The Root of All Evil

Speaker 1 the Creator of Homeland, Claire Danes and Matthew Rees star in the new Netflix series The Beast in Me as ruthless rivals whose shared darkness will set them on a collision course with fatal consequences.

Speaker 1 The Beast in Me is a riveting psychological cat and mouse story about guilt and justice and doubt, now playing only on Netflix.

Speaker 4 If you're a custodial supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key and that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Granger.

Speaker 4 Granger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust, from paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers.

Speaker 4 Plus, you can rely on Granger for easy reordering so you never run out of what you need. Call 1-800GRANGER, clickgranger.com or just stop by.
Granger for the ones who get it done.

Speaker 5 I never dreamed somebody could do this.

Speaker 5 I didn't know why anybody would want to kill him.

Speaker 5 You watch it on TV.

Speaker 5 You see it all the time. You just don't think it can happen to you.

Speaker 7 They were a young couple in a hurry to make their fortune.

Speaker 5 50s, 100s, 20s, piles of money.

Speaker 7 Building a life until one life ended all too soon.

Speaker 5 What happened to your husband, ma'am? Oh,

Speaker 5 he's scared.

Speaker 11 He was laying in the floor and I got scared.

Speaker 8 I ran out of the house.

Speaker 7 A young father murdered in broad daylight. Didn't look like a robbery.
Lots of valuables left behind.

Speaker 12 Lots of secrets too.

Speaker 13 It just kind of sent chills up my back.

Speaker 7 Something was tearing a family apart.

Speaker 11 I don't know where to start.

Speaker 7 Or was it someone?

Speaker 13 The most cold-blooded evil person.

Speaker 7 A family feud and an innocent man caught in the middle.

Speaker 13 You know these shows you watch that people see the ghosts of their loved ones? I wanted that so bad. So bad.

Speaker 7 I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline.

Speaker 14 Here's Keith Morrison with the root of all evil.

Speaker 17 The hunting is good here in the Arkansas Delta.

Speaker 19 Twice a year a horde of migrating mallards descends on flooded rice fields.

Speaker 20 Deer stare out through thickets of hardwood.

Speaker 23 You have to be quiet, sure-footed, your aim true.

Speaker 19 That's what Mark Despain's dad taught him. That's what Mark taught his own son.

Speaker 2 Before the hatred warmed its way in.

Speaker 26 Sometimes it's overwhelming, that anger, isn't it?

Speaker 28 Hideous.

Speaker 28 Hideous.

Speaker 29 The anger that pitted father against son.

Speaker 5 It almost got physical. It just, it breaks my heart.

Speaker 30 A husband against wife.

Speaker 31 I just wanted to go into protective mode and protect us all.

Speaker 20 I brought the hunting to town on a deathly quiet summer afternoon.

Speaker 20 Please hurry. Okay, I'm gonna get him out there.

Speaker 33 Please give me the handler.

Speaker 34 What could be left but the bitter taste of recrimination?

Speaker 11 He is evil.

Speaker 11 He is not the kind of person that he's got the public convinced that he is.

Speaker 18 Jonesboro is both a college town and a farm town, tends to the needs of young minds and rice farmers on the vast plain of sticky fertile clay west of the Mississippi River.

Speaker 39 It's where Mark Despain breathes through school with his easy charm.

Speaker 36 Tana is his mother.

Speaker 13 He was the only freshman that we know of that was chosen by a senior to go to the senior prom.

Speaker 40 Mark became a high school football star.

Speaker 18 His sister Jackie watched him bring trophies home to lay at the feet of his father, Jack.

Speaker 5 He really did look up to dad. And he always wanted to impress him and stuff.

Speaker 24 And then,

Speaker 21 well, it's an old story, really.

Speaker 11 When I was 18. And he was 19, we just bumped into each other.

Speaker 17 Pretty Michelle.

Speaker 44 She was sitting on top of a car when Mark spotted her one night, tiny, dough-eyed, and before long, pregnant.

Speaker 13 The way I was brought up, you know, if you've got a girl pregnant, you married her.

Speaker 13 That was just what she did.

Speaker 39 So, there was a shotgun wedding.

Speaker 45 Two families thrown together.

Speaker 44 Mark and his parents, Jack and Tana.

Speaker 46 Michelle and her long-divorced parents, her mom Kathy and her dad, Carl.

Speaker 23 Michelle also brought along a baby from an earlier relationship.

Speaker 11 And he never treated her like she was not his, never.

Speaker 21 Together they had two boys.

Speaker 5 He loved his kids. I mean just anything they ever dreamed of.

Speaker 5 He would do his damnest to get it.

Speaker 28 Anything.

Speaker 41 The little family moved into a trailer Mark's parents bought them, and Mark studied hard to become a real estate appraiser like his mom and went into business with his parents.

Speaker 37 Which, said Michelle, is about when things began to go wrong.

Speaker 11 Mark didn't like to be pushed around by his dad. He was an independent person.

Speaker 18 The growing tension spilled over at the kitchen table.

Speaker 50 Mark demanded a bigger share of the money.

Speaker 38 They argued, and then Michelle chimed in.

Speaker 21 Oh boy.

Speaker 5 Oh my goodness, when she opened her mouth, dad just

Speaker 5 flipped off the handle. And of course, Mark just, I don't don't know, stepped in as a husband, like a husband should do.

