I'm kate snow and this is "dateline: Secrets uncovered".
- She was family.
A giant hole is ripped in our hearts.
The first thing you want is well, the police are gonna go
Get the bad guys, right?
I was not prepared for what happened.
- Professor, artist, mom murdered.
- A primal scream came out of me.
- She just immediately broke down
And started crying pretty hard.
- Police were quick to question her ex,
Maybe too quick.
- They focused in right from the very beginning.
- Husband always does it, right?
- But what if the husband didn't?
- You don't find any dna, fingerprints, blood,
Anything of his in the house.
- Could someone else be the real killer?
- I'm wondering, what was this man capable of?
- So much tragedy, so much heartbreak.
- It was very emotional for me.
- We just kept waiting for them to figure out
That they had it wrong.
♪♪
- Hello and welcome to "dateline: Secrets uncovered".
Carol kennedy's psychology classes
Were a hot ticket on campus.
But the recently divorced professor was ready for
A career change.
Then just as carol started a new chapter in life,
Her story ended in murder.
Investigators suspected someone close to carol
Was hiding a deadly secret.
But to solve this who-done-it, they'd have to unravel
An intricate web of lies.
Here's keith morrison with "the mystery on bridle path".
- It was the 2nd of July 2008, early evening
In a fine old town called prescott, arizona.
Sun going down, air cooling down
To a fine evening warm.
Here at the town's historic rodeo grounds,
Refugees from the summer heat in phoenix
Two hours and 25 degrees away settled into the stands
To enjoy the annual exploits of the cowboys.
At the very same time, a few miles away
On the edge of town a woman named carol kennedy
Jogged along a well-worn path
At the base of granite mountain.
Sometime after 7:00 she turned in
At her big back yard here on a street called bridle path,
Trotted past the stone labyrinth
She'd laid out here years earlier
To mark the turn of the millennium
And arrived at the back door of the house
She intended to inhabit for the rest of
Her natural days.
But, of course, carol kennedy had no idea that
This was going to be her last day.
And no, it would not be natural at all.
- I mean, it's the biggest loss of my life to this day.
It's profound, it's piercing, it's constant.
- Carol kennedy was in, as they say,
A good place in her life.
This is her friend, katherine morris.
- Carol was the epitome of kindness
And living a life from a perspective
Of having an open heart
And being loving.
- Before she became a close friend,
Katherine morris was carol's student
At prescott college.
- She was very well respected and admired.
Her classes were always full; very difficult to get into.
- What was she like? - She was magnetic.
And she was always sort of searching for the truth.
And you just were gravitated to her.
- Charisma that kind of pulled her students in,
Especially maybe you? - Um-hmm.
Um-hmm. She was soft and inviting.
- I'm carol kennedy. I live in prescott, arizona.
- You get a sense of her personality
In this 2006 interview
In which she was asked about
Her passion for teaching.
- Such a gift to feel like you get to give seeds
To this first row here and then they turn around
And give it to rows behind them.
- And, in fact, she shared those passions
With the man who was her husband for 25 years.
The love of her life really. Steve democker.
- They were crazy for each other.
- Sharon democker is steve's sister.
- Carol was really easy to love.
She was kind of a natural fit in the family.
She was just immediately a sister to all of us.
- All of us being the democker family.
High achievers, all of them.
Sharon is a doctor. - It's an accomplished bunch.
One of my friends said
There's not a weak link in this group.
- Carol and steve got married in his parents' back yard
Overlooking lake ontario near rochester, new york.
An outdoor wedding for a couple who loved adventure.
- Steve was the one that kind of started
The adventuring side of things.
First there was hiking and skiing
And mountain climbing and kayaking.
- They moved around a bit, as people do,
And wound up eventually in prescott,
Which proved to be the perfect place
To raise their two bright, attractive daughters,
Katie and charlotte.
- They're amazing.
I think that it's really a-a testimony to
The kind of parents that steve and carol were.
The girls were their first priority.
- Steve became the dean of prescott college.
Carol taught psychology there.
But life is a river, never the same for long.
Steve decided to change careers, left the academic life,
Became a financial advisor.
Very successful, too.
And there were other changes, more difficult ones.
- Nobody knows all of what goes on inside a marriage,
But I did talk with both of them about it and, um,
They both struggled because
Their lives were moving in different directions.
- And much as they still cared for each other,
There were infidelities. Steve had an affair.
They decided to separate.
- Carol loved steve fiercely. - Hmm.
- She fought hard for her marriage until the end.
- But in 2008, after more than 25 years of marriage,
Five living apart, steve and carol divorced.
It was a long, painful process and after it was final,
Carol went to a nearby lake where she called katherine.
- She was sobbing.
And at first when she called me, it was like, oh!
"oh, no!"
And then I realized that the-- that the sobbing
And the wailing on the phone was --
It was a mixture of things.
- Cathartic. - Yeah, absolutely!
- Open hearts... - Open hearts...
- Time for a fresh start.
Carol had left teaching by that time,
Was focused on a new passion. Painting.
- Her art was developing;
She was really doing well with that
And taking off with that.
- Of course, she remained close to her daughters,
But she also stayed close to steve.
And, in fact, just a few days before that July morning,
The whole family went to the airport together
To see katie off on a study abroad trip
To south africa.
Charlotte was staying with her dad in prescott.
Nothing ahead now
But the long, easy days of summer.
As she jogged the last few yards to her house,
Carol passed by the guest cottage
She'd rented out as a way to help pay her expenses.
- It's 50 feet away from the main house
And it has all of its own kitchen and bath
And shower and rooms.
- It was comforting, in a way, to have someone else with her
On the property out here at the edge of things.
The man's name was jim knapp, divorced father.
A bit of an odd duck, some people said,
But easy to get along with.
At least that's what carol told her friends.
The man didn't cause any trouble.
- Jim knapp was just sort of this free-spirited surfer dude
From hawaii who, um, hang ten.
- But she took him in as a boarder?
- It was my understanding that he was --
Had been diagnosed with cancer and I think they sort of
Co-supported each other
Through a lot of the painful times
That they were both experiencing.
- Once inside her house,
Carol put together a salad for dinner,
Answered a few emails, settled in for an evening alone.
She picked up the phone and called her mother, ruth,
Who lived way off in nashville, tennessee.
- She was an amazing daughter
Who still called her mom every day.
- Ruth was 83. The call, a nightly ritual.
And then at 8 p.M., the oddest thing.
The line went dead.
But not before ruth heard something rather terrifying.
Ruth tried to call back. Nothing.
And there she was so far away and now worried.
So, she decided to call the sheriff's department
Whose headquarters is here in downtown prescott.
- "oh, no."
Those two words played back again and again
In ruth's worried brain.
And so began a mystery and a story too unbelievable
Even for some of its most intimate participants.
What happened to carol kennedy?
- That question would take years to answer.
Not just what happened to carol, but who was behind it?
Coming up... - She didn't have any enemies?
- None. None!
- We were just stunned.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
Carol kennedy and her mother, ruth,
Were having their nightly phone call.
Suddenly, the phone line went dead.
Ruth tried back, couldn't reach carol.
Then she called the sheriff's department.
- Did you notice what she said?
Recently divorced.
Certainly, the operator heard it.
- Family and friends all knew that
Even after their divorce,
Steve and carol still cared deeply for each other
And their two daughters.
That connection between the two of them interests me.
- They took time to nurture their relationship
And to spend time together. - Yeah.
- And to do things that -- that they enjoyed doing
And-and bringing up katie and charlotte.
