- I'm craig melvin,
And this is "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
- I never dreamed somebody could do this.
I didn't know why anybody would wanna kill him.
You watch it on tv.
You-you see it all the time.
You just don't think it can happen to you.
- They were a young couple in a hurry
To make their fortune.
- Fifties, hundreds, twenties.
Piles of money.
- Building a life.
Until one life ended all too soon.
- He was laying in the floor.
And I got scared.
I ran outta the house.
- A young father murdered in broad daylight.
Didn't look like a robbery.
Lots of valuables left behind.
Lots of secrets, too.
- It just kinda sent chills up my back.
- Something was tearing a family apart.
- I don't really know where to start.
- Or was it someone?
- The most cold-blooded, evil person.
- A family feud,
And an innocent man caught in the middle.
- You know these shows you watch
That people see the ghosts of their loved ones?
I wanted that so bad, so bad.
♪♪
- Hello, and welcome to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
Marc despain was a devoted husband and father
Whose real estate savvy made him a wealthy man.
But after he was found shot dead,
Police wondered if a bad business deal
Was a motive for murder.
And their investigation turned up secrets--
Lots of them--
And a dark tale of greed, sex, and betrayal,
With an ending as chilling as it was unexpected.
Here's keith morrison with "the root of all evil."
♪♪
- The hunting is good here in the arkansas delta.
Twice a year,
A horde of migrating mallards
Descends on flooded rice fields.
Deer stare out through thickets of hardwood.
You have to be quiet, surefooted, your aim true.
That's what marc despain's dad taught him.
That's what marc taught his own son,
Before the hatred wormed its way in.
Sometimes it's overwhelming, that anger, isn't it?
- It is, it is.
- The anger that pitted father against son.
- It almost got physical.
It just, it breaks my heart.
- And husband against wife.
- I just wanted to go into protective mode
And protect us all.
- And brought the hunting to town
On a deathly quiet summer afternoon.
- What could be left
But the bitter taste of recrimination?
- He is evil.
He is not the kind person
That he's got the public convinced that he is.
- Jonesboro is both a college town
And a farm town.
It tends to the needs of young minds and rice farmers
On the vast plain of sticky, fertile clay
West of the mississippi river.
It's where marc despain breezed through school
With his easy charm.
Tana is his mother.
- He was the only freshman that we know of
That was chosen by a senior
To go to the senior prom.
- Marc became a high school football star.
His sister jackie watched him bring trophies home
To lay at the feet of his father, jack.
But then, well, it's an old story, really.
- When I was 18 and he was 19,
We just bumped into each other.
- Pretty michelle.
She was sitting on top of a car
When marc spotted her one night.
Tiny, doe-eyed, and before long, pregnant.
- The way I was brought up, you know,
If you got a girl pregnant, you married her.
That's just-- that was just what you did.
- So there was a shotgun wedding.
Two families thrown together.
Marc and his parents, jack and tana.
Michelle and her long-divorced parents,
Her mom, kathy, and her dad, carl.
Michelle also brought along a baby
From an earlier relationship.
- And he never treated her like she was not his. Never.
- Together they had two boys.
- He loved his kids.
I mean, just anything they ever dreamed of,
He would do his damnedest to get it.
Anything.
- The little family moved into a trailer
Marc's parents bought them,
And marc studied hard to become
A real estate appraiser like his mom,
And went into business with his parents,
Which, said michelle,
Is about when things began to go wrong.
- Marc didn't like to b-be pushed around by his dad.
He was an independent person.
- The growing tension spilled over
At the kitchen table.
Marc demanded a bigger share of the money.
They argued, and then michelle chimed in.
Oh, boy.
- Oh, my goodness. When she opened her mouth,
Dad just flipped off the handle.
And of course, marc just, I don't know,
Stepped in as-as a husband, like a husband should do.
- That's how it began,
The trouble between father and son.
The trouble that was going to get so much worse.
Marc split away from the family business.
Michelle helped him with bookkeeping.
- I was just amazed
At what they were able to accomplish.
- And they were a good team,
Said michelle's mother, kathy.
- They both just had the ability
To work together to-- and make money.
- Marc got into real estate investment.
His first, a trailer park no one else would touch.
- I couldn't believe he bought that.
I was just, "what are you thinkin'?
Have you lost your mind?"
And he flipped it.