Speaker 51 That's how it began.

Speaker 2 The trouble between father and son.

Speaker 40 The trouble that was going to get so much worse.

Speaker 47 Mark split away from the family business.

Speaker 12 Michelle helped him with bookkeeping.

Speaker 31 I was just amazed at what they were able to accomplish.

Speaker 38 And they were a good team, said Michelle's mother, Kathy.

Speaker 31 They both just had the ability to work together and make money.

Speaker 54 Mark got into real estate investment.

Speaker 55 His first, a trailer park no one else would touch.

Speaker 5 I couldn't believe he bought those. What are you thinking? Have you lost your mind? He flipped it.
Made him about a hundred thousand dollar profit.

Speaker 18 And so having done it once, you figured he'd do it again?

Speaker 3 Absolutely.

Speaker 45 And the money seemed to roll in.

Speaker 29 Mark moved his family to an upscale neighborhood in the southern part of town.

Speaker 48 Adrift from his own parents, he spent more and more time with Michelle's, Michelle's, taking them all on family trips.

Speaker 14 He even hired Michelle's dad, Carl, to be his rent collector.

Speaker 5 I remember a lot of times walking in and Carl would be sitting at the dining room table in the

Speaker 5 50s, 100s, 20s. He was counting like a drug dealer.

Speaker 54 Just piles of money.

Speaker 8 Piles of money.

Speaker 50 And then one August afternoon, Michelle came home from work early.

Speaker 11 When I walked in, there weren't any lights on. Everything was knocked into the floor.

Speaker 56 And then she got to the kitchen, and there he was.

Speaker 11 And he was laying in the floor.

Speaker 11 And there was blood coming all out from behind him.

Speaker 11 And I shook his leg

Speaker 11 and said his name. And I looked around, and there was stuff in the floor everywhere.
And I got scared.

Speaker 19 She ran outside, terrified, and called 911.

Speaker 33 911, wish your emergency.

Speaker 33 My husband, I just came home.

Speaker 33 Ma'am, I need you to take a deep breath, okay, and tell me what's going on. I don't know.

Speaker 3 Michelle ran across the street to a neighbor's house, desperate to hide.

Speaker 33 She's not answering the door, okay?

Speaker 33 You want me to stay on the phone with you? No, I need to call my mom. Okay, call your mom.
I'm going to get them in rounds.

Speaker 31 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 crying.

Speaker 43 Kathy raced over there, found Michelle sobbing on the curb.

Speaker 31 She's going, I got to get to him. I got to get to him.
I just kind of grabbed my daughter by the shoulders, and I'm like, Michelle, he's gone.

Speaker 31 He's gone.

Speaker 56 So he was

Speaker 40 dead on his own kitchen floor.

Speaker 7 A young wife is now a widow, and the horror of what she witnessed is unforgettable.

Speaker 3 Is it a sight that lives in your mind a lot?

Speaker 33 Oh, well, it'll be a hundred.

Speaker 7 Her family's good life suddenly gone, or maybe it hadn't been so good.

Speaker 31 He was kind of embarrassed to have to come and get money for me.

Speaker 6 Money?

Speaker 7 Is that a clue?

Speaker 21 There burned into Michelle Despain's brain the images of that awful afternoon, shadows in the hallway, her husband, his blood, and

Speaker 15 laying in the floor.

Speaker 25 Is it a sight that lives in your mind a lot?

Speaker 16 Oh, well, oh yeah.

Speaker 45 Outside, a crowd of police and friends and family and curious neighbors gathered on the street below Mark's house.

Speaker 58 Among them, in an awful state, was Mark's sister, Jackie.

Speaker 5 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 something.

Speaker 20 Detective Vic Brooks was on the other side of that police tape.

Speaker 62 When I first walked in, 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.

Speaker 18 Investigators snapped photos of the chaos.

Speaker 25 Drawers pulled out in a bedroom.

Speaker 45 Clothes thrown into a bathtub.

Speaker 9 A jewelry case toppled over.

Speaker 34 Like somebody was looking for something.

Speaker 62 Possibly.

Speaker 30 They asked around the neighborhood, did anyone see any strangers that afternoon?

Speaker 14 And yes, someone did, investigators told prosecutor Scott Ellington.

Speaker 10 An African-American was seen in the neighborhood wearing a certain colored shirt.

Speaker 21 It wasn't just that.

Speaker 18 Later, somebody said they saw an aging and beat-up blue Mercedes circling the neighborhood.

Speaker 40 So, thieves casing the house?

Speaker 28 Maybe.

Speaker 21 And yet, as Detective Brooks looked around the house, he could see this just didn't have the hallmarks of a robbery.

Speaker 9 The valuable stuff, TV sets, guns, computers, were untouched.

Speaker 61 And look at this photo.

Speaker 38 Sitting next to Mark's keys in a cell phone on the kitchen island is a container of ice cream.

Speaker 62 It appeared that he had just walked in and set these items down and then was caught totally off guard.

Speaker 40 All of that seemed a shriek of a planned ambush, dressed up a little to look like robbery.

Speaker 23 The way investigators pieced it together, somebody was waiting for Mark to get home, then crept up from behind, shot him twice.

Speaker 62 He had suffered two gunshot wounds, one that appeared to have entered from on his left side, and then another shot he had sustained to his face.

