Final Appeal (2018–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Patty Prewitt - full transcript

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Our justice system
is not perfect.

Innocent people end up
behind bars,

and those are the cases that
are especially important to me.

- There are so many people
in prison

that need experienced,
objective eyes on their cases

to determine
what really happened

and to perhaps bring attention

to something
that was done wrong.

♪ ♪



- I did not kill my husband.

♪ ♪

I was a country kid
and I met him in seventh grade.

- Patty Prewitt,
a beloved Midwest mom,

married her
childhood sweetheart, Bill.

- Bill was so cute.

He had black hair
with blue eyes.

We were happy.

- Together they ran a lumberyard

and raised five children
in rural Missouri.

- But on February 17th, 1984,

all of that changed.

- Bill was shot to death
in his bed,

and Patty became the prime
suspect in his murder.



- A year later, a jury
convicted Patty

of first degree murder
and sentenced her

to 50 years in prison.

- When I came in,
I left five children.

It was horrible.

- And then their son Matt
committed suicide,

under suspicious circumstances.

- Patty's supporters say that
the police rushed to judgment

and ignored evidence
that was left behind

by the real murderer.

- But a jury convicted her.

I want to know
what made them believe

that she killed her husband.

- For 30 years,
Patty has appealed her case.

Now her fate is
in the hands of the governor

who can grant her clemency
before he leaves office,

but time is running out.

You know, I know what it feels
like to be wrongfully convicted

and lose 5 years of your life,

but to be a mother and to lose
30 years of your life...

if this woman is innocent,

somebody's gotta answer to this.

Five years in prison
for a crime I didn't commit.

- 18 years
as a criminal prosecutor.

- As a team,
we will examine cases

of convicted killers
who claim they are innocent.

- Are they victims?
Or are they criminals?

♪ ♪

- At the age of 16,
football was my dream,

it was my passion.

I was 11th in the
nation as a linebacker,

I had potential
to play in the NFL.

But then I was wrongfully
convicted of rape.

And the woman
finally came forward

and admitted that
she lied about everything.

I lost ten years of my life

for a crime I didn't commit

and I vowed to myself that
the moment that I was freed

and walked
from behind those bars

that I would get involved

in finding out if there were
other people like me

that were wrongfully convicted
of crimes they did not commit.

- I was a criminal prosecutor

in Los Angeles county
for 18 years.

I have this experience,
I have this knowledge,

and to be able
to take that experience

and look at cases to see if
there's wrongful convictions

is very important to making sure
that justice is done.

♪ ♪

Patty Prewitt has spent
more than 30 years in prison

for a crime that she says
she did not commit.

When I look at a case,
I look at the evidence.

I look at the facts.
People's emotions?

That you have
to push to the side.

- Loni's background
is a law background.

My background
is a street background.

I'm gonna look at it from
the perspective of somebody

who's been wrongfully convicted.

So we're boots on the ground
investigating this case.

Because if Patty is innocent,

and we can find something
to help prove that,

we need to do it now.

- We are here tonight

to make our voices heard,

that it is time
for Patty to come home.

- So February 18, 1984,

Holden, Missouri.

Bill and Patty Prewitt
went home that night

after a late night out
with some friends,

they checked on their kids,
and then they went to bed.

Okay, that's what we do know.
- Mm-hmm.

- What happened after that,

there's two
very different stories.

The prosecution says that
after they went to bed,

Patty got up,
and shot and killed her husband.

The defense on the other hand

says that Patty was awakened
and yanked out of bed

by an intruder who shot Bill

and then tried to rape Patty.

- We have so many reasons
to think

that someone came in there
and did this horrible crime.

That person is still out there.

The government
systematically ignored

all sorts of evidence

and that's a classic case
for exoneration.

- While on the one hand
you always say

the spouse is
the first suspect...

- Right.
- In this case it goes against

everything people say
about Patty and Bill.

I mean, she was a PTA mom,

she was a member
of the chamber of commerce.

- Yeah, you know there
are thousands of cases

where people are claiming
to be innocent,

but this case here in particular

just stands out
amongst the others,

cause something's
not adding up here.

- I want to thank everyone
for uniting here tonight

to support Patty Prewitt,
my mother.

My four siblings and I
ranged in age from 8 to 16

when she was forced to leave us.

We are now 39 to 47.

We would have loved
to had her with us free

through the good
and the bad times.

She's missed enough.

And we just want her home
with us.

[applause]

- Right now,
the Governor is looking

at a petition for her clemency,

and he has just a few weeks
before he's out of office.

- Please Governor Nixon,

Free Patty Prewitt.
Thank you.

[applause]

♪ ♪

- 37 years and people are still

in full of support
of her coming home.

They're sitting
on a month of time,

you know, for the governor
to say something.

It's crunch time.

♪ ♪

- I want to meet Patty
face-to-face.

When looking into these cases,

I need to meet the person who's
been accused of this crime.

♪ ♪

- Patty's been in prison
for more than 30 years,

and she's always said
she's innocent,

but that doesn't mean
she's innocent.

I want to go through
all the case files

to see what stands out.

- Hey, Brian.
- Hey, what's going on Loni?

and the prosecution's theory

for what the motive
of this killing was

because of the insurance money.
- Mm.

And would these
insurance policies

have helped her in any way?

- Okay.
I will do.

As someone
who's been behind bars

for a crime they didn't commit,

one that thing
we all have in common:

We've never been heard.

So here's an opportunity
for me to sit with a person

who claims that they're innocent

and allow them
to finally be heard.

♪ ♪

[soft dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Hey.
- Hello.

- How you doing?
- I'm fine.

- Brian.
- So nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you too.
Have a seat.

I know where you are today.

I don't know
what 30 years feels like,

but I know what 5 feels like.

How have you managed to survive
30 years of incarceration?

- I'm not gonna do
the whole life sentence today.

You have to do
the best you can today.

I know that probably sounds
really trite and stupid,

but you know
if you fall in that well

it's hard to get out.
- Oh, yeah.

- Because I've still got
four kids.

There's no givin' up on my kids.

♪ ♪

- How would you describe
your marriage with Bill?

- We used to describe ourselves
as Foxfire hippies.

Livin' off the land.
- Oh, yeah.

- Havin' kids, goats.
- Yeah, yeah.

- We were just two young people
with the same idea

when it came to raising kids

and moral values.
- Mm-hmm.

- And we were happy.
- Yeah.

- Happy.

- So how did they continue on
with the idea

that you were responsible
for Bill's murder?

- The investigators said that

some huge percentage of cases--
it's always the spouse.

- The spouse--

- And then he kept asking me
about insurance.

How much we owed and how much
insurance we had, like that.

We didn't have enough insurance
to pay our debt

so killing Bill
for insurance money

would have been fruitless.

- Mm-hmm.

♪ ♪

If you could take me back--
tell me about that night.

- Uh, it was a stormy night,
lots of lightning and thunder.

[thunder rumbles, rain patters]

Well, we had gone out
with some friends

and, uh, I drove home...

[suspenseful music]

And then Bill and I went to bed.

And somewhere
in the middle of the night,

I was...
[exhales]

Yanked out of bed by my hair

and thrown on the floor,

and this man
had a knife to my throat.

- Were you able to see him?

- No, it was really dark.

- Was this person
sittin' over you?

- He was layin' on me...
- Mm.

- And he was wrestlin' with
his belt buckle

and my pajamas.

It was all such a awful--

- Were you sexually assaulted?

- Yes, I was,
but I didn't say I was.

- Why is that?

- I don't know.
I just didn't feel like

I wanted to--

to, uh... tell 'em that.

I wanted them to find
who killed Bill.

I didn't want
to talk to them about me.

- And afterwards what happens?

- The man gets up--
I don't know where he went,

but when the weight
is off of me,

I scramble across the bed
to Bill.

- Okay.
- He's making a kind of

a rattly kind
of breathing noise.

- Was there blood everywhere?
- There was blood s--

it seemed like something
under his head,

And I didn't think
I could get him out alone,

but I had to get the kids out.
That's all that mattered.