Made him about $100,000 profit.
- So having done it once, he figured he'd do it again
And again and again. - Absolutely.
- And the money seemed to roll in.
Marc moved his family to an upscale neighborhood
In the southern part of town.
Adrift from his own parents,
He spent more and more time with michelle's,
Taking them all on family trips.
He even hired michelle's dad, carl,
To be his rent collector.
- I remember a lotta times walkin' in,
And carl would be sitting at the dining room table,
And, uh, there'd just be fifties,
Hundreds, twenties.
He was countin' 'em like a drug dealer.
- Just piles of money.
- Piles of money.
- And then, one August afternoon,
Michelle came home from work early.
- When I walked in, there weren't any lights on.
Everything was knocked into the floor.
- And then she got to the kitchen,
And there he was.
- And he was layin' in the floor.
And there was blood comin' all out from behind him.
And I shook his leg,
Um, and said his name.
And I looked around,
And there was stuff in the floor everywhere,
And I got scared.
- She ran outside, terrified, and called 911.
- Michelle ran across the street to a neighbor's house,
Desperate to hide.
- It was a voice that scared me, you know.
You pick up the phone,
You hear one of your kids on the phone,
And you hear cryin'...
- Kathy raced over there,
Found michelle sobbing on the curb.
- And she's goin', "I gotta get to him,
I gotta get to 'im."
I just kinda grabbed my sh-- daughter by the shoulders
And I went, "michelle, he's gone.
He's gone."
- So he was.
Dead on his own kitchen floor.
- A young wife is now a widow, and the horror
Of what she witnessed is unforgettable.
Coming up...
- Is it a sight that lives in your mind a lot?
- A lot, oh, yeah.
- Her family's good life suddenly gone.
Or maybe it hadn't been so good.
- He was kinda embarrassed
To have to come and get money from me.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- They're burned into michelle despain's brain--
The images of that awful afternoon.
Shadows in the hallway.
Her husband.
His blood.
- Him layin' in the floor.
- Is it a sight that lives in your mind a lot?
- A lot, oh, yeah.
- Outside, a crowd of police and friends and family
And curious neighbors
Gathered on the street below marc's house.
Among them, in an awful state, was marc's sister, jackie.
- You know, everything was wrapped in tape,
And police officers-- you can't cross here,
You can't do this, you can't do that.
I don't know, I just...
Wanted to hold his hand or somethin'.
- Detective vic brooks
Was on the other side of that police tape.
- When I first walked in,
I-I noticed that there were some papers
That appeared to be knocked on the ground,
And there was some broken glass
And stuff like that on the floor.
- Investigators snapped photos of the chaos:
Drawers pulled out in the bedroom,
Clothes thrown into a bathtub, a jewelry case toppled over.
- Somebody was looking for something.
- Possibly.
- They asked around the neighborhood,
Did anyone see any strangers that afternoon.
And yes, someone did,
Investigators told prosecutor scott ellington.
- An african american was seen in the neighborhood
Wearing a-a certain colored shirt.
- It wasn't just that.
Later somebody said they saw an aging
And beat-up blue mercedes circling the neighborhood.
So, thieves casing the house?
Maybe.
And yet, as detective brooks looked around the house,
He could see this just didn't have
The hallmarks of a robbery.
The valuable stuff-- tv sets, guns, computers--
Were untouched.
And look at this photo.
Sitting next to marc's keys and his cell phone
On the kitchen island is a container of ice cream.
- It appeared that he had just walked in
And set these items down,
And then was caught totally off guard.
- All that seemed to shriek of a planned ambush
Dressed up a little to look like robbery.
The way investigators pieced it together,
Somebody was waiting for marc to get home,
Then crept up from behind, shot him twice.
- He had suffered two gunshot wounds,
One that appeared to have entered from on his left side.
- Mm-hmm.
- And then another shot he had sustained to his face.
- That was a kind of-- what is it--
A kill shot or something.
- Yes, sir.
- Somebody's making sure.
- It appeared so, yes.
- Why would someone want to kill marc despain?
- I was so confused.
I just-- I didn't think marc had any enemies,
And I didn't know why anybody would wanna kill him.
- Detective brooks soon discovered
A possible reason.
Even though they'd been living lavishly,
Marc had serious money trouble.
- He was kinda embarrassed
To have to come and get money from me.
