Righteous Obsession
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Tonight on Dateline. I want my husband. He didn't make it. No, no. A call came out about a possible home invasion and homicide. My dad never made it to the hospital.

The wife was alive. She described a very violent assault. A masked intruder killed her husband and robbed them. I could just feel the blood dripping down my face. This is a terrible thing this woman's been through. Yes, sir. Slowly, this story unraveled. What I did was a horrible thing. I'm thinking, how sick is this? A place where I asked the devil to help me. Obsession and manipulation. Correct.

The depth that they went to and the plot twists. The last thing I thought I would ever hear. I don't know if anyone knew that it was going to end this way. Get ready for the twisted tale of an angel, a devil, and evil right out of the Bible. I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline. Here's Dennis Murphy with Righteous Obsession.

It shouldn't have happened here. Not in this tidy, manicured subdivision that just seems to cry out, "It's a safe place." It was such a shock. I remember instantly losing, like just crying. No one here in Elizabeth City, a sleepy North Carolina waterfront community, could imagine that this beloved local businessman and his wife could figure in such a truly dark tale of lust, obsession, and manipulation.

Oh, the time will remember it forever. She's telling him, "This is all in your head. You're just very jealous." There were shifting stories, lies piled upon lies, and an act of biblical betrayal that ended in murder. It sounds like a Lifetime movie. That was my exact words. The whole story was crazy to me. It was surreal. Only when secrets crawled out into the daylight was the full scale of the horror known. I never thought I would ask, "How did you kill him?"

The last time that I saw Dad and Angel, they came to Raleigh and helped me move into a new house. In the summer of 2018, Caleb Sawyer was a 20-year-old engineering student when his dad, Milton, and stepmom, Angel, drove the two and a half hours from the family home in Elizabeth City to help with his move. How did things seem between them? Things seemed very good. Very giggly, happy, like just like a couple that just got together almost.

Three days after Caleb said goodbye, that giddy joy he remembers sensing was extinguished.

Most people were sound asleep in Elizabeth City at around 2 a.m. on that sultry August night when Angel, bleeding from a head wound, raced to get help from her neighbor Carl, who called 911. Her story was ghastly. 911.

Not long after midnight, a masked man dressed all in black had slipped into Milton and Angel's home and attacked them both. Angel, her voice audible in the background of the 911 call, described being brutally pistol-whipped.

She says the guy broke into the house. He has a gun. She's got blood on her face where he hit her with the gun. In that call for help, Angel sobbed as she relayed details of the barbarous assault. He robbed their house to call their money.

Angel said she feared the worst for her husband. She can't get him to wake up or anything like that. Need you to respond to Darien Drive. Possible homicide. About 2 o'clock in the morning, a call came out about a possible home invasion homicide. Just a couple of miles away, Sergeant Jason Wheelbarger, then a patrol deputy, jumped into his vehicle and raced to the subdivision.

So you're running hot to this location? Yes, sir. First, he talked to the neighbor who'd made the 911 call. I asked him if he was okay, which he replies to me, I'm fine, but you need to talk to her. I turned to the right, and that's where I saw Angel Sawyer. Knew her by sight? Correct. I knew Milton, and I knew Angel was his wife.

In fact, the deputy had seen Angel having dinner with Milton at a local Italian restaurant just a few hours before. Did you see the blood on her? Yes, yes, she had blood. I believe it was on her right temple coming down. She was obviously upset, had been crying, red face, red eyes. I remember she had the duct tape on her left wrist. I said, Angel, where's Milton? And she looks up to me and she said, he's on the floor of the bathroom.

Fire rescue was on its way and would transport a very shaky Angel to the ER. Meanwhile, more deputies arrived. As far as they were concerned, Angel's home was an active crime scene. Either Milton was in distress and needed help, or there could be a suspect in this house. So you've got your sidearms available and you're stepping cautiously here. You don't know what you're getting into. Correct.

With no sign of forced entry, the deputies entered through the unlocked back door, guns drawn, to clear the house. We open up the door and we announce, Sheriff's Office, anybody in here come out. Clear the house. The deputy made his way into the bedroom, hypervigilant. The bedroom is complete disarray. Trashed. Just trashed. Drawers out, jewelry everywhere. You could barely find a spot on the carpet to walk on without stepping on something. It looks like this is where an assault or something would have happened.

Then he looked toward the adjacent bathroom. I mean, I could see somebody's legs laying on the floor. That's where I found Milton was laying face down on the floor of the bathroom. Milton, about six foot tall and 220 pounds, was motionless.

Do you know if he's gone? He was laying with his hands behind his back, duct tape, which was similar to the duct tape I had just seen on Angel. So I go up and I check Milton's pulse. He's cold, stiff. I cannot find a pulse on him. And inside the bathroom, there was like a stand next to the toilet that had been knocked over. There was a drop of blood next to the toilet. A struggle had happened. Here's a guy you knew. Mm-hmm.

This guy around town. Mm-hmm. You'd seen him, what, just a few hours before? Yep. And now here he is dead on his bathroom floor. Yep.

As more law enforcement personnel descended on the house, Major Aaron Wallio took charge of the crime scene. I got to say, it's a nice, tidy place. People here must have been freaked out. It's not a neighborhood we respond to at all. Everybody knows everybody in this neighborhood. We're definitely working on the home invasion. It looked like a home invasion. Milton Sawyer, is that a name known to you? Yes, sir, it is. He's a nice guy. Everybody knows him. So why Milton, he wondered. Why murder?

When we come back, could money be a motive for Milton Sawyer's murder? She probably had $50,000 to $100,000 worth of jewelry. Investigators dig in. First clues and first questions. The fact that Milton appeared to have been strangled was, in my experience, unusual for a home invasion going wrong.

It was still in the early hours of August 2nd, 2018, when Milton's son Caleb, two and a half hours away from home, was learning something bad had happened. I got a knock on the door. I opened the door to find my dad's friend, and all he told me was, something's happened with your dad, and I need to take you home. So that had to be a bad drive. I tried to stay optimistic. Caleb's dad was more than just dad. He was also a close friend.

And with his laid-back vibe, everyone in Elizabeth City seemed to know and like Milton Sawyer. People always said he should run for mayor. Milton grew up in Elizabeth City on the Pasquotank River, the gateway to the North Carolina Outer Banks, where the Wright brothers first took to the air.

His brothers David and Bill saw Milton take off here too. Personality, who are we talking about? Borderline happy-go-lucky. Had a good sense of humor. He loved to tell stories, loved to tell jokes. As he got a little bit older, he sort of came into his own, realized what his strengths were. What would you say? He was just very smart. He did well in school. And he was a handy brother to have your back. So I got maybe picked on somewhat. Milton always...

put an end to that. Would you call him a leader? Absolutely. Yeah. Milton won the prestigious drum major spot on the marching band in high school, and that's where he also met his future wife. With degrees in math and computer science, he got a job managing data for about two years at the University of North Carolina. But the daily grind wasn't a good fit for someone as free-spirited as Milton. Nope. He did not want to be sitting at a desk with a boss looking over his shoulder, huh? He just thought that he could, uh...

make something bigger and better if he went and did his own thing. Milton set up a business dealing in sports memorabilia. He got married, and when Caleb was born, his father doted on him. Your mama's sunshine's mom. Oh, yeah. Here's a sunshine boy. And then along came Caleb's sister. This is called Tittle Secret Baby. Sponge paint. Sponge paint.

