Deadly Swagger

This month, Demi Lovato is my guest.

“The global superstar tells me that she is the happiest she's ever been right now.”

But getting there, it wasn't simple. Demi opens up about starting in Hollywood young and why she now thinks she may have started too soon. She talks about recovery, her new marriage, and the deeply personal reason behind her new cookbook.

The drink is always about the journey to the top, and this was an honest conversation about

what that takes. Hope you'll listen, and follow the drink wherever you get your podcasts. She was this tall, beautiful, blood. They were always joyful together as a couple. They were worth quite a bit of money.

A multi-million dollar fortune that they made. The news is on, and I heard murder and like Tahoe.

“There was blood on all the mirrors on all the banities on the bathtub.”

This was a very personal targeted attack. It wasn't shocking to me that they've had a list of enemies. She was in 22 lawsuits. Good lord. Who would gain from this?

Well, clearly the two daughters. Samantha was a big part of their life.

We always joke around that we're like a cripple.

Reading all about it, I was like a blow. It was middle of summer, and I watched a male run up the street, wearing full sweats with a hood on. He was hiding in the house for about three hours. They see these people who look like they have it all, but you never know what your fate

is going to be. A charismatic couple, living a life of luxury, turns out they were also rich in enemies. I'm lester-holt, and this is "Date Line." Here's Keith Morrison with Deadly Swagger. Lake Tahoe It's one of those bucket list destinations for people around the world.

“As setting so sublime, Mark Twain wrote, "Debree the same era as the angels you must”

go to Tahoe." You knew where of he wrote. If any place could be acquitted with heaven on earth, then surely it is Tahoe. Snow capped mountains above. Crystal clear waters below.

It is where people go to find peace.

The lucky ones call this home, never want to leave.

Though once upon a time, he was waiting inside that house. In the very heart of this paradise, then multiple gunshots firing. The question of leaving was in the choice. It rejoined the fifth, 2021. 9-1-1 call was recorded at 9-26 p.m.

The 9-1-1-1-1-1-1 can be a miracle. What was that? Who was that? The 9-1-1 operator just couldn't tell, but it didn't sound good. So they dispatched the fire department.

Gary Nelson was a captain and a paramedic. As we know, is there a possible medical or some type of situation happening, but we don't know what it is. We pull in front of the house, you see behind me with lights on. Here, the home of a retired couple named Gary Spore and Wendy Wood.

The front door was unlocked. The first responders walked upstairs to the living area. The dogs are moving back and forth. They're just wound up. So we all fired a department with no response, and there's a gentleman laying on the couch.

So look like he was sleeping. His arms were crossed. His legs were crossed. His feet were up on the table or an ottoman. And the TV was on, like he was watching the news.

And we come over behind him, not to start aluminum, and we're like tapping on the shoulder

And yell it loudly. Fire department, sir. No response.

“And that time we look over and my partner looks at him to go, "I don't think he's breathing."”

At that point, we check a pulse, we don't get a pulse.

We look across at another section of the couch, and we notice there's blood, and there and the floor behind the couch, show casings, and we notice a blood trail leading around the back of the couch. And the dogs that were very agitated, they kept coming between us and back into a master bedroom.

They'd go back and forth, they'd go back and forth. So we're like, "Okay, this doesn't seem right. We work into the master bedroom, and the master bedroom, we turn on and lights in there, nothing obvious." So we go around the corner, and we turn on the light in the master bathroom, and that's

where we find a female patient.

“It was Wendy, Gary's wife, covered in blood, as were the mirrors, the vanity, the bathtub.”

And Iphone speckled in blood, was by this sink. Wendy had held on to it long enough to call 911. She was alive, but barely. She would only give one word answers. She would say yes, no, and she was the, the believe the paramedic when he asked her name.

She was able to give her name, and that was it. He was asking where you assaulted, where you shot, you know, does she have, you know, obviously bleeding from the head, obviously bleeding from the arms. They called in a helicopter, flew her to a trauma center in Reno, 50 miles away, did all they could to keep her breathing.

And still middle of the night, plastered county detective Daniel Meyer got the call. It was going to be his day off, not anymore. What's it like for you and for the family when I mean presumably make plans for when you're off? And sorry, I have to wait, I got to go.

It's really hard. My kids are older a little bit older now, 13 ageers, so now they understand it. My wife's really good with it. She knows the kind of when it happens, it's something we have to go do with the thing like that old days off and old bets are off, right?

All days off, all sleep is off, and we go pretty much all in on it until we're finished. Investigators at the scene filled him in when he arrived. We had a male that had been shot in the head, and we had another victim, the wife, the female that was found also shot. We still didn't know the status if she was going to make it through the surgery, or if

we're going to have a double homicide at the time. And then Detective Mired tried to work out, but must have happened. It appeared that after her husband was shot and killed where he was sleeping, that she was most likely woken up during the shots and had put her arms up in a kind of a defensive kind of posture trying to try to get herself into safety.

No surprise, the search of the house and property turned up no suspect, long gone, of course, but whoever it was, clearly had one purpose in mind, there was no sign of forced entry, there was no sign, then a fight or anything in its suit. It looked eerily normal, minus obviously the, the personal destruction to Gary and Wendy.

“Now who, in this paradise on earth, would want to do a thing like that?”

You knew the whole damn crime. And yet you knew nothing. Exactly strange. We had absolutely no idea who this individual could be. So she must have had a reputation around town.

And not a very good one.

We're like a frapple, because he always complains, I guess, two eyes.

I've got to be challenging because we don't have much time, I have to tell you. The fear spread at the speed of news, neighbor to neighbor, around the wealth and crested shores of Lake Tahoe, murder, execution style, that Wendy survived the neighbors heard was something of a miracle, though as the doctor has told investigators, "continued survival, there's no sure thing. Did you think maybe she can tell us what happened?"

We were praying she would, we had all of the nurses waiting to give us a phone call the moment she woke up, and we're praying, but not hopeful. We knew the severity of her injuries, the likelihood that she would be able to was probably not very high. Everything about this seemed against the odds, starting with the location of the shooting, a multi-million dollar Lakefront home and one of the safest neighborhoods in Lake Tahoe. Michelle Bandoor covered the case for Casey R.A., the local NBC affiliate.

You know, you maybe hear someone falling to their death while hiking, you know, or boating accident, but a crime where someone kills another person, it just unheard of in Tahoe. I was standing in my kitchen, making dinner and the news is on. Detectives identifying the victim and then the next word they said was Gary Spore, stop me dead in my trucks.

“I just couldn't believe it, just shock is all I can remember of just what, you know, these people made a lot to me.”

Judy Muir, and Lisa Fernandez, once worked for Gary and Wendy, who were with him almost a decade years and years ago. Gary and Wendy were my favorite owners of that place ever. The place was the copy house of Prince Shop in Sacramento. Gary and Wendy bought it in the 1990s, and Gary and Wendy were more than just bosses. They were better.

Wendy was such a presence. She made such an impression on me as a female. She was Wendy Wood. She was not Wendy Spore, and at that time in the 90s, that made an impression on me of like, wow, she's so independent. There's attitude for you. And she, she was this tall, beautiful blonde, and she was so confident. And Gary, absolutely dashing.