- It was a couple of months before the murder,
Said michelle's mother, kathy.
Marc asked her for cash
To help pay for michelle's birthday present.
- You know, it's very unusual,
Because usually they'd just go out
And buy whatever they want.
- Not anymore.
That summer, 2011,
Jonesboro real estate was far from recovered.
Many of marc's rental properties were underwater.
The bank was closing in.
Tenants were being forced out of their homes.
So...
- Was anybody upset with marc?
Was this any of his tenants?
Could this have been somebody like that?
- And then an ugly little surprise
Crawled out of marc's own troubled family.
Marc and his parents were lobbing lawsuits
At each other over some shared property.
The prosecutor heard that marc's dad, jack,
Was a hothead.
- Jack was very, very angry at marc
For mishandling this property that they co-owned together.
- Yes, but it went deeper than that.
Went to a very dark place, as you will see.
And because of it,
Marc hadn't spoken to his parents in years.
So when jack showed up at the crime scene,
The suspicion was... Audible.
Michelle's dad, carl, started yelling at him.
- Cursing very loudly.
Um, callin' him all kinds of names.
- But what was he saying?
- "there's that son of a (bleep) jack despain."
- Did you think jack was somehow responsible?
- Oh, yeah. Marc had told multiple people,
"if anything ever happens to me, y'all look at my dad."
- So of course, detective brooks invited jack
Down to the police station.
Just maybe this mystery could have a quick,
If very disturbing, solution.
- Family and business: The two rarely seem to mix.
Is that what led to marc's death?
Or was it something else?
Coming up,
A young girl makes a troubling accusation
That divides a family.
- Oh, my god, could this have possibly happened?
- But was that the motive for murder?
Was it even true?
When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- It's an unpleasant thing to think about,
Parents murdering their own children.
But it happens.
It's an old story, frankly.
Some awful glitch, perhaps, in the human recipe.
Had it happened here in jonesboro?
Suspicion fell quickly on marc's dad, jack despain.
Michelle's mom heard about it when she called
To tell a relative that marc was dead.
- "somebody's murdered marc."
And he was like, "oh, my god."
He said, "have they found jack despain?"
- He thought right away it was jack.
- Mm-hmm.
- Because anyone close to jack and his family
Knew that a poison far more potent than money
Had come between father and son.
- I never saw it comin'.
I don't think marc ever saw it comin'.
- It began, said michelle, when her 13-year-old daughter
Told them an ugly story: That her grandpa jack
Asked her to take nude photos of herself on his phone.
Marc called a family meeting.
- Marc had told his dad, "you know, there's a problem.
We want to help you."
You know, "we-- you know, we're not, you know,
Here to point fingers at you or judge you."
- Jack swore he did nothing wrong.
Marc called in the police.
Tana, jack's wife of more than 30 years,
Left him, moved in with marc and michelle.
So how do you prepare for a thing like that?
- You don't, you don't prepare.
- Well, what is that like?
- You just-- you mind is-is in overdrive, you know,
Tryin' to think, you know,
"oh, my god, could this have possibly happened?"
- But after the police interviewed the girl,
And then jack, and then the girl again,
And heard her story change, become more elaborate,
The investigation was dropped.
And tana, riven with guilt
For ever suspecting jack abused his granddaughter,
Went back to him and begged forgiveness.
- The man I've been married to for over 30 years
And went to high school with, and-and-and then doubting him
And knowing I shouldn't have.
- But marc and michelle, believing the girl,
Never spoke to his mom or dad again,
Cut them off from their grandkids,
Disowned marc's sister when she took jack's side.
- I-I believe dad 100%.
I don't believe he had anything to do with it.
- So that was the ugly backdrop
To the murder investigation.
And detective brooks would have to figure out
If this years-old unproven allegation
Had so eaten away at marc's dad
That it pushed him over the edge.
Time to meet potential suspect number one.
- Detective brooks sat down with jack
In an interrogation room
And watched the man fall apart.
- Was this true grief the detective was witnessing?
Or regret?
Or guilt over something jack had done,
Or hadn't done?
- Too late?
What did he mean?
Jack didn't shy away from discussing
Those abuse allegations.
Here's how it happened, he said.
- Jack said he found out the girl was sexting,
Confronted her,
Said he was gonna tell her parents,
But she got to them before he did, jack said,
And invented a story to get out of trouble.
