Transcripts For MSNBCW Dateline Extra 20190224 : vimarsana.c

But was it her idea . Oh, god. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but, oh, my god. Or hers . And who would take the fall for evil . How deep a hole did you dig. Not too big. Poison. Hello and welcome to dateline extra, im craig melvin. Larry mcnabney was a successful Trial Attorney with a thriving practice, a wife he adored, and lavish lifestyle. Then the 53yearold vanished in a mystery as twisted as they come. At its center, three lives tangled together in a deadly love triangle, and only one of them would survive. Heres keith morrison. It was september 11th, 2001, just everyone knows where they were that awful day. Like the glamorous trio that was traveling north through californias Yosemite National park, even as the rest of the worlds attention was focused on new york city, they were intent on their own urgent need, their desires, their fears, their deadly love triangle. So they probably didnt appreciate the passing wonders, the astonishing cliffs, the water falls, the giant sequoias. Here is one of them. His name was Larry Mcnabney, and he was a tall, handsome man, a wellknown and respected attorney from nevada, a personal injury specialist, made buckets of money, loved the big life, loved being in control. There was never a hair out of place. There wasnt dust on his desk. His pen was always in the same spot. Larrys daughter was crazy about him in awe of his type a personality, his joy of life, his courtroom presence. I loved to go to the courtroom and watch my dad. It was mesmerizing to me. He commanded the place. He was completely confident, not an ounce of shyness. He commanded the courtroom. Ive been a trial lawyer for over 20 years. Larrys longtime friend, fred atchison. He could open 50 files a month in personal injury litigation, which made him a rich man. But nobodys perfect, of course. And for all of larrys unquestioned talents, the man carried around with him a raft of corresponding demons. I know he had a difficult childhood, and that a lot of your personality is shaped when youre a child. And as an adult, larry struggled with alcohol and women. He married and divorced several times. It was like a void he was trying to fill and he never could fill. It in fact, from time to time larry had gone on benders and just vanished weeks at a time. And everybody would worry and wonder, but sure enough hed show up again. I had a tshirt made up once, yellow with black letters saying where is Larry Mcnabney . But then finally larry, well into his 40s, seemed to get his act together for real. He set up a new office in las vegas. Everything clicked, possibly for an attractive reason as tavia discovered. I went by the Office One Day and he said i have someone i want you to meet. He said this is elisa. Elisa, 17 years younger than larry, and he was in love. And he said shes just fun and vivacious. Shes young and its just we have a good time. Tavia didnt stand in the way. She wanted her dad to be happy. We welcomed the new person in. Its my dad, so i didnt want anything that would inhibit me from spending time with him. And he and really cared for this woman . He did. Larry and elisa thrived both personally and professionally. They got married. Elisa became his office manager. They opened up a firm in sacramento, california, another big success. So they hired a young attractive College Student named sarah dutra, the outgoing daughter of deeply religious parents who soon became a friend as well as a sort of personal and office assistant. And together elisa and larry enjoyed the high life. She was into the same thing that larry loved, and style. And they went and bought viper cars together. They also shared larrys newest passion, quarter horses. Larry would show horses and show himself, which fit in with larry looking good and feeling good. Larry could do more of what he liked while young sarah pitched it to help elisas business, just about perfect. Though larrys friend fred was a bit of a stick in the mud about it. The fact that she took control of his business allowed him to engage in drinking and partying. Which is not really what larry needed. No. He didnt need that because his appetites would run amok. So when, after nearly seven years of marriage, nearly dropped out of sight, Close Friends werent extremely alarmed at first, after all larry had gone on drunken benders before. But this time has days stretched into weeks, it seemed different, extremely odd. Ginger miller started working at the law firm as a secretary in september 2001 just about the time larry went missing. Elisa kept the business going in his absence, but couldnt seem to settle on what the staff should tell people about larry. I was told to tell his kids and different people in his family different things. So i was told that he was golfing or skiing, someplace they probably couldnt get a hold of him at. Its obvious bs. Yeah. If it was a client, i would have to say that he was working on the deposition, he was with another client, he had to fly out. Larrys kids didnt know what to think. And tobias brother this doesnt sound right. Why do the stories keep changes . October