Hi, guys. He drove a cool little portion, which again in my 20s, I thought that was so neat. It's very friendly. And he was a very good-looking man. Yes, very nice. Here they were brimming with charisma, and yet.

I never felt like she looked down on us or treated us like the hell.

I always felt like they just treated us like we were part of their family. Give them presents, perfumes, steak dinners, free weekends at their ski house. They would do things like that for all of us. They were so generous. With their employees, and especially their daughters, Erin and Adrian. I am funny, Gary.

They were our lessons and the different things the girls like to do. But Gary and Wendy could afford to be generous because they were rich as John Ward, who acted as their local attorney a few times, knew well.

“When he and Gary had real estate, holdings, and California, and I believe in Washington.”

By 2021, their time was their own, and they loved skiing and boating and spending time with grandchildren. In fact, the very day Gary was shot, they had gunned boating with the grandkids and their daughter Erin. She lived in nearby Reno, with her husband, a former Major League baseball player.

Erin was an equestrian, and had a stable in the Reno area. Younger daughter Adrian, at her boyfriend, lived about three hours away from Tau, life had been good to Gary and Wendy, but picture perfect, or maybe not.

The family didn't always get along, there was tension between the sisters, and Wendy with

her strong personality, often fought with their daughters. Around the lake, Wendy also butted heads with neighbors, so much so that local prosecutor Christopher Catran was already familiar with Wendy. She was either named as the plaintiff, or the defendant in 22 lawsuits. Good lord, so she must have had a reputation around town.

And not a very good one. Gary often backed up his wife in these disputes, had the couple's neighborhood battles made

“them a target, or their money, or was there something in their past?”

Because this certainly wasn't some random violent thief, as Detective Myri can plainly tell.

One of the first things that they say was at a burglary.

Did somebody go into steal something and counter the owners and shoot them and then flee? That was our first, one of at least my first thoughts, but there was no signs of any burglary. The normal things that we'll see in burglaries, with the drawers being pulled, or things being disheveled inside of bedrooms, none of that was present during this. And the fact, nothing was taken. I think if anything could have been as you could figure out in any way.

Nothing was a first responders code. There was even a very high price tennis bracelet that was not taken that was left right where Wendy was shot. Burglary wasn't emotive. They'd piss somebody off and that was that. It got killed. It was a very, very personal and very intentional act.

Detective Myri was about to get some help with his investigation. There were security cameras inside and outside of the house. And when he rolled that tape, I knew that at that point that was going to be our shooter.

So that Iran conflict has been a major focus of our coverage even before the war began.

“Week after week, I've spoken with our team of correspondent and we've heard voices from the region, including from inside Iran.”

But I want to take the reporting a step further. This week, on Here's The Scoop, I am on the ground in Lebanon and Qatar.

Reporting from the war zone, first hand to understand how the bombings, the battle over the straight-of-form moves,

and the uncertainty around what comes next, are impacting life in the Middle East. I'll be getting a deeper look inside the region and the people that are caught in the middle. Join us for our special reporting from the Middle East on Here's The Scoop on YouTube. And wherever you get your podcasts, I'll see you soon. He was a young Marine. She didn't care about convention. They made a life together.

Then one night, the Marine died and then the death investigation took a wild, unexpected, and utterly bizarre turn. I'm Josh Maykowitz and this is Trace of Suspicion, an all-new podcast from Dayline.

Listen to all episodes of Trace of Suspicion Now, wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey guys, Willie Guys Tier, reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit Down podcast on this week's special episode but I get together with Hollywood Superstar and now Business Magnate, Ryan Reynolds in front of a live audience to walk through his life and career. You can get our conversation for free wherever you download your podcasts. What a difference a bit of tech can make. Those little frontdoor cameras, common as clover now, like a gift for a detective and need of a break.

“You must have thought, hey, just to get our guy, pure excitement.”

Especially when they spotted one with the perfect angle. Kind of up above the garage pointing towards their vehicles and their kind of their driveway area. So if the shooter came in that way, they might be able to see him or her. They started watching the video from that morning and nothing happened for hours. Things picked up when Dr. Aaron arrived with her two boys at 224 p.m.

That's Wendy in the driveway as Aaron backed in. Did later Gary pulled in, look like an outie, blue. There was a pause for almost an hour and then Gary headed out, followed by the rest of the family, down to the lake by the look of it. But then, then something very peculiar showed up on that surveillance tape. It was middle of summer, so it was obviously warm up there even for Tahoe.

And I watched a male run up the street wearing full sweats with a hood on a mask on in a backpack. I would think you'd think, looking at that video, oh, oh, there's our shooter. I was very hopeful. Yeah. That it was, especially when the masked man turned into the driveway.

“I knew that at that point that was going to be our shooter. Did you happen to think at that moment?”

All right. This is not going to be so hard after all. I did for a little bit until you saw how close he got and then saw we couldn't see his face. He covered every aspect of his skin of his face. But surely there were more cameras around the neighborhood. They went hunting. We were out here, canvassing the full area for several days. We were looking up and down the road from the sports residents all the way up to the, what we call the

Y up here up in Tahoe City. Did it show you one of the more about where the shooter came from or where he went after? It did. Thankfully we were able to find several cameras along the pathway. It was enough to start piecing together some kind of timeline anyway, which that attaches laid out for the prosecutor Christopher Katron.

The first sighting of the apparent shooter was at 502pm, almost half a mile from Gary and Wendy's house,

walking along the main road towards him. By then Gary, Wendy, Aaron and the kids were out on the boat. Last person left the house at 356pm. They walk out the driveway and down the street and you can see out in the lake and we're fairly close to the lake here. Then 506pm, a neighbor security camera recorded the probable shooter walking along the lake. On the other side of the road where there's the bike path, which is used for bikes and pedestrians and things like that. So he's approaching.

you can see the driveway right here. And like he knew just where to go, he turned towards the house.

And then, no mistaking what that was, the sound of the garage door opening. After which, a pause, and then around 30 minutes later, the family returned. At its 745pm, Aaron left the house with the kids and drove away. An hour at 6 minutes later, at 851pm. No mistaking that sound either. Gunshots, five of them, silence, five minutes passed. And out he came, same way he went in, through the garage, and away. At 902, another glimpse, faintly, in the gathering dark.

It's like you're seeing the whole play from these security cameras. Fortunately we're

able to watch the entire thing knowing that he was inside the house. Well, the whole family was in

there, and they had no idea. Well, in this guy hid in the house for three or four hours, well, the family was out on the lake, and he waited all that time. He waited almost the time enough to let them kind of get comfortable. Were you able to find a place inside the house where the shooter hid for a period of time? We found a place where we believed that he was hiding. They had a very large closet on the bottom floor, and in the back of it, almost a little hidden

room that was off there that somebody could stand up, move around, and lay down. I mean, you knew a whole lot. You knew the whole damn crime. And yet you knew nothing. Exactly. Strange. We saw everything. We heard everything, but yet we had absolutely no idea who this individual could be. Who was this masked intruder? Was he a hired gun,

“an enemy from around the lake or was the shooter's motive one of the oldest of them all?”