- Did you think someone
was still in the house?

- I don't know.

But I had to get the kids
in the car.

I didn't even know
where we were goin'.

I just--
- So where'd you go?

- The neighbor down the road,
Mr. Gustin,

he'd been a marshal in Colorado.

I just pulled in that driveway
'cause I thought,

"Cliff will know what to do."

So we all just kind of
burst into their house,

and I tried to explain
what was goin' on.

I said, "He can't be gone."
[breathing shakily]

It was awful.

He was so young.

[soft dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

- So after sitting there,
across the table from Patty,

what's your gut reaction to her?

I mean, do you think
she could be innocent of this?

♪ ♪

- She didn't come off
as a murderer to me.

- Really?
- Yeah.

But I have a lot of questions.
- Mm-hmm.

- One thing that
did come up was,

um--you gonna trip on this.
- Okay.

- She told me that
she in fact was raped.

- That's huge.
- Yeah.

- And it made me think
right away

what that information
could have done for her

if she in fact did tell police
she was raped.

To me it doesn't make sense.
- I can tell you,

having worked with rape victims
as a prosecutor,

that's actually
very understandable.

This is something so personal

she may not want to tell
a room full of strange men

who are looking at her
as a suspect

in a murder of her husband...
- Right.

- Much less do we even have time

to talk about me
as a victim here, so...

- Wow, that makes
a lot of sense.

- Yeah.
But it is interesting,

Patty said that she was
being held at knife point.

- Yeah she mentioned
that to me too.

- And these are...

the wounds that the police saw
on her neck that morning

and took pictures of.

The police said
they were just way too perfect

for them to be inflicted
during a sexual assault.

- I mean if there is a struggle,

if this guys fumbling around
with one hand

while keeping a knife
in the other hand,

you would think that
this knife would

kind of be moving around a bit.

- Yeah, and there's
some other things too

besides this
the police looked at.

When the police
get to the crime scene

at about 4:30 in the morning

Bill is in the bed,

they believed he was asleep,
when he was killed,

And he's been shot,
the prosecution says twice,

Once in the temple,

and then once
in the back of the head.

So they find
one .22-caliber casing

in a loveseat
in the corner of the room.

Patty actually tells them

that they have
two .22-caliber rifles

that they keep in the closet.

- On her side of the bed,
- Yeah.

When the police
look for those guns,

they find one.
One's missing.

- So here's the Prewitt house...
- Yeah.

- And way over here is a pond
that's on their property.

The police actually found
the missing .22 rifle

in that pond.

And they found some boot prints
around the pond

that matched
a pair of Patty's boots.

♪ ♪

So, it's a strong
prosecution case.

- Well, this is
Patty's property.

So you're gonna find the
family's boot prints all over,

and then for her to dispose of
the gun right on their property.

- And why did Patty
tell them about the guns?

- Yeah, right.
- If she knew that

that was a murder weapon,

why would she
tell the police about it?

I mean, the more you look into
it the more questions I have.

You know, I really want to go
out to that crime scene.

- Patty Prewitt's been

- Patty Prewitt's been
in prison 30 years

for a crime she says
she did not commit.

Shooting her husband Bill
in his sleep.

The governor has the power
to grant Patty clemency,

but he's on his way
out the door.

This could be
her last chance at freedom.

♪ ♪

I want to check out the town
where the Prewitt's live,

get a sense of the community.

I want to know what people
who live in Holden

thought about Patty.

Did they think she was guilty?

- Was it uncommon

for a murder to happen
in this small town?

- Oh, very rare.
- Mm-hmm.

- I really can't remember
another one.

- Mm.

This is still very much
an old school town.

I can imagine how it looked

back in the '80s, right.
- Yeah.

[dramatic music]

- It was just
kind of unbelievable.

You know, they just seemed like
a very happy couple,

and happy family.
- Mm-hmm.

- Bill was very quiet.
Nice guy.

Always kind of had a smile
on his face.

Patty was cute, bubbly,

and they were really
kind of different in a way,

but seemed like they,
you know, worked well together.

- Do you have any idea
where we would find

Patty Prewitt and Bill Prewitt's
old lumberyard?

- Yeah, it used to be
right there

in that empty lot over there.
- You mean right here

across the street?
- Yep.

- Well it's not much
of a lumberyard now.

- No.

- But you can get a feel
of how big it was at one point.

♪ ♪

- And this lumber yard was--
was really the foundation

of their dream for their family.

How did the verdict affect
the community here in Holden?

- The community was divided

between people that
thought she was innocent

and people that didn't.

And I wasn't so sure.

I don't know
what she had to gain by it.

They talked about collecting
insurance and so forth and...

I don't think there was
that much insurance.

And so I was really surprised
by the verdict.

[train horn blowing]

- Is there a person
who we would think

would be the true killer?

- I think that's
what's so puzzling is no,

and I think that's why

it's still kind of a mystery
is there's nobody

that you can just
put your finger on and say

that's who did it.

I don't suspect that you're
gonna really find any answers.

♪ ♪

- This is Holden.
- Yes, it is.

- [laughs] Welcome to Holden.

- Yeah.
- We got some work to do.

♪ ♪

- How do you feel about heading
out to the Prewitt farm?

- I think that should
be our next step.

♪ ♪

- After the murder,
the Prewitt's stayed

in the house a little longer...
- Mm-hmm.

- And then they ended up
selling it.

- After all of that
I wouldn't want to be

in that house anymore either.

♪ ♪

- This should be it right here.

Just a dirt driveway.
- Mm-hmm.

- Talk about quiet.
- Boy.

- I mean, you can just picture,
you know, what Patty said.

She rounded up her kids,

she put the clothes on 'em,
and she put 'em in the car.

They pull out of this drive way.

she's driving away,
Bill is still in the house.

He's dead.
- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

- It's winter time and freezing

and your just driving
down this dark, quiet road

and you're trying to figure out
what you're gonna do next.

- It's also clear
because this is so far out here

that if it wasn't Patty,
it was a targeted attack.

I mean, it's not like
somebody happened to,

you know, randomly be
driving down this road and say

"Oh, if I'm gonna do something,
I'm gonna go into this place."

Right?
- Right, right.

That house is pretty big,
so you got to do some work

to find a gun
and everything else.

- Yeah, yeah.
The attacker...

had to get up to
the master bedroom,

get the gun,

shoot Bill in the bed.
- Right.

- They didn't wake up
any of the kids.

You know, there were
a lot of people in that house.

♪ ♪

Unless it was Patty.

♪ ♪

It's so isolated out here.

You could understand
why the prosecution

had a very hard time believing

that a random intruder
killed Bill.

I can see why the jury said

"Patty's the one."

♪ ♪

Does this bring back memories,
being in here?

- Yeah.
I know I was on next to the end

right there on the front row.

♪ ♪

- The trial lasted how long?

- I believe close to a week.
Like, 4 days, 4 1/2 days.

- Four days.
- Something like that.

- What did you think
as you were hearing the case?

- I believe it was the last day
that convinced me of her guilt.

- Do you remember
what happened on the last day

that ultimately gave you
that assurance?

- She had testified
that she was still in bed

when he was shot,

and then when
the medical examiner testified

he said the two shots

would have pretty well
had to have gone through her,

so there was no way
she was in bed.

- Mm-hmm.
- The other thing was,

she testified that
the man came in to rape her,

but he never raped her.

I think you're going
to go ahead and rape her

if that's what your intent was.
- Mm-hmm.

- If Patty...

did claim she was raped...
- Mm-hmm.

- Would that
have changed your mind

about this entire case?

- You know, I would have
to think about it.

Um...

'cause then that would
have at least shown probably

that someone else was
in the room.

- Someone was there, yeah.
- I don't know, yeah.

I just made my decision
on what was

given to us at that time.
- Mm-hmm.

- But I honestly still
to this day think she's guilty.

