Dateline NBC - Season 35 - Episode 04: Malice Eng Sub - video Dailymotion

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Dateline NBC - Season 35 - Episode 04: Malice

Transcript

00:00:02tonight on dateline he says i'm so sorry but your dad has passed the coroner is telling me

00:00:09this is a suicide this is a suicide there's no freaking way my husband just shot his show i ran

00:00:18down the hallway i thought i was gonna lose my mom she was like don't go back in the bedroom

00:00:24this

00:00:24was your dad's wife yeah you see the handgun right there in his hand i mean it's obvious you didn't

00:00:29think his body needed another look any more testing any more anything no based on the information that

00:00:34i had at that time was that a mistake zero investigation zero autopsy open and shut we

00:00:39have pictures of what exactly happened in that bedroom it was painfully obvious the body had

00:00:45been moved you didn't have to be an expert to see that this crime scene was staged you have to

00:00:50admit

00:00:50that it does look suspicious i don't know what it looks like to other people i know he loved me

00:00:56and

00:00:56i loved him fire shot through my entire body my dad did not take his own life how does your

00:01:01family

00:01:02handle this we get to work it was ruled a suicide but who really pulled the trigger

00:01:08a family fights to uncover the truth i'm lester holt and this is dateline

00:01:22here's blaine alexander with malice

00:01:32time once it's gone it's the one thing you can never get back time with loved ones time spent waiting

00:01:41for answers the clock on this story for this family began on a saturday morning i want to talk about

00:01:48june 28th 2014

00:01:56okay

00:02:03all benny georgia a woman on the line with 9-1-1 she was frantic

00:02:17her name was susan embert she was calling about her husband jake

00:02:21i thought maybe he was cleaning his guns or something because he's always messing with them you know

00:02:33so i i didn't know what happened when you heard the noise did you immediately know it was a gunshot

00:02:39i knew it was a gunshot but i didn't know if it came from back there or where i just

00:02:42heard it was loud

00:02:55she was still on the phone when a truck pulled up to the house

00:02:59it was will embert jake's 17 year old son from a previous marriage

00:03:07he had been there earlier that morning and was coming back to spend the day with his dad

00:03:12turn my truck off

00:03:14and i can hear yelling

00:03:15susan comes out like just comes barreling out the house real fast she's on the phone she's yelling

00:03:20could you hear what she's saying

00:03:22just is discombobulated and i'm like what's going on

00:03:25and she was like don't go back in the bedroom

00:03:28you were trying to keep him away from the house

00:03:30to protect him

00:03:31you know from not seeing that

00:03:33sight

00:03:35don't go back there they said don't go back there don't touch nothing

00:03:37the ambulance is on the way

00:03:39i was like why

00:03:41and she wouldn't tell me why

00:03:42and eventually she just told she told me that

00:03:45my dad shot himself

00:03:47oh god

00:03:49what did you do

00:03:50i fell on the ground

00:03:51i think i blacked out

00:03:53i was very upset i was crying

00:04:05i remember

00:04:06i looked up

00:04:08well i remember susan

00:04:10saying that the police are here

00:04:13i remember i opened my eyes

00:04:15and

00:04:15the daugherty county police car pulling up the driveway

00:04:18will got on the phone with his older sister rachel

00:04:21she was 30 at the time

00:04:22he said calm as can be

00:04:27i'll never ever ever forget it

00:04:30i don't know how to tell you this

00:04:34instantly i'm thinking

00:04:35oh my gosh my little brother's about to tell me

00:04:38that he got his girlfriend pregnant

00:04:40because you could hear in his voice

00:04:41something was

00:04:43yes

00:04:43something was just off

00:04:46and he just paused

00:04:48he didn't say anything

00:04:49and i'm like

00:04:51just spit it out will

00:04:52and he said

00:04:56dad's dead

00:04:57and i

00:05:00have to get there

00:05:01i have to get to him

00:05:03i have to get to my dad's house

00:05:04jump in the vehicle

00:05:05don't stop at any red lights

00:05:07don't stop at any stop signs

00:05:10at the house

00:05:11daugherty county police officers were already inside

00:05:14there's blood on the floor right there

00:05:17as they surveyed the scene in the bedroom

00:05:19their conversation was broadcast over the county-wide police channel

00:05:23there goes the bullet right there too

00:05:27yeah right there in the wall

00:05:29there's a gun

00:05:30i haven't touched anything

00:05:32there's all this matter and stuff on that

00:05:34do we need to retain this

00:05:36the weapon

00:05:37i don't see why

00:05:39the coroner arrived next

00:05:41and had a look at jake's body

00:05:42he was still there

00:05:44when rachel pulled up to the house

00:05:46i get to my dad's house

00:05:48they have a very long

00:05:49dirt driveway

00:05:50so i park at the end of the driveway

00:05:52and i immediately jump out of the vehicle

00:05:54i'm stomping up

00:05:56the driveway

00:05:57my fists are

00:05:58balled by my side

00:05:59and i'm literally just stomping up the driveway

00:06:01i see officers

00:06:02up at the house

00:06:03i see susan standing out there up at the house

00:06:06and instantly

00:06:07i'm like

00:06:08what the f*** happened

00:06:09what the f*** happened

00:06:13it would not be the last time jake's family asked that question

00:06:17nobody ever asked you

00:06:19hey what did you see

00:06:20what happened

00:06:21you didn't think his body needed another look

00:06:23didn't need any more testing

00:06:25any more anything

00:06:25nothing went upstairs on in your head

00:06:28nothing did

00:06:30nothing

00:06:30there's blood splatter

00:06:32floor

00:06:33never cleaned up

00:06:35you basically have a detective's mind at this point

00:06:38no

00:06:39i just watch

00:06:40daylight

00:06:55jake and brooks sister yvonne lived 600 miles away in north carolina jake's daughter rachel called her

00:07:02She said, Aunt Yvonne, my dad shot himself, and immediately I thought he was cleaning his gun and it must

00:07:13have went off.

00:07:14So I started screaming at her and asking her, where is he?

00:07:20I just kept screaming, where is he?

00:07:25And she said, he's not here anymore.

00:07:32I felt like I left my body.

00:07:35I said, this can't be, it can't be.

00:07:41It was a cruel mixture of pain and sheer disbelief that Jake was suddenly gone.

00:07:47He had always been dedicated to his family.

00:07:49Did he have a philosophy or a special way that he lived his life?

00:07:54Yeah, you know, he just always put himself full force in anything.

00:07:58If he committed to something, he was going to just see it through.

00:08:01And that was just with everything.

00:08:04He was also a jokester who loved to make others laugh.

00:08:07So he would throw a joke in any situation?

00:08:09In any situation.

00:08:09No matter what?

00:08:10Yes.

00:08:10Even if it wasn't really appropriate?

00:08:12Yes.

00:08:13That part.

00:08:14But what really made Jake light up, his family says, being a dad.

00:08:19Jake wasn't Rachel's biological father.

00:08:21He married her mother when Rachel was just a baby.

00:08:24He was never, like, a stepfather or an adoptive father.

00:08:27Never.

00:08:27He was your daddy.

00:08:28He was my dad.

00:08:29Like, through and through and through my dad.

00:08:32Yeah.

00:08:32I love how you describe him because you talk about he was funny, but at the same time,

00:08:36he had this military, like, discipline about him.

00:08:39Oh, absolutely.

00:08:40Yeah.

00:08:40Definitely authoritative.

00:08:41You wanted to always remain on my dad's good side.

00:08:45Jake was an Army veteran and mechanic at a nearby Marine base.

00:08:48He was a guy's guy who, Rachel says, did his best to relate to his makeup-loving daughter.

00:08:55And then his son, Will, was born.

00:08:58I don't even know if my mom got a hold of him that day.

00:09:00I'm pretty sure my dad was like, my son.

00:09:03You know, I mean, he was just so over the moon.

00:09:06Immediate bond.

00:09:07Yeah.

00:09:07You guys were instantly best friends.

00:09:10Right.

00:09:10You know, like, most kids would try and get away from their parents as often as they could,

00:09:15but I always wanted to hang out with my dad.

00:09:18Jake loved taking his son to the racetrack.

00:09:21Cars had always been his thing since he was a little boy.

00:09:24His sister remembers a time Jake took the family Ford out for a spin when he was six years old.

00:09:30He had gotten in the car, in the driveway, and I guess he knocked it out of gear.

00:09:36So this man knocked on the door and told my mom, um, I believe that's your car across the street.

00:09:42It had rolled out of the driveway?

00:09:44Yes.

00:09:44Oh, gosh.

00:09:45But Jake acted like it was great.

00:09:47He was, you know, at the steering wheel doing his little thing and had no idea that he had done

00:09:51something wrong.

00:09:53Jake was the youngest of six and the only boy.

00:09:56You all must have doted on him like crazy.

00:09:59We used to tease and say that he had six mothers, five sisters and his real mother.

00:10:05Jake went from a childhood surrounded by women to a marriage of 26 years.

00:10:10When that marriage ended in divorce, Jake found himself without a woman in his life for the first time.

00:10:17He joined an online dating service and soon met Susan.

00:10:21She was 48, Jake 51.

00:10:24What was it about Jake that caught your eye?

00:10:27He was, uh, well, around my age and he was clean cut.

00:10:32I mean, you know, we just clicked.

00:10:33We clicked.

00:10:34We just had a good time.

00:10:35We didn't have to do anything.

00:10:36We could just ride somewhere and we had fun.

00:10:39She was a nurse.

00:10:40Um, you know, she was a good person.

00:10:43He was interested in her.

00:10:45So he was really going on about her.

00:10:48Just a few months into the relationship, Jake's health took a sudden turn.

00:10:53He had a heart attack.

