Page 7 - Paperwork John News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Like, finally over. >> reporter: john meehan's ex-wife tonia bales was working when she got the news. do you remember that moment? >> oh, yeah. it made me tremble. i was in the middle of a case, and it just -- it popped up on the screen as a notification. "john was killed." by the time i took the patient out of the room i was in tears. yeah. i wasn't in tears because he died. i was in tears because i had to tell his children. and that made me very sad to have to tell them. it was awful. >> reporter: her daughters, 16 and 21 at the time, said they regretted not being able to show him how well t...

John was in law school there. until he met her, that is, and said he had a kind of epiphany. >> he said, "you know, i'm not even sure i'll be happy being an attorney. i think i want to be a nurse anesthetist." and i think my jaw fell to the ground, because i thought he was, you know, a second-year law student. >> reporter: in fact, he wasn't. he had been kicked out. though he didn't tell her that. >> all the days of my life. >> reporter: so, in her blissful ignorance, she married him in her family's church in 1990. >> mr. and mrs. john meehan. >> reporter: and she helped put him through nursin...

Was from an inmate at the orange county jail. >> did you read the letter? >> i did. >> reporter: what was in it? >> it was talking about how lucky he was that he had found love, and that his life had turned around. and i'm thinking, "life had turned around?" hmm. so i questioned him, and he said that he writes and sends care packages to people in prison. >> reporter: sounded plausible enough to debra, but not to the sisters. especially not once their private investigator began reporting his findings on john meehan. >> they learned that he was not a doctor. he was not an anesthesiologist. >> re...

Fed up, told her suspicious daughters not to bother showing up for dinner. neither one of you? >> neither one of us. >> reporter: what was that like? >> really hard. >> reporter: hard for debra, too, but she needed her own life. she and john asked a counselor for advice. >> and the counselor suggested that i have rules for the girls. >> reporter: boundaries. >> the therapist said, "look, you have a right to be happy. this is your relationship. and john's position was this therapist is absolutely right. >> reporter: so debra weighed the options. listen to her family? or embrace what felt like t...

Thousands of miles away, this woman also had questions about john. >> i started snooping. and i found everything. >> and when she spoke up, that's when things got really scary. >> tonia, you enjoy your time left on this earth. okay? because that's what it's going to come down to. >> when "dateline" continues. alka-seltzer plus. now with 25% more concentrated power. nothing works faster for powerful cold relief. oh, what a relief it is! so fast! [ chuckles ] so, what are some key takeaways from this commercial? did any of you hear the "bundle your home and auto" part? -i like that, just not whe...