[dramatic music]

[soft dramatic music]

- What was interesting
about the juror is

for her it really came down

to the medical examiner
who testified.

- The prosecution says
that Bill is shot twice.

The shooter had to be
near the bed.

- On her side of the bed?
- Yes.

So obviously
the prosecution is saying,

if she was laying here
in the bed,

the shooter couldn't shoot him
with her laying there.

- And you can see here
actually the back of Bill.

With that gunshot wound, I mean,
it's hard to believe that

Patty could still be
in the bed, laying there.

- But, you know what,
forensics has gone a long way

since the '80s.

We should send all of our
reports to our own expert

to see if Patty could have been
in the bed when Bill was shot.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Wow, look at this.
- Yeah.

- This is fantastic.
Hi, I'm Loni Coombs.

- Matt Steiner.
Nice to meet you.

- Hi, Dr. Maloney.
It's nice to meet you.

- Brian.
- So tell us what you do.

- Well, I'm a medical examiner.

- I'm a crime scene
investigator,

senior crime scene analyst.
- Sweet.

- So we have a recreation
of the Prewitt crime scene

based on measurements
and documentation

from the original scene.

- So what we've actually
set up here is

a mannequin of Mr. Prewitt
and we've measured

so he's in the exact position
that he was in in the room

and on the bed itself
when he was discovered.

So what we're going to do is
we're going to try to determine

the trajectory
of the two bullets

to see if we can figure out
where the shooter

may have been standing
when they fired the gun.

- Nice.
- Great.

- Alright so the first wound
we're going to look at is

the wound of the right temple.

So we know that
this gunshot wound was

3/4 of an inch
in front of the right ear

as well as 1/4 of an inch
above the right ear.

♪ ♪

So this is the trajectory

of the bullet
to the right temple.

Alright, now, so for
the second gunshot wound...

♪ ♪

We know that that was
2 1/4 inches posterior

to the right ear.

So as we're going
from right to left,

the upward angle is 30 degrees.

Here we go.

- And we have a replica
of a 22 rifle.

- Oh, okay.
That's it.

- So what we're going to do is
we're going to place

the trajectory
within line with the barrel

3 inches away from the wound.
- Okay.

- 3 inches away
from the wound because?

- Based on the test fires
that the lab did,

that's what they determined
the difference

from the muzzle
to the target was.

- Okay.
- A little bit more.

1/2 an inch, 1/4 inch.
Perfect, stop.

- Do you mind?
- Please.

- So let me lay down.

♪ ♪

Okay... so even if I'm laying
on my side,

which would make me higher
than if I was laying on my back,

you still have plenty of room.
- Plenty of room, yeah.

- So do you feel comfortable
firing that weapon

from that position?
- Most definitely.

I have more than enough space

to get the exact shot
that I wanted with this gun.

If there was a person here
I wouldn't even disturb them.

♪ ♪

- Now we have another
gunshot wound.

- We do.

♪ ♪

- Wow.

- I mean you have
even more space

'cause I'm actually higher up
then I was here and lower.

- Matt, do you mind doing it

and seeing if your arm--this arm
gets too close to my face...

- Sure.
- Since you're shorter.

Matt, you can still do it, too.
- Yep.

- So for both
of those gunshot wounds,

based on those trajectory,

Patty could have been laying
in the bed the entire time.

- Absolutely
- Wow.

That lines up with
Patty's version of events.

♪ ♪

- The juror said that the

- The juror said that the
medical examiner's testimony

is what convinced her
that Patty Prewitt was guilty,

but now that we've tested it,

Patty could have been
in the bed when

those shots were fired.

I wonder
if the juror had heard this,

if it would have given
her reasonable doubt.

[dramatic music]

- I do have to say,

there is some stuff here
to support Patty's story

of what happened that night.
- Mm-hmm.

- There were pry marks
on some of these doors,

and two of the daughters,

as they were leaving
the house that night

said that they heard noises
and saw a light on

down in the basement.
- They saw a light?

- Like a flashlight.
- Mmm.

- And one daughter
that testified

said the door was shut,

but when the first neighbor
got there,

the basement door was open.

♪ ♪

- Okay, so what if,

while Patty and Bill were out
enjoying their night...

♪ ♪

Some intruder made their way
into the house...

[door opens]

Made their way
into Patty and Bill's room...

[footsteps thumping]

[door opens]
Found a gun,

and decided to wait
for them to return.

- Yeah.
Lie in wait.

- So then the question is:

Who would have done this?

Who else would have gone
to this house

out in the middle of nowhere,
essentially?

Did she give you any theories,
any ideas, any suspicions,

any names she could throw out?

- Do you have any idea
who may be responsible

for Bill's murder?

- When my oldest daughter went
to high school,

we found out that
there was drugs

all through the school.

My husband decided
he wanted to know

where the kids were getting it.

So he started looking around

and he carried a little notebook
with him,

a little memo pad thing

and he would talk
to unsavory characters

as far as I was concerned.

I don't know if that
all factored into it,

but I know his little notebook
was gone.

I couldn't find it
after we got the house back.

- Oh, that's interesting.

- So there could
be something there.

- Yeah.
- There could be

something there--I mean,
if he uncovered

something he shouldn't have.

- I mean anything like that
could get him into

a criminal element that
could open him up to

a whole new group of people...
- Yep.

- That might want
to do harm to him.

- Yeah.

♪ ♪

[soft dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Bill and Patty
had five children.

Jane, their oldest child,
was at a sleepover

the night that
Bill was murdered.

- It would almost be easier

if I believed that mom did it

because then I would have
somebody to blame.

Some kind of closure on that.

Because, you know, otherwise
my father was murdered

and we don't even know
who did it.

- You and your brother
and sisters were very close.

Did you talk about this
and try to figure out

who might have killed your dad?

- Yeah, we--we did
from time to time.

I mean, mostly were just trying
to live our lives

and try to heal.

But every once in a while

we would have conversations
about things.

You know,
maybe dad had found out

somebody was selling drugs

to somebody that he wasn't
supposed to know about.

You know,
there were different theories

about different people.

- Before Bill was killed,

did you guys
ever have any threats

that was coming your way?

- Well, we started
getting phone calls

months before dad died.

They were obscene
and just breathing

and things like that.

And then we did have a guy
come in the house once

when my sister Sarah
was home sick.

- Unannounced?
- Unannounced.

Just let himself
right in the house.

She was in
Mom and Dad's bedroom.

A car pulled up in the driveway.
She looked out the window.

So she didn't really see
who it was

she just saw him coming
right into the house,

and then she just hopped
under the bed.

She says that
he went in the closet

and looked
in that walk-in closet

and she thought that
he did something

behind the dresser,
which is where Dad's gun was.

- Two .22-caliber rifles

that they keep in the closet.

- And then he walked out
and walked right down the stairs

and back out the front door.

- And how far before your dad's
death did that happen?

- She was 12,
and she was 12 when dad died.

- Do you think that
this random strange man

who came into the house

was planning
to kill your father?

- At the time we didn't know
why he would be in there,

but it always seemed
very odd and intentional.

But then we just had
a lot of things happen

after Dad passed away.

- Tell us about
some of those things.

- So we had family dogs
when Dad passed away.

We had collies.
[dogs barking]

And then when we got the house
back after the funeral,

there were no dogs.

And mom said that she didn't
see any dogs that night

when they came home
from the restaurant.

And then, a neighbor found
our dogs dead on their land.

So we don't know
if they got poisoned

or if somebody
did something with 'em.

- So if someone wanted
to sneak up on that house...

They would need
to take care of the dogs.

- Probably, first
- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

- But there were lots of strange
circumstances going on here.

- What things are
you talking about?

- Brian, I mean,
our family was terrorized.

A truck would pull
a little bit up in the driveway

and then somebody would bang
on one window

on, like, one side of the house
and then somebody

would bang on a window
on the other side of the house.

- Oh, wow.
- So, like, you're running

from a noise over here

and then there'd be
another noise over there.