Milton's infectious joy spread throughout his family, to his niece, Danielle. He was the person who would literally give you the shirt off his back if it was the last thing he owned. An avid Antiques Roadshow viewer, Milton eventually set up his own downtown store about three miles from his home. A shop he called The Treasure Hunter. A jumble of furniture, gold, jewelry, and knick-knacks. He refined the art of the haggle at countless yard sales.

And I think you're going out with him on Saturday afternoons looking for stuff, huh? Probably from as early as I could walk, following him right behind him. He loved making deals. But Milton always had a roving eye for a pretty woman, as his family remembers it. He became restless in his home life and had an affair that resulted in another daughter. Three kids now. His marriage petered out, but he remained on good terms with his ex-wife for the kid's sake.

Then in 2011, while making frequent school runs, a new woman came into his life, Angel. I remember Dad was very quick to progress with Angel. Angel, 10 years younger than Milton, was the daughter of a pastor. She was separated and raising four children of her own. Milton confided in longtime friend and landlord Sam Davis about Angel. He wanted to take care of her. He wanted to be the knight in shining armor. She was an attractive lady.

In late 2011, Angel got divorced. More than a year later, she and Milton got married, and life in the Sawyer household became chaotically beautiful.

Over the nearly six years that followed, Angel stepped up to child-rearing duties until one by one the kids flew the nest. She did do a lot for us, you know, with having seven kids, she pretty much ran us around everywhere. And Milton, still like a teenager in love, lavished her with gifts. He went out of his way to see that she had what she wanted. I'd say she probably had $50,000 to $100,000 worth of jewelry.

Angel helped Milton organize the Treasure Hunter store, too. She was in the shop quite a bit, I think. Every day. Every day. And she would stay there when he went out to do business. And she was there all the time. But as 2018 rolled on, the business wasn't doing well. When I look at the photos of the old store, the Treasure Hunter, I see "We Buy," "Gold," "State Jewelry."

Which kind of seems it's on its way to being a pawn shop. Yeah, well, that was a little later. That was later on. His clientele was not the best all of the time. There was a lot of people that were walking in and out. But, you know, when I see those wads of money, I thought, you know, this is an accident waiting to happen. In July 2018, despite their business challenges, Milton and Angel seemed as happy as could be.

Milton posted a message on Facebook that read, "Every man deserves a real woman that makes you forget every other woman on the planet. I found mine, and she is all that and more. I love you, my angel." A little over a week later, it was finished. 55-year-old Milton had been strangled and asphyxiated, as the medical examiner would later determine.

The intruder had made off with some of Angel's most valuable jewelry and left her in need of medical care. She'd already been transported to the hospital by EMS at this point in time. Pasquitang County Investigator Major Aaron Wallio had already started his investigation. And it was personal. He too knew Angel and Milton. My father passed in 2017.

Milton took numerous times to check up on me and make sure I was okay. That's the Milton I know and probably most people would tell you he's a very genuine and very caring person. He called in State Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Steve Norman and crime scene technicians. There were no shell casings, no blood pools, nothing that would indicate that there was some significant trauma. The fact that Milton appeared to have been strangled was, in my experience, unusual for a home invasion going wrong.

The investigators were relying on Angel to recall critical details, and they were on their way to the hospital to try to talk with her, while the horror story was still fresh in her mind. Coming up...

Angel recounts that deadly night and reveals fresh clues. When Dateline continues.

Pasquitank County Investigator Major Aaron Wallio had arrived at the hospital to ask Angel about the home invasion, hoping her fresh memory would yield vital clues about her husband's murder. She had a bump on the top right side of her forehead.

That had kind of been cleaned up at that point in time. Angel's neck was in a brace, and she needed a CAT scan following the blow to her head. But she was able to talk. Is she calm and composed? Initially, she's calm. Parts of the interview, she gets worked up. At the end, it gets a little dicey. He was right there, scared the s*** out of me. Angel took the detective inside the sheer horror of the home invasion.

At about half past midnight, she and Milton had the house to themselves because the two daughters still living at home were on sleepovers. Angel speculated maybe one of them had accidentally left the back door open.

She and Milton were in bed binge-watching Game of Thrones when she got up to get a snack and pushed open the bedroom door. He had a gun in his ear. He was screaming. He was asking for the jewelry. Where's the good stuff at? Where's it at? Where's the keys for the business? Did he get the key? No, he didn't get the key when he asked it. The guy had the gun in his face. She said the mass intruder tied up first Milton, then her, in the bathroom.

Then he continued his frenzied assault and robbery, dragging Angel back into the bedroom. And then he grabbed me by the hair real hard and threw me into our room. While Angel said she was on the bedroom floor, ominously, she heard a scuffle in the bathroom where Milton was. And I couldn't hear anything anymore. She said she tried to grab Milton's phone on the floor, but big mistake. The intruder caught her.

When the masked assailant took off, she said she tended to her husband, just helpless. She does get emotional, you know, throughout the story. She'd wanted to call for help, she said, but her own phone was locked in her car. The key on the same keychain Milton had given to the intruder. The only option she saw was to run to neighbors for help.

First she tried the sheriff, who lived only a few doors down. He wasn't home. Then she tried some friends, also not home. And finally her next door neighbor Carl, who did answer and called 911. She's telling you a story about this awful assault, being grabbed by the hair and thrown around, this very scary figure. Did you have empathy for her? Well obviously these are people we know. Angel was safe now, but investigators wanted to know who might have done such a thing. Anybody that you can think of that might want to...

She couldn't say for sure. All kinds of people passed through the treasure hunters, she said. One had recently gotten in a fight with Milton, accusing him of buying stolen property. You thought he was an upright guy in good standing in the community? I think he knew the business he was in and some of the people he dealt with. I think he was an upright guy. Angel also recalled that Milton had recently advertised a yard sale at their home.

With no solid leads, the investigators asked Angel to retrace her steps in the hours before the attack. She explains to me that they'd went out to dinner at a local restaurant that night. That was the Italian restaurant where the patrol deputy had seen her with Milton. From there, they went to a bargain outlet.

Along the way, Milton had gotten a call from a guy named Dylan who wanted to sell him a TV. Never one to turn down a deal, Milton arranged to meet Dylan in the parking lot of a nearby fast food restaurant. Angel said she told Milton she was leery.

But Dylan was a regular customer of Milton's, and now the TV was in Milton's pickup truck as he and Angel drove home. She didn't think that he should be doing that stuff, like, outside of the store. Dealing with sketchy characters. Yeah, and that they argued and she had left her purse and her phone in the truck and kind of stormed into the house. As Angel was taken for her CAT scan, her neck brace was pinching.

She made a last plea for her Milton and was forced to accept her husband really was gone. I'm sorry.

Oh, no! As emotional as she was, Angel had provided valuable information for the investigation. So the sun's barely up and you've got some interesting leads. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. It's game on at this point. Investigators were determined to find out who had torn this family apart. They wanted to question that guy named Dylan. What did he know? Coming up...

