and this is dateline! this is a tragedy on top of a tragedy now. it happened so quickly. their parents in the backyard spa. their mom in trouble. my dad just panicked. a sudden slip. a fatal fall. you re losing your mother. you re watching her go right in front of you. someone else was watching her. a curious neighbor. it was scary. the look on his face was almost undescribable. what had she seen? was this drowning really an accident? she s 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. he s crying and we re crying. he said, they think i hurt mom. three daughters stand by their dad, and one prosecutor stands firm. he s 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 a young woman peers into her neighbor s yard and sees something for a few mysterious seconds, a
a sudden slip, a fatal fall you losing your mother, watching her go right someone else was watching her too, a curious neighbor. it was scary. the look on his face was almost indescribable. what had she seen? was this drowning really an accident? she s got a huge gash on her head. consistent with just falling down. a husband and father is suddenly under suspicion. who is crying, were crying. he said, they got three daughters stand by their dad, and one prosecutor stands firm. he s holding his wife of almost three decades under the water and justice for christie hall. was it murder? hello, a young [inaudible] yard in 1 million and the moment it s unsettling. 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 we know the truth. and we know everything that happened. how do we know what we know? emotionally unsatisfying not to have that answer. so it is. even if w
A woman peers into a neighbors yard and sees something for a few mysterious seconds a man, a woman and a moment thats unsettling. What she saw and what she. What had she seen . 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 d
have seen it. and i think that s what they truly believe in their hearts. this weighs on my greatly. but my job is to get justice for cristi now it was up to a jury to decide, after six days of testimony, two days of deliberation, they couldn t. it was a deadlock. the judge declared a mistrial. chris hall walked out of court with his family free, but not quite in the clear. and nothing at all like a victory for the hall daughters. what was it like to get that hung jury? what did you think then? that was tragic. that was devastating to us. you expected a not guilty verdict? oh, yes. not a doubt. deputy d.a. burke strunsky was disappointed too. he was also determined to retry the case. but first he sent his investigator on a mission to explore the life and marriage of chris hall. and what do you know. in idaho, where hall had been a disgraced police chief, the investigator uncovered a startling accusation.
prosecutor. half the family was convinced he was innocent and half was convinced he wasn t. that s hard to do when you have a big family and you all have to be together once in a while. when it involves a member as loved as cristi was. exactly. does that explain why this kind of group of people in the family decided to just let justice take its course? we talked about it quite a bit. i think so. you ve got to know when to show up sometimes and when not to show up, just to keep what s left together of the family as together as you can have it. thank you so much for coming. when it was over, hall convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life, some of cristi s relatives met with prosecutor strunsky and thanked him. thank you for putting him away because he is a murderer. and the hall daughters, having lost their beloved mother, fought to save a father they adored.