And then somebody
gave us a guard dog

and then one day we came home,
and it had been hung.

- Lord, that sounds crazy.

- It was like we were
in a nightmare.

The phone calls kept happening.

Sometimes either
the breathing phone calls

or just, um, lots
of hang up calls.

- Any threats?

- And--no, no threats...
- No speaking?

- Until Matt died.

- Let's talk about that
for a bit.

Tell me what happened
to your brother, Matt.

- Matt died
from a gunshot wound,

and his body was found
on my grandpa's farm.

It was deemed suicide,

but a lot of people
in the family

and lot of--you know,
a lot of people aren't sure.

The day that he died,
he got a DWI,

and it wasn't his first DWI.

He told Officer Glenn Hite

that he knew who killed his dad

and that it wasn't his mom.

- Matt said,
"I know who killed my dad."

- Yeah.

- Did he ever tell you
or anybody who?

- No, not me.
Not anybody I know.

Then, after Matt died,

I got this phone call
and a man's voice said,

"Your brother is a sign.
Everything is a sign.

Patty needs
to keep her mouth shut."

- Get out of here.
- No.

If my mom is supposed
to be keeping her mouth shut,

what about?

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Jane says
her family was terrorized.

I mean, literally,
targeted by somebody.

Bill may have gotten himself
involved with the wrong people.

- Patty told Brian that
Bill was actually investigating

some suspected drug activity
in Holden.

It makes you wonder if somehow
these things are connected.

♪ ♪

We're going to visit Mary,

who was one of Patty Prewitt's
close friends

at the time of Bill's death.

She actually testified
at the trial

and she says that
she has some information

about evidence that she found
there at the crime scene

when she went to clean up

after the investigation
was over.

[knocks on door]
[dog barking]

- Shh, you're all right.
- She's got a dog.

- Hear something.
Hear an animal.

- I love dogs.
Hello, how you doing?

- Hi, Mary?
- Hello, how you doing?

- Yes.
- Brian, nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.
- I'm Loni. Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.
Please come in.

- Thank you.
- After you.

[soft dramatic music]

- When they turned the house
back over to the family,

I mean, it's bad enough they
had to go back there and live,

let alone be up there
in that room.

- Mm-hmm.

- So, I went up
and cleaned the bedroom.

- So what did you do
to clean the room?

- I finally--ooh,
give me a second.

- Yeah.

♪ ♪

- I had to seal
around the edge of the--

the floor because I couldn't--

I couldn't make the blood stop.

- When you say you had
to seal it to make it stop,

was it--was it still running,
the blood?

- Well, whenever
you apply water to blood

it's more and more and more
and it just--

I couldn't--
couldn't get it cleaned up.

- Mm.
- I vacuumed the room.

- Patty, uh, made claims

that she was grabbed by her hair
and yanked out of her bed.

Do you recall there being
clumps of hair around the room?

- Yes, lots of hair
on her side of the bed.

That's--that's for sure.

I mean, I didn't really even
notice any on the other side.

- Did you go into
any other areas of the house?

- Their basement,

I don't think any of them
liked to go down there.

It had a dirt floor.
- Mm-hmm.

- And there were very obvious

man-size boot prints
of some sort.

It looked like somebody had

been hiding under the stairs

and then the tracks
went over to the window

that looked out on the driveway

and there were obvious prints
back and forth.

- Mm.

- My thinking is

that you could see
when Patty and Bill came home.

Because they were--
had gone out that evening.

both: Mm-hmm.

- Did you see anything else?
- Mm...

the door that went
into the family room,

that door did have
pry marks on it.

- Mm-hmm.

♪ ♪

- These things that you saw,

what did that make you feel
or believe

about Patty's innocence
or guilt?

- I mean, none of it fit.
There was just--

it was unfathomable.

Two boys sleeping
across the hall.

So not anything
I could imagine from Patty.

- How did it make you feel

about the investigation
that the police did?

- I honestly thought
that there was

no honest investigation done
in the house at all.

That was my belief, completely.

They made the evidence
fit the crime.

♪ ♪

[soft dramatic music]

- We've learned from Mary
that when she went back

to help clean up
the crime scene,

that she saw things
that the police

could have further investigated.

♪ ♪

- She was in that house
cleaning up the crime scene.

- Yeah, yeah.
- She took

that responsibility on.

- She found some stuff
she felt like the police missed

that was important, yeah.
- There's just so many angles

and things that
were never fully investigated.

The pried doors.
- Yeah.

- The flashlight in the basement
that the young girl reported.

"As I was leaving the house,
the basement was lit up."

Matthew...
- Yeah.

- And his supposed suicide.
Why would he kill himself?

'Cause you got to remember
that this young boy

was in the police station
telling them

"I know who killed my dad."

- And then, if it's not
a suicide,

who actually killed him?
- Right.

♪ ♪

- I'd like to see if we can get,
you know, a medical report

or something
as to that actual case.

There should be
a police report on that.

- Oh, that looks good.
- Oh, there are your fries!

- Thank you so much.
I didn't catch your name.

- Sandy.
- Sandy, I'm Brian.

- Brian.
- Nice to meet you.

- Sandy, I'm Loni.
It's so nice to meet you.

- Sandy, are you familiar
with the Prewitt family?

- I knew who they were.
- Mm-hmm

- They would come in
and get sandwiches.

- Were you surprised
at the verdict?

- No.

I just couldn't think of anybody
that didn't like Bill.

both: Yeah.
- Did you ever hear any rumors

that there were problems
between Bill and Patty?

- Well, there was rumors that,

you know,
she was messing around.

♪ ♪

- Oh.

♪ ♪

- And, did--did people--

some people
hold that against Patty?

- Most people thought that
she got what was coming to her.

♪ ♪

- We knew from reading the
trial transcripts

that Patty had
had extramarital affairs

but we didn't realize the
impact those affairs had had

on Patty's reputation
in the community.

A few of her ex-lovers actually
testified at the trial.

Maybe there was issues
between her and Bill.

Maybe something there
serious enough

to give her motive
to want to kill him.

We're going to meet
with Patty's defensive attorney

to find out:
Was this a very big part

of the prosecution case
in front of the jury?

♪ ♪

- Prosecution's case
was that Patty

was having...

at least one,
if not several, affairs.

I think the prosecutor sought

to paint her as a fallen woman,

uh, a terribly immoral wife.

So the idea was,
"Oh, gosh," you know,

"she must have wanted him dead.

So she could get out
of this horrible relationship."

both: Mm.
- I honestly think

that what Patty was convicted of
was adultery.

Missouri, it's very conservative

once you get outside
of the urban cores.

And in 1985, any way in which

a woman deviated
from the 1950s ideals,

uh, was by many people
held against them.

both: Mm-hmm.

- Really, there was
no reason to believe

that this lady
had actually killed her husband,

but the natural response

is going to be
to look at the spouse.

♪ ♪

I think what happened is,
that's as far as anybody got.

Frankly, that's why
we were absolutely furious

when we finally found out
about the suspicious car.

- What do you mean by that?

- Well, in that...

lonely spot out in the middle
of the county...

at the time when Patty said

someone broke into the house
and killed her husband,

there was a strange car sitting
on the side of the road.

- Mm.

- Basically, that information

was never given
to the defense...

♪ ♪

And it's strong,
supportive evidence

to what she said happened.

- Do you think that
could have changed the outcome

if you would have been able
to present that?

- She would have been acquitted.
both: Mm.

♪ ♪

- This neighbor who saw a car

outside the Prewitt home
has passed away.

Luckily, her daughter, seems
to have a very vivid memory

of what her mother
told her she saw that night.

We see some headlights,
is that you?

Can you see headlights?
- That's me.

- Okay, great, we're coming
right up to you.

- This is about the spot
that my mom saw the car

the night of the--
Bill Prewitt's murder.

- So about how far away are we
from the Prewitt house?

- Their house is just along
that tree line

on the other side
of the tree line.

- So the night
that Bill was killed,

your mom was driving
right past the Prewitt house.