Okay, so tell me about Milton then. I don't know anything about Milton. We knew he had a criminal history. We knew he had committed a couple of robberies in the past. Man, you know you've done some robberies. Did you do this? At around the same time as Angel was getting treated at the hospital, Milton's family was learning the impossible news of his death.

Caleb was on his way back to Elizabeth City when he got a call from his sister. My sister ended up having to tell me exactly what happened, which was really tough on both of us. So Caleb, you're grieving. This unimaginable thing has happened. Tell me about that. We never really thought something like this could happen. It's something that you see on TV. Milton's niece, Danielle, had been fast asleep. Woke up to my parents' death.

banging on my door and all I see is my dad and he's crying and my dad doesn't cry. And then I see my mom and my mom's hysterical. My dad's like, sit down. I need to tell you something. Your uncle Milton's been killed. I remember, I remember instantly losing, like just crying. Were you aware at that point that Angel had also gone to the hospital with head injuries? Not at that point. Milton's brother David woke up to missed calls and phoned his sister.

And when she said, "Milton has been murdered," I had to ask her to repeat it three or four times before it registered with me. I could not even begin to grasp the concept that my brother was gone. Bill, how about you? How do you learn? Kind of the same deal. And you hear it, but your brain just does not process it. It was such a shock.

That's when the emotions hit me and I started grieving. You get your grief you got to deal with, but it's also an investigation. Right. Yeah. My thinking was that maybe one of these sketchy people that used to come into his store, followed him home, thought they had cash at the house. It made sense. Right there on the windows down town, gold, money, jewelry. Right. Exactly. That was the same theory put forward by Angel.

And as the sun came up, investigators were in sync with Milton's family. They were on it. So by the time you had your first coffee, what did you have at that point? We're really looking at this first individual who sold the TV. The guy who had sold Milton a TV a few hours earlier was named Dylan Hostadler.

We knew we had a criminal history. We knew he had committed a couple of robberies in the past. He's looking good. Yes, sir. Find this individual, brace him, and get the story. And that's kind of the mindset. He just sold him a TV, like, maybe a mile from Milton's house. So it was very easy that this guy could have followed him home, you know, figured out where they lived at, and then this robbery ensued. Right on the timeline. Yes, sir. We're, like, all over this league. So when did you actually encounter the individual? It takes a while.

He was not friendly to law enforcement. He wasn't coming in voluntarily. Ultimately, he was arrested for possession of drugs. We got him in our custody that way. The investigators who interviewed Dillon got right to the point. Okay, so tell me about Milton then. I don't know anything about Milton. Dillon's story was that he and his girlfriend sold a TV to Milton at around 8.30 p.m. the previous evening and then went to their separate homes. The officers were having none of it. Man, you know you've done some robberies.

But under questioning, Dylan changed his story. Turned out he didn't go straight home. After he sold Milton the TV, he confessed that he and his girlfriend went to buy drugs from a dealer, then went to his home. Then he said his girlfriend went back to her place, and he called her at around 4 a.m. What happened to it?

Dylan said he and Milton were friends, that Milton was good to him and that he had no reason to hurt him.

But his story seemed to be in pieces. It wasn't just the black eye. There was a black hole in his alibi coinciding with the time of the murder. You're leaving the part out from 12 o'clock to 4 o'clock in the morning. Dude, I was at home all night last night. How many times did we say that all you have to do is tell the truth? The first time that you did the robbery, didn't we kind of go through the same thing? Yeah. Where you leave the part out where Dylan messes up, right? That's what you're doing right now. No, I didn't, no, I...

They left Dylan to stew in the interview room, then came back at him harder. My problem is with you, that when you sit here, you always try to outsmart us. And you try to pretend like you're cooperating and you're really not. So are you doing that now? No, I'm not. Dylan understood he was about to be charged with possession of drugs and tried to wriggle his way out of being arrested. I'm in the middle of a murder investigation.

So helping you get out of a little cocaine charge is the least of my worries. If you really think about it, I need to spend my time on trying to figure out who killed him. Absolutely. All the while, investigators Wallio and Norman had been watching the interview. Safe to say you thought Dylan was a pretty good lead. Yes, sir. Let's find out everything we can about this guy, huh? Yes, sir. Dylan's slippery story was highly suspicious, and so they collected his DNA. But they also wanted to take a closer look at what Milton's family was doing that night. Coming up.

We would literally make love every morning and night. Angel gets very personal, a passionate husband, and a protective one. He was always very jealous. There was a couple of confrontations where he, you know, stay away from my wife. That's something you write down in your pad, huh? Absolutely. When Dateline continues.

The day after Milton Sawyer was murdered, investigators were chasing down Dylan Hostetler's suspicious "I didn't murder Milton because I was home getting high" story.

As the team checked out his alibi, crime scene techs were running the forensics they'd gathered at the scene. Did they get lucky? You know, the bloody handprint, the footprint in the mud? Not in this case, no. No, there were several items collected, but none were of any value. The perpetrator cleaned up after himself and did a pretty good job, huh? Yes, and there was a pillowcase that was used to wipe up some things.

By now, the investigators had been joined by Assistant District Attorney Kim Polini. The investigators met me in my office to just give me a real quick briefing about what's happening. She liked to be out in front on the big cases. They relayed that the wife was alive, that a masked intruder came in and killed her husband and robbed them. The investigators told Milton's family they were following every lead. Did they give you the sense that we know Seth, but we can't share it yet?

They definitely did. They kind of said it in a way that there's hope. Don't worry. We will get this figured out for you. Angel herself was helping detectives, too. After her head was patched up, she got out of the hospital, then took the investigators on a walkthrough of the treasure hunter's store, where nothing seemed to be missing. But remember the jewelry the killer had taken during the home invasion? Angel said it was popping up online, evidence that would help solve the crime.

She'd seen some of her missing jewelry on a Facebook yard sale site or one of these sale sites. So she showed them pictures. They had to contact those folks, find out where they got the jewelry. Four days after Milton's murder, Angel was living with friends, and investigators invited her in to see if she could recall more details. She arrived seeming fragile, clutching a teddy bear and a photo of her late husband, all the while sobbing. We have you been coping?

Can't eat, can't drink, can't sleep. We're both sorry for your loss. I feel guilty being lied. The investigators were trying to paint a more precise picture of events leading up to the murder. Angel had said she was upset with Milton after the TV deal with Dylan. So what happened then? So when you got home, you were upset. Did you guys have any, like, conversation to, like, rectify? Oh, yeah, everything was fine. You know, we were, you know...

But she said there were times years earlier when it wasn't so good.

after we were already engaged that he had been with two other women. And it was, but we got through it. I mean, it was hard. But while Angel said she could get past it, it wasn't the same for Milton. When men took an interest in her, he would have smoke coming out of his ears. He was always very jealous. I mean...

