- I'm Kate Snow, and this is
"Dateline: Secrets Uncovered."
- Finally get a hold of dad.
I was like,
"What's going on?"
And he's like,
"Lisa's been shot."
- I held her hand, and I
just said, "My Lisa, my Lisa."
- Everyone is like,
"Do you want justice?
Do you want revenge?"
I just want the truth.
- Lisa Techel, newly
married, pregnant,
starting the career
of her dreams.
- She always put everybody
before she put herself.
- Then, one morning, a
single gunshot blast
rocked the
newlyweds' home.
- A young husband out
of his mind with grief.
- It was a tragedy,
but, for Lisa's dad,
a sheriff's deputy,
it was no mystery.
He was sure he knew
who the killer was.
[siren wailing]
- A neighbor with
a gun and a grudge.
- I thought they better
get to him before I do.
- But some said this couple
was having trouble,
that Seth had a secret.
- Did he tell you,
"She sent me some
topless pictures?"
- Yes.
- Others said the real
murderer was someone else
right under
the cops' noses.
- Here's a legitimate suspect
that should have
been investigated.
- A case unfolding
on camera,
one that would
test three juries,
shatter two families.
- It's just like somebody
hit me in the stomach.
- And take one
final twist.
- That was her
biggest secret.
**
- Hello and welcome to
"Dateline: Secrets Uncovered."
Lisa and Seth Techel
met at a bowling alley
when they were just teens.
Their families were thrilled
when they married,
and soon a baby
was on the way,
but the couple's happily ever
after ended abruptly
when Lisa was murdered.
Police quickly zeroed in
on a suspect.
Then a secret emerged that
upended the investigation
and threatened the bond
between two families.
Here's Dennis Murphy
with "Before Dawn."
**
- The cornfields of Iowa
are a far piece
from Memphis,
but it was here,
in a Ottumwa, Iowa,
a baby girl was named
after a Princess, Lisa Marie.
Yep, that one.
- As a kid, I was
pretty big into Elvis.
I knew that my first daughter
was gonna be Lisa Marie
because of Elvis,
of course.
- Just as Todd Caldwell hoped,
his little Lisa
lived up to
her big name.
- She was just the--
the life of the party.
- Once she started talkin',
she hadn't shut up.
- They're divorced now,
but Tracy and Todd Caldwell
watched their girl grow up
all but unstoppable,
a vivacious,
winning teen.
[cheering]
- Bowling, Todd,
we're not just talking
about recreational
Saturday night now and then.
- No, we're talking about
state champion bowling.
Anything she did, she had
to be the best at it.
- Oh.
- Lisa, look over here.
- Lisa was a teenager
when her parents divorced.
Todd remained an
active father to Lisa
and his three
other children.
All the while, he was
working a stressful
and dangerous job
as a deputy
in the Wapello County
Sheriff's Department.
He found comfort
in several ways.
One was his
occasional hobby.
He'd take out his sketch pad
from time to time.
- Oh!
- And then he met and fell hard
for a nurse named Amy.
- Yeah, come here, you.
I got ya.
[laughing]
- Before long,
he was starting fatherhood
all over again,
with twin daughters.
This time, he was getting
lots of help from Lisa.
She was the twins'
default babysitter.
- She was more like
a second mom to the twins
than a big sister.
- She was just
a caregiver to anybody.
- You had a very
close relationship.
- Mm-hmm, very.
I would get
into bed with her,
and we'd watch old episodes
of the "Gold Girls."
- That's a sweet
relationship, right?
[laughing]
- Yeah, and she always
said that I was Dorothy
because I'm such
a grouch all the time.
[laughing]
But, um, yeah,
that was my favorite time
with Lisa.
I'm so lucky.
Muah.
- But stepmom, Amy,
put on her enforcer hat
when it came to Lisa's
teenage romantic life.
- I wanted to know
who the boyfriends were.
I wanted to know who
their parents were.
- Right.
- Yeah.
I-I was the one that they
had to pass the test with.
- The boyfriend who
passed with flying colors
was a kid named
Seth Techel.
He came from a longtime
local family.
His grandfather had been the
umpteen-term Mayor of Ottumwa.
Mom was a social worker.
Dad owned a local bowling alley,
and the bowling alley
was where Seth,
as a young teen,
began noticing Lisa.
His dad was her
high school coach,
and Seth bowled almost
but not quite as well as Lisa.
The two worked part time
together at the lanes.
They were becoming
boyfriend-girlfriend,
and that was fine
with both their families.
So, you liked this young girl.
- Oh, a lot, yeah.
- She was a part of our family.
- Yeah.
- The Techels were
a churchgoing family,
and Seth's mom, Lorraine,
remembers how the boy's
compassion for others shone
on a relief mission
to Mississippi
after Hurricane Katrina.
- He just stood and talked
to these-these folks
for hours and hours, and they
just became very good friends,
and, um, I have a lot
of memories like that of Seth.
- Helping people.
- Yeah.
[indistinct chatter]
- And Lisa wanted
to help people, too.
She followed her father
into law enforcement,
first as a reserve deputy
in Todd's sheriff's department
and then as a jailer
in a neighboring county.
- I told her that she
would have my blessings
if she wasn't
just an average cop.
I wanted her to be
a really great cop
because I didn't wanna
have to worry about,
you know, her inefficiencies
maybe endangering her life.
[cheering]
- After years of hearing
patrons at the bowling alley
joke about when the two of them
were going to get married,
Seth and Lisa made
the inevitable official.
She was 22.
He was 21.
- I just told him that,
no matter what he did,
to take care of her
and protect her.
- And he said?
- He said he would.
- Lisa's sister,
another Elvis namesake, Presley,
got much more
than a brother-in-law with Seth.
- He was my best friend.
I mean, he was just
kind of that other person
that I could always go to.
- He called me dad.
We told each other
we loved each other.
We hugged every time
we left each other.
I mean, I felt as close
to him as I did my son.
- For Lisa, it wasn't
just gaining a husband.
It was having all his buddies
come along, too, a package deal.
So, how did Lisa put
up with you guys?
- She was kinda interested
in the same things
that all of us were.
Like, she liked to go fishing.
She liked to go hunting.
She liked to shoot guns.
- Was she okay?
- Better than Seth.
- Sounds like you guys all
would have been happy
if she were your girlfriend.
- Seth was lucky.
- Lucky for sure,
but Seth knew it was time
to settle down
and get a real job.
Like Lisa, he was drawn
to uniform service.
He'd signed on
as a volunteer firefighter
and drew a paycheck
as a security guard,
but his father-in-law, Todd,
was helping him get
a higher rung on the ladder
with a soon-to-start job
as a jailer for the sheriffs.
- They were very close.
Todd was a big
influence on Seth.
That's why I think
he went into law enforcement.
- A new job, a young marriage,
and now more changes for Seth.
He was going
to be a father.
They'd picked a name
for the unborn girl, Zoe Maria.
In May 2012, they were
halfway through the pregnancy.
Seth and Lisa, a baby
on the way, were starting out
their married life in this
humble little trailer.
It was a gift
from his dad
perched on just a beautiful
piece of property.
It was a kind
of starter home
while they saved
some money for the future.
The only apparent cloud
in the picture
was an escalating feud
with an across-the-fence
neighbor here.
There was bad blood.
It happened at 5
in the morning,
a sudden horrifying sound
that shattered two young lives.
[phone ringing]
- Saturday, May 26, 2012,
Memorial Day weekend.
- A shotgun blast had
ended all the plans
of Mr. and Mrs.
Seth Techel.
- Newlywed, mom-to-be,
and now, out of the blue,
victim of a violent attack.
Who would want to hurt Lisa?
With a suspect
still at large,
the questions
are just beginning.
[siren wailing]
Deputies race to the scene
where the shooter
could be lurking anywhere.
- You don't know if somebody
coulda winged a shot at you.
- Yeah. I mean, that was
possible the whole time.
- It was the end
of a long overnight shift
for Sheriff's Deputy
Marty Wonderlin,
the only deputy on duty
in Wapello County, Iowa.
All was quiet, and with
the first hint of daybreak
that Saturday morning,
Marty relaxed
and turned up the music
in his cruiser.
It's the ragged end
of the shift for you.
- Yeah. I'm taking my last
little loop around the county
and gonna watch the sun come up
and go home and go to bed.
- That plan came
to an abrupt end
around 5:30 a.m.
when Seth Techel made
a desperate 9-1-1 call
from his house.
[sobbing]
- Dispatch relayed
the message to Marty Wonderlin.
The young deputy had never
gotten a call like this.