- Correct.
She was coming home late

from work from Kansas City,
and she saw this car.

And she thought it was strange

because it was
just kinda sittin' here.

It wasn't like
it was broken down.

It was just sitting in the lane.

- Was it common to have cars

just parked out here randomly
like that?

- Normally not.

There's not
a whole lot of houses out here

and most everybody
knows everybody's cars.

It was not a car
that she recognized.

To me that's
such a weird coincidence

that that would not have
something to do with the murder.

And so when we heard about it,
Mom was kinda like,

"[inhales sharply]
I saw a car there last night,"

and so that's when she went
and talked to Sheriff Norman.

And never heard anything
back from him.

♪ ♪

- When did she tell
you about this?

- She said it almost immediately
when we heard about Bill.

She said it right away.
She didn't hide anything.

She went to the authorities,

thought she was doing
the right thing.

And, uh, this is
where it ended up.

I felt like
they just really didn't

go to the ends of the earth
to find out

what really happened that night.

♪ ♪

- Reading the police reports
and the trial transcripts,

Patty's attorneys
later in one of the appeals

presented the information
about this suspicious car,

and then that sheriff
took the stand and said

"I don't really remember that,"

and the judge denied that

as a grounds for appeal.

Sheriff Norman has passed away,

and we couldn't get
any of the police officers

involved in this investigation

to talk to us
about the case on camera.

I totally understand,
in their minds it's done.

They got the right person
behind bars.

The case is closed.

But in looking
at all of the reports,

it's fair to say

that the thorough investigation
was done on Patty,

and not on this intruder theory.

- With me and Loni,
you're gonna get

two different ways
of how we look at cases.

When you've got people in this
case that won't speak to us,

I mean, it comes off suspicious,
and it makes me wonder

is there something more
going on here in this case?

♪ ♪

You know, there are
so many other people

that we still need to talk to.
- Exactly.

In this very small town
it seems like

there are so many
different things going on

that we need to delve into,

that the police didn't
get into 30 years ago.

- Yeah, I really feel like
we just getting started still.

- Yeah.

The night that Bill was killed,

Patty ran with the kids.

Put 'em in the car,
and drove to a neighbor's house.

The neighbors that she ended up
at were the Gustin's.

Thank you.

Tim, who was a teenager
at the time,

was actually at home that night

when Patty showed up
with the kids.

- We lived about 1/4,
1/2 mile away

from the house.

That time of night,

nobody usually is coming
and knocking on the door.

I come outta my room,
and there's Patty with the kids,

and the first thing I'm hearing
is somebody killed Bill.

My father being
an ex-police officer

went to the house
to check to see

if any--anybody, anything,

whatever, was still there.
- Mm-hmm.

- Let me ask you this question.

You heard that frantic knock
on the door.

The door opens.

What's the first thing you see

when you look out on your porch?

- Crying kids...
- Mm.

- And--and a screaming,

hysterical, pale-faced woman

that I know

to never have looked like
that in my life.

The look that--of utter

"I've lost my world."
- Oh.

♪ ♪

- That is a sight in my mind
that I will never get out.

- Yeah.

- What were you feelings
about the way the--

both the Holden Police
and the sheriffs

handled this case?

- I think they had it made up
in their mind from day one...

that she's guilty.
- Mm-hmm.

- That's my feeling.
- What about, um...

Bill tryin' to crack down

on the drug, uh, activity
that was goin' on out here?

Did you hear about that?
- Oh, yeah.

There used to be
a big drug problem in this town,

and, you know, parents
with that many kids especially

don't want their kids
around that.

- Right.
- So I could see that--

him bein' an advocate
against that.

- So you feel that this--
- It's not right.

- This is bigger than--

than just maybe one person.

This may be more of
an orchestrated situation.

- I believe it is.

- Did you ever learn
about any threats

or people comin' around
their house?

- There's been--
for weeks prior--

for weeks prior there was--
and guys, I'm gonna--

I'm--I'm gonna say somethin'
right now on camera, okay?

I got a call the other night.

- Like the other night?

- That night before last,
2:00 in the morning.

I got a call,
unknown phone number.

"Don't do it."

That's all I was told.
- Don't speak to us?

- Didn't say.
Just said, "Don't do it."

- At 2:00 in the morning?
- And I get a call--

- Yeah at 2:00 in the morning.

You know, in 30 years
in the life that I've lived

and the things that I have done,

I've never gotten
a call like that.

Two days before I'm comin'
to speak with you folks?

- Right.
Why would they even know

that you would speak to us or
we would even reach out to you?

- I have no idea.
I-I honestly don't.

- But you're still here today.
- I'm still here today.

- Why is that?
- Because I believe

this woman is wrongly convicted.
- Yeah.

I'll go to my grave
believin' what I wanna believe,

and--and I believe
this is bullsh--.

- I'ma pause you really quick.
I just wanna let the room know

we got a white truck
that's circlin' the block.

- Thank you.

[tense music]

- There's been a couple of 'em
- Yeah.

- That's one as well.
- Yeah, that's one--

- That's the one I keep seeing.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

- That's one as well.
- Yeah, that's on--yeah.

- That's the one I keep seeing.

I'm sittin' across a guy
who said he just received

a phone call sayin',
"Don't talk,"

and now we have two trucks

circling the block.

It gave me great concern
for Tim and for the rest of us

who are here trying
to uncover the truth.

♪ ♪

There seriously is an unseen end

that is going on in this case

and in this town of Holden.

I don't know what's going on,
but I know there's more to it

than just Patty deciding that

she don't want to live
with Bill anymore,

so she's gonna kill him.

- Well, if you look at this case
in its most simplest of terms,

I can see people you know,
initial reaction,

"Could it be the wife?
Sure, yeah."

But there's so much more to it.

- After everything that I've
learned since I've been here,

If you ask me there's more

to show that it wasn't Patty

than things that show
that it was.

There was a random car outside
of this house the day Bill died.

There's random men
bangin' on their window,

peering into their home.

Matthew...

They said that
he committed suicide

right after he just told
the police,

"I know who killed my dad."

Something's definitely going on.
I'm gonna tell you that off top.

- Yeah, there's a lot
of crazy stuff

that's happened to this family.

Is it a big conspiracy

or is it, you know,
people in this small town

finding out that she had
had some extramarital affairs

that now she becomes
essentially the pariah.

- I think it's only right

that the governor reviews
all of the new information

and consider
if the right decision

was in fact made.

♪ ♪

[soft dramatic music]

♪ ♪

If the governor doesn't
grant Patty clemency

before he leaves office,
then her next chance at parole

is 2036

when she's 86 years old.

And time is running out.

Nice to meet you.
Brian Banks.

- Brian, very nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, brother.

- Nice to see you.
- Hi.

- We're meeting Patty's
current defense attorney

to find out what's going on
with her clemency petition.

Have you had any response
from the Governor's office yet?

- I've been advocating to this
governor and this staff

for nearly six years now...
- Damn.

- Oh, wow.
- And we've had a lot

of very productive discussions.

I believe they are taking
a very close and careful look

at Patty's clemency petition,

however there has been
no signal either way.

Governor Nixon
can grant clemency

for a variety of reasons.

He may do so because he feels
that Patty is innocent,

but he may also do so
as an act of mercy.

"This person has
served long enough.

"Whatever debt to society
the incarcerated person has,

it's been filled."

So I always believe that

these days
before the Governor leaves

are going to be a crucial time.

Because governors,
they tend to use this power

when they are on their way out.
- Yeah.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- You know,
I'm just sitting here

thinking about
what Brian Reichart told us.

This case has been going on
for a long time

and when he got this case,
he requested everything.

The reports, the photographs,
and he was told that

all of the physical evidence
in this case was destroyed.

- So they have not been able

to do any type of DNA testing
on anything?

- They haven't even tried
because he never received

any physical evidence.

But look, we're talking about

this small
county sheriff's department.

I have no idea
how they keep their evidence.

