If your travels take you to in southwestern missouri, that splendid lake country, you maybe have bass or trout fishing on the mind. Or perhaps youre heading to branson to catch a few of the stage shows, but there was no tour guide that would have directed you to this modest home in springfield, missouri. And thats a shame because it was an old curiosity shop well worth seeing. Floor to ceiling collectables, valuable stuff everywhere the eye landed, but still, every object just so. Think neat hoarders. Anything from coins to arrowheads to he had probably 10,000 to 15,000 books. Hes big into gold and silver, gems. Bayonets from world war i and just all kinds of stuff, a leg cannon. But did these collectables have a less discerning eye when it came to sizing up people. Did that go towards explaining the dreadful toll in that house that evening. I said hes off in some way. I dont know. He could be a psychopath or something. I said he scares me. On april 30th, 2014, did they fall prey to someone they believed could be trusted . I had to be lowered to the ground. And i started crying and screaming. Oh, not those oh, such good people. Why . Springfield, missouri is called the queen of the ozarks, a churchgoing, neighborly city of mid size with good colleges. Gary terrell knew early on that his adult life would be all about education, teaching kids in his classrooms by day. The history book in his lap at night. He and his wife jan raised two kids, a girl and a boy who sadly died young of a brain. Jen kept the house mainly and sold Avon Products part time. They lived and gardened in the same house for almost 25 years. They even designed it themselves. Life in missouri was good for the two. They loved each other very much. Daughter jessica remembers how extraordinarily close her parents were, joined at the hip. If my mom went shopping, my dad took her. They gardened together, talked on the phone several times a day if they were apart. They really did everything. So they really were for the ages, huh . Yes, yes. Personalities, gary was the fun, outgoing one. He was a very jolly man. You know, kind of like a santa claus. Jan, a little more reserved. It took a little bit more to get to know her and then once she warmed up to you, she was when gary retired as a beloved assistant school superintendent, he suddenly had all the time in the world to visit civil war battlefields, scour flee markets and pour over his antique dealers cal logs. But there was a lucrative sideline. He was big into and selling gold and silver. Garys brother larry. He constantly collected coins and silver trinkets and did very well at it. Gary was a very good businessman. The gold and silver went into one of the five saves in the house but the artifacts, many of them museum quality, were out on display. Had a lot of rare pieces, a lot of indian jewelry that was very quality pieces that he loved. What was his most treasured piece do you think . Probably the walrus tusks. He had three of those. Rare, 19th century engraved and each worth around 10,000. How would he find these things . Im not really sure. They did go to flea markets and garage sales and things like that but any time i would ask him, you know, where did you get this, he would say, oh, in my travels. In 2013, jason murray became one of the family when he and jessica got engaged. He remembers the walrus tusks as well as all the other unusual items in the terrell home. There was so much stuff in that house and yet it was immaculate. Everything had a place. It was like on off beat museum. Jessica and jason lived almost 300 miles away in Oklahoma City, but jessica spoke with or texted her parents several times a day. But that all changed on may 1st. I had called my mom on my way to work like i always do. And she didnt answer. So i thought, well, maybe shes in the bathroom. Maybe shes outside. And i called back and i still didnt reach her. By noon jessica says she still couldnt reach her. So she called the Springfield Police and asked the and when the officer did that, what did he report back to you . That nothing seemed out of place. They couldnt see anything inside the house. All the doors were secure. Absolutely no signs of forced. Ntry or that anything appea the officer had no cause to force his way into the. But jessica says she was still worried, so she and jason jumped in their car to make the fivehour drive to springfield. They arrived at the house around 7 00 p. M. As we were coming around the corner to the house, i hit the garage door button and both of their cars were in the garage. And that was bad news for you . Yes. What did that imply . That there was something terribly wrong. Jessica called 911 without ever going past the garage into the house. Two officers arrived within minutes. They entered the home and then another officer arrived and then another and then another and then another. And youre waiting outside. And were waiting outside. No one said a word to jessica and jason. And then, they noticed police blocking off the area with crime scene tape. I kind of grabbed onto the officer and i said what is going on, why are they calling for crime scene tape . And he kind of, you know, held me and said, i dont know whats going on. All i know is there are two people in the house that are deceased. Chilling words outside the terrells house. But they were nothing compared to what investigators would find in. When we come back it seems to be an element of personal a as darkness closed in on springfield, missouri, the daughter who had asked local police to check on her parents was now being told two bodies were found inside her parents home. They didnt identify them, but jessica says she knew it could only be her mo and i started crying and screaming. Um, because i knew. It was my worst fear. Her fiance, jason, was by her side, trying to console her. She was beyond upset. She kept saying, im sorry, mom, im sorry, mom. I had no details. I had no idea what had happened. Im thinking this is horrible and also hoping its like carbon monoxide. Something not benign but something explainable. Right, right. But inside officers quickly grasp the cold, stomach churning truth. Jan and garys death were not accidental. It was going to be a long investigation. Detective neil mcaim moss was one of the first