arrived, still no larry. Thanksgiving. Then december he was always with his family on his birthday, but still no sign of Larry Mcnabney. I didnt get a good feeling. And what i worried about was had something gone wrong and dad was scared and he took off . Had larry offended the wrong person . Tavia had a friend in Law Enforcement who told her you have to look at it twoway. If hes in hiegsd, hes not going to be happy you found him because obviously hes hiding for a reason. Or somethings happened to him. Meanwhile back at the office, ginger was hearing things, worrisome things, until she just couldnt keep it in anymore. I went to the sheriffs department. I wasnt sure what to do, so i asked for a piece of paper and i slid it under the window. Detectives got her note all right and figured they should have a chat with Elisa Mcnabney. But by the time they went looking for her, just like larry, she was gone. Who exactly was Elisa Mcnabney . And what did she know about her husbands disappearance . The investigation heats up when police uncovered dark secrets in a elisas past. Coming up she was a person out of a 40s film noir movie. She was a stunner physically, but more importantly, she had a control over men that just amazed me. When poison continues. Since my dvt blood clot i was thinking. Could there be another around the corner . Or could it turn out differently . I wanted to help protect myself. My doctor recommended eliquis. Eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot. Almost 98 percent of patients on eliquis didnt experience another. And eliquis has significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. Eliquis is fda approved and has both. Dont stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. If you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily. And it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Whats around the corner could be surprising. Ask your doctor about eliquis. Yeah, i thought doing some hibachi grilling would help take my mind off it all. Maybe you could relieve some stress by calling geico for help with our Homeowners Insurance. Geico helps with Homeowners Insurance . They sure do. And they could save us a bundle of money too. Im calling geico right now. Cell phone . Its ringing. Get to know geico and see how much you could save on homeowners and condo insurance. Get to know geico and see the latestou could inisnt just a store. Ty its a save more with a new kind of Wireless Network store. Its a look what your wifi can do now store. A get your questions answered by awesome experts store. Its a now theres one store that connects your life like never before store. The xfinity store is here. And its simple, easy, awesome. Welcome back. Where was Larry Mcnabney . He was known to be a heavy drinker and had gone on Bernie Sanders before, but according to coworkers, this time seemed different. A secretary at his firm contacted the Sheriffs Office. Detectives were now eager to talk to his much younger wife, elisa, but oddly, she had disappeared too. And when investigators started digging into her past, they quickly uncovered that Elisa Mcnabney didnt really exist. Here, again, is keith morrison. By the dawn of 2002 while the rest of us were getting used to a post9 11 new normal, it seemed pretty clear something abnormal must have happened to that personal injury attorney, Larry Mcnabney. Nobody had seen him in five months. He had never been on a bender for this long. Now his wife, elisa, was missing too. By this time ginger had dropped off her note at the Sheriffs Office and detectives were talking to employees like sarah dutra, the attractive 21yearold art student from Sacramento State who worked at the mcnabney law firm as an office secretary. She brought her little dog, ralph, with her to the Sheriffs Office. Sarah told the detectives that she and elisa had become Close Friends and so she, sarah, certainly noticed how erratic elisa became after larry went missing. Things were starting to not seem right. Like, you know, elisa wouldnt come to work all the time there, you know . Sarah confirmed what ginger miller said, that elisa kept changing her explanations for larrys whereabouts. She saw elisa signs larrys name on checks and dated a business transaction. I figured shes keeping this business going for him. You know, so he can go play or do whatever he was doing. In early january 2002, said sarah, elisa planned trip to arizona to attend a horse show. In the absence of larry, invited sarah to go along. I was going to fly down the next day and then she told me, you know, your tickets paid for and all that. But when sarah got to the airport, the ticket was not paid for. You called her cell phone number and what did you get. Nothing. It was this number is no longer in use. And that was that, said sarah. She hadnt heard from elisa since. I called ginger and i said, ginger, you know, im going to look for a new job. I dont know about you, but elisa is gone. Thomas tess at a was a san joaquin when he heard about the case of larry and Elisa Mcnabney, he gravitated toward it. He was an attorney with a case load who just disappeared. This isnt someone whos a homeless