Speaker 10 That was a kind of,

Speaker 3 what is it, a kill shot or something?

Speaker 25 Yes, sir.

Speaker 3 Somebody's making sure.

Speaker 2 It appears so, I guess.

Speaker 59 Why would someone want to kill Mark DeSpain?

Speaker 5 I was so confused. I just, I didn't think Mark had any enemies, and I didn't know why anybody would want to kill him.

Speaker 45 Detective Brooks soon discovered a possible reason.

Speaker 24 Even though they've been living lavishly, Mark had serious money trouble.

Speaker 31 He was kind of embarrassed to have to come and get money for me.

Speaker 39 It was a couple of months before the murder, said Michelle's mother, Kathy.

Speaker 57 Mark asked her for cash to help pay for Michelle's birthday present.

Speaker 31 You know, it's very unusual because usually they just go out and buy whatever they want.

Speaker 51 Not anymore.

Speaker 14 That summer 2011, Jonesboro Real Estate was far from recovered.

Speaker 36 Many of Mark's rental properties were underwater.

Speaker 49 The bank was closing in.

Speaker 50 Tenants were being forced out of their homes.

Speaker 23 So.

Speaker 62 Now, was anybody upset with Mark? Was this any of his tenants? Could this have been somebody like that?

Speaker 22 And then, an ugly little surprise crawled out of Mark's own troubled family.

Speaker 46 Mark and his parents were lobbing lawsuits at each other over some shared property. The prosecutor heard that Mark's dad, Jack, was a hothead.

Speaker 10 Jack was very, very angry at Mark for mishandling this property that they co-owned together.

Speaker 59 Yes, but it went deeper than that.

Speaker 57 Went to a very dark place, as you will see.

Speaker 39 And because of it, Mark hadn't spoken to his parents in years.

Speaker 39 So, when Jack showed up at the crime scene, the suspicion was

Speaker 28 audible.

Speaker 22 Michelle's dad, Carl, started yelling at him.

Speaker 62 Cursing very loudly,

Speaker 62 calling him all kinds of names.

Speaker 3 But what was he saying?

Speaker 62 There's that son of a bitch, Jack Despain.

Speaker 34 Did you think Jack was somehow responsible?

Speaker 65 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 11 Mark had told multiple people, if anything ever happens to me, y'all look at my dad.

Speaker 63 Of course.

Speaker 41 Detective Brooks invited Jack down to the police station.

Speaker 19 Just maybe this mystery would have a quick, if very disturbing, solution.

Speaker 7 Coming up.

Speaker 7 A young girl makes a troubling accusation that divides a family.

Speaker 27 Oh, my God.

Speaker 13 Could this have possibly happened?

Speaker 7 But was that the motive for murder?

Speaker 22 Was it even true?

Speaker 6 When Dateline continues.

Speaker 1 Looking to crack the code on your career? Well, maybe it's time to get your degree.

Speaker 1 Southern New Hampshire University offers over 200 programs you can complete online. No set class times means you can do it all on your schedule.

Speaker 1 And with some of the lowest online tuition rates in the U.S., they make getting your degree affordable, too.

Speaker 1 Get started at SNHU.edu/slash dateline. That's snhu.edu slash dateline.

Speaker 66 Some stories never make national headlines, but stories from small towns and coastal communities deserve recognition too.

Speaker 66 I'm Kylie Lowe, host of Dark Down East, a true crime podcast that gives voice to victims through investigative journalism and powerful storytelling.

Speaker 66 Set in my home state of Maine and the greater New England area, it's my goal to dig through the archives to bring the stories of the people at the heart of these cases to light.

Speaker 66 Listen to Dark Down East, wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 8 Most holiday gifts end up in a drawer or the back of your closet or accidentally left at your cousin's house. Not this one.
Mint Mobile is offering unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month.

Speaker 8 That's their best deal of the year, aka a holiday gift you'll actually use every single day. Don't get them socks.
Get them premium wireless for $15 a month.

Speaker 8 Shop Mint Unlimited plans at mintmobile.com slash dateline. That's mintmobile.com slash dateline.
Limited time offer. Upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for 6 months, or $180 for 12 months.

Speaker 8 Plan required, $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra.
Initial plan term only.

Speaker 8 Greater than 35 gigabytes may slow when the network is busy. Capable device required.
Availability, speed, and coverage vary. See mintmobile.com.

Speaker 50 It's an unpleasant thing to think about.

Speaker 45 Parents murdering their own children.

Speaker 67 But it happens.

Speaker 12 It's an old story, frankly.

Speaker 58 Some awful glitch, perhaps, in the human recipe.

Speaker 37 Had it happened here in Jonesboro?

Speaker 9 Suspicion fell quickly on Mark's dad, Jack Despain.

Speaker 14 Michelle's mom heard about it, but she called to tell a relative that Mark was dead.

Speaker 31 Somebody's murdered Mark, and he was like, oh, my God. He said, have they found Jack Despain?

Speaker 14 He thought right away it was Jack.

Speaker 27 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 45 Because anyone close to Jack and his family knew that a poison far more potent than money had come between father and son.

Speaker 11 I never saw it coming. I don't think Mark ever saw it coming.

Speaker 9 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.

Speaker 40 Mark called a family meeting.