- Is your heart
pounding a little?
- Oh, yeah.
Uh, that's an understatement.
[siren wailing]
- With his car
and his mind both doing 90,
Marty raced to the house
in under ten minutes.
He slowed along the rise
of the gravel country road
and stopped
in the driveway.
He had no idea
what he'd be facing.
His dashboard camera
captured the scene
as he approached the house.
Here's how you get
in the trailer.
What do you see
right about here?
- You can see, uh, Seth Techel
up on the porch.
He's wearing cargo shorts
and a belt,
and he's just bent over,
you know.
- What's he doing?
- Sounds like he's crying,
just sobbing.
- The toughest call
of Marty's career
was suddenly so much
more complicated.
He knew the grieving husband
on the porch.
Considered him a friend.
Knew his wife, Lisa, too,
and her father, Todd,
was a respected fellow deputy.
The unfolding tragedy
had just become very personal.
Deputy, how do you set
your brain in compartments
where you gotta be
very professional
this first time
you've had major crime?
And yet,
it's also people you know.
- It's tough.
- Were you scared?
It's okay if you were.
- Yeah, I definitely was scared.
You know,
concerned about a lot
of different things.
- You didn't know if somebody
coulda winged a shot at you.
- Yeah. I mean, that was
possible the whole time.
- As the only cop
at a dangerous, chaotic scene,
the possibility
of a live shooter
still on the grounds,
Marty's adrenaline was pumping.
When he entered
the trailer,
a paramedic
was attending to Lisa.
She was lying in her bed.
It didn't look good.
Marty's only thought
was to help her,
but he had
to secure his rifle,
so he ran back to his cruiser
to lock it up.
- I got on my radio, and I think
I told dispatch get 58 out here.
- Badge 58 meant
Deputy Todd Caldwell,
Lisa's father.
- In hindsight,
I wish I wouldn't
have done that.
I wish I wouldn't have.
- Why do you say that?
- Well, 'cause I saw a lot
of things that morning,
and now because of me,
because of asking him to,
you know, come out there,
he's gonna have to live
with some of those same
images that I do now.
- Todd Caldwell was asleep,
but his cell phone
was plugged in next to the bed,
always ready for a middle-
of-the-night emergency call.
- We get a call
from, you know,
a dispatcher
who I've known for 20 years,
and I can tell that-that
his voice is different.
And from what I remember,
he just said, you know,
"You need to get
out to Lisa's house.
She's been shot
and isn't breathing."
- Todd's wife, Amy,
bolted out of bed.
Her stepdaughter,
her best friend, needed her.
- I kinda left him behind.
I-I didn't put shoes on,
didn't put socks on.
I went in my pajamas
and drove 90 mile an hour.
You know, I'm an ER nurse.
I'm thinking--
- You're sort of in nurse mode
here, too. Yeah.
- Yeah,
'cause I-I'm thinking,
well, you know,
maybe if I get there
fast enough, that--
- Minutes matter.
- There will be
something I can do.
- Todd raced behind
in a separate vehicle.
- I just repeated
over and over,
you know, "Oh, my God.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God."
I just remember that's all
I could think and say is,
"Oh, my God.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God."
- At the scene, Deputy Wonderlin
ran back to the house
and did what he could
to help the EMT.
- I started giving Lisa
CPR, so the paramedic could--
I think he was getting, like,
a defibrillator ready,
but it felt like forever,
you know,
and I'm asking him,
you know, "Do you want me
to do CPR still?"
He told me not to.
- There was nothing more
to do.
She was gone, along with
her unborn daughter.
Lisa Marie Techel
was just 23 years old.
- I ran in there, and you
could tell that she was gone.
- So, you went into the bedroom.
You saw her.
Did you tend to her?
- Yeah, I hold her--
I held her hand,
and, um,
I rubbed her belly,
and-and I just said,
"My Lisa, my Lisa."
- Todd, did you go into
the house? I hope not.
- Yeah, I did.
I went in there, and, uh,
I seen her laying there,
and I seen the amount
of blood that was on the bed,
and I knew
from my experience
that that was too much blood
to sustain life.
When I listen to, like,
the tape recording of it,
I hear myself
bellowing.
I-I don't know
how to describe it.
I don't even remember
doing that.
- What happened?
[sobbing]
- It was
a heartbreaking scene,
but Deputy Marty Wonderlin
had a job to do.
End of your shift,
your first homicide,
so you're in the barrel here.
- Gotta start workin' it.
- There was
an immediate lead
from, of all people,
Todd Caldwell.
The veteran cop, who had
just seen his precious daughter
lying dead
in a pool of blood,
said he knew
who the shooter was,
and in a voice
filled with rage,
he told his fellow deputies
to take the suspect down.
Who was Todd Caldwell
talking about?
Turns out there was someone
in Seth and Lisa's life
who had everybody worried.
- Things were escalating.
They were fearful.
I was fearful.
- Lisa Techel was dead,
murdered in her own bed.
Her distraught husband,
Seth, was outside,
shirtless and barefoot.
When Lisa's little sister,
Presley, arrived,
all she could do
was try to comfort him.
- By the time I got there,
they had stuff taped off,
and I went up,
and I just gave Seth, like,
the longest-- seemed like,
the longest hug ever.
- Your best friend.
- Yeah.
- Seth was inconsolable
and acting out.
- I went over to him when
I first got there,
and I tried hugging him.
He pushed me away.
- (BLEEP).
- He punched his truck,
and I said, "You know,
don't do that, Seth.
You know,
let me see your hand."
- Todd offered to take Seth
back to his house,
but Doug Techel knew
this was a moment
his son should be with him.
- It was just bad.
I mean, he-he was sobbing,
and we just hugged and cried.
- Marty Wonderlin,
working his first homicide,
was the first deputy
to speak to Seth.
How's that go?
- You know,
I asked him
what happened.
- Through the overwrought
husband's sobbing,
a story
started to emerge.
- He basically tells me
that he was in the shower,
gettin' ready to go to work,
and he hears a gun go off.
- So, there's been
some sort of an intruder.
- Yeah, that's what
he's telling me,
that someone came in
while he was in the shower,
shot Lisa, and ran away
before he could catch him.
- Lisa's father, Todd,
thought he'd figured it out
and already had a suspect.
- Todd's rage was directed
at the neighbor
on the other side of the fence
topped with barbed wire,
a 56-year-old disabled
Army veteran named Brian Tate.
- I just remember saying,
"Go get him. Go get him, now."
And I thought they better
get to him before I do.
- Brian Tate had been
embroiled in an escalating feud
with his neighbors,
Lisa and Seth.
Todd knew all about it
and was certain
his daughter was now dead
because of it.
This is this culmination
of bad blood
that's been going on
for a month's time
or more now, huh?
- Right.
- It started about two months
before the murder.
Seth pulled a dead deer
off the road along
the property line.
Brian Tate later tossed
the hide onto Seth's property.
Seth tossed it back,
and the battle was on.
Tate made several calls
to the county
complaining about nasty acts
of vandalism.
- Todd Caldwell
responded to one in April,
and Tate pointed the finger
at his young neighbor.
- Now, this guy, Brian Tate,
does he know
that you're the father-in-law
of the neighbor?
- No, and I don't wanna
tell him that
because I don't want
that to affect
maybe what he does
or doesn't do.
- And he thinks that's
the source
of his trouble.
- Right.
- Those people over
in the trailer property
across the way.
- Yeah.
- Brian Tate told Todd
that dog feces
and rocks had been
hurled at his home.
He then showed
Todd the evidence.
He described the vandalism
of his home in stark terms.
- He says that he thinks
these are acts of terrorism
and, um, you know,
kind of a-a bell goes off.
Like, terrorism is kind of
a-a weird word to use.
And the whole time,
half the time, I guess,
he's sitting there, he's--
I-I notice a-a shotgun
laying on the ground,
you know,
and I'm, like, going,
that makes me feel
a little uneasy.
- Does that make you
a little twitchy, huh?
- Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
- So twitchy that Todd
sent a heads-up email
warning fellow deputies
about Tate,
that he might
be dangerous.
- I'm thinking
I don't wanna be the reason
a deputy goes out there
and gets hurt.
Okay, well, if you
go out there, be careful.
Tate might be 1096, which means
mentally, you know, challenged.
- In fact, Tate did have
a history of mental illness.
He'd been diagnosed
as a paranoid schizophrenic.
Seth's mother, Lorraine,
a social worker used
to dealing with mental patients,
was worried and talked
to both Seth and Lisa
about their neighbor.
- She was terrified.