They're worth a lot of money, and as the old adage goes follow the money, right? The days passed, and the masked shooter who took Gary's life with a single bullet and left Wendy for debt was still out there somewhere. Desperate for leads, the Plaster County Sheriff's Office posted a video of the gunman on social media. Plaster County Sheriff's detectives releasing this video from home surveillance cameras. What made you decide to appeal to the

public for help? Because we needed all the help at that point we could get. Tips came in, flooded the phone lines, reporter Michelle Ben Doer. They continued to ask for help. Even asking people in the area within as so many mile radius of checking their security video.

“Do you see a figure like this? Or what do you see on June 5th between these hours?”

Did it help much? Unfortunately it didn't. But I scared the hell out of them though. I mean, this is a absolute community. And the here that some guy was sneaking into houses and shooting people and I mean, that's pretty scary stuff. The community was terrified, but the way that it was done and let us feel a little safer to let the the toggle community know we don't believe that somebody's out there and we really

felt that this was a very personal targeted attack. And as the old adage goes follow the money, right? Sure. Who would gain from from this? Well, clearly clearly the two daughters.

Adrian and Aaron were the beneficiaries of their parents to state was $25 million.

They would split the inheritance equally, both agreed to talk to detectives. Or were they taken a, they were very, very stoic, very composed. They were obviously upset like any child's going to be, but they were very much into

“trying to figure out what had happened. You showed them the video I'm assuming, right?”

Absolutely. Could they identify them at all? Neither of them were able to identify them. Of course, they had to check the daughters' allies anyway, even though they were sure the shooter was a man. When you talked to Aaron, what could she tell you? She was unaware of what could have happened and she was there with the kids and in genuine shock that that person could have been inside the house with her while her kids and her were present. She was very, very upset at that time.

Remember, the shooter came in at five o'clock while she, Aaron and the boys are on the

before the shots were fired. So she's clearly has a good alibi. And what about her husband? Aaron told detectives he was out of town when the shooting occurred. Dan Saraphini was his name, ex-majorly baseball player, Minnesota Twins, Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates, et cetera, et cetera. He was an ex-bar owner too and now a minor.

“I believe he was a heavy equipment operator in a mine about three and a half hours”

east of the Reno sparks area. They went to see him and he had an alibi as two. Day before the shooting he said he attended a training class at the gold mine where he worked, then met up with coworkers. He was going to have a couple drinks with some friends that night from work. He spent the next day in question valley Nevada, where he had a trailer he used when

working away from his family, never left. The foreign record showed him a crescent valley when

Gary and Wendy were shot, just as Dan told them he was. So he's alibi looked pretty good. His alibi was looking really good. Did Adrian have an alibi? She did. She was at work and we were able to verify that she was working during the time of the murder. But detectives did wonder about Adrian's boyfriend, guy named Taylor Hatten. Did he have a record that guy? He did. Taylor was a convicted felon, confessed to robbing a bank, but ultimately pleaded guilty to a weapons

charge. He was one of the first individuals that detectives were very interested in. During the commission of that arm robbery, Taylor was covered from head to toe or a ski mask, sunglasses, and had a backpack on a hot summer day, just like the guy who shot Gary and Wendy. Again, maybe solving this murder wouldn't be so hard after all. Was that Taylor on the surveillance video? We did look into him extensively and we were able to

determine he was actually in Petaluma, California during the time of the homicide. He was working out there as a contractor, constantly working on his cellphones, and he significantly smaller than the shooter was. It couldn't have been him. So there were other possibilities, remember, angry neighbors, potential enemies. And just about then, less than two weeks after the shooting, Wendy woke up and started talking. It was a genuine excitement throughout the entire unit that

we might finally have that huge break we're looking for.

Around Lake Tahoe, lots of people knew Wendy would, and perhaps for all the wrong reasons. After the murder, there were a number of people who said that the suspect list was going to be at least four or five pages. Family Attorney John Ward figured Wendy was the killer's target.

“I think my knee jerk reaction was that Wendy had pissed off somebody. So how would she have”

done that? There were two ways to do things. Wendy's way and Wendy's way. She had a mind and will of her own. And that she did. Less than two weeks after she was left for dead, the detectives got a call. She was awake and talking. It was a genuine excitement throughout

the entire unit that we might finally have that huge break we're looking for.

But she was struggling coming in and out of consciousness. She made a quick statement of it was Rick, the water guy, and she passed back out again. The nurses had told us that she had said it was Rick. Well, that was something because Rick, the water guy, was certainly a person of interest. Wendy and Rick had had a lot of easement issues because Rick would access his water access from her property. Rick owned a water well that sat on Wendy and Gary's property and

Wendy had issues with that. Things escalated. And then Gary sent Rick an email to let him know that

“Wendy had a permit to use a gun and wood if needed. So did Rick use a gun of them?”

We were able to look at him and compare him to the camera. And we knew at that point he was definitely

Actually, the detectives here that she's made this miraculous recovery and of course now they want to

get a statement from her. Of course, yeah. So I went into the murder, it comes back from the dead to tell the story. I can't have it any better than that, I would think. Wendy struggled. But remember that she and Gary had gone to the lake with Aaron and their grandkids. And at the end of the voting trip, she recalled covering up the boat. That's the last thing she remembers of that day was putting the tarp on. And then the next thing she remembers is waking up in the hospital.

“Ward sat in on this. Did they ask her who she thought it might have been?”

They did. And she was quite certain that it involved the incident with the paddle board.

Different guy now. Dave's a fisherman. So one day she was out paddle boarding. And there was a gentleman who was a caretaker of one of the lake from properties. And he was a avid fisherman. So one day he had his minotrap out as Dave watched from shore. He saw Wendy yanking his traps out of the water. So while she's on her paddle board, she starts hauling them up. Now why would she do that? Keith, I have no idea. And Dave? He apparently got in a boat when out to go talk to her

stopper from doing it. And while he was out there, she hit him in the head with the or or the paddle. And it kind of went south from there. Dave suffered puncture wounds and abrasions to his head. The cops were called. Wendy was charged. Katrinaan prosecuted Wendy for assault with a deadly weapon. She pleaded no contest. God probation and was ordered to stay away from the fisherman in this

“property. That was twenty eighteen, three years before the shooting. Was day getting his revenge?”