person who just vanishes and you think they took a greyhound and went to nevada. He began by taking a good, hard look at elisa. She was a person out of a 40s film noir movie in that she was a stunner physically, everyone said that, but more importantly she had a control over men that just amazed me. She was able to say jump and the men would say how high . It certainly seemed true for larry, so said his old friend, fred atchison. She was controlling him to the extent that she was keeping him away from his family and his former friends. Did that include the relationship he had with you . No question about it. You find yourself shut out. Yeah so did larrys daughter, tavia. Elisa completely cut me out of the picture, and i was devastated. But why . Why was elisa keeping larry away from his family and friends . What did she have to hide . He called me up once on the phone and said fred, i dont know who she is. You know, i thought he meant we dont really ever know who our spouses are deep down. And he said, no, i dont even know if this is who she is, if her name is what she says it is or anything. By then, said fred, larry had discovered ample reason to stop trusting elisa. He couldnt keep his wallet in his pants. He told you that . Yeah. She would steal money out of his wallet. He had to hide his wallet in his own house. Turned out she was also stealing from the law firm. She had ripped him off. For how much . Any idea . Over 100,000. Larry told fred all about his troubles with elisa, and yet he kept her around, not like he hasnt divorced women before, but not this one. Tavia didnt get it. I mean, he always said she has this hold over me, and i never understood what that meant. And larrys comments to fred about not knowing his wife, well, his suspicions turned out to be true a Little Research told detectives that the reel woman behind the name Elisa Mcnabney had a considerable criminal rap sheet, including stolen property, credit card fraud, grand theft. She really had a way of ingratiating herself with men and using her female charms, and she was very, very good at it. She was a true and true con artist. So was elisa just conning larry . Surely, thought fred, she wouldnt have done away with him, would she . It wouldnt make any sense, even for a dedicated pole cat to do anything like that because he was the goose that laid the golden egg. It wouldnt make sense whatsoever. It was a farm worker who noticed a flock of eventualtures or buzz zblards drifting above one of these grape fields. Saw something sticking out of the ground. And soon a missing persons case turned into something much, much worse and considerably more bizarre. Poison returns after the break. Ado. Its beautiful. Beefy and mean looking. Its the strongest, most advanced silverado ever. The cab is bigger than the last generation. Its the first truck ive seen make you look small. But thats not all. Whoo oh my. Whoa the silverado has more cargo volume than any competitor. Very impressive. Now, during the chevy president s day sales event, get 0 financing for 72 months on this allnew silverado. Drive yours away this president s day. Want to take your next vacation to new heights . Tripadvisor now lets you book over 100,000 tours, attractions, and experiences in destinations around the world like new york, from bus tours to breathtaking adventures. Tripadvisor makes it easy to find and book Amazing Things to do. And you can cancel most bookings up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund. So you can make your next trip monumental. Read reviews, check hotel prices, book things to do, tripadvisor. When heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums smoothies. It neutralizes stomach acid at the source. Tum tum tum tum smoothies. Also available tums sugarfree. Welcome back to dateline extra. Detectives looking into the disappearance of larry and Elisa Mcnabney had made a startling find. A friend of larrys claimed elisa had ripped her husband off for more than 100 grand, and it appeared he wasnt her first mark. The young woman was a felon with a long criminal history of theft and fraud. But was she capable of even darker crimes . Here, again, is keith morrison. It was february 2002, a remote vineyard up in the northern end of californias central valley, a farm worker checking the outer reaches of a giant field of grape couldnt help but see the big words going round and round. Something out there. Vultures were circling. He spotted the vultures so he went out to see what they were circling. Investigators xavier ramos and lieutenant robert book walter worked at the San Joaquin Sheriffs Department at the time. He thought he was going to find just some dead animal out there. But it wasnt a dead animal. The leg that was sticking out of the ground was decidedly human, and soon larrys daughter, tavia, got the news. I got the call and i felt myself get really hot and nauseous. And she said that the body they found, the dental records, it was him. And i remember i never swear and i yelled out this cuss word and i slammed the phone and i just started shaking. It was a moment in time that ive never felt such anguish. Thats still raw even now. It