Speaker 11 Mark, you know, told his dad, you know, there's a problem. We want to help you.
You know,

Speaker 11 we're not, you know, here to point fingers at you or judge you.

Speaker 59 Jack swore he did nothing wrong.

Speaker 35 Mark called in the police.

Speaker 16 Tana, Jack's wife of more than 30 years, left him, moved in with Mark and Michelle.

Speaker 34 Well, how do you prepare for a thing like that?

Speaker 59 You don't. You don't prepare for it.
What is that like?

Speaker 13 You just, your mind just is in overdrive, you know, trying to think, you know, oh my God, could this have possibly happened?

Speaker 58 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.

Speaker 40 And Tana, riven with guilt forever suspecting Jack abused his granddaughter, went back to him and begged forgiveness.

Speaker 13 The man I've been married to for over 30 years and went to high school with and

Speaker 13 then doubting him and knowing I shouldn't have.

Speaker 39 But Mark and Michelle, believing the girl, never spoke to his mom or dad again, cut them off from their grandkids, disowned Mark's sister when she took Jack's side.

Speaker 5 I believe dad 100%. I don't believe he had anything to do with it.

Speaker 18 So that was the ugly backdrop to the murder investigation.

Speaker 18 And Detective Brooks would have to figure out if this years-old, unproven allegation had so eaten away at Mark's dad that it pushed him over the edge.

Speaker 39 Time to meet potential suspect number one.

Speaker 39 Close that door, Mister, despite the potential.

Speaker 68 Detective Brooks sat down with Jack in an interrogation room

Speaker 36 and watched the man fall apart.

Speaker 61 Was this true grief the detective was witnessing? Or regret?

Speaker 18 Or guilt over something Jack had done or hadn't done?

Speaker 18 That's too late.

Speaker 26 Too late? What did he mean?

Speaker 18 Jack didn't shy away from discussing those abuse allegations.

Speaker 40 Here's how it happened, he said.

Speaker 70 She had taken some new photos of herself and some of her boyfriends.

Speaker 54 Jack said he found out the girl was sexting, confronted her, said he was going to tell her parents, but she got to them before he did, Jack said, and invented a story to get out of trouble.

Speaker 71 So they took her side, I guess.

Speaker 27 They took her side, yes, and

Speaker 71 said I was the bad person.

Speaker 17 Jack told us the same story, eager, he said, to finally set the record straight.

Speaker 3 You didn't ever ask her to take pictures of herself and give them to you?

Speaker 27 No.

Speaker 40 But the accusation, said Jack, almost destroyed him.

Speaker 67 I was at home.

Speaker 67 I could have opened up my own

Speaker 67 whiskey store, I think, with much whiskey I drunk for two months, and typically I don't drink. But that was just to kill the pain.

Speaker 18 Because everybody assumed that you were abusing your own

Speaker 32 granddaughter. Yes.

Speaker 65 Yes.

Speaker 18 The detective wondered, did Jack's pain drive him to seek revenge on his own son?

Speaker 38 No, said Jack.

Speaker 48 No.

Speaker 9 He wanted to reconcile with Mark, not kill him.

Speaker 70 I know I ain't talking to my son in 45 years, but I let him hear her.

Speaker 45 Anyway, when Mark was murdered, said Jack, he was miles away at his own house. I was on the river trying to

Speaker 41 put some shame on him.

Speaker 41 That alibi would have to be checked out, of course.

Speaker 18 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.

Speaker 32 He was an angry and possibly violent man.

Speaker 71 He said, I will ruin you and your family.

Speaker 71 He said, for y'all accusing me of this. He said, I will see you run it.

Speaker 18 This is Michelle's dad, Carl, the man who'd been cursing Jack out on the street right there at the murder scene.

Speaker 71 If I was going to point a finger at anybody, if that's what you're asking, I'd point at Jackie's finger.

Speaker 40 Detective Brooks could plainly see this was a family with a troubling history.

Speaker 26 So he made a decision to attend Mark Despain's visitation, take a look around, see what his gut would tell him.

Speaker 34 I saw a note.

Speaker 72 In your case file, you wrote, this has to be one of the strangest visitations I ever attended.

Speaker 15 Yes.

Speaker 62 It was just a cold feeling. It did not feel right.

Speaker 30 Was the killer sitting among the mourners, planning a next move?

Speaker 7 Coming up, a family feud at the funeral.

Speaker 5 She calls the police on us.

Speaker 10 And somebody else calls the police with a tip that could crack the case.

Speaker 3 That was a nice little gift.

Speaker 62 It was.

Speaker 12 Michelle and Mark, just children, really, when they got married.

Speaker 18 Now Mark was dead, gunned down in the family kitchen, and Michelle had to plan his funeral. She was barely functioning, she said.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 50 But there was one thing she was clear about.

Speaker 36 Mark's parents and sister were not welcome at his funeral.

Speaker 32 What was the funeral like for you?

Speaker 23 Oh, it was awful.

Speaker 13 We couldn't sit down on the main level with the family.

Speaker 27 Boy.

Speaker 13 Michelle wouldn't let us.

Speaker 23 She barred us.

Speaker 58 It was the same at the cemetery.

Speaker 5 She's literally trying to get him in the ground before we can even walk up.

Speaker 54 You mean get them to fill in the grave? Yes.