Sometimes it was embarrassing, she said, because with their 10-year age difference, Milton looked a lot older.

let's say things customers you know different things most people thought it was his daughter that was hard she also provides other information that she's an attractive woman and that gentlemen will frequent the treasure hunter because she worked there so men check her out according to her yes sir she gave us examples of of individual that came in multiple times and would actually come up to her and tell her that you know i'm here because you drew me in you know you're just so beautiful

And she said about nine months before the murder, Milton became especially jealous. Angel had gotten into a car accident and toward the end of 2017 started a kind of physical therapy called dry needling, an acupuncture-like treatment for pain. Her therapist's name was Isaac, and it set Milton off when he discovered a man was laying hands on his wife. He looked him up on Facebook.

sent me a screenshot of his picture, said he's attracted to him. I said, no he's not, I'm attracted to you, I love you, I don't care about this guy. But he was still having a hard time with it. He would get angry every time I went. He began expressing jealousy to Angel and of course she's telling him there's nothing going on here, this is all in your head, you're just very jealous. And he knows that I love him, he knows that I would never cheat on him. It's just not who I am.

In the end, she lamented that physical therapy just wasn't worth the hassle. So I finally just quit. I said, I'd rather be in pain physically than to make you suffer physically.

But small community, Milton and Angel would run into Isaac around town, like at the local coffee shop. And about two months before the murder, on the Memorial Day weekend, Milton and Angel were enjoying a day at the beach on the Outer Banks when guess who showed up? Isaac and his family. Milton exploded.

Then all of a sudden he became really angry and I didn't, I was like, "What? What's the problem? What's wrong?" And he said, "Your epinephrine therapist is here with his family." And I was like, "So?" It's a beach. It's full of people. So dad called me. He was on the way back from the beach and he was in a hizzy because while he was at the beach,

they happened to run into Isaac and his family. In fact, someone phoned in a tip to investigators that Milton was so angered by Isaac's presence, he'd called Isaac's boss to complain about him. He actually called out to Isaac's employer and made a scene. There was a couple of confrontations, not violent, but just words where he, you know, "Stay away from my wife." So that's something you write down in your pad, huh? Absolutely.

Now the investigators were wondering, was Isaac, the physical therapist, somehow involved in Milton's murder? Coming up, the therapist suddenly under scrutiny. No criminal record, wife and kids, nice job. None of that would appear to be consistent with somebody who would kill someone's husband. A well-kept family man with a well-kept secret. He said, this is between the two of us.

In the days after Milton Sawyer was murdered, investigators had checked out Dylan Hostetler, the guy who'd sold Milton the TV and confirmed his alibi. He has family at the house that can verify he was home. So that helps him? Yes, sir. So they were forced to drop him as a suspect and look elsewhere. Now they were taking a hard look at a man named Isaac Melcher, the physical therapist who had treated Angel.

We didn't really know much about him. He lived in a pretty upper middle class neighborhood. You ran the computer on him and nothing? Yeah, no criminal record, wife and kids, nice job, nice family. So we sent two investigators out to interview him. The interview went kind of minimal. He said that he didn't have anything to do with the murder.

Isaac said he was home the night of the murder, except for running out late at night to buy a new phone at Walmart, because he'd spilled water on his own. What's more, any contact he'd had with Angel was purely professional. As the investigators looked deeper, they would learn Isaac's life story was actually kind of inspirational. He grew up in Oregon. I met Isaac while I was volunteering as a youth leader with the church.

In the mid-1990s, a dairy farmer and youth pastor named Louis Casimir out in Oregon paid special attention to a group of teenage boys with issues. Isaac was one of them. Our group was called the 12-step group, for lack of a better term. These boys were all going through their own thing. What are his issues, do you think? His biggest thing was his anger toward his dad. He would get in scrapes every once in a while. He had a pretty good temper in high school.

And that's what made him a good wrestler. Isaac's father was not very present in his life. Over time, Louis seemed to fill some of that void. Though not a priest or an ordained minister, he tried to give Isaac direction through study of the Bible and by growing his faith. So he became a real project for you. You were his mentor. I was his mentor. He arrived to us wondering where he wanted to go. Once...

He became a believer. He became a sold-out believer. He was all in. Did you have a moment where you said, I think I'm finally getting through this, kid? You know... Was there a light bulb kind of epiphany? There wasn't an epiphany, but Isaac was always my success story. If I needed a picture of a life changed, I would choose Isaac's life. At 19, Isaac left Oregon for work in North Carolina, where he met his future wife, Darlene.

Louie rounded up some of the youth group and they traveled to North Carolina to celebrate Isaac's wedding day. It was a very Christian wedding. Isaac was going to lead his family the way of the Lord and was going to be the dad that he didn't have and was determined. Did you have a moment of a little bit of pride? Yeah. I pushed him along the way and look how it's working out. Yeah.

After Louie returned to Oregon, he fell out of touch with Isaac. But he and his wife Lori followed Isaac's progress on Facebook from afar. It was all good news. Isaac had three kids, put himself through college, and in 2016 became a physical therapist working out of the YMCA in Elizabeth City. To investigators going through his biography, Isaac Melcher hardly fit the profile of a murderer.

He's a physical therapist. He's married. He was very religious. None of that would appear to be consistent with somebody who would kill someone's husband. Angel agreed. She told investigators that the masked intruder in the house didn't seem to resemble her physical therapist at all. So nothing is adding up in this case? No, none of it is. So investigators had no solid evidence Isaac, the physical therapist, was involved.

You don't have that thing to give to your DA, right? Yes, sir. We're kind of just kicking things around and waiting for that magic moment, for lack of better words. Little did they know it, but that magic moment was about to appear. Because a few days after Milton Sawyer's murder, Isaac returned to Oregon.

He was visiting his sick mother, but he also decided to pay a visit to his one-time youth pastor, Louie. Does the expression "out of the blue" apply here to him getting in touch with you? Oh boy, yes. Louie hadn't seen Isaac in more than 10 years. It was a phone call. He said, "Hey, I'm going to be in Oregon. Can I come by and see you?" And you knew right away who it was? I knew who it was. I couldn't wait to sit down and talk with him and find out how he was doing with his family and everything else.

But when Isaac showed up on that beautiful August day in the Northwest, Louie had a bad feeling. I could tell something was wrong. The minute he walked out of the car... There was a chill on your reunion right away? Yes. How did he appear to you? His shoulders were slumped. He seemed real good.

Louis sat Isaac down in his backyard because Isaac said he wanted complete privacy for what he was about to reveal. Does he say to you something like, remember I'm talking to you as though you're my spiritual mentor here? And it's staying between us in the sense of a Catholic priest and confession is something you don't allow the confession to ever be revealed? In fact, that's how we started the conversation. You know, I consider you my pastor.

This is between the two of us because you're my spiritual advisor. He's invoking the sanctity of the confessional. Yeah. I told him then I didn't agree with that, not even knowing what he was going to tell me. The story Isaac was about to tell was a tortured one that would end up changing the course of the investigation into Milton Sawyer's murder and open up an investigation into another suspect altogether. Coming up.

He was pretty specific in what happened and I was stunned. Isaac weaves a deadly jaw-dropping tale. It would have been the last thing that I thought I would ever hear. When Dateline continues...