I mean, they're seemed like that might have legs. If that had legs for a little while, we looked into him. We were able to go through all the cell phone data, including his the GPS locations. And found out he wasn't present. He wasn't there. His digital alibi, so to speak, was very good. So maybe Wendy wasn't the target after all. But Gary? Well, lovely house along the lake looks very gentle and sweet. And there's a grand grandparents taking the

grand kids out on the boat. It looks so idyllic. But when you dig a little bit. What did you find out about Gary's past? I found out a little bit. He did have a past with narcotics. I believe it was a federal case that was brought against him in that he kind of worked with the federal government to kind of write the wrong that he had done so to speak of the crime that he had been caught for. Long ago, my dude, no records to be found. But some things aren't

forgot. Well, that opens up all kinds of possibilities. So it doesn't that. It opened an amazing amount

of possibilities. It kind of gave me and my partners a giant moment of pause. This could span to be Lord. Yeah. For I mean, we could be down into anywhere. We have no idea how far this rabbit hole could go. Meanwhile, they were confirming alibis, like wear down Sarah Feeney, Wendy and Gary's son-in-law said he was night before the murder. Detectives learned that after drinks with his co-workers, Dan left to relax in a hotel in Elco, Nevada. When they drove out there, the desk

heard said he was there. All right, security cameras proved it. But then, bit odd, a woman checked out for Dan and checked herself into the same room. Her name was Samantha Scott. Interesting because Dan's phone record showed he had received a call the morning of the murder from the same woman. They do their their cops stuff, you know, they get her driver's license, they get a picture, you know, and they find an address for. Samantha lived in Reno, Nevada,

in an apartment complex about 45 miles north of Tau City. Detective drove out there and when he pulled out, he saw something that caught his attention. There's an outie sitting in the parking lot. He thinks he's seen the car before and then it dawns on him

“that the outie was Gary's. Oh boy, the victim of the murder. Who was Samantha Scott?”

Why did she have Gary's car?

alibi, detectives came across a woman named Samantha Scott, who checked into Dan's room

and just weeks after Gary's murder was driving the dead man's car. It was very, very weird that presumably the girls or somebody within the family structure had given the okay to give

“her that vehicle, either permanent or a temporary use to the vehicle. I think it could happen”

just a little unusual. Absolutely. It was enough to make us start asking more questions to start looking a little bit more. And that is exactly what they did. Detective showed up at Samantha's apartment in Reno, Nevada, but narrow away from Lake Tau. You obviously know why we're here to see you. I mean, I'm assuming. I can assume. Yeah. Sure, what do you think? I mean, it probably has something to do with my friend Eric. Yeah.

And what, what can you tell me about that? I'm not really sure why I would be involved in it. Involved in it. What was Samantha referring to? Exactly. So I'm not sure.

“Okay. More than happy to train. That's okay.”

Samantha said she met Eric in about five years earlier when she was looking for a trainer who specialized in a question triathlon. She's only wanting to tell not does it. Outside rain bring her around. Erin became her trainer. And she would let Samantha board her horse and exchange for some work. What can you tell me about Erin's husband, Danny? Erin's husband. I've known her for about five years. Okay.

Um, I mean, we're all right for not just for about five years as well. Okay. Then without being asked, she launched into her and his whereabouts on Friday, June 4th, the night before the shooting. I wait with him to elbow. I didn't that Friday.

Um, not quite at the first time we'd ever come out. Why? Because she said,

“Dan needed help with a surprise purchase for Erin. Went to look for a truck for Erin. Uh, a new board?”

And I had just uh broken up with someone. So he's like, hey, come. We're having a party. He was like, okay. Cool. And then we did look for a truck though. So what did you put each end up doing? Uh, we're just spent the night up there. After a night out in Elco, she said she and Dan went back to the suite. He had booked and she slept in the bedroom. He slept in the living room. So she said, send us sexual relations or anything like that. No, uh, no.

Not ever, ever. And when she woke up in the morning, Dan was gone. Did he tell you that the night before he was going to be leaving early? Yeah. She assumed, Dan had left for work. She said. And so she decided she would extend her stay for a little

R&R. I was getting ready to go and then kind of wanted to stay because I just never been in a

sleep before. She said she checked out the following day and on her drive home, a friend called to let her know what had happened to Erin's parents. And so Samantha said she reached out to Erin and offered to help any way she could. Yeah, that's that. Um, but I mean, I've known her long enough, like how she handles these two. How does she handle things? Um, she's pretty structured. When it comes to things, right now, um, she seems pretty adamant about getting her house prepared. So

her mom can live there too when she's released. And all of that story, all of it. Good have been quite true, except we could see there was a crack in the armor of fear really. She was nervous. It points when there shouldn't have been nervousness if she was an innocent person or didn't know anything. Correct. If there was nothing that she didn't know, I mean, we understand and expect a certain degree of nervousness. But when the fear continues and the oddities continue that

kind of puts some of the alarms up that something something was wrong. I'm not super and off to it. Anything about the horses. Um, can I ask why I'm involved besides

And so we have to make contact with folks that we come across in the investigation. We're just

trying to get the facts. That's it. Uh, obviously it's a death investigation. Uh, you also have his car here. So, I mean, can you understand why we're here talking to you? And that's based on that. Yeah. No, I do understand. Simple explanation said Samantha, Aaron let her borrow the outie because Samantha's sisters were in town and they were using her Subaru. In fact, she had taken the day off to meet up with her sisters who were at a hotel in Lake Tahoe.

Oh, perfectly innocent. The detectives wrapped up the conversation. Okay. Have a good day. Thanks, Samantha. I and drove to the hotel in Lake Tahoe. They watched and waited and there was

Samantha, not with their sisters, but with Aaron and Dan. It started to raise a lot of questions of

“how deeply are they all connected and who's connected to who and what are they doing up here?”

Someone helped the answers to those questions. Tell me about your relationship with Samantha. I idol I just, I thought she was the coolest person. Sarah Ross was barely a teenager when she met Aaron Spore. I was like, "Well, it was a bit star-struck." Aaron had built her career on riding feral horses and had become a bit of a celebrity in the event-riding community. She was really, really brave. I think that was her biggest quality and it didn't really

dawn on her to be afraid. In her mind, she could outmustle it. She could make it do what she wanted to do.

Sarah lived across from Aaron and Dan's barn in Rita of Adda when she joined Aaron's training program.

She was almost more of a big sister-type coach so she was funny. She wanted to engage

“but she also was pretty firm when she had to be. To help with the cost of the sport, Sarah”

often worked at Aaron's barn and it's how she met Samantha Scott. I go schmobbing on the hay cart and we've load bales and we just chitchat and that's kind of what's our bonding. Sarah also saw the bond that developed between Samantha and Aaron. It started just a client like anything and then over time when that's kind of your circle then you all kind of become friends and so they were quite close friends. Dan was part of

that circle too. You'd come to the horse shows when he could, you know, be out there fixing fences, he really cared about the horses themselves. Together Dan and Aaron were a good time. Everybody gravitated towards him. They were just fun to be around and they had these massive personalities. Was that what was going on when Detective Saw Samantha was there in a Dan at that hotel in Lake Tahoe? Friends just hanging out. It'll lessen a month after the shooting.

Detective's watched from a distance. Saw them walking around the property. It started to raise a lot of questions of how deeply are they all connected and who's connected to who and what are they doing up here? So they asked Dan to come in for another round of questions. This time he brought his attorney. Detective Meyer confronted Dan about being with Samantha the night before the murder. We went to the red lion. Aha.