Speaker 5 So we just immediately jump out of our car as we start rushing to the graveside. And she calls the police on us.

Speaker 5 She calls the police at my brother's funeral.

Speaker 18 And yet, for all the chatter about Jack, that he might have killed his own son, Detective Brooks instinct said, no.

Speaker 54 Jack's alibi checked out he was fixing his roof afternoon of the murder and those tears in the interrogation room.

Speaker 62 I did not feel anything

Speaker 62 as being fake for Mr. Despain.
He appeared to be a broken man at that time.

Speaker 51 So, what to make of the fractured family and all the bad blood now tangled up with so much grief?

Speaker 47 Detective Brooks thought back to his interview with Michelle's dad, Carl, the man who pointed a finger at Jack on day one.

Speaker 71 He told him he didn't want to have nothing to do with him.

Speaker 69 Carl said he'd been in Mark's house not too long before the murder, dropped off some rent money.

Speaker 71 Why didn't they shoot me instead of him?

Speaker 33 I had the money in my hand.

Speaker 19 Interesting timing.

Speaker 23 Coincidence?

Speaker 59 Or, as Detective Brooks wondered, did Carl have something to do with the murder?

Speaker 51 Maybe not.

Speaker 21 Carl's alibi checked out.

Speaker 36 Surveillance cameras, in fact, caught Carl right where he said he was around the time Mark was gunned down, meeting his daughter at the bank where she worked.

Speaker 59 He could not have shot Mark.

Speaker 58 Well, the investigation continued.

Speaker 39 Mark's parents spent time at the cemetery, finally able to do what they couldn't when their son was still alive.

Speaker 32 Well, he talked to him, talked to Mark.

Speaker 13 And rainy days were the worst. I didn't like rainy days.

Speaker 44 What do you mean, rainy days?

Speaker 13 I didn't like him getting wet.

Speaker 13 I knew he was in heaven.

Speaker 13 But I just didn't like the rain on him.

Speaker 49 And then,

Speaker 51 pure luck, really.

Speaker 18 Remember how neighbors reported seeing an African-American stranger in the neighborhood? Now someone called the cops with a tip.

Speaker 37 Somebody who matched that description was boasting about shooting Mark Despain.

Speaker 3 That was a nice little gift.

Speaker 8 It was?

Speaker 48 Didn't take them long to find the guy.

Speaker 69 Street name, Quailo.

Speaker 63 Real name, Terrence Barker.

Speaker 56 And he was nervous.

Speaker 71 I can see your heart beating through that shirt right now.

Speaker 27 I know you're scared.

Speaker 49 He denied everything.

Speaker 70 I don't know what to tell you, man. I didn't do this yesterday.

Speaker 24 Detective Brooks wasn't buying it.

Speaker 56 Because, by then, the police also tracked down the driver of that beat-up blue Mercedes seen near the house before the murder.

Speaker 48 And he told the cops he took Quailo to meet a man in a church parking lot.

Speaker 40 And that man wanted a job done.

Speaker 58 Was that job murder?

Speaker 11 I didn't do that.

Speaker 65 I did not do this, sir.

Speaker 19 By now, Detective Brooks had been working night and day for a week.

Speaker 2 His store of patience ran out.

Speaker 27 This is serious to me.

Speaker 71 I got three kids that are laying over crying.

Speaker 37 Was it that angry speech or another long night in his cell?

Speaker 32 The next day, Quaylo came clean.

Speaker 46 For a promise of seven to ten thousand dollars, still unpaid, he said he took the job to shoot and kill Mark Despain.

Speaker 71 He fired the first round, and that round gives him work.

Speaker 70 That gets him into his area.

Speaker 48 He didn't know Mark from Adam, he said.

Speaker 49 It was the man from the parking lot who took him to Mark's house, told him where to lie in wait for Mark, gave him a gun, and then Quelo said something rather surprising.

Speaker 18 The shooter who executed a stranger for the mere promise of a few grand said he was appalled, not at himself,

Speaker 44 at the man who hired him.

Speaker 70 People aren't something else, man.

Speaker 70 You know, especially people that you think they care about you or love you, disability.

Speaker 70 These would be the same that would be in your face.

Speaker 28 But I know you.

Speaker 28 If the hitman was telling the truth, Detective Brooks' hunch had been right.

Speaker 32 Someone who claimed to love Mark also plotted his death.

Speaker 23 But who?

Speaker 7 Coming up, Michelle confesses to an affair.

Speaker 11 My dad didn't know that. Mark didn't.
I mean, nobody knew that.

Speaker 7 And there was another surprise.

Speaker 62 there were two insurance policies each for the amount of five hundred thousand dollars when dateline continues

Speaker 66 some stories never make national headlines but stories from small towns and coastal communities deserve recognition too I'm Kylie Lowe host of Dark Down East a true crime podcast that gives voice to victims through investigative journalism and powerful storytelling.

Speaker 66 Set in my home state of Maine and the greater New England area, it's my goal to dig through the archives to bring the stories of the people at the heart of these cases to light.

Speaker 66 Listen to Dark Down East, wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 73 Hey everybody, Ted Danson here to tell you about my podcast with my longtime friend and sometimes co-host Woody Harrelson.

Speaker 73 It's called Where Everybody Knows Your Name and We're Back for Another Season.