00:10:55Susan moved in with Jake as he was recovering and she says very soon after he suggested they get married.

00:11:01I said, are you serious?

00:11:02And he's like, yes.

00:11:03And I was like, no, I'm not ready to get married.

00:11:05Were you surprised when he asked you to marry him?

00:11:08Yes, but I know he loved me and I loved him.

00:11:12Three months later, he asked me to marry him again.

00:11:15This time, the answer was yes.

00:11:17They married in a short courthouse ceremony in front of just a few family members.

00:11:22To Rachel, it all seemed too fast, but in a way, she could understand it.

00:11:27Sometimes when things happen, you know, like him having a heart attack, um, her being a nurse.

00:11:35Yeah, you probably would want that woman's touch, you know, around.

00:11:40That's what I would want, you know, I would want to be.

00:11:43Cared for.

00:11:43Yeah, absolutely.

00:11:45After recovering from the heart attack, Jake had a new health problem.

00:11:49He started having seizures.

00:11:51They checked him out and they couldn't find nothing wrong.

00:11:56He was having seizures.

00:11:57I didn't understand.

00:11:59Sixteen months after his first heart attack, Jake had another one and it was massive.

00:12:05Jake survived, but he started to have even more symptoms, stomach pain and nausea.

00:12:10At this point, Will, were you getting worried?

00:12:12Yeah, he started just getting sick and sicker and sicker and just wasn't getting better.

00:12:19He ended up, because he was so sick, having to remain out of work, which that was a first in

00:12:26his entire working life that he's ever missed so much work.

00:12:31His health problems led to financial problems and then another blow.

00:12:35His dog, Zoe, got sick and had to be put down.

00:12:39My dad was crying.

00:12:41He was upset.

00:12:42He said that Susan took Zoe to the vet.

00:12:47The vet said that she had distemper and that she needed to be euthanized.

00:12:51It was all too much, losing his health, his dog, and Jake's family could tell it was taking a toll.

00:12:59Soon, the normally upbeat persona was largely gone.

00:13:04Did you get the sense that he was trying to put on a brave face for you?

00:13:08I feel like he was trying to put it on for everybody.

00:13:10He was a tough guy.

00:13:12He was fighting.

00:13:14And, um, I think he knew that I would try to help him.

00:13:20Just didn't get the chance.

00:13:23Let me get some gloves and I'll get that gun removed for you.

00:13:26Now, June 28, 2014, after struggling with his health for a year and a half, Jake was gone.

00:13:33The victim, it seemed, of his own depression.

00:13:36You can see the handgun right there in his hand right there.

00:13:38I mean, I'm not no CSI kind of person or nothing like that, but, I mean, it's obvious, you know.

00:13:45An obvious suicide to first responders.

00:13:48At the scene, Susan was telling police about Jake's health struggles and how sad he had been.

00:14:01After assessing the scene, the coroner made it official.

00:14:05He documented Jake's gunshot as self-inflicted.

00:14:08Open and shut, it seemed, but not to everyone.

00:14:12What are you thinking at this point?

00:14:14Things are not adding up.

00:14:16Nothing is adding up.

00:14:32Susan Ember remembers the days following her husband's death as some of the hardest of her life.

00:14:38I thought he was going to be the one that, you know, you grow old together.

00:14:46Rocking, rocking chairs, front porch kind of thing.

00:14:49After that time, I, uh, I wasn't in my right mind for two months.

00:14:53I didn't think I was coming back.

00:14:55And my mom had to take care of me.

00:14:57This is Susan's daughter, Krista.

00:14:59Were you talking to your mom throughout this time?

00:15:02What was her state of mind then?

00:15:05She was, she was just crying.

00:15:07She was hysterical.

00:15:08She was devastated that her husband was gone.

00:15:11I knew that Jake was, was sad and, and stuff like that.

00:15:16But, like, you never think somebody's actually going to do something like that.

00:15:22Will certainly didn't think his dad was depressed enough to take his own life, and not on that day of

00:15:28all days.

00:15:29He'd seen his dad just that morning.

00:15:31They'd had coffee together and made plans to go to the racetrack.

00:15:35In fact, Jake's old car was set to be raced that very afternoon, a 1975 Firebird.

00:15:42It wasn't even a question.

00:15:43It was like, we're going to go see it.

00:15:45We're going.

00:15:46Because he loved that car.

00:15:47He did.

00:15:48I said, okay, um, I'm going to go pick up my girlfriend and come back, and then we can go.

00:15:54When you left, what was his demeanor like?

00:15:57Was he excited?

00:15:57What was, yeah.

00:15:58Yeah.

00:15:59Yeah, he was, I just expected him, you know, to go shower and get dressed, and we, by then I'd

00:16:05be back.

00:16:06That timing seemed especially puzzling to Rachel.

00:16:09She just couldn't wrap her mind around her dad ending his life then, when Will was on his way back

00:16:15to the house and would likely see the aftermath.

00:16:18The relationship that my dad and my brother had together was so, oh my gosh.

00:16:27When I say best dad award, I mean that in all capital letters.

00:16:31He was, he never, ever, ever knowing that Will was coming right back.

00:16:37I never would have done that to my brother.

00:16:42Confused and looking for answers, Rachel and Will went back to the house that night after the shooting.

00:16:48They went into the bedroom where their dad died.

00:16:50I went back there, saw it.

00:16:54The sheets were stripped off.

00:16:55The mattress was still there.

00:16:57There were two towels laid on top of the blood, but the blood was still soaking through the towels.

00:17:04And then, so my brother and I were just standing in the room, and we just started crying.

00:17:10Rachel tried to imagine what her dad had been thinking.

00:17:13It wasn't easy.

00:17:14My dad was sick.

00:17:17He was experiencing health issues.

00:17:19You know, I try to put myself in everybody's shoes.

00:17:23Okay, you're sick.

00:17:25All of this stuff is transpiring.

00:17:26And everything, I just kept being right to the back.

00:17:30There's no freaking way.

00:17:32She wanted more information from Susan, but Susan and her dad hadn't been married that long.

00:17:38Just over a year, Rachel didn't know her very well.

00:17:41And it was an emotional time for everyone.

00:17:44When Rachel and Will returned to the house the next day, the locks were being changed.

00:17:50Changing the locks on our home.

00:17:52Why?

00:17:53That part.

00:17:54Why?

00:17:55Why?

00:17:56That is, you know, I mean, the trauma makes you do weird things.

00:18:02But that was very bizarre.

00:18:05Also strange, what Rachel says happened when family members tried to talk to Susan about planning a memorial service.

00:18:12Well, we're not having a memorial service.

00:18:14That's what Susan says.

00:18:15Yeah.

00:18:16Well, why are we not having a funeral service?

00:18:19Well, because he doesn't have any family or friends.

00:18:21It was just us.

00:18:22It was just us.

00:18:23He's got a sister.

00:18:24Yes.

00:18:25Got tons of family, tons of friends, tons of co-workers.

00:18:28People who would want to remember him.

00:18:29Absolutely.

00:18:31Susan says Jake's family has it all wrong.

00:18:34She was planning a service, but they went ahead and organized one without her.

00:18:39They took it upon themselves, I guess, to have it before me.

00:18:42I was trying to get it together, but it was like they wanted it done right then.

00:18:46And did you go to that one?

00:18:47I did not.

00:18:48I wasn't.

00:18:48No, I did not.

00:18:49I wasn't invited over there.

00:18:50They didn't want me there.

00:18:51Did you feel that there was some contention between you and Rachel?

00:18:55I felt like something was going on, yes.

00:18:57I didn't know.

00:18:58I was not even in my right mind at that time, actually.

00:19:01I mean, I was really devastated.

00:19:04As the Emberts said goodbye to Jake, they were still in disbelief, maybe even denial about how he died.

00:19:11I remember my dad having a conversation with me about that and how strongly my dad was against suicide.

00:19:18He thinks that it's a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

00:19:22So you were very clear on where your dad stood when it came to suicide.

00:19:26Yeah.

00:19:26I asked this devil's advocate.

00:19:30There are unfortunately plenty of people who have mental health issues who mask it very well,

00:19:35who can appear happy but still go off and take their own life.

00:19:39Did you think that was a possibility?

00:19:41No.

00:19:42I didn't think so at all.

00:19:44Things are not adding up.

00:19:45Nothing is adding up.

00:19:47We were trying to figure out what really took place on June 28th.

00:19:55Jake's family made a decision.

00:19:57They needed someone to look at this.

00:19:59This is Yvonne Magnus, in reference to the death of my brother.

00:20:04Yes, ma'am.

00:20:19Like Jake's kids, his sister Yvonne just couldn't accept the official narrative of her brother's death.

00:20:25Did you believe that your brother had hurt himself?

00:20:28Oh, no.

00:20:29Instantly, I was like, no.

00:20:31Not even for a second?

00:20:32Not even for a second.

00:20:33She drove down from North Carolina and went to see the police.

00:20:37You're thinking, someone has to look into this.

00:20:39Yes.

00:20:40You're trying to rally someone to look into this case.

00:20:43Right.

00:20:44In fact, Jake's family pleaded their case to officers several times.

00:20:48And so, two detectives went to the house.

00:20:51They spoke briefly with Susan until she declined to talk further.

00:20:55But nothing changed.

00:20:56This is Yvonne Magnus, in reference to the death of my brother.

00:21:02Yes, ma'am.

00:21:03Yvonne recorded one of her follow-up phone calls with the detective.

00:21:06The evidence at the scene and the evidence that we have come across since then, there's

00:21:11nothing that would lead our agency to believe that it was homicide.

00:21:15So if it went wrong, then I guess it'll come back on me.

00:21:18You know, it is what it is.

00:21:19And I mean, I can't change what happened.

00:21:21You know, from the investigation, that's what we've determined.

