A golden couple. A stash of silver. A streak of jealousy. This is vengeance. This is pride. This was murder. I got a phone call. They said your father was found killed in his home. A wealthy, respected doctor. Why . Why is this man dead . These lovers had a stalker. Hes staring at the door like he was looking for someone or watching someone. Watching her. He creeped me out so i left. Did one mans obsession lead to another mans death . Jealousy, rage. Thats what we have here. Someone pulled the trigger. But was someone else pulling the strings . I believe they think theyre playing a game. But this was no game. This cant be. We dont live this kind of life. Im lester holt. And this is dateline. Heres andrea canning. Reporter memories of a family man. Shes a dancing girl. Reporter a doctor, a lover, a good man. He was the ultimate support system for everybody in his life. Reporter finally savoring lifes rewards, until he found himself in the crosshairs of someones obsession. Theres tons of gossip and innuendo, especially in a small town in texas. Reporter it happened in lubbock, a town where texassized dreams can come true. Other dangers that strike out of nowhere. On july 11th, 2012, a brutal hot spell had loosened its grip on lubbock, but a warm afternoon sun is still can coulding away. At the spacious home of dr. Joe sonnier, becky shurbet and Nathan Gilmore were just getting to work when someone pulled up at the house. There was that girl from dr. Sonniers lab, and she was concerned that dr. Sonnier had not shown up. Reporter dr. Joe sonnier was chief pathologist at covenant hospital. We rang the doorbell and couldnt get anyone to answer. I certainly dont know his work schedule, but i know him as a person. He would not be late. Reporter a lot of people knew dr. Sonnier, liked him, too. His sister Missy Bartlett grew up admiring her big brother. He didnt go halfway with anything. Anything that he pursued, he did it well. Reporter philip preswood was a family friend whom joe sonnier treated like a son. Went through med school, dirt poor, roachfilled apartment, had no money until later in life when he was a successful doctor. He was totally selfmade and had that drive. Reporter that drive led to a successful career and a marriage that brought him a beautiful family. Everything was on track. Then in 2001, he suffered a huge setback. His wife left him for another man. His oldest son, dallas. So he found himself in his late 40s a single man with his three sons off to college and starting their adult lives. Reporter and thats when dad decided to make a change. Before he had been kind of a button down superconservative doctor that had been married to his High School Girlfriend of years and then hes at a phase in his life where he has to basically start over. Reporter he dated women who appreciated him. He bought a house, decorated it the way he liked it. Even started dressing more fashionaly. He was a handsome man and tall and he looked great in everything. Reporter a bachelor in his late 40s who had, you know, lets face it, a decent amount of money. Reporter he sounds like a catch. Right. Reporter as he reached his 50s, joe sonnier seemed to be making up for lost time. How did he deal with all the attention he was getting from the ladies . He was very humble. Reporter and he picked up a hobby that turned into a passion, ballroom dancing. It was social, challenging and he was good at it. His dance card was pretty full. Yes. He remade his image after the divorce. He loved to do every style of dance. Reporter Debra Hollowell owns dvenue dance studio in lubbock. He was good enough to where everybody else wanted to dance with him. Reporter he became a regular at dvenue. And then one day in 2011, Richelle Shetina walked in the door. She is outgoing, loving, friendly, extremely bubbly. And everybody that i know that came into contact with her really did like her. Reporter richelle was 49 years old and a divorced mother of four. Theyd only been going out a few months when joe put her to the ultimate test. The meet my kids date. How did you first hear about richelle . My dad told us that hed been dating a new woman, and he wanted to bring her over to a barbecue we were at. And thats where we met her, in the backyard of the barbecue. I thought she was sophisticated, i thought she was kind, i thought she was lovely. And our First Impression of her was very good. Reporter they dated for close to a year. Until that day when he didnt show up for work. The landscapers and dr. Sonniers coworker gave up knocking on the door and decided to look for the doctor out back. And i opened the gate and the one whole section of windows had been just laid over in the house. Reporter they peered inside. And there was a gatorade bottle, which was kind of a strange thing, and you could tell something terrible had happened. So the young lady behind us immediately went in, and i went after her. Reporter thats when nathan found a shell casing on the floor and becky called 911. 