- But this was hardly the time for reminiscing.
Carol wasn't answering her phone and ruth was frantic.
- You can imagine what that was like for ruth,
So far away, waiting for a phone call.
She knew carol had a boarder, that offbeat guy, jim knapp.
But ruth didn't know how to reach him.
Steve would know what to do.
So, she called him on his cellphone.
And when he didn't pick up, she left him this message.
- By that time, it was dark.
Steve and carol's daughter, charlotte,
And her then boyfriend jacob januzek were,
At that moment, at steve's house
Waiting for him to come home.
Jacob was actually living there
While he tried to sort out a few issues with his parents.
- What was your relationship like with him
And what was charlotte's relationship like?
- Charlotte was very close with-with steve.
He had offered me to-to stay with him before, you know,
Tried to figure something out just to make my situation
With my parents better and, um,
So I had a lot of respect for him.
Um, definitely looked up to him.
- But that evening, steve, an avid outdoorsman,
Was overdue from a mountain bike ride.
And it was getting late. Really late, actually.
- Yeah, it was very-very odd.
Um, you know, he would usually--
We'd usually have dinner pretty late there.
It was, you know, normal to have dinner at 9:00, 9:30.
When he hadn't come home around that time
Was when we kind of started to get a little worried,
Um, that maybe he had crashed or gotten hurt or something.
- What'd you do?
- Charlotte called, um, his cellphone and...
- No answer? - No answer.
- Did it go straight to voicemail?
- Yeah.
- Anyway, hungry for dinner,
They went to the store for groceries.
- While we were at the store,
It was probably around 10:00, 10:15
Was when we got a call from steve
And he told us that, you know, he got a flat tire,
And he was at the workout center
And was going to finish up his workout there.
- And what, his phone had been off or something?
Or what happened to his phone?
- He said his phone had died.
- While he was out there having a flat tire.
- Right.
- Steve was in the shower when charlotte and jake arrived
Back at the condo.
They made a quick dinner, vegetable stir fry.
It was late, but then again, it was a mild summer night.
Not a care in the world, it seemed.
No idea what was happening at the house on bridle path.
- Coming up... Panic begins.
A daughter rushes to the scene.
What would she find?
- She just immediately broke down.
Um, started crying pretty hard.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
July 2, 2008, about 11 p.M.
Steve democker, his daughter charlotte
And charlotte's boyfriend, jake, were eating a very late dinner.
- He had taken a few more bites of his dinner
And then by that point charlotte and I
Were pretty close to being finished.
- That's when steve told them about a strange phone call
He received from carol's brother who told him that apparently
Carol's home phone suddenly cut out
When she was talking to her mother, ruth,
And nobody could reach her.
How did charlotte react to that?
- Uh, she was worried.
- Charlotte said she texted her mom earlier that evening;
Everything seemed fine then. But now?
She called her mother. Voicemail.
The beginnings of panic bubbled up in charlotte's brain.
She and her boyfriend called around to local hospitals,
But nobody named carol kennedy
Had been admitted to any of them.
So, this is nighttime.
Was there any thought of going over there?
- Yeah. We-we had talked about it.
- Steve was concerned about carol, of course,
But as her now ex-husband, he had another concern, too.
- Steve had expressed that
He wasn't really comfortable with it
Because, you know, they had just finalized their divorce
And-and, you know, he didn't feel comfortable
Invading her privacy if she was with, you know,
Another guy on a date or something like that.
- Um-hmm.
- So, we decided that charlotte and I
Would go out there and-and check on her.
Just kind of see, you know,
If anything was out of the ordinary.
- It was around midnight when they drove out
To carol's place on bridle path,
Having promised to call steve the minute they got there.
- Do you remember what it was like driving over there?
- It was very quiet.
I don't really think we-we spoke, um,
Very much at all on the way there.
- Because...? - Just nerves.
You know?
- A little anxious? - Right.
- Do you remember pulling up to the house and...
- Yes. Very vividly.
- At that moment, charlotte was on the phone with her dad.
- As soon as we got to the top of the hill,
You could see the police, you know, the sheriff's lights
And all the cars and, um, you know,
Just the worst thoughts are kind of going through,
You know, my mind at that point.
- You know, that almost kind of thing that hits you here
Before it hits you here. - Right. Yeah.
Kind of feel it in your stomach first, for sure.
Then we got closer to the house and saw caution tape
And-and all the, you know, people running around
And everything.
We had pulled up and stopped on the side of the road
And two sheriffs walked up on either side of the car
And, um, we rolled the windows down.
- Did this person know who you were?
- Yeah, I think he had asked, you know,
"were you guys just passing through?"
And charlotte said, "no, this is my mom's house."
And he said, "well, I'm sorry to tell you,
"but, you know, um, you know, carol passed away."
At that point, she just immediately broke down, um,
Started crying pretty hard.
- Charlotte dropped the phone, fell to pieces.
Were you frightened?
- Scared? A little bit.
Um, really more so for charlotte,
Just, you know, not really --
I mean even now I don't think I could --
I could figure out how to console someone
In that situation.
- Maybe steve would know what to do.
- I picked up the cellphone and-and told steve
What had happened and he needed to come down
And-and be with charlotte.
- And steve?
- He was taken aback, you know?
It was almost kind of disbelief
Like he didn't really know what to say, really.
Um, kind of hear him
Choking back some tears a little bit.
And that was, you know, that was hard.
- Right away, steve rushed over to carol's house.
A detective had a recorder rolling.
You can hear charlotte sobbing.
[sobbing]
And steve talking.
- Someone else talked to the detectives, too.
A man who showed up
Just minutes after the deputies got there.
Jim knapp, carol's boarder.
The man who'd been living in the guest house.
- And jim knapp had a lot to say about carol.
But he didn't stop there.
- Coming up... Blood drops, shoe prints.
The clues tell a story.
- So, that tells you something about how she died?
- She certainly died a violent death.
- And the man in the guest cottage has a story, too.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
Just before 9 p.M., July 2nd.
That's around the time
Carol kennedy's worried family members
Were recording phone messages to each other.
A yavapai county sheriff's deputy
Was dispatched to carol's house on bridle path,
Found the home dark, eerily quiet.
He shone a flashlight through a window,
Saw a bookcase toppled over and blood everywhere.
That's when investigator mike sachet
Was pulled into the strangest case of his career.
The kind of thing he had moved to prescott to avoid.
- It's a quaint little community nestled in the pines
And, uh, not a whole lot of crime,
Especially, uh, from what I was used to.
- Sachet put in 27 years in the phoenix police.
This job with the yavapai county attorney's office
Was supposed to be an escape from big-city crime.
And here he was, middle of a July night,
Looking at one very brutal homicide.
- What did it look like?
- It was, uh, certainly a gruesome scene.
Not only a large amount of blood on carol's body
But also on the furniture that was nearby, uh,
Blood spatter that had been, uh, cast off in --
Onto the walls a-and other items, as well.
- So, that tells you something about how she died.
- She certainly died a violent death.
- Something else.
As he surveyed the room, he could plainly see
Whoever did this was trying to fool them.
How did he know?
When he looked past the obvious gore,
He couldn't help but notice things had been moved around
After carol was dead.
- There was a-a ladder that was placed
Over top of her body.
That, along with some of the blood
That had splatted onto a bookshelf.
And then the shelf was knocked over,
Obviously several minutes after the blood hit it.
- Sure.
Unlikely that it was just tottering
And eventually collapsed?
- That could not have happened.
- So, that's a pretty significant little detail then.