00:21:25It's closed.

00:21:26Nothing.

00:21:27They can't do anything.

00:21:29You know, just in my short time of knowing you, Yvonne, I'm very sure that you are not

00:21:36one to be messed with.

00:21:39It's very clear that, you know, you don't take no for an answer.

00:21:42I don't take no for an answer when I believe that somebody either isn't telling the truth

00:21:48or something is very wrong.

00:21:50And you believe both of those things.

00:21:52Yes.

00:21:54A friend suggested Yvonne try a different approach, a private eye.

00:21:59Had you ever thought of that before?

00:22:00Did you know much about private investigators?

00:22:02No.

00:22:03I know for a lot of people that sounds like something you hear in a...

00:22:06It was like foreign.

00:22:07A movie or a TV show.

00:22:09Yeah.

00:22:09I had no idea what to do, where to find one, where to go.

00:22:12So she did what most of us would do.

00:22:15I was sitting in front of my computer and I actually typed, private investigators, Albany,

00:22:21Georgia.

00:22:22Just Googled?

00:22:23Just Googled.

00:22:25And I was crying so hard, I couldn't even see my screen.

00:22:27So I pointed to it and touched the screen.

00:22:30And when I did, I said Lee Wilson.

00:22:33I got the call.

00:22:34Lee Wilson, a former police detective with more than 20 years of experience.

00:22:40He's handled all kinds of cases, including suicides.

00:22:44It had been a month since Jake died.

00:22:46Lee met with his family.

00:22:48He listened and he agreed the case did deserve a second look.

00:22:52You know, your son's going to be coming back in an hour with his girlfriend and y'all

00:22:57are going to go to a planned event that day and you just walk in the bedroom and take

00:23:01your own life.

00:23:02It just didn't sound right.

00:23:04It didn't, but you know, it piqued my interest.

00:23:07But he says in his experience, law enforcement usually makes the correct call.

00:23:12So he took the case with no promises.

00:23:15You were pretty frank with him.

00:23:17You said, you know what, if my findings determine that he did die by suicide,

00:23:22you'll have to accept this.

00:23:24Yes, I tell him that, you know, I will call it like I see it.

00:23:28That's all we wanted.

00:23:30Investigate it.

00:23:32Investigate it.

00:23:33So Lee got started.

00:23:35First step, collect as many records as he could.

00:23:38I wanted to see the photographs.

00:23:40I wanted to see any crime, any lab reports, toxicology reports, police reports.

00:23:46I wanted to see what led law enforcement and ultimately the coroner to put on the death

00:23:53certificate that Jake died from the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

00:23:58But all those things that you mentioned, toxicology, measurements, all sorts of forensics, any of

00:24:03that stuff, was any of that done?

00:24:04No.

00:24:05The case file he got from police was thin.

00:24:08As far as he could tell, no detective had even shown up at the scene.

00:24:12The entire investigation took less than an hour.

00:24:17From the time the call came in until the last call to the radio operator saying they were

00:24:24clearing the scene.

00:24:25And processing a scene like that should typically take?

00:24:29Hours.

00:24:30Just zero.

00:24:31Open and shut.

00:24:32Called in as a suicide.

00:24:34Ruled as a suicide with zero investigation.

00:24:37Boom.

00:24:38Lee spoke to one of the first officers on the scene to find out what happened.

00:24:42Turns out, he was brand new to the force.

00:24:45That scene had been his first time responding to a death call.

00:24:50He explained to me that, you know, when he got the call, he thought in his mind that he

00:24:55was prepared for that scene.

00:24:57He admitted that he had watched videos in the police academy.

00:25:01He'd never seen a dead body?

00:25:02He had not seen a dead body, from my understanding, before that day.

00:25:08So he walks into that, having never seen a dead body, fresh out of police academy.

00:25:13And his comment to me was, Mr. Lee, I just wanted to get out of there.

00:25:18As for the more experienced officers.

00:25:21I'm not no CSI kind of person or nothing like that, but.

00:25:24Lee learned they didn't do much more.

00:25:26I mean, it's obvious, you know.

00:25:28Here's Lee talking to one of them.

00:25:30When you went into the bedroom, did you do any kind of investigative work or make any observations

00:25:38to determine whether it was suicide or not?

00:25:40I looked at the body.

00:25:42Of course, I saw the deceased with the gun in his hand.

00:25:47And they land back on his bed.

00:25:49And I just thought pretty much soon.

00:25:51It was quickly ruled a suicide based on their observations at the scene

00:25:58and the statement of Susan Ember.

00:26:01No one ever mentioned or discussed or considered, to your knowledge,

00:26:06that this could be something other than suicide, did they?

00:26:08No, sir.

00:26:09The coroner never ordered an autopsy.

00:26:12And Susan had the body cremated within 24 hours.

00:26:16There was so much that could have been and should have been done

00:26:21before determining cause of manner of death.

00:26:25He could have taken it back to the morgue.

00:26:28He could have cleaned the wounds there, taken measurements,

00:26:31checked for gunpowder residue on the hands of Mr. Ember.

00:26:36The coroner's role is especially frustrating to Jake's family

00:26:39because Rachel had pleaded with him at the scene.

00:26:42I said over and over, are you sure my dad did this?

00:26:45Are you sure my dad did this?

00:26:47Are you sure my dad did this?

00:26:49He could have taken that and said something to somebody.

00:26:53Are you sure?

00:26:54Yes.

00:26:55And said, hey, the daughter's out there questioning, you know, if we're sure.

00:26:59Nothing went upstairs on in your head.

00:27:02Nothing did.

00:27:04Nothing.

00:27:06Reinvestigating the case with so little evidence would be an uphill battle.

00:27:10But Lee says the responding officers did manage to do one thing right.

00:27:14And it would make all the difference.

00:27:17You knew that there was something wrong with those photos.

00:27:20Yeah, I knew that this had been manipulated by somebody.

00:27:37In homicides and suicides, there's a typical method of processing a scene.

00:27:42Collect evidence.

00:27:44Test forensics.

00:27:45Interview witnesses.

00:27:46In the case of Jake Embert, almost none of that happened.

00:27:50We asked the Doherty County Police Department about that, but they declined to answer our questions.

00:27:56My job is to determine the cause of the man and death of the individual.

00:27:59But Michael Fowler, the Doherty County Coroner, did agree to an interview.

00:28:03June 28, 2014, how long had you been the coroner?

00:28:08About a year and a half.

00:28:09What's your first step once you get there?

00:28:11First, I have to speak with the M.S.

00:28:12Then I need to go see the individual.

00:28:15I saw the gun laying beside him.

00:28:17Once I see him, then I pronounced the time of death.

00:28:20Then I go back out and see what's going on.

00:28:23So to get with the law enforcement.

00:28:25Then I listened for Ms. Embert talk for a while.

00:28:28Then I went back into the house trying to see whether the story was kind of lining up, what she

00:28:31was saying.

00:28:32Jake Embert's daughter, Rachel, kept saying over and over again, are you sure, are you sure?

00:28:36We're talking less than an hour at that point.

00:28:39How could you definitively say at that point that this is a suicide?

00:28:44There'd been no autopsy, the body hadn't been transported.

00:28:47Based on the investigation, to speak with the law enforcement,

00:28:52what they'll find is if in the process of interviewing whoever was there,

00:28:56I'll take that finding and come up with that determination.

00:28:59On law enforcement and on what Susan Embert told police?

00:29:03That's what I was basing it on.

00:29:04Jake Embert was cremated the next day?

00:29:06Yes.

00:29:07You didn't think his body needed another look?

00:29:09Didn't need any more testing, any more anything?

00:29:11No, I was pretty well comfortable at that time,

00:29:13based on the information that I had at that time.

00:29:15Was that a mistake?

00:29:17No, I don't think it was a mistake.

00:29:20Based on the information I have at that time, I'm basing it on that.

00:29:24Now, a month and a half later, private investigator Lee Wilson

00:29:28was at the Doherty County Police Department,

00:29:30picking up those photos from the scene.

00:29:32I'm waiting on the receipt for my payment,

00:29:35and I start flipping through the photographs.

00:29:39It wasn't much, but Lee was noticing things he thought investigators had missed.

00:29:44And I got to, like, the fourth or fifth photograph in the packet,

00:29:47and the police chief was standing in the hallway,

00:29:51and I said, Chief, you got a problem.

00:29:55You got a problem.

00:29:56I knew that scene had been manipulated.

00:29:59He took us through those photos on an iPad.

00:30:02What immediately stands out to you, if you can show me?

00:30:05Well, you note here his hand is laid over the gun.

00:30:08There's two fingers laid across the handle of the gun,

00:30:12but nothing on the trigger.

00:30:14The other thing is, if you look, the gun is tucked up under his right leg.

00:30:18So you're thinking, how would the gun have gotten under his leg?

00:30:23Yeah.

00:30:24Lee knew that with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head,

00:30:27there likely would have been blood on Jake's hand, but none was visible.

00:30:31Lee also noted the state of the bed around Jake.

00:30:34To him, it looked like Jake had been moved.

00:30:37There's a bath mat behind his head.

00:30:40Look at the sheets, the rippling of the sheets.

00:30:42Look how tight the sheets are over here.

00:30:44Look at the rippling there.

00:30:46What does that say to you?

00:30:47Somebody's trying to pull that body back up onto the bed.

00:30:51To test his theory, he asked a couple of colleagues to take a look.

00:30:55I had a couple of friends that were still in law enforcement

00:30:58that had done a number of death investigations,

00:31:01gave them no background, just sent the photographs,

00:31:04and both of them came back and said, that's a staged scene.

00:31:08Immediately they said that?

00:31:10Yeah.

00:31:10I just wanted to see if they were seeing what I saw.

