- Female narrator: He was a reformed ladies' man
looking to settle down with a new love.
- Sheila: Doug changed over the years,
uh, being on the road.
He got lonely on the road, I believe.
- Lisa: She got along with everybody there.
We all thought, "well, this could be it."
- narrator: But when this loving brother fails
to appear for a holiday celebration, concern mounts.
- She drove back looking for him and he wasn't there.
- It was his facebook page, so you just...
Why would he say that?
- We were concerned with him going out there
and shooting himself or hanging himself.
- Narrator: Detectives soon uncover a myriad of lies
and deception that leaves everyone reeling.
- He was leaving her for another woman.
- Dave: Their text messages very plainly illustrated
the fact that this was planned.
- You don't take a human body and throw it away
like a piece of garbage to never be found.
- We just could not believe something like that happened.
How cruel can a person be?
- ♪
- narrator: November 26th, 2015.
In pekin, illinois, the bailey family
is gathering for a thanksgiving feast.
But by late afternoon, the holiday celebration
takes a worrisome tone, when 51-year-old doug bailey
fails to arrive.
- We're all texting, going, "hey doug, where you at?"
you know, um--and then he said,
"I'll be there in a little while."
- narrator: But as the hours tick by,k p
to, you know, our house, um, in illinois.
- And then, three o'clock rolls around, still no doug.
Six o'clock rolls around, no doug.
- Narrator: With doug's family unable to reach him,
they attempt to contact rose.
- I called rose and that's when she told me that doug and her
got into an argument and, uh, doug got out of the pickup truck
and started walking.
- She said he got out of the truck, and she drove off,
and then she felt guilty and came back and doug was gone.
- Narrator: When rose says she hasn't heard from doug either,
an unsettling feeling begins to take hold.
- We're waiting for a phone call from doug
and we're getting nothing.
And then I knew by that night, something was wrong.
- Narrator: Born on July 1st, 1964,
douglas bailey was the 11th child
for jim and bonnie bailey.
- He was just loved by everybody.
He was a character even when he was in diapers.
- Sheila: Doug was always the life of the--the house.
He was just a smiley, funny little boy.
- Narrator: At age 15, doug decided to put
his education aside and join the workforce.
- He wasn't crazy about school.
So, he--he wanted to drop out, you know, to work for dad.
- Lisa: My dad had his big sawmill and doug's job
at night was going down and cleaning up the sawmill
after all the employees went home.
- Narrator: Times were good for the baileys,
but in 1981, tragedy struck,
when doug's 19-year-old brother larry was shot and killed
during a fight.
- Linda: His brother went to the house where his girlfriend
supposedly was.
He was met at the door with somebody with a shotgun
who shot him in cold blood right there in the door.
- We went to the hospital and, um, larry was gone.
[inaudible]
and it...It tore our family apart.
- Narrator: Larry's death hit everyone hard,
especially younger brother doug.
- Lisa: They did everything together,
and then, um, when larry got killed...
Doug changed.
He just...Didn't seem to care about life as much.
- Narrator: While doug struggled to cope
with his brother's death, he found strength
in the arms of his first love, tammy potts.
- Lisa: Doug and tammy, they were such a cute couple.
They did everything together.
I thought those two should have married
and left it at that.
- Narrator: In 1982, the bailey family moved
to florida to start a new venture.
- Dad had, like, a logging business where they
went into the swamps and they, um, chipped the cypress
and put them in trucks.
- Narrator: Also making the move to florida with the family
was doug's girlfriend, tammy.
- When she became pregnant, doug was in heaven.
He was walking on cloud nine.
He loved that little guy so much.
- Narrator: In 1991, doug's dad moved the business
to iowa, and doug moved with it.
Shortly after the move, doug's relationship with tammy
ended, but doug never gave up on finding love.
- Sheila: And then, he met shannon.
Her and doug had a really good relationship.
- Lisa: They seemed to get along great,
I thought he'd finally settle down,
he found somebody to live out his life with.
- Narrator: In June of 1993, doug and shannon married,
and within a few years, the couple welcomed two children
of their own.
To support his growing family,
doug took to the road driving a truck for a living.
