cars, you know, the business cars. >> i said to myself, she's not right. there's something wrong with her. >> reporter: and kevin's family? by now, they were sure morgan and the young landscaper were up to something. michelle confronted morgan directly. >> i said, i'm not okay with this. like he just disappeared. like i don't believe you. like i don't. >> reporter: adding to their worry, they say morgan had not let them see the three kids since kevin disappeared. and they worried she might leave town. they asked the detective if he would do surveillance on the apartment, but he said no. >> i said, based on the fact that we had a witness that saw him, the fact that i now know that morgan and kevin had a troubled relationship, i thought that kevin really was fed up and had had enough of morgan and left. >> reporter: so the mengel family took the investigation into their own hands. brother chris decided to stake out the apartment overnight. he brought a video camera with him. >> that's them. that's him. >> reporter: early friday morning he filmed steve shappell coming and going as if he now lived there, taking kevin's place. and what was strange, it looked as though steve was packing up morgan's truck. >> okay. yeah, they're getting in the truck now. >> reporter: to chris, it sure looked like morgan and steve were getting ready for something. >> he has a bunch of crap with him. morgan has a bunch of stuff, too. >> reporter: he frantically called the police looking for detective maurer. >> i'm afraid his wife and the new boyfriend are making a move to leave. they're leaving, they're leaving. >> reporter: only they didn't go far. chris followed them as they drove over to the landscaping business it. turns out the detective was already there. he'd decided to go poke around half expecting to run into kevin back at work. >> she gets out of the passenger side and walks directly by me. i then walk over to shappell who's still sitting in the passenger seat. he's got a dead stare straight ahead. >> reporter: there was something inside the truck that the detective thought was peculiar. >> the backseat was full of clothes. i could see a laundry basket and bags and backpacks. he says, oh, morgan's going to do laundry across the street. i said, well, morgan's got a washer and dryer in her apartment, i saw it yesterday. things aren't adding. you. do you mind coming back to the station. i have a couple of questions for you. >> reporter: as the detective turned his back on steve, something unexpected happened. something chris mengel, still filming, caught on video. >> here we go. >> reporter: steve jumped in the driver's seat, pulled out of the lot and sped away. >> that's him. that's the dude with the red hat. >> reporter: morgan walks over and sits down on a step, puts her hands on her head and says, oh, my, maybe he did do something to kevin. coming up -- >> steve had said to me that he loved me and would do whatever it took to have me. >> morgan breaks her silence. what had she been hiding? >> i'm floored. i'm like why didn't you tell me this? 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[ male announcer ] it's not complicated. saving is better. switch to at&t and your family can save up to 100 dollars a month with mobile share. ♪ it sounds so hokey, but three months before i had a terrible nightmare that something had happened to kevin and that kevin was hurt. and i woke up crying hysterically in my bed. >> reporter: michelle hopkins, kevin mengel's younger sister, was now in a waking nightmare. her brother kevin had been missing for a week, and the young man who appeared to be having an affair with her sister-in-law had just fled from police. >> why did he just steal her pickup truck and flee when i asked him to come back to the police station? >> reporter: the situation suddenly looked much worse than detective david maurer had thought. he brought morgan to the station and called his partner and longtime friend, darren sedlak. >> he said, can you get in here? something's going on. i'm not sure what, but shappell just stole morgan's truck and we can't find him. >> we had no idea it was going to turn out the way that it did. >> reporter: their first priority was to find steve shappell, who was now on the lam. they tried tracking his cell, which was in the truck, but it was turned off. but morgan's phone was in there, and it was turned on. she gave detectives permission to track it. >> so we focused all of our efforts on morgan's telephone. >> reporter: meanwhile, morgan was downstairs in the interview room, as detectives tried to find out what steve was running from. >> do you think maybe steve hurt kevin? >> i don't know, but by his reaction today -- >> he takes your truck without your permission, and in my terms, flees the scene. >> reporter: although morgan had previously denied the affair with steve, the much younger landscaper, she was now telling the detectives they were having a relationship. a result, she said, of an unfulfilling marriage. >> it was just a bad marriage. >> okay. tell us. >> a bad marriage. the yelling, the screaming, the fighting. the i can't ever do anything right. >> tell us about your affair. how did steve treat you? >> talked to me like i was a human being with feelings. paid attention to me. >> reporter: and she repeated yet again how kevin had walked out on her and the