detectives on the scene. That night he entered the home through the garage and saw gary first. We could see that there was a deceased male in the hallway of the home. His parents were pulled down. What did you make of that . We didnt know. The only thing that we could think of was hes trying to get away from somebody, that theyre grabbing ahold of him. Or was the killer rifling his pockets for something, a key maybe, a combination . In garys office downstairs, the detectives saw jan. She was on the ground. She was lying face down, but it was obvious that there was severe trauma to the back of her head. So was this a violent Home Invasion . Jan and gary had more than half a Million Dollars worth of valuables in the house there for the grabbing. So a botched robbery was a likely scenario. And in the garage, police did find strange marks and scratches on a tornado shelter that was also used as it appeared that somebody had tried to pry the lock open. There were some marks that were by the lock on the door of the tornado shelter. They didnt get inside . It did not appear that they did, no. That would suggest somebodys looking for something. But if robbery was the plan, the killer had left the odd ball museum strangely intact. Nothing appeared tossed or out of place. And the nature of the killings, gary was shot as well as beaten, spoke volumes to the prosecutor assigned to the case, todd meyers. It seems to be an element of personal anger in this thing, todd, this close quarter killing of somebody with a weapon in your hand. Yes. It definitely seemed to be personal type killing, just the brutality involved. Investigators determined jan and gary were likely killed the night before, but search as they might for the murder weapon, a gun and the bludgeoning instrument, officers came up empty handed, but they did recover some unusual evidence. Around jans body there were small white flakes of a substance that were obviously either from the murder weapon or on the murderers body. There were similar flakes found by the wound to garys head. So they bagged them and sent them off for testing. And the crime scene techs recovered Something Else that could be a crucial piece of evidence. A discarded latex glove. So a latex glove on the floor jumped out at you . Totally out of place. And from talking with everybody, that there is no way that gary or jan would have left that glove there. It was right in the middle of the floor for everybody to see. Did it belong to the victims or the killer . No one knew. So its collected, you dont know what it means. We dont know what it means. It was collected, sent to the Highway Patrol crime lab. They had no idea, no working theory yet of why the couple had been murdered, but they did have a sequence that made sense as to the order of deaths. It is hard to believe that gary had shot upstairs if jan is still fully functioning and mobile that she would not have called 911, would not have tried to intervene in some way. Speculation but common sense tells you shes the first victim. Shes the first victim. Bludgeoned to death downstairs. Gary arrives at some point later. Most likely he arrives either while that is ongoing or the killer is waiting for him, but yes, it appears that she would have been the first to have died. A big question early on for detectives was understandi their crime scene. How did the killer gain entry into the house . There were no signs of forced entry. Windows havent been forced, the doors are all intact. How did the killer get in . There are only two ways the killer could have gotten in. One would have been to have their own access device, whether its a key or garage door opener, some way to open the doors up, and then upon leaving be able to lock it that way, or to have been let into the house by either gary or jan. It didnt appear to the cops to be a random Home Invasion, but rather that the killer or killers had been someone the couple knew. Was it a person gary encountered in his antiquing travels, or terrible to think about it, was e perpetrator someone much closer to home, was this all in the family. I was shocked, really confused and baffled. Coming up, who had a motive to kill the terrells . Investigators have at least one idea. She is the person who could benefit crime in terms of getting money. Shes the only child from parents that are very well to do with a lot thats going to be when dateline continues. Two dead. The wife beaten about the head downstairs. The husband shot twice upstairs. And Springfield Police had determined this was no random breakin gone wrong. Jan and gary terrells modest home was filled with valuable items, and yet at first glance, nothing appeared to have been taken. An early supposition was their killer was likely someone close to them, and no one was closer than daughter jessica. She is the person who could benefit from this crime in terms of getting money. She had the most to gain. Shes the only child from parents that are very well to do with a lot thats going to be left to her. So shes going to be questioned hard . Yes. So that night detectives asked jessica and fiance jason down to the station to answer a the cops didnt let on they were talking to them not just as grieving relatives but also as potential suspects. The interviewer withheld details about the crime scene, a standard investigative tactic to see if a subject knows more than they should. He even threw out a theory that wasnt true, murder suicide. One of those things to look at as to whether or not one of them would have injured the other and then maybe themselves. Jessica seemed to go with it. Do you think thats a possibility . My dad, since his mom died, has been super depressed and has made comments, and my mom called the Doctors Office and i told her if he said something stupid again, that she needs to call the police, like get the [bleep] away from him and call the police. As they continued talking, police had another reason to be suspicious of the daughter. She had driven five hours to check on her parents, then didnt go inside the house. And you wonder why she would do that . Yes. People sometimes that commit a crime or know a crime thats been committed, you know, they dont want to see the bodies in there so they call somebody else. Detectives pressed the couple