00:31:12And they did?

00:31:13Yes.

00:31:15If the scene was staged, that meant Jake hadn't killed himself.

00:31:19He was murdered.

00:31:20And the only other person in the house was Susan.

00:31:25What had started as an unspoken suspicion in Jake's family was now out in the open.

00:31:31We all had our own kind of suspicions, but we were not talking about it to each other.

00:31:39So all of you had some sort of sneaky suspicion?

00:31:42Yes.

00:31:43Somewhere?

00:31:43Yes.

00:31:45In order to dig deeper and get access to Jake's records and property,

00:31:48Lee had Rachel petition the court to become executor of his estate.

00:31:53After Susan found out, she left Albany.

00:31:56There was a U-Haul at our house, and she was loading up everything,

00:32:00and then she booked it right to Florida.

00:32:01So when you go back in there, I mean, the house...

00:32:04Filthy.

00:32:06Unrecognizable?

00:32:06Filthy.

00:32:08Rachel's father had been dead two months when she recorded this video of the house.

00:32:13Today is August the 29th, 2014, at approximately 4 p.m.

00:32:21Never cleaned.

00:32:22Trash everywhere.

00:32:23And there were some things missing, too.

00:32:25Everything.

00:32:26Everything from washer and dryer were no longer there.

00:32:30Kitchen table, dining room set, no longer there.

00:32:33She had completely vacated the house.

00:32:36We had a plethora of childhood heirlooms, no longer there.

00:32:40You can blatantly see how it was left.

00:32:43Just left nothing but her trash.

00:32:45This house has never been disturbingly dirty.

00:32:49Susan had the bloody mattress moved to the yard, but the bedroom still had not been cleaned.

00:32:55There's blood splatter on the floor.

00:32:58Never cleaned up.

00:33:03More blood.

00:33:05This is where the bullet hit the wall.

00:33:10You can see that this dripping on the wall is possibly, I'm assuming, brain matter.

00:33:21The state of things confirmed to Jake's family something was not right.

00:33:26And to them, that something was Susan.

00:33:29Well, she wasn't who she portrayed herself to be.

00:33:46In the weeks and months after Jake Embert's death, his family grew more and more suspicious that his wife Susan

00:33:52was hiding something.

00:33:54They didn't like how she behaved after the shooting, but the truth was, they'd had issues with her even before

00:34:00that.

00:34:01Will lived with Jake and Susan part-time.

00:34:03He remembers lots of yelling, he says, by Susan.

00:34:06Susan, what would she say to your dad?

00:34:09He accused him of cheating all the time.

00:34:10Mm.

00:34:11Sees him a drink and pick fights.

00:34:13That had to have been a really difficult dynamic.

00:34:16I didn't understand it.

00:34:17I remember I was there for two occasions that the police showed up.

00:34:20Both of them were really unfounded.

00:34:22Nobody got arrested.

00:34:25Now they thought back to that rushed wedding at the courthouse.

00:34:28Will had expected to be the best man, but the wedding happened without him or his sister.

00:34:33Was it surprising to you that he got married without either of his kids there?

00:34:38Very.

00:34:41Yes.

00:34:43Rachel had long wondered what drew them together.

00:34:46Now she went looking for clues.

00:34:48I hacked into my father's Facebook account.

00:34:52I figured out the password, all these Facebook messages between my dad and Susan, pages upon pages upon pages upon

00:35:00pages.

00:35:01And then I get to a part in the Facebook message, right before they get married, where Susan says to

00:35:07my dad, she's not feeling well.

00:35:10Her stomach is hurting.

00:35:12She just took a pregnancy test and it came out positive.

00:35:18I was floored.

00:35:20That is what signified why my dad married her.

00:35:24Was she in fact pregnant?

00:35:25Oh, absolutely not.

00:35:27And once they were married, there was something else that bothered the family.

00:35:31They had always known Jake to be responsible with his money.

00:35:34But Susan took over the bills and soon they had serious financial problems.

00:35:39Jake called Yvonne for help.

00:35:41And I could hear her telling him to do it.

00:35:45This is on the phone.

00:35:46What was she saying?

00:35:48Ask her for money.

00:35:50Ask her for more money.

00:35:51And this is something your brother has never done?

00:35:54Never.

00:35:54In all your years?

00:35:56Never.

00:35:56Not ever.

00:35:58No.

00:35:59And then there was Jake's life insurance.

00:36:02They weren't even married six weeks when he said, Susan's pressuring me to change my life insurance beneficiary.

00:36:10To her?

00:36:11To her.

00:36:12And I said, Jake, you have an underage son.

00:36:17I think you should think about that.

00:36:19He said, I heard he did it.

00:36:20And he said, Yvonne, Susan will take care of Will if anything happens to me.

00:36:26Yvonne wasn't so sure, and she was apparently right to not trust Susan.

00:36:30My investigation showed there was actually a completely different side of this woman that

00:36:36the family didn't know, and they had strong reason to believe Jake didn't know.

00:36:42A different side meaning what?

00:36:44Well, she wasn't who she portrayed herself to be.

00:36:47Susan had been married three times before.

00:36:50Lee spoke with two of her ex-husbands.

00:36:52She used to drink, but I don't know what she does now.

00:36:55Right, but when y'all were married, it was the drinking.

00:36:57Oh, God, God almighty, was it ever?

00:37:00You know, she's always been messed up in the head.

00:37:02I mean, there ain't no two ways about it.

00:37:04She also had things in her background, about 15 years, where she had had encounters with

00:37:10law enforcement.

00:37:11What were those interactions?

00:37:13There was several arrests down in Florida.

00:37:16Her record includes convictions for trespassing, resisting arrest, and several DUIs.

00:37:21Susan and the kids were no longer speaking, but Rachel and Will told Lee everything they

00:37:26could remember about how Susan described the shooting that morning.

00:37:30So the first thing is, she's just getting out of the shower, heard the bang, went back

00:37:36there, found my father.

00:37:37Just out of the shower, but Will remembered how Susan looked when he pulled up minutes

00:37:42later.

00:37:43She looked like she was ready to go.

00:37:45I mean, she's fully dressed, makeup, hair, everything.

00:37:50Later that night, Rachel recalled Susan telling another version of what happened.

00:37:55She said, I was by the computer desk, heard the bang, I went back there, and I found your

00:38:01dad.

00:38:01And that's different from what she told you that morning.

00:38:03So different.

00:38:04Susan spoke with Yvonne that same night and added yet another detail.

00:38:09And she said, well, I was blow-drying my hair, and I went to the computer, you know where

00:38:15that is, right, Yvonne?

00:38:16And I yelled back to Jake, I'll be right back, I have to straighten my hair, and boom.

00:38:22Those small inconsistencies didn't seem like a big deal at the time, but now they seemed

00:38:27important to the family.

00:38:28At this point, what are you thinking happened?

00:38:30She killed my brother.

00:38:32Was the rest of your family thinking the same?

00:38:33Yes.

00:38:35By then, Susan had left the state.

00:38:38She wanted nothing to do with Jake's family or their search for answers.

00:38:42And then, the phone rang.

00:38:45This is Susan Amber.

00:38:47Susan would have her own story to tell.

00:38:50You were the only other person there.

00:38:52Susan, did you shoot your husband?

00:38:54No, I did not.

00:38:55Am I really hearing this?

00:38:56I could not pick my mouth up off the floor.

00:38:58And just when they thought it was over, I mean, typically, that's where the story ends.

00:39:04You might think.

00:39:19Private Eye Lee Wilson had been investigating Susan Embert for a couple of months when, out

00:39:24of the blue, he got a phone call.

00:39:28How did she know that you were even looking into her?

00:39:32Her words were that she heard I'd been asking about her.

00:39:35I don't know why I'm being investigated.

00:39:38They're asking questions about me and stuff.

00:39:40I don't understand why.

00:39:41If it's any questions, I'd rather not answer any because I haven't done anything.

00:39:45I could say that.

00:39:46As you talked to her, I mean, what vibe did you get from her?

00:39:49How did she sound over the phone?

00:39:50She was fishing, trying to figure out what I knew.

00:39:53Lee talked to Susan several times.

00:39:56Each time, she insisted she had nothing to do with Jake's death.

00:40:00Are you doing okay?

00:40:01Yeah, no, I'm trying to.

00:40:03But I don't know what you're wanting from me.

00:40:09All I know, my husband's death was June 28th.

00:40:13It was closed out that day.

00:40:15I don't know why he did it.

00:40:16She said she was grieving.

00:40:17I cry every single night, okay?

00:40:20Every other day about this stuff.

00:40:22And that all she really wanted from Jake's family was to be left alone.

00:40:26I'm trying to live all of my life and I'm trying to survive out here.

00:40:31That's all I'm trying to do.

00:40:32In each conversation, Lee prodded her for any bit of clarity.

00:40:35It would probably be a little bit easier if the family had some answers, too.

00:40:42You don't seem to feel it.

00:40:43I don't.

00:40:44That's what I'm saying, Mr. Wilson.

00:40:46I don't have an answer.

00:40:47And then she was done.

00:40:50It's 4.40 p.m.

00:40:52I'm sure she hung up on me.

00:40:54The phone calls didn't yield any new information about that morning, but Lee wasn't done digging.

00:41:01Jake's family pushed his investigation in an entirely new direction.

00:41:05They suspected the shooting was not the first time Susan tried to kill her husband.

00:41:11All of us kept coming back to the conclusion because of how sick he was,

00:41:17because of the only common denominator was when she entered his life and the rapid decline.

00:41:24Maybe it was a possibility that she could be, in fact, poisoning my dad.

00:41:30Poison?

00:41:31Well, as Jake's family saw it, it seemed the more Susan nursed Jake, the worse he got.