- Yes. Absolutely. - Staging.
Clear as day, said the detective.
There were even some drops of blood
Just outside the door.
The blood trail led detectives to another discovery.
Shoe prints outside the house.
- There was a lot of tracks out there.
- The house was next door to ranch land.
Lots of people went running and riding there.
Carol, too.
- Horses, animals, uh, people used that area.
And there were a lot of tracks.
These tracks were unique. They were fresh.
- They found carol's footprints from her jog
That very evening. But there were others.
- Her track, as it went out.
The suspect's track then stepped right on one of hers.
So, she went out
And then the suspect came into her house.
- You even had sequence of tracks?
- Yes.
- About 50 feet from the main house,
You remember, was a guest cottage
Which carol had rented out to that tenant,
Jim knapp.
- Jim knapp was one of the first ones to arrive
At the scene after the deputies had arrived.
- Of course, the detectives asked him
Where was he that night.
And knapp was ready with a story.
- He had been babysitting one of his, uh, boys
At his ex-wife's house
When this incident actually occurred.
- Um-hmm. You'd have to pin him down,
Made sure he had proof of it, right?
- That's correct.
- Another detective turned on his recorder
As knapp rambled on about his relationship with carol.
- But knapp didn't stop there.
Oh, no, he seemed very eager to tell them about
Carol's ex-husband, steve democker.
- So, by the time steve arrived,
Detectives were already suspicious.
And they asked him to come to the sheriff's department
Where he told them the same thing
He had told his daughter.
He was riding his mountain bike when he got a flat tire.
- Okay.
- He drew them a map of the trail he followed.
At one point, the trail got to
Within a mile of carol's house.
The detective's ears perked up.
But steve insisted he never went to carol's house.
- Steve told the detective he was tired, dehydrated.
- Steve asked them what were they thinking about him.
Was he a suspect?
- And so, it was a long night in that little room.
The detective gave steve a blanket.
Asked again about that trail.
- I know.
- Maybe so.
But wherever he was, he picked up something
The detectives simply couldn't ignore.
- Very fresh, multiple scratches...
- On his arms and legs.
Steve said he got those riding a rough mountain trail
On his bike.
Detectives photographed them before letting him go home.
Meanwhile, overnight, other detectives
Searched steve's office
And his home and his garage.
And they took pictures. Lots of pictures.
After the autopsy next afternoon,
The medical examiner reported that carol died from
Blows to the head administered by
Some blunt object.
Seven times her killer hit her.
With what?
The medical examiner offered an opinion.
It looked like it might have been a golf club.
And one more thing.
Carol herself might already be telling them who killed her.
- Coming up...
- It sounds like kind of a-an ah-ha moment, right?
- It's one of those moments that you go, "oh, my goodness,
"we may have overlooked something."
- The clue that police almost missed.
Will it help them crack the case?
When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
There is, as katherine morris can tell you,
No good way to find out your close friend
Has been murdered.
Especially a friend as incandescent as carol kennedy.
- It's the biggest loss of my life to this day.
It's profound, it's piercing, it's constant.
- She didn't have any enemies.
- None. None!
- Katherine, who by this time lived in atlanta,
Flew across the country to prescott.
- I needed to see it.
I needed to be in her home where she last was.
- She joined other members of carol's family at bridle path.
In the very room where carol died.
Blood still spattered on the furniture.
The mess of what happened everywhere in that room.
- You just -- you can't imagine how painful.
- Did it help?
- It helped greatly to put it into perspective
Of the absolute horrendous brutality,
Animalistic, violent.
- Evidence of that was still in the room?
- Oh, yes. Oh, yeah.
- Steve was there, too, said katherine.
And she remembers him saying something that
To her didn't make much sense.
- He put his -- his arm around me and said,
"you just want to think it was an accident, don't you?"
Then I looked at him and I said,
"this is not an accident.
"what I'm looking at is not an accident."
- By then, so soon after the murder,
Steve was the only real suspect under investigation.
And in the following weeks, as friends and family mourn,
Detectives peel back the layers
Of steve and carol's relationship
And soon found evidence that their recent divorce was--
Well, no divorce is pleasant, but...
- We looked heavily into emails and we learned that carol
Was very unhappy with the outcome of the divorce.
They argued heavily back and forth, uh,
Up until the day of her murder.
- Steve made good money as a financial advisor,
Had agreed to pay $6,00 a month in spousal support.
- When you say somebody makes over $500,000,
You would assume that a $6,000 monthly payment
Is not a big deal.
But he was spending way more than he was making.
He was having to borrow money
From his parents almost monthly.
- When he's making a half a million a year?
- That's correct.
And the $6,000,
He was gonna be unable to sustain his lifestyle.
- Mind you, those numbers were for 2008,
A year when, like a lot of people,
Steve hemorrhaged money because of the financial crisis.
Still, to the detective, that $6,000 a month
Sounded like motive.
It might even explain why the murder occurred when it did,
At the beginning of July.
- And that payment started June 1.
The second payment was due July 1.
She was murdered July 2nd, and that payment was never made.
- Again and again, he denied killing his ex-wife.
Said he was out mountain biking the evening she died.
But look at this.
Along with shoe prints near carol's house after the murder,
Police also found tire tracks.
Bike tires.
- We then were able to see that the bike
Had been stashed, and then the individual
Walked right to the back of her house.
- They did not take direct impressions of those shoe
And tire tracks, as investigators frequently do,
But they did take pictures of the tracks.
Looked a lot like the treads on steve's tires, they felt.
And while no matching shoes turned up,
They discovered that steve once bought a pair
That might match.
And then there was the curious business
Of the murder weapon, or possible murder weapon.
Remember the coroner's report suggesting carol
May have been hit with a golf club?
When investigators learned that,
Something clicked in their memories
From their first search through steven's house.
- There were golf clubs in his garage.
- So, let's go back and seize them, right?
- Yeah, seize them and examine them.
- Sure. - To see if we can determine, uh,
That these golf clubs were used as the murder weapon.
- So, it sounds like kind of a-an "a-ha" moment, right?
- It's one of those moments that you go,
"oh, my goodness, we may have overlooked something."
- So, they returned to steve's condo,
Seized the golf clubs from the garage
And tested them, but could find no evidence
That any of them was the murder weapon.
But there was s omething else.
In the first search of the condo,
A detective remembered seeing a golf club cover,
Or golf sock, on a shelf.
They looked at the photos.
There it was.
But when they searched the garage a second time,
It was gone.
- And the shelf itself had apparently been
Sort of rearranged.
- Was it possible that now missing golf sock
Belonged to a different golf club?
One that was no longer around,
One used to kill carol kennedy?
Did steve, knowing he was a suspect,
Get rid of that golf sock
Because it was incriminating evidence?
It seemed like every investigative trail
They followed led right back to the same person
They had suspected all along.
Carol's friend katherine knew who that was.
- I didn't believe that steve did it,
But I couldn't think of anyone else
That would possibly do any hard to carol. - Yeah.
- And so, three months after carol was killed,
They arrested steve democker
On a charge of first-degree murder.
Steve's sister sharon...
- I'm trying to imagine what it was like for the family.
This amazing, accomplished,
Interesting, intelligent family,
When the leader child was charged with murdering his wife,
A woman who you all loved.
- It was a total shock.
You're going, they-- they don't understand.
If-if they knew him,
They would see how wrong and impossible this was.
- Even worse, prosecutors filed for the death penalty.
Any chance for bail for steve, given the charge, was remote.
