The Sleepover
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denied on daylight.

I have spent twenty years trying to forget. I had to be completely silent. How do you live with that kind of a gills and not just completely .

crumble to get a phone call, he says, have you seen Sherry? Know what do you mean? Have you seen Sherry?

Hey, was mom. He's just SHE went to the story.

Save SHE is got the kids. SHE would never leave.

tell me to had a body innovation in a parking lot.

SHE was bad. SHE was my back.

He started trying to put pieces together.

his alleviate and children that sit in the kitchen.

I've thought that I had a couple memories before, but I don't know if they're real.

Not SHE is the Young gest with three and he said, mommy, why doesn't that .

he love you anymore? Dad goes, jennie.

Jennie was the biggest puzzle .

peace .

we had who needed to .

be gone or not .

playing anymore. It's time to tell the truth.

When you meet that bad decision, there's no going back.

A mom disappears during a children sleep over a mystery where the Youngest with this is just three years old. I'm letter hold, and this is deadline.

Here's Andrew a canning with this sleep over.

Childhood memories can be so joyful, vivid, but also elusive. Hi dear, i've thought that I had a couple .

memories before, but I don't know if they're real. Not, you know.

especially as time passes.

don't about kids ont remember.

but they did. And those memories would end up tearing a family apart.

I've got a lot of. Anger in my heart right now that i'm trying to deal with.

I'm ready. Whatever he is, I love him so much.

That seems that you too should be talking.

Our story begins with happy memories and Sunny pencils of florida, home of pottery, White beaches, clear turcos waters and the navy blue Angels. IT was the navy that brought shean greg malaria c to penalty. They both worked air traffic control at the local naval station friday, september twenty first, two thousand.

One was a busy night for the malick. A blended family with five kids jacket was eleven at the time. Were you really excited that night? I know your cousins were coming over. You were having the big sleep over.

We are super excited. Some are playing video, are eating. It's just kids being loud and .

playing a Jacobs was the oldest, his sister terror, the baby of the family.

I really enjoyed having a lot of siblings and especially over brothers. So there was always like good protection and like built in best friends.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, my gosh, all those boys watching over you.

I felt like I was met to be another brother. So like my savings without my life have been very protective of, and I feel very protective of them.

Jacobsen, tina, his mom, sister, dropped off two of her kids at the house. SHE, in her husband, were off to celebrate his promotion at a big military ball.

My husband made chief in the navy, so IT was two. For one, we were on a date. They are having cousin night out. So this was a big.

huge, giant deal. Jacobs says his mom was inside with the kids. Well, I stepped at. Greg was out in the back yard.

I remember greg just kind of poke in his head in something along the lines that I call them from my mom to come outside and SHE responded like in a minute whatever as .

the kids we're sitting down to eat, his mom stepped out of the house after a short while, SHE doesn't come back in.

No, I don't remember that was me or my brother, right? Hey, was mom and he's just SHE went to .

the story a quick run for some milk, but I was taking a long time, too long hours past. Still no Sherry, tina and jeff league were already back from the ball, their phone rank. Shortly after eleven pm, IT was greg and .

he says he is missing. Where did he say .

where he had gone? He didn't know.

He went for milk, maybe the store and I can get the kids. He's like, no in bed.

Tina and jeff went back to sleep. Assuming the mystery of sheryl late night iron would be cleared up by the morning, greg continue making calls, including to the police.

我 以前。

明白 跟 他说 的。

Not with injuries. Now where would you become from?

I no idea. 在 我 休息 之后， 兴趣 就是。

And then we got to call at six in the morning saying, you never came home.

Oh, is that where you start to panic?

yes. So my husband, I were going to look for her. He gets up, starts get dress.

I call home, I call my mom. I call my sister to start praying. So I didn't come home.

Tina is husson. Jeff jumped into action. This is serious.

Now i'm gonna go and look for sheri. I am a gun and I go looking.

so where do you go?

I start going down.

Backroads ery, draw up a red dodge caravan. Jeff searched for hours. IT was around A A M. When he spotted something.

I look at the win. A red then, yes, man, red van I draw ve around. Keep her back of a van.

And are you just feeling really uneasy at this point? Why is her van here?

right? I'm I don't see her. So i'm thinking that maybe he was robbed, she's missing.

And so I walk from my van up here, and when I got to the van, I looked in and I saw, started frantically beating on the window, share sharing. I saw blood. I ran around, open up the drivers' door because the passion door was locked.

I touched SHE was cold. I'm shaking her short. I ran around when I unlocked as the door I opened up.

And there was no doubt in my mind at that point he was, he was gone. Like, share what happened. Military is take kicked in a year, or someone called nine one one.

one.

Yes, my my first in lot is part.

My sister law is now.

as jeff waited for first responders, soi could think about where sharing .

kids IT was, oh my god, how long will tell her, her family.

a family shattered in an instant, and memories of a night that would remain shrouded in mystery for decades?

Sherry malloc had apparently run out for an iron in the middle of a family party and never came back. Her brother and la jet found her how to Sherry end up dead in this parking lot.

That was a good question, and I told the share apartment, I have no idea.

I'm in my day that morning and they tell me that they got a body at all. Now on U. S. Twenty nine.

buddy ni smith, I detected with the sandby accounting. Sherif sopha arrived at the scene the morning after Sherry disappeared. What do you see when you arrive?

Police cars, the mark cars. And then as I get close, us see some cramming tight cord and off around a red van.

Then he saw Sherry not in the driver seat, but on the passenger side.

I just peak in. I see the body crumbled in the passenger full board.

Slump down.

You have kind of push down.

As the forensic team began to gather evidence, the detective started his investigation. He learned Sherry was an air traffic controller in the navy. Did he have the nerves of steel kind of personality that SHE could handle that?

Oh yes. maam. SHE went to work. He was dead on SHE was focused. SHE was take charge.

The navy was in sherise DNA raised in a military family, he was determined to be successful from a Young age. Dd, Scott is sharan. Tina is Younger sister.

He was very active in anything and everything he can do, whether there has been a president of the french club, you know, national honor or society. SHE was in a lot. IT Carried over, you know, into her neighed career.

and she's very driven. SHE had Jacobs when he was twenty three. SHE baLanced her navy career and duties as a .

single mom. I remember most about my mom is once SHE was always happy. He loved to dance.

And for me, I feel like SHE was meant to be a mother. Yeah, like he was very good at her job. He was professor and he was at work. But I never felt like I wasn't loved. I never felt like I wasn't cared for.

But her single bomb days ended soon after he received orders to go to bermuda, where he met greg mali. Jack remembers taking to greg quickly.

keep pick me up from day time we go fishing. I mean, everything was good. I have really fond memories from from back there.

Sher's family met greg when he and Sherry returned to the states. So he's in a rock band and .

he's in the nav. yes. And um I think that he found that attractive.