And you were there with Sam? Oh no. Oh yes. But you didn't tell sat that night. You said you're off with coworkers. You were doing your thing. But that's not a lie. That's my personal life. He was then digged in, didn't, didn't feel like it was a big issue. Kind of like it was my business. You don't need to know about it. Okay. I'm not saying it's a lie. But it's when you kind of sell it one way. And then we find that's on it. And like I told you that

date, I am not the marriage police. You couldn't ask me any questions at all. And I would have told

“you more if you asked more. But my first one is that one. Sure. But my personal life is my personal life.”

Just so I know are you in Sam in a relationship? That's totally not. Was that any of it? Was that an affair that was up that night? What was it that was up there? Sam and I are not having an affair at all. Okay. Just like Samantha said, they were going to buy a truck for Aaron. And that was it. And the day of the shooting he insisted he was long gone miles and miles away in his trailer in Christian Valley. I liked that pastel pretty much the whole the whole light. Okay.

What do you guys see? Can I tell you what I took? I took two of I get in. A shot at night

of his back to mum put him a four and a half hour drive away from where his inlaws were murdered.

So that was that they let him leave. And months went by. Until, in the fall of 2021, Samantha's phone records came back. And our phones can reveal a singer too. Which is why detectives invited Samantha for another talk. I'm happy to answer your questions. There's a lot of details that we're like to know, because that only the people in that inner circle will know. Like, for example, her actual relationship with Dan. I'm very close with Aaron and I'm very close with Dan.

We didn't. Well, there's a recent flirtation going on. We should see if my phone

was down. Okay. Not Aaron. No, not with Aaron. We and we always joke around that. We're like a

frapple because he always complains that he has two eyes. By now, detectives had told Samantha.

“They had her phone records. And maybe that's why her story about the day of the murder was about to change.”

We left the red line. Oh, it's Chris, about Lee. Well, well, she didn't spend the day, though, until after all. And what would you, what do you know? Can Chris and Belly? I was just there momentarily, and then I left and went to talk. Okay. And you were by yourself? No, I went with Dan. Danny, I went with you. Tell him.

There it was. She confirmed what her phone records showed. That her cell phone travel from Dan's

trailer to Lake Tahoe, and Dan was with her. Okay, so you guys talked together. Correct. Was he ever out of your sight? Yes. Samantha said she dropped off Dan in the afternoon. Near the shops in Tahoe City, about four miles away from Gary and Wendy's house. And she waited for hours until Dan returned. She believed she said that he was there to pick up cocaine. So the digital evidence doesn't support what you're saying. Of course, only her phone put her

much closer to the crime scene. Did you see how much I got? I didn't know. Samantha said she didn't believe Dan had anything to do with the shooting. Do it's the detective replied. I don't buy that story whatsoever. You are in a lot of trouble. This is not makes sense. And something else that didn't make sense. Didn't tell you to turn with your phone off? No, yes. You did tell me to turn with my phone off. Okay. Okay. Samantha. And sorry. I know it's not. But we're not judging you.

“This is scary, but you have to be honest. Samantha said, Dan told her to turn off her phone.”

Hours before they made it into Tahoe. And she did. Or thought she did. She made the mistake of presumably just killing off the screen on the phone and did not turn off the power off the entire phone. And it left a digital breadcrum trail from beginning to end. Detective Meyer and his team watched the interview on FaceTime. Well, they stood by with a search warrant near Dan's trailer in Crescent Valley. We were hopefully going to switch from just doing a search warrant out there

to maybe we're going to be able to make the arrest. But Samantha didn't give up anything more. How did that change your thinking about the case? We knew at that point we were on the right track that we had them. We knew that she had just put them there. She had just put Danny there.

“But now we had the finish line in sight. We were ready to finish it. That finish line was further”

than a scene. Hey, everybody. It's Yasma Vesugian. Host of Fear's The Scoop. The Daily News podcast from NBC News. So the Iran conflict has been a major focus of our coverage even before the war began. Week after week, I've spoken with our team of correspondent and we've heard voices from the region, including from inside Iran. But I want to take the reporting a step further. This week, on Here's The Scoop, I am on the ground in Lebanon and Qatar.

Reporting from the war zone, firsthand to understand how the bombings, the battle over the straight-of-form moves and the uncertainty around what comes next are impacting life in the Middle East. I'll be getting a deeper look inside the region and the people that are caught in the middle. Join us for our special reporting from the Middle East on Here's The Scoop on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. I'll see you soon.

an only podcast from Dayline. Listen to all episodes of Trace of Suspicion now, wherever you

get your podcasts. Hey, guys, Willie Geist here, reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit Down podcast. On this week's special episode, I get together with Hollywood Superstar and now business magnate Ryan Reynolds in front of a live audience to walk through his life and career. You can get our conversation for free wherever you get down loads of podcasts. Well, investigators worked on building a stronger case against Dan and Samantha.

Wendy was trying to rebuild her life. She had survived multiple gunshots to the head. Now she was doing all she could to regain her strength and her memory.

“Did it seem to you as if she would make a full recovery physically and mentally?”

I was very helpful. It had that feeling that she was getting better by the day. Wendy's rehabilitation was long and strenuous. His miracle, Wendy. Her daughter Adrian released video of her progress, reporter Michelle Ben Doer. Video of her writing a bike, learning how to walk again, learning how to speak again. Like, she had this fight to live. Amazing. She survived it. Really. Amazing.

And she kept up with the investigation. I spoke to her almost every day. Oh, really. Okay. Me and Wendy, we developed kind of a friendship. Wendy told detective Meyer quite a bit about Adrian's sister Erin and brother-in-law, Dan, and their financial issues. They were taking more from Gary and Wendy than Adrian ever had. During a recorded phone call with detectives, Wendy described her frustration.

It was very easy for money and all the time. It was always something. And then,

you know, we would help them out. In fact, on the day of the shooting, Gary and Wendy

“forked over a rather hefty sum. I believe it was a $90,000 check that Erin was given prior to”

leaving the residents. So the money was absolutely flowing in. Detectives learned that sometimes the money was a gift and other times alone. Either way, it was a lifeline for the couple. At one point, Danny had one failed business venture, the bar, in the Reno Spark's area, that fell through. By the time of the shooting, Dan and Erin owed hundreds of thousands of dollars to a parent. There had been intense fights and sometimes a strange meant.

Her mother cut her off so many times throughout her life. You know, would cut her off and then bring her back in. Did those heated arguments lead to murder? When they started to believe, they did. She began to remember things, right? Freshly. She was trying to. Like, maybe she saw Danny. Yes, this is Wendy, almost a year after the shooting on the phone with the detectives. I had some memories of the act. I felt the supplement was in the house.

“And I looked up to Danny with a hoodie on. How clear do you remember it?”

Very clear. I remember if walking over and seeing a shooting gallery and then pointing to that thing. It sounded credible, but given her brain injury, where her statement's actual memories were a mixture of things she had heard from friends and family. Wendy herself wasn't sure, but she was suspicious enough of Danny and her daughter that she revised her will and disinherited her. The more lucid she had become, the more involved she had become, the more engaging, also the more frustrated she had

become. Equally frustrated was her daughter Adrian, who'd also become suspicious of Danny, Andrew Sister. Sergeant Tyler Neer, a new supervisor of investigations assigned to work with detective Meyer. Spoke with her. She wanted something done and she wanted justice for her parents. And life was not easy. Wendy had improved physically, but mentally she was struggling. And nearly two years after the shooting, detective Meyer received a call from Adrian.