Still, the whole democker family
Gathered in court for the hearing,
Which, coincidence, had been scheduled
For christmas eve 2008.
And then it was delayed.
- It was this crushing blow,
Seeing that, uh, the wheels turn
Painfully slowly in this process.
So, we left and were standing out in the corridor.
Then they were just starting to bring steve out.
And we said, you know what,
Let's just sing him a christmas carol.
So, we started singing
"we wish you a merry christmas"
And we could see that, you know, there were tears
Streaming down steve's face.
- Steve's family wept, too.
They believed he was innocent,
That someone else killed carol.
And their belief only grew stronger after.
- 911, what is your emergency?
- A 911 call,
This time to the prescott police department.
- The husband always does it, right?
- They focused in on one person
Right from the very beginning.
- A thumbprint, a smear of blood,
And here's the bombshell.
Neither one belonged to steve democker.
- There were a lot of red flags that were concerning.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
- Welcome back.
Carol kennedy was dead, savagely beaten
With what detectives believed was a golf club.
The accused killer, her ex-husband steve,
A well-paid financial advisor secretly struggling
To make alimony payments.
But forensic evidence at the crime scene
Would soon raise troubling questions
About another man in carol's life
And the investigation itself.
Here again is keith morrison
With "the mystery on bridle path".
- Steve democker was in jail,
Charged with first-degree murder
For his ex-wife carol kennedy's violent death.
He pleaded not guilty.
Private investigator rich robertson
Joined steve's defense team,
And right away saw what he believed
Was an elemental mistake by detectives.
- They put together their story,
Their version of events, almost immediately.
- The husband always does it, right?
- But yeah, they-they focused in on-on one person
And they had a story and that's what they worked on.
They zeroed in on steve democker
Right from the very beginning.
- Robertson said detectives should have taken
A much closer look at another man in carol's life,
Jim knapp, the man who lived in the guest house
And showed up at the crime scene
Within minutes of the officers and who was the first person
To point the finger at steve.
- The fact that law enforcement viewed him
In a different way than they viewed steve democker,
That they saw jim knapp as a friendly witness
And they see steve democker as a suspect,
Frames the way that they investigate.
So, anything having to do with jim knapp
Becomes excusable, explained...
It's just not something you have to worry about
Because he's not our guy.
- And yet, look, for example, at these crime scene photos
And carol's kitchen counter.
The magazine was sitting on it.
And slipped inside, between the pages,
Were some financial documents that were printed
The very day carol was murdered.
- That became really important because his thumbprint
Is on those financial documents.
- What was jim knapp doing with those documents?
And something else, perhaps very significant.
- There was blood on the doorknob of the door
That led from the main house into the backyard garage.
- The blood became evidence item number 805,
Collected days after carol's death.
And whose dna was mixed with carol's blood?
Jim knapp's dna.
- Just like the thumbprint, the question becomes
When did jim knapp's dna get put on that door handle?
- Robertson clearly had his suspicions.
And steve's sister sharon did, too.
- So, you felt all along that jim knapp
Should have been a suspect and wasn't?
- He should have been investigated.
There were a lot of red flags that were concerning.
- Knapp told sheriff's deputies he was nowhere near
Carol's house when the murder happened.
He was at his ex-wife's place miles away, babysitting his son.
- Didn't they find out the alibi, in fact,
Was pretty solid? - No.
Actually, it wasn't.
What the son said was that yeah,
They had gotten a video and the son was watching it.
- Mm-hmm. - He doesn't know where dad was.
- Dad wasn't sitting beside him in the room?
- No, dad was not watching with him.
So, he doesn't know where dad was.
The son got bored watching this movie
And I believe he went and got on his computer.
So, there's a period of time that we don't really know.
He might have been in the house, but nobody saw him.
- So, maybe knapp's solid alibi wasn't.
And remember how he told everyone he had cancer?
Sharon, a doctor, discovered something about that.
- I've seen the medical records. - And?
- He had a superficial type of skin cancer at one point
And it had been removed.
So, no. He didn't.
- Steve's family even recorded this video
After the murder, in which jim knapp
Said things about carol they found deeply disturbing.
- Because carol and I lived a life
Like an old married couple.
- He was actually rather obsessed with carol.
I have emails that he's written about how
What he and carol share
Is more than anyone could picture,
That no one will understand the bond that they have
And how close they are to each other.
And he referred to her, to some people,
As his girlfriend.
But she never had any romantic interest in him,
And no one has ever...
- And he had tremendous romantic interest in her?
- Very much so.
- Thus, in your mind, a reason to be angry one night?
- Certainly.
- Was it possible carol rebuffed him,
That he got angry?
The detectives didn't ask those questions,
Said steve's family. And soon, it was too late.
Six months after carol's murder,
A 911 call from a condo where jim knapp went to live
After carol was killed.
- Jim knapp was dead.
Gunshot wound.
The medical examiner ruled it a suicide.
- I was stunned.
It was-- it was one of those moments
Where it just sort of took my breath away.
And-and then when I found out there was no note,
And as I learned about the details
Of what the scene looked like,
It's still a baffling death.
- Baffling because it simply did not look like a suicide.
- There were multiple gunshots fired in that room.
There was furniture in disarray,
There was drawers pulled out.
- Staging, in other words.
Just as the investigators believed someone staged
The scene of carol's murder.
Was jim knapp carol's killer
Or another victim of an unknown killer?
Or maybe both.
It couldn't have been steve; he was in jail.
And then the questions multiplied.
In June 2009, almost a year after carol's death,
Steve's attorney received an email,
The sender anonymous.
The email read, "I can tell you what really happened
"the night kennedy was killed."
The email said jim knapp was running his mouth
To kennedy about a prescription drug deal he was in.
It said the murder was meant to look like
Home invasion robbery gone bad.
This wasn't one crazed man with a golf club.
When steve's attorneys told him about the email,
Steve replied with a startling story.
He had heard the same thing
Just a month earlier in jail.
- Would this be the evidence steve democker
Had been waiting for?
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
- Welcome back to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm kate snow.
Steve democker sat in jail,
Accused of his ex-wife carol's murder.
And yet, his supporters were certain
Police had the wrong man.
They suspected carol's tenant jim knapp was the real killer.
After all, it was his dna detectives found
At the crime scene.
Now jim was dead and whatever secrets he may have had,
He took to the grave.
But a tipster with a strange tale
Was about to breathe new life into steve's defense.
Back now to keith morrison
With "the mystery on bridle path".
- A year had passed since carol kennedy's death.
Her ex-husband steve had been arrested
And charged with murder.
But now, an anonymous email sent to steve's attorney
Said the killing was a result of a drug deal gone wrong
With carol's neighbor jim knapp.
Steve said he was told a similar story.
- Steve said that somebody was communicating to him
Through the ventilation system in the jail
And told him a story about how a drug ring
Out of phoenix had been trying to,
Uh, collect money
Or seek some retribution against jim knapp
For involvement in a prescription drug ring.
- The attorneys arranged for a meeting,
An opportunity for steve to tell law enforcement
What he heard so they could investigate it.
They showed him the mysterious email.
Listen to his reaction.
- There was more than the email to go on.
Remember the dna the medical examiner
Found under carol's fingernails?
Turned out it wasn't steve's
Or jim knapp's.
Police called the dna evidence item 603.
But to defense investigator rich robertson,
It represented much more.
- Evidence item 603 became mr. 603.
It was a male's dna that was found
Mixed in with carol's blood
Under the fingernails of her left hand.
And this wasn't a small amount of dna.