This was when things
were escalating.
They thought that they could,
you know, handle whatever,
and, um, but
they-they were fearful.
I was fearful.
- On May 15, 2012,
just 11 days before
Lisa was killed, an agitated
Tate made another call
complaining that the vandalism,
the terrorism,
was getting worse.
Todd responded, again,
this time accompanied
by then Deputy
Don Phillips.
- Did you think
he was a risk?
- Yeah, I did.
- That this is a guy who was
capable of flipping out.
- I-I did.
I did.
- And now, Lisa was dead,
and the trailer was
a crime scene.
Marty Wonderlin, the first
deputy at the scene,
already knew all about
Brian Tate and had zeroed in
on him as his candidate
for prime suspect.
So, all the direction is
heading across the fence
to this guy whose
name is Brian Tate.
- It is.
- And police decided it was time
to pay a visit to Tate.
They armored up and got out
their long guns,
not knowing what their
suspect might do.
- If you're ballsy enough
to break into a house
and shoot Lisa and, you know,
make it back out,
you're ballsy enough to do
just about anything.
- Coming up...
Cops confront
their man.
- I had my rifle out,
locked and loaded.
- When "Dateline:
Secrets Uncovered" continues.
Welcome back to
"Dateline: Secrets Uncovered."
I'm Kate Snow.
Police investigating the murder
of Lisa Techel
believed a growing feud
with a neighbor
could hold the secret
to her killer's identity.
Brian Tate, a military veteran,
had accused Lisa's husband,
Seth, of vandalism.
Deputies, armed
and on high alert,
were about to pay Tate a visit,
leading to a twist
no one expected.
Back to Dennis Murphy
with "Before Dawn."
- On the Main Street
of tiny Agency, Iowa,
bad news traveled fast.
A pregnant woman was dead,
and a gunman was on the loose.
Just as quickly,
fear took to roost.
- The 23-year-old reserve
sheriff's deputy was shot
and killed at her home
in the town of Agency.
She was five months
pregnant.
- Lisa's murder was the first
in the farm town in 15 years.
Deputy Don Phillips, seen here
un spooling crime scene tape,
had a personal stake
in cracking the case.
Lisa's dad was one
of his best friends.
- Todd and I began
the same year
at the sheriff's office
together.
I'd watched,
uh, Lisa grow up.
I just reassured him
that we'll figure this out.
We'll find out
who did this.
- So, whatever has happened
here, is really within
your family, the law enforcement
family in the county.
- Correct.
We're a small sheriff's office.
We know everybody.
We know each other's kids
and-and extended families.
- And they also knew
something about
that guy next door,
Brian Tate.
Ever since the first deputies
arrived at sunrise,
they'd been peeking
across the barbed wire.
Just how dangerous was
this fussing neighbor?
Were they another shotgun
blast away from finding out?
At 1 that afternoon, 8
hours after Lisa was shot,
Deputy Phillips and a team
of investigators
were ready to confront
the neighbor.
So, the decision
is made.
We gotta talk
to Brian Tate.
- Yes, he was definitely
a person of interest
that we need
to go talk to.
- Did you put
your body armor on?
- Yes, I did.
- Marty Wonderlin did, too.
He was preparing for anything,
even a shootout.
- We got strapped up.
We're already ready
for business.
- Marty was in the backup car
while Deputy Phillips
and a partner drew a line
of fire detail,
approaching Brian Tate
for an interview.
- He's our prime suspect.
It's very possible,
in all of our minds,
that he just shot
and killed Lisa.
- As the Phillips team walks
slowly up to the Tate house,
Marty and the chief deputy
provided cover in the driveway.
- I had my-my rifle out,
locked and loaded.
Had the red dot
turned on.
If things popped off,
we were ready.
- Nerves screaming, everyone
was poised for battle,
everyone but, it turned out,
Brian Tate.
He wasn't armed
or belligerent.
They could all exhale.
- As we walked up there,
he was accommodating.
Got some chairs
out for us.
- This Brian Tate, huh?
- Brian-Brian did,
and we sat down in his,
uh, front yard.
- In the front yard,
in lawn chairs,
his mother and brother by
his side, no shotgun in sight.
So, the cops turned on
a recorder and started
asking questions.
So, you asked him,
"5 a.m., where were you," huh?
- Yes.
- He said he was in bed
in his basement bedroom,
sleeping off a higher dose
of medication
for his schizophrenia.
- He said he was still asleep
when the shooting
must have happened
before dawn.
Tate's mother corroborated
his 15-hour sleep alibi,
though the cops knew full well
that mothers can
often be bias witnesses.
- Guard duty, the ex-military
man called himself
a sergeant major
and walked the picket
on his property line, vigilant
ever since his property
had been littered
with dog feces,
his barn pelted
with rocks.
Deputy Don Phillips knew
all about the vandalism
complaint Tate had filed.
He and Todd Caldwell
were the deputies
who'd responded to Tate's house
just 11 days earlier.
They downplayed his complaints
then and thought
he was a crank
off his meds.
- After venting about
the vandalism,
the 40-minute interview
was over,
but investigators
weren't done.
They'd be back
to question Tate again.
So, what'd you think you had
when you get back
in your vehicle?
- We still had a whodunit
in our mind.
- But Lisa's step mom and sister
had no doubts whatsoever.
- I thought it was
Brian Tate.
- But investigators knew
they still had to talk
to the husband.
When agents scheduled
an official interview
with Seth for that same day,
the would be cop knew
the spouse had to be
ruled out.
He said he was eager
to get crossed off
the suspect list as
soon as possible.
So, he went downtown
and instructed his parents
no lawyers.
- I remember saying,
"Do we need to go get a lawyer?
- He was adamant.
He said, "no."
- He said,
"I didn't do anything."
He said, "I--"
- He said, "I have
nothing to hide."
- Yeah.
"I-I don't need a lawyer."
[Inaudible]
- Was that a mistake?
Seth had told his story to
one familiar face
after another at the scene,
but now he'd be talking
to an elite
state interrogator.
- Over here please.
- And the tone
of the investigation
was about to change.
[Inaudible]
- Coming up...
- Deputies learn that Seth
may be hiding something.
- I told 'em that Seth
had a Tracfone.
- So, kind of a secret phone,
huh?
- Yeah.
- When "Dateline:
Secrets Uncovered" continues.
- Todd and Amy returned home,
destroyed,
and the longest day
of their lives
wasn't even half over.
- My remaining kids, I know
they're gonna be horrified,
and I don't even think
about myself, at that point.
- But Todd was thinking
about the son-in-law
he loved like
his own boy.
Seth had agreed to go downtown
for a formal interview
without a lawyer.
By now, the county deputies
had called in state agents
from the DCI, Iowa's Division
of Criminal Investigation.
It became a shared
investigation.
The DCI providing forensic
resources and expertise.
The deputies offering
local knowledge and manpower.
DCI's Tony Birmingham
was lead agent.
He handpicked fellow agent,
Chris Thomas, to interview Seth.
- There was no doubt
in my mind that Chris
was the person that-that needed
to do that interview.
- We only get one shot at it,
and we have to be prepared
for this to be just
information collecting,
or we have to be prepared that
this could be our s-suspect.
- So, only eight hours after
his pregnant wife was murdered,
Seth's formal interview with DCI
Agent Thomas got underway.
- In the interview room,
Agent Thomas was
in the white shirt,
back to the camera.
To put Seth more at ease,
a deputy familiar to him
sat him.
It started routinely.
- Seth had already given
his account twice
to deputies at the scene,
but this would be his first time
on videotape.
His story begins somewhere
around 5 a.m.
- Exactly.
- He said he thought
it might be a gunshot,
so he jumped out of the shower
to check on Lisa.
He heard her moaning then
made out another sound
coming from possibly
the back deck.
He said he grabbed his handgun
from the nightstand by the bed.
- During the interview,
Seth sometimes seemed
overcome by emotion.
- The agent asked Seth
what he thought had happened.
- Seth then bolstered
the cops' leading theory
of the crime, so far,
that the neighbor,
Brian Tate,
had shot Lisa.
- Seth went into detail
about that juvenile
tit for tat dispute with Tate
that started over a deer hide.
He suspected Tate
tossed it over the fence,
so he said he responded
in kind.
- The dispute escalated
for several weeks
and intensified with
the incident in which Tate
claimed dog feces and rocks
were thrown onto his property.
That brought Seth's
father-in-law,
Deputy Todd Caldwell,
out to Tate's house
for that official visit over
Tate's vandalism complaint.