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More than a week after Milton Sawyer's murder, Isaac Melcher had returned to his birthplace in Oregon and was about to confide in his former youth pastor, Louie Casimir. He just says, "Well, I've made some really stupid choices, and I'm probably going to lose my family." And so that got my attention, and I moved forward and just said, "What is going on?" Isaac told Louie that a patient of his named Angel had been in deep trouble.

Her husband was a jealous man, kept a tight rein on her and threatened her. He was convinced that this husband was going to hurt this lady. He got in his mind that that husband was abusing her. Yeah. He indicated that he needed to protect Angel. She's in trouble and has been given the need to be her protector. He's going to be the hero. Yeah. So we get him out of the picture. She'll be happy or she'll be safe. Yep.

For Isaac, protecting Angel became a righteous obsession. One of the words that just doesn't get away from this case is this concept of obsession. Well, it became clear to me that he obviously was obsessed with her. And all throughout the time I knew Isaac, he would go from one obsession to another. So this was not unusual. This was not unusual, but this was a whole new level. And the moral machinery got toggled off. Yeah. Somehow, his brain got short-circuited.

in a big way. Is he telling you the story in layers? It was layers. I had to pull a lot of this out of him. Sitting in Louie's backyard, Isaac confessed to murdering Milton Sawyer. How does he say it? I murdered a guy. And of course, I'm asking questions I never thought I would ask of a young man. You know, how did you kill him? Does he give you any details about how he did it, the mechanics of the killing? Yeah, he was pretty specific in what happened, and I was stunned.

He'd broken into this house? Yeah, and essentially strangled him. Putting this guy into a chokehold? Yeah. That must have been really hard to hear. It was. Louie was beside himself with disbelief. The only thing I could think of was how far away from God he was to be able to choke the life out of a guy. Here's your successful protege from the youth group telling you the most awful story.

He just come and he just dumped the load. Louie, if he starts off broken, first time you're seeing him, and then the story gets worse, what are you seeing in him? He's more and more broken. And what was your advice to him? Isaac, you need to turn yourself in. You made a hell of a mistake. There's going to be consequences, but you got to man up. So you're not sugarcoating it? I didn't try to. But Isaac said he wasn't going to turn himself in. He's in denial or what do you think?

Yeah, probably. After about an hour, Isaac left and returned to North Carolina, leaving Louie to share the whole horrific story with his wife, Lori. I was completely shocked. It would have been the last thing that I thought I would ever hear. It wasn't who we knew him to be. Louie checked online to see if there really had been a murder in Elizabeth City. And as he confirmed the truth, the awfulness of the revelation boiled away inside him.

He didn't sleep much. He was having nightmares, so I was very concerned about that. I knew the trauma had really affected him. What had he put on your shoulders, Louie? He put on me the biggest double bind I have ever been in. How so? I was damned if I do and damned if I don't. If I go to the police, I'm going to hurt the kid I like, and I've grown to love. If I keep this in me, I don't know what it would do. And what it would do to you? I don't know what it would do to me.

and my wife and my family. He had such a weight on his shoulders. I didn't want to tell him what to do. It was very hard to see him struggle like he was. Louie had a decision to make, maybe the biggest of his life. I knew it had to be his decision because he was going to have to live with that decision. I just remember taking a deep breath and saying, Lord, help me with this.

As Louie wrestled with his conscience, he had no idea where his actions might lead. Because so much of Isaac's story was yet to come out, there was more. Oh, yes. Coming up, Louie was in for another stunning conversation. He wasn't the only one keeping Isaac's secret. This is his wife, and she is listening to him talk about a murder. Yes, sir.

Isaac Melcher had confessed to his former youth pastor, Louis Casimir, that he had murdered Milton Sawyer and hoped Louis would keep his confession confidential. Now Louis had to decide, should he keep that dark secret or should he turn in the man he regarded almost as a son? So how do you work your way through this? It's got to be a huge crisis of conscience for you. Yeah.

After he spoke with his own pastor, Louis was no nearer to a decision. So he asked a close friend for guidance. And he didn't pull any punches. It was just, this is what you need to do. But he continued to struggle. Louis' betrayal, is that something you worry about? I did. Well, we know Christ was betrayed by Judas, but I knew I had to do the right thing. And if you don't do it, would it have been your own category of sin in this? Absolutely. Absolutely.

But Louis also knew North Carolina was a death penalty state, and the Bible instructs, "Thou shalt not kill." So would calling to turn Isaac in be an even worse sin? I just remember thinking, "This could kill Isaac." If I punch in this number and have a conversation, I may be killing Isaac. I may be. Three days after Isaac made his confession, Louis made his decision. He picked up the phone and called the sheriff's office in Elizabeth City.

It was a call investigators never imagined they would get, but one that would change the outcome of the whole case. It's a real short phone call. He's very hesitant to talk. He kind of gives us a brief rundown that Isaac came to visit him and basically confessed to murder to him. This guy that you're interested in, I knew as a boy, he confessed to me.

and you're going to be able to do something with it, maybe a whole lot. We ended up booking a flight and flew out to Oregon to see Louie the next day. The investigators made up a story about having to leave town, not wanting to tip their hand about a possible break in the case. Is the police sharing anything with you? We understood that there were some things they couldn't divulge to us, so the police did not let us know about Louie or going to Oregon.

But here, 3,000 miles away from Elizabeth City, the investigators were on their way to Louie's farm, hoping to solve the murder of Milton Sawyer. So we pull up to the dairy, and it's weird. I think our nerves are kind of worked up a little bit because we know what we're coming to get. We've never seen Louie in person yet. Well, you're not in uniform or anything. No, sir, just plain clothes. And he proceeds to tell us the story of Isaac coming and visiting him in his house.

The story Louie told them was all well and good. But to make a strong case even stronger, they needed direct evidence of Isaac talking about the murder. So the investigators went one step further. They asked Louie, in effect, to wear a wire to make a call to Isaac in Elizabeth City, one they could record and use against him. When Detective Aaron asked me to make the phone call, I didn't know whether to punch him or turn around and walk away because...

I felt like I had given them everything I needed to give them. Were you thinking, we're done here, fellas, that's as much as I can give you? They wanted me to get Isaac on the phone. They wanted to record it. I felt like that had pushed it too far. But the investigators were able to convince Louie of the importance of what they were asking him to do. Milton's family deserved justice, they told him. And Louie relented. He's not only spilled the beans that this guy's confessed to me, he's now going to go to the next step and help

bring about his arrest. Yes. What's the narrow goal of recording Isaac on the phone? Obviously, we want Isaac to incriminate himself. With investigators sitting beside him, Louie dialed Isaac. I had his phone number on my phone, and I just put my phone on speaker and set it down. And they sat there? They sat and listened. Have the police been back? Have they done any more investigating? To be honest with you, I'm not entirely comfortable speaking about that over the phone.

Isaac Melcher was smarter than most average people. He did not want to talk on the regular line. I think he was concerned that it may be tapped. Isaac told Louie he would speak only on a secure phone line over the encrypted smartphone app called Signal. So he sent me through text message an app that I put on my phone, and then he felt comfortable enough to talk. It is, it cannot be...

access from the outside. But if Isaac thought he had outsmarted the police by speaking with Louie via an encrypted app, he was wrong. The North Carolina investigator simply placed their voice recorder next to Louie's phone that was on speaker and hit record. It's kind of low tech. That's how we roll here. We're good at doing a lot with a little. So you're hearing the conversation real time? Yes, sir.