about their movements that day, what they did or did not do at the scene, had they tampered with that tornado shelter in the garage. You guys didnt do anything to try and get inside . Oh, no. I pushed my hand on the handle and that was it. Did you think are we looking at maybe having a situation here where we got to call a lawyer and be careful about what we say . I did a little bit. But neither jason nor jessica asked for a lawyer and offered the detective more detail about what was in that tornado shelter that had been tampered with. It was full of gold and silver and gold bars. We actually dont know what all is in there. He has books that are signed by president s. He has indian peace medals. For investigators, the entire interview was a test. How are you going to hold up, are you going to give answers that we can go back and verify. So you intend to sweat them . Yeah, that was the detectives intent to the degree that we get the truth. So had they passed the investigators test . Detectives let them go but held onto jessicas car to test it for potential evidence. Why did they have a reason to look in your car . I didnt really know. I assumed just because my car was there. Now jessica had to call family and friends to tell them the news about her parents. Her uncle larry, her fathers brother, was at his law office when he got the call. She said that mom and dad are gone. I said what do you mean, are they out of town, and she said no, theyre deceased. I collapsed on the floor. You were a mess . I was a mess. The unknown was terrifying. I didnt know what had happened. But larry wasnt shocked or outraged to learn his niece was being looked at as a potential suspect. He was, after all, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor. I knew she had to be eliminated, i understand that, due to the fact that she was the only child. She just had to be eliminated so the case could move on. And the case did keep moving, but after a full week of investigating, the daughter and her fiance were not eliminated. Rather, detectives called them back to the station, this time interviewed separately. Jason first. Cops by now had figured out that the murders took place the night before the bodies were discovered. So where exactly were he and jessica th we went to the pizza hut up on i dont know y probably 5 30, Something Like that and stayed home. Home, five hours away in Oklahoma City. Do you remember how you paid for the pizza hut . Credit card . Im sure its on my card. Do you have any reason to want to harm gary or jan . Not at all. Didnt do anything to them . No, sir. Everything youre telling me the truth . Absolutely. Next, jessica was in the chair, answering questions about her relationship with her parents. Were they paying any of your bills . They pay my at t bill for my cell phone. They pay my car insurance. And i think thats it. Im just going to ask, did you have any ill feelings toward your folks, anything that you would have been mad at them for, any reason to want to harm them or anything like that . No. My parents were my life. To better your financial situation or anything like that . No. I mean, if i needed something, all i had to do was call and ask. So youre a suspect . Right. In your parents double homicide. Yes. Yeah. How do you deal with that . You havent even buried them yet. I wasnt really dealing with it. It was more just going through and saying i you know, i didnt do it. Police asked both jessica and jason for dna samples, then set out to verify their alibis. My boss and i took a trip to Oklahoma City and we went to employers and spoke with fellow employees, with jessicas boss, and we went to the pizza hut to see if we could see some surveillance video. Would it all check out or would an unexpected lead send the investigation into a new direction. This was a huge bingo moment. It was. Coming up, garys best friend offers detectives some clues, including texts he says he saw on garys phone. From some guy that he had taught in a class that was asking for money. Did someone need cash badly enough to kill did you know 90 of couples disagree on mattress firmness . Fortunately theres a bed where you both get what you want every night. Enter sleep number and the ultimate sleep number event, going on now. Sleepiq technology tells you how well you slept and what adjustments you can make. She likes the bed soft. Hes more hardcore. So your sleep goes from good to great to wow only at a sleep number store. Right now find our queen c2 mattress at 599, save 200. Sale ends sunday. Go to sleepnumber. Com for a store near you. Rob ck rob adls take vo also trapped for 8 hour. In the middle of a rushing crk. The harrowing ordeal. Or one bay area driver. Take vo plu it hasnhappened in nearly. Thanks. But no tnks. E media the event hell skithis ar. 11pm close on an early spring saturday in may 2014, the very day Jessica Terrell had planned to go Wedding Dress shopping with her mother, she was instead burying both her parents. I basically just cried and was constantly ill. What she was going through at this point was unfathomable. I mean, she is just broken at this point. The Funeral Service was held at a high school in the Mountain GroveSchool District where gary worked for 30 years. Nancy la trel was a school board secretary. Just so hard to believe that something so bad could happen in springfield and double unbelief its somebody you know. My heart has just gone out for poor jessica. The outpouring of love and support was a huge comfort to jessica at a time when she needed it most. Word had gotten out that the cops were looking at her. Yeah, lots of rumors that i did it. Thats tough to go out every day and say i didnt kill my parents. Right. And it got very tiring to hear, you know, someone say, you need to look at the daughter, she did it, she has the most to gain. And they did take a hard look. Yes, they did. They think the daughter has killed them in order to get the money, that shes in cahoots with her join. Isnt that awful. You might not have believed it or your circle of people didnt believe it. My circle was not believing that. Behind the scenes, police and prosecutors had come to the same conclusion. Jessica and jason were innocent. Everything that jessica and jason were telling the police, the police were able