911, whats your emergency . Somebody has broken a window in the back and the doctor did not show up for work today. Theres a bullet that was laying on the ground. Okay, was it an actual bullet or had it already been fired . I dont know. I didnt pick it up. Somebody else went in and walked in. Im not here, im not going in. Reporter nathan and the woman from the lab continued searching through the home. And she starts looking in the rooms. And it seemed like it took forever to go through that home. Reporter they searched further and eventually made their way to the garage. And thats where they found dr. Joe sonnier sprawled out. And i can remember his face was laying. And she automatically started crying and she said his name, dr. Sonnier. Reporter nathan returned to his coworker, becky, and his face told her everything. She was still on the phone with 911. Is he here . You can tell theres something. Its not good. Oh, no, oh, my god. Maam . Maam, whats going on . I dont know. Reporter but this much was clear, a man they admired, a doctor, that good man, was lying dead in a pool of blood. Coming up what had happened to the doctor . Richelle, the doctors girlfriend, thinks she may know. She said, i hope this hurts him as much as he has hurt us. One laugh, and hello sensitive bladder. Ring a bell . Then you have to try always discreet. I didnt think protection this thin could work. But the super absorbent core turns liquid to gel. For incredible protection. Snap so its out of sight. And out of mind. Always discreet. For bladder leaks. Ive discovered incredible bladder leak underwear that hugs every curve. Cant tell im wearing it, can you . Always discreet underwear. For bladder leaks. And lifes beautiful moments. Ns get between you switch to flonase allergy relief. 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But his showcase home in lubbock, texas, was now a crime scene. His body, riddled with bullets and stab wounds, found on his pristine garage floor. Detective zach johnson. What do you think when you find out weve got the chief pathologist murdered in his own home . Why . Thats my first question. Why is this man dead . Reporter how did you all get the terrible news of what had happened . They said, your father was found killed in his home. Can you please let your family know . And would you please come to lubbock. We need to sit down with you and the family members and talk. Reporter the news was devastating enough, but even more tragic, it was the second murder in this family. The worst part was my mother was killed two years almost to the day before my dad was murdered. Reporter their mother had been killed by her second husband. Looking back on it, the phone calls from the two Police Departments for each of their deaths was so similar that i felt like it could have been the same phone call repeated twice. Reporter when detective johnson showed up, the garage door was closed, but graphic evidence of joe sonniers killing was apparent to anyone who got close enough. The blood had actually traveled from underneath this body all the way underneath the garage door. Reporter what happened . The first guess was an easy one. It could have been a botched burglary. You know, your first instinct is, man, somebody broke into this house in this affluent neighborhood probably to take some things of great value and they were surprised by the homeowner. Reporter but nothing was missing. The crime seemed to center on joe sonnier. How many times had dr. Sonnier been shot . He had been shot five times. Reporter and how many times had he been stabbed . 11. Reporter the detective moved through the house, trying to imagine what happened. I just walked up and visualized the point of entry. And from where i was at, i could see that the window was pushed in. There was no broken glass, which is very curious to me. Reporter investigators also noticed something about that gatorade bottle found on the floor. A projectile had traveled through that gatorade bottle. I just made the determination that it was possibly a silencer because we did have bullet casings in that immediate area. Reporter given the nature of the crime, the people close to joe were in for some scrutiny, including his girlfriend, Richelle Shetina, who rushed to the house when she heard the news. Whats her demeanor . Hows she acting . She is distraught. No makeup. You know, clothed like she had been doing housework, like she had just got in her car and flew out to where we were. Reporter detective johnson asked richelle to come to the police station. How would you describe your relationship with dr. Sonnier . Hes the love of my life. I cant imagine who would want to do this to him. Hes the kindest man. Reporter richelle wasnt the only person who evidently thought dr. Sonnier was a keeper. She told police the doctor left a number of broken hearts in his past, including a relationship he ended just before he met richelle. And they had an on again, off again relationship for about seven years. She wasnt happy about it. Reporter so this woman, in richelles eyes, was maybe looking for revenge . Sure. Yeah, revenge. Maybe she felt she had been shorted out by dr. Sonnier. Reporter and richelle said there was another woman who couldnt get over her break up with the doctor. So upset she continually left messages, sometimes full of vulgarities, on joes phone. She has called and called and called, to the point where hes had to hang it up or turn off the ringer. And then joseph would get these horrible Text Messages, you know, calling him a [ bleep ]. And you know, youre such a [ bleep ] and whatever. And the next day it was like, hi, do you miss me . Do you know when the last time he received any communication from her . It wasnt that long ago. Reporter so another if i cant have him, no one can type of motive . Correct. Reporter richelle also told police about a strange letter she received in the mail. In it a woman named tina claimed she had a sexual relationship with the doctor, and he had broken his promises to her. Richelle decribed the letter. She met joseph on the internet. And that they had sex for money basically. And she and her daughter lived in this place and joseph hasnt been paying. And shes going to lose her place. She said, i hope this hurts him as much as he has hurt us. Reporter richelle said that