- Doug decided to get into trucking when my dad decided
to go out of business.
- Doug and trucking, that was a good mix.
And plus, it's something, you know.
Doug was a small-statured guy. He loved his big truck.
- Narrator: But life on the road proved hard
on doug's relationship with shannon.
In 2004, the couple divorced after 11 years of marriage.
- He was cheating on her, he would be gone
two and three days at a time and, uh,
she finally just couldn't take no more.
- Narrator: Doug stayed in fort madison, iowa,
to be close to his kids,
but much of his time was spent on the road.
- Doug changed over the years, uh, being on the road.
He got lonely on the road, I believe.
- Narrator: In 2009, a new face in his own neighborhood
caught doug's eye: 38-year-old rose kuehni.
- She was visiting with her grandparents
and that's how they both met.
- Linda: She was out there for the 4th of July,
and doug lived next door to her grandmother's,
and he would help her grandmother doing different
things around the yard,
or if she needed something heavy moved.
- Narrator: Rose was appreciative of doug's help,
and the two soon grew close.
- Rose started coming to iowa a little more often to see doug.
- She worked part time for a construction company,
and then she also was an adjunct professor
at the university of minnesota.
- Rose taught a...Introduction to construction class,
and she was very well liked among her students.
- Narrator: After dating for a year,
all that remained was for doug to introduce rose
to his sizable family.
On September 18th, 2010,
at a birthday party for doug's father,
the baileys got their first look at doug's new love.
- Sheila: I fell in love with her.
I loved her smile; she was very nice.
- Lisa: Rose got along with everybody there.
We all thought, "well, this could be it."
- narrator: Ten months later, rose and doug decided
that instead of a wedding, they would pledge their love
by holding a special commitment ceremony
attended by family and friends.
- It was so much fun.
Rose had a wedding dress that she'd cut the bottom of it off,
and just wore the top of the dress.
Doug came out in his viking's helmet; it was hilarious.
- Narrator: With another chance at love,
doug decided to give up his life as a long-haul trucker,
and settled into something closer to home.
- Travis: He had expressed that
he didn't wanna work the road anymore.
That's when I mentioned to him that where I was working
was hiring and it was all local work in trucking,
and that's what he did.
- Narrator: For doug, the new job provided
everything he hoped for, a chance to build on what was
already a wonderful relationship with rose.
- Sheila: Doug was really happy with rose.
I thought, you know, "these guys get along so well,
they just, like, complement each other."
doug being so funny, her being so serious,
and they just kind of blended together.
- Narrator: But on thanksgiving day 2015,
their happily ever after romance
appears to be in jeopardy,
when doug goes missing after a purported roadside tiff
with rose.
- Sheila: Rose said she didn't know where he was.
Rose couldn't tell us anything at that point.
None of it sounded right.
- I kept texting doug saying, "where are you?"
and finally, just became desperate,
"doug, contact somebody, anybody.
Just let us know you're okay."
- narrator: Coming up, doug's loved ones activate
an all-out blitz to find him.
- Lisa: We put flyers everywhere:
Rest areas, truck stops, gas stations, you name it.
- Narrator: And a social media post steers the search
in an unexpected direction.
- It was a facebook post that surprised us all.
- Sheila: She had posted on facebook
a picture of her and doug kissing, and I said,
"oh, my god, did you see this?"
- ♪
- narrator: On thanksgiving of 2015,
the bailey family's beloved 51-year-old brother doug
appears to be missing.
According to his girlfriend, rose, he was last seen
walking away from her truck
after they had a heated argument.
- We believed that he walked away from the car,
and that she drove back looking for him and he wasn't there.
- Narrator: When the bailey family reaches out to police,
they are told they must wait 48 hours before filing
a missing persons report.
But for this close-knit family,
delaying the search for doug is out of the question.
- We weren't gonna let doug stay missing. Nope.
That ain't the way it works.
Especially not us baileys.
We put flyers everywhere: Rest areas, truck stops,
gas stations, you name it.
- We--we just flooded facebook with it.
- Narrator: Doug's older sister, sheila, soon receives
an intriguing tip.