But would Isaac repeat the same story he'd already told Louie? Louie and the investigators listening in were stunned when they heard another voice on the line. It was Isaac's wife, Darlene. What was going on? Darlene sounded perfectly normal. With his wife on the line, surely Isaac wasn't going to confess to killing someone.

As the conversation got going, Louis steered Isaac into talking about the murder he said he'd carried out to protect Angel. Why, he asked, didn't Angel just divorce Milton? Isaac said as he prepared to kill Milton, he relied on the darkest of forces in his understanding. I knew that

With Isaac's wife Darlene still on the call, Louie poked about for what she knew. This is his wife, and she is listening to him talk about a murder he pulled off? Yes, sir. And she is oddly very supportive of him. I'm talking about the murder.

The murder, she said. And Isaac seemed to confirm his involvement, adding he didn't stand a chance with the authorities if he turned himself in. There it was, an admission of guilt. He gives himself up pretty early on and goes through the motivation behind it. Did you have enough to get arrest warrant at that point? We did. We still had a couple of things we wanted to button up.

But not because Darlene said something else on the call that piqued the investigator's interest. She mentioned an affair. Coming up. Way, way beyond. It was just somebody that I was having sex with. Isaac's affair. Another secret he was keeping from everyone. Well, almost everyone. I forgive you and I am going to be with you. When Dateline continues...

Investigators were recording a phone call between Isaac Melcher and his wife Darlene in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and former youth pastor Louis Casimir in Oregon. On the call, Isaac had already confessed to murdering Milton Sawyer, evidence investigators could use to charge him. But as the call continued, it was clear there was more to the story. Isaac's wife, Darlene, mentioned an affair. Are you serious about it? Oh!

Sure, Isaac was obsessed with Angel, but it wasn't one-sided. He and Angel were both involved in a full-blown affair. He told the story. So Milton had been right all along to have been suspicious of Angel and Isaac. Then the story took another bizarre turn. With his wife Darlene on the call, Isaac revealed he and Angel had bigger plans. I don't get arrested. Still a desire in my heart.

It's very clear from the beginning he's in love with her. He is trying to run away with her. That's not even the strangest part of it because at the same time he seems to be saying, I really want to be with Angel still. And Darlene, my wife, you're an inconvenience for this plan in my life. It's definitely very bizarre for a gentleman to be talking about the love he wants to be with while sitting next to his current wife.

But Darlene seems strangely magnanimous. I forgive you, and I have compassion on you, and I am going to be with you as hard as it is. Louie noted his own wife would not be so understanding. You're a bigger lady than Laurie is, that's for sure. Darlene is participating in the call. She's hearing it. And it was absurd. And it seemed Darlene's loyalty to her husband had already been tested. The police came to question me while Isaac was out of town.

As the phone call continued, the evidence only seemed to grow. If Isaac could be believed, his story was bigger than an affair that led to murder. According to Isaac, Angel knew much more than she was saying. The only reason is because there's an excuse that she would be implicated and arrested and go to jail also for conspiracy.

He mentions that she knew it was going to happen. He did not give all the details at that moment. But we definitely at this point know that she was having an affair. She knew that he was the killer. What's more, Isaac said he and Angel were still in touch. Has Angel been questioned at all? No. She was pretty sure that her phone was probably being phoned. But he said she was playing dumb to investigators. Sorry, she's been hearing everything.

As the phone conversation wound down, Louis was spent. He'd helped investigators nail the very man he called his great pastoral success story, Isaac. I remember when the detectives left, I sat down and cried.

Those were tears of, not what did I do, tears of realization that somebody's life is about to change big time. A lot of wheels started turning and set in motion because you made that call. Right. There was some guilt and shame on my part. Yeah, I beat myself up pretty good. Louie didn't want any further part in the investigation. I didn't want to get subpoenaed to come to court. I did not want to face Isaac and have him say, no, I never said that. And I have to look him in the eye and say, but Isaac, you did.

If any more evidence were needed, by now investigators had checked out Isaac's alibi about buying a new cell phone at Walmart the night of the murder. Security camera footage and receipts showed he'd been lying. Three weeks after Milton Sawyer was murdered, they arrested Isaac. You're going to be charged today with conspiracy to commit murder and murder. So the case was rock solid against Isaac? Yes. He did himself in.

Milton's family had no idea what Isaac had told investigators. But to them, Angel had always been a bit off. Sure, she'd been a reliable mom who helped raise seven children.

But she also seemed so full of herself. She thought she was the most beautiful person in the room. She would radiate that or say it? Oh, she would tell you. She would tell you. She'd say, I'm a babe, everybody loves me? Oh, yes. She was. I'm not going to deny that she was a beautiful woman. And they regarded Angel as a black belt in mental jujitsu. Somebody said if she got in her mind, she could put one person against the other. Exactly. Did you get that feeling, too? Yes, definitely. That she manipulated people? Yes, yes.

And while Angel and Milton appeared to be a happy couple, his family knew the marriage was rocky. Almost from the get-go, they questioned Angel's story about what happened the night of the murder. We all had our own suspicions.

At Milton's funeral, nine days after his murder, his family thought Angel was somehow playing the part of the grieving widow. She was wailing and crying the whole time. She and I had words at the funeral. I had saved a seat for my husband, and she didn't like that I had saved a seat and informed me that that was where her support system would be sitting and that I needed to move. A lot of people remember her weeping and wailing in dramatic fashion. Not until the curtain opened. As though it was showtime? Showtime. Angel time.

She wanted to be the center of attention. She's lost the love of her life. No question she was putting on a show for everybody? Most definitely. Angel's outpouring of emotion turned up to 11 fueled the suspicions her family had about her possible role in Milton's murder. Your family believes to a person, I think, that she is involved in this in some way. In some way, yes. Nobody could put the picture together exactly? No.

With everything they were hearing from Milton's family and from Isaac, the investigators wanted to speak with Angel again. Coming up. I think you know what happened. It was a plan. He's already told us it's a plan. You know he did it. Angel, back in the interrogation room with a very different version of events. I said, I will never be with you. I will never be with you. You're terrifying me. I hate you.

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♪♪♪

Three weeks after Milton Sawyer was found dead in his home, Isaac Melcher had been arrested and charged with his murder. Angel had no idea, and seemed only too happy to show up at the sheriff's office when investigators offered to update her on her stolen jewelry. She not realizing that was all a ploy. Originally I wanted some jewelry stuff I wanted to show you today. And in the turn of events this morning, Isaac has been under arrest. He's come in this morning.

She says, "Good." And she just kind of nods her head. "Good." "Good." How do you read that? That she knew? Well, he said a lot of stuff about you. About me? Uh-huh. What? A lot of stuff we need to talk about. He told us stuff about the affair. I think that it was pretty clear that if he was obsessed with her, it was reciprocated. Be truthful about the relationship. Y'all did more than talk. It was sexual, correct? There were two times. There were two times, okay. Yes, sir. When did that happen?