Speaker 73 I'm so excited to be joined this season by friends like John Mulaney, David Spade, Sarah Silverman, Ed Helms, and many more. You don't want to miss it.

Speaker 73 Listen to Where Everybody Knows Your Name with me, Ted Danson, and Woody Harrison sometimes, wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 74 A Mochi Moment from Mark, who writes, I just want to thank you for making GOP Ones affordable. What would have been over $1,000 a month is just $99 a month with Mochi.

Speaker 74 Money shouldn't be a barrier to healthy weight. Three months in, and I have smaller jeans and a bigger wallet.
You're the best. Thanks, Mark.
I'm Myra Ammeth, founder of Mochi Health.

Speaker 74 To find your Mochi moment, visit joinmochi.com.

Speaker 75 Mochi members have access to licensed physicians and nutritionists and are compensated for their stories. Results may vary.

Speaker 59 It's shocking what some people will do for the mere promise of a few thousand dollars.

Speaker 39 Like lie in wait for Mark to Spain, then put a bullet in his head.

Speaker 23 But

Speaker 46 revealing his paymaster?

Speaker 36 That the hitman did for free.

Speaker 49 And the name?

Speaker 31 Somebody called me and said, have you heard Carl's just got arrested?

Speaker 8 I'm like, oh my God,

Speaker 11 he did this.

Speaker 37 Carl, Kathy's ex-husband, Michelle's dad.

Speaker 54 But Mark gave him a house and a job and took him on family vacations.

Speaker 58 And once again, said Michelle, she was stunned.

Speaker 11 I thought that he cared for Mark, you know, the father of my kids.

Speaker 40 But Michelle's mom, Kathy, was not so surprised.

Speaker 51 She knew what Carl was capable of.

Speaker 2 She divorced him years earlier, she said, to escape his explosions of temper.

Speaker 74 He never would hit me

Speaker 31 because he didn't want to leave a mark.

Speaker 23 What would he do?

Speaker 11 He would hold a gun to my head.

Speaker 15 Hold a gun to your head? Yes.

Speaker 10 Threaten you?

Speaker 5 Yes.

Speaker 44 Still, what would would make him mad enough to have Mark killed?

Speaker 54 Confronted, Carl's face turned to stone.

Speaker 27 I'm not going to say anything without a lawyer, Dick.

Speaker 49 But as investigators discovered, Carl had been talking to other people, told them Mark had been physically abusing Michelle, that he was tired of it.

Speaker 34 Did you investigate whether or not any abuse actually occurred in that marriage?

Speaker 62 There was not any abuse ever found to have been to have happened.

Speaker 14 So, if the abuse story was an obvious lie, why did Carl do it?

Speaker 35 Mark's parents were certain he didn't come up with the idea on his own.

Speaker 40 The real mastermind, they believed, was someone else very close to Mark, his wife Michelle.

Speaker 67 I cannot see Carl taking my son's life without Michelle being involved.

Speaker 18 Michelle was far from a loving, doting wife, they said.

Speaker 48 The woman they knew was was pure self-interest, would do anything to get what she wanted.

Speaker 46 Exhibit A?

Speaker 34 So what was it that just turned Mark against you?

Speaker 13 Michelle's manipulation.

Speaker 36 It was Michelle who pushed Mark to break away from the family business, they said.

Speaker 18 Michelle who tore the family apart by stoking her own daughter's allegations of abuse to drive a permanent wedge between Mark and his dad and get Mark and his money all to herself.

Speaker 51 They could easily see her goading her father into planning a murder.

Speaker 13 Michelle is a sociopath. She is absolutely cares nothing about anyone or anything but Michelle.

Speaker 36 Quite an allegation, if true.

Speaker 48 And as it happened, Detective Brooks was pretty sure he saw an effort by the grieving widow to manipulate him.

Speaker 22 He interviewed her, of course, right after the murder.

Speaker 66 I kind of done just his leg and it was great to say,

Speaker 27 I can't

Speaker 27 move it all.

Speaker 40 All that emotion in her voice.

Speaker 54 It seemed like an act to him.

Speaker 62 There was no tears.

Speaker 60 No tears.

Speaker 45 But her voice of desperation captured on the 911 call, surely that was real.

Speaker 66 She's not answering the door.

Speaker 33 Okay.

Speaker 36 Maybe not.

Speaker 14 One of Michelle's neighbors said they saw her standing calmly in the middle of the lawn.

Speaker 10 They see a woman standing out there talking on her phone. It didn't appear to be

Speaker 10 in a grievous situation, for sure.

Speaker 72 Wasn't like she was calling around the neighborhood for help.

Speaker 22 No.

Speaker 17 And Mark's sister still remembered how cool Michelle seemed at the crime scene.

Speaker 5 I think what bothered me the most is how clean she was.

Speaker 5 Like, her hair was still perfect. Her nails were still perfect.

Speaker 72 What would you have expected?

Speaker 5 Oh, well, as brutal as it sounds, some blood underneath her fingernails or something.

Speaker 58 Like, she got down there and tried to revive him.

Speaker 3 Something.

Speaker 36 So, Detective Brooks took a careful look at Michelle's story, how she invited Mark, who was working from home, to have lunch with her downtown.

Speaker 57 And then after lunch, they went across the street to buy ice cream for dessert.