- Jack told us the same story, eager, he said,
To finally set the record straight.
You didn't ever ask her to take pictures of herself
And give 'em to you? - No, no.
- But the accusation, said jack, almost destroyed him.
- I was at home.
Uh, I coulda opened up my own, um, whiskey store,
I think, with how much whiskey I drunk for two months.
And-and typically I don't drink.
But that was just to kill the pain.
- Because everybody assumed that you were abusing
Your own granddaughter. - Yes, yes.
Yes.
- The detective wondered, did jack's pain drive him
To seek revenge on his own son?
No, said jack, no.
He wanted to reconcile with marc, not kill him.
- Anyway, when marc was murdered, said jack,
He was miles away at his own house.
- That alibi would have to be checked out, of course.
But even before detective brooks had a chance to do that,
Other members of the family came down to the police station
And told him, "don't be fooled by jack's tears."
He was an angry and possibly violent man.
- This is michelle's dad, carl.
The man had been cursing jack out on the street,
Right there at the murder scene.
- Detective brooks could plainly see
This was a family with a troubling history.
So he made a decision to attend
Marc despain's visitation, take a look around,
See what his gut would tell him.
I saw a note in your case file.
You wrote, "this has to be one of the strangest visitations
I ever attended." - yes.
It was just a cold feeling. It just did not feel right.
- Was the killer sitting among the mourners,
Planning a next move?
- Coming up,
A family feud at the funeral.
- She calls the police on us.
- And somebody else calls the police
With a tip that could crack the case.
- That was a nice little gift. - It was.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm craig melvin.
There was certainly bad blood
Between marc despain and his father jack,
But was it bad enough to break the ties that bind?
Sometimes in an investigation,
Luck can be a detective's best friend.
In this case, good fortune was about to come
In the form of a tip, and it was a big one.
Back to keith morrison and "the root of all evil."
- Michelle and marc, just children, really,
When they got married.
Now marc was dead, gunned down in the family kitchen,
And michelle had to plan his funeral.
She was barely functioning, she said.
- I couldn't even tell you who was at the--
You know, who was there.
It was just a blur.
It all still just feels like a blur.
- But there was one thing she was clear about:
Marc's parents and sister were not welcome at his funeral.
It was the same at the cemetery.
- She's literally trying to get him in the ground
Before we could even walk up.
- Even get them to fill in the grave.
- Yes.
So we just immediately jump out of our cars,
We start rushing to the graveside.
And she calls the police on us.
She calls the police at my-- at my brother's funeral.
- Yet, for all the chatter about jack,
That he might have killed his own son,
Detective brooks' instincts said no.
Jack's alibi checked out.
He was fixing his roof afternoon of the murder.
And those tears in the interrogation room--
[sobbing]
- I did not feel anything, uh,
As being fake for mr. Despain.
He appeared to be a broken man at that time.
- So what to make of the fractured family
And all the bad blood now tangled up
With so much grief?
Detective brooks thought back to his interview
With michelle's dad, carl,
The man who pointed a finger at jack on day one.
- Carl said he'd been in marc's house
Not too long before the murder, dropped off some rent money.
- Interesting timing. Coincidence?
Or, as detective brooks wondered,
Did carl have something to do with the murder?
No, maybe not. Carl's alibi checked out.
Surveillance cameras, in fact,
Caught carl right where he said he was
Around the time marc was gunned down:
Meeting his daughter at the bank where she worked.
He could not have shot marc.
Well, the investigation continued.
Marc's parents spent time at the cemetery,
Finally able to do what they couldn't
When their son was still alive.
- We'd talk to him, talk to marc.
- Rainy days were the worst.
I didn't like rainy days.
- What do you mean, rainy days?
- I didn't like him gettin' wet.
I knew he was in heaven.
I just didn't like the rain on him.
- And then, pure luck, really.
Remember how neighbors reported seeing
An african american stranger in the neighborhood?
Now someone called the cops with a tip.
Somebody who matched that description
Was actually boasting about shooting marc despain.
That was a nice little gift. - It was.
- Didn't take 'em long to find the guy.
Street name "qualo," real name terrence barker.
And he was nervous.
- He denied everything.
- Detective brooks wasn't buying it.
Because by then,
The police also tracked down
The driver of that beat-up blue mercedes
Seen near the house before the murder.