- Chris: Her social media post about doug being missing
spread nationwide really quick,
so a truck driver from missouri had called her and said
that he thought he had saw doug walking down the interstate.
- He explained the jacket that doug might have had,
a black bag that doug might have had.
- Dave: They say everybody's got somebody
that looks like them and, you know, sometimes those tips
and those reports are gonna be people that look similar.
But it turned up to be not true.
- We are at our wits' ends.
We have tried and done everything we can
to try and find doug and we can't find him.
- Narrator: By Monday morning, with four days passed
and nowhere else to turn, sheila contacts police again
and demands a response.
- Sheila: That very morning, I called him again.
"we cannot find my brother, doug,"
and therefore... There became a case number,
and doug was reported missing.
- Narrator: That same day, police meet with sheila
and begin collecting information
about her missing brother.
- She immediately said, "this is not like doug
not to show up."
um, so that right there kind of first gave us a--
a red flag that there might be more to the story.
- Narrator: Sheila also relays a key piece of information.
Though doug was in a committed relationship
with his live-in girlfriend, rose kuehni,
he'd been recently been unfaithful
when he began seeing 45-year-old brenda hughes.
- Brenda hughes was a friend of doug's that he had known
in illinois before and had rekindled the relationship
with her over the past year.
- Narrator: And on November 18th,
just a week before doug was reported missing,
doug's friends and family noticed something
unexpected on social media.
- Brenda had posted on facebook
a picture of her and doug kissing,
and I was at my sister carol's house and I looked, and I said,
"oh, my god, carol, did you see this?"
- william: It was a facebook post that surprised us all.
Any time we saw doug, rose was there,
so the picture of doug with this brenda
was just outta left field.
- There was like three photos brenda put up there.
And doug told her, he said,
"take 'em down, take 'em down now."
- he was concerned that rose would see the picture,
and everything would blow up between doug and rose.
And it did.
- Sheila: I know rose had already seen it by then.
So that, I believe, humiliated her,
to see doug actually with brenda, kissing.
- Narrator: Sheila tells police that doug was so enamored
with brenda, at one point, he texted family members
that he intended to bring brenda with him
for the thanksgiving holiday.
- Sheila then tells us that the next day, she gets
another text from doug's phone saying that he had changed
his mind and he's bringing rose.
- He said, "I can't leave my rose.
She'll be coming with me. Rose will be coming with me."
we're like, "as long as doug was happy,
"you know, it's his life;
he can choose however and whatever he wants."
- narrator: Learning of doug's affair leads police to consider
if doug's love life played a role in his disappearance.
- There's obviously some issues with him and rose,
and now there's also a mistress.
So, that is also raising our suspicions that there might be
motive in why doug disappeared.
We were not sure exactly what was going on,
if--if doug did get out of the vehicle
and run in the woods like rose said,
so we had to reach out to talk to her.
- Narrator: Over the phone, rose tells detectives
the same story she gave to doug's family:
That on their way from their home in wisconsin
to doug's sister's house in illinois,
they got into an argument while driving down a rural road.
- Rose said that during the argument, she stopped,
doug got out and took off.
She said that she just left and--and drove around
for a few minutes and then came back
because she was gonna pick him up, but when she came back,
she couldn't find him.
Rose said that she waited around a little while
and then eventually just left and went home.
- Chris: Rose explained that they got in a fight because
he was leaving her for another woman, which was brenda.
- Dave: Rose told us that doug had cheated on her before
and that they'd worked it out and that, you know,
then she found out that he was doing it again.
- When we talked to rose, we really wanted to try to get
the location where doug got out of the vehicle;
we wanted to start our search from that area
and then work our way out.
- Dave: She explained that it was an old logging road
in an old, uh, spot where him and his dad worked.
- Chris: After speaking to rose, we can contact
the cell phone carrier, give them their phone number,
and they can give us the last, uh, usually several, uh,
location pings that when they use their cell phone, uh,
where that location was.
- Narrator: Police learn that doug's phone
was last used in bettendorf, iowa, at 12:44pm
on thanksgiving day.
- Dave: The first phone ping was in a wooded area
outside of wildlife prairie park off of route 8
in peoria county.