We should try to contact

the sheriff's department
and the courthouse.

- Yeah.

- Maybe if we shake
that tree again,

they might be able to dig up

if we, you know,
ask one more time.

- Right, right, right.

- You know, speakin' of DNA...
- Mm-hmm.

- You know, Patty said that
she was sexually assaulted.

- He was layin' on me...
- Mm.

- And he was wrestlin'
with his belt buckle

and my pajamas.

- Right, she said
that the attacker

pulled those pajama bottoms
off of her.

The police did collect them,

if they still existed,

now they could be tested
for DNA.

- Oh, my God.
Game changer.

- I think to make sure that

no stone is unturned
in this case,

I think we need
to make those requests.

- Most definitely.
Yeah, for sure.

♪ ♪

- If you're convicted by a jury
and you're innocent,

your fight to get out of prison

is almost impossible.

That bar is so high.

If Patty's innocent,

I would still love to have

something tangible
that I can hang my hat on.

♪ ♪

- A few weeks after meeting
with Patty's old neighbor,

Tim Gustin...

[tense music]

I get a text message from him
from a new number,

so I wanna call him
and find out what's going on.

[phone line trilling]

- Big bro, how you doin' man?
I see you changed your phone--

your phone number.
What's going on?

- Threatening like what though?

- This sh-- is crazy.

- You know,
I didn't think coming out here,

you know,
looking into Patty's case

that we would encounter
something to this magnitude

where, clearly, there's

something else going on.
- Right.

♪ ♪

[phone line trilling]

- Hi, Brian.

- Hey, you mind coming
down to the room?

- Sure, I'll be right there.

- Okay, talk to you in a bit.

♪ ♪

[knocking]

both: Hey.

- Here, have a seat.

Tim texted me and said,

"I have been getting
many threatening calls,

"drive-bys to the same--
by the same two trucks,

now at my house."
- Oh, my goodness.

- He sitting up at his house

looking through
all of the windows

watching cars and stuff pass by.

- Yeah, yeah, you know,
it's similar to the harassment

that Patty's family got.

- I got this phone call

and a man's voice said,

"Everything is a sign.

Patty needs
to keep her mouth shut."

- Get out of here.
- No.

- Right, and they said
"If you talk again,

your family is gonna get
the same treatment."

- "The same treatment"
meaning the harassment

that the Prewitt's got after--

- Or the same treatment that

the Prewitt family got
by losing their dad.

So I think there's
something way bigger

than what we think going on.

Take a look.
Check this out.

I started looking through
the footage

of our first day in Holden.

Watch the red van.
Look at the guy in the red van.

♪ ♪

- Here it comes again.

♪ ♪

- There it is again.
Right there.

Guy pulls up...

♪ ♪

- He started taking a picture.

- Taking a f---ing picture
of us.

Because random country men

just drive around
with beautiful cameras.

- So they keep running.
- So this guy goes by,

takes a picture,
circles around here,

comes back around,
looks at us again,

I would really like
to hear your opinion on that.

Just, guy from his neighborhood,

just kind of interested
in what we're doing?

♪ ♪

- I don't think that you can say

that is necessarily
suspicious...

- You don't think that
was suspicious?

- How often are people
with cameras

on Main Street in Holden, Brian?

- I'm not trying
to prove anything to you.

I'm simply saying--
- I'm not either.

- That is not normal.

- I think it can be normal.
I think it can be suspicious.

I don't think you can say
it's one way or another.

- I see this camera crew
and these people walking.

It looks really interesting.
This is really cool.

I want to take a picture of
this because it's so cool.

Bam, "Wow, that's amazing.
Hey, how ya'll doing?"

It's so cool,
I need to circle around again

and drive by slow and look.

It's so cool that I need
to circle around a third time

after I took my picture.
- Tell me what you're implying.

- I'm implying that
that man is taking a picture

for something that is beyond

just seeing a camera crew.
That's what I'm implying.

And then when you tie it
into everything else:

The cars circling
around the restaurant,

Tim coming in saying he's
receiving threatening calls,

you look back into Patty's case
and all the threatening things

that were happening to them
years ago.

When you start to add
all these things up

and then you see this,

To me, this don't make sense

for this neighborhood.

- With all due respect to Brian,

I think he was overreacting
to this van.

We are outsiders
coming into a small town.

The fact that somebody
is driving by taking pictures,

to me is not a surprising issue.

So I'm not going
to jump to conclusions.

There's a lot of
different explanations for it.

We don't know exactly
what the answer is.

But in our position here,
I think it's irresponsible

for us to say we have to assume
that they are dangerous threats.

- I'm not saying that
we have to assume.

I'm saying I think that we need
to be on our Ps and Qs

because I think there's
something else going on

in this case.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Brian and I approach things
very differently.

Brian,
because of his experience,

he may see a conspiracy
or corruption,

whereas I see
something totally different.

- I'm a paranoid person
by nature.

I guess you can blame
my experiences.

Being in prison, you learn
to always watch everything

and always be
on top of your game.

I wouldn't say
it's a conspiracy,

but I would definitely say
there's more to the story

that we don't know about.

With all the weird things
surrounding this case,

it's the death of Patty's son,
Matt,

that leaves me
with so many questions.

Something to me
doesn't add up there.

- The day that he died,

he told officer Glenn Hite

that he knew who killed his dad

and that it wasn't his mom.

- Matt's death is
an interesting case in itself.

I mean, if there is
this conspiracy

that the Prewitt family
sort of alludes to,

was he caught up in that,

and was his death another link
in that conspiracy?

♪ ♪

- Hey, Loni.
- Hey.

- Just came
from the lobby downstairs.

Matt Prewitt's case file.

- Finally.

Okay, so these are
the official case reports

and here's
a certificate of death

for William Matthew Prewitt.

Date of death July 19th, 1992.

And he was 18 years old
at the time.

"A white male laying
on a green blanket on his back.

"In his left hand was
a Ruger .44 caliber.

So, he's at work on the 16th.

And his employer
thinks everything's normal

and he's planning
to come to work the next day,

but then we do know that

he ends up getting arrested
that night

at 11:50 p.m. for a DUI arrest,

and then his body is found

on the 19th.

"The relatives cannot believe
that he killed himself.

"He had a good job,

"$12,000 in the bank,

and the truck was paid off."

- 12 grand in the bank
for an 18 year old.

He was doing pretty good.
- Yeah, yeah.

- Truck paid off.
- The family's saying,

"They don't believe
he committed suicide,

they request
a blood and alcohol test."

I'm not seeing any--

any tests.

No alcohol, no blood,

no GSR,

no... autopsy.

Here's some pictures.

♪ ♪

The blanket comes up around him
- Yeah.

- And he's covered everything
except the blankets kind of.

- Mm-hmm.

You notice the gun?

Can I show you something that
doesn't make sense to me?

- Mm-hmm.

- The way his hand
kinda holds the gun.

His trigger finger
is nowhere near the trigger.

- Wow.

- He's holding the gun more
as if it's been placed

in his hand.

- I'll be honest with you.
That's crucial.

- Yeah.

♪ ♪

If Matt was murdered,

this case would be
blown wide open.

[tense music]

- The first person
I want to talk to

about Matt Prewitt's death

is the officer
who arrested him for DUI.

The person
who he actually talked to

about knowing who the killer
of his father was.

What did Matt
actually say to him?

- So we're heading to meet him.

But walking through Holden,
I'm seriously on high alert,

'cause after talking
to Tim Gustin,

it gave me great concern
for safety,

and then it also made me think,

"Are there people
here in Holden, Missouri,

and they don't want us
to find out the truth?"

♪ ♪

Hey, you guys know that face?

He looks very familiar.

There he is again.
Right there.

He's taking a picture.

- He's taking
a f---ing picture of us.

It's the same face.
Different car.

Here he comes again.
It's the guy here

who followed us
in the red car last time.

What's up bro?

♪ ♪

[tense music]

- So as we're walking
through Holden,

I see a guy
driving by in his car

and it's the same guy
who was taking pictures of us

the first day in Holden.
I took a picture of him too.