She said, "My mom killed herself and I blame you for it." To be accused of being responsible, she's dead. She killed herself at your fault. It was my fault because we didn't solve the

crime and she felt that it was never going to be done. What was that like physically emotionally to get

she'd taken her life, it, that hurt too pretty hard. Yeah, it hit really hard.

“A few months later on the second anniversary of Gary's murder, Adrian filed a wrongful death”

lawsuit alleging what she had come to believe that both Dan and Aaron were responsible for the shooting. Placer County District Attorney, Morgan Gyer. Did you believe that Aaron was involved in this in a substantial way? I do. What things stand out for you? Well, the most obvious being the timing of the murder of Gary Spore and the shooting of Wendy Wood. Aaron was there that day. Aaron went out on the boat with her children and her parents. Almost a two-hour window, the shooter used

to slip into Gary and Wendy's home and wait. Aaron responded with her own lawsuit, denying any

involvement with the attack against her parents. She alleged that was a lie Adrian used to turn Wendy against her. Aaron is accusing Adrian of cutting them out of the will and of taking advantage of her mother. The allegation was essentially that she had manipulated her mother into disenheriting and she filed a lawsuit to get to the bottom of it. For me, I treated a lot as kind of noise but I wasn't allowing it really to influence the investigation or influence any direction.

“By then, they found a key piece of evidence. It was video of Samantha on the day of the shooting,”

walking to her parked Subaru at 8 p.m., a mile and a half from Gary and Wendy's home. She waited there until dark. Then, 24 minutes after the shooter left the crime scene, headed in her direction. We could see the dome light turned on and presumed let's when he had gotten in the vehicle and the drove away. The last piece of the timeline puzzle. But before detectives could make an arrest, there was still something they needed to do.

Really closing those doors on other people that could have been suspects or named as potential suspects to really paint the picture beyond a reasonable doubt that it couldn't be anybody else responsible for this. Seven months after Wendy's death, they believed they had done just that. Today, we arrested 39-year-old Danny Seraphini and 33-year-old Samantha Scott. The case was finally ready to prosecute. Detectives called Adrian to share the news

and we called her and told her it's done. We got him and she just screamed. She screamed and excitement and told her boyfriend who was with her that it was done

that they finally got him. Why did you never arrest Aaron or charge her? There was no evidence that

pointed at Aaron or showed Aaron had any culpability. After the arrangements, Adrian talked to

“reporters about her brother-in-law. I think he is violent. I think he is greedy and I am just so”

thankful that Plaster County has taken him in custody because that's where he should be. The former Major League baseball player was about to face a jury and an unexpected star witness would take center stage. Dan Seraphini and Samantha Scott were in jail accused of murder and attempted murder. By January 2025, they had been there 15 months and Samantha, she had had a change of heart and sat down with

investigators to tell them everything. What did she say that was different than what she said before? Most importantly, she told us what instructions she had received from him to keep her phone off to keep her mouth shut and she indicated that he had a gun with him and it even testfired that gun and silence are on their drive from Nevada to Lake Tahoe. Then after Dan's shot, Gary and Wendy said Samantha, as they were driving back to Dan's trailer,

she saw him throw the gun, the silencer, the backpack and some shoes out of the car. By the time investigators looked for that evidence, it was gone, but Samantha's sworn statement would be enough. We were already preparing to try him without that testimony because the evidence showed that he did it, but this provided corroboration to a lot of other pieces of evidence. Samantha agreed to plead guilty to being an accessory after the fact and she got to go

Dan Saraphini went on trial and prosecutor Rick Miller opened with something Dan told his brother.

I'll pay $20,000 to have them killed. That is how the trial started.

“Well, he certainly didn't bury the headline, did he?”

No, he did not. He got everyone's attention. The prosecutor said Dan's hatred toward his in-laws started years earlier. There are these very contentious emails that the jury heard. One exchange was from 2016 when they were arguing over a multimillion-dollar ranch, they'd help purchase for Aaron and Dan. The prosecutor quoted from Dan's email to Wendy.

Take the fucking house, but if Gary ever says "F*ck you to me again, I will knock him the

f*ck out." Three months before the shooting, there were more. This one, after a disagreement over the couple's kids, Wendy wrote to Aaron, "Danny's disdain for us is right to the surface, so he enjoyed berating us." They fought a lot. They fought a lot. They did. A lot of fighting. This was way more than just keyboard warriors. Dan said he wanted them killed and then set out to do that very thing, set the prosecutor.

He would have stood to inherit quite a bit of money with his wife, but he didn't want to wait. He wanted it now and he didn't want any strings attached. And it all came to a head on June 5, 2021, the day Wendy and Gary went voting with Aaron and her boys. The prosecutor showed that video of a figure walking toward the house and told the jurors

“to focus on the person's gate. What was it about to walk?”

Well, it was described as a sort of swagger, with maybe a little bit of a limp. And then they had another video of Dan Seraphini in the lobby of the red lion in Elco Navada, the day before the shootings. Was the walk the same? Well, you'd have to look for yourself, but the prosecution said the walk was the same. "Hey, to be Dan, the prosecutor said because anybody else would have seen the SUV in the driveway

and but have thought somebody was home. No one was home, of course. So Dan entered the garage code and walked right in." Then, just over an hour after Aaron drove off of the kids, the jurors heard the five gunshots. Before leaving Dan put a bag of dog food out because he thought the bodies wouldn't be discovered for days at the prosecutor. He was all carefully planned. He told the jury,

Dan purposely left his phone in his trailer, 300 plus miles away, so there wouldn't be a digital

trail. His phone has a really good lot of solid alibi. That phone never moved.

Zero steps. Zero outgoing communication. Everything goes to voicemail. And the prosecutor called his star witness, Samantha Scott. She described what she saw on that drive to Lake Tahoe, the gun, the silencer, the backpack, and something Dan later revealed about that day. He allegedly confessed to Samantha that he shot Wendy. She also told the jury that Dan threatened to shoot her family if she said

anything to anyone. By the fall of 2021, months after the murder, Samantha said, they were having an affair that continued even after they were both arrested. He told her he was in love with her while they were in jail and sent her what they call "kites" in jail. This is a slang term for sending messages between inmates. And that said the prosecutor was part of the plan. He knows she's loyal.

He knows she's in love with him. Everything he's that she has done indicates that. And yeah, even as I'm talking right now, the flame on that candle has not even begun to flicker. She's still admitted. She was feeling guilty for testifying because she was still had feelings for him. Then the prosecutor called Aaron and asked her about Dan's relationship with Samantha. Aaron said she knew of the sexual relationship that didn't make her upset,

but she was more upset that there were emotional feelings that she was finding out about.

“That's what upset her. She had once considered Samantha a friend. But now, she said,”

she no longer trusted her. And unlike Samantha, Aaron had not turned on Dan. She testified for the prosecution and defended Dan. Correct. She defended her husband at the trial saying there's no way that was her husband in that video. Samantha and Aaron understand the two of them. I'm interested in knowing from your observation

defeat both legally and existentially and understood that her job now was to connect the dots.

