Was this drowning really an accident . Shes got a huge gash on her head. Something like that is not consistent with just falling down. A husband and father is suddenly under suspicion. Hes crying and were crying. He said, they think i hurt mom. Three daughters stand by their dad. And one prosecutor stands firm. Hes holding his wife of almost three decades under the water. My job is to get justice for cristi hall. Was it murder . Hello and welcome to dateline extra. Im craig melvin. In this hour, a story that calls to mind the master of suspense. A plot straight out of an Alfred Hitchcock film. A young woman peers into her neighbors yard and sees something for a few seconds. A man, a woman, and a moment that was unsettling. Was it some kind of accident . A crime . Maybe even a murder . What she saw and what she did would set in motion a chain of events that would divide a family and a jury. Here is keith morrison. We know the truth. And we know everything that happened. How do we know what we know . Its emotionally unsatisfying not to have that answer. Though it is, even if weve seen something, or if we think we have. And dothus the question at the heart of the whole puzzle. Is this woman right . I know what i saw. And i know the conclusion of my story. Of course she does. Of course she does. So why does this other woman think this . She doesnt know for sure what she saw. A question, we say, on which all the rest will turn. Why dont we begin here. Calimesa, california, Riverside County. Historic missions. Suburbs creeping around the rim of mountains on the eastern flank of los angeles. Here is why chris and cristi hall had come to live out their golden years, though they were far from old when it happened. Just experienced, with life and each other. As far back as i can remember, its always been chris and cristi. They were never thought of as separate. They were a unit. These are the three daughters. Courtney, the eldest, is a teacher. Brianna, a personal trainer. And ashton, the youngest, just returned from playing professional volleyball in europe. All of them of course have heard scores of times the story of how their parents met. It was 1978. Cristi had gone to see a relative at the air force base in nearby San Bernardino. Quite by chance, while she was there she encountered a Security Guard who, to her at least, looked just like elvis. It was Blair Christopher hall. Chris to his friends. Apparently she was a little flirty at the gate. [ laughter ] in short order, chris and cristi got married. She was 17. He, 20. And as the girls grew up, they said they never doubted for a single moment the powerful bond of love. Their parents with them, and with each other. They were probably closer with their parents than most children. Theyre the parents i hope to one day be. Cristi, the vivacious but you of the family. Chris, her perfect mirror. My dad is a little more kicked back, quiet, relaxed. Theyre the perfect balance. Chris was a Police Officer in San Bernardino until he was shot in the line of duty. Then he went off to become police chief in two small towns in idaho. Then in 2005, anticipating an empty nest and eventually retirement, the halls boston this place in calimesa. Life seemed to have hit a sweet spot. We happened to be laying on the bed with her. We started talking. She was like, i am just im so happy that i have you girls and dad. It was one of those conversations that you dont have every day. Still, there was work to be done. It was not a new house. It could use some remodeling. Particularly the bathroom. Courtney was still living with her parents as the work began. Theyre going to be doing the tile work and stuff. So we wouldnt have a shower for that day. So, shower out of commission, they decided to wake up early, put on their bathing suits and rinse off in the outdoor spa before the contractor arrived at 6 45 a. M. It was june 7th, 2007. Chris got up first, turned on the spa to warm it up, then called brianna at her college dorm in san diego. Your wakeup call, baby. Get out and go on that run. Back at the house, courtney dozed through her first wakeup. While chris and cristi made their way outside to the spa. Just after 6 30, chris looked in on courtney again. Second call. And headed back to the spa. Lifes last normal moments. 6 37 a. M. I got up out of bed. I was putting on my robe. I heard this panicked, panicked scream from my dad yelling for me. I ran down the hallway to the back porch and i saw him just trying to pull out my mom out of the spa. Emergency. It was she who dialled 911 as she and her father struggled to lift her mother out of the spa. It was the first moments of the worst day of our lives. Is it possible for people to understand what its like to be in that situation . I dont think so. To see just both your parents in the worst times that youve ever seen them. Obviously my mom unconscious. And my dad just panicked and for the first time in my life, seeing him just that way, not knowing what to do. Because he was a cop, he was used to dealing with these kinds of things. He was a cop used to dealing with those kind of things with people that were not his wife. So courtney took charge. After calling 911, she started cpr on her mother with her father. Emt and firefighter eric norwood was the first to respond. He just started, help my wife, oh, my god, help my wife, help my wife. Chris hall was kneeling at his wifes side, more in the way than anything, and so hysterical they had to move him out of the way. He didnt want to leave her. He kept holding her hand, yelling her name. The paramedics worked on her for 20 minutes. No vital signs. None. No words to describe the fear and the anxiety. Youre losing your mother and watching her go right in front of you. We tried to save her together. We just couldnt. The ambulance rushed her off to the hospital where she was declared dead. She had drowned in the family spa. A private family tragedy. Except maybe not so