00:41:36There were the two sudden heart attacks, his serious GI issues, and that onset of unexplained seizures.

00:41:43Yvonne struggled to understand this new symptom.

00:41:46She recalled asking Susan, the nurse, about Jake's meds.

00:41:50I said to her, he shouldn't be having seizures.

00:41:54There's, there's not heart medicine that causes you to have seizures.

00:41:58Yvonne says even before her brother died, she started to question Susan's medical knowledge.

00:42:03I mean, you know, she said she was a nurse.

00:42:05I just didn't take that.

00:42:07I got online and researched it.

00:42:09Did you ever find any evidence that she was a nurse?

00:42:12No.

00:42:12In fact, my investigation showed that she had gone, registered to go to a nurse's aid school,

00:42:19similar to what they call a CNA in Georgia, but she didn't even complete that.

00:42:25It was Susan who administered all of Jake's medication, and Susan who cooked all of his meals.

00:42:31Around the same time, Jake's dog Zoe started having stomach problems, too.

00:42:35She started throwing up and going to the bathroom in the house.

00:42:39I mean, she, she was an older dog, but it just started happening.

00:42:45Like, older dogs, they start to kind of get incontinent.

00:42:47Was that happening there?

00:42:48Yeah, but it just, out of nowhere.

00:42:51Like, it took my dad by surprise.

00:42:53It took me by surprise when she started getting real sick.

00:42:55It was Susan who took Zoe to the vet to get checked out and returned empty-handed,

00:43:01telling Jake the vet had ordered she'd be put down.

00:43:04My personal belief is she was poisoning the dog, maybe perhaps testing some of her.

00:43:10I don't know whether it was or whether she just wanted to get rid of Zoe,

00:43:13but it shows her mindset.

00:43:15It doesn't surprise me that she killed Jake if she did that to that man's dog.

00:43:20This was just a theory.

00:43:22They would need forensic evidence to prove it.

00:43:25And at Susan's direction, Jake's body had been cremated the day after his death.

00:43:30But Yvonne had an idea.

00:43:32I said to Rachel, you need to go to the house and get Jake's hairbrush.

00:43:38And she said, what?

00:43:40She said, why?

00:43:41Because that's what she always does.

00:43:43Why?

00:43:44Why?

00:43:45I said, Rachel, just get it.

00:43:47Get a brown paper bag.

00:43:49Put the hairbrush in the bag.

00:43:50Don't tell anybody you have it.

00:43:51So you're directing her to take it and bag it for evidence?

00:43:54Mm-hmm.

00:43:55Pretty much.

00:43:56You basically have a detective's mind at this point.

00:43:59No.

00:43:59I just watched Dateline.

00:44:04Rachel played detective.

00:44:06She went back to the now-deserted house.

00:44:08She found one of her dad's brushes and handed it over to Lee.

00:44:12Jake's family saw themselves as investigators uncovering the truth.

00:44:16But if you ask Susan Embert, they were just reaching for the perfect scapegoat.

00:44:21They don't know me.

00:44:22I don't know why they're lying.

00:44:24I have no idea.

00:44:25You're maintaining that all of these people are lying.

00:44:45Susan Embert's story was entirely different than the one being told by her husband's family.

00:44:50She says when she and Jake first got married, their life was nearly perfect.

00:44:54I had a good husband and he had a good wife and I had a stepson that I loved.

00:45:02It was nice.

00:45:04Susan says she felt accepted by her husband's family and insists they were all invited to the courthouse wedding.

00:45:10She remembers Jake even moved up the date to accommodate their schedules.

00:45:15Will is saying that he had no idea that he would have been there.

00:45:18He wanted to be there and be his father's best man, but that he was blindsided when he found out

00:45:23after the fact.

00:45:25He knew the date that we were going to get married and he also knew the date was moved up.

00:45:29Are you saying that Will is mistaken?

00:45:31I think so, yes.

00:45:32There were some Facebook messages between you and Jake where you told him that you were pregnant.

00:45:39Did that play a role in the timing of your wedding?

00:45:42I never told him I was pregnant.

00:45:45That I know of.

00:45:46You don't remember Facebook messages that you sent to him saying you took a test, your stomach was feeling uncomfortable.

00:45:52Oh, yeah.

00:45:53I took a pregnancy test and it said positive, but I knew I wasn't.

00:45:56I didn't think I was pregnant.

00:45:57I didn't know.

00:45:59Susan believes Jake's family has been twisting her words.

00:46:03She denies ever telling them she was a nurse.

00:46:06You did not lead them to believe that.

00:46:07I told them I worked in the nursing field.

00:46:10Actually, I said the nursing field and the medical field because I have a lot of certificates and stuff like

00:46:18that in the medical field.

00:46:20And Susan says Jake had money troubles before they got married.

00:46:24It was only when his house went into foreclosure, she says, that he admitted it.

00:46:29He said that he used his money unwisely or, you know, didn't use it wisely that he would buy, like,

00:46:38him and his son, like, real expensive things like bows and arrows and guns and all kind of stuff like

00:46:45that.

00:46:45But he raised his hand and took blame for it, you're saying?

00:46:48Yes.

00:46:49That it was his fault?

00:46:51Yes.

00:46:51As you learned about this financial situation, did it have an impact on your relationship, you and Jake?

00:46:58Well, I mean, to me, I don't, I mean, I wasn't really, I was not really worried about it.

00:47:04I mean, I was worried to a certain extent, but I wasn't because I knew that with me and him

00:47:09together, we could work it out.

00:47:11We could get it worked out.

00:47:12They were inseparable, says Susan.

00:47:15And she claims it was Jake's idea for her to be the beneficiary on his life insurance policy.

00:47:20After all, she was his wife.

00:47:22He said he had this and that, and he needed to change it over to me.

00:47:26And I said, okay, well, whenever you want to do it, we'll do it.

00:47:29His sister Yvonne says that just within weeks of getting married, that you were pressuring him to change the policy

00:47:36so that you were the beneficiary.

00:47:38That's not true.

00:47:39Mm-mm.

00:47:40You never asked him?

00:47:42No.

00:47:43You never said pressured?

00:47:45No.

00:47:46Suggested?

00:47:47No.

00:47:48And then there was that day in 2014.

00:47:51She took us through her version of that morning.

00:47:54It was around 9 or 10 a.m., and she was getting ready for the day, she says, talking to

00:47:58Jake while he stayed in bed.

00:48:00We was just talking.

00:48:01Oh, we was talking about going to the races, as a matter of fact.

00:48:05He was going to the races?

00:48:06Yeah, we were going to the races.

00:48:08That day?

00:48:09That night.

00:48:09What was he saying about it?

00:48:11I was asking him if he still wants to go.

00:48:15Yeah.

00:48:16What did he say?

00:48:17He said, I don't know, probably, or something like that, you know.

00:48:20He didn't seem real excited, but...

00:48:22Susan told us she went into another room, and what she says happened next is yet another version of what

00:48:29she was doing when the gun went off.

00:48:31I was in the living room.

00:48:39I went to get my vapor cigarette, believe it or not.

00:48:42Yeah.

00:48:43My vapor cigarette.

00:48:44And I heard the gun go off.

00:48:45What happened then?

00:48:47I ran down the hallway, and I fell.

00:48:51Going down there, and the door was cracked open about that much.

00:48:53Take me back to that moment when you first saw Jake.

00:48:59I was ecstatic.

00:49:00I was...

00:49:03I thought I was going to lose my mind.

00:49:05I didn't know what to do, so I called 911 like I was supposed to do.

00:49:08I didn't know what to do.

00:49:09That's what I did.

00:49:10I called 911.

00:49:11My husband just shot himself.

00:49:14You were the only other person there, Susan.

00:49:16Did you shoot your husband?

00:49:18No, I didn't.

00:49:19Staged the room to look like a suicide.

00:49:21No, I did not.

00:49:25No.

00:49:27Did you poison Jake, Embert?

00:49:29No, I did not.

00:49:30Nope.

00:49:31I wasn't a poison somebody I loved.

00:49:34No.

00:49:35I wouldn't poison anybody.

00:49:37Did you poison the dog?

00:49:38No.

00:49:39If people were to look at the situation, knowing that it was just you, just him, you were in charge

00:49:44of his meals, you prepared the food,

00:49:46people would say that you had plenty of opportunities to put things in there, to poison your husband over a

00:49:53period of time.

00:49:55How do you explain that?

00:49:56I can't explain that because I did not poison my husband.

00:50:00I would not have done it.

00:50:01We all ate the same food.

00:50:03I have to ask, Susan, in our interview, in our conversation, you have repeatedly said that a lot of people

00:50:09are lying about you,

00:50:10from Jake's family, to his sister, other people.

00:50:15How is it that so many people are lying about you?

00:50:20I don't know.

00:50:23I don't know.

00:50:23I don't know why they're lying about me.

00:50:25They don't even know me enough to lie about me.

00:50:28But they don't know.

00:50:29I mean, I don't even talk.

00:50:30They don't know me.

00:50:31I don't know why they're lying.

00:50:32I have no idea.

00:50:33You're maintaining that all of these people are lying.

00:50:36No matter how much Susan declared her innocence, Lee Wilson kept working and finding what he says is proof she

00:50:43murdered her husband.

00:50:45He was so confident in his evidence that he presented his findings to the coroner and the district attorney, Greg

00:50:51Edwards.

00:50:52Edwards had his investigators pore over Wilson's work and came to a conclusion.

00:50:56And in my immediate opinion, you know, this was a staged crime scene and a homicide that needed to be

00:51:05prosecuted.

00:51:06Another major move, the coroner changed his findings on Jake's death certificate from suicide to homicide.

00:51:13Investigators tracked Susan down in Florida, the moment Jake's family had long been waiting for.

00:51:19She's going to get arrested.