The other phone ping was in bettendorf, iowa,
and then the other one was near the world's biggest truck stop
on the interstate there in iowa.
- Deputies contact bettendorf, iowa police and have them check
the area, with no results; they did not find doug.
- Dave: I took that information along with detective watkins,
and we matched it up to where the phone pinged,
so we theorized that he must have gotten out of the vehicle
somewhere near, like, route 8 and taylor road
in peoria county.
- Narrator: With the cell phone pings and the information
provided by rose, investigators hope
to zero in on doug's whereabouts.
- Did he get out of the car and just walk in the woods?
Did he get out of the car and contact brenda?
Or did something happen to doug?
- Narrator: Coming up,
detectives speak to the other woman.
- At that point I knew that something was up,
and we just had to figure out what it was.
- Narrator: But police soon learn a new detail
that changes the course of the investigation.
- She had mentioned that he was suicidal.
- Why would doug say these things?
That's not how doug talks.
- ♪
- narrator: December 1st, 2015.
During their investigation into doug bailey's disappearance,
detectives reach out to doug's newest love interest,
brenda hughes.
- With the missing person, and there's infidelity
or a mistress involved, you're, of course, going to check
to make sure that there's no foul play.
- Chris: When I called brenda, she stated that she had talked
to doug a couple days before thanksgiving,
and received a text message from him, saying,
"put the beers on ice," um, "I'm on my way down."
- narrator: But brenda tells detective watkins
that doug never showed up.
And she hasn't heard from him in days.
- When speaking to brenda on the phone,
she did not seem nervous, uh, she seemed worried,
legitimately worried about doug.
- Narrator: To find out whether or not
brenda is telling the truth, police pull her phone records.
- We pinged her phone during that day and it showed that
she was still on the princeton, illinois areas, where she lived.
So, at that time we were very confident that brenda had not
came and picked up doug.
- Narrator: With brenda ruled out and doug still missing,
police examine doug's activity on social media.
On his facebook account, one particular post from doug
immediately raises red flags.
- There was some very strange messages.
One indicating that, "I'm gonna get out of here,
I'm signing off, I'm going home,"
um, "don't have to worry about me anymore,"
those types of phrases that certainly made you think that
doug was thinking about ending his life.
- Narrator: The suicide theory gains further traction
when one of doug's sisters explains to police
that doug had made an earlier attempt to end his life.
- She had mentioned that he was suicidal about ten years ago,
he--he tried to attempt to commit suicide,
but, um, was stopped.
- Sheila: Doug was going through a problem with shannon,
the ex-wife.
He was distraught because shannon was leaving him,
and she was divorcing him.
I think he turned a car on in the garage and, um,
like, asphyxiation.
Shannon, I believe, stopped him.
And he did end up in the hospital for about a week.
He was in there.
- Narrator: Police now wonder if doug's fight with rose
may have driven him over the edge again.
- I believed that it was just a matter of us going out
into the woods and finding doug had committed suicide.
- Narrator: On December 2nd, using pings from his cell phone
and information provided by rose,
police descend upon the location doug
was supposedly last seen.
- Dave: We were out there in suits and everything
walking around, and it's hillsides, uh,
large hardwood forest with briars and sticker bushes
and multi-floral rows, I mean, it's very, very difficult
to walk through.
- Narrator: The meticulous search spans three days.
- Dave: I think they had probably 30 people out there.
There were a couple of cadaver dogs out there.
- Chris: Unfortunately, during the third day
searching for doug, still no results, uh,
still haven't found doug.
Definitely, frustration was, uh, starting to set in with us.
- Dave: I thought maybe we were just searching the wrong area,
so I thought that we had to speak to rose
and try to pinpoint the exact location on--on where doug
got out of the truck.
- Narrator: But when detectives reach rose on the phone again
and ask her to join them at the search location,
they receive a surprising response.
- She just made excuse; didn't want to come down.
- Dave: I said, "what do you mean you're too busy?
He's missing. Do you wanna help us find him?"
she said, "well, I can't get off of work.
I--I can't afford to come down there."
- chris: Rose gave the excuse that she didn't have
money for gas. That's when the red flags really started
coming out with rose.