He looked to me like henri winkler fans like look at it's like the fans but but he had a little jacket. So he you know he played the part.

yes. Well, some ladies, they fall for the rock star. Yes, cherian. Greg got married in the summer of ninety four. Greg had a son, two named greg, and in the next several years they welcomed three more children.

He wanted to be a mom. SHE was super sacrificial to her children.

They came first. Sherry was a hands on mom, but their dad, greg, had to take over caring for five kids on his own when he was deployed degrees SHE .

intentionally chose greece because he would be gone for one year, and he'd be back without having to approve and move the entire family, schools, jobs, everything. That was just easier for her to leave for a year and come back.

a sacrifice he thought was best for her family. After her long deployment, SHE was excited to be back home in florida.

so I had my sister back. Family reunited. IT was pretty perfect.

but the family reunion was short lived. Nearly five months later, that cousin sleep over ended with the tragic discovery.

I got a call from the E. M S, our first responders. You know, he said, we're with your husband in the index.

I parking lot. That's not a good sign. It's not are on the way to the hospital. It's not that is not a good sign.

Tina rushed to the parking lot with her sixteen year old sun.

I get there and my husband, he's crying, shaking his hard, like, and I could tell the expression on his face that he was gone. We pull over crime scene tape everywhere. ambuLance.

My son is like, what isn't Sherry that SHE was in her vehicle? Why aren't they help in her? I'm like, oh, me for all. He just launched me and his body .

should so his body just shock.

Tina was looking at her sister's van, but couldn't bear to get too close. You just stayed away.

I don't want that vision of Sherry.

How do you notify the rest of the family? I call dd.

I get the phone .

call .

and he says he is gone. And I just dropped my nes. I dropped in this. I as crime scene .

text worked over sharing van detective niece ith had a million questions. Anything could have happened. Anyone could have killer? Yes, you just don't have any idea yet. No.

we don't know who say her last. We don't haven't been able to a time line on her. I I don't know detectives .

ly Smith had IT to talk to the people who might be able to answer those questions sher's husband and all those kids but someone else was there the night SHE went missing. There's a ck on the door ice cream because it's dark outside.

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After learning her sister Sherry was dead teens, focus immediately turned to the kids still together. After their family sleep over, your heart must have immediately broken for Sherry children, good tina brought them over to her, her house, but waited to break the news while sherie husband greg headed to the share of office to talk with detective niece ith.

This interview is strictly effect finding interview. I wanted to no step by step. What happened?

Greg told him that earlier that day, their van was overheating. So while sharing and the kids were in the house, he was tinkering with IT .

shared in the back and said he pulled the vane back down and was just checking everything out under the hood. He said. Next SHE come out, told him that i'm running. I'll be right back.

greg said. He took the van around seven thirty after a while, mate dawned on him that his wife hadn't returned another hour past before. He told the kids to call IT a night.

got him in, Better the Youngest ones. And then he started call him because he had come back.

Well, greg was at the station. A different investigator came to speak to the kids at teen's house.

We had to talk to the cops and give these kind of .

statements jab described. How was mom when outside in middle of dinner and didn't come back? His ten year old cousin, lisa, talk to the police too.

Did you notice that shouldn't come back within, you know, the hour, I mean, playing Barbies in the corner. So we are doing our own thing, lisa said. He did notice when, a little while later, someone arrived at the house.

There's a knock on the door ice cream because it's dark outside. Why did the knock screw you? We're playing the boys on other side of the wall, playing their games.

It's pitch back. Did you know who was at the door? No, I did at the time.

No, but Jacob know I was just their babysitter. Jennifer. The kids went to get their dad who came out to talk to her. He was there to return a lawn mower. She's borrowed.

Gennifer left. And IT was, hey, this time to start getting ready for bed.

As Jacob was helping get the Younger kids to bed, he overheard his step father talking in the living room and sense something was wrong.

And I just hear him, like on the phone, kind of make rapid kind of phone calls. What's he's saying? I couldn't really hear him.

Once the investigator was done interviewing the kids, tina gathered them around. IT was time to tell them what happened to Sherry. I asked.

where is the very best place to be? My daughter started crying. He knew with them in. And I was like having and share your mom, as you said.

happy immediately. I just of them. I felt none for a while afterwards.

Immediately I knew he was gone. SHE was going my back wrong, knew what was going on. Tear is only three as SHE doesn't understand going on.

Terror was still her, and he is White being. Every is tears off her face, not little. And he was so little, what was? He was old.

I really just didn't understand. And what was happening? I knew that mom was gone. And i've heard that I kept asking, like, when his mom coming home.

your mom there one night and the next morning gone? Right by now, the investigation was in full swing. The medical examiner determined Sherry was shot twice in the head, but they only found one shell casing.

Wait up in her clothes, pears, to be a twenty five.

You found casing and a fragment.

Casing and a fragment.

You, are you thinking that meant he was shot in the van?

Yes, I fully believe everything happened in the vain from the blood evidence that .

I all Sherry rings were missing and her cb radio was gone from the van but IT was the position of the body that was most no worthy to the detective, pushed down like you felt like someone head.

somebody pushed her down that body. The body is not Normally crumbled like .

that to keep out of site.

Yes, yeah. That was a concealed mate .

to the detective. IT did not look like a random crime. Sherry was targeted. SHE had just spent a year abroad. He wondered if her murder could be connected to Grace.

Somehow we interviewed all our coworkers and stuff from greece. He was a longer there. SHE didn't do a whole lock there. There is no other in her life. Like.

did SHE maybe meet someone in greece? Colleague that came back to the state.

came that turned up negative.

There didn't seem to be anyone else in share his life, but there was a secret SHE shared only with her sister tina could IT be the key to solving the case.

Everything he told me in confidence, SHE didn't want me to tell anybody, but she's that. So can I tell you now?

Mother and navy party officer Sherry Miller had been found shot to death in her family's minivan back in two thousand. One, there were no security cameras covering the grocery store parking lot, but detective buddie ny. Smith found something that might be just as good. And I witness.

I ran across the guy. He worked in win dex y. And so when he got in, he had heard argument. And when he turned, he could see the shadow of people. They were arguing.

IT was a man and a woman. He was in the van, but he .

didn't get a good look at their faces.

We talk about the script. The detective didn't know if the fight the worker had scene involved, Sherry or not. His investigation moved from the parking lot back to the malaria s.

house. He wanted to know more about Sherry and greg. Sometimes the simplest cancer is the right one.

Yeah, you know, they all kiss method, keep its simple, stupid.

Simple as in, look at the husband, that wasn't a thought that occurred to share y's brother in law, jeff, after he found her in the van. Your gut reaction was not the spouse did IT. No, my brother in law, I wouldn't .

never thought he'd done that.

but there was something about the relationship that jeff didn't know. You learn something, yes, about greg? yes.

Rumor greg was having affair with another woman. I'm Jennifer was ennia .

er SHE worked in the same building as greg on the nail base. SHE was also the part time babysitter who showed up with the lawn over the night of the murder. Their affair began when Sherry was on deployment in greece, and greg was home with the kids in florida.