A reasonable person I think would think
This probably could have gotten there during an attack.
- Jim knapp, the anonymous email, mr. 603.
Steve's family and attorneys thought investigators
Should focus more on all of those things.
Instead, it seemed to them,
Prosecutors had already made up their minds
And steve would go on trial.
Summer 2010, two years after carol kennedy's murder.
American flags were once again draped up
Around the prescott town square
In anticipation of the annual rodeo.
And on June 3rd,
Inside the square's historic courthouse,
County attorney joe butner opened his case
Against steve democker by ticking off the reasons why,
In his view, steve deserved to spend the rest
Of his natural life behind bars.
By this time, pretrial legal rulings
Had taken the death penalty off the table,
Though attorney butner told the jury the case
Was no less condemning.
- I will ask you to find the defendant guilty
Of the first-degree premeditated murder.
- First, he said, steve had motive.
And not just that $6,000 a month in alimony.
No, carol, said the prosecutor,
Was worth a lot of money, dead.
- The evidence will show that at the time of her death
That steven democker was the owner and beneficiary
Of two life insurance policies.
The total value of those life insurance policies
Was $750,000.
- Steve and carol's daughters, katie and charlotte,
Were in court sitting behind and supporting their father.
Defense investigator rich robertson...
- To have your father accused of killing your mother
And for them to not believe it,
You can't imagine what that must have done
To how they view things.
It's just gotta be a horrible experience.
- In his opening statement, defense attorney john sears
Was quick to address that life insurance money.
- You will hear from katie and charlotte
That their father told them, from the beginning,
This is your money from your mother,
This isn't mine. He disclaimed.
He signed over any interest to the girls
And the money was paid out to the girls.
That's what happened in this case.
- Prosecutor butner called his first witness,
Katie democker, steve and carol's elder daughter.
- Did she have a habit of things that she did
When she came home from work?
- She did.
She typically went for a run, maybe four days a week,
Out on the back land.
- And to your recollection, did she leave the door unlocked
When she would do that? - Yes.
- An unlocked door, opportunity for her killer
To enter and wait.
On the stand, carol's mother, ruth kennedy, had to relive
That very last phone call with her daughter.
How exactly did it end so abruptly?
She told the sheriff's department operator
That carol had screamed, "oh, no!"
- And you just said that "oh, no" a certain way
With a certain emphasis?
Was that the way that she said it,
To your recollection?
- She said, "oh, no!"
Basically, that's the way it came out.
- Did she scream that?
- It really was not a scream. It--
I'm sure it was because I was so rattled myself.
She just said, "oh, no!"
That's all she said, and basically
In that tone of voice.
Like it was more dismay.
- This was very difficult for ruth, as you can imagine.
- She was everything a mother would want in a daughter.
She was a good mother.
- Charlotte, the younger democker daughter,
Was living with steve that summer,
Was in steve's house the night of the murder
When he was unreachable for five hours
And said his cellphone was dead.
- Your father, did he have,
Um, normally have spare batteries with him?
- Sometimes in his car.
- Did he carry them in the car and also in his briefcase?
- It's possible. I don't know.
- Normally, he was reachable by way of his cellphone, right?
- Yes.
- And when he finally got home that night,
She saw those scratches.
Suspicious, according to the prosecution.
- Did you ask him about those scratches?
- I did. - What did he tell you?
- He explained they were from branches from riding his bike.
- And then the prosecutor asked charlotte's, by then,
Former boyfriend jacob about the weird business
Of the golf club cover.
The golf sock that appeared in a photo in steve's garage
The night of the murder, but was gone
When detectives returned with another search warrant.
The implication, of course, was that the cover
Fit the club never found that killed carol.
Jacob said that after the detectives left,
He talked to steve.
- What was that conversation?
- Uh, the golf head sock cover was found
After they had left.
- He said he had found it?
- Yes.
- Did he say what he was going to do with it?
- He didn't know whether or not to turn it in
To the police or give it to his lawyer.
- Implying, said the prosecution,
That steve knew the golf sock could incriminate him
And didn't know what to do with it.
But just as the case seemed to be building momentum,
Two weeks into the trial, judge thomas lindberg
Left the bench at lunch break and suddenly collapsed.
It was a brain tumor.
And everybody waited for five weeks
Until a brand new judge was appointed
So they could pick up with testimony
Right where they left off.
And that's when the jurors finally got to hear
What became of the missing golf cover.
- Go ahead and open your evidence bag, please.
- Detective theresa kennedy showed it to the jurors
And the judge explained a stipulation
Made by the attorneys.
- On July 5, 2008...
- It turned out days after carol's murder,
Steve gave the golf sock to his attorney,
John sears, who kept it in his locked office
Until steve's arrest.
That's when sears turned it over to law enforcement.
So, was the curious case of the migrating club sock
An attempt to cover up a murder
Or a bit of confusion?
An investigative dead end.
Prosecutors weren't done, mind you.
They next tried to tie steve to the crime scene.
Didn't find any of steve's dna or fingerprints
At carol's house,
But they did see those tire tracks.
A criminalist compared them with the tires on steve's bike.
- The tread on this tire is similar to the tread
You can see here, of this tire track.
- And did you find any discernible differences
Between them? - No, I did not.
- And those shoe prints.
They brought in an expert from the fbi.
- Did you find any shoes that seemed to be comparable
To the impressions that you observed
In these photos from the crime scene?
- Yes, I found one shoe
That could have made those impressions.
- A la sportiva pikes peak.
Records show that steve bought a pair of those shoes
Two years before the murder.
But when detectives searched his house,
They didn't find any such shoes.
So, intriguing, but hardly proof.
Prosecutors knew they had a big problem.
That anonymous email linking the murder
Not to steve, but to jim knapp
And illegal drugs.
So, even as the trial went on, investigator mike sachet
Was interviewing and reinterviewing witnesses,
Including steve's girlfriend, renee girard.
- It was obvious to me that she was very protective
Of mr. Democker.
- Steve began dating renee when he was separated from carol.
They were together during that tumultuous time,
Steve's divorce, carol's murder, his arrest.
Renee had always stood by steve and his family.
But sachet had the feeling.
- We were pretty convinced that she knew more
Than she was telling us.
- Sachet knew something else, too.
During the trial, renee broke up with steve.
So, on the eve of her testimony,
Sachet interviewed renee again about that anonymous email.
What he discovered,
Explosive is not too big a word.
- The email trail, the money trail,
A winding trail of surprises was about to change this case.
- When you're terrified,
Maybe you do some stupid things.
- That was a doozey of a mistake.
- Mm-hmm.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
- Morning's dawn cooler in the arizona mountains.
The summer flags in the town square
Were stored away for anther year.
And the murder trial of steve democker
Ticked into its fifth fitful month.
The prosecution had amounted to circumstantial bits
And pieces to that point.
And investigator mike sachet knew that steve
Was likely to mount a strong defense.
- Mr. Democker is a very intelligent individual.
- Mm-hmm. - But he's also a very narcissistic person.
You put those together, and you can make it difficult
To solve a crime.
- Narcissistic?
That's what it seemed like to the detective.
It also seemed to him like steve's girlfriend
Renee girard was protecting him,
Knew more than she was telling.
Then renee broke it off with steve
And sachet interviewed her one more time.
And remember the anonymous email
That claimed carol's murder was linked
To an illegal drug ring?
Oh, boy!
- She told me that mr. Democker had informed them
During one of their in-person visits
At the jail to bring some pencil and paper.
There was a glass between them.