I asked her to go on google earth to try
to pinpoint the location where doug gets out of the vehicle,
and then she comes up with a location that's five miles
away from where she originally told us that doug
had got out of the vehicle.
- At that point is when I knew that something was up with rose
and we just had to figure out what it was.
- Narrator: With suspicion around rose growing,
detectives decide to take a more direct approach
on December 7th.
- We got permission from our supervisor to drive
from peoria, illinois to prescott, wisconsin,
which was like a seven or eight-hour drive.
We went the exact same path that they would've taken.
- Chris: One of doug's facebook posts said they were
at the world's largest truckstop,
so we wanted to see what that looked like.
We wanted to see if they were actually there.
- Dave: I asked rose about that, she told me that, yes,
they--they stopped at the truck stop to get gas.
- Narrator: Upon arriving at the truck stop,
detectives begin the tedious task of scrutinizing
surveillance footage from November 26th,
thanksgiving day.
After several hours of reviewing footage,
their tenacity pays off.
- Detective watkins and I see a truck that fits
the description of rose's truck pull into the truck stop,
pull up to a gas pump.
- We see two dogs jumping around, we also see rose,
but we do not see doug anywhere.
When we see that doug is not in the truck,
we immediately know that we can't call rose and confront her
over the phone about this.
- Narrator: Police notice something else in the footage
that gets their attention: In the bed of the truck
are two large, white boxes.
- At that point, detective watkins and I both s--
both said to each other, "I bet that's doug.
I bet doug's in that box."
- chris: There's foul play. She's lying to us.
So then we contacted the local jurisdiction.
- Dave: We were able to get a, uh, a search warrant
with the assistance of the pierce county sheriff's office.
And we went to rose's house with the search warrant
in hand to search her house.
- Narrator: But when detectives arrive at the home,
rose is not there.
- We didn't really foresee that there was a huge safety threat
for the officers, so we just set up all around
her neighborhood and waited for her to come home.
- When we see rose pull in, that's when we approach her,
let her know where we're from and that we needed to talk
to her about the investigation.
- Dave: I said, "rose, do you want us to find doug?"
and she looked at me and said, "no.
No, I don't want you to find him."
- there's way more to this story than we knew about.
This could be a possible murder.
That's when she went through the history of abuse
and how mean doug was to her.
- She's telling me about doug grabbing her ass
and squeezing it to the point where she's got bruises,
or, you know, where he's forcing her to have sex.
- Narrator: As detectives take rose's emotional statement,
their colleagues perform an exhaustive search of her home
and vehicle.
- One of the officers found a-- it was a cardboard box
that a shotgun comes in when you go buy it,
and a partially empty box of shotgun shells.
- Chris: She was confronted about that.
She said, "well, that was supposed to go in the garbage,
but I instead put it in the vehicle,"
which didn't really make sense or explain to us why there was
an empty box of shotgun shells in her back seat.
- Dave: Just in her demeanor and the way of talking to her,
I knew doug was dead and that rose had something to do with it
and I just had to figure out a way to get her to tell me.
I just wanted to, you know,
sympathize and empathize with her
and try to help her justify what happened.
- Chris: Rose was very frustrated
when talking to her.
She then just blurts out that, "he was gonna kill me."
- then she said, "well, I had no choice."
- narrator: Before rose continues,
detectives put her on pause.
- Dave: In illinois, if it's a homicide, uh,
interview, you have to videotape the interview.
I said, "we are gonna go back to pierce county sheriff's office,
and you can tell me the story then."
- narrator: Coming up, police hear from rose
the horrifying truth of what happened to doug.
- I was just amazed that-- that someone could do this.
- Narrator: And an unexpected motive surfaces.
- They had a sexual relationship for the last couple of years.
- ♪
- narrator: December 7th, 2015.
After speaking to murder suspect rose kuehni
at her prescott, wisconsin home,
detectives from peoria county, illinois
transport rose to a local sheriff's office,
hoping they're on the brink of a murder confession.
- She was pretty relaxed on the car ride there,
from her house to the sheriff's office.
The pierce county investigators get the room all set up.