Originally, when he started coming over was once, maybe twice a week when he come home, SHE might be there ten minutes or so, and then he would have back to her house. Then eventually SHE starts stand a bit longer, coming over a lot earlier, stand over a lot later, a couple times he is spent tonight, but also just being more affection IT in front of you.

all that .

intentionally. But I one night I came out to say goodnight before you want to bed and him in Jennifer lying on the ground in the living room. They're got a bottle of wine and they are kind of like condoling on the the ground. We're ten, so we're Young, but we're not like we're old enough to know the kind of see affection.

Did he have any comment Better?

Did you try to hide IT or not? They kind of scooter away for a moment like we want to supposed to see them acting like that. Um and I just kind of good.

good bit at that Young age. Are you thinking my poor mom, she's in greece and greg is seems like he's being unfaithful .

to her and especially myself. Very territorial in my mom. I was an only child with my mom for the first couple years of my life, so I was protective. And i'm sure I didn't make things easy if when Jennifer came over.

Jennifer stopped coming over when Sherry returned. But tina says Sherry found out about the affair anyway from terror when you got back.

the Youngest swiss three, a mom, and ever have an argument and he said, mommy, why doesn't that you love you anymore? She's that daddy still loves me and she's like that he doesn't love you. Daddy loves Jennifer.

Sherry can fight IT in her sister and asked her to keep IT a secret. Did he know if greg was still seeing Jennifer when he gets back?

I assume so because he would say he's going to a meeting and the meeting would be over in a nine or ten, but he's coming home at two, three in the morning. She's catching them at work in greg's office or coming off elevator.

holding hands. Did SHE confront him about the relationship.

not my knowledge.

Instead, tina, as her sister tried to save the marriage.

are anniversary in August and an anniversary card. You are the most amazing man. You are perfect. Love you more every day type thing. He wanted to forgive and forget and stay strong as a family unit.

We know people have affairs, and sometimes people are able to get their marriages back on track. They were willing to fight for the marriage. That's that's what Sherry was hoping for.

right? He wanted to make this work.

Sherry and greg even took a kid free road trip that summer to try to rekindle things. They went on a little getaway. yes. So this was an attempt to really work on things and have a time alone.

at least for Sherry part.

After share y's death, tina shared her sister's secret with her husband and the rest of the family. What did you think when you heard this?

I was mad.

Tina also told the police, if you do confirm that he's having an affair, that could be the motive. The other woman.

absolutely it's is the girl.

Five days after Sherry malick murder, her family gathered to say their goodbye. Sherry was buried on the base .

on where is just now.

I remember I was a master at the function I never done that twenty one guns. Who and my grandma, my mom's mom, I will never forget. The sound that he made is one of the worst sounds have ever hurt in my life. I wasn't crying, was was wAiling out.

How was greg at the funeral?

He held terror who, although he was three, almost four, anytime you see him.

he's holding car. As the family grieved investigators, we're taking a close look at greg. They'd heard about the affair with greg's co worker and family babysitter, and not just from Sherry family. The interview Jennifer spoon SHE told them IT was true.

He admitted to IT admitted to have seen von, so if you found my prints, and there I was in the back sea, told us where they did IT off some dirt road on the .

night Sherry was killed, Jennifer said. SHE and greg exchanged a brief kiss outside when he stopped by with a lawn mower, but SHE said he knew nothing about the murder. What did he say that as first? Why SHE returned the long more at that hour on the friday back.

SHE felt he needed IT back.

So just a coincidence. Yeah, the detective went back over the details of the crime. He knew sheri van was found all the way in the back of the wind. Dicky parking lot. IT seems odd if someone's going to the grocery store for a quick run that they would park that far away from the entrance at a time when the girls y stores and packed. It's not like .

sunday afternoon, right? IT is because most people like park different law.

It's human nature, right? And there was something else.

We found her purse in a drawer beside the bear with her driver's license and her credit cards.

If she's going to the store, what then goes to the store without their purse? So that's poking some serious holes in the he went to the store to gets a milk. Yes.

then we bring greg back in. This was a cute story. We think you did IT k and we certains talk, and you would talk again. And to say a lot, just listen to us, which is fine.

Did you ask him in this interview? Did you ill your wife?

This is just, we didn't use or kill, but we said we know you harm .

your y greg denied IT and investigators had no reason to hold them, but Sherry's family was already convinced. You're thinking that greg could be responsible for this.

I know he was. I knew IT and IT .

wasn't just the affair. They'd always had a problem with greg. Jeff and tina spent a week with greg and Sherry after they got married.

new brother and all. We talked very little. He stayed in the bedroom, mostly would knock on the door.

I OK, can you give you anything? OK come out to eat. Go back to the bedroom.

This a little odd. Yes, for a new family member.

I thought so we didn't ever really get to known he didn't get this distance from us.

And on the rare occasion when greg did talk to them, they say he only seemed to be interested in one topic. You consider greg to have been money obsess.

Oh yes, well, kept talking about money whenever we did get together.

Sherry sisters were also troubled by the dynamic and greg and sherise relationship. They say, Sherry that take charge women at work seemed almost submissive with greg. He had strong opinions about how he looked.

You could no longer wear makeup. You can no longer put hair spring anything in her hair. He's like, if I kiss you, I don't want to slide off your face if I run my fingers through your hair and I want my fingers to get such he SHE changed.

greg said. It's not true, Sherry war makeup and hairspray all the time, but the notion that greg was controlling made its way to investigators still working the case. Detectives checked greg's gun collection to see if he owned twenty five calibre handgun, the same calibre as the shell casing they found. He did not. However.

I interviews a couple people who go to range with, and they said they never seen him with a twenty five, but he'd always talked about getting one. And that theyve been to the gun show within the detective.

got his hands on a list of vendors. From that gun show.

I get a list about hundred thirty names, and we just start calling.

did anyone? So when did he buy want? No.

his name never came back up on any type of purchase for farm.

You could not connect greg to a twenty five caliber at all. That's a problem.

Big problem.

What's more, as far as the kids knew, greg was home all night. There was no evidence he ever left. And if he had killed Sherry, how would you've gotten back from the wind dixi? Still, as the months went by, investigators had no other suspects.

We've done everything possible to look at other avenues, but everything goes back to Green melon.

Did any other name pop up that this could be?

No, we ran everything. We could run down if there was a crime in the area. We tried to find if you could be related. Nothing, nothing.

The investigation into that one, and only suspect hit a wall.

There is no factual evidence to make an arrest .

period in August two thousand, two, almost a year after sherie death, investigators decided to take one more crack at Jennifer. Detective nis Smith had never believed he dropped by the house that night, just by chance.

There's no, you know, no. Why did you go back? Why is a girlfriend who is having in a disappear going back on thurday night when the wife should be home?

Because Jennifer was in the navy? SHE was called in for an interview with N. C. I, S. But this time he declined and SHE .

walks assad. And that's the last time I ever saw the detective .

thought that if the case was ever going to be solved, IT would probably come down to one of two things, either Jennifer would tell them something.

or as the kids get older, honestly believe they would remember more as they got old.

