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His car? >> yes. >> reporter: john was 6'2". a foot taller than terra. as he pushed her, he began hitting her with a bag. something hard in it. >> it just felt like i was getting punched over and over again. >> reporter: but it wasn't that. there was a knife in the bag. cutting her. slicing into her. >> and i put my arm up with my
One thing they found especially alarming was yet another police report about dirty john. this one from just two years earlier and much closer to home. the police in laguna beach had arrested john meehan for stalking a woman, and they discovered he'd rented an office space in which they found zip ties, cyanide and two loaded guns. >> what did all that say to you? >> he might be a killer. and she has to get out of this. >> has to? >> has to. >> reporter: john had an explanation of course, even for that cyanide. >> he says he has multiple sclerosis, and that he kept the capsules around in case he...
Because that's what it's gonna come down to. >> reporter: he was arrested for making threats against tonia in june 2001, was convicted of menacing and put on probation. >> reporter: he wasn't the man she thought he was? >> that's exactly right. there was another version of john. >> reporter: dennis luken was a police detective back then. he investigated the source of those drugs tonia found in the cedar box.
Daughters, protective as usual, had no idea that their mother was a newlywed. the therapist debra had seen recommended that she keep her relationship separate from her family, but, of course, christmas was coming, and there were very important family traditions. like the one where terra would have her own special time with the nieces and nephews of her extended family. so they made a deal. john would stay in a different room, while terra had the kids to herself. this isn't just any moving day.
Then in march 2015, four months after john moved in with debra the sisters snooped around the balboa house and -- jackpot. they found a stash of paperwork john had left there. legal documents, police reports. >> reports that he's stalked other women and that other women had restraining orders on him. >> reporter: john's papers outlined a long criminal history. multiple arrests and incarcerations, drug convictions. alarming stuff. >> and debra was hesitant to believe the stuff. she believed john. >> reporter: even after her daughters told her what they'd found, debra went straight to