is because i thought i dont know. I thought i guess i was hoping he was in hiding. Very fortunate that the body was discovered. Now we can move on and investigate it as a homicide. Tavias hopes, crushed. Police had ample proof five months after he vanished that larry had been murdered and left to rot out in the middle of nowhere. There werent any stab wounds or any bullet holes. There were no obvious signs of larrys cause of death, so they looked further and find something very unusual. The medical examiner was able to find out the cause of death was poisoning with a horse tranquilizer. Horse tranquilizer . Yes. Now, that was strange. But get this. He had been dead for an extended period of time. However, the body had not decomposed consistent with the time frame we were looking at. Meaning . Meaning it was preserved, kept cold. One of the first things i thought, where would they have access to a walkin refrigerator large enough to hold a human body . Detectives wanted answers, and so did larrys daughter, tavia, who sometimes believed she could hear her father in her sloo epi. I would wake up and i would hear him calling for me to help him. I didnt know what to do and i didnt understand what was going on. Sometimes people get a sense of knowing either what or who was responsible. Did you . I knew elisa had done something. Larrys muchyounger wife, elisa, she vanished a few months after he did and now that larry was dead, she was the prime suspect in his murder. Sheriffs deputies and the fbi tracked her down in march 2002 in florida. She cut her hair short and changed her name. Elisa was not now going by the name of Shane Ivaroni and was working as a paralegal at a florida law firm. Elisa was a very smart person. She had, i believe, 140 iq. She could talk anybody into anything . Right. But now that she was finally exposed for the con artist she was and was in custody, elisa decided to tell her story, starting at long last with her legal name. My whole name is laren. Laren. Laren. My middle name is rene, renee. Okay. My maiden name was sims, sims. And elisa, wheres that coming from. No, i left florida. You know, i mean, i was a fugitive from florida. She was a mother of two, wanted in florida for violating probation and had been on the run for nine years, she said. She eventually settled in las vegas where she met larry and by this time had changed her name to elisa. She told the police she was at the horse show in arizona when she found out Police Wanted to talk to her about larry. And so she took off in her jaguar, drove from state to state. Where were you headed at this point. I didnt just away. So with the preliminaries out of the way, now came the big question. What happened to Larry Mcnabney . Elisa, without hesitation and without even being asked, spilled the beans. And did i kill my husband . Yes, i killed my husband. There it was, no apology, no evasion. She simply confessed to killing her husband, Larry Mcnabney. But, and this was a but with a capital b, that wasnt the whole story, not even close. Coming up, the rest of the story. Did elisa have help . And i freaked out. She was going to yeah, and i was freaking out. She . Who was she . When poison continues. This is. 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The firstofitskind lexus ux and ux f sport, with the latest Safety System standard, bestinclass turn radius and bestinclass mpg. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. When heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums smoothies. It neutralizes stomach acid at the source. Tum tum tum tum smoothies. Also available tums sugarfree. Welcome back to dateline extra. Im craig melvin. Elisa mcnabney the answer question before police had even asked, yes, she killed her husband, larry. It would have seemed like a straightforward case if not for what elisa told investigators necks, that she wasnt the master mind behind the murder. So who was . She said it was someone police had already met. Here again is keith morrison. There is a purity to confession, a real cleansing of the soul. Now after months on the lam, Elisa Mcnabney, aka laren sims, was offloading the secrets of a lifetime. Didnt hold back yes, she killed larry. Her husband of nearly seven years, she said. But it wasnt her idea. I said, i dont know what im going to do. And she said, we have to kill him. And i said, i cant kill him. She said . Who was this other woman who pushed elisa to commit murder . Turned out detectives had already talked with her. Remember sarah dutra, the young secretary elisas friend who came back with her little dog who had been so helpful after elisa disappeared . Now saying that killing larry was sarahs idea. I never would have done it on my own. Elisa told the story this way. Larry was a heavy drinker and drug user. He was abusive, she claimed and feared for her life. One day he divided in her young friend, sarah, and sarah said there was just one thing to do, kill Larry Mcnabney. Now in this threehour long interview elisa went into detail after gruesome detail of how she and sarah did it. Elisa and larry were at a horse show in los angeles, she said, and sarah flew down to meet them, or rather, to meet elisa since larry didnt like sarah, said elisa. What did you guys decided to do with him. We said if we if we kill him, nobodys going to miss him. Were you going to do it, like, that day or some other time in the future . When were you planning on doing it . Right then. Right then and there . Yeah. That was september 9th, 2001. According to elisa, larry had already passed out after kbieming a little horse tranquilizer on his own for fun. So sarah decided, according to elisa, to just give him more. And no one would ever find out. Oh, god. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But, oh, my god, its so horrible to think of taking somebodys life. While larry slept, she and sarah squirted horse trachk lieser into his mouth, but larry didnt die. Instead, the next day on september 10th, larry got up, showed his horse, and then went right back to bed. Next morning hes like lying there. And i thought he was dead. And so i wake sarah up and i say, i think hes dead. And she pushes him and she said, no, hes not dead. But he was so heavily drugged he couldnt walk. So we went down the street and rented a wheelchair. And i got him dressed and put him in the wheelchair and rolled him out to our truck. And put him in the backseat of the truck. And we drove. This was september 11th, 2011. While elisa and sarah drove north through california with larry slowly dying in the backseat of the truck. We stopped in yosemite, somewhere in yosemite. And sarah got out and started digging a hole and he was alive, okay . And i freaked out. She was going to say throw him in the hole alive . Yeah, and i was freaking out. I said we cant put him in there, hes leave. We cant do that. So, she said, they drove on. They thought larry would die in the car, but he didnt. So when they finally made it back to larry and elisas home near sacramento, larry was slipping in and out of consciousness, still alive. And then when 6 00 in the morning rolls around, the sun starts coming up, and sarah sleeps late, you know . And so i immediately go up there. And he was dead. That was the morning of september 12. And sarah says, well, we cant leave him lying here. So, you know, we take this sheet that he was lying on. And we wrapped it around him. And then we took tape and wrapped it around him and he was in a crouched position. And then in my garage he had this wine refrigerator, you know, like a regular refrigerator . But one he kept wine in. We took the wine out of it and took the racks out of it and put him in it. They stuffed larrys body in the refrigerator while they decided what to do with it. We talked about bigger him in the backyard, we talked about bigger him at my trainers. We talked about burning the body. But they couldnt quite decide, and so they kept larrys body in the refrigerator for three months. And then they decided to take it to las vegas, find someplace there to bury it. How much does he weigh . He weighed a lot. Im having a hard time seeing you two picking up this ambition guy. We laid the trailer tire down in front of the refrigerator. Opened the refrigerator door, laid the trailer tire down. Slide him out, put him on the trailer tire, and then back the jag up really close to the trailer tire. And then it was only like that much difference. So then we just pushed. Off the tire into the trunk . Exactly. And he was like, shaped like this, you know . So then we put him in the trunk. And he was like this. And he closed the trunk. And we went to las vegas. En route to las vegas with their two dogs in the backseat, larry in the trunk along with two shovels, once there sarah hung out at the hotel with the dogs and elisa went out looking for a burial place for larry. But when she started digging, she said, the ground was too hard. And so i went back to the hotel and told her, i cant do it. And then all this time hes in the trunk, you know . And the valets parking and its not good. So elisa said they drove back to california. And the next morning at 4 00 she drove out to a vineyard, dug a hole, and buried it. How deep a hole did you dig . Not deep enough, obviously. That was elisas story. And just a few hours after she finished telling it, california detectives hauled in sarah dutra, the alleged driver of the whole plot, and her story . Well, it was a little different. Coming up, is sarah dutra a coldblooded killer or an innocent who was just trying to survive . God. I didnt want to end up like him. When poison continues. With cologuard. We all make excuses for the things we dont want to do. But when it comes to colon cancer screening. Im not doin that. I eat plenty of kale. Ahem, as i was saying. With cologuard, you dont need an excuse. All that prep . No thanks. That drink tastes horrible but. Theres no prep with cologuard. I cant take the time off work. Who has two days . And i feel fine no symptoms everybody, listen all you need is a trip to the bathroom. 