“Aaron was still in defense mode. She was still actively trying to thwart the truth.”

So you couldn't have two different perspectives in one corner. Or maybe three perspectives? Dan's defense attorney was about to paint an entirely different picture and Dan's Seraphini wasn't in it. The person in the video is built differently than Danny because the person in that video is not Danny Seraphini. The state that called Dan Seraphini a killer. That is attorney David Ratman said was flat out wrong.

Danny Seraphini did not shoot Gary Spore. Danny Seraphini did not shoot Wendy Wood. That masked man in the video. That wasn't him. Said the defense. The statues different and the person in the video is built differently than Danny because the person in that video is not Danny Seraphini. The height was wrong. The weight was wrong. The walk was wrong.

“Not the same at all. And anyway, remember those phone records he was many miles away in Nevada”

when that masked man shot Gary and Wendy. The defense suggested he could have been binge watching something on his phone, shopping, sitting in his trailer in Crescent Valley. And remember council the defense attorney. There was no physical evidence, not a scrap, tying Dan to the toggle house on the day of the shooting. Besides his wife Aaron testified, the Dan had no financial motive to kill her parents. These people were quite generous with

Danny Seraphini and his wife, their daughter Aaron. And if Dan killed them, he'd get nothing, not a scent. The evidence will also show that Danny Seraphini was not a beneficiary of their will.

“He was not someone that was going to inherit. As for Samantha's testimony, she lied, said the”

defense, to save herself. That story is fantastic. That story is a story. It is a really great leap of faith here. That the prosecution is asking you to believe. It's like, why would you kill the golden goose? Before a juror has got the case, prosecutor Rick Miller left them with this message. You know why he did it. You know how he did it. You know his motive. You know his opportunity. You know his ability. There's a murderer in this room. He's sitting right there.

And then they were sent away to deliberate. I've never experienced or been through anything

like this before. Karen Schroeder, the jury foreperson, and two other jurors, Allie McKibbin, and Gracie Butrick took page after page of notes as they listened to the testimony and watched that. I spent the majority of the trial just watching him to try to see how he reacted to each every witness and evidence and just try to get a read on him, but he seemed very stoic and disconnected. They paid attention to every word from Samantha Scott. Her recollection on the stand

in comparing that to what she had already told non-forcements. Really trying to pick through telling the truth. What, you know, what does she lying about? And found Dan's wife Aaron to be,

well, for lack of a better word frustrating. It was clear the second sheet got on that witness

stand that her loyalties lied with her husband. And yet to think, he's up there accused of murdering your parents. That first day the jurors talked. No verdict. We didn't take a vote until the end of our second full day of deliberations. The vote was not unanimous. We used to price they kept going on. I really thought it was going to be a very quick verdict and had to keep reminding myself the amount of evidence that they had to go through in the complexity of the case.

So it kind of gave me that moment of peace to know it's we're going to get there. It's just going to take a little while to get to where we need to. You hope. I hope. The jurors took a closer look at the surveillance videos from the red lion and the towel house and they took screenshots. There was

person. They looked at the shoes, the pants, the walk. We were like investigators. And finally,

on day four, I understand that jury has reached the verdict. And years of grief and anger and tension gathered in the courtroom at that moment. We the jury and the public title action find the defendant Daniel Joseph Serthini guilty guilty of first degree murder and attempted murder. The jurors were certain the figure in the video that only have been Dan Seraphini. I felt 100% that's him. No one was able to convince me it wasn't. And nothing in the evidence could tell

me that it wasn't. Today I wore my mom's engagement ring and my dad's ashes are around my neck. And I knew they were here with us today outside the courtroom. Adrian Spore was

grateful. Plaster County, District Attorney's Office and Sheriff's Office. Never gave up.

And today, finally, justice was served. Oh, my gosh. Excitement. Tears of full kind of like

“four years just finally ended. Have you ever been this deeply emotionally connected with a case before?”

No, I've never had any case that just exhausted us mentally and emotionally to this degree. And it was when it was done that relief was pretty awesome. Accept. It wasn't done. It wasn't. Because Dan Seraphini simply refused to accept it. And he found a new attorney who revealed a new piece of evidence. Danny, it's Wendy. I didn't get to tell you that I could do in this electric therapy. And I have a vision of the shooter. The deers said we're to get

that watch out. You know how it is, the jury pronounces guilty. That is done. Cooked. Finished. We begin with breaking news. A jury has found former MLB pitcher Dan Seraphini guilty of more. Except this time, it wasn't. Dan Seraphini, one time major league baseball

“pitcher now convicted murderer, simply refused to accept the verdict. What the hell happened?”

I think what happened unfortunately for everyone is that due process never happened.

Or you could say, this guy is what happened. Dan swapped out his old lawyers for Barry Zimmerman and Zimmerman had a whole new play in mind. Throw out his conviction and get Dan a new trial. Why? Two reasons he said. Reason one, jury misconduct. What did the jury do that was so terrible? They decided on their own time to go through the video of the surveillance at the house and the video at the red lion and make screenshots. And then compare screenshots to screenshots

to see if they could match who they knew to be Danny Seraphini at the red lion with the perpetrator. That, Zimmerman said, was outside the scope of the jury's role. I was shocked. I thought this is absolutely misconduct. And reason two, Zimmerman argued that Dan's trial attorneys had failed him given him a poor defense. For example, Dan was pushing to go to trial but Zimmerman said his lawyers should have taken a pause and regrouped, especially after learning

that Samantha Scott had flipped. The responsible thing for his trial lawyers to have done at that moment was to say, breaks on, we're not ready. The cards have changed. The table is now different.

“We have Samantha Scott to deal with. Was Samantha Scott the key to it all? Yes, absolutely.”

Zimmerman claimed Samantha was more involved than she let on. I don't view her as being some naive person who just happened to say, I'll do whatever Danny Seraphini tells me to do and I won't ask any questions. I don't buy that for a second. Also, since Zimmerman, Dan's attorneys should have let him testify. He's not a fool. He knew he had to testify, especially when Samantha

put you into this. You're facing life without the possibility of parole. You have two lawyers you've paid $400,000 to. They're both telling you you can't testify to some mistake you're going to lose. Zimmerman argued that a fence didn't call a single witness, but should have called a neighbor who told investigators she saw Dan in Crescent Valley the day of the murder and a secret lover who told detectives she spent the day with Dan. I was let them all day Saturday

“and then went to work. Okay, what did you guys do on Saturday?”

Uh, drink, I'm so just got the wine. So Zimmerman got a hearing and they all assembled in the courtroom and Dan Seraphini shuffled in his garage jail jumpsuit punctuation for a very unusual proceeding. For several days, he testified about Samantha Scott and his complaints about his attorneys

and with Dan on the stand, Zimmerman revealed evidence the jury never heard.