she and joe thought the letter was a prank. Still, it was another possible lead for police. Youve got all these lights going off in your head. And so youre just trying to balance out how these people are involved. Reporter richelle was also concerned about a strange incident a few months before the doctors murder. She thought a burly stranger was watching her from her gym parking lot. There was this big, creepy looking guy sitting there, and he was staring at the door like he was looking for someone, or watching someone. Reporter not long after that, Something Else happened one night at joes house. And so while theyre standing in the kitchen talking, they see a flash, which they believe to be a flash on a camera. Reporter investigators checked out those weird incidents and the exgirlfriends. But they also had to look at richelle herself. At this point richelle is not a suspect. Shes more of an involved person. However, i dont have that luxury of not looking at her as a possible suspect. Reporter detective johnson learned the family felt that richelle was pushing joe sonnier hard for a marriage proposal. I just dont believe that she let her foot off the throttle very often. She was putting the clamps on him to get married. Reporter so he wasnt digging that . Well, no. It was stressing him out. Reporter richelle says she and joe talked about having a longterm committed relationship but never discussed marriage. Still, it raised a red flag for police. Until they got a tip that the killer might be someone the doctor had never even met. Coming up a growing list of suspects. Is one linked to rishl. Ill be honest with you. I loved, loved, loved that woman. Richelle shetina seemed lost, exhausted, as she talked to police about the man she loved and about who might have killed him. She told them about women in joes past. She said some of them were angry. But joe wasnt the only one with past relationships. Richelle had a few too. And one in particular came to mind. Dr. Mike dixon. His name is dr. Thomas michael dixon. Hes a Plastic Surgeon in amarillo. Reporter he was richelles old boyfriend. A welltodo and wellknown Plastic Surgeon with a beautfiul home, a thriving practice and at one time his own local talk show. I get the patients that come in and say, i want to look like j. Lo or beyonce. Reporter mike was married with three kids when he first met richelle at a spa he owned. He started seeing her on the side, and when his wife found out, she divorced him. Mike and richelle dated for about a year and a half. But she says it wasnt always easy. It was volatile. It was up and down. And he would i believe that he was seeing other women. And he denied it. Reporter but the final straw was a Birthday Gift that fell flat. He had signed me up for tea of the month and he had it mailed to me. And i was just like, really . You know. You couldnt even hand me something . You had to mail it to me . Reporter by all accounts, she broke dr. Dixons heart when she dumped him. And she says that he begged her to come back even after she started dating dr. Sonnier. With this in mind, police went to dr. Dixons home in amarillo, two hours from lubbock, the night after the murder. What was his face like when he opened the door . He was a little surprised to see us. Reporter he invited them in. They recorded the meeting. Sort of shocked that i am brought up in this. Believe me, youre on a list of like 8 million people. This is a huge whodunit for sure. Well, i didnt. Reporter he was calm. Even chatty. He had never met sonnier. Their only connection was richelle. And if he carried a torch for her, he admitted it was over. Ill be honest with you, i loved, loved, loved that woman. I really did. I really had fallen head over heels and back. In fact, made a lot of life changes for her. But it just wouldnt happen. It just wasnt something that worked. Reporter in fact, he had already moved on to a younger girlfriend, who was with him the night he was questioned. Most of all, he had a solid alibi. Yeah, we didnt think he was involved. We had checked him out as far as the information that we had solid. Surgeries. This is where i was. So on and so forth. Reporter they put the information about dr. Dixon in their back pocket and continued their search for the killer. It was just a few days later that police got the break they needed. They got a call from a man with a crazy story, that would launch a murder mystery into the headlines. Hes been relating these stories to me about this thing that he did. Reporter the callers name was Paul Reynolds. He was veteran studying to be a nurse and still in his scrubs when he talked to police. Reynolds lived in amarillo, about two hours away, with an old friend from high school, a guy with problems. He can be very bombastic, outgoing, pompous, arrogant, obnoxious kind of thing. Reporter according to reynolds, this guy was blowhard who hung out in amarillo bars, could barely hold a job and talked a big game. But reynolds was concerned that his friends latest story might be more than just talk. His friend was telling him that he killed a doctor in lubbock. He just got up, he had this gun and he shot the guy. Then he said something about pushing in a window. Did he say that the window broke, did it shatter . He was worried . He said it didnt break. Reporter that got detective johnsons attention. This detail matched what happened at joe sonniers. Nobody knew that. We hadnt released that information. Reporter this is huge. Thats huge. Thats huge. Hed also used a gatorade bottle as a silencing device on the gun. Well, once again, we hadnt released that information either. Reporter the guys name was dave sh