- Seth said he knew the tenor
of the visit
because Todd had
filled him in later.
His father-in-law also gave
him a strong warning.
- The murder weapon
hadn't been found,
so the state agent asked Seth
about the firearms
he kept in the trailer.
Maybe one of those
had been used.
- If one of those guns
is used in the homicide,
we wanna know
where it's at.
- So, I just asked him
to write down the guns
that are in his house,
and he writes 'em all down.
- Inevitably, the agent
turned to the sharp-edged
intrusive questions
that all husbands
with a murdered wife
have to answer.
Wannabe cop that he was,
Seth knew very well
what was coming.
- Seth didn't hesitate.
There were no other women.
But out at the trailer,
quite unexpectedly,
someone was about to put the lie
to that rosy marital picture.
A good friend of Seth's
named Colton had walked up
to the crime scene tape
at the drive.
He told the deputies and agents
there that he was looking
to pick up his puppy that Seth
had been boarding for him.
The investigators began
peppering the young friend
for info about
Seth and Lisa.
A detail that tumbled out
surprised them.
What was the story
you told 'em, Colton?
- I told 'em that
Seth had a Tracfone.
- So, kind of
a secret phone, huh?
- Yeah.
He had been talking
to a girl.
- The investigators had no idea
where this would lead,
but the unexpected revelation
that there might be
a girlfriend in the mix
meant that they had to get
on the horn with Agent Thomas
downtown and pronto.
Seth was still in
the interview chair,
but he could walk
at any moment.
- Coming up...
More about Seth's
secret phone--
seems it wasn't
just for talking.
- Did he tell you, "She sent me
some topless pictures?"
- Yes.
- Did you see them?
- Yes.
- When "Dateline:
Secrets Uncovered" continues.
- Seth Techel had gone
downtown voluntarily,
but now his interview
had dragged on
for a couple of hours.
His father grew concerned,
so he called in a lawyer
who said he would bring
the questioning to a halt.
- And we had called
the sheriff's office and said,
"We have a lawyer waiting
to go see Seth."
- But inside the sheriff's
interview room,
Seth kept talking away.
He was oblivious to the fact
that the interrogator
confronting him was getting
real time bulletins
from the crime scene.
- I got a text.
- The text was from
a fellow agent at the scene
who had spoken to
Seth's best friend,
the guy with
the puppy.
- And this person
had told him this story
about a girl
named Rachel.
- But Agent Thomas
held his fire, at this point,
in part because his information
was still limited.
Seth, however, likely could
see the agent reading a text.
The husband, father-to-be,
who had answered
an emphatic no to the question
about an affair,
then made an admission,
perhaps a preemptive strike.
- He said her name was
Rachel McFarland,
but Seth immediately
downplayed her importance.
He said even Lisa
knew about her.
- By now, Seth's father
and attorney had arrived
and were trying desperately
to end the interview,
but it was after hours,
and the outside door was locked.
Bang-bang-bang on the door,
Doug.
Is that you?
- That's me. That's me.
- They wouldn't stop.
- They-they didn't stop.
- They didn't come out.
- They didn't have to.
Remember, Seth was advised
by Agent Thomas that he was free
to leave anytime.
Everything was legal.
Lead Agent Birmingham,
watching Seth on a monitor,
simply ignored
the commotion outside.
- I did get information
that they were wanting
to get in and wanting to come in
and tell Seth to stop talking.
- Which would have shut
you guys right down.
- Seth is an adult,
and he has the sole obligation
to invoke his right
to remain his silent
or his right to an attorney,
and-and no one stopped him
from doing that.
- So, Thomas kept
asking questions,
and Seth kept
answering them.
- Meanwhile, both DCI Agents
Birmingham and Thomas
had now learned more
complete details from the scene,
from Seth's best friend,
the guy with the puppy.
The friend, Colton,
had explained that Seth was
using his special Tracfone
as a steamy hotline.
- I know they were
exchanging photos.
- Did he tell you, "She sent me
some topless pictures?"
- Yes.
- Did you see them?
- Yes.
- Armed with this information,
Agent Thomas decided
to show his cards
and see what happened.
- He said he'd talked to Rachel
about him divorcing Lisa
as recently as the night
before at work.
- He admitted he liked
Rachel's attention but said
he really was just
stringing her along.
- Lying to Rachel was wrong,
he said, but he claimed
that lying earlier
in the interview
was simply a way to spare
his grieving father-in-law,
Todd Caldwell,
the embarrassment.
- The interview had been going
on for close to four hours now,
and Agent Birmingham
was well aware
that Seth's father and a lawyer
wanted to shut it down.
Agent Thomas then took a break,
leaving Seth inside
the room to stew.
He met with Birmingham,
and they decided
he had to go nuclear.
Be confrontational because
the clock is ticking,
and if we're ever gonna
be tough, now is the time.
- Now is the time.
- Upset at this hostile
line of questioning,
Seth said
he'd had enough,
got up, and strangely
shook Thomas's hand.
- Thank you, sir.
- And then he walked out.
In the end, what did
the investigators have?
That Seth lied about sex,
but was it even that?
All he admitted to was
making out with Rachel.
And on the big question,
he insisted over and over again
that he did
not kill Lisa.
Even Agent Thomas
expressed disappointment
with the outcome of
the marathon interview,
nearly five hours long.
You felt you'd come out
of a 15-round fight?
- It was exhausting.
It felt somewhat like
a failure in some regards.
- Why?
- We didn't get
the full confession.
- Maybe that's because
Seth didn't do it.
Agent Thomas
just didn't know.
But the women in
the Caldwell family,
without knowing any of Seth's
admissions about Rachel,
believed with 100% certainty
that Seth did not kill Lisa,
especially Lisa's sister
and Seth's great friend,
Presley.
- I was never thinking
that Seth did it.
- Only Todd Caldwell was
no longer a true believer.
The cop in him questioned
why Seth needed to lawyer up.
His own investigative
instincts also kicked in,
though he'd asked his
fellow deputies
not to tell him anything
until they were ready
to make an arrest,
and late on day one
of the investigation,
they weren't even close.
- I would say, at-at
10 o'clock on Saturday night,
May 26th, that neither
Seth nor Brian Tate were
completely eliminated
as suspects.
- At that time,
investigators were meeting
at the sheriff's
department command center
to take stock.
They knew they had a husband
with a possible girlfriend
and a maybe crazy neighbor
with a vendetta,
but they also
learned by that night
there was a
missing shotgun.
What did it all mean?
One piece of the puzzle
falls into place.
- Boy, that was a huge
development in that case.
- It was.
- And then another round
of heartbreak for Lisa's family
**
- Welcome back to
"Dateline: Secrets Uncovered."
I'm Kate Snow.
Detectives investigating
Lisa Techel's murder
had a short list of suspects:
her husband, Seth,
and neighbor, Brian Tate,
who had an ongoing beef
with the couple.
New developments were
about to lead to an arrest
and an explosive secret
would soon be revealed
from beyond the grave.
Here again, Dennis Murphy
with "Before Dawn."
- It was Sunday, the morning
after Lisa Techel
had been shot to death,
but it wasn't a day of rest
for the Techels
and Caldwells.
They had to discuss
arrangements.
One of the saddest words
in the language
is "arrangements."
We have to make
arrangements.
That must have
been unreal.
- Yeah.
- I don't really
remember it.
- Grief-stricken, Todd decided
to stay home by himself
while the rest of
his family and the Techels
met in a park.
Seth was there but under
instructions from his lawyer
not to speak
about the case.
He shared an emotional moment
with Lisa's sisters
and her mother, Tracy.
- The first thing,
Seth grabbed the girls,
and hugged the girls, and said,
"They think I did it."
We all hugged Seth.
You know, told him
we loved him.
- When investigators
finished their forensic work
inside the trailer,
Tracy, Seth, and his parents
went out there to retrieve
some of Lisa's things.
- It was very tough.
I was just amazed
the way it looked.
- Crime scene techs had been
all over it, hadn't they?
- All over it.
I guess I went into dad mode
and tried to protect Seth
a little bit, and I-I
wanted to cover up the bed.
- What was your
thinking there?
- I just didn't want him
to see the blood.
- How was your boy dealing
with all this
in these hours after?
- I-I think he
was just shocked.
- That Sunday wasn't
a day of rest for
the men and women trying
to solve the crime either.
Investigators were focusing
on the murder weapon
and were working
a lead on a 12-gauge
Mossberg shotgun.
It belonged to Seth's
friend, Lucas Howell,
who'd been rooming
with Seth and Lisa
and had just moved out.
