Page 6 - Gary Ackley News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

They knew that he bragged about being a drummer in a rock band. >> stephanie's family identified the man as her oldest and dearest friend, gary ackley. when interviewed by police, ackley recalled he was at the party but wasn't there specifically to be with stephanie. >> one of the things he told us was he had gone there to locate somebody else, had seen stephanie, so stopped to talk. the witnesses said it seemed a little bit more than that. >> then police did a background check on 29-year-old gary ackley and discovered some alarming information. gary ackley was related to the first murder vict...

A lie. >> well, he didn't like her. and it was no secret she didn't like him. but no one in the family did like him. >> their relationship can best be described as being acrimonious. arlene jensen was concerned about the welfare of her daughter whom she believed was at least verbally and psychologically being abused by gary ackley. >> arlene also didn't like the way ackley treated her grandchildren. >> when she would express those concerns, particularly in the presence of gary ackley, it became quite apparent that he didn't want her anywhere around. >> and ackley's fights with arlene were well...

Move, that's where the transfer would be. >> finally, in the national park near where stephanie dittrick's body was found, investigators discovered remnants of a campfire. some of stephanie's personal items were strewn in the grass along with a plastic shopping bag. >> there was a shopping bag from a local grocery store and once it was submitted to the washington state patrol crime laboratory, what we found was a very clear latent fingerprint left by none other than gary ackley. >> the fingerprint, along with the metal fragments and fibers, clearly tied gary ackley to both crime scenes. prosec...

Prosecutors believe ackley killed his childhood friend in order to silence her, burying her body in a shallow grave. again, leaving the tell-tale metal fragments behind. when he disposed of stephanie's personal items, he left his fingerprint on the shopping bag. >> i don't think there's anything i could say that would bother him because someone that can kill their girlfriend's mom and their kids' grandma is untouchable emotionally. so i wouldn't even try. >> a year after the crimes, gary ackley was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. d...

The trace evidence shows he put arlene's body into the back seat of his car, creating the fiber cross-transfer. ackley dumped her body a mile away in a field near the railroad tracks unaware he left more metal shavings there. he also left another calling card. an empty pack of his favorite brand of cigarettes, the same brand he left in his mother-in-law's bathroom. but what was the motive for stephanie dittrick's murder? >> by all accounts gary ackley had a big mouth. >> prosecutors think in a moment of weakness, ackley told stephanie that he killed arlene. prosecutors found a witness who saw ...