And he told the cops he took qualo
To meet a man in a church parking lot,
And that man wanted a job done.
Was that job murder?
- By now, detective brooks had been working
Night and day for a week.
His store of patience ran out.
- Was it that angry speech,
Or another long night in his cell?
The next day, qualo came clean.
For a promise of $7-to-$10,000, still unpaid he said,
He took the job to shoot and kill marc despain.
- He didn't know marc from adam, he said.
It was the man from the parking lot
Who took him to marc's house,
Told him where to lie in wait for marc,
Gave him a gun.
And then qualo said something rather surprising.
- The shooter, who executed a stranger
For the mere promise of a few grand,
Said he was appalled, not at himself,
At the man who hired him.
- If the hitman was telling the truth,
Detective brooks' hunch had been right.
Someone who claimed to love marc
Also plotted his death.
But who?
- Coming up,
Michelle confesses to an affair.
- And there was another surprise.
- There were two insurance policies,
Each for the amount of $500,000.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- It's shocking what some people will do
For the mere promise of a few thousand dollars.
Like lie in wait for marc despain,
Then put a bullet in his head.
But revealing his paymaster?
That the hitman did for free.
And the name?
- Somebody called me and said,
"have you heard? Carl's just got arrested."
I'm like, oh, my god!
He did this!
- Carl, kathy's ex-husband, michelle's dad.
But marc gave him a house and a job
And took him on family vacations.
And once again, said michelle, she was stunned.
- I thought that he cared for marc.
You know, the father of my kids.
- But michelle's mom, kathy, was not so surprised.
She knew what carl was capable of.
She divorced him years earlier, she said,
To escape his explosions of temper.
- He never would hit me,
Because he didn't wanna leave a mark.
- What would he do?
- He would hold a gun to my head.
- Hold a gun to your head?
- Yes.
- Threaten you. - Yes.
- Still, what would make him mad enough
To have marc killed?
Confronted, carl's face turned to stone.
- But as investigators discovered,
Carl had been talking to other people.
Told them marc had been physically abusing michelle,
That he was tired of it.
- Did you investigate whether or not
Any abuse actually occurred in that marriage?
- There was not any abuse ever found
To have been-- to have happened.
- So if the abuse story was an obvious lie,
Why did carl do it?
Marc's parents were certain
He didn't come up with the idea on his own.
The real mastermind, they believed,
Was someone else very close to marc:
His wife, michelle.
- I cannot see carl takin' my son's life
Without michelle bein' involved.
- Michelle was far from a loving, doting wife,
They said.
The woman they knew was pure self-interest,
Would do anything to get what she wanted.
Exhibit a?
So what-what was it that just turned marc against you?
- Michelle's manipulation.
- It was michelle who pushed marc
To break away from the family business, they said.
Michelle, who tore the family apart
By stoking her own daughter's allegations of abuse
To drive a permanent wedge between marc and his dad,
And get marc and his money all to herself.
They could easily see her goading her father
Into planning a murder.
- Michelle is a sociopath. She is absolutely--
Cares nothing about anyone
Or anything but michelle.
- Quite an allegation, if true.
And as it happened, detective brooks was pretty sure
He saw an effort by the grieving widow
To manipulate him.
He'd interviewed her, of course,
Right after the murder.
- All that emotion in her voice.
It seemed like an act to him.
- There were no tears. - Mm.
- No tears.
- But her voice of desperation
Captured on the 911 call, surely that was real.
- Maybe not.
One of michelle's neighbors said they saw her standing
Calmly in the middle of the lawn.
- They see a woman standing out there,
Talking on her phone, didn't appear to be,
Uh, uh, in-in a grievous situation, for sure.
- Wasn't like she was calling around
The neighborhood for help. - No.
- And marc's sister still remembered
How cool michelle seemed at the crime scene.
- I think what bothered me the most
Is how clean she was.
Like her hair was still perfect,
Her nails were still perfect.
- What would you have expected?
- Oh, well, as brutal as it sounds,
Some blood underneath her fingernails or somethin'.
- Like she got down there and tried to revive him
Or something? - Something.
- So detective brooks took a careful look
At michelle's story, how she invited marc,
Who was working from home, to have lunch with her downtown.
And then after lunch, they went across the street
To buy ice cream for dessert. See them here?