What stories, what emerge? It's like you're living with the enemy.

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Sherry malaria sisters have been holding their breath, waiting for police to arrest their brother in law greg, for sher's murder. But IT wasn't happening.

I was told, you know, maybe six months, which I thought was long, but I don't know how that works.

I told body need me quick talents. Ina, that is any day now he tao, tina, we go get you any day. I says, quit talking her that because given her false, because i'm seeing my wife crumble.

To make matters worse, they say their relationship with greg had fractured the mothers day after the murder, tina and jeff showed up with balloons.

We actually winter front door or knocked, and you can see the blind remove in the kids were there. He comes out the back door screaming at, don't you ever come over here again without being invited?

I like, I just brought balloons. You didn't answer. I just buy balloons to the kids for.

don't you ever?

And we never did. We never went back again.

Greg suspect a, jeff and tina had reported him for child abuse, something they deny with the families divided. Tina and jeff s. Daughter, lisa, mr. Cousins sucks having family thirty minutes when you can ever see on he robbery from five of my cousins that I did not get to know. Growing up inside the malloc home crack was now facing life as a single dad to the five kids, ages three to the night after the murder. Jacobs says he asked them together in the living room.

kind of a family meeting about, you know, if gobs are coming around or people want to talk to you, don't talk to anybody. Family business is family business.

Jacobs says he and his siblings didn't know that police were investigating their dad, but within days of the murder, he and his eleven year old brother greg junior, began talking about what they remembered from a kid's perspective. Are you thinking robbery? He went to the store. Maybe someone tried .

to something once the shot kind of wears off. And my brother gregg, on I can of, can start confining in each other. How are things that just didn't make sense? Like our mom going to that to the store that night to get milk. Our mom was very organized the first time our cousins are ever coming into the house. I find a very hard believe you would not have been prepared for a half everything that he needed at the house.

He also never heard his mom say anything about going to the store that night.

She's to go talk to your dad so he goes outside talk that and does last time I was are could greg really .

have killed their mother? Jacobs new about the affair, of course. He says he also knew that a step father had a violent temper. He'd seen IT when his mom was deployed in greece.

He would punch holes in the wall. He would grab aspire hair, drag us up and down the that. How is one story I remember vividly? He goes to kit me in my face, and I roll out way to miss IT. But he kicked hard enough to put a hole through the door, but that's how our mornings were for almost the whole time here. IT Jacobs .

says IT wasn't long before he and his brother were convinced. You think he killed your mom. Okay, that's really scary feeling that way given that you're living with ham. Yeah how do you handle that?

One were terrified. So we didn't really talk to anybody. We couldn't talk anybody.

Jacobs says he was so afraid he even sleep fed with a knife funder as bad. You're fearful of the one person who's supposed to keep you safe. It's like you're living with the enemy, yes. As they grew up, Jacobs says he tried to shield the Younger kids, including terror, from his suspicions and from the abuse he says he suffered.

I felt like a protector of my siblings, my brother greg, and I got the right of the abuse being the other ones. I can handle that I can handle them receiving that you're being .

the protective older brother. Terror, who was seven years Younger, has very different memories. Jacobs, that he sleep with knives because they were so afraid of your dad. Are you aware of that?

IT surprises me. I definitely don't know the man that that they did that they've described as the angry, abusive guy that was just never had. I didn't see that guy. You know.

greg also denies he ever abused his children. How was he as a dad growing up?

He was supportive of me. He's shared his love for music with me. He's very much a teacher, so I think I was the only one that kind of grass found to a lot of his interests as well.

Greg took terror on road trips and flew her to new york to see a broadway show. Is a single dad. He says he recognized how important that was for her to have women in her life.

My dad, actually, I didn't that email role model. He actually put me in a youth girl's organization where there were a lot of ladies and there were other girls that, you know, I could hang out with.

but there was one woman, terror said he did not want to to hang out with her dad's girlfriend. Jennifer SHE started coming over all the time after the murder. What did the kids think of that?

We didn't really like her very much as he wasn't her mom. There was a time dad was hugging the two of us, Jennifer and I, and said something like, you know, my two favorite girls. And I said, well, I thought mom was wanting her favor.

Girls too, and SHE slam out of the yard garden. Her car sped off and did not come back for hours. I didn't understand that response.

Like, yeah, that's that's my mom. That was his wife. Like you can be mad about that.

Eight years after sheryl death, Jennifer er and her children moved in.

We had to rearrange the house for all the kids because he had her two boys. And when we did that, he started kind of getting rid of everything of .

mom and house terrace. Things got Better two or three months later when Jennifer moved out, though Jennifer and her dad did continue to date. Then a few years after that, terror received an upsetting message.

I was fifteen years old when mi cousin message me on facebook, basically saying, your dad killed your mom.

Did you know that this was a possibility at this time, or that those allegations were out there? No, so this is, this is that that .

was very shocking for me at fifteen years old .

to get a message like that.

Well, I went to my dad and I said, I want to read you something because I don't know what to do with this and he know he he told me, I don't understand why they would think that.

Did you say to him? Is that true?

I asked him, yeah and he said, no, of course not, you know, he gave me a hug and he told me everything was going to be .

OK by this point in terrorist life. Jacket was out of the house. He was living with his girlfriend and pencil a and attending college. He was trying to see greg as little as possible.

I don't want to have a relationship with him, but my Younger siddle still lived in his house, so if I wanted to have a relationship with them, I had to crack the open to him to have access to them.

When Jacob got married in two and fifteen, he made the tough decision to send his stepfather in invite jane.

Jane and terror would not be able to come without him. At the time, I think terran j still lived. So if I wanted them here, I had to invite him to my work.

But even as they posed for pictures together, Jacobs still believed that greg had murdered his mother. Are you thinking that he'll never pay for this?

Yeah, I am a person of faith, and I just thought he would have to answer for one day. But I won't be in this way.

Was Jacob bright? Maybe not. The case had gone cold, but was about to heat up while he's outside. I hear a like .

a firework.

like a firefight. SHE might have been a witness to the actual shooting of Sherry.

yes.

As the years went by, Sherry malaya s. Family was losing faith that greg would ever be arrested. After the sheriff department hit a dead end, the navy took the lead on the investigation.

A new agent would come on, start from square one. Never get IT finished work on IT, but never get IT tied up and pretty little bow transfer. A new agent would come on, pick IT up started square one in IT just was endless.

Then in twenty, seventeen, sixteen years after Sherry was killed, the family sends to change when a new N, C, I S. Agent got the case.

he started just kind of keeping in touch, saying, hey, still will work on case. Hey, don't want you think I drop the ball.

Did you think finally something might happen?

We were hopeful, yes.

upon initial review is obviously there was a strong likelihood of making in an arrest .

in this case way, right? And investigator with the state attorneys office, god involved too. Why did you feel that way?