kids one week earlier. >> he was leaving. he wanted a fresh start. >> and did you respond to him? >> i said, are you kidding me? he told me he was not kidding and to tell the children that he loved them. >> i have to ask, in the truck i saw a bunch of clothes in the back of the truck. who did they belong to? >> steve. he said he was taking his stuff, his clothes that he had accumulated at my house, home. >> he's been staying there? >> a few nights, yes. >> did you ever think that maybe kevin would come home and steve would be there and there would be an issue? >> no. i hadn't thought about that. >> and i said, if i get in a fight with my wife, i said, nobody's moving into my house. as a husband, as just a sensible person, to me that -- >> it's poor judgment. >> reporter: poor judgment, and a bad marriage, was all kevin's wife would admit to. but the family knew morgan had a history of deception, a strange one that went back many years. >> there's something that is innocent looking in her face that you just believed her. whatever she said, you just believed her. >> reporter: one of her biggest lies, they say, was back when morgan got pregnant before the couple was married and refused to tell the truth about it. >> we were looking at her saying, you're pregnant. and she said, i am not pregnant. >> and she would wear two girdles at a time and heavy sweaters. i said to her, morgan, did you tell kevin. and she said, no, i just told him that i'm on birth control, and it's causing my stomach to swell. >> reporter: and when the baby was born, kevin was in shock. >> we got a phone call the next day from my brother kevin hysterically crying, telling me that i'm an aunt. >> reporter: was he crying tears of joy? >> i don't think so. i think he was so scared. it caused the first real fight between my brother and i because i was so very disgusted by morgan. >> reporter: so when kevin went missing, the family had been convinced from day one that morgan was hiding something. and now the detective was, too. after hours in the interrogation room, she gave the first hint that she knew morgue than she was saying about her young boyfriend, steve? loved me and would do whatever it took to have me. and last night he said he had an uneasy feeling. he apologized to me and said it was his fault. i asked him what was his fault. and the only response i got was, the entire situation. >> you think steve hurt kevin? >> at this point, yeah, i do. >> reporter: morgan asked for a cigarette break. detective maurer went outside with her. she'd been talking all this time without a lawyer, and the detective wanted to keep the conversation going hoping she'd reveal something. and did she ever. >> we're standing in the shade because it's still extremely hot and there's no air conditioning in the building because of that thunderstorm. and she says, steve told me that he hit kevin in the back of the head with a shovel. i'm like, whoa, we run back in, and i return the recording back on at that point. morgan, you just told me something. would you mind repeating that? >> steve hit kevin in the back of the head with a shovel. >> reporter: here was morgan laying the blame on steve, telling police he had attacked and killed kevin at the landscaping garage on the day he supposedly left her and the kids. the detective was stunned. that earlier sighting of kevin alive and well in town, had it been a mistake? how long had she been lying to police? >> i'm floored, and i'm like, why didn't you tell me this? when your boyfriend tells you that he hit your husband in the back of the head with a shovel, you call the police. are you trying to protect steve? >> not at this point. >> reporter: morgan said that steve had only just revealed to her what he'd done. but the detective suspected he wasn't getting the full story. hoping to trip her up, he asked her to write down a timeline of events for the week kevin disappeared. you're going to write it down? >> mm-hmm. >> reporter: most of what she wrote stuck to the story, but this was a strange detail. >> she writes snapple on one of her statements. i said what does snapple mean? coming up -- >> i want to hear everything. you better start at the beginning because the game's over. >> a tough new interrogation, and a new revelation. that single word morgan had written involved a deadly surprise. >> who handed the snapple to your husband? director's voice: keep it together. i'm good. i'm good. for over 75...(uncontrollable lahtuger). what are you doing there? stop making me laugh. vo: geico. saving people money for over seventy-five years. gecko: don't look at me. don't look at me. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] a truly unlimited life needs truly unlimited data from sprint. and now, get $100 off samsung galaxy phones at sprint stores and sprint.com. and now, get $100 off samsung galaxy phones $4 doesn't really buy you unless you're at denny's. where there are always great choices for four dollars, on the 2$4$6$8 value menu ®. the first break in the case of missing husband kevin mengel morgan, the wife, under questioning by police, revealed that her lover steve had killed her husband in the landscaping garage. she was saying steve had done the deed a week earlier and only admitted it to her later. she hid his secret out of fear. >> i didn't know if he was going to whack me upside the back of the head with a shovel if i did and you guys showed up and he flipped out. >> reporter: the man you're having a relationship with tells you that he hit your husband, the father of your children, in the back of the head with a shovel and you don't tell me that information? >> a bit of shock. >> i personally feel it's because you had some role in this. >> i had no role in this. >> reporter: but detective maurer did not believe her. he looked over the timeline she'd written out puzzling over that one word. snapple. why did she write that down? the detective took a break, went upstairs to speak with his partner, detective sedlak. >> and it was sort of like a mental slip, and then i asked him if he minded if i had a shot. i wanted a chance to talk to her myself. >> reporter: and so the dktd decided to play good cop, bad cop, with morgan. >> i want to hear everything. you better start at the beginning because the game's over. >> reporter: and now morgan was about to offer a new piece to the puzzle, a truly shocking one. it had started as a joke, she said, the two lovers imagining kevin out of the picture. >> joking how we could take kevin out. yeah, right. >> reporter: what would happen, they wondered, if they put something in his favorite drink? >> he put nicotine, straight nicotine in a snapple. >> reporter: following a recipe he found online steve cooked up some chewing tobacco into a toxic substance called liquid nicotine. he then slipped the poison into kevin's snapple. >> and then who handed the snapple to your husband? >> it was on the truck -- i did. >> reporter: did you say anything to your husband like, that drink's for you? >> no. >> reporter: and then what? >> i left and got my kids off to school. >> reporter: but morgan insisted she never expected my real harm to come to kevin, never expected steve would take it as far as he did. and besides, it wasn't the poison that killed kevin but the blows to the head which steve had done alone inside the landscaping garage. >> i wasn't being serious. apparently it did turn into a serious conversation on his end. and yes, i did hand kevin the snapple bottle with nicotine in it. after that, i was not involved. >> you guys killed someone, and you expect me to believe that you didn't talk about it? >> no. i didn't want to talk about it. i looked at my kids and felt terrible. >> so terrible that you made up text messages to his family members about him calling you and texting you? >> i did not do that. >> who did? >> steve did that. >> reporter: it was steve, she said, who used kevin's phone to send messages to his family pretending kevin was still alive. and steve and steve alone who had buried kevin in some woods a few towns over. >> and where did he tell you that he took kevin? >> behind a high school. there was a development being built. >> reporter: the interrogation had turned deadly serious. but the detectives thought that morgan's demeanor was odd. when detective maurer asked if he could take pictures for evidence, he says she didn't look like someone facing a potential charge of murder. >> while i'm taking these pictures she's actually smiling for the camera, which is weird. >> reporter: and in the middle of his bad cop interrogation, detective sedlak says it was almost as if she was flirting with him. >> my questioning was not nice by any means, and i just couldn't believe that she was smiling and looking up at me. is this funny? >> no! am i laughing? >> you just smiled. >> no, i didn't. >> reporter: the detectives felt they had enough. they issued a warrant for steve shappell who was still on the lam. and morgan? >> we handcuffed her inside of the interview room and told her she was under arrest for the murder of kevin mengel jr. >> reporter: they sent a police officer to talk to kevin's father. >> he said that we believe that your son has been murdered. it was not easy to sit and listen to. >> reporter: kevin's three children were spending the day at his sister michelle's house when she learned that kevin was not coming back. >> kevin's kids came in, and they just came up, and they just started hugging me. they're like, what's wrong? they just -- i think they knew. >> reporter: michelle had known all along, she says, in her gut that kevin was dead. but how it happened, michelle could not believe what police were telling them. she remembered steve shappell as that scrawny unassuming guy who worked for kevin mowing lawns. in fact, he'd done some work on michelle's yard just a few weeks earlier. michelle felt badly when he told her he just had his wisdom teeth out. >> i was so worried about him for the two days that he was there, and to think what he did to my brother. >> reporter: and her sister-in-law, it felt impossible to take that in. >> when i saw her mug shot, i didn't even recognize her. she just had a different look about her. she's been in my life for 15 years, and i didn't even know who he was. >> reporter: the next morning detectives recovered kevin's body buried in a shallow grave behind that high school right where morgan said it would be. and the following day, steve shappell was picked up nearly 2,000 miles away in colorado. >> i still can't imagine him doing it. i can imagine morgan doing it. i don't know what they were thinking. >> reporter: figuring out what they were thinking was now the job of the county prosecutor, and