- Oh, great, now it's
the battle of the cameras

they're taking--he's coming over
with a camera.

- I spent a lot of my life

in a place where you have
to be paranoid about everything.

I don't give this person
the benefit of the doubt,

I automatically assume
they're doing something

that I need to
be concerned about.

♪ ♪

What's up bro?

- We were wondering.

- I'm Loni Coombs.
Nice to meet you.

What's your name?
- Steve Edwards.

- Steve Edwards
- Brian.

- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too.

We, we're here, you know,
as you saw us last time.

We didn't know who you were.
- Yeah.

- You kinda pulled up, took
the pictures in a rolling stop.

- We didn't know
who you were either.

- But it's good that
you jumped out and talked to us.

- Yeah, I wanted to this time...
- Yeah, man, thank you.

- Since I have a little time
to stop.

- All right,
thank you for talking to us.

It makes a lot more sense now.
- What was your name again?

- Brian
- Brian, yeah.

both: Thank you.

- [sighs]
Okay, we can let that one go.

[laughs]
For now.

- Well, that's one
mystery solved.

Just because
we were able to find out

that this person was in fact
working for the local paper,

it does not explain
the two other vehicles

that circled around us
as we interviewed Tim.

It doesn't explain
the dogs going missing.

It doesn't explain
all these different things

that has something to do
with this unseen hand.

[soft dramatic music]

There are so many unanswered
questions in this case,

but we finally got a break.

The cop who arrested Matt
for a DUI,

he's meeting with us.

- We appreciate coming in
to talk with us.

We've been looking
into Bill Prewitt's murder case,

and part of the case that dealt
with their son, Matt's, death,

and looking into the reports,

we have had some questions about
whether it was a suicide or not.

I-I wonder if you might have had
those same questions,

would you mind looking
at the photographs

that we got of his body?
- No, not at all.

In fact there was all kinds
of rumors running around

about what it might have been.

- I'm just gonna
move these out of the way.

So, yeah.

- The way that
the gun is positioned,

it almost looks as if the gun
moved in some weird direction

after being shot,

or somebody placed the gun
in his hand.

♪ ♪

- This is a Ruger .44 Magnum.

Is that correct?
- Yes.

- That's a big bullet.
both: Mm-hmm.

- Big gun.
- Yeah.

- It's gonna gonna jump a lot.

Way the gun is laying itself,
it looks like it would have had

to be fired by his thumb.

Sometimes, you know, especially
if you're laying down,

it'd be easier to use your thumb
because it's pointing this way

and your thumb
would pull the trigger,

and then the gun would naturally
just blow itself back this way.

It's not just gonna lay there on
the head or anything like that.

From what I'm seeing
in these pictures right here,

it looks like
a definite suicide to me.

[dramatic music]

- Just looking
at that picture of his hand,

and the way the
gun is positioned,

nothing looks suspicious
to you as far as?

- Not to me it doesn't, no.

I believe it's
a self-inflicted incident.

- So, you had some interaction
with Matthew, her son,

right around the time of his
death, and we were wondering

if you could tell us about that?

- I arrested him
one night for a DWI.

He was a very polite individual
but extremely intoxicated.

- Yeah.

- I remember him saying that
he knew who killed his father,

and that it wasn't his mom,
and that he was going

to tell me the whole story.

- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.

- He made some comments
about how he used to hide

in the closet when his mom and
dad were asleep and, you know,

and that kind of struck a bell
in my mind because

I knew about the case
and that's where the suspected

murder weapon was kept.

- Yep.

♪ ♪

The thing that really caught
my interest was that

he never indicated
there was somebody else.

You know, as a cop,
you look to say

okay, we need to go
pick this guy up--

- Right.
- Whatever it is.

- Give me the name.
- He never indicated that.

The expressions on his face
and the way he was talking,

he kept hinting that it was him.

♪ ♪

I saw a struggle
in this young man.

He was having a hard time
dealing with what he knew.

And it was killing him.
And it did kill him.

Maybe it was an accident
or something like that

and maybe Patty's
trying to protect her son.

So please, talk to her.

Just explain to her, you know,
all this time has gone by.

You got nothing to hide anymore
if it was Matt involved.

And I'm not saying he was,
I'm just saying if.

But she needs to come clean.

She's kept quiet
about it all this time,

she's always denied that
she's the one that did it.

Well I don't think she did it
either but there's

no doubt in my mind I think
she knows who did.

- Mm-hmm.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- After speaking with
Glenn Hite, he agreed

with the original investigation,

that Matt committed suicide.

But to hear him say that
he thought Matt was going

to confess to this murder--
I mean Matt was 10 years old

at the time.
I'm going to have to confront

Patty about this information.

- We're driving to meet Patty
for what could be

the last time.
We now have a potential theory

that maybe Matt had
something to do with this.

Or he knew the killer was,
and it wasn't his mother.

I'm hoping that it may stir
something up in her

that if she's holding back,
we're gonna get the truth.

- Because if she does
know something...

- Yeah.
- Now is the time to say it.

I mean 30 years ago...
- Right.

- Was the time to say it.
- Right.

- But, knowing that Nixon

is out the door, the governor,
and then as of now her best

opportunity of coming home
is 2036...

- Right.
- Here's one more

opportunity for you that
if you do know something

please speak up.

- Well, if there is something
that she's not telling us,

I'm really hoping that
she'll open up today.

- Today--today is the day.

♪ ♪

- Hey, Patty.
- Hello.

- Hi, how are you?
- Good to see you again.

- Good to see you.
- You too--

how's everything?
- Just fine.

Great to see you.

- Have a seat.

- We were able to get all
of the police records

and the photographs
from the scene of Matt.

We looked through it,
and we had this deputy

who knew Matt, and obviously--
- And talked to him, yeah.

- Yes, the deputy said, "Yes,
this looks like a suicide."

♪ ♪

- Oh, Matt.

♪ ♪

I'm sorry this is a lot
to process.

♪ ♪

Our family did not deserve this.
We didn't.

♪ ♪

We were good people
with good kids.

Had a good life.

♪ ♪

And I let Matt down 'cause
I never really sat down

and asked him about all this.

- The Deputy said that night,
when he picked him up

for the DUI, he could not
have been more polite,

more respectful to authority,
and he said he was distraught.

He was sobbing and
he kept telling him,

"I need to say something--
I need

to get something off my chest."

He said, "I truly felt

he was going to confess
to shooting his dad."

- Matt?
No way, absolutely no way.

He did not kill his daddy.
He did not rape me.

Matt was just a little boy,
sound asleep.

It is not, it is not Matt.
It is not Matt.

- You know this deputy felt
that the protective mother

like you, you're going
to do everything

you can to protect Matt.
Staging the scene...

- Yeah, and I'm not above that.
But that's not what happened.

- But, clearly there was
something that Matt knew that

was so critical in his mind
that he couldn't

live with it any longer.

And he wanted to tell somebody.

- Patty, I know you hate
this place.

I couldn't wait
to get the hell outta here.

And I did everything
that I could possibly do

to get myself out
because I wanted to be home

with my family,
I wanted my freedom back,

I wanted the truth to be known
about what actually happened.

Patty, if there's something
that you could remember

that could help you.

- If there's something

- If there's something
that you can remember,

that could help you.

♪ ♪

- Deputy Hite was thinking
Matt clearly knew what happened

and he said "And Patty
was there too."

He told us "I don't think
Patty did this.

"But I think Patty knows what

Matt knew and Patty could tell
the truth at this point."

- Do you all think
I'm covering up something?

Good lord after all
these years would it matter?

I mean, I meant, would it
matter to hold a secret?

I don't have a secret
about this, this is,

this is all I know.

If I knew, I would have been
saying it that,

Saturday morning.
- Mm-hmm.

- I would have been hollering.
- Mm-hmm.

But I don't know.
I do not know.

I never even thought
about Matt seeing something.