Is really important investigators to keep your mind open to all possibilities. That means that in this case, when I read through IT, there was obviously a prime suspect.

The case seemed to rely heavily on the memories of children, so the investigators went back through the files and found tapes of the kids talking about that night. I asked him, my moment was, and he said at the store, greg junior remembered his dad doing something unusual. Did your dad didn't come into the house at some point? Yes, he came in the house.

Take shower when your dad would Normally take a shower when he take IT in the morning at night morning. Do you know how long he was in the shower? Fifteen years, the investigators wondered, was that part of greal abi had he made IT look like he was showering so he could sneak out and drive the van to the wind?

Dixi, over the years long, enforcement had never been able to find the murder weapon or establish that greg gone to twenty five calibre handgun. But back in two thousand, two Young jacotot detectives, a story that seemed to solve the mystery. He said he stepped, dad did have that type of gun.

A little one was smart than my hand. IT was black, I think in the bottom of the handle was rounded. When did you see that gun? As 那边 都 听不出来。

and that was the only time we ever saw that. And we're told he got a from a gunship and that he got from a described .

as so as small would fit in the palm your hand.

which would be a twenty five calibre petition.

He would be .

consistent because in lisa also added a critical detail. The new investigators called the erin for a fresh interview. SHE repeated something. SHE told detectives as a kid about a sound SHE heard while the grown ups were outside. You heard a pop coming from outside.

What did you think I was? Like the explosion of the bottle rocket and like that the noise I hurt on, like a parroco exploding, was IT possible. That sound was a gunshot. SHE might have been a witness to the actual shooting of Sherry.

That would be one distinct possibility. yes.

Now the stories painted a damming picture, but what investigators didn't have was DNA or any forensic evidence that tied greg to the crime. In twenty twenty, they called a meeting at the state of turney office.

There were shared office investigators there. There was N, C, I, S, there, myself and a number different prosecutors. So we wanted to present the case, see if there's anything else that needed to be done.

One thing high on everyone's list reinterview Jennifer stone.

who returns a long more at .

nine o'clock at night, they discovered Jennifer had left florida and moved north to illinois. That could be an opening now that these two aren't together anymore, or IT appears there, not together. absolutely. Maybe, just maybe, he might be ready to turn on him.

That was part of our thought processes.

Waye, in the navy investigator, took a trip to the town of west Frankfort. The local police brought Jennifer in without telling her what I was about.

What was her face like when .

he walked in the room and saw you sitting there? SHE seemed .

almost frightened. But by the same token, I tell this is a very strong individual. Mark, can I been working on this, uh, cold case from wave up in two thousand? One in. In which case, on talk of details.

yes, how did you end up at great house at that time? On that night? What did you guys discuss that to tell you to combine a certain time? Or did you say I just trap .

I now I get restless and we had both long and I had this more.

You just happens a lot more over to that, to his house.

There is no discussion, and I is them and take them .

on that. You show up just out of the blue, and you have a long more. How do you think that appears from.

all right?

Oh, OK, when you very, the tone was all good cup. Maybe that would bring her around. Do you think .

it's possible that he was .

involved or impossible? We've asked .

the whole much questions.

You have any questions is.

She's give us anything more than machine given them twenty years ago.

But even without Jennifer, prosecutors believe they had built a plausible circumstantial case. I mean, just hearing IT IT sounds bad, but IT sounds.

then it's thin. But we thought that we could prove .

IT in cord without forensics or the gun. They're be largely relying on two things, motive and the children's memories. Still, they decided to go for IT. Nineteen years after sherries murder, share of step is arrested. Greg malorie at his house.

I was excited. Ten is .

crying .

and is updated. Finally.

I was very surprised, and I never expected in a million years for that to happen.

Jacobs ster terra had a different reaction.

The only thing I remember is just crying. I had never cried that much my entire life.

You've already been through so much in your life, and then now your dads arrested for your mom's murder .

was very shocking.

Greg pleaded not guilty to second degree murder and hired criminal defense attorney Chris crawford. Crawford looked at the initial arrest report and thought the case was more than just then.

So i'm looking at this report thinking myself, this is nothing I remember telling him. I don't even know why you are arrested. And this is the kind of case that may just get dismissed.

What he didn't know was that investigators weren't finished right after greg was arrested, they went back at Jennifer.

I wanted to make the point that circumstances just changed. Flag, Better term crap just got real. So let her know we're not playing anymore and arrest has been made and it's time to tell the truth.

Was Jennifer ready to do that? Will let her tell you herself. Are you thinking to yourself Sherry is dead in that ban?

No, i'm thinking to myself, how in the world did I get into this?

Hey, friends, ted dancing here and I want to let you know about my new podcast. It's called where everybody knows your name with me dances and woody Harrison doing this podcast is a chance for me and my good bud woody, to reconnect after cheers wrapped thirty years ago, plus for introducing each other to the friends we've met, sins, jane and my wife and flea from the red hot chili peppers.

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More than twenty years after sharing melvina's death, Jennifer stone SAT down with date line in her first ever TV interview. This is not an easy thing for .

you to talk about and at .

all do you have regrets?

Um yes, i've made only decisions that I regret, but I can go back and change IT so all I can do is go forward and try to let the family know what I knew.

SHE told us how the affair started. SHE and greg were coworkers. Sherry was out of the country.

He asked if I could come over and watch the kids. He was going out. And when he got home, the kids fall asleep.

We went to the kitchen and we ports some wine. And that's when he, he kissed me OK. And then I started from there.

Then did you sleep .

together that night?

We did you being in the navy yourself, you know, the sacrifice that men and women make that night?

I didn't know, didn't know. I didn't know about sharing that night.

You don't know he was married now.

I didn't think he would do that. I mean, I figured this is a guy.

If he's got kids in the house, you don't think maybe there's a wife. You can see any photos around the house, sir. No one mentioned mom.

I don't know.

You think maybe you didn't want to .

know IT probably was .

IT when Jennifer met greg. SHE was a divorced, single mom, pregnant with another man's child and struggling .

with finances. I was going to the spirit where I felt awful about myself. So here's this man that was still make me feel more beautiful again.

They did little to hide their relationship. Sherry son told us that he saw you and greg on the floor on the carpet with the wine yeah, he was very Young and that's a memory that's sid in his brain and didn't know .

that affected him that much. but. Greg was always that were bad kids. They will remember.

SHE says the relationship continue to heat up. Then Sherry returned home from abroad. She's back, but used to are still seen each other, right?

He would, he would come over and he'd picked me up and then we go driver around and we talk or, um that's when he started ask me to go get a hotel room. So we did that a few times.

Did SHE know about you? I didn't know if he knew not.

And did I feel bad about? I felt bad about IT wasn't .

until all you respect though you're a grown woman yeah and you can end things .

sure yeah okay. And when you end IT what supposed to happen? He's supposed to stop coming over. I couldn't even end IT.

There was no idea to him, according to Jennifer. Greg did have an idea of how to end things with Sherry.