it would prove to be morgue co -- more complicated. morgan had pointed the finger at steve, but now he was back and about to tell a very different version of events. >> on the day of the murder, she's texting him has the poison worked yet? and when it's not working fast enough, she says, can you just pick up a shovel. >> reporter: the truth? well, that takes us right back to where our story began. the tale of the texts has another chapter to come. coming up -- who was the mastermind? morgan? >> she used him as a pawn to do her actions. >> or steve? >> he is a cold-blooded killer. >> a few surprises were still in store. >> we were like holy smokes. and coming up next wednesday on "dateline" -- >> what he was trying to do was protect his family. >> a quiet night at home shattered by intruders. >> she just kept saying he's dead. they killed him. >> they murdered her husband, but left her alive, and that left police suspicious. >> the indicators are in cases like this that it's the spouse. >> but not this time. turns out this was a family affair, but with a different family. >> you ever seen anything like that before? >> no. >> one father who fought to save his son. another who used his son to try to save himself. >> you're surrounded by evil. the powerful network. record video. connect more. so you can do more. the share everything plan from verizon. add additional devices like the samsung galaxy camera for $5 monthly access. ♪ [ male announcer ] open up to a fresh new world of taste at mcdonald's. ♪ introducing the new premium mcwrap -- a blend of tender, juicy chicken and tantalizing fresh veggies in three captivating flavors. more than enough to pull you in. 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[ dog barks ] because right after they get married, they'll find some retirement people who are paid on salary, not commission. they'll get straightforward guidance and be able to focus on other things, like each other, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. morgan mengel and her young sitting in jail for the murder of morgan's husband kevin. morgan had confessed to playing a small part in the crime, helping steve shappell come up said, that was taken too far. what were your first impressions of her? >> very good. i mean, the allegation compared to the person i was speaking to did not seem to fit. >> reporter: morgan's attorney jack mcmahon says the case for murder against morgan was weak. she wasn't at the crime scene when kevin was killed and had no convincing motive for wanting her husband dead. >> in fact, financially she was way worse off with her husband's death than she would have been with him alive because he was the life blood of the company and there was no life insurance. >> reporter: you think she had musings, i wish my husband wasn't around, i wish someone would take care of it. >> morgan was walking around with dynamite and these musings and saying it to certain people. and steve shappell was the man who lit that match. somebody took action. and that is steve shappell. he's a cold-blooded killer. >> reporter: he hardly looked like one when police picked him up in denver and got him into the interrogation room. he was meek, his voice was quiet and shaky with fear. district attorney pat carmody. >> he admitted the whole crime. he said he was in love with this woman and he thought this was the way to get her forever. >> reporter: steve said morgan was not kidding when she came up with the plan to kill kevin. >> she wanted him dead. and she wanted to be with me forever. >> reporter: and steve said that after the murder, far from being scared, morgan was grateful. >> she asked me if i was all right and kissing me. she came back with water and began like rinsing off the area writ happened. >> reporter: which is why the garage looked so clean when employees arrived for work that monday morning after kevin's so-called departure. >> walks in the garage, steps over her dead husband, kisses shappell and says let's get a tarp and start cleaning the scene. >> reporter: they were pointing fingers at each other over who really planned the murder. and the d.a.? he believed steve. he offered him a lesser charge of murder to testify against morgan and charged morgan with premeditated murder. a mandatory life sentence. >> i think she found the most gullible person she could. she used him as a pawn to do her actions. he held the shovel, but morgan held the strings. >> reporter: you think morgan was in charge of this operation? >> 100% i believe that. morgan had a way with men, she just did. she had a way with men. and i think the same way that she had my brother, you know, under her spell, she had this kid as well. >> reporter: and the d.a. says it was morgan herself who had been sending those fake text messages to kevin's family after the murder, not steve. cell phone tracking records proved it. >> she's texting kevin's family assuring them that he's okay, he just wants to be left alone. she's the most evil woman i've dealt with. >> reporter: morgan mengel went on trial in late january 2012, a year and a half after kevin mengel had been murdered, but in addition to steve shappell waiting in the wings to testify, the d.a. had something else, something extremely rare in a murder trial. a play by play of the crime courtesy of text messages between morgan and steve as it