Speaker 48 See them here? Mark had literally minutes to live.

Speaker 37 Phone records showed that in the hours leading up to Mark's death, there were calls and a flurry of text messages between Michelle and her dad.

Speaker 10 What the investigator found was that there was

Speaker 10 an enormous amount of text missing. There were chunks of text missing from Carl's phone and from Michelle's phone.

Speaker 72 Anything interesting or suspicious about the fact that they were missing from both phones?

Speaker 10 Immediately was suspicious.

Speaker 22 On the day her dad was arrested, Detective Brooks invited Michelle back to the police station and asked her point blank. Did you have anything to do with the murder of your husband?

Speaker 69 But she admitted she was hiding something.

Speaker 70 Anything at all that you need to get off your chest or make Michelle?

Speaker 13 Just that I was seeing a guy, but my dad didn't know that.

Speaker 11 Morgan? I mean, nobody knew that.

Speaker 70 Nobody knew that.

Speaker 61 Seeing a guy, an affair?

Speaker 29 It all tumbled out.

Speaker 18 How Michelle was dipping into family finances to pay for her lover's apartment, for his groceries.

Speaker 11 You have to understand very ashamed of this.

Speaker 18 So maybe Mark was on to her, was about to find out what Michelle was doing behind his back.

Speaker 37 Mark's parents believed that Michelle they knew would rather see her husband dead than risk being on the losing end of a messy divorce.

Speaker 53 So it was all going to fall apart. Yeah.

Speaker 67 From trailer trash to a rich woman, so she thought in her mind, she is fixing to go back to being trailer trash again. And she just couldn't stand the thought.

Speaker 40 But if Mark died?

Speaker 62 We found that there were two insurance policies,

Speaker 62 each for the amount of $500,000.

Speaker 1 That's a healthy chunk of change.

Speaker 62 Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 A whole noxious stew of suspicion by now, but none of it actual proof.

Speaker 36 Months went by. Michelle went on with her life.

Speaker 18 Jack and Tana pushed investigators to keep going.

Speaker 14 They even posted a billboard asking the public for help.

Speaker 38 The idea that Michelle might get away with murder was eating Jack alive.

Speaker 27 You've got a whole lot of anger in there for that woman, haven't you?

Speaker 67 If I could take her life

Speaker 67 and bring my son back, I'd do it.

Speaker 65 I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Speaker 26 Sometimes it's overwhelming, that anger, isn't it?

Speaker 28 It is.

Speaker 28 It is.

Speaker 10 Coming up, one more twist.

Speaker 11 I never dreamed he would do it to me.

Speaker 7 And justice for Mark?

Speaker 15 Maybe.

Speaker 62 I kept thinking of the children.

Speaker 15 I wanted answers for the children.

Speaker 48 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.

Speaker 13 She's buying stuff and buying clothes and going to restaurants, and it's very hard for us to take.

Speaker 38 Detective Brooks was determined to see the case through.

Speaker 14 Just like Mark's parents, he believed Michelle orchestrated the murder down to the very minute.

Speaker 18 The shooter himself said as much.

Speaker 54 Carl was texting with someone, he said, as they made their final plans in the church parking lot. Who did say he's texting?

Speaker 54 Dude,

Speaker 54 play by play,

Speaker 21 But virtually all those texts had been deleted.

Speaker 48 Detective Brooks labored for months, nights, weekends.

Speaker 3 Kind of got emotionally wrapped up in this one, huh?

Speaker 62 I kept thinking of the children.

Speaker 62 I wanted answers for the children.

Speaker 58 And then, a breakthrough.

Speaker 36 Finally, nine months after the murder, A police analyst managed to recover several deleted text messages, including this one.

Speaker 24 Time stamped 8.20 a.m., five hours before the murder.

Speaker 38 Michelle writes to her dad, has to be today,

Speaker 22 can't live like this, awful this morning.

Speaker 18 Her dad's response?

Speaker 6 He asks if she can get him away for lunch.

Speaker 2 Yes, she says she can.

Speaker 62 She says she can.

Speaker 62 And he replies, okay, I will let you know time.

Speaker 10 And my review of some of the text messages is that Mark really wasn't interested in going to eat lunch that day, but she begged him to take her to lunch.

Speaker 55 After lunch, remember, she asked Mark to linger for an ice cream treat, all the while texting her dad, said the prosecutor, tipping him off to Mark's whereabouts as Carl placed a killer in their home.

Speaker 13 It just kind of sent chills up my back.

Speaker 13 What kind of person have you got to be to let your husband walk away from you knowing what he's going to walk into when he gets home?

Speaker 64 Armed with our new evidence, police arrested Michelle.

Speaker 35 She was charged with capital murder for planning and orchestrating the crime.

Speaker 69 She denied it, said she could explain everything,

Speaker 21 and agreed to tell us

Speaker 11 why

Speaker 44 people should believe that you had nothing to do with the plot to kill Mark.

Speaker 11 Because I didn't.

Speaker 11 He was such a good dad.

Speaker 11 Such a good dad. And anybody that knows me knows that my kids are so important to me.
The most important thing.

Speaker 11 And I would never want them to not have their dad.

Speaker 40 But she did want out of the marriage, she said.

Speaker 28 So those back-and-forth texts with her dad that day did involve a plot, just not murder.