00:51:20In February 2015, a group of investigators swarmed Susan's front door.

00:51:25They said, Georgia wants you.

00:51:27I said, for what?

00:51:28And they said, um, homicide.

00:51:31Susan was arrested on charges of malice murder, felony murder, and aggravated assault.

00:51:37That had to have felt surreal for you.

00:51:39It did.

00:51:40It was worth every minute to get to that point.

00:51:42But there was still a long way to go.

00:51:45Susan would go on trial and try to explain herself and her words to a jury.

00:51:50And what she would say would leave everyone in the courtroom stunned.

00:51:55Why did you tell the 911 operator that Jake Embert had sexually transmitted disease?

00:52:02I didn't say that.

00:52:20Four months after Susan Embert was arrested, the district attorney called Lee Wilson.

00:52:25There was news, and it was about that hairbrush Rachel collected from her dad's house.

00:52:30The DA's office had sent it out for testing, and the toxicology results were in.

00:52:37What did those results show?

00:52:38It showed that Jake had high levels of different pesticides.

00:52:44Indeed is the common name that we know it by.

00:52:47And there was an antifreeze.

00:52:48When you got those results, those lab results, what did that tell you about Susan Embert?

00:52:53She was a cold-blooded murderer.

00:52:56It's pretty hard to believe.

00:53:00And for a while, I blamed myself.

00:53:03But you know that wasn't your fault.

00:53:09I protected him his whole life.

00:53:13This time, I didn't.

00:53:20Most of the state's case was circumstantial.

00:53:23Now, the lab results gave prosecutors something they could sink their teeth into.

00:53:28The DA tacked on another aggravated assault charge related to the poisoning, in addition to murder.

00:53:34But there was delay after delay.

00:53:37You all have quite a waiting game ahead of you.

00:53:40Oh gosh, so long, yes.

00:53:42Four and a half years.

00:53:43Yes.

00:53:45In December 2019, the trial finally got underway.

00:53:49Jake, I'm going to kill himself.

00:53:50We're going to show you that that's not so.

00:53:52The prosecution laid out its case, arguing that Jake was poisoned before he was shot.

00:54:15If the state was right, and Susan Embert was, in fact, trying to kill her husband with poison, why shoot

00:54:22him?

00:54:22Lee Wilson pointed to the timing.

00:54:25Jake had an upcoming doctor's appointment.

00:54:27Where they planned to run some tests.

00:54:29And sooner or later, some lab report would have shown some sort of level in his blood or some of

00:54:35the tests that was inordinate.

00:54:37And they would have, in all likelihood, gone to exploring the poisoning aspect of it.

00:54:42So you're saying that she felt that she would have soon been exposed?

00:54:45It's my belief.

00:54:46You know, and I think he just wasn't dying quick enough.

00:54:50As evidence of her premeditation, the state called this man to the stand.

00:54:54Douglas Buckner, a fellow race car lover.

00:54:58About two weeks before Jake was shot, Buckner came by the house to buy Jake's Firebird.

00:55:03And at one point, he was alone with Susan.

00:55:05I was like, well, what's going on with Mr. Jake getting rid of his car?

00:55:09And she was like, well, he's not in good shape.

00:55:10He's not going to be here much longer.

00:55:12And he wasn't around for much longer because, prosecutors say, Susan shot Jake.

00:55:17Then she worked hard, they argued, to redirect investigators.

00:55:21The prosecutor played Susan's 911 call.

00:55:24He had two hard things on.

00:55:26He was tired of hurting.

00:55:27The DA asked the jury to listen carefully to this part.

00:55:30We got married about two years ago.

00:55:33And he, I found out he was gay.

00:55:36I didn't know this.

00:55:37And I didn't give a hard time.

00:55:38I said, you know, so long.

00:55:39He didn't just tell you what's wrong.

00:55:41Well, he was gay.

00:55:42And then he got these diseases and transmitted diseases.

00:55:46Jake Embert was gay and had transmitted diseases?

00:55:50What was Susan talking about?

00:55:52Susan Embert, within seconds, 30 seconds of starting the call, begins to lay out why Jake Embert supposedly killed himself.

00:56:03Unprompted.

00:56:04Unprompted.

00:56:05You know, he's gay.

00:56:06He has these diseases.

00:56:08And it shows premeditation.

00:56:10She had thought this out and was going to say that after having done the act.

00:56:15On the stand, Yvonne testified her brother was not gay and Susan was lying.

00:56:20Was he holding some secret that you didn't detect all the years you've known him?

00:56:27No.

00:56:28The prosecution brought up another apparent inconsistency in the 911 call.

00:56:33Susan told the dispatcher she didn't touch Jake.

00:56:36All right, ma'am.

00:56:36Don't touch him or anything, okay?

00:56:38Oh, sorry.

00:56:39But Will testified that when he saw her at the scene.

00:56:42I remember seeing her on her hand.

00:56:45It looked like blood to me.

00:56:48Susan's defense team had one clear message.

00:56:51The coroner's first determination was the right one.

00:56:54This was a suicide.

00:56:55The kind of death that can be hard to accept.

00:56:59Nobody can understand why he did it.

00:57:01They planned their counterattack to the state's narrative around Susan.

00:57:04They called her to the stand and asked her directly about that 911 call.

00:57:09Were you sincere at the time when you were having that conversation on the 911?

00:57:17I was very sincere.

00:57:20What state of mind would you describe you were being in?

00:57:24A bad state of mind.

00:57:26I was ecstatic.

00:57:28As for telling the dispatcher Jake was gay.

00:57:31I don't know why I said that.

00:57:33I had no proof that he was gay.

00:57:34She did testify that she and Jake were having intimacy issues.

00:57:39I asked him, I said, do you have another girlfriend?

00:57:42What prompted all that?

00:57:49Because our sex life went down and he didn't seem like he was interested in me anymore.

00:57:55I'm sorry?

00:57:56Our sex life went down and I didn't think he was interested in me anymore.

00:58:00During that call, you told the operator that Jake was gay and had transmitted diseases.

00:58:08Are either of those two things true?

00:58:11No.

00:58:12The transmitted disease, they had that wrong.

00:58:15I said he had PTSD.

00:58:17They said I said STD.

00:58:19No, it was PTSD.

00:58:21I have the 911 call.

00:58:22And I want to bring it up so we can listen to it together.

00:58:25Okay.

00:58:30But you said transmitted diseases.

00:58:32I said, no, I didn't hear that.

00:58:35I know I said PTSD.

00:58:37I thought that's what I said.

00:58:40Why bring up those two details?

00:58:42That he was gay and had transmitted diseases?

00:58:45Especially if you're saying now that you didn't believe that to be true.

00:58:49Why say that on the 911 call?

00:58:51Because that's the last thing I said to him before I walked out of the room to get my vapor

00:58:55cigarette.

00:58:58And I thought maybe it might have had something to do with why he did what he did.

00:59:02So you were...

00:59:03And I've had to live with that last words all these years.

00:59:08That's my last words.

00:59:10So in the moments before he died, you all were arguing...

00:59:15Who was arguing?

00:59:16I asked him a question.

00:59:17You asked him, are you gay?

00:59:18Yes.

00:59:19What did he say?

00:59:21He didn't say anything.

00:59:23That conversation was a new detail she never told the family or investigators.

00:59:28And I have to ask, in a situation like this, obviously details, granular details are important.

00:59:35The story that you told on the stand that you're telling me is different from what Jake's family

00:59:41says that you initially told them.

00:59:43Both Rachel and Yvonne say that they heard different versions of that story.

00:59:48Why are there differences in those details?

00:59:51Maybe they didn't hear the whole story.

00:59:53I don't know.

00:59:53Because that's the deep...

00:59:54That's how...

00:59:55That's what happened.

00:59:56But you're saying all along you've told one story.

00:59:59That is the story I told.

01:00:01The one I just told you.

01:00:03Susan never wavered on her innocence, telling the jury what she told us.

01:00:08She didn't poison Jake, and she definitely didn't shoot him.

01:00:11My husband committed suicide that day.

01:00:14But would this sway the jury?

01:00:16We, the jury, find the defendant, Susan Hembert.

01:00:19I mean, typically, that's where the story ends.

01:00:21You might think.

01:00:36It had been more than five years since Will Hembert arrived at his father's house on that June morning.

01:00:42Five years since Susan Hembert told him Jake was dead.

01:00:45Being in that courtroom, that brought you again into the same room with Susan for really the first time, almost

01:00:52since it happened.

01:00:53Right.

01:00:54That couldn't have been easy.

01:00:55Yeah, it was a very uneasy feeling.

01:00:57And now Susan's fate was in the hands of 12 jurors.

01:01:01They deliberated for less than an hour.

01:01:03We, the jury, find the defendant, Susan Hembert, count one malice murder guilty.

01:01:10Guilty of murder and aggravated assault.

01:01:13I mean, are there words to describe that moment for you?

01:01:16No.

01:01:17It was just, I can't use the word happy, I guess, but you're just glad to know that she's going

01:01:25to pay for what she did.

01:01:26Susan Hembert was sentenced to life in prison, with 10 years tacked on for the poisoning charge.

01:01:32I mean, typically, that's where the story ends.

01:01:36You might think.

01:01:37Not this time.

01:01:38While Jake's family finally tried to move on, Susan's daughter, Krista, could not.

01:01:44I felt like my entire being, my entire soul was shattered.

01:01:47Like, I just lost my best friend, my mom.

01:01:50I can't call my mom just to say, hey, anytime I want to.

01:01:53I have to wait on a schedule.

01:01:54I have to talk to her on a tablet.

01:01:56Like, I can't hug my mom.

01:01:58Susan assured her daughter it wasn't over.

01:02:01I knew one day, yeah, I'd be living, because I knew one day the truth would come out.