happened. >> we were like, holy smokes, there it is. it's right there. >> reporter: the detectives had discovered the trove of messages during their interrogation when they pulled morgan's phone records looking for steve. >> we knew the exact time of death. we knew how it happened. and so we were floored. >> reporter: the texts are chilling. four hours before the murder morgan texts steve, we ready? she type. steve responds, yep, at the shop now. then a half hour before the murder morgan asked steve about the poison snapple. he drinking it, she asks. steve writes back, yeah, kind of. we're just waiting for him to bend over. i have a shovel in my hand. ha ha. morgan's response. nice, babe. steve doesn't reply. morgan writes, you backing out? >> there's a gap there where nothing happens, and she then gives him the final taunt, you backing out? and when she says that, he texts back, it's done, get here now. >> these text messages don't even seem real. they just don't seem real. >> reporter: as incriminating as those messages sounded morgan's defense was ready to press her case in court claiming she was no murderous master mind. >> i'm not so sure even to today that she had a fully formed belief that stephen shappell was actually going to do this? >> reporter: but the defense never got a chance. a few days into the trial, a police officer said something on the stand, hearsay that could prejudice the jury. and the judge sent everyone home. >> chester county judge declares a mistrial in a love triangle murder case. >> reporter: for kevin's family, the delay was torture. more waiting for answers to questions they never wanted to ask. >> i wanted to know if he knew it was happening. i wanted to know if he begged. >> reporter: why did you want to know? >> kevin was so sweet and kind, and i know he must have been so, so scared. >> reporter: the story of those final moments could only be told by steve shappell. but even from jail, as they awaited their fates, morgan was trying to keep him quiet. she wrote him a letter saying she had given birth to his twins. so her game plan was if he thinks we have kids together, he won't rat me out. >> he would ask have you figured out ho has a better chance to get out of here? i need to raise our children. >> reporter: except it was another lie. another manipulation. this past february, the prosecution and defense were back at the chester county courthouse for morgan mengel's retrial. steve was set to testify, but then another surprise. the day the testimony was set to begin, morgan stopped the trial from happening and changed her plea. she admitted to first degree premeditated murder. even her own attorney was stunned. >> i believe morgan saw the handwriting on the wall. she realizes that whatever action she took, it resulted in his death and resulted in shappell killing him. >> reporter: steve was sentenced to 40 to 80 years, and morgan life without parole. for the mengel family, now raising kevin and morgan's children, there is finally some justice, they say, in knowing morgan will remain behind bars forever. >> i want her to be in jail for the rest of her life. i want her to know that i'm going to be there when her daughter walks down the aisle. i'm going to be there when her daughter had a baby. i'm going to be there with her sons when they meet their wives and graduate from high school. i'm going to get to see all that, and she's not. she's in hell. and she's going to live this way for the rest of her life. >> that's all. for this edition of "dateline." we'll be back again next wednesday at 8:00, 7:00 central. i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, good . announcer: in the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. in new york city, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the special victims unit. these are their stories. - henry. henry. time for babies to wake up. - you're a baby. stupid diaper baby. - irina. he called me a name. - here. ruby! - irina, i'm gonna be a little bit late tonight. - tonight? - what, is that a problem? - yeah, i have concert ticket tonight. i told you. - you didn't tell me, did you? - yeah. - thanks for letting me sleep in. - what time can you get back here tonight? irina's got a thing. i've gotta get in the shower. - irina was texting. - i can't tonight. can you reschedule? mwah. later, alligators. mwah. - nobody likes a snitch. - okay, come on. let's go. see everybody later. - i want daddy to take me to school. - daddy's at work. - then you. - no fair. she took you yesterday. - no, no, it's not fair to me. it's never fair to me! - okay, all right. ruby, can you do mommy a little favor and let irina take you to preschool? okay. thank you. irina, you take ruby. here's her backpack. button up your coat, sweetie, come on. - i have to pee. - i just put your tights back on. - she always does this. - okay, everybody. just take her, irina. let's go. let's go, henry, we're late. - go. - where does it hurt, ruby? - my head. - your head? oh. you have a bump. - and my tummy hurts. can i have a band-aid? - your tummy? [gasps] oh. that's a big boo-boo. ruby, how did that happen? - a good detective listens, he pays attention, he asks the right... questions. - you ever shoot anybody? - no, i've pulled my weapon. but police work is mostly about talking to people.
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