We showed Lucas this photograph
taken of Seth at his home.
If you look in the upper
right-hand corner, Lucas,
there's the gun rack.
- Yeah. Yep.
- Is your Mossberg
in that rack?
- Yes. It's the middle one.
- Lucas talked to
deputies about the gun
on the day of the murder.
- I told 'em that, uh,
I hadn't took it with me,
and it should be there.
- But his 12-gauge wasn't
there when crime scene techs
scoured the trailer,
and cops knew another place
it wasn't, on the list of guns
kept at the house
that Seth had
written for the DCI agent.
Investigators felt certain
the Mossberg was used
to kill Lisa, but a big
question remained.
- Where is it?
That's what we wanna know.
Where is the gun?
- That same Sunday morning,
a team began searching
the big, beautiful
piece of property
where Seth and Lisa were
starting married life
and preparing
to raise a family.
Deputy Marty Wonderlin,
working his first ever
homicide case,
was back at the scene.
Not too long into
the Sunday morning search,
over here by this big ol' tree,
what do you hear?
- I hear, "We've got it.
You know, shotgun here."
And they were goin' nuts.
- There was the Mossberg,
in the tall grass
about 20 yards from
the back door of the trailer.
Boy, that was a huge
development in that case.
- It was.
I think everyone's, you know,
mood doubled or tripled
when they
found that gun.
- Ballistics would later
match the Mossberg
with the slug that killed
the pregnant Lisa.
Investigators could fill in one
big box on their checklist:
murder weapon.
Next, they worked on
possible motives.
Was it a neighbor with
a vendetta or a husband
lusting after
another woman?
State Agent Birmingham and
Deputy Phillips decided
to have a talk with Seth's
work friend, Rachel.
- We interviewed her
on Tuesday, May 29th.
- Over the course of two hours,
Birmingham and Phillips
peeled back the layers of
Rachel's relationship with Seth.
- They were having, you know,
kind of an ongoing relationship.
There are sexually
explicit text messages.
There are pictures,
sexually explicit pictures,
sent back and forth.
- It sounds like they were
making out
rather than having sex.
- Yes.
That's correct.
- Rachel told the investigators
the Seth she knew
couldn't be
a murderer.
- But Seth was a suspect,
and if he did fire
that shotgun blast,
that would place Rachel
at the heart
of a murderous
love triangle.
- The next day,
Deputies Phillips
and Wonderlin were back at
the neighbor Brian Tate's house.
- This time, they asked
him point blank about
the murder of his neighbor.
- Tate stuck to his alibi,
home and asleep
after taking
his medication.
Lead Agent Birmingham
thought he was telling
the truth and crossed Brian Tate
off his suspect list.
So, you only have one suspect,
at this point.
- We have one suspect
and only one suspect.
- That evening, Lisa's
loved ones gathered
at a funeral home
for the visitation.
The turnout was impressive
and included many of
Todd's friends in
the sheriff's department.
Your fellow officers are there,
as they would be.
- Right.
- You know,
pay condolences,
show respect.
- Right.
- The mood inside was
somber and uneasy.
The Caldwells gathered
near Lisa's coffin.
The Techels stayed in
the back of the room.
Seth was there.
His sister-in-law,
Presley, will never forget
what happened next.
- He actually came up to me
kind of in the middle of it.
He gave me a big ol' hug,
and he said, "You will always
"be my little sister,
and I love you."
And I was like,
"I love you back."
- When the last visitor
was gone, only the two
families remained, still
at opposite ends of the room.
- Then I saw the two DCI
agents come in and sit down
behind me, a couple rows
behind Seth and I.
I said, "Is this a-a personal,
uh, visit or a professional?"
- Is this condolences
or somethin' else, huh?
- Yeah, and he said,
"It's professional."
- Marty Wonderlin
was there.
- We asked Seth to, you know,
come outside,
and we-we did it
quietly, I thought.
- And when they were
outside, Deputy Wonderlin
carried out his orders.
He arrested his friend,
Seth Techel.
A fellow deputy
put the cuffs on him.
They were Lisa's cuffs,
the ones she'd used
as a reserve deputy.
So, this has gotta be just
more than your brain can absorb.
- Definitely, yeah.
- "Little sister,
I'll always love you,"
and now he's going downtown.
He's about to be charged.
- Yeah. I couldn't
understand it.
We wouldn't ever dream or
ever understand
that it could be him.
- Seth's dream was to
drive a sheriff's car
as a deputy, but now
the wannabe cop was cuffed,
riding in the backseat and
about to be charged
with the murder
of his wife.
Seth Techel goes on trial,
but before it even starts,
the prosecution
suffers a major blow.
- Bad for us.
Good for them.
It's great for them.
**
- For Lisa Techel's family,
it had been a heartbreaking,
relentless week.
Thursday didn't promise
to be any better.
Lisa's funeral was held at
the First Lutheran Church
in Ottumwa.
Seven months earlier,
Todd Caldwell was at
the very same church walking
his daughter down the aisle
on her wedding day.
Now, he'd returned
to lay her to rest.
Lisa was buried in
her jailer's uniform.
A special detail of officers
served as pallbearers.
Law enforcement had come out
to honor one of its own.
- Lisa would have thought,
you know, "This is all for me?"
I was so proud.
- I would have been able
to be there and-and
watch her become a mom.
She was just a joy.
- Mothers shouldn't
bury daughters.
- Never, never.
- After the funeral,
the Caldwell and Techel families
turned their attention to
the upcoming murder trial
of Seth Techel.
Lawyers started to plot strategy
with the neighbor,
Brian Tate,
expected to be right
in the thick of it.
Tate's sister, Sherry,
says he never could shake
the feeling that
the authorities
would come after him.
- He still feels like
they're saying he's a murderer.
Brian had even seen in
the paper that they were
calling him a crazy
and deranged neighbor.
It just devastated him.
- That summer, Brian Tate
tumbled into a downward spiral
and never
recovered.
He died in September 2012,
just four months
after Lisa's murder.
The coroner would
think it was heart.
- Yes.
- What's the family
think it was?
- We think it was heart,
a broken heart.
- And now prosecutors
Andy Prosser and Scott Brown
from the State's
Attorney General's Office,
worried that a jury might
think the deranged,
deceased neighbor did it.
Their plan had been to
call Tate as a witness.
- On the theory that
the-the devil you know
is always better than
the devil you don't,
we wanted the jury
to see Mr. Tate.
- But now, with a
trial date approaching,
prosecutors had
lost a key witness.
- Bad for us.
Good for them.
It's great for them.
- The long-awaited murder trial
of Seth Techel
was in hometown Ottumwa.
- Ready for the jury,
gentlemen.
- February 2013,
can you see yourself
going into the courthouse?
- Yeah, I remember.
- What do you two
say to one another?
- We gotta stay strong.
- The Caldwells never
wanted to believe
Seth killed Lisa,
but heading into trial,
they were all now
convinced that he did,
even Presley, once his
staunchest supporter.
- There's really no
other explanation
for what has happened.
- When you left the Techel
residence, who was there?
- Two prominent families,
the Caldwells and Techels,
once close in-laws,
were now fiercely divided,
camped on opposite sides
of the courtroom.
Seth had pleaded
not guilty.
- I was, like,
just look at me.
Like, I wanna see kind of
in your eyes how you're doing.
But he doesn't
look at you.
- She was like
my best friend.
- Prosecutors called
to the stand
their emotional
trump card.
Todd Caldwell
remembered his Lisa.
- Like, everyone would
tell me how much Lisa and I
are alike, and I would
just tell everybody that
she's the best
parts of me.
- The prosecution had
the burden of proving
the charges, first degree
murder and nonconsensual
termination of
a pregnancy.
What did you think
your strongest fact was
going forward?
Strongest part of
your story for a jury?
- Probably the most
important single piece
of evidence was
the shotgun.
- Ballistics showed
this Mossberg 12-gauge
was the murder weapon,
a firearm that Seth kept
inside his house and only he had
access to it that morning,
prosecutors argued.
- No murderer who wants
to kill Lisa Techel
comes to the murder scene
without the murder weapon.
- We argued the impossibility
of his story.
Some unknown assailant
breaks into his house
and kills the wife that
he says that he's gonna leave.
- Tyler Batterson
is our next witness.
- Prosecutors called one
of Seth's young friends
to show the jury, they said,
just how deceptive
and manipulative Seth was.
This witness was one of
the boys, it turned out,
behind all the vandalism
across the fence.
He testified he was just
following Seth's orders.
- Told us to go and mess
with his neighbor, Tate.