Marc had literally minutes to live.
Phone records show
That in the hours leading up to marc's death,
There were calls and a flurry of text messages
Between michelle and her dad.
- What the investigator found was that there was
A-a-an enormous amount of texts missing.
There were chunks of texts missing from carl's phone
And from michelle's phone. - Anything interesting
Or suspicious about the fact
That they were missing from both phones?
- Immediately, it was, uh, suspicious.
- On the day her dad was arrested,
Detective brooks invited michelle
Back to the police station and asked her, point blank.
- But she admitted she was hiding something.
- Seeing a guy? An affair?
It all tumbled out.
How michelle was dipping into family financials
To pay for her lover's apartment,
For his groceries.
- So maybe marc was onto her, was about to find out
What michelle was doing behind his back.
Marc's parents believed the michelle they knew
Would rather see her husband dead than risk
Being on the losing end of a messy divorce.
- So it was all gonna fall apart.
- Yeah.
- From trailer trash to a rich woman,
So she thought in her mind, uh,
She was fixing to going back to bein' trailer trash again,
And she just couldn't stand the thought.
- But if marc died?
- We found that there were two insurance policies,
Uh, each for the amount of $500,000.
- That's a healthy chunk of change.
- Yes, sir.
- A whole noxious stew of suspicion by now,
But none of it actual proof.
Months went by.
Michelle went on with her life.
Jack and tana pushed investigators to keep going.
They even posted a billboard asking the public for help.
The idea that michelle might get away with murder
Was eating jack alive.
You got a whole lotta anger in there for that woman,
Haven't ya?
- If I could take her life
And bring my son back, I'd do it.
I'd do it in a heartbeat.
- Sometimes it's overwhelming, that anger, isn't it?
- It is, it is.
- A family rift, sex abuse allegations,
Money issues,
Big insurance payouts, even an affair.
This story had all the makings of a hollywood script,
And still there was more in store.
Coming up, one more twist.
- I never dreamed he would do it to me.
- And justice for marc? Maybe.
- I kept thinking of the children.
I wanted answers for the children.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back.
In a case full of stunning secrets,
Michelle despain's extramarital affair
Was a bombshell.
But was it motive enough to have her husband killed?
Detectives kept digging,
Looking for clues that could prove
Her participation in the plot.
Their efforts did not appear to bother michelle,
Who some around town thought seemed to be
Enjoying her new life without marc.
Here's keith morrison with the conclusion
Of "the root of all evil."
- Jack and tana despain heard how their son's widow
Was living with a new boyfriend on her arm,
With life insurance money in her pocket,
And they fumed.
- She's buying stuff and buying clothes
And going to restaurants,
And it's very hard for us to take.
- Detective brooks was determined
To see the case through.
Just like marc's parents,
He believed michelle orchestrated the murder,
Down to the very minute.
The shooter himself said as much.
Carl was texting with someone, he said,
As they made their final plans in the church parking lot.
- But virtually all those texts
Had been deleted.
Detective brooks labored for months, nights, weekends.
Kinda got emotionally wrapped up in this one, huh?
- I kept thinking of the children.
I wanted answers for the children.
- And then, a breakthrough.
Finally, nine months after the murder,
A police analyst managed to recover
Several deleted text messages, including this one,
Timestamped 8:20 a.M., five hours before the murder.
Michelle writes to her dad:
Her dad's response?
He asks if she can get him away for lunch, huh?
- Yes.
- She says she can. - She says she can.
And he replies, "okay, I will let you know time."
- And my review of some of the text messages
Is that marc really wasn't interested
In going to eat lunch that day,
But she begged him to take her to lunch.
- After lunch, remember,
She asked marc to linger for an ice cream treat.
All the while texting her dad, said the prosecutor,
Tipping him off to marc's whereabouts
As carl placed a killer in their home.
- It-it just kinda sent chills up my back.
How-- what kind of person have you got to be
To let your husband walk away from you,
Knowing what he's gonna walk into when he gets home?
- Armed with their new evidence,
Police arrested michelle.
She was charged with capital murder
For planning and orchestrating the crime.
She denied it, said she could explain everything,
And agreed to tell us.
Why people should believe that you had nothing to do
With the plot to kill marc.
- Because I didn't.
He was such a good dad, such a good dad.