Hey, goes as well at this point. I've been through the divorce. I don't want to go through this again and IT would be .

easier just to clear. Okay.

what's your reaction to that? It's nonsense. You don't don't kill your wife and it's not gonna be easier. I even told him, I said, the kids, neither mother, I mean, can't kill her because what are what you going to the kids? What are you going going to tell them?

But was there a part of hindle that you thought was serious if you're bringing up the kids? And what are they going to do without their mom? That doesn't sound like joking, even a bad joke. Oh, no. But I didn't .

think he would be serious. I didn't think .

he could do IT. Jennifer says he continued to bring IT up. Why not say anything? Why not share?

Because I not believing because you're not believing .

he's going to do this, but he's getting pretty darn specific within tions to you. On the night in question, he says greg told her to meet them at the vindex y parking lot at seven pm.

I fall up next to the van. He's got out of the van. He got in the car. And then we looked.

did you look in the van? no. Did you ask him? What did you do? What am I doing here?

No.

then he says he told her to drive him home. What's the conversation like on the way to his house?

The conversation is, drive slowly, don't speed. Just take me to us. He had a wake on. So when he got into the car and we pulled out a windex, he and started going down the main highway, he took the wake off and threw out the window.

Are you thinking to yourself, Sherry is dead in that ban?

No, i'm thinking to myself, how in the world that I get into this this home is because I knew, I knew I was, I knew what happened and I could not believe he did IT that she's done yeah. Why elsewhere .

to be there? Why not just say at this point, i'm out.

I can't. I'm too far and.

When they arrived at the house, Jennifer says greg went around to the back. Per his instructions, he waited five minutes and knocked on the front door.

The kids answer the door. They said they gonna a get dad pretty SONY came out.

Is this to establish .

an alibi? I that he was there, the whole.

he says he came to the door with some bags and clothes.

He told me to get rid of him, and I went .

home two days later. Sher's murder was all over the news. How did you live with yourself, knowing, knowing what had happened, knowing what was in here .

one at the time, yet nothing. Trying to.

He just do. Did you think about Sherry, sun, Jacob, about all of Sherry children?

Now, no one. I went through a lot of girl t because I keep thinking all the things that I needed to do, all the things I wanted to do, and all the things that still needed to be done with the kids. And SHE didn't get that chance.

With Sherry out of the picture, Jennifer was free to step under her role. Eventually, SHE moved in, taking care of her kids.

And greg would be my responsibility to go home, make the dinner, get ready home from school, take care of all the clothing, making sure where they got cleaned up for bed, making sure the'd got their homework, clean the house.

Sounds like you replay Cherry.

I didn't, and I didn't last long. I wasn't IT there more than three months.

What happened? I lost my mind. There's going to be people watching this who will say SHE read a family SHE knew about a murder that was going to happen.

SHE helped cover up the murder. This is a shameful woman. Do you care what people think?

Not at this point. I did what I did. I know I was wrong. I made some bad decisions, but when you make that bad decision does no going back.

I'm sorry for .

what I did. I'm sorry for my part of IT.

Still, the relationship lasted for nearly two decades, and Jennifer kept the secret until the new investigators came calling and made, or an offer hard to resist full immunity. In exchange, SHE would be the prosecution store witness against greg malorie. Did you have any fear that the jury might not believe her?

Of course, that that was the biggest fear.

From the moment her father was arrested for murder, terror, mali believed there had been some kind of terrible mistake. Of all greg children, SHE was the closest. Are you thinking to yourself? And my dad wouldn't have done this.

Yes is not. yes. I was like, well, this is like real right now. So jack, of kind of consoled .

me jacket, comforted his little sister, but he could no longer shelter her from what he had long suspected, that greg murdered their mother. Did that divide disabling?

I D say no, because we grew up, I mean, tightened, built in best friends. At first there would be some conversations we'd have that would get a little bit, okay, let's not go here. But after we had a talk, we said, look, our relationship and what we've got a siblings is more important than anything. And we don't .

want to lose IT. I was torn like, I want justice for my mom. And then terror is very close with our dad still. So now, not only was he abb of having a month for a whole life, but for Better or worse, now he could possibly lose the only parent that he does have.

Terra supported her dad as he awaited a trial.

I started going back to the house to hang out, and that turned into me, you know, really being there most of the time, until I just officially moved back in.

How anxious are you? There's so much on the line now for you. Done a very .

anxious. I really try to prepare myself for what I was going to hear, but I told myself, you know, you gotta go into this unbiased and with an open mind and just listen.

The trial got under way in june twenty twenty two. The charge against greg melli had been raised to a first degree murder, but IT was still a circumstantial case and IT would be up to assistance. Stay atterley amy show to pull all the evidence together.

This is not a forensic case. There is no piece of evidence that a smoking gun is gonna point. One person or another is the circumstances.

In court, he painted greg as a cheating husband who wanted an easy way out of his marriage.

I wanted them to understand the defendant was the one with the motive, the means in the opportunity.

The prosecutor laid out her theory of the .

crime he had planned out in his mind to do IT and to dispose the body, his aliva, the seven children that are sitting in the kitchen, those kids either not paying attention or they could easily be controlled, be manipulated. It's almost the perfect alive for him. So all he has to do is lower her out into the backyard, kill her and then dispose of the body, which is what he did, drove the van up to windy c. And then Jennifer assist him in getting back to the house and disposing of the rest of the property.

Jacobs testified for the prosecution.

My rope was to give a time line about my mom and greg from when they met to the night of, and then give a recount of the night how I remember IT Jacob hadn't .

seen a step father since his wedding seven years earlier.

We made ee contact. And I remember i'm kind of giving me a look of like he felt betrayed, or even like common enterance that I have pity on me or something like this. I was I was .

strange to show premeditation. The state presented an email greg sent to Jennifer two months before share IT was killed.

IT was just a link to a news article entitled how to beat a lie detector test. Are worse to that effect.

okay. So that shows that they're thinking about light detector tests, correct? Or one of them is.

But the most important piece of the prosecution case was Jennifer spooned herself. Did you worry that they might not believe you? Because all this time had passed. And why didn't you say anything?

I figured they were gona spin IT however they wanted to. And some people gona believe me, someone not gonna believe me. I I wasn't in my control.

Jennifer testified about the affair with greg and what he did the night of the murder, how SHE met greg at the wind dicky and later discarded those bags he gave her SHE showed us the bridge where he said, SHE, toss the evidence. So why did you choose this river, this area, to come to in middle the night?

Because i'd been driving around for a while and couldn't find a place that was secluded, quiet. And when I came down this road, nobody was down here. There was no moon. There is no lights, completely dark.

So you came up here to this bridge. I get, and you get out of your car. You've got the bags. I do. Did you know what was in the bags?

I didn't know everything. I know a couple of things because they're .

easy identified, including greg clothes and the C. B. radio. He said he took from the minivan to make IT look like a robbery. And there was something else, something crucial to the case.

I pulled out the gun, but I was wrapped, so didn't actually touch the gun.