Mr. Democker had brought a document with him
That he placed on the glass so that they could view it.
- According to renee,
Steve himself wrote that document,
Then asked his daughter charlotte,
Just 17 at the time, to copy it down.
- Mr. Democker then asked them
To send that document,
Which became known as the anonymous email,
To mr. Sears and to the prosecutor's office.
- Mr. Sears was john sears,
One of steve's defense attorneys.
Steve's reasoning, according to steve's sister,
Sharon, he heard that story from an inmate
In that air vent conversation and desperately wanted
To get the story out and investigate it.
- The death penalty was still on the table,
So steve was terrified, we were terrified.
I can certainly appreciate when you're terrified,
Maybe you'd do some stupid things.
- Well, that's when you start making mistakes.
And that was a doozy of a mistake. - Mm-hmm.
- And uncovering that fraud led investigators
To what they thought was another even bigger one.
Remember carol's life insurance money,
$750,000?
Steve's defense attorney talked about it
During his opening statement.
- He disclaimed, he signed over,
Any interest to the girls and the money was paid out
To the girls.
That's what happened in this case.
- That statement caught investigator mike sachet
By surprise.
- We had made contact with the life insurance company
Several times throughout the investigation
And we had been informed that the life insurance
Had not been paid out to anyone.
- So, had the insurance paid out, or hadn't it?
Sachet took another look,
A much harder look at the money trail.
- Not only was the insurance, uh, paid out,
But it was paid to the two daughters
Who then transferred it to several accounts,
Including wire transfers to mr. Democker's parents' account
In new york, who then wire transferred it
Back to mr. Democker's defense team.
- Remember, steve democker was a highly-paid financial advisor.
The prosecutors now believed he was using that expertise
To try to get away with murder.
- Here's a person that murdered his ex-wife
Then collected her life insurance
Of over $750,000
And is using that life insurance
To pay his defense team in the murder prosecution.
- So, then prosecutors added fraud
To the charges steve was facing.
But fraud is certainly not what it was,
Said defense investigator rich robertson.
- These girls voluntarily, on their own,
Believing in their father's innocence,
Dedicated money that they inherited
To defend him.
How can that be wrong?
- The girls decided to use that money
For their dad's defense.
There was no fraud,
Or the insurance company would have been
The first one to say, hey, we've got a problem here.
- So, was that just piling on,
On the part of the prosecution? - Yeah.
- The much bigger issue for the defense,
Said investigator robertson, was that phony email,
An email attorneys presented in court as real,
Because they said they, too, were duped by steve.
- Suddenly, the attorneys are in a--
In an awkward legal, ethical kind of posture
And in relationship to their client.
And so, it created an untenable situation
For the first defense team.
- So untenable for these highly-respected defense attorneys
That they, no option they said,
Withdrew from the case.
And so, seven months in,
The judge was forced to declare a mistrial.
- We thought we were sprinting to the finish line.
We thought that steve was going to be home in time
For thanksgiving.
And suddenly the finish line
Just kind of moved off into the horizon.
- Gut-wrenching, said carols' friend katherine.
- It was so emotional of-- not even a rollercoaster,
Just the intensity of-of the emotion.
- They'd have to start all over again.
The money the girls received from their mother's insurance
Was gone now.
Gone to pay for the first team of attorneys.
So, since steve was pretty much destitute,
Court-appointed attorneys stepped in.
And right away, craig williams and greg parzych
Were impressed by how steve's family supported him.
- It's a large family, um, very educated
And very tight-knit group.
- How uniformly did they support steve
Through this process?
- I'd say very uniformly.
- They're all behind him? - Yes.
- But one thing after another.
As steve's second trial approached,
There was another huge surprise.
The source of the dna found under carols' fingernails
Was finally identified.
That would be mr. 603.
- Coming up...
The mysterious mr. 603, not who anyone expected.
- How can you trust anything after that?
- Exactly.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
- Welcome back.
Prosecutors in the steve democker murder trial
Had exposed a jaw-dropping secret,
That anonymous note linking his ex-wife's murder
To an illegal drug ring
Was written by the accused killer himself
And it was emailed to the defense team
By his daughter.
Steve's attorneys withdrew from the case,
Forcing the judge to declare a mistrial.
Soon, there would be a new trial
And another bombshell revelation.
Here again is keith morrison
With "the mystery on bridle path".
- It had always been an issue
In the case against steve democker,
That one fascinating clue
That could break the case wide open,
Who was mr. 603?
That's what people were calling the mysterious dna
Found under carol's fingernails after she was murdered.
One thing for sure, it was not steve.
- We exhausted so many manhours
And, uh, looked at any and all alternatives.
- And then, it was during the long months of waiting
For a new trial to begin.
The prosecution had an idea.
What if that 603 sample was a simple mistake?
What if something just got mixed up in the lab?
So, investigator mike sachet looked up the autopsy
Done just before carol's
And submitted a sample from that for retesting.
And nearly three years after carol's murder,
A call from the crime lab.
- The sample dna that we sent had matched
The dna under carol kennedy's fingernails.
We finally were able to discover
And verify who mr. 603 is.
- Mr. 603, it turned out, was another dead soul.
The man lying on the autopsy table
Before carol got there.
It was his dna.
Maybe on one of the coroner's instruments
That ended up under carol's fingernails.
Mystery solved.
One more doubt removed, said the prosecution.
But for steve's defense team,
It was further proof of a shoddy investigation.
- Contamination.
And we found out not only potential contamination,
There was actual contamination in this case.
- How could you trust anything after that?
- Exactly.
- Defense attorney craig williams said
The case against steve had an even bigger flaw.
- You cannot put steve democker in that house
Where there was a horrific murder,
A bloody murder.
You can't put him in the house.
- No dna at all?
- No dna, no blood.
You don't find any dna of carol's on him anywhere,
You don't find any dna, fingerprints, blood,
Anything of his in the house.
How can you convict him of murder?
- But in July 2013,
By this time a full five years after carol's death,
Steve was still in jail.
And the case finally went to trial again.
New defense attorneys, a new prosecution team
Who, it soon became clear, had, during the long delay,
Spent some quality time
Honing their argument against steve.
- Carol kennedy had no enemies.
This was not a burglary or a robbery,
No valuables are missing.
The overwhelming evidence in this case
Points to the defendant.
And at the close of that evidence,
We will ask you to return verdicts of guilty
On all charges,
And especially first-degree murder.
- And now, the prosecution had more evidence.
Like steve's google searches
During the month before carol's death.
Damaging, to say the least.
- There was some information for the term
How to kill and make it look like suicide.
And there was some information on a-on the term
How to make a homicide appear suicide.
- Those emails and text messages,
Carol and steve arguing
In the days before her death
Were read to the jury.
Crime scene analysts claimed the blood spatter
Indicated the killer was left-handed.
- With the position that I think
Is the most comfortable position,
I would think that they're swinging from the left.
- And steve was left-handed.
Remember the golf sock in the garage?
It was made, said the prosecution,
For a now missing left-handed club.
So, here at last was the state's theory
About how steve killed his ex-wife.
Days before the murder, said the state,
He dropped off that club at carol's house,
Supposedly for her to sell in an upcoming garage sale,
But left the golf sock in his garage.
And then the night of the murder,
He sneaked into her house
And used that club to kill her.
Though such a club was never found,
The golf sock was evidence it existed,
Said the prosecution.
And the shape of carol's wounds confirmed it.
Then, to bolster an alibi,
As his ex-girlfriend renee girard testified
For the prosecution,
Steve allowed his cellphone battery to die,
Something he never normally did.