- How were you
gonna mess with him?
- Fill five gallon buckets
full of dog manure
and go dump 'em
on his property.
- Remember, Seth had
assured his father-in-law
and the state agent
who interviewed him
the exact opposite.
- Looking back, that
incident was what turned
Todd against Brian Tate
in the first place,
fixing the idea in his mind
that his kid's neighbor
was a deranged,
maybe dangerous crank.
- I'm going by what Seth
had told me about him.
- As for Tate's complaint
calls with deputies,
as captured on dashcam video,
it became evidence
for the prosecution.
- We were hopeful that
the jury would see, uh,
Brian Tate as we saw him.
- And they saw him as an
eccentric but harmless man,
certainly
not a killer.
Then, at last, it was time
for the state's star witness,
Rachel McFarland,
the other woman,
to show up and
tell her story.
Did you need
the jury to like her?
- We needed the jury
to believe her.
- Rachel testified her
relationship with Seth
started heating up
in December 2011,
which was two months
after Seth got married.
- It became more sexual,
asking me to send pictures,
or I don't know,
just showing off my body.
I guess.
- On May 20, 2012, Seth and
Rachel met at a nature preserve
where they took this selfie
to remember their time together.
- I mean, he kissed me.
He touched me.
He said that we had
everything in common
and that he had tried
working things out with Lisa,
and they just weren't working,
and I was exactly
what he wanted.
- She said Seth repeatedly
told her he was going
to divorce his wife.
- Did he say he loved you?
- Yes.
- But Rachel was
hedging her bets.
She told Seth she was also
interested in a co-worker
named Brandon, who just
happened to call her
during her tryst with
Seth in the park.
- He just started
getting really jealous.
- And so, on the 20th,
when he learned that you
were communicating with
Brandon, he said what?
- "Just give me
two more weeks."
- Did you ask him what he meant,
"Just give me two more weeks?"
- Yes, and he just repeated
the same statement.
- Six days later, Lisa
was murdered in her own bed.
- And here we have a motive
that we can understand, love.
The-the whole relationship
with Rachel was evidence
that was like a countdown
to Lisa Techel's death.
- But defense attorney
Steve Gardner countered,
arguing the motive
of an affair falls flat
without the essential
element, sex.
- Seth Techel was being
accused of murdering his wife
for an affair that
he was hoping to someday have.
And you've never had
intercourse with him.
- No.
- You've never had
oral sex with him.
- No.
- Never had your
clothes off.
- No.
- And you kissed
a few times.
- Yes.
- Is that a fair assessment
of the extent
of your romantic relationship
with Mr. Techel?
- Yes.
- The defense also didn't
accept the state's take
on the neighbor as
a harmless eccentric.
- The most compelling evidence
as to how this occurred
involved the neighbor, Mr. Tate.
He was mentally ill.
- And according to the defense,
dangerous, too.
The defense then hammered home
the portrayal
of the unpredictable neighbor
by using Todd's own complaint
summary from that day.
You're in the awkward
situation of being
their best witness.
- Right.
- But you believed he could
become a danger.
"Anyone who should respond
to that residence again
"should use
extreme caution."
- That is correct.
I did.
- The defense theorized
that Tate entered the trailer
through an unlocked door
and shot Lisa
for revenge.
The key defense evidence
that suggested an intruder
was a stray peanut butter
and jelly sandwich in a baggy
left on the back deck.
- There was a sandwich that
would not have been there
the night before
that was there.
- Critters should have
devoured it, he argued.
He told the jury it must
have been the killer's snack.
- I believe it to be the most
compelling piece of evidence
in the whole case.
- It was now up to
a jury to decide,
but it wouldn't be easy.
- In the jury room,
deliberations and drama.
- He started pounding
on the door want--
you know, saying that
he wanted outta there,
and we were in tears.
**
- Back in the
deliberation room,
wrangling jurors in the
Seth Techel murder trial
were driving the case
into a ditch.
They stay out, and they stay
out, and they stay out.
What are the prosecutors
telling you, Todd?
- That there's some
that are guilty,
and there's some
that are not guilty,
and they're just
not agreeing,
and I'm starting to get
worried at that point.
- Micah Sheehen
was on the jury.
She said one holdout
juror in particular
was responsible for
the stalemate.
- He started pounding
on the door want--
you know, saying that
he wanted outta there,
and we were in tears,
a lot of us,
because we knew that
we were up against a wall,
that nothing else could
be done with this person.
- After weeks of testimony
and three full days
of deliberations,
the Seth Techel
murder trial
came to a sudden
conclusion today.
- It was all over.
- The motion for a mistrial
is hereby granted.
- The judge declared a mistrial
because of a hung jury.
Hung jury-- punch to the gut,
Andy? You ever had one?
- Well, I never had
one in almost 30 years.
- Prosecutors immediately
decided to retry the case.
The vote had been
10 to 2 for conviction.
- Of course, we're disappointed
in what happened.
- The Caldwells had lost
a daughter and sister,
and now they couldn't
even get the closure
they desperately wanted,
and they'd have
to do it all over again.
- It's hard to know
that you're gonna have to
endure another one.
- A trial date was set
for seven months later,
October 2013,
and trial number two
would be heard
in a new courthouse.
There'd been
a change of venue
to the town
of Mount Pleasant,
making it even
tougher on the Caldwells,
the daily treks to court,
lives disrupted.
The new courtroom had
a distinctive layout
that put the Caldwell family
directly behind the defendant.
- He's literally sitting right
in front of me like you are.
- Which only made it more
frustrating for Presley,
who was still trying
for any kind of connection
to someone she once
loved like a brother.
- I'm just staring at him,
like just glance at me,
do something,
and he doesn't.
- And even more painful
for the family
was having to sit through again
all that heartbreaking testimony
and raw crime scene photos
of their Lisa and
the unborn baby girl.
Other than the
change of venue,
Seth Techel's
second murder trial
played out as a carbon copy
of the first--
same lawyers, same judge,
same arguments,
a replay of two
opposing theories,
Brian Tate, the other suspect,
versus Seth Techel,
the husband with
the other woman.
Rachel McFarland was again
the prosecution's star witness.
- Here on May 4th of 2012,
he sent you a message
with a picture of his-his own
smiling face saying,
"Miss you, Bella."
- Mm-hmm.
- Was that a term of endearment
that he called you,
his Bella?
- Yes, yes.
- You sent him a picture of
you in either a bikini
or your bra and underwear.
Is that right?
- Yes.
- And then he says,
"Well, wish me luck.
"I love you,"
at 10:51 p.m.
on May 24th of 2012.
What was he asking you
to wish him well with?
- I believe that he was
gonna tell her
that he wanted a divorce.
- Two days later,
Lisa was dead.
- He's manic.
He's up all the time.
- The defense offered the jury
the same bogeyman as before.
- The defense went even
harder at Brian Tate
than they had
the first time around.
- And he could quickly become
volatile and agitated.
- This time, the defense,
over strenuous
prosecution objections,
got Tate's psychiatrist
to testify.
He treated him near
the end of his life
in a hospital
mental health unit.
- When you first saw him,
did you find him to be
paranoid-paranoid, delusional?
- Yes, sir.
- And was there a general
topic of delusion
at which he
was paranoid?
- He seemed to make
reference that there were
some governmental
conspiracies affecting him.
- After three weeks
of trial,
a second jury had Seth Techel's
fate in its hands,
and that's when things
got deja vu all over again.
The judge read a note
from the foreman.
- "We are not going to reach
a verdict. What's next?"
- Todd, it's happening
again, huh?
- Yeah, and I'm thinkin'
this is two months'
worth of trials,
and we're right
back to the beginning.
- But the judge
wasn't ready to give up.
He told the jurors
to keep trying.
Emotions in the open
courtroom were raw,
especially on the
Caldwell side.
The jury couldn't
help but hear it.
- Presley and I were crying.
We weren't crying
uncontrollably or anything,
but you could hear us, you
know, sniffling a little.
- As the jury filed out,
defense attorney Steve Gardner
rose to scold the spectators.
"Stop the over-the-top
outbursts," he said,
"Or he'd demand a mistrial
in fairness to his client."
- I do not desire
this jury
to be influenced
by the public.
- Now, it was the prosecutors'
turn to seethe.
- The defense is making a speech
about the Caldwell family
trying to somehow
influence the jury,
which we thought
was ludicrous.
I squeezed Andy's arm,
and I said, "I'll take this."
- To stand up here and suggest
that anyone in the courtroom
is making an attempt to
intentionally influence the jury
is absolute nonsense.