When you watch it as a big picture, you've got her literally with sincerity saying, "I would never cheat on my husband." And then, you know, a short time later, "Well, yeah, I did, but, you know, it was only a couple times."

She repeated that Isaac was obsessed with her and crazy, like on that Memorial Day weekend when he showed up at the beach. That's why he kept, to quote Milton, stalking us. I was just as freaked out as Milton was. She insisted she was always going to stay with Milton. I said, because I don't want to be that woman who's divorced twice. And then he started messaging, like...

"Well, what if you were dead? I would be willing to do that for you." And I said, "I don't want you to do that." But my point is, I think you know what happened. You were there, you know what happened, it was a plan, he's already told us it's a plan. You know he did it. There's nothing you can say to me that's going to make me believe anything else. Angel pushed back, claiming she had no idea the masked assailant, dressed head to toe in black, was Isaac. When he came in, it did not click with me, honestly.

who it was, 'cause it happened so fast.

until he was on top of Milton, and I was begging him to please stop, and I said, "I will never be with you. I will never be with you. You're terrifying me. I hate you." That's all he's saying. What he's saying is, "I'm telling you, he's saying it's all pre-planned between the two of you." And then she does acknowledge discussing Isaac murdering her husband, but she never thought it was going to happen. If it was not all pre-planned, then why didn't Angel call the police to report Isaac Melcher once she realized it was him?

And why, they asked, did she make up a story about a home invasion? He told me, "If you don't stick to the story that you were broken in, I will find you and I will kill you." Why did you steer us away from him? Why did you claim to have seen children that you never cherished? Because he said he was going to kill me and my kids if I didn't.

The investigators said Angel had lied about the affair, lied about planning to murder Milton, and sprinkled false leads, such as pointing the finger at sketchy treasure hunter customers as suspects, leads that led away from Isaac Melcher. So we started to ask her about some of the information and false leads that she gives us. She does come clean to some degree. Just the perception is that you've lied to us from the beginning. I understand. Which you have.

So why should we believe you, who's told us at least two or three sets of lies? I don't blame you for not believing me. Eventually, we confront her with, are you acknowledging that the fact that you've done these things, creating things for us to do that you know weren't true, was manipulative? And she says yes. I'm sorry for not coming forward. I understand how it looks. But it was too late to bargain. Unfortunately, we have a warrant for you.

So we're going to observe that and from now forward, you're under arrest. Angel and Isaac were now both under arrest, both charged with first-degree murder. I remember getting a call.

that they were arrested and it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. It's not a high-five moment because we're talking about the killing of your dad, but there is something of that. Yeah, there's some sort of satisfaction, but in the end, my dad was still gone, yes. Angel and Isaac were in jail awaiting trial, Isaac having fully implicated himself on the calls with Louie. So Isaac legally is done. He's done.

But in Angel's case, what Isaac had said about her in those recorded calls with Louie could likely not be used against her in court. And Isaac, still obsessed with Angel, wanted to shield her from prosecution.

You're thinking, how do we use this guy, Isaac, to get her? Yes. To get Angel, the prosecutor needed Isaac's testimony in court. And that might mean making a deal with him for a lesser sentence. So you as a family have to make a decision. The prosecutor says, look, if we're going to go for justice here, what we need to do is go easier on Isaac so we can get her. Yes. That's a terrible choice. Very, very hard choice. Do we risk her getting a slap on the wrist and him getting life? Or

or do we really kind of turn the tables? But he, Isaac, is the hands-on killer. Yes. We sat down all together and talked as a family. What matters more at the end of the day to us? And, I mean, it was unanimous. Everyone knew what needed to be done. Go for Angel. Milton's family told the prosecutor if she had to make a deal with Isaac to get Angel, she should do it. As it happened, Isaac and Angel were able to continue their relationship in jail.

Breaking jail rules using a third party to merge their calls, they were able to talk. Conversations that were recorded. ADA Kim Pelini listened in. He starts apologizing to not loving her well enough. Angel asks Isaac to get a pencil and she starts giving him scriptures to look up.

So I'm, you know, of course, breaking out the Bible app so I can look up these scriptures as she quotes them. And one of them was, there's no greater love than to lay your life down for another. Like, if you really love me, you're going to lay your life down for me. The right thing is for you to take the fall. Right. That message just floored me. And also at the same time, she's still praying.

At least portraying yourself as being a victim and innocent. And while Isaac seemed to still be a guy in love, it wasn't the same for Angel. I'm very sorry for everything that's happened. Angel, are you there? What the f***? The caller has hung up. Who knows if the sudden end of their call was the moment their relationship fell apart. But as Angel's case headed to trial, Isaac had a change of heart. He decided to testify against her. Coming up.

Isaac pours out his story, detail by deadly detail. She was the impetus, she was the motivation, and she was a participant. When Dateline continues...

In September 2021, three years after Milton Sawyer was found strangled in his home, his wife Angel went on trial, charged with his first-degree murder. Meanwhile, Isaac Melcher remained in jail awaiting his own trial. After he apparently fell out of love with Angel, Prosecutor Kim Polini planned to use him in court to argue Angel was the driving force behind the murder.

In the range of possibilities, the jury might find her not guilty. Absolutely. That was always a risk. And I explained to the family, you are gambling when you go to trial. Your star witness is a self-acknowledged killer. Yes. He may not be believable. So they still wanted to go for it. There were no cameras in the court to show Angel as she was let in. How did the self-proclaimed most beautiful woman of Elizabeth City look in court? After you spend about two years in jail pre-trial, you're going to look rough. So she looked pretty severe.

The prosecutor planned to argue Angel had manipulated Isaac into murdering her husband, that she had planned the killing, participated in it, and tried to cover it up.

Caleb testified. He told the court his dad had confided in him that he was depressed because he believed Angel was having an affair with Isaac Melcher. When you were on the stand, did you ever try and look at her in the eye? I tried to look at her in the eye as much as I could. Is she returning your gaze? She avoided it as much as possible. Then it was Isaac Melcher's turn to testify. I'm just...

Although there were no cameras in the courtroom, this is video of Isaac with his beard grown out telling investigators the same basic story he would tell the jury. He came forward before Angel's trial, maybe to try to get leniency in his own case. The prosecutor argued Angel had gaslighted him into murder.

Once the facts started coming out, it's very clear that he was used and thrown away. Did he ever get it that she was using him? Oh, yes. The prosecutors said Angel's manipulation of Isaac started during the PT sessions as she played the victim of spousal abuse. She was talking about how...

As their friendship grew, they flirted, he testified, and Angel made suggestive sexual comments. Polini, the prosecutor, said it was in December 2017 when Angel made her move. She brought up again, oh, you know, I'm out in the...

If a naked picture wasn't far enough, Isaac said Angel shocked him in a PT session when he asked her to change into a robe and he stepped out of the room. Isaac said that was it.

He bought it hook, line, and sinker.

There was sex, lots of it, he testified, not the three times Angel had fessed up to. And then it was a matter of finding time and places to do it. My goal was to basically bury her in the lies that she had told because none of it was consistent with innocence. Isaac claimed he tried to break off the affair, but Angel told him she couldn't live without him. And even though Milton was suspicious something was going on...