- In general, there was-there was usually
A battery in his phone
And an extra battery either charged or being charged.
- Did you ever know him to be, um--
To not have a phone at the ready
If he needed to use it?
- I didn't.
- Renee also revealed that a month after the murder,
Steve told her something that in hindsight
Seemed very significant.
- In the evening, we'd take a walk on the golf course.
And he picked up a bag
On the way out the door one evening,
And as we were walking, told me about the bag
And what he was going to do with it.
- A getaway bag,
Which she said he'd buried on a golf course.
And sure enough, with renee's help,
Detectives found the bag on the golf course.
Inside were cash and clothing and a cellphone
And a penlight.
Also, after steve was arrested,
They conducted more searches.
In his storage unit, they found books
About how to cover your tracks
And live as a fugitive.
At an apartment he rented in scottsdale, arizona,
They found something interesting in the parking garage.
- I believe there's a bmw motorcycle
That the detectives showed me
That was in the parking garage.
They believed that he had recently purchased it.
- And inside these locked cases, they later learned
Steve had maps, clothing, hair dye, makeup,
And $15,000 in cash.
Charlotte, who still believed her father was innocent,
Reluctantly testified for the prosecution.
Put on the spot, she had to agree
She knew he was thinking of running.
And under a grant of immunity,
She admitted that she wrote the so-called anonymous email
That claimed carol was killed by drug dealers,
An email dictated by her father.
- At one point, your dad held up a piece of paper
To that glass window
And wanted you to write down what was on that paper?
- Yes.
- And you-- and-and you did?
- Yes.
- What were you supposed to do with that piece of paper?
- Uh, I was supposed to,
Um, write an email with the same substance,
Um, that I had copied down, I believe,
Um, in the hopes that it would be investigated further.
- What did that mean to you?
I mean, did-did you believe it?
- Uh, I did.
I believed, um, that that was what he had been told
By someone in the jail
And, um, that--
You know, it-it was very emotional for me.
Um, and I-I wanted it to be investigated.
- So, how did you get the information out?
- I sent, um-- I sent an anonymous-anonymous email.
- Anonymous so that it could not be traced back
To her or her father.
Her oldest sister katie wasn't aware
The email had come from charlotte,
But she was at the center of the story
About life insurance.
Steve had signed a disclaimer saying he would not benefit
From the proceeds of carol's life insurance.
But katie was forced to testify that wasn't true.
- My father was just asking me
For various things related to that money.
- Once carol's life insurance paid out,
Katie transferred her share to her grandparents.
- But you knew that your grandparents
Were going to use that money for attorney's fees?
- That was my understanding. Some or all of it.
- The prosecution called close to 50 witnesses
To portray steve democker
As a man who'd plotted to kill his wife,
Plotted his escape,
And used his own children to fund his defense
And even hoodwink his lawyers and the court.
The case looked strong. The prosecution rested.
- Your honor, the, uh, state would rest.
- Now, it was time to hear from the defense.
And no surprise, it had a quite different theory
About carol kennedy's murder.
A theory that had nothing whatsoever
To do with steve democker.
- Coming up...
That man in the guest cottage.
- It wasn't a little bit of evidence
That we had on mr. Knapp.
It was a mountain of evidence.
- He got to the point where he was lying about
Having active cancer
And asking people for financial help.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
- Five years.
The state has had five years
To put steve democker at the scene of the crime.
But they cannot.
- Anybody paying attention to the bizarre murder case
Playing out in fits and starts here in prescott,
Was apt to be a little suspicious
Of steve democker's behavior after the killing.
Getaway bag? Fake email?
Defense attorneys craig williams and greg parzych
Could see that as well as anyone.
But was he guilty of murder?
No, they said.
Rather, he was the victim of some detectives' tunnel vision,
Beginning with a sloppy investigation.
- It was kind of a cavalcade
Of people roaming through this scene
That they didn't lock down,
Tromping through footprints and tromping through the house
And they didn't seal it off correctly.
To me, when somebody shows up on the scene
And immediately points the finger at the ex-husband,
And then that's all they ever did.
- It's always boom! Right on him?
- It was always on him.
- The jurors listened to steve's interview
With the detectives
Conducted the night carol was killed.
- In which you could hear the suspicion,
Said the defense.
And steve, said the attorneys,
Felt a cold fear overcoming him.
- He's afraid of what's happening,
That the investigation is all on him,
They're not focusing on anybody else, anything else.
It focuses on him,
And he's afraid that nobody will believe him.
- That's why he buried the getaway bag, they said.
It wasn't a sign of guilt, but of terror.
In fact, it didn't turn up until months after
Steve was arrested.
- You never had any evidence that mr. Democker
Tried to use that bag to flee, correct?
- That he tried to use the bag to flee?
- Yes.
- I believe that's precisely what he did.
- He never fled.
- We arrested him before he could flee, yes.
- Well, you're-you're using a term of art there,
Before he could flee.
My question to you is very direct.
He did not flee, did he?
- He was not able to, no.
- Okay, there's another term of art.
It's a very simple question.
Did mr. Democker flee or not?
That's a yes or no question.
- No, he did not flee.
- And steve's sister sharon had a simple explanation
For those coincidences the night of the murder,
The circumstantial evidence.
Like his dead cellphone battery.
- I think most of us with cellphones
Can appreciate that, later in the day,
It's not uncommon for the battery to go.
- But their ears perked up when he drew the route
And part of it came within a mile
Of the house on bridle path.
- Well, he lived out there for many years.
So, that was a favorite trail.
- They also made a great deal of the tracks
That they found in the property.
- Mm-hmm.
- The-the shoe prints that must have been his,
The tire tracks that must have been his.
- Mm-hmm. Nobody knows whose those are.
He did buy a pair at one point,
But he doesn't know if he kept them.
He said I never keep any shoes for more than six months.
He ran all the time.
No shoes lasted more than six months.
- And he bought them a couple years earlier,
So-- - yeah.
The bicycle tire, that's the tire that's on 80%
Of all the mountain bikes in the u.S.
It's the most common tire.
So, there's nothing very distinctive about that.
They wanted to be able to tell the jury
That it was a match.
They were not allowed to do that
Because, as the expert said,
We have no idea if it's a match or not.
- Something that has more or less a...
- The defense called its own forensic pathologist
To ask if the medical examiner was correct
In his conclusion that the murder weapon
Was a golf club.
- With regards to saying, uh, specifically this weapon,
I-I can't.
- I think the golf club is a, um,
As alfred hitchcock used to say, it's the mcguffin.
Okay? It's the magic device
To, uh, to tie it to steve democker.
The golfer, the elitist. - Sure.
- The-the rich guy who was pissed off about--
- Fine, but isn't there scientific evidence
To say that's a golf club head that hit her?
- No, I don't agree with any of that.
And-and nobody, not a single person could say that
That was a golf club.
They all said it could have been a golf club,
But they also said it could have been another weapon.
- The defense argued detectives should have
Looked into other suspects, too.
One person in particular.
Jim knapp, the man who rented carol's guest house
And arrived at the scene almost immediately after deputies.
- Why was he a potential suspect, in your view?
- Well, it's like the guy who lights the fire
That comes back to watch it burn.
And that was our-our feeling about mr. Knapp
Because it wasn't a little bit of evidence
That we had on mr. Knapp.
It was a mountain of evidence on him.
- Knapp, said the defense attorneys,
Was in serious financial trouble
And cooked up a shameless lie
To persuade friends to lend him money.