The gun, as in the missing murder weapon, Jennifer testified that SHE threw IT in the river. Two investigators searched the river but never found anything. Tossing the gun was a new piece of information, he added. When meeting with attorneys before trial, did you have any fear that the jury might not believe her? Of course.

that that was the biggest fear anyway, in dealing with her, because twenty years later, all of a sudden, you you get a witness that never said anything before. And now of a sudden, this is what he says.

The one thing about Jennifer hust is her story was always changing. Now we didn't know what version we were going to get from time to time.

Defense attorney Chris crawford poked holes in Jennifer credibility .

as on question. And I can kind of like see IT in my mind's eyes. SHE doesn't really know what she's talking about that the since I SHE was just saying things for the sake of saying IT and truthful, he was this just not asking more and more questions because she's going to digging herself .

a deeper hole more and more and more.

Did you tell the truth about what happened .

is best I could I tell the truth?

yes. You mean as best as you recall?

Well and then the way they asked question, they get a little confusing and they don't let you expand on any answers, they just say yes or no.

The defense also accused the enforcement of conducting a shot I investigation .

in the trial, we were wanting to present the the idea that we don't know who did IT, but the investigation was so bad, you can't say beyond the reasonable doubt. IT was crack.

IT took years to test the cloth. Sherry was wearing the night of the murder. And when they finally did, there's DNA found on Sherry shorts that doesn't belong to her IT wasn't greg's DNA either.

What's more, the defense has greg never gave us close to, Jennifer crawford argued greg clothes from that night were tested and came back negative for blood. Sherry sisters thought the defense case was weak, but still they were on edge as the jury went off to deliberate. Were you nervous that there? Is that always a possibility that he could get off?

absolutely.

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IT was late afternoon at the escambia county courthouse, and greg mellican defense attorney had no idea if he'd convinced the jurors to acquit his client. How are you feeling when it's all said and done and they are in that room deliberating scared.

very, very, very scared.

As everyone waited an alternate or who'd been released, talk to.

he said to me, guilty hand down. But I wasn't even a question for him.

The weight wasn't long. IT had taken more than twenty years to get here, and just two hours to deliberate. The jurors had news.

They were deadlocked. The judge ordered them to keep going, but to no avail. IT was a hong jury. That's a tough moment for you. Yes.

we were told to prepare. And no matter what, either way, you could go either way. You never know what a jar.

but still you have emotions you are feeling. What are .

you defeated?

yeah. repeat. IT yp.

Wonder later told the prosecutor the final vote had been ten to two for a conviction. That's a real let down for you.

especially IT .

was so close. So now what? And found out there's kind of we have to do this all over again and that was a hard pills to swallow because that's not something you want to go through one time, let alone two times. Um it's just ugly and it's it's nasty.

As both sides prepared for a second trial, greg defensive torney felt lucky to have a new day in court. So that's by the skin of your teeth that you're getting another chance.

That's literally how i've described IT for a year. We got by the skinner .

bert as the .

second trial got underway, the state again called Jacobs to describe what he remembered from .

his mom's last day. He said he was to talk her that. And so he went outside. And that was the last time Jacobs cousin lisa .

testified about that noise SHE heard coming from outside.

Now, while your playing marbles, do you remember anything else said?

Yes, a hearted pop noise. What kind of that sounded like a bottle rocket exploding? Where was the .

defendant when that had he .

was outside?

Was this when our Sherry was outside?

also? Yes.

the state suggestion IT wasn't a bottle rocket that lisa heard. That was a gunshot, a police. The prosecution also called greg junior, who told the jury about a time he saw his dad using a metal detector in the backyard.

Where was he using IT in relation to where the van had been parked the night of such return? First.

the exact same spot. I saw him dig in a little. I did seem doing that as well.

the state argued. Greg was searching for that missing shell casing.

That was a circumstance that was added to the rest of the the circumstances in the case. And after a while, you get so many of these circumstances that can't just be coincident anymore .

this time around, the prosecutor emphasized two arguments. First, he said the fact that Sherry was killed in the passenger seats proved he knew the shooter.

Why did SHE get in the passenger see them in and who could have .

later do that? He had to arguably trust whoever got her into the passenger seat of that van.

correct?

He also focused on motive, not just the affair, but money. yes. An investigator testified about phone calls greg made to financial institutions on the night of the murder.

Who was that calme to a navy .

federal credit again?

Supposedly.

he was always frequently checking on the account, making calls about the money. But that is quite ironic that you're gone to kill your wife. And the first thing you're going to check on is money right after that exhibit.

the state also pointed to share his life insurance policy. How much money are we talking about that he would gain from her death?

Well, just from the insurance benefits that came from the military was two hundred and fifty thousand dollar policy, which by the time I was paid out, was two hundred, almost two hundred and sixty thousand dollars.

Once again, the prosecution saved its most important witness for last.

Jennifer, were you in love with memory? C.

I was.

did you always do what he told you to do? Yes, why?

Because they get upset if I didn't.

At the second trial, Jennifer shared a chilling detail about .

the shooting at one point. Told me that when he had shot her that um he didn't ker and he said that he was upset and he couldn't take IT back and he said he was feel feel really guilty about IT but he said he was always shot so he was already, you know he was already guilty so he went in hand shotter again.

Did he think he was still alive?

Yeah he said the first time he was still .

a lie so he shot her again. IT was a damning story for greg but the defense was about to point the finger in a whole new direction.

She's the one that by the efforts had the means, the motive and the opportunity to do this.

Greg mala, icc torney, was getting a second chance to convince a jury his client was not a cold blooded killer. For starters, he pointed to more mistakes made in the investigation.

IT was a parade of errors for twenty years.

Key pieces of evidence were left sitting on the shelf for years, like that shell casing recovered from inside sheryl clothes during the autopsy.

They know that whoever touched that shell casing clearly was involved in this mr. So DNA. That kind of stuff in the shell case in would be vally important yet again for more than a decade. They don't .

do any anything. They the when investigators finally submitted IT to the crime lab in two thousand six, crayford says the text used glue to try to get fingerprints off the casing.

But you know what happens when you coat something with blue, you can't get DNA anymore. And that was another big disaster.

The defence's case had a major weakness. Greg sons had testified against him, but this time they had someone to counter them. Greg's daughter, terror.

you have this massive skis. M as massive division in the family, where a good number of family members have terror, had reconnected .

with sher's family as a teenager, and SHE testified that SHE sometimes felt uneasy .

around them. Why would you be not wanting to be around their family members?

Sometimes IT seemed as if, or most of the time, IT seemed as if everything was always centered around mom's death. IT made IT uncomfortable sometimes.

So terror was very Young at the time, is actually end up. But terror does know what was happening with different fAiling MERS. And and that's what we thought was important, was why are the kids at least shake up? And somewhat gregory against correct how this happened?

The implication from the defense was clear. Sherise family had tried to turn the kids against their dad. This was hard for you.

very hard.

SHE is supporting her father.

SHE was daddy s little girl.