So, detective watkins and I go in there.
I read her her miranda rights,
she paused and then she explained her version
of what happened.
- Narrator: Rose says her interaction with doug
on the night of November 22nd, 2015
was both non-consensual and violent from the beginning.
- Chris: Rose tells us they get upstairs,
and rose gets in the closet,
and then doug starts threatening to kill everybody in her family.
- Narrator: Rose says, fearing a sexual assault,
she reached for a shotgun in the closet.
- [muted gunshot]
- rose described the first shot in doug's side,
and the second shot in doug's chest.
- Chris: Rose goes on and says that after she shoots him,
she panics, she knows her son's coming home,
so she gets a sheet and drags doug down the stairs,
and she put doug's body in a box.
- She said that in between when it happened and the day that,
you know, that we were there, that she'd painted--repainted
the room and cleaned up all the blood
and got rid of everything.
- Narrator: Rose also explains she placed some of doug's
personal belongings into a second box in the shed
and, over the next four days leading up to thanksgiving,
she assumed doug's identity.
- She started using his phone and communicating with, um,
family, sent texts to brenda,
and then she is the one that actually was on facebook,
using doug's account.
- Dave: Rose said that she made the facebook post
that was suicidal in nature.
Rose made the post that talked about them stopping
at the biggest truckstop in the world.
Rose made, uh, the post telling sheila that they were
on their way down for thanksgiving dinner.
- Narrator: Rose tells detectives that doug's body
stayed boxed up in the shed for four days,
until she finally reached out for help.
- Chris: This friend's name was clarence hicks.
Rose says clarence doesn't know about her killing doug,
just knows to get rid of the boxes.
- Narrator: Following her confession,
on December 8th, rose is arrested
for the murder of doug bailey.
As word of her arrest travels quickly,
those following the case are shaken by the details.
- Lisa: We're just-- how cruel can a person be?
We just could not believe something like that happened.
- Travis: When I heard rose was arrested, I was--
I don't wanna say relieved, but at least I thought
there was gonna be some justice for his death.
- Linda: When we first met, I think rose was very likeable.
She was fun.
I was just amazed that-- that someone could do this.
You don't take a human body and throw it away
like a piece of garbage to never be found.
- Narrator: With rose behind bars,
investigators are eager to track down
her potential accomplice, clarence hicks.
- Clarence was located, uh, within a couple of days
after rose's arrest.
Clarence was, uh, cooperative with authorities
and informed them that he had dropped the boxes off a bridge
in kentucky.
He also stuck to his statement that he didn't know
what was in the boxes.
- Narrator: Clarence also reveals a piece of information
to law enforcement that rose conveniently omitted.
- Clarence did tell the troopers that interviewed him initially
that, uh, he and rose had a sexual relationship
for the last couple of years.
- Chris: Rose told us nothing about a romantic relationship
with clarence, and one thing that definitely
came to mind was that she didn't call police
right after she killed doug.
Rose instead got rid of doug by giving doug's body
to her lover, clarence, and getting rid of that way,
which shows possible motive that she intended to kill doug
prior to that night.
- Narrator: Coming up, the attempt to recover doug
becomes dangerous.
- It was in very, very hard terrain, rock area,
that was several hundred feet below the bridge.
- Narrator: And in a pierce county courtroom,
a stunning decision adds to the pain of doug's family.
- I did cuss in the courtroom.
I just said, "what the...Just happened here?"
- ♪
- narrator: With rose kuehni in custody for the murder
of her boyfriend, doug bailey,
police are determined to recover the victim's remains,
and rose's other flame, clarence hicks,
has agreed to help.
- Chris: Clarence showed where the two boxes were in kentucky,
off a bridge in very, very hard terrain, rock area,
that was several hundred feet below the bridge.
- Narrator: After further assessing the location
of the boxes, investigators embark
on the difficult recovery mission.
- It was a very intense effort to get the boxes back up
to where they could recover them.
One box had, unfortunately, doug in it,
and the other box had doug's belongings.
- Dave: When doug's body is recovered, by that point,
there's 12 days of decomposition, um, you know,
and decomposition is going to be sped up by the fact
that he's inside a box.