They told the jury how knapp faked cancer.
- He got to the point where he was lying
About having active cancer
And asking people for financial help
So that he could, uh, take care of his cancer,
Which he actually didn't have. - He didn't have.
- They said knapp desperately wanted to buy
A franchise business, a smoothie store,
With carol's divorce money,
At one point, even introducing carol
As his business partner.
So, was he obsessed with carol?
His behavior with his former girlfriend,
When she tried to break up with him,
Certainly seemed obsessive to her, she said.
He wouldn't leave her alone, kept sending her emails.
- I'm wondering what was this man capable of?
Was he going to come up, um, and stalk?
Was he going to do something mean?
Was he going to hurt me or hurt my family?
I felt threatened, is what it felt like.
And I was scared.
- More defense questions?
How did jim knapp's fingerprints wind up
On those financial documents
That were printed the day of the murder
And found slipped inside a magazine
Sitting on carol's kitchen counter?
And how did knapp's dna get mixed with carol's blood
In a sample taken from a doorknob leaving the house?
That was evidence number 805.
They called a dna expert.
- So, you can see that all the way across that top line,
The numbers are the same as james knapp
And there are many points of difference
With steve democker.
- Your point was that on each of these analyses,
James knapp matches each one of these
And steve democker doesn't?
- That's right.
- In fact, neither steve democker's dna
Nor his fingerprints were ever found at the crime scene.
So, had police focused on the wrong man all along?
And because steve democker knew that,
Did he make a foolish mistake,
Like a frightened man would?
- The anonymous email, the voicemail,
All of that occurs once he's placed in custody,
Loses hope, and becomes desperate.
That should not, in our opinion,
Should not have been introduced in this trial.
That's a whole separate trial, whole separate issue.
- The defense tried to keep all that out of the trial,
But did not succeed.
Yeah, because it makes him look like a bad, evil guy
Who forced his daughters to use their inheritance money
To pay for his attorneys.
A low, scummy thing to do.
- But none of that put him in the house,
None of that put any dna on him in his house,
Car, person, anything along those lines.
- Judge, at this time, the defense rests.
- Thank you.
- All along, steve's family remained rock-solid
In his corner.
As sister sharon said...
- I want to think the best of my brother.
The other part of it is
That no one showed me anything that changes my mind.
There is no evidence to say well, you know,
You're not thinking about this.
Show me something.
- But do you see your own kind of u-understandable family bias
Affecting your judgment about these things?
- If you can prove to me that this was what happened,
Then that's different.
But I'm missing the big evidence
That says that he was there.
- And now, five years after the brutal murder
On bridle path,
A jury would finally get to decide.
And steve would finally get his say.
- Coming up...
- You can't sleep. - It was rough on everybody.
- You really are on pins and needles.
- The wait for a verdict.
And a long-awaited interview with steve democker.
When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
- There may be nothing else in life to compare
To the agonizing hours and days a family waits, endures
As 12 strangers sit in a locked room
And prepare to dictate fate.
- Well, as-as anyone who's watched a tv show,
I can tell you, unfortunately,
The reality is really similar.
You really are on pins and needles
Waiting for that verdict that you don't know what it is.
- Yeah, and you have no control over it.
- Uh-uh. - Strangers who are going to decide.
- Mm-hmm.
- Who don't know your brother.
- Mm-hmm.
- This family of highly-educated professionals
Knew the case for and against steve
As intimately as any attorney.
On the third day of deliberations,
There was nothing for them to do
But sit together, watch their phones.
And then, as they prepared to leave
A coffee shop in prescott,
News that the jury had reached a verdict.
But it was four in the afternoon,
Apparently quitting time.
And the judge decided they'd all have to wait until morning
To hear what the verdict was.
Katie and charlotte, comforted by steve's parents,
His siblings, had another night to wait
And wonder what did the jury decide.
- It was rough on everybody.
- It is. And it's just horrible.
That nervous energy then is to the--
You can't sleep.
- We were thinking, well, are they just
Stretching this out?
- Was it torture? - Well, sure.
I mean, we've-- we just want them
To go ahead and let him go now.
- Then, the next morning the clock struck nine.
It was time.
- When they came back into the room, could you tell?
- Yeah, didn't have a good feeling.
It's never good when they come back in the room
And they won't look at the family.
- We, the jury, duly [indistinct] sworn,
Find the defendant steve democker guilty
For count two, guilty, for count three, guilty.
- Guilty on all counts.
How did it feel?
- We were just stunned.
It's-- it wasn't the right verdict.
The law didn't support that verdict.
- Defense investigator rich robertson
Didn't think so either.
- The biggest shock to me was that they came back unanimous
And came back unanimous fairly quickly.
It was disappointing. - Hmm.
- And still is.
- How did steve take it?
- Devastated. - Steve's innocent.
And steve wants to continue to fight
And-and prove his innocence.
That's what his mission is now.
- But is he innocent?
Investigator mike sachet.
- I believe in my heart and soul
That steve democker killed carol kennedy.
- He thinks often, he said, about the daughters,
About the impact on them.
- While my heart goes out to them,
You know, you have to recognize
That this is all because of one man's actions.
- Carol's friend katherine.
- I never wanted to believe that steve
Was capable of doing this.
And the jury has made their decision.
I accept their decision. I agree with their decision.
I'm so glad it's over.
I'm so relieved because so many of us
Have been dragged through it for the last 5.5 years.
- Katie and charlotte were back in court
At their father's sentencing.
And in spite of everything, the state's case against steve,
How steve used charlotte to create that phony email evidence
Then paid for his defense with life insurance money
Carol intended for her daughters,
In spite of all that, at their father's sentencing,
They asked the judge for leniency.
- I ask, because I would like the opportunity
To someday walk again with my father,
Freely and outside,
To speak openly and honestly with him
And find ways to heal
The pain of this prolonged nightmare.
I believe in healing and forgiveness
Because that is the way that I was raised.
As for me, I can promise that I will never forget
The memory of my mother.
She lives in me every day
And will for the rest of my life.
- The additional pain of the reality that we now face
Is very difficult for me to grasp.
The knowledge that, like my mother,
My father may never attend my wedding
Or see my children born or even watch me graduate,
It feels like losing a parent all over again.
This excruciating punishment is almost as difficult for me
As I know it must be for him.
- Steve professed his innocence.
- I did not kill carol.
We loved each other for more than 20 years.
Our marriage was over,
But not our affection for each other.
I would no more have harmed her
Than I would harm my daughters
By taking her from them.
- Leniency was not forthcoming.
The judge sentenced steve democker
To natural life plus 20 years.
No parole, no hope of a life ever outside prison walls.
All along, we'd been asking for an interview with steve.
He was willing. The sheriff wasn't.
But finally, after the sentencing, we were allowed
A brief telephone interview from state prison.
- Well, um, you could be, in fact, in prison
For the rest of your life.
Are you prepared for that?
- Interesting thing about steve democker,
He's an extremely articulate man.
Can he possibly be sincere, too?
All we can know with certainty
Is that carol will never again
Have the chance to be useful.
Although, scratch that.
Maybe she will.
- The one thing that she always sort of said to us,
As long as I'm living in this world,
I am always here for you and with you.
And I think she should have rephrased that
To no matter if I'm here living or in heaven,
I'm always with you.
Because I feel her in my heart,
I feel her when I'm doing certain things,
And her presence certainly lives on.
- That's all for this edition of
"dateline: Secrets uncovered".
I'm kate snow. Thank you for watching.