Danny, it's Wendy. I didn't get to tell you that I've been doing this a like with therapy that allows me to recall victims and I have a vision of the shooter and it's not you. This was Wendy saying Dan was not the killer. How is powerful stuff? The deez said where to get that dramatic or maybe not. During his cross-examination, the prosecutor played that other Wendy tape. The gentleman was in the house and I looked up

at Danny with a hoodie on. He was able to show that Wendy knew exactly what Danny had done and at some points were keeping them close and making them believe that she didn't think that so that she could remain safe. She still remained fearful for her life up until the end. As for Dan's alibi witnesses, the prosecutor said his neighbor had the date wrong.

And Dan told his lover, Delay. The alibi witnesses would have ultimately provided

more incriminating evidence against Mr. Seraphini and arguably would have sped up that guilty verdict that he so justly deserved. So as original defense attorneys were right in with holy most people. They were absolutely right in withholding any evidence of the alibi. The prosecution argued Dan was simply having buyers or wars. The jury did nothing wrong. Dan watched it all unfold. One more shot at another chance. He had a lot to say about it.

It didn't look living in that star me. From pitcher's mound to jail so Dan Seraphini's fall was as steep as they come. I thought about this case a lot. I wondered how somebody was all the talent in the advantage

“that you've gotten like. It's plumb up here. I'd love to understand it. Do you understand it?”

I don't understand it at all. I believe in the justice system. Well, the justice system would say it didn't fill it all. It was a good circumstantial case. And when they laid it out, there was a lot of circumstantial stuff there. Some prosecutors say that's the best kind of case. Circumstantial case. I believe the circumstantial stuff that they had was just

making up a story. They had no proof. No anything. This Dan decided it would be his only network interview. There was a time limit. And jail rules required this somewhat awkward arrangement through a thick layer of glass. Dan told us he's behind bars because his trial attorneys did not mount a strong defense and the jury. They just didn't like me. They didn't like my wife about. They didn't like the way I acted in court, which I didn't act anyway. If I sat there,

like I was supposed to, because my lawyers told me to, don't react. Don't respond.

“Sit there like nothing bothering you. Do you know what you got through the fight for it?”

And then there was the woman who turned against him. Tell me about your relationship with Samantha. Samantha was a very close family friend. We ended up kind of falling into a

fling of each other. My wife and I live a third lifestyle to where we do our own things

when we're apart. Our rule was not to bring any drama home. I left down a lot for work. I was allowed to do what I wanted to do. I screwed up. I made a horrible decision by being with Sam because I broke the rule and brought the drama home. She was too close to home to down that town early. She told detectives that you would shoot her family. You told her if she spoke up.

Sam was never in danger. It's all makes her a really good lord.

Dan's story was this. He partied with Samantha the night before the murder and then went back to his trailer the next morning. And Samantha came over later that day to pick up $25,000 as a range for what he called an investment. Samantha left with the money, but he didn't go with her and he didn't shoot anybody. Why was Samantha say you did it? You committed the murder.

“Paul, because they scared her with 120 years in prison. I think anybody in this room”

did the same thing. Do you say she's nine now? You're saying that the authorities encourage her to lie. Do you get the case against you because they didn't know who else to charge? I mean, who else would it be? I have no idea, but that's not my job. My job isn't to prove who did it. My job looks to prove that I didn't do it and there's nothing there to prove that I didn't. So what the state argued it was Dan who was lying? The prosecutors would say you knew

the way into the garage. Yeah, and you did. I mean, you'd been there before. You knew the way into the house. You knew where you could hide while they were out, going whatever they were doing before they came back and it was time to act. You knew a lot of these things that nobody else would know. What do you say to those allegations? I think, again, a third just death thing. I mean, how hard is it to walk through a garage door? I mean, they're saying that I knew how to get into

the house. Of course, everybody knows how to get into a house. No one can even prove that the broad door was open or closed. I understand. And then there was the man in that surveillance video. They can't say it to me. There's no way they can say it to me. You can't prove it to you, but they've got this guy who looks kind of like you with your sort of walk walking on those surveillance camera. And then they've let somebody who knows how to get into the house. No, I've got to be challenging

“because if you don't have much time, I have to tell you, you know. I think you need to stop because”

questions. No, why? Because you keep them looking at me and it's not me. As for telling his brother, he'd pay someone 20 grand to kill his in laws. That brother testified said, then, made the offer ingest. I wouldn't be that. My brother was throwing daggers at me because I'd timid I had a falling

out after my mom passed away. I never mentioned that one state. And that's all my kids. That's

some of my wife. And speaking of Aaron, Dan said any suggestion that she was involved in some plot to have her parents killed was ridiculous. Aaron didn't hit her parents. Aaron didn't want her parents dead. I didn't want her parents dead. None of us get it. I think for people to believe that, that's the kind of society we're at. People want to think that I was broke. People want to think that I was a lost at baseball player that didn't have any money. I didn't need anybody's money.

“I paid my own bills. I did my own things. And I'm proud of the person that I am,”

and that I became. I didn't have a superstar baseball career. I've been very successful and I've proud of that. And I won't hide trauma. That was it. Our a lot of time was up. And Dan served off any went back to his cell where he will remain in one cell or another for the rest of his life. Because the judge denied his motion for a new trial. That is sentencing, Adrian called Dan, evil, and a monster. For ten years, Dan Seraphini and Aaron

sport treated my parents like a bottomless ATM between loans and gifts. My parents provided them

with well over two million dollars. But it was never enough. At one point Dan's attorney asked,

why kill the golden goose? And the answer was simple. They got tired of asking. The decked up myor was in the courtroom watching Adrian deliver the words. She had waited so long to say. Adrian gave you a hug of the sentence he didn't say. She did. Sorry. She did with she actually did with me and my wife and kids were there and ran over to them and gave them the give them a hug as well. She got to meet my family that sacrificed all their time

while trying to bring conclusion for her family. So it was kind of almost like we came full circle. Sure. And maybe that went some way toward repairing the terrible pain you felt it. But what she said. It absolutely did. One person not in attendance. Aaron's four, she filed for divorce, though she still stands by Dan. Dan's attorney read a statement. Aaron wrote on Dan's behalf. He may be imperfect, but he is one of the most caring and generous people I have ever met in this world.

against Dan is ongoing as for Samantha Scott. But I am deeply sorry to the families affected

“by this case especially investigators who are trying to find the truth. She was sentenced to two”

years probation for aiding Dan. And 6,000 feet up in the Sierra Mountains. Lake Tahoe glimmers

as it always has. Deep and clear. And unmoved by the dramas that grip mirror humans,

“round its silvened shores. And that's all for this edition of date line. Don't forget to check”

out our talking date line podcast in which we'll go behind the scenes of tonight's episode. Available Wednesday in the date line feed wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you again next

“Friday at nine eight central. I'm Lester Holt for all of us at NBC News. Good night.”

I'm Craig Melvich. Cheers. Cheers. I've always been a glass half-volt kind of guy and now

I'm talking to some people who look at the world that we too. So really fascinating folks who share their defining moments, their trials, challenges, their stories, their funny and my candy. So I hope you'll join me each week and who knows. You might just come away with your own glass half-volt. Search Glass Half-volt with Craig Melvich from today on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.