01:02:06I knew I'd be going home.

01:02:07I just didn't know when.

01:02:09She found a new lawyer to mount an appeal.

01:02:11There's been so many errors in this case.

01:02:13It was just, like, one after another.

01:02:16Defense attorney Jen Hyman was fresh out of law school when she took Susan's case.

01:02:21This was actually the first motion for new trial that I worked on.

01:02:25Hyman scrutinized every part of the case.

01:02:28The investigation, the evidence, testimony, even the jurors.

01:02:32So you just ran some of the names through Google just to see what popped up?

01:02:37Yeah.

01:02:38She found something, and it was big.

01:02:42One of the jurors had some criminal history.

01:02:45So you see this information, and you knew that you had found something major?

01:02:49Absolutely, yes.

01:02:50The juror was a felon.

01:02:51And while there is a process to restore rights to serve on a jury, that had not happened.

01:02:57And no one from the court or the district attorney's office caught it.

01:03:01That was grounds to overturn Susan's conviction.

01:03:04Should your office be taking a closer look, double-checking things like this when you're seating a jury?

01:03:10Yes.

01:03:10We now require documentation indicating they are not disqualified from serving as a juror.

01:03:16So we just double down on making sure that that's reviewed.

01:03:21An important fix, but too late for Jake's family.

01:03:25And the mistake was costly.

01:03:27Thank you, Lord.

01:03:29Thank you, Lord.

01:03:30Thank you, family.

01:03:30Thank you, attorneys.

01:03:32I love y'all.

01:03:34After more than four years in prison, Susan Embert walked out a free woman.

01:03:40They called me, and they told me that Susan was being released.

01:03:43And that is like, I was astounded.

01:03:46What do you mean she's being released?

01:03:47How do you even process this?

01:03:48You know, I'm angry.

01:03:50I'll be honest.

01:03:51Yeah.

01:03:52I'm very angry.

01:03:53How did this transpire?

01:03:55How?

01:03:56Jake's family felt the mistakes and wasted time had plagued the process from day one.

01:04:01And now, with Susan's release, they would have to start again.

01:04:05What do you even do with that news?

01:04:08Question the whole judicial system.

01:04:10Are you just thinking to yourself, there's this pattern of people just missing things, folks not doing their jobs?

01:04:18Exactly.

01:04:19Susan would have to stand trial all over again, this time with a new jury.

01:04:24But her new attorney had a plan.

01:04:26We immediately started working on the motion to get the case dismissed.

01:04:30On what grounds?

01:04:31So, it's a speedy trial violation.

01:04:34A lot of people are probably familiar with the fact that you have a right to a speedy trial, but

01:04:40most probably aren't familiar with how that actually works.

01:04:43The defense argued that now too much time had passed since she was first charged, a delay that violated her

01:04:50rights.

01:04:51And so, you're saying that because that felon was on the juror, that was thrown out, and it's almost like

01:04:58saying a trial never happened in the first place.

01:05:01It's exactly like saying that.

01:05:02And so, now you're starting the clock from back in 2014 when she was first charged.

01:05:07Exactly.

01:05:08The judge agreed the delay was unfair to Susan.

01:05:12It was a critical decision that meant she would not face another trial.

01:05:16All charges against her were dropped.

01:05:19It was amazing.

01:05:21Getting a murder case dismissed is, you know, an amazing feeling.

01:05:26It wasn't long after that ruling when we sat down with Susan.

01:05:30We've talked about you walking out of prison.

01:05:33You're out now on a technicality.

01:05:36What would you say to people who look at you and say, she got away with murder?

01:05:42What would I say?

01:05:44What would you say to those people?

01:05:46I'd say, no, I didn't, because I didn't do it.

01:05:49I got away with telling the truth.

01:05:51And that's what set me free.

01:05:53I didn't get away with anything.

01:05:55I know the truth.

01:05:56God knows the truth.

01:05:57And people that know me know the truth.

01:06:00Susan's family members were not her only supporters.

01:06:03Her ex-husband, Glenn Melton, also stood by her.

01:06:06Did you ever think that Susan is capable of murder?

01:06:10No.

01:06:12No way.

01:06:12No question.

01:06:14Ain't no question about it.

01:06:15Ain't no way she could do nothing like that.

01:06:17The DA's office wasn't done.

01:06:19It appealed the judge's ruling about the speedy trial violation to the Georgia Supreme Court.

01:06:24For Jake's family, another excruciating wait.

01:06:28I knew it wasn't over then.

01:06:32I knew we're going to probably have to start completely over.

01:06:37He was right.

01:06:39The Supreme Court sided with the prosecution.

01:06:42Susan Embert would stand trial again.

01:06:45Like, oh, yay, we're going to get her again.

01:06:48A retrial, but far from a repeat.

01:06:51Because the prosecution's case was about to take a huge hit,

01:06:55and the defense had a new plan of attack.

01:06:58It wasn't evidence.

01:06:59It was just fantasy.

01:07:00And it was just absurd.

01:07:01Fire shot through my entire body.

01:07:04Because you knew.

01:07:05This wasn't good.

01:07:06No, not at all.

01:07:21Susan Embert was headed to trial for a second time.

01:07:25Attorney Charles Cullen joined her defense team

01:07:27and examined all the evidence with fresh eyes.

01:07:30The whole poisoning theory just needed somebody to step in and say,

01:07:34wait a minute, is this possible?

01:07:36Is this reasonable?

01:07:37Does this make any sense at all?

01:07:39He thought the poisoning evidence was weak.

01:07:41Remember, Jake's body had been cremated quickly and there was no autopsy.

01:07:45So it was all based on the hairs found in Jake's brush, collected by Jake's daughter.

01:07:51The first part is you have to ask, was there a chain of custody on the hair, right?

01:07:56And there wasn't.

01:07:57It wasn't gathered by the police or anything like that.

01:07:59And the lab that detected pesticides and antifreeze

01:08:02had its license suspended after accusations of misconduct.

01:08:06So you're saying that evidence should have been nowhere near the first trial?

01:08:08Nowhere near.

01:08:09Because it wasn't evidence.

01:08:10It was just fantasy.

01:08:11And it was just absurd.

01:08:12The idea that she's poisoning him with DEET,

01:08:14like she's spraying insect repellent on the food for years.

01:08:19And you're saying that's just not reasonable?

01:08:21That's just not realistic?

01:08:22I'm saying that's not reasonable.

01:08:22That's not realistic.

01:08:23Just weeks before the trial began, the defense asked the court to drop the poisoning charge

01:08:29and exclude all evidence of poisoning from the trial.

01:08:33The judge agreed.

01:08:34A major victory for the defense.

01:08:37So this time around, poisoning wasn't even supposed to be mentioned?

01:08:42Yes.

01:08:43During the proceedings?

01:08:44Completely excluded.

01:08:45Anything suspecting of poisoning, mentioning of poisoning.

01:08:48When Susan Embert's second trial began in December 2025,

01:08:53the prosecution's case was whittled down significantly.

01:08:56This case is about the murder of Mr. Jake Embert.

01:09:02On the first day of testimony, the state called coroner Michael Fowler to the stand.

01:09:07This time, he sounded defiant.

01:09:09Does the Michael Fowler of today regret not ordering a medical examination of this body in 2014?

01:09:19Not certain.

01:09:19I was still standing on what I did on that part.

01:09:22It was gone.

01:09:22I shot one in the head.

01:09:23Okay.

01:09:24And now for the information that I received now about the hearsay, the antifreeze.

01:09:31No, sir.

01:09:32It was that word.

01:09:34Antifreeze.

01:09:35Hearsay, the antifreeze.

01:09:37Fire shot through my entire body.

01:09:40Because you knew this wasn't good.

01:09:42No, not at all.

01:09:44I have a judgment.

01:09:45And it stopped the proceedings in their tracks.

01:09:47Yep.

01:09:48What happened in the courtroom in that moment?

01:09:50Well, we made a motion for mistrial.

01:09:52The judge declared a mistrial.

01:09:54So the case is over for now.

01:09:59Rachel, furious with all the mistakes and delays,

01:10:02sent a scathing letter to the DA's office.

01:10:05I want to read you just a portion of this.

01:10:08Yes.

01:10:08Our father was murdered once.

01:10:11The justice system has destroyed us repeatedly ever since.

01:10:14This is not delay.

01:10:16This is not normal.

01:10:17This is not justice.

01:10:19It's not.

01:10:20Those are very strong words.

01:10:21And I mean every word of them.

01:10:23Every single word.

01:10:24The ball was dropped on so many different levels, whether it be from these government agencies,

01:10:34the corner, the judicial system.

01:10:36You were not supposed to mention poison.

01:10:38No one have told me, didn't tell me that.

01:10:40You had no idea.

01:10:41No one told me that I wasn't supposed to mention that.

01:10:43I'm standing on this.

01:10:44They did not tell me that.

01:10:46We asked the district attorney.

01:10:48He says that you all left him hanging out to dry on that.

01:10:52Well, I can only anticipate that maybe that might have happened.

01:10:58Maybe that did slip through the crack.

01:11:00So I can't say that that did not happen.

01:11:04One month later, both sides were back in court, this time for trial number three.

01:11:10Stay.

01:11:11The DA's office knew it was time for a new approach.

01:11:14Dowdy White was assigned as lead prosecutor.

01:11:17This case touched everybody in the DA's office.

01:11:19At some point, every single person worked on this case.

01:11:23This defendant intended to kill Jake and stage it as a suicide.

01:11:30The prosecutors knew they had to do more with a lot less evidence.

01:11:35And that included getting the jury to focus on Susan's potential motive.

01:11:39Mr. Buckner.

01:11:41Good morning.

01:11:41Jake's friend, Douglas Buckner, testified again.