- That's all for now.
- The courtroom started
to settle down and clear,
but Seth remained
at the defense table,
his former father-in-law coiled
behind him ready to pounce.
- I was just praying, please
just let me stand here.
- For more than a minute,
glaring,
burning a hole in Seth's back,
if looks could kill.
- There's just kind of an urge
to move forward, not keep--
- Jump the rail.
- Yeah.
God, please don't
make me do that.
Just let me stand.
- What were you
doing in your mind?
- I don't really wanna
even think
of what I was doing
in the mind.
I was wantin'
to do somethin'.
- Two hours later,
the jurors returned,
but nothing had changed.
- A mistrial is declared.
- Unbelievable.
Veteran prosecutors who'd
never had a hung jury before
were now 0 for 2.
Again, the state
didn't hesitate.
Seth Techel would go on
trial for a third time.
- Our intent is to retry it.
It was an easy
decision to make.
- Even though
the jury's vote
was again in favor
of conviction,
this time 9 to 3,
Lisa's family was starting
to have its doubts.
- Is there something that
I'm just overlooking?
Like, did he not do it?
Is there something
that they just see,
and they're like,
"He's not guilty?"
- But just when
they thought
they couldn't suffer
any more heartbreak,
the Caldwells
would be devastated
by new findings
by a brand-new defense team.
- I heard it about
a week before the trial,
and it was just like somebody
hit me in the stomach.
- The defense
comes out swinging.
- There was absolutely no DNA,
fingerprint, uh, confession.
**
Welcome back.
Seth Techel had
been tried twice
for the murder of
his pregnant wife, Lisa,
and both times
the jury deadlocked.
But for trial number three,
the defense would be armed
with stunning
new accusations
about the investigation
and Lisa herself.
One more dark secret
was about to be revealed
that would shake the foundations
of the state's case
and throw justice for
Lisa into jeopardy.
Here again, Dennis Murphy
with "Before Dawn."
- Two families,
two trials,
and, so far,
no winners,
but trial number three
promised to be different,
starting with
a new defense team.
- The previous trials
were not successes,
and Seth came
dangerously close
to being convicted
in-in each of them.
- State appointed defense
lawyers Roger Owens
and Jake Feuerhelm knew that,
in two trials,
19 of 24 jurors had voted
to convict Seth Techel.
They didn't like
those numbers
and decided to head in
a different direction.
- We chose to focus
on the sloppy work
done by the
law enforcement.
There was absolutely no DNA,
fingerprint, uh, confession.
- Feuerhelm would argue it was
a botched investigation.
Why would crime
scene techs
do tests to match the slug
to the murder weapon
but never check it for
fingerprints or DNA
that might link it
to the shooter?
- Did you test the bullet
that was in the chamber
that killed this woman?
"No, we forgot,
or we didn't do it."
- Whoops.
- The new defense team
had a new story to tell.
It was all a rush to
judgement to blame Seth,
who'd been in jail ever since
his arrest two years earlier.
And there was another
big, strategic shift.
They would soften
the focus
on the bogeyman of the first
two trials, Brian Tate.
- Our conclusion was,
after listening to the tapes
of Mr. Tate,
that he wasn't
the deranged person
that they tried to
portray him as being.
- The way he was speaking to
law enforcement that afternoon
would not seem
like the person
that would have walked
into a trailer home
at 5:00 in the morning
and murdered his neighbor.
- The defense attorneys
made a tactical decision.
Since recordings of Tate
didn't make him look
like a dangerous killer,
they would not show tapes
of him to the jury,
and they'd roll the dice,
hoping the prosecutors
wouldn't either.
The Caldwells and Techels had
been put through the ringer
for more
than two years.
Their once close
relationship had frayed,
and now the third trial was
pushing everyone to the brink.
It was an impossible
situation,
but somehow Todd Caldwell
and Doug Techel
managed to find
a moment of grace.
- I went over to him,
and I just said,
"Doug, I want you to know that
I think you're a great guy.
"I think you're
a good person."
- Did you, really?
- "No matter how this turns out,
"I just want you
to know that."
And he said, "I think the same
thing with you, Todd."
And I went to
shake his hand,
and he just hugged me,
and we both just hugged.
- The two fathers
then returned
to opposite sides
of a murder trial.
July 2014,
for the third time,
the State of Iowa
versus Seth Techel.
- Counsel, are you
ready for the jury?
- This time, in Davenport,
three hours from the first
courthouse in Ottumwa.
- And he took it in--
- The prosecutors
once again argued
that Seth's story
defied logic.
- He would have to be
the victim
of one of the largest
coincidences ever known,
and that his he
told his girlfriend
that he left
his wife,
and a little less
than 17 hours later,
some unknown assailant
breaks into his house
and kills the wife that he, uh,
says that he's gonna leave.
- With a weapon which he
hasn't brought with him.
- Right.
- Correct,
with a weapon which he hasn't
brought with him.
- I had a Mossberg
model 500 shotgun.
- A 12-gauge?
- Yes.
- And Seth,
prosecutors said,
had easy access
to the murder weapon,
the shotgun that his friend,
Lucas, kept in Seth's house.
- Is that the 12-gauge
Mossberg shotgun that, uh,
you left behind at
the Techel residence
when you moved out
in May of 2012?
- Yes.
- And the prosecutors argued
only Seth had a motive.
They said Seth and Rachel's
steamy texts
and cell phone photos
played like a countdown
to murder by Seth.
- It's at 9:20 p.m.
on the 24th.
You asked him, "Do you
really wanna be with me?"
And he responds, "Forever."
- Right. Yes.
- That's May 24th,
two days before Lisa's death,
and, in a follow-up text,
Rachel asked Seth
if he told his wife
he wanted a divorce yet.
- And he responds,
"Well, we talked.
"I told her
I wasn't happy.
"She got mad,
then sad.
"Then I slept
on the couch.
"So, hello,
Mrs. Resuscitator."
- Correct.
- Rachel told the jury
that she and co-workers
nicknamed Seth
"Mr. Resuscitator"
because he was
a volunteer firefighter
who often bragged about his
lifesaving CPR heroics.
- So he was gonna be
Mr. Resuscitator,
and you were gonna be
Mrs. Resuscitator.
- Yeah.
- Then to drive home
their contention
that Seth chose murder
over divorce,
prosecutors called
a co-worker
who'd been a confidante
of Seth's.
- Swear or affirm that
the testimony--
- I just expressed
that he just needed to
either end his marriage
or end it
with Rachel.
- And in saying
that he should
end his marriage
with Lisa Techel,
did he make any, uh, comment
concerning child support?
- He asked me if I wanted
to pay his child support.
- And then the witness
recalled another remark
Seth made about Lisa.
- He stated that
it would be better off
if she was in a car wreck
and died.
- Prosecutors hoped their
third time would be the charm,
but the new defense
attorneys would come at them
with everything they had,
and that included
explosive new evidence,
and this time,
it was about Lisa.
You found out the story
told by the phone,
that there was
this guy, co-worker.
- Right.
- Was there another man
in Lisa's life?
**
- From the day
Lisa Techel was murdered,
Brian Tate had been
targeted as a suspect.
And he'd been exploited by
Seth's defense ever since.
- The question that you will
have to consider,
is whether or not
the state has proven
that Seth Techel did it.
- New defense attorneys
Roger Owens and Jake Feuerhelm
had a completely
different strategy.
They barely mentioned
Tate's name.
Rachel, offered as Seth's motive
for murder in earlier trials,
was also minimized
this time.
- Good afternoon,
Miss McFarland.
- Hi.
- In cross-examination,
Rachel was on the stand
for a scant seven minutes.
Tick-tock, there is
the message on Thursday.
"Mr. and Mrs. Resuscitator,
blue skies ahead,
"we're a couple."
What do you do with
something like that?
- I tried to be as
straightforward as I could
with the jury.
Who in the world is going
to murder their wife
to facilitate
a relationship
that hasn't even
turned sexual?
- You're not having any sex
with this man, right?
- Correct.
- And the only time
that you'd ever seen him
in person
in your whole entire life
outside of work
was four or five times.
- Correct.
- I have no
further questions.
- What we wanted the jury
think about her is that,
you're gonna shoot
your wife for this?
- Attorneys Feuerhelm and Owens
then went on the attack,
characterizing the
work of investigators
as woefully shoddy.
- The "I's" have it--
inconsistent, incompetent,
incomplete.
- The new defense thrust
was on what the investigators
did not do.
This state criminalist
had to admit
they did not test for
gunshot residue on Seth Techel.