private after all. Someone was watching. Returning now to someone was watching, here is keith morrison. On the morning of june 7, 2007, brianna hall was driving home from college, to what she didnt know. Her elder Sister Courtney had called and said it was bad. She said there was an accident and you need to come home right away. It was courtney who eventually broke the news to ashton and brianna. Their mother, their fathers wife of close to 30 years, was dead. But neither courtney nor countries waited at the house to tell them what happened or to comfort them. Nor did they linger over the body at the hospital. They couldnt. Because father and daughter were escorted to several squad cars and driven to the Police Station to talk about the accident. What was that ride like . Quiet. I remember crying the whole time. I couldnt comfort had i father. He couldnt comfort me. We got to the station and they said that my dad would be a few more minutes. Chris, so frenzied at the scene, had calmed down by then. He was a cop among cops, after all, and he understood what was necessary to sort out what happened. I cant even start to imagine what youre going through, okay . Just, you know, its a death investigation, and we have to do this. Happy to help, he said. Whatever would get him back home to comfort his daughters as quickly as possible. Were all so close. Chris told investigators what happened. How, as courtney slept, he and cristi were in the spa bathing. She got out, went in, went to the bathroom, got some more coffee, tried to wake up courtney. Courtney didnt wake up, apparently. She came back out. As cristi returned to the spa, said chris, they passed each other on the patio. He went in the house, stopped by courtneys room to make sure she was weawake, then went right ba outside and saw his wife floating face down in the spa. He called courtney, he said, and they began a frantic effort to revive her. In your gut, tell me what happened. She slipped or something. I dont know. Thats the only thing i can think of. But chris apparently hadnt noticed the nasty threeinch lacerationcristis head. And here the point of the Police Interview is revealed. Shes got a huge gash on her head, okay . Something like that is not consistent with just falling down. Not consistent with just falling down . Why would the police think that . I mean, youve been around for a while. I know where youre going. And no. Why in fact was this expolicechief being questioned at all about the apparently disastrous accident that killed the love of his life . And the answer was right next door. When chris and cristi hall took their outdoor bath that morning in june, someone was watching. Her. I got up at 6 00. Got my coffee. Lindsay patterson was on leave from her i. T. Job in the navy, visiting her mom who lives just over the backyard wall from the hall house. Lindsay was inside, in the bathroom that faced away from the hall house and out onto the street, when she heard a noise. It was a horrible scream. It was just, something was wrong kind of scream. A womans, she thought. She went outside to tell her mom. I said, did you hear that scream . She said, yeah, but i think its just kids playing in the playing in the pool. Kids, at six something in the morning . Lindsay walked over to the sixfoot brick wall between their yard and the halls. She stepped on the planter, she said, and looked over the wall. At that point i saw a man with his hand, one hand on top of a womans head and one hand on her back, and she was face down in the water. Like something was going on . Yeah, thats what i assumed. That is, she thought she was looking at a sex act in progress. I dont know why it didnt seem right. But something made me want to look again. Thats 90 seconds, she said, between her first and second looks. This time, she said, she only saw the man in the spa. Hes leaning back, just relaxed in the hot tub. But i dont see her. Hes got his elbows back, hes kind of looking around like nothing. Where did the woman go . Lindsay told her mom something seemed strange. She again tells me, lindsay, stop being nosy, dont worry about it. But it just didnt seem right. It wasnt enough time for her to have gotten out and gone inside the house. So, said nancy, she went to the wall again. Her third and final look. At that point he was getting out of the jacuzzi. And he was in a very big rush. Shes still nowhere to be seen. The look on his face was almost undescribable. It was almost as if he had just gone into another world. It was scary. It was instinct that told her something was wrong, said lindsay. So she called 911. 911, state your emergency. A woman was killed. Now, hours and hours later, the detectives confronted chris with list ndsays story. Why, they asked, didnt her story match his . Im not going to say shes lying, she sounds like a truthful kid, whatever. But i dont know. I cant explain what shes saying she saw. So now that question we posed as we began. Did Lindsay Patterson really know what she saw . I love to eat. I love hanging out with my friends. I have a great fit with my dentures. I love kiwis. Ive always had that issue with the seeds getting under my denture. Super poligrip free. It creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth. Even well fitting dentures let in food particles just a few dabs of super poligrip free is clinically proven to seal out more food particles so youre more comfortable and confident while you eat. Super poligrip free made even the kiwi an enjoyable experience try super poligrip free. But on the inside, i feel chronic, widespread pain. Like most people. 