It's horrible.
And I know you guys

are looking at all scenarios
and all things and I don't think

you're attacking me
or anything like that.

- I'm not.
- And I didn't mean to cry.

- No.
- I just--Matt, you guys

didn't even know him.
He was the sweetest,

sweetest, sweetest young man.

My children, they're grown
people, and it's never

gonna be over.
I mean, they're visiting

their mom in prison, forever,
have this stigma

of that forever,
have their brother

have committed suicide,

that on them forever,
their sweet brother.

My kids didn't deserve
any of this, any of this.

♪ ♪

- Speaking with Patty,
she's so distraught

by Matt's death.
I really don't believe

that she's covering for Matt
killing his father.

Going back to prison
was something I thought

I'd never do.
But for me that was five years.

We're talking about thirty years
in Patty's situation.

I feel that at this point
my personal opinion is

that this was a trial
about a woman's character.

Her moral and ethical
obligations as a wife

and as a mother.
The jury didn't get

all the information,
they didn't get all the facts,

they didn't get
all the evidence.

Do you think Patty killed Bill?

♪ ♪

- I don't think they proved it
beyond a reasonable doubt.

- Yeah, I agree.

- People assume
that every case can be solved.

But you don't always
find the truth.

There are still things
that we're not able to explain

and there are some questions
that may never be answered.

- And if Patty is truly
innocent, I wish there was some

evidence that could impact
her chances of getting clemency.

But time is running out.

♪ ♪

I hope the family prepared
themselves for what

could happen.

♪ ♪

- We've gone
through this before.

We've gone through it several
times with different governors,

so you kind of just hold
hope until the end.

So there's part of me
that's really just like,

well he doesn't leave office
until noon on Monday.

- Mm-hmm.
- Like, there is room

for a miracle.
- Mm-hmm.

[phone rings]

- Hey, Mama.
Hi.

- Hey, we're all here,
everybody's here.

- Hi.
- Hi, Patty.

- Hey, Grandma.

- Are you doing okay today, Mom?

- Can I ask a quick question?
- Yes.

- Loni's got a question.
- Patty, Patty.

It's Loni.
The governor is in office

until noon tomorrow.
Is there any talk or thought

that he might
still do something tomorrow?

- I do worry that
you're in hell sometimes, Mom.

I know you think you're not.
But, and I know

that you're so loved.
I hear from people every day

that tell me how much
they love you and how much

you helped them and how much
you changed their lives,

which is great--it doesn't keep
me from wanting you free

or wanting you home.

- I love you.

- Yeah, and my kids.

- Like my boys have never known
you any way other way.

- You are not always a shadow
though, Mom, 'cause you are

sometimes the biggest beacon
of light in our lives.

You are so strong,
so courageous.

I just love you, Mama.

♪ ♪

- Well it would be,
it should say clemency.

We're reading through
the governor's press releases

to see if he's going to grant
Patty's clemency.

- Oh, God, look at this.
These are the final acts

of clemency Governor Nixon
will issue

before leaving office.

And, she's not on this list.

- Oh, man.

The reality of the situation
is, once twelve jurors

have all voted unanimously
to convict someone

beyond reasonable doubt,
trying to overturn

that conviction is
extremely difficult.

And the number of people
who have actually been found

to be wrongfully convicted--
it's a very small percentage.

♪ ♪

- Boy, this is--if I was Patty,
and I had been in there

31 years and just having
this sense of reassurance

that this may happen this year,
and for it all to unfold

and end like this...

♪ ♪

- Remember how we decided
to try to see if there was

any evidence that still
existing on the Patty case?

- Yeah.
- Well, this is from

the sheriff's department.

We could have something.

♪ ♪

- I'll let you take a look
first--this is your world.

- Okay, oh, my goodness,
here is a list of evidence items

I have located.
They still have all of this.

Shell fragments
from brain tissue.

- Okay.
- A .22 shell casing.

[gasps]
Pajama bottoms.

- I was waiting for
you to say that.

- Oh, my goodness.
- I was waiting for you

to say pajama bottoms.

- I literally just got chills
in the back of my neck.

Pajama bottoms
of Patricia Prewitt.

- Mm-hmm.

- They have been there
all this time.

They have been sitting there.
- Untested.

- In this sheriff's department.

That's--that's amazing to me.

♪ ♪

Look at all of these
bags of evidence.

♪ ♪

Brian Reichart,
Patty's attorney,

had already asked
for any evidence existed

and he was told it had all
been destroyed.

- Right, I wonder is there
any repercussion in telling

an attorney that?
- Mistakes happen.

- That's a mis--that's
what they consider a mistake?

That's a hell of a mistake.
30 years without being able

to test the evidence.

- Oh, here we go.

- What you got there?

- Pajama bottoms.

- It looks like some
blood stains.

I don't know what that is.
- I don't know what that is.

I don't know what that is.
- Yeah.

- But this is near
the crotch area.

- What does it look
like on that one?

- This looks like spots.
I mean, that looks like it

could be blood,
you know I don't...

- Something, huh.

- This could be evidence
of a rape.

It's just like wow, wow.
This is huge.

We need to take this to Brian,
because he can then ask

that that be tested for DNA.

We need to see if we can get
a meeting with him.

- ASAP.
- ASAP.

- Going into this case,
I thought that Patty's clemency

petition was her last chance
at freedom, but now,

with modern day DNA technology,
she just may have

another chance.

♪ ♪

- Brian and I have spent quite
a bit of time, as you know,

looking into this case.
And we had questions about

what evidence was there
that was gathered by the police.

They did collect physical
evidence, but they didn't do

testing on it, and so we thought
perhaps it could be done now.

- Yeah, and we were told that
didn't exist...

- Right.
- That it had been lost in

either a fire or a flood.

- And just--and I'm gonna say
by luck, because sometimes

somebody's life hangs
in the balance of just finding

someone who will take

that personal interest,
and we were fortunate enough

to come across this lieutenant
who actually found the evidence.

- Oh.

They found the evidence?

- Check this out.

♪ ♪

- Patty's pajamas.

♪ ♪

- And they told you guys this
stuff didn't exist anymore.

- Yeah, in no uncertain terms.

- Over the course of decades...
- Right.

- And we weren't the first
people to ask for this.

- Mm-hmm, so we have some photos
that we'd like

to share with you.

♪ ♪

- Wow.
- Wow.

- And these are her pajamas.
- Stains.

- There are definitely stains.
I wonder if there's blood

in there, because she talks
about bleeding after the attack.

Wow, wow.

- Those pants need to be tested.

- Yeah, they do.
There is something there

for sure.
- And it's in the area

where something potentially

would be left
from a sexual assault.

- Wow, it took you guys being
interested for this to happen.

It's a pretty sad commentary
about our justice system.

And to have you find things that
have been told were gone.

And which we had every reason
to believe were gone

because it wasn't just to us
that they said they were gone.

They said it to many lawyers.
And to then have them come

forward with material.
And that's just because

you got involved.
I mean this is not how justice

is supposed to work.

- How does this make you feel?

- Sort of a weird combination
of hopeful and really sad.

This woman has spent 31 years
in jail and this is material

that could have been tested,
you know, as soon as we had

the ability to look
at DNA evidence.

So it's more than a tragedy.

- So what are the next
steps for you now?

- I do know that Missouri,
like most states, has a law that

gives incarcerated individuals
the opportunity to have

evidence tested for DNA.

So we'd certainly
look into that.

We have work to do.

- Yeah.
- Yeah, we do have work to do.

Thank you very much.
- Of course.

- This is amazing.
- Yeah,

Wow.

Thank you very much.
This is great,

this is really great.
- Thank you.

- Thank you very much.

- Knowing that the physical
evidence in this case still

exists is huge for Patty.
I mean if there's DNA on those

bottoms, can you imagine?

- We still don't know,
if they do the testing,

what the results will be.
But at least hopefully

there will be some answers.
Whatever it takes to be able

to find the truth.

That's what we want to do here.

♪ ♪