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What we deliver by delivering. vo only verizon was ranked number one by rootmetrics, number one in three opensignal mobile experience awards, number one in video streaming according to nielsen, and number one in Network Quality according to j. D. Power. Were proud to be the only network to win in all four major awards not because of what it says about us, but what it means for every one of our customers. Choose americas most reliable network, and get apple music, on us, when you do. Welcome back. Elisa mcnabneys confession was as chilling as it was thorough. She described to police in detail how she and sarah dutra poisoned larry with horse tranquilizer, then buried his body in a california vineyard. But why would sarah a young secretary of barely out of college, want to harm larry . She was about to tell detectives her side of the story. Then something no one saw coming, and sarah would suddenly be the only one facing charges. Continuing with our story, heres keith morrison. Im here o tonight to encourage you to let the chips fall where the chips fall. Do not attack elisa anymore. Dont protect yourself either. Just tell the truth. Is she incriminating me somehow . Sarah dutra appeared confused, no little dog to keep her company now. Her close friend Elisa Mcnabney has confessed to murdering her husband, larry, and she not only helped with the murder but it was the driving force behind it. What do you think elisas doing right about now . She is lying about what really happened. Are you a coldblooded killer . No. Or are you somebody that got caught up in some stuff and made some mistakes . They confronted her with elisas written confession. Basically it says we planned to im not denying. Im not denying. That conversation couldnt have happened. I never thought she would have carried it out and taken me along with her unknowingly. Shes evil and shes trying to do this to pull me down with her because shes jealous of me. I know she has. Explain that to me then. Why is she doing . Make me believe it, sarah. Because hes an evil person. Sarah dutra broke down and told detectives her side of the story. And in this version it was elisa, not sarah, who was the coldblooded killer. It was elisa, she said, who dosed larry with horse tranquilizer. Elisa, who ordered sarah to before him in yosemite even before he was dead. Grab the shovel and go check the ground. I said, i dont want to do this. Get out. I wanted you to know i was so afraid to not do what she wanted me to. Elisa, who was eerily calm. Laying there on the ground and why are you laying on the ground for. Why is he not laying in bed . And she said, hes dead, and i thought, what do you mean hes dead . That was the morning of september 12th after the long and harrowing drive from the horse show in los angeles, said sarah. And through her tears she told the detectives how larrys body ended up in the refrigerator. She put him in a sheet. Oh, my god. Ive never seen anything like this, okay . And she said, okay, grab the sheet and then grab him downstairs. I said, what are you doing . We have to call the police. This is not right. She said, we are not calling the police. If you call the police, you will be so sorry you did. This was the heart of sarahs version. She went along with the whole awful crazy thing for one reason, she said. She was deathly afraid of elisa. God, i didnt want to end up like him. Was it possible an innocent young woman in the armrests of a con artist. She seemed so frightened, so emotionally, and yet, thought the detective i thought a little bit over the top. She was a little over the top . Yeah. I know. You mean she was acting . Putting it on . I believe so. After more than nine hours of questioning, sarah dutra was arrested and charged with larrys murder. It was a classic crime story, two killers, mutual finger pointing, and prosecutors knew they could use each womans testimony against the other, an easy check mate, that is, until elisa took herself off the board. On march 30th, 13 days after her arrest, a jailer found her hanging by the neck in her cell, a suicide. A million questions for elisa. And now that door has been slammed shot. And now sarah, left holding the bag, would face murder charges alone. The prosecutor had to prove that sarah was equally responsible for Larry Mcnabneys death. But with elisa gone, who o whose story would the jury believe . Coming up when you try only one defendant, its very easy as it was for sarah dutra to point the finger at the one whos not there. When poison continues. Is the best in town. [ soft piano music playing ] mm, uh, what do you do for fun . Not this. Oh, what am i into . Mostly progressives name your price tool. Helps people find Coverage Options based on their budget. 