Isaac and Angel used Facebook encrypted messaging to keep him in the dark. And as for that chance meeting at the beach on Memorial Day weekend, it wasn't a chance meeting at all. Isaac testified Angel engineered it. She took it upon herself to also go to the next pier with her husband. He saw me there and

Once Angel had her hooks firmly in, the prosecutor argued, Isaac said they talked about being together. That became the starting point of a murder plot, he testified.

— So the murder train is leaving the station here? — Yes. He became convinced that Milton was not going to let Angel leave. — He told the court the first idea before the home invasion plan was to kill Milton with drugs.

An angel would be the bartender? He testified Angel even did a dry run, putting pills into Milton's drink and nothing. Milton slept through most of the following day.

However, he said that Angel really preferred the idea of doing some staged home invasion. Melcher didn't love that idea because he's the one who's going to have to do the hands-on, so you're putting him at more risk. On the night of the murder, Isaac drove to a church at the back of Milton's home, stole through a wooded area and across the backyard. He said he put on his mask, used the backdoor key Angel had told him was there, and went inside. Then he described the moment he killed Milton.

That was probably the toughest part, just hearing people talk about, you know, dad being on the floor and tied up and not being able to do anything and just thinking about what dad would be thinking in that moment.

Angel was right there in the bathroom, he said. I was very afraid that the jury would get caught up on the fact that she didn't actually physically hurt Milton. Like, her hands were not on him. I argued the arm around his throat may have not been hers, but she put it there. Like, she was the impetus, she was the motivation, and she was a participant.

The prosecutor argued Angel was an accomplice who'd planned the murder and also helped cover it up. That head wound was just a part of the staged home invasion. Isaac told the story. She wanted me to hit her to make it look like more realistic, I guess. So the first time was not enough. And she...

She gets mad with Isaac and says, you didn't hit me hard enough. So then she actually kind of pushes Isaac out of the way and she hits her own hit to create her injury. And that's how she gets bloodied up. Yes, she was mad at Isaac that the hit wasn't good enough, that this injury would never be believable for this story. All the while, Angel, her grown children in court to support her, was listening to Isaac testify against her.

Did she do eye voodoo on him or pull out the waterworks? She did not cry, and I was very surprised about that. I really anticipated a bit more drama. Isaac seemed to have delivered for the prosecution, and he puts her under the bus, but good. Yes. For someone that I have such a disdain hate for, he did so well in court.

Then it was Angel's turn. She chose not to testify, but her trial strategy was to discredit Isaac Melcher as an unreliable witness who testified against her only to get a lesser sentence. Her attorney said Isaac admitted being obsessed with her, that Angel never wanted her husband dead. And as for the idea of drugging Milton to death, there was no evidence argued her attorney that she'd done a dry run.

And what's more, Isaac Melcher had admitted that he had strangled Milton. It wasn't Angel, said the defense attorney, who murdered her husband. That was Angel's defense. Now it was up to the jury. Coming up... All of my emotion came to the head. We are literally all holding hands in tears. You don't know what's going to happen. What would the verdict be? Man, this would be a bad case to lose. Yes. I was very worried. ♪♪

At the Pasquotank County Court, the jury was deciding if Angel Sawyer was guilty of her husband's murder. Would the jury believe the man who admitted being the killer or the woman accused of manipulating him into murder?

You just wait. It is pretty awful. You sit there and you try to entertain yourself. It is the worst time because you don't know what's going to happen and you have no control. You second guess yourself the entire time. But man, this would be a bad case to lose. If she walked, you were the one that didn't get her. Yes. I was very worried. You know, the family was so nice. The minutes ticked by. The jury is not very long. Longest 20 minutes of my life.

Tell me about All Rise, Here They Come. It's been 20 minutes. Is that a great thing or is that an awful thing? Do they go in there and say there's no way that we're going to find her guilty of first degree? I mean, we are literally all holding hands in tears. That was where all of my emotion came to the head. I tried to be the guy and the head of the family for my sisters, so just guys, my emotions. But at that point, I couldn't hold it back.

Here it was, the verdict. When they said guilty, I was thrilled for the family. Angel was found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. We burst into tears. Very happy. I think the result was the absolute best we could have hoped for. Yeah. Danielle looked at Angel across the courtroom. How did she take the news? She never looked up, never looked at us. She looked at her children that were there. So who was this woman, Danielle? She sure doesn't follow her name.

She sure was not an angel. But how to make sense of it all?

You know, when you talk about crimes like this, you're usually talking about money and some kind of grubby circumstance. You have the story of his obsession, but it just doesn't quite add up. Do you feel that same way? Well, I think the money did have some play in the story. She believed that Isaac was a very well-to-do therapist. She asked him if he could buy a house at the beach, if he could support her four kids. So I believe that she was moving from dad to a bigger and better life.

someone who could make more money and she could keep living the same lifestyle without being a twice-divorced lady. Thanks, Milton, but it's over. Next. Exactly. For Milton's brothers, it was something else. What makes her tick? Narcissism. Narcissism. Yeah. I'm the hottest girl in the room. Angel was sentenced the same day.

The judge gave her life in prison without parole. Angel is appealing her conviction. She did not want to talk with us about her case. As for Isaac, he'd rolled the dice by coming forward and testifying in Angel's trial. His gamble paid off. After Angel was convicted, he made a deal with the prosecutor for a second-degree murder plea. He got a 20- to 25-year prison sentence. His wife Darlene, who'd supported him on that call with Louie, divorced him.

We as a family knew deep down inside that he was manipulated by Angel. I think they should both serve life, but that's the way the justice system works. And there might have been no justice at all if not for Louie. If you take Louie out of the investigative equation altogether and he never does what he does, would you be in a different place now altogether? Very different. Yeah. In August, Louie and his wife Lori traveled to Elizabeth City and met with Milton's family.

Milton's kids had a huge impact on me, big impact. And I could see their pain. It hurt. It really hurt. Meeting with them was the closure that I needed. While in Elizabeth City, Louie also visited Isaac in prison. The good thing is, is Isaac knows that I made the right decision too. He says Isaac has forgiven him for turning him in. Isaac is in your life to stay? I believe so.

Milton's son Caleb is getting on with his life. He's an engineer in the northeast region of the state, but hasn't ruled out creating his own business like his dad.

When do you miss your dad the most, Caleb? I think about him every day. I wish I could go back and ask him questions and do things that I never had time to do. But he takes comfort from the video memories captured by his mom. The early days of happiness.

We look at them pretty often. My sisters will come over and we'll re-watch, you know, for the most part, Christmas videos. Is it tough to see images of your dad still alive? Oh no, I love talking about dad. I love seeing pictures, videos. That is very helpful to me.

That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again next Friday at 10, 9 central. And of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt for all of us at NBC News. Good night. A true crime story never really ends.

Even when a case is closed, the journey for those left behind is just beginning. Since our Dateline story aired, Tracy has harnessed her outrage into a mission. I had no other option. I had to do something. Catch up with families, friends, and investigators on our bonus series, After the Verdict.

Ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with strength and courage. It does just change your life, but speaking up for these issues helps me keep going. To listen to After the Verdict, subscribe to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or at datelinepremium.com.