He was terra says the main reason he took the stand was not to talk about her mom's family, but to talk about .

Jennifer stone. How would enter at there were pictures or items of your mothers sharing and house?

When when I got my own room, SHE d started bringing them to me, saying, would you, would you like this?

Would jenner er be upset or not wanting to be around pictures of Sherry IT .

seems that way. Greg's attintion .

took IT a step further, suggesting Jennifer wasn't merely an insensitive filin mom. He said SHE was the killer.

She's the one that, by the evidence, had the means, the motive and the opportunity to do this. General pones losing her house, general reston's going through the words, and her lifeline is being taken from her SHE, supporting not just herself, but her mother and her sister. SHE has a son on the way from a gentleman who literally wants nothing to do with her or the child.

This person was in an insanely desperate situation back then. He needed greg a thousand and million times more than greg needed her. SHE looked that greg as this safer when all this happened, you were such bad financial and everything else that without him you .

couldn't made IT.

What's true isn't IT?

Yes.

SHE won't share his life. So he took IT. That's what this cases .

about the argument was he wanted your mom's life. Did you agree with that? Yes, wanted IT enough that he could take her life.

Yeah.

why did you think that?

Because we have mean he was.

But perhaps the strongest witness was this man who testified remotely. He's the vindex I employee who talk to investigators early on about seeing two people arguing in the parking lot .

on the night Sherry was killed. What do you .

remembers seeing loud argument started taking place? The part that in my go was that over tune on tube s one. Then you, man, set up each approach to test your side.

What do you remember next?

We can turn around.

That time we heard pop pop that indicated .

Cherry may have been shot in the parking lot, not at home. The eyewitness didn't tell investigators about that pop sound until years later, but there was one thing he'd been certain .

ough from the beginning. And they shows you the days later, the house did you pick up red mall?

No.

the person you sold that night was a great mallory.

No, definitely not greg. His attorney suggested that maybe he wasn't a man at all. Once again, he circled back to Jennifer.

Is possible SHE had her hair up. She's in the military so possible that he had shorter hair. That time.

at the end of the trial, the defense asked the jury to consider this.

look, what Jennifer is equally is guilty, and he could be equally the one that pulled the trigger. And that's what you think you have to vote. Not guilty.

This was a big helping of reasonable doubt.

absolutely.

Was the jury buy IT? How is greg feeling? Greg was shot?

In his second trial for murder, greg malloc s defense team didn't just suggest the state star witness was a liar. They painted her as the real killer. Greg defense pointed the finger at you and so that you had the motive, you had the means that you killed Cherry because you wanted to be with greg. I didn't think I could .

go through that then. I don't think I could do IT now to take another life like that.

Did you kill Sherry?

No, I did not.

Did you think that there was a possibility that Jennifer killed your mom? As me defense was saying me, know.

I always expected he was on to pull the trigger in the back corner of the guard.

Whether Jennifer participated or not had no bearing on her future. SHE had that promise of full of munich and exchange for her story. But greg was facing life in prison. His fate was in the hands of twelve new jurors.

I thought this trial was stronger for the prosecution than the first one. Even the defense say that genre did IT and the genera did IT. Then greg was guilty too.

Chris crafter tried to manage his clients expectations.

I'm telling great lesson. This is a mr. You know, someone Normally has to pick and you're the guy that the crossings were on. So I can't I couldn't give them any kind of assurance.

After nearly nine hours of deliberation, the jury had a verdict .

and bring the jury.

Tina, I was just holding hands like just looking down. I wasn't even I don't even know that I was looking up for you. No.

just kind of know whether jury find us, follows us to the count charging and.

Not guilty as .

a devastating IT just didn't seem real.

A lot of letdowns for you, for your families.

It's the same as it's been for the past twenty two years.

This time, it's not guilty.

My immediate thought was this over legally, there's no other recourse is done and then after that, very angry. I don't understand how you can go from almost a conviction to anus.

In the back row, terror had mixed feelings.

because you want justice for mom. But I was happy I wasn't gonna lose dad. I was happy the jury saw the things that I see.

I mean, I was definitely relieved. I, you know, not to have to know more on my dad. Basically.

greg had maintained his innocence for more than twenty years now. He was a free man. How's greg feeling?

Greg was .

shocked. So was the prosecutor .

was actually .

very surprised what happened because you have Jennifer stone saying he did. This was IT that they thought the defensive argument that I might have been her and so they weren't comfortable or maybe they didn't believe her.

It's a twenty year old case. SHE doesn't come out with the story until now twenty years later.

So I have .

no idea why they decided what they decided.

Both of people agreed that greg was not guilty. Does that mean that they think you had something to do with IT?

It's and sisters that watched the whole thing and they came back and they said, yeah, I mean, according to the the cord IT really does make you look like you did IT. And that surprised to me. All I can say is he had a good defense attack.

Y do you think, greg is.

I think from a legal same point. yes.

So what does that mean?

Ah it's a good question. So the way I think of that is, if I feed these facts to a reasonable diet computer, what would the computer come out with? And I think the computer would come out with.

There is reasonable though, but do you think your client is innocent?

I waive her on that. There was days that are that we're looking at this evidence and i'm thinking, man, yeah, I can understand why he's the process, but I can understand why everybody is point the thing thing and then there's days i'm looking at saying there's no way this is physically possible. There's no way this weird evidence what exists the way that exists if he did IT. So that that was always where we were at. And that's why when i'm looking back at the jury and I think that was the right decision.

greg malaria declined our request for an interview. He's still living in the house he one shared with Sherry and is trying to pick up the pieces. How does your dad go on? He's been acquitted, but the family is turned up, and he's been through two trials. Everyone knows the stories. Some people believe he did this.

He's having a hard time moving forward after this, you know, and he had a lot of feelings. He's having a hard time .

with all of IT. More than twenty years after that fun family sleep over sher's loved ones are still dealing with the fallout memories of a night that destroyed their childhoods and split a family. And two jackup and his little sister haven't spoken since the verdict.

I've got a lot of anger in my heart right now that i'm trying to deal with, and that's why I have put tera off for a moment, is I need to deal with my stuff and I get IT SHE lost her mom, you don't want lose the only parent you have. But when things have been bad for her, I was done one there.

Jacor told us he's very protective of you. He he loves you and he's thinking about reconnecting, but you all are just not there yet.

I'm writing. Whenever he is, he's been one of my biggest supporters in life. and. I love him so much.

IT seems that youtube should .

be talking, so that's i'm really .

when he is.

That's all for this edition of data line and check out our talking date line podcast, Andrea canning and josh makos. We will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode available wednesday in the date line feed. Wherever you get your podcast, we will see you again sunday at nine eight central. I'm lester home for all of us at nbc news. Good night.

Hey, i'm yh hei, and i'm the host of the optimistic project. This is the podcast that asks what gives you hope. Each week I sit down with change makers you may or may not know from comedy, music, academia and more to uncover what inspires them to create a Better tomorrow.

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