- How many times do you think
you testified in criminal trials
that gunshot residue was
evidence of the crime?
- A lot.
- But, in this case,
no, we can't argue it,
'cause we don't have it.
- Yeah, exactly.
We-we'll never know.
- Never know.
- And the defense said
it was even more shocking
that the state expert had to
make a similar admission
about the fatal
shotgun shell.
- This is the shell that
killed Lisa Techel.
- Yes.
- The very shell
that killed this woman
was never examined
by the state.
They just said,
"We-we forgot to do it."
- But the centerpiece of the
defense case against the cops
was something
else they didn't do.
They'd been so busy
investigating Seth,
who'd been behind bars since
his arrest two years before,
that they never really
paid attention to Lisa.
The new defense team
would change all that,
starting with her cell phone
and the secrets it held.
You found out the story
told by the phone,
that there was this guy,
co-worker.
- Right.
- It was a bombshell.
Lisa was having an affair
with a fellow jailer.
Lisa's lover was a married man,
a father of four.
And this is not making out
in the back of the car.
- No, He thought he--
could be the father of her--
of the child.
He thought that.
- So, they called
Lisa's lover, Jason Tinnes,
to the stand.
- And back in May of 2012,
did you know a Lisa Techel?
- Yes, I did.
- Jason testified that
the affair started
before Lisa married Seth
and ended just weeks
before her murder.
- Mr. Tinnes, at some point,
did your relationship
with Lisa Techel
become sexual?
- Yes, it did.
- Now, when we talk
about a sexual relationship,
we're not talking
about texting, are we?
- No, sir.
- You're-you're
talk-talking
about actual sexual
intercourse, correct?
- Yes, sir.
- For Lisa's father,
the revelation that
his daughter had a lover
was the cruelest
blow yet.
- The first emotion
I had is, why?
Why, Lisa, you know?
And my second thought is,
I don't wanna tell Amy,
'cause I know she's not
gonna be happy.
- Does it taint
your memory at all?
- Really, what it did for me
more than anything is,
I have so many
more questions
that I'll never get
the chance to ask her.
I mean, I love Lisa,
and she was a human being.
She made mistakes.
- The graphic testimony
about Lisa's affair
and how police
overlooked it
fit perfectly with
the defense's theme
of a botched investigation
and a rush to judgement
against Seth.
- Here is a legitimate
suspect
that should have been
investigated.
- Investigators never
spoke to Jason
while they were building
their case against Seth.
Prosecutors finally
contacted him
just days before
the third trial started.
- So between May of 2012
and sometime in June of 2014,
no one talked to you.
You didn't talk to anyone
about this at all.
- No, sir.
- But prosecutors fought back.
Jason had an alibi witness,
his wife.
They called her
to the stand.
- Do you have any memory,
Ms. Tinnes, that went to--
as to the whereabouts
of your husband
on May 26, 2012,
at approximately 5:00 a.m.?
- He was sleeping with me
at our house.
- And DNA testing on Jason
done right before trial
also proved he was not
the father of Lisa's baby,
but the defense
still believed
that raising the story
of Lisa's affair
and how police
never uncovered it
would give jurors
reasonable doubt
about the entire
investigation.
'Cause this is the big part
of your case in trial three.
Jurors, you're seeing some
really shabby policework here
in terms of
investigation.
- It fell right into our theme,
into our theory of the case.
- There'd already been
five holdout jurors
in the previous
two trials.
Now Todd Caldwell worried
that the new defense team
had produced a cloud of
even more reasonable doubt.
- You kinda think, okay,
if I was on this side,
that's kinda how
I would've handled it.
They're doing a pretty
good job, right?
And I'm convinced it's gonna be
another hung jury.
Why wouldn't it be?
- Todd and just about
everyone else
are in for a surprise.
- Has this jury
reached a verdict?
- When "Dateline: Secrets
Uncovered" continues.
- July 24, 2014,
after two
agonizing stalemates,
this time,
things were different.
As Seth Techel walked into
the courtroom and sat down,
his face showed no expression,
no hint of emotion.
He didn't glance
in any direction,
not at his family,
and certainly not at Todd,
his former father-in-law.
This is the young guy you
used to clap on the back
and say, "I love ya."
- Yep.
"Just take care of her.
That's all I ask."
- But Todd was staring
directly at Seth,
hoping to find
something, anything.
Now the moment
was at hand.
- Has this jury
reached a verdict?
- It has.
- The judge asked the court
attendant to read the verdict.
Lisa's mother could barely
contain her emotions.
Lisa's sister,
a bundle of nerves.
- Count one, we, the jury,
find the defendant,
Seth Andrew Techel,
guilty of murder
in the first degree,
and it's signed
by the head juror.
Count two, nonconsensual
termination of human pregnancy,
guilty of
nonconsensual...
- The justice system
had finally spoken
for Lisa
and unborn Zoey.
- The counsel, uh, requests
the, um, jury to be polled.
- And then you
hear the words.
What do you see?
- Hear the words "guilty,"
and I see nothing,
not one single emotion
from his face.
- The jurors had taken
four hours to convict.
On their way out,
several reached across
to shake Tracy's hand.
Presley still had
one big question.
- I would love
to ask him why.
There's Seth before
May 26th,
and then there's Seth
from May 26th on,
and it's almost like
I don't know who that is.
- Seth's parents tried
to fight back tears.
- It was heartbreaking.
- On the Caldwell side,
tears of joy
and displays
of overwhelming relief.
There were hugs
and more hugs.
More than two years
of pent-up emotions
finally coming out.
The Caldwells then
walked across the aisle.
The two moms embraced,
united in tragedy.
- We know this family.
I know it's not Doug
and Lorraine's fault.
It's not their family's fault
that any of this happened.
- Todd searched out Doug.
Only three years before,
they were all celebrating
their kids' wedding together.
Doug and Lorraine
still support their son
and say he didn't do what
he's now convicted of doing.
Do you have a whisper of
doubt, either of you?
- No.
- No, sir, none whatsoever.
I never have,
and I never will.
- Everybody is a loser.
Nobody wins.
But I will say this.
I think Lisa knows somewhere
that the system
that she wanted to be
a part of worked.
- The Caldwells and Techels
weren't the only ones
with a stake
in the verdict.
Brian Tate's sister,
Sherry,
had been waiting
for this moment, too.
- I started crying.
It wasn't tears of sorrow.
It was tears of joy.
They had finally
gotten this SOB.
I hope he rots
in prison.
- Todd still carries
the burden
of helping to pin
the blame on Tate
in those awful moments
after Lisa's murder.
- I can never tell the family
how sorry I am
that they had to go through
what they had to.
We're gonna have the last word
on Brian Tate.
This is an innocent guy that
was made a victim by Seth.
- All rise.
- A sentencing hearing was
held in September 2014.
The Caldwells were given a
chance to address the court
but talked directly to Seth.
- You know how close
Lisa and I was,
and you know what
you took from me.
Out of everybody in
this room, you know.
- Presley,
Lisa's sister,
walked up to
take her turn.
During all three trials,
she desperately tried
to make eye contact
with Seth.
- Seth was my best friend
and my brother
who I loved so much.
- Now, she finally
got what she wanted.
As she spoke,
she looked straight at him.
And for the first time,
Seth stared right back at her.
- I'm gonna leave you
with one final thought,
that I am no longer your sister,
and I no longer love you.
- And then the judge
handed down the sentence.
- Thank you,
Miss Caldwell.
- Life in prison with no
possibility of parole.
When it was
finally all over,
Todd went to
the cemetery
for a private moment
with his oldest daughter.
- I went out there, and I just
told her that we did it,
and she could be
proud of everybody.
- Todd has been back
many times since.
Lisa's grave is a special,
deeply personal place for him.
He designed
her headstone.
What are the figures
in it, Todd?
- The first thing I would
do when I started, like,
sketching it is, I would
just draw a heart out.
For some reason,
in my head,
it should be in the shape
of a heart.
Second thing I would
put in there,
is a mother
holding a baby.
And Lisa and I
had this thing
that we would say
to each other.
We'd text it to each other
and everything,
and it's from
"The Notebook" movie,
and it's we've always said,
"If you're a bird, I'm a bird."
You know, meaning
whatever--
[exhales]
Whatever you are, I am.
So in the hair of this,
I made two birds in there.
By the time I got it
done with, you know,
we all loved it, and it's
kinda just kinda bonded.
Like, you know, hey,
this is part of Lisa now.
**
- That's all for this edition of
"Dateline: Secrets Uncovered."
I'm Kate Snow.
Thank you for watching.