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And its simple, easy, awesome. Welcome back. In the wake of a lisa mcnabney suicide prosecutors were forced to make their case. Was she the coldblooded mastermind that elisa portrayed . It was a question for jury would soon answer. Hear with the conclusion of our story is keith morris. It was the winter of the 2003, more than a year after larry was poisoned with horse tranquilizer. His admitted killer, his wife. You attended the trial every day. Yes, 11 1 2 weeks. Why . Why . Our da had talked to us about the importance of our family being represented, that my dad not being forgotten. She believed her father died at the hands of both elisa and sarah. But though sarah admitted to being there when larry died in the and days and months that followed she adamantly claimed she never went to the police because she was so afraid of elisa and of ending up just like larry. And theory that even the prosecutor found believable. When i first got this case people in my office were telling you thats exactly what i was saying walking up and down the halls. Poor sarah, but as i got deeper into the case i totally turned around on this. He became convinced that sarah was in fact the woman in charge. Sarah did not like larry. She always accused him of being full of himself, talking about himself all the time, selfcentered. She didnt like him. So larry didnt want sarah around. Sarah did not like larry. You know, this sounds to me like two people who both love elisa and want the other out of the way. Thats exactly it. It was a love triangle and one of them had to go. Sarah said prosecutor testa was enjoying a very fancy life with elisa and larry was simply in the way. If your theory is right, these are two good time girls who have a great relationship and theyre living off the proceeds of larry, why get rid of him 234. Larry was lisas golden goose was lisa was sarahs golden goose. And sarah was about to be cut out of this whole triangle. Larry had just told her two days before he was killed that, you know, he wanted her gone, he wanted her fired. So said testa, it was sarah who had the motive to kill larry. Sarahs lawyer, of course, saw it differently. This seems like a classic instance of, you know, evil sort of wrapping around a sweet, young. At the trial the defense portrayed her now prosecutor testa introduced now prosecutor testa introduced ginger miller. Remember her . She said in the days and weeks after larry vanished elisa and sarah seemed to feel anything but remorse. Theyre laughing together, theyre shopping together, theyre eating together, theyre sleeping in the same bed together. Shes living at her house. So they were not really working, were they . They were. They would get maybe two hours of work done during the day. What did they do the rest of the time . Party . Shop, eat late, go out, sleep with boys. All the while spending the firms money, larrys money, a lot of money. Sarah got a red bmw. Such Close Friends or maybe more than friends. They bought matching underwear together. Come on. No, my first theyre like they both were wearing matching underwear. They were best friends. They were blowing through money so fast they fell behind rent payments for the law office, got evicted so they moved the office into elisa and lar as home, which according to ginger now seemed more like elisa and sarahs home. In the rooms they had no clothes of larrys the closet was cleaned out and in the bathroom they made the sinks hers and hers instead of his and hers. But they knew he wasnt coming back. She said theyre pretty much moved in. All this time larrys body was still in the garage, still in the refrigerator. As for the idea sarah was an innocent child and elisas puppet, that was nonsense said ginger. Everybody knows she wasnt terrified of her. Sarah had as much say. Until trial sarah sat wideeyed and innocent. Her videotaped confession didnt get played for the jury. With no dna, no prints, no trace evidence, no living eyewitnesses the case against sarah was entirely circumstantial. First degree murder. First degree, yeah. But would the jury see it the way he did . After four days of deliberations the jury found sarah dutra guilty of voluntary manslaughter and accessory to murder, not first degree murder. Had not she been a young attractive tall blonde whose parents were clutching bibles, crying in the first row one wonders if this verdict would have been the same. Sarah dutra was sentenced to 11 years, served 8 and in the summer of 2011 at age 31 she was released. Its painful to know that such little time was given for such a horrific crime and one that seemed so premeditated to me and so thought out and so callus to the end. Sarah did not respond to our interview request. And tavia, she told us shed forgiven sarah as much for her own sake as anything. Will i ever forget what shes done . Never. But i dont want to have my whole life be their cruelty and the things they chose to do to him. Id rather remember the loving times we had together. And theyre not going to take that away from me. Thats all for this edition of dateline extra. Im craig melvin. Thank you for watching. He was a beautiful woman, a smart woman. She didnt need to travel those paths. She was a mother of five with a double life. She lived her church lifestyle, and then her Online Dating lifestyle. Were talking about casual encounters with people who arent using real identities. And then she was murdered. Im appalled that she was found that way. Somebody wanted to make a statement. What would her life reveal about her death . She had had communications with at least two other men. He asked me, do you know who she was seeing . From the shadows of the internet to the depths of the human heart. He was very controlling, and he was losing control