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This is a power plant. This is tim barckholtz. Thats me this is something he is researching at exxonmobil using fuel cells to capture Carbon Emissions at power plants. This is the potential. Reducing co2 emissions by up to 90 . While also producing more power. This could be big. Energy lives here. After his wifes drowning death in a backyard spa, police asked chris hall to explain what happened that morning. What chris did not know was that his neighbor had also talked to police. And she told a very different story than the one chris was telling. Here again is keith morrison. Chris and cristi halls three daughters clung together in grief and shock, all through the dismal evening hours of that worst of all days, june 7, 2007. Waiting for their father to return from the Police Station. And they wondered, why was it taking so long . Then the phone rang. And they had their answer. You know, brokenup words, and hes crying, and were crying. That was when he said they think i hurt mom. He was very upset. But he didnt sound surprised when he said no, he was crying. He was crying. He was upset. Very upset. But by the time Police Investigators were questioning chris, remember, they had heard from Lindsay Patterson. And at the station, chriss version of events in the spa differed in one Crucial Detail from what lindsay described seeing that first time she period over the wall and into the halls backyard. That specifically, me holding her down in there, theres nothing that took place in that jacuzzi that would explain that. There was no sex. There was no i dont even think we had any contact while we were in the jacuzzi other than when i was getting her out. But investigators were getting a good look at christies body and saw wounds that to them suggested a struggle and more than one nasty blow to the head. So the police had to choose. Which version, chris halls or Lindsay Pattersons, was more likely the true story of what happened . Tom dove is a senior investigator for the riverside d. A. I think they felt this was enough to say this was not an accidental drowning. It was purely much more suspicious than that. And so before the night was over, chris hall was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife. The girls could stop waiting. He wasnt coming home. It was obviously a tragedy, losing our mother that day. But this is a tragedy on top of a tragedy now. Because knowing our parents, its the farthest thing from truth. And one that felt infected by some kind of madness, said the girls. Chr cristi was the love of his life. How could he be accused of harming her . She was happy too, they said, as happy as she had ever been, they knew based on that mother daughter talk they had not long before she died. She kept reiterating how happy it was. Me and brie will always cherish that. That being the last time we actually saw her. Kind of burned into your memories. Yeah. But right or wrong, the legal trigger had been pulled. Chris hall spent almost two months in jail, until his daughters received the payout from crisountrie cristis life policy and used the money to bail him out of jail. Then he went home to prepare, with the help of his daughters, for a murder trial. Its very surprising to have a client in a murder case out on bail. But he was a special man. And this was a special situation. These are attorneys who would eventually defend him, although at first they only heard about the case. Steve harmon and paul gretch. Youve said two things. Special man, special situation. I think both of us can say this is a man that we like and we know. We dont feel he could have done anything like this. Chris hall and his daughters prepared for a trial which they hoped would make clear to everybody, the police, the neighbor, the world, that chris would not, could not, did not harm the love of his life. There was never, in 30 years of marriage, never one moment of violence. There was no motivae for this mn to kill his wife. They had a look at the neighbors eyewitness account and suggested it was really not conclusive at all. It was tragically incomplete. She saw three snapshots. What is missed by everyone is the wife getting into the jacuzzi, slipping, falling into the jacuzzi, hitting her head, going unconscious, and drowning. See this sharp corner sticking out into the spa . Hitting your head on this would certainly have opened a gash and knocked cristi out, said the attorney. She didnt see what was really happening during the times when she was not looking. That scream that made Lindsay Patterson look over the wall . Linds lindsay, they pointed out, was in a bathroom facing the street, not in the backyard when she heard it. It could have been anybody. And courtney, near the spa, didnt hear anything. We think she misinterpreted what she saw. Lindsay concedes she didnt know what she was seeing in those glimpses that morning. Something was wrong. Yet you hadnt really seen anything. But i knew something was wrong. I dont know if in my brain i was putting things together. But from between the scream, the position that he was holding her, and the not just not having enough time for her to have gone inside. Its like youve got three different snapshots. Right. Of something going on there. Right. And had to kind of work out what this was. Yeah. I wasnt thinking at that point, oh, this man murdered his wife. But now, based largely on that account, chris hall would go on trial for murder. And it was a trial for his daughters too. He loved her. They were each others best friends. And this is just this is not fair to him because he truly loved her more than more than anyone. And yet the prosecutor was going to try to prove that this family man and former cop murdered his wife. Could it be done . I saw the change in rich when we moved into the new house. But having his parents over was enlightening. You dont like my lasagna . No, its good. Hmm. Oh. Huh. [ both laugh ] here, blow. Blow on it. You see it, right . Is there a draft in here . Im telling you, its so easy to get Home Insurance on progressive. Com. Progressive cant save you from becoming your parents. But we can save you money when you bundle home and auto. Progressive cant save you from becoming your parents. [alarm beeps] let our your inner child at the