Speaker 60 What did you think he was helping you do?

Speaker 11 Leave.

Speaker 34 How was he going to help you leave?

Speaker 11 By

Speaker 11 getting things while we were gone.

Speaker 55 So she'd keep Mark at lunch while Carl and two hired hens moved her stuff out of the house.

Speaker 69 But her dad changed the plan on her, she said.

Speaker 58 Used those men to kill her husband.

Speaker 40 She swore to us she had no idea when she met her dad at the bank that day what he'd just done.

Speaker 60 You're this close to each other, father and daughter.

Speaker 65 And you're looking in his eyes and talking to him.

Speaker 25 He gives no hint

Speaker 60 that he just killed your husband?

Speaker 23 Not at all.

Speaker 26 And then Michelle, what's the expression, threw her father under the bus.

Speaker 2 Carl killed Mark, she said, not because he thought Mark was abusing her, but for money, for a piece of the insurance payout.

Speaker 12 But you were going to get the insurance.

Speaker 11 Right.

Speaker 59 So even if it was his idea, it makes you look pretty guilty. Right.

Speaker 11 One thing that he always told me, my sister, growing up, was, you know, that he was use people for what you can get out of them. You know?

Speaker 58 that was what he told you you know and sure

Speaker 8 I um

Speaker 11 I never dreamed he would do it to me

Speaker 11 use me

Speaker 55 did he or was Michelle the clever user

Speaker 21 in our interview Michelle denied being a master manipulator she denied she stoked those sex abuse allegations or that she engineered Mark's split with his parents for that she blamed Jack and Tana.

Speaker 11 I never would have walked away from my kid in the first place.

Speaker 11 I never would have.

Speaker 65 In the end, they didn't walk away from their kid either.

Speaker 60 Because who was pushing from day one

Speaker 3 to solve the murder?

Speaker 36 Who kept pushing, month after month after month?

Speaker 11 My opinion on that. is their hatred toward me.

Speaker 11 It wasn't anything to do with Mark. It didn't have anything to do with Mark.
It was all about Jack Despain's hatred toward me. Do you seriously believe that? I do.

Speaker 54 Michelle, out on bail, waited for trial.

Speaker 68 Her mother, Kathy, defended her around town.

Speaker 58 Did you ever let yourself think

Speaker 60 she was involved?

Speaker 4 The daughter I know?

Speaker 31 The daughter I helped raise?

Speaker 27 No.

Speaker 63 Meanwhile, Michelle's attorneys, Ray Nickel and Bill Stanley, took a closer look at those recovered text messages.

Speaker 50 They filed a motion arguing that investigators didn't obtain them properly.

Speaker 42 They didn't get a new search warrant every time they searched the phone. We're talking about, I think, 15 searches of Michelle and Carl's phones, and they didn't have 15 search warrants.

Speaker 39 Their arguments about improper search warrants may have had some traction.

Speaker 51 With the trial looming, the prosecutor was worried.

Speaker 10 We're at the high-stakes poker game where it's all or nothing when that judge rules

Speaker 10 the next day on whether to admit the evidence or not to admit it.

Speaker 21 The prosecutor agreed to start talking about a plea deal.

Speaker 36 The defense played it tough, said Michelle was only willing to admit she learned about her father's plot after the murder.

Speaker 76 She is admitting to having knowledge of someone being involved. and not disclosing that to the police.

Speaker 14 She would agree to plead guilty to a charge of hindering apprehension, said the defense.

Speaker 2 After some prayer, Mark's mother said she could live with that.

Speaker 13 I'm not a gambling person.

Speaker 13 And, you know, it would only, even if we'd have gone to trial, it would have only taken one sympathetic juror to have set her free.

Speaker 58 It was more than three years after the death of her husband when Michelle Despain walked into a courtroom to be sentenced.

Speaker 40 She left in handcuffs, mouthing, I love you, to her mom.

Speaker 34 Her dad and the shooter got 35 years,

Speaker 1 but Michelle, though sentenced to 30 years, was out on parole after less than five.

Speaker 45 She is now remarried, and all the kids are grown up.

Speaker 1 Jack and Tana want the kids to know about their dad and about their love for him before all this hate.

Speaker 3 Some of Mark's friends told us that you were his hero, Jack.

Speaker 28 Yeah, You knew that.

Speaker 73 God, how I loved him.

Speaker 17 I'm sorry, Jack.

Speaker 1 In tribute to Mark, Jack and Tana have dedicated themselves to helping other victims of violent crime.

Speaker 13 We're going to try to move forward with something positive that

Speaker 31 we think Mark would be very proud of.

Speaker 54 And on a fall sunset, they gathered family and friends together to remember their son and finally say goodbye.

Speaker 67 I tell people all the time,

Speaker 40 hook the ones you love.

Speaker 8 Let them know.

Speaker 67 You never know the next moment they may be gone.

Speaker 62 That's all for now.

Speaker 7 I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 8 This time of year, many are checking off their holiday gift lists. But identity thieves have lists too, and your personal information might be on them.
Protect your identity with Life Lock.

Speaker 8 LifeLock monitors millions of data points every second and alerts you to threats you could miss. If your identity is stolen, LifeLock will fix it, guaranteed, or your money back.

Speaker 8 Save up to 40% your first year at lifelock.com/slash dateline. Terms apply.