And anybody that knows me knows that my kids
Are so important to me, the most important thing.
- Mm-hmm.
- And I would never want them
To not have their dad.
- But she did want out of the marriage, she said.
So those back-and-forth texts with her dad that day
Did involve a plot. Just not murder.
What do you think he was helping you do?
- Um, leave.
- How was he gonna help you leave?
- By getting, um,
Getting things while we were gone.
- So she'd keep marc at lunch
While carl and two hired hands
Moved her stuff out of the house.
But her dad changed the plan on her, she said,
Used those men to kill her husband.
She swore to us she had no idea
When she met her dad at the bank that day
What he'd just done.
You're this close to each other.
Father and daughter.
And you're lookin' in his eyes and talkin' to him.
He gives no hint that he'd just killed your husband?
- Not at all. - And then michelle--
What's the expression--
Threw her father under the bus.
Carl killed marc, she said,
Not because he thought marc was abusing her,
But for money,
For a piece of the insurance payout.
But you were gonna get the insurance.
- Right.
- So even if it was his idea,
It makes you look pretty guilty.
- Right.
One thing that he always told me and my sister
Growin' up was, you know, that he'd, you know,
Use people for what you can get out of 'em, you know.
- That was what he told you?
- Mm-hmm. - Sure.
- And I, um,
I never dreamed he would do it to me,
Use me.
- Did he?
Or was michelle the clever user?
In our interview,
Michelle denied being a master manipulator,
She denied she stoked those sex abuse allegations,
Or that she engineered marc's split with his parents.
For that, she blamed jack and tana.
- I never would've walked away from my kid
In the first place. I never would've.
- In the end,
They didn't walk away from their kid, either.
'cause who was pushing from day one
To solve the murder?
Who kept pushing month after month after month?
- My opinion on that is their hatred toward me.
It wasn't anything to do with marc.
It didn't have anything to do with marc.
It was all about jack despain's hatred toward me.
- You seriously believe that? - I do.
- Michelle, out on bail, waited for trial.
Her mother, kathy, defended her around town.
Did you ever let yourself think she was involved?
- The daughter I know, the daughter I helped raise?
No.
- Meanwhile, michelle's attorneys,
Ray nickle and bill stanley,
Took a closer look at those recovered text messages.
They filed a motion
Arguing that investigators didn't obtain them properly.
- They didn't get a new search warrant
Every time they searched the phone.
We're talkin' about, I think, 15 searches--
- Yeah. - --Of michelle
And carl's phones. - Mhm.
- And they didn't have 15 search warrants.
- Their arguments about improper search warrants
May have had some traction.
With the trial looming, the prosecutor was worried.
- We're at the high stakes poker, uh, game,
Where it's all or nothin'
When that judge rules the next, uh, the next day
On whether to admit the evidence or not t-to admit it.
- The prosecutor agreed to start talking about a plea deal.
The defense played it tough,
Said michelle was only willing to admit
She learned about her father's plot
After the murder.
- She is admitting to having knowledge
Of someone being involved
And not disclosing that to the police.
- She would agree to plead guilty
To a charge of hindering apprehension,
Said the defense.
After some prayer,
Marc's mother said she could live with that.
- I'm not a gambling person. - Uh-huh.
- A-and, you know, it would only--
Even if it woulda went to trial,
It would've only took-- taken one sympathetic juror--
- Yeah.
- --To have, uh, set her free.
- It was more than three years
After the death of her husband
When michelle despain walked into a courtroom
To be sentenced.
She left in handcuffs, mouthing, "I love you,"
To her mom.
Her dad and the shooter got 35 years.
Michelle was sentenced to 30 years,
And was eligible for parole after 5.
She was released in December 2018.
As for marc's parents,
They'll try to remember the love for their son.
Some of marc's friends told us that you, uh,
You were his hero, jack.
- Yeah. - You knew that.
- God, I loved him.
- I'm sorry, jack.
Jack and tana set up a charity
To help other victims of violent crime.
It's called marc's place.
- We're gonna try to move forward
With something positive that, uh,
We think marc would be very proud of.
- And on a fall sunset,
They gathered family and friends together
To remember their son and finally say goodbye.
- I tell people all the time that--
Hug the ones you love. Let 'em know.
You never know, the next moment, they may be gone.
- That's all for this edition
Of "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm craig melvin.
Thank you for watching.