01:11:44And prosecutor Guy Terry asked him to tell the jury about something new.

01:11:48Did you receive any late night communication?

01:11:52Off and on, I received a text that had some content in it.

01:11:56She, in fact, sent Buckner semi-nude and nude photographs of herself.

01:12:02Oh.

01:12:03And I finally told her that day, I was like, listen, when I see Mr. Jake Saturday, I'm going

01:12:07to be showing Mr. Jake all the texts.

01:12:09The prosecution said Susan was worried that if he showed Jake the texts, Jake would divorce

01:12:15her.

01:12:15Jake finds out about what she's doing with Mr. Buckner.

01:12:21He's going to kick me out.

01:12:23And the prosecution said Susan didn't want a divorce.

01:12:26She wanted Jake's money, specifically that life insurance policy Jake had signed over

01:12:30to her.

01:12:32After his death, Susan received a payout, but Jake's children never got a dime.

01:12:37However, prosecutors Doughty White and Guy Terry say the most important part of the case

01:12:42was the crime scene analysis.

01:12:44The whole theme of the case was showing that suicide is not a reasonable option here.

01:12:49We had to focus on the crime scene.

01:12:53The only solid evidence remaining from the crime scene?

01:12:56Those photos.

01:12:58These pictures are absolutely crucial.

01:12:59They were absolutely critical in the entire analysis.

01:13:03Prosecutors say the photo of the gun in Jake's hand was most telling.

01:13:07Given the power of a .45 caliber, the gunpowder in there, you're going to have a gun that kicks.

01:13:13Or you're saying it's likely that the gun would have had so much kick, it would have just

01:13:16flown out of his hand.

01:13:16It probably would have flown out of his hand and ended up on the ground over here.

01:13:20Another critical detail, the gun was found in Jake's right hand.

01:13:25So this is Jake's, you know, Jake's right hand.

01:13:29Jake's left-handed.

01:13:30That was new information in trial number three.

01:13:34If a person is going to commit suicide with a firearm, that's arguably the most important

01:13:39shot that person's ever going to make.

01:13:41Do you make that shot with your non-dominant hand?

01:13:43A forensics expert confirmed what private investigator Lee Wilson had noticed about the bed.

01:13:49This body appears that it has been moved.

01:13:53Are you able to conclude that this scene was manipulated, staged, and altered to appear

01:14:00as if it was a suicide?

01:14:02It appears that way, yes.

01:14:04It all added up, the prosecution said, to one thing.

01:14:08Jake's death was not a suicide.

01:14:11Every element of murder is met.

01:14:14But Susan's defense team had another explanation.

01:14:18Something about Jake that even those closest to him didn't know.

01:14:23Were you aware that he's seeing a psychiatrist?

01:14:26No.

01:14:41For more than 10 years, Jake's family and prosecutors had fixated on the botched police investigation.

01:14:47They believed that if the case had been handled differently, Susan's guilt would have been clear

01:14:52from the start.

01:14:53But defense attorney Charles Cullen didn't see it that way.

01:14:56What would have changed for your client had there been a thorough police investigation?

01:15:01She would have been exonerated.

01:15:02They would have been able to say, no, we did an autopsy.

01:15:06Here's what we found.

01:15:08They could have said, you know, we tested her for GSR.

01:15:11There's no GSR on her.

01:15:13There's only GSR on him.

01:15:14And the problem is that, you know, once you don't do that, all that evidence is gone,

01:15:19right?

01:15:19All that evidence is lost.

01:15:20There will be no evidence that rules out suicide.

01:15:24As for the left-handed Jake being found with the gun in his right, Cullen said plenty of

01:15:29people shoot with both hands.

01:15:31Like many other people who are either ambidextrous or own guns that are not altered to accommodate

01:15:40left-handed shooters like Jake Embert, he was capable and possibly even preferred shooting

01:15:46with his right hand.

01:15:47Talking to his family, all of them say that they have never seen Jake shoot a gun with

01:15:54his right hand.

01:15:54Why would he choose to put the gun in his right hand to take his life?

01:15:59So I think that it's important to remember that this family believes 100% that Susan Embert

01:16:10murdered him.

01:16:11And I think that as the case has gone on, sometimes memories can change a little bit to sort of

01:16:19fit what you need them to fit.

01:16:22He also said that Susan may have mixed up words and details, but it wasn't because she was

01:16:28guilty.

01:16:29This is a person who kept saying, you know, I was ecstatic that day.

01:16:35I was ecstatic.

01:16:37I was ecstatic.

01:16:38And she means hysterical, right?

01:16:41So this is someone who confuses words, mixes things up.

01:16:45The defense maintained that the most logical explanation for what happened to Jake was also

01:16:49the simplest.

01:16:50He was depressed, maybe more than his family knew.

01:16:54If you would just stand up and raise your hand.

01:16:56Jake had been a patient of Dr. Bruce Houston for more than four years.

01:16:59He was also prescribed fluoxetine, fluoxetine?

01:17:05Prozac.

01:17:06That's okay.

01:17:07That's also known as Prozac.

01:17:08Prozac is also an antidepressant.

01:17:11It's similar to Lexapro.

01:17:13It's an SSRI.

01:17:14Were you aware that he's seeing a psychiatrist?

01:17:18No.

01:17:19Were you aware that he was being prescribed Lexapro?

01:17:23No.

01:17:24Prozac?

01:17:25There is such a stigma on mental health, but we all need a little bit of help sometimes,

01:17:31and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

01:17:34Hey, y'all.

01:17:34I know.

01:17:35That's exactly the point Prosecutor Dowdy White tried to make during closing arguments,

01:17:39with a surprising admission of his own.

01:17:41Ladies and gentlemen, I take an antidepressant every day.

01:17:48Does that mean I'm suicidal?

01:17:51No.

01:17:52Of course not.

01:17:53It was a pretty strong way to drive home this point that this medicine that the defense

01:17:59has brought into the equation is a non-issue for Jake.

01:18:02Susan did not testify in this trial.

01:18:05Her defense focused on what they said the prosecution was missing.

01:18:08Ask, did they prove murder?

01:18:14They want you to just plug or ignore these holes in their case.

01:18:23Susan's fate was once again in the hands of the jury.

01:18:27Her daughter, Krista, was confident.

01:18:29You're supposed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that somebody committed a murder or somebody

01:18:34committed a crime, and they couldn't do that.

01:18:37After a couple of hours, the jurors went home for the night.

01:18:41And I just asked that God give them the clearest hearts and the clearest minds and the cleanest

01:18:47eyes.

01:18:47And when they returned the next morning, they have a verdict.

01:18:51A decision.

01:18:53Count one, now it's murder, guilty.

01:18:56As to count two, felony murder, guilty.

01:19:00What did you feel when you heard the jury return that verdict?

01:19:04Like a weight lifted off my shoulders.

01:19:0612 days later, Jake's family returned to Albany for one final day in court.

01:19:12Susan's sentencing.

01:19:14There are no words that could describe the pain that I feel inside.

01:19:17The same pain that I've had since June 28, 2014.

01:19:22You remember that day, don't you, Susan?

01:19:24While nothing can undo what's been done, accountability matters for my brother, for my family, for justice.

01:19:33So no other family ever has to endure what we have at the hands of pure evil.

01:19:42Susan was sentenced to life in prison.

01:19:44She's already filed a motion for a new trial.

01:19:48It was clear that just getting up there and talking was hard.

01:19:51Well, it's hard when she's looking at you and you know what she did.

01:19:58And up until this point, whenever I looked at her, she wouldn't look at me.

01:20:01Did she look at you today?

01:20:03She did.

01:20:03What did you see in her eyes?

01:20:05Nothing.

01:20:07Nothing.

01:20:08After 12 years, does this feel like justice?

01:20:11From the judicial aspect, yes.

01:20:14We're forever broken.

01:20:15You know, the prosecutors have said that this case would never have gotten to this courtroom if it weren't for

01:20:20you.

01:20:21Well, I mean, I appreciate the recognition, but it was just a lot of trying to undo what was wrongly

01:20:31done in the beginning.

01:20:32And it culminated today with this sentence.

01:20:36But getting to this day had been a long process through a system that the family says caused years of

01:20:42frustration.

01:20:43It's the coroner's fault.

01:20:44It's the investigating officer's fault.

01:20:46It's the on-call detective that didn't show up's fault.

01:20:49It's the court's fault for not vetting their jurors better.

01:20:52That's the justice system's fault.

01:20:55It's them not doing their job.

01:20:58Will was just 17 when his father died.

01:21:01In the years since, he served in the Army, got married, and now he's chosen to be part of that

01:21:07very same justice system as a police officer.

01:21:11I'm not going to do my job the way that they did theirs.

01:21:15More times than not, it is probably somebody's worst day.

01:21:18So, they need you to be 100%.

01:21:22So, that's what I, that's what I give them.

01:21:25When you go to calls like that, that's always in the back of your mind?

01:21:30Always.

01:21:31What do you think your dad would say to know that you're a police officer now?

01:21:34I think he'd be proud.

01:21:35I'm sure he is.

01:21:39A final note this evening.

01:21:42We cover these kinds of difficult cases every week.

01:21:45During our Olympic break, one especially hit home for all of us.

01:21:50The disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, Savannah's mom.

01:21:54Investigators are still desperately seeking clues.

01:21:57A reminder that anyone with any information can call the FBI's tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI.

01:22:05Our hearts are with Savannah and the entire Guthrie family.

01:22:10That's all for this edition of Dateline.

01:22:12We'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 central.

01:22:15I'm Lester Holt.

01:22:17For all of us at NBC News, good night.

01:22:20I'm Lester Holt.

Dateline NBC - Season 35 - Episode 04: Malice Eng Sub

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