I have seen decomposed bodies that have been shot,
and determining what's an exit and what's an entry is harder
the further along in decomp you get.
- Narrator: For the bailey family,
the recovery of doug's body proves crushing.
- [crying] that night on the news we seen them
bring my brother's...Body
in a bo--in a box, up the mountainside.
And we were just in shock.
- Narrator: While doug's family begins to mourn,
investigators receive the autopsy on December 9th,
and it provides them with some additional insight
into the shooting that took doug's life.
- Chris: We were notified that the autopsy results
were not consistent with what rose said.
Doug was shot one time in the side,
and the other shot was in the back.
When rose had said that she had shot doug in the chest,
coming at her.
- Narrator: To tighten their case against rose,
investigators also track down the murder weapon.
- Rose told the pierce county investigators that the gun
was at her sister's house.
They went to her sister's house,
conducted the search, and they found
pieces of the gun in her garage.
- Narrator: And when police get their hands on records
of electronic correspondence between rose and clarence hicks,
their findings only further incriminate both parties.
- The, uh, pierce county investigator
did an awful lot of work tracking down
all of their emails, their, um, you know, text messages,
and--and found all kinds of stuff that rose had said,
you know, "I wish he was dead; I need to get away from him,"
and things that very plainly illustrated the fact
that this was planned.
- Narrator: But while rose faces a first-degree murder charge,
the evidence against clarence only garners the charge
of hiding a corpse.
- He took the advice of his attorney,
he pled no contest, which is pleading guilty
to hiding the corpse.
- Narrator: While clarence strikes a deal,
rose chooses a different path,
and in August of 2016, her case goes to trial
in a pierce county, wisconsin courtroom.
- The prosecution during this case focused on
the motivation, the motive, prior conversations,
and clarence being involved in a relationship with her.
- Narrator: But rose's defense team argues
she was justified in shooting doug because of her allegations
of physical and mental abuse.
- Andrew: Rose had a very competent, brilliant,
knowledgeable defense team
that was able to tell her story in a way...
That truly represented the situation she was in.
They showed photographs...
- Linda: There were pictures that she took of herself
that showed bruises on her legs and her hips, um, her back.
- Dave: There were no reports that I saw
to the police department
that reported doug being abusive towards rose.
- Narrator: In one of the trial's most dramatic moments,
rose takes the stand and asserts the mistreatment
she suffered at the hands of doug.
- She claimed that he locked her up for three weeks
and abused her.
- Narrator: Rose's claims come as a shock to doug's family.
- All our mouths are dropping;
things that were coming out of her mouth
that she said doug did?
- Sheila: I just didn't believe that, you know.
She loved doug, literally, to death.
I believe she did this because doug was actually
going to leave this time and she was going to lose him.
- Narrator: On August 18th, 2016,
the burden of who to believe is placed
on the jury's shoulders.
After nearly 14 hours of deliberation,
rose is found not guilty of first-degree murder.
But the jury is hung on a second-degree murder charge,
resulting in a mistrial.
- I believe that some jurors were convinced that she was
the victim of domestic violence and a terrible situation,
and this was the only option for her.
- Dave: I was dumbfounded, I was like,
"you gotta be kidding me."
she shot him, she packed him up like a present,
and that's... How is that not murder?
- Sheila: I did cuss in the courtroom.
I just said, "what the... Just happened here?"
I was devastated.
- Narrator: The jury does convict rose of hiding a corpse,
but any chance of retrying her
on the second-degree murder charge
is quickly put to rest when she agrees to a plea deal.
- Linda: The judge said, "there may be people
in court today that may not like what I'm going to say,"
and that's when he sentenced her to,
I believe it was seven years of probation,
time served as any prison time...
And that was it.
She was free to go.
- Narrator: As rose walks away from the courtroom a free woman,
doug bailey's family is left with only memories
of their beloved brother.
- What I miss the most about doug is his antics,
his jokes, his personality,
how he could light up a room when he walks in.
I miss so much about him.
- Sheila: You could have a bad day,
and he could make you laugh.
You know, he always had something positive.
I miss him more than... Life itself.
- ♪